Chapter 33: Chapter 33: Today I stopped and asked, “What if I don’t want to be a shoe?”

Sunlight cascaded across the purple ocean as we approached the portal to our destination. The world of crystal and purple disappeared, and the wood beneath my feet tilted down as we dipped into the crystal-clear waters of a vast sea. I looked around and took in the change.

It had been night at our house.

A shape in the distance caught my eye. I saw a land of trees, stretching over a sandy beach. Between the treetops peeked houses that shone with vibrant colours. It was an island town.

“I suggest you look down but try not to fall over.” Frederick’s voice whispered to me.

“Sounds like fun.” I responded.

“What does, champ?”

I turned to see my dad smiling happily.

There was no indication that he remembered what we’d just been through.

“Taking a look at the view.” I gripped the side of the beat. “Maybe I’ll see a live fish for the first time in my life.”

I poked my head out the side and stared down at the twinkling water below. It was shallow, and I could see the microcosm of life that the sea housed. It was mostly green.

Algae? I couldn’t spot a single fish. Or fish-like creatures.

I squinted my eyes looked at the underwater flora and fauna. Distinct shapes slowly revealed themselves to me, vaguely familiar to my eyes. They looked like very small trees, and houses. There was even a small structure below us that looked like a city. Then it clicked. The objects weren’t small, we were far away from them.

We were in the sky.

I stared at the city below us until my body reacted to what my mind had figured out. There was a sea floating in the sky, and we were riding on top of it, but below us there was empty air for miles.

“This is amazing!” I called out to Frederick.

My dad joined me in admiring the view, and paled when he realised the truth.

“This is magic? I think I prefer symbols. And land.” He took a step back.

He sat back down in a rush. I felt bad for him, but I wanted to examine the water.

How did it work?

I didn’t want to use mana manipulation to test it. I don’t know what caused the sea, but if it was magic or a spell, I didn’t want to disrupt it and drop us hundreds of feet from the sky. I closed my eyes and activated my mana sense.

The sea around us blazed to life as I focused on the magic around me. I could see the truth behind the illusion, the mana transforming into water that cascaded around us.

Who could do this?

What amount of mana and power would be required to achieve this goal? Someone had created a force of nature.

I turned my eyes to the island and blinked in surprise as I saw it was real. There was magic there, a lot of it, but the island itself was manaless. It was an ordinary piece of land, floating in the sky. I could only think of one explanation.

“Is that island an onze?” I turned to my dad. “It has no mana.”

My dad was trying his hardest to keep his eyes on the boat, and it took a couple of tries to get his eyes to flicker to the island.

“I would have to get closer to it to check.” My dad spoke. “But if it is, then it is one of the biggest I’ve ever seen.”

My year in isolation hadn’t been a total washout. I had memorised so many symbols that they appeared in my dreams. Onze required the use of specific symbols, but my dad hadn’t revealed which ones or how I could combine them.

I had been fine with limiting my knowledge, but now I was growing curious. A floating island. It made me recall a movie I’d loved as a kid, watching it alongside my sister and parents on a family movie night.

I wish my family could have seen this. The one from earth.

I hadn’t fully come to terms with being ripped out of my world, but I had accepted that nothing could be done about it. I’d died, and I had ended up in another world. Maybe that’s what happened to all the people in my world.

Still, if it was possible, I’d like to meet my family one more time. To tell them how much they meant to me now that I knew what it felt like to be without them.

Could magic make that possible?

The air gently rustled my hair. The mana that had been resting on my shoulder was the cause. It was comforting, and I gave it a high five in return. The mana examined my hand curiously as it hung in the air, and then pushed against it lightly.

“Good job.” I whispered to it.

It whizzed through the air in response, and then landed back on my shoulder. Mana was a curious concept to me. A tiny part of an enormous being, guiding myself and others through life and hardship. I’d come to think of mana and magic as two parts of one being.

I imagined magic as the mind, and the guiding hand, and the mana was it’s physical presence.

Indra and Marv would debate against me for a week straight if they heard me say that out loud. They had their own opinions on the subject, as did every magician in the world.

I felt a tug pull my attention towards the island and held a hand to my chest. That had come from inside me. Curious.

The red wood underneath me creaked as I sat back and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath in, and then out, slowly fading away from thought and emotions.

A construct appeared in my mind. It was the blank space that I used to examine the non-physical aspects of my body. I was in my adult body from earth now. My form was transparent, and I was able to control anything within this space. The earth symbol shone above me and emitted waves of power.

This wasn’t where the disturbance had come from.

The view around me warped, and I found myself wading through a swamp of emotions and thoughts. Each one pushed at me, trying to force me away from the object inside me.

It was the other symbol.

The bloodline the Crijik had bestowed upon me.

I felt another tug, and this time I could see a pulse emit from the symbol, and another returning towards it. It was resonating with something. Someone.

Gerial.

