The Queen stood before Trillia, staring into her eyes. A few long seconds of silence passed.

  "I want to attempt something, Trillia. It will be rather dangerous. Are you ok with that?"

  Trillia nodded.

  "Maximum Mana?"

  "Around a hundred and sixty-five thousand."

  Her group seemed rather surprised at the number.

  She'd have to go over all of her stats with them again at some point so they could reform their battle strategy.

  "Use a hundred thousand of it. The rest of you sit down and brace yourselves."

  Alliyah turned to look at Cordaos. The older generation had paused to watch the spectacle. "Cordaos, prepare a fear-cleansing ability. Make it powerful and make it count." The old minotaur king stood from his seated position next to Stas.

  "At your command, Queen."

  Trillia had an idea of where she was going with this. "I don't want to hurt my friends."

  "That's why Cordaos is here, to stop the effects quickly. You killed a knight who was several hundred levels above you. Your inability to control your auras resulted in people dying."

  Trillia winced at that. Others had told her it wasn't her fault, even if she didn't believe them.

  "You're going to become one of Alirast's mightiest mortals if you continue the path you're currently on. Even if these events were started by others, it sits heavy on your shoulders to end them quickly. It is your responsibility to save as many allies as possible."

  "Shouldn't we try to save everyone?"

  Alliyah tilted her head slightly at the question. "Why do you think all of the Generals have butcher traits?"

  That question caught Trillia off guard. She opened her mouth to respond, but for the first time since seeing it on her Uncle Stas, she paused. They had been fighting the [Primordials]. But all of them had kill counts in the six figures when it came to humanoids. Even over the course of centuries it still seemed high.

  Alliyah whipped her hand around and held it up at Stas, who looked like he was about to speak. The courtyard went silent.

  Trillia stared into the Queen's eyes. "Were there really that many people that tried to stand in your way?"

  "There was a city that had started to worship the [Primordials]. The most terrifying part is that the system was giving these cultists classes and powers associated with the beasts. They were capturing civilians and small bands of fighters and sacrificing them at altars in the name of Centrallis."

  Trillia physically recoiled, and the rest of the younger generation listened in horror.

  "After the first beast fell and was sealed, more cultists popped up for Centrallis. They had changed their targets, however. They realized that their power grew in relation to how innocent their sacrifices were."

  "I think I unde-"

  "No. You don't, and I pray to all the gods that exist that you never do. They would capture and impregnate women before sacrificing mother and unborn baby on the altars."

  Trillia couldn't hold the Queen's intense gaze and looked away.

  "You and your friends need to understand something, for every benevolent deity who grants power for good things like freeing slaves and healing. There is a malevolent god out there that is happy to reward people for cruelty."

  The Queen grabbed Trillia's chin and forced their eyes to meet again. "You follow a benevolent god. Your job is to save the innocent and purge the wicked. As time marches on, if you stay in contact with me, I will teach you how to only target enemies with your spells. But for now? I am going to teach you how to debilitate an entire group of people so that you can calmly walk up to each and cut their throats. You will cast this spell. You will attempt to dismiss it on your own."

  The little orc found herself unable to break free from the iron grip.

  She did her best to nod, and the Queen let her go.

  "You've seen one of the beasts coming for us, have you not? Use that as fuel. You have listened to me walk the rest of your friends through the process step by step. I expect better more from you. You've been tutored by some of the best spell casters that your friends will ever know about. Use that."

  Trillia looked down at the rune in her hand.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Taking a deep breath, she wrapped her hands around it and closed her eyes. She was aware of the Queen's hands wrapping around hers. "When you release the energy into the rune, try to keep track of it. Try to hold onto it. You'll fail at first, and it will be painful, but that is the first step in taking your own magic back. When you're ready, Fairtrade."

  The change in name the Queen used wasn't lost on Trillia. She took a deep breath and remembered standing near the shard. Remembering the feeling of terror that the thing brought over her. She remembered watching Blossom explode in a brilliant golden light and die. She remembered the first time she had met Caelum and the petrifying fear the immortal creature had instilled in her.

  As she gathered more and more memories of terror in her mind, she sent the hundred thousand mana into the rune. All her training in the Professor's realm had paid off in that regard.

  An eerie wail came from the rune in her hand. She opened her eyes with mana-sight active and did her best to pull at the inky dark mana that was permeating the area.

  You're now under the effects of [Soul Dread]!

  Trillia waited for what the effects were, but they never came. She heard screaming all around her.

  She ripped her eyes from the mana expanding outward to where her friends were, and saw skeletons clambering toward her. The iron grip of the Queen had been replaced by the same cold, oily feeling of Caelum's hands.

  Trillia tried to wrench her mana back into herself.

  The effects of [Soul Dread] have doubled!

