A few months later;

I am currently two years old and I am now allowed to roam outside the mansion.

The mansion has a massive garden with many different types of plants and trees. There is a giant forest overlooking the mansion. Mother has said that under no circumstances should I have to go to the forest as it is an extremely dangerous place. Otherwise, well I shudder upon thinking about ‘otherwise’.

It was late in the night, I just had my dinner and it was almost time for bed.

I was out an about in the yard of the mansion, when I saw mother walking towards me. I ran up to her and jumped up into her arms. “Mother, why do the green lilies glow and sway in the night?” I asked her “It’s because they absorb the energy of the stars and illuminate the presence of star dust.” she said “Then what do the stars in the sky represent, if not the energies of the world?” I ask.

I actually discovered that star light is very conspicuous in nature. Its energies are directly absorbed by various plants and animals. They tend to have a gentle soothing effect upon the recipients of the energy. In some cases, it has also helped curing an unstable state of mind and various ailments related to one’s consciousness.

“Each star is said to represent one’s wishes and feelings, the stronger the way you feel, the brighter your star will illuminate.”

“Feelings can vary from one spectrum to the other. They can be both over and under whelming. Anger, sadness, happiness, fear, guilt they all contribute one way or another towards the formation of our consciousness.”

“This world is a terrible place, where a moment is all it takes to change your life for better or worse. Mostly for worse, because moments of happiness are few and rare and when they come, they are generally overshadowed by the regrets of your past.”

“These moments of happiness are few and far between. You do not realise when they are there, until they are gone. This starts an endless cycle of guilt and regrets.”

“Azreth, I would ask you to live for the moment and not get too bogged by the present. Harshness and heartbreak will be ever present in your life. Do not dwell too much over things you have no control over. ”

“When me and your father will leave you or vice-versa, you must live and stay strong my son!”

She explains with moist eyes.

I do not understand what she means by leaving. Is she and father going to leave me alone, is it soon? I feel spit forming up by lumps in my throat. I am not able to get any words out of my mouth. This terrible feeling, why does my chest hurt so much?

I hug her, with silent tears forming in my eyes. She hums a lullaby to put me to sleep. The sound of her voice has an air of relaxedness.  Her gentle and smooth voice has been the highlight of my life thus far and then my mind goes blank and I fall asleep.

Fast forward a few more months:

I am currently three years old. Today is the first day my mother is going to take me outside towards the market. I am extremely excited as I have always wanted to explore the outside world. We will leave soon and I am currently sitting in the garden outside the mansion.

My mother arrives; she is wearing a long flowing purple skirt. She then proceeds to pick me up in her arms. I don’t mind walking but given the opportunity, I always like to be in my mother or father’s arms.

She removes a golden bracelet out of thin air, I was shocked! Is this what people call magic? My mother lets out a laugh when she sees my expression of disbelief.

“Azreth this is a storage ring. It’s a dimensional artefact created by a high level enchanter. It was given to me by your father on our wedding day.”

“It has the ability to store a large amount of things in it. There is no limit to the size of the object because the space in the ring distorts according to the size of the object.” She says.

Well, the thing about space distortion is something I don’t understand. I will check for it in the library once I get back home from the market.

“Mother, then what is this golden bracelet?” I ask.

“Son, this is a teleportation bracelet. It has the ability to teleport to other large fixed teleportation arrays. This was also given to me by your father. Huh, on that note, your father hasn’t got me anything in quite a while.” She then mutters to herself.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Anyways, there is a large teleportation array outside the central market in the middle of the city”

“Since our mansion is located in the northern outskirts of the city, it will take us at least a few hours on foot. Considering flying is not allowed inside the city limits.” She continues.

“Wait What! Mother you know how to fly?” I ask with amazement.

“Uh –oh…it’s not flying per se, but a movement martial technique using the air element. Anyways, it’s not something you can think about in your current state. Only King Re-…You shall naturally come across these things when you grow up.” She hastily interrupts herself.

“Anyways, we shall get going now.” says my mother.

She then touches her bracelet and then closes her eyes. The golden bracelet glows brightly and then lets out a projection. It’s a pitch black rectangular shaped projection. Mother opens her eyes and tells me “Azreth, hold on tightly. It will barely be a second before we enter from the other side.” I nod to her warily, not sure about my first teleportation experience. I then proceed to clutch my mother tightly.

As she steps into the pitch black portal, all I see is darkness. Suddenly, it gets extremely cold and mother is nowhere to be seen. I shout for my mother at the top of my voice, but I can’t hear my own voice. Not sure whether it’s due to me becoming mute or deaf or both. I may have gotten blind as well, as all I can see is the pitch black darkness.

At the very least I can feel my body. I steel myself and start to walk in a random direction, hoping it would lead close to where my mother is at. I keep walking for what seems like an eternity, well not really but maybe for a few hours or even days. I’ve lost track of time.

The surprising thing is that there is not a single bead of sweat on my entire body. I keep wondering whether this is some type of illusion magic. In one of the books I had previously read regarding different types of magic, it is mentioned something like high level mages who have trained their mind, could distort the minds of their enemies. I seem to be running out of ideas regarding my current predicament.

Then, I get some sort of an idea. Why don’t I start meditating? It’s something I have never done in my life before. I have read upon several basic meditating techniques, but one must be at least five years old in order to use them; since five is the age, when all the meridians inside one’s body are connected. Any type of meditation technique practiced before the age of five will only lead to a loss in the absorbed energy. It’s something akin to pouring water in a pot full of holes; unless and until the holes are shut the water will never be accumulated inside the pot. It shall remain an empty pot for the rest of its life.

I sit down cross-legged and close my eyes, I keep breathing in and out at a steady pace. I try to remove all distracting thoughts in my mind as I want to achieve a blank state of mind. I slow down my breathing, till it’s almost non-existent.

As I stare into the abyss in my mind, I try to concentrate towards a single point in it. After a while, I see what can be described as a black ball. It starts rotating slowly until it starts to pick up its speed. I start to concentrate even harder upon the ball and its speed increases by leaps and bounds.

It’s now spinning so fast that I can feel the space around the ball sending out some sort of ripples. I can feel the space bending towards the spinning ball and the surroundings becoming quite unstable.

Everything around me starts to become chaotic as I try to break out of my meditative trance. I can fell the ball trying to suck me in. It feels like it wants to devourer me and there is nothing I can do to prevent that outcome.

I get sucked inside and then suddenly a big burst of heat hits my body.

I slowly open my eyes and what I see utterly shocks me. I am still sitting on the ground cross-legged in the middle of an absolute barren wasteland with grey skies. All I can see in front of me is this absolutely massive mountain in front of me and nothing else!