Magic

"Now you see Damocles, Magic is something special." Said Discordia walking around the arena floor. "Magic flows through everything from the dirt in this field to the very air that is spat out of your mouth. It is the greatest tool I gave the mortals." Her body was shimmering with a purple light before she vanished before his eyes. "But it is also their greatest crutch. I made Magic in this world as an incredible tool. It was so vast in its capacity of needs it has been seen as a mark of power in this world." she finished appearing in the stands and gesturing around causing images to appear in the air all around Damocles.

The images all showed some indistinct individual doing some form of task using magic. It was obviously some kind of time frame from the clothes the people wore. The first one showed people in furs and woven fabrics; they were surrounding a fire. One of them grabbed at the fire and instead of the usual response of screaming it pulled back to reveal it's hand bathed in flames with nothing wrong aside from a slight red tinge to the skin like when one had been hit. The next showed the same one wearing what was obviously an ornamental headpiece made from some creature's bones. The very next showed these same individuals attacking the one with the "crown".

"What is happening here? I know Magic has power from all I've seen of this world so far but what does it have to do with all this?" Damocles asked looking at more images showing much the same thing only in different times and places if the clothes alone were any give away.

"Magic is a great tool for discord and strife if you would believe it." Said Discordia looking at her nails. "I made Magic a corner stone when it comes to one's position. Because of that those in power become either ousted for their power or paranoid someone more powerful will come and take their place. Prime example: the "True King" in the western empires." She stated making more projections appear showing the rise and fall of multiple civilizations in so many ways. One fell to infighting, the other to conquerors, many more from simple assassinations.

"Okay. But what has this to do with me learning magic?" Damocles asked looking around until he spotted Discordia.

"Because Damocles. Magic comes from three sources in this world. And in order for you to master it, you must understand why I made it. It is what defines the strength of the mortals here, for now." Discordia said, muttering the last words. "You see when I talked with Nova she was pretty adamant about 'No Magic'." She said taking off and flying around the arena floor. She was flying backwards reclining in the air inspecting her nails. "It took a solid decade to change her mind and that was only when she agreed to Pax's begging to have more than just humans on her. But in the end I was able to convince her." She finished stopping in front of Damocles floating upside down smirking.

"And how did you accomplish that? What could you have possibly said to convince her?" He asked, crossing his arms and putting all his focus on Discordia.

"That magic is fun, silly." She said booping him on the nose. And like that he was enveloped in a purple-blue glow and started floating. Granted he didn't notice this as he was still focused on the goddess in front of him.

"You see magic comes from these three main sources. The air," She said twirling in the space around them, "The earth, or dirt. However you want to call it." She said pointing up which was still down for Damocles. He rolled his eyes and looked down only to gasp in shock and realized that he was well above the ground only to see that it was the only ground in the entire plane. The arena was the only thing there. Everywhere else was blank void. Not black or white just void. There was the shiny arena and nothing else. "And finally the soul. Magic means nothing if it doesn't have a focal point to flow through." she finished matter of factly, twirling her hair in her fingers.

And with that Damocles looked up to see a blindingly radiant light. When the light faded away to a bearable level he finally saw Discordia. She took his breath away. Her appearance had changed drastically. Gone were the fine blue-purple short robe. The entirety of the color was gone from her person and replaced with a shimmering gold color. Her hair had changed from that short pixie cut to flow all the way down to her back. Her robe had transformed to a tunic like his only to go well down past her feet. The cut hadn't changed so it was still showing off some of her… *ahem* assets. And the greatest difference was that she shined with a golden light. Where previously she was illuminated by her shining wings of magic now her entire being was shining. She looked like a star in this void. Her face was still the same but now he truly recognized her.

"Summer?" How did he know that name? This was obviously Discordia. But … Her entire demeanor had changed as well. Where before she was just lounging in her constant floating spot now she was standing straight. Her eyes had gone from that constant look of mildly crazed glee to that of a politician. The change was rather frightening yet … somehow calming as well.

