Weeks had gone by in a flash, time passing was but a thought in the wind. The uproar of the failure of the summoning died down after about a week. It was as though the boy who came vanished from the fountain he sat upon. Only the family of currently 4 and a young girl new where the boy went.
Within the first night staying at their house they all knew I was the one summoned. The next day I asked Klein if he could teach me some techniques with the sword, he agreed as long as he had time. And with that I continued to stay at their house, practicing with the sword and messing around with mana.
The next morning, before had to go back to the court, she taught me rough on how to control the mana flow throughout my body. Circulating it through my veins and channeling it through my hands. It wasn’t too hard to get a handle on it, and much easier when it learned what I wanted it to do.
As a few days past I began to understand how mana interacted with everything. It was in everything that came from nature, if you built something from the natural resource it was in it. It was faint and hardly noticeable but it seemed to bond with every atom. You could use it if you matched its element. Eva explained that white, few people had it, was capable of using all colors. Her’s is tinted blue because she has a better affinity for water and uses it more. As for me, I am the light and shadows, I can use the colors and the darkness.
Over the days I refined my use of mana being able to spread it along my skin like a flowing sand. I am able to charge it with pure mana making it like a monopole magnet, the mana keeps me safe from temperatures and repels anything fueled by mana. It also covers in my hood, giving my a wispy mask of abyssal. Added with my golden eyes, white streaks of hair, and blackened cloak the family and Eva said I looked like a demon.
It turns out Magic does not create matter, but simply uses the atoms floating in the air to form fire and water. With earth and air, it simply allows you to move the aspects around. It sounds dumb, but it’s actually like telekinesis. As long as you have the supply of mana, you’re capable of achieving lift off with wind spells. Though for me, I can actually pick myself up and fly around. It can be scary but it’s quite efficient. If I can imagine the structure, I can create it.The world is at my fingertips.
It only took a couple of days to get the footwork at a decent place, still needs improvement though. He then had me repeatedly strike at no one for some time, then parry, side steps, and dodging. It wasn’t until a week had passed when we started clashing swords, albeit slow and soft. He also taught me some fencing moves and heavy swords bashes. With this and magic, my time flew by. They didn’t seem to mind me staying longer anyway.
Eva came around when she could, started out every few days. Then every other day to every day only to skip one day once in a while. Abby and Amber joked about it being she felt lonely and anxious without me by her. But of course that’s just them teasing, though I could see she was getting closer to me. She would lean on my shoulder as I tried to explain some of the structure of magic that I found. She would also brush by me whenever we crossed paths. She elbowed me the other day for looking at a woman, I was just trying to observe the mana flow. And yesterday, she hugged me before leaving.
“You better take her on a date soon” Amber said behind me after Eva left. I was surveying some catacombs under the castle when I came across a futuristic door, this was like a week ago when I learned the shadow mask. There was a handprint scanner on the wall next to it, so I tried it. It lit up like the wormhole device and throne. I didn’t go in though, thought it would be fun escapade with Eva or Erik.
I had look at some books some days after I began staying just to see if I could make anything out. It wasn’t the best translation at first but with the help of context and people, the reading became better and easier, the ring seemed capable of learning. Eva came over today saying she had the next couple of days off, seeing if see could spend the night again. The parents said yes, and Amber gave me a wink.
She went off to spend some time with Abby and Erik, as I sat on the couch reading. It had just sundown when she walked into the living room and sat down beside me. I switched to my golden eyes which were capable of seeing in the dark.
“How do you do that?” Eva asked, she is capable if she learned how to. “Mana over the eye? I’m not sure really, it’s just natural for me” I say.
“How was your day?” I ask, “Tiring. The King is working on an army to replace what his image of you was. You need to hurry up and stop him” she said. I slowly explained what was discussed and what I was meant to do, with her, as more trust formed. I really only went over the purging of evil and how I knew about her parents, everything else might or might not be said in the future depending on how things turn out.
“We shall see soon enough… Would you like me to read?” I asked. “Mm… maybe it’ll take my mind off some things, so sure” she sighed.
“Life was exciting at the beginning. A new journey, a new start. We began by setting up base camp near the base of a mountain. We had streams near by and we could hear birds chirp in the air. The scent was sweet like pine and honey, and the wind gently blew through the trees. This was to be our new home, our race’s new story”
“What is this? I don’t think I’ve heard it before” asked as she wiggled her way under my arm that was propped up on top of the couch. “From what I can tell, it’s either a fiction of early settlers or a journal from someone that was pioneering” I rub my tired eyes.
