Chapter 1 Human, Elf, or Half

"So do you think our child will end up being a human, elf, or half elf."

"I don't know dear and we really won't be able to tell until he turns 5 years old. That's when an elf's characteristics are usually shown."

"Yeah I know, but I still can't help to worry if this was the right thing to do. Because of our love our child might end up ostracized by both humans and elves."

"We don't know if he will be a half elf. We can only wait and prepare for the worst."

"Yes I know, but I can still hope that he will be a human or elf."

"But if that's the case then we will have to split up so we can raise him effectively."

"I know if he is born as an elf he would have to go with you and live in the elven village while if he is born as a human, you will leave while I stay and raise him."

"Don't forget that if he is born a half elf we raise him here in your village while hiding both of our identities with magic."

"I'm not sure which is better, raising him as a human without a mother, raising him as a elf without a father, or having both of us and the world against him."

"I'm not sure either, but I know our child Sylvain will overcome whatever the world throws his way."

"I wish I had as high hopes as you do for our child."

"He will be fine and nothing will come from worrying over it. Just wait until we figure it out."

...5 years later…

"So is Sylvain asleep?"

"Yes I just put him to sleep."

"But he really is a half elf. The world won't approve of his existence. He will be feared by the humans for being stronger than them and hated by the elves for having their blood and being weak."

"Come on dear we already planned for this, the magic is in this pendant. As long as he wears it his features will look like a normal human and he will be treated like a normal human. Of course I will be using magic to hide my features as well, but that was a given."

"Yeah I know we will do our best to protect him. Even if the world doesn't approve of his existence we as his parents have a duty to raise and nurture him. But I can't help but think of if he was not born a half elf how much easier life would be fo"

"Mommy, daddy what's a half elf? Why do you have to protect me?"

"Lora I thought you told me he went to bed."

"He was Dave. Sylvain why did you wake up?"

"I needed to use the bathroom. Is being a half elf bad? Did I make things difficult again?"

"No, Sylvain, you are not making things difficult."

"But I heard dad say that life would be easier if I wasn't a half elf. How do I change?"

"Listen Sylvain, dad was just saying that life would be much easier for you if you weren't a half elf and you can't change that you are a half elf. It is something you were born with just like how a female can't become a male."

"Why would being born a half elf make things difficult? I can't control my own birth."

"It's not making things difficult. It just means that you are a little bit special. And some people get jealous of those who are special. People will get jealous of you and that will make making friends harder on you."

"But Danny and Sylvia are nice. They won't be jealous of me."

"They might not be, but their parents might be. And then you wouldn't be able to hang out with them anymore."

"I don't want that. They are fun to play with. How do I make them not jealous?"

"You just have to wear this pendant. It has a nice fancy design inside of it and is your favorite color blue."

"But what will that do? How will it stop people from getting jealous."

"It will absorb what makes you special so when you are wearing it you won't be special anymore. However you must promise me that you won't take this off when you go outside or when there is company over. You must always wear it when you are with other people or they will get jealous of you. Also give it to me every night so you don't break it."

"Okay mom. I don't want to lose my friend so I will make sure to never take it off."

"That's a good boy. Now go take this pendant, put it on, go to the bathroom real quick, and head back to bed. I'm trusting you with it for tonight. Your friends will be waiting for you in the morning if you don't wake up on time. You also have your chores to do."

"I got it mom. Help clean up the house, water the garden, and umm."

"Weapon training and magic training with us."

"Yeah that was it thanks dad. I will go to sleep soon then. Goodnight."

""Goodnight Sylvain.""

"Hey Lora was it okay to tell him all that."

"I think so. He may be a kid, but he is a smart one. We should tell him the entire truth when he is a little older. I think maybe when he is ten, twelve at the latest."

"Yes I think that is for the best too. He is a child right now so he should only be thinking of having fun and getting stronger. Of course since he is a half elf he will be good with wind magic and using the bow. He will definitely be stronger than humans in those regards."

"You definitely have that right. We will also have to warn him about using his skills in public, but that can come when he actually gets good enough for us to worry."

"..."

"What are you thinking about Dave?"

"You can tell?"

"You always go silent when you are thinking of something important."

"I wouldn't say it was important, but I was just thinking of if there will ever be a time when our son wouldn't have to hide his identity. That would be a wonderful time where people are accepted for who they are and not judged based on things that they have no control over."

