Katharina was yanked back, away from the path of the spear.

  "Did it hit you?" A small voice filled with worry escaped Lian's lips as she pulled Kathairina into a tight hug.

  "No, I'm good." She was more than good. Even though the spear and the wonderful feeling it had brought were gone now, it felt like it had opened a whole new sea of possibilities for her.

  "You idiot! Why would you keep walking?" The worry had turned to scold now that she had confirmed that no harm had been done.

  Katharina suddenly felt the many eyes that rested on them, some scornful, some curious, all expecting an explanation.

  "The brand... not let me stop." And with that, they all turned sympathetic. And Lian's face turned from a wrinkled frown back to her usual empty smile that didn't mean anything, yet was all too telling.

  Come, we should move before another spear is thrown. She squeezed her arm one last time before letting go and hoisting the bucket back up.

  As they walked back toward the manor, tingles would creep over Katharina's body in slow waves, oscillating between complete numbness and ecstasy.

  The feeling was both terrifying and exhilarating, but most importantly, for the while it was there it completely drowned out the hum of the brand.

  She needed to control it before it faded entirely.

  Even though she saw herself walk back up the stairs and into the manor, and saw the cloth go into the bucket and onto the floor, her mind was elsewhere.

  It kept circling all the times, from the first time with the rune stone, to just now with the spear, all the times she had seen aura. Sure, it was basically magic, but she felt aura was better encompassing for how it flowed off people in warm waves.

  She spent the rest of that day lost deep in thought, barely answering when Lian would quiz her.

  It was hard to grab hold of the waves; they would wash through her fingers, teasing, before rushing away.

  As evening approached, she had honed in on a single spring of aura deep in the pit of her stomach.

  Whenever she focused on it, she could feel a roaring wrath and searing pain that emerged in her shoulder, but she was not about to succumb to its demands.

  The spring remained small and faint all through the next day; every time she tried to approach it, the brand steered her thoughts elsewhere, snuffing out any attempt before it could be made.

  And especially now that they were back to Madam R?fna's lesson, it was hard to multitask without being noticed by the Madam's eagle eyes.

  "ψ?° ????∞???∞, girl."

  Madam R?fna's warning would sound, but before Katharina could react, the whistling of the approaching hand was already too close.

  But being flung to the floor by Madam R?fna's stern correcting slap also meant receiving her golden glowing touch that removed any blemish or bruise that might be forming.

  And all of a sudden, a new door opened.

  Katharina would let herself falter every now and then. In the brief moment the light from the Madam's hand would touch her, she would relish in the feeling. She took mental notes of everything about the sensation, how warm it felt on her cheek, the flickering light. How little drops of sweat would appear on Madam R?fna's arm as though it were a strenuous exercise.

  But more importantly, she took note of how it made the little spring bubble and boil.

  Each time it hurt like hell, it certainly was not a sustainable way to evoke the feeling of aura. And with each slap, the healing that came after seemed to be harder and harder for Madam R?fna, until the fourth slap, where no healing came.

  "??? °?? ψχ?°?∞Ω ???ナΦ? with me, girl? ?? °?? ???∞Φ °?????χ木 木?∞∞°?"

  Madam R?fna's angry voice sounded above Katharina as she picked herself up off the floor. And a large claw-like hand locked around her shoulder, and pulled her in. Right beside her ear, a seething whisper sounded.

  "?木 °?? ??????° ?? ?∞? ???? ????, ?'χχ have you sent to the fields 木?? ? ???Φ. Do you understand me, girl?"

  They locked eyes for a moment, and Katharina could tell that this was her last warning.

  For the rest of the day, she kept a low profile and let the brand guide her moves. Tomorrow, there would be a new chance to experiment, and from what she knew, Furrow-Brows and Madam R?fna didn't exchange notes on how her performance had been, so maybe the old man wouldn't immediately know she was up to something.

  As she stood in Furrow-Brows's lesson the next day, she realised just how perfect a day of standing still or doing different isometric exercises was for diving into her mind and truly feeling her own body.

