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The night arrived quickly, a pleasant breeze blew through the field. Both Riou and Maximilian walked away from the camp and towards the clearing, away from the prying eyes of curious soldiers and to a place they wouldn’t be bothered.

The sky was clear and for the first time Riou could see that he was not home. The "moon" was an astonishing sight, white and huge in comparison. He extended his hand towards the sky to try to block it, but could barely cover it using his whole hand. Such a size allowed them to have a very bright night, they could see clearly the field around them.

Riou watched the sky for a while and began to wonder where all the stars were. Most of the sky was just dark with very few faint glimpses of light here and there. While thinking about it he realized it was probably because of that moon’s size and light, it was so much that overshined most of the stars completely.

“I guess there is no denying now...” he said looking at that sky.

Maximilian looked at Riou while he appreciated the sky "Do you have one of those where you are from?" he asked.

"Yeah, we call it moon... but it is not nearly as big as this one nor as bright either" He replied.

Maximilian stopped "I think this is far enough" and raised his hand showing his palm up "Let's begin with an easy one. I believe you know the foundation of fire, am I correct?"

A flame suddenly bursted above the mage’s palm, red and big as a clenched fist.

Riou nodded, confirming it and taking position, following the mage’s instructions with the utmost concentration.

The mage continued "All you have to do is to concentrate the mana, make it flow from your core to your chest, then through your shoulder, arm and then hand. Visualize it forming into your hand, feel it moving. But here is the trick, imagination and visualization means nothing without knowledge to actually make it happen, use your knowledge of the foundations of fire to pull them together, call upon them from the environment and use mana to substitute and mix them together. When you accomplish that then link this with the proper emotion so you can..."

Suddenly a humongous flame took place above Riou’s hand, going very high up in the sky and raging about violently.

A twist of yellow and red flames spinning and quickly taking the form of a fire tornado. Swirling and shining so brightly that Max had to look away. The fire was raging around so fast it produced a deadly sound, gushing everywhere as if trying to break free from Riou’s hand and consume all around it. It was like a wild animal, alive and trapped, desperately wanting to get out of its cage and run amok.

Frightened by it as well, Riou desperately tried to stop it, but amidst his despair he was not able to do it.

"What are you doing!? Stop it!" screamed Maximilian taking many steps back to protect himself from the fire.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?! You didn't explain that part yet!" Riou screamed back in anger.

"Stop the emotion fueling the fire!" Screamed the mage

"What the hell are you talking about?! That makes no sense!"

"Cease the emotion link to the fire! And it will cease as well!"

“You are not helping!”

Riou calmed down a bit when he noticed that his hand was not being burned, despite the fire being so close, somehow it was not that hot nor was it causing any problems to him nor was it actually moving away from his hand.

So he finally focused on what was going on.

Inspecting what was happening further, he understood that his hand was acting as a channeling device to fuel the flame with mana. The problem was the fuel used was just too much or strong and was causing the flames to go wild.

He finally began to feel the flow of his own mana moving through his body and that was the key to control it somehow.

So he began experimenting on it.

Took him a few tries to grasp the concept of the mana flow through the body properly. But once he understood it, the tornado immediately disappeared into the night sky.

"That was intense… but I think I got the general idea now." Said Riou contemplating his achievement with a smile.

Maximilian approached him "What happened!?" Asked the mage in a mix of anger and surprise.

"You said to think of the foundation of fire, and so I did, you said to concentrate the mana and make it move. I just did what you said and suddenly that thing came out and you started talking about that emotion bullcrap, what was THAT all about?" Riou replied back clearly irritated because he judged the magus left out the most important parts of the explanation, how to stop the spell.

Maximilian was getting irritated as well "Bullcrap!? The final pillar of foundation and emanation of magic is the link with the emotion inside oneself, the stronger the link and the emotion, stronger is the spell... you were the one that went on creating that… that pillar of flames even before I could even finish the explanation!"

