Soul Contract and Magic

After a couple of seconds, the abundant white light receded, Giving them back their vision.

What took the previous somewhat standard, yet old contract's place was a new one, It's appearance now being blood red with dark yellow inscriptions looking like molten gold.

Upon witnessing the sight, both Lillian and Alexander were left dumbfounded.

Before they could react at all, the contract exploded in two motes of light, each heading to their perspective heads and taking place unto the area between their brows.

When it contacted Alexander's forehead, at first, he felt nothing but a little light-headed, but when the wooziness started subsiding, he felt a low pain in the area like a bee had stung him.

What was left behind between his brows was a 1cm small ember-like marking, making him look a bit exotic.

Looking at the bird called Lillian, she had a similar marking, but where his own was a bright exotic red, hers was a pure white one.

Alexander looked at Lillian and asked:

"Is that supposed to happen?"

The bird didn't respond at all, all it did was stare at the grassy ground, muttering something inaudible.

Seeing it acting soulless, Alexander got worried and talked to it again:

"Oi, what's wrong with you? Is there something wrong with the contract?"

The bird lifted its little head, its small orange beady eyes now being dim, it answered with a mutter-like voice:

"Soul contract."

Not hearing well due to its low voice, he came closer, crouched down in front of the bird and said:

"Are you okay? I couldn't hear what you said, what happened over there? Why did that thing turn red? Is that normal?"

Lifting her small head, she looked at him; enraged ones replaced the previous soulless eyes.

She flapped her wings and charged at him, pecking his head over all the place, making him fall to his butt and crawl back in surprise, he screamed in pain while trying to back off.

Not caring about his scream of pain, she relentlessly chased after him, not leaving him any breathing space at all.

He tried slapping the crazy bird away, but all he got was him looking like a clown waving his arms around while she nimbly dodged him.

He barked when blood ran down from his forehead near his eye: "ENOUGH! Are you trying to gouge my eyes out you stupid thing?! You think I won't burn you to like a roasted chicken?!"

Hearing what he said about burning her like a chicken, Lillian got even more incensed, she stopped pecking at him and backed off, she thundered with a voice that could spit venom:

"Roast me like a chicken? You did what you did to me, and now you want to roast me? Hehe, good, good, very good."

Hearing her tone of voice, he got a chill down his spine, removing his hands from his head, he looked up where the bird,

Lillian had started channeling mana into an enormous bright red magic circle; his eyes changed, so he looked at the inscriptions that read "Flaming spear blazing with the unforgiving inferno of Tartarus, burn my foes to ashes."

Reading the ominous words, Alexander widened his eyes and shouted:

"Stop! What did I ever do to you? Do you want to kill me or something?!"

Seeing how clueless he looked of the situation, Lillian got more incensed, channeling more mana into the circle, she shouted:

"You dare ask what you did!?"

Out of the circle, came a blazing red spear, its body was black like its made from Obsidian with the tip being a dark black-red material with various hooks looking like shark teeth.

The spear light up in a dark black flame, shooting in lightning speed towards Alexander.

On Alexander's side, he started comprehending the process of the spear's creation, but he didn't have to digest what he was witnessing at all, While he could follow the spear's trajectory with his eyes, the rest of his body didn't respond.

Thinking that it was over, he closed his eyes and waited for his end to come.

After a couple of seconds of quiet, feeling weird, he opened up his eyes and saw that the spear had miraculously gone through him and stabbed itself unto the ground behind him.

Blinking his eyes, he looked from the spear back to Lillian,

Lillian was standing on the ground 2 meters away from him, looking calmer but still furious, cautiously he asked:

"You spared me?"

Still angry, she said:

"Spared you my ass! It's the result of that stupid Soul contract! If I could, I would turn you to cinders!"

Hearing her repeat that term he asked in confusion:

"What is that Soul contract thing you keep ranting? All I did was accept the terms on the stupid scroll as you said!"

Seeing as she was just blankly staring at him, he shouted:

"Well?! I accept the contract and the next thing you know, it blows up, then we have you going crazy and trying to kill me!

