The man kneeling in the church opened his eyes.
The prayer was over. The believers around him rose and headed outside, but he remained on his knees, staring blankly ahead.
"Avery, what's wrong?" asked a friend beside him as he stood.
"I..."
Avery was about to say, I think God answered me, but he hesitated. Thinking back on the voice he had heard, Would God... talk like that?
He shuddered. Or was that not God's voice at all? Had some evil being set its sights on me!?
"I don't feel right. It's like someone marked me..." He said nothing about the strange reply he had heard.
His friend looked surprised, though not particularly worried about him. "You're too poor to buy new boots. Who'd set their sights on you?"
"You... have a point." Avery flushed and rose, rubbing his knees. "Let's go."
Avery was a Mage Apprentice. That was the lucky part.
The unlucky part was that his Magical Affinity was abysmal, only a hair better than a Squib's.
Unless some extraordinary opportunity came his way, he would probably never make it past a level-one Mage.
So his life was a little better than a civilian's, but not by much.
Avery couldn't accept that the world of magic had opened its doors to him only to slam them shut and leave him a narrow dog door instead. By day, he worked odd jobs, took assignments, and smiled at people he couldn't stand. By night, he downed potions and meditated. Every coin he earned went toward Mage Notes, accounts of other mages' experiences, and all kinds of books. Even after going months without sleep, he could only keep pace with a friend whose Magical Affinity was slightly better than his.
The price was that he could no longer afford a pair