Kidd and Akai were behind the house, practicing using their powers more. To get around not putting too much strain on their bodies, They were seeing what they could do for range attacks.

  It took them a few hours but Kidd managed to come up with something. He brought his hands together and arcs of lightning formed between his palms. He was able to make it grow more intense and then pushed his hands forwards, the lightning jolting forwards. But after a few feet, it diverted straight down to the ground. This was the best Kidd could manage for now.

  Akai thought back to one of his dreams and decided to envelop his fist with flame. His fire was a normal orange flame right now, he was scared to try and call on the heat inside himself to make it turn yellow like before. But when he punched out, he tried to throw the heat with it. Small bolts of fire did jet forwards after his punch, but like Kidd’s attempts it didn’t survive further than a few feet. Akai imagined throwing a fire ball but it had the same end result as well, the fire extinguished after it left contact with him.

  They didn’t get much progress on advancing this, though. Because they heard a shout coming from the house.

  “Kidd Fuller! You are in so much trouble!” before a very angry Christie began stomping from around the corner. Kidd sighed and knew the jig was up. If he ran away now his mother would probably break his legs to keep him from doing it again.

  Kidd put up his hands and tried to give his mother a smile but before he could say anything, she was pinching his ear and dragging him away. “Ow, ow, Mom, easy” he muttered but she said “easy? You want easy? This is my easy! I swear to the gods, Kidd, do you want to give me a heart attack?”

  Akai watched as Kidd was dragged away, and soon Liam was being pulled along too. Luckily Liam was only being pulled by his wrist and not his ear like their son.

  With that, Akai went back inside. Kidd was thoroughly in trouble now so they couldn’t train any more. He rested for the rest of the day and went to check on Lamorie. Though, he didn’t need to walk inside the smithy to hear how she was doing.

  Retching was heard coming from upstairs before Lamorie loudly whined “This is so unbelievably gross, mom! Please, why is this medicine so gross!”

  “Looks like she wasn’t able to keep that secret away from her parents,” he muttered.

  He stepped in and saw Drake already at the forge making nails by the dozen.

  “Good morning, boy.” Drake said before they heard Lamorie’s whining continue upstairs. Akai saw Drake trying to suppress some kind of emotion.

  “Is the medicine that bad?” Akai asked and saw a shiver run up Drake’s spine.

  “Yeah, that stuff Emmie makes is horrid. The most bitter thing I’ve ever tasted, but it helps recovery more than anything else I’ve tried.”

  Akai gave a sympathetic look, not feeling so bad about the minty salve he had put on him now.

  “You can go back home and rest, though. Be better for the festival. I can handle the forge myself till then.” Drake said, waving Akai away.

  “Are you sure?” Akai asked, Drake answering with “Of course, boy. Go home and rest.”

  Akai let out a soft sigh, not sure what to do for the rest of the day. He got up and said “Thank you, Mr. Holt” politely before heading out.

  For the next few days, Akai stayed home. He stayed inside and began re-reading some of their books; they didn’t have many due to books not being super easy to produce. Though, books weren’t as expensive as they could be. Scholars wanting to awaken sorcery did a lot of reading and writing both, so books were often copied by them as part of their training.

  Akai even once heard some of the awakened sorcerers even use magic to copy books to make money when not doing other things. But he wasn’t sure if that was true or not.

  When not inside reading, Akai was outside. As he was about to practice with his fire again, Rei stepped out with the crutch. “Hey!” Rei called, Akai stopped and turned around.

  “Got a moment? I had an idea I wanted to share with you.”

  Akai nodded and when his father sat down on the grass, Akai did so as well. Rei spoke up saying “When I was back in the army as a scout, we had an officer who was awakened with a blessing from Niohlenth.”

  Niohlenth, Akai remembered, was the god of death. Depicted as a gentle figure with pale skin and dark robes. Guiding those who had passed to the afterlife which he presides over.

  Akai remembered a story about Niohlenth once coming to claim the soul of an evil king who refused to leave his throne even after having his subjects revolt and kill him. The king fought back and Niohlenth had summoned a simple hand scythe and a chain. The chain wrapped around the sword and shattered it, then bound the king’s body. The scythe was used to cut his soul from his body like cutting grain from the field. The chains then wrapped around the king’s soul and pulled him to the underworld, where he would spend an eternity reflecting on his evil ways.

