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Ch.2

My morning began as it often did with Layriel awakening me and laying out my clothes before being ushered down for a breakfast of stewed lentils and leftover bread with butter an honey. Seated in the living room is Sariel, spread out in front of her were a handful of colored crystals and and a few metal utensils, she hummed to herself as she continued her work. My mother was busily scrawling down a letter whilst Layriel busied her self with cleaning up after breakfast, my father was currently in the yard swinging his long sword with practiced ease.

“Zamiel darling, are you familiar with the elements” she questioned in her soft sultry tone.

There were vague bits and pieces of things that came to mind from my father's stories, but nothing came to mind in a concrete fashion “not that I know of aunty Sariel” I replied shaking my head.

Sariel took a moment to push her glasses up the bridge of her nose “tis quite simple, the elements are fire, earth, air, water, light, dark, life, death, space, and time. The prime elements, being fire, water, earth, and air are perhaps the most common of elements, while there is no theoretical limit on the number of affinities one may posses most people only have three positive affinities, the rest are often neutral of negative affinities. For example some one who is very gifted with fire is often very poor when dealing with water, one of the reasons I am here is to test your affinities” she explained.

“The first test is to gauge the raw power coalesced within your body, from what your mother explained, you were practicing a very strange technique akin to meditation to help you gather Aether from a young age. I'm going to hand you a blank crystal and I want you to focus and fed as much power into the crystal till you begin to feel faint and dizzy” she continued before motioning me over and sitting me down.

The crystal was an opaque gray color little bigger than an apple but rough and craggy, I took a deep breath and focused my attention on my core and began circulating the energy with in my body, it coursed through me with a restrained ferocity as if seeking a way out. I channeled that energy through my hands into the crystal, unbeknownst to me the crystal began to glow blindingly brilliant with a flash of electric blue. There was a strangeness to the crystal, I could feel it's flaws and weaknesses as if it were an extension of my self, I pushed energy into these faults and imagined smoothing out the flaws. I envisioned a perfect sphere, a copy of the core inside of my self, a swirling vortex of power. Just as I began to feel that familiar dizziness I abruptly cut my connection to the crystal and opened my eyes, seated between my palm was a perfect azure orb, I could feel that boundless energy trapped with in a swirling vortex.

Sariel stared at the crystal which should have cracked from the amount of Aether that the boy had just channeled, instead he shaped and bent the crystal with his power through brute force into a construct that could not only withstand but contain the boy's Aether pool. Looking at Zariel's construct it explained why he was passively leaking trace amounts of Aether, he built the same construct within him self, an intertwined series of circles that prevent no beginning and no end. It was so simple yet so complex, like the mind of a child, every time his power expanded he simply added a circle to his core. To say the mage was dumbfounded and shocked was beyond a simple understatement, if she could duplicate his Aether construct she could revolutionize the nature of magical studies, but this was a secret that she would keep to herself. She had to much respect for Alric and too much love for the boy to seal his hard work.

Zamiel looked up at her expectantly with those crimson puppy dog eyes that gripped her heart and asked “how strong am I aunty Sariel” he questioned with that adorable tone that pulled on her heartstrings.

“You're certainly strong for your age, but you've got to get a lot stronger to catch up to aunty, you're about as strong as a magician” she explained while ruffling the boy's unruly black hair. “Though you're going to grow at an exponential rate with that construct” she thought bittersweet tone. “Now take your shirt off and turn you back to me” she instructed.

I did as asked and rolled the opaque sphere between my hands, what ever I made it was an interesting object, if nothing else I could always draw Aether from it in an emergency.

“This is going to sting a bit” she spoke but my mind was too focused on the sphere to notice as she pricked my skin ten times, one for each colored crystal she possessed.

Sariel watched each crystal with intent as she dripped blood from each needle, her heart was pounding in her ears with anxiety as one crystal lit up after another, calling the boy a magical prodigy was an understatement. Beneath that sweet innocent seeming exterior lay something beyond her comprehension, only summoned heroes and deity avatars possessed positive affinities in all elements. His strongest elements were fire, earth, space, dark, and death a testifying combination of powers even with out all of the rest.

“A-all done, go ahead and play for now” Zamiel she said shakily before stepping out of the house to ease her frayed nerves.

“What's wrong Sariel, you look pale as a ghost” Alric called out putting a hand on the dazed woman's shoulders. What ever had happened the woman was shaking and he couldn't help but rub the ring on his right ringer, the dragon eating, it's own tail.

“Your son, has positive affinity with all elements and is already on par with a magician in terms of raw power, do you have any idea of just how powerful he can become” she huffed desperately while clinging onto Alric's burly. “It's highly likely that he's a reincarnated hero” she whispered.

Alric frowned “I highly doubt it” he said somberly pushing Sariel off of him so she could regain her composure.

“Don't think that your son can't be a hero just because of the tainted blood running though your veins, but I understand your worry” she whimpered cowering the rage boiling behind his crimson eyes. “How much does Ethenriel know” she asked softly.

