The First Mage

Lilana was the last one to wake up in the morning, while I was sitting alone at the burned out campfire. I was waiting for her, since I didn’t want to risk her falling when she suddenly got control.

“Wah! Why am I...!?” Lilana said, momentarily disoriented by finding herself sitting upright.

‘Heh, good morning,’ I said. ‘It’s weird to wake up like this, isn’t it?’

“Oh... Morning...”

‘Everything okay?’

“Yeah... I almost thought everything that happened was just a dream until I heard your voice. I’m not sure how I feel about it being real.”

‘I’m sure you will be happy about it eventually. Assuming everything goes to plan.’

“Hm...”

Lilana was looking around the modest camp when she noticed Berla giving her a warm smile. “Why is she looking at me like that...?”

‘Who knows. Anyway, are you ready for today?’

“I guess. Though it’s not like I’ll be doing anything.”

This morning we would try to approach the guards and workers at their camp. Initially, I would go alone, with Reurig waiting in the nearby forest to provide backup if necessary.

It seemed like nobody here knew about him having killed another agent and deserting yet, and as long as none of his colleagues saw him, who knew that he was supposed to be hunting the criminals in Cerus, it wouldn’t be too much of an issue if he came across people. However, my story would work better if I was alone for the time being, so he would hide for now.

Tomar noticed that Lilana had apparently woken up and came over. “Good morning,” he said. “Did you sleep well?”

“I guess,” she responded.

“I know how you feel. When I woke up out here in the woods for the first time, Miles was doodling on my arm, while Riala was cheering him on,” Tomar said with a chuckle. “Felt like I had missed something. Compared to that, waking up just sitting around is way less weird.”

“Hm. Yes, that would’ve been strange.”

I didn’t know whether he realized how wary Lilana was of him, but doing smalltalk seemed to help at least a little bit. Her responses were always curt, but last night she had actively avoided his gaze, while she was looking him in the eyes now.

After they had talked for a few moments, I interjected during a pause in the conversation. ‘We should probably get ready.’

“Right. Miles says we should get ready,” Lilana said and stood up, preparing to head into the woods for a couple of minutes.

“Alright,” Tomar said and went back to reading a book that Reurig had brought with him on one of his trips to Alarna.

Lilana had already mentioned that she’d rather take care of her morning routine herself, instead of letting me do it again, so I just “sat back” and waited. Nothing unusual happened at first, until she was done doing her business, stood back up, and took a piece of chalk from her pocket. She briefly browsed the trees around us and walked up to the one that would be easiest to script on. I observed her in silence as she drew a nearly perfect water source script. She then searched her left pocket for something, but she came up empty and sighed in frustration. That’s when it seemed to finally hit her that she was doing something unusual, as she suddenly furrowed her brows and looked at the script she had written in confusion.

“Huh...?”

‘Huh indeed.’

“What— Did I draw that just now!?”

‘You did... Gotta admit, that was unexpected.’

Right pocket chalk, left pocket blue stones. That’s where Tomar and I always stored these items... I thought. Neither of us had used a tree in a while, not only because we could produce water ourselves and didn’t need blue stones for it, we also wanted to use some mana every day. For Lilana, however, that wasn’t an option. She didn’t have anything but chalk on her, and she couldn’t produce water without stones on her own yet. If she wanted to get water in this situation right here, getting it from a tree would be a decent option, assuming she had stones. And if she had been Tomar, there probably would’ve been two or three blue stones in that pocket, just in case, but the only blue stone we had gotten in Alarna was the one from Oryn, and I had moved it to our bag, because these stones had always been annoying me in my pocket.

“I... drew scripture sigils...” she said in a daze.

‘Do you know what they say?’

“Huh!? Of course not! Why would I!?” she said, shaking herself out of her confusion. “What I want to know is why I drew them!”

‘Right...’

This was way sooner than expected, and more advanced as well. Tomar had been able to read scripts on the third day, but he had absolutely no idea what any of it meant. This suggested that he had gotten knowledge of earth’s version of Omega from me. It was the third day for Lilana as well, but she couldn’t read the scripts yet. Instead, she had written the water source script effortlessly and had acted with absolute conviction that the items she would need could be found where Tomar usually kept them.

What confused me about this development was that it seemed to go beyond general knowledge. Maybe my prolonged research and development of scripts had imparted knowledge about this one script to her before she could even understand it, to a degree where she could just write it, but instinctive knowledge about where someone would keep specific items didn’t seem like something you should get from a Calling. Unless... it’s muscle memory...? That’s what Fighters get, and we had certainly relied on those water stones to be there during some precarious situations.

