“So, how much have you been able to do with him so far?” Sera asked, floating around Clarisse to try and notice anything odd about her.

  “I’m able to form fireballs and even focus my fire in a short area in front of me now,” Clarisse responded, confused by the doll’s movements but forming a fireball in her hands for her to see. “Nik also went over some Arcana basics, but we didn’t see eye to eye on those besides the general ideas…” she said, hoping that Sera would be able to shine some light on the matter.

  “That’s alright, it’s pretty normal for people to have different interpretations of it,” Sera waved her concerns away, floating beside her so that both of them were looking in Nikolas’s general direction now. “Let’s try something a little more complex today. I want you to make a fireball like last time first.”

  Clarisse nodded, following her process from previous attempts to focus her mana from her palms into a small orb, before enlarging it into a fireball comfortably burning in her grasp.

  “Good, now hold it in one hand and create a new one in the other,” Sera instructed, before glancing at Nikolas and nodding. “You won’t have as long to do it.” She warned the redhead, before floating upwards.

  “What are you plann-” Clarisse questioned while moving the fireball to one hand, but before she could finish her sentence Nikolas lunged at her.

  “AAH-!” She shouted in surprise, staggering backwards before clenching her fists and trying to quickly make another fireball as she instinctively threw the one already in her hand at him.

  Nikolas deflected the brunt of the impact off the back of his wrist before advancing towards her again. “Real opponents won’t give a spellcaster any leeway to set up.”

  Clarisse panicked at his strike and lashed out with her hand, expecting a fireball to launch but only managing to muster up a flaming fist to slap against the broad side of the sword in time. She quickly took a few steps back to gain ground and focused once more, now relying more on her fight or flight instincts than a plan.

  Nikolas moved loosely, lunging at regular intervals to get her used to the faster pace of the exercise. “You’ll need stronger flames to keep competent adversaries at bay!” he declared in between clashes.

  With each advance, Clarisse took a few more steps back, struggling to keep her footing while also trying to form an offense. She gritted her teeth from frustration as time went on, finding that she was only getting slower at forming proper fireballs and more focused on moving away from him.

  “Eventually- ” Nikolas said as he closed the gap between them once more. “You’ll run out of space to run!” he warned her before suddenly ducking and sweeping her legs clean off the ground with a low kick.

  “Ouf!” Clarisse landed on the grass with a thud, simply laying there for a few seconds as the wind had been knocked out of her lungs. “Hey, go a little easy on me! I thought we were doing magic today, not fighting…” she complained as she sat up.

  “We are,” Nikolas replied, taking a few steps back to look back at where they had ended up from the spot they began at. “And you’ve made some more progress- take a look at your tracks.”

  “Huh?” Clarisse was confused, but casting a quick glance at the grass gave her an answer - there were burn marks etched into the ground where she had stepped starting from about halfway into their exercise, the source of which were flames forming around the ankles and on the soles of her boots, causing her to exclaim. “Whoa, that’s new!”

  “This is how most mages outside academia discover the true potential of their magic.” Nikolas remarked, kneeling on one knee to inspect the burnt grass, before looking at her. “By putting themselves through stress and danger.”

  Sera floated down behind Clarisse, grabbing the back of her collar and helping her up. “Your body will exceed what you thought were its limits by just a little bit in stressful situations. The key is finding the right balance for growth… One too many mages have died trying to find their full potential.”

  Clarisse seemed a little too excited to understand the gravity of their remarks, her face lighting up with a grin as she stepped a few times where she stood, letting the flames on her feet grow. “This is so cool…” she said, taking a short walk to see how they looked while in motion. “Let’s do it again! I think I’m getting the hang of this.”

  “Careful steps make for repeatable steps,” Nikolas remarked, adjusting the cuffs of his sleeves before putting his hands up again.

  “Take care not to burn yourself out- limits can only be pushed gradually.” Sera compounded on Nik’s advice to Clarisse with a pat on her shoulder before floating upwards to oversee their training.

