Inside the large quadrangular building made of marble, gigantic white columns filled with corinthian carvings rise at each side running throughout the place, and holding the high white ceiling. The shining daylight filters through the windows positioned at each side of the building, lighting the place with liveliness. A large red carpet with golden embroidery runs at the center of the place, with many others hanging over the ceiling. At the far end of the site, a huge human-like statue is placed there. His body is carved with tunica and golden accessories, with his right arm carrying a lance and his left arm raised up. On top of his head rests a golden crown that resembles the Sun. He is the God-Dragon of Fire, Sar'Agnar.
The same well built brown skinned man with platinum hair, again wearing only white trousers and a strap of turquoise fabric around his waist, stands in front of the statue, speaking warmly with a tall priest. The priest's body is covered entirely by a white silk tunica with golden embroidery, along with golden accessories that decorates all around the tunica. However, it does not hide her busty and elegant figure. A large white veil rests on top of her head and a golden dragon-like mask, where a smaller white veil hangs over, covers her entire face.
The two of them seem to be having a pleasant conversation, with soundless smiles and laughters between voiceless words. When they notice my presente, they both look at me and smile. I can see the man speaking at me, yet I hear only nothingness. Even though I am not responding to him, the man keeps smiling at me and continues to speak to me. I can also sense the priest talking to me, yet again nothing comes from their mouth.
"What's your name?" for some reason, this is my question. Somewhere deep inside me knows who they are, yet somehow I do not remember their names.
The priest says something inaudible. However, I hear what the man just said.
"Arvus." he pauses and smiles warmly at me, "Lorraine, when you create...." what he says afterwards cannot be heard.
After that, I open my eyes and I immediately feel something on top of me, and also licking at my face, near my chin area. I cannot help but chuckle with all that ticklishness. Gathering all my strength, I gently push away Baguette from me and start to pet his head, while still lying on my bed. Seeing that I am already paying attention to him, he lays with his belly on top of my chest and enjoys petting, with his tongue sticking out and wiggling his tail. The morning daylight filters through my window, painting the place with a unique vividness I have never seen. I feel very relaxed.
"Good morning, sweetie. Ready for the new day?" I ask him with a gentle voice.
Baguette barks energetically at me in response. After giving him enough petting, I pick Baguette with my hands and drop him on the floor, and start to stretch my arms upwards. Then, I head towards the bathroom humming happily with Baguette following behind me. Upon seeing him wanting to enter too, I stop him with my feet right before he crosses the door.
"Wait for me outside, Baguette."
Not that he will understand what I say anyways. After checking that he will not enter, I slide close the door and start preparing myself for the day. I stand in front of the wash basin, open the faucet and brush my teeth, while still humming. Then, I comb my messy hair into cleanliness. While doing so, I notice that I am smiling in front of the mirror, which makes me smile even further. Once done with cleaning my face, I get out of the bathroom.
Baguette barks and wiggles his tail again upon seeing me again and also starts to follow me wherever I go. At the kitchen, I open the fridge grab a dog food cron from between the emptiness and Baguette's turquoise feeder from one of the drawers. Realizing what I am doing, the little puppy starts to bark and jump frantically around me.
"Hush, behave yourself." I say with a more serious tone.
Looking at my reaction, Baguette calms himself and awaits silently. I smile gently and put the feeder on the floor, and fill it with the food. Once done, Baguette starts to eat frantically from the feeder. So cute. I cannot help but squat and pet his soft back while he is eating.
"Guess I'll get ready too." I chuckle.
_ _ _
Like the previous days, I wait dressed casually and well fed in my room on top of my bed browsing with my phone, until the classes are over for Caesar, and maybe for Heron also. At around 15:00pm or so, I leave my home to meet them in the forest. Except this time I have a little reddish and orange fellow to accompany me. After securing the leash on Baguette around his collar, we leave home in a rush.
During our walk, the students we meet cannot help but look in awe at Baguette, who is enjoying the walk and all the attention they are giving to him. Understandable, I have to say, as the average person would not own such exotic and cute pet. The hills are somewhat far away from the student apartment and past the school, so it takes us a while to reach the forest. And then, even further to arrive at the meeting place.
