(Jason, 16)

The exams are over, and its conclusion marks the start of our winter break. On Monday, I am leaving for the training camp with my training group, the Marran teens, the Leviathans, and the four Magi who were unable to start university this term. Tomorrow, I am going to the lake to relax for the solstice, because I will be sick again, as usual.

But for the rest of today, my plans were cleared for a single thing: visiting the Delvarkari. I should be doing other things, but Mama Alyssa and Mama Elena told me to not worry about them, that I should visit the home of my bloodline for the day.

So now, I am waiting for my grandmama to return from wherever it is she had gone. Jarenidis isn't certain of what she's doing, which he says is rare.

"Are ya nervous?" Alex asks.

"Only a little," I admit. "Probably not as nervous as Barry was to kiss a donkey, though."

Alex chuckles at that. It seems that a couple of days ago, they played some weird gambling game, and the first person to run completely out of money had to kiss a donkey. I'm not sure how they convinced someone to let Barry kiss their donkey, but they did.

What I do know is that Alex probably came up with that bet, because of what donkeys can also be called back on Earth. They don't have that name on Midlaris, but that doesn't mean Alex can't have his fun.

"How do you think you did on the exams yesterday?"

"Don't remind me," he rubs his left shoulder, which is sore from sparring against a training dummy. I offered to use holy magic to soothe the pain, but he said he was fine. "I'm at least C-Class, now, which is an improvement. I know my raw skills are good enough for a higher Class, but I'm not confident on the academic front. We'll have to wait until they announce the results in a couple of weeks to know for sure."

"I know what you mean," I tell him. "My mamas and papas didn't give me too much education on history, so most of my historical knowledge was out-of-date. I was also lacking in knowledge of many magical theories, and even had to still look stuff up this week."

"Ya were lacking in the knowledge of magical theories?" He gives me an incredulous look. "We came up with most of them before anyone else did!"

"Some are new," I explain. "Mostly region-specific ones, but Alex? They were rediscovered by others and have different names, and my mamas and papas never taught those to me. We understand the true theories and implement them, but that doesn't necessarily mean we can just call them by name."

"True," he says. "The Eikal Water-Walking Technique is one I invented, yet I'd never heard of it before when they first mentioned it to me. After I'd used it. Trying to explain that one was fun."

"They're posting the results the Felday before term begins," I tell him. "I'm sure you'll rank fine."

"Yeah," he runs his fingers through his hair. "My lack of knowledge in military strategy and history will probably hold me back some."

"Their strategies are a lot different than ours," I nod.

"Yeah," he grins. "Ours was to simply eliminate the threat. When you are as powerful as gods, you don't need special strategies to give yourself an edge in a battle, you just whip out a stronger weapon or spell."

"And sometimes," Mama Alyssa says. "You completely alter the terrain of the world."

"I do have a question," Jarenidis says.

"Sure," I respond.

"What was it like, having power akin to a god's?"

"It was unlike anything you can expect," I tell him. "While I don't exactly have all of the experiences of my time as Nolan, I can do my best to compare then and now. Your grandmama should be around there, though. She has greater grey magical power, yes?"

"Greater grey?" He frowns.

Right, they use it by numerical levels or types, not by descriptive.

"Fourth level of grey magical power," I tell him.

"Ah, yes," he says. "She does. However, even after two thousand years, she doesn't quite have the power you Magi did. It is doubtful she could compare to most gods or the Magi themselves."

"It is doubtful much can truly compare to the Magi," I say as I think about what we really are. We're bound by mortal limitations, but not by mortal knowledge, habits, or views. "But with the right knowledge and training, she could match much of what we did."

"One thing which has always made me curious," Jarenidis says. "Was how the Sacred Swords and Magus Swords were forged. All of the elders claim ignorance, and Fael says the same was true when she was younger. Yet did we not forge the first of them?"

"I killed the handful of our people who knew the forging technique," I tell him. "Or, well, Nolan did. I do remember the technique, though, so I can return it to our people. That said, there's a reason the clans only forged Calamity, and any smith will know it immediately and know why our people only forged one upon learning how it's forged."

It's the primary reason using spatial magics isn't the best of ideas for me right now. That and other magics, but spatial magics is the one which hinders me the most.

"But you forged twenty-four," he says. "And you did so in secret, according to our stories."

