He looked around. No one seemed to be in the vicinity…or his poor eyesight could be veiling some hidden witnesses. But that’s just his anxiety kicking in.

He shook the doubt off, and decided to use the talent he hid for so long to heal a soul in need of much urgency. He crouched by the knight’s left side, then observed him.

The knight was dead physically, no doubt about it. But a living soul? It had still more chance of survival than a non-beating heart. He untied the pouch, then he placed his right hand upon the blue sand, immersing in its coldness and coarse texture. He tried absorbing the mana from it, to see if he could still remember how to do it, as he hadn’t practiced it for a few months now.

But lo and behold—it came to him as natural as breathing; he respired. Feeling the mana flowing from the aether sand into his soul, he placed his left palm over the knight’s head, then let this mana pour into him. The antimana covering the knight’s soul, particularly upon his head, started dispersing and dissipating.

But soon—too soon, the mana from the aether sand was depleted. He could barely make a dent on the antimana, as only its part on the knight’s cranium had completely dispersed. Such an iota of mana for a kilo of the aether sand! He even checked the pouch; once blue and granular, now what’s inside was just grey and dense aether powder. It wasn’t enough. He should buy more aether sand, maybe even a barrel, just to cancel all the antimana on the knight’s soul.

He decided to do so, but when he stood, he saw the knight’s head moving. At first, he thought he’s just seeing things. But then, the knight’s left eye opened, slow and heavy. He looked around, as if seeing nothing for the first few while, but then he saw him, and their eyes met. Even with such a weak stare, Nero could still feel chill flowing down his spine. Why he felt intimated by an invalid person, he couldn’t understand. But, as a healer, he needed to check on him.

He crouched down, and asked, “Glorious Knight, sir, can you understand me?”

It took a while before the knight answered in a dry and deep voice. “I’m…in the right place.”

Nero didn’t get what the knight meant; maybe the pain produced an illusion, perhaps that of paradise.

He then said, “I’m a healer, sir. But I lack in resources. Let me procure some first, then I’ll quickly come back.”

“No…” The knight sighed as he shook his head laboriously. “My death is timely. But…I can sense another death…”

He looked around, stretching the burned skin on his neck, which, after making a crunching sound, bled.

“Sir, don’t move,” the young healer asked. “Your skin is parched and burned; it will literally crack if you move so much.”

Then the knight’s eye stayed on a point. “A…dog? And burned…”

Nero looked at where he was looking at. “Yes. He’s…he’s my dog.”

“Oh. He was caught in…my teleportation.” The knight looked at him. “Forgive me, young de Silva.”

Of course Nero would forgive the knight—especially now he’s on such a wretched situation. But it occurred to him instantly the implication of the knight’s words. He stepped back, confounded. “You know my name?”

The knight managed to slightly smile. “Silver hair, jade eyes… It’s a given.” He tried moving his right arm, but he couldn’t; his left was undoubtedly useless, too. So he asked, “Boy, there’s a… Take my necklace.”

Nero, of course, had seen the knight’s necklace earlier. But if he took it now, he might injure him more, so he refused. The knight’s silent stare, however, forced him to follow this reckless request. With utmost care he took off the knight’s necklace over his head, and managed to spare him from more injury. The bloody and blackened necklace had a small leather pouch for a pendant.

“Take what’s inside,” the knight said, “the pendant…”

So, he unknotted the pouch and took what’s inside the leather pendant. It was a small tear-shaped crystal, remarkably crafted, its deep-blue twilight-sky tint imbued it with awe and mystery. He even felt like he didn’t deserve to look, much less to touch, such a treasure.

The knight then said, “It’s an aether crystal.”

The young healer’s eyes widened. “An aether…crystal?” Such a precious material! A simple knight wouldn’t be able to afford to buy, or even carry, such mythical artifact. But of course, the knight wasn’t just a simple knight! He couldn’t be!

“Use it,” the knight said, “and…that—”

A fit of coughs hindered the knight from continuing, blood spurting from his mouth and from the cracks on his skin. Nero understood what he was trying to say though. An aether crystal contains massive volume of mana; on his occasional readings about the mythical artifact, he learned that the mana that can be extracted from a metric ton of aether sand is compacted inside a small crystal to create such an artifact. It is too massive of a volume his feeble mind couldn’t comprehend it.

And now, he was holding something like that. Of course, the knight could be lying. But as someone who could sense mana in its unextracted form, he felt the crystal contained such dense mana it almost felt heavy. Too heavy.

Then he thought, With this amount of mana, it might be enough to clear all the antimana plaguing the knight.

And so, he suggested, “Let me heal you with this, sir.”

But the knight refused. “No. My death… It’s timely,” he reiterated in a hoarser voice. “The mana from that…you should use it for your dog.”

He was taken aback, then pondered for a bit, but shook his head eventually. “Nothing can bring back the dead to life, sir. And animals…they don’t have souls.”

“Just try it, boy,” the knight insisted. “Do it, as a sign of my repentance… I transgressed your dog. You wouldn’t want a dying man carry such a regret, would you?”

Nero thought for a longer while. Since he ultimately couldn’t force his service upon someone who seeks it not, he decided to agree with the knight’s suggestion.

Besides, he couldn’t help himself but be curious just how much mana an aether crystal really have, even if it’s impossible heal his dog—or, “revive” it would be a more fitting phrase in this instance.

So, he sat down beside Rius, held the stone on his right hand, and laid his left upon the lifeless dog.