(Jason, 16)

"What's the sound barrier for?" Mama Elena asks as I create it.

"How come we aren't telling them the truth?" I ask. "It was bothering me the last couple of days."

She sighs in response, though I know they've all probably been wondering how long it would take me to ask this.

"It isn't necessary for them to know just yet," she says.

"And when they're asked to come back this winter?" I ask. "Or with the spring break? Or next summer? And again, and again, and again?"

"Jason-" she begins.

"You and I both know that's going to happen!" I point my knife at her as I talk, then resume chopping vegetables. "And these are all smart people. All of them have, can, or will meet the requirements to enter the Royal Knight University and Royal Magic University. Same with the others you've all been keeping your eyes on. Some of them have no doubt realized that the building can easily be built against, turning it into a larger building."

"We have our reasons for keeping it a secret for now," she says.

"Really?" I point at her again. "What about me revealing I was reincarnated from another world? Are you going to tell me the full reason for that yet?"

"We told you," she says. "It is all part of the trust-"

"Yeah, yeah," I say. "Except that you all know they can be trusted. And speaking of trust, why do I not know the full details of what's going on?"

Mama Elena pauses at that.

A week after I spoke with Uncle Zach about creating my own training group, my Mamas and Papas requested a family meeting. I know they spent that week discussing this. They have helped plan out some of the training areas, as well as help construct them, because they have a vested interest in this area.

This section of the Unwild Lands, unreachable except by gate or a long and hazardous journey, is being developed into a training area. This training building is one of two identical dormitories that will be built, with the actual training building between. A third dormitory will be built behind that building, for the staff.

This area is being developed into an elite training area, and one in which the Sages themselves will have a heavy influence in. They will begin training again, starting with those I bring out here for the breaks. It was intended on summer and winter breaks, as they are longer, but my desire to do this for the Festival of Spirits due to the spirits added this in.

After everyone here graduates from university, however, my Mamas and Papas want to ask at least some of them to move out here and become instructors for the elite trainees, whose selection process is different from the universities', even if slightly similar.

I still don't know the full purpose behind it, but do know it's more than just to give them something to do. They already have plenty.

"Jason-"

"Don't forget about the agreement between our family," I say. "We will never lie to each other about anything other than little stuff. So choose your words carefully, Mama Elena, lest you violate that."

"It is said," she says. "That each color rank above red increases your expected lifespan by an additional ten years per color rank over each previous, starting at orange. Someone at red can live up to sixty years, someone at orange might live up to one hundred. Someone at yellow, one hundred and fifty. At violet, we can expect to live five and a half centuries. What if we reach grey in our lifetimes? We may well do it, considering the young age at which we reached violet."

"So you want to leave a legacy behind beyond just a reputation," I say.

"No," she responds. "We want to prepare future generations for greater threats. As people grow stronger, so too do the monsters. There are no records of anyone ever slaying a dragon before, and their numbers are growing even greater. What if one day, they decide to attack more often? We need a way to counter that."

"And so," I realize. "In preparation for these greater threats, you are thinking long-term. It might not be this generation, or next, but the one after that, or the one after the one after that, but more powerful mages and warriors will be needed."

"Exactly," she says. "And this facility will be to train them. Varil has proven that power births more power. As children are generally weaker than their parents at birth, if we can create a small community of violets…"

"Then the birth rate," I say. "Of blues, indigos, and violets will increase, especially if they marry each other."

"Exactly," she says. "We aren't looking at today. Our estimates are that the violent dragon attacks will occur in around five hundred years – plenty of time to build up a force of violets, and possibly even greys."

"About the greys," I frown, then resume chopping. "Mama Elena, I think greys might be timeless."

"What do you mean?" She asks.

"I'm not talking about other creatures," I say. "But for humans specifically. My memories show me that all of the Magi died when they were twenty-one… and that I was twenty-one for all of that. Except that's not possible, because we were born over a five-year period. I was the eldest of them all."

"So you believe that when someone turns grey, they stop aging?" She asks.

"Yes and no," I shake my head. "Same as with before then, I think the effect on age happens near or at the end of puberty."

She thinks about that for a few moments.

"So you're saying," she says. "That if we turn grey, we'll be old men and women forever?"

"You'd look like it," I laugh. "But you'd be one even if you didn't turn grey, Mama Elena – you're already old!"

