I knocked the front door and shouted. “Mom, we’re here!” We had no doorbell (which was strange considering my father’s profession) and I had to manually knock. And it didn’t even seem like a weird thing to have, I mean, I had a levitating crib when I was a baby, damn it!
“Coming!” I heard a faint voice coming through the white wooden door. The steps got closer and closer, until the click of the latch was audible. “Welcome, sweety.” She came closer to embrace me, but she stopped midway. “Well, well, well. What do we have here?” Mother said smugly.
I noticed her gaze setting on my hand. Then I remembered the fact that I was holding Marissa on my right. I jerked my arm as to undo the binding.
“Nothing.” I stated.
“I think otherwise, little Edrie.” She was really smug about this.
“I had a nosebleed, and we hold hands so I wouldn’t tumble.” I explained to negate any theory she may have formed. Ironically, I tumbled more times holding Marissa than I did while I was actually bleeding.
“Oh, dear! Are you hurt!” That was a fast one eighty like no other. You could see the exact point in time when she changed her character.
“I’m alright mom!” I shoved her away, as she was clinging over me to see if I had any injuries.
“Really?” She squinted her eyes in doubt.
“Really.” I affirmed.
“Really, really?” Mother reiterated.
I sighed. “Really, really. Mom.”
Mother squat, whispering to Marissa’s ears. “What happened?”
“He started suddenly bleeding in the nose and I brought him to the infirmary.” She whispered back.
Have they noticed that I was hearing all of this? Obviously no, as they kept trying to be secretive.
“Edrie wasn’t in a fight, wasn’t he?” Mother asked even if Marissa stated that I bleed out of nowhere.
“No.” She responded in a low voice. “We were talking and then he bled.”
I got bored of their antics, so I went inside. I grabbed my spellbook and started reading arcane spells. I already knew all of them, but that didn’t mean I could cast them. After a couple of minutes, they noticed I was gone and came on the living room.
“Did you like your first day of school, Edrie?” Mom sat with Marissa in the cushion sofa.
I sat myself in a red and yellow pillow with frills. There was no reason whatsoever for that besides me liking it. It was the only piece of decoration in the house that didn’t follow the typical mana/ellari palette, and that was enough for me to like it.
“I mean, I had classes only for a few hours.” I closed the book and left it on the ground. “I didn’t have the best first day of classes.”
“I suppose.” Mom sighed. She had talked with Marissa long enough to have a solid grasp of the situation. “There has to be at least something that caught your attention, hasn’t it?”
“Well…” I stretched my legs. “The nurse was charming.”
“Hmm?” Mother’s eyebrows rose.
“She was well-mannered and patient.” Marissa’s gaze pierced me as I explained. I ignored her and continued. “She also healed me. The nurse was the opposite of our teacher. Miss Salore is a nightmare.”
“You didn’t like your teacher?” Mother questioned, tilting her head slightly.
“No.” I taciturnly responded. Personally, I don’t need more motivation, but mother lacked context. “She was rude to me even when I came back from the infirmary, and she almost made a girl cry.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened. “That doesn’t look like a good person.”
“She wasn’t!” Marissa corroborated my claims. “I don’t like her.”
“While it may be a problem,” Mother patted me. “Miss Salore is probably good, and you’ve only meet her on the odd field.”
‘Meet her on the odd field’ was an ellari expression. I knew some expressions in whatever language I thought in that mean the same, but they are stuck on the tip of my tongue. Hmm… Well, the idea behind it was clear enough.
“I don’t think so.” Marissa expressed my own thoughts. “She was just… bad?”
Someone once said that children detect malice, while I didn’t know the person who said it or couldn’t even verify the claim, I was with Marissa here. Miss Salore just didn’t feel like a reasonable person.
“If you want an opinion on the whole day, you should ask Marissa.” I said to Mother.
“Oh, we already did.” Obviously. “She just said it was boring.” Ah, classic Marissa, never failed to be herself.
“Sounds like her.” I nonchalantly added.
“True.” Mother added with a giggle.
“Hey!” Marissa cried, even if we were stating facts.
I lay down on the pillow pile, looking at the ceiling. “I do have a problem with school, though.”
“Which is it, Edrie?” I looked at mother from the corner of my eye. Was she combing Marissa’s hair?
Either way, I responded. “The teachings are too basic and easy. I will learn nothing there.” Hmm, that came out wrong. It seemed I was saying I wanted to leave school.
“Probably it’s only the first days.” Mom explained. “To acclimate the students. I’m sure the pace of the lessons will only go faster.” She didn’t misunderstand my words like I thought she would. Maybe I’m just overthinking… in general.
