Wish

Chapter 1

Idris

There are four types of magic in our world. Free Magic, the magic that anyone can use, typically users are called mages; then there's the Wild Magic which is that of the Fae, then there is the Forbidden Magic which is highly destructive, highly dangerous spells and curses, users are called wizards, though they are rare and at the moment exist only in legend. The greatest magic of all is Eternal Magic, which is that which the gods and great beings hold, and can only rarely be accessed by a mortal. Any mortal who accesses Eternal Magic, will typically die immediately, and if they do not, then they become immortal. In theory. Nobody's actually ever done it. Yet.

As a boy I was cursed with Forbidden Magic, with a spell so strong no healer in Tira can break it. Meaning that the mage who cursed me probably was affected by the curse as well or just died doing it. The curse prevents me from any movement without crippling pain. 

I don't like it very much. More annoyingly, I will die before the year is out if I don't find a way to break the curse.

I suspect it will take Eternal Magic to break it completely. But that's technically illegal, also I'm thirteen. My powers aren't nearly great enough to access it. Forbidden Magic will have to do. But no one is willing to teach it to me.

No one is willing to do much of anything, by the way, with regard to healing me. My mother attempted to sell her soul to a Fae healer in order to get me a cure. He said there was none. My father gave up rather quickly on me. Probably because this is his fault. My father is a mage of some renown, from a good family. He works for the crown, keeping the peace in our humble section of Tira. Okay, it's not that humble, but we don't live in a palace or anything. A decent townhome with a small yard. And a very steep roof.

"Iddy can I play with your------WHAT ARE YOU DOING???" my little brother, Sasha, is, I've determined through scientific experimentation, the worst partner in crime in all of Tira, probably the whole planet truth be told.

"If you blow this I will tell Dad you're the one who set fire to the carpet in his study," I hiss, edging my way, painfully, down the roof, holding my hands tightly in the proper position to keep me levitated.

"He knows it was me--- you can't move!!!!!"

"He might've blamed mum or Olive, you never know."

"Id, please come back," Sasha sobs, "What do you even think you're doing?"

"Going to studies what does it look like I'm doing???"

"Trying to die! Please come in-- Dad says you're not allowed to go to studies." So having somebody in your house with a Forbidden curse on them isn't technically illegal. Having a child who has a Forbidden curse on them is technically super shameful especially if you're a really great mage who people look up to, then it turns out your kid is probably suffering from a curse that was meant for you. 

Biological children have very similar magic aura's as their parents, therefore it would be easy to mistake one for another. So yes, it's very embarrassing to have your first born son sitting around waiting to die. Instead it's much better to pretend that first born already died, therefore you get a pass to have a new kid. Sasha. He's my replacement. Except he's not as good at magic as me. And our mum loves me better than him because I was first and I'm perfect and I'm great at magic evidenced by the fact that I'm nearly to the garden wall.

"Dad, you will find, Sasha, is an idiot," as evidenced by Olive's existence. My parents only got a pass for one more kid. Not two. Yet Olive is here. She was born about a year ago. She just doesn't leave the house or anything like I am not supposed to. Our parents had a huge fight over her existing. Our mother wanted her, our dad did not. Our mother gets what she wants and if our dad wants the pleasure of her company ever again he'd better like it. And he does like it. The latter and the former.

"You're not enrolled at school, you're not allowed to go because you're not a mage," Sasha, the only legal child and he knows it, folds his arms.

"Open studies only requires a school pass! Nobody will know who I am," I say, edging along the garden fence carefully.

"Why do you want to break all the way out just to study for?" he asks, leaning on the window and not doing a whole lot to stop me from doing what I'm doing.

"I need to do my research, in case you didn't remember I'm the infected one who is likely to die rather soon----damn it!!!" something locks around me.

"Idris, don't you dare move."

"It hurts, father, I think we've been over that. I was floating---owww let go!!!"

"Once you're back in here by the gods----- are there words for what is wrong with you two?" my father pulls me back in the house and through the window, which does hurt severely since he's angry and isn't being gentle.

"Me?" Sasha asks.

"You were standing there watching him!" he says, locking my window and putting a new enchantment on it. I broke the old one. I will break this one too because I am smarter than he is.

"I'm sorry," Sasha starts crying.

"Shut up, no you're not; you want to help your brother," I tell him, easing myself painfully onto the bed.

"Be good for your mother," our father sighs. He's in his dark mage's robes. "Sasha, go get your bag and cloak, you're going to studies."

"Nobody would know if I went," I sigh.

"I'm not arguing with you, Idris," he says, going to the door, "Now your mother is very tired. Don't try her."

"I'm going to be a mage---you can't stop me," I say, "It's what I am."

"If you're a mage where's your cowl?" all mages wear cowls when not inside their own home, as a sign of devotion to the craft. In anticipate of leaving Sasha and our father are wearing theirs.

I hang my head. Of course I don't have one I'm not properly training. Okay, let me amend that. I'm not supposed to have one. That's because the father is supposed to give it to the first born son. My mother got me a fine, thick, red cowl. She got the fabric when Sasha was going to be born and said she was making him a blanket but she made me a cowl because she knew it was important to me. She made me a cloak to match it but I've grown out of that now. The cowl is big enough that it will fit all my life, even once I've broken the curse and am grown.

"That's what I thought, don't strain your mother," he says, and then he turns to go. I let hot tears well in my eyes just so that he sees them. Then when he's gone I blink them away. He'll never expect me to try to escape twice.

When I hear the door close, I carefully start to rise. If I move smoothly and as few joints as possible I can minimize the searing pain. My mother has tried a variety of things, a chair, crutches, anything that might reduce movement but would allow me to move around. None of it really helps. The crutches and the chair jolted me too much. It's easier to walk or levitate myself. In slow, measured steps, I glide gently across the room and to my wardrobe where I hide my cowl.

"Idris---oh good you're up and dressed, your father will be out all day, why don't you go to studies?" my mother asks, coming in, "I'll walk you."

"What about Olive?" a lone boy wandering the streets won't really be noticed. But my mother is somewhat well known and so far as the world is concerned she has only one son, and that is Sasha. Before she fell pregnant with Olive she would take me out and walk me places because the two of us don't care that my father decided to say I had died. But Olive would get rehomed if anyone found out about her and we all love her.

"I can carry her," she says, "It's fine. You can walk back with Sasha."

"I can walk there myself," I say, "I don't want anything to happen."

"I think I can avoid the royal guard, baby in my arms or not," she says, kindly.

I nod.

"Don't let your father get you down I know it's----it's hard but, he was a different person before you were cursed. He thought the world of you."

"He doesn't have to have me dead already," I say, quietly.

"For himself he does."