Chapter 1: Prologue: Wedding Ceremony, Escape! – Part 1

“Lyzander quit your fidgeting! Today’s a special day for you, it’s the midsummer festival. This year you’re participating in the wedding ceremonies for the Rite of Adulthood. The Women’s Council has selected Daeliel and Merelith to become your wife-pair. Are you excited? They’ve been your shadows since you were all able to walk!” A Halfling woman with greying hair said while adjusting the shirt collar of a boyish Halfling in front of her.

 

“They followed me around to torment me, second-mother. Not because they were my friends,” the boy grumbled.

 

The most notable Halfling trait was they aged differently from other races. By that, it means they didn’t age at all beyond puberty. The common way to differentiate the men from other short races, such as gnomes, was they never grew a beard. That made them often mistaken for Human children with more… generous proportions for the women. And more muscular anatomy for the men.

 

This created quite a dilemma for the other races when it came to interacting with them and resulted in certain customs being built around their unique physiology. Today being one of the most important.

 

Due to their appearance as very young adults, Halfing adulthood was determined by their marital status and not their age. A strange twist of fate within their ancestry caused females to be substantially more common than males, creating another unusual tradition. Wife-pairs, one female leads the household in business and local politics while the other keeps the family’s affairs in order.

 

During the summer solstice festivities, all eligible Halfling boys present themselves to become men. The only requirement was the completion of entering a trade or finding full-time employment after maturity, resulting in some questionably aged men.

 

Once a year the matriarchal governing body of each Halfling community, the Women’s Council, banded together and selected the most appropriate young ladies to be matched to compliment or temper each prospective husband’s personality. The boy wouldn’t be informed until the time came so he couldn’t negotiate or object to the choice.

 

The boy standing in front of his mother now, Lyzander, would most certainly object if given the chance. He was dressed formally in high-neck Halfling ceremonial groom attire. He appeared to be young in his mid-teens on the shorter side of things despite being much older.

 

“Stop your complaining, Lyzander. You know that you were both those girls’ first choice. You really inherited your father’s charm. Too bad you got your first mother’s unruly behaviour instead of his steadfastness,” the woman addressed as second-mother stepped back with a satisfied expression and gently slapped his chest. “Look at you, soon my boy will become a man. I’m so proud!”

 

“I know that Merelith’s grandmother is important to the Women’s Council but I don’t understand how I ended up with them together. With their dispositions, both of them are much better suited to become first-wives. They’re going to absolutely break me down, who’s going to ensure the smooth running of the house?”

 

“Oh, nonsense. You don’t see it, they both dote on you and that’s part of the reason both their families held off the girl’s marriages to wait for you. What took you so long to become a journeyman Magus of the Arcane Academy, anyway? The two boys that entered with you completed it more than five years ago!” his second-mother admonished, circling around him and making small adjustments to his outfit.

 

You are reading story Lyzänder: Tales of a Halfling Mage [A House of Worldly Delight Series] at novel35.com

Shifting uncomfortably under her appraisal, Lyzander’s unruly brown hair popped out from where she had slicked it back with oil. His handsome features contorted into a grimace as he subtly tucked away the object in question so that she didn’t notice it. She noticed the quick darting of his green eyes and reached down and pried the arcane focus from his hands.

 

“Uh, I can explain!” Lyzander hurriedly said, snatching the item and tucking it inside his neat clothing.

 

It was a strange arcane focus that doubled as a smoking pipe. So completely tarnished with age and grime that some of the runes had rubbed off the surface. Crude replicas of the runes were shallowly carved into the sides, obviously performed by someone inexperienced many years beforehand.

 

“You were the one that stole Granny’s smoking pipe! You’re lucky that she’s already dead, or you would now be the one in the ground. She never intended that to be used as an arcane focus. She bought it as a novelty from the antique store. No wonder you couldn’t pass the graduation bar exam, it looks like you drew on some of the runes yourself,” his second-mother reprimanded with her hands on her hips and a stern expression on her face.

 

His mother looked roughly to be of the same age as him, aside from the mottling of grey throughout her hair betraying the gap. As the second-wife to his father, she was in charge of everything related to the family, that included Lyzander until the end of the day despite being birthed by the first-mother.

 

Dammit, she’s found me out. Time to think of an excuse that’s more believable than the truth. I used the smoke pipe as an arcane focus intentionally because there was no way I could reasonably pass the exams as I had already met the Magus realm requirement and just needed to prove my skill. But I also had to be convincing so they didn’t kick me out. I was hoping those two witches, Daeliel and Merelith would be married off before me and then I could switch out the focus and pass with flying colours.

 

“Actually, you’re right. I did etch those runes on myself. Granny was getting old and shouldn’t have been smoking anyway. I wanted a memento to remember her by,” Lyzander retorted, puffing out his chest with bravado. He drew himself to his full height of approximately four and a half feet which was considered tall for his race

 

“Sigh, I understand why you did it. You were always close to Granny. I would always find you hanging around her when you were growing up. Too bad she would always lose her temper when you were nearby and hurl out whatever was close at hand. Luckily she was blind or she’d have hit you more than once. But that’s no excuse, you’re the eldest of five siblings and the last to become an adult. Do you know what people say about you to them, they don’t dare speak your name in public out of shame,” his second-mother dejectedly replied.

 

Granny used to be furious I would steal her Fae’s Fire to put into a pipe and smoke it. She was absolutely seething when she couldn’t find out who took her pipe from right under her blind nose, hehehe. Thanks Granny, those kinds of multi-purpose focus were a trend from centuries ago and perfect for helping me escape detection as I cheated the Arcane Academy.

 

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