What is all that for? Did I mess something up?"

Seeing that he was genuinely ignorant of their predicament, she responded with tiredness sporting her voice:

"A Soul contract is unlike a normal one."

Looking deep into his pupils, she went on:

"I don't know what happened to your eyes during the sealing process, but somehow they changed the fundamental nature of the scroll."

She then looked at the bright spot between his brows and continued:

" They changed the terms and existence of the agreement into that of a Soul oath; a Soul oath is a binding force between two individuals with the utmost of punishments in case of being broken, Death."

Coming even closer to him, she resumed:

"A soul oath unto a contract makes a Soul contract; it seems that we are bonded together permanently if one of us dies, the other does too. Now, do you understand why I am mad, boy?"

Hearing what she said, he widened his eyes and shouted:

"What! If you die, then I do too? We must cancel it! that won't do!"

Seeing how panicked he was acting, she got incensed again and bopped his head with her beak, saying:

"I would do that in the first place if it were possible! We are tied together now! And why are you the one scared in the first place?! It should be me! You are the weakling here!"

Hearing that, he grumbled a bit but didn't refute. Instead, he asked:

"So? What do we do now? you want to get into the human territory, and I want to get out of here, do we proceed?"

Staring as if she wanted to pierce through him with her gaze, she said:

"Proceed? I should lock you up back at home! If you do anything stupid, I'll get caught up in it too!"

'But no, if daddy sees me in this state, who knows what he will do.'

After a small pause, she said:

"Ok boy, I will take us out of this place, and we will proceed as we previously agreed, instead though, We. Will. Stick. To-ge-ther, is that understood?

Hearing her words, he was mildly amused, he stood at attention and mocked saluted, shouting:

"Yes, Madam!"

Seeing that he was obedient, with a "Hmph.", She went on by saying:

"Seeing as your signature is only at the level of a beginner mage and how we are stuck together, a training session is in order."

With that, she flew over at his head and perched herself there.

"Before that, do tell, boy, What spells do you know other than the fire arrow barrage?"

Furrowing his brows, he said: "None."

She closed her beady eyes and replied while muttering:

"As expected."

Opening them up again, she drew a breath and said:

"Okay, I don't have the proper equipment here to test your affinities, but we do know for now that you can cast spells of the fire element."

She thought for a while and said:

"I will teach you some basic beginner fire spells and if there no problems, another apprentice level, when all of that is over, we will take a detour and go at some monster territory near a small human settlement to train, got it?"

At the bird's arrangement, having no significant disagreements, he just nodded.

Lillian then said: "If you copied the magic circle as you said previously in one look, this wouldn't take long, but I'll go ahead and explain the standard procedure that an apprentice undergoes to learn magic, seeing as you are seemingly ignorant."

While he was excited to learn his first actual magic (other than the one he copied), Alexander paid proper attention when the bird talked about magic theory.

While he had made some assumptions from what he'd heard the bird say previously regarding his comprehension in magic, Alexander thought it would be a good thing to learn some basics, so that he doesn't stand out until he gets capable enough to protect himself.

The bird started:

"When humans want to become magic casters they begin by having undergone calligraphy lessons since childhood; I'll tell you more on that later."

"As for the actual magic lessons, they first have to feel the magic power around them by meditating, that process varies on one's talent, I've heard some human geniuses can feel it the first 3 minutes, while others take up to 3 days."

"How long did it take you?" He asked.

Lillian then moved from his head to his shoulder and snorted:

"Hmph, don't compare me to those weakling humans, I could use magic the moment I was born."

Clearing its throat, it went on:

"So as I was saying after they feel the magic around the environment, they gather magic power, condensing it at their abdomen."

"When a sufficient amount has gathered at their abdomen, it breaks out throughout their whole body, spreading the magic power at every inch, making them have the magic power of a beginner spellcaster."

"There's a difference between having the magic power of one and being one though."

"Now, having the proper mana reserves, they can put their calligraphy to test."

