Power.

John was still covered in bandages but now his hand was as well. He grabbed a cane that was conveniently left by the bed side. He felt like all he had done the past few days was wake up. Leaning on the cane he walked to the room with the fireplace. In the daylight it looked totally different from the night before. There was a charred hole on the wall below the paintings and another similar hole behind one of the chairs. He stopped for a minute to look at the mounted beast on the wall, He was now sure that was a dragon. He heard noise outside and headed towards the door.

The house was more like a cottage. There was a lake about 50 meters from the front door with a wooden walkway going about 20 meters into the water and fishing boat moored at the end. To the far right there was a stable with one horse. The cottage was in a forest and they seemed to be in the fall. Golden leaves were falling and the air was thick with the smell of rain. The scenic beauty made him want to paint. He turned to his left and stumbled after stepping on a small rock. The sound from before was that of log splitting. He turned the corner and the old man was sitting with his back to him reading a book. An axe was floating in the air and cutting into an upright log. In single swing the log was in two and another took its place from a pile repeating the earlier motions.

The old man turned around and when he saw him he pointed to a stump indicating that he should sit. After the dream he had he was somehow not surprised to see this automatic splitting of logs. John walked over and sat down. Next to the old man was a small table. he placed his book on it. There was a tea pot and two cups. There was also something covered in a white cloth. John watched as the pot floated and poured tea into one cup and then the entire tray moved towards John.

"You must be hungry, you haven't eaten in a few days." he said removing the cloth by hand. "Minerva prepared this before she left." There was some bacon two eggs and some toast. His stomach rumbled. He had not realized how hungry he was until he actually saw food

"So whats all this?" John asked gesturing at the logs.

"I knew that was going to be your first question," the old man replied, "Aren't you even going to ask my name?" the old man chuckled.

"Right-"John replied away, "- what is your name? Who are you? Where am I?"

"My name is Vemuri, I am a sage and this is the painted world." the old man said nonchalantly.

"I knew it,"John said excited,"but how?"

"You saw one of the paintings and it decided to bring you here. It's unfortunate for you that it had to be that painting. You had to go in through the big one and ended in that battle, no wonder you're all busted up." the old man replied, "I was a little surprised that you realized that the paintings are connected, I thought I was the only one."

"So you're from the outside as well," John asked placing his cup on the floating tray.

"Yes, but no one else knows that this is a painting, not even Miner. I would seem crazy if i mentioned it."

John was now looking at this old man thinking what a huge coincidence it was that he was found by him. The more he spoke the more questions he had.

"What is a sage and how can a painting decide to bring me here?" He asked emphasizing the last part.

"The paintings are alive, I believe you saw that battle, if that kind of power exists in the world then the world must indeed be powerful . The world must have wanted you in it so it took you. I do return every twenty years or so."

"What? I can't go back home for 20 years!?" John's mouth dropped.

"You can go back anytime, but if you want to come back you must remember the mindset you had when you first came." The old man said to ease his tension.

"You said sage? You can use magic," John said after calming down.

"First, recall the battle in that big painting, there was a man on a dragon," the old man begun his explanation sipping his tea, "that was me. That is the power of a sage. In this world there are two distinct powers. There are magicians or mages. They contain a power within them that allows them to communicate with nature to do otherwise impossible things." The old man lifted his finger and lightning started to buzz around the tip.

"Second there are elementalists. they do not contain any power within themselves but can borrow power from the elemental spirits. There are four elements, Water, Fire, Air and Earth." A soft breeze started to blow around the old man and the air seemed to form wings on his back and he began to levitate. He then sat down again and the breeze died down.

"There are many races of being here: humans, elves, giants, dwarves and tribes within them. Humans like you and I can only be elementalists, Elves can be either. A sage is someone who can be both. I am a sage." the old man finished and shook the tea pot.

"How can the man on the dragon be you?" John asked looking at the old man.

"Do I not look like a dragon riding sword wielding warrior, you were gravely injured by my sword last night." the old man joked.

"What I mean is if the painting was finished and then you entered then you cannot be the swordsman because his depiction had already been finished before you found yourself here."

"That's what you mean, well that part was not on the painting when i entered. If something of great magnitude happens in the painted world, then it automatically shows up on the painting. I was surprised to see that as well the first time I left. The painting took you because you have a task to fulfill, you are bound to show up on the painting as well."

John seemed satisfied with this answer. The old man stood up and walked briskly around the corner and into the house. John stood up and walked to the front of the house. He was not sure whether he was supposed to follow him. After a few minutes the old man opened the front door and asked John to follow him. Leaning on his new cane John followed the old man down the hallway into the room on the right of where he had spent the night. Inside was a room that could pass as a personal library. There were strange instruments on tables as well as on walls. Above the room was a globe that had different continents that those that he was used to. The old man was standing behind a desk near the wall on the far left.

"How did you know where the swords were?" the old man asked pointing towards the wall far opposite to where he was standing. There was a huge black chest engraved in a strange language. Behind it was the charred hole on the wall.

"I heard a voice." John replied turning to look at the old man.

