I nodded as I glanced down at the gems on the ring that my father had given me. I had already used the red, royal blue, and yellow. “Hmmm…” I was curious to see what the green one would do. Now, with our training, that could have been necrotic damage or perhaps a form of acid damage.

“What’s the hold up?” Théoden questioned as he was growing a bit impatient as I hadn’t selected a gem yet.

“Fine.” I said as I pressed the gem. The gem was fully charged as green was often correlated with disgust. Considering I was quite disgusted with Marcel and his activities recently, it was no surprise that it was fully charged.

I felt a wave of energy wash over me as a greenish hue and a hideous stench started to waft in my nose. A spiraling wisps of a sickly green tightened coil appeared in the middle of the arena. The vortex emitted a sense of decay and darkness as it moved towards its target.

As it grew closer towards Théoden, the vortex shifted in hues of greens and blacks. Its power pulsed with anger as it moved with great speed.

Théoden's eyes widened in fear as the vortex wrapped around him, engulfing him in the spinning force of decay. In seconds I heard him grunt in pain as the vortex had eaten away his shield and began to eat away at his flesh. After six seconds, the spell faded and he appeared wrecked.

“Theo!” I shouted as I began to run towards him. I felt my heart begin to race as the thoughts of hurting him raced through my mind.

“I’m fine.” He groaned causing me to stop in my tracks. I was five feet away from him and could see his flesh appeared decayed but quickly healing as he mended his own skin. “Just…shocked.” He glanced over at me as he finalized healing his wounds. “What the fuck was that Maria?”

I shrugged, “It was the green gem. I presume Necrosis?” I questioned him.

He thought about it for a moment as the last of his flesh was restored to its natural glow of life. “That’s what it felt like. That hurt like hell. Was that overcharged?”

I glanced down at the ring and the green gem was now dull. “Yes, it appears so.”

He gave a slight smile, “Good. Let me form another shield, then you can target me again. But with a different gem.”

I nodded and moved back five steps and watched as the shield formed around him again. “Alright, I am ready for the next.” I glanced down at my ring following his orders and chose the forest green gem. This one was almost fully charged and grew dull as I released the energy that was stored.

Five forest green tendrils twirled within the space between Théoden and I. They lurched forward at an amazing speed and grappled around his barrier. The tendrils began to construct as they tightened their grip around his safety net. In a few seconds the barrier dropped. Then they moved in on him. The tendrils wrapped around his body and I all I could do was stand and stare at the sight of Théoden's body being constricted the same way snakes do their prey.

I heard Théoden's gasps for air and the cracking of his bones. Then, I heard nothing. Saw nothing. As the spell faded. Théoden's body slumped to the ground as he struggled to breath.

“Theo!” Once more I raced towards him. The feeling of my heart pounding returned.

“I…I am fine.” Théoden gasped between bursts of air entering and leaving his lungs.

I didn’t stop this time and as I reached him, I gasped myself. His body was crumpled as bones stuck out in all directions. “Theo?” I questioned as I knelt down beside him.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Maria. I just need a minute to heal.”

“Let me help with that.” I said as I looked down at my ring and saw that the gems I figured correlated to healing was fully charged. I reached out and touched him as I activated one of the diamond like gems and prayed that it was healing.

We both looked at each other as we felt a burst of radiant energy pulse from me and into him. “Thank you.” He breathed as his wounds was healing at a faster rate than they were as I had activated the correct gem. A wave of relief washed over me as each bone, each puncture wound on his body fused together as the gem had been fully charged.

He sat up and stared at me, “Both of those spells sucked.” He muttered in amusement. “I can go through one more I think.”

My eyes went wide as he said, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am sure. Let me rest one more minute then use the purple gem. It is one we haven’t done yet, correct?” I nodded. “After that, I want you to utilize some of the other gems like the red one just in small bursts to lower the energy. Those we can target the dummies with.”

I nodded once more. After the minute he had asked for was up, I went back and stood ten feet away. I was already starting to feel drained but I knew I needed to do this. I also knew Théoden was hurting more than he was letting on, however he powered through it.

I thought back to my ring and the variety of spell damages he taught me. What if I attacked the mind…I thought. I switched my damage focus to physic damage and shot him with a ray of vibrant purple. It seeped into his skull before he even had a chance to react. He winced at the pain that was wreaking havoc on his mind, and to my surprise my mind started to feel like it was bursting too. “Shit.” I collapsed to the ground and grabbed my skull. “I…I tried to do simple.” Pain seared in my mind from him. He looked far worse than I felt. His bond seems locked, his face. After about six more seconds he regained his mobility and stared angrily at me or proud I couldn’t tell. After he regained his mobility I regained mine.

“So…” He was able to recollect his thoughts once more, “physic damage hurts us both. Interesting. How have we not felt that before?” he recalled several incidents where he had been attacked with this type of damage while on duty. “Are you alright?” He asked me as I was still sitting on the ground in a bit of shock.

He walked over to me and sat next to me, “Curious as to why this hasn’t happened yet. This is an interesting development in the bond.” He brushed my forehead with his hand giving me a bit of radiant healing.

I smiled softly at him, “thanks, sorry for the mind burst, I wanted simple but…” I looked down at my ring where a dull purple gem was now. “I guess as I was switching damage types my ring activated somehow.”

“I’m not mad, just a bit shocked. But I’m glad you did.” He told me looking at me with a curious look in his eye, “it led to a new discovery.”

“What if this happens in the battle?”

“That is going to be something we will have to deal with when the time comes. Let’s just hope the bond doesn't develop in a way where all damage is shared.” He said, “though, I wonder, perhaps we can give and take damage from each other.”

“Give and take?”

“Yes, if one takes too much damage, perhaps it can be transferred to the bond to the other. Giving. Or if one of us is willing to take the damage, Take.” he said. “Can we try?”

I just stared up at him, “I..I guess.” I was nervous. Whenever new things developed with the bond it always made me nervous.

“I assume this is going to only happen with attack spells. Let me do the attack.” he stood up and walked a few feet away from me. He stretched his hands and produced a line of cold. I didn’t dodge. I didn’t move. This was a test. And we needed to see what would happen. As the cold took hold on my body I began shivering immediately. My skin started to turn a purple/blue hue. Instantly seeing my breath. As the spell reached its peak. Théoden pulled it back to him through the bond. I took no damage but was left rather cold.

As the spell reverted on the caster, it seemed to be less of a force as the initial impact was focused on me. As he was a silver dragon the spell did not affect him at all. That was due to his natural immunity to the cold. He walked back over to me with a smile on his face. “This will prove to be a great addition to battle. I knew we could pull pain from impacts but to be able to pull the spell completely. It’s incredible!”

“I want you to promise me one thing with this new development.” I told him, “Promise me that you will put yourself in harm's way with this.” He reached down to help me up. He pulled me into him, allowing his aura to sooth my nerves.

He smiled down at me, “I promise.” He said, kissing my lips. Part of me believed him but a small part of me didn’t. It’ll be okay Maria, you’ll see.