"As learning to become a mage is a dangerous thing, they don't cast the circles on the get-go, they have first to learn how to draw the spell on a magic paper, why you ask? Well, when inserting mana into the paper, a simple mistake can cause the spell to go in a poof or at the worst case, explode. Now imagine that happening to your body."

Hearing what Lillian said, a chill went down his spine.

Unaware of his feelings, she went on:

"After a person has successfully drawn the spell into the paper, you have a magic scroll, said magic scroll is a mobile version of the drawn spell."

"Human mages can sell those to earn back what the whole thing has cost them, depending on the quality and make a profit, Anyhow, when the scroll is ready, they test the magic through it, if it works as desired, they can cast the spell freely if they are proficient."

"That's all there is to it, for now, I'll leave how you can break through to a higher rank later since you don't have sufficient mana or magical knowledge."

She took off from his shoulder and flew in front of him saying:

"I want to confirm your ability, so I'll cast some basic beginner spells for you to see, are you ready?"

With even more focus he nodded sharply.

Seeing him confirming Lillian lifted her wing and in less than a second, called forth a magic circle that materialized a small flame.

When she started casting, Alexander's eyes were beginning to shine blue with intertwining matrixes, making everything in slow motion to his perception, from the mana's movement to how the circle formed and when it was time for the flame to come to life, he had already memorized the procedure.

Seeing the change in his eyes, Lillian didn't say anything but was instead stuck staring at the various matrixes and glyphs shining and constantly switching, falling into a daze at the seemingly infinite number of combinations held within.

She broke out of her reverie when Alexander extended his arm and cast the very same spell in perfect imitation making her tongue-tied:

'As expected, he is a genius, also those eyes of his... I haven't heard of such innate ability before.'

She regained her calm and said:

"Very well, it seems you have talent in magic; this spell's name is Ember, one of the simplest one to fire beginner spells, it's good for lighting up a camp-fire I suppose."

Snuffing out the flame, she beckoned him to do the same and went on:

"This next one is called fire arrow, and it's a less complicated version of the fire arrow barrage you've seen previously."

The same thing happened when she cast the circle. Alexander memorized it instantly, the spell result being an arrow of flame coming out and embedding itself with a whoosh of fire.

She looked at him, and he did the same, moving his mana he cast a perfect copy making a similar arrow strike at the ground.

Seeing the same result twice didn't make it any less amazing for Lillian, so she exclaimed:

"Good, right, that was an excellent fire arrow, I'll teach you an intermediate spell for the last one instead."

And so, Lillian cast a circle that was a little longer this time, calling forth a spell that looked like the previous Ember.

But whereas the Ember was the size of a tennis ball, this one was the size of a football, with a whoosh, a trail of flame was left behind, the spell hit a nearby tree making a fist-sized crater on it and setting it ablaze.

Alexander watched the whole process with mild amazement at his part but broke out of it quickly and looked at Lillian in askance.

Seeing his look, Lillian just nodded and said:

"You can go ahead and try it; you probably won't faint this time , for some weird reason, your mana reserves grew a bit since the last time you fainted, so it should be fine."

Getting her confirmation, Alexander focused on his mana and the previous magic circle he wittnessed, calling upon his mana, the matrixes in his eyes started spinning a little faster making the magic circle materialize almost as quickly as Lillian's nearing a second worth of casting time.

Seeing how quick the circle materialized, Lillian was still astonished at how talented he is.

Alexander having the circle ready, aimed it towards another nearby tree, and with another fiery trail, the ball came into contact with it setting it ablaze.

Heaving a breath, Alexander staggered a bit, feeling exhausted at using his consecutively, but he nonetheless stood his ground.

Seeing him remain to stand, she nodded at his state of mind and said:

"Job well done, that spell's name Fireball; it's one of the most used fire spells for apprentices, you'll probably see it often."

After saying that, she went over to his shoulder again and said:

"Okay, seeing as that you now know some spells to protect yourself, we can go simulate real combat against monsters near human territory, I'm going to cast advanced magic of my race, be prepared."

When she said that, flames burst out around like a cyclone, twirling and twisting until it went out with a fiery bang, leaving behind only scorch marks as their only trace.