"Alright, I'll be going now. See you later."

Amelia closed the door behind her after waving to Karteira.

She found herself in the middle of the corridor, no sound to bother the silence beside her breathing.

'Damn it! It's the first time she managed to not speak about her problems!'

Inside, she was furious. Not at Karteira, but at the fact that she didn't succeed in learning her problems.

'I know there's something, and it concerns Orion. That much I know, but anything else is lost within her.'

She wanted to stomp her feet so badly on the floor, but Orion was sleeping on the room right in front of her.

'So, I've told Karteira about the device and Horizon, and Orion is gone to sleep. What do I do now?'

Karteira was definitely not in the mood to spend more time with her.

'I guess it's both of them today. A rare alone day with Orion, and a rare alone day with myself.'

Shrugging, she walked downstairs.

'What time is it? Around 3PM?'

Their internal clock was usually right. The only moment it went haywire was when they moved between Horizon and Triazils.

'It's too early to prepare dinner, so what am I left with?'

Amelia was like Orion. They both forced themselves to have a hobby of sort to avoid being stuck in a motion of constant training without having a stress relief.

Yes, they had each other, but there was days where you had to be alone too. You cannot always relies on other following you whims when you need it.

So, Orion took reading as a hobby. Though it was also his curiosity that caused him to read a lot, turning it into a full-fledged hobby made him appreciate the reading even more than by just saying 'I have to read this to learn its content.'

Amelia chose cooking. This was also a forced choice, since Orion + Kitchen = Disaster. She already liked baking when she was younger, thanks to the kind receptionist and cook of the orphanage.

They greatly helped her after Orion had saved her, and when she needed help the most. In her heart, these women where closer to mothers.

The knowledge they gave Amelia was one she needed to help Orion. She learned that food cannot be underestimated. It helps people feel better, it can have healing properties, and it brings a smile to the ones you love.

This was perfect for Amelia, who couldn't think of any hobby when Orion asked her to get one.

During the three years training in the woods of Auro, she went back and forth between the temporary house and the new orphanage to learn more recipes, and more way to cook.

Before long, it became something she took to heart, taking it so far as to take notes on the new dishes she ate. Travelling was also great to see what others ate, and what culinary custom they had.

The other thing she had in common with Orion was.

'Training.'

She opened her hand and five pebble sized spheres representing her elements formed.

'I guess I'll be training today.'

With determination to improve, she left the house, and walked to the portal that led a kilometer away.

~

The shadows of two women began to shift in the darkness, around the usual pool of water that showed Orion and his companions.

"What are you thinking?"

The woman on the right asked her friend. As usual, you couldn't discern a single feature about them.

Only their voice could be heard.

"Not much. You know I have a few regrets, right?"

"Between you and me, if we had none, we wouldn't be here at all."

The woman on the right laughed.

"That's true."

A silence holding for a few seconds took place, with their gaze both falling on Amelia who was walking in an empty space.

"How much can we interfere before it completely goes bad?"

The right woman looked at her friend and waited for the answer.

"Honestly, everything is already out of place. I don't think more intervention will matter at this point. Though, don't forget, we cannot be found out. At most, only Orion."

"And Amelia?"

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"If possible, I would prefer to keep her in the dark."

*sigh*

"What?"

"Nothing, just don't regret it. Oops, you've already regretted it at least a thousand times. It's not like you're going to bother with another more, right?"

Sarcasm could be heard from the woman on the right.

"..."

The mood changed and anger was felt from the woman on the left.

"Don't play like that with me. We have a role to play, and now is when we have to carefully watch as everything unfolds."

With a sigh of defeat, the woman on the right slumped her body on the table.

"I know, I'm simply fed up of seeing that face. Who cares about the consequences at this point?"

"That's what you say, but you know what's going to happen just like me. You've seen the next prediction right?"

"I did. Do you think it will go through?"

"Now that a major name has been saved, I think it could lead to something different, but if this one dies, I think it will be the end for our group."

"You have so little faith in them? I know that this moment in time is troublesome, but give them more credits."

"It's you who have too much faith! How much time did we w-"

"No more."

Another short silence fell in the darkness.

"Why do you think I've been personally acting behind the scenes? I'm done seeing that nonsense."

"..."

"If we weren't together, we would have gone crazy a long time ago. We could even have become corrupted. Why don't you open your eyes? If we don't move, nothing will change!"

The right woman placed her face in her arms.

"Just this time."

She snapped her fingers and changed something in the world. Something she thought insignificant, but would end up being extremely important.

"What did you do?"

The woman on the left blinked a few times, and saw something as her eyes became clouded in a yellow light.

"I've given an opportunity before the next fight."

"Damn... well, thanks."

"What did you see?"

"Surprise. I guess you always made the best choices."

The shadows began to disappear back into the darkness.

~

Amelia found a spot to train, thought everything was looking the same around her.

She sat on the white ground in a cross-legged position, and began her preparations.