  “Akai, you there?” Rei asked, waving his hand in front of Akai’s face. Akai shook his head and asked “huh? Yeah, what did you want to tell me?”

  Rei shook his head and said “Don’t space out like that, it’s impolite.” before getting to what he wanted to say.

  “Anyways. We had an officer with a blessing too, though his affinity was with shadows. But he used it like you can use your fire. Strengthening himself.”

  Akai nodded along and asked “What was his name?” and Rei shrugged. “I don’t remember. I don’t remember much about him. But part of his training wasn’t just throwing attacks or working out his muscles. He sat in one place and focused to control his powers better. He practiced controlling shadows by making things out of them. You could try that with your fire.”

  Akai softly nodded, thinking about it some. It did make sense, control was the thing he lacked the most right now.

  “Meditating is something that he did often, which is what I just described.” Rei gently leaned forwards and ruffled Akai’s shaggy silver hair and said “That’s something you can do when you’re tired or recovering. You don’t need to move much to do it.”

  Akai smiled brightly and nodded, saying “Yes sir, I’ll give that a try.” before getting up. He helped his dad stand up and walk back to the house. Rei was going to take a while before he could comfortably walk on his injured leg again.

  Akai did exactly what his father suggested. He sat down and tried to focus. He conjured the fire and did practice making it follow his commands. He could manipulate the fire fairly easily, but his normal fire wasn’t what gave him trouble..

  Reluctantly, Akai did try calling forth the heat in his chest. He did it slowly and it did feel uncomfortable, but doing it gently didn’t seem to cause pain. Soon, the fire around him began to change as he let the heat move from inside him to the outside. The fire changed to have a few streaks of golden yellow through it, but any more than just this began to hurt immensely, feeling like it was burning his insides. Akai let go of that heat and clutched his chest as he took deep breaths. The first few were incredibly hot and felt like exhaling steam but as he breathed, it cooled down.

  He checked over himself and didn’t feel any lasting pain or injury. “That felt dangerous..” he muttered. “I shouldn’t do that too often, but maybe I can get better at it.”

  Akai spent the rest of the day focusing on trying to get a better grasp on his power.

  Before the sun set, he walked to Lamorie’s and Kidd’s houses. His mother made some fried veggie balls for dinner and wanted him to bring a few to them.

  Akai shared what his father suggested with Lamorie, who was not that hungry because of the medicine.

  “So, you're saying I should try sitting still and controlling the power instead?”

  Akai nodded, saying. “I’m thinking maybe you could increase how much strength you have.. Your affinity is water too, so, maybe you could learn how to do some stuff with that. I can conjure and control fire some so maybe you could do the same with water.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  She thought for a moment and nodded. “That’s fair, but I’m not sure what to do..”

  “Well, I’d love to help but I’m not sure how your powers work.” He said softly.

  After a moment, Lamorie perked up and said “I’ll give it a shot and tell you how it goes.”

  “Thanks, I’ll tell the same to Kidd. Well, assuming his mom would let me.”

  Lamorie looked at Akai and sighed dramatically. She put a hand on his shoulder and said “You lived a good life, Akai..”

  Causing him to laugh a little.

  Giving Lamorie a gentle side hug, he stood up and left. Though, when he hugged her he didn’t know why her cheeks turned red. Akai hoped she wasn’t getting sick because that would suck on top of her hurt body.

  Akai went to Kidd’s home and Christie was glaring daggers at Akai, she sorta blamed him and Lamorie for Kidd getting hurt. Liam was the one that invited him inside and Akai shared the same info with Kidd in front of his parents. Which made Christie’s stare flip like a switch.

  “Oh, that’s wonderful. He can prepare for the academy without getting hurt. Hear that, sweetie?” the over-protective mother said with a smile. Catching Kidd by surprise who stared at his mom in shock.

  Liam took the food from Akai and whispered. “Might wanna head out before Christie gets any ideas.” Akai nodded and headed out, leaving Kidd to his new fate.

