The Sixth School.

Chapter Thirty Six: Negotiations…

“My research hit a snag,” The healer spoke up after she’d given Greg enough time to contemplate the magnitude of what it was she was undertaking. “You have to understand, I was only working towards a cure for my damaged core and mana pathways. My obsession with regaining my power had given me tunnel vision. I had only one goal and never considered other ways that my work could be applied. This led to a lull in the progress I was making. For the past year or so, I didn’t make any breakthroughs or discoveries in my research. I went through everything that I’ve done so far trying to see if I overlooked anything or if there were new avenues that I could obtain inspiration from. However, apart from a few minor points, there was nothing worth a deeper look. For a long while, I believed that I would have to wait until I was equal in power to a fourth-tier mage before I could progress. It wasn’t until I agreed to take you on as my student of magic that a new dimension came into play,” The healer revealed.

“When you made the promise to help me fight my foes, though I found it foolish, I felt touched all the same. I decided then and there that I wouldn’t hold anything back in trying to help you. All that I could do, I would!” She relayed. Greg knew that this was a lie. The reason she was doing all that she could to help him was because this was part of the agreement between her and Olivia. The familiar had made it clear to the healer that she would put the same amount of effort into teaching her as the healer used in teaching Greg. Greg, however, didn’t point out the lie. The healer probably only told the lie to keep Greg from questioning why she would be so generous as to bring them in on such a big secret.

“Once I’d decided, I immediately thought of this research. At that point, the tunnel vision I’d been suffering from for the past few years was taken away and a whole avenue of research opened itself up to me. For the past two days, I turned my thinking from asking how to heal the damaged core and mana pathways of a seventh-tier mage to asking how what I’ve so far learned can be used to help someone who hasn’t even begun their journey as a mage. It’s safe to say that, I’m no longer in a lull. For the past two days, I’ve been unable to sleep because of all the possibilities that keep emerging in my head. This sigil is just the start of that line of thinking,” She relayed.

“So what are its flaws?” Greg spoke up.

Olivia had said that this was an idea that could usher in a new age in magic, and from what Greg had heard so far, he was inclined to agree with this assessment. When the familiar had said this, however, the healer had responded that this was an exaggeration. According to her, it was an idea that was still in its infancy. So much so that, even the healer herself didn’t know what it would look like if the idea worked. “There are several unknowns as far as the idea is concerned. Unknowns that could either make or break it,” The healer replied. Greg could hear it in the open and honest way that the healer said this that she wasn’t the least bit inclined to defend the idea. Like a true researcher, she wasn’t attached to the theory that she had come up with. Instead, she was ready to attack it from every possible angle to see if it would hold up to scrutiny or not.

“The first and most obvious question to be asked when it comes to this project, is what will progression for its subjects look like. You see Roka, there are two aspects to the progression of a mage. The first is the concentration of the mana that they can sustain within their mana channels. A second-tier mage can hold up to five times the mana that a first-tier mage can. When considering a third-tier mage, the gap goes up to fifteen times what a first-tier mage can hold,  and the gap only grows more ridiculous the higher you climb. It gets to the point that a thousand first-tier mages can’t compare to a single seventh-tier mage. At the ninth tier, no amount of first-tier mages will ever be able to match a single mage at this level!” She laid out.

“The second aspect in which one needs to progress to advance through the tiers, is a deeper understanding of the base principles of magic as such, and even more specifically, of the particular school of magic that they are pursuing. Without this deeper understanding, no matter how much one increases the concentration of their mana, they’ll never be able to fully express the power that access to all that mana should grant them,” The healer explained. “Now, let’s say I was to spend the next few years raising your mana core and pathways to the standard of a fourth-tier mage, for example. What would be your path forward beyond that? Would you only need to focus on gaining magical knowledge until you were the equal of the average fourth-tier mage and then progress normally from there? Would the mana concentration of a fourth-tier mage be the new baseline for a first-tier mage that went through this process? In other words, will the mages made through this process have a permanent advantage over other kinds of mages or will they just have a head start in one aspect that will be eroded with time?” She questioned.

