(Jason, 16)

As the dragon pauses, I channel magic through the sword. Rather than having magics of its own, I designed Erasnas to amplify specific ones. To be more exact, specific types of combinations of magic.

The blade glows with the light of the stars as I soar forward, and a trail of darkness is left behind in the path of my blade's slice, sparkling with the stars of the night sky. I never thought I would hear Jacob curse, but he does upon seeing that effect.

He knows what will happen.

The dragon soars higher up, and I follow it, chasing it in circles as it attempts to figure out what the strange effect of my spell is. It lasts, stable, yet seems to do nothing. I continue to weave ribbons of the starry night effect, bringing the night sky down here.

After several minutes of this, much of the air filled with my spell, the dragon decides to stop attempting to discern the magic and simply attack. I spin my sword in front of me, creating a barrier of the starry night.

Flames blaze their way towards me, but anywhere they touch my spell, they disappear, absorbed into it. All magic not my own will be absorbed, converted into mana, and then used to fuel the spell. Even the ambient mana in the air will fuel it.

In the full version of the spell, it will end only when I cancel it. This version will stop once I sheath Erasnas. I manifest my aural sheath in a specialized version of it. It pulls out of me, wrapping around me, my clothes, and my sword, causing me to take on the appearance of a clear, starry night. Darkness, with specks of light.

This is the only way I'll be able to move safely with this spell active, and it protects my clothes and gear, too.

The dragon continues to attack me, and I either stop it with barriers or allow the spell to absorb it. I fly around in such a way that the dragon becomes trapped within the spell's ribbons as well, making it impossible for it to flee.

Once my trap is completed, I hold my left hand out to the side, manifesting spheres of pale blue, red, or yellow flames. Dozens of them. Immediately upon manifesting them, I send them flying towards the dragon, most of them weaving through the ribbons of the night sky.

My spells break the dragon's barriers and slam into it, but do little to damage it. It begins to laugh, only for more of the miniature stars to strike it from elsewhere. Those ones increased their power by traveling through the ribbons of stars before attacking from elsewhere.

With burnt scales, the dragon roars in pain. Even as the scales mend, the dragon attempts to reach me, and I pull myself back behind other ribbons, attacking with more fiery orbs.

For nearly twenty minutes, I continue this attack, and by the dragon's roars, comments, and wails, I know it is starting to be humbled. But I can see in its eyes that it has gone mad. Reason will not work with it anymore, and it follows its own logic, a path of destruction and cruelty.

Truthfully, it's a form of illness grey-level beasts can find themselves under. The copper dragons suffered something similar. There's no cure for it, the only solution death. Until something kills it, this dragon will continue its new habits. The pattern of destruction it has begun. Destruction and cruelty.

Normally, it would be stopped by other grey-level beasts, but this dragon is hundreds of years old. Not many are in the region which could handle it. The dragon around three hundred miles south, which I noticed on my way to find Horal, could, but it probably hasn't noticed this one yet, and might not for some time.

How many kingdoms would suffer or be destroyed before grey-levels powerful enough to deal with it took notice and put it down? No, he needs to be put down here.

After weakening the dragon a great deal, pushing him past where he can continue to recover, I sheathe my sword. His mana is incredibly low, and while as a dragon, he has decent regeneration of it, it won't protect him anymore.

Stopping one's natural healing isn't easy. As grey-level beings, our very makeup is infused with our magic, hence our veins being infused with it. That's why we heal from damage so quickly.

I allow his scales to heal a little bit, as it shows that his hide is repaired. His wings mend up as well. Perfect!

The less damage on him there is, the more of his hide I can use!

"Before I deliver the finishing blow," I speak in the tongue of dragons. "I will ask you a question. Do you know who I am?"

"A human wielding power which doesn't belong to humans," the dragon responds.

That is the final confirmation it has gone mad. Any dragon sane in its mind would have realized by now that I am the Divine Dragon. Most would also know that humans can wield this power, they would just be too arrogant to accept it.

I sheath Erasnas, and the ribbons of night disappear. With their disappearance, sunlight can pass through the space once more, and it becomes much, much brighter than it was before as a result. Then, I soar forward, boosting my flight magic with wind magics. As the dragon turns to react, I draw Erasnas once more and drive it into the beast's neck, before performing performing a full circle around it, severing the head clean off.