  Over the week, Kidd, Lamorie, and Akai all stayed at their homes practicing the meditation thing Rei suggested. Akai hadn’t felt like he made too much progress, and was unaware of how Lamorie and Kidd were progressing.

  Time did begin to fly and soon enough, Akai found himself in his room. His mother was making him wear his nice clothes and styling his hair for him. “Is this really necessary?” Akai asked as his mother was brushing his hair. “Yes it is. This whole celebration is about you and your friends, so you gotta look your best.” she told him. Grabbing a black cloth hair tie, Jennifer pulled the hair from behind his ears and back into a short pony tail. Leaving his bangs and a little extra in tact. He had a nice vest over a shirt tucked into his pants. His mother even polished his shoes for him which Akai thought may have been a bit too much. But he knew better than to complain too much so he let her get him ready. His mom seemed to be having fun doing it either way.

  Once Akai was dressed properly, she said “Now, come down and eat. I made pancakes.”

  Akai smiled and rushed downstairs. He saw Lacy sitting at the table with her own plate stacked with pan cake. She was wearing a very pretty green dress and had her strawberry blonde hair behind her in a lovely looking braid. He tried not to stare a bit but he couldn’t stop himself from saying “You look really nice today, Lacy.”

  “Oh, thank you..” She replied, but turned to look at the pancakes. She gently placed a few fingers over her burn scar on her left cheek, still rather self conscious about it. But she seemed to take the compliment well.

  Akai grabbed a plate and sat down. He soon saw his father coming down with his mother’s help, Rei was walking better now but he definitely still needed the crutch to walk on his own. Akai cheerfully said “good morning, dad!” before taking a bite of the pancakes. Buttered and had some sweet berries in them.

  Rei gave Akai a mock salute with a smirk before he sat down at the table as well. Jennier returning with two plates and the four of them sat together eating.

  Between bites, Akai did share some info about his dreams. Saying “I had another one of those dreams again, but it wasn’t anything too important this time.”

  Akai began to describe the dream like he had many times before. He was in the role of the knight which he now knew was named the Phoenix King Ken.

  The Phoenix king was standing on the edge of a training field outside of the keep of the city they were in. Everywhere below this elevated plateau the fortified keep rested on, the locals were preparing to host festivities regarding the upcoming marriage he was still surprised was happening. The King’s attention was drawn back to his squire, the kid with a mild tan and dark hair that had purple hues to it. The king raised a wooden sword and parried a flurry of incoming attacks before skillfully moving, disarming, then lightly tapping the boy with his sword.

  “You’re getting better, Itsü. Keep up at this rate and when you’re grown you’ll make a wonderful champion.”

  The kid looked up, his black eyes beaming with pride at the compliments. “Yes sir, thank you.” he said before running to retrieve his training sword.

  “That should be enough for today, though.” The king said. “Catch.”

  After tossing the sword, his squire, Itsü, grabbed it out of the air. He returned them to an equipment rack.

  Some days, Ken couldn’t believe that he became the king of this land. His clan won the nomination and his father gracefully let him assume the throne, staying back and remaining as head of the vassal clan. As Ken was lost in this thought, he heard noise behind him. Turning, one of the royal guards was tripped over and the gate heading into this training field was opened by a swarm of kids from the city.

  A smile spread across the king’s face as the kids all rushed him. They were holding toy weapons, and soon the king was in the middle of a mock battle. The guard was getting up but a quick look from the king told him to leave it be.

  Itsü was a good bit older than these kids so he didn’t feel right to join in, staying off to the side.

  Ken played along and soon was ‘defeated’ and made an overly dramatic scene where he was slain in the middle of battle. He lowered to the ground and closed his eyes. Soon hearing a couple whines of the kids. “Noo, we didn’t want to kill you.” and “Don’t be dead!”

  He only opened one eye and all the kids saw that, before he closed it again but couldn’t hold back a soft chuckle.

  A little more playing dead to tease them before he sat up. Then ushered the kids away to go play somewhere else because he did have things he had to do. Akai’s dream didn’t last much longer after that.

