When Kai opened his eyes, he saw the familiar room he'd known for almost seven months. Lila greeted him with a smile and some tears, and Mari rested her head on the edge of the bed.
"Thank the gods! A whole day, Kai! You had me worried for a whole day!"
[Specialist Path Unlocked - ???]
Specialist Path? At least I didn't die.
Kai looked to the centre of the room, where he fell unconscious. Around the position he practiced his magic, a layer of charcoal coated the wooden flooring in what looked like an explosive force in all directions from the centre where Kai has stood.
'And I'm still alive? Huh...'
Lila and Garrett did not let Kai leave his bed for the remainder of the day. They brought him warm bread, soup, and even some sausages from the butcher. Until he fell asleep later that night, at least one of his parents was with him at all times.
---
Kai stirred awake the next morning to some horrified shouting.
"No! Bert!" Mari cried out from the living room.
Kai rushed through the house as fast as a toddler could manage and into the living room.
The house was heavy with silence while Garrett and Lila slept. Mari sat in the corner of the living room. She hugged her knees while tears streamed down her face.
She pointed to a little lump of fur on the ground.
Bert lay on the floor before her, curled up and unmoving, his shimmering silver-blue fur dulled to an almost lifeless grey.
Kai walked closer. He'd never seen Mari like this with her vibrant, confident energy utterly drained. Her hands still glowed faintly with residual magic, her attempts to heal Bert having failed.
"I-I tried everything," she choked out, her voice barely above a whisper. "Mama taught me the binding weave, the flow of restoration... but nothing worked. I can't save him."
Kai felt his chest tighten. Mari's pain was unbearable to witness, but more than that, something inside him rebelled against the idea of his Bert being gone.
The dog was more than a pet. He was a bridge between Kai's two lives, a thread tying his past to his present. Losing Bert felt like losing a part of himself.
'This can't be happening. He'll be fine. He's a fucking magical dog, he can make it through anything.'
Before he could think, before he could process what he was doing, Kai reached out toward Bert. His fingers brushed the cool fur, and a strange warmth bloomed deep within him. It wasn't like Mari's gentle and nurturing magic. This was raw, wild, a force that surged through his veins and demanded release.
'I guess I should try it. I haven't had a chance to experiment with my magic on something alive yet...'
Kai focused. The energy that flowed through the air wisped around him violently as he reached out for the energy connected to each living being.
A faint purple light flickered from his palm, dark and otherworldly. Then, like a tornado, the magic pulsed in the air around them, the colour like the deep violet of a storm-lit sky.
The air around him grew cold, and for a moment, everything seemed to stand still as he held his breath.
With a few gentle arcs made with his hands to attempt to control the flow of magic, he imagined, in the centre of his mind, disease, illness, injury, and death.
'Gods, I hope this works...'
He imagined the process of what each meant to him and reversed that, feeding the flow of magic into Bert's body like a funnel helping liquid flow from a large jug into a small bottle.
'Rejuvenate!'
Mari gasped, scrambling backward as the dog's body twitched. Bert's chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, his dull eyes snapping open, now glinting faintly with an eerie light.
[Specialist Path Chosen - ???]
'Again? And path chosen? I didn't choose anything!'
"Bert!" Mari cried.
She lunged forward, wrapping her arms around the dog's neck. Bert responded with a low, rumbling growl. Not an aggressive growl, but far from the warm and happy bark they were used to. His movements were stiffer, and his shimmered differently in the dim light.
But, for Mari, it was Bert.
For her, he was alive.
To her, it seemed like he was okay.
Garret and Lila burst into the room, their expressions panicked.
"What's going on?" Lila demanded, her eyes darting between Mari and Bert.
Mari turned to them, her face flushed with relief. "Kai did it! He saved Bert!"
Lila and Garret froze, their gazes snapping to Kai. The toddler sat on the floor, his small hand still resting on Bert's fur, his wide eyes filled with a mixture of feigned confusion and fear.
"He... what?" Lila asked, her voice shaky.
Mari nodded affirmingly.
"I couldn't save him. Bert wasn't breathing, and he was so cold! I tried everything, but Kai just touched him, and..." She gestured to Bert, who now sat stiffly, his head cocked unnaturally to the side as if listening to something they couldn't hear.
Lila knelt beside Kai, her hands trembling as she placed them gently on his shoulders. "Kai," she whispered, her voice filled with awe. "You... Actually healed Bert."
'They can't feel it? The difference between how their magic feels and mine?'
Kai wanted to protest, to tell them that wasn't true.
Bert wasn't alive.
Not really.
Or, at least, it didn't feel like he was alive.
It felt like Bert was long gone—far away, and that whatever stood in his place was just accepting the role of 'Bert'.
But he couldn't explain the dark magic that still pulsed faintly in the room to his family. Instead, he looked up at Lila, his face a mask of innocent bewilderment.
"I did?" He continued his gaze, making sure his eyes were wide and full of fake wonder.
Garrett laughed, the tension in the room breaking slightly. "A prodigy," he said, his voice brimming with pride. "Almost seven months old and already healing the sick and injured! Our son's a prodigy!"
"I told you that when he took his first steps!" Lila punched Garrett's shoulder and laughed.
"You did! Magical Academy? Heck, he might become a heavenly scholar!"
Garrett and Lila danced around the room with glee, singing the praises of their boy.
Over a month ago, Mari confided in Kai about wanting to become a heavenly scholar.
From what he understood from his conversation with her, they served the supreme council of the Citadel, and would carry out tasks and research to benefit the entire country. A country he didn't even know the name of.
If Mari had paid more attention to the conversation and less to Bert, she may have acted out in a fit of jealousy.
'Something isn't right here, though...'
Kai focused his thoughts on himself and the system screen appeared.
[Name: Kai Tensen | Age: 7 Months | Languages Translated: Imerian | Skills: Mana Manipulation | Spellcasting: Novice | Spells: Rejuvenate | Specialisation: ??? - To be revealed upon Magical Assessment]
'It changed a little. I'm a novice spellcaster too, now. Not very intuitive, since it doesn't update me on everything in real-time, though.'