After a serious cuddle session, it was time for bed, but Candy didn't want to let go of me. So, the mom's decided that I should sleep in her and Sandy's bedroom.
There wasn't much to complain about, my sisters where nice and warm and the bed was a lot bigger, so I didn't mind that much. Eventually, morning came around, and after some baby mush and a bottle of milk for the road, I once again began my long trek to study the holy text.
I headed back to my father's study, but this time with my father in tow. He walked right behind me, keeping pace but never surpassing me, I could feel his gaze boring into the back of my head.
Why isn't he carrying me? I have baby legs; walking is hard. After a few seconds of this, I turn around with my hands outstretched, the message is clear; carry me you goof!
A smile spread across his face as he lifted me from the ground and placed me on his shoulders. Wow! It had been a while since father had done this, he forgot what an absolute giant he was. From up here if I had to estimate I would say papa was not less than 6'8, which seemed pretty big.
While learning to read, he had also read a few pages in passing, in them, there was talk of giants that could step over mountains and eat clouds, creatures that seemed utterly outlandish. None of that mattered to him though, because in his mind papa will always be the biggest.
After the long trek, which was now nothing but a short stroll with his father's assistance, they arrive at his study. Taking a seat behind his desk and placing me in his lap, Papa reaches out his hand a book floats of the shelves and into his hands, as for how he did it? I wasn't the least bit curious in my mind papa could do anything. Well, anything the mamas allowed him to.
I glanced at the book realising it was among the books I had deciphered the highest amount of words from, but it was not more than a page. I had spent most of my time flipping through random books looking for pictures and patterns. It was enough for me to learn the basics of the language, not enough actually to gain any knowledge.
Now that I knew how to read, I could now understand what was written on the cover.
'The history of the Nalon empire- simplified.'
Opening the book father began to read aloud while tracing his index finger under the words, to show me what he was saying.
"The Nolan empire was founded many millennia ago, many scholars speculate as to her specific origin, but too much time has passed since her advent for any concrete claims to be made.
Because of this, only the most recent few millennia have been recorded, this period was then separated into six eras named after the great kings or queens that defined it.
The history of this great Nation like any other is laden with internal strife, and over the many years she has had multiple kings and queens from different houses reign over her, and although all of them are of great significance, six stand head and shoulders above the rest.
Rachel Gosann, the proud winged.
Fedal Wolfbad of the night's silence.
Andal, the faceless blade.
Mary Basad, the cruel north wind
Victor Vanhdyre of the white field.
And the greatest king of whom has sired the mightiest house.
Jon Tellus, the great titan.'
*****************
Sandy was in a particularly good mood this morning, she got to cuddle her adorable brother to sleep last night, and he called her name a few minutes after he called candy's, which made her a little jealous but still left her feeling over the moon. Right now, she was on cloud nine, so when mama Lina called them out into the backyard with a solemn look on her face it took a significant amount of self-control to keep herself from smiling and breaking the oppressive atmosphere.
After being led to the middle of the massive grass field that was their backyard, Mama Lina took a seat and signalled for sandy and candy to join her.
Sandy also noticed that all the other members of the family were watching on the side-lines.
"Today is a special day for both of you" mama Lina began "it is the day that we have all agreed is the right time to begin instructing you on magic."
"magic? What's magic?" candy asked, a little out of character.
"magic is how all the other adults and I can do things like this" mama Lina said as a stone floated off the floor and into her palm, with no assistance.
"we can learn how to do that?" sandy exclaimed, she was not surprised at the existence of magic because she had seen everybody use it around the house at one point or another, but she was shocked at the prospect that it could be learnt.
Excitement was written on both of the children's faces at the possibility of learning what they just understood to be magic.
"before I start to teach you about it, I will have to first explain to you how magic works.
Magic is the manipulation of the primordial energies of the universe through spell models to create certain phenomena.
The energy in our environment is multifaceted and varied, but after years of study we have come to understand that these energies are simply variants of the substance that forms the basis of all reality;
Mana.
Mana is the energy that gives rise to matter which in turn constitutes all of existence, and through the manipulation of mana, we can theoretically manipulate all of reality."
"wow," both children said at the same time, expressing their awe while bringing a smile to Lina's face.
"We do this through the construction of spell models with soul power. Spells could be considered the language of the universe, and soul power is the energy we draw from our soul through meditation.
Because it is the language of the universe, the number of spells and the ways to use them are functionally infinite. But, with thousands of years of experience the empire has been able to distil the knowledge of spell casting into two distinct categories.
Internal spell casting and external spellcasting.
Internal spell casting involves the purification and absorption of mana in the environment into the body to be stored and used to support future spell casting, while external spellcasting is the manipulation of raw mana in the environment to cast spells.
Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, though it is a general consensus that internal spellcasting is the safer route because the strength of your spells could be significantly affected based on the composition of the mana in the environment.
But even though mankind has managed to master the secrets of magic, we were still physically weak and vulnerable in close combat.
A problem that was solved with the advent of body enhancement magic. Through the inscription of permanent spell models onto the mind space, spell models each with the specific purpose of strengthening certain aspect of the body, humans have now become capable of things that we only dreamt of."
Lina got to her feet took a few steps back to distance herself from the girls before leaping an astonishing five metres high into a backflip before landing without making a sound, not even raising a plume of dust.
The girls stared at their mother as though she had grown a second head.
"That is the effect of body enhancement magic" Lina continued, casually strolling back to the girls retaking her seat.
"body enhancement magic is very powerful, but at the initial level it is not possible to do something like that, it takes years of dedication and practice to get that good" Lina said pouring ice water on whatever childish expectations they had about magic.
"to begin with different spell models, create different effects, and as with any spell, there are infinite variations of body enhancement magic, with some being more powerful than others.
Understandably, beginners will not be able to use the most potent spells right of the bat, but the mind space has a finite amount of room, and it would take an incredible amount of time and energy to demolish and rebuild your spell models every time you wanted to advance.
But through research mages have been able to find a solution to this problem by creating a step by step process that begins with multiple base spell models that can be combined and finely tuned to create more powerful spell models.
These step by step processes are called paths of ascension.
But even with all these breakthroughs in magic, it was still challenging to practice body enhancement magic, and as always, a solution presented itself.
But not as a discovery but as a consequence of human adaptation. It was later determined that if an individual walks his path long enough and becomes powerful enough, the knowledge of their magic and their affinity towards it becomes engrained in their very existence and can be passed down to their offspring.
This is known as a bloodline." Lina paused here to look the girls squarely in the face.
"I told you all of this to impart on you the magnitude of the blessing you have received as a consequence of your birth. As a child of the house of Tellus, you have received the most powerful path to ascension in the empire.
The celestial titan physique."