Once she was back outside, she walked around the outpost for a little bit to see the state of things with her own eyes. Since the majority of the troops were training, she oversaw how that was going first. Roughly half of them were in mock combat against drones while the other half focused on improving their magik control. With her Arcane Sight, she was able to tell that the average soldier had improved by almost ten percent since they had arrived. Even though her friends had improved faster, they were also more familiar with the training as they all had started it during their time in school. After Emory was satisfied with their growth, she snapped her fingers and disappeared in a flash of light.
Arriving back on the stone tablet, she sat down and began to channel her magik. There was something special about this place, not just because she had powerful encounters on this spot. No, she was sure she could feel her magik grow stronger here for some unknown reason. After a few minutes, she found herself in her mind's eye at the edge of her mana pool. But as she looked around, she saw a shadowy figure sitting on the edge as well about twenty feet away. The figure looked humanoid and appeared to be just idly kicking its feet in the water's edge.
Emory called, "Who are you?" The shadow turned its head, revealing the blurry face of an old man.
"Oh, you can actually see me here, can you?" the man replied with shock in his voice, "You have quite sharp eyes to be able to see me. It's just me, Tiamat. Normally, you'd need to use the Commune spell to speak with me, but we must be near a site of power."
"Is that what this place is? I always feel my power rising here, so I originally came here to develop my magik. Are you always in my mind?" Emory questioned.
"Indeed I am. Until you fulfill the requirements of the crown, at least," Tiamat nodded, "You've grown a bit since I saw you last, young one. I can leave you be if you'd prefer."
Emory walked closer to him and sat down, "Actually, I have some questions you might have the answers to, if that's okay."
"Fire away, queen-to-be," Tiamat chuckled, "What questions can I answer for you?"
"What do you know about the Void sphere?" Emory asked bluntly.
"The Void sphere?" Tiamat wrinkled his brow, "I suppose I know quite a bit considering I once had it. What specific questions do you have?"
Emory's eye grew wide, "You once wielded it? How is that possible?"
"Well, we fire children were once split into two groups, the light and the dark, though those are just names we chose based on the type of magik one was born with," Tiamat explained, "Over time, however, these two groups progressed down different paths. It was a rather stupid method of doing things though and contributed heavily to our downfall. They are nothing more than two sides of the same coin."
"In the current times, the Void sphere is almost entirely wielded by an evil group, but you're saying the Arcane and Void are the same? I thought the Void sphere was an innately evil sphere," Emory didn't quite understand what he was saying.
"That's ridiculous," Tiamat scoffed, "Beings are evil; magik just is. It's nothing more than the greatest tool in the universe. In my time, there were just as many bad fire children who used the Arcane as those that used the Void, though the Void does lend itself more easily to more destructive methods."
Emory nodded, "I see. I suppose I see what you mean. One of my friends is learning the Void sphere, though she wasn't born with it. So, what are the levels of the Void sphere?"
"First level is called Void Bolt which is identical to the Arcane sphere. Second level is called Absorb which allows the user to draw in magik at least one level lower than the user, but it doesn't work on the Arcane sphere. Third level is Purification, just like the Arcane sphere, where one either creates their own core or purifies their core to unlock their full potential. Fourth level is Infect, much like the fourth level of Arcane is Create. Basically, it allows the user to sequester a piece of their power into someone or something else. But also, like Arcane, it allows the user to do specialized magik without the need to do spellwork. Finally, the last level is Life Sap, and it's the reason I said it has more destructive methods than the Arcane sphere. Everything has a life force, even the planets and stars. Life Sap steals that energy and converts it to magik, basically like a forced magik poisoning," Tiamat thoroughly answered.
"It does sound a lot like the Arcane sphere," Emory whispered after she took a few minutes to process what he had told her, "That's why you said they were two sides of the same coin."
Tiamat grinned, "And if you want further proof, see what happens when you counter a Void attack with an Arcane attack of equal power. When the combined levels are the same, the two will cancel out and create greyscale."
"The combined levels?" Emory tilted her head slightly, "Do you mean with armor and weapons?"
"No, silly, I mean when the sphere level and magik core level or multiplier are the same," Tiamat laughed.
"Magik core level?" Emory looked even more confused, "What do you mean?"
Tiamat furrowed his brow, "Don't you know about magik cores? You have a fully formed one and you don't even know how it works?" Emory shook her head, causing a big sigh from Tiamat. "Magik cores are multipliers of your sphere, ranging between one and two," Tiamat clarified, "A fully formed core gives a being a two times multiplier to their effective level, though Arcane and Void don't follow the normal rules of sphere level since level three is effectively level five of any normal sphere. Creatures that don't use either of these spheres must use other methods to develop their core. These methods differ between creatures with a base core or a vessel, though I don't know the conversion spell to transform a vessel into a core. The creatures with vessels came about after I expanded magik to all."
"What do you mean when you say you expanded magik to all?" Emory breathed, her mind swimming with all the new information.