“The second unknown is how will different mana types affect the process. You have to remember that I am a healer. Although I try my level best to keep the manna I pass through the materials and subjects as pure as possible, it is still tinged with elements of the healing aspect. It could be that the reason the spillover effect strengthens the area around the pathways is that I’ve been passing healing mana through them. Perhaps the reason my table back at the infirmary is now so tough is because of the type of mana that I’ve been passing through it. Would the effect be the same if an elemental mage with fire-type mana was the one passing their mana through the items and subjects? How about a necromancer? Or a summoner? Would their mana lead to different effects on the items or subjects? And what about pure mana? If we found a way to filter out the influence of the stronger mage’s school of magic and only allowed the raw mana that they produced to reach the prospective mage, what effect would that have? This sigil is an attempt to answer that question. The largest and outermost layer of this sigil is an attempt to filter out the influence of the school of life on the mana I produce. Whether I have succeeded, I don’t yet know as I haven’t had the chance to test it out yet,” she confessed.

“The next unknown that naturally flows from this is whether the stronger mage will be having an undue influence on the prospective mage. You don’t know about them Roka, seeing as you are not yet a mage, let alone one of a high tier. Some call them laws, others call them truths, and yet others have more esoteric names for them, but I just call them aspects. Each of the different schools of magic has these aspects. The higher a mage climbs on the path of magic, the more the fundamental aspects of their particular school of magic they have to imbibe into their magic to advance. Take an elemental mage of the water element. One aspect they might focus on is the formlessness of water, another aspect might be the ability of water to erode almost anything in its path, a third aspect might be the life-giving aspect of water, and so on. Once a mage understands and incorporates a new aspect into their magic, the traces of that aspect become present in their mana,” She explained.

“Now, let’s say that a seventh-tier water mage that has the formless aspect of water as part of their mana is to be the one helping a prospective earth mage. While rocks can change shapes over time, they are nowhere near as formless as water. I don’t think formless is a word that can be used in association with rocks, shapeless, maybe but formless, definitely not. If this earth mage were to have their mana core and pathways created through exposure to mana that contains the aspects of water, what would be the effect? Would this raise their affinity for water? Would they no longer be earth mages but water mages? Would they have a harder time learning earth magic? Would it limit their potential in one, both, or neither of the two areas? And what about aspects, when the new mage reaches a point where they need to obtain a new aspect, would the inherited aspect count as them already having mastered one aspect? Would it interfere with the process? Or would it merge to produce something new and unexpected? The possibilities range from the stronger mage producing another copy of themselves in the new mage, to completely ruining the magical path of the new mage!” The healer laid out.

“The next unknown is much more straightforward and has to do with the issue of affinity,” the healer revealed, casting a glance in Greg’s direction. “How does one’s affinity affect the process? Does one’s affinity for magic limit what tier one can be raised using this method? Perhaps the higher one’s affinity for magic the higher the tier they can be brought to? On the other hand, it could be that affinity has zero bearing on how high one can be brought using this method. It could be that the sole determiner of the limit to which one can be brought is purely dependent on the stronger mage supplying the mana. And what about the converse? If someone with a poor affinity for magic somehow made it to the higher tiers and was the stronger mage in the equation, what would be the effect if they were to use this process on a prospective mage with a higher affinity than they have? Would they be harming the affinity of the prospective mage? Or would it have no effect?” The healer raised question after question.

The final unknown that I can think of at the moment is one of complexity. So far, the only living subjects I’ve worked with are small, relatively simple creatures like insects and rodents. Simple beings are much more easily affected by magic compared to human beings. The largest creature I’ve tried this process on is a wild cat and let’s just say that the results weren’t that pretty. Human beings are much more complex in their makeup and magical affinities. To think that the same process will work with them as did with mice is just plain folly. Things like the concentration of mana needed, the schedule on which to administer the mana, the clash or correspondence with the affinities of the target, and so on. All these things must be taken into account before we even dare to think of trying it on a person!” She laid out. “And all that is without even mentioning the fact that I don’t even know if this sigil works, I finished just an hour or two before I came to meet with you and haven’t even tried it,” She confessed.

