World Sphere - 2 - Growing up in Skyholme

Chapter 2: Growing up in Skyholme

After I was born, I was frustrated. My thoughts were slow and cloudy. I had my past knowledge, but it was hard to grasp and hold onto. It was like remembering the plot of a book you did not like reading from years ago. I also had to work hard at acting as baby-like as possible. Let me just say I was not a fan of soiling my diaper and crying when I was hungry. 

When my eyes developed enough, I was able to see my family. My father, Caleb, was a solid man of above-average height and musculature, and I figured out he was a town or city guard by his dark gray uniform. He wore his black hair in a short ponytail, and his blue eyes seemed hard to me. I did not see the lively, loving nature I saw in my mother’s eyes.

My mother, Alurha, looked average but had amazing blue-green eyes that sparkled. Her dark blonde hair was worn as a long braid, and her brilliant white smile was always there when she looked at me. My mother was a leather engraver. She was an artist and specialized in cutting images into leather pieces. I also had an older brother, Pascal, who was about three years my senior.

I quickly comprehended the language as my older brother was building his vocabulary. I listened to his inquiries with intensity. I grew up soaking in everything I could. I quickly gained movement, crawling, then walking. I learned the language extremely quickly. I started talking around six months, and by six years old, I had a good handle on my new existence, and everyone commented what a bright boy I was. 

I was named Storme. I was born during a lightning storm while a flight of lightning drakes was attacking the island. I heard the story of my birth every time she introduced me. I learned many things. Skyholme was comprised mainly of eight large floating islands. The largest was the Capital Island, where most of the wealthy and ruling families lived. The other seven islands each had their regional specialty as well.

Our island, Titan’s Shield, trained soldiers, supplied armor and arms, and had a minor agricultural development focused on grains that produced bread and beer. Large airships and skyships transported people and goods between the islands.

Our small town was named Hen’s Hollow. Our small town was about two miles outside one of the cities and had a single skyship dock where my father worked. My father was a guard for skyship transports but usually spent his day at our tiny local dock checking passengers and goods—not that we saw many skyships. 

The history of the Skyholme empire was mostly told through stories. The floating islands were once a single large island about 3000 years ago and were ruled by an arrogant avian race called the Haikarum. The large island had moved in a massive circular orbit over the lowlands, tracing a prominent aether ley line. 

An archmage from the Haikarum tried to draw the power of the ley line into the island, which caused the catastrophic shattering of the massive island. The remains of the Haikarum civilization were rocked into disarray, and a group of adventuring humans in an old airship conquered the islands. They killed the Haikarum without mercy. Of course, the songs we sang about their deeds made their genocide sound heroic.

The various islands still follow the same path today, but no magic could pull the islands back together. They were locked in their new orbits. The adventurers from the original airship soon started a settlement and that grew into the nation of Skyholme over a few hundred years. Today, Skyholme controls the eight largest islands and a few smaller, fractured islands. 

The Triumvirate, the heads of the three prominent noble families, ruled Skyholme. Each family had dozens of members, but a maximum of 23 was recognized in each true line of succession. The internal politics were supposedly brutal based on the adults’ conversations in my presence. 

Each family of the Triumvirate was in charge of one aspect of life in Skyholme; commerce, military, or citizenship. The commerce faction was involved in all aspects of harvesting, dungeon delving, manufacturing, and trade. But it was the citizenship faction that had the true power. They controlled the people through laws, education, and immigration. The military faction was focused on training the city guard, navy, and battle mages. They were responsible for raiding, defending, and guarding Skyholme. 

Even though the Skyholme Empire was apparently racist, they still had an interesting military unit that was surrounded by mystique. They were a wolfkin half-breed that looked more human than wolfman. They were sterile, long-lived, and had superior physical skills, but most importantly, they had a high degree of loyalty if raised in a structured system. These warriors were called the Wolfsguard.

The academies were where every child went in their 15th year. You first completed a local one-year academy and then entered a five or seven-year specialized academy. You could also forgo entering the academy and enter an apprenticeship with a master in a trade, as my mother had done. After you complete your academy training, you will have completed various internships and education to contribute to society; sometimes, you will have some debt to pay off. It was not so different than my past life.

Magic also played a significant role in which academy you went to. If you had magic, someone would sponsor you to attend a better academy. Magic would manifest during puberty, around age 14 or 15. This happened when your aether core awakened and started pulling in aether from the environment. I was looking forward to my coming of age, where I could start to access the magic and abilities I had selected.

I began playing regularly with children in my neighborhood at the age of six. My best friend lived two houses down and was named Gareth. He was a few months younger than me but looked two years older. It was easy to tell he would be a very large man. I took advantage of my time with Gareth, forging a lifelong friendship.

