Chapter 17

7 YEARS AGO.

IN THE KINGDOM OF NECROCIA.

“I can’t keep up Frey.” 

A younger version of Selene was seen running after our hero. Her face was too stern for her age, brows furrowed as she was frustrated at the way he moved without a care in the world. But her eyes were lit up so bright you could almost say she was possessed by the spirit of joy.

“Okay m’lady, I’ll slow down for you. THARION WAIT FOR US!!” he yelled at the young prince who was already far ahead of them.

In a matter of minutes they were walking together again, through the halls of a large house in the Frostfire’s estate.

“Where is everyone?” Tharion asked as they had been playing for a while without interruption.

“Yeah, this place is big where are all the adults” Frey yelled as he began checking room by room for another person.

“I’m not sure, mummy said there was going to be a party later. Maybe they are all preparing?” Her voice was soft, barely audible, but he heard every word clearly.

In truth, Frey could run around checking all the rooms but he wanted to be beside Selene. Her presence was basically the only thing that could make him act proper.

“So what do we do now, I suggest finding food m’lady”

“I suggest we practice our skills, in preparation for our future roles in the system.” They were only about 13 and Tharion had his eyes set on the political aspects of their lives.

“Anything you say goes, princess,” Frey said as he remembered how strict Lord Raphael was, so he didn’t want to do anything to put her in trouble.

After a few minutes of contemplating she finally decided.

“I say we check out the library. Studying is probably the best thing we can do with our free time.” She turned only to discover a wide grin on Frey’s face.

After 2 hours in the library, Frey seemed to be at his limit. 

“Well I'm officially bored, these grimoires aren’t exactly as exciting as you advertised.”

Although Tharion and Selene weren’t exactly enjoying their limited freedom, they were making the most of their time in the library learning about the past.

“Hey Frey, look at this” 

Selene held a book that held details of past leaders and a single picture seemed to interest the children, a picture of a middle aged Valerion.

“Wow, guess he was grumpy back then too.” he said as he tried to contain his laughter.

“This dates back almost 700 years. How old is lord Valerion?” Tharion asked as he saw Frey move to the magical section of the library.

“Not sure, I don’t exactly care, as long as he doesn’t die in a meeting. Look at these spell books, magnificent”. He was in awe, he had never seen a collection of spell books like this before.

Spell books weren’t just pages written by people. A spell book was a living testament to the greatness of a particular era of magic. Each one held spells, runes, enchantments from different corners of the world. Once a person becomes a grandmaster all their skill sets will be automatically assessed and documented into a book, that book is born from the branches of a tree in Necrosia with direct connections to the world pool and the evergreen at the same time.

Spell books are semi-sentient, most are very picky as to who can view their contents and very few have remnant pieces of souls.

As Frey walked through the isles running his fingers through the shelves, he felt multiple pulses of energy coming from these spell books.

Selene frantically tried to warn Frey, no one was to touch those books without permission. But he couldn’t hear her, the glow they emitted mesmerized him. The patterns in each book were unique, distinct, enchanting. Their colour palette made each one have a specific personality. Some were plain in colour while others had patterned designs.

One thing that he noticed as he kept going deeper was each era had a symbol engraved on the cover. Frey began to wonder. Why were they all stored here? Were the ones in the Starlight castle like these ones? How were they able to gather all of them? Who was writing them? 

All very important questions but nobody could answer them, at least nobody from this realm.

Then he heard a shrill that would forever haunt his nightmares.

As he kept going the energy output from the other spell books got larger, which became unnoticeable throughout the entire castle.

Frey finally saw the cause of the sound, the aura it emitted was nothing he had ever felt before but what did he know, he was only just a child.

Sitting on different pedestals were four distinct spell books. Each was different from the others, they were physically emitting a dark dense aura. 

Four spell books, each without a symbol depicting a certain era. Each with a special engraving.

“What’s going on?” 

The adults barged into the library trying to assess the situation only to find the children.

“Where is Frey?” A young lady ran towards Selene, distress was written all over her face.

She was stunning and probably in her mid-thirties. She had deep blue doe eyes, which were already tearing up as she couldn’t find her son. She had dark brown straight shoulder length hair, her dress was pretty simple for a royal.

“Calm down Nerida, I can still sense him—deep in all that” Abraham tried to comfort his wife but he could feel something wasn’t right.

“Let’s go, he isn’t safe there”

Deep in the heart of the library Frey stood in front of four spell books. Each with a specific engraving. The grey one had a hammer and a wolf engraved on it, the blue had a heart with demon wings on its sides, the red had just two horns engraved with perfect detail. The black one. The one that called for Frey, had two hands holding two parts of a staff.