“I don’t think so. They were a foundation level which Marissa and I had for years. Having such basic classes is a waste of time.”
“I see.” She said as she did a triple braid with Marissa’s long hair. “Well, if you continue having this problem, I will talk with your father to see if he can move you to higher level classes.”
“That would be good.” I agreed. “So… What are you doing with Marissa?” I finally asked my doubts once I sat upright.
“Oh, this?” Mom showed her hands, covered in Marissa’s silky hair. “I felt like her hair was a bit bland, so I decided to do her a braid. How does it look?”
Mother showed the end result. She combed Marissa’s hair and placed a triple spiral braid (or whatever was the name, I was no stylist) on the right side of her face. While it looked cute, something about it didn’t enchant me. Maybe it was the asymmetry, or perhaps that the lack of hair thanks to the braid made her lustrous hair (for a child) look smaller.
“I like it better as it was before.” I expressed my honest opinion, no embellishment needed.
“You think?” Mother looked around Marissa’s head. “I would say otherwise. What about you Marissa? It’s your hair in the end.”
Mother gave her a hand mirror, which Marissa used to inspect in detail her hairstyle.
“Hmm…” She grunted. “Without braid better.” Marissa shared the same opinion as I.
“What a shame.” Mother commented as she undid the braid. “I would have loved to comb your hair.” She expressed with sadness.
Now that I think about it, mother always wore a pigtail, or sometimes a French braid. While I had no problem with that, I believe her hair looks better loose. Maybe she had wanted to be a hairdresser?
***
I found myself in the playground once more, thankfully no nosebleed was in sight. Or any mumbo jumbo related to my soul. I was pretty sure that the visions and that weird phrase were linked to my soul, or the Lady of the River.
I couldn’t recall anything about her, except her astounding beauty. We only talked (well, she did the talking as I was a pathless spirit) for a brief moment. Especially compared to lady-knows how much time I’ve spent on the river.
The Lady left me in the dark about every detail. The only important bit of information that my mind held, was when she told me she couldn’t command over what species I would reincarnate into.
This fact is what prevented me from elevating a being of such power into a goddess. While she reincarnated me, a well known fact, she had no control over it. For a goddess, reincarnating me into the same species would’ve been an easy task. I presumed. I was no expert in divinity, but it seemed like a feasible thing for a goddess to do. Maybe she’s just a free-roaming spirit? Nah, too weak. She definitely packed some serious power.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
I could’ve been an ellari in my previous incarnation, but there were too many clues against it. I had no memories of ellari language or culture, and I made references to an unknown culture and thought in a foreign language.
In the end, while the Lady of the River of the Damn was a powerful being of noticeable prowess, she was not a goddess. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
See! That is what I was talking about. What in tarnation is a TED talk?
I sighed profoundly as I ate my lunch. Some slices of cheese and lettuce smashed between two other slices of bread.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Marissa said as she ate some grapes. “I can finih it foh you.” She said with her mouthful. It was strange how she managed to pronounce this well when she resembled a squirrel at the moment.
“No, you gluttonous void. I’m eating it, can’t you see it?” I chomped the sandwich once more.
She swallowed the grapes. “Did you just call me fat?” Her tone was a bit angry.
“Nooo.” I elongated the negation. “I called you a gourmand.”
Marissa’s gaze froze for a second as she thought the meaning of the word, only to find no response and then evoked fumes from her nose and continued eating the grapes, one at a time, angrily. Sadly, the bell rang as to invoke us back to our classroom. I couldn’t take pleasure on Marissa’s cute, wrinkled face.
Our playtime/lunchtime was long, don’t get me wrong. We had an hour to do anything on the playground, it just happened that we weren’t hungry and left it by the end. If I’m honest, I didn’t like playtime. I spent a decade of free time, even the useless boring classes were a better way to spend time.
We reunited with the tumult that was the class on the playground. We stood in front of Miss Salore, waiting for her to take us to class. Yet, we waited there for a few minutes. The other two classes from our year already left the playground before us even moved.
“Listen, children!” Miss Salore snapped at us to pay attention. Literally. She snapped with her fingers, I meant. Was that where the expression originally came from? “Today you will have your introductory class to casting.”
The whispers of menial conversation between students suddenly turned into clamor. What child wouldn’t want to do magic? While the others shouted in joy, I sulked in sadness. ‘Introductory class to casting’ as Miss Salore said was an underwhelming phrase. Not only introductory, but also casting and not spellcasting. I didn’t have anything against sorcerers but teaching a toddler sorcery was equivalent to say that they didn’t have magical background.
