Astrid opens her eyes, blinking for a few moments as she realizes the place she is at… is unnatural. She then turns around to see what looks like a giant black hole behind her. “Hello? Is anyone there? Where am I?” She asks. She continues to look around as only silence is returned. She then starts to walk towards the white void, after walking for what seemed like hours she turns around to see the giant black hole still behind her. “Have I walked at all?” She asks as she slumps down. “Did I die?” Astrid starts to break down and cry. “It’s the only thing I can think of. What did Viele do!” She screams as she wipes away some tears.

“Don’t cry master.”

Astrid jumps up and turns around. In front of her is a long green snake covered in leaves, on the center of its’ forehead is a familiar green gem.

“Viele?” Astrid asks, confused.

“Yes…” Viele answers. “One of many.”

“Then where is the rest of you?” Astrid asks.

“Here.” Viele says as various smaller snakes that look like him appear, each one has slight variations and none of them have emeralds in their forehead. Behind them a tree ent seams to appear from thin air, followed by a dryad that looks unnervingly like ivy. After a few moments, there is a loud howl as a guardian appears behind the dryad.

“Wait, so all of you are Viele?” Astrid asks, her eyes wide in disbelief.

“Well, there is one other one, he should be appearing… now…” Suddenly two long green metallic scythes seem to appear midair, followed by long thin arms. Astrid falls down in fear upon seeing what appears attached to the arms. A large insectoid that is three horses tall, its’ two legs are long and thick coming to a slender body that looks like it is covered in high quality green plate metal armor. Its’ head is more terrifying than its’ size or even its’ scythes. The head is covered with a green hood, inside the hood the only thing that can be seen is green glowing eyes. Randomly a spiderlike palp can be seen leaving the hood as if it is trying to bring imaginary food to its’ mouth.

“AHHHHH!” Astrid screams as she tries to run away. After a bit, she looks back to see that she hadn’t moved at all.

“Told you she is an idiot.” One of the smaller snakes say as it rolls its’ eyes.

“Like I said earlier, you should have let me eat her.” The dryad says. “But nooo you had to kill me.”

“Hungrrryyyyyy.” The tree ent says as he tries to eat one of the smaller snakes but its’ hands just go through the snake like mist.

“You idiot tree, you know we aren’t really here.” The snake says as he flicks his tongue at the ent.

“Can you all be quiet; we must talk to master.” The snake with the emerald in its forehead says. After a few grumbles from the various creatures there Viele looks at Astrid. “I am sorry for… me…” He says nervously.

“Wait.” Astrid asks as she eyes Viele. “So, you were not kidding, all of you are Viele?”

“Yes…” Viele says as he looks around. “They are all a part of me, they are all what makes me… Viele… I am many… I am one…”

“And is that dryad Ivy? And is that the guardian that you ate in the woods? And is that thing there… the alpha death scythe?” Astrid asks as she points at the giant insectoid with scythes, her finger trembling.

“I was Ivy.” Ivy says in disgust. “Now I am just one of this many bullshits.”

“So how is all of this happening? And where am I? Are we dead?” Astrid asks, grabbing her head.

“I wish.” Ivy says letting out a laugh.

“As you can guess from Ivy… we are not dead. We are in your consciousness. You are close to dead though. I am sorry master; I didn’t realize what would happen when I tried to give you information directly like that.” Viele says as he bows his head.

“What did you do?” Astrid asks as she eyes the mimic snake.

“I… I wanted master to learn how to use the mana properly, so I gathered my knowledge about it and sent it to you as mana. When the mana reaches your brain instead of absorbing it as I expected, your brain rejected it and your brain suffered damage. I am sincerely sorry.” Viele continues to bow.

“Then I am brain damaged? Oh no, oh no.” Astrid says trying to pace but not moving from her spot.

“Master, you do not have to worry. Your body seems to be regenerating itself… and there seems to be several powerful outside forces accelerating it.” Viele says, looking up at Astrid.

“How do you know?” Astrid says as she stares at Viele again.

