It was a moonless night. She could feel it vividly —the breeze caressing her skin. She looked towards the door where a white haired figure stood there unmoving, unflinching like a statue of fallen angel with her blade pointed towards her.
“Alice…”
Vierna’s eyes snapped open. Cold air clung to her skin. The vision vanished, replaced by the stark gray of the facility bedroom.
She turned her head and met Lina’s scarred face only a breath away.
Vierna exhaled slowly.
It was a ghost of the past, one she thought she had long exorcise. Yet it clung to her like smoke, whispering of a life before the orphanage, before the Reich had remade her.
Recalling it was like swallowing a soot that burned on the way down.
Her gaze wandered across the dim room. It seems that it was too early to do anything. So she closed her eyes, hoping for a peaceful sleep to embrace her again.
But the fragment lingered, refusing to dissolve. A face. A name. A warmth she could neither claim nor forget.
She looked at Lina. The scarred face was softened now, eyes closed, mouth curled into a faint, wounded smile. Vierna remembered how Lina had opened herself to her more than to anyone else. That warmth was real, more real than any memory from before the orphanage. She reached out and brushed Lina’s hair aside, a small ritual to steady her nerves. The motion soothed her.
Sleep returned at last, and when it claimed her, her hand still rested against Lina’s face.
After a few hours, Vierna stirred awake. The warded clock ticked softly beside her bed, its glow the only measure of time in the windowless room. The steady pulse of its hands filled the silence.
She blinked then she froze.
Across from her was Lina’s face, eyes wide open. It dawned on her that Lina had been awake for some time.
“Hey, Lin. Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Hehe… because you’re cute.”
Vierna frowned. Lina’s tone was too clear, too steady. There was none of the drowsiness she usually carried when freshly awake. “How long?”
“About an hour.”
“Then, why didn’t you move?”
“I wanted your hand to stay where it was.”
Vierna looked down. Only now did she realize her arm had rested against Lina’s cheek the whole night. The rune hummed, marking the absurdity of it.
“Well, that’s your fault,” she muttered.
Lina tilted her head. “My fault? How?”
“For having such a cute face.” Vierna pinched her cheek.
“Ahh—stop!” Lina laughed, flustered.
Vierna and Lina prepared themselves for yet another day of procedure. After the morning session, they went to Albrecht as usual. Vierna did not ask about the previous night’s occurrence, about Alecta or anything else. She followed Strau’s advice and acted as if nothing had happened.
So the routine continued for another two weeks. Both girls were clearly showing improvement. Vierna’s swordplay was no longer completely hopeless. Her days of being whacked by the dummy and zapped by Lisa’s lightning had carved urgency into her bones, and her movements sharpened with each practice.
Vierna also learn a myriad variation of Eidrecht spells. Eidrecht 11 through 30 were simple structures, their form adapting to the user’s element. A fire mage casting Eidrecht 15 would sear their opponent, while hers would frostbite them. The structure and the intent remained the same.
After training they usually ate at Albrecht’s house, bonding with the Hauptmann and with Lisa when she was around. Those meals became a rhythm of their own, grounding them after the grueling regimen.
Not only training, but the procedures also continued in tandem. By this point Vierna no longer asked what they were doing to her. She had accepted everything, believing in the facility completely. Her mana felt fuller, her muscles stronger, her combat sharper. So she was not worried anymore.
Halwen took to active coaching after training with Albrecht, correcting spell structures and refining their forms. When it came to the procedures, however, he said nothing. He believed that leaving them incomplete would be even worse, just as it had been with Lina.
Approximately one month had passed since they began training with Albrecht. As she progressed with Eidrecht incantation, Albrecht decide that it was time for her to learn something more advanced.
“Vierna, do you remember that in my duel with Herr Halwen, he cast Eidrecht while he was in melee with me?” Albrecht asked.
“I do. It was Eidrecht 95, right?”
