I looked down and noticed the massive orange rune circle that glowed to life on the ground. It was a simple spell; the most basic type, if I had to assume, judging by the fact that it had only one circle inside of it.

This brat had one final trick up his sleeve. It was all I could do to watch helplessly as the flames sprang to life, rising towards my face and engulfing my body. 

Above me, hundreds of teal runes glowed as the runic scripts arranged themselves within them. As they gleamed with light, locking the scripts into place, small gusts of wind blew from each of them, fanning the flames and causing them to rage.

I screamed and writhed in agony as I was being burned alive. It was a horrible feeling. The flammable sand under my feet only served as more fuel as the flames burned even brighter. I couldn't see anything; I couldn't sense anything at all, only pain. I fell to my knees as I gasped for air, but even then I could only focus on the feeling of my skin shrinking, and the excruciating pain of my muscles forcefully contracting.

"I've got him!" a feminine voice called out.

"What do we do? The flames are going to burn the entire palace down at this rate! I can't contain it much longer!" another voice, this one masculine, yelled.

All of a sudden, everything was fine. I opened my eyes, blinking to get rid of the dryness. Miss Zhang smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. Her aura surrounded her, taking the shape of a halo and pair of wings. 

"Any longer, and the damage would have been irreversible. Thank the gods that Yichen placed protective enchantments on your clothes."

Although she was smiling, I could tell she was panicking internally. Sweat dotted her brow and her smile wavered as she looked back towards the fire. 

She gasped as Meili and General Chen emerged from the massive pillar of flames, passing through some sort of barrier. Meili gently placed Huotian down with a sigh as General Chen dropped Yichen and Yunshu, muttering about how heavy they were.

Surprisingly, Huotian was unscathed. So was his mother. Miss Zhang raised an eyebrow quizzically.

"He casted Flame Armor before he passed out," his mother explained. "I did the same before going in."

"Are these two alright?" General Chen asked, prodding them with her foot.

Miss Zhang checked their pulse, then waved a glowing hand over them. "They're not burnt or anything, but their brains are completely shut down. The two went way too hard with each other."

"Oh, that's great! So the most powerful water mage in the kingdom is unconscious and the soldiers are all in the barracks at the moment! Meili, come help me hold this!" General Lu complained.

The woman got up without a word and raised a hand. The invisible barrier suddenly glowed with a hue of teal. General Lu sat down, breathing heavily.

I took a look at the other two kids. Xiaolong was busy drawing circles in the sand, muttering to himself, and Xiaoyue was tugging on Meili's sleeve. 

"Can't you stop the magic? You're the best mage, right?" she asked. Tears formed at the edge of her eyes and I felt a wave of anger wash over me.

"Damn it! Can you shut up? Are you stupid? Runes can't be disabled once casted, unless the user dispells it."

"Would it kill you to be a little nicer?" Miss Zhang asked. "I know you're the prince and all, but you can't be making cute little girls like my Xiaoyue cry all the time." She ran her fingers through her daughter's hair, patting her on the back in an attempt to calm her. Snot leaked out of her nose as she sniffled some more. 

Xiaoyue pulled out a handkerchief and wiped her face. "S-sorry, X-Xuefeng."

"If you're sorry, then stop being so damn weak! Instead of crying all the time, do something about what's bothering you!"

"Xiaolong, you've been spending way too much time in the library. Those records are ridiculously inaccurate, and don't even make any sense," Meili said.

I looked at Xiaoyue, who was still crying, rolling my eyes at her. I felt a quick slap on the back of my head.

"Ow!" I complained, looking behind me and rubbing my head.

Yichen was furious. "Damn it, Xuefeng! Be a little nicer! You don't know what other people have gone through so don't be so quick to judge, okay?"

"You're awake," Miss Zhang noted.

"I am," he agreed. "Which technically means I beat Yunshu, since he's still knocked out!"

"Aren't there some more pressing matters at hand, my liege?" Meili interrupted. 

"Wha-? Oh. When did that get there?" he asked, sticking his hand through the wind barrier and wiggling his fingers, before pulling it back. "That's actually pretty hot! I'm impressed!"

The man looked up at the pillar of flames and chuckled. "What a genius. To think that this is the work of multiple class-one spells. Guess it runs in the family, huh?"

He looked back at Xiaolong, before his smile dropped. He quickly continued, "I'm sure you're going to be just as talented, Xiaolong! You're only three and already smarter than your older brother; I'm sure you'll be better at magic than him too!"

The little boy sighed and glared at the king, ceasing his muttering and looking up from the circles he was drawing. "Will you shut up, Uncle? I'm trying to focus here."

"R-right. Sorry."

"Xiaolong! You do not speak to the king that way!" Meili scolded.

"Argh!" Xiaolong screamed. "Will you shut up, mom? I said I was trying to focus!"

"What did you just say to me?" Meili asked furiously. Her red hair and eyes represented what she looked like pretty well in that moment; the incarnation of fury. I had never been so scared of someone losing their temper before.

She marched over to him, grabbing his wrist and lifting him to his feet. She stared down at him as she hissed, "Say that again."

