Suta POV

'T-this image.'

Suta felt something stir his emotions from within.

Staring at the picture he felt an indescribable downcast of emotions welled in his chest.

He saw a woman standing between two throne-like chairs.

The striking thing about her was the undeniable likeness she shared with Suta, from her pecan brown skin to the wooly tufts of pink hair falling from her helm.

She was dressed in Victorian-style robes, with her right hand placed on one of the high chairs.

'She must be...m-my mother? I mean...Suta's Mom.'

It was strange coming to grips with that thought for the boy.

'After all, I did swear to start living as one with you Suta, but still...this is weird.'

He moved his gaze toward the two figures seated against the high chairs.

They were both wearing strange silk veils covering their faces, but Suta could clearly make out a man and a woman.

Possibly old, judging by the wrinkles layered against their hands.

'They're giving me a weird feeling, I can't place my finger on it. But they seem rather Ev-! W-wait...that vase? I've seen that Vase before.'

Suta's eyes flashed wide open, that vase pictured in the corner.

Something cold crawled against his nape as he locked eyes against it, he knew he had seen that vase somewhere. The flowers and their hideous patterns, and those same runes were reminiscent of Viking giants. The vase was too canny, but somehow for the life of him, Suta could not remember where he could faintly remember seeing it before.

He heard the gentle tinkle of jewelry chime beside his ears, suddenly snapping out from his daydream he moved his gaze towards the side.

There he found Granny Baba gently dangling that peculiar silvery chain in line with his eyes.

Suta received the pendant and beheld it just in front of his curious gaze.

He was right with his first initial description, the jewel looked like a large teardrop, with a dark blueish smoky substance trapped inside.

He gave Old Baba a curious stare, just before his mouth was poised to ask more questions.

"It's called a magical artifact. Since ancient times Arcanists have been crafting or discovering incredibly powerful gemstones that can be used for protection, as weapons, or in some cases to prolong life."

Granny Baba then closed the book and gently pushed it across the table.

"My mother…w-wanted me to have this."

The strange jewel glittered beneath the hearth fire.

Suta felt awkward saying those words, as the pain of remembering what happened to his actual mother came crawling back into his heart.

"Not quite. Those words said were with the intention of you inheriting this book. The artifact was placed around your little chubby neck, fufufu."

Suta removed his eyes away from the jewel and placed his attention on the large book pushed closer to him.

The book was wrapped in an aged brown leather, with unfamiliar golden engravings drawn on its front. The patterns were words, but Suta could only stare awkwardly at them, having no idea what they meant.

"That's also an ancient language.

Well…to Arcanists it's quite commonly seen in our world.

You see to perform spells one must evoke the incantation in the dialect the spell was created in.

Arcane can be perceived like a fabric, with each woven string acting as a link towards the magic itself, before the understanding of Arcane, the ancients communicated with deities who bestowed a portion of their grace, this allowed magic to flow through their followers.

And naturally, there was more than one deity with power.

That particular language before you is known as ' Roda .'

And it says…Testament. I would imagine it was written by your mother if I had to guess. "

Suta took a very long look at the book placed before him.

'Roda language? So there are Arcane languages...I see. Could it be some sort of spell book I wonder with incantations filled inside?

Or perhaps some truths about his past. He swiftly opened the book onto the first page after placing the necklace to one side. The pages inside were brown and rigid like hardened sand. He ran his index finger along the dark engravings written across the entire double pages.

From Suta's view, he was staring at unknown symbols that sort of reminded him of ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs back on Earth. He reluctantly removed his eyes away after a short while.

"Can you read this?"

He asked firmly forgetting his usual meek mask of adolescence he tended to wear.

A brief smile flashed across Granny Baba's face.

"Only in parts. The cover is written in Roda, an old tongue coined from the Elyshire planes. Widely considered the most common language understood by different races. But the contents within are formed in an entirely different language…" Suta noticed Granny Baba's tone changed slightly all of a sudden. He raised one of his brows and gazed towards her with a questioning look.

"Before I go on, let me briefly explain to you the roles languages play in casting spells. The spell caster would have learned partially or become fluent in the language before casting the incantation. There are generally 6 different incantation languages accepted.

Well, at one point several more but 5 have been donned as the most common.

1. Roda

2. Valgera

3. Dhvon'kil

4. Jotunn

5. Aeyr

"Considering there are thousands of spell formulas and supporting incantations for around 60% of those spells. I'd say 6 languages isn't too shabby." She explained

Granny Baba took a pause and seemed to busy her hand in her long gown. She pulled free a small clear bottle with silvery dust inside. The more Suta observed the bottle of silver sand, he started to see sparkling gold and jade granules also mixed in with it.

"Spell casting isn't the only way to become an Arcanist.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

In the Arcane world simply being able to understand an ancient language affords you some type of position within that world."

Suta's eyes lit up upon hearing that.

"D-does that mean I can learn Ar-arcane then?" His voice almost pleaded.

Granny Baba smoothed the porcelain handle of her white tea cup. Her single working eye scanned Suta with an expressionless look.

"Little Su Do you take Arcane to be so simple?" She said.

"If growing mana cores were so easy, then everyone would be able to do magic. Unlike knights and adventurers, awakening for Arcanist occurs quite early on during childhood. Without the correct form of nurturing during those early stages, the seed that grows into the core becomes dormant before the child turns 8.

In all my years I still haven't met anyone who was able to reverse that problem."

