A Little Lonely

Two weeks silently passed, and soon, the three days of the Welcoming of Spring festival, we nearing.

Ignis was buiser than usual, and so was Annette. After all, imbueing mana into the crops was a big part of the Tower of Magic's duty in Vassilis. Imbueing mana not only required alot of people with a strong nature attribute, but many of the mana stone formations took a few days to make.

Ignis, dispite practicing fire attribute magic, was in charge of finding nature attribute mages, both working at the tower, and also a few recomended mages from the acadamy.

No one but her could understand Euguene's pettiness.

And Annette who would usually look after Mira when Ignis was busy, was an intern at the Tower's Mana Crystal Formation, MCF, division. And was unfortunatly locked in her room refining Mana crystals, like the rest of her underpaid coworkers.

Mira, was for most of those two weeks, left alone in Ignis's living quarters, silently reading, and practicing magic with Mr. Andreas.

She was better control of her ice magic now. And Mr. Andreas had started explaining more about magic, types of magic, and how to center your magic.

"Mira, while ice magic isn't common, due to it being a mix of wind and water attributes, we still have books on it." Andreas explained, setting some books down near Mira. "It would be good if you read these in your spare time."

Mira nodded her head, "Got it." Taking a look at a few pages filled with words she didn't understand quite yet, she sighed in her heart, but was also glad for something to distract her from the slight pain she felt from being alone.

He adjusted his glasses and continued. "Magic has many different strands, but come from two main attributes, Light and Dark attributes. Fire, Wind, and Nature come from the Light attribute. Water, Earth, and Ghost attributes come from the Dark attribute."

Mira's mouth frowned slightly. It was sort of confusing, weren't Water and Earth a part of the Light attribute? She was about to question this when Mr. Andreas spoke up.

"Attributes from the Light strand are normally warm, or have a connection to something alive. Water can be hot, but unless affected by it's surroundings, will usually be a temperature we consider cold. Furthermore, crystals, geodes, and rocks, have no life inside them."

Andreas looked at Mira writting down notes. Her confusion gone, and replaced with the satifaction of having more knowlage on the subject.

Mira put down her pen, and looked up at Mr. Andreas. Her pale eyes seemed filled with curiosity again. "Well..." She paused, not knowing if this would be an okay question to ask, "What exactly is, the Ghost attribute?"

Mira saw Mr. Andreas falter a bit, then open his mouth.

"It's an attribute that not many like to talk about... You see, usually everyone is born with a little bit of affinity in Light, Dark, Water, Wind, Earth, Fire, and Nature attributes." Andreas scratched his head, feeling like an idiot for mentioning the Ghost attribute to Mira. "But it's different with the Ghost attribute. While it's an attribute from the Dark strand, certain conditions must be met to have any affinity in it."

Mr. Andreas looked at Mira solemly, his words having a bit of pity in them. "The people who can use the Ghost attribute are people who have seen and been through alot of suffering. We don't really have alot of information on people with the Ghost attibute, but this is all I'll tell you anyway. You're too young. I think this is enough for today."

Saying that, he ruffled her hair, gave her a bag of sweets, and led her back to Ignis's living space.

Mira remembered his words. What kind of suffering did a person have to go through? Did their friends move away? Lose their pet? She lost focus on her book on ice magic, and stretched her arms.

Mira heard the lock click, and the sound of the front door opening. She got up, ready to go greet Iggy and ask her about the Festival tomorrow. While it wasn't the first time she had gone, the last few times she wasn't very old, and didn't remember much, and hadn't gone with Iggy. She wanted to take pictures of them with the new tool she got for her birthday this year, a Memory crystal. But it wasn't a high grade one, and could only memorize at most, ten pictures, and she had already used up two memory slots.

"I'm back!" Ignis called out to Mira, "Hungry?" She could read the excitement on Mira's face and knew what she was thinking about, her eyes flashed with guilt as she said, "We'll talk over dinner."

Mira saw Ignis's strained smile, and had an uncomfortable feeling in her heart.

~~~

Dinner was made by both Ignis and Mira. It was roasted chicken, an assortment of vegetables, and an apple pie that was still cooling in the kitchen as dessert.

While simple, this was Mira's favorite meal. And she knew that this was what Iggy did when she was guilty, and felt ready to be dissapointed.

They didn't talk much during dinner. It was only when Mira had started eating the warm, and mellow, apple pie, that Ignis brought up the topic of the Festival.

"Mira, unfortunatly, there was been an emergency mission I've been personally asked to take up. You know spring is usually when Nature attribute beasts grow stronger and act up. Fire is really effective against these kind of problems... And I won't be able to go with you." Ignis watched over Mira's expression, hoping she wouldn't be too bothered.

Mira concealed her frown, tilting her lips and squinting her eyes a bit. "It's okay, you need to help people, right? I can still see the festival, right?"

Mira didn't want Ignis to give up protecting people for something like this, she was a powerful mage, after all. And she knew that Ignis cared alot about her, if she showed signs of being sad, Ignis might take a vacation for her. Ignis already did too much for her.

"I won't be here for a week, and Annette will care for you in my place. Thanks for being so Considerate, Mira" Ignis picked up their used dishes with some simple spells, and kissed Mira on the forehead.

It's okay, Mira got up and pushed in her chair, following Ignis to help clean up. There will be a next time.

Her heart felt a bit of familiar coldness, but she brushed it off, thankful that Annette could take her out. Even if she calmed her mind, her body betrayed her, her fist clenching the side of her skirt.