(AMELIA)

Grains of sand swirled across the grounds, scraping softly against my boots as I waited for Ryla to signal the start of the spar.

I could see the fire burning in Eve’s eyes as wind coalesced around her hands and a faint green aura surrounded her body.

Even in this situation I couldn’t help but admire the beauty of her long silver hair blowing in the wind. Her eyes were mesmerizing too. I couldn’t recall a time I’d ever met someone with two different colored eyes or, why they made me feel the way they did.

When I first saw them, I felt as if something was hidden in those eyes, something dark and sinister. But as time passed and we spent more time together, the feeling had started to fade. I had come to know a lot about Eve, about her past. I could tell she was a good person, who only wanted to do right. Anyone that had gone through what she had would have a little darkness in them. She helped me in my darkest moment, I fully intend to be there to help her through hers.

‘Which is why, I’ll do my best to prepare you for this world. I want to stay by your side, I want to make memories together, and I want to be there when you get your revenge.’

I felt a smile pull at the edge of my lips as I remembered our promise, “Forever and Always.” It felt like a lifetime ago that we were both simple girls in the middle of a tournament hoping to be a part of the Church that we both had looked up to dearly.

Who would have imagined this is where it would lead us. Being picked personally by Kalan, then having to be saved by him. Being betrayed, by the ones we looked up to. Almost losing the person I care most about as I laid helpless on the ground.

A swift shadow quickly passed over us shaking me from my thoughts as the signal for the spar had finally begun. ‘I’ll make sure that not just next time, but for the entire future that we remain together. I’ll always be able to protect you.’ My thoughts finished as I quickly maneuvered to get in range.

Ryla had given us three rules for this spar, with them being we couldn’t use our main weapons. Which meant no bow for Eve, and no kunai for me. The second being non-lethal spells were the only ones allowed. The third was whoever landed the first hit won.

However, I knew that my weakness in magic mainly lied in the fact I didn’t have many ranged abilities, while Eve had plenty of them.

But as Eve let out a large burst of wind mana around her, I quickly came to realize another disadvantage I had.

Every time she used a wind spell, the sand in the area would follow. And now I was trapped in a dust storm.

‘Calm down and feel.’ Forcing my breathing to slow, I opened my mind to the world of mana around me, expanding my senses. If I can't see her anymore, I'll just sense her actions.

‘There.’ A disturbance in the mana to my side quickly gave way to a mass of wind mana headed straight for me. The speed of it was off. It seems the sand isn't only my enemy, the weight of it is slowing down her wind attacks as well. Sending more mana to my legs, I hopped to the side and avoided her spell.

I started to collect mana around my hands to conjure a ball of cracked ice that would burst mid-air, in the direction her spell came from but I felt the mana from the wind blade spin around to head back in my direction.

I had a feeling it would get annoying if I left it alone, I decided to take it head on. I brought my arms up in front of my face and used the mana from my unformed attack to grow a shield of ice along my arms. The sheets of ice met, forming a triangular block of ice just in time for the wind blade to crash into it and be torn in half.

From the lack of force in the impact, I could tell Eve hadn’t put much mana into the strength of it.

Shaking my head, I went back to trying to track Eve’s location but I felt the blade, now there were two of them, making their way back to me.

‘So you’re also tracking mana signatures and having the blade follow it.’ I smiled. 'Great minds think alike.'

I expanded the ice along my arms until it was long enough to reach the ground, then I dug it in and disconnected myself from it. As the wind blades approached, faster now, I made sure to release a steady aura so that Eve could sense where I was. The fact that her range of senses was beyond mine still impressed me. It was hard to believe she'd only been using mana for such a short amount of time.

As the blades neared, I quieted my mind and focused solely on their movement.

‘Not yet, not yet…. Now!’ As the blades made contact with the ice wall, I hid my mana signatures and dashed backward as the sound of ice shattering rang out.

‘Now I’ll just need to see if she falls for it.’

I tried my best to wait patiently, but as the moments seemed to slowly bleed by Eve still hadn’t shown herself. Had I messed up the timing? There’s no way I’m sure she timed it perfectly.

