Chapter 1
–A New Home–
A faint smell of herbs and wood drifted to me as consciousness gradually returned.
I could hear the sounds of birds and insects in the distance and the page of a book turn nearby.
"Ah, could it be that you are waking up?" A youthful female voice gently called out in a way that was almost motherly in tone.
Looks like I survived.
I didn't feel any pain anywhere, but my body was heavy with fatigue to the point that even trying to move was exceedingly difficult. And for the first time since I had awoken in The World of the Fae, I felt hungry and thirsty. I focused my concentration, slowly opening my eyes.
"Oooh, what an interesting eye color. Ah, pardon me. My name is Reina. This is mine and my husband Kyle's home. We live here with our two children, Jake and Alisha. Do you remember your name?"
I was dressed in a loose linen nightshirt and was lying on a bed in a sun-lit, windowed bedroom of a building that appeared to be something akin to a log cabin. The sheet and blanket that covered my body slightly past the waist and the bedding I was laying on, all were comfortable and of good quality.
Sitting next to me in a wooden chair was a young woman with ornately-braided, waist-long chestnut hair. In considerable contrast with the rustic surroundings within the building, she was wearing refined, embroidered clothing that comprised a fancy white neck-ruff adorned shirt covered by a prim, pocketed, navy-blue vest, and below that, a pleated, ankle-length blue skirt. A pair of under-wire spectacles were lightly perched on her delicate nose and their blue gemstone-beaded cord draped down from behind her neck.
Taken all together, she gave off an impression of an educated person more interested in books and theory than people and reality, though the warmth of her expression and concern for my condition seemed genuine enough.
While I was taking stock of my surroundings, the young woman secured her spectacles to her vest pocket in a single practiced motion and set aside her leather-bound book before carefully helping me into a sitting position and considerately placing a pillow behind my back. Once she was satisfied that I was comfortable, she sat back and patiently waited for me to speak.
I closed my eyes and tried to recall any memories from my past. The memories that came to me weren't mine, but instead they were the demon-looking boy's memories.
Ah, that's unfortunate.
That I recognized the memories as the boy's and not my own meant that my will had completely supplanted the boy's.
Well, the Queen of the Fae—that's what I've decided to call her—did say that the boy had given up the will to live, so I suppose it couldn't be helped. What's done, is done.
As I looked back through the memories, it became clear to me that the woman who died carrying the boy out of the village was his mother, and after having come to understand the difficulties they had been through, the desire to honor the efforts of the mother who tried so hard for this boy's sake grew within me. I decided that I would carry on the name she had given him.
"My name-" I started to speak, but my mouth was dry and the sound that came out was raspy.
"Oh, wait a second, I forgot." The young woman, Reina, retrieved a tall wooden cup and brought it up to my mouth. "I made an easy to swallow soup to help restore your energy. The soup is cold now, but it should help. Here, drink up."
With Reina's help I managed to swallow a few mouthfuls of what seemed to be a broth containing finely cut noodles, bird meat, and herbs. I felt my hunger and thirst recede as something reinvigorating spread within my body, and somehow I felt as if I had regained a small amount of energy.
After placing the cup back onto the side table, Reina pulled out a cloth and considerately wiped off the small amount of soup that had dibbled down my chin.
"My name is Raithe. Can you tell me how I ended up here in your care?"
"My, aren't you well-spoken for your age, Raithe. Hmm… let's see, how should I start? You are aware that there was a raid on your village by demons, right?"
I nodded. Raithe had memories of the sudden and brutal assault. He had been on his way home when the demons poured into the village and he was struck and left for dead. Raithe lost consciousness before the point where his mother escaped the village with him, so he didn't know how she managed to escape to those foothills outside the village.
"After the Adventurer's Guild in our village was alerted to the situation, I volunteered to go and assist your village, but unfortunately I was too late. I found you unconscious by the side of the mountain road leading out of the village." Reina paused for a moment, perhaps deciding how to ask something difficult before continuing, "The woman with you… was she your mother?"