"Yes that would be an ideal world, but it definitely won't happen in our lifetime. Humans will always fear those that are stronger than them while elves won't acknowledge those weaker than them. You can say us meeting and falling in live is a miracle in and of itself yet you are still wishing for more."

"I know I'm being selfish, but I just want Sylvain to be happy."

"Me too Dave, me too."

"See you in the morning."

"Goodnight."

I woke up the next morning and got out of bed quickly. I knew that my parents were worried for some reason and I finally figured it out yesterday. They were worried about me because I was special. I still don't know what is special about me, but now their is no need to worry. I'm glad that I have them as my parents. I thought that I had done something wrong again.

"Either way I gotta do my work so they can be proud of me," I thought as I changed.

I made my bed and went outside. My mom was up already and making breakfast. I helped her by giving her the ingredients she told me to get. I also did some of the simple things like mixing ingredients, and seasoning some things.

"Thank you Sylvain. Breakfast is almost ready so can you go wake up your father? He isn't really a morning person."

"Got it mom," I say as I hurriedly made my way to my dad's room. When I was right by his room I stopped and quietly entered. Making sure to not make a sound I slowly made my way to his bed. Then when I was right at the foot of his bed I jumped into it and said, "wake up dad breakfast is ready." I landed right in his stomach waking him up quickly. He grabbed me and rustled my hair saying, "how many times did I tell you to wake me up normally?"

"But you never wake up unless I do this."

"You can still do it a little gentler you rascal. Don't worry you will be punished during our training."

"Right," I said as I left the room before he could rustle my head anymore.

"Mom, dad's awake, can I get my breakfast soon?"

"Yes," she says as she puts a plate of food in front of me, "but before you eat is there something you want to tell me?"

"...no nothing really."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Okay then you can eat."

"Thanks for the food."

"So how is it?"

"It's really good."

"Is dad angry at you."

"Maybe."

"Why?"

"I woke him up by jumping on him."

"Is this why you lied before you ate."

"Yes..no Nono."

"It's too late. I believe you were told many times to wake him up in a normal way."

"But he doesn't wake up even if I shake him."

"And why must he wake up quickly."

"Because the quicker he wakes up the quicker I can finish my chores and the quicker I can play with my friends."

"Your dad is only getting older. He may be the second strongest person in this village, but that doesn't mean you should jump on him. Besides, your friend will wait for you even if you are a little late."

"But they don't have any chores to do."

"They are your friends. They won't mind if you show up a little late, but you still have to stop doing this and you also have to apologize. Until you do you won't be able to leave the house."

"Fine."

"Good now when your father comes down you better apologize to him."

"Yes."

"And don't forget all the chores you have to do."

"Ye."

"Hey honey what's for breakfast?"

"It is the usual thing that we always eat for breakfast."

"Well you can't go wrong with the usual."

"Dear before you eat Sylvain has something to say to you."

"Mom do I have to do it now?"

"You will waste more time if you do it later."

"So what is it you want to say to me son?"

"Um dad I'm sorry for jumping on you to wake you up. I will wake you up normally next time."

"Oh that, don't worry I will get you back for that during training."

"Please go easy on me."

"See Sylvain, that wasn't too hard on you was it. Now hurry up and give me your dishes. You still have your chores to do."

"Yes mom," I say as I hand her the dishes that no longer have food on them. I then head to the back door and head outside. The garden around our house, houses many plants and most of them are edible. I pull water from the well in the center of the village, and water the plants at our house. 1 bucket of water for each lot of plants, 10 buckets in total.

After emptying the tenth bucket I once again pull water from the well for an eleventh time. I then bring this bucket into the house and get the cleaning rag from my mom. Then I go to each room with the rag and bucket and clean the walls and floors. The ceiling and places on the wall I can't reach are left to my mom and dad after I leave.

The house has 6 rooms in total. There is the living room which is connected to the entrance of the house. Then going forward from the living room we enter the kitchen/dining area. On the left of the kitchen is my room. From the right of the living room is mom and dad's room. On the left of the living room is the restroom and finally on the right of the kitchen is the bathroom. I scrub each and every room. I take special care of the bathroom where the tub is and the restroom where the toilet is because those rooms are the ones that get the most filthy.

