"So, what do you know about the War?" asked Chaim to the classroom.
"I know that both sorcerers and common people fought, but for different reasons" Thea replied. "Sorcerers were fighting to make sure magic, especially dark magic, wouldn't take over the world".
"I know that, once the War was over, the government of the Kingdoms decided that the rules regarding magic and its usage should be strict and so it became a less important part in everyday's life and sorcerers are now a few. In some places like Outwoods, you can grow up without knowing it even exists" I offered.
"I know that it left many children without parents or a home" James shrugged. "I'm sorry, that's all I can come up with".
"I know that some countries were punished for what has happened -- and they didn't have anything to do with it" Saba said.
"I don't know anything about the War, I'm not from the Kingdoms" Jimmy admitted.
"That's not much" Vits said, "but it might be better this way. Chaim and I are going to tell you what had really happened -- the uncensored version".
"No offense, but how do you know it is the real version?" Jimmy asked.
"Because", Chaim replied, "we were there".
"The story begins with a sorcerer, just like us" Chaim said. "His name was Alkedama Tonkinson. I guess you have never heard of him before and that's okay. People nowadays just don't talk about these kind of things lightly. He was an extremely powerful magician, one of the best who has ever lived. In order to become even more powerful, he started studying dark magic".
"But you have always said that the light is stronger than the dark" Thea objected.
"It is, but sometimes it is easier to choose the dark. Imagine that you are in a dark tunnel and you can't see the light. Maybe you'd rather stay where you are and get accustomed to the dark -- you could and it would make you powerful. But you could also decide to struggle and try to find the light at all cost. When you finally do, you can thrive. You are finally out of the tunnel. It might have been extremely hard to get there, but you'll be thankful for it on the long run".
"So it takes strength to remain on the good side" I said.
"Strength, faith, hope and guts" Chaim smiled.
"But", he went on, "Alkedama didn't care much for the light. He preferred the dark. And besides, he wanted to have everything immediately and the good kind of magic requires patience. Anyway, he inherited the Lion Stone from his family. As soon as he found out what it was able to do, he began using it to erase times, places, people's lives. He wouldn't use it that much at first, but he would keep people enslaved with the fear he caused in the magical community. He, in a way, has started the War".
"So, are you saying the War was between two sides? The people who agreed with Alkedama and those who didn't?" Saba asked.
"Not really", Vits said. "Alkedama's behavior had made many sorcerers wondering if magic should be taught at all. The War was between two sides indeed -- but not the two sides you have mentioned. Some sorcerers thought that nobody should have the kind of power Alkedama had. In order to not make it happen again, they were ready to erase our culture and live their lives without magic. Basically, they would ban magic from the world because it was considered to dangerous -- if even just one sorcerer played God with it, nobody should have it.
The other side didn't agree. Magic was sacred and it was all about power. Even if it meant that people like Alkedama happened to control it. What they really needed to do was get rid of him and teach magic only to those who would swear that they wouldn't learn black magic".
"So wasn't anybody on Alkedama's side?" Jimmy asked.
"His side was pretty selfish" Vits explained. "He was the only one who was planning to gain anything from his powers. Still, there were some people who served him and did his bidding, probably hoping to get a piece of the cake, if he happened to take control of the world. We didn't know anyone who did, though, not personally".
"Which side won?" Saba wanted to know.
"Both sides eventually fought together in order to take down the sorcerer successfully, so they reached a compromise -- magic would not be completely forgotten but it wouldn't be taught to too many people either".
"Besides, cancelling magic would be very wrong" Vits said. "Alkedama himself had wanted to do it in his last few days. He thought that if he was successful, he could be the only person in the world who knew anything about it, which would have made him especially powerful".
"But how could he?" I asked. "Now it might be easier to forget about magic, since most of the sorcerers have died during the War. But back then, he would need to erase their memories".
"He could do it" Vits said. "With the Lion Stone".
I thought about the Lion Stone. My Lion Stone. The one I used to play with as a child. I shuddered.
"How many people practice magic nowadays?" Thea asked.
"We don't know for certain" Vits admitted. "But surely they are not that many anymore. In these surroundings, we might be the only ones. Further from Outwoods, there's certainly going to be a few more. In other realms of the Kingdoms there might be hundreds. Outside of the Kingdoms, we don't really know".
We all turned to Jimmy. After all, he had said he came from outside of the Kingdoms.
"There are millions of different cultures out there" he said. "Some people, like the ones from the tribe I am from, practiced magic. But not like this one, a kind without books, spells and ampoules. It might differ, though. For example, people from other tribes on the same island didn't believe in magic very much".
Island? Tribes? My head felt light. I barely could grasp the concept of a world outside of Outwoods, the idea that there was one outside of the Kingdoms suddenly appeared to me as quite scary.
