Mira

Wakefulness comes slowly, groggily. My mind first floats towards it in a confused state naively following the light towards consciousness. But then I start to feel the pain associated with wakefulness and try to recoil back to the womb my mind was protected by. But it's too late, I can't escape my mortal flesh and I whimper and coil my knees to my chest for protection.

"It's ok____, you're safe_####___."

"I ###'t____### hurt you. I promise."

A soothing familiar voice entreats me gently. I slowly open myself to the world. My mind finally truly becoming aware of my things around me. The moment I see that it's Crysta's hand softly stroking my hair and Master's voice talking to me I let it all out and I cry.

First gently, then my shoulders start to shake with my sobs as tears threaten to cause me dehydration. I never knew I had so much tears in me. Master Zhen holds me like a child and I bellow like mad. Tears and snort falling down my face, the sounds of a wounded animal coming out of my mouth with the shudders that pass through my body.

There is a dry hollowness inside me, dry broken bone turned stone where once was a well.

I can feel that my magic is gone. I had senses I wasn't even aware of, but now that they are gone... The world has lost its colour and I'm a mundane, baseborn, sightless. I feel different, the world feels different, lessened.

Was everything this bland before I Awakened or have I become even less than the slave I once was? I can't feel anything beyond the sensations on my skin. Blind, dumb in an entire spectrum of experiences. I am a cripple, a blind fool that has been cursed by the gods.

Cursed! Why else would my life be filled with such despair?

"Now don't be putting curses upon yourself you hear."

It's frankly embarrassing. I will be a laughing stock and cautionary tale for prospective mages for generations. They will say, 'look there, look at that slave. She once had touched upon the bread of heaven. She once fed her body and mind off mana, now she has nothing. Brought low for her hubris, for gorging too deeply on mana.'

We stay like that for a while, the three of us. Me sobbing like a child, desperately clinging onto master's voice as Crysta strokes my hair.

I eventually tire myself out and Crysta passes me a glass of water. I drink, then wipe my face with a clothe she passes me.

"Thank you." I say with a coarse voice. Trying to find some composure. Sighing deeply I look at the two last people I have in this world. Do I even have them? I'm a burden, oh gods what will become of me now?

"How are you here?" I ask gently. Then the implications of being in their presence enters my mind.

"How long have I been out?" I ask starting to panic again. I can't be back in Sydney already. I would die as a slave again, die!

"Relax child." Crysta says. "It's only been five days. This is our tent."

I sigh in relief and slump into Crysta's arms.

"How am I alive?" I know the dangers of magic. I know what's supposed to happened when I kamikaze my meridians like that. I should have imploded. At the time it was reflex to save Mayner. A stupid relax from hours of conditioning, it can't be anything else..

A boy that stole my virginity without his parents’ permission. The first person that was nice to me as a slave. The first person to befriend me even though I was less than a servant. The first boy I had loved... Spirits beyond I'm pathetic.

"Is Mayner alive?" I ask, dreading the response. If this was all for nothing I will kill myself right now.

"Pffhhhh." Master Zhen snorts as he loses his patients. "The boy is fine. What I want to know is what you were thinking?!" He says as he starts pacing.

"By the Seven! Don't you know what could have happened?" He throws his hands in the air.

"You could have died girl! Did I teach you nothing? What you did isn't even a last resort for a mage because you die anyways. Very painfully, and you might not even kill your enemy at that! Just kill yourself-"

The lecture goes on in that vein for a while. With me nodding at his rhetorical questions and his admonishing. Crysta holds my hand the whole time. Squeezing them periodically. Eventually Master Zhen loses his steam and I give him a hug.

We sit and Crysta serves food. I realise I'm starving as I eat the sweetened meats, pickled vegetables and herbs. Fresh baked bread and butter beer. I eat more than I've ever eaten in my life.

"What happens now?" I ask while still licking my fingers, then downing another chalice of the beer. What will become of me, I'm dreading this but I have never been my own so I'm used to this. This loop in which my fate is someone else's to decide.

