I was half a day's walk away from the citadel when somebody stopped me. It was a blonde man dressed in light armor on a horse that presented himself as a mail carrier. He handed me a big box full of letters. They were all invitations to my fiancé's estate, messages from Leo. I immediately turned my attention to the letters, and the mail deliverer disappeared suddenly, without giving me a chance to ask anything. How did he find me and why was I getting this letter now?

Leo never got a single reply to any of those letters, but he kept writing them. I couldn't have sent my replies even if I wanted to because only now did I find out about their existence. The strange thing is that I never changed my address, but Leo didn't know it. He kept sending the letters at different, wrong addresses. Did the messenger make a mistake or there was more to it? 

I stopped to think as I let out a sigh. It was customary for every witch to have a fiancé decided at the time of birth, but it was an ancient custom. Nowadays, I don't think anyone of the paired ones actually married. Some of them even never saw each other faces. Immediately, after a witch's birth, a messenger was supposed to arrive at the fiancé's house to inform him, but now that I think that, I did not know who the messenger was, or how the pairs were made. I could send my parents a letter to ask them, but asking about it out of the blue would be awkward. I'll postpone it until I meet them again face to face when I come back to visit my old home. 

Truthfully, I never planned on going there, but after seeing all of them, I felt an obligation to go since there were so many of them. There was clearly a reason I had to be there. Perhaps one that had little connection with our fiancé status, but with magic. My fiancé could have written me a normal request or he could have sent it to any other witch, but he chose to do it in such a manner. It might have been because this was supposed to be a secret... anyhow, I was curious, so I decided to go to the location and check it out. It was close to the main road I was currently on.

Luckily, the weather was pleasant. I took my time walking because it was a beautiful, warm spring day. Green crops filled my sight as long as my eye could see. The road had a few bumps here and there, but nothing that would present a major obstacle. According to my map, I already entered the premises of his estate. Leo's family were farmers for generations, but in the last three generations, their wealth increased tremendously by some new agricultural techniques that brought them more quality and quantity to their products. Since this was a world partially ruled by money, their current ambition was to rise ranks and become aristocrats. That would certainly be impressive to many girls, but not to me. I am a witch and we witches have our own hierarchy. Separate from non-magical humans, but the big decrease in witches over the last century led to a quasi anarchic state where almost all the witches had the same social status. 

I checked my map once again to see if I was going in the right direction because I didn't encounter any workers or animals... nobody... not a single being, but maybe they were doing something else. I'm not knowledgeable enough about the new agriculture, so this could be normal. 

My direction was right according to the pocket map I carried. I just needed to keep going straight, and I'd arrive at the main house. The gigantic walls surrounding the house became noticeable in just a short while. I repeatedly looked at Leo's picture from one of the letters, hoping I'll be able to recognize him as soon as I see him. The first people I encounter will probably be servants. I'll have to explain everything to them and they should take me to their young master.

It got colder suddenly, and I immediately regretted not having a warm cape. The fog rose. I found the sudden weather change confusing. None of nature element's informed me about this. As I pondered about it, the fog surrounded me to the point I could only see whiteness in front of me. I knew something was wrong, but I lost my orientation so I just kept walking straight, hoping I'll get somewhere from where I could tell my position.

The coldness of the air sent chills down my spine as I shivered from the crispiness within the air, but I had to press so that I can quickly get myself out of this situation.

After a while, the fog cleared up and revealed a frozen landscape. I could sense a magic presence. It was out of season. Naturally impossible. An icy path revealed itself before my feet. It was an invitation, but for what and were its intentions good, bad or neutral for me, I didn't have the slightest idea. I sensed danger, so I turned back to continue my journey, but an invisible wall stopped me. I stretched out both of my hands in front of me. My eyes were closed so that I could focus completely on the weak point of the magic barrier. It was a skillfully made barrier. There was only one part with lower energy than the rest.

I started my incantation: "Vi aer ignis aqua spiritu quaseo obice laxo." 

The weak part shook a bit, but stayed firm. My magic wasn't powerful enough to break it. The witch who made it must be a few magic levels higher than me. Objectively, I was still a beginner at magic, and it was unfair to make me use my magic against a seasoned witch. 

