2 Chapter 1 (2/3) - Dawn, Alrkmard, the Little Girl and the Ghost

Magic, a word that many people could relate to, that many people could use to explain that which was unexplainable. For many people, it was something that was used as a joke, for amusement. Were there worlds that didn't have magic? What were they like? Would they still know about this abstract word?

But here in Omera, magic was very real. It was a part of the lives of everything that lived in Omera, there were only a few places where it wasn't present.

But what was this magic? What was it really?

This was a question that piqued the minds of many yet still remains unanswered. The only thing that was unanimously accepted was that magic was unexplainable, so the unexplainable was termed magic.

If you asked someone to do a magic trick then he wouldn't just swallow or breathe fire, but he would concentrate for a moment, then bring out his palms and then with a burst, flames would rise from his palm.

That was magic.

It was intriguing for many, and as the research continued many things were discovered but in the end, it was only enough to fill a puddle compared to the vast sea of magic. But that puddle was not to be underestimated, it was probably enough to destroy Omera.

And right now, maybe it was a little particle of that puddle that almost killed me, but to us, that puddle was a world.

Could I really say almost? Was it aimed at me? Right now I could hardly defend myself, even standing up was not possible. This was definitely not my weakest state but all I could do was wait for something, like,

"Aaaaaah! The fountain broke!" Yeah, something like that.

The cry of a girl came as she herself was running towards the fountain. I turned my head to the side and saw her coming from what seemed to be the east side of the square, there was a sign on the lamp post.

With the setting sun giving the square a deep-blue glow, I could finally see her clearly as she came closer.

A little girl, maybe at a height the level of my chest, most girls that tall would be 12 - 14 years old.

She was wearing a grey skirt covering her knees and a white shirt with sleeves to her elbows, her clothes seemed quite dusty and I could see the deposition of ash on it. Her black shoes were also quite dusty.

Wait, was that really ash? There was some kind of black dust that had got on her clothes, the same black dust was also on the rubble from the broken fountain. That could only be formed from incinerating the impurities of the stone, a rare thing. Don't tell me she was the cause?

With her footsteps ringing in the quiet square, she went near the broken fountain, close enough that I could see her clearly now and yes I was quite amazed.

Her blonde hair fell like a waterfall down her shoulders and went to her waist, she had long eyelashes and her eyes had a murky-yellow colour to them, added with her white face and pink lips she was just like a doll, a little beauty that would be loved by all, well, almost all.

For me who almost died because of her, I could only stare at her in cold sweat, just what kind of thing did she do?

Then she looked around with a worried face she looked around and finally saw me, yes, I actually wasn't invisible, to be more worried about stone than a human, was this girl not quite right? or was it me?

Anyway, now that she saw me I could finally ask her about...

"Ahh! Someone saw me! Oh no, if Mother Franklin found out about this then I definitely won't get out of trouble so easily. And to think I just had a chance to sneak out. Eh, wait! Mister, are you fine? Did you get hurt?" She just had to say that like I was a pest.

She came over with the same worried expression, let's hope this time she's actually worried about me and not being 'found out'. No, wait, that would be asking for too much, even old Koft wouldn't be worried about me much less her.

"Mister are you really fine? Do you feel any pain anywhere? Like you feel really hot or like you're getting burned or something?" Ah! Someone actually did care about me, it really felt good to...

"More importantly did you see what happened? Did you? You didn't right?" get your hopes crushed.

"No, I didn't," But I didn't need to see to know what happened, she said everything herself.

"He didn't then that's fine, with this there's no evidence that I did it. In other words, I didn't do it and they can't prove me wrong." Now she was mumbling in her own world probably thinking I couldn't hear her, just my tough luck that my ears were sharp.

"Anyway, mister, what are you doing here? Don't you know no one ever comes to this square anymore? They all go to those new places like that Mage Park or Ferry Wheel and,"

"Is that why you were practising your magic here at the square?" I cut her off as she tried to shake off the subject at hand.

"Eh!?" Seems I was right. She was really smart for a little girl but I was not that so easily tricked, but even so if it weren't for my body giving me the least bit of comfort then I'm sure that I wouldn't even bother about this and just collapse on the bench again, since there wasn't even anything so life-threatening. It was probably that I couldn't get out of the mindset of clinging to dear life from running from all types of dangers. But this piqued my interest, really made me curious.

"But you said you didn't see," she replied. Now she was looking at me like a scared cat. Was I really someone bad?

