Water, both Soft and Terrible

The rain started the next morning. Danielle woke up from the cold and dampness. Her neck crooked with soreness, so she reached to rub it. The raindrops settled gently across her view.

It wasn't a downpour. Enough still to make her uncomfortable. The drops spotted Melorandious' shoulders while he snored away. Danielle stepped closer to him. He didn't even stir.

I need a marker, Danielle thought.

Alas, there was no marker to be found. Danielle settled in for a damp but quiet morning. At least the rain served to clean her face and hands. Her hands grazed against the still-unusual horns.

She found the dress of the Rover still fitted nicely, although the stripes on the inside of the skirt confused her at first.

Maybe it highlights their steps in dancing? She thought.

But dancing turned back to the day before yesterday, which brought nothing pleasant. Danielle shoved the thoughts away into a dark, forgotten place. Sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees she was left with the rain and memories. Her roommates, her sister, and her job.

She'd been absent from her job without calling in.

"Well, I'm fired," she said.

A sort of pleasant feeling filled her. Stacking shelves while being treated like an ass was a hell of its own kind. Maybe she wasn't fired. Since time shenanigans ensued, like they usually did in world-traveling stories.

Doesn't time move differently in different places? She thought. What was it, Einstein thought about it? Do the rules of earth even apply here? How the hell am I going to get back when I don't even understand basic physics! Plus I'm being chased by murder machines while being led away by an even scarier murder machine!

She sat for maybe three minutes.

"Screw this."

Picking up her sword she started swinging it in a downward stroke. She had no idea if her movements were correct. But she figured getting familiar with holding the damn thing was better than nothing. Most importantly, she couldn't think extraneous thoughts.

I will return home, she thought as she swung down.

Only a day had passed, but the burning desire from yesterday that held her together already turned cold. How the hell would that happen?

An unbidden thought arose like a soap bubble in fat, destroying her resolve. She tried grabbing onto anything else to focus. A quick feeling of belated gratitude, what was fast becoming nostalgia, arose.

I miss waffles, she thought next.

Another swing where she remembered the warm jacket she had put up for summer. Next were warm showers. Getting coffee before her shift. The soft cold droplets faded away from focus.

The sword slipped out of her hand.

"Shit," Danielle said.

Melorandious pinched the bridge of his nose.

What is she doing? He thought. I give her time to rest and she seeks to beat herself up?

"Why don't you put that away?" Melorandious said.

"Why don't you teach me how to use it!" Danielle snapped.

Melorandious looked at her askance.

"We have a few days head start," Melorandious said, "depending upon when their unit usually communicates. If we're lucky, we could have a week. Unlucky, then they'll already be following us. While it is a necessity to rest, teaching you swordplay serves no purpose."

Danielle felt a snap of aggression.

He sleeps in, she thought, and acts like I'm insane for trying to learn how to defend myself when people are gonna kill us! He doesn't expect anything from me.

"You're just buying time for my mana to replenish!" Danielle said.

"Obviously," he said. "It's our best bet."

"But I'll be defenseless if—when they attack me!"

"Yes, but a few days of hasty preparation is just going to delude you into thinking you have a chance," Melorandious said.

"I helped last time!" Danielle said.

Her voice quieted as she reopened the memory.

"I—at least I distracted the last one."

She stood there feeling all the coldness of the rain. Melorandious stood and watched her face sink.

This isn't the time to press her about her reasons, he thought. Perhaps I can offer up an offering of peace.

"I'll tell you more about mana on the way if you'd like?" Melorandious said.

"Do we even have umbrellas? Or cloaks? Something to block out the rain?" Danielle said.

"We don't have cloaks," Melorandious said. "I didn't get that far."

"Fine," Danielle said, "tell me about how I can use spells."

"How would teaching you spells be any different than teaching you the sword?" Melorandious said.

The day was a repeat of yesterday. Walking, slipping, striding, and more walking. Always upwards, sometimes in streams and other times in mud, through the cold rain. The irritation lessened as Danielle's exertion increased.

Melorandious kept his word to teach her about mana, but most of it had filtered through her ears and left her memory without any trace.

