The Other Side: A Second Chance

As the morning bled into noon, Father, Isa, and my brother had gone on a hunting trip into the woods. Varis has proven to be quite good with our father's firearms, more so than me, not to mention that he had grown so much that he was able to wield our father's long rifle.

The offer was extended to me to go with them, but I declined. Last night's nightmare with the timberwolves was still too fresh. Even now, just thinking about it, I can feel my heartbeat escalating as my palms become sweaty.

Instead, I chose to stay with my mother at camp, who was more than happy to sit me down and teach me the ways of magic in this world. We sat along the log across from the campfire, which Mother had relit to provide warmth to us as she began to teach.

"How much has Madam Soza told you about magic so far?" Mother asked me as she brought out her grimoire and her ruby wand.

I thought for a second and tapped my chin. "Uh, not too much, really," I said before a memory popped into my head, and I grinned. "Oh wait! She did tell us about its creation." I nodded.

Mother smiled. "Recite it for me then."

I gulped. "Uh…"

Admittedly, I was a bit hazy on the story, as it was about a year ago when she told us.

"Something about the gods, Margon, and Merlin. Merlin, the god of knowledge, became bored of Sylondra, Mother of Creations, uh… spawn, and wanted to make them more relatable by gifting mortal men a piece of his power."

Mother nodded. "You're on the right track; how did he do that?"

My mind blanked. "I, uh, think I fell asleep that time in class. It was one of Isa's early classes." I blushed.

Mother slowly nodded her head and reached out to rub my shoulder. "It's okay." She cleared her throat and reached out with one hand towards the flickering flames of the campfire. Suddenly, the flames brightened and rose before the dancing fire took on the forms and shapes of beings.

An old, hunched-over mage with pointed ears appeared within the flames. In his hand, he held a mighty staff, which he then raised above his head.

"The Keeper of Tomes and the Creator of the Arcane. Merlin, one of the Seven Saints, helped purge the world of the Dark Lord. He is the concept of curiosity, skepticism, wisdom, and the spread of all knowledge. He is a mind forever searching for the truth." My eyes widened as I watched the flaming representation of the god raise his staff high into the air, the embers floating above coalescing into what looked like a meteorite that began to fall.

"Many, many years ago. Around sixty millennia during the Dark Lord's rise to power. Merlin took pity on the mortal races as they struggled against the evil god's influence, and so from the heaven's, Merlin cast down his essence upon Enora, piercing the heart and unleashing the wells within the Urd Trees."

I blinked and held a hand up to stop Mother. "Urd Trees?"

I vaguely recall seeing an old book of Mother's that depicted large, beautiful trees bigger than anything I've ever seen before that reached high up into the clouds.

Mother nodded. "The limbs of Enora. They're massive life-giving trees; four grown ones in total exist, one on each of the major continents, and a handful of smaller saplings spread about. The Urd trees are said to be the first living beings to exist on all of Enora. They're rife with magic, which long ago was sealed away until Merlin released it."

Mother turned to the fire, and within it, another fiery visage appeared. A large muscular akumari woman, a demonic-looking humanoid, her flames were crimson, and the horns on her head twisted like those of rams. In her hand, she wielded what looked like a massive blacksmith hammer.

"Yet not all was well after Merlin released magic onto Enora. We mortals had no idea how to use it, and in an event that backfired, the Dark Lord already possessed powerful magics, which inadvertently made him more powerful."

It sounds like the god of knowledge didn't think his plan through, I thought.

Mother continued her story: "In order to assist the mortals of Enora, The Lady of the Forge Margon, Goddess of the Forge, and Magic provided the resistance with the knowledge of Magrite and the tools to mine and create weapons of great power from it."

The fire then twisted and turned as both the visages of Merlin and Margon faded, and soon what appeared within the flames was a fiery eyeball.

Oh fuck, Sauron? That was the first thought that came to mind.

"But then the traitorous Gaul stepped in."

"Who?" I blinked. "Isa told us a lot about the gods, but she never mentioned this guy." I pointed at the flaming eye.