“Enough” he growled holding back the smoldering embers deep with in his heart “the blood line of kings died with my father three hundred years ago”.

“You haven't told her the full truth” she replied with an empathetic sigh, “as always you secret is safe with me my” she cut herself short seeing just how close he was to giving in to the rage.

“Please do what you can to teach my son to control his powers, I fear the day that he truly needs them, I'll be happy if he should never have to lift a finger in battle unless it is of his own choosing, and if the time comes you will swear your oath to him” he replied somberly.

“Of course” Sariel replied cheerfully before giving her cheeks a gentle slap before heading back inside.

Alric looked to the edge of the village where the forest had been cut back last winter, he needed to release the rage building inside of his heart and the villager's needed the forest clear of any dangers. “Maybe slaughtering some beasts will help cool my head” he growled before dashing off.

With her mood restored Sariel sauntered over towards me with her wide hips sashaying, “hey aunty, what can I do with this” I inquired holding out the azure colored crystal sphere.

“For starters, what you created is an Aether gem, normally they are used to enhance spells and are used to craft staves and enchanted arms and armor, I'm still wondering how you crafted it to be honest” Sariel explained dipping down to my level exposing a deep valley of cleavage.

“I could feel flaws in the crystal you handed, they just felt wrong, so I began shaping Aether to round out the flaws and began shaping it after my core as I held it's image in my mind really strongly” I explained with a slight blush on my cheeks.

“What you did is create a mental construct, essentially crafting a spell with your min instead of physically crafting with your words which is how most young mages learn.” she explained.

“Can you teach me some spells aunty” I inquire turning up my puppy eyes to maximum cuteness.

“yes yes, come on lets go out side in case you start burning anything down” she said taking my hand in her's as I was led out into our house's courtyard. “Alright since you are already capable of mental constructs lest focus on that and ignore in canted spells, for starters I want you to hold out your hand palm up. Draw up a small amount of Aether from your core to your hand, then imagine the Aether coalescing into a flame, how you decide to create your construct is up to you but if you need to I can lend a hand” she explained.

I closed my hand and pulled a small amount of Aether into my palm letting it swirl in place while I began to envisioned my construct. Fire is a combination of heat, fuel, and oxygen, I some how knew this was true but could not recall from where such knowledge was gleaned. I crafted three interacting forces above my palm, extreme friction, raw Aether, and oxygen condensed from the air around me. With just an exertion of mental will the construct ignited with a jet blue flame hovering over my palm. It continued burning long after it burned through the amount of Aether I had allocated from my personal reserves.

“Alright Zamiel you can extinguish the flame now, I don't want you to burn through too much more of your reserves today” she spoke softly while taking mental note of the purity and heat of the flames.

I frowned as I looked over at Sariel, “but I'm not using my reserves, I created the construct from my initial use of Aether but now its drawing on the Ambient Aether to keep burning, did I do something wrong” I inquired.

“To be able to perform such complex tasks at you age, you are going to be a very dangerous and powerful man some day, be sure to use your power as a tool to enhance your life and not as a weapon to terrorize others” Sariel explained ruffling my head while her eyes held such a somber tone. “Alright that's enough for today, we'll continue your lessons tomorrow” she stated giving me a final pat on my head.

Upon returning home Ethenriel was waiting to pull Sariel aside while I was directed to Layriel to take a bath and prepare for dinner.

“What were you able to learn” Ethenriel questioned the buxom seductress with a firm tone.

“That Zamiel is probably the most gifted mage I've ever met, also his power is going to keep growing exponentially, by the time he's twenty he will be on the same level as a wizard in terms of raw power. His strongest elements are fire, earth, Dark, Space and death but he has a positive affinity with all elements, no negative affinities at all. Currently he is about as strong as a magician who just graduated the academy, which puts him on par with the average twenty year noble who has been studying since they were old enough to walk” Sariel sighed as she explained her worries.

“How is that even possible” Ethenriel muttered as she tried to accept the absurdity of the situation, she'd be able to understand if Zamiel had just barely began to coalesce the core nessecary to become a novice mage.

“There is one possibility my lady, your son just might be a reincarnated hero, at least that is what I hope to be the case, other wise I have no logical explanation for his abilities, as for his growth the boy built a construct inside of his core that rapidly increases his power and prevents him from leaking residual Aether like most mages letting him collect all that power while remaining undetected” Sariel continued.

“Do you have any advice” Ethenriel questioned ash she furtively rubbed her hands together.

Sariel gave her a warm smile and a reassuring hand on her shoulder “as soon as he is old enough, send him to the academy, he'll be provided a full scholarship by the director”.

“How long will you be able to train him so he can control his powers” she questioned taking comfort by leaning into the woman's embrace.

“Three years, then I'll have to return to the order, I can't abandon my duties for too long, poor idiots will seriously fuck something up if I am away for too long” Sariel chuckled before warmly embracing her old companion.