Chapter 2: Early Life I

Age 5

As it turns out, having full mental faculties as a newborn child was not a pleasant experience. There is a reason why people cannot remember their time as infants. Regaining control of developing muscles and lacking the ability to eat solid food until my first few teeth appeared were all highly unpleasant times, which could only be negated by the unconditional love and care my mother gave me.

Living in a small cottage on the outskirts of the city Ceunon, my mother, Thyra, was a woman with the kindest heart I ever saw in both my past and present lives. In love with my blacksmith father, Gorm, she left the protection of her home in the elven forest to raise me alongside her lover, who would be unable to enter Du Weldenvarden. Often found either in the kitchen or sitting behind a tanning rack at home, my mother managed to remain inconspicuous and avoid the detection of the spies and agents of Galbatorix, frequently hiding her features and elven heritage behind an illusion.

My father on the other hand was a strict but caring man, who would leave every morning to work at his forge in the town and come back every evening to rest in the cottage. While he was unable to give me the same amount of attention as my mother, he ensured that we were well fed and sustained despite the dark times that spread across the land. He would often come back home with small bobs and trinkets, bracelets, and even on a rare occasion, a simple necklace, and earrings that he gave as a gift to me and my mother.

As a half-elf and human hybrid, my features became more and more prominent with my age, as I grew and developed. In the past few months, it became evident that my elven heritage and genes were more dominant that my human genealogy. My ears became thin and pointy just like my mother's, whilst my body became slimmer and taller than a normal human 5-year-olds. My hair also adopted the silver tone of my mother's, with some blonde streaks from my father.

And yet, the most prominent feature in my physiology remained my heterochromatic eyes. Of which, the iris of one was completely gold in color, a contrast to the cerulean blue of the other. While many who saw me and visited my father's workshop viewed me as a freak of nature, my parents merely stated that I inherited and symbolized the best of both their races.

While it was not implicitly stated in the novels the rate at which elven children age and mature, upon an inquiry of my father, which I happened to overhear, my mother assumed that due to my human parentage, I would age normally until I reach the years of adulthood at 18 or 20 years old, at which my rate of aging would significantly decrease but not stop. Unfortunately, unlike pure-born elves, I would not completely stop aging, but only have a significantly large lifespan. A defect I will aim to correct in the future.

From my birth, I decided to not hide nor contain my intelligence or curiosity for new knowledge. While due to some unknown reason, my reincarnation allowed me to speak the common tongue or the universal language that all humans and many species of Alagaësia converse in, I was yet unable to read or comprehend any of the scrolls my mother held on the shelves around the house.

One day, upon finding me in my room attempting to reach onto one of the shelves with scrolls, at one and half years of age, my mother took it upon herself to begin my education early and sate my evident curiosity. The fact that I was quickly able to retain and comprehend what was written on the pages of her stories and fantasies of the land encouraged my mother to deem me as a genius child and young prodigy, attributing this to my already prominent enhanced elven intelligence.

A source of happiness for the entire family and my illiterate father, who seemed to beam with pride upon the news of the intelligence of his son.

By the age of 4 and some months, my daily routine already involved spending much of my time reading scrolls not only on the history of Alagaësia but also the many herbs and unique ingredients my mother used in her cooking, tanning, and medicinal ointments.

As an elf, her connection to nature was especially strong, as was mine, allowing me to not only instinctually understand the purpose of an herb, but also suggest and propose instinctive combinations that would enhance their properties and make new ointments. While not exactly the creation of potions and brews that the mysterious herbalist Angela was best known for, this was an adequate start to my studies into this particular aspect of the new world around me.

Furthermore, my mother quickly began my education in the ancient language. While expressively stating and warning me to never aim or try to use any spells or slightest hints of magic until I reached the age of seven, less she stops and postpones my education until a later date. Fully agreeing with her reasoning and caution, and promising my mother to follow her guidelines, I began to learn the basics of the elven and magical tongue, as my mother aimed to expand my vocabulary, improve my pronunciation, and most importantly, impart the basics of elven customs and etiquette.

And while for the moment, listening to the advice of my caring mother, I did not attempt any spells or incantations, I still persevered in my research and theoretical analysis of the magic and sources of energy in the world of Alagaësia. Magic was an entirely new tool, a weapon, but also a part of myself that I wished to explore to the best of my ability.

