For all the caution she'd insisted on, in the first lecture, it was somewhat surprising that the instructor teaching about the Fae rift had decided to hold the second class in the forest near the town by the rift. Incidentally, though said forest at least had a name, it was only marginally more imaginative than how the town was called, and equally as descriptive; Faewood.

The forest covered the immediate surroundings of the rift in every direction. There never was one there before the rift opened, but I didn't know if a forest had just naturally spread there from elsewhere, and then been shaped by the energies of the Faerie, or if it had actually spread out directly from the rift. Either way, most of the plants looked alien to me, and the vegetation looked even more wild than what I'd seen in the town.

Curiously, there were still paths that had remained clear and open, wider than any trails that an animal would create, but seemingly not maintained by human hand. Just like in the town, it almost looked like there was some will at work maintaining an obscure sort of order. It was all too easy to imagine that one of the fae could have been behind it, which was enough to make me distrust the path that we'd taken to enter the forest from town. It looked like easy to travel, but who knew if it wasn't a trick, and you'd never leave if you walked in too far?

We had stopped right at the edge of the forest though, where you could see the buildings of the town, even through the thick vegetation. I'd found myself a spot to sit – knees held together, I had to consciously remind myself every time, as if Mela herself had never worn a skirt in her life – on an unreasonably large root, at the edge of the clearing in which the class was being held. It seemed like most of the others were too nervous to sit down, rather awkwardly milling around closer to the middle of the clearing and throwing anxious looks into the forest.

"We aren't any more likely to run into fae here than in the academy, but by all means I encourage you to be cautious. There might other entities of from the Faerie around us right now, even if you can't find them without mana sensors and a fair bit of luck. I'd not bring you here if I thought they were going to cause you any harm, but if you want to be safe then learning to watch out for signs is exactly what you should do."

I was pretty sure I knew what she was talking about, being that my own senses were sharper than any sensor. And I also knew that they were far more numerous than our dear instructor appeared to think, especially in the forest. I wasn't keeping count, but I'd picked out at least a few dozen from the thick flow of mana in the vegetation since we'd entered the forest, never mind the ones we'd passed by in town.

I could appreciate our instructor's goals, but it seemed that my mana sense was far more reliable than any advice she could share, so I really wasn't paying too much attention to her, as she began to describe the types of creatures that the academy had managed to identify. I perked up only when she mentioned something interesting about one thing that had been bothering me for a while already.

"Spirits, though they appear far more commonly in this forest, can actually be found elsewhere in our world as well. Or at least that's how certain anomalous readings on mana sensors have been interpreted ever since we learned of their existence. As for whether those ones are native to our world, have found some other route in from the Faerie, or have even existed in our world since crossing over in the age of myths, it's all speculation. The fae appear to regard the spirits as intelligent entities, even if to us they appear as little more than anomalous concentrations of mana."

It certainly sounded like whatever was possessing my scarf, but that creature had not given any sign of life after the first incident, so I was seriously starting to wonder if I hadn't been imagining things, even if my sudden fondness of green had been odd. It had occurred to me to bring the scarf along again, just in case I could figure out something in an environment that was more familiar to it, but I'd ended up paying more attention to the various creatures in the forest around us instead.

Then, as I was observing the small bundles of mana wandering around seemingly without aim, I realized something else. I had to focus intensely to even notice it among the dense concentrations of mana all around, but there were also some more subtle movements in the mana around me. It wasn't directly tied to the creatures from the Faerie, but it also wasn't totally unrelated to them. Neither was the mana scattered around at low concentrations, as was usual when it wasn't bound to a living being or being tapped into by a mage.

There were countless subtle but distinct streams of mana ebbing back and forth in the forest, almost indistinguishable from each other because of their frequency, but appearing to connect the concentrations, that I'd identified as creatures of the Faerie, to each other, as well as sometimes to the plants. It was almost like how mana flowed when a mage drew on mana in his surroundings, yet subtly different and definitely weaker. There was another, closer, resemblance that came to mind. The minute motion in the mana in the scarf, when I had experienced what I thought to be it communicating with me.

Was that it then? Were all the entities around me using mana to communicate with each other? And, I pondered, should I try doing the same? I couldn't help but feel momentarily embarrassed by the thought of trying to talk to a scarf while surrounded by other people, but I brushed the nonsensical worry aside. None of the others were sensitive enough to pick up such a minor movement of mana from me, especially in such a mana rich environment, much less figure out what I was doing with it.

