Agnar had a troubled look on his face, and felt like he had a lump in his throat. Where would he start from? He wondered. He couldn't find the words to tell what had happened.
After a moment of silence, Agnar took in a deep breath and said,
"It began nearly four centuries ago."
Kiyan and Raten both raised their brows at their father. He had to be bluffing, they thought.
"I think I misheard just now," said Raten.
"You didn't."
"You really want us to believe you are that old?" Kiyan asked.
"It is your choice to believe or not," Agnar said and carried on with his tale.
"Now, I don't remember the full story. But from the pieces in my head, nearly four hundred years ago, I was born. I was an ungrateful, stubborn, hex of a son to my parents. Or, so they said I was."
"During that time, there was no magic, it did not exist."
"I will tell you as much as I can remember." He scratched the side of his head. "The reason we are hated this much dates back to the beginning of magic. The day I brought magic to this world."
Once again, the twins were dumbfounded.
"Don't get me wrong by thinking I am the first man to use magic, for I am not." Agnar continued.
"There were sorcerers then, the seers and whatnot. They, to some extent, had the ability to use magic, but were either considered evil or blessed by the gods. I was the first man to command the forces of the earth. To do things viewed to be impossible." He explained.
"Three young lads trying to escape their death sentence came across a stream one night and became the first three wizards. Myself, One-eye and...." Agnar counted with his fingers but paused, finding it hard to say the last name.
"And?" The twins asked in unison.
"Arik." Agnar said after much hesitation. Demas knew the reason behind Agnar's hesitation and could see that Agnar was hurt in ways he couldn't imagine.
"We were brothers given powers beyond what we could fathom. These powers made life more interesting than we would have ever thought it to be. It opened up a new world for us. A world of short-lived happiness followed by pain, blood and tears." He said and took a deep breath.
"We carried on into different lands, met numerous people, of which your mother was one of. She was the most powerful witch to have ever lived." Agnar said with a half smile.
"Everything went on well for us after almost getting executed countless times due to the barbaric belief that we were evil beings, and spawns of the devil."
"We could finally establish a solid base and an academy for those who wanted to indulge in it."
"Darkmoon Academy?" Kiyan asked.
"Yes. But not just it. In this empire, there are currently two standing academies, Darkmoon and Newmoon. Darkmoon is the first, created by the first three.
"Not only this empire, but in different lands across oceans, there are magic academies set up by us. They used to have statues of me even. Okay, not just me. The three of us," Agnar said with a grin.
"Used to?" Raten asked.
"Yes, used to. It all got brought down after the mistake." Agnar replied. "You see in this world, nothing ever goes for nothing. We were blessed with powers, yes. But at a price. We had to free a deity from its seal."
"Apparently, using magic had attracted a whole lot of enemies and that deity just had to be a troublesome one. He almost made us go mad if we decided to leave him in his seal. The obvious and only choice was to break the seal."
"It was really hard to do. A lot of information had to be gathered, a lot of power had to be put in, a lot of spells to be cast but we didn't break the seal. We were close to achieving that but I wrongly read one of the spells."
"Instead of breaking the seal, I released beings of unspeakable evil into the world. Mine enemies took this as a leverage to bring me down. The rebellions against us wizards that were suppressed rose again. The hunting began."
"Most of the academies were brought down. Innocent lives were slaughtered all because they were wizards. The entire world, when I say world, I mean it. Warriors, hunters, from far and near rose to have my head."
"Everything went wrong, my world began to crumble. One by one friends fell while enemies rose rapidly."
"After years of trying, my brothers and I gathered an army of wizards and went against the evil I released. It was a tough battle, but we won.. barely." Agnar said with a very pained expression.
"On that very battleground, the true hunt for our family, the hunt for the heads of everyone who bore the name Teferi began."
"We fought so hard for the acceptance of magic, yet it was lost because I said a single word wrong. After going through hell and back to bring peace back to the world, I fell. I fell by the hands I so truly trusted."
"Your brothers?" Raten asked.
"No, not them. But someone I considered as one. I later found out I didn't read the spell wrong, he put in those words. Enemies didn't just appear, he orchestrated everything."
"The hate wasn't directed to wizards generally. Although there's still some bad blood, the main target was just my family, everyone under everything I built were killed because of jealousy. Because a man became greedy."
The foundation of Demas' house began to shake under pressure of Agnar's anger. The twins could feel pressure coming off him as though his pain was escaping his body.
"Agnar, you need to calm down. You can continue this some other time." Demas said worried that he might unintentionally cause the roof to fall on them. Agnar closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then exhaled.
The waves of energy dispersed as they came.
"This man turned the world against me and tried countless times and in numerous ways to remove me from the surface of the earth. When that didn't work, he turned me to stone."
"For three hundred long years I was trapped in stone. When I was freed, I saw everything I built now belonged to him. The academy, the credit for unison, and even for sending the evil to the place they came. He was praised for it all and I? I was deemed a menace. I was called evil, I was said to have crawled out of this pits of hell to bring suffering upon the earth."
"Everything I had worked for was gone." Agnar said and the room was silent. Every time Agnar spoke they could see the emotions as well as feel it. Agnar felt like he was relieving every single day.
"As if that wasn't enough for him, he took your mother away from me." Agnar continued after much silence.
He ran his fingers through his hair and breathed slowly. His eyes were distant.
"I was left with a curse that stopped me from using the one thing I had grown to love so much. With every spell I cast, no matter how little the amount of magic I exude, my life force is drained from me."
That was the last statement he made about the past. He didn't want to destroy anything around because of uncontrolled emotions.
Agnar suddenly stood up,
"I hope I have answered your question," he said and walked out.
The twins had no words to say.
After Agnar left, they retired to their rooms to rest for the night.