The Mad Witch marches over and smacks me in the back of the head, but she's got a smile in her eyes to go with that, so I just laugh in response.

"Finishing chopping those vegetables," she tells me.

"So that's the long-term goal, then," I say.

"Yes," she answers. "That is the long-term goal, Jason. Build up enough power so that when the dragons finally do decide to attack, we can counter them. And if you were unaging – all of you – how did you die?"

"I have no idea," I answer. "I don't even know how long we were alive, Mama Elena. I don't remember dying as Lucas, either, and that was a recent life. I was Nolan before Lucas."

I shake my head.

"It's a mystery," I tell her. "And may remain that way for a long time. Let's finish cooking."

As we cook, I think over the purpose of this area. To train up powerful warriors to handle the dragons that will one day decide they want the territory we're encroaching on. Humans breed much, much faster than dragons, after all, and in five hundred years, a population can quadruple or more.

Then there is the fact that the Unwild Lands are uninhabited because of the monsters, which do grow stronger every year. The current Slayers and Royal Knights, Royal Mages, and Royal Guards of the various nations have their hands full right now with ogres, wars, and threats.

Creating an outpost here will help some, as it will lay claim to this territory. It will also start to populate Jeshema as well, though I am not sure why my mamas and papas want to increase the number of people in Jeshema.

After decades of living alone, they suddenly want to have more people here. Something else is going on, something they aren't telling me. I'll have to be patient on what it is for now.

(Alex, 16)

"So how does this work?" Jason asks, causing a few of us to laugh again. "What?"

"It's only your fifth or sixth time asking," I tell him. "Close your eyes, reach into the bowl, and pull out one of the cubes of wax at random. And I mean at random, Jason. No scan spell."

He closes his eyes and holds out his hand, and I hold the bowl up so that his fingers brush against the cubes of colored wax. He wiggles his fingers a little, then pulls out the cube he finally grabs. Dark blue.

"Okay?" He asks. "What's this for?"

We chuckle again.

"The dark blue represents knowledge," I tell him. "So sometime in the next year, something dealing with knowledge will come to ya. It could be bad, it could be good."

"That's it?" He looks confused.

"No, ya goof," I roll my eyes as the others laugh again. "The divining isn't just cubes of wax, Jason. Put it on the spoon."

I hold out the spoon, and he sets the cube of wax on it. I move the spoon over the special, dark blue divining candle and allow the wax to melt thoroughly, then I move the spoon to the bowl of water and pour the wax in at a steady rate. Not too fast, not too slow, but just right.

The water cools and hardens the wax almost immediately, so I scoop it back out after only a second, frowning.

"What is it?" Jason asks, then frowns.

"The pattern it forms," I tell him. "Is supposed to give ya a hint as to the type of knowledge received. I feel like this is familiar."

"Yeah," Jason takes the wax pattern, examines it, turns it a few times, nods, then smashes it. "Does this have any accuracy?"

"Yes," I answer. "But ya can only do one wax cube at a time. During the winter holiday, ya can do four."

Jason looks relieved, which tells me that he knows what his pattern meant.

"What did your pattern mean?" Niko asks.

"It was a rune that meant 'memories'," Jason answers. "When angled one way."

"And angled another?" Niko catches that.

"Magi," Jason quietly answers.

Everyone around us goes silent, all eyes on Jason. I know my crew knows about the Magi because I told them, and most of the others are either Magi or S-Class students. Only the few who don't fit into one of those three groups look confused.

"What does 'Magi' mean?" Kieran asks.

Jason looks at Sage Samuel, who is standing not far away.

"Everyone here is trusted with deep secrets," Sage Samuel tells Jason. "I suppose we can do a lesson on the Magi now, for those who don't know."

"May I do it?" Jason asks.

"Go ahead," Sage Samuel answers, and Jason opens his mouth. "And yes, you can give them the full details."

Jason nods, then walks to the front of the room, calling for everyone to sit down. I put out the flame on the divination candle, we can return to that after this news settles down. If the 'full details' means Jason's status as a dual-reincarnate, then this might take awhile.

"Okay," Jason says. "Some of you know about this already, but the S-Class students at the Royal Knight University, Royal Mage University, and their equivalents in other major nations are all being informed of this information. It is classed as a secret right now, but the major leaders of the world have known of this for a long time.

