The last three days marching towards the Silver City, had been trouble free. The three of them had gotten to learn about each other, sitting around the camp fire. They had shared their favourite fruits. Jacara was peaches, however Ul'lanna suspected there was innuendo or lewd reason, to why he chose that fruit. Yamada was mangoes, and hers was oranges. Ul'lanna and Jacara had learn to their horror, that Yamada's favourite meal. Was actually a dish of raw fish, covered in herbs, chillies and a salty sauce. He failed to convince them of how delicious it was, and only gave them an aversion to seafood. She had thought that, Jacara would have made the trip uncomfortable. Especially after what happened in the prison. However he had spent most of his attention, on learning Yamada's love making technique. Incessantly nagging at him to spill the secret, with Yamada doing his best to ignore him. With them starting to set up camp for the night. She felt that even if trouble were to come their way, she would always feel at peace with them.
"I'm gonna keep asking you, till you tell me." Jacara said tapping Yamada's shoulder repeatedly. His curiosity made Jacara ignore his fatigue, and keep up pace with Yamada. Ul'lanna had to admit Jacara had tenacity, when he put his mind to it. "FINE!" Yamada snapped, throwing his hands up in frustration. Jacara let out a satisfied sigh. "There we go." He said, taking out a card and holding his finger out as a pen. Ul'lanna looked at him puzzled. She had seen him use all the elements, and now he had summoned ink. "Jacara, can you use all forms of magic?" Jacara looked up to think about his answer. He then nodded. "Even shadow magic?" She asked inquisitively. Yamada cocked an eyebrow. Shadow magic? He had never heard or read about this type before. Jacara could see the excitement gleaming in their eyes. Even Yamada tried to hide it, but it was Yamada. He was an open book.
"I only created one card, that can use shadow magic. And it's not very good." He prefaced, before drawing a card out. She stared in awe, at the card. A silhouette of a lone knight was depicted on the card. "What does this one do?" She asked, leaning closer to him. "This one, like many of my cards, requires a large amount of arcane energy. Something I do not have." He said tucking it away. "I want to see it." Yamada said. Jacara gave him a sly smirk. Yamada instantly rolled his eyes. He knew that the only to see what this card would do, is if he discussed what happened. He let out a sigh. "Fine, I'll tell you. But only if Ul'lanna covers her ears and stands far away." "What?" She asked, her voice filled with disappointment. "I want to know about that as well."
"You don't get to see what's on the card, unless you tell us both." Yamada growled. "Perverts." He thought. He could simply walk away, but...he couldn't. Each of Jacara's cards, had always been an amazing surprise and fascinated him. This one would be no different. Yamada slapped his face, pulling it down, letting out a frustrated growl. "I just want to say first. That you two are really weird, to be asking about how I do...How I do that." Jacara and Ul'lanna stared at him intently, waving off his concerns. "Tell us already." She demanded. Yamada sucked his lips in, and took a deep breath. "And don't save it was love or some crap." Jacara added. "I used my tongue." He whispered, before shying away. The two of them looked at him askance, between sharing a glance. "Can you give us a bit more information?" Jacara asked gesturing with his hand.
"Between her legs." He said quickly shying away, his face bright red. "That can't be the answer." Ul'lanna said. Disappointed by the revelation. "Yeah, how would that make her unable to use her legs. You have a secret. Is it something to do with your water affinity? I bet it is." "I'm telling you the truth." The two of them gave him a sceptical glare. However this was Yamada, and when it came to him. The simplest answer was always the right answer. Jacara drew his lips to a long line, disappointingly taking out the card. "Alright, he did technically tell us." He sighed.
He threw the card onto the ground. "Mimic." He said. From the card a single knight emerged, with a black fiery aura around him. The black flames wafted around the outline of their sharp plate metal. He took the shape of knight from the Citadel, wielding a long sword. Through the gaps in his armour and visor, wisps of magenta flames leaked out. The two most captivating details of the shadow knight, was the long crimson helmet tassel, and its piercing magenta gaze. Yamada and Ul'lanna gawked in awe. The shadow knight quickly disappeared, and Jacara took a deep breath. Trying to push away the exhaustion. "Like I said. Not my best card." "THAT WAS AMAZING!" They both cheered. Jacara was shocked to see Ul'lanna's admiration and glee. He scoffed, brushing their admiration aside, hiding away the pure joy beaming inside.
