Once outside, the young boy cast a quick gnce at the port and noticed that a rge ship was moored at the dock right in front of him.

  This ship was about twenty to thirty meters long and had two square-rigged masts. Looking all the way up the tallest mast, he saw its fg, a dark mauve rectangur fg with, at its center, a stone tower resting on an open rge book.

  “Thus, this is the ship to go to Agnos.”

  When he looked more closely at the dock, he noticed that dockworkers were busy unloading the ship’s cargo onto carts, then sending everything to a warehouse a little further away to load a new batch.

  Among these dockworkers lifting heavy wooden crates was a magician. He was using a levitation spell on the most imposing crates, to make unloading and loading easier for the others.

  After a few long minutes of observation, Elwyn resumed his path and decided to walk along the docks to reach the nearest beach.

  It was only when he arrived at the outskirts of the town, after about ten minutes of walking, that the young boy reached his destination.

  A vast stretch of yellowish-beige sand spread out before him for roughly a hundred meters.

  When he touched the sand with his right hand, he noticed it wasn’t particurly warm, but rather cool. After all, it was still winter, and even though the end of the season was near, the weather by the sea remained rather cool.

  Following that, Elwyn began walking on the sand, his feet sinking slightly as if he were treading through thick snow, and he headed toward the vast expanse of water that y ahead.

  “So, this is the sea…”

  Every step he took toward the sea was accompanied by the cry of seagulls flying just above him, a birdcall completely unknown to Eri but one he had begun to notice since arriving near Estal.

  Each step brought him a little closer to its infinite horizon. Indeed, while gazing out at that endless horizon, the young boy noticed a few small boats in the distance.

  “These must surely be fishing boats.”

  Once he was about ten meters from the sea, Elwyn removed his shoes and socks, rolled up the cuffs of his pants to mid-calf, and set his luggage on the ground.

  Ready now, he resumed his determined walk when suddenly an enormous wave crashed heavily onto the edge of the beach. It managed to reach both his bare feet, completely engulfing them in cold water, before slowly receding.

  The young boy stifled a cry and resisted jumping back from this sneaky, though predictable, attack by the sea on his now freezing feet.

  “Cold! Too cold! The sea is far too cold this season.”

  After recovering from the shock, Elwyn stepped back and went to retrieve his belongings left behind.

  “It’d be better to come back during the warm season.”

  Once he reached a non-sandy surface, the young boy took the time to brush off all the sand clinging to his feet before getting dressed again and picking up a stone along the way toward the port.

  Back at the port, Elwyn saw that the ship was still being prepared for its expedition.

  “Well, it seems I still have some time on my hands…”

  The young boy then made his way to the mooring post where the ship’s stern was tied and sat there. Once settled, he took a long, deep breath and, when his lungs were full, exhaled slowly.

  When his mind was finally free of all thoughts, he pced the stone, he had picked it up earlier, in front of him and extended his right hand toward it.

  Elwyn concentrated, focusing all his thoughts on that stone as he attempted to move it using the power of “ether control.”

  This power, typical of the Entities, allows one to manipute the surrounding ether to shape it as desired simply by will.

  Of course, for the young boy, knowledge of this power had only been accessible for a year, when the Deity Ogme unlocked his memory.

  And so, Elwyn spent the rest of his time practicing this basic exercise, repeating it again and again, striving to be ever more precise in the movements and in the amount of surrounding ether used.

  About fifteen minutes ter, a deep voice was heard right next to Elwyn.

  — Excuse me, little one, but we’re about to weigh anchor.

  The young boy let go of the stone he had been holding at chest height and turned toward the man on his right.

  It was a sailor.

  The sailor wore a bck cap and was dressed in a beige shirt and trousers fastened with a woolen belt. Over his shirt, he wore a brown woolen drape jacket.

  — I see. Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll board immediately then.

  — To board, I need to see a document certifying your entry to Agnos Academy, if that’s indeed where you’re headed, he added, after witnessing a brief demonstration of ether control.

  The young boy then produced the letter ratified by Ogme and showed it to the sailor, who quickly gnced over it.

  — Everything is in order. Welcome aboard, little one.

  Elwyn tucked the letter away in his luggage and headed toward the pier where he boarded the ship.

  Once he set foot on the deck, the young boy noticed that the ground was unstable and swayed slightly in all directions.

  — Assure me, you don’t get seasick? asked the sailor who had accompanied him from the docks.

  — No, I don’t think so. In any case, I don’t feel ill.

  — Good, that’ll mean one less thing to clean up, he said before going off to take his post.

  Elwyn called out to him just before he disappeared from view.

