Simone looked at Ethan for a little while, pondering on the answer, before shaking her head in a happy denial.

-There is not a good or bad element, they all have their good perks and can perform wonderful magic. There are many kind of different spells: some do depend on the user element, but in example quick battle enchantments, called combat magic, solely depend on easy mana and elemental transformation. Any element can use its own.

-There are also complicated enchantments that require deep knowledge of mana manipulation and “spirit magic” which is rare and unfathomable, also called “miracle magic” and even neutral enchantments like... I dunno, a simple levitation magic that doesn't depend on any element.

She said, pointing her finger and making the enchanter pool hover a few inches above Tommy's feet and back in his lap.

-Okay, then, combat-wise, what is shadow good for?

Ethan asked her like begging her to go the point.

-Talking about real fighting, pretty much all elements, for what I know, can allow you to deal damage, defend and even heal people. You have seen me perform surgery with my fire tendrils, by modulating the yellow fire, I can heal people, black and red fire are the best for damage, while purple and black fire are the most suited for defense. Ask me why.

-Why?

-Because for what we know, the Black Flame, the most powerful of the Flames, was a badass woman named Dana with a passion for protection, kicking people and transportation magic, so she developed some spectacular techniques for just those purposes, using her Flame's power. I am part of the yellow Flame school, which was created by the Yellow Flame, a man by the name of Ronan, which being married to an amazing healer, was influenced by her into discovering a way to heal people with his type of Flame.

-Well, this is the first time I have heard about any of this “Flames”. What are they?

Asked Tommy

-None of this is common knowledge, mind you. In the past people searched long and hard for these information, but I got it all through the Entropy libraries. It seems like the elements as we know them, Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Lightning, Life, Energy, Light and Shadow, are more complicated than what we ever thought, some even say they could be incarnated as “people”, living among us.

-Every one of them has a certain amount of prime elementalists, like some generals, which are dispatched wherever the element they serve orders them to. There is no fixed number to those generals. Mages found powerful enough or worthy enough in the past have been bestowed with their own “color” and later stepped up to creating their own speciality.

-Some planets worship those generals like gods among men. Joining their “school” allows a mage higher learning of their techniques and for their mana to mutate to a more powerful state.

-For what concerns the Flames, they are Fire's generals. From what I have learned, there are at least five: Red, Yellow, Green, Purple and Black Flames. Entropy is sure there are more, but the universe is too big for them to find out yet.

The boys were both looking down, excitedly wondering about those unfathomably powerful entities. How cool would it be to create something out of nothing? Being able to become the voice and representative of one of the higher elemental powers? Suddenly their mental processes got critically interrupted by Simone which said happily

-Hey, long faces... Return with your feet to the ground. Tommy still has to spill some blood!

-Right... Never been a big fan of needles. Could one of you do the poking for me?

Simone reached for the pen and told him.

-I'm going to count to three, please don't flinch or tense too much.

Tommy closed his eyes and tried to get some deep breaths in, thinking away at somewhere, something remote and pleasant. He was slightly shaking, he knew he was going to get stung as soon as she was done counting.

-One...

As she started counting, she also released the needle

-Hey... what happened to good old two and three?

He barked

-You know you are an adult and people might want to kill you in your line of work, right? Are you really going to give me attitude for a small puncture?

Tommy didn't answer, but instead looked at the ruby red blood starting to spill from the tip of his finger and carefully got it to the enchanter pool. Just like the first time, the vortex inside the ball stopped, allowing the blood to plummet to the middle. Ethan watched as Simone took Tommy's finger and stuck it into his mouth as he froze, eyes wide open and unblinking, like in a daze, but incredibly focused on whatever it was he was seeing.

-Look, it has started.

Said Simone. The blood had exploded, dripping in all directions in rivulets that were painting a spectacular picture. It was something partially orange, with some brown too and finally a lot of green on top. With the passing of the seconds, the picture was becoming more evident: it was some kind of tree.

-That looks a lot like a willow tree to me...

It hadn't been long and Tommy had returned, coughing once more and convulsing a little.

