"And why do you think that" gideon asks. His eyes narrowed and tone stiff
A sigh of relief left Arthur's mouth.
"This means they won't kill me outright. There is room to talk" Arthur wipes sweat off his head, thumping heart finally slowed down and shaking legs got back their footing.
"First of all, this place is completely surrounded with forest. So either you really enjoy nature or you are hiding this place from something or someone" .He looked at gideon who was following closely.
"Second, there are 4 people here and I might assume that everyone is mage here except me. Which means a small team perfect for quick infiltration and missions" all those years of reading stories and magic detective novels finally showed their effects.
"And third of all, hmm… There is no third reason. Call it a gut feeling of sort." Arthur said, scratching up his head in embarrassment.
"Gut feeling eh..?" Gideon's lips curled up to a smile touching his ears. He laughed heartily like he had seen something really funny.
"Well, he does have some brains, I will give him that" Gideon thought to himself.
But
"Tell me arthur why do want to join us. There is only danger and misery in this life. So why is it that you still want to join" his arm crossed and back straight up as gideon asked looking him directly in the eyes.
"Why? Yes. Why did I blurt out that I wanted to join them. Why is it?" A question ringed in Arthur's mind. A question to which he already knew the answer yet he didn't know the answer.
"I..I..I don't know" Arthur spoke. He wanted to say something else but he didn't knew the words. It was completely empty like there was a memory that was taken away from him.
Strange gentle smile erupted on gideon's face.
"Hmm.. that will do for now" His words rang in arthur's ears like he have heard them before.
But before he could ask anything Gideon gently touches Arthur's shoulder. "Careful. You might feel nausea"
Saying this Gideon takes out a paper with a weird symbol on it. The paper almost immediately disappeared into nothingness like space itself ate it.
Woosh….
And with a scene like the world collapsed on itself both disappeared from the room leaving behind echoes of words and complete stillness.
Arthur's eyes were wide open. He saw everything, it was like whole world was morphed into dough of clay. Even with a level head the world appeared like it would to a drunkard senseless man.
With a great pull gideon and arthur both were pulled again and next when Arthur opened his eyes, the scene around him was completely changed. There was a cliff in front of them with a tree hanging low from it.
Many plants grew around them with soft ground under their feet.
Behind, was a muddy trail of road, roughly carved by dragging something heavy. Air had the smell of flowers, sweet refreshing and even bitter.
Gag… uwaah…
Arthur fell to his knees as he violently tried to vomit but nothing came out since he hadn't eaten anything for almost 2 days.
"What a terrible feeling. It was like the whole world was trying to eat me. If we stayed even a second longer I don't think we could make it out of that terrible place." Thoughts spewed out of Arthur's mind quickly.
"What you just experienced was manipulation of space magic, amplified with a sigil." Gideon spoke turning towards Arthur.
Hearing words like magic, space and sigil Arthur slowly rose to his feet, supporting his hands on his knees.
Seeing arthur now paying attention gideon asks
"What do you know about magic, Arthur?"
"Magic!!" Arthur exclaimed but his excitement almost immediately damped down "I only ever read about in books or heard stories about it in Village"
"I see, then let me start from the beginning. In this world, magic is like a formless element beside everything else. It is like an invisible thread which sews everything together and the only difference between mages and normal people is the presence of mana pool in their bodies which help mages perceive and control mana. And Mana is the driving force of magic. It's like a fuel, it is to magic what food is to us. The magic is…" Gideon was speaking but was interrupted by Arthur in between.
"Although I am very happy and excited to hear all about magic. But why are you telling me all this?
I am not a mage, I am just a normal person" Arthur spoke with a sound of disappointment in voice. His eyes fell down towards the ground as he tried to accept the harsh reality which he already knew.
A small smile touched Gideon's lips.
"That's where you are wrong Arthur. You are not a normal person. You are infact a mage and with unusually large mana reserves at that." Gideon spoke gently, stroking his clean chin.
The words struck Arthur like lightning. He was dumbfounded on hearing Gideon say that after believing his whole life that he was a normal person.
"Come… come on, stop joking. How can I be a mage? I have neither casted a single spell in my life nor have I ever waved my hand and wooshh… air bullets went flying out."
Gideon didn't mind Arthur's reaction. He didn't answer any of Arthur's questions either. He understood very well how it feels to find out that your whole reality is just a mirage and reality waited for you on other side all this time.
