Zack’s Perspective

Stepping out of the door, a multitude of sounds ranging from gushing water and chirping birds to chatter of the villagers from the village drifted into my ears.

A warmth spread from my skin to within as I looked up to see the sun glaring back at me.

Feeling of sunlight… Feels so good!

The sunlight glittered off the snow-capped peaks in the distance, dyeing them in shades of yellow and white. At their bases lay an expanse of green, with streams gushing down the mountains’ sides. Birds of all sizes flapped their wings while gliding through the air overhead.

A refreshing scent of flowers and pine washed my nose with fragrance as a gentle gale flew through my hair. The grass in the yard blanketed under the morning dew glistened like emeralds while the leaves on the trees rustled against the blowing breeze.

Stretching my body lazily, I involuntarily yawned and my eye watered up. Wiping it with my sleeve, I looked around for a place to get seated and found a small bench near the wall.

While taking a seat at a bench near the wall, I thought over the information about the village from various talks I had with the family.

‘The village we are situated in is known as Cephir, a used-to-be trade village situated in a valley of mountain ranges with the same name. But due to political conflicts, the trade died down, causing a steep decline in both the village’s economy and population. Now, people from outside rarely visit, both due to a lack of any profit and the location being close to the border of the empire.’ is what I was told about the place. I can’t help but pity the people here. Wars really change things a lot.

While I was taking a seat, Samuel had walked to the centre of the yard.

He raised his left hand up to point towards an empty corner in the yard, his palm spread open. Meanwhile, his right hand held his left arm by the forearm, forming one of the standard stances for casting magic as mentioned in the book ‘Fundamentals of Magic.’.

To his side, Aunt nodded her head while looking straight ahead.

While I was looking around like the curious monkey I was, a rustling sound from my side dragged my attention. Over there, Amelia was taking a seat while looking forward intently.

“Samuel, take aim at the floor, and try not to harm the trees.” Aunt’s voice sounded out from where she was standing. Her voice was stern and serious, similar to a drill-instructor, a big contrast to her usual calm and smiling self. “If anything goes out of control, I’ll take care, so make sure to give it your all.”

Samuel nodded in response as his lips tilted downwards.

“Now, start with a wind chant,” Aunt directed. “Curve it to the right.”

Hearing the word ‘chant’, my ears perked up. I opened the book in my hand before flipping through the pages to find a particular extract before reading through it.

``Chanting is one of the three major forms of utilising arcana. It uses the power of speech to guide arcana into a spell before ultimately releasing it. It is one of the most common techniques because of the relative ease of learning and applying.``

Samuel turned his head straight ahead as he closed his eyes. While he chanted, a barely visible green glow flowed from his chest to his hand before coalescing around his fist, becoming a slightly stronger green hue. The green hue supposedly symbolised a wind-attribute related spell.

“O winds of the furious storms, heed my call and shove away the obstacles before me, Wind Bullet!”

Moments later, a column of the green hue left his fist as it rushed forward, cutting through the air. A gust blew towards the column as the sound of something ripping apart spread out. A small dust cloud rose around the area of impact. After the dust had settled, the only thing left to testify the spell were the cracks left behind and the parched dirt.

Looking at the floor, I began recalling the contents of the book I held in my hands.

``There are many forms of energies present within the world, which working together in harmony results in the world as we know it today. One of these energies is called Arcana.``

‘To use magic, we absorb the arcana from the air within our body to forge what is called a Core, a cluster of arcana used to store the said energy within the body. From there, Arcana is manipulated by means of Chants, Circles and such to produce the phenomenon one desires. And the act of manifesting a phenomenon using energy is collectively called magic.’

``In nature, Arcana has attributes depending on the composition of the surroundings, and usually corresponds to either of the six fundamental elements of the nature — Water, Wind, Fire, Lightning, Earth and Ice. The attributes make it harder to store the said arcana in the body, and subsequently unnecessarily straining the body. Thus, prior to storing, arcana is purified to an attribute-less state before storing.``

“Just what do you think you are doing?” A shout of frustration snapped me off my train of thought.