For you I would Split the Moon in Two

At some point Tiaria and I had broken into a sprint. Even at our pace it took around ten minutes to reach the Tabernacle. The townspeople were still confused, but the panic had died down. We rounded a corner road and came to the side of the stairs to the Tabernacle. I immediately noticed that, unlike before, in the place of the priests there were heavily armed soldiers wearing pristine ivory armor. One of them looked over at the two of us as we came to a stop from our run and immediately broke from his formation to jog down the stairs towards us. Well, towards Tiaria.

“Lord Apprentice.” The soldier skipped down the last few stairs and slammed his hand into his breastplate to make a salute.

I looked towards Tiaria. She had an extremely serious look on her face. She had flipped into her Lord Apprentice mode.

“Report.” Tiaria commanded with a cold voice.

“Ma’am, fifteen minutes ago a negative energy shock-wave arrived from the direction of the Time temple. We are still investigating the cause.” The Soldier stoically reported.

“The Time temple?” Tiaria said, seemingly questioning herself and not the soldier.

Suddenly the hairs on my arms stood straight up and I felt a deep chill. Tiaria must have noticed something too because her head snapped around to look straight towards the Tabernacle. A loud hum began to vibrate the air before a massive white pillar of light slammed into the tower of the Tabernacle. The soldiers immediately ran and took up defensive positions around the Tabernacle. Tiaria looked towards me.

“Lord Ariet has arrived. Wait here, Yu.” Tiaria turned back away from me and began walking up the stairs towards the Tabernacle.

I couldn’t shake the deeply unsettling feeling that was racing up my spine. There was something odd coming from inside of me, it wasn’t fear, but hatred. I clutched my chest, confused at my own feelings.

“I can’t come with you, Tiaria?” I asked weakly.

Tiaira looked towards me and shook her head. I wouldn’t be able to accompany her any longer. Tiaria once again began racing up the stairs. As commanded, I stayed behind. The soldiers all seemed tense, focusing on anyone near the temple. Just what was happening? This whole ordeal had been confusing for me. Waking up with no memories, fighting monsters, the weird atmosphere of the city. It was like I was surrounded by corpses. Everything felt so muted. It was like the bright pastel colors of the city only existed to hide the gray melancholy of the people, and now the only true color that I had seen was running away from me. But, what could I do? I knew nothing of what was happening here. A feeling of disgust started to creep up from my stomach. I sat down by the edge of the stairs leaning against the bottom pillar.

Some time had passed. My head was still leaning against the pillar by the stairs still and my mind was lost in thought about the strangeness of my experiences. After spending so much time thinking of how to describe the way that this world made me feel only one word truly stuck, dysphoric. It was like this was all wrong. Suddenly, I heard the large doors of the Tabernacle open. I moved over to the side and looked up the staircase. 

Tiaria appeared in the doorway. She looked very different. She had on A silver robe which refracted prismatically in the light. On her hip, replacing her normally worn down sword, was a larger silver sword, adorned with jewels of every color and type. Her normally shaggy hair was put up into a bun, with small strands hanging down on both sides of her face, woven into her bun was a round braid. Tiaria had a fierce look in her eyes, it was like she was a completely different person. Flanked on her sides and in front and behind of her were more ivory soldiers. Tiaria continued walking down the stairs until she and her entourage reached where I was sitting. I stood up to greet her.

“Good, you are still here.” Tiaria’s eyes were fiercely piercing into mine as she stared at me.

Tiaria moved her robe to the side and reached into a pocket underneath it to pull out a napkin which contained something inside of it. Tiaria held it out towards me.

“You didn’t get a chance to eat, take this and come with me.” Tiaria was quite scary at the moment, but she clearly still cared for me.

As soon as she handed me the food she started walking away from me. She momentarily looked back at me with a face that told me to follow her. The soldiers that surrounded her moved slightly to let me next to her as we walked.

“What’s going on Tiaria?” I asked as I unwrapped what was apparently a rice ball and took a small bite of it.

“At the Time temple to the North-east a scion of the Archon of Dimensions has taken hold of the mantle of space and is attempting to create a portal to summon the Archon himself.”

Tiaria’s face was extremely tense as she told me of this. On the other hand I must have held a blank expression because Tiaria looked at me and gave me a look of pity.

“What I mean is the bad guys are trying to steal power from one of the deceased gods.” Tiaria explained with a sweet tone.

“Ah.” I said with a nod and a hand gesture. “So we are going to stop them.”

“Yes, and I need your magic power to help me. For some reason your magic seems to work in the old way, you can actually restore your magic. I asked Lord Ariet about why she gave you that gift, interestingly, she had no idea who you were.” Tiaria gave me a glance from the side and then looked away with a wicked smile.

“Are you turning into a villain?” I said with a facetious scared voice.

Tiaria laughed. As we walked through the town, up unfamiliar streets, I realized just how much the air around us had changed. Tiaria walked with a confident grace, her hand on the hilt of her sword. The soldiers around us had a veteran stride, like returning to the battle field was returning home. It should have been obvious to me based on how well Tiaria had always fought, but she clearly had been in battle like this before. Tiaria suddenly stopped and looked back at me.

“I mean it Yu, you are the crux of this battle, the Scion won’t be expecting a true mage. Do you think you can do it?”

“For you, I would split the moon in two.” I said with a smile. Tiaria smiled back with the smile that I had grown so attached to.