House of Amarin

It was a cloudy day. Keily and Lia were just coming out from their regular lesson, listening to Dayen's teachings. While most of them were meditating, slowly bringing up their mana to a level where it was possible for them to cast spells, Lia was discussing theories with Dayen. It was refreshing to hear a different look on magic, other than what her mother and the old teachings of Erias told her. 

"Want to grab some lunch?" Lia asked, stretching, coming out from the classroom with Keily, "Last time I accompanied Ceiline into the city, we found a great place that sells fantastic cakes!"

"That is… not really lunch." Keily answered, licking his lips, "But sounds wonderful!" He nodded, letting his ears flap around as he had a real sweet tooth for it. 

"Fine answer~" Lia laughed, picking up pace as Keily hopped after her, almost literally. 

"More and more days are becoming cloudy and rainy." He said, watching the grey skies, moving his nose a little, smelling the air. "There will be rain soon, so we better hurry!"

"It's just water, no biggie!" Lia waved her hand, "Just dry it off from your body with a spell!"

"My first spell will be something else. I don't want to immolate myself, Boss!" 

"You wouldn't! Be a bit braver!" She laughed, slapping his back, "And how does it come along? I checked your mana flow while you meditated; it is adequately hot by now! You should be able to cast fire spells!"

"I'm working on my theory! I'm not rushing it, Boss! I want to make sure it goes off without a hitch!" He answered, and Lia could feel the excitement in his voice. Someone who had no idea about magic a year ago was already at the gate of casting his first spell. It was something that always stayed with a mage.

"I never met an overly cautious fire mage yet!" Lia grinned as they soon arrived in the city, "Didn't you listen to Dayen's lessons? Fire mages are best in explosive strength and instinctive decision-making! Many beast folks excel in manipulating fire because of exactly that! You have the instinct to wield it without too much thinking!"

"Boss… Are you… calling me stupid?" Keily asked, unsure and wearing a not-so-honest smile.

"Pft! No!" Lia laughed, realizing her words, grabbing his arm, pulling him close, and giggling, "You are smart! Too smart, I say! You should think less and act more! It helped me a lot!"

"I heard that your sisters say that is why you are stuck."

“Ugh… it could be…” Lia flinched, tripping, almost falling after hearing him, "None of the two is good! Don't act solely on instinct, and don't act solely on overthinking! You need a balance! Now I'm working right on that, you know!"

"I don't know, Boss… I think… Um…” He fell silent, debating whether to even continue as he was someone who couldn't even cast a spell, yet he was about to give advice to Lia? It felt… surreal.

"Come on, out with it!" She tickled him, drawing a cute yelp from Keily and making him jump around 2 meters into the air. "Ahahaha! You are truly a bunny!"

"Uuu… Boss!" He shuddered, shaking his head, feeling embarrassed before the people walking the streets and looking at him. 

"Tell me, or I'll tickle you more!" 

"Okay, okay! But… don't laugh! I think those who said you relied on instinct too much are wrong!"

"Oh?" Lia lowered her hands, walking normally again, looking at Keily curiously.

"What I saw so far, Boss, is that you are anything but careless. I think you are just as forward-thinking as spontaneous."

"Mmmh?"

"You decided to bring me to this place… when exactly?" Keily asked as they entered a bakery that had little tables inside. It was mostly empty, and nobody was even at the counter. It would have surprised Keily if not for the fact he already knew many shops were 'automated,' enchanted in a way that made its mage owners operate it from afar.

"Hehehe~ Two days ago~" Lia answered, sticking out her tongue as she sat down and opened the menu to choose from the dozens of different, mouth-watering displays of cakes.

"See? You may be instinctively making choices but doing it in advance, Boss. That is why people see you as spontaneous, but I feel like you are manipulating us toward what you truly want."

"Geez… Now you make me sound like I am an evil girl! Here to play games with you all!" Lia pouted, looking at him from behind her open menu, displaying a hurt expression. 

"Ah, no! Not at all, Boss!" Keily panicked until he saw the grin creeping up her face, and he heard her giggling.

"Relax! I was joking~ I get what you are trying to say! I don't know if I agree, but…."

"Boss," Keily asked, looking into her mismatched eyes, "You learned from your mother, right?"

"Mostly." Lia nodded, choosing the cake she wanted to order, tapping on the menu with her finger laced with mana. In the next instant, before her, a small magic circle lit up, and the cake simply popped out of nowhere before her. "Come, I'll order for you!" She leaned over her big, creamy blueberry cake and tapped on Keily's menu, paying for his choice.

"T-thanks!" He said, licking his lips as a big slice of carrot cake appeared on his side of the table. 

"Fufufu, I am your Boss, so no worries!" She winked at him, "About learning magic, besides my Mom, I mostly learned from Erias. He left behind many voice recordings and explainings of his books."

"Did they teach you how to cast fire spells?" Keily asked, munching on his unorthodox lunch. 

"Yep!" Lia nodded, doing the same, "That is where I learned how emotions can power spells! But of course, this is not the only thing that is needed for it! I'm not stupid, and even Erias warned us! It is but a small part of it! If we look at it like a magic circle, then emotions are what gives them the color, not the whole structure!"

"But you learned it, and you rely on it. Yes?" Keily pressed on, asking seriously.

"Yes," Lia said, nodding, feeling slightly confused, but she patiently waited for him to continue. 

"What if your emotions are also, um, controlled? Calculated?"

"Hm?" Lia stopped the fork in her hand, looking at him, then at her cake, slowly picking up a bit, putting it into her mouth, and munching on it. "You mean…?"

