Zalia stood by Ember as they watched Aylie from a short distance away.
“Whenever you’re ready,” Zalia called out again.
Aylie was looking a bit stressed, the cause of the emotion being that Zalia and Ember were waiting for her to use one of her abilities on them. Starfall, an extremely long cooldown spell listed at two days, was one of if not the strongest abilities Aylie had. The name of the spell along with the short description was more than enough for them to understand what was coming. That taken into account though, Alyie was still only at the very beginning of Tin rank and the chances of her spell, even such a long cooldown one, being able to do them serious harm was very unlikely. Take into account that all three of them were healers now and Zalia had an anti-death measure, it wasn’t really as dangerous a situation as it might look at first glance.
“Are you sure?” Aylie called over, her voice still somehow quiet.
“We’re sure,” Zalia assured her.
Zalia could see Aylie muttering something to herself, the words too quiet for her to hear, before the sky darkened. It was daytime, yet the light from the sun faded away and the land was cast in shadow. Glimmering pin-prick stars began glowing in the sky yet as she looked up, Zalia noticed that a few of the stars looked like they were growing brighter. She knew what was coming yet couldn’t help but feel a small amount of awe mixed in with a drop of fear as she noticed they weren’t growing brighter but bigger.
They hit, two glowing balls of solid light with a starry trail left behind them.
Both Zalia and Ember were thrown to the ground with force and she actually felt some of her ribs crack, the stabbing pain arching through her body. She grit her teeth, not wanting to scream at the pain because she didn’t want to cause Aylie any concern. It felt like the light of a star had been given the solidity of matter and had been thrown at her, a slight burning feeling accompanying the massive force with which the light hit.
She rolled over and pushed to her hands and knees, getting one foot underneath her as she managed to stand, the healing already fixing the damage that had been done.
Ember looked a little worse for wear but her condition was improving at incredible speed, her own healing working much quicker as well as benefitting from Zalia’s.
She looked up to see Aylie rushing over with panic written all over her face but Zalia just gave her a broad smile.
“Wow! That is a really strong ability. It should be able to take out most enemies of your rank on its own as long as you have time to cast it,” Zalia exclaimed.
Aylie careened into her, hugging her with as much strength as she could muster.
“Don’t worry, we’re both just fine. I just wanted you to see that you have power now, a lot of strength for someone so young. It means you can defend yourself from some creatures in this world, better than even many Iron rank people might be able to. Even better again than those who have classes such as farmers or craftspeople.”
“Sorry,” Aylie said into Zalia’s side.
“Oh don’t be sorry, we did tell you to do it didn’t we?” Zalia assured.
Aylie pulled her head back and looked up at Zalia and she could see that the worry on her face had been replaced by something akin to excitement.
“It’s good, isn’t it. You have some control over your own future now. No one can take this from you, your powers are yours to use as you see fit. Just remember that it’s important to help others when you can, as long as it won’t cause you to be harmed yourself, alright? Can you do that?” Zalia said.
Aylie nodded.
“I want to help people how you help people,” Aylie murmured.
“Well, now you can,” Zalia said, giving her a smile and a tight hug back.
She was reminded how down-to-earth Aylie was for someone of her age. She had seen too much for someone so young, hell, for anyone at all. No one should have to go through what Aylie had.
“Right, now that one is out of the way, would you like to try some of the others? Starlit portal seems like it could be fun,” Zalia asked.
“I would like to see that one as well,” Ember said, still lying in the snow.
“What are you doing down there?” Zalia asked, turning her head to look at her.
“Just relaxing. It’s comfortable,” Ember explained.
Zalia rolled her eyes.
“We’re trying to help Aylie experiment with her powers, remember?” she reminded Ember.
“And I can’t do that while I’m comfortable?” Ember retorted.
“Well Aylie, how about it?” Zalia said, turning back to the young girl.
“Sure, I can’t figure out this one,” Aylie said.
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“Oh? What are you having trouble with?” Zalia asked, furrowing her brow.
“Seems strange,” Aylie explained.
Ember sat up, putting her arms behind herself as support.
“You said you have a teleport now Zalia, why don’t you show her? Maybe it will help?” Ember suggested.
“Good idea.”
Zalia activated her own teleport skill, Mobility, shunting a short distance away with a rush of air, a small breeze created by the sudden disappearance and reappearance of her body.
“Just like that!”
Aylie’s face scrunched in concentration and a light starry portal appeared behind her and folded, swallowing her in a fraction of a second. She appeared in the next instant next to Zalia. Strangely, she didn’t displace air like Zalia had.
