Mia awakened to a familiar wall, a familiar hand-knit blanket on her back and a familiar chest beneath her face. she looked up and saw her Master's face and tilted her head in confusion as she was once again in the room she spent five years training. But now the clothes on her back that appeared when she woke up were the ones she was wearing when she fell asleep.

She rolled out of bed and wondered to herself if she ever really left. She looked back and her master was no longer in bed, she turned back around and saw him standing on the opposite side of the room except he was in the body she'd last seen him in.

"Morning Mia,"

he grinned at her name the same way he usually did when he said her name. She stood up cautiously as though the ground could break beneath her feet at any moment to swallow her in the earth.

"You must be very confused I see"

"Am I dreaming?"

"Yes, the seed of knowledge I planted in you has taken root nicely but it has yet to bear fruit, though I believe it soon will."

"What does that mean?"

"As of now I can only appear to you in your dreams should you need guidance or instruction, but in time I'll be able to appear to you when you're awake, isn't that exciting Mia."

"Oh."

She looked around the room and noticed that the walls were covered in pictures of memories she had made since leaving the mountain, the friends she's made as well as the faces of all the elves she'd killed

"Um... Master"

"Yes?"

"I know that in war people need to die to protect the people at home but..."

"Are the people you've killed taking their toll on you?"

At the word "people" she shrunk back and turned away. He smiled and nodded knowingly. He walked up to her and grabbed her left hand as she avoided his eyes. She looked down at her hand and saw him putting a ring on her finger.

"W-what's this?"

"I wanted to give it to you sooner but the seed had not yet grown enough for me to reveal myself to you. It's the crystallization of the lives you've taken."

She jumped back and fell over the bed onto her back trying to get away. She tried to take the ring off but before she could her master grabbed her by both wrists and hovering over her, nose to nose, held her in place.

"I-I don't want this."

"Mia, it is the duty and responsibility of those who've taken a life to carry the weight of the dead until the end of their lives."

She tried to turn away but Adeliza crossed Mia's wrists and held them down with one hand as she used the other to force Mia's chin straight so that she had no choice but to face her as she sat down on her waist and stopped her struggles.

"You need to be strong not just physically but mentally. You need to face the consequences of your actions. And it would be best if you took responsibility for the things you've done. You wanted to be the hero, I gave you the strength to be one. You wanted to fight, I taught you how to swing a sword. You wanted to Protect the people you care about and I gave you the tools to handle it but I cannot carry the weight of your transgressions for you. You are fully responsible for the way in which you use my teachings and I will not baby you about this."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

She tried to shut her eyes but she couldn't escape her voice. she tried to cover her ears but Adeliza just got closer. She tried to break free but her master was too strong.

"You're an adult now Mia, part of being an adult is taking responsibility for your own actions. There are many children who live and die without ever growing up and I want you to be better, so face your problems and wear this ring with pride because it probably won't be the last."

When Mia finally stopped struggling and looked up at her master she saw that much like the almost ethereal ring she was given glowing a faint mystical gold shaped like a spine that had been shrunk bend and twisted around her finger there were similar articles of ethereal gold covering her master.

Earings that resembled arms eyebrow piercings that resembled hands, every single finger and toe wearing a ring similar to the one she now has. On her tongue was a skull and two more skulls in the place of snake bite piercings from the glow beneath her clothes Mia could tell she had more private piercings she couldn't see and her eyes widened.

"This will be the mark that you are truly the hero and have received my blessing to call yourself one. Everyone who ever wears such a ring will immediately feel the weight of all the guilt from all the death that was needed to make the ring. Only a hero can wear this ring and keep their sanity. It is your mark of mental strength, but if you can't bear the burden I can hold onto it until you're ready."

She looked at her master again as he reached for the ring. She saw how a few of his fingers had more than one ring.

"What's one more right?"

"N-no"

When Adeliza reached for her hand to take back the ring Mia pulled her hand back to her chest.

"I'll wear it. This is what you've been trying to make me understand right? If I'm not even strong enough to handle something like this I'm not fit to be a hero."

Still straddling her waist her master sat up and ruffled her hair a bit.

"Good girl, if you ever need help with anything or need someone to lend an ear to your worries just know I'm always with you in your heart and in your dreams."

As he spoke The room they were in began to fade to dust from the beginning of her sentence at the roof to the end of her sentence with her body disappearing and the weight of another human on her lap lightening until she awoke.

She looked around Laturentius' room a bit distraught, the girl she held in her arms was gone and there was a dead man crushed against the wall, she looked down at her hand and saw the glowing ring on her finger as the bones she could see seemed to grow by one. She dried her tears and calmed herself down.

"What's one more right?"

She got up and began heading to the war room to talk to Laurentius