Finding my Parents in Another World

Artemis stood up from her chair and walked towards Raorka. When she was standing in front of him, she raised a single finger. A circle of light slowly formed on the tip of her finger, with five distinct points marked on it.

"When we talk about magik, we really mean energy." She began.

"All energy in this world is in the form of magik, and vice versa. You can even go so far as to say that magik is just another name for energy. Every one has a unique magik in their body, in fact you could say that a person's magik is the surest form of identification for them.

Be that as it may, we have a system to classify magik in general into five broad categories. Drisnen, tell me what is the first category of magik?" Artemis suddenly posed the question to Drisnen who was absent-mindedly looking at the river Okye outside.

On having a question posed to him to suddenly, he started and looked around in surprise before grinning sheepishly. "Light, Miss Artemis."

"Indeed, Light Magik is the first category of magik, being placed on the top of the magik circle." The point on the top of the circle on Artemis' finger began to glow and then slowly the word "Light" appeared written in the air above it.

Writing light with light huh.

"As you may have guessed, my magik is categorised into Light. I can control beams of light and shoot energy from my fingers. I will delve more into specifics later on." Artemis promised and then continued.

"The next part of the magik circle is Water. " The second point on Artemis' circle glowed and the word "Water" appeared written over it.

"All forms of water manipulation comes under this category. That includes such things as ice or steam which are derivatives of water. As you can see the purpose of this classification is to better understand the properties of magik as a whole. Ice magik and Steam magik may appear quite distinct from water magik, but the rules of magik apply the same to all three of them."

"The third category. Drisnen if you would be so kind."

This time Drisnen was prepared and promptly replied ,"Nature magik."

Artemis nodded. "Indeed. Nature magik encompasses all magik that deals with natural objects. What classifies as natural objects is still under study, but broadly you can consider organic matter to be included in the same. For example earth magik, wood magik, grass magik all fall under Nature magik. However there are various other non-organic magik as well included in this category such as wind magik or even electricity magik."

Raorka frowned. "That seems like an awfully broad category compared to the first two."

Artemis shrugged. Her expression had remained icy cold throughout, betraying no emotion, but Raorka thought he caught the first hint of amusement at his question.

"Nature Magik is indeed one of broadest categories, through neither the broadest nor the most common. That comes later."

"How are these categories identified?"

"That also comes later." A soft glow once more came at the top of Artemis' finger and Nature was written on the point beside Water.

"Now the fourth category, probably the most common form of magik. Physical Magik." Again another glow and beside Nature arose Physical.

"Physical Magik is, as you can probably guess, a form of enhancement magik that increases your physical attributes. It is the most difficult type of magik to properly assess but also the easiest to consistently use. If you have Physical Magik on your arms for example, it will increase your strength tremendously to the point where you may be able to split a tree with your bare hands. On the other hand Physical Magik can also directly be on your attributes instead. For example, Physical Magik can be applied to your endurance attribute, making you able to run from one end of the continent to the other without stopping."

"Exactly what is an attribute? You mention strengthening an attribute multiple times."

"Hmm that's not an easy question to answer. You can think of an attribute as a characteristic. We don't have direct ways of measuring any attribute but we know we all possess some attributes. Strength. Endurance. Speed. Etc etc.

And that's it for Physical Magik. Now comes our final category. Drisnen for the final time if you would do the honours."

This time Drisnen grinned widely. "Finally my category. Animal Magik." Saying this he extended his hand and to Raorka's amazement, his arms grew thicker and larger until they resembled more of a tiger's limb than a human's.

Artemis appeared unperturbed by this and continued, "Animal Magik, the broadest category while also being the hardest to use. Why this is comes later on. For now the basics of Animal Magik is what you can see in front of you. Using the spirit of a specific animal to enhance your own power. For young Drisnen there, his spirit is of a Tiger and thus he can call upon the power of a tiger as part of his magik."

Drisnen swung around his arms proudly.

"So you guys have tigers in this world to-" Raorka realized his mistake too late, but thankfully Drisnen was too busy swinging his arms around to notice what he had said. Artemis however had surely noticed and was looking at him again curiously.

However she made no mention of this, and continued on, with Animal now appearing in the last spot on the circle beside Physical.

"And that is all of the classes of Magik. Except for these five however there is a special class. " A dark blob appeared in the middle of the circle and Special appeared written in it.

"Special Magik is one which doesn't fit into any of the other five classes. Don't be fooled though, it is almost always extremely undesirable to have Special Magik, since most of such magik is useless while being in one of the other five classes guarantees that your magik has some utility."

Raorka nodded along, but there was still something which didn't make sense to him.

"What about Fire Magik?" He asked, remembering Lucerne's blob of fire.

"Fire Magik comes under Nature Magik."

"But isn't that weird? Why does Fire Magik come under Nature but Water or Light do not? Aren't the latter two more entertwined with Nature than fire?"

