A week had passed and Ki already got used to, how things were run here. Food was not very different to the things she already knew. Although she was never sure what plants were in the salad. Or which animal the meat belonged to. The person who kept watch over her, was a young girl. She was tiny, had a petite body figure and blond hair. Her face was always smiling and Ki enjoyed being with her. She was called Eria and belonged to the green kingdom. They were able to manipulate life and heal others. Eria was a kind girl, unlike most other magi, she actually looked her age and was as old as Ki was. Her blue eyes had warm gaze. Whenever she entered the room

“Hello Eria.” 

Ki said happily, when Eria came in for the daily checkup.

“How are you?”

Eria smiled as always. Her quiet voice sounded sweet.

“Hello Ki. I think it is more important, how you are.”

Ki laughed. Eria was very shy and would always put others ahead of herself.

“You need to learn to think of yourself, what if people take advantage of you?”

Eria thought for a second and then simply answered.

“It is my job to serve the people and the royalty. I'm only a half magus.”

Ki stopped smiling. This was messed up. Who taught people that this was ok? That face that Eria had, made Ki’s body hurt. Did she get bullied? Who would dare to bully such a nice person? Suddenly she noticed that Eria was continuously holding her right arm with her left hand. Before Eria could react, Ki had grabbed her hand and pulled back the sleeve. A big area of burned skin would become visible. Ki, first shocked, started seething.

“You dummy, why are you coming here to check up on me, when you need treatment yourself first? Now before doing anything, heal your arm immediately!”

“I can’t”

Eria started crying.

“If i heal it, they will hurt me even more.”

Ki was sitting in her bed. She started to comfort Eria as best as she could. In her mind forming a plan. She would ask Kayto to help her. This would have consequences. At this Evening she told Kayto what happened. He did not say anything at first. This reminded him of his past. After a while he asked.

“Want me to take care of it?”

“No that would not help. As soon as she is alone she would get bullied again. She does not belong to the silver domain. I want to do this. Please teach me how to use magic.”

Kayto whistled. He had expected that she would ask him that. Initially he wanted to refuse, when this question had come up, but the Situation had changed. Ki didn’t want to learn magic for her romantic dreams, but to help a poor soul, this was right up Kayto’s alley, as it reminded him about his former life. With a slightly fearsome grin he said.

“I cannot teach you a lot right now. You need to learn the basics first and since you are going to take part in the training lessons next week, it would be a waste of time to teach it to you twice in a row. Instead i will try to teach you how to control your unique ability. I cannot use it myself, so this will be rough. I cannot teach you in any normal way. I can only show you the path to the gold, but you have to dig it out yourself.”

Ki was determined to learn from Kayto no matter what. She still did not know much about him, but one thing seemed sure, he was strong.

“Then show me the way. It is something i have to do!”

“Don’t cross the bridge before you come to it. You have to be on your feet again, before we do it. It is not without danger.”

Sighting, Ki accepted that even tho, she was raging inside, she could not do anything about her condition.

“Ok i will wait 2 more days.”

Two days later, Ki was excited, like she had never been in her life. Today her life would make a turn. This was totally different, from anything she had ever done. Kayto was excited too, was this the first person he ever could teach. He promised himself, to make her strong enough, that the events of his life, would not continue. Never again! They sat in a big room, in the silver domain. The walls, the roof and the ground, covered in rune like markings.

“This is a practise room. No matter what you do here, you cannot pierce the walls.”

At least that's what they tell you in training, Kayto thought by himself.

“So there is no need to hold back at all. We are talking about your unique ability here. To trigger it, i will have to get you to remember, a hurtful memory. So be prepared for that. Also in this room you cannot overuse magic. It will stop you from using any, as soon as you reach a dangerous area.”

Ki made a resolute face. She would endure anything. She had made one of the first close friends, that she ever had in her entire life. She was willing to go very far for that.

“I will try to guide you through that memory. A unique ability is less a spell, where you think about what exactly you will do with the element you have, but rather tame an ocean and for a few seconds, command all its might. It is not something you can do with mathematical functions and scientific explanations. Don’t think about what you can do, But feel what you want to do.”

Kayto’s explanation was not too hard to understand, yet Ki was not so sure that she knew what that all meaned.

“Ready when you are.” she answered.

“Here we go then. Remember what happened when Montana shot you?”

Ki flinched. That was not an easy memory to brush over.

“Yes?”

She was not so sure where he was going with this.

“When the bullet was coming towards you. In that very last seconds, before you nearly died. What was going through your head? What did you feel?”

Ki closed her eyes, trying to relive the moment. Time had stopped and then there was.. nothing.. Absolute Silence. Her stomach turned a bit when she focused on that.

“Silence”

Ki thought. It felt strange, to be in that moment again. Her body felt weird. Slowly but steadily, her concentration would fade. She opened her eyes again. Kayto was infront of her, his eyes white open. His mouth as if gasping for air, that did not exist. The shade of his face was deep red, slowly turning blue. At that sight Ki lost all focus and Kayto fell forward, coughing, gasping, wheezing. A minute later his face was back to his usual self. He stared at her. Confused.

“You.”

He pointed at her touching her forehead.

“Are an absolute natural at this. I should have expected this. People with near death experiences are good at their unique ability. And yet it is still amazing that you did it first time. But the thing you lack is control. You have no control over your ability. You just release it on everyone. It would be dangerous if there were friends near you. The thing you have to do now, is to try and focus on using your ability in a way that it does not affect everyone, but only the people you want to."

Ki sat there. That was easy for him to say. She didn’t even know how she just did that and he talked about controlling it.

“But don’t worry.”

He had a mischievous grin on his face.

“I know a way to get you to learn it.”

Half an hour later, Ki was sitting amidst burning candles. Probably around two hundred.

“Now,”

Kayto said, again with his mischievous grin.

“You have to use your ability and make all candles go out, except the one you focus on. Everytime you make them all go out, there will be punishment.”

Ki sneered.

“What do i get? less to eat?”

“Oh just wait and you shall receive.”

Ki threw one of the unlit candles at him.

“Just get out and let me focus.”

Kayto laughed and left the room. For the next few hours Ki tried various methods. Nothing could bring the results she wanted. She could not make one Candle stay lit. At the end of the day, she was near tearing up. She wanted to help Eria so much, but how would she be able to, if she would only hurt her as well. She tried one last time. Focusing all her mind on one of the single flames in front of her. As she opened her eyes, all candles were still burning. She ran out of time. For today she could not use magic anymore. When Kayto came back, he wanted to make a silly remark, but before he could do so, he saw her sitting there. An angry face, but sobbing. As much as he was a jokester, it would be heartless to tease her now.

“Don’t worry,”

he said.

“Rome wasn’t built in a single day.”

Ki knew what he wanted to say. however it did not matter what he said. This was so frustrating. She only wanted to help someone and was stopped by not being good enough to do it.

“Please tell me how to do it.”

Ki was looking at Kayto, her voice begging.

“I can’t. I told you, unique abilities are not something anyone else can do, so how could i explain to you how it works? It’s like trying a bird to teach you how to fly. The answer would be to swing your arms. That would not make you fly tho.”

Ki understood what he meant, though it hurt, knowing your own incompetence is holding you down. Is there anything more frustrating in this world? Ki was not so sure. Tomorow was monday. The magic lessons would start and she would see Eria again. This time outside of her bed. This made Ki happy and sad as she wanted to help her, but was not sure if she could.