The Fire Lotus...

"Hey. Hey little girl! Get up! No one said you could be here!" A rather large, brutish looking fissure called to a still girl, sleeping against a pile of barrels. Her red eyes slowly opened, hazy from the uncomfortable night she had just expereicned. "Huh...? Whu..?" She said simply, as she slowly tirelessly wiped her eyes, and let out a yawn before staring upwards at the man. "Oi! I said scram you little spark! He yelled again. Her eyes widened by his rather loud voice and she simply furrowed her brow before standing to her feet, wiping off the dust on her skirt. "all right, alright! I'll go you gorilla. Jeez." She responded with an annoyed tone before picking up her bag and putting a lollipop in her mouth. She rolled her eyes as the man yelled after her an insult and quickly looked forward toward town...

Wow. People were really tall. Or at least that's what Kaia would be thinking if she actually gave a shit. Right now, the 14 year old was too tired from the rude interruption to care about the souls around her. The only thing on her mind was to find another, probably more comfortable place to sleep for a few more hours. It had been several days since her last encounter with MANA, so she was convinced they weren't sure where she was. She could afford to get some much needed rest. The girl wandered aimlessly for about 20 minutes, until she reached the outskirts of the town. Ahead of her were rolling plains, and on the horizon lied the tree line of a forest...

"Great. More trees and plains. And I thought becoming a stowaway would take me to more exciting places..." She grumbled angrily to herself. However, she noticed something not far off. It looked like an old wooden structure. Kaia proceeded to squint and confirm it was an old barn. Judging by the moss, and lack of people it seemed to be abandoned, and unclaimed. With that, she adjusted the pack on her back, and began trekking towards it through the field.

By the time she reached the old wooden door on the side of the barn, the sun had already proceeded to set. Kaia had looked confused at it for a second, but shrugged it off as nothing. Days of running aimlessly through the wilderness had caused her internal clock to get all jumbled up. It turned out she had taken an afternoon nap aboard this ship before it left port. However, she was still tired, and more then confident she could sleep through the night. Using her strength, the young girl grunted as she forced the old door to creak open. The sunlight behind her shone inside the barn to reveal nothing but dirt and hay. However, it seemed warm Not the most ideal place to spend the night, but it wasn't the worst either. She sighed before finding a soft spot on a small hay bail, and she threw her back on it. Giving a few more cautious looks to her surroundings before determining if it was safe or not, she proceeded to drag the door shut. Darkness fell over the inside of the barn as Kaia slowly wandered back to her sleeping spot. However, a small red light began to faintly glow from inside the bag as the girl fell into a deep sleep...

