ã€ŠChosen of the Phoenixã€‹


 Prologue

    Sen wakes gasping for air. Fading images of pain and fear bite at the back of his mind. He looks around, memories of his dream fading far faster than the sheer terror. He pulls his feet off the bed, burying his face in his hands, sweat pouring across his body. He reaches for a glass of water on the nearby table.

    He tries to drink as a knock sounds on the door. ¡°Anelica,¡± he says, surprised, as he opens the door. She¡¯s still dressed in her bedclothes. A streak of terror runs through her, putting him on guard. ¡°Is everything alright?¡±

    ¡°I had a¡ª I had a nightmare,¡± she said. She looked around, almost jumping at the dark hall in the early morning. ¡°I just needed to.. I don¡¯t know. Talk to someone.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± he said in reply. ¡°I just had a nightmare as well. I don¡¯t remember it, but it was¡­ I¡¯ve never been more afraid.¡± His hands still shake in memory of the terror that gripped him as he woke. His little sister¡¯s hand shakes visibly in front of him, and he grabs it.

    ¡°Come on. I¡¯ll make us some breakfast. It was just a dream.¡±

    ¡°Ok,¡± she says, following along after him, still shivering. Deep breaths follow him louder than footfalls on the creaky wooden floors.

    They enter into the kitchen to see Amery, shoulders hunched and arms posted into the table as she stares out the window, looking at the morning sun peeking over the horizon in slight purple and pink hues. She turns to them, a look of surprise on her face.

    ¡°You two didn¡¯t happen to have a nightmare, did you?¡± Her question surprises Sen, and Anelica sheepishly nods, pulling her hand away from Sen¡¯s and wrapping them around herself. ¡°I did, too,¡± she says, looking back to the horizon.

    ¡°Surely, that¡¯s just a - coincidence, right?¡± Sen¡¯s voice stutters as he considers the chance of all three of them waking to a nightmare at the same time.

    Amery looks at him, eyes dark. ¡°I fear something is wrong. I¡¯ll look into it.¡±

    She looks toward Anelica. Her eyes go wide, and she beckons the girl to her. ¡°Oh, my dear, come here,¡± and pulls her into a hug. Amery holds her for a while until Anelica finally seems back to her normal self.

    Sen busies himself making breakfast for the three of them. He finds some small comfort in working back toward his normal routine. It is a nice distraction from the terror that still whispers at the back of his mind like a raw sore, from the fear that something is coming, that something hungers and desires and consumes and will rage and all that is known will be torn asunder and flames will burn existence to ash and night will reign like a cleansing purity and¡ª

    ***

    Sen wakes in his bed, the morning light streaming through a window. Anelica sits in one of his chairs, watching him. She has a page of notes and a book open on her lap, but both of them are lost to her as she watches the sky outside, fear obvious in her gaze.

    He sits up and she turns to him. Relief washes over her face. ¡°Are you alright,¡± she stutters. His sister is normally much more composed than this, though he understands why. The sun had barely risen, and already today seemed a portent of disaster.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± he said. ¡°What happened? I remember - thoughts, or whispers in my head, and then¡­¡± He trailed off, unsure what else to say. Were they like whispers? Or were they his own thoughts? It had happened so fast.

    ¡°You fainted.¡± Tears beaded at the edges of her eyes. ¡°One moment you were fine, and the next you were on the floor. Amery looked you over and didn¡¯t find anything.¡±

    He reached out and grabbed her hand, swinging his legs off the bed for the second time that morning. His hands felt cold, but her felt downright frosty. ¡°You¡¯re freezing,¡± he said, concern coloring his tone.

    ¡°What is going on,¡± she whispered, tears finally running free.

    Sen pulled her close. ¡°Hey, hey,¡± he whispered to her. ¡°It¡¯s going to be alright. I promise.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t know that,¡± she sniffled in response.

    ¡°I can. I¡¯m the big brother. I get to know.¡±

    She snorted at that, tightening her grip before pulling away. She looked him in the eye. ¡°Okay. I¡¯m okay. You¡¯re okay. Amery¡¯s okay. We¡¯ll be okay. Okay?¡± She looked to him as if for confirmation.

    ¡°We¡¯re all okay,¡± he smiled back.

    The sound of a door shutting reaches them, and the two of them leave for the living room. Amery looks relieved as she sees Sen. ¡°I¡¯m alright,¡± he preempts.

    She breathes in a sigh of relief, one hand touching her chest in supplication. ¡°I¡¯m glad.¡±

    ¡°Any luck?¡± Anelica asks.

    ¡°I have - news,¡± Amery says darkly. ¡°Whatever these dreams, these nightmares, were, everyone in the village had them.¡±

    Anelica gasps at that. Sen stares.

    ¡°Worse,¡± she continues. ¡°Naya saw a stampede of monsters running toward the village. We have to intercept.¡±

    Sen cursed, moving back toward his room to gather supplies. He met them back in the living room, carrying his pack. Anelica had hers as well, face clenched. Problematic though it may be, a tangible problem like monsters were manageable. The focus seemed to help her.

    Amery stood outside, staff in hand as he and Anelica stepped into the still cool morning. A light breeze and the delicate gasp of the leaves as wind danced between their branches belied the horror of the morning so far. Amery looked him. ¡°You¡¯re sure you¡¯re alright? I don¡¯t have to tell you how disastrous another episode could be,¡± she warned him.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine. Whatever happened, there were no signs, anyway,¡± he said. ¡°It would be gambling and I¡¯m more valuable helping than not.¡±

    Reluctantly, she nodded. She dropped her staff, and with a pulse of mana, it began to erupt with branches. They squirmed like arms, and eventually pushed themselves up. The staff itself expanded until wide enough to fit the three of them comfortably, and each of them stepped on. A pair of handrails bookended each side, and both Sen and Anelica held on as the arms began to motion as though swimming.

    The platform they stood on began to rise into the air, gaining speed. In only a few minutes, the house disappeared into the distance. The village loomed larger and larger with each passing moment. Sen looked around, wondering if the monsters Naya had foreseen were visible yet. He saw nothing.

    ¡°Do you see anything,¡± he asked Anelica. She shook her head, eyes roaming across the landscape.

    Amery spoke up. ¡°There,¡± she pointed. In the distance, a number of trees began to fall, dust kicking up high into the air. More trees began to fall, a path of destruction slowly working its way toward the village.

    ¡°Are they coming directly toward the village, or are they running from something?¡± If everyone in the village had those strange nightmares, perhaps other intelligent, dangerous creatures had as well. He didn¡¯t want to think what those sorts of beasts might do in reaction, but something like this might well be the result.

    ¡°Naya didn¡¯t say,¡± Amery said. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. She foresaw the creatures coming toward the village, and there they are. She can¡¯t always be right, but she is this time. Unfortunately.¡± Frustration tinges her voice as she spits the last word.

    Slowly, the platform lowers to the village. Naya and the village headman await them. The headman is a bundle of nerves, hands clenching and sweat dripping from his head despite the cool of the morning. Naya is emotionless, though she stands rigid straight, a far cry from her usual at-ease. A deep frown sits on her face, in contrast to the simple smile she normally presents. A band of cloth sits across her eyes.

    Though blind, Naya looks to each of them in turn. ¡°We must hurry. The stampede grows close.¡±

    Amery grunts at her as she channels her mana. The staff returns to its original shape. It jumps into her hand, and she begins barking orders at Sen and Anelica. ¡°Sen, you¡¯re on perimeter duty. Anelica, traps. Help the other if you finish. Ando,¡± she addressed the headman. ¡°Gather the villagers in the square. Easier to protect everyone in the same place,¡± she added. The man nodded with obvious unease.

    ¡°Naya has said this has the potential to be disastrous,¡± he stuttered out.

    ¡°As I remind you every time, it is her job to advise you to the extreme dangers the world offers. We will not fail you.¡± Amery¡¯s voice rang out with confidence as she dealt with the headman, but Sen could see a level of discomfort that she rarely revealed.

    Sen got to his work, establishing a perimeter around the village. A slight shiver ran through him as the cool, refreshing sensation of his mana working its way throughout his body allowed him to inscribe wards all around the village. The wards covered the outskirts of the village in a circular pattern. Though invisible to sight, he could feel the wards snap together all at once as he completed the final connection. His mana trembled in resonance.

    Sen quested out with his mana sense to find Anelica. He found her near the perimeter in the direction of the monsters they¡¯d seen earlier. She had a number of traps built, but not enough. It took the two of them another several minutes to add a number of additional traps before Amery appeared.

    ¡°Sen, I want you to go scout. We need a better idea of what is coming.¡± He nodded to her and turned to the forest, taking a breath. He would have liked to use Amery¡¯s staff to fly as he scouted, but she didn¡¯t have it on her. She must be using it as an anchor for a stronger ward surrounding the villagers. Second, Sen didn¡¯t have the ability to properly use the spell needed to fly with it.

    He crept into the forest, opening his mana channels to any potential disturbance. He controlled the sounds of his footfalls as he ran through the forest toward the monsters. Sen cast a spell to amplify his hearing. It wouldn¡¯t do to run headlong into a horde of monsters without any warning, even if that was exactly what he was now doing.

    Normally, he would hear the vibrant life of the forest in every direction, but now it all sat quiet. Straining his ears, he managed to hear the slight thumps of a tree falling. He followed the sound for a short time, before cutting to the side and up a hill. He hoped to find a vantage.

    Luckily enough, Sen managed to find a tall tree atop the hill, and from there he managed to see a slowly growing dust cloud. At this rate, he expected the horde would arrive before noon. Sen pulled out a scroll of farsight. He began channeling the scroll, and after a moment a small shimmering pool of mana appeared before him. Wherever he looked, it magnified.

    He turned toward the approaching dust cloud, hoping he¡¯d be able to get some information of value. He hoped not to approach any closer. At the front of the dust cloud he saw stone wolves and clayrillas, monstrous life imbued into otherwise inane materials found on the mountain. His heart dropped as he looked further back, and there, slightly obscured by the endless dust, rushed a mountain worm.

    It measured nearly triple Sen¡¯s own size in diameter, almost all of which opened to several rings of sharp teeth at the front. His studies told him that within that mouth sat several eyes, rarely used in lieu of the monster¡¯s ability to smell. Dangerous but manageable on its own, Sen dreaded dealing with one of those alongside a horde of other creatures. Especially if there were several of the worms, or potentially worse.

