“Sin... what the fuck...”

“I had to, Rai! It’ll be worth it in the end, Rai! Trust me!”

The kitchen was a mess.

“... Sin... HOW the FUCK did you get CHEESE on TOP of the cupboard?!?!”

“I... I DON’T KNOW!”

“I leave you here for just 1 hour. 1 HOUR! There’s cheese EVERYWHERE! I didn’t even know we had this much cheese to begin with!...”

“Look... I’ll learn to make the best grilled cheese... eventually... hopefully...”

“It’s almost dinner time, and you’re still trying to make a grilled cheese... You’re obsessed. Go sit on the sofa and let me clean all this up.”

“No way! I made the mess, so I have to clean it up.”

“I’m faster, so don’t think this is a favour. I’m doing this because I’m disappointed Sin. I’m disappointed!” Rai said with a blank stare.

“Fine! But I’m gonna keep trying!”

“... Did you even make a full sandwich?”

“...”

“Sin...”

“I WAS DISTRACTED!”

“By what? A bird? An owlfox? Maybe it was a gryphon... Or even a dragon! Sin, what could have possibly distracted you so much that you couldn’t even put cheese in between 2 slices of bread?! I’m dying to know.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha. Well I’ll have you know that you were the distraction!”

“I was in the shower Sin... I don’t mind if you peek, but at least don’t do it while you’re making food...”

“No not that. Though...” Sin quietened down. “I may take you up on that offer...” She whispered, under her breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing! No, I was distracted because of last night. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, Rai... Considering that it was both of our first times, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as Lilly said it would be.”

“EH?! You spoke to Lilly about that?!?!”

“No! She just... kinda... taught me about it... that’s all!... She said not to expect the first time to go well because, you know, we’re both inexperienced.”

“Right... well we’ll learn to talk to each other more about what works and... all that.”

He paused for a moment.

“I... enjoyed it too.”

Sin grew a cheeky smirk on her face.

Before she could tease Rai like she wanted to, however, Sin was interrupted by a very loud voice coming from the front door.

“I AM ENTERING THE ROOM WITH AN ACCOMPLICE! PLEASE PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON WITHIN THE NEXT 5 SECONDS!”

Sin facepalmed. It was, of course, none other than her doting father.

“We’re already wearing clothes dad! You can come in!”

Kallad swung the door wide open.

“Greetings daughter, and future son-in-law. I bring with me glad tidings, and a familiar old face.”

“Eh? Who’s that?” Sin asked, looking at the woman just beside Kallad.

Rai didn’t even have to ask.

“... Aunt Elly?” He said in a daze, less as a question and more as a confirming statement. Sin’s face quickly began heating up upon hearing what Rai just said.

Elira smiled warmly at him in a way that reminded Rai of his childhood.

“Good to see you Rai. How you been?”

“... Me? Oh! I’ve been great! Wait... why are you here? Not that I don’t want you to be here, but what’s got you here now? In the Secret, I mean? I guess it’s the Summit... but wouldn’t that mean the Warden’s here too?! Where have you been the last few months? I was really sad that you couldn’t see me off from Acies, but I heard you were really busy...” Excitement welled up within Rai. “Oh wait! Aunt Elly there’s so much to talk about! I managed to-”

“Rai.” Kallad boomed.

Rai looked at Kallad.

“Do you want to maybe, oh I don’t know, let your aunt sit down before you start speaking at her?”

*Pfft*

“What a wonderful suggestion, Kallad.” Elira said. “Well, Rai? Shall we sit and have a proper chat?”

Rai nodded profusely. He pointed at the sofa.

“Can you sit there for a second? I’ve gotta clean the kitchen.”

Elira looked behind Rai at the... well, she couldn’t really call it a kitchen at this point. Somehow, there was cheese everywhere.

She giggled to herself before making her way over to the sofa.

“Take your time.” Elira said by the time she sat down.

“Done.” Rai said.

“Huh?”

Elira looked behind Rai at the kitchen that was now spotless. She was going to question the disturbing amount of cheese that laid about the whole place, but that was all gone now. The utensils buried under melted cheese all seemed to disappear too. Quickly, Elira remembered that Rai must’ve used Stormflow.