With a few spells, I stop the blood loss, catch the body and head, and send them into my spatial storage. There, now there's no mess, and I saved all of the components from the dragon. I can use almost the entire thing!

I fly back to the camp, releasing my barriers over it so I can enter, then I land beside Jacob and the Voral.

"You could have killed that much faster," Jacob sighs.

"I wanted to check to make sure it had actually gone mad rather than just doing its own thing," I say. "If it hadn't actually gone mad, then my humbling it would work and probably stop it from its attacks. Who is this?"

"This is Erat, prince of Vora," Jacob introduces us. "Erat, this is Jason Jeshema, son of the Sages and prince of both Jeshema and the Dragon Clans."

"The Dragon Clans?" Erat asks in confusion. "I thought those were a myth?"

"They're not," I tell him. "They just prefer seclusion. My papa and mama were from there, but died shortly after I was born while on a trip outside of them. My Papa Samuel, the Sage Samuel, found me shortly after that and took me in. He tried to find out if I had any living family, but no one knew who my parents were or where they came from. We only recently learned their origins."

"I see," he says. "You are capable of performing the magic of the Sacred Beasts?"

"You mean grey magics?" I ask.

"Yes."

"Grey," I say. "Is the stage of magical power after violet. I'm currently in the third level of grey magical power. Anyway, I want to get this dragon skinned and draining, the hide tanning."

I'll have to contact Papa Samuel and let him know I won't be able to come back to Mar tonight, though since I already did some work on it before meeting up with Alex, he shouldn't be too upset with me over it.

Especially once he knows I have a dragon to stretch out. Mama Elena will probably be happy to have dragon blood to work with, too. It's rare for anyone to obtain some, since that would require them coming upon a dragon freshly dead.

Which simply doesn't happen anywhere there are people.

"Thank you for helping us," Erat asks. "How did Jacob contact you? He suddenly began speaking, then you arrived."

"Through these," I pull my ear cuff off. To the casual observer, it is just a piece of flat metal bent into a near-ring. "I had Papa Jared deliver one to him this morning, to make communication easier and swifter in case of emergency. They're enchanted items which allow for communications over vast distances. Anyway, I need to get going so I can get started on this. The fresher a corpse is when you start, the better."

I open a gate and leave without waiting for a response, though I don't travel too far away. During my fight against the dragon, I sensed another turning its gaze to us. One far more powerful than me.

As soon as I'm out of sight of the camp, I teleport in the direction of the gaze, estimating the distance. When I appear in the mountains to the north, I spot the dragon only a few hundred yards away. That was surprisingly accurate.

Massive, hundreds of feet tall, the dragon looks at me, startled. So this must be the one Midlaris is letting tap into a dragon's vein to supply himself with the mana to make up for lack of nutrients and food.

I fly towards the dragon as it overcomes its shock. Though it's been a few hundred years, I still recognize his mama signature.

Well, I suppose it's been thousands. But to me, it's only been a few hundred. If we start reminiscing about old times, I'll need to be careful not to forget who I am. I'm Jason, not Nolan. Well, I am Nolan, which is why it's complicated.

"Zravanar," I greet it. "It's been a long time."

"It has, indeed, Great Dragon," he responds.

"I am Jason in this life," I tell him. "I did not expect it to be you whom Midlaris did that far. I was under the impression the dragon was younger than our departure."

"It was I," Zravanar informs me. "I live a little further to the north, but sensed your power in great quantities and came to investigate. You did little to conceal it, like you would in ancient times."

Concealing the magic even while casting it would prevent it from being detected over distances. More powerful spells can be sensed from further away. It's a hassle to do, even if I did build up skill with it in my life as Nolan. All of us Magi did in that life, as it made it easier to hide from gods and their forces when we wanted or needed to.

"I didn't see a point to it," I tell Zravanar. "We aren't trying to hide from gods and such. It simply became habit back then to do it. I'm sure it reminded others who sensed it that there are forces to be reckoned with."

"Indeed," he tells me. "It is good to see you again, Lord Jason. He had gone mad, I presume?"

"The dragon?" I ask. "Yeah, he had gone mad. He didn't recognize me at all, even though all dragons should be able to identify me because of my soul."

All grey-level beasts can recognize the Magi.

I speak, I clear my throat.