Listening to her speak, Greg couldn’t help but respect and admire the woman’s clear and analytical thinking. She was meticulous in her analysis of the gaps in their present knowledge and all the things they would need to pay attention to in the future. The more holes she poked into her own idea, the more Greg realized why she said that it was an idea in its infancy. The healer wasn’t trying to put herself down or be overly humble, she was just speaking the honest truth. Yes, the end goal of what she was trying to achieve was revolutionary. It would change the landscape of the magic world if it ever was realized. At the moment, however, it was still a vague picture off in the distance that they were yet to fully bring into reality.

“That’s why you needed me here,” Olivia spoke up, her gaze moving from the healer to the sigil on the floor. “You wish to get my help in bringing this idea to fruition,” She stated.

The healer nodded in assent, clearly having no intention of beating around the bush. “Even on my own, I’m confident I can see it through. That, however, will take me anywhere from fifty to a hundred cycles to do,” She said. Greg’s brows couldn’t help but rise at the casual manner in which she spoke of the timescale. Although time was measured differently in this world, Greg was almost certain that a cycle of the seasons on this world was close to if not the same as a year back on earth. The way she spoke, one might be forgiven for thinking that a century was no different from six months for the healer. “I don’t think either one of you would be willing to wait that long,” the healer continued.

“Will you even be alive a hundred cycles from now?” Greg couldn’t help but ask.

The healer turned to him, clearly not having expected the question. A small smile crossed her lips as she asked. “How old do you think I am, Roka?” She asked.

“You don’t look a day over twenty,” Greg answered immediately with a charming smile. Of course, Greg knew that she had to be older than that. In his previous life back on Earth, however, his mother had always told him that if a woman asks him to guess their age, he should always give a ridiculously low figure. Even if both of you know that the guess was wildly off, she’ll still be flattered.

And sure enough, despite rolling her eyes as she turned away from him, her smile had widened a bit at his words. “As of this coming winter, I will be seven hundred and ninety cycles in age,” The healer gave out a number that caused the gears in Greg’s brain to grind to a halt even as his eyes turned to saucers. Greg knew that some women might be offended by him reacting this way after they’d revealed their age. Greg, however, had no control over it. To hear that this woman who didn’t even look thirty was just a decade shy of eight centuries old, left him too stunned to even think let alone speak. Going by the amused look on the healer’s face, however, she clearly wasn’t bothered by Greg’s look of shock.

“Every time you rise a tier as a mage, you increase your lifespan by around two to three hundred cycles in the lower tiers, that is, in the first, second, and third tiers. Once you hit the middle tiers, that is, the fourth, fifth, and sixth, every increase in one’s tier increases one’s lifespan by anywhere from five hundred to a thousand cycles. At the higher end of the mage hierarchy, the increases are measured in the thousands of cycles. Of course, this isn’t a fixed number. Depending on a number of factors some mages might live longer, others shorter than the expected amount. As a seventh-tier mage, and a healer to boot, my lifespan might come to roughly three or four thousand cycles or thereabout. And worst case scenario, even if my injuries halved my lifespan, I should still have another thousand or more cycles left to my life,” She revealed. Greg couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of disconnect between the casual way in which she spoke and the impossibility of what he was hearing. The woman had just casually revealed that she still had another millennium of life to live. And that was in the worst-case scenario!

“Wait, but that would mean that a ninth-tier mage can live up to…”

“Ten thousand cycles,” The woman casually revealed. “Most tend to live longer. Some even hit fifteen thousand. The oldest ninth-tier mage to ever live made it to thirty-nine thousand cycles,” She revealed. “Magic is such a hard and treacherous road to walk on, Roka. If not to escape the specter of death, I suspect that more than half the people that walk this path wouldn’t,” She calmly asserted.