"Who killed Alkedama?" Thea wanted to know. "Maybe the Lion Stone belongs to them".
"I thought we agreed that it belonged to Oliver" James pointed out.
I was expecting Chaim and Vits to say they didn't know. Or perhaps that so many people had tried to take the sorcerer down that they couldn't tell who gave him the fatal blow.
I was expecting pretty much anything.
I just wasn't expecting them to reply the way that they did.
"Nobody did" said Vits uncomfortably. "At the end, he was turned into a worm".
"So you are saying that he is still alive?" Thea gasped.
"A worm cannot have survived for, give or take, ten years" Chaim said. "He probably died a while back, of natural causes".
"Probably?" I said.
"It's either that or somebody has stepped on him" Vits clarified.
"Maybe that's why the Stone is mine" I said. "I doubt the original rules said anything about the former owner turning into a worm forever, so maybe it was looking for a new one".
"Could be", Chaim conceded.
"I still have got a question" I said. "Did you fight alongside our parents?"
"My parents weren't from the Kingdoms" Jimmy reminded me. "But maybe they could have fought alongside yours".
"We had been thinking about teaching our magic for years after the War had ended. We were looking for chosen ones -- it doesn't mean anything really. It just means people who are gifted in magic" Chaim explained. "Vits and I have been living just outside of Outwoods for a very long time, so it was only fitting that the first student we met was Oliver. As soon as he introduced himself, we couldn't believe our luck. He was the son of Edward and Riley Edens, two very powerful sorcerers. We didn't plan on taking students with a special heritage, but it had happened. It felt like a coincidence".
He said it like it was something special. Vits and Chaim loved coincidences.
"Did you know my parents?" I asked. "What were they like?"
"We have just heard of them, they were very popular sorcerers. They were both extremely powerful and just as reckless. They had just married when the War began and they were always looking for ways they could take down Alkedama".
"And then they went missing" I said. "Do you have any idea where they could be?"
"No, sorry" Vits said. "But if the rumors we have heard about them are true, then they probably went down fighting. They were very brave".
So they thought my parents were most likely dead. I hadn't figured out how much I wanted to be able to see them, until it struck me that maybe I wouldn't.
I didn't care how brave they were, I just wanted to have them next to me. Maybe Thea had a point, when she was trying to keep me alive.
Well, maybe Vits and Chaim were wrong. I would keep on searching for Edward and Riley.
"Thea became a student because Oliver had asked us to take her in", Vits said, "so we had no idea who her parents were. But after a few researches based on her family name, we found out that she is the daughter of David and Clare Lewalski. They both were sorcerers as well".
"My parents are dead, right?" she asked with a small voice.
"Sadly, they are" Chaim said. "Clare died during the War, on the battlefield. While your father David..."
He took a deep breath. "He was one of the very first who opposed Alkedama publicly. He was... executed as a traitor by Alkedama himself".
I immediately took Thea's hand. She looked alright, but she wouldn't let go of me.
"Do you know anything about my siblings?" she managed to ask.
I was incredibly surprised. I had no idea Thea had any siblings -- but after all, maybe it was my fault for not asking.
"Their names are Hugo, Alfie, Felicity and Amelia" she said. "Hugo should be sixteen by now. Alfie should be thirteen, Felicity twelve and Amelia eleven".
"No, we haven't heard of them, sorry" said Vits very kindly.
"We were all at the orphanage together" Thea explained. "In Windnest, that was the city we came from. Hugo was the first to leave, as an apprentice shoemaker. I have never seen him again. Then it was my turn. When I was five, I left as an apprentice tanner. I have never seen any of my siblings again. Then, I ran away from my master... but I had to start living on the streets".
"Timothea, that's awful!" Chaim said. "I promise we can start looking for your siblings, if you want to".
I was about to ask why she wouldn't want to, when Thea said, "thank you, I really appreciate it. But I'd rather not know. I don't want to find out that maybe they didn't survive or that they don't have a decent life".
She shuddered. "When I lived on the streets, I would dream I accidentally bumped into them. But then I started being scared that, if it had actually happened, they wouldn't even recognize me. That's my biggest fear".
I hugged her. "If you ever feel the need to, you can talk to me about this kind of stuff" I said.
I couldn't believe how selfish I had been, always trying to figure out why Thea liked me and how I could change her mind.
I was measuring Thea's affection with the same yardstick I could have measured mine against, but it wasn't right.
Thea loved people unconditionally, she didn't need a reason.
"We asked James to become our student after he helped us freeing his master from possession. We didn't know who his family was and we didn't care if they were sorcerers or not. But, after we researched it, it turned out they were. They were James and Miranda Leedes. They weren't very skilled, but they were incredibly brave. Unfortunately, they died fighting. According to our sources, you were living with your aunt back then, even though you probably don't remember it as you were only two years old. She has died not long after, otherwise she would have raised you", Chaim went on, after a while.
