THE ORPHAN

Chapter 1: Hope

"I can see them! There's a lot of them!" The boy said.

"Just…"

"A couple of them, combined with a few of the others," continued the kid.

"You can call them by their names, most of the magicians prefer to do so and it makes things easier," added Lucas.

"No! You can do it without a word and you said words could be silenced!" His little brother replied. He was fifteen years old, but for Lucas, still his little brother.

"Remember, little brother, always use the most practical method, it could save your life," Lucas added and laughed.

"I did it!" The happy boy said.

A sphere of fire was flowing in the palm of his hand, like a small sun, perfectly controlled while Lucas was looking at him, proud.

"Now try exercise number two, Viktor." He said.

"Oh! That's a bit more… difficult…" the boy muttered.

"Remember, it's energy what you hold now," the high magician said.

"It's my own energy combined with nature, I can give it the shape I wish, it's an extension of myself," Viktor repeated to himself and the fireball got divided into twenty sparks, every spark weaker, on the shape of a butterfly, then every butterfly exploded into hundreds of tiny sparks which joined on the shape of a swallow which flew towards the night sky and exploded into thousands of magical colors.

"Yes! That was fantastic! Amazing!" said the children who had stopped just to admire the magicians.

"Indeed it was," Lucas added, applauding, in agreement with the children.

Viktor smiled, satisfied.

He had spent half of his mana on that simple spell because he needed a lot of control to do all the things he did and control was paid with mana. If it were just a simple fireball, for sure Viktor would have been able to cast at least ten before fainting. He was well trained after all and magic was never something easy.

"Let's do this again with ice," Viktor commented.

"Smaller size, fire, we're not ready to magical ice," Lucas commented, knowing his brother was improving quickly but wasn't ready to high magic yet.

Magic was a matter of patience, a lot of hours between books, and hundreds of failures during practice.

 Viktor cast the same routine of spells again on a smaller size, successfully, and when he pretended to do it once more, their mother called.

"Lucas! Viktor! Your father made something delicious! Time to eat!" The young woman, Catherine, said.

When her appearance suggested that she was in her early twenties, Catherine was forty years old, five years younger than Orim, her husband.

She received them on the table with a smile and a lot, and I mean a lot of delicious food.

"So, how was the practice?" Orim asked. He looked like a man in his early thirties, righteous and attractive.

"I managed to cast two acts of birds today, father," Viktor said, proud of himself.

"Two?! That's amazing!" Orim smiled, cutting a piece of meat.

"Congratulations, Viktor," Catherine added with a warm smile as well.

"He wants to help me with the act," Lucas said, enjoying the delicious wine. "Father, your taste is impeccable."

"Thank you, son," a proud Orim accepted, going for another piece of meat; "I only expect you both know well your limits."

"That's the first rule of magic," Viktor intervened, gnawing on a chicken leg.

"We trust you, son, but never forget to be cautious," Orim said. "Please try the salad, I promise you will love it."

Viktor looked at the thousands of tiny cubic onions, he didn't want to try them, not for he didn't like them but for the plans he had.

His father smiled.

Lucas observed the scene with interest like if he was wondering about the decision of his brother and his mother judged, well aware of his little son's nocturnal adventures.

Viktor took the onions, he lacked the ability to refuse anything from his beloved father, and of course, he preferred onions and go out than the alternative.

The meat, the bread, the wine, the salad, everything, was a delight for all of them and after they ate, and were satisfied, they dedicated a prayer to Anna, the powerful goddess of art and beauty.

Later, the young lady who Viktor kissed with passion, the reason why he was not a fan of onions that night, pointed at his onion breath, so he described the food to the girl and she loved it, for she never saw so much passion on a kid before, so she accepted his onion kisses, kisses that she would never forget.

The night had fallen.

The next day the circus opened again.

Orim started the show with his beasts: giant wolves, silver lions, tiger men, slaves, all of them under the control of his magical skill known as "alpha".

"Alpha" allowed Orim to control any animal less intelligent than himself, humans included of course. That skill gave him a place at the secret University of magical arts on Domwis, where he learned the art of domain and earned the degree of beastmaster, the highest on the alpha's path. 

His wife, Catherine, was a wonderful mother, an elemental master magician and her skill was related more with her biology. Orim used to joke saying that nature gave her all the weapons to survive. Her skill was "enticement" and no man, no woman, could resist her charm.

She hated her skill and never used it, or at least she used to tell her children so.

"Welcome to the Circus of Dreams! Welcome to amusement!" Orim said and lights turned off surprising all the people, then a couple of red eyes appear on the darkness and a cry was heard.

Many people screamed.

"Keep calm, my brave people!" said the beastmaster and the light returned, revealing the creature, a man-bat.

"And now! The two tiger men! The powerful fighters from the Acirfan continent are ready to battle!" He announced and the two, one dressed on red and the other on blue robes, together with the bat judge, took positions.

"Who would win this time?! We certainly don't know! Let's see!" At his order, on the ring which had appeared from nowhere the contenders started to fight and as the fight went on all of a sudden the people started to claim for the red one, then for the blue one.

