Poking And Prodding

The next fight was surrendered, as one would expect with two out of three of the members unconscious and the remaining one completely out of Will.

Cyrus sat in between two beds, one with a slowly rousing Imran and the other with a fast asleep Minerva who would probably not wake for awhile. With nothing to do, the masked Cyrus sat whilst conversing with his other half.

'Icy Hell, that was the spell that Cato had used. Although seeing its destructive power in full now, I feel as if he was just showing off as there was no way a bunch of normal calvary warranted such power' thought the dark half, marvelling at his mentor's boastful nature.

Cyrus split some of his attention to the world within, where he conjured the memory of him looking through the very notes that he had given Minerva.

'A lot of the notes I never quite understood, for it dealt in domains I will never be familiar with, but it did help me understand a lot about the basics of magic as well as methods of control. Icy Hell though, was something I never could even begin to understand.'

The memory showed dozens of complicated calculations from the most basic of arithmetic and algebraic to what he could only assume was some kind of high order math that looked more like another language than anything he recognized.

'Cato also used a gem, which I know loosely to be medeis crystals. Their grades are simple and are based on the color, which denotes how much Will can be stored in them but personally I have no idea how to use it for a spell. Red, orange, yellow, green, sky, blue, indigo, violet, black... a sky medeis is what she used, several of them in fact, but I wonder how she was able to charge them up.'

'It was said that Fidem can be used for anything, perhaps she paid a professor to do it for her?' interjected the bright Cyrus.

'That is possible, but I can only imagine how expensive that would be. There is also still the question why Cato would even go out of his way to create such a spell, one that is powerful but uses gems as an intermediary. As well as why Minerva was insane enough to use it, despite the fact that even with the intermediaries it is still clearly not within her capabilities to use.

'What good is a spell that kills you when you use it?'

Both halves had nothing more to say on that as both were equally perplexed at the outcome, all that was left was conjecture.

'At the very least we know the root cause of the problems she faces, so if I just help her kill those involved everything will be just fine' concluded the dark half.

'You might be satisfied with that,' began the bright half in a chiding tone, 'but will she be? Did you not say you would at least attempt to try to have an actual human relationship? You always overlook this, but we are not the center of everyones lives.

'Just like how we have our own thoughts and feelings, beliefs and ideals, so do they. Perhaps she needs to at least attempt to reconcile with her parents, even if it does not work out in the end. Or at the very least understand why they acted like they did, so that she can have closure.'

The pessimistic half scoffed at that while saying,

'Hah, then what about that fiance of hers? Shall we attempt to make them reconcile too?'

The optimistic half was silent on this for a moment, for he finally understood that the same standard cannot be applied to everything.

'No, I suppose not. Though I still doubt that the answer is just to assassinate him or whatever insidious plan you have in mind. Though it may not seem like it, there are certain laws in the Empire right?

'The Academy is a weird and cruel place that answers to the Tower first and foremost, but in the Empire at large there is this thing known as the rule of law...at least if what we both read is true.

'To avoid having to fight the entire family when our plot inevitably gets discovered, would it not be best to leveredge this powerful tool? The Empire is not the wasteland after all, supposedly it is the better in how it is run than down there.'

While the sanguine half would have preferred a more definite answer, what he got instead was,

'I do not fully buy it, I mean look at what the Academy itself has allowed thus far. I can cripple whomever I wish, albeit temporarily, and there is no problem whatsoever.

'I do not see the law being brought down on me.'

The bright half had long been avoiding such a fact, for it was a major hole in his theory, and so he replied rather unsteadily.

'...That is true. Something is clearly amiss or we are missing key information, which is why I will be taking action to fully understand how this place is run.'

Imran began to stir, which halted the conversation between the two halves for now, as their ally roused from his forced slumber.

Jolting awake and sitting straight up, Imran looked at Cyrus with a confused look before it slowly turned into anger.

"You...why the hell did you do that? Unless you are about to tell me that the wall behind me suddenly grew arms to render me unconscious...ugh never mind, what happened with Minerva?"

Cyrus moved his body slightly and pointed behind him with his thumb, to where Minerva was fast asleep whilst recovering under the aid of the expensive healing she had received not too long ago.

Imran clambered out of his bed, scrambling towards Minerva and felt her wrist for a pulse whilst visually confirming that she was still breathing.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he turned around and faced Cyrus once more with a far calmer expression but it was obvious that it was just a mask to conceal the displeasure or perhaps rage that was within.

"So? Why did you stop me from surrendering. It was clear that she would have ended up dying if she continued her current course, although it seems you surrendered in the end and good thing to. For if she had died, well, let's just say I would have hunted you down to hell and back."

Cyrus raised a brow, wondering whether or not now is a good time to try and figure out what makes Imran tick.

"Oh, there was no surrendering to be had. The beast was defeated thanks to Minerva's efforts."

Imran shuddered slightly, his muscles tensing and a glare forming on his face,

"You did not surrender? Then what of Minerva, did you sacrifice her so that you could win that battle and earn what...a few measly Fidem? Powerful you are, cold and cruel, but it seems I was under the illusion that you were at least rational to a fault. My own observations and what Minerva has told me...it seems both were dead wrong."

Of course what Imran got in return for such a hot blooded statement was mocking laughter, which did nothing to help the growing anger that was within him.

"Surrendering may have saved her a bit of physical harm, but that can be healed here in the Academy with just a bit of time. One of the benefits of having a Master Vita Magus on call, just for a small bit of Fidem at least.

"No, what I am more concerned with is not the physical but instead the intangible. Specifically, with her mental state.

"A powerful ally she is, and one that I seem to be actually taking a bit of a liking too. Yet, in her is someone with more problems than me...and that is saying something.

"You said it yourself once, that she seems to be fine one moment and then the next she snaps at people she comes into contact with. The same happened to me as well, from our first meeting in fact, and then again during our friendly little duel we had. I have to tell you that these are not little personality quirks, but a major issue that could end up in death.

"Whatever she was feeling or seeing in the last fight, it was not just the battle that we all saw but another hidden one in the depths of her mind. As for the specifics, I can at least guess...but you, it seems that you are all but blind to it despite having been with her for so long.

"Bit useless, are you not?"

While Cyrus had a look of interest and mockery on his face and in his tone, his words were clearly meant to take the form of verbal swords to stab through Imran.

'It is weird to me, how despite all the things required to understand and perhaps solve the problems in front of him...he chose to ignore them out of some reason or another. Though it did benefit me in the end...I wonder why?

'It seems my answer may come soon though'

Looking at Imran's growing anger and doubt, it would seem Cyrus' prediction might just come true.