It was difficult to have any expectation whatsoever when you began a phrase this way.
“I won’t be teaching you, though.” Miss Salore said. And that made my day a little better. “Professor Accord, will come here soon and help you with your basic magical training.”
One had to remember that this institution wasn’t a magic academy, just a normal school. Whilst magic was a cornerstone of ellari civilization, and therefore another subject to teach, it wasn’t the main focus of the school. There wasn’t a focus to begin with, beyond the one of education that is.
A couple of minutes after Miss Salore’s debrief, our casting teacher came.
“Greetings, younglings. I’m Algor Accord, but you can call me professor Accord if you like.” Suddenly I liked this teacher. Not only he was respectful to the students, but his jovial attituded made the tense atmosphere lighter. That was how an educator was supposed to be. “Don’t worry about this first class, I’ll be lenient and slow-paced. I want everyone here to cast at least a cantrip by the end.”
I could see Marissa grunting at that, even if she tried to hide it. While I took joy in magical practice, Marissa was to be constantly pressured so she may not slack off. She needed a lot of time to cast unstructured magic for the first time, she didn’t want to experience that again. Neither did I, obviously.
Still, professor Accord’s will to teach made it less tedious. Miss Salore promptly left after Accord’s arrival, not even staying here to oversee her students.
“Alright.” Professor Accord clapped his hands once Miss Salore left. “Is there anyone here that hasn’t done manaflowing or formed their mana pool?”
If there was someone following these criteria, they didn’t show it. It was almost ritualistic to teach one’s child manaflows and the formation of a mana pool, no matter how small it was. It looked like some children here just finished with their mana pools by the looks of their faces. While Marissa had done that more than half a decade ago, she was a special case. The adequate age to finish wrapping up your mana pool was around this age, or so I heard.
“Alright, it seems everyone has the basics!” He cheerfully announced. “Today we will start simple, the most basic cantrip, Magic Chip. I will instruct the class first on how to do so, then I will inspect every student individually.”
Magic Chip was a simple enough spell so children with a right disposition would manage it in the span of an afternoon. Though Algor’s words weren’t exactly true. The simplest ellari cantrip was Mage Light, not Magic Chip. Why did he say that? Mage Light appeared to be a better spell to practice casting, simpler and less dangerous. Magic Chip was way cheaper to cast, though. Maybe that was why he chose it.
I don't know if a child who has yet to cast a spell could do it in one day. Sorcery wasn’t like wizardry, you had to fail uncountable times until you managed a successful conjuration. But when I did it myself I didn’t have the help of a professional instructor. Father may be a knowledgeable practician and craftsman, but he wasn’t a teacher. Maybe professor Algor could pull off the apparently impossible.
“Firstly, channel mana in your hand.” Professor Accord’s hand began to glow with a blue tinge as he spoke. “Maintain this around a minute. If you see you cannot control it, unleash it and start again. If you can’t manage it after a few attempts, I will personally guide you.”
Everyone except Marissa and I concentrated their mana in their main hand. We were so advanced that I could cast two Magic Chips instantly, one for each hand. Like how father conjured two Mage Lights when he taught me about the different types of mages.
I pondered once more why the professor decided to use Magic Chip instead of Mage Light. Was it worth it to risk injuries (whether they were minor) for time efficiency? In my case, the answer was yes. I did pretty reckless things related to magic this decade for the sake of aliviating my tediousness. But I don't think a sensible and responsible adult should command that onto mindless children.
After a few moments of silence and concentration, the teacher spoke again. “Alright, I see some of you didn't achieve it. Don’t worry. For those who have done it, concentrate the mana at your hand in a single point. The smallest possible. I recommend using the index finger as an anchor.”
Students’ fingers began illuminating by the seconds. They were dumbfounded, captivated by the shining lights.
“Smaller, and smaller.” Accord added. “Don’t put more mana, just canalize what you already have and group it together in a smaller point.”
My fellow classmates complied, the dim scattered lights became focused and stronger. I already knew how this would end.
“Now carefully rise your finger up to the sky.” He looked around as my classmates became glorified lamps. “And…” He elongated the pronunciation on the ‘d’. “Release!” Professor Accord shouted while himself pointing at the sky.
Mayhem let lose.
Thanks to the directions given by the teacher, all students aimed at the sky, preventing a magical school shooting.
Hmm… That was uncharacteristically dark.
I would’ve loved to say that the magical projectiles were like fireworks, but the children’s magic was so feeble that the spells collapsed after a few meters of flight time, rapidly losing the unwoven mana into the atmosphere.
I hadn’t stood still during this rather basic display of magic, I had my own plans.