"How old are you Granny Baba?" Suta asked her abruptly out of wonder

"How old am I? That's quite the rude question to ask Little Su, don't you know it's bad luck to ask an old fellow their age fufufuh you young ones are so daring these days." She bemused setting her teacup down.

Suta shied his eyes away, suddenly realizing he had gotten caught up with the continued influx of information that he had forgotten himself.

He was pleasantly surprised to learn that everyone had at least one close bloodline relative with one of the five divine creatures.

Fairy

Giant

Dragon

Phoneix

Daemon

The formation of the potions themselves was based on the bloodline of these creatures which Suta came to understand would've meant that a great deal of experimentation was done on the bloodline of many mythical creatures. Granny Baba would go on to swiftly explain each language and their respective bloodline.

The Roda language was a mixture of fairy and human bloodlines.

The Valgeara was drawn from the Phoenix bloodline.

Jotunn from the Giants.

Dhavonkil from the Wyerns,

Aeyr from the Daemons

And lastly, the forgotten language of Alto from the ancient High Elves.

The latter was considered a dead language since the Ancient High Elf race had been extinct for almost 2000 years now.

Weirdly enough he felt somewhat uneasy whilst he caressed the small glass bottle filled with silver sand.

"So once I drink this…in seven days we'll know which bloodline I'm compatible with?"

"Precisely! Do remember Little Su, there is a very real chance you show no compatibility with any. But compared to nurturing a mana core, the ancient language test is more achievable. Who knows you may be qualified to be a scholar or a researcher of Arcane one day." Granny Baba creased an ugly smile whilst she spryly made her way to another room.

Leaving Suta with new things to busy himself with as well as a host of thoughts and problems to solve.

'And here I was thinking the road to learning magic would be easy… sigh …I need to obtain a bloodline, that way I can at least read spell books and incantations.

If I want to obtain the powers of this world and find out what happened to my family, I need to master Arcane as quickly as possible.'

Recently Suta had been thinking more about that fishbowl head.

As the days drifted by, Helvetios warnings and instructions were making more and more sense, he still didn't exactly trust the guardian he had come into contact with, but Helvetios was the only real clue he had to locating his family.

After he received the books and items from Granny Baba, he placed them inside his room and quickly went back out to the farmlands to complete his chores.

Nightfall had already descended by the time he finished moving the old blocks of hay into a large coup.

His farm garbs were covered from head to toe in bits of hay. Suta clapped away the pieces stuck to his hands and quickly traced his steps back to the farmhouse.

‎

‎ He arrived at his small room. It was dark and cold inside, with the familiar nightly wisp of the silver moon filtering inside.

Suta walked towards the table stand where he had placed three candles on a disc-shaped silver dish.

Two unused matches lay beside the candle. Beside which was that dull but perfectly cut sapphire stone, handed to him by the shrewd-faced fellow from the carriage. He removed the silver chain Granny Baba gave him and placed it beside the ring.

He pinched one of the thin matches and struck the harsh wood igniting a brightly burning ember that cast a ball of light within the shroud of darkness.

Suta gently lit the candle splints then he shook his hands a little to quell the fire into blue smoke.

For the next few hours, Suta dedicated his time to reading through a few of the translated books Granny Baba had mentioned he could take with him to bed for the night.

This was quite the odd surprise since this was the first time she allowed him to take some of her books away with him. For some reason, Suta also recalled what happened a few nights back when he heard that horrible-sounding voice through the window.

Just remembering that dark voice sent shivers running down his spine.

Maybe she's starting to become suspicious of me. After all, there's probably a clear difference between me and how the previous Suta's acts. Sigh , it's not easy keeping up with the farce every single day.' He could only massage his temples and hope things would work themselves out

Suta was under no illusion that Granny Baba was smart enough to work out there's been a change within him.

'I need to be more vigilant, I can't afford somehow my transmigration being discovered… but it's so damn hard wearing a mask all the time.

He decided to set aside his woes for the night, realizing there was no point going over these problems over and over again. He needed to be level-headed and just go with the flow. Somehow Suta was slowly understanding what his father told him about growing up.

'Even in a new world, your teachings are still helpful...Dad.'

He opened to the first page of the book he chose to read on a whim.

Understanding Bloodlines and Particle Formations.

Despite the multitude of worries circling through his mind, Suta felt excited, knowing this was his first step onto the road of learning Arcane!

The night faded solemnly and the gentle embers continued to burn the candle until a small puddle of wax settled on the silver disc.

Suta lay against his bed, he couldn't sleep straight away and instead was left watching the illusionary clouds formed against the ceiling above him, reciting the strings of letters forming the particle formulas he had just read.

Suta's mind was just like a revolving set of finely fitted cogs, moving endlessly with the purpose of structuring and making sense of the information he had stored within his mind.

He recalled a vividly old memory.

When he was much younger his father had taken him to see a few number of neuron specialists, on the count of him being able to tell with a single glance how most appliances and electrical equipment worked.

His high perception of detail had frightened the life out of his parents.

But soon the doctors were able to diagnose the little Shoba as possessing an acute form of attention deficit disorder, as well as a rare case of low latent inhibition.

As a child, he never paid much attention to these things, to Shoba these were merely just words.

But now staring at the long string of texts and shapes floating above him, he was starting to understand that maybe his sharp mind was a lot more special than he initially thought.

In time, Suta softly closed his eyelids and drifted to sleep.

Unaware of just how special his mind was, and in the coming days just how much it would shape his future...forever.