A while back, Olivia had told him that just being the student of a seventh-tier mage was enough to make him the equivalent of a member of the royal family in a large kingdom. Greg hadn’t really been able to wrap his mind around this concept until this moment. Mages at the higher tiers weren’t just powerful entities, they were long-lived ones as well. Offend one now and even if you somehow manage to overpower and fend them off, they might just come back to take it out on your future generations down the line! When you are dealing with beings that measure their life spans in terms of millennia, one can’t help but wonder if you are even dealing with the same species anymore. Most people in this world start having the next generation rather young. But even if the age was to be pushed forward to twenty-five, then by the time Roka’s ancestor thirty generations back, was born, she was already forty years old back then! It simply boggled the mind to consider.

***

Giving Roka the time to consider the shocking news she had just dropped on him, Alena turned in the direction of the avatar, ready to negotiate with her. Although the boy would be one of the beneficiaries of the idea if it was brought to fruition sooner, she was perfectly aware that she couldn’t use this as a bargaining chip. The benefits simply didn’t balance out on both sides. That would be like asking someone to build a school for you simply because their child would be one of the students in the school. Even if there were a hundred Roka’s, it still wouldn’t be enough to balance it out. Should Olivia provide her with the crucial help that she needed for this endeavor, the familiar would be giving her the ability to make an infinite number of high-tier mages. The higher the tier, the fewer the number of people that ever make it to that point. Out of a million people, perhaps only one or two will ever make it to the seventh tier. The fact that in the long history of this world, and of all the trillions of people that have lived, less than a hundred have ever crossed the threshold into the ninth tier, speaks for itself. To be able to guarantee that a mage will make it to the higher tiers is an ability not even the ninth-tier mages can dream of.

Alena was about to speak when she sensed it. The boy was still standing in place looking flabbergasted, unaware that his own familiar was about to cast a spell on him. Alena couldn’t exactly blame the boy, if not for the fact that this was her second time sensing this particular spell, she too wouldn’t have been able to pick up on it. The first time Olivia cast this spell, Alena hadn’t been able to pick up on it right up until the very last second. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what level of control over mana the familiar had to have such that she didn’t leak any mana when casting a spell. Even now, Despite her being aware that Olivia was casting a spell and having her senses on full alert, there was only a barely perceptible disturbance in the ambient mana.

“Is there a new secret that you wish to hide from the boy?” Alena asked once Roka was frozen by Olivia’s spell.

“Secrets are a part of it,” The familiar calmly admitted. “The other part, however, is for protection,” She added enigmatically even as she continued to weave another spell. Given her near-perfect control of mana, Alena couldn’t even sense what the other spell that she was about to cast was. Like the first spell, all Alena’s senses could pick up on was the barest of disturbances of the ambient mana. Still, knowing that the familiar had no reason to attack either one of them, she remained relatively calm. Had it been another mage before her, she would have remained on guard all through, knowing that the idea before them was invaluable. To a being above the nine tiers, however, she didn’t think it would matter to quite the same degree.

A thin film of light formed around Roka once Olivia was done with her second spell. Alena was confused for a second before her eyes went wide with both shock and fright. As if to confirm her fears, Olivia turned from the shield to her with a serious look on her face. “I suggest you summon the strongest one that you can manage!” She offered. Alena didn’t even hesitate or waste time asking stupid questions. Her hands and fingers started moving in intricate patterns through the air as she used them to aid her casting. Despite the urgency of the situation, Alena didn’t go at the fastest speed that she could. Instead, she focused all her efforts on making the shield as strong as possible. Usually, it’d take Alena barely a breath of time to cast the spell. This time, however, it took ten breaths of time before a similar shield went up around the healer.

