Chapter 1:
Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" - Genesis 3:1
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3 Years Later:
Current year: 1252
A lot has happened in these past few years. I'm three years old now and I've grown a lot over the years. I was getting taller and more handsome, it seems that I look pretty human except for my ears, although I am a lot more handsome than average. I'm glad I wouldn't grow up to look like one of the extremely feminine male elves that you see from time to time.
Besides those developments, I had made myself out to be a genius to my mother. This wasn't far off from the truth because in my past life I was actually relatively smart. I was a young real estate attorney and I died almost a year after I got my law degree, so that sucks. Well it doesn't matter, I'm in the witcher world now, which is infinitely better than doing real estate. The reason I made myself out to be a genius instead of hiding my learning abilities is because of boredom. I simply did not want to pretend to be a stupid baby for that long, it was exhausting. So at around six months, I started speaking to my mother. She was obviously quite shocked at that development. She was also worried because the villagers already didn't like me very much, so she told me to never talk in front of others who are not part of the druids. I told her I would do as she said until I'm of proper speaking age.
Anyways, these three years were filled with learning. I learned how to read and write from my mother, as the written language was different than from past life. I also learned the native language of skellige which sounds like an offshoot of Irish Gaelic. My family was Irish in my past life so it was easy to recognize similar words. I also pestered my mother about learning different languages. After all, I plan to travel when I'm older and I'll need to understand things if I'm to survive, better learn it now rather than have a hassle with it later. She Aquescied when I used my secret puppy dog eyes technique. She brought me books and began tutoring me herself. The first language I learned after "Skellige Gaelic" was elder speech.
Now you might be asking, why learn the elder speech? Don't only the elves and mages speak it? You would be precisely right in that assumption. My reasoning for this is that I am most definitely going to learn magic in the future no matter what, so it's best to get a grasp on the language now. Also, I imagine I will prefer elves infinitely better than humans. Considering that I already extremely dislike humans now, just like I did in my past life, elves will make better company. I'm a true misanthrope at heart, what can I say?
I learned elder speech in record breaking time and then started to move on to other languages. I really couldn't do much physical activity because I didn't want to stunt my growth so learning these languages was my only escape from boredom. I learned Nilfgaardian which was actually quite easy, considering it's only another offshoot of elder speech. The final language I managed to learn was Zerrikanian. I think this language will be of immense help to me once I finally visit the country. It is rumored to be the place of origin for the original invention of witcher bombs and certain alchemical potions. I would need to visit them to learn their secrets of alchemy. Perhaps I could even learn their brand of magic? Thoughts for the future I suppose.
Over these three years, I didn't really go outside much, I was not well liked for my half elven heritage and I tried to stay inside to avoid villagers as much as possible. After all, I'm not powerful yet, some of these villagers could get it inside their thick skulls that I'm evil and try to kill me. I only went outside to take a quick run each day in preparation for the future and to watch my mother perform druid magic and rituals. They fascinated me.
I remember the first time my mother had shown me she could perform magic. I was around two year old at the time. My mother specialized in healing among her druid circle. One day a young man and his friend came in with a nasty gash across his chest.
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1 year prior:
Current Year: 1251
"Oi help healer! Please help us! Arne was attacked by a drowner!" the young man who was not injured yelled out.
"Please, lay him down on the table over there. I will help. Harkon, go to your room and wait for me."
"Are ye sure mother? I can help, I can get bandages or someth-" I tried to say before I was cut off.
"That's alright sweety, please just do as I say and go to your room. Please, for me?" My mother pleaded for me. I acquiesced and was walking towards my room when the young uninjured man, who I still didn't know the name of called out.
"Oi! Druid, what are ye doin with a damn elf in yur hut? Some kind of pointy ear lov-" The man tried to finish before my mother whipped out a dagger towards his throat. This was a development I did not expect.
"Piece of advice, young one. Never insult the only person capable of healing injuries. Otherwise, the next time you and yer friend get hurt, I might just choose not to save ye. Now apologize to my son and sit yor fookin ass down." My mother stated with a tone of absolute authority.
I was shocked because usually my mother was the sweetest person I knew, always being kind and answering any questions I had. It seems she has a dark side to her as well. It made me extremely happy though, someone was willing to go so far for me. I realized that I truly do love my mother.
"I-I'm, I'm sorry for what I said. Please forgive me." The man managed to stutter out.
"Good now sit still and be quiet, Harkon get going to yer room." My mother said again. Probably thinking that me being there might cause tension in the whole situation.
"Yes, mother. Sorry for the hold up." I said as I walked into my room. However I left the door open and peaked outside while she worked.
My mother began saying something in elder speech. A rough translation would be something like, 'Fester not, and begone. Flesh mends thy flesh together once more'.I almost cried when I saw my mother perform healing magic. I visibly saw the injured man's flesh mending back together, it was slow and apparently quite painful from how the man screamed, but it worked. My mother must be pouring an immense amount of 'magic' or 'chaos' into the spell to achieve healing, especially this quickly. Healing is supposed to be quite difficult from what I remember in the Witcher.
Seeing my mother perform this magic brought me immense joy and hope for the future. It also turned me into quite a schemer, even more so than I probably already was. As soon as I saw it, I knew I would do whatever it took to learn magic, get more powerful and lead an amazing life.
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Current Year: 1252
Good time, good times. Since that day I pestered my mother to teach me magic, but she said she could not. I was still far too young and the 'chaos' could probably do untold damage to my toddler body.
Good news though, she had told me that I had potential for magic. I was a half elf and I was also a 'source'. She told me when she used a small spell to check for my magic potential. A source was basically someone with an extremely amazing talent for magic. They are conduits for chaos itself. That was wonderful news, I don't know why I was a source, but it probably has something to do with me being reborn and then my entire soul being turned into a fine mushy paste and merged with the baby soul of this new body. Of course that's just a theory, but a very well grounded one.
Since I couldn't perform magic, I had my mother promise me she would teach me what she could in preparation for one day learning magic. She seemed hesitant to do so and when I pestered her about it, she almost seemed to tear up. I don't know what that was about, but I thought I heard her muttering something along the lines of 'destiny has already decided your path'. Very cryptic, I know, but what can you do?
Since I could not learn magic yet, I thought of other ways of improvement in the meantime. My answer to these questions came in the form of the man who helped deliver me, Gremist.