The night was quiet and peaceful. The sky was clear, and not a sound could e heard but the faint wind blowing the tall grass in the fields. The white moon shone down on the barn, giving off some light in the inside from the wide skylight above. Kaia was sound asleep. Her breathing calm and her stance relaxed. However, something was odd. The bag beside her had began to glow brighter. Something inside was causing this. It didn't take long for it to stir the young girl as she shifted in her slumber. Soon, one of her red eyes opened to find the source of this distraction, before the other shot open immideatly. Kaia jumped out of fright at the initial sight, her foot knocking the bag over. From the inside rolled a small glass canister... Inside was a flaming lotus Lilly.. the source of the ominous glow. She stared silently at it for moment, her eyes filled with wonder. It was flaming with an intense heat. SOmething Kaia could feel from where she sat. Suddenly, the flaming got even bigger, and the glass proved not able to stop it any longer. It cracked, and then shattered into a million tiny flaming fragments. Kaia lifted an arm to block the shattered objects from hitting her face, only to see the color of the flame had changed. It's intense red was replaced by a calming blue glow... The hue of the Lilly felt somewhat... Calming to Kaia. She felt relaxed in the presence of this Lilly. Her eyes carefully reflected the slow blue flame as the girl slowly walked towards it. SOmething about this lotus was calling to her. SHe couldn't figure out what it was, but it seemed compelling to her. It was like someone was telling her to move closer, and she wanted to. Without thinking Kaia slowly walked towards it... Entranced by its beauty. She now felt the compulsion to reach out for it, and so she did. The flame's heat was gone, and was now replaced with a rather cool aura, one that got rid of any sense of danger Kaia had felt previously. Her arm slowly lifted, and it reached downwards to lift the Lilly. That's when it happened... It was so sudden, so fast, Kaia had no control. The flame immideatly pounced on her arm, flowing around it, snaking up to her shoulder as it turned back to a violent red... And the heat returned. SHe let out a scream as the burning sensation licked her skin. Soon, her other arm had been completely covered in fire as well... All the while the lotus Lilly began spurting other coloured flames as well. Green, purple, yellow and blue al exploded from its tip! Before all the flames of every color flew straight towards Kaia, and began surrounding her. The rainbow of colours danced round the girl as she was struggling to stay awake. It seemed as if a fire tornado had struck her! She kneeled down on the barn floor, hands on her head as the sensation shot through her body. Her head slowly getting lower to the ground... However, deep in her heart she felt a sudden emotion. Anger, confusion. It began burning in her soul like a wildfire... One she could no longer control. With a loud scream, Kaia outstretched her arms and faced upwards as an enormous explosion of flame engulfed the area around her. All of the coloured fire soon turned to a violent red, and it began eating away the barn without hesitation. It climbed up the old walls, destroying them in the process as Kaia stood there screaming from both pain and anger... Soon, the fields around the structure caught flame as well, and it began to spread. However, it didn't seem to follow the normal wildfire pattern. The fire kept within a certain area, and only burned the grass in a specific vicinity. It seemed as though it was forming a pattern. After a few moments, the flames all receded back to Kaia, fading straight into her chest... She stood still for a moment as the destruction of the barn and field around her was left only with smoke.. She breathed heavily, before falling the ground. Her body lay still, smoking, but surprisingly not burned... ANd the last thing she could see before fading into the dreaming world was the empty scorch mark from where the lotus lay. If one were to see the scene from above, they would notice the entire field surrounding the barn had been burned in a pattern. The fire burned the shape of a lotus flower into the earth... Kaia's tiny body at its center...

Meet Mejai Kaijura, founder of the contract based agency, Garan no Dou, where Guildless mages can find jobs that aren’t usually posted in the request board, they consists of a rarity of cases to which only Garan no Dou contracts to. It started out as a small time agency but then began to expand, it offered various services such as brewing potions and alchemy, creating and selling magical devices handcrafted with care, contracting Guildless mages to perform the rarity that is these jobs, and medical work for the underworld or to anyone who can’t afford to look for an official hospital, may it be financially or legally.

Here in this office, Mejai sat on his chair turning towards the glass panes that was behind him, to look and to marvel randomly projected scenery of a wonderful landscape. The scenery behind the glass panes changes and is usually the actual locations where he set up his territory and these were all beautiful locations.

Though Mejai wasn’t the only one allowed to come to this office.

“Master!” So were his assistants and employees.
“There’s a fire near one of our territories!” This white haired girl’s name is Kyrie, head assistant of Garan no Dou, she wore an expression of worry that this fire may reach one of the magical territories Mejai set up.

The scenery behind the glass pane warps towards the actual location, the fire was expanding even further, and just before Mejai was about to reach for an item that would handle this, the fire receded as if it was water. “hmm?”

It caught his eye, this clearly wasn’t normal fire but it did burned everything to ashes, there was indeed an effect on the field. “Kyrie!”

“Understood!”

---

At that moment Kaia would wake up on bed, wearing a different set of clothes and Kyrie was right by her side, nursing her. “You’re awake, I’m glad you are alright!”

