“Come on Marissa, we are home.” I tapped the leg of the girl at my back. “Wake up, sleepy head.” This time I gently slapped her on the face repeatedly.
“Mmm… Uh… Uh!” She moved aggressively after she woke up. Thankfully I grabbed her tightly, if not she would have fallen backward. “Where are we?” Marissa’s voice was still groggy.
“At your home,” I told her. “Now get down or I will drop you.”
“Nyeh??” She jumped out of my back with a cute squeak. “Why were you piggybacking me?”
“Maybe because you fell asleep?” She was unnaturally pinkish. “Are you feeling unwell?” I approached my hand to touch her forehead.
She promptly backstepped before I got even close. “Perfectly fine.”
It seems all the sleepiness had vanished from her person after my ploy. Marissa fixed her clothes as the walk had offset them. Ellari clothing was too loose for my liking.
“Huh, when did I fall asleep?” She finally noticed.
“At the gondola, one hour ago,” I said with a smile. “And it happened because you needed it badly. You have pushed yourself lately to be at my level.” Her expression became bittersweet. Changing from ‘how dare you to say I am inferior’ and ‘thanks for noticing’. “And besides, you were cute while sleeping.”
A supersonic jab was directed to my stomach impromptu. No reaction time whatsoever. Air left my lungs with a mute cry. Sometimes I wondered if she had a better career as a boxer than a mage.
“Creep.” She looks at her fists' condition rather than my well-being.
“Oof.” I inhaled air slowly as it pained me. Even though I had low-powered arcane barriers always protecting me, her air-enhanced punch penetrated it without effort. “That’s a weird way of showing your affection.”
This time I expected the incoming attack following my taunt, and I masterfully dodged the quick uppercut. The failed punch was enough to soothe her fury as she calmed herself with a deep breath.
“Was I heavy?” Really Marissa? Is that what you want to ask me?
“No,” I stated proudly. “I had no difficulties carrying you.”
“Oh.” She hadn’t expected that response. Was she trying to justify another punch? “That’s good, I suppose.” Don’t act disappointed!
Truth be told, on my way back, as I was tired from rowing the gondola back to the pier, I had spellcasted Slow Fall both on Marissa and me to reduce every ounce of weight that I could. Although, I didn’t try to use the air version of Slow Fall to activate the synergy as my Air control was deficient, and she may have woken up if she had noticed the use of air magic nearby.
That was why I had dispelled my magic and erased all traces of mana before I had decided to wake her up. Perks of being a weaver of mana. Marissa may not be exactly irascible, but for sure she was a physical person. If she found out I had spellcasted Slow Fall on her, it would be as if I was calling her fat at her face.
“Make sure to rest today,” I spoke. “Tomorrow we will spend all day at the library.”
“Why are you like this?” She asked with such confusion that I wasn’t able to understand her question.
“What do you mean?” I replied with the same baffled expression.
“We are going to have a whole year of free time, and you want to go headfirst into studying?”
“Ah, I see what you mean.” I rose my index finger to remark. “We have to strike the iron while it’s hot. If we take an elongated rest, we will become complacent and end up doing nothing for our entire gap year.”
“That won’t happen.” Marissa’s voice was overfilled with confidence. “I can control myself, and honestly, you are too hardworking and disciplined to forget about it. I just ask you for a rest for the New Year’s holidays. Just two weeks.”
“Two weeks, huh.” New Year was filled with festivities, so we couldn't use our time at maximum efficiency either way. “Alright, we’ll do that.” Maybe I should also rest.
“Yey!” Marissa hopped towards me and locked me in a hug. “I know you would understand!”
Were you in such need of a vacation? I keep forgetting that she was still a child, maybe I was pressing her too much. Hmm, that’s wrong. We were now adolescents according to ellari culture. Still, my point stood. Marissa did need a rest.
But then again, whenever she complained, it felt more like an excuse and not as a cry for respite. I think I will tone down our pace during this gap year.
“The moment New Year’s holidays end I want to see you in top shape,” I said as I struggled with her embrace. “I want to reach the seventh star before we end our gap year.”