What she desperately held onto was that there were different types of mana, all living things had mana, but nonliving things didn't. A tree held mana. Rocks and metal didn't. To make a spell on a tree you could carve into the surface, and as long as the tree held enough mana and the carvings articulated correctly, it would work. But rock or metal would need a material bonded to it to articulate the spell. Water carried mana.

Does that make water alive? Danielle thought. Is the definition of things that live in this world things that carry mana then?

But Melorandious had already jumped into another set of theories. Everyone held mana, but not everyone held the same amount. The ability to sense mana was completely unrelated to the amount of mana held.

"Does my mana count for anything other than as a battery then?" Danielle said.

"You'll have to define 'battery' for me first," Melorandious said, halting his lecture.

"Uh, you're using me like, a well, I guess?" Danielle said.

"All right," Melorandious said. "Even if you can't sense mana, if you inscribe sigils on yourself you'll be able to direct it. Sensing mana directly does cut out the frantic writing if you've not got anything premade on hand though."

Then he turned the conversation into a discussion about the different kinds of casting. Danielle first focused intently, but none of it was applicable to how to cast spells.

Most mages wrote sigils, but he never showed which sigil did what. He told her that Magi could sense mana and control it, but not how they did that. Certain ingredients could be mixed, but not what ingredients should be mixed to improve it.

Danielle found herself checking out of the conversation, instead dazedly watching the trees and bushes shiver in the wind. The rain had let up for now, but the clouds stayed.

Melorandious continued constantly speaking, but she could not bring herself to focus on his words. Instead, she observed his behavior. He glanced up constantly at the sky and behind them.

On the first day, Danielle had retained enough energy to worry. On the second day she flipped underneath the tree Melorandious chose and was asleep within a few breaths.

Melorandious watched her with silent approval.

Barraging her with information seems to keep her out of trouble, he thought. How she lived so long without any understanding of mana is beyond me, but at least the basics aren't anything that can hurt her. I don't have to iron out any misconceptions either.

He took a long stick and began writing in the dirt in a circle around their sleeping spot for the night.

Waking up with her face to the dirt Danielle felt weary. Like a towel wrung out to tearing. It was almost a comfort to her. Total exhaustion made her cease trying to find out how? She could only move, so she only moved.

Thunder echoed in the distance. With the shadow of the clouds and rain, her sense of time was lost. Intriguingly, she was dry.

Melorandious leaned against the tree he had chosen last night. The rain streaked across an unseen barrier. It bothered her.

"You didn't say you could do that yesterday," she said.

"It wasn't worth it yesterday," he said. "You should watch your steps still."

"Are we actually going to walk in this?" Danielle said.

Melorandious watched the sky passively.

"Yes," he said.

"Great," Danielle said.

"I've heard it's a pastime of magi to go storm chasing," Melorandious said. "They say that mana coalesces easily in these conditions. Ideal for spirits."

"And then we'll have to run from them as well as the hunters?" Danielle said.

Melorandious grinned. Danielle didn't see what was so funny.

"Maybe," he said.

After eating, they tramped up the mountain in the rain. Melorandious' spell kept the rain off their heads, but the mud and puddles still splashed on her skirt. It was a small improvement from the day before. Any hopes of the storm letting up were dashed as the rain pounded harder. Instead of shelter, all they discovered was a lake to circumnavigate.

Melorandious was quiet. Perhaps the strain of the spell kept him focused, or having to navigate through the storm. Danielle had a thin sheet of ice calm over her worries. The wind, thunder and Melorandious' pace didn't leave room for any doubt. Yet a wriggling part of her thoughts survived.

Is he using the sigils on his arm to stop the rain? Because he isn't moving his arms at all.

Lighting flashed, outlining every leaf. Melorandious and Danielle both paused, waiting for the following thunder. It roared out, closer than before. Danielle grabbed his arm.

"Can we really keep going in this weather?" She said.

"What are you worried for?" Melorandious said.

Why did this guy ever call himself paranoid? Danielle thought.

"We'll be fine," Melorandious said.

"I'm not fine!" Danielle said. "I'm following a lunatic away from one death into another! Can this barrier hold against lightning? Or one of us slipping to break our legs or necks!"

Melorandious started striding forward. Danielle felt the rain on her back as she struggled to keep up. She felt her internal calm shatter.

