I soared over the open ocean, through the night and into the next day. Aside from being somewhere in the tropics far from the mainland, I had no idea where I was. The restorative properties of my mana meant I didn't need to sleep or rest or eat as much as a typical person, but I would still need to find a suitable island today to avoid another night in the air.

This situation left me with too much time to think, and remember. This time, I remembered the last time that I had gone to a new home.

----

"Welcome to Ezenta!" Azenum said as we crested a hill and the most gigantic city I'd ever seen came into view. Well, I had never seen any real cities, but I was pretty sure Ezenta had to be a big one.

"Our home," he added.

I nodded. They had told me where we were going, and what was there. I was just glad that I didn't smell bad anymore.

As we came up to the city, the only thing I could really see were the walls, so I stared at them. They looked...weird. All one piece, and they were too shiny and not shiny enough at the same time, like stone that thought it was metal.

Azenum noticed what I was looking at, or maybe he guessed it since there wasn't much else to look at right now. "The walls are made of stone, but stone that was built by an enchantment, so it's all a single structure. And, the enchantment gives the stone a kind of blue sheen, like they've got a glowy blue paint on them. Enchanting is blue magic, you see. Any glowy blue thing is probably an enchanted item."

"Why?" I asked.

Azenum frowned. "You mean, why is enchanting blue magic?"

I nodded.

"The same reason that your magic is called white, and Izena's and mine is black. When mages with those kinds of magic materialize their mana--"

"That means to make it come out as a kind of liquid, like squeezing juice from a fruit," Izena clarified. "But it doesn't hurt!" she rushed to add, seeing my face.

Phew.

"Right, thank you, when the mana comes out like juice, those are the colors. Like this."

Azenum demonstrated his point by making a bit of impossibly black, light-eating liquid drip from his extended hand.

"Best to be careful with black mana. It tends to break things," he warned. "Black mages can control their own mana and mostly protect themselves, but, well, you can see that the rock my mana fell on is already cracked a bit."

I nodded with eyes wide. "I can do that?" I asked.

"Mmhmm!" Izena was excited. "With a bit of practice, yes. But yours will be white and shiny. And it will tend to fix things instead of breaking them."

I breathed in sharply. That seemed too magical for me.

"You also have probably noticed that you get a strong sense of blackness when you look at me, or Izena," he said. "That's not just because we have black hair." He grinned. "We seem like that to you because you're a mage, and we're strong black mages. In the same way, you seem very, very white to us. You're a very strong white mage."

Oh. I had been puzzled. A lot of people have black hair, but theirs had felt somehow blacker.

A while later, as we approached the gate, I asked, "There are a lot of mages here, like you? Because of the Academy?"

"Not as strong, but yes," Azenum replied.

"Why aren't they helping?"

Azenum grimaced. He knew what I thought they should be helping with. "The mages come from many different homelands. Basically city-states, mostly, like Ezenta. They tend to leave to help when their own people are threatened, but no sooner. Instead of working together all as one, we're losing slowly, one city at a time."

"That's dumb."

"Yes, it is. Oscanion seeks any chance to reduce the number of mages, since we're more valuable than common soldiers, and we give him those chances when we work in small groups instead of acting together. But those who come from places far from the fighting prefer to believe he'll suddenly be satisfied and stop his campaign at some point, and there's no need to act now. They say 'Why should I tell people from my city to risk anything for a different city?' That kind of thing."

Just, letting people die? Like Mama? I could never do that. "Well I'll help," I declared.

Izena put an arm around my shoulder and squeezed.

"But you fight? Does Izena fight too?"

"We try to avoid the front lines, since I don't think it's right for Izena to be out there, and I won't leave her alone. Instead, we escort refugees. That's how we found you."

He exhaled before continuing after a deep breath, "But yes, that still means we fight sometimes. Izena is already the second strongest black mage in the world, and it's not close. She'll surpass me soon enough. She...can't be spared."

Azenum sounded more regretful of what was asked of his eight year old daughter, than proud. Izena shrugged.

"And your mana is like hers. You'll be the same," he breathed.

He shook his head slightly, looking into the distance, then turned towards us.

"Please, look after each other."

----

"I'm sorry," I wheezed above the ocean. "I'm sorry."

I needed to land. I needed something to do besides sit and think. Soon.

As much as I needed to find a new home urgently, the ocean is just...big. I had known this and expected that I'd have to search a bit, but now faced with a completely empty sea from horizon to horizon, my plan was feeling a little impulsive. The few islands that I had spotted so far were little more than sand that was likely to submerge regularly. At least I could purify salt water--that was one of the first spells a young white mage learned--so I wouldn't need to be all that picky as far as water supply.

Finally, as my building anxiety was making my palms sweat and I approached psychological collapse, I spotted a little candidate shadow on the horizon. If nothing else, it was larger than the others, maybe a league in diameter? It was hard to say for sure from this far out. I headed over for a closer look. Even if it didn't work out, at least it was literally anything to do.

There was no evidence of volcanism that I could see, which was good for two reasons. First, I wouldn't be living on top of a volcano. Second, it meant that this island was probably the summit of the tallest peak of an undersea mountain chain, which meant there were likely other barely submerged peaks nearby, with reefs on top. This would be a shipwreck zone. Even ships brave enough to leave sight of shore would avoid this area.

The island was ringed by a sandy beach and, in the water, a thriving reef, with a dense forest carpeting the interior, except for the vicinity of a near-vertical cliff a few dozen paces in height near the center, at the top of which one could see the entire island.

The cliff had a convenient little alcove in its face around two-thirds of the way to the top. This being the tropics, I wouldn't need much more than a roof to block the rain and sun, and walls to keep the wind down. That alcove, vaguely a rounded cube about twice my height on all sides, was ideal. The floor was even flat, and if the weather ever got too bad, I could block off the only entrance with a shield.

There was a small stone depression at the foot of the cliff, also free of plants and maybe 20 paces in diameter, that I imagined would collect rainfall, although given that it was dry now, it would be too inconsistent to rely upon as a water source. Maybe I'd fill it up with purified water just for soaking sometimes. The only animals that I could see were pure white flightless birds about the size of my fist, with gorgeous, iridescent tail feathers.

As I landed on the island's beach, many of the birds came hippity hopping out of the treeline to greet me with curiosity. Clearly, their legs were made for hopping, not for walking. I knelt to offer my greetings, both knees on the ground, and was swiftly three-quarters surrounded by feathery fluff.

"Pfffuffffut," I squirmed. "That tickles! Awwwwww. Hello to you too!" Hopping up and down all over me in welcome, and streaming out of the trees, they were completely unafraid.

So this was the nature of peace. I swore never to eat these innocent birds, no matter what. A white mage of my level needed only enough food to prevent discomfort, anyway. The native fruits that the birds were eating would be good enough for me, too. Maybe I'd take up fishing if I became bored.

Aside from the lack of an obvious reliable fresh water supply, which was no problem at all to a white mage surrounded by the ocean, this was paradise.

This would do.

I cast a self-cleaning purification spell, and walked into the forest of my new home. Time to collect some feathers and leaves for a pillow and bed. Training would start tomorrow.