Elegy: Lost Shadow

The sphere of wind that trapped her only grew bigger as the blades that surrounded it rotated that much faster. I can't hold myself much longer. Anemone felt all her magic pouring out of her. Accompanying the outburst was an abundance of pain. She felt her body ached.

Kano closed his eyes as he held out his left hand. "If it keeps spiraling out of control like that, she might die. I am going to try and contain it, all that magic." His hand began releasing a black fog like aura.

He recalled a conversation he had with Mr. Vito.

"Mr. Vito, I wanted to ask.....what do you think my unique ability is? I mean its already a well known fact that my attribute is water."

"Well, the easiest way to explain it would be to say that you have the same ability as your father."

"My father....who is-..."

"I can't believe that I almost forgot about your greatest defect.....you probably can't remember him. Ummmm....the closest to your ability would probably be Calida's. Has she mentioned anything to you?"

"Now that I think about it, she has, I played it off as a joke though. But, she asked if I could hear her voice in my head."

If my unique ability is anywhere close to hers then I should be able to contain this magic easily. Afterall, I did see her contain magic when she went up against Mr. Vito. But then why.....why can't I feel my unique ability activate. Why have I never been able to activate it?

He opened his eyes, continuing to watch the sphere grow as their was nothing he could do to help. The aura around his hand dissipated.

"Were you about to try something?" The stranger asked as they moved closer to the cave's wall.

The sphere continued expanding until it covered majority of the cave. We wouldn't have this big a problem if this wasn't non physical magic. With this much magic, even the slightest contact will prove fatal. "If what you thought of trying won't work, we should hurry and get out of here."

They looked on, anxiously as the sphere grow by the second. And, suddenly, even unexpectedly, it shrunk until it was no more. All the magic returned to the source, it had returned to Anemone. The blades that were rotating around the sphere all returned to her and formed her two golden bracelets around her wrists. She then fell to the ground. She sat up and began looking around the room as the glow in her eyes became a blend of golden and green.

Kano rushed towards her, he got on his knees as he held both her shoulders. The expression on her face was so blank that it appeared as though she was unconscious even though she was still moving. He couldn't even make out a single thought from it.

He stared into her eyes before she grabbed his wrist. She then fell to the ground as her eyes closed. Just like that, she was completely unconscious. Even though she was unconscious, she didn't release his wrist, if anything, her grip only tightened.

"I am honestly astonished by what just transpired. I couldn't have guessed that she would be able to contain the magic herself. "

Now that begs the question, where did all that magic go? I highly doubt it just up and varnished.

The strength of her pulse grew as her breathing begun to stabilize. Not only that, her bleeding too had stopped. "Looks like she will heal just fine. All that's left is to wait for about an hour or so."

Kano was about to remove her hand when he realized that she wouldn't let go. Her grip increased as it became clear, though unconscious, she had no intention of letting go.

Things suddenly became blurry as he felt dizzy. He had a strong headache as his body begun feeling fatigued, he began hyperventilating. His body began releasing a blue aura.

"You know, you are surprising me. You rejected my help because you were afraid of the allergen factor in your bodies triggering on account of my magic and here you are, dousing her in your magic."

His heart rate accelerated as he replied, "I can't help it....I can't control myself." He fell on the ground beside her as he kept grasping for air. The aura around him then dissipated.

The stranger went to check up on him. He went to check his pulse only to find that his heart rate had accelerated. "Something isn't right here....Hey, what do you see? What do you feel?"

"I am fine....just feel tired...everything is just spinning. " It was clear as day that he was tired, so tired that he could hardly move a muscle.

Wait, how is this possible....he is exhibiting similar symptoms to how she was earlier. The most logical explanation would be blood loss but he never bled that much, plus, he already ingested the fruit so his body should have been healing. What's changed? Following this thought was a sudden realization.

Unless, just now, unconsciously, she did something to him. Taking it a step further, I get it now. She must have destroyed a plethora of blood cells just now. But why would she do that, I was under the impression that they were close.

"I think you should know that you will be weakened for a while. I have one more fruit you can ingest and it should help you heal. I don't see the need to hide your condition so I will outright say it. Just now, that girl destroyed majority of your blood cells."

"Destroyed them...."

"If your symptoms are this strong then she didn't hold back on how she took. And.....he passed out. This is depressing. How is it that you only just met me a while ago and have so readily let your guards down? This is stupid." He sighed.

About an hour and thirty minutes later, the boy woke up. Thirty minutes after that, Kano woke up. Three hours later, Anemone finally woke up. She opened her eyes, staring at the ceiling of the cave. The rain had completely stopped though the sky was partially cloudy. She sat up before looking at her arms. All the tears on her body had healed completely. I am as good as new.....if anything, I feel even better than before.

