Music is my anti-drug

Iliril of the Chant

"Um, I c-can s-sit d-down. It's ok-kay, y-you c-can s-stay w-where y-you are." A little too quickly, Iliril folded his legs up and plummeted to the ground next to her, making a slight sound of pain. His palms were starting to sweat a bit and he rubbed them against the back of his hands in agitation. "N-no, I'm s-strong-ger t-than I l-look, r-reall-ly. I d-don't g-get s-sick al-lot. T-that's p-prob-babl-ly j-just f-from b-being n-nerv-vous."

"Are y-you a s-stud-dent at t-the Ac-cad-dem-my, t-too?" He had never seen her around before, of course, and the thought of having more people that he could relate to was extremely alluring. "I'm in t-the c-coll-lege, I g-guess. It's a s-strange s-syst-tem c-comp-par-red t-to w-where I c-came f-from."

Iliril of the Chant

“N-no, I’m f-fine, r-reall-ly,” Iliril said, feeling a bit puzzled when Max flinched. Had he said something wrong? Was there some sort of cultural taboo he had broken? He didn’t think he had but this world was so strange and vast that he couldn’t know for sure. He wasn’t Enelen, who liked to seek out every aspect of knowledge out there and he wasn’t the High Mage, who probably just bulldozed his way through. “S-sorr-ry, d-did I d-do s-somet-thing w-wrong? I’m n-not r-reall-ly f-from ar-round h-here s-so I w-won’t k-know unl-less y-you s-say s-so.”

“Are y-you in t-that, um. T-that ot-ther s-school b-bef-fore c-coll-lege, t-then?” He asked curiously. “Or am I j-just c-comp-pletel-ly w-wrong and y-you’re in s-somet-thing else?” This tiered sort of learning system was confusing. So, if people didn’t spend their entire lives in school, what exactly did they do afterwards? Did they really just go out into the world without keeping up with anybody at all? Maybe that was overthinking things but it seemed like a waste to get rid of those networks that were already in place.

Iliril of the Chant

Oh. Oh no, just what was he doing? These were completely innocent questions, he had thought, or maybe they weren't and he was just digging deeper. "N-no, it's ok-kay. S-sorr-ry, I'm n-not r-reall-ly f-from t-this w-world and it s-seems l-like ev-ver-ryb-bod-dy j-just asks t-those s-sorts of q-quest-tions." Iliril hadn't really tried it himself until that moment but seeing as it wasn't going especially well, he thought that he might just remain mute next time so that he didn't offend or scare off anybody.

"Um, m-mayb-be y-you s-should s-start ins-stead," Iliril suggested, staring at his lap. "W-we d-don't n-need t-to t-talk ab-bout an-nyt-thing y-you d-don't w-want t-to t-talk ab-bout." It did make him wonder, however, what exactly had gotten her so upset. There were just so many things that could go wrong in life and thinking about them, he started to feel uneasy with himself. Since arriving on Earth, he'd always kind of assumed people had it better here. Of course, it'd be a bit like the World of the Diamond because people would always be people but still.

The decline of his world and the brutal nature of the one directly afterwards made it hard to comprehend again. The brightness and life on this Earth was blinding.

Iliril of the Chant

Remembering wrong things... Briefly, Iliril's mind flashed back to that first landing. That in itself raised a red flag for remembering wrong things, in his opinion. Always remembering that, always. But not just the failure itself. There were the other things, too, like how he saw for the first time exactly how crippled a mage was without their magic and the chilling thought that was the mold people had always thought he had come from. To have magic and know it was there, that it was within reach and you even knew how to use it... For all of your efforts to come up in vain...

They hadn't managed a single feat with magic on that world. On top of that, they'd been too comfortable with how they had done things before. Chants was not a school which easily adapted. It wasn't like Words with that sort of spontaneity. It wasn't like Staves, which allowed people to essentially pack up with a single item and bring the rest of their lives in that one replaceable thing. 'As long as we stick together,' the older mages had said. Well, it hadn't done them any good at all, had it? Either way, it simply was meaningless...

He did want to say something to comfort Max with. Something nice. But comforting people with words, that wasn't something he did. It wasn't even something he thought he might be capable of. Even as Iliril entertained the thought further, his decision went more and more towards simply letting that matter go.

She did bring back the subject immediately after, though. In her own way, in a different form. Or maybe it was he who had done it, having spilled it out for her. Iliril hesitated.

"W-we us-sed up all t-the m-mag-gic," he said quietly after a while. "Ev-ver-ryt-thing r-ran on m-mag-gic b-but t-then it w-was all g-gone s-so w-we l-left. It w-was l-like t-this one, a-act-tuall-ly. P-peop-ple t-tell m-me it w-was j-just a d-dif-fer-rent v-vers-sion of y-yours. T-the l-land is m-mostl-ly t-the s-same b-but ev-ver-ryt-thing else-" He just shook his head.

Ilirl of the Chant

"Um." How had they used all of the magic up? It seemed like such an easy question to answer. Of course they had used it all up -they had used the magic for everything. It was a resource, much like the oceans and forests and mines. The people of the World of the Diamond had simply dug and drilled so heavily into their most adaptable resource that eventually, they had stripped it bare.

"It's l-like t-the s-sea," Iliril started, before stopping in self-doubt. "It's l-like w-we h-had t-this one t-thing t-that w-we t-thought w-would j-just l-last f-forev-ver. S-so w-we us-sed it s-so m-much t-that it w-was j-just g-gone one d-day. N-nob-bod-dy k-knew unt-til r-right b-bef-fore. N-nob-bod-dy t-told use t-that w-would h-happ-pen. M-man-na t-tends to r-ren-new its-self in l-liv-ving t-things s-so w-we j-just as-sumed t-the earth's m-man-na w-would, t-too."

Could it have healed itself, though? Iliril had to wonder. Was the World of the Diamond slowly healing itself right then as they spoke, now that it was devoid of life? The thought was pretty depressing but it was true, wasn't it, that they had ruined the world by themselves?

"B-but d-did h-he s-say w-why t-the m-mag-gic w-would alw-ways c-come b-back?" Iliril asked. The high mages all had their own explanations for why it did but if they had been wrong about the world itself, what else had they been wrong about?