After finishing my room which I saved for last I have finished cleaning the house. The water that I have used has turned a dark murky color and smells atrocious. I take this outside and dump it in the forest away from the village. After dumping the water I head back home and place the bucket back where it belongs. I then head into the house and go to the living room where mom is waiting. The places I couldn't reach and the ceiling have all been cleaned already by her. I still want to know how she does it. I mean I have the bucket while she has nothing and yet she always finishes by the time I get back.

Anyways that doesn't really matter. What matters is my magic training. Mom told me that I had an affinity for wind and a sufficiently large mana pool. That meant that if I could learn the incantations I could cast wind spells. In order for someone to cast spells there are three things that they must have. First they must have an affinity for the element used for the spells. The affinity allows one to use spells of that element. There are 9 elements that are ranked into 3 categories. Basic, intermediate and advanced. The categories are chosen on how rare the affinities are. The basic affinities are water, fire, earth and wind. The intermediate are lightning, light, and dark. The advanced are time and space. There are also countless other subcategories and affinities thought to exist. For example regular mana is thought to be its own affinity.

Since I have wind affinity, the spells I can use revolve around wind. Some simple wind spells are air shot, air cutter, and breeze, not that I have successfully cast any of these spells yet since I am still in the beginning steps of training. The next thing that is needed for a spell to be cast is a sufficient amount of mana. Mana is hard to describe, but every living thing has it. It is also tied to life force as there have been accounts of people using their own life force when they were low on mana to cast spells. Of course this is all information given to me by mom. However if one does not have sufficient mana then one won't be able to cast spells. There is no concrete way to tell the amount of mana that is in the body as it will fluctuate when used and when in different areas. Skilled mages can give an accurate guess of their amount of mana while extremely skilled mages can tell the amount of mana that others have.

My mom seems to be an extremely skilled mage because even though she can't perfectly tell the amount of mana I have she can tell it is enough to cast some of the higher tier spells. The last thing that is needed for a spell to be sufficiently cast is an incantation. Incantations change with the associating spell. They all begin with o spell of. After the element of the spell is used. If it is a fire spell then it becomes o spell of fire and if it is a wind spell then it becomes o spell of wind. Then the next part of the spell is the direction that you want it to take. If you want the spell to move forward then you say o spell of wind come forth. Then the next part of the spell is used to actually form the shape that is wanted of the spell. For a spherical shape that moves forward the spell incantation would be o spell of wind come forth as a ball. The next part of the spell is the action that the spell should take. For an air shot spell the incantation would go like o spell of wind come forth as a ball to blow away. Finally the spell always ends with my opponents or my ally depending on if it is support or attack magic. This means that the completed incantation for an air shot spell that moves forward would be o spell of wind come forth as a ball to blow away my opponents. Of course there are exceptions to this in the form of demonic beasts. They don't need to chant yet they can still use magic. No one knows why though.

As long as these three things are there a spell will come into fruition. So why haven't I been able to cast a spell despite knowing all of this? That is because my mom wants me to create my own spell before using readily made spells that work. This is because she wants me to use my imagination to create different spells so I won't be stuck with the same spell when a different one could be used to get the same results easier. The spell incantations that mom had already given me were the ones for air shot, air cutter, and breeze. The air cutter one goes like o spell of wind come forth as a blade to cut down my opponents. The breeze spell incantation goes like o spell of wind come forth as a breeze to blow away my opponents. Even though this spell sound nice it is merely a summertime breeze used to blow away dust. But even though I have those for reference I still need to create my own spell.

Come to think of it mom told me to base my spell of something that I am used to seeing. The only thing that comes to mind is a blade, but there is already the air cutter spell. Wait what if I use the blade but instead of telling it to come forth why don't I tell it to stay in my hand. I would then not have an air cutter, but instead an air blade.

You know what, let's try it, "o spell of wind stay in my hand as a blade to cut down my opponents."

After finishing up the spell incantation that I had recently created a large amount of wind gathered in my hand and formed a blade. However there was a problem. The blade was big enough to fit within my hand. "What caused this?" I thought to myself, "maybe it could be the way I worded, stay in my hand. Wouldn't that mean for the wind to be within my hand. Yes that could be the reason why the spell didn't come out as intended. So what do I do? Do I say emerge from within my hand? Wait that could actually work. If it emerges from within my hand then the wind blade would come from my hand and be big enough to hold."

"O spell of wind, emerge from within my hand as a blade to cut down my opponents."

