Vega sipped the tea carefully enjoying the taste of a smoky burnt leaves on his tongue. He held the cup close to his hands feeling the warmth. The fight the other day made him understand his own power and Mentor Addilyn sat in front of him smiled giving him compliments.
"You did really great avoiding the sword like that. As an apprentice, it was harder to win a fight with a practitioners. They are really agile and strong at the beginning, but when we are getting used to our magic, we can defeat them easily."
"What are the differences between us? Why differentiate mind and body?" Vega still didn't understand the hate brewing between the two factions. Yes everyone blamed for the death of their comrades, but they let it go to far.
"Distance and speed. Adepts have more control over their mana and they can attack from a distance, like you showed Dion earlier, you could just used the wind around them to attack. But how fast can Dion move?"
"I don't know. I'm not sure."
"They can move instantly behind you. They could take away your life, like that." His mentor snapped her fingers.
"Then why--"
"I know what you're asking. Your element take precedent in your ability to attack. As an apprentice, no one has the knowledge to change mana properties. But air mana was everywhere and it's easily accessible to you. What do you think about the apprentice that had knowledge in fire? They can only create a fire from a spark, that's why most of the times they covered their thumb and index finger with metal to create that spark that can turn into fire. Do you understand until this point?"
"Yes, so the adept with air element had the most advantages when fighting a practitioner, right?"
"No, elements are there as a tool. You can eat with both spoon and fork, but eating with spoon is easier. The same with elements, is not only fire that burns, but water can also burn, but it takes longer time to reach a high enough degree and the knowledge was lost to the war. So many unique elements and practices were lost, only the basic knowledge remains. We acknowledge only four elements that's why a knowledge in sound magic was considered rare, even though filled with bad reputation. But when you understand it more, sound is just an extension of air."
"How about spatial element?"
"It doesn't exist." Addilyn sneered. "Mernoralin changed everything. Now the elements are something logical, even the whole concept meditation and exercises comes from him. That's why your right was something valuable, even for higher level adepts. Space was a higher level concept that we can't understand. We also have time. Even darkness and light."
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Vega pondering over the information his mentor taught him. Instead of understanding everything clearly, his head now had too many information. He tried relaxing and enjoying the sound his shoes made clacking with the stone pathway. The sound brought back his memory living in the city and he unconsciously touched the magical water pouch on his waist.
The whole sect was almost as big as the academy Vega was in. It stretched between several mountains compared to a lone mountain he visited in the academy. He noticed that most of the commoners were still awake at this hours. The delicious smell of some of the stalls attracted him. Most of the stalls had different food like the one he had in the academy.
Vega tried ten different food and most of them tasted better. The academy's food he thought was the best after being starving for whole his life tasted worse than the ones he had in the sect.
Rubbing his stomach feeling full, Vega visited arrived in the quiet street where most of the buildings looked worse than the other parts of the city. There was a store that sold only some old rusty trinkets and ancient tapestries. Shaking his head, he left the store.
When Vega stepped his foot outside, he heard a noise from his right. He saw a little kid ran from a man holding a wooden stick. Lucky for the kid, his small stature helped him to run faster avoiding several unused carts and boxes along the alley. The man jumped avoiding the boxes the kid threw at him and lost his balance. Crashed! He fell onto the wooden boxes and broke them.
Vega raised his hand creating a wind blade stopping the kid on his track. The kid noticed the slash on the ground and skidded in halt. Looking curiously at the newcomer, he held the clothing around his arm closer afraid for losing it.
"Come. I help." Vega told the kid.
The kid hesitantly nodded and took Vega's hand. Vega ran pulling the kid while creating several wind blades trying to distract the man who chased them.
"What did you take from him?"
"Nothing." The kid answered in surprisingly perfect common language.
"It's okay. I won't take anything from you. I'm just curious that's all. But if you don't want to tell me, I'm okay with that."
The kid bit his lips and whispered, "A pill for my mother."
"A pill?" Vega shook his head, "Nevermind. I could probably help your mother. Where should we go?"
