Chapter 2

She sat there quietly, thinking of that one extra sentence she had spoken. A door opened up in her sealed memories, flooding forth with several events that she couldn't suppress. She felt a mild headache coming on, gently massaging her temples as she sighed discreetly.

Her gaze landed on the calendar, noticing a cross on it indicating Richard's tenth birthday would be in a couple more days.

Ten years of age was the threshold for a boy to be considered youth, only three or four years away from adulthood.

'A decade's already passed?' She stared at the flickering flames in the magic lantern, a bright light from the brass lamp illuminating her face. She couldn't be called pretty, but she still looked decent, making her one of the top beauties in the village.

Ten year's had not placed a single mark on Ellia's face, and if it was not for her dressing her age probably none of the villager would remember. Strangers would think she was still only in her twenties.

Her face in the lamp was an unfamiliar sight even to her. It was too plain, not the same face she had been born with.

Even she wouldn't have imagined decade ago that she would be living such a simple, plain, and difficult life a decade ago, but right now she was just satisfied with watching Ralf grow.

When she entered the study, Ellia saw Ralf hugging and reading a thick picture book with great interest. She smiled, "My Ralf is going to be ten years old soon. Mother will prepare a special ceremony to celebrate your growth."

"Yay!" Ralf leapt towards her, "Will there be presents?" These kinds of moments

made it clear that he was still a boy.

" Of course! In fact, it'll follow you for life. But you need to rest well these next few days, understand?" It's late already, you should head to bed." Ralf nodded and headed back to his room. But judging from his look of excitement, he probably wouldn't be getting any sleep that night.

Ellia shook her head endearingly, and headed up to the attic with her magic lantern. The attic was storage for their junk, but it was well-maintained with not a speck of dust in the sight.

Ellia shifted a tiny altar of stone,, a meticulous spell formation carved at its base. The only thing amiss was that the idol was missing. Ellia took her time cleaning the altar, even getting at the difficult corners before she let her gaze fall on the thick book lying beside the box.

It looked extraordinary at the first sight, with at least a thousand pages. It was four times large as a normal magic tome, weighing no less than a dozen kilograms. Its bronze surface shone brightly, not tainted in the least by dust or dirt of any sort, an obvious indication that it had been read often.

This surprised Ellia. She hadn't been in contact with the book longer than she could remember, so Ralf was obviously the one reading it. She hadn't expected the child to be reading it so actively.

She walked towards it and flipped open. Her face didn't match up to her delicate and beautiful fingers, being a cause for numerous discussions amongst the men of the village.

The cover of the book was made of real bronze, weighty and cold as it radiated a solemness of time. Within the book were hundreds of crystal beads that would create small altar when activated, allowing one to listen to the Moon spirit, names Garcia.

A poem in the ancient eleven language decorated the title page, giving rough directions of the magic creator. Ellia still vividly remembered every note of the poem, every intonation. She flipped through the book mindlessly, the pages slipped through her fingers smooth as water.

They were mostly filled in the eleven language with lifelike drawings, different from the catechism of the humans. The doctrines occupied the small portion though.

Instead the book detailed the events and experiences of Garcia's time, including events outside of the land or even the plane.

Ralf was probably amused by it because he read it like it was a geography or history book.

It was hard to see anything specific about the book outside of its weigh, but it was once most treasured gem of the Silverado Palace, the book of Garcia. It recorded seven strongest spells those were rumored to be the reason of big wars.

Ellia had been able to learn five of them. She was the one with the greatest comprehension of spells outside of the Silverado Palace insiders.

Now, though, she could barely cast one spell,snd even that required everything as well as the support of the tome. The seven spells loomed about in the depths of her mind.

These were named as Destiny, Enlightenment, Healing, Wrath, Armour. There were two other spells that Ellia remained unable to cast. Prophecy and the Dark Gaze, was something nobody had managed to use to date.

Ellia placed her hand on the book, bathing in the remnants of its unique aura. The bleak moonlight of the fifth moon sho e down on her through the rooftop window, the mellowness of the moonlight entering in her body stealthily as she built up power for the upcoming ceremony in the next week.

That would be Ralf's present for his tenth birthday, the spell enlightenment.

Ralf was woken up in the middle of the night on his birthday, brought to the attic and made to resolve to the altar. The book had been flipped open already, something similar of poetry flow sounded in his ears.

This was the ancient language of the elves, an extremely difficult and enigmatic language, but one he already spoke like a native.

Ralf followed the initials of the spells which had certain influence on his body, he felt weightless and transparent. It was as if someone without an aim had made a discovery, charging towards him to enter his body.

He felt an icy sensation in his abdomen, spreading out to his limbs and the rest of his body as well. It was a fleeting but distinct feeling.