Author's Comment:

I was asked about reading my work on other sites.

The answer is simple: Currently I am not active in any other networks than royalroadl.com. Only here, I correct mistakes and errors.

If you read it anywhere else and have to pay for it, or have to deal with an annoying amount of advertisement, You Are Being Betrayed.

You would do good if you make other people in that network aware of it. This is a free project of mine for the purpose of having fun. And if people try to make money with it you shouldn't bother visiting their website.

The only one whom I actually allowed to have my work on his website is Armaell who invested the time to compile them into pdf.

(http://armaell-library.net/author/andur)

If you find mistakes, pls tell, thx. I don't like mistakes.

Also feel free to ask for more background information on the world. I am somehow running out of interesting points regarding the small comments at the beginning of the chapters.

###############################################################

“The Central African Union, for short C.A.U, formed out of various African states and is one of the new rising powers on earth. They control almost the complete African continent and the former Arabia, but have bad relationships towards their direct neighbours, Nordas and India.

The reason for that is their aggressive policy in regard to secure needed farmland. That's because great parts of the African continent turned into a desert due to the climate changes.

The rumoured midnight war was the C.A.U.'s attempt to take control of the fertile regions which were controlled by Nordas and India. This short war was planned as a lightning war operation to present the nations in question with a fait accompli.

The reason why this operation failed was because Nordas secretly invested in massive defensive infrastructure. The leadership of Nordas did this in anticipation of future friction with the C.A.U.. The result was the complete defeat of the attacking forces.

The attack on India succeeded and took control of their governing body, but the C.A.U. underestimated the determination of the Russian and Chinese coalition, as well as the Indonesian Kingdom. All three of these nations were using India's space-port as their main launching port for satellites.

India had profited from the technology transfer from Europe and had given its neighbours free access to their extensive space program and expertise. Not without calculating thoughts as it turned out.

In fear of losing their free access to the earth's orbit, all of the mentioned nations struck out at the C.A.U. and forced their military to retreat and pay reparations for caused damage and lost lives.”

History Lesson II

***Aether, The floating City, above the Atlantic Ocean***

***Gideon***

I stir in my sleep and open my eyes. Blinking, I try to remember what happened. Why is the ceiling white? The room in my personal reality is painted blue.

That's right! There was this woman and she did something to me. I sit up, but nausea attacks me and I feel incredible weak. This is my real body.

By instinct I try to retreat into my own world, but it doesn't work. Did they do something to me? Disoriented I survey the room. It's held completely in white and empty. There is a strange globe floating at the ceiling, spreading a warm light.

Probably I could have accepted the disturbing globe, but there is a door to my left. A door!

My old room had no doors. Doors lead somewhere. I don't want to be anywhere else. Probably an annoying human will emerge from that door and question me. What can I do about that? Fight? No, probably I have no chance with this body and my ability doesn't work.

Something rolls down my cheeks and I wipe the fluid away. Tears? The real world is annoying.

Taking another look around I concentrate on the bed. It's really big with fluffy blankets and four huge cushions. There is no point in staying idle and the door is irritating me.

I roll myself out of the bed, but my muscles give way. Realizing that I can't even stand without supporting myself on the bed I abolish the thought of trying to open the door.

I reach for the cushions and push them to the ground. Then I slide to the floor, pulling the blanket with me. Some exhausting minutes later I am in the corner of the room with the cushions and the blanket around me. I chose the corner which is as far away from the door as possible.

Closing my eyes I fall asleep again. Hopefully this is just a bad dream. I'll surely wake up and then I am back in my world.

The clicking of the door's handle wakes me up and I pull one of the cushion's closer, placing it between me and whichever danger is approaching from the door.

A young woman with silver hair enters the room and freezes, startled upon finding the bed empty.

Then her eyes wander to me and her expression changes again. She walks over to me and I dig my fingers into the cushion, realizing that I can't even flee into my own world if she starts beating me. She is three times my size, there is no way that I can do anything to stop her.

She bares her teeth at me. “Hello, Gideon.” Kneeling down in front of me she reaches out and touches my hand. “Are you able to speak?”

“Please don't bite me!” I manage to answer.

She exposes her teeth even more. “Why should I bite you?”

“Because you are baring your teeth at me? That's the same as dogs do before they bite!” I answer, drawing from my previous experiences.

Finally she closes her mouth. “I see that we have a lot of work to do. What I just did is called smiling and it means that the person in question is happy and means no harm.”

“Why should you be happy.” There is no reason for her to be happy.

“Because I met you, Gideon. You are my grandson. Isn't that a reason to be happy?” The woman replies. At least she isn't exposing her teeth any more.

I may be unable to understand some things about humans, but at least I can judge someone's age and looks! “You aren't my grandmother! You aren't even old enough to be a grandmother.”

She sits down cross-legged and I realize for the first time that not only her hair is silver, but also her eyes. They look like they are pure silver. How can she even see through those things? It feels like she is looking right through me.