I'll have to go to the source of the magic and talk to the witch. I hope she is a reasonable woman and she'll let me go after a chat. In the current world's situation, there was no meaning for witches to fight against each other, and I'm a neutral party. I just started my journey and didn't align with anyone.

The house was much bigger than I expected. Its impressive impact stemmed from the fine woods and luxurious stonework. A mansion would be the proper term for it. Neatly trimmed bushes and a small circular garden sat in front of the mansion. Somebody maintained the place well, but no signs of life appeared inside or outside.

I tried calling for someone, but it was in vain. The only presences I felt was strong magic and chilliness in the air. When I entered the marble front hallway of the mansion, I finally felt a presence coming towards me. 

Somebody was standing on top of the otherwise completely empty staircase. On closer inspection, I noticed it was an unknown adult male. He wore a faded black cloak that covered his entire body and face. It gave him a shadowy appearance.

"Welcome," he said. "It is time to put your abilities to a test." 

He immediately sent a couple of lightning bolts towards me. Although I was in a state of shock, my reflexes worked well, and I quickly dodged them. I focused on making a light barrier in front of me by mumbling, "Obex!"

I couldn't afford the leisure of spending my sweet time figuring out what was happening because I need to defend myself from his relentless attacks.

"Hey now. I wasn't looking for an athletic, jumping witch," he said in a displeased tone. "I'm here to see your magic limits." 

"I didn't come here to fight," I explained to myself. "My intentions are peaceful."

"This isn't a fight. It's just a simple test," he said. "Prepare yourself for the next attack." 

The magic I felt on the way was coming from him. He was creating all of it, but it was impossible. The chosen women are the only ones able to wield magic. No man should be able to do it. Even the eldest history books didn't record men using magic, but he was right there in front of me. A male magic-user. Attacking me.

"People staring stupidly will only get burned," he said and threw a flame ball at me.

The barrier I cast protected me to a certain degree, but some parts of my clothes still got burned. Given the situation, I was glad my skin was untouched.

"Who are you? ," I shouted."Men aren't supposed to have magic!"

"Ah, sorry. My name is Akios. I'm the famous mage from the eastern valley," he introduced himself. "But that's enough for introductions. Now I'll politely ask you to prepare for the test."

The mage revealed his face. He seemed to be older than me, approximately for ten years. He had short, wavy black hair and intense sky-blue eyes. His skin complexion was very fair and somehow his face looked handsome.

Mage? Eastern valley? None of the things he said sounded familiar. I could swear that the eastern valley he referred to was a popular name for the desert, but nobody lived there for centuries. As for a mage, I never heard of the word. Maybe it meant a male who can use magic.

He burned me again, as I was thinking. To avoid serious injury, I had to act quickly, since he burned my skin again.

I couldn't turn my back on him. Running back through the front door wasn't an option, so I rushed over to open the door on my left.

"Murus ignis," I said as I closely focused on the open door space when I entered the room.

A wall of flame blocked the entrance. He'll be unable to enter for a short period of time. I quickly surveyed my surroundings. I was in a small room with two windows as the only exits leading outside in the yard. In the corner was an ice sculpture, but I didn't bother with checking it out. Instead, I spent some time on treating my burns.

"Curatio!"

I heard hands clapping sounds from the other side of the flame wall. Akios wore black gloves on his hands with only his fingers free, but the sound he made was still loud. He walked through my flames without a single burn. Now that he was standing next to me, I realized he was quite tall. Akios was one of the tallest people I knew.

"What... what are you? Some kind of monster?" I said, disturbed by the course of events."How can you walk through those flames unscathed?"

"I've seen enough to grade you," he said calmly. "Let's see: you could work on the way you speak to your elders. Your skills are average, but for this world, that's pretty good and since you're still young, you have the potential to do better. Fire and healing are your two main magic spells, but everything else is a struggle." 

"Why am I being tested?" I said, shocked. "I've never heard of witches taking tests."

