Whispers of a Dead Empire

I sat there and thought about it for a moment before I made my choice. I would use my wand for predominantly arcane use, and I still had yet to actually delve into the undeath mana, so I would use minor affinities for now. It would do wonders to save me time and mana usage in the future.

Sadly, even though I was in my soul sleep, it would still cost me heavily in the primary summon, which made little sense. Whoever designed this must be incredibly stupid. But I didn't blame them. They didn't have my intellect.

With my mind made up, I started with fire first. With the testing that I had in mind, I didn't want anything significant, so for now, a small flame would do wonders. So I snapped my fingers, and a small flame popped into existence and danced on the lifeless air of mother's soul realm.

I pumped a little more mana into it and got it to a suitable size before I glanced up at the ball of gravity mana and tried to formulate my plan. I wanted to trap the flame close by it, but I wasn't sure how to do something like that. But that is what testing is for, after all.

I shifted the flame into a minor fireball spell, threw it up in the air, quickly shifted my focus to the gravity well next to me, and pumped a little more mana into it. I could feel the air shift and see tiny strands of fire leech away from the sphere and get sucked towards the small sphere that orbited me.

It was bizarre. The ball of fire was slowed to a halt before it fell back towards the violet ball. More and more strands of fire broke away, creating a rather macabre scene as gravity quickly tore apart the spell, creating a layer of rings from the carcass of the ball. It was a quick process that took no longer than a few seconds, but the fire looked like it needed to settle.

The only downside was that my mana supply was getting a little low, so I needed to stop now, lest I start to get sick. But I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. I wish my mana pool was a little larger, but that would come in time. I would just need to keep working on expanding it as fast as I realistically could. Though I knew I couldn't rush something like this. Mana reserves could be temperamental and were best left to grow naturally and through training.

I hummed as I glanced back up to my newly found gravity point and watched as the fire slowly settled into a single ring that flickered and pulsed, casting an ominous light into the center of the gravity well, causing it to pulse. Really, staring at it, there were no words I could find that could express what I wanted to say other than just ominous. It was like I was staring into a well of eternity, and the thought made me really uncomfortable, more so in a way that I just didn't know how to describe.

With great effort, I pulled my gaze from the gravity well and instead tried to close my eyes for a little bit and rest. I needed to restore my strength anyway, so now would be the best time to sleep. At least until my actual body woke up. A giant yawn pierced my lips as I sat on the ground, curled up into a ball, and closed my eyes, relishing the desire to sleep until the darkness took me a while.

When I woke up, I had a kink in my neck, and my head hurt slightly from resting on the table. I sat up and heard a few bones in my neck pop as a few aches permeated my body. I groaned as I sat up and rubbed my neck. "Mr. Kharon, you could have at least taken me to a bed or something soft." My voice came out closer to a whine than anything else at that moment. But I couldn't help it. It really hurt sleeping on this table.

"You looked like you were in a deep sleep, so I just let you be." My bleary eyes focused on Mr. Kharon as I fought through the dredges of exhaustion that clung to me. Setting my affinities was exhausting, but I should get better soon. At least, I hope so. I needed my strength if I wanted to win my fight against my mother.

"But mother would have taken me somewhere." I jumped out of my chair and stretched out my aching joints. The very act did wonders to stretch out my joints and chase away whatever exhaustion that I felt. My body, though, felt a little strange. It was like a soft hum that filled my flesh and gave me a sense of power that filled me to the bone.

"Well, I'm not your mother." Mr. Kharon chided me as he stood up. His cloak danced in the still air as he reached his hand into the depths of his cloak. "So I recommend that if you fall asleep anywhere, at least do it where you will be more comfortable." His eyes flickered merrily at me as if they were hiding a secret.

How dare he treat me like that! I deserve to be taken care of. "That's not fair!" I retorted and balled my fist up. I'm not some commoner; I'm a princess!

