The Eternal Phoenix & The Recovery

It was a strange thing to think I'd never be completely alone again. Part of me felt comforted by that, and another part of me was greatly put off by it. Maybe that part was Marin? It was difficult to say. At least I was able to walk again, though the pain from Marin's body was slow to fade.

Miss Anare had been necessarily absent for the last few days as well. Once she made sure I could take care of myself, she reinforced the sigils in the estate and set off to right some of the issues that had appeared while I was unconscious. I was quite certain I would be giving her a stern talking to.

'I still can't really wrap my head around all this' came Marin's now familiar voice.

"Well, which part?" I asked out loud. "The magic, the estate, or the fact that we simultaneously exist in the same body?" It was certainly taking some getting used to; occasionally my right arm would move of its own accord.. or at least of Marin's accord.

'Well.. everything, I guess? I don't know.. I mean there must have been a link already. I was drawing those.. sigils, back home.' A memory came to my mind unbidden, and I felt an intense tightening in my chest. Who was I kidding. Mom wasn't crying when I left. She was laughing.

"Ugh.. this.. why does it feel so much like these are my memories?" I asked to no one in particular. Of course, I still got an answer.

'Well.. they kind of are, right? I'm you, you're me..' Marin stated glumly.

The whole thing was confusing, and stressful.. to say the least. I slid out of bed, stretched, and walked out into the hall. It was surprisingly cold at first, but without Miss Anare it made sense. I walked down the hall and entered the first door on the right, expecting to be in the bathroom.

'Storage again.' 
"Yes I'm aware!" I snapped back.

This was the most frustrating part so far. My memories were a scrambled mess of mine and Marin's, and it just so happened that Marin's memories of home were overwriting my habits in the estate. Every door I went in was wrong, every room I expected was completely different to what was in my memories.. and then, there was the magic.

What I had been training to do for the previous few months was helping; control. But this was so far beyond what I was used to managing. Even breathing without conscious control was causing ice crystals to form in the air around me. It meant that every day had been completely draining, and every morning I'd wake up to my room being frigidly cold, even with a lit hearth.

I would have to get Miss Anare to make some modifications to the sigils in at least the house, if not the rest of the estate. With a sigh I shuffled to the bathroom, then the empty dining hall and found my usual seat. I was having strange cravings lately, for food I'd never had. Likely another result of Marin.. but I wasn't sure how to solve the problem. Marin didn't know how to make her favourite snacks from her world, and as far as I knew they didn't exist here.

Unfortunately, the sigils didn't quite know how to handle my cravings either, and usually defaulted to a simple but nutritious breakfast for me. The real oddity was when a second plate of breakfast would float out to a different placement on the table. I suppose I wasn't the only one that needed to adjust.

Once I'd finished eating, I washed my plate and the second. "Right," I said out loud, "I think it's time we work some of this rust off." I then started making my way toward the training hall, having to consciously tell myself it was in the opposite direction I naturally wanted to walk. I was still quite sore, but sitting around doing nothing all day certainly wasn't going to solve that. As I entered, I saw that the ground was still stone rather than sand, and the ritual circle was still clearly painted onto it.

"Well.. do you think you're ready for this, Marin?" I asked quietly as I focused on a sigil in front of my left hand. This was also going to take some getting used to, since I was right-handed..

'Seriously? You're asking me if I'm ready to see magic, of all things?' Came her response. I could've been imagining things, but she sounded almost excited.

"Very well." I said, as the final link of the sigil was finished. Ice exploded into the ground all around me, covering it in a smooth, slippery surface that then began to roughen itself to maintain grip. What I had intended to be a small circle to test the waters, covered not only the entirety of the training hall's ground, but rapidly spread up the walls, across the ceiling, and blossomed through the hole in its dome.

"Whoa.." was all I could manage.

All I could hear from Marin was a stream of excited expletives in a language I recognized as Japanese, but couldn't quite understand without her conscious help.

I really couldn't blame her though. Even I was staring in disbelief at what I had just created, and as though it wasn't enough to simply be covered in ice, snow began to fall from the ceiling. I could feel a small trickle of my mana feeding it, though it seemed silly to even acknowledge it, like a single raindrop in the vast ocean my reserves had become.

This was a lot. Perhaps not at the same level as it had been during my initial assessment, but certainly far beyond what I was capable of just a few weeks ago. I took in a deep breath, delighting in that slight burn in my nose as the cold air hit warm flesh. Then I walked forward, making my way towards the centre, though stopping short of where I knew the ritual circle to still be.

