Unsure of the procedure to follow, Alix hesitated for few seconds before retracting his hand.
"No, I'm not a thief! I wasn't raised like this! People are likely having it as bad as me in their life, I don't have to add my action to their hard time! There are other solutions...I just have to learn this map by heart, or even reproduce it, it wouldn't be considered as thievery, right?"
Opening it, he let his mind focus on the picture depicted on this old piece of paper, worn and shredded in certain locations.
The Never Canyon was clearly inscribed, cutting the Aka region in two. Tellama village was situated at the far end of an extremity of the Canyon.
Remembering the way by heart, Alix decided to open some other book and look once again at the map after he was finished.
Opening a thick book entitled "On the Thematic of Elemental Construct" he found while wandering in the library, Alix was sound loss in the numerous lines of text.
"So contrary to what Erik said, There isn't just the elemental attribute for energy, it can assimilate to other strange attributes like blood, life, death, void and so on... It doesn't truly surprise me as I have one of them in my body right now but it indeed validates I should not trust blindly what I'm taught, and follow my instinct."
Alix closed the thick book with a small dust cloud, several thoughts turning inside his mind. The morning was coming, small light detaching itself on the horizon. He spent all night reading, overwhelmed under the new knowledge flowing inside his mind.
Taking a last glance toward the map, he put everything as it was and escape silently, jumping from roof to roof toward the fortification.
Before he had exited this village, a small smoke pillar catches his eyes, where a distinctive noise echoed.
A hammer was squashing metal on an anvil, early in the morning.
"There is a blacksmith in Tellama village? I thought Erik was the sole one? Perhaps it's an apprentice..."
Moving toward the sound as discreetly as possible, Alix was soon before a strange scene.
A young man, no older than fourteen was dangerously waving his hammer in the air, hitting repetitively without any form a piece of metal.
He was unexperimented in Alix's eyes, but a will to succeed was visible in his eyes.
Turning over to depart, Alix stops once again in his track.
"Maybe I could find what I was searching for..."
Circumventing the strange event, he approaches the small forge by the rear, entering the already open large door as if owning the place.
In the mess before his eyes, scraps of metal, tools littering the soil, Alix sound find what he came looking for, a small ingot shining with silver light.
Taking it and putting it in his pocket, he grabs a hammer having his handle broken and escape without looking back once again.
"This is not thievery, he would probably never use this broken hammer and the small ingot is made of silver and copper, even if it's slightly valuable, this man should not use it as it's useless to make the sword he was hitting with all his strength..."
At ease after solving his interior conflict, Alix disappeared in the wilderness after having climbed this fortification which seems to not do its job truly well.
Spending the day experimenting and testing what he read in the old book, Alix was quickly increasing his strength.
His cells blood were continuously creating new Energysomes which were filling themselves as he was trying to use other attribute energy.
"Erik told me how to form the square shape for Earth energy and the circle on for Water energy. I know the Darkness one with the horizontal "8" and the Blood one with its drop shape. For others, I haven't seen their form even if I know they exist but with this, I should try new combinations, techniques don't create themselves while doing nothing after all."
Trying to form new shapes, he had a shallow understanding of the Darkness and Blood energy.
When mobilizing them he didn't have to put an attribute on them as they were stocked in this state, but it did nothing much when outside his body contrary to the elemental one.
"I think I have made the right choice with the Blood Emanation, to be able to use two different attributes at will sure is great but I can't do anything with it for now as I don't understand them, truly a shame."
The Water energy, similar to what Cilis had done formed a flowing puddle of water above his hand. It was harder than with fire, and Earth's energy was even harder for him.
At the moment he could use easily three forms of energy, namely Fire, Darkness, and Blood, even if two of them were useless as he didn't understand how to use them.
"Darkness should allow much more than what I did below, exploding it inside creatures. I actually can do it with other attribute energy, and it's much more powerful with the fire one, even if it isn't helpful in a battle as it's hard to quickly mobilize it and people can dodge as they want..."
A small red fire appeared in his right hand as a dark black smoke appeared on his left one.
Looking toward mastering it, he tried to fuse them with no success, to combine them but nothing came out of it.
"Sole The Art can truly combine different kinds of energy, I don't even now one matrix of it...Tch, I shouldn't be this weak with all these marvels inside my body... When the Blood Emanation took control of my body, it was much more powerful than I am!"
Propelling the dark shape against a small stone, the Darkness cloud exploded against it, making it disappear during a short instant.
"Hey! Is it how it can be used, to hide...? So I should use it on me and not on an external object? Is this why I couldn't obtain any result previously?"
Instantly trying it, he covers his hand in Darkness energy, black tendril covering it as it slowly disappeared behind it.
