When Yole awoke it was to a heavy weight dipping down onto the bed. At first he thought it was Lucellia come to wake him up, but it was so small to be a grown woman. He briefly wondering if one of the animals had gotten in, but when he opened his eyes, instead of a sheep, he saw young girl sitting cross legged at the foot of the bed.

  Yole shot up out of bed and on instinct got into a fighting stance.

  “Who’re you?!”he demanded. “What’re you doing in my room?!”

  “Just came in to tell you that dinner is ready,” the girl said with a shrug, as if Yole was being the weird one.

  “Who are you?” Yole asked again, growing more and more impatient by the second.

  “Miriel Porrsin,” the girl said with a bow. “I’m actually two years older than you, so just call me big sis, okay? And I know who you are. I can’t believe I’m meeting a real prince face to face!”

  Before Yole could press for more answers and gauge whether or not this girl was a threat, Lucellia came in with her hands on her hips and an exasperated look on her face.

  “Miriel, I thought I told you to wait for us in the kitchen,” she said, giving a pointed look to the girl.

  “It was taking too long,” Miriel whined, though her tone was more playful. “I just wanted to meet him…”

  “And now you have, so let’s all go back to the kitchen and have our dinner.”

  Without another word, Lucellia spun on her heel and marched back to the kitchen, Miriel following close behind her as Yole’s still sleep addled brain tried to figure out what the hell just happened. Did Lucellia have another student?

  He followed the two to the kitchen where the table was set for three. In the center was a pot of stew and a loaf of bread, with collard greens presumably from the garden. Simple fare but it smelled heavenly.

  “Now is as good a time as any for introductions,” Lucellia said as she took her seat and began dishing out the food. “Yole, this is my assistant Miriel. You’ll be seeing her around from time to time while you’re here.”

  That wasn’t exactly what Yole wanted to hear about the weirdo who was watching him sleep, but he supposed a little girl like her was harmless. Now if he could only get her to stop staring at him while he ate.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” he said and politely nodded to Miriel, his role as a prince not forgotten. Even in the yakuza, he strongly believed in chivalry and would never treat a woman like a lesser. Not that he had many women knocking down his door back then. And as a prince he was expected to be much the same.

  “You as well, prince,” Miriel smile widely, showing off the little gap in her baby teeth. Sure she was cute, but Yole figured he would keep his guard up for now and would certainly try to sleep with one eye open from now on.

  Starting the very next day, Yole began his training. Diving in head first, Lucellia took him out to a clearing a decent ways away from her house and stood him right in front of her. Miriel followed and sat off on the side, waiting with a basket of snacks and what looked to be a first aid kit.

  “It’s your first day, so I want to see where your mana stands,” she explained and handed him a small bit of golden chain. “Gold is easy to manipulate with forge magic, once you start getting the hang of it we’ll move onto the harder ones, like iron and steel.”

  Yole held the chain out and let it dangle from his fingers, it sparkled brilliantly in the early morning sunlight and he could even see his reflection in the polished surface.

  “Now, I want you to hold it tightly in both hands, very good. We’ll start simple and turn it into a spoon.”

  “A spoon?” Yole asked. “That’s it?”

  “Would you rather try a fork? You didn’t think you’d be making swords and spears on your first day did you?”

  Yole didn’t reach that far as a beginner, but he’d been hoping for something a little more exciting than a spoon. He shrugged nonetheless and did as he was told.

  “I want you to visualize your flames,” Lucellia said, “but focus your energy to your hands.”

  Taking a deep breath, Yole focused as hard as he could as he summoned his mana once again. Staring intently at his hands, blue flames burst forth from his finger tips and engulfed his palms.

  “Very good, Yole! You’re already fast at summoning your mana.”

  “Thank you,” Yole said, blushing at the praise. He didn’t really feel like he deserved it after something so small in his eyes. Maybe she was so generous with praise because he was so young. His parents and sister were the same way. “What do I do now.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Think of what a spoon looks like. Remember the one you used at dinner last night. Remember the details, the carvings in the metal, the weight of it and how it felt in your hand. Channel those thoughts through your mana.”

