Ananiel

With each arduous step, I barely kept up with the horse-drawn carriage.

“Should I tie that cart on the carriage?”

The Coachman leans over to Lily as he gives a pitiful glance towards me.

“Not yet, give him some time. My disciple will wear down sooner or later.”

Clutching my teeth, I let out a desperate groan and slowly started to build up some pace. I close my strained eyes and take in as deep of a breath as I could.

“Come on”

Stomping hard on the ground, I go over a ditch in the ground and suddenly fall over.

“Ha…”

Gasping the cool winter air, my lungs burn as I painfully cough.

“Alright, stop.”

Lily commands and gets out of the carriage. Closing my eyes, I gaze off into the darkness as exhaustion washes over me.

“Where am I”

I blink twice as a landscape of sand stretches beyond my eyes. Gazing off into the darkness above, a harrowing wind brushes through my hair.

Close your eyes, and listen.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes. Lights flickered and fell as the faint scent of rain wafts up my nose.

You’ve forgotten

Shuddering, I snap my eyes open. The coarse sand pricked at my feet.

“Who are you?”

I shout out expecting an answer. But to no response. Looking forward, an unfamiliar light radiated off in the distance.

The dead should remain dead

I stumble and fall as if weights were tied to my ankle.

“Let go of me”

Anger filled my eyes as I looked back to nothing. Stomping forward, I march towards the light.

How beautiful”

I gasp in awe. A star fell from the sky, spilling its radiance into the land.

It’s futile

A strong wind stirs the surrounding dust into the air and quickly covers over the star.

“Stop!”

I rush towards the star as its light barely peaks under the desert sand. Digging out the star, I lift it up into the air.

“Listen, my dear child. Listen carefully.”

A memory starts whisking itself into existence. Pillars of stone reach up like arms stretching towards the sky. I take a deep breath as a silhouette stands in front of me.

“Darkness looms over everyone. Hidden away in the depths of our souls, it festers and gnaws on the very foundation of man.”

The silhouette points up at the darkness above.

Gather the escaping light

and forget the line of perspective

that defines life and death

A beam of light shoots up from every pillar of stone and illuminates the dark sky with stars.

“Remember, magic is fundamentally a tool that breaks the darkness above”

The silhouette pushes me backwards as I fall into the sand.

Search for the pillars around the desert and you shall gain an audience with me.

Tapping me with a familiar cane, the silhouette disappears. I grabbed hold of the cane that leaned against my shoulder and closed my eyes.

“Listen”

I repeat in my head and slowly become aware of the faint sound of rain.

Come over here!

I glance over at a young silhouette gesturing me to come over. A bright smile fills my face as I tap the cane on the sand.

What are you, An old man?

Scoffing at this comment, I let out a pleasant chuckle and started walking towards the silhouette.

“He’s waking up!”

Lily’s distinct voice bounces around my ears as I jolt awake. My eyes gaze up at an unfamiliar roof as I get up from the carriage floor. Taking a deep breath, my nose catches the scent of the forest as pain starts aching on my shoulders.

“Am I alright?”

I instinctively stretch out my arms as Lily gazes out the window in deep thought.

“You are fine. But you overdid yourself and exhausted your strength.”

“Is that so?”

I tense up my legs to check if I could stand up.

“Calm down and rest, Clover. We still have time before we depart again.”

Lily pulls out a familiar book and throws it at me.

“Now would be a great time to circulate mana. Today, we are reviewing the book you said you read. Start doing the method.”

I nod and close my eyes. First, breathe in for 4 seconds through the nose. Then hold without blocking your airways for 7 seconds… then slowly exhale for about 6-8 seconds.

I feel my veins tighten up as tension slowly builds up on my solar plexus.

“Pay attention to how the blood circulates. Feel the tingling in your arms.”

After breathing 3 times, I start feeling a little light headed.

“Now start breathing normally, but as light as you can make it.”

My body starts to relax as I slowly sink deeper and deeper into my mind.

“Next, imagine the air around you flowing and flowing as light wisps into existence. Now direct that current of light into your body”

Faint sparks of light pop in and out around me, like dancing fireflies in the air. Inhaling a slow but continuous current, these lights slowly enter my system. Lily stares at me in awe,

“On his first try? That can’t be right.”

She starts recording this in her notebook as I continue riding the current stirring my mind.

Envelop me, O’ fleeting wind

Words sprout out from the darkness as the current intensifies around me.

“What are you doing!?”

Lily shouts out loud and quickly snaps me out of the trance. Barely catching her falling notebook, she gives me a conflicted glare.

“Have you forgotten we are in a carriage? You were about to blow us all away!”

