I entered the family dining room. My mother was feeding Ibis and Cassie. Cassie despite being old enough can't stand to be too far from her.

"Oh? Freddy, you're here early, did you already finish practice with your father?"

"Yes, I finished early. Dad said you had something to tell me?"

I approached and took the seat right after Cassie's. The dining table had only two plates, Cassie's and Ibis's, they aren't allowed to eat with the rest of us yet considering Cassie still throws food around if she's excited enough and Ibis is prone to throwing up if she doesn't like the scent of a particular food.

"It's about our trip tomorrow, we're going to the market."

"Oh, is everyone going?"

"You're father didn't seem all that interested. I guess being the ruler of this region has the sort of popularity that might make you embarrassed to show up and not have something important to say to the commoners."

"He's staying then?"

"I'm afraid so, but those diligent three will still keep him busy for the morning regardless. Kraimer goes to the city whenever he wishes anyway and Darvy doesn't want to miss a single day of practice. That boy rarely gives his mother any kisses anymore."

"Heh, I guess he'd rather you share them with the rest of us."

"Come here you. Teasing me with such sweet words."

My mother lunged at me, she picked me up and started blowing kisses on my tummy. I couldn't stop myself from laughing.

Mom went to take the girls to sleep while the maid started setting out the plates for the rest of us. Slowly, my older siblings trickled into the room.

"So it's not just the hair, huh?"

"What?"

Another of my older siblings spoke out to me, Logan. I've had very minor interactions with him in the past, he used to cling to mother as well around two years ago. Sometimes my memory astounds me, I've managed to retain far more than the average child but luckily none of it to do with my potty-training. 

My sister punched him in the shoulder.

"Hey, what's that for?"

"Why'd you go and tease him, then?"

"I thought it was clever, he's got mom's hair so he sticks out, and now he turns out to be the better spellcaster. I doubt he even gets that."

"I do."

I interrupted their squabbling. It didn't occur to me that my siblings had any sort of notion about me. I knew Kraimer had something to say the other night when I cast my first spell, I didn't think anyone else really cared.

"I don't think you really do."

"Then tell him about it, stop being so cryptic."

"Ah, ok don't step on my foot, it's not very ladylike."

"What would you know about that?"

"Are you going to let me explain it to him or rag on me more?"

Logan turned serious, it reminded me of our father's stern look.

"Fred, you know about the rankings for magic right?"

I nodded in agreement.

"Has father told you them by name?"

I shook my head.

"But you're aware that there's seven right?"

"Yes."

"Alright. There's the first rank, acolyte. It means someone who's just learning a magic, it can also mean you have a teacher that's getting you through the basics. At that level you can cast the spell but it won't always do what you tell it to do. You understand what I just said?"

"Yeah, it's basically the beginner's rank."

"Right. It's a little more than just what you're capable of, it's also about acknowledging where you stand. The next rank is disciple, that's where most people stay if they even have the capacity in their body to use magic. This is the point where you can easily call on the magic, and it usually listens to you and follows along with how you want to shape it, but it's still missing the strength to really do what you want with it."

"That's where I am."

I wasn't really sure but it sounded like that's where Logan was logically headed for.

"Sort of."

"What does that mean? Does it have something to do with the Saint factor?"

"You're getting a little ahead of yourself. I'm getting there. After disciple, there is vicar, the third rank. That's the point when you can start teaching someone else, more importantly your spells and mana usage are way more efficient. More efficient means more potent."

"Ok."

"Then comes cardinal, nothing major changes about the spells you use but the range of them is now properly around the edge of your vision. There's obviously the indication that you've even got the mana pool to pull stuff off from that far away. It might be around here too that you start to get impact."

"Impact? Like more potency."

"Yes, but more importantly, impact has to do with how your spell is affected by the world itself. With more impact the effect you want your spell to have starts to endure the nature of the world and become a real part of it."

"But I thought spells that are cast still have their own 'existence'."

"They do remain but it's like a river-"

Page nudged Logan and shook her head. 

"Yeah, it is a pretty bad analogy."

"What is? Something about the river?"

Logan turned to Page instead.

"It still makes sense, it doesn't matter I'll just tell him about both."

"Fine but don't confuse him."

"Alright, Fred listen. It's a bit complicated but imagine a river flowing towards the ocean, with enough impact you could force the ocean to start going back to where the river starts."

"So it's kind of like overwriting the nature of a phenomena."

"Don't get too hung up on that, the torch example will clear it up a lot more. Say you cast a light spell. If you're new to the magic the best you'll get is a flash. With some training you can get it to change color and maintain its radiance in your palm. But, ultimately the spell disperses as soon as you release it."

"And then?"

"Then you add a little impact to your spell, with it the spell even once released out of your control and grasp maintains its space in the world before slowly fading away. Add in even more impact and you could attach it to a torch that never fades. Although it would be quite inefficient but that's a whole other tome of information that dad'll teach you in time."

"What comes beyond the torch being everlasting?"

"What do you mean?"

"Is there some other powerful effect of impact, what else can it do?"

"Well, still going with the torch example. You could imagine someone with an absurd amount of impact applied to their spell could even make a place where the light of day shines permanently. Basically impact morphs the world more to the liking or will of the caster."

"I get it now."

"Good. So, going back to the rankings of magic users, after cardinal is the saint rank. Getting to it is a life long achievement for anyone serious in the academics of the arcane. In simple terms people at this point live and breath the spells they know. Specifically, a saint can use magic without even speaking. No incantation, abbreviated or otherwise. Someone with a saint factor is either someone who can cast magic without the incantation but having a low mana pool, or having a humungous reserve of mana in spite of little formal training."

"I fit in the former then?"

"Yep. There's two other ranks though. 'Prophet and God.' They're a lot more symbolic. A prophet is beneath a god, obviously, but it's used to describe someone that embodies the art of their magic and leads others towards that enlightenment. A god on the other hand has overwhelming impact with the magic they wield, probably enough to take on a whole army of soldiers and definitely wipes the floor with any saint that tries to get in their way. Power like that ends up being worshipped no matter what kind of person that god really is."

"Thank you, Logan, for teaching me about it."

"Don't sweat it. We're brothers after all."

Heh, he's quite bashful when he's looked up to. Page smiled at me and patted Logan on the back for doing as she asked. This was my family in a nutshell, even though we don't all look alike or act alike we have a bond between us.

Dinner was uneventful, after finishing up I headed straight to bed. I was quite exhausted from all the excitement I felt with learning a new technique and getting that mythical ranking system crash course.

I was in a nightmare again.