Chapter 11 - Sweetheart
"Hey girls…. Watch out where you're pointing those forks…. What's this revenge about anyway?" Lenfort moved his hands away from the incoming fork and scolded his daughters.
"Hehe… it has been revenged daddy… the second one just to wake you up" replied Anya after giving a chuckle.
"Darling, how did our son already able to cast spells? Didn't you mention back then that we at least need to wait until twelve years old of age? Lenfort cross-examined his wife to ease his bafflement.
"That's why I told you that you won't believe it, hehe… even Mrs. virgin couldn't be convinced by it either, she thought you gave me some mages' grimoires to teach our little Arston, mistaking the picture books you brought home for one, hehehe… she even joined me on teaching Arston the pictures book" Irvina restated her claim earlier, and gave her husband the hilarious happenings these past two days.
"You mean Laura?" verified Lenfort to the identity of this Mrs. virgin on his wife's story.
"Mm… yup… the Mrs. virgin, you know… she kept blaming me on getting married, hehe" Affirmed Irvina.
"And the one who taught Arston the spell, is also Laura?"
"Yup.. she taken an interest to our little Arston, and so she gave a lecture about spells along with the basic healing's chants and hand gestures, turns out our little Arston doesn't even need them, just like mages of old, thus the interrogation by her, I swear, if she shook me a bit longer, I might lose my lunch earlier for real" Nodded Irvina to more of her husband queries.
"hey guys… I'm right here….. . Owh right, before I forgot again…" exhaled Arston silently and recalled a request in his mind.
"Ma, Da , can I have my room like Ana And Mada?"
"Huh? You want your own room dear?" Verified Irvina to her son's appeal, to which received nods from him.
"yes ma, Umm… it's hard to sleep whenever Da is home,"
He Asserted his complain about the passionate sounds without giving his knowledge about it.
"O… O…. Okay sweety… You… You can have your own room upstairs, the one between your sisters'" Irvina stuttered by her son's reasoning, she'd never thought her son will ever submitted a complain about her… she planned to let him to sleep on his own once he three years old.
Lenfort's face gets red but soon returns to normal after pondering that his son couldn't possibly understand such things at his age.
"ha-ha, my son already started venturing on his own, c'mon darling don't just stood there, let's prepare our little man's room" Brushed Lenfort to his embarrassment all the while nudging the still redden face Irvina with his elbow.
"Why… why yes… dear.. I'll be cleaning the room" Irvina woke up from the awkwardness.
Arston who's watching the scene really wanted to grin but, he stopped it, otherwise, he's going to compromise his concealment.
Everything went as for usual, Cray got his own room, no longer have to listening to his parents night activity. His sisters resumed their war, once they tried to hoodwinked him to join their respective side. One claiming that she's in an effort on opposing the underworld's queen of mischief, on the other side claiming in a movement to free the supressed from the tyrant's oppression. Arston didn't buy their sweet promises and just staying at the side line. Whenever the warfare spiked, Arston will get more desserts after the UN enforced her desserts sanction period for the warring faction. Followed by the waterfalls of tears and promises of better behaviour.
Laura still visits them once in a week or two as just before. On one occasion, Arston teased her by calling her 'Mrs.. Virgin' which Irvina gave her. Arston received a scolding with smiles, yet, the smile seamed cold. What comes next is another questioning to Irvina, amongst the queries are ; 'what did you told your son to call me?', "are you trying to convert him to be as perverted as you?" and What this Mrs. Virgin? If I wanted to, I probably already have more children than you do you perverted woman!", along with the shaking of Irvina's shoulder.
It's now Arston's third birthday, they celebrate it with having quite the large dinner, everyone is welcomed, sadly the culture here doesn't have a candle blowing habits with cakes underneath it. Just like his second birthday, his sisters' and every other birthdays. Only lots and lots of large dishes of food and the marry atmosphere. However, this time, his father, Lenfort, gives him a book recording all sorts of spells' chants and hand gestures. To Lenfort's surprise, his son hugged him with tears in his eyes. He then caressing the book like it's his beloved sweetheart.