"Nolan did," I nod. "And it wasn't easy to forge them in secret, either. I was, perhaps, the one person capable of forging more than a single sword. Calamity took twelve smiths to forge, and they swore to never make another sword like it because of the difficulty and risk involved."

"Yet a fifteen-year-old could?" Alex asks.

"That fifteen-year-old," I say. "Was a Magus. A being sent by gods above those warring here. Even without that knowledge, he still had things the smiths did not."

Like an immortal body and more mana than the dragons who ruled over us, plus grey magical power. All of that was needed for it.

Further discussion is stopped by the appearance of a grey gate in the gate space, and my grandmama steps out of it, keeping the gate open.

"Fael," Jarenidis jumps up. "Where did you go? You were missing when I woke this morning."

"I returned to the clans," she informs us. "I wished to make a few preparations for Jason's first arrival, so that it is not too much of a surprise. Many of our people will want to meet him, both for who he is the reincarnation of and who he is descended of.

"Jason," she looks at me. "Before you enter, I must ask that you cancel your scanning spell and close your eyes, keeping them closed until I say you can open them."

"Why?" I ask.

"The dragon who rules us now," she says. "Wishes to meet you. We are entering his den. Unlike the dragons you have met before, he will have his scan spell active."

"Only the two in the southern mountains didn't have theirs active when I spoke with them," I say. "I know what it feels like to brush against a dragon's scanning spell."

She stares at me.

"I've turned my off," I say as I turn my off.

"Thank you," she says. "Are you ready?"

"I am," I stand, then bend down and give Alex a quick kiss. "I'll see you this evening."

I dip my head to my mamas, then approach the gate and close my eyes, stepping through. I can hear my grandmama and my brother stepping through behind me, then feel the spell deactivate. I can feel the presence of the dragon in this massive cave, too.

Behind me, the cave ends maybe ten feet away, opening up outside the mountain we're on. Before me, a massive presence rests. The magic within it is powerful, potent. Equal to the gods, maybe even stronger, much like the leviathan. By my estimates, the presence itself is at least two hundred feet in height. A very old dragon, probably black over red.

"You may open your eyes," my grandmama tells me, and I do. "This is Anaral, our protector and lord."

Before me sits a dragon around two hundred feet in height, its majestic wings tucked against his sides. His long tail is bent against his legs, then back out. Spikes run from the pair of beautiful horns atop his head down into a single trail that ends on his tail, which has a spike for a tip as well. Grey eyes filled with ancient wisdom look down at me.

What truly catches my attention, however, is not his height, nor his majesty, nor his power. The spikes alone are unique enough to a certain species of dragon, but even they are only a blip in my notice. No, what catches my attention beyond all of that is the color of his skin and scales.

A beautiful, shimmering, glimmering, brilliant gold.

(Niko, 16)

Lina steps through the gate, her pair of guards following behind her, and she looks around.

"This is the library," I tell her. "We are in the section that contains all of our texts on magic and how to use it. There are a few more books here than there were before Father came to Varil. Sage Harold has been graceful enough to send us a few tomes."

I close my gate, then pull a book off the shelf and hold it up.

"This was my favorite one to read," I tell her. "It is not a book on magic, but stories. Fairy tales. Reading it made me dream about being in the stories, being a mage within them, free of the constraints of my society."

I put the book back on the shelf.

"Come," I tell her. "There is much to see."

My family is not in the castle today, according to Sage Samuel, so I offered to give Lina a tour of it. While they might be starting to understand things, I would still rather avoid them. Especially my eldest brother. He barely ever acknowledged me, growing up. Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like, to have family that actually loved me. Brothers who were willing to play with me.

But that is not for now, even if it is for here. Right now, I am giving Lina a tour of the place where I spent most of my youth and adulthood up to when I left for Varil. Without my family here, I can do this unhindered. Derrick is busy helping some Varilan Slayers near our border, while Mother is visiting Kelrar. Father is at the warfront again, and my eldest brother… he is always at one of the warfronts, helping to lead our troops to battle.

At twenty-four, Aiden is a strong, fierce warrior with the might and speed of a dozen men, and it is rare for him to come home because of his devotion to protecting our borders. He offered to take me to the front as well, more than once, but I refused. He would just try to put me in a suit of armor, equip me with a sword, and send me off to fight. Like a warrior, not a mage.