"That is because many in the world would wish to forget him." Mother sighed. "Yet his role in the story is important. Gaul, like Meriln, was a god of knowledge, yet he was also the concept of order and law. Unlike Merlin, he wished for all knowledge to be contained and controlled. He did not trust mortals with such power, and he sympathized with the Dark Lord. He saw the Lord as a method of uniting all of Enora and bringing peace, and thus, he defected and informed the Dark Lord of the Enorans acquisition of magic and weapons that could oppose him."

I blinked. "And then, what happened?"

"The Calamity." Mother sighed.

The Calamity? Isa hasn't taught us this, but it sounds familiar.

"Also known as the Intrusive War, it was split amongst the gods, which resulted in a civil war. As much as we hate to admit it, the Dark Lord was a god, one of the few "living" gods, and many hated his involvement with Enora. When Margon and Merlin interfered with mortal affairs, this sparked much outrage as it went against the Divine Right."

I cradled my head in my hands. "Okay, I have so many questions." I shook my head.

Mother giggled. "I apologize if this is a lot of information, but it's good to know." She poked me.

"What's the Divine Right?"

Mother stroked her chin in thought. "This is getting more into clerical studies, which is admittedly out of my field. Though I do have a basic understanding," she said, looking at me and holding her hands out wide. "Think of it as a list of commandments the gods created for themselves. I believe there's like ten or so rules, but I could be wrong."

This world has the Ten Commandments as well? I smirked.

"The gods have always acted from a distance, watching mortals and only occasionally guiding us via avatars, chosen clerics, and paladins during times of strife. Yet never has a god officially set foot on Enora, until the rise of the Dark Lord. As mentioned already, Merlin and Margon took pity on the mortals and were the second and third ones to oppose the Divine Right, while the others rejected it. One of those was Gaul, who went against Merlin and Margon, and it was here that the battle lines began to be drawn. Left and right Gods began to take sides, and eventually the Divine Right was sullied, and war broke out in heaven."

I blinked. "Who won?" I asked as the thought of gods and angels duking it outplayed in my mind. I couldn't imagine what destruction would've been brought if such a war extended to the surface of the planet.

Mother smiled. "Thankfully, the Seven. Sylondra, Faren, Margon, Kraten, Okren, Baren, and Merlin." She listed them off on her fingers. "Many gods and demigods were slain in the intrusive war. Yet in the end, those seven stood tall among the rubble. Yet the Dark Lord did survive the war as well but was weakened. Halting his conquest of Enora for many thousands of years until finally, the Twilight War."

I nodded. Fuck man, this is a lot cooler than learning about World War II, that's for damn sure. I ran a hand over the back of my neck.

"So, what does all of that have to do with magic, though?" I asked.

Mother smirked. "A lot, actually. Despite how tragic these wars were, it was during this time that Enorans learned how to use and control magic and how it's tied to all living things and our souls. We learned how to mine and process magrite to create light, machines, and everything we take for granted nowadays. It's because of this event that we're now here, where we are now." She pointed to the ground.

I nodded and squirmed a little on the log. I was itching to try and cast some spells, but I knew better than to rush my mother.

"Magic, Luna, is in all of us. Even the grass around us and the trees. Everything possesses it. Our souls are magic; you are magic." She smiles. "And I don't mean just in a cute way." She pinched my cheek, and I squeaked. "But you are cute!"

I giggled and squirmed away from her as I swatted her hand off of me. "Sounds very philosophical when you put it like that."

My mother's eyes widened a bit, and she nodded. "In a sense, yes, but it's true. Everything carries a soul, and within that soul is what Magisters refer to as 'The Well'. Within that well, the byproduct of the soul is collected, and this is what we call ether. We don't know exactly what ether is, yet what we do know is that mages like myself..." She trailed off into silence.

She raised her hand in the air, palm facing upwards, and after doing so, the fire in the pit roared upwards in a torrent, and I gasped as heat radiated intensely from it.

Then she continued as she controlled the flames. "Allows us to control the physics of the world to a degree," she said, and the flame lifted off of the pit. She twirled it through the air with a flick of her wrist, and I gasped as I watched the string of flames dance over my head.

