You are shaken awake by Olahr around an hour earlier than your usual waking time.

“Them’s the breaks,” he whispers to you as you struggle to stay conscious. “We gotta squeeze this in before it’s time to go check on the Amalj'aa.” As he begins to step out of the room, you turn over to Erden’s bed and give him a tap.

“Wake up Erden, it’s training time.” As you say this, Olahr turns back in protest.

“This exercise is just for us, Anah’to.” He insists.

“This time, it is for the three of us.” You correct him, turning to face him directly. “There’s something important you should know before you head to the field today.”

“...Is that so.” He crosses his arms, but you stare back unwaveringly. After a moment, he turns away. “Hmph. Fine.” Olahr leaves the room, and Erden rubs his eyes as he gets up from bed.

“His voice is so bloody shrill.” He stretches. “What kind of training is this, exactly?”

“Well, for me it’s just been push ups or sit ups or squats, but that doesn’t really matter.” You reach into the cabinet in your bedside table and pull out the case containing Erden’s soul crystal. “It’s time you told him about your crystal and the…voice that accompanies it.”

“You got a little box for it?” He looks more closely at the engravings across the surface. “W-wait, tell him about it? That doesn’t sound smart, he’ll totally flip!”

“Honestly, I’d be surprised if he didn’t already know…or at least have an inkling about it.” You place your hands on your hips. “But regardless, not telling your healer everything important ahead of a big battle is as good as suicide! They need to have a complete picture of what's going on to do their job. Plus, Olahr talks to…elementals and animals, he probably won’t think talking to a weird rock is all that bad!”

Somehow, your rousing speech doesn’t make Erden feel any better about this, but he ultimately caves to say something.

-

“Alright.” Olahr takes a deep breath and turns to you. “You’ve been making pretty steady progress, Anah’to. Normally I’d recommend 50 pushups today, but since we’re going to be doing actual fighting, how about you take it easy with just 20.” You nod and drop down to the pavement to get started. He glares over to Erden. “Ahem. Erden. Give me…250 pushups!”

“What?!” You cry out. “That’s totally unfair, you can’t seriously expect him…” You glance over and see Erden already pumping them out three times faster than you’re able to go. “...him to…” His form is perfect, at least as far as your inexperienced eye can tell. Honestly, it’s more than a little mesmerizing.

“Hey!” Olahr snaps in front of your face. “Hydaelyn to Anah’to, get it moving! We’re on a tight schedule!”

“R-right!” You immediately start giving it your all, and Olahr does the same. You comfortably finish in a little over a minute, and patiently watch as Olahr and Erden silently compete against one another. Obviously, Olahr is doomed to fail, and stops after around a hundred. Before long, Erden finishes and sits patiently, seeming more bored than tired.

“Alright, I’ll bite.” Olahr crosses his legs and leans back. “What’s the deal? Is Erden actually a voidsent? Ooh! Or is his power fueled by the blood of dead babies?”

“Do you ever get tired of hearing yourself talk?” Erden asks pointedly.

“This is about Erden’s soul crystal.” You take out the box and present it to Olahr.

“Oh! I recognize these sigils.” He takes the box from you and runs his fingers across the lid. “These are used to ward off corrupted sprites. Given the light aether I can see across the surface, I’m guessing you…” His relatively peaceful expression rapidly becomes malicious. “Is this actually just a corrupt crystal?”

“Nooot exactly.” you open the box and point it to Olahr, who nervously leans away while peering inside. His eyes scurry across the crystal’s surface, as if he’s watching something writhe within.

“T-then…” The hairs on the back of Olahr’s neck begin to stand. “What is this…? What does it do for you?”

“How familiar are you with soul crystals?” Erden crosses his legs and leans forward. Slowly reaching forward, he gently pulls the box from your hand and places it on the ground between the three of you.

“I know they’re rare, that Phekda has one, and that it helped her learn how to use red magic very quickly.” Olahr said.

“The same is true for dark knight crystals, but there are other…quirks to them.” Erden dragged on his speech, dreading the judgement to follow.

Olahr slowly raised an eyebrow.

“To walk the path of the dark knight means to confront yourself in your entirety, to turn your inner darkness into a weapon.”

“Inner darkness?” Olahr scoffed. “Look buddy, I don’t know what kind of nonsense this crystal is packing, but there’s no way this is some universal experience. If I had that crystal, there would be no darkness within for it to take advantage of.”

“It doesn’t need to be a violent darkness.” You correct him. He stares blankly at you. “We originally speculated that given my abundant light aether, that the crystal would not have any influence on me. However…it didn’t make a difference. Not too long after I simply held it on my person, I began to hear voices.”

