The ashes before Strife

Episode 0 : Merry Band Of Thieves ; 2

Hearing footsteps I pulled the book to the side and pulled down on the rope turning the bright lamp off just in time as my father opened his room's door with a heavy yawn. He walked over muttering something about being thirsty then headed down the staircase going to the kitchen.

Not knowing how long it would take until he gets back I put the black book on my back and started crawling to my room as quietly as possible balancing the book with my elbows making sure it didn't fall off.

I was only a few steps away from my room's door when I heard my father coming back up the stairs and stared at him wide-eyed as he tiredly carried a glass of water to his room going right past me not noticing his son trying to hide under a book as if I was a turtle closing the door behind him.

Thank god he didn't see me. Scurrying to my room like a scared turtle I closed the door behind me and tossed the book into my crib climbing in after it.

I pulled out a faint orange glowing stone I had hidden under my pillow and got a better look at the black book cover. "Knowledge of worlds fundamentals by Gurick Unglown" that title makes a lot more sense than some philosophy about a goose and sounds just like what I want.

I opened the old worn book immediately being greeted by what looked like hurriedly scribbled notes of an avid researcher with diagrams and pictures that made no sense to me.

There was so much knowledge on just the first two pages that this whole book could take months to read.

Have to start somewhere though and thankfully reading used to be a hobby.

"To know the world you must first understand the principles that govern the natural and unnatural orders. Those orders are known as the ten elemental powers of Hades which all life has the capability of harnessing: Fire, wind, earth, ice, poison, dark, nature, holy, lightning, and water. These orders all control parts of reality when being conjured by a mage allowing for what we call magic to exist and help in the world's daily life creating things of fantasy and nightmares. These orders though are not willless and do have a form of consciousness of their own. Waters consciousness or nature as most prefer calling it is smooth and free-flowing acting as it pleases. Unlike ice mana which many would consider to be similar yet aren't, ice mana wishes to be still, unmoving, to be without action until the mage wills it forwards." Feeling drowsy I hid the orange stone and book under my pillow and waited for tomorrow to continue reading."

The next night I picked up where I left off and turned to the next page to see an ink drawing of a dog with a spiked spine and iron lower jaw and studded tail.

"The creatures of this world we live in are known as beasts. They are born with crystalline hearts which allow them to become powerful beings that can threaten civilization if left alone. Unlike us, they do not have mana circuitry but we do have these crystal hearts as a separate organ attached to our hearts through a separate set of blood veins in our that body spreads from your toes all the way to the top of your scalp which will slowly crystallize inside our body over time while beast's are given their crystalline hearts at birth. There are no noteworthy studies that can show us why they form."

"The very thing that allows us to combat these beasts are called mana circuits. Many have hypothesized it's dependent on one's strength of soul but this is not fact as it's unknown, the only factor that is certain is that they will generally awaken between the ages of 8 and 11. However, it is known that through the inhalation and absorption of mana it is possible to strengthen these veins allowing for increased strength of power. But no child below these ages has the strength of mind in the following methods leaving the theory of premature awakening redundant."

The book's next page then showed a body diagram on where to focus mana during meditation. Could I try it if I modified my martial arts breath? It said a normal child couldn't and I certainly am not. Thinking it was possible I turned over to the next page that had three different breathing methods.