James stepped around the corner of the Throne and nudged the black rock out of the way. He'd visit with Pride later. There was someone else here he wanted to meet.

He took flight, thankful that his leg wasn't as sore as it had been a few days before, and followed the Sentinel, gently landing behind him.

"Hello," he said softly, and peered around, slowly walking forward to where Astraea had once stood, "A grim place, isn't it?"

He stood where the deer had, once. Where he'd announced Vargas' plan and that he were to become a Master. What a day that had been, sitting among the great, powerful gembound of the caves, him being only a small foal at the time.

"Master Vargas and Master Astraea once stood here," he said, "It was a great meeting. Gembound of all kinds gathered here. Dragons, monsters, regular animals."

A wisp formed above his head, casting a purple glow over him and the area around. It chased away the shadows and gave a bit more depth to the area.

James turned to face Sentinel, wings tucked in, "Who are you? And what brings you here of all places?"

Emotions were muted with Tahi's disappearance into his chrysalis. The fight had taken a lot out of him, and the discussion afterwards even more so. He needed time to recharge, but in that time, he found that anger came quicker and happiness was nothing more than a thought.

And so a frown crossed his face, and he stubbornly kept the wisp close, the thing pulsing with a soft light. He looked down at it and then at the Sentinel as darkness closed in, and then he realized something.

"You're chaos-bound," he said, and shrank back, his last encounter with such a being having not gone well at all.

"I'm sorry," he said, though he really wasn't, "If you take back your shadows, I'll take back my light, okay? Neither of us like what the other is giving, so let's compromise."

James reluctantly snuffed his wisp out of existence, shuffling nervously in the dark that followed. He hated the dark and the shadows that held monsters within, waiting for a slip up.

"Teach?", he said, and a memory came to the forefront of his thoughts, of him suggesting some kind of class for young gembounds to learn from.

His face softened and he stared at the ground, before sighing, "Alright. I can... I can teach you to counter magic."

James' head flew up and he nodded once, "You'll find many magic users in these caves, some with physical capabilities. You'll need to judge for yourself if they are both and act accordingly. A plain magic-user you can possibly counter with physical attacks, for example, and weaker gembounds typically make up for it with magic as well. But stronger gembounds with both physical capabilities and magical ones are formidable and hard to fight against, but not impossible."

A little bit of his drive seemed to come back, along with a sparkle in his eye, "For now we'll start with me. What do you think when you look at me?"

James breathed out, "There are a lot of creatures who see using light. If we even it out so that it's dim, but not dark, and not light, then we can both see comfortably."

"And chaos-bound refers to your magic, the magic that you used to make it dark," he said, "I am... familiar with it. There were two creatures who used it to hurt me, and I'm not very fond of it for that reason. Draconua tried to burn down my home, also, so..."

James swallowed and shook his head, "Anyway... yes. That's good. Not judging a book by your cover is good, but there are physical weaknesses you can exploit even if you can't determine magical ones. When fighting a magic user, they're a wild card. A unknown variable. You could fight a lesser deer and only worry about it's horns, but a greater gembound of the same size and shape could be able to strike you with lightening."

Referring to his boyfriend, of course.

"Alright, Sentinel, I don't think explaining will be very useful here," he said, "In shorter words, the faster you gain the advantage, the better. Magic users are fantastic at both holding out and ending a fight quickly if they use a powerful spell or a weaker one to push you away in order to run."

James planted his feet, "Alright, I want you to touch me. I don't want you to harm me, or I you, I just want you to try and touch me. Do whatever you must."

For all of two seconds, the shield flickered into existence. Just as he was about to tell Sentinel to go, it exploded.

"FUCK."

The kicked up dust cleared and James stood there, looking immensely pissed off, his entire front covered in grey dust, his eyes standing out hilariously, and then he just took off running instead, "Have at thee!!"

James ran a slow lope around Sentinel, taking in mind his injured leg. It may not hurt as much anymore but it was still sensitive and could be hurt all over again.

He'd felt the swish of the halberd as Sentinel tried to grab his leg, and narrowed his eyes, peering at him and trying to determine power level. If this creature was a spawn of Vargas (judging by the copious amounts of eyes and arm spines, it most likely was), then it had to be physically powerful, but if it were asking for teachings, then it wasn't experienced yet.

James turned his head and narrowed his eyes. If he did this right (and the sudden and enthusiastic surge of magic suggested he had), the Sentinel would go flying backwards... and then be set down on the ground gently. So far his strategy seemed to be keeping distance between them.

James turned to see Sentinel chasing him and kept up his pace, prey instincts telling him to run. He kept calm, however, and inhaled, exhaled, and readied a spell.

Once again his magic sparked to life willingly, and there was a tiny bit of amusement welling up in his chest as he realized that if he kept this up, he could probably just stand still and keep gently throwing Sentinel away.

'Maybe that trial wasn't for nothing,' he thought in amusement, his magic much more lenient, coming to his aid reliably, for once.

Hopefully he didn't jinx it-