"With that, it's time for a cookie break!" said Lanetli. He stood and walked over to a table where my little sister had set out cookies for the man.

"Really? You're just going to leave it at that?" Alex asked.

"Yeah."

"At least tell me something else. How does this magic work? You say it like this god just gives you powers, but then you mention rituals and magic, and I just don't get it." Alex redirected.

"That's pretty much it, yeah. There is this magic, I'm sure you feel it now, and it powers magic. I really can't simplify it further kid." he said.

"But how does the ritual work? Do you have some kind of inner pool that you use to power it? How does exhaustion play into magic? How do these powers work?" Alex elaborated.

"Well," Lanetli responded while cramming sugary treats into his mouth. "You have to learn to get the magic to follow your finger, and then you have to draw out the right type of circle to direct the magic to do what you want it to, and then you have to feed the ambient magic into the ritual in just the right amount and pattern." he paused and put another cookie in his mouth and washed it down with milk. "There are a lot of outcomes that can't happen without an icon, which is why I could only summon chickens. For whatever reason you can summon those with unaligned magic. And you can't create an effect that your icon didn't give you the pattern for, no matter how much you study the parts of a ritual circle, all you could do is try to get an extra effect out of the ritual by aligning the magic with your icon." he finished off the milk and held up the glass questioningly.

"There's more in the fridge. What about the powers?" Alex said.

"Well, your icon can align the magic in the area when you use it, and the powers are patterns of magic that the icon is allowing you to put the aligned magic in. It's really that simple. And no, you can't just have a conversation with your icon, get them to like you, and have unlimited powers, people have tried. There are rules even concepts have to follow. You also have a personal magic pool in your soul that you can tap into to use magic in lower magic zones and when the ambient magic is too chaotic to use. Most of the time personal magic is used to stabilize magic." he answers as he pulls the jug of milk out of the fridge and pours himself another glass of milk.

"So you killed all of the mages right?" Alex asked.

"Yep. It's just me left," he said.

"Does that mean that no one alive can connect to an icon?" Alex asked.

"No, no, It's just that no one knows how anymore. I tried to facilitate bringing magic back to help pay off my debt but all I got was a self-important lunatic with a connection to Life to get the rebirth power and make a fucking religion." he drank the milk and sat back down on the couch where he was since he started the story.

"You knew Jesus?" Alex asked in awe.

"Oh yeah, real prick," he said.

"Okay, so what icon could I connect to?" Alex asked, hungry for an answer.

"I don't know, we could find out," said Lanetli.

"Really? Can I be a mage?" he asked.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Maybe. I won't train you unless I feel like it though, you understand?" he responded.

Alex nodded vigorously and Lanetli reached through time and space to pull out a crystal ball with carvings all over the surface. "All you need to do is touch the ball. I'll do the rest," he said.

Alex reached out to the ball and felt the magic in the air stirring, then the crystal ball shattered.

"That wasn't supposed to happen," said Lanetli, confusion marking his brow. He produced another, and Alex touched it. The magic stirred and this time, the ball turned into cheese.

"What does cheese mean?" Alex asked.

"It means one of two icons are close to manifesting in you. Both are unpredictable and powerful. One is a weaker version of the other. You can either bind to Chaos or the more powerful Madness." Lanetli looked at Alex in consideration for a moment. "it may be worth training you after all. . ." he trailed off.

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I understood that I needed to wait until I could properly fight after the battles that I was being revered for. I had personally killed a general and destroyed a base of operations for the enemy with little to no help. Only the most powerful of summoning specialists could do that, and usually, they went into a coma afterward.

I had no explanation for how I got so powerful, only that Time was a powerful icon. I had thought that maybe Time was cheating for me, but I had no way of knowing the gods' intentions. Or even how he would cheat for me. Maybe by giving me powers stronger than I deserved? Was that even possible? An icon gave people powers depending on the actions that aligned with that icon that earned them.

I went through my powers one by one and how I earned them. Past sight, I got by personally learning the value of Time lost. That seemed to check out. Second I had eternal moment, that I had earned by teaching others the value of their wasted Time. That checked out as well. Next, I earned my blade, Sonsuz Kiyamet, The Final Moment. That I earned by killing something that was supposed to be impossible, or even incredibly unlikely, to be killed. Yeah, that fits the bill as well. In fact, if the pattern held up, I should have a power from teaching the Rajek soldiers that Time could kill even the immortal.

I supposed that that was simply due to an effort of me trying harder than anyone else, and, I would assume, meeting the prerequisites of most of these powers before I had made the connection to my icon.

I left it alone, knowing that in Time all of these things would be figured out. I couldn't use eternal moment to rest, because of the effort it took to hold the pattern. I sat back in the tent that I had been assigned after all of Elysia's things were sent back to her family. I sat back and looked at the one piece of jewelry I had managed to snag before her things were taken. It was a necklace. Simple, and beautiful, just as she was in life. It was a silver chain with an onyx owl and blue jewels as the eyes, a present from her family given to her after she graduated.

I thought about her as I held the charm. She was such a kind person. She never wanted the war to take place, and she never wanted me, or her, to fight in it. She would be disappointed that I had made such contributions to the war front. She would have wanted me to have a nice burial for her and to move on, and finish my Time on the front lines. Maybe meet someone else.

That future seemed so pointless though. Any offspring I had would have to fight once they reached magehood and most of them would die as children, just as Elysia had. I wouldn't lie to myself, we were both children, and we were being taught to kill. We were being sent to kill. There was no point in living in a future that thought it was okay to kill children to keep the fat and wealthy alive.

"Another truth. A future is just as valuable as a past. To respect the value of a future is to accept TIME. You have earned the eyes of the future. Use them well. I must admit, you don't really need them with your eyes of the past, but any tool in your box is a tool that can be used." said Time.

I don't move, I don't talk. I simply accepted the gift given. Was that all it took? To truly acknowledge a sentiment of your icon? Maybe to put enough conviction into the sentiment that it becomes a part of your core nature?

I stopped thinking on such matters, knowing that that sort of philosophy would get me nowhere with my goals. All I had to do, was wipe out anyone that was okay with the current system and make sure that they never had their influences placed on this planet ever again.