Chapter 4: Magic

It was dusk, God's rays were passing through the trees, and the view of the Fae's city was still as amazing as the first time I had seen it.

I was finishing Mom's cake on the living room table, as is my daily routine at this time of the day. It was just sooo luscious.

Mom sighed; She really was sighing a lot; that was probably my fault. Her eyes caught mine, and she said,

"I know you are curious, Alice. Your hunger for knowledge really is… well, cosmic at the very least. So, here's a book on magic's theory. You can read it, but don't even think about trying it. It might satisfy your hunger for a while, at least."

She took out a book from her magic backpack and gave it to me. I had been asking a lot for more information around magic and the world we live in, not just about the Fae realm.

It seemed to hurt Mom when I expressed my interest in discovering the World beyond our realm, so I somewhat stopped. However, there was no way I could not want to know more about magic.

I was short on words, and I felt a bit guilty for not being honest about my intention to use that book to enhance my skills.

I lowered my head a bit in guilt. "Thank you, mom…" She had a smile and hugged me with a light kiss on the cheek and whispered.

"I love you, my little Raven. Good night.", before leaving for her room. Fae were all friendly and affectionate with each other, so nicknames were common. Apparently, people were calling me "Little Raven", It was funny, so I did not mind at all.

I opened the book. The leather did not seem old, and it was well decorated. If I did not know that literally anything was free in the city, I would've thought that the Books were really precious and expensive.

I started Reading.

Basic Fae Magic Knowledge

Written by Magician XLVII: The Wise

Magic is an omnipresent energy flowing through anything and any being. This energy is highly adaptable and changes with its environment; for example, if magic is passing through a storm, it will be "Storm Magic."

Magic does not have a will or take action by itself, but it can be guided. Every creature has magic inside itself, but not all of them can control it. Those who can't control it are still using it. Their very muscles can be enhanced with the magic flowing inside of them.

Magic beings have the ability to control magic. Among them, we have; Some humanoid beings, Monster, Dragon, spirits, and Fae. Certain beings are more gifted than others, with the Fae at the top of the hierarchy when it comes to magic.

There was a lot of information… The book wasn't really thick, but with that abundance of information, it would take time to read it and understand it correctly.

I closed the book and decided to finish it tomorrow during the day because, right now, it was night… Mom was asleep, like most of the Fae. It was time to go have some fun with magic.

I placed the book on the bookshelf, left the house and flew to our usual spot. Sélène wasn't there yet; I was always here earlier.

I had started trying a more "aggressive magic" training. Something was made to fight. Sélène did not like the idea, and for the first time, we chose different paths. She was more passionate about the beauty of water magic. While I wanted to explore the whole world outside, I needed to know how to fight. From the first few pages I read of the book, it seemed that most beings had magic. I think the world outside is most likely dangerous if random animals or even people were capable of exploding a house on a whim.

I walked into the middle of the circle and sat down. Once I had thought about training with a fireball since it seemed fairly basic, but… playing with fire in a forest wasn’t the smartest idea, so I instead tried to form a water ball, pressure it to a maximum, and throw it. First, I got a hold of my feelings. Serenity was essential to having a fine control over magic, the less distraction there is, the better it is. I placed my hand in front of me and slowly pushed my mana outward to form a ball of water. I kept it to the size of a tennis ball, but always added more water to compress it.

Suddenly, I was caught off guard as water splashed onto me. My focus was lost, and the water ball I was creating escaped my hands and flew toward the tree in front, creating a crater the size of a person on the tree.

“SELENE!?” I was sure it was my friend, Sélène, who thought it would be a good prank to surprise me like that.

I got up and looked around to see where she was. Nothing in front of me. I checked to the left, nothing. To the right, nothing again. Then, I turned around and gasped. It wasn’t Sélène; it was a tall man, wearing a dark blue cape- a magician.

Shit. Practicing magic before five was strictly forbidden, not to mention that I was training without anyone to monitor me… and here before me stood a man who held a really, really huge authority when it came to magic in our city.

“Hel… hello?” Maybe he wouldn’t be angry; nothing bad happened, I thought.

His dark green eyes met mine, and a chill ran down my spine. FUCK, HE IS ANGRY. He looked very pissed. He looked like someone would if a child started crying on their plane.

“Are you having fun…?” he asked in a tone clearly meant to scold me.

"Well, honestly, yes, I wa—” I started speaking, but something made me stop in the middle of my sentence. His stern gaze had changed to a kind and happy smile.

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“You’re the newborn, right ? Does your Mother know about this ‘training’ you are doing?” NEWBORN?! Well, to be fair, he wasn’t exactly wrong, but it was annoying to be addressed like that.

I hesitated a bit, but I chose to tell the truth and explain to him why I was here training my magic.

After hearing my story, he glanced at the tree I had just hit with my water. "Well, I wouldn’t mind taking you as a pupil. ” My eyes lit up at those words, filled with expectation. “But your Mother needs to agree, and she needs to know you were playing around with magic like today.” outch, that part crushed all my excitement.

As I was about to complain, he added, “She’s your mother; she has the right to know”

He was right, but I wasn’t thrilled at all by the idea of telling my mom, "Oh, hey, well, as I was studying magic behind your back, I got offered the post of a pupil by the magician." Just thinking about it was enough to calm me down about becoming the magician’s pupil.

“If you don’t want to tell her, I can do it?” He said it with a hint of sarcasm.

