(Saidi. Cylist orphanage.)

Kairos was late as always, which meant Saidi had to hunt her down again. That kit was going to be the death of her.

Just as the snow-white vixen was about to leave the orphanage to find the problematic kit, Kairos came bursting through the door, panting slightly as if she had run the entire way from…wherever she had been. Kairos looked up at Saidi for a moment before looking at her paws.

“I apologize for being late, Terric Saidi,” Kairos said, politely bowing her head.

“Raise your head, my child. Hurry now, or your siblings will eat all the food,” Saidi said, pointing to the dining area.

Kairos bounded over to the platform where they kept all of their food each day, elbowing one of the orphans aside and hurriedly grabbing a piece of chicken. Saidi watched her carefully, making sure that they were all sharing with one another.

“Hey Kairos!” a few of the orphans acknowledged. “Where were you today?”

Saidi leaned forwards, curious as well.

“I was down by the clearing where the apprentices fight,” Kairos responded, taking a bite out of her meal. Saidi snorted. Quite typical of that kit to be somewhere she definitely wasn’t supposed to be.

A little kit that was younger than Kairos gasped. “I thought we weren’t allowed over there!” Several of the other orphans shot Kairos slightly jealous looks. Saidi was glad that at least some of them remembered the rules.

“I was hiding.” Kairos flicked her tail importantly. “They didn’t see me.”

Saidi raised an eyebrow.

All the little kits immediately began asking her for details. “Did you learn any moves?” “Were they using their abilities?” “Where were you hiding?”

“Guys, guys,” Saidi butted in. “I’m sure that Kairos has had a long day and needs some sleep. Why don’t you save your questions for the morning?”

A big “AWWWWW” greeted her words, but Kairos looked at Saidi gratefully.

“Thank you,” the black fox said.

Saidi narrowed her eyes at Kairos. “Get some ACTUAL SLEEP,” she said sternly. “No staying up past Starset, you hear me?”

“Yes, Terric Saidi,” Kairos said.

Saidi watched her walk to the sleeping cave, wondering what type of trouble would greet her in the morning.

_______________________________ __ _

(Kairos. Inside the sleeping cave.)

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Kairos had promised she wouldn’t stay up past starset, that didn’t mean she couldn’t stay up until starset. That gave her about an eera.

She needed to think about what she had learned.

Mana is kind of like lightning and static: it follows the easiest route. Mana is what powers essence, and some runes are really inefficient because they use pure mana instead of a mix of mana and essence.

Kairos was mostly just theorizing, but it seemed like the most logical explanation. She would probably look deeper into the theory though.

Essence creates a formation for the mana to follow, almost like a natural rune. In return, the mana lets the essence feed off of it, creating a perfect chain. Essence helps mana, mana gives to essence.

While Kairos was thinking, she had absently scratched the essence lightning rune, blankly staring at it as she thought about the theory of magic. That was when she realized if she had discovered the lightning rune by essence, couldn’t she discover other runes by studying the world around her? Suddenly focusing deep on the essence flows and formations around her, she was confused at first. There was nothing, but she couldn't give up. Kairos looked deeper and deeper until she saw the smallest essence strings. She focused on those and soon came across more and more.

They formed small, chained, essence runes.

The runes hooked onto one another and attached to each other perfectly, creating one, massive multilayered rune. When Kairos looked deeper, she could see that the essence was incredibly thin, not even thick enough to look solid in her mind's eye. It was more of a light fog. Kairos found it quite fascinating, especially since she could see a little bit of mana weaving between the misty runes. Just the smallest bit, though–not enough to form a core.

Wow. No, more than wow.

Kairos thoughts were scrambling to find a better explanation of how astonishing the intricate chains were. She felt like a simple “wow” didn’t describe it well enough.

Magic was in everything; she knew that well enough. The extent it reached, however, was awe-inspiring. Every grass blade had its own essence. Every pebble had its own pattern. Despite how different they all were, they all connected through and around everything.

She thought deeply on this, spacing out for who knows how long.

Suddenly, a whisper penetrated her headspace. Kairos stiffened and looked around, expecting to see one of the other orphans breathing down her neck. But she was alone, with an empty cave surrounding her.

The whispers grew a little louder, and Kairos felt something stir inside her…like a second presence.

But how?

A breeze reached her from the outside, or so she thought. But the breeze was cold, and the outside was warm, she knew it. The scent of rain and electricity came with the wind, confusing Kairos greatly. It was clear outside. Was her nose playing tricks on her?

A soft touch to Kairos’s ear made her flinch back and look around rapidly, panic finding itself in her chest. But she also felt something different. Almost… a gentle, reassuring emotion, like something foreign inside her was telling her, it’s all right.

The whispers were comforting her. Kairos didn't know how she knew, but she did. They felt powerful and moving, like a protective layer between her and the world around her.

Kairos gripped her head. “Who are you?” she whispered. “I know you're there.”

There was no answer. The presence was gone. Or had it really ever been there?

Kairos looked outside and realized that bluesky was approaching. Already the darkness was being pushed away by the blue of starset.

I should really get to bed before Terric Saidi realizes I'm not asleep.

And as she curled up in a tight ball and readied herself for slumber, she could have imagined a stroke of warmth and soft cloud around her–as if something was tucking her in a heated blanket, causing her to slide deep into a dreamless sleep.