It was an unexpected twist, a hand cloaked in darkness wrapped itself around Mirio as he soared free of the halls of Akur’s dark castle. As it grasped his spiritual form he heard the telltale crack of glass shattering as splits appeared all over his body. Acting on instinct he grit his teeth as his entire body burst into bright licks of blue and green fire. He smashed forwards with his shoulder, making room enough to drive his elbow straight forward and blast free of Akur’s grasp.

“Argh” Mirio said as he gripped his forehead.

“I can almost remember it...”

Yana glanced over at him, sat in the passenger side seat at the front of the wagon to her left as she rode separately on Rocky. She had left him to quietly meditate for a while now, and was surprised by his sudden pained expression.

The pain began to swell behind his temples until it felt like it was overflowing. The excess pain shot through his body and into his right arm like a flash of red lightning. As if by instinct he reacted immediately. He jumped up onto his feet at the front of the wagon, drawing attention from the driver to his left and Yana to his right. He threw his right arm back behind him as it erupted in bright blue flames.

His heart thrummed within his chest, each beat smacking at his ribcage. The arteries in his neck pulsed loud enough for him to hear his heartbeat in his ear. Mirio fought to regain his senses and force down his surge of panic.

The sensation of red lightning throbbed within his arm still, and began to creep its way back up his shoulder. As it trailed up towards his neck the blue flames followed. The driver pulled the reins and brought the wagon to a sudden stop, sending Mirio tumbling off the side of the wagon.

He landed with a thud in the red dirt of the Darlan wastes. He clambered to his feet clutching his heart with his left hand as his entire body burst with bright light. Yana looked on in shock as Mirio stood up beside her wreathed in flames.

Bright light shone deep within his mind, surrounded by thousands of whispering voices dancing around it. The light grew brighter and brighter, fusing with his skin and bones.

Yana shielded her eyes with her arm as Mirio shone bright enough to rival the sun.

“Grrrr”

Mirio gripped his hand into a fist and then shot out two of his fingers, tracing them in a circle. He cocked his head back and lifted his head to the sky.

“Come on, please work”

Rainbow colored streams of energy poured from his fingertips and formed into a magic circle. The colored light then blasted out in all directions and wrapped itself around Mirio like a vine, fusing into his bright white skin. The color flickered like the flame of a candle in the wind against his flesh.

“Come on”

Mirio took in several short sharp breaths and opened himself up to the feeling of the oasis spell on his skin. He then reached deep inside himself where the embers of his soul left untouched by Akur still glowed, and held onto the memory of who he was as he felt the light trying to clear it away.

The light wasn’t just bright, it sung with a melody of the divine, almost as if it was calling to him to become one with it.

“Get off of me!”

As Mirio gained further resolve to remain himself and reject the light fusing itself into his body the tendrils of his oasis spell grew stronger. Each rainbow colored crack along his body rooted themselves deeper into his flesh, until they dug deep enough to reach the embers within his heart.

Mirio convulsed as the rainbow colored light spread through his entire body and blasted away the last of the light. The flames dying down and simmering at the edges of his skin in streaks of indigo, emerald, and golden light.

He grasped onto the side of the wagon as his skin returned to normal, and the last of the lights streamed off of his body.

“You are alive” Yana said as she stared at him in shock.

Mirio was keeled over taking gasps of air in order to catch his breath. He raised one eyebrow towards Yana, he had no idea what she was talking about.

“Paladins go through immolation when they reach enlightenment, it is said that to survive the process takes years of devotion serving their deity. Those who reach enlightenment in the first years of their service almost always burn alive”

“I was just trying to remember my past. My memories are all fragmented ever since...” Mirio stopped himself and limply swatted in Yana’s direction, giving up on the explanation, “Nevermind”.

He gripped onto the side of the cart and looked into the cart driver’s eyes as he pulled himself up “Don’t worry, I won’t burst into flames again”. The driver continued to stare at him with his jaw wide open. People in the crowd behind whispered to each other. Mirio turned and looked back to see fear in the eyes of the people.

