23 Lich (1/2)

”Haha, I've got you now John.” A little girl shouted as she jumped onto a larger boy's back, who had been hiding behind a stone pillar.

The little girl giggled and laughed as she continued to play hide and seek with her older brother, causing a ruckus throughout the household. Glees of joy could always be heard from within the royal palace of the Elven Kingdom.

A large forest surrounded the royal palace, which was built on the land in the kingdom which held the highest concentration of arcana. The area around the palace was filled with colourful plants and flowers, and a vibrant ecosystem was held her, with the elves living in unison with the land. It could be said that if the land wept, then so did the elves, they held a special connection with it.

”Gael, when do you think papa and mama will finally teach me magic?” Licht asked her older brother. She'd just recently turned four, and couldn't wait to be taught in the mystical arts. She had always seen her brother, who was ten, practising magic, for as long as she could remember. She'd been envious of the amount of attention her father gave to him, and he would always talk for what seemed like hours about 'My Gael is so talented' or 'Gael will make a good leader in the future'.

This, of course, didn't change the relationship she had with her brother. He was still her best friend, and the strongest person ever, as she would usually say when she bragged about him to the maids and waiting staff at the palace. The attention which she didn't get from her father acted as fuel to her for wanting to practice magic. There wasn't a day when she wouldn't ask Gael the same question ”When will I learn magic?”

”Licht, you aren't strong enough to practice magic yet. Mum and Dad are just worried that you'll hurt yourself if you start practising now. Maybe in a few years, you'll learn some magic.”

Licht never took well to being told that she wasn't yet allowed to learn magic, so she started to train in secret. She would mimic the physical exercise that Gael always did whenever nobody was around and memorized the chants that her brother used to cast magic, and the way he meditated in his free time.

Like this, 3 years passed. Licht had a slightly better physique than before, partially due to her natural growth and also because of the physical exercise she would do. She wasn't able to practice as much as she'd wanted, because she was still home-schooled for the majority of the day, learning about classical studies and other things deemed important for a member of the royal family to know.

On the day of Gael's 13th birthday, instead of joy and happiness that was usually circulating the royal palace, a certain hint of sadness was present. This atmosphere was mainly radiating from Licht, who was sad to see that her brother leave. He was now of age to be enrolled in the elven royal academy, where he would learn to become the future ruler of the kingdom. Licht sobbed and cried the whole evening, begging her parents to let her go to the academy with her brother, but to no avail. She was too young, and still wasn't taught any magic, so all they could do was try to calm her down.

News of Gael's studying would be brought back home frequently, and Licht would always light up whenever she could hear stories about his exploits. There was one time where Licht didn't stop laughing for a whole day because her brother had his eyebrows and hair burned off in an alchemy accident, and when he came home for the holidays, his bald head and face made him look like a big baby.

Gael would come home at the end of every semester, spending 9 months at the academy and 3 months at home. This continued on for the next few years, the bond between brother and sister as strong as ever. That was until Licht turned ten. Gael had suddenly gone missing off the planet. No tracking device could find him, not even the most expensive materials the King and Queen used were able to deduce what happened to their son. Experts were called from all over the continent, yet, still, his whereabouts were unknown.

Deep down, Licht felt that she would've been happier had she known for a fact that her brother died. It was the constant unease of not knowing what had happened to him that caused her to become struck with grief. The loss of her brother pained her, and all of the memories she had in the Elven Kingdom would constantly bring a flood of thoughts about Gael.

Licht was able to convince her parents to let her study outside the Elven Kingdom, as they both could see that the elven lands were depressing their daughter deeply. Had they not recently given birth to another boy, then they would not have let Licht leave the kingdom, in constant fear of the death of their only heir.

It was decided that Licht would study at the Dusk Academy, the Elven King had close ties to the headmaster of the academy, and trusted him to be able to keep his only daughter safe from harm. There was also no issue with sending members of different races to the magical academies as they worked independently of the kingdoms of the continent.