We were escorted out of the building with our parents in a very somber mood. The slow steps down from the fourth floor resounded throughout the central foyer, almost accusing us of having done something improper.

Thankfully Akira no longer had to carry me after I was able to rest sufficiently. A multitude of thoughts and insecurities passes through my mind. From what I heard, Akira, my familiar, a being or person that I should somehow be in control of was able to do a great amount of damage in so little time while I was indisposed of at that time, unable to do anything.

Maybe I had some misconceptions about having a guardian knight beside me. It was clear that I had been taking this too lightly. I was more worried about food and possible logging for him, while it finally really set in.

He’s a fighter. Someone who had fought and most likely killed. When it was mentioned previously, I did not take it seriously, attributing it to maybe bravado. While I was vulnerable, he protected me... However, it was in an overbearing fashion, to say the least.

Perhaps it was to send a message, to instill fear or respect. However, what can I offer? I’m just a girl in a hick village in the middle of nowhere that managed to summon a guardian of kings and queens to be at my side.

The dark thoughts and self-doubts swirled in my mind, causing my mood to darken with every echoing step I took through the guild’s halls. Amidst my brooding on my own deficiencies, I felt someone take my hand, and looking over I could see that Jessica took my hand within hers and gave it a small squeeze while flashing me a smile.

“It’ll be alright dummy, they won’t label us as dark guilders or anything like that.” She said, while her smile faltered. Looking at my best friend who mistook what I was brooding about, I feel like shit for not helping her with her own worries.

Violet is still shaking like a leaf from within her hair, no longer being playful. That’s right, Akira did not simply escalate and protected me, he also protected Jessica, Violet, and Zoe.

Returning the squeeze to her hand I say that everything will be alright while I look over to Zoe and also tell her that it’ll be fine and we’ll work through it together.

She is shaking like a leaf as well and possibly for different reasons as well. By the devourer, she was attacked recently by a fire mage and put into the healer’s hall. The trauma that must have caused and to know that someone attempted to try something again. From what was described to us, mage Flow had appeared in the room with the intent to kill Akira. Mage Flow had been supposedly wielding a fire weapon of some form and brought it to bear on them. I cannot imagine how bad that must have been for Zoe.

I guess we all have our own worries. I’m saddled with dark thoughts and an inferiority complex, while Jessica is worried about her future with the guild and Zoe is possibly dealing with fear or trauma from possibly facing multiple fire spells directed towards her.

“Akira…”

“Yes?”

“What are your thoughts on everything? Are y-you disappointed…?” I could not finish with the ‘in me as a master’.

“With power comes respect. Power can come in many forms, whether it be actual strength or magic ability or wisdom. Strength without the wisdom of how or when to apply it is a dark path towards tyranny. However, if others do not know that you have the strength to leverage, then they will not respect you. Leaving enemies to claw at your ankles will only slow you down and at the most inopportune time, you could be struck down.”

“Interesting, but that mentality would mean that you would always be digging multiple graves per single adversary.” Mr. Perdu chimes in, listening in on the conversation and adding some feedback.

“Why multiple graves?” Zoe asks a slight glimmer of concealed rage flitting past her eyes for some reason.

“For their family, friends, lovers, colleagues, or relationships. If you take such a hard-line approach, while there could be complications in the future, the same can be said by leaving a trail of sorrow and grief. Others may come to you, seeking vengeance or justice in their eyes for your actions and what? Would you kill them too in self-defense? Then what about their relationships as well? It is an endless cycle.” He explains patiently to the three girls while trying to perhaps admonish Akira in Mr. Perdu’s own way.

“If you do not end them, you’ll need to dig three graves then,” Akira says after a bit of thought and it was Mr. Perdu’s turn to look over quizzically.

“Oh?”

“Too many times, if you release someone who’s developed too deep of a grievance with you, then you will need to dig one grave for your own relationships that they will harm. One for them, as you finish what you should have done in the first place and a final one for their relationships that would come bearing arms.” Akira said as a deep sadness flitted across his face briefly as he became lost in memories.

Mr. Perdu, seeing the sudden change, did not pursue the issue further and let Akira drift through some potential unpleasant memories.