Master Zhen sighs, dramatically waving his hands at my face. "Well firstly that's Griffin-owl meat sweetened in mana rich honey. That beer is churned from the milk of lion-deer. Those are preserved cloud olives. That's tortilla unleavened bread made from wild meal harvested from the Red Forest in Woodland Province. That... that's some herb Crysta put on your plate. It's supposed to be good for you."

Crysta snorts and begins clearing the plates away.

"My point is that is very wholesome, very mana rich fair and you will have to eat like this often. At least twice a day for the next several decades."

He looks into my eyes to get his point across. Eating twice a day isn't so bad. It's getting the ingredients that could be a problem. Usually a mundane will need to eat at least once every two days. Awakened once every 7 to 10 days depending on how deep their mana pools are.

I haven't been Awakened so long that eating will be a chore, I rather enjoy it. But hunting magical beasts is very dangerous, and Awakened beasts is tantamount to suicide for any mundane. I don't want to be a burden for the rest of my life.

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"The good news is you are no longer bound to the boy and his family. He released you ahhh... for saving his son. Good lad the Mayner"

I look to Crysta to confirm this news. I get a nod in response and tears fill my eyes. I'm no longer a slave, I'm no longer bound to anyone. I'm free. I've been technically free for years by the kingdom's laws but I've never felt free.

My apartment was paid for by the Barathians. Most of my food and clothes were paid for by a 'salary' I got from them. I now have nothing but the clothes on my back and the few things I probably still have in my tent. I sigh. I'm beholden to no one.

"Thank you." I whisper, wiping my tears.

"To answer your earlier question, you are alive because of this lovely sorceress." A voice says from the shadows of the tent. I previously hadn't even noticed the tent had shadows.

Master or Crysta don't seem alarmed, and I've always felt safe with master present.

"Who are you?" I ask, looking at the bald bearded man as he gets up. The man is graceful, definitely a fighter I surmise just by watching him go from seated to standing without using his arms.The scary part is how nonchalant he is about it, as though defying gravity is a minor thing of no account.

"Mira, this is Asriel. He isn't from around these parts." Crysta says.

I look at her. "Sorcerer huh? What does that entail?" I look back the stranger. "And where's he from?"

I don't know much about sorcery but I've always known Crysta had power. Maybe there is another route for me to touch mana again. The thought ingites in my hope starved desperation.

"It mainly entails the summoning and contracting of spirits and elemental creatures for power. And no, it isn't a viable route for you. Not yet anyway.

"I have contracted a spirit to live inside you. It will continuously convert atmospheric ether into the ether found in all living things. Which your body can't naturally do anymore."

Crysta pauses and I let her information sink in. So my body can't naturally convert spiritual ether to physical ether anymore. Physical ether being what is converted to mana in an Awakened. Oh, and let’s not forget that I'm possessed by a spirit breathing ether for me now.

"What kind of spirit?" I ask, curious despite my tentative disgust/hopefulness.

"Pardon?" It seems my question caught her off guard. She was probably expecting me to be hysterical. I think I'm numb now though.

"What kind of spirit has possessed me?"

She sighs. "It's a djinn."

Butterbeer is projected from the bald man's mouth as he starts coughing and bangs his chest. Crysta gives him a curious look. His surprise implies there is something significant about this type of spirit, or he has a personal connection. Either way my curiosity is piqued.

"In return," Crysta continues, "it will be able to remain in this realm. Eventually becoming strong enough to develop a physical body of its own."

I mull over her words for a moment. Look up and realise I'm not the only one hanging off every word she speaks. It must be a rare thing for a sorceress to explain her craft for all ears to be this piqued.

"Explain please." I say, truly confused by some of the implications in her words.

Crysta nods like expected nothing but confusion.

"There are spiritual realms we normally have no access to. And the things that live there normally have no access to the physical realm."

She looks at me to make sure I'm following. I nod. She continues.

"For some reason, spirits don't like it where they are. Or they like it here better, the community doesn't know for sure yet. But what we do know is that spirits can't come here themselves without being greatly diminished, they have to be invited. Even then they can't stay long without possessing a host.

"But if they somehow manage to stay here long enough. Usually in a host or through the help of a sorcerer, they slowly gain affinity for the physical and can stay longer. Eventually managing to create their own physical connection to keep them here."

