{I have taken great pains to write this down for I didn't know what it was or what it could do…or maybe I did but was too naïve to consider the consequences. The consequences of awakening Khlatus!}
….
Sharen looked at the book in his hands, his finger constantly tapping at the pages as he considered the possibility of what he had just learnt. Not from the book but from Narene. "You were born with a yellow core?"
She nodded seriously almost as if she wanted to impress him. "It sounds strange but it's true. I only managed to evolve to a green core after a while."
"Indeed." It was strange—outright insane to think that someone would be born with such magical affinity and prowess. They called it the blessings of the gods—and to some extent Sharen agreed with it, after all he was the one with a system and a mysterious voice in his head—yet he failed to see how Narene's blessing had been differently crafted.
No one—not even in ancient times—had been born with a yellow core. Normal mages were always born with red cores and they'd move through the orange core before reaching the yellow then the green yet here she was claiming that she was born with a yellow core.
Two things made Sharen believe her words. First, he too had defied the set magical laws. He wasn't born with the powers but he could use the magical energy like a second nature. The second was the fact that he could feel her core, see it with magical senses and he saw the amount of energy she had. Narene was indeed special.
"This will make your training easier than I thought." Sharen said, turning his focus to the magic book that Narene had handed to him to study. He seriously memorised the spells and runes but later stopped halfway and looked up.
"This book contains mostly spells that are above your level. Why are you studying it?"
"It was the only one I had left after my father took the others. I had to make use of it." Narene replied, looking at him squarely.
Sharen wiped his face with a sigh. "Powerful spells will leave you drained and in a fight, this will be a disadvantage. You should focus on smaller spells that have more offensive powers. I will write down the ones I know for you."
Narene frowned, giving him a look of uneasiness. Sharen noticed her discomfort and asked, "What?"
"I had the impression that magic could only be limited by my imagination."
"True," Sharen nodded. "But you still need to learn the basics. You can't jump the wheels and that's why your magic casting skills are a bit crude."
Narene nodded then she reached into her pocket and retrieved a vial which contained a slightly pale orange liquid and downed the content.
"What's that?" Sharen asked.
"It's an energy potion."
Sharen frowned, another occasion he found to express his worry over Narene. "Those things can restore your magical energy?"
"No," Narene shook her head with a slight smile. "I drink it to restore my physical strength."
Sharen nodded, relieved that he had no more reason to consider her as an anomaly. It was jarring enough to know that she was born with an exceptional magical gift and an affinity to the magical energy than anyone else in history.
They spent the next couple of hours studying in silence. Sharen wrote down the spells he had promised and handed them to her. She did a decent job, he noticed, in studying the spells and then she recreated them.
Sharen was satisfied with himself to find out that despite her superior magical affinity, she still made mistakes in spells as simple as the ones he had written down. It made him feel more like the teacher. He gave her pointers using the knowledge he had gleaned from the system.
"Can you cast and control a lightning spell?" Sharen asked, holding his palm out and letting a spherical blob of energy form over it. Inside the sphere, lightning churned and burgeoned wildly yet it was restrained by the sphere.
Narene paused then held out her hand as well. The sphere formed however, the lightning zapped out of control. She covered her mouth, eyes wide, when she saw the mess she'd made. "I'm sorry about that."
Sharen nodded with a smile. "It seems you need outdoor trainings."
"I've never considered magic to be about finesse but about being able to get the job done."
Sharen looked at her for a while yet she didn't avoid his gaze but looked back at him. He cleared his throat and asked, "Why do you want to learn magic?"
He noticed her hesitance. It was necessary to know what she was aiming for. As far as he knew, different people had different reasons for practicing magic. The few mages he'd met in his life—and they were only the few whom the Shattered Knights hadn't gotten to—had admitted that they learnt because they wanted to help fight the Haklarans.
It wasn't a calling yet somehow being a mage had turned into being a Haklaran hunter. Those creatures were getting stronger than usual and normal hunters had little chances against it.
After a brief pause, Narene put down her book and looked at Sharen with deep brown eyes that showed her confidence. "I want to practice magic because I want to become like you are. A beacon of hope."
Sharen shook his head, regretting ever asking her the question. "I meant aside from wanting to be like me."
Narene thought for a while then said, "I want to stop Khlatus."
Sharen perked up. He had never heard someone else—not even a Shattered Knight even though he had only heard them talk a few times –have the dream of stopping the artefact that brought nightmare to the world.
"Do you believe that Khlatus is real?" Sharen wanted to know. He wanted to get a fresh opinion on the subject. He wanted to have someone give him hope even as much as the people of Samak had in him.
Narene shook her head slowly. "I don't know."
Sharen wanted to say something but the sudden banging at his door caught his attention. With a frown, he went to the door and pulled it open only slightly. Narene crept up behind him, walking as lightly as possible. Sharen found her to be more paranoid than he was.
"What's wrong?" he asked the stranger who had knocked his door with the intention of breaking it down. Even if a Haklaran had been spotted, it wouldn't have triggered such sense of urgency.
"Something is happening," the man said breathlessly, his hand clutching his chest. He pointed towards a direction and said, "Survivor, our animals are dying off!"
Sharen frowned. The frown only deepened by the second.