    Sen dropped from the tree. He had enough information, even if that information only settled a deep pit in his stomach.

    Sen arrived back in the village without much trouble, only to find a number of birds hovering near the wards, occasionally pecking at it. Their size suggested these birds came with the horde, and simply moved faster. They would sit to nearly his waist if they sat on the ground before him. On their own they were no issue, but he suspected the birds could become a problem later. He needed to get rid of them now.

    He quickly pulled out several scrolls. The first of these he imbued halfway, then balled up and threw at the birds. It exploded as it soared between them, causing a series of raucous caws of rage, or perhaps indignation. Whatever emotions that man-eating monsters preferred.

    Another scroll he imbued properly, and with a loud crash swept a blindingly bright bolt of lightning. Two of the birds dropped dead immediately, while another several fell to the ground in a slower, but inevitable, pace. He could kill those easily later. Unfortunately, there were still several other birds turning to him. They swept toward him, screeching hate and anger.

    Sen stuck a palm out, scroll affixed to his hand. He pushed mana through the page, and as he pulled his arm back, the scroll stayed in the air, floating. He pulled another page into his hand and began channeling. Moments later, two of the final three birds crashed into an invisible barrier radiating out from the seemingly floating page. They squawked and fell to the ground before him.

    The final bird crashed into the barrier, which shattered with a sound like glass shattering. One claw swept out and slashed across Sen¡¯s arm. The pain bit into his focus, but he managed to hold himself together enough to finish channeling the final scroll. He sweeps a hand wide, and a wave of fire follows after it, pushing out and burning the birds. Their cries are cut short as they disintegrate under the intense heat.

    Another squawk cries out from above him, and Sen curses. He doesn¡¯t have another scroll to deal with the final bird. He runs for the ward perimeter. The bird dives, and Sen prepares for the jagged pain that is coming.

    It doesn¡¯t.

    A thin red line erupts from within the barrier, exploding the bird as it dives toward him. He raises a hand in thanks as he crosses the threshold, breathing deep to calm the adrenaline running through his veins. ¡°You need to be more careful,¡± Amery calls out to him. She eyeballs the gash along his arm. ¡°Should be fine with a simple rejuvenate.¡± She reaches into her bag, but Sen holds up a hand.

    ¡°I have one,¡± he says, pulling another scroll from his bag. He wraps the scroll around the wound on his arm, then begins channeling. The sharp pain cools, then relief sweeps through him. Sen peels the blood-soaked paper off his arm, now entirely unharmed. Anelica walked up from inside the village.

    ¡°General preparations complete, master,¡± she said, looking to Sen with worry.

    ¡°Report,¡± Amery commands.

    ¡°Common mountain monsters en masse, with minimum one confirmed mountain worm. Regular size, approximate amount unknown. Expected arrival, noon.¡± Sen speaks succinctly, following the protocols Amery has drilled into him. Anelica¡¯s face blanches.

    Amery sighs. ¡°The worm will be a pain. Will you and Anelica be able to handle the rest?¡±

    Sen considered that, looking to his sister. ¡°I cannot guarantee, but I believe it within our capacities.¡±

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Anelica says, voice wavering slightly.

    Amery looks at her, and she repeats herself, voice firm. ¡°Agreed.¡±

    Amery nods at her.

    ¡°We¡¯re gambling on you two, then. We don¡¯t have time to prepare for the horde as well as evacuate the village, so if you two can¡¯t manage everything else while I handle the mountain worm, then chances are the village will be destroyed.¡± She left unsaid the other consequences of a destroyed village. Death, probably for all of them.

    Sen almost had second thoughts, but ultimately kept his nerve. Sen and Anelica could do it. They might run low on scrolls, but he was sure they could manage. Amery held his eye. He nodded at her.

    ¡°Alright, my apprentices. Time to earn our keep.¡±

    ***

    Sen had been right with his guess. The raucous sound of monsters in stampede began to vibrate through the town as the sun neared midday. The sun sat pleasantly in the sky, the slight tinge of warmth hinted at, but concealed, by the breeze. Blue swept across the skies, clouds absent entirely. Sen breathed in. Such a shame, he mused. A great day for a nap under a tree.

    Tremors rocked the leaves of nearby trees, leaving a small storm of green to flutter to the ground. In the distance he heard the crash of a tree falling to the ground. The roar of monstrous beasts slowly built as the horde approached.

    He and Anelica had completed their preparations with a few moments to spare. A number of traps dotted the landscape surrounding the ward around the village, he knew, though he couldn¡¯t see them. They would mostly be small pieces of scroll, crumpled up and imbued with mana, prepared to explode as creatures crossed over them. Sen had helped Anelica create some other weapons, as well, including a few trees wrapped in scrolls. Those would explode as well, but hopefully cause a bit more of a nuisance to larger creatures. Hopefully there weren¡¯t too many of those. The mountain worm already threatened to destroy the town on its own.

    He hoped Amery could manage it on her own.

    They had borrowed a moment of Amery¡¯s time in order to gain access to some of her wood manipulation, which allowed them to build a ballista relatively quickly. Using some minor spells the two of them could manage on their own, Sen and Anelica spent a portion of their time creating several volleys of ordinance they could use through the wards to hopefully manage some of the horde.

    The biggest trouble was not the individual monsters, most of which Sen and Anelica could deal with easily. However, when multiple monsters all attempted to attack at once, it became significantly more difficult to manage. Many spells could deal with a couple of enemies at once, but if you found yourself circled, even those spells tended to miss one or two. Couple with the fact that some enemies - especially those in a stampede rage - may not retreat for anything less than dropping dead.

    Movement caught his eye, and Sen looked up to see the first of the encroaching monsters. A great dust cloud grew behind it, several large trees still standing between the village and the greatest mass of monsters.

    A stone wolf ran through the forest, breaking through the tree line. It¡¯s stone shoulders moved more like water than stone as it loped forward, before exploding violently into debris as one of Anelica¡¯s scroll mines erupted under its foot.

    The bassy thump seemed to act as a call to action, as Anelica let loose the first of their ordinance into the trees behind the now nonexistent monster. It, too, exploded, though with a great crack and a fireball that reached up into the sky. It must have bounced off a tree, Sen thought.

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    He called to his sister. ¡°Wait for some of the trees to fall. That shot missed somehow.¡± She nodded at him, eyes reflecting the flames as they licked at the sky from between the trees. They didn¡¯t have enough ammunition to waste it on missed shots like that, so a bit of patience might be needed. It was a fine balance, he knew, but it would be necessary.

    Sen stepped forward toward the edge of the ward. While Anelica manned the ballista, Sen could only hope to manage any smaller monsters that approached the wards.

    As he neared the edges of the village, the sheer amount of monsters coming finally snapped into place for him. He saw a veritable sea of monsters, no longer concealed by the dust of their rampage through the forest. Hundreds, he wanted to say, but he feared in truth they numbered in the thousands. He struck down the panic that tried to claw its way into him from a deep pit in his stomach. Clenching his jaw, Sen waited.

    For a surprising length of time, nothing managed to approach the warded edge of the village. An endless staccato beat of scroll mines sounded, clayrillas shattering into mud as they exploded, or stone wolves sharding into bits of shrapnel that bit into other creatures, formed from flesh and sinew rather than mountain detritus.

    Sen saw several large wolves, bears, elk, and other common animals of the forest in the horde, all of them running as if in fear. Had they joined the horde, somehow, or had whatever overcome them all this morning sent them all into a fear that just so happened to leave them on a path of destruction headed directly for the village? Sen had no way to know.

    As the first beginnings of the true horde cleared the forest edge, trees still standing, Sen heard the snap of the strings on the ballista send away another quarrel. It soared overhead, and the sound of its flight through the air whistled a promise of death and destruction wherever it landed. It stuck in the ground, silent for the shortest of moments before a swathe of destruction deformed the ground like clay. Anything nearby died a violent death, ripped to shreds like paper in comparison to the heavy earth.

    Sen stepped out of the wards, sending a few smaller spells to unsuspecting creatures. A small array of fireballs flew from his hand, crashing toward a group of forest stalkers. The panther-like creatures often clothed themselves in shadow, hunting in pairs. To find them together was unusual, but, Sen idly thought as he began to prepare another spell, little about today had been usual. It would be out of form to expect any return to the usual at this point. His small fireballs closed in on several of the dark-furred monsters, curving in the air toward their head. A few of them managed to move out of the way, but most of them were hit, and their heads caught fire. Panicking, they started to nuzzle at the ground, attempting to wipe the fire off. They died slowly, but Sen didn¡¯t have time to pay them any more attention until they got even closer.

    A flock of mountain rocs dove at him. He danced back across the ward line, and several of the birds slammed into the wall. They slid off, but Sen wasn¡¯t able to do anything about them before they managed to get back into the air. They circled around, cawing at him.

    He stepped forward once more, and they dove once more. Geniuses, most monsters were not. Sen traced out a scroll in front of him, following the runes with his finger. This one pulled harder at his channels than most of his spells. Halfway through the scroll, electricity began to spark from his fingertip, until it spread up his arm and arced over his shoulder like a single spike in the air.

    Finishing the spell, Sen had a moment of complete silence as the spell took, then erupted in a beam of lightning that hit and spread between each of the birds. They fell to the ground, smoke rising from their corpses.

    Behind them, a tree fell to the ground. A great claw rose from behind the trunk, pulling a massive bear-like form up and over. It roared in anger, looking toward Sen. Spittle flew from its mouth, and a row of spikes poked up from its spine. A whistling sound swept through the air, and a ballista bolt landed in its open mouth. The monster bit down, attempting to spit out the bolt.

    The large mass fell limp as the spell-bolt activated.

    The battle continued like that for a time. Sen jumped in and out of the barrier, luring enemies to attack so he could easily take them down. Several forest stalkers crept their way toward him, acting entirely against their normal patterns. Normally, they would only face prey head-on if there was no other choice. He supposed there wasn¡¯t.

