Roxanne sat alone in what had been her room for the past few years. But, today, she'd have to leave it, no matter how much she wished otherwise. It wasn't the people that made her want to stay, far from it. No one even came to see her off, and no one said they'd miss her; not one soul in the academy cared if she was here or not. The reality of that had been disheartening the first few months, but it was something Roxanne had grown to accept. However, right now, the truth of her time at the academy felt so heavy it hurt. No friends to speak of, no teachers who cared enough to praise her four years of effort, nothing to show for it except a class she hated having taken and a trip that might end up being worse than what she'd come here to escape. So, Roxanne sat alone, her bags packed, her room empty, and her head filled with regret.
RRRRMMBBERRR
Roxanne's stomach growled, doing its best to tempt her into filling it with something. But, she couldn't do that, not today at least. She had to skip meals for the day to afford a room for tonight, something she wouldn't have to do if anyone at the school knew her and was willing to let her stay one night. However, Roxanne had never been that lucky. So she hefted her bag up and started the trek to leave the academy for the last time. The stairs had always seemed long to her, but today they were especially so. She could hear giggling from some of the rooms, and boisterous laughter from others, all the sounds one would expect from the dorms during a break, all the sounds that left Roxanne in tears her first year. Now, those same sounds made her sigh, not cry. So she kept walking, none of the passing faces giving even a sign that they'd acknowledged her, none of the passing mouths opening in greeting, and none of the passing hands reaching out to her.
It wasn't long before she'd made it to the entranceway of the dorms, a large room with several sets of staircases leading up to diverging sections. To Roxanne, this room was never a relevant space, but to others, it was a sort of gathering area. Groups would sit around in the scattered chairs, move them as they chose, and sometimes play games at the tables in the area. Today was no different, except that there were less people than usual, if only slightly.. At least, that was the case if Roxanne looked around with her right eye. But when she looked through the space with her left, she saw a surprisingly different scene.
Her left eye had always been able to see mana, even before it took form as a spell. Some more experienced individuals could sense it, but as far as Roxanne knew, she was the only one who could directly see it in its raw form. That gift was the only reason her family was willing to send her to the academy and the primary reason she'd done so well in some of the more combat-oriented classes. It was surprisingly easy to beat another mage in a duel if you could see when they started moving their mana.
That left eye showed fragile strands of golden white tied around a few people. The strands ignored the walls sometimes, but other times caught on structures like doorways and railings, like an odd mix between immaterial and real objects. Whenever someone with a strand came into contact with someone else, the strand would extend to them, sticking to them and splitting from the new connection. It was an interesting sight to see, each little bump or slap on the back changing the room, filling it with more and more of those shining strings. Looking down at herself, Roxanne noticed a few of those strands stuck to her, but none of them seemed to connect to anyone else, all appearing to lead out the door of the building. The sight elicited another sigh from her lips; of course, they didn't connect to anyone else because why would they. So instead of mentioning the oddity to anyone, Roxanne just shut her left eye and proceeded out the door as she'd initially planned.
Outside, the dull red glow from her closed eye was brighter, but Roxanne attributed that to the sun, high in the sky, beating down on the scene in front of her. Here was no different than inside; groups of students gathered together, talking, laughing, discussing what classes they'd take together, what they'd have for lunch, and everything in-between. They smiled, laughed, and jeered, all simply enjoying their time here, many having moved past the attack of last month. Some hadn't recovered, but few were willing to express that, choosing to put on a front instead. Roxanne was amongst those; she pretended to be confident while with Luna and the others, but digging through rubble and finding the occasional body left a mark. It wasn't that Roxanne had never seen a body; far from it, coming from the wilds meant death used to be relatively standard compared to here in the city. However, it was a lot easier for Roxanne to digest the end of a hunter or explorer at the hands of a monster than the death of a child at the hands of another individual. Still, Roxanne couldn't fault anyone here for trying to move on; she wished to do the same after all.
So, Roxanne moved along, leaving the campus, looking for a cheap place to stay the night. But, as she got out onto the main streets, she noticed that the red glow of her closed eye had grown significantly brighter. So much so that she could no longer attribute it to the sun above or any storefront. Letting her curiosity take hold, Roxanne opened her left eye once more, and the sight she saw was both horrifying and beautiful.
