After a few minutes of sitting around a campfire and sipping on some tea, I understood the gist. Volt’s parents visited a friend when he was about around eight so Pyro was still waiting to join the world. This friend of theirs had a daughter around Volt’s age, sparks ignited and voila! Here we are!

Pyro was born soon after and the families visited each other often, however, on one of Volt’s visits, there was an issue for them to return home the normal way and the desert was their next best bet. Sadly, for them, that was around the time mages began abandoning the place because their failed experiments adversely affected the lands. Kira and her missing family were amongst the first victims that resulted in having the desert coined ‘Inferno Desert’.

As I revelled in the warmth of the tea and fire, they looked like they burned with a passion to embrace each other, only staving off their hunger because of my presence.

“You’re a grown man. You can make whatever choices you want. Your fiancé asked me to protect you, not block you,” I stated this. I could feel Donna squirm, probably unintentionally every time I looked at Kira.

She gives you that ‘way-more-to-this-that-we-should-definitely-know’ feeling, doesn’t she? I sought Donna’s advice and she wholly agreed.

“There’s something so weird about her, yet, so familiar. Did you see how she walked through that wall? Abilities like that, like Kor’zha and the other spirit leaders are almost impossible to learn.”

But somehow, some bandit out in the sticks, away from everyone knows such a high-level spell. Fishy, fishy, fishy.

“Do it.” She decided.

Do it?

“Do it.”

“I’ma do it.”

I gulped the rest of my tea and set it down whilst they slowly, embarrassingly cozied up to each other. “Right, so uh, Volt,” I caught his attention, “she’s hiding something freakin’ huge.”

He tilted his head in puzzlement, then looked at her leaning on his arm. She sat up too, befuddled by my words.

“Cloning,” I opened my hands in front of the campfire to further warm my wintry innards, “not that difficult of a spell, really, but still far beyond the capabilities of a hobbyist mage. In the Order’s rank three, it’s practically non-existent. In rank four, Officer, it’s known, but by few. In rank five it’s a little less uncommon.”

“What are you saying, teach?” Volt asked me, straight out, with an awkward chuckle to ease the tense mood I was etching into the atmosphere.

I looked up at him, then looked at her and gave a toothless smile, which drew even more questions onto their faces. “What I’m saying, Volt,” I emphasised, “is that, she is stupidly strong. I’m talking about levels way above the councilmen at the Order. A mage as strong as her, being backed by a bunch of no-name thugs in the middle of nowhere, doesn’t that make you a little uneasy?”

She looked more worried than he did at this point. He took in all my points and these things began raising some flags for him. Her burnt-sienna hair was brushed back around her ear, “You have quite the eye,” she said.

“Kira? Explain,” Volt backed away a little.

“This,” she said, a terribly long one, “might alarm you, but whatever rumours you might’ve heard are probably not true. Have you ever heard about the witch?”

I cackled out, a stupidly loud laugh, “That old children’s story. Yeah. Witch of Ice and Fire, of Light and Shadow. She came from another world. And she has dragons at her command. What, don’t tell me you’re the witch?”

“The witch?” Donna asked, then went silent.

Kira laughed out, wiping the tear from the edge of her eyes, “Of course not. I’m one of her apostles.”

“So,” I nodded, in a condescending way that showed my disbelief, “you’re not only saying the witch is real­–which is a crazy thing to claim–but that you’re also one of her students?”

She nodded, “Well, yeah, yeah that’s what I’m saying.”

Donna was bugging me at this point, asking me something about a moon. She was getting pretty frantic and I wasn’t sure why. So, I asked Kira about this ‘moon’ Donna ranted about in my mind.

“Moon?” Kira shook her head dismissively, “Well, I mean, we got our name from the birthmark on the witch’s face. It looks like a crescent moon. So, we were labelled ‘Apostles of the Crescent Moon’ eons ago, before I was even born.”

Boy, oh boy, at this point Donna was losing her shit in my head. So much so, that I couldn’t even focus on what Kira was saying anymore. “Uh,” I put my hand up to stop Kira from talking, I couldn’t focus on both at once, “I, have to take a breather to think,” I said. I left Kor’zha to safeguard Volt, just in case, and exited the cave.

Donna? Donna, what the hell?

“Eric! Oh my god! I’m, I’m–”

You’re what? Don’t tell me you believe that witch nonsense.

“Eric! God dammit! I’m one of the apostles too!”

