Magic is... less quiet

As those quiet first few years came and went, Ahsch struggled to use his magic, with no successes. Unsurprisingly, it seemed that an infant's mind - and that of a toddler as well - couldn't quite work out how to use even Innate Spells. Though he could feel that his [Mana Pool] was full; his bond with Mahat had provided Dominant's Tithe a steady stream. Steady enough, especially with Mahat's physical superiority to infant Ahsch, to fill up his regular [Mana Pool] within minutes of their Bond (it had been full by the time he had worked up after choosing Mahat in the strange lucid ream), and Mahat's extradimensional secondary pool filled up within an hour (the ratio being roughly 1:12 between his infantile physical abilities and hers).

Life with the familiar constantly by his side was also rather interesting. Office Lady (and the System Description) had failed to mention that as part of the soul-deep bond between mage and familiar, they would be able to share thoughts. In fact, much to Ahsch's chagrin, it was less of sharing thoughts and more of the familiar being privy to every thought the mage had.

Suffice to say, Ahsch's status as a reincarnated being was not kept secret for long from Mahat. Though she never said as much. In fact, the familiar never said anything in those early years, despite being fully capable of telepathic communication with her mage; instead, she only sent her emotions across their bond. When Ahsch asked why she didn't speak, her response was the equivalent of a shrug emoji, and he understood perfectly well what she meant: 'why would she, when they lacked any need for such concise communication at this point?' He also got the additional point perfectly that she hadn't needed to use words for her response and he still completely understood her, so he dropped the topic.

Despite his failures at casting spells, consolation came in the form of the dreams he, Ariin, and Mahat shared with the twins' mother, as Dahil wove dreams for them to share, drifting through the clouds in one, then sailing an endless sea in the next, or frolicking in the woods another night.

It was only once he turned five that Ahsch managed to accidentally copy his mother, weaving a pleasant dream of a familiar park from Earth for himself and Mahat to play in as they slept. Realizing his accomplishment, he set out to practice his other spells, focusing on familiarizing himself with his repertoire. Within the year, he had at least basic competency with all of his Innate Spells, with the exception of Heart Pierce and Dollify - a lack of appropriate targets he was willing to hurt and kill prevented practice with those two, in spite of his admittedly childish desire to feel the power of holding life and **** in his hands.

By that point, at six years old, he was up from his initial 5 Magnitude to 8, gaining an additional 'point' every second year. He knew that when he was 10 he'd have as much Magnitude as his age, but after that, things would get... weird. According to Office Lady, he'd have at least linear growth - possibly the same 1 Magnitude every two years - or he'd start growing exponentially.

I wonder if any of it resets when I reincarnate? he wondered.

His experimentation was an odd mix of joyous fascination and startled horror to his parents - his natural aptitude and rapid progress accounted for the former, while the oft-bizarre or shocking results were the cause of the latter. After all, him suddenly being a 10-year-old when he cast Entropic Revelation was a bit of a surprise (and with no strange interactions with his Life Resistance, though Office Lady had suggested that it was the immortality that might have 'weird side-effects,' and he was less 'immortal' and more 'infinitely-reincarnating').

Similar to his recollection of the Familiar in Flesh Boon, Ahsch found he could perfectly picture the System Description of every choice he had made in the strange in-between where he had met the three... deities? Their additional descriptions and explanations weren't so crystal-clear, but he could recall the choice bits. He did find it strange that he had no such System Description for the hrafthi 'dreamweaving' (nor the 'lust implantation,' though he had yet to see it occur, nor could he figure it out himself). Perhaps it was only for the things those three gave to me, but the multiverse proper doesn't function on a system, he considered. I've yet to see any HUD or earn any XP, after all.

The next great milestone came when he was 8, and it was actually two: Kebir miraculously became pregnant, much to everyone's joy; and Ariin started to cast her own innate spells. While the adults encouraged and sometimes taught Ahsch and Ariin how to use their spells, for the most part they were left to their own devices, the adults assured that Mahat, as Ahsch's familiar, would make sure nothing befell the two youngsters. After all, Innate Magic came naturally, and nobody taught children how to blink or breathe.