Once we arrive at the cleared area, we spot Caesar and Heron sitting on the grass, near the trees, while having a small conversation between them. The two of them are wearing their white marine school uniforms and carrying their bags. Upon noticing my entrance, they wave their hands to salute me as I approach them.
"Greetings." salutes Caesar.
"Hello!" I salute back and wave my free hand.
"Oh! Dat's ya new pet! He's so cute, pal!" Heron screams out of emotion as he starts to pet frantically Baguette, which he gladly allows himself to be caressed with delight, "What's his name?"
"Baguette." I announce proudly.
"Co'l! What a nice name!" agrees Heron.
I look at Caesar with a mockery face, "See? It's an awesome name."
"If you say so." Caesar stands up and looks at me, "Shall we start, then?"
I nod in agreement and hand Baguette's leash to Heron, who gladly accepts it and keeps playing with the fennett. Caesar and I walk at the center to have some space. There, I inhale deeply and focus in my mind the image of the object I want to create and its properties: a small orb artifact, with all its wires, gears, and a purple mineral. All of these properties are inside of that tiny orb. Having a general grasp of the idea, I try to materialize the artifact. The orb starts to appear slowly, like a 3D printing, in front of me on top of the soil. After nearly forming half of it, the orb starts to destabilize and cracks form all around it, leading eventually to its total disintegration. The test failed again, like all the previous ones done these past days.
I cross my arm and look at Caesar, "I'm starting to think Aelard is pranking us."
"Give me the device." asks Caesar.
I hand over to Caesar a small quadrangular gadget stored in my pocket. He activates the device and a blue hologram screen appears on top of the gadget. The screen shows the blueprint of a complex artifact, with very detailed information about each of its parts. Caesar starts browsing again the information with a concentrated look.
"I still cannot believe this artifact can nullify the magic detection of our collars." says Caesar while looking at the screen.
"I'm more surprised dat Aelard managed t'make Lorra's new collar free from magik d'tection." comments Heron while still playing with Baguette.
"And deliver this information through my workbooks." a flashback of the day where Caesar handed my workbooks at my house comes into my mind.
"She lo'ks like a..." Heron puts his hand on his chin, with a thoughtful look.
"A secret agent." I finished his phrase.
"Ya! Definitely!" Heron snaps his fingers, with a grin on his face. Then, he does not stop staring at me, "Ya lo'k more happy, Lorra. Way happier than before."
"Huh? Am I?" I chuckle back.
"Ya! Ya used t'be like... a de'd person." he laughs wildly.
"Are ya picking a fight?" I glare at him. Wait, did I just copy his accent?
Anyways, I should start conjuring the orb again, so I extend once more my arm. And this time, the artifact splinters even before reaching a third of its completion. I fall onto my knees, already tired of failing again and again. This is a pain in the ass, honestly. I wish I just could have created it in the second or third try.
"Channel ya mana." Heron sits beside me, while carrying Baguette.
I look at him with my eyebrows frowned, "And how do I channel it?"
"Imagine as'f ya 'r guiding an invisible flow inside yer body, and ya direct them h're." He puts his hand on my back, where my heart is, "An' then, move dat flow to wh'rever part of da body ya need it."
I try his advice, even though I am truly not sure what he just said. Channel your mana, focus on the flow moving through your body. Gather them, here, at the center of the body.
...
I think I am doing this correctly? Honestly, I do not feel anything different. Or anything at all. Nonetheless, I motion my right hand to create the artifact and it starts to form again. And this time I feel like it is forming faster, yet it breaks into pieces anyways. I feel down again while I look at Heron.
"Ke'p practicing!" he beams at me with his huge smile.
"Here it says you have to know the exact functioning of each part to properly create the artifact." Caesar rests his eyes on me, while still pointing at the screen, "Do you know them?"
"Well... More or so..." I answer vaguely and avoid looking at him.
Caesar hands me over the gadget, "Study them, and then we resume again."
