As she transitions from one space to another. A legion of butterflies intercepts her mid-transition and cancels out her movement.

She brings her layer of protection up and glares at the green and blue butterflies radiating with pure energy. Walking out that legion of butterflies was Mana. A cold dull stare on her eyes as she fixes her stare.

“Did you do something?”

She tries to make excuses. But Mana wasn’t having it. She lashes her power out and then usurps her control of the butterflies.

She smiles at her student.

“You’ve truly well. I see that you have not slacked off in your training despite your wanting not to wield such powers. Danger truly does make one understand the need for power.”

She got lifted higher. Her limbs became paralyzed and she raised a smile.

“You have studied well. Lessening my reaction time. As expected, you did have the talent to be better than me.”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing. I simply teased and asked the Doctor a few questions. I noticed that he was sporting a ring made of light visible only to our kind. Does he know that you have made a claim?”

“Did you do anything?” She repeats the question coldly.

“I’ve done nothing but explain what he means to the fleet.”

Mana’s hold on her remains powerful. She did not let go. Not even letting any of her Mentor’s will to get out. She locks her in place and the moment she tenses up. She’ll break every limb that she has.

She did not like the idea of her own student strangling her limbs. So she told her what she had said to the Doctor. As Mana’s expression lessens, she feels the hold of the wrap get lesser and she immediately shatters the hold, freeing herself from it.

“You have grown well. I see that you have not wasted it on frolicking with the Doctor.”

Mana calms down. She still has that volatile look on her face. She can still be set off like a dynamite. She tries to find the right words, but thinking about it, her disciple has grown enough to be called an adult.

But she’s a worrywart and she knew it better that the path they are taking wasn’t going to be easy.

“I told you not to interfere.”

“I did not. I was simply asking about his intentions. Like it or not. I have been curious about the man who took half of your lifespan.”

Mana snarls. “That he wouldn’t have wanted if the Mother didn’t give it to save his life. His actions speak more.”

“Perhaps he does. But a man who has little enemies is strange to me.”

Mana looks away. “How could you hate someone who would beg you to allow him to help you? He isn’t a pushover and those who have seen him fight know it better to anger him. My Doctor ain’t the kind of man who would be so willing to be nefarious as we are.”

Mana holds her hand. Her mentor recharges her strength and allows the glow on her body to spread on her skin. Mana snarls at her mentor. She reaches out to her power before turning into a swarm of butterflies.

The two manifested into the laboratory that Ristina used to own. Without her, it’s Mana who was taking care of the experiments and did most of the work.

“You haven’t contacted him.”

“I haven’t. But you did. I told you to leave him alone. He has no care about the affairs of our kind.”

Her mentor studies her face.

“I do not understand, my disciple. Are you masking your pain with this strange hostility to me? Is this your way?”

“You are speaking nonsense.”

Mana growls. Her Mentor remains placid. She manipulates a concoction and then turns her attention to the small portrait on the side of Mana’s table.

It’s a portrait of Mana and the Doctor. She wore a dress on the portrait while the Doctor wore something other than his healer robes. The smile on their faces told the Mentor all she had to know.

“I cannot blame you for this. But you must understand that your time is limited as well. With this voyage’s final steps. We will have to truly step in and demonstrate to the world why we are its true guardians. And you should know better that he has little chance to survive this as well.”

“Everyone has little chance to survive!” Mana shouted. “We live in a broken world where its prophecy has been stalled for generations! None of this bodes well for anyone! And here you are interfering with my affairs.”

“I did not.”

“But it will make us suspicious. My mentor, I love, and I adore you for raising me, but this can’t happen again.”

“Will you strange your poor guardian again?”

“Oh, I will, my Guardian. You do not have the right! At least let me choose how I would do this on my own. You are being unfair to me.”

Her Mentor held the portrait. “Our Mother Nature has the ability to see through the hearts of men and see what they may become. The Treeheart alone speaks louder than the deeds he had done for generations.”

“Then why all of this?”

Her Mentor’s face became ice-cold. Her expression went dull and there’s simply no emotion held on her face.

“Truly, you must suspect the unnatural strength of his soul. The willpower to hold the Treeheart for years not break.”

“Do you think I wouldn’t? I found nothing and even if there was. We would need a power that would allow us to trivialize the rules set by God to see through whatever secrets a person may have possessed.”

“So you couldn’t read either. You are unable to see through to the purpose.”

“And hence why I opted to meet him. I simply wanted to understand and take a closer look. I truly meant no harm.”

