With everything he just told me racing through my mind it was hard to make it clear. I took a deep breath and calmed my body the best I could. Suddenly the energy ran through my body and with very little effort I was able to push it past my right elbow and into my hand. With a smile on my face I looked at my hand and said, “I did it.”

“See I knew you could, you just needed a break before trying it again. Now do it again.”

I closed my eyes, and with little to no trouble I was able to move my energy to my right hand and when I opened my eyes it was covered with a white light. I smiled even bigger as I let go of the energy.

“Now we can move on.” He stepped back and said, “Try to light up both hands instead of just one.”

“Pfff that’s easy.” I shut my eyes and as the energy began to grown inside of me I made it go into my left hand but I couldn’t get anything in my right hand.”

“No so easy is it? The trick is to split it your energy before it makes its way to one of your hand. Once it hits one of your hands it’s nearly impossible to split it from there.”

“Alright let me try it again.” This time when the energy was built enough I imagined it splitting in my mind, but the light only made it to my shoulders.

“This involves more energy, build up a ball of energy until you think it will explode inside of and then split it before it does.”

Before I closed my eyes I imagine a small ball of light growing ever so slightly. With my eyes shut I felt the energy expanding inside of me little by little, and just when I think it’s big enough I split it into two. But this time it only goes just over my shoulders. Over and over I try, with each time the energy ball becomes bigger and the light travels further and further down my arms.

Linley interrupted my concentration by saying, “That’s enough for now come let’s eat.”

‘How could I eat with so much left to work on?’ I thought.

From the bag that Linley had hanging over one of his shoulder he produced and apple for each of us as well at the canteen that I had previous filled with water. We sat there in silence as we both ate our food and shared the water.

When we were done we threw our cores over our shoulders and stood up. After a few steps we were both hit in the back of our heads with something. When we turned around and saw our cores laying on the ground we were confused. Thinking that it was nothing Linley just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Let’s keep moving.”

Just then the ground began to violently shake below us, not wanting to get sucked into the ground again I ran as fast as I could to the nearest bolder and held as tight as possible. Linley followed me and waited as the ground stopped. There was nothing happening on the ground itself, it was as if it was shaking for no reason at all. Dirt then started falling layering the ground and after a while inches were added to the ground raising up everything on top of it.

‘Maybe that’s our way out’ I thought, so I ran out to the open and stood on top of the pile and looked up to the ceiling as the ground continued to rise. I began to gleam with hope that maybe after all of this time I would finally be able to escape this cave; however, right when I was about to touch the ceiling the ground sharply dropped and pulled me in with it. It felt like I was being sucked into some kind of twister where there was no escape. My legs and arms were pinned down from being pulled so fast, my head was being held backwards and nothing was able to move properly. When I crashed to the ground the only two words that could escape me were, “H-Help M-Me.” I knew that Linley couldn’t hear me. When everything finally stopped and I opened my eyes slowly.

Linley stood over top of me, and when I asked what had happened he responded with, “You passed out while trying to use your magic.” Linley didn’t say anything else, he just walked away and left me laying on the ground. Helpless.

I then stood up and a stream of anger ran throughout my body. Before I knew it both of my hands were covered in a white light. “HEY LINLEY!!!” I yelled, but he just kept ignoring me. A small ball light began to hover my hands, and in the heat of the moment I threw one hand forward at a time just missing Linley’s face. They weren’t very powerful, but since both of them just missed his head he stopped ignoring me and turned around.

With a shocked look on his face Linley said, “What the heck, were you trying to kill me?” He walked back to me and said, “Your magic isn’t anything to mess around with. You only aim it as something you’re meaning to kill.”

“I’m sorry, but I was just so angry and I wanted your attention.”

“I know you didn’t mean it, just don’t throw your light unless you mean it.” He signed and then continued, “What you just experienced is the full strength of your magic right now.”

“You mean I can use that much again?”

“With hard work, and stopping when you need a break I am very certain. You still want to continue?”

With the biggest smile on my face I answered with great enthusiasm, “Yes.”

“Alright first things first, making a small amount of light hover over both hands.”

“Won’t it be easier to do, since I’ve reached my full power?”

“The hard part isn’t getting there, its controlling it.”

“Okay I can do this.” I closed my eyes and tried to visualize how mad I just was and to imitate those feelings again. It was hard to get that mad while clearing my mind, but I tried anyways. I could feel a small amount of anger flowing through me, but not nearly much as I had just felt. The energy building inside of me this time is different from before I got angry, almost like a darkness is trying to take over my body. Just before it builds up anymore I stop and ask Linley, “The energy that is building up inside of me feels dark, like a dark force is trying to take over my body. Is that normal when you reach the point that I’m at?”

