The next morning, I woke up with cold sweat and a racing heart. The entire night I had nightmares about James and Charlotte getting brutally harmed. The screams and images in my head were blurry but they were still on my mind.
I could faintly hear a door opening, but I didn’t turn to look at the door, instead I placed a hand on my eyes and breathed slowly.
“Deary is everything ok? Did you have a nightmare?” I heard Charlotte’s voice beside me, and noticed that I didn’t even hear her footsteps.
“Yeah, but it wasn’t that bad.” I rubbed my eyes a bit and turned to look at her.
Charlotte started to pet my head, while I tried to calm my heartbeat. “What was it about? Wait, you’re soaking wet, do you have a fever? Maybe we shouldn’t go to town today.” She said, her voice slowly becoming more and more worried.
“No, I’m alright, don’t worry mom.” I took my hand off my eyes and looked at her, I tried to smile but my face felt stiff, making me feel like there was an abyss in my heart. “Seriously, I’m alright.”
“…Well, at least let me give you a little shower, you’ve got sweat all over you.”
I got out of bed and made my way to the bathroom, “no thanks, I’ll shower by myself mom.”
Charlotte muttered something about missing the time when I was little. They had used to shower me. But I could already do it by myself, so I didn’t mind her.
After cleaning up, me, James and Charlotte went to the town.
Its name was Pinefort, the town’s roads were made out of cobblestone, the houses were made out of wood and most of them only had one floor. There were shops almost everywhere, taverns, potions shops, tailors, and smithies.
Carriages were pulled by beasts and people walked on the roads in the town, going to shops or just talking with each other, most were wearing happy or peaceful expressions on their faces, some even had weapons or beautiful staffs with them.
The most amazing thing I saw were the elves and dwarves, I even saw one dark elf with dark blue skin, working inside a tailor shop with windows.
Apparently, there were other races in this world, orcs, demi humans, and more.
Seeing all of this for the first time, I looked at Charlotte and James. “Could you teach me more about the world?”
James chuckled, “I knew that we should have started to teach you about the continent, even if you are so young.”
Charlotte, who stayed quiet until now, looked in my direction, “you’d only need to ask deary.” She said, right after that she cast her gaze down to the floor while walking.
“Mom? Is everything alright?”
The moment she heard me, she looked at me with a smile “yes, mommy's alright deary.”
As James brought her closer to him, I looked forward, trying my best not to look at her again.
After a long stroll in which I was shown the town, James led us to a small potion shop named ‘Amara’s potions‘.
James put his hand behind Charlotte’s back and nodded to her with a smile.
Charlotte looked up at the sign, took a deep breath, and squared her shoulders. “Come on boys… Let's go say hello.” She opened the door with her head high.
Inside the shop, there were all sorts of bottles, with them there were also metal instruments and shelves full of books, a rancid smell was emanating from every corner.
At the desk of the shop, sat a mature lady with silver hair, and a small number of wrinkles on her face. “Oh? Long time no see, Charlotte, James.” The woman gently said only to stop and look at me with a flabbergasted face, after a short moment she regained her composure. “And who is this handsome little man?”
“I’m Dante, nice to meet you, Amara right?” I smiled at her as I introduced myself.
Amara’s eyes widened, she laughed a bit and nodded, shifting her gaze from me to James and Charlotte. “How have you been? Come and sit, I'll make you some herbal tea.” She gestured to a small table with three chairs.
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As I sat on James’s lap, I noticed him holding Charlotte’s hand softly. She looked a bit down since we came here from home. I thought to myself.
“Amara.” Charlotte started after the table was organized, “I wanted to thank you for your help last time, and… To apologize for my rude behavior in our last meeting.” She said without breaking eye contact with Amara.
I looked up at Charlotte, only to stop and look at the various colorful tools. I shouldn't dig into things that make her uncomfortable.
The potion maker waved her hand, “There is nothing to apologize for Charlotte.” Amara looked at me for a moment only to press her lips together. “So, are you enjoying the Sidunder tea?”
Charlotte's eyes widened and she almost choked, “Sidunder?! Amara, it's too valuable to waste on us! Where did you even get it?!”
