The Forsaken Hero

As Gayron and Korra made their way over, I backed away from the eager crowd of soldiers, trusting the Star Guard to handle them. Grasping Sari’s hand, I slipped onto Fable’s back, wincing as she wrapped her arms around me.

”Let’s go,” I said, urging Fable forward and giving him a mental picture of where I wanted to go.

Korra and Gayron adjusted their course the moment Fable leaped off the ground. A few seconds later, we were gathered in the crater where Gayron’s first attack, the Magma Shot, had landed. It was about a mile and a half from the camp, close enough we could return if needed, but far enough way for some privacy.

”Thanks,” I said, rubbing my horn, my tail twitching bashfully.

”Hmm? What for?” Gayron asked.

”It was a little...overwhelming,” I admitted.

Korra chuckled and shook her head. ”Only you would be worried about talking to a few soldiers after winning a fight like that.”

”I-It’s scary.” I looked away, hiding my blush, but my tail was left free to show my embarrassment.

Gayron snorted. ”I can’t believe I lost you. How can you be so timid when you’re so strong?”

I wanted to deflect the question again, but couldn’t. It wasn’t one I myself knew the answer to, but something about his voice gave me pause. It didn’t carry the usual disdain I’d grown to expect from him, but a hint of wonder and genuine curiosity.

”I doubt you’d be any better if you’d seen the things and suffered the pain she has,” Korra said, crossing her arms. ”Some wounds go deeper than the flesh, or even the soul.”

”And those take the longest to heal from,” I whispered, pressing a hand to my chest, tracing the exact lines the slave crest used to occupy.

Gayron was quiet for a moment, leaving us in silence save for the gentle swish of my tail through the air.

”We all have scars,” he said finally, ”That’s what it means to be a demonkin. It’s what we fight for.”

”Is it? Is that what you fight for?” Korra asked, not unkindly.

He flinched, his eyes flicking down to the ground. ”Look, I’m not here because I want to be.” his eyes flicked up to me, holding my gaze. ”You healed my soul, Xiviyah. I won’t forget that, and you can count on me until I’ve repaid that debt.”

I blinked, a tremor running through my heart. ”I...I only returned the favor. You let us go before.”

Gayron sniffed and turned away. ”Look, I’m not going to say it again. You might as well enjoy it in my company, because we’ll be enemies the moment I leave.” he hesitated then, his tail twitching uneasily. ”Well, probably. It depends on him, I guess.”

”Is that an apology?” Korra asked, eyes grinning mischievously.

”Shut up.”

I laughed softly, causing them both to glance at me.

”That’s a new one,” Gayron muttered. ”I didn’t even know you knew how to smile.”

”What?” Sari cried, ”Xiviyah has the best smile! She doesn’t do it often, so you know it’s real when she does!”

”Sari!” I said, mortified.

Korra chuckled and shook her head wryly. ”She’s got a point, you know. But I like it that way. It’s better than you being sad all the time. Isn’t that right, Gayron?”

He scowled as she nudged his ribs with her elbow, but surprisingly didn’t snap at her. He didn’t even move away.

”Whatever, it doesn’t matter to me. I do have some questions for you, though,” he directed at me.

I immediately sobered up, glaring at my tail until it stopped moving. ”About our duel?”

He nodded. ”Yeah, when I said I can’t believe I lost to you, what I meant was I don’t understand it. I barely even saw you cast any spells, yet your magic just wouldn’t break. And how in the world did you cast Protection Magic back to back? Isn’t there supposed to be a period after one fails where that’s impossible?”

”There is?” I tilted my head in confusion. ”What do you mean?”

Gayron’s eyes narrowed. ”Are you mocking me now?”

”No, wait, she really doesn’t know,” Korra said quickly, laying a soothing hand on his forearm. ”Xiviyah didn’t have a chance to learn most magical fundamentals. She started much later than the rest of us heroes and never really learned magic theory or fundamentals.”

Again, he didn’t brush her off, letting her hand linger until it fell back to her side.

”Are you serious? Then how in the hell can she do that?” he said, gesturing widely at the battlefield behind us.

”She’s a genius. She cast her first spell on her first attempt without any training,” Korra said, grinning proudly.

”I-I’m still here!” I said, blushing again. ”And please, won’t you tell me what’s going on? I haven’t had much chance to study the theory of Protection Magic. I barely had time to learn the spells themselves, and I don’t have many spell books that touch on theory.”

