The eagle flying in the sky was the only thing that really possessed freedom in the vast yellowish desert. Its outstretched wings slowly descended and glided back. Its white fur glistened in the sun.

In a sudden flap, it swooped down to the ground, lifting its wings and flying close to the sand. The eagle flapped its wings again and soared, aiming its eyes at the other presence in the vast desert.

Orion Baker watched the flight without caring about the heat or the soles of his feet touching the fervid sandy soil. His focus was on the animal that moved lightly through the air.

- So free. - He sighed, tired of watching. If it could fly, would it feel happier? - What do you want to tell me, girl?

The bird's cry resounded through the desert and into his ears. As he closed his eyes because of the loud noise, he fell into darkness.

When she awoke, she had returned to her simple house. Four walls of stone, the floor of rough wood, smooth and cold. He wished he had slept in his bed, but fell asleep sitting in the middle of all his Arcana books.

- Another strange dream - he laughed, scratching his eyes.

In fact, it was always the same dream. He returned to the desert at least once a week, contemplating the bird flying. Sometimes for only a few seconds, sometimes for minutes. And the longer he spent in this strange dream, the more mentally tired he became.

When he awoke, his energy returned, as if it had never left.

For Orion Baker, dreaming was much better than living, since he was always stuck in the same routine.

- Rest time is over, Orion. - A cane came through the door being held by an old man. He was dragging himself along with one of his legs locked. - The time is up.

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- I know, Dad.

The boy picked up his pencil again, pulled the paper closer, and quickly resumed writing. Unlike the other families of magicians, the Bakers used physical and algebraic models to study magic.

And since they were a branched family, having different backgrounds, Orion Baker was the second son of the last Baker family.

Oliver Baker, Orion's father, sat in front and pulled out one of his son's finished papers. He finished it in a few minutes, but expressed no reaction.

- So, you fixed the magic circle of the Elementals with magic circles from the Gravitational School?

almost ten hours a day.

His notes were precise, and he was always close to mechanizing one or more spells. And every time he managed to finish, that frustration. He could never apply it.

And his routine, waking up early, training with an instructor, washing up, and spending the afternoon and half the night studying.

Being 12 years old now, Orion Baker started studying Arcanism with his father when he reached the age of 4. Since then, he was the only one with intermediate knowledge in Arcana before reaching the age of 20 in the entire Islet Caldera.

As much as Orion considered himself normal, his mind was much faster than usual. He remembered everything he studied in a single bound, recording images, symbols and patterns with a single glance, without forgetting.

And this was a skill he had adopted for himself. Because he loved to study so much, so much to learn, that no matter how creative he was, his studies could never be revealed. The fear of his father arranging a bureaucratic function around the Elders tormented him.

Leaving the house, on the prominence overlooking the sea, he saw the bluish horizon. The darkness and the stars. That scenery full of knowledge to be discovered.

That's what he liked: the magic, the ideas, the theory. The history and the future.

His whole life looking for a chance to show his value.

- Orion, since you are out there, look at Modeira for me, please.

Modeira, a plant that his father cultivated some years ago applying some small Basic Arcanism Runes. It was planted behind the house, in an isolated bed, where its petals shone at dusk.

That tree had been chosen by Orion, and seeing that after years it remained strong filled him with pride.

- Real growing time is nine years. - He made a brief mental note. - The Magi of Light, called Lumos, can make her grow in seven years with the magic 'Accelerated Growth'. The magic has its circles exactly like the Molecular Magicians' magic, 'Material Aging'.

He took a small piece of paper from his pocket and began to draw the symbols, the patterns. The light spells had an effect similar to growth, and the molecular was a concept of aging.

- Why do both have the same result, but Lumos has more effect?

There were too many questions, so many that I couldn't answer some without raising others. The world could be described by books, but they never contained the answers he was looking for.

And if he could not rewrite those same books, how could a single boy unravel the complex world of magic?

Before falling asleep leaning against the wall of his house, he stared at the starry sky and the white moon.

Unravel magic? Orion Baker would do much more than that.