1 A Bastard Child
Chapter 1
A winter night in the Parvusean mountains in northern Mittel, a small band of humans has set up camp by the shores, awaiting an important delivery by sea. They sit and merry themselves with beer, food and bad jokes. As they are getting drunk and tired, a boat slowly and silently washes up on shore. One of the humans who are keeping watch during the night notice and moves over to investigate. He finds a small parvus girl with blond, colorful hair and blue eyes. There was a note left beside her, "Yomare" it said. On the back there was a mark of an infamous Praedo raider, it instantly filled the man with fear and the day after, the small band of humans has vanished with the Parvusean girl.
""A bastard is a bastard""
The tensions were high in the throne room, the king's scandalous third son Prince Luther is a known womanizer. He spent more time in his bedchambers than he ever spent in front of a book. However, in recent years the royal family has faced pressure from one of his bed maidens. Emelia used to be the lover of Prince Luther, and she is the mother of one of his many, many children. She was unusually cunning; the king and prince dread the day they let her into court.
Today's discussion was about a request made directly from Emelia. The people gathered were King Edward 'the Lionheart', Prince Luther and Emelia herself. "So, if I understand you correctly Emelia, you want to give your son access to the royal library?" The king said, attempting to sound as imposing as possible. Emelia's son was a small brown-haired boy, he had no capacity for fighting and thus was given little education. "Yes, he's always being bullied by the children. I want to give him a place where he can study in peace and I noticed your library is never being used" Emelia placed down her argument. King Edward thought for a while, silence filled the room. The prince broke the silence, almost sweating he spoke up "I-I think we should let her, father". King Edward raised an eyebrow "You think so Luther? Is there a good reason for me to let this wench get her way?" Luther stuttered again and then signaled to a servant close by, the servant walked up to the king and whispered something in his ear. "I see, this… complicates things" King Edward mumbled.
Emelia had a wide network of contacts, almost everyone in the court owed her something. She knew everything and every one, this has made her a controversial figure in the kingdom. If King Edward could, he would've arrested Emelia years ago when her filthy son was firstborn. Even now King Edward wishes to Unus the one and only god that he grants him an opportunity to order her arrest. While King Edward was wishing the death of Emelia, he got a bright idea. Now that Emelia had made a request, he could request something in return.
"Emelia, I'm sure you're already aware of my plans so I'm not going to bore you with them, however, if you would offer your support, I'll gladly grant your son access to the library." When Emelia heard this, she pondered. She knew exactly what the king was plotting, her support would require her to be away for quite some time. Leaving her son on his own for years, but even so, this was not only a way to get access to the library. No, this would not only grant her son access to the books he needed, but allow her to gain information and possibly waddle her way into the politics of other kingdoms. She agreed, and the meeting was concluded.
* * *
Able moved silently through the halls, a trick he picked up from mimicking cats and mice. It was one of the many ways Able learned to avoid the other children. Even so, Able would sometimes get unlucky and would get noticed, the children would waste no time to surround him and would start picking on him. This often-included beating, as Able was physically weak and had no way of defending himself. There wasn't anyone out there to stop them either, not that anyone cared, Able was just a bastard.
However, today was different, Able had somewhere to be instead of just endlessly wandering the dark halls, his mom had managed to get permission for him to use the library. This library is a place Able will spend a lot of time endlessly studying topics, all from history to magic. Able would read every day at this library, ever since Able had gotten access to this library he had been confronted less by the children who spent more time learning war strategy and how to handle themselves than reading in the library.
Able spent days inside the library, he didn't have much else to do. In the training field he'd get bullied, and in the chapels, he got branded as a child of a wench and gets chased out. In the library no one really talks to him, mostly because there isn't really anyone there, just the occasional servant passing by and making sure everything is clean and that no rats are chewing on the books. This solace gave Able peace, and allowed him to study for days without end, Able's thirst for knowledge was never sated. Every time he learned something new there was always other material that linked to it. No book knew everything, but that didn't mean Able couldn't and luckily for Able, the royal library was one of the biggest in the world.
Able had spent considerable time inside the library, he'd usually spend time with his mom and the animals. However, with his mom being gone for several years by now and said animals being dead. Able had the choice of either befriending the other children or just spend more time in the library. For Able, this wasn't even a question and he chose the latter option without even giving it a thought. And with that, Able had just shut himself in the library for another 5 years.
* * *
The kingdom Noibla, the place where King Edward 'the Lionheart' ruled had come under the threat of a local dragon residing in the northern mountains. The dragon has been reported to be seen flying out of his cave more frequently, and upon further investigation, it was revealed that the dragon was planning an attack on the capital in order to weaken its state. A weakened state meant easier raids for its minions, and with the army in disarray, the king could do little to stop it. The king's advisors had come up with an idea of inviting a famed wizard to the court to set up a warding barrier that would last until the king could get the knights under control. The wizard in question wasn't that well known, but she had shown to have great skill so the king agreed to hire her.
The wizard was for some reason refusing to give up her name, so everyone just refers to her as 'the Court Wizard'. The Court Wizard herself was pretty, she had long red hair, while wearing a green coat and owned a set of glowing scarlet eyes. She, like many wizards, carried a staff, although the staff wasn't anything special, her knowledge and skill were. Her skills were so surprising that the king was pressured to give her increased annual payment and even offered her a new staff but she refused.
The Court Wizard was making rapid work on the dragon barrier and so had some free time, she decided to check out the royal library famed for its size. She had heard of it, but she didn't know what it held. However, she wasn't expecting much from the Noiblaen people as they are an extremely martial society. When the Court Wizard got there, it was barren, there was no one there. She looked around at the books for a bit, she found a lot of strategy books and history about great conquerors and generals. 'As expected,' she thought. She looked around a bit more and to her surprise, there was a section about magic. What she found when she entered said section was a person, rather a young-looking boy reading a book about protection magic. After having reached the last page he slammed the book together and threw it on the ground like a piece of wet paper. He then went to the bookcase and picked out a new book about protection magic and started reading.
