“Inversion Magic,” the white nymph said. Suma let out a deeply relieved sigh.

“Thank the dragons,” Suma said.

“Is that good?” I wondered.

“If you have to have chaos type magic, then that would be preferred.” Suma said.

“I have never met an Inversion Magic user, it’s quite a rare attribute.” The nymph noted.

“How rare?” I asked.

“I have only ever heard of one who wasn’t a dragon,” she said, “the familiar of the legendary Court Mage, Ambos.”

“So… what does it do?” I asked.

“Inversion Magic is unique in that it is the only known way for a mage to cast a spell outside of their normal types. It switches all Order Magic into its Chaos Magic counterpart, and vice versa.” Suma explained. “Which, also explains what happened that day in the alley...”

“It does?” I wondered.

“The Chaos equivalent of the healing attribute is one of the forms of the illegal magic type we talked about earlier, Death Magic. Specifically, the pain attribute, also called Injury Magic.” Suma said in a serious tone. “It also explains why the guards found evidence of torture on the noble, because...” Suma stopped talking and averted her gaze to the ground.

“Suma, I’m so sorry. I didn’t-” I tried to say, but she cut me off.

“Stop Jake, you did not know; neither of us did. We could not have known.” Her voice was shaky and beginning to break. “This whole time… I thought it was my fault... that had I messed up somehow, done something wrong, but it was not, and I did not.” Suma turned to the white nymph, spread her wings, and bowed, “Thank you... thank you so much. This has taken such a burden off me.”

“Please, there is no need for that Lady Suma.” The white nymph said and tried to get Suma to straighten herself.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but what exactly does this mean? Like... what do I do with this Inversion Magic?” I asked. “I mean, if I’m going to invert every type and attribute I come across, what does this mean for our combo magic?”

Suma looked caught off guard for a moment, “You make a good point. Since my attribute is healing, and yours is inversion, any combo magic we do will be illegal.”

“So, we won’t have access to the biggest gun in our arsenal.” I said. “Wait, what does this mean about my spells? Will I still be allowed to do magic?” I asked a bit worried.

It was the white nymph who answered my question, “Oh yes, you will still be able to use magic. However, since you are a Chaos Magic user you will not be able to perform any spells that use Order Magic, as it is your natural opposite.”

“So, I can’t use water or fire magic?” I asked.

“Oh no, both Chaos and Order Mages can manipulate the elements and energy. What you wouldn’t be able to do is perform healing magic, or really any magic that is only possessed by Order Mages, like Body Magic and Mind Magic. However, Energy and Nature Magic can be performed by both types of mages.” The white nymph said.

“But you said earlier that they were Order Types?” I pointed out.

“They are,” she said, “but that’s just how I learned them.”

“So can ny- I mean… can Neame who have those attributes use both Chaos and Order?” I asked.

“No, while the attributes may exist in both types, they are technically using Order Magic.” Suma said.

“So, does this mean I can only use spells that have to do with Inversion Magic?” I asked.

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“Of course not, you can use any type of Chaos Magic.” Suma said.

“As long as it isn’t illegal that is.” The other nymph added.

“Right…” I said a bit confused. They spent a few minutes explaining what types of magic I could legally use, and which were forbidden by law. Apparently, there were not nearly as many known branches of Chaos Magic as there are Order Magic, and one of the branches was illegal entirely. I have access to five known branches, Inversion, Death, Nature, Energy, and Wild. Death was ruled illegal and any practice of it, or its subordinate attributes, War, Pain/Injury, Plague, or Famine, is punishable by imprisonment. Wild magic is a blanket term meaning unknown or unclassified; anything that they don’t know about or haven’t studied is this type.

Eventually, Suma and I said goodbye to the white Neame and headed to our training ground. We decided to walk to it, that way we could have a conversation about what we learned and how to proceed. “So, looks like I have some studying to do.” I said.

“You need to be careful Jake, researching Chaos Magic will undoubtedly draw a lot of unwanted attention. Nobility, royalty, and even some commoners, all have their eyes on people who try to use it.” Suma explained after perching on my shoulder.

