The Eternal Phoenix & The Memories

A roaring sound in my ears was the first thing I experienced this morning, followed by splitting pain in my head. I groaned loudly and rolled out of bed, keeping my eyes closed as I shuffled for the door. Instead, I ran face first into an unexpected wall. I dared to open my eyes for a moment, ignoring the searing pain of light hitting them as I took a quick look around.

It took a bit too long for my brain to register exactly what was going on, before I remembered that this wasn't, technically, my room. I saw Mari's four poster bed, that gigantic window that right now I hated with a passion, and all of her stuff.

'That's weird,' I thought to myself, 'normally I see this more like I'm watching a screen, not.. like this.' I looked down at my right arm, and moved it around experimentally. It didn't feel quite the same as it usually did. Then I realized that I'd been moving the left as well. The migraine faded only slightly as this dawned on me, and I looked at it like I'd never seen an arm before, twisting and turning it.

I could feel a continuous pulse of something running up the arm, and I could see flows of what I assumed was mana rushing through the veins. Suddenly the headache screamed back to the forefront of my thoughts, and my hands whipped to either side of my head as I collapsed on the ground, feeling like my head was being crushed between two buildings. It took every ounce of my willpower not to cry out in agony.

If I was lucky, the sweet release of unconsciousness would soon take me. Instead, while the headache only subsided slightly, I heard a familiar voice.

"Ungh.." Mari sounded inside my head, "I have got the WORST headache right now.."

I could only describe the sensation as falling, as I was suddenly pulled from the driver's seat of Mari's body, and released from the pain. I watched from the position I'd been getting used to as Mari shook her head and stood.

"Ahhh.. that's already so much better. Why am I out of bed already?"

'You uh.. don't remember?' I asked cautiously.

"Remember what? That splitting headache is pretty much all I could think about. Were you feeling it too?" She asked while she started with her morning routine.

'Uh.. yeah, can't say I've ever had that before, and I think I'd rather be stabbed in the brain than go through that again.' I replied dryly. It was probably just a temporary blip, bringing it up right now would likely just stress her out even more. Training had gotten hard enough without her having to worry about losing control of her own body.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I finished washing my face, noticing a slight numbness in my left arm as I dried off. "This training must be getting to me" I said to no one in particular, though I was happy to realize that technically I wasn't talking to myself.

I wandered to the dining hall and grabbed breakfast, as well as a chocolate-covered wafer that Miss Anare and I had managed to piece together, the only thing from Marin's world we could manage to recreate from her descriptions. It was, to be fair, one of the most delicious things I'd ever eaten. Had we been struggling for money it would make for an excellent thing to sell.

After tidying up, I made my way to the training hall, as I had been doing every morning now. Miss Anare was already ready and waiting, sigils prepared to keep me from completely burning out.

"Good morning Miss Anare!" I called out as I walked in.

She smiled and gave a nod, "Good morning Mari, Marin."

My focus pulsed as Marin's voice rang through it, "Morning Anare."

Monotone as ever. I walked up to Miss Anare and took a breath in, then gave a nod, turning to take up my position before suddenly stopping.

"Oh! I guess I should tell you this before we start, in case it's something bad. I don't remember waking up this morning, and when I actually came to consciousness I had a screaming headache and a slight numbness in my left arm." I listed out, trying to be as thorough as I could.

"That.. is concerning." She said, as she stepped forward and took a closer look at me. I stood still while she inspected, and while a few sigils popped up on either side of my head. I felt the soothing trace of water coursing through my head as she checked for injuries or abnormalities, and after a moment it stopped.

"Well.. I couldn't sense anything out of the ordinary. How do you feel right now?" She asked, her hand raising to my head as though she was going to check my temperature, before she remembered how difficult that would be.

"I mean.. fine, honestly. The headache disappeared pretty soon after I woke up, and that numbness is gone. I can still train."

"Okay. But if anything feels off, you say so immediately, okay?" Miss Anare asked.

I nodded, then took up my position while she took hers. This training had been especially brutal. I was to expend as much mana as I could, essentially burning myself out on purpose, to then use extremely small amounts of mana and water magic to keep myself conscious. This training was meant to have two affects; one, it would serve to increase my overall capacity alongside the physical training. Two, it would ensure that if I burn myself out in a critical moment, I'll at least remain conscious enough to try to run away, or contact Miss Anare.

I created a gigantic sigil in the ground beneath me, as we had found the best way to drain my mana right now was to send as much of my ice straight into the ground as I could. Doing this, it was only a matter of seconds before I reached burnout, and I'd only have a second or two to switch my output to a very limited form of water magic, using a spell Miss Anare had designed to be used by even the least capable witch for the purposes of keeping someone stable. Used while that person was conscious however, it would stave off fainting.

My vision began to swim as I neared burnout, and I swapped to water as quickly and carefully as I could. I felt the smallest traces of my mana swirling through my head, and though my vision continued to swirl, I remained conscious. Now it would only be a matter of how long I could hold this.

Thanks to my increased magic capacity from uniting with Marin, we were able to do this multiple times a day, though my limit was three. Between attempts, I would be suffused with a large and sudden shock of Miss Anare's mana, something I wouldn't have been able to handle before. Marin described it to me in terms of her world, saying that it was like being given a shot of adrenaline.

Whatever the case, it was intense. My heartrate would skyrocket, mana would flow so fast it would drown out my hearing, and I'd feel like I was burning up from the inside, though immediately pushing ice through my body helped to mitigate that particular effect. I faltered for a moment, and fell to the ground. Before my eyes closed I saw my mom laughing at me.

I was awake again in mere seconds, Anare's mana roaring through me like a flaming cheetah. The headache was back again too. I writhed in pain on the floor and clutched at my head, doing everything I could to avoid clawing into Mari's skin. Anare rushed over to me, and I felt her hand against my side. The heat coursing through me died to a dull and comforting warmth in a near instant.

After a moment, I opened my eyes and looked up at Anare, the pain behind them slowly subsiding. She looked as worried as I felt, and before I could stop myself I was already speaking, "I.. I don't know why, but this is the second time I've gotten full control of Mari's body today, and it's lasting longer this time."

Without a word she picked me up and carried me out of the training hall. What an embarrassingly frequent thing this was becoming, but.. it did feel nice, at least. I could see why Mari enjoyed it so much.