“Turn around, the blackness represents the damage to your brain.” Viele says, smiling as he watches Astrid turn around to the hole.

Astrid looks at the large black hole, looking at the edges she can see a green shimmer, with random white and blue shimmers appearing with randomly. “You are right, the hole seems to be getting smaller. I guess the teachers are trying to save my life.” Astrid then turns around to look at Viele.

“So… that explains that, but how are you all here?” Astrid asks, tapping her foot.

“Because… we are still linked together through the mana link, till the brain damage is repaired.” Viele says.

“Then, till that happens I guess I can sit here and have a talk with you.” Astrid sits down, watching Viele. “So Viele, can you tell me how… are you, you? Because even though I don’t know much about the world, I do know this is not normal.”

“I... well… nature can evolve… due to various things… to survive. Well… I evolved when I was young, well you can call it more of a curse then an evolution. It was due to… my own actions though.” Viele says, looking at the other smaller snakes around him as they all seem to look at him accusingly. “When magic creatures eat other magical creatures, well fresh ones. They devour not only their flesh but their mana and mana crystal usually. That is how most magical creatures get stronger. So, when most magical creatures are born they all spread out and hunt smaller creatures till they get stronger. When I was born… I did something different… I let my hunger get the best of me, and I devoured my brothers and sisters.”

“He surprised all of us, and after he devoured the first of us the rest of us were too weak to fight back.” A smaller snake covered in red and brown leaves says, flicking his tongue agitated.

“Yes… I devoured all my brothers and sisters… then something happened… My mana crystal started to shatter… Usually this would mean my death, but I forcefully held it together. After a while I noticed something. Each shard seemed to hold my sibling’s mana, and when I would concentrate on them I could hear their voices. They each held strong emotions, mostly hate and sadness. I tried to beg and plead with them, I didn’t want to die… I started to feel what they felt… Eventually I ran out of strength and let go of the shards. I was expecting to die moments later, but instead, I started feeling a connection to the shards, none of them tried to escape. They all seemed to stay with my mana crystal, not a part of it fully but not leaving it.”

“We didn’t want to die… well die again…” A slim snake with multicolored scales says, instead of leaves it seems to be covered in vines.

Viele nods. “None of us wanted to fully die… so they kept their mana shards with my mana crystal. After a while each one’s personality started to merge with mine, becoming one. Then one day my body started to change, several mimic snakes started to grow from my body, one for each of the shards that came from my mana crystal. My body seemed to reflect the mana crystal in my body, one central body with, shards, surrounding it. Then, once I got used to my… our new body we decided to hunt. The first kill was a tree ent, it was sleeping, pretending to be a tree, but we smelt it. It was easy to devour due to it didn’t wake up till it was already getting devoured. When we devoured it, something happened that we did not expect. Another shard broke off my mana crystal, the tree ent became like my siblings, a part of us. I also noticed that a sliver of myself disappeared, and was replaced by the ent’s thoughts and feelings. From then on, we avoided eating any nature creature’s mana crystal. That is… till we met master. We fought Ivy, we only won due to she was distracted with master… We then realized we needed more power, to protect our master. So, we devoured Ivy, and she became one of us.”

“It’s not fun, but better than a full death.” Ivy says, a frown on her face.

“So that is why you always say that you are many but one?” Astrid asks, raising an eyebrow.

Viele nods. “Yes, master.”

“So… you say that parts of your mana crystal are taken when you devour a nature creature’s mana crystal and they become part of you. If you keep eating nature creatures won’t you eventually disappear?” Astrid asks, concern on her face.

Viele shrugs. “I will be fine, do not worry master, I will never truly disappear. No matter how many I devour.” Viele smiles as he coils up. “So master, about the memories that I sent you, can you access them?”

Astrid raises an eyebrow. “What memories?”

Viele frowns. “About how I utilize mana, and how you can use mana properly to use spells. If not, then all this was for nothing.”

Astrid thinks about mana for a moment, her eyes then grow wide. “I think, I remember fragments, and I am slowly remembering more. It’s all jumbled up but I got a grasp, I think?”