Alena’s confusion hadn’t been because she didn’t recognize the spell, instead, it was because she did. This film of light wasn’t the usual, more solid kind of shield meant to protect against physical attacks and various kinds of magic spells. Instead, it was a special kind of shield that could only protect against one thing, aura. At first, Alena hadn’t been able to figure out why Roka needed the protection. She might have been a seventh-tier mage, but Alena was far too injured to produce any aura that would be harmful to the boy, not that she was motivated to anyway. In the case of Olivia, she only had enough power to match a second-tier mage, nowhere near powerful enough to pose any danger to the boy in terms of aura. But then, it had clicked in her mind that Olivia wasn’t really a real individual, but just an avatar left behind by a far more powerful entity. Olivia wasn’t trying to protect against Alena or herself for that matter, but the entity to which she was connected. Once Alena’s shield was in place, Olivia nodded to her before closing her eyes. There was a few seconds of calm silence before the change came.

The first thing to change was the shape of the shield around both of them. When not resisting an aura, the light shield would look a lot like a light silk cloth flowing through a light wind. When resisting an aura, however, it would turn into a surface as smooth as an egg. Or, at least, that’s what it should have been like. From what Alena knew, the stronger the aura that the shield was resisting, the smaller this egg usually was. It’s almost as if it was being compressed from all sides by the aura that it was resisting. When the change happened in the familiar, however, the aura shield didn’t just shrink into a smaller egg. Instead, it was like both she and Roka were wearing shimmering skinsuits made of light as the shields were compressed by the oppressive aura that filled the cave right up until it was pressed against their skin.

Despite the almost lethal danger that they were presently in, Alena could feel her body burning up. The fear just barely managed to keep her mind clear. Her body, however, felt like it was awash in a flood of lust. Her nipples hardened and she could feel herself growing wet down below. Her skin was suddenly very sensitive. So much so that, even her clothes rubbing against her skin sent shivers of arousal and pleasure coursing through her. It was as if the force that had invaded this place was lust incarnate. Struggle as she would, she couldn’t get her body to fight against the effects of it. And so she didn’t. Instead, she focused on keeping her mind clear and sharp, ready to face what came next.

Alena couldn’t help but shudder the moment Olivia opened her eyes. She could feel the gaze of something vast and ancient falling on her through those eyes. Alena knew that it was still the avatar standing there and not the true being herself. The original was only projecting a part of her consciousness through the avatar. This, Alena suspected, was the only reason that Olivia’s tier two and her tier three aura shields were holding up, although barely. If the true being had descended, Alena suspected that their shields wouldn’t have lasted even a second before being torn apart like rotted cloth.

The being before her stayed silent for a while. Alena understood why. Part of the convenience of having an avatar was the fact that it could act and think for itself and didn’t require constant monitoring. That way, the one that made the avatar could focus on other things while the avatar focused on the particular task assigned to it. This, however, made it so that when the creator once again reconnected with the avatar, they would have to spend some time going over the memories of the avatar to see what had gone on in the time that they hadn’t been present. Alena noticed it when the familiar’s eyes went wide and she turned her gaze to look at the sigil on the floor. Clearly, she had caught up to the present.

A smile crossed Olivia’s expression as the being turned back to face her. “You’ve taken quite the risk revealing this to a being far more powerful than yourself. This kind of naïveté I’d expect from the boy, but not from someone as exposed to the ugliness of the magic world as yourself,” She spoke softly.

Alena had to take a moment to compose herself when she heard her speak. Never in all her years of life, had she felt like someone was caressing her with just their voice. Even though the voice was still the same one that Olivia used, there was a spice to it that left all of Alena’s hairs standing on end. It was as if an aphrodisiac had been laced into the very sound that the being produced. How that was even possible, she didn’t know. The one good aspect of the drastic effect the being was having on her, was that the arousal was suppressing any fear she might have felt. She was perfectly aware of the threat that had just been uttered by the being before her. Hidden in the statements the being had just spoken was the simple question, What prevents me from just killing you and taking this idea for myself?

Alena wasn’t surprised by this. One would have to be a fool not to see the potential that this idea held. It was the kind of idea that could start bloody wars if ever revealed. Recklessly revealing it to the wrong party would indeed be a colossally idiotic move. Alena, however, was reasonably certain that she wasn’t sentencing herself to death. “It would be naïve if I didn’t think this through,” Alena finally found her voice and responded. There were a few higher notes in her voice as she fought the urge to moan in the middle of her speech. Still, she managed to deliver the statement without making a complete fool of herself.