After the first time Ariin cast a spell, Ahsch began to keep his Mage Sight up constantly, to better observe how magic flowed and was used by natives of Euphoria; their parents didn't use magic much at home, not needing it for most things, and Ahsch was still too young to really help with the jobs they did use magic for. So he was **** to observe his sister's fledgling attempts.

He also tried to puzzle out Ariin's Mana Generation method. Everyone had believed Ahsch when he told them that his familiar was how he generated mana - which, while not the whole truth in the broad sense, was in fact true, and technically the sole method at the time, since he wasn't fucking anyone as a child, and had no thralls aside from the 'gimme' that was Mahat. They had determined that Ariin had Ambient Energy Processing after she had said she got her mana just from being, like she was absorbing it from the air; but she later confided in Ahsch that hers was 'weird,' and while it did that, there were other parts that she wanted to keep hidden for now. A secret she kept even from her brother for years. So when Ahsch started using Mage Sight around the clock, he kept an eye on his sister, trying to see where her mana came from. He came to the conclusion that she somehow absorbed it through her skin; he originally thought it was based on light hitting her skin, but in the dark of the children's bedroom one moonless night, he watched and saw that her mana generation wasn't impeded by the lack of light. He wondered if there was some secondary benefit that she wasn't sharing.

After all, it couldn't possibly be that other option, not even if she seemed to absorb more mana during summer, when everyone covered less of their bodies and had more skin exposed. That option had been Ahsch's own weird thing, and Office Lady had seemed rather bemused by its very existence.

The mysteries of her Mana Generation Method aside, Ariin had three Innate Spells outside of the hrafthi usuals of dreamweaving and lust implatation: Mage Sight, like Ahsch; Mage Armor, which solidified mana around her like concrete; and a third that she said she knew she had, but she couldn't seem to use just yet.

Kebir's pregnancy resulted in twin girls, one with golden hair and amber eyes, and the other with black hair and silver eyes, and they were named Sola and Luna respectively. A few months later, after their birthday, Ahsch and Ariin were taken foraging by Dehil and Noeh, their first time out in the woods. They were also taught to hunt, and Ahsch got practice with Heart Pierce and Dollify, though one was obviously better than the other for hunting, which he only realized after turning a perfectly plump rabbit into inedible wood. Though the fact that it took over 10 seconds to cast Dollify and only a little over 3 for Heart Pierce certainly helped things.

It was also at this point that Mahat started to speak to him, actually congratulating him on his successes in the woods when the group got home. She also admitted that she had refrained from speaking until then because she worried it would slow his assimilation of the local language - being soul-bound and privy to his every thought, Mahat was fluent in English, but had wanted Ahsch to learn Stellan, the lingua franca of the Kingdom of Starlight.

Another few years passed, and the other older children started to learn their own magic, though notably they tended to have only one, maybe two Innate Spells aside from any racial Innate Magics. Ahsch and Ariin were now 12, and both were now going through puberty, much to Ahsch's chagrin. Last time this happened was rather unenjoyable, he grouched to Mahat, who merely laughed at him. At the very least, he consoled himself, I know what to expect this time around.

He was soon disabused of that belief when he and Ariin were taken aside by their mother and father for 'The Talk.' The first surprise was when the four of them had that particular discussion all together, rather than splitting off into father/son and mother/daughter pairs. The second was when they actually gave a fairly comprehensive rundown on sex and sexual health, though there was no mention of any STIs. The third was when they openly told the twins that they would show them how to make a contraceptive tea using one of the herbs from the garden - Ahsch bashfully informed his parents that he didn't need such aids, as one of his Innate Magics allowed him to control his own fertility. There was a moment of shocked silence before Noeh and Dahil turned to each other, shrugged, and gave the usual response to Ahsch's peculiarities regarding magic: 'That's Ahsch for you.'

End of chapter has been censored.