"Looks like you are finally awake. It's high time we got to business," the stranger said.

"But I just woke up..."

"And that's all I needed."

"Anyway, where is Kano and the little boy?"

"They stepped out for a moment. Apparently, they went to get some fresh air seeing that the rain had stopped."

"I see..." Hard to believe I couldn't tell. My sensory ability must be suffering from the backlash just like the rest of my magic. That makes sense, I did forcibly contain that magic.

"Miss, might I ask a random question?"

"Just call me Anemone."

"I mean miss.....What happened to all that magic?"

"I was able to contain it," she held up her arm and touched her bracelet, "It's all in here. My bracelets are special you see. Aside from gold, I don't know what other material is woven into them. Even single day, I have to add magic to them and that's why they seem like magic artifacts even when they clearly aren't.

If I am being honest, this was the first time in three years that they were completely out of magic. So I was kind of glad that there was just much magic readily available to replenish them with."

"Are you sure you should be telling me all this. For all you know, I could be an enemy."

"I doubt it. If you were, I wouldn't be telling you any of this because I would already be dead."

"You finally woke up," Kano said as he and the little boy walked in.

"Of course I am, and at a hundred percent too," she smiled before she added, " Hey, did I manage to keep you safe just like I promised. You didn't get hurt right."

"I didn't....Thank you very much," his voice filled with anxiety. It was clear that he was nervous.

"You are welcome and I am not done yet. I will see to it that that thing is destroyed. That way, it won't be able to follow you anymore. "

"Ummm.....ummm. I wanted to return this. I noticed that the blade transformed into it." He held out his hand and on it was a bracelet piece.

"Good boy.....Thank you. I almost never even noticed that one was missing." She took the piece and placed it on the gap on her right bracelet. The bracelet began releasing a green aura before she removed the piece and gave it to him. "Here, it will keep you safe for me. As long as you have it, I can protect you."

"Before everyone completely forgets, we should probably get to discussing the subject matter at hand. The whole bystier situation."

"Okay."

"Finally."

"But before that...."

"What is it?" His tone heavy, it was clear that he was annoyed.

"I wanted to know your name."

"What merit will that have?"

"Just tell me what your name is, it's not like you will die if you do."

"Fine then, just call me Walter."

"Okay Walter, now I can start."

Kano, as well as the boy, sat down as he thought, Even right now I can already tell....they will easily get along.

"Before I go deeper. Do you both understand what bystiers even are?"

"No," Walter replied, "I have only heard people mentioning that word."

Kano sighed before he added, "Bystiers are animals that gain the ability to wield magic."

"That's correct. The term 'Bystier' is a generalized term that refers to animals that exist between the ordinary stage and the magic beast stage. Put simply, it is an underdeveloped magic beast or an evolved animal and just like any mage, it too can wield magic.

Ummm.....Bystiers are formed from ordinary animals when their spiritual vibrations resonate with a divine spot. Redstar forest is a divine spot of flames so any bystier that forms within its boundaries generally have a fire nature. But to understand more about them, I am going to touch on the topic of magic. I hope you have been studying, its about to get theoretical.

Okay, looks like no one has any queries. So I will start with what spiritual vibrations are. Spiritual vibrations are a type of particle vibration produced by a living being due to their spirit. It is something every living thing has so even plants can undergo a change if their spiritual vibrations resonate with those of a divine spot.

So every living thing has what are called nodes throughout their body. Think of them as points that link your organic flesh to your spirit. These nodes when opened have the ability to convert spiritual vibrations into magic. Rather, they convert the energy produced by the vibrations into mass that can interact with the world around us. Bear in mind that the nodes of animals and plants are more dormant than those of humans. Human nodes have a tendency to open much soon while those of animals and plants take much longer or in most cases, they never even open.

So nodes facilitate the conversion. So, remember how I said that nodes are a point of connection between the flesh and spirit, this would imply that before magic can interfere with the world, it first interacts with us. This is where the concept of magic release comes from.

The magic release state is a state in which all the nodes in a person's body function actively at once. This results in spiritual vibrations being converted and magic affecting every muscle at once.

The state itself is usually marked by a glow or change in eye color and the release of aura. The eye color thing is universal while aura release depends on the person. Some people can't do that.

Okay, so the magic release state brings about three main changes in the body. The first is enhanced sensory perception, the second is enhanced physical prowess and the third is what majority of people believe magic to be. That is, projections. Do you have any questions so far?"