Yet eventually she dropped the fire back down into the pit and smothered it until it was back to the small fire it previously was.

"Whoa!" I gasped.

Mother smirked and took a deep breath. "Some say it's also what helps fuel and heal us. Ether can do so much, yet we know so little." She smiled.

I swear to God, if it's Midichlorians, I'm going to cry. I jokingly thought as I giggled and said, "That's amazing, mother!"

"Isn't it?" Mother smiled at me and patted my head before leaning in and kissing me on the forehead. "Every creature carries a well, as I already mentioned, yet the depth of their wells varies. That's where the spiritest comes into play. The spiritest is how the Magisters determine how deep one's well is. This is done by… exposing oneself to vast quantities of concentrated ether."

I blinked. I hope this shit isn't radioactive. I can't imagine just walking into a concealed chamber and being blasted by radiation.

"Is it dangerous to do that?" I was a bit concerned.

Mother thought and said, "Well. Not usually."

"Usually?" I repeated, and Mother blushed.

"I'll admit the test isn't perfect. Those with wells that aren't deep usually fall unconscious due to their overwhelming nature. No one has ever died, though, if that's what you're concerned about." She smiled at me as she leaned forward.

I sighed. "Well, that's good to hear." I smiled. "So, you took this test, right?" I asked. "What did you rank?"

Mother smirks, straightens up, and thrusts her chest out as she puffs herself up all silly-like. "Don't go boasting about this to everyone, but Momma is an Ethereal Archon!"

An ethereal what now? I blinked.

"That sounds metal," I said.

Mother blinked and looked at me. "Excuse me?"

I giggled. "Uh, it's a thing Varis and I say when we think something sounds cool!" I beamed.

Mother thought about it for a second and giggled. "You're such a goof." She tousled my hair.

I snickered some and asked, "So, like, how strong is an archon?" I asked.

Mother hummed. "Well, it's said that my well runs deep as an ocean, and magic comes easy to me, as you can see." She hummed as she began to toy with the fire again. "I am capable of performing great feats, and you saw some of that the night before."

I gulped as the memories came back.

Mother noticed this and blushed, and her eyebrows curled up with guilt. "O-oh, I'm sorry, Sweetie." She ran her hand through my hair again. "That was wrong of me to bring that up so soon."

I shrugged. "It's okay; what happened, happened." I sighed and looked at her as she relaxed. "You looked super cool!"

Mother cocked her head a bit and leaned back before I could see her ego kick in, and she brought a hand to her chin. "Oooh? Did I now?"

Playing along, I nodded. "Yeah! You looked super pretty when you flew in the air all fire-like!"

My mother smirked, crossed her arms under her bosom, straightened her back in a heroic pose, and smirked. If Father were here, he'd probably faint due to how gorgeous she looked as she side-eyed me.

"Thank you, dear, and you may get to do all that too in the future." She turned to me and smiled wide as she booped my nose. "Now pay attention." She leaned in. "So, because we don't have a way to test how deep your well is as of right now, we're going to start small. I'm going to see if I can teach you some mote level spells."

"Mote?" I asked.

"Yes, they are also known as cantrips by other scholars, but the majority refer to them by their given names. They're simple spells; all etheric initiates can cast at least a couple of them with ease, and those proficient enough can skip the chant all together."

"By chant, you mean what you say usually before every spell?" I asked, and Mother nodded.

"Yep, a chant is what allows you to connect with your well and gain access to the ether. Most mages, even myself being an archon, still require me to chant for higher-tier spells," she explained. "Yet the stronger you become and the more you learn, you'll soon reach a point where chantless casting for lower-tier spells becomes natural. Very, very rarely, fully chantless casters make their appearance, and those who do are usually Celestial Magus-tier mages."

I sputtered. "Celestial what?" I blinked.

Mother laughed. "Cool name, huh? It's the tier above me and second to last." She smirked. "If you think Celestial Magus sounds cool, the last one is called 'Apotheonic Aegis'."