“Yes. I want you to copy his method. Cast the incantation in your head while you are in melee combat, or while avoiding attacks.”
“I see.”
Vierna thought about it. If she skipped calling out the whole incantation, she could mask her voice, letting the enemy focus on her movements instead. In reality, she would already be shaping the spell inside her head. It would give her the initiative at the start of combat. If she had learned anything from sparring with Lisa, it was that the moment she began an incantation, Lisa would fire something at her, breaking her concentration.
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“But baby steps,” Albrecht said. “For now, just focus inward. Play the incantation in your mind and cast it there first.”
“Okay.”
Vierna stood at the edge of the room and raised one hand forward. With her sword in the other, she had to cast one-handed.
She closed her eyes and focused.
Cold that pierces the soul, reveal thyself. Bite into the deepest part of my enemy, destroy, skewer, impale.
She opened her eyes.
There should have been an ice lance forming at the tip of her arm, ready to be shot at the training dummy like a javelin. Instead, nothing appeared. No spear, not even the faint shimmer of a magic circle.
“That is fine, Vierna. It is normal,” Albrecht said evenly. “Try again internally. This time, focus more.”
Vierna tried again. She stood there for a long moment, but no matter how hard she concentrated the spell refused to form. She had recited the incantation cleanly in her mind, every word placed with care, yet nothing stirred. The silence inside her was heavier than failure. Confusion set in, lingering until it curdled into frustration. She searched for the flaw, replaying the words again and again, even suspecting for a moment that she had somehow lost the ability to cast normally at all.
“Vierna, try to say it this time. Do it normally.”
“Okay, Albrecht.”
“Cold that pierces the soul, reveal thyself. Bite into the deepest part of my enemy, destroy, skewer, impale.”
A magic circle flared directly in front of her, its glowing eye widening with cold light. From it, a spear of ice slid into form, no larger than a hunting javelin, its edges glittering faintly with frost. With a brittle snap it shot forward, striking the training dummy. The weapon drove in deep, piercing the padded chest with a crunch of frost, but its shaft stopped halfway, lodged in the wood instead of bursting clean through.
Relief washed over her that she had not forgotten how to cast Eidrecht at all, yet confusion lingered. “I don’t understand,” Vierna said.
“Herr Halwen.”
From beyond the glass room, Halwen stepped inside. “Did you see that?”
“I did. It is probably a matter of mastery. Perhaps she has not fully mastered Eidrecht 19,” Halwen said. Yet it was strange, because when spoken aloud the spell had materialized almost immediately.
“Try a lower-tier Eidrecht now,” he suggested.
“Okay.”
Vierna did as told, attempting to cast the lower tiers one by one. Each time she tried to shape them silently, nothing came. Something blocked her, though she could not tell what. Each failure was met with calm instruction from Halwen and Albrecht to cast it normally, and each time she managed without issue.
“Hmmm.”
“Is something wrong with me? Am I broken?” A faint panic edged Vierna’s voice.
“Vierna, if something is not working for you, you need to calm down and analyze it,” Albrecht said. “Do not go straight to self-pity. It will not help you.”
Vierna recognized the truth in his words. Harsh, but they cut straight through her panic, giving her the clarity she needed.
“Okay, Albrecht. I am sorry.”
“Although,” Halwen added, “the only reason I can think of is that something is blocking her mind, preventing her from gaining clarity.”
“But I can cast it when I speak out loud.” Vierna said, the confusion linger on her like a shadow that refused to leave her behind.
“Internal casting is more difficult than speaking aloud. Spoken words steady your consciousness. Inwardly there is no such support. Without realizing it, your intention may become clouded.”
Vierna frowned. “But I am sure I was focused while saying the incantation internally.”
“That means something is being repressed,” Halwen said.
“Maybe something from her past?” Albrecht suggested.
“Most probably.”