These are some serious revelations. And sorcerer secrets by the contemplative looks on the two man's faces. I swallow my saliva to wet my throat.

"Is it benign?" I ask, grateful to be alive but worried about the cost. I honestly can't feel anything inside me. In fact I feel empty without mana. A broken tank under desert heats empty.

"Not at all. Never trust a spirit Mira. Never!" Crysta says seriously. I swallow from nerves and nod vigorously. Don't trust it. Got it.

After observing me a moment she lets go of my shoulders and continues.

"It probably won't try to kill you just yet, maybe not ever. But will try to get the upper hand and posses your body. Getting whatever satisfaction they get from being here.

"Enough of that for now. Now you are at a cross-road Mira. You can travel with Zhen and I until you recover enough to start the Awakening process again. But to travel with us is to be stagnant for however long that takes. Further education cannot commence without mana."

I look at Master Zhen, he looks away and starts fiddling with his pipe.

"It's as Crysta says. I cannot teach you further till you are recovered, and it would be dangerous for a mundane to travel the roads we will travel."

I wince at the term. Maybe calling people 'mundane' is not so nice. But what he is basically saying is that I would be a burden, and I'd slow them down. Probably get them killed.

"Or you go back home." Crysta says.

"You could live a normal life. Zhen has named you his beneficiary should he die. The manor is your home, you could have children there. We will visit Sydney every few years as well. I can make sure someone comes around to ensure you stay yourself, unpossessed."

I look at them. Both of them are basically my parents. Crysta silent and imposing but always around, always caring in her stern way. Master Zhen, silly, absent minded but protective. But I couldn't live like a mundane. Not in Sydney especially.

"And the third option?" I ask, sensing that there is a third option. But that they are sceptical about it.

"The third option is to come with me." The bald good looking man says, Asriel.

"I will teach you a few things and try to recruit you to my cause. You will have to be trustworthy enough to keep my secrets and the secrets of my Order. Though you will be under no obligation to join said Order.

"I will then deliver you to people more suited than I am to teaching and helping you over your spirit issues."

"Where did you say you were from again?" I ask truly giving him more than a cursory glance. The man stands at about 6 feet, with dark sun tanned skin. Not black like the Induku, nor white like most Sanderians. A smokey golden type of dark, malay maybe... A thick black well groomed and shaped beard gives him a clean but raggered handsomeness. Thick black eyebrows. Completely bald head sparkles at me.

His clothes look strange but clean and well made. His right shoulder and arms are well muscled and bare to the world for all to see. This is a man, I clasp my hands tightly in my lap keeping my head lowered towards him.

A gold sash, fleece, shirt...? Goes around his right shoulder and covers the rest of his body up to his shins. Around his waist is a crimson sac. His pants are blue I think, of a material and quality I'm sure can only be found amongst the noble Houses.

He smiles at me, a peaceful smile, a beautiful smile. I don't trust him at all.

"I'm not from this continent," he says in a smokey voice.

"'Continet'? I'm unfamiliar with the word."

"This landmass. These collections of kingdoms and territories are divided by oceans and are called 'continents' if they are big enough. Sub-continents and Islands if they aren't."

I nod my understanding. "So where are you from?"

He grins. "I'm from a continent called Pangaea."

That means nothing to me but I can see it means something to Crysta.

"Where in Pangaea?" I ask so that Master and Crysta can find him and avenge me if something nefarious happens to me cause I've already made-up my mind to go with him.

"Tiba," he says. Crysta doesn't seem to recognize it. I nod, Tiba. Got it.

"Why will you do this for me?" I ask.

"I saw your fight. You are very stupid, but you have potential and a good heart. Like I said, I'm recruiting."

"I'm not calling you 'master'." I don't appreciate the 'stupid' comment but ignore it for now. No need to ruffle the feathers.

"Call me Asriel."

"Alright Asriel. What will you be teaching me?" I ask, committed.

"I will teach you the Ways, one of which is the way of the warrior."

I groan. The gods truly hate me. Wasting my time with these primitive arts.

"I will have to learn to hit things with a long stick till they die?" Like a, like a... like a Barbarian! "How will that help me?"

Asriel shrugs, "not many options are open to you anymore."