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Lossless firmament, the day red turned black
Exalt the flame of disaster
Burden of freedom upended by compressed sky
Inevitable despair, Unjust slaughter
Hope extinguished, Always rekindled
————
“We all carry on with our lives, living day to day monotonously. Some look forward to baubles and vices that spark joy, others trudge through the endless cycles with duty or apathy in their hearts, and happy few thrive on the never-ending engine of chaos and entropy that is humanity.
Once, when we were younger. When the world was aloft with wonder and our stories only beginning to be written... Passion scorched our future. We were fools who planned to soar.
And soar we did.
Now… Now only dreams remain.
Humanity desecrated their engines of progress, reached for the domain of gods, and what have they brought? Nothing but treachery. We have been blessed so much that our fortunes have become curses instead.
Illnesses rampant, not of the body, but of the mind and the soul. Strife is laced with greed and the righteousness of the ignorant. War is sold and calcified with indifference. The trademark of kindness has been commercialized out of necessity.
Shall humanity fall to the weight of their sins? Or will they survive through the tribulations created by their own nature? Does hope truly die? Is despair absolute or a transition?
It is an enigma then. How humanity drowns itself into the Deep, while triumphing over their own flaws with vigorous fervor.
The end does not mean oblivion, and there is yet much to be written.
Victors do not win with power. But by making the right choices.
Time is Change, and change does not happen by chance.
Take your chances. Make your choice.
Fight forever.”
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Sedia and I comb through the attractions across the festival.
Or, more accurately, I kept following behind Sedia while she curiously explored everything everyone was doing. Just like I did a while ago when I was with Clauren and Samyra instead.
I have… conflicting opinions about the festival. I was reluctant to participate and wanted nothing to do with the crowds, the noise was unbearable and frequenting the different activities felt awkward at best.
‘I’d usually say I’m the type to stand in a corner, but…’
I was more invested in looking at Sedia rather than the festival.
…
Realizing the misleading wording of my thoughts I shake my head, ashamed of the strange ideas that spewed from it.
‘...Is it really ok to leave her unsupervised in the middle of all this? Where are her parents anyways?’ I thought to myself, ignoring the fact that I, in fact, was also an unsupervised child roaming around.
Security isn’t a problem, even then, accidents may happen. Looking around, I saw that there was always at least an eye or two watching us. This was normal, I thought, considering that in such a crowded place it’s inevitable to cross paths and people, but those gazes were more observant compared to a simple passing glance.
That’s also when I found Gaviel, stoic as ever, surrounded by other people partying while stiffly holding a suspiciously untouched mug.
Having spotted each other, he waved.
Before I could do anything, Sedia was already walking away, I waved back to him a little shyly, and then chased away after Sedia.
Across places, we passed by people I knew, and people I regularly saw from a distance everyday but never talked to.
Sedia also had her fair share of people she is acquainted with, which is a lot more than me. And instead of passing by she went to greet and talk to practically everyone we came across.
I quietly followed behind her, giving a small greeting whenever whoever Sedia was talking to took notice of me.
‘Ah… She is an extrovert’ I realized then.
In another time and place, I usually would grow impatient or tired from all this. Wishing to be somewhere else doing something else I liked.
‘Oh well, it’s not like I have anything better to do I guess.’ Despite my growing desire to take a nap, it wasn't so bad. Even though Sedia was enjoying the festival for both of us.
Eventually the parties and all the noise began to die down as the festival neared its end.
——— –– –– -- - -
A few days after the festival…
“Hi! Hiii!” A Sharp sound suddenly wakes me up.
“Mmmnyu…” I grumble while getting out of bed. It seemed like the noise came from Clauren’s house.
Without bothering to do anything, I go over to take a peek of what is happening in my pajamas.
“It’s you…” Clauren says with a small glare.
“It’s me!” Granny replies with aggressive cheer.
I had almost forgotten about it, but after some rigorous back and forth between Clauren and Granny, Sedia is now going to be tutored alongside me in the magic lessons. For today Granny would also supervise everything.
“Good morning Syuu!” Sedia loudly says while approaching me from behind Granny who was in a glaring match with Clauren.
“Hm?...” I was not quite awake yet ”Good morn– ING?!”
Sedia was suddenly hugging me.
The abrupt contact and the acute sensation of unexpected warmth on my skin woke me up. I did not believe that we were that close for the sudden upgrade in affection she was showing.