As we split up with Zoe and her uncle, Jessica and I gave her a quick hug as we decided to meet up at the apothecary tomorrow to wait for any news and perhaps do some training somewhere where we’d be much safer, as the guild was not safe despite our earlier beliefs.

After traveling to our respective abodes we said good night to everyone before I turned in for the night. However, upon getting into my room and seeing my desk, I remembered my promise to Zoe and sat down to engrave a river stone for her into a good rune stone that I could surprise her with, in case she had forgotten.

After finishing the rune stone, I set it aside and had a much clearer head. Engraving things has always been calming for me and I feel like I’ve been doing Akira wrong and wanted to start doing a better job. I left my room and went to go wish him goodnight.

After going down a few steps, I noticed a crackle in father’s forge and could not see Akira where he normally stalks in the rafters. Going down a few more steps I could see in the dark main floor, Akira’s shadow stretching out, blocking most of the forge’s last remaining embers as he simply stares into them.

It appears that dad already left for bed and I stayed up much later than normal due to my engraving task. Following the stairs to the bottom and approaching Akira by the forge, I clear my throat to announce my presence.

“H-hey. I wanted to come down and wish you good night. Everything alright? You’re brooding.” Smooth Cara, that has to be exactly what he wants to hear right now.

“Thank you, I’m sorry if my actions have caused friction between the guild, you and your friends.”

“Well he did attack us, they were all commenting on how he should not have been able to cast a spell that strong.”

“I know, I told you that using fire magic is suicide. Congrats, by the way, you seem to have surpassed a thousand mana.”

“Thanks, I guess. You can quantify that? How do you know that I’ve surpassed a thousand?”

“Because I am able to use a hundredth of your mana now. Anything more will cause a backlash.” He said while extending his index finger out face up for me to see wisps of darkness spin into a small vortex that agglomerated into a single black grain of sand.

“Is that a mana ember? You can make them?”

“Yes, only one every few hours until you double your mana, however, this allows me to at least use something.”

“Akira, did you cause the explosion?”

“Using fire in front of an expert is suicide.”

“Is that a yes?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny.” He said, starting to grin to himself at the small game.

“Akira…”

“...Yes.”

“So you managed to use a hundredth of my mana to turn that boy’s arm into a charred mess?”

“Yes, though there are many support skills or passives that supported that effect, but yes.”

“What would have happened if you used a thousand?”

“The assassin would have been ashes with much to spare.”

“But you did not do that to mage Flow?”

“I’d already used what I could. You were within your mana states, pulling any more mana would have caused irreparable damage to your mana states and possibly crippled you, which would go against our contract.”

“...Our contract… listen… Do you want to… leave? Is there something you’d like to do instead of being here in this little village in the middle of nowhere?” I ask, slowly losing control over my voice.

“I cannot, even if I wanted to, though I am quite at ease within this state.”

“If it is about orders, I could order you free…”

“It does not work that way. As soon as our contract ceases, then I will be bound to another fool to cause atrocities.”

“Then how could you become free?”

“That is a difficult topic, and I am not entirely sure as well.”

“Well, how did the contract get… enacted? And could you not do the reverse?”

*sigh*

“I was foolish when I was young and sought to travel to a different state as I had gotten bored with my lands and the people. I wanted to be away from them, so I fled. However, when using magic to travel between states… I was careless… more or less, I managed to travel to another state, however, in doing so I forcefully became enslaved. I accepted the magical contract to travel between states and did not fully understand and… my present circumstances.”

“So you accepted a shady magical transport? ...and were hoodwinked?”

“It was a lot more complicated than that and you make me sound… like…”

“A naive human?” I say, giggling to myself.

“Yes, a naive human mortal.” He says while giving me a small smile and putting down one of my dad’s best swords that he has been using as a fire poker.

“Well, give us other human mortals more of a chance going forward. Could you… maybe not… go crazy? Like no killing of any human mortals?”

“As you command.” He says in a pained monotone, possibly placating me or maybe biting back on some comments on how we’d be hurting ourselves by not simply killing anyone that we have a disagreement with.

“Okay, well I’m off… I’ll see you tomorrow Akira. Good night.” I say as I get up and all but flee upstairs to my room.

Getting back to my bed, I find that I’m still without a pillow. Not wanting to toss and turn, I figure I would try the sleep trick that I tried before.