-That was real! There is no way what I saw wasn't REAL!

He blurted out fast, half chewing on his own finger.

-Simone, what is with you and sticking fingers in people's mouth?

Asked Tommy with ample raising of both eyebrows, scowling at her

-Do I look like a cleaning lady to you? Dry blood is a pain to wash off, so suck on it until it stops. By the way, I went on and looked what the willow tree means, element-wise and, not surprisingly, it is a life element omen. Congratulations!

Ethan was up and about, he tugged at Tommy's elbow and asked with concern

-What did you see?

-Well, in the beginning I was suspended in mid air: I was so high in the sky I could see the clouds below. It was damn freezing and I couldn't breath, but it didn't last for long. It was hella painful though. As I started falling, I tried to keep telling myself it was a vision, nothing more, still I was crying from the air whipping me on the face while going down and I felt like puking. I won't tell you the amount of swear words I used the closer the ground was to me. I was gonna land in a river, but just a few meters above the surface, I came to a halt, and I started rolling like a ball down a waterfall.

-Of course the absurd jumped up even higher as I got to the bottom: there was another me. A buffed, stronger me, older too, meditating under the waterfall, making all things levitate and shooting them up in the air at times, not seemingly aware of any of this, and I... I mean he was taking roots in the riverbed.

-You were becoming a plant?

Ethan asked with an incredulous face

-I guess so... oh, and there was some kind of little tree on the riverbank looking at me... Him.

-Looking at you? Like in “he had eyes” looking at you?

-Yeah, I think he was my pet or something, he... or she, was so sad... I came back when I had become a full tree.

Tommy was genuinely worried

-Not the happiest of visions I'd say. Is that all?

Asked Madame Boule while sending the enchanter pool back into its black bag.

-Yes, I guess. I wasn't happy of becoming a tree. I was deeply heartbroken: I could tell. I think that is why things were flying around like crazy, like I couldn't really control myself.

-Let's hope for it not to be an omen of the future then.

She said patting him on a leg.

-Well, this is it for the evening. Shadow and Life: we got a lot of work coming our way tomorrow, trust me. Hugo will bring you dinner up here as soon as it is ready. Tommy, I guess you are a vegetarian, aren't you?

-How would you know?

He asked with suspect, like she had violated him, somehow

-It is rare for life users not to be. Those that aren't, usually look more like wild beasts, which is not your case.

Madame Boule didn't spend the evening with the boys, leaving them with enough space for talking things over between themselves and getting to know each other better.

Ethan though didn't think it wise keeping Tommy up for too long: he had to rest all he could if he was to be up on his feet the day after. He left him to his own devices two hours after dinner.

When he remained alone though, Tommy Pope couldn't help but obsessing on his vision of his older self. The more he thought about it, the more he was getting convinced that what he had seen had to be a snippet of his future.

What had happened? What, could scar him so much? Or what could require him to transform into a tree? And why did he even know how to? By the time he gave in to the sleepiness, he had asked himself so many questions he felt again like he was falling through the sky.

A little later, Ethan was wandering alone in the house. He was feeling thirsty after all the talking, so he went to the kitchen. He had seen many fancy and tasty beverages inside the fridge that day, but as he had found out, the sugar in them made him even more thirsty, forcing him to drink water after.

Knowing that, he went straight for a jumbo glass of cold water. Sip after sip he felt better, reminding himself though of his chugging in the forest. He wisely decided to drink more slowly. Turning away from the fridge, he noticed Simone in the balcony outside the kitchen: she was “playing” with her fire, creating figurines.

Getting closer, Ethan noticed weapons, animals similar to horses with their riders... It was an army, marching toward war, its ranks very close; it was was very accurate and serious looking. He managed to get behind her; just a moment before she could notice him, he asked

-Bad memories?

She turned, almost surprised, her face void of her precious, heartwarming smile

-“There was never a good war, or a bad peace.”

-What does it mean?