The smooth and soft skin of her cheek was pressing against mine and the sensation of her slender, but somewhat strong arms behind my back were uncomfortably foreign to me. Physical contact at this level isn’t something I do often, not even in the before, though I’ve gotten somewhat used to it thanks to recent events. This is the first time someone of the same height as me hugged me.
Faintly, memories from the last and final times I hugged my own family surfaces, souring my mood. I didn’t let it show on my face.
I just give two wordless pats on Sedia’s back before she releases me.
Granny just pats my head once as she unceremoniously heads inside, Clauren following after her begrudgingly.
They headed to the training area, but before I could follow Clauren stopped me with a hand on top of my head.
He would stop her by her shoulder instead, but with the height disparity it’s easier to reach Syuufarin’s head instead.
“*Ahem*,” Clauren coughed, “maybe you should go dress yourself first.”
“...Ah.” I turned beet-red.
。。。
“I’m back” I say, having rushed to and back from my room.
Inside I was still feeling embarrassed from being seen in that half-dressed state though.
Thankfully nobody said anything about it.
“What are they doing?” I ask Sedia.
She tilts her head, “They are fighting… I think?” she says, not quite sure either.
Granny and Clauren are butting heads again. By this point I gave up trying to keep up with what they are talking about, in the end I don’t understand anything and there is a lot of context I am missing so it’s a waste of energy.
It looks like they are doing more grappling than fighting tough… Either Granny is stronger than she looks or Clauren is pathetically weak. It looks like Clauren is losing?...
Sometimes it feels like they are more children than I am. ‘though I’m a fake one.’ I scoff to myself.
I turn to Sedia, who is idly admiring her little wand. I smile a little. ‘Looks like she is as fascinated as me.’
“Do you know why they are like this?” I ask her.
“Hmm… Well, uncle Clauren used to be one of Granny’s students a long time ago…”
I raise my eyebrows “Oh? I didn’t know that.”
I think I might’ve heard it one or two times in passing though. But they never said this information directly to me so it went by me unnoticed.
“...And he did something that made Granny real mad, so mad that she made him not her student anymore.”
“Hmm… that’s…” I can’t quite wrap my head around it. I’ve only ever known Clauren as a gentle person. He is unreliable, irresponsible, messy… ‘Now that I’m thinking about he isn’t really a role model… but he means well most of the time. A little selfish, yes, but endearingly thoughtful in his own strange way.’
“Ah, and also,” Sedia continued. “I wasn’t born yet at the time, so I don’t really know. But apparently they had to relocate the whole village because of the thing Clauren did. Everyone got really mad at him, and there is someone monitoring him everyday.”
Jesus this girl does not have filters. “What!?” I look at her, shocked. “Where– who even is watching him?”
She answered, “That’s Miss Samyra” It looked like Sedia held a lot more respect for her compared to Clauren.
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‘Even the children think the creepy doctor is weird.’ I sweatdrop. “Her?... But aren’t they, um, married?”
She giggled, “Yeah! It’s funny right?”
“How does that even work?...” I ask myself, looking towards the windows of the house. There was nobody I could see, but the image I had of Samyra suddenly turned a lot different.
“I’m not sure, but since the Elders still let Miss Samyra do stuff in their office I think she can be both his guard and partner at the same time? I dunno. But since they started living together the explosions happened a lot less compared to before, and Clauren stopped to smell funny all the time.”
“...I see.”
Their quarreling was beginning to grow louder and more violent, I looked to Sedia and saw that both of us were starting to worry. At first it seemed like casual needling, so nothing too concerning, but as time went by it looked like they really couldn’t stand each other at all.
Abruptly, Granny spun towards me.
“YOU!” She shouted.
I jumped in surprise “y-yes?”
“Cast basic offensive magic for me to see.” Granny is looking a lot more grumpy and angry compared to when I saw her at the festival.
“...” I freeze, not knowing what to do.
She impatiently says, “So? I’m waiting.”
“U-um… I don’t know any offensive magic…” I mutter.
Granny just looks at me with a calculating look… or is it a stupefied look? I don’t know, it’s hard to read her face with all the wrinkles.
“Scary kid…” She quietly mumbles to herself, massaging her forehead.
When Piyo saw Syuufarin’s display of skill at the festival, she was surprised by how good the girl was. So much so that she thought the girl had already a few years of training under her belt… but that could not be possible, it was not that long since she started learning under Clauren. Unless she prematurely began using spells too advanced for her, which would explain some things, and if it were true she would strangle Clauren for letting the child near such destructive spells.
