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Proof of Worth

  A group of mysterious figures sat at a table discussing an important matter. An old looking figure begins speaking, “This is the first time ever seeing a fairy like this. Who knows what kind of powers it has? I say you hand him over to me and I’ll figure out all it’s secrets.” A feminine figure retorts, “Oh please if we let you have him, he’ll never see the outside of a test tube. Besides, we have the boy to think about too.” Another figure who appears to be of a higher standing than both asks, “What did you have in mind doctor.” The doctor replied, “I propose that we throw them into the pit.” Another figure this one having a stronger more muscular built replies in anger, “I object to this it’s a little early for them to go through the pit.” To this the doctor replied, “Oh come now if our intent is to learn what this fairy can do what better way than a trial by fire.” The figure of higher standing thought about it for a moment then replied, “She has a point its possible they could be an asset to us. Doctor you have my permission.” The doctor then bowed saying, “Thank you, your majesty.”

  As Ren slowly regains consciousness, he is greeted by a dark silhouette, when the image comes into focus it was revealed that it was Noir. Upon awakening Noir responds, “Well look who finally woke up. I thought I was going to have to find myself a new partner.” As Ren looked around, he noticed that he was in a room that was unfamiliar to him, “Where are we?”, Ren asked. Noir responded, “Before that tell me what’s the last thing you remember?” Ren took a moment and thought back he then responded, “I remember finding you in the forest then the next day I we went to the ritual site to find out what magic you can you use. After that everything is just a blank.” Noir replied, “Makes sense, after going into the water, everything was calm until the water started to turn pitch black. As it turned black you began to sink into the water like someone was pulling you down. Your dad dove in and rescued you but by that point you were already unconscious. Your dad took you to a healer but that did nothing you were just completely drained. After that some people came in saying they were from the capital and offered to take you to get proper medical treatment.” After hearing this Ren responded, “Wait we’re in the capital right now.” To which Noir responded, “That’s correct who would have thought a lazy bum like you can get from a small village to the capital of the Qarus Kingdom just by sleeping.” As ren was about to say something else the door swung open and through it came a woman wearing a lab coat along with a fairy that was glowing green. As she noticed Ren was awake, she rushed over to him, “Looks like you finally woke up Ren, the boy with a black fairy that has the entire council up in flames about what to do with you. Nice to meet you I’m Claire and here’s my fairy Celti.” As Ren and Noir looked at the green fairy, she gave a shy greeting. Claire then continued, “I know you have a lot of questions and so do I but right now you have to come with me, you have a change of clothes on the counter over there I’ll be outside.” With that Claire left leaving Ren and Noir alone again Ren quickly changed into his clothes a black shirt with white strands mixed in, and a pair of dark brown pants with several straps on them. After he got dressed, he began to walk towards the door as Noir sat on his shoulder, “Hope you don’t mind it gets tiring having to flap my wings all day.” Ren then responded, “No your good.”

  As they walked through the hallway things were quiet between the four of them until Noir asked, “So do you mind telling us what’s going on?” Claire looked at Celti and responded, “There’s no easy way to put this but essentially you two are basically going to be lab rats for us.” Upon hearing this Ren and Noir both said shocked, “WHAT!” Claire then continued, “Here’s the deal no one in our kingdom has ever had a black fairy before or even heard of one so we don’t know what to think of you exactly. It was decided that we’d but you two through a series of trials to test how much power you have and see if you two can become potential weapons to protect the people of Qarus.” Ren and Noir now a little more mad than shocked shouted, “That’s crazy you can’t just decide that we’re going to be weapons for you guys.” Celti then flew up to them and in an angry tone replied, “You two should be thanking Claire if it weren’t for her” she points to Noir, “you would be stuck in a lab tube until the day you rot and you,” points to Ren, “you’d just be some hobo on the streets who can’t use magic because he lost his fairy. So at least this way you two have a future ahead of you.” Both Ren and Noir were silenced by this revelation and the switch in personalities Celti went through. Claire continued off from where Celti left off, “Essentially that’s right if I let that old man who’d spend his life looking at a cell divide have you my little black fairy, you’d lose all rights as a living creature and be nothing more than a specimen for him to dissect. However, there was another reason why I decided to put you through these trials.” As she says that her face blushes a bit and says, “When I looked at the both of you, I could tell that you two have immense untapped power the likes of which this world has never seen, can you think of anything more exciting than that.” As she realizes they have reached their destination Claire composes herself and proceeds to walk through the door.

