Boooop♪~

The door of a stasis pod slides open

“..nghn~”

“Easy,” Himari holds up a wobbly footed Apollo

“I always forgot how much that regeneration pod drains me,” the young man steadies himself,

“How are you feeling now?”

“I think the damages from the frostbite are fully healed

Agh, but I still can’t feel my legs, they’re still numb”

“I’m surprised you can even walk at all how you are now,”

“It’s probably just my good muscle memory,” Apollo shrugs

“I don’t think you know what that means,

The fact that you can move your legs despite having no feeling in them, is something that can only be attribute to your mana, or it could be something biological?”

“Mmm” Apollo mumbles softly as Himari helps him out of the room filled with healing pods, and into the sideways elevator, that takes them to the sleeping quarters

….

“I’m not going to mention it again, but you seem to get pretty quiet anytime ‘he’ gets brought up,” Himari says turning her back to him while he gets dressed

…..

“Because I always wonder what kind of person he was, especially after what Saint told us about him,”

“Are you thinking about digging around more on this ring to find out?”

“Nah, I’m curious but it’s information I can live without, if anything knowing what he was, what I am, it’s more of a reason to get out daughter and get off this ring,”

“Daughter? We don’t even know what it is yet,”

“It will be a girl for sure,”

“And that assumption is based on?”

“Darius”

“Your deceased friend?”

“I remember he told me once that his first child would definitely be a boy, so I it only makes sense I would have a girl”

“…

Did that pod damage your brain or something?” Himari presses her hand on the man’s forehead

“No,” he grabs her wrist in response

“Its just a weird thing Darius and I had between each other,

He was like my big brother…

But everything he had or did I always ended up being the opposite,

Liken his fighting style for instance, he chose to be slow and defensive but accurate with all his strikes

I traded that accuracy for speed and explosiveness

His magic was external conjuration, mine was internal enhancement–”

“–So your making an assumption based off the fact that you and your friend were opposites?” Himari cuts him off

“Pretty much” he shrugs, only to receive an eye roll from the woman,

“Well I’m going back to training, when you feel good enough to walk you can join me or do whatever else you need,”

“No,” Apollo still holding her wrist pulls her back stubbornly

“Let’s talk some more,”

“We speak enough already as it is” she tries pulling away but Apollo obstinately keeps his grip

“And you train enough already as it is,”

“………”

“………”

Apollo pulls her closer and the two lock eyes silently for a minute or so…

“……

Say something then,” Himari says softly

“I want to name her Emma,” he whispers back pressing his forehead against hers

“After my mother,”

“What about what I want to name it?”

“…….”

“…….”

“……”

“Don’t look at me like that, you’re already so close,

I’ll let you have the name, but it, ‘she’ keeps my family name,”

“Well, it’s not like I had one to begin with Himari…”

“…….”

“……”

“Well, is that all you want to talk about?”

“…….”

“I told you stop with that stare,”

“Why?”

“…..”

“You don’t have to answer, we can literally feel each other now,”

“For strategic purposes, we don’t know what –

Stop it~”

“I’m just matching what you’re feeling,”

“……well stop..”

“You stop first,”

“I can’t when you’re this close,”

“Then don’t, I’ll just get closer…”

…..

…..

…..

(Yeah, maybe it’s a good time for me to leave now)

……...

******

“Huh–argh!”

Digging my hands into some soil I try to raise a wall but nothing happens besides the dirt getting slightly looser

“So, you we’re there the whole time but they didn’t notice?” Sprite echoes what I’d just told her

“I was waiting for Apollo so that I could show him I was able to use a bit of magic, but it’s a good thing I didn’t umm, interrupt them, seemingly since I can’t redo what I did before,”

“Well you came to right, forest avatar for help” Sprite grins making a horizontal ‘peace sign' over her eye

“Are there any other forest avatars I could have gone to?”

“Nope, Sprite, me! Is the only one”

“You’re awfully cheerful today,”

“That’s because the trees said it’s raining today, any moment now actually”

“Wow, what absolutely amazing news!” I exclaim with great sarcasm

Instead of being off put by my attitude, Sprite makes a concerned face

“Why are you being mean Kage?

Did something bad happen??

Or are you frustrated about not using magic???

I’ll help you; I’ll do my best, I promise”

“Relax, I was just being cheeky on purpose,

Normally humans respond to sarcasm with a fiery retort,”

“Huuhhh…” Sprite thinks

As she does this I look up through the leaves and branches covering us, to the rainbow sky,

(I wonder how you would be able to tell when rain was coming)

“Ok,

Kage you are fucking bitch and also an ass” Sprite suddenly says stepping down hard on the soil

Fwhick!♪

Whackm!♪

A vine grows up underneath my leg tripping me over at once

“What the hell Sprite?”

“The trees told me that I should respond to your sarcasm with that”

“……..”

(I set myself up to this, no use complaining)

“Whatever, let’s get just get back to the original topic at hand “ I say getting up gingerly

“Ooh, about your magic, I can help since I am a creation of magic,” States the plant person proudly

“What is your attribute, Kage?”

“Non–“

“–Actually don’t bother answering I can already see it,

You don’t have one,

So you probably won’t be able to use magic,

Case closed”

“Hhhh, I already know that Sprite,” I sigh

“I’ve used magic before to raise dirt,”

(Kind of lame)

“I wouldn’t be here unless I couldn’t do as much”

“Well that isn’t usually possible,

Unless….

Hmm….

You are probably using mana,” Sprite dances around me in glee

(So full of energy)

“I’m familiar with the basic concept of mana”

(From Danté’s memories)

“It’s basically in a class above magic right?”

“Yeah, if you need water down the explanation,

Mana isn’t just in a class above, it is the whole school,

Magic is just a derivative of it for humans and some animals,

It is limited to only basic elements at first but can evolve if a person’s mental state drastically changes,

Mana doesn’t have that set back, there is man type for every element, force and even concept in existence,”

“I wonder what my type is then” I murmur

“Well first we would have to see what you’re your mana type would be”

“What do mean by type?”

“You know like yin and yang

Yang mana can be used to create, heal and assist people

Yin mana, is the opposite, depending on your side your options will be limited to either destructive mana or creating

That’s the only advantage magic users have, they can create and destroy as they please” Sprite smiles widely.

“Well what am I?”

“I couldn’t tell you,

I can’t see fully mana, I can vaguely sense it but that’s all”

“Then how do you know all thi–no, don’t answer, you’re gonna say the trees”

“Yup!” I receive a bright smile from Sprite,

“From what I can tell your mana doesn’t have a color,

Apollo’s own does”

“Apollo has?”

“mhm, not much humans at all have mana, it belongs to the beings of mana,

The trees call them angels,

The only way a human can get it is if they were blessed by the being, or they were born from one”

(So, Apollo has lighting mana then …)

“Wait, so if Apollo does have mana” I say out loud,

“Does that mean his father was an angel?”