Chapter Two

While trying his best to ignore the silence, Arden looked down at the card resting in his hands. A glowing Light green border edged the card.

His eyes focused in on the upper half of the card, which had a picture of a plant in stages of growth, starting with a seed and ending with its flowering.

A frown grew as the fact he had Nature Affinity struck home. What use would Nature Affinity have in a desert? Sure, there were plants but hardly enough to emit enough nature affinity mana to allow him to grow. Would he have to move? He planned to travel once he had a decent deck, so maybe this didn’t change much. Still, how could a desert elf have Nature Affinity?

Before he dwelled deeper on it, he checked the description below the picture.

Accelerated Growth (Common) Level 1

Type: Ability

Affinity: Nature

Attunement: Plant

Effect: Use mana to accelerate the growth of any plant. Rate of growth dependent on the amount of mana used and plant. Must have a seed or plant to cast accelerated growth. Card must be in the user’s active hand to function.

Yeah, pretty much worthless in a desert.

Instead of scanning the card into his deck with the bracelets, he clenched the crystal-like card and looked up. He expected the worst, but only confusion sprouted.

Contrary to his expectations of a village full of elves staring at him, the village square was mostly empty. Only his parents remained. Even the official left.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Was he so unimportant that they didn’t bother to stay until he finished? At the same time, he liked the lack of attention. He didn’t want to deal with explaining things to a bunch of villagers he barely knew.

Desert elves were a solitary race. The only reason the village existed was for safety in numbers. Only his family mattered to him, and he was sure most other desert elves had similar feelings.

He itched to approach his parents, who patiently waited for him to adjust, but first he did another scan of the village square, confused by why the official left.

Did he really take that long? He couldn’t have been that far behind everyone else. Though he did black out for a moment. Was that moment longer than he thought?

Apparently, his affinity wasn’t a big deal, or he reached that point in the initiation after most of the village left. It wasn’t out of the norm for the crowd to disperse quickly to celebrate their young one’s coming of age privately. The village wide party wouldn’t happen until after they returned from their class card quest.

He supposed there was no point in guessing when he could ask his parents. They had some explaining to do. Neither of them had Nature Affinity and as far as he knew, none of his ancestors did either. Their family tree was about as desert elf as it could get.

Suspicion grew as he turned his gaze to his parents. Even under his gaze, they continued to smile warmly, making it hard to not love them. He was sure they had a reason for what they hid from him, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t pry for it.

The moment he took a step in their direction, his parents blurred into motion. Before he knew what happened, they sandwiched him in a hug. Even if he wanted to, there was no escape from the far stronger elves, not that he wanted to. Instead of struggling, he went limp in their embrace, heart fluttering with warmth.

All too soon, his parents withdrew, but before he could ask the questions weighing on his mind, he caught a mischievous look they sent to each other.

His mother smiled broadly, brown eyes filled with love. “Congratulations Ardy, we knew you could do it!”

Against his will, a smile bloomed, but it vanished just as quick as he opened his mouth to ask the first of his many questions.

Unfortunately, his mother was only the distraction. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the glowing of his father’s tan Ortus Bracelets, but he was too late to react like every other time.

A geyser of sand sent all three of them airborne.

A sigh escaped him as he went along for the ride. It wasn’t the first time they pulled the stunt or even the tenth time. They loved to pull surprise stunts of magic on him. Fortunately, no matter what stunt they pulled, they never hurt him other than the surprise.

No matter how many times they did it, he could never react in time. It didn’t help they never tried the same trick twice and alternated who did it. Maybe now that he had his own magic, he had a chance, but not until he had some useful cards in his deck.

One day he would get them back, but he had a feeling it would be far in the future. They had centuries on him, after all.

His mood suddenly darkened at the thought. It better be far in the future. His parents had to live for centuries longer, better yet, millennia.

With perfect accuracy, the family of three sailed through the air toward their courtyard. Though a few close calls with the stone trees had him worried for a moment. Fortunately, like all other times, they landed safely in their courtyard with the help of a second geyser, this time casted by his mother.

The moment they landed, all the sand receded from their bodies and leveled itself out on the ground as if the geyser never happened.

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Both of his parents gave him a quick hug, then stepped away with knowing looks as if they predicted what he wanted to ask. Which they probably did.

Before they could distract him again, he narrowed his eyes in defiance. “How did I receive Nature Affinity? Am I really a desert elf?”

His father gave a nod to his mother, ceding the questions to her. She gave her son a loving smile before turning serious. “Never doubt you are our son, no matter the circumstances that brought you into our lives.”

As his mother fell silent for a few moments to plan her next words, a sinking feeling formed as Arden’s eyes scanned his parents.

Differences he buried stood out, especially with his father. He always thought he took after his mother in appearance. The problem was he shared almost no features with his father, who was both taller and more muscular than him. They didn’t even share the same eye and hair color. Other than the elven similarities, their facial structure were completely different too.

His mother, on the other hand, shared his black hair and lean build. He was practically a male version of her other than his green eyes.

Did his mother cheat on father? No, that wasn’t possible. They loved each other too much for that. He never even saw them fight beyond some teasing. Well, other than their competitive banter during the contests they loved to have, but he didn’t count that.

Predicting where her son’s mind went, she give her husband a one-armed hug then continued. “No, I didn’t nor would I ever cheat on my Audy.”

Arden narrowed his eyes at his parents, arms crossed over his chest. “Then how?”