Roxanne saw thousands upon thousands of golden white strands spread across the city like the unfinished product of a loom, scattered by unseen hands. Every person had dozens stuck to them, connecting them. They spread from person to person, and some seemed to stick to empty air or structures. They pulsed with a magical light far more pristine than Roxanne had ever seen. Most mana had a color dyed by intent and emotion, but these strands were so clean that Roxanne couldn't imagine a person creating them. That purity was beautiful, but it scared Roxanne with how far it was outside her experience. So, she started investigating the strands, trying to find out what purpose they could possibly serve and why they connected the town in such a way.
At first glance, the threads were spread evenly, with no distinct voids or large masses. But, that was only in a single area. If Roxanne ventured further, she found the density of threads decreased the closer to the edge of the city she went. So, she tried to direct her sight toward the center of town. But, what she could see from her current position revealed next to nothing, the buildings obscuring anything further in and the people hiding the street itself. The hurdle was high enough that Roxanne wanted to give up investigating and just go back to her day, but it wasn't high enough to silence her curiosity. >It's unique, it's clearly magic, and it's so pretty, wouldn't you regret not seeing more of it?< A tiny part of her mind whispered, and Roxanne had to begrudgingly admit that it was correct.
So, Roxanne started making her way to somewhere more open, hoping that she'd get a better view of this strange phenomenon. She walked while witnessing the strands grow in number, connecting more people, spreading out further, latching onto surfaces and objects, and tangling on everyone who walked by. She didn't intentionally grab at any of them herself, but neither did she attempt to avoid walking through them when they were in her path.
----------------------------------------
"The fates of many, the fates of all, so grand and intricate that they bind the world tight. The destiny of one connects that of another; the actions of both shine with impossible light." My voice, the one long lost to time, resonated with the spell, resounding in the world in a way I could never do without a cost.
----------------------------------------
Roxanne felt the strings shift more than she saw them. The experience wasn't unpleasant, but it was beyond anything she'd felt before. Her one eye that could see the strings felt a tingle like it was vibrating, and from that feeling, Roxanne felt a voice in those vibrations, muffled and far away, but a voice felt through her eye instead of heard with her ears. A silky feeling, smooth but unlike oil, rubbed across her vision. Roxanne could tell that the voice was saying something, but she couldn't parse apart the words, so she kept moving, trying to find a clear line of sight with the source of the magic.
----------------------------------------
"The web that grows twinkles in the light that shows us infinity; both wavering in the wind that blows across reality." The rhymes irritated me, but I'd long learned that such pageantry was surprisingly necessary to this course of action. "The choices are so many that they are beyond countless. The influence is so vast that it could only be called boundless." My goal filled the spell, my words mostly unrelated as of yet, but each syllable tinting the magic with the result I desire. "A path and a goal, both barred by a toll, so I call out with my soul so that the fates will align with my desire." I felt the web tightening around me, binding me as much as the city, attempting to warn me of the cost I would need to pay. But, I kept speaking, intent on finishing what I'd started no matter the price.
----------------------------------------
Roxanne could feel the words more prominently now, some so plain she could understand them, others still only a step away from her comprehension. She could tell that whoever was speaking was saying something about fate and webs, but she couldn't understand enough to comprehend anything further.
When she looked down at herself, she saw hundreds of strands so thin they couldn't have even been from a spider's web. Around her, she saw so many that her left eye couldn't even see the road. However, her right eye could see the goal, a shopping plaza with a fountain in the middle, one that should have a clear view of the city's center. So she rushed ahead, her feet picking up speed the closer she got to see the truth behind something she'd never seen before.
Roxanne's feet felt so heavy, and her chest was on fire, but still, she sprinted with an almost maddened ferver. However, when she reached the plaza, she was disappointed to see that the spell's center was just below the edge of the buildings even here. She could see thousands of strands gathering in the area, and the words were clearer than anywhere else, but she still couldn't see the epicenter. The feeling of curiosity in her heart turned to desperation. She had to know the truth, but the sense of that voice resonating along the threads indicated that some form of climax approached. Roxanne's legs ached, she'd never run so fast in her life, but even that amount of effort had proven insufficient. That desperate need in her heart turned to resignation; she'd failed, what else could be said. So she resigned herself to observe the remainder of the spell from her inadequate vantage point.
