Chapter 4: Passing Time and Reading Books
At night he would push more mana into his core and practice him manipulation when he was sure his parents were asleep until his head would start to hurt.
In the six months that he had now spent in the care of his new parents, a few things of note happened.
First, Aryn was able to look in a mirror as his mother bathed him for the first time. He had black hair sprouting from his head, entirely black irises filled with a boundless curiosity, and his skin had a healthy pink glow atop the impressive paleness.
'My paleness has transcended death itself. I'll always look like a vampire won't I?' Aryn lamented as his mother dried him off.
Second, he saw his father use magic to summon water for the first time on a particularly hot day. He still hasn't the slightest clue on how that's done. Every attempt to change mana into an elemental form thus far had failed.
Third, Aryn took his first steps at just four months old. This of course brought no small bit of pride to his parents, if their faces were anything to go by.
Lastly, he has learned enough Gleryn to somewhat communicate with his parents, letting his assent or dissent on certain matters and situations be known.
***
Six months after the birth of Aryn: February 21st, 234 CE
Aryn looked at the paper his father set down in front of him. On it was a series of symbols all lined up next to each other followed by another line below the first that repeated a few of the symbols above in a new order.
"This is the Gleryn alphabet," Maros pointed to the first and larger line of symbols. "And this is your name." He turned his finger to the second, consisting of only three of the original 37 symbols.
"Awryn!" Aryn tried to pronounce his name unsuccessfully. His mouth was still not quite the right shape to not catch on some of the harder to pronounce sounds.
"Yes, you spell it like this." His dad ignored the small error and encouraged him before pointing at the first letter of Aryn's name.
"This one is 'A'," he slid his finger to the next.
"That's 'Ry'," and finally to the last.
"What does that make this one sound like?" He looked at Aryn.
"N!" He grunted his reply, bringing a proud smile to Maros' face.
***
Aryn's first birthday: August 15th, 234 CE
Aryn sat on his little chair in the dining room, a slice of cake placed in front of him by the cook, Dunn. His mom was to his right and his dad was on his left, both waiting for him to make a wish.
"I want to learn magic!" Aryn nearly shouted while looking expectantly at Maros.
Aryn expected an instant "of course".
His father had been very vocal about his desire to teach his son anything and everything over the past year. Moreso the last six months, that had been spent learning to read and write in Gleryn.
Instead of answering immediately with a "yes" however, Maros looked across to his wife, beginning a silent conversation.
Whatever the content of this silent conversation was, it was making Aryn nervous. Would he have to wait longer? He had already held himself from asking for months, so as not to seem too abnormal. The line between a supreme genius and an unsettling monster was thin, after all.
Luckily, it appeared that he was worried for nothing.
"Of course I'll teach you magic, son." Maros turned back to him and nodded. "Magic is mostly a self-taught endeavor though."
This was news to Aryn. He hadn't yet been allowed in the library on his own, and his lack of basic knowledge was starting to show.
Whether it be history, geography, or whatever else, he was sorely lacking in his knowledge of the world.
"Why is that? Isn't there a school that teaches magic? What do they teach then?" He rapid-fired a few questions at his parents.
"Well, they mostly just teach the history of magic. Like how it came to be how it is today, or famous mages and warriors of the past and how they affected their respective arts with their innovations. They also have some useful utilities to help out inexperienced mages."
"Warriors use mana too?" Aryn turned his eyes to his mother, who he knew was classified as a warrior in her adventurer days. Yes, this world had adventurers too, because of course it did.
It was his mother that answered his question. "A warrior is just someone who primarily fights in melee combat, honey." She patiently explained.
"They might use mana to temporarily boost their physical power, or they might use special training methods to push their bodies beyond normal limits with the help of ambient mana. I myself used rare, mana-rich materials and intense training."
"Are there different kinds of mages too, Dad?" Aryn turned back to Maros now.
"There are is any number of ways to use mana, Aryn. But we'll get into lessons later. For now, eat your cake. Dunn worked hard to make it." He and his wife had already finished their slices.
"Can I have a key to the library too, Dad?" Aryn swallowed a bite of cake and struck while the iron was hot. "I want to learn more things."
"I can't give you a key, there are some books in there that can't be damaged or lost. But you can tell me the kinds of books you want to read and I'll bring some out for you."
Aryn nodded and went back to his cake.
"And no trying anything until we start lessons." Maros quickly added.
***
The next day, Aryn sat in his room with a small stack of books in front of him. He had thankfully moved into his own room a while ago. It only had a bed, a desk, a dresser, and a painting of a rather intimidating looking mountain.
The books his dad had fetched for him from the library were 'Basic Geography of Tellar', 'The History of Gleryl', 'An Adventurer's Guide For Safe Travel', and 'Mana and The Dawn of Magic'.
The first was simply a rudimentary introduction to the worlds six continents. The continent of Merris was considered the center of the world.