“OK, SURE I WILL... tch” Now I will need to find the right moment to tell her that…

“Can I know your name, sir?” Even though there weren’t many magicians, everyone was calling them ‘magicians’. I'd never heard their names; I wasn't even sure if there were one or hundreds of magicians.

“Oh Oh, call me Magician, everyone does.” Ah, yes, the mysterious type, sure….

“The sun is rising; you should go back home, kid.” Once again, he had sarcasm in his voice. Even if I really wanted to be his pupil, I didn't know if I would be fine with his sarcasm for the rest of my training with him.

“You are right, Magician. I will be on my way then.” I flew toward my house without looking back at him. Honestly, the situation wasn’t THAT bad. I had the opportunity to become a pupil; I just needed to convince my mother... Okay, no, the situation was really dire.

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“YOU WHAT?! ” Honestly, I knew this would happen. I had told my mom what I was doing during the night; I chose to tell her after eating her never-ending breakfast composed of dozens of dishes.

“I was being caref…” I tried to argue, but it was useless

“ALICE SERAPHIA, HOW…” honestly, I didn’t listen. I knew already what the reprimand would be like—a bit of ‘that was careless and stupid of you’, ‘you just had to wait a few years," and a bit of ‘what would I have done if you got hurt!’.

By the time the reprimand stopped, it was already dusk again. She really knew how to give a speech; she could have been an army commander.

“Now, go to your room and don't leave it until I tell you to.” I didn’t make her repeat herself, and I left for my room.

In fact, she had a point. It wasn't a really good idea to train something dangerous when you had no knowledge about it. But damn… five years to wait was just too long. Even if my Mother is fed up, she wouldn’t forbid me from being the magician’s pupil, right?

Actually, she looked really worried whenever we talked about magic. She probably wanted to keep me away from dangerous things. It was understandable; she’s my Mother in this world, and I’m her child.

I sat on my bed and, after a few seconds, let myself fall onto it. I stared dully at the ceiling and remained like that without moving until knocks on my door woke me up from my daze.

“Yes ?” I said it hesitantly. It was for sure, Mother, and I certainly didn’t want to be scolded for another hour. The door opened gently, revealing Mom's sorrowful eyes.

A sharp pain pierced my heart, guilt. I got up and rushed to hug Mom. “So… Sorry for worrying you… Mom”. On earth, I didn’t feel much for my family; truth be told; I didn’t care for them, and they didn’t care for me. But here, it was different. At the beginning, I didn’t feel anything for this woman who’s supposed to be my Mother. It was the first time someone cared for me like that and got worried about my idiocy instead of pissed off.

I had never felt a family bond like that. I squeezed her harder against me, my head under hers, my arm around her. I had never been the tactile type of person, but it felt pleasant.

She returned my embrace and whispered in my ears, “I am not against you being the magician’s pupil.”All my body tensed up at that, my excitement reaching its pinnacle.

“Also, I know you are curious about Human Land, and you probably want to explore it, right ?” There wasn’t a hint of annoyance in her voice, only an ounce of regret.

“I will allow you to go there…”, I took a step back and looked her in the eyes, surprised. Human land was reputed to be dangerous—really dangerous. First, we didn’t know if no Fae made it back because; it was impossible, or if they had died there. In other words, going there meant no coming back, at least that was what the Fae believed.

"But you need to complete your training with the magician first and reach adulthood," she said while looking at the floor with a pained expression. Fae were considered adults once their essence flourished. I didn't fully understand what that meant, but apparently, it was a significant event for Fae. There wasn't a fixed age restriction; it wasn't like, 'Oh, hey, I'm 18 now, and I'm going to become an adult.' It was something that could happen at the age of twenty or even eighty.

She seemed pained to offer me this proposition. She knew I really, really wanted to explore the world beyond this forest. I didn't know what to say to comfort her, so I chose to just hug her again. We stayed like that for a few minutes, her hand caressing my head.

“We should go eat, Alice.” She said it softly while slowly and gently getting out of our embrace.

We ate without speaking much, and some shared warm smiles. I waved goodbye to my Mom as I left for Sélène's house. I was curious to know why she wasn’t there during the night.

As I was in front of Sélène’s doorway, something tilted my surprise. The door was half open, and people were talking, one of them in a sob.

I knocked gently on the half-open door, causing it to slide just enough to reveal someone in a white robe, a healer, who was talking with Sélène's sobbing mother. Both of them turned to glare at me as the door squeaked.

An awkward silence filled the room as we locked eyes. Slowly, Sélène's mother's face transformed into a mask of rage, her gaze fixed on me.

“IT IS YOUR FAULT!” She stood up, yelling and pointing an accusing finger at me, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT THAT IT HAPPENED” She started to walk toward me, but the healer stopped her by placing his hand on her shoulder.

“This isn’t her fault; this isn’t anyone’s fault”, he weakly said, while taking the sobbing Mother in a tight embrace. I could see that he didn’t seem convinced by his own words.

“What… what happened?” I hesitated. “Where is Sélène…” I didn’t see her anywhere in sight, and a healer was here. I feared the worst, and my heart started sinking.

How could it have even happened? The Fae forest was so safe that even getting a scratch was a rare occurrence.

The healer looked at me and said, almost in a whisper, “Sélène was severely injured tonight. She lost her left arm, and her chest is gravely hurt.”

I was relieved and panicked at the same time. She wasn’t dead, she wasn’t well either. I didn’t know what to say or what to do. I stood there, feeling tears welling up in my eyes.