Time had passed, and now I wasn't that curious and explore-loving 13-week-year-old baby. Now I have grown, and not that my midnight adventures have stopped, I still did go around and explore the castle and went and read to the library, but now things were a little bit different.
How different? You asking?
Well, how can I put this? As you know that I've been exploring the library since I was still a baby, right? Well, all I can say is that when I was about the age of 3, I took one of my adventures, and you all now know that apart from the stories my mother told, the Encyclopaedia of Nedeldra, and a whole other books.
My favourite book of all had to be The Art Of Mysteries, not that it was my favourite book after I found out and discovered that this world which I had been reborn in was a world full of magic. And since I remembered that I read somewhere that all the people who lived in the continent of Neldedra and its 12 kingdoms, all those people had magic known as mana.
Mana was like a soul core, that one had to have, and it was rare for a person not to have mana, especially the people who were born into royalty. They were believed that the royals were actually favoured by the gods, and so they were blessed by them and given immense mana, enough to rival each royal family's kingdom as a whole.
And since I was curious, and for the last 2 years I wasn't able to utter any normal words, all I uttered was just baby language. But by 3 years, I was able to walk and talk, though it wasn't perfect, but I still did.
So one night, I went to the library and opened up one of the pages in the spell casting book, which by now I strongly believe that you now know its name, so there's no need for me to keep saying it, right?
Anyway, back to the story. The page that I opened was the spell called Mana Control. That spell, just like it was saying for itself, allowed its caster to manage and control their mana so that as they grow up to be old and a little bit strong, their mana wouldn't be out of control and go all fritz, making that person's mana leak and make that person go poof like a magician's last trick.
Mana awakening came around at the age of 5 years for us royalties, then 10 years for most people, and as obviously there are always those spotlight-stealing parasites—the prodigies—when it came to them, their mana awakening happened around the age of 4 to 6 at best. And for those who were late bloomers, their awakening happened at their teen years, which was the time that their mana activation took place around 13 to 15, somewhere there.
Mana awakening and mana activation were completely two different things.
Mana awakening was when a person does some kind of family ritual that would allow them to awaken their mana, and though they had magic, they still wouldn't be able to use it fully—just the basics. Let's just say if one were to awaken fire-based powers, all they could do while their mana is awakened was make fire or make fire animals—nothing big, nothing strong.
Then mana activation was when a person has reached a certain age when mana awakening has allowed that person's body to adapt to his or her mana abilities. Then when they mana activate, that's when they unlock their mana after going through some kind of emotion. So just to put it in simple terms, mana activation is just teenagers throwing their tantrums.
So me, all I wanted since I was royalty born in, wanted to see if I could awaken my mana. Honest, I was doubtful about me having mana since, you know, I've been declared to be someone's servant.
I did go to the library, found the book, and followed all the instructions that it had given. I drew a big circle, drew my family's crest or emblem, depending on where you live. Then, on the outside lines of the circle, I written the enchantment words. Then, as stupid as I was, I didn't realise that after doing all that process, I accidentally turned the page.
Which instructed me to write some symbols all over my body—symbols that I didn't understand—but because I was desperate and I had to know if I had mana or not.
So I began my ritual, which by the way, a family's elder has to be the one that performs the ritual. But since I didn't know my elders and haven't seen them since my parents went to show me to them—which by the way, I believe now that I'm 3, I'm supposed to receive a blessing from them when I'm 5 years old, I think.
So after I began my ritual, I read all the words to activate the circle, which I did with precision and accuracy to the point that I pulled it off.
All I had to do was sit inside the circle and keep on repeating that enchantment, which was a very hard enchantment to do since it was written in another language that I believe belonged to the elves, which from the Encyclopaedia's information, my family, the Morningstars, have some kind of contract with the elves.
To me, the enchantment was easy because, how can I put this, I was very curious for my own good that I read all the books and now know even the elvish language.
The enchantment went like this:
"Ney, goddess of light and wisdom, allow me, the heir and next generation of the Morningstar bloodline, the child of Markus and Kelana Morningstar, to have your blessing to awaken the gift that you have bestowed to me, as I will worship and honor you for your kindness and love towards me." I recited it.
After I recited the enchantment, all I had to do was to give an offering to Ney. Oh, by the way, I think I should explain this to you guys in order to avoid any confusion.
Ney was the goddess of light and wisdom. Remember when I said the royalties are blessed by the gods to have their immense power? Ney was my family's goddess, so we had to plead to her and have her permission and receive her blessing to awaken our mana.
Another thing was that we had to offer her something so valuable, and since I was just a child and the only thing I valued was my mother—and since I wasn't going to offer her to Ney—another thing that I valued was the book that she read to me every single day.
The Undestined Prince, that was the name of the book, and I don't think I should remind you which book this is, right?
I offered her that book, and it lit up in flames, which was a good sign cause that meant she accepted my book as an offering. After the offering, something started to happen. There was this wave of wind that was circling around me. Remember, I was sitting in a meditation position.
The wind was so calm. Though I had closed my eyes, I could swear I even felt leaves circle around me, and their touch felt like a kiss on my cheek.
Then I remembered that since I had done this ritual, and since I turned the page by mistake and didn't know, I thought in order to fully awaken my mana I had to recite the second enchantment.
Which I did, and since I'm sure you've guessed, this enchantment was unsanctioned—that I could not utter the words, not because of safety reasons and because I wanted to protect you. But it's because I forgot the enchantment, somehow.
When I did Ney's enchantment, and when I was receiving her blessing, I felt like there was this warm touch in my heart, and I felt some kind of energy flow through me. And I guess since Ney was the goddess of light, it meant that the energy was also light, or was a light itself.
I felt it all over my body. Then, out of nowhere, I started to levitate, which was something I don't remember the book telling me was part of the process.
Something changed. I don't know how to explain it, but I felt like the enchantment I had written on my body was starting to burn up, which was very painful.
I screamed and screamed. I thought that maybe I did something wrong. I thought that maybe because I chose to do this enchantment on my own, Ney was mad at me, so she decided to punish me with gruesome punishment.
After the enchantment was burning, I started to feel every single bone in my body break and mend itself. All I heard were cracks, and suddenly my head involuntarily looked up. Then my eyes and mouth opened themselves—a white, bright light came out shooting to the sky.
I couldn't scream in that moment. Then the enchantment symbols burned even hotter, and I felt like they were now moving around. I know this might sound crazy, but my body literally bursted into flames.
I caused an explosion which was, surprisingly, lucky enough, didn't burn and destroy the whole family castle—but destroyed the library.
When the explosion occurred, I somehow fell on the floor gently, like someone had put me there.
But I was left unconscious, and my body had suffered some burns. I was barely recognisable.