    He dealt with these creatures by opening the earth underneath them, then crushing them as he pulled it back together. Anelica called out behind him. He looked to the side. Another several birds came toward him, though these spewed fire at him. He ducked behind the barrier, waiting for a gap in the flames as they spread across the invisible wall. He drew a spell of wind, and activated another of the traps he and Anelica had prepared.

    A slow wind swept out from his hand, spreading all across the little battlefield. Sen activated another scroll, and from this one nothing seemed to happen. ¡°Now,¡± he shouted at Anelica. Another large quarrel flew from the ballista, hitting nothing. Sen closed his eyes. After a moment, Sen felt the bass thump of the bolt-spell exploding into a ball of fire.

    The second explosion, however, following almost instantly, nearly blinded him even with his eyes closed. After a moment he opened his eyes to see most of the earth for several hundred meters sat devastated, littered with small fires. Almost nothing still stood in the swathe of destruction, with only a few great trees and even greater monsters still standing.

    At the far edges of the destruction, Sen sighted the mountain worm. It slithered forward, mouth contracting and expanding as it moved. He heard Amery behind him. ¡°Good work. Now, it¡¯s my turn.¡±

    She hovered in the air standing on her staff, formed into a platform. She slid forward, holding several scrolls in her hands. Several bright orbs appeared above her head and began circling around her.

    Sen worried for his master, but knew he couldn¡¯t spare the distraction to watch, and even if he did, couldn¡¯t do much to help. Despite the massive devastation before him, a multitude of monsters ran over the corpses and ashes of their predecessors in a mad dash toward the village.

    Amery began her fight with the worm, most of the smaller monsters ignoring her and heading straight for the village. Eventually, Anelica¡¯s ballista bolts ran dry. She appeared behind him moments after, assisting him as he held the line against the many creatures.

    ¡°I¡¯m running low on fire and lightning,¡± he called out. ¡°Can you split yours with me?¡±

    She shot him a worried look, but pulled two sets of scrolls from her bag, handing them to him. They had been killing these things for what felt like a lifetime, but couldn¡¯t have been more than an hour or two. The sun still stood high in the sky, certainly closer to noon than evening.

    More and more creatures crawled out of the far woods, and crept over the devastated forest of ashes. In the distance, fire and lightning and concentrated beams of light swept over the mountain worm. The worm roared in pain, and Amery clearly had the upper hand. Given enough time, she would kill it.

    Did she have enough time? Did they? Did the village?

    Sen didn¡¯t know, but dwelling on it wouldn¡¯t get them anywhere.

    The battle continued for a time, and slowly their reserves dwindled. Sen began to imbue spells directly, skipping the scrolls. This limited the spells he could use, but in trade allowed him finer control and increased power. No longer could he throw a group of fireballs that sought out his enemies, but he could throw a giant fireball capable of incinerating them all the same. Sen didn¡¯t have the skill to manage the former, without a scroll at least, but it didn¡¯t take a lot of skill to throw as much power at an enemy as possible.

    Hours passed, and finally Sen and Anelica ran out of scrolls, shifting entirely to body-channeling their spells. Their ability to massacre the horde of monsters before them lost a lot of skill and elegance after, but gained much in efficacy. Body-channeling, rather than channeling a spell through some medium like a scroll, allowed channeling through the body. While objects may degrade as the power of a spell channels through it, the body never did, and allowed Sen and Anelica to push their spells harder.

    The trade off that it required them to know the spell they wanted to use with an incredible level of detail meant that their spell repertoire dropped to only a handful didn¡¯t mean much, when some of the easiest spells caused the greatest destruction, especially when used specifically for that purpose.

    As the sun began to droop lower into the sky, Amery¡¯s quarry finally fell. As Sen kept stock of the battle, he had eventually realized that the mountain worm had no ability to actually threaten Amery. It wasn¡¯t intelligent enough, and none of its abilities allowed it to truly attack her. It occasionally sent a spike of rock into the air, but those never managed to even remotely threaten the experienced mage.

    In contrast, though, Amery only slowly managed to deal any real damage to the monster. It took the work of an entire afternoon to finally kill the thing. It collapsed slowly, like a mountain slide seen from far away. In its place rose a giant cloud of dust.

    Sen took a breath, then looked around. The endless horde of monsters had, miraculously, run dry. A few scattered groups of monsters moved across the desolation, but few of them actually headed for him and Anelica, who stood at his side. He sent a cursory glance over both of them to find they were both coated in sweat, dirt, blood, and a host of small wounds.

    He pulled out several of his last remaining scrolls, ones that took too long to use and didn¡¯t provide the ability to kill anything on their own. ¡°Here,¡± he said, voice fatigued. Anelica looked at him in surprise, perhaps thinking he meant to point out another group that she hadn¡¯t seen.

    Instead, he held out a number of healing scrolls. ¡°Thanks,¡± she said, taking a few of them. ¡°Keep the rest for yourself. You don¡¯t look too great right now.¡±

    He grunted at her, then dropped to the ground, watching the last remaining monsters cross the outskirts of the village and flee. He idly pulled a few of the healing scrolls onto some of his larger wounds. They stung as he wrapped them tightly on each wound. He breathed a sigh of relief as he channeled his mana and each scroll left a feeling of cooling refreshment, alongside a distinct lack of the pain from each wound.

    After a short time, Amery floated over, unceremoniously dropping onto the large wooden platform as if she wanted to curl up and sleep. ¡°We did it,¡± she groaned out.

    Anelica looked as if she didn¡¯t agree. ¡°What if this is just the beginning?¡± Her quiet words got a look from both Sen and Amery.

    ¡°For now, we¡¯re alive, and that¡¯s good enough,¡± Amery said.

    ¡°First, everyone has a nightmare. At the same time.¡± Her words are cold. Terrified. Sen tries to look Anelica in the eye. She avoids his gaze, staring into the sky. ¡°Then a horde of monsters come.¡±

    Amery speaks up, voice attempting to convey confidence, but primarily showing deep-set fatigue. ¡°We¡¯ll figure it out. I¡¯ll contact the council and see if we can get some answers.¡±

    Anelica looked to her. Sen could see tears beading in her eyes, threatening to flood out. She nodded at Amery, perhaps not trusting her voice. She sniffled.

    Then the sky opened like a gigantic maw, and an oppressive force crushed the breath from Sen¡¯s lungs. Amery wheezed in response, and Anelica fainted.

    Slowly, the maw eclipsed the sun, and a corona of crimson red wept into the sky.

    ¡°What is that,¡± Sen tried to say, but he only managed to grunt out a few syllables. The pressure beat at him, incessant. His breath came in short gasps, and he could barely push himself to sit up, much less stand. The air pressed down on him like a boulder. Sen felt helpless.

    Amery tried to say something, but it was as indiscernible as his own grunts. Her arms trembled as she began to pull out a scroll. He looked at it and saw that it was blank. She pulled out a bottle of ink, seemingly unaffected by the pressure bearing down upon each of them.

    She flipped the cap off and dashed the ink over the paper, leaving it almost completely black with ink. Amery closed her eyes, then small portions of the ink began to coalesce, leaving untainted paper behind. In its wake, a complex rune pattern that Sen had never seen before. An idle part of his mind wondered if this would accomplish anything, or if they would die, suffocating under enormous, unknown power crushing them like ants.

    The last of the ink fled from the page, and Amery grabbed the paper. Sen gasped a sigh of relief as the pressure abated and the scroll burnt to cinders from the inside out, starting at the ink.

    ¡°What,¡± he coughed, ¡°was that!?¡±

    Amery looked up. For the first time, Sen realized his teacher didn¡¯t have an answer for him. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she said. Sen couldn¡¯t read the emotions on her face, but her voice sounded defeated. Sen looked up, tracing the small, spatter-like blots of red spreading across the sky above from a deep dark hole in the sky. Small lights flickered inside, as if he were staring into the night sky. Instead, they looked more like teeth, preparing to take a bite out of him, and perhaps everything he had ever known. Staring into that infinite depth, he knew, without a doubt, that his fainting episode - so distant and trivial now, with the events of the day - had been nothing short of a premonition.

    ¡°Is this the end, you think?¡± His words were bitter, and they stumbled forth without grace. His tongue stumbled over itself, and he felt tears flow down over his face. He tried to look away, but couldn¡¯t. This was the end.

    It¡¯s not fair, he thought. Amery would have let them finish their apprenticeship in only another year or so, and they¡¯d had plans to go back home. To finally put a stop to the rampant monsters near Eduston, to help give their parents some peace of mind, to do¡­

    To do so much more.

    And just like that, it would all be over.

    ¡°I think it is,¡± Amery said, voice soft. Bereft. Like him, Sen thought.

    Suddenly, Anelica sits up, gasping for breath. Her eyes are wide, and she looks around, disoriented. Sen reaches for her. ¡°Calm down, it¡¯s okay, we¡¯re alright.¡±

    She looks at him. Bloody tears run down her face, and his heart breaks for his sister. ¡°No! No, wait. Listen to me! I had a vision.¡±

    ¡°A vision?¡± Sen repeats.

    Amery looks on, face blank. Anelica turns to her. ¡°Eshvanaya,¡± she said, breathless. ¡°She appeared before me. She said that all might not be lost.¡± Immediately, life seemed to come back to Amery. She grabbed her bag with a furious intensity, rifling through its contents. Finally, she pulled out a small crest, pure white, and embossed with a small bird, wings wide open and seeming to trail flame. It glowed to his eyes, small wisps of something flowing off it.

    ¡°It is blessed,¡± Amery said. Awe colored her voice.

    Tears of red continued to flow from Anelica. Another stream wept from her ear, and she coughed. Blood flew from her mouth. Sen froze at the sight.

    ¡°Divide the crest for each of us.¡± Her voice came out like a coarse stone as she dipped a finger in the dirt, drawing. After a moment¡¯s work, a simple rune, one of the simplest Sen had ever seen, decorated the dirt, imprecise and completely against all of his knowledge about magic. He saw the power in it. It resonated in his sight, blinding him. He felt a warmth that had no physical source before him as he beheld the rune, circular, like a snake eating itself.

    ¡°And channel this spell.¡± Amery set to work at once. Sen stared, at a loss. Quickly, Amery pulled a knife from her bag. She gnawed at the crest, and it slowly separated into three even pieces. She dug at each piece with her knife, crudely inscribing the rune to each of them. Sen wanted to laugh.

