Dream Beyond Life's Edge

A Killing That Has Yet Happened

Holding her palm out in the training ground, Talia went and did what she saw in her dream. "Py-ris." A large flame blew into the box Leo constructed before fizzling out.

"Yeah, you're correct on this one," Alexia said. From what she saw in her dream, she made conjecture: when she uses any kind of magic, her mana will grow; the bigger the magic, the larger the growth, but since the growth spurt is still finite, she can still run out if she spends her mana too much, too fast.

To test it, Talia brought Alexia to the training ground for she was the only one she knew able to detect other's mana.

"Try making the magic continuous instead of a burst. With that maybe you can make the growth spurt last longer," Leo said.

"Sure. Py-res." A ball flame blew into the invisible box, though this time it didn't stop at only that as it continued producing torrents of fire, growing stronger by the second. The air around her heated up, burned by flame. Sweat formed on her skin, glistening and dripping down her fingers and elbow and chin and strands of hair.

As that happened, Talia felt a growing feeling of unease growing within her heart. The fire and heat grew further, along with that unease. Smoke and flame filled the box until the air inside had disappeared. Yet her magic continued the blazing inferno even after everything had been burned.

A gust of wind blew Talia to the side, toppling her and halting her magic. "Stop!"

"Why—" Talia's complaint hadn't managed to leave her mouth when she threw up on the burnt ground. Inside her, a massive force rampaged for authority of her body. It streamed through her very core.

As Leo tried to put out the fire Talia made, Alexia ran towards Talia. Alexia put a hand on her back. "Just, let it all out. Don't hold anything back."

Talia waited for a while until her mana rampage had calmed down and her mind had stabilized before asking, "What happened?"

"Your mana hadn't stopped growing even as you used your mana. In fact, it was getting faster as time went on. Maybe too fast," Alexia said. "Even when I screamed at you to stop, you didn't. I don't think you even heard me."

"Th-that's true."

Done with the fire, Leo walked to Talia and Alexia. "Sorry for making you do that. I didn't think it would've done this much."

"It's fine. I didn't even hurt. It was only after I released the fire that the backlash hit," Talia said.

"Yeah, but don't do it again. We don't know the side effects of growing that much mana in such a short amount of time, it can't be good." Leo waved his hand. "Let's end the training here. For the rest of the day, please don't use any more magic. Give that job to Alexia for now, understand?"

"But my mana capacity had grown... At least let me train or expand it—"

"Don't," Leo interjected. "We don't know the side effects. So. Don't. Do. Anything."

#####

Along with Olie, Alexia had just left the house to buy some more food supplies. With them all gone, Talia had the house for herself, even if only for an hour at most. And during that time—

She had nothing to do.

From a vase on the dining table, Talia took some dirt and molded it into a tiny ball the size of her finger tip. She rolled it around her fingers and palm, trying to do nothing in particular.

"Maybe—" She looked around, making sure nobody was here. Her mother was imprisoned. Leo and Julius had left for somewhere; Talia hadn't bothered to ask. And so had Alexia and Jane. Sighing, Talia shook her head and denied the thought for the reason that she'd been forbidden from doing so. "I should just do it. They won't know anyways."