Sometimes, I wonder how he does all that he does. Aiden manages to slay enemy generals in their sleep, destroy supply trains of our enemies, and more. It became a strategic point of our enemies to avoid anywhere Aiden is known to be, at least if unless they had more forces than necessary to hold him back. Even the soldiers under my brother do not know how he manages all of it.

"Niko?" Lina asks with concern in her voice. "You stopped walking, is everything full?"

"Sorry," I smile at her. "I am doing okay, if only a little distracted by being here with you. Also, you said 'full', when you probably meant 'well'."

We are speaking in Marran, so that Lina can practice it more than she has before. She only knew a little before meeting me, less than Jacob. The plan was never for her to come here, so she never had need to know it. I would move into Varil permanently, as her husband. With Mar hating mages, there was no reason for her to ever learn the language or come here.

But ever since my parents changed their views, even if reluctantly, she has been learning Marran. In secret, though. I only found out about it after the exams yesterday, which is why I came up with the idea to bring her here and show her around. It was a blessing from the King and Queen of the Gods that none of my family was around.

"You only have two brothers, right?" Lina asks.

"Yes," I nod. "I used to have a younger sister, but she was killed by an assassin a few years ago. I do believe my mother is pregnant, but am not going to broach that subject with her until she is ready to discuss it, herself. If she is pregnant, however, it is a miracle, considering her age."

"It is, indeed," Lina smiles. "May she be blessed with a healthy pregnancy and an easy birthing."

"May she," I agree. "Come, we are near my quarters. I have a small garden space with some frost fish."

I lead Lina to the wing of the castle I live in, indicating the handful of rooms and informing her of what each one is. We make it past those and into the small courtyard which was converted into a garden years ago. Winter flowers grow around a pond in the center. The pond itself is completely frozen, but that never bothered me.

"When I was nine," I tell her. "I found some frost fish, or fish that live in ice. I managed to convince my Father to allow me to bring them home, even though they were obviously magical. You cannot see them right now, but they sometimes poke up over the ice."

As I say that, one of the frost fish pokes up, its silver-blue scales glinting in the morning sun. It swims through the ice, which shifts around it, then the animal disappears back under the surface.

"They are rather nice," I tell Lina. "I never have to care for them, either. Father did make me dig out the pond, though, because, well, it was for magical creatures."

"It is nice," Lina tells me. "Your garden is nice as well."

"Thank you," I say. "The kitchens are nearby, I can show you them, but let us not linger there too long. The cook is not much inclined towards me. She will probably yell at us if we stay for too long."

I lead Lina down to the kitchens, where we receive the evil eye from the head chef. We quickly leave there, and I continue with the tour of the castle, finishing up with the throne room at the end. As we make our way to a room for lunch, a figure steps into view, and I feel myself tensing up.

"Aiden," I say. "Sage Samuel said you were not here."

"I know," Aiden says. "I asked him to tell you I was not around because it has been too long since we last spoke."

"You keep trying to convince me to join you at the battlefront," I state. "I am not a soldier."

"I know," he says. "I am not here to argue, Niko. You are finished with your tour, yes? Let us eat lunch. I already had the cooks prepare something for us, and it should be ready in just a few minutes."

Cautiously, I follow Aiden. He is the Crown Heir, the First Prince. He can cause a lot of trouble if I am not careful. While he has not done such a thing before, he may now. I have refused to join him at the battlefront for years. Why did he have to be here while I was giving Lina a tour? Should I open a gate and quickly vacate the premises with her?

We reach the room set up for our lunch, and I help Lina onto her chair before taking a seat across from her. Aiden sits at the head of the table, and wine is served to us immediately by the servants.

"I know how our relationship is," Aiden tells me as I sip the wine. A rather sweet one. "And I know that a large part of it comes from a misunderstanding between us."

"So you did not want to pull me to the battlefront to act as a soldier?" I ask. "Because that is what you were trying to do."

"I never said you were coming to fight with me," he says. "Niko, I wanted to bring you to the battlefront because it would get you away from here. Away from the people who despised you for being a mage."

"As if!" I tell him. "You and the soldiers present would all despise me, too! Lina, this was a bad idea. Let us leave."

I move to leave, but Aiden gestures with his hand and I find myself slamming back into the chair, unable to sit up.

"The soldiers might have," he says as the spell ends. "But not me, Niko. You are not the first mage in this family."

