Aria returned to the city in the early hours of the morning. The first shift guards let her in without any trouble and she left for the shop. She took a little longer than normal to return because she no longer had a horse. When she returned to the shop she immediately ran in and went straight to the back.

She found her master resting in a chair in the corner. Her sister still lay on the table with warm coals underneath her. Bowls of herbs and paste sat nearby. Some of the pastes covered Kendra’s face while others were rubbed onto her arms and legs. Aria’s master opened her eyes as Aria stepped inside the room.

“How was the trip?” she asked as she stood up from her seat.

“I got both of the cores as requested after finding the information,” said Aria as she fished them out of her bag.

“That is good. I knew you could do it. The distractions at the adventurer’s guild were a nice trick.” She paused. “And don’t give me that face. Of course, I know everything you did at least within the city. I even made sure that no one could find evidence of magic tampering and made sure no one remembered you leaving the building with your horse that leads here. You were much too sloppy.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t take care of it myself. I will be warier in the future.”

“Just keep it in mind. How was the battle against the drakes?”

“I dealt with them in the manner you requested. They were much too strong for me initially, so I took the mind of the fire drake and sent it after the ice drake. Once they were in battle I further manipulated the fire drake into killing the ice drake before I finished it off myself in its injured state. Sadly, the horse was killed.”

“That is unfortunate. Now let me tell you what I have done so far. I have worked on stabilizing her condition, but her body has fought it and so has the foreign mana within her. I have selected a ritual for the two of us to do together and the mind magic spell to go along within. Over the next hour or so you must memorize the ritual and understand the spell. It has a lot in common with [Dominate Minds] and its forcefulness, but we will be using the spell to force her mind awake instead of puppeting it. Part of the process will also be trying to soothe her mind, so she doesn’t fight against the changes and awakes without hurting herself. Are you ready?”

“I don’t really have a choice, and this is the only way we have to wake her. I will learn the spell and follow your commands,” said Aria as she took the instructions from her master.

Aria left the room and sat cross-legged on the large carpet as her master had done before. She began reading through the pages and processing the information. The first step would be external magic. The cores were required to perform two roles. For the ice core, it was supposed to draw the ice magic away from Kendra and into itself. The fire core was supposed to give Kendra more energy and fire mana so that they could complete the last step. The internal steps would require her to cast the mind magic spell with her magic. Using the spell, they would work to reawaken her and start the fire magic moving through her once more.

Aria returned to the back room. Her master had moved aside the unnecessary materials and had unwrapped the two cores. She looked to Aria and then placed the two cores down. The ice core went into Kendra’s left hand and the fire core went into her right hand.

Aria’s master began the ritualistic chant of her spell and Aria began to follow along. The two cores glowed as their powers were activated and then released. Lines of blue and red spread from Kendra’s chest as her power and the dragon’s power were illuminated. Aria brought her focus to the chants as they worked.

As Aria’s master chanted she added liquid concoctions into Kendra’s mouth. They flowed easily into her and joined the flow of energy within her. The two forces continued to fight and were illuminated clearly. The ice mana was like a wave of water crashing against the power of the fire that flickered and sputtered. As the ritual continued lines of red and blue spread from the two cores. Kendra’s face held a pained expression as she struggled to fight within her mind.

The ritual continued as the pair of them recited the lines and their mana poured out and towards the two cores and Kendra. The lines had continued from the cores and were up to her elbows. Aria’s master continued to feed Kendra different potions. Aria checked on Kendra throughout the ritual’s process. She did not look great. Her fingers on her left had had all turned a pale blue and her body was cold to the touch. If she didn’t see Kendra’s chest rising and falling slowly she would think her dead already.

Kendra’s body shook. Her hands clenched and tightened their grip threatening to crush the two cores in her hand. Aria’s Master’s eyes were focused as still as she stood on the ice side and kept the magic flowing from her. Aria was following along, but her eyes darted to Kendra. She wanted to speak up but kept following along. The trails of blue and red traced up Kendra’s arms and had grown larger now reaching her chest and hitting the lines of magic already within her.

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“This isn’t working,” said Aria as she watched the lines grow and Kendra’s face contort.

“Quiet. It is almost done,” said her master as she renewed her magic’s intensity. “It is almost time to reach into her mind.”

Aria returned to the ritual and brought back her focus. Large amounts of fire and ice mana swirled around the two of them as the two cores glowed brightly. As Aria’s master finished the next line of her chant the external part of the ritual finished. Aria’s Master brought her hands down on the table and shouted.

“Now!”

