The white light slowly disappeared getting smaller and smaller. Until all that was left was some kind of white mist that slowly dissipated. Through the mist I could see an outline of some kind of diamond shaped object.

“Who summons the codex,” asked the voice.

“I did,” I said.

“A mere child, summons me, the knowledge of magic!” said the voice.

By this point the mist had all but dissipated and I could tell that the object was slowly coming closer to where I was. When the object came out of the mist, I saw that it was a book. A really old book with iron bindings. It had no title but the cover was tattered leather. Looking at the pages from afar, it looked like they were wrinkly and could crumble at any moment.

“Behold, the codex of magic,” said the voice making me realize that the voice came from the book itself.

A talking book? And here I thought a talking orb was the only talking inanimate object that I would see, I thought.

“Zed, you’re creeping me out,” said Sasha with a worried look on her face.

“Wh- What?” I asked.

“I know you’re feeling disappointed as your magic didn’t work but you shouldn’t start talking to yourself its creepy,” she said.

“But the light! The mist! Didn’t you see anything?” I asked incredulously.

“No and even then magic isn’t supposed to work anyway, especially since its your first summoning. I mean even when I tried using magic the first time nothing really happened,” she said nonchalantly.

“Child, only you can see me,” said the book.

I looked towards the book and I couldn’t help but fall down. Am I hallucinating? I thought.

“Zed are you okay?” said Sasha worriedly, “Wait here I’m going to call someone.”

As she said that she ran away towards the ballroom.

A talking book and only something that I could see, I thought.

“What are you?” I asked the book.

“I am the codex, the knowledge of all magic,” it said.

“Why am I the only one who can see you?”

“Because you are the one who summoned me.”

“Explain.”

“The codex is different from any other summoned being. All others can be seen by anyone but the codexes can only be seen by the one that summoned it. We are the pinnacle of beings, filled only with knowledge.”

“Codexes?”

“Yes, I am the codex of magic, there are others as well.”

“Why did I summon you? I’m sure I wasn’t meaning to summon something like you.”

“Summoning is a fated magic. When one summons, it always summons the one that the caster is bonded to. In this case, your summon was fated to be me, the codex of magic.”

“I thought summoning meant summoning spirits?”

“It is, I am the embodiment of magic, all things about magic are known by me. Those spirits you refer to are merely fractions of my whole self. A portion of my whole power.”

“Then that means I can only summon you…” I said dejectedly. I was hoping I could summon something like a dragon.

“Not quite.”

My ears perked up. “Go on,” I said.

“Summoning is a fated magic, that is true but the other half of it is not. Contracts, this is the only way to summon more than one being.”

“What is the difference?”

“Summoning has always been and always will be for one fated being, but contracts are matters in which you subdue another being and force them unto your will. If you wish to be able to summon more than myself, you would need to search for them and defeat them to have them acknowledge you as their master.”

“That sounds hard,” I said cringing. I really don’t think I can do much with a book as a summon if I have to subdue something like a dragon. Should I start with a slime? Or maybe a rabbit?

“It should not be difficult,” the book said, “after all, I am your summon. The almighty codex of magic.”

“You said that you know everything about magic correct?” I asked trying to remember the things that the book said.

“Yes, anything concerning magic history, magic research, magic studies, magic affinities, anything magic related.”

“Is that all you can do?” I asked thinking that I just got myself a book of all knowledge but no power.

“How rude! My master is something that values power over knowledge. I’ll forgive you since you are five years of age but knowledge is power! Knowledge is the key to everything!” said the book while it was flapping its pages about as it was floating.

Okay, floating book that flaps is a bit creepy, I thought.

“Since my master doubts my power, I will grant you the knowledge to use the Ethereal magic.”

“Wait Ethereal?! I thought I could only use Supreme affinity magics!” I asked incredulously.

“Preposterous, the Ethereal magics can be used by you since you were able to summon me, the knowledge of all magic.”

“But the test!”

“Did you forget that the Legendary affinity cannot be tested!” the book asked with an angry tone.

Oh yeah… there was that part, I thought sheepishly.

“So how do I use Ethereal magic?” I asked with my puppy eyes. Being five is good, I thought.

“Zed!”

I looked to where the voice came from and I saw my brother, Leon running towards me.

“Are you hurt? Are you okay? Nothing bad happened right? Did you use magic?!” he said making my head hurt as he asked so many questions in less than one second.

“I-I’m fine,” I managed to squeeze out as he dropped down on his knees and checked if there were any marks or bruises on me.

