Year 1023 of the new calendar, Month of the Sun, 22nd day

I looked around the train station and sighed, finally, I’ll be able to visit my mother again. I recalled back to the events of the last couple of days, getting this train ticket wasn’t too hard, the sun was abnormally hot though. It should take me about two days to go to a small city near the town, and then walk towards it. Augustus was too far away to go to the border city, and a train would take far too long to arrive, so I quickly bought a teleport pass from Augustus to the capital of Gawain, Gingalain. I shudder just remembering the price for a two-way ticket, but it was a necessary expense for me to finally meet her. Gingalain wasn’t the prettiest city, it didn’t hold the historic sites and majesty that Augustus did, but it was a perfectly fine city that would make do. Besides, I wasn’t going to be in here for a long time anyway, just long enough to get on to my train.

Speaking of the train ticket, a wince came over me when I learned of its price as well — it wasn’t as egregious as the thirty pounds for the two-way ticket, but ten pounds was still a sizeable chunk of my savings. Ten pounds, that was the same price I paid for her, just thinking about it made me feel slimy and disgusting. I shook my head and looked at the time, it was only three in the afternoon and my train would arrive in thirty minutes. The train seat I bought wasn’t large, by any means, but it was still a private sector of the train; albeit, it was shared with a person, so I suppose the price is fair. The price of the more expensive tickets made me nearly vomit, it had to be a scam of sorts. Sighing again, I sat down on a nearby wooden bench, put my ticket on my lap, and put my backpack on the ground.

It only carried the essentials, things like magical study guides, and money, as I shouldn’t shirk on them even if I already held all the credits for this year. The light gently cascaded from the roof above me, which was made partially of glass, and a light breeze rolled past my cheek. A young boy sat next to me, he looked to be about the same age I am, yet slightly shorter. “Oh, you’re my bunkmate.”, he said in a slightly heavy northwestern Iabrun accent. He showed me his tickets, where the words 3E were sprawled upon them, “What luck, I can’t believe I met you so early. My name’s Derrick, by the way, what’s yours?” He was extremely chipper, his slightly chubby face made his smile seem warmer than it otherwise would be. I smiled at him and responded, “Mike.” He smiled and continued to talk, “Ah, Mike. Short for Micheal, I assume? Ah, no matter, I saw you with a magical book earlier, are you a student?” He was full to the brim with questions that burst out whenever he talked, “Yeah, yeah. Of course, Augustus Magical Academy.” He looked at me differently after I said that, “Really? You must be talented with magic, I’m no mage though, just a normal human.”

“Why do you ask, anyway, are you also a student?”, I asked him, mainly to avoid speaking on myself. From the short time I interacted with him, I could tell that he both liked to talk about himself and ask questions about others. “Oh, yes yes. Actually, I’m also from Iabrun, going to Augustus Law School now.”, he said and continued to talk, “You know, I wonder why the best schools always have the blandest times. It’s really bugged me for a while…” I tuned out his talking after a few seconds, he was talking about something unimportant anyway, and instead turned my attention to the other side of the train station. There were quite a lot of people here today, and I could see them on the other side, mainly doing mundane activities.

“Hey, hey. Did you listen to me?”, he looked at me and snapped his fingers. “Yeah, I did.”, I said and looked at the time, it was only three minutes until the train arrived. “I’m sorry for the long tangent.”, he said and looked at the time too, “Well, look at the time, it’s nearly time for it to arrive.” How someone could talk for so long was beyond me, but I suppose I had to share a room with him for the next two days. “Yep, yep. I must say, I’m pretty good at law myself. I actually have a test coming up, would you help me study for it?”, he asked me in a chipper voice, I could faintly hear the train coming, “Uh, sure.”, I said dismissively. His eyes lit up and went for a handshake, I didn’t stop it, “Why, thank you.”, he said rather loudly, attracting the attention of some other people here.

The train, which looked to be a fairly old model with all the charm it has compared to newer designs, arrived a minute later, and we walked abreast to compartment 3E. Derrick was the first to enter and look around, dropping the one suitcase he has under the one table in the room. Each compartment had three rooms in it, and they were fairly small but held a closet, one bed, a couch, a table with four chairs, and some books. “I call the bed.”, I immediately said, Derrick sighed and said, “Sure, I don’t have a problem sleeping on the couch.” I immediately fell down on the bed, it was surprisingly comfortable, “I’m going to sleep, don’t disturb me.”, I asked him, to which his response was a sad frown and a nod. Oh, the money for this, how was I going to recoup it all soon. With that thought stuck front and center in my mind, I slowly drifted asleep as the train started to move.

