Sarah seemed delighted by their conversation. “Wow, it’s nice to be able to talk freely about magic with someone.”
“We don’t get many opportunities to chat like this,” Shannon agreed. “There just aren’t that many mages.”
“Nope. And it’s tough to buy tools for magic too, since what few shops there are have a pretty limited stock. Even picking out a wand was hard.” Sarah patted the holder on her thigh.
“I get it.” People were particular about their wands. Shannon had had the one she currently used for over a hundred years. “First you have to find the wood you like, which is a pain, and then you have to make sure it’s suitable for magic. Well, I guess all that work just makes you more attached to it in the end.”
Sarah’s mouth dropped open, and she cast Shannon a confused look.
“Wh-What?” Shannon asked hesitantly.
“Oh, I was supposed to laugh! Sorry, sorry!”
“Well, that wasn’t really what I was going for,” Shannon muttered. It seemed that the current generation got their wands some other way.
“But you buy wands at stores! I haven’t heard about anyone making their own wand these days. There’s no telling how it’d turn out.” Sarah put a hand in front of her mouth, giggling. Shannon guessed that mages nowadays got their wands off of store shelves, even though a mage produced better magic with a wand they’d crafted themselves. So many things had changed with the times. “By the way, Shannon, are you any good on a starbroom?”
“A star...whatsit?” Shannon frowned at the strange word.
“What?! You’re a mage my age, so I thought you’d know! It’s a broomstick you race on. They’re pretty popular.”
“You fly on a broomstick?”
“Well, you have to stay within the grounds set aside for mage use. Wow, so you really don’t know?”
“W-Well, my master was pretty up there in age, so I’m not really up-to-date on recent magic...”
“Oh, okay. You might’ve had more fun at a school.” Sarah shook her head.
She didn’t seem that satisfied with Shannon’s explanation; starbrooms must’ve really been common knowledge. Shannon was always gathering information on her travels, and she’d thought she knew everything, but apparently she was out of touch with the young mages these days.
The generation gap bewildered her, but she still had fun talking to Sarah. Shannon genuinely enjoyed learning about young spellcasters, and Sarah was friendlier than she’d expected. She opened up to Shannon quickly, and for the first time in a long time, Shannon felt like she was hanging out with a friend.
“I see. So that’s the trick for getting it to fly...” Sarah opened a worn book, licked her lips, and jotted down what Shannon had told her.
“You must’ve opened that book a thousand times,” Shannon noted. “You’re pretty dedicated to your magic studies.”
“Oh, this?” Sarah closed the book and showed Shannon the cover. There wasn’t anything written on it, but as a whole, the book looked expensive.
“The bumps and smeared ink really show its age,” Shannon told her. Sarah must have really loved it; it looked like she’d been using it since her school days. Shannon figured she’d studied from it a lot and become a splendid mage.
But Sarah looked embarrassed. “Well, the thing is...it got rained on and got all messy and soggy. It stayed that way after it dried. It’s not like I’ve been using it for a long time.”
“You’re just too cheap to buy a new one?!” Shannon gasped.
“B-But paper is expensive and my wages are low! I’m serious!” Sarah turned her teary eyes on Shannon entreatingly. “Shannon, buy me a new one!”
“O-Okay, okay, fine! When we get to town, I’ll buy you a new one.”
Sarah’s eyes sparkled. “Really?!”
“I mean, I’m the more experienced mage and you’re a newbie, so it’ll be a present.”
“Yay!”
Sarah jumped up and down in glee, pressing against Shannon, and Shannon pushed her off with a sigh of “yeah, yeah, whatever.”
“Anyway, Shannon,” Sarah went on, “you know a lot about magic! I get that there’s a lot I don’t know, but you act like you’ve been studying forever!”
“Oh? Well, I’ve been learning since I was little, so maybe that’s why.”
“Hmm, maybe you’re actually an old lady using magic to make yourself young!”
“Are you joking or serious?”
“Ah ha ha... It’s sort of a joke.” Sarah scratched her cheek awkwardly and cast Shannon a narrow-eyed look. It was true, though, that Shannon looked like she was in her teens despite being thousands of years old.
“Magic that keeps people young makes their lives shorter. I don’t want to use magic like that.”
Sarah burst into laughter and slapped Shannon on the back. “What are you talking about?”
“Huh?” Shannon’s mouth dropped open. What was there to laugh about?
“You... Huh?” Sarah echoed. “Don’t you know youth magic is a fairy tale?”
“No, it’s...” That was strange. Youth magic had been a real societal issue among mages once upon a time. Witches, especially, had wanted to stay young. But there were no quick fixes like that, and the more a mage rejuvenated their body, the shorter their life became and the faster they aged. It was a double-edged sword. Sarah, however, didn’t seem to know about youth magic at all. “Oh, um, I’m just joking,” Shannon said finally with a forced smile and laugh.
“Y-Yeah, I thought so! You’re a real kidder.”
“Well, of course! It’s invaluable to get in some laughs on a journey.”
Sarah seemed to accept Shannon’s explanation, and they continued to chat. Shannon was a talker, but it turned out that Sarah was even more talkative than her. Something about her reminded Shannon of her former master. He had been an authority on magic, and he’d specialized in certain types. Back during the height of magic, he’d been called a genius.
He was also responsible for Shannon’s immortality. It was his fault that Shannon couldn’t figure out a way to die. She had no idea how to rid herself of eternal life. He was why she was searching for a way out, and she figured the answer had to be somewhere.
“It must be nice,” Sarah said.
“What is?”
“You get to go where you want and use whatever magic you like. You’re free.”
“What are you talking about?”
Sarah’s expression clouded, like she was tormented by something. In the next moment, though, she turned her gaze to the long grass on the side of the road and brightened. “Oh, wait a sec!” she said before leaving Shannon in the dust to squat down in front of the vegetation.
“What’s up?” Shannon asked.
“There’s chamomile here too!” Sarah called back, cheerfully collecting the plants.
She’d already gathered so much! Shannon was shocked that she needed any more. “You really need a lot of it, huh? Are you going to make potions for your training?”
“Nope, these are for my mom—”
“Oh,” a voice cut in, “I see we’ve got ourselves a pair of little mages who know nothing about the world. How unfortunate for them.”
Sarah and Shannon gasped. Simultaneously, a man grasped Sarah by the shoulders and two more men surrounded Shannon. “Wh-What are you doing?!” Sarah cried.
One of the men tutted. He was dressed like a brigand and gripping a sword in his hand. “Don’t move, or you’ll get hurt.” He grinned and fiddled with his wavy hair.
Sarah was terrified, frozen stiff. Shannon knew it would be easy to flatten these guys with magic, but a couple of her internal alarm bells, well attuned to danger, were going off. “Getting all rough with us out of nowhere,” Shannon said. “Who are you guys? Somehow, I don’t think you’re just lost.”
“This one’s cheeky, Mr. Gaine,” one of the lackeys said. “Should I give ’er a warnin’? She ain’t got nothin’ to do with things, right?”
The leader—Gaine—raised one hand to stop his subordinate. “Hang on a sec.”
Upon closer inspection, Shannon saw that beyond the few bandits flanking them, they were also surrounded by grunts. It wouldn’t be easy to run away. In a sense, though, Shannon didn’t find her circumstances all that troubling. In fact, she was excited.
“This girl ain’t got a bad face,” Gaine went on. “She’s not our target, but we can sell her. A pretty mage would make for a good showing.” His men laughed in agreement.
“If you want to show me off, it’ll cost you a lot,” Shannon warned him.