"Thanks for the information" James said politely. "It was really nice to know".
"I already know something about my parents" Saba offered. "My grandfather told me. Their names were Abdi and Yekaterina Zaman. They were very important alchemists, and they were quite famous as well".
"Of course" Vits said. "Chaim and I have heard of them".
"My parents were Dawn and Sebastian O'Leary", Jimmy said. "They were from two different tribes, both situated on the island that I used to call home -- Ephyre. My father's people was somehow more, what you'd say, more advanced. They used English names, they mixed more eagerly with people from all over the world, they were more liberal, more revolutionary, I guess. My mother's side, on the contrary, was way more primitive. The gods they worshipped were just natural elements. They would also use names from nature, such as my little brother's name, Robin. They were skilled in magic but they didn't welcome change in their lives. For this reason, they rarely mixed with people outside of the tribe and they all look alike, with my very same pale hair and washed out eyes".
"Wow, that's really interesting" Chaim commented. "People from the Kingdoms don't know anything about people from the rest of the world. Some would think that there is not a world outside of the Kingdoms".
"I know", Jimmy commented sourly. "I was taken hostage along with several hundreds of my people by men from the Kingdoms. I think they meant to take us to the Kingdoms and sell us as slaves. This practice had started during the War and it took them several years, mostly because our lands are very difficult for strangers to survive in. It wasn't that long ago that the last ones of the slavers took me and my family. That's how I came to the Kingdoms".
"How did you manage to escape slavery?" Thea asked.
"Luckily, the voyage was very hard for every one involved, so many slavers died at sea or during the trip. There were also a lot of diseases on the boats, which killed most of my people. Basically, when we finally arrived here, there weren't enough slaves to sell and not enough men to sell them, so it was easy for me to escape".
"What happened to your family?" Saba asked, quite impressed.
"They all died. My mother, my father and my little brother".
"That's awful!" Vits said.
"It is", Jimmy agreed. "I suffered especially for my mother and my little brother, for I had never spent too much time with my father -- my mother had found another partner by the time I was eleven. That man, Rupert, has been killed by the slavers when he put up a fight. I never really liked him, though. He had won my mother over in a fight against my father".
"That's... crazy" I managed to say.
Jimmy shrugged. "I agree, but Rupert thought everything could be fixed with violence. And he was a very liberal type too. He just couldn't stand when things weren't going the way he wanted them to. He was a bit like that with people too".
I shuddered. Compared to everything my friends had to go through, my life with the Blooms seemed like a piece of cake. (No bakery pun intended). I was suddenly embarrassed that they often heard me complaining about it out loud, while they were able to keep it all inside.
"So, all of our parents were sorcerers and Jimmy's mother knew a little about magic" Thea said. "Don't you think it's too much of a coincidence?"
"It's not" Vits said. "Believe it or not, before the War most people were sorcerers in the Kingdoms. Besides, you all were drawn to Chaim in a way and he is a very powerful sorcerer".
"What about you?" I asked.
"What about me?" Vits said gingerly.
"Aren't you a powerful sorcerer as well?" I asked.
"No, I am not" he said, suddenly blushing. "I can do a little magic, that's all".
I looked at my friends, waiting for their permission. They all nodded.
"We have something to tell you" I began. "We have been reading an old journal".
"Was it any interesting?" asked Chaim cheerfully.
"It sure was" I gulped. "It was Vits' diary".
Vits and Chaim blushed violently at the same time.
"We have a couple of questions, if you don't mind" Thea jumped in. I was extremely grateful she did, because I could not find the words.
"Sure, fire away" Vits grinned. It was easy to tell how nervous he was, though.
"Well, you were taught dark magic as a teenager" I began. "How do I know that we can trust you? How do I know that you are not the one who cursed my blood?"
Chaim got really angry. "Oliver!" he said. "He is not! I can vouch for him, if you want to. While it's true that Vits has been taught dark magic, he has never ever used it. He didn't even want to learn it in the first place. He has been tortured into learning it. You cannot begin to imagine how hurtful it has been for his body and soul, especially as he spent years trying bravely to keep it from contaminating his mind".
"It's okay" Vits said. "I get why they would wonder about something like that".
Suddenly, he appeared to me as very weak and tired and I could tell that I had really hurt his feelings. It seemed ridiculous that, until a minute ago, I thought he would be fit to be an evil mastermind.
"I thought you had bonded with Vits" Chaim said reproachfully, looking at me.
"Yeah, but one can never be too sure" I said, feeling quite guilty I had expressed my thoughts aloud.
"Do you have any more questions?" Vits asked, trying his best to appear unaffected.
"Yes, who is Mister Tunks?" Thea asked. "I had been searching for that name and I cannot find it anywhere".
So, while we had stopped reading the diary and trying to find out about it, she had kept on researching! That was both so unexpected and so typical of her that I couldn't help but grin.