“We could see storm clouds rolling in and within the hour I could smell the wet air. It didn’t take long before we could here the pitter patter of the raindrops falling to the ground. Everything seemed at peace, not even the storm caused that much of a disturbance to the life around us. It was beautiful, nothing like what ever seen in some time. The vessel took years to travel the uncharted stars, going endlessly through the waves of blackness” Eva had her head leaning against my chest and I could hear her breathing deepen with a slow pace.
I scratch her shoulder with my arm above her, “How would you like to go on a date tomorrow? It doesn’t have to be a romantic thing, just a hangout time”. “Okay… I wouldn’t mind even if it was… read, your disturbing my soothing time” she snuggle more into my arm.
“This new world is at peace with itself. Everything has a purpose, nothing is out of place. It seems to know we are here and greets us with open arms”. After a few more minutes of reading I can tell she’s fast asleep. “Foods made if your hu-” Amber cuts her words off with a smile seeing us like this. I just smile and shaking my head at her. I close the book and lean my head on top of Eva’s, as nice as it would be, I best not sleep here.
I slowly shift to get up and lower her down to the surface of the couch. I bring her legs up and lay a blanket over her. I kiss her on the hair, whisper “good night” and leave for some food and bed. “Mmm… Don’t leave me” she mutters softly.
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*Poke* “Hello” *Poke Poke* “You going to wake up any time soon?” I’m crouched by the couch in front of Eva. “Mmm.... Five more minutes” she tries to swat my hand away from poking her shoulder. I move some strands of hair behind her pointed ear with my index finger, “I know you’re tired, but it’s already a couple hours past sunrise. And I’m sure you’ll want time to get ready for the date today”.
“Date? What date?” she mumbles. “The one you agreed to last night” I chuckle. After moments of recollection, she jerks up to a sitting position and looks at me. She burrows her brows, “I said something weird when I was asleep, didn’t I?”.
I smile at her, “Not that I can remember. It’s just two friends enjoying each others company while sightseeing or something”. I pat her knee, “Come on, breakfast is ready. And you’ve got a bit of bed hair you might want to sort out” I stand up and walk to the dining room. I never had a girlfriend yet back on earth. Back there is was close to a endless cycle of girl meets bad boy, falls in love with the excitement, then ends up heartbroken when things fall apart. I was their friend who was always there to support them until the next cycle came through. They were young and dumb, and it was like candy. Sweet and the beginning but without proper maintenance, it’ll make your teeth fall out in the end. One nice thing about this place is you’re not really considered an adult until around 120-200 which gives you a long time to develop and understand life. Course you have those who are born into money, and half the time they turn out arrogant and don’t understand the value on life.
“Is she getting up?” Amber asks as I walk through the doorway. “Yeah, though it may take some time. I think we’ll be going in a couple of hours. Would you like to come Erik?” I look at the boy sitting at the table.
We’ve gotten closer after the first night, I taught him a bit on the theory of thermodynamics. I read about it a couple times throughout school but never really picked up on it until coming here. Erik and Abby became like siblings to me throughout the weeks of staying here.
He looked at me then his mom then back at me, “No, it’s best I didn’t tag along. I shouldn’t get in the way”. “You sure? It’s not like we’re going to be kissing or anything. And I’ve got a cool place we’re going to be exploring” I raise my eyebrow.
He looks back at his mom, who’s giving him the eye, I think she said something about it “Yeah I’m fine. You two have fun” he sounded a little glum.
The seasons were similar to that of earth, but suppose that’s one reason humans would have chosen this planet. Though I think they’re a month ahead of earth, when I got here it was turning to fall. I made some money by running errands and deliveries for stores around the city as I got used to the layout. I also helped some on the farms outside the walls, my parents were farmers. But it was a bit harder work compared to modern technology.
I also found out that there was an adventurer's guild, they help hunt for meat and collect herbs and spices outside the wall. I learned a bit more about the darkness that dwelt within me and the planet's core. It’s not evil itself but when mixed with malice it can have some unsavory effects. The darkness brews within the caves and dungeons around the world, releasing mutated and evolved animals.
