Chapter 8

GREY

I woke up to everyone except me and Caera already awake. They were all doing basic morning chores. "Good morning everyone, why didn't you wake me up to help?" I asked, confused.

They all looked at me annoyed. "We tried. You sleep like a log. Caera is the same! Seeing how close you two are, she probably got it from you!" exclaimed Enola. "Also if you need help prying her off don't ask me."

I was confused by what she meant until I noticed Caera had hugged me like I was some kind of stuffed animal. I tried to peel her off only to find her grip wasn't budging. I used a lighting spell to wake her up. Since it was so similar to Thunderclap impulse no one questioned me.

"AHH!" Caera shot up in surprise. She looked around, confused about what happened. "Grey! What was that for!?"

"You were clinging onto me." I replied.

"You were as hard to wake up as Grey," said Mayla as she finished packing her stuff.

"Was I really that bad?" Caera asked, distressed.

"You don't have to sound so happy about it," I said. "Alright, let's explore the cave and if we can't find anything we go out and explore the fantasy RPG."

"What's an RPG?" asked Seth, confused.

"Nothing, since I used so many 'weird' words I'm going to use more just to confuse you all. And no, I'm not going to answer any questions." I replied. They all gave me a "Are you kidding me?" look before we continued.

We walked in formation down the cave. The terrain got more and more ragged making it hard to navigate. I tied a rope around all of our waists which helped when going up and down. Since the stalactites could fall I was forced to keep a wind barrier up, using mana rotation to keep it maintained.

"Is that a door?" asked Valen. We looked in the direction he was pointing to see a door that looked like it was made from the tree's that we saw on the surface, the green veins still glowing.

"That's not scary at all," noted Caera, to which we all agreed.

"I don't see any other pathways we can go other than back," said Seth. He was right, this was the only thing we could do. We approached the door and Enola tried to open it but failed. "It's locked."

"Here, let me try," said Valen, as he too, failed to open the door.

I then tried it myself to find that it opened quite easily. "You guys failed to open a door, how do you feel about that information," I teased, earning a punch to the arm from Enola. We entered to find a living room that looked like a mix between the futuristic style of the ancient mages and elven architecture.

"Welcome descendant." I heard in my head, and by the looks of everyone else they had heard it too. The voice didn't sound like Sylvie when we talked with our bond, rather it sounded like it was my own thought.

"This is a recorded message, if you are hearing this then one of the Dijin descendants has opened the door to my room. I am the creator of this zone and this is my private quarters. If you wish to leave I have left you with a map to the exit portal. You must still survive the trials , good luck," finished the message.

"That was an ancient mage?" Seth asked, surprised. "Probably, he did say he created this zone," reasoned Mayla.

"I said that a descendant must've opened the door, does that mean that Grey is a descendant of the ancient mages?" asked Enola. Everyone looked at me with surprise.

"Apparently I am, although I had no idea up until now." I admitted.

We then looked around for the map. Unfortunately we couldn't find any books for information. The whole thing was composed of a single bedroom. I noticed there was a small box on a table. I walked over and opened it up to reveal a set of 8 bracelets. I put one on and when I held it like you would a watch when checking the time a small green box that was slightly translucent. Using the old pinch to zoom method the box expanded to reveal a 3D version of the room we were in along with a bit of the cave just outside the door.

It looked like everything in a 40 foot radius was mapped. I looked closer to see that we ourselves didn't appear. "I wonder, does this thing map out area's or is it unlocking a previously made map?" I pondered.

"Hey guys! I found the map!" I called everyone over.

"Woah! Are these relics?" asked Caera as everyone played around with the bracelets. "Maybe, they are made by an ancient mage. But they could also be unique to this zone and disappear when we leave." I analyzed.

"This is great! It means we can explore now!" exclaimed Mayla. "Yes but we should still use the rope to stay together when leaving the cave," said Valen. We all nodded and exited the cave, the entire cave was mapped out by the time we were out.

"Let's form into groups of 2s and split up, then we'll meet back together in 6 hours." I suggested while handing them all another bracelet that doubles as a timer. I made them just for situations like this where we needed to split up. "Did you make these Grey?" asked Caera.

"Yeah, they're from my ol-" I covered myself to stop what I was about to say. For some reason I always almost told Caera my secrets. Everyone looked at me weird, "not going to tell us your secrets?" asked Valen.

"Does Caera even know your secrets?" asked Enola, annoyed by my secrecy. "I know some of his secrets but come on guys, let's not push him." Caera replied, putting the subject behind her. Everyone begrudgingly nodded and we all left our own ways. The teams were, Me and Caera, Valen and Seth, Enola and Mayla. As much as Seth and Mayla wanted to be with each other Seth wasn't strong enough to protect her.

