Flynn stared at me, and I saw something in his face shift. Tension I hadn't noticed lifted from his shoulders, as though a weight had shifted off him.

  "Are you sure?" Flynn asked, before adding, "Not to make you second-guess yourself. I just wanted to check before you start spilling secrets. Some things can't be taken back."

  "Really?" I said, making a show of glancing around the room. "I hadn't considered that."

  Flynn snorted, shaking his head but not saying anything. I felt Fortunatus pad up to stand beside us, his emotions running through our bond clear as a bell. He didn't like Flynn still, finding him annoyingly full of himself, but even the feline seemed to approve. Whatever else Flynn might be, he had shown trust in me, and it was only right that I do the same.

  So, I nodded once and said, "I'm entirely sure about this. Haven't been more so in a long time."

  Despite my words, I felt my heart begin to beat. I paced back and forth, debating where best to start.

  "I hadn't expected much from my Awakening. Truth be told, seeing that I had become a mediocre mage was already more than I could've hoped for, and being a good one would've been a dream come true. What I saw surpassed anything I could've possibly imagined."

  Mana formed in my hand, forming a near-perfect replica of the blade I had wielded in that future. "I wasn't just good. I was exceptional. I watched as I surpassed my peers, then my seniors, and finally came to stand before the King as an Archmagus. His champion. The Aether Blade."

  The blade broke apart, shattering into pieces in my hand. "And then I died. It should've been the end of it...but it wasn't. I watched as my future self, the 'me' that could've been, did something. He cast a spell that sundered reality, twisting the Astral Plane around us."

  I had stopped looking around, the memories flowing through my thoughts as though they had happened yesterday. Some part of me wondered if the refinement of my body had improved my mind as well, but the rest focused on my story.

  "He explained my future. I was to become the greatest mage alive, if not the strongest, since the Founders. I would become the champion of our kingdom, an equal to the Titan-Bane if ever there was one. Then, I would fall, brought low against a foe from beyond the ocean. It was a fate he'd seen and failed to avert. And it would be mine too, unless I found a way to surpass even the heights he'd reached."

  My palm pressed against my chest, right over where my core sat. "To aid in that, he granted me a flicker of his power. Ocean density Aether, which even now sits within my body. It would protect me, changing me into something paradoxical. A meeting of a future that never was and a present that had already passed."

  I looked up to Flynn, squaring my shoulders as I said, "That's why I'm doing this. I saw my future, and I hated it. I refuse to let it come to pass, I refuse to die, and I'll do whatever it takes to change that fate."

  Flynn's face had turned serious, his golden eyes boring a hole through me.

  Finally, he asked, "Is that all?"

  I blinked. "Pardon?"

  "Is all you want just to live? Seems a waste of life, don't you think?" Flynn asked, folding his arms across his chest and tilting his head to the side. "Plenty of people manage that. I assumed you'd set your sights a little higher."

  It was such a blunt response that I couldn't help but laugh. When it subsided, I found myself shaking my head.

  "Truthfully, no, that's not all I want. I have plenty of plans, but the looming threat of a plausible death tended to take priority."

  "Understandable, if a bit...maudlin," Flynn remarked, a smile returning to his face. "But thank you for telling me. It does illuminate some of your behavior."

  I stared at him. "You're taking this well in stride."

  "Some of your story I had already deduced. Your potential was clear, and I knew you had something you were either trying to avoid or change. Don't get me wrong, I'm very curious about plenty of things, and we're going to have a longer conversation about them. But the way I see it, I just told you my plan to use an artifact crafted by the first light mage to remake us into something inhuman that this kingdom has never seen, and you barely batted an eye. Is my reaction really that surprising?"

  Yes, it was, but I decided not to say anything. Flynn seemed to catch my reaction, chuckling as he walked over and slung an arm around my shoulders.

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  "More importantly, this makes us the perfect pair. I always told you I wanted to surpass even Archmagi, and here I find that you've had the same goal even before we met. Think about it. The two of us, brothers fighting against fate and pushing ourselves higher and further. No better motivation, I'd say."

  "Agreed. But on the topic of surpassing an Archmagus—"

  "Right, right. The Rebirth. First, let's set up camp."

  It took about half an hour to unpack our supplies and settle in for the night. Flynn hadn't packed as lightly as I thought, owing to the space-distorting ring he had on one hand. Not for the first time, I felt a twinge of envy, and I resolved to spend more time studying demiplanes when I had the chance. The sooner I could create one of my own, the better.

  We set up tents, resealed the door to the chamber just in case of uninvited guests, and had a meal simmering in a pot over a magical fire in due time. Flynn settled down on a couch of all things, reclining with a sigh before clearing his throat.

  "The Rebirth is a multi-stage ritual, but activating it is simple, all things considered. All we need are the right external conditions, mana that matches the elements used by the Founders, and a mental push to trigger the array. Unfortunately, that's where things get much trickier."

  "How so? Doesn't the array do most of the work?"

  "Not as much as you'd think. The process is just too complex. The only way to make it work is through active focus and guidance by the participants, but therein lies the problem. It requires far more control and willpower than any single mage can muster."

  "But not seven?" I asked, and Flynn nodded again.

