Melody was coming home from work in her car, she was listening to some music while thinking about that new project she’d been assigned. She was driving down the familiar street, a classic residential road lined with trees and sidewalks, with gardens and houses extending just behind. Overall, it was just a classic, peaceful, residential area on the outskirts of a larger city.
Melody always had mixed feelings about this house she’d bought, it was her dream to own a place, but it was always a bit too conformist. She was stuck in this boring life, go to work, come home, buy groceries, cook, relax a bit, sleep and go back to work. The only varying things were the little problems of the everyday life, a flat tire, bad weather, some road work that forced her to change her plans. There was nothing exciting, it was both reassuring and driving her mad.
Deep down in her chest her beating heart was screaming for adventure, novelty, emotion and adrenalin. But her head knew it wasn’t a viable option, too few could live their life like Mike Horn, always going on places adventuring and surviving. Oh, how she envied Calian sometimes, fate had made him leave that boring life he had back in the Empire and now he was free to do whatever he wanted in a fresh world where nobody knew him, nor expected anything of him. Plus, he had that damned magic of his…
As Melody was musing on her repressed dreams, she arrived home. Some kids were playing in the street and two women were talking quietly, walking on the sidewalk and looking over the kids. Melody stopped her car, grabbed her work bag and walked to the trunk to get her bag of groceries.
As she was walking along the car, she was hit by a shockwave so forceful it forced her against the side of the car. The pain and the surprise made her dizzy and almost black out. When Melody came back to her sense she was sitting on the ground, her back resting against her passenger door and her legs shaking. She looked all over her, but nothing was out of place, the kids were still playing, and the women were still chatting happily. As she was about to stand back up a similar but less powerful shockwave hit her again, halting her efforts to stand up and forcing her against the side of the car once again.
Truly frightened and angry, Melody shot up and braced herself. She was frenetically looking all around her, trying to locate the source of the attack. As she scanned the street she noticed something out of the ordinary. One of the children was sitting on the road, a hand on her chest. She had an expression of surprise on her face and was looking around her and at her chest. Melody had barely the time to take this all in that a third shockwave was hitting her again. This time she was paying attention and she had braced herself. Melody had some clues as to what was happening, and she needed to check if her conjecture was correct. If she was right he wasn’t going to hear the end of this.
As the third wave hit her, Melody concentrated on magic. She was calling on that diffuse feeling that was always at the back of her head when she was playing with that small light in the greenhouse. She remembered how she felt outside the greenhouse when her mana core had formed, and the second time when the mana flow had set into place once they had moved the greenhouse in the Clearing. She concentrated and called upon the magic, she called for the familiar light that she’d grown fond of, she wished for that light to float in front of her eyes as always. When the third shockwave hit, she felt a click inside of her, and she felt her call be answered. The third shockwave hadn’t thrown her off balance, it had passed over harmlessly, caressing her body and sending the familiar goosebumps all over her.
Melody wanted to cry and laugh; she was mad and so glad at the same time. Her hypothesis wasn’t wrong, and she loved being right, but oh boy was she going to give Calian a beating. She readied for a fourth pulse but after a minute she realized it’d never come. Still a bit perplexed she looked around her and especially toward the kid holding her chest. From afar she could tell the kid was fine, she’d probably felt her mana core forming and that wasn’t especially nice to feel, as Melody remembered. Seeing that the kid was fine, Melody went to her trunk and leaned on the car for a minute, doing some rough calculations. She was at least 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Calian, for an inexperienced mage like her to feel the mana pulse so clearly and to even have a kid form her mana core, Calian must’ve done something ridiculous. Melody didn’t know much about magic, but she had picked up a few things from Calian and had a pretty good memory. She remembered him telling her that mana pulses happened mostly during failed experiments, combat or mana cycle adjustments.
Calian probably wasn’t fighting anything, and if he was, he probably wasn’t making waves like that, at least she hoped. An experiment that produced a mana pulse like that must’ve been one hell of a fail, but the most likely hypothesis was that Calian had made a new, improved greenhouse. Damn it, it had barely been four days since she’d left him in the Clearing, couldn’t he have the decency to give her a few days of rest ?
Torn, Melody was considering her options, she could pretend she didn’t feel any mana pulse, but she’d be dying of curiosity all alone inside her house. Or she could grab her keys and drive to the Clearing and ask him what he thought he was doing. She knew she had promised to stay away for a bit, but he didn’t mention he’d send mana waves all over the area either ! After a while Melody decided it was now or never, she’d already been crazy enough to offer to a man who could do magic to stay at her place, she could go and check up on him after all. She ran to her house and grabbed a pillow and a blanket, she was probably going to arrive at night, it’d be better to be prepared to spend the night there.