“Uh, on second thought, I’ll hop in the back”

Mirio hopped down with his walking stick and limped towards the back of the cart. He raised his hand to the people “Uh, sorry about that guys, I’m all good now so don’t worry”. He tapped himself on the chest a few times to illustrate he was in good health and then hopped into the back of the wagon with several of the unconscious men from the battle.

The crowd continued to whisper to each other, confused about what had happened. While at first it seemed the paladin was their savior, they worried that he might actually be unstable and potentially dangerous.

Yana hopped off of Rocky and followed Mirio into the wagon, stopping to speak to the people before she entered. “Don’t worry folks, I will check on him, he will be fine”.

As she entered the wagon it was considerably darker than outside. She stepped over several of the villagers' bodies and sat beside Mirio.

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Not really…”

She tapped her finger against her knee and turned towards him nervously “You are awfully young to be dealing with something like this… I have never heard of immolation occurring to a paladin as young as yourself. How old are you, nineteen? Twenty?”

“I’m fifteen” he said with his head bowed.

Her face dropped in shock “Fifteen?!”

Mirio adjusted uncomfortably for a moment before Yana gently placed her hand on his shoulder “That is quite young. Young enough that it is almost hard to believe you have accomplished all you have. I’m sorry I assumed you were older. It must be even harder for you then”

“I don’t even know what hard is anymore. I can’t really remember anything before waking up after the battle. I mean I still remember it, kinda, but it is all in a fog like they are somebody else’s memories. Some things make it through, so I can pretend I feel normal, but the rest of me is numb, consumed in white light”

“That must mean what just happened is even more scary for you then”

“It felt like the light was promising me power, but at the same time it was consuming what I have left of who I am. On one hand the light feels like goodness and what is right, but on the other, it is cold and heartless. I refuse to become like that, I don’t want to be enlightened or whatever, I just want to be me again”

Yana looked at him for a long moment, she knew what he wanted to hear, he wanted reassurance that he would return to his old self, but she also knew that after enlightenment paladins were never the same. It was a process that binds them to a greater purpose and it would be a purpose he would likely follow until his last days.

“I know this might not be what you want to hear, but you can’t live your life looking back, even if some part of you is left in the past, maybe it is for the better?”

Mirio fiddled with a small pebble between his fingertips that he had found on the wagon floor. “You don’t get it, it is like nothing is behind me anymore pushing me ahead, while at the same time I know none of what is ahead, so how can it possibly pull me ahead? I’m glad Kabi wasn’t here to see this, I wanted to be with her, but now… I don’t think I could be with anybody. She is better off where she is…”

Yana quickly put two and two together, figuring out that Kabi was the baroness of Gimly, that she and Mirio had a relationship, and that she had left with the other nobility before the attack, breaking his heart. Mirio in response felt like things between them were unfinished and wasn’t certain if he could have committed to her, but now in desperation believed they were never meant to be.

Yana smiled as sweetly as she could and drew her eyes to Mirio’s “don’t burden yourself with commitment and worries about what your life will hold, you don’t have to make up your mind right now. And besides, you have a lot of years ahead of you to figure things out, you don’t have to do it now. Yes it is not ideal that you can’t remember your past, and that your powers as a paladin have grown so fast, but maybe it is part of your own unique story that you are this way. Who knows, perhaps it is part of a strength you have always had that led you to this place here and now, and even though it might seem like misfortune now, in the future you will look back on this and say; damn, I did all that, I made it through that, hey I’m pretty great”

Mirio chuckled, he wasn’t ready to believe Yana’s words but he got her point. Perhaps having a weakened connection to his past, and no idea of the future meant he was free to focus on things in a way few others ever had the opportunity to. He just had to figure out what he wanted to spend his future on.

Yana looked on proudly as she saw the gears clicking into place inside of Mirio’s mind. She didn’t understand what Mirio had just grasped, but she knew enough to understand that he had found a pathway through the struggles in his mind.

A bright white light shone in the back of Mirio’s mind as he gathered his confidence, he sensed that the light gave off an aura of inspiration, making it easier for him to think creatively and develop ideas with force and vigor. Maybe the enlightenment wasn’t all that bad after all, but he wanted to be careful, and if he could he wanted to restore the identity he had lost, and if doing so with his past was impossible he would seek his identity elsewhere, in the moments yet to come.

