The morning sun rose from the horizon, its golden rays shimmering on the droplet of fresh dew on the grass blade.

The green seed sprouted from the earth. Bowed toward the rising sun. Its stem grew hardened, taking a darker shade, arched still. Its peaks split into two, taking the shape of leaves. They spread outwards. Two more leaves soon grew from the crown.

Aeryth's heart thumped in excitement but lasted only for a moment.

Then stopped growing. Sagged. Turned ashen. Withered into dust before even maturing. Bearing a fruit.

"Aww...." Sere whispered.

Aeryth let out a breath. Her face was covered in sweat; her ears rang from the exhaustion. Spent beyond belief, her heart burned like she had snorted a plate full of chili powder.

"It dies as soon as you stop. Either the life you gave it is not sustainable, or you're just not experienced enough to enforce a sustainable life. Either way, trying a healing magic with your current situation will prove to be a difficult task."

Aeryth looked at Gu Yuan. He had brought them dinner last night, along with the seeds she had been practicing for the last few hours.

"I believe Aeryth can do it. Grow plants with her power, which would live as normal. We just need to figure out the trick," Sera said with absolute confidence. Aeryth was glad to hear it.

"Sera, again, you're setting up the wrong expectations. Your absolute confidence only burdens her."

Sera made a mocking face, "Yeah. Yeah. I know when I am right, and I know, with absolute surety, that Aeryth can do it."

Gu Yuan sighed. "Anyways, we are done with training. You can control your affinity. For now, focus on controlling both your mana and affinity to the subconscious degree. You should never mentally need to command mana or rune, much like how you don’t need to think to breathe or raise your hand. It should be natural as breathing."

"I will do my best." Aeryth looked at her finger. The rune of ward. "Sera, the rune on my finger, did you put it here?"

"I sure did," Sera nodded. "If you want to ask why specifically here, he's your man."

Aeryth focused on Gu Yuan.

"Barrier is one of few spells that have a very complex rune formation. As such, novices are etched with rune marks. In a pinch, you will not have the burden of creation. As for why hands specifically. All the places the mana travels in your body, your hands and feet would be the fastest as you'll have cast most skills and spells from there."

Aeryth nodded. "So it's for the sake of speed?"

"Something along those lines."

Aeryth nodded. “And the fe—”

An ear-piercing screech of an eagle cut off Aeryth's words. They looked up at the sky.

An eagle hurled down their way from the skies, flapping its wings frantically. Sera let out a whistle. "Cinder is coming to meet us."

"The one who took the lance?" Aeryth asked.

"Yeah, he's the same one." Sera nodded. "There's no other cinder in the forge. Hey, Gu Yuan, what about the auction?"

"It might take a month or so to prepare."

"Woah, that's some time," Sera said.

Aeryth also found that duration to be too great. "Is it normal to take that much time?"

Gu Yuan shook his head. "The lance's value only appreciates as we learn more about it. As of yet, we believe it to be around somewhere in the millions. Three if I am being austere."

"That's a lot." Sera gapped. "Boy, you're about to become a millionaire. Don’t forget the poor me after becoming a rich girl."

"Thus, the ginger company has proposed to invite merchants and families from neighboring kingdoms and strongholds as well."

"I see. Then, it might take even more than a month." Aeryth said. She didn't even know how to fathom such an amount of money. She wouldn't ever need to worry about the money again.

"A likely possibility."

“But, is it really all right to hand over such a weapon to someone outside this city?” Aeryth couldn’t help but question the reasoning.

“It’s something Lady Sia needs to worry about. Not us.”

They got a clearer view of the eagle-wyvern hybrid, Ruri, as it got closer. It looked hurt—broken and beaten. Feather missing from its left wing.

It crashed into the ground. Cinder jumped off and landed gracefully on his feet as if all the momentum of landing at such speed didn’t exist. "Gu Yuan." His gruff voice made Aeryth's skin crawl.

"Cinder. You've sustained injuries." Gu Yuan's voice tinged with worry as he walked over to him. "It seems severe. We need to go to a healer."

"Woah, who did this to you?"

"I am fine..." Cinder wheezed for air. "But Reele has barely made it out alive."

Aeryth watched the blood-covered bird. Its wings were torn. Blood colored the grass beneath it. It seemed numb to its pain, eyes trained on black blood oozing from Cinder’s armor around the abdomen.

Cinder walked up to the birdling. "You did great." The bird lowered its head and closed its eyes. “It is time, dear friend, to say goodbye.”

