Leo learned in his training that there are limits in magic. Not only for the energy which needs to flow through your spirit, but also because of complexity. The spirit needs to mold that energy, give it the effect the user wants it to have, and then direct it to its target. The more complex the magic is, the more precision it requires, and the higher the precision, the harder it is to control that magic. That is why it is so hard to do some things we would think as easy.
As an example, it is hard to cook with magic because to do so, you would need to keep a constant heat during all the time it needs to cook.
It is even harder, almost impossible, to use alchemy type magic to create food, because like with anything of an organic origin, it would require you to recreate every cell as a separate thing.
The same answer can be applied to a lot other cases, like body regeneration. There's things it's just better not to try, and organic matter is just too complex.
In the world Leo lives now, coins are made of wood, and marked with complex patterns. The material makes it hard for people to make new coins with magic, and the patterns make it hard to make them with other means. Also they use the wood from really uncommon trees, and the ones they grow are heavily protected, like the treasure they are. The trees, just like any other living being, have a spirit, and the wood, even after the tree is dead, keeps a residual spirit energy charge.
That charge, while not infinite, lets the authorities, and anyone with enough spiritual sensibility, distinguish the real coins from falsifications. When the coins' energy gets too low, or their patterns start to get blurry, those coins are sent to the official money makers, who exchange those coins with newly cut ones, and then destroy (burn) the older ones. For the same reason, keeping older coins is never a good thing, so in that world, it is common to keep the spare money in bank accounts. Those accounts are magically signed, so that only the real owners' spirits will resonate with the signature, proving their permission to access it.
The coins have different sizes, and patterns, depending on their value. The bigger coins are really valuable, and rarely seen. They are about 50 cm of diameter, so those coins are not practical for everyday use. One could use a few of those coins to build a small house.
To have a value equivalent to 1 of the bigger coins, one has to own 100 of the smaller sized ones, with a size around 5cm of diameter. Those ones are more common around rich people, and still rare in poor people.
The smallest sized coins, and the most common type, are coins with a value of 1/100th of the medium ones. Those coins, though, are not proportional to their value (for practical reasons, it would be too easy to lose them with only 0.5cm of diameter), so they made them 1cm instead. These coins are also thin, and being made from wood, it is not strange for them to break in half when not handled properly, and then they need to be sent to the makers for replacement, taking care to keep both splits together so they can make sure all the parts of the coins are there.
………
Life had been a bit boring for Leo after what happened in the cathedral. The order had accepted him as an apprentice, and assigned as Andur's disciple. Being still not adult as seen by the rules of that place, it meant Andur had full responsibility over both Leo's safety, and his behavior. Leo knew it, and he also knew Andur expected a lot from him in exchange. On top of it, he learned his tutor and teacher was also one of the High Bladirs. As a result, all that made Leo look at him in a different way. Andur noticed, and got annoyed with it, because he hated formality.
That day, though, wasn't the day they wanted it to be. When Leo woke up, he felt a strange pressure which bothered him. He opened the window, and noticed a strangely dark cloud in the horizon, almost like if it was sucking the light around it. He had never seen a tempest in that world, so he didn't know if that was something normal. When he walked downstairs he saw Andur looking through a window.
- Good morning, Andur... is something wrong?
- That cloud. It's not normal. I can sense a strange aura coming from it. It feels... evil. I don't know what we should do. I will go get Ly. You stay inside, I don't trust that thing.
Leo had no choice but to stay. Not only because of Andur's order, but there was something inside him telling him to hide, to run away from it, and that feeling was slowly growing more intense.
When Andur came back with Ly, they both had their spirit eyes open. Andur seemed tired, and Ly was having troubles breathing. Her real eyes were wide open, like if she had seen a ghost.
- Fear -said Andur-. That cloud plays with our fear. The nearer you go, the more you want to leave. In a way, it's like the aura in the desert, but it is also different. The Tear wants to protect. This cloud wants to destroy. The Tear was telling us to leave. This cloud tells us to die. And it means it.
» I do not know what it is, but it is really powerful. Maybe we should leave, but we don't know its intentions. It might just be on its way to somewhere, or it might be chasing us. We can't just open a portal to the city. If it is following us, then we would be putting too much people in danger.
- Then we need to make sure of it. We should check if it’s following us, and if it doesn’t, then we should let it through.
- Yes… we should do that… the fear doesn't let me think straight anymore. It's getting too strong. Let's go, we will start to move away, then around. Hold my hand... you too Ly, no time to explain.
With a flash, Leo noticed his body being dragged away really fast. He saw trees and rocks and other things quickly move on his sides, then suddenly they stopped. Andur took a deep breath, and jumped again, dragging Leo and Ly with him.
Teleportation was a complex magic, which required the user to know the destination location extremely well. Because of that, all Andur could do was use space bending, making everything shrink in the direction he wanted to go, and allowing him to quickly move between two points. This kind of magic draws a lot of energy, so even in the best conditions, a master can’t move more than a hundred meters in one step. The fear Andur felt meant he couldn’t get close to the limits of that magic, moving only a few tens of meters with each step, varying with the obstacles in the way.
Andur kept using the magic step to move further from the cloud, but the cloud moved faster than he stepped, so they were only slowly getting away.
After a few steps, they reached a hill, and from it, they looked at the cloud. What they saw matched with Andur's feelings: the cloud brought destruction around its way, leaving a path of death wherever the cloud moved through. Looking at the scar, they saw the cloud had changed directions, always moving towards them. Andur wanted to protect the house, so he decided to move in the opposite direction, so if the cloud was truly following them, it wouldn’t go over it.
