EVENING CAME AND THE CIRCUS performers rested inside their respective tents. One particular tent, however, has its lights still lit.

“They’ve caught Jacobo and Julian,” a man whispered. “And Pancho, he…he died after using the Ruby fragment.”

“Pancho sacrificed himself for the better. Jacobo and Julian did the same.”

“What do we do from here now, Alicia?”

“We wait,” said Alicia as the light from the lamp illuminated her face. “I trust that your remaining men will be ready the day after tomorrow?”

“Yes. With the handsome payment you have given us, everyone was obliged to follow your orders to the very end.”

“Great. I’ll see you all tomorrow to finalize our plans.”

“And how about the fairies?”

“I already have as many as I need.”

* * * * *

Daisuke and his group started to build a camp in the northern outskirts of the Arcanas Kingdom. Brunnhilde and Siegfried managed to catch a wild boar that they roasted to add to their food so that their supply will not diminish immediately.

The group was merrily eating the roasted boar, some cheese, and cured pork, and drinking their chuckleberry wine as Raijin told them hilarious jokes and stories, easing the tension from everyone.

Suddenly, the group heard laughter and saw Mirana. “Hey, everyone!”

“Mirana!” greeted the group.

“W-Would you like to join us?” asked Raijin.

Mirana sat next to Brunnhilde who handed her a cup of wine and a platter of cheese and meat. “Thanks. I could use a break right now.”

“You must be really tired after everything that has happened,” Daisuke commented, seeing how haggard Mirana looked.

“Well, yeah. It’s exhausting. But thanks to you all, we finally got some real progress.” Mirana responded with a wide smile as she partakes on her cheese and meat platter.

“Did you learn anything valuable from the hunters?” asked Riku.

“Not much. We interrogated the power user and learned that the Sapphire fragment is still inside the kingdom. That’s already given since no high magical artifacts can leave from the barrier we raised.”

“You didn’t get any names or locations?”

“No. We learned though that they were once a part of human experimentation. The source of their power is the unique tattoo.”

“Oh, right, the Seekers are actually investigating that as well,” said Siegfried, filling his cup with chuckleberry wine.

“Heh. We learned more about the artificial power than finding the fragment.” Mirana smirked, shaking her head.

“So what’s your plan from here on now?” Riku asked.

“Sorry, it’s classified. The less you guys know about our plan, the better.”

“Okay! That’s enough talk about work,” said Brunnhilde as she finished her cup of wine. “Tell us more about this kingdom. It’s magic, perhaps. Or even about you.”

Brunnhilde, being a runic magic user from the Drasgard Kingdom, was of course interested in others’ magic, especially in arcane magic.

While Riku relies on a rose pendant and Mirana uses a staff with a unique orb and incantations, Brunnhilde uses runic symbols to cast magic.

Runic symbols were also part of arcane language, and Brunnhilde, at first, thought that the only difference was that Arcane Magic has to be spoken while Runic Magic has to be written, but she knows it's more than that.

And of course, Mirana couldn’t be much happier than to talk about magic.

Ever since she was a kid, she and her sister Lanaya would go to the ice merchants and watch them make ice using ice magic.

* * * * *

The people of the Arcanas Kingdom do not rely on modern technology like electricity or engines, which meant that there were no refrigerators for foods, cooling appliances during the warm season, and motored vehicles like the United Alliance warships.

Instead, ice merchants would solidify freshwater and sell ice to the people of the Arcanas Kingdom. Vehicles-for-hire were mostly magically levitating wagons pulled by tamed beasts.

Mirana was ten years old when she became an apprentice of a former Arcane Magus named Arctus Frost, the hero of Arcanas Kingdom that managed to minimize the damages caused b the Star of Arianna when it caused large-scale destruction at the Central Shrine.

During Mirana's time as Arctus's apprentice, Arctus was a twenty-eight years old man, married to a woman named Glaeda Zephyr, a wind mage, and have a son named Vareon Frost who was the same age as Mirana.

Arctus decided to quit being Arcane Magus to focus on his family and worked as a simple ice merchant. He even has already taught his son Vareon some simple spells to turn water into ice so that his son could help in making ice.

While Mirana learned directly from Arctus, Lanaya just watched from the distance. She didn’t show any interest in any form or kind of magic in particular. She just like watching Mirana learn magic.

“Mirana, I want you to meet Fresonia.” Arctus introduced a glowing bluish-white fairy to Mirana. “She’s the one who actually thought me ice magic.”

“Wow! She looks so pretty!” said the young Mirana.

“I can only teach you so much. But if you really want to learn more, fairies are the greatest teachers you could ever have.”

Arctus taught Mirana first about controlling her mana.

“Mana is a mystical energy present in all living organisms. It is dormant most of the time but can be controlled and used for various purposes. In our case, to use mana as the energy to spend for magic.”

Mirana closed her eyes and imagined the mana like a bubble suspended in her stomach. As she felt the warmth of the mana, she forced the bubble to slowly circulate all over her body.

Arctus felt the circulation of Mirana’s mana. “Great. Now, the spell to freeze water is ‘Glacio’. Note that his word is just the translation from the ancient arcane language. But still, this word, fused with your intent and mana, holds the ability to do whatever it is supposed to do. In this case, to turn liquid water into ice. And remember, you’re only going to freeze the water in this glass so try to use as little mana as possible.”

