Devouring the Neverglades (Beta Version) Chapter 2

The festivities seemed to explode after the discovery, but Papa being the wise man, noticed I was not happy at the moment, and picked me up and carried me into our home in the compound. I was huffing irritably into his neck as I rested my cheek on his shoulder so he could feel how unhappy I was.

“C’mon Monster. There isn’t anything to be unhappy about.

“I don’t know what’s going on.” I eventually spoke as Papa brought us to our little living room. Papa settled into his comfy chair and I moved away from his shoulder so I could see his face. No one had even told me being a mage was a thing! I had spent years of my life not knowing I could potentially do magic!

“Mana Crystals don’t react to Flats Vicky. It reacted to you. It means, you’re a Mage. You have the pulse.”

“That’s a lot of words that mean nothing to me. What’s the pulse?”

“Ah. Old William hasn’t talked to you lot about mages yet. You’re all too young to get that sort of stuff in your head, but I guess you need to know. We don’t deal with Mages directly much Vicky. They don’t like Flats like us… People that don’t have magic.” He said with a smile as he looked at me.

Because apparently I had magic, and he was obviously proud of that fact.

Ugh. I couldn’t deny the idea filled me with the sort of wonder that made me want to go absolutely crazy with happiness but at the same time…

The way some of the adults had looked at me, after the crystal reacted?

That was fear. Only… Was it for me? Or of me?

“So I can do magic?”

“Maybe! We’ll have to get you tested. But if you can do magic… It’ll change your whole life Monster.”

“Why don’t mages like us? You, I mean? Flats?”

Papa sighed through his nose for a second, a failed attempt at trying to keep from looking unhappy. “Something to do with magic, apparently normal people feel flat to a mage's senses. That’s why they call us that.”

“You feel normal to me.” I grumble and Papa laughs. 

“Well maybe you’ll be able to tell me what it feels like once you learn some magic.”

“I do want to learn magic.” I agreed and Papa smiled and hugged me.

Suddenly a new voice cut in calling from the entrance to our living room. “Well if our daughter is going to be a mage, she’ll need to wash up and get some food in her belly. You’re taking the crystal into the city this afternoon aren’t you?”

 I looked up and she was standing at the doorway looking as prim as she always did but there was a tension in her back.

“Yeah. I’ll take her with. The crystal needs to be sold, and we can do both at the same time.”

Mama nodded and then approached me slowly, almost cautiously. Sensing the tension I raised my arms up for a hug and that broke through whatever was going on as she settled on the chair besides Papa and pulled me into a strong hug.

“Mama?”

“Just a bit longer.” She whispered into my ear. I cocked an eye at Papa but he just smiled and pulled both of us into a hug as well.

Yeah they definitely weren’t telling me everything.

—--

“C’mon Monster load up.” Papa ordered and I climbed into the compound's only land vehicle. It reminded me of the old american pickups, all square bodied, and steel.

“Yes Papa!” I called out, climbing into the cab, then onto the middle seat. Uncle Charles was already in the passenger seat. So I squished up to him to let Papa slip into the driver seat. Between the two men the truck was pretty full, and the heat was pretty bad. Which really sucked.

Papa waved out the window to Mama who was seeing us off, and then the engine of the truck started and we headed out of the compound down the dirt road that connected us to civilization.

I had only ever been a few miles down the road in this life. So this was certainly a new adventure. 

The two men talked idly about things above me as I settled in, I unfortunately didn’t have a cellphone. Pretty sure those don’t exist. I didn’t have a book to read. Those are expensive, and I certainly didn’t have a gameboy.

So I was stuck just being patient and waiting.

Of course what I did have, was an echoing tingle that had gone up my arm, and a desire to learn about magic.

Of course I didn’t know shit about magic, but I was bored, and now that I knew it existed, I was going to figure it out!

Magical Girl Vicky must happen! I had dreams okay!

So I closed my eyes, tried to ignore the heat, and did everything I could think of to focus on that feeling of weirdness running up my arm and settling into my heart.

For a moment when I touched the energy around the Mana Crystal it felt like… Like it had echoed in my heart.

I did everything I could to try and get something to work. I tried to mentally push on the feeling. Pull, compress. I had even done a quiet DBZ powerup to try and get something, but after an hour of driving I only felt sweaty and irritable.

So I turned around in the seat and looked at the small storage space behind the bench seating.

Where the bag with the crystal rested.

“Vicky don’t play with that.” Papa warned instantly, and I huffed. I wasn’t going to! I just wanted to see if I could like, sense it or something? Sensing magic seemed like something someone would need.

So I did everything I could while staring at it. Reaching out trying to touch it without moving my hands.

