Fire was walking alongside his friends as they returned to the hub area, he was highly satisfied with the progress they had made. They really were fast learners, especially TehLulz was already quite adept at handling the weapons he chose. Ambigious by far was the one with the least refined technique but he compensated for it with raw speed and strength. In that regard he was the opposite of Unchosen who was weaker but more precise, surgical almost. With more training all of them would make quite formidable warriors, Fire was sure of it.

What did concern him however were the faint energy pulses he had felt about halfway through the training, which he assumed to come from Shadow's summoning chamber. Their cause must have been an incredibly strong release of magical energy, otherwise nothing would have escaped the heavily shielded room.

Fire thought back to when freeZe had used the blaze core in their mountain shelter, still cursing his carelessness for letting her use the core in the first place. Then again, if she hadn't discovered her magical potential there, the skeletal mage would have been more of a problem than it already had been. It was one of those decisions where it was very hard to judge if it was right or wrong and sadly a lot of the decisions he had made and would have to make were of this nature. He supposed that by the end of their quest he would get the clarity he wanted.

Fire's thought process was interrupted by TehLulz speaking: "That last one was especially brutal Ambigious, you just caved that thing's head in."

Audibly proud, Ambigious replied: "I do try."

The three of them laughed, then they turned to Fire. Ambigious asked: "So, what do we do now?"

Fire replied: "Judging by how you look and smell I suggest taking a bath. And remember: Don't touch the black soap."

Ambigious said: "Yeah, yeah. Lesson learned."

They exited the stone tunnel they were in, went through the hub and then walked towards the living quarters through the much more homely wooden corridor. To their surprise they saw Shadow and freeZe sitting at the table in the lobby and talking.

Shadow was wearing her usual robe but freeZe had changed into a very casual outfit consisting of black pants and a short blue shirt. However, on second look, she didn't look all too good. Her hair was singed and what was visible of her skin was covered in scar tissue, which surprisingly had the same pitch black color as her usual skin but nonetheless looked terrible.

As soon as Ambigious spotted this, he rushed over to freeZe and asked: "What happened? Are you okay?"

freeZe smiled and said: "I am okay, just don't touch it. As for what happened… I set an entire room on fire. For ten minutes straight."

Before Ambigious could say anything Shadow interjected: "freeZe needs to learn how to control her magic, to teach her that I brought out her life force using a potion and she had to fight her way back into control. While her life force was in control, her body was shielded from the heat, mages are usually immune to their own spells unless they are inexperienced. That explains why she got burned, after she got back into control there was still a lot of heat lingering in the room and her life force wasn't shielding her body anymore."

Ambigious was probably about to make a snappy comment about magic but was silenced by a look from his sister. Instead he sat down on a chair next to her and sighed.

freeZe asked: "So, what have you guys been up to?"

Unchosen explained: "We have been training with melee weapons. Fire summoned projections and we killed them."

TehLulz didn't sit down and instead walked towards the stairs, he said: "I don't know about you but I'll take a long, relaxing bath now."

The others silently agreed and followed him, only Fire and Shadow were left behind.

"So, how are the prospects for her?" Fire asked.

His sister replied: "As you know she has an affinity for Fire and Air. I haven't tested other elements yet but I don't think that there will be anything major. Average mages usually don't have more than two. Maybe there will be some minor affinity towards any of the other elements, that way she could use her magic for things that don't involve destruction."

Fire nodded: "How about her further training? Those scars look pretty bad."

Shadow smirked and answered: "It was actually her own decision to keep them. It shouldn't surprise me, really. Most pyromancers run around with completely scarred skin, the one advantage it has is that it is quite fireproof."

"Tell me about it, you would be surprised how many hair-growth potions are sold in the Mencur-Besh potion shop in Redwater, most of them to pyromancers."

Shadow chuckled at that thought, she said: "How are you holding up?"

"I'm doing fine, but even if I wanted to feel nervous, I can't. I still don't know if it is the right approach I'm taking. At this point it's too early to say anything. Once we get the first few artefacts we'll see how everything pans out."

"I talked to a few of my friends in Rockhaven via demon, double checked some laws. Our friends won't have trouble getting in, we two are already citizens, obviously. Luckily the Eye-and-Claws have a lot of power in Rockhaven so we came to an agreement quickly."

