***

"He's six months old and already walking?"

"He looks as if he understands what we are saying."

"I've never seen a baby like this."

Despite Tao's best efforts, he did not always behave normally in front of adults. Although some people used the word "weird" or "strange", his parents and most other adults called Tao "smart", "talented" or "gifted". Tao did not remain normal in people's eyes but also didn't become suspicious.

At least for now.

It wasn't easy, though.

When his mother was changing Tao's nappies, the dark stone with the crystal around the woman's neck swayed in front of him. Tao would have loved to ask "What is that?" but knew that would be too suspicious, even in front of his mother, so he just raised his hand as if to reach for the stone.

"Hm? You like it?" The mother dangled the jewelry in front of her son.

"Yay!" Tao responded affirmatively.

He hoped his mother would say something more about the mysterious stone, but unfortunately, Sofra just kept dangling it over the child's head as if she were playing with a kitten. Tao's enthusiasm waned; his face soured.

"Avv... don't make that face!" Sofra gently pinched her son's cheek.

Tao stuck his tongue out at her in response.

"Oh, are we being rebellious today? I can do that too! Eeeee!" The woman did the same.

It looked so funny that Tao suddenly chuckled, or rather made a sound that expressed joyful delight.

"Get some more! Eeeee! Eeeee!" Sofra continued to show silly faces.

This is so stupid... Tao thought, but couldn't remain indifferent or annoyed and continued to smile back at his mother.

For a while, he was colder towards his mother, even hesitant to feed from the breast. He felt somehow unhappy after witnessing his parents' nocturnal activities. Tao was not traumatized, no, in a way the situation was amusing, or funny, at least in his mind. His heart, on the other hand, felt... betrayed.

It was silly, wrong even. Sofra loved and cared for him as a child, nothing more. Tao understood that with his mind, but apparently, other feelings had crept into his heart. Instead of dealing with these emotions, Tao focused all his attention on learning magic.

Sigmund Freud would have been pleased... Tao could only laugh at himself.

Eventually, the negative feelings passed, and Tao couldn't stay angry with his mother for long, as she showed him such genuine love. But he had to accept that Sofra gave her love not only to her son but also to her daughter and husband.

***

In the second half of autumn, the weather became much colder, and it started to rain often, so the mother took the children out of the house less often. Indres and the other hunters continued to go out into the forest regularly to hunt animals and destroy monsters, but he also seemed more annoyed when he came home cold and wet.

The windows were usually kept closed, and thick, foggy glass made it hard to see what was going on outside. The sun was no longer visible, so the interior was darker. Despite the existence of magic, the rooms were usually lit in the evenings with oil lamps and candles. In general, life seemed greyer, more monotonous.

No TV and no internet... primitive toys... how do children fight boredom in this world? Tao wondered.

Safia's answer was – her little brother.

Apparently, she found it more interesting to play with Tao than with her own toys. As an infant, he could have ignored his sister, but he decided to be responsive and reacted positively when his sister gave him an object to hold or wanted a hug. This only made the girl more interested, and Sofra thought it would be nice to let the two children play together more often. Tao's cradle was now placed on the floor, allowing Sophie to get to him easily.

Tao did not mind giving her attention from time to time, such as picking up and giving her toys, and letting her touch and hug him. He also responded when Safiya tried to talk, although this had to be done carefully, with baby sounds rather than real words. It took patience to take and give back the same toy ten times in a row. In addition, the presence of a sister often prevented him from concentrating on the magic training.

Tao began to think that it was impossible to summon magic just by saying spell words in his mind. Better success was achieved by concentrating the magical energy and then spreading it to other parts of the body, although this had to be done with caution because overwork caused pain.

He also continued to try to use up the magical power every day to force the body to increase its supply of magic. It became more difficult to do this, as it was necessary to summon light magic at least 50 times in a row for this to happen. Eventually, it was no longer interesting, just tedious. Repeated summoning of the magic did make him aware of something foreign that appeared in his mind at the time of the spell, but it wasn't quite clear what it was.

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***

The rainy autumn was replaced by a white winter, with a thick layer of snow covering the ground and the roofs of buildings. Indres often shoveled the snow from the front of the house, as well as Sofra when their husbands were away. Although the stove was heated every day, Tao was grateful for thicker, warmer clothes. He also enjoyed the time when his father was away more, as it allowed him to warm up at night with his mother. When Indres was home and wanted to spend the nights with his wife, Sofra put the two children to bed together in the children's room. Although Tao did not think it was as comfortable to sleep with his sister as with his mother, she still was a source of warmth so the boy did not mind.

However, when Tao wanted to learn magic at night, he had to carefully release himself from Safia's embrace and crawl out of bed without making any noise. This was not always successful, and sometimes his sister would wake up if Tao whispered something in the corner of the room or called for a light. Safia was too young to understand what her brother was doing but still became restless when she didn't find Tao around. At times like this, he had no choice but to go back to bed.

Despite all these difficulties, Tao discovered three new magics that his mother used: heating water, drawing water or liquid from plants or cloth, and evaporating water. Mostly Sofra used these magics to make medicines from plants, although sometimes she also heated water or milk in a jug when she gave it to Tao. It was not easy to learn these magics without the presence of water in the room - his mouth was often dry from the loss of saliva.