The bigger problem was how I'd actually do it. Observing the motion of mana was one thing, but it gave me no direct insight to what that mana actually did. And I couldn't rely on my knowledge about magic, since it clearly wasn't the same as casting a spell, even if it was similar. But then I only became more excited, as I thought about what that possibly meant. Even if it wasn't a spell, was it still not best described as a form of magic, since it used mana? I fancifully wondered if it might even have been related to fae magic, which still remained a mystery to me.

Still one question remained, aside the possibility that I was simply overthinking some oddity of Faerie mana, of whether I was able to do it, being a human. But that just meant that I could only try. I decided to deliberately draw on the mana of the Faerie, considering that it was perhaps part of the requirement. Earlier in the lecture, our instructor had mentioned something about how human mages living closer to the rift experienced improvements in their ability to sense and control mana – another reason for the academy's popularity no doubt – which I could only think to result from the different quality of the mana coming from the Faerie.

My first attempts were, predictably, failures. I didn't really have a clear idea of what I was trying to do. As if just thinking on something really hard and directing a flow of mana from myself to the scarf would have done anything. After a few attempts my excitement changed to confusion and disappointment. I had been so certain that I was onto something, but it started to look like I had been just imagining things after all.

But then, just as I was about to cut the flow of mana, I got a response. It was a thoroughly queer feeling. Rather than something separate from me talking to me, I again simply recognized a sentiment arising from within myself, that didn't connect with my previous state of mind. It took me a moment to understand that the disgruntled complaint bubbling forth from inside me was actually directed at myself.

I proceeded to carefully restrict the stream of mana connecting me to the scarf to a much slower flow, that better matched what I'd perceived from the creatures around me. As excited as I was, didn't want to anger the spirit, that had finally deigned to respond to my efforts, by overwhelming its senses. I still wasn't certain what part of my thoughts I could actually transfer over, but I focused on getting across my curiosity towards the spirit.

I could barely restrain myself from jumping up in triumph when the spirit responded again. What came across was that it was suspicious of my intentions, but it seemed to be questioning my motives rather than outright refusing contact. That sort of tepid response wasn't enough to get me down, when I knew that I'd already achieved something amazing. But I tried to tone down that overflowing feeling of excitement, and instead focused on communicating the simple thought that I meant no harm, and wished simply to understand and become familiar with the spirit.

I received a sense of careful deliberation, but then I had the impression of cautious assent, though it still seemed like it was up to me to take the initiative. Still clueless about how exactly the spirit thought, I settled on trying to figure out what had been bothering me about its previous conduct. Namely, the way it had refused to acknowledge me when I'd tried simply speaking to it, even though it had clearly reacted that one time to hearing the girls making snide comments about my way of dress.

I ran into issues immediately, when I tried to pass on this relatively more complex thought. I was only starting to get the gist of sending and receiving sentiments, and I still had little understanding of what exactly I could communicate in this way. After a few failed attempts at formulating my question, I simply ended up picturing, to the best of my ability, the incident that I wanted it to recall, to which I received an immediate response; not only did it recognize what I was referring to, it seemed to not have lost one bit of the indignant anger it felt towards the girls.

After some more back and forth I managed to figure out that the spirit took exception to what it considered an insult towards the item that it had chosen to be something like its home, and which it considered to be rather beautiful. By comparison it cared little for the general chatter of humans that it'd had to listen to when accompanying me, from which it didn't seem to really distinguish anything I'd said. I didn't really know what it would be interested in, so it seemed like I was stuck with using the new form of communication that I'd discovered, if I wanted to get its attention. Not that I minded in the least, as it was still terribly exciting for me.

"Hey, so what can a Tannel tell us about the forest?"

I had no doubt that the spirit could feel my irritation when someone interrupted our conversation. I looked up to see who'd come over to bother me. I recognized him, but that didn't help my mood. It was the prefect that had bothered me and Celine when we'd had lunch. I hadn't even noticed that he was also attending the class, nor did I know his name, but apparently he was feeling familiar enough to bother me in the middle of a lecture. Not that I'd been paying any attention to the lecturer, but it was still annoying.

"Since you watch the rift, do you know more about the creatures around here? Do you have some tips for navigating in the Faewood?"

It didn't seem he was even intentionally coming over to cause trouble. He appeared to be genuinely curious, but he was simply approaching me in such a rude and self-important way, that I thought that just being avoided because I was a Tannel was actually preferable. Since I couldn't concentrate on my chat with the spirit, I made sure to convey my regret and apology to it, though no doubt my frustration also made it through. Before I cut the mana stream, the spirit also signaled a sense of suspicion towards the prefect's inquiry. It seemed quite wary of humans trying to learn about anything related to it or the Faerie, making me happy that it'd at least decided to respond to me.