Mirio’s eyes drifted over the bodies in the cart. Yana had mended their wounds as best she could. Covered in medicinal rubs and bandages each and everyone of them looked well cared for except for the myriad of scratches and bruises on their body too numerous to tend.

“You did a great job with them, I don’t know what we would have done without you Yana”

Yana smiled, pleased at Mirio having the wherewithal to notice her work.

“Yes, I did what I could, and now we can only hope they make a full recovery”

The driver tapped on the wall of the wagon from the front “Okay in there? I think we should head on, its hot out here, even without the young man bursting into flames. He won’t do that again will he, at least not in my cart?”

Mirio smiled “Ha, don’t worry about that”. He looked at Yana with a nod.

“Yes, let’s head out,” she replied to the driver.

Her eyes locked onto Mirio’s as she grasped his shoulder “I will go ahead and form a council, do you have something to occupy yourself with?”

Mirio nodded, thankful for her attention to detail, “I think I will check on my brother and the adventurer we found by the cave”.

After a few pleasantries they both exited the wagon, Yana heading off on rocky to each of the groups within the caravan of refugees and Mirio to a wagon further back. As he entered he was greeted by the sight of Silvia and Garett hurriedly tending to Yuta as he finally began to stir.

“Quick get him some water” Silvia shouted.

Garett swiftly pulled his waterskin from his belt and popped the cap. Yuta looked around dazed and confused before clutching onto the waterskin and gulping down most of its contents.

“Argh, I feel like shit” he said as he sat up, and put his back to the front side of the wagon.

He peered forward, squinting towards the bright daylight shining in as Mirio entered through the flap at the back.

“Glad to see you are awake” Mirio said while smiling at everybody.

“Mirio? What are you doing here? What happened?”

“Elmvale was taken by bandits, I helped organise the surrounding villages to evacuate… The guards were all blindsided after a battle with a catastrophe class monster, so I am all that is left. From what I know of your story, you left just before it happened, and were knocked out by the curse mark on your arm. They say you guys ran into a dragon? And I’ve kind of been meaning to ask you about that actually”

Yuta rubbed his eyes, and recomposed himself before responding. His arm throbbed a little but the bandages and ointment on his arm kept most of the pain at bay. After taking a moment to check his arm and think through what Mirio had just told him he cleared his throat.

“Elmvale was taken by the bandits? Well, I suppose that makes sense in a way. And the monster you speak of, that was the sawtooth queen the monster hunters were taking to town?” Yuta looked at Mirio to check if what he was saying was registering. Mirio’s eyes darted around quickly as he realised Yuta had known of the possibility before it had all happened.

Mirio reached forwards, desperate to understand how it was possible to have understood the threat in advance “You knew about it before the attack! How?”.

“I did an escort job at the guild, one of the rich kids, Sierra was her name I think… She figured it out from things she had heard being in the upper quarter of town. Everyone was evacuating before we left, and she got word from the bandits exactly what was going on in exchange for some gold. I was there when she was told”

“So, they knew… Both the bandits and the nobles. I suppose that explains why we were overrun. The Sawtooth Queen was bad enough, but I guess the bandits thought it would leave Elmvale for the taking”

Yuta nodded “And it being a port town, means they have control over the channel. Bet some noble out there planned it this way actually”

Silvia in an attempt to follow the conversation looked side to side to each of them as they spoke. Garett pinched the point of his chin and furrowed his brow. “Do you really think it was planned? Couldn’t it just be coincidence? And everybody just reacted like they could?”

“Shit! Those assholes!” Mirio spat out before stopping himself.

*Wait, even if it was planned by someone, and the count was complicit somehow. That doesn’t explain the dragon and Akur*

Yuta looked at Mirio pensively. “About the dragon… I kind of made a deal with him to protect you or something in exchange for power. But I kinda just figured it would be too dangerous and left town anyway”.

“Wait, what? You are saying it knew who I was?”

“Yeah, he never said why, I assumed it was because he was spying on things related to Akur he kinda had it out for him. Seems to be the big bad maybe. And well there was this story about Calypso and a paladin lover of hers, they rallied the support of the dragon to kill Akur, but I guess he wiped her memory, killed the paladin, and trapped the dragon beneath the meadows to humiliate it”

Gears clicked into place in Mirio’s mind as he remembered the remains of the paladin he had retrieved from the tomb with Kabi.