///
Melody had drove faster than she usually did, she had reached the forest in barely 40 minutes, and she was now walking towards the Clearing at a rapid pace. One the way, when she drove in the forest, she’d felt that tingling sensation at the back of her head again. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she believed it was mana. When she was practicing in the greenhouse she could somewhat tell that there was something more when she was inside, but now that vague feeling was increased manyfold, almost as strong as she’d felt during the pulse. As she progressed she could feel the sensation become increasingly more intense, which only increased her belief that Calian had improved the greenhouse.
Melody had her sheets folded in a bag on her back and was walking the increasingly familiar path to the clearing when she spotted something unusual at around the halfway mark from the car to Calian’s lair. It was a wooden sculpture faintly glowing blue floating peacefully a few centimeters from the ground.Curious, Melody bent to grab the wooden carving and felt a little jolt as she made contact. Surprised, she retracted her hand, but seeing she wasn’t harmed reached once again to the sculpture. This time her hand made contact without anything noticeable, but when she tried to grab the carving the little wood piece wouldn’t budge. It didn’t look held by anything, rotating peacefully above the forest soil, but it wouldn’t move an inch despite Melody exerting all her force on it. A bit confused and irritated by the unmovable mystery, Melody decided she didn’t want to waste her time and continued to walk towards her destination.
Since she was feeling bored, and the setting sun was starting to cast the forest in the dark Melody decided it was time to confirm once and for all that her gut feeling was correct, Calian had made a new mana generator. She flexed her will and a tiny spark of light floated alongside her, illuminating the forest around the apprentice mage. Melody sighed in relief, she definitely loved being right, but she was even more relieved because she was almost sure Calian was unharmed since it was very unlikely that the mana in the area was the result of a failed experiment.
The path lit by her spell, Melody resumed her march toward the Clearing and a few minutes later she had come close enough to see the gaping hole in the forest roof from afar, the Clearing was right in front of her. As she got closer she could see strange lights illuminate with various colors the area, the bark of the trees taking on blue and green hue, but she didn’t have direct line of sight to the source of lights because of the house sitting in between. Curious Melody circled the Clearing while staying under the cover of the trees, as she slowly got a better view of the area, a glowing humanoid revealed itself to her. Her eyes were slowly adapting to the bright luminosity, slowly she started to discern a humanoid form kneeling in front of the light, she couldn’t tell who it was since the backlight was too intense for her to make out any detail.
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Growing more and more curious she started advancing forward, toward the light. She suspected Calian was the man kneeling but had no proof yet. As she came closer she heard a sound like no other, it was like a sheet being violently ripped and a booming sound at the same time. As the startling sound peaked the light dimmed and Calian was left kneeling in the mud, a wide smile on his face.
///
Calian was standing inside the greenhouse, polishing the last details of his plan. He’d spent the last four days working on that mana capture runescheme. The day after Melody left crafted the runes anchors. The following day he’d spent his waking hours between enchanting the anchors and recharging his depleted mana reserves, enchanting always took a toll on mages mana reserves. At dawn yesterday he’d started walking in the forest, carefully placing the anchors at regular intervals. At noon, the mana capture ward was ready to activate and Calian didn’t hesitate, he pierced a hole in a wall of the greenhouse, allowing some mana to flow out while still maintaining the overall balance of mana inside. For the rest of yesterday and most of today he’d been relaxing, crafting some useful appliances for his house and doing minor works in the Clearing.
Suddenly, at around 5:30 according to the sun, large mana pulses had started to ripple throughout the forest, startling him and some animals. The mana had been piling up for more than a day in the Clearing and finally a tipping point had been reached, the first batches of bushes and small plants had started to produce mana. A powerful feedback loop had been started and the mana pulses had grown more and more intense and were increasingly frequent. The last three mana pulses had been a sight to behold, and even Calian, a somewhat experienced mage had been surprised.
With the improved mana generation Calian was more than confident to pull the ritual off, he took his time preparing everything he needed, some gold shavings as an enticing offering, a bit of silver for stabilizing the ambient mana and wood for good mana conduction and the material requirements for the ritual were met. Calian was feeling both excited and nervous, he didn’t want to rush it, but he couldn’t help his hands trembling and his heartbeat rising. He assembled a simple structure, the wood as the base, a thin sheet of silver above it and the gold shavings on top of it all. Calian was ready, his mana reserves full, the only thing betraying his nervousness was his signature sign of stress : his index twitching. The makeshift shrine was assembled, the mana in the Clearing was dense enough, the requirements were met.
The mage took a deep breath and kneeled before the shrine, he wasn’t sure how he should interact with the higher being that would answer his call, but he didn’t want to take any chance at offending him. Calian started chanting the spell her mother had taught him, it consisted of deep sounds mostly coming from the chest and the throat, sometimes higher pitched passages would need some clacks of the tongue, to anyone from earth the song would sound oddly similar to Tibetan Buddhists chants.
