Not since her betrayal at the hands of her so-called friends had the healer so strongly felt the specter of death. In one moment, she’d been trying to help the boy control his anxiety. In the next, it had felt like the maw of some ancient beast had opened up right before her ready to swallow her whole. With everything she had within her, she had immediately created distance between herself and her student, ready to defend herself just in case this was some kind of attack from him. She hated to think this way of the boy, but after once being betrayed, she wasn’t willing to be that blindly trusting of anyone ever again. Noting the slight look of bewilderment on the boy’s face was a small comfort to her. It seemed that he was just as confused about the situation as she was. However, some dark, cynical part of her couldn’t help but whisper to her that his shock and confusion were because he hadn’t expected her to escape whatever trap it was that he had just sprung. Recognizing that it was her fears pushing her to be irrational, Alena pushed down the thoughts. Whatever the truth was, she’d get to the bottom of it one way or the other.
Alena felt it a second after she’d distanced herself from the boy. All the ambient mana around was rushing past her. It was as if someone had opened a drain at the bottom of a pool of water and now all the water was turning in a slow spiral flowing into the drain. Or, at the very least, it started slow. All the ambient mana within the cave started to drift towards the boy, swirling around him like a small cyclone. The cave, however, wasn’t what anyone would call a mana-rich environment, and barely ten breaths after the mana started being dragged into the boy the cave had been drained of all mana. Standing close to the mouth of the cave, Alena could feel that mana was rushing into the cave from outside to replace the one that had been lost to the boy. Alena wasn’t sure what was going on, but it was almost immediately apparent that the ambient mana wouldn’t be enough!
A mote of light escaped from the boy’s glabella and morphed into the familiar’s form. She was already in the motion of dropping to one knee before her master. But rather than a show of fealty, Alena could see the worry on Olivia’s features as she reached forward to shake the boy. There was, however, very little reaction from the boy. Either a trance or a daze had come over him. “Master! Master! I need you to listen to me!” Olivia kept repeating. She, however, didn’t say anything else out loud. This, however, didn’t confuse Alena. Having once been contracted to a familiar through the help of her former friend, Senna the summoner, she was aware of the fact that a familiar and their master could communicate without the need for words.
Olivia was probably quietly communicating whatever she wanted to say to the boy through their connection to keep their secrets. Far from being bothered by this, Alena respected the need for secrecy, given that the secrets probably involved Olivia’s true self. Instead, the urgency in her tone knocked the healer out of her inaction. By now, it was rather clear that the boy hadn’t been trying to harm in any way. Something unexpected had happened with her student’s awakening and rather than suspicion, he needed her help. Wasting no time, she took a step forward ready to move to her student’s side.
“DON’T!”
The warning from Olivia came a second too late as Alena felt a force reach into her and try to violently pull out all the mana within her. If not for the fact that she was right at the edge of this strange force, Alena was certain that she would have met her demise. Her severely damaged mana pathways were nowhere near resilient enough to resist the powerful draw coming from Roka. As things stood, Alena had to resist the pull with everything she had even as she quickly scrambled backward till her back was pressed up against the edge of the door. She’d only been caught within the boy’s sphere of influence for less than two breaths of time and yet, her fragile mana pathways had been pushed right to the edge of collapse.
“W… what’s going on with him?” Even after taking a few breaths to regain composure, Alena could hear the shaking in her voice as she posed the question. She didn’t bother asking why Olivia didn’t seem to be affected by whatever was going on with Roka. Apart from the fact that she was the avatar of a being far more powerful than even a ninth-tier mage, there was the fact that she was Roka’s familiar. They were connected at the level of the soul. Whatever was going on with the boy probably considered the familiar as part of the boy and thus didn’t target her.
“Mana! He needs a lot of mana urgently!” Olivia answered her, not bothering to hide the urgency in her voice.
It should have been obvious, Alena realized. The threat to her life and general stress of the situation, however, had muddled her thinking. At the familiar’s words, however, there was no hesitation from Alena as she reached inside one of her many storage rings and produced a deep purple mana crystal. As soon as the crystal was exposed to the air, the ambient mana around it began to quickly rise even as the mana that it passively leaked was concentrated enough to fill the core of the average first-tier mage. Wasting no time with words, the crystal sailed through the air in the direction of the familiar as Alena threw it over to her. There was first a look of shock on the familiar's face quickly followed by grateful relief as she snatched the mana crystal out of the air and slapped it down on the sigil right where Alena usually placed her hand when infusing mana into the boy.