Unlike the assumption and error, I initially made that magic took the shape of a core or sphere within an individual's body (probably from all the Harry Potter fanfictions I read in the past), magic and its energy were present in every individual cell and part of my body, smoothly flowing and spanning across every key system and organ.

Upon further research, mainly spent meditating in the shade of a tree next to the cottage, where I aimed my senses inwards, I discovered two main cesspools or gatherings of energy, where more magical energy seemed to gather and flow than in other parts of my developing body. These cesspools appeared as individual congregations and amalgamations of the bright light which represented magical flow, located in the areas of my brain and my heart.

This led me to the conclusion that while each cell had its own portion of my magic, these two areas were the primary centers responsible for magical growth and development. The heart which acted as a pump for my blood would act as a key conduit for the magic to spread into the body, perhaps being generated by my soul.

Yet unsure, it is possible souls are responsible for determining whether individuals can have magic or not.

The brain on the other hand, after much guesswork and time spent observing the bright energy passing in my body, was responsible for controlling, directing, and ensuring the flow of magic in my body, which was always present and ensured that all my cells constantly had the key energy they required.

While I currently was unable to control this flow, most probably due to it being controlled unconsciously, I was sure that magic users on the level of Oromis or Galbatorix were able to somewhat regulate and possibly manipulate their internal magic with great proficiency, possibly through the use of the Ancient language. I, therefore, made the deduction that casting a spell in the ancient language involves projecting the energy outwards, to impose one's will onto the surroundings, which is most likely simpler than aiming to consciously monitor and control the energy inside oneself.

This research, however, led to an important question that was on my mind. As I thought of the future, I pondered on the development of magic in different species found in Alagaësia, and the factors that determined the amount of magic that some individuals had access to.

For example, it was evident from the books and by my own discoveries that elves were extremely attuned to magical energies and hence were able to sense and learn magic from an early age. Humans on the other hand rarely were able to achieve much magical power unless they were dragon riders or a shade.

This was easily portrayed by the character of Trianna, a self-taught mage that worked for the Varden in the books. While she learned magic for most of her life, she could be easily beaten by someone like Arya or even Eragorn, after mere months of practice. But why was this the case?

Why were some species so attuned to magic like elves and dragons while others were not?

Some species like the Ra'zac were even completely unable to use any sort of magic, and while the Ra'zac had their own terrifying advantages they seemed to lack that connection to be able to use the ancient language to their beck and call. I was unsure about the Urgals as some mentions in the novels suggested that they could utilize magic. Perhaps they had some mystical practices akin to shamanism which allowed them to increase their physical attributes? They are after all battle junkies who loved to fight for respect and power.

Other interesting species were the werecats and spirits. So mysterious and secretive that little to no information was ever provided on them by the books or even in my mother's scrolls. And yet, they seemed to be the two races that either knew practically everything that was going on and what can even occur in the future or contained incredible magical power that was unreachable for others unless they became psychopathic shades. This certainly required further investigation in the future.

Maybe, getting a werecat companion like Solembum and learning from him?

Or better yet, using spirits to increase my own magical power?

That would certainly be most entertaining. I would be able to match the strength and prowess of a dragon rider, without ever having the need to find another dragon egg. Practically impossible unless by some lucky chance, Galbatorix missed one.

I would definitely need to investigate further in the next few years. Learning how to harness magical energy is a must for the future. Learning how to convert energy into magic most efficiently is also a key point in my development.

Maybe ask my mother for more insight? She is an elf; she must have learned something in Du Weldenvarden. I mean, elves are practically immortal, they must have gathered countless amounts of knowledge.

On that note, how old is my mother?

Do not tell me she is an old hag over 200 years old who married my 30-year-old father.

Now that would be awk-

"Vidar, your father is back from town! Stop reading and come, let him tell you about what he heard! Can you believe it, Surda is no longer part of the empire!"

Ah yes, that happened. Well, it's not like Galbatorix really cared.

Age 8

I was in the forge next to my father, observing his strikes of a hammer against his anvil. as he slowly forged a sword from a hunk of red-hot metal.

"Observe carefully Vidar. You need to strike it precisely on the blade but with enough power to shape the metal" said my father wiping sweat away from his brow.

A few months ago, my father deemed me physically capable of doing some basic tasks in the forge. I mean in the past 3 years, I aimed to develop my body to some extent.

