Chapter 7: Meet My Own Personal Fairy
[Heal]
"Seriously, please heal! Mou…."
[Heal]
"Please, please, please! Yes, that's it! Heal!"
I woke up to the sound of a high-pitched voice that sounded inhumanly sweet and even, a little bit like maple syrup. After registering the voice, the next thing I noticed was that I seemed to be dead again, but this time as a ghost. I mean, I was transparent and floating over my current body, so I could only get deader if I had woken up to Farrelly's green face.
Hovering over my body's head was a tiny teenage girl dressed in bright red leaves. Her hair was a glassy yellow, and all-in-all she reminded me of autumn, which was the current season. She was pressing her hand between my body's eyebrows and a white light enveloped both her and my body.
While waiting for her to finish, I entertained myself by looking at objects through my hands. My ghost body had the same appearance as my current body, so I guessed I had lived long enough to imprint on my soul, if that's how it worked. But seriously, what kind of idiot goes and pets a random snake? The same kind of idiot that wanders off by herself into an unknown forest in a strange world, clearly. For all I had known, I could have run into monsters, dragons, or zombies! I guess it didn't matter in the end – all it took was one lousy snake.
Actually, that raised an interesting question. Why had I acted so stupidly? I didn't feel all that stupid right now. I hadn't felt stupid then, either, but right now I could clearly tell that I had made poor choices. I was actually feeling a little sorry for my parents, what that I had been bugging them for months to take me out for trips and to teach me magic. No matter how many times they explained their reasons, I wouldn't take no for an answer.
Wait, Mom! I had drugged her! What if that killed her? Without knowing anything, I had blissfully given her more than she had ever given Dad in one sitting, and he was at least three times heavier than her. It hadn't seemed dangerous when she talked about it, but any medicine can easily turn into poison.
I glanced at the winged teenager. Should I interrupt her? There was the distinct possibility that she was trying to resurrect me (hopefully not as a zombie), so I wouldn't want to disrupt the process. On the other hand, my mom's life might be hanging in the balance. Or maybe it was too late, or not an issue at all. I had no idea for how long I had been unconscious. All right, I'll wait. Panicking could only make things worse.
That gave me time to address my original question. What had happened to my intelligence? I had remembered everything since I was born, I knew all of my past life's experiences, so why had I thought that it was a good idea to offer my hand to a potentially (and now confirmedly) poisonous snake? Even though I had the knowledge, I seemed to have been acting really…childish.
The diapers! A grown man had wiped my butt! I had been sucking on my mother's breasts!
I covered my face in embarrassment. Some part of it still felt normal, but the memories were also mixed in with thoughts of me as an adult experiencing those same moments. I had not been a short woman in my previous life, so the superimposed body on those memories felt particularly awkward. I now knew and loved these two people as my parents, but my imagination seemed to be racing to fit in all the possible awkward thoughts as if to catch up for lost time.
'Lost…time?'
I bit my knuckle in thought. That's right. Farrelly had said that I had limited time to go back to Earth and prevent a villain being born. Though, now that I thought about it, it might not be all that black and white. I should probably observe before I went around attacking my relatives. Before I could do anything, however, I needed to find a way to get there.
Well, I wasn't going to be able to do anything in a 3-year-old body. I could ask my parents about it later, and set a timeframe that corresponded accordingly to my physical abilities. That's all assuming that I wasn't completely dead, at which point there really wasn't much else I could do and apologies to whoever had to suffer the "villain" my family produced.
This didn't answer the question; I kept going on tangents. Intelligence…maybe it had something to do with my body? That actually seemed like it would make sense. Even though I had an old soul, I had a young body. Assuming that I hadn't been completely wrong in my first life as an atheist standing by science, then the brain has a significant impact on a person's personalities and abilities. Children and teenagers have very different thinking abilities than adults, so maybe it's not enough to have the knowledge?
Oh, that could be problematic. I didn't think I could trust my young self to do what needed to be done. I had already proven myself incapable of even surviving, after all.
'Speaking of which….'
The winged teenager had finished up her work, and was proudly surveying my body. The blackness had disappeared from my hand, and I looked more peaceful and alive. Granted, I was also still a ghost.
"Thank you for saving me," I finally said.
She spun around and flashed a warm smile.
"You're welcome. That was terrifying! We almost died!" She wiped the sweat off her brow with one hand, then onto the dress. "The only way I could think of saving us was to take over. I'm glad it worked."
"Sorry, what?"
"What, what?"
"You said 'we'?"
"Yes? We… oh. Yes. I'm your reinka. It's very nice to meet you finally." She dipped in a curtsey, proving that her dress may have looked like a bunch of leaves stitched together but it was far more flexible.
It felt rude to not respond, so I bowed, since I wasn't wearing a dress.
"Nice to meet you too. I'm Molly. What's your name? And what do you mean by 'reinka'?"
"I don't have a name." She fiddled with the belt of her dress as she talked, her wings fluttering like a hummingbird's; I idly wondered how much she ate normally to maintain that speed. "As for reinka, I am the personification of your magic. Well, specifically your holy magic. I was going to reveal myself when you turned 13, but the circumstances were dire."
"I have magic?!" I drifted closer to her in my excitement. "Can I use it now?"