I nodded. The real Raithe would've had no way of knowing that, but there was no need to complicate things. And knowing what had happened, I also had a good idea the direction this conversation was going.
"I'm sorry Raithe, but your mother, even though she fought so hard to save you, she didn't survive."
I looked down briefly then met Reina's gaze with my own, and again I simply nodded. I was worried about the impression I would give in this situation. Clearly any child would be distraught upon losing their only known parent, and yet Raithe's mother was not my mother, so while I was impressed with her courage and love for her child, I was not struck by grief at her passing, and I didn't feel it would honor her memory to attempt to act the part of a distraught grieving child.
"You're a rather stoic one, aren't you, Raithe?" As I expected, Reina seemed surprised at my reaction, or rather, my lack of one.
"Mom always fought hard for me, and I'm proud of how, as a normal villager, she fought against as fierce an enemy as those demons to save even a half-breed like me." I kept my gaze steady, and Reina was the first to lower her eyes.
Reina looked wistful, as she muttered, "So it is like that, huh? No, maybe it is better that way. I am sure little Raithe has always had a tough time of it, considering… by the way Raithe, how old are you now?"
"I'm nine years old, Miss Reina."
Or at least Raithe was nine years old. I doubted that such was the case for me. Judging by how Reina looked young to me, I guessed that in my previous life I was likely older than her. I also couldn’t help the nagging feeling that I was human before awakening as a spirit being of the Mists.
Maybe Raithe's body was not the first that I had commandeered. Perhaps I took over that dying Fae-being that the Queen mentioned. Certainly, that felt more likely than having been an immortal faerie or whatnot. Though, constantly consuming others' souls probably didn’t reflect well on the nature of my character.
Reina asked for my birthdate and wrote it down in a journal pulled out from a pocket inside her embroidered outer vest. She then tapped her writing quill against the top of the pocket journal twice before putting it away and continuing to speak.
"Ehem, sorry about that, it seems I got a little side-tracked away from answering why you are here in my care. You see, since your family were likely all… well, as we discussed… and your village was destroyed, I decided to bring you back here to Lostwood with me. Our village is a bit special, and probably the safest option considering your rather unique… background. Don't worry about the details. I'll explain about our village later when you are feeling better.
"So, after bringing you back here, I discussed the matter with the governing lord and the others of the village council and they felt—with me being a mage and with Kyle and I being adventurers—that my family should be the one to take care of you. It is definitely not because I was the one who brought you here and that no one else wanted to take care of you. Yeah, so, anyway, you will be a member of our family from now on…"
I just stared at her with my mouth open…
What the hell is with that way of saying, 'by the way, I'm your new mom'? Wait, isn't her face a bit red? And she even tapped her quill twice when she wrote my birthday down… she's already totally excited about this! Will I really be okay with this person?
Well, at least from what Raithe experienced growing up, she was right that giving me to an orphanage would probably end rather poorly for me, considering my background. So, I thought the current situation was realistically the best I could have hoped for…
Gah, I'm probably going to have to put up with the whole doting, loving family thing. Anyway, best not to leave her hanging after such a declaration, so I'd better say something.
"Uhm…thank you for saving me, Miss Reina. I'll try my best to get well soon."
"Ah, if it is about that, I think I can do something." Reina seemed to have recovered from her embarrassment, but a new kind of intensity was gleaming in her eyes. “You see, I have already healed your wounds and little Raithe's recovery ability is pretty amazing by itself, so the likely reason you still feel fatigued is because all of your mana—the magic flowing inside your body—has been used up, right?"
I tilted my head to the side a bit.
Magic? Mana?
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Well, setting aside that talking about such things as if they were real made me feel a little silly, when I was in my faerie-form before, I remember seeing something akin to the life-force of other beings. I wondered if that was mana. But now, when I looked with Raithe's eyes, I only saw the mundane world in all of its comfortingly usual mundaneness—no glowy lights, or blurry indistinct impressions at all.
"Raithe, could it be that you've never used magic before?"
"Umm, not that I remember?"
"Eheheh, if that's all it is, how about I teach you a bit?" Reina let out a slightly creepy laugh, and I was beginning to worry.