But that was not the case at all. So Granny was left befuddled, and impressed.
“...”
There was a silent moment as we both stared at each other.
“Become my apprentice.”
I blink, “...Huh?”
“WHAT?! No! She’s my apprentice already!” Clauren yells, standing between me and her. “I already agreed to this stupid joint lesson thing, you can’t just take her away on your whims!” He says while grabbing me and dragging me away from Granny.
“Clearly I overestimated you, I had thought you were teaching her things that are outside her range of skill and was worried she would hurt herself with knowledge too advanced for her age, but I was wrong.” She points her bony body finger at me, “If I didn’t know any better I’d say she was already a mage for some time, but she has only barely started training.”
“Yes, I know.” Argued Clauren, “That’s precisely why you can’t have her!” he then turns his head away, muttering. “...besides being a research subject and future assistant.”
“…” I pretend to not have heard his strange statement.
Clauren opens his mouth to argue more, but he stops and becomes uncharacteristically quiet, instead of doing anything he pouts while firmly hugging me from behind…
Thankfully he isn’t wearing that soiled apron he always uses when researching, or else I’d be having an argument with his kneecaps.
“In the end, the decision is the girl’s to make.” Granny speaks. “So? Will you?” She directs at me.
I look left and right, hesitating. “Um…”
I direct my eyes to Clauren, a question on the tip of my tongue.
He shakes his head, answering my unspoken question. “Despite my… desires.” Clauren says somewhat forlorn. “She is right, it is your choice.”
If he could, Clauren would probably outright reject, and in an extreme case, deny Syuufarin this. He can be quite selfish when it comes to things he cares… embarrassedly, he admitted to himself that the girl grew on him. She can be very intelligent when she isn’t being lazy, something he realized he begrudgingly related with, and she made a good quiet company when she observed his research, a glint of fascination on her eyes everytime.
…But in the end he was meant to be a caretaker for her, he is not her guardian. Only responsible for seeing to that she did not die from the poisons she foolishly ate in the forest and then sending her off. But well, one thing led to another, and here she is living with them under the guise of some sort of probation.
They weren’t fooling anyone, she was as good as part of the village by now.
And nothing is stopping Syuufarin from deciding one day to leave. At first they only kept her because the situation had become turbulent, suspicion and unrest were still slowly fading away from that weird event, but now they do not have any authority to confine or dictate her life.
On these thoughts, Clauren could only hope that he wouldn’t regret growing attached to her, Elves live long after all.
I take a long minute to think.
…
A smile comes unbidden to me, as I remember an old but timeless joke.
“Why not both?” I say. “I mean… Clauren wants to teach me… And Granny also wants to do that too… Instead of competing, can't we do things together?” I tell them while poking my two index fingers together, trying to mediate.
They both turn to look at each other.
Clauren distances himself from Granny with a face like he just sucked on a lemon, and Granny squeezes her eyelids in distaste while crossing her arms.
After a moment, they both turned to look back at me… and subsequently to Sedia who had sat down in the grass. Watching it all unfold.
Seeing our expectant faces, they couldn’t help themselves but to acquiesce.
“Fine,” Granny said with no small amount of consternation. “But if he starts teaching you weird things I’m going to torch his house down.” She casually points to Clauren.
“WHAT?!!!” Clauren screams in abject horror.
“Just kidding.” She simply replies as if she did not threaten arson. “Actually, I think I’ll rather enjoy this. Looking from a different angle you’ll have to suffer my presence more than I suffer from yours.” Granny cackled in sadistic glee. “This way I get you to teach both of them without having to lift a finger!”
Clauren, completely done with his life, could only sigh deeply.
He wanted to protest, but he knows it is a waste of effort to change the hag’s mind now. He was already out of energy.
Teaching two students… He did not mind, not really. He was simply sad that he would not be able to do his usual research anymore in the presence of Piyo and her apprentice. Usually after the lessons with Syuufarin he would seclude himself inside his lab, but as Syuufarin had nothing better to do since she refused to go outside, they often ended up together with Syuufarin observing him.
And as she was not particularly bothersome or distracting, while also asking smart questions to sate her curiosity. Clauren made her work as an assistant of sorts, with Syuufarin none-the-wiser. And gradually she became less of a spectator to more of a helper.
If you asked Syuufarin she would say that she simply sits in a corner observing, but truth is she already had a frighteningly large knowledge about alchemy and the inner-workings of Clauren’s job and his projects. She was already Clauren’s assistant in all but name, only she did not know yet.