The blue once was a noble, he was a king! He deserves victory!" somebody said between the crowd and the crowd agreed with him, with no need to know more.

A woman on the other side added: "the red has a family to feed, he's fighting for food!" and the crowd claimed for the red one. An act, well prepared, and executed. In the end, the winner was the one who had more people on its side. It was arranged and yet, really enjoyable.

Then the magicians entered, Bruno and Lucas; with fire and ice, a battle of magic so well executed that everyone who watched it believed it was real.

Then the swordsman, the contortionists, the trapeze artists, the dancers, and the main act: Catherine with her music, singing, leading a symphony of light and sound that earned the love of all the viewers who couldn't believe that she was married with Orim. She looked as young as Lucas.

All was for their act.

Orim's appearance matched well with a leader and Catherine's with the woman with elvish blood the people said she was, and their children who showed their real age just got focused on supporting their parents.

To keep their act they had to control aging, which was only possible thanks to a spell known as rejuvenation, a spell that only powerful magicians could perform.

The spell was more a ritual with really bad side effects. It needed at least three magic users to be cast; after the performance, it left the casters with the minimum level of mana gathering, which meant that sometimes the casters wouldn't do magic during a whole month, but the worst was that the mayor magical crystals used, always ended completely useless and those crystals were nearly priceless because, without crystals, there was no magic for humans.

Magic was nearly omnipresent, flowing through all living beings like if it were oxygen, like blood; but unlike elves, dragons, dwarfs, naga, angels, devils or any other superior creature in the world; humans couldn't take advantage of it, they weren't designed with the skill to use it, but they were born with a natural skill like alpha and regardless their apparent disadvantage they survived during centuries as nomads, then the age of the crystal lords came and the first human realms appeared.

The magical crystals allowed the human casters to learn and refine magic, creating a new system of spells as powerful as the elvish' itself. Crystals were the power of mankind, the reason why they were feared and why half of the once immense elvish empire, now was six different kingdoms, all independent, all of them with considerable might. Magical crystals were the engines of human civilization.

There were six classes of crystals: the common, for beginners; the refined, for citizens; the high class, for nobility; the mayor, only for high magicians and the royal ones for royalty only. Only those classes were manufactured due to the size of the crystal, its purity, and its lifespan of course.

The royal ones for example were crafted of a size not bigger than a tiny coin, by master dwarfs who inserted the crystals on rings, earrings, medallions, etc. For kings and their inheritors; their durability was about three hundred years of continuous use. In contrast, a common crystal was bigger, of the size of a fist, its durability was about no more than a month and it only allowed around ten spells.

To summarize, magical crystals were like keys, ones were better and others not that much, ones had nearly unlimited uses and the others not so many.

"It will cost two refined crystals, Lucas!" Bruno replied, angered with his colleague.

"It's an investment, Bruno..." Lucas said, sighing, tired of the nonsense.

"I-I... understand, Lucas…" Bruno said and the conversation ended... for it was her time.

Catherine started her act. Her beloved Catherine sang like an angel, divine, sublime... Bruno was obsessed.

"You were stun-"

"Perfectly executed my darling!" Orim interrupted Bruno, kissed his wife, and returned to the scenario.

Bruno cursed Orim in silence, he hated him and then returned his attention to Catherine.

"You are always stunning!" he said.

"Thank you, Bruno," she answered and smiled, then she walked to her dressing room.

Bruno admired her as she left and after that, he returned to his wagon, to his dark grimoire, a book he kept in secret, for he was studying to become an immortal lich with no need of crystals.

Suddenly the clock marked nine o'clock and he left his wagon and jumped to its roof for another show had started.

Bruno cast two spells, one to control what he could hear and the other not to get frozen, then he got comfortable and just listened as he started to write on his book of "what to tell to a woman"; the words the younger son of Catherine used to seduce young ladies. The magician used to spy the kid.

Viktor returned to his father's wagon.

"I suppose today was a great day, right?" Orim commented.

"Yeah…" Viktor answered, thinking about what he saw… and touched.

"Hey! Is Viktor there?" Orim asked.

"I'm here… and It was a great day!" Viktor said.

"Shall I mention that a man must be careful with which woman he seduces?" Orim said.

"Could she come with us?" Viktor replied.

"Does she really want?" Orim replied. "Do you know if she's serious?"

"I don't know…" Viktor answered.

"Women, son, sometimes look for experience, sometimes they just want to know what is to be with a guy, as we do with women, so don't get confused, don't take things that seriously until you've grown… to the age of your brother at least," Orim said.

"He has no girlfriend…" Viktor pointed.

"It's complicated… but you would understand with time," Orim said.

"He rejected that beautiful woman on Sirap!" Viktor complained.

Suddenly the door of the wagon opened and his mother entered with Lucas, his aunts, and their husbands.

Viktor sighed, the conversation had ended but he smiled because they were there for only one reason: another great journey was about to begin.