Alfonsi: Chronicle of the Seven Realms

Azra closed his book quickly as the end of his class with Carmen came near. 

Had it been five years ago he would have looked up at her with big sparkly eyes and begged her to tell him the secrets of the world.

Now that he was thirteen, classes had because somewhat boring.

Everything Carmen taught him seemed redundant, as if it was knowledge he knew but was simply being given to him in a new form.

"Why don't you practice? Can you show me how far you've gotten the past week?"

Azra blinked at the short bubbly woman. She usually never asked to see it and up until now the only people he had openly displayed his ability to were his father and Anna.

Over the years Azra had come to realize just how important it was that he keep this strange ability a secret. To be blunt, it could to alter the course of the Alfonsi nation and the facts of mana itself.

Rifling around the bag he carried around he pulled out a cut flower he got from the gardens in the morning. It had long wilted and was destined to die.

Inhaling a breath Azra tentatively reached out with his mind, willing the mana mingling all around him to find a home within the dying flora. Instantly it became rejuvenated, regrowing its stem and even a system of roots.

When he first used his ability when he was five, the effects were astonishing but temporary. The beauty of the flowers only lasted a day before reverting to their previous state.

Not to mention trying to manipulate such a large amount of raw mana took a tole on his heart which was already weak. 

Not long after he began practicing on a much lower scale. Only daring to use plants as his subjects. Using creatures for such a purpose didn't sit right with him. Just the idea that he had the ability to kill just as easily as he could drain a flower of all nutrients made his hands cold and his stomach churn.

Azra was of the firm belief that people with such magical abilities shouldn't exist.

He shouldn't exist.

He placed the single plant into Carmen's hands who proceeded to handle it like a rare gem with the fragility of glass.

"It really is mesmerizing to see, thank you for showing me. I know you don't exactly like when-"

"It's fine, just make sure that's planted before it dries up again. I'll see you tomorrow Carmen."

"Your Highness."

Azra was fast to leave the room that was quickly becoming stifling despite the many windows that lined the wall.

He hated when people watched what he was doing. To them, it may be considered beautiful but to Azra it was nothing but a shackle with spikes pointed at his wrists. One wrong move and everything could turn into complete chaos. It had almost happened once before.

Even still, he refused to just push the ability to the side. If he was to spend the rest of his life with these complex shackles, he would know everything about them. Azra refused to be the cause of an accident due to his own ignorance.

Halfway back to his room he realized he left his bag in the class. He could call a maid to get it for him, but it would be faster if he just went himself.

Moving swiftly, he came to an abrupt stop a few feet before the door when a soft conversation leaked out into the hall. Azra snuck to the gap of the door when he heard his father's voice.

"Is that true?"

"Yes your Majesty. Azra is extremely gifted. I have been meaning to tell you this for about a year now but there is nothing left for me to teach him. He needs to be ingesting higher forms of education I cannot provide. I suggest you recommend him to Yelrine."

"It is still too early. I was hoping to wait until his fifteenth birthday."

"Well if it is not presumptuous to give a suggestion... perhaps you should ask the Prince?"

A heavy sigh echoing past the small crack in the door making Azra's shoulder's tense.

"Of course he'd want to go, but to send him now? He is far too young, he's never even been outside the palace before."

"P-Perhaps you should ask the Prince?"

"Thank you for the information Carmen, it seems I have much to contemplate."

- - -

The knock on his door had Azra tightening his grip around Layla's silky black fur.

This conversation with his father, he wasn't sure he wanted to have it yet. Leave? And go to Yelrine? He had never left the palace grounds in all his thirteen years of life. What if something bad happened? What if someone found out? What if there was another Nicolas?

On one hand he was excited on the other hand he was scared. It was a confusing balance of emotions that made him want to pace the halls.

"Azra? Are you asleep?"

He sat up from where he was laying, realizing he had taken far too long to answer his father's questioning knock.

"No, I- you can come in." 

Azra watched his father enter the room as if he owned it... well he did but the way he commanded presence was unlike anything Azra felt he had the capabilities of doing.

He sat in one of the many decorated chairs scattered around his unnecessarily large room. Legs crossed and long white hair tossed behind his shoulder. He didn't look a day older than twenty-five though Azra knew he was well past his nineties. 

Among the things Azra hated thinking about, the Alfonsi lifespan was one of them. Along with high magical affinity and birthing defects, an extended life was more of a downside in his opinion. The idea that he would watch Cal and Quen grow old while he remained frozen in time was depressing to think on to say the least.

He had no idea how his father did it.

"Do you want to go to school?"

Azra blinked, not expecting for the King to get straight to it. Though behind his calm facade he could see the tell-tale signs of worry from the way his eyebrows pinched together. It seems they both had been agonizing over the topic.

"I don't know."

"Do you want to learn?"

"If that's the case can't I just get another tutor?"

"Will you be satisfied with just that?"

Azra bit his lip in frustration. He had been able to toe the line somewhere in the middle when it came to staying in Asteri but as he got older it would become more important for him to make a choice.

"At some point you will need to leave, meet the people and see the land you will lead. You have this responsibility you were born with. You must decide Azra."

It was during moments like this that his father frustrated him. Perhaps he would have an easier life if he was more of a King and less of a dad. Forcing him to go through the motions of becoming the Crowned Prince instead of giving him choices.

Matteus would never make a choice for him. Azra knew that if he opened his mouth to say he wanted to forfeit his right to the throne his father would go in stride without a question.

But was that really the kind of decision a thirteen-year-old should be allowed to make?

"I want to learn, I've always wanted to learn dad, that's just how I am."

Golden eyes bore into his soul. Azra wasn't sure what kind of answer that was but it was the best he could offer at the moment.

"Although you would need to stay there, it won't be bad. Quentin is also there learning the ways of a knight. You wouldn't be completely alone."

"Can I even get into Yelrine? I heard from Cal it's prestigious."

"Before that, there is something you must do."

Azra tilted his head in confusion, pouting slightly when his father reached out to ruffle his equally white hair.

 "We must properly introduce you to the public before you begin your preparations to attend Yelrine."

Oh...oh. A pained look took over Azra's face. Although he hadn't attended one, Quentin had told him enough for him to be thoroughly scared of the debutante1 ball.

"We'll need to declare it a public holiday. All places of work will be closed and any other noble young women and men of age will be invited to attend. We must prepare invitations as well."

"Um...dad, does it need to be so big?"

"You are the Crowned Prince, if anything it should be bigger."

Upon seeing the pale look of Azra's face Matteus smiled, a hint of reminiscence in his voice.

"You will be fine, my father did the same thing to me."

"Did you enjoy your debutante ball?"

"Absolutely not, I hated every second of it."