The Spellbook of Sidis [EN]
A story set in a post-magical monarchy flowing the unbridled banner of "Unity". Two souls, a girl with no roots fighting for her purpose, and a boy with no purpose fighting against his roots, shall travel against the winds of fate, unsure of what awaits them.
Chapter 1: The Faithful
Scene 2: Household of None
The wind blew through the trees and fields, but for some reason, the atmosphere felt heavy for the three members of the House of the Holy tasked with thoroughly searching one of the houses. From an outside view, the house seemed perfectly ordinary, much like all the others near it. The house was two stories tall and even had room for an attic. The wooden foundation looked old and weak, but otherwise, it appeared completely ordinary. The three young men were all dressed the same way, wearing the uniform of the House, donning the kindling flame, and their heads were covered by a hood to mask their identities. Furthermore, all three had hairstyles showing their left ear. This was a symbol of allegiance to the House of the Holy. The one in the middle, noticeably shorter than his companions, stepped forward before turning to meet their eyes. “The instructions are simple. We get in by force if we need to, and we look for anything resembling a spell book. If we find any, we confiscate them.” he said with a neutral expression. The other two snickered in response. “I think you should lighten up. You’re making both of us nervous, and, frankly, it doesn’t suit you.” said the taller man, donning a shorter dark haircut. “Servoir’s right, Ben. Just because you were appointed as the leader of this excursion doesn’t mean you can boss us around. Besides, the old man is dead, so this mission is basically safe.” replied the third. The shorter one sighed and pulled out his spell book, holding it and opening it with a single hand. “We don’t know what we’ll find in this house. Precaution is important, and if you guys goof around, I’ll be the one responsible.” He swiftly walked to the door and twisted it open. He was momentarily surprised to find the door unlocked, but he quickly dismissed the thought. As they all entered, the first room they saw was the living room, seemingly clean, with only a few dusty spots. The room felt lived in, and a shiver ran through the men’s spines. The leader, however, kept looking around for anything of note. As they walked through the room, a loud crash traveled to their ears, and they all froze instantly. The shorter boy turned around nearly instantly, ready to defend himself, only to find pottery on the ground, shattered. “Ah, my bad… I didn’t pay attention.” replied the taller one. Before any of the other two could react with annoyance or disappointment, a grumbling sound came from another room. At first, the sound was muffled, but with time, it only grew louder, becoming slightly too loud for comfort. All three members quickly regrouped, facing away from themselves in a formation to cover every angle. One of them was shivering, already feeling way too afraid to continue further. “Don’t move and don’t make a single sound. We’re not alone in here.” whispered the leader, his spell book still readily available in his hand. His peers nodded, though unease was evident on all their faces. “The noise is coming from the room on the right. Nyman, you check the source of the noise, while Servoir and I will check the one of the left.” he added, as the fear of what might happen started weighing upon him. The third boy, Nyman, nodded reluctantly before taking slow and careful steps. He, too, readied his spell book, although his hand was shaking. In roughly ten steps, he was nearing the doorframe. From the other two’s perspective, he was walking excruciatingly slowly, and then, without warning, yelped in surprise before falling backward. Both Ben and Servoir ran to him in panic. “What happened?!” said the leader. “W-What the hell is that thing?!” Nyman answered, pointing at something, a tiny creature hidden in the darkness of the other room. They could only see a vague shape, however. That was until the creature started unnaturally moving its legs, almost twisting them around. Somehow, it managed to use its flimsy legs to take a few steps forward, and all three men’s faces were filled with disgust at the unholy sight in front of them. The beast was only around 20 centimeters tall and walked on three legs, with oversized eyeballs, a long tail, and thin antennae placed on its head. “This… What an ugly rat. It’s naked, too.” said Servoir, slightly taken aback as he kneeled to have a better look at the thing. “It’s magic. Fauna magic. You should know, Nyman, it’s your specialty.” replied Ben before his hand ran through his spell book. Upon stopping on one of the pages, a small turquoise light emanated