"Hey!" She shouted. "HEY! I've had it up to here with you jerking me around like this! If you've got some special trick then tell me! But don't force me to go along with you just because I'm ignorant!"

She jabbed her finger in his back in her rage, and he stopped.

"I followed you because I thought you were my best bet at home! But I can't trust you! You tell me as much about magic, but not a thing I could use! Am I supposed to trust you because you say you need my mana? When I don't even know how or when that might stop being true?!"

She caught his eye as he peered over his shoulder. A cold feeling sank into her. It wasn't anger she saw in his eyes, it was calculation. As she quieted, he looked forward again.

"Look," he said.

Danielle edged around him to look up front.

The trees cut through the sight of the lake, which they had been walking by it for the past hour. But now she noticed a glow upon it. The waves also lapped erratically. Danielle squinted. The thick rain and distance obscured her sight.

"It can't be a boat, can it?" She said.

"Try taking a few steps forward and looking," he said.

"So, that isn't it, huh," She said. "Ok, let me listen to you like I care. Wait, are those people?"

Two figures stood in the distance on the lake. One shone like a star, and the other wore the lake. It flowed around her like the most luxurious of dresses.

"What are they?" Danielle said.

Melorandious stepped closer to her.

"Spirits, if I had to guess," he said.

"What's with the guess?" Danielle said.

"They are too much like people," he said. "But, I've never seen a spirit before."

"Are they, dancing?" Danielle said.

The two figures circled each other slowly. The lake and the light seemed to be doing the most movement. The waves reflected the shine of the spirit.

"I have no idea what they're doing," Melorandious said.

The wind roared as the rain increased. Danielle shivered as the wind cut through her. Melorandious squinted as he tried to make out the figures clearer.

"Yeah, they're neat, but we need to leave!"

She pulled on his arm.

"I believe—

The lake beside them morphed into a head.

—we've gotten their attention."

The female spirit rose from the water, even as she herself was entirely formed of water. A head, a body, and a dress smoothed into being. Translucent eyes opened as legs fell to take steps into the earth. A long trailed skirt still connected her to the water of the lake.

Melorandious and Danielle stood stiff.

"Travelers, why do you bicker on my shores in this fine weather?"

A terrible feeling of uncertainty filled Danielle. Of course, she spoke first.

"I was the only one yelling," she said, "how is this weather 'fine' exactly?"

Her voice wavered with awkwardness.

The woman smiled.

"Oh, I forgot how the children of the earth enjoy their weather," she said. "But tell me, stray child, why are you yelling? You've made all the fish a disarray."

Danielle didn't correct the spirit's choice of address.

"I just wanted—

I'm tired of this place," Danielle finally said.

The woman drew her face down, near Danielle's. Even Melorandious looked small next to the spirit. His face behind Danielle held open-mouthed awe.

"What did my lake do to tire you?" she said.

"It's not the lake, it's this world," Danielle said. "I don't know hardly anything about it. Or what I'm doing in it."

"The world can be difficult," she said. "Even I find it so."

Over the spirit's shoulder, Danielle could see that other distant figure, glowing like lightning chained to form as it stood on the lake. Her kind face filled Danielle's vision, shaped from green water.

"Shall I take pity on you?" she said. "I take pity on the frogs without rain, so I shall take pity on the humans caught up in the storm."

"No, lady—

Melorandious finally spoke, but his voice was muffled by the crash of water. Both Danielle and Melorandious were dragged under. He caught hold of her arm. Her whole body was shoved and tugged along a current that moved to its own mind. Terror filled her mind as she swallowed water. A few short moments later and Danielle and Melorandious were spat out onto the ground of a cave. Melorandious struggled to sit up, as he looked around, wild-eyed.

"I'm sorry," Danielle said, as her throat burned with fresh air.

Melorandious turned to her, his eyes whitening with terror that she'd never seen before. The mistress of the lake walked out of the lake before them. She held that familiar orb in her hands, her soft expression from moments evaporated into an expression of rage.

"I seek to give you both refuge, and this is what I find?" she said. "A mana chain born from duplicity? And held by the one who tricked the other?"

Melorandious coughed out water. The spirit drew it out from him, absorbing it into herself without gesture or motion.

"Explain yourself, thief," she said.

Her eyes held an inner glow. It lit with more than the reflection of light upon water.