“Well, you picked it up pretty quick,” Zalia said, happy with Aylie’s natural skill at using her abilities.
She hadn’t really seen anyone else go through the process of learning their skills yet and while she hadn’t had any trouble figuring out any of hers, she wasn’t certain if that was normal. It seemed like most abilities came with a certain degree of instinctuality around them.
“Could see how you did it,” Aylie said.
“What do you mean?” Zalia asked.
Aylie shrugged.
“One of your passive abilities then? The one that lets you see into the Astral maybe?” Zalia suggested.
“Maybe,” Aylie said.
“You’ll probably have to work on those two strange ones, and the dreamweaving, on your own though I’d be happy to help however I can. I don’t really know what they are either.”
“I can weave your dreams?” Aylie asked in a small voice.
“Sure, why not? Just don’t make them anything bad alright?” Zalia said after a short pause.
She didn’t really want someone meddling with her dreams but she only slept for an hour or two every few days now so, why not?
Congratulations! Healing presence has reached Bronze 4.
Well, at least something good had come of being flattened by a falling star.
“Hey Aylie, want to come meet Glemp? They’re a good friend of mine.”
They were still out on the mountain, just off one of the lower paths. Boreal was nowhere to be seen, maybe exploring what was her natural home. She was sneaky enough when it came to normal terrain, an effect that was amplified when in her natural habitat. Even without magic, she would blend in extremely well with the snow and rock-filled landscape. With it, she would likely be impossible to find unless she wanted to be.
Aylie gave a nod of affirmation so she started trudging through the snow towards a cave entrance.
“Hey, you just going to leave me lying here?” Ember called.
Zalia looked over.
“Are you stuck?” she asked.
“Sure,” Ember said, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
Zalia rolled her eyes but walked over to help Ember up.
She offered a hand and pulled Ember up to a standing position. Ember gave her a radiant smile and a hug.
“Thanks,” she said, then pushed Zalia over.
Or, tried to.
Zalia managed to keep her feet beneath her, months and months of experience against Boreal’s shenanigans coming in handy as she managed to stay upright.
“That’s just rude,” Zalia said, tsking at Ember.
“That’s cheating! You must have used some kind of magic there,” Ember sulked.
“No, I’m just faster than you,” Zalia teased.
Aylie was already halfway towards the cave, having decided to walk on ahead so Zalia started walking off. She heard quick footsteps as Ember began to chase her so Zalia took off as fast as she could. They very quickly overtook Aylie who also joined in the chase, running after Ember and Zalia, albeit much slower than they could manage.
Just as she was about to reach the cave entrance, the snow to her right exploded and a large furry form slammed into her and Ember, knocking them both over. Half buried in snow, Zalia saw Aylie appear from thin air at the entrance to the caves. She only got that one blink of sight as Boreal proceeded to try and bury Zalia in the snow using her powers.
“Hey, stop that!” Zalia yelled into the building pile of snow, struggling free.
She managed to pull herself free to a standing position and used her own power to bury the struggling Ember just a little more, sprinting to the cave.
She was overtaken by Boreal moments before making it over the line and the three of them watched Ember finally free herself and trudge towards them.
“See?” Zalia said as Ember made it to them.
“Aylie made it here before you,” Ember pointed out.
“She cheated,” Zalia said.
“What!?” Aylie gasped.
It was the loudest she had ever heard the little girl talk.
“Teleporting was definitely against the rules,” Zalia said sagely.
“And what about setting your big kitty cat on me as a delaying tactic,” Ember retorted.
“She did that of her own volition. Besides, she buried me too,” Zalia said, side-eyeing Boreal who was inconspicuously cleaning herself.
“Well, if you used your powers to bury me, Boreal used hers to bury us both and Aylie used hers to teleport, I think I win since I didn’t use any of mine at all,” Ember said, a smug expression on her face.
Zalia looked at Aylie and an understanding passed between them.
“No,” they both said at once.
“And do you agree with them?” Ember said, looking at Boreal who paused mid paw lick.
Zalia and Aylie both stared at her as well and Boreal suddenly looked anxious under the weighted gaze of all three of them.
Boreal vanished into a shadow, no doubt teleporting somewhere else through them.
“Looks like she has abstained from voting which makes it two to one,” Zalia declared.
“Fine, fine, Aylie wins,” Ember surrendered.
“Damn right she does. Now, let’s go find Glemp.”