  Inside there are several people some looking ready for a fight while others wore lab coats but one thing, they all had in common was that their glares were fixed on Ren and Noir. This made Ren tense up but calmed down when Claire put her hand on his shoulder. Claire then told Ren to proceed towards the metal doors in the back which Ren did with Noir flying close by. As the doors open a wide-open area with trees, a lake, and caves appeared before them. Not sure what to do they walked out into the area, Noir then shouted, “So what are we supposed to do in here?” Suddenly a voice from an unknown location responded, “Here you will beat the enemies that appear before good luck.” Suddenly a giant monster with horns emerged from the trees. Ren and Noir were shocked by this then Noir composed himself. “Ren get ready I’m gonna start giving you magic.” Noir shouted to Ren getting him to focus. Dark mist the same color as Noir started coming from him as it went into Ren. Ren felt a tingling sensation as power built up inside him, “This feels amazing all this power inside so this is what magic is.” As the monster charged towards him Ren readied a punch as the monster was a few feet away it raised its arms ready to crush him, Ren then jumped towards him and punched the monster with all his might. Unfortunately, nothing happened the monster didn’t even wince in pain. After realizing this Ren and Noir with a scared look ran as fast as he can away from the monster. The monster continued his attack crashing his fists into the ground causing it to crack from its power. As they ran, they remembered the cave and ducked into it, the monster reached in to try and grab them however they were too far in to be grabbed.

  In the observation deck most of the people watching had disappointed looks on their faces as they saw the pitiful display. “I guess its to be expected the poor boy just got his fairy a few days ago and hasn’t even had time to learn proper magic.”, said one man in a suit of armor. An old man then turned towards Claire then with a smart grin said, “Well it looks like your little prodigy turned out to be nothing more than a dud what do you say we call it quits now.” Claire didn’t even look at the old man trying to annoy her and simply said, “Shut up and watch you old fool.” Another voice interjected, “Doctor Claire I have to agree with him on this the boy doesn’t have any experience if this keeps going, he may just die.” Claire then turned to them with a hint of malice in her voice as Celti started to glow brighter, “No.” as she said that the aura of the room changed as everyone started to tense up with fear some even falling to the ground, “You’re all so quick to give up is it because he’s just a child or is it because you don’t trust me, tell me in the entire time I’ve been here have I ever left you disappointed.” She asked and looked around the room no one said a word or even raised their hand, she then continued, “Keep watching I have a feeling you may be pleasantly surprised.” As she finished the tension in the room returned to normal as Claire went back to observing her test. Everyone didn’t say a word and decided to continue watching not out of fear but because they knew Claire was never one to place bets on something that had no chance.

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  Back in the trial grounds Ren and Noir trying to catch their breath, “What the heck was that I thought you gave me magic?” Ren asked in an angry tone. “I did!” Noir said in a defensive tone, Noir continued, “My guess is that you didn’t use it the right way. Think what color did the water change during the ceremony?” Ren took a second to think then said, “The water turned black, what the fuck does that mean!?” Noir then said slightly agitated, “I don’t know I know as much as your dad told me, water turns color that color is your magic type!” Ren thought for a moment then began to sit down in a cave with a expression of despair, “So that’s it huh.”, Ren said in a lifeless voice, “Without magic, I can’t beat that thing there’s nothing I can do you heard Claire this was our one chance now I’ll end up as a homeless man while you’ll end up stuck in a test tube. Our lives are over and we just barely left the starting line.” Noir then floated down to his shoulder then looked at him with a look of concern, then a look of anger as he punched you on the side of your cheek it didn’t hurt but Ren was still taken aback by it. Noir then spoke in a voice of both anger and disappointment, “What the hell are you saying right now, do you always give up that easily or what. You say you want to quit just because you can’t use magic, then learn how to right now, and don’t you dare think about quitting just because of one failure you got that!” As Noir’s words rang in his head as Ren slowly started get back up still unsure about all this, he decided to give it another try. “Your right.”, Ren said with his voice slowly gaining life, “If I can’t use magic then I just start there. So, what do we do?” he asked looking at Noir. “How should I know?”, Noir said, “Why don’t we start with what you felt when I first fed you magic?”, Ren looked at Noir with a face that said that he was thinking “Really”. Ren then though for a moment and said to him, “Well I guess when you gave me magic it felt like an immense amount of strength was building up inside me.”, Ren thought about it for a moment then said in a questioning tone, “Physical magic maybe?” Noir thought about then decided to start feeding Ren magic again, “Why don’t we try again see that boulder over there?” Noir pointed to a boulder as Ren saw it he shook his head yes. Noir continued, “I want you to try and punch that boulder this time focus the magic into your fist.” Ren walked up to the boulder took a moment to breath and punched the boulder, it shook for a moment but nothing happened to it. Noir then shouted, “Again!”, Ren then punched the boulder again this time the boulder started to crack. Once more Noir shouted, “Again!”, Ren punched it again this time an imprint was left on the boulder. This time Noir shouted “Again!” in a much louder voice, as Ren threw this punch he shouted as well as his hand started to glow this time shattering the boulder into pieces as he did this Noir threw his hands up in victory.

