Gradually, over what felt like a moment but in reality was weeks, the oblivion that had overtaken Fabien faded away. The first thing he realized was that his body could feel now, and the second was that he had a body! Although it was a very slightly different shape to what he had had before, and he was curled up with very limited ability to move himself. All the same, progress had been made, and for the first time since his death, Fabien considered the possibility that he may well be alive.

"What changed", he thought, "I fell into deep contemplation and someone, or something, found and hurt me. I fell into sleep, and now I am awake and have a body, distinctly human but also quite... underdeveloped". What he could even do with a body in a void of nothingness, he was not quite sure. Reasoning that if thinking made him develop and grow, then thinking is what he would do, he continued his serious thoughts, going further into the details of the tactical and strategic decisions and their associated consequences that he knew from history.

Time progressed, and the fire took longer and longer to arrive. Fabien had fallen unconscious three times by the time he realized he could feel the temperature around his body, and could very faintly make out what seemed to be total darkness. Unfamiliar with using his sight and touch after so long without either, he gradually eased himself into the experience.

All this reminded him of beauty in the world, of pain, joy and love. Of his family and friends, of trust and betrayal. So his contemplation continued.

Each time he woke from his pain induced slumber, he now began to very gradually feel on his mind's periphery a new, unfamiliar feeling. It was all around him, however it was most concentrated in one direction, a strange feeling of energy. Now, when he thought deeply, that energy seemed to glow brightly, before fading as he lost consciousness, and being barely noticeable when he woke.

It took 3 months for him to finally realize where and what he was. To be specific, he was very clearly human, a human child who had yet to be birthed. His mother, whoever she was, seemed to have a fairly significant amount of this strange energy, which he found he needed less and less of to think, as his brain allowed him to contemplate things without needing the support of what he could only deem to be magic.

This meant several things. First off, it meant that whatever world he was in likely had individuals capable of doing some truly incredible things with magic, and if he wanted to not be at the mercy of another once again he'd need to join their ranks.

Second, it meant that the burning feeling was likely the cost for using magic, and the more he used magic the more he could do with it without having to pay that cost.

Thirdly, it meant that he had an opportunity to grow slightly faster than his peers, considering his willpower, intelligence and wisdom were all above that of your average newborn, of that at least he was confident.

Thus, he began to experiment, seeing if there were more efficient ways he could use his magic, was knocking himself unconscious for weeks at a time really the most efficient way for him to get stronger? It seemed unlikely.

6 months passed.

Being born was a thoroughly unenjoyable experience, at least he already knew how to breathe so he didn't need to be spanked to tears in order to teach him. The moment he was born though, he paid careful attention to the words people were speaking, thinking he could likely get the general idea of what things meant through that.

It was a frustrating exercise, but he kept at it, while practicing the new method of growing his magic that he had identified.

Having grown more and more familiar with how he was using magic, he had managed to identify that it was fundamentally him dropping the strange magic energy from a specific point in space that seemed to be somewhere between his eyes. That energy could be pushed with a slightly greater force each time, and the further he pushed it the further he could push it. Also, he then immediately began to refill on this energy, while feeling like his entire body was burning up, but every moment that energy was being regenerated, it seemed to regenerate slightly faster.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

In conclusion, the more energy he used, the more he could store.

The more magic he regenerated, the faster he regenerated magic and the less the same level of magic deprivation bothered him.

As he formed the magic over and over to try and push it as far as possible, he became more skilled in doing so and was able to push it further with less in future. Alongside this grew his ability to sense magic around him.

Finally, he managed to figure out that when he was severely magically deprived, the backlash seemed to in some way reduce his rate of mana regeneration.

Realizing that in his intense focus on magic and language, he had forgotten to observe his surroundings properly, he was pleasantly surprised to find the furnishings of the room he was in quite pleasing. Surrounded by presumably midwives, he found himself in a shadowy stone room with a soft, red carpet. The bed he was born on had green curtains for privacy, and was evidentially an extremely expensive piece of work.

There was a fairly large fireplace with a cheery flame warming the room, and some small windows on the far side of the room, with bubbled glass keeping the wind and rain out. The bubbled glass meant that the technology had not reached the level yet at which glass was mass produced, and thus it must be exceedingly expensive to have constructed such windows. Although they were small, that seemed more a decision made for the defense of the fortress than anything else, with walls the width of a man's arm providing protection to the inhabitants.

The walls and windows looked normal to Fabien's eyes, but his fairly advanced sense of the magic around him permitted him to know they were clearly filled with magic, although he could not discern the purpose.

The walls were simple and unadorned, except for a large flag of arms over the doorway and the hunting trophy of a truly terrible looking troll leering at him from over the fireplace. A very strange room to select for the sake of birthing children, thought Fabien, although he supposed it could just as well be that this was her bedroom, and that was why it was chosen for her to give birth.

Before he could finish observing and make his deductions about his new place in this new world, he was swept up and away by a strangely robed man, up and away from the room. Going through dark corridors, with the occasional candle to light the way, Fabien wondered at the strange choices in what was magical and what wasn't. Surely magic that was worth using on fortress walls was strong enough to lighten corridors and warm up rooms? Candles and fireplaces, on the other hand, were relatively expensive to maintain, at least they should be in his estimation.

Wondering at the strangeness of this world he had come into, Fabien continued to silently observe.

The corridors were mostly silent, although not empty, however whenever a servant was seen they quickly retreated into a shadowy alcove, facing the wall as the man in robes strode past. The doorways they went past tended to have thick wooden doors, however rarely did they have anything magical about them. The man, on the other hand, was basically wreathed in magic. Fabien didn't realize it initially, as it seemed to somehow not want to be noticed, however the moment he noticed it was exceedingly obvious.

As he focused on the magic, he began to feel dizzy. Several whirling patterns appeared and disappeared, various possible futures and hidden pasts were shown but just as quickly stripped away.

As madness started to set in, Fabien gave it up and just continued practicing his own magic, although he tried seeing if he could throw it forward in slightly different ways. The increase in magic cost for such behavior was significant, but he persevered. So totally did he begin to focus, he didn't realize that the pace of the robed man had quickened significantly, and he was now almost sprinting along corridors, down stairs and through rooms.

Eventually, they stopped, and Fabien looked around to see a large collection of people, some of whom looked fairly similar to his mother. Putting them aside temporarily, he turned his attention to the horrible feeling before him. A large well of fire, at least thats what it looked like to his magic sense, was before him. To his normal eyes though, it just looked like a small black bead.

Taking his hand, the robed man strode forward and forced him to touch the bead. Fire flared through him as what felt like the equivalent of a magical void appeared at his finger tips, the bead hungrily emptying him of magical energy. The lower his energy became, the less it burned, and eventually he felt the drain come to a stop. The bead itself began to change its color, getting lighter and lighter until eventually stopped at a very bright shade of blue.

"His name shall be Bokan" an old man who the others seemed to defer to said in a serious tone that brooked no disagreement, "He shall be magic user, take him to be trained by the tower when he is deemed ready".

With that, the ceremony came to a close, and Bokan was whisked up by the robed man alongside the now blue bead. Although he had understood none of it, he knew something of significance had taken place.

So passed 6 months.