Reele hummed.

It crumbled into a storm of feathers. A beating orb of light manifested from its form that went inside Cinder’s armor. While the feathers were carried away by the wind.

Aeryth watched the whole thing curiously. If I could heal it... could I have saved it?

Cinder remained unmoving for a few minutes.

Gu Yuan whistled to call another Ruri, probably belonging to him.

"You're hurt. I'll take you to the healer." Gu Yuan said.

Cinder shook his head. "We must proceed to the castle at once. There's an incident that Lord Mayor must know. Now."

"Fine...." Gu Yuan nodded.

"What is this about?"

Cinder looked their way, "An incident in the Duskwoods. I was there... Guh!" he stopped. Coughed. Blood seeped from the side of his armor. "We must hurry."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Gu Yuan helped him climb the Ruri. He hesitated, but clenching his jaw, climbed the bird as well.

"Should I come along?" Sera asked.

"Your presence will not be favorable in the presence of lord mayor." Gu Yuan said.

"Then, I'll see you two later," He nodded and met Aeryth's eyes. "Try not to push yourself too hard. An alive mage will have more opportunity to blossom into a sage than the smartest dead mage in history."

Aeryth nodded.

The bird dove into the sky, towards the noble district.

"Sera," Aeryth said. "Would you mind accompanying me?"

Sera looked down at her wide eyes. She smiled ear to ear as she clenched Aeryth into an uncomfortable hug. "Aww. How can I say no?"

Aeryth didn't understand how Sera's switch flipped so fast. It was a good thing, she thought.

"So where are we going?" Sera asked.

— — —

On their way to Smithy, Aeryth noted a group of knights passing by and stopped in her track. She was not as afraid of them as she was apprehensive.

"Huh?" Sera looked at her in confusion and then noticed the knights. Her brows shot up in understanding. "You know, I didn't first understand why you were so afraid of Truman, but now I do. And I feel even worse that it was due to me that Truman was there."

Aeryth shook her head. "They are my fears, and I have won over them, mostly. You do not lie at fault."

"Still," Sera shook her head, "You're right. No point in dwelling on the past."

"But, I can no longer tell the difference between death knights and these knights. Either of them are willing to crush people, innocent and weak, under the hoof of their horse without batting an eye."

Sera sighed. "They are only doing their job. As for people, they got what was coming for them."

"Are you off the mind that these knights did nothing wrong?" Aeryth's tone rose.

"Now, you're misunderstanding my words. They did wrong. But, like it's not something that has not happened before. It's like standing in front of a frenzied monster and then blaming the monster for being hurt. Could those people have avoided their inevitable fate? Easily. They didn't need to mob out on the street."

Aeryth felt her nerves flare. "They were under control," She snapped. People looked their way. Aeryth let out a breath. "They were under spell's control. They couldn't have avoided it."

"You say that," Sera sighed, "But you were holding on to the lance, no one had it as bad as you, and yet you didn't even try to stab anyone. How am I supposed to feel pity for them? The lance brought out only their true self. While I do not condemn them for what they did, or think it was right for the knights. I feel no pity for them, either. Given a chance, they would've killed either for us with glee on their face and lived the rest of their life blaming the spear for their doing."

Aeryth clamped her mouth shut. She didn't argue against it. "Knights were wrong." She said only. People were ugly in this city. She knew that. She hated this hideous city. Yet, every life was precious. No one should have the right to crush the other like an insect.

Don’t think. It has nothing to do with me. I am so close to being a mage, free from this city. I can leave very soon. And never return.

"Yeah. But that's how they operate. People know. So they took the risk willingly and paid the price. Knights are there to protect the noble clans and family, not the people of this city."

Aeryth opened her mouth to argue. About the wrongness of the statement, but she had seen it first hand. It was the truth. What she believed knights were was a distorted fairytale of a child. "I suppose you're right."

"I am never wrong." Sera grinned, patting Aeryth’s back with enough force to tumble her into the next life. "Why are we wasting our time discussing them, though? Let's focus on something interesting."

“We are here,” Aeryth said.

“What are we doing here?” Sera asked.

“You’ll know,” Aeryth knocked on Tor’s door.

Tor opened the door. He knitted his brow. "Finally had the time to see the old man."

"Sorry, I was busy with something. But I can control both my affinity and mana now," Aeryth replied as she stepped inside. Sera followed behind her, staring at her.

