Chapter 78- Theras Perspective

chapter 78- theras perspective think about it she did. for hours into the night the problem swirled around in her head as she was unsure about what to do. she wanted to follow her dream, to become a great mage and fulfill the aspects of her spirit heritage that called out to her, but when she thought about her mom she could tell how happy it would make her if she became a dancer instead. maybe it wasn’t that her mom wanted her to be a dancer, so much as she wanted her to just be anything other than a mage. rather than spend who knew how many years trying to raise her levels and potentially be unable to advance to a higher tier mage job in that entire time. she tried to get the voice's opinion on it, exploring the option of having someone to bounce ideas off of for the first time, but it was firm in its opinion. “i can’t just do that though, mom’s always working so hard. i need to at least think about what she wants.” “but what if i can never improve my magic or level up the job when i get it,” she accidentally said too loudly before quieting down. “maybe it’ll just be a waste of my time, enough of my teachers thought it was after all.” she was starting to feel annoyed that the voice kept pushing her to be selfish. didn’t it know she was trying to be responsible and make the best decision for everyone? “why do you want me to choose it so bad then? i need to actually think about it like i promised mom.” that managed to surprise her. she wasn’t used to hearing anyone outside of her immediate family say anything like that, and rather than react decided she should go down for a glass of water in the kitchen. normally she would throw her cloak on before she left, but she hadn’t actually taken it off for the day yet. the voice may have been sure he would be fine, but she knew from experience not to be so quick to trust that. enough accidents over the years had taught her to be as careful as she could about those sorts of things, even if it was her new imaginary friend. it was quite late into the night, the enchanted lights dimmed to be easy on the eyes of anyone venturing outside, as she made her way down to the kitchen. she thought everyone would be asleep, but when she poked her head in she found the last people she wanted to see, and turned around without a word. she would have just left too if she hadn’t heard what they were saying, not realizing she was there to hear it. “abrus’s offspring has made no progress since we’ve last been here,” vividus told the other three great spirits who were currently at thera’s home, all of whom she avoided the best she could. the death spirit nox, the fire spirit incedis, and the air spirit genon all listened to vividus report the events of theras training while maintaining hominid type forms. they leaned toward succubi and incubi builds, as that was the race they tended to interact with most due to abrus’s relationship with them through her mother. incedis took the form of a strong incubus with a body made of flames, while genon appeared as a succubus made of mist and air currents. nox was the only exception among them, utilizing the properties of his attribute to the extreme by wearing the body of a deceased incubus. “while i’ll continue to push her as far as i can while we’re here, it’s pretty clear she has no potential. she won’t be any use to keeping this world safe before the invasion hits. luckily abrus’s little experiment has made one thing clear.” “don’t call her that while we’re here,” genon said. “i’d rather not have abrus try to pull me to the center of the world.” “fine. as i was saying, abrus has shown it is possible to produce powerful beings with the mortals of this world, with power akin to their demigods. if we are able to do the same thing but with actual success then we could have many powerful warriors available to us who won’t be hampered by the current child’s limitations.” incedis let out a powerful laugh. “finally, we can’t afford to see how things will turn out with her any longer. the time until the invasion is far too short if the gods are to be believed, we need to take some risks if we want any rewards.” eventually it grew silent as she cried and she wore herself out, but she still couldn’t sleep, not with all those thoughts swirling around in her head, and as the hours wore on it decided to try again. it spoke with so much gentleness, but she was feeling too lost. “...don’t wanna.” when she didn’t say anything it seemed to take it as a sign to keep going. she felt tears coming back to her eyes but she tried to hold them off, she couldn’t speak so she just nodded. she stayed silent, not trusting herself to speak. she wanted to say it. if she gave it all up here then maybe her life would start going better. she wouldn’t be the disappointment who couldn’t take advantage of her immense power, she could just have fun dancing all day, maybe even make some real friends as well. but as she tried to get the words out tears came instead. “i want to be a mage.” she whispered. “but what am i supposed to do?” thera walked to her parent’s room and opened the door. her father never slept but liked to stay the night with her mom anyway, so when she went in he was awake to greet her. “everything okay sweetheart?” he asked with concern. “did you have a bad dream?” she shook her head and tried to be brave. she wasn’t feeling confident about it but the voice was there to encourage her at least, and she walked up to the bed to shake her mom awake. after a few moments her mother cracked open her eyes. “thera honey? are you okay?” “mhm.” she was hanging onto her cloak's sleeves. she knew her voice was going to be unsteady when she spoke and hated it, but wanted to get the words out as fast as possible. “mom, i want to be a mage. i’m sorry but i can’t be a dancer. i need to do this for me.” she braced herself for whatever her mom would say, but she just scooped her up in a hug and brought her into bed. “alright, if that’s what you think is best for you then that's what you’ll do. now let's get a bit more sleep, it’s still too early.” she couldn’t believe it. she had expected a fight, or at least for her mom to try and talk her out of it. that had been too easy. at the same time it lifted a weight from her though, as she was finally able to get to sleep.