Sevindris

Floating in a sea of nothingness, a girl found herself surrounded by strange symbols forming themselves of gray and bright yellow lights, hovering around her in a gentle swirl of ingenious ideas and unique dispositions.

The girl realized what was going on around her instantly; she was dreaming once more, and it was the best kind of dream. It was a dream of inspiration, fleeting yet profound, and she would do well to remember what her mind had brought her from the beyond; from the ethereum itself, she was certain.

She looked around, observing the unobservable, learning the unknowable, and seeing what made sure it remained unseen, whether by its nature or even conscious thought. Such were the secrets of magic.

With time, the sights of cryptic glyphs and indecipherable ideograms shifted into digestible knowledge of applicable methods and understandable phenomenon; the effects of her brilliant mind weaving even the most intricate of ineffable secrets into magical knowledge, deducing insight from the raw flows of the immaterial world beyond.

'My brilliant mind...' She scoffed inwardly at the ignorance of all those around her. They were blind to it, the truth of it all.

But not her, her eyes were trained past these very planes, even in her waking moments. None could understand her and her "unique mind", but she was not bothered much by it; she quite liked what the world had gifted her with, and liked even more how her and her alone was the sole beneficiary of such blessings.

Yet eventually, something had to interrupt her dream, and cut short the stream of most hallowed knowledge she enjoyed.

'Damnable fools...' She sighed as the wondrous symbols all around her began to tremble, softly at first, then quite violently. It would be quite some time before another dream such as this occurred once more, of this she was certain.

Eventually, the whole dream was made undone, and the girl was thrust outward unto the waking world once more, much to her chagrin.

"Lady Sevindris..." She heard a voice repeat. "Milady morning has already come... why are you asleep on your desk again... this behavio-"

"This behavior cannot be tolerated, yes..." Sevindris grumbled. "Yes, I hear you... foul mongrel..."

"If you hear me, milady, then please, come with me now. And there is no need for such uncouth language. If your Lord Phellegor heard this-"

"Have you any idea whatsoever what you have interrupted Phistra?" She muttered angrily as she reached for her desk, grabbing ink and as many papers as she could. The memories of that beautiful dream were already fading, she had to act quickly, lest she lost knowledge no other could find ever again.

"This again..." Her head attendant Phistrasil sighed, kneading her forehead with exasperation.

"I shall be done in a moment; you need not worry..." Sevindris whispered almost absentmindedly as she hastily scribbled symbol after symbol on the papers around her, ink smearing the desk and her clothes in black spots.

"Oh dear..." The head attendants sighed before turning towards the door. "Girls, I need some help... again..."

"No, wait!!" Sevindris shrieked as she saw from the corner of her eyes some five handmaids march straight into her quarters.

They walked with measured and practiced steps into the room and toward her desks, aiming to pry her away from her holy work once more. This was nothing short of blasphemy against the magical arts, she thought.

"Damn you Phistra..." She hissed as she accelerated her writing.

Yet the faster she drew the runes and glyphs shown in her dream, the faster the images lingering in her mind vanished into nothingness, and the more inaccurate her transcriptions were. This would not do at all.

"W-wait, just one more!!" She stammered as the handmaids grabbed her and dragged her away from her desk. "Argh... none of you will hear the end of this!!"

"Yes, yes, milady..." Phistrasil shrugged. "Now you must be made presentable posthaste, today is an important day for you. You, clean milady's desk."

"Define 'important' you ignorant hag!" Sevindris struggled still. "Hey! That is my laboratory you are violating! Argh... none of you understand a thing!!"

Yet she was powerless to resist, and her pleas, threats and insults fell on deaf ears as the handmaids got to work.

*****

A while later, Sevindris sat staring at her reflection in the icy mirror, seeing her face contorted into a severe scowl.

'How dare they treat me like that?' She grumbled inwardly. 'Fools, the lot of them!'

"Milady, you would not such a frown to taint your beautiful face." Phistra looked at her with concern.

She looked back at her reflection, seeing her gentle, oval face; her golden eyes; her soft, fair skin free of all blemishes; her pale, full lips, and her gleaming, supple silver hair. Beholding her own glamorous visage, a smirk found its way to her face. She was beautiful alright.

She knew Phistra was simply distracting her with a tried and tested method, yet at this point did not care much. She was fully sober now, and though she bemoaned the loss of such splendorous knowledge, so freely offered, she understood her responsibilities.

Not to mention that she looked positively glowing today. A better occasion for donning her new Ketraphine amulet could hardly be imagined.