"Kaia, do you know what this is?""O-of course I do! That's one of the magical artifacts you collect... R-right?" The well dressed man smiled as the little girl gazed in awe at the dancing sparks within the canister of light. "Heh, that's right! Do you remember what this one does?" He asked, a gentle smile on his face. "Y-yeah. It's fire based isin't it? It gives special people magic powers?" He ruffled the girl's hair. "That's not the only one. This building stores hundreds of artifacts just like this one. Although this is our newest discovery... I like to call it the Fire Lotus."

It was just a dream... A memory... The world quickly returned to reality for Kaia. Her eyes slowly opened to see the blinding sunlight, and the shape of an unfamiliar figure above her. What had happened? The last thing she could remember was the heat... The burning heat, and flames... The girl quietly mumbled her response to the girl above her. "Wh-... What happened?" Kaia felt too tired and too weak to even notice the change of clothes, or the care about the identity of the woman.

"That is something I wanted to know, myself" Kyrie replied as the little furry critter, Cotton pounced on her shoulder with a curious look on its face, it sneezed black powder and dropped down to the bed beside Kaia, trying to memorize her scent and quickly making itself comfortable on top of belly.

"Cotton-chan seems to like you, my name is Kyrie, Head assistant of Garan no dou. We found you lying on the ground at the center of the incident. Almost everything in the barn you were just in was burnt to a crisp, including your clothes" she explained in a calm and reassuring manner, she placed her hand on her forehead to check her temperature.

"So do you have no recollection of what had transpired?" Her voice was so reassuring, and she smiled, glad that Kaia was alright and was not hurt. "You will need to get some rest, when you're able, I'll take you to my master at once for questioning if you don't mind." Across the room, Kaia could see an owl perched on a stand, sleeping peacefully, Kyrie sat on a table besides Kaia's bed and wrote up some reports and documents about the incident and other things.

Fortunately the fire didn't reach the territory but something strange did happen, if Kaia did this on purpose, she'd have to pay Garan no Dou or work with them but if not then its something the old magus would have to investigate soon. After a length of time, Kaia would have recovered, Kyrie would have been found asleep on the table and the Owl was seen to be awake, watching Kaia carefully.

If curiosity were to spur, Kaia would see that the papers Kyrie was writing was a report of today's incident and a cover-up report on what just happened so that the council will overlook this as an incident, apparently kaia was recovered before the farmer or the other residents of the town would come and investigate.

Kaia's weary eyes slowly watched the small cotton figure pounce down beside her. She gave a slight look of confusion when the girl spoke to her, introducing herself. Garan no dou? She'd never heard of that name before. But anything was better then being caught by MANA. Kaia gave a somewhat relieved sigh to know she hadn't been captured yet. Or at least that's what she thought. Then again, the place she was situated in didn't seem like a hospital... Which did make her suspicious.

Suddenly, as soon as the lady Kyrie mentioned the barn, all the memories came rushing back to her. The lotus, the Fire Lotus! It had enveloped her in flame, but now it was gone? All of her stuff had been destroyed in the incident... However, her memory was still a bit hazy... She couldn't remember what happened after the fire attacked her. N-no... All I remember is the lotus Lilly..." She said quietly, not caring if that was too cryptic. SLowly inside, Kaia began to panick about her situation. If what Kyrie told her was true, all the dirt Kaia had dug up on MANA had been destroyed... She now had no proof of their evil intents... However, the worry quickly receded as she found she was still much to week to even lift herself off the bed... Kyrie was right, she needed rest.

Several hours later, she awoke again. The sun had been setting on the horizon from the window situated across the room. Kaia noticed however, much of her strength had returned. The girl who had been nursing her was sound asleep on the table, apparently writing letters. The only other living thing in the room was the odd owl, but Kaia gave no attention to it. SHe simply gave it an annoyed look before slowly reaching for the covers of the blanket, and removing them from her legs. She slowly shook her head, and put a hand to readjust the ribbons, but quickly remembered they weren't there. Her long red hair had been let down, with the lack of her black ribbons to keep her twin tails. She noticed her clothes were different as well. She was wearing a small white robe. Her face quickly grew red when she realized she was completely naked underneath, blushing from embarrassment at the thought of people changing her in her sleep. She couldn't waste time thinking about that however, she needed to find answers. And she needed them quickly. The girl knew quite a bit about the magical artifact she had stolen, and began to speculate what had happened. However, her memory was still hazy on the event that had transpired. She still had her fears...