  The light mage waved his hand, his ring flashing, and a book appeared from thin air. He tossed it in my direction, and I reached out with my mana to pull it over with a flex of force magic.

  I turned the book over in my hand, then flipped it open to the first page. The writing within was dense and neat, and as I read, my eyes widened further and further.

  "This is..." I trailed off, turning a few pages ahead and finding a diagram in exacting detail. It was just one section of the chamber, but just what I saw was enough to occupy days of—

  Flynn cleared his throat, and I had to forcibly pull my eyes away from the book.

  "The array does some of the work, but only some. It's just too complex and requires active focus and guidance well beyond that of any one mage. My ancestor had intended for seven to go through it together, which would allow them to handle the strain without dying," Flynn explained.

  "The Founders," I said, not so much asking as stating a fact.

  "Yes. When she realized that wouldn't be possible, she pivoted. Seven mages of roughly equal strength would work just as well, so long as they knew how to work together."

  "Who are the other five?" I asked.

  "That's the thing. I'm...not sure I'd trust five others with this secret. Not yet, at least. You, I understand. Your motives are easy to follow, and I'm not worried you're some monster just biding your time to commit some great atrocity. I'm not sure I know anyone else well enough to trust them with so much power, though."

  I saw his point and even agreed to an extent. The Founders had been, by most accounts, a benevolent sort. They sought to improve Ferris, using magic to advance the lives of everyone. Sure, they likely understood that certain weapons could be dangerous in the wrong hands, but none of the stories indicated they were the types to hoard power for themselves.

  But those idealistic beliefs hadn't survived much longer than the Founders themselves. Few mages had such altruistic beliefs, and fewer still would maintain them if handed so much power. Personal advancement ruled over everyone.

  I didn't blame them, truth be told. No small part of my own motivations was to maintain an advantage for myself. Still, there were a few mages that might be worth considering...

  "How flexible are these mana requirements?" I asked, trying to sound casual.

  "Not at all," Flynn replied, his lips curling into a grin. "Are you asking about your former lords or your...would 'paramour' be presumptuous?"

  My face burned, and I leveled a glare at him before asking, "How the hell did you even—"

  "After I returned home, I did my research. Looked into your reputation at the Academy." Flynn explained with a shrug. "Nobles gossip, and your interest wasn't exactly subtle or well hidden."

  "I see," I said, folding my arms across my chest and leaning back into my own seat. "Just to be clear, we were never involved in that way."

  "And here I thought we'd moved past lying to one another," Flynn countered with a laugh. "But the answer is 'not at all.' The array only works by matching external mana to the internal power of the Founders. There's already going to be some loss, and going too far might destabilize the ritual."

  Disappointing, but not unexpected.

  I flipped through the notebook again, reading for another minute or two before asking, "Can two mages even manage this? And...well, why wouldn't your father participate as well? Surely he could benefit even more than the two of us?"

  "I'll start with the second question. Only one mage of each element can safely participate. More importantly, the energy powering this ritual isn't the type we can replenish. The Founders left behind some of their mana, and using this chamber will expend it."

  "Are you saying..." I trailed off, staring at the light mage.

  "Exactly." Flynn nodded once. "There's only enough mana for one use, after which we need to figure out a way to replace an irreplaceable resource."

  "And you're trusting me with this?" I asked, unable to keep the surprise from my voice.

  "You keep bringing that up. Should I not have trusted you?"

  I didn't respond, and Flynn rolled his eyes before continuing, "Now, as for your first question, the answer is 'maybe."

  "Maybe?"

  "This chamber has never been used. We've done testing, and we have our theories, but the reality is we are half in the dark here. I think it's possible but..."

  "But you're not sure if it would work," I filled in, even as I looked around the room again.

  It wasn't hard to imagine what might happen if we failed. Countless mages had tried to enhance themselves and perished in mangled, twisted bodies. My own efforts could have easily earned me a similar fate, and this ritual operated on another scale entirely.

  Yet at the same time, that very notion sent a chill down my spine. I couldn't fathom passing up such an opportunity.

  "So, to reiterate, we have six to eight months to prepare for a ritual that might be impossible to control? One that if we fail will likely end with us torn to bits as untamed mana renders us into innumerable pieces of unidentifiable viscera?"

  "Or, as I would prefer to think of it, we have six to eight months to make sure we're ready to step beyond any mage in history. It's a problem, yes, but one we can solve. You've done that plenty of times before, haven't you?"

  "Simple problems. How to improve a spell or kill a drake. This isn't simple," I replied, waving the notebook for emphasis.

  Flynn leaned forward, his entire demeanor radiating easy confidence. "Then we'll have our work cut out for us. But for tonight, we'll eat. We can get started tomorrow."

  I still wasn't sure about his plan, but I decided he was right. Some rest might make this whole task seem less daunting.

  We portioned out some of the soup, and I was about to take my first bite when the light mage spoke up again.

  "And while we eat, you can tell me a bit more about those visions of yours. In exacting detail, if it's all the same to you."

  I should've been annoyed at the prying...but strangely, I wasn't. If anything, it felt good to not have to dance around the topic or hide it anymore.

  Despite the grim topic, I found myself half-smiling as I began to recount my visions again with as much detail as I could remember. And for the first time in a long time, I allowed myself to relax.

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