  Yole looked down at the chain and visualized the spoon he ate with last night. It took a minute, but the chain slowly began to morph. Sweat collected on Yole’s brow as he concentrated harder and harder until his flames disbursed and he was left holding a rough, rudimentary looking spoon in his hands. The texture was bumpy and the handle was crooked and too thin to support the head. As far as the floral engraving went, it looked mostly like a bunch of squiggles that a child his age would draw and say were flowers. Nonetheless, Miriel applauded from her spot on the grass.

  “Not bad for your first try,” Lucellia said as she appraised his work. “Over time you’ll be able to manifest clearer details.”

  She took the spoon and summoned her own red flames and morphed it into a perfect copy of her own silverware with ease.

  “Why aren’t your flames blue?” Yole asked.

  “Only members of the royal family can summon blue flames.”

  “But mother can use blue flames, she’s not of the royal families blood.”

  “Have you been to a wedding before?” Lucellia asked.

  Not in this lifetime, Yole thought to himself. But what does that have to do with anything?

  He shook his head.

  “At a wedding, the couple goes through a blood ritual that connects the two eternally, bonding them heart to heart. So when your mama married your papa, she became of royal blood.”

  A blood ritual sounded serious, marriage was even more sacred here than it was in his old world. He wondered how deep this blood pact went and what the repercussions of breaking it were. Lucellia could educate him about it later, for now she wanted to get back to the lesson at hand and passed him the spoon again.

  “Now,” she said, “while trying to maintain it’s current form, I want you to make it bigger. Double in size should do fine.”

  Yole took the spoon back and and began to expand it, stretching it it out to twice its size, but the bigger he made it, the thinner it got until he accidentally bent it in half.

  “I, uh…” Yole wasn’t sure if he should be questioning Lucellia this early on, but it felt like he missed a step.

  “It’s alright,” Lucellia told him, “that’s what I expected to happen. Why do you think the spoon bent?”

  “Because… it was too thin.”

  “Exactly, but why is it so thin?”

  “Because, uh, there wasn’t enough metal to make it bigger?”

  “Right again! Just because we can fathom it, doesn’t mean we’ll always be able to manifest it without the proper resources. If I asked you to make the spoon smaller…”

  Yole took the cue and folded the gold down to a smaller spoon that was a lot thicker the the normal one.

  “It became denser,” Yole said, holding up his progress.

  “Very good Yole! When we begin your combat training, you’ll see that the Iron Kingdom’s weapons are very dense so that they can be more versatile. You’ll be able to turn a sword into a spear or a scythe, or anything you could wish for during battle. There’s even a maneuver where the soldiers can forge their metal together to form a cannon. You should ask Zorin to show you.”

  That did sound impressive. Yole wondered if Lucellia would have any part in his combat training. Apparently magic was a big part of battle as well, though Lucellia didn’t strike him as the combatant type.

  “Why not try making a knife this time,” Lucellia offered. “A real knife. It can look however you want it to.”

  Yole thought hard for a few moments and ultimately decided to make a copy of his father’s dagger. As much as he wanted to use his imagination to make his own, he new it probably wouldn’t come out the way he wanted it to. His father’s dagger was familiar enough, Yole had seen him sharpening it and using it to pick his teeth countless times, much to the chagrin of his mother. It took a couple minutes longer than the spoon, but he ended up with a letter opener sized version of his father’s blade. This time the details came out a little more clearly on the handle, but it still wasn’t perfect. Yole was beginning to get frustrated, he could see it so clearly in his mind, but his magic was still not in his control enough. He had to reign his temper in, he was still young (physically anyway) and he hadn’t built up the same strength yet.