Viele then starts to smile again. “Good! Good! Hopefully when all the damage is repaired you remember it all. The knowledge will be of great help, especially later when your amount of mana grows. Unfortunately, I fear I cannot send you information like that again, I don’t think you would survive a second time of this.”

“Yes, please for the love of Gaia never do this again.” Astrid says, exasperated.

“Astrid! Can you hear me?” A male’s voice can be heard.

Astrid turns around to try to find where the voice came from. All she sees is a now smaller black hole.

“It looks like you are going to be waking up soon.” Viele says from behind Astrid.

Several other voices can be heard now, most of them are muffled.

Astrid turns back around. “So when I wake up, the mana link will be broken, will you be okay?”

Viele nods. “My consciousness will go back to my body and I will wake up when the link is broken. Before that happens though does master have any more questions?”

Astrid pauses for a moment. “Yes, why did you seem to hate Shortclaw?”

Viele looks back at Ivy. “One of my... personalities has issues with jealousy.”

Ivy rolls her eyes. “Don’t blame me, I hate the elf.”

Viele looks back at Astrid. “It was her.”

“Hey!” Ivy yells.

Astrid starts to let out a laugh as Ivy yells. Suddenly everything goes black and Astrid feels her body covered in straps, and several hands on her head and face.

“Okay everyone, the damage is gone, now just to warn you all, I cannot promise you how she is affected mentally. She took a lot of brain damage.” An unknown male voice can be heard again.

“It’s okay, you can leave now, and let Shortclaw in.” A deep male voice can be heard; it sounds a lot like Blaze.

Astrid finally opens her eyes, several people are above her, she recognizes Blaze. She also recognizes Amy. “Good morning.” Astrid says with a smile.

“She’s awake!” Amy yells.

Suddenly a nearby door opens, Shortclaw comes barreling in. “Astrid!” He runs to Astrid’s side. “Are you okay?” He puts his paw on Astrid’s cheek. “Do you recognize me?”

“Yes, I do, sorry about worrying you Shortclaw.” Astrid says as she tries to sit up, but the straps are restraining her.

“Oh sorry.” Blaze and Amy both say as they see her struggle against the straps. “Sorry, safety precaution, you were convulsing pretty hard. It was causing the healers to not be able to heal you.” They undo the straps, letting Astrid sit up.

“Okay Astrid, do you remember where you are? Do you remember our faces?” Blaze asks.

“Yeah, I am at Flemmington academy, you are Blaze, he is Shortclaw, and she is Amy.” Astrid says as she points at the various people.

“Good! Good!” Blaze says happily. “Now, what were you learning before you passed out?”

“I was trying to do the earth spike spell… it didn’t go so well… then Viele. Wait, where is Viele?” Astrid asks, looking around worriedly.

“I am… here… masssssster…” Viele says from a nearby bed.

“Yeah, he woke up a few minutes before you did.” Blaze says as he continues to check Astrid.

“Oh thank Gaia.” Astrid lets out a sigh. “I was worried. So… how long was I asleep?”

“About five or six hours.” Shortclaw says.

“You are lucky Astrid.” Blaze says, looking into Astrid’s eyes, a stern look on his face. “What you and your familiar did was very dangerous. From what the healers said, a massive amount of mana was transferred into your brain from your familiar. Most humans would have died from it, and you got very lucky this time. The brain isn’t made to take on more than minimal mana.”

“I am… ssssorry… I did not know….” Viele says as he bows his head in shame.

“It’s okay Viele.” Astrid says as she puts her legs off the side of the bed.

“No, the healers highly recommended you stayed in the infirmary at least till the morning.” Blaze says as he moves to block Astrid from getting up.

“But… I feel okay.” Astrid says as she looks at Blaze.

“Astrid, please just rest, I will be here with you tonight so I know you are okay.” Shortclaw says as he puts a paw on Astrid’s shoulder.

Astrid lets out a sigh as she lays down on the bed. “Okay… but in the morning, I am going to class, right?”

