My sister walked over to the rucksack she had brought with her to the training ground. Inside were mana crystals mages used to learn mana channeling. The crystals were black and looked like it was absorbing light around it. She handed each recruit a crystal.

“For our mana channeling training, we'll be channeling mana through this crystal,” she said, holding a crystal in her hand as she stood before the recruits.

I also had a crystal in my hand. I thought it would be out of place for me to simply just watch, so I decided to participate in the assignment with the recruits.

“Every mana crystal will start to emit a glow once you can successfully channel mana into it, depending on the purity and quantity of mana you're able to channel the glow can be feint or intense,” my sister said to the recruits.

Afterwards she explained how to channel mana to the recruits. She showed them how, using the crystal in her hand. Once her mana entered the crystal, it gave off a brilliant glow, enough so one could use it to illuminate one’s path in the darkest of nights.

When I attempted to channel mana into the crystal, I quickly noticed a few strange things.

I was always quite sensitive to mana, more so than most mages. My sister's senses were sharper than mine though, but I was among the most mana sensitive trainees at the time we were learning to be mages. However, I could instantly tell my sensitivity had increased.

The quantity of mana I could channel had also increased. It felt like a dam had been broken the moment I started releasing mana, it was simply gushing out of me.

The crystal in my hand was glowing so bright, the people around me had to close their eyes, or risk their retinas getting burned. I tried to stop the flow of my mana, but the crystal in my hand exploded before I could rein in my mana.

Luckily no one was close enough to be hurt by the flying crystal shards, but a few flying pieces left tiny cuts on my cheek, and my hand was badly bruised.

Everyone stopped moving, they simply stared at me while my focus was on my bruised hand. My head was a white space, I had no thoughts, I simply kept looking at my hand.

“Silas, what was that?!” my sister, who was the first to recover from shock shouted her question at me.

Her voice woke me up. I looked up to see her staring at me wide-eyed. The other recruits had their jaws hanging open, evidence of any thought of practicing mana channeling missing from their faces.

“I don’t know. I tried channeling mana, and suddenly mana came gushing out of me,” I replied to my sister.

“What was that sound?” a voice asked from behind us. I turned around to see Aurel standing there. His hair was a mess, wax was still in his eyes, and there were dark circles around his eyes. He was very clearly still hungover.

“Oh, it's good that you're here. You take charge of instructing the recruits. I have to have a word with my brother,” my sister who breezed passed Aurel's question said to him.

I lost my focus again soon after Aurel's appearance. My mind started to wander, I couldn’t get what had just occurred out of my head, the images of the crystal shinning and then exploding played over and over again in my head.

My surroundings became a blur, but I was aware of the fact that I was being dragged somewhere by my sister.

“Start talking,” she said to me with some authority, when she finally stopped moving.

I looked around to try and find my bearings. We were standing under a tall oak tree close to the lake. This place used to be a place we came to relax, just the two of us.

I spent a lot of my early years as a warrior under this oak tree after training. My sister who worried about me a lot would always come around, we would sit under the tree and talk about a lot of things.

Although, in recent years I stopped coming here. Training got more intense and I got busier. My sister also took on a lot of responsibilities and had little time to pester me.

My mind slowly started to calm down as the memories of the times I spent here with my sister came flooding into my head. Slowly, I was able to refocus my mind.

My sister was breathing heavily. Her perspiration caused her skin to glisten under the sun. She had that wild look of excitement in her eyes and she waited eagerly for me to start talking.

“I truly don’t know what just happened. Like I said before, I simply tried channeling mana and it came pouring out,” I said to her.

“Brother, your mana control isn’t so poor that you'd be unable to control your mana, not to mention that brightness. It was also the first time I’ve seen a mana crystal exploding,” my sister responded. She was talking very fast, and the pitch of her voice was a few octaves higher.

I didn’t know what was happening to me, but I needed someone to talk to, and my sister was always willing to listen to my problems, so I decided to confide in her.

She listened to my story with avid interest, never once interrupting me. Once I was done recounting my strange experiences to her, I checked to see if she thought I was crazy or not.

She held her chin between her thumb and pinky, her head facing the sky, and a slight frown on her face. It was clear to me she was deep in thought, so I decided to wait for her response patiently.

“Do you have any clue who the old man in your dream is?” she asked me once she was done arranging her thoughts.