  Rei ruffled his hair and said “Ah, that was a cute dream. I remember playing something like that with you when you were smaller.”

  After breakfast, Akai and his family were brought into the village. He saw how much progress had been made since he decided to stay home. The village center was covered in all sorts of decorations and there was even an effigy to the god Miogh made by the farmers. Lanterns were set up around the village center, ready with candles to light once it gets dark.

  Right now in the morning, things were still being prepared and it was not officially time to celebrate. Akai saw two stands made next to each other. Twin sisters in their 40’s named Rena and Kara were decorating and he could tell from the looks they gave each other they were trying to consistently one-up one another.

  Rei, leaning on his wife, gently patted Akai then Lacy with his crutch. He told them “Go on, go socialize with the other youths. The celebration officially starts at noon so be back by then.”

  Akai nodded and ran off but Lacy looked a bit confused. Jennifer added “You too, Lacy. You’re 16 but you’re still just a girl. Go, find someone to make friends with.”

  A bit hesitantly, Lacy said “O-okay..” as she seemed quite nervous about this. Despite living here for a little over 2 years now, she hasn’t socialized much with some of the others.

  “Poor girl is still so worried about her scars.” Jennifer muttered to Rei as the teen began walking off.

  Akai soon found Kidd, or it would be more accurate to say Kidd found Akai.

  Akai felt a mild zap behind him as he walked and turned to see Kid holding out a hand with some sparking coming from it.

  “Tag” Is the only word he said before turning and running. He was fast, but he was not cheating and boosting his speed. Akai took only a second to know what was up before he started sprinting after the red headed kid.

  Over by the smithy, Lamorie was sitting at the dining table with a sullen look. She was all dressed up in a pretty green vest over a white shirt. A red skirt reached past her knees. But in front of her was a single cup with a deep dark green liquid inside of it. Lamorie could swear she saw a bubble rise in it as she looked up at her mother with desperate, pleading eyes.

  “Mom…” she whimpered before Emmie gave Lamorie the signature motherly look. Making the girl wince and realize she really had no way out of this.

  Drake, intentionally, was outside. He didn’t even want to look at that drink.

  “This is the last one, Lamorie. Drink it and you’re done.” Emmie said and Lamorie visibly pouted.

  She grabbed the cup and reflexively gagged when it got close to her lips. She took a deep breath and the green energy of her power began forming over her. She needed all the strength she had to be able to drink even just one more sip of this vile medicinal beverage.

  Once she had the courage, Lamorie brought it to her lips and tilted her head back. Gulping it down as fast as she could. As soon as the cup was empty, she dropped it onto the table and was retching from the bitter taste.

  Now that it was over, Emmie gave Lamorie some normal tea to which the girl swiftly gulped it down, trying to wash the taste of that medicine out of her mouth.

  “Good, now don’t strain yourself too much but you’re welcome to go out until the festival starts. Be in the village center by noon.” Emmie said before walking out. Lamorie quickly rose to her feet and took an unsteady step at first, but then a much more solid one after. She walked fairly normally at a casual pace, wanting to find her friends and get as far away from that wretched cup as fast as possible.

  Which, soon enough, she did. Spotting Akai running with Kidd chasing behind him.

  “Hey!” She called out, catching their attention. Akai stopped running abruptly and a moment later both he and Kidd came crashing to the ground. Kidd running into Akai at full speed, not expecting him to just suddenly stop.

  From the ground, Kidd groaned as Akai waved a hand, on his back and smiling up at Lamorie from the odd position. “Good morning”.

  Lamorie rolled her eyes and helped them up onto their feet and brushing the dust off their clothes. “Geez, you two. You’re wearing your nice clothes, be thankful this road is stone and not dirt.” She complained.

  “Hey, Lamorie, you feeling better?” Kidd said after she brushed off his back.

  “I’m walking, aren’t I?” She retorted,

  “Fair, fair, was that medicine really as bad as you were making it out to be?”

  “Gods, don’t mention that disgusting, vile, horrid drink. I don’t want to remember it. I can still taste it.” she said, almost shouting at him as she dusted off her own skirt after patting Akai’s shoulders off.