"Roxy?" A voice called out to Roxanne, a minuscule amount of shock and happiness in their tone.
----------------------------------------
"A path forged from neither necessity nor time, a journey made despite the climb. A request made of the infinite beyond, a choice made to take on new bonds, all to align their fate, with a decision I grant weight." I felt the spell wind about me tighter than ever. The time had come to negotiate with the world, pay the price it demanded, or face the consequences of having forced the issue.
----------------------------------------
"Roxy, what brings you out here?" Luna asked, pure curiosity in her voice. "Are you alright?" She continued, having spotted how out of breath Roxanne appeared.
"Did you run here from the academy?" Shu-Na asked his tone one that Roxanne failed to understand. "Why?" He chuckled out the second question.
Roxanne couldn't say anything to either of them; her voice caught in her throat. She'd generally have a moment to collect herself before she needed to put on the mask of confidence she wore in front of them. However, she had neither the time to prepare herself nor the mental capacity to make that switch this time. A fine set of events led to Roxanne gaping at the two people like a dying fish, her mouth failing to do anything more than gulp in air.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Roxanne's brain felt frozen, all her thoughts suddenly at a complete halt. She couldn't bring herself to form the words of a greeting, nor could she find a way to avoid speaking with them and continue her objective. Everything she knew about these two told her that if she didn't say anything or attempted to move past them without saying why they'd grow concerned and become more of a distraction. Not that it mattered, she couldn't see the center from here, so what if these two distract her from what she can see: it wouldn't matter anyway.
At this point, the words running along those golden strands became so clear Roxanne understood them perfectly. She could feel that voice in her eye, talking about how it would pay any price, pride, and secrets irrelevant, as long as its request for help was honored. That concept resonated with Roxanne's soul. A cry for help so desperate that the one asking was willing to do anything to get assistance. A cry Roxanne had debated making too many times while at the academy but never been willing to do. This time would be different, Roxanne thought. She'd ask for help because now she had reason to trust that someone would answer that call.
"Higher," Roxanne spluttered out. "I need to get higher." She tried again to get her request across to the two in front of her.
"Higher?" Shu-Na asked, his voice losing the underlying humor that Roxanne expected from him. His face seemed to contort into a scowl for an instant as he spoke, but when Roxanne blinked, that expression was gone, replaced with a more placid one.
Roxanne had to think about that for a moment; she hadn't really thought about the ‘where’ of the spell, only that it was the center of town. But having been asked about it more precisely, she realized the only thing of note around there was the castle. So that's what she used as a basis for her goal.
"High enough... to see the castle." She huffed out, doing her best to convey the urgency of her request while pointing upwards toward where she expected the center of the spell to be.
Shu-Na's face once more shifted for merely an instant, but instead of a scowl, this one seemed to be more of relief. "I just might be able to help." He said, his voice filled with that humorous tone once again. "Hop on," He said while turning to show his back to Roxanne. "Just don't pull my hair; we don't know each other that well." He chuckled at what Roxanne assumed was a joke before crouching down enough for her to climb onto his back.
----------------------------------------
"No cost too great, as long as a path it will create. Pride is no obstacle, and for my secrets, I am solely responsible." I could feel that the world liked what I was saying, but it wanted me to continue like it was waiting for something. "To the web of fate, I plead; with my sacrifice, I sow the seed. I make this request out of greed, but to honor a debt has always been my creed." I kept speaking, trying to convince the infinite possibilities of fate to align with my goal, but I felt like I was talking to a fickle child. I'd already satisfied it in one manner, but now it wanted something else, something different, but I couldn't tell what. "Forge our destiny, forge our fate, so that we reach our goals not a moment too late. Spread the thread even to the dead so that I will succeed no matter how much I've bled." I felt like I was staring down the smiling maw of a leviathan, hungry but still choosing to toy with me before its meal. I was growing desperate, and that unreal set of teeth seemed all too aware of my mounting emotions.