It had ample farmland, a thriving economy, and held the second largest mountain in the world, Mount Hewn, well known for both its abundance of metals and its deadly caverns.
To the south of Merris was Greenspill. A continent that could grow enough crops to drown its residents should they not pay attention.
Greenspill was the easiest continent to get to from Gleryl as Greenspill's eastern forests nearly met up with Gleryl's southernmost coast across the water.
West of Merris was Sorven, known as the continent to go to to get rich or die trying.
It consisted of mostly sand, getting more dry the further you went west. Despite its mostly barren appearance, various rare treasures of all kinds could be found among the oases and ruins there.
Far southeast of Merris, past both Greenspill and Gleryl, sat Vedar.
Vedar was by far the smallest continent. It was perhaps the most peaceful place to live on Tellar. It had no large issues and no great benefits to living there bar its lively culture.
North of Merris, Avillis lay under the snow. All that the book said about this continent was that little was known other than its danger and its ever present winter storms.
Finally to the east, where Aryn currently was, Gleryl claims its spot in the world.
With most of Gleryl's farmland residing at the southern half with the majority of the population, the northern reaches of the continent had never truly been claimed by humans. The thick forests remaining the property of the beasts and monsters that roamed about.
Aryn flipped closed the book and opened the next. He opened up 'Mana And The Dawn of Magic' and decided to leave the other two for tomorrow.
The book started with a simple description of what mana is. Simply an energy of unknown origin that is nigh omnipresent and has no observable upper limit to its use.
The way the book described mana was likened to a god with no consciousness of its own, piggybacking off of the wills of conscious beings to bend the laws of reality.
Aryn became more and more absorbed in the book's pages the more he read. Every page further igniting his passion for all things beyond natural.
Continuing from the description of the author's understanding of mana, the book went on to describe the early stages of humanity and its struggle against various forces of nature, dangerous predators wielding powers beyond their shallow understanding, and themselves.
It seemed that humanity only started their development of magic by luck. An early human — whose name was Lorik — stumbled on a monster that was quite simply put, a superior being.
It was smarter, faster, stronger, wiser, and freely wielded the strange energy that humanity had previously dismissed as unusable to do things thought impossible.
Aryn's excitement grew as he made a guess to the nature of this beast and continued reading.
'The beast was a behemoth 200 meters from the tip of its scaled snout to its blade-like tail. On its back were a pair of massive scaley wings, outstretched and majestic, the embodiment of the word 'regal'. It stood on four clawed limbs, its rear limbs bearing four claws each and serving only as legs, while its front five-clawed limbs seemed to serve as both feet to tread and hands to grasp.
Atop the beasts ruby scaled head sat the inspiration for an entire branch of magic, the one most commonly practiced in the current era. Nearly-transparent crystalline horns twisted around the beasts brow, forming the likeness of a natural crown.
It is these horns that Lorik Ilyn drew inspiration from to form the worlds first Crystalized Mana Conduit in a human. The beast was of course a dragon as they are widely regarded today. Meaning two widely known branches of magic today, were inspired by how the body of a dragon naturally forms the ambient mana into a more useful state.
Truly beasts to be feared.'
***
Several thousand years ago: April 6th, 347 PIE (Pre-Imperial Era)
Lorik beheld the god-like beast for a moment longer before much to his shock, it spoke.
"What could you possibly hope to find here, human? This mountain only holds stone and ash." The beast's voice echoed atop the plateau.
Too stunned to respond, Lorik stared at the beast for a long while as it lay with its head on its front limbs, gazing back at him with its slitted earthy-brown eyes, contrasting nicely with its ruby scales.
"Do you no longer speak this language?" The beast asked in response to his silence.
"How can you speak?" Lorik finally gathered himself enough to ask. A respectable feat, considering the instinctive terror running through his entire body at the moment.
"You are not the first of your kind I've met." The response left as more questions than answers.
The beast had learned from another. But who was it? Why had they taught the beast to speak instead of run for their dear life at the sight of its gargantuan form, and why had nobody ever heard the man speak of it?
"He taught you how to speak Sorvic? Why?" Lorik sought an answer to his queries.
"He was batshit." If a 200 meter long, 30 meter tall beast could ever be described as giving a deadpan, this was exactly what one would picture.
Lorik had absolutely no idea how to respond, so he moved on to his next question.
"I've never heard of a beast like you, what are you?"
"I am a dragon. That is the only word Mettis spoke when she created the first of my kin, long before your kind came to walk the land instead of swing from the trees."
Lorik was floored. Not only did the beast — or rather dragon, as it seemed to be called — before him claim that its kind was absolutely ancient, it also claimed its kind was named by the literal god and creator of Tellar directly.
***
Aryn pumped his little fist in the air, a happy tear forming in one eye. While reading the description of the beast that this Lorik guy met, he was happily surprised.
"There are Dragons, this world is a dream!" He couldn't help himself and let out a little excited shout. Luckily no one heard him, or it would be a bit awkward to explain.