Draith
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Chapter 24 - It's just... Mana
🕑 Added 2025-02-27 15:00:12 +0000 UTCThere's a special sort of nostalgia I've only ever felt when returning to a place I once knew intimately that has changed while I’ve been gone. It elicits a sense of comfort and loss at the same time. That's how it felt when I first stepped into my Memory Palace.
Stepping out of it was, somehow, the inverse.
It was a stark reminder of how much my life had changed in two short months. How very unfamiliar it all was.
Across from me sat a Forgeborn, a machine intelligence created through magical artifice. To my right sat Hash, a man who looked like a blue skinned version of the Christian devil, returned while I’d been busy.
On my left were the two most normal looking folk here, though Nexxa's ability to call forth a literal thunderstorm, and Calbern's degree of excellence were both more than a little superhuman.
And then there was me.
The grind of it had worn away some of the wonder, but seeing my old shop again had reminded me of where I'd come from.
And it reminded me of what I could now do.
Holding open my palm, I brought forth a tiny ball of unformed mana. The blob of mana spat off tiny motes of light as it danced over my hand. It had absolutely no use, other than as the world’s weakest nightlite or minotaur bait, and would dissipate the moment I stopped focusing on it.
But it was still a thing of wonder.
"It's so beautiful," Tresla said, startling me.
I'd missed her sitting in the shadow of Inertia. Even knowing she was there, I could barely make her out until she leaned forward. "What spell is that? I don't think I've seen anything like it before."
"It's not a spell. It's just…"
"Mana," A deep rumbling voice said. It took me three long seconds to realize it had been Inertia. She'd lowered her head next to Tresla, and was staring intensely at my hand.
"I didn't know you could just… manifest mana without a spell," Nexxa said as she moved closer, holding up her own hand.
To my surprise, she didn't immediately figure it out. It took almost a minute before her glow joined my own, several over exagerated motions making it look like she was practicing air guitar as she experimented.
It was only as she calmed down, sitting beside me and gazing intently at her hand that she figured it out.
The difference between our blobs was immediately apparent. While mine was a swirl of mixed colors, hers was almost entirely purple, with just a hint of gold. Realizing they were probably our affinities, I looked closer at mine, able to pick out the purple of Storm and what must've been the gold of Nature. There was as much pink as purple, which was likely Arcane.
And then there was the blue with little flecks of white in it. If I hadn't known it was Worlds, I might've thought it was Water affinity. The green of Wind, Red of fire and Brown of earth were practically lost amidst the stronger affinities, though Water was the worst, only slightly darker than, and barely noticeable, next to my Worlds affinity.
"More than sight with, do I see," Hash said, rubbing his chest.
A short series of whistles from Inertia caused Tresla to jump to the side, before she smoothed out her cloak and drawing her pipe. "Inertia says your display of trust is appreciated, but wishes to remind you that such open gestures of your inner being should be reserved for those you consider…" Tresla paused drawing on her pipe and creating more smoke rings. "The closest translation would be a close and trusted friend. Loses some of the nuance though. Think the sort of friend who’d help you burn the bodies."
"Noted," I grunted, though I didn't stop channeling. It wasn't for them that I'd done it. Despite Inertia's statement, the swirling blob wasn't something worth hiding. Not if it meant I couldn't draw it forth to appreciate myself.
Sure enough, there'd be folk who could learn my affinities through it. But there were spells for that anyway. Or simple observation.
I did finally let the blob dissipate once the others started moving about.
It seemed the day was going to be a busy one.
The captain was ready to head back down river, her sailors having processed the remains of the black tide. I imagined she'd have a much smoother ride without us along to draw in the monsters with our constant explosions.
Plus, the route was through claimed domains, which I supposed included Nexxa's now, so there should be a degree of safety from that too. Assuming the Magus Domini responsible were doing their duty. The captain didn't seem worried, so I put it out of mind.
While they were making their preparations, I acquired a small keg of the refined dust for my own experiments.
