4 A Leaf is Born

Remember Chronicler, after that moment I had to wait for years before obtaining my memories again. Moreover, some of the details that I will tell you about concerning people I met, families and places I visited were obscure to me for quite some time so to make the story clearer it is expedient that I tell you of some of these thing the moment we meet them so as to have a clearer picture. It will be hard to not see those memories in an unbiased way ignoring what I know now after a millennia but I will try my best to convey the feelings of those days and of that child born in the House of Akmar.

I was born in the capital, Abkar. My father was the dean of the academy of magic and my mother a noblewoman whose lineage went back to the imperial family of back then. I was the fourth child of Elegon Akmar and Rima Rothdra. My brothers in order of seniority were Alar, Shimun and Elemir Akmar. I don't remember -like most children - my earliest days of life so I will tell you of my earliest memories.

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"Hey Leaf! Come play catch with us" said Elemir.

-"But...I'm scared...you're all so fast and I don't want to run to catch you in the academia's underground again" said the flame haired Leaf.

"Told you he's only a crybaby" laughed out Shimun "he only knows how to cling to our mother...oh mum where are you?"

"Enough you two, let him be" said Alar.

The role of dean of the school of magic was a role chosen by the very emperor and it was custom that the role of dean was passed down in the dean's family. In that sense, our family was very tied to the emperor's. As the firstborn, Alar was going to be the next dean while the rest of us sons of Elegon would have to either become a knight, a magician or a government official. The most useless of the family were usually married off to some noble family who in exchange of relations to the dean's family would offer the Akmar child a duchy and basically something to do.

"Go to mother Leaf, it's ok" said Alar while caressing the fiery head of the little Leaf. Leaf's green eyes sparked with joy at the gentless of his brother.

"Yes! Oh and I'm going to tell mother about you two!" said Leaf sticking his tongue out.

"Yeah, whatever..." said Shimun and Elemir mockingly. The two brothers were not really evil, they simply liked to tease their little brother but deep down they cared for him and Leaf knew it. As for Alar, Leaf only knew care from him and he was a role model to him, he wanted to be like him in all ways.

So, I started going through the beautiful inner courtyards of the academia. The academia acted both as a school for new students and as an academia for bureaucratic and military senior students. Access to the school was extremely hard and apart from the high tuition you needed lineage and great talent. A for the lineage of Akmar, if the son was not completely useless, they would automatically have access to the lessons, the library and all the material, under the supervision of their father, the dean. Moreover, outer students could only access either the bureaucratic or military carreer, while us sons of Akmar could access both freely. For the Akmar's firstborn there was no choice, he or she had to excel in both classes. As I was running through the beautiful marble corridors and taking shortcuts through the inner courtyards to go to my mother's quarters I passed through the core of the school, the dean's office. The school had the structure of a pentagon with each point of the structure home to a specialized course. Each point then was divided in two, one for the bureaucratic studies and the other for the military studies. The five specializations were: fighting and self-defense; history and archeology; alchemy; magic. For each of these areas there was a more civil focus, which was related to the bureaucratic classes and a military focus for the military classes. So, a student who would graduate as a bureaucrat had to specialize in military strategies and intelligence; the history and politics of the Rothdra empire; alchemy and related fields such as medicine; and theory of magic. A knight would focus on the same areas but from a more practical side. You should also know that at the time, people who knew how to use magic would be almost automatically sent to the military classes, if the candidate was eligible according to all criteria.

At the center of the pentagon lied the tower of the dean, a large structure containing libraries, laboratories, living quarters mainly for my family and guests of honor, kitchens and the servants' quarters. The tower was surrounded by a large inner garden and the top of the tower allowed you to overlook a large part of the imperial city. After reaching the tower with my ears filled with the chatter of students, the voice of professors giving lessons I entered the great stone door, with monument of dragons to the left and to the right.

"welcome back little lord" said the two servants at the entrance. They were two Dar'els with their typical white hairs, dark blue skin, pointed ears and dark blue eyes.

"greetings Baruk! greetings Faruk"! said the cheerful Leaf "where is my mother?"

"she has left recently for a meeting at the imperial palace, she will be back in a few days" answered Baruk.

"oh...and my father?" I asked disappointed.

"he should be in his office" said Faruk.

I did not ask them about my father because I thought of him as a worthy substitute for my mother. I wanted to know where he was to avoid him. That's because he was very harsh and stern, as for me he seemed to ignore me most of the time while being extremely harsh with my brother Alar. As for Shimun and Elemir, they were extremely talented in their fields, Elemir focusing on fighting being a blockhead and Shimun wanting to be a scholar at the university. Father showed a great -and yet strern - appreciation for the two of them while his harshness for alar came mainly from the fact that him being almost 25 years old would have succeeded my 60 years old father in a few years. The old dean would have continued to support the new one managing many important role while helping the new dean acquiring experience.

Alar knew that the harshness of my father was because of the high expectation he had of him and accepted it with utmost dignity and reverence. As I went toward the floor where my quarters were located using the elevator, I saw my brother coming in from the stone entrance of the tower. I heard him saying something to Faruk and Baruk about wanting to meet father, so I decided to precede him to the last floor where the dean quarters were located. I've been using the word magic up until now, but you should know that apart from common folk nobody called magic like that back then. Of course, today that is how it's called by everyone but a millennia ago it was known as Ba'sar and it's what today gives the name to the elite kingly troops of the Ba' Hasars. The instruments that made the empire great were such manily because of Ba'sar engines and they allowed the empire to achieve much greater feats than my old world managed to achieve through technology, which in this world is what the Qusayrs managed to achieve, they are short indeed but their intellect makes up for it! Reflecting upon it in these terms is really striking, that two intelligent species, separated by enormous space and time distances would come up with similar solutions. These ideas perhaps are not really ours; we borrow them in a sense from the Maker.

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After reaching the last floor I hid myself behind one of the enormous columns which were found right at the great door leading to my father's office. I held my breath as much as I could when I heard he steps of my brother who asked my father permission to enter

"Father, it is your son Alar who is requesting to meet you!" said my brother as the stone doors opened without making any sound thanks to Ba'sar circuits powering them.

As my brother entered the great office, I slipped right behind him hiding myself behind one of the enormous library sections trying to eavesdrop the conversation. That was the curiosity of my young self, a curiosity that gave me much during my life but that at that time would lead me to great suffering.