It was simply the concern whether her student was being comfortable enough about it. Mana’s Mentor was able to see through a person’s purpose. Follow their paths and what’s given to them.

And to her… she did not find it.

If everything was connected to the paths of the world. Then Gabrio of Fort Rava was a stray to these connections. One could say that he has been cut loose from the paths.

A lifeline that should have ended back when the creatures of the interstice sent him and Mana away from the fleet. Subverting expectations by surviving and gaining a Treeheart.

“What is he?”

“A kind man. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“You don’t actually believe that, my student.”

“I do. He has not shown anything that disrupts the paths we have taken.”

“Indeed, but he is an irregularity that we cannot measure.”

There was a time that Mana stood before the elders. If Gabrio got his heart from someone other than Mother Nature. He wouldn’t have lived long enough to see the second generation.

The Elven-kin are calm and rational and composed. But they are as cruel as Dictators when it comes to the paths taken by the world.

If the paths have told them. They would have conquered the known world and become the masters, but they were driven by purpose and their kin’s purpose was to lead the blinder to the eye of the world and be welcomed back to the cradle of the world.

Mana looked away and then focused her eyes on the portraits displayed on the table. Ristina’s portrait, and the portraits of those who have passed on to the next life.

She was glad to have someone take care.

To still have some people around her that made living long worth waking up to.

“My student, you have made bonds that are hard to nurse when our time grows near.”

Mana settled down and took a look at the portrait. Her hands rests on it before clenching it. “Just don’t bother him.”

“You really care so much.”

“I share my heart with him. Is that not enough? I’ve spent more years with him than you will ever have. Or are you so ignorant to believe that you hold such a weight on my heart?”

“Then you would kill me if I did something?”

“I would damn your soul into oblivion.”

Her Mentor opened her eyes widely and then looked away. “It seems that you have fallen hard, Mana. I would have expected that you’d have children… seeing this.”

Mana’s eyes deadened. “How could I? Knowing that I am leashed by the paths taken. Destiny chokes every single one of our kin and we are outbound to follow such paths even if our hearts rages against it.

Mana touches her neck with her finger tips, her face softening into despair. If she didn’t have such a leash… to be bound to a cause she did not care for.

Maybe she would have ignored all reason and allowed herself.

“You mustn't. We are so close.”

“Yes, we are.”

She said with gritted teeth. She has been searching old tomes and archives, but all of it points to the end of purpose. A purpose that requires them to enter such a world beyond any human reach.

It might as well be the death of the Ego. Mana knew it better that they had spent their race’s magical prowess in protecting the last of the children of the world.

Words of power may seem potent. But just as fire needs air. Their power needs a source and if the blood runs out and the Sprites who they communicate to allow them to wield goes away when they have blinded the world for the last time.

It will simply be the end for the Kin. They will have to enter the cradle until the cycle is restarted and they are allowed to rest until they are needed again.

Mana held her chest, her heart ached at the thought, and yet duty and purpose bounded her. And even if she could refuse, the paths taken must be done in order to appease this broken world.

Her Mentor takes a long look at her before placing a hand on her shoulder. “It isn’t my place to say this, seeing that you think of me as less, but in a way this is good for you two. You are part of the Kin and he may have secrets and has been blessed by the Mother… but in the end he is human. His life is finite. And yours as infinite as the mother would like it… you hold a special place Priestess. Even among our people. Your blood runs deeper than mine.”

“I know, but it isn’t fair.”

“When has it been fair? All life must have purpose and we are fortunate to be so close to our Makers, giving us paths we take. We aren’t as lost as these humans. We are different… and we should consider it as our blessing and a curse.”

“Just leave me be. Leave my Doctor alone. I will follow the path. Do not mistake my love for my weakness. I hope you can respect that, before I lose my respect.”

“I have wronged you.”

“You have. I do understand that you have been keeping the fleet alive by using your very soul to keep this fleet alive… but it does not mean that you have the right to decide for me.”

Her mentor nods her head and disappears into a swarm of golden butterflies, leaving Mana alone in her laboratory. Holding a portrait of Ristina and Gabrio, she places it in front of her and stares at it, then suddenly throws her hands up in utter frustration, forcing herself to find her composure by clenching her fist so hard that the tables in the lab shuddered.

Wiping her tears, she lets out quiet body-shaking sobs before turning her wetted eyes back to the spell she was preparing. Her heart aching and pained by the prospect of goodbyes.