“I don’t know where he is!” Karina persists, “we haven’t spoken in months,

You can ask Zinnia, or Darius, they’re the only ones he visits these days.”

“Well thanks for nothing.” Lyra retorts,

“Come on Kage, let’s go.”

Karina frowns at the girl, “you know, you”-

“Don’t care, leaving”

…..

“What’s the issue between you two?” I ask as we walk to our next destination, the small settlement now active with people who generally seem to ignore us passing by as they go on about their business,

“She hates me.” Lyra says blankly,

“Or at least she used to,”

“Why?”

“My older brother killed my parents and hers as well, ten years ago,

She resents me, used to bully me a lot when we were younger because of it.”

“And I suppose you resent her now?”

“I guess you can put it that way” she shrugs

“Where is your brother now?”

“Dead I hope,

Here’s the place,” Lyra says glad to change the topic,

A small house stands quaintly, covered in lush green vines,

It’s the first I have seen of plants here.

“Old man Herb!” Lyra shouts,

“Come around back!” A voice shouts back,

Making our way around the house, a glass house stands in parallel to the house in front, inside, rows of crops being grown stay.

An old man sits in chair at the head of the glass house, using magic

“Lyra, I haven’t seen you in quite some time, where did you wonder off to?

And who is your friend?” the old man observes

“He’s an ally,” Lyra replies, “and I was er busy with some things,

We came here looking for Zinnia, and by chance Pinoki?”

“Zinnias inside,”-

Old man Herb points to the house, the light magic emitting from his hands fades briefly,

- “And Pinoki’s hasn’t been over here lately.”

“You’ve been very helpful old man Herb,” Lyra thanks,

“We’ll go see her now, come on Kage.”

“Wait, old man, may I ask what your magic is?”

“Kage, you can’t just go around asking to know people’s magic.”

“No, it’s alright Lyra,” the old man smiles,

“This,”-

He raises his and the brilliance of the light increases

-“Is how we grow crops without the sun, using my special attribute magic”

“Special attribute?”

“You’re not from around here, are you?

Lyra I’m curious to know where you met such a person,

Special attributes are an evolution of normal attributes the old man explains,

Its exclusive to single attribute users,

When I was a boy, I used to have fire magic, but even as a single attribute I was still weak,

Eventually after hard training and struggling it evolved into light magic, and I used it to make a name for myself in the royal army,

Due to err, the events I witnessed ten years ago, my light evolved further into sunlight magic,”

He lets out a wave of light illuminating the area before letting it fade back into nothingness,

“For attributes to evolve one must experience intense emotions or trauma,

Take Lyra for instance, most of the children from her orphanage are both lucky and unlucky to have experienced something that made them stronger and has scarred them for life as well,”

“Very interesting,” I say

“Thank you for showing me this old man,”

“It was nothing, just take of this one.” he nudges to Lyra

She rolls her eyes “I can handle myself.”

“Anyways, it was a pleasure old man,

Lyra and I will be on our way.”