Inside the carriage day and night felt all the same messing with his notion of time.
Silent days passed in a blur as memories looped inside Valthar's head.
It was visceral, sensations circling over and over again.
How his heart dropped when the crystal showed nothing.
How he wanted to bury himself on sand when his parents stared him down with disgust.
How not even a single one of the nobles he considered friends spoke a single word of goodbye after the situation.
And in his mind all that was justified, since a cripple of a mage had no place in a family like the Manaborns.
After days of constant travel the carriage came to a stop.
The coachman opened the door and unlocked the shackles on Valthar's wrist.
"From here on out a merchant convoy will take you to a place the family deems suitable for someone like you." The coachman said with barely contained disdain.
With his mouth shut and head down, Valthar was escorted to a rough looking man.
The merchant looked to be in his mid 30's, tall but slim, with short brown hair tied in a ponytail, in his hip was a sword and his hands fiddled with a dagger.
"Is this the one?".
The coachman nodded, deeming it unnecessary to even spare a single word to the backwater merchant before walking off.
"Tsk, noble dogs." The gruff man cussed out, sheathing his dagger he extended a hand to Valthar. "I'm Lionel, Swordsman by trade, merchant by necessity."
Caught off guard Valthar stares silently for a second, not expecting someone to treat a banished man decently.
"I'm Valthar… an apprentice of the magical arts." He shakes Lionel's hands, almost slipping up the family name only to be stopped by a warning pain that quietly blooms from the mana mark.
"Come." Lionel motions for Valthar to follow. "Have they told you where my convoy is headed?"
"The Outlands?"
Lionel cussed quietly under his breath.
Not only had those nobles cut his trip short before the convoy even reached the capital, but they also didn't explain anything to the one he was tasked to take away.
At least the pay was good, with them having bought every item in the convoy with a premium just so they could take Valthar away faster.
"Our convoy comes from a city called Deep Bonfire, does the name ring any bells?"
Valthar frowned behind the mask.
Much to his surprise the name indeed rang with familiarity, just not loud enough for him to remember where he had heard it before.
"Deep Bonfire…" He repeated to himself trying to remember for a second before shaking his head. "It sounds familiar, but I can't remember where I heard it before."
Lionel nodded, not too surprised.
Other professions might not know, but a mage apprentice was sure to have at least heard of it.
"Think of magical resources, bones and the Dark Mist Forest."
Valthar stopped on his tracks.
Dark Mist Forest is one of the danger zones in the Empire, more importantly it is an area as special as it is dangerous.
Covered in a poisonous mist the place was home for numerous strange creatures that were both deadly and ungodly valuable.
And Deep Bonfire? It is a magical city built inside Dark Mist Forest.
A place that to Valthar a week ago was nothing more than a mere footnote on the magical items the family treasured.
"Let me be direct with you, Deep Bonfire is not for everyone, and if you want we can leave you at the edge of the Outlands instead, but I want you to know a noble raised mage would be very appreciated Bonfire."
Valthar's eyes light up for a moment before a realization hits him.
"How do you know I was a…" The mark pulses on his chest, cutting him off once more.
Lionel chuckles lightly.
"Banished to the Outlands and yet walking as a freeman? You were a noble, since any commoner in your place would be either dead or enslaved."
With his answer in hand Valthar fell into thought.
Deep Bonfire is far from the safest place in the Outlands, but in compensation has high mana density and easy access to resources.
Both things that would be essential if he ever wanted to become a great mage.
"I'll go to Deep Bonfire." He said outloud, both to Lionel and to himself.
In silence they soon reached the convoy camp, where dozens of people moved around in haste.
With practiced movements they undid their tents, untied the horses and prepared the mostly empty waggons.
"Something I can help with?" Valthar asked after Lionel guided him to one of the wagons.
"Better not for now, my team knows what they're doing." Lionel shook his head looking around with pride in his eyes. "Once we're on the road I'll come back to talk to ya, find what you're good at first before giving you a task."
With that Lionel walked out to his team and Valthar retreated inside the wagon.
At this point, he had done enough of doing nothing in these last few days and if he wants to become a great mage he has to become an actual mage first.
And that meant forming his first mana ring, a magical construct mages built around their hearts.
Closing his eyes he took a deep inhale, pulling in air and mana to his lungs.
Compared to the Manaborn grounds here the mana felt thin and feeble.
Just to gather one breath of mana there took a full five inhales here.
Breath by breath his attention deepened, felt the mana in the air and coerced it to seep into his body.
Even here where mana was scarcer and weaker Valthar could feel it struggle against his grasp.
Something that wouldn't happen when the mana controlled had the same element as your body's affinity.
A fact that deeply annoyed Valthar as he struggled against the mana, in his mind he would struggle for life since he believed he had no affinity.
On this tug of rope some mana entered his body, spreading through bone and muscle, but most of it escaped out with the next exhale.
By now he had been working on it for months but results were… horrendous to say the least.
He still remembered how Caelor formed his mana ring in hours, with little to no effort.
The theory was simple: he should just gather mana around his heart till it naturally formed a mana ring, but his body refused to accept it, spreading the mana all throughout instead.
When he asked his teachers at the family, they said it was related to his affinity.
That in some cases when the elemental affinity was really high the body would refuse to form a mana ring with any other elemental mana.
A theory Valthar dismissed as wrong after the crystal showed he had none.
After all, how could his body only accept mana related to his affinity if he had no elemental affinity?
With these thoughts worry sprouted in his mind.
'What if I'm never able to form a mana ring?'
He'd be stuck as an apprentice mage, able to cast only the most basic magics.
If that was the case his dreams and goals were as good as dead, before they could even see the light of day.
Tightening his fists he refocused once more, even if it was impossible, he would take every step to see it happen.
And the next one was to meditate again and again.
Till a mana ring formed or he died trying.