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I smiled. I’d known that he would be at this event, he had sent me a… message, of sorts, but it was a relief to have confirmation.

If his dad was there too then that made my plan much simpler.

“We’re going to feel a little bumpy when we get closer to the land.” Frederick spoke.

I opened my eyes and made my way to my dad. The mana wouldn’t let us fall out of the sky, but I didn’t want to take the plunge to confirm it.

The trees were a lot bigger up close. From afar they had looked ordinary, but once I was near the shore, I could see them for what they were, giants. A shadow passed over me as we waded underneath a branch that was bigger than the boat.

My dad was looking at the island now, his eyes darting from tree to sand, and then towards the mansions. He was searching for symbols.

“Is this Master Wilhelm’s Island, or is it something that gets rented out for parties?” I asked.

“It is the Young Master’s summer island.” Frederick gestured with his hands and the waters pushed us into the sand.

“The Master uses it to host events. You are stepping into a land that many greats have tread upon.”

We hit the sand and I stood up. Frederick’s words piqued my interest. I could sense the magic flow through the air, dozens of spells being created. There were powerful magicians in this island

What magic do they use?

Logically I knew the answer was that I was a drop in the ocean compared to them, but I held some hope. Today I would mingle, and talk, and hopefully some would notice me and my potential.

My shoes touched off against the sand and I frowned. I’d never encountered sand before in this world.

Did it still count as earth?

I gestured and the sand flowed off me. Interesting.

“I shall guide you to the main mansion.” Frederick breezed past me.

My dad and I followed closely behind him. It was common courtesy to greet the hosts. The two became wrapped up in a conversation about the island. Frederick was proud to describe its history, and my dad wanted to know if it was an onze. I felt something tug at my sleeve and slowed down.

“Gerial.” I whispered.

“Andross, my brother.” A voice whispered back. “I knew my message would get to you. How did you get an invitation?”

His ‘message’ had been more of a vague feeling, sent directly through his Mark into mine. It worked on a level below thoughts. I had to ask him how he’d done it.

“A happy coincidence.” I explained my encounter with William.

“Oh, good, they already know you’re weird.” Gerial remarked. “Also… why are you so big?”

“The Mark increases physical attributes.” I tried to pinpoint his location. “It made me grow up.”

I’d thought about the process a lot. Gerial had looked like a seven-year-old, and he had used the Mark more times than me. He had also used the Mark more sparsely than I had over a longer period of time. He’d been able to grow naturally, but I didn’t know if he still looked young.

I wanted to confirm it with my own eyes, but he was invisible because my dad and Frederick were here

“It does?” Gerial frowned. “I haven’t used it much since we last met. Not on purpose if I can help it.”

He had the opposite problem to the one I had. I wanted to use my Mark more but couldn’t, and he wanted to use his less.

“Won’t your dad get mad if you’re running around invisible?” I asked.

“My dad is having the time of his life.” Gerial shrugged. “He won’t be worried, where could I run off to?”

I looked at the sea and chuckled. There wasn’t anywhere to run off to on an island.

“I’m more curious about why you still came if you’ve changed so much. I thought you’d still be acting like a baby.” A finger poked at my shoulder. “You’re not going to tell people about the Mark, are you?”

I felt something shift beside me as I concentrated on the area to my side. An idea occurred to me, and I activated my mana sense.

There was something there. A strange blurring in the air that looked like a heatwave in the shape of a child.

“I’m not.” I confirmed. “But my body has grown accustomed to the mana inside it.”

“Oh.” The blur nodded in understanding.

There was a curious set of customs that I’d discovered as I grew older.

This world didn’t use age to determine whether or not people could join organisations and other institutions. They used a series of tests that determined a person’s capabilities.

The earliest of these was the measuring. When the mana and my body became accustomed to each other, I would be able to have it measured with regents, and I would also be able to obtain a class.

It was also the moment when children were allowed to enrol in school.

My changes were too dramatic, and my mana too eye-catching. Any passing magician could tell I was hiding something. The ones at Zodiac were held back by Jackson, but at home? All it took was one stray magician getting curious to reveal my secrets. It was a dangerous world out there for a talented child and hiding wasn’t going to work anymore. If anything unexpected happened, and I wasn't prepared, then the consequences could be disastrous.

Zodiac could offer me protection, but it was only one organisation among many. By itself it wasn’t enough. They would have to hide me in their headquarters, guarded at all times. They would also separate me from my family.

I didn’t want to leave my family, and my growth was forcing me to enter society. It was Jackson that had come up with a plan we thought would guarantee my safety, and my future.

“I didn’t come here just to say hello. I’m here to find sponsors.”

I looked up at the mass of spells floating inside the inner mansions of the town. Powerful magicians, people of influence and nobles. They’d all gathered here today to celebrate the birthday of a child that was guaranteed to grow into a genius, and to try and gain the favour of a future talent.

Each of them represented a faction in this world.

It was time to make some allies.

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