Rai joined Elira, with Sin sat on a chair beside them. Sin remained quiet, but her flushed cheeks stayed for the entire conversation.

Kallad left them to it.

“So, the Academy’s changed that much huh...” Elira muttered.

“Yeah! It’s really nice and the teachers are... kinda useless to me but there’s a couple that I really like. Miss Lillia and Joey are the ones I enjoy learning from. The others are mostly just... weak.”

“Hmm... I see. Well, it makes sense. The pool of teachers for the Academy has always drawn from nobles, adventurers, and scholars. Miss Lillia and Joey are probably scholars, based on how you talked about them. Scholars are also the rarest type of teacher to find, surprisingly enough.”

“Oh, there’s also this spell I learned! Here, hold out a flame!”

Sin’s eyes widened. She held Rai’s arm.

“You sure?” She asked.

“Aunt Elly’s the one who taught me these spells aren’t to be afraid of. I’m more than sure.”

Sin slowly digressed. She still wasn’t sure about showing Antithesis off, but if Rai felt it was right then she wouldn’t get in his way.

Elira did as Rai asked.

Rai flexed his eyes in the way that he’d remembered. A sensation of power flowed through his body, then his head, into his eyes.

Blue runes carved themselves on Rai’s face just under his eyes.

Elira’s flame didn’t extinguish. It deconstructed.

The mana that the flame was made out of was devoured.

“So that’s Antithesis.” Elira said, surprising Rai and Sin.

“What? You’ve already heard of it?!” Rai asked.

“Heard of it? Yes. Seen it? No. It’s not a very well-known forbidden technique, but from what I know of it, no one’s used it like that before.”

“... But they have used it before?”

“Not exactly. Hmm...” Elira pondered for a moment.

Rai took a sip of water while he waited for her to respond.

“Right. I suppose it’s best to explain it like this: A spell is simply that, a spell. You know how they work, with the underlying foundation of mana flow, attribute, and the shape through which it will manifest itself in the world. Antithesis has been used crudely before, and its users have always been executed on the spot. But this version of it that you’re using is far more... intricate. It seems like you’ve somehow levelled up the spell.”

Rai was surprised, but his surprise slowly turned into relief. He smiled at his aunt.

“What? Am I right or am I right?” Elira asked with a smirk.

“You’re right! The Antithesis that I’m using is evolved past its basic sort of... blueprint. Something I learned when I evolved the spell is that all forbidden techniques can evolve into purer forms of themselves.”

“I see... In that case, let me try something now.”

Elira began drawing squares within squares. The movements caused a hit of nostalgia to pang in Rai’s heart.

Sin was just confused.

Elira’s eyes didn’t change. But the incantation came with a boom in her voice.

Ostende mihi veritatem, Revela!

Motes of mana began to fly every which way. The room that was once barely lit, was now filled with a bright vibrance.

Rai looked around in awe, remembering the beauty that mana showcased in its manifestation.

Sin was blown away. She’d never seen anything like this in her life. All of the different mana motes floating around her made for a cacophony of colour.

Elira observed the motes around both Rai and Sin.

“Interesting... Rai, do you remember when I used this spell last time? How I said your mana channels were so strong that I couldn’t even imagine how Stormflow managed to do that?”

Rai nodded.

“I do. It was when you tested me to see if I was ready to go to the Academy.”

“Well, it’s changed again. Antithesis, Stormflow, and some other elements... they seem to have etched themselves into your mana flow and your mana channels. I don’t know how exactly that’s happened, but it’s caused your mana channels to strengthen explosively...”

“... I don’t know what to do with that information.”

“Nothing. It’s for me to worry about. But I figured that I’d tell you about it since you might want to know how your magic has been progressing.”

“In that case, thank you!”

“But there’s something here that’s... strange. The way the ambient mana is acting around both of you is completely different. For you, Sindyl-”

“Y-y-y-y-you c-c-can c-call me S-S-Sin!” She said, bumbling her way through the sentence.