"Last summer," he continues. "At the international summit, a god spoke to the kings and queens present, informing them that the Gathering would soon occur. The Gathering is… unknown to most. Its details, I mean. However, the fact that a god spoke to them told them it was time to begin reintroducing the knowledge of the Magi to the world.

"The Magi," Jason continues. "Are the Twelve Kings and Queens of Power. Their legacies are lost, beyond their masteries of magic. However, the secret knowledge gives more information, and I can share even a little more than this secret knowledge.

"The Magi," he says. "Or Magus for the singular, were warriors and mages with magic beyond what you know as the 'limit', and they existed three thousand years ago. Though some of you might be religious, know that until then, Midlaris was a war zone. A war zone between the heavens and the underworld. Demons enslaved humans and treated them like fodder. Angels enslaved humans and treated them like fodder. The gods demanded worship and service.

"Humanity's numbers dwindled," Jason tells us. "And there were almost no humans left when the Magi came about. The war had lasted a long time, with an uncertain origin event and time. The gods were not benevolent to anyone but themselves, using humans as weapons with angels as their messengers.

"The only thing," he continues, everyone in here enraptured by his words, even those who already knew this information. Even us Magi. "That could kill a demon other than an angel was a human blessed by the gods or wielding a weapon forged of heavenly metals. The only thing that could kill an angel other than a demon was a human blessed by the demon kings or wielding a weapon forged of underworld metals.

"That is," Jason says. "Exempting Midlaris's own greater creatures, which wielded a grey mana rather than the colorful mana you know. Angels had white, while demons had black. Those are the true origins of the colors for the coming-of-age ceremony: white for the heavens, black for the underworld, and our bodies for Midlaris.

"The ceremony itself," he continues. "Was bound to a single group at first, the same group where the first Magus came from. They were under the protection of dragons as their slaves, the Delvarkari.

"It was a better life," blood of Midlaris, is he telling us more about his past than any of the Magi I know of now are aware of? "Than being under the rule of the demons, angels, and gods, for while the dragons forced them into hard labor, the Delvarkari had three solid meals a day, snacks, a comfortable place to sleep, and protection from the war. The Delvarkari were, in fact, the first people to truly wear clothes as a culture. Outside of them, it was worn as protection against the elements when they were harsh, and only if the human's master allowed them to.

"Because of the hard nature of their lives," Jason continues. "The Delvarkari were powerful mages and warriors. For generations, each was born violet. If any are still around today, they may be only four to seven generations beneath those who knew the war, rather than the hundred or more many of us are. It was the first proof of the knowledge that magic birthed magic.

"One day," Jason pauses. "One day, a god foolishly sent his armies to conquer the Delvarkari. The god himself attacked as well, believing that not a single one of them there could harm him or his angels, and that the Delvarkari would waste themselves against the human fodder and the immune angels. He wanted to claim the Delvarkari as his own slaves, and planned on killing the dragons who came to interfere.

"He was wrong," Jason stands up straighter, as if proud of what he's about to say. "You see, the dragons knew that day might come… and so they taught the Delvarkari the secret to forging a weapon of worldly materials capable of killing beings from other worlds.

"They had a single sword," Jason truly looks proud in this moment, and I can see the Magus in him that I know from my memories as Nolan. "And it was given to their greatest warrior, a man only fifteen years in age. His greatness came not from his magical power, nor his raw combat skill. No, it came from his ability to shift how he thought to tackle a problem.

"While the others were occupied with the angels and humans," Jason says. "That warrior waited in ambush for the god, who no one else believed would be there. But the warrior had guessed the god would come to interfere with the dragons, and was proven correct. When the god went to kill the first, the warrior killed the god."

Everyone stares at Jason, myself included. He killed a god before he ever left the Dragon Clans?

"However," he continues. "The battle cost him his own life."

Wait, that wasn't Nolan? Someone other than Nolan wielded Harbinger? But I thought Nolan forged it?

"That sword," Jason holds out his hand, and a spatial storage ring appears. He pulls out a different sword, one I've never seen before, but also made of isivinite. "Was this blade."

He unsheathes it, then holds it up so we can see. The blade is nearly identical to Harbinger, only with a different set of runes on it instead. Calamity. Other than that, the differences are extremely minor.

"This is Calamity," Jason says. "Its name in the ancient tongue, its original name, is Exvalar. When he died and the battle was over, the sword was kept for his younger brothers. Each was tested with the sword when they turned of age, to see if it would allow them to wield it. The world blades were bound to bloodlines, but even then, they could be picky about who they allowed to wield them.

