Of light and shadow

Jin

Another week passed where Erinara and I simply followed our daily routines. I spent most my time learning runic systems and training for the upcoming combat, either by myself or by sparring with Erinara.
Erinara continued to tutor me in the ways of magic. Sometimes Lazzal would walk by seeing us work, immediately pouncing at the chance to talk about runes. Most the time she was completely overshooting my level of knowledge, but I appreciated the help nonetheless.
Thanks to my studies, I had slowly become able to see mana being drawn into normal sized runes, and simple reagent-based spells.
My goal of learning how to cast magic myself came closer.

Erinara was currently teaching me a new rule to apply to runes.
“Ah, miss Erinara, Jin Eaglecrest”, Kayon appeared in the study, “I have come to inform you that master Ebiron has returned. He has teleported to the war room and was quickly wrapped up with tasks there. We will have a discussion of the current situation later over dinner, will you join us?”
“Certainly. Thank you for informing us Kayon”, Erinara replied.
Kayon briefly bowed and swiftly exited the study, leaving Erinara and me alone once again.

“I think I’ll reveal my new free casting light magic today. Can I ask you to be with me then?”, Erinara asked, brushing up against the side of my body.
“Of course, I’ll be right by our side. I will help you to the best of my abilities”, I assured her, placing a hand on the back of her head.
“Thank you”, Erinara said, a soft glimmer in her eyes.

A few hours later everyone had gathered in the dining hall.

“Vorial and I have been making great progress with the mana collection system. It is about half way completed! Wouldn’t you say so Vorial?”, Lazzal said. Vorial simply nodded shortly. Then the executive of progress continued:
“We tested the system numerous times on a smaller scale. It won’t be functional until I have completed the glyphs. We should be able to start saving up mana by next week. All in all, nothing too interesting has happened.”
Vorial only added: “Steady.”
“The locations for shadow’s eye have been adequately prepared”, Ebiron stated, “I will be able to help your endeavors directly now. Erinara, I thank you for acting as a substitute while I was away.”
“It was my pleasure”, Erinara said.
Ebiron nodded.
“Our next goal is to find a way to split shadow’s eye into multiple simultaneous casts”, he continued.
The executives talked more about their concept for the combined spell. If I understood correctly, the runes are supposed to gather magic, which is then relayed to a complicated system of magical reagents created by Vorial, which then in turn release the mana to power Ebiron’s spell. They still had to finetune those components to Ebiron’s specific magic type in addition to what Ebiron just stated.

Just as they finished their conversation alongside their meal and wanted to dismiss the meeting, Erinara spoke up.

Erinara

“I have another topic I would like to discuss please.”
Jin reached out to grasp my left hand under the table.
“Certainly. What is on your mind, my disciple?”, Ebiron asked.
I squeezed Jin’s hand briefly and took a deep breath.

“As you know, my innate magic type is shadow”, I began, conjuring shadowy tendrils from my right hand. I retracted them right after, continuing with what I wanted to say:
“However, I have recently acquired a new innate magic type of light. My theory is that this development could happen as a side effect of being an omen, but how that came to be is uncertain. If you look at my omen markings, before I got this magic type I only had two parallel dark blue lines, now a golden one lies between them. Furthermore, I can’t use shadow and light at the same time. I wanted to ask you executives if you had any ideas on how this could happen.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, letting a warmth grow throughout my body. In the next moment, a light wreathed in molten gold with reddish orange streaks surrounded me.
Jin was stroking the back of my hand with his thumb to comfort me. I hadn’t requested that of him, but it made me feel at ease nonetheless.

“Most interesting, I assume that it must be connected to being an omen in some way as well”, Ebiron commented.
“Unique”, Vorial said, lowering his head deeply. He seemed to be absorbed in thought trying to find an answer.
“Light magic? How long have you had it? How did you learn it? Was something unusual happening? This is intriguing! Is the light similar to the shadow? Has anything changed about your shadows in the meantime? How come you use reagent magic, rune magic and innate magic? I’ve been wondering about that too!”, Lazzal instantly shifted into high gear, asking all these questions in a single breath.
“Pace yourself, Lazzal”, Ebiron said calmly, “give Erinara room to explain. And stay on topic, if you would.”
“Fine! Then tell me when you learned it, please!”, Lazzal narrowed down her questions.
“I unlocked it almost two weeks ago”, I replied.
“Such a short time frame! What were you doing when you discovered it?”, the executive of progress continued.
Both Jin and I froze up. How had I not seen that question coming? If I was in their position, that would have been one of the first things I’d ask too.
“That- Uhm. It happened when…”, I trailed off to silence. I felt a sense of embarrassment growing stronger. Jin tightened his grip on my hand slightly, helping me stay grounded.
“Come on! I wanna know! Please?”, Lazzal continued.
“Lazzal. Silence”, Vorial raised a hand, interrupting her calmly without even looking up, “Continue when ready.”
I steadied myself, focusing my mind on Jin’s touch.
“I discovered it while being true to myself and having faith in a choice of mine.”
By this point I was regretting not using shadow concealment anymore, as a deep shade of pink had found itself on my face. Continuing still, I said:
“The innate magic came to me as I was being honest about my love for Jin.”
I turned to look at Jin. Despite his actions trying to help me stay calm, the blush on his face was worse than mine.
“Oh my! I see! My mistake, I didn’t mean to pry!”, Lazzal spoke up again, “My, how interesting! An inherited Hero-crest and the disciple of change! Emotions as a catalyst for a magic type? Fascinating, very fascinating!”
Trying to steer the topic away from my relationship with Jin, I proposed my hypothesis of the innate magics of light and shadow being partly my own and an omen’s again.
“Not emotion. Self-Acceptance. Agreed”, Vorial said calmly while raising his head, silencing the room again.
Ebiron brushed over his chin for a moment.
“The two of you must be right Erinara, Vorial. Magic, while potentially empowered by emotions, does not let itself be acquired by them. However, something that free casting warlocks have described is that they needed to accept themselves to gain their innate magic. By that reasoning, Erinara, your innate magic is light, and your quality of being an omen has transformed it to shadow, although we can not know how it has done so. Something during the interaction must have changed to allow you to access your natural innate magic”, Ebiron reasoned.

The executives continued to discuss potential reasons for me having access to two innate magic types, but couldn’t come up with any valid reason. All they could do was label me as a one of a kind case for now.
Most my attention had been diverted from their discussion, however.

‘You are simply Erinara to me’, resounded through my mind.
“Of course”, I said quietly, only for Jin to hear, smiling softly. I tightened my grip on his hand twice in quick succession.

Only because of him have I seen myself as something more than an omen. That must have been the final key.

The innate magic of a person was a representation of their soul.

Thanks to Jin, my soul had finally been made whole.