Yuta scratched at his arm “Oh, and yeah he said you had a catalyst of Akur. That you had his dagger or something, supposedly it is part of how he influences the world, and since you have it, it could mean his defeat or give you power to defeat him or something. It is basically a mcguffin”

Silvia jerked her head back in disgust “Ew, what is a mcguffin, sounds gross”

“Oh, I just mean, a tool in a story that is used to beat the big bad”

Silvia looked at Yuta confused at why he would use a word she had never heard before but quickly brushed it off.

Mirio looked down at his arm and clenched his fist.

“Possess it… I thought it was just a curse”

“Well, yeah, it is that too, but apparently it is an actual object too, like the runestones for weapons and accessories. Apparently Akur created those too as a distraction from real catalysts he has to place in the world to affect things. Sleight of hand kind of, giving people power to direct them away from what he is really doing. And doing something popular so that no one suspects another agenda”

Mirio drew his sword a quarter of the way out, and plucked the runestone from his sword, and promptly put it in his pouch. “Good to know, guess I won’t be using those for now”

Garett turned to Mirio “Maybe the dagger has a summoning spell of some kind? Have you tried to ever bring it forth?”

Mirio’s eyes were wide open “Why would I have ever thought to do that?”

Yuta coughed a little before agreeing with Garett “He is right, you should try to summon it, you should be able to by focusing on it”

Mirio looked down at his arm and focused on the memory of the dagger as he stabbed it through the skull of the skeletal warrior three months earlier. The memory was foggy and a white light washed out much of the detail but when he focused the dagger became clear. Its dark obsidian color shimmered with ominous magical energy, as its hand guard reached out like claws towards the tip of the straight blade.

FWOOSH

Streams of black energy poured out of Mirio’s arm and pooled into the form of the dagger in his hand.

“Whoa!” Silvia said as she covered her mouth.

“Now that is one evil looking dagger” Garett replied.

“It worked” Mirio said in shock.

“As for the dragon mark, you said it was a curse? Are you sure? Because the dragon said it would help me understand the meaning of power… But I don’t feel more powerful, I just feel like crap”

“Well, ironically, that is actually how it feels most of the time to be strong. You are so drained from everything, anxious about how to push yourself to become more, it isn’t a nice feeling at first. But yes it is definitely a curse, and it caused mana burns when it activated”

“Aw man, does this mean I don’t have a cool power from a dragon”

“Why would you want power from a dragon? Isn’t it better to develop your own understanding of things?” Mirio replied.

“Yeah, of course, but I don’t have the first clue how to get strong, and I was hoping it was the start of a trend”

“Just start with foundations, and work slowly up from there, and be willing to take on the cost of it. I told you that earlier”

“Yeah, but it is such a pain, I just want it faster you know?”

“Tough, there aren’t shortcuts like that, and if there are, they probably aren’t worth taking”

SMACK

“Ahh! What was that for?!” Yuta cried out, clutching his face.

Silvia pouted with her face red “Why didn’t you tell me you made a deal with the dragon?! You should have told me! I didn’t know what to do when you were hurt, you can’t keep secrets like that! We are all partners now!”

“Ay ay, sorry, I will tell you in the future. Just don’t hit me”

Garett smirked and made his way over to Mirio. “Heya, I didn’t properly introduce myself before. Name is Garett how are you!”

The dagger evaporated into a cloud of black energy and seeped back into Mirio’s hand before he held it out to shake Garett’s.

“Uh on second thought, let’s shake with our left” Garett said nervously.

“Sure, nice to meet you Garett” Mirio said while giving a nice firm shake with his left hand.

After a short silence Mirio scratched the back of his neck, “Well, thanks for the info Yuta, I’ll leave you in these guys hands for now I have something else I need to do”. Yuta nodded in between spurts of Silvia prodding him with her finger.

Mirio exited out the back of the wagon and closed the flap behind him. He hopped down on his one good leg and then leaned on his walking staff.

“Alright brother, I’m coming”