“Yes!” She finally liberated me. “Wait what?” Marissa’s reaction time today was at an all-time low. “Seventh tier?”
“Sure,” I affirmed. “We must keep making progress if we want to settle our impossible goals.”
“Aren’t they impossible because they are unachievable? Why would you want to try so hard?”
“As I said before, a person can dream, Marissa.”
“But people of our age are still struggling with advanced five-star spells, and in our class, we were the only ones who had managed to spellcast a six-star spell!”
“That’s the complacency I was talking about, you can’t compare yourself with the rest,” I explained to her. “If we did so, what happens with the high ellari born with a silver spoon that are already spellcasting high sixth-tier spells, huh?”
“But-“ I knew what counterpoint she was trying to make.
“And don’t tell me that’s because they are special or something like that.” I scolded her.
“I wasn’t going to say that.” Her pout and refusal to elaborate further told me otherwise.
Maybe Marissa didn’t care as much about her magical prowess because she was doing excellently for someone of her background. Not only social background, though it was true her hierarchical status was quite low all things considered, but her magical one. She was able to spellcast six-star spells at the age of twenty-three with a medium-high affinity. A noteworthy achievement.
Meanwhile, I was a twenty-one-year-old dual superb affinity user that was measly placed at sixth tier. I had several ranks of advantage compared to Marissa, and yet we were at the same level. I wasn’t the prodigy, she was!
I couldn’t avoid feeling useless. I was born at the top of the ladder, yet I could only compete with her. This meant I wasn’t doing enough. I had to try harder, focus more, and train further. Not only I had the magical advantage, but also the psychological one. And we still were this equalized.
I wasn’t doing enough.
“I’ll see you during New Year then.” I turned my back and started walking away with a slight touch of sadness.
“See ya later!” Marissa said goodbye happily, unbeknownst to the raging fire at my soul.
I would not stop these holidays.
******
The eternal clattering of the bazaar assaulted my ears in a melodious manner. Some would say that the inconsequential rambling of the passersby was lousy and tedious, but I found peace and tranquility in them. An ordered chaos, if that was possible.
After listening for what seemed to be an eternity of agony and torment at the River of the Damned, the menial conversations fluttering around were heartwarming. Spending a lot of time in the afterlife without anything to do changes a person. Thankfully, it was for the better, or so I’d like to think. Not that I remember who or how was that previous person, though.
My objective wasn’t the archives or some errands by part of my parents, but an improvised idea that popped into my head during breakfast. I was going through the Thal’mer bazaar to reach the Lan’el district.
Voices of merchants announcing their stock littered the place, some commonplace, others offering an exotic product. But what caught my attention was a young ellari giving pamphlets.
“Would you like to join the Offensive Coalition?” He said with a paper in his hand. “Every sign matters so the High Arcanist lowers the dome.” He chanted gently. “So, we can exterminate those reptiles!” And then less gently, fire burning in his eyes.
It was sad to see such a young boy being drowned by hatred. He seemed to be a teenager, so when the attack happened ten years ago, he should have been only a baby by ellari standards.
Damn.
The Offensive Coalition was the extremist version of my plan with Marissa, so to speak. Mainly composed of survivors from the Wyrm’s Landing and bloodthirsty officials from the army, the movement intended not only in finishing the ellari-draconid war, but also to exterminate the whole enemy race.
Hear me for a second, I may be just a child, an adolescent, but erasing an entire species from the face of the world as a response to an attack in a war was a bit of an overreaction. Or it was just me?
Well, technically they didn’t want to kill all draconids, but only the dragonborn. Which arises a question. Dragonborn can be sporadically born from draconids through genetic quirks, how do you stop that? Systematical castration? Oh, that sounds even worse, I should stop here.
“What about you? Would you like to join?” Oh damn. “Yes, you.” The boy with the pamphlets waved at me.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Sorry, I’m not interested.” I replied in the politest way I could.
“Don’t say that. Hear me first.” Could you get the memo? Why are these kinds of people always so clingy?
“You don’t seem to understand it,” I told him. “I’m twenty-one, I’m afraid I’m not authorized to sign anything you may give me.” Biological and legal adulthood was reached at thirty, whilst cultural adulthood was at the century.
