Rain burst from the skies like a knife was drawn upon it. As I looked to the last ray of light peering across the horizon I was hit by the squall. Winds pressing the cloth to my skin as my lips gasped for breath. A stranger looked on from a bus shelter, a mark of concern lingering in their eyes, as I turned my eyes upward. Light split the sky like shattered glass, and I fell by the side of the road.

  I lingered in a sickening sea of wails and cries, as I was carried by a thousand reaching hands across the great divide.

  It was then I heard her voice, felt her hands cup themselves around my heart. And with a breath she brought me back to life.

  I snapped awake, heaving with each breath as I refocused my eyes. Forests surrounded the glade, and a small dew bug fluttered its glistening azure wings on a little mayflower.

  I blinked, I had never seen a lady bug that looked like that before. Nor had I seen trees quite like these ones, the leaves were like large clovers and the trunks had bristles like white fur.

  "Is that moss?"

  I pushed myself up and steadied myself on my feet, the breeze the first indication that I had no clothes. Steam drifted from my skin like remnants of a fire that had now gone out. I touched where I felt the marks of heat once were, and instead of scars found glistening drops of light. I couldn't see them at first, but as I adjusted my eyes, I began to see them everywhere, like veins flowing through everything that lived in the forest.

  I stepped out of the shade into the sunlight and lifted my chin to absorb the golden rays. It's warmth echoed deep and I finally sighed.

  "Did I die?"

  I squeezed my hands, and couldn't help but remember her face in the dark. Her whisper still filled me even now. I coughed, and fell to one knee.

  All that I once knew was gone.

  Tears streamed.

  "Why am I alive?"

  I clutched at my heart. It was a pain too great to bear. As if the entire world had died. It echoed in my ears like a roaring fire. A thousand voices now swallowed in the flames.

  "Ugh" I lifted my eyes, and gulped down what otherwise might have spilled out.

  "There is no going back now"

  So I dragged myself through the forests for a time, bumping into the occasional reaching branch as I went, opening up little slices in my skin that quickly healed.

  "What is this... Power"

  It was surging through me ever since I came to this world, burning like the boiling surface of a star. It felt like I might break apart, like my mind was in many places at once.

  My mind swirled with visions of circuits made of light. They seared into me like brands. Like a language that couldn't be defined by words, requiring geometry that spanned beyond what otherwise could be known. Mathematics and grammar twisting into one as runes flashed and faded blending into one another.

  "It stings" I said with a sneer as I came up a rock formation and stepped out onto the precipice. Before me opened a great vista of forests and fields, and on the horizon by the foot of a mountain was a city surrounded by high walls. I followed the gaps in the trees that lead to a road, and followed one of the branches to a small village cut from timber nearby. My eyes glowed as I could sharpen them to make out the outline of the houses.

  "What am I? Part eagle now?" I chuckled, the first sign of mirth after my rebirth.

  I looked down below, strangely unafraid of the drop. Something in my pulsed like the beat of my heart and circles swirled up around me. Wind blew through my hair as my weight lifted off the ground. As if by instinct I stepped forwards, and began floating down. I passed through the tree tops and landed in the brown of the soil, shadows and dappled light ahead now. Somehow I could still sense where the village was, like a song calling through the treetops like just another flock of birds.

  Wading my way through the brush, I emerged by a small fence line, crops with purple stems breached from the ground. The houses themselves were curious too, smaller than I would have thought only about as high as my eyeline.

  "Yee gods! It's one of them giant folk!" a small man with a well chewed pipe gasped as he sat up from his rocking chair.

  "Whoa, I don't mean any harm" I said as I felt the little man's pulse quicken.

  "And his pecker is out and all!" he said as he started to huff, "That won't do, there be women and little folk around here you know!"

  "I'm sorry" I laughed, "Do you have anything I can use to cover up?"

  "For big folk like you? Not a one, but ah, shucks dang it... I'll grab my bed cloth, but you'll owe me one, I hate sleepin with skin to straw"

  "I'd be obliged" I tipped my head in thanks.

  A small fuss started to brew around the corners of each house as more of the quaint folk appeared. I covered myself with one hand and waved politely with the other before my bed cloth arrived and I could cover up.