And so, arrayed in robes of the finest silk and adorned with exotic jewels, Sevindris, daughter of Phellegor, one of the ruling families of Yvtar, was ready to start her day.

It was a distance to Master Flamegrasp's abode, but the walk there was never a dull one, as it only took a few minutes' walk from the Phellegor estate to reach the capital's northern spires. And ascending their gilded stairways of ivory stone, she found herself walking through the series of viaducts and overpasses that connected the tall spires and gave her a stunning view of the city below, domed roofs of ivory tinted pale blue by the morning light.

It was still early morning, the sun lazily rising through the horizon to bathe the realm of magic with her resplendent rays of light. Sevindris' gaze lingered on the sun, beholding its heavenly radiance, feeling its kiss on her skin and their connection through it. It filled her heart with warmth, knowing her patron was always there, watching over her. It also filled her with pride, pride for her element of Light.

'How I could gaze upon you for days...' She sighed wistfully.

"Milady, it would be unbecoming of you to arrive late." One of her handmaids chided.

She threw the girl a stern glare. Even now they followed her, and even now she had to tolerate their incessant interruptions. Was she not a great talent of Yvtar and daughter of one of its High Councilors? Who were they to tell her what to do?

She was well into the summer of her life now, at nineteen years of age, and she was only two years away from graduating from being a simple aspirant to becoming a true mage, thus becoming able to travel the world, to learn of its magic, and to see its many lights.

She sighed before turning away from the gorgeous sight of sunrise, heading further still northward.

Eventually the overpasses of the spires descended down into a sprawling grove of mystical trees, each having leaves shining with a different elemental color, bathing the whole grounds in an overbearing but still gentle enough magical aura.

She tried once more to focus on the trees' individual auras, trying to gleam some difference from them or to even pick out one from the greater symphony, but to no avail.

'There must be more to this...' She pondered.

She could feel the aura of the grove, a blend of elemental signals and different souls, letting her know that she was amidst magic, but not know exactly what kinds, of what intensities, and the specifications of their sources. In other words, a confusing mess.

She remembered her father and her mentor's words about learning to translate that mess, yet the memory did not ease her exasperation.

There had to be a power somewhere that could isolate the separate auratic masses of magic, she thought either by element, etherical signal, or by souls outright.

'But souls are such a vague thing... it could be a power of Origin... no, it must...' She concluded.

Absorbed in her own thoughts, she did not notice herself arriving at her destination, instead having to be jolted aware by her handmaids.

She reached her teacher's abode, a great tower nestled quite stealthily between the great trees of this place. She did not hesitate, and promptly approached the door, which opened to allow her entry along with her servants.

She didn't linger much on the sights of the tower's interior, instead navigating quickly through a few hallways until eventually finding a room containing a great, glowing purple orb suspended in midair; a teleportation locus that, upon resting her hand on it, instantly translocated the girl and her attendants to the peak of the tower.

She looked around the open-air amphitheater that was the roof of the building, concentric circles of seats, occupied by half a dozen students, surrounding a lower stage, which was occupied by her teacher.

She was late, yet took it in stride, ignoring that one imbecile's mocking gaze and walking toward her friends, taking a seat amidst them in silence while Master Flamegrasp paused his lecture.

"Lady Sevindris." He nodded toward her before resuming talking.

It was not anything particularly difficult, and so she could follow along just fine. The lecture slowly transitioned into applied exercises of intensity and control, both things Sevindris excelled at. The ease of things allowed her mind to wander back to what she had seen before, seeing even now the shapes forming before her eyes.

Though they were even more fleeting than usual, thanks to the meddling of a certain head attendant.

It took an hour after noon for the lesson to end. And though Sevindris breezed through the entirety of everything offered, the same could not be said for her friends.

The three of them were walking through the forest, nicknamed the Kaleidoscope, on their way back to the city proper to rest, relax, and generally have fun.

"You make it look so easy Sevi..." Her friend Kalisthel whimpered as the sphere of wispy, dark ether in her hands broke apart and faded away. "Why at this rate I shall be stuck learning others' spells... a mage without a legacy of her own... oh, the horror..."

"Come now, Kali. It is hardly that difficult, you just do this, and that... and there!" She declared as a sphere of golden yellow ether coalesced in her hands, forming a new, ready to use and memorize spell.

Granted, it was simply an alteration of one of her other spells, but it was still valid.

Meanwhile, Kali regarded her with a deadpan expression for a while before shaking her head in exasperation, her beady, black eyes filled.

"It is your fault expecting a manner of explanation from Sevindris of all people..." Sevindris' other friend Lurielin chastised.