“No, I have my suspicions as to who he could be, but as it stands I’m not even sure whether he is real or not,” I answered.

My sister walked towards the oak tree, rested her back on it and slowly slid down until she was sitting on the sand. I walked towards her and sat beside her.

We both stared at the lake in silence for some time, observing people as they came and went. This lake was the only source of water we had in the settlement. It was always busy. People were always around. Some came to wash their bodies or clothes, others came to fetch water to prepare their meals, other came to fetch water to drink.

My sister and I sat observing this people for some time. My mind slowly began to drift again.

“Silas, I think you should go see the oracle,” my sister finally broke the silence.

I thought about her suggestion quietly, and the more I thought about it the more sense it made. If there was one person that could make sense of everything that was happening to me, it would be the oracle.

However, it would take about six days to journey to her domain, another six days to journey back. That was close to two weeks, assuming the journey went smoothly.

The oracle lived a secluded life. She lived in a forest inhabited by monsters, but because of her gifts, the gods gave her their protection. What that meant though, for anyone journeying to see her, was that they would have to brave many dangers.

Seeing her also didn’t guarantee one answers. While she was blessed with precognition, she was very tight lipped about what she saw.

All prophets carried the burden of knowing to various degrees what the future holds, but being unable to share that knowledge without permission. I wasn’t too familiar with how it worked, but I always thought of it as similar to how mages couldn’t use magic without permission from a god.

“I think it would be a good idea to seek her counsel too, but, thanks to your shenanigans I can’t leave the settlement anytime soon,” I said to my sister, a bit of venom dripping from my voice.

My sister turned to look at me, pouting. She put her hand on my shoulder and said to me, “Are you still angry about that? I thought since you already got your revenge you would be over it already, after all, I also now have to teach the newbies too.”

It was difficult to answer her. It wasn’t that I was angry, I was just feeling a little frustrated. I wanted to leave right this instant and go search for answers, but I couldn’t due to what she had done.

“I'm not angry, it's just frustrating not knowing what is happening to me,” I answered her, forcing a smile on my face to assure her.

“You just wait a little, I will get you permission to go see the oracle one way or another. In the meantime, I will also try consulting the gods,” she said me with determination.

To say I was grateful would be an understatement. I felt relief wash over me, my heart instantly felt lighter. I was so grateful to the gods providing me with someone with whom I could share my burdens. I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at my sister.

“Right, have you thought of any potential solutions?” I asked my sister.

“Solutions?” my sister cocked her head sideways, craning her long slender neck.

“The enchanted weapons,” I added.

“Oh! Well, no. We just talked about it yesterday Silas,” she said to me, resting her back on the tree again.

“How about we send people to the Cribea settlement? They have a much more profound understanding of attribute magic than we do,” I said to my sister.

She turned to look at me, a slight frown on her face. She, like father, didn’t like the idea of asking outsiders for help, but she was much more reasonable and thus easier to convince.

“Hmmm… it doesn’t sound like a bad idea, but I think we should do all we can ourselves before we look for outside help,” she said.

Her response was expected. I didn’t think she would readily accept the idea anyways. I decided to stop here for now, I would take my time to work on convincing her.

“So, I know you said you don’t know, but do you really have no guesses as to who the man in your dreams could be?” my sister asked me again.

“If I had to guess, I would say he is probably a god,” I said to her.

“That much is obvious Silas, but can you not guess which god?”

“No. Nothing about him stood out. The only physical traits of his I could discern were the color of his eyes, the color of his clothes, and his hair,” I said to her.

I began to wonder myself, if indeed the old man was really a god, which god could he be.

“I will ask the gods, maybe one will be magnanimous enough to give me an answer,” my sister said.

“Minerva!” some yelled out my sister’s name from across the lake.

I recognized her, she was a mage apprentice under my sister's tutelage, although she was older than my sister.

“Your ward is calling for you,” I said to my sister. I turned to see her already standing up.

She looked down at me and said, “Brother, we still have a lot to talk about, but don’t worry too much. We'll figure out what is happening to you,” she then left.

I watched my sister leave, and when she was gone I was left alone with my thoughts. I felt a sense of relief after confiding in her, and I no longer felt anxious.

Anxiety was quickly replaced with excitement. I was eager to test my body. The changes to my body were scary only because I didn’t know the reason for it, but it still excited me. I was clearly becoming stronger. I could figure out why later, but for now I wanted to test my limits.