Glossary for all the words/terms used in the chapters!

Jinki woke up to a cool morning breeze coming in from his window, the sounds of an awake castle making it difficult to fall back asleep. Half an hour later he gave up on sleep, and decided to get ready for his day ahead. He stood in front of his window, the view always swayed him, distracting him from all thoughts in his head as he looked upon the castle grounds, the soldiers marching to their posts, the seminaries outside the castle grounds, the town that lay beyond and interwoven with the seminaries and the beautiful sky, littered with soft clouds.

Out of everything he saw from his window, his gaze always lingered on the Aemer seminary, the seminary for those who were blessed with great strength. If he looked hard enough he could spot the deep red robes the students wore, scurrying inside to begin their lessons for the day. He enjoyed attending their classes, learning different sword movements, learning the various hand-to-hand combat strategies and defence mechanisms. He really did look forward to those classes except when they would start learning how to incorporate their magic, their blessing, in their techniques. Having no powers himself, he was disinterested and a little disappointed (if he was being honest to himself) and would not participate. Being the Prince gave him certain advantages and he would attend the other seminaries during those classes and learn about the other blessings.

He had attended the Azaer seminary with his brother Taemin, who was a healer. The classes were intriguing at first, when they would teach them about the different ailments a human could come across in their lifetime. It was still engaging when they talked about the different plants they could use if a person’s soul was not blessed by Azaer, but he soon lost his interest when they started introducing the different spells one could use to heal and he stopped attending classes since.

He found the Asfaeyr seminary and their discipline fascinating too, the power to control the skies and make them do your bidding was astounding for Jinki. He made a friend, Minho, and along with him he would attend the classes, his favourites being the ones where they would have to show progress on how they could control the weather, making it rain or snow, the most memorable one being when Minho had created a small tornado on accident and they had to evacuate the seminary to get in under control. But he enjoyed the ones which were conducted at night the most, when the students would examine the moon and the different stars. The students would trace the path of the moon and the different constellations and how they could affect a person, and he would just lay there, enjoying the warm breeze as he watched the moon and try to find the different constellations Minho would try to teach him. He would at times stay over at Minho’s house till late, drinking hot chocolate as he watched the stars, learned new things from Minho, from Minho’s mother about the skies. There was so much peace at his house, devoid of luxuries, and away from the bustle of the castle, the skies clearer with no towers obstructing the view. He had brought Taemin over once too, and he was beyond fascinated over the stars, over the things Minho spoke of… but could not come over as much as Jinki, being tied up at his own seminary for long and would grumble when Jinki would retell some of what he learnt from Minho, softly expressing his yearning to have been there as well.

Jinki did indeed attend the Aldaer seminary too, and if he was being truthful he didn’t learn much except about the poison berries and mushroom which he still couldn’t recognize. He mostly attended the seminary when his friend, Kibum, had to show his progress and display his skills of growing the plants right, as at the end of the day Kibum would let him eat whatever fruit he had aided in growing that particular day.

He was also interested in visiting the temple made for the children blessed with Taeher, the whisperers, but he was immediately turned down. He was informed that like any other seminary, the training and teachings could get dangerous as the whisperers learned to control their powers. As a whisperer’s powers were ever-expanding, they did not know the depths or the limits of their own powers that could affect and control the somebody else’s mind, their conscious as it was difficult distinguishing the intentions, sometimes even thoughts of every living being, and could end up hurting an innocent. Hence, only those who possessed the blessing of Taeher were granted permission to enter the temple. From what he had heard from the priest (the whisperer who served on his father’s council), the temple was beautiful and serene and the people blessed with Tahaer were kind hearted and humane.

“Are you ready?”

He smiled as he watched Taemin who was dressed in his pale blue robes, made himself comfortable on Jinki’s bed. “What about you? You look as messy as ever.” Jinki teased.

Taemin rolled his eyes, “Heading to the Aldaer seminary I see,” Taemin said as he saw Jinki put on the pastel green robes. “Weren’t the Aemer trainees working on two-sword techniques?” Taemin asked he followed his brother out his room.

“No, not today,” Jinki replied as he led Taemin into the kitchen, “They are still doing their magic training so I thought of visiting Kibum, heard he was growing