Quietly, Kaia slowly stood off the bed, rubbing her eyes. Making sure Kyrie was still asleep, she silently snuck a peak at the papers. Carefully, she picked a few up and quickly began scanning their contents. ANything that could tell her what happened to the lotus flower. Or anything that linked her rescuers to MANA... That's when she saw that the report had been addressed to the magic council! Her eyes widened with worry... MANA had close ties with the magic council... If they found about what had happened, they'd surly alert their allies... Slowly, anger started to build up inside the girl when she got no satisfying answer. It only told her that a large fire had occurred, but said nothing about the Fire Lotus. She glared at the papers, trying to recall as best as she could what had happened, but to no avail. Instead her mind went straight back to MANA, and began to focus on what would happen if that evil corporation got their hands on the Fire Lotus... She couldn't let what happened to her family happen to anyone else's... Thinking about it made her pissed, and that's when she noticed something odd... Smoke? The edges of the paper she had gripped tighter while imagining a dark future were starting to let off smoke. She quickly let go as the paper slowly floated to the ground... She stared die eyed at her palm. It seemed to be the source of the smoke...

The owl tilted its head to see the little girl awake; it flapped outside through the window and disappeared into the night. Cotton’s ears twitch at the sound of the owl departing from this room and was startled when the little girl got off form the bed. It kept an eye on Kaia the entire time and when she saw the papers, her expression turned that of fear, which is something Cotton did not understand as it was just a piece of paper. Kyrie’s report only passed off as an incident in the barn, so that no investigation would be needed, that was just in case they decided to contact Garan no Dou about this, after all it also functions as an information network for people who wanted to know strange and mysterious cases.

Upon seeing smoke coming out from her hands, cotton gave of a sound.

“Umu! Umu! Umu!” Which is similar to a dog’s bark but it almost sounds like that it can talk. The smell and the sound of Cotton barking out, awoken Kyrie, she gasped at the sight of a report paper being tampered with. Now Kaia was confused but Kyrie held both her hands and got her to sit down on bed. She grabbed her shoulders and tinkered with her face to see if she’s alright. She’s looking directly into the pupils to look for any signs.

Unfortunately she was trying to imitate her master as she is no expert on looking for strange magical signs.

“Are you ok?” She asked as she picked up a page of her written report, a bit of smoke would come out of the paper a bit but it didn’t burn it. “W-well seeing as you’re able to stand up, I think it’s about time for you to meet my master. You’re alright, right?” She asked as she kissed her forehead and grabbed her hand.

“Come, we can help you.” She smiled, giving off a warm feeling that should reassure her that everything is going to be alright. If she were to agree to come, she’d take her but if she needed more time, she’d take her to the office the next morning and have her sleep for now.

Cotton was trying to go outside the door, Kyrie turned to notice the small animal wanting to exit. “Ok cotton, you can go ahead, tell master she’s alright ok?” She opened the door and cotton slipped through outside.

Regardless of her decision she’d be taken to see Kyrie’s master, they would exit the room, only to be greeted with a hall with a lot of doors and a staircase only half as wide as the hall that ascends in a spiral. By the end of the staircase, a door was already presented to them, Kyrie knocked twice and called out to her master.

The door automatically opened with no one to even answer it, not even Kyrie pushed it open. It was some kind of small office, with some living room furniture, a good midi floor mat, three couches, A big screen television, empowered by a lacrima device which is beside the bookshelves. There was an aquarium tank filled with strange fish and another shelf that contains what appears to be strange magical devices and books. By the end of the room, infront of the glass planes was a desk and a chair, where the magus has sat, he turned around and motioned his hand for Kyrie and the little girl to come closer.