“Why does everyone fear it so much? I get that it is rare, but this feels like more than just fearing the unknown.” I pointed out.

“There may have only been one known creature to have Inversion Magic, but there have been several instances of Chaos Mages, or creatures that possess Chaos Magic, going on rampages and killing thousands, or even millions.”

“Who were they?”

“Arguably the most famous is the Chaos Dragon. It was a being of unimaginable power that laid waste to most of the world, nearly leading to my people’s extinction.” Suma said.

“Wait, you have dragons here?” I said amazed.

“No, not anymore. They all disappeared years ago.”

“Why?”

“No one knows,” she said, “some say they were hunted to extinction after the Chaos Dragon’s rampage, others think they just died off naturally.

“And the others?” I asked. “Who were the other Chaos Magic users I mean?”

“They were beings from another world that found their way to ours. They were seemingly unstoppable, and fearless warriors of incomparable power that called themselves Vikings.”

“Did you say Vikings?” I half yelled. Of all the things she could have said, that was definitely not on my list of potential guesses. Suma’s head pulled back quickly.

“Um yes.” She said hesitantly. “Have you heard of them?” She realized.

“In a… manner of speaking, yes. They invaded my homeland over a thousand years ago. Although, we called them the Danes and Northmen.”

“So, their wrath made its way to your world as well. They were ruthless on my world, was it the same for yours?” She didn’t have lips but based on her tone I could just imagine her spitting at their names. Her voice was almost spiteful, as if they were her worlds equivalent to Nazis.

“Yeah, they came from out of nowhere and conquered as they went. They would attack, raid and loot everything, then take as many people for slaves as they could. Men, women, and even children, it didn’t matter to them.” I told her everything I remembered from history class, but that wasn’t much. “I think they mostly attacked port cities though.”

“I cannot say I paid much attention to the stories from our arcane history class, but that certainly sounds like them, with one major difference.” Suma said.

“What?”

“They did not take any slaves.”

“Really? I guess that makes sense, your species is pretty small.” I nodded my head thinking about it.

“They did eat a lot of people though…” She mentioned.

“WHAT?” I yelled way too loudly and several Neame looked over at us startled.

“Did they not do that on your world?” She wondered.

“Umm… not that I know of.” I said. I thought about it for a moment. I reasoned that the Vikings probably couldn’t understand Suma like I can, meaning to them, they were just birds with magic. Hopefully that’s what happened anyway.

“Well, I would not put it past them,” Suma scoffed, but really it was more of a chirp.

“Hey Suma, I wanna practice my magic a bit, can you give me some pointers?” I asked changing the topic to something less disgusting than cannibalism.

Suma hesitated for a moment, “I can try, but Chaos Magic is vastly different from Order Magic. What I know may not translate very well.”

“Well, you showed me how to use summoning magic, it can’t be that different.” I pointed out.

“True,” Suma said, “and anyway, there is no harm trying.”

“And I guess we need to bond my new sword and shield too.” I added.

“Yes, we need to do that before you leave today, or at least find a place in my home to store it safely.” She said. “I will fly ahead and summon you once I get to the training area.” With that, Suma spread her wings and took off. While waiting, I thought it would be fun to try out some magic.

“Okay, something simple. Gathering water from the air.” I started by closing my eyes and reaching out my hand into that pool of energy, just like I did when Suma tested to see where my magic was coming from. After I felt that power start to flow, I pictured water vapor cumulating in front of my hand. I pictured it taking the shape of a ball. When I opened my eyes a small baseball sized orb of water was floating just in front of it. I played with it for a moment, stretching it out, compressing it flat, I even froze it and then finally turned it into steam. Just as I had done that, Suma said she had arrived and began summoning me.

“Hey you!” Someone yelled from behind me.

“Yes?” I said as I turned around to see who it was. But just as I did, I felt something big and heavy hit my face… hard, then everything went black.