The First Mage

As I was sitting on the floor, waiting for the pain to pass, and failing to ignore the regularly occurring stinging pain in my head, I thought about Oryn while drawing new scripts on my arm with the remaining ink, for ease of use.

‘Hey!’

I didn’t know where the term “mana circulation” had come from, but it sounded very interesting. Every living thing was giving off at least tiny amounts of mana, meaning that, technically, everybody had it. You needed to pass a certain threshold for it to do anything, however. A vessel giving off such a blast of mana awakened you, or activated your mana circulation, presumably meaning that your body starts to actively produce and recover mana. That part made sense, but Oryn had said himself that he had very little “energy.” He also hadn’t given off any kind of aura, and I could see that he had way less mana than Tomar, Riala, and Lilana. How was it that the blast still had the same amount of force as the one from the water source then? The logical conclusion was that these two things weren’t related. This “discharge” that happens when you overexert a vessel must be something else.

‘Hey! Hey! Hey!’

Mana capacity was also an interesting topic. Based on the amount and the density of the mana that was given off, I would guess that Tomar probably had the most mana out of the three of us, with Lilana coming in second and Riala last. It was unclear what affected this, but since Oryn had so little, it must’ve been different for each individual. Some people might simply have more than others. Although we had yet to research whether it was possible to increase your capacity. Riala was also still pretty young, so who knows how this might change over time.

‘HEY! HEY! HEY!’

“What!?”

‘I told you not to ignore me!’

“And I told you to stop yelling! Evidently neither of us are good at doing as asked!”

‘Whatever! Do something about Oryn!’

“Huh? What do you mean?”

‘You keep glancing at him, but you aren’t helping him!’

“There’s nothing we can do about what happened to him. He’ll wake up eventually.”

Not to mention that he tortured Tomar and Riala before...

‘What did you do to him?’

“You mean what did he do to himself,” I said with a sigh. “The script I gave him presumably used up all of his mana. If I’m right, he’ll be unconscious for a few hours, but he’ll be fine.”

‘Mana? Is that the white stuff?’

“Yes, the ‘white stuff.’”

Good thing that that doesn’t sound weird at all.

‘You thought he might be dead though, right?’

“It’s the first time I’ve seen this happen to a human, I didn’t know what would happen. He’s lucky to still be alive.”

‘What did you want him to use it on?’

“Well...”

Should I tell her? The temple seems to know how it works by this point, since Oryn clearly had mana. It’s not like she would be able to tell them anything new. I don’t know who else she might tell though... and I don’t want everyone to know about it yet. The High Priest sure as hell won’t go around telling people. Then again, as it stands, we’ll have to keep her around for a little while anyw—

“If you don’t tell me, I’ll yell until my throat goes sore! And I can’t feel my throat right now!!”

Ugh...

“Listen. There’s a few things I don’t want people to know yet. If I told you, I would have to force you to stay with me for longer. Are you sure you want that?”

She seemed to think my question over for a moment. Anyone would get curious if they were confronted with what was happening here, but I doubted that that would be her priority. Sure enough, she backpedaled.

‘Never mind then...’ she said grumpily. ‘Tell me what needs to happen for you to finally go away then.’

“I need to find a companion of mine, who has something I’ll need for that. They’re somewhere between here and Cerus, so if everything goes according to plan, it should take three days at the most.”

All of a sudden, she got very quiet. Hm? Did I say something wrong?

‘Did you just say Cerus...? As in going through the Wildlands!?’

I’m an idiot, I thought. My view on this world is so much different from the normal population that I don’t even really think about these things anymore. Of course she would think I’m crazy if I suggested going out there.

“Wait! Please calm down. I know it sounds scary, but I promise you that it’s safe.”

Relatively speaking...

“You can promise things all you want! That doesn’t mean anything, coming from someone who stole my body!” she said, before continuing in a sad whisper. “Why couldn’t I just get my Calling and become a priestess...”

