Solum  (23.11.9978 AS)

“Big sis!”

“Big sis!” I hear the small voices of Antonia and Jonny calling towards me. The two are twins and five years younger than me. Though, they both are as misfortunate as me. They also had the ‘luck’ to land in this place: Fors Love Orphanage.

I try to put on my brightest smile before turning to them. “You know big sis is reaaalllyy busy right now, so I can’t play with the two of you.” I try to sound as earnest and warm as possible as I answer them.

 “But... You promised!” – “Yeah, big sis is a big liar! She promised to play with but now she doesn’t want to anymore!” Both of them say while looking at me with their big green puppy eyes.  They know exactly I can’t withstand a puppy eyes attack.

“Ok, Ok I will play with you, but only a little.  Yeah, just a little.” I wave with my index finger in front of the twins to sound as intimidating as I can. “Ever since I entered the ‘Mage School’ I’ve gotten really busy.”  I lie to them.  

Truth be told, I don’t have time to play with them, because I want to hone my skills to one day achieve my dreams and not because of the school. Against all my expectations my studying time for like homework and other school related stuff didn’t change much since I was force to change schools and entered the ‘Mage School’.

Although, I’m an orphan I’m allowed to join such a prestigious school, because most of the kids here are bastards of the Elders and other types of nobility. Thus, we’re granted scholarships if we show promise with magic.

Children that show any kind of talent with magic have to join one of many magic schools, between those schools the ‘Mage School’ is the most prestigious one. It’s not easy to join that school.  You either have to be high nobility or be a prodigy.

Since I can remember I always wanted to join that school. Although, I’ve never met my parents, I always felt like I would be able to meet them, if only I make it big. And what better way of making it big can you think of, then entering the best school in the country and getting a job in the government after graduating?

It might sound childish, but I know, if I ever make it big, I’ll be able to meet one of my parents. I know that one of them is in our government waiting for me to shine. So every day, I give my all trying to reach that dream of mine. To show my parents what they missed out when they gave me to this people in the orphanage.

Anyways, last month a small portion of my dreams finally became reality.  After taking my first exams in magic, everybody in school went wild, just because I scored the highest score in the history of my old school.  

Right after the tests I was sent to another test center where they measured my magical potential. The score I got in those tests lead to me being accepted into the ‘Mage School’.

My expectations for the ‘Mage School’ were really high, but until know nothing changed much from my other school except the way people see others:.  All my classmates like to make it clear, they’re superior to others. Even those that got in through a scholarship like me, like to look down on people outside the academy.

“Big sis?!”  Antonia pulls on my sleeves bringing me back to reality.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.” I say as I’m being dragged outside towards the big green yard in front of our orphanage.

***

After two hours of playing ball, the twins are finally exhausted. Freeedommm! I’m finally free to do whatever I want.  So I hurry up the hill behind our orphanage. From there I have a beautiful view over the city of Solum. It’s getting late and the sun is slowly leaving place for the moon to do her thing.

I take out some books I borrowed from the library and start changing the words of the new spell I’m learning. A fire ball forms in front of me. As I keep chanting I pour more and more of my mana into it causing the fire ball to increase in size. – Not the result I’m looking for.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

 My goal is to change the color of the flame from red to almost invisible blue. Most of my classmates would be happy to achieve such a big ball of flames.  To be honest, I myself am quite impressed by its size.  But size isn’t what matters the most. It’s the power of the flame.  And as far as I know, the clearer and purer the flame the faster the oxidation process is. This leads to greater heat!

Yeah, what I want to create is a small but powerful flame. I can’t even think of all the ways to use such a flame. For example, I could use it to cut through everything that I want or even as a projectile during a fight, but let’s hope I never end up in a situation I end up using it as a projectile. I don’t want to be responsible for the death of someone.

 The big fire ball in front of my suddenly starts wobbling in a way I didn’t anticipate.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I’ve been pouring so much mana into it, trying to create the blue flame and totally forgot I to use something to stabilize the fire.  

