Lost Magic

“Athen hurry up you’re going to be late to your class!” Athens mom exclaimed trying to get his lunch ready, a neatly wrapped sandwich in a cloth that was woven by his grandmother. Athen was barely waking up; he been having a tough time getting up lately. His parents enrolled him in archonic studies, the study of magic and rune scribing, his father was a rune scriber, someone who carves runes into an item to imbue it with Archana, the magic of this world. Although it is expensive for them, they thought that he would be happy doing it, Athen soon found that he wasn’t the best at either of these, he tried for weeks to do any magic but soon found that his effort was futile. “That boy is going to drive me mad, this is the second time this week he’s going to be late.” Athens dad told Emille, Athens mom; this happens multiple times a week, and has happened every few days for the past month or so, even so he still tried his best. Let’s talk about how the magic in this work works, there are quite a few kinds of magic, you have spells that you need mana for, the next kind is arcanic rune writing, you don’t need mana for this but do need to have extreme precise craftsmanship for them to work properly, you also have a mixture of the two, arcanic spells, writing the arcanic runes with pure mana, this amplified the power of the runes, but is rarely something that people use since it is exceedingly rare, there is also lost magic, magic that is created by native tribes, that they hone and once was used but has since been completely lost, well, not entirely. Athen has tried to do simple elemental spells to no avail, they only ever backfire on him. “Ugh, I’m never going to be able to do this.” Athen sighed because as hard as he was trying to do magic he just couldn’t, but theirs one kind of magic that he still has yet to try, lost magic. His mother is native, she is tall with dark skin and thick brown curly hair, piercing green eyes, and a gentle nature, she is a dryad. The dryads have a certain kind of lost magic known as thread weaver magic, and as the name implies the user creates magical threads made of the users soul and mana. When Athen was done meeting with his tutor his mother told him about the lost magic,” Athen dear, what’s wrong?” his mother questioned. “Sorry mom, it’s just that I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, I’m trying so hard to get it right and it’s just not working.” Athen quelled trying to hide some of his frustrations. “Athen, I promise if you keep it up you’ll get it right!” She exclaimed with pure excitement, his father chimes in also, “Athen, I know that this is going to be a long rode full of you just wanting to quit and not want to do this anymore, it took me over 20 years to learn the basics, I wanted to give up every step along the way, but when I finally saw some results finally I realized that all of my work hadn’t been for nothing. Now you need to figure out what drives you to learn magic” Athens dad, Andor, with much of his own experience told Athen. “I think I get it, but at the same time I don’t know if I really want to learn magic, but I also love it at the same time to the point that I really don’t think that theirs really anything else that I want to do but be a mage.” Athen told his parents his concerns, Emille’s face lit up thinking of the best idea she’d ever thought. “Athen, do you want to learn lost magic?” Emille stated with much excitement. “NO, that will not be happening.” Andor made the room go silent, you could cut the air in the room with a knife. “What’s lost magic?” Athen asked with quite the curious tone. “It’s nothing you need to know about.” His father immediately shut down the idea, “Okay I guess, I’ll be going to my room.” Athen then left to go upstairs to his room, meanwhile his parents are having quite the quarrel, “I told you not long ago that it was too soon for him to know!” Andor relayed, “How much longer is he going to have to suffer like this for then? He’s become depressed, he cant get up in the morning, he doesn’t take enough showers, he’s not eating properly and I’m afraid of what’s going to happen if this goes on any longer.” Emille was quite vulnerable, she loves Athen so much, as is the nature of the dryad. “I understand that Emille but at the same time lost magic, ESPECIALLY the only one that he can use. If it gets in the wrong hands, it will cause irreversible damage to the world.” Andor with a tinge of worry in his voice, “I know, but if it’s the only magic that he can do then we shouldn’t keep it from him.” Emille, trying to convince Andor, and after a few hours of going back and forth with each other Emille was finally able to convince Andor, Emille is the only one that can teach Athen though, the reason being that the lost magic: Thread weaver is a dryad only skill, as are every other kind of lost magic. The only people that can use lost magic are the native tribes that made them in the first place, another downside is that when a native tribe uses lost magic that is the only kind of magic that they can use for the rest of their lives. Since Athen Is half dryad the only magic that he can use is the lost magic of the dryads. Athen does now know this currently; he’s neck deep in a book currently, the book is on the different kinds of magic and what they do, this was his homework from his tutor that, of course, he decided not to do. The next morning, on Saturday, when he eventually woke up around noon time he found that his parents were in the kitchen waiting for him, they had quite the serious looks on their faces, “Morning sleepy head, stay up too late again?” Athens mom in a caring, sweet and gentle voice, “Yeah I did, but why do you guys look so serious?” Athen questioned, it was unusual, their never serious, “We have something to tell you, something that we’ve kept a secret since you were a baby.” Andor with a worried look on his face, “Right, so is someone dead or what are we talking about?” Athen couldn’t read the room. “No, no one is dead, but we do have something to tell you that we assume is going to make you mad at us.” Emille with another worried look on his face just like Andor, “I mean it really does depend on what it has to do with me, am I adopted?” Athen still having the inability to read the room, he couldn’t figure out that he has to be more serious, “It’s about why you can use magic like me…” Andor said with a strain and in almost a whisper, “Its not that you can’t use magic its just that you aren’t able to use human magic, because I am a dryad you can only use the lost magic of my people, I’m sorry Athen I should have told you sooner, I’m truly sorry…” Emille with tears in her eyes and a sniffly runny nose, Athen chimed in, “Oh yeah I knew about that already, I read It in one of the books my tutor let me borrow, it said that people who are mixed with native tribes cant use human magic, I read about it last night, that’s why I stayed up so late, I was also wondering how I was going to ask you about it without being too pushy, and no mom I don’t hate you, I don’t hate either of you.” Both of Athens parents take a big sight of relief, “well, now that you know you can’t use human magic, do you want to learn the lost magic of the dryads, if you do it won’t be an easy journey, it’s going to be a tough time, and you may learn that it may be better to be magic-less.” Emille explained in a serious tone that Athen had never heard before, he was taken aback by how serious she was being. “I do, I want to learn it, I know it’s going to be a long and difficult journey, but if there’s a chance that I can do magic I want to go on that journey.” Athen in a serious and dedicated tone delegated that he would learn the lost magic and succeed at it and that he would fail or give up. “I’m proud of you, you’ve really grown-up Athen. But in your journey to learn the lost magic I will be no help since I use human magic.” Andor with worry in his voice, “Dad don’t be so worried, I think I’ll be just fine, but who’s going to teach me how to use the lost magic anyways?” Athen didn’t know, “I will, Afterall the I am a the one who uses it anywhere around here.” Emille with a stern and proud voice told Athen, “Right, so if you are going to teach me how to use it when can we start?” Athen wanted to get started right away, he was eager to get going. “well start tomorrow, but I must let you know the dangers of using the lost magic, because there is a reason why we didn’t tell you until you were older, your seventeen now, so you should be old enough. Lost magic hold incredible power far exceeding any other kinds of magic. Which means that when people find out that you use lost magic there going to be after you for the rest of your life.” Emille going on and on about the dangers, “But I thought that only native tribes could use their lost magic specific to each tribe?” Athen pondered, “While this is true this still isn’t stopping terrible people from trying to harness it for themselves, they’ve been unsuccessful as far as I know but who knows. On another note, go get your laundry we have chores to do!” Emille spoke to Athen in at first a stern and serious voice then got more light hearted, "Fine I guess I'll help."