"By the way," I say. "My scanning spell is picking up… is that a fire elemental on your back?"

Zravanar shifts his body so that I can see his back, where a flaming force around four feet in diameter is lingering. It's halfway down the great dragon's back, and seems to just be relaxing there.

"I found him a few years ago," Zravanar tells me. "Decided to keep him around."

"Elementals are grey-level beings," I roll my eyes. "You don't just keep them as pets. They're intelligent life forms, just like dragons."

"What about the baby dragon holding onto your leg?" Zravanar asks.

Oh, right, Zevenas can be seen by the dragon, since it's a grey-level being. The elemental on his back can also see the baby dragon, if it's bothering to look around. It can be hard to tell with them.

"I'm taking care of him until I can return him to his parents in Amalia," I tell Zravanar. "Actually, are you able to reach it?"

"The floating continent?" He asks. "Sorry, milord, but it is impossible, even for me. Not only did you set it to a great height when you raised it, but you also shielded it with a concealment spell even I cannot breach. While I can gain a general estimate of its location, actually finding it is not within my capabilities."

"Alright," I file away the information he just gave me for when I travel to Amalia. "Thank you, Zravanar."

"The young dragon hails from there?" Zravanar asks. "It seems you succeeded in creating a new breed of dragons, as you had mentioned you wanted to do."

I don't remember that conversation, but I'm sure it'll come back to me at some point.

"Yeah," I say. "Anyway, I should be heading home, I want to prep the other dragon's hide."

"Enjoy," Zravanar tells me as the flame elemental takes on the form of a bear and waves. "Oh? He reacted. How interesting."

"Goodybe!" I laugh as I wave back, then I open a gate and return home.

(Niko, 16)

"You are going on a trip?" Kyron asks in confusion.

"Yes," I answer. "I should be back by tomorrow evening, but there is somewhere I want to visit for a little while, to look at some stuff."

I came up with a theory I wish to test. If it proves true, then there is an explanation for why only Jason was recovering memories of his training. We have each recovered some, but suspiciously few. The more powerful we grow, the more memories we recover. There are over seven centuries' worth of memories there, so it is understandable we might have gaps.

With the others, it is understandable they might miss most of five to six years when looking at the overall. But me? I am indigo in magical power, yet still lacking almost all of Nolan's training. Some bits were unlocked, but we all recovered those memories, which is what made me suspicious of this in the first place.

"I have already told the elders," I inform Kyron. "But I wished to inform you directly. I am leaving now, actually. Enjoy the evening, Kyron, and I should see you tomorrow. The day after, at the latest."

"Okay," he nods. "Good luck on your journey, Benefactor."

"Thank you," I tell him, then open a gate and step through it.

Finding myself on a cliff facing the ocean, I change my tunic to a normal one, and push mana into my cuffs as I pull on leather gloves. Jason told me that the enchantments will also cause scanning spells to read my gargoyle limbs as normal limbs, which I am eternally grateful for. Who knows just what types of scanning spells they have where I am heading.

Opening another gate, I step through it, finding myself on an island where the sun has not yet set. The rotation of Midlaris has yet to put this place into night, even if it was night where I came from.

The Moon Folk seem startled by my appearance, but the Moon Priestess simply approaches, as if she had been waiting for me.

"Hello, Niko," she greets me in their version of the ancient tongue. I will need to mind myself to ensure I do not slip into the Garoyalan language. "Welcome back to the islands."

"Hello, Moon Priestess," I dip my head. "I was wishing to visit the Tomb of the King of Decay, if you did not have issue with that?"

"I do not," she tells me. "Though it mysteriously opened the inner chamber recently, the first time anyone has been able to see inside."

Jason unlocked all of them after Jaklenai healed him. Before my departure to Garoyal, I had already learned that the ones in Varil had been discovered and were being investigated. It piques my curiosity, what those looking at the goods inside think, but I have not braved traveling to one or asking Lina to find out.

"How have you been?" The Moon Priestess asks as we walk through the small village and to the other side of the island.

"I have been well," I lie. "I have grown more powerful since we met."

"You have," she nods. "The magic power within you has grown many times over."

"You can read magic?" I ask.

"Yes," she answers, and fear begins to fill me. She knows about my arm. She can see the magics of the enchantments. "Why are you so worried, Niko?"