"Woah, okay!" Yichen cut in, removing Meili's grip from Xiaolong. "There's no need to get all twisted out of shape! Huotian lashes out all the time, I'm used to it by now. Besides, Xiaolong's still so young, I'm sure he's just stressed, his father and older brother being unconscious while the palace is about to burn down and all. Let it slide, alright?"

Meili blinked. "You're right. You really shouldn't let the kids disrespect you all the time, though."

"It's not disrespect. They're just kids, after all. Why does it matter if they don't respect me?" Yichen smiled. 

"Twisted out of shape...?" Xiaolong repeated. 

"Yes, it's an expression that means-" Yichen began, before Xiaolong silenced him.

"Shh! I know what it means!"

Meili looked as if a blood vessel was about to pop in her eye. She clenched her fist and gritted her teeth as she repeated to herself, "He's only three, he's only three."

All of the tension she built up dissipated immediately when she noticed what Xiaolong was doing. In the sand, he had drawn two different circles, each with unique rune scripts in them.

"Those are the runes for Gust and Ignite!" she gasped. "Xiaolong, did you draw these?"

"Are they correct? I'm fairly certain I drew them correctly." 

Meili formed a rune in each of her hands, one orange and one teal. She studied them briefly before addressing her younger son. "Xiaolong. Are you telling me that you were able to remember how to draw the runes from memory?"

"Is that not normal? I mean, surely mages have to remember how to draw runes in order to cast them, right?" I asked.

"Casting runes and drawing runes are two completely different things. Your body learns how to cast runes after you do it once, but you don't remember the exact patterns of it, especially since most people can't read runic script." 

I found myself wondering if this boy was like my father. According to the elders, Iadra had a perfect memory, and was able to recall every miniscule detail since the dawn of time. 

The boy scratched out one character of the runic script and wrote in another, doing the same to the other rune. "Fire and water, wind and earth," he muttered.

He turned towards the storm of flame. The teal runes fanning the flames instantly fizzled out, flickering and then disappearing. The massive pillar of flame shrank to a miniscule carpet, popping as the last of the flammable sand burned away. Briefly afterwards, the massive orange rune circle also fizzled out, flickering violently and disappearing in a cloud of steam.

"Whoops. Guess there are some side effects to anti-magic," the boy noted. 

I swallowed the lump in my throat that threatened to escape as an ugly cry of envy. It just wasn't fair. Why was it that I was unable to use mana? Why was it that every mana user around me was more powerful than me? Why was it that aura was so damn weak? No, why was it that I was so damn weak? If I was more like Yichen, aura wouldn't be a hindrance, but I was stuck at the weakest class. The feeling of envy in my throat slowly transitioned to a pit of disgust in the bottom of my stomach.

Yichen rubbed his eyes, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Are all of our kids just geniuses? I must be dreaming." 

"If Huotian and Xuefeng weren't anomalies already, I'd have passed out from shock!" Miss Zhang laughed.

The clattering of metal being dropped on the floor caught our attention. A group of seven soldiers were standing wide-eyed in shock, their weapons on the floor by their feet. 

"Did he just-?"

"Cancelling spells-?"

"Are all of the kids in the palace just geniuses?" 

As they bowed to Yichen in preparation to leave now that the threat was gone, Yichen stopped them.

"Hold it," Yichen commanded. 

The soldiers stopped their march and turned around to look at him. "What's wrong, sir?"

"I haven't formally announced that Prince Xuefeng is awake, but I think I should at least introduce the Royal Guard to him. You all are free to join us for dinner. Tonight, we feast!"

The Royal Guard erupted in a cheer, startling Yunshu and Huotian awake. Both Xiaoyue and I laughed as they looked around in perfect synchronization, trying to figure out what was going on. When the girl wasn't crying or shivering in fear, she seemed the most normal out of all of the kids I had met so far. Perhaps that was just how children were meant to act.

"Thank you, Marshal Chen, for stopping the fire while I was unconscious," Yunshu shook his hand. "Things could have turned ugly if you didn't."

"Actually, it was your son who stopped it," the pink haired man rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. He looked at Xiaolong, allowing me to see his striking yellow irises.

"Really?" Yunshu wrapped an arm around Huotian's shoulder. "Who would have thought that you would wake up before me! Seems you're tougher than I am!" The man let out a boisterous laugh.

"Wrong son," General Chen cut in. "You should have been more clear, dad!"

"What? Xiaolong, you're a water mage? This is fantastic!" he exclaimed as he pulled his younger son into a bear hug. "I've always wanted to teach one of you my own tricks!"

"Who's not being clear enough now?" The older Chen said. "He didn't use water magic. He broke the runes or something."

"What?" 

"He broke the runes. Caused them to fizzle out of existence." 

"Well! It seems I have another miracle baby!" Yunshu announced. 

The entire Royal Guard sighed. "You accept these things way too easily." Marshal Chen said.

"Hey, I was shocked when Huotian awakened last year. Not the first time I'm witnessing a miracle."

"The feast will be in the dining hall at sundown! Get yourselves ready, and remember to enjoy yourselves!" Yichen announced. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to my paperwork." 

Yunshu snapped his fingers, causing a portal to open in front of Yichen, who walked through it after telling Miss Zhang that lunch was already prepared in the hall.

"Alright, who's hungry?" Miss Zhang cheered.