"That place is suffocating." Alix sighed as she left the school. After the whole explosion during a lesson incident the rest of her day was nowhere close to peaceful. "Heard you had an accident. Isn't it embarrassing to act all high and mighty when you fail at that already subpar magic?" That was just one of the many things that the faceless nobodies had said to her.
Sadly, Alix has no choice but to attend the school if she wishes to continue to pursue magic. It is truly an inconvenient set of circumstances, but that was the least of her worries. "I still don't understand how the spell failed. Maybe, the mana path was set but unstable. I may have gotten ahead of myself thinking that I had finally cracked the spell." Alix was completely lost in thought but continued to move to her normal workspace, Lake Opin.
While walking through the streets there were a few people that noticed her and tried to greet her to no avail as the girl was lost in her thoughts. "That girl is always in a world of her own." A middle-aged woman said shaking her head.
"Just like her mother. Those two have never been very social." A man with a basket of vegetables responded.
"It's like they feel like this town is too small for them or something. Do you think they look down on us, gramps?" a younger man entered the conversation as he was sharpening a hunting spear. An old man placed a hand on the young man's shoulder.
"They don't look down on us, son. Now, I can't say much about the mother, but I know young Alix is just focused on her own future." The old man looked into the eyes of the younger one. "Like you should be focused on that hunting spear! Look at the mess you've made! You're a disgrace to all hunters in our family!" The young man vigorously started to work on a new spear.
"Sorry Pops!"
...
No, that had almost nothing to do with Alix. In fact, she didn't even stop walking she's already at Lake Opin.
She sits down on the bench next to the lake and immediately pulls out her spell book. She re-wrote the spell from her memory and analyzed it thoroughly. "So it was not the contradiction path. Then did I not properly make use of the Ulterila Law here. No, I layered that part correctly." Alix was completely focused.
...What? Do you want me to explain what the Ulterila Law is or something?
Well I can't?
Why? Because I don't know what it is. She speaking sorceress I don't speak that language, I'm just narrating. Oh, look Mo's here.
The fish glares at the girl. "She did not just get here and immediately start working again. Do I mean nothing to her?" That's the look that the fish was giving. A mischievous smirk came to the pink fish's face.
"This is what you get for ignoring me again." The fish swam in a few small circles causing the water to begin to distort. A small wave formed from the fish's whirlpool and as the fish jumped out of the water the wave shot out toward and hit Alix.
"Right on target!" The fish's cheeky grin said. Alix, now completely soaked, was knocked out of her concentration. "What the-" She looked at Mo still smiling smugly. "Did you do that?" The fish turned to the side and pouted.
"You're such dramatic, attention-seeking fish. I'm just working on my spell." The fish looked at the girl mouth agape. "What?" Alix asked confused. The fish returned to his original glare. "You forgot didn't you?" is what it felt like it was saying. "Did I forget someth-Oh."
That's right. Alix had somehow completely forgotten that she had promised to visit the fish at this very time because she had been too absorbed in her work. The fish turned to side eye the girl as if to say, "Who's dramatic, again?" Alix immediately regretted her previous statement.
"I apologize. That one was my fault. My day has just been hectic." The fish looked at the girl with concern. "I have been working day and night on this spell for a full year. All because the idea of it came to me in a dream the day after I met you. I do not even know what it does yet. I feel like I'm so close to cracking it, but every time I start to finish it literally explodes in my face."
Alix moved to the edge of the lake looking at Mo. "I know I can do it. This is no impossible task and yet I continue to fail. Is there something that I have missed?" Alix started to get lost in her thoughts again when she felt something tickle the top of her hand. She looked and saw it was Mo putting his fin on top of her hand. The fish smiled up at her like he was saying, "If there's anyone that can crack this puzzle of a spell its you!"
Alix smiled thoughtfully back to the fish. It was then that it once again appeared. The pink string. However, something was different this time. Maybe it was because she was closer to the lake or maybe it was that she had always been too focused on herself to notice. Regardless, the point stands that she had not realized that she could feel a pull on the string.
The location of the pull? The pink fish of the lake of whom she had become so familiar with. And with that pull she felt like she could push. So she did. Alix mentally pushed to string forward.
The string responded to her will shooting forward. It attached itself the fish's chest. At that moment, the fish emanated a powerful bright light causing the girl to cover her eyes.
"Did I do something wrong?!" The girl panicked in her heart worried that she was may have caused Mo harm. The light died down and the girl stared to where the fish should be. However, sitting in the spot that the fish was originally floating was...the fish with a pink string connecting him to Alix.
Alix breathed a sigh of relief, "I thought I may have made a mistake."
"Worried? Did ya think that I was weak or somethin'?"
"Of course, you are just a fi-" Alix froze. She slowly looked around. Who the hell had jus-
"Now what are ya lookin' for? I'm right here, Lexi." Alix returned her gaze to Mo. "It can't be." The voice that spoke. It was gravelly, deep. It had the accent of an uneducated seaman. The owner of that voice was...