  It wasn't uncommon for the girls to close their eyes when holding up an item for long periods of time became too uncomfortable. Katharina was planning to fully utilize this to enter a sort of meditative state while still keeping her ears open to any antics Furrow-Brows might be up to.

  As the acid was building up in her arms and lower back from holding up one of her go-tos, a simple ceramic box, she let the image of the little bubbly spring form before her mind's eye.

  At first, it was merely a hazy image with a slow trickle of aura, lazily flowing out into her body. But already a wall of flames was rising on her back.

  So she let her imagination guide the flow of the spring to put out the flames, and surprisingly, the anger of the brand dulled.

  Katharina couldn't believe that she was able to counteract the effects of the brand, and so easily at that. What had she been suffering for these past months? But suddenly a wave of drowsiness, nausea even, came over her, and the image of the spring disappeared, as she had to open her eyes to gather herself.

  Now, the room felt much colder, even with the raging inferno punishing her on her shoulder, her nose, and finger tips felt frosty. She found it odd that she should be growing cold from using aura when both Lian and Madam R?fna had seemed to work up a sweat. But now was not the time for doubting herself; she just had to push forward.

  With her eyes closed once more and found her way back to the image of the spring, which now stood much clearer. She let the image breathe and evolve, and soon the little spring was a boiling geyser sending warm pulses up through her body, and from the gases spewing out, little flames of every color started to play.

  Out of nowhere, she was pulled back to an immediate tickling feeling of a feathery duster brushing against her cheek. But she was not ready to let go yet.

  But it was too late; she was back in the lesson, nearly seizing up from the cramping in her burning arms. And now she felt it, she was suddenly sweaty and tired, like she had sprinted a mile.

  Unfortunately, the day was only beginning, and over the last few weeks, Furrow-Brows had added new exercises apart from just holding items and standing on one leg to the roster. And with Katharina already this tired, it was gonna be a long day.

  As they switched exercises to standing on one leg, Katharina felt it increasingly hard to focus on the geyser and flames while also keeping her balance. Weirdly enough, imagining the air holding her up, summoned a cushioning pressure that surrounded her and stabilised her wobble.

  Though it only lasted a few seconds before a glacierel cold chilled her to the bone, and any support that had been there was gone. She toppled over. Every muscle in her body had given up.

  Furrow-Brows was over her in a flash, smacking her with the duster to get up. And even with the pull of the brand, nothing happened.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  It took a while before the heat returned to her body, and as soon as she could move. She was promptly banished to run laps for the rest of the day. And as she left the room, she felt all the eyes of the other girls resting on her; especially Lian was rather perturbed by the whole display that had just unfolded.

  After that a new distance formed between Katharina and the other girls, even 'Runner' seemed hesitant to acosiate with her after her collapse. Were they scared because she was failing, or because they could feel that she was expirimenting with aura.

  In dance the following day she was paired with the same boy who had refused to barely look at her last week.

  They were moving into formation preparing for an udated version of last weeks steps, and as he grabbed her hand to begin the first pass, he froze. He just stood there as the rest of the class started moving, and for the first time he looked properly at Katharina. Actually he stared, mouth half agape, before snapping back to avoiding her gaze even more ardently for the rest of the lesson.

  Last time Katharina had noticed how the boy was exuding heat to an excessive degree, but today there was no doubt in her mind.

  The warmth would fluxuate, from a soft thin sheet that covered him when they danced, then flaring up and becoming unruly whenever he lifted and threw her.

  After dance Lian stayed with the teacher while the other girls seemed to be in a rush to leave Katharina behind.

  If there was just a way to get some answers.

  But maybe there was.

  As the others left the bath one by one, Katharina speculated. There had been times where she had understood what was said without knowing the words.

  First that time when the blond man had asked where she had been from, she had known exacly what to answer, almost giving up every detail.

  Then the second time, when Madam R?fna had forced Lian to smile with a single sentence, and she had wanted to suit.

  Back then she had not understood why their voices had been able to control her like that. But there was a clear common denominator between those moments and the things she had expirienced the last few days.

  A glimmer of an idea was forming in her mind, if she could executa a similar command, maybe she woudl finally get her answers.

  Finally alone in the bath Katharina stood firmly in front of the mirror, staring back at her own determined eyes.

