~Chapter five~

~I know who my enemy is~

"Mmmm... maybe you will be of use after

all'" a strange, unknown figure spoke from

the shadows of the trees.as a grin spread

across its face.

"Madam, I found these ones in the forest," a woman said .

"And why would you bring filthy children back here to my home, Sora?"

"I apologize, Madam, but this boy's magic... I assumed you would find it very interesting," Sora replied.

"But I will dispose of them at once. I apologize for my rash and forward thinking, Madam Lilith," Sora added.

"No, it's done. Put the two injured ones in the healing fountain, and take the unconscious boy upstairs to one of the spare rooms. I'll see to him later," Lilith ordered.

"Yes, ma'am. Understood," Sora said.

"Hey, you. You're finally awake," a female voice called to me.

I opened my eyes and found myself lying in a massive bed draped with a red canopy embroidered with gold thread, beads, and emeralds. The room was quite large, the floors had white tiles. In front of me stood a dresser with a large mirror. To my left, heavy curtains covered a balcony. To my right, there was a closed door, and a giant wardrobe nearby.

The voice belonged to a woman. She was pale-skinned, with long charcoal-black hair that reached the floor, and horns protruding from her head—though one of them was broken. She looked about my age and she had a dead-serious expression as she looked at me.

"Where am I?" I asked, my voice weak and raspy.

"In my house, obviously," she replied with a cheeky smirk.

"Where are my friends?"

She grinned menacingly. "What if I told you I killed them?"

My heart dropped as rage took over. "Where are my friends?" I repeated, louder this time.

"The girl stood no chance; she was already injured. The boy tried to protect her but failed. They tasted average, though, when I devoured them," she cackled.

I sprang from the bed and lunged at her, but she sidestepped effortlessly, sending me crashing to the floor.

She giggled. "Mother, he's awake!"

"Stop teasing the boy, Melody. Leave us. I need to have a chat with him," a new voice commanded.

"But I wanna stay!"

"Leave us now, young lady," the woman interrupted firmly.

"So unfair, Mom," Melody muttered as she stomped out of the room.

The woman—Lilith, I presumed—helped me back onto the bed.

"Your friends are downstairs in the healing chamber," she said in a calm, soothing voice.

"Thank God," I exhaled in relief.

It was only then I realized my hands were no longer in pain. I remembered the pain they were in during the attack from the Keeth , but now they were completely healed. I stared at them in amazement.

"One of my helpers found you unconscious in the forest," Lilith continued. "She claims you singlehandedly took out an entire tribe of Keeth with a powerful spell. Is that true?"

"I’m not sure. It’s all foggy," I admitted. "I don’t remember much, just desperately trying to protect my friends."

An image of Eliza flashed through my mind, and tears welled up again. "Protecting those I had left," I whispered.

"You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?" Lilith’s tone softened.

She looked remarkably like Melody but had no horns. Her shadow black hair was rolled into an elegant bun, pinned by a golden rose hairpin. Her beauty was unreal, and her presence intense that of a queen. She wore a flowing white dress, a gold-crested necklace adorned with a black flower resting on her chest.

I told her everything: the orphanage, Magnus, Bethany, Eliza. I wasn’t sure why I trusted her so easily, but she had a warm, inviting, motherly aura that put me at ease. By the time I finished, tears streamed down my face.

Lilith said nothing, merely wrapping her arms around me. Her silent comfort helped more than words ever could. When i finally stopped sobbing, she released me and said gently, "You did well. Rest for now. I’ll call for you later to eat. Sora, the maid who found you, will be here if you need anything."

At her command, Sora appeared silently in the corner of the room.

"I will take my leave now," Lilith said, addressing Sora. "Stay with the boy and get him anything he may need."

"Yes, ma’am," Sora replied with a bow as Lilith left the room.

Eliza's face flashed through my memories here lifeless face I couldn't handle it,i couldn't stop the images from flashing through my mind she couldn't actually be dead. I wished with all my heart that my eyes were just lying to me.

Sora eventually told me it was time to head downstairs. As we walked, I noticed the just how big this place really was. Doors lined the long corridor, and a red carpet stretched along the floor, the walls were filled with paintings, suits of armor, and other stuff I couldn't even name

Just this corridor was ten billion times more fancy than the orphanage.

The orphanage where Magnus remained killing all my friends.

We went down several long stairs until we reached the great hall. A massive table stood at the center of the room, long enough to seat fifty people. Lilith sat at its head, gesturing for me to sit next to her.

"How are you feeling ?" she asked.

"I'm feeling better but my chest feels really painful" I admitted.

"That’s normal after what you’ve been through. Give it time to recover," she assured me.

Melody entered, descending the staircase with a mischievous grin.

"So, you didn’t die after all," she teased.

"No… no, I didn’t," I replied dryly.

"Good," she muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"I said, that’s unfortunate," she sneered, glaring at me.

Lilith interrupted "what do you know about this world madoxx?"

"Er... well the orphanage taught us..."

she intrupted and said "forget everything that place has taught you I'm going to tell you the truth of this world."

