Flames of a small fire crackled in the middle of the camp. The knights and the villagers had just finished their dinner and were getting ready to rest.
There was a question in Yu's mind, but he did not mention it to the knights. He was thinking about it when Elise asked the question in his stead.
"Sister Lana, I notice that the food we ate just now was rather scrumptious. The portion was also… I would say that you were not rationing it despite the increase in numbers in this group. Is it okay for us to eat this way? Won't the food be finished faster?"
Lana chuckled at Elise's thoughtful question. At the same time, she felt warmth from her heart.
"Don't worry, Elise dear. We have enough food for all of us."
"Really? I don't see you carrying much food."
Lana smiled and gestured to a bag on the ground beside her.
"I have extra food in here. They are used for when our regular food supplies have depleted."
Elise widened her eyes, her mouth slightly agape. She blinked a few times, trying to picture the food inside the bag. She looked back up to Lana, confused.
"But… the bag is so small…"
Lana chuckled once more and picked the bag up and held it in front of Elise. She leaned forward and whispered to Elise as if promoting a shady item.
"This bag is more than it looks. It can store quite a lot of items despite its size," Lana winked.
"Really?"
Elise took the bag and flipped open its flap. She was confused further. The insides of the bag were pitch black. Yu and Gino could not help themselves but peer over into the bag as well. They were equally confused.
Lana laughed at their expression and explained the functions of the bag.
"This bag was specially made by my friends. Dimension and temporal magic were cast on this bag."
"Dimension and temporal magic? What are those?" Elise asked, her curiosity piqued when she heard Lana mentioning magic.
Lana thought for a few moments for the best way to explain the magic before answering Elise.
"Dimension element and temporal element are two of the many types of elemental magic. Every type of element has its own special effects. For example, dimension element affects space, while temporal magic affects time."
Lana wet her dry lips before she continued.
"For this bag, dimension magic was used to distort the space in it. Then, temporal magic ensures the freshness of the food. This means that I can store food in amounts exceeding what we usually need for our journey. It is for emergencies and unexpected situations as these."
"Wow, that's amazing!" Elise exclaimed. She then put her hand into the bag, trying to feel the items inside. However, she only felt empty space.
Seeing this, Lana smiled at Elise's actions. The teen was truly curious about the workings of magic. Lana took the bag from Elise to demonstrate the use of the bag.
"You need magic energy to use it."
Lana grinned and pulled out some smoked meat with a flourish. It looked similar to performers pulling a rabbit out from a hat, except that this was no trick. It was real magic.
Exclamations arose in the camp. Elise reached out to touch the smoked meat as if to confirm that it was real. Gino watched with his mouth agape. His face looked silly.
Yu just looked at the bag with a serious expression. He felt the same tingling sensation on his skin. It seemed that he experienced the same feeling whenever magic was used. However, he did not know what to make of the strange feeling that he had. It was unsettling.
"Wow! Can you teach me? Oh, and what about the magic that you use? Is it the light element? It was so pretty!" Elise said, her hands clasping the smoked meat tightly.
Lana hesitated and looked over to Cenric. He nodded his head with an indifferent expression. Seeing that, Lana brightened immediately.
"Girl, do you think magic can be learned just like that? If it was, I would be a mage by now!" Greysen said as he waved his hands.
Elise pursed her lips when she heard that. However, instead of feeling dejected, determination burned in her eyes.
"I still want to learn it."
Edward, who was silent all this while, smiled longingly with pride when he saw Elise.
'She's growing to become more and more like her mother.'
Lana was impressed by Elise's determination. She had never seen someone so enthusiastic about magic before. The mages she knew mostly learned magic because of family circumstances and due to the sense of duty. Others learned it for the prestige. Elise seemed to want to learn magic for the sake of learning.
She looked at the curious faces of the teens and smiled. People always had the same expressions when they hear about magic for the first time. Lana invited them to listen to her mini-lecture about magic.
"All of you listen too. It's good to have knowledge of magic, lest you meet an opposing mage. Feel free to interrupt me when you have questions."
"Well, to start, there are many types of magic; elemental magic is only one of them. It is the easiest type of magic to learn. Elemental mages borrow the strengths of deities for their magic. For instance, light mages like me borrow the powers of Ytrea, the deity of light. This means that we need to have faith in the deity of the element that we are using."