Yamada made short work of a nearby Kaioni tree. With Harbinger gathering long lasting fire wood, was easier than ever. Ul'lanna considered him the perfect travel companion, with his abilities. With him, there was never a need to find a source of water, or a path too difficult to venture. He was also perfect for other reasons. She admired him in a trance, carrying the firewood back, his muscles bulging through the shirt. "You should just ask him." Jacara whispered into her ear.
She leapt out of her seat, clutching her chest. "Don't do that." She whispered back, gritting her teeth at him. "And no." Jacara rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "You're not going to be able to seduce him." She pouted and crossed her arms. "I have more class than that....Besides, it's not like he fancies the arrow." Jacara snickered at the double entendre. Yamada sat down beside the flickering fire. "Hey Yamada, what you do, if there was a beautiful naked woman, touching your body?" Jacara asked, to Ul'lanna's annoyance. "Where are her clothes?" Yamada asked without hesitation. Ul'lanna glared at Jacara's smug smirk beside her. "He's asking, what you would do to her?" She elaborated, giving Yamada the benefit of the doubt. He shrugged. "Find her clothes?" Ul'lanna threw her head back in frustration and disbelief, as Jacara broke out into a laugh.
He cocked his head to the side at them, mimicking a confused puppy to perfection. "Is that not the right answer? She's hugging me, because she's cold right?" "For the love of-" Ul'lanna stopped to let out a sigh, rubbing her face, the frustration of his naivety boiled inside. Jacara began to bellow his laugh. She took a deep breath. "Yamada, you're also naked in this situation. What do you do now?" Yamada had an answer ready, but he hesitated to answer. It gave Ul'lanna no hope that this answer would be any better. "I hug her back to stay warm!" He answered with pure confidence. The two of them were silent. The answer was half right at least. "Close enough." She said. "You two are weird." He said, grabbing a ration of jerky out.
"How far are we from the Silver City?" Yamada asked taking a bite. "Well your mistress, cut our trip down by at least four or five months. If I memorised the map well enough, we should be there in two or three days. Depending on how much ground we make tomorrow." "You...you memorised the map?" Yamada asked. She nodded, creating a gate, to lower the heat. Jacara cocked an eyebrow, watching her gate form. The lines of fire were thick, whipping violently, and slow to connect. "You're doing that wrong." Jacara said. She took a deep inhale, and glared at Jacara. "Fire is my affinity, I know how to open my gate." She snapped, forcing out a smile. Jacara nodded and held his palm out. "Okay then. Race me to open the gate then. Yamada tell us when." She met his smug gaze, dismissing the half formed gate, and held her palm out. "Bring it on." Yamada waited for a moment, his eyes darting between the two of them. "Now!"
Ul'lanna created two lines of fire, then stopped. Jacara had already opened the gate, and wore a grin from ear to ear. Yamada's jaw hung low. Even the Fire mages at the Citadel, couldn't create a gate that fast. "...How.." She eked out, still trying to comprehend everything. He waved his hand, and the gate collapsed into wisps of smoke. "I didn't want to say anything, but I noticed it, the first night we camped out. You both don't know how to open your gate properly." He said, taking out a slab of meat. Yamada glared at him. Of course he wouldn't know how to open, his gate properly. He's the first one to do it, in over eight millennia. "You're not exempt, because your gate has no knowledge of it either." Yamada reeled back. Could Jacara read minds? "Well, how do we do it properly then?" Yamada sulked, crossing his arms.
"I'm guessing, you both use a lot of arcane energy to open your gates?" Yamada and Ul'lanna locked eyes for a second. "Pfft...Not really." They shrugged off, looking away. He shook his head, and opened the arcane gate. One the size of his palm. "The first tip to opening any gate. Make it small first, then expand." The two of them fell out of their seats, watching the gate cover the sky. As quickly as it expanded, the gate shrunk back into his palm in an instant.
"But, the bigger the gate. The stronger the magic?" Yamada asked, his gaze transfixed on the small gate. "No, point in trying to use stronger magic, if you die before the gate even opens." Yamada and Ul'lanna went into deep thought, staring at their palms. The two of them created small gates. However compared to Jacara. The formation of their gate, came at a snail's pace. "You're both, making it too thick." The two of them perked up, looking at him puzzled. Thick? "Amateurs." He scoffed, holding out the gate. It begun to spin in a helical motion. Yamada and Ul'lanna, could see the difference in skill between themselves. Jacara's arcane gate was thinner than a razor's edge, nearing the two dimensional. Their gates had physical shapes, and were an efficient waste of arcane energy.
