Aeliana’s heart crashed into her feet as she dove over to Aldric, trying to catch his head before it hit the ground. She came up short, and the audience winced at the audible thud. Kneeling by his side she pressed her hand against his chest. Faint whisps of red light rolled over his body, flaring up in jagged lines all over him.

“I-is he a-alright?” a voice unfamiliar to Aeliana asked, stammering. She looked up at the other combatant. His eyes were wide with worry, his knuckles white around his sword, and the tips of his fingers pale blue.

“You have frostbite,” she said. “Find a member of the church to heal you before you lose your fingers.”

“I w-want to k-know i-if he is g-going to b-be alright,” Roland demanded, forcing out the words through chattering teeth.

“Child, let the High Priestess do her work,” Hadrian said, stepping between them. “Go tend to your own wounds.” Roland’s eyes flitted between him and Aeliana. Hadrian could see the boy’s thoughts clearly on his face, wavering between pressing the question and bowing to authority. The latter one out, and he limped back to the same tunnel he’d entered the arena from.

“Hadrian, go make sure he’s tended to in the church proper,” Aeliana demanded. Hadrian did not need to be told a second time. The crowd’s watchful eye bored into him, and he was eager to escape.

“Ladies and gentlemen, your winner!” the announcer’s voice rang out. Hadrian turned to see Cedric in the announcer’s booth, giving orders. “That concludes the Royal Tournament, and what a bout it was! Surely, we will be discussing this for months to come! Now please, exit in an orderly fashion!”

“Smart move,” Hadrian muttered, rushing to catch up with Roland. The sentiment was shared by Eldrin, who was kneeling by the lower stands.

“Saint, I need you to tell me how you did that,” he demanded. He pointed to the air above Aldric’s supine form, where the golden barrier had been moments before. Seraphina stammered, her shock overwhelming her ability to speak. Eldrin could tell when a battle was not worth fighting. They needed to keep the peace, above all else. Dragging an answer out of the girl would only arouse panic from the commoners around them.

He changed tactics, extending his hand into the stand. Seraphina accepted it, and she was pulled into the arena. “You all heard the announcer, it is time to leave,” Eldrin said loudly, making it clear that he was not just making a suggestion. The last thing they needed was for a crowd to watch the High Priestess fail to heal someone. His words were taken to heart, and quickly the lower stands began to clear. When he was satisfied that his order would be obeyed, he jogged to Aeliana, with Seraphina in tow.

“What is wrong with him?” Seraphina asked, studying the glowing red aura that rippled across Aldric’s body.

“I… I am not sure,” Aeliana said, droplets of sweat forming on her forehead. “This kind of damage is unlike anything I have ever seen.”

“If I had to wager a guess, I would say he was scorched by his mana,” Eldrin said, crouching next to Aldric and laying his hand next to Aeliana’s.

“With all due respect, Eldrin, if I can not heal him I doubt you could,” Aeliana said.

“I am not trying to heal him,” Eldrin said. Deep purple currents of smoke oozed from his hand, flowing over Aldric. With every passing moment, his eyes grew wider. “This… it should not be…” He looked up to Seraphina. “You need to heal him, now.”

“What?!” Seraphina baulked at the order. “How? I have never healed anyone before. I have barely been able to manipulate light!”

“And yet you just cast a perfect white barrier,” Eldrin retorted. “A barrier that withstood a blow that shattered all of my wards.”

“Seraphina, he will die if you do not help him,” Aeliana said. For the first time in her life, Seraphina could hear desperation in her voice. Gone was the stern and commanding woman who had stolen all her freedoms. In her place Seraphina could, for just a moment, see the angel everyone else revered as the High Priestess. “Please, he needs you.”

With shaking hands Seraphina knelt by Aldric, placing her hands on his temples. Almost immediately she felt it. It raged like a storm inside of him. She uttered a sharp cry and yanked her hands away, startled by the intensity. Both adults looked at her worried, but her world had shrunk beyond them. It only included her, and this frail boy that had somehow beaten the most fierce warriors in the kingdom. She tried again, pressing her palms to the sides of his head.

This time she was ready for it. She felt the storm inside of him, the fire that burned over every inch, leaving searing traces as it went. It followed the red paths Aeliana’s magic highlighted, coursing along the lines of damage it had wrought. She could almost reach out to it. The flame burned with immense power and moved erratically, like a deer fleeing from a predator. Fear rooted so deeply within Aldric’s mind pushed it along. Seraphina tried to ease the movement of the flame, but it fled from her touch, brightly illuminating a red trace over his skin.

“Seraphina! You are hurting him!” Aeliana said through gritted teeth. “I am barely keeping him from damaging himself more!”

“No, Aeliana,” Eldrin said, his eyes closed. “The Saint is… I do not understand it, but she is helping. This boy’s kiln is burning without control. His lens is entirely untempered.”

“How could he use magic without his lens?” Aeliana asked.

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“I do not know,” Eldrin responded, frowning. “But it seemed his body… his soul itself paid the toll.”

Seraphina did her best to ignore their discussion. She focused on the movement of the flame. She felt like she could grab it, hold it down, force it to stop hurting the boy, but her instincts told her that that was a bad move. Without his lens focusing his magic it ran out of control. Forcing it into place would only cause more damage. She needed to calm the flow of mana, and that meant coaxing the flame to his chest, where, if all of the magical theory she had been taught was to be believed, it could safely burn within his kiln.