"Umm, Miss Reina, if I've used up all my mana, wouldn't it be dangerous if I tried to use magic right now?"
"Of course that would be true if you were to use magic to cast a spell of some kind, but what I am going to teach you is how to absorb mana from the air itself,” Reina said and a mischievous smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she continued, "It is even said that the ancient hermit monks that mastered this technique were able to live solely by eating air.”
That's got to be an exaggeration… though, being able to easily restore my mana did sound like a useful skill. Even exhausted as I was, I decided to give it a go.
"Ok… so what do I need to do?"
"That's easy. Just hold up your hands in front of you like this with your palms facing mine… wait, you are probably still too tired to move your arms… hmm… how about we do it this way…," Reina said as she turned my palms to face upward and placed her palms gently pressing against mine. "Now I want you to close your eyes and concentrate. See if you can feel the mana flowing from my palm through yours, through your body, and back out your other palm."
I closed my eyes and tried to see if I felt anything unusual or different.
At first I wasn't sure, and then I felt it. There was a slight feeling of warmth. The feeling was really faint, but I was fairly certain that I could feel something.
I controlled my breathing and focused on the point where the warmth passed through my palms to see if I could detect the flow, now that I had an idea of what I was looking for.
Sure enough, it was there.
I carefully followed the thin flow as it passed through my body, noticing that there were definite channels within my body that the flow passed along before returning to Reina. As I opened my eyes and looked at Reina, she surmised that I probably had succeeded, and continued her instruction.
"So, are you able to discern the flow of magic within your body now?"
I nodded. That was easier than I expected, and even though it was clear that I still had much to learn about mana within the body, I think I was able to grasp the basics of detecting it.
"Okay next, I want you to carefully center your mind and clear it of all thoughts. After that, try to find flows like the one inside your body, but outside your body instead. Once you are able to detect the mana flows in the air, let me know."
I closed my eyes again and cleared my mind.
First, I'll try sensing the air and the air currents.
Starting with the faint tactile feeling of the air moving across my skin, I tried to discern the properties of the air that was in contact with my body. My concentration deepened, and I discovered that the movements were more chaotic and complex than I anticipated. Even what I had expected to be a simple breeze across my skin was made up of a multitude of eddies and miniature flows without a coherent uniform direction—as if even while carried along by the current, it still pooled and diverged as the space around the current changed.
Having grasped a hint of the basic nature of Wind, I tried to extend my awareness of the currents within the room. I traced the currents outward from my body and came to understand that they originated with the passing breeze brought into the room through the open window.
But, was there something like the flow of warmth that marked Reina's mana…? No, the warmth wasn't there, instead… it felt somewhat cold…
Ah, I get it. Mana can have different qualities.
Searching for that sense of cold, I began to notice it diffusely pooling in the eddies, as well as a sense of something else…
Green…? Flowers? Nature?
It was faint, but there was also the feel of Nature flowing in along the air from outside the window.
Hmm… I wonder.
Seeking out into the walls made of solid logs, I expected a faint sense of Nature, but it was different. The closer toward the ground, the more I sensed a sturdiness and strength seeping up from the ground below.
Interesting.
I opened my eyes and said, "I can sense it, but what I felt from you was warm, and what I see in the air is mostly cold. There were other impressions as well, but is the difference important?"
Reina gave a surprised expression as she realized the implications of what I was asking. The surprised expression was soon followed by a grin of amazement, "That's amazing, Raithe! To already notice the elemental properties of mana is incredible!"
"Really?"
"Yes, really! You've got a real talent for magic. It's going to be a lot of fun teaching you what I know."
"Uhm…Miss Reina, so about elemental properties?" I prompted.
"Hahaha, right, right. Well, as you noticed all mana has an elemental property. The six primary elements are Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, Light, and Shadow. There are also special elements related to faerie and Elven magic: Lunar and Nature. For right now, what you need to know is that gathering and circulating a particular elemental mana throughout your body will acclimate your mana-pathways to that element and increase your affinity. Of course, an expert of meditation and mana-pathway cultivation can draw in various different kinds of mana directly from his environment, but I'm going to start you off with the Wind element found in the air because it's the easiest to start with."