"Nyx, there will not always be people around to take care of you. You need to learn to take care of yourself every now and then." His hands rested within the depths of his cloak, and the humor in his eyes seemed to fade, only to be replaced by something dark. It was almost like he was daring me to argue with him.

I thought about his words with no small amount of indignation. I'm a princess, so there will always be someone here to take care of me. But maybe he was also right. First and foremost, I was a dragon, so I needed to take care of myself. Still, it would have been nice for him to help me. "I understand." I ceded victory to him for now since I knew there was no point in arguing with him. He was far stronger than I was. But not only that, he was smarter, too. I would lose every time, and I didn't enjoy losing.

"Good. I'm glad that we had this talk then. Maybe you will take my advice to heart next time." The threat in his eyes vanished and was replaced by the sense of humor that mingled with the flames. "But anyways, I have a gift for you." He withdrew his hand from the innards of his cloak and presented a small box roughly thirty centimeters in length. It wasn't anything ornate, just a simple brown box wrapped with a golden silk ribbon, tied into a beautifully done knot.

Any sense of irritation that I had with him had vanished and was instead replaced with excitement. I loved getting gifts since they made me feel special. It's alright, Mr. Kharon, I forgive you for leaving me to sleep at a table. "What is it?" I asked as I jumped in glee and bounded towards him.

But before I could reach him, he raised the box above my head. "First, take a seat." He motioned towards one of the empty chairs nearby. But I was too eager to be angry at him, and instead, I complied and sat down.

"Can you tell me what it is now?" As I leaned forward in my chair, I looked at the box with hunger. I wanted whatever sat in there and honestly didn't care what it was. I just knew that I needed it.

"Well, if I told you what it was, it would ruin the surprise." His teeth grounded together in a chuckle as he reached forward and passed the box over to me.

Quickly I reached out and took it from him, desperate to get whatever sat inside of it. Carefully, I unknotted the ribbon and placed it to the side. I wanted that ribbon, too, since it was cute. Maybe I could tie my hair up with it. Two gifts for the price of one, after all.

I pulled the box without hesitation since I got what I wanted from it. Excitement boiled deep within as the box slowly pulled apart, and when I was finished, I was floored.

Resting gently inside of it was a wand made of slate gray wood. The handle was composed of a polished brown wooden base with trails of silver lunar magic that seemed to wrap around the wand's length. It was rigid and without the usual gnarly nature of wooden wands.

Mesmerized by its beauty, I reached out and grasped the handle. The mana that encased its handle pulsed as it sank into my flesh, and I closed my eyes to make a connection to the wand. My world twisted slightly as the mana invaded my mind, as it attempted to form a connection. This was the most challenging part, since wands would usually hold on to a piece of their former masters, if they had one, of course.

My world shifted as a being of silver lunar energy formed in front of me. I could tell it was a woman, though that was all I could gather from the form. The floating mass of silver energy regarded me for a moment, before a voice radiated from it. Her voice was soft, almost like a gentle sea as it reached my ears. "So, a dragon has gained my wand. One whose heart is pure and unblemished by the eddies of time. An oddity in this world."

"Hello! My name is Nyx!" I shouted out as I gazed at the mass of energy. Well, of course, I'm a dragon. What else would I be? Silly mana spirit. But what did it mean by pure of heart?

The spirit stared at me for a few more seconds, and I could feel its gaze pierce me as if it were studying me. "I see. So you are a familiar soul. A being borne from the aspect of a soul and given its own life. A budding mage, a growing monk, and a hunger for knowledge that would put to shame many of my contemporaries. But above that, you have divinity that flows through your veins. You are very interesting indeed."

I nodded my head as I listened to the mana spirit speak. It wasn't wrong. Mother was a goddess, and I was very hungry for knowledge. I had dreams, and every single drop of knowledge that I could find would be helpful in furthering my plans to one day be the best warrior princess I could be. Not to mention mage and dragon.