[Adam sits and start to read through the book he had stumbled along by chance.]
***
Before the age of labyrinths, before humans built kingdoms and cities, there was a time when the earth was still and silent—touched by no magic, shaped only by wind, fire, and the raw ambition of humankind. In that time, she existed. A woman of such beauty and grace that even the stars were said to fall slower when she walked beneath them. Her name was Ether.
Ether's origin could never be accurately told, people believed she was a god, or so the stories claim. She simply was—as if the world needed her, and so she came. No one could remember when she arrived, only that she had always been. A lone figure in a world of struggling tribes and wandering survivers, helping quietly from the edges of human memory.
She healed the sick with a touch. Called water from dry stone. Shielded travelers from unseen threats—things that whispered just beyond the veil of human perception. These were things no one else could sense, let alone fight. But Ether could. And so she did.
She asked for no reward. Took no lover. Made no kingdom. The people called her Witch Saint, for she bore both mystery and mercy. Her eyes were the color of royal amethyst—deep, eternal, like looking into truths too great for understanding. Her hair flowed like the blackest velvet night, swallowing torchlight when she passed. But her presence brought warmth, not fear. Her smile, they said, made even the most battle-worn men weep without shame.
At first, she was worshipped in silent awe. Whole villages would kneel when she passed. Children were named in her honor. Songs written. Shrines raised.
But awe has a fragile spine. And reverence, when left untended, rots into envy.
In time, the whispers began.
"Why does she hide her power?"
"Why won't she teach us?"
"She looks human, so why should she have what we do not?"
It did not matter that Ether never once hoarded her kindness. It did not matter that she had saved them from unseen extinction a thousand times over. Humanity began to twist her mercy into insult. Her miracles into threat.
Jealousy festered. And where jealousy sleeps, fear wakes.
They came for her on a windless time.
A crowd—armed with rope, fire, and desperation. Her people, the one she protected most, the one she had called family for nearly a century, now looked at her with hollow eyes and trembling hands. They spoke of her like a demon. They said she had deceived them. That she was never one of them to begin with.
Ether did not fight.
She looked at them—every single face. Mothers she had saved from childbirth. Men she had protected from beasts in the dark. Children she had carried through sickness.
She simply nodded, as though she had seen it all coming.
They bound her in silence and dragged her to the center of the village, where they raised a stake and piled kindling. Their hands shook, their eyes watered, but not one stepped forward to stop it.
As the flames licked the edge of the wood, she spoke—one final time.
Her voice was soft, but it carried farther than thunder. And every soul heard it, not just in their ears, but in their bones.
"Humans..." she began, her violet eyes glimmering through smoke and sorrow. "Bear what is to come, for what will befall you will be your demise. But I will always have you in my spirit."
They burned her. Slowly. She never screamed.
And as the last breath left her body, something shattered.
The sky did not weep. The earth did not shake. But something unseen spread through the world like wildfire. A pulse. A breath. A second dawn.
From Ether's ashes, mana was born.
Invisible to the eye but boundless in power, it seeped into the air, the water, the blood of every living thing. It awakened new paths—magic, aura, abilities beyond the natural order. But something was soon to befall the humans who didn't contain there ever flowing greed and ambition
Humanity called it a gift. But in truth, it was a punishment and a helping hand, born of grief and love.
Some said Ether had cursed the world.
Others said she had sacrificed herself to uplift it.
But the wise—those who remembered her eyes, her mercy, her final words—knew the truth:
Ether had given humanity its greatest power... and its greatest test.
Time will continue to flow, and soon a test that will challenge humanity will arrive and give them pain in failure but prosperous gifts to those who win and stand above the pain.
Her name is never spoken in fear by all alike hidden and forgotten. Her image destroyed into home potraits and the hilt of her blessed work. Every use of magic—every spell cast or aura wielded—traces its lineage back to her death but no-one remember.
They say her spirit still lingers, watching in silence.
Not with wrath.
But with hope.
Because even after betrayal, even after flames, Ether still believed—that somewhere in the chaos of greed and war, humanity might someday earn the power she gave them.
***
[Closes the book.]
The source of all mana was her, or so the book's words should be believed. Explains why on the mages book is says gift most of the time. Then, what are the origins of demons, angels, gods and the labyrinth. Can't over think this yet, need to get more information and draw a rough idea about it.
[ as he stands up and places the book back into the shelf, he sees through the window and sees the night sky.]
It's already dark outside, best I go back to my room and get ready to go to that alchemy shop later. Saw that they were hiring for a job and I can't miss the extra funding for what I plan to do.
[He leaves the library and on the way he sees a food stall selling some cooked meat. He gets close.]
"Can I get some for two sir."
"Five silver boy."
"OK, [as he hands off five silver coins and gets two huge bags of ready cooked meat.] Ohh... umm. "
"That's extra for being a good champ about the price."
"Ooh. Then thank you sir."
[He walks along the path, heading to his room.]