"You pronounce it like this!" Emilia pointed to the various symbols on the pace and mouthed a phoneme to the young child.
Victor twitched his lips around before attempting to replicate the sound, "A!"
"Emilia, ish it pronounshed like thish?" The only sound the one-year-old had difficulty with was the 's' sound.
Emilia giggled, "Yes, you genius! Aren't you a little smarty?" She caressed the infant's cheek.
'Them considering me a genius means I don't have to be as cautious around them anymore…' Of course, it was because of that, Victor. It was no part because the little boy liked the flattery, wasn't it?
"But Emilia…"
Emilia's eyes glowed, "Yes?"
"Can you show me shome magic?" Victor's eyes glowed even brighter. Learning languages was fun and all, and he was even overjoyed at how fast he mastered the local language. However, he wanted to plunge himself into magic even more.
'I wonder how it compares to my world's own magic? AZT did say this world would be different.'
Emilia rubbed her glabella, falling into thought. "Just a little, okay?"
In reality, she had no dangerous magic that could hurt the boy, but it was better to prevent than to cure, wasn't it?
Tilting her head sideways, she glanced at the ceramic mug of hot water she poured for herself earlier. She extended her hands towards the air and began chanting under Victor's examining eyes.
"How's that, little genius? Can't do that yet, can you? Well, I'll teach you!' Emilia gloated and bemused the innocent little child.
"Do what eggsacly, Emilia?" Victor asked in a low-pitched tone she did not expect from the infant.
"That! That. That?" The ceramic mug stood as still as a monolith, steaming from its hot contents.
"I'm shtill waiting, Emilia…"
"I'm rather tired, young boy. I'll show you something else!"
…
Five different spells later, panic began to show on Emilia's already-pale expression. If her magic did not work anymore, then how could she go to the city and become a craftswoman? How could she sustain herself without needing to work without anyone else?
She couldn't, for magic was that important. She did not dislike the Agosto household – They were plenty nice and both the chief and heir of the family were interesting characters, especially the highly intelligent Victor.
However, the peasant girl believed that she was blessed: her magic had chosen her, and her specifically, to give her a chance at greater achievements than retreating into a life of servitude. Her heart thumped and thumped, and her face reddened and reddened.
"Emilia? You don't look so good. Do you have a fever? I'll feed Victor, go have some rest."
With shaking hands, she deposited Victor into his mother's embrace.
"I'll call myself off. Thank you, my lady. Have a good night."
"What's going on with her? Homesickness?" Alice shrugged a stray lock of hair off of Victor's face.
"Magical ishues, mum."
"Magical issues? The common excuse, then?"
Alice took her son to her study, where she put him down on her wooden desk and fed him. Purposefully placing a thick book in front of him, she asked, "How has your reading ability progressed?"
'I could read Dostoyevsky if only I had just a little more vocabulary.'
'Well, mom, I think I can read a shmall book now…"
Alice's eyebrows danced upward. "Oh? Think you can read this though, little genius?"
She placed the thick book vertically, displaying that it was half the height of the young child.
'A Guide to the Lower Magics of the Lower Magics for Peasantry and other Persons of Common Birth.'
The title was a mouthful. His mouth? Watering already.
"I can! I can!" Victor jumped onto the book.
Alice retrieved the book to prevent any damage and said, "Not yet-
"Why?!"
"There are some things in this book that can hurt you…Emilia will let you read the first pages and supervise you."
'Bummer.'
"My lady!"
Alice turned towards the door to the study. "Emilia? Have you tackled your 'magical issues', yet?"
Emilia glanced down at the crouching Victor before she replied, "No, it's just that I discovered- just now- I can't perform any…magic around Victor!"
Alice rubbed her chin in thought. "Huh? Are you sure it's not an issue on your part? I don't wish to offend, Emilia, but you are a woman of common birth. Your magic is not always the steadiest."
"No, my lady…I tried to perform spells to teach Victor earlier, but it was as if…I had no magic at all as if I was just a chanting lunatic. I panicked, and when I went back to my quarters, I ran the same spell again…"
"Did it work?" Now, this was interesting. Alice furrowed her brows.
"Yes, my lady!"
"I guess we could say you're 'spelltaking', little genius!"
'Mom needs to work on her sense of humor.'
Alice cleared her throat. Glancing at their attendant, she said, "I've seen you perform a simple levitation spell at my boy's birth. Can you levitate this book?"
"Of course!" Frantically performing the spellcasting procedures, Emilia pointed at the thick leathercover book.
With everyone's attention on it, any minute movement would go noticed. Yet there was no such minute movement. Silence dawned upon the group, though the sun would not dawn on them until the end of the White Months.
"That's strange."
'I'm feeling…strange…' Victor noted his body warmth. Uncomfortable warmth. Not as if he was surrounded by a blanket or the embrace of his mother, but the warmth of a bad fever. His vision darkened in spots, and his meek control over his meek body reduced.
"Victor? Victor!"
"Young Sir!"
"In the episodes surrounding the hero's early life, not many stand out as much as his first sickness. For it is not a sickness of the mind or the body, as analyses of his life show, but a sickness beyond the realm of men, beyond the realm of Victor or his world. It is with impatience then that I ask you to remember this sickness because within, one can find great clues to the growth of Victor Agosto." -– Didiet Erasmus, Searching for The Lost Times of Victor Agosto, Volume 1.