Preparations

Erinara

Some days had passed since the executives arrived in the citadel. Their behavior was a bit eccentric, but they were never bothersome. Lazzal used any chance she got to ask whoever crossed her path a barrage of questions, which was something one simply had to get used to.

For the most part, Vorial and her stuck to the war room, working on complicated combinations of runes and reagents to power the magic ritual used in their plan.
Every so often, Vorial and Lazzal would request my assistance, in order to get a real time example of the shadow magic my mentor used.
I explained that while similar, my innate magic wasn’t a mirror of his, but the executives assured me that the approximation was enough for the start.
Or rather, all Vorial said was: “Close enough.”
I was happy to oblige, helping where I could.
Ebiron had yet to return from his mission of marking areas for the use of shadow’s eye in the kingdom of crests.

Whenever the executives weren’t in need of my aid, I was constantly working on understanding the new magic that had found itself within me, barring the time I used to teach Jin. I was making small but steady progress with every passing day.
It began with me being able to shape the wafts of light slightly. I also learned to increase the amount of mana I could saturate the radiance with, thus increasing its protective and healing effects for anyone within its range. I tested this out by getting very close to Jin, not rarely ending with both of us blushing.

Jin and I tried to find as much time to spend together as possible, leading to us finding each other in the study often. We also continued to hold sparring matches.

We would spend residual free time in one of our rooms, like today. I hardly saw him all day as I was with the executives until just a few minutes ago. Jin was maintaining his armor, while I continued to experiment with my innate magic types.
“How was your time helping Lazzal and Vorial today?”, Jin asked me while sitting on the floor, where he was currently taking care of his armor’s chestplate.
“It was intriguing. Lazzal was in the process of creating an enormous glyph to collect mana. She was dead silent while doing that, can you imagine?”, I said.
“Lazzal being silent? I can’t say she’d strike me as someone who’d be the quiet type, no”, Jin laughed quietly.
“Right? It was almost scary”, I chuckled, “In fairness, the very moment she finished her work on the rune she returned to her normal self, instantly firing off question after question about my shadow magic. I even showed her the emergency beacon Ebiron and I had built. Lazzal was so impressed with the beacon that she went ahead and showed off the runes she was creating for the combination spell with utter glee. They are currently in the first part of the plan, creating a system that draws and stores mana from its surroundings for weeks. Vorial has been using reagent-based magic to combine with Lazzal’s runes, to further increase their efficiency. They have made impressive progress in just a few days already.”
I recalled the look of the war room, where one of the walls was already all but completely covered in glyphs that incorporated various magic reagents. The spell they were working on truly was of a ridiculous magnitude. Jin had seen that too, of course, it was almost impossible to not be dragged into the room by Lazzal after all.
“You’re able to keep up with the executives in magic, that is awe inspiring. You’re nothing short of amazing, Erinara.”
For a second, I lost focus due to his comment, letting the magical light I was gathering in my hand disperse.
“It’s nothing like that”, I said, trying to regain control of my magic after the momentary lapse created by my heart beating louder, “I just happen to have learned enough of magic to have a decent grasp of everything. I would not be able to replicate what they are doing.”
“And yet, you have mastered your innate magic of shadows and are learning to harness the light while helping the executives whenever you can. From what they told me, they don’t even access their innate magic. Don’t you think that at least puts you on the same playing field as them? Not to mention you being the only warlock in the entire land to have two innate magic types”, Jin said.
“They have an even higher degree of mastery over their respective spell schools. But in regards to the free casting though, you are right. Only very few warlocks use it in general, but it has long since been set in stone that every mage only has one innate type. I am still trying to completely pinpoint what makes me different. The best I’ve got is my first theory, that my innate magic is light and it got turned into shadow due to being an omen.”
“Have you talked to the executives about it?”
“For now, you are the only one who knows of my newly found light. I wanted to wait until Ebiron returns to discuss it with them, and I also wanted to have somewhat of a grasp of how this magic works first.”
Jin nodded his head in understanding.

A comfortable silence covered us.

After a bit of time, Jin’s voice cut through the room.
“Hey Erinara, can I ask you for some advice please?”, he asked, his tone lined with turmoil.
“Of course. What do you need?”, I replied, instantly having shifted my focus from my golden magic to him.
Dismissing the luminescence, I moved to his side, sitting down on the floor next to him.
“Regarding the coming confrontation”, he began, “I’ve been thinking about my connection to the kingdom of crests. I want to help the people of the kingdom, it is my duty, but I also would never want to return to that place myself.”
Jin paused for a moment.
“I’d have no qualms with never going back to the kingdom. Isn’t that odd?”, he asked.
“I hardly believe that to be unusual”, I replied after some thought, “It is very much like you to embody a protective aspect wanting to help the people, but I don’t think it has to be your duty. In the same vein, it is natural to want peace for yourself. You can fight for the people but not have to stay with them, I’d say.”
Jin had turned to the right to face me.
He raised his hand, softly running it down the side of my face.
“You seem to have a talent for finding the exact right thing to say every time. You’re right. I’m sorry, it appears as if the thought of fighting for the kingdom’s people made me slip into the mindset of a prophetic hero again without realizing. I will fight to help, but I won’t restrain myself to only being their protector”, he got quiet for a second, his fingers calmly caressing my face.
“Thank you, Erinara.”

I let a soft light of molten gold encase us as I stayed by Jin’s side while he returned to working on his armor.