When I woke up, the scenery outside the window changed, it was now nighttime, and we were on a railway track that was curving around a mountain range. Gawain itself was mostly made of mountains, after all, so it was utterly unsurprising. “Wow, you're a heavy sleeper. I never could have slept through that. It's nearly midnight, you know?”, he said, and I looked down at the time, twenty minutes from midnight. “Well, do you wanna burn that midnight oil with me? I really need your help.”, he asked me, and seeing his warm expression, I nodded slowly and got out of my bed. With a yawn, I made my way towards him and sat down at the table, which was stacked high with his law books. “The test will be on units eight and nine, which encompasses code 49-51, chapters A-D in all three, along with subchapters A-F in code 51 of the Iabrun Legal Code.”, he told me. “Or, what laymen call laws surrounding immigration policy.”, he added after he saw my confused face.

He stood up and said, “I'll go get something to eat and drink, you want anything?” I shook my head, “Just water, thank you.”, as I opened up the massive textbook in front of me, this was going to be a long night. He came back shortly after with water, and some simple snacks to eat throughout our study session. With a yawn to get rid of my remaining drowsiness, I asked, “Can you explain the correct protocol involving a person fleeing political asylum according to Chapter B, subchapter C, in code 50?” He answered promptly, getting it completely correct, and like that, we spent the next few hours discussing the Iabrun Legal Code under the starlight shining through the windows. At four in the morning, Derrick still hadn't shown any signs of sleepiness, but I grew tired of the mundane legal texts. “Let's stop here for now, I have my own matters to attend to.”, I said and stood up for a stretch. Derrick jumped up and did the same, “Ooh, do you mean magical matters?”, he said after his stretch with a glow in his eyes.

I sighed and replied, “Yeah, I have things to work on. Magic isn't exactly the easiest.” Derrick looked up at me, “How can you do magic?” I sat down on the small couch and then reclined on it, pondering on whether to answer him or not. Derrick's eyes looked at me with a fiery passion, as if they could stay up another two days just to riddle me with questions at every turn. “You first need to make sure you have mana.”, I said as I picked up a book I checked out from the library, Basics of analyzing Space: Volume 1, written by Arnold Spence. While I knew I had a natural talent for both it and healing types, the school already dragged it out of me, I should self-study spatial spells. It would be better to focus on healing after I get a certified mentor. “Oh, oh. How can you check if you have mana?”, he asked me and sat down at the table. “A mage can check on it for you, there are also items for it too.”, I said and continued on, “No, I can't do it.”, before he got the chance to ask.

Derrick frowned and said, “Ok…, suppose I did have mana, how could I use it?” I replied, “As far as I know, there are three main ways to first be able to use your mana.”, and grabbed a small bag of spicy chips. “One, a certified mage can crack open your mana supply. Two, you can get an item to forcefully, or gently over time, open it. Lastly, if you have the innate talent, you can open it yourself, though that's pretty rare.”, I said and flipped to the next page of my book which started to go over the basics of the simplest spatial spell, phasing a body part through an object. “I can crack a mana supply, actually, I've done it before.”, I said while remembering I did it to that girl I was tutoring, huh, how was she now? Ah, no matter, I already notified her and her family that I'll be gone for a while, it should be no matter. “That sounds… gruesome, how can you do that, but not find if a person has one?”, Derrick asked, sounding intrigued.

I shrugged and asked, “Can you kill a rodent?”, to which he visibly became squeamish. “Never mind, can you find and stomp on a plant?”, I asked, he nodded, and then I continued, “However, if the room is completely dark and there was a chance that if I stomped on something else instead of the plant, the entire room collapses, will that be easy?” Derrick thought for a second and then shook his head, understanding the analogy I was getting at — it was taught to me at the school, pretty handy. I looked back on the book, “What's the symbols about?”, he asked me. “It's how you do magic, feeding your mana through these symbols that you can form inside your body.”, I said, to which Derrick only had a confused look on his face. “Huh? How does that even work?”, he asked, I sighed and said, “I can't explain it, these symbols are both innate, and yet, they aren't. You can learn more with practice, but only people with mana can make them.”