Aria brought her hands down as well and they both activated the mind magic spell.

Inside Kendra’s mind Kendra wandered aimlessly. Her thoughts were muddled and unclear as to the path she walked opened up in front of her and closed behind her. She could barely hold the memory of what had come minutes before. As she traveled spikes of pain came to her. She felt the chills and searched in the fog for where they came from, but the path always kept close.

She traveled for as long as she could remember when the two sides of her started to burn and freeze her at the same time. Her hands clenched into fists within her mind and outside of it as she felt the cold on her left and the burning heat. The heat felt familiar, comfortable, and safe. She wanted to embrace it and accept it all, but the ice radiating from the left side fought back and her veins started to chill further and turn blue.

The fog began to clear, and she remembered something. She recognized the uncomfortable chills and looked for their source. The dragon’s foreign mana raged through her body and was continually fighting her own. Beyond the two fighting forces were the new stimuli in her hands. They both wanted to enter her body but were blocked somehow. Despite that, some of their mana leaked into her. As soon as the two forces entered her she felt pain as the conflicting power collided at attacked each other until they destroyed each other or more power entered her.

Kendra felt the pain spike every few seconds. She wanted to collapse within this strange place, but she held herself upright. She knew she needed to do something about this new paradigm but had no idea where to start. Old memories came back to her from when she first entered this place. She had tried to fight off the dragon’s ice mana by herself when it first entered her, but it was too powerful. With every two drops of mana, she invested in the fight the ice mana would drop by one. In the end, her body stopped fighting and her mind had stopped caring. The ice mana only slowing because of external forces.

She found it easier to fight the fire mana due to her affinity. She tried to take it as her own, but it fought to run wild through her. The external ritual helped somewhat, but she was unconcerned with it and had no idea that it was there. The ice mana was worse. When the external ice mana met with the dragon’s mana it did what she couldn’t and ate it up growing larger in the process.

Kendra knew what she had to do to gain control of the damage within her, but she had failed so far to do anything. She focused on the feeling of the fire mana entering her. Her mind was slowly clearing of its fog. The fire was distinct from her own and had an untamed and wild nature to it. With her willpower, she pulled her own mana away from the fight with the dragon’s mana and focused her energy on the fire mana. Immediately after she did so she felt chills and numbness as the dragon’s mana was let free. As she worked she realized what she needed to do to escape the pains from the foreign mana and got to work.

Aria pushed into Kendra’s mind from the outside and after a few seconds of struggle, she entered. She followed along with her master and tried to calm down Kendra’s mind as instructed. It was then she saw something. Aria had entered Kendra’s mind directly while her master had stayed behind funneling her energies through Aria. Aria appeared in the foggy space of Kendra’s body and watched her spirit struggling in the battle with the dragon’s mana.

“We need to stop,” said Aria to her master telepathically.

“What are you talking about child. We are almost done. We just need to walk her up. Go over to her in her mindscape and force her awake as I have told you.”

“No. We can’t do it now. You can’t see it, but I can. If we wake her now her efforts will be stopped. She will fall to the ice mana. She doesn’t need our help anymore. I need to leave her mindscape before she notices, and I accidentally interfere.”

“Are you sure that this is what you want to do? If you stop now we can’t do this a second time. The energy within the fire core is already almost gone. It is being absorbed into her body. We would need a new core which we can’t get.”

“I know it is gone, but have you also seen the ice core below you? She doesn’t need our help. Kendra is strong enough and will fight through this to become stronger.”

Aria focused the magic from her spell and dispelled it. Her form within the mindscape dissolved as she was pulled back into her mind. She blinked several times as she refocused on the space around her. Kendra still lay in front of her, and her master had stopped the ritual. The two cores glowed faintly. The traced lines had also faded away now that the ritual had been stopped. Her master turned back and sat in the chair next to the table.

“I hope you are right. If her strength has waned too much since this infection has set in then she won’t wake up.”

Aria brought over another chair and waited and watched. Over time Kendra’s shivering and shaking slowed. The temperature also began to stabilize as the energy in the cores continued to deplete. A minute later the two cores fell to pieces their energy completely gone. Kendra stayed still.

Aria got up and cast [Detect Life Aura]. As she did so a blast of energy came from Kendra. The knickknacks in the room were tossed about with some breaking. Kendra shook As her body suddenly began to wrap itself in fire and ice simultaneously. Aria brought a shield up to protect herself and stepped back and her master did the same. The flames and ice began to recede slowly before returning to Kendra’s arms where they flowed independently up and down her arms. A moment later her eyes shot open, and she sat up with a gasp.