They aren’t technically bad in nature, but it is instinct for them to attack and defend when someone enters their territory. And since they evolve through darkness, their material like fur can be useful for magical practices. Everything exists for a purpose, fundamental good or evil doesn’t have a place here, if pure malice accumulates it is to be purged from existence. Life and death is a cycle, there is harmony and unity between the two for peace to continue. If death tries to overcome life, then life must take a step to equalize, this is my purpose.
“Where do you want to go first?” I ask Eva next to me as we enter the shopping district. “I want to go get some new clothes, is there anything you need before that?” she tilts her head.
“I want to get a sword and dagger, so we can stop by there first. Might have to order for them” I respond. “Okay! Let’s go” she commands and grabs my hand to pull me.
People glance up at us as we walk holding hands, but they dismiss it as it’s becoming a regular scene when we come. We pass by the fountain that I came to when I first came here and went to the smith on the right.
“Welcome, good morning, what can I do for you?” a woman with big muscles welcomes us. “Just looking for now, thanks” I answer back.
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I walk up to a wall filled with all sorts of weapons. Eva leans up close to me, “What do you need a sword for anyway? You don’t really need it with your magic” she whispers past my hood, I can feel her hot breath on my cheek.
I smile at her, “I wouldn’t train with a sword if I wasn’t going to get a sword. Plus, unless I could magnetize their weapon, they would cut right through my mana. I may be strong, but I’m not invincible with magic”. I look over to see a black straight sword, with a foot long hole from its hilt. It looks sleek and shiny, with a bit of edge to it. I picked it up, it was light but had a nice weight to it.
I walked up to the desk with Eva, “Do you have any daggers that are serrated?” I ask. She crouches behind the desk and pulls out a knife that almost looks vicious, “It’s not exactly serrated, but it should do the job” she hands it to me.
It’s about half as heavy as the sword, if I were to throw it, it would stay on a straight path. I put both blades on the desk, “How much would this be?”. She looks at the blades then at me, “Mmm… These blades are unique. But the person who brought them here said he wanted them gone. I’ll take 3 big nickel coins for them, and he brought the shealthes with them”.
The money system is a little strange, the have a big and small coin for each metal, copper, nickel, and gold. Ranging from 1, 10, 25, 100, 1000, and 5000. From all my work I earned up to a 4 big nickel coins. I handed her the 3 coins, she grabbed the sheaths and put the blades in their respective holder.
She handed them to me, “You be careful now, the way he was talking, there’s power in them”. “I will, thanks for the warning” I responded.
As we walked back onto the street I unlooped half my leather belt and slid the dagger to my back and sword to my right. My cloak covered the dagger, as it reached in between my butt and knees. As for the sword you could see the blade pointing out from the bottom of the cloak.
“Would you like to get a snack?” I look at Eva. “Mmm, sure. But you sure you have enough after that. Or am I going to have to pay?” she says with a devilish grin. “Yeah I’ve got enough, can’t be going around letting the lady pay now can I” we both laugh.
Now let’s talk about some enchantments and inscriptions. For my clothes I was able to make a self-clean inscription. As for how it’s done for me, I write a name on the item with mana, then I imagine how I want it to work with the natural structure. I then bind the idea into the fabric with mana. When mana in supplied to the self-cleaning attribute, it pushes everything that wasn’t there when the inscription was made. Like reversing static electricity with dust. I also have a self-repair when supplied with mana, and fortification which hardens the fabric, making it similar to chainmail. It isn’t the best, but it’s better than having nothing.
We walk up to a stall and each get a meat sheshkabab, only costing 2 small copper coins each. They were juicy and we giggled when some of it squirted out.
We started towards the clothes shop. I ran my mana around my new weapons to check them out as we walked. The two blades had a sharpness enchant on them, but what surprised me was the dagger. It bonded with my dark mana, allowing me to teleport it from the sheath to my hand and back again. And it worked well with my telekinesis, It would materialize in my hand and I could shoot it and pull it back if it wasn’t too far away. Course I didn’t do this out in the open, I shot it at a box in an alleyway. Both blades surrounded by mana, I could easily set it on fire, but didn’t deform the blades in anyway.
As we walked into the store I noticed a group of older kid pushing two others into an alleyway up ahead. We entered, “Hey Eva, Eli. Coming in to buy or just look around” Anita called out. “Depends on who’s paying for it” I smile at Eva.
She grins back, “We’ll see” I stop at a bench meant for the people who’d end up waiting, “You're not gonna help me find something?” she asks.