"Doesn't that mean you're just a god?" I asked her, and Morther snickered and nodded.

"Yep! Only one has ever existed in all of Enora, and that was the Dark Lord. A mad man who drove himself into literal godhood. Despite his infamy, many scholars respect what he's done in terms of magical studies. He could literally reshape the fundamentals of reality and condemn entire armies to death with a single word."

My eyes widened. "Sounds truly frightening," I said as my mother nodded.

"He was, and that's why, after the Intrusive War, when he was weakened, the Global Alliance formed and waged a total war against him. If it wasn't for that brief window of weakness, we would probably still be under his boot and the eternal twilight."

I thought for a second and stroked my chin. "Not to get too off topic, but why is he called 'The Dark Lord'?"

Honestly, for real, everything else has these cool badass names, yet this villain I always hear about has such a generic name.

Mother chuckled. "He does have a name… or did have one." She corrected herself. "Once again, we're getting into clerical studies here, but gods harness power through beliefs and memories. The more followers a god has, the stronger they become. Or any man, for that matter."

My head perked up. "Wait, any man? Does that mean if I get enough people to worship you, you can become a god?" I asked with a shit-eating grin.

Mother laughed and covered her mouth as she giggled. Though she did nod, "Hypothetically, yes, love. Though I don't think I want to be a goddess, as nice as that may sound, it would take many, many followers. I'm talking millions of people, Luna. The collective faith of so many souls would allow their ether to converge and ascend one person to glory. Or darkness." She sighed. "Hence, we never refer to the Dark Lord by his real name. It is best left forgotten. A god can never truly die; you cannot kill a concept. But you can forget it."

I nodded as I made a mental note of this. "That's crazy," I said as I took a deep breath. "Maybe I can become a goddess someday!" I joked, and my mother giggled.

"You goof." She hummed and rubbed my head. "Well, before my little goddess can ascend, let's get back to our studies. As said, we'll be starting with motes of magic. Now pay attention."

Mother scooted next to me, her soft and warm body pressing against me as she wrapped one arm around my shoulder and pulled me in so that my head was pressed into the side of her breast as she laid her grimoire on our laps. She opened the book to reveal beautifully handwritten... gibberish.

"I can't read it," I said looking at the scripture. It almost looked like gorgeous calligraphy; if said calligraphy was incomprehensible garbage.

"Watch this," Mother delicately whispered into my ear, and I shuddered as she waved her hand over the book. Soon, the scripture began to shift. The ink on the page squirmed and wriggled as the letters began to reshape themselves into legible text, and I gasped.

"Lucien's Cipher. One of my favorite spells." She hummed. "Your father hates it, though." She giggled. "It helps keep a lot of my favorite books illegible to him." She winked.

I think she's referring to the smut I found last year. That'd explain why I couldn't find or read those books.

"But this isn't what I'm going to teach you. We're going to start with something simple." She began flipping through pages towards the beginning of the book, finally landing on a page with depictions of clouds and airlines. On it, written in beautiful calligraphy, was the word "Gust."

"I'm gonna break wind?" I joked, and my mother snorted and bopped me lightly on the head.

"No!" She exclaimed with a smile as I laughed. "Your brother is rubbing off on you too much, little lady." She snickered. "But, in a sense, yes, you'll be pushing the wind. I'm going to show you how to make a gust of wind."

I rubbed the spot she lightly patted, and I nodded with a big grin. I should've guessed she wasn't going to show me how to throw fireballs right away.

Mother pointed to the firepit. "Your task is going to be putting out that flame." She shifted, straightened her back, and unwrapped her arm from around me. "Like this." She held her right hand to her mouth, her index finger and thumb forming a small circle, while her other three fingers held straight up, similar to the "OK" gesture.

Taking a deep breath, she blew air through the window gently, yet on the other side, a torrent of air shot forth in a heavy gust! Dust and ash blasted back as the flame was instantly snuffed out!

I gasped and clapped as my mother looked back at me with a big smile and said, "Now that looks easy; this was one of the first motes I ever learned. It's been so long that I do not need to say the incantation, but I'm going to do it again to demonstrate it."