  She grabbed hold of the edge of the table while honing in on the little springs of energy that now sat all over her body. First, on her shoulder, right beneath the surface.

  She welcomed the pain, let it guide her.

  And as it took shape into something more, she expanded the search, letting the power flow through her veins, emanate out of her pores.

  Until her focus was solely on her lips, tongue, and vocal chords.

  "What is aura?"

  With the words came a sense of pure ecstasy, as she felt the unmistakable want to tell everything.

  And she could feel the air around her get hot as she spoke the words. It was as if they were sending vibrations through the molecules, exciting them with a kind of energy she had never experienced before.

  "Tell me what aura is?"

  Again, the feeling was exhilarating, and as she spoke the words at her own mirror image, she felt her thoughts brimming with everything she knew about the phenomena, and an urge just like the one when the blond man had spoken to her came over her; she wanted to blurt out everything she knew in minute detail.

  This was it, this was how she was going to get the answers she wanted; there was no way Lian wouldn't understand what she was saying.

  Even better if Lian could answer in this way, but Katharina was unsure if Lian could talk like this.

  Resolute in her plan, Katharina left the bathroom, finally obeying the screaming burn on her shoulder to continue her evening.

  As she had found previously, the easiest place to corner Lian was in their room, and this time she would not be brushed off with an 'it was nothing'.

  They had barely made it back to their room after supper when Katharina, in perfectly crisp English, spoke to Lian, while holding on to the feeling of aura and letting it flow with her words.

  "Lian, listen, you have to tell me what is aura?"

  As she spoke, Lian's eyes grew wide, and she lunged like a wild beast at Katharina. Lian's open hand reached Katharina's mouth just as she finished, and it grabbed hard, closing around even her jaw, shutting up any other word that might spill out.

  Through gritted teeth, Lian whispered, "Aura is a power that lives in you, it's how the brand ナ?∞???χ? you, it's why the Master is the Master." Lian was staring entranced into Katharina's eyes as she gave her answer to the question. And as soon as she was finished, she snapped back to reality, and she was furious.

  "Are you stupid?"

  "Never do that, ever!"

  "Do you understand?"

  "What if ?????∞? had ????? you?"

  "You could be Φ?χχ??."

  All the questions came in a rhetorical stream of angry whispers, and even if Katharina wanted to answer, she couldn't, as Lian's fingers were still digging themselves deeper into her cheeks as an eagle slowly killing prey in its claws.

  Suddenly, Lian fell silent. She stared with large green eyes into Katharina's. And when she spoke again, a deathly seriousness filled both her eyes and voice.

  "Aura is ??∞Ω?????, if they learn you can use the voice, they might send you to the ???∞? and-" Clink, something hit the floor right outside their door, followed by shuffling footsteps; someone was listening.

  Lian flew up and tore open the door, but no one was there; only a hairpin was left from whoever had just been there. She bent down to pick up the fine little pin and presented it to Katharina.

  "For your ??Φ? I ??ψ? this was just a ナ??∞ナ???∞ナ?."

  Katharina felt the hope she had grown shrivel up as Lian once again muttered something she couldn't understand. She felt left out of details that were crucial for her survival. And as she had done so many times before, she was about to lie down in bed and leave the questions hanging.

  But something inside her stirred. Even if Lian didn't allow her to use 'the voice' or whatever, she could still use the little of their language she knew to get what she wanted, even if it was much harder.

  "Lian, help me."

  "With what?" Lian was curt, ready to end the conversation as soon as it became something she didn’t like.

  "I want.. understand."

  "Not aura, but you, me, this." She gestured to the room, but hoped that it would come across that she was referring to the manor as a whole. The face Lian made told her that she was not amused by the sudden curiosity.

  "You want to know about me, yourself, and this ??∞??? Very well then. I'm Lian, the ?χ???. This is Master Ravnsund's ??∞?? where we train to become good ?????∞??, and you... I have no idea, you are a ?°????°. A few days ago, you didn't even know what aura was, and today you try to ナ?∞???χ me with the voice. And then there is your hair. Why is it that color? You couldn't possibly be a ψ??∞ナ??? or a ∞??χ? χ??°."