Derrick shrugged his shoulders, “What are they even made of?” I shook my head, “I'm only seventeen right now, we learn practical applications this year. We learned about theory last year, but it was only surface level. Next year is when we'll get into it, until then? No clue.” Derrick sipped on a smoothie he got from who knows where and leaned back to his textbook, as I finally tried to start and do the spell. Every single time before, I completed it halfway, yet for some reason, I could never fully do it. I shook my head to ease the anxiety I had to me, if it was this bad for me, then how about for those that didn't have talents? As if hearing what I said, Derrick shot up and asked, “Oh yeah, I forgot to ask, what are talents?”, right before I started. I very nearly burst out and yelled, but I contained myself and answered, “Talents are just things people are born with, same as someone being left or right-handed. They just have a better affinity towards it and have an easier time grasping it. Now, could you please be quiet or leave?” Derrick quietly nodded and left the room, leaving me sitting on the couch by myself as the train rolled past a mountain.

I let out a deep breath to calm my nerves and closed my eyes, which while not strictly necessary, does help me. There was now no light that I could see beyond the very faintest edge of starlight shining through my window. The mana inside me was calm, serene, and tepid, similar to the surrounding night; I had already memorized the symbol and started to weave it inside me, willing it to appear in my wrist. Ever so slowly, small parts of it started to form, making me completely lose track of time. First, the inner symbol, one that was layers upon layers of shapes, formed. Then, I could feel small wisps of strands forming around the very edges of it inside my wrist, slowly, but surely, connecting itself to it. Finally, the outer coat started to constitute and surrounded the inner layer in a thin veil, the symbol was complete. I could do this part with relative ease, now would come the challenging part. My mana, which I normally controlled as easy as someone breathes, turned hard and nearly immovable. I only willed a minuscule portion, enough for the spell to work on one finger, of my mana; it slowly moved from my reserve and out, meandering slowly to the symbol. I could feel pain jutting out from wherever the small amount of mana went, due to my lack of control over it. When it passed by my right shoulder, ever so slowly making its way to my wrist, I could feel pain similar to needles. Then, with surgical precision, I slowly moved the mana through the symbol, this was the furthest I had gone. After the mana passed through, I let go of the immaterial symbol and fully focused all my energy on controlling the now much more energy-filled piece of mana. I could feel small parts of it breaking off due to my lack of controls, dissipating back into pure mana as I lost control. Moving from my wrist into the palm of my hand made me lose a quarter, and from that to the start of my index finger, a third. Now, I was left with around half of the original figure and I tried to move my index finger through the table, only for the mana to completely lose control at the last moment. It had gone berserk instantly, wreaking havoc on my hand and finger; with my eyes still being closed, I moved my pure mana to my finger and surrounded the raging spell, slowly putting it out.

Adrenaline coursed through me as I opened my eyes and spotted the mangled mess that was my hand. I could physically see the bone of my index finger hanging on by a thread, pus oozed out from some of the orifices that were in my unrecognizable hand. A mix of the stench of blood, and pus-filled the air and made me nauseous. My entire palm was destroyed, leaving behind a chunk of flesh that was completely different from before. My thumb was completely gone, with only half of my pinky and ring finger still being there. The sight and stench got to me, I stood up and vomited all over the floor, table, and couch. It seemed to be rather loudly, too, as Derrick walked back inside to the room in order to be met by me vomiting on the floor with a mangled hand ruined. “Oh, oh my dear God. MEDIC!”, Derrick yelled out and looked to have nearly fainted, I could hear boots tapping rhythmically against the ground as it came to me.

A male paramedic officer raced inside, followed closely by his female colleague. The woman looked around and noticed my state, along with the book that was on the couch. She rushed over to me, and in a stunning display, started to heal my hand with a warm blue light. He rushed over as well, seemingly understanding what to do after his colleague stopped. She looked to be out of breath as he wrapped my half-repaired hand. “Don't worry, it'll heal up soon enough.”, she said to me and stood up stoically, only to immediately start being tipsy on her feet “She's fine, just expended too much energy. Services will come by to clean up, though it will cost more.”, he said and helped the other paramedic out of the room. Derrick rushed over to me, masterfully stepping around the blood, pus, and vomit all over the floor. “Are you ok?”, he asked me as I sat back down, heaving slowly. “About as good as can be expected, I suppose.”, I responded and took a sip of a water bottle. The aching pain was just now starting to set in from the wound, a grimace came over me that wasn't missed by him.

“Do you want painkillers?”, he asked, and before I could even respond, he already rummaged through his luggage and brought out a bottle of imphine. “Take it.”, he told me and I weakly looked at him, before obliging and popping two pills. It helped with the pain, though I could still feel some of it. I looked at the time, “Six in the morning? I'll go to sleep.”, and then walked to my bed. “Alright, just tell me if you need anything.”, he told me before leaving the room. Cleaning services arrived a minute later, and in fifteen minutes, made the room spotless. After they left, the room fell into silence, and in that silence, I slowly drifted back to sleep, my only thought being the pain felt in my hand.