It wasn't as potent as the finer silver powder I was used to, and the entire keg would only provide ten pages worth of spells. But that was still worth the twenty Waves I'd given Nexxa for it, which'd been the same cost she'd paid to have them refine it for her.
Since Nexxa had to escort them to the edge of her territory, I spent the day under the watchful gaze of Hash. There was no chance Nexxa would leave her grimoire behind, even for me to study, so I once more spent the day practicing my Elinder with Tresla. The difference absorbing the books inside Memory Palace had made was immediately noticeable. My ability to keep up went from one in two words to nine in ten.
Inertia wasn't feeling the need to fly today, so she sat in on my practice, often interrupting our pracitce with questions.
Which led to me asking her questions of my own. Now that I was speaking Elinder, Tresla didn't have to translate my questions to Inertia, though for anything longer than a one word answer, she'd still have to inform me of Inertia's response.
"Wait, so you're her slave?" I asked, looking at Tresla after asking how they'd started working together.
"Bonded servant," Tresla corrected, shaking her head. "We have both made pledges bound in stone using the Slave-song. I give her a voice, and she gives me wings. It is a fair price to travel the world."
"Wait, I thought you couldn't fly," I said, pointing at her.
"It was a metaphor. Though we have traveled by airship more than once."
"She's not strong enough to carry you?"
A rumble from Inertia sounded out, along with the word, "Strong."
"Inertia says she is more than strong enough. But keeping me safe while flying is a challenging endeavor. She has only carried me twice, and both times were so we could escape immediate danger. It isn't safe to fly in strange skies."
Another series of whistles from Inertia followed.
"Inertia wants to know if you have taken any stone pledges."
"I don't think so. What's a stone pledge?"
Inertia and Tresla turned to each other, and for the first time in over an hour, Tresla drew forth her pipe to blow smoke rings.
They spent five minutes like that before Tresla turned back to me. I hadn’t spent the time idle, looking through some of the first order spells I’d scribed and forgotten about. I barely even remembered scribing Tie Rope, and was wondering why I’d thought it was worth the effort.
After clearing her throat to get my attention, Tresla said, "A stone pledge, in simple terms, is a pledge that is strong as stone, imprinted in your soul. It's a great deal more complicated than that, and with most advanced workings of magic, it's a convenient lie. But to explain the truth would take months, perhaps years, of instruction in advanced Forge Theory."
"Kinda sounds like the Magus Dominus oath. And correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Inertia going to be my guide for the next two years? Lots of time to explain."
Tresla tapped her pipe against her sleeve, then shifted towards Inertia before resuming the ring blowing. It only lasted for a few seconds before Tresla said, "Inertia wants to know… are you interested in learning Forge Theory? There are things she can't teach you, not without swearing on the stone, but there's a lot she's willing to share. If you teach us about your magic in turn."
"Definitely interested. As for teaching you… well, I'm not sure how useful it'd be, but yeah, fair's fair."
The Forgeborn stood then, both shoulders rolling back for a second before shaking loose her wings.
This time I backed up and braced myself properly, as did Tresla. However, Inertia didn't immediately launch into the sky. Instead she let out another string of whistles, along with the Elinder word for, "Time."
"Inertia says she needs-" Tresla started before Inertia crouched down.
She stopped talking, both of us raising our arms to shield our faces as Inertia flung herself upward.
With a casual brush of her cloak, Tresla continued, "She needs time to prepare a proper lesson plan. Which apparently involves abandoning us in the middle of a conversation."
"Does she do that alot? Cause if she's supposed to be guiding me safely to my domain…"
"She is a guide, not a guardian. Still, she will not abandon you when danger nears. Well, unless she must flee to save my life."
"Lovely," I replied, shaking my head. "Time we get back to it. What was the Elinder word for disaster again?"
Tresla's musical laughter rolled out into the valley before she covered her mouth and we turned back to our practice, an overpowered and over-engineered bird brain flying overhead.
