[Once upon a time, in a place far far away, 56 years before the first war of the God of Souls with the Family of Dahrit, Month of Life]

It was noon, and just like on any other day of the month of life, the weather was wonderful. Contemplating it, anyone could easily say why this month was named so. Birds chirped, a warm and light breeze stirred the young green foliage and bees pollinated colorful flowers as the entire creation was waiting for some artist to become inspired by its vibrancy. Life was in full swing.

Even despite the remoteness of man from wildlife, life in a human town named Theodoria visibly reflected the processes of nature. The grumpiest of graybeards and sorrowfulest of pessimists felt life to be not as bad as they used to think. Merchants touted customers with grinning smiles; blacksmiths forged tools, weapons and armor with joy and determination of someone who determines the fate of mankind by doing so, with no care at all for the fact they had been at this very same thing for many years in a row; elderly wizards came up with new spells with the same enthusiasm as they did with their first one.

Even the most conservative unbelievers could not ignore the hard work of the God of Life. However, that was not a hindrance to endless and groundless speculations that would let them keep unbelieving, for no reason was ever a motive good enough to reject joy-bringing beliefs. But little did gods themselves care for such displays of pure ignorance and narrow-mindedness, and that was all the more reasons for them to unbelieve.

Meanwhile, two youths, Vito and Andrea, both in the midst of adolescence, met once again beside the city wall to enjoy a joint pastime. The former was a young lad with chin-long black hair and a slender frame, the latter was a complete opposite: a somewhat round blonde male with a short cut who still resembling a boy. Though only a year had passed since their first encounter, a bond of friendship had already formed between them.

They exchanged smiles and shook hands upon seeing each other.

"Ready to test a couple of new spells?" Vito asked in a slightly hushed tone as he looked around cautiously.

"Sure, but be careful, please. I think we were close to getting caught last time," Andrea whispered with a nod.

"Yeah, I didn't expect it to be so bright. But don't worry, I'll be more careful," the dark-haired lad said, and they proceeded to a crack in the city wall big enough to provide a passage for a crouched man. 

Vito went through the opening first after glancing around one last time and his friend followed right after. With a huff they straightened up and Andrea spoke up: "Don't you think we should inform someone of that place? It probably will be quite a weakness if we ever get attacked."

The young self-teaching wizard waved his hand dismissively as he dusted his clothes off and said: "Nah, its fine. How are we going to get out if they fix it? Even if we get attacked, I don't think it will be that much of a problem. Either we win or die, some hole won't change that."

Andrea sighed and shook his head slightly then replied: "Well, if you say so..."

With a nod he thought to himself in silence: "Getting killed isn't nearly as scary as being left with no ways to practice magic. Dreams won't come true on their own."

They turned to the forest, taking in its peaceful and welcoming scenery, and slowly headed to their destination.

A few moments of stride later, he spoke up: "By the way, how did you manage to get that magic crayon?"

Vito rolled his eyes and replied: "How many times do I have to tell you? That's not a magic crayon, that's a spellscribing pencil."

Andrea shrugged and said in an unbothered tone: "All the same. So how did you get it?"

"Remember that librarian I borrowed the book of magic symbols from? Raul. He gave it to me. He mentioned that some wizard dropped it during a visit at his library, but never returned to take it back, so he handed it to me for a promise that I won't do spells in the city," Vito explained.

"How irresponsible of him..." one of them thought aloud.

"Well, all the better for us," the other said with a shrug.

A while later, two lads arrived at their improvised testing grounds - a small clearing, that in contrast to the forest was filled with much more light, which appeared blinding during the first few moments, but soon enough their eyes adjusted and they began their preparations: Andrea simply leaned against a nearby tree, while Vito took a leather pouch off his belt and placed it on a patch of the bare grassless ground. He took out of it a long wooden pencil with some runes engraved upon its body, a weighty book with a dark leather cover, and some scraps of thin yellow paper about the size of his palm.

"What a pity there are so few symbols described in that book. Why didn't the author write more?" he pondered to himself after opening the rune tome.

"You know why. Spreading knowledge about magic is dangerous. The author could have been imprisoned or even executed for saying too much. And speaking of that, the book itself wouldn't get in your hands. It's surprising enough you could get that book at all." Andrea said.

"Really? It explains a lot… Sigh, looks like those rules are being made up just to make my life harder… And as for the book, it came from Raul too. I didn't ask him where did it come from, though." The young wizard complained as he leafed through the book while choosing what wonder of magic to perform this time.

He evened some space on the ground with a movement of his foot then crouched, tucked his hair behind his ears, took the spellscribing pencil in his left hand and outstretched a scrap of paper on the soil with his right and started copying several runes from the tome, while Andrea attentively observed his actions in silence.

Vito scribed several runes which symbolized the elements of fire and earth first, and then the ones that stood for speed and size on the piece of paper in a circular pattern. He stopped for a moment to take in his work and check one last time whether there were any flaws or mistakes as he thought to himself: "Why do they all have to be of such sharp shapes, I wonder..." Right after he connected the runes with a slightly trembling line that enclosed the circle on itself, forming one single symbol.

With a huff of satisfaction Vito stood up with the newmade spell in his hand, gazed at it for a moment and rolled the scrap of paper into a scroll. He pointed at a boulder the size of a goblin, and with an effort of will poured some inner energy, known as mana, into the scroll, while also focusing on not spending more than necessary. 

