Chapter 110

Awakening upon the flagstones of the Cathedral, the first thing she saw was her bedroll, again unused, and a partially eaten bowl of food before her.

“Oh, this again,” she yawned groggily, looking around for Tobias, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Hello?” She projected, just under a shout, but received no response.

Nervousness gripped her heart, forcing her up on her hindpaws. As she scanned about warily, she noticed the doors were open. Craning her ears in that direction, she could hear the quiet scuffling of Tobias as he went through his morning practice.

“How asleep was I?” she wondered, as close to out loud as she was able. By the right of her species alone, she was a light sleeper, but not last night. Not even food was enough to keep her conscious once her safety was guaranteed.

Her stomach grumbled at that thought, her attention turning from the open door and a practicing Tobias to that of her food bowl, but a greater need pushed her hunger pangs away.

Settling down in her favorite comfortable resting position, Riley closed her eyes and pulled up her prompts.

You have absorbed a soul and incorporated the energy into your own, triggering evolution paths in the magic.

Level Up! You have reached level 2-8.

All current abilities are at Level 2-8 at 10% progression.

I’d go into it, but you like to ignore these prompts anyway.

Riley boggled, “Don’t tell me you have a mind of your own too…” She trailed off, keeping her attention within, but her prompt interface remained silent.

“Even my subconscious is a smart-ass,” she concluded a handful of moments later. But instead of diving into the leftovers from her dinner, she continued to look within, letting her spirit reach out to the magic she could feel all around her.

The feeling of the power was electric when she focused; she felt her paws tingle and twitch, her heart rate spun up as something core within her leapt for joy.

“But it’s deeper than that,” she concluded, not knowing how she knew.

Spurred on by the mystery, she let herself sit and drift down into the awareness of that power, feeling it in fullness, moving through her like a river through its channels.

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Then softly, as if born on the winds, was the perception of music, of gentle choral singing mixed with birdsong, that sounded like the distillation of a thousand spring mornings mixed with Danny Elfman’s greatest hits on shuffle.

She’d always loved “Ice Dance” in particular; it made her think of winter and, strangely, hope. But that’s what the Yuletide holidays were for; hope in the darkest times.

“Riley… focus,” she chided herself. The sense of music and power faded whenever she became too distracted, too focused on her conscious thoughts, but there, amongst the serendipitous chorus, was the same phrase she had heard after her battle with Sprazrael:

Life is a balance.

And it was then that she saw herself, floating in the center, between a white ball of pure light that, strangely, had wings and the Erkrandir, similarly suspended.

Tendrils of bright white energy came off the celestial orb and, in a perfect chaotic mirror, tendrils of black off the Erkrandir. Both spiraled around her, feeding into her very being, leaving her feeling as alive and balanced as she had at any other moment of her lives.

“She’s a liminal,” Those words that Tobias had spoken in explanation rang out in her memory as if announcing a particular truth, yet there was something more, just beyond the surface.

Life was liminal, and that’s where she took her power. Just as life found its wings in the strange meeting between its beginning and its end, creation, and destruction, so too was she forged out of the same fire, a microcosm of that life. Prey, yet predator. Celestial, yet infernal. It took all sides to make a person, all elements.

There was no art without the clever manipulation of light and shadow, and there was no life without the clever manipulation of light and shadow. In those borderlands, choice, love, and hope were not just found; it was where they grew, as did pain, suffering, and death, rising like noxious weeds.

If uncontained, either side could dominate and upset the ecosystem, but if managed, the rarest flower of them all would grow:

Peace.

With that revelation, for the first time since the encounter with Iskaros, Riley felt that peace, anchoring her soul in the resolution that she should not fear the dark but the imbalance of the dark, the easy path.

Life was meant to be a rainbow, a balance of forces, not a monoculture. A monoculture, in and of itself, was an imbalance, and she wasn’t just alive but a reflection of life as a creature of magic.

“And so is everything else that lives, too,” she said, opening her eyes.

A prompt notification flared.

In defiance of her snarky subconscious, she reached out for it immediately.

You have come to a deeper understanding of your being and begun to resolve a deeply held conflict and fear within yourself. You are on the path that has no destination save for growth. By following this evolution path, you have come to a greater understanding and, therefore, utilization of your power within the magic. Congratulations!

“Cool,” she resolved and took a deep breath, letting the memory of that special moment linger before digging in and sprinting across the large empty room, poking her head out the door.

Tobias, in the late evening sun, was sweating with his shirt off, inspiring a fit of giggles.

“You look like you just went through a montage in a martial arts movie,” she quipped, offering nothing in explanation.

Tobias conjured a towel from their inventory and wiped his face. “I thought so. That’s why I do these things, for your esoteric and occultic references.”

“Are you done? Had your hour?” she continued.

“I have. You were sleeping hard, and I didn’t want to wake you,” he replied.

“Thanks for that. I think I needed to sleep. I think I also need to follow your example and develop a morning routine. I just spent some time in reflection, and it really helped me,” she announced.

“I knew I felt something; you feel better. There was a surge of beauty and peace before a quiet, happy kind of resolve settled. It helped my form get smoother,” Tobias mused, going down on one knee and sheathing his sword in one fluid motion.

“Sounds right, and I leveled up! I’m 2-8 now. Is it time to go home?” she asked.

“Yes, we need to see to our duties in Ashenvale,” Tobias replied.