I woke up, opening my eyes finding myself lying on a beach made out of black sand face down, the place was quiet and dark, yet everything even myself was illuminated by a light above, with no apparent source. Looking around a bit more, I realized that I was on an small island filled with a tall grass, still as if it were frozen in time, the island was so small that I could see the beach on the other side.

The island itself was surrounded by black waters, however there wasn’t much far I could see, since only this small island was enlightened by that invisible light source. By the time I got up, I saw a structure appear as if it appeared out of nowhere.

Black tower tall as far as eye could see stood before me. The tower was completely flat, with no doors or windows, it was more of a column than a tower…

Of course I had hints of what this place could be, but I dared not to say it out loud before I was completely sure of what this place really was.

I stepped towards the tower and reached out my hand, touching it’s clear surface, contrary to my belief it was rather warm, yet once I blinked a simple entrance appeared before me, I stepped inside the darkness inside only to find a spacious library, as far as eye could see before me. Only bookshelves could be seen, all clear as day.

The light scent of books and parchment hit my nose, resulting in a slight smile appearing on my face. I turned around only to see the entrance vanish before my eyes.

Isles of shelves were flying around as if unaffected by gravity, connected by stairs that some of were upside down, sideways and so on, the library had no end and no beginning, I understood where I was, what this place is and that my guesses have been right.

Once I understood what this place was I was delighted, this place was detrimental to my revenge and my ambitions beyond that, with all of this knowledge, I could make an everlasting empire, with enough time.

But one thing after another.

***

Young Aris stood in the middle of the infinite library that spread before his eyes, with his head tilted and his hand on his chin. Only gods could guess what was on his mind.

Moments later, his eyes lit up with fire that could burn even the stars on the night’s sky. He looked around before approaching one of the bookshelves skimming through the titles. Moments later he was holding a book in his hands and was reading through it at a fast pace, it was a book titled Basics of Magic. A book he must’ve read multiple times already, so why was he reading it?

‘Hmm… so, the books I have been reading so far were not precise, and detailed to this point or even wrong, that’s why there are so many books around yet I struggle to pick them up, as if they were slipping through my fingers.’

‘Maybe I have to first truly learn the contents of this book before I would be able to read all the other knowledge.’

Knowledge is power, for mages, this was a universal law. No mage was powerful without knowledge. Even with a wisp of mana, you could kill a giant, if you knew the place you should strike to fell such beast. For erudite mages, slaying giants was akin to breathing in terms of mana.

The book went on about explaining how the basics of magic work. First, you have to have mana to cast magic. All jokes aside, there are few laws that constrain mages. The first law states that the mana you expend must be equal to the force required to casting the desired effect, if you have less mana than you need, you die. Bones charred to dust and stuff like that, really painful. No smart person would cast a spell without mana, right?

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But there’s the catch, you’ll never know how much mana the desired spell costs, so you risk dying every time you cast a spell. Thrilling, at least for the mages who like to live on the edge.

That may or may not be the reason you never see and never will see a mage casting spells to finish mundane chores, because the ones that do are either as rare as a tree in the middle of a desert or dead.

Aris of course knows this law and he never… almost never…only sometimes… casts spells without a second thought. Since elves have a lot of mana and energy flowing through them they can sometimes afford being little foolish while casting spells.

As to what spells are, they are just a willpower of a mage with mana sprinkled on the top. That’s one of the dangers of magic, you have to have complete control over your thoughts before attempting to cast spells, or you cause others or yourself harm. As some mages say; “You’re but a stray thought away from killing your spouse, accidentally.”

The book then mentions something called mana core. Completely new concept to Aris. A mana core is a way of storing surplus mana in a bead you create and cultivate in your body. It can be really any shape you want, some mages were experimental in their ‘lacking’ times, so to say. So it’s advised to create your core when you have a clear mind, devoid of distractions, it’s more or less due to the fact that during the creation process the mana you control to create the core can run rampant and explode your body on spot. Exciting.

You can create multiple of them if your body is strong enough and doesn’t explode on the spot. Multiple mana cores are desirable because if you completely use the mana in a core, it disappears, so the hard work you’ve put in can be gone in a blink.

To cast a spell, you need mana, which is the exact opposite of ari, which is chaotic in nature. Ari is everywhere, some areas are denser, while other areas hold almost negligible amount. Using ari to cast spells is just bringing a disaster upon yourself. Something even worse than mana burn might happen.

Replenishing the mana only takes time so you just need to wait, for your body to transform it from ari to mana. Nobody really knows how this process works, but stronger bodies show faster recovery rate and bigger storage of mana.

It's a common belief between mages to view mana and ari as representation of order and chaos.

Back to the concept of forming a mana core, it’s oddly simple, you just sit and breathe, focus your mana in one spot while you feel pain in every atom of your body as if you were burned by thousand suns and wait until all your mana is in that spot, wait for it to hold shape and repeat this process couple of times and that should do the trick. You should will it to the shape you want it to have and that’s it.

The book then divides magic into two broad categories, blessings and curses. Blessings have a naturally positive effect. Curses have a naturally negative effect. There are types of spells that can be both blessings and curses and some that are only blessing or only curse.

‘What lunatic wrote this book I wonder.’ Aris quickly shut the book pondering about the process of making a magical core. After putting the book back to the shelf, he walked around the wooden floor and then approached a railing at the edge of the floor, looking above and below, wondering if this library had an end.

He pondered about something for a while before he sat down, leaning his back on the railing.

“Big sister, this place is sure lonely…,” he said, two tears were rolling down his cheeks. His weakness, he hated it. “Sorry… everyone, I will never let anyone I hold dear get hurt before my eyes ever again.”

He sat up with his legs crossed, determined to be the greatest mage to ever set foot in this universe.