AERILYN
Liam. The greatest gift I could have. For he was the cutest and sweetest child that I could ask for. He was the cutest two-year-old with features both inherited from me and Gabriel. So when Liam pleaded to stay up a bit late to read. I just had to. I just had to give in to his demands.
He was sometimes too cute for his good. I wanted Liam to have a normal and good life, but he wasn't entirely ready to explore the Kingdom of Elenoir, just yet. I didn't want him to be teased or discriminated against because he was both human and elf.
Father had been dying to meet him, but I told him simply that he would have to stay put and wait when I believed that we as a family were ready to visit him. Father grumbled for days on end after hearing this, but he respected our decisions. He chuckled saying that if we didn't visit him we would be hurting the old man's heart.
Classic Father.
Elder brother, on the other hand, thought indifferently. He didn't know how to feel about his nephew but he knew how he felt about me. Our relationship as brother and sister would forever remain strong, for Mother.
May she rest in peace. If only she could've been here to see Liam grow to be a fine young man. I knew she was smiling in the sky.
Instead of exploring my hometown, I would carry Liam and walk not too far away, but far enough that I hoped Liam would be amazed at the scenery of the environment and animals. He was too young to understand but once he was older, I'd hope he would enjoy this.
Liam was in my arms as I walked into a room, that I had never brought Liam into. I placed my hand on the wall chanting a spell, and then the wall began to split, revealing stairs that went down to a basement.
As I walked further down, there it was in all its glory. A library. Not just any library but a library filled with knowledge so vast and difficult, there were some books that even I couldn't understand. Not because it was difficult to read, but because I just wasn't at that level to even comprehend what was going on.
It was all thanks to Gabriel that this library came to fruition through his connections with certain people that he could get an endless amount of books about the theory of Mana. It felt as if the library was infinite and it was never going to end.
Geez, Gabriel went over the top with this, and what was funny, it was all for the little one here. Gabriel hoped that Liam would be stronger than the both of us, though that would be a hard feat, I knew that if he was our son, his potential would be limitless.
Now to find the kids section of the library.
WHOOSH!
'What brings you here today?' My bond stated on my shoulder.
"Owl! Owl!" Liam shouted in delight, trying to reach Fine with his little hands.
Owl? I guess he was half right more like a Phoneix, but that didn't matter at the moment.
'I just need you to show us the directions to the kid's section on Mana. Just some reading for Liam."
'Kid's book? About time, someone takes a book and reads that section of the library. Don't want the books to be too dusty. But are you sure that kid can understand the kid's books?.' Fine asked.
'There's only one way to find out Fine.'
'I'll lead the way then' Fine flew off my shoulder, directing us to the way the kid's section. Surprisingly, it wasn't as far as I thought it would be.
The kid's section had a lot of books to offer, Gabriel did his magic on this. A couple of picture books on Mana would be enough for reading time. I smiled to myself. I sat on a chair, holding Liam and the book on the table ready to be read out.
(Liam's POV)
Fascinating! Interesting! Superb! Those were all the words that I could think of when describing the situation that was right in front of me.
Sure they were picture books but they described and explained a lot about Mana. Not to mention the reinforcement of Mother's explanation, definitely made it easier to understand.
Mother explained the Mana core cultivation down to the very perfect detail, in a way a kid would understand it. Mother had a way with words making it even more entertaining to listen to.
I learnt many things from such little things. If I didn't know any better, my Mother would be a teacher. However, there were some things I believed that Mother decided to leave out, I wasn't quite sure if it was because she thought I wouldn't understand or maybe because since I was only 2 years old, I wouldn't be ready for that.
What I did know was plenty enough about this world. Here's a rundown of it all. Firstly there were 6 different cores with three different types of stages.
Black, Red, Orange, Yellow, Silver and White. With the stages being dark, solid and light stage.
If I do recall properly, I remembered that Mother was a sliver core mid-stage, meaning that she was one woman you did not want to mess with. While dad on the other hand was something of a Yellow Light Stage, being close to breaking that to Silver core.
He wasn't as strong as Mum but he was still strong. So I had two freakish parents with an insane amount of strength.
Judging from what Father did, by ripping that tree apart, he must have been an augmented, while Mother must have been a conjurer. Well, I hadn't seen first-hand or even bore witness to her power. If even Father had said that Mother was strong, just how strong was she truly?