Elise nodded at the lengthy introduction and thought for a bit before asking.
"Does this means that I'll be able to use light magic since I'm in the faith of Ytrea?"
"Not necessarily. Having faith is just one part. You need to have an affinity with the light element. Different people have different affinities. However, most of Arbeanneans have an affinity towards light. Besides, you need to have sufficient magic energy reserves."
"Magic energy?" Elise asked.
"Yes, every human has magic energy in their bodies. The only difference is the density and purity. The denser and purer your magic energy, the stronger and more numerous the magic you can cast."
"The most basic exercise for a beginner mage is to feel magic energy; to feel it within yourselves and in the surroundings. Magic energy feels something like vibrations in the air. Sometimes it feels like tingling sensations on your skin. Stronger magic energy fluctuations can feel like a strong breeze."
Yu sat up in attention at Lana's last sentence.
'Magic energy fluctuations? Is that what I'm feeling?' he thought as his heart pounded in his chest. However, he was still unsure and chose not to disclose his observations to Lana. He still did not trust them very well.
"So, if I can feel the magic energy, then I'll be able to use magic?" Elise asked. She was very eager and could not wait to try.
Lana chuckled at her enthusiasm.
"It takes time to feel magic energy. That's why learning magic is difficult."
Gino scratched his head and said, "This sounds really complicated." He was frowning.
"I think it's better to use our own strengths. Like the sword!" Gino beamed.
"You are half right. Magic, if used properly, can be very powerful. The drawbacks are that it takes time to cast and there's a limited number of magic spells that we can cast. That's why we have swordsmen," Lana smiled.
"Right, let me show you a simple magic that you can cast," Lana offered.
She brought her consciousness onto her body and felt the energy within herself. After conditioning herself, she recited the prayer of [Protection]. Light glowed and morphed into a wall of light that surrounded them.
"This magic is called [Protection]. Like its name, it provides protection from beings with evil intentions," Lana explained as the wall of light hovered in the air. She then took a piece of parchment and wrote down the prayer with a piece of graphite.
"Here, this is a gift for you. You can try this prayer when you have understood magic energy," Lana smiled as she gave the parchment to Elise. It was like an assignment to keep Elise busy.
Elise accepted the parchment with excitement and gratitude. She immediately began scanning through the words written on it with gusto.
Lana's smile never left her face. She hoped that she had ignited a little spark that will grow into a great mage one day.
Gino and Yu were also curious. All three of their heads were over the little piece of parchment.
"It seems like you've taught your children well, Edward. All of them can read," Cenric mentioned casually.
Hearing that, Lana's hand flew to her mouth. She had just assumed that they knew how to read. After all, they were only villagers. She was lucky that her assumption was right.
"Thank you, sir," Edward replied curtly. He did not converse much with the indifferent leader of the knights. The misunderstanding from a few days back was still fresh in their minds.
"Alright children, it's late. Time for sleep," Edward coaxed his children.
"But father, I want to read it some more…" Elise pleaded.
Edward sighed. Elise was just as stubborn as her mother.
"You can do it tomorrow."
Elise pouted but complied. She put the parchment carefully in the little pouch by her belt. The camp fell silent soon after.
However, Yu could not fall asleep. He wondered about the magical fluctuations that he felt. If he could feel magic energy, he could have been a mage. However, he felt that the idea of having faith in deities did not sit quite right with him.
After tossing and turning a few times, he finally fell asleep wondering if he will have another vivid dream.
*****
It was the next afternoon and the group had traveled for half a day. They advanced in a similar fashion to the day before. This time, however, Yu felt an unsettling energy in addition to the magical fluctuations emitted by Cenric.
The energy felt stronger as they went deeper into the forest. The other knights must have felt it as well since they were more tense than usual.
Although it was only the afternoon, the forest seemed as if it was dusk. Most sunlight was filtered by the dense canopy overhead. The forest that was originally teeming with life was instead still as if the air was stagnant. Yu felt that they were being watched by someone or something else.
Cenric stopped the group once more. This time, he was focused-- unlike his usual indifferent self.
"It will be dangerous from here onwards. The source of the strange energy should be nearby. We are going to scout near the energy source to see what is really happening," Cenric briefed the knights.
Lana who had an unsettling pit forming in her stomach was reluctant to go farther.
"Wasn't our mission just to scout the location of the strange energy? I think we have achieved our objective."