As I woke up, I noticed the sun shining through my window, its light hitting my face as the train still roared through a mountain range. I looked down at the time, and my hand which felt better than before, it was now three in the afternoon. Derrick was still sleeping on the couch, and I didn’t feel like waking him up at the moment. My stomach rumbled, it had been a while since I ate anything filling. As I stood up from the bed, I could see that the room was not disturbed at all, besides the textbooks being neatly stacked on the table. I yawned a bit and called up room services, asking for breakfast, and they obliged; I’m surprised that it was still being served at three in the afternoon, but it was nice. A little under a day was left until I would arrive at the border city of Gareth, which was relatively small. A young lady came by and dropped off my breakfast, which was a plate with eggs, sausages, and a cup of black coffee.

I slowly ate it as I read through the pages of my book, trying to figure out what I did wrong? My mana supply is plenty enough to perform this spell, so that shouldn’t be the problem. My control over mana was fine, and according to the book, it should be enough. Despite not having concrete measurements related to the magical arts, one can fairly easily compare different spells and symbols. This one is around the same level of difficulty as trying to combust an object, which I could do; albeit, I could do it with some difficulty, but it should still be enough. Derrick woke up when the clock rang four, and he slowly looked around the room. “Oh, I see you’re doing better.”, he said as he stood up from the couch, stretching his undoubtedly stiff body. I looked at him weirdly, “Why do you care so much about me?”

Derrick didn’t answer, but instead picked up a law book and started to read it, clearly signaling that he didn’t wish to answer. I stuffed my head back into my textbooks as I slowly sipped on the coffee, “What are you going to do?”, he asked me abruptly after thirty minutes of silence. “What do you mean?”, I asked him as I took a sip from my water bottle. “I mean, after you graduate your school. Do you plan on going for a higher education, or not?”, he said, surprisingly serious compared to his usual demeanor. “I don’t know, and why do you ask?”, I said, looking at his expression and posture that were both more serious than what I was used to. “I’m twenty, and have pursued a higher education, so I’m asking you.”

I pondered a bit, with the graduation from the Augustus Magical Academy, I can go into any job with the government; a higher education does sound appealing though, and through that, I can get through to someone that’s good at healing. “I’m not too sure, though I guess I’ll go into the next step of my learning.”, I told him, and he nodded, “What stop are you getting off at?”, bouncing from one topic to the next. “Gareth, you?”, I said. He nodded, “I’ll get off in about half a day's time, I’ll only be here for about a week anyway, and then return to Iabrun.”, his thick accent was accentuated when he said Iabrun.

“I see, that’s good. Everyone in Iabrun should return by the time of the new Emperor’s coronation.”, I said as I looked out the window and saw a forest in the distance with the sunlight shining through the leaves in the distance. “On that, what’s your opinion on Constantine?”, he asked me as he opened a bag of chips. “I don’t really mind him, Iabrun has been stable for as long as I can remember, as long as that doesn’t change, it’ll be fine.”, I said and pondered about the current state. The current Emperor led Iabrun into the internet age, the phone in my pocket was proof, but it was now time for him to retire. Our country was, at first, an absolute monarchy, but it changed to constitutional about three hundred years ago.

“Well, don’t mind me now. I’m still pretty tired and plan to sleep until my stop.”, he told me and stretched himself back onto the couch. I ignored it and went back to my books, putting down the one on magic and picking up one on history, The History of Iabrun: Land, was the title of it, even if I was mainly a mage, I shouldn’t shirk on the other subjects. Picking up my pencil, I opened to page 232, and began reading, it was about the immediate aftermath of The Last War. I shook my head to clear any drowsiness inside me, and answered the first question I needed to. I completed my work in about three hours, a stack of papers in front of me as a symbol of the work I did; a yawn came over me and I slowly made my way to the bed, falling asleep shorty thereafter.

My eyes shot awake in six hours time, I could feel that the train had stopped, and we were at a stop, I strained my eyes through the darkness and saw the sign read Amurfina. Derrick had long woken up and had packed his things, the small amount of things that he had taken out from his suitcase anyway. “Goodbye, and I hope to see you again.”, he told me as he walked out of the private cabin, I followed him into the car and to the exit way. The moonlight was thick today, illuminating the entirety of the train stop, and I looked out as he left; his back was shrouded in a thick black, and for some reason, a part of him felt off. I shook my head and went back into my room, picking up my Calculus textbook and homework, it was going to be a long night.