First Lesson

Once, the skies were filled with stars, each a sun of its own system. Once, there was a world of many worlds. But the stars had long since faded, the worlds devoured by the Nameless God.

Birth from the blood of the God of Destruction, the Nameless God knew nothing but ceaseless hunger. Devour it did the planets, moons, and suns till nothing remained. And so, the world met its end, all life wiped out, all except for the lonesome god without a name.

However, not all was lost. Existing alongside the known reality, there was a realm called the 'Abyss'. Regarded as a realm of chaos and madness, the Abyss had no laws governing it. It was a realm without substance or form, one where dreams and nightmares were as valid as reality. It was a realm in which the past, present, and future were one and the same, a realm where an instant could last an eternity and an eternity in but an instant.

Into the chaotic realm of the Abyss did the survivors seek refuge. Sailed into the chaos they did, upon their giant ships made to traverse the sea of stars. They would be doomed to meld into the madness, to melt into the chaos of the Abyss, had it not been for the light in which they've vested their final hopes.

It was called Aether, the Remains of Remigia's Corpse, the Scattered Ashes of the Goddess of Creation. Within the chaos of the Abyss, Aether brought order. From the infinite formlessness, a new world gained form.

Now, the stars in the sky are no longer suns with their own systems. Rather, they're large clusters of Aether, forming a cage, a Heavenly Ward to keep the Abyss at bay. Now, Aether exists everywhere, continuing to watch over and protect this world and those who live in it.

***

"In a sense, modern mages are heretics that twist Aether to their own ends, making use of them as tools for our conveniences. Some suggested that the Goddess Remigia was but a myth and does not truly exist, that Aether was just something that happened to occur in this world in the way they are, which was why mortal mages were even capable of manipulating them in the first place. Others claimed that it is so because Remigia loved her children, and therefore allowed their wishes and desires to be borne through Aether. Of course, the argument ignores those that could not use Aether and..."

Seated on the bed across from Theodore's, Master Enchanter Annaliese recounted the myths of Aether, the various hypotheses revolving around it, and even her own opinions on the subject. At one point in time, it did not seem like this lesson would end anytime soon.

Though Theodore had every intention of paying attention, the first myth caught him off guard. There were many myths about Aether and the creation of the world, each sharing more than a few similarities with one another, but this one, this particular myth was not one typically told by most.

(Where did she hear about this? Not to mention, it's almost word for word...)

The myth told was one that he, or rather, the Demon Lord had told in the past. The stars, the systems, the planets, and the Nameless God were things included only in the Demon Lord's telling. Not to mention, Annaliese used nearly the same wording as the Demon Lord used. It was as if she had once heard it from the source.

(Do... Do I know this person? Had we met somewhere before?)

Tried to remember as he might, Theodore could not recall a person such as Annaliese in the Demon Lord's memories. He had met many Annalieses before, but he couldn't quite recall one like the person before him and her mask wasn't helping it either.

As Theodore reached into the furthest depths of the late Demon Lord's memories, a look of confusion began to gradually surface as he was unable to find what he was looking for. That look of his did not escape Annaliese's notice.

(Was that too much for him, I wonder. Though the Archmage said to watch his reaction closely when I tell this story to him, all he appeared to be was confused. Perhaps he's only feigning it, but in my eyes, it seems genuine. Well, the letter did mention that his recollection was vague, so maybe that has something to do with it also.)

"Looks like that was too much for you at the moment," said Annaliese. "How about we start with something simpler?"

"Honestly, I'm more interested in how to throw a fireball or something along the lines," said Theodore, trying to throw Annalliese off-topic. Theodore decided that whenever she had planned, it was best to stray from it as far as possible.

"Something of that caliber is hardly simple. No, I think we best start from the basics of the basics, the properties of Aether itself."

***

Of the many properties of the enigmatic Aether, three were the most essential to mages. The ability to bend and manipulate space, the ability to store and transfer information, and the ability to maintain its form within the chaos of the Abyss.

Through the bending of space, mages were able to move objects and tear open rifts. Through the storing and transfer of information, mages could inscribe their will upon clusters of crystallized Aether and add magical properties onto otherwise mundane objects or pass on knowledge that would have long been lost otherwise. Through the ability to maintain its form in the Abyss, mages were able to tap into the power of the chaotic realm, much like Remigia when this world was formed.

It was through applying these properties of Aether, that various schools of magic were created, granting mortals a measure of control over their environment like never before.

Though the world itself was said to be formed from Aether, strangely enough, there exists a disparity in the ability to communicate with and manipulate Aether within the human populace, something not observed within the elven race. The disparity split humanity into the two categories of mage and non-mage, a division that had caused much strive since time immemorial.

***

"Speaking of time immemorial, the first known mage recorded was said to be a-"

As she was about to devolve into yet another long and seemingly endless lecture, Annaliese stopped herself upon noticing that Theodore had long dozed off. It was only then did she realize that this was the first time in their journey that Theodore was able to sleep in a bed. The hard wooden seats of the carriage must not have been very comfortable to sleep on.

(No matter how much I look at him, he seems no different from any other child. If he *is* the Demon Lord, then he must either be impossibly well versed in deception, or this Demon Lord is still indeed a child. I do wonder, what does the Archmage have in store for a child such as this?)

"Sleep tight," Annaliese whispered through her mask as she pulled the blanket over Theodore. "We've a long journey ahead, you especially."

***

End of Chapter 17

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