I really wanna kill him right now, but I am not also hiding it with my glare. However, he is not bugged at all with my anger, as usual. I leave a huge sigh and activate the gadget to study its content anyways. This is, after all, for my own good.
_ _ _
I take out my ID and scan it through the security screen of my house's entrance. After hearing the affirmative beep, the door slides open and I enter inside. Overall, this place is not very big: it only has a single room, where the bed, desk, kitchen and wardrobes are conglomerated, plus a bathroom attached to the room. The design is similar to Aelard's house, now that I think of it. However, this time there is a clear difference. A small woman is sitting on top of my desk with her legs crossed. She has blue hair that reaches her shoulders, and is wearing shorts, a black top, a jacket and headphones. Her legs are also covered by black tights and wearing sport shoes. Nonetheless, the most shocking trait of her persona would be her bunny ears sprouting over her head. Upon noticing my entrance, the bunny girl gazes intensely at me with her crimson red eyes.
"What took you so long?" she does not sound pleased.
"Sorry, something took me more time than I thought." I apologize as I sit on my desk chair and look at her, "Any news?"
"Nothing." she shakes her head, "Bahal is doing nothing but sitting, as always, and Nalai keeps playing nursery."
"Do not underestimate them, Bahal's dreamwalk and scrying are very powerful tools. And Nalai can overwhelm us with her berserk rage." I clear my throat, "But it is strange. They're not making any moves yet."
"Well, better for us." she pauses for a few seconds, and then she seems to realize something, "Did Aelard finally make her move?"
I nod with a grim face, "She is approaching Lorraine."
"Not good. How much?"
"Way too much, I have to say."
I'll inform the rest." she jumps off from the desk.
"Tell them to prepare themselves. And ready to act at any moment."
"That's not for you to decide." she heads to the exit, "I'll inform you once we know our course of actions. In the meantime, stay still."
I remain silent as I see the girl leave the house and the door slide closes. I leave a huge sigh and look at the ceiling. We are already taking too much time. We have to act now. However, they are always hesitant to do so. As always, they are too afraid.
_ _ _
The Sun is already setting, which is tainting my room with a deep orange color. I am sitting on my bed while I am drying my hair with a towel, as I have taken a shower after finishing the session at the forest. In the end, I did not manage to complete any single orb. The task feels too difficult. As I dry my hair, I cannot help but look at Baguette, who is lying around on the floor very exhausted, and I chuckle.
Once done with my hair, I drop the towel on the bed and gaze at the window. I feel the warmth of the daylight basking on my skin. It has been a long time since I felt refreshed. So refreshed that I closed my eyes to better enjoy the sensation. And I start recalling today's session. I recall Heron's advice, about how I try to channel my mana, about how to imagine them, about how I felt conjuring, about everything. Then, I open my eyes and murmur something out of nowhere.
"When you create, follow your heart."
As if someone started to control me, I gently stretched forwards my right hand and started imagining the artifact. I recall its properties, but I do not obsess too much with it. I also try to guide my mana to my right hand, where I am extracting most of the mana to cast magic. Then, I follow my heart's guidance. I want to create the artifact. I want to make it real, to make it exist in this world. I want my artwork to throb life. And then, an artifact rests on my bed in front of me.
...
Wait, is this real? Am I not dreaming?
...
Yes, this is real. By the gods. I did it. I cannot believe I created it. A sudden rush of happiness fills my entire body, making me chuckle and my cheeks burning as if they were set on fire.
"We did it!" I look at Baguette, "We have created the orb!"
Baguette, sensing my enthusiasm, starts to bark and wiggle his tail energetically.
"Now, how do I maintain its existence with mana?" I murmur to myself as I grab the device.
Today, I have scored a huge success and victory. Today, I have done something I would have never thought I would be able to years ago. But I did it, I really fucking did it! I am so happy right now! This sensation is fantastic! I am screaming of bliss inside my heart!
With this achievement, I hope everything goes well and I can finally live just in peace from now on. However, somewhere deep inside my chest tells me it will not be the case. That this stage will eventually meet its end. And, somehow, I know it will not end in happiness. This is my destiny.