Isaac was seated, the book resting on his crossed legs, gazing at the open door. Through it, he could see the sun setting on the horizon behind the treetops as well as the guard who seemed to be patrolling the surrounding area.
The air seemed to start to cool as mist began to form in the breath of the soldier who walked with his spear in hand.
- "Excuse me" he pushed towards the guard who turned around, intrigued. "Yes, you. Could you come?" he finally asked, motioning for the guard to approach.
Once the latter was at the bottom of the door, he continued.
- "What language do you speak ?"
- "Uh-we speak Kilguana in our village. Our ancestors were initially under the aegis of Kilguana. By tradition, we decided to perpetuate this" he answered a little confused.
- "And what language do I speak?" asked Isaac.
- "Kilguana, Excellency." the guard replied even more confused.
Isaac began to think deeply. Unless the Kilguane is in fact only French but under another name, it was difficult to know. He then looked up at the guard.
- "Can you speak another language?"
- "The language of the nomads of the plains, but very basic" replied the soldier.
- "Tell me a sentence, any sentence" resumed Isaac immediately.
After a moment of confusion and then reflection, looking for a phrase to say, the guard began to translate it into the nomadic language before pronouncing it.
- "Hello, my name is Fabien, I am seventeen and I like apples" he said without really knowing if his interlocutor understood him.
"I knew it!" Isaac thought, resting his eyes on the book. "Something serves as a language translator but I don't know what. It's good for communication, but if it's something temporary, I would have to know how it works" he began to say to himself.
After a moment, he looked up at the guard.
- "Thank you."
The soldier tilted his head slightly before leaving silently. He hadn't really understood what had just happened and he didn't want to know it.
Isaac then proceeded to investigate where this ability came from and began to retract his aura and energy in search of a possible rune or spell that had been cast on him. Unfortunately, after a few minutes of searching, he found nothing before being interrupted by Rita.
- "You asked me, Excellency?" the elder asked quietly, seeing the elf visibly focused.
He opened his eyes then and released his aura, surprising Rita, before getting up and taking the book which he opened to the inscriptions page. He then came and pointed to her.
- "I can't read it, what is it?" he asked.
After a quick glance, Rita smiled slightly.
- "These are heavenly prayers" she said simply looking at Isaac.
- "Heavenly prayers?"
She then came to nod her head then inhaled while closing her eyes. The next moment, Isaac took a step back. Intense energy began to dissipate and come out of his skin before surrounding him, materializing strands of golden light. As bright as Isaac's aura but much warmer, the filaments continued to spin around the old one before she began to speak.
- "I humbly ask the Master of the Sun and the Heavens ..." she began.
The inscriptions on the book then began to vibrate and characters began to twist, starting at the beginning and continuing as Rita spoke. The energy around her began to seep in and out of her before merging with the air.
- "... to grant his humble servant this humble wish of health on this poor body wrinkled by age" she ended by opening her eyes.
The writings then lit up as Rita's irises took on a golden hue before a wave of light emanated from her body. Slowly, her body seemed to take color and her age paled and slightly wrinkled skin revived slightly.
However, the change that Isaac saw was not external but internal. Ahead of him, the ships of the ancient circuits rekindled and the flow of mana within began to swell, slowly increasing as the ships widened slightly.
"A buff?" he says to him. "It's a priest buff!" he thought dumbfounded. "And this energy is the same as that which circulates in the book ..."
Seeing the smile on the elf's face, Rita was satisfied with her prayer. The energy around her stabilized before seeping back into her entire body, leaving the clear, dark air in their path.
- "What is it !!? Tell me? It's a prayer, isn't it? For a god, so the gods exist?" bombed Isaac.
A little confused and surprised, she understood immediately and indicated two chairs to the guards. Immediately they took them and placed them so that Rita and Isaac could face each other.
- "Of course gods exist! How do you think humanity survived against monsters, demons and dragons?" she said with a small laugh.
She wasn't totally wrong. In a world where magic replaces technology and a person can summon the equivalent of an atomic bomb, it is a miracle that humanity has not been eradicated.
Unlike his world, men had found the time to build their world and transform their environment to take advantage of it. Although they were on the verge of making it hell for themselves, they had at least made it to the top of the food chain.
In Falanx, everything was different. Mankind in its early days must have been extremely weak against fire-breathing beasts and beings as tall as mountains. Isaac shivered at the thought of living in such a hell.
- "So the gods helped humanity protect itself?" he asked.
- "To protect us, to educate us, to unite us. In exchange for our faith and our belief, the gods offer us their knowledge and their wisdom and this for millennia" she answered. "All people worship gods. Elves worship the Holy Tree, dragons respect the First Dragon, demons the Demon Lords," she added.