”Okay, Okay, there’s no need to get upset,” Korra said, chuckling, ”Protection Magic is notorious for being difficult to use back to back. I studied it a bit when I was a mage but gave up because Fate Spell Books were difficult to get ahold of. Basically, whenever a ward or magical shield breaks, it creates a dissonant field, similar to what happens with dispel magic.”

”Oh, I know about that!” Sari said, ”Tana said it was because the gods thought it was unfair, or something like that.”

”Unfair? I cast my mind back, burrowing through the hazy memories of my first months learning magic. I could vaguely recall a few instances where my wards had broken, and for some reason, I hadn’t cast them again. But the last time I could remember that was in the arena with Ronin, all the way back in the Divine Throne. It was around that time I started modifying every single spell I cast.

”Sari, can you cast Aegis?” I asked.

She nodded, her tail wagging. ”Yep! Tana said it was your first, so I wanted to learn it, too. ”Watch this!”

As Sari chanted the spell, I studied the first circle spell as it took shape. From the first rune, differences between the ’official’ version propagated by the church and my own variant became apparent. Before she even finished, I found the problem, but I waited for her to finish before speaking.

”Sari, try it again, but like this. Just copy my runes; don’t worry about the chant.”

I slowly cast Aegis, keeping it as deliberate and straightforward as possible. It had been months since I cast it normally, without soul-casting or adding in the Canyon Crawler’s ability, but it didn’t take much to brush the dust off my skills. Sari’s brow furrowed as she tried to mimic my spell, and it took several tries before she got it right.

When she did, she looked up at us, beaming. ”Is it good?”

”Korra?” I gestured toward the two Aegis’.

Korra flicked a bit of mana at the golden shields with just enough force to shatter them. As I guessed, Sari’s original, chanted Aegis left behind a shimmering, dissonant field of mana. It was weak, barely noticeable, but would certainly interfere with any attempt to erect a new barrier. My variant, on the other hand, disappeared as cleanly as any other spell.

As the others stared at it, I waved my hand and conjured another Aegis circle, leaving it hovering in the air. ”The problem’s here,” I said, pointing at a set of runes. ”This whole set of runes is one of the foundational patterns of all Protection magic. It has to do with the way the mana structure redistributes hostile magic. It’s actually super inefficient, so I revised it and incorporated it into all my protection magic afterward. From the looks of it, the pattern is also responsible for the discordant mana after the spell fails, so I guess I just got lucky.”

”What the hell?” Gayron muttered, rubbing his horn. ”You’re not just a monster at spellcasting, but you somehow fixed the greatest problem that’s plagued Protection Magic for thousands of years by accident?”

”Xiviyah’s the best,” Sari said, nodding.

Korra chuckled and shook her head. ”I’m with you there. If the church had not thrown her away, their victory against the demons would be all but assured.”

My heart earned with their praise, and though I blushed, my lips curled in a faint, satisfied smile. ”Thank you. Really.”

”It’s nothing, just giving you the credit you deserve. The gods took enough of that already, what with stealing your arrays and the Heart Crest,” Korra said.

We settled into a comfortable silence before Gayron coughed, looking uncomfortable. ”I’ve got a question. Well, another one at least. What kind of Hero are you? I assumed you were a support, but now I’m not so sure.”

”What kind of hero? I’m not a hero, anymore,” I replied in a small voice.

Korra shook her head. ”That’s not what he meant. I learned from the Pope that the gods summon heroes in batches for a reason and give them specific roles to play. Most worlds only get three or four heroes at a time, so they balance out their abilities to shore up each other’s weaknesses. It’s just like the RPGs I used to play, but they don’t have specific names for the roles.”

”And the Apostles know about this too?” I asked, glaring at Gayron.

He shrugged. ”It was something Luke mentioned to me at one time. I think he heard it from one of the Demon Lords to help us prepare favorable matchups. It’s why Evla was leading the war up north against the Storm Hero. Her abilities perfectly counter someone who specializes in one-on-one combat.”

I thought of the other heroes and of the little I knew of their abilities. Soltair was the one I knew best, but he seemed to excel in everything. He could launch attacks almost as powerful as Alex, use defensive techniques comparable to Levin, and have spells nearly as potent as Korra when she was still a mage.

But his excellence showcased the other’s unique skills, like R’lissea’s support and healing. Even Connor had a role to play, being the best suited to fight entire battalions of enemies as a sort of one-man army. But what about me? Just what exactly were my strengths? Or rather, if I hadn’t been cursed, what more might I have become?