The Prince and the Peasant

This is a short story set around the time Malachi first broke into Second Gate

-

Kamal Suntorch, son of the Lady of the Sunscorched Desert, – the most powerful and richest person in the country, who held nearly a sixth of Suntorch’s entire political votes and seats – was bored.

Drawing energy from a Hudau Heritage Stone and into his mana-garden might have been an easy, safe, and reliable path to advance, without any of the risks normally associated with powerful poultices, potions, or pills


But it was boring. Just draw the essence from the stone, convert it into your mana, and then compact it to add to your mana-garden. Break away the power of the stone and stuff it into a spell diagram until it was mastered, then pack in more until it was ingrained.

“Now, now,” his tutor, an occultist who worked for Lledrith university, said. “Pay more attention to the stone. You’re letting some of the power dissipate into the air.”

“Does it matter
?” Kamal asked, letting out a sigh. “It’s the third one I’ve used – its effect is going to be pretty limited regardless. A small flaw doesn’t matter.”

The occultist’s eye twitched, and Kamal had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. The woman wasn’t a real occultist anyways. She’d just used a pill – probably the Conduit of Heaven Elixir – to break through to seventh gate, when she wasn’t able to do it herself.

His mother would absolutely pulverize her in a contest of real power. Eventually, he’d be able to do the same.

“Wasted power is still wasted power,” the woman said in a restrained tone. “As is wasted money. Any Hudau Heritage Stone is worth more than you know.”

“No, it’s not,” Kamal said with a sigh. “A practitioner level stone like this is worth – on average – ten and a half million sun-notes. That’s about six hundred and fifty thousand Mossfordian silver, or five hundred and twenty thousand Elohian credits
 Would you like it in other currencies?”

The woman’s eye twitched again and she coughed slightly.

“No, that’s alright. But the point about wasted power still stands.”

He stopped pulling power from the stone and put it down on the desk, then looked at her. His wings flicked in irritation.

“If you’d just let me advance to third gate, then I’d be able to stop wasting time and money on beefing up my full-gate spells. I’m stronger than anyone else in the world my age who hasn’t advanced to third gate. I’d bet ten of these stones on that.”

The woman stared at him, and then she shook her head.

“No, you aren’t. You’ve been groomed your entire life to hold power. You’ve been given countless treasures and advancement tools. And always the best of the best – things like three Hudau Heritage Stones, a dozen Golden Soul Elixirs, and a Lushloam Seed.”

Normally, a tutor saying something like this to a student would be a bad idea. Especially if that student was the child of one of the hundred or so most powerful people in the world.

But Galilahi wasn’t a normal tutor. The boy’s mother had given her explicit instructions to treat Kamal honestly, and to shape him into a monster. He needed to be able to dominate in the proxy tournament’s spellbinder division, and preferably in the arcanist one too, once he got older.

The fact that the boy had gone through dozens of tutors over the years wasn’t the best mark in her favor, though.

The young half phoenix glared at Galilahi. Who was she to say such things like that to him?

“And what of my Nascent Truth? Are you going to say that wasn’t my hard work?” he demanded.

“Yes,” she said. “By virtue of birth, if nothing else. You already had an easy connection to a half a dozen truths about rebirth, fire, and phoenixes. If you’d managed to create a different truth, then you’d have done it on your own. Instead, you’ve just leaned on your bloodline and the powers that were handed to you.”

Kamal’s lips twitched into a frown and then he shook his head.

“There’s a flaw in your logic. Maybe I didn’t earn everything I have, but that doesn’t mean that there’s anyone my age who could actually beat me in a fight. I’d even be willing to jump ranks and take on a spellbinder. If you can find anyone my age or younger who can beat me, then I’ll pay attention to your lessons. But you won’t be able to.”

“Deal,” she said, then channeled power into her wand and teleported back to Lledrith.

Galilahi strolled over to her desk and began to search through the profiles of students. Marie Cousteau might be able to beat him, but only if she had the range to build up power and actually hurt him. Dario? No
 He was doing well, and she’d give him the go-ahead to ascent to spellbinder soon, but he wasn’t strong enough. Summoners tended to be weak until third gate anyways.

Her eyes fell upon Ming’s folder. The girl was a perfect example of everything that Kamal wasn’t.

She’d been born the child of two peasants in Le-Shi, one of Daocheng’s minor vassal kingdoms.

Her legacy was nothing special either, simply allowing her to see in the dark.

But Ming had been born with a once in a lifetime understanding of mana, and leveraged her prodigal skill amazingly. If Kamal was a paper dragon, then Ming was a true dragon.

Yes, she’d be perfect.

Galilahi flicked her wand and appeared next to Ming.

The girl glanced over at her consideringly and inclined her head.

“Miss Galilahi. How may I help you?”

“Are you up for a sparring match?” Galilahi asked. “Not with me. The prince of Suntorch is being a brat, and he thinks he can defeat anyone at second gate. For compensation I’ll offer you ten university-level points, and five hundred practitioner-level points.”