"At his coming-of-age," Jason continues. "The youngest brother, seventh in the line of their parents' children, matched to the sword. That brother was the first Magus, Magus Nolan. For two years, he trained with the sword on top of his duties as a slave to the dragons, in order to protect his village. On his fifteenth birthday, nearly fifteen years from when his brother died against the god, Magus Nolan heard a new voice.

"He heard Midlaris itself," Jason answers. "Crying out for help. He was in pain, and his children were dying to forces from other realms. Defying the dragons and his people, Nolan left the Delvarkari on a quest to help Midlaris. With the aid of the world, he located the others who would become the other Magi, he trained them, and he turned them into the ultimate defensive force for Midlaris."

This is far more information than any of us ever knew. He abandoned his people? Does that mean that Nolan was actually considered a traitor and an exile to the Dragon Clans? How bad was his parting from them?

Is that why we have no memories of him ever really discussing his life as a slave to the dragons?

"In the end," Jason finishes. "The Magi killed every angel and demon who did not flee to their respective realms. They hunted down and either killed or bound into items every god who did not flee. They destroyed the very passages to the heavens and the underworld. They ended the terrible war, and now, three thousand years later, it has been forgotten by nearly all."

"All the leaders knew," Sage Samuel steps up to stand beside Jason, giving him a look I can't decipher. "Was that, three thousand years ago, the heavens and underworld warred on Midlaris and used humans as tools and slaves, then the Magi showed up and ended the war in a brutal series of bloodbaths. The rest is information they were not aware of. We have known that the Magi were the Kings and Queens of Power, though."

"So the Tombs of the Kings and Queens of Power," one of the girls from the training group asks. "Are the resting places of people who killed gods?"

"Only one of them actually killed gods," Jacob speaks up. "The rest of the Magi only angered them. Only Magus Nolan was powerful enough to kill a god."

"Okay," she gives Jacob an odd look, then turns her attention back to Sage Samuel. "If the rest of the information wasn't known to the leaders, how did you know about it?"

"The same way you did," Sage Samuel answers. "At the same time as you. Just now, and through Jason."

"But you raised him," she says, then looks at Jason. "How did you find out this stuff? How can we trust it? And how did you get that sword? If I'm not mistaken, it would be isivinite, right?"

"It's isivinite," Jason nods. "And I have it because I am the second and third owner of Calamity, and the reincarnation of the man who waged a war against the gods themselves. The very reincarnation of the person who nearly all churches would brand a heretic, Magus Nolan."

The room goes absolutely silent with that claim. It takes nearly a full minute before someone speaks again. Jason ends up explaining how reincarnation really works, which earns him a lot of questions, but after more than an hour of explanations and answers, it seems that everyone is satisfied.

Then one of the Marrans raises his hand.

"Yes?" Jason asks.

"That language you and Prince Niko sometimes use," he says. "Which the Varilan royals and a couple of others also use. Is that from your life as Magus Nolan?"

Crap. Those boys are more perspective than I'd guessed. How did he guess that already? His grasp of our language cannot be that good that he actually understood everything we were talking about, he only just began learning it recently.

Jason thinks over his response, but before he can actually answer, Niko, Jacob, and Lina stand and approach Jason, Tasha soon following.

"Yes," Niko answers in Varilan, and I realize now, hearing it after his subject's more broken and accented version of it, just how good he has gotten. "We are reincarnated Magi as well. I am the King of Decay."

"I am the King of Spring," Jacob tells us.

"I am the Queen of Autumn," Tasha announces.

"And I am the Queen of Mountains," Lina states.

"I am the King of Knowledge," I decide to join them at the front.

The six of us are the ones they probably noticed speaking in the ancient tongue, so we can save the other four present from being made aware of it. The Sages would have put a stop to this had they an issue with anyone in here finding out who we are.

"Which one are you?" Eden timidly asks Jason.

"The King of Magic," Jason answers, then scratches the back of his neck. "I'm not sure who picked the names for us, that occurred long after we died back then. Truthfully, it may have been one of the gods who remained behind."

