Forgotten memories

[Areos]

The next day. It had been chilly, not much to Leneors surprise, he was in the North after all. The only thing bugging him was that he didn't know what to do: he thought he would be dead at this point, now he had no certain goal in Life. Not knowing what will happen seemed worse than knowing how ones life was to end.

He recollected most of his memories by now, he knew the village he had grown up in, he knew how he had lived in this village along with his sister and under Belmonds surveillance - who unforunately returned to be called dwarf, not to his liking realy. Yet he did aswell remember cold stone walls, ceremonies and things the fact that he lived a rather generous life for a mere villager. Upon telling about it Belmond had thrown in to 'return to the castle' as he called it, Leneor was rather confused since he hadn't seen anything even close to a castle in the surroundings, yet he still accepted. He wasn't realy occupied either.

[Areos]

They walked up into the snowy Cliffs of the Mountains, up to now with nothing else but barren stone and chilly winds in view. Leneor was terribly calm, more than he usualy was, and despite having slept alot he felt tired. He was fine with it, and only logical considering he almost died if it weren't for Luthien.

"some water?" Luthien held a bottle towards him as they walked.
"No thanks." he replied with a smile while shaking his head. "Hey Dwarf, how far is it?"
"It would have been nice if you still were lacking some memories, boy. We're passing the barrier right within a minute, after that its just a few more steps." Belmond replied.

Indeed, Leneor felt like passing through something like at the tower. Geez, i realy do wonder why i'm still so tired. Thats probably why Luthien keeps offering me food and water. By the way, am I paler than usual? . . . . . its odd not having another voice in your head to answer things.
Leneor raised his head.

"Where did that castle just come from?" he spouted out.
"Which cas-oh..." was Luthiens comment on it. Belmond just chuckled, saying something along the lines of 'ofcourse you remember my nickname, but not your Birthplace' or so. It was an old style castle, an edgy one that perfectly blended in with the colour of the cliffs, probably carved out of the stone. But It was massive. Just about 20 more steps till they entered a path that led up to a gate.

Belmond comanded them to halt. "It's sealed of, i went here a couple of times. But only a direct heir can reopen it again. I used my runes to get in up to now, but maybe you can do it, boy. just push it open."

Leneor stepped ahead. a thick, several meters wide and even larger, and he was supposed to just push it open. "Well, worth a try" he said as he reached out to press against the wood.

[Areos]

He expected to just be pushing against a wall, but the very moment he touched the gate, the ornament carved within it started to lighten up, and the door almost opened itself.

"That never happened when I broke in." belmond said. Luthien stared in awe, while Leneor just stepped in without further ado. He felt drawn inside, and it was unusualy warm inside, even some fires flickering.
Belmond rushed in after him.

"This is more unexpected than you opening the door, seems like you revived the castle. We might be able to enter all rooms now, maybe even that door." Belmond explained, pointing at the door right ahead. It was a greatly adorned two-winged door with the family crest embed into it, a magic presence conceiling it. The tiredness from earlier was blown away as he walked right on towards it.
Luthien closed the gate behind her and followed Leneor swiftly, Belmond was rather sullen, considering he was being ignored right now. What is it? there is something... something behind that door i have to reach...

[Areos]

Leneor was phazed by the room he had just entered. It looked like something between libary, armory and treasure chamber. Out of all of them it must have been the latter, since it weren't awfully many weapons or books, even though they indeed were valuable ones from the looks of it.

Though the room held more than just weapons and books, there were hoards of gold left laying around. If this was his, how come he had to scrap together his money all these years to get some decent meals?

"To explain this" Belmond began "your family had great influence and lived in wealth untill the day that they were slowly massacred by the witches. This place was sealed off some time ago, i don't know how they knew, but the great Lord, your father, knew that something would happen. He commanded me to take both his son and his daughter into my house and look for them untill they could claim the throne. Back then i was not aware on why he would not teach them the life of nobility but the one of a normal villager."

Belmond went on with explaining that the castle was being protected by the seal to be frozen in time, and not to let through anyone not worthy of entering. Only an heir to the house would be allowed to enter it, and general knowledge about the castle, like the layout and where the rooms were situated. He explained that there were certain rooms like these that he had never entered, though he recognized some of the items.

