Realm of Monsters

Feli heard the front door creak open. She walked out of the bedroom and found Stryg sitting on the floor, his back resting on the wall.

“Hey, Stryg. How did your last exam go?” Feli asked.

“We passed. So, everything is stellar,” he said dully.

Feli’s forehead creased, “Anything else happened by chance?”

“Nothing important, not really,” he sighed.

“I’d still like to hear about it, if you don’t mind.” Feli sat down next to him.

He sighed, “This city is strange, and everyone here thinks I’m strange. The Blood Fang tribe thought I was strange too. At least I knew what mattered in both places. Things were different, sure, but the basic rules were the same everywhere. The strong trample the weak. You need strength to survive. Otherwise, your enemies will eventually kill you. Therefore, kill your enemies first. It’s simple and it’s worked out every time.”

“Makes sense,” she nodded.

“I’ve always done what is needed to get strong. I have failed many times, but I never gave up. Because I know what it takes to survive,” he grit his teeth.

“What are you getting at?”

“The secretary, Miss Byrel, the one who almost got me killed. She was my enemy. I had her killed.”

“...I remember.”

“Turns out Byrel was Plum’s mom,” Stryg admitted.

Felis eyes went round, “Oh. Shit. I see. Did you know?”

“No. I once asked Plum about her mom, she seemed embarrassed to talk about her. Plum only told me that she hadn’t told her mom that we were friends. I knew her mom hated goblins, so I didn’t ask Plum about her again. I should have.”

“How did Plum take the news?”

Stryg laughed in derision. “She used to call me her best friend, I never liked the term, but after a while I didn’t care. Now? Well, now Plum hates me for ordering the death of the drow who tried to kill me. I wasn’t wrong to kill Byrel, was I?”

Feli didn’t wish to admit it, but she was somewhat relieved that this Plum person was out of the picture. The drow was no longer a potential threat.

“Well, Byrel did try murdering you, a mage. Maybe it wasn’t on purpose, but at the end of the day she wanted to hurt you and almost succeeded in killing you. The death penalty made sense,” Feli nodded slowly.

“Right? I didn’t make a mistake, I did what was needed. Plum was wrong, everything she said about me was wrong,” Stryg nodded to himself.

“Right,” Feli agreed.

Stryg turned to her with glistening eyes, “So, why do I feel like this?”

His bandaged hand gripped his chest, “Why does my chest hurt? My enemy is dead. I should be happy, but I’m not. I’m not even angry, there’s no enemy left to blame. There’s no one to defeat. I’m just… in pain. I don’t understand. I won, so why do I feel like I lost?”

Feli felt her own guilt wrap around her, choking her. How could she be happy when Stryg was clearly suffering? She remembered what it was like when she lost her family, the unending aching pain of being so alone. But, she wasn’t alone, not anymore.

Feli gently held his hand, “You just lost someone precious to you, there is no coming back from that. And yeah, it sucks. I honestly don’t think there is anything that can fix that, not even magic. But, I know holding it in will only make it worse. It’s okay to feel sad.”

Stryg sniffed, “I’m not sad, I’m just…”

“You don’t always have to act strong. You have nothing to prove, not to me. I know you’re the strongest goblin around,” Feli chuckled.

Stryg said nothing.

“You know, it’s okay to cry once in a while,” she whispered.

“Crying is for the weak,” he mumbled.

Feli wrapped her arms around him, “Then how about we just stay like this.”