Kano smiled as he said, "I think I got everything you said just now."

"You can keep going," Walter added.

"Ummm....I didn't understand anything."

"You will understand eventually. You still too young right now. Alright, moving on. Under projections, we need to know two things even before projections are introduced. The truth is everyone's spiritual vibrations have a specific nature. This is also the reason why not all plants or animals can become bystier. Only those with a nature that is similar to the element of the Divine spot they will resonate with.

The two things can kind of explain the nature part. The nature of spiritual vibrations are made up of two parts. The first is the attribute and the otheris the unique ability. This is why no matter how similar two people's spiritual vibrations feel, they can never be exact.

The attribute typically represents a certain component found in nature, water, earth, wood, wind, crystal, even sonar, etc. Unique abilities, exactly as the name suggests are unique to the person. With that in mind, we can dive into the concept of concepts...."

"Wait, Anemone....where did you learn all this," kano asked, his voice full of amazement. His had no idea their was so much theory behind an ability they grew to treat as second nature.

"Well, my mom was a magic researcher. Also my parents' book collection is insane. It had alot of things."

"So you studied."

"I did, it was tiring," Being alone everyday, "Let me continue. Where was I? Right, Concepts. There are two types of concepts. The first is a pure concept. This is just an overly simplified explanation but, imagine an attribute being Sugar and the unique ability being salt. A pure concept is when a person has all sugar or all salt. Hence the term, 'pure.

The second is a derived concept, using the same salt and sugar analogy, a derived concept can be said to be when a person has fractions of salt and sugar. They possess both though the proportions of mixture will differ. "

"Doesn't salty and sweet kind of taste disgusting," the former added.

"You say that but from the way we are sitting, I kind of sense the fact that we are all both sugar and salt. Anyway, after those two come the seven series of power."

Walter added, "Wait, so when did you honestly start learning all that?"

"Ummm....I think I was four at the time. So I think I have been learning for about eleven years now. Back to business, the first series is know as the alpha series or physical magic. It is the type of projection that affects the physical aspect of the world. It can even work on in inanimate objects.

The second series is the beta series or non physical magic at times even called spiritual magic. It only affects the spiritual aspect of the world. It has no ability to affect inanimate objects as they don't have a spirit. It greatly affects the nodes of a person though, it can damage them unless they are protected by spiritual magic too.

The third series is known as the Gamma series or divine magic. It is basically the combination of the first two series and does pretty much what they both do. It just does it at the same time. The other four series are Delta, Epsilon, Zeta and Eta. The fourth series is del...."

"Wait, what does any of this have to do with the bystier?" Walter asked.

"Sorry, I got carried away. It actually doesn't, I partially explained what does though. In any case, when a plant or animal resonate with a divine spot, their spirit becomes condensed in a certain part of their body depending on how much magic they gain. The weaker they are, the more spread out the spirit is, I think. I have killed a few weak rabbit bystier and cutting their heads off always did the trick. But this bystier was different, I sliced it in half, clean through the skull and it just regenerated like it was nothing.

That was abnormal, but then I realized that there was a large amount of magic concentrated in its eyes. Their spiritual vibrations were slightly different from the rest of the body so I believe that was the core. Put simply, we just have to sufficiently the eyes and the spirit should escape allowing the magic to scatter. Hence, it will die."

"Wait, if that's all we needed to kill it, why didn't you just tell us from the very beginning, " the former added.

"I thought the rest was something you had to know."

"That was clearly a waste of time."

Kano interrupted them, saying that it he thought it was insightful.

"Of course you did....you are an idiot. "

"That coming from someone who didn't even know what a bystier is."

"What's your problem?"

"Nothing really...I just realized that only idiots would ever pass up a chance at learning."

"Ummm, the both of you should calm down."

"No we are perfectly calm....right you idiot."

"Of course you hypocrite," Kano added.

Anemone began wondering what was wrong. They were suddenly behaving petty and this kind of worried her. Wouldn't this eventually break out into a fight?

"That aside you two. We should probably go after the bystier before it gets dark. It will become harder to fight once it does. "

"By the way, it only will because he chose to sleep," Walter added.

"I wouldn't have slept if you hadn't attacked me. Besides, I didn't sleep the longest, someone else did," Kano replied.

"So now you are roping me into this. At the very least I understood bystier physiology. That aside though, I really hope I won't see this childish banter in the fight."

"You probably won't, " the former replied.

She sighed before she said, "You are lying, aren't you?"

"If Walter starts something, I will have to respond. "

She sighed. She then took a deep breath. "Enough of that....we should get going. "