“You look around a little first, I’ll be with you shortly” I gently smile. “Ok, I’ll hold you to that, so don’t wait too long’ she says as she turns around with a sway of the hips, no I must be imagining that. I sit down and close my eyes, a burst of black mana shoots into a near shadow from my body.
Another little trick I’ve learn, shadow clone. I can make a figure made of mana to travel around, its reach so far is a couple of blocks, I can even have it jump through the shadows using the mana in the air. It springs into the alleyway and opens it gold glowing eyes, looking like a demon sandman. I can use it with my white mana too, and I can have it walk around while I’m doing other things but it’s very trippy trying to control two bodies complexly at the same time.
“You told on us didn’t you?” the oldest looking boy was pointing a small pocket knife at the small boy and girl, possibly siblings. I still can’t get used to the age difference, they look 12, but are like in their 30s. I’m not even sure how their brains develop and how long it takes to somewhat mature.
“We didn’t” the boy cries out, “Then how’d they know we stole from their shop” the ‘leader’ demands for answers. There are six boys in their little group, two of them were standing guard at the entrance, this alley was a dead end. “We didn’t tell anyone!” the two children were being to cry in fear.
“You know, it’s not good to make children cry” I say was a heavily distorted voice, articulating sound waves through mana was not an easy feat to accomplish.
The four of the group that was left jumped in surprise, “W-who there? What happened to you two?!” he yelled for the two that was supposed to be guarding the entrance. “Don’t worry about them, they’re just taking a nap” I say.
“Who are you? What did you do to them? Show yourself!” he waved the puny knife around in the air. Two balls of dark orange the size of a fist appear on either side over the shadow figure, everyone but the oldest boy shrink back in fear,
“I simply blocked the blood flow to their brain, they’ll live but have a headache when they wake up” a black sandy humanoid with glowing eyes walks toward them. “What is this, mind magic?! You two get him!” he shouts at the other two boy whom also have small knives.
The two hesitate for a moment then rush me as I don’t move. Their knives go straight through the figure, for something as complex as directing blood flow I need direct access to their body. Their hands get stuck within the sand and in moments they faint. With the mana in the air, I constrict the muscles in their appendages, keeping them from moving.
“Wh-what did you do to me?!” shouts the boy. “How does it feel to be hopeless? Unable to do anything. With power comes the responsibility to lead, not threaten and oppress” I deepen my mana pressure around the alley.
“B-but the nobles and King do it all the time” the boy’s eyes are beginning to mist, I think the other boy fainted. “That doesn’t mean you follow suit. And they’ll be taken care of soon. I am purging this city of its evil intent. Fix your ways before I have to take care of them myself” I place my sandy finger on the boy’s forehead and he soon crumples to the ground.
I look over to the two siblings, “You are free to go”. The girl speaks up in a timid voice, “Who are you?”. “Name does not matter in this form, but know me by the light I shall bring,” I say as the figure disintegrates into the shadows.
I open my eyes and walk over to Eva, “There you are. Did you fall asleep over there?” she jokes with me. I grin “Maybe, something like that”.
“Soo.. What do you think? This or this?” she holds up two dress, one red with some frills near the bottom, and the other is pure white with a wavy fanned out bottom. “Anything that’s a little more transparent?” I smirk, “ouch” she hit me.
“They both would look good on you, but it depends on what you’re going for. My world, white meant purity and innocence. While red was for passion and excitement, mainly trying to seduce” I explain. “Nooo… you're not helping” she blushes.
“If you can keep it clean, I think white would suit you very well” I grab it from her and scan the fabric with mana. It’s not the best fabric to be able to inscribe something on, but I think it can manage at least the one. I turn so no one can see what I’m doing and I enchant it, even if we don’t buy it it’s not hard to do this.
I feel the silky fabric and imagine the structure, “And fwallaw, go try it on” I hand it back to her. She raises her brow, I shrug “I don’t think they’ll mind”.
She goes and comes back from the dressing room, I’ve gotta say, I’m going to be having a lot of jealous daggers shot at me. “You ready to go?” I ask her, she nods her head and we head up to the desk.
“Don’t you two just put on a show. That’ll be 3 small nickles” Anita says staring at us. “That’s it?” I pull out my pouch of coins before Eva could make a move, her old clothes probably went into her storage band. They were bands that were capable of storing items as mana or data, I have to research it more to understand it but it’s one of those ancient magic technology things.