"Nox Nycotes" He explained as Luthien was holding two Handguns with an extraordinary long shaft, probably twice as long as the usual one. "Weapons crafted through Magic and science put together, they're almost impossible to rebuild since the principle has long been forgotten. With the end of the von Fabre family the knowledge about their existence withered aswell. They're dangerous, as they can influence the mindset of its wielder, but boost his skills in an extraordinary way." Luthien let go of them the moment Belmond mentioned the 'dangerous' part. "Not that dangerous, sometimes they boost one's self-confidence or make you more passionate, but once you let go of them you might be less confident or passionate than you were before. Their effect only appears noticable if you wear them for a realy long period of time."

Leneor walked through the room, he didn't need a weapon, but he felt that most of the ones around here were probably nox nycotes aswell. And the books had the same feeling around them. He pointed at one of the shelves.
"Those too?" he asked Belmond.

"no, those are Nebilim. Books that allow even weaker magicusers to conjure up spells. On each page there is an incarnation that gets consumed upon using the spell.They are quite valuable, since they allow arming weaker people with stronger magic. The more versatile you get with using them, the higher level books you can use, such as Rexbolt, Lunar eclipse or the like."
While Belmond remained with explaining, Luthien once again held the two revolvers in her hands. They consumed her whole concentration, on both of them there were names inscribed. Bollverk and Vestung.

"to protect and to guard." Leneor suddenly spoke from beside Luthien. she jumped from surprise. "You can have them." he added.
"huh?" she stammered.
"They're mine now, but I don't like guns. You seem to do, so I hereby give them to you as a present. It's the least I could do." he said in a tired voice.
"Th-TH-THanks Leneor" she beamed at him.

He began walking away into a corner of the room he had not yet inspected, while Luthien began playing around with her new weapons. He didn't expect her to be able to wield guns realy, but she did from the looks of it.

He walked up to a mirror embed into the wall. he realy looked diffrent from usual. Did his hair turn more greyish lately? The mirror actually was more like a gate, allowing Leneor to look at his torn self fully, it was at least 1-2 meters wide and 3 in height. He wanted to put his hand on the screen, touching the silvery surface, but was shocked as it turned out to be a liquid. His fingertips felt warm as they had entered it. He flinched back, but the moment he did, someone began speaking to him, inside his head to be accurate.

"Leonor alexandrer von Fabre..." a voice had called out for him, only adressing him. it wasn't Äeon, but it had the same calm sound in it. " ...come."
He had to follow the voice, he absent mindedly walked right into the mirror, passing through he silvery liquid. Both Belmond and Luthien noticed Leneor's actions, hurrying towards the mirror to stop him, but the moment they had reached it, Leneor already had passed through. And the mirror returned to being solid and unpassable.

[Areos]

A warmth, and the feeling of tranquility. Whatever this place was, it not only washed away his tiredness, it entirely lulled him into peace. The path ahead went straight forward, he could make something out from Afar, a shining sphere hovering above the ground.

"where is this?" Leneor mumbled, trying to graps understanding of the forest beside him and the strange sky above. Someone had called him to this place, but even upon reaching the sphere there was nobody to be seen. He seated himself on the soft ground.

"HEYA!" it suddenly rung into his right ear, and something embraced him from behind.
"Wha- !" Leneor wanted to jump away, but inhis position that wasnt realy possible.
"Finaly someone to visit me again, hehe~" a childish voice. He turned his head and looked into a young girls face, grinning at him. "But you took soooo~ long, i've been feeling lonely already."
"W-Who are you?" leneor brought out in surprise.
"I'm this forest, I'm a life-weaver. I'm the personification of the third essence - Life. But you can call me Vita, people gave me that name long ago. And your family is supposed to look after me, but since most of their threads have ended earlier than expected... well, I'll forgive you today, alright?"

Leneor was stupified - what was this girl talking about?
"You're so silent, but you allways have been, haven't you? you should be more talkative."
"Um, excuse me, but I still don't understand."
She let go of him and whirled around him, when she stood before him she looked at him sulkily at him as if he just said something wrong.

"Your family has accepted to guard the entrance to this domain, I govern the lives of any living being, i can follow their threads of life to the day they die by normal means. Interruption through being killed excluded, but i can see these happening aswell. But you neither know that you have to protect me, neither are you capable of it right now. Look at you, your life force is seeping out of you and all your strength already did some time ago at that witchtower. *sigh* humans can be intresting, but also a burden if you have to look out for them."

