Rime and Cyra took a small break to heal themselves before they were back out in the training ring. But instead of training with weapons or their bare fist, they were going to test their ability to control their magic, the original reason they were even in the vault. Cyra just sat down on the ring as she watched the Arch Mage walk over to Rime with an affinity stone.

Rime frowned at the thing, he hadn't seen on of those in years and he was hoping it keep it that was but that apparently wasn't going to happen. The mage walked over to a stand and set the stone on it before walking over to Rime "your task is simple I want you to turn the stone black without closing your eyes and also without passing out, okay?"

Rime nodded and stepped forward as the Arch Mage stepped back, he took a deep breath and visualized turning the stone black. He placed his hands on it and waited but nothing happened, so he shook his hands and tried again, once again their was no reaction from the stone and Rime stepped back to frown at the Arch Mage.

The Arch Mage stroked his chin and nodded "okay, try closing your eyes okay and open them when I tell you." Rime moved forward and placed his hands on the stone as he closed his eyes and tried to think back to the day that he had first discovered his ability, he didn't remember much of it but he was sure it could help him now.

Rime was right in his assumption as the Arch Mage's face lit up with a smile and Cyra jumped down from the ring to make her way over to the Mage and her brother. The trainer opted to just watch from afar as the stone turned darker than black and then let of a strange humming sound that hurt her ears no matter how far away she was.

"Open your eyes." The Arch Mage commanded and Rime tried his hardest to open them and they slowly came apart. When he did that he could see the stone and hi eyes widened, in his surprise more of his power surged into the stone and a loud crack echoed through the vault, just a second later and the stone shattered sending tiny shard flying all over the room.

The Arch Mage was quick to put up a shield that covered him and Cyra from the blast and the trainer had moved to hide behind one of the obstacles. Rime was the only one left exposed to the blast but to his surprise he escaped without a scratch. Instead a thin layer of black had formed around him and all the shards had hit it before falling to the ground.

The Arch Mage arched his brow at this and lowered his shield and walked over to Rime as soon as he touched the layer of black it vanished and the Arch Mage stepped back with a puzzled look on his face. "Well that is strange, even though your magic destroyed the stone it immediately acted to protect it's master from it's own destruction, impressive."

"I need to get a stone and I'll be back in some time, you may rest in the mean time." with that he vanished and Cyra ran up to Rime. He picked her up and they moved over to the sitting area where their trainer was lying down as she watched them with curious eyes. Rime looked away from her and got out some of the plums for Cyra to eat as they waited.

Soon the Arch Mage reappeared and he was carrying a large box that he dropped on the floor, Rime went over to the man as he opened inside and looked to see five more affinity stones but only one of them was white while the rest were different colors, one of them was even a little pink.

"I've had this case with me some time now and had no use for it and was actually thinking of getting rid of it and I'm glad I didn't" He leaned down and pulled out the white stone "okay you'll do what you just did, but this time you'll try not to shatter the thing, as easy as it would be for me to get more I'd rather not deal with it."

Rime nodded and stepped up to the stand when the Arch Mage placed the stone on it "try to get it with your eyes open and hold back on your surprise okay?" Rime nodded again and then placed his hands on the stone, he kept his eyes open and tried his best to do it but once again it wouldn't work, making him sigh as he walked away from the stone.

The Arch Mage hummed "don't get so frustrated, it isn't always easy to control your magic at first but I do have an idea you can try." Rime tilted his head in question and the Arch Mage walked up to him "okay so stand at the stone." Rime did as he was told "place your hands on it and feel your power flowing through your body, tell me when you feel it."

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Rime did as he was told and it was a bit later that he said he could feel it "okay now feel the power connecting with the stone and flowing over into it, try not to let it surge and to do that you need to control your emotions. So if you suddenly feel excited stamp that feeling down and focus on flowing the magic into the stone, now try it."

Rime could feel the flow of power as it moved around his body and he took a deep breath before pushing it down his hand and through his palms. He watched on staying a calm as he could as the tone started to slowly turn black and as soon as it was darker than the night sky he cut off his powers and listened on as the stone let out a humming sound like no other.

