The wind was so strong the top of the trees were swinging, only the moonlight was helping Isabella see. She didn't know why but she was running, why was she running? It was like she was looking at herself from a third person. She was holding on to something, she couldn't see what she was holding. She was desperate to reach her destination, the further she was going the more the forest seemed against her, dense bushes of vines and thorns were ahead but she did not care. She kept on moving, despite the many scratches and thorns getting stuck into her skin she kept on moving. Whatever was after her seems to be getting faster.

  " Richard! Richard, where are you?! "

  No one was there, she was alone chased by this dark shape. She kept on running, what she was holding was the most important thing to her, it had more importance than her own life. The closer what was chasing her was getting, the colder the air was feeling. Everything behind her was getting frozen. She could see her breath being condensed in front of her, her lungs were burning up but she had to keep going. Suddenly, she fell to the ground, she felt a sharp pain in her right leg, when she turned around she screamed in horror as she saw her leg had frozen and stood in place. What she felt was her frozen leg breaking, now she could only crawl, looking forward she saw what she was carrying: a small round package that was wrapped in cloth. It seemed almost alive, as if it was breathing. She did not unwrap it, she just took it against her and kept on crawling. She was freezing more and more until she could not even blink. She was now unable to move, her vision was getting cloudy, she then saw bare feet walking in front of her, the person crouched and slowly took the small package away from her. All she could do was huff in pain, words could not even come out of her mouth. The person seemed to be a woman, with skin white as snow and so was her hair. She turned around and held her hand towards Isabella, an ice spike formed at the tip of her hand and before it launched she could hear the woman whisper something but most of it was muffled.

  " .... child ... "

  The next moment, the ice pick pierced her head.

  Isabella suddenly woke up gasping for air and feeling extremely cold which was unusual for her. Next to her, Richard was sound asleep. " This nightmare, I never remember anything from it but I know it's this one." For years now she has had this nightmare, ever since she lost her mother. " It's that time of the year again isn't it? ". She decided to go wash herself in hope of warming up. She went upstairs and used her magic to pour warm water into her bath, the water felt great and soothing on her cold skin. She laid back and thought about all the things she had to do in the upcoming days. Once she was done, she got dressed and decided to brush her hair. While passing the brush through her hair she tried remembering parts of the nightmare. " I only remember the sensation of despair and cold, it's bothering me. " All of a sudden she realised while looking in the mirror that she had a white strand of hair. " Where did I start having those? ". She simply decided to cut it off and kept on going with her morning routine. When she came back downstairs she found Richard shirtless and looking through the window, the sun was entering the home and projecting his shadow over the wall. She walked closer to him and hugged his muscular back.

  " Good morning my prince. "

  " Morning princess, how terrible for me to wake up without you at my side. I felt completely lost. "

  He turned around and gave her his usual charming smile. Even if she saw it hundreds of times by now, this smile was always making her feel better. He leaned forward and gave her a small kiss on the lips. She leaned on him and looked at the sun rising in the distance. While looking at her, Richard noticed how troubled she seemed.

  " Is something wrong? "

  " It's nothing, just a nightmare I had. "

  " Again? "

  " What do you mean again? I never told you I had nightmares. "

  " You speak when you sleep and you fidget a lot. "

  " Oh ... Did I ... What did I say last night? "

  " You were shivering and repeating the word 'child'. "

  " I see. "

  " How long have you been having nightmares? "

  " Ever since I first started manifesting any abilities really." Isabella couldn't look him in the eyes. For some reason she was feeling ashamed. " My mom didn't know what they were but apparently it's always the same nightmare, most of the time all I can remember is the feeling of cold. "

  " Hmm. "

  Richard broke from her embrace and went to sit at the table, he started cutting an apple.

  " You never speak about her, how was she? "

  " She was .. nice. She made sure I knew how to handle myself before she passed. "

  " I'm sorry to hear that Bella. "

  " It's ok, it happened years ago... "

  She was nervous and biting her nails while talking. Richard understood that despite the years, it was still a difficult subject to touch. Sometimes an understanding of silence is better than any words, he knew this better than anyone and thus decided to wait for her to expand on the matter or change the topic.

  " Richard, have you ever celebrated a Circadium? "

  " Never, I haven't been here for a full year so I don't really know what all the fuss is about in town. "

  " Well it's just about celebrating the arrival of warmer days, in ancient history people used to make sacrifices believing the blood of animals or humans was pleasing the Creators. "

  " Creators? As in multiples? "

  " Yes, nowadays people consider there is only one Creator, but many still think it's like a Council of Creators deciding the fate of living beings. Have you ever wondered what he looked like? "

  " Well ... like us? "

  " Ah! And then who made the demi-humans the way they are and why? "

  " Hmmm, I don't know, the Creator still? "

  " If he looked human and created creatures that looked like him, why wouldn't there be other Creators who did the same with demi-humans and other species? "

  " There can't be a Creator for each species. "

  " Why not? "

  " It's too many! "

  " Well the belief is there is the human Creator, a feline Creator, a reptilian one, and all the other types. Ok look here. "

  While explaining this, Isabella was literally jumping in place excited to share this knowledge with him. She hopped over to her shelf and took off an enormous book. She dropped the heavy book on the table and opened it at exactly the page she wanted to. On the page were many words and symbols Richard couldn't understand. Trying to focus his eyes he could make out some of the words and uttered one of them at random. "*

  " What is Siriyane ? "

  She looked at him with a look of surprise.