  “Don’t get frustrated just yet, Yole,” Lucellia said, placing a calming hand on his shoulder. “No one ever gets it completely right on the first try, or the second. Not even me. But I can already see progress, so I’m going to move on to a very important part of our lesson.” She turned to Miriel and called out to her. “Miriel, bring my the iron please!”

  Miriel came scampering up with a heavy iron chain and placed it around Lucellia’s shoulders as her mentor ducked down to meet her height. A mischievous smile flashed across the woman’s face as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a red stone.

  “This is a gift for you,” she said to Yole and delicately placed it in on the boys palm. It was a smooth stone that looked like a dollop of red glass, similar to the one he’d seen in the handle of the sword Zorin had gifted him. “This is very old, powerful magic. Can you guess what it is?”

  “Some kind of stone?” Yole tried. It was beautiful and Yole could sense the immense amount of mana radiating from it.

  “That is no stone, my dear student. That is a dragon tear.”

  “A dragon tear? Like the actual tear of a dragon?”

  “Yes. The Iron Kingdom mines these from under the mountains where the dragons themselves once dwelled. They’re very rare to find, but they are coveted by even the most powerful and accomplished mages. The total family is in possession of the most in the castle catacombs. I have a few of my own that your father has so graciously gifted to me, but this one is yours.”

  Removing the chain from her shoulders, Lucellia began to forge the iron, causing it to melt and morph as she chanted under her breath. With swift movements, she forged the metal into a heavy gauntlet that she clamped onto Yole’s wrist. Carefully, she took the tear from him and placed it in the center of the cuff, securing it tight.

  “This tear will help you amplify and control your mana,” she explained. “I want you to make another dagger, just a small one. Do you think you can do that?”

  Yole nodded and turned his focus back to the gold in his hands that had already begun to lose its shape. He stared intensely and called his mana to it, but this time he felt it reroute through the tear first. The gold morphed once more and formed a new blade, much sharper than the last. Instead of a plain studded handle like the dagger before, this one came out in the shape of a dragons head and neck, much like the ones he’d seen in storybooks. Lucellia smiled widely and took the dagger for inspection. Rearing back, she threw it as hard as she could at a nearby tree, embedding it a whole inch deep.

  “Well done, Yole!” she said, patting him on the head. “Very well done.”

  Yole was smiling wide too, but was suddenly overwhelmed by lightheadedness. Quickly, he fell down onto his bottom as the earth beneath him started to move.

  “What’s happening to me?” he asked frantically.

  “It’s alright, your highness. Calm down and breathe. You just used a lot of mana in one burst for the very first time, that’s very draining. Once you start exercising your mana regularly you’ll build your stamina and be able to use your power for longer bouts of time. While you’re with me I’ll teach you spells and potions that will strengthen your stamina for you.”

  Yole hoped that lesson was coming soon because this was the worst feeling in the world. At Lucellia’s wave, Miriel came rushing over with a canteen of water and a bread roll for him.

  “Here,” she said, handing him the snack. “This will help you feel better.”

  Not having to be told twice, Yole wolfed down the bread immediately and gulped down half the water in one go. Mana was just another form of energy, so he supposed it could be as easily depleted. He hoped this didn’t make him look week in front of the ladies, but he couldn’t help but rub his eyes as the urge to sleep befell him.

  “Finish the water and we’ll go back to the cottage for your first potions lesson,” Lucellia said as she began packing up. “Don’t worry, you’ll just be watching this first time while I whip up that stamina potion.”

  Yole liked the sound of that and allowed Miriel to help him up to his feet.

  “You did excellently, your highness,” she said, holding on tightly to Yole’s arm.

  “Flattery is unbecoming of you,” Yole grumbled, trying to shake the girl off of him to no avail.

  “You’re no fun for a prince,” Miriel pouted and held on tighter. “Is that how you were brought up to speak to a lady.”

  Yole said nothing in hopes that if he ignored her that she would stop talking, but alas it was all for not as the little brat wouldn’t shut up. It was weird for him to think, but for some reason he didn’t mind it as much as he thought he would.