52: The Hall of the Luminous, Part Seventeen

The Hall of the Luminous, Part Seventeen

The blazing sphere of flames moved toward her. 

Neve didn't react at all. 

How could she? She hadn't expected anything like this to happen. 

All she did was freeze and watched as it just about reached her. 

Before a magical ward shielded her from the impact. The flames spread around the barrier, shrouding her in the fire. 

The spell faded away as soon as it had been cast and the old man looked disappointed. 

"Well, you certainly don't have the instincts of a fighter. If you're our last hope, we really are screwed." 

"What the hell was that!?" Neve asked.

"Agh, don't go freaking out just cause you're a little scared, kid. Funny, I know nothing about your kind and I can already tell you must be considered a child among them." 

"Are you kidding? You just attacked me for no reason!" 

"No, I tested you to see how you would react. It would have been an attack if I hadn't put up that barrier as well. And, I think if I hadn't, Rorvan's last hope would be reduced to ashes at my doorstep. I hope there's more to you than I can see because you're definitely not that inspiring as far as I can tell." 

[AAARGH!] Neve roared in her thoughts, frustrated. [Tamira, can't you just get this guy to shut up and show me his spells or something?] 

"Maybe," she replied quickly, and Neve could almost see her shrugging. "Do I want to, is the question." 

[Fuck you.] 

"If you're here, I take it it's because our dear ministress sent you."

"Yes."

Neve's patience was already at its limits. She couldn't deny that she needed new spells in order to win in the new waves, though. So, she reluctantly kept herself from storming away. 

"Very well. My name is Kelvon. Tell me," he said, standing up and taking a few steps toward her. "What do you specialize in?" 

"I'm a healer." 

"Oh," he replied. The man seemed surprised. "What a coincidence. I am as well." 

Neve arched a brow so high, it nearly hurt. 

[Is that actually a coincidence?] She asked Tamira in her thoughts. 

"... Maybe," Tamira replied once again.

[I hate you.] 

"Hm..." 

The man paced around the room. He used his staff as a cane while Neve finally walked in, closing the door behind her. His eyes remained fixed in front of him, scanning the floorboards as though there were scrolls of some sort laid out on them. 

Neve went and sat down on a small chair as the man finally raised his eyes back up to her. 

"May I ask why?" 

"Why what?" Neve asked quickly. 

"Why you are a healer." The old mage went back to the chair where he'd been sitting originally. Turning it so that he could face her, he sat down and leaned back comfortably. His eyes felt like they were burning through Neve's own. "It is not a commonly undertaken path. Why did you choose it?"

"Why do you need to know that?" 

"Humor me," the old man responded. "Lest I forget anything I could potentially teach you. I've been stuck down here for years, after all. Dementia might take hold of me any moment now." 

Neve rolled her eyes at that. 

"Uh... Cause I thought I'd be good at it," Neve answered. 

She wasn't lying. Before the Unity Trials, she'd been a support main in every game she played. She figured that if the world had become one big game, she may as well keep being one. 

Unfortunately, the old man was not satisfied with that answer. 

"That's it?" 

"Is that not good enough?" 

"If it's a matter of simply being talented with magic, you could have chosen to be a proper wizard. A sorcerer many would come to fear, not one they'd come to for help. So, again, why did you become a healer?" 

[Ah, fuck. I guess there's some answer he's looking for.] 

"Because I wanted to help people." 

She went with the first cliche that came to mind. Something she could imagine a peppy, naive healer character saying in some RPG. This was her best guess as to what the man wanted to hear. 

And yet, she was wrong. 

"You think wizards and sorcerers can't help people? I'd say being able to kill a ravenous beast before it eats a family alive is certainly something that can help people, wouldn't you?" 

"I wanted to help people more directly," she remedied. 

"Bullshit," he spat out. "You can cut the act already. I'm a priest. I've seen what pure, innocent, naive people who just want to do a little bit of good for others look like and you definitely don't fit that bill." 

"Well, maybe appearances can be deceiving."

"OH!" The man pulled back dramatically. "I think I just felt my brain half-die. I just forgot four different spells! AH! Dementia is coming for me!" 

Balling her hands up into fists, Neve inhaled slowly and tried to calm down. 

"Because I wanted to help people without fighting." 

"Still plenty of other ways of doing that."

"Because I'm religious and this is the kind of magic associated with faith where I'm from."

"Your first excuse sounded more genuine than this crap." 

"BECAUSE I THINK HEALING MAGIC LOOKS COOL!"

"COOLER THAN SHOOTING FLAMES AND LIGHTNING OUT FROM YOUR STAFF?" 

"Fuck this." 

Neve got up and walked out of the building. 

Outside, she paced back and forth, feeling so heated she could scream. 

[What is this guy's problem? I wasn't lying, I only became a healer because I knew I'd be good at it!] 

All of that anger that had just bubbled up within her then gathered in her lungs and she sent it all away in the form of a prolonged sigh. 

"What the fuck do you want?" She asked quietly, still standing outside the man's shop.  1

She couldn't leave, no matter how irritated she was. She knew that if she didn't get any new spells, she didn't stand a chance of clearing the next 10 waves. 

Staring up at the rocks hanging over Rorvan, Neve tried to think of what exactly it was that this guy wanted to hear. 

This was her first conversation with him and already he was on the Top 10 list of Most Irritating Conversations She'd Ever Had. 

But, she needed to do this. She needed these new spells. 

Swallowing her frustration and bottling it up inside of her, she opened the door and walked back in. 

"Oh my, how long has it been, years?" He asked. 

"Bite me," she replied as she sat back down, hunching over and putting her head in her hands. 

"I don't have the teeth for such a thing anymore. Now," he said, clapping his hands together, "again. Why did you choose to become a healer?" 

"... Because I knew I'd be good at it." 

"That's the first thing you said."

"Because it's true," Neve replied.

"... Alright," he suddenly conceded. Neve raised her head. "What made you think you wouldn't be good at other kinds of magic?" 

"I don't know," Neve shrugged, answering quietly. 

"You can take a guess, surely. Why, after comparing the paths of being a sorcerer or a wizard to being a healer, did you decide those paths weren't for you?" 

At this point, all thoughts of the game-like System that may have been driving these "dialogue options" went out the window. Now, Neve was genuinely wondering the same thing. 

[Why did I choose to be a healer?] 

"I..." She paused, remembering the day she made her choice. 

Hours after killing her mother, with her parents' bodies still laid out fresh on the living room floor. 

It had taken a long time for her to calm down. Enough to start thinking about the System that had appeared in front of her, and to start developing a plan to find safety and shelter. 

Many, many other people in the same situation chose to become Combat Mages. Wizards, Sorcerers, even Summoners. She hadn't, though. 

"When I was making my choice, I figured I could let other people deal with damaging enemies and stuff like that," she said softly. 

The old man leaned forward a little. 

"Why?" He asked, just as quietly. 

Neve opened her mouth to speak but paused for a moment and then finally replied:

"Because... damage dealers, sorcerers and wizards and those, have too much responsibility. I didn't trust myself to be able to do any of that... to be relied on like that." 

He snorted.

"What is your name, foreigner?" The mage asked. 

"Neve."

"Neve," Kelvon nodded. "Very well. That, Neve, I believe is the actual reason you became a healer. But, tell me," he said, putting his hands behind his back. "Do you feel like you have no responsibilities right now? Or, any less than you would if you had become a sorcerer or wizard?" 

"Not really." 

[If anything, things would probably be way easier.]

"Funny how things turn out, huh? Alright, Neve. I will teach you whatever I can." 

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