Mages' magic is derived from different natural elements and each represents colors. Fire for red, water is indigo, green for air, and earth for orange-brown. Inside the palace there's the academy, this is where beginners train their control or use of magic and become an apprentice of the mages.
There are two methods in selecting students, one if you have a family has a line of mages they will test how strong your affiliation towards the element. Then you will be directed to the apprentice position. The other method is when you can see magic particles. In this, you will start as a rookie.
Usually, they select students who have a strong affiliation with elements but since the mages are scarce, it becomes who can see the magic particles and trained as the rookie. So if a student could see blue particles, they will be instructed by water dominant mages. The same goes for other elements. And sometimes if the student is talented they can master another element, making them more formidable.
Then group them based on what element they are dominant with and specialized in that.
But on rare cases, some people have a bond with the elements, enabling them to see it but can't access the four elements, that could make them perform magic. Like Anica and her daughter Yda, they can see magic particles but can't use it.
In this tiny human's case, he can see Al's.
Knowing that Al could already see the potential the tiny human has. The fact that he can see his magic particles and not only elements around it makes the child unique. Al couldn't help but thought a dangerous idea, what if I teach him magic?
Al observes the boy, he wore a white shirt with a bow tie around his neck, and a suspender partnered with the same colored shorts. Overall he looked like a young master that's going to attend a party. Although his clothes are dirty and disheveled, you can't deny the quality of the clothes. And his skin looked soft and pampered as if just peeled egg.
His manners are also good, very unlikely of people from the Slums. This tiny human most probably in the middle class or let's exaggerate things and be in high society. If this tiny human really is in high society and his parents are looking for him... Gosh, the amount of money I could get if I give them this young master 🤤🤑
He looks like 3 years old but too tall for a toddler, yet too small for a kid. Either way, too young to be in the academy. Al waves his hands and the room light up. The golden particles can't be seen anymore.
"You awake?" He asks the obvious.
The blue-eyed tiny human blink at him as his answer. Al then got near in a few steps and touch his forehead, checking his temperature. It was a bit high but it's manageable.
"You should eat something." Then he goes to his tiny kitchen and cooks the only thing he has, rice and salt. Not much as a choice he made rice porridge.
The child's eyes followed the mage. Al felt a prickling feeling as he prepares for the porridge. When he's done, the child's beautiful eyes are still on him. "Eat."
Is this tiny human okay? He's not a mentally ill child right?
Al can't help but question the child's mental health. He doesn't seem like so. He followed Al through out the dumpster back to the bar and again to his house, without him noticing. The distance between the Slums and the Calles, the busy district in the lower class, where the bar is located is quite a long walk. He didn't have money so he just walks. And surely that long walk, Al should have noticed the boy following him but he didn't.
The tiny human has a light step and quick thinking to avoid Al from noticing him. It could be said that this child is very smart.
The tiny human look down at the plain bowl of rice porridge on the desk that he put in front of him. Reluctantly he took the spoon beside it with trembling hands. Ah, he's weakened that's why he kept his hands to his.
"Let me," Al offered his hands. The boy let him have the spoon and feed him.
Al started his interrogation.
"Where do you live?"
The tiny human shook his head to both sides.
"What's your parents' name?"
He remains silent.
"How can I contact your parents?"
He didn't answer.
"Are you not going to talk?"
He nodded.
"You can't talk?"
The tiny human tried to speak but no sound can be heard. He opened his mouth as he coughs dryly as soon as he tried to make a sound. Al put his palm in front of the child's neck and a magic circle appeared.
The child felt a cooling effect wrapped around his throat, immediately the scratchy sensation faded.
The tiny human eyes glimmered at Al, he looked at him admiringly. Al ignores it and encourages him to talk. "Try talking."
"I..." a crisp small voice was heard by Al. "I don't know..."
"What?"
"I... I don't remember anything..."
"You don't remember anything? You've lost your memories?" Al unconsciously looks at the tiny human's head if it was injured. " What you're amnesiac?"
"I don't know. I don't remember anything."
Al frowned, he had seen this before in a movie or an afternoon drama. The mc suddenly had amnesia and can't remember who she is or where she came from then met this male lead only to found out that the ml killed her parents. The mc got mad and killed the ml but because of guilt she also kills herself. Now their child was left alone.
It was a ridiculous story but somehow it kept you on the edge and makes you want to watch more. It is shitty but you wouldn't watch a boring daily life of a normal person.
Since he can't ask anything about him, he asks what's been bugging him.
"How does it feel to have no memories? Do you feel empty? Do you feel amnesiac? I wanted to know how it feels like to forget everything."
The child didn't speak for a moment and gave him a bewildered look, confused about what he just ask. Who wouldn't want to know how it feels like to have amnesia? It rarely happens to encounter someone having amnesia you know. Al wasn't even sure if it existed before.
The child looks up straight to him, "It felt like I had forgotten something but I can't remember."