Chapter 769: Extraordinary

“You’re like me,” Stryg said.

“You’re a prime mage, too?” Titania sat up a little straighter, eyes round.

“I am.”

“So we’re both bad at magic,” she said self-deprecatingly and gave a bitter chuckle.

“No. We are not.”

“Huh?” Titania blinked. “Really?” she asked, a sliver of hope creeping into her voice.

“Let me show you.” Though he was lying down to recover from his grave injuries, Stryg used his elbows to push himself up the best he could to the corner of the cramped cave. The ceiling was too low to properly sit up, let alone stand for an adult, but Titania could sit just fine, and that was enough for Stryg’s lesson.

“Give me your hands,” he said.

Titania scooted closer and offered her hands, careful not to let the flame in her hands go out.

“Release the spell.”

“What? B-But it’ll get dark.” She shivered at the thought, memories of her time locked away in her family’s cold, dark cellar filling her mind.

“Trust me.” It was two simple words. Firm, yet they carried a softness that eased the little girl’s mind.

“I trust you,” she whispered and stopped the steady stream of orange mana flowing into the spellweave. The fire flickered out and the room was enveloped in darkness.

Titania sucked in a deep breath, but Stryg held her hands and spoke in the same calm cadence as before. “You’re okay. I’m right here.”

Her whole body was tense, every muscle taut, her mind screaming at her to cast the flame spell once more, but she held the feeling at bay and focused on Stryg’s voice. “O-Okay,” she stammered.

“Nothing will hurt you so long as I’m here and I’m not going anywhere, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, this time a little more confident.

“Now, close your eyes and try to find the rhythm of your heart. Listen to its beat in your chest.”

“I can hear it,” she said after a moment. The water flowing below the small, jagged opening in the cave suddenly felt quieter.

“Good. Now feel the mana flowing out from your heart. If you focus closely, you can practically see the colors.”

Some part of her wanted to deny his words. She had meditated before, but one could not see mana, such a gift was limited to dragons and True Blue chromatics. And even they needed to open their eyes to see mana. Yet as the minutes went by in the silence of the river and the steady beat of her heart, she noticed something she hadn’t before. It was like a familiar taste that lured someone into a warm memory of a better time one had forgotten.

She didn’t know why the taste reminded her of the past, it simply did. It wasn’t a taste per se, but it was familiar all the same. It wasn’t a single flavor or sound, but a multitude of them, jumbled together in a cacophony that threatened to drown her.

Now she recognized it. The feeling of being overwhelmed while deep in meditation. The moment when she touched upon her power, it would always break through like a dam, water flooding every recess of her mind.

Titania winced at the stream of colors about to overwhelm her, but the terrible sensation never came. In its place she felt something new, something holding back the sea of mana. She reached out with her mind and felt the sound of another heartbeat echoing, rather, it was two hearts, each beating in tandem.

Then she saw it in her mind’s eye, a being like the night sky, stars flitting through his skin, eyes ablaze with power. He held back the roiling sea within her and slowly, he filtered each color. Like ribbons of light, they flowed through her body, each one now distinct with its own flavor of memory. For once in her life, Titania recognized the colors for what they were and it was beautiful.

Laughter bubbled out of her and she couldn’t help but grin in delight. “How are you doing this?”

“I’ve synchronized my flow of mana to yours. It is a common technique masters use to teach their apprentices to meditate.” He squeezed her hands softly. “So long as we stay in physical contact, I can help you filter your stream of colors.”

“My tutors have never done anything like this before. This is incredible.” She practically vibrated in her seat with excitement.

Stryg cracked a small smile, one eye open. “My own master often helped me with meditation, though not quite like this either.”

“Why not?”

“A master can help steady the flow of mana within their apprentice, but they can only help filter the colors that they themselves also possess.”

Titania furrowed her brow, eyes still closed. “So no one could help me because I’m a prime mage?”

“No, they couldn’t help you because they weren’t prime mages.”

“What’s the difference?”

“The difference is there is nothing wrong with you, kid. You are talented.”

She shook her head and bit her bottom lip. “No, I’m not. I can barely cast a spell.”

“Do you know why most prime mages are incapable of ever becoming adepts, let alone any higher rank?”

“Because we’re bad at magic?”

“No. Because it is difficult to separate one chromatic color from another. Your heart holds all of your mana and trying to filter the colors as they flower through your veins and arteries is difficult for anyone. Someone with two colors had a hard time doing it. Now imagine someone with ten.”

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Stryg went on, “People like us, kid, have a challenging time casting spells, not because we’re bad at magic, but because there are few people capable of helping us learn how to become better. And yet despite that, you somehow managed to learn how to cast a spell at the mere age of ten. Do you know what they call someone like you?”

Plenty of names flitted through her mind. Names her parents and tutors had called her. None of them were kind. Most chipped at her and made her feel smaller and smaller. “I don’t know,” she admitted quietly.

“Extraordinary.”

Titania opened her eyes at his words. Though it was dark, she could still make out the faint light from his eyes. They were warm and absent of any mockery.

“You’re extraordinary, Titania. Don’t let anyone ever make you feel like you're anything less.”

Her lips curled into a small, abashed smile. “You mean it?”

And in that moment, Stryg was reminded of another child. A Sylvan boy who had thought himself alone in an unkind world that had made him feel small.

Stryg cleared his throat and nodded. “Yeah, I do.”

“Can you teach me more?” Titania asked.

“Later. It’s late and I need to rest if we’re ever going to get out of here.”

“Right. Sorry,” she added hastily.

“Don’t apologize. It’s good to want to be stronger. Lean on that desire when training is difficult.”

“Training? Am I your apprentice then?” she asked eagerly.

