The forest cast shadows onto my path as I ran away from the girl. I had offered my condolences to almost everyone in the burial site but was out of words when I saw her mourning alone.

Maybe I could be your friend? What the hell was I thinking?

The girl just lost her parents and I had almost invited her to play wizards and fiends with me.

Nice start Adel. You have made a great first impression.

By the time I stopped running and looked behind me, the newly created forest was no longer visible. Back in the village, everyone was hard at work. I imagined that they were occupying themselves with something to take their minds away from their terrible losses. I had noticed that whenever my siblings were stressed, they started doing all of the chores they had been avoiding for some time. Sometimes they would even do my chores too.

Nara was quite a small village, having only about eighty houses. Most of them were built on the side of a small hill, with the temple standing on its top. As I approached the top of the hill, I saw that my father was already back at work on our house. He and my mother had built the two-story building almost as soon as we had arrived, but magically bringing a house together was the easiest and least taxing part. Attaching the enchantments, even the most rudimentary ones such as protection from the elements, from sound, and from heat meant many hours of work.

They could, of course, have just transferred our mansion in a minimization capsule, but dad had said that people do not take kindly to new neighbors flaunting their wealth.

Name         : Imar Hodja

Race         : Human

Class        : Elemental Tetrarch

Level        : 43

"How was your walk, son?” asked my father as he laid another coat of heat protection to the west side of our house.

"I think I have seen most of the village by now. That forest that mom created is wonderful. I spoke to lots of people about their loved ones,” I said, and my father smiled.

"I’m sure they appreciated that, Adel.” I prepared myself for the chore that was almost certainly coming my way. “So, seeing as you are currently unoccupied, why don’t you go find your sister and tell her to come and assist me?” my father asked, as expected. “She might learn a thing or two”.

"I want to learn too dad,” I told him, but his facial expression gave away his gentle denial before his words revealed it.

"I know you want to learn but you will have to wait some years yet,” said my father. He went down on one knee. “Your sister has already received her mana and should be here learning. And you should be out there playing instead of trying to learn things that you will probably forget before your mana comes. These spells are tough even for me.” He put his right hand on my shoulder, and turned me around. “Now go find her and tell her to come back at once,” he said, and gave me a gentle push.

If I knew my sister, she would be entertaining the children of the village with stories of old heroes. Even if I didn't like to admit it, she was a great storyteller. And so I started to make my way back into the center of Nara to find her.

Most of the paths in the village were made with giant white stones that diffused the sun’s light and looked like they shined. I took these paths, taking care not to touch my feet on lines between the stones. Five or six hops later, I realized my foolishness and began to walk normally again.

The people in the village had just been attacked by a group of spellcasting raiders. I shouldn’t behave as if I had no cares in the world. So I stopped this solitary game of mine and my thoughts turned to what I learned about the recent attack.

What a terrible thing it was. I heard mom and dad talking about it. The bandits were becoming increasingly active and bold. They attacked out of nowhere, first taking out the temple along with the priests, since they were the most powerful mages.

After that, it was a battle for resources. Plundering the temple while killing anyone they saw and taking their magic items and artifacts. Fortunately, there were other powerful mages in Nara besides the priests, and they were able to push away the intruders. But not without sustaining great casualties.

Since there was a lot of work to be done, and no priests survived to help coordinate efforts, my mother had decided it would be better for us to move here. It was a very sudden transition for me and my sister but was not the first time we had been having breakfast in Elysia one moment, and teleporting to a new home the next.

The village of Nara was in the north of the nation of Elysia, quite a distance from the capital city that shared its name, but very close to the savage lands of the north. Even though the wars with those nations had recently ceased and many of the northern lands had been liberated, the savage hordes still terrorized and plundered areas close to them.

Sometimes I wondered why anyone would want to live in places such as these, where the danger of invasion was ever present. I could understand why people with little or no mana left would not want to live in the capital, but there were all sorts of countries south of the sea.

The country of Leka An had warm climate all year round, and as a nation of traders, it was always welcoming to spellcasters. Even south of Leka An, with the exception of the engineering nation of Guldan—where they despised spellcasters—Fenira and Fjalhun were nice and safe places to live, or so I had read.

After some twenty minutes of walking and observing, I finally found my sister casting a light and shadow show.

Name         : Seika Leonil

Race         : Human

Class        : Chancellor of Bliss

Level        : 21

A group of kids were sitting on the grass as she waved her wand around, creating miniature warriors of light and shadow. I lurked a bit, watching, before approaching her. It felt wrong to interrupt.

Seika has already received her mana. Not only that, but she also level up to twenty and successfully upgraded her class. I remembered my parents being very happy and proud when she announced to them that she had completed the class upgrade quest. This meant that she had access to certain small spells such as the one she was using now.

I had seen her perform this bit before. The light dragon would come any minute now and lay waste to the shadow warriors. It must seem a little strange for the people with their limited mana, to waste so much of it on things like theatrical plays, but our family was usually blessed to receive plenty of mana from The Divine. For us, this was pretty normal.

As expected, the light dragon breathed fire at the fighters made of shadow and eradicated them. Immediately, miniature citizens appeared out of nowhere and celebrated the defeat of the invaders. Once the show and the applause were over, my sister took her position in front of the kids, sat down and waited for their questions, as was usual in plays of this sort.

"Lady, what type of dragon was that?” asked a kid around my age, who was almost jumping up and down with excitement. He had been watching the dragon intently.

Name         : Kard Mandrake

Race         : Human

Class        : -

Level        : -

His hair was long, pulled on the top of his head in a messy pitch-black bun. He was wearing layers of black garments and capes and on top of that, a furry overcoat that seemed way too big for him. In fact, he was having trouble steadying himself with all that loose fur weighing him down, but his hazel eyes were glistening with enthusiasm.

"That was a celestial dragon. One of those that fly in the heavens and take care of The Divine’s realms,” answered Seika, in a slow manner that indicated how wondrous that fact was.

My sister may not have been as strong in magic as our eldest brother, Haad, but what she lacked in mana she more than made up for in charisma. Prepared and quick-witted as she was though, nothing could have prepared her enough for the next series of questions.

"Miss, why didn’t The Divine send one of Its dragons to save my brother?” asked a girl who was sitting in the back.