Getting into bed, I prepare my rune stone and while ripping and compressing my mana, I am finally able to maintain my consciousness throughout the process. There are two big problems I discover. Firstly, I feel short of breath, more so than I’ve ever felt in life and I am actively wheezing and starting to hyperventilate. Secondly, this is extremely counterproductive to falling asleep.

Realizing my mistake, I try to slow my breathing, ignoring the grains of embers that were on my chest and have fallen into the crook of my neck. I never thought that I would think this, but I desperately wish for the sweet release of the void.

As if summoning it, I suddenly find myself within the realm to my vast relief, as I no longer feel the desperate sense of needing air in my lungs or the sheer exhaustion of my… everything.

I woke up with a start this morning. Looking around bleary-eyed for the source of the disturbance when I hear it again.

“Cara! You have a guest!” My father yelled, the source of my jarring awakening.

Getting up and dressed quickly I dash out of my room and down the stairs to find Zoe with an awkward look on her face. Looking over, I see Akira with two pastries, one in each hand as he is wolfing them down.

“Hi. Last night we bought a bunch of pastries for breakfast today… I woke up yesterday really hungry and wanted to prepare. That did not happen… so I got too many. Would you and Jessica also like some?” She says with an awkward chuckle, as she extends a large lumpy cloth with over a dozen pastries still inside.

Not wanting to refuse, I grab two sweet buns and we head over to Jessica’s to meet up with her, and Zoe hands out some pastries to all the Perdus and packs the rest in a bag that she brought with her before we went into the back garden to chat.

“Oh! I had completed this for you.” I reach into a pocket and pull out a rune stone for Zoe. She accepts it and a gentle smile crosses her face as she thanks me.

“Thank you! I hope this was not too much work!” She says while tracing the engravings with her thumb.

“Jessica, I was hoping to maybe finish trying to grow the rot weed seeds. Did you want to do that? Or something else?” I ask.

“That’s fine with me, however, we cannot do it here, as my parents will cut us to pieces with their glares if we start growing rot weeds anywhere near their garden…” She said sheepishly, obviously having been reprimanded already for an attempt.

We all head down to our favorite spot by the lake while explaining to Zoe about what we are supposed to do with the rot weed seeds. While she is not a plant mage, she might be able to practice with a rot weed if we can find one. It would just be a lot slower for her than it would be for Jessica or me.

I had brought up the fact that we could try to force our mana addicted plants to form a couple of seeds instead of just one. However, Akira turned that down saying that the plant is already saturated beyond being able to accept any other source of mana, and if we split the seed into two, it will cut the potency in half, requiring more time to grow them. Splitting the plant into too many seeds could also strangle and kill the plant outright and we’d have to start from scratch supposedly as well.

Sitting down at the small dock as all of the fishermen’s boats had left. We settle into a small practice routine.

Zoe is sitting cross-legged with her elbows on her knees, bringing her two hands together to form a circle with her thumbs and index fingers, pointed out over the lake. She whispers periodically “hey!” through the circle. She said that after speaking with Akira, she’s now trying to form a drum between her fingers and to feel the vibration. She said that she was having issues keeping it solid, as it bursts like a bubble or dissipates with too much pressure.

Jessica and I have two small mounds of dirt in front of us on the edge of the dock. We are planting our mana addict seeds and growing them through a cycle.

I am able to easily compress six embers at a time while Jessica does only five. I suppose my late-night training has been successful.

The compression is fairly easy and I feel really good after making six embers. I need to use seven this time to bring my plant through a full cycle and I feel that about twice as drained as I did after the compression. I suppose that I’m using up my mana in equal portions.

The mana addict is so malleable right now. It seems to bend and do anything I ask of it. Sprout a leaf here, make the stem thicker or flat, sway or dance slowly for me. The veins of the plant are now like liquid gold, they are gorgeous against the deep royal green. Which quickly turns to ash as the plant finishes the cycle and turns to its seed form once more.

I’m done and I turn to see that Jessica is still finishing up and is proceeding a little slower than I had. Looking over at Zoe, I still see her whispering ‘hey’ through her hands, however, she has a confident smile on her lips, perhaps she is onto something.

Looking at my satchel, I check on my three Den-izens, he he he. The caterpillars are doing well, still munching on leaves and I’ll need to restock soon. I’m surprised they are not getting fatter, but perhaps the silk manes are taking some of the nutrients that they need to replenish.