Then I felt a smile across my face as the sound of boots crunching in the sand made their way towards me.

“Was it really that easy?” Eve tentatively asked as she stalked over toward the wall of ice. “But where is she? Wait!”

It was too late. My aura flared once she was in my range.

“Bind!”

Instantly, chains of ice tore out of the ground beneath her feet and quickly wrapped around her.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I watched her struggle to break the chains, but for everyone she broke two more quickly formed to take their place. She stopped fighting and sank down to her knees, her hair covering her eyes.

“I’m sorry Eve, but this is just the difference between us currently.” I said, as I coated my hand in ice. “Just surrender Eve, it’s just a spar, it's not a big deal.

I heard her mumble something under her breath and although I’m sure I knew what she said, I couldn’t help but want to tease her.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you. Can you please say it again?”

I felt a sudden burst of mana rise from Eve, as she lunged towards me, the chains only stopping her a few inches from my face.

I could see the anger in her eyes, as the fear I used to get from them suddenly resurfaced. “I said, get these damn chains off me, you win.” Her voice coming out cold as ice.

As I released the chains, she slumped back down to her knees, and I put my hand out to help her up.

“Don’t!.” She snapped as she slapped my hand away.

I jumped backwards, stunned. Eve seemed to realize what she had done and looked almost as surprised as I must have. Instead of saying anything though she just got herself up and stormed off in a random direction away from camp.

“What was that all about?” I asked Ryla as she appeared out of the shadows to my side as I rubbed the spot on my arm where she had hit me.

Ryla watched Eve running off into the distance for a while before turning back to me. I almost repeated myself, unsure if she had actually heard me.

“Eve was thrust into a conflict she, no, most people wouldn't be able to participate in. She's feeling her powerlessness more than ever right now. Her progress is incredible but what can she do when she is decades behind? She's mad at the result, not you. Just give her some time to get through this.It is necessary for her to grow in the future, so don't think too much about it. For now, come with me. I want to talk about ways you could improve, I’ll do the same with her later when she has calmed down.”

I looked at Ryla, unsure if I had ever heard her say so much at one time. Before the last part of her words registered.