  "Now that will do ye for now I suppose," he said before eyeing me with a squint, "What you be doing all the way out here, naked like?"

  "I could tell you many things, but that I don't know" I replied.

  "Bumped your head I expect, probably some brigands on the road, oh well then, poor sop come on inside and I'll get you fed"

  I crawled in through the large round door, leaving my legs outside on his porch, and I wondered at all the plants he had flowering by the window sill, some half dead.

  "I think they need water"

  "They what?" the little man called out as he rummaged through pots and pans.

  As I looked at a wilting white rose, or at least it appeared like one, I saw its lights dimming in its veins. I reached out and with a touch, I felt a spell release from my hand, bringing it back to life.

  The stem stiffened, the petals grew firm, and the aroma filled the air with its sweetness again. My eyes sparkled as I witnessed it and smiled.

  "So beautiful" I whispered as I saw the magic in its veins sparkle like so many multicolored stars.

  I turned to the other flowers and with a wave of my hand, they all stood tall too.

  The little man pulled back his head and blinked his eyes as he came back into the room, "You be a wizard sort then?"

  He shook off his stupor and stamped back to the table with a pot that was about half the size of him. "Some pottage perinue, with sweet figs and apple cider, if that won't do you well, I don't know what will"

  I used the ladle as a spoon as he watched on awaiting my response. "Oh, it has quite the taste"

  "You like it then?"

  "Very much" I smiled before taking another bite.

  "Well I'll be damned, I've now served a wizard in my very own home" he seemed chuffed as he looked at the flowers on the window sill, "Is that the only spell you have, or do you have others too?"

  "I can float"

  "Bah, I can float on the water too, got my good belly to thank for that, I mean spells like a handful of fire, or calling down lightning bolts? You got any spells like them?"

  "I don't know"

  "Ah right, cuz of the bump on ye head, but say those spells can be mighty useful, there be monsters about in these woods you know?"

  "Monsters?"

  "Oh yes, right frightful ones too, getting meaner by the day they are"

  "That sounds terrible" I frowned, "Are you safe here?"

  "Not by a long shot no, we've been sending word to the guild in Candlehall, but it's been a whole tenday without a response"

  "Is that the city by the foot of the mountain?"

  "Yes, called that on account of its church, largest in all the seven counties that one,"

  My eyes drifted for a moment as I remembered her voice.

  The man's eyebrow rose, "Don't suppose you might help us secure Bonnieshire? Big as you are and with magic and all? We'd see you paid well for it!"

  "Oh," I paused between bites, "I'm no fighter,"

  "Aww, rotten luck," he said as he scuffed his shoe across the leg of a chair.

  He leaned forward and rested his head on his arm, "What did I do, did I forsake one of your sacred stars, Lady Dia, can you not gift us the blessing of your guidance"

  It seemed to be some kind of prayer. It unsettled me some.

  "I appreciate the food, but I think I should be going now, I will head to the city, make sure someone for the guild comes,"

  "You will?" he said with a jump as we headed back outside.

  "I promise"

  After being seen off by the little folk who gathered together to guide me down the road I walked until nightfall to reach the city gate.

  Two guards stared at my bed cloth, one almost chuckled, but the other frowned.

  "You get nicked on the road?"

  "Nicked?"

  "You know, mugged of your stuff?"

  "Ah, yes, I got nicked,"

  "Aw, well sorry about that, patrols aren't as frequent as they ought, with all the monsters about we need to protect the walls,"

  He nodded in the direction of a patrol skirting the perimeter further along.

  "I see, can I enter, I'm afraid I don't have a permit or anything with me"

  "Yeah, alright, open the door!" he shouted back, "Oh, and welcome to Candlehall"

  Eyes followed me as I walked down the cobblestone, the roofs of each building were rounded like an arch, many with a star like window at the very top.

  "Is that a bed cloth?" "He got polywacked on the road I bet" "Don't pry"

  I came to some market stalls and spied a clothing stall, "Don't suppose you'd have anything you'd just give up?"

  The stern man crossed his arms.

  "Do you know where the guild is by any chance?"

  "Further up that road, you get yourself some coin, then come back and I'll sort you out"

  "I'll try"

  As I rounded the bend I saw why they called it Candlehall, the church was taller than it was wide, its spires like so many candles reaching for the sky, and in each of them a light.

