Edmonte's Story by Kazen II Kad (book recommendations for young adults TXT) 📖

My parents told me when I was just a five-year-old that our family, the Cierre, had mage blood flowing inside our vein ever since one of my ancestors married to a Seer. Yet, the Cierre never bother to hone their magical potential because there was the family tavern business, the Drunkard Grail, to think about and in this kind of world where material wealth was everything, the Cierre had chosen the tavern. None the less, they could not completely forget about the mage blood for magic could be destructive when left alone. Thus, a tradition had been practiced constituting that every child born to the Cierre had their magic potential sealed upon birth. And I, Edmonte Cierre, was no exception to this rule.

I guessed the family believed that by imposing the seal on our body, our magical ability should be locked somehow. Furthermore, the mage blood trait should be diluted to a mere strain since there was no new case of a Cierre married to another mage or those of mage descendant. Although things sometimes did not go as smoothly as one desired and I definitely did not expect my magic power to grow at all.

I remembered I was eight years old then. It was in the middle of the night and I was jerked awake from my slumber. At first, I had no idea what it was that woke me. My mind was heavy and disoriented so I decided to go back to sleep. Then, I suddenly became aware of a cold, forbidding presence at the window. I directed my gaze there and saw a translucent image of a woman with red eyes just floating there outside the window. I was instantly on my feet and ran towards my parents.

The next day, while I was down with fever on the bed from the shock of seeing the ghost, my parents went to get a warding mage – any normal parents would have gotten a cleric or a healer, yet my parents went to get a warding mage instead because they suspected that my sudden ability to see the ghost had something to do with the seal on me; they thought the seal had lost its effectiveness. My parents had it close but not entirely correct; to be precise, there was a leakage of magic from over excess of mana power, which activated my Second Sight and let me see things that normal people would not be able to see with naked eyes. The warding mage suggested that I should undergo a proper magical training. However, it was against the Cierre tradition to pursue any magical training so my parents just bought me a few sealing accessories to stop the magical leakage and told me to forget about the whole thing.

That was easier said than done. After the incident, it made me wonder if it was right for a mage to seal his power away just because he did not want to make use of it. Moreover, I realized that my mana could grow overtime – I found out about this when I began to feel and see spirits presences around me yet again, regardless the spirits were of the living or the dead. Of course, this time, I did not go off running for my parents because I knew the only thing they would do was to buy me more sealing accessories.

The warding mage words were still echoed in my mind although much time had passed since then. I believed I need magical training to control my growing power, though I knew there would not be any chances for me to be a proper apprentice with a master without my parents consent and they would have a fit if I ever mentioned the matter to them. That was why whenever I had the chance; I spent my time in Bedin National Library to read on matters associated with magic and how to control it.

Well, the library did have something on magic. In fact, I read about the different type of magic branches existed in the world. I also knew the type of magic I was categorized in; I am an Esper with the power of Sight. Unfortunately, they did not have anything on magic control and practice, even after I had read through all the books in the magic section of the library. I was ready to give up and told my parents about my situation when I chanced upon a mage in practice.

It was sundown and I was on my way home from spending the whole afternoon in the library when someone in a black robe in one of the street alleyways caught my attention. I should mind my own business, yet my intuition told me to take a glimpse and maybe I could pick a hint or two for a way to control magic. So, I got slipped in closer in time to see a spirit of a girl before it disappeared.

“Can you actually talk to a ghost?” I asked. The curiosity of a child knew no bound.

The mage just stared at me with widened eyes for a while before he asked, “You can see spirit?”

“I can always see and sense them.”

“I see. What’s your name?”

“Ed.”

“I am Raul and I am a necromancer. Do you know what a necromancer is?”

“Yes. I’ve read about necromancer before; a necromancer is those who study over spirit and matter of the dead,” I recited the words as I had remembered them.

“That’s correct. Well, you can see spirit and that means you have the potential to be a necromancer.”

“I thought I’m just an Esper of Sight; those who can see the unseen.”

“Esper can be trained in other magic branches, such as necromancy. So, want to be my apprentice?”

The offer was good to be true. I could have accepted it there and then if I had forgotten about my family constitution. “Well, I would like to, but my family forbids pursue of magical training so I can’t be your apprentice.”

“Oh,” the necromancer said before he was lost in his own thoughts for a while. “But what do you think? Do you want to train in magic?”

“I want to train in magic,” I said, honestly.

“I can take you as my apprentice.”

“But~”

“Your family doesn’t have to know. We can meet somewhere for an hour or two for your lesson. So, how it is about?”

One should really think hard when making a decision. Even as a child of ten, I knew that making rash decision would only bring regret later in life. Even so I had been searching for a way to control my growing power and here was a mage who wanted to take me as an apprentice. In the end, I just accept the proposal. “Okay.”

We could have talk more about my apprenticeship procedure but now was not the right time to do so – Master Raul had other business to take care of and I was due for home. We agreed to meet again at Bedin National Library by the second bell of the afternoon tomorrow and that was what happened the next day after I had finished my chores at the tavern.

On our second meeting, there was a lot of introduction and insight to be done on each other’s background. I told Master Raul about my family tavern business and the expectation my parents had on me as the only male heir of the Cierre – that meant one day I would become the owner of Drunkard Grail. I need mana for my magical training but to erase the seal completely would raise the suspicion of my parents and who knows what they would do then. Master Raul was not alarmed though. All he had to do was modified the seal a bit to enable me to open or close the seal to let me use my mana when necessary.

Next, we discussed about the lesson. Necromancy was not something a decent mage or any sane person would have chosen because it thread closely to the realm of the forbidden – life and death. In other word, I should be prepared for the treatment I would expect to receive for practicing necromancy and to emphasize this matter, master Raul took me to his dwelling.

I thought he was taking me to some abandon place to show me necromancy technique because he led me to the slum district where most of the unfortunate and the poor people of the society lived and the house that we entered looked rundown and on the verge of collapsing. Yet, I could feel the magic barrier as passed through the gapping doorway and down the basement. It was then I realized the house was just a camouflage to hide the real place at the basement.

“Welcome to my humble abode,” Master Raul said as he lighted a nearby torch and all the other torches lighted by themselves to reveal a room that was divided into different sections by a bunch of screen – the sleeping area, the kitchen, and a sitting area. There were two other doors at the opposite wall from where we were. “This is the common room where I sleep, eat and meet clients who seek necromancy service. The door to the right leads to my study room where I keep my necromancy stuff and the one on the left leads to the working room where I did most of my necromancy practice.”

Then we went to the designated study room, which housed cabinets such lie the ones at the library. The only differences between