Alena immediately understood what Olivia must have been thinking. It was well known that direct absorption from mana crystals was inadvisable because of all the impurities and sequelae that doing so would leave behind in your mana pathways. A purple mana crystal was among the highest purity mana crystals out there, and yet, it too had a few impurities within it that would be hard for the boy to deal with. The sigil, however, had already been designed as a filter for what mana reached the one at the center of the sigil or not. Using it to channel mana from the crystal into the boy would ensure that only pure mana reached the boy and nothing else. It was such a smart move on the part of the familiar that frankly, Alena was a bit disappointed in herself that she hadn’t thought of it first.
There was no surprise in Alena’s expression when the lines of the sigil started to glow a bright white. More mana was flowing through the lines of the sigil in this moment than had done so at any point in the past. It also didn’t shock her when the floor around the purple crystal started to turn into crystal as well. Mana crystals were categorized in much the same way that magical items were, from low to high. The only difference was that instead of peak tier, the highest category among mana crystals was what was called source crystals. While the purple crystal was the weakest of mana crystals in this final category, it was still in there. Looking at the ground on which the sigil was drawn slowly turn to crystal, it was easy to understand why this last category had such a name.
The mana crystals in this category were so potent that they could spark the creation of other lower-purity mana crystals in the environment around them. So powerful were they that even seventh-tier mages could use them as a backup source of mana when in a pinch. As such, while Alena wasn’t shocked by the glowing lines of the sigil, or the fact that the ground on which the sigil was visibly turning to crystal, her eyes turned to saucers when she noticed just how much of the crystal's mana was being drained into the boy. Even if a seventh-tier mage was somehow to use up all their mana and attempt to restore it using this crystal, they wouldn’t be able to drain off as much mana as the boy was doing right now. The crystal which only a few breaths ago was a deep purple, was turning a brighter and brighter shade with each passing breath. By all logic, the boy should have exploded from how much mana he was taking in.
Part of Alena wanted to believe that it was his connection to Olivia’s true self that was causing this strange anomaly. The look of shock on Olivia’s face, no less in magnitude than her own, however, argued against that. Alena knew that there was a lot more going on with the boy than probably any of them knew, including Olivia herself. She, however, doubted that the avatar was so out of the loop that she wouldn’t even be able to understand what was going on with the boy’s advancement to the first tier, if her original had something to do with this, that is. No, there was a deeper mystery here that neither she nor Olivia’s true self was party to. Just as the thought occurred to her, Alena felt her nipples stiffen even as the lust she felt suddenly shot through the roof.
Rather than panic or get confused, Alena raised whatever mental defenses she could before turning her gaze to Olivia. Nothing had changed about the familiar. Alena, however, could feel the restrained power that was now contained within the avatar. Olivia the familiar was gone, her true mind had descended into the body. The true Olivia first turned her gaze to the source crystal which had gone from a deep purple to a faded, almost clear purple. Much as it stung to lose such a precious item, Alena had already written it off as lost. If she got an answer to the mystery of how a first-tier mage was able to absorb all the mana from such a crystal without exploding, then she’d be content.
The true Olivia’s gaze then turned from the crystal to the sigil. From the way she was keenly studying the rapidly crystallizing lines of the various runes, Alena knew that she was looking for any flaws in the sigil that might explain what they were seeing. Alena, however, already knew that this was pointless. She knew her sigil inside out. If there was a flaw, it would be leaking all the mana it was siphoning from the source mana crystal. But all the mana seemed to be draining into the bottomless abyss that was the boy. So powerful and unrelenting was the draw of the boy on the mana that the crystallization of the rock around him didn’t make it a finger’s length past the sigil. All the mana produced was being consumed so quickly that it didn’t have the chance to spread out any further.
An extended index finger came into contact with Roka’s glabella as Olivia’s true self finally turned her investigation to the boy himself. With Olivia’s back turned to her, Alena couldn’t see what expression was on her face. She, however, didn’t miss the way the Familiar’s body stiffened barely a moment after touching the boy. That single moment was probably all that she needed to scan the boy’s whole body several times over and so, there was no doubt in Alena that she had stiffened because she had figured out what was going on with the boy. Without seeing her face, it was impossible to tell whether the avatar had stiffened from shock or fear. Knowing the mind occupying the avatar’s body, however, just the fact that such a reaction had been elicited was monumental in itself. Alena the teacher couldn’t help but worry for her student. Alena the researcher couldn’t help but burn with almost irrepressible curiosity at what possible thing could be going on with the boy to cause such a reaction.
