~13th Sun of the 1st Astral Moon, 1572~
Oh, Ingrid.
You bare the rare gift of Black Magic. I was quite young when it first surfaced within you. You were around fourteen or fifteen, so I was nine or ten. A freak accident is what many at the Thaumaturge's Guild called it... Mutyro, your mentor, and a large portion of the room around him in any direction. Frozen solid underneath several layers of ice. Your fingertips looked frostbitten. Mutyro's expression forever fixed into that of a silent scream. Everyone's eyes were wide with shock, including mine, but none were wider than your own.
Who could ever anticipate you would possess such an abnormally large mana pool that you could pull off the long-forgotten spell of Freeze, let alone that you would even know how? You lacked the control and focus of seasoned Thaumaturges, despite being the top of your class. Luckily, this is also the reason that Mutyro did not die, bless the Twelve.
I feel that it is, at least in part, my fault. You innocently showed me the amazing new ability one lazy afternoon, demonstrating by freezing a flower and the surrounding patch of grass. You thought it to be an unimpressive improvement upon a simple Blizzard spell. I convinced you to perform it during your next performance review. Neither of us had any idea that Ingrid's attempt to freeze an entire barrel of water before her beloved mentor would turn into...
Why do I recall this story now? Five years have passed and you have changed much. You climbed a ladder no one else could dare to tread, mastering spell after spell. Discovering or learning dark art after dark art. The look in your eyes when you practice your magic now is not the same as it was when we were little. You look kind of scary now. I wonder if you would get mad if I told you that. Is... Is that how I look whenever I wield a sword? I always thought Lamont was only joking when he said stuff like that, but...
That event of freezing Mutyro, despite its horror, garnered massive attention both negative and positive. Teachers whisked you away for hours or even days on end, gleefully watching as their new guinea pig tested theory after theory. I disliked this greatly, but you did not mind. I could not object if you were willingly participating in all these experiments and intense lessons. Meanwhile, I could not even conjure a puff of smoke, let alone a fireball. You and I have always been on completely different wavelengths, haven't we? Besides our blood and our knack for magic, there is only one other thing we share so closely, word for word.
Our love for--
~
((The final half of the sentence has been scribbled out so violently that the paper is torn.))