I was flailing. The following line had to close the discussion; this I could not change. I had to end this soon, whether the universe agreed to help or not, pay the price even if I'd get nothing out of it. I felt livid; I'd never had this ritual go so terribly. And as that anger and frustration grew, two things changed around me. The first, a minor thing just within note, I felt a pair of eyes land on me, a pair separate from Scales and the guard beside me. The second, what I believed to be the most relevant of the changes, a train whistle sounded, loud and clear in my mind.
----------------------------------------
"Gotta admit, this is harder than I expected," Shu-Na grunted out.
"Are you saying I'm heavy?" Roxanne attempted to match the eastern man's regular humor.
"I don't think it would matter who I had on my back right now." Shu-Na huffed in between grunts of effort. "I think this would be difficult even if I were carrying someone as light as Luna." He continued as if to distract himself from his current exertion.
Regardless of any jokes she wanted to attempt, Roxanne had to admit that Shu-Na was probably correct. The eastern man had offered his back to Roxanne and then almost immediately started climbing. It wasn't what Roxanne had expected him to do, but she wouldn't complain. She didn't have the arm strength to do this herself, even when she wasn't exhausted. With the added weakness from having sprinted across town, any of Roxanne's attempts to do this would have had her flailing at the first ledge.
"So, what's worth seeing over at the castle?" Shu-Na tried to make conversation. "And did I have to climb this building for you to see it, or are you just messing with me?" He asked another question in a way Roxanne hoped meant was in jest.
"It's difficult to explain what I want to see, though I can assure you that I wouldn't have made it in time if you didn't do this." Roxanne offered an answer, afraid to try and explain her ability to see mana. That fear was something she'd dealt with for some time, no one back home had understood, and at the academy, they'd seen it as an unfair advantage of the talented.
"Well, I won't pry; we all have our secrets. I just hope that this climb is worth it." Shu-Na's voice contained a tone that Roxanne didn't recognize. It wasn't hurt, nor was it betrayal, but those seemed to be the only emotions Roxanne could think of when she heard it.
Shu-Na didn't continue trying to talk after that. The two of them reached the roof in silence, and Roxanne turned to look at the spell before a sad feeling engulfed her the moment before it entered her eye. This moment was of a type she'd never managed at the academy, a moment to build trust with someone. Roxanne could turn to the spell and observe it without saying anything to Shu-Na, and that would be the end. Or, she could explain what she wanted to see and build something akin to a friendship with the other man.
----------------------------------------
The web revealed images to me: a station, a platform with hundreds of people waiting for the next train out of the city. The strands wove to-and-fro over the tracks, covering it entirely. Not one of them saw this, none of them capable of seeing the magic at work around them. Still, they watched the tracks with fear in their eyes. A train's whistle sounded, so loud, so desperate, it was almost panicked. Everyone's eyes grew wider and wider, shock growing then turning into fear. A train whistle blew, the sound screeching along so many threads, piercing my mind. Everyone in the station took a step away from the tracks, then another, and another. A train whistle sounded out, desperate to make itself known. The web of fate sung with false ecstasy; this was what it had forced me to see. A train whistle blew, so loud, so harsh, not the clear sound of one pulling into a station. Someone screamed for everyone to get back, to step away from the tracks, but there were too many people for that to be possible. A train whistle blew, sharp, like a blade cutting into my psyche. A train whistle sounded out, and the train barrelled through the station way faster than it should ever have gone. In an instant, it blew past the station, on past the city toward some unseen town. The passengers and the workers' panic flooded my conscience, each a new addition to the web.
The strands pulled taut, the speeding train dragging them well beyond what I'd planned. They wrapped around me, strangling me, attempting to constrain my voice. I struggled to get my words out; each instant, the train continued adding more and more weight to my effort. I choked on my words, my throat no longer capable of making a sound.
----------------------------------------
"I think I get it," Shu-Na said, his pondering made apparent by his expression. Roxanne was a little shocked considering how brief her explanation was; still, hearing him say he understood was a relief. "With that said, can I ask one question." He continued, and Roxanne's relief vanished.
She knew what question was coming; it was always the same. ‘Can you tell what I'm thinking from my mana’ or some other variation of that, it was what everyone asked when they heard about her ability. No matter how she answered, they never believed her, so they stopped interacting with her after that. Prepared for that same thing, Roxanne braced herself for that question to come out of Shu-Na's lips.
