Whispers Hidden in the Night (9)

Leizelt.

It was a town for commoner mages. The adventurers who knew of it called it...

"The Place of the Lost." In a tavern in Leizelt, the warmth of the fireplace cast a rosy glow over Fatenai's pale face. She looked at Forresten as he spoke to her. He held a wooden staff, his voice calm. "You still have a chance to leave, Fatenai."

Fatenai said nothing. She stood and walked to the window, gazing at the lights coming on across the village—not simple lamplight, but light conjured by magic.

Things that would have astonished people in the cities where she had lived were commonplace here.

"What exactly is a mage?" Fatenai asked.

Mages were a group, but, like any profession, they were not merely people who did a particular kind of work. They also shared a distinct temperament. Forresten's advice was well-intentioned, though she didn't know why he was telling her all this now that she had decided to enter Starshine.

Had he noticed something?

"Do you know where most of Starshine's students come from?" Forresten asked.

"Commoners... poor families, people who've never received an education?" Fatenai replied.

"That's true." Forresten didn't dismiss her answer. "Before they come to Starshine, most have already shown a talent for using Mana. Commoners never know what to do with an ability like that, so at Starshine, most of their education doesn't improve their use of Mana."

Fatenai mulled that over.

"A mage has a great deal to bear, especially a commoner mage. They're nothing like nobles, who are prepared from birth to shoulder anything." Forresten said, "Glory and sin, countless lights shining upon them—and at the same time, they must bear a terrible sea of blood."

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On the top floor of the teaching building, the tremendous power put immense strain on the aging structure, making it seem as though it might collapse at any moment. In one place, several pillars had already fallen. Among the rubble and dust lay pieces of alchemical machinery.

"Cough, cough..." Fatenai lay beside the fallen pillars, barely holding herself up. When she raised her head, the dust made her cough.

But she was using the Eye of Connection, so her vision wasn't affected.

The situation was bad.

Fatenai looked ahead and saw that the Mana in the air had gathered into a vortex, surging toward Shirey.

Shirey's eyes were unfocused. She had clearly lost consciousness. Some people could wield Mana and become mages, but they could also be controlled by Mana.

Fatenai had only recently read about this in a book. When mages drew on more Mana than they could handle, or lost focus while manipulating it, they could be controlled by Mana. Such people were called "Lost Ones."

A Lost One could be saved, but the chance of that mage becoming one again would increase. Fatenai suddenly realized why these students didn't take part in the trials.

It was very possible... that they had all been Lost Ones before.

The flow of Mana grew increasingly tangled. Fatenai's palm was slick with sweat around the sword hilt.

"Shirey!" Fatenai got to her feet, avoiding the areas where the Mana was strongest as she tried to get closer to Shirey and wake her. The process of becoming lost was like falling into a deep sleep; in theory, all it took was waking the person.

"No... no... no..." But Fatenai had just provoked Shirey. Rather than waking her, she only made Shirey resist "waking up" even more. At the same time, Shirey raised her

hand, and the puppet strings turned into arrows, shooting toward Fatenai.

Whoosh—!

Fatenai dodged them and rolled across the ground, still trying to get closer to Shirey. She had to add a forward lunge to her movements.

The puppet strings had indeed turned into arrows, but they were still "strings." They swept to one side. Fatenai had just dodged the ones ahead of her and couldn't move again in time before she tripped and fell!

Thud!

Fatenai narrowed her eyes as she felt the puppet strings coil around her hands, then lift her into the air, tightening by the moment.

The patterns on her hands glowed red. She didn't know how much longer they would hold. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she watched Shirey, who stared up blankly. Though Shirey should have been under Mana's control, the urge to "kill Fatenai" probably still came from her own will.

Blood seeped from the threads around her wrists. Fatenai gritted her teeth.

Rustle...

Suddenly, the strings wrapped around Fatenai snapped. With nothing holding her up, she dropped from the air.

Fatenai ignored her injuries and stared ahead. The Mana surrounding Shirey scattered like clouds after rain. Then an old man stepped out from behind Fatenai.

Forresten.

Forresten looked at Shirey and murmured a couple of incantations. Bands of golden light surged forward and wrapped around Shirey. At their far end, they formed a spear that pointed at her chest.

"Fatenai Frayton, the choice is yours now." Forresten's voice came from above.

Fatenai froze. She saw Shirey's furrowed brow and closed eyes. Shirey wasn't exactly beautiful, but her haggard appearance had a certain air that made her seem deserving of pity.

It reminded Fatenai of her frail mother.

"She needs treatment—both for being a Lost One and for the Leiber inside her," Fatenai said.

"She's already committed a serious breach of the rules. The alchemical processes in the teaching building are there to keep it running." Forresten said, "Losing oneself is like an addictive drug. Once you've done it once, it will never be the last time."

Fatenai sighed, stood, and dusted herself off. "I hate the way she is. So why should I become like that?"

Even if Shirey deserved punishment for breaking the rules, even if her own actions had brought her death upon herself, that wasn't for Fatenai to decide.

With that, Fatenai turned away, thinking she was no longer needed.

Crack.

Fatenai turned back in shock at the sound of a spear piercing flesh. Had Forresten killed Shirey? When she turned, she did indeed see Shirey pierced by the spear.

But Shirey's face showed no expression. She was still asleep. Then the spear slowly withdrew, and at its tip was a red worm about the size of an adult's thumb—the Leiber.

The Leiber vanished along with the spear tip, dissolving into golden specks of light.

"Kindness is a virtue worth praising," Forresten said softly. "But what, exactly, are mages?"

After Forresten spoke, several people in mage cloaks came running up behind them. They went to Shirey and surrounded her—medical staff.

Fatenai said nothing.

These mages bore pressures beyond anything ordinary people could imagine, perhaps because of things they had suffered in the past...

"Anyway, welcome to Starshine," Forresten said.