On top of the table were two katanas. One was absurdly long and the one that seemed regular sized was shattered in the middle. The long one had similar engravings as the black chest. both had black and white hilts. The long blade was matte black like it was covered in soot. the shorter one was shiny like polished silver.

"The two blades are one," the old man begun, "they have one soul and are meant to be used by the same person though for different purposes. They are called Hitokiri, which translates to man slayer." John was taken aback by this name.

"I can tell that you are averse to that sort of thing." If you heard the voice of the soul then the swords must want you to wield them. The long sword should never be used to slay a man. The voice of the soul absorbs the man's soul and consumes it making it glow red. The short sword translates the voice of the soul into into lightning and that is what hit you last night." John was shocked to think the number of ways the night before would have gone wrong. Man slayer, soul absorption this was too crazy for him

The old man opened a cabinet behind him and removed a deep blue crystal ball that was covered in cloth and gestured for John to come closer. The old man realized that he was hesitant looking at the swords and walked towards John. He pointed to a table that was near the entrance. He placed the crystal on top of the table. This was a detection crystal that changed colors depending on the type of magic could use and glowed depending on your intensity. It turned deep blue if you couldn't use magic.

"Place your hand on the crystal and relax. You are curious as to why the swords reacted to you right?" the old man said and John placed his right hand on the crystal and immediately turned white and started glowing brightly like fluorescent tube.

"No surprise there," the old man said, "place your other hand now." John removed his right hand and held the cane with it, the ball continued to glow. He then placed his left hand on the crystal and it turned red but did't glow as brightly as before. "Place both hands one at the top and the other at the side. imagine your right hand is white and your left had is red and try to visualize pulling the colors from the ball into your hands."

John did as he was told and a deep blue color from the core of the ball started growing. He wasn't sure whether that was good or bad since he had no idea how this crystal worked. Once the whole ball was blue the old man instructed him to remove his hands. After a minute of watching the crystal an orange cloud started forming inside the crystal and sparks started flickering inside the ball. The clouds were spinning and the ball was getting hot. The old man took the cloth and then covered it again. Striding over to the cabinet he placed the crystal and grabbed the broken sword. He walked quickly to an armchair that was in the middle of the room and sat down with a sigh. John was already sitting opposite him.

"One can use utmost three natures of magic. Most elves use one, their warriors mostly use two, one in a hundred thousand use three. placing one had shows one nature placing the other shows the second, if you can only use one it shows the same color as the first hand. When you place both hands and pull magic it shows the third nature. This is the standard test. You have the potential to be very powerful. You can use three. The white color was air, which was very strong, the second was fire which was not as strong, and the third is lightning. I want you to do something." The old man said giving John the sword.

John was hesitant. He grabbed the sword by the hilt. In its broken state it was like a long dagger.

"Do the same thing you did with the ball." John closed his eyes and tried to do what he had done earlier. He heard a short zap and he opened his eyes. the short blade was sparkling gently. He had a look of disappointment on this face, he was expecting to see fire. "The voice of the soul is very proud she can only let you use lightning with this sword and since its broken it wont shine as brightly as when it was whole." the old man said taking back the sword with a satisfied look on his face.

The look on John's Face did not change he was still disappointed. It was every boys' dream to hold a blazing sword. He looked up at the old man who seemed to be in deep thought.

"What do you want to do, John?" he said his name for the first time. "Do you want to know why the painting called you here or do you want to go back home? If you decide to stay I will teach you how to be a fire mage and show you where you can learn to be a fire and an air mage. If you decide to leave I will show you how to get home."

John sat silently pondering. He didn't want his family to worry but he also thought that there had to be a reason why he was brought into the painting. After a few minutes he looked up at the old man.

"I want to go home." the old man was surprised but not shocked. He was sure that he would decide to stay. He was even optimistic to help a young talent discover the world of magic. "I will come back, I just don't want my family to be worried. Its been a few days since you found me. I am sure everyone thinks I am missing or worse dead.

"Well the way out is quite away from here and I do not think you are in any state to travel. Take your time to heal and then you can go assure your folks. You can even take Miner to see our world." John was secretly pleased that he could come back. The question now was how he could explain his absence.

----------------------------------

Inssan was the capital of the human country Inssan. It was located to the west of the snowy mountain range that ran from the north to the south of the Pativa Continent. It was called by many the winter capital. It was covered in snow all year round. The capital rose from near the bottom of the range to halfway to the top. The magnificent palace could be seen for miles. It was white and many believed that their country had been birthed by the mountain peak above the capital. The country was ruled by a king who was supported by two main pillars. The nobility and their knights and the church and their elementalists. Though absent most of the times the archbishop and the King were twins.

Inside the castle the king was about to meet with his brother who had returned from his journeys to the north.

"Your Majesty, " Prince Ilam the archbishop said and laughed.

"Brother, please." King Illum said reaching to embrace his brother.

"Can we talk privately," he gestured to the king's attendants. Illum waved his hand and thee left the room.

"How goes your research?" Illum asked when everyone had left.

"I found it. In ruins in Tervia, the secret to the power from 500 years ago, with this we can change the world," he said with an evil smile on his face.