History lesson

“Have you ever heard about the city of Zrephia?” Harold asks.

“Who hasn’t?” I tell him. “It our kingdom’s capital, many centuries ago. The Zrephians were supposed to be very skilled in magic and created many magical artifacts. But it was destroyed long ago in a war against the demons. That’s all I know.”

“You are correct. However, since it happened so long ago, much of Zrephia’s history has been lost. Whatever artifacts they have left behind are now incredibly expensive, mostly because we no longer know how to make those.”

Harold then becomes a bit more serious and asks, “There is one curious fact about the Zrephian royal family that you might want to be aware of though.”

“The royals?” I ponder. “I figured they were just and noble just like our queen today. Were they not?”

“Eh, their behavior can be debatable.” Harold says, “What I am referring to is a physical trait all of the Zrephian princes and princesses have in common. It’s their eyes, Darx. They all had red eyes.”

At first, I don’t quite know what to make of Harold’s words. I figured that red eyes were rare, but that Zrephian royals shared them with me? No, that’s not what he meant. Zrephian royals had them first. So, what does that make me?

“Eh … what?” I ask nervously.

“Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you’re some kind of prince or anything.” Harold continues. "But maybe a 2nd cousin of the last Zrephian king was not in Zrephia the moment it got destroyed. He could have then continued the lineage, all the way to either your mother or your father.”

“But … neither of my parents had red eyes.” I say.

“Indeed, I remember you saying that. Which means either one of your grandparents had red eyes and this trait, skipped one generation only to resurface when you were born, or perhaps you had a mutation and developed red eyes all on your own.”

I take another look at my adventurer card and I suddenly feel like all the question marks on it are a reference to my entire life.

“You think maybe my eyes and my card are connected in some way?” I as Harold.

“Two rare occurrences that appear on the same person?” Harold ponders. “It is certainly a possibility. I’ll have to talk it over with Syvis, the dark elf mentor. She has a lot of knowledge about Zrephia. But if she doesn’t have any answers, I may have to bring in Aelbrecht for advice.”

I don’t know what to say. Could the Zrephian royal dynasty really be my ancestors? Can’t be. I’m just some normal guy from a normal village. My red eyes have to be a separate mutation.

Harold must have noticed my unease. He then placed a hand on my shoulder and said, “Listen, I get that this is a lot to take in. But whatever your heritage is, you are still you. Can you promise me you’ll remember that?”

I take a deep breath and repeat after him. “I am still me.”

Strangely, saying it out loud calms me quite a bit.

Harold and I then rejoin my team. Just in time too, because Kiara announces it is time for lunch. I didn’t have much to say over lunchtime and I certainly didn’t listen to any conversations the others were having. I was much too focused on what Harold had told me.

“Is something wrong, Darx?” I hear someone say.

I look up and notice it was Shalia who asked me. I didn’t even know she was sitting right in front of me.

“Uh, no I …” I start, but I quickly realize that if I say that I just make it obvious that there really is something. I don’t want to lie to Shalia like that. I still remember the last time someone kept telling me nothing was going on. But the whole red eyes and potential royal lineage is just too personal to share with someone I’ve known for only 2 days, right?

“I was just thinking about water magic.” I lie. “This morning I woke up with no magic at all, now I suddenly have access to a huge number of spells which I don’t even know yet. Like, am I going to be shooting balls of water, or streams of them, maybe waves, …?”

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been thinking about it too.” Shalia smiles. “I may have cast earth spells before, but water is a whole new element to me.”

“True, but you’ve already been training earth magic for several months now, maybe years. You at least know how to cast spells and also have more extensive mana reserves than me.”

Shalia reaches across the table and holds my hand. “Don’t worry, Darx. I’m sure you and I will spend a lot of time training in water magic together. I’ll be there to help you out.”

“Thanks.”

After our lunch break, we head back to our spot in the courtyard. Instead of training by individually holding a ball of water, Shalia suggests we train by sharing one between us. It is a training method she used together with a friend back where she’s from. She holds an orb of water in her right hand, then makes a clockwise circle with her arm and lifts the orb up for me. I take the orb from her with my right hand and then make a similar motion like she did. We repeat this over and over, making the shape of a sideways 8 between us two.

Once Shalia sees I’ve got the hang of it she takes the training a step up and transforms the ball into a thin stream. I need to use both my hands to keep the stream from falling to the ground, but as long as I can concentrate, I can manage it. Except for every turn, Shalia collects some more water from the urn and adds it to the stream we are sharing. Before I know it, our stream is so long the two ends connect and we have formed a continuous stream. Since Shalia knows what she is doing, her side of the stream is nice and smooth. Mine instead looks like it might fall apart at any minute. Which eventually it does.

“Good job, Darx.” Shalia compliments me. “My friend and I had to try it several times before we were sharing a continuous stream of dirt. You did it on your first try.”

“Thanks.” I say as I breath heavily. “But I am now all out of mana.”

“Alright everyone.” Kiara suddenly announces. “Gather around, it’s time for the next step of your training.”