"It's not truly useful, the darkness can be easily seen... But at night or in dark areas, it should be different, right?"
The following days were kind of strange for the inhabitants of Tellama village.
During the night, a good number of objects were misplaced, windows open as if people made a prank.
The library would have its configuration changed each new morning but without something missing.
Strange step mark appeared all over the village, on the street, on the roof, even on the window's border.
Villagers were soon on edge, convinced a weird creature able to hide was haunting the night.
Children were prevented from going out during the night as a small guard squad was mobilized to protect the village and investigate this strange case.
Nothing was found but during this one week, Alix was having the time of his life, misplacing little objects like plates, brooms in the garden of another villager, taking great joy in being invisible in the night.
He had no idea of the chaos he produced and was enjoying his small mastery of the Darkness energy.
He would return to the library each night, reading books he found interesting, increasing his knowledge on all sorts of strange things.
His mischievous personality was once again out, destabilizing the previous peace in the village.
Increasing his prowess while using Darkness energy, he found it finally more useful than the simpler elemental one.
He quickly discovered he could not only hide himself but also hide his scent, the noise he makes, blinding others...He also understood it wasn't the limit of this attribute but for now, it was sufficient.
Exploring the library, he sadly couldn't find any true books on The Abraxas or The Art, even ones on energy were rare.
There were essentially history books, myths' ones, some maps, and even some novel. He took it all.
Sitting in a small clearing during the day outside the village, Alix had a burning red flame suspending on his hand.
"Time to forge this ring! I don't have an anvil nor the oven but I should be able to succeed with this little hammer and my flame!"
He had already repaired the hammer with a thick branch found in the forest. Letting the wood swell in a river with the metallic bundle around it, it was now able to forge as if new.
A plate stone was on the ground before him. It was what he found more comparable to a true anvil.
Putting the little ingot on it, he let his flame around it. Soon a reddish-white light was emanating from the metal, it was ready to be forged.
Alix didn't hesitate any more and hit it with a powerful blow as to flattened it for better handling.
As soon as the metal was completely flattened he cut a small stripe of it and join its two ends while continuously hitting it.
A flat ring appeared before his eyes which he tries to forge into a more thick one.
It was hard with a big hammer and not the correct tools so Alix tried to manipulate it directly with his energy.
The result was more than satisfying, his mind allowing for precise working.
A beautiful white ring was soon created where Alix engraved small inscriptions with a tiny burst of flame carving easily in the silver.
Taking the bluestone out which Méline had bought more than two weeks ago, Alix put it in the small reserve he had created, on top of the ring, finishing his beautiful work.
"I could have made it just with my energy after all, for little objects like jewels, tools are a burden for the mind..."
Sparkling under the sun, the ring was truly a piece of art, Alix had carved unreadable words and symbols on it, catching the shadow and letting the stone show all its pretty facets.
Admiring his finished work, Alix let out a sigh.
"I have finally finished this, I don't have anything more to do here, time to make a visit to my adoptive family..."
Raising again, he looks for the last time toward Tellama village before walking peacefully toward the mansion which had welcomed him more than a month ago.
All these experiences had begun to calm his heart, it allowed him to began exploring the terrifying memory of his stay inside the canyon.
One by one he had slowly watch them, his heart in chaos every time he thought of this period.
He had truly changed in this month outside, even more, if compared to his departure from his small village.
An arrogant but peaceful aura was now emanating from him, his dark red face was hiding sharp features with beautiful traits where two green eyes where always shining.
His pace was calmer than before, even relaxed as he passes through the forest full of bloodthirsty beasts.
Alix knew what he had to do and where he should be going, his mind was resolute.
"I won't be able to stay in Ol' Tree village, my place is to explore the Orbis world, understand its mystery and be free, free as a bird, without any limit !"
Having learned lots of things in the history of this world, he understands much more of his place on this planet situated in the Orbis world where thirteen planets orbited around the Orbis star, their sun.
Soon he was before a small farm where light could be seen escaping from the window. A large man was lifting a pretty big bundle of metal as if nothing.
A beautiful woman with an eerie mist around her was sitting outside, her skin white as snow, her completion prettier than any woman he had ever seen in his life.
Alix took a not so short time to recognize Cilis, the beautiful mother who he had healed without truly knowing what he did. He didn't simply heal her, that much was evident now.
Waiting carefully in a small bush in the distance, Alix wasn't moving at all, his Darkness energy covering him as he stares as this small family, powerful emotion running in his body.
"They seem fine...That's a relief! I feared for Cilis... Her changes seem strange but not life-threatening. As for Méline, she seems sad, not that I can't understand why, but the aura she has, surrounding her, is even stronger than before. I think she will not stay in this little village forever with such talent."