The lightbringer

Finally some answers

Lucy strikes first, she engulfs her right fist in fire and attempts to hit Adam in the face but he dodges it. He snaps and a small light orb swiftly lifts into the sky, it explodes and emits a brief  flash of light which blinds the three mages for a second. The bearded mage makes himself a stone cocoon to protect himself, Lucy leaps back and makes a flame thrower with her left arm, blindly spraying flames where Adam was supposed to be. He anticipated her attack, Adam knows that he needs to fight fast to overwhelm her so that she has to rely on her instincts, which he knows the patterns of. He moved towards the last mage and tried to hit him but it turned out he faked being blinded by the light and counters Adam's blow with a huge gust of wind which surprises Adam and disorients Lucy who falls on her side. Adam however is thrown off the roof of the building and just before painfully hitting the ground, he "light leaps" back up onto the roof. The air mage and Lucy looked surprised that Adam was capable of this, he says " Surprised? " and Lucy answers " You are not the only one with new tricks, Gregory! ".

The man in the stone cocoon bursts out and is entirely covered in a solid rock armour! He rushes towards Adam and tries to hit him but his massive stone arms are way too slow and Adam effortlessly dodges it. All of a sudden, a human arm bursts right out the stone chest and hits Adam in the ribs. Gregory made fake stone arms while his real ones were inside his armour, a clever move. This powerful blow knocked the air out of Adam's lungs but he manages to stumble into leaning on the armour, he sticks one arm in the hole left by Gregory's punch and lights his arm up as much as possible. This turned the armor into a giant lantern, the stone started to crumble and Gregory was on his knees covering his eyes with his hands and his whole body was sunburned. 

Lucy was now enraged and Adam didn't know if he would be able to stop her this time, especially since he has not fully recovered from Gregory's hit yet, Adam can't remember ever being hit that hard. Lucy leaps towards Adam and while in the air, engulfs both her fists in fire. She hits him, again and again, Adam puts his arms in front of him to protect himself but the fire burning his skin was terribly painful. She is fighting with anger and she makes a lot of mistakes but Adam simply does not have the energy to counterattack and punish her. Her hits are slowly increasing in speed, power and intensity, Adam is being beaten into the ground. 

Suddenly, when Adam was about to pass out from the pain, a thunder strike from the opposing building head towards Lucy. The air mage who saw Steger-Lewis shortly before, had the quick reflex to push Lucy out of the way with a strong gust of wind and was the one to get struck by the lightning instead. He falls down and Lucy runs towards him " Remes, are you ok? ", he did not answer but he luckily still had a pulse. Steger Lewis comes to stand next to Adam, who is severely hurt and covered in burns. Adam was barely conscious but still mad at his acolyte for stepping in and showing his powers but who knows what would have happened if he didn't intervene?

"What have you done to him?" asks Lucy in a worried but also angered tone. Steger-Lewis answers " Don't worry, it was just strong enough to knock him out. ". They all wait there while she cares for her teammate, Adam speaks up in a broken weak voice " Lucy, I did not want this to happen... ". Still carried away by her emotions, she engulfs her fists in fire again and leaps in Adam's direction. Steger-Lewis steps in front of Adam and electrifies his hand which he points in her direction, she slows down and stops right in front of him. They gauge each other for a moment and he gives her a look meaning " You don't want this. ", she backs off and takes a runic stone from her pocket. She walks towards both her teammates and touches them with the stone. They are instantly lit up with a strong purple light and disappear, she looks at Adam " This isn't over, they'll send us back and you know it! ", he nods and she taps herself with the stone. Steger-Lewis helps Adam stand back up and takes his arm to carry him inside. The bard was waiting inside the hallway " Oh, wow... are you ok man? ", Steger-Lewis signals Adam not to speak. " I'll take over for now. We need to move, our location is compromised and I don't know the people who attacked us but I am quite sure they'll send other people soon. ". Houben says " Let's go into the woods and rest there until Adam is well enough to continue everything we were doing. ", Steger-Lewis answers " Good plan. " and Adam does a little thumbs up. 

All of them take their horses and head into the forest, after a while the thunder mage stops and says " This is a good spot, let's set up camp. ". They all lay down their stuff, Adam puts down his blanket and goes to lies on it with a loud grunt, the bard sits down with his mandoline and Steger-Lewis climbs in the tree and finds a comfortable position. A few moments pass and the bard plays a few notes and start humming some of his songs. Adam was in pain but hearing the birds chant, being surrounded by nature like this and having Houben play some background music allowed him to relax. 

Suddenly Adam remembers and asks the bard " So how about you tell us about that long forgotten mysterious song you were talking about earlier? ", " Yes, of course ", the notes he was playing shift to a lower and calmer melody, it decreases in speed and intensity. He clears his throat and starts " When Sun and music come together, a quest for the fundamental elements will have begun, an invisible threat to the world, will require unity in diversity to be rendered powerless, a precious artefact endangers magic, sacrifice is unavoidable, strength is a result of balance and peace... ", Houben ends the melody with a low note. The bard says " This song has always pointed us to believe that the sun and music were possibly events happening at end or start of the day but what if... ", Adam interrupts him " I am the sun and you are the music!". The bard tilts his head slightly to the side, he stands up and says " Lads, this is not a mere song, it's a goddamned prophecy! A prophecy about us! ", he seemed quite enthusiastic while Adam looked grim and saw it more as a curse. " Why are you happy? This just means our fate is set in stone and to be honest I do not like the part about sacrifice. ", Steger-Lewis steps in " He's excited because prophecies have only been written about very important individuals or about huge turning points in history. This is a true honor but I can understand your perspective as well. ".

While Houben was playing some middle-aged festive party songs, Adam was trying really hard to decypher the long forgotten song. Steger-Lewis says " We know that this weird song is about you but there is no point in trying to decypher it. They are written in such a cryptic way and it has often a different meaning than the one you are imagining. I have a question though, ealier today why couldn't I show my powers? Or why were you amazed by them? ", Adam either had to tell them he came from the future or make up some fake story... a short silence... " I come from the future. ". Steger-Lewis and the bard look at each other and burst out in laughter. Adam expected such a reaction, that statement must sound ridiculous to them but it was still frustrating for Adam. " Guys, listen, I am telling the truth! Steger-Lewis, remember after our battle with the 3 wizards, Lucy tapped her teammates and herself with a runic stone. It was no teleportation stone but a time travel runic stone and for you Houben, the orange robe I was wearing, have you seen such a fabric before in your life? ". They think for a second and things actually start to slowly fall into place. 

Adam speaks up again " The reason I am so shocked by your thunder bending is because I never knew it existed. From the time I'm from, all of us mages go to the mage academy and are taught how to use our powers safely and for good. We were also taught about the various magical energies and what each energy is capable of but never once has thunder bending been mentioned! Why did they hide this from us?! " and Steger-Lewis asks " Why wasn't Lucy Pope impressed by my powers? ". Adam answers " She was in the zone, when she fights she simply sees things as either harmful or not. That's the only thing she cares about but she's probably still reporting this to the mages higher council , we should expect some company in the next few days... ". This was definitely an evening with a lot of information to process for everybody. The members of the party then agreed on who would keep watch and at which times before some of them dozed off to enjoy a well earned nap.