Dawn came onto the manor, light filtering through, but it felt clinical, too white. Leaves weren't as green, water was clear but empty, the skittering of fish absent, bugs, the songs of birds, even the surrounding forest, was all dead. Inside the manor was no better.
"I'm sor-"
A gush of wind rattled the windows as Sylvia took a deep breath, shutting Kai up.
"For the love of the north wind Kai, it is not your fault that he left and didn't say anything." The dish —levitating in the air as she dried it with magic— trembled.
Somberly Kai lowered his head, 'But, it is…'
It had been a full day since the rough knight had left, and the energy in the manor was dead. As a third realm mage, Sylvia's emotions were powerful enough to affect her affinity, leading to the air in the surrounding rooms being stale, and slightly hostile, bitterly cold whenever one opened a door.
Of course, since Sylvia's constitution was a realm higher than Kai's even though she was a mage, —a mage's body was equal to that of a Physi an entire realm lower than it, the same with the mind of a Physi, which was equivalent to a mage's an entire realm lower— the priestess didn't notice the cold biting wind, and Kai certainly wasn't enough of a jerk to bring it up.
This blatant display of magical prowess inspired Kai, he wanted such a talent as well, and it would only be a matter of time before he got there.
"I know it's not my fault but he still shouldn't have—"
"Kai, I will only say this once, shouldn't doesn't mean a thing, what's done is done and frankly it was sweet the first two times but now you've apologized more than enough and it's simply draining."
Her shoulders dropped, and so did the temperature of the room.
He could only swallow his words in response.
Kai hadn't de-summoned Keldreth for days, by this point it gave him a headache due to the effects of prolonged mana consumption, but that was only supposed to help him, right…
Maybe it was immature but self destructive behaviour helped him.
That's why he had thrown his all into training from the moment he met Sylvia, even going beyond what she expected and required, he knew it wasn't healthy.
Deep down he knew he should give his mind a break.
Yes, mind, Keldreth siphoned mana from his mind not his body, useful as an augmenter couldn't release attacks from their mind anyway.
He hadn't trained his body much either, just a few days right, that wasn't so bad on skipping out for training, after all he was training his mana consumption these days.
Sylvia seemed to wake up a bit, looking over at Kai, and then her eyes grew dull, spotting the weapon on his hand.
"Kai, how long have you had your weapon summoned."
He shrugged, not really understanding her. "Since It awakened."
-slap- Kai held his face,
"De-summon it, now." The priestess bristled.
"Why? Don't wanna."
"Now."
Even as he refused, tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at him,
"De-summon the condemned weapon or I'll dispel that stupid magic circle." She spoke through angry tears.
Rolling his eyes, he shrugged. "Whatever, I guess." And stopped feeding the circle.
The next second he collapsed, blood flowed from his nose and eyes, but Sylvia caught him before he hit the ground.
Cradling him in her lap, sobbing, her hands gently working through his hair, infusing healing wind.
The weapon had drained his mind of mana during the first day, and had started feeding on Kai's brain, leading him into a state of depression; and a cycle of self blame.
Skipping out on training, repeating apologies, lack of energy.
All of these things added together, Kai shouldn't have been so affected from a simple goodbye, but the pain and damage to his brain had amplified him to the level of clinical depression.
Sylvia was crying, still holding his head against her, still healing him.
'I'm so stupid, I didn't pay attention to him and neglected him once more, and almost killed my disciple again.'
"I'm so sorry, for being so useless, please forgive this stupid teacher." she whispered into Kai's ears.
For the first time in days, the fog on his mind had lifted, and he could clearly see the world.
The words from his teacher cutting like a knife to his soul.
Colors felt deeper, words felt meaningful, and his teacher even seemed more lovely.
"You're not useless Sylv, now stop wasting mana, I'm fully healed."
That just caused his beautiful teacher to cry harder, but honestly, she deserved it. So Kai just let her cry and sat with her, until she tumbled off to sleep, the first time she had been able to since Arthur left to do something neither of them knew the full scope of.
Silently, gently, Kai scooped her up and placed her in her bed upstairs, before retiring to his own room, blasting himself with freezing water, and dropping into his bed.
'Sylvia, what exactly is Arthur to you, why do you worry so, where did he come from, who is he, and how strong is he exactly.'
The gentle, dark confines of sleep consumed him,
For the first time in days the birds chirped outside.
For the first time in days the wind died down.
For the first time in days the dew gathered sweetly on the lawn.
For the first time in days the temperature returned to normal.
For the first time in days the manor seemed white and not dull grey.
For the first time in days the slender priestess slept comfortably.
And for the first time in days,
Kai was truly alive.