  " Did I say something wrong? Is it a bad word? "

  " No not at all, but how do you know S?genite? "

  " S?ge - what? "

  " S?genite, that's the language it's written in. "

  " I .. don't know, I only know the common tongue. This vocabulary and the way it's conjugated is unknown to me but for some reason I know how to read it. "

  " Hmmm, aren't you full of surprises. "

  " And how do you know it? "

  " My mom made me learn it when I was a little girl. She said it was important I understood everyone's culture because I could end up anywhere in the world. "

  " She was wise. "

  Isabella let out a small sigh.

  " That she was... Anyway, Siriyanes are what I was about to tell you about, this is why it's repeated all over this page. Siriyanes are what were believed to be superior versions of Creators, some say they were the first beings ever created, learned magic on their own and ascended to levels of power now impossible to reach. So there is a water Siriyane, a fire Siriyane, a Sun Siriyane which is the one people used to offer gifts to for the Circadium. All types of Siriyanes who then created different other gods."

  " Is this book just a big history lesson about Creators? "

  " No, it's a history lesson about all of our history. "

  " How did your mom get this book? Even the Grand readers of the academy of Fardug don't have something so valuable. "

  " Well from a country that hates magic users, I believe they would have burned it if they ever had one like these. "

  " Yeah you are right on this.. "

  " And my mom gave it to me, I never could have asked her where she got it. She has always had a lot of knowledge about this world without ever leaving our home. Never knew how she knew all this. " She paused for a moment, remembering how peaceful her life was back then. " So she taught me most of this language and the story of the Siriyanes.

  " I see that most of them have woman-like features, why is that? "

  " There are two theories, the first one is that in the mind of humans, a being worth of a deity could only be a woman or someone that had the aura of one because back then the sins of men were already far too big and the Creators chose that no man should hold power such as these. All the wars were always created by men for the profit of men. The other theory is that since most of the magic users, the human ones at least, are women, the most powerful ones became Siriyanes. "

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  " And how far back do these theories go in our history? "

  " A few thousands of years, no one ever saw or fought a Siriyanes ever since the primordial times, not that you could survive if you ever faced one. All we know is each is assigned an element of predilection, some are good some are evil but they rarely intervene. So it was said that Siriyanes were the true gods of this world since they decided to let smaller creators take over their work. And when the Siriyanes stopped monitoring them it became chaos, people believe they were abandonned, forsaken from the grace of the gods but those were often the sayings of cultists that just wanted to put their most powerful magic users as fake Siriyanes to rule over the masses. But nowadays people barely know about it or at least in this region. Up north, where I come from, people are more knowledgeable or at least aware of the old ways of thinking. "

  Richard was drinking her words like it was the most precious nectar, she knew so much and was so young.

  " Maybe you could be a Siriyane? "

  She stopped her history lesson and looked at him. " How can such a dangerous man act so much like a little boy? " She laughed at his ignorance and took a few seconds to compose herself.

  " I'm nowhere near that strong, I'm not even fit to fight, nor do I want to use my magic to fight. I never asked you, how does your magic work exactly? "

  Richard sat back into his seat and thought about it.

  " Well, it's never something I use as a preparation, it's always something like 'I need this right now' and somehow it happens. "

  " That's convenient but what is the extent of it all? Do you have a limit to how many spells you can use? "

  " A limit, is there supposed to be one? "

  She stood there dumbfounded. "This man literally ignores all laws established. "

  " Well there kind of is, I can't just throw spells all day and be fine, at some point you run out of mana. Using magic is like flexing a muscle, the more often you do it, the more resistance you have to the eventual drawbacks of overusing it. Even the battle witches have a limit, this is why during the war they are used as either a last resort or for a quick destruction of the enemy's lines early in battle. They can't stay in battle for hours upon hours. Witches like me that mostly use runes are different. I can perform more utility types of spells, more like traps and depending on how big the rune is and how long I use the spell I consume more or less energy. For example this house took me a few minutes to build but I used a multi layered runic spell within a barrier. "

  Richard tilted his head to the side.

