Six long years had passed.
The baby who had escaped the snow-covered ruin of Northern Luxon was now a restless, curious, and lively child. Throughout these six years, Emily had not left Hyoga's side for a single moment, acting as a fiercely protective guardian angel. However, this intense love carried a heavy secret with it. To cover the bloody tracks of the past, Emily had told Hyoga a fabricated version of the truth: the young prince thought Emily was his aunt and believed his parents had died heroically in a great war. Now, he shared his life with Archmage Lola and her daughter, Naomi.
Hyoga and Naomi had grown up together. They were close in age, and when it came to mischief, neither knew any boundaries. Yet, there was an invisible, sharp chasm between them: Talent.
"Naomi, put me down this instant!"
Because Naomi carried the blood of an Archmage, her mana flow had awakened at a very early age. Even though she was only six years old, she could perform simple spells as if it were child's play. At that moment, Hyoga was left suspended in the middle of the room due to Naomi's air-bending magic, and she was fiercely angry with him.
"No! First, you will apologize, and you will never touch my things again. Got it?"
Hyoga yelled while thrashing angrily near the ceiling, "Archmage Lola said I had the right to play with those things! You're the one who stole mine!"
Right at that moment, Lola and Emily walked in. The scene before them showed that the cabin had turned into complete chaos. As Emily lunged forward in fear, trying to catch Hyoga in the air, Lola snapped her fingers. The spell broke instantly, and Hyoga fell into Emily's arms.
Emily shot a stern glare at both children. "What is wrong with you? One of you could have gotten hurt!" Then, with an embarrassed expression, she turned to Lola. "Archmage Lola, I apologize on Hyoga's behalf."
As Emily bowed respectfully, she forcefully pushed Hyoga's head down as well. Seeing this, Lola panicked slightly; she still hadn't gotten used to Emily's unwavering loyalty and strict protocols. "Hey, Emily, there's no need for that. They're just children... Please, raise your head."
However, Hyoga had turned bright red with anger, feeling both wronged and humiliated by being forced to apologize. In a fit of rage, he slammed the cabin door and stormed out.
As he walked down the forest path muttering to himself, he suddenly bumped into someone and tumbled to the ground. When he looked up, he found himself facing a scrawny, slightly drunk man who reeked heavily of alcohol.
"I'm sorry, sir," Hyoga said, dusting himself off.
The man studied the child's face carefully. His gaze shifted from drunken absentmindedness to the sudden sharpness of an eagle eyeing its prey. It was as if he had seen something within the boy that a normal person couldn't. "You're that kid with the Archmage, aren't you?"
Hyoga nodded. "Yes, I am Hyoga. Who are you?"
The man smiled, a sense of pride mixing with the stench of alcohol seeping through his teeth. "I am Valerius. The former leader of the 14th Division of the Red Mage Order."
Hyoga sensed a immense power beneath the man's shabby appearance. His eyes sparkling with hope, he asked, "Will you teach me magic?"
Valerius brushed him off with the back of his hand. "No, kid, I have more important things to do right now." Just then, Emily's worried voice rang out. Running up to them, she said, "Hyoga! What are you doing here?"
Valerius froze, seemingly captivated by Emily's beauty. His demeanor changed instantly. "Greetings, my lady. I am Valerius; I was just telling this young friend how dangerous the world can be." Then, he gently took Emily's hand. "What a great honor it is to meet a woman as enchanting as you..."
Disgusted by the man's sleazy attitude, Emily yanked her hand back and delivered a hard slap to Valerius's face. "Hyoga, home, immediately!" she said, turning her back.
As Hyoga was leaving, Valerius secretly grabbed the boy's arm and slipped an old, sturdy hardcover book into his hand. "This is the mages' handbook, son," he whispered quickly. "If you can decipher its contents, your world will change. Don't let it get damaged."
Upon returning to his room, Hyoga sat cross-legged on his bed. But when he opened the cover, he faced a harsh reality: to protect him, Emily had always postponed teaching him how to read and write. She wanted him to remain an ordinary peasant, staying far away from the burden of the past.
"Unbelievable," Hyoga muttered. "Everything is ready, but I don't have the key to open the door."
He couldn't ask Emily or Lola; they would never want him to do magic. There was only one option left: Naomi.
Hyoga slowly entered Naomi's room. In an innocent voice, he said, "Naomi, I'm sorry for what I did this morning."
Naomi looked at him in surprise and approached. "I'm sorry too, Hyoga. I guess I overreacted a bit." The two children hugged and made up. It was then that Hyoga revealed his true intention: "Naomi, will you teach me how to read and write?"
Naomi smiled proudly. "Of course! Because I want to be an Archmage, I listen to my mother's lessons very carefully."
For exactly two months, they met secretly every night. Naomi patiently taught him the letters and ancient terms she had pilfered from her mother's library. Emily and Lola thought this closeness of theirs was a simple game; however, Hyoga was using every cell in his body to decipher the cryptic language in Valerius's book.
At the end of the two months, that sentence on the book's first page was finally gleaming in his mind: "Magic is not a power outside of you, but the will within you. Keep your mind as clear as a still lake, your heart as warm as a hearth."
Hyoga closed his eyes. He focused on a simple light spell. But he felt something strange in his body. Two different currents were clashing in his veins. One was an icy river, the other a fierce flame.
"Just a little light... Fire..."
Suddenly, as an icy mist rose from his right hand, an orange spark flared to life in his left palm. The uncontrolled power became a mass of water from his right hand, knocking over the vase; while a sudden flame from his left hand set the blanket on the edge of the bed on fire.
"No! Stop!"
Panicking, Hyoga suppressed his fear and focused on the cold current in his right hand. "Extinguish!" he whispered. A clear stream of water smothered the flames right on time. The room was smoke-filled and soaking wet, but Hyoga had succeeded.
"I did it..." he whispered. "I actually did magic."
Valerius was right; the power was inside. Hyoga looked at the ceiling as he lay down on the dry side of his soaking wet bed.
"Did you see, Mother? Did you see, Father?" he muttered into the darkness. He felt one step closer to the heroic family Emily had told him about. The hushed conversation of Emily and Lola coming from the kitchen turned into the safest lullaby in the world. As the little prince drifted into a peaceful sleep, he dreamed he was holding a sword forged from both fire and water.