[Areos]

"You are... life? Vita means Life, so you are Life itself? I allways thought The essence of life would be ... diffrent. More like a god in a way... calm and collected."

"I'm no god, i'm the essence of Life. Each of us is diffrent, The Forest of Mana is weird but funny, and knowledge is realy boring. I'm lively." she grinned. "But I realy have to do something with you, you can't continue on like this. You would die in a week, your Life is running out."
Leneor was shocked by her last statement - if the personification of Life itself said he would die, then this was a perfectly undenyable death sentence.

"Oh don't look so worried, I called you here for a reason." she explained and kneelled down to him. "Let's enjoy this" she chuckled, kissing him without hesitation. He was overwhelmed by the sudden kiss, but he felt a strong energy flowing inside him while it lasted, so he couldn't stop her. After a long while she finaly broke the kiss, the moment it did Leneor grasped for air - he felt entirely revitalized, as if he just realized how much he had rested up to now, he was feeling great.

"so this is the fated kiss of Life? Those you kiss are granted another Life?"
"No. I only need to touch them for that. But I allways wanted to know how it feels, you living ones do it all the time. I like the taste of yours." She hummed. She jumped him right again, but this time he stopped her from achieving her objective right away, they lay on the ground, he keeping her at distance.

"Wait, what is the second kiss for?"
"Um... let me think... oh yeah, getting your powers back."
"You're lying right?"
"Maaaay-be? Aw come on cutie"
"I won't let myself be raped by you, you know?"
"Ok fine. Only a kiss when you get something, alright?"
"Not alright, but if thats the only price. But it still feels wrong kissing a small child, you know? Even if you are the essence of life you look like one."
"Alright." she replied, and began aging into 'her' mid-teens. "alright, I already gave back your Life and your powers, what else can I offer you, hmmm~"

He already recieved 'his powers' ? Did that mean...
"Nope, you don't get your air control back, you get your real powers back."
"Are you rea- wait, my real powers?"
"You'll figure it out. But you need to train yourself anew, I will give you a litle help at the start though, teehee~. give me your hands." Leneor obeyed. As he did, she reached out for them and touched them with her finger, the very moment of the touch the incarnations he had on his arms flared up again, but in a light green glow, reaching up to his elbow on both arms. He held them up and

"And now for my reward~" Vita jumped him again, though the kiss lasted fewer moments, due to Leneors struggle. The moment he did break free was more out of luck (he didn't want to be too rough trying to break free) as she suddenly turned her head and looked at the sky, Leneor could make outa fine line going through his field of vision.

"Looks like I'll have to let you go for now, but please come back some time, okay?" she asked sweetly.
"Okay?" he replied in confused state.
"You can reach me anytime by going through the portal, I'll only allow you here, or those whom I find intresting enough. Goodbye sweet prince." she giggled as she climbed off him. He lifted himself up, replying her gesture of goodbye as she walked backwards waving at him. He walked back towards the Mirror, it looked the same as from the other side, but it stood inside nowhere. With a deep breath he passed through it, a gash of fresh air hitting him.

[Areos]

He had some hardships explaining to Luthien, she had clung to him the past 10 minutes, that he couldn't explain what happened behind the mirror. Belmond had been searching through the castle incase it could have been a secret passage, he wasn't particulary happy about it but opened up that finaly all rooms were opened.

But Leneor felt great, energy was pulsing through his entire body, and he felt revitalized. He already started giving orders to Belmond to get all those in the village a place up in the castle, and provide them with food. (thanks to the Castle being sealed up rather suddenly, There still was a lot of food stored up and in a good state).
Leneor himself walked through the city, inviting the rather reluctant witches. But since most of them were close to starving, all of them seemed to agree. Luthien was following him right beside him - she had explained not to let go of him, so he couldn't disappear again. He still only had one skill, he knew how it would work, but it was useless for self defense. Having a makeshift bodyguard with guns would be safer anyway.

"Hey Luthien."
"What is it?"
"look up there." Leneor pointed upwards at the sky, something was moving along the sky, circling around them. It was a Bird, but its blue feathers were unnatural, even more unnatural was that the bird seemed to have noticed that the two of them had seen it, and was now flying away.
"We'll follow it."
"What?" Luthien interrupted, but refrained from opposing the Idea.
"Haha, its fated - I know it is. So lets move swiftly." he explained and rushed forward after the bird.


(regained strength: Health --> 700 , Mana --> 800. New ability: Mana manipulation)

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