After a brief pause, his mother released a sigh. “Your birth mother is my sister. One day, she showed up with you in her arms and begged us to take you in as our own.”

She sent a loving smile at her husband, then returned her attention to her son. “Of course we did. We spent centuries trying to have our own, but failed.”

To drive home the point, she dove in for another hug, husband in tow as she proclaimed with warmth filling her voice. “That day was the best day of our lives. You are our son and we love you with all our hearts.”

Despite the urge to forgive them instantly, he stiffened, then disengaged from the hug. He gave them the strongest glare he could muster under their loving smiles. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

His parents glanced at one another, trying to decide what to tell him, causing his glare to strengthen. “No more lies or half-truths I deserve to know.”

Both of their shoulders slumped as they turned toward their son as one. His father broke the silence first. “At first we planned to tell you when you grew up, but the subject never came up, so we sort of forgot.”

Arden continued to glare at his parents, knowing the answer was bullshit. He knew his parents well enough to know they would never forget something like that. There had to be a reason.

Under his scrutiny, his parents fidgeted. After only a couple of seconds, his mother gave in. “We were worried you would treat us differently if you knew.”

The temptation to push further nagged at him, but he knew when to stop. Whenever he pushed too hard, they would clam up. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t ferret out the rest later when he found the opportunity.

Instead, he changed the subject. “I didn’t know you had a sister. What happened to her?”

Relief flashed across their faces so fast he almost missed it before they shrugged their shoulders. “We don’t know. The last time I saw my sister was that day. She looked panicked but wasn’t hurt.”

His mother scowled, mirrored by his father like they usually did. “Most likely, she slept with someone she shouldn’t have. She always had a habit of that. Our race’s low birth rate was probably the only thing saving her from popping out a village worth of kids.”

All sorts of fantasies went through his head like his birth mother seducing high elf royalty, but his mother’s next words crushed such fantasies. “For your safety, we had your blood tested to ensure you didn’t have connections to someone dangerous. We didn’t want assassins to try to kill our Ardy. Not that they would have a chance against us.”

To build suspense, she paused for several heartbeats. “Fortunately, it came back negative for high elf royalty, but it was inconclusive beyond that. We know you are a full elf, just not sure what the other half is. It’s possible your father was a mixed elf too, which could’ve messed with the results. We confirmed your birth mother was my sister, though. Based on your affinity, you likely have wood or high elf ancestry, but who knows how much.”

For the first time on the topic, his father jumped in. “Don’t worry about your ancestry. What is important is how you use your gifts. We had a feeling you wouldn’t inherit an earth affinity, so we made preparations.”

His mother’s attention shot to Audun with a frown, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Really? We drop a bombshell on him and the first thing you think about is his magic?”

Undeterred by her accusation, Audun smiled teasingly. “Says the elf who spent all morning blabbering about how much fun it would be to experiment with Ardy’s magic.”

She pouted but didn’t deny her husband’s claim. Instead, she returned her attention to their son, who watched the exchange with an amused expression. When her eyes landed on the card clutched in his hands, a glint of mischief manifested.

In a blur, she appeared in front of her son yet again and swiped the card, then looked at it. Audun joined her a blink later. “We can work with this. Definitely not ideal, but we prepared in case he didn’t receive a combat card. The question is, does he have more than plant attunement?”

Arden didn’t bother looking annoyed, as he expected his parents to steal it eventually. Maybe he should have scanned it into his deck first. Who knew when he would get it back?

Both elves practically vibrated with excitement as they looked at each other, then vanished in a puff of sand.

While shaking his head at their antics, Arden strode over to a bench to wait. He loved how his parents put so much effort into him, but times like this made it annoying. It wouldn’t surprise him if they made a bet on who found cards best suited to him.

Hopefully, they found some Nature Affinity cards. Though he doubted they found many being in the desert but he wouldn’t put it past them to find a few in some hidden away location. Sometimes he wondered why they stayed in this small village with their talents.

As he waited, he inspected his Ortus Bracelets. Everyone who inducted into Ortus had them, but it was different having his own. Now that he looked closer, they seemed to be made of the same crystal-like material as the cards. He supposed that made sense as they came from the same source.

These things really unlocked the world. Even if someone awakened their mana systems without Ortus, one needed their own bracelets to even touch cards, let alone create a deck.

He heard myths of the pre-Ortus days where people could use magic without cards, but they were just that, myths. No one pulled off using magic without the cards that he knew of, though many tried.

Some high elf a few centuries back even awakened his mana system without Ortus. Unfortunately, all it did was speed up his initiation into Ortus in the end, because he couldn’t control his own mana or even touch the cards.

All magic went through Ortus and to do magic, one needed the bracelets.

He knew firsthand how it felt to touch a card without initiation in Ortus. His mother left a card out at random on the dinner table within easy reach of his ten-year-old self.

The tingling from the shock didn’t go away for almost a week. Knowing her, she probably left it out on purpose to teach him a lesson.

Speaking of his mother, she appeared a moment later in the courtyard with a broad smile, clutching three cards in her hands. All of them had green borders denoting them as Nature Affinity.

That smile froze when his father appeared and gave his wife a smug smile of his own as he too had three green bordered cards.

As one, they turned to Arden as if he was the judge to determine the winner.

Of course, the true winner was him all along. They never fought, but they always competed. Usually with him as the judge and this time he got to benefit.

Hopefully, their competitive nature pushed them to find something good. He would need it to survive in the desert as a nature mage.