"Hello, Vino!" Frags said it in an upbeat tone."Welcome to my world. From now on, when you dream, I will be showing you bits of the past, cutting out the times where I sat alone, of course. It should only take a year to show all the important stuff and five to reinforce it in your mind. You will be my replacement in no time!"
There was a brief silence.
"Hey, I have a question."
"Go ahead."
Do I ever get stronger in the future?" Vino asked.
"Yes, why do you ask?" Frags was suspicious. Something was up.
"You know, don't you." Vino seemed to have caught onto something.
"Yeah, I know." What Frags was referring to was Vino's future. Frags could see glimpses into it.
"Vino...You have a sharp mind. Did you know that?" Frags smirked, and so did Vino.
"Of all the possibilities, I never expected telling you this much would change the outcome. There is way more I haven't discovered yet. Wait, check under your bed for a second."
"Why, are you going to do something there?" Vino asked, quickly realizing that Frags had been writing on the floor in the past. Low and behold, the floor was changing in real time, and the image of an apple appeared. "Damn, that is useful!"
Static.
Vino felt a sharp pain in his head. Like something was being scrached out and replaced.
Vino noticed that his yelling was too loud, and he quieted down.
"I will tell you more about your past 10 years, and I expect you will start training as well. I can temper my body, but not my soul. Anything I try never works. The soul temperance you experienced is the first step to getting stronger." After talking with Vino, frags began talking about the past while both of them slept. In the meantime, Aria and Rina were having a talk.
"Aria! Why did Vino go to bed? I wanted to talk to him."
"He needs his rest after all, you guys had lots of activity today. By activity, I mean, you guys did it, right? You were already kissing when you guys met."
"Its not like that!"Rina blushed. She had loved Vino since she met him but had only recently started feeling romantic around him. Rina didn't want their friendship to end, so she suppressed those feelings.
"But seriously, I can't believe he would remember you before me. He cares a lot about you." Aria sighed. She always regretted leaving Vino at home most his life, but she couldn't help that he had been afflicted with a weak body since birth. That very body had caused him to be a late bloomer. She always wondered why he never inherited from her or his father.
They were both successful mages, and after retiring from the hero party, he left her after discovering the weak child. He now has a bunch of kids around the continent, every single one of whom is a monster in their own right. Unfortunately, most of them are not the kindest of people.
Aria looked over to a chest covered in a red cloth. She remembered what she was told by the man. "If he ever awakens before the age of 18, give him this. It is a gift for any of my kids. A necklace with the emblem of the lightning god. Don't let him find another one of my kids. It won't be pretty."
Aria looked up and smiled. "He will receive your gift tonight. My love."
Aria seemed stuck in the past, yet somehow still loved a man who had so many wives. Sigh...
Rina looked over at Aria, confused at the moment she was having silently. "Aria, would you be mad if I were your son's wife?"
Aria smiled and shook her head. "My son decides that. I am not opposed. After all~! You are the empress of magic."
Rina looked down and sighed, "I hate that name. My father asked you to keep my past a secret, now I'm nobody. My mother and father were killed, and I am the last of my bloodline, With the abilities of all my ancestors, I will become the strongest. I may even take back the throne~!"
A serious look appeared on Aria's face. "And how will you accomplish that? Murder?"
"I won't. I don't want to rule. I was just seeing if i sounded good speaking like that! Short answer. I don't." Rina was sitting at the table sipping some water, and Aria looked at her like she was crazy.
Aria shook her head and walked over to the box. She unwrapped the red cloth, revealing a black box that had a purple gem on the locking mechanism. Aria pressed the button, and the box made a clicking noise.
On the inside, a bright red gem in the shape of a perfect sphere sat on embroidered cushions. The purple cushions made it look royal, and on the inside of the sphere sat a lightning bolt.
The symbol of the lightning god was never the same. It was a natural lightning bolt that seemed locked in time, never moving unless someone touched it. She grabbed the necklace with the emblem and wrapped her hand around it.
Aria walked over to Rina and showed her the emblem. Rina jumped up, causing Francis to wake up from all the noise.
"The lightning god...I see, Vino is descended from that mage. That means you..." Rina felt a sweat droplet fall down her face. She had studied a lot since she was little, but this was the first time she had seen someone like that—an arch mage, in person. She had heard stories, but never seen one.
"Aria, when was this a thing? Are you really?" Rina was cut short. Aria lifted her arm in the air, and she pulled up her long sleeves to reveal bandages. Aria loosened the bandages and slowly uncovered an intricate mark that originated in her palm.
A snowflake that diverged into a thousand fractals. This mark travelled all the way up her arm. Her arm was also lined with scars and muscle, meaning she didn't slack back in the day. "Those marks! You are the mage of winter. Aria Icre-"
"I don't have a last name anymore. I lost that name when I married Lira, the Thunder of Horas." Aria sighed. "He never had a last name and didn't wish to take on mine. Im nobody now."
"Oh, well, I left my name back when I was brought here. I am just like you!" Rina tried to relate to Aria, but she hasn't seen the world.
She didn't know the struggles of fighting in war.
Francis looked on as the two of them talked back and forth. Something was off about this creature, like it could understand them.
Rina turned to look at Francis but noticed something was off. Rina backed up and held her hand out, showing off the four-pointed star on her palm.