The First Mage

After finishing breakfast we headed to the garden behind the mayor’s house to do some experiments. This was a good location, as it was screened from curious onlookers. The guards the mayor had assigned us were also surprisingly accommodating. To test the waters, we had asked for a portable water source and a few white stones, which they promptly delivered, as if they had been prepared beforehand. Blue stones were something they wouldn’t give us as freely, being their bestseller, but they did get my bag from the inn, so we had enough for both our tests and personal needs.

The first order of business would be to learn more about the ritual platform script. While Miles had gleaned a few things from it already last night, he did not know exactly how a white stone became a Calling yet. We wanted to head back to the platform to research it more, but the guards had recommended that we stay here for now, in case there were still soldiers around.

Kneeling in front of the water source, I recreated one of the scripts he had seen on the ritual platform. Specifically, one that was supposed to only show us what Calling the stone would give. While Miles didn’t know exactly how the white stones worked yet, he was sure that the “divine sign” you were supposed to see during your ritual was essentially the same as turning mana into water. It simply took a certain form, depending on the stone. However, that the process was not random confused him. If one stone gave one specific Calling, you wouldn’t practically be guaranteed to receive the same Calling as your parents. Something was missing.

I finished a script that would theoretically do almost the same thing as a ritual platform, but limited to showing the sign. It had been a normal, relaxing day, until I placed a white stone on the water source and the script activated, its effect making all of our eyes grow wide. A ball of glowing blue light suddenly appeared in the air above the water source and hovered there for a moment, before bursting into smaller spheres of light and raining down around us.

“A Fighter Calling,” Berla said in awe. “And this sign is really only a visual effect?”

“Apparently so,” I said, equally amazed. Not that I had doubted Miles, but seeing this was still fascinating. Even the guard who hadn’t seemed too interested in us producing water ourselves earlier was now staring at us slack jawed. They were deeply familiar with this sign of course, since they had seen it at their own rituals.

One thing we weren’t clear on at all yet, was how we were supposed to determine a stone’s Calling without using the stone. Since the stone fed into the script that produced the sign, we would be using it up, making the knowledge of what Calling the stone would’ve given relatively pointless.

‘This effect seems harmless, doesn’t it?’ Miles said, while I was still thinking.

“You mean you want to...” I whispered, guessing that he wanted to use the script on ourselves.

‘We’re finally able to use a stone other than a blue one, and unlike black stones, these ones don’t appear dangerous or unpredictable. What do you think?’

“If you think it will be fine, I’ll trust you,” I said and asked the guards for some ink, which one of them promptly brought us, seemingly eager to see what would happen next. I drew the new script on my arm and then activated it with a white stone and a press of my finger. Just like with the water source, a sign appeared, but this time the ball of light was pink. The sign of the Charmer Calling.

While everyone else was focused on the glowing, pink spheres, my head snapped to my arms. I looked at my hands, trying to determine what this feeling just now had been. The mana that had flowed towards my hand had felt different.

‘What’s wrong, Tomar?’ Miles asked, having noticed that something had happened.

“Did you feel that...?”

‘Hm? No, I didn’t feel anything.’

“I think... I could... Maybe...” I stammered, not making much sense. I couldn’t quite explain my suspicion, but I felt like I might be able to control the mana on my own. The stones give the mana a form to take, but what if... In a hurry, I wrote a new script. Pressure-activated, conversion, low volume...

This script shouldn’t do anything. If you execute a script without stone and don’t remove the conversion, nothing happens. However, you could still feel the mana stream through you. While the others looked at me in confusion, I concentrated and then activated the script via pressure. Nothing happened at first, but after a few seconds of searching for the right feeling, a small stream of water shot out of my hand.

Berla, Riala, and I had followed the stream with our eyes and were now staring at the dirt patch where it had landed. No blue stone... I thought. I just used a script without a stone... Is this real...?

Miles seemed to be the only one who wasn’t shocked into silence. ‘How did you do that!?’ he asked.

“I... I could feel it. When I used the white stone, I could feel the difference in how the mana behaved... and by concentrating on the feeling I get when using a blue stone... I could use the script without one...”

Berla and Riala just stared at me, similarly in shock, while the guards seemingly hadn’t quite grasped what had just happened yet.

‘Try another one!’ Miles urged me on.

I modified our defense script and raised my arm to aim at a solid stone wall. Just like before, I concentrated and then activated the script via pressure. A water stream shot out of my hand and crashed into the strong wall. It didn’t do any damage, since there wasn’t a lot of force behind our defense script, but it had worked. Just as it would’ve with a blue stone.

“I’m not dreaming, right? This is really happening?” I asked, still stunned.

“You’re not! That’s amazing, Tomar!” Berla said.

Meanwhile, Riala was desperately looking between the white stones, me, and the guards. It was obvious that she wanted to test this herself as soon as possible, but right now she had to play the normal, little girl.