  Ren took a moment to breathe then tried to replicate that punch a couple more times until he felt he had the hang of this. He then sat down and Noir followed sitting on his shoulder, “Well … looks like you can … use physical magic.” Noir said in between breathes. Ren replied in a joking tone also trying to catch his breathe, “Good thing too … I think we’d be screwed if we had ritual magic.” Noir having caught his breathe looked to Ren and said, “Pretty sure we won’t be able to learn anything above a good punch in here for any better moves we have to go out and take that thing on.” Ren already knew this and started to stand up, “I’m ready to go when you are.”, he said to Noir. “Alright let’s go”, said Noir leaving Ren’s shoulder. As they left the cave they saw that the monster was no where to be found they around then back at each other then suddenly heard loud foot steps run towards them again. “I’m gonna start supplying you with magic again.”, Noir said as he started to glow feeding magic into Ren. As the monster broke out of the trees Ren took on a fighting stance as the monster came into view. Ren was still nervous but this time he felt a little bit better about he chances. As the monster swung his arms down for an attack Ren focused the magic into his feet as he moved to the left of the attack. Ren then moved incredibly fast away from the attack that everyone watching even Ren was taken back by this. Even shocked but not wanting to lose momentum of his attack Ren jumped at the monster with the magic still in his feet he jumped straight to the monsters face and then focused the magic in his fist as he punched the monster causing it to stumble back a bit. Ren tried to land gracefully but ended up landing on his butt aside from that he felt alright for the most part. As people watched in the observation deck they started to appear shocked at what they were seeing except for Claire who had a look of delight on her face as she blushed, “Yes”, she said looking at Ren’s sudden jump in power. Back in the trial grounds Noir floated over to Ren and asked if he was alright, Ren said he was fine for the most part and that he thinks he’s getting the hang of this. The monster got its bearings and let out a loud roar causing Ren and Noir to cover their ears. Ren readied himself again as the monster lead with a arm swipe at the ground which Ren was able to dodge by jumping Ren however as Ren readied an attack he felt the strength he had start to disappear and suddenly started falling to the ground as the monster delivered a punch sending Ren flying into the waterfall. Noir realized that Ren ran out of magic and tried to supply Noir with more magic, while he was able to fed a little he stopped when he saw the monster point his attention to him.

  That punch Ren received had a broken an arm and a leg leaving him unable to move thinking that the monster was going to come after him and kill. When Ren looked up he saw that the monster wasn’t coming after him and instead had his attention to Noir trying to attack him but was quickly dodging. However, the monster then out of nowhere grew one of its fists in size it was too big for Noir to evade as the punch started to come towards him. Ren was about to watch his partner die in front of him and he couldn’t do anything about it.

  As the monster’s punch was coming down on Noir Ren remembered a conversation, he had with his father’s fairy Azure the day before he got Noir. “Ren”, Azure said, “starting tomorrow you’re going to have a fairy of your own.” Ren responded in an excited tone, “Yeah starting tomorrow I’m going to finally be able to use magic!” Azure then looked at him with a serious expression, “While true a fairy will act as your power source but there’s more to it.” Ren looked at him tilting his head. Azure continued, “A fairy isn’t just a power source for you to use to do spells they will also be your companion and friend. It will be your job to protect them and keep them safe. There are people out there who don’t see fairies as friends and only use them as a power source, just promise me that you’ll always keep your fairy safe.” Ren thought about it for a moment then said, “Alright I promise.”

  Ren knew it was his job to protect Noir he then reached his hand out to try and use what little magic he was given by Noir he had to something anything. All of a sudden, the water around him started to jet out and makes its way quickly to Noir forming a protective bubble around him as the monster punched the bubble it found that it couldn’t even reach Noir inside. Everyone watching in the observation deck were left speechless by this, Noir’s energy had allowed Ren to use two types of magic physical and elemental. As Ren faded into unconscious the last of the magic was used up and the water used as a barrier fell to the ground with Noir falling with it likely already passed out due to shock. The monster then readied another punch when all of a sudden, the monster vanished. A man then walked into the grounds with an appearance of superiority and strength. The man then walked over to Noir held him in his hands then walked over to Ren still in the pond. The man looked at Noir then Ren and smiled to himself then said, “I believe the term for this is a deus ex machina.”

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