“Magnificent! You’ve done it alright!” The teacher celebrated. “Those who have already succeed, work on it again while I’m with your classmates.”
The class unconsciously separated between those who managed to cast Magic Chip, and those who didn't. Marissa and I stayed in a limbo. Elsa Galore, also known as the shy girl, was one of the ones who had done it.
Professor Accord quickly rotated between the unsuccessful students. He only gave tips and pointers on how to correct some errors, promising to explain more in depth if they struggled in the future. I got to give it to him, the man was as efficient as they can be. His words were measured, and his tips were wise. He was clearly a seasoned teacher, unlike my father who, whilst trying his best, only gave me some rough approximations about what I was doing wrong.
After he passed through all the group, he came to us. “What about you both? I haven’t seen you casting Magic Chip, not even trying.” Props to him, he had observed us with detail.
“We didn't think it was worth it.” I responded on mine and Marissa’s behalf.
“And how’s that?” Instead of getting angry like Miss Salore would probably do, he calmly asked about our intentions with curiosity.
“Our level is too advanced for this class. Look.” I set my basic plan in motion. While other people had been flowing mana around their body to liberate it in a disorderly manner, I spent minutes structuring the advanced spell known as Mana Pond. It still took minutes to spellcast, but it was certainly easier than before, even if not faster.
“Interesting.” He analyzed the magical construct I had summoned. “Mana Pond, am I right?”
“Yes.” I nodded.
“You certainly are overqualified for this class. Nay, the whole subject.” Professor Accord commented as he scratched his chin. “Is your friend the same?”
“Not as advanced as me, but yes.” I replied. Marissa looked at me a bit offended, but we both knew it was the truth.
Algor Accord swayed his head back and forth between the us and the group that continuedly casted Mana Chip.
“Hmm. Being able to spellcast a three-star spell at you age is noteworthy. Until the six-star mark, spellcasting tends to be more difficult than its sorcery counterpart.” The professor lectured us. “Are other classes behind your level?”
“On this, I can’t speak for Marissa,” I pointed with my open hand at her, “but it’s certainly the case to me.”
“How well-mannered.” He commented. “And you, miss? Are classes too easy?”
“Emm… Yes?” Marissa affirmed with doubt lingering in her words. “It’s boring, slow and I know all these things.”
“I see.” Professor Accord scratched his chin once more. “I wouldn’t want to cripple some child’s progress because their level is wrongly assigned. I will try to push a suggestion to the higher-ups to see if we can put you in a class appropriate to your abilities.”
High five! Or so I did in my mind with myself. Not only could I get away from Miss Salore’s awful demeanor, but I could get a tailored education.
“For the moment,” Professor Accord continued. “I want you to keep Mana Pond up for those who can already cast Magic Chip.”
“Why not the other group?” I asked. “They seem to need the mana more.”
“They may need more mana, but they don’t know how to wield it yet.” The teacher reasoned as he looked at them. Some’s mana didn’t even reach their hand, others couldn’t concentrate it enough in their fingers. “We would be risking mana instability, among others, injecting them more mana in their system. It would be better to let them recharge their mana naturally, or at least not applying the spell mid-casting.”
I nodded at his explanation. Why there were so many illnesses related to mana? Every time I tried to do something with mana I was stopped by some sort of harmful interaction.
Either way, I moved the mana construct for the ones who could use it. The augment in mana regeneration was menial but I was sure it helped in spellcasting speed for whatever reason. Hmm, but they were casting. Would the spell help to cast sorceries? I did not have an answer for that as I haven’t casted anything worthwhile for years. I focused myself (and somewhat forced Marissa) on spellcasting only.
The students weren’t thankful for the properties of the spell, but they became distracted because of the levitating violet ball.
“What does it do?” Kurt Sal, the boy who sat to my left at classroom, asked.
“It helps to regenerate mana. Also casting. Perhaps. Maybe.” I explained. I should try to experiment with it in the future.
“Cool.” There, right there. He responded with a simple word and continued casting. I wished he continued asking so I could boast a bit. Sigh. Que sera, sera.
Stop with expressions I can’t understand, damnit!
Marissa and I casted Magic Chips in the end. But we spiced things a bit by betting who could cast more.
After a quarter of hour, I ended up losing because I was a godforsaken dimwit. Why would I enter a duel of mana when I just casted a spell, therefore greatly reducing my chances of winning?
I had to admit I had underestimated Marissa. Her mana pool was greater than mine, as she demonstrated by casting thirty more Magic Chips than I did. She still had the advantage thanks to me not having a full mana pool. Nyeh.