  This was all so much information all at once, and Lian laid it out all so matter-of-factly, and now she sat there looking back at Katharina as though expecting her to pick from the buffet of topics that to Katharina's ears had sounded mostly like a word salad. But one part she had caught for sure was the comment on her hair, and she had been wondering that herself.

  "Who is man with yellow hair?" Yellow was a bit of a misrepresentation, but it was the best word Katharina could come up with to describe the blond man who had accompanied Master Ravnsund on the day they were brought in.

  The answer took a moment before it came, "I don't know ???ナ?χ° who he is, but ?∞°?∞? with hair of that ????? can ?∞χ° be from the ??ψ????χ 木???χ°."

  "From the ??ψ????χ 木???χ°?" Katharina was itching to just ask with her newfound power, instead of fumbling about in words she barely spoke. However, with the reaction Lian had displayed, it was probably for the best to be a little incompetent and keep asking until she understood.

  "Yes, you know, they are the Masters of all the Masters." It was clear that a lot of thought was being put in to dumb down the explanation so that Katharina could follow, but she was fairly confident she had got it.

  "So... he the Master of all? The Master of Master Ravnsund?"

  "No, that would be the ??ψ????, she is a woman."

  It made sense that such a young man wasn't the king, but it was rather surprising to hear that their ruler was apparently a woman.

  "I ???∞Φ he is ψ?????χ° one of the ψ??∞ナ??. I have ???∞ Madam R?fna bow to him before Master Ravnsund, so he must be ?????? ??ψ????∞?."

  Lian was getting into a more detailed explanation now, and Katharina could at least gather that the blond man was somehow above Master Ravnsund in rank. This echoed well with the encounter they had had back in the master's study, where he had seemed to dominate the room with his sheer presence.

  "You say he is one of ψ??∞ナ???"

  Lian looked thoughtful for a moment, then she lifted her hands and drew out a line above her head.

  "The woman, master of all. She has yellow hair."

  She let her hands fall a bit and drew another line.

  "The man with yellow hair."

  And below that.

  "Master Ravnsund. He has red hair."

  Then, where she had drawn the first two lines, she engulfed the space in an imaginative bubble with her hands.

  "??ψ????χ 木???χ°, masters of the masters. They all have yellow hair."

  It was obvious that Lian was illustrating a hierarchical system through her gestures. And the blond man was somehow grouped with the Queen. But what truly tipped off Katharina was the note about both the Queen and the man having blond hair.

  Now that she had a general idea of who he might be, Katharina wanted to circle back to 'the voice' and the power behind all of this.

  "The man with yellow hair, he use the voice. The voice is aura?"

  "Yes, the voice uses aura. But aura is more than that." Lian paused for a moment, contemplating the best words to choose.

  "Aura is… it lives in all. More in the Masters. Strong aura makes you good. Good at fighting. Good at commanding. But voice…" She shook her head sharply, her green eyes flashing with warning intensity. "Voice is ??∞Ω?????. Never use."

  It was fascinating that Lian, a seemingly normal but enslaved girl, would know these things. It struck Katharina as both odd and suspicious.

  "Lian, why... you know this?"

  Lian's face pulled back into a both surprised and strained expression. It seemed that whatever the explanation for this was, it was far too complicated to put into words, Katharina understood.

  Instead, she just sighed and shook her head lightly.

  "Enough, Katharina, we can talk more tomorrow. Now we must sleep." Lian was not dismissive of the endless stream of questions; she was simply tired. But somehow under her heavy eyelids, she looked happy, like a burden was being lifted off her shoulders.

  ?─????????─?

  Life isn’t some kind of grand destiny.

  It’s just a collection of decisions shaped by the moments that happen around us.

  Of Moon and Magic follows a silver-haired girl. Her mana was weak, but that never dulled her hunger for magic.

  We follow her steps. We weigh her choices. We sit with her loneliness. In a world where magic is everything, war is constant, and morality is little more than a neglected guideline.

  Will she become just another cog in the machine?

  Or will she be the one to end it all?

  Only one way to find out.

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  ?─????????─?