3rd Person POV:
*Flashback: 1 year ago*
The Helstea Auction House event is in full swing. The featured items have already been showcased on the main stage, and participants are already mingling with each other.
As the owner/organizer of the event, it is obvious that Vincent Helstea would purposefully greet the more important and influential nobles. Some nobles don't show up every year, which even includes the royal family. However, in recent years, a particular family has taken to participating in the auction every year...
Vincent Helstea, with his wife and daughter following him, enters one of the VIP boxes. An older-looking woman and a young boy sit inside, both of them with vibrant red hair.
"Greetings to the noble Bladeheart family." Kaspian slightly bows and welcomes the VIP guests. "Are the items for sale to your liking, Lady Bladeheart?"
The woman gets up and greets Vincent respectfully. "Yes, thank you for assembling a great collection once again this year." She beckons to the boy beside her. "My nephew, Kaspian, who I'm training to become a fine adventurer, will no doubt put the gear acquired here to good use."
She notices Lilia and Tabitha behind Vincent. "Oh, this is the first time I've met your family, Mr. Helstea. Nice to meet you!"
Tabitha curtsies. "Greetings, Lady Bladeheart, I'm Vincent's wife, Tabitha. This is our daughter, Lilia."
Lilia follows the motions of her mother, and bows her head down.
Lilia takes a furtive glance at Kaspian, and their eyes meet. Lightning strikes their hearts. They blush, and quickly avert their gazes from each other.
As Vincent starts mumbling about the items that have been ordered, Kaspian's aunt notices Lilia's subtle change in body language. She sees that Lilia has no mana core inside her, and then glances at Kaspian's enamored face. She internally sighs.
"Anyways, thank you once again for your patronage, Lady Bladeheart, young Lord Bladeheart." Vincent finishes up his VIP customer service treatment. "Please feel welcome to shop here again, I am confident that my auction house can continue to provide practical goods."
As Vincent and Tabitha begin to turn to leave, Lilia suddenly speaks up. "Wait!"
"Lilia?" Vincent questions his daughter.
"Umm...young Lord Bladeheart...I would like to ask you a question..." Lilia mutters timidly. "Would you...like to have tea with me sometime? Sometime during the next week, perhaps?"
Before Kaspian can accept Lilia's request, his aunt cuts in, while placing a hand on Kaspian's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, young miss, but I have to take my nephew on an important quest in the Beast Glades very soon, he won't be able to make it."
"Auntie, I-"
Kaspian shuts up abruptly as his aunt squeezes his shoulder tightly.
"Alright, no problem, perhaps some other time." Lilia nods meekly, and leaves with her parents.
*Back to the present day*
One day after his fateful reunion with his family, Arthur Leywin is completely exhausted after a long day of shopping and being used as a mannequin.
In his room inside the Helstea mansion, Arthur is lying facedown on his bed. Urayne is hovering above him, lightly massaging Arthur's back.
"Urayne..." Arthur weakly whispers to his bond. "Can't you cast some healing magic on me? I don't remember the last time I felt this tired..."
"Boss. I can't fix this. This is an affliction of the mind. You gotta deal with it. It will probably happen again." Urayne replies with deliberate precision.
"Ughhh..." Arthur grumbles.
As Arthur rests in silence, his sharp hearing notices the sound of someone crying. Weirdly, it is coming from outside the mansion.
--Ranged Vision--
Arthur vision pierces through solid walls, and he sees the source of the crying. It's Lilia, who's in some kind of smaller building that's used by some servants. An older-looking maid puts some hot tea beside Lilia, before leaving. Lilia continues sobbing quietly while grasping the hot cup of tea for its warmth.
Arthur senses for everyone else, and sees that they are closer to the kitchen, where dinner is being made. Wanting to help Lilia, Arthur opens his window and flies out.
Arthur arrives at the smaller building, and enters without knocking. Lilia notices Arthur enter, and immediately starts wiping her tears.
"H-hello, Arthur. Do you need me for something? ...please ignore the state I'm in, don't tell anyone I was crying."
"Lilia...let me help you! I have a debt to repay to you and your family anyways! At least, let me be a listener, for you to vent your worries."
Lilia sighs. "Ok, I guess I can just recount my misery with some company."
Lilia proceeds to start talking about how she met Kaspian Bladeheart for the first time, and immediately started liking him. About how she met him several other times at various events, and how Kaspian was receptive to her, but they kept getting interrupted by Kaspian's aunt.
Meanwhile, all this love talk is completely going in one ear and out the other for Arthur. Arthur is too young to feel the significance of Lilia's feelings. All he can understand is that Kaspian is a very talented mage, which aligns with his experience of sparring with Kaspian and watching his other matches in the Tri-Tournament. Which he cannot tell Lilia about, for now anyways.