Zora was the first mage of our time. Long ago, while the world was young and untamed, there lived a man named Zora. He was a very peaceful man who was a chief of a small village. While this was his role, Zora's calling was that of nature. He loved exploring and discovering the wonders of the untraveled world. He would jot down and draw maps of the world and all its mysteries until one day, a plague ran rampant over the village and many people died. Zora tried desperately to find a cure, venturing deep into the unknown to find it. He failed, and when all hope was lost, he decided to return home and die along with his people.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

On his way back, he found a cove deep in the forest. Deciding this would be his last adventure, he explored it and found a huge tree, the biggest tree he had ever seen. The tree let out a glow so bright it lit up all of the forest in a warm white light, similar to that of the sun. A tree so large its branches spread for miles and miles. He decided this was the place he wanted to die. Zora had caught the plague a while back and was barely alive himself, only fueled by the determination to save his people. But now, with death so close in sight, he chose this to be his resting place. He lay down near the tree and closed his eyes.

His eyes opened suddenly when the tree began to glow, engulfing him in a warm white light that instantly healed him. Happy and strengthened by the tree, he ran back home and brought all the village there to be healed. They then set up this place and named it the new village of Zora, the city of life, deep down underground in a magical forest that spanned for miles and miles.

The more time they spent down there, the more they realized the effect the tree had. People no longer got sick, no longer needed sleep, and would no longer age. The old would revert to the age they were at their prime, and the young would grow to be strong. This was paradise, a hidden paradise, a gift brought by the gods themselves. The city of life grew large and developed into the greatest unknown nation.

For thousands of years, the nation grew and grew until one day a woman named Sina, an adventurer fascinated by the world and exploring, found this place. She was amazed by the nation and wanted to share it with the world to help the people above make it a place for all to enjoy.

She explained that the outside world was in chaos: wars were being fought, people were dying, starving, and this place would put an end to all that.

Zora quickly shot down this suggestion, simply saying man has gone to war for a lot less. The greed of humanity is not ready for such a fragile gift. Upset, Sina said Zora was being greedy for keeping this to himself. She cursed his name and called him all sorts of names. The people, unable to stand by as their ruler was disrespected, locked her up in the makeshift prison.

Months went by not knowing what to do with Sina. A council was formed to make the decision. The ultimate decision was that the tree was not theirs to keep. Sina was released, with Zora telling her it was her choice what she did with the information she had of this world, but to know that exposing this secret to those above would be the end of this city and the peace that had been kept for thousands of years.

Sina left upset, but Zora hoped she understood. Six months passed, and just as Zora expected, Sina returned with an army of people declaring war on the nation. Sina gave Zora an ultimatum to surrender and let the city be available to all people of the world or die here and now. Zora, with no intention to fight, surrendered, and the city became publicly available to anyone.

For a while, this was not an issue. People respected each other, and it looked as if peace would actually be attainable. Until years later, it was now visible that this paradise could not house all of humanity and that eventually the it would fall to overpopulation.

The kingdoms of this place were now forced to make a decision of who would leave. It was agreed upon that we would need to limit access to the city from now on. Some suggestions were to close the entrance. The village was now split into four main kingdoms: Sina, Rosavolt, Zora, and Maru. These four kingdoms formed over time as the population became too big to be handled by only one person.

Zora spoke up and informed them that they had lived here for thousands of years and it would be unfair to close off the area. It was time for the original population to leave and let the new generation have their turn. He told them this was not their paradise to keep, it was time to leave.

Sina, visually upset by this, claimed there was no need to give up this paradise, that they had saved enough people, and that this paradise was theirs to keep, to let the outside world find a way to live independently of the tree.

Zora reminded her of what she told him the day they met, but Sina would not give up. She had become too dependent on this place and the idea of living forever. Zora told her that this would cause wars if they denied the people of the outside world entrance to the city. Zora gave an ultimatum: what if we used the city only to heal people of sickness, what if we all left? Humans were never meant to live forever, after all. Maybe it was time we all left.

All of the kingdom's rulers were visually against this plan. Zora knew that this was bound to happen, and as he stated, a war was on the horizon.

Zora and his kingdom had prepared to leave the city in the coming days, but before they could, the entrance to the cave was destroyed, caving it in, making it impossible for the people of the outside world to enter.

Disappointed, Zora had no choice but to stay. The first issue arose ten years later because the city was already overpopulated and kids were still constantly being born. Food resources became dangerously low. It was found out that Rosavolt had been stockpiling additional food as he was the kingdom that supplied the largest food yield to the city. This realization was met with a lot of anger. Rosavolt closed his borders, claiming the rest of the nations would need to fend for themselves. He had stockpiled enough food reserves for many years to come, while the other nations were basically at the stage of starvation. Sina, angry, launched war on Rosavolt's kingdom. This war lasted six months with many casualties.

This was the first time blood had been spilled in this sacred area. This led to drastic measures being taken. The blessings of the tree were withdrawn from those who had killed, including Sina.

It took a while to notice, but eventually the signs became apparent. Sina began to age, so did her men. They began to get sick and would need rest and became weak.