"Already?" Tor raised a brow. "New generation doing everything faster. We used to take months to learn these things."

"About that," Sera opened her mouth. But closed it shut under Aeryth’s burning eyes. "Nothing."

Tor laughed. "Reckeless training? Come this way. I am excited to see how you use it."

He hurried into the store room. And down the locked door that was room to store the broken items.

He grabbed a stick and raised the latch in the hidden. Opening up a series of stairs into the basement.

"I didn’t know about this place!" Sera seemed hurt about that fact.

"Had to make sure you don't find it," Tor chuckled.

"But it's fine for her to go in?" Sera pointed at Aeryth, "When did she become your favorite?"

"If you had no place to hide something precious, my locker would've been as open for you as it is for her," Tor replied. "But you have a home, don't you?"

Sera nodded. Her expression became more somber.

The basement was as big as the entire house. A squarish rectangle.

It was mostly empty except for identical lockers in it. And few more lockers, but they were far less guarded and cared for.

"What's in those?" Sera asked.

"My sins," Tor replied, laughing. "I mean tastiest drinks in all of lesterforge. Not even the mayor can dream of these dews."

"Lemme decided that."

Tor brought down his hand on Sera’s lunging form, slamming her into the ground. "Bah! First, get your age right."

"Just wait for the next year. I'll take one of these as my present," Sera replied, groaning as she sat there, refusing to get up.

Tor said nothing as he walked over to one of the lesser lockers and opened it. He took out the flower. "All yours."

Aeryth nodded.

"So, what is this about?" Sera asked.

"Let me show you." Aeryth took the flower in her hand. "Can I awaken it here?"

Tor nodded. "Not even her flames can harm anything in this room. Go ahead."

Aeryth took a deep breath. Tor stepped back. Aeryth crouched and put the flower on the floor. She channeled her mana, let it be swarmed by the red, and turned it into the life—alive mana, she decided to call it. Not the smartest name, but who cared?

Her hand hovered above the flower, trying to guide the ethereal nature of her affinity into the flower. It was still hard. It seems to just vanish upon touching the air.

"Air as a medium is hard and not recommended for newly blessed. Try earth or direct contact instead." Tor suggested.

"I understand that," Aeryth replied. Gu Yuan had explained.

Controlling her power outside the body would be hard, and the air was extremely volatile, making it something only an expert with great control over the mana could do. Even Sera used the ground as her medium and suggested Aeryth try the same. "I will follow that when casting an actual spell. This is just awakening a flower. Doing something like this shouldn’t require a crutch."

Tor nodded.

Aeryth focused. The ethereal mana touched the flower's petal, slowly wrapping around the blood-red nucleus. The lightning sprang forth, dancing even wilder than before.

Aeryth stepped back.

The air crackled and buzzed for a few moments, then it died and vanished into the air.

“Woah…” Sera uttered in awe.

Aeryth looked at Sera. Sera looked towards her, eyes wide in shock. "Woah, that was lightning. Did you create lightning? That's so awesome."

Aeryth nodded. "Ask Tor for an explanation about it."

Tor sighed. "Explanation can wait. Now that you don't have to bleed out to create lightning. Let's focus on the next part. Taming the lightning inside your body."

"How do I tame it?"

"Hm. You will need to use mana to trap it in your veins, hold and chain the mana around it until it loses its violent nature."

She channeled mana back into the flower. The lightning sprang forth.

"Are you touching it?" Sera asked, barely above a whisper. Worried she was. Tense too. Her fists were clenched as she prepared to knock Aeryth away from it. "You will get hurt."

"I know," Aeryth replied. "But, I want to know if I can control it."

Sera nodded. "I can expel it for her." Sera proposed to Tor.

Tor shook his head. "She needs to experience it without help. She will hold the flower with her every time of the day. You cannot watch over her all the time."

“I can if the need arises.”

“I am not a child,” Aeryth added.

Aeryth touched the lighting. It shoved itself into her veins. It turned black. Aeryth cleched her jaws in pain. The lightning roared inside of her. She controlled her mana and tried to hold the lightning in one place. But she was too slow in her control, and lightning was too violent.

It dissipated. Aeryth looked down at her hand. Her veins throbbed in pain. "I failed."

"You are still slow in control. Put too much effort into just moving mana. A few days of training and you should be good to go."

Aeryth nodded. The pain made it hard for her to talk. She looked down at her finger. The damage was nothing like how she was told a real lightning would hurt. Her hand was dried, with a black vein visible under her skin.