My mind came to a screeching halt here. It would be better to say it crashed and had to reboot. Donna can read my mind and see what I’m thinking perfectly well, but my brain fell apart so much that there was nothing going on and she actually asked me what I was thinking about, which was nothing.

That widespread story, pretty much a folktale now, was true?

Donna. Donna. I inhaled. Donna.

“What? I can hardly believe this myself, okay? Don’t act like you’re more surprised than me.”

The witch is real?! She’s real?! An actual living, breathing thing?! Like, physically? Witch? Why ‘witch’? Why is she called that? Is she a special mage? What’s with that? You’re an apostle of the witch?! What the hell, Donna?

“Okay, I was wrong. You’re more surprised. And, I don’t know, Eric. My memory is still not back. But that part about the crescent moon is real, it brought back a memory of me learning magic from a person with a birthmark of a crescent moon under her left eye. I remember that clearly now. The witch is real, Eric. And I bet she knows why I’m inside of you like this.”

I took a breath, rubbed my face, conjured some water and drank it. What I wouldn’t have done for a pint at that point. Donna advised me to ask her more questions, that way she might pick up on more keywords, and remember more things, but, just the fact that the witch wasn’t just a children’s story was more than enough for me.

I returned, “Okay,” I paced, “I believe you, for now. But I need to sleep on this. We will come back, to discuss this further, alright? Volt, let’s return.”

“No,” Kira said, “not okay. Let him stay here. I want him to stay with me. I haven’t seen him in forever!” she protested.

My eyelids twitched, even more so when I realised Volt wanted the same thing.

“Are you two complete idiots?! Volt, you’re a grown man, dammit. Make sound decisions!”

He stood up, watching down at me, “Teach, I respect you, and I expect you to respect my decision here. I haven’t seen Kira in twenty years! Sur–”

“No! No, you haven’t seen her in twenty years!” I put stress on that number, “Twenty, years, Volt! She is basically a stranger to you!”

Oh boy, that line earned me a quick smack across the cheek from Volt. Kira was a little pissed with what I said too. I sighed so heavily in my mind.

“Okay,” I rubbed my cheek, “maybe I shouldn’t have shouted. But take a step away from your stupidly infatuated mind and look at this rationally. My opinion still stands, you don’t know each other. People change, accept it. Also, you’ve got no choice but to return with me. Understand that the only reason you’re here in the first place is because I let you come, and mother trusted that I would protect all of you. Despite my suspension, I’d also be in trouble with the Order if something happened to you under my watch. And not to mention your actual lover? Y’know, that fiancé you’re forgetting about? Yeah, her. The person you actually love, personally asked me to keep you safe.”

A long, silent moment crept in whilst they rummaged their brain for an answer to my words. I knew I was right, but had to admit to myself that I was pretty rude. Luckily for me though, I had my way.

We returned to Dawn and Pyro, a wordless journey back.

In the coming week, Volt hardly uttered a word. He spoke so seldom, even I began worrying.

Was it really wrong to force him back with me?

“Not at all. I mean, you handled it badly, I think, but it was necessary. Anyway, when are we returning? I need you to speak with her more.”

I shrugged it off. I was more focused on training now than anything else. Everyone was progressing nicely. In fact, they could summon and maintain their wyrms perfectly fine, but casting their other spells would destabilize their summoning and the wyrms would return to the spirit world. I, on the other hand, had already mastered both levels of Divergence. Level two turned out to be a force wave forming a sphere from the user and expanding outwards quickly, sort of simulating a bomb. It was a little lacklustre for my tastes, and especially with her dubbing it a “powerful” spell, it was disappointing. But in no way, could I deny its extreme convenience in just about any situation. Once you learned it, it felt like a staple spell that had to be known. It felt like you couldn’t go on living without it.

For the second month, Dawn, Pyro, and Volt continued their relentless stamina training. However, they’d balance it out with practising magic whilst the wyrms were summoned, this improved their concentration substantially. I focused solely on Division, reaching ever closer to the tangible method. The non-tangible method proved to work, but I figured I would wait until I returned to Aquan to investigate the best way before coming up with my own potentially dangerous experiments.

On the first moon of the third month, Volt and I snuck away in the night. Of course, I kept Phoenix and Hydra ever vigilant over their apprentices.

We entered the unsuspecting gorge under the lucent beams of midnight.