  Nikolas loomed over an exhausted Clarisse with vermillion streaks painting the evening Veil over him, nodding with an air of contentment. “That’s all for today then.” he said, sitting down beside her in the grass and looking up at the sky.

  “...Thanks.” Clarisse croaked, completely spent after their day of training. “I don’t think I can move a muscle anymore…” The flames on her hands and feet had gone out by now, having left the area they had used to train as a smoldering patch. The entire field they had used stuck out like a sore thumb among the rest of the grassy plains.

  “You’ll feel the real soreness tomorrow,” Sera mused, floating down to gently land on Nikolas’s backpack. “You’re improving quite fast with your magic. It’s surprising to be honest… Have you ever been trained in magic before?”

  Clarisse closed her eyes, trying to recall. “No, I don’t think so. My dad used to show us his magic whenever he was at home, but I was too young to do any myself back then.”

  “You did mention he was also a pyromancer…” Nikolas recalled their first conversation on the way back to the guild.

  “Mhm! He could make fire concentrate into small areas before making it explode,” The redhead spoke fondly, a smile forming on her mouth as she recalled her father. “He could even do it all around him at once to make a large shield. He was the hero of our town… so cool…”

  Nikolas’s eyes widened ever so slightly as he caught her use of past tense. Even though he recognized the implications, he decided to prod the topic further. “Sounds like a powerful ability. What did he work as?”

  “He was an adventurer before the war,” Clarisse replied, and her smile slowly disappeared. “He used to tell me stories of all the quests he went on. That’s how my parents met. Then the war sent him to the frontlines…”

  Nikolas didn’t reply this time, simply staring straight ahead. He seemed too caught up in his own thoughts to think of a response.

  “It’s why I wanted to become an adventurer,” Clarisse added, opening her eyes. “I want to be like him someday.”

  Still caught up in his thoughts, Nikolas slowly leaned back and laid his head on the ground. “What will you do once you make it there?” He asked, his tone sounding hollow all of a sudden.

  “Hmm-?” Clarisse turned her head, confused by what he meant. “I want to travel all over the archipelago until I’m older, gather lots of stories to tell. Then I’ll go back to my hometown… maybe with someone I meet on my adventures. Start a home… stuff like that.” Her voice was dreamy, full of hope for the future. “What about you, Nik? What are you going to do?” She asked, turning her whole body to lay on her side in the grass.

  There was a silent pause from the fox, who seemed unable to fixate on an answer. “Well… There’s not a lot of ways it can end with me,” He resigned himself. Though reserved on the outside, his fingers gripped the handle of the broken sword resting at his side tightly, as if reminding himself of something. “I don’t bother myself with things like that too much.”

  Clarisse’s brow furrowed as she propped herself on her elbow to look at his eyes, usually the only way she had to read his mood. “Yeah, but what do you want? There has to be something you want to do in life.”

  “N?????????????????????????o????????????????????????t??????????h?????????????????????????i????????????????n??????????????????g????????????????? ??????????????????????t???????????????????h???????????a???????????t?????????? ?????????y???????????????????????o???????????????u?????????????????? ???????????????c???????????????????????a?????????????????????????n??????????????????????? ?????????????????d?????????????????????????????????o????????????????????????? ????????????????????????w????????????i?????????????t??????????????????????h???????????????????? ?????????????b???????????????????????????o??????????r?????????????????????????r?????????????????????????o???????????????w?????????????????????e????????d?????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????t??????????????i?????????????m?????????????????????????e????????????????????…??????????????????”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “J???????????????????o????????????????????i???????????????????????n?????????????????? ??????????????u??????????????s???????????????????? ?????????????????????????i????????????????????????????n???????????????????????? ???????????????????t??????h????????????????i???????????????????????s??????????????? ???????????????p????????????????r????????????????????i???????????????????s????????????????????????????o?????????????????????????n?????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????o?????????????????????????f??????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????s??????????????????t??????????e?????????e?????????????????????l??????????????????”