“Gideon, this may be surprising, but the people whom you thought to be your father and grandmother aren't related to you by blood. They are... normals, as we call them.” She points at herself. “And I am a magician, as well as your mother and you. My name is Melan Alvar and yours is Gideon Alvar. You belong to a family of magicians.”

Great. This woman isn't just a freak of nature, she is also crazy! “There is no such thing as magic and magicians.”

“Then how did you do what you did? Like creating your own virtual space in your mind and connecting to the normal's internet without a computer?” She snaps with her fingers and a plushy toy cat appears out of nothing in her hand. Then she pushes it into my hands.

“H... how? Why?” I blink, not believing it. There are tricks to fool someone, but there is no way that she hid this thing in her sleeve! So I wasn't human after all? Are they aliens!?

“I am very good at teleportation. Like that.” She snaps her fingers again and this time it's a plush bunny. “I am sorry that we didn't come earlier, but we didn't know of your existence. Your mother did some bad things and fled from the authorities. We magicians are hiding ourselves from the normals. We don't think that it's good to have dealings with them. And I am actually two hundred and forty-eight years old.”

“Is that why your eyes and hair are so strange?” I ask, looking down on the plush toys. “I don't feel young enough for toys like that.”

“That's because I used magic for a very long time. The more you use mana, the more your body changes. Do you want to see something cool?” Without waiting for my answer she forms her hands into two cups and rocks her head forward, catching her eyeballs which were ejected from their sockets.

My eyes bulge as she holds them out for me to see, but my attention isn't on the two silver eyeballs. There are just two empty eye-sockets in her head now. That's... disturbing. “P- please put them back!”

I believe it! There are clearly no connectors to her brain and the eyeballs are perfect spheres without interfaces. I know of no technology which can replace your eyes like that.

“Sorry, do you believe me now?” She pushes her eyeballs back into her head.

“Yes! Just don't do that again.” I offer the toys to her. “I don't know how long I was in my own reality. I didn't count the time in there.”

She doesn't take them. “Keep them. I think you should use your status as a child as long as you can. Having an appropriate toy helps to fool the people around you.”

I place the plush toys beside me. “So what can magicians do?” I ask, not sure on how to react.

Melan smiles again. “You and I are techno-mages. It's an advanced branch of electro-magic. There are several different branches of magical affinities. It means that someone's mind has a disposition towards certain spells. We cast them easier than others.”

The wheels in my mind start turning. “Does that mean that I can throw fireballs?”

A while ago I played some fantasy M.M.O.R.P.G.s and I enjoyed it for some time, but my mind was too fast for them. The stupid grinding game advanced simply too slowly. After a while I got sick of it.

“Well, you can. If you put effort into it. Essentially a mage can learn every spell in existence, but that's more suited for a fire-mage. We techno-mages excel in areas like manipulating technological and magical artefacts. Other areas we are great at are teleportation, gravity magic, telepathy... obscure stuff like that.” She shrugs her shoulders.

“Those spells generally take a long activation time. That's why pure techno-mages are regarded as weak in battle. We also have this issue with accelerated minds, which can be quite problematic. Some tend to lose themselves in their ability and turn into addicts.”

Obscure? Weak? Teleportation? Gravity magic? That's even better than fireballs! “I can learn that, Melan?” If her words are true, then my cruel reality just turned into a wonderful fantasy world with people like myself!

“First you have to get better. I am supplying you with healing magic since quite a while. And call me Grandmother.” She smiles at me.

That's fine with me. If she is really the same as me, then I'll call her anything she wants. My old family wasn't worth to be called a family anyway.

Only then I realize that she was touching me since quite a while. Her hand is shining in a green light and somehow I feel better than before. “It has been a long time since someone touched me without hitting me.”

Grandmother's expression changes. “Don't get your hopes up too high. If you do something with ill intent I'll have to punish you.”

My high expectations suddenly drop into a deep valley. “But my... previous... father said that I am evil, Grandmother.”

“Why did he say that?” She asks.

I hesitate for a moment, but then I decide that talking alone won't get me punished. And Melan won't hit me because she is like me. Probably.

So I explain my problems with understanding humans and their strange reasoning to her. It took a while, but in the end I think I got the point across.

Grandmother nods. “That's a problem most techno-mages have to deal with, though you seem to be a little more problematic than others. We will work on that.”

She takes the cushion away from me and lifts me up. “But the first point on our list is to train your body. The first task is to walk to the door on your own.” She puts me down, but thankfully lets me hold her hand to steady myself.

“Can't I learn gravity magic and fly where I want to go?” I look up to her and try to do this thing which she called smiling.

Grandmother shakes her head. “No magic, no virtual reality until your body is fine. We have to work on your display of emotions. That expression looks like you are a rabid dog. Don't look at me like that! No, tears won't work either.”

Damn! Maybe dying is the better choice.

.