Once we were away from the rest Caera and I started talking. "Thanks for covering me," I said.

"You're welcome, after all, what are friends for?" replied Caera. "Also, since we're alone and have no chance of being caught you can go all out."

"You're right, but there's nothing here," I said.

"Oh yeah… I was hoping to watch you fight for real but I guess that won't be happening." sighed Caera.

SETH MILVIEW

Valen and I made our way in a random direction. I wanted to talk to Valen about Grey. I trusted Grey, yes, but he had a ton of secrets. "So Valen, what do you think of Grey?" I asked, not dropping my guard.

"Other than all his secrets he's a pretty stand up guy. Smart, easy to get along with, doesn't treat us like the sons of highblood, good at hand to hand combat, good strategist and tons of other stuff. Honestly he's like the main character in a novel, he's even got Caera to fall for him." Valen replied.

"So you noticed it too, anyway, I think he's stronger than he lets on. We haven't even seen him use a sword but apparently he's a swordsman. That sword doesn't seem normal either, but I don't think he was lying about finding it by accident. Caera said she knows his secrets but I doubt she knows very much," I said.

Valen nodded in agreement. "Hey Seth, what do you want to become?" Valen asked me. I was taken aback from the sudden question. "Can you clarify?" I asked.

"When you get older, what do you want to become?" Valen rephrased.

I pondered the question before answering. "I don't know, my sickness was going to kill me before I hit 20 but Grey took a look at my core and told me the problem and how to fix it."

Valen's eyes went wide. "Wait, Grey was the one that helped you?"

"Yeah, apparently my body couldn't hold my mana so I just needed to exercise but-"

"You don't think that was the case and instead Grey did something to cure you." Valen finished. "Yeah, but back to your question if anything I want to become a scientist of some kind, maybe in runes. I never thought about it because of my sickness." I explained, "Why do you ask?"

"Well I was just wondering what I wanted to do. My blood believes that I'm a genius. Ever since birth I've been trained in every way. From politics to swordsmanship to general. I've grown up with the expectation that I'll become the next Highlord for my blood, but what if that's not what I want to be? What if I want to do something else with my life?" Valen questioned.

For once I was at a loss for words. "You don't need to answer, just listening is good enough," said Valen."Thanks, you guys are the only people I can talk to normally, for that I'm very grateful."

"How much you wanna bet Grey could probably offer some words of condolences?" I challenged.

"No thanks, I don't want to make a losing bet," laughed Valen.

Suddenly we heard a crash next to us. I pulled Valen to the ground as a stream of fire went over us. Luckily through my training with Grey constantly ambushing me I was able to react quickly enough. Through the darkness a giant red snakehead appeared with smoke coming out of its mouth. The head itself was about 3 meters in size.

"AHHHH!" I heard a scream come from inside the darkness. It sounded like Mayla. I ran towards the scream, making sure to keep my focus on the snake head. As I ran Valen kept close behind me for probably the same reason. My gaze followed the body of the snake to see that it connected to a body and I saw the start of a blue neck and green neck. The blue neck went in the direction of Mayla's scream. I cursed under my breath as I got close. I saw Mayla and Enola standing in position, Enola had a huge cut on her right arm but it didn't look too dangerous.

"Guys what happened!?" I yelled as the blue head now came into view. "Seth! Valen! Please tell me Grey and Caera are with you!" said Mayla as we all got into position. From what we could see a brown head and blue head were now in view, it was safe to assume the other heads could attack as well.

"What is that thing?!" Valen yelled. "No clue, it came out of nowhere! Let's take one head each until Grey and Caera show up if they ever do." Yelled Enola.

"I'll take the green head!" I yelled as I made my way to where I assumed the green head was. As I ran I had to dodge fire from the red head until Valen got its attention. I drew my sword and jumped at the green neck as it came into view, but so did the head. I opened its mouth and sent out half a dozen wind blades. I barely managed to avoid them, leaving only a cut on my arm.

Despite using a spellform I didn't sense any mana from that attack. I slide under the head pushing my blade up into its chin. The thick scales caused my sword to struggle upon entering. It didn't go as far as I wanted it to.

The snake retaliated by slamming itself to the ground, crushing me under its weight. Fortunately I didn't feel any broken bones, adrenaline started pumping through my body allowing me to get up and retreat. My whole body felt sore.

Ignoring my pain I prepped my blade and charged. The snake opened its mouth and let out a howling whirlwind, I dug my heels into the ground to keep steady. Side-stepping the powerful winds I jumped forwards stabbing the snake in the eye and grabbing one of its fangs.

The snake roared in anger and tried to shake me off but I kept firm. Then I felt the wind start to shift, it started to collect inside of the snake's mouth. Death. That was the only thing I thought. I couldn't avoid this attack.