I slumped into the chair with a huff.

“This magic stuff isn’t working. I should be like bzzz in my brain and it should just work or something.” I grumbled and while Papa just quirked an eyebrow at me, Uncle Charles chuffed out a laugh.

“You’re certainly a weird one kid, going bzz in your brain. Heh!”

I grumbled but didn’t argue. Stupid anime and stuff had rotted my brain if I thought learning magic would be that easy.

If it was, I would already be casting spells.

—--

“Monster. Take a look. You can see the city.” Papa called and I blinked as I sat up and looked over the dash. There far in the distance was a wall.

Like a big ass concrete wall.

And behind it, with only a few buildings I could see sticking out was a city.

“So that’s the city?”

“St. Coleson! Biggest City for thousands of miles. It’s where the Frontier Governor lives. The only Blue Zone in Grand St. Eldridge.” Papa taught me, and it was just that. Teaching.

Since it wasn’t like I had a school teacher. Us kids were taught at the knee of any of the older folk that wanted to share something. It made for an eclectic, but actually pretty deep in those topics education.

But  nodded to Papa, taking in that information. Watching on as we drove closer and closer, and then as we got close enough to finally make out the details We were stopped. The wall was built like a castle wall with crenelations along the top, but we were at the base of it, where a big tunnel cut through it, but we were stopped in a line of trucks all being inspected.

It looked just like the compound. The same sort of concrete and style, just bigger and stronger, and newer looking.

I tore my eyes away from the wall and looked to where we were going and frowned.

We were waiting in line for the toll booth? Guard checkpoint?

I didn’t know what was going on and Papa and Uncle Charles were both quiet, just telling me to relax until we were through. 

I was just glad there wasn’t a lot of dust in the air anymore. We had shifted from dirt roads to actual asphalt a few miles back, and it had certainly made the going easier.

“Identification.” A man said brusquely as I looked up realizing it was our turn.

Papa handed over two little booklets almost like a passport, to the man who looked them over quickly, nodded and handed them back. He looked over the cab and I gave him a smile and a wave. Because he looked tired, and to my surprise he smiled and nodded back even as Papa tried to push my hand down.

Then he looked in our back seat, then the bed of the truck. 

“You are clear for the day. Clear out before six.” He ordered and Papa and Uncle Charles both nodded at that, but as we were getting ready I looked out and blinked in surprise. A man in the toll booth wearing… Well, robes.

Like wizard robes. It was so goofy it took me a second to realize he was drinking out of a coffee cup, while watching TV.

Like an actual TV set. It was small, but I could see a bit of the screen shifting. I guess TV exists in this world… The fact I hadn’t known this until now was a little irritating. 

Then we were driving into the city.

Saint Coleson City. The largest city in the Grand Saint Eldridge territory. Which were mostly meaningless places and geography to me since I had never seen a map.

Also this place sure had a lot of things named after Saints. 

I perked up as we entered the city and I had to gasp, not as my Papa assumed at seeing a city for the first time, but just because it looked so modern.

Street lights. Street Lamps. People walking down the sidewalk in clothes that would be normal in any city I had seen in my past life.

But then… Why was Papa and Uncle Charles both wearing clothes that wouldn’t be out of place from the Old West. If there was all this so close by? Why did we basically reuse old clothes stitching and altering?

Poor Sara had a dress that was more patch than cloth that always embarrassed her. I mean we all had clothes like that. But jeez. If we were this poor, while a modern city was so close…

What the fuck?

I almost felt self conscious of my own sundress that had a big patch of different fabric on the shoulder. But I didn’t because fuck being ashamed of something, when there was nothing shameful about it at all!

We drove through the city down the main road and I was very quickly losing interest in looking around. Other than the city being weirdly clean it wasn’t really interesting to look at. The Architecture was…

Well it was unappealing to look at. Every building was built in a brutalist style. Windows were small, and everything looked like it was built to handle a war and that was it.

Then I started noticing things.

People walking the streets wearing jumpsuits cleaning up trash, or washing the walls or sidewalk. Which explained why everything looked so clean.

No power lines. Not a single one stretched between buildings.

Most cars on the road were identical to Papa’s truck. But some were more expensive looking actual comfortable looking sedans.

All of them had their windows rolled up… In this weather? A/C? I wanted it! 

We continued down the main road until it finally seemed to end, coming up on what reminded me of a government building. Bigger than anything around it. Well defended, with another wall around it. It even had barbed wire along the top.

We drove past the main entrance and into a side path that didn’t take us inside the walled complex but instead took us up against a small outcropping along the wall.

