Merle and Skelly witnesses a slight glow envelope the pair and gave a nod of satisfaction. "It seems he has indeed earned the friendship of a griffin. This is a major boon for our kingdom." Skelly commented.
"Yes. All we have to do is ensure he stays loyal to us." Merle responded in a low voice.
Before the conversation could continue Nona looked up. "OK so what is next?" He felt invigorated as his manapool swelled with the new power flowing into it.
"Now I am afraid we have some bad news. We must part ways here. You need to continue to the capital and enroll in the magic academy to better understand your power. Whereas we need to keep searching for and others with dragon's blood in their veins." Merle replies.
Nona hesitated on commenting. On one side he did not trust these people so the idea of leaving them was appealing, but they were the ones to bring him out of his village. The idea of continuing on alone allowed fear to creep into his heart. He found himself getting ready to beg for them to stay before suppressing that desire.
"Do not forget you are not alone. You have me now and our life is linked together." Aquiline's voice chimed in his head.
Taking Aquiline's comfort Nona solidified his resolve. "Very well. Do not tarry in your search for to long or I shall surpass you in magic Merle."
Merle smirked, "That will be the day young dragon."
"Before we part ways I do have something to give you." Skelly says quickly in one breathe. Seemingly from thin air he pulls out a simple sword. "It is not anything fancy but it should serve you well if you are unable to use magic."
Nona accepts the blade but cannot resist speaking his thoughts, "I do not believe I am skilled enough to wield even this simple weapon."
Skelly laughed, "Boy I am a grandmaster swordsman. The fact you can keep your blade against me shows you have some talent."
Nona looked at him with a blank expression. "I have no knowledge of what that is."
"You will learn soon enough. When you get to the academy seek out their head of security. Tell him I sent you. Trust me knowing how to fight could come in handy." After saying that both Skelly and Merle made a weird gesture and a portal opened up in thin air.
Out of one came a four legged bleached white skeleton that resembled a horse with fiery red eyes. The other was a black stallion that had fangs coming down from it top teeth and a wild look and matted fur at the hoofs. Both screamed power and ferocious to the point that Nona shrunk away in fear.
Both were halfway to the horizon before Nona recovered his wits enough to realize he had no idea which way the capital lay. Nona sits down bewildered at how fast things were moving. He laid down on the ground allowing his body to relax.
He was not given a timeline to be at the academy so he saw no reason to rush off. Closing his eyes he enjoyed the sun beating down on him.
****
Nona found himself in his mental space. It was still a blank white space with a chair randomly placed in it. Sitting down he allowed himself to mentally relax. As he did he felt tension leave his mind he was not aware he had. Calling up the memories of the past few days Nona started watching them.
He wanted to ensure that something important was not over looked. Mentally controlling the speed of the mental pictures, he slowed it down to pay attention to the draw backs of magic. "Regardless of the race the intent of magic will corrode your personality."
Merle's voice gave him pause. Setting that image to the side he called up all of the times he had currently used magic. Nona quickly discovered that he had only used to for the defense of his life. He sat back feeling satisfied with this until he recalled the time he almost ran from the griffin and again when he almost begged for Merle and Skelly to stay.
"So this is what it means to corrode my personality. If things keep going this way I could easily become a coward, and that is not what I want. Perhaps I should take my sword training more seriously as well as put more thought into why I use magic." Nona commented to himself.
Nona felt better about himself after solving this minor mystery. Setting his memories aside he took a good look at the blank space before him. The whiteness of it all seemed very boring so he decided to fix that. Calling to mind every scroll he had read in his cave all alone he began forming an image.
Thus was his world and paradise so why not make it the way he wanted. He called up the image of an extravagant palace with snow white walls. It was three stories with several balconies per floor. The railing of each balcony he imagined being gold. He than conjured up the image of a purple banner going down the middle of it with a gold dragon emblazoned upon it. Nona put the final touches upon the outside by adding several fruit trees in full bloom giving even more color to the palace.
Nodding his head in satisfaction Nona walks in to see the image he created was a simple hallow shell on the inside. Nona was startled to see the him that was not him approaching him from accross the building.
"I see you have finally started doing something with your mental space. That means it is now time to tell you why it is so important." Greets the doppelganger. "This space directly correlates to your will power. The more you can envision here the stronger your will becomes."
Nona perked up at hearing this. He had asked several times on how to train his willpower and had gotten vague answers. Now a clear cut way was laid out before him.
"However use caution when instilling items here with knowledge or memories. If you drop the image of the object that contains the information than that information will be lost forever. The image can be dropped in a few ways. One is your willpower is not strong enough for all of the things you envision here, and the second is someone or something breaking your will. The other aspect you need to know is the placing.
"Despite appearances this space is not limitless. There is indeed an edge. This is the point where your mentality ends and the world's begins. When locked in a mental battle the edge will be the site of this battle and is the most likely to cause damage to your willpower if things are done incorrectly. No pressure after all this is your space and things can be moved as you see fit."
Nona wanted to roll his eyes at yet another data download but he resisted the urge just barely. There were several key pieces of information in the explanation that Nona valued. Envisioning the door with a lock he turned that information into a key to ensure he would retain it.