"What that makes no sense! The foundation of fire is air, heat and fuel! And that was what I did! I was not angry before! Nor I link any fucking thing to any fucking emotion" Said Riou angrily back to Maximilian.

The fighting went on for a while, until both vented out and noticed that their discussion was pointless.

At that moment they realized that the differences between their knowledge were greater than they had previously imagined, but at least they were able to confirm one thing. Riou actually could do spells. Spells that were not bound to that world's magical rules.

A silence covered the field while the cool breeze blew once again.

"Riou, you will have to explain to me how you did that thing... I know a few fire Mages that would go crazy if they saw such a fire" Said Maximilian calmly and smiling, finally finding the whole situation kinda funny.

"Sure... just need to mix a few concepts. I felt like cheating for a bit, like looking at a written formula and already knowing the result. Like fire for instance, air, heat and fuel, my mana provided the fuel and the heat source, the environment the air… which then caused the reaction" Spoke a calm Riou trying to make sense of what he just experienced.

"To think there were such ways to use magic, it sounds simple, yet I cannot understand how it can be possible. But I told you that you could use magic, didn’t I? I wonder what will happen when you try something more complex.”

The mage let out a small laugh at himself.

“What?” Asked Riou sensing some restlessness from the mage, as if something bothered him.

“Looking how effortlessly you did that thing, makes me wonder if I have wasted my years studying. So much for a "Magus" right? Can’t even understand a simple fire spell" Said the mage slightly depressed giving out a short laugh, making fun of himself and his shameful situation.

"Oh come on old man, I get it but you can’t think like that.”

“But it’s certainly more powerful”

“Nah, power is a matter of perspective, as big as the fire can be, it might not be able to melt the metal like a forge does.”

“That’s a good analogy”

“And I don’t want to brag, but what do you know about molecules of oxygen, hydrogen and air composition?”

“A what?”

“Exactly my point. Don’t bother about how I do things, even if you studied a lot, you hardly would make all the discoveries necessary to understand my way of doing that spell… not alone at least.”

The mage seemed to understand his point.

“Besides, think about all the good you did because of your years of study... What would have happened to the people you helped if you weren’t there for them? You are a Magus, I saw how the soldiers are around you. The Great Maximilian, am I right?" Spoke Riou calmly impersonating the role of the wise elder teaching the troubled youth.

Maximilian nodded with a smile on his face "You are way too wise for your age Riou... please, call me Max, I always thought Maximilian was too lengthy"

Riou agreed to him with a nod and a smile

Max continued "Those people in the court will go crazy when they hear about you and what you are capable of"

Riou paused for a moment thinking on what the mage had just said

"About that… how do you think it's gonna be?”

“To be quite honest… I didn’t know if I could handle you just a few moments ago.”

“It can be a problem then?”

“Knowing the nobles of Allard and the north… Some will do whatever they can to get your support for them, and then try to use you, both of them. The others might not be so cordial.”

“Are you talking from experience? You are a big shot around here too right? So how is your relationship with these nobles?”

Max smiled “Took me a while, but I ended up understanding the nobles agenda. After that I stayed away, as far as I could”

Riou chuckled “Then perhaps it would be better for me to do the same, don’t you think?”

“What do you mean?”

“ I don’t want to get involved into politics, I think I can do better without that kind of attention, especially if I want to find a way home, the less I get caught in this world's issues, the better. Don’t you agree?"

"You mean you’d prefer to hide your capabilities? Lie to everyone? But you should consider your options better. To be known can be very good to you as well. You can get riches and even a noble status would not be something out of question for someone as powerful as yourself” Max paused for a moment.

“But for that I have the Great Magus on my side… you said you would help right? Can’t I tag along with you? Tell them I’m a sidekick, a servant or just someone you are helping.”

Max thought for a moment “The lords would eventually turn on you and try to steal your knowledge on magic.”