Upset by this, Sina held a meeting. She claimed she had done this for all of them. It was unfair that she alone had to suffer and be punished for doing the right thing. She claimed she stopped the starvation by killing the population of Rosavolt's army and that they should be thanking her. She was angry and Zora assured her that no one asked her to do what she had done. Maru also agreed and stated that if it was their time to die, then death would have come. It was not her duty to stop it. Furious, she left and later that day, the tree was set alight by Sina and her kingdom. Millions of fires were set around the tree, engulfing it in flames.

"If I can't have life for my sacrifices, none of you deserve to live off of it. None of you ungrateful, disgusting people deserve this gift. At least I had the guts to fight to preserve this gift to save all of you, and you can't even say thank you. Fine, all of you can die then," Sina claimed. The fires became stronger and stronger. The light of the tree began to dim as the forest around it began to wither and die.

There was nothing that could be done. This is all we know as the notes in Zora's book of the history of the city of life ended there. It is unclear what happened next in the coming moments that followed or the last words spoken by Zora, Maru, or Sina. It is speculated that the people of the kingdom died of suffocation from smoke inhalation before the fires had even gotten to them, but this is uncertain.

What is clear is that the ashes of the tree never burned black. As the tree burned, they were white, white particles of light. Billions and billions of white particles of ash spread across the entire world. These particles that exist even today are known as mana.

The last page of Zora's book read: "I am unsure how this peaceful paradise will fall, but I know it will. I'm unsure what will trigger the end, but the end will come. In this world, humans are not worthy of the gift this tree, this cove, brings. I wish I had died along with my people on that day in desperation. I saved my people and doomed the world in the process. In the end, the final war will not be fought with swords and fists but rather the warlords will become mages, the soldiers will become wizards, their wives witches, and their kids orphans. I'm sorry I was selfish and I pray I'm wrong."

"It's uncertain how Zora knew this, but the end is near, and it all started the day he found the tree—the tree that cursed humanity with magic. This is the truth of our world," Lilith said.

"There are three mysteries to this story. The first is what drove humanity underground. What happened to the people above ground that made everyone so desperate to go below? The second mystery is the events that unfolded after the burning of the tree—the fates of Sina, Zora, and the others. And the third is the fate Zora foretold would eventually befall us."

"Now, you’re probably wondering why I told you this story. In it, you might see Sina as the villain and Zora as the hero. But in reality, each probably saw themselves as the hero. I told you this because it’s easy to become misguided. Sometimes, we do the wrong things, thinking we’re right. Keep that in mind. I know you have anger in your heart right now, and anger can lead people down terrible roads. I'm telling you this because I will teach you to become the strongest mage this world has ever known, but I don’t want to see you go down the wrong path. The Keeth attacked you first, but did you really need to wipe them all out? Are all of them responsible for the actions of a few? I'm not here to become your moral compass, but you must know that all the actions you take from here on will affect the lives of many more people than you think."

"You talk about right and wrong like it's hard to tell the difference," I said, my head down.

"A man who can kill with no remorse is wrong. You didn't see his sinister smile, his ugly laugh. He enjoyed it, Lilith. He killed my friends and laughed."

"What kind of man does that?" My voice shook with anger, my fists clenched.

Lilith looked at me, but I avoided her gaze.

"You speak of righteous men who avoid wars," my voice was rising. "But I know who my enemy is—the man who slaughtered my friends in cold blood."

"Listen, Madoxx—" Lilith started.

"No, Lilith. I get it, and I'm grateful for your help, but I will not apologize for what happened to the Keeth or anyone else. I'm going to find Magnus and make him regret everything he's done." And that goes for anyone else's taht ever puts my friends lives in danger again.

Lilith had a strange effect on me. She reminded me of a mother —caring yet harsh. Her gentle, kind expression and soft words always hit deep. Even though I had just met her, I didn't want to disappoint her.

But here, I couldn't back down. Magnus was a monster, a power-hungry abomination. I wouldn't let my morals change. Magnus needed to be stopped, and I would do it, even if it cost me my life.

Lilith looked at me her eyes had nothing but kindness in them she hugged me and said "give it time."

She then let go.

“We start tomorrow. Go find my daughter; maybe she can help you.” she ordered

I hadn’t noticed that Melody had disappeared while Lilith was telling the story.

Then I remembered the name Sina. I’d read about it in a book from the library at the orphanage.

I quickly pulled the book out.

“Lilith, I know the name Sina,” I said, opening it.

Lilith leaned closer, intrigued but visibly confused.

As I flipped it open, the book began to glow with an ominous red light.

Suddenly, words started to magically etch themselves onto the blank pages.

It read:

Chapter — (the number was unreadable),

“Zora: The city of life.”

To my amazement, the story Lilith had just told me began to inscribe itself into the pages before our very eyes.

Lilith stared, wide-eyed in disbelief.

When the last word was written, the book snapped shut on its own.

A new title engraved itself onto the front cover:

Codex Sanctus Umbra.

“Keep this book close,” Lilith said, running her fingers along its spine as if trying to sense its power. “I don’t know where or how you found it, but it could be very important in the future.”

I was still confused, but deep down, I knew she was right. Holding onto this book felt like the only logical choice.