‘I honestly didn’t know this was going to happen, I expected something else.’

“What are you talking about!?”

She can be so loud. Good thing I’m in the backseat right now, I thought joyfully.

‘Well, on the third day with Tomar, while researching the water source, he was suddenly able to understand the sigils, just like I am. I might not be a traditional Calling, but the theory is that you still get knowledge from me.’

“These are working scripture sigils then...?” she said, unbelieving.

‘Yup. It’s a modified water source script that we created to get water from trees. It would work if you had a blue stone.’

“Are you serious...? Trees can give water? But why would the gods allow that? Don’t trees also give birth to beasts!?”

I was constantly surprised by Lilana’s believer mindset. She explained that producing water was an ability given by the gods, and it would only work when they allow it. Trees meanwhile might’ve been fascinating to her, but many believed that they were producing the beasts, so the gods obviously wouldn’t allow for these cursed plants to also produce water, a gift from the gods.

I have to say, these people make up a lot of rules on their own, even though “gods” actually exist. You would think that they could just ask them, instead of believing in whatever seems to make sense to humans.

‘I highly doubt that trees actually create beasts, though I have some alternative theories.’

“Ugh, I can’t hear the word theory anymore! And why didn’t you tell me that I would get knowledge from you!?”

‘I honestly thought it would’ve been a nice surprise for you if you were suddenly able to understand the sigils. But maybe that will come later.’

My time with Tomar had apparently already been enough to change what kind of knowledge I had to give, but I thought that understanding Omega would have to be a baseline. After all, what good is knowing scripts if you don’t understand them? Though I guess characters in games and movies don’t typically understand the magic circles they use either.

“You didn’t hold that back for any other reason?”

Now that’s a tricky question, I thought. I had really expected that, if anything, she would get knowledge about Omega, just like Tomar. And she was clearly interested in the scripts, even if it was because she saw it as “the language of the gods,” so it would have been a nice surprise in my mind. No nefarious intentions there. However, as I had come to realize, there was a lot more to this. Unfortunately I didn’t have all the answers. It was possible that me being with Lilana would change her, just like it had Tomar, and that would presumably terrify her.

Then again... what she got from me so far had not been the same information as with Tomar. She got updated knowledge. Is it random...? Actually, why are the things the people here get from the ritual as hand tailored to their world as they are...?

There had to be a method to the madness. Where did these presumed souls or bundles of information and abilities even come from? And how was it accumulated? Assuming that you would need to live a full life as an accountant to become an accountant Calling, were these souls coming from other worlds, like I had? That might be the case, but if a soul from earth landed here and became a System Architect Calling, that would be practically useless. Unless that person had other abilities that could be used here somehow.

If it was just about the job, I would certainly fall into the “useless” category. You don’t need a programmer in a world without computers. But Tomar had immediately pulled the most important information for himself from me, the knowledge about Omega. Lilana meanwhile got a specific script that would’ve been useful to her at the moment. It was possible that the people would simply get the knowledge and the abilities that were actually useful to them. Though it did seem like the categories were predetermined, seeing how the Calling signs were pulled from the white stones. Is it an automated process to turn any soul into a Calling that fits one of these categories...? Or is something or someone selecting souls and assigning them to these Callings?

“Well!?”

Righ. Focus, Miles.

The reason I hadn’t told her about my theories regarding what would happen to her while I was with her was mainly that I didn’t want to worry her for no reason. The plan had been to leave her mind before anything bad happened after all. I actually thought back, but I didn’t have any ulterior motives for holding back this information.

‘I honestly didn’t have any other reason. It was bound to happen, and I didn’t think you would mind. At least not if the knowledge had been what I expected it to be.’

“... he said after thinking it over...” she said with a sigh.

Lilana didn’t dig any further and instead stared at her first script. For all the talk about blasphemy the other day, she did seem curious.

“Actually understanding it would be amazing...” she said.

‘Maybe that knowledge will come later. Give it some time.’

“Hm, okay.”

Although, if she isn’t driven by the need to research Omega, will she actually get that specific knowledge?

‘How about we finish up here and go back?’

“Promise that you’re not manipulating me.”

‘I promise.’

“Fine then. I’ll let you take over,” she said and gave control back to me.

At least I’m ninety nine percent sure I’m not manipulating you. What is it called if you’re not sure whether you’re lying or not?