Finn sat up and leaned towards Tyse, “So about the sword. How did you know that the Goddess would give you her power?” He asked.

Tyse thought about how he would respond, but remained silent. Finn spoke again, “I mean… you did say something about maybe dying when touching a god’s weapon. So… how did you know that you wouldn’t die in the process?”

Tyse hesitated to answer his question. He didn’t even think ahead of the effects to follow if he did try merging with Pyrium. He thought about the pain of the fires burning away at his flesh and could remember the pain well, almost as if he was still burning in phantom pains. “To be honest… I didn’t know that I would be accepted.”

Nova heard this and sat up on her sleeping bag, “I was going to run away like you guys said… but I stopped myself from walking through those doors. I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving you guys behind while both of you stayed to fight. So… I took a chance and… now I guess I’m still alive.”

“Well what about the Glaive? You didn’t have it on you when you came out of the fire. Instead you had these shields. What’s that all about?”

Tyse scratched his head, “I don’t know. The shields and the power… they were just… there.” Tyse stretched his hands out in front of him and tried concentrating magic into his hands. He tried to picture the fire and feel the warmth in the palm of his hands, but nothing happened. He relaxed his hands, “I don’t even know if that power will come back after today. Maybe I’m just tired.”

There was a brief moment of silence, until Finn asked another question, “Merging with a god and all that… did… did it hurt?” Tyse looked at him in question for a moment, “I mean… in that fire you were… screaming. It was like bloody murder. What exactly happened with you?”

Tyse looked into the campfire, feeling a mix of fear and wonder. He sighed, “Yeah… it was all so strange. When I first grabbed the sword I wasn’t even there anymore…” Tyse then explained to them how he was in a forest and described the entire scenery in detail. How there was a stone shrine and its various items and candles. How Pyrium appeared in the form of a raging fire. How he was questioned and offered the blade. “I took the blade of course, and when I did, it just felt… good. The power and fire surrounding me felt familiar and comforting. I didn’t know that merging would mean she would take control of my body though. There were these memories that I thought were mine… but they weren’t. It was as if I was slowly losing a sense of who I was, so I resisted, but when I did… I couldn’t move… the fires then felt real and…” He took a breath, remembering the pain, “I guess you know the rest.”

“You took a risk, but then decided to back out of it?!”

Tyse and Finn looked over at Nova, glaring at Tyse, visibly upset. “You know its one thing to be taking a risk, asking for her power, but it’s another thing when you can’t even own up to your choice and commit to the consequences!”

Tyse flinched and Finn tried to speak in his defense, but Nova interrupted him, “I warned you of what would happen if you chose to follow us! You said you wanted to prove yourself, and for a second I thought you actually had guts, but now I realize that you don’t really get it. You knew the risks and still followed, you knew the risks of holding the sword more than me and you still tried to run away from the price of taking her power. You thought that it would just workout, with no worry of anyone but yourself! You really are a coward!”

Tyse declined to say anything else. She was right, he really was a coward. Finn watched as the two refused to speak or make any eye contact and the atmosphere was uncomfortably tense for everyone. The past days had gotten to Nova and had strained her every step of the way. Tyse ended up in this conflict out of his foolishness of believing. Believing he would be making a difference in the world, that he would make a mark in history by coming to a god’s rescue. Now he could only question his motives and wonder how wrong he was in joining this fight. Finn was different, however, he himself didn’t know why he was so resolute in following Nova. Finn was true to her when he explained the driving force as to why he was helping her in the first place, but despite that he now question why this girl was so important to him. It was as if Finn didn’t know himself in these moments, but he also didn’t care.

Finn finally decided to break silence by trying to say something, anything. He hesitated as he figured out what to say, “You know… with everything that happened today, it sounds like something that came out of legends.” Tyse and Nova still remained silent as Finn looked to both of them for a response, “When I was a kid, my parents used to always talk about the history of Gaia Novum. About how the First Kings lead the people out of chaos and how different it was back then. Magic wasn’t known to them, the Gods didn’t exist, and everyone was only out for themselves, it sounds scary to me. In the end it was the First Kings that changed everything and built the world into something new… but despite all that being history… it still sounds like something from a fairy tale. I guess that’s why I was so crazy about those stories then, even now I can’t stop thinking about them.”