    Amery and his sister had gone mad in their last moments. He believed in the gods, but to imagine one would intervene on their behalf? How ridiculous.

    And yet, the rune on the ground blazed in his sight, and more than that, blazed to his other senses. It smelled like the ashes of a campfire, and pressed on him like the weight of a warm blanket. He could feel it like a part of his body, the separation from him like an itch. Suddenly, the power disappeared, and just as suddenly reappeared, broken up between each of the three broken pieces of the crest.

    Amery handed him one, and Anelica another. His sister looked a grotesque sight with blood covering her face, but at once she closed her eyes, and a sigh of peace overcame her. She looked to him, finally free from the worries of the day. Her teeth were red from the blood pouring down from her nose into her mouth. ¡°She is with us,¡± his sister said.

    Amery looked at him, reaching a hand out to both of them. Anelica smiled at her. ¡°I don¡¯t know what Eshvanaya has said to you, but I trust you.¡± Tears began to flow from her eyes.

    ¡°I¡¯m proud of you both. You were my first apprentices, but I suspect you would have been the best of them all.¡± She wiped her eyes, and then took a breath. She focused on the crest in her hand. She breathed out, relief washing over her.

    Sen looked at the crest. It shimmered to his eyes, but to his mana sense it felt like a hot iron. It didn¡¯t burn, but it pressed against him, threat radiating from it. Despite that, he felt no danger, and holding it in his hand, no pain.

    He closed his eyes, sighing. He faced upward, afraid to open his eyes once more to behold the apocalypse but seeing it once again in his mind¡¯s eye, the image of the end seared upon him.

    He channeled the rune, and suddenly he breathed easier. Life flowed into him. He blinked, and the subtle, odd feeling of waking from a dream swept over him. Between one blink and the next, it felt like a short eternity had passed. Sen looked to the little crest in his hand, now inert.

    Perhaps it had.

    He looked up to the sky, reaching his hands out to grab both Amery¡¯s and Anelica¡¯s. Peace flowed through him. Whatever came, he would persist.

    As he looked up, red finally filled the sky in its entirety, and like a blink, darkness swept him away.

 Chapter 1

    Sen woke with the gradual awareness of a memory. He stared up into the sky, enjoying the afternoon warmth and staring at clouds as he relaxed under a tree. He looked out at the hills below, curving up and down in every direction. Trees popped up here and there.

    Sen¡¯s body spasmed, and his head burst into pain.

    He wasn¡¯t Sen, he was¡ª

    He was Sen, but moments before, he hadn¡¯t known it. Memories flooded into him, like the gasps of fresh air after nearly drowning. They soaked into him, and he struggled to hold them together. They whipped across his mind, memories of his old life, his family, his master, friends, and so much more.

    His new name, the name his new parents had given him, was Tane. It felt odd to consider that. He wasn¡¯t a child. He was almost fully grown, and now he had a new life.

    An odd feeling of disembodiment followed, a separation from himself - or rather, a separation from him, his other self, and his body. Two minds fought for space, as if a sudden deluge of water appeared in a flask. Where did the extra go? Pain ripped through Sen, centered in his head but reverberating throughout his entire body.

    Memories forced their way into his mind, and he was forced to reflect on his life - the life this version of himself had lived, the life that Tane had lived so far. The pain diminished as he moved through each memory, reconciling them with himself. He found that each memory agreed with him. He felt no disconnect, no sense of difference between the person that was Tane, and the person that was Sen. The biggest differences were, of course, the world which he grew up in. His parents had been similar and yet wildly different from his - original - parents. He had no sister, and at that thought, a few tears crept into his eyes.

    Sen realized with a start that he had died.

    His death had come so fast, it felt more like falling asleep. That thought pressed on him more than anything else. It was not his death that weighed on him. It was the simple triviality of it. The end had come with as much wear on him as a night¡¯s sleep. It clawed at him, gnawed at him. He felt it crawling along his legs, and the wind brushing against the hairs of his arm made him feel exposed in a way that made him want to crawl into the very earth, and perhaps even take the final rest.

    Why was he here? How was he here? Death had come for him, and instead of taking him, alongside Amery and Anelica, it had left him.

    It had left him, thrown him into a new version of himself, alone, in a world that was strange to him, and familiar to him, and Sen rejected both because he knew the fullness of two lives that lived in his head and ¡ª

    It was too much. He couldn¡¯t¡­

    He took a breath. He tried to let the tears flow, but they wouldn¡¯t come.

    He took another breath, and again he tried to let the tears flow. Another breath, and this time he realized his fists were clenched and he could feel his fingernails biting into his palms. His shoulders ached from tension, and his legs were cramped underneath him. The act of examining his body served better to help him take that breath than actually trying to breathe did, and as he worked his way through his body, his breathing flowed easier.

    It was too much to think about right now, he determined. Sen stuffed all of that into a box in his mind. He would deal with it later. When he was ready. He would confront - death, his own death, a gaping maw, the end in less than a blink, darkness¡ª

    No, no, tamp it down, lock it up, throw it in the deepest recesses, handle it later.

    The tension had come back, and sweat broke out on his skin despite the coolness of the day. Sen began his work, moving through each part of his body, fighting against the primal fear that coiled its way through his muscles like a snake suffocating its prey.

    Finally, he took another breath. He wondered. He thought. A portion of him was missing, needed to be missing, but a portion of him was not all of him, and that was good enough for now.

    What had happened? Had he truly seen the end of the world? Had it only seemed like the end of the world, because his little world had ended? Had he been reborn, and only just now regained his memories?

    No, those questions were too close to a problem, and he needed to stay away from them. For now. Eventually, he resolved, I will deal with these questions. For now, though ¡ª

    He reflected on the wildly different world that appeared before him. Slowly, as he rifled his way through his own memories, reconciling them with the two aspects of himself now melded, Sen began to piece together an understanding. He wanted to laugh, and he wanted to cry.

    A single story stood out in the memories of his ¡®new¡¯ life. A story that everyone knew, a legend that had no room for doubt. A work of gods, a miracle by every possible name, a deliverance that allowed the continued existence of all life.

    A single story that Sen knew strayed too close to a dangerous memory, a dark and red sky, a coin, an end¡­ It was close, but Sen thought he could handle it. It was only a small part, an explanation. It was a resolution that - he hoped - would help him start anew. It was a single shovel in a plot that needed¡ª

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    The darker half of a story told to every child, a legend that told of the deliverance the gods wrought to allow all the sapient races to persist despite the inevitable death of their old world, Fiddia. The old world had started to die, and if the sapient races had stayed, everyone would have died with it.

    The gods intervened, led the sapient races across unimaginable distances, physical or aethereal, the story knew not. Nor did Sen, for he knew only what the story told to his new self remembered. They were led to Cerid, this world, abandoning the old, escaping before its final dying breath allowed the waste of all life to continue unabated.

    The story of the Crossing was a simple one, on the surface. It was the story of gods who invaded a world, and found other life there. That life needed to be gone for the sake of their own creations, and so that life was eradicated.

    Just like Se¡ª

    Back in the box, imagine a key, lock it, keep it back there in the dark, don¡¯t look at it, don¡¯t think about it just keep going and the thunder in your heart might not burst all that you are into pieces¡ª

    It had been a miracle beyond all miracles, all the gods coming together to save all sapient life on Fiddia by opening a crossing into Cerid. The peoples of Fiddia, now the peoples of Cerid, had thrived in the new world. The people thanked the gods for the blessings that the ancients of this world gave to them, ruins of ancient castles and crumbling libraries lost to the march of time, small blessings of knowledge and material and architecture that let all the new peoples of this world understand what awaited them in this new land, and conquer it without as much of the expected pain.

    Tears flowed down his face, and they felt like flames licking at him, tongues of guilt, because he liv¡ª

    That had been about a century before this moment, where Sen realized he now had two names inextricably within himself. The thoughts were a good distraction. Something simpler, easier to deal with.

    Tane and Sen considered the idea of what name to go by. The tears on his face dried slowly as he thought, cold in the chill of the day. Finally they decided that, whatever others may expect to call him, his real name was Sen.

    It would be odd, perhaps, to attempt to change his name. He could still introduce himself as Tane, as needed, but in his mind, he considered himself Sen. Tane was merely an extension of that self.

    The two of them were, in reality, the same person, after all. They simply lived at different times, with different people. They grew according to different stimuli, and had different opportunities presented to them. For all that, Sen felt no disconnection with the decisions in Tane¡¯s life - or at least, none that he wouldn¡¯t have chosen under the same circumstances.

    Sen stared out at the world before him. Familiar, and yet completely alien. Sen was at a loss. Now what? He wondered.

    He was afraid to look at that dark corner of himself, afraid to see all the pieces laid out in stark contrast with the world that refused to agree with the horror that he knew lay inside him.

    What did he want?

    A rage bubbled up in him. It felt like creeping ice in his veins, a refreshing, invigorating sensation that sapped the fatigue from his stiff body.

    Revenge. Gods had killed his world, his master, his sister, his parents ¡ª himse¡ª and more.

    He deflated. Impossible. Even entertaining the idea was a fever dream, an impossibility. It was hardly worth considering.

    What could he want?

    That was more approachable. His mind leapt to one dark place in particular, deep inside himself, but, no, that would be best dealt with another time. Not now.

    What else? Magic. He had loved magic. Loved the learning, loved the experimentation, loved the rote exercise that let him step forward each day, moving toward mastery. He had spent the majority of his final years - close, but not too close for the viper in his mind to work its way out of the locked box - working with Amery to learn magic.

    Nothing else came to mind. Everything else seemed trivial. Nothing seemed to light a fire in him like the idea of revenge, of the cold pleasure of plunging a blade deep into divinity. It wouldn¡¯t matter. Divinities couldn¡¯t bleed, and Sen had struggled against a horde of monsters just minutes ago¡ª

    He was getting better at putting that away and keeping it away, but it would be a work in progress for a while.

    That was enough. Magic seemed good enough, and he found it interesting. It would have to do. Thinking too much would make holding it all back harder. Tane - the part of him that had been born after all of that - was the only part of him functioning. Sen felt like a ripped cloth trying to hold back a dam.