A brief moment later, the scroll got enveloped in a white flame that burned it in a blink of an eye, becoming nothing more than an empty space, memory, and most important - an activated spell. A round fist-sized stone cloaked in quivering fire darted in the indicated direction. Two boys watched with held breath as it continued its flight, eventually missing the boulder and hitting a tree, which let out a pained creak. The stone itself burst into dust on impact with a loud, yet unimpressive in effect, explosion, that left a small wound on the unfortunate tree.

"Welp..." Vito mumbled as he cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck.

With a sigh Andrea said: "Someone needs to train his aim."

"I just can't get used to the sight of burning paper in my hands. It throws my hand off the target a bit," excused himself the young wizard with a shrug.

"Well, you need to fix that someday. What good is a spell that won't hit its target?" his friend remarked.

Vito sighed with a slight nod as he averted his gaze and glanced at his intended target and the tree that suffered in its stead.

"Do you want to try making a spell yourself? Maybe it will work this time," he suggested.

Andrea furrowed his brows and looked away with a frown as he said: "No, thank you. I've had enough of that stuff the first time. I will rather get by with some good old weapon. Get done with already and let's go hunting." 

"I still don't get why you do that at all. It's not like you are starving or something," Vito reprimanded as he gestured vaguely at his friend's well-fed figure.

"Because we have nothing better to do. It's better than just walking around the forest pointlessly," the blonde boy replied with a roll of his eyes.

His friend shook his head in disapproval and said: "I wouldn't say so. I would rather just walk or simply read than run around the forest like some bushman after an animal I'm not even going to eat."

Andrea smiled slyly and blurted out with a chuckle: "Nerd."

Vito waved his hand dismissively with furrowed brows and said: "Oh, shut up. Anyway, I will try some more spells and we will go after that."

"Just make it quick," was the answer and with it the dialogue was over.

He crouched again, fixed his hair, took the pencil and a new scrap of paper, then drew several runes on it once more, but this time the only element was earth, whereas the rune of size had one extra stroke to it. Vito connected the runes, rolled the piece of paper into a scroll, stood up and pointed it at the boulder anew. Akin to the first time the scroll burst out in flames, but this time he held his muscles tightly strained and still. A stone two times the size of the previous one came into existence and flew towards its target with the same speed, but missed and disappeared into the forest.

The young man cursed out internally and repeated the process several times more. A handful of spells later, the stone of the same properties crossed the very same path once again and soon it was no more, just like before, but this time the boulder had a crack across its middle which split it in two halves that remained standing by resting their weight on each other, still hanging onto the appearance of once solid rock.

He raised his chin faintly with a satisfied smile and said: "At last!" He put his hands on his hips and sighed then turned back to Andrea then muttered after a moment: "We can go now."

"Wait..." Andrea furrowed his brows and squinted his eyes as he looked into the cracked boulder, then pointed at it and said: "Look, what is it there? Something's glimmering inside."

The two friends came up to the split boulder and with a mixed grunt moved the two pieces apart. As the insides of the rock revealed itself, they noticed a square-shaped socket in them that was split as well. On one of the sides of it laid peacefully a book with an intricate and sophisticated cover of leather, seemingly gold edging decorated with carved ornaments, and a fore half of a human skull in the middle of its front cover.

Vito traced his slightly dirty finger across the metal edge as he took the book in his hands and the gaps free from carvings turned out to be perfectly smooth to the touch, almost as if it was covered in oil. One wonder layered upon another as he noticed that it stayed just as clean as it was before – without a single mark, not a slightest sign of his touch. He gazed into the captivating metal, expecting to see his own reflection, but instead he saw bewildering and most unexpected pictures that replaced one another endlessly. One moment the presumably golden edge was showing monstrosities unseen, another – landscapes of beauty unmatched. For an unknown to them time they silently contemplated this mysterious and captivating spectacle, hypnotized by the sceneries shown.

Eventually, Vito witnessed the image he expected the most first – himself. He slightly pulled away from the book in surprise at the sudden change and furrowed his brows and he noticed that the image mirrored him – it was not a show, for once, but a proper reflection. Suddenly, his eyes widened and his face went faintly pale and the face of Andrea reflected his. A second passed and the image of him started growing older at a frightening speed and soon it started rotting, until there was nothing left but a bare skeleton.

"Is it showing my fate?" Vito thought to himself, "…something is off about that. Its gaze feels too focused for a dead body…"

He exchanged a silent nervous glance with his friend and, after staring at his own future for some seconds more, tentatively opened the book, terrified of what it might hold, yet too intrigued to go back.

His eyes started drifting across the first page. At first, the letters seemed to float across the pages of the book, constantly rearranging themselves, carried by the confusing currents of the mysterious book, moving from place to place, slower now and faster then. But soon enough the kaleidoscope of symbols developed into a readable text.

"The Great Scripture: Treatise on the Structure of the World," the young wizard read aloud the title.

Andrea stared at his friend in stunned silence for a moment then asked with a hint of uncertainty and surprise to his tone: "Have you made that up just now?"

Vito furrowed his brows and blurted out: "What? That's written here. Don't tell me you can't read."

"Oh, of course I can! It's just that there is nothing intelligible here to read!" Andrea retorted with a roll of his eyes.

The black-haired boy returned his glance to the book and silently read the title again. "What is he talking about?" he thought to himself.

His friend tilted his head and spoke up with a raised eyebrow: "Wait… are you serious?"

Vito nodded as a reply.

"The hell even is that book…" Andrea wondered.

"I have no idea," honestly answered the young wizard with a shake of his head as he kept staring at the wonder of he-knew-not-what in his hands.