Today’s snippet is another short extract from Star Mage Exile where more of Carina’s mage background is revealed. See here and here for the previous extracts.
Carina’s cabin was still empty. She took the time to meditate before her cabin mates returned. Nai Nai had taught her the daily habit, telling her that it preserved and strengthened her powers. The old woman had said that though she believed magical ability to be genetic, it wasn’t a fixed thing like her black hair or dark brown eyes. Magic was also a skill that had to be learned, refined, and maintained, and that if she didn’t do her daily exercises, she might find one day that she was no longer able to Cast. What was more, if she did ever lose her ability, there was no guarantee that it would return, no matter how hard she worked.
Up in her top bunk, Carina crossed her legs and faced the wall. The steps to achieve a state of meditation were always the same. She mentally recited the five Elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, water. Following the Elements were the Seasons: spring, early summer, late summer, autumn, winter. This second part of the pre-meditation task was not so familiar to Carina. She’d never lived in a place where the weather followed the pattern of seasons laid out by Nai Nai, though Carina had heard that such planets existed.
Next, she drew each Stroke in her mind, separately and then together in the ideogram that meant forever. Finally, she conjured up the Map. Nai Nai had made her draw it over and over again when she was growing up. There were hundreds of stars, and her grandmother would measure the angle and distance between each star carefully when she finished. If anything was incorrect, she had to draw it again.
The Map showed the birthplace of their clan, Nai Nai had said. At the center was the system where her and Nai Nai’s ancestors had come from, though it was so long ago that no one knew when or why they had left. Nai Nai believed that they had been driven away or fled in fear of losing their lives due to their magical ability.
When she was very young, Carina had asked her grandmother why they had never tried to return.
“No one knows where to go anymore, Mei Mei. No one remembers where we come from. It’s possible the place no longer exists.”
“But we have the Map,” Carina had persisted. “Why can’t we find it using that?”
Nai Nai had laughed and dipped her hand into a jar of sand she used for polishing the beautiful stones she sold for a living. She scattered the sand across the floor where Carina sat cross-legged.
“How many grains do you see, Mei Mei?”
Carina frowned. Was it a test? “Ten thousand? No. Fifty thousand.”
“Probably about five thousand. Imagine these are stars. In our section of the galaxy there are ten times as many stars as there are grains of sand lying in front of you. It would take several lifetimes to visit each and check the whether the pattern matches the Map. One would need to look at each pattern from every orientation to find a match. And that is only our galactic sector. There are thousands more.”
The young Carina eyed the pile of thin sheets that represented her many failed attempts to memorize the map. “Then why bother remembering it at all? Why not give up on ever returning home?”
“That is something every member of our clan must answer for herself. But let me ask you, little one, do you feel as though this place where we live now is your home?”
Carina considered their two-roomed house, which in truth was little more than a shack. She considered the dirty street outside with its open gutter that kept the local rats well fed. She considered how different she felt from the other children, who didn’t know the Elements or the Seasons or the Strokes or the Map, and who could not Cast. She shook her head. “I don’t, Nai Nai.”
“Though we may never return,” her grandmother said, “holding onto the memory and the hope that one day we will helps us to go on. We are exiles and our clan has been scattered to the stars, but one day we may be together again in our homeland.”
Thinking of her Nai Nai calmed Carina’s inner turmoil, and she slipped into a deep meditative state.
The sound of the cabin door entered the edge of her consciousness, and she came out of her trance. She turned to see Thyrna Atoi, her bunk mate as she bent down to slide into the lower bunk.
“You missed dinner,” said Thyrna. “Not that you missed much. Chef’s on his marine plant kick again. High in nutrients and protein, he said whenever anyone complained. Yeuuuch!”
The bunk shuddered a little as Thyrna shifted her position.
“I wasn’t that hungry anyway,” Carina said.
“You missed the announcement too. Got another mission. Hykara sector.”
“Where’s that?”
“Don’t know. A long way from here. We’re fast-burning through the quiet shift. ‘Bout four Gs. Gotta stay in our bunks.”
As Thyrna mentioned the fast burn, Carina began to feel its effects. Black Dog’s acceleration was pushing her into her mattress. She lay down.
“What’s the mission?” she asked Thyrna.
“Search and rescue. Kidnap victim.”
“Huh? Isn’t that one for the local control force?”
“You’d think, wouldn’t you?” Thyrna replied. “Word is, the local government won’t touch it. Other mercs won’t touch it. We’re only doing it because it’s that or disband.”
Pushing against the increasing G force, Carina leaned over the edge of her bunk to look at Thryna. The woman had the satisfied expression of someone spinning out a juicy piece of gossip.
“What else does the word say?” Carina asked.
Thyrna smirked. “The boy who was kidnapped is a Sherrerr, and the kidnappers are—”
“Dirksens,” Carina finished for her. She threw herself onto her back. “We’ve bought it.”
Go here for Star Mage Exile Snippet IV.