I’m the bad guy right now, aren’t I? I thought. This girl just had her life turned upside down, she didn’t know whether she would survive all of this, and to top it all off, I even took over her body. I still thought that that had been the right decision for the moment, given how she told people that she was mad, and how she was convinced that they would kill her. However, this was surely difficult for her. Too bad that I suck at consoling people...

“I truly am sorry. Neither of us wanted this. Even if it doesn’t mean anything to you yet, my promise still stands. We will get me out of here. I’m not only saying that because I want you to stop yelling, but also because getting out is in my best interest. An unwilling host is even more inconvenient than you might think. And about any dangers we might face... our lives are linked right now, and I assure you, I don’t want to die.”

‘Even if you’re telling the truth... How am I supposed to become a priestess after what happened here? After whatever else you’re going to do in my body?’

“I... don’t know yet.”

‘That’s just great...’

If I managed to get back to Tomar and the others, and we went through with our plans, Alarna would change drastically in the not so distant future. The temple might very well still be around afterwards, but it’s very likely that the High Priest won’t stay in power. We will also make sure people aren’t killed just for a stupid reason like hearing a voice in their head anymore, especially if they aren’t harming anyone. Lilana becoming a priestess actually shouldn’t be much of a problem in that case. We didn’t know if you could get a Calling post-Miles yet, but even without one, she could become a priestess in the world we were envisioning. Telling her any of that right now would probably just sound silly, however.

I don’t want her to be miserable, but this is just how it has to be for the moment... right? Didn’t Tomar say something like that to me once? But... this situation is very different...

When I first came into this world, I was just a voice in someone’s head. I was confused, angry, and I just wanted everything to go back to how it was. However, I had been the invader then, and I still was now. I’m not even leaving her any choice, I just took over her body. This is basically kidnapping... What would Tomar think about that? This isn’t right...

Thinking about it critically, I decided that I couldn’t force all of this on her. It was her body and her life. Even if I could justify it by saying that I would potentially save her life, or that we might improve the lives of thousands of people if I were able to get out of here, it still didn’t feel quite right. And maybe there was a chance that we could build a friendly relationship instead.

“I don’t want to force you to do anything... What happened to Oryn was his own fault, and he’ll understand that. That won’t fall back on you. And with the way you are now... you might be even more valuable to them than before. I don’t know what would happen if you stayed here, but if you want, I’ll give control back to you and you can roll the dice. Or you can come with me, we’ll get me out, and then we’ll see where we go from there.

“There are no guarantees either way, but I know we can get out of here, and I’m certain you would be able to have a life. If we stay here, we’ll stay together, regardless of whether they kill us, study us, or let us do something for the temple’s benefit.”

She waited patiently until I was done talking and stayed quiet even afterwards. I’m not sure what I would’ve done in her position. I might not have put a lot of weight on whatever a bodysnatcher was saying, but then again, if he seemed like my ticket out of the situation, it was at least worth considering, which I hoped would be the same conclusion Lilana would come to.

‘You really mean that?’ she asked after a little while.

“I do.”

‘Then... please give me my body back.’

Right... Of course that would be her choice... I thought. At least she had calmed down a little, and now with mana, a faithful member of the temple would surely not just be executed if they didn’t act like a Mad One. This wouldn’t be the end.

“Okay... Just a word of warning, your entire body feels like it’s burning right now, but that will pass in a few hours. Don’t worry about it.”

I resigned myself, let loose, and switched places with her, going back to my all too familiar backseat. She caught herself from falling over and then evidently felt the pain, but she didn’t cry out. “Ngh!”

She then moved her body around testingly. “You really gave it back...” she said. “What kind of Calling are you? Why do you know so much about the scripture sigils?”

‘Technically, I’m not a Calling. I’m a human. Kind of. And you aren’t the first person I’m accompanying,’ I said.

“A human? How are you in my head then?”

