5 The Magic Book

Darren wash away the sweat from his forehead, feeling considerable tired. The weight of his luggage (fill in it's vast majority with books and few changes of clothes) sum-up to the constant wobble of the carriage makes him feel sleepy.

He has been traveling mounted in that caravan from a day and a half now and the only company he had was an old man who hast uttered a word since. In fact the man has barely moved at all, static in his position the only way Darren could notice the man was still alive was the soft movement of his shoulders and the unnerving rhythm of his regular breath.

The man had a rater weird aspect to be honest. He was an old man, Darren calculated he surpassed the average life expectancy of the common elemental judging for his long white hair and beard. This however, wasn't the most memorable aspect of this old man.

The one thing that Darren would certainly remember about this man for a while where his scars wounds; He has his face fill with numerous scars of old cuts and some burns, his left eye was missing and covered by a grey patch, his left arm was nowhere to be found, letting his left sleeve hang freely with nothing to support it.

He also notice that his right leg was replaced by rare prosthetic, build with copper and a weird design of gears, cogs and springs like nothing he has ever seen.

Darren turn his head wen he noticed the old man was also watching him with his one grey eye, even if his silence make him nervous he didn't feel ready to initiate a casual chat. However the man's stare persisted, so Darren tried to find something to divert his attention with, searching on his bag for a book to read. Maybe that way the man would decide to turn his attention to something else.

Unfortunately, he soon discover that he had already read for several times all the books on his luggage, some of them in this same travel. All except for one.

"I expected to read in a more comfortable environment, but it looks i doesn't have a choice anymore" he thought while pulling out his copy of "Introduction to magic and treaty about Mana" from his back, starting from where he left the last time wen he was interrupted by the iron guard one day and a half ago.

With this, probably the man would look to another thing, or at least he could forget about him.

"Chapter 2: The infinite possibilities of Mana.

After recovering from the wounds suffered after my last incident, i dive into my experiments again with to purpose of finding the exact properties of this new element i have discovered.

Ignorant still of the fact that, even today as i write this words after many years of research, experimentation, investigation, testing and several limbs less; I still haven't grasped to full potential of the element known as Mana and, is possible, that even many years after my death, we will never be able to find the total extent of the endless possibilities this mysterious element holds.

After the accident that almost let me blind, i decided to take some security measures this time, waiting till i have gathered the materials i think i would need, in which there where a pair of glasses made for a craftsman of quarz. Despite the material, they where thick and strong, while not incommoding to the view at all.

Parallel to the quality was the price, which, accompanied by some gloves of studded leather and a chain mail of iron, let me at the verge of bankrupt, suffering from several weeks of hunger.

However, i didn't let this diminish my enthusiasm, excited by the new and amazing possibilities i would discover with my experiments.

After a lot of trial and error, (emphasis in the error) i discover that words have a tight and intrinsic relation with the results while using this element. This discovery drives me to the study of universal history, trying to figure out the origin of the relation between words and this new element.

Curious enough, after my research was done; even if i didn't found anything that could give some light over this event, i did find something interesting that guide me to the formulation of another theory.

In actuality, our world is ruled by just one kingdom, whose domains extent there where the sun can reach. But before the tyranny of the dragonslayer, our world was formed by four kingdoms. The highland of Parls to the north, the prairies of Yha harl to the south, the fertile and prosperous lands of our capital and home of the royal palace to the west: the kingdom of Yorn; And finally, the rocky desserts of Vars at the east.

According to our history, thousands of years past before the ancient people of Yorn make first contact with nomad tribes coming from the Vars dessert. It was the first time the kingdom of yorn, till then isolated, make contact with foreign tribes. It was also the first time the population of Yorn, accustomed to the familiar presence of metallic elements, make contact with gaseous elements.

The cultural, social, anatomic and diet differences were gigantic, however, despite all the differences documented, the language was not mentioned in any register of the event.

I could have let it slip as a detail that was not considered important in the moment, but thanks to a friend of mine, i could put my hands in some old manuscripts coming from the now extinct empire of Parl. Everything pointed to the fact that they were authentic and they seemed to be prior to the first contact between our kingdom and their now dead empire.

However, they were wrote in our language. There were some few words that are no longer used, but despite that few exceptions, the language was always the same.

how it was possible that so many different civilizations around the world came up with the same language without make contact with each other?

Even if this truth was given by granted, i couldn't stop myself of thinking about it, as this coincidence needed to have some reason behind it, a common event that lead to all of them sharing the same language. "

-That book- Said the old man. The sudden interruption from a man that till now haven't uttered a single word surprised Darren to the point he almost drop the book, managing to grasp it in the last second.

-Eh? ehem, am, what did you say?-

-That book, is it authentic?-

The old man speaked with a grave and gritty voice, but his tone was calm and serene. His word moved slowly, but with fluidity, like a leaf floating softly over a stream.

"How weird, he doesn't have the look of a reader, he has more aspect of a war veteran"

Tought Darren, while rambling in whatever if he should answer his question or not, he needed to be cautious after all. This one copy was a lifetime of effort and he didn't doubt it would be highly covet among collectors.

-What happen? did your tongue banish?- Said the man giving him a big smile that revealed numerous teeth of silver under his beard.

-Um, ah... No... is just.- Darren struggled to find a way to answer the old man. He had always have troubles wen talking to other people and he tried to avoid any kind of discussion.

-Oh don't worry, i don't plan to take it away from you. If it is authentic, i'm sure it cost a lot of work to obtain it. There are not many left out there, care if i give it a look?-

Darren hold the book tightly against his chest at first, but the kindness of his eye and smile inspired confidence in him. It take Darren some minutes to slowly hand the book to the old man, with an excessive amount of caution and care, almost if he was holding a newborn.

The old man let the cane at his side and take the book with his only hand, laying it down kindly on his lap and opening the first pages. Reading the exposed words with his eye while caressing his long beard.

-This is indeed an authentic copy. It has been years since last time i saw one like this. However, i'm afraid you are not reading it properly.-

Darren didn't have too much time to process the old man words before he take the book and put it near his lips, whispering a word he have never heard with a tender blow over it.

-Verbum-

Then, Darren saw something he would never forget. The pages of the book started to glow with a faint white light and the silvery tittle banish from it's cover, although it would be more accurate to say it detached from it. As the silver substance that before layed out the tittle started to float above the pages, as dust falling from a star.

The substance soon started to fall like snow over the pages, but Darren could notice them falling in an specific pattern as the old man passed page to let the substance cover them all.

Darren have spent his life studying magic, but this was the first time seeing it with his own eyes. He look at the event with his eyes wide open in amazement, trying to not lose even the slightest detail and crave it on his mind.

Wen the old man has finished the process, letting the last drop of astral dust fall in the last page, he closed the book stretching his arm to hand it back to Darren.

-Done, this is how the book was meant to be read.-