But now with these guests in his house… Clauren would need to be more discreet about his schemes, he thought to himself.
After a moment, Clauren lets another dismayed sigh, slumping down his already bad posture even further.
“Haah!...” Sedia yawned. “Syuufarin, there’s always stuff like this happening around you…” She complained, while lazily draping herself over Syuufarin’s shoulder. “Last time I saw Granny laugh like that was decades ago, you make this place lively!”
‘O-oi oi oi! Aren’t you being a little too crass kid?!’ I scream inside my head as Sedia leans her body weight on me. It seemed like this child became way too comfortable way too fast with me. In my head the idea of friendship was much more reserved and took a long time to be built, but Sedia’s style of affection seemed to be much more easygoing.
In the end, after much more angry grumbling from part of Clauren, we continued with today’s magic lessons. Comparing both mine and Sedia’s progress along with Clauren’s and Granny’s teaching methods.
——— –– –– -- - -
Some weeks later…
“Stupid!” *whack* “Foolish!” *bonk* “Idiot!” *konk* Grandmother Piyo yelled while bonking her long staff on my head.
“Waah! Stop it! I didn’t know I swear!” I yelled back, cowering.
Granny was appalled when I told her the details of my improvised rain spell.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure of what I was doing, and I did what analogues to copy and pasting code from someone else’s work. Though in this case, spells.
The magic that waters plants is akin to a weak hose of water. The magic that made a storm of rain was less of an actual artificial weather phenomena and more pointing a very large and very potent hose upwards and mimicking rain with it. A few days after I got ungrounded, I decided to fiddle with the spell, I already knew most of the runes and had a somewhat good understanding of the fundamentals.
It took some trial and error, while nobody was looking. Not having an affinity for the element made the process slow, though it wasn’t like I couldn’t do water magic. Not having an affinity feels like trying to write with your left hand when you are right-handed, it’s not completely possible, and with enough practice it becomes easier, but the “dexterity” of the spells is very bad.
So, with effort and imagination, I transformed the “very big hose” magic into an “Actual rain” magic. The formula is a frankenstein of runes cannibalized from the spells Clauren taught me.
The gist of it is that I make a sort of clump of magic and launch it as high as I can, then rain starts to fall. I probably did some very big logic leaps that would disgust Clauren if he saw the spell I made but if it works it works.
After casting the magic I can’t control it though, since I literally send the magic power away along with the rest, and I don’t have the skill to manipulate the spell so far away.
At least this time it doesn’t feel like a high pressure shower like I made previously. Theoretically, I could make do with the overcharged spell I first used, but then it would be more like a water sprinkler than rain.
And well… I didn’t admit it to myself but a part of me was excited to show off the work I had done to Clauren.
“You could’ve died! You moronic child, don’t you know what happens when you overdraw mana you don’t have?!” Granny yelled again.
“Ouch! Owch mwwwwwwwnnnn!!!” I shouted as she pinched and stretched both my cheeks.
‘It kinda of… backfired on me.’ I was really looking forward to their praise, or some sort of validation of my efforts. Despite it all, I wanted to be useful and quickly be put to some sort of work, there’s only so much lazing around and studying magic that I could do before I started to get depressed.
Idle hands lead to idle thoughts, and idle thoughts lead me to think too much about bad things that made me sad.
I could handle it, after all it was not anything new at this point. Feeling down. But I’d rather occupy my head with happier thoughts, so I began working on trying to be more proactive.
“Clauren what the hell have you been teaching this brat?” She whipped her head to Clauren. “–Rather, what you haven’t been teaching her?”
“Look,” Clauren raised his hands placatingly. “I had trust in her that she knows what to and not to do, she studies a lot after all, so much so that some lessons were skipped because she had already gone over the books we were using…” He trailed off while looking at me.
“Mnhfgahgafah!” I cried out, my cheeks beginning to become dull with the pain Granny was bestowing them. Despite my squirming she kept at it without remorse.
“Have you not even bothered to test her?” Granny said in an angry and resigned tone.
“Ah...” Clauren affirmed, nodding to himself. As if only now the idea came to his mind. “No I have not.” He shamelessly said.
Granny could have popped a blood vessel then and there, but she sighed deeply instead.
“How in the heavens are you even still standing after casting that abomination of magic?”
“Um…” My head is blank. “I don’t… know? I know the magic I made isn’t the best but why would I faint from that?”