"Ah," she murmured, glancing at my body. "Yes and no. It would take a while to explain. You should return to your body first. I don't think it would be good to be separated for too long."
That seemed reasonable. I changed trajectory, only to be greeted by my sleeping 3-year-old face. Oh, right, that difficulty.
"Actually, I think we should talk now." I pursed my lips. "After I return to my body, I don't think I would understand even if you explained it to me. I would rather be able to think clearly while we talk."
She tilted her head in confusion.
"Is there something wrong with your body?" She touched my nose and the connection sparked. "It seems healthy. The poison is completely gone."
"It's not that… When I'm in my body I think like a 3-year-old, which, yes, makes some sense, but at the moment I can think like an adult and I would prefer to converse in that manner."
"I see." She hesitated. "I guess I can explain, but we can't take too long."
I crossed my legs and sat down in mid-air.
"I'll limit my questions, promise."
"All right. I will start with the basics of magic. Magic is a roadmap that is layered and sunk into the fabric of living beings. Everything alive has a thread of magic connecting them to the overarching pattern. In order to use magic, it is necessary to first develop awareness of the thread within, and then have the ability to manipulate it. Not everyone has the ability. For example, a flower is within the pattern, but cannot cast a spell. Even a conscious being may not necessarily be able to use it. For example, humans tend to use tools such as wands to access their magic. Once the access is established, one must dip into the spiritual pool to obtain the energy needed to cast the magic. This also requires ability separate from accessing magic.
"It is not enough to have the ability, however. One must also know the spell to manipulate the magic. Spells are usually specific words in a particular order that act as a conduit between the wielder's intentions and the magic essence being manipulated. Spells are the usual method.
"For a few, they are gifted with direct access to magic. Only one species can create and bestow this access, which is, in simple terms, a permanent spell embedded in the being. These are the gods. When a being is gifted with direct access, this permanent spell takes shape in the form of a reinka, which is what I am. I was born when you were born, and I will be with you until you die. I was born with the knowledge of magic because I am essentially magic in a physical form, and reinkas are also given knowledge of our kind, since the gods intended that there would be very few of us, and so we would not be able to learn from each other. Gifts are either bestowed directly from a god, or inherited from a parent. One of your parents has holy magic, and you inherited it. When you were dying, I forcefully took over your access to heal your body. I will only do that in an emergency, though!"
She clapped her hands.
"And that is it! Do you understand?"
I frowned, scratching at my head in thought. Roadmaps, threads, spells, gods… there were so many different words thrown into that explanation that it seemed more confusing than basic. And most of the words were things that existed in my past life. Actually, all of them did except 'reinka'. It seemed like it might be similar to the fictional understanding of magic…?
"So, magic is a tool that everyone owns, but not everyone can use. And spirituality is the electricity powering the tool…?" I looked to her for confirmation.
Her head went tilting the other way.
"Electricity?"
"Oh, um, the uh, power? No, wait. Strength? Muscles?" She still looked confused. "You know what, never mind. I think I get it. So, I can use holy magic now?"
"Not immediately. Part of my role is to teach you, but I am supposed to do that when you turn thirteen."
That was way too long a wait. I at least agreed with my younger self in one thing – I wanted to learn magic now. I could wait maybe one more year, but my patience completely disappeared at the mention of more than five.
"Since I already know about you and magic, why not start early?"
"I don't know… There is probably a reason why I am supposed to teach you later…"
"Please? What if this happens again? I'm not going to look for danger, but I do live in the middle of a forest with potential dangers everywhere. It would be good to know how to heal myself!"
"Is it really dangerous here?"
"Definitely! Just think about how I was bitten as soon as I left the house! And I can't stay in the house for the rest of my life, so I could be in danger at any moment."
"I don't…"
"We can start little by little. And it would be something we could do together, to get to know each other. We should do that, right? Since we're going to be living the rest of our lives together." I tried to hug her arm to increase my cutesy act (specially learned from my first daughter, who somehow knew how to beg better than her younger siblings), but found that I went right through her. I settled for position myself slightly below and looking upwards with puppy eyes.
That might have been too much. She abruptly crossed her arms and glared at me.
"You are trying to trick me!"
"I'm not!" She hmphed. "Okay, yes, a little bit. I would really like to learn magic now. And there's no harm in starting it sooner. If you think something's going wrong, then you can stop teaching me, right?"
"Well…"
"Good! I'm glad that's settled." I turned away before she could object. It's hard to object to the back of the head. "Now, I guess I should get back into my body before I die for real. How do I do this?"
"You… do not think I do not know what you are doing!" I could hear her dress flapping in the breeze created by the increased agitation of her fluttering wings. She grabbed my shoulder, though I could barely feel her tiny fingers – I was surprised I could feel anything, considering my ghostly state. "Just think about joining." And then she pushed me and felt myself flying forward towards my body.
I hurriedly thought about joining, whatever that meant.
'I am one. Me and my body are one. We are combined. We dance to the same tune. We are one? Actually, we're sort of like multiple personalities in one body – we are one body! No, wait, don't want to encourage more personalities – we are one personality! One. One, one… is anything happening yet?'
{Seizing Poison Bite}
Uh-oh.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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