A jog down the river near the town each morning and a few exercises each day can do wonders for the body of a child. And yet, while I was a half-elf, and much stronger than most, blacksmithing and work at the forge was no easy task. I, however, did not complain as this might give me important knowledge on how to forge my own equipment in the future. The fact that the elven blacksmith Rhunön would no longer make any rider swords or weapons until Eragorn came along would require me to find an alternative.

I wonder, how long would it take me to make a substitute for bright steel?

Maybe, make an alloy that has the properties of Vibranium?

So many ideas, and so much time. I cannot wait to get started. My magical skill is not yet ready, however. Nor is my power or magic capacity. While my mother has spent significant time teaching me all she knows of the ancient language, I know that I have only scratched the surface of what I could learn in the future. Even though my magical capacity and ability to use more magic continues to increase, I do not have yet the power to cast continuous Brinsingr's to immolate my enemies.

I did however begin with the simple manipulation of the elements and the world around me. Whether it was my past life experiences, my elven physiology, or my simple innate magical talent, I was easily able to complete tasks such as lift a rock using magic, grind it into dust, or even condense some drops of water from the air. My simple motivation to not stagnate and walk my path of magical discovery further pushed me to spend countless hours to reach what I believed as satisfactory results.

My mother to my dismay called my results perfect, but I know perfection does not exist.

Not truly.

On the other hand, I have already begun to make and attempt to create useful spells to help me improve myself in the future. For example, I already managed to make a basic mask or ward to block and dull my emotions. This is important because while the complete removal of emotions and apathy can be dangerous and detrimental, dulling emotions before a fight or large battle can improve the focus of the warrior. Not to mention its usefulness on a day-to-day basis to not disclose anything important and to gather information. No wonder Snape was a magnificent spy when he adopted an emotional range of a teaspoon in front of Voldemort.

I also managed to replicate the concept of 'mage sight' or the ability to visually perceive visual currents and the flow of magic. An extremely useful ability that Eragorn managed to use on an enormous scale on entire towns after learning the name of the ancient language.

And while my 'mage sight' may not be up to that level yet, it is pretty damn useful. Furthermore, in the future, I will aim to merely use my other senses to truly 'feel' the magic around me

When creating and wording for my 'mage sight' spell, I primarily focused on allowing my eyes to see the fluctuations of energies in the air or around an object, caused by the layering of spells and magic by a mage. This allowed me to see threads of magic weaved together, or sometimes, even bubbles that represented wards around objects and people.

The second step in the creation of 'mage sight' was the identification and separation of different spells by color and visual imagery. For example, while I could indeed perceive wards around an object, I would not be able to distinguish their exact type until I designated a color to a function. Red for wards that could cause harm or orange for those who could notify owners about a breach or invasion. With this, I could now see and distinguish enchanted clothing and weapons, as well as wards unless they are safety mechanisms against such scrying.

An added benefit was the development to partially see some minor representation of a person's aura. As most spellcasters can be easily recognized by their magical signatures, my newly created spell allowed me to visually recognize the magical disposition of a person. For example, I believe that if Galbatorix was not aiming to hide his magical presence, I would perceive him as an individual with a dark and sinister aura, primarily due to his abundant use of dark magic.

Perhaps, in the future, I could modify my eyesight to get a permanent effect without the drain on my energy the spell currently has? While quite efficient, it still can be quick taxing on my developing energy capacity.

The development of mage sight allowed me however to further gather information on the questions I posed 3 years prior. By observing not only the environment around me but also the interaction between 'natural' magic and my parents, I was able to make several key conclusions about the cause and effect of innate affinity to the manipulation of magic.

In elves such as my mother and myself, I observed an interaction between, in my eyes, three distinct and barely visible 'types' of magical energy. The first, and most obvious was my mother's personal energy, which as I previously deduced, primarily originated from the heart, and what my mother used to power most spells and incantations.

The second was something akin to natural energy, which my mother commonly used to interact with plants and nature. This is most likely due to her elven heritage, which allowed her to not only interact with natural energy, through possible songs and chants, such as to make a tree grow from nothing, but also use it as her own, taking it from plant life, animals, and trees. This led me to the belief that nature and plants as a whole had their own unique relationship with energy generated by individuals with an elven heritage or energy signature.

And finally, binding together the two, was wild magic, or what I called the magic of the land, barely visible due to its deep integration with practically all forms of energy. While it could be confused with the energy of nature, it was in fact much more powerful and ancient, and not as unique as natural energy for specific botanical species.

