After a few months of searching, Marcos finally found a magic teacher to teach the young Fenris. They had agreed to come to the Tonelico mansion next week, and his father told him it was a girl. This meant that Fenris had to make himself presentable in front of her to leave a positive impression. This was because he was becoming a mature young man from this point forward.
Fenris was excited. He wondered what his teacher looked like. Was she a human, an elf, or a beast-kin? The possibilities seemed endless as he looked forward to beginning his formal magical education for the first time. With his brother, Roland, he practiced lady talk throughout the week as there were certain "rules" that applied to talking with girls, especially ones you did not know.
A week had flown by, and the day came for Fenris to meet his female tutor. He and his father waited outside, expecting her as they had made prior arrangements for her arrival.
"Father," Fenris asked. "Do you know how long she will stay here? I want to know so I can get the most out of my training."
"Well, she said she would be willing to train you for about 1, maybe 2 years. You'll get to know her quite well, I'm sure." Marcos responded. He tried to deliver what his son wanted, and what he got was the finest mage he could provide on relatively short notice. All he wanted was to see his son not waste his potential.
A carriage appeared in the background, near the gates, and its doors opened. Marcos yelled out to the guards to open the gates to let the guest in. "Open the gates!"
A beautiful girl stepped out of the carriage, wearing a hood that seemed to conceal her identity. At first glance, it was difficult to tell if she was hiding from someone or a group of people. It was also difficult to tell if she was ashamed of her appearance for some reason. Anyway, the girl walked along the path to the nearby mansion.
"Greetings, Lord Marcos." The girl introduced herself formally. She showed this by bowing down to Marcos and addressing him as 'Lord'.
Now up close, Fenris could see that the girl had red hair and green eyes and was well-endowed. Through closer examination, he could see that she had elongated ears obscured by her hooded robe. In conclusion, Fenris deduced that this was an elven girl. Her beauty was evident when he looked at her. Her demeanor was that of someone with lots of wisdom and experience despite looking like a teenager.
"I assume you are my magic teacher?" Fenris asked, already knowing the answer to this question, but asking anyway just to make sure.
"Yes," The elven girl replied, turning her eyes towards Fenris. Her eyes widened out of surprise as she examined his black hair and eyes. This was something she had never seen before in a person. It was especially odd when comparing him to his father, who looked different. She briefly wondered if Fenris was Marcos's child. She discarded the idea and focused on introductions.
The girl placed her hand on her heart, smiling lightly. "My name is Rifa. I will be your magic teacher for the next 2 years, as a deal I made with your father, Lord Marcos." Rifa introduced herself. She was looking forward to passing on her knowledge to a young pupil, something she hadn't had the chance to do before in her lifetime. Besides, Marcos offered more than she needed to live comfortably, so that's another plus!
"I already know your name, as your father told me before I came here," Rifa added. She extended her hand out to Fenris, hinting at him to take her hand and walk down the steps. Fenris took the hint, and grabbed her hand while he stepped down the stairs leading up to the mansion entrance.
With glistening eyes, Fenris looked forward to spending time with Rifa and getting to know her. To him, she seemed like a very beautiful woman and her demeanor gave him the feeling that she was wise despite her looks.
"Well, shall we get started?" Fenris asked Rifa, letting go of her hand. He turned to look at his father, who seemed proud of his son. It looked like tears of joy were coming out of Marcos's eyes, as he could hardly believe that his youngest child had already grown up so much in a short span of time.
"Yes." Rifa nodded, turning to look at Marcos, waving her hand goodbye. Fenris followed suit, waving him goodbye as well.
"Bye, Father!" Fenris yelled from a distance, as the two headed into the horse-drawn carriage. Fenris and Rifa sat down while the latter ordered the driver to head out into the wilderness. Despite the strange request, they agreed, and they took off.
Not long into the trip, Fenris experienced motion sickness. He had a severe case where he felt nauseous when moving while his surroundings were closed, such as in a carriage. This was not the first time he experienced motion sickness. He went on carriage rides with his father, usually for business or political purposes.
Rifa quickly noticed Fenris looking nauseous, and immediately worried about him. Fenris had his head down while groaning a bit, which made it obvious that he wasn't feeling very well.
"Are you alright?" Rifa asked almost reflexively, in a worried tone.
"Yeah...I'm fine. I've had motion sickness like this before." As he thought about it, Fenris wondered why he took the carriage in the first place. He probably would have been better off walking. But then again, he had no other means of getting around faster than land transportation, so he just had to accept it.