Lilana seemed very surprised that I had actually given control back to her, but as one might expect, this made her much more approachable. Instead of constantly yelling, she started talking with me openly.

‘Honestly, I only have theories about that part. Somehow, my soul made it into a white stone. And somehow it happened more than once...’

“So you really do have companions who could help you?”

‘Yea, I just don’t know where exactly they are right now... I last saw them two weeks ago.’

“Don’t you think the priests can get you out? And even though I don’t like her, Hope is very powerful. Maybe she can help us!”

‘What? Who’s Hope?’

“Have you not heard of her? Her real name is Aelene, she became a divine messenger a little while ago.”

A what now...?

‘I was probably somewhere else at the time... What happened to her?’

Lilana briefly summarized how a few weeks ago this woman named Aelene had received an aura similar to that of a god, and how she had performed miracles, like making it rain over the crowd when her ascent had been announced. The way she talked about her, Lilana was anything but a fan, but because of that she also mentioned that Oryn had become her attendant, which apparently wasn’t proper. Both because of her previous rank in the temple and because he was a man.

A woman with an aura who’s making it rain and a sigil researcher with mana who was made her attendant? Yea, that’s most definitely not a coincidence. It could be a great opportunity to shake peoples’ belief in the temple and the gods though...

‘Heh. That woman is not a divine messenger.’

“Huh? I thought you didn't know her.”

‘Think about it carefully. What was Oryn able to do? And what happened here just now?’

“I don’t like guessing games...”

Boring.

‘Alright. Here’s my theory. A few weeks ago, Oryn discovered the same thing that happened here, how to give people mana. He presumably used a water source, and definitely a different script, but the result was the same. Either accidentally or on purpose, he gave himself and that woman mana, but Oryn got only a tiny amount, while Aelene got a lot.

‘You need to know, when you have mana, you have a certain air around you. What you call an aura. It can cause others to fear you, like a beast, but it’s not always like that, and you can also change it. The thing is, other people who have mana don’t feel it. Oryn was presumably made her attendant because he was the only one who could be around her without being affected. And about that rain miracle... well, just look at the bucket.’

She glanced over to it and her eyes went wide in understanding. “Wait, that’s all? She is just like I am?”

‘Almost certainly, yea. If she feels divine, she probably has more mana than you, but since she only has Oryn by her side, she won’t be able to even utilize it properly. That script they used to make it rain was presumably a slightly modified version of the water source script. They just shot a bunch of water into the air and then it rained down over the crowd.’

Halfway through my explanation, I realized I might be telling her too much, but then again, she had seen enough to guess that much by herself sooner or later, and revealing to her that the temple and the High Priest were a bunch of liars at least brought me some joy.

“They aren’t special...” Lilana mumbled as she glanced at Oryn. “We’re the same.”

Oh? Right, this girl is ambitious... I thought. If the temple puts faithful mana users on a pedestal, this could potentially be an opportunity. A divine messenger might even stand above the High Priest. However, there would be problems with the current setup.

‘A word of advice, in case you’re thinking of proclaiming yourself a divine messenger as well. They told the masses that Hope was sent here to clean up. A second messenger who isn’t even a priest yet doesn’t fit the narrative. They aren’t likely to play along. We would also have to find a way to make you give off mana like a god first.’

“They are deceiving the people though, and Aelene isn’t nearly as powerful as they’re claiming, right?”

‘That’s right.’

“It wouldn't matter what I did if I were the real divine messenger and had just protected myself... Hm... If you go away, will I keep the mana?”

‘Yes, it’s a part of your body.’

“Okay then!”

‘Okay...?’

“Promise me that you will help me take her place and we’ll go with your plan.”

‘Heh... Hahaha!’

“Hey, what’s so funny!?”

‘Sorry, I wasn’t laughing about you, it’s just this entire situation,’ I said, still chuckling. ‘We have a deal! I promise that we’ll make you the one and only divine messenger once I’m out of your head.’

“Deal!”