He could hear whispers begging him to open it, it yearned for him.

He couldn’t resist the urge, and so he opened the black spell book. An action he came to regret with every fiber of his existence.

Multiple visions of thousands screaming in agony, begging for mercy. The overload was enough to drive anyone to the brink of madness, but this was just the beginning as the spell book began to eat away his soul. The pain he was in caused him to lose consciousness multiple times in the span of a few minutes.

“NOOO!!!” that was the only thing Abraham could hear as they saw what was happening to their only child.

Nerida couldn’t stay back and watch her child suffer, and so she made a choice.

“I’m going to channel the power of one of the other spell books to save Frey”

“What” his thoughts weren’t in order yet and she was already planning a suicide mission.

“He is young, his soul is fragile. I can’t lose him, Soren” she said with tears, she had already made up her mind, even if someone was to die today, it wouldn’t be her son.

“I WANT THIS VESSEL FOR MY OWN” Frey yelled in a voice that seemed almost demonic.

Looking at the reactions of everyone present she knew what had to be done. The other spell books were reacting to what was happening, all except the red one on the pedestal.

“Guess I won't get to give him his first battle armour.” she said as she looked at Frey who was a few meters off the ground.

Abraham began to shed tears as he felt the weight of her words. He stood behind her, close enough to be the last thing she saw when she descended.

The spell book opened for her like it had been waiting for this moment for centuries. Frey losing his sanity with every second couldn’t even see his mother sacrificing herself to protect his future.

“Blood that gave me life, hear me now…”

Her aura exploded pushing everyone back, giving her space to begin.

“I invoke the powers of those who came before me to convert this vessel.”

For a second it looked like everything would be fine, before the spell book in front of her began to burn away. As it did so her aura became a violent red that ate the magic from the surrounding area.

“Let what is mine protect him...”

She could feel the insanity eating her mind but Frey was important.

“...two souls, one aura.”

And so the fusion began. Frey could finally hear his mother as the screams stopped, but as he opened his eyes all he could see was a ball of blue burning in a pit of red flames surrounded by total darkness.

“As I leave I command what does not belong, to leave now—or burn with me”

The flaming aura around her died down as the flames eating at centuries of knowledge changed black.

“I am blind to what he is to become ... .but I wager everything I own in his favour.” 

They all felt it, Frey saw it, and Abraham dreaded it. She died but she kept casting.

As her voice cracked, the black flame surged violently as it completely destroyed a large majority of the library, leading to an evacuation of the castle. But he stayed, if he was to lose his family he would rather go with them than run like a coward.

“Let this…” they both fell before it could be completed.

Both spell books were gone and her body had finally given up. But he completed it as he bled away what was left in his system.

“..be enough to protect him. I will always be with you, my son.”

Frey completed the spell. His eyes reverted back to normal but the black flame was still enveloping his body. Abraham carried the bodies of his wife and son out of the burning section of the castle in tears.

Valerion arrived about 20 minutes after the incident. 

“The fire wasn’t natural?” he said as he noticed the burn marks on Abraham’s body.

“No. Both of them are gone” his reply was calm and heavy.

“I’m sorry about her but I can feel the child’s pulse—” he knew he would be grieving but denying his child would be crossing a line.

“He’s talking about the other two spell books. Each is equivalent to an Apex level threat and they are missing” Raphael tried to soften his tone but he was furious. Two of the most powerful books in the world were sacrificed to save a reckless child and the other two were stolen. The cherry on the cake of loss was the spell books destroyed. They couldn’t be damaged by normal means but whatever that was in Frey had the power to reduce them to ash and virtually incinerate anything made of energy.

“I’m sorry to hear.” Valerion couldn’t help but feel sorry but he was intrigued by Frey.

The boy was in the heart of it, his clothes suffered burns but his skin was unharmed. Same for his mother, but she was dead.

“Sorry? The boy is lucky I don't call for an execution–”

And in the blink of an eye Raphael was pinned to the wall with a sword made of unstable light threatening to sever his throat.

“I DARE YOU TO SPEAK ANOTHER WORD” Abraham was ready to cause a war at that moment if the Queen of Necrosia hadn’t intervened.

Frey was in a coma for a few more months and he was devastated for a whole year after he came through. His overall behaviour changed as he saw any woman trying to take the place of a mother figure as a threat, which went on till Seraphina began to train him.

His life took a turn after that day, he gave his father distance as he kept thinking it was his fault she was gone. Valerion continued to train him to use his inherited abilities, which were altered in several ways.

He began having nightmares of a shadowy figure, which he learnt was the soul remnant of one of the spell books.

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