Beni

Born under a kingdom where the monarchy claimed the right by their royal blood that those born mages belonged to the king to protect them, their family, and their lands. These mages lived and breathed for their ruler. Eye color as well as hair of unusual hues was how the children were told apart from others. White, silver, and gold. White being the weakest of the mages and would most often be used as simple cannon fodder in the frontlines of their armies. They were expendable and born the most frequently. Silver were of middling rarity though they had the potential to hone their abilities into rather great heights. Gold- gold eyes however were magic, they lived magic, it came to them as simple as reaching out and there it was at their fingertips dancing over their lips as they breathed. There were so few children born golden that those with the golden eyes would immediately be taken from their family into the custody of the royal nursery. Attempts to hide mage children, smuggle them from the kingdom, and flee was considered a great treason. A treason considered so grievous that the whole family aside from the mage child or children would be publicly executed.

So why Beni’s family thought they could hide their golden eyed child from the ever greedy grasp of the king was beyond comprehension. Perhaps they believed the fact they were a nowhere little farm far at the outreaches of the kingdom that no one would discover the child. Or that the fact they had been helping parents smuggle their children and themselves from the kingdom for years would somehow give them protection by being seen as benevolent to others. Yet as it always was with men, greed won over as the young child was spotted one day by some traveling merchants. Shocked to see a pair of golden eyes peering at him from what appeared to be a five year old child, the man asked where he lived and Beni innocently pointed toward their home. With great haste the man left for the nearest town to report to the enforcers.

Two weeks later Beni was off by the nearby creek playing when he heard his mother screaming as his father came running from the fields to see his wife being hauled from their home that had been set alight with all of their belongings inside, surrounding the home was an armed group of guards who saw the man. Their commander sent men after him as he turned running for the creek crying for his son. As the blue haired child came into view his father yelled to run. “Run Beni! Just run and keep running!” The child’s gold eyes widened in horror as he saw the men chasing his father and feet were frozen still unable to just turn and bolt. “Da I’m scared!” The child cried out clenching a rock in his fist. “It’s okay Ben your mom and I will be right after you it’ll be okay!” The man turned after grabbing up a branch facing the two knights behind him.

The young boy didn’t wait to watch his father fight the armored and armed knights, bolting into the woods like a wild hare chased by a hound. The one thing the child had over the knights was the fact he knew the woods well from his years of play in them. He knew where the places he was supposed to go were for him to wait for his parents should this happen. The child waited, and waited. Days turned to weeks, the weeks becoming months. The supplies even for a simple lone child could only last so long as he moved from one hiding spot to another, more knights spilling into the forest combing the land for the child. It took two years and astounding resilience for one small child to survive the harsh conditions he found himself in till eventually he was found half feral near the edge of his old home, spirit crushed as his parents never came.

Once he was snatched up by the kingdom the child was hauled to the castle where he would spend his years learning etiquette in lessons with king Harvauld II’s son Tirvul I. They believed that making the two youths attend classes together would make the child mage bond with the prince so that Beni would at no point would waiver in his loyalty to the kingdom, that he would lay his life down for the young lord and his people. Some small things began to change however around puberty for the two. Their time alone was lessened as their bodies began to change, Ben was greatly distressed when his body began to change in ways that he did not like and betrayed him in other ways as well in his mind. When his bleeding began it tore him up inside emotionally. Something no one could have counted for was the fact the prince himself cared for his mage deeply. To him Beni was closer to a brother than his brothers were. So behind his father’s back he snuck his friend out to a doctor who worked to help people like Beni feel comfortable in their bodies.

Given a medicine to take and after a lengthy procedure the young man was taken home with Tirvul who would then pretend to be sick so that his mage would be able to have his time he needed to rest to allow the surgery to his chest to fully heal over as the doctor said it would be best to avoid trying to heal it magically as he was not sure if it would have the desired results. After recovering life went on as normal for Beni as he would take the medication provided to him and his body ceased changing in a manner that did not match how he felt about himself. Sadly the awkward navigation of boyhood and puberty would soon move to tragedy.

As discontent within the lives of the mages slowly seeped about the kingdom word spread quietly through the numbers as a rebellion began to brew. When they were caught by Beni it was thought that the golden eye would turn the leaders in but instead he joined their ranks feeding them information of the inner workings of the castle. No one would have thought that he would turn on the prince he was so close to. Though it was all because Beni foolishly thought he could save his dear friend, but when the killing began and the fires started he rushed to get to his friend. Only to find him standing across the room from his father the king, both men staring each other down with swords drawn. Beni needed to get to his friend fast because he knew that Trivul was weak when it came to his sword studies, he couldn’t get there fast enough as he watched the short battle end with the king plunging his sword deep into his son’s chest.

The moments after this Beni did not remember as his magic went wild bursting to life like a sun as blue flames exploded from him burning up parts of his uniform badly damaging his skin, and leveling this floor of the castle. When he awoke he was bandaged in a dark room with others healing and recovering. As he recovered there were days of celebration then those days became calmer as the mages and commoners began to recover as well and set out to right the wrongs of the corrupt nobles establishing a council. Beni did not stay though he was offered a place among the council, instead the mage once he was well enough left the country never to return.