There was a small overhang parking area, and a small array of trucks just like ours were idling in a line. I was standing on the seat now looking over the dash as each truck would drive up to the window in the wall and would hand over things from the truck. Dumping the items into a fenced off area that had a bunch of people in those jumpsuits picking up the drop offs and running it around.

When it was our turn, I was curious as Papa pulled up

Through the window that slid open there was a man sitting lazily in a chair. A TV on the counter told me what was actually taking up all his attention, but he still looked out the window and called out.

“Registration.” 

Papa pulled out that little passport like book and handed over a small card from within. I was honestly surprised to see a plastic ID card. A moment later the man continued. “Frontier compound #117. Registered. What are you submitting?”

“Mana Crystal.” Uncle Charles informed the man and reached into the back seat pulling out the bagged Crystal. At the sight of them the man perked up. Actually standing up from his seat.

“Well then, Understood. One moment.” The man said lazily reaching behind him and rummaging around before coming out with a… Well it was like a magic wand. I guess. It was a long thin piece of metal with a metal bulb at the end. The man reached it out through the window and pressed it against the crystal that Papa held up.

I felt it then. A vibration in my molars. 

“Itchy.” I whined a bit as I backed away from the wand, although it didn’t seem to bother anyone else.

“Oh?” The man asked, looking at me for a moment in confusion before huffing a laugh. “Don’t see many from the frontier end up sensitive enough to feel the rating wand. What level is she?” He asked and Papa looked from the man to me in surprise before he broke into a soft grin.

“We don’t know. I brought her into the city to find that out, she reacted with the crystal when we found it. Guess at least we know for sure she’s a mage though.”

“Yeah don’t see us Flats complain about this thing.” The man offered with a chuckle. “Well rating is 107 units. Not a bad find at all. Congratulations.” The man offered to my surprise sounding honestly happy for us.

“Thanks, it was a lucky find. Should keep us going for a good while.” Papa answered as he handed over the crystal, the man taking it through the window and then taking it deeper into his office.

“Now we finish the sale and get Vicky over to the Tower. We need to get her properly checked and registered.” Papa said, seemingly talking to himself more than anything. He sounded a bit nervous actually. 

The man returned and in his hand was a paper roll? No, I realized it was something inside, with a paper packaging.

“Payment for the Mana Crystal. You will find everything in order, and a commendation has been added to Compound 117’s account. Excellent work.” The man offered as he handed over the paper roll and from the way he held it I realized it was heavy.

Papa took it with both hands carefully and hefted it with a light grunt.

Very heavy. Then he passed it over to Uncle Charles and I twitched.

“What is that?”

“Shards Vicky.” Uncle Charles answered idly picking at the corner of the roll and pulling the paper away showing… Coins. With a little sliver of blue Crystal embedded in the center.

Were the coins magic too?

Magic coins? That was so cool!

I fucking love magic world!

—--

I fucking hate magic world.

We had driven across the city. The heat continued to be miserable, made even worse in the city as the asphalt was heated up as well. We traveled down the roads, through the light traffic, towards a massive tower that stuck out of the landscape. It was a massive structure, the biggest thing I had seen in this world for sure. At the top it had a cool laser thing? I don’t know but a beam of blue light was shooting off it far into the distance.

“St. Coleson Tower. That’s where the Governor lives, Vicky. He’s the man that rules the entire territory.” Papa informed me. 

“It’s also the most dangerous place in the entire city. Be very careful whenever you are near it Kiddo. The one thing you don’t want is to accidently anger a mage.” Uncle Charles offered and Papa and him shared a look.

Both men seemed in agreement.

I was suddenly feeling worse about my magical second life. People with power… Yeah. I really didn’t want to deal with people driven entirely by their egos that could blow up stuff with fireballs or something. Were fireballs a thing here? I sighed, my lack of knowledge on magic was irritating.

We didn’t travel to the tower, but a building that looked… Well like an administration building at its base. Lots of rooms. A big parking lot. Squat and rectangular like everything in the city other than the tower I guess.

We found a spot and for the first time I was able to climb out of the car in the city. Asphalt roads and concrete sidewalks.

I felt like I was in any modern city for a moment.

Then we walked inside and I realized it wasn’t just an administration building.

It was the fucking DMV. Magic DMV.

Humans ruined magic.

It was only through the maturity of my secret years that I didn’t burst into tears as Papa informed a secretary at a desk what we were here for, and we were given a number that would be called out when it was our turn.

I got plopped on a wooden chair, Papa and Uncle Charles taking each side and then we waited.

The worst part?

Other than a ceiling fan above me, there was still no A/C.

