“Oh, well…”

Sen distanced herself a little from Peck to think.

Peck was unable to communicate, but Sen could see his memories thanks to magic. The next thing she had to do was decide how to deal with him properly. She couldn't tell him that she delved into his mind because that might distress him

For a moment, Sen turned her back on Peck to think. She touched her own lip with her fingertip to meditate.

The passive ability of my magic is not having an effect on him, he is too anxious to converse and is afraid to go to Batoru. What should I do? The most important thing is that he understands that I want to support him.

Her silence worried Peck. He thought that because he had not been able to answer her she was angry.

If I take him to 'that' place it might work.

“Hey, Sen, are you angry?”

When she heard that she immediately turned to look at Peck.

“You haven't said anything for a while…”

“Oh. I'm not mad”. She relaxed her expression to answer him. “I was just thinking”.

“Thinking about what?”

Peck was still anxious.

Sen needed an excuse. When she looked closely at Peck's face she had an idea.

“I was thinking about your face having a lot of freckles and your name being Peck. They sound similar, don't you think?”

“What? I... I don't think so. Are you… making fun of me?”

“Of course not. Your face is adorable”.

She said that with a bright smile, but Peck didn't know how to react to that compliment. He didn't even think to say ‘thank you’ because he was so confused.

“Hey, Peck, do you like things that sparkle? I know a place you might like”.

“I guess I do, but I already told you I can't leave here”.

“Relax, I'll bring you back”.

“I don't know...”

Once again, Sen was immersed in her thoughts.

I can't force him, that will only make it worse. What should I do then? He's too attached to this place. Maybe if...

Sen had a brilliant idea. So brilliant that a spotlight could shine on his head from how great her idea was.

“Well! Don't go. I'll stay with you and we'll camp together!”

“Huh...? Why? I don't have much to offer. Why don't you go to your house instead?”

“Don't turn me down so coldly”.

“But I just... I don't know”.

He's still resisting. Maybe I'll have to watch him from afar and visit him occasionally…

“You're being weird”.

“Who are you calling weird?”

Because of her good intentions, it was inevitable that Sen felt a twinge of indignation at that comment. Her face was harmlessly furious, but that was enough to scare Peck.

“Ah, it's just that… is that I...”

He started to walk backwards, completely forgetting....

“Peck, wait!”

That the river was behind him.

He's fallen back into the water even though Sen tried to save him.

Peck's story has come to an end...

...Or so he thought to himself, but he soon poked his head out of the river. He looked restless, angry and worried. Every time he came into contact with the water he felt his body melt.

To his good fortune, it wasn't all that bad.

In front of him someone had extended her hand, that someone was Sen.

“Be careful. If you hate water so much try not to fall in it”.

It was those words that changed something in Peck.

In other circumstances, those words might have been to scold him. No, actually, it might have been something harsher. This time, however, the voice she enunciated was peaceful, warm and full of compassion.

When Peck looked up he saw Sen's face. Sen's eyes were not mocking him, the smile on his lips was not a malicious one.

The expression in front of him was not one of contempt.

“And you should also get out of there soon if you don't like being soaked”.

Peck froze.

He was sure that in a situation like this something bad would happen. When he failed and made mistakes, something bad always happened next. Horrible memories for a moment came into his head, but reality overcame those memories.

There was no one there who could take advantage of his shame.

The next thing that happened could have been a series of coincidences.

From Peck's point of view, the whole atmosphere around him changed to favor Sen. The breeze of the wind gently stirring her white hair, the position of the sun in the sky made it seem as if the light was actually coming from Sen.

Sen's presence became resplendent.

And in that position, the intense red of her eyes flashed.

Without Peck noticing, he moved his hand to take Sen's and she helped him out of the river.

He thought:

She didn't make fun…

When he was finally on his feet, Sen spoke to him.

“Are you all right?”

But Peck had another answer.

“Where did you want to take me?”

“Hum?”

“I want to... go”.

At first, Sen was puzzled. Then she smiled with relief at the unexpected change.

“Hold on tight”.

That day Peck knew mercy.

***

After that warning, the surroundings became completely distorted. Peck went through a turbulent experience and in a matter of a blink of an eye they appeared in a very dark place. Peck could not see anything, but that was not the problem.

The problem was that he became extremely dizzy. He let go of Sen's hand to pull away and fall to his knees. He rested his hands on the ground as he tried to catch his breath.

Peck gasped for a few moments.

Ah, I forgot! He's not used to that kind of travel!

Sen lamented between her thoughts. Due to embarrassment she didn't say anything about it, she simply walked over to Peck and bent down to stroke his head as he pulled herself together.

“What... what happened...? Everything's... spinning...”

“Sorry, sorry, I'm just used to this, haha...”

Sen's nervous laughter echoed in that space.

“Where are we?”

“In a cave underground, don't worry”.

“Underground?!”

“I said don't worry...”

No, it's my fault, it was too sudden. Sen thought.

“Be strong, Peck. You'll be all right in a second. What happened is that I used a teleportation spell. Do you know it? It's called 'CheckPoint’. I can move in less than a second from one place to another if I leave a mana trail first, it's very useful for long trips”.

“That's a lot of words…”

“Ah, sorry. We went from one point to another very fast and that made you agitated, but don't worry, you just need to breathe”.

She tried to caress him while he regained his composure.

“Can I do that too?”

“If I teach you, yes”.

***

After a few minutes of casual conversation, Peck stood up and Sen took his distance to prepare for her next demonstration. She held up one of her fingers, a tiny celestial light appeared on the tip.

“Follow the light, Peck”.

Wherever Sen moved her finger, Peck watched the light. She threw that light, which moved like a beam, toward a random end.

The beam of light flashed and sparks flew everywhere. A crystal lit up with the same light blue color as before.

The color and light spread everywhere. Dozens and dozens of such crystals appeared shining brightly. If someone looked closely there was almost no difference with the sky, it was as if they had a clear firmament to observe despite being underground. 

But nothing radiated more than Peck's eyes filled with awe and fascination.

There was a perfect blue above him.

He looked to the sides, discovered that they were on a smooth round platform in perfect condition. The only unfortunate thing was that there was water circling. There were stones floating on the water that every so often lined up perfectly to create a path to the supposed exit: beyond that path were stairs going up.

“It's a long way down here, 'checkpoint' was really useful, don't you think?”

Peck was speechless for a minute.

“What is this place?”

The two finally looked at each other, Sen wasn't very far away. Only five steps apart.

“It's hard to explain. It's a cave with minerals that resonate with the magic you imbue in them and then amplify it. I will confess something to you, and at the same time I will give you a teaching. There are many types of magic, normally people can use all of them except for two. The magic that a person uses most often is called a 'Gift'. My 'Gift' is one of the exceptions I mentioned”.

Sen paused for a moment to check that Peck understood. If Sen talked too much, Peck's eyes would look like swirls from how confused he would be. Fortunately, Peck was fine.

“My main magic has a passive effect, my presence alone should bring people peace. Sometimes I suppress that effect, but I didn't do it with you. Still, I can sense that it had no effect. I brought you here to relax, you seemed so tense”.

“Tensed? Well... I was nervous, but...”

“Peck, I want to talk to you about something special”.

“What is it?”

“Let's talk about the true source of strength”.

---

Next chapter arrives on Monday!