Slados rolled her neck and let out a deep breath. "Sure, sooner the better, right?" She tried and failed, to calm her racing heart. I'm going to learn some MAGIC! Jacob smiled gently at her. "Go ahead and stand in the center of the clearing and I can help you awaken."Obeying the request, she did as asked. "Ok, easy enough. Now what?" she said while almost vibrating with excitement. Jacob didn't respond. Instead, he dragged his stick on the ground as he circled her. This let her get a better look at him and notice that he had rough hands and was shorter than her. She also noticed a single earring on his left ear. Once he finished making the circle he stood directly in front of her. "You cannot leave this circle until you awaken to the power of Creation. Hate me for it if you will, but I cannot allow you to live if you cannot complete this task."
Slados felt her stomach drop at the statement. "What do you mean by that?!" Jacob unsheathed a knife from his belt. "Exactly what I said. If you cannot be the Hero we need, you will die here." He looked to the forest on his right. "It's not that I WANT to do such a thing, I would just be required to. No choice." He sheathed the knife in silence. Slados saw the dead look in his eyes and believed him wholesale. She swallowed hard and said "Alright. I'm sure it won't be a problem. It'll be super easy, barely an inconvenience." Jacob didn't seem to hear her and started speaking over her. "Creation is a fundamental force in any universe. It can only be harnessed as directly in ours because we have spent time, mana, and energy to do so."
He began to pace in a circle around Slados as he spoke. "The action or process of bringing something into existence is the definition of Creation. It can mean combining multiple things to make something new, or to change somethings form." Slados let him lecture, trying her best to absorb every word. "The opposite of that would be Destruction. Yet you can use Destruction to Create something new. Seeing it through this lens links the two together in a very specific way." He suddenly switched the direction of his circling. "You must create to destroy and destroy to create. Using this, you will lead us to our Restoration." He stopped in front of her and made eye contact. "I want you to think about the last thing you made. What was it? How did you feel when you participated in this act? Do not answer out loud. Feel your reply."
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Slados closed her eyes and thought of the questions. Ok, what did I last 'create'..? She recalled her morning. She had rolled out of bed, cracked open three eggs, threw them in a pan and scrambled them. It was eggs. Scrambled eggs. I guess it made me feel hungry? She shook her head. That was too shallow. She understood that surface level thoughts on this wouldn't suffice. When I poured the eggs into the pan... I felt satisfied. I knew that I would soon be enjoying breakfast. It was simple, it was rote. She let the thoughts slosh around in her head. Was it simple? What made it simple? The fact I had done it hundreds of times before? That I knew exactly what the result would be? She began to sweat, feeling suddenly warm. Cooking is simple because you have the recipe to follow. There are no surprises after you've done it for the first time. So deep in thought, she didn't realize that it was becoming harder to breathe. How does destruction tie into it? She let out a groan. *lame. Heat. Blade. Forcing changes onto raw materials. To make something NEW.
Something shifted in her. It distracted her from her intense thoughts. It felt like a burn in her throat and butterflies in her stomach. It felt like becoming aware of a noise in another room and being unable to hear anything else. It felt like herself becoming more than she was. Her breath caught in her throat as she realized that was exactly it. She snapped her eyes open to see the Guide stomping on a slime and a blue screen in front of her face.