As Calian chanted small ripples in the weave of space started spreading around the shrine. The leaves of the Clearing fluttered in an unnatural wind. Soon lights started to pour from cracks in space itself, the ripples had become deep gashes that were spreading all around the area Calian had reserved for the ritual. While deeply distressed about the powerful magic he was observing, Calian didn’t flinch and continued chanting at the best of his ability. For a while nothing new happened, the cracks were growing slowly, the strange lights were still illuminating the area and Calian was still chanting. But as Calian started to near the end of the chant space fractured around him and an androgynous entity seemingly made of light manifested before Calian.
Barely an instant passed but for Calian it seemed an eternity, the Presence of the entity and the sheer pressure it exerted on the local mana was making Calian shiver in fear. Fortunately, the mage was clinging for dear life to what he could remember about gods and was persuading himself that what he’d called couldn’t crush him like an insect. Too preoccupied with not pissing himself or leaving his mouth gaping open, Calian didn’t strike the conversation first, which left the entity the opening move.
The entity looked calmly around it, assessing the state of the Clearing, before looking at Calian. For the first time its complexion changed from a perfect neutral to a frown and a look of interest, “Oh, you’re a godtouched, how interesting. Now human, why did you call for me ?”
Calian reined in his anxiety and gave a silent prayer for everything to go well. It wasn’t the smartest thing he’d done, since he was talking to the closest thing to a god mages knew, but it’d do. Adrenalin pumping through his veins Calian struggled the words out, “I, Calian Rhys, implore you, oh great one, to hear my wish. I wish for knowledge, knowledge of the mages, knowledge of magic. Stranded in a barren land I implore you to help me find a path to my planet.”
The entity looked amused at Calian’s answer and smiled, “Oh honey, who taught you how to behave with extraplanar summons ? You don’t have to be so formal, and you’ll need to tell me more than that for us to strike a deal. Do you have somewhere to sit ? A mana form isn’t really material but it’s always good to do something else than float around.”
Calian, completely thrown off by the lighthearted tone of the entity fumbled around before grabbing two chairs from the house porch with a quick spell. Once both sat, the entity continued before Calian could speak, “I’m Koshan, well that’s the closest name to mine in that world, you can relax, I’m one of the more gentle of my people, I won’t hold any grudge even if we can’t make a deal so speak freely. Tell me of your troubles.”
Calian was a bit lost at first, seeing such a gentle god as opposed to what his lessons said, but he quickly adapted and went with the flow. Calian explain as succinctly as possible how he’d found himself in his current situation and explained the peculiar situation of Earth and his projects. With his throat aching from anticipation Calian explained, “That’s why I called for you, I hope you’ll be able to provide me knowledge for me to use to go back to my home.”
Koshan refocused on Calian as he finished speaking, it had been looking around as if peering through reality itself and observing far-away events, “I understand your predicament. First, let me gift you some knowledge you didn’t request. You are what some of you humans call a godtouched. It means one of my people has taken interest in you and has given you some boon. According to what you explained that boon seem to be an innate understanding of Earth’s concepts, and I believe it was more to prevent you from dying just after teleporting than really giving you a long-term ability but I may be wrong. Being a godtouched is a mark of a tumultuous fate, be careful of who you share your path with, as some may wish to get close, and some may flee when they learn you have the attention of one of us.
Now, what you ask for, knowledge, is a precious thing, far more important than the abilities some ask us, and more valuable than the eternal life some fools dream about. But precious things come at a price. I suppose you won’t forfeit your freedom as repayment, it’d defeat the purpose of going home, but you do not possess great material riches either…”
Calian interrupted, “You’re right, I do not wish to forfeit my freedom, and I do not yet have great riches, but I will. My magic is rare on earth, so I can gather everything you can dream of here !”
“I appreciate the thought, but unfortunately I’m really interested in potent magical materials and artifacts. We feed on magic and will Calian, your precious things are more often than not worthless to us. I’m afraid we’re not cut for each other my young friend, I’d love to help you but I’m afraid we won’t find a deal together,” declared Koshan, his expression soft and his extremities starting to decompose into sparks of mana.
“Please ! There must be a way !” implored Calian, his hope dissolving with Koshan.
The entity simply shook its head, continuing to disappear silently.
Calian was seeing Koshan fade away and was getting truly desperate, he was racking his brains for anything he could interest it with. A harem dedicated to it ? Nah. Starting a cult for it ? Gods never seemed too interested in the religions dedicated to them. Promise the life of someone else ? Nope a dude already tried, and it ended badly. A physical envelop ? Why not ?
“I’ll give you a physical envelop, an avatar !” screamed Calian, becoming red from the stress.
Instantly Koshan stopped dissolving, his little visual trick gone and his mana body fully intact once again. “Now we’re talking. Who told you about avatars ?”
Calian shrugged, smiling internally at the god’s interest, “Nobody, I just guessed, I know you can’t really interact with the physical world, so I guessed making you something to descend into it was worth a shot.”
“So, you have no idea how difficult the task you’re promising to shoulder is. Do you wish to know how one allows an Irani to descend amongst the Physicals ?”