Chapter 6

Yesterday, my first full day of being thirteen again, was almost like any of the other recent days: work in the greenhouse for the main of the day, assist with customers, and then train with Tobian. Except that I barely saw my father. I didn’t really realize before just how big the cottage and greenhouse and garden could be, barely crossing paths with him all of yesterday and today. He didn’t assign me any formal tasks like the beginning of the week and I was largely left to my own devices outside of a few customers coming to make orders or purchases, but I was well experienced enough to keep my general maintenance tasks on track.

Dinner had been quiet as well. Plenty of the leftovers had been taken but just as much had been left. The lack of refrigeration was something I had learnt I took for granted in my past life, food preservation being trickier here so it was only common sense that each neighbour would bring back a portion of what remained after the elaborate feast. But the air was quiet as we ate stacked plates of delicious food, lacking the flavour of conversation we had enjoyed the day before. There was talking, of course, Jard asking Rose about her day after completing a week of seamstress training, and her attempt to brighten the atmosphere by telling us the more comedic highlights and gossip of the workplace. She started to mention the return of the blue cloaked military mage but the way Jard stabbed his fork into his pasta stifled it.

Nevertheless, Tobian confirmed yesterday what he told me two days earlier: today was the day. It worked out all too well, my sister having her day off today, so I could get her earlier than she would normally return.

“So just walking down the path?” she asked me. “That’s what you’ve been doing each evening?”

“Just wait,” I replied with a chuckle at her impatience. She had already asked twice what I was up to but I managed to hold back the desire to tell her. “Just… promise you won’t tell dad, alright?” I said, and she nodded back. “It’s something big. Hey, Tobian!” I called out, looking away from her to the snoozing hobo at the base of the tree.

He looked up from his spot, lazily tipping his hat from over his face. “Ren, good to see you.” He slowly stood, hands on his knees as he braced himself against the tree. “Today’s the day. And you brought Miss Rose. Happy birthday by the way.”

“Thank you,” she replied. She bowed her head politely as she took a step forward, curious about what was going on.

“Well, Ren, ready?” he asked. “I’ll walk you through it all but first you should work on channeling for about ten minutes.”

My excitement must have been showing on my face from the way he got right into it.

“‘Channeling’?” she repeated.

“Ah, save the questions, Miss Rose,” Tobian interjected as I opened my mouth. “Ren needs silence to focus. Face the tree, close your eyes, and concentrate.”

I took my cue from him, staying quiet as I closed my eyes and took my stance. I heard a distinct feminine snicker behind me for just a second before it suddenly stopped. Laugh now, get it out of your system, I told her in my head. You won’t be laughing when I’m a mage. The thought made me grin and I realized I had stopped moving my mana, and I renewed my effort, getting back to channeling. I was surprised to not hear Tobian reprimand me but I figured he was cutting me some slack since I got back to it without a delay.

“Alright, that’s long enough,” I heard him say. When I opened my eyes he was standing in front of me, holding a knife, the handle extended to me. “It’s time for the ritual. You need to keep your mana flowing as you walk though.”

I straightened, my movements slow and intentional, as I worked to split my intention between my physical body and the energy that swam through it. I reached out and took the knife from his hand. It almost felt like it vibrated in mine, resonating as the mana passed around it like a magnetic field.

“That there is made of a special metal which should help channel your mana. Hold the handle in both hands and circle your mana through your arms.” He clasped his hands together to demonstrate, and I felt the pulse of his mana as he circled it in himself. I followed his example, holding the hilt with both hands. I pushed my mana through my arms, working back and forth, only experienced this week on getting it to my shoulders. After a few tries, building up momentum back and forth, I succeeded. The blade held the mana, swirling it inside itself, an eddie of power that circled back around into me.

“Very good,” Tobian commended me, seemingly pleased with the result. He raised the tip of the knife slightly, bringing it on level with my heart. “Now comes the important part. You need to stab it into the tree while the mana is flowing. Take your time, and be purposeful when you do it.”

I nodded to him before stealing a glance back. Rose stood there, watching me, a silent smile on her lips as it looked like she was almost looking past me. Maybe she was focussing on the tree; I couldn’t quite tell. I turned back, refocusing on maintaining my mana flow, what was becoming second nature to me after a week of training.

The tree loomed over me as I approached. The bark wound around, ridges running vertically. “Now drive it in, deep as you can!” Tobian called. The wind swirled and roared in my ears as the leaves shook. A cloud blocked the sun, casting a long shadow in front of me. The trunk seemed to shift before me, almost bending. I nearly wiped my eyes before remembering to not remove either hand from the knife. I instead just blinked twice as I stared at the bulbous trunk, and I stabbed the knife in with all of my strength.

It sunk into the wood like no normal knife should. I swore I felt the tree shutter and scream but I was overcome by the sudden rush of power. I kept my mana flowing as it collected and doubled, tripled, quadrupled in the blade and surged into me, a foreign flavour added to it from the well of mana that I was absorbing into my own. I stared at Rose’s pierced chest, the knife forced into her heart. Tree branches held her writhing body to the tree, a thick one forced between her teeth to stifle any sound, wetted by the tears of terror and pain that streamed down her face. Her movements slowed, limbs weakening, as the branches began to recede from her, their purpose fulfilled. I whirled around, the other Rose that was just a moment ago behind me now gone, only the maniacal grin of Tobian greeting me. I couldn’t focus on him though as Rose’s body slumped, unrestrained. I let go of the knife, her full weight cruelly driving it further up into her if I tried to hold any longer, and I instead caught her falling body in my arms. It didn’t stop the flow. Her mana poured into me from the bleeding wound as I cradled her. A hand struggled to rise and I caught it in the air before it could fall back into her gasping form. Her fingers tried to curl around mine but there was no strength left in them and I was just as soon the only one holding the other’s hand. Her lips cracked, gurgling a trickle of blood as she fought to say just one word.

“...Why?”

The light left her eyes and her corpse went limp in my arms, staring at nothing anymore while the flow of mana trickled to cessation.

Bile rose in my throat and burned my mouth; I struggled to keep it down if only because of where I knew it would splatter. A larger hand than ours landed on my shoulder, the touch as full of pride as the face that beamed down at me.

“Congratulations, Ren. You’re a mage now.”

I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t reply. Couldn’t think. I wanted to kill him. To torture him. To drive the knife through him over and over. But I could barely keep my eyes open. My nerves began to burn and I dropped my sister’s corpse and screamed in pain until I saw and felt nothing.