Northern Britannia, Orkney.
Morning snow drifted down, wrapping the gloomy winter dawn in a thick veil and burying the northern isles under heavy flakes. Orkney seemed to slumber beneath it all, like a long-forgotten corner of the world.
The crunch of footsteps pressed into the deep snow echoed through the still forest. Two figures walked in single file along the snow-covered path.
"Hey, Aesc... was it really necessary to come all the way into the forest this early?"
The girl following behind brushed the thin snow from her cloak as she spoke.
"There's something here that caught my attention. I want to investigate. If you're cold, Vivian, you can head back first."
Aesc slowed, stopped, and turned to give the girl behind her a small smile.
"But if the two of us come into the forest on a snowy day like this without telling Mother first, we'll get scolded, won't we?"
Her meaning was clear—she hoped Vivian would return. Vivian was the biological daughter of Aesc's foster mother, and thus her sister, though not by blood. Their foster mother was often stricter with Vivian than with Aesc.
"Then I'd better stay with you. If Mother gets angry, at least you'll have someone to share the scolding with."
Vivian sighed, quickening her pace to keep up.
"I doubt it'll come to that. At worst, we'll just be forbidden from going out again until winter ends."
Aesc tried to soften the outlook.
Vivian thought it sounded reasonable.
"But really, you usually prefer staying in your room reading. Why suddenly decide to run off into the forest today?"
"Good question. Why indeed."
Aesc gave a vague reply and pressed forward, Vivian following closely behind.
Just before dawn, Aesc had dreamed something strange. The dream was fragmented yet vivid, like scattered glimpses of a prophecy.
She had thought it was nothing but chance, yet when she awoke, those fragments lingered—persistent, impossible to shake off. They kept urging her toward the snow-covered forest beyond the Rain Clan's city, whispering that something was waiting for her there.
She couldn't ignore it. She had to see it for herself.
The deeper she went into the forest, the more she turned the dream over in her mind. Slowly, a realization formed. That dream hadn't been her own—it was a message.
From someone in the distant future.
But what exactly...
Aesc was convinced that the answer awaited her in the forest's depths.
She followed her intuition, sensing the flow of Mana in the air, singling out the one foreign current. Step by step, she pressed toward it.
Then the trees opened up, and the forest gave way to a clearing at its heart.
"Mirror Lake?"
Vivian gazed at the mist-shrouded waters, where snowflakes fluttered down onto the surface.
"Did we take a wrong turn?"
In the dead of winter, the lake had frozen over, its surface dusted with snow.
"...No. We're in the right place."
Aesc removed her hat, shook off the snow, and set it back on her head. She lifted a hand, pointing toward the center of the frozen lake.
"Is there something there?"
Vivian squinted into the distance. With the Rain Fairy's innate vision, she pierced through mist and snowfall. At the wide lake's center, something faintly took shape.
"That must be it."
Aesc tightened her grip on the wand in her hand. She had taken the Mystic Code with her out of habit. It was the same relic that had drifted with her to Orkney when she was just a baby.
"Eh? Are we really going over there?"
Vivian's voice tensed.
"Even if Mirror Lake is frozen, look—the ice is already cracking—"
Before she could finish, Aesc rose gently into the air. Channeling Mana into her wand, she cast a levitation spell with practiced ease.
"As long as you don't step on it, you'll be fine." Aesc smiled confidently. "Wait here for me, Vivian."
"Wait—!"
It was clear that Aesc had already decided to see for herself. Vivian couldn't stop her and could only wait anxiously at the shore.
Aesc drifted slowly toward the center of Mirror Lake. As she drew closer, the "presence" at the lake's heart came into focus.
"Ice? And someone's frozen inside? A human?"
She widened her eyes in disbelief. Suspended before the massive block of ice embedded in the lake, she hovered in astonishment. The refraction of the ice kept her from seeing the figure clearly.
"Could this be some fairy's punishment, leaving them here like this?"
But even as she whispered the thought, she dismissed it.
This wasn't ordinary ice. It was the form of a Magecraft she herself had been studying—though she had yet to complete it.
"A coffin?"
Aesc freed one hand and reached toward the ice coffin with hesitation. Her fairy eyes had already seen through the Magecraft's structure.
Who could have used such a flawless coffin Magecraft?
Lost in doubt, her fingertips brushed against the surface of the coffin.
"Eh?"
Cracks spread instantly across the ice. Disorderly fragments of information hidden within the coffin's Magecraft surged into her mind all at once.
Before she could make sense of it, the shattering of the coffin sent a ripple through the frozen surface of the lake.
Aesc had chosen to approach while floating precisely in case of accidents like this—but even so, things had gone awry.
"The flow of Mana... it's disrupted?! What—"
Her levitation spell collapsed. With a startled cry, she plunged into the fractured ice.
Spending most of her days in her study and rarely going outside, Aesc had little talent for physical activity. While she could walk across water with Magecraft, she had never learned how to swim. Any stone probably had more buoyancy than she did.
Her disrupted Mana left her thrashing helplessly in the freezing water. After a few desperate splashes, she failed to seize a floating shard of ice and sank toward the depths.
Vivian's frantic cries grew fainter and fainter.
As the cold stole her strength and consciousness began to fade, Aesc felt only sorrow—regret toward Vivian and her foster mother. Her recklessness would surely bring them grief.
When she next awoke, her thoughts were hazy. It wasn't the brush with death that unsettled her, but a pair of strikingly beautiful eyes.
Dark as ink, streaked faintly with silver, they resembled Orkney's winter sky—endless flakes of snow drifting down until the world turned silent and white.
"Are you alright?"
The man holding her knelt on the ground, clothes soaked through. His expression was filled with worry, yet his gaze carried a brilliance impossible to put into words.
"...I'm fine."
Aesc murmured her reply.
...
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