"You," I hesitate for a moment. "Maybe coming here was a bad idea."

"Oh?" She asks. "Why does my being able to read magic bother you? Does it have to do with those strange cuffs you are channeling magic into? If so, then worry not, as I am unable to discern their purpose. Your friend enchanted them quite well."

"But my arm," I say. "You-"

"You arm?" She turns her gaze back to me, looking between both of my arms. "What about them?"

She turns thoughtful as I start to wonder about her reaction.

"Ah," she says. "I take it one of them is cursed with some affliction you have yet to shed, Niko? The cuffs are to suppress it, I take it?"

"I-yes," she cannot tell that my arm is a gargoyle's limb? Jason said that he can read past clothes, but maybe she cannot? And I am wearing gloves, too. Come to think of it, the Sages cannot read past clothes, either. "That is what is going on. I am sorry, I did not mean to make you aware of it. I had thought you were already. I am ashamed to have it."

"We are as we are," she tells me, accepting my lie, which makes me feel guilty. "Worry not, I will not share your secret."

We finish the walk in silence, then board a rowboat, which she begins to steer with her magic. As we pass between the islands, I see people tending crops, fishers throwing or pulling their nets, children playing, and more.

A peaceful scene. A place where something like me does not belong.

It takes around thirty minutes of peaceful navigation to reach the island with the tomb. The island is akin to a small mountain rising up out of the ocean, around a mile across. We dock the boat on its only dock, then ascend the steps leading up to the Tomb of the King of Decay.

At first, the steps are carved straight from the mountain itself, simply cut into it. However, we eventually reach twelve steps carved of a mysterious grey stone, which lead to a stone platform twenty-four feet on each side and carved of the same grey stone. Four pillars line each side of the path leading to the actual tomb, spaced evenly apart. Torches are set in black metal stands fixed to the pillars, though no light burns in them at the moment, as it is day right now.

Black and gold patterns are set into the stone ground, the pillars, and the doors set into the side of the mountain, which are eight feet wide.

We approach and enter the front room, the four braziers in here lit already. A pair of statues of Benjamin stand to either side of the doors to the back, which are open right now. Or rather, they are missing entirely. Ignoring the statues of my old self, I walk into the true tomb chamber.

Four more braziers illuminate this room, surrounding a sarcophagus patterned with gargoyles. Ignoring the items on the shelves and the mural on the back wall, as well as the statue, I begin examining the sarcophagus, moving around it as I do.

It takes me almost twenty minutes to spot the magical difference. The Moon Priestess offered to open the sarcophagus so I could see my old corpse, but I declined. Nolan would not have hidden it there.

When I find what I am looking for, I place my palm on the head of the gargoyle the magic shifts at. It is on the back of the sarcophagus, and I have to sit to reach it comfortable. With a pulse of my magic, I activate the drawer, which pulls out as I pull my hand back.

Only the Magus buried in the tomb could do that, I am sure. Jason might be able to as well, as his old life created these, but other than that, it would be him.

Inside of the stone drawer rests a glowing, silver-and-gold orb the size of my fist. It appears to be made of pure light, but I know what it really is. Placing my hand on it, I feel its contents rush into me, my body glowing with the same light as I absorb back the memories Nolan removed from shortly before I ascended out of my old form during the last Gathering.

With it comes the memory of the act of removing my memory, which he also apparently pulled out. In that memory, Nolan grins at me and tells me he knew I would be the first to realize the truth and take them back.

Groaning, I let my head slam into the sarcophagus as the drawer closes, its contents empty. Some of the groan comes from Nolan's cheeky comment, some of it comes from the pain in my head resulting from absorbing in my memories.

Much like with the other memories I have of my life as Benjamin, these ones do not feel as if they are truly my memories, but more akin to me watching other things happen. Once I hit violet and draw near to grey, though, a few will become more like true memories. Only once I truly hit grey will they actually return to me as my real memories and experiences, my knowledge from before returning over time as well.

For a period of time I am uncertain of, I allow my brain to deal with the arrival of several years' worth of memories, even if they are not 'true' memories yet. I feel nauseous, but do not puke. After finally recovering from this, I stand up, now aware of why Nolan removed our memories.