He stepped a few times more, moving now around the cloud, increasing the distance from their home. Andur was starting to get tired, and he thought the new direction would help avoiding damage, as the sea was closest in that direction.
At that time, Leo felt more worried about Ly's state, because she seemed to have troubles keeping herself conscious. The pressure coming from that cloud affected her a lot more than Leo or Andur, and that made Leo furious. He hated seeing her suffer.
While Andur was trying to recover a bit from all the magic he had used, the cloud was getting closer to them. It seemed like if it was moving faster, or maybe they just didn't notice its real size, but they felt they couldn’t even imagine the amount of power it could have inside.
Leo's mind was in an internal war between the side with the irrational fear that wanted him to run away, and the side that wanted to protect Ly. Protection: that word triggered a memory... one about something Andur said in the house, about the Tear.
If the Tear's power wanted to protect something, maybe it would protect them against that cloud. He couldn't think of anything else to do, so he told Andur.
- I don’t think we should: the risks are too great. I can’t even imagine what effects a collision between opposing forces of this magnitude would cause. It could be a disaster… it could destroy this whole country, or even the world! But, on the other side, what other options do we have? As far as we know, this cloud might be trying to destroy every living thing in the world, and in that case we would really need to find a way to fight against it. We can’t give up.
» It’s just… it seems so powerful. Even if the Tear were to nullify its power, I don’t know if one Tear would be enough against this. But we don’t have time to think. Not anymore.
When such great powers are involved, the consequences of the decision of a tiny human, even a powerful one, are hard to bear. Andur doubted, but he didn't want to die. And he didn't want his daughter to die. Faced with certain death against a possibility of being saved, he felt it was the only option. He decided they would have to take the chance with the Tear, and pray.
The place wasn't far from where they were. In just a few steps, Andur managed to get them to the border of the crater, but that left him exhausted. Leo held him any Ly, one in each side, and opened his eye. Then he created an energy barrier around them, so he could attenuate the strong energy coming from the Tear.
With the barrier around them, Leo managed to help them walk, nearly dragging them, towards the altar where the Tear was. Step by step, slowly but steadily, they reached the altar. Leo stopped a few meters away from the Tear, because he knew if the tear had crossed the barrier, then all the power would have suddenly got compressed inside it, killing them instantaneously.
Leo helped Andur and Ly into the ground, and sat down looking at the cloud while it was getting closer, waiting for the decisive moment, and wondering if they had taken the right decision.
If things went the wrong way, it would have been his fault, but then he wouldn’t be there to be blamed, but if things went well, they would all be saved. Knowing that, he waited patiently… waiting for either his success, or his death.
Some minutes had to pass, but the auras finally overlapped. As it happened, the area where the auras touched started to dissipate huge amounts of energy, and as the cloud advanced, the amounts were bigger every moment.
The two powers had started to collide: A collision of opposite forces. The auras started to destroy each other, Leo could feel it, and knew it was just the beginning. Then he was certain he had failed. He gave the wrong idea, and it would cost the world a big price.
Suddenly, both auras started to glow, one in bright white, and the other in the darkest black. Like fists in a boxing match, or swords in a medieval war, an uncountable amount of spirit pieces started to stretch from inside each aura, attacking their enemy, their opposite. With each clash, Leo could feel a wave of energy throwing him back.
With each hit, his power started to fade away. His barrier was starting to fail, and he felt his death was near. He started to cry, blaming himself not for his own death, but for Ly and Andur.
When his barrier finally disappeared, he gave up on his fight, and let all that power go into him. Then he heard a voice.
- This wasn’t supposed to happen, not yet. You are still not ready for this fight. It's, still too soon. I can't allow it.
Then a burst of energy started to grow inside him, bigger and bigger, it pierced through his spirit, trying to get free. It was painful, it was too strong for him, but it was the only way. He screamed in pain. He couldn't think, he couldn't hear, he couldn't see, the pain was too big, he was losing the world. Soon he wasn’t conscious anymore.
Suddenly, from his back, two bright, white wings found their way through Leo's clothes. His hair also became white, and when he opened his eyes, they were now completely white. Andur woke up in that moment, and heard a voice. The voice came from where Leo was, but it didn’t sound human, and while he was moving his mouth at the same time, the voice didn’t seem to come out from it.
- Yaeth! I will not allow this. It's not yet the time for this battle, and you know it. This guardian is not supposed to be out here. It has already caused enough destruction as it is. You! Guardian of the Dark Angel! Go back to your place, and don’t dare come out until the time has come. Leave! Be gone!
And with a soft movement of his hand, a light exploded from within the cloud, and turned it into a thin mist which flew away, dispersing into nothingness. Then Leo... or whatever was in his place, looked at the now scared Andur.
- Andur. You are one of the chosen. You should remember my voice, so you should already know who I am. When Leo wakes up, he won't remember anything after I took over his body. Don't tell him, as he is not yet ready to know the truth. I have a request for you. Leo will soon have to leave. He will feel the need to find the truth on his own, and to do that, he will have to awaken his powers. Please follow him, and protect him as much as you can, because I will not be able to help a second time.
- As you wish, my goddess.
Having heard his reply, the goddess' power faded away. Leo's wings disappeared, his hair went back to the normal color, and his pupils appeared in their respective eyeballs. Without the power, Leo fell into the ground, unconscious.
At the same time, Andur could feel his energy renewed. He now had enough energy to take all of them back to the house. With this restored energy he carried Leo and Ly back to the house, and when they both were safely sleeping in their beds, he let himself fall into the world of dreams.