"You left a few gods behind?" Kayla asks, worry clear on her face. "Even though-"

"There are two that I know of," Jason says. "Who are not bound into items. One of them protects the Tomb of the King of Summer, sometimes called the King of Rebirth. While she has seen the error of the old ways of the gods, she still dislikes humans, so it's best to leave her be. As for the other god not bound into an item, he is Enaveka, the 'great prophet' of the Church of the Kings and Queens of Power, also called the Church of Enaveka. Since he has been creating a religion around the Magi, I doubt he's against us. The god I spoke with said he seems to support us as well."

"I count six Magi," Kyra says. "Does that mean others have been reincarnated?"

Clever girl. That might help prevent people from suspecting you're one. Yeah, that's right, I know you're one, Kyra.

"All twelve have been," Jason nods. "And before you ask, I'm not sure the actual reason why. The passages to the heavens and underworld are still destroyed, and the god who spoke at the summit was one who has no need of them. She's… a meddler."

"A meddler?" One of the other Marran boys asks.

"The Queen of the Gods," the six of us up here answer in unison, then start laughing.

That was not planned at all. None of this was planned, for that matter, but us answering the same thing in unison is quite amusing.

"I have a question," Cody asks.

"Everyone has several," Jason says. "Go ahead."

"If you are all reincarnations of the greatest mages and warriors to ever exist," Cody begins. "How come you are all… not that now? I get that you don't have all your memories, and thus all your knowledge, but shouldn't what you have be enough to put you above?"

"When we were reincarnated," Jason explains. "The Queen of the gods, for some unknown reason, messed with our memories. None of the other Magi have any of the memories of the training I put them through three thousand years ago. In addition to that, what we do know is what we interpreted from the memories we have.

"It's not an exact art," Jason tells him. "And nor is it precise. Thoughts aren't contained within your memories. You might know what you thought, but you lack the memory of the thought. Then consider that we have to interpret those to know this stuff. As children, we generally believed them to be dreams or something, which resulted in a delay in that. In addition, the comprehension of children is different from the comprehension of adults. Even now, we are still gleaning new information from the memories of our past lives."

"However," I say. "That does not mean we do not possess the knowledge of some of our abilities from when we were Magi. There were many spells I created as Magus Quinn which still exist today, and some that have been forgotten."

I draw my sword, then trace it in the air several times. I've practiced this move several times over the last week, and no longer need the incantation. Where the tip of my blade passes, a thin trail of water remains.

Once I've created a trail twenty feet in total length, twisted and coiled in the air, I slash my blade down to the side, and the trail of water thickens, rapidly taking on the form of my combat leviathan.

"This spell," I say as it takes up a defensive position at the same time I do. "Acts in unison with the caster, defending and attacking with their own strikes. I used it for the first time in this life only a week ago, yet have already managed to bring myself to no longer needing the incantation for it. It is a spell that no longer exists in this time, and has many complicated facets to it. It also aided me against many angels, and saved my life against a god once, even."

Suddenly, I find the spell yanked from my grasp, the leviathan soaring towards the doors, which open in time for it to pass through. Once the full thing is outside, the doors close.

"Uh…"

"Papa Samuel did that."

A few people chuckle at that, and I look at Sage Samuel.

"Nice example," he says. "But please try not to fill the room with water, Alex."

"Sorry," I grin at him. "But ya know how things are – ya do the example, then ya worry about the potential damage! I had it under control, promise!"

"The training rooms are designed for such cases," Sage Samuel informs us. "So feel free to demonstrate your old abilities to your heart's contents. Except for you, Jason. You would probably destroy them."

"Did you guys ever kill a dragon?" One of the Marran boys asks. "We have ancient legends of a team of warriors and mages who killed a trio of dragons further north than Mar."

"That was us," Jason nods. "At least, it's rooted in the actual event."

"I don't remember that event," I tell him.

"That incident happened," Niko tells me. "Around six weeks after he killed that dragon the full team was traveling to slay because we took too long to arrive."

"In Nolan's defense," Jason says. "The dragon attacked first."

"Is that the excuse you wish to use?" Niko asks in the ancient tongue.

"I did apologize," Jason responds in Varilan Common. "And it happened three thousand years ago."

Something happened between them involving a dragon recently, didn't it?

"Anyway," Jason looks at the rest of us. "Now you know the truth. Again, for those of you who weren't already aware, please try to keep this a secret. We do wish it to be as long as possible. Now, let's stop with the Q and A and get on with the divining. I'm still curious how this works."