Blood ties
Abel gave a loud sigh of disappointment and closed the big book before him with an annoyed gesture. Four other books of different sizes cluttered his desk: he had been examining them for several days — unluckily with little success. There were two things he had always envied his sister Althea: her ability to learn languages, especially the ancient ones, quickly and her instinct to master them — qualities that had earned her a rapid academic career.
Abel had started reading the first of those volumes ten years before. His old mentor had secretly given it to him, telling him that it was going to be of great help in his researches, if he could decipher its contents. There, he had discovered the actual existence of the Blue Crystal, the powerful artifact belonging to the mythical