"Have you ever heard of the spell Linked Sense?" Shu-Na asked, his voice filled with curiosity.
Roxanne was floored; she had no idea how to react to that question. Still, she answered as honestly as she could. "I've never heard of it; the academy had me focus on combat magic." She admitted.
"Alright then," Shu-Na exclaimed. "In this case, it should let me see what you see. If it works, it works; if it doesn't, then too bad. Either way, you should probably watch what it is you wanted to see." Shu-Na didn't elaborate further. Instead, he gently turned Roxanne to face the castle, and what she saw was astounding.
----------------------------------------
I couldn't speak; the threads that others would be incapable of feeling wrapped around me so tightly that they crushed my throat. The things that passed for lungs in my chest heaved, demanding air, but finding only black ooze from my crushed windpipe. I felt like someone drove a spike into my skull, the effort needed to stop the spell from collapsing under the now ever-increasing strain leaving me with a splitting headache. Everyone on that train screamed, the sound filling my mind with white-hot agony. I kept desperately pulling at the threads around my throat, trying to pull them away long enough to speak out the final phrase of the spell. Despite my efforts, the train kept speeding away, pulling more and more strands taut as they tangled around the rest of the formation.
Whatever entity controlled the web, lived amongst the infinite choices of the world's populous, it laughed at me. It seemed to say this was payback for something, that this was the price I had to pay before it would consider what I had to say. I could feel it in every strand, a will without a mind, an inhuman soul without a body. I could feel it strengthen the strands so not a single one would snap, nor could I cut them with my own hand. Still, I refused to give in to some petty existence that took issue with any action I'd made in my past. So I let go of the strands around my body, every single one pulling tighter and tighter, crushing me slowly. And with a concerted force of effort and will, I imposed my mind onto the web. I would speak even without my voice.
----------------------------------------
It was beautiful and blinding—millions upon millions of golden lights, spreading out from a tightly wound singularity. Beyond the scale Roxanne had seen, it engulfed the city and seemed to spread further. It pulsed and twitched like a living creature, shifting as everyone it connected to moved about their day and as whoever was at the center kept speaking. It writhed and wiggled around, seemingly trying to crush inwards. But the longer Roxanne watched, the more she understood how astoundingly unique this was, even amongst works of magic.
Every single thread was unique, containing a subtly different shade of that overall gold. Each one stood out amongst the rest despite being so infinitely thin that they should have appeared to be a single mass. The sight of every single thread filled Roxanne's mind with the idea that they'd each been crafted by hand. Such an impossible task felt all too possible while watching that threaded formation.
And despite the overwhelming power that appeared to hold that singularity together, Roxanne could tell that the impact of this magic would be impossibly subtle. Each thread could exert only a fraction of a fraction of the total power. And that idea was terrific to Roxanne. The idea that someone would go through so much effort to create something so significant, with the knowledge that it could barely achieve the tiniest thing on the desired scale. That was something unique to Roxanne, something that made her want to know more about magic.
This wasn't an attack spell with a set function or a ritual whose only use was to build a boring structure. In Roxanne's eye, this was what magic should be; a great ordeal one went through to achieve a goal that others couldn't understand. This was real magic.
And as Roxanne thought that, she felt the speaker at the center of that formation bring the entire thing to a close.
----------------------------------------
"I speak my request out the way many do their prayers." The words hurt to say, the strain of forcing my will along the strands to generate words pounding against what passed as my heart. "I ask of the web to help me, even if it should cause a flood." My body ached, my head felt ready to burst, and my throat was so mangled that I wouldn't be able to speak at all for weeks to come, but I forced the spell to close, hoping that the price for what I wanted wouldn't be too high. "SO I IMPLORE THE WEB OF FATE TO BUILD A PATH, WHETHER IT BE THROUGH SWEAT, TEARS," I felt the entire spell freeze the instant before the end, waiting for me to finish so that it could enact its price. "OR BLOOD." I called out the final words of the spell, and as every strand around me pulled to align the world to my goal, my mind was flooded with the unbearable agony of my leg exploding.