"I will try again," Aeryth suggested.

They didn't object.

So she did. After a few more attempts, she couldn't continue. But it was not all bad as she learned the way lightning moved inside her body, and she could practice controlling mana through there without lightning to tame it. It would make her faster.

"I will heal in a few hours, I think,"

They had moved to the upper floor after she was done.

"Are you going to keep it?" Tor asked.

Aeryth wondered. "Can other people tell how precious it is?"

Sera shook her head. "No. Most people will believe that it might have some kind of magic enchantment to keep it alive for a long time. Nothing too great about that. So, you should be able to keep it. But, if I let you keep it, I have a feeling that I will find you either dead or insane next time."

Aeryth chuckled, her hand squeezing uncomfortably. Sera wasn’t wrong. She would try again as soon as her hand was healed and mana recovered.

— — —

With a pin, Aeryth secured the purple flower around her chest. It looked great on the freshly worn battle dress that Sera had gifted her. The violet shone rather well with the grey and dull colors of her dress.

She did have to pay a tailor fifty jades to make a hole in her dress to force the stem inside. It grazed her skin slightly, but overall, she liked it. Why was she even wearing it in public? Well, for one thing, she wanted to wear it. And two, no one was here to tell her otherwise. It had been two days, but Sera had not shown herself again after the training, so she certainly had no input on what Aeryth did.

Her license was available for collection. So, she was on her way to the guild. She had been practicing the mana discharging strike for the better part of the day. And she had also started using the ward. It was simple and should be enough to give her a standing chance against someone, should the need arise.

She had also paid for a mask, which was a thousand jades, a one-time payment, and a four monthly installment of two hundred jades. Since she couldn't afford to pay all at once.

As of now, Aeryth only had a hundred jades left, which included the money that she got from the Collection team. She wondered if Tergol had hurt someone by now.

Did I make the right choice? Am I also to be blamed, if he hurts someone, or Daire? Both of us are the only answer. I trusted him, and if my trust was wrong, then I should shoulder the burden, too. But to whom am I accountable?

With a sigh, she stepped inside the building. The receptionist greeted her and gave her the license; it came with a purse like the ones that men carried, made of leather, and a mask.

"The strider is on the second floor, to the right. He has your mask. And your appointment for advancement has been duly made."

Aeryth nodded. She took a token from the table and made her way to the Strider's office.

Aeryth knocked on the door.

After a minute of waiting, the door finally opened. She peeked inside. A man in his forties sat on a circular obsidian table. His eyes were closed. The face was covered in hundreds of tattoos, words that Aeryth had never seen before, but they were beautiful to look at.

"Can I come in?" Aeryth asked softly.

The strider nodded.

"It's nice to meet you. I am Aeryth," she showed him the token. Well, his eyes were closed, so she didn't know if she showed him.

"Call me Hin-Yi," the strider's hair was greying, but other than that, he seemed healthy. Young. "I feel something from you."

Aeryth had talked to Tor about meeting with Strider, and Tor assured that Strider wouldn't be able to feel her presence, and in case he did, his oath would bind him from informing anyone else—while he was alive and even after his death.

"I wear an artifact to hide my presence," Aeryth said truthfully. She didn't know how risky it was, but she knew, a doubt lingered in her heart still, that without the strider's help, she would not get past ten percent assimilation.

"I am aware, and it is one of great quality. Unquestionable, Elder Tor's hammer has shaped it," the strider's voice was placid, unhurried, but slow. Almost too slow. "First, the mask. Sit here."

Aeryth nodded. She sat on the round mat on the table, legs folded, just as the strider was.

"It is a tradition of Realm Travelling Commission to have the mask rune etched on the thumb," the strider began. "It is a storage rune, but not limited to mana, but it is a specialty of the commission, so you're barred from ever looking at it."

"I understand." She extended her left hand.

"Not the dominant hand."

Aeryth gave him her other arm. He placed the mask between them. Tapped on its forehead.

"Do you have a shape in mind?"

"No," Aeryth replied.

Hin-Yi nodded. A thread manifested from the blank mask, glimmering in seven colors, the strider wove it into a rune that Aeryth couldn't look at.

Once the rune was formed, it shrank and shrank until it was the size of her fingernail. He pressed her thumb between his fingers, and the rune sunk. Aeryth felt the heat and slight pain, but nothing she couldn't handle. Her thumb turned black.

"It's done."

"Now. about the assimilation."