The answer came shortly after. Alena, however, immediately realized that this was one of those things that would have been better off being left a mystery. With her finger already on the boy’s glabella, the familiar simply moved her hand slightly to the side. Resting her thumb on the lower lid of Roka's right eye and her index finger on the top, the familiar pulled open the boy’s eye.
Alena who’d been watching from over Olivia’s shoulder only had a split second to admire the beauty of the nebulae of what looked like stars that had replaced the iris of the boy’s eye. That, however, was before the gaze landed on her. Alena didn’t know how it was she knew, but she did, and there wasn’t even a hint of doubt in her that it wasn’t the boy who was looking at her through those eyes. As a healer and researcher, Alena had dissected more creatures than she could put a number to over the centuries. In all those years, it had never even occurred to her to wonder what it would be like to be the one on the dissection table with someone else standing over her with the knife. At that moment, the question was answered.
Whatever entity it was that was looking through that single eye, they saw right through every aspect of her, not just the physical. From her flesh to her bones to her spirit body with all the broken mana pathways within, and even deeper to her very soul. She was an open book and that single eye was leisurely perusing the pages. In what was probably the most disturbing feeling that she’d ever been subjected to, Alena found herself feeling like a commodity that had just been appraised. The one looking at her through those eyes had taken her measure and attached a certain figure to the result as if it was the summation of all she was and she would ever be. There was a small part of her that realized that nothing of the sort had been said and that she was probably just reading into this herself. This, however, just felt like a hollow attempt at turning away from the reality of the situation and comforting herself. This conclusion was only further reinforced when the eye turned to regard Olivia.
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Alena had already felt ice settle in the pit of her stomach when he first met the gaze from those eyes. That ice, however, seemed to spread out and encase her in a coffin of fear when the eye turned to Olivia. It wasn’t that there was some powerful reaction or emanations from it when it turned to regard the avatar hosting the mind of its original. Instead, it was the exact opposite. There was absolutely no reaction from it. To the entity regarding them, the difference between the two of them was like that of a five-year-old and a six-year-old to an adult. Whatever it was that was looking at them through that eye was far more powerful than even Olivia’s true self. And from the way Olivia herself seemed to have gone still as a statue, she too seemed to have picked up on this.
Olivia’s head dropped in a bow towards the eye. “May I know in whose presence I am,” The familiar’s voice broke the silence that had engulfed the cave. It was jarring to hear the complete seriousness in the voice of the familiar. The last time they met each other, despite discussing something serious, the familiar's voice had always carried a hint of amused playfulness. There wasn’t even a hint of that in her voice presently. Beings that were this powerful could be rather capricious if they so chose, and from the look of things, Olivia’s true self wasn’t willing to risk incurring that wrath.
In the same vein, it suddenly occurred to Alena that she’d been staring directly at an entity that could snuff out her very existence with less than a thought. The only reason she continued to draw breath was probably because the entity thought so little of her that it hadn’t even occurred to it to waste the effort. Still, not willing to push her luck, Alena was about to bow her head and no longer regard the entity. She, however, stopped short when she noticed the nebulae of stars fade from the boy’s eye and his dark caramel iris take their place once more. Not even bothering to address Olivia’s true self, whatever it was that had been watching them through the boy’s eye receded, ceding control back to the boy. To no one’s surprise, the boy almost immediately collapsed into unconsciousness. That nothing worse had happened to him as a result of being even a minor conduit to such a being was in itself nothing short of a miracle.
Alena’s first instinct was to rush to her student’s side and ensure that all was well with him. She, however, didn’t move as she watched Olivia rise to her feet. Alena had just witnessed Olivia’s true self not only be cowed into submission but also completely disregarded afterward with barely a word. To the being that had just been watching them, they were little more than an ant and a bigger ant. This, however, didn’t erase the gap in power between the two of them or change the fact that she wouldn’t be able to raise a defense should Olivia’s true self choose to attack. Should she turn out to be the kind of being not willing to endure any slight to her image in the sight of others, then Alena's life might very well be forfeit.
When Olivia turned to her, Alena could see that indeed she was not happy. Not only had she been scared stiff by what she had found here, but probably, she didn’t even know how it would affect her future plans. But while there was clear displeasure in her expression, there was no murderous rage, Alena quietly noted. Maintaining a stoic expression, she didn’t let any of the immense relief she was feeling show on her face lest it spark the displeasure of the monster before her. “Attend to the boy, the danger is passed now,” the unquestionable authority behind the words clearly relayed that this was an order.