Olivia’s head tilted to the side, the being looking slightly amused at her response. “And, pray tell, what was the thought process behind this meeting?” Came the question.

“A being as powerful as you are has no reason to make use of someone that isn’t even a tier one mage. A mundane human doesn’t have anything that you might want. And even if he did, you could very easily kill them and obtain whatever it is you were after. That you saw fit to leave an avatar with the boy means that there is something else that you are planning. Something that, I suspect, requires that this boy grows stronger as a mage. Nothing in this world is guaranteed. But with me by his side, that’s as close as you are going to get to a guarantee that he’ll grow into a powerful mage. Rather than kill me for an as-yet unfinished idea, why not help me? And in return, I’ll help you in whatever way I can to ensure that Roka becomes the strongest mage that he can be!” she offered. She, of course, knew that just helping Roka by itself wouldn’t be enough to balance out what it was she was asking for. But as was prudent in any negotiation, Alena gave the lowest price possible that she could get away with as her first offer. From here, it was simply a matter of negotiating until they both were satisfied.

A brow arched on Olivia’s face. “Bold of you to assume that I don’t have countless others that can serve the same purpose as the boy,” The being countered.

“How many of those others have a seventh-tier mage as their friend and mentor?” Alena calmly countered.

“Two!” came the calm answer. “I even have one that is related to an eighth-tier mage,” She added.

Alena couldn’t help but raise her brows in surprise. The being before her had clearly spread out her options. From individuals closely related to mages at the highest levels of the magical hierarchy to individuals like Roka who was a nobody from a no-name town with barely even any knowledge of the magical world. Still, Alena didn’t panic at this. Instead, she calmly replied. “And how many of those seventh or eighth-tier mages have come up with an idea even close to what I have here?” She asked. This time, her question was met with silence. The healer wasn’t by any means a vain person. That, however, didn’t mean she didn’t know her worth. What she had done here was something even a ninth-tier mage couldn’t replicate. A number of things had come together to make it possible, but in the end, it was her uniquely sharp mind that crystallized the idea into something workable.

“Besides,” Alena continued. “Even if you were to kill me and take the idea for yourself, you’d still have to find another high-tier mage to execute it for you. According to your avatar, you were born above the tiers, and above the tiers you remain. You can’t do it personally because of your lack of intimate knowledge about how mana cores and pathways work. Not to mention that your aura would destroy the mind of any mundane human if exposed to it for a substantial amount of time. So apart from losing the one mind unique enough to come up with such an idea, you’d be killing one mage to simply give it to another. A pointless act if there ever was one. And yes, you could still ignore this point and try to use other high-tier mages, but I am tempted to think that it won’t work. You see, I am in the unique position of being a high-tier mage who also knows firsthand just how much toll mana can take on weaker bodies. I know when to keep pushing and when to hold back. Use a high-tier mage that has never known weakness as I have and take it from me, the results won’t be pretty,” She relayed.

There was silence in the cavern for a while before Olivia’s voice was heard. “My avatar promised you a way to rise above the nine tiers and now you ask for me to help you make an army of high-tier mages. The value of each option on its own would be enough to exchange for the help of a ninth-tier mage. I am not generous enough to give both to a broken seventh-tier mage, so how about this, I’ll let you choose one. Either take the chance to rise above the tiers and I leave you to figure out the intricacies of your idea on your own. Or, I help fix the errors in this sigil, give you the necessary knowledge to see your idea to fruition and you forget about rising above the nine tiers,” the being proposed.