    Better to let it all be for a moment, the other part of him said. Better to come back when the challenge isn¡¯t too much, isn¡¯t too hard, when we¡¯re not frayed into a thousand small fibers all wishing for the strength to hold up against¡ª

    Death.

    It took him quite a bit longer to come back from that one, and Sen realized tears covered his face, and his eyes swelled and his nose ran and breathing came hard. A sudden and irrational rage burgeoned up within him at his own fragility, the inability to deal with his own thoughts. He wanted to put this all behind him, and yet he could feel it, lurking, deep inside him just waiting for another chance to strike at him.

    Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

    Simplify. What can be done now? Work toward bigger solutions later. A small part of him, just as deadly as the dark, locked chest in his mind, smiled at that. A dish best served cold, it tried to hint, is all the sweeter when it is insurmountable.

    Sen ignored the thought. There was a life to live in front of him, now, and he couldn¡¯t waste it on thinking too much. On remembering too much. He could feel the viper trying to strike at him as memories of his master and his sister crept up on him. Sen physically jerked as he tried to push away the memories, to keep them out of reach, to prevent the locked box breaking open once again.

    He stood. He wiped his face on his shirt. His body ached, so he stretched. It was nice, he thought. He looked around, and realized he sat under a large tree in the shade on a small hill that overlooked a beautiful landscape.

    The beauty felt bitter in his mouth, but he swallowed the bitterness and tried to enjoy it. His face still felt like a mess, so he moved to a stream he knew was nearby and washed himself.

    That had helped more than anything else so far, but it didn¡¯t really change anything. Change would be good. Something to allow him a new start in this new life.

    A mage lived in this town. Maybe he needed an apprentice.

 Chapter 2

    Sen¡¯s knuckles rapped against the wooden door. Mage Murdin¡¯s house sat atop a small hill on the southern edge of the town, overlooking a small creek. It seemed a nice enough spot, with several trees and a small stone bridge that led back to the town.

    The door cracked open with the scratchy sound of wood against wood. The door wasn¡¯t set properly. A face peeked out at him, lined and balding. The man had a curious look on his face.

    ¡°Mage Murdin?¡± Sen asked.

    ¡°That¡¯s me,¡± the man huffed. ¡°What do you need?¡±

    Murdin¡¯s temperament seemed different to what Sen expected from his memories of the man. He remembered a friendly and welcoming smile whenever the man dealt with the villagers, but now he simply seemed annoyed.

    I probably would, too, if villagers were bothering me at home when I expected a break. Oops.

    ¡°Well?¡± Murdin said. ¡°I can¡¯t help if you can¡¯t speak.¡±

    Sen realized his mouth sat open as he tried to figure out the right words. His teeth clapped together. Finally, he spoke, giving up on finding the perfect way to phrase it. ¡°I¡¯d like to be your apprentice.¡±

    Murdin quirked an eyebrow, and several wrinkles shown on his forehead. Sen struggled to hold back his laughter. That would be a terrible first impression. Instead, he waited patiently for Murdin to think it over. Or, at least, he assumed the man was thinking. He just stared at Sen, unblinking.

    ¡°Why do you want to be a mage?¡± Murdin finally asked.

    Sen gave it some thought. It was an important question, he supposed. Magic was a powerful tool, and letting any random person learn magic could be problematic. He didn¡¯t know if that was why Murdin asked, but it seemed a fair enough guess.

    One of the reasons he wanted to learn magic was because it interested him. He loved the way it could do things that seemed impossible otherwise. That was made doubly interesting because he already knew some magic - and if his memories were correct, the magic he knew wasn¡¯t the only magic that existed anymore!

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    But that probably wouldn¡¯t be a good enough answer on its own. What else did he want access to magic for? He tried to hold back a grimace, but he knew he¡¯d failed. Hopefully Murdin wouldn¡¯t try to read into that too much.

    A smiling, cold part of him wanted the power that magic gave him. It would help him with his revenge, fantasy though that revenge might be. It might even help, somewhat, recognizing how big the gap is.

    Another part of him thought back to the end. He held himself together admirably, he thought, keeping the dark part of his mind at bay for long enough to consider the reason in its entirety. He hated the feeling of helplessness. He wanted the freedom to act when danger came upon him. More than that, he wanted the ability to protect those who were important to him. His sister, Anelica. His old master, Amery.

    ¡°Well?¡± Murdin snapped. ¡°If you don¡¯t have any reason at all¡­¡±

    ¡°No, no, I have a reason.¡± Sen apologized. ¡°I have a couple reasons. First, I think magic is interesting, and I love learning about it.¡± Murdin didn¡¯t seem especially impressed with that, but Sen continued on. ¡°I also want the ability to protect my family. I know monster attacks have been increasing lately, and I want to be able to make sure everyone stays safe.¡± That was true, though Sen didn¡¯t think it was too alarming. Monster attacks were a normal thing, and though they had been more common recently, it wasn¡¯t as though they were under siege.

    Murdin huffed, then closed his eyes. Hopefully that was a good sign. Sen grew alarmed when the man continued to stand like that, only his head and arm peeking out from behind the door, in thought.

    Finally, Murdin let out a deep breath. ¡°Okay,¡± he said. ¡°Come back tomorrow morning. I¡¯ll put you to work. If you happen to learn something, good for you.¡±

    Sen couldn¡¯t help but smile at the man. ¡°Thank you, Master Murdin! I¡¯ll do my best.¡±

    ¡°Just Murdin, Tane,¡± the older man said and abruptly shut the door.

    After realizing that Tane was his name, Sen found himself surprised that Murdin even knew his name. The town wasn¡¯t that large, though, and realized it shouldn¡¯t be much of a surprise. He only knew Murdin¡¯s name because the man had been around for years at this point, helping with the defense of the village and ensuring buildings stayed strong against the elements, among a multitude of other duties that he knew nothing about.

    Surprisingly, Sen felt a rush of excitement. It felt out of place, considering¡­ everything¡­ that now sat in his mind like a jagged, thorned vine wrapped around him.

    But it was a step forward, and one more step than he should have had. It was a small victory, but hopefully it would be the first of many. What¡¯s more¡­

    Magic!

    Tomorrow, he would learn magic. He felt a stir of excitement inside him, and even the dark smile and the locked viper seemed to appreciate the feeling.

 Chapter 3

    Sen¡¯s first day of learning magic turned out to be a disappointment. Not because he found the magic disappointing, but because Murdin had apparently decided the first day of an apprenticeship didn¡¯t merit actually learning magic.

    Instead, Murdin tested Sen on a variety of tasks. Reading, writing, as well as a variety of topics related to herbalism, hunting, and several areas which Sen had no knowledge, such as geology.

    Despite how unexpected he found it, it was an interesting distraction. He noticed that he enjoyed the language used here more than the one in his previous life. The words had a rhythmic lilt that he enjoyed, and certain sentences read with a cadence that swept him away like a dance. It was enjoyable even reading some of these parts, not because they were especially poignant, interesting, or well-written, but because the language itself fit together in a way that he found novel.

    He felt thankful that he didn¡¯t have to learn the language himself, though, depending heavily on his memories to ensure he could keep up with the nuances of the language.

    Murdin didn¡¯t react to much of his ¡®testing¡¯ but did seem annoyed when he realized how little Sen knew about rocks.

    ¡°Materials are the basis and foundation of magic,¡± he said. ¡°You simply must know more about the tools at your disposal. Rocks are some of the most effective supplies we have, and you need only go outside to find more.¡± His explanation seemed rote, one that he had repeated perhaps hundreds of times, if not more. That didn¡¯t change the obvious passion for the subject on Murdin¡¯s face, however.

    Sen looked at the man thoughtfully from the small, plush sofa he sat on. Murdin sat on a similarly plush chair, with simple, if interesting, detail work on each arm. ¡°What exactly is the point of all this?¡±

    ¡°I need to know what you know so that I can ensure you learn what you do not,¡± Murdin said simply, marking on a paper in his hands. ¡°Do not think you can come to me, ask for knowledge and education, and get away with something subpar. I will not allow such laziness, and if that is your objective, I suggest you leave now.¡±

    Sen smiled. ¡°I have no intentions of giving up,¡± he said. ¡°I welcome all the knowledge you have for me.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡± Murdin smiled. Some might read the look more like a sneer, Murdin himself a somewhat ugly man, but Sen hadn¡¯t noticed anything off about him. He just seemed¡­ unlucky, in terms of physical characteristics. A bulbous nose adorned his face, with small, pinched eyes and a large bald spot. Huge lines worked their way across his face, wrinkles that wouldn¡¯t have looked out of place on a man several decades senior to Murdin.

    At the least, he had the look of experience on him.

    ¡°Come,¡± Murdin said at last. ¡°We will begin your proper education tomorrow, but most days I have obligations in the town. You will be accompanying me for most of them.¡± So saying, Murdin stood, and gathered several items before the two of them left.

    He held a large bag full of rocks across one shoulder as they approached a small woodworker¡¯s shop. Murdin knocked on the door with a quick rap of his knuckles, and a slight, older man greeted the two of them with a kindly smile and the sight and smell of sawdust all over him.

    ¡°Ah, Murdin,¡± the man said. ¡°It is good to see you. I think my sharpening enchantments are fading already.¡± He shook his head, then tsked. ¡°My apprentice doesn¡¯t know how to preserve the blades at all, yet.¡± He looked toward Sen. ¡°And who is this? Found your own apprentice, have you?¡±

    Murdin smirked. ¡°Yes, indeed. An apprentice of my own. Let us hope he is not like my previous apprentice.¡±

    ¡°Oh? I wasn¡¯t aware you had another apprentice, Murdin.¡±

    The mage shrugged at that. ¡°It was a long time ago, before I ever came to Shiren,¡± he said. Shiren was the name of this town.

    ¡°I see, I see,¡± the woodworker said as he gestured them inside. Murdin inspected a number of enchanted blades silently.

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    To Sen¡¯s surprise, he pointed out several areas where the enchantment had begun to degrade. ¡°I don¡¯t expect you to understand any of this yet, but a little bit of experience now should make it easier later,¡± he said by way of explanation.

