I finished up my pie and wanted to get a map to ask Uther about Droskya, so I got off my mother’s lap before turning to her.

“I be back,” I said in my frustratingly frail voice before trying to waddle my way out of the room. It was frustrating not being able to use mana and even more frustrating when my mother picked me back up and placed me back in her lap. She nuzzled her head against mine and laughed when I giggled. I wasn’t” ”””” laughing cause I thought it was funny. At all. A quick side note, did you know that some babies are ticklish on their cheeks? Because I did, and it was not fun. 

My mother started humming a tune and stroking my head while Uther and Nicholas talked about their upcoming trip to Ethen’s royal capital, Pride.  It was one of his duties as a noble to attend. The problem was that it was quite a large country, and Clarity was located on the outskirts of the country, and was directly bordering the Great Forest of Atron. The travel time from Clarity to Pride by normal means was almost six months.

Thankfully for us, however, was the existence of what was known as the Eternal River of Renaissance. The enormous river flowed through the entire continent, from the tip of Elena to the edge of the Empire; no matter where you went, you’d find the Eternal River.

One branch of this river flowed from Lake Clarity to right near Pride. If you took the trip by river currently, it would take somewhere around three months. That was nice enough on its own, but the actual usefulness of the river came when the season turned to Vivall. Fall, Summer, Winter, Spring and Vivall. Those were the five seasons of the year, four of which were named similarly on Earth. While the language was different, the words meant the same thing, but Vivall was entirely new. Vivall was a shorter season, ranging from the start of the new year to the end of March.

Many places would experience unheard-of weather during this season, and mana levels would fluctuate immensely, sometimes involving fiery rain, blades of wind sharp enough to cut down houses or literal chunks of earth mana. However, each time Vivall came, it seemed only to change the weather for four to five cities, leaving the rest of the continent entirely unaffected, other than changing the river’s currents.

One of the only constants known of Vivall was the changing of the Eternal Rivers currents. They would shift entirely, becoming slower or faster and utilizing the ambient mana in the environment. One of the changes in currents involved the river speeding up immensely on the way to Pride from Clarity. The main drawback to this for ordinary citizens was that for safe travel on the river, you needed someone skilled enough in either wind or water mana for safe travel on the river to situate the boat and guide it along with the current for extended periods. The faster currents during Vivall let anyone with enough mastery of their vessels travel from Clarity to Pride in just under a month. The meeting Nicholas had to attend was timed precisely during Vivall so that many nobles would be able just to take the river and arrive faster, not needing to leave their respective territories for too long.

I wondered if Uther would be going. My grandfather was loving and kind, but he was also clearly aware of everything. He knew I could use and cycle mana, but he hadn’t yet talked about it with me at length. He’d even looked at my soul when I was born; I had no idea how much he knew or if he’d be mad. 

The truth was, I was unsure of my existence. Was my being born here destined? Was I meant to die, survive and be reborn, or had I somehow killed the soul of the baby that was supposed to be born? I had no way of answering, but I didn’t know if that was the same for Uther. Uthers stride was always confident; his head always held high, he looked as if he’d be comfortable no matter what situation happened to him; it was as if he knew everything. 

I didn’t know how old he was, I never asked, but he still looked young, maybe in his 50s max. The topic of his wife seemed purposefully avoided, no one mentioned her, and when something came up where she should be noted, my grandfather would always get a pained look on his face. 

I resolved to ask Uther about my mana and the capital of the Great Forest, Droskya, some other time and decided just to enjoy my birthday. 

 More worldbuilding this chapter, lots of hints towards later things too! Let me know what you think, and if you spotted any grammar errors.

Enjoy :p