Gemma

Jax was absolutely devastated by the restriction.

To be stuck with a single spell for life—Jax couldn't imagine how he could overcome hundreds of enemies to get his wish fulfilled.

'But I must,' Jax thought. 'I need to save…'

He still wasn't sure who he was saving, but he knew he needed to save them. He had to.

"Can I still do it?" he asked slowly. "Can someone reach the Navigator with a single spell?"

To begin with, Jax didn't know a lot about spells at all—what they were, what they could do. He only knew they were magical, and that much was not enough for him at that moment.

"It's… not impossible," the wisp answered, her tone carrying a careful consideration, as if she thought through her words to not hurt Jax. "Just…"

"Just highly unlikely," Jax finished her sentence for her. "Is that it?"

The wisp didn't answer. She too was incapable of changing the mood around the situation.

"And yet," Jax said, taking in a deep breath, "I must still continue on. I have started my journey, so now I must see it through."

The wisp was surprised to hear determination in Jax's voice, a resolve that wasn't so easy to form in such a despairing moment. The wisp hadn't yet come across anyone like this—someone who could push themselves forward despite what was ahead appearing very bleak.

The wisp wondered, 'Is this what all Ascendants are like?'

Jax started walking, and the wisp zipped next to him, following him. "Can you tell me about spells? Which ones can I learn?"

"I am forbidden from giving you any information on specific spells, but when you come across any, I can explain it in detail," the wisp said.

"Forbidden?" Jax turned toward her in surprise. "Why?"

"Because the Navigator does not want you to have an easy time," the wisp said. "If I were allowed, I could just tell you what spell would be the best one for you to learn right now—especially ones that evolve to be much better than their base form."

Jax paused for a moment and quickly opened the Restrictions category once again. He read through the restriction and was surprised when he noticed the second half of the message.

In exchange, the spell you learn will be significantly improved.

The first half had shocked him so much that he had forgotten to even pay this any attention.

"So the spell I will learn will be improved?" Jax asked. "If I come across a spell, can you tell me what the improvement will be?"

"I won't have to," the wisp said. "You will know yourself."

Jax smiled. "At least there is a silver lining in this tragedy," he said and began walking once more.

He strode down the street, past the people working in the morning, and looked through his Ascendant Status once again.

"Hey, you said you will be with me forever now, right?" Jax asked.

"Yes," the wisp answered.

"Then you need a name," Jax said.

The wisp dimmed a little. "I already have a name. T-1388C, in case you forgot."

"That's not a name," Jax said. "That's just a bunch of letters and numbers."

"Aren't all names just a bunch of letters and numbers?" the wisp asked.

Jax couldn't answer. He sighed. "Fine, you have a name. But I'm not calling you that. You need a nickname," he said.

"Ooh, I get to have a nickname?" the wisp asked.

"Of course. What do you want?"

The wisp floated around a little. "I don't know. You think for me."

"You want the man without any memory to come up with names?" Jax asked.

"You only lost memories related to yourself. You haven't lost all memories," the wisp clarified.

"I know. Alright, since you're an orb of light and my little helper, why don't I call you… Gemma?"

The name came out of nowhere. There was no meaning to the name itself, but for some reason, Jax associated importance to that name. He couldn't understand why.

"Oh, like a gem?" the wisp asked. "Gemma… that's a nice name. Thank you, Jax."

Jax belatedly realized that the wisp had accepted the name. He wanted to take it back, but the wisp started flying around excitedly after receiving a new name.

He couldn't bring himself to take back the name. So, he just smiled. "From today, until I die or have my wish fulfilled, you are Gemma."

The wisp laughed an innocent laugh, like that of a child. And just like that, Gemma was born.

"Stop laughing so much. People will look at us weird," Jax quickly said.

"They can't hear me," Gemma said. "If they could, you would be seeing many other helpers too."

Jax took a look around the street he walked in and noticed that he couldn't see any other person with a wisp flying around them. And yet, he could see people silently whispering to themselves.

"You see, only you need to be careful," Gemma said.

"Alright," Jax said and continued on. "Can you help me understand the rest of the things in my status here?"

"Sure, let's go over it one by one," Gemma said and began explaining.

Jax understood most of it inherently, but he needed clarification on a few of them still.

"Why are Skills and Spells different? For some reason, I feel like they should be the same thing," Jax said.

"It's simply the difference between using raw Navi by itself or using it to make something happen. You'll learn more in the training center, don't worry."

"Alright," Jax said and asked about the rest.

Inventory was a spatial compartment that was private to him. Within it, he could place anything non-living. The size of the space was dependent on his Navi Stage, so the more he grew, the more it would grow too.

Map helped an Ascendant track where they were as well as the other locations they had been in.

Tickets was an interesting category. According to Gemma, the only way to ascend from one Carriage to another was by obtaining a ticket within the time remaining. If they had the ticket, they could move on.

Requirements listed a set of tasks that an Ascendant had to complete before they could obtain the ticket. As per Gemma, there were no requirements in the 10th Carriage, but starting from the 9th, there would be different ones that she could not tell him about just yet.

Finally, Restrictions were, as Jax already knew, a list of limitations placed upon the Ascendant.

"There can be more restrictions than what I've already received?" Jax asked.

"Yes, but those won't be as bad," Gemma explained. "There are three types of restrictions: Temporary, Removable, and Permanent."

"Temporary restrictions last for a limited amount of time but cannot be removed. Removable restrictions last forever but can be removed with spells or other methods. And finally, Permanent restrictions cannot be removed and last forever."

"Your current restriction is of the Permanent variety, and it will be the only one you will ever receive."

Jax sighed in relief. "That's good. I wouldn't want more restrictions than what I've got already."

Jax looked over the list once again, trying to see if he understood everything. When he was certain he did, he willed it away.

"There, that's the tree that old man talked about," Gemma quickly mentioned.

Jax looked across the street and saw a large dead tree with colorful papers tied to its branches.

"From the colorful tree, we take a right and…"

The road led to an end, and at its end was a massive building with a large board at the top that had its name.

Julian's Training Center.