I killed them.

John stood there looking at Minerva. A myriad of emotions flashed across her face, it was hard to tell but the most glaring one was surprise. She looked back at John who was standing by the door who put his hands up as if to say: don't ask me. She looked back at the old man who didn't turn back. She turned her head and walked into the inner chambers.

"Well that went as well as it could have," the old an smiling and looked at John who followed after Minerva.

The bath was not anything special. It was more like a big wooden cylindrical container. This was one of those traditional baths that didn't have hot water but had to have a fire running. John took of his shirt and Minerva helped him unwrap his bandages. She had to dab some water on it but the wound was already closed up.

"That's gonna leave a scar, he had to cauterize it," she said

John looked down and shrugged, he was presently worried about being boiled in the bath. He was looking at it ominously.

"You can't go in there, not with that wound. It may have closed, for now ... I'll bandage you up after you're done" she said leaving some towels. He was a little disappointed now.

Roasted beef was the smell in the air. He took a lot of time to get rid of all the blood stains so food was ready by the time he got out. There were fresh clothes by the door outside the bathroom. He wore them and walked towards the kitchen. He sat slowly by the table watching that his wounds didn't. What a pain, being injured, never again, he thought. The food reminded him of home not in the exact same way but it did. There was no time to be nostalgic he was quite eager to learn magic.

"It's healed quite well,"John said to ease the tension. The air was thick with it. "I think we can start tomorrow."

The old man and Minerva turned to look at him.

"I'm all better, I can walk perfectly without the cane." he extrapolated.

"Oh, you can? Stand up straight and raise your left leg and stay like that until I tell you to stop."

"Okay, maybe I can't do that but we can still start." John said hopefully.

"I explained before health of the body is very important to your power. Why am i always surrounded by stubborn youngsters." the old man said.

"That's not true. You can do it any time." Minerva interrupted.

"Well it's different, it's magic." John said.

"Magic? Are you an elf and how can he teach you magic he's not an elf," she said pointing at the old man.

"He's a sage." John said, "he is a magician as well."

"Wow, it's like I don't know you," Minerva stood up and left after a brief exchange of glances.

"Well I guess you're sleeping on the floor today." the old man said almost laughing, "She would have made you a bed if she wasn't so mad."

Minerva had already made breakfast by the time John woke up. The smell of hot bread is the same everywhere he thought putting all thought of the discomfort of the floor behind him.. The kitchen had a glass wall on the outside since it led to a glass house. In it grew many kinds of vegetables and fruits. She was picking some tomatoes and putting them in a basket. East was the direction behind the house and the glass house was always radiant in the morning.

She walked back to the kitchen. She took out lettuce and tomatoes and started making bacon sandwiches.

"Are you going to the college today?" John asked.

"No, I am going to train, away from here." she replied making a circular motion with her hand.

"Can I come with you, I want to watch." John said eyeing the sandwiches she was making.

"Why? It's not like you can learn anything from watching me practice and I am boring company." she replied fetching more bread from the cabinet.

"Perfect, I have nothing to do besides heal and that can happen anywhere plus i like the quiet its not like you will make lots of noise while you train." John said as he walked into the glass house and returned after a few minutes with more lettuce.

"What's that for? Its not like I agreed to letting you come with me and that's too much lettuce for one persons sandwiches." She said taking the lettuce.

"I am healing after all and I was planning to follow you if you said no anyway." he said slyly.

"Touche."

Just as they were about to leave he told her to wait for moment and went to the library room and grabbed a paper and wrote something with quill. He scoffed as he wrote. He came back and placed paper on the tray containing the old mans breakfast as Minerva watched in bewilderment.

"What's that for?" she asked

"Leaving a note saying we're going out." he said as he walked out.

"We were not going to stay in the house all day, and off course he would guess we went out if he did not find us." she said.

"Well we do things differently where I'm from, its common courtesy."

"And where is that exactly?" she asked showing that she was waiting for the chance to ask, "Are there many human magicians or are you a half."

"Half?" he asked not familiar with the term.

"Half elf - human," she said tacitly. How could he not know this.

"You mean multiracial? No I'm all human last time I checked or my mother and I need to have a serious conversation,"He said trying to avoid the subject but there was not shaking her and asked again where he was from."From the continent far to the west,"

"The lands of the giants?" she asked

"There are giants but I'm sure that they're different from the kind you know."he said thinking of football, "It's a beautiful city with buildings so tall that they touch the sky and block out the sun."

"Now you're messing with me, It's fine if you don't want to tell me." she said deciding to drop the questions.

"It's true, we can go sometime I'm sure you'd be surprised," he said truthfully, "What about you, where are you from?"