“How many embers do you have?” Jessica’s question brings my attention away from my little Den makers and I look at the final section of my satchel, which has a lot in there. My last two nights where I used my sleep trick and was able to form another 53 and 60, really added to my reserves.

“235,” Akira says nonchalantly from behind us.

“Wait, how do you know?” I ask while turning around to face him and raise an eyebrow.

“I can feel them and without them being in a plant pouch, I could possibly use them against you, similar to what I did to that one assailant.”

“Wait, what?” Jessica asks, while I almost mirror her question.

“Wait, did you say you only used a single mana ember to blow up his fireball?” I ask, a little nervous at possibly having 235 fireballs on my hip.

“Correct, to form an imbalance could only take one, with the right passives.” He nods in confirmation.

“Hold up, I asked a question!” Jessica interrupts and Zoe puts down her hands from in front of her as she is now listening in upon hearing about the fire assailant.

I go through explaining what I learned the night before from Akira and Jessica seems quite a bit more subdued, realizing that she also has something that could be used against her as well. Zoe is pretty interested in also being able to compress some embers of her own if it could be done safely.

“So let me get this straight. Because the mana embers are not surrounded by a plant pouch, a skilled enough person could borrow them? However, the plant pouch should become so saturated with our own mana that it cannot allow others to interact through it?” Jessica repeats.

“Yes, and from how the two of you are able to manipulate the two plants, you should be able to proceed with making one now.”

I’m feeling pretty refreshed as the explanations had taken a long time and following the instructions Akira mentions about plant pouches, I go about twisting my little mana addict about.

I compress off another six and will end up using seven embers in this attempt. I start off growing the plant as normal into a seedling with a single leaf. I force it to only grow the one leaf, making it thin and malleable like silk and the little plant is happy to oblige for a couple of extra embers beyond what I initially intended.

I swear it has a personality and is a greedy bastard. Feeling that I am purposefully concentrating mana into just the one leaf and really trying to focus on just it. The plant really wants to grow more leaves, thinking I’d pamper it with an equal amount of mana into each of them. I follow what Akira said and deny it the ability to grow any more leaves and keep it at just one large one.

I feed an extra two embers to placate it and have the leaf contort. Dropping out the middle to form a sack. Like some of those plants that like to eat insects by having them drop inside to their doom. I’m pushing all of the mana I’m using into just this one leaf. The gold veins are patterned throughout and look gorgeous. I force the rim of the leaf to stay circular and elongate the petiole further to use as the drawstring. Thickening the top, I have it start rolling in on itself to make a sturdy lip and while it fights me, I finally win out on having it form some holes below the rim so that I can pass the petiole through to use as a drawstring.

The next bit is a bit difficult, as I spent so much time on just this one leaf. I need it to voluntarily discard petiole and leaf from the stem, while not drawing out any of the mana to form its seed. By voluntarily discarding the leaf, the mana saturation will stay and not have it turn to ash like what happens at the end of the cycle.

I swear the plant was bargaining with me, as my mana that was pouring in, I was lacing it with my intent and my intent was the promise of more mana if it gave up the leaf. After a bit, it accedes to my demands and threats of withheld mana and the now complete plant pouch drops off and I am left with a sad-looking stick in the mound of earth.

Keeping to my promise, as I still needed it to return to a seed or I’d lose several days of work. I poured more mana and four extra embers into the sad stick, allowing it to form an engorged seed underground before the stem disappeared as ash on the gentle breeze.

Pulling out the now engorged seed, I keep it in my palm before whispering a small thank you to it and pick up what should now be a plant pouch.

It feels like the most expensive possession I own. A royal green silk plant with golden veins standout throughout it. The drawstring is just the petiole, also similarly malleable and very strong. I weave the petiole through the holes I managed to push in and weighing it in my hand, something clicks in some lost corner of my mind.

If this is an item saturated in mana, did I not craft a magic item? Did I actually craft an artifact of power? Sure it was not metal or anything, but could I do the same with a tree and form a gnarled staff artifact?

“Congratulations” Akira whispers behind me, not wanting to disturb Jessica who was in the process of finishing her own. A few beads of sweat were on her forehead and a much larger Violet was actually out of her hair and standing in front of her little brother, possibly reprimanding it for being too greedy.