Stryg didn’t respond, but he held Feli tight. His shoulders shook as he heaved quietly. She stayed quiet and stroked his silver hair. She felt pity for the goblin who could not cry.

~~~

A few days later Stryg found himself at the academy, following Loh down a long stone hallway.

“Master, where are we going?”

“Now that you’re finally done with your exams, we are going to take care of something that you should have done a long time ago.” Loh glanced back at him, “What’s the condition of your arms?”

“I finally took off the cast last night, but I still can’t move my right arm very much. My left arm has completely recovered from the burns.” Stryg stretched his left fingers in a show of dexterity.

“That’s good. What about your lips?”

“Completely recovered.” He paused in his steps and winced, “You heard about that, huh?”

“It’s not everyday someone manages to piss off Rime and get away with it. It was foolish to have cast a flame spell without any prior training or practice, especially without use of your hands,” Loh raised an eyebrow.

“I understand. I just wanted to get a little payback for Rime assigning us with the damn dragon project, I won’t be having class with him again anyway,” he muttered.

“It’s not always best to antagonize your enemies. You have to learn how to deal with them properly, how far you can push, especially when you have something to lose, like your grade.”

“So I’ve learned.” His shoulders slumped.

Loh gave him a side-long glance. She had noticed he had been feeling depressed these last few days, but she didn’t know why and he didn’t seem to want to talk about it either. She preferred to give him his space.

Loh cleared her throat, “Nonetheless, I’m very impressed. You were able to cast a proper flame spell with only your mouth. Sure, you burned your lips, but you haven’t even learned how to use orange magic yet. What with the proper training and an amazing mentor like myself, hmm… Well, let’s just say I might make an amazing mage of you yet.”

“Really?” Stryg’s eyes glimmered with hope.

“Don’t let it get to your head, kid.” She stopped in front of a door, “Anyway, I’m glad at least one of your hands has recovered, you’ll need it. You may be done with classes, but there’s still one more exam you need to take.”

She opened the door and ushered Stryg inside. The room was empty save for a wooden table and a lit candle in the corner. Ten crystal orbs with silver disks inlaid sat on the table top.

“This is-”

“Chrome-probes,” Loh interjected. “I wanted to give you a proper chromatic identity examination. Without any interruptions this time,” she closed the door.

“But, I’ve already taken the exam and we already know I’m a tri-manifold mage. What difference does it make?”

“You might have taken the exam, but that idiot, Byrel, never let you finish. The exam is more than just letting you know what chromatic colors you have. It may not show you what spell form you’re talented in, but it does show how much innate potential you have for the color.”

Stryg walked over to the table, “How can they tell me my potential?”

“Well, they can’t tell your potential per se. There are many factors that determine a magi’s power. Not just talent, but skill, condition of the body, intelligence, control of one’s will, the ability to maintain focus under any circumstance, and a hundred other factors. Although, some factors are more important than others. One of the most important being your mana limit.”

Loh spread her hands. “Chrome-probes help figuring that out. As mageborn, our bodies absorb the innate chromatic mana in the air. Our body then stores it within our hearts. But, the heart is a muscle and each one is unique. Which means that each mageborn’s heart can hold only a certain amount of mana at once, a limit you could say. Now, like the strength of your muscles, that limit can be increased with training, but only by so much. The larger the original mana limit, the greater the potential limit.”

Loh tapped one of the crystal orbs, “The chrome-probes are enchanted to absorb a specific amount of mana based on the user’s limit. And since people only take the exam when they start out, it’s an easy way to see their limit and gauge their potential limit. The darker the crystal orb becomes, the more mana your heart can hold. You recently told me that one of these orbs turned dark black when you first touched it. That means your heart has great potential for black mana.”

Stryg nodded, “That makes sense. Professor Gette said I’m the most skilled black mage among his class, of course I can’t cast necromancy spells, so I still didn’t score that great.”

“Well, Stryg, let’s have a proper exam this time, to see where all your talents lie,” Loh picked up one of the orbs.

“This orb is set to absorb black mana. I know you’ve already practiced with black magic and have even been tested, but we’re doing the exam thoroughly this time. So, let’s start here,” she handed him the chrome-probe.

Stryg held it in his left hand.

“Just relax and let the mana flow through,” Loh said.

He nodded and took slow deep breaths. He could feel the mana flow through his heart, through his veins, and into the orb. The clear crystal magestone absorbed the inky black mana and became pitch black.

“Mana is ethereal energy and therefore normally invisible to the eye. But, through magestones we can see mana’s true beauty,” Loh said.

“It really is pretty.” The corners of Stryg’s mouth turned up.

“Okay, you're a talented chromatic black, check. Next.” Loh handed him another chrome-probe.

Stryg picked it up and watched as the clear magestone was dyed a dark grey.

“Dark as well, it’s to be expected. You have been training in grey magic, so it makes sense why your grey mana limits would already be high. Still, you cast an advanced grey drain spell on your first day of class, so I don’t doubt that your original limit was quite high too.”

Stryg placed the orb on the table, “Here’s to hoping I actually have some talent in the other grey spell form.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll teach you curse spells soon enough. Now, for the real fun part, this next one is set to absorb orange mana,” she grinned.

They both stared as the clear magestone transformed into a dark orange.

“That’s my apprentice, talented in the same three colors as me,” she laughed.

Stryg sighed in relief, he had hoped, yet there was still doubt in his mind.

“Looks like luck has brought us together, kid. This is worth celebrating. Let’s go out to eat, my treat,” Loh smiled.

“Sounds great, I haven’t gone out to eat in a while,” Stryg returned the smile.

“Okay, but first,” she picked up another chrome-probe, “Let’s finish the test. You never know.”

“Understood,” he reached out and grabbed the enchanted magestone.

He never thought he would be lucky enough to be a tri-manifold mage and now he was talented in all three chromatic colors. Despite all the horrid things that had happened, he was grateful for this. Fate, it seemed, had a funny way of doing things.

His eyes widened as the magestone turned a dark green.

“I’ll be damned,” Loh whistled.

“I-I don’t understand,” Stryg stammered.

“It just means you are super lucky,” Loh grinned.

She grabbed the chrome-probe and passed him another, “Don’t stress about it. Once in a while a student comes along with four colors, it’s quite uncommon, but not unexpected. Although, their mana limits tend to be quite low.”

Her smile fell, the magestone’s clarity transformed into a dark blue hue.

~~~

Loh tapped her foot incessantly as she sat in the luxurious waiting room.

The vampiress secretary bowed her head deeply, “The principal is ready for you now.”

“About damn time,” Loh stood up, pushed past the vampiress, and swung the principal’s office door open.

Hollow Shade’s most powerful mage sat at his ornate desk, skimming over a few tomes.

Mage lord Elzri didn’t bother to look up at the intrusion, “So, you finally decided to come.”

Loh clenched her jaw and stood her ground, “I’m not here for you, grandfather.”

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