My eyes fluttered open.
I lay in a soft bed.
A blue, plush blanket covered me and rose and fell with each breath I took.
The first thing I noticed was a change in my vision.
Although I had been able to see well before, there was now a leap in clarity.
Specks of dust, twenty meters away, appeared with the precision of something only five centimeters from me.
My attention fixed on every object; the speed of my thoughts had multiplied.
Strangely, I saw golden particles in the air.
They moved in circles around me.
I lifted my hand and passed it through the particles.
Like iron to a magnet, they followed my hand.
A warm, tingling sensation flooded my palm.
The particles seemed almost… alive.
But that wasn't the only change…
Strands of blond-gold hair fell over my eyes.
My silver eyelashes also seemed to have taken on a golden hue.
Was this because of the blessing—or the pact—I had made?
A shiver ran through me at the memory.
Until the end of my days, I must destroy Daemons.
I could feel the chain tightening in my soul, urging me to get up and become stronger so that I would be able to destroy the Daemons.
The pact I had made with the goddess compelled me to get out of bed, even though I didn't want to.
Trembling, I tried to resist, but in vain.
Before I knew it I was already standing beside the bed with both feet on the floor.
A cold sensation spread through my body.
Arlo Flord, Aurelius Shafiq, blessed and descendant of Mother Magic—this was how people could address me.
But above all I was a marionette.
A willless marionette created to destroy the Daemon race.
I took a short breath to calm my nerves.
My legs carried me to the bathroom.
In the mirror I saw an unfamiliar reflection.
Gold-blond hair fell around hypnotic golden eyes framed by thick, gold-blond lashes. A slim, muscular figure filled my blue nightshirt. The baby fat on my face made me look childlike.
Golden eyes?
That confirmed it: my Inner Gift had awakened.
The Eyes of Mystery allowed me to see magic visually. In addition, through the visual perception, it gave the wizard significantly better magical control.
There were no books in the library about the Shafiq family's Inner Gift—which was surprising, given that it was the Shafiq family library.
My mother would explain it to me…
The golden particles in the air must therefore be magic particles.
Runes became visible on the bathroom floor.
Incomprehensible patterns decorated the corners of the room.
The runes continually absorbed golden magical particles.
Although I had never formally studied runes, I somehow understood their meanings instinctively.
Magic, so to speak, "spoke" to me.
The two runes on the right side of the room I understood as: anti-slip.
The other two near the shower and bathtub were dryness runes.
The dryness rune was why I had automatically dried off after stepping out of the shower.
After inspecting the runes, I looked at myself in the mirror again.
My golden eyes were due to my Inner Gift: The Eyes of Mysteries.
The changes to my other physical features, however, bore a striking resemblance to a particular woman.
I was the male counterpart, almost the exact image, of that goddess.
Probably a side effect of the blessing.
While I dressed, my thoughts replayed the conversation with the goddess so I could memorise the key points.
There are six Blessed.
Five wizards or witches who were blessed by the archangels—and myself: blessed by Mother Magic.
Our task?
The annihilation of the Daemons, the seven Arch-Daemons, and the fallen angel Lucifer.
If we fail, the Earth will be overrun by Daemons, and, in the truest sense of the phrase, there will be hell on Earth.
Oh, ...and I have no idea who the other Blessed are!
For the second time since waking, I sighed.
I ran my hand through my hair and hurried out of the room.
—
—
—
My footsteps echoed on the stairs.
I quickly descended while admiring the golden particles dancing around me.
I could magically see my mother's figure in the parlour. Unlike mine, her magical signature was silver.
When I reached the parlor door, the runes on the wall flickered and the door opened automatically as I approached.
My mother sat in an armchair.
She looked worried—her brows tight and her lips pressed together slightly.
Her golden eyes met mine.
The magical power in her gaze intensified when she saw me.
That was not the only thing I could see with my new eyes.
Magic "told" me that my mother was a witch of the fourth maturity. In addition, her connection to magic registered at 90.3%.
My train of thought was interrupted by my mother.
"Aurelius! Are you all right?"
I blinked and she was already holding me in her arms.
I noticed she had used magical enhancement to move so quickly...
"You're all right, you're all right…" she repeated again and again.
Only after a while did she let me go and look me in the eyes.
"Look at you—you've awakened your Inner Gift!"
"Congratulations!" she said.
"Yes, I have," I answered with a small smile that masked my turbulent thoughts.
"But mother, my hair has turned gold—are such side effects normal when the Inner Gift awakens so young, as in my case?"
"Hmm, yes, that can happen. But only in rare cases."
"For example: Your great-grandfather, Harold Shafiq, had golden eyelashes when he awakened his Inner Gift with 7."
"When a wizard or witch awakens their Inner Gift at seven, physical mutations often occur."
"The Weasley family, for example, are fire mages. Over generations their red hair emerged because their fire magic influenced their genes."
"In our family, golden eyes are characteristic," she said, pointing to her own golden eyes.
"That the eyes, hair, lashes, and eyebrows have become golden has not occurred since… ancient Greece."
"To be precise, the last time this happened was when Hecate Shafiq underwent such a change."
Well, that explained the changes in my appearance.
"Such a big change only occurs if one has an innate, percentage-based connection to Mother Magic."
"Those wizards and witches are called the Blessed."
"Their innate connection to Mother Magic is complete."
"That means a 100% connection to Mother Magic."
"This has not happened since antiquity."
"Until now," she said, pointing at me with her finger.
"Because you, Aurelius—my son—you are a Blessed One."
[A/N:
Hey!
How did you find the chapter?
This chapter didn't have a lot of new info, but the next one will.
Have a good day!
:)
]