Chapter V : Talented Mage

The only disturbance of the silence was the regular crackle of the wood snapping under the onslaught of the flames, the unique source of light and warmth through the frozen darkness of the underground room.

Two regular breaths also punctuated the silence, coming from two children asleep against each other, they seemed peaceful and carefree, yet the little girl's body was shaking, was she having a bad dream?

Near her, the young boy who accompanied her woke up due to the sudden agitation, still sleepy, his gaze rested on the little blonde girl, with a smile between affection and spite, he gently stroked her face, the tips of his fingers shining with a pale purplish glow.

As if by magic, the young child stopped moving, falling back into a peaceful sleep, satisfied, he rested his head close to her, also ready to fall back into Morpheus' arms, before he stood up abruptly.

When did they fall asleep? And why were they sleeping in each other's arms? Colleen could barely move and especially did not want to wake the young lady who was visibly exhausted.

With a grimace of annoyance he finally lay back down, he was also tired, after all, each of them had put in a lot of effort and expended a lot of mana and energy, a little rest wasn't too much.

With that in mind, he finally plunged back into the depths of sleep, pushing all thoughts out of his head to be as comfortable as possible.

It is omnipresent darkness which finally brought him out of his torpor, all the logs of the fire had been consumed for a while already, only cold ashes remained, with a sigh, he noticed that Astellyah was still sleeping soundly, huddled against her arm, he couldn't move without her getting up too.

With a wave of his hand, he made a small transparent orb appear and tap on it, the sphere flew to the ceiling, coming alive with soft white light, a whole night seems to have passed, maybe even a long time in the day, it wasn't that he complained that he had slept, but something bothered him.

If Astellyah was a nobleman, moreover the daughter of a duke, her disappearance should arguably have been noticed from the earliest hours of the day and it was obviously past noon, which made her missing status.

He didn't know where the two contractors were exactly but it looked like a secret place and have no servants around, so they were potential out of the estate and if the girl came back covered in blood, hand-blessed and completely sold, he suspected she wouldn't get out of it that easily.

The young boy gently shook her shoulder which made the young girl growl, she turned, back to him without realizing she was still holding his arm. He had been driven by her movement, finding himself on top of her.

The Duke's daughter sharply opened her eyes when she realized the situation but froze in surprise. Staring at the Prince with two wide eyes, the red rising to her cheeks.

"If you agree, I would love to have my arms back, I think it will still come in handy in the future." The King's heir smiled amusedly at her, employing a somewhat mischievous tone.

"Oh ... uh ... Yes, yes of course ..." the young lady stammered, finally letting it go.

The wake-up call was harder than expected, she didn't even know why they were in this situation, the day before, they were discussing seriously sitting on the edge of the bed, how could it have ended like that?

So was that when they had dozed off? It was likely but the resulting situation was awkward, she knew she had probably cuddled the young man all night long since she used to sleep with a teddy bear since she was little.

"I don't want to make you panic but it must be past noon, shouldn't your family be looking for you or something? "

It was enough for making her worry, she got out of the bed of a tie, pushing the young nobleman as she passed, he landed against the wall, uttering a growl from the pain.

Anger enlivened his golden and red pupils as he stared at the girl with some annoyance, what harsh treatment! This kind of behavior should not be that of a young girl of her rank, let alone a member of the royal family and a God.

"It's a catastrophe! I can't go out like this! The rest of the operations will be much more complicated if I am put under surveillance… Oh, dear…" She spoke quickly, her tone was full of distress and bitterness, she was already seeing death hovering again over her and her family, the worry filling her words.

"Oh, let's calm down princess, no one is going to die now a little dust and blood won't stop us, right? Don't be defeatist when we haven't started anything yet. Here, we will be able to start the first lesson, it is timely!"

Far from being taken aback, the young man displayed a casual smile, shrugging his shoulders at the silent question from his friend. Was he dumb or had something that would save them?

"Do you think now is a good time to start class?" She retorted skeptically.

"Perfectly, this is a good start to mastery of magic and then, we always work better in a rush, if you mess up we will have big problems! I will teach you the basics of healing and cleansing magic today." He wore a charming smile, which was a very bad omen for what would happen next.

She approached the boy, having no real choice, she waited for instructions but he just pulled out his pendant from under his tunic, inviting her to do the same with a nod.

She didn't see how it could be useful but decided to trust him after all the prince knew more than her in this area, Lyah was only an alchemist, not a magician, besides, she was dead because unable to do magic among other things, this fact should perhaps be pointed out to the young Rij-Woh.

But his gaze was soft, he seemed confident, she had to trust him, her doubts would only tarnish his focus.

"How should we proceed?" She asked simply.

He grabbed her hand delicately, linking their fingers, if the girl didn't believe it herself, there was nothing he could do, she shouldn't doubt her abilities and be proud of what she was. He had known, at first sight, this girl was chosen by the gods, after all, she was still alive after having contracted with a God as powerful as him and her body was not in the phase of self-destruction, on the contrary, it was adapted very quickly to its new condition and to the new flow of mana which traversed it.

Another time already overpowered as a mage, the young girl was not aware of it but was now close to divine power, her problem was no longer to be "am I able to cast a spell" but rather " how to use this spell without it affecting everyone within a radius of several kilometers."

"Visualize your wound in your mind, imagine it healing itself, imagine that the pain is gone, that there is no trace of it left and by the way, if you could do the same with mine, I wouldn't say no. "

Although she was astonished, Astellyah did not point out the fact that he was still bruised, his demeanor no longer showing it, what she did not know was that he had a great faculty of regeneration but that the wounds were deep and with his current weakness, he could not fully heal from it.

The girl closed her eyes, focusing on the boy's soft touch, she remembered how she had felt seeing the beast in this state, the horror and distress of her inability to heal him, and the fact that he then scratched her, it wasn't anything deep or painful, a few very insignificant marks compared to the damaged body of the silvery creature.

She imagined a gentle warmth replacing the suffering, enveloping the little animal and healing it with its ailments, the blood was leaving, revealing the open wounded skin which closed in its turn, it was no longer in pain and therefore never had attacked the girl.

When she opened her eyes again, a soft green light enveloped the two children, she blinked several times with some surprise, it had worked, it had really worked!

She inspected the young man, his clothes no longer covered in blood, the pain had definitely left his pupils as he smiled gently at the lady.

Then she inspected her hand, there was nothing left and even her sleeve was clean, not covered with the blood she had mopped up the day before.

"I thought cleaning and healing weren't the same." She questioned him.

"Indeed, you are much more talented than I could have hoped for. This method is easier since we had little time but you will not escape learning formulas and protocols, if magic is guided only by feelings, it is dangerous magic. "

" Thin! Me who thought to escape the chores!" She jokes happily, smiling.

"I think you should go now, I won't be able to follow you but anyway, I would need to sleep." He punctuated his sentence with a yawn.

"I'll bring you something to eat and drink, get a good rest!" She greeted him before heading for the exit.

Her footsteps brought her back quickly to the end of the tunnel and she reopened the passage, before stepping out into the solid wood cabinet.

Yet she stood still for a moment, watching for any noise, it might be problematic to have to explain why she was here, even more so if we were looking for her.

If one concluded that it was a bad kid's joke, the trust the people at the estate had in her would be shattered, and that was not what she wanted either.

Now she had to know what the situation was like at home and think of a way so that the young prince did not have to live permanently in the secret room, it would be more comfortable and practical for both of them.

She needed a way to convince her parents but at first, she had to find something to eat for both of them and then talk to him about it, they had decided that they would work together for every choice so as not to have any bad surprises. It was time to reverse fate.