I swear that Jessica’s little mana addict was leaning away from Violet. After a little bit longer, the plant pouch for Jessica separated from the plant, and then the plant turned to dust a little later as Violet quickly scampered up Jessica’s arm to go back into her favorite hiding spot.

Jessica dug out the seed with one hand and clasped it tight to her chest with one hand while patting her hair and Violet by extension. A silent thank you, while she turns to me with a bit of exhaustion and a huge grin on her face, she picks up her own plant pouch to examine it.

I turn back to my own, feeling giddy for our combined successes. Carefully I dig out my embers from my side satchel and place them into my new plant pouch, which Jessica also follows suit, careful to not drop any embers onto the dock and possibly have them slip through the cracks to be lost in the water.

“Congratulations to the two of you. You’ve managed the first major milestone of becoming a true plant mage.” He says to the two of us while giving the two of us what I would assume would be a proud brotherly smile.

“Phew!” Jessica says as she falls backwards to rest her back on the dock.

“So can you still sense how many embers we have?” I ask Akira.

“No, they are fully hidden. Only if it was torn open and they spill out would there be an issue. You will also be able to use the ‘mana embers’, as you call them, without needing to take them out. As they are surrounded by your mana and are a part of an extension of yourselves.” He says with a smile.

Jessica starts to giggle to herself on the dock. Someone who did not know her might mistake her actions for those of someone who was not fully present. However, I could understand her feelings, we did it, and in doing so, we might have actually created an artifact of power. One that is tied to our mana and could only be used by ourselves.

We rest there on the dock in the still midmorning sun. Jessica appeared a lot wearier then I had. So we took the time to recover and let Zoe continue to whisper ‘hey’ over the still lake waters.

I realize now, that mana and the recovery of it is a limiting factor. We are just relaxing, not doing much of anything right now, however, if we tried to make more silk manes, we’d just become more and more exhausted. Also, we were out in the open and we could not do any more aggressive training. Perhaps we could get a requisition that would pan out well for us, however, we still need to wait for the guild master’s verdict on Akira defending us, albeit, a bit overly aggressively.

Once Jessica fully recovered, she asked Akira what our next milestone should be.

“Well, you could either form your plant book. It will be a lot more difficult and you’d need to use up much more resources, however, the two of you have enough to complete your plant books, a plant space, or mana sense.”

We ask some questions on the plant book and it seems like we’d need to do much the same, however, this time we’d need to manipulate the stem to become thicker and flatter to become the spine of the book and to force the leaves to grow from the stem. Two thick ones for an outer cover. The pages would be added in afterward, grown from the spine/stem as well. As we are fully in control, we’d be able to stylize it if we like, however, the initial size would only be that of our palm. We’d need to embed the seed onto the ‘cover’ leaves, to allow us to add to it in the future.

Taking out the seed. I look down at it with a bit of hesitation. This would be its last form, there was some finality to it and I felt like it was starting to form a personality. Nothing like Violet, but who knew? Maybe… With enough time… Could I grow this seed into something like Violet? To have it capable of moving on its own.

For whatever reason, I felt sad as I buried the seed for the last time.

Focusing inward, I can feel my embers waiting at my beck and call, simply needing a similar spark of my own mana to start them off and for me to guide them on what to do.

Reaching down to my slumbering mana addict with my rune stone in hand, I say a silent prayer and begin to push. Concentrating on everything I have as I summon my mana and embers to my beck and call.

Spinning my inner world, I reach out for possibly the final time to the slumbering mana addict. A pair of gossamer threads of mana go out and latch onto two embers to carry my intent with them. Feeling the influx of what feels like four mana embers, the greedy little fellow reaches out for it and we start our final dance together.

Roots digging deeper than normal with two embers and two supporting mana gossamers, he prepares to burst from the ground with everything he has. I temper it and reign the desire in, instead imprinting my intent on my mana as I slow the mana assimilation down, lacing everything with my intent.

‘Not like that, we will do something special and you will be given all the mana I can afford.’

I could swear that I feel joy resonate through my inner mana world at the promise.

‘A small thick and wide stem, more than anything you’ve done so far, in your most gorgeous green possible.’ I beckon while feeding another ten embers slowly as I adjust and really put my all in guiding.