Tyse finally spoke, “The Legend of the First Kings… must be everyone’s favorite considering that it’s the history of our world. To be honest it might have been one of the tales that made want to join Mancer School in the first place.”

“Yeah, you never explained how you got in that school in the first place. You know since you said you can’t use magic.”

Tyse laughed, “I guess I didn’t, did I? Well I guess I should confess about my ‘condition’. Earlier when I said I can’t use magic… it wasn’t entirely true. I can use magic, in fact…” He paused, “I could use magic better than anyone else.”

Finn was surprised at the response and even Nova looked up to see what he meant. “What are you talking about?” Finn asked, “Then why’d you tell us that you couldn’t use magic in the first place?”

“I’m getting there.” Tyse said, “I could use magic extraordinarily well… but it isn’t normal. You see going way back to Gods Arrow, the comet that struck north over 3000 years ago, it brought change to the world as it used to be. Looking at old records dating back before Gods Arrow, the continents look different as they are now. They were more close together before Gods Arrow impact, also known as Year Zero. The impact of the comet was so intense that the tectonic plates were shattered, causing the world to shake randomly and almost endlessly, it should have ended the world as we know it, but it didn’t. The comet actually hit the North Pole which was made up of ice and water, meaning there was no way the comet should have made any damage to the tectonics like it did! So-.”

Finn yelled at him to get his attention. Apparently Finn has been trying to stop Tyse for a while now, “What does this all have to do with you and magic?”

Tyse looked a little flustered, “Sorry I get carried away sometimes with these things. So anyways, the source of magic is still cryptic today. The only fundamental thing about magic, known today, is that magic and spirit seem to directly correlate to each other. If you didn’t know, spirit is a sort of magic field that shrouds people, it can be used to shield you from danger or as a source of fuel both physical feats and magical. All people have spirit, but some have more than others. In my case… I used mine all up.”

Nova and Finn looked stunned from the response, “Used it all up?” Finn asked.

“I know.” Tyse replied, “Spirit takes time to regenerate, it just depends on the person how fast… but for me… for some reason I lost it all. Tell me, do you know what happens what would happen if someone forced themselves to use magic after their spirit is used up?”

Finn didn’t answer waiting to hear from Tyse, so did Nova. “Well you can still cast magic, except… it will come at the cost of your life.”

Tyse no looked ominously into the campfire as the others looked in dread. Neither of them knew how serious Tyse’s condition really was up to now. He continued speaking, “Magic needs fuel to be casted, that’s a given for anything, but casting magic beyond your peak will just eat away at your life force or sometimes worse. The best case scenario for this situation is that you would only shorten your life a little, but death isn’t even the worst case.” He went silent and the other two looked to him in anticipation of what he would say next. He continued, “The worst case scenario is losing your sanity… many mancers in the past have succumbed to that price.”

He finished talking, giving the tense air a new grim atmosphere. Finn asked, “Well isn’t there something you can do about it? Your condition I mean.”

Tyse took a breath, “Well no one knows exactly what it is. Remember how I said that I grew up in a struggling family? Well I actually used magic for some time to light fires around the house, mainly to cook or warm the place in the winter. It was all just a small flame so of course I wouldn’t know of my condition. One day I was lighting the flames, as usual, but then suddenly I just… collapsed. My parents panicked and took me to the hospital, but no one could figure out what’s wrong with me, except that I didn’t have spirit. At first they thought I had over exerted myself and just needed rest, but I never got better. Mancer doctors came in and even they couldn’t figure it out. Eventually that’s when I met him, Mr. Wile, he was one of the greatest teachers of his time and headmaster of Durosa. He offered to take me in with full scholarship so we could figure out my condition. However, after my time there searching, and even studying with the headmaster and professors themselves, we just can’t find anything concrete. The only thing that I know is that I probably used up some of my life force the day I collapsed.”

