At the age of thirteen, Kir became a mage. Technically, he'd always been able to do magic. As a baby, when he cried, he'd also emitted magic in ways that made loose objects rattle and fly about the room. For his test, however, he needed to demonstrate the basic beginner spells, and then the strongest spell he could cast. And he had to be thirteen. Qualitatively he was already Brigit's apprentice, but she was a stickler for the rules when it suited her. Read full story at novel[f]ire.net
Long before, he'd climbed very carefully up the ladder of Brigit's small library to get at a basic magic book that was stored on the top shelf. From it he learned how to circulate mana through his meridians to keep them growing... and little else. He quickly discovered using words didn't help him at all, and then he spent the next ten years asking Brigit to teach him, only to be perpetually stuck in basic lessons with Darlae.
Eventually, his parents figured out he was practicing in secret, and as long as he didn't get in trouble, they were content to let him.
Magic in this world was associated with three levels of learning. The first and most basic was incantation magic, where one would use words to shape the imagination of the desired effect, feeding mana into it to empower the spell. Eventually, simply naming an attack would allow one to quickly cast, albeit with a lower ceiling on power. Abbreviated casting was considered the most valuable for warriors.
The second was wordless casting, which meant being able to cast without saying the words out loud. One simply had to circulate them through one's head. Casters who achieved this and abbreviated casting could execute spells so quickly they appeared simultaneous; with a cost in mana to match. It was at this stage that mages and witches were taught to pull magic from the world as well as themselves since wordless casting was less likely to be interrupted to disastrous effect.
The third was called pure concept or visualization casting. If one cast spells regularly enough, one could simply imagine them into existence, typically based on the experiences gained from the previous two levels of learning.
If one had knowledge of the desired effects, all three levels could be enhanced.
Kir had a cheat though.
In his head was a visualization bank of two decades of collected human visual media from across three centuries of the form, and the science of a world not held back by quick and easy access to magical power.
He could not remember what he had been called in that world, but he knew the world had been called Earth.
He knew he'd lived a difficult life, socially, even though his skills had allowed him to earn a decent living.
It had something to do with the fact that he was born into strange bodily circumstances on Earth, and without parents who accepted him. He was in a similar boat as far as his body, but having his moms made him feel grateful and warm and loved.
He couldn't remember his death, but he could remember a little of what happened afterward. That he had asked some entity only for life with the most potential to grow into himself.
But on the night he turned thirteen, Kir stood in a field and raised his hands to the sky. Without a word, he imagined hydrogen, gathering into a compressed ball, along with mana from the world.
He imagined the electrons and protons and neutrons, each splitting from the other, the energy confined by a magnetic cage so strong it sorted each into layers, with the neutrons escaping at the weakest point, away from him.
He imagined a single path opening up for this energy, so narrow it could only produce a single, tight beam.
He aimed this at the planet's first of two moons, a black, volcanic orb spiderwebbed in lava flows.
"Look Darlae! Wordless casting! I think our boy is a genius!" Brigit exclaimed as she hugged her wife. "And he isn't even winded!"
Darlae grunted, which she did when she was feeling jealous. "Great. Now Kir's gonna get a big head and I'll be even more behind," she grumbled and yawned. Darlae had two women in her life, and the second was Somna, Goddess of Sleep, or rather the worship of her. Being up at midnight was the antithesis of her being.
"Actually, it was pure concept casting," Kir said, turning. At first, he thought his moms were stunned by his revelation. Then he remembered where the beam he made was heading and turned around to check the results.
Sure enough, at the dead center of the tidally-locked dark moon, a ball of light had appeared.
"Oh... it must have struck some heavy elements..." He was wondering just how strong the beam interaction had to be and what it would have to hit to produce a nuclear reaction when Brigit fainted and Darlae rushed to catch her.
"Mom? Mom!" Kir ran to her side.
"Our boy's a genius..." she said in a woozy, dreamy tone.
Later, as soon as they were back home, Kir would learn that by the terms of magical academia, his demonstration had just surpassed the strongest spell Brigit knew. She started talking about wanting to sponsor him to go to her alma mater, the prestigious Norneau Academy, as soon as he turned sixteen.
Darlae pointed out that while demonkin were accepted there, she'd never heard of one graduating this century. Also, they didn't have the coin.
"Who needs coin? With his aptitude, he could get a scholarship! Probably get into the independent study right away! He'd be a legend! I'll write the letter tomorrow!"
When they finally got around to asking what Kir wanted, he replied, "College sounds great... but does this mean I can't be your apprentice?"
It came as a surprise when Brigit, his mother and teacher, bowed her head to the table and said, "Please teach us what you know!" before she reached up and pulled Darlae down into a similar posture.
"Okay, okay!" Kir blushed. "Please don't bow to me... you're my moms..."
Brigit came up with a look that made Kir's tail twitch.
"Actually... we were going to tell you earlier, now that you're old enough..." Brigit started.
Darlae picked up where she left off. "Kir, you're adopted," she said gruffly, like she was ripping off a piece of duct tape.
Kir blinked in surprise. Then he burst out laughing. "I already knew that!" He kept laughing. Brigit muttered something about thinking he'd forgotten but he could barely hear her over the sound of his own laughter.
When at last he could speak again, he wiped away tears. "You're still my moms. I love you two so much..."
They shared a hug, and that was how Kir turned thirteen.