Mirana nodded and focused. She held the glass of water with both of her hands. Then, with her intent and flowing mana in her hands, she said the incantation. “Glacio.”

The water in the glass slowly froze.

“Great! Your very first incantation!”

“Nice work, Mirana!” little Vareon applauded.

Months passed by, Mirana has learned all the basics from Arctus. Years go on and Fresonia, the ice fairy that taught Arctus ice magic, has taught more advanced incantations to Mirana. Albeit the language barrier, Mirana managed to decipher the incantations and translated them into their language.

At the age of fifteen, Mirana became part of Arcane Magus. She showed her talent and strength as she fought hard against invaders, spies, and hunters. Arctus was somehow against Mirana being part of the Arcane Magus, but since it was Mirana’s decision, he respected it and let her do what she wanted.

A year after that, Arctus and his family left the kingdom. Fresonia, who was already near a hundred years old, died in Mirana’s arms. Mirana witnessed that when fairies die, their body becomes encased in an orb-like object.

And even in death, Fresonia managed to give a gift to Mirana --- a crystal-like staff called Everfrost. And on the upper end of the staff was the orb where Fresonia was encased.

A few months after Fresonia’s death, several hunters tried to raid Arcanas and some managed to reach the Arcane Fountain Castle. It was then that Lanaya showed her ice magic and single-handedly defeated about thirty men to protect Leon. At that moment, Lanaya was dubbed, “the Ice Fairy” due to the fairy wings-like protrusions on her back and her ability to actually use ice magic with the original arcane incantation.

From then on, Lanaya became part of Arcane Magus together with Mirana, until years later, Lanaya became the second-in-command while Mirana became one of the Guardian Mages.

* * * * *

“I can’t believe that Lanaya is that powerful,” said Daisuke in awe.

“Some say that she’s simply a genius in magic,” said Mirana, “I mean, no one has really ever seen her do magic until that day.”

“Wait, so the fairies are the ones that really teach magic?” asked Brunnhilde.

“Well, they used to. It very rare to see fairies teaching magic to humans nowadays, which is why some mages have grimoires to write down their spells.”

“A spellbook. Do you have one?” asked Riku.

“Not really. I memorized every magic spell that has been taught to me. Is it about your rose magic?”

“Yeah...I only know a few thanks to the scrolls that the Seekers bring back to Maria Island. Mostly, I just use rose magic to create weapons.”

“Hmmm. I’m sorry, we do not have any plant-based mages. I’m also not sure if any fairies can teach plant magic.”

Suddenly, Sully landed nearby together with Leon.

“There you are, Mirana. It's time,” said Leon. “I’ve got to borrow Mirana first. Got some late-night prepping to do.”

“Thanks for having me, everyone. And Riku, I’ll let you know if I found anything that could help you with your rose magic.”

Mirana mounted on Sully together with Leon and they left the group.

“Well look at you, Riku. Looks like you and Mirana just started up on the wrong foot,” said Daisuke.

“I guess. She actually seems nice.”

Daisuke then looked at Jack. “Jack, I know you want to learn more about those artificial powers. Maybe you can go and talk with the Seekers. I’m sure they already know much.”

Jack finished his cup of wine. “Thanks, Daisuke. And I’m sorry if I yelled at you.” Jack excuses himself and went on his way to the Central Shrine.

“Are you sure we should just let him be on his own?” asked Raijin.

“Jack is also as Seeker. I’m sure he knows what to do.” Daisuke replied. “More importantly, there’s something about those fairies.”

“What do you mean?” asked Brunnhilde.

“Don’t you think it’s odd that fairies would actually work for glaizerocks? I mean, there should be plenty of glaizerocks here in Arcanas?”

“What’s a glaizerock again?” asked Siegfried.

“Some magical rock that looks pretty useless, but is loved by fairies.”

“And if I understand correctly, fairies are powerful considering that they could teach magic,” Riku added.

“That’s correct. Fairies can live for centuries and they can speak the arcane tongue. That makes them formidable magic users. And despite their size, they actually got a huge reservoir of mana,” said Brunnhilde.

“I-I don’t know guys, but hunters trying to steal powerful magical artifacts, fairies being powerful magical creatures, and a hunter suddenly appearing in a place where fairies ‘work’ for glaizerock…there’s got to be a connection here somewhere,” said Daisuke, staring at his empty cup.

“How much wine have you drank again, Daisuke?” asked Siegfried.

“Do we still have some?”

“Yeah. Oh, actually no. Barrel’s empty.”

“Let’s just rest and call it a day. We’re all just tired.”

* * * * *

The next day, everyone had a bad case of hangover.

“That wine was a traitor! Traitor, I say!” shouted Daisuke.

“Agreed.” Said Raijin. “I’ll never drink alcohol again. Except for ales. Nothing beats ales.”

“Oh, boo-hoo.” Siegfried interrupted. “You guys are a bunch of babies. And also, mead is the best drink...ever! Not wine. Not ales. MEEEAAAADD!” Siegfried then vomited.

“Can’t argue with that one,” said Brunnhilde. “By the way, has anyone seen Riku?”