Amara lifted her teacup to her nose, and smelled the tea herb, “Actually, not pricy at all, because of the civil war in Okand a merchant passed a couple of days ago selling it at a cheap price.” She sighed with a smile. “Truly, this is heaven”.
I’ve heard James and Charlotte mutter or whisper about the civil war every once in a while, but even then, it didn’t seem like there was much to worry about. After all, even in the town people looked fine.
Charlotte nodded in grim understanding.
James also nodded his head and sighed, “really, there’s no rest for Inyslian, the spire mountain, the successful attempt on the high elves, sea raids from the beast people of Eneuzura, and now that civil war, all of this in just the last decade”.
“Dante, do you want to check the shop a little bit maybe?” Charlotte asked with a little metal in her voice as she looked at James.
I took a small look at the shop from James’s lap, seeing all of the potions and gadgets that I’ve never seen before, “alright.” Instantly I started checking everything.
The three continued to talk in a hushed manner, while I explored the shop.
From the potion descriptions, every potion had a different rule, some for health, some for stamina, it went on to a person’s personality and will power, in fact, in the corner of the shop there was even an aphrodisiac.
After checking all of the potions, I went to the bookshelves. How to cure internal wounds, 102 herbs for body regeneration, healing the body with mana. I looked at the names of each and each book.
“Written in blood? that sounds ominous.” Amara muttered from the table.
What Amara said caught my attention, but I kept looking at the books.
“I tried to quietly look for someone related in the town, and even did a little search on the sigil, but I found nothing. Must have been a traveling person from a minor house, maybe wounded, he probably didn’t go through the town to draw attention,” James said.
Are they talking about the green-eyed man? Was there a sigil on the cloth?
Amara hummed. “They wrote his name on the cloth with the sigil, but haven’t come back for him. I see, maybe they just can’t show themselves, perhaps they have some people looking after him from the shadows, that’s if they are wealthy, was there anyone suspicious looking asking you about this James?”
A moment passed and nothing was said, I wanted to turn my head a bit to look, instead I kept looking at the books.
“I see, so what are your intentions with him?” Amara continued.
“The day we found him on our doorstep, we talked about… About moving away, simply too many bad memories.” Charlotte said. “He's our child. I, I just want to see him grow happy.”
For a moment my entire body started to grow warm, I gritted my teeth and looked on the ground with furrowed eyebrows.
“Does he know?”
“He’s very smart, despite his young age, we didn’t tell him yet, but from the lack of similarities he must have figured it out already.” I could hear James audibly smile. “Besides his past, Amara, if he’d like to learn mana, would you be able to teach him? Of course, we would pay you in return.”
Silence took the room, I moved to another section of the shop to not seem suspicious, “what do you say boy? Do you want me to teach you magic?”
I slowly turned my head towards the table, “me?” I pointed at myself and asked as everyone looked at me.
Amara gave me a sly smile, “yes you, I’ll do it for free, I don’t have much to do here anyway, but you’ll have to treat my teaching seriously, this is not babysitting.”
The thought of getting more powerful popped into my mind again, I could feel a smile creep on my face. I would be able to protect them.
James and Charlotte looked at me with anticipation, I looked back at them with a small smile “gladly, but only if mother and father agree”
They both smiled in return.
Amara nodded, “Then it’s decided, we’ll start our lesson two days from now, but I’d like to ask you some questions just to understand what I should teach you, to begin with tell me what you know about magic”
My smile fell a bit, “you can use to become faster and stronger, and to make bathing water warmer”
Amara chuckled, “I see, have you ever interacted with it? Tried to control it?”
From the other side of the table Charlotte and James looked flabbergasted.
“No,” I stated simply, “but I would like to know how.”
Amara nodded her head “good, as I said we’ll begin in two more days, besides that, Charlotte,” Amara looked at Charlotte with a sly look “would you want some of the, you know, potions I have got to offer?”
Charlotte’s face turned red “I…” she slowly looked at James who's cheeks were also slightly red, “yes, Amara, thanks.”
Amara laughed, got up and took a small vial, that I remembered as an aphrodisiac.
My mind went blank for a moment. Hopefully they will do it when I’m practicing magic with Amara.