“Please, sit anywhere you like” regardless of where the little girl could have sat, the Magus would stand up and take a closer look at her.

“I am Mejai Kaijura, founder of the contract based agency Garan no Dou, and who are you may I ask? You almost got us into trouble with that little incident of yours.” He had blue eyes and a magical tattoo scripted on the left side of his face, he had long hair and wore traditional robes.

(Pardon me for my dumb typos)

Kaia was too caught up in the strangeness of the event that had just occurred, involving her hand and the smoke. Her eyes watched it carefully before darting downwards to her hand. Small faint smoke came from it, and then vanished completely. That's when the furry creature behind her started to become annoying. It made an odd sound, causing Kaia to turn her head in its direction "Hey, shhh!' She said in attempt to quiet the creature, but that didn't seem to matter anymore as the girl next to the red head had awoken.

"Woha, Woha! Look lady, I'm fine." Kaia told her as she sat her down. Then began tampering her face, and looking into her deep red eyes. "Miss, I told yo- ow! Stop that!" She said in annoyed tone before Kyrie began to tell Kaia it was time to meet this "fabled master" She had heard about before. Honestly, Kaia wanted nothing more then to just get out of here and continue on her way. ALthough, these people may have seen what happened at the barn. Therefore she may be able to get some answers from them.

Kaia had a very annoyed expression on her face. This whole situation she had gotten herself in just impeded her progress. Finally, they had reached another door down the long hallway. When it opened without any physical aid, that's when Kaia raised an eyebrow. She slowly walked into the office, her eyes warily looking around for any signs of danger. It was an odd looking place to be sure, not something she was expecting. That's when an unfamiliar voice started to speak. "... My name isn't important. What I want to know is what happened, and where the Fire Lo-... Where my belongings are..." She said grimly, making sure to correct herself from spilling the secret she was carrying.

“Oh dear, my name is also not important but I’m more curious as to knowing why a mage like you can’t control their magic. Has someone not taught you how dangerous your magic can be?” He raised an eyebrow looking deep into her soul. “As for your question, Kyrie only found you there lying on the ground butt naked. We didn’t see what could be your belongings in that area, Kyrie had already told you this but everything around you was burnt to ashes.”

The elder magus came down and knelt down to the height of little girl. Upon closer look his eyes shined; he wasn’t surprise that this was a result of sudden change. The strange magical power in her eyes can mean many things, her magical nature is either unstable, there were instances that some mages reaching a certain age would lose their magic, a transformation took place, etc.

He did hear her stutter but he didn’t care less and if she’s not willing to say anything…

“Well you do realize you managed to deliver property damage, so how are you expecting to pay for that?” Even if Garan no Dou had covered everything up and there was no reason for them to pay, it’s still a bother that someone who had lost balance with their magic is walking around like a disaster. He’s expecting her to make up for the trouble that she made.

“You’re one of the Solari, aren’t you?” He asked, he can never mistake the presence of the people who worshipped the sun gods and they were granted with conceptual powers of the sun. Little did he know of Kaia’s actual case since all that he did was get a read on her energy, the Fire Lotus, the secret she wanted to protect, was giving off a strange aura that would pass her on as what he calls “The Solari.”

Well actually he is mistaken, unless Kaia really is one of them or a descendant.

Kaia raised an eyebrow when the man mentioned "her magic". "Magic? What magic? I don't know any magic..." She told him. Despite what the situation seemed, she believed her words to be true. She had honestly thought that the event that had occurred at the barn was simply an issue the Fire Lotus had. The artifact was still a new discovery, so it was still a very unpredictable object. Although, the strange feeling she had after she woke up, and the smoke coming off her hand... That wasn't normal either... Maybe something had changed?

Then he came over an knelt to Kaia's level. And then proceeded to accuse her of property damage. Of what? The old dusty barn? "What? You expect ME to pay for that? I didn't cause that fire! And even if I did I don't have ANYTHING to pay with!" She told him in an angry tone. Her red eyes giving off sings of fury as her fists clenched. "That barn was completely abandoned as well. Who cares about it anyways? I'm simply a witness..." She said, her arms crossed. She continued to stare intently at his blue shimmering eyes with a fierce expression. Not exactly knowing what he was trying to do.