-Well, you have never been in a full out war, and god knows I hope you never will: no one ever should. What that sentence means to me is that no matter the reasons for fighting against someone, war is always ugly and more often than not, has nothing to do with the people fighting it on the front lines. People die for reasons that are not theirs and ideals which they might or might not even share.

She focused her eyes once more on the moving little fire men

-On Earth we always came out with so many reasons, but really it was all about money, with people trying their best at hiding the disgusting reality while also pulling the strings of conflicts.

-Why becoming a warlord then?

-It just happened, I guess. I wanted to protect some ideals and got caught into my silly blind straightforwardness without really being able to properly weight the up and downs of war. It sure got me prestige, respect and...

She sighed

-An empty house, but in the end, it didn't free the right people and only got the wrong ones richer. I thought age had made me smarter, but no matter your years, ego will always put you into trouble.

-Ego?

-Pride, mixed with too much self esteem. But enough ghosts for tonight.

She waved at the small bright red and yellow army and they disappeared, crackling, without even a puff of smoke, then she turned to talk again

-I really want to ask you something: why did you accept to help me?

-Is not like I have anything better to do, plus I really want to learn magic from you.

He answered shrugging his shoulders.

-That may be, but you sure had options. This is something that has a meaning for me, maybe for Tommy, since we are humans, but you... Your race has only been screwed by ours so far.

He sighed

-I get that, but let me ask you something too, before I answer: I couldn't help but notice you have a house Rokian. Yet you are a very good person, I see that. How come you keep him here?

-Hugo, my house Rokian, as many before him, is a creature I rescued. He had a nasty owner, you know; treated him like crap sun or rain, everyday. I stole him, so to say. Freeing Rokians from their imprinting is hard, but once done, I let them go in the wild. I know they don't really have that big of a survival instinct, but I still think that to be a better life than being leashed, punished and tortured by mages.

Ethan nodded

-I would agree. What's the deal with Hugo, then?

-He came back on his own after two days. At first I thought he was scared or didn't get the concept of freedom, but he kept on coming back. In the end, I just gave up. He doesn't speak, but there is intelligence in that brain of his. Knowing him, made me understand the need of destroying this society's standards even more. He cares for me but only does what he wants to. I never ask anything of him twice nor order him around.

-See? That is why I have to help you: you are good. If I wouldn't, you could get destroyed.

-Why, aren't you a good person too?

He had surprised her once more

-I sure hope not. Not that I think being a good person is a bad thing in itself, but how can I say when I don't have yet seen both sides for myself? I have no interest in being a saint: I am here to watch and have a laugh while helping you and mostly myself.

-I will try and keep that in mind, then. But I am relieved.

A faint little smile shyly appeared like painted on her lips.

-Really? What about?

-You see, there is one thing that I have seen many times which is very dangerous: indoctrination mixed with blind hatred, young animosity or zealotry.

-Okay, I really got very little of what you just said.

-Right: making it simple, I forgot. An example then. Once, I got to see an archive interview of two kids, born and grown on two countries back on Earth which were very far away but still considered each other as enemies. One was a beacon of the western civilization, America, the other country was poor and deeply religious Pakistan, in the east.

-The American kid, thought of life as full of opportunities, games and was somewhat attached to very shallow things, but in his defense, he wasn't even eleven years old. The other boy had the same smile the first one had, but only talked about religion, hatred towards Americans and so forth. When they were both asked what was their biggest dream, the American kid answered he wanted yet another toy, the Pakistani kid said he wanted to die a martyr for the good of his cause.

-Back in the day there was a lot of ignorance on both sides about religion. Religion though was just another control device: it was all a matter of blind hatred instilled into young people through legends and imprecise or invented stories.

-Americans and westerners were called spawn of the devil, or demons and such, depriving them of an identity or a face, teaching to those kids that the only way possible was killing them all in the name of their God, which, of course never asked for any of those deaths. Not only that, but soon those grown in that hate, started killing even their own which had anything to do with westerners, deeming them corrupted or impure. In reality they were being manipulated and pointed towards an enemy they didn't need fighting. Entire generations grew with the idea of demons walking on Earth and similar nonsense, thinking of themselves as saints which had to purge this evil. This is called indoctrination.

