Chapter 16: The first Lessons

The next few months went by steadily, the twins go used to life in the manor without Linae around and now that they were older they had more freedom to roam the Kazantria lands, although someone would always keep a sharp eye on them if they were to play in the courtyard or were out exploring Attalon village with their father or Lilibeth.

Soon the time came when they would begin training and learn to harness their magic power and learn to become more proficient in weapon combat.

Inside the dining hall Lucina sat with the twins, at the table in front of them lay open a large book with lots of writing and various symbols and graphs.

During this time the twins had begun frequenting Lucina’s library, it was a circular room towards the back of the manor filled with thousands of books from all over the continent. The shelves reached the ceiling and surrounded the room from all sides except above the doorway.

Earlier that day the twins were admiring this hidden gem of a room at the back of their home. Leo sat on the floor to discuss what they should do.

He explained to Lea that they were now eight years old and knew that their magic power would soon awaken but that they still didn't know much about this world or even how to read the language yet.

So then they agreed to begin learning from the books in the library but with the help of their mother since she had already told them that she, Lilibeth, and their father would help them when the time came to train their skills.

The book that lay on the table was one that the twins had asked their mother to pick out from the library since they couldn't yet read the titles.

“Okay children, this is a book about magic basics, it has information about some of the fundamentals of the arts, how it can be used and basic spells to get you started that we could test out later if you feel ready.

Follow along as I read, and pay attention to the letters. Soon you’ll recognize them yourselves.”

The twins nodded, leaning in. Lucina’s voice carried steadily:

“‘An Introduction to the Magical World.’

In this world, each human is born with a blessing from the gods. Some may only have one, that of vitality from our Lady Athnea, goddess of humanity. 

Others may have one or two alongside this. All blessings come from the gods, each unique to their nature. The Heavenly Council is composed of nine deities…”

She began to go through them one by one.

Athnea - Goddess of vitality and humanity. All humans are granted at birth several basic magic abilities from this goddess such as enhancement spells that often intertwine with other elemental blessings, and essential mana manipulation. and these spells go in ranks from I to V to X, each one being a more substantial and mightier boost.

Some abilities consist of: Helvetica, invokatum, guard sphere, and manaflow.

Nelon - Lord of fire and destruction. As you can take from his title his blessing grants the blessed with the abilities to use flame spells or to wreak fiery devastation against an enemy.

Some starter-level abilities linked to this affinity are the following: Flare arrow, Flame orb, Ignus, and Flare rush.

Leo’s mouth quivered into a grin. “Now that sounds cool. Fire arrows.”

“Cool?” Lucina raised a brow, though her lips curved in amusement.

Seraph - Lady of the waves. She holds power over the water of our world and although this blessing is less common in humans than other beings such as merfolk and Spirits when a human holds this power they can manifest it at will, using their mana to extract from the air around them or as we recently discovered, some higher-level mages can convert the mana in their bodies into manifestable water.

Beginner spells include: water ball, mist veil, and hydrostream.”

“Mother?” Lea interrupted. “There's other beings than humans and elves like Lilibeth in the world? Like those spirits and merfolk you mentioned”

“Yes, there are many beings in our world, like demons, beast folk, Angelos, merfolk, spirits, magic beasts, and maybe even more,” she smiled then continued reading

“Vontayvah - the commander of winds and atmosphere. Her blessing grants the user power over the air in their vicinity, allowing them to create gusts, levitate or even bring the air to a still, and prevent a foe from breathing.

Spells include: air step, gust, vortex, air cutter, and air pulse.”

Lea began recalling some of her knowledge from her life as Haruki when she studied science. Knowing that information she knew that being able to cut someone off from oxygen must mean someone with Vontayvah’s blessing must be able to manipulate the air on a molecular level and not just control the gusts and breeze.

“That sounds pretty amazing to have that power, and Leo will be able to use it right mother?”

“Yes but he will need to practice hard to get full control over it and manage to use it effectively and quickly if needed, like to let off an air pulse spell or so he can raise into the air on command. One day we’ll work on that and maybe someday you will set out on your own journey like your sister Linae, but instead, I think going to a school could be beneficial but we will see when you're older my dears” she said ruffling each of their heads.

“Thorrak - God of the earth. People with his blessing can command the ground, manipulate, and bind stone and metal. People with Thorrak’s blessing can also make use of enhanced strength and endurance to a certain extent.

Some low-level abilities include: rock smash, merge, stone shot, and earthen skin.

Chrysalis - Goddess of Ice and Crystal.

This blessing allows you to manifest hardened crystal akin to ice or gemstone, people with this magical affinity have a range of abilities such as manifesting sharpened ice shards around themselves or letting off a frosty aura from their palms to cool the area around them or to freeze something into a hardened crystal

Basic spells include: icicle shard, crystallize, and frost blast.

Thynaria - Goddess of nature and healing.

She grants her disciples command over plant life and the ability to heal the organic.

Spells include: vine grasp, heal, leaf whirl, and bloom.

And here are the last two goddess sections.

“Arcadia - Goddess of light and electricity. Ones with this blessing can directly interact with these elements like converting their mana and forming purifying light or taking control of a lightning current.

Basic spells of this element include: lumos, purify, lightning flash, and paralytica.”

If some people have electricity powers then why doesn’t this world have things like electric street lights or electronic devices? Do they just not know what’s possible? Lea wondered.

“And finally,

Memphis - Lord of darkness and monarch of demons. He rules over the various classes of demons who reside in Daltious and gives the blessing of dark magic, which allows a disciple to use void and spacial magic along with raw elemental mana spells like with other blessings.

Low-level abilities include: shadow bind, spatial store, malevolent mist, and dark flow.”

“Isn't that the bad God who's now a demon Lord Mother? Why's he in the book?” Leo asked.

“Yes, the thing is this book is decades old and the library, although I have added quite a few books to it over my life, it’s still filled with many books from our relatives who once lived here before us.”

“Oh, did our grandparents use to live here then?”

Lea said curiously.

“Yes they did, quite a while ago now but that's a story for another day ok my dears?”

Lucina let out a tired sigh, and shut the book. “I believe that's plenty of learning for now, you should get ready for bed. Tomorrow we can try to awaken your magic and practice some spells so head up to bed now.”