The cave entrance was just in front of us. As we walked, I felt something, like the ticklish sense you get when faint magic is afoot. Above us, besides us, in front and behind us, an encirclement of arrows. I brought up some Ice Walls around us instead of using Divergence. Volt might’ve gotten hurt badly if I did.

Suddenly, two men were ziplining over to us from the other side of the gorge. I thought they weren’t hostile, because Kira probably told them we would return at some point. Well, I was wrong. They brandished their swords and charged, but a quick Frost Trap ensnared their feet, making them faceplant into the dirt. Their magic was so easy to see through, and they weren’t that good at hiding their real presence.

“Kor’zha, bring them down, will you?” I asked the scorpion. They were above us, on our side of the gorge, looking down at us to see if we’d fall for their illusion clone magic. Yeah, the two that charged at us were fakes, mainly used for distractions. Kor’zha appeared behind them and grabbed them, burrowing back into the ground with his magic and emerging in front of me with them both in his pincers. One bald-headed brute and another slippery serpent.

“Oh, let them go, will you?” Kira hissed at me after she walked out, “They were just playing.”

“A game of arrows and swords. Yes, so much fun,” I released them, walking forward to her. I turned back at Volt. He hadn’t budged since they attacked us, not because he was scared or surprised, but because he had something afflicting his mind. His face was as dull and apathetic as ever. “You coming?” I asked. He seemed to be pulled out from his own mind by my question.

“Y-yeah…” he caught up and we entered the cave together. Once again, we were around the campfire, but it was quite quiet. Such an awkward atmosphere. Volt was silent, and she was too scared to ask him what was wrong. She looked at me, as if asking for help with a longing look in her eyes, but not even I knew what he was thinking.

“Okay, I don’t know what this is, nor do I care. Just ask her about me.”

About you? What do you mean about you?

“Ask her if there was an apostle named Donna, that’s all. Maybe she’ll remember a piece of me that I didn’t.”

I see. I looked at her, “Kira, do you know an apostle named Donna?”

She tilted her head in confusion, but her face quickly changed to a suspecting face. “She, died before I joined. She was one of the witch’s favourite students. How, do you know about her?” Her eyes squinted untrustingly.

I sighed, “The voice in my head told me to ask about it?” I chuckled.

“I’m being serio–”

“I’m staying here,” Volt said, firmly, interrupting our talks.

I folded my arms and leaned my head back, at an odd angle. “Are you prepared to leave your woman back there, alone? You prepared to leave your brother, your job, your family, everything you’ve built, up ‘til now?”

“Yes,” he said. Looked me straight in the eye with absolutely no hesitance. Could it be? Was this what he was thinking about for the past month and change?

“Not this again…”

“Alright then. Do what you must.”

“Wait, what are you saying? You can’t just leave him here.”

I can, and I will, if that is his wish. At first, I thought he just made a rash decision, but I couldn’t deny him this time. He’s had time to think about it, and he made his choice.

“What do you know about Donna, Kira?” I asked. She didn’t answer, instead she just stared mindlessly at Volt, like a love-struck teenager. “Hey,” I snapped my fingers to crumble her focus on Volt, “pay attention.”

“Ah, Donna? She was one of the strongest. However, she often got into trouble with the witch for researching a really taboo magic. The older apostles didn’t want to tell me at first, but she was apparently researching a spell that would make her immortal. The witch would never help her and instead would punish her for it. That’s it, that’s all I know about her.”

Whoa! Donna, you’re something! Immortality? Are you some kind of super villain?

“Wait, this doesn’t explain the white codex I came out from. It doesn’t explain why I’m in you at all.”

“This might be pretty cheeky to ask, but how can I meet this witch?”

“Alright, shorty, you need to take it down a notch,” she said, “one does not simply meet the witch like that. If you are worthy, she comes to you.”

“What? Well that’s stupid. Then how do I become worthy?”

“Ambition. You have none of it. You learn magic for the heck of it. I can see it in your eyes. You have no goal, no objective. You wander aimlessly.”

“Well, that’s rude,” I rubbed my temples in a destressing pattern. Anything else I should ask her?

“I’m good,” Donna retreated and thus came an end to, whatever just happened.

I got up, glanced at Volt again, then at Kira and swiftly left. There was nothing more to discuss.

On the way back, I kept feeling an uneasiness from Hydra, so I hurried it up and pushed Levitate to its maximum speed.

According to Hydra, Dawn woke up in the dead of the night and suddenly began asking her where Volt and I scampered off to.

How troublesome. What should I tell them?