    It took only a few tweaks to the degraded glyphs to re-set them properly, but Murdin warned the wood worker, named Berrus, that they would still need to be replaced entirely in a few more months. ¡°There¡¯s just not enough material left for the enchantments to work with for much longer than that.¡±

    Berrus nodded in understanding, and Murdin continued his work. He checked the building, and Sen realized that almost every part of the home had a number of small enchantments at either the base or top of the walls. To what end, Sen didn¡¯t know, and he didn¡¯t want to interrupt while Murdin worked. They stayed there only a short time longer as Murdin inspected several more minor things.

    When they left, Sen took the chance to ask about the enchantments.

    ¡°Your theoretical education is lacking too much for a deeper explanation, but suffice it to say that most buildings will begin to fall apart quickly without the aid of magical enchantments. The weather wears harshly in this part of the world.¡±

    That answered just enough to leave him with even more questions, but Sen didn¡¯t feel too lost. It had never occurred to the part of him - Tane - that had lived his whole life in this small town, but now that he thought about it, Sen did find it strange that he¡¯d never seen anyone working to maintain any of the homes in the town.

    It certainly wasn¡¯t something that happened constantly in his first life, but it wasn¡¯t uncommon. Rather, it would have never been notable without the context of his new magical pursuits to give it meaning.

    Sen followed Murdin for a few hours as the mage paid several more house calls to various parts of the town. The man checked off each place on a large list in a notebook as they left, and with each building, Sen learned a little bit more about how magic was used in this world - though not much about magic itself.

    It was interesting enough, but he couldn¡¯t help but feel a burgeoning hunger. It was one thing to see that magical enchantments were useful, and how they managed to keep tools sharp, buildings sturdy, and minimized the upkeep needed on things that would otherwise fall apart over the course of time.

    Sen had even seen an expensive cupboard filled with glyphs that supposedly extended the life of fruits, vegetables, and meat inside by keeping them cooler. Incredible.

    However, all of that was a far cry from actually understanding the root cause, the magic itself. That was the knowledge he wanted. How did these glyphs carved into objects allow all of this to happen?

    Sen thought back to the magic he was already familiar with. It drew its energy from a natural cycle of power that radiated from the soul called mana. That mana could be channeled through the body or through scrolls into a rune that formed a magical spell.

    There were some superficial similarities, but everything about this other magic system, which Sen found himself calling Fiddian magic - for the other world that everyone came from through the Crossing - and his own Ceriddian magic, seemed to focus entirely on separate objects. Ceriddian magic could use separate objects as a way to make it easier to use that magic, and it was normal to do so. However, Fiddian magic seemed to require that separation.

    Their arrival back at Murdin¡¯s house was only a short time before the end of the day. Murdin looked up at the sky, then to Sen. He grunted, and Sen thought it might be in disappointment, but couldn¡¯t say for sure. ¡°We¡¯ll have to see if we can find time to begin your training tomorrow,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s getting late, and I have other work to do tonight. There are more inspections to be made for the rest of the week, and then¡­¡± He trailed off, deep in thought.

    ¡°Do you have any books? Maybe I can start with those?¡± Sen asked.

    Murdin looked at him in surprise, broken from his reverie. He hummed, rubbing at his chin. ¡°Hmm, yes, I suppose that could work. Wait here just a minute,¡± he said before heading inside. The sun slowly lowered in the sky as he waited, turning from the last vestiges of blue into purple and violets that smeared across the sky.

    Sen turned as Murdin stepped outside with two small books. ¡°Here,¡± he said, handing them over. ¡°These should explain enough for a basic understanding. There will be much more for you to learn, but this will be a good start until we can actually find the time to get you started properly.¡±

    When Sen tried to take them from his hand, Murdin held them tight in his grasp. He stared deep into Sen¡¯s eyes. ¡°Do not experiment without understanding what you are doing, do you hear me? While the work you saw today allows for the protection and maintenance of many things, do not think that magic is something that cannot get you killed on accident. Easily, at that.¡±

    Sen nodded at the mage¡¯s warning. ¡°Ok,¡± he said, swallowing at the gravity in Murdin¡¯s expression. Murdin searched his eyes for a moment, but eventually gave in and let Sen take the books.

    ¡°Turn of the morning tomorrow,¡± Murdin said suddenly, then turned and stepped inside the house, shutting the door behind him.

    Sen looked down at the books as he turned to go back home. Finally, he thought, gripping the books in his hands.

    Magic!

 Chapter 4

    Sen sat the books on his bed with bated breath. He felt a rush as he opened the first book, titled A Primer on Glyphic Enchantments. There was no author named, and when Sen realized the entire book was handwritten, as he saw the first page, then flipped through the rest, he wondered if Murdin himself had written it. It gave the book an authentic feel, like it hosted a level of sage wisdom that he¡¯d never seen before.

    Books in the old world had all been printed by mages specialized in replicating the ink of stamped letterings, allowing books to be created and disseminated with relative ease. It certainly made the text a bit easier to read, Sen mused, but thankfully the writer of this book didn¡¯t seem to struggle too much with legibility.

    Sen began working his way through the book, and quickly found himself overwhelmed. While the book was a primer, describing some of the basic aspects of Fiddian magic, it also seemed something of a survey, jumping shallowly into a number of different topics. Worse, it didn¡¯t always explain fundamental parts that Sen thought made certain aspects nonsensical without.

    Sen wished he had a paper and writing utensil with which to take notes, but it had never been especially useful to Tane, so he hadn¡¯t kept any in his room. He would have to see about changing that, now.

    The book jumped between topics quickly, from geology to glyphic enchantments that provided a surprising array of effects. Apparently, glyphs came in a couple different patterns. They could be linked together, almost like a language of their own, in order to create complex and intricate effects. Then, there were larger glyphs that could serve as substitutions for entire glyphic sentences. There was a trade-off, of course - sentences allowed customization to fit specific needs and use-cases, while the bundled glyphs were nearly impossible to customize to any useful level.

    The knowledge helped explain some of the enchantments he had seen throughout the day, but he had missed the foundational principles that made all of this make sense. How did glyphs power themselves? What about a glyph caused the ¡®magic¡¯ part of Fiddian magic to act like¡­ magic?

    He flipped back to the beginning of the book, trying to find what he was looking for. No matter how he looked, the information wasn¡¯t there. He checked the other book, skimming through it looking for the same information, but it served mostly as a more in-depth look at one of the topics noted in the first book - drawing. Or, more specifically, draftsmanship, as the book termed it.

    Glyphs required incredibly precise dimensions, meaning that the ability to properly draw lines and curves was an extremely important skill. Sen felt confident that his own abilities, refined over the course of his - admittedly incomplete - education under Amery would be more than enough to handle anything that glyphs threw at him. Although, the more he looked, the more he found himself interested in the techniques used to ensure consistency.

    Sen shook his head. Regardless, he could see the many disparate pieces all sitting there, but without anything linking them together.

    How frustrating, he thought. I get to start learning magic, and the most important part is missing.

    He thought back to Murdin¡¯s words just before he left the mage¡¯s house. Do not experiment, he had said. Did he expect Sen to blindly copy out the glyphs, just to see what happened?

    Well, he did want to do that, but Sen knew how easy it was to cause badly inscribed runes to leak mana, and that led to explosions, fires, and otherwise dangerous objects from trivial things like paper. The emphasis on precision in the second book suggested that similar explosions could happen, and were probably made worse because almost all materials used for Fiddian magic were made of stone. If Fiddian magic functioned anything like his own magic - Ceriddian magic - then Sen expected explosive stones to be a common side-effect of improperly formed enchantments.

    How annoying.

    Having promised Murdin not to experiment, Sen decided to simply read as much as he could. The books were small, but he wasn¡¯t able to finish them entirely before he needed to sleep. They were full of information that he found interesting, though it certainly wasn¡¯t a riveting read.

    The next day came with a morning chill. It was a hazy coolness that did nothing to the world at large but to leave everything just a bit quieter, and the sky just a bit brighter, with a vivid blue unmarred with the white of any clouds. The air had a crispness that felt ever so slightly too sharp, and weighed down on Sen as he stepped into the light of a new day. He still wore the lighter clothes appropriate for warmer weather, and the early coolness surprised the memories in him that knew what was normal in this area.

    In spite of the chill, rather than find a heavier shirt inside, he decided to use what magic he still did have. It was not a common way to use Ceriddian magic, but it did have its own advantages. He body-channeled a warmth spell, and the chill of the morning dissipated. Even with the diminished amount of mana he produced in this new life, Sen could keep this spell running all day long. It was comforting, in its small way, to have a reminder of his old life. A simple one, one that didn¡¯t feel like a weight around his chest.

    It made the trip to Murdin¡¯s an enjoyable walk, rather than one that slowly grew too cold. He noticed several others with too-thin clothes slightly shivering in parts of town where wind like to funnel through, leaving the cold several steps beyond too much for those still accustomed to the heat.

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    He knocked on Murdin¡¯s door only for the man to call out from inside. ¡°It¡¯s unlocked! Come in.¡± Sen did so, and found an empty room. ¡°In here,¡± Murdin called once more, and Sen followed the voice to a workshop filled with papers diagrammed with glyphs, drawing utensils, stones, chisels, and more tools that Sen couldn¡¯t name. The sight of several rocks the size of Sen¡¯s head half-filled with intricate glyphs attracted his eyes, and he saw numerous sketches of additional glyphs sitting around each rock. A number of chisels in various sizes, and a hammer sat next to them.

    Murdin himself stood at a separate workbench which held a handful of smaller stones which would easily fit in one hand. Murdin had shown him one such stone the day before, but Sen looked on with curiosity as the mage took a small stylus and engraved into one of them.

    The glyphs allowed for the stone to warm any water it is submerged in to a warm temperature. They were a popular way to warm baths, and one of the nicer luxuries that everyone in the village seemed unable to go without. The glyphs were surprisingly simple, in comparison to the runes he could still draw from memory, but the curving surface gave it a complexity that Sen marveled at.

    Murdin worked his way across the stone at speed, finishing a large section of it in only a short time. Finally, he set the stone down and looked toward Sen. ¡°I¡¯m running behind on a few things, so we may not have time for any specific lessons today, as well. However, our schedule opens up after tomorrow, and until then we¡¯ll have to make due with any questions you have. I assume you started reading those books?¡±

    Sen nodded, and Murdin grunted. ¡°Good,¡± he said, turning back to pick up another empty stone. ¡°Come watch.¡± He pulled a small paper from a drawer, leaving it on the table. Sen recognized it as the same pattern sitting on most of the stones, with only a few minor variations.