  — Excuse me, where can I settle during the journey and how long will it st?

  The sailor stopped and began looking around while scratching his chin.

  — You can settle at the bow.

  — The what?

  — The bow. That’s the front of the ship, replied the slightly annoyed sailor.

  — Alright… and how long is the voyage?

  The sailor took a few seconds to think.

  — Since it’s a little past early afternoon, we should arrive around early evening.

  — I see. Thanks for the information.

  The young boy then made his way to the bow of the ship, where he sat on a crate and gazed at the horizon as the ship maneuvered for its departure toward Agnos.

  __________________________

  The boat journey from the port of Estal to Erana takes a little over three hours.

  During part of this time, Elwyn simply observed his surroundings.

  He saw the sea stretching endlessly, left, right, in front, and behind.

  Above was the sky; below, the sea.

  Water was everywhere around him, on a surface he would describe as infinite, and this impressive view made him feel utterly insignificant.

  He felt overwhelmed by the vastness of his environment, for which he was not naturally suited or equipped.

  After all, he is not a fish.

  Furthermore, while looking at the sky, he saw birds diving steeply into the water and emerging with a fish in their beaks.

  This sight deepened his sense of insignificance, as it introduced him to the notion of depth. Yes, the sea is immensely vast in surface area, but also in depth, just as the nd is, with its towering mountains.

  He then wondered what the total surface area of the sea was compared to that of the nd, as well as the area taken up by the floating isnds. All these magnitudes he tried to imagine quickly gave him a slight dizziness, which disappeared as soon as he shifted his thoughts.

  When the young boy’s gaze turned once again toward the sea, he remembered something: his encounter with Deity Ogme and the gap in power between them.

  A gap as vast and immense as the sea.

  Elwyn sighed.

  — Pfffff… I still have a long way to go…

  The young boy then took a book from his luggage and removed a sheet of paper that he had pced right after the cover, fixing his gaze on it intently.

  The sheet was the size of a book page, but thicker and with a surface as smooth as a waxed table.

  On it was an illustration depicting three people.

  The figure on the left was a sublime, angelic, and smiling young woman, whose skin was perfectly fair, smooth, and entirely free of any blemishes. Her long, shiny, golden hair was styled in a braided ponytail draped over her right shoulder, and her magnificent almond-shaped eyes were set with sparkling emerald pupils. She was dressed entirely in a rich pine-green travel robe with long sleeves trimmed in gold, along with a green and gold belt. Proudly, she wore a gold pendant around her neck shaped like a tree of life with leaves made of finely cut emeralds.

  This was Akeso, the Deity of Life.

  To the right of the Deity stood a retively tall and well-built man in his thirties. He had short, spiky raven-blue hair and rge, slightly amber-tinted brown eyes. He wore full leather armor with a chainmail shirt underneath. At his belt was attached a long sword on his left side, and a dagger protruded from his back, its hilt set with a purple crystal. On his left forearm was affixed a perfectly smooth metal shield.

  This was Tristian, the Guardian of Deity Akeso.

  And finally, there was a baby sleeping in Akeso’s arms, drawing the attention of both the Deity and her Guardian.

  This little one had raven-blue hair of the same brilliance as Akeso’s, which made for a lighter blue than that of Tristian.

  It was Elwyn.

  This illustration of the young boy’s biological family was provided by Deity Ogme, who had expined that the paper used was “automatic memory paper.”

  — This particur paper is enchanted with a magical engraving that fixes a mental image upon it. Naturally, the precision and detail of the image depend on the crity of the mental picture. It is therefore more accurate to transfer an image you can see directly onto the paper. If you rely on a vague memory, the representation will be equally vague. Of course, this representation was made the st time I saw them. They wanted you to have a true memory of them, in case things went wrong…

  Thus, Elwyn carried with him a representation of his biological parents as well as another of his entire adoptive family, both made by Ogme during his st annual visit.

  When he looked at the image of his parents, the young boy felt no anger or sadness; only acceptance.

  Acceptance of his father’s irrevocable fate and acceptance of the unknown pce where his mother resided.

  The only painful emotion deep within him was frustration.

  Elwyn was frustrated by knowing almost nothing about the responsible party and not understanding the reasons that drove him to act that way.

  But anyway, he knew it all too well.

  Revenge would serve him little purpose.

  No matter what he did, nothing would change.

  His father would remain dead, and the time he never spent with his mother could never be recovered. Moreover, since both are Entities, or nearly so, even the familial bond between them would not form immediately but would take time to forge, at least in the case of the young nephilim.

