Mage Rain
Mage Rain
"Are you awake?"
The familiar voice reached me the moment I stirred from my bedroll. Still only half-risen, I turned and found Rain sitting nearby, watching me in her blue robe.
Morning had arrived while I slept; bright light spilled in from beyond the cave mouth. I bowed my head to her at once. Feeling mana for the first time, setting foot in the study of magic itself—all of it had been thanks to her alone.
Rain answered my gratitude with an awkward smile. She kept glancing at me sideways, clearly bursting with questions she wanted to ask. I tossed another log onto the still-burning campfire and spoke.
"Is there something you're curious about?"
Her eyes lit up and she nodded eagerly. Then came the question.
"That thing you did—how?"
She meant the magic, of course. The vision I had shown her: a river of countless glittering stars flowing endlessly.
"I simply showed you the magic I had imagined."
"That..."
I nodded and closed my eyes. The inner world Rain had helped me form still held that river of stars. Close enough to touch if I reached out, yet impossibly distant at the same time.
"Tell me something. Did you already know about mana and magic?"
I saw no reason to deny it. Even if it was not the magic of this world, what I had shown and used was still magic. The world I had built within myself was boundless and unshakably solid.
"Where in the world did you learn something like that..."
I told Rain what I knew of magic, even sketching diagrams on hard stone as I explained. She kept the same baffled expression the entire time. I had never expected her to understand. Rain already handled mana and was building her own knowledge of the craft. Just as the world I created by sensing mana existed, she would have a magical world of her own.
"Who is your master?"
That one I could not answer. Who was my master, really? Sometimes the figure took the shape of an old wizard who wielded the light that illuminated the world and defended his realm against vast cosmic beings. Sometimes it was a young woman—a daughter of the sea who had lost her parents to invaders from another dimension. The ones I could call master wore so many faces.
Would she believe me even if I told her? I could hardly say I had lived in another world and that the magic I knew was born of imagination. So the best answer I could give was this:
"Someone who isn't of this world."
"Ah..."
Rain trailed off, sounding disappointed. Silence settled after that. Only the thin whistle of cold wind and the crackle of the dying fire filled the cave. I stared blankly at my pack for a moment, then rummaged through it and pulled out dried jerky and fruit.
"Let's eat."
Rain watched me the entire meal, her gaze so intense and heavy I could only manage a clumsy smile and look away. Part of me wanted to dive deeper into the study of magic, but the commission was not finished. Together we left the cave.
The chilled air slipped in and out of my lungs and made me hunch my shoulders. At the same time I realized something: even the air I breathed carried a faint trace of mana. I did not reject it. I accepted it. The cold spread through my whole body, yet the tension in my muscles melted away instead. They loosened, and my body temperature settled at a comfortable level.
"Haa..."
What enters easily leaves just as easily. I exhaled and watched the mana slip away with a touch of regret. I tried to seize the faint mana mixed into the air with the faint mana I could move, but the effort was pointless. It escaped in an instant no matter what I did. Still, the power mana held was remarkable. A small smile touched my lips at the vitality flooding every part of me. The mild cold that had been settling in vanished at once, and the muscle ache in my legs disappeared. If I had had more time, I would have researched a sure way to hold onto the mana that entered my body.
The exploration we had paused the day before resumed. Rain climbed the mountain with me, tossing out questions now and then.
"Ceris."
"Yes?"
"Were you a noble, by any chance?"
"No."
Sometimes carefully, sometimes boldly, Rain closed the distance of her questions in a heartbeat. She seemed endlessly curious; I would have been far more comfortable if she had stuck to magic. She wanted to know a great deal about my family circumstances.
The deeper we pushed into the mountains, the farther we went from paths any person had walked, the more often monsters appeared. Rain and I ran into them as if it were only natural.
Three green-skinned goblins. They were carrying a large deer between them, and the moment they spotted us they bared open hostility. I slipped off my pack and drew my sword without a second thought. I had already fought and beaten goblins before, so I felt no real sense of danger. Besides, I was not alone this time—I had a reliable mage for support.
"Rain, backup please."
Even my voice came out astonishingly calm.