She tried once more to approach the flame, attempting to make her presence as gentle as possible. This was uncharted territory. No teacher, no book, not even a whisper of a legend had told her of an ability like this. In all the writings, the Saint was supposed to be little more than a healer of untold strength. Barriers and bodily enhancements were within the realm of possibility, but interacting with the core of a person’s kiln went far beyond what anyone could have expected. And yet, as her presence gently swirled around the frantic fire within Aldric’s body, she could not deny what she was doing.

The red glow dimmed, the rapidly flickering paths traced over Aldric’s body now pulsing much slower. Aeliana could feel her healing finally gaining ground. So much of the damage was ancient, far beyond repair, but there was hope of restoring his body to the state it was in before the battle. As the seconds progressed, the red aura grew dimmer. The glowing paths began fading away, starting from the hands and feet and crawling inwards until only a spiralling ring remained on his chest. Even that tightened down into a singular glowing core, that faded into nothingness.

“I think he will be alright,” Aeliana said, wiping her forehead with her sleeve. She looked at Eldrin and Seraphina, tears glistening in her eyes. “He should be stable enough to transport. We can give him better care within the church. Thank you, Seraphina.”

Seraphina blinked and rubbed her eyes, trying to dispel what was surely an illusion. The High Priestess had never thanked her for anything. Seeing her in such an emotional state put Seraphina on edge.

“We can discuss how you achieved this later,” Eldrin said, lifting Aldric into his arms. “I will take the boy and the Saint to the church. Aeliana, you should find Cedric. His Highness is probably putting out fires somewhere. Whatever he is doing is not important. Get him to the balcony, drag him if you must. I will fetch Hadrian and meet you there.”

“Try to be quick,” Aeliana said, dashing away back into the stands.

“Saint, make sure you stay close,” Eldrin said, shifting Aldric’s body slightly. Purple smoke swirled around him again, nearly enveloping him. “I am monitoring his body, but if his kiln runs wild again I will not be able to stop it.” Seraphina nodded, glueing herself to Eldrin’s side. The two walked through the same exit Hadrian and Roland used before. Unlike her journey into the arena, the way out was much easier. Anyone seeing the Archmage and the Saint walking together would quickly make room, even more so when they were carrying an unconscious child.

“Is he heavy?” Seraphina asked, trying to distract herself from everything that happened.

“No, he is not,” Eldrin said, shifting his grip again. “He might be lighter than you, Saint.” Seraphina wanted to object to that, but looking at Aldric it was hard to argue.

“He is still so young,” she said, studying his face.

“He is the same age as you, actually,” Eldrin said. The smoke grew a little denser, oozing all over Aldric’s body. “He might even be older.”

“But he is so small,” Seraphina gasped. “The other one was around my age, certainly this one can not be as well.”

“You are right,” Eldrin said, staring into the distance. “The three of you… let us just focus on getting him into the church’s care. You can get some rest too.”

The rest of the journey passed in silence. At the church, Aldric was taken to the infirmary, where one cot was already recently occupied. Seraphina was escorted back to her room. Eldrin found Hadrian by the fountain in the square, where he was contemplating the rippling waters. The two men traded a few words, then set off to the castle, quickly making their way to the most secure area in the entire kingdom.

“I am going to need an entire winery when this is all over,” Aeliana said, rubbing her eyes.

“Drinking yourself to death will have to wait,” Cedric said, already exasperated. He sat down on one of the stone stools, and the others promptly followed suit. “Eldrin, what was so urgent that you had to call us here?”

“You were behaving very strangely during the bout,” Hadrian said. “I trust you had good reason.”

“We just witnessed two people with unparalleled power clash, and you are asking me what this is about?!” Eldrin cried out. “Are you blind, or just dull?”

“Anyone else would be executed for saying that to me,” Cedric said, levelling his finger at Eldrin. “You know we can not see what you see. Yes, those two boys were strong, but was it truly so far from the ordinary?”

“Yes, it was,” Eldrin confirmed.

“He is right,” Hadrian said. “The one with the sword… do we know their names?”

“Yes, the announcer had their registrations,” Cedric said, leaning back. “The boy with the sword is Roland Wainwright. The boy with the magic is named Aldric.”

“Aldric…” Hadrian prompted.

“Just Aldric,” Cedric reiterated. “No surname, no next of kin, not even a home town.” A moment passed, each of them coming to terms with what that information meant.

“What was someone like him doing here?” Aeliana asked. “He is so frail, why would he risk his life?”

“He is desperate,” Eldrin said. “He has nothing to lose.”

“But with power like his, surely he did not need to live like that,” Aeliana insisted.

“If he could control his magic, then yes,” Eldrin confirmed. “But you all saw the boy fight.”

“He almost won,” Hadrian said. “Roland is not weak by any measure. He has strength and instinct that rival our finest warriors. With proper training, he would become a monster.”

“Not rival, Hadrian,” Eldrin said, eyes boring into the ground. “That boy’s potential surpasses yours by leaps and bounds.”

“You must be joking,” Cedric said, chuckling. “Hadrian is one of the strongest men in the known world!”

“I know,” Eldrin said, tilting his head up to face them. Cedric’s mirth quickly died under Eldrin’s stern gaze. “Roland is not the only one. Aldric shattered my wards multiple times. Both of them are unlike anything this world has seen, and somehow they both wound up here.” He turned to look at Aeliana. “And in the moment they brushed against their full potential, the Saint finally showed the fist glimpse of her true power.”

“What are you trying to say, Eldrin,” Aeliana said. Eldrin stood, walking to the door. He paused only long enough to answer.

“We asked for a miracle. We have been given three.”