Not that this bothered Alena in the least even as she crossed the cave and came to a stop by Roka's side. She was already inclined to help her student. The fact that she wasn’t being attacked and possibly killed, was just a n additional blessing as far as she was concerned. Her mana pathways were still rather raw from the violent manner in which mana had been drawn from them, still, she did not offer any complaints as she scanned the boy. The pain of overtaxed mana pathways was one she was intimately familiar with, and in the present moment, it was eminently preferable to rousing the ire of the being now standing over her. Her mana flowed through the boy as she cast several different diagnostic spells trying to see if there was something wrong with the boy that she could fix. Alena wasn’t even sure that she’d be able to deal with anything left behind by a being of such power. It was an open question if she would even be able to detect it if it was there. Still, she didn’t hold anything back as she went through every possible spell she could safely use on the boy and even a few borderline ones just to be certain.
“What’s so special about him?” Alena spoke up. She knew that she was risking a lot, given that Olivia’s true self didn’t seem to be in the best of moods. The silence, however, had grown too oppressive and she couldn’t help the tension building up within her. She couldn’t exactly be calm with such a powerful entity close by, but at least, with her talking, Alena would know what she was thinking. Besides, the fact that she’d been asked to tend to the boy was a good sign that Olivia’s true self wasn’t contemplating murder. After all, Alena doubted that the being didn’t have ways of administering healing to the boy if she so wished. And if she could get some answers in the process, then all the better, so she pressed on.
“That a mundane boy could garner the attention of an esteemed being such as yourself is already nothing short of a miracle,” Alena gave context to her question, feeling no shame at the obvious flattery she was offering. If it averted her ire, then Alena would flatter Olivia’s true self however much she needed to. “To garner the interest of a being such as the one that has just departed…” Alena went quiet as she found no words to fully capture just how far beyond improbable it truly was. It was something akin to an emperor being interested in a particular mote of dust on the underside of his shoe. “What is it about him that has drawn such beings as yourselves to him?” She asked, hoping that Olivia’s true self would notice the subtle flattery of being grouped with the terrifying being they’d just brushed up against.
“Nothing,” Came the simple answer from Olivia. Her flattery went completely ignored, but so long as she wasn’t getting her head ripped off, Alena didn’t mind. She couldn’t help but turn to look up at Olivia’s face for a second, clearly surprised by the answer. She, however, didn’t allow her gaze to linger as she turned to continue her diagnostic assessment of the boy. Alena couldn’t tell whether it was because it was trivial information or more the fact that she was rattled by the encounter that made Olivia’s true self more talkative. But noting her confusion, Olivia’s true self continued. “To give my plans the highest chance of succeeding, I simply cast a net as wide as possible. From the once-in-a-generation magically gifted scions of major clans, children of kings and emperors, to commoners, peasants, and the most magically unremarkable individuals that no one would give a second glance to. That this boy ended up one among the many recipients of my gift is a function of complete random chance,” She declared in a dispassionate tone.
“And of all those who have received your gift, how many have managed to draw your attention let alone cause you to descend twice?” Alena asked, unable to help a bit of secondhand pride on behalf of her student. Olivia’s true self had actually descended three times so far. The first time inside the infirmary, the second because of her sigil and this being the third time. Alena, however, didn’t try to artificially inflate Roka’s achievement by ascribing to him the second descent. Calling down Olivia‘s true self down twice, was already a remarkable feat in itself, as was evidenced by the silence that followed her question
“The very first time I descended, while he was still in the infirmary, I felt hints of fate meddling around the boy,” Rather than answer the obviously self-congratulating question, Olivia’s true self went on a completely different tangent. “At first, I was sure that I was the cause. After today, however, I am not so certain,” She remarked.
“Fate’s meddling? What does that mean?” Alena asked.
“It means that he is either very lucky or unlucky, depending on how you look at it. Knowing fate, she probably considers him an error that it must correct for. Meaning that every so often, the boy will face an almost insurmountable challenge that by all logic, should be the end of him…”
“Like a tier zero mage!” Alena couldn’t help but cut in as the memory suddenly sprang to mind.
“Yes, like facing a tier zero mage,” Olivia’s true self concurred. “Fate, however, is bound by her own rules of maintaining balance. If she actively interferes with someone’s fate in an attempt to eliminate them and fails, then she must also give a restitution of equal proportion.”