He probably felt uncertain on whether or not the Queen of the Gods would block memories, and wanted to avoid us from knowing the full extent of our Magus training. More than likely, Nolan wanted to ensure that mages as powerful and frightening as we were did not come to exist until after he interacted with us again.

As he would have known the full extent of why we were here, he would have also known that only the Delvarkari could host his soul. That only the seventh son of a seventh son of one of them could. Due to their policy of not interacting with others, he knew it might be some time before he could leave them. At least fifteen or sixteen, much like during the war.

So he acted preemptively, unaware the Queen of the Gods would block memories for sure, to prevent us from gaining the frightening power we held.

Had he not, not only would all eleven of the rest of us drawn far too much unnecessary attention to ourselves by training with some of those techniques, but some of us may have also caused further problems. Alex may have reigned as a street lord unparalleled, Jacob may have completely destroyed any rebellion to the crown, Tasha may have put an end to issues arriving in Varil from the Southern Conclave, and more. Adam and Elise may never have found themselves cursed, and may have even gone after the man who placed it.

Nolan acted to protect us, but did so cheekily. At least, with my memory of it. He likely only removed the memories of the removal from the others, rather than leaving a message in it for them.

Standing, I nod to the Moon Priestess to inform her I am well, then we leave the tomb. Outside, I wish her a good day.

"You are leaving?" She asks.

"Yes," I tell her. "I confirmed the theory I had developed, and now wish to do some other things. Enjoy your evening, Moon Priestess, and may we meet again."

"May the moon watch over you," she tells me.

I open a gate and leave, returning to the cliff. Then, I open another gate to near Jason's home in the Unwild Lands, to the training area he and I use privately outside of his home. This should give me privacy in performing a training method from the old days without anyone catching me. Jason's parents do not come here, and Jason himself will be in Varil. Possibly Mar, since he mentioned he is working on building gates there.

Looking up, I find the night sky above me, and I welcome it, before realizing I am not alone.

Turning, I face Jason, who is looking at me in amusement. Beside the corpse of a red dragon, which he has hovering above a stone basin large enough to catch all of the blood, its scales piled up in another stone container he carved from the ground. Meanwhile, Jason himself is in the process of cutting the hide into large sheets and stretching it on frames to tan into leather.

"I take it," Jason chuckles. "That you were expecting me to be in Varil or Mar, not here, and thought you'd come here to train?"

"Yes," I admit. "I… when did you kill a dragon?"

"A couple of hours ago," he tells me. "It attacked Jacob and Erat, the prince of Vora, after having gone mad some months ago. It'd been making regular attacks against Vora out of madness, taking delight in the chaos it had caused. So Jacob summoned me, and I killed it. Now, I've got fresh dragon's blood to do some experiments with!"

I foresee some strange products hitting the market in the near future.

"So!" He says. "What did you want to train?"

"I visited my tomb," I tell him.

"Ah," he says. "You read some stuff in those texts? I thought I put spells on them to prevent the training period from being read until after, erm, you turned grey."

Jason fumbled on that last part, likely nearly saying "until after you recovered your memories of the training".

"I know the truth," I inform Jason, then indicate my head. "I pulled my memories from my sarcophagus. I came here wishing to perform one of the training techniques you taught us back then."

"Oh," Jason says, then gives me a cheeky grin. "So did you like that message?"

"It is something you would do," I say. "I mostly ignored it."

Jason laughs, then returns to stretching the hide. He is probably the only person in the world who would kill a dragon, and instead of making a big deal out of it, get to work on processing it into usable resources.

"Don't mind me," Jason tells me after I watch him for a minute. "Go ahead and test your thing."

I nod, then move a safe distance away from Jason. I strip to my pants, then sit cross-legged on the crowd. Closing my eyes, I feel for the flow of ambient mana in the air around me. I meditate for a long time before sensing it, and once I do, I being to 'push' my magic into it, infusing it with curse magics.

This is not an easy task, and without the memories of Nolan guiding us in how to do this, I would likely have taken many years to try it on my own. But with those memories, those years of training are unnecessary. Only minutes pass before I feel the air around me infusing with curse magics, and I continue to push more curse magics into the air as I exhale, keeping my mind calm and clear, myself focused. When I inhale, I give the technique a rest.

When I feel there is a sufficient amount of curse-infused ambient mana in the air, I begin pulling all of the curse-infused mana towards me, giving the technique a rest as I exhale. The mana pulses as I do this, resistant, but ultimately unable to resist my pull.