He nodded, intrigued and interested in the concept. In his world, the gods were just an ideology or a belief. They had no scientific conceptual basis to speak of. Although the magic of this world does not meet most of the laws of physics, it still seems to obey some of them.
The many discoveries that Isaac had been able to make had a scientific basis such as atomic manipulation, gravity and others. For Isaac, magic was just an energy like electricity that had a major impact on the environment and on physics and reality itself. He even doubted that magic was in fact only what determines what is real and what is not.
Even in his world, the concept of reality was still vague as was that of consciousness. It was difficult to model ideological concepts.
On Falanx, Isaac had a new topic to discuss. Were the gods really real, or was it the beliefs and the power of the prayers of many that made them real.
Satisfied with what he had just learned, he came to tilt his head forward towards Rita, a smile on his face, obviously very happy which relieved the old one. But one question remained unanswered.
- "How do you manage to read the inscriptions?" asked Isaac.
- "This scripture is what priests call divine inscriptions. They can be inscribed by a priest through an incantation and acting like holy scriptures. You must not read them, you must feel them, feel their warmth and energy. I don't know their meaning, but I do know that they allow you to channel divine energy and use it more simply, "she replied.
A grimoire! It was what Isaac thought. Grimoires were books with instructions, much like a manual, on how to brew potions, cast spells. It was often described that certain grimoires had been enchanted to no longer serve as instructions for use but as a real weapon.
These enchanted grimoires would then have the same function as an artefact. By giving it energy, the grimoire would use this energy and cast the spell of the open page.
"So these inscriptions act like enchantments and cast a spell giving them divine energy" thought Isaac as he looked at the book. "If I can do the same for spells, then I could make a spellbook too, right? Or even enchant my clothes or a staff!"
Many ideas were taking shape in Isaac's mind. His mind was totally elsewhere and Rita knew it very well and decided not to make any noise whatsoever. During her adventures, she had been able to meet a mage. This was an escort mission in which his team had to protect the mage's chariot.
Every day of the journey, the mage was either admiring the scenery or concentrating and emanating a strange aura around him. Anyone who came to disturb him had to have a justified excuse, otherwise he would be flown several yards by a gust of wind out of nowhere.
The mages were mysterious and studious beings. No one dared to disturb one when he was thinking and even less when it was an elf. So Rita waited until he spoke to her before doing anything.
In any case, that was what she had planned. Until a voice yelled right at the door.
- "Master !"
Isaac then came out of his trance while Rita turned around, her face at first angry and then exasperated as she saw Rebecca go up the hill towards the house. The young woman was very well dressed with a white and brown dress going up to her ankles. Her hair was smooth and tied behind with a ribbon of white cloth.
Her clothes were quite common for a young peasant girl. They didn't really have the luxury of buying themselves beautiful silk clothes like what Isaac's clothes looked like. Rita suddenly stood up.
- "Apologies Excellency, I'm going to tell her to go away" she said before turning around. She didn't want her to disturb the mage and because of that, he would get a bad image of Rebecca.
- "No ..." Isaac said standing up, drawing Rita's attention. "This is my apprentice now, the sooner we talk, the quicker she can start her training," he said, bringing an expression of joy to the old woman's face.
Immediately she tilted her head and looked down as she stepped aside the door. Rebecca was now closer and you could see her face better. Her skin was still pale from the amount of mana she must have used but her expression was much better than before. Arriving in front of the house, she stopped before bowing before getting up to look at Isaac with sparkling eyes.
- "Master, I -..." she began before stopping. Isaac had just raised his hand in front of him, motioning for her to calm down and wait. Immediately she stopped and listened intently.
Isaac cleared his throat a little with a cough before speaking.
- "Rebecca Frya", he began. The name Rebecca had been given to her while reading the old newspapers since after all, some of the newspapers were in fact fairly new registers relating to the affairs of the village. She had written down many things including the names of the villagers as well as many letters signed with a black cross.
He hadn't really taken an interest in it, despite being intrigued and curious.
- "... from today, you will become the apprentice of the Master-Mage Isaac. This apprenticeship, if you accept it, will ask you to come with me to the Garden of Origins and spend an indefinite period there without being visited by your friends, relatives or family "he began to say before pausing.
After a few seconds, he continued.
- "In a certain period of time, a choice will be given to you. You can stop your training with me and continue it alone, or you can decide to follow me on my journey in this world, the choice is yours."
Isaac took a serious look at Rebecca's surprised and inexplicably excited expression.
- "Do you accept to become my apprentice?" he finally asked.