Fire remembered something: "There are also those rumors about an enigmatic group in Rockhaven plotting to dethrone the king. I don't know if that is relevant to us though."

"Right, I remember you telling me shortly before your capture. Do we really have no idea on who it is?"

Fire shook his head: "No clue. That's what puzzles me the most about this whole affair in Rockhaven. None of the powerful people should have any reason to want a new king, even the Mage Guild is quite satisfied with him."

Shadow sighed. "I'll have to look into it when we arrive, I have my ways of finding troublemakers. But right now the preparations for the journey have top priority."

A few minutes later freeZe came down the stairs, visibly having trouble moving due to the pain her fresh scars caused her.

She groaned: "Okay, keeping the scars was a mistake. Can you heal me Shadow?"

Shadow threw her brother an amused look before standing up. She closed her eyes to focus and raised her arms towards freeZe. As she prepared to cast her spell, white runes started glowing all over what little of Shadow's skin was visible. A moment later freeZe's scars started slowly turning into normal skin again and her hair was restored to its original condition.

freeZe touched the skin of her arms, she said: "That felt… interesting. But really, thank you. I better work on not getting burned in the future."

Shadow looked a little exhausted, she explained: "This spell is very energy intensive, healing fresh wounds is just a matter of speeding up natural regeneration and making sure that scars don't form… but healing already formed scars is more complicated. Fortunately there is enough ambient energy in the base that I don't really have to worry about running dry, not that it would have been a problem normally but I am still recovering from casting the barrier to protect myself from your flames."

freeZe nodded in acknowledgement and then asked: "Interesting. By the way, what's up with those runes?"

"I did mention a few times that I 'ascended', yes? That is the reason I have those runes on my skin." Shadow said, making her runes glow demonstratively. "When I joined the server and discovered my talent for magic I was purely an Ender mage, this is also why I know so many demons, I have been summoning them from the start. After around a thousand years, the understanding of magic here was great enough that so powerful and thus costly spells were theorized that even the most powerful mages couldn't cast them in practice. Casting spells as a group is always an option but it is difficult and could end in disaster at a moment's notice. So that is why mages from all over the world worked on a way to augment the magical capabilities of an individual. The Mencur-Besh were the ones who delivered the solution, they have a huge interest in research and the acquisition of knowledge."

freeZe asked: "So you were the first one to ascend?"

Shadow shook her head: "The only one in fact. I was the only one where it worked. As for those before me… some survived, some didn't. The procedure itself required the cooperation of all three supernatural crafts, that being magic, enchanting and alchemy, which on its own was a challenge. An alchemist, in this case Fire, brewed a potion that allowed my body to accept the magic that would be used in the ritual. After drinking it, the runes would have to be carved into my skin using a special knife made from enchanted silver, which is hard to make since silver naturally repels all magic. Let me tell you, it was a very painful process but nothing compared to the last part. The runes carved into my skin were filled with actual enchantment runes. Then seven mages, each a master of their own element, channeled their magic into me."

freeZe involuntarily rubbed her skin, remembering the pain from being burned.

Seeing her motion Shadow said: "Yes, it was more painful than that. After the procedure everyone just had to wait and see. When I woke up my skin had turned black, my hair white and my eyes red, which was presumably because the potion required some Mencur-Besh blood, in this case Fire's, which explains the red eyes. That and I had a living shadow. Besides my appearance being different, I also felt different, I felt free. There was immense power within me but I knew better than to test it out on the spot. I was right in not doing so, I had to re-learn everything I knew about using magic but in the end I had become what so many wished to be, a master of all magic."

Fire got up and said: "I would love to stay and talk with you two but I'm going to have to sleep now, I stayed up a long time preparing for the training."

"Night… or whatever time we have." freeZe said.

Fire replied: "Night."

freeZe turned to Shadow again and said: "So, there are no other ascended mages?"

Shadow answered: "No, there were attempts before and after me but they all failed, I imagine there is an underlying reason for it. It could have been any number of things really, there is no way to tell for sure."

freeZe said: "Hmm… I know I should sleep right now but I am not tired at all. Ever since the training a passion has been burning inside of me, in more ways than one. I want to learn more about magic!"

Shadow smiled: "Then I suggest that we go to the library together, there are plenty of books there. Come, I'll show you."

With that both got up and made their way out of the lobby, walking towards the library, still talking.