I tilt my head, unaware of the stirring chaos that enveloped me. Thinking, I could only come up with three words.

“I’m sorry… Master.”

Watching Lily flusteredly flipping through her notebook gave me a bright smile.

“Alright fine”

Lily pouts and playfully strikes me on the head

“Be more careful next time. You shouldn’t invoke your innate magic without caution.”

“Innate Magic?”

I give a confused look, Lily sighs like a tired teacher and tosses her notebook to the side.

“Innate magic is a unique gift from Horus, the god of forbidden words. It allows the gifted to materialize their own magic but at the cost of fatigue. To put it simply, it is the user forcing their will upon the strings that make up the world.”

“So how does one know they have Innate magic?”

“That’s the thing, no one can determine an innate spellcaster from a mage as it is a unique gift. The most I know is that it extracts the mana out of the user instead of taking mana from the world. From what I have heard, Innate spellcasters have words that show up in their mind. Did any pop up for you?”

“Envelop me O’fleeting wind”

She hurriedly grabs her notebook and writes down what I said

“Hmm, that explains the strong current of wind gathering around you.”

She taps her graphite on the paper and we both hear the coachman yelling outside,

“It’s time to depart!”

I get up from the floor and go to sit down on the carriage seat.

“So, what is magic?”

Lily leans out the carriage window that kicks up speed as the horses start moving again.

“Magic… hmmm. It’s a source that allows interaction with nature through a medium. If I wanted to, I could shoot a spell out because I properly channeled the magic and converted it with my imagination. However, this takes extreme focus, walking the line of consciousness and unconsciousness, and requires the caster a lot of setup.”

“So how do magic scrolls work?”

“A mage spent each aching moment writing out a formula while in a trance. This is then sealed onto special paper that inhibits the activation until it is unrolled.”

“Are there other mediums besides scrolls?”

“Yes! There have been accounts of metal, wood and seemed to have been common in ancient technology. But each medium needs a different formula of runes which are distinct between each faction of mage. If you are interested, I can give you a book when we make it to Idosa.”

I nod,

“Thanks master, this is a lot of information to take in”

She lets out a bright and playful smile

“Indeed, it is, my dear Disciple. But now’s not the time for knowledge.”

Lily points out the wagon,

“It’s time for training again. Start running.”

“No way right?”

A look of terror fills my face as her unusual strength pushes me out the door.

“If you don’t hurry, the horses will run away!”

Slapping both of my legs, I push forward and start chasing the wagon. My exhausted body pleads for me to stop. Luckily, the wagon started to slow down as soon as I fell out. Giving a horrid 8 second sprint, I finally caught up to the wagon.

Huff*

I feel my tearing throat pleading for hydration as I collapse to the ground.

“Please… Don’t do that again.”

I plead as Lily gets out the wagon door. She un-flasks a glass bottle of water and places it besides my cheek.

“I promise you, this is for your own good.”

She pokes me on the forehead and giggles. Letting out a deep sigh, I get up from the ground and start drinking the cool, refreshing water. My parched throat calms down,

“Bah*, that's some good water.”

I exclaim as Lily yawns and stretches,

“Alright, I think that was enough for today. Tomorrow, I will teach you how to properly circulate mana. It’s not just breathing, but also imagination and feeling.”

She lets out a satisfying nod as her eyes glances towards me,

“You are very gifted, you know that? It takes around 3-5 months for an apprentice to start feeling mana, and that is after they discover how to control themselves in a trance.”

Feeling a sense of envy in her words, I silently keep my head down,

“Let’s get going now, we have about 3 days before we make it to Idosa.”

Grumbling, my legs shakily walk towards the wagon door and I immediately slump down on the cushioned seat.

“Alright passengers, We are departing again!.

The Coachman shouts as we both gaze out the window. A beautiful, but daunting red streaked across the sky. The sun slowly fell into the horizon of trees.

“It’s beautiful”

I murmur and noticed Lily nod in the corner of my eye

“Indeed it is. After all these years, it’s as beautiful as I remember.”

I glanced towards Lily and noticed her darkened emerald eyes hidden behind her heavy glasses. Her gaze did not match her youthful face, and her shining, dirty blonde hair shimmered a faint gold under the sunset. All this gave an allure that magnified my darting gaze.

“Hmm, Do you need anything?”

Lily faces me directly as I quickly avert my head.

“No, it’s nothing…”

I whisper quietly and keep my head down. Lily held the slightest of smiles in the corner of her lips as the wagon came to a slow stop.

“Alright guys, it’s time to set up camp!”

The Coachman shouted aloud and I quickly made my way out of the Carriage.