Gareth and I delivered food, messages, and items in town to earn a few coins. We made good money for kids and quickly became known in town for our speed and reliability. I also learned the currency. Steel, copper, silver, gold, platinum, mithril, and adamantine coins existed. Each coin was the size of a penny, and 10 steel equaled 1 copper, 100 copper to 1 silver, 100 silver to 1 gold, 100 gold to 1 platinum, 10 platinum to 1 mithril, and 10 mithril to 1 adamantine. Steel coins were only utilized outside of cities as they could not buy much. Copper, silver, gold, and platinum also had a large coin called a ten-piece. A ten-piece was also called a ‘large coin’ for short. Also, steel was only used in small towns outside cities. No one in the city accepted them.

For our delivery work, we started making 4 to 5 steel coins per delivery and, on good days, could pull in a few coppers each. When Gareth and I reached our 10th birthday, we had more freedom, and we sometimes even had a delivery to the city, which was just a twenty-minute walk away. We earned a few coppers for the extra effort on those treks. 

We usually would spend half our income on food and drink to replenish our energy. Our one luxury item was a pair of fishing poles. The wide stream that was outside of town had a fair number of small fish, and on a good afternoon, we could catch enough for our family with extra to sell at the local pub in Hen’s Hollow.

Gareth became a loyal companion, following my lead. We spent our mornings studying with a few local kids under Gareth’s mother’s care, who was a scribe. We learned letters and numbers to help prepare us for entering the Academy. Most of our day was spent running errands. 

It was a happy time for me, reliving my childhood. My older brother had his own crew, and they played at being soldiers, getting ready for the academy. I also now had a younger sister, Freya, who was five years my junior and tried to tag along with Gareth and me. We allowed her to follow along on our deliveries and adventures as long as we were not going to the city.

The Sphere was very different from what I remembered about Earth. The first odd thing was the day-night cycle. Every day was identical; days, as close as I could tell, were just over 24 hours long. We had 13 hours of daylight, 9 hours of twilight split between morning and dusk, and two hours of semi-darkness. The central sun had some dark zones, accounting for the lighting changes based on its rotation in the center of the Sphere. 

There were 23 also planets that rotated around the sun within the Sphere. When a planet eclipsed the sun, it usually marked a special event. There were 12 months, each with 30 days and a five-day holiday ‘week’ not included in the months to celebrate the past year and the coming year. So, one year in the Sphere was slightly longer than a year on Earth.

Another thing about the World Sphere was the sky itself. It looked like a pastel painting of greens, blues, whites, browns, and yellows. It was definitely pretty amazing to gaze on, and I never got sick of looking at it, wondering about all the life and action happening in that marvelous prismatic sky stretching infinitely. 

The only respite I had from my childhood was the city’s bookstore. Every sixth or seventh day, I would make it to the city on delivery with Gareth and borrow a book on magic theory for a week for a few hard-earned coppers. Developing a good enough relationship with the bookstore owner, Wigand, took me a while.  

Without access to aether, I just read the theory and tried to puzzle out basic spell forms. Magic itself was fairly rare. Only one in nine people had enough aptitude and a large enough aether core to imprint and cast spells. Magic-like abilities were much more common.

I knew I would have a large aether reservoir in the future, so I would not waste my time. In my readings, I found abilities were documented up to tier 3. Tier 4 abilities were considered rare, tier 5 was considered a generational talent in Skyholme. Well, tier 6 had no recorded instances in the Skyholme Empire that I could find. Personally, I planned to keep all my abilities secret.

One problem I faced was that spell books were very expensive, and I had my sights set on three tier 1 spells after I awakened.

Cleanliness, remove all dirt from clothes, skin, and hair

Mend Flesh, repair damaged tissue

Obfuscate Abilities, shield abilities from inspection abilities and spells

The first spell, cleanliness, was cheap at seven gold and was considered a tier 1 spell, but it was extremely complicated. It was a channeled spell, meaning the amount of dirt removed and cleaning determined the total aether cost.

The second spell, mend flesh, was also a tier 1 healing spell, but the spell book was an astonishing 34 gold. I only found references to the final spell in my readings, and I figured I would have to obtain it on the capital island. It was a passive spell that required a constant minor expense of aether. There was no cost listed for the spell in the store catalog, but I guessed it would be over 100 gold. I assumed this government control, rather than the spell being rare.

I also learned from readings that my assess person ability was slightly different for each person. It could give a number of things, including name, age, sex, race, and relative state of health, or some other similar scope of knowledge of the inspected person. I would have to wait to see what my ability would tell me.

My aether core formed a few days after my 15th birthday’ slightly later than most, and right at the tail end of a growth spurt. I awoke sweaty and feverish. I immediately vomited the contents of my stomach and the previous week’s worth of meals. Or at least that is what it felt like to me. I wanted to keep my core secret, so I suffered alone for hours alone in my tiny room. Like a second heart, I could feel the core when my body acclimated. Instead of circulating blood to my body, it circulated aether. I was one step closer to obtaining magic.