The first face Soral saw when he awakened was that of a particularly obnoxious old man. “Densooth? Must be a nightmare,” he muttered and tried to turn over.

Densooth grabbed his shoulder. “It may be a nightmare, but I assure you it is taking place very much in reality.”

“That’s even worse,” Soral groaned, but reluctantly sat up, “Why are you here?”

“Why am I here?” Densooth repeated, “Why don’t you pause for a moment and think about what might cause me to pay you a visit?”

Soral felt oddly groggy from his trip to the dream realm and it took him a bit to recall what he had been doing before he lost consciousness. His stomach rumbled a bit, as if to remind him.

“Oh, that’s right,” he mumbled, “I was trying to grow the tree.”

“Trying to grow the tree by performing potentially dangerous experiments with your magic,” Densooth pressed, “It’s a complete jumbled mess, and you drained yourself nearly to the last drop. Did you not consider even once that it might end up costing you your life?”

“So what?” Soral snapped, “You only need me alive so I can end yours.”

Densooth scowled. “I will now inform you of the consequences of your actions,” he warned, “First, you are banned from using any magic until you completely recover. Second, if I catch the slightest hint you have dabbled with your little poison experiments again to simulate recovery, I will force everyone out of my castle and tear down your beloved tree. I will be informing everyone else of what you have done as well.”

That last bit really got to him. “You don’t have to drag them into this,” Soral argued quickly.

“I do. If I don’t you will disregard everything I have just told you,” Densooth replied, “I gave you your chance, and you have wasted it. Do not expect to regain my trust so easily.”

Soral still didn’t quite understand why what he had done was so bad, and he couldn’t check Densooth’s thoughts either since that would require using magic. He did know that he had most certainly messed up. Apologizing in this situation didn’t feel like the right thing to do, and asking for answers would definitely end with an endless lecture, so he just bowed his head as Densooth left the room.

After Densooth left, Ruena came rushing in. At first, she seemed worried, but then she did some scolding of her own and reiterated Densooth’s rules. No magic. No poison. Unfortunately neither of them realized it was impossible for him to fully recover his magic without faerutil. He didn’t think Densooth would let it go, though, since he hadn’t met Soral until after he had tried faerutil.

What Soral had been planning to do next was work on the magic battery, but there was no way he could do that without using magic. Luckily, Rosalie didn’t need him to specifically use magic to keep her in reality. He just had to be there. Soral tried to think of what else there was to do as he waited for the tree to grow, or not grow.

He suddenly remembered his homework and his warning from Sibel that his progress would be checked soon. That was definitely a good place to start. Soral set the books up at the desk he had originally thought was an unnecessary addition to his room, and looked between them to decide which to begin with.

The geography book was filled with maps and highlighted important places. The history book began with an overview of the Endless War and how it led to the founding of Altheador. Neither of them seemed particularly interesting, but he figured he should get the massive wall of text out of his way first and began with the history book.

It was more interesting than he expected, as if the author had tried to frame it as a legend rather than the usual cold hard facts dripping with the drudgery of boredom. There wasn’t much on the Endless War’s beginning. No one really knew how it began, other than the fall of the unicorns being attributed to some kind of fiery curse.

The fairies, who had once lived as one, split into kingdoms based on their own elements. The dragons fell prey to the curse that roamed the entire world, and were quickly backed into a corner. That is when the first King of Altheador, Thador, brought back the First Queen, a human. The capital cities were named after them once they successfully brought peace to the land, but the unicorns had already been lost, and replaced by the species known as Valen.

Valen were believed to be descendants of fallen unicorns, so many believed they were evil and corrupt. They were famous for joining hands with the Fira, those born from the curse of fire.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Soral paused once he got to the bit about the Fira. It was just a brief mention, but he understood a bit why Flame and Ember had been so wary before. Even outside of Griff, in this land full of magic, the mere mention of a curse was enough to send people into a frenzy. He couldn’t imagine living a life as a being labeled for representing one.

Did Oasis know? If he didn’t, Soral might have to rescue them later. Once he could use magic again, that is. A new goal to add to his ever growing list. Soral went back to reading.

Not long after the founding of Althaedor, the first mentions of the Black Wolf appeared. He ended a war here, started one there. Helped a Queen, made an enemy of one. And then the conflicts between humans and dragons began to erupt, and Althaedor split in two. One side led by the Queen Altea’s descendents, and the other by King Thador’s. Each capital was named after their founding royal, resting on opposite ends of the vast water that split the majority of the continent.

Soral switched to the book of maps to see what that meant, and sure enough he found a dot on a mountainous peninsula labeled ‘Thador’ and another at the edge of a bay on the opposite side of the expanse of water named ‘Altea’. He found the tiniest of land connecting the two sides, barely showing on the left side of the map.