"Normally, I think we would keep it secret" Chaim said uncomfortably. "But I am afraid that, if we refused to tell you and you happened to find that out on your own, you wouldn't trust neither of us anymore. So it's better that you hear it from us".
What could possibly be that bad?
"Mister Tunks is a name that somebody used to use before he became well known with his birth name, which he always found quite depressing" Vits began.
"Mister Tunks is Alkedama Tonkinson".
In the few seconds we all had to think about it, Chaim threw himself in front of Vits and shielded him with a spell.
Was he afraid that once we knew who his master was, we would attack him?
Were Vits powers really so weak that, if it happened, he wouldn't be able to fight us back?
"Were you Alkedama Tonkinson's apprentice?" Thea murmured.
"I was" Vits confirmed. "Of course, back then he wasn't so powerful. Don't get me wrong, he was extremely skilled, but he had just begun studying dark magic. And he hadn't inherited the Stone yet".
"I'm sorry" Saba said. "It must have been an horrible experience".
"So you still believe that I am innocent?" he asked, relieved.
"We do" Thea said. "We trust Chaim and Chaim trusts you".
I thought about all the times Vits had looked out for me. He had been almost a father to me, even though I am not sure he would want to hear that. He taught me just as many things as Chaim did. Maybe more, or perhaps more important. Like to fight for the people I belonged with.
The people he belonged with.
"I trust Vits" I said. "Completely".
"How long have you known each other?" Jimmy asked Vits and Chaim as we were drinking tea. "We met when we were fourteen" Chain said. "I was a sorcerer apprentice as well. My teacher was the great Saleh Simenon. He knew Alkedama, at least, they were on speaking terms. They met up sometimes, and so did we. Saleh Simenon was a great and kind sorcerer, one of the most skilled alive at that time. My parents always wanted me to have the best" he added, a bit sourly.
"We weren't allowed to listen to what they talked about to each other, but I think Saleh Simenon was trying to prevent Alkedama from crossing over to the dark side. Even before we could know how dangerous he would become, it is not a matter that sorcerers take lightly".
"Since we couldn't listen to their conversations, we spent time with each other instead" Vits said.
Suddenly, I remembered something. I knew Saleh Simenon's name rang a bell. Of course.
When I had seen Vits memories, he was obsessed with Saleh Simenon's student. A boy with black eyes and black hair.
I wondered if Chaim knew that Vits had been in love with him all along.
I guessed that there was only one way to find that out.
"Are you two a couple?" I asked.
"What?" Saba blurted out, almost at the same time as Thea said, "of course they are!"
"I mean", Thea explained, "their friend Alyssa had asked them if they were ready to adopt children".
"We like each other" Chaim replied, carefully. "We have been in love with each other ever since we met, but we don't really know if we are a couple. I mean, we aren't married or anything".
"If you love each other" Jimmy wanted to know, "why aren't you a couple?"
"Because I don't deserve love and that's what I have been trying to tell Chaim for years" Vits said, a little annoyed by the fact that we were pressing the matter.
The thought that he couldn't enjoy a happy ending because he didn't think he deserved one was enough to drive me mad, perhaps 'cause it sounded just like the kind of thing I would do.
I decided I would repay him of the doubts I had been harboring. I was going to help him come to his senses.
"It's crazy that you knew about it" I teased Thea the next day in the library.
"It's crazy that you didn't know, Oliver" she replied. "They do everything together, they even live together, I mean, they share the same bedroom".
"Wait, what?" I said.
I suddenly remembered all the times I teased Vits about not having a bedroom of his own.
"Yeah" Thea said, "why else did you think Vits' diary was in Chaim's bedroom?"
That was one of the many times where I couldn't help but appreciate how smart she was.
"There is something else we should have asked Vits, though" I said. "Remember the prophecy? The one they made at his birth?"
"I thought you didn't believe in prophecies" Thea said.
"Yes, but it wouldn't hurt to know about it, would it?" I replied.
"I guess not" she conceded, closing the book she was reading from. It was time to get ready for our alchemy lesson.
While Saba was acing her alchemy test, Thea raised her hand. "I know it's not the right time, but it just came to my mind that Vits' diary mentioned something else as well" she said.
"That my step-mother was a vampire?" he asked. It didn't seem like he was joking.
"No, we weren't there yet" I managed to say, "but thanks for the spoiler".
"No, it was something about a prophecy" Thea went on. "You said that every child born from sorcerers would get told of their future, that it was a popular tradition. Well, yours was exceptionally bad, so bad that it was what had attracted Alkedama Tonkinson's attention towards you and your power".
"I remember" James said. "I also remember that it said that, a few months before your birth, a child was prophesied to save the world".
"I'd like to know who that one was", he added, jokingly.
"It was me" Chaim replied calmly.
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