Ancient Civilization (1)

Alex was nervous. He looked a bit absent minded when he greeted me and as we walked towards the lounge, he was uncharacteristically silent. I don't know why he behaved this way and it made me nervous too.

I still didn't know why he asked me to visit him. But looking at how he was behaving now, something serious must have happened.

As we sat on the couch, he looked fidgety and kept mumbling to himself. Okay. He was honestly scaring me now? Did something go wrong with his family? Did someone close to him die? Various scenarios that could have made my friend a nervous wreck flitted through my mind.

As I was concerned about him, I couldn't remain silent anymore.

"What is it? " I urged him, "Did something happen at home? Come on bud, you are making me nervous." Upon hearing, he stilled for a moment and then all his nervousness disappeared as he relaxed and looked at me with utmost seriousness. He looked like he had made a huge decision and made up his mind.

"Peter, can I trust you?"

Silence.

How am I supposed to answer to that? Replying yes would just be conceited and replying no is not a possibility. I chose to remain silent and looked at him firmly to show my sincerity as I know whatever he is gonna say would be of utmost importance.

He stared at me for a few moments and relaxed. Then he said with serious tone, "Whatever I am going to tell you now is a huge secret that only upper echelons in the society know. So whatever I am going to tell you, you must not tell anyone. Anyone! Understand? Not your parents, not your girlfriend.. No one else other than you must know of this." He emphasised again.

I sat nervously in the seat fidgeting as I wondered what could possibly be so serious that he must warn me like this.At the same time I scoffed in my heart thinking what girlfriend? What parent? He clearly knew about my situation but was overreacting like this.

It wasn't like him to behave like this but I still nodded affirmatively as I wanted to know what secret was it that made him so nervous but still wanted to tell me despite the risk.

At the same time I felt touched, thinking that even though he knows of a huge secret, he was still willing to trust and share it with me. I figured he heard a huge secret and freaked out about it so he wanted to talk about it with someone.

"Where do I even start?", he said as he rubbed his forehead. He looked up and suddenly asked me, " How much do you know of history?"

I was stunned at the sudden question. Why the change in the subject? Wasn't he gonna talk about some juicy gossip? But before I replied he continued, "I am talking about before the great war, before the spreading of New Faith. Are you familiar with myths from the Old Faith?"

(AN: Check out Authors thoughts if you are confused about the setting)

"I may not not know the specifics but I do know something about it. Don't the loonies claim that there was a prosperous magical civilisation where everybody lived long lives? They also claimed everyone had some sort of super powers? What does this have to do with anything?"

He looked at me approvingly and said,"Yes, but we can't call them loonies anymore as what they claim may be actually true. Of course many of the things they claim may be exaggerated and outright absurd but they are actually right about some of the things."

I listened to him, intrigued at what he was saying. He took a deep breath and continued,"Actually, there has been a recent discovery that has proved that the ancient civilisation actually existed. And whats more they also found evidence that magic.... It is real!"

At the moment I really wondered if Adrian was killed by someone and a ghost is possessing his body. At least that would be more believable than his ridiculous claims. I get it if there was actually an ancient civilisation, maybe a big natural disaster wiped it out from face of the Earth, and maybe we couldn't discover it's traces because it was too old and disaster has wiped out every trace of it.

Maybe archaeologists discovered these traces and could confidently say that the civilisation indeed existed. But magic? How could it possibly exist. It's something that tricksters use to entertain children with slight of hand. Seeing my disbelief he continued hurriedly as if to say 'I know it sounds ridiculous but listen to me.'

"Archaeologists from Kingdom of Alares have found an ancient tablet. It was made of unknown materials and on it some incantations were carved. Three incantations to be exact, and chanting each of them would give you control over the three elements - Air, Water or Earth. You can only choose one element though."

I interrupted him before he could go on,"Three elements? I have heard of 4 elements in TV shows. What about Fire? Isn't that a element? Seriously, how can you call yourself a magician without fireballs?" I couldn't stop myself from mocking him. Alex's cheeks reddened slightly, from anger or embarrassment, I couldn't tell. Maybe both.

He glared at me before he continued,"I am serious! Only some of the most influential people in the world know about it. This was discovered about two years ago and there already thousands of real magicians all around the world now. Scientists have discovered that these magicians age slower, are healthier and physically stronger from normal people. In fact, the longer you practise magic, the higher the effects observed."

He paused for a moment so that information sinks in. The he continued,"The reason I wanted to talk to you was because the people who practised magic are older people. They think that young people must be ones to practise it to reach really high attainments in it. So they decided to build a school." And then he emphasised,"A school to practise magic."

I know where this is going. He wanted to invite me to join this school. Honestly I really felt sceptical about it.Magic? And now schools? Why doesn't he just say he got a letter from Hogwarts and be done with it. But unknowingly I started to believe in him.

I may not trust a lot of people, but Alex was someone I truly trusted. So I struggled internally at the absurd situation I am in. If what he said was true, should I go to this 'school' where magic is taught?

Me being a strong advocate of science found this hard to swallow. Looking at my struggle he earnestly tried to persuade me,"Look at your life. You are truly wasting it. You learn nothing new from your school. Now is the time to think about our lives. Our Ferraro family has received one slot for this school by luck. I would inherit my family property and continue my luxurious lifestyle but what are you gonna do?"

"I have thought about it and no one needs that slot more than you do. Magic is unknown, not researched. If you manage to learn it, then you would have bright future for sure no matter how bad you are at it. And I don't want to waste this precious slot, so come on bud.. Just accept it.",he said

"So what?", I asked angrily,"I go on and become a magician then? What good is the ability to control elements? I guess doing magic is cool but if it is really all that great, then why did the ancient civilisation die out? Why did magic die out?" I know I am being unreasonable here but dammit I need time to process this.

"Does it really matter? Since you are not learning anything by being here, why not try it out? Besides, magic is not simple as you think. I don't know the exact details, but many devices of unknown materials been found in Alares and scientists still don't understand how they work. But the common theory is that it ran on magic, or at least, it is related to magic."

Alex puffed his chest and asked,"Didn't you used to say you want to unravel mysteries of the universe? Well, here is your chance. Take it or leave it." Then he slouched on the couch with arms crossed and closed his eyes as if he couldn't be bothered about my decision. Was he sulking?

But what he said made me ponder. He was right. Magic is an unknown field and to get a chance to personally experience it, many people would chop off their arms in exchange if they could. What is science? Isn't it observation of the universe and it's natural laws? So doesn't that mean if magic is real, then it's part of natural laws of the world?

Put in this perspective, it does seem like I am been given a precious opportunity. An opportunity to change my life. But as I stared at Alex, I wondered why he is giving up this chance. After all, who doesn't dream of becoming super hero with super powers when young?

But another random thought made me freeze in terror for a moment and stopped me from pursuing the subject. If the myths of the Old Faith are true as Alex said, then doesn't it mean that the horrible part of it must be true as well? The myths about the Devourer, is it true as well?