'Calm down honey, you need to calm down!' Ira shouted inside my head, concerned.

I couldn't answer. My entire body was acting on its own. I was chuckling and writhing in pain at the same time. This must have been one of the worst attacks ever. At the same time as all of this was happening I felt my stomach turn and all I could do in response to that was lean my head over the edge of my bead as far as I could while ignoring the pain. I could also feel mana, the mana of a human, judging from its potency it was either Lestul or Rudolpho, maybe both.

For a good two or so hours I must have been there, throwing up, in pain, crying and chuckling all at the same time while Arva and Ira constantly tried to calm me down. Arva even emerged from my body at one point and tried to heal me. Green energy whirled around her like wind, and the green energy moved around me as well, but it had no effect.

"What? Why isn't it working?" she asked, more herself than me, since well... I wouldn't have known the answer anyway.

"I... I thought... t-thought you could heal any w-wound?" I asked, biting through the pain, a warped smile on my face.

"I... I don't know why... it should work, it always works... except... wounds of the mind, of course, of fucking course..." Arva said.

"T-Took you l-l-l-loooong enough," I said, panting heavily as I made a grimace from the pain.

My arm ring began vibrating. The vibrations made me throw up again, this time some of it got on the bed. I rolled over, to the other side of the bed, exhausted just from being awake. I chuckled as I looked at the door.

"You waiting for someone?" Arva asked, sitting down on the shelve, where I could see her.

"Go... back in-inside, I don't nec-necessarily want her asking too maaany q-questions about you," I said, still struggling with the pain.

"What?"

Her response was filled with confusion.

"You know, Elsa," I said, still panting. "Now j-ju-just go back inside my head or wha-whatever, I have a p-plaaan!"

I could see Arva roll her eyes, but she complied and turned into black smoke that was sucked in by the mark on the back of my left hand, which had lost most of its black colour and looked more like a leaf that someone had forgotten to colour in, only leaving the outline. But after she went back inside me it returned to being fully black.

'So, what's your plan?' Arva asked.

"Y-You'll see," I responded.

And so I waited. Luckily I didn't have to wait for too long. After about ten or so minutes the door opened and a distressed looking Elsa stood in the door, looking at me, both eyes looking concerned, their differing colours making them look almost, uncanny.

"Altair, what happened?" she asked, hectically shuffling towards me, closing the door behind her with her foot.

I forced a smile but at the same time my stomach turned again and I grimaced from the feeling. As quickly as I could I turned away from her and threw up all over my bed.

"Altair!" Elsa called out as she put a hand on my shoulder. "What happened?" she asked, her voice filled with so much concern that it almost felt like a mother, concerned about her son.

I turned back to her.

"I... I..." I couldn't get myself to talk as pain shot through me.

Her eyes widened and a small fairy, not too different looking from Arva, although much smaller and wearing a blue dress, appeared on her shoulder. Without any words being shared the fairy flew around the room, and it became cleaner than probably ever before. The stone looked freshly carved and washed, the wood freshly polished, the bed freshly made and the stench of my vomit was gone.

I was still breathing heavily but somehow felt a lot calmer, warmer as well, as if I just drank something hot, like tea. My body was still weak and I could barely move at all, but at least I managed to suppress the chuckling, which might have affected my plan.

"D-Did something happen?" Elsa asked, staring down at me. "Does something like this happen often?" she quickly added.

I gave her a week nod.

"Every... every day," I said, biting through the currently subsiding pain.

"What?"

A weak chuckle escaped my lips.

"Usually... usually it's n-not this... strong," I said, panting.

Elsa kneeled down beside my bed.

"Why? Are you sick?" Elsa asked, nearly stumbling over her own words.

"It's... complicated," I said.

Then, for a single moment, something flashed in the corner of my eye. A figure, dressed in a brown robe. It appeared and disappeared in nearly the same moment, so quickly that Elsa didn't even notice.

At the same moment, I suddenly felt sleepy, my vision blurred and I could see Elsa grab my head, saying something I couldn't understand. The last thing I saw were little lights, flying all around the room.

'What the!' I heard both Ira and Arva saying.

I dreamed again, I dreamed of something strange this time though. It wasn't like most other dreams. In this one, I saw the faces of people I had yet to see. Faces that were unfamiliar to me. I saw a young boy with tanned skin, blue eyes and blond hair, it was a round face that looked like that of your stereotypical brute, just much younger, maybe about six or seven. There were also the faces of two girls, one with blue eyes and black hair and the other with eyes the colour of ambers and hair the same shade of dark blue as the dark waters I had seen in a painting hanging in the library.

Then I saw a workshop, a place from my old life. I even knew where it was, just minutes from where I used to live. Inside were a lot of people, all of them looking towards a spot I couldn't see. Then the world suddenly turned slightly purple and I simply opened the doors, manually closing them behind me. Everything turned back to normal and I could hear Acil's familiar voice giving some kind of speech.

"You really think I didn't make any plans for when that fool bit the dust?! It obviously didn't fucking work!" Acil yelled, his voice echoing through the workshop.

"Well then we'll just use force!" some other man yelled back.

I looked up, Acil looked angry.

"Listen here you fuckheads! Right now we need to lay low! If any of you have a problem with that, come right up! Show me that you can do better! If you can't even bring yourself to do that then don't you fucking dare question my leadership!" he yelled.

All that could be heard after that was heavy breathing... and my footsteps.

"I have a problem with your leadership!" I said, with enough confidence in my mouth to make a king hate me.

"Who are you?!" Martin yelled, sitting near Acil and Hannah, who clung to his arm.

"I? Yes, who am I? That is a good question... but all I can tell you is that I am a man, looking for fun!" I said.

