Upon awaking, Kiko wanted to go back to sleep. Pain, was everywhere. In a cramping sort of ache, as well as a sharp stabbing feeling elsewhere, she decided to quickly give up on the plan of trying to move and just laid where she was with a grumbling exhale. Bloody...thing. She'd been injured before - never to this scale, but still - and the recovery was always the worst part.

  "Heh. So your father's daughter" Yeni commented from the bedside. Kiko would roll her head over to frown, not quite sure her speaking muscles worked yet. "A long time ago, when we were both part of the Assault Team, Drax nearly got his leg bitten clean off. Dangling by a thread, that thing. So he was in the hospital recovering, but was adamant he was getting out by the next day. Loopy on pain medication, half-mad from the experience, and unable to do anything but hobble, my mad little love Borrowed a spell to keep his leg intact and stormed off to the mess hall, where a world famous Chef had been brought in to cook for the agents. I had to wrap some bandages around his leg while he was walking so nobody saw the gaping hole that was there" Yeni would finish the tale with a soft, mirthful laugh that got a smile from Kiko as well.

  Such a thing was so like him. And it was really nice to see that Yeni had good memories of Drax. Even calling him 'my mad little love'. They did love each other, once.

  "I kind of hate him" Kiko spoke, a little croaky but she was using tenacity to overcome her issues. "I don't understand your culture or why you are so strict to it because I never lived it. But I also hate the fact that he made such a massive decision for me. That was for me to decide, either way. In SIR, I sort of just went there through a twin emotion of confusion and burning revenge. But I stayed there by my choice. They would never have stopped me if I walked out of the door and returned to my school life.

  But, Dad...he didn't give me that. I know why, it's kind of very self-evident right now with the whole nearly can't move thing" Kiko would exhale in pain, and then push herself up a little. "If I could have kept you together, th-" Kiko was cut off by Yeni putting her finger on Kiko's lips before she finished that line.

  "You were doing well, don't ruin it. We split up of our own accord, for our own reasons. And stayed separate from our own problems. That is nothing to do with you. It was bound to happen eventually, we were too different. He's not even a City Kitsune, but from Skivoa, of all places. And the Ator Clan basically rule Jomsburg, so he's a member of exalted peerage. Why he fell for me and not Tai, I can't say" Yeni seemed to sort of stagger off course and get into a despairing headspace as she tried to comfort Kiko.

  "You were doing well, don't ruin it" Kiko replied with as much of a coy voice as she could manage, getting up and putting a hand on her mother's shoulder.

  "Hmm. Maybe. But get back in bed. You might think you are moving through grit and tenacity, but you are actually burning Mana to stay up like this. And you don't need to run dry of that on top of everything else" Yeni warned, turning around to give Kiko a terrifying motherly stare. It was something that she obeyed without question and got back into bed. Once there, however, she'd raise an eyebrow in askance.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "...I have Mana now?" she asked. The last time she tried to use that there was a blockage. And she hadn't done anything to overcome that.

  "Everyone has Mana. It's more a question of being able to connect to it. Apparently, when the mortals first came into their power, it was a tragedy. Nobody had control, and cataclysm reigned. So the benevolent Mother Goddess separated mortals from their power with three metaphysical 'Gates'. You little trick with the Sword has smashed your First Gate into splinters, so now you are a Mage"

  Kiko would listen, but then her eyes went wide and she looked around.

  "Sword. Where...where, is...my sword?" Kiko asked, her voice quickly getting panicked. Though Yeni's hand grasped her and cooled her heart, leading her back into a calm half-sleep.

  "Don't worry about that. You'll be seeing it again, though you'll not be able to activate it like you did before until you are much better at magical control. Magic is dangerous when misused, by malice or incompetence, so you are going to have to get used to an even stricter schedule than before. Until then, get some sleep" Yeni finished, kissing Kiko's forehead and then standing to leave the tent.

  Kiko, for her part, did not get some sleep. Magic was dangerous when misused, but she got a feeling that she knew how to use it. Za...did things that she could remember doing. And so casting her mind back, she would repeat the actions. Nothing happened for a few hours, but then a gentle swelling inside her came. Her lungs expanded with the foreign power, and then diffused it into her body. A highly discomforting crackle spread across her body, her ribs giving off a popping feel every time she breathed in. A few minutes of this followed, with Kiko suffering in silence. Not wanting to alert anyone or make anyone worry.

  And then, she was sitting up. Fully fine. Not even staying on her feet with a stubborn will, but totally, actually, fine.

  'If you were curious as to what Borrowing was, it's basically that' came the voice in her head. Somehow more...stable. More, there.

  "Right. Spooky, head voice. I forgot about you for a moment" Kiko exclaimed, pulling on her shoes.

  'Vanaet. If you doubt me then you can go touch the statue in the big red tent' she replied. It was quite a strange invitation, but not one there was a real reason to ignore.

  "It's not going to blow me up, is it? Or like, catch fire or something?" Kiko asked, feeling a little mad to be talking to the air but otherwise shaking her head to get out the cobwebs and then releasing her tails again. She could feel a third there, which sort of made sense. Being almost killed by a Minotaur was pretty stressful and traumatic.

  'Not going to blow you up, no. Though if it does catch fire, you'll be breaking the rules. Blazetails, and indeed the Five Great Mikos, have not been a thing in your genetics for a long time'

  "I have no idea what you just said. Is that in a book or some weird Vanaet stuff?"

  'Weird Vanaet stuff. It's not no bearing on current day, so not really worth knowing'

  "Right"

  Madness set aside for a moment, Kiko would step out of the tent and into the bright sun. Today, was a new day.