Airi the Mage

Daylight spread across the room.

Airi covered her nose. The air smelled unbearably damp, perhaps from Nestor's water magic. She climbed out of bed, legs wobbling as she stood on tiptoe to open the window.

Outside, there was a green haze of grass and low clouds that swallowed up the roofs of houses. They were such charming cottages, with roofs sprouting thick grass, chimney pots poking out like toadstools.

Airi crept to the door. Oddly enough, the wooden knob was carved in the shape of a lamb's head. She turned it and made her way down the stairs, hearing the familiar silence of an empty house. The doctor must be out.

In the rest of the house, the differences from her own world were even more pronounced. There wasn't a single piece of plastic; all the furniture was made of wood. When she twisted the lamb's-head doorknob on the front door, it swung out crookedly, letting in a springy breeze. Airi had never smelled air this fresh. But there was another smell mixed in, like a petting zoo.

Out in the distance, she saw a gray sky and rolling green uplands dotted with patches of blue-gray heather. After growing up in the city, where every street was packed to the brim with buildings and cars, this place looked too empty to Airi. It was like a dream.

Her eyes traveled downwards and found the source of the petting-zoo smell: a flock of puffy white creatures that she’d seen as a child. “Sheep!”

They bleated when she got close, but didn’t scatter. No survival instincts, huh. Airi raced past the flock, to the top of the hill, tripping on the skirts of her white dress—she'd climbed out of bed to find herself wearing it. It was simpler than what the doctor wore, but still too ruffly to feel normal.

In the distance, the dreamlike plains seemed to go on forever. They were dotted with colorful crystal formations, as if a giant had hurled crystalline spears at the plains. She turned. In the other direction, there was the village of Star's End, with its fields and flocks, and beyond that, a range of faint, snow-capped mountains.

A breeze stirred the tall grass. Airi shivered, suddenly overwhelmed. She wished she would see a plane in the sky, or a skyscraper poking out from the cottages, or even a properly paved road. This wasn't her world. What was she doing here? She missed her bedroom, her pillowcase full of cash and her photographs...

Gone. Unreachable.

Survive, she reminded herself, forcing her breaths to slow. She'd been given an opportunity, a second chance. So what if she'd been reincarnated into a different world? She would rise to the top, no matter what.

Back inside the room, Airi lay on the floor and reached under the bed. She felt the edge of a book and pulled out The Naughty Little Kettle, brushing off a spider.

There was still water in the jug, so she filled her cup and started reading, eagerly. "Once upon a time, there was a naughty little kettle..."

There wasn’t even a whiff of steam.

She tried again, louder. Then again in her head. The water remained cold. In her desperation, she even closed her eyes, but nothing worked.

Airi had to accept it: she had no mana.

No mana! In a world with magic? This had to be a joke. The demon had definitely done this on purpose; she could almost hear it laughing at her. She flopped onto the bed, facedown. How was she supposed to live an exciting life now? Was she doomed to stay here in this village, getting more sunburnt by the day and raising sheep with Nestor—

Nestor. He was her only hope now.

"NESTOR!" came a screech from upstairs.

Sitting at the dining table with Nestor, Airi jumped. Her first instinct was to hide, until she remembered that her name wasn't Nestor and this wasn't her house. Nestor, on the other hand, turned pale and dropped his bread.

"Oh no, I forgot to open the window," he whispered. Last night, he'd practiced casting the kettle spell, filling the sickroom with steam.

"NESTOR! COME UP HERE, NOW!"

Nestor ran up the stairs, and Airi, driven by morbid curiosity, followed him.

The doctor was standing in the sickroom with a look of triumphant rage on her face.

"Nestor. You've been practicing magic again, haven't you? Tell me the truth, Nestor!" the doctor hissed, seizing his arm. Airi winced. That looked like it must hurt.

"Well, I... I..."

Oh, great. Was he one of those obedient children who never lied to their parents?

"Don't lie to me!" thundered the doctor. He didn't even say anything, Airi thought irritably. "You were casting that... that kettle spell again, weren't you?" She began sniffing under the beds like a bloodhound.

"Aha!" She held up the two books, River Runs Away and The Naughty Little Kettle. "I knew it. I knew it was too good to be true. You couldn't have come to your senses and given up on those stupid magic dreams of yours, no. Every day, you disappoint me. You know, your siblings never gave me this much trouble."

While the doctor prattled on, Airi watched Nestor apologize over and over. "Sorry, Mom." They were the only words he managed to get in edgewise, and they seemed to fuel the doctor's anger even more.

Nestor was terrible at dealing with an angry parent. Didn't he know that staying silent was the best strategy? Eventually, they'd talk themselves into exhaustion.

"—you would abandon your family to do your little magic tricks! You're just like your father! Utterly irresponsible!" The doctor raised her hand to hit Nestor and Airi flinched back.

Rubbing his face, Nestor swallowed. "Sorr—"

"You don't need to apologize, Nestor," Airi blurted, trying to stop her voice from trembling.

The doctor fixed her beady brown eyes on Airi. "What?" she said sharply.

"It was me. I was the one who cast the spell. The room was getting cold last night, so I wanted to warm it up a bit," Airi said. Before the doctor could speak, she added smoothly, "I hope you don't mind, Doctor. I didn't want my mana fever to get worse from the cold."

Nestor glanced quickly at Airi, but said nothing. Smart boy.

“You’re a mage?" the doctor exclaimed disbelievingly. "Why haven’t I ever seen you before? Or heard of you?"

“That’s because... I’m a recluse! I live way out on the plains, to avoid meeting people!” Airi said.

“You say that so cheerfully...”

After Nestor's mother left to visit a patient, the house was quiet again. She hadn't yelled at Nestor any more, but she hadn't apologized for hitting him either. Typical.

"Why'd you lie to my mom?" Nestor asked, brushing crumbs off his face. "Why'd you tell her you cast the spell?"

Airi, whose ears were still ringing from all the shouting, dipped a knife in a jar of berry jam and spread it on her bread. "Because..." In the heat of the moment, it had just happened. She didn't know why. "...I don't know. Maybe I just like lying."

"So you aren't a mage," Nestor said, looking slightly disappointed. "I was hoping you were."

"Nah." Airi sank her teeth into the bread, relishing the sweetness of the jam.

She heard a shout from outside. "What was that?"

"I dunno. Maybe one of the sheep got eaten by a dragon?" Nestor guessed.

Airi heard the shout again, clearer this time. “The mages are here!”