"I mean that you learned about what role they play in our magic. Then you devised a plan for how to utilize them, Boss. And you do it subconsciously. Not even realizing it! You are not being passionate when casting spells! You are calculating what emotions are those that bring you the best results, and you push them forward! That is why your fire is crimson in color and burns as hot as the sun! It is controlled and focused on a single point. Watching you, I never saw you act... rashly. No roars, battle-cry or wild emotions on your face. Not until you make your move."

"..." Lia's mouth slowly came to a halt, forgetting to chew her cake, letting the sweet taste flow and spread in her mouth before gulping it down. "I… never thought about it like that way…." She murmured, blinking her eyes rapidly and getting a giddy, weird feeling in her stomach. Something… moved inside of her. She couldn't grasp it yet, but Keily's words started something that made her heart speed up. 

"I… I don't want to speak as if I know it. It was just a feeling! So please, don't take it too seriously, Boss!"

"No, no, what you said made me think! It is… interesting!" Lia said, shaking her head and continuing to gobble up her cake, "I never thought about it like that! You know, I am reading an ancient book, and it is truly confusing! One end of it talks about going wild, while the other only talks about cold, hard logic! It is so weird reading it and flipping from one to the other end! Haaah… I just don't know how to combine the two thoughts!"

"I… can't help with that, Boss! I know spells can be fused and used to boost each other… Like Teacher Dayen's lesson about summoning wind to reinforce a fire spell! But… opposing elements should be…."

"Impossible to fuse, I know." Lia nodded, "Yet my Forefather did it. Everyone in my family is trying to replicate it. My Mom is close to it yet so far away, as she once said to me."

"Didn't he leave any insights?" Keily asked, knowing it was an obvious thing to do, curious why wouldn't the family of Amarins succeed for 4000 years after Erias's death. 

"He did!" Lia sighed, ordering a huge strawberry bubble tea, slurping on it through the swirly straw, "But it is cryptic, to say the least! I read it multiple times! It talks about souls, harmony with nature, and the source of mana, something he calls the Cosmos!"

"Cosmos…" Keily murmured, leaning back after finishing his cake, trying to remember if any of the previous lessons had touched upon it.

"Don't look at me like that!" Lia chuckled, "I only know as much as it was recorded in our library! Rumors say that there is another world above ours, called the Cosmos. I don't know more! But it is said the last tribulation is needed to be able to open the door that leads to it! But it could also be legends and old fairy tales! Forefather did not touch upon it once in his memoirs! And nobody knows if it is even real! So I say it has some other meaning! I just don't know what!" Lia shrugged, slurping loudly, letting the sweet drink wash away her unsure thoughts.

"Heh…" Keily also chuckled, shaking his head, "If there is a different world, that would explain where the Undead curse came from! I don't think there is anyone who would doom his world like this!"

"People can be evil!" Lia answered, wiping her mouth with her sleeve.

"Even evil people are after something! Like conquering the world! You can't conquer a dead world! What will you rule over? The barren wastes? Counting how many tiny grains of ash is there?"

"Ahahaha! I like your reasoning!" She laughed, grinning at him.

"Thank you, Boss!"

"Don't thank me yet, Lil' Keily~!"

"Ugh…" He flinched, finding it weird how she called him little… he was at least the same height and even a year or so older. "Boss? Your smile is making me tingle!"

"Oh? In a good way?" Lia's eyes lit up as she heard him say that, expecting that finally, something rubbed off on her from Koadriana.

"No," Keily answered honestly, making her pout.

"Meanie! At least lie! Don't be like my third brother!"

"Sorry, Boss! But it tingles my spine and not between my legs!" 

"Ahahahaha!" Lia laughed at his honesty, "Well, your instincts are right~ We are going to go train!" She stood up, pulling Keily out from his chair, deciding to head to the training fields to try and help Keily form his first spell.

Just as they stepped out from the little shop, they were greeted with the noise of a thunderous rumble and a heavy, cold downpour washing the streets. 

"Brr…" Keily flinched as the raindrops were pretty cold to the touch. "I think we should head back to the dormitory or to the library for today."

"Nope!" Lia grinned, grabbing his hand and pulling him out into the rain without an umbrella. "This is perfect! Come, let's go to the fields!"

"Ehhh?! But its… Boss! Boss!" He yelped loudly, being dragged away by Lia, letting their bodies be soaked in it. 

"Ahahaha! Don't be a crybaby!" She looked back at him over her shoulder as her hair stuck to her face, "When traveling the world, do you think you will have time to take shelter in the wilderness? Will the Undead wait for the rain to go away?"

"No…" He answered, falling silent as their feet splashed the water up from quickly gathering puddles between the cracks on the cobblestone streets. 

"Exactly! Rain? Snow? Blazing sun? It does not matter! They won't stop and wait! That is what my Mom taught me! Are you cold?"

"Yes…" Keily nodded, not lying, but also, he was not complaining anymore, just letting Lia lead him forward. While everyone else was running for shelter or casting magic to block out the rain and its coldness, the first sign of the soon-coming winter, they were already soaked down to their underwear. 

"Then start circulating your mana! You can shake off the cold easily! You are in control of the element of fire! Use it!" Lia said, grinning from ear to ear, clearly unaffected by the rain. She was enjoying it.

"I'll try, Boss!"

"I'll lead you, don't worry! Come, when we arrive at the field, I'll help you meditate! You will battle the cold water from within! Maybe this will help you finally step over the threshold!" She mused, holding his hand firmly, interlocking her fingers with his, letting Keily feel her warmth through it, igniting a fire within the young bunny that was not there previously.