The Fake Princess

6. Lock on the soul

I was in the middle of my reading lecture with Sir Thomalin. He had me writing words for him, copying a fairy tale that I have already read. I groaned, not wanting to do this anymore. I already copied a book and read it aloud to him, now I was stuck doing the same thing.

I looked over at him, he was a young guy. He told me he was a scholar at the Temple. When I showed indifference, he bragged that only the best of the best are allowed to even step foot in the academy. He got huffy when I said his greatness must not be that great since he had to teach me how to read.

He had circle glasses, something which I found funny because they were thick and made his eyes look a bit bigger. They sat low on his long nose, maybe they were falling because he was bent over and reading a book. He told me that he will be instructing me while he did his own work and to keep that a secret. I didn't mind. We were both just doing our own things and I guess it is nice to do it with another person.

I let out another groan, hoping he could get the hint to finish for today. He looked up at me with a frown on his lips. He leaned over to see my progress, but I did not accomplish much.

"I'm bored!" I grunted, leaning backwards and dropping the quill. I looked at him, expecting him to fill my boredom. "Can you do magic again? I want to listen to music!" I made the motion for the violin that I touched yesterday.

"No, I will not be doing magic. Just finish this and we can end class." He told me, gong back to reading his thing. I frowned at that.

"If I could do magic I would. I can't. Why don't you do it for the both of us!" I asked, hoping my thought process could convince him. He lowered his book and gave me a surprised expression.

"Lady, you can do magic." His sentence resulted in silence from the both of us. I frowned. He has to be joking. I have never done magic in my life. Only powerful people can do magic.

"No I can't." I said, finally breaking the silence.

"Yes you can. You are a Kalido, one of the Five soldiers. You can practice magic." My eyes widened at his words. I can't do magic, what if its something only the Kalidos are. No one knows I'm adopted. I will disappoint the Duke.

"I'm not a soldier." I said stupidly after a period of silence.

"No, you're 10. Your ancestor from a long time ago fought in a war with four others. They were great warriors from the gods. They later created this great country of Easlin. Each soldier has a duchy where their families make up the 3 duchies." Thomalin explained to me a cool story.

"Wait. You said there were 5 soldiers. One is the Emperor and there are 3 duchies. One family is missing." I said, counting it on my fingers.

"They died pretty recently. The Emperor ordered a decree to have them killed because they were enemies of the state." Thomalin explained.

"Why?" I asked him.

"That's not important right now. What is important is that you've never done magic yet. One thing all the soldiers have been granted is the free ability to use magic. Everyone is born with mana, most of the population carries small amount. Unless you practice it, it won't amount to anything. However, your family can easily use it without much practice, that is what makes you guys so great." My eyes widened at his words.

"But I can't. There must be a mistake."

"No, you can see it in your hair." He gestured to the braid. "The Kalidos have red-pinkish hair, the royal family has blue or navy hair, the Solons have white or more grayish hair, the Vanns have green hair. The dead family, the Mallics have like a really dark purple hair."