"I know..." Nodded Kali. "At the very least it was not another of her arcane collections of symbols and runes that 'hold great meaning'. How will I learn proper control? Oh, I must simply follow what Sevi's runes say..."

"Hey!" Sevi rebuked. "I will have you know my symbols hold plenty of meaning. It is not my fault, or theirs for that matter, that you- Oh! He must be free now..."

Having remembered about this morning's dream, Sevindris rushed to one of her handmaids, deftly taking from her hands the papers bearing the runes she scribbled this morning, and then prepared to fly away.

"Will you really fly in robes?!" Luriel asked, arching her eyebrows at another of Sevi's 'bursts of eccentricity' or what have you.

"Right." Sevi nodded before sending blades of wind to cut apart her robes at the knees, turning it into an improvised, but still fitting skirt. A masterful application of her Windblade spell, much to the horror of her handmaids.

"The brightest mind of our generation huh..." Kali regarded her friend with exasperation once more, to which Sevi responded with a bright smile.

"See you at the Golden Terrace!" Sevi waved away before her spell took off, sending her flying westward, toward her father's study near the High Council's Zenith Tower.

"Milady!" The handmaids yelled after her.

"Stupid sunflower!" She heard a boy's voice from a distance away.

"Dirty imbecile!" She responded before flying away.

She soared upward, above the multi-colored trees of the Kaleidoscope grove and between the tall spires, feeling the wind pushing against her face and the sun's light caressing her skin.

'This is bliss...' She sighed inwardly, enjoying every second of her liberating flight bringing her above the boring mundane and closer to the sun's heavenly domain.

She simply could not wait for the day she could fly out into the world, but until then, she was stuck with boring lessons and punishments for violating the city's flight codes.

Leaving the spires' shadows, she passed by a few uninteresting districts before reaching the capital's inner domain. From there, it did not take long for her to locate her father's office and land on its balcony, ushering herself inside. The interior was quiet, save for the clacking of her sandals as she navigated toward where her father should have been at that moment.

"Father!" She called. "I had another dream!"

Her father was surprised for a moment but composed himself quickly, his bright white eyes crinkled into a smile. He seemed to have been expecting her, which was not surprising considering the time. Mage Lord Phellegor had an extremely busy schedule, and his daughter made sure to intrude on every moment of free time he had.

"Sevi." He rose from his desk. "Just in time..."

"In time for what?" She tilted her head.

"Oh, nothing you should worry about. So, what about that dream? What did you see this time?"

"Here!" She announced enthusiastically as she tossed the papers on the table and spread them out.

The two spent a while poring over the runes, drawing parallels between them and the common runologies of many elements they knew of, especially those of Light and Air. They referenced all manner of old books and ancient scrolls her father sourced, and as father and daughter delved ever deeper into their own little world, the desks and tables around them were gradually covered by diagrams, etchings, charts and calculations.

Sevi adored this, doing true magework with her father, practicing the scholarly arts that she would one day use to further unlock the secrets of magic. She could not fathom how some dedicated their lives to violence and bloodshed when there was so much to discover, quite literally right next door.

Granted, that "next door" did not truly exist, at least not in any actually describable way, yet when the circumstances were right, its ethereal presence could be glimpsed.

'Oh well.' She shrugged, focusing on the work before her, and thoroughly enjoying it.

However, all good things must come to an end, and the two eventually ran out of material to pore through.

"Hah..." Sevi sighed. "We are this close to making a breakthrough, but..."

"It is too fragmented." Her father finished her sentence. "It is certainly methodical knowledge of some sort, these clear runes attest to that, and it is definitely pointing toward something, yet we know not what, and we know not enough to even glimpse its direction. Fascinating indeed, yet confusing all the same."

"If only I had enough time to transcribe it..." She sighed again, this time twice as gravely. "Phistra keeps interrupting my dreams."

"She is only doing her duty, Sevi." Her father chastised her as he closed the journal in which he recorded his daughter's bursts of magical revelation.

"Perhaps we can-"

"No, we cannot." Levantros instantly rebuked. "We have already gone over this, my dear. Attempting to activate runes we have so little knowledge of is the height of foolishness."

"I know..." She turned away but did not stop grumbling. "If only I could see it again, now I have to wait for weeks, maybe months..."

"Actually... I might have an answer to that." Her father mused. "I may have devised a way of using my element to plumb into your dreams, or at least your connection to the ethereum. It may provide some answers."

"Truly?!" She snapped, instantly jumping at the opportunity.