“Good I was worried something might have happened to you. Everyone else is upstairs making sure that no one noticed that you were gone, so I’m the only that came here. Anyway did you use magic?” he asked with a stern look on his face.

“Yeah I did,” I said, “Is something wrong?”

He stood up and smacked my head really hard.

“Ouch!” I shouted holding my head and showing him my puppy eyes as I started to cry.

While I’m still five, I might as well use my cuteness as much as I can, I thought.

“Those eyes won’t work on me,” he said with an angry look.

My puppy eyes did not work.

“You shouldn’t have used magic. Don’t you know how dangerous it is? Didn’t you read it in the royal library?”

“No, I only read about the affinities,” I said rubbing my head.

He sighed, “That would probably be why. Don’t use magic again alright?” he said turning his angry look into a concerned one.

“Why shouldn’t I?” I asked.

“Magic is dangerous if not trained,” he said, “magic is a powerful thing but it also has its consequences. Many children your age also used their magic in the past but most of them died because they couldn’t control it.”

That made me shudder, Was I that close? I thought

“Luckily your magic failed and that caused the magic to be canceled. But from now on, no more magic alright,” he said after scolding me.

“Okay,” I said looking down. I’ll just ask the book later about it if its true, I thought.

“Come here,” he said reaching for me and hugging me, “we wouldn’t be able to bear it if our little brother died.”

I hugged my brother tighter and we stayed like that for a few more minutes. Afterwards we went back to the ballroom and continued the party until it was late at night. There were jesters or clowns that came in and made tricks using magic. There also was a dance in which I had to dance with Sasha as I held her waist and she held my hands. She was blushing the whole time and out of the corner of my eye I could see my family grinning. After the dance, Vayasu came and asked how Sasha was. I couldn’t answer as I didn’t know what he wanted me to tell him so I just looked down and he just laughed saying that he gets it.

After the festivities, everyone returned to their rooms and I said goodnight to Sasha and my family as I went to my own room. The codex was following me the whole time and it seems that it was true that only I could see it. It talked at times too but only I could hear it.

When we got to my room, I changed my clothes to my night clothes as I told Sebas that I could do it on my own, which made him smile as if he was proud of me.

It’s only changing clothes! I thought.

I got into bed and I asked the codex, “Was what my brother said earlier true?”

“Yes. If your magic was not enough you would have died, although since you were summoning, there was no way for you to die.”

“What do you mean?”

“Simply that when you summoned me, I helped you use your magic to be able to summon me without any harm to yourself, otherwise you would’ve made the castle turn into a crater.”

I shuddered at the thought.

“I guess I should not use magic then,” I said reluctantly, I was really hoping to use magic.

“Nonsense, all you need is to be able to control it. With me around, I can help you control it but bit by bit I will be leaving the control to you.”

“I guess with you around, I can use magic without worry then,” I said smiling.

“I am your servant after all. Speaking of, you need to inject your mana into me.”

“Why?” I asked.

“I can only use a small portion of my true strength until you imprint me with your mana. In this way, we will truly be bonded and I can help you that much more,” it said as it came to land next to me.

I shrugged and did as he asked. It was very simple it was just like putting my weight on it, except instead of weight I was injecting it with mana.

When I did that, it started to shine. The iron bindings slowly turned golden and the tattered leather became darker and much newer looking. Golden lines also started appearing on the cover making it look like a really expensive looking book.

When I was done I heard a voice say, “Name me, my master.”

The voice came from the codex and I had to think of a name. It had to be cool sounding but I wasn’t really good at making up names. After going through many different names I finally settled on one.

“I name you, codex of magic, Malakir. May you serve me well.”

“I Malakir accept the name my master has given me. In return I give him my powers. At once, I give him, the knowledge of Ethereal.”

Suddenly information travelled into my head with a shock. I couldn’t see anything as I could barely understand the information going through my head. It was like my head was being force fed the information and that it was about to burst. Then I could see some kind of orb.

You finally found it, said the voice.

It sounded familiar.

Take it, I still cannot believe that you choose something else instead of it. But I guess it was planned this way. Have fun with it.

The orb grew and grew and within it was an image. It looked like two sets of triangles next to each other. As it got larger, I began to notice the finer details. The triangles were identical and that there were diamonds with rounded edges were inside of it. The larger it got the more detailed it was and I could finally tell what it was. They were wings. One was black the other was white and in the middle was a swirling mass of yellow or gold. The symbol of Legendary affinity. The white wing of Time, the black wing of Space and the mass of Ethereal. As it dawned on me, everything went black and I lost consciousness.

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