  " You know that just telling me things I never heard of is not gonna make me understand it better right? Imagine I'm a toddler in magic, a very talented toddler who just does things and it works but I don't know how. "

  " Ok, I'll show you then, let's go outside, I have no one coming today anyway. "

  They had walked outside and wandered into the forest. Once they were far enough from the house, Bella decided to show Richard how to use the runes. She started marking a set of trees with different runes.

  " So to set runes you can make them physically with painting, dirt or carve them with a knife like I just did. But the other way is this way. "

  She held out her hand in front of a tree trunk and focused, some light appeared in her palm and a crossed out inverted triangle made out of light appeared on the tree. Richard looked at the process with the most ultimate focus.

  " So what's the difference between a magical one and a physical one? "

  " Well the physical one can be tempered with to make it unusable. To break this you need to be able to make one yourself and understand the structure of it. Making runes is a complex system, the more layers there are to a rune, the more difficult it is to break but also the more mana it costs to make. But the time and complexity of a rune is worth the power it gives back to the user. For example I made a simple one with a strength symbol inverted and crossed. "

  " So a triangle is a strength symbol? "

  " Yes."

  " But why inverted and why crossed? "

  " An inverted rune just means it will have the opposite effect of the rune, so this means it will weaken the tree, and the fact it's crossed is like hmmm .... 'signing it'. Signing a rune makes it have special conditions that you set at the moment of designing it. For example I gave to this one the condition of 'as long as light shines on it, the spell will be effective'. This is the type of condition you can put in place. These devices can also be used to put traps within runes to prevent anyone from erasing them. That's why many witches that die get sealed in coffins or tombs with multi layers or runes over it. My mom taught me that in witches's funerals, each student or friend of the witch was supposed to leave a mark on the rune sealing the coffin. So the more a witch was respected the more marks and runes there would be. "

  Richard was simply nodding and listening in silence. Isabella then resumed her lesson.

  " Alright so look, runes do not always need to be activated by voice, they can be triggered by touch or by any condition you set on it. For this one it's not a 'dormant' type of rune, meaning it needs the person who put it there to actively want its activation. So once I need it I just need to focus back on it, let's stand back a little bit. "

  The both of them stood a few meters away, once they were far enough, Bella focused on the rune, as it activated it emitted the same light as when it was done and suddenly the tree started to shrivel like it was aging rapidly until it was barely holding on it's own. Richard let out a whistle of admiration.

  " That's impressive, can I try? "

  " Ahah, if you feel like it, go ahead. "

  Richard walked up to a tree and just like he saw Isabella do, he held out his hand in front of him and closed his eyes. " I picture a rune that will blow this tree to bits ". He then felt a familiar warm feeling on his hand. When he opened his eyes he saw a light blue rune, it was the shape of a P with the base curving into an horizontal S that was encased in a square and a circle around it. He turned around to smile at Isabella and he couldn't help but laugh when he noticed how surprised she was by his rune crafting.

  " How?! "

  " Ahah! We have so much in common, I was wondering the same thing! "

  " You are such an anomaly it's not even fair! "

  He winked at her while he was walking back to her.

  " It's because I have a very good teacher. "

  " Well if you keep on going and if you ever learn to explain to me how you do it, I will become your student. It's a two layer rune, you even have a strengthening square as the base. "

  " I believe it means its good. What do you mean by multi layer and what's the 'base' of a rune? "

  " Layers means it's stronger than an average that is simply put there, consider rune crafting like building a house. You have the foundation / the base, the outer layer is like the walls of it and you have the core which is the content of the house. You can have only one base but depending on how strong and resisting your foundations are you can build better walls. Understand? "

  " Yeah I think I'm getting it, so it's impossible to build a good resistance in the outer layer if the base is weak right? "

  " Exactly, if your base is weak, your outer layer is easy to breach or it can crumble on its own. The issue then is not only is it easy to erase the rune but it can make it unstable and not responsive to the user. "

  " So if you set a trap it can blow in your own face. "

  " Yep. "

  " How many rune symbols are there? "

  " A lot, and some depending on the language the person uses, I write mine in s?genite. Because this way less people know how to erase my runes since so few people speak it. You either need to have a codex to decipher and erase it or at least double if not triple the amount of energy put into making it in the first place. "

  " Lockpick or brute force it, got it. So why is the square a good base? Why not two circles? "

  " Ok, between a circle and a square, which one is the easier to draw? "

  " The circle."