They were silent for a while, before Ethan said with finality

-Earth really was a bad place.

-I can't deny it. But now you know why I am happy you want to think and decide for yourself. Changing subject again, is there something you want to do right now?

Ethan kept on thinking on the sad story she had just told him, but was able to let out a full sentence

-I wouldn't mind a movie: you said people from Earth used to watch them.

Soon they were sitting in a cozy room with a soft white couch, watching a comedy: Simone had to pause several times to explain Ethan the jokes, but he still looked like he had a lot of fun. She laughed too. Once the movie was over, she brought her guest to his room and hugged him good night. Ethan couldn't help but be bothered by the fact she had to go all the way down to hug him.

It didn't feel right. If that wasn't enough, he had to stretch a lot to hug anything at all. The next morning he would start doing so much more and he could not think it being easy either: using tools, weapons... He could already see himself clumsily struggling with it and not being as fast as Tommy.

He sat on his bed, which was soft and comfortable, way better than the cold ground in the forest. He looked down to his hands, then went to the toilet he had noticed when he had entered his room.

As he stepped in, the lights went on: he looked around, but there was no stool in there or something that could boost him up to the sink. Even the other Rokian in the house, Hugo, was taller than him, although also older. He really felt short. Back in his room he grabbed a wooden chair of an exquisite hazelnut color and carried it in front of the sink. He climbed on the chair and finally was able to look himself in the mirror: he liked what he saw. He was a Rokian and there was nothing wrong with it... Still... He felt like that wasn't one hundred percent right either and not only for the facts he had already thought of. He peed, washed his teeth and went back to his room.

Somehow he felt he was meant to be taller. Hugo, the only other Rokian he could take as reference, wasn't just bigger, he almost looked like a different specie entirely. He was like those Generals Simone had told them about: he had mutated, somehow, while Ethan had not.

He kept still for a while, still thinking.

Somehow that word, “mutation”, made a lot of sense to Ethan. The more he kept on thinking about it, repeating it in his head, the more he thought of it as true: Rokians could mutate, but he had no idea how... And yet it was simply impossible, given that Rokians were a fairly recent human creation... Or, were they? His dream would sure suggest otherwise.

He kept on pacing back and forth, unsatisfied.

He stopped, crossed his arms and started making his head bounce from one shoulder to the other.

Soon he felt dizzy and decided it was enough.

Next, he tried jumping... But he really couldn't shake that “not being right” feeling.

Finally he sat back on the bed: his feet didn't even touch the nice soft carpet on the floor. He opened his Aw-k. It was still flashing him the “first choice” page: he looked at all the different versions of himself once more.

He really liked all of them and, had it depended on him, or gotten the chance of taking it easy and just focus on the training, he would have tried all of them before choosing, but this was a time sensitive situation, he thought, and his guts were just aching for that slingshot fighting.

Even looking at the cooler himself on the Aw-k card wouldn't manage to make him fully happy, though. He cleared his mind and tried focusing on “the one thing”. He silenced all the buzzing, the voices and thoughts in his head, the excitement, euphoria and all things which kept him spinning in circle, only searching for that one nagging, yet important, screeching voice.

After a while he found it: the one thing that was really weighting on him, was how sad that embrace had him feeling.

Ethan crossed his arms once again and laid on his back. Was this his ego, as Simone had called it?

Was he thinking about this because he just valued himself too much? Because he had too much pride?

There was a little pride inside of him, yes, but he decided it wasn't just his ego poking at him. He stood there, silent and not moving for a few minutes, letting it all stew and finally he came to the “logical conclusion”. He turned the page onto the skills and double clicked on “Basic Human Anatomy”. As he did so, he got prompted

“Are you sure you want to activate this skill?”

He really wasn't.

He still did it.

He waited, looking at his arms, his fingers...

After ten minutes, nothing had happened.

-Weird...

He fell asleep soon after, his last thoughts being for the useful Simone Boule, an interesting woman, and his beautiful room.