The kid guided Vega following the pathway until they reached the slum. Vega was shocked to see a slum hidden under the glimmering buildings that looked beautiful for anyone who visit the village belonged to the sect. Not that his academy had any village to look out for.
'Dion was right, the sect had too much on their hands. Having many disciples and taking care the village under them was something that couldn't be done with only one sect. No wonder they are lacking in magic stones.'
Vega shook his head knowing that the kid had faith similar to him.
The kid led him to a small hut. The hut stood only with several cardboards and metal sheets to kept it steady. Even the door was only a curtain.
Opening the curtain, Vega saw how little it was. With only a bed, he wondered how can the kid lived in the place like this, even though not too long ago he had lived in similar or even worse state. Someone slept on the bed covered with a thin tattered cloth that looked dark.The whole state of the room was not suitable for someone sickly to live in. Knowing that Vega couldn't do anything beside checking the sickness, he dropped the kid and put his hand on the sick woman.
The blood still flowed nicely, but Vega sensed most of the blood coagulated into a little spot on the arms of the woman. When checking it with his own eyes, several wounds started to turn yellow because of infections.
'No wonder her skin was warm to touch. A fever. So, first try to treat the infection and another potion for helping her heal. The fever? I don't know.'
Vega unstrapped the book from behind his robe and thought of the questions. The book replied showing him several simple potions recipes for him to follow.
Vega took out the ingredients and his cauldron outside drawing a sudden exclamation from the boy. Ignoring any distraction, he pressed all of the plants he needed into powder and asked the boy for a water.
After the water boiled, he used his mana and pour the ingredients one by one into the cauldron. Several stirs and another mana, the mixture turned green.
"Here, help me get this for your mother. Remember to finish all of the potion."
The kid nodded and help his mother to drink the potion. His mother coughed several times splattering some liquid on his already ruined cloth, but the kid was elated feeling the fever had gone down.
While the kid was trying to feed his mother, Vega already made another batch of potion focusing to heal the infected wound. Scooping a spoonful of the liquid, he poured it on the infected spot.
A sizzle made the kid exclaimed scared. But after seeing the wound started to close itself. He couldn't help but teared up. Knowing that his mother was saved.
The kid knelt on the floor thanking Vega, "Thank you benefactor. Thank you, thank you."
Vega stopped the kid and replied, "It's okay. Now, now. Can you show me the pill you were talking about before?"
The kid thought for a moment and slowly opened the dirty cloth containing the pill. The pill was something Vega had never seen. The brown color and the whiff of medicinal scent reminded him of a potion.
"Can I?"
The kid nodded.
Vega licked the pill and shuddered because the bitterness was basically similar with the potion he made. Looking like candy, he thought the pill would be sweeter and could be a nice alternative for his potion. But with the same taste, nothing was different.
"Can this is for my?"
"Of course, I have nothing to pay you to save my mother. So please take it."
Vega still felt guilty looking at the kid who resembled him too much. He took one of his magic crystal that left him with one left.
"Here, take this. I hope you can live better with this. It's not much, but I can't do anything else."
"Thank you, benefactor. But this is too much," the kid looked at the glowing stone with a scared expression. "I can't take this."
"Take it. I have lots with me. But promise me to get yourself a better clothing and eat better food. Don't waste it for something useless, okay?"
The kid nodded. He looked around the room and rummaged under the bed. He hesitantly opened a makeshift wooden chest and took something from it.
"Here. This is for you. I hope it's enough."
Vega held the weird crystals with him sighing. After bidding goodbye to the kid, he walked followed the previous path he passed by. Some of the lanterns were already turned on making the atmosphere in the village looked as beautiful as the shimmering stars on the sky.
"Finally! I can find you here," Dion hugged his friend. "I'm sorry, I forgot to give you my contact here. Elder Addilyn told me you went out by yourself. Luckily you are still safe."
Vega smiled tiredly, "Thank you for looking for me. I just encountered something that reminded me of my past." Vega felt dizzy and lost his balance.
Dion quickly caught his friend and took out his sword. He flew while keeping Vega's head from nodding off on his shoulder. He forced his spirit to fly quicker than he normally would. After unlocking his door open, he laid Vega on the bed, waiting until his friend slept soundly.