  It wasn't even near, but it was so large it commanded awe.

  I shook the wonder off and spied the guildhall. Pushing my way through the doors I found a bustle of all manner of mercenaries dithering about. A short and stout one huffed to himself as he looked me up and down.

  "Think you are missing yer togs" the Dwarf grumbled.

  "Yes, I know"

  "Blimey" he blinked in disbelief, "Some folk," he turned and chuckled to his feline friend sitting by candles on the windowsill.

  "Yes, can I help you there?" a mousey blonde with bright blue eyes asked as I came up to the counter.

  "I just came from Bonnieville, they put out a request for support, can I ask if there has been any response?"

  "Bonnieville? Well, the posting should be over there on the board, if a group has taken it on it should have a dagger mark on the corner, common practice to let others know,"

  "Ah" I nodded before heading over.

  I scanned past shoulders and clad armor to find the post, sure enough there it was. But there was no mark.

  "Excuse me," I asked the man in front of me, "Have you seen this one?"

  "Bonnieville?" the gruff bearded man asked, "Yeah, but you'd have to be crazed or thick in the head to take that one on,"

  "Why is that?"

  "You might as well clear the whole forest of monsters, and even then it might not be enough, they need to build themselves some nice high walls, and stay behind em,"

  "Are there any builders in the city then?"

  "Sure, but none that will travel out that far, unless for a lot of coin, then you'd have transport costs, security personnel, and if you don't get the balance right the bandits will catch you on the road,"

  I scowled.

  "Is there a wizard school here then by any chance?" I asked.

  "No school, but there is Tema's tower on the east side, you'll know it by the purple onion at the very top"

  I thanked the man and headed off. It wasn't an onion but it really was shaped like one. As I got close to the doorway the lanterns lit themselves with blue fire.

  "Speak your purpose or begone" the door rattled.

  "I am looking for Tema, I want to ask them about magic,"

  The door laughed, "It is death to near all who attempt it, that alone should be knowledge enough"

  "Please, I just have some questions I want to ask, if you could spare some time,"

  "No, I think not, unless you can show me a spell,"

  I looked around in a hurry, and found a flowerpot with a wilted herb, it looked like it had been chewed on by one of the neighborhood cats.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Mint thistle, yes what of it" the door asked.

  "Just watch" I said as I peered at the light within its stems, and carefully guided it to bloom with new growth.

  "Ah, so you do have a knack for it, very well, I'll set you a cup of tea and I will offer you three questions, but no more"

  "Thank you" I nodded as the doors broke forth.

  "Behold!" Tema said as she swirled in a colorful dazzle of lights, beyond her shelves full of dusty tomes, and before us a table with a full teacup.

  "I am the great wizard of the seventh circle, master of the elements and conjurer extraordinaire. If you wish it you may bow" she laughed in a hysterical cant.

  "I'm... Well..."

  "Well is a funny name, are you from the north? And what are you wearing?"

  I thought for a moment about my old name, I suppose it didn't matter anymore what I was called.

  "I came from Bonnieshire, one of the little folk gave me this after I was 'nicked' on the road"

  "A wizard, nicked on the road, surely you jest?" she cackled for a moment hidden behind the palm of her hand.

  Her eyes glared at me now, sizing up the magic in my veins.

  "Come" she said as she waved at the teacup and a chair.

  She glanced over her shoulder for a moment to check I had sat down and grabbed a fist sized crystal from the shelf riddled with purple veins like starlight. She placed it down in front of me and smiled.

  "It is only customary that you show me who you really are," her eyes were like a devil's now as she leaned over and gazed up at me. I coughed as her cleavage showed.

  I stilled my rattling cup.

  "Sure," I said as I reached out to touch the stone.

  Her eyes watched me and then the stone closely. Something within the stone responded to the presence of magic in my blood and began to swell. It bloomed like a star that was blue at first and then with a sudden streak of red the stone snapped and cracked in half.

  "Oh my," she blinked, and then another time, "I suppose that sensing stone is old,"

  "Sorry, I didn't mean to break it"

  "No that is quite alright," she laughed before pulling out another stone from a shelf, she placed it in my hand and then smiled as it only gently glowed.

