A Bit Of Backstory

"Okay, today I'm going to teach you Roe." Drew says. Things had mostly returned to normal this morning. At least with Lathia. Emma is as quiet as ever so I can't really tell with her. As for Daniel and David, they still remain cold towards me. Drew on the other hand behaves as he always does.

"What's that?" I ask. Before our lesson today, I had used up a bit of magic while practicing how to focus my Uua, so I am hoping that what I will learn today wouldn't waste too much of my magic.

Drew takes on a stance, with his legs wide apart, and punches. A bright light is released from his fists and flies out, it strikes a large rock not too far from us before exploding along with the rock, also damaging the area around it. I am slightly shocked by the amount of power that attack has, it should be on par with a grenade. He turns to me and starts explaining. "That attack is mostly made up of Uua, but, it only works with the help of a noer." Saying so, he sketches the noer in the air noer before going on to explain its alphabets.

As he said, most of the attack is made up of Uua, the noer only serving two purposes. One, increase the range of the attack, allowing it to exceed one's domain, the other is to store the majority of Uua used, only to release it explosively once the attack hits a target. As I notice the part of the noer that can store power, I get a bit excited. If I can just find a noer that can enable me to activate another noer from a distance, then I will be able to complete the noer I had designed at home. Still, I suppress my excitement and do my best to focus on learning the noer in front of me.

"Why do you need to store Uua within the noer, why can't you just release it."

"It's because of the Eani. It wears down any Uua within it, eventually turning them back into Eani. If you just release your Uua like that, before Roe reaches its target, its power would have greatly reduced, if not disappeared completely."

I nod. "How much Uua do I need to put in it?"

He shrugs. "As much as you like. Just don't put in too much or too little. Find a balance for yourself."

I nod and prepare a Roe of my own, making sure to use a little amount of Uua. If it isn't enough, I will increase the amount until I am satisfied. My fist begins to glow as I mimic Drew's stance. I then punch, at the same time releasing the Roe while aiming for another rock not too far from us. There is a flash of my light from my fists, then an explosion around three times Drew's occurred. He activates Hilla's Barrier, blocking the debris that came flying at us before turning to me in shock.

"How much Uua did you use?" he asks.

"A little."

He's silent for a moment. "How many more can you create?"

I study the amount of Uua left before comparing it to the amount I spent using the Roe. "Around thirty-five to forty more." I estimate.

He goes silent again. "You trained this morning, right? Your core isn't full at the moment?"

I shake my head. "It isn't."

He stares at me like he has seen a monster. "God, I envy your potential," he says, almost to himself. Not too long after, after I had made a few more Roes, Drew stopped me. I had wanted to reduce the amount of Uua I used in my Roe, but Drew had advised against that, claiming that it is okay as it is.

"Besides," he had said. "It'll give you an advantage against others. You have been gifted with far greater potential than others, even if you don't have too much skill or anything like that just overpower them with what you can do with your Uua. For your level, it'll be quite effective anyways. For now, I just want you to release them from your feet."

"My feet?" I ask, not too sure I had heard correctly.

"Yes, your feet." He says nodding. "If you want to be really good at combat, you must be able to release Uua from all parts of your body. The easiest to learn is using your mouth, followed by your feet. But, we're going to start with using the feet. If you can learn that, it'll be nothing compared to learning how to release it with your mouth."

After that, we spend the rest of the lesson using our feet to produce the Roe. It is a bit awkward at first for two reasons: first I am not used to using my legs to release Uua, burst is an exception of course, and second, I have to kick before I can release the Roe. Still, the principle is the same as when I use my arms so it isn't too hard to get the hang of. Before I run out of Uua, I even attempt to release the Roe from my mouth and it is successful. Not too long after, our lesson ends and I am left to recover. As he usually does, Drew heads straight to the cliffs. I watch silently as he stands at the edge for some moments before jumping off and vanishing from sight. At that moment, I can't help but admire his courage. I highly doubt I could do that.

Shaking my head, I turn around only to see the twins staring coldly at me. They meet my eyes for a moment before turning away and going god knows where. I know they are still pissed at what I said that night. They sure can keep a grudge. I was only joking and yet they took it so personally. I wasn't even talking to them. If they can react so coldly to me joking with someone, I fear to think of what they could do if I somehow manage to offend them.

"Ignore them," Lathia says walking up to me.

"I have no idea what was so wrong with what I said. I was only joking."

"They know. They're just looking for a reason to be pissed at you."

"Why? Did I do something to offend them?"

She just shakes her head and says nothing else.

"What exactly happened to Drew?" I ask tentatively. From their reactions to my joke yesterday, something serious must have happened to Drew. I can't help but want to know more. I mean Drew doesn't look like someone that has faced any tragedy, but something serious must have happened to make everyone act like that. Lathia hesitates and I rush to add. "It's okay if you don't want to tell me. I was just being curious."

"It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's just that… well… okay. Three years ago, someone betrayed the Laen."

I had not expected her to start like this, but I suddenly want to know more. "Why?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. The Masters might know, but they never told us. Anyway, remember what Drew said about the Eldest, how he sealed up the strongest Fasurus in the abyss? Well Bran -the one who betrayed us- found a way to free them. And he did. In exchange, one of the weaker gods became his Familiar. After he released them, they began to attack the Metorium and a sort of war began. The Masters sent away all those below Wranths from the Metorium to protect us, but somehow we managed to get ourselves mixed up in the war."

It takes me a second to realize that when she said 'we', she meant them, not the Laen. At that moment, my view of the team changed. These are people who got mixed up in a magical war and survived. She continues. "I'm still surprised by it, but somehow we managed to pose a threat, a very small threat, to the Fasurus. Towards the end of the war, they got infuriated and tried to kill us. They almost succeeded and then Drew…"

She trails off. It is then I notice the change, it is slight, but in her tone and expression, I can detect a little bit of sadness. I'm not too sure, but whatever it is, it evokes a feeling of pity within me. At the same time, I can't help but laugh at myself. I have no idea what is going on in her mind and yet I feel pity.