I was back in the world of the living and breathing. I wiped at my forehead, hand coming back slick with sweat, a faint odor of panic following.

Kelia was sitting on a chair, arms on her knees, bent over, watching me intently.

“She told you?”

I couldn’t reply, my brain unable to process all that I saw and heard, a massive jumble. My mouth opened and closed like a fish on land, gasping.

“Come on. Let's go upstairs,” Kelia said as she walked over to me, voice betraying a hint of tenderness. She helped me up and we walked up the stairs, her holding me, my legs feeling like they would give out from underneath me.

So many questions ran through my head. Things I should have asked, information I should have gotten.

She moved me into the living room, seating me on her couch. It was gray and wooly, stained with juice and old memories.

I didn’t even remember Kelia departing but she had returned with a glass of cool water.

I sat and sat, processing.

A question pushed its way forth, just like they did in the presence of Giaos. “How long did you know?”

Kelia had been seated in a chair, flipping through a book lazily, keeping a discrete eye on me. She looked up when I spoke. “Long time. Back when I first contracted with her. 25 years, at least.”

That long? Before I was even born, I was destined to die fighting some evil force in another world? My mouth was dry, water doing nothing to help, and my head hurt. I couldn’t do this. I was a kid who hid in his room when his cousins came over, too afraid to even have a simple conversation. And now I was going to die.

“She told you the prophecy, I take it?”

I could only nod in response.

She sighed. “This is a cruel world, far crueler than you’d think. We’ve all experienced our fair share. Your plate is larger than most, though, but you have knowledge on your side.”

Her words were meant to provide support but they did nothing except slide right off, unable to find any purchase in the storm of my brooding thoughts.

She noticed that and returned to her book.

I continued to sit in my thoughts until the need to do something became too much and I got up, telling Kelia I was going on walk. Where to? Didn’t know. I just needed to get out.

I left the house in a rush. The suns were already at their peak, blistering down on the dry soil. A trail led from her porch to a larger dirt road. The area around this part was woody, the trees working to filter sunlight through their dense foliage.

Three days here and now I was suddenly thought to be some self-sacrificial hero? What even was the monster? Was it Percival? Who knows. Giaos didn’t provide me with anything usable except the fact that I now had to reckon with my own impending doom.

What was I supposed to do? My thoughts were murky, troubled and I couldn’t escape the general gloom of horror that pervaded every thought of mine.

I returned home at dusk, worn, weary, dirty. Kelia had already made dinner, a plate at the table for me, food steaming. She was elsewhere in the house, likely having already eaten, judging by the plates in the sink.

I suddenly felt so selfish. Here she was, housing me, feeding me, and I hadn’t even swept the floor or made my own bed. Dinner left, warmed and ready. This was her house, not mine.

I sat down at the table, determined to at least do something after I ate. I wasn’t even hungry, stomach still in knots, yet I ate it anyway.

It was a stew, a tender lamb steak coated in a beef stock, caramelized onions and diced carrots, even some spices that reminded me of chili powder. It still did nothing to bring back my appetite.

Kelia appeared, after I had finished, a book in the crook of her arm. The faint softhearted look in her eyes was gone. “It’s time to get to work.”

“What?”

“We have only a limited time. You need to learn magic before it's too late and I’ll be the one to teach you.”

And so my lessons with Kelia began.

♠

We were sitting back down in the basement. From her pocket, she had pulled out what looked like a small toy. It was a smooth wooden handle with a wooden mallet attached on the top. It had three buttons, all of which were pressed in. The handle was decorated with a small rune. “Channel your magic into this and make the rune glow. Once you’ve done that, you can work on making the buttons pop.” She handed it to me.

The feelings of despair hadn’t left me but that didn’t deter Kelia. Any feelings of sympathy she expressed earlier, however muted they were, were nowhere to be found now. Instead, she put me straight to work.

“Try it,” she ordered.

“I don’t know how to do magic!” I protested, feeling both irritated and totally out of my depth.

“Stop whining. The runes on the kendan will aid you by pulling out your magic. Now focus.”

