A muffled clashing sound echoed in the backyard as Kai and Euphridia sparred with wooden swords. Sweat dripped down the boy’s glistening skin, burned and damaged by the moon’s now much harsher rays.

“Come on kid, you can do better than that! Six months of training, I ought to have trained you well!

“Shut- shut up…” Kai groaned as he deflected her blows, his hands trembling each time their sword met mid-air. She wore a smug expression on her face, and she slowly retreated while circling Kai, whose eyes followed her like a viper.

Euphy’s pupils constricted, and, with a simple, precise step she arrived right in front of Kai, her sword violently clashing with his shoulder. He fell to his knees with a loud groan, rubbing his shoulder while looking up at his teacher. “Did you have to hit that hard?”

“Well, how else will you learn? You can’t even block a practice strike. If I were an actual enemy you’d have died so many times in the past hour.”

“An actual enemy isn’t the captain of the Elvish First Gate!” Kai complained as he rose to his feet, letting out a long sigh as he stared at this teacher’s smug smile. “One of these days… you’ll see!” He cursed, walking toward a bench to rest. However, before he could even take a first step, Aina’s excited and fatigued voice rang in his ears like a church’s bell.

“Kai, you… little… genius!” She yelled from across the courtyard, her body glowing slightly as she picked up speed, arriving in front of Kai in less than five seconds. “Look… this… your idea worked!” Aina pulled out a silver pill from within her pocket. Kai squinted his eyes, and, although he couldn’t sense the pill’s composition, he made an educated guess.

“Is this… the inner balance pill?”

“Yes, we did it! Thanks to your idea, and not only that… this is… unheard of! Come on, hold it!” Aina grabbed Kai’s hand, placing the pill in his blazing palm. The pill’s cold, shining surface rapidly cools down the skin around it. His pupils widened as grabbed it between his fingers, looking at it with a child-like curiosity. It’s almost like a pearl… and so beautiful.

“Is this the mana pill?”

“Yeah, and it has retained eighty-seven percent of its energy! Eighty-seven! This is a monumental breakthrough! The life force is staying still inside the pill, tamed by the raw mana. I don’t know what gave you that idea, or why it works but by Lumiera! Kai! This is… huge!”

“What is?” The two suddenly froze as Elizabeth’s voice resounded behind Aina, wearing a complex expression on her face as she rushed and snatched the pill from Kai. “This is… a…? Mom! Is this what I think it is?”

Aina wore a wry smile on her face, while Kai gulped and took a step back. Crap, she’ll kill me if she finds out what I and Aina have been up to! His expression almost gave away his fear, and if there was a competent God in this universe, he’d pray to it. However, as it stands, he could only pray that Aina could bullshit her way out of an actual explanation. She let out a light sigh and grabbed back the pill, “Yeah, it is, so what? You weren’t supposed to know so much anyway!”

Elizabeth’s eye twitched slightly before speaking “Mom, this… didn’t I tell you it’s not worth it? The time and resources necessary are too much in theory. Potions are much easier and much cheaper to make.”

“Elly, potions don’t last for those who don’t have magic. How many of ours have died because they couldn’t heal or gather mana in time? This is a revolutionary invention. Once The Court hears of this… we’ll be able to allocate many more resources in The First Gate.”

“Alright… let’s say I believe they’re worth the price. What does Kai have to do with this?” Elizabeth’s question hit Kai like a hammer, but he didn’t dare utter a word in hopes that Aina could somehow throw her off his tail.

“Well, he simply gave me some… ideas. Yeah, we didn’t know how to mix two energies so I consulted him.”

“Two energies?” Elly’s contemplative expression quickly turned into a frown as her eyes snapped to Kai. “You! You…! Didn’t listen to me after all, did you?! And you dragged Mom into this? You! Bad! Kid!” She brought her hand to her forehead, massaging her temples while continuing. “I don’t know what you told her or what she told you but… she’s doing it in her best interest.”

“Elly I… even if it’s so, what’s the problem? I need to get stronger, I need to be better. I must be. And if I can do it… what stops people in my situation from doing it as well? I’m not a hero or selfless by any means, but if whatever we’re doing right now works… then I don’t care.”

Elizabeth stood in silence, biting her lower lip as her body trembled in fury. A tear formed at the corner of her eye as she stared at Kai, their gorgeous emerald green sparkling under the moonlight. “Fine, as you wish… but I’ll monitor every session, and take over mother’s role.”

“Huh? What did I do?”Aina asked in a faint voice, however the soft smile creasing her lips betrayed her tone. My daughter cares so much about this boy, she finally started taking charge of things. Can I retire early then? Fufufu.

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“You’re too irresponsible and inattentive to watch over him… Mother, I can’t compare to you in terms of medicine and magic but… you don’t have any capability to take care of a child.”

Hearing that, Aina’s smile immediately turned into a genuine frown as her eyes twitched. “Hey! You can’t say that, don’t forget who raised you after your deadbeat father left!” Her annoyed voice hid a tinge of anger as her fists clenched slightly.