  However, this revenge might still serve a certain public purpose. If he managed to defeat this Deity by any means necessary, it might be possible to bring back the Deity of Life in Ilnolia.

  And that is not something to be taken lightly.

  After several long minutes of studying this representation, Elwyn carefully pced it back into the book he had taken out and began reading to pass the rest of the journey.

  Once the young boy finished his reading, he looked up to observe the horizon and then noticed a piece of nd in view.

  It was the artificial isnd of Agnos.

  It was there that Ogme, the Deity of Knowledge and Wisdom, resided.

  This isnd is called “artificial” because it was created entirely by earth elementals long after the world was founded by the Great Creator and his six Elemental Sources, following a personal request from the Deity of Knowledge and Wisdom.

  The peculiarity of this isnd is that it is perfectly circur and its entire perimeter is covered by cliffs, like a bowl, except at two opposite points connected by a watercourse that traverses the isnd from one end to the other.

  To the south of the isnd lies the small human town of Erana, and to the north lies the elven vilge of Tarathiel.

  Of course, at the center of the isnd stands the Great Library of Agnos and its prestigious academy.

  __________________________

  As the sailor had rightly estimated when departing the port of Estal, the ship arrived off the coast of the isnd of Agnos in early evening, docking at the port of Erana.

  The first impression this small town gave Elwyn was that it resembled Estal, especially as a rich trading town with well-organized and maintained streets.

  The young boy was struck by the presence of cliffs more than twenty meters high that completely surrounded the isnd, framing the town on its sides.

  When he set foot on nd, Elwyn was immediately greeted by the sailor’s voice from behind him.

  — Hey, kid.

  The young boy turned toward the calling voice.

  — Next, you must go to the Agnos administrative building located along the docks, to the right.

  Elwyn then waved to the sailor.

  — Thanks for the information.

  He then proceeded in the indicated direction and eventually arrived in front of a building bearing the Agnos symbol on its fa?ade.

  The young boy tried to open the entrance door, but in vain.

  “It’s closed… Though, given the time, that’s normal.”

  Elwyn then turned back and looked around.

  The street along the docks was lit by orange lights from mpposts, their glow emanating from small spheres illuminated by magical engravings.

  The young boy observed them closely and felt that a tiny fraction of the surrounding ether was being drawn into each luminous sphere.

  “It’s still as impressive… Magic easily accessible to everyone, though one must be careful with the amount of ether used.”

  Elwyn then looked up at the sky, which was slowly darkening, and sighed softly.

  — Well, what do I do now?

  Suddenly, a freezing wind swept swiftly down the entire street, chilling the young boy in its path. A few seconds ter, footsteps were heard just behind Elwyn.

  — A young boy of about ten with uncommon raven-blue hair and blue eyes, huh, commented an unknown man suddenly.

  Quickly recovering from the chill, the young boy turned gently toward the individual, whose presence he had not noticed until then.

  The man was rather tall and imposing, his upright stance and haughty bearing reflecting a certain self-assurance. He was dressed in a long bck coat adorned with golden buttons and worn open, revealing a fitted, purple velvet jacket underneath. His trousers and high-quality boots were the same color as his coat, creating a perfectly harmonious outfit.

  His hair, a gcial blue, was slicked back with several strands falling freely and framing his delicate face. His eyes, matching the color of his hair, were piercing and cold, betraying his determined and relentless nature.

  Observing his face, the young boy noted the great paleness of his skin, which did nothing to diminish the natural charisma this individual exuded as he stood before him, his gaze fixed firmly on Elwyn’s.

  — What do you want from me? asked Elwyn calmly, his neutral gaze steadfast against the stranger’s icy stare.

  Elwyn’s instinct told him that this man possessed far greater power than he did, and it would be best not to provoke it.

  — Tss, you Entities and your nonchant stares, the stranger murmured softly.

  — Pardon?

  — Nothing. Elwyn, I have come to fetch you, so follow me.

  The young boy was surprised to be addressed by his first name by someone entirely unknown to him.

  — Who exactly are you? asked Elwyn, standing still.

  The stranger sighed exasperatedly at the unnecessary questions and wasted time the young boy was subjecting him to.

  — My name is Ezekiel, a professor at Agnos.

  — I see… Can you prove your cim?

  Ezekiel sighed even more deeply and, moments ter, arrived right beside Elwyn, his right arm encircling his neck, ready to bring him to the ground instantly.

  — Don’t waste any more of my time and patience, nephilim, he whispered softly into the young boy’s ear, who had seen nothing coming.

  — Please excuse me, Professor Ezekiel, Elwyn apologized, shocked by the sudden approach.

  The professor then released the young boy.

  — Very well, let’s go.