The Court Wizard was a little shocked about the boy suddenly tossing the book, and she wondered why. She walks over and picks up the book that was about 4 meters away from the boy, it seems he hasn't noticed her presence yet. The cover read 'Shield and protection magic' and the book was colored with blue. She took a quick read through it and swiftly realized why the boy had just tossed it on the ground, the book was full of crap. None of these spells would work, as they were all way too simplified and would only produce shapes of what the product should actually be. Though, the Court Wizard wondered why the boy was so angry. When she turned over and looked at him, he was becoming frustrated again, got angry and slammed the book on the ground. He went over to the bookcase and picked out a new book about protection magic and started reading again. He did this about 3 times before the Court Wizard has had enough and went back to working on the dragon ward.
The work on the dragon ward went without a hitch as always, although the Court Wizard wasn't the most experienced in making barriers it wasn't that difficult. As she had free time, she decided to visit the library again. And to her surprise, the boy from last time was there, except now he was just reading up on some history. It seems that just like last time, he was immersed in his own little world. The Court Wizard actually decided to try and read one of the magic books this time, she picked one at random and it was the 'Forsh, the god of nature'. This book was infamous in the wizarding world, mostly written as a way to assimilate the religious sect of Forsh into the Unus faith. It didn't really showcase any real magic and it focused more on putting Forsh as a god similar to Unus. Forsh was the leader of the Elven pantheon, or when it was a pantheon. The elven faith has been heavily influenced by human religions. This has had the effect of destroying the pantheon and establishing Forsh as the sole god of the elves.
The Court Wizard was interrupted when someone burst into the library and urged her to get back to work on the ward, as the dragon has started to become even more aggressive and they are fearing that an attack might take place anytime now. She worked day and night on the dragon ward until it was finally complete. As if detecting the urgency, the dragon had shown up on the front door of the capital. The Court Wizard, King and all of the distressed commoners had come outside to watch the dragon descend on the town. The Court Wizard immediately activated the ward, it took a while before it could fully activate. However, the ward never really activated, it just kind of made a circle around the capital. The Court Wizard suddenly realized something. She realized that when cramming the night in order to finish the ward, she had accidentally incorporated a part of the 'Shield and Protection Magic' book that the boy had slammed into the ground. She was quick to realize that the ward was a complete failure and that the capital might be destroyed because of a simple mistake.
The Court Wizard wasn't the only one in distress of course, the King obviously had realized that something was wrong and accidentally let it slip. The onlooking commoners who heard it rapidly started running and screaming, looking to strap up and leave the town as fast as possible.
The proud castle in the heart of Noibla had descended into chaos, one would have to be deaf in order not to hear it. It didn't help that the dragon could now be seen flying over the mountains. The massive red dragon was one of the fiercest beasts in the entire northern region. Being over 8 meters tall and 10.5 meters long. The shiny impenetrable scales could be seen reflecting the sun as it flew closer, soon the dragon would be right above the town and rain its infamous blue fire on it. The Court Wizard, finding it impossible to fix the ward now decided to prepare for impact and created a protective shell around the inner castle where the king resided.
The monstrous dragon was now right above the town and it took a nose dive into it. It burned the houses, slaughtered the cattle and murdered its inhabitants. The garrison the king had raised in preparation for this outcome was completely outclassed by the massive lizard. Nothing could stop the dragon now; its rampage would continue and it would eventually send its army of wyverns and subjugated humans to invade the kingdom. It was all over for the people Noibla, who would be enslaved and slaughtered by the doom waiting for them.
The Court Wizard, after getting the king and the royal family to safety had decided to go face the dragon. She thought of this as her responsibility as she had failed to set up a protective ward for these people who relied on her. She went out to face the dragon, but just as she was about to start fighting. A powerful light shone upon the town; it seemingly terrified the dragon who was driven back as the light came closer until it eventually flew away. The Court Wizard took a minute to calm down and assessed the situation, she hadn't even fired off her first spell yet so it couldn't have been something she did. The King was only really useful on the battlefield and he was currently routing to a nearby town. Then who could have done it?
Her thinking was abruptly interrupted when loud cheers came from the commoners, they seemed to be directed at… her? The only thing she had done was fail setting up the ward, why was she being praised? 'It couldn't be' she thought, there is no way that no one knows who drove the dragon away. Then the Court Wizard got a sudden realization, 'there's no way' she thought and looked towards the ward. Yep, there it was, strong and powerful, outshining even the sun.
After the dragon attack was successfully repelled, the king had managed to get his army in order and replaced his old plotting knights with new loyal ones. Using the dragon's attack on the capital as a cause, the king went on a campaign in the hot Eldine mountain chain in order to get revenge and conquer new territory and riches.
The Court Wizard meanwhile was still searching for who repelled the dragon. She initially thought it might have been a passing wizard, but she immediately ruled out that idea as wizards who could repel dragons were rare and she would've noticed if such a bigshot was coming. She then searched the commoners for any sort of artifacts that might've repelled it, but that turned out fruitless. There were seemingly no leads to who it could have been so she gives up after some time. After stopping the search, the Court Wizard decided to pay a visit to the library again in order to properly burn the book that caused this mess. However, as she was searching for it, she noticed the boy who almost seemed to never leave the library. She takes a look at him when she notices something on his hand, the remains of charcoal. The same type of charcoal that she had used in her dragon ward. She didn't hesitate and immediately walked over to the boy and said: "Hey, did you by any chance fix a magic circle?"