  " You have your answer, the more complex the pattern is, the stronger it is. "

  " Wait, that makes no sense, why wouldn't anyone just make the most complex shapes every time then? "

  " Who said they could? The shape does not depend on what you picture it to be, the shape depends on how much energy you put into it. I believe you made a square because you didn't know how much energy to put in it so you used all you had and so it made a square. "

  Richard decided to keep silent on this one " If i tell her I barely felt any changes it might bruise her ego. By the look she had, a square is probably her maximum output. "

  " Yeah probably, so is it the same rule for the outer layer? "

  " Yep. "

  " And how many outer layers can you have? "

  " I only ever heard of four maximums and it's rare. "

  " I see, do you know the symbol I used? What does it mean? "

  " Well lucky for you or for me, it somehow is in s?genite, it means powerful but I never saw this horizontal part. "

  " So powerful is not the same as strength? "

  " Not really, strength is more like inner strength to whatever the rune is on, the powerful is to empower the effect of the rune so the horizontal S is the real spell but I have no idea what it means. "

  " Well you may want to step back even more then. "

  " What have you done .....?"

  " Just look. "

  The both of them took cover behind another tree, once Richard focused on the rune it emitted a light that blinded the both of them. While covering their eyes, all they could see were orbs of energy gathering around the rune and being attracted to it. Just a few seconds after the phenomenon had started, the orbs rushed to the rune and then the energy expended within the tree causing it to burst open as if lighting had struck it. Splinters of the destroyed tree were sent flying all round and some nearly missed the two of them. Once everything had settled, they both got up and looked around. Most trees had been pierced by wooden spikes. The rune did not only create an explosion from inside the tree but magically reshaped it so it would send out spikes around at an extremely high speed. Isabella was shocked. " How much energy did he put into this!? "

  " Richard? "

  " Yeah? "

  " Promise me to warn me when you make runes now. "

  " Promise. "

  " I need to show you the other type. It will be quicker now, come with me. "

  They then walked up to three trees that Bella had marked previously with her knife. She stood within the space the trees were making.

  " Ok so runes can also be put as points between barriers. Meaning that within these trees, anything that tries to harm me is stopped or destroyed. Throw a knife at me. "

  " Are you crazy?! "

  " Come on, do it! "

  " Bella I'm not gonna throw a knife at you. "

  " It's fine! Come on. "

  " No! I have a better idea. "

  He simply crouched and grabbed a rock.

  " Now if this hits, you will be simply a stupid girl with a bump on her forehead and not a dead one. "

  She proceeded to spread her arms.

  " Give me your best shot, mister genius! "

  Richard took a deep breath and threw the rock her way, as if it had hit an invisible wall the rock stopped in mid air just a few meters away from her.

  " See? Not a scratch. Rune barriers like these can be protection spells, trap spells or even enhance physical abilities of the person within the barrier. Or in my case, it can help me better defend myself with magic on the fly. "

  As she said that she held out her hand in front of her, aiming at Richard.

  " Retaw!"

  As she said those words, water came out of her palm and splashed Richard in the face.

  " Ahh! "

  She could not stand anymore as she was laughing way too hard at his misfortune. In a hurry to return the favor, Richard approached her and got stopped by the barrier. Still laughing, Isabella decided to taunt him and started making faces at him like a kid. Taking a deep breath, Richard felt the edges of the barrier and put his hand on it. " I want this barrier gone so I can teach this brat a lesson ". Once again he felt the warm sensation on his hand. Full of confidence he took a step inside the barrier as if nothing was there in the first place. Isabella stopped laughing as she understood what had happened. She tried running away but Richard was faster and gently tackled her.

  " Ok miss witch, now you are at my mercy, you got my face wet so I'm gonna use you to wipe it. "

  " No please I yield mister! Ahah! "

  Without mercy Richard started rubbing his wet face onto Bella's shirt, she couldn't help but laugh as he was also tickling her in the process.

  " Please stop Richard! I give up, I give up! Ahah! No more please! "

  " It's too late! You shall face your destiny now rahh! "

  Richard was still on top of her and was now gently biting into her neck, she was not resisting as much as before. When he stopped to look at her, she was out of breath but smiling like there was no tomorrow. He leaned in and kissed her, they stayed like this kissing under the sun for a while.

  Now that their training session had ended, the both of them were laying in the grass looking at the sky.

  " Bella, why is it that there are less customers coming now? "

  " Oh it's because they know I won't be available for a period. It's always the same period around the Circadium. "

  " Why? "

  " Because ... each year at the same time, I go away. "

  Richard stood on one of his elbows and looked at her with a worried look.

  " What do you mean you go away? Where do you go? "

  " I'm sorry Richard I didn't want to ruin the moment, I was gonna leave you a note about it .... "

  " Bella, why? I don't get it, where do you go? Also, a note?! "

  " I go away from here to someplace where I meet someone and I always go alone. I didn't want you to worry and I couldn't bring myself to tell you in person .."

  " Can't I come with you? "

  " NO! "

  She yelled it way louder than she wanted to. Richard understood that clearly something was not right.

  " Bella ... I don't know what you are facing but let me help. "

  She got up and started walking away.

  " Just leave me alone, don't come back to my house. "

  " Bella wait! Bella! "

  Richard sat down and looked at her walking away, all she could do was walk as fast as she could as she was wiping the tears off her eyes.