Kapitel 7: Imperials Arrive
"A mage" - I said, not knowing why dad was so shocked.
"Hold on, how do you know that? And furthermore, you haven't shown any talent previously, how could you be a mage?" - Dad looked at me as if I was the town's fool.
"Just trust me on this one, Dad. You'll see in a few days, even if you don't believe me right now."
"Aight. You do you, son. Either way, Mom and I love you, just hope you know that."
We made it out of the forest pretty quickly, yet it was already past noon when we got home. Mom had made lunch and sat down to listen in on the story from the hunt.
I decided not to tell dad about the magical beast, that would just make him sadder. Dad knew most magic beasts in the deep parts of the forest were capable of some sort of speech, whilst some of the more powerful ones were as capable of speaking as humans. Some even said they could take human forms depending on the power of magic, but those were legends, or so I heard.
Controlling my mana intake was getting easier, but it seems I can take slightly more each time, although that might not be what's happening.
I kept trying to cast any elemental spell, even going as far as switching between elements to see if one was easier to me, but it was difficult to focus a rune on my mind, much more than actually using a pre-drawn rune with catalysts and just throwing sufficient mana to make the spell work.
Garim, as my mentor, was focused on making me learn how to protect myself first, so eventually he caved in and let me practice on pre-drawn runes. As it turned out, it was much easier and I could very easily cast a multitude of spells, yet nothing too complicated, only some flame sparks or the simplest or the water condensation spells. Garim told me that magical runes were written in an ancient language that most couldn't read nor understand, but could still replicate them.
Yet, somehow, I was supposed to be able to understand them. Runes were fuzzy when you tried to really look at them, almost mystical. So no, there was no progress in that.
Garim also finally taught me how to hide my family crest. Apparently it's really simple, just a simple cross drawn, which I modeled after the one in his back.
He told me that although that was not the most efficient way to hide it and that if I were to push the limits on my mana it would show, it was the easiest way to hide it for now, for my own safety.\
The days kept going by and soon enough, the Imperials had come. The day were the then children now adults were going to the army or the academies was today.
They arrived with pomp and circumstance, unbecoming of such a small town. The mayor and his son soon leapt to them, trying their goddamn hardest to curry some sort of favor, to no avail.
One thing was the shady businesses they were able to conduct on the side, one thing was broad daylight. They got nothing more than a passing look and that was lucky enough, as it was already rare that they would even look at you. To Imperials, these sort of people were nothing more than pitiful ants that were grovelling at their feet for a smidge of attention.
They gave the usual order, the selection would be held in the town's square, noon the next day for everyone to see. Deserters would be given a kill on sight order for failing to show up with no reasonable excuse.
Yet, the envoy didn't come alone this time around. With it came a young boy, close to my age by his looks. He constantly threw disdainful looks to the crowd, as if they were beneath his feet. Contrarily to what would be expected, he chatted up the mayor, seemingly enjoying the boot-licking that ensued in that situation.
Great, now the mayor knew someone that held any sort of real power.
The day slowly crept by, my nerves tensing up whenever I thought of the rune that was about to get etched onto my body. I did not feel good about it, Garim had told me that even though I would resist it, mages still had ways to make sure the punishment side of the rune still took effect, similiar to what happened to him.
Even so, time passes and the day came to an end and night fell. I struggled to get decent rest, waking up in between nightmarish visions of the days to come from my mother and my own, less death-assuming but more so home-sickness focused ones. Mother was worried I'd die when I was sent to the army, as that would be the only outcome that she could see that would make sense.
Even when dad tried to appease her by telling her what I'd told him, she just thought he was giving her a fake sense of hopefulness, something to cling to so she wouldn't break down when I inevitably left.
Dawn soon came, and I got out of bed. Mother was already up and had prepared my favourite breakfast, fine bread with eggs, something that was rare enough due to the poverty around us, more so when dad hadn't brought anything from the last hunt.
I dashed to meet Garim for one last time, where he advised me on what to do and what not to do in the presence of the Imperial mages, like how not to needlessly expose my bodies's lack of elemental mana rejection. He told me that although this wasn't really unique to the noble families, mages that easily switched between elements were rare, very much more so when they could hop between all the elements like I could.
I felt sad at saying goodbye to my first ever mentor, especially one that belonged to the noble families. I could feel an instinctive connection to Garim, one that was difficult to express with words. He felt almost like an older brother I never had - just older and with grey hair.
I made my way to the town's square, where people were already gathering up so they wouldn't miss when they were called. Soon enough, the Imperials came around and the young boy was sadly walking side by side with the mayor and his son, something that indicated that troublesome things were brewing in the background for the village.
Names were called, the people would say their last goodbyes to their children and they would set off to the army camp. Only one other kid barely resisted the rune, making the Imperial reluctantly pick him up.
Finally, my name was called.
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
DarvecocasManocas
DarvecocasManocas Ayyy we back. Sorry for the brief absence, I got sick as I had already comented on my last chapter. Kinda sucks that I couldn't write for the past few days but it did allow me to plan my story ahead, which is a good thing.
Kind regards,
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