    ¡°Why are some of these different on certain stones?¡± He asked, pointing out the several stones with variation.

    ¡°Good catch,¡± Murdin said. ¡°Not all of these stones have consistent enough sizing or shape to fit these glyphs properly, so these variations account for those differences and allow each stone to work as expected.¡±

    Murdin explained more of the details as he worked, but again, Sen felt as though he was missing the underlying foundation that explained how it all tied together. He wanted to ask, but didn¡¯t want to disturb Murdin while he was working, even if he was already talking through his choices on the stone in his hand.

    Eventually, Murdin¡¯s explanations died down. There was only so much to say, and Sen didn¡¯t have any hands-on experience to pull from so that he could ask useful questions. When he came to a variation, Murdin told him that adding too much complexity would only make it harder to learn. He would explain more when it came time, the mage had said.

    The work itself was simple, but painstaking and laborious, at least to Sen¡¯s eyes. Even the simplest of shapes needed to perfectly route along the curvature of the stone, making even slight changes in the face of the stone a troublesome ordeal.

    Sen marveled at Murdin¡¯s control, and wondered if he would be able to recreate that same level of control even with his experience crafting inscripted runes. Precision and accuracy were important there, too, but virtually everything could be inscribed onto a paper.

    Watching a line that should have been straight, according to the reference schematic sitting on the desk next to Murdin, but instead curved across the surface of the rock, seemed off. Yet, with each stone, set it in a little pool of warm water, and after only a few moments the water began to bubble as it boiled.

    Murdin handed Sen a pair of tongs and left him on retrieval duty as the mage continued engraving glyphs. It took nearly an hour for Murdin to finish the handful of stones sitting on his desk, leaving a small but surprising number of stones heaped in a basket nearby.

    ¡°Alright,¡± the mage announced. ¡°We have rounds all across town today. Inspections for each, but all of these stones need to be delivered today as well. Can I have you deliver some while I make the other rounds? That should free up a bit of time. I¡¯ll meet you at the market around noon.¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Sen said. The mage gave him a list of homes, each with a number listing the amount of heating stones to deliver.

    The two of them set off in different directions. Sen idly inspected one of the stones as he walked along, wondering how Fiddian magic had developed. The linework engraved into the stone was incredibly precise, far beyond anything he had seen before. That level of precision simply wasn¡¯t needed in his previous life, much less on what would have been useless rocks at that time.

    His thoughts jumped around between topics from the books, studiously avoiding a creeping darkness that wanted to barge its way into his thoughts, and the stones. Murdin had made the engravings look easy, but he wondered if there was a method that actually made it easy, or if the man was simply so skilled that even difficult tasks looked trivial.

    Finally, he arrived at the first of his deliveries. He handed the woman a set of stones after assuring her that these were indeed the ones she ordered from Murdin. Despite her initial confusion, she smiled happily and thanked him as he handed the stones over, mumbling about taking a bath as soon as possible. Sen had several more deliveries, and each one had a bit of a walk.

    The third delivery changed the minor routine up a bit, the older man a bit more talkative than any of the others had been. ¡°I¡¯m surprised Murdin accepted you as an apprentice,¡± said a grey-haired man as Sen handed him a single warmth stone.

    ¡°Is that so unusual?¡± Sen asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think he¡¯s had an apprentice since he came to Shiren,¡± the man said. ¡°That¡¯s been, oh, thirty years? It¡¯s not as though he hasn¡¯t had a few travelers come by and ask him, either,¡± he chatted idly. ¡°I¡¯ve heard him complain plenty about ¡®stupid upstarts expecting knowledge for nothing¡¯ more often than I can count,¡± he finished with a chuckle.

    Sen didn¡¯t know what to say to that, so he finished the exchange quickly. Murdin hadn¡¯t told him to collect any money, so he assumed the stones had all been pre-paid in some way.

    He continued on his way, giving the old man a cursory goodbye. Looking back on it, Sen had been lucky that Murdin simply allowed him to study as an apprentice under him, and seemingly without any good reason. Why had the mage accepted him so easily?

    Was there some reason for that?

    He put the thought behind him. If there was a reason, Sen couldn¡¯t know, not at this point, and ultimately it wasn¡¯t his problem. He had more deliveries, and if he finished them quickly, maybe there¡¯d be time for a few questions¡­

    He still hadn¡¯t had the chance to ask about any of the many thoughts running through his head.

 Chapter 5

    Sen met Murdin at the marketplace hoping to finally get a chance to discuss the finer points of Fiddian magic, but that hope was dashed after only a few moments.

    Murdin waved him along after confirming Sen had finished the deliveries. ¡°Come, we¡¯re getting lunch.¡± His hopes were un-dashed. Maybe there¡¯d be room for his questions, after all.

    It was only noon, but the man seemed tired, even moreso than the lines along his face suggested. He carried himself with a pained gait, a limp in one of his legs.

    ¡°Are you alright? Are you limping?¡± Sen asked him.

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Murdin said, waving him off. ¡°An old injury - too much walking makes it worse.¡±

    ¡°That must have been quite the injury,¡± Sen said. He couldn¡¯t help but feel a level of curiosity about his new teacher. Tane didn¡¯t know much about the man other than that he was the town¡¯s only mage, and had been for longer than he¡¯d been alive.

    What else had Murdin done in his life? Surely, he hadn¡¯t only lived here. No, Sen wasn¡¯t an expert combatant, but he wasn¡¯t new to a fight. Murdin carried himself with a surety that Sen had only seen from those used to combat.

    If Sen guessed correctly, Murdin had once been a soldier, or at the least a guardian, like Sen had been, that protected villages from monsters.

    ¡°Yeah, came from this frustrating, overgrown bird,¡± Murdin explained idly, leading Sen toward a small shop built into what looked to be an alley. He sat the two of them down, then ordered a small meal for the two of them.

    ¡°An overgrown bird?¡±

    ¡°A garuda, if I remember correctly.¡±

    Sen¡¯s eyes widened at that. Garuda were huge birds that could pick up a full grown man in its claws without much trouble. ¡°How did you get in a fight with one of those? Actually, how did you survive at all?¡± Sen asked. While the magic he had seen made some incredible tools, nothing he had seen so far suggested the ability to take on massive creatures like a garuda. Even with the magic Sen had known in his previous life, dealing with a garuda was far from simple. Without that magic? He had no idea how anyone could deal with such a creature.

    Murdin heaved a sigh. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you know what a garuda is,¡± he said. ¡°I wasn¡¯t always the crafter of such luxury goods as warmth stones,¡± he chuckled. ¡°Some towns have far more monster attacks, and mages are expected to protect their homes. Not many others have the same ability to do so, and thus the duty falls to us.¡±

    ¡°I see,¡± Sen said. It made sense. It was, functionally, exactly the same as it had been in his old life.

    Murdin lightly nodded his head, looking toward the small open kitchen where the delicious smell of meat rose into the air. ¡°A couple injuries too many, and now I¡¯m here,¡± he explained. ¡°Anyway, that¡¯s enough about me. I can see it in your eyes - you have questions. Ask.¡±

    Sen grinned. ¡°The books you gave me are missing the fundamentals,¡± he said. ¡°I want to know about those fundamentals. How does it all fit together?¡±

    Murdin narrowed his eyes, rubbing a hand against his chin. ¡°I¡¯m surprised, Tane. I didn¡¯t expect you to be so perceptive. I expected¡­¡± He trailed off for a short moment, then gestured as if to wave away the thought. ¡°Regardless, that is an important question. What do you understand so far? Or, what can you guess?¡±

    Sen thought for a moment. ¡°Glyphs can be engraved directly on an object. The books imply that object becomes some sort of power source, though I don¡¯t understand how. The books aren¡¯t clear on that.¡±

    ¡°As good a starting point as any,¡± Murdin nodded, still hungrily eying the cooking food. Sen felt a hungry pit in his stomach as well. It did smell fantastic. ¡°Not every theoretical part of magic is understood, but the practical aspects are consistent and easily replicated, given you have the ability to create high quality glyphs on your medium.¡± Murdin launched into an explanatory tone, one with considerably more confidence and color than his regular cadence.

    ¡°As you said, engraving glyphs in an object serves to create a spell. All objects can be activated with merely a thought from someone who knows how, but most common glyph enchantments are built to activate on their own, like the warmth stones.

    ¡°When an object is enchanted, that object serves at the power source for a spell. That means that a spell will consume the enchanted object - the medium - in order to create the effects of the spell, until the object is no longer able to support the glyphic structure. Something like the warmth stone will gradually grow smaller until it can no longer support the glyphs across its surface. Then it simply stops working, the glyphs breaking apart.¡±

    Murdin paused to take a breath, but Sen interrupted with a question. ¡°Can glyphs degrade over time into dangerous spells?¡±

    Murdin nodded, a satisfied grin on his face. ¡°Yes. Almost every enchantment has at least some of its design dedicated to ensuring that a spell will draw from the medium safely, preventing dangerous objects like, to use the warmth stone as an example once more, exploding stones. Nobody wants that.¡±

    So, exploding stones were a common side-effect of Fiddian magic, just the same as his own magic. Further, Sen could think of a few good reasons that he would want exploding stones, but none of them were for civilized conversations, so he didn¡¯t say anything.

    The food arrived, much to Murdin¡¯s obvious delight. He tore into the meal quickly. Sen picked at his a bit more slowly, thoughts focused on the new information. ¡°How does a glyph connect to an object in order to take its energy?¡± Sen finally asked.

    Murdin looked at him, eyes searching his face as the man continued chewing. Swallowing, he spoke. ¡°That¡¯s one of the theoretical aspects that is not well understood, unfortunately.¡± He had a frown on his face, obviously unhappy with the lack of information. ¡°Practically, it doesn¡¯t seem to matter, but it is a gap in our knowledge that many find uncomfortable to consider.¡±

    Sen wanted to ask more questions, but a man stepped into the small restaurant and immediately moved toward the two of them as he spotted Murdin. ¡°Mage Murdin,¡± he said with urgency in his voice. ¡°Several monsters have been spotted in the outskirts!¡±

    Murdin sighed, looking down at his plate, still roughly half-full. He closed his eyes and breathed out a sigh, then turned to the man. ¡°Okay. Tell me as we go. Sen, you¡¯re coming with me. It might be dangerous, but this is going to be a part of your life if you want to be a mage.¡±

    Sen nodded, standing. Murdin left a few coins on the table, then the three of them left.