“What!?” Olahr and Erden shouted in unison towards you.

“Why didn’t you say anything? That’s far too dangerous!” Erden angrily scolded you.

“I concur.” Olahr looked down at the crystal in disgust. “We should just smash it and be done with the whole affair.”

“Let’s not be so hasty.” Erden holds his hands up in protest.

“OH?” Olahr spins his head so fast you swear it nearly snaps off. “WHY IS THAT, ERDEN?”

“Look, smartass, for all your holier than thou nonsense, you sure are quick to be the beneficiary of both me and my crystal. Sending me on little errands with your girlfriend to slay random monsters and do chores for townsfolk to ‘help’ The Scions.” Erden opened his right palm and ran an electric arc across his fingers. “Can you honestly tell me that your precious little elementals would’ve bailed us out in Tam-Tara if I hadn’t broken out my magic against the hall full of cultists?”

“...Well…” Olahr racks his brain.

“No, of course not.” Erden rested his hands back on his lap. “But you can’t admit that, because then you’d have to cave on the idea that not all dark magic is evil, that it can be both useful and helpful in the right hands.”

“I never said that about dark magic!” Olahr puffed his chest. “In the right hands, of course it’s good! It’s…it’s just…” He thoughtfully cupped his hands together. “If you don’t use it correctly, you can really hurt people. People you care about, and be powerless to stop the consequences of your actions.”

“I know that, S’olahr. Obviously I know that!” Erden has a frustrated tone, but clearly seems to be matching Olahr’s calmer state.

“...” Olahr tucked his knees into his chest. “Alright. Fine. Is there anything else?”

“Oh yeah, I named him Khasar.” Erden says confidently.

“...Huh? Who?”

“The voice in the crystal!” He reaches forward and grabs it. Olahr looks increasingly tired as Erden continues to speak. “I hope he’s not too mad that I gave up the crystal.”

“I’m…” Olahr groans in frustration. “I’m trying to keep an open mind about this, I really am, but this is screaming ‘voidsent in a crystal.’ A crystal that’s teeming with void magic that enhances your connection to that magic and has a voice inside of it that tempts you into embracing your dark side?”

“Dark side is still very relative though.” You speak up. “When I had it, it just wanted me to…do more research, I guess.”

“Anah’to being a huge nerd aside, I feel like I’ve definitely heard stories about voidsent who fit this description to the letter! I don’t want Anah’to to be carrying this possibly very evil crystal around when it could hurt him or damage his aether!” He turns to Erden. “Look, I promise not to kick and scream about this, but I am legitimately worried for our safety and…the safety…um. Huh?” He squints.

“...What?” Erden tilts his head.

“All the void magic inside you is gone! You just look like a regular thaumaturge now.” Olahr leans in a little closer. “Slurped up straight into the crystal.”

“Oh. Really? I don’t feel any different.” Erden looks down at the crystal. “...”

“...Anyway, we’ve wasted enough of our morning time talking about this stuff! Phekda will be waiting for us, so let's not waste another minute.”

“Oh, wait! I almost forgot, the box!” You reach for the box and present it to Olahr again. “You don’t need to worry about me carrying the crystal as long as we keep it in this. But do you think you could infuse it with a little bit of your earth magic? It would resist the lightning of the crystal just a tiny bit better.”

“...Mmmgh.” He holds the box. “I really would prefer it if you didn’t have anything to do with this, but what else is new. Please just promise to let me know if the wards begin to degrade at all, and we can work on a better solution.”

“It’s a promise.” You smile, and watch as Olahr focuses his magic into it. After a few moments, he hands it back to you.

“All done. The crystal will be totally safe within. Is there…any reason why you’re holding onto it and not Erden?”

“Oh! Well, it only opens when exposed to umbral magic, like my healing, so he isn’t actually able to open it.”

“Hah, okay, that’s pretty funny actually.” Olahr turns to Erden. “Poor little baby can’t get his crystal, huh?” Erden seems unresponsive, still staring at the crystal. “...Erden?”

“Huh? Oh! Sorry, I was talking to Khasar!” Erden says enthusiastically. “He’s not mad, and check this out!” Erden raises out his arms and generates a dark chain of shadows between them. The chains themselves constantly shifted and churned, sparking small amounts of lightning from them. “Pretty cool right? He totally stole the idea from my dark knight teacher!”

“That…” Olahr’s eyes widened slightly. “Actually seems pretty useful. You could use that to tie up suspects for us.”

“Haha, right? I thought the same!” Erden stowed the crystal in his pocket. “Let’s go kill a god.”