“Yes ma’am.” Quickly looking back in the direction Eve had stormed off in, before turning to follow Ryla.

~~~~~~~~~~~

(Eve)

‘Why did I say that just now and what was that look Amelia gave me? That was so unlike me, and I’ve never seen that look from her before.’

‘Oh whatever, I’ll apologize later.’ Anger welled up inside me, but whether it was from my actions just now or the spar I couldn’t tell.

‘So this is the difference between Amelia and I currently, my level in this massive world.’ One word stuck in my mind and I knew it was time to face it. Weak. I was so weak. My heart sank a little bit at the harsh reality of it.

I knew I was far behind in terms of strength in terms of the average people of this world, but I didn’t think it was this bad. The average of the world is B, Amelia is at C, and if she was able to beat me like this…. Just how weak am I truly.

I really have so far to go in this world, but I will do whatever it takes to get there. Ryla will probably say this is good for me. I sighed. But… knowing that didn't make me feel any better.

‘Oh who am I kidding, that’s a lie. I wanted to win. Who would want to lose.’ Burying my head into my arms, as tears started to fall down my face.

“Don’t turn back.”

Jumping to reality, I scrambled to my feet, looking in all directions. ‘How stupid can I be, this is the Borderlands anything can happen.’

As I kept looking around, I began to think I had gone crazy until I finally spotted something.

Surprise filled my mind as I realized it was the head of the village we had helped not long ago, standing off in the distance staring at me.

“Hey, what are you doing out here? Is your village okay?”

But I got no response, he simply just continued to stare at me. I got a surge of anxiety but pushed it down. This I knew I could do.

Taking the initiative I decided to go towards him, but as I was about to reach him he suddenly vanished.

I turned to look around, and found him again way off in the distance.

‘I could have swore he was just here. What the hell? Ryla never mentioned anything like this happening.'

I continued to keep trying to approach him, but everytime I neared his location the same thing continued to happen. Until I found myself standing outside of a cave with him standing inside of it.

Going against my intuition screaming at m me to turn back, I pushed deeper into the cave. Yet again he disappeared, the only difference being I couldn’t find him anymore.

But what I soon began to realize was the differences in this cave compared to the rest.

Deep in the cave were beautiful large pink and blue mana crystals. All along the walls were drawings, some showed bloody battlefields, one showed the colors of purple, white, cyan, and gold spread out with sixteen people walking behind each of them. Carved out drawings of a dragon, hummingbird, Phoenix and a Pegasus.

‘What could all these mean? The hummingbird reminded me of the Church, but I didn't recognize the others. Could they be other churches??’ Running my hand across the stone.

From the feeling of these carvings they must have been here for hundreds of years.

I kept investigating the drawings, but one specific one caught my eye more than the rest.

‘Don’t turn back. Isn’t that what I heard earlier? Why is it drawn here?’

As I tried to find an answer in my head, I felt an unnerving feeling that something was behind me.

Quickly turning around, I thought I caught a glimpse of a little boy. But it vanished instantly.

Scary stories from my village bubbled up in the back of my mind. Witches that lured children into the forest to eat them, living trees that sang to travelers only to wrap them in their vines and sucked them dry of nutrients. ‘I must really be going crazy, I should really head back and get some rest. Oh shit!’ Suddenly realizing, I had been aimlessly following the man that kept disappearing.

I ran out of the cave, and began to expand my senses and felt relief wash over me as I detected a slight trace of Ryla’s mana.

‘Oh thank god, I better hurry back before it gets dark.’ Taking one last glance at the cave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My plans to sleep as soon as I arrived had been quickly snuffed out by Ryla once I got back. I hadn’t realized how far I’d run off, so it was dark by the time I got back, so after a quick scolding from Ryla and a swift apology to Amelia I had been put as the first watch.

Sitting down, I pulled out some rations from my sack. Feeling my stomach rumble as I hadn’t eaten since this morning before the spar.

As I looked down, I saw two small feet appear in front of me.

I scrambled to my feet, the fear from those stories still fresh in my mind. In front of me, was a little boy who looked no older than eight with peach colored hair with cat like eyes to match. His body was covered by some unfamiliar, dark grey cloth that covered every inch of his skin. His neck was covered by a scarlet red scarf, almost like blood.

‘How could I not sense him? Why is he here in front of me? Why is he alone out here? Who is he?’

I went to open my mount to ask any of the array of questions in my mind, but before I could talk he did.

“I said don’t turn back.” The boy grumbled quietly before he began walking in the direction I had come from earlier.

“Hey wait!” I tried to call out but he disappeared.

I felt conflict build inside me. Should I follow him? But what about Ryla and Amelia? I knew I should tell them first but I couldn't bring myself to. I needed to do something myself.

Eventually, I couldn’t help but give in and began falling the boy towards an unknown destination.

~~~~~~~~~~

The walk here had been quiet, no matter what I tried to ask he simply stayed quiet, but I could finally see our destination off in the distance.

‘It really is the cave from earlier, but why is he bringing me here?’

I kept wanting to ask questions, but I knew I wouldn’t get the answers I was seeking so I just continued to follow him in the cave.

After a few strides and turns, we broke off into a separate room. The room stood about twenty meters tall and ten meters wide, and had the same mana crystals that were deeper in the cave, but this time they lined the entire ceiling and walls. But even more noticeable was the steady stream of water that flowed throughout the cave.

I hadn’t seen fresh water in so long, and as I scooped some of it into my mouth a wave of nostalgia from when life was simpler rushed over me. But I started to notice something else while I was drinking.

Just standing in this room I could feel myself becoming stronger from the amount of mana.

‘This place is insane, just how did he find this.’ Turning to look at the person in question.

“I’ve followed you here, can you at least tell me who you are?”

The boy stared at me, as if frozen in time. I sighed internally, resigning myself to not get anything out of him when he opened his mouth.

“Io.”