I was in the basement, sketching the structure of a magic circle.0

However, the grand magic I was trying to construct was beyond my Comprehension, and I hit wall after wall, tangled in too many ideas and far too few answers, each chasing its own tail.0

Maybe it’s because I was never meant to complete the very thing I began, although this is my work, it is not mine to complete, or maybe I cannot even escape the death that was already written for me from the start, I thought.0

“… It's gone,” Arlos said, her ear pressed to the ceiling.0

“Then come and take a seat,” I replied, meeting her eyes and tilting my chin toward the empty seat.0

“Why.”0

“There’s something in you that brings inspiration for magic to my mind.”0

“And what exactly are you trying to do with that slip of paper?” Arlos asked, glancing at the paper with a look as if it couldn’t possibly be useful.0

“It’s a small part of a magic circle. To complete a grand magic, it requires over a hundred thousand of these pieces.”0

It could be considered a jigsaw puzzle. Magic paper would’ve done the trick in less than a tenth of the size, but I had exchanged plain paper for a coin, which meant thousands—maybe hundreds of thousands—of pieces of paper.0

“A magic circle may appear crowded with spells when viewed closely, but from afar, it reveals itself as a single work of art. Lines and curves form circuits, mana flows through them, and all of it moves in perfect harmony—no different from the stroke of a brush across a canvas.”0

"... I know what magic is, too."0

“Of course—you must have had a magic mentor of your own,” I said.0

“I’m self-taught,” Arlos said, stiffening for a moment before brushing it off, clearing her throat and giving a small shake of her head.0

"Puppetry is not something that blossoms in solitude—least of all in Ashes."0

“And yet, I did,”0

I already knew who Arlos's mentor was, with no need to...0