The Arch Mage hummed and stepped forward to touch the stone but he wasn't allowed to as some sort of field that had surrounded Rime before now surrounded the stone and another idea came to his mind. "Rime do me a favor and try to pull all that power back into you, I want to see if I'm right about something."

Rime nodded and felt the power as it flowed around the inside of the stone and tried to pull it back in but it didn't work instead, the magic burst out of the stone. The stone didn't shatter this time but Rime watched on as the power floated around the room before twirling and then coming to surround him, creating the same shield from earlier.

Rime suddenly felt a heavy impact on his back that sent him stumbling forward into the stand, he whipped around to see his trainer standing across from him with a smirk on his face. He looked down and saw a heavy sword lying on the ground and looked towards the Arch Mage that just chuckled "It seems I was right."

"And if you weren't?!" Rime yelled at the Arch Mage who just laughed at him before turning to walk away. Rime looked away from him and went over to Cyra who was still eating her plums as she watched on. He sat next to her and took out a chocolate opening it and stuffing it in his mouth.

"Okay Cyra we'll test your magic and then we must be on our way, it seems we have a bit of an emergency at the royal palace and I need you to always be aware of what to do okay?" Rime and Cyra nodded. Cyra finished off her plums and wiped her hands with a rag that Rime gave to her and then went running over to the Arch Mage.

She was going to use the same stone that Rime had used and see how pink she can get it. There was only one problem with that, was that Cyra was affiliated with light and that meant that when she touched the stone and it began to turn pink. The room also began to light up and it grew brighter and brighter until everyone had to cover their eyes.

They all looked back when the light died down and watched in awe as the stone started spinning as it floated into the air and made the whole room brighter, also dumping a hue of pink over everything. The Arch Mage and Rime looked at Cyra and she looked back at them with a huge grin on her face.

^^

Rime walked out the shower with Cyra and quickly dried them both down before getting dressed in the clothes they were wearing earlier. He took her hand and grabbed up their stuff before meeting the mage back at the training area. The man was standing there talking to their old trainer, the woman nodded along to whatever he was saying and then she vanished from sight.

Rime and Cyra walked over to him as he picked up their lunch packs and handed them over to them "come along, it is time for us to go." The Arch Mage touched Rime's shoulder and then within a second they had moved from being in the vault to standing just out side the royal palace where the guards seemed to be on extra alert.

They were lead through the gates and down the path they had taken to get to the main hall, the Arch Mage stopped and flicked their hoods over their heads and with a click of his fingers they were wearing mask and their cloaks had turned black. Rime glanced at the Arch Mage who said nothing as he turned and headed into the main hall of the palace.

They followed behind in silence, not speaking a word as they were faced with the glare of the Royal Guard that lined the hallway going all the way through and Rime wondered if something happened. They didn't get to look around for as soon as they reached the main double doors that lead further into the palace they were flashed from where to stood.

They appeared in front of golden glass doors and the Mage pushed them open to reveal an office but it was three times the size of any office Rime had ever seen before. Everything was covered in gold with trimmings of pearl white. One side of the wall was made entirely of rose gold glass and had a large double door that lead out to the balcony, but the doors were closed.

Rime's eyes widened when he noticed that the Emperor was sitting behind the large glass desk, as he sat back in his chair yelling at a few people who stood in front of him including the head of the Royal guard. A tall heavily built man that had white hair and striking hazel eyes and was dressed in gold armor from head to toe.

A white cape hung behind him with a golden dragon on it and he held his helmet in his hand. His face was serious as the Emperor yelled at him in uncontrollable anger. Next to him stood a tall figure that was dressed in black from head to toe and from further inspection Rime saw that it was the woman that had spoken to them the last time they were here.

They stood very still until the Emperor said his last piece and they were dismissed, the woman simply vanished and the Golden Dragon turned stiffly and walked out the office. Rime watched as the Arch Mage walked around the desk and placed a hand on the Emperor's shoulder before leaning down to whisper something to the man, who's eyes then flashed to Rime and Cyra.