Artemis didn't answer him directly. Instead she put down her finger, making the circle of light disappear. Then she again put up her finger but instead of a circle, a golden orb appeared on the end of her finger instead.

She nodded towards Drisnen, who mimicked her movement. However on the end of his finger was a red orb.

"I agree the naming of the classes can be confusing. However you have to remember classes are divided on the properties of magik itself. The words have been given by us based on the most common elements of the magik in each of the classes. We call it Nature Magik because nature is the thing we can see as the closest to unifying the different types of magik in that class. It doesn't mean that everything in nature comes under this magik class. Maybe later on there will be a better descriptor for Nature Magik, but for now this is the best we can do.

The way we identify the class to which a person's magik belongs is this." Artemis nodded towards the orb on her finger.

"The Orb test. Each class of magik has a different orb color.

Light - has a golden orb like mine

Water - has a black orb

Nature - has a green orb

Physical - has a blue orb

Animal - has a red orb like that of Dresden

Special - has a colourless orb

Magik is thus defined not by the words we put on classes but rather the colour of the orb you produce."

Raorka raised his finger but nothing happened.

"The first lesson then. The Orb test." Artemis said. It seemed she had resigned herself to the fact that Raorka needed to be taught everything from scratch.

"Close your eyes." Artemis said softly. "Remember you can't force magik, it is a part of you already. Just find that part."

Raorka closed his eyes and concentrated. He imagined an orb on his finger.

Nothing happened.

His brows furrowed with effort and frustration as he tried to concentrate harder, yet in vain.

"No no no you are trying too hard. Don't try to force it. Find the magik in you." Artemis said softly again. She stood up and came beside Raorka, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"Find it, don't force it.

"Find it."

.XX.

Raorka felt something. Something large and great and unknown. Something bubbling up within him. He couldn't grasp the full scale of it but it felt living, it felt conscious.

Are you my magik?

There was no response. The large entity kept swirling about. It was too large, too beyond Raorka's understanding. It seemed a being from a higher plane.

Yet it answered.

Yet it understood.

.XX.

A black orb burst forth from Raorka's fingertips. Initially it threatened to spiral out of control, but slowly and surely Raorka brought it under control, and soon it was stable on top of his finger.

Only then did he open his eyes. Artemis had already gone back to her chair while Drisnen stood smiling in the corner of the room.

"Not bad eh?" He asked with his trademark smirk.

"Not bad at all." Raorka said softly as he extinguished the orb.

"Now you are finally ready to begin tapping your inner magik." Artemis said solemnly.

"But before you do, there are several other things you must know. Of course we won't have time for all of them today but you have to know the basics of progression for your magik.

The magik of every individual is unique, even though individuals within the same class may appear similar. As I said before, the magik of a person is their identity, their soul. Therefore once they have completely mastered their magik, they can express it.

Through a Word of Power." Here she paused to take her breadth, and Raorka noticed that even Drisnen was listening intently to this part.

"A Word of Power is a way to unleash the full strength of an individual's magik. In a way it is the pinnacle of magik power. Everyone's Word of Power is different, and despite the singular name it is not usually a single word but rather a sentence, a description of the essence of their power. The Word of Power is the ultimate trump card of most people, the power they use when their backs are against the wall and they have to win the fight.

Of course a large number of people never fully awaken their Word of Power, and it can take upto a decade of intense magik study to awaken your own Word of Power. Thus there is an intermediate stage called Inito.

The Inito stage of a person is a partial expression of their magik. While the Word of Power and the abilities of the same is a secret that is guarded with a mage's life, an Inito is the most common method of combat for them. Drisnen if you would."

Drisnen nodded and whispered, "Inito."

As before his arms bulged and extended into arms of a tiger with huge claws extending from his fingers. This time his legs and thighs also bulged out and Raorka was sure would resemble the legs of a tiger under his clothes.

"[[Spirit of the Tiger]] is my Inito. It grants me the speed and strength of the tiger." Drisnen explained and then switched back into his normal form.

"Of course an Inito itself can be improved on further study, and slowly the improved Inito itself converts into a Word of Power. But mage's who have unlocked their Word of Power still have a separate Inito stage they use for most daily combat situations." Artemis explained.

"In here I will teach you upto unlocking your Inito stage. After that you need to enroll into an actual mage school to improve your Inito and ultimately unlock your Word of Power." She continued.

Raorka noticed that Drisnen had a bitter look on his face as she said this. The stage when he has to leave must be soon.

"Anyway for the final lesson today let's talk about magical artifacts, like the one you are pressing onto your ear." Artemis continued.

Raorka had forgotten that he had the leaf in his ear so he started when Artemis reminded him. He gingerly placed his hand inside his ear and touched the leaf to make sure it was still there.