“As long as you are feeling well, and the healers say you are okay to go to class, then yes.” Blaze says with a smile. “Okay, since you seem to be doing okay, I will leave you two together. If you need anything, just call, the medical staff will be nearby.” Blaze and Amy then both walk out of the room, leaving Shortclaw and Viele together with Astrid.

Once they leave Shortclaw looks Astrid in her eyes. “Do you promise me that you are okay?” He asks as he grips Astrid’s hands.

Astrid nods. “It was strange, but I don’t think I have any memory loss. Actually, I gained some memories.” Astrid grins as Shortclaw raises and eyebrow.

“What do you mean gained some memories?” He asks as he stands up.

Astrid raises a hand and after a few moments a root spike spell appears in her hand. She then lets it dissipate. “This all happened due to Viele wanted to teach me how to properly control mana. We had a little bump in the road but, I can cast it properly now!”

“I’m proud of you Astrid, just please never do that again.” Shortclaw says, hugging Astrid closely.

“Yeah, don’t worry, I know I won’t get so lucky if it ever happened a second time.” Astrid says hugging back. After a long hug Astrid lays back down, Shortclaw brings her a set of covers and an extra pillow from a nearby bed.

“Get some sleep, hopefully we can go to class in the morning.” Shortclaw smiles as he sits down in a chair beside Astrid’s bed.

Astrid nods as Viele slithers up at the foot of her bed, resting his heads on her feet. She closes her eyes and drifts off into sleep.

The next morning when she opens her eyes she looks over to see Shortclaw still in his chair, but his head rolled back. A loud snoring noise can be heard from him. She then sits up and reaches over and pokes him, startling him awake. “Wake up sleepy head.” A smile on Astrid’s face.

“Morning.” Shortclaw says as he yawns. “How did you sleep? How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay, and I slept good!” Astrid says as she tries to get up. As soon as she stands up a nearby door opens up and a human female comes in wearing all white.

“Well looks like I timed my entrance right on time.” The woman says with a smile. “My name is Jasmine, I am one of the top healers here at Flemmington, I am also the healer assigned to you while you are here. Since you’re now up and awake, I have a few questions for you.”

Astrid nods as she stands by the bed. She then watches as Jasmine summons a small orb of light.

“Okay Astrid, please look at the orb for me.” Jasmine watches Astrid’s eyes as she stares at the orb of light. “Good, good.” Jasmine says as she makes the orb disappear. “So how are you feeling? Are you light headed at all?”

“I feel good, and no I don’t feel light headed.”

Jasmine rubs her chin as she looks Astrid up and down. “Do me one last favor, go ahead and walk a straight line for me.” She frowns as Astrid walks a straight line without any issues. “Well, I have no reason to hold you, you seem to be doing just fine. Just please return if you start feeling bad, or strange.”

Astrid turns around and looks at Viele, now in his tree ent form, and Shortclaw. She smiles and tilts her head. “Well, you ready for class?”

Shortclaw lets out a laugh. “I guess, we will probably be a little late though.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, we informed your teachers that you may not be able to make it.” Jasmine says, watching the two.

“See! Now let’s hurry and get out of here!” Astrid says as she grabs Shortclaw’s paw and nearly drags him out of the room.

When they get out of the building, Shortclaw stops Astrid. “Astrid, promise me that you are okay.”

Astrid turns around, a smile on her face. “I promise, I am okay… I just have been resting so much, and I am excited.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Shortclaw says as he walks with Astrid towards their next class. When they enter the room everyone seems to turn around to stare at them.

“Oh, good to see you two, I was worried that you two wouldn’t make it.” A male beastkin with a canine like face with brown and black fur says. “My name is Elick and welcome to my class, History of the city states. Where you get to learn the exciting history of how the city states were formed. Now go ahead and choose a place to sit, there are a few tables open.”

Shortclaw and Astrid both sit down at a nearby table as Elick waits for them.