Keeping the stem a short five inches above the ground, my little mana addict obliges me, never getting so much mana and embers by this point. In return, he gives me a deep royal green stem that is very sturdy and starts to slowly widen like a blade of grass.

‘Good job little one. Now I need you to form a leaf, made entirely of your stem.’ I envision a square leaf made of the stem, rimmed in gold veins, and start to push another twelve embers to this stem leaf and he is willing to oblige, knowing what I want for in the trade for what he wants more than anything.

Together, we slowly have the stem hinge upon itself and extend another section, this time four inches in height off the main stem. I could feel panic resonate within my mana world, worry for disappointing, but I soothe that and say it is okay as together we draw out the four-inch stem three inches out with gorgeous gold veins heavily on the outer rim and delicately throughout what is to be the front cover.

We pace ourselves over the twelve embers and I can feel a deeper and deeper connection with him. As though he were the mirror of my being. Wanting to reflect upon my wishes and compliment the very being that is breathing life into him.

Like a puddle, filling all the gaps to take shape, making a perfect mirror image of that which it is imprinted on. We start to take shape. We start to come together.

Giving us a small stroke across the front cover, a soft smile crosses my lips as tears flow freely from my eyes.

‘You are gorgeous.’ I tell it with my mana as I stroke the front cover with trembling fingers.

‘Another push to do the same thing on the back.’ Now understanding my every intent, I feed us another twelve embers, and with ease, we draw out another hardened stem forming the back cover, a mirror of their sibling.

My eyes are constantly streaming tears, as though I’ve been stuck with them open for all my life and my very being is pushing to alleviate the strain on my person, on my soul, for being so open and so vulnerable for so long.

Breathing in, I’m feeling the exhaustion of using up a lot of mana. I feel that I’ve certainly passed the halfway point. Though my determination is set.

‘I don’t want to lose you… please… let us form your seed on the front cover.’ I beg as I fuel my new companion past their death cycle. Feeding us another fifteen embers.

Gold veins snake towards the center of the front cover and start to circle upon themselves, entangling and starting to form a golden seed on the front cover. I am providing fifteen embers and it is really starting to strain me, however, I practiced with low mana in the past and I can overcome this. We can overcome this.

Using most of the mana and embers to simply stave off death, the golden seed starts to take shape, embedded within the front cover, a gorgeous triangle, pointed up. Not as thick as it has been in the past, but enough to know that life itself is breathing through us.

I do not want us to ever be hurt so, keeping true to my promise, I offer everything I have left. Feeling the pain of mana deficiency settling in on me in earnest. I am however determined to make my companion as perfect as I know they ought to be.

My eyes are sore. I cannot cry anymore, however, I do not want to blink and miss my companion finally coming into their own. Drawing on my engraving experience, I pull a final fifteen embers forward, knowing that I will be at nothing once this is over.

‘Let us protect your seed as you take your final form.’ I whisper within my mana realm.

Using the last fifteen embers and mana, we stave off the death of the mirror image of our soul and finalize everything.

Pulling the golden veins, they are more than happy to follow my whims as I draw them out into intricate patterns on the corners of the covers and finally have us pull a new trick out of our bag. Veins turn into small vines as they snake out from the cover and start to weave into a beautiful intricate knot to cover the golden seed. To keep him safe, to keep us safe if ever disaster should occur.

Using the last little bit of veins to form a small clasp. I give it a final stroke, feeling the knot keeping him safe.

‘I’m sorry. I’ve given you everything I have and this will be unfair to you, but I need you to do the last little bit on your own.’ I send the final intent on the last gossamer of mana I have.

I’m crying again, however, this time, tears of blood are now caressing my cheeks, however, I do not realize this as I refuse to look away from his final effort.

Knowing what must be done, he willingly separates his stem from his roots. The last of the stem and roots turn to ash, as the book slides down the pile of earth in front of me.

The pain is unreal, however, I reach out with my fingers to gently pick my companion up, feeling more complete than I ever have, now that I am touching him. Pulling him to my chest, I hold the little four-inch by three-inch book cover tightly against my chest, feeling the knot where his heart lies, above my own.

Now that he is safe in my bosom, I desperately search for the release of the void and it welcomes me eagerly.