"I can open the window if you'd like," Rifa said. As she finished that thought, she reached up and opened the window up a bit to allow air ventilation inside the carriage. She figured this would help Fenris' motion sickness. "I just don't want you to get sick on me when we haven't even started training."
"T-Thanks..." Fenris felt better after Rifa opened up the window, which allowed ventilation to flow through and reduced the symptoms enough that he felt comfortable sitting up properly instead of slouching. He picked his head up, resting it on his arm as he looked at Rifa, curious about her.
Having heard from her father that Rifa was a famous adventurer, Fenris asked, "What brings you here?" Though he had heard of her name before, he had never seen her. He heard about her from his father. He told him a few stories about how she was seen as an invaluable asset on the battlefield, specializing in offensive magic. He had no idea she was this pretty, and getting to meet her up close like this felt like an honor to him.
"Correct," Rifa replied, amazed that a boy his age had heard of her. But it wasn't long ago that she quit adventuring. Other than the obvious answer, she wasn't sure how to answer her question about why she came to Tonelico territory. "I came to Tonelico because of your father. He found me by chance when I was on my way to the capital. I was quite surprised, actually...that your father would've turned to someone like me to teach someone else."
"Well, you're famous, aren't you?" Fenris asked her in response to what she had said. "It's obvious that he would come to you eventually. He had trouble finding suitable mages to teach me, and he nearly gave up, until he found you, I guess."
"True...I guess it must've been fate, then." Rifa replied. After hearing what Fenris said, she now understood why Marcos had been so eager to assign her to his son. She believed it was pure coincidence that the two had met. However, in the end, she was glad to meet someone intelligent like Fenris. Based on their conversation so far, she could tell that Fenris was more mature than his years suggested.
In their conversation so far, Rifa remarked, "You're quite mature for someone your age.". It would be unusual for a normal child to act this reserved, but there are many surprises in life.
"Oh, you noticed?" asked Fenris. His behavior was more mature than the normal behavior of a 9-year-old boy, but he didn't pay attention to it. Yet, it all stemmed from him helping out the Tonelico mansion's servants. Although he lacked the familial love he desired, he found ways to cope through the lower ranks of the household. In addition to teaching him valuable skills, they also taught him how to cook and clean. He occasionally practiced the first skill.
"It's quite remarkable that you're not like your fellow aristocrats. Most of them tend to be self-indulgent and spoiled." Rifa wondered what Fenris' childhood was like. As she observed Fenris' behavior, she assumed that he had a solid parenting background. As Marcos didn't think it was necessary to bring up many details about Fenris and his life, he left them out.
"I see. I'm glad to hear that you respect me." Fenris replied.
After about 30 minutes of riding, the horse-drawn carriage arrived at the destination Rifa wanted. They were out on open plains, where few people were around. The Tonelico territory had vast plains under their jurisdiction, though the roads were prone to bandit and monster attacks as merchants passed through. Marcos, when he became the patriarch of the family, dealt with these issues. However, even today, raids and monster attacks have not been fully solved.
Fenris looked out the window and saw the open plains out ahead. He wondered if this was the destination Rifa had been looking for, and if this was the place where he would train. It seemed so...open, like there were no people around. Maybe that was a good thing, actually...he didn't want to harm anyone by accident.
"Is this the place we're going to train?" Fenris curiously asked, though he could already feel in his gut the answer.
"Yes, I chose a depopulated area so we wouldn't harm anyone." Rifa replied, getting up from her seat as she prepared to step out of the carriage. "Are you coming?" Rifa said, turning her head to face Fenris. She hand-signaled Fenris to get up from his seat and exit the carriage as well.
"Alright, I'm coming." Fenris replied, quickly getting up from his seat and stepping out of the carriage. The driver bid the two farewells as they drove off, leaving Rifa and Fenris to themselves.
"So, I assume your father has taught you the basics of magic, right?" Rifa asked Fenris, hoping he had learned the basics to make her job easier.
"Well...I taught myself, but yes, I learned the basics." Fenris replied.
"Okay, good. We can start with a few basic spells then. But first, I would like to see something..." Rifa said, pulling out something from her pocket. It turned out to be a mana stone, which was used to determine a person's affinity for magic.
