15 A hidden feature

Lillian returned with Arya at around sunset. The last few rays of light shining on the horizon.

"How about this one?" asked Argen, excitement audible in his voice.

"A yellow pentagram," answered Arya, clearly growing bored of answering so many questions.

"Do you know what happened?" asked Cassandra.

"No, I'll have to do a few experiments on hi-" Argen's sentence trailed off as he saw the dangerous looks that the two women were giving him.

"Perhaps we'll find out with time. But one thing is for certain, the boy has a talent for seeing magic that surpasses anything the world has ever known."

"To be able to see the activation sequence of hidden spells and constructs, I wonder what else he can see," mused Argen, stroking his grey beard.

{Tell them,} whispered Elsa, urging Arya to tell them about the blue dust and the fact that he could see mana cores.

Elsa was a curious being, although she had no idea what she was, or where she came from, or if she was even real, she had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. And the only knowledge she could gain was through Arya.

"Everything looks like it was painted in a light golden hue. Blue dust continuously swirls around the air, and everyone has weird orbs in their chest," he said finally.

He made sure not to go too deep into detail, lest he make people even more suspicious of him.

"Argen, are you sure this is a baby?" whispered Cassandra, looking at Arya with suspicion.

"Why?" asked Argen.

"Even if he can talk, don't you think his reasoning is a bit too high? I'm sure you noticed how vague he made his explanation, it sounds like it was done on purpose," she whispered back, keeping her eyes on Arya.

"Hmm, so you can see mana as well. Well, I'm not surprised by that, but to be able to see mana cores, you truly are blessed," whispered Cassandra.

"I'll be frank, I have my doubts about you," said Cassandra in a matter-of-fact way.

"I don't know if you really are who you claim to be, but I'm sure you understand that what you have now is an enviable gift."

"If you go showing it around, sooner or later someone is going to want to dissect those eyes to discover their secret. So it's best that you not say anything to anyone else," warned Cassandra, before picking up a book.

"Have you tried casting spells again yet? I'm sure your cap as a baby is quite low, but with enough practice, you can figure something out," said Cassandra, handing Arya a musty brown book.

"No, No more magic. N-never again," stuttered Lillian, holding Arya away from the book.

"Lillian, if we don't teach the boy using the proper methods, he's going to try something reckless like he did last time."

" Or do you really think that he won't try using magic again? Do you really think that a baby who was able to attempt crafting his own spell will give up now? At a time when he has a new tool at his disposal at that?" asked Cassandra.

Lillian knew she was right. Ever since Arya could talk, all he asked about was magic. If he wasn't taught properly he would just experiment on his own again, and there's no telling if he could be saved the next time something happened.

"It's nothing major. The fact that he hasn't been blessed by any element still stands. The only thing he can use is now is still base magic," Cassandra said, handing Lillian the book.

"From now on come every two weeks, I'm sure that will ease your worry," added Cassandra, as Arya looked at the book in awe.

{Do you know how to read?} asked Esla as she also examined the book through Arya's eyes.

{Ughh, I forgot that books here aren't written in English.} The realization that he couldn't even read had finally hit him.

{English?}

***

"Mom, do you know how to read?" asked Arya on the way home.

"Only a little," she replied, kind of embarrassed.

That night the dinner table was once again silent. The awkwardness between them still present.

"Mom, aren't you going to eat?" asked Gray as he was about to finish his food.

"I'm not hungry darling," she replied, feeding Arya another spoonful.

{So there's not enough food, huh,} realized Gray, looking at Arya with eyes full of spite.

The next morning Gray woke up early, he took his father's old bow and hunting knife before heading out. The sun was still yet to rise, so it was cold and dark outside.

"Where's Gray?" asked Lillian as the family ate breakfast, everyone shook their heads, no one knew where he had wandered off to.

"Maybe he went to his friend's house," whispered Streya as she finished her meal, before walking off.

{Gray doesn't have friends,} she thought to herself.

Lillian read the first part of the book to Arya before leaving him alone to crawl around on the floor.

She was still worried about Gray and decided she would go wait outside until he returned.

{This part explains how magic works,} said Elsa, as she read a paragraph from the book.

{You can read this?} asked Arya, clearly surprised that the ever confused Esla was able to do something that he hadn't taught her.

{Yeah, somehow. Though I'm not sure when I learned how to,} she replied, before reading the entire first page.

{So spells are basically just calculations whose answer influences the material world. The mana core is an apparatus that helps in these calculations since they're so complex, and the mana is the energy needed to bring an effect from the answer of the calculations,} confirmed Arya as he went over what he had learned.

{And the rings are just a visual representation of what variables are involved in the calculations, and what method is being used,} added Esla, excitement audible in her voice.

{So I might never cast magic again,} realized Arya.

{Not necessarily, I checked your body, and you still have a mana system. Your mana core has just been split into very small fragments, each of them acting as a miniature mana core.}

{H-How? I tried, but I wasn't able to look into my own body,} replied Arya.

{I guess it's because I'm actually inside you,} laughed Esla.

{You're a pervert.}

{W-What?}