"I didn't have to see to know that you just fired a 'Fireball' and lost control over it. But could that even be considered a fireball? If you made one then you might have succeeded but you tried too much at the same time so that's why you failed."

The little girl was a fire mage, that was quite rare. Most people in this world, no, it wouldn't be wrong to say that normally all the people in this world were 'force' mages. They could only use magic as a type of external force on things, like for example, moving objects with magic and stuff that could be done physically, the only thing different was that they made contact with magic or in this case, mana and that physical limitation were not applied, but instead magical limitations.

And as for mana, well it was the fuel that one used for magic. All living things in Omera had mana in them, even the dead would have mana in them. It was said that mana was needed to live, that everyone had mana that was also used to supplement life. Mana was the one with the mental connection and that blood was the physical connection. A mage would either store mana inside them and use it for magic, or use the mana from the surroundings. Both were only possible if said person had mageforce.

Mageforce was still the most abstract term for people. It was the mana core of said person and thus present at the 'core' of the person. For humans, it would be at the centre of the chest. Mageforce was what made it possible for a person to control mana, and thus magic. Mageforce mostly concerned the 'control' of the person.

So collectively, if magic was a water gun, then mana was the water, and mageforce was the contraption.

And there were also people who had a special element to their mana, gained either at birth or a mutation. For instance, the little girl here had a 'fire' element to her mana, thus she was a 'fire' mage. As for control, well, I'm not too sure if others agreed but most 10-12 year old children would only start to learn how to control their mana. And then move to spells when they reached 14, one such spell was 'Fireball' but this was solely for fire mages.

And so the little girl before me, seemingly around 10-12 years could only be said to be talented, really talented.

"I wonder what Mother Franklin would say if she heard that you broke this fountain, she might be really angry and..."

"Please Mister, don't! If you tell Mother Franklin that, then she would be really angry! And if she gets angry, then I won't be able to go out again. If that happens I won't be able to play with other children and also eat sweets from the shop and explore the city. And if I can't do that then I won't be able to..."

"Okay, okay, I won't tell Mother Franklin." To be cut off before I could even finish, seriously, was I the villain or the victim here? "But instead, you have to answer my questions okay?"

I could only stop here for the moment tears were threatening to fall from her moist eyes and she was holding back her sobs. If anyone saw me I'm sure I was in for a beating, but luckily the square was 'empty'.

"You promise?"

"Yes I promise, I really won't tell anyone. You just have to answer my questions and that's all."

"Okay! Now, what do you want to ask?" Now she was smiling like she never was sad in the first place. Damn! I got scammed. Such a smug girl at only this age, I'm sure after a few years a lot of people would have their hearts broken.

"Well introductions first, it feels uncomfortable talking to a stranger."

"But mister you haven't even said your name yet."

Eh? That's right I haven't even done a proper introduction yet.

"The name's Ashwaal, Ashwaal MurkVeil. What's yours?"

"Eville Olsmer" Olsmer? I haven't heard that before.

"Mr Ashwaal, how old are you?" Doesn't she know its rude to ask someone's age?

"I'm 15 this year, why?"

"Then can I call you big brother Ashwaal? After all, I'm only 10 this year so that makes you the older one, and so you should be taking care of me, right?" The persuasion power of this 10-year-old was immense, I could hardly resist saying yes to that smiling face, a shame I wasn't a good guy.

Wait, did she say 10? Then why was she...

"Okay you can call me that, but first things first, can you tell me about your parents?" If she was this talented then it definitely had to do with her parents, I'm sure that they weren't faceless people but I hadn't heard of the family Olsmer before.

"Um, about that..... I've never really met my parents, I've only heard about them from Mother Franklin and also from some of the sisters at the orphanage. That they were from the west and came here to live, that they suddenly disappeared one day without telling anyone, the only thing they left was a note that they would be back."

"Don't tell me you don't even know their names?"

"Mother Franklin wouldn't tell me, forbade it even. I know she did it for me because she feared that I would try to find out about them but still..." And now I was just making her sad again. Fine then, I was the villain here, but the best way to deal with it was being a villain.

But one thing was clear, she was from the west, might be born there even. The important thing was that she had their blood in her if her parents were strong people like I thought they were then she would have their blood in her. In fact, it might be because of this that she was growing really quick.

"Then what about magic, doesn't Mother Franklin know that you're learning magic?"