My voice seemed to drown out anything, although on some level I realized that this wasn't my voice, it was the voice of another, someone who seemed far more powerful than me. A fact that was supported by the fact that everything turned slightly purple again and stopped as if frozen in time. Swords appeared mid-air, all of them the same in appearance, identical copies of each other. Each was positioned at the throat of another person, except for Martin, Acil and Hannah, all three of them seemed to be fine. I could feel a smile creep across my face as all the swords flashed silver and then disappeared. When the world turned normal again the bodies of everyone there except for the three standing before me fell to the ground, lifeless.

"H-How!?" Acil yelled, seemingly paralyzed, stuck in place, completely unable to move even a single muscle.

"Simple... it's magic!" I said as another sword appeared a few metres behind me.

"What do you want!?" Martin yelled with tears in his eyes.

"I already said what I want. Fun!" I said loudly as I lifted both arms, extending them outwards, to the side.

"What the fuck is this!?" Acil asked, seemingly having noticed the sword that was now hovering very close to me.

"My way of having fun. Now don't get angry. For I have an opportunity for the three of you! An opportunity that you can sadly not refuse. But it is a great one, believe me!" I said, with a smile.

There was no response.

"Now, I'm sure you all remember your good friend Ethan."

"What? Ethan? Is that you, you little cockroach?" Martin asked, his voice sounding weak.

"Oh no, I'm not Ethan or, rather Altair. That's the name he goes by now by the way," I said, my smile only becoming wider.

"What do you mean? We killed him!" Acil said loudly and angrily.

I saw Hannah tightening her grip around Acil's arm, she was shaking and crying.

"Yes, yes. But I revived him. Or rather, had him revived. In another world. One filled with magic and all that fun stuff! And I will do the same to you three! You will be the chosen ones, destined to hunt down your old toy and kill it once again! Or maybe your old toy will kill you this time? Who knows? And that's the fun behind it all! So don't worry, your death will be painless!" My smile grew even wider, it now began to almost hurt.

The world once again turned slightly purple and the sword hovering behind me burst forth, cutting off Hannah's, Martin's and Acil's heads before disappearing. I didn't even give them any time to respond.

When the world turned normal again they all dropped to the ground, blood leaking out from their headless corpses. I began chuckling.

Everything turned black again, and in the black, I could see three faces. That of Hannah, Martin and that of Acil. Slowly they began morphing. Hannah's into that of the girl with black hair and blue eyes, Martin's into that of the brute with blond hair and blue eyes and Acil's turned into that of the girl with dark blue hair and eyes the colour of amber.

That was the moment I woke up with widened eyes, widened by my realization.

"They're here," I said with a breathy voice.

"What? Whose here?" I heard Elsa ask.

For a few seconds, I had to blink just so I could properly see again. I didn't feel sick anymore and all that was left of the pain was slight soreness in my muscles. When I looked around I saw that I was still in my room, my head laying on something soft. When I looked up I saw Elsa looking down at me. She was sitting on the edge of my bed, my head resting on her lap. On the ground, I could see her massive robe. It looked heavy, laying there, on the ground. Beneath it, she wore simple clothing, similar to mine, although far more expensive looking.

"Are you alright? You just suddenly passed out!" Elsa said with great concern in her voice.

"I'm fine, great, actually," I said, feeling a little light-headed as I got up from Elsa's lap.

Or at least I tried to. She pushed me back down immediately with more strength than I expected.

"No, you need rest," she said. "And I also want to know what happened to you."

I let out a soft sigh, barely containing the smile on my face. All I could do was hope that it looked at least a little normal.

"It's mana," I said, matter-of-factly.

"What?" Elsa asked.

"The mana of human's... it makes me sick," I said, coldly.

"What? Oh, I'm sor-" Elsa began.

"No, it's fine... you don't have enough for me to feel it... your brother or Rudolpho on the other hand..., just standing near them makes my stomach turn," I said.

For a few seconds, there was silence.

...

...

...

"Why?" Elsa eventually asked.

"When I was young, my parents were killed... by humans. And since then... since then I cannot stand the way a human's mana feels. It makes me sick to my very core. It makes me want to scream out," I said, trying to make my voice sound... less apathetic.

"It must be difficult for you... being here, amongst so many human mages," Elsa said.

I nodded.

"But still, you try your best, you must really believe in our cause," Elsa said, sounding like a proud mother.

"Of course." That's the reason...

"You know, if you ever need to talk, you can always come to me," Elsa said.

"Are you sure it's okay for you to just favour one of your students like this?" I asked.

"Probably not, but we can always make exceptions," Elsa said, followed by a chuckle.

I chuckled as well, although it wasn't a real one.

'Uhh, what a plan. And your little incident didn't even ruin it,' Arva said.

I scoffed inside my head.

'I'm just that good,' I said.

'Our time together will be great, I can feel it!' Arva exclaimed.

Depends on how long I'll keep you around.

Arva didn't respond.

'You gonna respond or not?' Arva asked.

'Right, yeah. It will be,' I responded.

Interesting.

"Well, even if you're feeling better now you should still rest for the day," Elsa said.

"Alright, alright," I said.

"Good, now would you like me to stay here a little longer?" Elsa asked.

I nodded, thinking that it might be good, that it might make her think I trust her even more.

After another hour of us just being there in silence, Elsa left, smiling at me as she left.

'So, that was your plan?' Ira asked. 'Make her think you're pathetic?'

'No, making her see that I got issued, which in turn will make her think I trust her and it will also make her think I'm easier to manipulate,' I responded as I sat up in my bed and walked over to the desk and stared out of the window.

"Now we just play the waiting game, and once I finally killed that fucker Lestul... I'll go after those three," I said out loud as I looked down at the volunteers currently sparring, instructor Laura watching over them.