"Well, they don't. You're actually my first student," he said, uninterested and looking annoyed. "Once you've calmed down, we'll talk again. The ability of a great witch is to deal with the unknown as if it were nothing unusual and here you are, just panicking."

This guy first attacked me, then insulted me and even evaluated me for some strange reason. I was angry, but this was not the right time to pick a fight. His magic was much stronger than mine. I'd inevitably lose.

"I have some business to attend to, so I'll see you later." He walked away.

I stared at his back, shocked by everything that had happened.

"Oh, I almost forgot. The last part of your test will be to dispel the ice magic surrounding the estate. Only then will you be able to leave. If you fail, you'll have to stay here for the rest of your life," as soon as he said that, he teleported somewhere. Teleporting magic was an extremely rare one, but he himself, a mage, was unnatural as existence by itself. I couldn't have been more surprised.

I tried to shake away the shock and started thinking. There must be an error in the spell or a special way to break it, even though I was a few levels below in magic. I took my grimoire from my bag and quickly skipped through the pages as I searched for a hint. I reread the methods of undoing magic spells. It was nothing I haven't known before, but I reaffirmed my knowledge.

The first thing on my to-do list was to find some people living in the mansion. I ran back to the entrance hall and checked each room. There was no sign of any living beings in any of them, but someone had decorated the rooms well. It felt like I was in a real aristocratic mansion. They were less decorated than the king's place I visited, but that was understandable since the king had much more money and influence. I found a lot of frozen human sculptures. The lifelike quality of the sculptures unsettled me in every room they occupied. I ran fast out of those rooms. 

I wasn't sure how much time passed, but it seemed too long and I wasn't getting any closer to solving the puzzle. I was angry at myself for coming to the mansion and for being unable to contain my curiosity, but there was no point in lamenting about the past too much.

After I inspected everything on the ground floor, I climbed the stairs and found a strange hallway containing five of the frozen sculptures. I wanted to turn back, but I already checked everything except the room up ahead. I quickly opened the door that revealed a main study room. In the room's center was Leo's frozen sculpture. 

Leo was a bit muscular, a little taller than me, and appeared to be somewhere around my age. His hair was completely red, which was odd because in the pictures I received, his hair seemed black. People believed the fire spirit loved those with rare red hair like a part of itself. They considered the existence of a true redhead impossible. I only had one lock of red and everybody said that the fire spirit favored me. If all that was true... I can't even imagine what kind of harmonious relationship would a completely red-haired person have with the fire spirit.

Even though his hair was red for some reason, I was certain I didn't make a mistake in identifying Leo. He could have dyed it. I took out the picture just to be safe and compared it. His face and posture unmistakably identified him as Leo, but he was frozen. Everybody was frozen.

"Leo, I'm sorry," I spoke with a shaky voice to the frozen body as I took a few steps back.

The entire time I was in the mansion, I walked among frozen people. As a witch, I could feel the living energy, but none of the frozen statutes emitted even the slightest sign of life. I wanted someone to tell me it was all just a grim joke, but I was all alone. All this must have been caused by Akios. The work of an impossibly magical guy that called himself a mage.

I felt a sudden surge of fear and left the room backward, almost slipping and falling. I hit one of the frozen bodies on my way out. I couldn't look behind to see if I did any damage to it. Instead, I just ran out of the mansion. 

I let out a big sigh outside. Running couldn't solve my problem. I had to face the situation I was in, but I didn't want to. I was stuck in a place full of frozen people. They were all probably dead and the chances that they could be reanimated were very low. I could cast some healing magic, but I never tried any reanimation magic. 

If only a doctor was around. I heard rumors about doctors being able to bring people back to life a short time after death without casting magic. One book I read briefly explained it. I didn't know how it worked exactly. It was science. A new way to use natural rules. Since magic was steadily declining, this science thing became more and more powerful. I heard that a doctor's reanimation technique was natural. The people brought back with it weren't undead. The only other way to bring these people back was necromancy, but I didn't want to have any business with dark arts.

I pinched my cheeks to calm my nerves. "Now, Calytrix, focus on breaking the barrier. When this place becomes free, I'll unfreeze the people here, bring a doctor here and everyone will be saved. Happy end."