“You keep referring to fate as ‘she’. Is fate a sentient being like you?” Alena couldn’t help but cut in once more and ask.
“She is… the spiteful bitch,” Olivia answered her, though Alena was almost certain that the last half muttered by Olivia’s true self was more an unconscious addition on her part than something she meant to say out loud. “What this means, however, is that every time the boy manages to beat the odds, he’ll get significant boons that will propel him forward past where he would otherwise be if he was untouched by fate. A boon, for example, like a never before seen sigil that will help him start this journey as a mage with an advantage no first-tier mage would even dream of,” She went on to add causing Alena’s eyes to go wide with shock as she looked down at the crystalline sigil on the floor below the boy.
True enough, Alena had been designing this sigil with the express purpose of healing her broken mana pathways. At no point had it even occurred to her to wonder how the sigil could be used to awaken a mundane human. That is, not until the boy before him had somehow ended up her student, despite his completely lacking affinity for magic. All of a sudden a new perspective was introduced into her thinking that led to the remarkable discovery that was the sigil before them. A question suddenly sprang to mind. Was her breakthrough and discovery of this new sigil solely because the boy was somehow involved in her life? She’d already been in a deadlock for quite some time before Roka became her student. Would she have continued to stagnate had the boy never come along? In other words, rather than being brilliant, was she just lucky that the boy was her student? Alena couldn’t help how deeply not knowing the answer to this question bothered her.
“Do not waste time or energy wondering if fate had had a hand in the events of your life. It’s a pointless endeavor that only fools engage in. To the weak, it’s an excuse. A crutch they cling to, to explain away their mediocrity. To the strong, it’s either a cause for arrogance making them believe they deserve all that they’ve managed to obtain, or a heart demon that haunts every achievement that they manage to make in life” Olivia’s true self admonished, having noticed her expression. “Own all that you do and all that happens to you, whether good or bad. Leave the philosophizing to those with nothing better to do with their time,” She said in a tone of clear contempt for said group of people.
“And so what happens if he keeps overcoming the challenges that fate throws his way?” Alena asked, already planning to help the boy in whatever way she could. Even outside of their teacher-student relationship, the advantage of having a powerful ally in one’s corner couldn’t be overstated. And that’s exactly what the boy was almost guaranteed to become should he survive the challenges ahead.
“Then he’ll go from being an insignificant nobody to being my best chance at bringing my plan to fruition,” Olivia's true self replied with clear excitement at the prospect.
“And what plans are those?” The conversation had been flowing so smoothly and naturally that the words had already left her lips by the time she realized her grave mistake. Alena went deathly still. Talking about an insignificant boy and the strange events around him, was one thing. Prying into the secrets of a being like Olivia’s true self was an easy way to usher oneself into the Beyond!
“Careful, Healer,” Olivia’s true self broke the silence that had followed Alena's question. Two simple words, spoken calmly, and yet, Alena’s back soaked with cold sweat as it felt like a cold blade had been pressed up against her throat. “The cost of that knowledge is far higher than you can bear,” this enigmatic warning was tagged on, effectively killing the conversation.
It was a quarter of an hour after she began that Alena finally exhausted all the ways she could look for something wrong in a patient. “I can’t find anything wrong with him. He just seems to have passed out from the strain of everything,” She explained. There was a sheen of sweat on her forehead and her teeth tightly gritted against the pain, but she didn’t let it show in her expression or voice as she calmly revealed her findings. Alena already knew that the backlash for this tomorrow would be even worse than what she’d suffered as a result of the obsidian earthmover. Still, for now, her only focus was getting both herself and her student through this safely. “He just needs rest and in a day or two, he’ll probably be back on his feet,” She gave her prognosis.
“Good,” Came the simple answer from Olivia’s true self. “I suspect that the boy will remember nothing of what has just happened. I don’t think I need to tell you it remains a secret that he need not be burdened with!” Casual as the words sounded, Alena knew that they weren’t in any way a suggestion. If she went against them, she’d be doing so at her own peril.
Still, with her heart hammering in her chest, she couldn’t help but ask. “And what if he does remember?”
There was a short silence and Alena could feel it as Olivia’s gaze shifted from herself to the unconscious boy. “Then that’ll be his burden to bear,” Came the final words from Olivia’s true self. Alena found herself alone inside the cave even as Olivia’s body collapsed beside that of the boy. Her true self had left…