Elick taps his pedestal with his knuckles before speaking in a heavily monotone voice. “Now that that is done, now as I was saying earlier. Hundreds of years ago during the age of exploration many of the human countries from the continent of Simminth were looking for more land. The reason, well main reason for that is the simple fact of overpopulation of that continent. Shortly after they started to look for a new continent they found the continent of Charr, this continent. When they first arrived here they thought it was the beastkin island of Haven, which is located between Simminth and Charr, but the beastkin that had taken up residence on this island were descendants of the beastkin exiled from Haven. The humans then formed a small port town where they landed. That area is now the location of Stockholm. After a few years, more humans started showing up from the continent of Simminth. Not wanting to anger the beastkin due to their rapid expansion, many decided to move further south, deeper into the continent. Once they reached the land that will be known later as Flemmington they all started to build. Once they built up a city they soon realized they needed some form of government. After much debate, they ended up forming the version of government we have now. But issues quickly appeared. Who here knows what those issues where?” Elick raises and eyebrow as he sees that most of his class seemed to have fallen asleep. After a few minutes of no one saying anything he pulls out a small white ball and tosses it into the center of the classroom. As soon as the ball hits the floor it cracks, the sounds of hissing soon follows, then suddenly a loud BANG can be heard throughout the room. All the students, even the sound asleep ones all jump up, some even fall out of their chairs. Elick then gives everyone in the class a deathstare. “I may have been told that I have a monotone voice, but that doesn’t mean you have permission to fall asleep in my class room. The next student to fall asleep will get a failing grade, you can call it your failing to stay awake grade.” The students all grumble and start to sit back down in their seats. “Okay now that I have your attention again. Now, there was soon strife in early Flemmington. Due to the diversity of the humans that lived here they could never seem to agree on anything, mostly religion, and they decided that they would all go their separate ways. A group went south and ended up forming the city states of Clocktown, Stirlington, and the city state fortress of New Crystal located in the Glaciers of Giants far to the south. A group went east, that group formed the city states of Bremond, and Berlick. A group also went north and formed the city states of New Haven, Riley, South Haven, and Clavak. There was also a group that went west, but shortly after leaving that group disappeared. Some believe it was due to the elves that were discovered later.”

Astrid gets nervous as several of the nearby humans, dwarves, and beastkin steal glances at her, causing Shortclaw to give them all dirty looks.

“Well, after all that, the city states had peace for a few years. That was, until several representatives came from the various countries in Simminth. Most people in Simminth thought that at most the travelers to Charr had just made a few small villages. Instead, they found decent sized cities with their own governments. This made the representatives, well greedy. They then decided it would be good to tax the new…” The class gets startled as the various crystals in the classroom all start to buzz indicating the ending of class. Various “Thank Gaia’s.” Can be heard around the room. “Don’t worry, we will continue where we left off next week!” Elick says as the class gets up and starts to leave.

Astrid and Shortclaw walk out of class and head towards the main school gate to find something to eat.

“ASTRIDDDDDDD!!!!”

Both Astrid and Shortclaw turn to see Brittany sprinting up to Astrid, she quickly wraps her arms around the elf and squeezes.

“Are you okay? I heard from Richard that you were dyeing!” Brittany cries out as she starts to squeeze Astrid tighter.

“EEEEEE.” Is the only thing Astrid can get out as she gets squeezed.

“I don’t think she can talk if you squeeze her like that Brittany.” Shortclaw says, he lets out a chuckle as Brittany lets go of Astrid and turns red.

“Oh no, I am so sorry, I made everything worse, please forgive me!” Brittany says rapidly, putting her hands together, making a begging motion.

“I’m okay, you didn’t squeeze me too hard Brittany.” Astrid says as she smiles at the worried human.

They all turn around and look behind Brittany as they hear another familiar voice. Richard appears behind Brittany. He seems out of breath as he walks up. “I… am so… sorry… about… sister…” He says between his gasps for air.

“Don’t be silly! And since you are here now we can go eat together like we are supposed to!” Brittany says as she grabs her brother and Astrid’s hands, nearly dragging them through the street.

The group goes to the sandwich vendor upon Astrid’s request. After enjoying some sandwiches, they make their way back to their next class.