“The second option!” Came the immediate reply. There hadn’t even been a second of hesitation before Alena answered. A fact that, by the look of genuine surprise on Olivia’s face, truly caught the being before her off guard. Before the being could ask, Alena volunteered the reasoning behind her choice. “To brag of my age before you would be like an ant bragging of its size before an elephant. Still, just because I’m not as old as you are doesn’t mean I was born yesterday,” She declared. “Your avatar was never going to give me a way to rise above the nine tiers. You said it yourself, I am not some naïve individual, ignorant of how the magic world works. No one is stupid or extravagant enough to give out the method of transcending the nine tiers in exchange for a single tier one mage!” She relayed.

“And yet, you still chose to help the boy?” Came the intrigued voice of Olivia.

“To keep me from suspecting that she was lying to me, your avatar would probably have at minimum had to come up with a way to help me recover the power I had lost,” Alena answered without missing a beat. “To regain my former power in exchange for training a single tier one mage is an acceptable exchange in my book,” she replied. “The reason I chose to take teaching the boy seriously is not because of your avatar’s promise, but because of the boy’s promise to fight my enemies for me,” Alena revealed, a small smile crossing her lips. “Foolish and naïve as it was, I could tell that he really meant it. And that, for me, was enough,” She stated with a shrug. “If he makes it to the high tiers and I still haven’t had my revenge, I wouldn’t mind an extra ally, if he doesn’t make it that far, then as he said, he probably wouldn’t have made that much of a difference,” She relayed.

There was silence as the being considered her words before she spoke. “You forget one thing, you are no longer negotiating with my avatar. She may not have been able to make good on such a promise, but I can,” The being countered.

“Except you have already seen the sigil,” Alena answered her. “Whether I like it or not, you already have the idea and while a small part of you talks to me, the rest of your consciousness has probably broken it down, looked for all the flaws and traps I hid in it, and resolved them. You have the full idea plus the answers I need to make the idea a reality. For all intents and purposes, any exchange we make here won’t be for an idea that you already have, but for the boy. As I said before, no one is going to exchange a method to transcend the nine tiers for a tier-one mage. Not even you!” she asserted.

The smile on Olivia’s face widened. “I like you more and more with each passing second,” The being revealed. “Fine then, what are you willing to give me in exchange for the solution to the flaws you’ve pointed out?” Came the question Alena had been waiting for all this time.

“I won’t pass it on,” she replied immediately with the answer she had prepared beforehand. “Even if I was to live for another ten thousand cycles, to a timeless being like yourself, that would be no more than a snap of the fingers,” She relayed. “After I am dead, you and whatever group it is you wish to set up will be the only ones with this knowledge,” she offered.

“Let me guess, you already have contingencies in place. If I was to kill you right now, the secret would be spread to every corner of the world,” The being spoke calmly. There was no anger in her voice as she said this. Instead, there was only amusement. This time, it was Alena who wordlessly smiled at the being before her. Her expression answered without her having to speak it. “Okay then,” The being finally offered a scroll appearing in her hands. “Here are the solutions to the issues you noticed and a few that you missed. The complete sigil is also there minus the flaws and traps you left in this one,” She said flicking the scroll forward toward the healer. Alena looked up, raising her hand to catch the scroll

As soon as her hands closed around the scroll, however, she felt a hand close around her neck. With her hand still high in the air holding the scroll, Alena turned downward to find Olivia just a step before her with her hand closed around the healer’s neck. The grip wasn’t tight in any sense of the word. Nevertheless, Alena knew that with just the flick of a wrist, the being could separate her head from her neck. “I don’t need to tell you what will happen if you double-cross me, do I?” She calmly asked.

Alena could feel her very soul shake at the unhidden threat. To have this being as his enemy would be seeking a fate worse than death. Nodding her head, Alena spoke in a tone of forced calm. “I have no reason to make an enemy of a being as powerful as yourself. Believe me, I have no interest in betraying you,” She relayed.

“Good!”

With that single word, the oppressive aura that had filled the cave disappeared and the familiar collapsed to the ground. Clearly, housing even part of her original consciousness in this much weaker vessel was too much for it to handle. The being had departed leaving a frozen Greg, a collapsed Olivia, and a trembling Alena standing in the cave…

***