—--

Forever later our number was called. A man that wasn’t quite wearing a robe, but it sort of looked like if someone decided to marry a business suit to a robe was waiting, and Papa hurried me forward not wanting to keep the man waiting.

Because he was a mage.

Uncle Charles stayed behind. So it was just Papa and I that followed the man into a small room, and to my delight it actually was cool. There was an actual ice sculpture in the corner of the room that was melting into a bucket.

The sculpture was of the Tower that was just outside, Magic ice? It had to be. The heat was too much otherwise. The fan in the corner was blowing on the sculpture as well. So this guy was smart.

Mixed some brown nosing with staying cool. I liked him already. I was all smiles as I settled onto another wooden chair and the man settled behind his desk.

“Welcome to the Tower Administration Division. I am Reginald Klay. I will be administering the Magical Wavelength determination examination. Do you have any questions?” Reginald asked Papa who shook his head immediately and kept silent.

Utterly silent.

“Excellent. Victoria Ferrous is being tested at six years old. I can confirm she does not display as a Flat. Registering wave strength.” He said all of this aloud and in a tone of voice that spoke of many hundreds of repeated statements a day. He was also using a pen and checking boxes as he spoke like he was running down a checklist he was utterly familiar with.

I opened my mouth to speak, but ended up realizing that could be a bad idea, and instead raised my hand.

It took a moment for both Papa and Reginald to notice as the man was grabbing a device that looked like a Crystal Ball from the side of his desk and bringing it towards the center.

“What are you doing?” He asked and Papa tensed. 

“I didn’t want to interrupt, but what’s a Wave Strength?” 

The man blinked, looking confused as if I said something absurd before he reached over and grabbed some paperwork and looked through it for a moment.

“Oh I see. Frontier family no mages. Hmm, I am not in the service of teaching.” He stated firmly, but then shrugged, as he continued to ready the Crystal Ball. “All humans capable of magic give off a magical wavelength. At least that is how humans interpret magical emanations. As a wave. So you have a wavelength. Your father for example does not have a wavelength, and so is a Flat. The strength of the wave is an easy way to determine a mage's magical strength.”

“Oh. Thank you.” I made sure to thank the man who nodded once and pushed the Crystal Ball to me.

“Place your hand against the orb.” He stated with no nonsense. I hurriedly did just that. Pressing palm flat against it and then shivering as it felt like something was bouncing around inside my body, a vibration that went through me entirely and then it stopped.

“Wavelength  Strength of… three.” He stated aloud, then grabbed the Crystal ball and placed it back where it had been on his desk before returning to his sheet of paper and quickly filling it out.

When he was done, he tore out a section and handed it to me.

Very pointedly he was handing it to me.

“This is your exam ticket. Take it to the main office and they will ensure you have a wavelength confirmation card. That will be all.” The man said, seemingly finished with his task. Papa quickly pulled me up and hurried me out of the room.

Papa let out a sigh of relief after the door was shut behind him, and I turned to look at him, he just threw me a fake smile and patted me on the head. 

“Good job Vicky. You were very good.” He said as he held my hand and tugged me towards the woman that had registered us in the first place. She took the paper from me and looked it over before frowning and shrugging.

She didn’t explain or say anything just went to work.

A few moments later she came back holding more than just a card, but the card was handed over directly to me first.

“Your wavelength card.” She offered and I took it looking it over. It was honestly pretty normal looking. Had my information on it, with a three next to the Wavelength strength.The only thing magical was a tiny sliver of blue crystal in the corner of the card that made me shiver when I passed my thumb over it.

“As a registered potential in the Grand St. Eldridge territory the Magister, The Saint Albrecht, is also handing out this guidebook.” The woman handed over what looked like a book if it was made as absolutely cheaply as possible. 

The cover had the consistency of cheap construction paper, with a stamped title. 

“Guide to Magical Studies.”

I was basically vibrating, cheap or not. This was what I needed!

“Just a warning Victoria. With a wavelength strength of three, you won’t be able to do much.” The woman at the desk said in a quiet almost whisper. She looked up to Papa then. “The best hope for your family is to try and find a good mage husband, her children can have a stronger wavelength that way, and bring in mage blood to your family.” 

I blinked.

Wow. Rude.

Papa looked uncomfortable as well, but where I was more offended, he was more confused. “I don’t understand.”

“A wavelength of three, is below the mage corps acceptance quote. You need a wavelength of five for that… At three…” She looked at me. “You will likely never cast more than a few cantrips of magic. But you are still a mage.” She stood up then back to her normal height and looked normal. “Next.”

Papa and I shared a look, but we did walk away when someone else walked up to speak with her.

So… Three was bad?

Dangit I think someone dropped my Isekai cheat in the trash.