  Sweat dropped from my brow as I restrained my mana from dripping into its core.

  "Ah, look, and you are really trying now, but its just a dim glow," she seemed content, "Still that is considerable raw strength you possess"

  She chuckled to herself for a moment, a look of shock fading back into calm, "For a moment I thought you had more mana resources than I do"

  "But of course that is impossible, I have the largest pools in all the realms, or at least that I know of," she squinted as she looked at me.

  "What is it?"

  "Your mana, it isn't quite normal, there is a color to it, but within are thousands of moving threads, like strands of moving glass"

  "Does that mean anything?"

  "No, but it is peculiar"

  "Is there something wrong with me then?"

  "Maybe, but I would have to see you work a spell to know, can you read Aryllic?" she raised an eyebrow as she slid a book forward.

  "I don't know..." I uttered just before the words on the page began to glow and fly off.

  They danced all around me, forming a series of circles, and within it a star, before a burst of air blew back her hair.

  "Fascinating" her eyes sparkled in delight, "That was a second circle spell, and it didn't even leave a mark on you"

  She probed and prodded at my skin, and folded back my ears, "No scorches, no burn marks, that was pure"

  "Have you cast it before?" she asked.

  "Never,"

  She cracked a wicked smile, "Then up you get, to the basement we must go!"

  She tapped and prodded at me impatiently before nodding in the direction we had to head. Drawn down a staircase of spiraling mage lights, we made our way to what seemed like an arena, with a gentle staired tile that came together at its lowest point in the center.

  "Now here we can work my good apprentice!" she grinned.

  "Apprentice? I thought you were only going to allow me three questions?"

  "Bah to all that, you know how rare real wizards are in these parts, it's dreadful"

  She pushed another tome into my hand, "Here, a third circle spell"

  The runes spun from the page and whipped wildly around me before a blast of burning light zapped through the room, and shook the walls with thunder.

  "Again, no marks" her eyes were wide now, "You channels are still flowing strong too, how utterly bizarre, I would have expected you to start bleeding from the ears at least from that one,"

  "From my ears?" I jerked back.

  She flipped the page, "Onto the next circle then"

  "Wait, no no, I'm good!" I stamped down the page with my hand.

  "Come on, don't you want to know how far this goes," she teased with her devilish eyes.

  "Not if I start bleeding from my ears I don't"

  "Have a little faith, my bizarre apprentice, now look"

  She flipped the page and another circuit weaved all around me, sparking with fierce heat as walls of fire spewed from the ground.

  "Again, not a single mark," her eyes were wide, and she quickly turned the page.

  A series of circles span around me and knitted together at the center. My body turned rigid and convulsed as I lifted into the air. My eyes turned white and the walls of the room disappeared. I became like a cloud sweeping through the mountains, across the lands, and then swiftly shot across the realm. Where I saw a great city, its walls wreathed in great murals of fire and starlight. A mage stood upon the top of his watchtower and glared back at me with weary eyes.

  "Begone" he whispered as he weaved a protective spell that turned the city dark and sent me spiraling back.

  "What did you see?" she asked as she helped me back up.

  "Walls with murals of fire and starlight and a mage in a tower who turned everything dark"

  "That was Durmar, the king sage, he cast a counter spell. The king doesn't take kindly to scrying. How far did you go into the city?"

  "Just to the borders"

  "He probably won't hunt you down for that, but he will certainly scry his way back, to figure out who you are"

  "Probably won't hunt me down?! Why would you make me cast that spell?!"

  "Curiousity of course, oh here Durmar is now" she flipped her finger in a rude gesture before waving her hand.

  Durmar chuckled, "So you finally chose an apprentice, how quaint" before stroking his beard and sitting back down to one of his books.

  "See, it's fine, he knows you are with me" Tema said as she flipped another page.

  "No, we should stop,"

  "Why, you look fine, and your mana is still crystal clean, no sign of blurring or darkening, not even a streak. We can try at least one more spell. This will be of the sixth level, that's as high enough to be commissioned to one of the Duke's on retainer"

  "Like you and Durmar?" I asked

  "Yeah, now quickly, turn the page"

  As she did the magical circuits spun through the earth below us, allowing my mind to grip stone and tear it from the ground. Shards and spires burst forth and then joined together into a savage spiked wall.