Vierna froze. Her past… She guessed it must have been from before the orphanage. Some things she remembered, yet the images never stayed whole. Even as she tried to concentrate, her memories refused to resurfaced. It felt like there was a gap she could never bridge. All she knew was that something had happened, something that ended everything, and from then on she built a wall around her past before the orphanage.
“Well, anyway, we cannot stop today’s training purely because she cannot do it. For now, she will continue normally. Spar with Lisa as usual,” Albrecht said.
“Yes, Albrecht.”
Vierna returned to her training, but it was clear the failure disturbed her more than she cared to admit.
The rest of the training went on as usual, with Albrecht focusing more on Lina. He worked on balancing her stance and refining her control of mana, paying less attention to grace for now. Grace, he explained, was only an additional fuel for her magic.
Vierna, meanwhile, kept sparring with Lisa. Her objective was still the same: to catch her in melee. It was no easy task. Not only was Vierna adapting to Lisa’s mana structure, but Lisa was adapting to hers as well. Sometimes she would anticipate the direction Vierna meant to leap and blink to the opposite side before the strike could land.
Lisa had even learned to fully deflect Vierna’s Eidrecht spells, forcing her to hold back on long-range casting and instead rely on Eidrecht 2: Sto?en (Push) to propel her body toward Lisa. Vierna, in turn, sometimes managed to deflect Lisa’s lightning entirely, though other times she still ended up getting zapped. The two of them were adjusting to each other more and more, their bouts sharpening into something closer to rivalry than mere drills.
The training continued until Albrecht called Vierna to the dummy. This time she faced the four-armed model, focusing on sword combat without spells. At present the only magic she could wield with any consistency was Eidrecht, which made the weight of her failure with incantationless casting press even heavier on her mind.
Noticing her distracted state, Albrecht intervened.
“Vierna, stop.”
She halted mid-movement.
Albrecht extended his hand, weaving wood-element mana into the dummy. Its arms elongated, and the padding on the sticks dissolved away, leaving them blunt but solid.
“I want you to focus purely on dodging. Less parrying, more movement. Use Eidrecht 2 or whatever you need, but keep dodging.”
“Yes, Albrecht.”
Vierna obeyed. When the dummy’s arm swung, she ducked, sidestepped, and zigzagged as she leapt around. Sometimes she failed and got smacked by the stick. Each hit hurt, but the sting snapped her out of distraction, forcing her to focus on the dummy rather than her failure. The drill continued until evening, around seven.
Afterward, Halwen, Lina, Vierna, Lisa, and Albrecht sat for dinner. Their meals were always in the smaller room with simple food, but no one complained. They liked the intimacy.
“So, Vierna,” Albrecht asked casually, “what was your life before the orphanage?”
The question was deliberate; Albrecht believed speaking it aloud would begin the path to clarity.
Vierna was stunned. Her brow furrowed as she tried to recall anything from her past, but the memory slipped elusively from her grasp. She did, however, manage to pull something out of it.
“It seems… my mother…” Vierna’s voice faltered. “Something happened… I can’t point it out.”
She tried to recall, and everyone could see it—the pained expression she wore as she searched her memory. Whatever had happened was buried too deep.
“What I truly remember is… my mother was gone, and then I was at… the orphanage.”
“It’s okay, Vierna,” Halwen said gently. “Don’t force it right now.”
“Yes, Herr Uncle… I mean, Herr Halwen. Sorry.”
“Hehehe, it’s okay, Vierna. You are my sister, so Halwen is your uncle too,” Lina answered.
“Well, rather than dwelling on your past, you should focus on being more unpredictable,” Lisa added. “Otherwise your hair will stand on end from my electricity.”
“Hehe, one day I will catch you, Lisa. And when I do, I won’t let you slip away. Not even with your precious blink.”
“Hahaha, you wish, moon-hair,” Lisa mocked back.
The rest of the evening passed without incident. But there was a certain look in Halwen’s eyes. It seemed he already knew what to do tomorrow.
What do you think happened in Vierna's past?