Aiden can use magic? A force spell such as the one he just used is not an amateur spell, either. There is no way he learned it in such a short amount of time after Sage Samuel came here. His control was enough to push me down, but not enough to hurt. There is great practice in that.

"You can use magic?"

"Why do you think I have been at the battlefront so much?" He asks. "It was so that I could train in magic without the hateful gazes of our family. The same gazes that were turned upon you. They are unaware that I can use magic, even now. I wanted to bring you to the battlefront so that I could help you learn magic, Niko. Help you learn it in a safe place, where no one would bother you too harshly. That is why I always asked, when I was here."

"How long have you been practicing magic?" I ask.

"Since I was eleven," he answers. "You were only three at the time. Now, thirteen years later, I use it to terrorize our enemies, yet even they are unaware they are facing a mage, not a warrior."

If he has been training in magic for thirteen years, then his strength and speed are explained. How powerful is he in magic, though? Stronger than me? Weaker?

"I do not understand," Lina says. "If your people hate magic so much, why did you start learning it when you were eleven? I can understand Niko wanting to, but you as well? The Crown Prince and heir to the throne?"

Aiden thinks over his response, tapping the side of his wine goblet. He takes a sip, then sets his goblet back down.

"When I was eleven," he explains. "Papa took me to a battlefront. Not one with human enemies, but one with ogre enemies, at our western border. He kept me at a distance, to keep me from being in danger.

"What I witnessed there," he continues as servants begin serving up our lunch. "Was akin to a bunch of soldiers geared up and ready for war fighting seriously against children with sticks, only our troops were the children and the ogres were the soldiers. We simply could not compare to them.

"I knew about the nations south of the mountains," he stares into his goblet of wine. "How they never had so many issues with ogres. How they had magic, and warriors who wielded it to aid in battles. I knew our churches said it was evil, that the gods forbade it… but if the gods forbade it when we could not fight against our foes, did that mean the gods wanted us to die?

"That's why I stopped believing in the gods," he says. "Since that day thirteen years ago, I have not given a single honest prayer to any god. I played the part of the good prince, but in secret, I worked on figuring out magic. You weren't the first to use those books, Niko. I did, long before you. I figured out magic, and I trained in it. Every moment of secrecy I had, every moment of privacy I found, I did my best to learn magic. But as the Crown Prince, the heir to the throne, I had to keep it secret. When I came of age, I insisted on moving to the battlefronts, where it would be far easier to train. If I wanted privacy, I needed only command it.

"I couldn't let anyone know I knew magic," he says. "So I created a second persona. The Mountain Phantom, as he became known. With magic, I would bend light around me to hide my appearance. I would slaughter troops with ease. Never with magic that looked like magic. When acting as a prince and warrior, I hid the magic even more. But I used it as best I could. I learned to enhance my body's speed and strength beyond what it had. I became dominant on the battlefield, and everyone thought I was just a prodigy."

He snorts, rotating the goblet a little, then sighs.

"If it was known what I knew," he said. "I would be imprisoned. I would have had our family and the priests attempting to pray the 'evil' out of me. But it was magic that saved us. My magic. And then I received a letter.

"The one telling me that you were learning magic," he says. "That you were disobeying our parents and the priests and doing your best to learn magic. I wanted to reach out to you, to help you, but I couldn't. For that, Niko, I am sorry. Once you were old enough, though, I tried to bring you to the battlefield, but you refused. If you were on the fields with me, no one would know the truth. We could hide it together while training together. I could protect you."

He shakes his head, then looks at me.

"Mother and Father never told you," he says. "But I am the one who pushed for you to be betrothed to Lina. They felt that if they agreed to that, you would only become more of a heathen. I convinced them, though. I said things I regret during that time, Niko, but it was necessary. You were publicly a mage. The only solution for you would be to leave Mar. Varil was the best option. They had a princess your age, and universities for magic. There, you would be free to express yourself as the mage you were. I continued to try to bring you to the battlefields with me, even after that, because it would still give you some relief until you moved to Mar. You'd need to learn how to wield a blade for appearances' sake, but my main goal was to help you with your magic."

Tears begin to stream down his cheeks.

"I'm sorry for what I said, Niko," he tells me. "I know you don't know what I said to our parents, but it was harsh, and it was cruel. It was also the only thing I could think of to convince them to marry you to Varil's princess. Please don't ask me to tell you what I said, Niko, because it hurt me then, and it hurts just to think about it, and I would rather never repeat it."