"How come you never taught me this, when we sparred?" Yamada asked. Jacara averted his gaze, whistling a guilty tune. Yamada frowned at him. "You were trying to win." Jacara continued to whistle his tune, wincing as he felt Yamada's glare. "Have you created a Magnum Opus?" Ul'lanna asked. "I can't even use all my cards. I'm not even close to making a Magnum Opus." Yamada was quiet. He had never even heard of those words. "What's that?" He hesitantly asked. The two of them, let out an exasperated sigh. They both understood, they couldn't assume Yamada had common knowledge. "What do they even teach on those Islands?" Jacara asked. "Fishing, farming, weaving,-" "It was a rhetorical ques-." He stopped, noticing Yamada's brain trying to process the new word.
Ul'lanna smiled. "Magnum Opus. Is your greatest creation of magic. Encara's one is the creation of Immortals. Cin's was the Second Sun." Yamada nodded eagerly. "An Ultimate attack." "Exactly." She said. "But." Jacara chimed in. "Everyone's Magnum Opus, is different. They aren't all cataclysmic attacks." "A last resort if you will." Ul'lanna added. "Or the deciding attack." Yamada said, staring at his knuckles. The two of them knew that gaze. His mind was racing with thoughts on how to kill Begron. She quickly pulled him out of that pit. "Do you have an idea, of what yours would be Yamada?" He snapped out of it, and looked to the sky pondering. "I'd like to make it rain." He said smiling at the stars coming out. The two of them cocked an eyebrow.
The rain? He wanted nothing more than the destruction of one man. How would rain do that? "Why rain?" Jacara asked. A sinister grin stretched across Yamada's face. One that would send a cold shiver, down the spine of anyone, unlucky enough to face him. "I want to cleanse, his entire existence away. After I kill Begron, I will wash away his existence, and any legacy he has." Jacara and Ul'lanna took a nervous gulp. "What do you think yours would be Ul'lanna?" Jacara asked, quickly changing the subject. Ul'lanna paused, she had never even thought about it. She had spent every day of her life training, but never once asked why? She shuddered. She knew the purpose of her training. Ul'lanna vowed she would never, be made into a breeder. "Never had a chance to think about it." She said gripping her arm. Jacara's gaze darted between the two of them. He could physically feel the tension in the air.
Clearing his throat, he quickly thought of something to distract their thoughts. "Is there anything else, you wanted to learn about magic?" He asked, wincing as he waited for their answers. "How come you say the name of your magic, but sometimes you don't?" Yamada asked. "That's a mage fighting trick." He said taking out the card, of Gaia and Scorch. He held them both out. "Gaia." He chanted. Yamada yelped, and leapt out of his seat, before being hit by a small fire ball. Jacara chuckled, with Ul'lanna trying to cover her laugh. Yamada furrowed his brow at him. "You could have just explained it to me." He sulked taking a seat.
"Not as fun." He said, tucking the cards away. "It also helps to say your magic. It's similar to those breathing techniques, I've seen you do." Ul'lanna leaned back to look at the deck holstered on Jacara. "How do you have more of those cards? I saw you throw them?" She asked. Jacara nodded and held his hand out. With intense focus he summoned the arcane gate, that turned black, and begun to drip ink. The two of them gawked at the sight. From the edges of the gate, a colour from the rainbow leaked out. Jacara stuck his other hand into the centre and pulled out a stack of fresh cards. He let out long exhausted breath. "Was...was that Enk magic?" Ul'lanna asked. "I thought Enk magic was just black?" Yamada asked. Jacara shook his head at their ignorance.
"Enk magic is not just black ink. Uncle Urkse always said he hated the name of Enk magic. And that it should have been called Creation magic. Obviously, I'm not as good as him, but I can create new cards for myself." "That's amazing." Ul'lanna said, staring in awe at the rainbow gate. "You should see the things Uncle can do." Ul'lanna and Yamada could hear the admiration and respect, frothing from Jacara's mouth. "I've heard the tales." Ul'lanna said smiling. She stood up and stretched. "Well, thank you for the lesson." She said bowing her head to him. "I'll take first watch. Rest up you two." Yamada doused the flames with water, and the two of them slept, side by side.