Riou smiled as he looked at the mage’s expression “Another one of your experiences with them? They sound more and more charming by the minute ”

The mage pondered for a moment “Perhaps you are right in avoiding them, I’m avoiding them for a long while as well now and never been better.”

Riou nodded agreeing with him "See? I’m wise beyond my age after all. So, what do you say? For all interests, I'm just a poor orphan boy that was attacked and left to die, luckily found and saved by the brave soldiers and now is being helped by the good old magus himself.”

"Well, that sure is true to some extent.”

Max looked at him and smirked “If that’s how you want it, your secret will be mine as well."

“I’ve seen this movie before, it never ends well when you get into politics because of power, so I’m pretty certain this is the best move to do”

Some soldiers were coming in the distance from the camp towards them.

"Master Eindenwald! We saw the flames and came to investigate... so it was you?" said the soldier impressed.

"Yes my friend, I was just practicing and showing some tricks to this young man here" Explained the Magus with a smile

"As expected of the Dragon Killer! Truly an amazing feat, we could see it all the way from the camp, that fire was huge!!" Spoke the exhilarated soldier "Thank you sir! Sorry to interrupt you! We will head back and report" Completed the soldier starting to return back to camp.

"Eindenwald... it sounds like one of the tongues of my world... what does it mean?" Asked Riou.

"Well, my true name and meaning was lost when my mother moved back into the kingdom. At that moment my elven name was changed to something to state my heritage more easily. It's elven for "forest" or "from the forest".”

“Wait a moment there… you are half elf?” There are really elfs here?”

“Yes”

“That’s so crazy! I want to meet some! So what can you do? Can you see in the dark? Hear farther away? Oh, oh I know you are more intelligent than the regular human?”

“Wait, wait… I have no idea what you are talking about, I just live a longer than the average human, that’s all”

“That’s quite a perk already!”

The mage pondered for a moment “But the fact that you find the language similar is not of my knowledge, perhaps this is the necklace way of working, it’s the first time it has been used by someone from another world so maybe it's mixing some of the languages."

"So where are the elves? Will we meet them in the city?"

“No, they are not there, they live to the south of here, in a very dangerous forest which they never leave.”

Riou eagerly continued to question "How old are you then? How long do elves live?”

"I'm always surprised at how you get interested in the most mundane subjects. I'm around 272 years old" said the old man with a smirk. “And elves can live for ten to twenty times that much”

"You look like 60 and not a day older" He said jokingly.

“Well, I should have another 30 years in me or so. I’m still very active for my age and the magic helps a lot in that regard too. It helps me to keep in shape” the mage paused for a moment “And how about you? I take your appearance now is not how you were supposed to look like” asked the old mage.

"No, I should look like a normal 26 year old man.”

“Very odd… Do you feel anything else? Anything different?”

“Now that you mentioned it... I do feel kinda different. I don’t know how to explain it, but it feels way easier to remember things. My body seems different as well, easier to move around now that the pain is gone. Also, It was strangely intuitive to put together that fire spell.”

"Hum… Something must have happened during the passage. I don’t have much on it and most of what you told me so far was only described in legends. Poorly described I must add. Never heard of someone that fell into the Abyss and survived… I suppose I will have to study your case in more detail to try to come up with a theory” said Max contemplating the possibilities.

The mage finally nodded “Well, we have a few weeks before reaching the capital. Let's use this time to make sure you get used to this world.” He patted Riou on the back “All this talk got me hungry and thirsty! Let’s head back" Max was quite in a good mood.

Riou laughed "I thought you'd never mention it, I've been hungry all day long!” Walking beside the mage he continued “And thank you Max…” said Riou for the Mage’s surprise “I’d be screwed if you weren’t here.”

The mage smiled “Don’t worry too much, I’m certain that someone like you would have managed somehow”

“Sure… if you say so”

Max continued “Don’t worry, we will find a way to send you back"

“Thanks… And Max… Did the soldier call you Dragon killer? Did you really kill a dragon?”

“It was a long time ago, let’s get something to eat and I will tell you the story”