More importantly, Tao began to understand better how the magic worked. His body was filled with magical energy that could be moved and concentrated at a single point. When Tao said the spell words and bent his fingers in a certain way, his mind came into contact with something difficult to describe, like an immaterial existence. This existence automatically concentrated the magical energy in the brain, then directed it to the hand to activate the magic. The magical energy was transformed to be able to influence the physical world, mostly a particular element such as water. The magic that froze the water caused the magical energy to come out of the hand and reduce the movement of water molecules in the vicinity. Magic that heated water accelerated the molecules, while evaporation magic made them increase the distance between molecules, turning them from liquid to gas.

In other words, the magic effect was based on the same laws of physics that existed in Tao's previous world. The supernatural aspect was the existence of magical power and its ability to affect physical matter. Tao still did not understand how light magic worked, even though he felt that magic took something from his body and turned it into light. Flame magic, on the other hand, simply made the air heat up in one tiny spot, so much so that any burning material there would burst into flames.

Tao had the idea that it would be possible to have the effect of magic without the use of spell words. He could already move the magic inside his body, he just had to learn how to get it out and affect physical objects. He was cautious because he was aware that magical power, concentrated in large quantities at a particular point, could damage the body, as it had once done. Fortunately, Tao learned to remove the magic from his body in smaller doses without too much trouble. However, he has not yet been able to affect the water or heat the air. When Tao invoked magic with the spell words, he tried to concentrate on how his magical power was specifically transforming, but he was not able to obtain any useful information in this way.

Another interesting aspect of magic is the complex structure of lines and symbols that flash in the mind when invoking magic. He was now able to see it more clearly. It was difficult to remember all the details of the structure, and he did not have a pencil and paper to draw it. But Tao did notice that each magic had its own distinct structure and that water magics shared several elements. Interestingly, water-heating and flame magics had another element in common.

Tao was convinced that these structures were related to the effect of magic, but could not explain how they interacted with the mind and body. He was also unable to change them or to invoke them without the use of spell words. Perhaps it was a magic formula or something?

The only thing that progressed very well was the increase in magical power. Tao could now summon magic for hours without running out of magic power. He became convinced that the magical power in the body would only continue to grow if it was used up to the point of exhaustion. Since conventional magic consumed less energy and could not be performed every night, Tao learned to drain the magical energy from the body in a clean way, either by training himself to influence water or air or by doing it without any particular purpose. He still sometimes felt pain in his body when moving and discharging the magical energy in large quantities, but there was a feeling that here too the body was adapting, as it got easier with time. However, Tao still often lost consciousness when he had used up all his magic reserves, so he usually returned to bed before the last push.

Tao was aware that his parents and other adults must know a lot more about magic, so he tried to think of a way to get this information. He couldn't ask directly, of course. Safia had tried a few times to imitate her mother when she was casting spells but had been firmly admonished not to do so. It was understandable - with the magic of flames, a child could easily burn down a house. But maybe there was more. Perhaps, like driving a car in Tao's previous world, permission to use magic was needed here.

During the winter, the mother began to read a storybook to Safia, letting Tao listen too. This allowed him to gradually become familiar with the writing of this world. Learning to read on his own was more difficult. Even if there was a book about magic, it would not be easy to understand anything. Besides the book of fairy tales, Tao had only seen books about herbs and medicine - Sofra sometimes used them in her work - so this idea did not seem feasible.

In the second half of the winter, Safia began to disturb her little brother less. The reason was a puppy with silver fur that Indres brought home one day.

Tao had heard his father talking about it before. He wanted a new hunting dog because the old one had died. Indre did not want an ordinary dog, but a special breed, a serene, which is better at distinguishing ordinary animals from monsters. Apparently, such a dog was very valuable and rare.

The puppy was friendly and energetic and did not hesitate to lick Safia's hands when she came closer. She frowned at first but then started laughing. Her mother smiled too, even though she had been worried about the high price of this animal.

“Does he have a name?” Sofra asked her husband.

“Yes, sereni get a name at birth. Terano or Teru for short.”

Terano licked Tao even more intensely than his older sister, not only his hands but also his face. It was no joke; the puppy was the size of an adult cat and much more agile than an infant. Tao almost started laughing and talking out of surprise, until his mother rescued him by taking the baby in her lap.

When Indres was home, he took time every day to train the puppy. Sometimes Sofra even told him that the children needed attention too. Safia also gave so much time to Teru that Tao even felt lonely for a moment. He almost pouted when his sister wanted a puppy next to her in bed instead of her little brother.

He did not object to the presence of Terano. In his previous life, his parents would never allow an animal in the house - all their attention had to be on studies. The house became livelier and less gloomy thanks to the new inhabitant. The neighbors also came to see the unusual dog.

However, there was also a problem: Teru seemed to react lively when Tao released a large amount of magic from his body. The puppy did not hesitate to touch the infant at these moments and sniffed vigorously, trying to find the source, or began to bark in a subtle voice. Also at night, when Tao did this in his room, Teru repeatedly sensed something and began to scratch along the door.

Already it was not easy for Tao to keep secrets from his parents and sister; now there was also the dog to consider, whose nose probably smelled magic.