  Nikolas seemed too preoccupied with thoughts crowding his mind to respond, his eyes closed as he simply lay there. Clarisse laid back down with a huff, her frustration with his non-answers and strangeness only growing despite how much she respected him for mentoring her. A few minutes of peaceful silence passed before Nikolas got up, silently dusting the dirt and grass off of himself before offering Clarisse a hand.

  “Thank you,” Clarisse replied with a smile, getting up and dusting the grass and dirt off her outfit. Her movements were still a bit weary, but she managed to stand upright and pick up her bag. Its weight made her lean back at first, but she caught her balance before she could fall.

  “Careful there-” Sera piped up from her vantage spot floating above them before swooping down to prop the bag from behind Clarisse. “Maybe we pushed you a little too far today…”

  “Well, don’t I need it?” Clarisse smiled, glanced at Nikolas, and then at Sera. “I want to be able to keep up with both of you!” she said, before beginning to walk ahead towards the city.

  Nikolas’s eyes widened, taken aback by what she said. He cast a quick glance towards Sera and their eyes met in a moment of understanding before he joined Clarisse. “I like the resolve, but you should also take care of yourself on the way there.”

  “I will, promise!”

  Sitting on the edge of the city’s bell tower in the pitch black of night with his back to one of the stone beams holding up the bell, Nikolas opened his bag and let Sera out to talk. “So, did you see anything strange today? I felt my mana take a pretty big hit during the training.” He asked, eager to hear what the doll had witnessed while they trained.

  “I’m not sure why, but she was siphoning your mana once her own pool was used up,” Sera replied, sitting on his knee and resting her chin on one of her fists. “It could be a part of her magic, but I’m not certain.”

  “When did it start? Right as she began casting, or only later once her spells were costing more than she could maintain?” Nikolas inquired. “This could lead to a very powerful skillset.”

  “It started off as a very weak siphon, even before you started the training exercise,” Sera explained, using her tiny arms as indicators for emphasis. “The more mana she spent to maintain her flames, the more she kept siphoning from you. But it also stopped at some points… roughly whenever both of you were at the same proportion of mana.”

  “So it’s almost as if we had a shared mana pool?” Nikolas asked in a confused tone. “Have you seen anything like this before?”

  Sera paused before shaking her head. “Sort of? I’ve never seen anything like this in person, but there are phenomena that I’ve heard of in the past which describe similar situations. I’ll have to go back to the archives to confirm anything…”

  “Hmm… while you do that, I want to set up an experiment to check if it’s just her magic,” Nikolas pondered aloud. “Maybe leave her with others for a couple of days, and you can check on her to see if it happens with them too?”

  Sera nodded along for the first part, before raising an eyebrow “You want me to stay with her for a few days? You’d have to not be around for this experiment to do anything.”

  “That shouldn’t be an issue,” Nikolas asserted, raising a finger to poke her face. “You’ve left me alone for days many times on account of being busy. I’ll just go do some quest outside town and we can talk once I get back.”

  “That’s besides the- ow!” she pushed his finger away, frowning. “What if she starts asking questions? I doubt she even realizes that she can siphon mana right now.”

  Nikolas simply shrugged, “Shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Besides, she doesn’t need to get into any serious trouble for this either… just tell her to go kill rats in a sewer or something with other rookies.”

  “This is a gross underuse of my abilities, even as limited as they are in this form.” Sera complained with a sigh.

  “It’s payback for making me teach her magic for the first day on my own.” Nikolas replied in a smug tone, looking out at the city laid out all around them.

  “Fine. But don’t expect me to stop her from going to someone else to learn if you don’t show up soon enough.” The doll said with a humph, floating back towards his bag.

  “Right… I’ll drop you off with her tomorrow then.” he replied, rolling his eyes at the thought that she’d find someone much better than him to learn under.

  “There’s also the issue of her curiosity,” Sera continued, it seemed she wasn’t done cross-examining him on their day yet. “You can’t keep dodging and ignoring every question thrown at you.”

