7. Incantations and water magic

“Now imagine a rain cloud and let your mana move like this,” Kiandra advised just outside the cave. Waldina had asked her to teach her more water magic as they waited for the campfire to get to the level of warmth and flame they needed for cooking. She had bought some nicely cut meat and vegetables from Inizio. She could already feel how those would taste grilled at fire and eaten outside in the fresh air.

“Like this?” Waldina’s voice was full of uncertainty as she imagined creating a rain cloud from the mana running through her body. Controlling mana was needlessly difficult to her and not least because of her chosen occupation as a ninja. Ninjas just didn’t use magic. It wasn’t in their nature. Instead ninjas would use some ninja skills that seemed like magic but were mainly good for some diversion, like the smoke screen.

“Hmm,” Kiandra didn’t sound convinced, “Focus your power more in the shape of a droplet.” Waldina frowned hearing the words. Using magic without incantation was so much more difficult and slowly she began thinking if this was actually worth the trouble. After all, she could already create clean water without a word and maybe that’d have to be enough. She just needed to get over her pride and embarrassment.

“Ugh… And what was the incantation again?” Waldina grimaced while pronouncing the word.

“Right. Repeat after me,” Kiandra nodded contently, “Oh water, flowing in the rivers, oceans and skies, hear my plea and bring rain to me. Grant the ground the nutrients and refreshment it needs. Aqua chuvarein.”

“Oh water, flowing in the rivers, oceans and skies,” Waldina mumbled so quietly Kiandra could barely hear her, “hear my plea and bring rain to me. Grant the ground the nutrients and refreshment it needs. Aqua chuvarein.” Waldina’s cheeks were bright red. Did she think saying the incantation would be embarrassing? Yes, definitely. And yet was it many times more embarrassing actually doing it? Absolutely. All those series she’d watched and laughed at the ridiculous incantations flashed in her mind. Thank god her main role wasn’t a mage. Ninja skills were nearly too much for her already.

Mana began moving from Waldina’s fingertips with blue lines and a rain cloud appeared in front of her. The cloud widened for a moment before it rose to the skies. Finding appropriate height the cloud started dropping its cold rain droplets to the ground.

Waldina quickly could get rid of her earlier shame and just admired the view. As much as she loved ninja skills and dreaded incantations, she had to admit using magic was quite magical. Awesome. Fantastic. She could mostly play-pretend she was a ninja back in her home world. But magic? That was something she could’ve never imagined she’d be able to experience firsthand. And who wouldn’t be excited about actually using magic.

“Hihihiiii,” Kiandra’s laughter began as silent giggling until she couldn’t suppress it any longer and just laughed with tears in her eyes. Waldina raised her eyebrow and a bad feeling crept up her spine.

“Do tell me,” Waldina urged the fairy who was rolling in the air while laughing. Kiandra was so into her laughing attack that even her hair got messy.

“Wow, you’ve really changed quickly,” Waldina began pretending she was hurt, “yesterday you shyly called me owner and great person. And now you’re just laughing right at my face.”

Kiandra stiffened as she heard the words. Her eyes squinted as she looked at Waldina. She quickly calculated the meaning and seriousness of the purple haired ninja’s words. Then she went back to laughing. Waldina sighed and went to check on the campfire. The wood was burning surprisingly nicely, when you accounted they weren’t that dry. She had hoped to find more dry wood as fresh or wet wood just didn’t burn that well. But finding nicely dried up wood in the woods wasn’t likely.

Waldina added a few pieces of wood into the fire and started prepping their food. She still didn’t own an actual pot or pan so she used sticks to grill food over the fire. She didn’t want to buy too much stuff before getting more information on this world and her being in here. She really hoped fighting against and defeating Vermell would give her some useful information. At least she’d be able to make more calculated decisions on what to buy and not.

“S-sorry,” Kiandra finally got her laughter under control and flew to Waldina apologetically, “It’s just that it’s so easy being with you.”

“Hmm, is that so,” Waldina smiled approvingly, “And? Why did you laugh?”

*gulp* Kiandra’s gulp made Waldina frown again: “And do not say that that whole incantation was a mere joke.”

“Ehehe,” Kiandra couldn’t look Waldina in the eyes, “Maybe not all of it wasn’t necessary.”

“And what part was it?” Waldina didn’t exactly appreciate her ‘slave’ joking with her quite like that. Even though she didn’t think of Kiandra as a slave, it would be nice if the fairy at least somewhat respected her.

“Aqua chuvarein,” Kiandra drooped in the air, closer to ground as the words ran through the air. Waldina wondered if fairies’ equivalent to disappearing beneath the ground was falling to the ground. Because that’s what Kiandra looked like right now. That she was trying to fall to the ground, away from praying eyes.

“Oh what delicious looking food, all for me,” Waldina didn’t give Kiandra more attention and instead looked at the food she had just grilled. The meat seemed to be nearly edible and the vegetables were already good. Waldina left the meat to cook for a little while and began eating the vegetables, all while ignoring Kiandra’s pleas and apologies.

“Uhhhhh Waldina… I’m so sorry, I won’t do it again,” Kiandra pleaded with her, “It just seemed like it would be a nice prank. Which it was.”

“That would surely be more convincing if you wouldn’t grin so hard,” Waldina noted, yet took some of the cooked vegetables and cut them into fitting portions for Kiandra. The fairy’s eyes were full of excitement and Waldina was tired of pretending to be annoyed any longer.

“So, is it any good?” Waldina asked curiously while checking the meat she was still grilling.

“Mhmm,” Kiandra nodded with a satisfied smile on her face. It got Waldina smiling, too. Officially they had been together just a little over a day, yet she still felt strong companionship towards the blue fairy. Talking to Kiandra was easy and Waldina was already beginning to feel sad about their coming separation.

“When we finish eating, would you teach me a couple more magic tricks?” Waldina suggested whilst hiding her sentimentality. She didn’t want Kiandra to see she’d taken a real liking to her and didn’t want to let go. She pitied the fairy who had been locked in the grimoire for who knows how long, and the last thing she wished for would force the fairy to stick with her for whatever stupid sense of duty. Kiandra deserved her freedom.

Waldina wished she could ask more about Kiandra. She wanted to know her background, dreams and skills. What had Kiandra been doing before she got locked in the grimoire? Where was she actually from?

Yet Waldina kept the questions deep inside her. She just asked Kiandra to teach her the basics of water magic. She wanted to learn everything as fast as possible. All for freeing Kiandra. And she didn’t want to get to her anymore than necessary just to experience painful goodbyes.

Using incantations made using water magic and learning it way easier. Waldina’s bracelet luckily recorded all the spells she learnt - she couldn’t have possibly remembered all of them in such a short time. Besides she just needed a basic knowledge to use the skills - it had to be enough for both her and Kiandra. They had a deal only about learning the very basic spells and after that it’d be over. After that Waldina would let her go.