The scene was quite creepy to the ones that witnessed it. But Lenfort just laughs it off, he also realizes, the present he gave his son last year was only a unique somewhat toy. He thought, it would make his son happy by giving him toys, like his two daughters, dolls and dresses make them bloom a smile. The father thus promised himself to bring more of magic related stuffs for his son from his shops.
Arston spends the following days reading, performing, and memorizing the spells' sensations to his manapool organ, he discovers things which didn't mention by his aunt Laura nor the book itself. First, the more practice of the spells, the plentiful he can cast the next day, especially after drying himself to the brink of exhaustion, similar on tempering swords back on his old place, the more hammering and recasting, the better quality of the sword. Second, as long as he understood the nature of the element he's utilizing, he basically can manipulates them to his will. As long as he has enough mana, the action he desired not contrasting with the laws of the elements. Thirdly,, he can't produce the elements out of nothing, for instance, if the surroundings are made of woods, he can't cast spells that involving earth. Therefore, he distained the earth elements a bit, dubbing it as too unreliable.
The elements that got recorded in the books are earth, water, fire, wind, and with a special category of healing. Which made him ponder about the possibility of other elements and another thought of his where the healing spells are non-other than the light itself. Although the notions of it seems plausible, he left the ideas at that and let the big brain scholars to figure them out.
Aside from manipulating the elements' movements, such as converging the water vapour on the air into a ball of water, or moving the flammable particles in a rapid rubbing motion to each other for producing fire. Mana can also be used to perform more complex gestures including pressure manipulation either on water and air. Thus, producing frost-ice and lightning respectively.
The next eight months or so, Arston spent on experimenting with his newly found usage for mana. It costed some concerns from his parents. Yet, after some assurance from their son, they soon left him to his devices. Until,
One rainy afternoon, three months before Arston's fourth birthday. The sky is quite dark, the sun is being covered by the thunderclouds. His father returns to their home after the unusual three weeks of managing his shops. His mother opens the door for her husband , Lenfort looks exhausted, shown by the bags under his black eyes and the really messy dark brown hair of his which normally looks neat. Irvina takes off the wet clothes from her husband and dries him with some towels. Leaving Lenfort bare-chested. Irvina runs back to their bedroom to get a dry set of clothing. Arston and his two sisters are also present on greeting their dad. The two sisters are blushing looking at their father, topless. They cover their eyes with their hands yet still peaking from the gabs, probably from the gender differences. Lenfort is not that masculine, it's just a bit well exercised, but not to a degree where six packs of abs can be seen.
Arston is also confuse, but not to his father still shirtless. There, he sees a little girl, around the same age as him, with a long gold blonde hair cascading to her hips, a pair of pale blue eyes, not the one which George and his mom had, but a slightly paler hue ones, making it similar to a pair of clear blue sky. The girl isn't wet at all like Lenfort does. She just stood there, holding a stuffed animal on her hands and wearing an ice blue pretty formal gown, lifting her beauty even more paired with her delicate face.
Arston turns his sight to his dad and sisters, nevertheless, they still didn't notice the little girl, even Irvina didn't notice her after returning with a new set of clothing. Arston then turns his sight again to the little girl, to witch, she also returns his. She walks slowly toward him, and stops 1 meter (3 foot) from him. She waves her fair left palm while still holding the stuffed animal with her right which appears to be in a shape of a kitten in white fur.
Arston got a little annoyed by her gesture, but still didn't move his gaze from her. He observes the little girl in front of him some more and, notice something wrong with her neck. It has some black marks on her skin in a shape of four fingers on the right side of her neck and a single thicker one on the right. A mark which Arston have seen before, on a news channel, featuring a homicide case where the victim got strangled in their sleep. One thought takes form in his mind.
"Ish she already deceased?