I looked at her rather blankly until she made a move that appeared as if she was going to slap me upside the head. I shut my eyes tightly at that, feeling it best not to test her and just go along with her little game.

I tried to let all the thoughts burgeoning in my head and, bit by bit, they slowly crept away. The only thing that was left was the smooth feel of lacquered wood in my hands.

It’s very hard to describe what happened next except that it was almost like an involuntary spasm of a muscle that I didn’t know I had but it wasn’t a physical feeling. More like a mental twitch than anything else yet it flowed through me like a stream of water.

The feeling was so tangible that I lost my focus and opened my eyes, only to be greeted with a sight that elicited a gasp from myself. It looked like the air around my body was shimmering from heat in that way it does when asphalt bakes beneath a desert sun. The toy in my hand had changed as well, a single button having popped up and the rune glowed with a pale blue light.

“I did it!” I said, half-amazed, half in disbelief.

Kelia’s eyes were narrowed, brow knitted. “I expected Giaos to help speed the process up but this is fast even by her standards.”

“What does that mean?” The look on Kelia’s face gave me no sense of comfort.

“It means that she’s worried you’ll find yourself killed before you can do anything.”

The blood drained from my face as the light on the kendan flickered out. Before I could ask anything, I felt a buzzing in my pocket. Instinctively, I reached inside to pull out my phone, only to realize that phones didn’t exist in this world and it was instead the tablet that had been given to me by Percival.

Griffin T. Age: 22 Level: 2 (!) Abilities: None Artifacts: None Divinities: ?

It should have been an exciting moment but I only felt a vague sense of horror.

♠

We had spent some more time practicing downstairs, seeing how long I could hold the button up for and if I could pop another one. Eventually though, perhaps after a few hours of the most monotonous experience I had ever undergone, Kelia allowed us to go upstairs and eat. I was surprised by how much I was sweating and, while annoyed, it helped keep my mind off all the dark and terrible things I was learning and seeing. I had gained another level for all that work which meant now I could push two buttons.

As I sat at the table, a thought hit me. “What do you know about the High Mage Zeckmas?”

“Zeckmas?” Kelia was in front of the stove again. She once more had refused my assistance with nothing more than a growl. Kelia thought for a moment before responding. “He always excelled at magic. From an early age, he had mastered at least four paths. He taught me for a little bit.”

“Really?” Seems like everyone and their mothers knew the guy.

She nodded. “He was patient, even when I was at my worst. And if you think I’m a bit rough around the edges now, you should have seen me. Anyway, he did a lot of work to help the city. Helped set up the train system, created the first public magic archives, and was a significant member in democratizing magic academies throughout the human nation.”

“So this killer wouldn’t really have had a reason to murder him based on his past.”

Now it was her turn to ask the questions. “What are you thinking?”

“I was afraid that he was going after the people I knew but now I’m thinking about that ritual circle that we found Zeckmas in. Why did he make that? I don’t really know anything about magic here yet but I think I know enough to guess that it's a weird move.”

She turned around fully, just staring at me with those piercing eyes of hers. After a moment, she said, “Draw it for me.”

I got up and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and set to work, doing my best to remember every detail possible. I even tried to draw Zeckmas and the blood trail.

When I told her I had finished, she walked over, only to immediately freeze upon seeing the piece. Her eyes didn’t widen but her jaw suddenly set and her neck muscles became taut. There was a sudden fire in her eyes that was so intense that I involuntarily squirmed in my seat. In that moment, I finally understood why I had been sent to study under her. There was a voracious power in her, one that yearned to surface and could wreak devastation. I don’t know how I knew but I did.

She didn’t speak a word.

I wanted to ask another question, to get her to speak and say what upset her so but before I could, someone burst through the front door. I spun around, scared.

Hana. A sweaty, frazzled Hana. She was breathing heavily, hair plastered to her head, eyes wild.

“Hana? What are you doing here?’

“You need to come back now.”

“Huh? What do you mean? I just got-”

She waved me off, trying to catch her breath. “No, we need to. Now.”