"Of course she doesn't, no one does. If I told them, then I'm sure they would keep nagging me about it and if they're really serious then they might not allow me to learn magic for life. But I can't let that happen, I have to find my mom and dad." Her eyes shone with determination as she said this. Already being so determined at this age, others might praise her when they saw her but I could only see the sadness in her. The more determined she was, the more she would burn herself and in the end, only sorrow would be there if she fails.

"If no one knows about it then how did you learn to use magic? Don't tell me you learned it yourself?"

"Yes, I did. But I read about how to do it from this book." She pulled out a book from her backside, a thin book that looked really old, and there were stains all over it, it was incredulous that it was actually readable. She handed it over and I took it from her hand and flipped the pages.

"Mother Franklin gave the book to me, she said that it was the only thing my father left for me before he disappeared along with my mother."

As I flipped the pages, I was surprised to find that the writings were actually in ancient glyph. They were also called mage glyphs. As for why, well, they were writings of magic, a glyph alphabet or letter was writing with magic, one had to understand the magic to write the glyph, though they didn't need to be able to use it, but understanding how something worked was already difficult enough, to be able to write in glyph would be to know magic better than anyone else. At the present, though unclear I was sure that the people who could read the glyphs could be counted with my fingers, and those who could write them were even less in number. And to read them, well, for this one needed either to learn to read it or to be gifted at birth. It was hardly possible for it to be the former so she was probably the latter.

In the past, there were many that could write in glyph much less read them, but they have fritted away bit by bit and now only these few unknown people were able to write them, they would probably be those frightening old people whom I did not want to meet, they would only bring trouble and more trouble if I met them.

As for why I knew so much about them? Well, I could read them too, and no I was not the latter but the former.

"Eville you can actually read this?" This book was a really old one. It was only natural if she could read this and follow what it says then with her talent she would probably be one of those monsters even before the age of 30.

"Of course I can big brother Ashwaal, why are you asking me this?" She seemed confused, she should be.

"Just don't tell anyone else about it, and you said you got the book from this Mother Franklin, right?"

"Uh-huh, but don't worry, she gave it to me because I kept nagging her about my parents. She doesn't know that I can read it."

I had a hunch that this 'Mother Franklin' probably knows about her practising magic and being able to read the book. I had my own guesses too, for example, this square. It might have been empty for a long time but those new 'amusement' parks that they were building were no reason for people to stop coming here, for the square to be this empty. I guess I was the exception here, most traps and barricades didn't work on me after all.

Now what to do with this girl. Ay!? I have an idea,

"Then little Eville, how long have you been learning magic for?"

"Just a month, I started after Mother Franklin gave me that book." I had the urge to puke, just a month? The first time I learnt how to control mana I was stuck in making a sphere for 6 whole months, and it was the size of a marble.

"How about I teach you how to use magic?"

"Eh!? Really? You really mean it?" She seemed incredulous, but I hadn't even lied to her now did I? Nope I didn't.

"Yeah, I really mean it. I promise I'll teach you magic if you can show me around the city."

"But big brother Ashwaal even if you're not from the city then you should be able to move around if you get a map right?"

"Well..."

"Could it be that you're bad with directions?"

*Ack!* Hit the mark, it felt like being pierced with an arrow by a kid. And did I just see a glint in her eye? Now her smile gave me a bad feeling.

"Then big brother Ashwaal, what about this, I'll show you around town and follow you around anywhere you want if........ You take me in as your little sister."

"Huh!?" The hell was she saying?

"Of course I mean it like just treating me as your little sister, you don't have to take care of me all the time, just when I'm not staying at the orphanage. You can decline if you want but I'm sure you have someplace you want to go to, and if you were late, well, you know what'll happen don't you?"

Maybe if it were anyone else in my place then they would jump in joy if to get such a cute little sister, but for me, having such a smart little sister, I'm sure that I would be scammed to death.

But to say no, the last part of what she said really hit the mark again. I did have someplace to go, and I wasn't sure that this was it. As for being late, if that happened then that old hag would probably flay me alive while keeping me from dying. Just thinking about what she did when I met her was enough to drench me in cold sweat.

Even so to just take the responsibility of taking care of her like this wasn't possible. I had to say no, just had to say no. I just.....

"I.......okay, I accept your condition." couldn't risk pissing that old hag off, I could be said to already be a month late, I couldn't take more time.

"Very well big brother Ashwaal, please take good care of me." She smiled happily like any other child, her's was more beautiful when compared.

And with that, it seems I was now the bodyguard of the little girl. Can someone please tell me why fate is playing around with me?