“Oh.” He was surprised by that. “Sorry, you look much older.” I noticed a weird anomaly in his soul, now that I was close to him. Nothing alarming, just too much dark shade in a young boy like him who should be almost pure white.
“Yes, they tell me that a lot.” No one has said that to me yet. This young child knew that I still wasn’t of age and yet tried to join their cult-like union. “Now if you excuse me.”
I run away from that place with all my might.
“Damned psychos.” I could not even hold myself after that interaction. “What a way to ruin one’s day.”
Rapidly erasing that memory from my mind, I returned to my objective. I could understand their hatred and pain. A lot of people had suffered a decade ago by the hands (claws?) of the draconids’ attack. Yet I couldn’t sympathize with them, they were extreme. Far too extreme.
In a matter of minutes, I had reached the commercial avenue on Lan’el. Not as big as the Thal’mer bazaar, but its expanse was worthy of respect. Especially considering a sizeable chunk of the district had been repurposed for the army.
I stood in front of a common-looking café, if not a bit too fairytale-like with that pastel palette that it had. As I opened the door, a bell announced my arrival.
“Welcome!” A purple-pinkish colored woman (not the average skin color around here) said from the desk at the other side of the room. “Sit wherever you please and I’ll attend you shortly.”
I may have come to a coffee, but my intention wasn’t one of a customer. My gaze locked on a woman drinking tea next to a multi-colored window. The moment she noticed me she left her cup at the table and sighed.
“I shouldn't have told you about this place.”
“Yet you did, Alatea,” I told to my mentor. “Greetings, by the way.”
“Sorry about my manners, I had a rough morning.” She explained less aggressively.
“Did you also find one of those war enthusiast psychos?” I asked as I sat before her at the table.
“What? No. Though I avoid them like the plague.” It seems the despise towards them was common. She was also a healer, damaging other people went against her ethics.
“Kind of rough when a nurse says it.” I joked.
“Either way, personal matters, nothing to worry about those people.” Alatea took a sip from her cup. “Are you going to order something?”
“Oh, sure.” I picked up the menu at my side. “Hmm… everything sounds delicious.”
“And it is.” She added as a matter of fact. “Words about this place wouldn’t have left my mouth otherwise.”
After a pair of minutes of indecision, I decided to order a scone filled with crust and fruit juice. Rather basic, but I’m still a child, and if Alatea said they were delicious I was no one to deny it.
“So what are you doing here during the holidays?” Alatea asked while we waited for my order.
“Well, this is the only place where I know where to find you,” I explained. “And I wanted to further my knowledge on souls.”
She sighed. “Edrie, you are the most intelligent child I have ever seen and I’m going to go as far as to say that also one of the most competent soul mages I know, and you are yet to be satisfied?”
“What can I say? I’m interested in the subject.” I shrugged.
Before Alatea could reply, the waitress brought my order. “Here you are.”
“I know you have plenty of motivation, maybe too much,” Alatea spoke after the waitress went away, then she took a sip of tea before continuing. “You’ll soon find yourself before a wall. Soul magic is a greatly uncharted field of study, and you are progressing so fast that the laid path is beginning to fade.”
“So, what?” I took a bite of the scone. Hmm, delicious. “There are still plenty of spells to be learned, and I can investigate the soul. And besides, I wasn’t the one who abandoned their student and vanished without notice.”
“I’m really sorry about that, okay?” Alatea sighed in exhaustion. “I know it wasn’t a polite thing to do, and I have already apologized tens of times about it. Can we let the bygones be bygone?”
I gave her a weak smile. “Sure. But you did hurt me. You could have told.”
“I was summoned by the government to oversee the aftermath of the Wyrm’s Landing as an experienced healer without prior notice and opportunity to refuse it.” Decourse apologized feverously.
“I understand. But you then went away a full year without contacting me.” I added with venom. “You could have at least said you would be back.”
“I’m sorry.” She bowed slightly. “I was overwhelmed by my duties as a healer and scholar that I totally forgot about Thal’mer.”
“I already told you I have forgiven you.” Even if with the tone I told so I couldn’t even believe it myself. “And anyway, I need your help if I want to progress on my soul. I have already exhausted all the books at the Open Archives.”