"Just buy me some time."
The instant her answer ended, the goblins charged. Sharp-edged stones filled their hands.
"Kyaaaak!"
The first goblin screamed and lunged straight at me. The second and third followed at once, one from the left and one from the right. Pulling back would have been the correct choice. If I kept them at bay and stalled for time, Rain's magic would cut them down. Yet a strange confidence welled up inside me. My arms and legs felt lighter than before. The thought struck me: what if I wove magic into the swordsmanship I was about to use?
I already knew it was possible. The moment the idea formed, my body moved. My leg stretched far forward and the sword rose high overhead. The instant I poured strength into both hands on the hilt, glittering starlight raced up from the region of my heart. The starlight climbed my arms, coiled around the blade, and produced a phenomenon.
Flash—!
What faintly revealed itself was a great moon. Encircled by countless stars, the moon cleaved the goblin that stood in its path clean in two. The moon's motion did not end there. The light that fell to the ground spun once, still wrapped in its stars. The instant red blood sprayed and stained the pure white snow, my body began to turn. The axis of my planted leg shifted and my waist rotated. That rotation, woven together with the myriad stars, prepared the next strike. Because I had transformed the downward cut mid-motion, my hands holding the sword were drawn back. In that moment fresh starlight raced from my heart.
A straight line.
The instant the sword that had been pulled back thrust forward, starlight mixed with moonlight shot up the blade toward the sky. The moment I confirmed the tip of the sword splitting a goblin's skull, a black shadow plunged down on my right.
Crunch!
The shadow was a spear of stone—hard rock shaped into a spear that had pierced straight through a goblin's body.
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Ah—no..."
I nodded at Rain's question and checked myself. My breathing was steady. I was more than ready to keep fighting. Rain's gaze, though, was anything but ordinary. Her eyes sparkled and her lips worked as if she had far more to say. I wiped the blood from my sword on the snow and spoke.
"Something you're curious about...?"
"Yes!"
Thoroughly excited, Rain fired off question after question. What exactly was the starlight that had risen from the sword? Did I even possess an artifact?
"I simply put magic into the sword."
"You put magic into it...? Is that sword made of magic stone, by any chance?"
I shook my head. It was an ordinary iron sword. I owned nothing like a magic stone. Rain still eyed me with suspicion even after my answer. In the end I handed her the iron sword I held. The magic I had used was nothing grand. I had merely honed mana to a sharp edge—much the same method Rain used when she shaped wind with mana. She could do it too, even without any magic stone.
After examining the sword for a long while, Rain finally returned it to me.
"Ceris."
"Yes?"
"When this commission is over... would you come to the Magic Tower with me? No—you absolutely have to go to the Magic Tower."
"The Magic Tower?"
"Yes."
"You mean become a mage?"
"Exactly!"
Rain launched into an explanation of all the benefits that came with being a mage of the Tower: a generous monthly stipend, access to the great library that held every kind of magic tome, a master who would teach magic, and even the rank of honorary noble. But enjoying all those privileges required certain conditions. She kept going. Free outside activity was limited to a single day each month, and any mission issued by the Tower had to take absolute priority. Of course, she added, you could leave the Tower while carrying out those missions.
"And last of all, you must never take the Tower's internal knowledge outside. Well? Doesn't that sound wonderful?"
"No."
"Why not?"
I refused her offer without a moment's hesitation. Entering the Magic Tower and becoming a mage would mean a life free of money worries forever. For an ordinary village girl it would have been a dream come true. But I was the one who had run away from home because I hated a forced marriage. I still wanted to see this world. I wanted to wander freely, unbound, and look upon new sights with my own two eyes. Wasn't that why I had chosen the life of an adventurer in the first place?
"It wouldn't be free."
"B-but..."
"I like things the way they are now."
"Mmm..."
Rain clearly could not let go of her desire to drag me off to the Tower. She kept making the same proposal the entire time we explored the Karum Mountains—right up to the very last moment of the commission.
"You're really not coming?"
"No."
"You'll regret it!"
"Maybe."
"Haa..."
Rain handed over the promised payment and walked away looking thoroughly deflated.