“Well is there a way to treat it? I mean back in town you used a lot of magic?”

Tyse shook his head, “That wasn’t even me back there. It felt like I was following instructions or looking through someone else’s eyes more or less. I was only borrowing power. As far as treatment though nothing seems to work on me. Spirit can get stronger naturally or artificially. In an artificial sense, there are devices that can boost the neuroelectrical potential of the human body which seems to contribute to the strength of one’s spirit. Naturally though, spirit seems to be stronger within people of strong will and mind. If you were to naturally improve your spirit then you train it, as if it were a muscle. Despite all of this though, no treatments seem to work on me. I only learned one thing about this condition of mine.”

“Really, what’s that?” Finn asked.

“I read this in an ancient tome a long time ago, but it did say something about spells and curses. There was talk about a curse called syphon, not much was said about it, but only that it was used to lock away one’s magic abilities for some time. It sounds like my condition, but I have nothing to follow up on it.”

“Geez, you must have made someone upset then.”

Tyse shook his head again, “Unlikely, I have a feeling that my case is much more serious if I still can’t regenerate spirit.”

That conversation went dull and now Tyse and Finn are just wondering what to talk about now. They looked at each other and then Nova who was staring off into the fire. “So what are we going to do now?”

Nova looked up, noticing that both Finn and Tyse starring at her for an answer. “How should I know?” She said, “I’m not your leader. We all go our separate ways for all I care.”

Finn spoke, “What are you talking about? You expect us to walk away after everything that happened today? We basically started a fire against the Legion and you think we can walk away? Also to be clear, there was a lot of fire today and I mean A LOT.”

“There is no we! You insisted on following me, both of you. Everything would have been fine otherwise, I would have just ended up taking the Glaive myself or even dead and everything would have been fine. You may have thought I was trying to prove a point by fighting against the Legion, but this was all personal, nothing more.”

Tyse and Finn looked at her in surprise, “What do you mean everything would be fine?” Finn said, “You think suicide would make it all fine? Well what about what you told me today? The Legion burning down towns, going around killing innocent people, just so they can get to Pyrium? You think nothing after that would be fine?”

Nova snapped, “Well what do you know? You didn’t see the bodies! You didn’t go through what I’ve experienced! So who are you to judge me about any of this?”

Finn went quiet for a few seconds, and replied, “Yeah, I didn’t see the bodies, so who am I to judge. I don’t know anything that you’ve been through.”

Nova crossed her arms as if winning the argument. Finn continued, “So why not prove me wrong? Why don’t you just show me exactly what happened that day, or are you too afraid of what you’ll see when you go back?”

Nova scrunched her nose in anger, glaring back at Finn. She didn’t want to say anything or even acknowledge the fact that he was right and didn’t want to go back there. Other than that, she didn’t want to show weakness, so she held onto her pride. Nova spoke, “Fine, if you want to see it for yourself then be my guest, but don’t say I didn’t say so.” She laid in her sleeping bag to sleep, “We go as soon as first light hits.”

Finn only stared her down as she turned her back on him. “Fine.” He said, “I guess it’s settled.” He laid on his back to try and sleep and Tyse could only follow their lead and try to sleep. However, Tyse couldn’t sleep immediately, instead he gazed at the stars above him, contemplating about everything that was on his mind. So much has happened in one day.

January 23, 3018

Morning came and Nova was the first one awake. It was quite cold, but luckily the fire survived and the surrounding trees helped regulate the temperature a bit. She saw Finn and Tyse asleep next to the fire, but she packed her sleeping bag and things before waking them. She took a patch of dirt from the ground, using her sword, and dumped it on the fire then proceeded to stomp on it. This woke them up and they looked at her with tired eyes. Nova turned away and began walking into the forest, “let’s go, its morning.” She said.