"Alright, first, Dana."

A blue dagger appeared in her hand.

"The handle is like usual, made of compressed ice and the blade is a sharp edge of water. The blade is able to extend itself and send projectiles depending on what I ask."

Amelia prepared to slice something. She lifted her arm, and sliced through the air. A few droplets of water the size of a rock flew twenty meters straight before falling to the ground.

She repeated the action, but this time, sharp spikes of ice, same size as the droplets, flew the same distance before crashing on the ground.

"Yes, you're fine. It evolved in some impressive ways thanks to Monolavir's pact."

The ice divergence was definitely from Monolavir. On Triazils, his attribute is known to be one of the rarest mutation.

There are mutations in the other factions. It happens less because there are so many people to begin with.

In a faction like the dragon's, where a new member is birthed every tens of years, it happens more frequently.

For the human faction, Amelia is a mutation. Five elements, plus various mutations of elements.

"Next, Aura."

She placed Dana at her feet, while a green dagger formed from a wind sphere.

"Can I get a water orb, please? Make it tough."

Like she asked, her water magic formed a water orb in front of her. After confirming that it was solid, she observed her dagger.

"This is a pretty simple dagger, I don't see any modifications compared to its first creation."

Examining the handle and the blade, there was nothing unusual with it.

"Testing now."

She punctured the water orb with the dagger's tip, before stabbing it in.

"Sharp as ever. What about that?"

Recovering the blade from the water orb, she waited for it to return to its former state, before slicing it diagonally.

"No complaints, you are sharper than Dana."

She pushed the water orb and distanced it from herself.

"Ey!"

Once again, she sliced the air. A wind blade formed from the sliced air and rushed toward the orb.

The moment the blade touched the orb, it shattered.

"The wind blade is pretty fragile, as expected. It's great to take on unaware enemies, like humans, but tougher opponents will most likely remained uninjured."

"Good to know."

She dropped Aura next to Dana, and called the next one.

"Ceres."

A multi component dagger formed from a sphere of dirt, stone, sand, and metal.

"Now that I learned about the variations I can make with you, there is a lot to test."

Arching her back forward, she placed the tip of the dagger on the ground, and made an half-circle motion.

A curved rocky wall five meters high formed from the scratched ground, covering Amelia.

"It's working as always. Next."

She lightly struck the blade on the wall. A rumbling noise was heard from the other side of the wall, so she stood up and looked behind it.

A thin and lengthy spike had formed from where Amelia made contact.

"And the stronger the hit, the larger the spike is. That's one treacherous ability on unknowing enemies."

After eroding the wall, she began to try various things.

"So, we have sand right? Can we blind someone with it?"

Dana began to vibrate on the floor, before lifting itself and fly toward Amelia.

"Hmm?"

Amelia extended her hand and grabbed the flying dagger.

"..."

Without bothering about what happened, Amelia moved Ceres horizontally. Large amount of sand fell to the ground without really creating the desired blinding effect.

"What's wrong?"

She pondered for a moment, and realized why Dana had reacted.

"When I boil water, there's always steam being created. The mist from the lake is also related to water."

"But I don't have a way to create it. I need to heat the wate- Of course!"

Amelia created a water orb in front of her.

"Vesta, heat it up!"

The fire dagger formed inside the orb.

"It's so hard not to change form when I use Vesta."

Amelia was sweating, forcing only a small amount of her fire element from forming.

The orb began to bubble wildly.

"Return."

Vesta vanished.

"Go!"

She pointed at the water orb with Dana, sending it to crash further away.

When the water orb touched the ground, it exploded in a giant cloud of steam, successfully blinding everything.

"So Dana is better for smokescreens than Ceres. Though, I need to prepare it with Vesta."

"This could be useful in some situations."

She placed Dana back next to Aura, before returning to train with Ceres.

"Can we do projectiles now?"

Amelia swung a few times, sending various components.

"Rocks, sand, metal, bricks, clay, ..."

She threw everything she knew she could create. After realizing that not all of them would be very useful, she decided to go with the bloodiest one.

"I'll just throw nails at them. It flies better, and it does more damage anyway."

Choosing to throw metal nails was not something anyone would think of, but it would be something her enemies would remember forever.

"What about the slicing?"

Amelia formed another water orb in front of her, and sliced it without hesitation.

The metal blade was sharper than the wind blade, but it was heavier. When Amelia brought the dagger in the air, and slice downward, all of its weight made the speed at which it sliced faster.

More than slicing, it ripped everything it made contact with. The damage was incomparable.

"Too bad it hurts my shoulder. It is way to hard to attack like this. I prefer using it for protection and sudden attacks."

In the end, Aura did a better job at slicing precisely.

Amelia was about to continue with Leima, her lightning dagger, but someone caught her attention.

"Karteira? What are you doing here?"

Her friend had walked all the way here, for a reason she herself didn't really understand.