"Lana, aren't you a little too uninspired? We are knights. We need to perform our duties to the best," Greysen teased Lana.
"You're the knight, not me. I'm a mage."
"Well, you still work for the Institution of White Knights. So, you can be considered as such," Greysen shrugged.
"We're going. This energy feels very foul. We should get an idea of its nature before reporting back so that our superiors can figure out a way to deal with it," Cenric persuaded.
Lana sighed and relented. Cenric was in charge after all. She then perked up, as if remembering something.
"Right, all of you should stay here for the moment. We'll go ahead and scout," Lana said to Edward and the teens.
"Wait, can you give us some weapons to defend ourselves?" Yu asked. The unpleasant feeling was nagging at the back of his head. He felt that they should have some means of self-protection.
"Pfft… weapons? Can you even use them?" Greysen ridiculed Yu's request.
"… I can use a knife. No, a dagger will be good, if you have one of those," Yu ignored Greysen and looked at Cenric, cold confidence present in his still grey eyes.
Cenric paused and studied Yu. The teenager had an air of calmness around him. For a moment, he felt that he was looking at a seasoned fighter instead of a simple village boy.
"There should be no threats in this area, but I don't see any harm in giving you a weapon," Cenric said as he passed a dagger to Yu.
"Thanks," Yu accepted the dagger and felt its weight in his hand. It did not feel out of place.
Cenric noted Yu's actions with the dagger in his mind but did not say anything.
"Hey, what about my weapon?" Gino asked.
"Let's go," Cenric called to the knights, ignoring Gino after a glance.
Lana waved and smiled at Edward and the teens. However, her nervousness still showed from under the smile.
"Hey, hey! You're ignoring me?" Gino called after them.
Yu watched the knights until they were out of sight. This was the second time that they were left alone.
"Why wouldn't they give me a dagger as well?" Gino grumbled.
"I think you're better with a stick," Elise giggled and teased Gino.
*****
They made themselves comfortable while waiting for the knights to complete their scouting. However, the knights did not come back even after an hour. The unsettling feeling grew stronger and stronger every minute that passed.
Yu stared at the woody lianas hanging from the branches of the trees above as they waited. His eyes followed along the length of the liana until they disappeared into the ground.
"Why are they taking so long?" Elise asked. She peered through the trees.
Suddenly, Yu felt the strange energy approaching. He snapped his head to its direction. The others looked at Yu with confusion at his sudden actions.
There were a few moments of tensed silence when rustling sounds entered their ears. The foliage in front of them suddenly burst open and black figures flashed passed them.
'Wolves!' Yu exclaimed as he gripped the dagger in his hand.
"Wolves again!?" Elise screamed.
However, it seemed that they were not the attention of the corrupted wolves this time. The pack of wolves just dashed past them. The group of humans was confused.
"Where are they going?" Gino asked.
"T-that's where the knights went!" Elise gasped.
"What do we do?" she asked aloud.
Everyone was rooted in their position. The wolves had just ignored them. They wondered if they should move to another position or stay at their current one.
Suddenly, a large surge of the strange energy from before erupted in the direction of the knights. Yu felt nauseous as he was hit with the wave of that energy.
'What's happening?' he thought.
All his senses screamed to go towards the source of the energy and stop it. However, his logical mind could not understand his compulsion.
'Stop the energy? How? It's impossible,' Yu thought and shook his head to clear off the nausea.
Then, the plants around them shook as if they were possessed. The initially still forest was now the complete opposite from before.
The group held their vigilance and looked around for danger. Elise clutched her father's arm and shivered. Edward held Elise's hand in his. Still feeling insecure, Elise stepped closer to her father.
Just then, she unknowingly stepped onto a creeping liana. She stumbled and then felt herself yanked from underneath. She fell to the ground and screamed.
Edward, brought by Elise's momentum fell onto the ground too. However, before he could react, Elise's hand slipped away from his as she was dragged deeper into the forest.
"Elise!" Edward reached out to grab his daughter but failed.
"Father!" Elise screamed frantically but soon disappeared from sight.
"No!!" Edward roared and chased after the disappearing Elise.
His heart dropped as he saw Elise in trouble. He could not lose his daughter after losing his wife.
Yu and Gino that were stunned by the sudden change of events could only chase after Edward. They prayed for Elise to be safe in their hearts.