"Supposing that I do, do you think that is the sort of thing I should be revealing to just anyone?"

I didn't necessarily disagree with the spirit's assessment, but what I said was mostly just to cover for the fact that I did in fact not know anything special, that Mela might have been aware of, as a member of the Tannel family. And what I said was probably correct anyway, seeing that he seemed once again to be eager to intrude on the responsibilities the Tannels, even if I unfortunately wasn't really quite aware of what those were.

"I think it should be reasonable for us prefects to know as much as possible! We have a responsibility for the safety of the other students."

"Then I think you should listen to what the instructor has to tell."

Seeing that I wouldn't be goaded into revealing anything, he looked visibly annoyed, but turned back to look at the instructor, like I'd suggested. I followed suit, listening to what she was talking about for the for the first time in a while. It turned out to be a fortuitous timing, as she had finally begun to delve into the primary subject of the course itself. Her words happened to also touch me quite personally, just as her eyes also wandered onto me.

"The mage Tannel was the first to discover the rift, and to create the spells to stabilize it, and though he sacrificed his own life in the effort, he also founded the family that carried on his name to succeed him in the task of guarding the rift, his own magic giving birth to the greatest mage of our time, Mary Tannel."

Well, the details were all over the place. I wasn't actually the one who discovered the rift, though I was one of the few to find out about it at the time. The current stable state of the rift was mostly because of Mary's efforts, as was the founding of the Tannel family. But it was ultimately not surprising that they wouldn't know the actual details of the work that I'd been forced to do in secrecy, especially if Mary had gone out of her way to embellish my part in all of it.

The tale seemed to be told in a manner akin to legends from the age of myths, and my role in it had been raised to that of the hero in such a legend. Not that I was going to deny that I had been the hero of that tale, but it was still rather disturbing to hear the story of my own death told with the same reverence as I'd heard the works of the divines talked about. I started to realize that my name continued to be idolized, even as the family had taken it on had been vilified. It was almost like all the mages of Altrel wanted to lay claim to my legacy, and Mary's family stood in the way.

Unfortunately that also put into question everything else that our instructor told about the early days of the rift, including the parts that happened after my death, that I couldn't personally confirm one way or another. Much of the information seemed to come directly from Mary, and I wasn't certain how much she had thought appropriate to share accurately. In fact, it seemed like asking Mary directly was my only option, if I wanted a proper accounting of the events that had followed my death.

For me it had subjectively been no more than two weeks since I last saw Mary, and for her it had already been centuries, but every time I ran into a question that I couldn't figure out on my own, it seemed that she might just hold the answer. With everything else that I had on my mind, I had been just relying on Celine to arrange me the chance for us to meet eventually, but I couldn't deny that I was getting impatient.

I didn't even know where to start, if I wanted to go find Mary myself. It seemed possible that Mary was nearby even at that moment, as she surely had to stay close to the rift, if she still had to maintain it through spells. Possibly I could have just walked over to meet her whenever, if I knew where to find her, but it would have been awkward to start asking around randomly, as Mela, where to look for my own family.

It seemed best to just press Celine on the issue, since she's seemed quite wary about revealing me to the Tannels. I decided to  send her a message, to ask if we could meet on my next free day. I was looking forward to seeing her again anyway, since we still hadn't been able to meet again since that first day. She seemed cheery, in her messages, but I couldn't help but worry about how she was doing.

Before the end of the lecture, I turned my attention back to the spirit, hoping to get more out of it whilst we were still in the forest, where it seemed to feel more comfortable. After a few more minutes of rather exhausting conversation, in which I struggled to define concepts without the use of words, I managed to figure out that it'd chosen to reside in the scarf exactly in the hopes of being picked up by someone and getting to see more of our world.

It seemed to offer a good avenue for me to pursue in questioning it further, if I could offer it something in return. Unfortunately it didn't seem to appreciate being interrogated for so long, and became quiet when it started to get bored with our conversation. Instead of pressing my luck I let the matter rest, and started to think of ways that I could catch its interest at a later time. What was it looking for in our world, if it only found interacting with humans to be bothersome?

SootShade

The temptation to slack off is real. I can now more or less write a chapter in a day, working off of the vague outline that I planned for the rest of this arc, but that just means that I don't end up doing as much on the days when I don't have to make a release, even though I could start working on the following chapters.