"You can channel some mana into this mana stone by placing your hand here. Your magical affinity depends on how it shines. If it glows blue, that is water magic. If it glows red, that is fire magic. If it glows green, that is earth magic. Light blue is wind magic, yellow is light magic, and purple is dark magic." In a short, but straightforward explanation of what a mana stone does, Rifa explained that if it shines multiple colors, you are attracted to multiple affinities. Something she left out was that if it shined white, it meant he possessed all 6 affinities. However, since there had been no known case of someone possessing all 6 elements in centuries, she deemed it unnecessary to mention it.
"Sounds easy enough," Fenris replied. He then placed his hand on the mana stone and channeled a small bit of mana into it. After a few moments of quiet, the mana stone shone bright white. It shocked the two of them as neither expected a white color from the normally dull gray mana stone.
"Huh?! A white color?! This has to be an error!" Rifa, in disbelief, concluded that Fenris must have made an error. She insisted on him trying it again, hoping they would get some actual results.
It glowed bright white again, shocking the two of them again. Rifa, seeing that this was no error, realized exactly what this meant.
"Fenris..." Rifa said saddenedly.
"Do you realize that you possess ALL six elements?" Rifa said almost like she was about to shout. She wasn't angry, but rather envious of Fenris because he had all six, but not her!
"N-No...I didn't." Fenris replied, truthfully. He could tell from her voice that she was jealous of him already, but he didn't want that to prevent him from learning anything.
"How about we set that aside for later? I'd like to learn some of your spells." To get back on track, Fenris asked Rifa to demonstrate some of her spells.
"Oh, yeah, sure." Rifa replied, getting her composure back together. She then demonstrated to Fenris some of her spells. She figured she would start with fire, as it was a very common element.
"Why don't we start off with some fire magic?" Rifa asked Fenris.
"Sounds fine with me." Fenris replied.
"Alright, then. We'll start with the spell Incendio, or Fireball." Rifa conjured the spell Incendio, extending her hand out while channeling mana into it subconsciously. Fenris was impressed that she did it without an incantation. It made him wonder if he could do the same.
"Hey! How did you do that without an incantation?" Fenris asked Rifa.
"Oh, well...it takes some practice, but it's actually pretty simple. You imagine the spell forming in your mind, and from there you could add additional mana if you wanted to increase its power. Once the spell is finished, you can cast it." Rifa explained. The process of "silent casting" took practice to master, but the user only needed strong imaginative power to mold mana to their will. Rifa considers teaching Fenris silent casting, especially at his young age as his young mind is more flexible to pre-determined magic concepts.
"Ooh, sounds really cool! You should teach me that! It'd make my spellcasting easier!" Fenris was ecstatic about "silently" casting spells using only his mind. Thinking logically, it also meant that any enemies coming at him wouldn't know what spell he was conjuring until after he casted it.
"I will teach you this, as well as other magic techniques to the best of my ability." Rifa said with a smile. Being able to teach an eager child who is so passionate about learning from someone like her almost brought her to tears.
After a few weeks, Fenris is easily accustomed to silent casting. As a result of casting spells this way, he was able to cast them even faster than by reciting an incantation. In order to cast the spell, he only had to memorize it and visualize it. The two of them tried many different spells in a competitive game to see who could do them better. Ultimately, Fenris won, but Rifa's skills and abilities impressed him.
Rifa was livid that she had lost herself to a young boy who had just begun to leave the nest. However, she graciously congratulated him on his hard-earned victory. Rifa noted some of Fenris' best qualities while teaching him. For starters, he was a diligent learner and quick to rid himself of any flaws in his technique. He turned out to be an excellent learner, learning from his own mistakes and building on them.
During one of their sessions together, Rifa explained to him that magic relied on something called the "talent gradient". While not an official term in the books, it is a key component of how magic works and many scholars agree that it is. While not having talent doesn't necessarily mean you can't use magic, it makes the difference between a novice mage and a great mage. In Fenris' case, as proven by their training so far, he has an unusually high amount of magical talent for all 6 elements. This means he has the potential to become one of the strongest mages in history if he tries.
Rifa was offered to live in the mansion in a guest bedroom on the same floor as Fenris' bedroom, which she graciously accepted. While in Fenris' bedroom, she and Fenris sat down on his bed reminiscing about the past, like what they did when they were younger. While doing that, something Fenris was curious about for a while came to his mind.
"Hey Rifa, could you tell me about the history of this nation? How did it come to be?" Fenris asked with an uplifted eyebrow. He knew bits and pieces of Asura's history and politics because he was taught by his father. However, likely due to his age, he hadn't been told the full story. He figured that Rifa, a non-family member yet someone he sees as a guardian would share with him more of the story.
