Kalar´s Continent

"See you tomorrow, Jack!"

Teo waved his hand, as he began to climb into a black carriage, that was waiting for him, just outside the school grounds.

Jackson Jumpheart, one of the few boy's he befriended in school, was an energetic boy with bright red hair, and could be seen running along the main street of Sigella right now.

Teo had kept insisting on walking home by foot for the first few weeks —leaving the despairing coachman slowly driving behind him, for he could not return 'empty-carriaged'— but eventually caved in under his grandfather's pestering. It was quite the distance towards the family mansion and Teo could explore the bustling city anytime he wanted, so he might as well take the carriage home, it just needed some getting used to.

"It's hard to believe, that it's already been a year," Teo said and sighed as he looked out of the small carriage-window.

Indeed. A little bit more than one year had passed, since Teo left Ritark and came to live with his relatives in Sigella. The city was beautiful and his relatives mostly nice, but it didn't quite feel like home and he still could not get entirely used to it.

He spent most of his days in school, learning the very basics of common knowledge, that would soon come to be indispensable, but found little time to play with his friends or explore the woods near the mansion, much to his regret.

His evenings would be spent with Uncle Thoralv, who was very strict, when it came to teaching him about Enchanting, but Teo still appreciated all the new things he could learn from him, so he actually enjoyed it a bit.

He had quickly taken up all the basics he needed and found Enchanting rather suiting to his taste, as it was refreshing and not as complicated as he feared, at least in the early stages. The fundamental concept was easy enough to understand, but with each step up the power-ladder the procedures became exponentially more complex.

Teo was now slowly approaching the manor after passing through the large iron gates, it was an ancient, grey stone building, that had already seen it's best days long ago, but still looked impressive nonetheless.

"Go see your uncle after lunch, he wants to speak with you."

A middle aged women, appearing to be somewhere in her forties, approached him after he stepped through the main entrance, directly skipping all pleasantries.

"Thank you Aunt Greta."

Teo replied courteously with a light bow anyway, leaving the cold, dark-haired woman behind, as he made his way over to the dining hall. This was his aunt Greta, one of the more fearsome women in the household; she did not take well, that Teo was more talented than her own children and could hardly suppress her jealousy, but it was better, not to offend her unnecessarily.

He was still not used to dining alone for the most part, but the food was good and he would occasionally joke around with the staff, that practically ran the household from the background. Supper however, was always taken together by the whole family, every evening at the same time, almost like some sort of ritual, and absence was severely frowned upon.

Contrary to the size of the building, the number of staff was rather low, countable on one's hands even. Apart from a butler, a cook, a gardener and a few maids, there was hardly anyone to mention. Teo especially liked the kind, old butler James as well as Milly the maid, a young women in her twenties, with a great sense of humor, that was only employed a few years ago.

After quickly eating some cream of corn soup and a smoked pork chop, Teo tossed his school bag into his room and went looking for Uncle Thoralv, who spent most of his time in the spacious workshops, deep in the cellars of the manor.

He ran through the long corridor and down one of the winding, old staircases, casting long shadows against the uneven walls, as he stepped down the torchlight brightened passages.

Teo did not like the old cellars. He found them creepy and unsettling. Their narrow pathways, snaking through the bedrock, alternating with larger rooms and the occasional pillar-borne hall, all soaked in an unsettling twilight or complete darkness. The only noise audible, the rustling and scuttling of tiny insect legs and the unknown horrors, lurking just out of his sight. He did not like the cellars.

Staying clear of the dark, less explored reaches of the old labyrinth, Teo took the torch-dr.a.p.ed main passage, which was mostly straight and considered safe by him, until he could see the soft red glow of the forge, welcoming him, like the first rays of a beautiful sunrise.

It was an enigma to him, why his granduncle did not just move the workshop somewhere else. There was plenty of space, right next to the mansion, or behind it, or literally anywhere else was also fine! How could he even concentrate on his work in these godforsaken catacombs?

Well, he was young and no one asked for his opinion, nor paid it any mind, so he better get used to it one way or another.

Teo stood right in front of the huge forge now and could already feel the heat, radiating from it, slowly draining the moisture from his skin. Uncle Thoralv stood up and approached him, he said in a rough voice, that made his thick mustache flutter,

"Teo! Good, you're here!"

'Don't act all surprised, when you're the one that asked for me' thought Teo, but still maintained a polite smile and gave a quick bow, before answering,

"Uncle, what did you want to see me for?"

"Right, right, coming right to the point, just like a true craftsman. I like that," he said, while nodding to himself a few times. "You spent the last month's learning the basics and made great progress. You are still quite a bit from completing your own Enchantments without my help, no need to talk about real Artifacts, but you know many techniques already and are especially skilled in Mana Infusion..."

This was very unusual for Uncle Thoralv, as he was not the type, to work towards a climax like that. He literally had no sense of drama or suspension and would come straight to the point in most cases.

He was a very direct person, but Teo did not dislike that about him, it made him quite easy to deal with. Talking to him was almost always 'hammer this' and 'hammer that' and 'hammer like you mean it and not like a little girl'. It needed some getting used to, but it was not that bad in retrospect, Teo had never expected to still learn his father's craft in such a roundabout way, which was a further bonus in his eyes. Oh, right! His uncle seemed to be getting to the important part!

"As I was saying, the Mana Infusion technique can be considered the very core of everything else in the craft of Enchanting and is of extreme importance. It is also directly correlated to what I want to show you today!"

'Probably it's just to increase the Enchantment quality again. Couldn't this wait till later?' Teo thought, a bit annoyed at losing most of his free time for a speech about the greatness of Enchanting and the long tradition of the craft...

Only when his uncle pulled out a grey cube, adorned with barely visible runes and slightly indented lines, that sn.a.k.e.d over the whole surface of the object, was his attention captured again.

"As you probably guessed already, this is an Artifact, and also the most precious family heirloom, passed along from one generation to the next." Thoralv slowly spun it around in his hands, while Teo was just staring at it without a word, trying to guess its function.

"There is an old family ritual, every Enchanter from the clan has to undergoe, as soon as he masters Mana Infusion and is able to carve his own Mana Channels."

Teo was a bit nervous now, afraid of some weird rite of initiation, but his curiosity far outweighed his natural fear of the unknown.

"It is actually quite simple. Just use your Mana Infusion on this cube and if it shows any reaction, you can keep it; until it is your time to pass it on to the next generation. It doesn't work for everyone though, the most recent one to succeed being my own teacher, a long time ago." He put the cube onto the massive stone table and waited for Teo to proceed.

Teo was struck by a severe sense of déjà vu instead, but decided, not to pay it any mind; he was far more interested in the weird cube laying in front of him.