I concentrate trying to stabilize the fire, but I probably won’t be able to do it.  If I add more mana to the mix, then I’ll just end up making it worse.  I close my eyes.

Judging by the mount of many I inserted into the flame I’ll be lucky if I survive the failure of this experiment and even if I survive I’ll surely be a disfigured monster.

 I keep my eyes closed for a few moments but nothing happens.

Finally, I form the courage to open one of my eyes and all I can see is a small blue flame in front of me. I smile and open my second I. Did I make it? –No I didn’t!  A second look over the flame makes me it clear, I wasn’t the one who managed to convert the big red flame ball into a small almost transparent flame ball.

Besides the blue shimmering I can see that the color of the mana keeping the flame in place isn’t mine. It’s dark, no, not only dark. It is pitch black,  I’ve never seen anything so dark.  All though it’s there it feels like there is nothing there. It’s the total opposite to my bright green colored mana.

Just what in the world is this mana?  I walk slowly towards it.

“Do you have a death wish?” A young male voice asks me.

I turn towards the voice and I see a black haired boy probably the same age as me sitting on the branch of the big tree behind of me.  

“No?!”  I give a short answer.  I don’t know who the boy is, but his aura is suspicious. I’ve never seen someone who leaks so much mana nor someone who owns such a color of mana. Most of the people I’ve met so far only leak bright colored mana when they use an artifact or when using magic, but not just from sitting on a tree. The boy sitting on the branch is continuously leaking pitch black mana.

“If you don’t have a death wish then don’t pour so much many into a frail spell like ‘Fireball?!”  He reproaches me as he swings down from the tree and starts walking towards me.

“Frail?”  I ask.  “’Fireball’ aren’t frail at all. They are rough and tough!”  Yeah, the ‘Fireball’ spell is one of the strongest spell there is, how can he say a spell like this one is frail?

 ***Sigh***

His greenish grey eyes look at me with pity. His expression reminds of how my classmates see the people that don’t belong to our school.

“You see, I didn’t mean that the effect of the spell is frail, but rather that the spell matrix is frail. Actually I wonder why no one has killed himself yet; casting such spell that doesn’t have any safety mechanisms for when you mess up.”

He slowly bows in front of me and picks up one of the books I was using as a helper to cast the spell.

“You should totally sue whoever wrote this book.” He says after taking a look at it.  “Where did you get it?”  

“The library.” I answer.

Just who is this person? I’m sure he isn’t older than me, but I still feel like I’m standing before someone  who’s reached wisdom beyond, of what I’ll ever achieve! I can’t explain it myself, but I feel like everything he said was correct.

 He takes out a pencil from thin air and starts scribbling into the book.

“Hey, that book doesn’t belong to me! Don’t damage it!”  I try to stop him.  After all I don’t want to be banned from the library; The only place I relax.

“Oh, sorry, that wasn’t my intention...”  He looks troubled.  He presses his lips to a thin line.  “But you know I just can’t help but correct things that are wrong.”  He tries to smile at me as he hands over the book to me.

“Who are you?”  I ask, still looking at him as if I just have seen a ghost.

“Tristan Halblicht” He answers smiling earnestly.

“And you may be?” He asks still smiling at me.

“Ai, Ai Erui,” I answer, smiling back at him.

“Tirst!”  I hear a female voice call from afar.  

“Where did you run off again? Wait till I get my hands on you!”  The female voice draws closer.

“That idiot.”  

The smile on Tristan’s face disappears. He shakes my hand.  “Ai, it was a pleasure to meet you here, maybe we’ll see each other again.”  He says before running off towards where the hysterical female voice is calling his name.

For a while I just stand there, where his back just vanished behind the trees. “Tristan, I have a feeling we’ll certainly meet again.” I whisper and take a look at the book he scribbled something in.

I can’t help but smile, when I look at it.  If I understand correctly, he added different types of barriers to the spell.  ‘So it won’t be too dangerous.’ Is written on the last line he modified.  I hug the book and look at the small transparent blue flame, which suddenly vanishes.