Lilia sighs again. "In summary, Kaspian's aunt just doesn't want Kaspian to associate with me, because I still haven't awakened at the age of 12, and probably won't awaken because my parents are not mages."
Arthur stands up. "Wait, awakening as a mage? I can help with that!"
"What do you mean, Arthur?"
"Lilia, I'm already a mage, I've helped someone awaken before, I can do the same for you!"
"...are you joking, Arthur? That's not funny, how could you already be a mage?"
Arthur conjures orbs of fire, water, earth, and wind that orbit above his palm.
"Lilia...my parents probably didn't mention this because they thought I was dead...but I actually awakened when I was really young...that's why we were on the way to Xyrus before getting ambushed by bandits. I had to go through some really tough training during the years I was away...let me use it to help you!"
Lilia, who is still in shock while looking at all 4 main elements being controlled by Arthur, simply nods. "What do you need me to do? I mean, how are you going to help me awaken?"
"With the help of my bond! Come out, Urayne!"
Urayne floats out of Arthur's core. "Hallo! It's me, Urayne the radioactive bond o' Arthur!"
"Whoa!" Lilia reacts, surprised. "Hello...Urayne, did you just...come out of Arthur?"
"Urayne is a special kind of...mana beast, he's good at controlling mana, so my idea is to have him float inside where your core would be, and help direct mana that I transfer to you!"
"Wait boss, I'm not as good at directing mana that isn't radiation." Urayne tells Arthur telepathically.
"Don't worry, I can use Realmheart, we'll just power through the process. Besides, I have a clearer idea of how to do this after helping Tess awaken." Arthur thinks back to Urayne.
Arthur motions for Lilia to follow him, and they move to the grassy field in the backyard. Arthur explains how he will place his hand on Lilia's back while she is in a meditation pose, just like how he did it for Tessia.
"Hey Arthur, how long will this take? Will we need to do this regularly over months, or years?" Lila asks.
"Hmm, last time it took a few minutes, and that was when natural awakening was close...but I'm at solid yellow core now, so my mana control is better, and I have Urayne now. I think I can finish in a few minutes." Arthur states.
"WAIT WHAT! Ah...okay, please go ahead, I should try to not be surprised by you from now on." Lilia says.
And so, Arthur begins inputting all 4 main kinds of elemental mana into Lilia, with Urayne guiding the flow, and helping to assemble the "shards" of mana that appear inside Lilia core area.
*10 minutes later*
A soft implosion of mana occurs, and a white veil of mana covers Lilia as she floats into the air, before she floats back down and lands on her feet.
"Wow, boss, I think with this experience, you're really talented at making people awaken! You would probably take even less time if you do it again in the future!" Urayne transmits telepathically to Arthur.
"Yeah, maybe I should do it for my sister next? She hasn't awakened yet." Arthur replies mentally.
Lilia looks at her hands in amazement. "So this is what mana feels like...amazing!"
Lilia turns around and hugs Arthur. "Thank you so much, Arthur! This...will really change my life for the better! I can do what I want now! Thank you!"
"No problem, I'm just glad I can repay you like this!" Arthur replies.
Lilia realizes something, and looks at Arthur with a serious face.
"Arthur...this ability of yours to help others awaken...we should keep it a secret. It could cause a lot of unwanted trouble if other people, especially nobles, find out." Lilia concludes. "Let's just tell our parents that I awakened normally just now, and that you just happened to witness it."
"Ok. Oh, I think I hear that dinner is ready."
And so, Lilia and Arthur headed inside to be with their families, and have a dinner that turned very merry with the news that Lilia just awakened.
...
The Helsteas and Leywins are chilling, sitting on the couches in the living room.
"By the way, Reynolds, yesterday you said you wanted to spar with Arthur? Is Arthur a mage already?" Vincent laughs and chuckles, not expecting what he said to be true.
"Well...yes."
"I see...WAIT WHAT?!!"
Reynolds and Alice proceed to explain why they were heading to Xyrus in the first place, because of Arthur awakening at the age of 1. Lilia pretends to be surprised while her parents freak out initially, but then nod understandingly as they realize why Alice and Reynolds didn't mention Arthur's early awakening before.
Vincent stands up excitedly. "Alright, I've decided! Tomorrow, I'll call Cynthia Goodsky over for her to meet Arthur and Lilia!"
==========================
I think I've just assumed that Arthur had some basic vocab, speech training with Tessia thanks to Virion...whatever
First appearance of Kaspian's mysterious aunt...note that she is older, but not a trace of white hair because she used to be a Lance, white core mages have better regeneration and stuff
Cynthia Goodsky interactions next...probably