“Are you sure sure sure sure sure that you are doing just fine?” Brittany asks Astrid as they are starting to separate and head to their class.

“Yes, for the millionth-time Brittany, I am just fine and I will be coming back to the room tonight don’t worry!” Astrid says exhausted.

“Promise me one more time or I won’t let you go!” Brittany says as she latches onto Astrid like a leach.

“Okay… okay…” Astrid says as she looks over at Shortclaw and Richard. Shortclaw is blushing with a giant grin, Richard has a look of annoyance. “And why aren’t you two helping?”

“Because I don’t think it would help” They both say in unison, but with different tones.

“Okay, okay, I understand.” Brittany says as she lets go of Astrid, pouting as she does.

“Don’t worry, I will see you after class.” Astrid says as she waves to Brittany. Astrid, Viele, and Richard then walk towards their new class. When they get far enough away from Brittany, Richard turns to Astrid.

“I’m sorry about my sister again, we were both really worried. Also, if you don’t mind me asking, what happened in that classroom?” Richard asks, his voice laced with concern.

“Umm… Well… Viele here transferred some knowledge using mana to me, and well it backfired.”

Richard turns to Astrid, his eyes wide. “Wait, he transferred knowledge using mana? It’s not totally safe just to send simple words to your brain using mana, but you transferred actually knowledge!”

“Viele sort of did… but I nearly died, my brain took a lot of damage, thankfully they were able to heal me.” Astrid takes a step back as Richard gets closer.

“What did he send?” Richard asks excitedly.

“Umm… the knowledge to do this.” Astrid raises a hand, a moment later plant matter forms in her hand forming a root spike. She doesn’t fire it off, instead she lets it dissipate. “Pretty much he sent me knowledge on how to properly utilize the mana to cast the spell.”

Richard’s eyes grow wide again. “We just learned basic spell weaving in class, yet you already have that much control? I’m not sure if it is worth the near death experience, but that is amazing!”

“Yeah, it is. I am super lucky that I didn’t die though.” Astrid says with a chuckle as they walk into their classroom.

When they walk in they see most of the class already there, talking to Clark. Clark looks over to see Astrid, a look of shock on his face.

“I heard that they already let you go, but I couldn’t believe it. You already recovered?” Clark asks, looking Astrid up and down.

“Yeah, sorry about scaring you.” Astrid says as she runs a hand through her hair nervously again.

“Well, just in case, I will give you the paperwork for the class but please refrain from hurting yourself this time.” Clark says as he hands over a small stack of papers to Astrid.

“I will try.”

Astrid sits down at a table with Viele, reading the paperwork that was just given to her as Clark continues to answer questions made by students. “The basic theory of summoning.” She reads, intrigued by the very idea of summoning, she continues. “The basics of summoning is not to physically summon a creature but to create it utilizing mana and materials from the surrounding environment. There are many levels of summons, the most basic is an “Elemental Doll” also known as a golem. These summons are none intelligent dolls controlled by the summoner or by the summoner’s familiar. The strengths of Elemental dolls are they are the simplest and cheapest to summon, and they can be used as decent meat shields in large fights. The weaknesses for the elemental dolls is that they have to be constantly controlled under most circumstances, they are the weakest of all summons, if the caster loses his mana connection to it they disappear, and they have little practical use.” Astrid looks up as she hears Clark starting to speak.

“Okay everyone!” Clark says as he walks back up to his podium. “I know you all have questions on why you are the only ones who have a summoning class for the first semester. Well that is simple, due to the complexity of summoning even basic summons it is usually held off till several semesters in. But due to the simple reason that the elements in this class all rely on summons in combat you start learning it early. Now, due to the complexity of it all, it will take everyone a while to even summon a basic Elemental Doll, so don’t get discouraged. Go ahead and read the paperwork that was handed to you, if you have any questions go ahead and ask. Also, don’t forget to write down anything that you think may help, because like I said this is not easy stuff.”