“Don’t talk like that about Dad!” Elizabeth’s face flushed red as she raised her voice, and a small tear dripped down her cheek. Kai wore a shocked expression, surprised by how fast things had escalated, however, he didn’t say anything for fear of making things worse. On the other hand, Euphridia seemingly disappeared into the darkness without a trace.

Seeing her daughter’s expression, Aina let out a light sigh. “I’m sorry Elizabeth, I- It was too far. I’ll take a step back and let you help Kai.” The apology, made in a voice barely above a whisper ended with her slowly walking away with her head lowered.

What… Kai stood astonished at how quickly the situation went from zero to one hundred and back to zero. Aina’s lone back as she walked to the manor left a deep imprint in his mind. Is this how my parents… how they left as well? How did they feel in their last moments… their expression… resembled Aina’s a bit. My dad… was also more than I thought, and so was my mother. Yet, they didn’t reveal any of that, they just wanted me to have a normal life… A light sigh grabbed his attention, and he locked eyes with Elizabeth as he turned to her.

“Excuse me for that, Kai. My mom she… she doesn’t see what I see.”

Kai stared deep into Elly’s trembling pupils, a soft smile forming on his lips as they parted, “It’s fine… but is she alright?”

“Yeah… mom’s stronger than that, she’ll sulk for a bit but she went through worse.”

The boy remained silent, and, seeing that his teacher had disappeared, decided to head back to his room inside the manor and rest for a bit. Elizabeth accompanied him. The short road there remained quiet, with only their heartbeats echoing in the cold corridors of the empty manor, safe for a few crickets and critters. His room door creaked open, revealing its dark, empty but cozy interior. Onyx was nowhere to be seen, but Kai had grown accustomed to it by now.

Kai flopped on the bed, and let out light groans as he threw himself below a thick blanket and two large pillows. “Are you going to sleep, so early?”

“Yeah, I’ll try to, at least.” His muffled voice barely escaped the constraints of the comfy area he made for himself. Sighing in the pillow, he turned around toward Elizabeth. “The technique I created is difficult and very painful to use… now, with Aina’s pill it should be much easier. But I feel like something is missing, I think it’s incomplete but I don’t know why… it’s been bothering me for a while. Not even your mother could help me figure it out, maybe you can?”

“Maybe, can you describe it to me?”

Standing up, Kai stretched out his arm and pointed at a spot somewhere between the hand and the elbow. “There’s a microscopic spot here, and I can feel it getting bigger each time I use the technique. For now, the only thing escaping from it is mana, however, later… I’m afraid I’ll lose my ability to use my arm as its nerves get damaged.”

Elizabeth’s eyes glowed with a faint green light as she got closer to his arms. Her warm breath crashed against his skin, however the expression on her face quickly changed to a frown. “Kai, this is a wound created by a small amount of mana traveling at incredibly fast speeds… How, how could this happen? It’s like a magic spell!”

“Yeah, that’s what Aina said as well, but she couldn’t find a reason despite researching for days and days on end. I don’t… I don’t know what to do. I need to keep going, but there’s no point if I lose something else in exchange.”

Elizabeth stood in contemplative silence, her mind churning out ideas as she theorized what could have caused this reaction in the first place. It makes no sense that this exact spot is the only one on his entire body, it seems way too random for that… but what could have caused mana to travel that fast… I didn’t even think it was possible. Even when it’s in raw form, it just bloats and shatters mana veins but punching a hole through skin and bone…

Minutes passed like hours and Kai’s fatigued eyes started to droop, weighted down by exhaustion. His arm ached as Elly refused to let go no matter how many times he pulled. Sighing, he gave up on attempting to free his arm from her bind and began thinking as well, taking the memories from his past life and Rodney’s in hopes of coming up with a decent idea.

Aina said the life force could have changed the raw mana’s structure, resulting in it becoming thinner and sharper. But I have felt no such thing, and why that point in my arm specifically? Had I not sensed something wrong… but what could it be then? Think! It’s invisible to the naked eye… caused by sharp mana… argh! Fuck!

Meanwhile, Elizabeth’s eyes stopped glowing, and she let go of his arm. Standing up from the bed with a sigh and looking at Kai, she turned toward the door and silently closed it, leaving Kai alone with his thoughts. Damn it! She raged inwardly while storming off toward the library. There has to be something, a similar symptom or a hint of some sort! Her racing heart echoing in the lit corridors gave away her anxiety if her expression didn’t reveal enough already.

The doors slammed open, creating a strong gust of wind that swayed the curtains and flipped book pages. The entire library lit with a snap of her fingers as she rushed toward the back, stopping beside a rather unpeculiar bookshelf. It stood at about three meters tall, and the books it held were just as uninteresting looking as the others. However, Elly’s eyes revealed hope as she looked at them. One of these has to have a solution, a hint… something! It has to! Mom is too proud to look at books she’s already read but… I’m not!

With that thought in mind and filled with determination, Elly picked up a handful of books and sat at the table. The sound of flipping pages instantly filled the silent library. It softly bounced against the books and bookshelves as she quickly but carefully read every word. Her mind turned into a sponge as she absorbed every bit of knowledge, slowly filtering it while trying to come up with a solution.