#sunlit mage

SUNLIT MAGE– excerpt: Hikaru and the cat

A snippet from chapter 5, which will be out on Tapas on Wednesday. Because we all love a good talking kitty cat, right?

A chirping meow snapped him out of his thoughts, and Hikaru paused. A tabby cat was standing only a few meters away, its bushy tail held aloft in greeting, gold eyes looking straight up at him.

Hikaru should be surprised, but he really wasn’t. The school grounds were heavily warded, but anyone had yet to invent a warding spell capable of keeping out cats. They were creatures of the barrier, and the very magic that held back others was their natural habitat.

“Hello,” Hikaru said softly, crouching down and instinctively slipping into his mother tongue. “What’s your name?”

The cat padded soundlessly closer, letting out another meow. He had only half expected to understand it, but in the end he wasn’t too surprised when he did.

“Finally, a human I can communicate with,” the cat said with a dry undertone to its voice. “You have no idea how tiring it is, hearing nothing but kissy noises and ‘pspsps’ all day long.”

Hikaru couldn’t help it; he cracked a small smile. “People are tiring, aren’t they?”

“A little, yes, but quite endearing in their stupidity. And at least they feed me.” The cat looked at him expectantly. “You don’t have any food for me, do you?”

At home Hikaru had always carried cat treats around in his pockets for when he spoke to the neighborhood cats. Here, however, he patted his pockets in vain. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t expect to meet a cat here.”

“That’s on you, human. You should always expect to meet a cat anywhere.” Sitting down, the cat scratched its ear, then began to clean its fur. “But since I’ve missed speaking to humans, I’ll let it slide this once.”

“Sorry,” Hikaru said again. “Thank you.”

The cat’s whiskers twitched in what might have been amusement. “So where do you come from, little speaker?” it asked. “They don’t seem to have any humans with your skill around here.”

There hadn’t really been anyone back in Tokyo either—at least, anyone Hikaru knew—but he didn’t say that. “I’m from Japan,” he said.

“Hm. Not a bad country. Very fond of cats.” The cat paused its grooming routine. “By the way, can you speak to other animals too?”

Hikaru gave a nod. “I can speak to foxes, dogs, birds…”

“Birds? Excellent.” The cat got back up. “Tell the sparrows in the yard they don’t have to be scared of me, I’m not going to eat them. Not enough meat on their bones.”

Experience told Hikaru that cats were excellent and shameless liars, so he probably shouldn’t believe that and neither should the birds. But to avoid drawing the cat’s anger, he inclined his head in agreement anyway. “Okay,” he said. “I will do that.”

The cat suffered him to pet it for a moment in return, then trotted off in search of a sunny spot to nap in. Hikaru felt a little lighter already. Humans didn’t tend to like him much, true, but on the bright side, at least he was better with animals than anyone else.

HIKARU HIYAMA– character intro

“People are tiring, aren’t they?”

• Name: Hikaru Hiyama (飛山 光, Hiyama Hikaru written with the kanji for “to fly”, “mountain” and “light”)
• Age:15
• Appearance: Average height for his home country, slightly shorter than average abroad; very lean and light to maximize flying speed; fair skin; short, fluffy hair that can look black or dark brown depending on lighting; dark brown eyes; intelligent-looking but expressionless face
• Familiar: A very large komainu (one half of a pair, with the other one belonging to his twin sister) named Fuyu
• Strengths: Flying; “speaking in tongues” (talking to animals); enchantment
• Magic type:Light

The surprisingly powerful son of an average Light Mage family. Outwardly stoic, though mostly just bad at expressing emotions; only as nice as the other person is to him, and petty and spiteful when provoked. Not very good with people despite his best efforts; strongly prefers animals to humans. Easily stressed by the sound of human voices.

Excerpt:

Why should I be jealous of the guy no one would care about if he wasn’t this fast? He knew, of course, but he hated to hear it. He didn’t want to hear it, not from someone like the ace of this team, Finnian Day, who could have anything he wished for with a snap of his fingers. Finnian, who could be an arrogant, insufferable person and still have lots of friends because he wasn’t like Hikaru, he was normal, and he could easily fit in with the other normal people.

Why don’t you try to play with the other kids? You’re always alone.

Hikaru’s weird. We don’t wanna play with him.

Why are you always so quiet? You should socialize, you know.

What do I do with this child?

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to fit in or have friends. It was just—people were so loud, and confusing, and they rarely seemed to say what they meant. And Hikaru was too straightforward, too literal, too bad at figuring out all the hints and clues and subtleties that seemed to come easily to everyone else.

He was better at it all now, through years and years of painstaking study. He had learned to maintain eye contact. He had learned to understand when people said one thing or meant another—mostly. He had learned to bite his tongue instead of rambling on and on about the things that fascinated him, not realizing that he was boring everyone else with them. But it was still the difference between a native speaker and someone who had only ever learned the language from books and classes.

Finnian was right, Hikaru thought, as much as that thought angered him. If not for his exceptional flying skills, even his parents would think he was no good.

Note: I’m aware that the creature in the moodboard is, in fact, not a komainu but an Okinawan shīsā. However, since the creatures are very similar and it was impossible to find a free image of a komainu that would’ve fit into the color palette, I decided to take this liberty. My apologies.