There are a few around so they aren’t all that expensive but I couldn’t afford it right now. Eva got it from her parents as a graduation gift. I hand the coins to Anita and as I’m putting the pouch away Eva grabs my arm and leans closer. I feel her lips on my cheek, “Thanks”. I turn as she walks out the door, “I don’t know how you did it but you managed to capture her heart, so many tried and failed but you managed it” Anita spoke to me.
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After the shopping, we headed to explore the catacombs under the castle. It was clean around the entrance but got dirtier the further in you went. After a few twist and turns, we came upon the old door that I found before.
“This? You say you wanted to explore the area, but we can’t get past. It only works with the King” she looked at me with doubt. “So it won’t react at all with you?” I ask her.
She goes up to the pad and places her palm on the surface but it does nothing. “I’m sorry but there’s nothing we can do. We should head back” she turns to me. I grin and walk up to the pad and unlock it. “What?! How?! Only royalty has access to this!” she shouts at me. I shrug “Maybe I am royal, after all,” I laugh.
She just stares at me in shock, “Well, shall we go? Ladies first” I notion for her to go. She stood there not moving an inch, so I proceeded myself.
The place was actually quite underwhelming, few medium rooms with some bunk beds, a kitchen area that looked spotless and a big open room beside it. The only noteworthy thing was the lights and a door that was locked shut. The scanner was dead, seemed like someone broke it on purpose.
I tried prying them open with telekinesis but It would only open an inch before even more pressure was required. I grabbed the center with my hands and tried pulling, even added strengthening with mana to my muscles. It was almost there, but I couldn’t quite hit the threshold.
“Eva” I huffed “Can you help? Pull or use a spell or something” I grunt out. “I don’t know any particular spells for this” she came up and grabbed one side. I fortified her arm muscles and we began to pull with my add telekinesis.
After a small bit of sweating and huffing about it finally released and opened all the way. Inside looked like a medical room with a chair in the center, and in this chair was a skeleton. “Man this place has been dead for some time, I bet we’re breathing them in as we speak” I snicker towards Eva, she scrunches her nose.
There wasn’t much in the room, either wasn’t filled to begin with or taken out before the door was jammed shut. I walk towards the counter to look at the band and tablet that laid on the surface, I kicked something hard on my way. It walked over to where it rolled to and picked it up, it was a ball with a lens.
I could see the iris within the glass, “Camera?” I showed Eva but she shrugged her shoulders. I placed it beside the tablet and picked up the storage band, similar to Eva’s. I channeled some of my mana to see what it had inside or any enchantments.
*Owner: Deceased, Unable to access information.* I pulsed my mana again at it, hoping for something. *Owner: Deceased, New Owner? Y/N* ‘Yes’
*New Owner Confirmed. Keep Inventory? Y/N* ‘Yes’
*Keep Inventory Confirmed. Direct Access, List, or Both?* ‘mmm, both I guess’
*Direct Access Confirmed. Secondary List Confirmed. Initializing… Setup Complete. Access Available.* I pulse my mana again.
*Owner: Eli Flein, Access Granted. Item Request. Or Show List?*
“Does your storage band use permissions?” I ask over to Eva. “Permissions?” she tilts her head in confusion.
“Sorry, that’s computer talk. Does it confirm you're the owner for access?” I ask again. “No. I just think what I need, and on rare occasions, it’ll fill my head with a list of things I have” she ponders.
“Mmm… Maybe the user was special” I say out loud. I’ll look at the list later, for now let’s see if the tablet is working, I grab it and look at the cord that’s attached to it and runs through the wall.
I pull it out, Mmm, I can only assume it was for power or data transfer. I look over to Eva, she’s staring at the skeleton on the chair. “I think this is everything we can get from here” I pick up the camera and put it in my pocket “wanna get outta here?” I ask.
“With pleasure” she walks to the door. I follow close behind while observing the tablet, everything else is charged with mana, so maybe this too? I cover the whole thing with mana to find a point of entry or if the whole surface is able to. I find what looks to be a home button, the mana tunnels in through there.
So I retract the mana back to my hand and channel it through my thumb into the hole. After a few minutes of charging the screen flicks on, as it starts up I sit down with Eva at the table in what’s looks like a dining room. When it finishes powering on I search its content, the only thing is a video which I hit play.
“Captain’s log - May 3rd, 5,103”.