Baba POV

Baba could hardly recall many events that left her truly speechless by the predictable and unpredictable will of Arcane during her years. She was perhaps considered one of the most gifted beings to have ever graduated from one of the famous 8 unseen colleges in her generation.

Off the top of her memory, perhaps only that other monster born within her generation could rival her.

The eight unseen colleges of Arcane, as divine and filled with power as they were, many of their alumni faced the harsh truths of reality at a young age.

Geniuses tended to die quite early.

And yet here she was, her hair was completely snow white and her brown skin had aged and loosened, covered in wrinkles, but Baba was proud of her fortitude, despite all the wars and disasters.

She still lived on.

And it had been quite some time ago when she had last met an anomaly that left her questioning her own beliefs.

The boy stood in a tranquil daze, brought upon by the incantations 'Exchange' rite, his mind was undergoing a sort of cleanse, in order to facilitate the Ancient languages surging through his thoughts.

Covered in a solemness likened to a fellow lost in a deep meditative state.

He had uttered something almost impossible a few minutes ago.

No, it couldn't be true…Baba had never met anyone able to understand all the five ancient languages after consuming a mild Mentality awakening potion. Mild putting it lightly, she was so scared of somehow bothering the illness within the boy that she had substituted up to 50% of the natural ingredient for simple body nourishing dust.

The sheer thought of it was ludicrous considering the 5 ancient languages were divided into the five different bloodline formulas derived from all the beings of this world.

Humans, Elves, Merfolk, Jotun, Beastfolk, Dragon, Phoenix & lastly Daemon.

Everyone had at least one relation with one of these beings.

Even those with mixed blood would at most resonate with maybe two. But all five?

In 100 or so years, there had never been an anomaly that challenged that truth.

Until now of course.

Baba was first confident that perhaps the boy was facing some sort of negative reaction to the potion. After all, she was still unsure how a body riddled with negative yin energies would cope under the forceful opening of the Mentality space being awakened.

'His cold Yin disease should've already overcome the last remnants of the potion he swallowed. 7 days later and the negative reaction was still taking place?'

The rational genius inside her head refused to believe that was the cause of this. Hence, the only truth left to believe was the one staring her right in the face.

Baba cautiously circled the boy, his eyes remained glued to the five slabs of stone. His body stiffened on a single spot, almost rigid like ice, but his lips had never stopped moving. Muttering the tongues of the ancients whilst his eyes frantically moved from pillar to pillar. He had again fallen into that state, where his mind was being enchanted by the mysteries of the ancient languages.

The pointed tip of a callously shaped dark wand poked free from the end of Baba's huge sleeve. She continued encircling the boy, observing him with great caution and wonder.

A whirring sound suddenly echoed against the silent air.

A swash of gold appeared and her dark passenger surfaced.

A deep and croaking voice muttered through her lips.

"What...what is he..."

"I...I do not know. But I will be finding out." She said in response in an uncertain tone

"How..."

"There are humane ways to see things hidden in the dark, I'm just a little skeptical...that's all." She admitted, knowing a part of her couldn't bring herself to bring any form of harm to the boy she had cared for since he was an infant.

"Hmmm...is that so? there is always the other option..."

"Killing a child is never an option! Regardless of what may or may not transpire" She voiced loudly

"You speak as though you haven't been the causer of spilling the blood of innocence before fufufu "

"Different time...I was a di..sigh never mind. Unless it's necessary I won't harm a single hair on this child's head."

"We kill where necessary...if this child's existence is a bane to us. Then he dies..."

"It is still too early to know... sigh , I have met late-blooming geniuses before. Few and far between of course but they do exist..."

"You know as best as I do with his bodily constitution. Those odds are incredibly slim..."

‎

‎"Then I'm left with no choice...I can...use that spell perhaps?"

"Don't be foolish. That incantation drains your life force...not to mention the risks..."

"fufufu what risk have I not taken since I was a little girl? And you said it yourself, we should know what he is..."

