After the incident with the sheep pen, Deku's little quest group had gone farther South. Sir Tenya and Squire Yuga had split off from them after the forest in order to go find a town and resupply themselves, as they were sorely lacking, but they promised to meet them in a town named Stoneburrow.
When Deku and his three companions, along with Dark Shadow, finally found this town, they saw it got its name from a dried up, old riverbed that was lined with smoothed stones that ran alongside the town. Apparently now they used wells.
The Blight hadn't hit it yet, and the town seemed unusually busy, no doubt because hungry people from all over were flocking to the towns and cities that still had food and supplies.
Tsuyu commented that this would put too great a strain on their resources, especially since people couldn't really pay for it, often.
"So a lot of them have become thieves," she said. "Not sure one can blame them, really, but I always felt thievery was a lowdown thing to stoop to."
"But if you're starving..." Ochaco said sadly.
They stopped to rest under a tree along one street, and Deku took the opportunity to borrow some parchment from Ochaco and write down what Ibara had prophesied, at least what he could remember:
"You must learn how to use it ever so much more quickly, for it has never been as dark as it is now. I sense that many errors have led us here, and they must be rectified.
"All things are connected. Whatever mistakes made by man and mystical creatures will flow into the Strength of the Darkness. Whatever peace you make will strengthen the Sword. For it was once called the Symbol Of Peace for all creatures, magical and human, beast and spirit.... If that light goes out, the land will perish to the Blight, and not even the gods will stop it. Where no one carries the light, there is no reason for it to shine. Remember this warning." [See the full prophecy in chapter 10, if you want.]
"How's it coming?" Ochaco asked, looking over his shoulder.
"I think I remember most of it," Deku said. "Did you know the SOL was once called the 'Symbol of Peace'? I hadn't heard that."
"That's interesting," Ochaco said. "I always thought the SOL was magic.... But magic, it's funny, it doesn't bring people peace."
"There's no spell for that?" Deku said.
Ochaco shrugged. "Not anything a mage like me would know.... I've heard that the Dark Mages can give a sort of serenity, but it's not very stable, and it has a price, like all dark magic. But you hear sometimes of people giving into grief and looking for it. I always was told they went a little funny in the head after they did. But good mages don't try to alter emotions, Deku.... That's dangerous. People feel what they feel for a reason...but Divine gifts can bring peace, I've heard. I haven't studied Divine Magic much."
"But if it's magic, then didn't you just say it wouldn't work?" Deku said.
"Well, magic is a blanket term, Deku," Ochaco said, a bit pedantic but it was cute from her. "Magic mostly just means any force beyond natural methods. But there's Nature Magic, like sprites and elves and gnomes and things have, which doesn't go beyond the environment. And there's handy magic like Mages have, and battle magic which is basically a cousin to it, like the warriors and royals have. And there's Dark Magic, which is fueled off all the bad things that are forbidden to use. All of it is a little different from each other. Divine Magic isn't really magic, but what else would we call it? It's beyond our minds, but the power of the gods is something else."
"Ibara sure seemed to think the SOL was Divine." Deku opened his hand to look at it carefully. "It's so small right now...it's hard to believe. Do you really think it could be?"