Richard raises his hand. “It says in this paperwork that they have little practical use. Is there any reason to learn to summon an Elemental Doll besides just a stepping stone to better summons?”

“Well, there is little practical use to them, but they are actually used as defensive support during large battles. Countries who use mage battalions in wars usually summon a line of them to help defend the mages. That and strong mages can summon massive Elemental dolls. They may not have intelligence but a thirty-foot monster made from fire can cause a lot of damage before it gets taken down.” Clark says as he seems to look off in the distance like he was remembering something. He then shakes his head as he snaps back to reality. “Okay, if there are no more questions go ahead and start reading your paperwork.”

Astrid looks back down at her paperwork, finding her spot again she continues reading. “The summoning of a basic Elemental Doll is easy, the difficulty in the spell quickly rises after it is summoned though. To summon a basic Elemental Doll gather all mana around you, forcing all of your element into a condensed point in front of you. After you get the mass of mana to a proper size you will need to form a thread of mana with the mass of mana. After the mana link is made comes the shaping of the golem. You will need to mold the mana into a simple shape, usually a humanoid shape is the best due to familiarity. After the shape has been created, you will need to spread the mana thread throughout the body parts you wish to control. Once you have spread the thread throughout the parts you wish to control you will need to move the threads to control the Elemental doll. It is highly recommended you do not attempt to control more than simple limbs due to the control needed for digits and other extremities is extremely high and will usually leave the controller at a disadvantage.”

Astrid puts down the paper, going through the memories sent from Viele she puts her hands down on the table. She sends a mana link to Viele, pushing mana through his crystal she starts to use it to gather the mana like she was attempting to make a root spike. After she gathered all the nature matter she can find in the air she has a small ball in front of her. She then tries several times to form a mana thread with the small ball, after about an hour of failed attempts she finally gets a small thread connected. She then starts to mold the small ball in her mind, causing the ball to shape in front of her. After a few minutes of trying the four-inch big ball in front of her forms a bump to represent a head, two stumps for legs, and two stumps for arms. She lets out an audible sigh as she sees the ball. She then closes her eyes and concentrates on spreading the thread throughout the ball. After a few more failed attempts she finally gets part of the threat in one of the arms. “Okay, I think that will be good.” She says to herself as she starts to concentrate on the thread that moved into the arm. After a bit of working with the thread she starts to see the stub of an arm on the ball move. Her eyes grow wide and she raises a hand. “Teac.” Her words get cut off as suddenly a snake flies out of Viele, swallowing the ball whole. The snake then retracts back into Viele’s tree ent form and he sits there as if nothing happened.

“Yes Astrid, you had a question?” Clark asks as he looks over at Astrid. His eyes grow wide as Astrid isn’t moving, she just has her mouth open wide and she is staring at Viele. “Astrid!” Clark yells as he starts walking towards Astrid, thinking that something happened to her again. He then sighs in relief as she turns to look at him.

“Nothing, nothing at all.” Astrid says, looking at Clark, her eye seems to twitch slightly as she looks back at Viele. “Just about to have a… disagreement… with my familiar here shortly. May we be excused from class for a moment?”

Clark thinks for a moment. “Well, class will be over shortly anyways, so if you wish, you may go ahead and leave class early.

Astrid stands up from her seat and looks at Viele, anger in her eyes. “Viele, will you please follow me.”

Viele realized he messed up as soon as he sees Astrid’s eyes. “Issssss… massssster… ssssure… sssshe doesssn’t… want… to ssstay?” He lets out a sigh as Astrid just stares at him and taps her foot. He then stands up and follows her out of the class.

Once they get out of the classroom Astrid turns to Viele. “Seriously Viele? You know how hard it was to form that little ball and get it to wave! Why did you eat it?” Her face starts to turn red and her ears peak out of her hair, standing strait up.

“Jealousy.” Viele mumbles.

“What?”

“Viele… wassss…. Jealous… afraid… replace… Viele.” Viele says as he stares at the ground.

Astrid puts her head on her forehead and closes her eyes. “Seriously?”

Viele just nods in reply.