She knew her father's element of Purity to have wondrous and unique powers. And from what she understood of those powers, she definitely saw a way to apply them to her dreams.

"But will it take long?" She asked, remembering her promise to her friends to meet later.

She was already quite late as it was, and even flying would not get her to the Golden Terrace in time if she dawdled for much longer.

"A preliminary test will not take much." He answered as he produced a vial of red fluid from one of his desk's drawers. "Here, drink this. Fear not, it will not put you to sleep, merely synchronizing our souls while I work my magic. We do not want you to miss your outing with your friends, now do we?"

Her eyes lingered on the vial and its contents. That stuff looked like blood, yet somehow even more... red... if that even made sense.

Regardless, she did not hesitate, taking the vial and quickly gulping its contents. It tasted strange, sickeningly sweet, yet not overbearingly so, somehow.

She felt around herself, using her ether sensitivity to get a feel for any changes the potion made.

"That tasted very strange. What would it-"

Darkness.

When Sevindris next became aware of herself, she found herself in complete and utter darkness. All around her was pitch-black darkness. Soundless, formless, tasteless, sightless darkness. At least it was not thoughtless; she was still there, somehow, and in some capacity.

But not for long, for after the confusion came panic, a great, great deal of panic. Fear gripped her, slowly at first, then with unfathomable rapidity it engulfed her whole being, drowning it in nothing but mute, inexpressible, mindless suffering.

She tried to scream, but had no mouth; she tried to cry, but she had no eyes; she tried to writhe, but she had no limbs; she tried to express her pain, the sheer agony of inexistence, in any way whatsoever, yet simply could not.

She stewed there, in that incomplete state, in the abyss beneath even death, for minutes, weeks, centuries, waiting out the torture inflicted on her, unable to hope it would end, unable to fear it would never end.

*****

Jolting awake, Sevi needed a few minutes to process where she was and the dream-turned-nightmare she had just experienced.

She was with Rethys, in the Valros estate, in the Kingdom of Voldren. It was their fourth week staying under the ice-wielding noble family's care now, and also the day of their departure to the kingdom's capital.

She took a few minutes to readjust, the sensations, or rather lack thereof, from her nightmare still fresh in her mind. Yet the relief of being back in the real world never fully came; those feelings were real enough, after all, and she was still as trapped as ever, even if she was now more in control.

The sensation of a shiver tried to come, yet still, she had no body to feel it.

'It was never this bad...' She whimpered as she tried her hardest to stifle the eldritch and daemonic shimmers subtly materializing around her, or rather around Rethys.

Fear began to grip her in its firm, cold grasp once more, and she took action before a panic spiral overtook her.

"Rethys..." She called out. "Rethys wake up."

He needed to awaken in any case to practice his elemental sense when no one was looking, and she doubted he would object to waking up a few minutes earlier.

"I'm awake..." Rethys eventually responded as he opened his eyes. "Is it time already?"

"It... very much is..."

And as she continued to talk with her unfortunate and unwilling partner, the taint of the nightmare began fading from her soul, replaced instead with normal, human emotion. Her mood instantly took a turn for the better, even if her conversational partner was the emotionally strained Rethys.

'Not that I am any better in that regard...' She sighed inwardly.

Many times was she exasperated by the boy's unwillingness, or rather inability, to cope with things. Yet she also couldn't help but be quite fond of him, as he did try his hardest when he put his mind to it.

Slowly the opportunity for the two to talk faded, as he had to take care of their business, what with Ester and the Valros family. And as she was left alone again, she found the silence to be a bit more bearable, also partly because she could pester Rethys whenever she felt like it.

'I should attune him to the Mind element.' She thought. 'Then we could actually converse...'

But that was a problem for another time. For now, she had the task of running their business from the shadows, taking care of things behind the scenes. The two needed much to get things done for themselves, and she would set an example for Rethys with her hard work.

From hallways to teleporter to the capital's changed scenery, she kept an eye on all of it, spying opportunities for the two using her Mind element scrying in combination with her Blood element's higher abilities to subtly manipulate things around them in their favor.

Yet suddenly, something interrupted her workings, a sight long forgotten, a hope long lost.

They had moved away from the permanently cloudy north, now in the more temperate climate of the capital, which she also suspected of being magically altered.

She looked upward at the stark blue sky, and then at the sight of the sun shining from it, down at the mortal plane.

'Oh...'

She gazed at the sun, at its golden light and resplendent rays, at its warm embrace that she could no longer feel, sadness and longing welling from deep within her.

Oh, how she wished she could cry.