"That was my action that caused the fall of our people," Tiamat sighed as he rested his chin on his palm, "We found that magik could originally only be harnessed by those who had a magik core. Over several millennia, we only found a handful of creatures that were born with cores. As time went on, two factions developed within our people: those who wanted to share magik with everyone and those who didn't. See, none of the species we came across that didn't have magik ever made the leap from a type 0 to a type 1 civilization. And even though we had created the crown, no one had ever pushed the limit of it that far, so no one knew if it was even possible."
Emory leaned in, "But you did it anyway. I'm still confused, though, how did that cause the downfall of our people?"
"After I used the power of the crown, someone from the other side tried to kill me," Tiamat continued, "Luckily, they were stopped, but that match lit our world on fire. Our side retaliated by raiding several high-ranking officials and charged them with conspiracy to commit sedition. A radical blew up the holding area, and both sides blamed the other. Within a few years, half of us were killed by infighting. I sealed away the crown to protect it from falling into the wrong hands which proved to be the correct decision because I was killed by an assassin within the year. Afterwards, I watched from our central site of power as our people couldn't find another child with the Limitless gift. Without a leader, our society collapsed."
Emory leaned back and thought about the situation. In a way, it reminded her of how humans were split before the first war. Even now, there were lingering problems and festering wounds because of the decision Cassandra Black made to share magik with the rest of humanity. She began to wonder if her decisions had this effect as well, solving some problems while causing others. And though she believed that if she had created more problems, she would just fix those as well, but a nagging fact remained that Tiamat probably felt the same way. However, without his decision to spread magik, it was quite possible that humans would have never learned magik and would have been wiped out by the Mantoan. In the end, all someone could do was try to do the best they could to help the most people they could.
"If you could do it over again, knowing what it would lead to, would you still do it?" Emory asked softly.
"I can only hope that I would make the same decision again," Tiamat gulped, "It may have caused the end of our civilization, but you are proof that it was worth it. A child of two suns was incredibly rare; in my lifetime, there was only one such person born. And I lived nearly three thousand millennia. Besides that, since you put on the crown, I've learned much about the current universe, and I can tell my spell also allowed more creatures to gain magik cores as well. There are five distinct races that you've encountered that can use magik. But you've barely even left the little corner of the galaxy you were born in, yet, in my time, there were only that many races that could use magik in the entire universe. The cycles of the universe remain, but magik is much more plentiful than before."
Emory pursed her lips, "I suppose you're right. Still, I can't imagine having to make a choice that big. As it is now, I'm already weighed down by the responsibility I have."
"You command well, especially for one as young as you are," Tiamat assured her, "And your magik control shows clear signs of your genius, even among our people. If you had been born during our reign, there is no doubt in my mind that you would have made a fine queen." A single tear ran down Emory's cheek.
"Thank you for your compliments, Tiamat. I need to return to my meditation now," Emory stood up and bowed lowly.
"Yes, you are a busy lady," Tiamat smiled, "Before you go, I have a suggestion for you. Once you get that training method down that your aunt passed onto you about the Chaos sphere, try creating and perfecting multiple orbs at the same time. With the Limitless gift, training works better by using more magik. Doing one orb at a time at such a low level doesn't engage your magik core, which is what you need to do to increase your realm." Emory smiled and nodded before blinking and returning to reality.
Without wasting any time, she formed a dark orb in her palm. Inside the orb was murky, but very translucent still. But when she tried to add more, it popped like a balloon, splashing black liquid across her hand, legs, and feet. With a wave of her hand, a slight flame evaporated the rest off her clothes, though it still left a crimson and purple stain on the ground where it had fallen. Knowing what would happen now, she created five orbs in front of her a few feet and repeated the process. Surprisingly, it was slightly easier to add magik to the five than it had been to add to the single one before. After a minute, however, they all popped again and soaked the ground below them. Since five had been easier than one, Emory decided to create twenty orbs this time when she tried again.
Once again, it was a little easier to fill up these orbs than before, but they still popped after a minute. Emory, growing impatient, decided to create a hundred orbs this time, and finally, the orbs stayed together for five minutes. For the next hour, she continued the process of creating a hundred orbs, slowly increased the amount of magik in them until they popped, and then started again. At the end of the hour, she felt like she had improved slightly, yet the strain on her stamina could clearly be felt.
Nevertheless, she continued practicing in this fashion long after the star had set in the sky. When she finally stopped, she was completely exhausted. Emory attempted to stand on her own, but her muscles felt like rocks while her legs buckled underneath her. Circulating her magik in her legs, she forced herself to stand, albeit on wobbly legs. Since it didn't take much stamina to control her magik wings, she grew them out and flew back to the base. In the air, she was able to avoid all the guards and landed at the end of the ship. Slowly, she made her way to her room and collapsed on her bed still in her clothes but without her shoes. It only took a couple of moments before she started snoring, exhausted from her training.