  “Well, what do you want me to do?” Nikolas snapped back, the topic itself putting him in an odd state of mind. “Every lie I use digs me into a bigger hole I have to bluff my way through. It’s bound to bite me someday.”

  “You wouldn’t have to lie all the time if you came back to Atraxia.” Sera suggested with a firm tone, floating off his knee to place a hand on his shoulder.

  “And what do I have there to return to?” Nikolas swatted her away, his usual detached voice growing harsher with every word that left his mask. “You aren’t my people. Atraxia is not where I belong.”

  “And you think this is?” Sera responded likewise, seemingly done with her gentle attitude. “None of them know the truth about you, and they only keep you around because you’re useful to them. There are many who would aspire to be like you down below…”

  “I am not someone to be idolized or patronized,” Nikolas replied, getting up and slinging his bag over his back. “I’m running out of time as is.”

  “-And what are you doing with that time!?” Sera floated up to his face, chastising him. “Chasing dreams of a pointless life and helping people who don’t matter…”

  “So she agrees. Doesn’t that make you angry?”

  “…”

  “I am not the only one capable of seeing your folly, in that I rejoice.”

  “I will find my own meaning.”

  “The only meaning afforded to cowards like you is the complacency that you stuck to your standards while others around you suffered.”

  Instead of responding to either of the voices confronting him, Nikolas yanked out a potion vial from his bandolier and clenched it in his hand for a second. Once it was charged with mana, he let it drop onto the edge of the bell tower, where it exploded into a bright flash of light.

  “Ugh-” Sera reeled back, finding herself alone on the bell tower once the flash subsided. Her wooden body was glowing in the darkness as if she was bioluminescent, as was a wide radius around the section of the bell tower where the vial had fallen. “Nikolas-!” she called out, but he was nowhere to be found, both to her sight and to her mana sensory abilities.

  “What do you have for me that’s outside Junnhaven, Rika?” Nikolas asked the guild receptionist when he arrived at the guild early in the morning. It seemed that he had shown up while the guild staff were setting up to open for the day, which only brought a question to all their minds as to how he had entered.

  “Uhh… let me see…” Rika shuffled through her stack of paperwork to check for a suitable quest for him, trying to ignore the unexpected intrusion. “A lot of them were immediately taken when I posted up the delayed batch of quests the day before yesterday, but I think I have one left over… Aha. Here it is.” She smiled, skimming over the paper before handing it to him. “It’s not ideal, but hopefully you can manage?”

  “It can’t be that bad…” Nikolas muttered as he read the brief at the top of the page. It didn’t take long for him to realize why this had been a leftover quest among the others, and his shoulders drooped slightly as he did. “An… oathbreaker paladin.”

  “...Yup.” Rika sighed, returning the stack of quests back under her desk. “The main issue with it is that the quest posting is almost a week old, so the information on it to find the runaway is pretty much useless. That, and oathbreakers are extremely dangerous. But I’m sure you knew that already…”

  “So the only leads I have are that he’s moving South from the border of Ombraevus, dodging patrols and sticking to the smaller villages. The last sighting was at Verudra…” Nikolas went over what little information he had, charting a mental map in his mind with help from his finger by dragging it over the paper.

  “Are you sure you can take this? Oathbreakers are rare to hear of… even rarer to hear about on the run in the wilderness,” Rika asked, leaning in over her desk to peek at what he was trying to chart with his finger. “I can get you something else within the city too if you wanted.” she offered.

  “I’ll manage, thanks,” Nikolas nodded, quickly folding up the paper and tucking it into one of the pockets in his cloak. “It might take me a while, but I’ll see to it that whoever this is gets delivered to justice!”

  “Thanks so much!” Rika smiled with a clap, happy to have another quest taken care of. “I knew I could rely on you for this.”

  “Of course,” Nikolas replied, seeing himself out of the guild through the front door, which was now being opened for the first time that day. His path was already charted, and so he made a beeline out of the city and towards Verudra.

  Thank you for reading!

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