Aspiration to the Heavens: Becoming the Supreme Mage Vol. 1- Novus Magus

Episode 97: Overcoming Sorrow

"To be betrayed, by those who you deem to be friends, is like putting your hand on a rose with a thousand thorns."

*Adela*

Ren coughed out blood, yet he managed to grin past the pain. "Almost got me." Suddenly a fist hit him in the jaw.

Alto grabbed Ren by his uniform's collar and slammed him into the ground. "Tell me who is your leader is!"

Ren grinned. His eyes became an eerie purple. He spat on Alto's face. Alto fell to the ground, screaming in agony.

"It's acid," Hal cried out.

Lei grabbed Alto. He stumbled forward, despite being lightning mages the paralysis from the lightning spell still managed to affect them. "Hal...Adela...heal him."

Ren grinned as he backed away. "Disappointing. As expected, the only one who was a challenge was the one who hurt Nobu." He glanced over at An and kicked him in the stomach. "This is for him."

An screamed out as if he was being stabbed everywhere. Ren's smile vanished. He looked down. "I'm done here..." Wind surrounded his body. "Farewell." With that, he vanished into the sunset sky.

So, all along he had been in league with them. Iah and Lei were right to have suspected of Ren... he was as much of a bigot as that woman he was talking to.  

"An," Sarah yelled. She slowly approached him as the paralysis subsided with the departure of Ren. An was in deep pain. Whoever summoned those chains around him was very strong.

I quickly applied a potion on Alto's face before turning my attention to An.

I touched the chains around An, only to be thrown to the other side of the street. I warped back to him. The chains were too strong to rip using my magic. However, it didn't seem like the chains came from an outside source, rather they came from his own body. Someone had placed a seal on him at one point. The kind of seal that would require days of chanting. Was something sealed within him?

He grabbed his chest in pain and rolled around on the front lawn.

Sarah kneeled down as if in defeat. She reached out to him but I stopped her. "You saw what it they did to me just now. Those chains are too strong."

She slapped my hand away. "I can do it. You aren't even the strongest of us."

Iah walked over and touched the chains but was thrown away to the other side of the street as well. Iah coughed as a dust cloud formed from where he had hit.

An's screaming grew even louder.

"Stop," Arima said. "Don't you see that you're making things worse? "

"Sorry," Iah said as he got up from the crater. He covered up the hole behind him. "So what are those chains?"

"These chains...his power is being bound. It appears that he unlocked that power for a brief time. They should vanish on their own...but I'm not sure if An can bare it." She put her hands over An's eyes and he stopped moving as violently as he was.

"What did you do?" Sarah said.

"I place a charm on him, it's a sleeping spell. Its strength depends on the physical and mental pain of the receiver.

Xue laid down next to An and closed her eyes. She put her hands together and looked up at the three moons. She muttered a prayer to the moon god, Tsukuyomi no Mikoto.

Iah smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure that the moon god will receive your prayer." He summoned a silver plant. "Adela can you turn this into medicine?"

"Wow," I said. "I know you like to collect rare plants, but you actually found a Lunar Flower?"

He scoffed. "These are common in my house."

I assumed that his father grew them considering their nature and his powers... "Sure," I said. I took the flower and went back inside. Once I had everything ready I froze. I recalled the medicine I had made for the dog Ren had found. He acted nice, but in reality he always hated us...it was his fault that An was in the condition he was, he even dared to hurt him even when he was already down.

"Are you alright?" Xue said. "Do you need some help?"

"I'm alright," I said, taking out some other herbs.

She touched the flower and took a brief sniff of it. "Smells as fragrant as they say. I wonder how Iah's family managed to cultivate these...they usually die outside of their native environment." She put down the flower. "Hey, do you know who Iah's father is? I know that his mother is the former queen of the Wudi but I have never heard about who her husband is."

"You should ask him that, if he hasn't told you then it might be because he wants to keep it a secret."

"I guess." She picked back up the flower and removed the silver petals. She crushed them little by little into a fine silvery powder. "You seem out of it, it's because of Ren, isn't it?"

I crushed the herbs in hands. "Please don't mention that name around me."

Xue backed away. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"I can handle it from here," I said. Once I finished the medicine I placed the resulting liquid inside of a medical needle and administered it to An. He stopped shaking as the chains around him vanished completely.

"You did it," Vermeil said.

"You're amazing," Xue said.

"It's nothing," I said. The ingredients might be rare, but making it any more difficult than a simple potion."

Sarah smiled and pulled An's bangs away from his eyes. "We should have some more of that medicine made in case he pulls this again."

"Is everything alright?" Ms. Key said. "I saw that the front lawn had burnt marks. Did you have a fight?"

"Ren turned out to be one of the traitors," I said.

She didn't seem surprised by the revelation. "Ren, so the council members are amongst the eight after all...I can guess who the others might be."

"Should we confront the council?" I said.

She shook her head. "We should keep a low profile until after the festival. Iah and Arima will be facing off against Ren and Youko anyways. We can detain Ren afterward."

"If he doesn't gravely injure them first, or worse." I stepped out of the house to get a fresh breath of air.

Iah was practicing swinging his Katana. He put down his sword as soon as he noticed me.

"You seem tense, you should relax a little," he said.

"You and Lei were right all this time, and I refused to listen...Ren really was one of the eight, and most likely so are Nobuyuki and Mayu. Yuuta too. I can't stand by, knowing that they might attack us again." 

Lei...I treated him as if he were paranoid and a liar. Even the guy who had mistreated him during middle school believed him more than I did.

"You should apologize to him if you feel that bad about it," Iah said as if reading my mind. "Not that I think he will hold a grudge against you. Well, I'm going to go train."

I glanced back and smiled as he returned to practicing his swings. I felt an urge to help him for all that he had done for me. I snickered. 

Hard to believe... where had the resentment that we held for each other gone? Had it hate transformed into something else?

**Solar Question: What do you think of the development of Adela and Iah's relationship?**