The lights show was impressive and convincing and all the things it needed to be for a believable show of power. Even if the lights had not been enough, the surprising gust of wind and the uproar of heat was enough to convince me that he was being entirely honest with me about this, or at least that he believed he was being honest and he had sufficient powers to bring his points home. Many things could be faked, but I had never met a person who could create such a sudden and believable illusion that affected the senses with such potency.

I paused for a moment and considered what I knew.

He was younger than I was. He was peculiar, and had a strangely vigorous approach to combat, one that bordered on near-suicidal desire to fight. He was honest, trustworthy, and honorable. Those were the things I had learned in the past.

He was, if my senses served me correctly, a more powerful person than I was. He had access to a more abundant and more efficient source of energy than I did. He was entirely confident in his own superiority, and it had nothing to do with an oversized ego, from what I could tell. He believed in himself and was eager to teach, something I had noticed once before. He was not manipulating me, but he had no objection to stringing me along using my curiosity. Those were the things I had learned just between the first time I touched the warmth of his aura—something I was moderately convinced existed in some form—and when he stopped speaking.

"I will admit that this is intriguing," I held up a finger, as if cautioning him, "but I am not going to do anything weird or ceremonial just because I think this is worth hearing about. My life is practical at this point, so I need some kind of practical reason to ... to release this. You make it sound like it could be dangerous. Just how dangerous is it?"

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[Graphics by Me.]

"Get your facts first, and then you can
distort 'em as much as you please." ~ Mark Twain