‎

‎ Baba lifted her wand and moved closer to the boy. The glazed look of emptiness still dwelt within his bright brown and slightly hazel iris. She stood right in front of him, her heart rapidly beating with an indifferent tone, and filled with a host of opposing wills.

With a heavy countenance, she watched his erratic oval-shaped eyes bouncing from pillar to pillar. His mouth seemed dry from the constant mutterings of those ancient tongues.

Whilst she took some moments to watch him. She couldn't help but see that bouncing baby boy all those years ago again.

A brief smile creased against her face whilst her palm delicately stroked one side of his smooth cheek.

'Children grew so quickly,' she thought.

'Like flowers blooming in spring.'

Her elation was quickly dampened by the sniggering voice from her dark passenger.

Her false golden eye swirled again.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"You should be quick...less he wakes up."

She was right.

Baba was purposely dawdling.

So with a heavy heart, she raised the tip of her dark wand and gently pressed it against the space between Suta's brows.

Using her free hand, she held out her palm and a large book encased in black leather appeared, a large chain rattled around it as the book balanced just above her palm against an opened page. The pages were pale, and coarse looking.

With a thin film of a ghostly substance shimmering out from it.

And in the tongue of Roda, Granny Baba spoke.

"Elgor Nor Atler Figor Selpa- Nor shon Velto Numo'rey El ( open o ye sleepless eye- show me the way to doors hidden from my eyes)

A dazzling red light shone from the tips of her wand. Very slowly, it started to sink between Suta's brows. Her fingers moved like a pianist's across the open page, tracing the same reddish glow over lines and lines of text in her opened book.

Baba immediately felt an unbreakable bond form between her wand and Suta's mind. The pressure was so great that her hand clasping the wand trembled violently.

A dark rune appeared against her callously shaped wand, forming a link between her hand and Suta's forehead. Against the vacant-eyed boy's forehead, an ominous dark-inked sigil materialized a black star with six smaller triangles surrounding it. Baba suddenly jerked her head upward, her mouth forming an O before she bellowed a deafening howl into the once silent and musky air.

Countless lines emerged visibly from her grimoire, rising out of the book. She understood now that she had cast such a strong incantation that the words would elude her for at least a few years.

Drifting seconds felt like a prolonged absence of time itself. Soon enough, Baba found her vision swallowed by a formless black cloud, which felt more like a dream sequence than anything true. The dark fog subsided after a short time, as she had expected, knowing the purpose of this spell.

Baba saw her surroundings change, and the formless air gradually became a ceiling of white. The walls and floors also greeted her with pale hues. A trace of blue and gold lines started appearing all over this canvas of white surrounding her. Although not wholly unfamiliar, Baba had long since understood that everyone's mind palace would be unique to its person.

She watched in amazement as the adolescent mind's pencil sketched what emerged as an elegant, though distinctly old-fashioned room. Captivated by the intricate details and the way colors softly bled into the white expanse, transforming it in real-time, Baba beheld the white canvas blooming with color, unfolding into a lavishly decorated, spacious room. Beneath her feet, smooth redwood floors extended.

The walls, adorned in golden wallpaper, boasted countless paintings. Unusual chairs with soft-hued cushions and short mahogany tables with smooth edges dotted the space, alongside glass ornaments containing unique black and white petalled flowers.

'How can a child's mind be so vividly alive…' she thought, visibly deeply shocked by the scene laid before her.

Baba had never seen a child's inner mind before, for one the spell would drain her of mana severely to the point she would probably be unable to form consistent Rank 4+ spells for a while.

Secondly, children's minds always usually were filled with jumbled memories or unfiltered madness. To a seasoned Arcanist, the risk and rewards were not worth the hassle the spell caused on the caster.

Baba had used this spell a few times on adults, usually on her captured enemies.

And none of which could ever hold a candle to the elegant décor of this place.

'It feels like someone has been living here…and living quite comfortably for that matter.' She noticed the very prestige atmosphere surrounding this place.