  "That's it" I whispered to myself, "That should be enough"

  "For what?" Tema asked

  "To protect Bonnieshire?"

  Tema crossed her head, "Not likely, unless you stand watch, day and night until the need is done. Magical stone follows the will, otherwise it returns to where it was, which is convenient because otherwise you would have ruined my practice room"

  She paused before turning another page. Seventh level spells were where she had maxed out, and she considered herself one of the most powerful wizards alive.

  Her hand shook as she let it slip from her fingertips.

  The runes dug deep into my flesh, the magic circles wrapping around me like threads of a net, and bursting from each line was a scale, hard and as dark as night. I heaved in otherworldly fury, as my back broke apart into two enormous wings, and my jaw roared with embers of fire within my throat. Each foot landing back on the ground shook the whole tower, as my dragon eyes turned back to Tema.

  She stood back in awe as the air from my wings pulled back her gown as if she was swept up in a storm. I felt like my blood carried the power of volcanic fire, my eyes the ferocity of the sun, and in my throat the power to turn everything to ash. I heaved, as my molten heart glowed and throbbed in my chest. I stretched out my neck and roared consumed by instinct and desire to devour.

  "No..." I shook inside, "I don't want this..."

  I fought the magic flowing in my veins the same way I had with the sensing stone, and pulled each thread of the magic circuit out of my flesh. Each scale turned to vapor and returned with each rune to the magical world, as Tema's grimoire snapped shut.

  She looked at me with a mix of jubilation and horror.

  "What are you?" she stammered and rushed toward me, tracing my body with her fingertips in a mad fervor, "This isn't possible"

  "What is it?"

  "Such a spell should have left a mark, your mana should have dimmed, but if anything, it is glowing brighter now,"

  She fought to stabilize herself and with a flick of her wrist she summoned a staff to her from a shelf on the edge of the arena. Stamping it down beside her, she held herself up as a trance overtook her, and her eyes fluttered.

  She hunched over and after several heaving breaths she straightened herself and coughed.

  "You have a mana pool even vaster than mine" she said as her eyes stared past me, as if there was something in me she dare not see in full.

  "What does that mean?"

  "It means... You are the most powerful wizard of our time"

  "But, that can't be. I barely know anything"

  "Yet you weave through the mirror realms of the weave like a hawk through a ravine. Faster than anything I've ever seen. Surer than I even thought was possible. Like you were born to it. To you, magic comes to you as simple as breathing. But to everyone else it is as toxic as death itself. It shouldn't be possible, and yet... It is."

  Tema snapped her fingers and a grimoire broke free of chains at the edge of the room and spun into her hands.

  "Within are spells not even I can weild, handed down from the greatest sages of all time"

  "No, I can't, I will fail. You said it yourself, it's not possible"

  "I said it shouldn't be possible, but it clearly is, now try the spell!" she growled, before standing back to watch from a distance.

  As I opened the book, all the pages fluttered at once, thousands of runes spun up across the ceiling of the room, and hundreds of circles weaved unimaginably complex patterns on the ground. The tower began to shake. No, not just the tower, the city itself. No, not just the city but Bonnieshire and the mountains as well. Everything tore from the earth and floated up into the sky like a ship sailing in the night. The people in the streets screamed in terror as the horizon sunk low, and every candle, tankard, and plate levitated in the air and spun. The sky burst with clouds and lightning cascaded like a great wall of shattered light. The heart of the floating piece of the world began to glow bright and fuse into a crystal the size of Candlehall, thrumming with power like that commanded only by the goddess herself.

  And by the time the clouds parted, and cups clattered back to the floor, Tema was on her knees, trembling and in tears.

  She crossed her heart and began to pray.

  "What was that spell..." I asked.

  "I thought it was just a myth, a hoax, a story told to keep wizards humble... But it is real, it was always real"

  "What was real?"

  "That wasn't a spell of the eighth circle, it was the tenth. The domain, of the gods"

  My breath shattered like glass, tears rolled from my eyes, and something within me tore free like a flower petal left to the wind, as I fell somewhere I didn't know.

  As I felt my humanity drift back into the stars.

  I reached as far as I could, but I couldn’t pull it back.