You have changed, my son

Aric was doing well, but as he reached the 21st curve inside the second circle, he made a small mistake, and everything instantly went to waste. This left Aric incredibly frustrated; he just wanted to shout into the void.

But he didn't give up just yet. He went to work again, this time more determined than before. He wasn't ready to give up. He started the process again, and it took him another hour to reach the 21st curve.

He pushed through and reached the 22nd without making any mistakes. This brought him great joy but also made him more determined to struggle through and reach the endpoint. He poured all his sweat and tears into the cause.

Finally, after almost two nights of struggle, he was able to complete the first runic circle. But the moment he finished drawing it, he felt exhausted, and before he could say a word, his upper body fell forward onto the pillow, and he couldn't stop it from happening.

Soon, he closed his eyes and drifted into a deep sleep.

-----

11:48 AM

Aric opened his eyes with a huge amount of effort. At first, he didn't even know where he was, who he was, or what he was. But slowly everything came back to him. He had a splitting headache, but the joy of his success overwhelmed it.

He turned to his consciousness to check the new runic circle, which he was excited about, and the one he had built, but then he saw that his consciousness didn't have the runic circle. There was nothing! Zilch! Nada!

This sent Aric almost into a frenzy, and the maddening headache didn't help the situation at all.

"Calm down... Calm down..." Aric repeated to himself, a habit he had learned over the years of his struggle, a mechanism to cope with any deteriorating situation. He checked his consciousness again, this time with more calmness than before.

He still didn't find any sign of the runic circle that he had drawn. He was 100% sure that he had drawn it and finished it by the end. After making sure that there was nothing in his consciousness, he checked the two glowing bulbs that had always been there, shining with the same intensity as before.

Aric was perplexed by what had happened, but he needed to make sure of one last thing. He looked around his room and pointed his palm in a random direction. He visualized himself performing the dust-cleaning spell. At first, there was no reaction, but then it happened. A small wave of air emanated from the edge of his palm, and after a couple of seconds, the magical air seemed to come to life and push forward.

His room had a table on which there were a few books. Over the table, there was a small shelf where he kept his school books. His mother had always asked him to clean it regularly, but as usual, being the lazy person that he was, he never dusted them off.

The wave of air struck the shelf almost instantly, but instead of the books being blown away or the pages being flipped, the dust spread out. The process was fast, as all the dust, including on the shelf, was blown away, and Aric could clearly see the dust being blown towards the window, an opening to the outside world, ensuring that the dust didn't just settle around.

Aric, seeing everything in action, was dumbfounded. He checked his consciousness again, and still there was no sign of any runic circle. At the moment, he was too tired to even try again. The use of magic made him feel like he had lost some strength too.

He couldn't continue like this and thus needed food and rest. And that's what he did. He got up and went to have his breakfast, which his mother was not happy about since he had 'overslept'. After having a good meal and freshening up, he felt his strength returning and his headache cascading a bit. 

He wasn't entirely sure why he was getting headaches while drawing the runic circle, but then again, he didn't have any mentor, and nobody had given him a course on this. But he was also proud of himself for drawing the first runic circle. It meant that he had finally stepped his foot into the magical realm, and he had a talent for magic.

For the rest of the day, he didn't bother to try his magic again and was rather focused on his recovery.

"Aric, since the vacations started, you haven't asked to watch TV? Are you alright?" Avni asked as she noticed some strange behavior from her son. Eating chili raw and her son not asking to watch TV were unusual signs.

Though there was a proper TV at home with all the channels, the parents had decided to restrict their son's screen time, believing that excessive TV watching would hamper his growth. And normally, Aric would ask for more screen time, especially during vacation.

"Uh... There's nothing interesting on TV, and I'm not that interested," Aric fumbled his words as he gave a lame excuse. How could he tell his parents that his love for TV had vanished long ago once his laptop came with high-speed internet?

"Are you sure you're okay? Your eyes seem hollow. I'll make some good food for you," Avni said.

"Mom, I'm okay. You don't need to worry about me so much. You should take more rest," Aric reminded her. He didn't want his mother to notice more of his unusual habits, so he hurried back to his room. These small things didn't matter much in the long run, as nobody would suspect anything, but he did feel a bit guilty for telling blatant lies to his mother.

Aric returned to his room after the small talk and decided to just lie down in bed and scroll through his communicator.

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Read 5 chapters ahead on my p@treon.com/thelightedghost