Winterfall

After helping Theo select a new Elite, something I didn’t realize would take the majority of the day. Hey, I’m not complaining. We decided to go with a Golaith named Novak. He had been working as an Underling for fifteen years and has the qualities that the Elites have. Novak, is a well established figure in a monastery who hits primarily with his fists. Well trained enough to land a few blows on Theo during his trail run. Which was enough to get him the spot. Once the selection process was complete, it was 7 in the afternoon, as it took all day. There were ten candidates that he had to choose from each going through the same set of trails.

Now what?

Sleep?

It’s only seven.

R--

I sighed, yeah the only books I had in my room currently was the ancient text that told us about Marcel and I felt like we pretty much knew what we were going to figure out. Besides, that book gave me a migraine.

Give me one hour and then we can go to bed. I have to try and get caught up on this paperwork.

I suppose I can make an hour work. I’ll get ready for bed then.

Prepare for fighting. We need to reduce the charge of your ring more.

How have you been feeling? With the ring maxed out, he had started siphoning my emotions.

A bit on edge. But I manage as always.

His overall stability had always impressed me. He always just chopped that up to his draconic heritage, rather than an ability or skill.

I haven’t been that bad this week, have I?

Not at first. But once it got closer to his return, you were a nervous wreck. And I don’t blame you for it.

Sorry.

It’s alright, like I said, I don’t blame you.

I didn’t know what I did to deserve someone so understanding. If it was anyone else, they probably would have bolted by now.

I settled into bed an hour later, after taking a bath and getting into pajamas. Calming myself enough to sleep, I let my eyes close and our dream escape unfold. I was honestly surprised when I saw the training arena unfold in front of me. The floor to ceiling pillars, the stone floor, and stone wall - in all of its dimly lit glory.

Theo was stretching as I appeared in the dream. “About time.”

“You said an hour.”

I crossed my arms and stared at him with a bit of annoyance.

“And I decided to come thirty minutes early. I know how impatient you can be.” He walked over to me and kissed my lips. “Now, since we have not done any magic training in dreams before, this may or may not work as I intend it to.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means, it may or may not decrease your stored power.”

I just stared at him. This was the last thing I wanted to hear today. Essentially this was a trial run. If this did not work as planned, I don’t know what we will do.

“We will figure that out when the time comes.”

I nodded and looked down at my ring. We had practiced some, so it wasn’t as charged with some of the gems. However, others were still fully powered.

“Let me call the wolves first. We can use the gems that we haven’t tested yet on them.”

“I like that plan.”

Him summoning the wolves with unknown charges made me feel much better about this situation. I had no idea how these would affect him while he slept.

He summoned them on opposite sides of the arena and took a seat off to the side. “Now, target Alpha. Then Sepherna.” I watched as he motioned for Alpha to attack while the other had to be forced to remain still. “Choose one we have not witnessed yet.”

I nodded and looked down at the ring quickly and chose a deep purple. This gem was so dark, that at first glance, the color appeared dark. I was thinking maybe necrosis or psychic damage.

I activated the ring as Alpha had approached quickly and I watched as a wave of deep purple energy cut through the space between us. Instantly crippling Alpha. His body limp, his eyes lifeless, and his body decaying. Yeah, this was a strange one.

I looked over at Theo who had gotten up and walked over to Alpha and examined him with his magical sense of medical detection. “Interesting, his body is rotting, and it appears as if you stunned his heart. Perhaps, the wolves are too weak for your spells.”

“I’m not trying spells like that on you.”

I met his eyes with a glare. He sighed, “Understandable. Now, I haven’t seen a spell like that before. That must mean it’s unique to your magic and your magic only.”

I looked down at Alpha, he at this point was pretty much all bone, all the meat and flesh gone. I looked back up at Theo, “Was this like a Power Word Pain sort of spell?”

He thought for a moment, “Something like that. Probably more on the lines of Power Word Decomposition.”

He went back to his chair and gave me one more moment to collect my thoughts before allowing the other wolf to charge at me.

“Ready?”