This is the pure magic that is manipulated by the ancient language, and the name of names, the magic that was initially used by the Grey ones when they first came to the continent. Mages like me and my mother would not directly interact with the wild magic, but instead, use our own personal energy to first refine miniscule amounts of it to then impose our will upon the world through incantations in the ancient language.

It is here, at this moment that I managed to discover why different species have different levels of control and innate magical ability. Elves, due to having both their own personal energy and the ability to interact with natural energy have better access and ability to refine the wild magic of the world to their whim.

Humans are often unable to interact with magic at all simply due to the inability to discover their own personal energy. They would need a stimulus, a shock that would enable them to find the well of power within. For elves, the interaction between natural energy would directly kick start and allow us to find the well of magic within.

In the rare case where humans find the magic within them by themselves, such as Trianna, they would lag behind the elves either due to the poor affinity to natural energy they have, or due to the poor genes they inherited, as the elven population and generation are practically saturated with magic users whilst humans are not.

Further thought and theoretical deduction allowed me to put together the interaction of magic in dragons and dragon riders. Dragons, if I understood correctly from the novels, have enormous amounts of magic without the ability to fully control it, often only provoked by emotions or at rare moments such as when Saphira turned Broms grave to diamond.

This would lead me to believe that somehow, over time, dragons managed to somewhat connect to the magic of the land or the Wild magic of Alagaësia. However, due to its sheer enormity and enormous quantity, they are only able to somewhat direct it to achieve what they wish, without any real control over later consequences or effects.

Dragon riders, as they are bonded with the dragons would therefore be able to also use this 'draconic' wild magic to a meager extent, often to either kickstart their own magic or when connected together with their partner through a bond. However, racial limitations still apply, and while a human rider may be better than a human mage due to some imprint of dragon and elven magic from the bond, they are still technically weaker than an elven dragon rider, as he initially had access to more types of energy and therefore, more magical capacity.

When Eragorn became a half-elf, half-human, his access to the more elven-styled energies such as natural energy improved, and hence, his overall magical ability more or less matched or even surpassed normal elven mages.

And then we have the case of Galbatorix.

The fact that he has access to countless Eldunari, all of which can be considered direct connection or sources of the wild magic of the land truly puts into perspective how hopeless fighting against him may actually seem.

Add the ability to directly control the wild magic with the name of the ancient language and we have a practical god with mortal flesh and mind.

Eragorn defeating him in the original novel must have been plot armor.

Plot armor that I do not have.

What a lucky bastard.

Back to work, it is for me. Let's continue evening the scales bit by bit.

In the past months, there were two other useful spells I made that acted as my first steps to make future changes to my physical body. While my worries for potential lower physical abilities such as strength and dexterity in comparison to other elves were yet to arise, as my mother reassured me that she did not perceive a visual difference yet, I would anyways aim to surpass the limitations of my current body.

As such, I spent a few weeks creating and perfecting a spell that would allow me to replicate the effects of a microscope from my past world. This spell, depending on the amount of energy a mage supplies, would allow one to perceive the smaller particles and cells that make up the world. With enough energy, one would be able to see the atoms in a grain of sand, or the molecules in the air.

This was a necessary part of my research, for several key reasons.

First, I would be able to directly see and later interact with the cells in my body that I aim to improve.

Second of all, the modifications in this spell allowed me to view the body as layers, where I could make someone's skin completely translucent to my view.

This would not only give insight into the physiology of different races, their organs, their anatomy but also, with practice, theoretically allow me to better predict the moves of my opponents, simply due to the movement of muscles underneath the skin.

The second key spell necessary for the modification of my body would be the construction and creation of a song, as long and complex spells often require long chants, that splices, clones, and replaces the DNA strands of different species. While this spell was yet purely theoretical, as its complexity was quite beyond my current knowledge of the ancient language, future improvement would truly allow me to make game-changing developments to my physique.

With my degree of control over magical energy increasing, I would soon need to start learning the more beneficial but advanced magical abilities and practices.

While I continue to improve my senses through meditation, I also need to begin working on my mind.

Would not want some random passerby to acquire future knowledge of the next 100 years, wouldn't I?

The board is set, and not in my favor.

Better work harder.

Author Notes:

Read it, Read it Read it! Read it- Gordon Ramsay

Tell me what you think. I tried my best to create a logical explanation for the different magic abilities of different species.

It may seem a bit farfetched that Vidar is able to deduce all this in just a few years but not nearly impossible.

And nearly impossible does not count.

So send reviews and tell me what is good, what is bad, and what could have gone better.