Chapter Text
Serie's Kind Erziehen
Prologue: Beginning.
A child in the rain
Life for an elf went beyond any human’s comprehension or vision. And so it is unfeasible to truly understand a living grimoire.
For Serie, that was the everyday. Students looked up to her, admired her, respected her, feared her, and revered her. Every action she took and every word she spoke carried the memories and wisdom of thousands of years of magic.
But for every lecture and lesson she taught came downtime for her students and first-class magicians. Enough to bore her to death and complicate worse than fighting any demon could have ever caused her mind.
Boredom was not only a toxin for the mind, but a killer in progress for a step in furthering magic. A poison Serie would not allow it to take place any longer.
“I have grown bored, Lernen, I'll step out for a little while. Don’t bother following. It's to refresh my mind.” Serie risen, her silk pure white robe dashing, whoshing in the wind by a rupture of her actions.
And each step taken, as though the world could shake, a great presence of a being awakened, a god on its curcade, or in its instance, a leisurely stroll.
But behind, another step was behind, as the relatively olden timid Lernen had followed his master on near instinct.
“Haaa…Lernen, when I said dont follow, I meant that.” Serie sighed, not of exhaustion, but almost from the predictability of what had happened.
“Im…sorry, master Serie.” The man stopped in his tracks, eyes glued on the ground, shame coursing his soul, waving his moment in his eyes in sorrow.
“Still the same as every time I see, just like a duckling who can’t help but follow a mother out of instinct, my how you haven't grown on bit.” With the last comment spoken, Serie had left the man, no, still the same child she knew, behind on his own.
A lesson in one hand, and an affirmation in the other.
...
Äußerston any day was beyond beautiful, its landscape and walls held history beyond what a regular human could ever imagine.
Each brick, its layer of concrete, a mark of history, a testament of each generation of mankind, and the journey that brought this city together year by year, until it had become what it stood for. A city that houses the Continental Magic Association and the definition and landmark of human magic.
But on this day, it was different; the cheers and mutters of its people were not present. The echoes and laughter that brought to were nowhere to be heard. Only the pitter-patter and drips and drops of rain were all to be heard.
An empty street and locked doors of houses, no stalls to be open, and no one defying Mother Nature and the rain.
“My, what a perfect day to enjoy some open air without the need for noise.” Serie conditions were met perfectly. No sounds of humans, no presence of them in sight. A perfect stroll to take pleasure in.
With a shroud of magic and a simple spell cast, Serie continued on with her mind opening, darkened and hazy walk around the city, never once a raindrop falling on her.
And yet on this peaceful walk with each step a plat of water on her feet as the splat of water entered her ears, another noise would come.
“Waaaaa…” A faint sound, so quiet and so faint in life, it was barely distinguishable.
“Hm?” Serie’s mind was piqued by the sound, enough to approach it closer. “My… A human infant left alone in the rain, all by… himself, how lonesome, what a sorry sight.” Serie couldnt help but smirk in a state of superiority, one that wasnt necessary for a literally infant child.
The infant was maybe only at best a few months old at best. Inside a cradle and wrapped in a blanket, and left under a porch; a sign above it read “orphanage.”
“Ahhhh.” The infant boy reached out with his nimble, small hand, his hand frailing playfully and curiously at the new sight for him.
“Why aren't you lively for a child left abandoned?” Serie mocked the child.
“AH!” The infant's only response was a cheerful, inviting call for attention, a feature all young humans processed in the nature of finding kinship in one another.
Something Serie knew and did not bother with, nor would she accept from the infant in front of her.
Yet the child kept staring longingly, but not at Serie. His eyes were somehow affixed to a different sight, almost as if he looked at something that was around Serie. An aura that she carried everywhere she went.
“You aren't looking at me…? What are you then…” Serie paused as she took in the oddity. “Do you see it? My mana?” Serie was for the first time in decades and centuries, perhaps was perplexed, maybe if pushed, surprised.
She had to be sure now. A test was required for the child immediately. She lifted her hand and soon projected mana into it as she made the mana swirl around her hand in a spiral fashion. Twist and turns to attract the vision of the infant as he took notice and playfully laughed.
“Aha!”
“Hmm?” Serie didn't take that as affirmation. She changed the location of the swirl to her torso; the swirl now appeared on her stomach.
“Ahahah!” The child treated it almost like a game, his focused vision instantly turning towards Serie’s stomach as he laughed.
“Now that's interesting. For a child to hold that potential, perhaps you aren't a sorry sight of an infant.” Serie was almost amused by the sight. She could be entertained by the child's potential, but being impressed right now was too early to call.
She would abandon this child and every other without another taught. That was in her nature not to bother.
But then what was more in her nature was perhaps, and even more important, her unrelenting pursuit and curiosity for talent that she could not ignore.
She knew it was too early to jump and assume. But she could never ignore the potential of a one-of-a-kind talent. Never, no matter the human.
A weakness she never knew.
And simply on a whim, she would need to test the child.
“Very well.” Serie just smiled as her interest was now in full swing. “You piqued my curiosity, im sure whatever mother abandoned you here wouldn't mind if I took you. But remember this infant child. You have a lot of expectations to live up to now. Even to my own whims.” With a simple twirl of her finger, Serie lifted the cradle and child as she took the boy under her aura, shielding him from the rain.
“Ahaha.” The boy playfully enjoyed the feeling, getting to fly for any infant was more than enough joy to cause laughter.
“Now, you humans infants do come with a name if I remember. Where is yours then?” Serie checked the cradle all over, she found no clue for a name. Then she looked back at the infant boy’s bright brown eyes of the amused boy. “Then a name for you.”
Serie spent only a second on the minor topic. It was more like a bookmark to remember the child, if necessary, for her mind, and a reminder of who he was, if he had any actual potential. Something he needed to remember, the boy.
“Your name now, Albert.”
The rain stopped, and the clouds split for the heavens as the sight of the sun once again beamed. It's spotlight illuminating the future of two beings. A story and play ready to be spoken for the future.