"Magical artifacts are objects imbued with magik. They don't fall under any of the above categories I spoke about but can display powers either in those categories or something completely different. That leaf for example was imbued by my own magik to ensure smoother communication with more....recent beings."

That was the first hint. Raorka had forgotten what Lucerne had told him.

Witches are people who were shunned for practising forbidden magik.

The Witch of the Woods is immortal

But he thought better to bring it up to her now, especially the backstory that he had heard from Lucerne.

Artemis meanwhile took out a dice from the pocket of her robe. She held it out on her palm. Drisnen especially seemed fascinated by the die, his earlier melancholy completely gone.

"Is that.....?"

Artemis nodded.

"The Die of Reknown. One of the thirteen magical artifacts made by the Wizard of Reknown himself. Of course the other twelve are priceless artifacts that men would kill to obtain, unlike this Die. However we can still learn a great deal about the nature of magik from this." Saying this she handed the die to Raorka.

Raorka took the die apprehensively, beside the clearly jealous eyes of Drisnen. It felt and looked like a completely normal six-sided die.

"Throw it." Artemis said.

"Pardon?"

"Throw it. High in the air. As hard as you can."

"But we are indoors."

"Just do it."

Raorka was unconvinced. Half-heartedly he flung the die towards the ceiling, fully expecting it to bounce off and come crashing down.

However the die did not go up.

Raorka heard a soft thud from the floor and looked down surprised to see the die lying on the floor.

But it never went up!

He looked up to see Drisnen staring in awe at the die.

"So it's true....."

Artemis nodded. "Yes it is. The Die of Reknown does the opposite of what you expect it to do. This if you throw it upwards, it will fall on the floor instead. If you throw it towards the floor, it will fly up instead. But if you throw it towards the floor again expecting it to fly, then it will fall on the floor like normal. Thus you see a completely useless artifact unlike the other twelve items of Reknown.

"But the magik in it is truly formidable. The effort and skill it takes to codify behaviour like that in an inanimate object was present only in the Wizard of Reknown. Why he made the Die do something so useless with that power is something only he can answer. However even if useless for all practical purposes, the Die is useful for study since it is the pinnacle that a magical artifact can reach."

Raorka picked up the Die and looked at it. Sitting there as it was on the palm of his hand, it didn't look magikal at all but he had just witnessed what it was capable of.

"Keep it." Artemis said, at which Drisnen looked at her in shock.

"But Miss..."

Artemis raised her hand. "I have no use for it anyway, and you will be leaving for the Capital soon Drisnen. I'd rather one of my students study it than it may languishing in my cupboard."

"You are leaving Temuril, Drisnen?" That was news to Raorka.

Drisnen nodded sadly. "I am joining the Royal Magic Academy from next semester. I will leave two weeks from now."

Again Raorka had the feeling that Drisnen would rather learn magik from Artemis than the Academy he was going to.

The sun was dipping on the horizon, and the Witch soon bade them goodbye.

"I am extremely tired today. We will continue our lesson from tomorrow Raorka. And Drisnen you don't have to keep coming here. There is nothing further for me to teach you."

"I'll come with Raorka until I leave." Drisnen replied firmly.

Artemis shrugged, apparently too tired to argue further. Before she could close her door, Raorka took out the picture of his mother and father and showed it to both Artemis and Drisnen.

"I am looking for my mother and father. Can either of you tell me if you have seen them?"

Drisnen immediately shook his head no, but Artemis studied the picture a while longer.

"You came here with your mother and father?" She asked slowly.

There's no point hiding anything from her further.

Raorka nodded.

"I am sorry, I haven't seen either of them. But I will keep a watch out and ask some of my friends as well. Maybe they are in another part of the Kingdom." Artemis said, still staring pointedly at Raorka.

"Thank you deeply." The gratitude from Raorka was genuine.

"Don't mention it." Saying this she closed the door to her hut.

Raorka was still captivated by the Die of Reknown. He wanted to experiment with it more, figure out what exactly were the limits of this artifact.

"Neat little trinket isn't it?" Drisnen asked similarly fascinated.

"Yeah. I'm really thankful to Miss Artemis for giving me this."

Drisnen nodded. "Ya know I played with that Die a lot. Really useless and frustrating, it really lives up to the name of doing the opposite of what you expect. But always always always it fascinates me, draws me in. I want to play with it more, experiment with it more."

"Tell you what, why don't you come up to Fritten Inn with me, we'll do it together."

Drisnen's eyes lit up. "You mean it?!"

"Of course. I am a complete novice to magik, it will help to have someone like you with me as I begin my experiments."

"I knew I was right to call you a friend."

"Actually I was the one who said that."

Drisnen stared for a while at Raorka and then burst out laughing. Raorka started laughing as well, and the sound of their mirth echoed across the Forest of Old Gotuj as evening dawned on Temuril.