Then he brought up something rather unusual. He accused her of being something called a "Solari" That was a name Kaia had never heard before. "I have no idea what a Solari is..." She stated simply. Hoping that the man would understand the implication of her question.

She doesn’t know magic, so she claims.

Perhaps she didn’t know she had power in her after all or the barn was a result of having her exposed to some kind of magical transformation or that she had arrived at the age where her talents would emerge, but for her to create a fire so large and uncontrollable would be most unlikely because she finally grew to have magical power, it was embedded into her, sudden change through means of endowment.

“Well if you don’t have the money to pay for the damages then I shall provide you options with alternate forms of payment, I could put you in constraints and deliver you to the Magic Council, branding you as some kind of criminal who committed the act of arson and vandalism.” She can try to escape by rushing out the door but that door she just entered through will only lead her to a boundary whereas no one can return once they fallen in, the magus have her wrapped around in his fingers, her decision will decide her fate.

“Or I won’t give you to the Magic Council and instead, you are going tell us your situation, otherwise you’ll only be a danger to yourself and to others.” He wasn’t giving Kaia much of a choice, he was cruel and regardless of Kaia’s decisions, she just ran away from a bastardly organization only to be held hostage by an magus who’s pointing a gun at her, choosing whether she lives or dies.

“I am not a very nice man, dishonesty is something I loathe the most when I’m doing business with other people.” He thought about what she said again by not knowing any magic, Mejai suspects that she’s lying about her having not known any magic at all or at least that’s the impression he wanted to make in front of Kaia.

Kyrie was silent, and of course this wasn’t the first time the old magus shown an act of cruelty.

“I’m giving you the count of five, if you refuse any of those choices, you may walk out the door and never return to this place again. I am not expecting you to trust me either.” They weren’t even bothering to block up the door, Kyrie just stood on one side, worried about Kaia, she was just confused and it looked like she didn’t know who to trust.

“M-maste-“ Kyrie’s voice stopped when Mejai raised his hand.

“One…” He started counting down.
“Two…” What is her decision?
“Three….” Is she willing to gamble?
“Four….” Or will she perish without ever to find justice for her father?

Oh no. This was bad. Very bad... This man wasn't going to let her go without something from Kaia. He'd proven most resilient in that matter. Her choices didn't sound very appealing either. Be restrained and brought before the magic council for an act she couldn't help. Or spill all her secrets to a complete stranger. Something stirred inside Kaia at that moment. Something... Unusual... Anger, frustration, annoyance, hatred... It began building inside her soul as the man continued to speak to her. Laying out his choices bluntly, and threatening to count.

"One." Anger...
"Two." Frustration...
"Three." Confusion...
"Four." Fear...
"Five." Hatred!

"STOP!" Kaia angrily yelled, her clenched fist suddenly balled into hot red flames, as an red aura surrounded her, and an explosion of power burst from the floor around the small girl. Within an instant, a shockwave of fire spewed from her body, shattering glass, scarring the wood...

Within the next couple of seconds, the fire had receded... Kaia laid on her knees in the same spot she had been standing just a few minutes before. Her red eyes no longer had a sense of anger, but of complete shock and fear. Staring at her hands as the small flickering flames died away from her palms... "I... I don't know what happened... I've never been able to perform magic before... How could-" She stopped dead in her tracks, remembering something. "No... No, no, no! Why me! Why did it choose me! The Fire Lotus could have bonded with anyone but it chose me!" Her eyes filled with wet tears as the realization hit her. The ancient artifact chose to bond with her, blessing her with uncontrollable magic... She had become the source MANA needed... That is what happened at the barn. The flower chose Kaia Rin to become the Fire Lotus... Her head was in her hands as tears wept from her eyes. She seemed oblivious to any destruction she had caused.