Alatea exhaled slowly and took another sip from her cup to recover her composure. She went from the verge of tears to a dignified visage in a single inhalation.
“For now, what you should do is focus on your Arcane affinity, and when you grow older you may be ready to jump onto the dubious career of a soul erudite.” Alatea’s tone was neutral, yet melodious. I could easily understand that she had no harm in her words. "Besides, you may hit a wall harder than others as your Arcane affinity is higher than your Soul one.”
Oh, right. She thought my Soul affinity was a secondary one that I had practiced because I was curious and I was lucky to be good at it, instead of being as good as my Arcane one.
“What I should do now then?” As school ended, I would now have a lot of free time. “Will you teach me once again like old times?”
“I fear I don’t have time for that currently.” Alatea swayed her head in negation. “You should meditate for now. Your foundation has been laid, so I recommend learning more spells and increasing your mastery of the element.” I took a sip from my juice as she spoke. “When we see in the future, we can talk about how you can progress. For the time being, just practice.”
I felt my heart warm a bit as I listened to her words, ‘when we see’.
Anyway, the conversation became menial as I talked about how I had stabilized my soul to a semi-permanent degree. After finishing my meal and drink, I paid at the desk and told goodbye to Alatea.
“See you soon.” I told to her.
“Likewise.” She still had tea in her cup, and for some reason, that put a smile on my face.
******
*Knock knock*
The sound of someone smashing the door woke her up. The girl groaned as she removed the blanket on top of her and put on comfortable footwear.
“Coming!” She told while walking across the empty house. “Who is it?” She said after opening the door.
“Hello, Marissa.” Edrie saluted her. “You know you should ask before opening the door, right?”
“Bah!” Marissa closed forcefully the door in front of Edrie. “It’s too early!”
“You knew that it was going to happen, Marissa!” Edrie cried from the other side. “You knew I would come early today!”
“I was hoping not!” She moved towards the kitchen to have breakfast.
“That’s rather rude.” Edrie said next to her.
“AH!” She jumped out of fear. “What? Eh? How? Hmm… But you… you were outside?” Marissa asked in confusion.
“Neat, huh,” Edrie said as he spun around. Now that she fixated on him, he was rather… translucid. “Astral Projection, six-star soul spell.” He explained to her.
“So… you are behind the door then?” Marissa asked at the projection.
“That’s right.” The hologram responded.
“How does it work? I’ve never seen you cast it?” She easily discerned he had used sorcery to conjure this spell.
“Can you first open the door?”
“Hmm… No.” She scoffed at the magical construct and directed herself to the kitchen.
“Oh, come on! Open the door!” He cried from outside this time.
“Tell me how it works then.” Marissa talked almighty.
“I move a fragment of my soul and mold it to my image.” The projection explained with its arms crossed. “Happy?”
“Too short.” She grinned from side to side of her face.
“Through the field of psychimancy, I apply soul deformation to myself, therefore fragmenting my own spirit. Then I move this fragment outside my soulspace and command it with soul mana. The construct has no physical properties whatsoever so it cannot touch things, but it can see, hear, and talk.” The projection narrated without stopping to breathe. “Satisfied now?”
“Yeah, more or less.” She swayed her head as if she wasn’t convinced. “Now if you excuse me, I will make a sandwich.” Then she ignored Edrie and went to the kitchen either way.
“Oh no, you don’t!” The construct cried as it assaulted Marissa.
Upon collision, she felt as if a thousand needles had struck her. Taken aback by the sudden pain, she lost her strength and leaned on the wall. An instant checkup told her there were no indices of damage from the attack.
“For the High Arcanist, what was that, Edrie?” She shouted loud enough the Edrie at the outside had heard her.
“The Astral Projection doesn’t exist on the physical plane, but in the spiritual one.” He lectured through the construct, unbeknownst to the pain she had experienced. “So, I can obviously attack your soul.”
“Ugh, I feel defiled.” Marissa embraced her body to suppress the memory. “Huh, the pain’s gone.”