This was the most arduous task I had ever done in my life. I feel as though my soul is crying, having finally met a long lost friend. A confidant to share your secrets with, someone that knows the real you.

I drift within my mana world, ignoring everything and simply enjoying that feeling of completeness.

Waking up on the hard dock, it appears to be mid-afternoon and I am sore and exhausted on a level I’ve never felt. This is not an exhaustion of the body or mind, but something more intimate, more personal, as though my very soul is exhausted.

Looking around, I see Jessica is awake and similarly weary, as Zoe is looking over her shoulder as they are looking inside her plant book. It is a little smaller than my own but similarly gorgeous.

It is a royal green and the cover is facing me as the two are looking inside it. I can see that the seed is exposed on the cover as the golden central mass of a gold embossed lotus. Jessica would probably know what that is called, however, it is gorgeous in its own right.

Getting up slowly and still clutching my plant book to my chest, I awkwardly shuffle my way over to see what they are looking at.

The book itself has no pages, they are instead looking at the inner cover.

Pulling up beside them I stare down in shock as I read actual printed words on the inner cover, written in a golden script using the veins.

Jessica Perdu HP 100 Mana 900 Stamina 100 HP Regen 0.2 hp/day Mana Regen 265 mp/hr Stamina Regen 400 stm/day Fortitude 10 Strength 10 Dexterity 10 Intelligence 10 Tenacity 10 Psyche 10 Recovery 10 Mana Depth 8 Mana Pulse 7 Mana Compression 4 Mana Depth (Lv 8) Deep stretches the soul. Unearthing its potential. A burden to fill. Increase mana by Intelligence² * Mana Depth (800 mana) Mana Pulse (Lv 7) Tortured soul. Deprived of life. Struggling to breathe. In need of respite. Increase mana regen by Psyche * 0.001 * Mana Pulse per second (0.07 mana/s) Mana Compression (Lv 4) The soul as the forge. Compress the intangible. Birthed within this world. Compress 10 mana into reality from 10 / (0.1 + 0.1 * Mana Compression) (20 mana) Artificer (Lv 1) Craft mana itself. Soul to shape reality. Bent and shaped to whims. Reflect a portion of the soul to an object. Supplementing and possibly enhancing the foundation of the soul. Soul Bound Artifacts Grimoire (0 pages) Soul Bag (58 mana embers)

Looking down in shock, I am flabbergasted by what I see. Jessica is absent-mindedly tracing her fingers over the top of the embossed words.

I hesitantly pull my plant book away from my bosom and gently untwist the clasp and open it as well.

Inside there are no pages, however, similar to Jessica’s, I have words written on the interior of the cover in a similar embossed script.

Tracing my own fingertips over the words, I can feel a resonance with them, they are the mirror of my soul and I am now looking at my very soul.

Cara Foregess HP 100 Mana 1,100 Stamina 100 HP Regen 0.2 hp/day Mana Regen 265 mp/hr Stamina Regen 400 stm/day Fortitude 10 Strength 10 Dexterity 10 Intelligence 10 Tenacity 10 Psyche 10 Recovery 10 Mana Depth 10 Mana Pulse 7 Mana Compression 5 Mana Depth (Lv 10) Deep stretches the soul. Unearthing its potential. A burden to fill. Increase mana by Intelligence² * Mana Depth (1,000 mana) Mana Pulse (Lv 7) Tortured soul. Deprived of life. Struggling to breathe. In need of respite. Increase mana regen by Psyche * 0.001 * Mana Pulse per second (0.07 mana/s) Mana Compression (Lv 5) The soul as the forge. Compress the intangible. Birthed within this world. Compress 10 mana into reality from 10 / (0.1 + 0.1 * Mana Compression) (16.7 mana) Artificer (Lv 1) Craft mana itself. Soul to shape reality. Bent and shaped to whims. Reflect a portion of the soul to an object. Supplementing and possibly enhancing the foundation of the soul. Soul Bound Artifacts Grimoire (0 pages) Soul Bag (160 mana embers)

…

‘Grimoire? Is that what you are called little one?’

This is unfathomable. I can feel the other two girls come over to peer over my shoulder as well and I almost feel like closing my grimoire. It feels personal, as though they are able to see my very soul and I want to hide it, but I hesitate as it would be unfair to Jessica as I took a peek at hers.