By now they had come to a fork in the road and took the steep overgrown path and she indicated that he should be careful of his steps especially because he didn't have his cane. She was then quiet for a long time and John walked even more so behind her. He knew this was a sensitive subject since the old man had mentioned that he had rescued her but not from what or whom. The path got steeper the more they moved and his side was starting to throb. Music, what i wouldn't give for some music. This thought made him wonder where his phone was. He was surprised that he hadn't thought about it once since he came into this world. So this is what unplugging feels like, it's not so bad, he thought to himself.

They walked in silence about twenty minutes. There were hardly any birds in the woods around them and the only sound they could hear was that of the wind and the rustling of leaves beneath their feet. A flute started playing and resonated through the forest. She looked back smiling and surely enough she had a flute in her hands. She was holding the basket on her left elbow and played a very sad song. It made John wonder whether he should have asked about her past before. The sounds he heard from her flute rose and fell with such precision that he could feel the emotions like they were his own and it almost brought him to tears. Silence returned once more only this time it came with some perspective. It wasn't so bad compared to the sadness from the flute. They came to a clearing that felt very much like a picnic, that John felt nervous about the situation when Minerva gave him the basket.

"I'll do my own thing now," she said as she walked toward the center of the clearing. John walked about and found a good spot under a tree where the sun was just right. He took off his cloak placed it on the grass and sat down leaning on the tree and started watching her. She was standing with her arms clasped like she was in prayer. She was in this posture for long time that John begun to wonder. So this is that faith, he thought as he yawned. He waited for a long time but nothing happened and he nodded off to sleep. The grass, the trees, the silence as well as the smell of dead leaves in the wind was more comfortable than the floor.

"Wake up," a voice in the distance said, "Wake up. You're smudging the sandwiches." John opened his eyes. The sun was high in the sky, his stomach rumbled.

"Is it that time already?" he said.

"And I thought you wanted to watch me practice, I told you I was boring company."she said checking the sandwiches, "lucky." she said taking one and handing him the basket.

"Well can you blame me, you seemed like you were praying for a longtime. I closed my eyes and the next thing I knew the sun was up there." He said pointing up.

"I was communing with my spirits. You should always do that as an elementalist, the stronger the bond the more effective the power." she said.

"Can I ask. The old man said you're practicing healing, can you maybe take care of this." he said pointing at the side.

"So that's the reason you wanted to follow me?" she said finishing her sandwich, "I'm sorry to disappoint you but you came here for nothing. My power is connected to my past, and there is a reason why don't want to use it, It's scary," She said looking downcast. John flinched realizing he had touched a sore spot, again.

"You don't need to explain." he said brushing it off but she offered to explain.

"I can technically use three spirits but it's more like two." she begun.

She was around five years old when the old man had found her. She was the survivor of a fire that had razed a mansion. She was covered in soot and surrounded by burning wood yet she had no burns or scratched on her body, she was completely untouched. She was scared, crying and hungry so the old man offered her some food and asked her some questions about her family and the house. But she couldn't remember. The only thing she remembered was a great fire and the bird. The old man was the only person she knew in the world at that moment and he offered to take her in since they were in the middle of nowhere. Her emergence had happened later than it would in a normal child. That was two years later. She was able to use wood a rare elemental combination of earth and water elements and duly she begun to commune and practice.

Six months after her emergence, there was a great storm. The night flashed bright purple and pink and the clouds roared. Some time after the storm started there was smell of smoke coming from the kitchen that was more intense than the usual when cooking. He went into the kitchen and the entire outer wall was on fire but the girl was no where to be found. He tried to put out the fire but no matter how much he tried nothing happened the fire raged on it's thirst unquenchable. He was about to give up and wait for the fire to die down on its own that he saw the shape of a bird in the fire and he realized a phoenix was why she was safe from that fire. He started casting his magic to quell the thunderstorm and as the lightning died down the fire died with it. And the girl was crouching where the wall cabinets would have been with her head between her knees trying to mute the sound. He approached the girl who jumped on him and held on to him as he looked at the charred outer wall to his chambers and the kitchen.

The next morning the girl was quiet and downcast no matter how many times the old man tried to tell her that the wall was not an issue. He even spontaneously came up with the idea that he had been planning to build a glass house next to the house and the walls would have come down sooner or later. The fire had only accelerated his plans. But nothing worked. He had never been a father before and was unsure what to do in that moment. The girl finally spoke up with tears in her eyes.

"I killed them, I burned my family alive as they slept," and she wept uncontrollably. It was the most powerless the old man had ever felt in his life.

At this point Minerva was crying as she told John the story. She had vowed never to use her fire spirit since she was unable to control it and was scared of hurting others. This was heavy, it was more than he had expected to hear. It made sense now why she was so mad at the old man for keeping his powers a secret. The silence stretched on. John didn't know what to say, what could you say in this situation. He was too unfamiliar to her to give her a hug let alone the fact he had never hugged anyone, he just sat there. Do they hug here?