Distracted, he began to play a game with himself to locate all of the places he had been before. He didn’t bother looking for Griff, of course. He doubted it would even be there. First, he began hunting for deserts. There were no deserts large or sandy enough on Altea’s side of the continent, but he found one labeled ‘The Sandy Seas’ deep in Thador’s territory. There was no way to tell exactly where the Oasis was within it, though.

Next, he hunted for the kingdom he was in. It took him a while, because Elgrove was much tinier than he had expected, sandwiched between several of the larger kingdoms. The largest of those nearby kingdoms was Ariz, which sounded familiar, but Soral couldn’t quite place his finger on why.

There were two other bits on the Map of Althaedor that Soral focused in on, partially due to their incredible size. First, was something called ‘The Warlord Territories’. The notes highlighted that it was a dangerous place where the Endless War had never ceased. The borders were protected by powerful magic to prevent the war from seeping out. These defenses were checked periodically, and always shortened whenever more of the territories were claimed by the toxic wasteland.

The toxic wasteland was tucked behind the Warlord Territories, guarded by different barriers to prevent anyone from entering. The endless fighting left behind lands filled with nothing but poison.

As he read this, Soral had a premonition that it matched the description of the place Densooth had claimed he was going to give him. Surely not, right? A poisoned land was one thing, but one right next to such a dangerous place was not what he bargained for. Barriers or not. He would have to check that later.

Instead, he turned his attention to the second largest kingdom in Althaedor. Valen. It was easy to guess who, or what, lived there. The kingdom looked especially large because all of the kingdoms surrounding it were much smaller, save for the border it shared with the Warlord territories.

Soral snapped the book shut and leaned back. His head was pounding as various thoughts swirled through it. Was learning always like this? Could he skip next time? Or was he just so far behind that he was cramming things too quickly?

He was in for another shock when he looked out the window. He had just been going to pass a little time, but night had already fallen. Soral decided that reading was incredibly dangerous and hurried outside to check the tree.

Luckily, the fruit had continued to grow even without his help. It wasn’t ready yet, but Soral was relieved. He didn’t want Densooth to know his weakness, but he might have had to in order to lift the magic ban.

“Thank goodness,” he whispered, leaning gently against the slightly thicker trunk of the tree, “I’d better eat something, though.”

He stretched his stiff shoulders and headed for the kitchen.

==========

Ruena was growing more and more nervous about what Densooth expected from her now that Soral’s power had grown. It had already been large to begin with, but now it was like someone had remembered there was more than one lamp to light in the lighthouse. Soral himself was still the same as ever, which was a relief. And he still listened to her as well. Within reason, she was sure.

After she left him he had begun to study the homework Sibel had given him so Ruena left him alone to make some progress of her own. Since she didn’t have magic, her methods of fighting were limited, but she was certain that she could make up the difference with magic tools, especially with Soral’s magic battery idea.

Howler had gone to tend for the various plants he found in the castle, and Rosalie had gone to Belleas to brush up on her combat skills. This meant it was the perfect chance for her to begin work on planning the technical part of the magic battery. The part without any magic.

The supplies Belleas had delivered earlier were actually a big help since she had a pretty good idea of what they thought would be the best materials to use. The magic holding cell would be the hardest material to choose, as would the method to release the magic. She spent the rest of the evening focusing on that mechanic, before finally coming up with one she was satisfied with.

“I hope Soral recovers his magic soon,” she muttered, looking over the mess of papers she had created while making her design. A delicious smell wafted in from the kitchen, and her stomach growled. “Maybe I’ll see him in the kitchen.”

Just like she expected, there he was. Soral hummed happily over a sizzling pan as something else baked in the oven. Jazz was over to the side helping himself to some discarded ingredients. Despite the earlier incident, everything seemed peaceful and comfortable there. Once again, Ruena was amazed by Soral’s tenacity. Could she bounce back so quickly after facing all of those consequences?

Or perhaps, he didn’t see them as consequences at all. Ruena joined him in the kitchen, a smile blooming on her own face. “What are you making?” she asked.

He turned to her and offered her a tasting spoon. “Wanna give it a taste? It’s almost done.”

“Sure,” she said, carefully blowing on the spoon before tasting it’s contents. As always, it was delicious.

“I’ve been thinking,” Soral began, looking deep into the pan, “Why do the people in town think we are dating?”

Ruena nearly choked on her food at his question, having to take a moment to calm herself and swallow properly. “You remembered that?” she asked, feeling the flush coming to her cheeks against her will.

“Yeah. I just thought of it, actually,” Soral admitted.

“I think it’s because we are always together,” she suggested. She had a few other ideas of how the misunderstanding could have formed, but they were all too embarrassing to admit. Luckily, Soral accepted her vague answer as the food finished cooking.

“Makes sense. Shall we eat?”