“Yeah, what did you think? That I would torment you like a ghost.” Edrie’s projection mocked her. “What I did was the equivalent of tackling your soul, I didn’t punch it or anything like that, and you can’t collide with things in the spiritual world to get damaged with. The spiritual and physical plane don’t abide by the same rules.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing.” Marissa sighed, her back leaning on the wall.
“Are you gonna open the door now?” The construct raised his arms like a predator ready to jump on its prey. “Or I should torment you once more?” A devilish smile popped up on his virtual face as he rose his arms in a ghostly and spooky demeanor.
“Soul magic is not okay.” The girl grunted as she went towards the door. “Happy?” She said after opening it.
“Very pleasured to do business with you.” Both told at the same time, the projection bowed as Edrie dispelled it.
“You are insufferable.” Marissa ignored the real Edrie and went to the kitchen to finally have breakfast.
Edrie spent the time with a smug on his face, whilst doing one of his characteristic half-spiritual meditations.
******
“What are we going to do?” Marissa asked. “Are you gonna practice more soul stuff?”
“For the moment, no,” I responded. “As for your first question, let me ask one of my own before. Have you been meditating daily?”
“Yes…” The girl answered as she avoided my gaze.
“Marissa, you know you have to do it to increase your mana pool.” I scolded her.
“I know, I know… But it’s sooo boring.” Old habits die hard, eh. I remember such words being her favorite during the early stages of her life.
“I find meditation very relaxing.” I gave my point of view. Although I may not be the one to speak as I had spent an eternity floating on sludge along thousands of tormented souls. “It’s akin to a productive nap, look, only positives!”
“Relaxation doesn’t negate boringness.” Marissa complained again.
“You are literally doing nothing twenty-ten, and you are bored because one hour of twenty a day you have to do nothing?”
It annoyed me that she had more mana than I did when she was practicing as much as she did. My superb affinities slowed my production of mana, both in regeneration and mana pool increase, as it was converted into higher quality mana. But I was yet on a low level where such premium mana wouldn’t be of use.
“Meh.” She shrugged. I began casting Astral Projection as a threat. “Alright, alright.” She puffed some air. “So aggressive…”
Did you look at yourself in the mirror? You are the person who literally punched someone because they didn’t say what you want to hear. I didn’t say that aloud because it was asking for Marissa’s special combo.
“So, what then?” Marissa reiterated her question.
“Besides your daily meditation,” I gave her a condescending look, “we will focus on reaching the seven-star mark before the academy.”
“Wait, what academy?” She looked at me with confusion.
“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” I wasn’t being sarcastic or joking around; I had truly forgotten about it. “Next year, we are going to enroll in the Academy of Applied Magical Arts of Ferilyn.”
“Waitwaitwaitwait.” The news hit like a Stone Hammer spell by the looks of it. “The most prestigious academy of Ferilyn, the one supervised by the High Arcanist? That academy?” I nodded at her question. “How?!” She asked so loud that her voice cracked mid-word.
“It seems there was a program for the better students at each district’s school where they would be offered a scholarship at the academy. While it isn’t an automatic process, my father has already enrolled us in.”
“How’s it that my parents have never told me about this?” She genuinely made a good question.
“Well, your parents did end up paying for your last year at school, but you were still registered by my father, so the news only reached us,” I told her. “But that’s weird, mother said she had spoken with your parents yesterday.”
“Oh… we are really going to go to the most important academy in the country.” Marissa finally noticed I was being truthful and now the gravity of the situation sank in.
“Yes.” I nodded. “Now, are you ready now to get your mana pool bigger and reach that seventh tier?” I motivated her.
“Do I have a choice?” She said with a wry smile. “That place is littered with high ellari, I’m going to be devoured alive otherwise.”
“Quite a graphic analogy, but yes,” I responded her weak smile with a healthy one. “It’s time we move on from our pond towards the sea. And catch the big fish if possible.”
Uncharacteristically to her, she sighed in defeat. While that wasn’t the answer I was expecting, she seemed ready to give her all during this gap year and enter the academy with a solid foundation.
We had spent eleven years on basic ellari education, and even after having skipped four years, this was going to be by far the hardest challenge we had faced until now.