"I'll tell ya what can't be. It can't be that I'm sittin' right in front of ya and yer still ignorin' me!" Alix's eyes went wide.
"Mo? Did you just speak?" The fish cocked his head. "Did she just ask if I could speak? Did she really lose it? Ph this poor girl. She can't do nothin' without me. She probably dreamed about becoming a fish just so that she could hear me speak." Mo feigned wiping a tear from his eye. Alix glared at the fish unamused.
"A sad girl that dreams of being a fish, huh. So that is how you see me." Mo looked at the girl shocked. "Ya can really understand me?"
"Yes I can. It is quite interesting to understand how you think of me." Mo chuckled nervously. "Lexi, ya know I love ya girl. I was just messin around." Mo tried to take back his words but it was clearly too late. Alix quickly moved on from the topic though.
"The fact that I can understand you is amazing. Just what is this pink string?" Mo raised an...eyebrow? Or at least where an eyebrow would be on his face.
"What pink string?" Alix cocked her head. "So you still can't see it even though it is directly connected to you. Interesting."
"Connected to me!? Is it some sort of disease? Did I catch the Fish Plague?" Mo started to vigorously look for whatever Alix was talking about.
"No, it is not-well, I do not actually know what it is so it could be a virus of some sort. Though it has yet to do me harm so I doubt that it will do you as such." Mo breathed a sigh of relief...it's really weird narrating for a fish.
"At least I know that we'll be goin down together. Ya must be real happy to die with yer only friend." Alix ignored the fish's words. "I need to experiment with this. Maybe it has something to do with the type of fish that you are?"
"Do ya know what type of fish I am?" Alix stared at this fish in a mix of disbelief and disappointment. "You don't know what type of fish you are?"
"Well, I'm sorry. It ain't like we're born and someone comes up and says 'Hey you're this type of fish' we're just fish." Alix nodded but was still disappointed. "I'll figure it out on my own."
"Like ya figured out that spell o' yers on yer own." Alix winced at the spite in his words. "I mean seriously. I bet ya haven't even tried the most basic change to the process that ya could make." Alix crossed her arms annoyed. "What do you know? You're just a fish in a lake."
"I know that ya haven't tried to change the catalyst for the spell that yer makin." Alix sat in silence. She truly had never even considered just changing the catalyst. "Why would I consider doing that? This is Kielsleef parchment. It is the best catalyst for attack type sorcery. And I am an attack type sorceress." Mo smirked smugly
"Didn't ya just say that ya don't know what type of spell yer castin'. Are ya stupid or just to self-absorbed to notice that each part of that spell uses theories and laws from multiple different spell types?" Alix frowned and looked back to the spell and was completely surprised.
This fish was right.
Every separate passage seemed to be connected to the one spell but the concepts and values were from completely different spell types. Even the contradicting line that she had just solved were just a destructive type passage and restoration type passage. "How did you-"
"Don't ya know? I happen to be the most genius magically minded among the fish of this lake." Alix stared unimpressed at Mo. "Are you not the only fish in this lake?" Mo waved his fin. "Semantics! That doesn't change the fact that I solved yer spell." Alix rolled her eyes as he was technically correct. She closed her eyes and began think.
"The Ecliptic Theory and Kaos Theory work together to formulate a powerful contract seeming to cause some sort of buffing affect. Combine that with the Law of Longevity that is used within this passage to increase the resilience of the target..." Alix mumbled to herself.
"Um, Lexi?" Mo called out to the girl but got no response. The girl was completely lost in thought. She had even begun to unconsciously trace her spell in the air with her finger. He could even swear that he could see the spell imprinted on the air...
Wait, he could see the spell imprinted on the air. How is that possible? "Hey, Lexi? What are ya doin?"
"...And when adding the Heron or Dove Theory here you become able to seamlessly connect the Law of Twins to the Kaos Theory..." It was nonsense to the fish, but as the girl continued to trace the spell the imprints in the air began to shine brightly. The wind seemed to pick up as the spell gained more and more power. And then Mo felt it. Something was pulling at his heart.
"What the hell is happening?!" At that moment Alix finished tracing the spell and proceeded to hold her palm open towards Mo. "W-Wait wait wait! Lexi, let's talk about this first!" The girl seemed to not have heard the fish as she loudly called out a phrase...
"WITH THIS CONTRACT I STRENGHTHEN OUR BOND! OMNIA NEXUS!"
Mo felt himself get lifted out of the water as the spell activated. While in the air he saw a string going from him to Alix. It wasn't pink like Alix described it was silver instead. A final powerful pulse of energy exploded out of Mo causing the water from the lake to shoot upwards.
That day for the first time ever. The entire town's focus shifted to Opin Park.