SUNLIT MAGE– the magic system

I. MAGICAL ABILITY

People known as mages have an additional sense, similar to how some animals can sense the Earth’s magnetic field. They can “see” magic as moving threads in different colors and shape them with their minds and gestures—“see” in quotation marks because it’s a synesthetic experience, and they feel the color more than anything. Magic itself is raw emotional energy drawn from the thoughts and feelings of the surrounding people; positive emotions produce Light Magic, negative ones Dark Magic, and emotions in between fall on the Twilit spectrum. A neutral form can also be artificially generated; this type is easier to control, but less powerful and often used by Light Mages for emergencies where they can’t rely on positive emotions being present. Magical abitily is genetic and usually inherited from a mage parent, but can sometimes occur in non-mage families through mutation.

II. TYPES OF MAGIC

There are different types of magic, and most mages can only use one of them. None of them are inherently good or evil; the only thing that sets them apart are the emotions from which they are derived.

1. Light Magic

Light Magic is magic derived from positive emotions, such as happiness, joy and love. Traditionally it’s considered the weaker of the “binary” magic types, as it relies on people being happy and is less effective in times of crisis or danger. However, it’s also seen as the more morally pure, largely through propaganda by the Light Mages themselves. To compensate for their weaknesses, Light Mages have done extensive research, which they guard jealously, and are the most magically advanced of all the magic types. Users perceive it as shining threads of light.

2. Dark Magic

Dark Magic is derived from negative emotions: anger, fear, hatred or sadness. As such, it tends to thrive in times of war and crisis, which has led to accusations of Dark Mages leeching off of other people’s suffering and even intentionally creating it to make themselves stronger. This, in turn, has led to centuries of witch hunts and persecution and now strict exclusion from Light Mage spaces and knowledge. The Dark Mages have built their own communities and conducted their own research, but are still far behind Light Mage knowledge. It’s perceived as black threads like spilled ink in water.

3. Twilit Magic

Twilit Magic is derived from emotions that are neither positive nor negative, such as doubt, surprise and confusion. Too dark for Light Mages, too light for Dark Mages, its existence has always been hushed up, especially since Twilit Mages can only come from a mixed Light-Dark couple or parents who are Twilit themselves. Since Light and Dark Mages rarely produce children together, Twilit Mages are very rare and don’t have their own community, although they’ve recently been allowed into Dark circles. Twilit Magic is perceived as gray threads that can range from silver to almost black.

4. Spectral Magic

Spectral Magic is the rarest kind and virtually unknown. While normal mages are limited to just one magic type, Spectral Mages can access Light, Dark and Twilit Magic selectively, only being able to use certain types for certain spells. Unlike Twilit Magic, Spectral Magic is not a result of mixed ancestry but a mutation that can occur among any type of mages; whether it can be inherited is unclear. There are, however, theories that every mage is Spectral to some degree and can sometimes access forms of magic other than their default one, e.g. under extreme duress.

Excerpt from Sunlit Mage chapter 4.

Fellas, is it gay to obsess and feel jealousy over a guy who bested you one (1) time?

A miracle gave me too much time yesterday. I decided to waste it put it to good use by making this.

Image credit: this picrew

If you haven’t checked out Sunlit Mage yet, then what are you doing?

Meet Sol, Finnian’s teammate from the flying team. They only came to me this afternoon, but I think I’m keeping them.

FINNIAN DAY– character intro

“Now we’re talking. Maybe I should keep threatening you till you tell me how you cheated to get thatresult.”

• Name: Finnian Cassiel Day
• Age:15
• Appearance: Average height and light, flying-optimized build; very pale skin; thick, slightly wavy light blond hair, artfully messy to avoid looking too “mama’s boy”; large gray eyes; pretty face with prominent features
• Familiar: White winged lion named Atlas
• Strengths: Flying; alchemy; combat magic
• Magic type:Light

The spoiled, wealthy heir to the prestigious Day family. Arrogant, bratty, a sore loser with an obsession with being the best; not above threats, blackmail and bullying tactics to get what he wants. A decent person deep down, but that’s knowledge you can blackmail him with. Owner of a pet snake named Anthony.

Excerpt:

Too slow.

Gritting his teeth, Finnian threw a punch against the big screen of the stopwatch. Too slow. Again. Why couldn’t he do it? He was doing everything that exchange student bastard had done, and he still wasn’t getting faster. Why couldn’t he reach that guy’s time? What the hell did this stranger have that he didn’t?

That guy…Conflicting emotions boiled up in Finnian’s veins, and none of them were good. He had to be cheating, he had to. He had probably manipulated his broom somehow, and that was the only reason why he had beaten Finnian’s time. Finnian was an outstanding flyer, one of the best in his generation, a rising star on the broom-racing sky. He couldn’t just stand there and take a defeat from a random stranger he had never seen before.

The sun was setting. The air was growing chilly. His racing clothes did a decent job at protecting him from the elements, but even under the thick protective fabric he was starting to shiver. Soon it would be too dark to fly, and he still hadn’t figured out what he was doing wrong.

Stop threatening people and practice. He couldn’t believe he was actually doing what that bastard had told him—that insolent jerk, who did he think he was? He hadn’t even responded to Finnian’s threats! Finnian hadn’t meant to blackmail him for real, of course. He had just wanted to rile him up, get under his skin like that guy had gotten under his. But apparently the exchange student had defeated him here too.

He gritted his teeth. What would his parents say when they found out he had lost to some random no-name foreigner—what would his father say? He was a Day, heir to one of the oldest and most influential Light Mage houses in the country. He couldn’t afford losing.

Duology and series covers I’ve designed for stories I have (for the most part) yet to write: a compilation post.