I nodded and just like before Sepherna charged, and I chose a gem I hadn’t used before. This one was neon looking yellow. To which I deemed would be some sort of poison.

I was right of course, as a mist began to form around the wolf. Spreading rather quickly. Which caused concern for both Theo and I as it was approaching our space. We backed up to the other side of the arena as the spell seemed to engulf a twenty foot radius. After a few seconds the spell faded and Sepherna looked sick. She was still standing, she just looked awful.

“Hold it!”

Theo walked over to Sepherana and examined her closely, “impressive. I am surprised she was able to withstand that. Her body has soaked in the poison rather quickly. I sensed it in her bloodstream, as there wasn’t much blood left.”

“A spell that turns blood to poison?”

I was glad I didn’t use that one against him. Though, it probably wouldn’t have affected him anyways, with him being immune to poison and all.

“Appears like it. Not really sure what I would call that one.”

“Blood Metamorphosis?”

He looked at me with curiosity. “We can go with that. Are we naming all the spells now?”

“Why not?

“I suppose we can. Though some spells already have names.”

He reminded me as he did a quick Restoration of Health on Sepherna. “Ready to go again?”

I nodded as he went back to his seat and motioned for the wolf to attack. I quickly chose the next gem before she reached me, choosing an orange one.

A brilliant ball of energy smacked into the wolf, instantly causing the wolf to collapse to the ground. Theo repeated the gesture of using his medical sense to see what killed the wolf. “Radiant with fire, interesting.”

“Does this one have a name?”

Theo thought for a moment, “Nope, at least not that I know of.”

“Celestial Fire. Since it deals with fire and radiant damage.”

“Perhaps you should have been the one to name spells.” Theo joked as he let the wolves bodies disappear. He walked over to me and looked down at the ring. A good portion of the gems were dull now. Since we used some yesterday and now these, what we hoped for with the dream seemed to be working.

“I’m glad this is working.” He kissed my lips as he pulled me into his body.

“How are you feeling?”

I was curious as I knew he was pulling more from me the last few days than he normally does.

“Better, I can feel the ring's magic take effect over my own.”

“That’s good at least.”

He kissed me one more time, “Another round?”

I nodded as he summoned the two wolves. I chose one gem that we had used yesterday, just to defuse what energy was stored. The red one that caused a fireball to explode.

I didn’t even give him time to give the wolves orders, I just dropped it on the both of them. Both wolves whined in pain but managed to survive the impact since it wasn’t as strong.

“Decided not to wait now?” Theo looked down at me with a bit of a smile, “There’s payback for that you know.”

He whistled and ordered both wolves to attack at once.

He used Draconic Leap to the side quickly, in order to be out of the way of the two wolves that were bearing teeth.

“Hey!”

I shouted as I ducked as the wolves tried to pounce on me at the same time. Thankfully, they both missed me. Granting me a chance to throw a spell at them. I utilized the light blue gem that created the Tidal Wave effect shoving them back ten feet and injuring them further. One of them did sustain enough damage between the two spells to drown while the other was still alive. Of course, this one was Alpha.

I chose the navy blue gem that caused the acidic rain and lightning. Since it wasn’t as charged, it only had one lighting strike this time. As soon as the acidic rain hit, the wolf collapsed as the acid ate away at its flesh.

“I love and hate that spell.”

Theo spoke as he approached and gave me another kiss as I managed to dodge the wolves attacks and kill them effortlessly.

“You love it because it deals a lot of damage. You hate it because I have dealt a lot of damage to you.”

I wrapped my arms around him as he dismissed his wolves.

“You got that right. Do you have a name for this spell?”

He looked down at me curiously.

I thought about it for a moment, “Acidic Storm?”

“Noted.”

He kissed me again. “We still have a few gems left. We can try a few more spells, but I don’t want to drain you.”

I could feel my body weakening as he mentioned it. “I think I am good. Despite being asleep right now, I’m sure I’ll feel a little bit of this when I wake up.”

He nodded and picked me up and sat me down on the chair he was using.

“Now it’s my turn to show you a few things.”