“Why would I ever get rid of you, you silly snake you.” Astrid then wraps her arms around Viele and gives him a big hug. “And you better not be lying to me to just get out of trouble.”

Viele nods as he gets hugged. “That… and… hungry…”

Astrid busts out in laughter. “Here, I don’t have much money left. But as soon as classes are let out I will let you eat some extra food for dinner, okay?”

Viele just furiously nods, his only thoughts on food as they wait for their friends.

On a boat, north of Charr.

A man dressed up in a dark colored leather jacket, short black hair, several scars on his face. If not for the scars, and the missing ear he may even be considered a handsome man. He is currently sitting in a thronelike chair, in one hand he has a chalice made from gold, in his other hand he has a blue gem. He looks down below his propped-up feet. Below his feet is a human woman, she is naked, the only thing covering her body is fresh scars, some still bleeding. Her name is… was… Shelly, but after her troops lost their last battle she was captured and tortured. Her once prideful eyes are now empty, she knew she couldn’t escape this hell she is currently in, even if she tried to commit suicide again they would just heal her and torture her more. The man who captured her, Sken Rex, the leader of the RexDevil mercenary group, had got tired of torturing her when she lost the will to fight. He now used her as mere furniture. She was so dead inside she didn’t even realize, or even care that someone had just entered the room.

Jason entered the semi lit room, his eyes slowly adjusting to the low level of light. He first sees the naked woman on her hands and knees, being used as a foot rest. He looks up at Sken, trying to keep the woman out of his eyesight, he did not support Sken’s… habit… But he was afraid to say anything about it, he knew what would happen if he did. “Captain Sken, the message crystal has received a message from Earthtail.”

Sken looks up at Jason with bored eyes, he lets out a yawn before he takes another sip from his chalice. “What is the estimated time it was sent, and what was in the message?” He says as he swishes the liquid in the chalice around.

Jason pulls out a small piece of paper. “The estimated time they sent it is two to five days ago. The message says that they arrived at the mountain and set up camp. They will be searching the mountain and the forest around it. They also said that there was no settlement nearby, only a small cabin with an elven couple.” Jason puts the paper away as he looks at Sken, waiting for a reply.

Sken listens to what Jason says with little interest, until he hears the word “elven”. “I heard something about the continent of Charr having elves, and there is some right where the weapon is supposed to be? This must be a sign from the gods! An elf toy, I never had one of those before!”

Jason starts to feel like throwing up when he sees Sken with his perverted smile.

“This is good news Jason, no, it’s great news!” Sken lets out a hearty laugh. “How much longer till we arrive at our destination?”

“Estimated time is between five and six months.” Jason says as he looks down, the woman being used as foot stool starts to shake slightly due to the rocking of the boat. Causing Sken to have to move his feet.

“Jason, I need you to go gather me another toy from my collection. This toy seems to be broken already.” Sken says as he puts down his chalice and pulls out his weapon from his scabbard beside his chair. The weapon is a highly enchanted rapier that was found while scavenging a battlefield years ago. The reason why Sken is so feared and powerful was due to this weapon, known as the armor piercer. Sken pushes mana into the rapier and presses the tip of it against the side of Shelly’s head.

When Shelly felt the weapon press against the side of her head she started to cry, not from the fear of death, but from the happiness of knowing her torture will finally end. She didn’t even feel the tip of the rapier pierce her skull and slide through to the other side as if it was a warm knife through butter.

Jason shuddered as he watched Sken thrust the rapier through the woman’s skull. Blood starts to pool under her as she crumples where she was. “I shall get some of the men in here to clean up, and bring another toy.” Jason says, fighting back bile as he talks.

“Good, good!” Sken says as he wipes the blood off the rapier and puts it back in its’ sheath. “And send a message back, make sure they do not kill or scare away the elves. Also, make sure to tell them if they find the weapon before I get there, I will kill them if they touch it.” He then lays his feet down on the corpse as he thinks to himself, randomly chuckling evilly. He was going to have some new toys to play with, and he was excited.