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I wasn’t skilled at people things,

...or maybe 'reading the room.'

1

I felt a pain in my head as I had stood up, this whole day was too much for me, far to much to process, I wanted to go back to fighting demons… not thinking, why was I even here? to do something better?

But my body felt sluggish, I wasn't moving anywhere like this, but I also couldn’t help the words spilling out of my mouth, in fact I wanted them to be heard, I felt attacked, hunted when she looked at me, but nothing felt more comforting, it felt right…

I repeated "why?” my voice nearly catching in my throat, even now I wasn’t stupid enough to not know I was hurting her, but it didn’t matter, I wanted to lash out.

But this didn't make her gaze any less terrifying...

She pulled down a set of large circular glasses over her eyes, obscuring them completely, as well as her emotions "I..." she began to speak but it was clear she didn't know what to say, I had backed her into a corner, this didn’t feel like winning though, I actually felt worse, why?

"I'll try not to look at you then... it's probably for the best..." with that, she turned away and with one swift motion threw a fist into Jupiter's stomach, but of course the hit didn't even scratch him, it felt more like she was hitting a wall, with a resounding clang.

I had the unshakable faith that Jupiter wouldn't get hurt, but should I have intervened anyways, Jupiter didn't seem shaken up about it and just stared off between us for a while, but eventually he spoke up.

"I'd like to see you two get along, but there's something you need to do first, maybe that will straighten you out." he walked out of the room, and as he exited the broken doorway, I got the feeling that I should be following him, not from anything he said, but I could feel anger from him, as if to visualize it, the doorframe welded back together haphazardly as he walked past it.

Shouldn't someone clean that up?

2

We walked back the same way we came, but this time it was much more silent, the tension between us threatened to snap, I felt sick, Europa was ashamed, and Jupiter was smoldering with rage, at least that’s how I interpreted it… I had done something horrible, and had no room to bridge the gap, I felt worse.

I wanted to get on my knees and apologize, I wanted to offer something anything for forgiveness, I wanted to punch myself in the face.

Maybe I didn't even have one under the helmet...

Something else has always been inside me, I could never pinpoint it, it made me feel ashamed, it made me feel like I had to help those weaker than me, when I felt mad it calmed me down, when I was about to make a mistake it warned me.

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That thing, it will surely mend this, right?

I was an idiot without it… I couldn’t do this myself…

3

A few hours had passed after we left the city, Jupiter lead the way, we were going somewhere important, that was all I knew.

The three of us had reached a graveyard.

I didn’t even notice, but Jupiter had been carrying his body all this way here, in fact there already was a fresh grave dug, they probably anticipated this, maybe they would have been able to save him if they did not stop to find me.

"Who am I?, why did you stop for me?" I needed to know, I couldn’t bear the thought that I was responsible for this person’s death, not only that but his magic went to me, there was no way I could avoid blame for this, I was the only person that had something of his.

“Elias, you’re an unlucky kid, maybe if everything was different you’d be able to stay obscure and save everyone you could, doing things as you were.” Jupiter laid the man’s body in the grave, the ground surrounding it burning and melding together, covering him completely, and with his index finger Jupiter carved a name into the headstone “Orthosie, you know what his name means?” Jupiter looked over his shoulder, back at me.

“No…” I walked a bit closer, watching the stone come into view, the scorched earth covering his body still had small embers dancing and jumping off it, some were orange, yellow, blue, green, white, my eyes got lost in the dancing colors.

“Neither do I…” Jupiter sounded a little despondent, before speaking again “I don’t know what mine means either… I never got the chance to ask.” He stood up and looked across the field at the few other graves there were, letting out a sigh.

"By the way Elias, I have somewhat of a gift to you" Jupiter had turned to a somewhat distant gaze, looking at the sun barely over the world's edge, it made the field appear a golden hew with the graves being a grim reminder of today’s events, I turned to him “A gift?”

"I did not inherit the magic from these people, call it fate but, I need you to be as prepared as possible for what the world will throw at you." He pushed me on the back sending me forward slightly into the center of the graveyard, on all sides were the names and belongings of the deceased, namely, magic.

That something was now screaming, that little voice I could barely hear in the back of my head, it had a simple request “Use me”, and so I did. Was this magic? I couldn’t have know if I ever had magic, my memory was just too spotty but I couldn’t even put a face to this power, yet, I still flexed this magic like a muscle I always had.

It was something like a blessing, light poured from the gaps in my armor, liquid light, my mouth dried and my legs nearly gave out, using this blessing nearly robbed me of all my stamina, I felt like I ran a lap around the world, it was a only by chance I was still standing as my legs were locked in place, even then, I couldn’t handle the strain and went mostly limp.

The glowing ooze poured and poured, being absorbed by the ground as quickly as it was formed, until finally, it took enough. And then they began to take form, sprouts of light shining from each grave like torch flares, providing light still, as the sun fully set.

Out of their graves, they rose, but not as new life, as a shadow of themselves, a physical manifestation of magic pure and radiant.

The legion bore their weapons, most of them seemed like warriors, a few ones among them seemed meek, some had no weapons but were just as ready for battle, and one… one had a pickaxe…

The ringing on my ears subsided, and I could hear my heart beating, beating and beating it was trying to keep up with the strain I put on it, I couldn’t be sure if it could keep up, but I could move again, my limbs were responsive, but it hurt like hell.

What was the point of doing this? I didn’t really understand that tiny voice… or maybe I did. I had to fight my way out of this, somehow, this was less mentally taxing.

I could relax.

SNAP

Or maybe my body would give out.