Arcanists tended to spend most of their lives scaling vast planes in search of knowledge and resources. A person's mind was one of the vastest places one could venture into, hence why most Arcanists would've already developed a lengthy amount of defenses to safeguard their mind from the attack of others.

Granny Baba continued her careful inspection of the odd room. She eventually concluded that this place was perhaps a figment from a different time, or perhaps even a different world.

There was no sense in believing a child's mind had created all these things out of nothing. There had to be a source, an inspiration for the artistic creations she was witnessing.

But the child was no more than 16.

'His mother perhaps?' She pondered internally

Since it wasn't foreign for others to have created or sealed such calamities inside the bodies of infants. There was once a powerful Arcanist who sealed pieces of his soul into memory fragments and scattered them among 13 geniuses.

She remembered that night she encountered the woman with smooth dark brown skin and strikingly long magenta puffy hair. An expressionless but beautiful face almost demanding she cared for the soft-sounding sleepy baby, with wiry pinkish hair swaddled in heavy wraps of wet fur.

'The storms were terrible that night.' She recalled darkly

How could she forget that terrible omen that night? Mana was practically seeping down from the skies with the rainfall.

'What is this child?' Baba's anxiety gnawed at her, propelling her quest to uncover the source of her unease.

Halfway across the grandiose room, she stood observing, her marveling eyes drawn to one particular mural that dwarfed the countless paintings lining the walls. An oil-rendered scene depicted a five-headed dragon perched atop a high-raised hill.

The dragon's heads blazed in brilliant hues of blue, white, green, red, and black. An incredible beast towering over a gathering of eight uniquely dressed fellows.

Each figure sported robes of a distinct color, hauntingly reminiscent of the garb worn by the Unseen Eight colleges of Arcane.

There was a small sense of dread she felt while observing the painting.

Curiously enough, the other paintings seemed to depict their own obscure story.

She noticed a few smaller paintings that seemed to depict a story between a faceless little boy and a raven-haired, pale-faced girl with black wings and golden runes consistently wrapped around her arm. In the scenes, the winged girl carried the boy, ushering him into a new world.

Though never one to entertain the ramblings of seers, Baba held a personal regard for the veiled mysteries of the world. Another large mural caught her attention an oil painting of an enormous, majestic tree, titan-like against a backdrop of grasslands, distant white hills, and a wide sea. By its roots sat eight adorned golden thrones.

But what truly captured Baba's gaze was the statue of a beautiful woman, draped in such profound divinity that it was difficult to look away.

A sudden realization struck Baba as she took in the scene. In this inner world materialized from the adolescent's psyche, the divine feminine figure presided over all...

'It can't be, can it? The Queen...Goddess Lunara?'

Baba knew of only one figure whose visage graced nearly every monument across the Central, Western, Southern and Eastern cities. The great Queen who ascended to become the first Goddess of the Golden Dawn. The Goddess Queen, Lunara the Bringer of Dawn.

The alignment and themes of these obscure stories were all too significant to ignore. The larger paintings, with their depth and clarity, seemed to chronicle major historical events. Having seen enough to deduce they represented memories, Baba was puzzled by their presence within a 16-year-old boy undeveloped mind.

As she proceeded, her gaze lingered on the haunting images until she reached a distinct square-framed red door.

Discovering the quaint, red door brought a wave of relief to Baba.

She knew well the significance of doors in mind palaces and approached the faded brass doorknob with caution. The moment her hand touched the metal, a deep furrow formed against her brow, sensing a baleful aura from the other side, a reminder that her presence here, while spirit-scrying, hinged on the purity of her mana not going haywire.

Baba needed to think carefully before continuing forward, there was no telling what sort of problem she could meet inside of there.

And bearing in mind she was temporarily unable to cast any incantations within this space.

Any immediate danger could be fatal. Her inward fears slowly seeped into her conscious thoughts.

Then, she heard an all too familiar deeper voice within her.

"You forget I am with you...if danger appears we'll split our consciousness."

"Hmm, indeed that would help. I guess we should proceed then." She exhaled with a deep sigh.

Baba twisted the doorknob and gently pulled the door open.