“You’ll be needing one of these.” Putting his hand into a bag he’d come prepared with, Craib pulled out one of the thickest books Arcus had ever seen. Arcus gawked at it.
“These are the Ancient Chronicles. The Birth of Heaven and Earth documents the creation of the earth and sky. The Spiritual Age is a record of the time when spirits wandered Earth. The Prophecy of Shadows predicts the entire history and future of this world. Documenting the Stars describes a scholar’s life as he follows the sky and the movements of the planets. The Magician’s Elegy speaks about civilization as it was when magic flourished, and then there’s Demons and Society’s Collapse. That one’s about the four powerful demons who will come and destroy the world—it’s got the Song of Destruction in it. They say the entirety of the Elder Tongue is recorded in these six titles, but...”
“But?” Arcus prompted.
“No one actually knows if every last word is written in them. There’s no one who can actually read them all anyway,” Craib explained.
“Not even you?”
“Not even me. ’Specially The Prophecy of Shadows.” Craib grinned. “I have no clue what the author’s on about.”
“So these are the six books you should use to study the Language of the Ancient Arts?” Arcus asked.
“Yup. Just learning words and phrases ain’t enough. If you don’t understand where those words came from or how to use them, there’s no way you’re gonna tap into their power. That’s why reading the Chronicles is the best way to wrap your head around the language. And you gotta, if you wanna become a real magician.”
“All right.” Arcus took the book from his uncle.
“This is just one volume, by the way. There’s a ton more to it; I’ll get one of my servants to get the rest later.”
“But this one alone is so thick...” Arcus grimaced as he thought about just how much reading he was going to need to do.
All of a sudden, Craib’s expression became serious.
“Listen, Arcus. These Chronicles aren’t just any old stories. People have been studying this language for ages before you and I were born. There are still tons of characters we don’t know how to sound out, or what they mean. Even if you can read it, there’s a lot that’s gonna just sound like nonsense, and sometimes you won’t have a clue what it’s supposed to be about.”
“Supposing I was able to decipher the entire thing?” Arcus asked curiously.
“Your name would go down in history. But you wanna be able to walk before you run,” Craib added.
Perhaps that would be true under normal circumstances, but Arcus had access to a whole wealth of understanding that everyone in this world had yet to achieve, thanks to his dream.
Before I get too far ahead of myself, though, I’ll need to learn those glyphs. And it doesn’t look like it’s going to be easy...
Deciding he would just have to take his time with it, Arcus returned his attention to Craib.
“So, on the one hand, you’ve got your language to learn. What else have you gotta learn along with that?” Craib asked.
“How to control my aether?”
“Yup! You got it. I see you’ve done your homework.” Craib broke into a smile at Arcus’s instant response.
Magic consumed the caster’s aether in order to create a specific effect, but just reciting the spell wouldn’t automatically consume it; instead, you had to prepare the right amount of power beforehand. This meant you had to learn to regulate your aether so that you could put just the right amount into each spell.
“You’ve already learned how to control your own power, right?” Craib asked.
“Yes, sir,” replied Arcus.
“All right. But just in case, I’m gonna start from the basics. Magic feels like warm water flowing through your body. If you learn to control it, it means you can manipulate it, focus it, split it up into parts, or send it outside your body.”
Arcus closed his eyes and focused on the sensation inside him. He could feel it deep within his belly as a warm, shapeless glow, neither liquid nor vapor.
“Whenever you’re not doing anything else, you should practice moving that power around your body. If you keep that up, soon you’ll be able to move it as easily as your arms and legs,” said Craib.
“Yes, sir.”
“Your goal should be to be able to move that power even when you’re doing simple physical tasks. Then you’ll be able to keep it up for days on end.”
Arcus nodded. The way Craib was speaking right now told him that this point in particular was very important.
“By the way, once you get good at this, you’ll be able to feel magic from places outside your own body,” Craib added.
“Really?”
“Yep. And I was the one who discovered it! Whaddya think of that, huh?” Craib puffed out his broad chest proudly before bursting out into embarrassed laughter. “As you probably know, I left the Raytheft house and passed the heirship over to Joshua. Everyone mocked me for it, and I hated that, so I went on a journey to look for ways I could increase my aether.”
Arcus nodded. “I have heard as much.”
“I tried all kinds of stuff. Ate all kinds of foods that were s’posed to increase your magic, practiced magic as much as I could before my body gave out to raise my stamina... But none of that worked. What I did learn, though, was how to detect the presence of magic.”
Craib seemed proud of his discovery. Arcus had never read anything about detecting magic before, so it was likely his uncle was the first to discover it. He had every reason to be proud. But that wasn’t all.
“You realized what that means yet?”
“Yes, sir. If you can detect the presence of magic, then you should be able to track the location of humans and other creatures that use it.”
“Bingo. ’Cause humans, demons, monsters, and things like that all have magic inside them.”
“Can you also tell how many of them there are?” Arcus asked.
“Yeah, ’course.”
It sounded like a very useful skill indeed, especially in a situation where you wanted to keep clear of anything hostile.
“It’ll take some time before you’re at that level, though. But it’s a pretty handy skill! If you start working on that now, you’ll learn before you know it!” Suddenly, Craib grinned. “Joshua can’t do it, y’know.”
In other words, just by learning how to detect magic, Arcus would have already surpassed his father.
“Does that mean you never told him about it?” asked Arcus.
“You really think I go around shoutin’ about my secret techniques? Nah. He might be my brother, but he hasn’t earned it.”
“You two really don’t get along well, do you?”
“We used to. But whatever, I’ll tell you about that another time.” Craib patted Arcus on the head. “Anyway! Time to show you some real magic!”
“Yes, sir!” Arcus responded eagerly, raising his hands in the air. He was waiting for this.
“It’ll be good for you to see some real magic in action. If you wanna be a top magician, it’s vital to have models to reference at the image-forming stage.”
“Is that something you learned on your travels too?”
“You know it! I wouldn’t be who I am today without all the magic I saw in all sorts of different places.” Again, Craib puffed out his chest. “Arcus. You ever seen real magic before?”
“Only the once,” Arcus replied, “and not since then.”
“Gotcha. Then I’ll start with psychokinesis, since that’s pretty basic.”
Picking up a stone from the ground, Craib launched it through the air. The stone rolled along the ground before losing all its momentum and coming to a stop on the lawn. Craib raised his hand toward it.
“Guide the object according to my will.”
Craib recited the spell in the Elder Tongue. Luminous artglyphs rose up around him.
The stone began to float.