"Oh, Marius. Please. It's still me. I only have a … what shall we say … change of heart?" She said before laughing. And everything in his head was gone from that single sound. It was something he never heard from her before. It was kind, gentle even. Everything he had heard from her to this point had a tinge of sarcasm or a fake happiness to it. This was honest.

"I am Discordia. But I am also Summer. You see Damocles when a god gains their power it has some interesting drawbacks? No, let's go with perks." She said floating toward him. "You see, it is like a coin. It has two heads. For me strife and discord mean thunder, wrath, a volley of arrows upon a battlefield, and all that fun stuff I so adore." She said smiling that same smile of mischief he had seen a million times by now. "But it is also honest, beautiful, and new. For everyone cannot trust one another when they don't know the truth of what the other seeks." She gestured around them causing the images to reappear again but not in the same way.

These ones showed those in power being killed, removed, ostracized, etc. But they also showed the new kings, queens, and other such rulers rise and make new kingdoms some better than the last, others staying exactly the same. Those conquered or destroyed rising back up to either remove or destroy their oppressors. All with some figure head using magic in some form. It certainly explained why some kingdoms had been around for so long. Those that fell were easily replaced because of magic. Those that rose easily crumbled, and so on and so forth the images played out.

"My gift to everything from the lowest of field mice to the very head of our "Father of the COSMOS" Zeus. It was the want to be better. The 'problem', If you could even call it that, was simple and easily fixed sadly." She said in a hushed voice. It was clear as the void around them the sadness in that voice.

"For you see Strife shows that something isn't working. So it needs to change. And so I made that change possible." She finished putting her hands back down making the images disappear.

Replaced with a single phrase floating in space. For The Fairest.

The phrase that started a war. For both man and gods.

"But what happens when you give everyone what they 'Want'? They no longer want change. They no longer see the problems in the world. So I changed it. I gave one man a mission. A chain of events that would lead mankind out of this perpetual wheel of stagnation. Well less a mission and more an idea he took way out of proportion which led to another whole thing with his son but we'll forget that bit." And from that Apple a map blossomed. It showed Greece. No date or any other marker other than borders. And one stood out. Obviously because it was bordered and surrounded in gold. And that was Macedonia.

"The Greek Pantheon wanted nothing to do with magic. Zeus said that it would make the mortals wish to rebel because it would give them power." She was pacing now. Walking around the place without a care which way she went. It was obvious to Damocles she was in her own world now.

"He was afraid man would surpass us like we did the Titans, like the Titans did the Primordials, and the Primordials whatever came before them. The whole thing about creating something is for it to be better. For it to surpass us in every beautiful way possible. And that is what strife is for." There were tears now. She was openly crying before his very eyes. And it was terrifying. The look upon her face was that of a woman scorned. One who had been promised everything and got nothing.

"They swore to me that they would let time take its course. That when that time came man would no longer bow to us. That was their promise. And they broke it." And the very air around her burst into flames. Not red or blue like he had seen before. But a burning black and purple. Her form shimmered with those colors.

"They made every attempt possible to keep man in a certain process. If one mortal was getting to big to handle they killed, cursed, maimed, and everything inbe-Bloody Fucking-tween to put the fear of the gods right back into the mortals. And because they refused to allow magic to the mortals nothing would change. No one mortal would stand against them." The map started shifting. The border of Macedon started expanding. Claiming all of Greece. "So I made something better. What if it was every mortal. Magic IS powerful. But an army against nothing is unbeatable."

"Magic is something that can not be put aside and forgotten Damocles." She said turning and 'marching' up to him. "I gave it to mortals so that they would never stagnate like the gods." She put her hand upon his shoulders. The flames around her surged forward. Wrapping him and sinking into his very being. If there was one thing he could compare this to, it would be how he felt when he first awoke on Nova's surface. Unbearable pain, his very soul felt like it was on fire.

AN: I'm gonna be honest I am not happy with this chapter. I really wanted something more but I just couldn't think of anything else and it really pisses me off. If you haven't figured it out I'm jumping between sources with these chapters so next one will be with the mortal. I definitely have a basis of where that's going so it will be better... I hope.