"Goodbye Mayla, I wish I could've spent more time with you," I thought as I silently accepted my death.

Then, all of the sudden a huge earthen spike ran through the snake's head causing me to fall to the ground. I looked in the direction of the spike to see who threw it. It was Grey with his arm extended. Caera was beside him running over to my side. "Seth, where is everyone else?" she asked, her giant red sword drawn.

I pointed in the direction and she ran before I could tell her anything else. I turned back to Grey to see his auburn hair was now longer and white. His eyes filled with anger and a hint of irritation. His face was impassive but the amount of mana swirling around him said otherwise. His sword was drawn and black lighting and white fire coated it as if it was always a part of the teal sword that struck fear into my very soul.

The temperature around me dropped to the point my hair was starting to form ice on the tips. My entire body shook in fear as Grey vanished and I felt his mana speed by me. Fueled by pure curiosity I followed Grey. As I ran I saw Valen with a look or terror and surprise and the red head was nowhere to be seen, only the burnt end of a neck.

"Who was that!" yelled Valen. "That was Grey!" I replied, not bothering to stop. I kept running to see Caera attending to a hurt Mayla while Enola was staring at Grey. Grey was looking at the remaining two snake heads. "A mindless beast dares to attack my friends? How foolish." chuckled Grey.

Grey then put one arm out forward and a white fire covered his hand. I looked at the snake to see that it was trying to run in fear, but it was fruitless. The white fire expanded around the snake, freezing it entirely. Grey out down his arm and his other hand–which was balled into a fist– and black lighting started to fly around randomly, strangely it never came close to us. Grey continued by flicking his wrist. The black lighting shattered the frozen snake, turning it to shards.

Grey then turned to us and walked towards us. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," said Grey as he flicked his wrist again and we were all covered in a stone dome. "I just need to rest…" said Grey as he fainted.

"Grey!" yelled Caera as she ran to him. Caera knelt down and checked his pulse. "Thank the Vritra, he's only asleep," sighed Caera. She turned to us to see that we were looking at her with a "what the hell was that" expression.

"It's not my place to tell you," said Caera, answering our unanswered question. "So if we want to know anything we have to wait until he wakes up?" Valen asked as he leaned down in an intimidating fashion.

"Valen, you're not going to intimidate me, remember, it's you or Grey. I'm sure we all know which one I'd rather fight." said Caera. We all sighed. "If you can't tell us why then can you tell us how?" I asked.

Caera pondered my question for a while. "I don't know how he got the ability but it allows him to control ambient mana to a terrifying degree. This is the first time I saw him use it in a fight. I'm sure you all felt it before, mana wants to be used by him."

Caera then sat Grey up against the wall of the dome and sat down next to him then put a blanket over both of their shoulders. She looked at us, "Despite not knowing much about Grey I do know one thing. Grey has a secret, it's also the reason he keeps so many. I don't know what it is but apparently when he told his family they looked at him like a monster and his friends ran away. Believe it or not but right now, we're all he has left. What do you think will happen if we–the only people that care for him– look at him the same way his family did?" asked Caera.

All of us stood in shocked silence, if it was because of the fact we knew why Grey was so henstent to talk about his past, or if it was from learning about what his family and friends did to him. "What kind of people do that!? Sure, Grey is more mature than all of us but that doesn't mean he, or anyone for that matter can take that kind of reaction!" yelled Enola.

We were all taken aback by her outburst but we all agreed. "This raises the question though, were his old companions false companions or was his secret so surprising that despite their trust they still hated him?" asked Mayla.

"I don't think they were false companions, but, even if he does decide to tell us, I have resolved to not think of him differently," said Caera.

"Then we'll do the same," Enola said excitedly. We all nodded. "Thanks guys, it'll mean a lot to him," said Caera as leaned her head on Grey's shoulder.

"You don't want your first love to run away don't you," teased Mayla. Caera went beet red, "S-Shut up," we all gave her a teasing smile, she knew she couldn't deny it in front of us.

"I have a question though, how are we supposed to get out of here? This thing has been reinforced like crazy." I asked. Everyone went blank upon processing what I said. Valen just shrugged, "Guess we'll have to wait until Grey wakes up."

***

We all talked about what Grey's secret could be. Caera never moved from her spot and Mayla started to lean on my shoulder.

"Mom! Dad! Stop looking at me like that. I'm still Arthur, I'm not him anymore. Don't leave me…" shouted Grey before slowly quieting down. We all looked at him to see he was sweating violently in his sleep.

"Arthur?" We all looked at each other. "That was Grey's real name but he changed it when I met him." explained Caera. She held the same amount of confusion on her face as we all wondered one thing. "What did he mean when he said, I'm not 'him' anymore"