he found.
In the south, it was understood that magical powers didn’t fully manifest until around the age of fourteen. There were cases of it happening earlier but they were rare. The same rules didn’t seem to apply in Northern Kurt.
More than a hundred young men ageing from five to fifteen were spread out across the courtyard, and Bren could feel magic coming from each one of them. Most of the magical energy was so small that Bren doubted it could so much as move a leaf, but it was there none the less.
Bren found himself looking at the young men and boys closer. He could see the magical energy flowing through their bodies, but it looked different from others. It all seemed to move into place as he looked around. Now he understood why the people of the village had given him such an odd feeling.
Unlike external mages who pulled in the magical energy from around them and bent it to their will on external objects, or internal mages who pulled in magical energy from the outside to alter their own body in some way, the northern mages were quite different. They didn’t pull in energy from the outside at all; they only used what was already within their body. Bren knew that every object on earth had magical energy naturally present within it, but he had never thought that it could be used since it was normally such a small amount.
Looking around, Bren could tell that the younger boys had a normal amount of magical energy within their bodies, but as the ages of the boys advanced, so did their body’s capacity to store energy. It was such an outrageous thought that had he not seen it first hand, Bren would have never thought it was possible. Not only had the amount of magical energies within their bodies increased, it had its own flow as if tiny rivers no bigger than a hair ran throughout their bodies. The most fascinating part was that Bren could see the small points in the river’s path that guided it. Focusing harder, Bren could see the small gems no bigger than the point of a needle spread throughout the children’s bodies.
“I see that we have a visitor,” a sharp voice said from behind Bren, making him jump. Quickly turning around, Bren found his face only inches away from an older bald gentleman with a long salt and pepper gray beard.
“Sorry,” Bren said, bowing his head slightly. “I did not mean to intrude. I just found myself following the magical energies these children were putting off.”
“Magic?” the man said more than asked with a stern look. “We do not lower ourselves by relying on the power of the gods. We use our own power.”
Bren started to argue with the man but quickly decided that it would be a useless course to take. It didn’t really matter what they believed that they were doing, all that really mattered was how and what they were doing. “I see,” Bren replied bowing again.
The man didn’t try to stop Bren as he started back the way he had come, but Bren could tell that he wanted to. He had the urge to turn around and continue studying the young men and their use of magic but pushed that feeling aside. He had not come here for that. He had come for his father, and anything that delayed that course unnecessarily would just have to wait.
When he returned to the mansion, Bren found all of his friends awaiting him. Some of them still looked at him with a hint of fear in their eyes, but for the most part, it was overshadowed by the worried expressions that plastered their faces. For a few moments, he thought Faye or Cass were going to say something about what had happened, but they remained silent, though the looks on their faces spoke volumes.
To Bren’s surprise, he found Hayao’s father waiting on him. The man’s face slightly paled when Bren entered the room, but other than that, he gave no outward sign that the mages presence bothered him. “I apologize. It seems I let my anger get the better of me,” Bren said, bowing as low as he could without hitting his knees.
Before Bren could finish what he had planned to say, the other man bowed his head as well. “I was in the wrong as well. By all rights this is your map, and I should not have acted that way without