For the second time in a short while, Ki woke up in a room she didn’t know. The had no recollection of the last hours. They were going to the academy and then… She was tired. Just barely awake, not even able to open her eyes. What happened then? She could not remember. Her head started to hurt when she tried thinking about it. She could not point her finger on what happened. The last thing she could recollect was a faint fuzzy memory. Kayto and her infront of the king. Right. She was a magus now. But everything after that was black. No matter how hard she tried. The mind refused to let her access the memories. Far away she faintly heard:

“We managed to heal the burned skin. The Mark is gone now. As for her other injuries, there is nothing we can do. She just overused her power. We can only wait for herself to recover that naturally. But she is stable. It should not take longer than a week, until she is up and running again.” 

The voice was calm and soothing.

“Thank you. I will stay until she wakes up.”

That voice was well known to Ki. It was Kayto.

“Then we will prepare a bed and food for you, yo...”

“Shh. I told you not to call me that.”

What was that? Ki felt like he had heard something she was not supposed to. But she had no clue what this conversation meant.

“I am very sorry, please forgive me my misstep. It shall not happen again.”

“It is fine. No harm done yet. But beware of your words in the future.”

Before Ki could continue to rack her brain about it, her weakened body demanded sleep. She sank back into darkness. 

Kayto sat on a couch next to Ki. He felt guilty. It was his fault. He could have told her beforehand that it would not be fun and rainbows here. But he didn’t. There were to many memories, that he did not wanted to be remind of. So he had pushed it further and further. Now it was to late.

“This entitled, Ba...”

Kayto cursed. He didn’t want to think back. Back to time when he was still little. During this time the blue haired girl was back into the office with professor Kane.

“Professor, i don’t understand this situation at all. What happened there? What is this ‘slave’ mark? Who is the storm? Why did no one stop him?”

The Professor sighted. This was the worst situation possible. Why did that guy come back anyway? “I will try to answer your questions. But some of those things are secrets. So i am not allowed to answer them. First of, you need to know more about the silver domain. In the last two hundred year, there has not been a single student from the silver domain. So for you young people it is completely unknown. Most things you guys know about it, are myths, rumors, stories. Not all of them are true and for some the truth is much worse, than the story. Two hundred and fifty years ago, there was a different silver king. He had many followers. Many students were in this school. But he had a completely different thinking than the other kings. He had the opinion, that not only born Magi should be allowed to use magic, but humans and half humans as well. As you know nowadays, there are no human born magi anymore. And the few half Magi that exist are shunned by society. Every other King had the opinion, that this was outrageous. Magic should exist only for Magi. Currently, when a magus is born and gets of age, a King will choose him and grant him an element. Although most of the time, they stick to their born houses. Anyway, the others did not like the idea of that. That’s where the tragedy started. The other Kings wanted to erase the silver domain completely.

And they did. Every single silver magus was killed in a single night. Except for one. He escaped from our land. No one chased him, because without a King, the silver domain would perish anyway. And once a new King would be born, the whole idea of human magic users would not exist anymore. Time passed. A hundred years later, there a new silver King came to be.”

Tired of his monolog, the Professor took a sip from his teacup.

“But this new king was weird. He refused to meet the other kings, or take part in political decisions at all. Most people living in this town, do not even know what the silver king looks like. Another fifty years later, the last silver magus from the old time came back. But now it was a hundred fifty years later. The whole incident was not forgotten, yet the kings decided, that there was no harm in leaving him alive. A single magus would be no threat. And that man is ‘Tempest’. As soon as he came back, all he ever did for the next hundred years, was to practise magic and pick fights with everyone. The thing that made him into a legend, was his ability.”

The blue haired girl was listening, tense, excited. This was the first time she had ever heard this. This was not something they taught in history lessons. The teachers just brushed over this topic, whenever it came up, that the story was lost in history.

“His ability, the storm. It is mighty enough to destroy an entire town. He creates multiple currents, that are turning against each other at high speed. Imagine standing inside a thunderstorm, where the wind is strong enough to rip buildings apart and enough electricity is created to pulverize things. He only used it twice. The downside on this spell is, that it attacks indiscriminately. Once cast, there is no getting away from him. If it wasn’t a unique spell, the silver domain would be invincible.”

The professor was scratching his beard.

“i hope now you understand, why no one stopped him back then. Not because no one wanted, but because no one dared to. As to your other question about the slave mark. I am not allowed to tell you. I have no idea how that moron Ren, got knowledge of it, but be sure that he will get punished for it. As he is royalty, he will get away rather easy though. Is that all you wanted to know?”

Professor Kane was turning to his tea again. The girl was lost in thought.

“Yes i think that is all for now. Thank you professor.”

She left the office and went down the corridor into the library. After a few staircasesand a few left and right turns, she arrived at a place that was painted in green and blueish color. A Big sign over a Key door, not unlike the one that Kayto and Ki had turned through, not long ago, said:

“Blue Domain. Residence of the King of Water.”

When Ki woke up it was early in the morning. The faint light of the sunrise was coming through the windows. Kayto was sleeping on a couch next to her bed. He seemed exhausted. How long had he been awake to watch over her? Ki couldn’t help but smile. He had his moods, but deep down he had to be a good person. Her memory was still messy, but she did remember most of what happened. This rude guy called Ren, assaulted her and then he burned something in her neck and then.. memory went blank. There was a void there. Why did that mad yellow haired guy do that anyway…? She could not imagine what he had against her… But she had to find out, where this hostility rooted from. Kayto started to move around a bit, then woke up confused and alerted. Looking around he realized where he was an calmed down, looking at Ki who has awake now, he started to smile.

“How are you feeling, sleeping beauty?” Ki sneered.

“Yeah right, if i was, i would have been kissed awake and not wake up with a beehive in my head. So to answer your question, i feel horrible.”

Kayto’s grin was slowly fading now. “Do you remember what you did?”

Ki could not imagine what he was talking about.

“What do you mean? I did not do anything.. that guy just assaulted me without me doing anything.”

“No i mean after that.”

Ki thought for a second. “I do not remember. After he touched me, there was a sharp pain and then.. i don’t know. The memory is not there. What did i do?”

Kayto sighted. Then he proceeded to pull the couch nearer to her bed.

“You used magic."

Ki couldn’t believe it. “I did? Really? How? I mean.. i still don’t know how.”

Ki had learned to believe Kayto’s words. Even when he was joking, he usually never lied. Suddenly realizing, that using magic could mean all kinds of dangerous things she aspirated: “What did i do? Did anyone get hurt?” Praying, that the answer was no, she stared at Kayto.

“Yes, you did hurt people. A lot of them.”

Blood started to freeze in Ki’s veins. Just what had she done?

“But none of them is in any danger. They just had a lack of air. Luckily not long enough to cause lasting damage.”

Ki was still puzzled about what happened, but a sigh of relief left her lips. She fell back onto her pillow.

“Please explain to me what happened.”

Kayto did not look her in the eyes when he answered. “You awakened. Unlocking your unique ability. You nearly died.” He was clearly shook by the events. “You can make the air stop moving in a fixed zone. Which means no one can move. No one can breath. Except for yourself.”

Ki listened to that and then started to grin.

“So im basically Medusa?”

Kayto couldn’t help but smile as well.

“A bit less ugly i figure. Ouch!”

Ki punched him in the side as hard as her weak body could manage. Both bursting into laughter after it.