Remind me not to make my parents too angry at me.
"Liam it's time for bed."
Damn. At the worst timing possible, known to man. I was about to flip onto a page knowing about where we were currently located and the different places that I needed to know.
However, I was satisfied with what I had learnt today. And not to mention my 2-year-old brain was starting to hurt way more than usual. Probably from all the studying and theory that had entered my brain.
I guess I deserved my break for the day. After all, I wanted to learn all the context and theory behind the world and the power they use, before I would do what was called the "awakening."
But never mind that now, I would get my well-deserved sleep, stretching my arms out and yawning. Who would've thought that I was already going to be sleeping in my mother's arms before she even made it to the crib?
What a fun day today.
GABRIEL
WHOOSH!
You're not good enough
PHOOSH!
Blaine is far better than you
TOOSH!
Why would you ever fall in love with an elf?
I still remember those words. It haunted me. But I learnt to grow with it and accept myself for who I am as a person.
An outcast.
Power surged through me, the more I moved. I knew this training would be worth it in the meantime.
Liam didn't know this just yet, but me and Aerilyn were having a hard time.
Not in that way, where we hated one another. To be frank, I'm still surprised and lucky that she still puts up with my stupid antics. But we were having a hard time as we had sort of this rivalry we had.
Well, it was basically a rivalry that I created in my head that is. To see who would be the strongest out of the both of us.
Obviously, it was clear to see who was far superior compared to the both of us, that being said, that didn't mean I wasn't going to stop trying. My motto was, that anything was possible if you put your mind to it.
I know it sounds pretty cliche and weird, but it was the only word that got me through the hard times I had with my family. I still use it to this day, and it has helped me tremendously.
"Gabriel, are you ready?" The angelic voice that I could never get used to had ringed into my ears once more.
I looked over to see Aerilyn walk ever so elegantly and gracefully. With each stride, she looked more gorgeous by the second.
"Where's Liam?" I asked. Normally Liam would be with Aerilyn. She never wanted Liam to be out of her sight whenever she had the chance, because to her Liam was her everything. I felt the same way.
"I placed him in his crib, Fine is taking over to watch him." She said smiling.
I stretched my hands and legs, jumping up and down on the stop ready for what was to begin.
"It seems that you're excited dear." She let out a faint giggle, covering her mouth.
"Well, it's not every day we have a chance to have a duel with one another. . . It's about time I show you how much I've improved." I grinned.
"By all means, show me how much you've improved."
"Alright but before we start the duel, let's try not to hurt each other too badly," I suggested, as Aerilyn circled me.
"I wouldn't want to hurt you either."
"Great. I think it's time then."
Aerilyn nodded going back to her position, but before we started a duel, she had conjured up a spell, creating make like a force field outside. It meant nothing went in and nothing went out, meaning that if our fight did end up intense, Liam wouldn't hear a thing or even get affected by our attacks.
That's how strong Aerilyn's force field was.
GABRIEL VS AERILYN
BEGIN!
I knew she would be a tough opposition to go up against, hell I've known that since we were young. She would always beat me in every duel we had with one another, but not today, certainly not today.
We hadn't had a duel in a while so I knew this would be a chance to beat her through the element of surprise.
WHOOSH!
I threw a jab quick enough I hoped that she would be startled at what speed I had thrown it at, to even reach it. But it was no use she had seen this coming, she didn't even flinch.
She evaded the punch so easily as if it was mere child's play. "You've gotten faster dear."
Well, at least she noticed I got faster. But in a split second, she took no time in casting a spell.
Shit, not this spell again.
Her body had now begun emitting roaring and burning fire shooting like darts at me. The speed at which it was going was insane. But not insane enough that I couldn't dodge and react to it with minimal ease. I remembered a while back that I had used to struggle to keep up and protect myself from this spell of hers.
"Not only has your speed improved, but your reaction time has gotten even better." She praised me in earnest.
I continued to evade the fire darts coming towards my direction.
"But has your stamina improved just as well with the rest dear? It's time to level it up a notch."
Insane. It was the only way I could describe what was currently happening in the duel.
She had amplified her spell to become not only more dangerous than it already was but even more efficient as well. The darts of fire enlarged and became like piercing bullets.
I had realized in this very moment, I wasn't at all. . .
Potent.