Ojero, holding the familiar scroll in a death grip, ran through the hallways, blasted past the now annoyed servants, dashed up the tall staircase, and bolted into his room, slamming the door behind him.
He went to his dresser, and moved it away from the wall. Behind there he pushed a part of the wall with a small string coming from a crack, and a small square of the wall started sliding back into the wall. Ojero applied more pressure till the slot pushed deep enough into the wall.
Ojero reached in and pulled out a dark blue ornamental box. It was a birthday gift for him to hold important things, and not trusting the simple lock on it Ojero cut out this small space in the wall to hide it.
Inserting the key he always kept in his pea coats inner pocket, he popped the lip open and looked at what was inside. It was remarkably empty, only having a few gold coins and a platinum ring that had a small gray gem in it. It had a message etched into its bottom, which said "For Ojero, from a future friend."
Father had gotten it a few days after Ojero's birth, and after making sure it wasn't anything harmful or magical, he gave it to Ojero. Father had an idea of who sent it, but he had no clue why he would send something to him now. It only solidified some of his fears about his second born. He, of course, told no one else of his theory on its origin, telling his wife it was custom made by himself.
Ojero ignored both of these items, instead placing the scroll in the box, locking it, and replacing it in the wall. He grabbed the string, and pulled it. This dragged the square back into position in the wall, and Ojero replaced the dresser.
Now, finally, Ojero could learn about his abilities. He started by attempting to get that feeling back, that feeling of power, but nothing came. He kept pushing to try and slow down or speed up time.
He sat there for over 3 hours, just trying to push. If one were to walk on him, they would think he was constipated in the middle of his room. His red and straining face was easy to misunderstand.
As Ojero was still straining, he pushed too hard and forgot to breath. He fell on his back onto the floor due to almost reaching unconsciousness. He fell hard, and causing a slam. He quickly started inhaling and exhaling fast, and felt a growing pain from his back.
He groaned and sat up, as a young female servant burst into the room.
"What in blazes is going on here?"
Seeing the young lord sitting on the floor, rubbing his back, she could only assume he had fallen.
'Stupid children, born to riches. Too bad they can't buy some common sense,' the servant thought to herself. Seeing as he was fine, she slammed the door in a huff before Ojero even had a chance to answer.
Now he was in pain, a failure, and now embarrassed. Things were going splendidly.
Ojero stood up and started to slowly shuffle to his bed, head down and saddened, when suddenly an idea struck him. 'I kept trying to use the green crystal but what about the other two? I'll try the black one.'
Ojero moved back to the center of the room, and started to focus on that black gem, trying to summon its power to him. He felt something, a little tickle in his mind, as if it was there but weak.
Opening his eyes, Ojero noticed that all of the shadows of the room were shaking and leaning towards him, as if reaching out to him. Ojero let go of the feeling, and the shadows snapped back into their positions. 'So that must be my second crystal, shadow control. But what tier?'
He tried reaching for the feeling again, and found it came easier. The shadows reached out for him again, and Ojero started to smile. He let them go back, and summoned them again. It practiced this for over an hour, before he felt strangely drained.
This wasn't just being tired, which he also was, it felt like he was missing some kind of important energy. He tried summoning the shadows again, but this time it hurt to keep them, and quickly let them go. He could feel a headache coming along.
'Did I run out of mana? I totally forgot about it. Pretty sure its dependent on the crystals size for how long it lasts for each magic. Considering I only lasted a little over an hour, I doubt my crystal is that good then. At least I have that purple one as my biggest. I hope its limit is much more than the shadow one.'
As Ojero started to try, he realized how sluggish his movements were, and decided it was best to go to bed. He crawled across the room, his movements slow and full of tiredness. He flopped on the bed, and fell asleep without even getting under the covers.
That night, Ojero dreamed. He saw a great knight in shining white pearl armor, a great golden and dark blue glaive in his right hand. In his left was a shining orb of white-gold and dark blue energy, reflecting off his armor giving him the aura of some otherworldly god.
The mans armor was detailed immaculately. His helmet was bulky yet every curve was perfect, and it had a visor for him to see from. Although Ojero tried to look inside, he couldn't. A great white-gold light was within it, blocking all attempts and seeing the mans eyes.
The breastplate was similar to the helmet, bulky yet smoothed to shine. The front of it almost seemed to contain some swirling energy, being stored up. The only blemish was a great blotch of black and purple, which covered the left side of the chest. The area around it was shaped and smoothed more than the other areas. It looked as if a great and powerful attack hit the armor, yet no matter what happened they could not get rid of the attack mark.
On the shoulders, great golden pauldrons rested. Following these, both the rerebrace and vambrace were similar, yet each arm was different. On the right arm, both of these were white-gold like the rest of the armor, but on the left arm they were a dark blue. The couters mimicked this color scheme, and had what seemed to be small shields attached to them, defending the wearer from any unblocked elbow strikes.
The gauntlets were works of art, each part of it intricately designed. The right one was white-gold, and the left dark blue like the rest of the arms, but there were details unlike the other arm parts. On each finger symbols were engraved, showing strange creatures. On the palms were great designs. The blue one had a design of a star, and the white had a design of some sort of white explosion.
The cuisses and greaves followed the rest of the armor design; white, gold, more white, and more gold. They did not seem to be special, but something about them and the rest of the armor radiated magical energy.
The man, raised his glaive into the air, and slammed it down, and a resounding cheer echoed. Ojero then noticed the army behind the man. It was full of knights and mages, the former in similar white-gold armor without as many details, and the mages had basic white robes. Familiars of all kinds were in the army, some flying, some on the ground, and some being ridden by their bonded magi.
The detailed armored man, who seemed to be the general, lowered his head, and seemed to lose some of his luster, as he whispered something Ojero couldn't hear.
Suddenly, a great roar that put the cheer to shame resounded from behind Ojero. He turned around, but all he saw was a great rising black tidal wave. There was nothing inside it, at least nothing living.
The white army, seeing this, started to cheer louder, and cheer turning to a chant. A great beam of light encompassed the general, and a similar wave of light rose, and as the white army charged the wave shot forward towards the black.
Right before they crashed into what Ojero thought would be a great battle he was eager to watch, he snapped awake, breathing heavily. He didn't even notice it, but his entire body was sweating as if he had just ran a fifteen mile race without a break.
He felt even more tired now than he had before sleeping, and slowly fell back to the bed, asleep. This time, no dreams came to him, and he was greeted by the familiar solace of the black nothingness till he awoke.