"Well, where do I start?" Rifa asked in a rhetorical fashion, wondering if Marcos had told Fenris about it yet or not.
"Okay, so the nation of Asura was founded by one of the Seven Heroes, called Garm, though his original name was 'Yamazaki'. The Seven Legendary Heroes were summoned from another world and blessed by the Gods in heaven to defeat the infamous Demon God known as Diablos. After Diablos was defeated and sealed away, the Heroes couldn't return to their old world. By that time, the gods had left the world. So, what they did was choose to stay in this world and live their own lives in this new environment. Garm was the one who allegedly stabbed Diablos in the heart. He was the leading member of the Seven Heroes, so he's the most famous among them." Rifa paused for thought, leaving Fenris time to comprehend all of what she just said. What he didn't get was 'Gods', and why did they abandon the world. He had grown up knowing only one God existed and following the Asura Catholic faith, like the rest of his family.
"Wait—there were multiple Gods? I thought there was only one." Fenris replied, clearly confused why Rifa referred to multiple.
"O-Oh, I see...I should've expected you to ask that. You're a believer in the Asura Catholic Church, yes?" Rifa said in response, with her expression turning to a frown.
"Mm-hmm." Fenris said, wondering what she was getting at with this.
"The Catholic Church has fed you lies about history, then." Rifa replied in a straight tone of voice, with a hint of disappointment. She was sorry to burst his bubble, but Rifa thought it was necessary to tell him the truth. "The Church was founded by a human who appeared a few decades after Garm's time from the same world as he did, and he was a lone priest. Seeking to spread the teachings of 'God', he gained a large enough following that he established a Church, later growing into a whole new faith that only believed in one deity and not the multiples that actually existed. It is said that one of Asura's greatest strengths is its faith. This is true, as it is a driving force behind the founding of this nation." Rifa then explained, but she wasn't finished.
Just in case anyone was watching, Rifa leaned closer to Fenris' ear, whispering to him. "The Church manipulated information over the centuries to deny the existence of the old Gods and brainwashed people into believing there was only one God, one that they fabricated."
Fenris was dumbfounded by this news, as evident by his shocked reaction. While it was hard to believe at first, the meaning of it sunk into his mind, and it shaken his beliefs. He now questioned why he followed a church that lied to the world about the truth of the past. He very quickly believed Rifa's words.
"O-Oh wow..." Fenris responded, not having much else to say after what he had just heard. "I don't want to follow a church that is willing to lie to me and not even bat an eye." He said firmly, clenching his hands on his leggings as he grew frustrated at the thought of being lied to like that for all these years.
"Well, it's your choice, but I wouldn't recommend believing those lies. Their 'God' doesn't exist, the ones that did are gone now, but they were real." Rifa said, patting her hand on Fenris' back trying to calm him down. She empathized with him as she knew it would've been difficult to break it to him but doing it sooner than later was the better option. It may as well have been now.
"I won't." Fenris replied.
"Alright," Rifa said. Attempting to get back on topic, she jumps right back to when she talked about Asura's strengths.
"Anyway, Garm founded a village named Asurand. Thanks to his efforts, it eventually evolved into a town, then a city, and later a kingdom. He didn't live to see the Kingdom founded, but he was its first King regardless." Rifa said, pausing for a moment before speaking again. "The religion that the priest founded gained a grip on the newly founded Kingdom of Asura, and soon it became the dominant faith. Asura grew into a powerful kingdom because the people's faith helped solidify a national identity for the nation. This allowed it to grow and develop into what it is today." Rifa sighed after explaining that to Fenris. She hoped he understood all of what she had just said. This was because it was important to know this to have an advantage over the other students. As she knew full well Fenris' desire to be admitted to Arcana.
"I see...this Garm guy must've been charismatic! If he's seen as a symbol of our nation even though he didn't live to witness it being founded, he's special indeed."
"Mm-hmm. He was." Rifa replied with a smile. She looked at Fenris in a motherly way as she stroked his hair. It was almost as if she told him a bedtime story even though it was daytime.
The two talked for hours. Engaging in active conversations with one another helped build their relationship. As the months passed, Rifa and Fenris built a relationship that moved beyond the traditional student-teacher relationship, and more into a familial one. Rifa acted more like a big sister to Fenris and a protector, as she became well-acquainted with the family.