Ming stared at her with her sharp, angry eyes.

“Deal.”

Galilahi took Ming’s arm and teleported them back to Kamal’s training room, where he’d been lazily pulling in power from the stone again.

When the pair arrived, he glanced over at them, and was shocked at the anger that met him in Ming’s eyes. She looked like she wanted to kill him.

“Kamal Suntorch, this is Lao Ming. Ming, this is Kamal.” Galilahi said.

“Pleasure to meet you,” Kamal said, extending his hand with a politician’s smile plastered on his face.

“No,” the girl said.

Ming hated nobles. She hated the wealthy. She knew that in most places, they weren’t still in true power, and that in Kijani and Elohi they didn’t exist at all anymore.

But knowing that couldn’t erase a lifetime of hatred. Hatred at Le Yu, the king of her petty little home. Hatred at the Storm King, for allowing them to stay in power. Hatred for all of the occultists who had the power to fix things, but didn’t.

“Well
” Kamal said, seeming to not know what to say.

“Let’s clear the room,” Galilahi suggested. She waved her hand and hands, disks, and telekinetic waves began to clear everything out of the way in a hurry, until they were only in an empty room.

“Take ten paces apart, and then begin,” Galilahi commanded. “Use deadly force. I’ll intercept anything before it causes serious damage.”

Kamal strutted ten paces away, while Ming took measured paces.

“Begin!” Galilahi shouted.

Before Kamal could even get a spell out, Ming had extended her hand.

Ming only had one desolation spell, the Silver Blade. It was halfway to a full gate spell on its own, and backed by her second gate desolation spell, which was a full gate enhancement to the raw strength of her desolation attacks, it was absurdly powerful for a second gate practitioner to have.

Combine that with the fact that her homemade mana-meditation focused on enhancing the raw power of any spell, at the cost of everything else?

She was a monster.

But Kamal’s defenses were absurd, even for a phoenix. Not only did his phoenix blood give him some inherent healing, but he’d turned his second gate phoenix magic into a healing factor.

If that wasn’t enough, he’d used his physical mana to create permanent armor around him.

Ming’s blade sliced through the armor as if it was wet paper, and slid into Kamal’s body. Galilahi stopped it before it went too deep, allowing Kamal’s powerful regeneration to restore him over the course of a few minutes.

“What
 in the primes name
 was that?” he asked. “I’ve got way, way more mana than anyone my age should have, but you sliced through my armor like it wasn’t even there!”

Ming stood and stared at him dispassionately.

“You won’t win round two,” he warned Ming, and Ming smirked at him.

They stepped apart, and when Galilahi told them to begin, Kamal unleashed a tide of Flaming Pheonix Feathers where Ming was.

Ming moved in a blur, slipping out of the way of the feathers. She’d devoted her life mana almost entirely to enhancing her speed, and while Galilahi didn’t consider that a viable long-term strategy, it was undeniably effective.

She extended her hand and sent a Silver Blade at him.

Kamal’s wings flared out as he used them to dodge just out of the way.

Galilahi nodded her approval. Ming was a monster, but her tight focus and raw power meant that she was predictable, and burned herself out of mana quickly.

The feathers began to chase Ming, but she kept running in circles, avoiding them and dancing out of their way.

Kamal was doing something with his first gate physical mana. It wouldn’t be obvious to Ming, but Galilahi could see he was focusing tightly on his mana control as he layered three Shield spells over him.

She actually was impressed by that. Any leakage, and the spells would become visible to the naked eye and mana senses. As it was, though, it was just a ripple on each.

Ming swung another Silver Blade at him, and it cracked through his shields, but wasn’t able to penetrate his full-gate armor.

Kamal grinned and sent another plume of feathers to fill the air.

“Your sword’s a good trick, but I’ve got it countered. Nobody my age can beat me, Galilahi. Told you that.”

The anger on Ming’s face was apparent when he said that. She cut the power to her speed spells, and stood still. The feathers began to close in on her, and Galilahi thought she might have given up.

Then the feathers exploded into puffs of random energies, and Galilahi’s eyes widened.

The young girl had called a half a dozen Silver Blades around her and swept them through the area, slicing all the feathers in half.

Kamal actually looked worried at that, so he dropped subtlety in order to layer as many Shields over him as he could. With his absurd levels of mana, he could sustain nearly a dozen.

Ming waved her hand, and then a massive sword swung from her hand. It forged out of enough mana that it had to have drained nearly her entire reserves.

It shattered through all of the Shield spells and cracked the armor. As the full gate spell began to repair itself, she ran in, burning life mana for speed, and punched him in his face.

He tried to dodge, but with her speed, he could do little. Her blows hammered down, beating him until Galilahi had to pull her off of him.

His regenerative properties went to work, and he was fine before long. He looked at Ming, and then bowed, then turned to Galilahi and bowed again.

“Thank you,” he said. “I
 Never expected someone would be able to beat me. Please
 Teach me. I want to be as strong as you are.”