The Unknown Divinity

Tea and Fire

Astraeus stares at Tiko, thinking to himself that he must be having another dream. Tiko shakes him a bit, "You look like you've seen a ghost, but I can assure you I am alive despite missing a good chunk of myself. But you still have both your arms so help me pour the cups'' Astraeus grabs the kettle and begins pouring while asking, "What happened after I passed out." Which Tiko responds, "You might not believe me." Once he is done, he sits firmly and says, "I am prepared."

Tiko recounts, "After you stabbed the brains out of Ark, you quite literally exploded into flames. Nearly got me too but then your flames were quenched by a frozen mist. It was enough to wake me up, I immediately wrapped my torn flesh and cauterized my wound using the flames that were coming off your body. Once Ark was fried, you finally fell to the ground and I got to work wrapping you up and disinfecting your wounds. Then I set up this quick camp and waited for you to wake up while preparing tea to the best of my one-handed abilities." He chuckles and Astraeus asks, "You don't seem to be disappointed that you are missing an arm?"

The man then says, "It was a great price to pay to watch that little show you put on for me, even if I only saw half of it and the other half was trying to keep myself from dying. But the next important question I have for you Astraeus is how in the seven hells did you not only use fire magic but was able to conjure up frost magic as well. I could understand the fire itself but ice magic is on the complete other spectrum, humanoids can only use one type of magic and its branches, not both." Astraeus begins to tense up and silently sips his tea. Tiko then sighs, "I know you have your own situations but you can trust me, I just want to know who exactly my savior is."

He then looks at Tiko and responds, "It is an even longer story." Tiko chuckles, "We already have tea so just go ahead." Astraeus then begins retelling his story but reveals details he left out. He says, "My father was the General Xander also known as the Light Mage, my mother apparently was the Dark Mage of Erebos." Tiko freezes once he mentions the two and calmly says, "Ah... Oh... That... So no wonder you seemed familiar."

Astraeus asks, "Familiar? Did you know Xander?" Tiko responds, "I did... not as friends but as acquaintances. Like I said, I served in the military of Fos and met him thirty-odd years ago when he just joined the army. This was right before I was discharged so I didn't get time to know him but we shared some drinks. You look nearly the same as him when he was fifteen, however he was much taller." Small flames begin to spark off Astraeus' body and then he calms himself down while saying, "I'm sorry Tiko, when someone brings up my height the flames..."

Tiko gently laughs, "No worries, but if you let those powers get out of control you could end up hurting yourself and others. Normally when someone gains magic they are forced to train how to use said magic for nearly a year. But you aren't a normal case, so training wasn't on the table for you when you got them." Astraeus melancholically says, "Yeah..." But Tiko says in kind, "Then all you need to do is train. Of course, it would be better to have someone who already knows magic to help you. I only know a little bit about it so I don't know much about it but since Ark is gone we don't need to leave the forest just yet. So let me ask you a final question: Astraeus."

Astraeus nods and Tiko asks, "Would you like to stay in this forest and learn how to use your magic so you don't blow yourself up in the middle of a city?" Astraeus begins to uncontrollably laugh, "You didn't need to word it like that!" Tiko also starts to laugh, "But it is the truth! You never know what will happen in the cities so if you can't control your magic you might as well have a massive sign on your head saying you are a traitor's son. But is that a yes" The boy takes a couple of deep breaths, "Yeah, if I go without knowing how these powers of mine work then I may never figure out what any of this means. Please teach me Tiko." The two smile at each other and Tiko confidently says, "Great, I will also teach you more about rangers as well. Learning how to use your magic will be good but if you have to hide then you have to know of other ways to defend yourself. I will say, ranger training translates really well for self-defense."

Day breaks and Tiko says, "First rule of rangers, never waste the parts of your kill." He then points over at the corpse of Ark while saying, "Bear is a really tasty meat in my opinion, the fat is good for lots of applications, and the fur will make for fine clothes. It is your kill after all." Astraeus looks over the corpse and laughs uncomfortably, "How will we do that?" Tiko hands him the carving knife and Astraeus stares blankly while saying "No..." Tiko responds, "Oh yes..."

A couple of days passed since this encounter, Astraeus learned what the insides of a bear looked and smelled like, and he began his escapade learning the way of the ranger while trying to understand magic. The magic training however leads to several dead ends. Tiko is only able to teach him the basics but even they both are having trouble understanding.

On the field, Astraeus is trying to learn how to send his fire magic out as a small bolt. Tiko says to him, "Uh... The soldiers that I knew who had this type of magic told me how they were able to manipulate the flames. I had trouble understanding them since they each had their own explanation but I will try to explain what I understood." Tiko stands next to Astraeus and continues, "You need to figure out what stance fits you best, where you can feel the flow of magic throughout your body the best. It is like... trying to feel the flow of blood inside of you."

Astraeus looks at Tiko strangely and says, "Trying to feel the flow of blood sounds even more difficult. Are you sure you remember correctly?" Tiko nonchalantly says, "My memory is the greatest, it's just they didn't explain it well. Let me try an example then." Tiko then takes a strange stance where he stands on one leg only and holds out his palm. He says, "When they showed me their magic one of them took this stance and launched a firebolt from his palm while the other..." He then gets into a different stance where he has both his legs spread as far as he can while he points his finger forward and continues, "He took this stance and fired it from his finger. They both said that was how they started but once they got a feel for it they could just use the magic however they pleased. So once you find your stance and start understanding your magic then you don't have to look like an idiot."

The boy then tries copying the forms that were given to him but each other fails. In the first stance, he falls backward and nearly knocks himself out. The second made him feel embarrassed. Tiko then says, "Who knows what stance will work for you? I think this is good for now, I am going to go back to the cabin to get dinner started." Astraeus nods and responds, "I am just going to stay out here and try other things." Tiko leaves and Astraeus is left with his thoughts.

He tries to think about all the times he used his magic, it was all instinct and was just his body trying to protect him. He takes slow breaths and begins thinking. He began thinking of his life thus far. Growing up bullied by other kids because of his height, having to deal with his grandmother's antics, and working in Kaja's bar.

Soon he reaches the most recent events and remembers the bastard Nomiki. The man that smiled as he put Aileen to death. The mana in his body begins to surge and it seems that he is about to lose control again. But then he starts to think about Aileen, Kaja, Evander, and Tiko. People who helped him befriended him and protected him. He begins to calm down and starts to grasp his magic pathways before they fade away.

As Tiko arrives back to tell him that dinner is ready, Astraeus is able to fire off an abysmal amount of fire from his finger that only went a foot forward. But it was a start and Tiko looked ecstatic because he didn't need to spend nearly a week straight trying to teach something he didn't understand.