Looking up to Akira with questions that I cannot even begin to formulate, he just gives me a smile and nods.

“It will take time to come to terms with everything and in time, you and your plant book will evolve together.” He replied.

“It is not a plant book, it says that it is a grimoire and we are now artificers,” I say to Akira, who gives me a small tilt of his head to the side.

“It was never mentioned in anything I came across, I still struggle for some rare and foreign terms that are infrequently used. When I was trying to say plant, I was trying to imply soul, it just never came up before.”

We get up and dust ourselves off. We need to leave the dock before we are in the way at the end of the day as people return from fishing.

Following, along our usual path, we make our way back to the forge and apothecary debating constantly at what everything we saw within the grimoires meant in hushed tones. Akira was getting frustrated with the influx of questions that we were pelting him with. As we finally approach home, we are greeted by our respective parents and are provided a missive that was sent to us, informing us that we should head to see the guild master by sundown.

We grab a bite to eat for supper at the Perdu’s and head off to Zoe’s place to grab her missive that her uncle passes to her.

Gritting our teeth we head to the guild to see what our fate will be.

We are met by a paige at the front of the guild and brought up directly to see the guild master, along with a captain Davis who’s leaning against the wall with the biggest shit-eating grin I had ever seen.

Standing before the guild master, we settle into an uncomfortable silence when captain Davis breaks it, and all tension that the guild master was building suddenly deflates.

“The two of you look like shit.” He says while roaring with laughter and remarking on Jessica and my own bloodshot eyes.

“Enough!” The guild master yells, failing to shut the captain up and he just sits there massaging his temples while waiting to issue our sentence to us once it quiets down.

“You’ve put me in a difficult position and frankly I had been unsure what to do with you.” He began.

“In the end, it has been decided that we’ll give you a mandatory requisition to hopefully cool some heads…” pointedly looking at Akira. “...and give us some time to clean up your mess. Failure on the quest will be seen as a demerit on your records and could lead to being barred from the guild.”

“Now hand over your badges and I’ll add the mandatory requisition, that you’ll need to go to Golthal to pick up.”

“...Um… I don’t have a badge yet for requisitions…” Zoe chimes in embarrassingly.

The guild master’s outstretched hand falters before he woodenly turns to captain Davis.

“Davis, go get a clean bronze badge issued to miss Zoe.” He says, as though it pains him greatly. Captain Davis’ grin disappears as we are all shocked by what was said.

“I’m sorry, bronze?” Zoe asks, confusedly.

“Miss Cara’s familiar makes your team qualified for such. I thought you all had been starting to do requisitions together and done a turn in…” He says hesitantly as captain Davis exits the room.

“No worries, the mandatory requisition is just an escort starting in Golthal, a couple of hours brisk walk north. You’ll be escorting a small merchant for a few days east to the Lekthar mines.”

“Thank you for your confidence, but…” I start to say.

“No buts, it is a simple escort of a lone merchant who does this route frequently. You are just to provide lookouts at night for him and yourselves to sleep and to help in case the caravan loses a wheel or something.”

“What about bandits?” Jessica asks with a small bit of panic creeping into her voice.

“Not an issue, the route is done frequently and everyone knows he’s bringing near spoiled food that the caravan driver picks up for cheap to feed the miners. Bandits would know by now that he peddles in garbage.”

“But what if…” Jessica tries to say again before she is cut off once more.

“No buts, we’ve prepared some packs for you on the back wall there, we’ll be garnishing the wages from the requisition to pay for the healing that is required by the victims…”

“Assailants.” Akira offers, interrupting the guild master.

“Medications required by the other party to recover.” He continues, with a growing headache.

We are dismissed and notified that Zoe and our respective badges would be delivered to our respective abodes. We are also notified that we will need to arrive before midday tomorrow in Golthal and should head out early to make the trek in time.

We leave the guild, laden with heavy packs and a subdued atmosphere, heading back to tell our parents that we’d be needing to leave for a while less we potentially are kicked out of the guild or labeled as dark guilders.

We each have a restless night and I don’t want to use my sleep trick as my soul still feels tired and I do not want to possibly do anything that would put any more strain on myself before tomorrow.