Stryg hadn’t thought about it and if he was being honest with himself, he had little energy left to consider such topics tonight. “...Temporarily.” He shifted back to the ground and settled in to sleep. His wounds had stopped bleeding, but they still throbbed and his muscles ached. It would be a long night.

Titania rolled over next to him and closed her eyes to sleep. A few seconds passed before she scooted a little closer. It was dark, but she could feel his steady breathing next to her. She wasn’t alone.

“Hey, Noct? I mean—Stryg?”

“Mm?” He grunted, not bothering to open his eyes.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-four.”

“Wow, you’re old.”

Stryg had never been told that he was old before. In fact, most people had always come quite the opposite, with some even calling him an infant. And in some ways, to an immortal’s eyes, he was. “I see,” he said quietly.

“But my dad’s still older,” Titania added.

“Go to sleep, kid.”

“‘Kay.” Titania didn’t know why she had mentioned her father. He wasn’t anything like Stryg, but when she thought of the man lying next to her, she was reminded of her father. Or at least, what she hoped her father could be.

~~~

Stryg awoke to the sound of the river rushing below and the quiet rhythmic breathing of the child next to him. He craned his neck down and saw Titania using his bicep as a pillow. Though it was pitch dark, Stryg had no problem seeing, a gift inherited from his father. She looked peaceful, the horrors she had experienced the last few days unable to touch her in her dreams.

The few nights he had spent with her, she had trouble sleeping. Nightmares plagued her and she cried out often in her sleep.

  She’s just a child, Stryg thought. She didn’t deserve to be hunted down by the monster that was his brother or the mysterious order he belonged to. Even worse, she didn’t deserve to be traveling with the man who had inadvertently destroyed her caravan and all its people.

How many other caravans and towns had Stryg buried when he had ignited the Astral Light? How many lives had he taken?

He was reminded of Holo’s words. They were children of Calamity, of Death himself. No matter where they went, no matter what they chose, death would follow them like a plague. Stryg hadn’t wanted to believe it. He was in charge of his own fate. And yet here he was, having obliterated the lives of countless innocent people.

It was as if fate had placed Titania in his path to remind him of what he had done. It would have been so much easier had they all been his enemies. He wouldn’t have given their lives a second thought if they had been, just like the Clarus caravan that had been transporting the weapon.

Stryg had obliterated the Clarus entourage and their weapon in one brilliant flash of light. He now wondered if it had been worth it. Could there have been another way? He didn’t know.

“What does it matter?” he muttered to himself. It was done and nothing he could do would change that.

“Hm?” Titania grumbled, half-asleep.

Right. They still needed to get out of here. Stryg focused on his body, subtly shifting his limbs and chest. There was still some pain, but despite the wounds he had suffered at the hands of Sidus, his body was healing faster than it had a few days prior. The effects of igniting the Astral Light were beginning to fade away, albeit slowly.

Stryg listened to his twin heart beats. The chromatic mana flowed out from one heart in a massive stream of colors. He concentrated his will and drew open Green. The green mana separated from the rest and flowed into his arms.

Still lying down, Stryg placed his hands on the low ceiling, and channeled the mana through the stone. His magic was still limited, but his body had enough to cast at least this much, or so he hoped.

At first, nothing happened, the magic seeming to fizzle out. Then Stryg pushed, as much with his arms as with his will. The rock all around them groaned as it shifted and broke apart, little bits of stone falling all around them.

Titania awoke in a startle and gasped, still surrounded by darkness. She reached out, searching for Stryg’s presence, only allowing herself to breathe when she found his shoulder. “What’s happening?” she asked in a panicked voice.

“Stay still, kid.” Stryg threw his arms apart, as if throwing back a curtain. The ceiling followed, the stone cracking and breaking apart, until a sliver of sunlight appeared in the far distance above them.

“Look!” Titania pointed wildly at the crack of light.

“I see it,” Stryg said through a strained voice and clenched teeth. They were further down than he had thought. The river had carried them deep underground.

His arms shook as he continued to forcefully tear apart the ground above them, until finally, the crack at the end widened, showing a sliver of blue sky. Stryg crouched to his feet. “Get on my back.”

“Huh?”

The earth began to groan as the sides of the freshly made tunnel began to slowly collapse.

“We don’t have time. Get on and don’t let go.”

“R-Right.” Titania scrambled onto his back and wrapped her short arms around his neck, and clasped her fingers tightly together.

Stryg dug his nails into the rock, his claws piercing the stone like steel into soft flesh. He clambered up the side of the tunnel even as it began to collapse on itself. And suddenly, he was a child once more, climbing the ashen trees of Vulture Woods. Every nook and cranny of stone was a branch or gnarled knot. The crumbling tunnel was the wind roaring in his ears, buffeting his body, threatening to hurl him to the ground.

And like back then, Stryg faced the towering height below with a fearless grin. He scrambled up the tunnel with the deftness of a squirrel. His hand gripped the edge of the jagged entrance and he hefted himself up into the world above. Sunlight and fresh air enveloped them. Stryg fell to his hands and knees, panting for breath.

Titania jumped off his back and landed on the sand. “We did it! We made it out! That was amaaaaziiing!” She laughed giddily and skipped in a circle, arms open wide. She had never been so happy to see the blue sky and scorching sun.

Her laughter was infectious and Stryg found himself joining her. “Yeah, we did.”

Titania abruptly stopped and stared at him, eyes round as saucers.

“What is it?” Stryg asked.

“Nothing. I’ve just never seen you laugh before.”

Stryg blinked. “Yeah, I guess not.” He pushed himself to his feet, dusted off his pants, and stretched. Even though his wounds ached at the motion, it felt good to move around. “Come on, let’s get going.”

Titania glanced at the desolate, arid desert before them. Yet it was not worry that filled her chest, but excitement. “Where are we going?”

“Olduun.”