This time an actual sword emerged from my hand. It looked like the sword that I used during practice with dad. I was so ecstatic on what I had done, but there was a problem with this spell. Even though it had emerged from my hand just like I had intended that was all it did. It never moved from the spot it was and stayed there. It instead just consumed my mana to stay there so I stopped supplying mana to the spell allowing it to dissipate. Then I thought of why this time failed and came up with the answer. I only told it to emerge. Afterwards there was no other command. So do I do a double command and after telling it to emerge tell it to stay in my hand. That could work, but the only way to know it to try it out. However a problem could be that the stay within my hand part would cancel out the other part. Could I instead do follow the movements of the hand grasping the handles. Well I can only try it out.

"O spell of wind, emerge from within my hand and follow the movements of the hand that grasps the handle as a blade to cut down my opponents."

This time nothing happened. The spell seemed to work fine up until the within my hand and follow the movements came up. Can it be that magic can't allow two different commands. Wait, maybe I can use two different commands, but I need to arrange it differently. Thinking randomly here but it doesn't make sense that way that I said it. Could I instead say the second command after turning it into a sword. That would sound better and the first part would be just the forming part while the second would be the action. Let's try it.

"O spell of wind, form from my hands a mighty blade that follows my movements to destroy my enemies."

The spell that came from my mouth was different from what I wanted. It just came into my head as I was trying out the spell. Wait, what were the effects. When I see what I am holding I am astonished. It is a mighty greatsword made of wind. A light green aura surrounds the sword so it can be seen when usually magic from the wind system can't be seen. When I move my hands the greatsword follows my movements with ease. I want to cut something, but am afraid of this thing's power so I dispel it. Well I think that I have just created a new spell so I look over to my mom. She is just staring at me in amazement

After a while she says, "Sylvain what was that?"

"That was the spell I created, didn't you tell me to create a new spell?"

"Yes I did, but I didn't expect you to create a spell that I have never seen nor heard before. How did you do it?"

"Um well I was thinking of adding two commands for the spell to follow, but it failed."

"Yeah a spell can't handle two commands. The spell gets messed up as it tries to figure out which command it should follow."

"Yeah so I decided to split up the commands so that one is before the spell's shape is decided and another is after the spell's shape is decided. Then when I tried to do it that incantation just popped into my head so I said it."

"To think that you would create a new way of using spells solving a problem that stumped many and caused others to believe there was no way to implement double commands. You are done with your magic practice for today. In fact let me talk to your father and get him to cancel your weapons training. Go hang out with your friends. You've earned it."

"Really mom, thank you. I won't come back until we are finished playing. Is it really okay for me to go?"

"Yes of course you can go, but before you go there are two things that I have to tell you."

"Okay mom. What is it?"

"First of all, never show that magic to other people. That magic is now another thing that makes you special and unfortunately I can't take that away from you. Promise me that you will never use it unless there's an emergency that threatens your life."

"Is it really that serious?"

"Yes it is, so promise me that you won't show off that magic and only use it when a life is in danger."

"I promise mom. So what is the other thing?"

"The other thing is that you are forgetting something. Didn't I tell you yesterday that you have to wear the pendant when you go out. I didn't remind you when you went outside to pull water and dump it, but you have to get into the habit of wearing it or else the things that make you special won't be blocked."

"Oh I totally forgot. I left it in my room, let me go get it real quick."

"Okay. I'll be waiting here for you."

"Come on mom you don't have to see me off."

"Of course I do. How else will I be able to confirm if you have the pendant? I trusted it to you last night, but you left it in your room. I need to make sure you don't leave it again."

"Fine," I say as I hurriedly go into the kitchen and then into my room. On the dresser exactly where I left it last night was the pendant. It is a simple pendant. A blue cylindrical crystal, adorned with many designs on the inside, makes up the only decoration on it. The rest of it is just a metallic chain used for lockets. I don't know what it did when I put it on, but I chose to believe in mom and then went to the front door. Mom was waiting there just like she said.

"Okay I will be back by dinnertime. See you later mom."

"See you at dinner. Remember don't take off that pendant."

"Of course mom."

"Well looks like I'm going to have to talk with your father real soon. His worries are coming true faster than I expected," mom mumbled

"What was that mom?" I ask in curiosity.

"Oh nothing have fun with your friends."

"Okay mom."