Granny just looked at me like I had just committed the most stupid thing ever.
“Alright, Syuufarin sit down.” She said after coming to a decision. Then looked sideways at Clauren, “You, on your knees.”
“But we’re standing on gravel!” Complained Clauren.
“I don’t care, you deserve it.” Granny replied stonily. “As her master and teacher, the responsibility of her upbringing and education falls upon your shoulders, you have failed at maintaining that. Now I will teach you both. So, get. On. Your. Knees.” She said, the gravity and intensity of her voice so much that Clauren went stiff from fear.
“Yes ma'am” He squeaked.
“Right,” Granny Piyo clapped her hands. “Magic comes in many shapes and forms, some more esoteric and others simple in their making and purposes. The very simple and beginner friendly spell that squirts some water is considered a manipulation type spell. Despite what it may seem like, the spell takes the humidity of the surrounding area to create a stream of water, because of that for example, it would not work if you were in a location devoid of water like a desert.”
To demonstrate, she cast a magic spell, pointing her unreasonably spooky staff at me..
"Ｓｅｎａｋｖａ" Abruptly, I feel like my eyes became dry and a weird sense of thirst overwhelms me.
"Pbrbrtl" I blow out my tongue, which is also dry, the sensation very strange.
*cough**cough* "I don't like this spell, but as you can see it took the water of nearby things to create this." Granny voiced hoarsely and gestured to a very tiny water ball floating in front of her. It looks like she was also affected by the spell. "The difference is that this spell specifically drains water from the ambient in a much narrower scope. This is why you feel like that."
"Why did you have to target me t–" *splash* "Bwa!" Clauren complained, then got the water ball thrown at his face.
"You stay quiet."
Turning her attention back to me she continued. "Now, these are magics that manipulate the physical things around you. But there is another type of magic. Magic that creates." She intoned heavily. "The stark characteristic of this sort of magic is that instead of pulling from the environment, you directly attempt to generate the material straight from your mana." Granny poked the tip of her staff into my chest, making me lean back a little. "Point is, it takes severely more mana to create something compared to moving around things, depending on the material, the cost becomes exponentially steeper."
She retracted her staff, slamming into the ground with a sharp thud. "The ratio of converting mana to water, for someone who does not have an affinity for the water attribute, is twenty to one. And the majority of people would either exhaust all of their reserves or straight up faint from trying to create too much water. This is why the people that do know these sorts of spells and have an affinity for it only use it once or twice a day, because otherwise they would incapacitate themselves."
She narrowed her gaze on me, “Now, can you tell me what is the difference between the basic water magic I told you about and the disgrace you created?...” Granny squeezed the brow of her nose. "I saw the spell you created, and if it were a normal spell the entire area would be completely dry of humidity, we'd be lucky if the grass and plants didn't end up drying out. That's why what you have done is so dangerous, not only to yourself but the environment. Do you understand?"
I wordlessly nod my head. Chastised and feeling guilty.
Then, she asked with some curiosity “And also how is it possible that you are still standing?”
I looked at Clauren, uncertain on what to say…
He was crying... The stones digging at his legs. To his merit though his face was completely blank of any signs of pain. I felt bad for having put him in this situation.
“I… have a lot of mana?” I say uncertainty.
Granny looked at me like I was joking. "How much?"
"Um…" I thought for a moment. "I don't know, I never had problems with running out… only running out of time of the day when it came to practicing… I can do the rain magic about 10 or maybe 20 times in a day. I only didn't do more than that because the ground began to become mud so I had to stop to fix it every now and then."
Granny looked at me.
Then she looked at Clauren.
Then looked at the sky, as if asking the gods what the hell has this world come to.
"Ok." Granny really wanted to swear right there but Syuu was still just a child, so she refrained from indulging that urge. "Clauren, you are dismissed." Clauren suddenly gained a look of pure relief. "But we are still having a discussion later about your teaching practices, you'll also be helping Sedia in the future so I want to fix your bad habits." Clauren then gained a look of resigned dismay.
"Okay…" He sighed, leaving to enter back inside.
Granny turned to me. "...10 or 20 times you said?" She asked somewhat in disbelief.
"Yes."
“I can work with this… We still have what is left of the day to work on that. You don't have anything planned right? I know you don't” She said without letting me reply. "Follow me, we are going to see your limits."
She turned away walking, after some steps she quietly muttered to herself. "...This kid will be terrifying in the future."
——— –– –– -- - -