    They walked quickly toward the edge of town, the man explaining all the way. Sen didn¡¯t recognize him, but Tane hadn¡¯t known everyone in town, and the man seemed more like an administrator, someone who worked in the town hall. Tane had never been there, so it wouldn¡¯t be a surprise he didn¡¯t know the man.

    They approached a worried looking farmer at the edge of town after a fast-paced walk that bordered on running. The farmer wrung his hands and stared out toward the outskirts of the city as they approached, not even noticing them.

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    Finally, he turned to them and his eyes lit in relief as the three approached. ¡°Mage Murdin! Thank the gods,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s a pack of tanbinos. They¡¯re eating my grain, and I¡¯m afraid they might come for my cattle, next.¡± He looked back into the distance, eyes worried.

    Murdin¡¯s face turned stony as he heard the news. ¡°Let us go quickly, then,¡± he said without emotion. ¡°Do you have horses? Did you run here?¡±

    The farmer gave him a blank look in response, realizing his mistake. ¡°No,¡± he muttered, looking away from Murdin. ¡°I didn¡¯t think to¡­¡±

    Murdin cut him off. ¡°Then we must hurry.¡± Murdin set off at a run, surprising Sen. He¡¯d been clearly limping earlier. The farmer took a moment to follow, and Sen set off after the two of them only a heartbeat later. The town administrator stayed behind, a concerned look on his face. Sen wanted to be annoyed that he wasn¡¯t helping, but supposed finding Murdin quickly had been helping.

    The man probably wouldn¡¯t have been much help against tanbinos anyway, considering they were the name for stone wolves here. Creatures that formed from the ambient magic that coursed through the world like wind, and somehow developed a need to eat just as true as any living creature. They often hunted in packs, but unlike normal wolves they enjoyed eating the wheat grown in nearby farms. It was an odd aspect of their biology that didn¡¯t seem to have any clear reason, but it didn¡¯t change the fact that it was a problem right now. They were also dangerous, and aggressive against almost any other living thing.

    Murdin ran at an impressive speed, surprising Sen once more. It was clear he could go faster, and Sen already struggled to keep up. He wasn¡¯t out of shape, by any means, and he realized the farmer was struggling as much as him. They weren¡¯t running at a sprint, but close to it, and still Murdin seemed, for all his age, like they were the elders in this odd group.

    Sweat beaded on Sen¡¯s arms as they passed over a hill, and he saw a large field sweep across the earth with the yellow of tall grains peeking up from the ground. A house and several other buildings of varying sizes sat in the distance, next to the field.

    A pack of tanbinos lurked near the edges of the field. Nearly a dozen stood or napped, some eating the grain without a thought, others napping in the sun. Murdin raised a hand, bringing himself to a halt.

    ¡°That¡¯s a lot,¡± he said, a note of annoyance in his voice. ¡°Where is your family?¡± He turned to the farmer and asked.

    ¡°They¡¯re all in the house,¡± he answered. Panic shown on his face. ¡°Are there too many? Will my family be alright? My cows?¡±

    Sen frowned at the man. He couldn¡¯t even see any cows.

    Murdin put a hand on the man¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Relax. It¡¯s more than I expected, but we¡¯ll manage. Your family will be fine so long as they don¡¯t come out. Your cows, as well,¡± Murdin said after the man frantically tried to interrupt him again, worried. ¡°So long as your family stays out of sight, they¡¯ll be fine. They are monsters, but if they don¡¯t see anyone, they won¡¯t start searching.¡±

    The farmer nodded, though his face still showed worry and concern as he looked toward the house. Sen heard him lightly murmur something about his cows.

    ¡°Sen,¡± Murdin called quietly. He reached into a bag and pulled out several stones. ¡°How¡¯s your throwing arm? Or can you use a sling?¡±

    ¡°I can throw,¡± Sen said.

    ¡°Good. Take these. Be extremely careful with them - grip them too tightly, and they can explode in your hand.¡± Sen¡¯s face paled, but he accepted the handful of stones. They were small and smooth and flat, stones that skipped well when thrown across water. The glyphs engraved onto the faces were clean, but simple.

    Murdin pulled out a wooden bar engraved all over with glyphs. Next, he pulled out a pair of blunt stones that vaguely reminded Sen of blades. Blunt, useless blades.

    Murdin took out one more item, a small metallic stylus. He engraved a single small line into both of the stone pieces, then fit them together, a small outlying nub fitting cleanly into a pit in the second piece. He repeated the process with the wooden piece, forming the shape of a sword. He added a final glyph, only slightly more complicated than a square, and Sen¡¯s jaw dropped in awe as dust fell from the  stone, forming into a blade. It gleamed sharp in the sunlight, as though polished to a sheen. The farmer gaped as well, eyes blinking in disbelief.

    Murdin pulled out a small knife, this time made of metal and all in one piece. He handed it to Sen. ¡°Use this if any of them come for you. I¡¯m going to engage,¡± he said, ¡°and you¡¯ll throw those stones at any of the tanbinos on the edges. Hide in the field so they don¡¯t come after you. Try not to throw any of the stones near me, if possible.¡± Sen nodded, and Murdin turned. ¡°Stay here,¡± he called over his shoulder to the farmer.

    Sen turned to the farmer as well. ¡°Behind a tree, or if you can, climb up into the branches. Just in case.¡± The farmer nodded, but Sen didn¡¯t stay to see if he followed orders. Murdin was already off, and Sen dove into the field.

    It was much easier to see what was going on from the top of the hill overlooking the farm, and Sen felt lost in the depths of the field. Each grain stood taller than him, but he used the angle of the sun to keep his bearing as he headed toward the pack of tanbinos.

    He heard hisses and growls from several of the stony creatures as he followed along. Murdin spoke without emotion in his voice, pulling their attention. ¡°Come on, time to play, little mutts.¡± It took only a short moment for the first sounds of a clash to resound, and Sen crept forward, trying to get a line of sight so he could find his first target.

    He lightly moved aside several grains to see Murdin had already cut down one of the creatures, dirt and stone fallen inert along the edges of the field. Sen gripped one of the stones, then threw it sideways, spinning the stone in air. It landed directly on one of the creatures, toward the back of the pack.

    Whatever he had expected, the explosion surprised him. It was only a light cracking sound, like snapping a small branch. However, the explosion immediately killed several of the nearest creatures, and the one that had been hit directly with the rock simply ceased to exist, immediately collapsing into a pile of dirt and stone.

    The creatures were eerily quiet, beings that felt no pain. One limped not out of agony, but because its leg simply no longer existed, turning to the field, looking for Sen. He ducked back into the field, then tried to relocate further down, away from the majority of the group. Nothing came after him, so he waited a moment before peeking once more.

    Murdin had been busy while Sen moved. Two more of the creatures lay in a heap on the ground, and Sen noticed the man¡¯s sword moved smoothly to protect himself from two creatures as they bit at him. One final creature managed to overwhelm him and bite down on his arm, but its teeth seemed to stop immediately as they met his cloak. Sen saw an opening and lobbed another stone, trusting himself to let it fly over the top of Murdin¡¯s head. It flew true, but missed his second target by a small distance, landing on the ground.

    It didn¡¯t save the tanbinos, dropping three more. That left only about four of the creatures, and Sen had one more stone. Three were still focused on Murdin, but one died even as he watched. Sen continued to wait, watching for any more openings. Seeing what the stones did to the creatures, he didn¡¯t want to chance what might happen to Murdin himself.

    Watching as the fight continued, Sen realized there was nothing more to worry about. Murdin moved with ease and confidence, the glyphs on his stone sword filled with the blood-dirt-substitute. Two of the monsters lined up, and Murdin pulled his blade into a two-handed attack, then swiped through both of them with ease.

    Sen knew he wasn¡¯t fantastic with a sword, but he¡¯d thought he was okay. Murdin, however, must have been the most skilled swordsman he¡¯d ever seen. He danced around each of the creatures with an ease that Sen doubted he¡¯d ever be able to match, even if he managed to recover some of the enhancement spells he heard about in his old life - but never had the skill to actually cast himself.

    The battle ended after only another minute, the tanbinos lack of pain preventing them from feeling fear and running away, if natural mana constructs like them could feel fear at all.

    Murdin heaved a deep breath as the last of the tanbinos fell to the ground, then looked toward Sen. His gaze pointed directly at him, despite that Sen still lurked in the tall field, barely visible. Sen stepped out, and Murdin nodded at him, a slight grin on his weathered face. ¡°Good work,¡± he said. There was no sign of tiredness on his face, and if anything, Sen thought he looked more lively now than before they had left the town.

    ¡°That was incredible,¡± Sen told him. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen anyone use a blade like that.¡±

    Murdin answered him with nonchalance. ¡°It¡¯s been a while, and I¡¯m rusty. One of them got me,¡± he said while checking the fabric on his arm for damage. ¡°Lucky this is enchanted,¡± he muttered softly.

    ¡°Those were some nice throws,¡± he added, looking up from the sleeve. Murdin¡¯s eyes flicked behind Sen, and footsteps revealed the farmer running up to them.

    ¡°You did it! Thank you, mage Murdin. I don¡¯t know how I¡¯ll ever pay you back.¡±

    Murdin held up a hand. ¡°No need for all that. This is my job, even if I don¡¯t have to work quite so hard normally.¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± the farmer said excitedly. ¡°Milk! I can get you free milk for the next month!¡±

    Murdin eyed the man, but diplomatically turned him down. ¡°There¡¯s no need for that,¡± he said.

    Murdin took a deep breath, looking over the piles of dirt. He kicked at one of them, sending several heavy rocks flying into the field of tall grains. After a few more attempts to express his gratitude, the farmer excused himself. He ran off toward his farm. Oddly, Sen noticed he entered the barn first, not the house.

    ¡°Now then,¡± Murdin said, stuffing the stone sword into the sash around his waist. ¡°I want to know how these got here. We need to check the wardstones around here.¡±