I am very good at telling sincerity, and Aiden is being sincere. Whatever he said, he feels awful about, and it has eaten at him for awhile, probably ever since he said it. Mother and Father never mentioned that Aiden convinced them to marry me to Lina. They only ever said it was for the political strength, for the alliance and deterrence that would act as.

But Aiden is being honest, and he is not using separated words, as he no doubt would if he were lying. Aiden picked up the less-formal speech patterns while serving with soldiers. Mother sometimes complained about that, especially as his mouth can turn quite foul, too.

"I am… uncertain," I tell Aiden. "On everything, but will have to ask Mother and Father about your hand in the betrothal. If so, then I thank you for that, Aiden. Lina is amazing, and I am grateful to have been allow to meet her and for the future marriage we will have."

Lina smiles, her cheeks tinging red just a little.

"But enough of the sad talk," I tell him. "I am quite hungry, and I am sure you and Lina are as well. Let us eat."

"Okay," Aiden rubs his eyes with his sleeve, then we start eating.

"What magics can you do?" I ask.

"I mostly use light, enhancing, and ice magics," he tells me. "Though recently, I learned how to manipulate the temperature of the air around me, which helps in keeping warm these winter nights."

Light, fire, water, and enhance magics. If he taught himself those spells on his own, then he is impressive, especially with the environmental spell and self-enhancement spells. Those are both difficult to cast without proper training.

"Perhaps I can help you adjust the environmental spell," I tell him. "Before we leave. Lina and I use it regularly when we are outside, and we had an expert teach it to us."

As Magi, we learned it from Nolan. As students, we learned it from a professor two weeks ago.

"It would be weird," he says. "Learning something from my younger brother."

"Younger," I tell him. "But I am no less capable. I have professional training."

"A single term's worth," he tells me. "Unless-" he cuts off and looks at Lina, then looks back to me. "Well, you did study more openly than me. But I feel I might have more training than you still, even if less narrow."

"Unless what?" I ask. "Lina knows the majority of my secrets."

Nearly all of them, actually. I have very few that are not open to the Magi. The only ones which comes to mind would be things Jason asked me to keep secret and my leg. I find myself nearly rubbing my leg as I think about it. What would Aiden think, if he found out I lost my leg and replaced it with a magical construct?

"It is nothing," he tells me. "For the first time, we seem to be speaking almost freely, and even if it was only for a minute, I nearly voiced something I had sometimes wondered when you were younger."

"Voiced what?" I ask.

"That you were reincarnated," he decides to answer. "After hearing what happened in Kelrar, I began to wonder it again. There were some ruins I found that told some stories. Breaking in was not easy, but I learned about the Master of the Gargoyles, a mage from ancient times with immense power. Then I heard about the gargoyles coming to your assistance during the battle at their capital."

"I have not heard of the Master of Gargoyles," I tell him, though that was likely me.

"Thirty-seven centuries ago," he says. "A war raged across the land. At least, according to the tales in the ruins. I couldn't decipher most of them, but from what I could decipher, the Master of Gargoyles arrived in this region with an army of gargoyles, then wiped out a powerful evil. For around six hundred years, he protected the region, before one day vanishing. His gargoyles remain as the guardians of the castle from which he overlooked the mountains, waiting for the day he would return."

I frown at that. The war was three thousand years sago, yet his tale says it was three thousand seven hundred. At least, if Benjamin was the Master of Gargoyles. But if not him, who else? Especially as these mountains did not exist at the start of the war. It also said the Master of Gargoyles remained for several centuries.

My memories from after the war are spotty, but is it possible they took place over centuries and not simply a few years? Jason would know best of all, but even his memories are spotty.

"I am not sure if I am the Master of Gargoyles," I tell Aiden. "But I am reincarnated, and I was here, three thousand years ago, as the commander of an army of gargoyles. That great evil we fought against? It was not alone. I had eleven allies with me. We were known as the Magi, and we fought against the heavens and the underworld to save humanity."

I meet his gaze evenly as he gives me a startled look.

"So yes," I tell him. "Some of my knowledge of magic comes from a past life, which is why I may be more talented than you when it comes to magic, despite training for fewer years. But you are not wrong in that the gods should be ignored. At least, the majority of them. Very few look upon mortals with smiles. And the 'gods' of our religion, as you no doubt have learned, are nothing more than powerful, ancient ogres. Would you like to hear our story?"