"Arrgh," Mane groaned in pain. His entire body felt sore and he could hardly move. The small groan that escaped his mouth had drained him of all his energy, prompting him to shut his mouth as quickly as he opened it. He could feel his entire body croak as he tried to move. He failed to even lift a finger. He halted all his attempts and accepted his fate, choosing to figure out where he was instead. And he knew just who to ask.
"Where am I?" he questioned the 6th. "Can't you tell?" his master replied. Mane tried to feel his body again. He failed miserably once more. "You're home kid." The 6th finally gave his answer upon seeing Mane struggle to even move his toes. Mane was startled by the answer. "How did I get home? What happened to the assassins?" he wondered.
"Before that is even answered, do you have any idea what you did there kid?" the 1st asked. Mane responded in the negative, "No, I don't."
"Think carefully kid. Try to remember what happened." The 6th orated. Mane cleared his mind of all distracting thoughts as he tried to recall the event that had occurred in the Academy. He remembered that he was taking a walk when he was attacked by two assassins. He recalled that the two men had attacked at an intersection, but he came out on top, injuring one of them before going into hiding. He remembered that he had been caught by the men when he had lost his focus. And that was where his recollection ended.
"When I asked you to keep calm and feel 'it', do you remember what the 'it' was?" the 1st questioned in an attempt to jog Mane's memory. For someone like Mane with an eidetic memory, it was almost impossible for him to forget anything. It may be that he was too tired to properly recollect the entire episode's proceedings. So Mane tried to play his memory back from that point. When the 1st had directed him, and he had let go, what happened after that? He shook his lazy mind and demanded that it provided the answers he sought. After his endless nagging- which was actually for about only 30 seconds- his laid back brain finally relented.
"It was that glow!" Mane exclaimed. Of course his exclamation was done inwardly, since he couldn't even part his lips in his current state. But in his excitement he had forced his weary body to jolt ever so slightly, bringing severe pain upon himself. He ignored the pain and tried to recollect what it felt like to use that ability.
"Wait, is that what put me in this state?" he asked. His masters responded in the affirmative, causing Mane to grumble in a sarcastic tone, "Great. Another glow that has an insane penalty." His comment brought him the ire of the 6th, "Kid, do you know how rare that glow is? Ascenders would strangle you to death if they could hear you now." Mane ignored the words of his master. As the recipient of the glow, he was the one lying in bed with barely enough strength to pick up a hair strand. He couldn't even lift a finger. Even opening his mouth was proving to be a challenge, much less using his extremities. But he wasn't totally oblivious to the advantages of this glow. Obviously the first one was the fact that it had saved his life. Secondly, it was so powerful that it allowed him to ignore all physical attacks. Third and his personal favourite, it ignored the opponent's physical defence. Assuming he could master this glow, he would be able to walk through a battlefield with a breakfast bowl in hand and still be unharmed. Even more awesome, he would be doing the damage instead.
"Wipe that silly look off your face. And clean your drool. One minute you're complaining, the next you're already planning to decimate armies." The 6th didn't spare his student his mockery. Mane blushed in embarrassment when he realised that he was unconsciously sharing his innermost thoughts with his masters. He quickly shut off their connection to his innermost self and pretended he didn't show them anything.
"You don't know how to shut up, do you?" the 2nd angrily berated the 6th, causing the noisy master to grow silent. She was obviously displeased that Mane had cut off his connections to his personal thoughts from them. It wasn't like Mane allowed them to see his thoughts. The young boy loved his privacy so he wouldn't do anything like that. He only communicated with them through his thoughts but that didn't mean they were allowed to see anything else. This moment of carelessness had allowed them to peer into his mind. Mane may not have realised so soon that he had left himself open, if not for the 6th's huge mouth. Mane felt no pity for the 6th. In a way, the 6th was more like his friend than his teacher. Don't get him wrong, he respected the man. But he felt like the 6th was more of a friend than he was a teacher.
"So that glow is related to the darkness attribute? That is a rare element." Mane orated, successfully diverting attention from the 6th to himself. "Indeed. A rare attribute- and a dangerous one too." The darkness attribute was as rare as the lightning element. And it was just as powerful. Its power wasn't as eye catching as lightning, which caused damage in large amounts and areas. The darkness attribute was more subtle and more unpredictable. The ability Mane had awakened was a perfect example of this. Unlike with the Son of Lightning, this glow wasn't present in a huge storm or accompanied by ear splitting thunder. It was a more serene form of destruction, killing smoothly and quietly. And Mane knew that the only reason he had received such a huge backlash was because he didn't have any inner energy in him. Glows that could be cast without a connection to the edict were rare, and the penalty for casting them outside the authority of the edict was always going to be harsher than doing so with inner energy. He would have to wait until he was fully recovered before he would be able to find out just how it worked.
As for why it was so dangerous, it didn't take a genius to find that out. The details were in the name. Nothing that had the word dark in it would be totally good. The darkness attribute was dangerous due to its ability to influence the mind. Mane was a boy with eidetic memory, yet even he had forgotten what had occurred. If it wasn't for the prompting and hints given by his masters, he may have never correctly remembered the events of the day.
"Oh by the way, how long was I out?" Mane had a bad feeling as he asked this question. The reason was simple. He could feel his connection to the edict. It was weak but present, possibly because of his bedridden state.
"Just thirteen days." The usually quiet 7th answered nonchalantly.
"What!"