— Year 1550 (Gaia calendar) 7:00 PM, Saturday, July 1

  Lios Town

  Alice slept peacefully on her bed, her raven hair sprawled messily on it. Beams of sunlight shone through the window, bathing her in its golden glow.

  Her eyes twitched before opening, her aquamarine eyes that seemed like a reflection of the ocean, stared blankly for a moment, then quickly regaining its shine. Alice sat up on the bed drowsily, glancing around the room and pursing her lips.

  "Not a dream, right."

  Though she had accepted the fact that she had reincarnated fairly quickly, everything felt like a dream. Now that she thought about it, that was probably why she had accepted the fact so quickly. Even with the memories, She didn't think she would be so calm otherwise.

  Sizzle. Sizzle.

  "Aah!"

  She let out a pained yelp and instinctively held her left arm. A sizzling sound reached her ears as she looked down to the arm she held. The rays of the sun scared the back of her hand with the image of a red sun. As the sun retracted from her hand, the image glowed slightly and emitted sparks for a moment before returning to normal.

  "What the hell?"

  Words that didn't match her appearance slipped from her mouth as she looked at the red tattoo that had formed before her very eyes.

  As the pain had faded fairly quickly, Alice touched the tattoo, planning to inspect it.

  'This definitely has something to do with magic, maybe even my reincarnation.'

  She slid her thumb along the surface of the tattoo, it felt no different from the rest of her skin, nothing like what burnt skin should be like.

  Though it didn't bring pain, the tattoo was warm to the touch.

  She narrowed her eyes, "Strange..."

  She then turned her attention to the pattern itself. It was red in colour, it was a ball that had a star within. The ball had swirling patterns surrounding it, resembling the rays of the sun. The pattern seemed quite familiar to her.

  "Where have I seen this before?"

  She looked at the pattern closer.

  'Wait isn't this?'

  She placed her hand on her forehead, trying to remember something.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  'Yeah, they are definitely similar.'

  She touched the pattern once more.

  'What's the relat—'

  Interrupting her thoughts, the pattern burst with a bright red light. Sparks started forming on the edges of the tattoo, then a flame erupted it. The flame swirled into a vortex before shrinking and coagulating into a thick, auburn, hardcover book with the same pattern as the tattoo and golden rims.

  The pattern dimmed slowly, before all its light was extinguished entirely. The book floated down, landing onto Alice's lap.

  She looked at the book and tattoo with a shocked face filled with awe, her jaw hanging open. Before now, even through both lives, she didn't have any interaction with the mystical, but now, two magic-filled events had just happened right before her eyes, the second truly capturing her attention.

  She pushed her open jaw close, suppressing a smile, before opening the thick, auburn book. The first page was nothing more than a title page, but it confirmed her suspicion, though, it filled her with great surprise. Even though she had a slight suspicion, she had never expected for it to truly be the case.

  CODEX

  A beginners guide to magic

  Author: Solaris

  'God himself gave wrote this? Does that mean he's involved in my reincarnation? Maybe he saved me himself, but why?'

  She tried to think of reasons why an individual of such caliber would want to save her. No matter what she thought, she couldn't think of a reason, she wasn't of high influence, she didn't think anything about her was special, she wasn't even a believer.

  "Maybe there's an explanation in the rest of the book."

  With this thought, she flipped to the next page.

  LETTER

  To: Sharon Wonder

  You must be very confused right now, about your revival, how you were revived, and many other things. This letter should calm some of those questions.

  First of all, I was the one to revive you, why? You are a direct descendant of one of my very first believer, thus, we have a special connection. While you are not a follower of my religion, through our connection, I felt your grief, and as a descendant of my friend and first believer, I could not Ignore it, so I used my power over revival to reincarnate you as the child known as Alice. No need to worry about the child as you and her are one and the same, I merely allowed your memories to awaken at the golden period, though some parts of your memories as Alice might be lost.

  Alice paused her reading and sighed of relief, she had been wondering what happened to the original Alice, if she had not found out, the guilt of taking her body might of eaten her alive.

  'Other than that, Since when did I have such an origin?'

  If this was true, it would make sense why Solaris would save her, but it also left her with many more questions, How did she not know this? Why would she be grow as a non-believer? Why did such an important family have such low status? These were things she could not be sure of so she decided to set them aside for future research and continued to read.

  Your reincarnation aside, This books contains information on Mystics or mages as you call them and other mystic practices and happenings. Though they are in the book, other than the initial pages I have opened for you, the others will be locked until you have encountered the things pertaining to those pages.

  As she read the last words of the letter, Alice felt an excitement rise from deep within her being. She had always had a fascination with the magical, but had never gotten the chance to truly get into it, but now she did, not only that, the main god of the empire himself had given her a guide.

  As she was about to turn to the next page, she heard a knock on her door. The door was pushed open, revealing her mother.

  "Alice, are you hungry?"

  She panicked for a moment and looked down to the book.

  As if sensing her thoughts, the book disappeared into wisps of sparks and retreated into the tattoo.

  'Ah.'

  "Honey?"

  "Ah, yes!" She looked up to her mother and gave a bright smile.