“Later,” I whispered to her with a wide grin. However, she wasn’t the only one desperate to test this.

‘I want to try that so bad...’ Miles said.

“You can’t feel the mana though, right?”

The way he was now, he apparently couldn’t feel the mana flow through my body. Even right after we had gotten mana, and I was in excruciating pain, he felt almost nothing.

‘No, not like this...’

“You want to try it again?” I asked doubtfully.

‘I feel like I have to,’ he said with a nervous chuckle.

“I don’t mind. Ready?”

‘Go.’

***

Tomar gave full control over to me and I felt fine for the first few seconds. Then the pain started to rise up, however. “Yep, there’s the burning... Better hurry.”

I first took a blue stone and used a simple script to produce a small stream of water. This was the first time I actually used a script in this state and the feeling was uncanny. It was like something was pulled through my veins, to the output location of the script. It felt familiar somehow, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

“Wow, that’s... fascinating,” I said with a grin. It was completely unlike using scripts from the backseat, where it was just me applying theories and formulas. This made it feel way more like something magical was happening. I couldn’t dawdle too long, however, since the pain was still increasing.

“Okay, next one,” I said and took a white stone. I quickly adjusted the ritual sign script and executed it. Just like with the first white stone that Tomar had used, a blue light appeared and scattered over the area. Another Fighter Calling. However, I was entirely focused on the feeling in “my” body, as I understood what Tomar had talked about. The difference between these two stones was marginal, but it made me feel like I could understand what was happening. It somehow gave me an understanding of what the stones were doing. They were a mental component that modulated the mana.

“Ngh, this is getting fucking painful...”

‘Change back?’

“Not yet,” I said. I was still okay, I wouldn’t swap back until I actually tried using a script without a stone. I looked at the pressure-activated script Tomar had written and prepared to press on it. Concentrating on the feeling of a blue stone and the difference to a white stone, I put my finger on the script and a water blast shot out of my hand and into the wall. I was ecstatic for but a moment, when the pain unexpectedly spiked by a considerable amount and became too much to bear. Cramping up, I collapsed to the floor, screaming. Unable to keep myself upright, unable to think, unable to do anything. I only felt pain, until my vision went black and I lost consciousness.

***

“He hasn’t woken up yet?” Mayor Cerus asked one of the guards that had been present when Tomar collapsed. It was evening, and several hours had passed since the incident.

“No, sir,” the guard said. “He appears stable, but hasn’t reacted to any attempts to wake him yet.”

Both of his sisters had immediately been in a panic when the boy fell to the ground, screaming, but the guards didn’t understand what was going on. When he wouldn’t wake up after losing consciousness, they brought him back to the guest room, to rest on a bed.

“He’s alive though. I guess we’ll just have to wait then. So, how was the first day, Pyran?” the mayor asked.

“Sir... I honestly have trouble putting it into words,” the guard responded.

Seeing a human produce water had been an eerie sight for the guard, and seeing them use a water source for different scriptures was surreal. However, the breakage point for him had been seeing a ritual sign without a ritual happening. This was supposed to be something divine, where the gods bestowed a destiny upon you, but this random boy, who had appeared at the mayor’s house in the middle of the night, had pulled the curtain on that. He could modify the scripture in a way that brought on questions about how much the gods were even involved in the entire process. Were they acting through the boy? Or were the rituals less of a ritualistic and more of a scientific process? The guards didn’t know for certain. However, that these things were even up for debate was both fascinating and concerning.

“His claims were correct then...” the mayor mused. “Haha, who would’ve thought?”

“Sir?” the guard asked, unsure what had amused his boss so.

“Don’t mind me, Pyran. The situation just seems absurd. I was ready to kick them out last night and only acted on a whim when I let them stay. What the boy told me sounded outlandish, even though he showed me what his Calling lets him do.”

“Is this really a Calling though, sir? Isn’t it hard to believe that a new Calling would appear after all these hundreds of years? Especially if they might not be assigned by the gods?”

“I couldn’t tell you. Though his story at least sounds plausible. Have you tried writing scripture sigils when you were a child, Pyran?”

“Of course, sir. It never worked. A friend of mine got into a lot of trouble when he painted sigils on his house,” the guard said with a chuckle, reminiscing.

“I was quite obsessed with the idea when I was young,” the mayor explained. “I painted them on anything I could think of, including my own body. Just like for everyone else, nothing ever happened. It’s indisputable that the boy has a unique ability. Calling or not. And we’ll make full use of that. Keep him happy, get him what he needs, and report everything to me. Eventually we’ll—”

“Aren’t you done yet, Cerus?” a voice interrupted him from the kitchen. “I’ve been waiting for ten minutes, the dinner is getting cold!”

The mayor let out a sigh. “We’ll finish this later,” before turning towards the kitchen and shouting “Coming,” leaving a chuckling Pyran behind alone.