"First of all, I have no reason to joke around or lie to you. We mages can perceive mana as I told you before and since the beginning I could feel faint mana vibrations from your core."
"Then…then why wasn't I ever able to do any magic" words hurriedly rolled out of Arthur's tongue in astonishment of this absurd situation.
"That is because you were never taught to use and control your mana. And since mana never flowed through your inner system, its passages got blocked. It's exactly like if you leave a pipe unattended for seventeen years and try to see through it, you will find its completely blocked from inside with dust, leaves and mud. Or if you take away brush of a painter and ask him to draw again after seventeen years, you will see that his painting is no better than a complete beginner's.
Magic is not spontaneous but an art that is learned and practiced over the years."
Gideon explained calmly to Arthur who was no longer startled by the news, instead he was listening attentively to Gideon's explanation.
"And for that very reason we have come to Oros mountain today. To open your channels from which mana can once again flow."
"What, we can really do that?" Arthur exclaimed with the question. "How, how are we going to do it?"
Haha "Not we but you Arthur. You are going to unclog your mana channels. As for how, let me tell you that. So have you ever opened a clogged water pipe?" Gideon asked Arthur.
"Hmm… don't we spray a strong water current from one side so all things blocking it's path come out of other side." Arthur tells gideon slowly understanding the analogy.
"Exactly, you are going to empty out your mana reserves in attempt to flush out all the impurities." Gideon spoke with a mysterious smile on his face.
"Ohh.. so are you going to pour your mana in my body to force and flush out all the impurities? Just like how they did in story Weak to strong mage in hours" Arthur jumped of excitement. He already read a similar incident in a story book.
Gideon chuckled as he tried to suppress his laugh "No arthur, instead you are going to spend two nights here in mount Oros alone."
"Huh… but how is that going to do anything." Arthur didn't yet knew the dangers of mount Oros, which is often considered one of most dangerous areas in whole of central continent where humans lived.
The world is divided into 5 continents, namely northern continent where Daemons lived, central continent where humans lived. southern continent where lived Dwarves, eastern continent which was occupied by elves and western continent where resided Graces. Each living in their defined regions.
Gideon smiles on Arthur's questions
"To launch all your mana through blocked channels you need a stimulus. A stimulus of life or death. When your body realises that this is truly a life or death situation then it will do anything to survive and in those anything there is often a resort to release all your gathered mana at once, successfully flushing out all the impurities." smile faded away from Gideon's face as he was about to speak his next words.
"Arthur, this is an extremely dangerous and experimental method. This is only a theory and no other person have ever tried this. But this is the only way if you want to become a mage. I can't help you because the mana in each mage's body is unique to their own body and is a deadly poison to other mages' bodies. So Arthur do you truly want to do this" Gideon knew that this was a highly unpredictable method and suicide for most of the cases but he still told Arthur about it ,for he believes a man should be aware of all his paths. The choice is ultimately theirs whether they want to take the path or not.
Arthur hesitated for a second but almost immediately his hesitation faded.
"Yes" spoke Arthur firmly.
The 'yes' spoken by Arthur was firm for he have understood in his life till now that In life stagnation means death and not in literal way but in every way and that does include literal way too.
A painter is dead if you give him labour instead of a brush.
A musician is dead if you give him books instead of his instrument.
A writer is dead if his hands are cut.
Death surrounds all. It's always beside, there standing quietly, killing them millions of times before their death. Leaving their life without any life or beauty in it.
But there are people who defeat death. There are people who leave everything behind in their search of beauty and life.
They are the people who paint with their blood as colour and hands as their brush and earth as their canvas.
They are the people who sing with their throat, drum with their hands on books and tap on floor with their boots.
They are the people who write with their elbows and tell stories with their voice.
They are people who kept moving forward when there was only one path ahead or even no path ahead.
Hearing firm 'yes' a smile emerged on Gideon's face
"Then meet me here exactly two days from now and if you can't perceive mana or unclog your mana channels by that time. Then don't blame me for not taking you in the team. You will live the rest of your life oblivious that anything like this ever happened."
With these words Gideon raised his hand and did a gesture like cleaning dirt off his clothes with one stroke and suddenly the space opened up and appeared as if it devoured him.
Gideon was gone, leaving behind Arthur and a question. "What now?"