“... Very well. For you, Sin, the mana around you is subservient. It chooses to obey, but not in the way that it did for Rai when he was a baby. For you Rai, and this is different from how it was a few months ago, the mana around you is either so energetic that it withstands the aura you give off, or it breaks down completely when it gets close enough.

Sin... you have a forbidden technique as well, don’t you?”

Sin froze.

“Well, you don’t have to say it, but I know that you do. Just based on how the mana acts around Rai, either you have a forbidden technique, or you’ve created a unique technique that works within the same vein as a forbidden one of the same type.”

Sin had no idea how this woman was able to deduce it all so accurately and perfectly from just a few small nuggets of information. She looked at Rai, who was smiling at her. He trusted Elira with his life, clearly, so maybe Sin could trust her a little bit. It wasn’t as if she was telling her friends, who could mess up and get executed for just knowing. Plus, Elira seemed to think differently about spells and techniques to most of the other people Sin knew... so she convinced herself that it would be fine.

“Y-y-yes. You’re right...” She said.

“About what part?”

“All of it. I have a forbidden and unique technique, and they’re the same type. They’re domain type techniques.”

“I see... I’ve read of such techniques in historical texts, but I’ve never seen one before. I’m assuming your forbidden domain is evolved, like Rai’s Antithesis.”

Sin nodded.

Runes lit up on her face, and her thorn tattoos morphed into runes.

“It’s called the Queen’s Domain.” Sin said through a voice layered atop another. “I command gravity.”

Sin showcased this by causing two coasters to attract and repel one another through their gravitational fields.

Elira smiled as she watched. She seemed to be enjoying herself a lot.

“No wonder, haha! Your mana channels are incredibly strong! Almost as strong as Rai’s. But... gravity, huh? That’s so... COOL!” Elira squealed in delight. “I’ve never seen a gravity mage before! And you can use it within your domain?! That’s so unfair! But it’s so awesome!”

Rai never thought that he’d see his aunt act like a kid, but here he was, watching exactly that.

Sin only saw sparkles in Elira’s eyes. She was way more excited about Sin’s spell than she could’ve ever predicted. Elira was so excited, that it infected Sin and made her excited to talk about it.

“Hehe... Rai helped me evolve it! The spell was just a hodgepodge of other spells that I put together before I evolved it, and then it morphed into two coherent spells. My Sinful Domain, which is the unique one, and the Queen’s Domain.”

“That’s so awesome! I have a bunch of uniques, like the one I used earlier to see the mana around you two, but I’d love to somehow find a forbidden spell!”

“You... would? Aren’t you an aide to an Aspect? Wouldn’t you get executed for that?”

“Oh please. I’ve done way worse stuff and haven’t been executed yet. Why not add a forbidden technique to that list?”

“Oh? What kinda worse stuff are you talking about?” Sin was curious. She couldn’t imagine much being worse than using a forbidden technique.

“Well... maybe you’re too young to hear about all that right now. But when you grow up a bit then I’ll consider telling you.” Elira rubbed Sin’s head, messing with her hair.

Sin liked this. She liked Elira.

“What... what should I call you?” Sin asked.

“Hmm... You’re too young to call me Elira, and you’re too close to call me Sage. So just call me Aunt Elly.”

“Okay! Aunt Elly, I’m happy to finally meet you!”

“Likewise, Sin.”

Rai poked Elira’s shoulder. She turned around to him.

“Aunt Elly.” He said. “We killed a leviathan!”

“Nice! Your first massive kill, with many more to come I’d imagine!”

“Huh... I thought you’d be more excited about that.”

“Well... I’m very impressed with your progress, but I’m more excited to see you do bigger and greater things!”

*Yawn*

Rai didn’t even realise until now. Aunt Elly’s eyes had bags around the edges.

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t realise you travelled for so long and haven’t slept yet! You should go to sleep!” Rai said.

“Don’t you worry little one, I will. But first, I have something I wanted to give to you.”

“Ooo you got me a present? Yep, sleep can wait. Presents come first!”

*Thud*

A massive book made its presence known as it slammed down onto the table.

“You got me... a book?”