Mother held her hand out to the small pile of tinder and firewood, and I squeaked with joy as I watched her levitate some chopped logs and tinder over to the blown-out firepit. One by one, the logs magically stacked themselves, and as the tinder was set, she snapped her fingers, and the fire ignited.

She then looked at me, nodded, turned back to the fire, and resumed her posture to cast the spell again. Except this time, she began speaking the incantation, "Breathe the breath of Okren, Tempest's sovereign might, whispering through leaves and roaring through heights. By his grace, let the winds respond to my call—Gust!"

She blew into her hand, and once more, a surge of roaring wind blew out the flames and scattered the half-burned logs! I gasped loudly and said, "Holy crap—"

Mother silenced me with a raised finger, and she wagged it. "Language dear." Mother smiled as I sputtered.

"Wow!" I stood up from my spot and asked, "Can I try? Can I?"

Mother's smile widened, and she giggled. "Of course. Sit back down; I'll get the fire set up again." I nodded and sat back down, vibrating with childlike joy.

Once more, Mother magically lifted logs and tinder and set everything up before me. As I squirmed excitedly, she handed me her grimoire and pointed to the lovely text written on its pages.

"Now reciting the incantation isn't enough, Love." She said, "You'll want to concentrate. Focus. Like meditation, clear your mind and look inward. Focus on what you want to happen and begin reciting the incantation, and you'll feel it. The ether bubbling out of you—it'll feel weird, but it'll feel nice. But don't let the pleasure distract you. Just keep focusing."

I nodded. Does magic pleasure you when you use it? I shook my head. Shut up, degen, and get back in your cage!

I nodded and clapped my little hands on my cheeks, pretending to hype myself up but just smacking away the impurities.

"Okay!" I nodded and gripped the book as my mother reignited the fire.

I glanced at the diagram of the well-drawn hands in the book; if Mother drew these, call me impressed.

I took a deep breath and began to copy the image. I raised my hand to my face and closed my eyes. I had experience meditating in my old life, so clearing my mind shouldn't be too hard. Inhaling deeply, I held it for a second before releasing it. I repeated this a few times until the thoughts in my mind quieted down.

Around me, I could hear nature, the crackling fire, and the gentle breathing of my mother. I was present. Gradually, I began to think about what I wanted to do—to blow a gust of wind at this fire and extinguish it.

I kept repeating this in my mind as my eyes slowly opened and I began to recite the incantation. "Breathe the breath of Okren," I started, my voice low and monotone as the feeling of butterflies built in my stomach. "Tempest's sovereign might," I continued as the feeling of butterflies began to radiate out throughout my core and up my torso. I could feel goosebumps forming on my skin, and my head began to buzz pleasantly.

My brow twitched as I hesitated; the sensations were, in fact, pleasurable!

"Don't get distracted; you're doing this perfectly," Mother hissed softly.

I swallowed and continued, "Whispering through leaves and roaring through heights." The sensation moved to my chest beneath my breasts. I could feel it wrapping around my heart. I began to feel a bizarre yet welcome tingle, as whatever was traveling up my body was nearing my throat. I stuttered once more but kept going, "By his grace, let the winds respond to my call—"

This sensation ran up my spine and into my skull. My brain erupted with a magical euphoria I never felt, and my eyes widened as my perception around me expanded and my voice echoed out, "GUST!"

Blowing through the window of my index finger and thumb, a cannon-like blast of air disintegrated the campfire pit and, further out, Mother and Father's tent! An eruption of splitting air caused my mother to grip her pointy ears and watch with shock and a mix of horror as the tent and fire logs went into the tree line.

Meanwhile, I was twitching and gasping from the tingles my body felt as I looked at my hands and then shakily at my mother. "I-I di-did it!" I stammered out.

Mother, who was still gripping her long ears on the side of her head, released them and looked at me with pinpricks for eyes. She gulped and nodded. "Y-you sure did, sweetie!" She looked back at the mess; the tent now hung from a nearby Sycora tree. "I think you more than did it…"