'How..?' came Marin's voice, filled with disbelief. I couldn't help a soft laugh.

"You're so much more lively, suddenly." I teased.

'Well, yeah! You would be too if what you believed your whole life suddenly came true!'

"Well.. I suppose that's true. I should explain it to you then." I reached down to the ground and brushed my hand across the ice, a very small sigil forming as I did, which then pulsed and disappeared. From where it had been, an icicle rose from the ground. I picked it up, and I began to illustrate the basic principles of magic.

"Magic is an expression of the basic elements; Fire, Ice, Water, Wind, and Earth. Each element interacts with the other in a myriad of ways, perhaps too complex to get into right now, but we will in the future." I drew each symbol representing the elements as I spoke, "Every spell you see, even if it seems to be only one element, is a delicate balance between many different ones. For example, fire lacks in power unless fed with wind. Ice lacks in volume, unless fed by water."

I could hear her voice muttering in Japanese again, and I smiled.

"What this means is that everyone can cast every type of magic, but that doesn't mean they're equally capable in all types. Everyone has a specific affinity. Ice is mine. Miss Anare's is fire."

'Wait, if every person can use magic does that mean if I had my own body I could too?'

"I'm.. not actually sure." I responded, "You're from a different world entirely, but you're me.. so theoretically, yes?" I paused for a moment, then began drawing a sigil into the ice, "Now that I think about it, we could find out if you would be, and discover your affinity at the same time.." I muttered as I worked.

All I heard in return was shouts of pure joy.

It took me a moment to remember the exact layout that had been used. After all, it had been quite some time since my affinity was measured. When a few minutes had passed, I was confident that I had it right, and I activated it. As it began, I spoke, "What would normally happen during an affinity evaluation like this, is the one being evaluated would stand inside the circle, and the sigil itself would change colours, corresponding to your affinity. Red for fire, white for ice, blue for water, green for wind, and orange for earth. Here, though.. well, I suppose I have to step inside?"

I placed my left foot into the circle first, and it immediately glowed a bright white, but as I brought my right foot into it as well, the circle changed to a colour I didn't recognize at all. A very bright yellow.

'Wait, you didn't mention yellow. What's yellow?'  Whether she knew it or not, she had just asked the same question I had. "I'm.. not sure. I didn't even know the spell could display other colours.." I took a step back, putting a finger to my chin in thought.

'Wait a second it was orange just then!' Marin exclaimed. I tilted my head to the side, then looked at my right arm, and had a sudden idea.

I stepped forward again, this time only placing my right foot into the circle, and at once it lit up in a brilliant orange hue. "Ah-hah!" I shouted excitedly. "So yellow was a combination of white and orange! Your affinity is earth, Marin!"

'Earth! That's.. huh.. I was kinda hoping for fire or wind or something..'

I laughed. "You just found out that you have your own magic, and an affinity of your own, and you're disappointed that it isn't fire or wind!" I began to draw on the ice again, illustrating the symbol we used for earth. "Earth, Marin, is an exceptional element to have affinity with. It's the element most associated with protection, stability, and strength. Those with affinity for earth can erect a building in an afternoon, they can stop natural disasters in their tracks, even reshape the very land itself to their ends." On the ice were crude illustrations of buildings, a volcano, and a rice field. "Sorry, I'm not exactly an artist."

I heard Marin laugh softly. "How about this," I said, as I kneeled down and drew another sigil with my left hand into the ice. A small fire rose from it, and I found myself thinking of Miss Anare.. I stood, then held my right arm out. "Take my right arm, touch the stone, and try to move it."

Again, that strange sensation overtook me that my arm wasn't my own, as I kneeled down and watched it touch the bare stone. Oddly enough I couldn't feel anything through it either. For a moment, nothing happened. I remained quiet, letting her work it out for herself. Suddenly, she pulled a small plinth of stone up from the floor, and screamed in delight.

'I did it, I did magic!' She shouted in my head.

"Yes! Well done! Please don't yell inside my head though!" I laughed along with her as my right arm came back under my control. Our collective reverie at something so simple was interrupted, as my left arm began to pulse. I raised it up to my ear.

"Hello, Mari? I'm on my way home, everything is taken care of." Came Miss Anare's voice, and with it, a glow of warmth in my chest.