  The orc froze in place. Her eyes told her that skeletons were mauling her friends, and she could hear them scream. Her mind raced to find a solution before they died.

  She felt a heavy hand on her shoulder and looked down to see an inky black power that felt like the Eldritch grabbing at the edges of her senses.

  It was darkness all around her. Trillia felt as though she was drowning in it as screams echoed in her mind.

  ...

  ...

  Suddenly, she felt the warmth of the sun on her skin, felt the moisture of her own tears on her cheeks. She was vaguely aware of her own heaving chest.

  She heard her mother off to her side gently whispering to someone else that it was going to be ok. Trillia turned her wide eyes to where the Queen had been. Relief flooded through her that the beautiful woman's warm smile stared back at her.

  The hand on her shoulder had been replaced by her Uncle Cordaos' large half-paw half-hand limb.

  The Queen laid a warm hand on Trillia's face. "You did good, Trillia. A fear spell that powerful will take some getting used to. But you did very well."

  Trillia didn't feel like she had done well. Looking over at her friends all of them had curled up and were hiding their faces and heads. Had it been as bad for them as it was for her?

  Brutus walked over to her and gently patted her shoulder but said nothing. He didn't even spare a glance at her face before walking away.

  "[Flourish]!" The Queen's single word resonated within the stones themselves, and any lingering effects of Trillia's fear spell were swept away. Her friends took deep ragged breaths and slowly lifted their gazes.

  "Fear can be a troubling ailment. Even though I can heal any mental damage it has done, your mind still doesn't want to relive it. So it will take some time for you to fully recover. Trillia, go sit down."

  Trillia slowly moved back towards her friends, hesitant they'd be angry with her. Instead, they just looked at her with pity. The little orc sat down and looked at the Queen.

  "Now. Why did the runes react that way? They are all identical. What is the defining feature?"

  Really? No rest? No break? Just right back into the lesson? The group seemed to agree. The Queen clapped her hands. "You will not have time to recover on the battlefield. Put your minds to the task at hand. You are the master of your own body. You control your body, mind, and soul. Not the other way around." Her voice held a sternness to it that Trillia wasn't used to hearing from the woman.

  The group snapped their attention to her. It took a few seconds before Malor managed to speak. "I don't know. It exploded? That's the only thing I can think of."

  Alliyah nodded and clapped her hands softly together. "Yes. It exploded. But why did it do nothing else?"

  Thea, of all people, spoke up next. "Because that's the only intent General Stas imparts upon the runes he makes? To explode?"

  Alliyah snapped her fingers and nodded. "Exactly. Stas is a master of his mana. The only intent his runes have is to explode with the intent of the activator. For Amelia and Malor, it exploded in the cyclone-like structure I told them to imagine. For Layla, it was an all-encompassing light. For Trillia, an all-consuming dread."

  Stas spoke up, this time, the Queen didn't stop him. "Do not attempt that if you buy your runes from a store. Most people assume that explosive mana has to be damaging. The purpose of this lesson is to teach you how deep intent runs in your mana. Explode means to burst or shatter violently. Violently can mean different things, but the intent behind mine is to burst in a vigorous manner. It seems silly, but some of the most terrifying mages you will come up against have a deep grasp on language and how that language and intent interacts with the world around them."

  Alliyah seemed content with that, and she looked over the group. "I'm going to leave that pouch of runes in your care. Practice in this courtyard. If you are worried about injuries or debuffs, ask one of us to accompany you. I know today was a whirlwind of emotions, take the rest of the day off if you feel you need to. Otherwise, spend the next few days practicing different applications of your own intent. Trillia, Layla."

  The two orcs perked up at hearing their names. "You both have Universal Mana Manipulation. You are capable of creating the exact same runes that Stas does." As if to prove the point, the Queen raised her hand with the palm facing the courtyard.

  A small perfect sphere of rock was carved from the floor and slowly lifted to hover just below her hand. Within seconds, it stood as a perfect replica of the runes they had been using.

  Trillia felt a pulse of mana and watched as the tiny etched lines on the sphere filled with brilliant red mana and exploded outward.

  You're now under the affects of [Mirth of Life]!

  You are immune to negative mental effects for the next 72 hours!

  Your Stamina will drain at half of it's normal rate when doing physical tasks!

  The group immediately felt better. As if they had just been chatting and catching up with old friends. Their minds lingered on the road and the adventures that would come next. Alliyah wore that same warm smile. "You kids did good today. If you need us, reach out. Thea. You are hereby stationed to follow this group until they leave Kadessa. They are allowed to enter any part of Kadessa that a noble lineage would be allowed to access. If they wish to enter any Forbidden or Military personnel areas, ask me first."

  The young elven maid stood quickly and bowed. "As you wish, Your Majesty."

  With that, the queen and the other generals left the group alone in the courtyard. Trillia felt the gazes of her friends turn to her.