Gathering up the ambient mana in front of me, I open my eyes and continue the technique, forming the ambient mana into an orb around two inches in diameter. As it condenses, it begins to take on a black and gold, fog-like appearance, swirling in the orb form I have forced it into.

Using my gargoyle hand, I reach up, hesitant to touch the orb. If I missed up, it will probably damage this arm. If I succeeded, however, it will be safe to the touch. Steeling myself, I gingerly touch the orb. Nothing happens, so I take the orb into my hand and examine it.

An orb of pure curse mana. If I condensed it further, it would begin to crystallize, but that was not what I wanted. In this form, I can throw it at something, and if the impact is enough, it will release a burst of curse magics that will decay anything they come into contact with.

"That took too long, Niko!" Jason exclaims. "Do it again!"

I look at Jason, startled, only to find his face turning crimson in the moonlight. He did not mean to instruct me like that. No doubt both of us being here made him return to his instructor mindset, and his embarrassment over that is amusing.

So I do the thing that comes naturally at an amusing thing.

I laugh.

Jason joins me, and we laugh for a few minutes before calming down. I needed that laugh, too. After it, I feel a little better about myself. I am still broken and damaged, still no longer a whole man, but I still feel a little better.

"Thank you," I tell Jason. "I needed that."

"I can tell," he grins. "Sorry, Niko, that slipped out. I kind of forgot you came here to train on your own. Still, though, you went for one of the big ones right off. I doubt even Adam could manage that right now."

"I am sure you can," I tell him.

Jason holds up a hand, and a fog of grey and violet magic forms above it, swirling down into a sphere the same size as mine. If he were to impact that against something, the result would be a rending of space and disruption of magic.

"First time I've ever done it, though," he tells me. "When I remembered the technique, I decided not to use it where my mamas and papas could discover the, ah, results. And if I started showing up with perfectly spherical mana crystals, they'd get suspicious, too."

He condenses it down into a mana crystal, though the amount is not much, one smaller than a pea. However, it is perfectly round. Jason summons his spatial storage and tosses the crystal inside of it.

"You did good, though," Jason tells me. "I guess that's proof you succeeded, though. You all know how to expel your own mana, but not how to infuse ambient mana with an element. I take it you plan on training your affinities?"

"I do," I nod.

The technique I used is not one for training magical power or mana amount, even if it does help a little with both. Instead, its purpose is to increase affinity with an element. That, in turn, makes controlling the elements and performing more complex spells with the much easier.

"Jason," I say. "Would you care if I spent the night here? I wish to practice several of these techniques before returning to Garoyal."

"You can," Jason tells me without a moment of hesitation. "But are you sure you do not want to stay at the Marran castle or your home in Varil?"

"Please do not do this, Jason," I tell him. "I do not want to return. I do not want to hide my arm and leg, but I will need to in both Varil and Mar if I want people to look at me like a person. I am already dealing with my family still coming to terms with magic, and do not want to see that look on Lina's face. In Garoyal-"

"Niko," Jason interrupts me. "It's fine. You can stay here. But I'm still going to suggest the homes you have. Lina misses you, and your parents know something is going on. Uncle Zach contacted them after Lina told him the cover story I gave, wanting to wish you well. It was the first they heard of it, so they're now a bit worried about you."

Everyone is probably looking at Jason, putting pressure on him to tell them what happened with me. As he said I was injured, they will likely assume that. But I do not want to return to them. As soon as they know I am no longer a whole man, they will shun me and look at me in disgust. In Garoyal, though, no one does.

I am not returning. I am staying in Garoyal.

"I am sorry, Jason," I tell him. "For what my absence is causing for you."

"It's fine," Jason sighs. "Just be prepared for what people will say when you finally return."

"You know I have no intention of returning."

"I won't force you to," Jason tells me. "And I won't do anything to cause you to. But I know you well enough, Niko. I know enough. You will return. Eventually."

I shake my head, then return to training. But as I do, I start to wonder. Will I? One day? Not as Lina's missing betrothed, but as myself, just to talk with old friends?

Something to think on. For now, though, I wish to return to training a little before going to bed. I do wish to return to my new home tomorrow evening. To the place where I feel welcome and accepted, even with my damage.