from his hand. The light traveled to where the creature stood in multiple tiny beams, before morphing into a small tornado. The rat screeched as the spell engulfed it, but in a short time, the tornado ripped it into shreds. When Ben was sure nothing was left, the tornado vanished into thin particles floating in the air. Nyman finally stood back up. “I didn’t know Fauna magic could fail this badly! This rat didn’t look like anything I made during my classes!” he replied, whimpering. “This means two things. Firstly, whoever created this thing didn’t give it the necessary energy to keep it alive against Ben’s spell. And second—” Servoir was interrupted by the creaking sounds of Ben walking up the stairs in the newly discovered room. “So this means there is someone, and they’re onto us. Get ready to fight.” replied Ben, dryly. “Okay, please don’t interrupt me. I was about to say that this… thing, was probably only a way to detect our presence. It probably reacted to us by grumbling and screaming.” said Servoir, his face adorned with a frown. “I’m done, I don’t want to do this anymore.” Nyman continued. “I wasn’t warned there would be someone in the house! And on top of that, Mister Benetnasch here is playing bootlicker. This mission sucks, I thought it would be easy.” Servoir chuckled at the outburst before the leader turned towards the both of them, furious. “Then leave. I’ll handle this alone, and I’ll write the report myself. We won’t find anything anyway, but if you two want to go against orders, then so be it.” Both Servoir and Nyman shrugged before laughing aloud, which only served to anger Ben more. “Sure, do it yourself. But don’t complain if you can’t handle whatever you find.” They both turned towards the entrance door and walked through it. Nyman’s hands trembled as he stuffed his spell book into his satchel, muttering under his breath. Servoir turned back one last time, however. He couldn’t see his leader who was still on the stairs but left out one last message. “I know orders are orders, but you really should consider your own feelings, Ben. This is not healthy. You’re always following orders mindlessly, and I think it’s sad.” On this last word, the door slammed shut behind them, leaving Benetnasch alone in this not-so-empty house. The young man sighed before looking down at the stairs he stood on and pondering for a few instants. After his quick trance, he looked back up and removed his hood. His hair was shining a turquoise color, with three blue streaks in front of his face. He donned a high ponytail, and he made sure to keep his left ear uncovered at all times. Ben then walked to the next floor and spent around an hour searching every nook and cranny of each room. He always had his spell book ready in case he stumbled across anything. But after exhausting himself searching, he realized that there was indeed nothing. He was right. The only thing he had to do now was return to the floor below and continue his search, alone. He did not mind any of it, however, as he preferred working on his own, but he couldn’t shake the weight of their words, and their defiance stung more than he cared to admit. Suddenly, he heard something coming from a floor even above him. A loud thud, echoing ominously, followed by several quieter ones. A shiver ran down his spine, but he ran towards the stairs that he had located during his search and quickly climbed them, his breathing a tad bit heavier than before. The stairs led to a trapdoor on the ceiling, and he guessed it would lead to the house’s attic. He opened the trapdoor and jumped into the attic. What he saw shook him down and rendered him speechless. The room’s smell of old paper was intense, almost nauseating. There were tons of books, most of them arranged in several piles, filling the walls. A large bookshelf was even there, full to the brim with tomes he did not recognize. The window was closed off by a piece of cloth, but the light that came through illuminated a pile of books that had fallen to the ground, and some of them were opened to pages containing several spells. What he saw next to the pile, however, was what caught his attention the most. It was a young woman. She was curled up in a ball next to a few piles of books, and she was silently crying, her eyes closed. She wore a brown one-piece skirt with a belt, and her blonde hair was tied up in very long twin-tails. Benetnasch couldn’t help but freeze, as the features on his face softened at the sight of the poor woman, conflicting with his usually serious demeanor, as if he had forgotten about his mission. He closed his spell book in resignation and hesitated before reaching to her with a hand, crouching in the process. “Are you alright…?”
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Chapter 1: The Faithful