Looking confused Linley said, “No. There is no record of anyone ever feeling like that while training.” Then he started looking around the top of the cave and yelled, “YO Grünvolk GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!!!”

Just then the beast that flew over us before swooped down, almost cutting me with its tail again, and landing on a giant bolder that was just in front of us. Linley walked up to the beast again; nevertheless, this time I was close enough to hear what he was saying. “You know the power of light magic the best, was there ever a time where someone felt a darkness growing in them while trying to call their light?”

The beast didn’t answer. It just starred at Linley with its big yellow eyes while curled on the bolder. The moment I was about to walk away, because I didn’t want to wait any longer, Linley spoke. “I see, thank you.”

The beast bowed its head at us and then flew off to where it came from. Linley turned around and after a slight pause he spoke. “There’s never been anyone in the history of our kind of magic that has had darkness running through them, like you described to me. However, there is a solution, but you are the only one that can choose the outcome. You say that there is darkness inside of you, but there is also great light inside of you as well. But you have to choose which path you want to follow, the dark or the light.”

“I have to?”

“Yes in this world there has never been light and dark working together, people always choose one or the other.”

“Then I’ll be the first.”

“You don’t understand, there has been nobody because it is physically impossible for one person to control that much power. You’d die.”

“Not if you control it. I really don’t want to choose. What if…”

“There is no what if, you choose or you die those are your options.”

“But that doesn’t seem fair to ask of somebody.”

“I’m done explaining this to you.”

Linley threw his arms up in the air and walked away.

I knew deep down that I was meant to have both dark and light magic in me and I was not about to give that up. Calming myself down as quickly as possible I ignored Linley walking away and just focused on myself. I envisioned the light and dark magic separating inside of me and filling both of my hands with light. My energy started to build up inside of me and I could feel a great, almost overpowering, heat running through my body. I slowly guided it down both arms and into my hands. When I opened my eyes I could see that my hands were even brighter than they had been before. ‘Maybe this darkness was the very thing holding people back from surviving the door of eternal souls.’

Before I could even speak Linley was back in front of me with a worried look on his face. In order to calm him down I put a smile on my face as if I was telling him that everything was going to be alright. He didn’t seem convinced but he moved on.

“Alright it seems that you aren’t going to choose between the two types of magic, it doesn’t mean that I agree with what you are doing, it just means that you are going to have to work twice as hard as anyone has ever done in order to master both types of magic.”

I said nothing, but to show that I was happy with his decision I nodded in agreement.

“Now then show me that you can hover two balls of light over your hands.”

I closed my eyes and without feeling anything my hands felt like they were instantly heated, and when I opened my eyes both of my hands were covered in a light. I tried once more but this time I imagined a ball of light hovering over each hand. This time when I opened my eyes the balls of light were there, and with just a slight change in my thoughts they were growing. In order to stop them I took a deep breath and let go of the feelings that I was holding onto; however, that didn’t work. They just kept growing. I tried squinting my eyes shut but that only made them grow bigger. I started to panic, and just when I thought I was going to explode Linley blew on my palms and all of the tension inside of me was released.

“I see that you have that ability down, now to work on getting rid of it once you have used it.”

I looked at my hands and while flipping them I said, “I don’t understand, I’ve never had this problem before. I’ve always been able to let go of the energy whenever I wanted.”

“That’s the darkness inside of you at work. All it wants to do is destroy. So your job, if you still want to keep it, is to control that urge and only use it when it is absolutely needed.”

I tried again. But when I got to the point where all I had to do was release my energy everything started going crazy again and Linley had to step in and help me again. I was not giving up I refused to have Linley tell me what to do. Every time I tried the same thing happened, and yet every time Linley helped me so that I wouldn’t destroy the cave. Finally, I decided to give up and move on. Before I took a step though, I hugged and thanked Linley for not giving up or abandoning me.

“I just don’t want to die before getting us to the exit that’s all.”

I could tell that he meant more behind those words, but I didn’t say anything.

We walked in silence and it was nice to have some peace and quiet. I couldn’t help but start to get the feeling that something was going to attack us any moment. I started looking over my shoulder and slowing my pace down with my walking.

“Are you alright?”

“It just seems a little quiet to me that’s all, usually when it’s this quiet something attacks us.”

“You’re being paranoid, nothing’s going to attack us.”

“Maybe you’re right, but I’m not taking any chances.” I raised my left hand and was ready to strike anything that came after us.

“Lower your hand before you hurt somebody. Mostly yourself. You don’t know how to control your magic yet so it’s best to calm down before we both end up in real trouble.”

“But…but...” Linley just stared at me until I lowered my hand and calmed down a bit.