Reina waited for me to nod my comprehension before continuing, "An important word that I want you to keep on your mind is: gentle. One reason for this is because drawing mana too quickly or violently from your surroundings can damage the environment. It is particularly dangerous for small creatures and plants, which can have their life force drawn out. Soil overly depleted of its mana can become barren and unable to grow crops or support life in general. The main reason which matters to you, though, is that your mana-pathways are still immature and can be damaged if you try to move mana through them too aggressively."
After a deep breath, she signaled a change of gears with a light clap of her hands, "With all of that out of the way—and considering that this discussion is probably using up what little energy you have left—let us move on to the details of the actual technique.
“Like I said before, we're going to focus on Wind-mana present in the air. The method for this technique is to gently draw the Wind-mana though your nose and mouth and then into your lungs, just like drawing in a deep breath. You then hold the breath and absorb the mana into your body through your lungs. As you release the spent air in your lungs, you press the absorbed mana down into your core and then gently distribute the mana throughout your body before returning it to your core. Slowly repeat this process until you feel resistance from your core when you try to store the mana.
“If you begin to feel pain or resistance in your mana-pathways, make sure to back off immediately. This meditation style is the basic-level technique for Wind element mana-pathway cultivation. Among other subtle beneficial changes to your body, it will increase your affinity with the Wind element, making it easier to use Wind-based magic, and—in addition to restoring your depleted mana—it will also increase your overall mana pool."
I wasn’t sure Wind element fit my image of a half-demon boy, but the technique sounded simple enough. At Reina's signal encouraging me to attempt the technique, I closed my eyes and centered myself like before.
Once I was able to feel the Wind-mana in the air, I gently drew it closer and breathed it in. While holding that breath, I gently drew the Wind-mana into my body.
Gently. Gently.
Now push it down into my core as I breath out—.
"Crap. I messed up."
Instead of going down into my core, most of the mana I'd carefully gathered got expelled out with my breath.
"Hmm, it's good to see that you're not a complete prodigy at magic," Reina said with a slight smirk. "The breathing out is the tricky part. Since breathing out is an act of expelling something from the body, if you're not careful, the mana will go right back out with your breath. While this training is easier because it makes use of the normal process of breathing to draw in the mana, another part of this training is to help you learn to control the flow of mana apart from the breathing process when you breathe out. See, it is really well thought out, isn't it?"
She laughed lightly and resumed reading her book as she watched over me.
I gave the meditation technique another try, focusing more on absorbing the mana this time. I also made sure to begin storing the mana in my core before exhaling.
Breathe in. Absorb. Store. Breath out.
It went much better this time and I only lost about half of the mana when breathing out. Now that I had some mana in my core, I proceeded to distribute it around my body and then back to my core.
Gently. Gently.
It was tricky work, but almost immediately I could feel the fatigue ease and strength began to return to my limbs.
I continued to practice for about an hour or so, and while it still took a substantial amount of concentration, I'd finally reached a point where I could handle overlapping the processes of storing and circulating without interrupting the breathing in and out.
My physical fatigue had substantially improved, and I could now move somewhat normally. My mental fatigue on the other hand was starting to pile up from the continuous need to maintain a level of concentration that I wasn't accustomed to.
"Looks like you've managed to learn the technique fairly well. For beginners the process can be mentally taxing, but it looks like you've been able to adequately restore enough mana to your body that you should be fine by tomorrow. As we get further into your magic training, I think remembering this situation should help remind you of the dangers of using up too much of your mana. You could end up collapsing or unable to move when you are in a dangerous situation, and if you really overdo it, you could even die. So always make sure to leave yourself a bit of margin."
Reina stood up and stretched, "It's about time for the others to come home, so I need to start preparing dinner. You should finish up the soup I made for you and get some rest."
After Reina left and closed the room's handmade wooden door, I realized just how mentally exhausted I was. It was all I could manage just to gulp down the remaining soup and scrunch back down into the covers before falling asleep.
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