Draith
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Chapter 21 - Astral Ascension
🕑 Added 2025-02-25 14:00:14 +0000 UTCIt didn't take long for Calbern and the sailors to erect a sturdy wooden building in the shelter of the outcropping, with only a little help from Nexxa to seal it tight. I had a spell that could’ve helped, but swapping them out still took me forever.
Before night fell, there was enough space for everyone to sleep inside, though actual rooms would come later.
I couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy. None of this convenience would be available in my domain. And it wasn’t just the ease with which they set up camp. It was her relative connection to society. Two weeks by ship was a lot, but not so much it would impede trade. The profit from monster parts alone meant the captain intended to make the trip to Nexxa's domain twice a year, at a minimum.
Not to say I wasn't happy for Nexxa. I was. It just served to remind me how much more isolated my domain would be.
And that we'd be saying goodbye soon.
Before our trip together, that would've sucked, but still been tolerable.
Now, it felt like I had to say goodbye to the only real friend I’d had in two worlds.
"Hey, Perry, you look like a warg got into your favorite custard. What's up?" Nexxa asked, sitting down next to me with two bowls of steaming stew. It had been brewed by the hunter who would be teaching her to sort her hex nuts from her rivets, metaphorically speaking.
"Just thinking about the future," I replied as I accepted one of the bowls from her, blowing on it.
"Ah. Unfortunate. Don't think too hard or your head will start to look like our dinner," Nexxa said, holding her bowl up and slowly blowing the steam away.
"Har har… I'll try not to," I said before taking a tentative bite. It wasn't bad. Needed a little salt though. That was one thing I'd brought lots of. Course, at the moment, I didn't have Access Storage prepared, so I had to do without. "Speaking of the not-future, my affinities are finally balanced."
"Seriously? We didn't even work on them today," Nexxa grumbled, pushing a green leafy vegetable out of her bowl and flicking it into the fire.
"Pretty sure you’re supposed to eat those,” I said, before taking another bite of my own. I made the mistake of biting one of the leaves to prove my point, only to discover it was incredibly bitter. I ignored Nexxa’s smug grin as I discreetly choked down the leaf before returning to the previous subject. “I cast Access Self to check, and it must’ve been the last push I needed, cause they're balanced. I wanna make the attempt tonight, after dinner. I'd like it if you were there."
"Is the Infinite Rift deep? Of course I'll be there. Didn’t spend the last month and a half training you up to abandon you now," Nexxa said, elbowing me hard enough to make me drop my spoon back in the bowl.
Fishing my spoon out of my stew, I let the toppings drip down before wiping it clean. Only after I’d taken another bite, did I say, "Good. Calbern will be there too."
She nodded, eyes distant as she ate, and I let the conversation fade.
A minute later, the hunter arrived. “Ah, Ha'sh'eme'tel has biscuits. Little Nexxa is waiting, not too long enough. Hard biscuit makes soft stew perfect, see?” he asked, demonstrating by placing a biscuit in my bowl and gesturing for me to try.
It… transformed the bland stew. Somehow, the biscuit caused the stew to stick to it, and it became like eating a sandwich, but in reverse. There was so much flavor, all with a crispy biscuit at the center. Of course Nexxa hadn't been patient enough to wait until the biscuits were ready.
“Thank you, Hash’emetel,” I said, doing my best to reproduce his name yet failing horribly.
He just laughed, patting me on the shoulder as he walked away, carrying more biscuits towards where Calbern and the captain were sitting.
"He actually prefers people call him Hash. Guess everyone gets it wrong, even his own family," Nexxa said shortly after.
"I can understand why. How do you even make that high pitched warble?" I said, strumming my throat as I attempted it again.
"Like this," Nexxa said, holding her hand up and setting a disk to humming between her fingers.
To her credit, it really did make the warble. I didn’t know how she’d incorporate that into her speech, but that wasn’t the important part. "Okay, color me impressed. Didn't realize we could use Storm to do that."
"You can't," Nexxa replied, smirking before letting it fade away. "Not yet, anyway."
"Soon though," I said, handing my bowl to Hash before brushing off my travel clothes.
Nexxa was even more excited than I was, leading the way outside the cabin while walking backwards, her hands crossed behind her head. “You’re gonna do great. No worries.”
Calbern was already outside, waiting for us. Or just enjoying the view of the stars. There were an awful lot of them this far from civilization. I didn't recognize any constellations, but I wouldn't have on Earth either.
"Is it time, master Perth?" he asked, turning away from the stars and managing to stand just a little straighter as he did so.
"It is," I said, taking a seat next to him and joining him in looking upward. "Long way from home."
"Indeed. Though at least the stars remain familiar.”
And I was reminded once more of the silent lies that laid between me and them. I knew I'd need to tell them, one day.
I told myself I’d do it right then, but the sound of a door creaking open caused us all to turn. Much as the cabin was convenient, it wasn’t the highest quality of build. Stepping out of the door were Tresla and Inertia. Inertia stretched outward, her bulk blocking out a significant portion of the sky before she turned in our direction and began stomping over, Tresla following silently in her wake.
Honestly, Tresla could’ve been stomping too, and I’m not sure I would’ve heard the sound of her footsteps next to Inertia.
"Inertia heard you would be making your attempt, and requests permission to watch. She has never witnessed a mage ascend before," Tresla said, pausing for a second before adding, "Neither have I. It sounds interesting."
"You're welcome to watch, though I don't know if it'll be very exciting. Most Astral ascensions are pretty boring, at least from the outside."
"Least they're not as gross as the Pegasus ascension. Do not wear clothes you want to keep when you hit Pegasus," Nexxa warned me, a shudder passing through her.
"Inertia would like to watch anyway," Tresla said while sitting down and crossing her legs. Her four feet of height seemed even less when she sat like that, and with the dark cloak, she almost disappeared into the night.
A moment later, the captain and Hash also joined us. The captain produced a bottle of something that smelled vaguely like whiskey.
"An hour, I wager, he takes. Three Waves," Hash said, looking towards the captain.
"Three Waves, aye. No longer than half the hour."
"Two hours, and not a minute faster," Nexxa said, producing her coins and laying them down in front of me. "You can do that for me, can't you Perry?"
The captain offered me the liquor, but I waved it away.
I shook my head at Nexxa. "If I have my way-"
"Fifteen minutes," Calbern's level tone cut through my bluster. "Master Perth is no ordinary mage." He turned to me, placing a hand on my shoulder as he added, "I know you can do this. I'm proud of you."
Of course. Of course, he'd chosen that moment to say it.
Now I had to make the attempt with tears in my eyes while everyone watched.
Well, nothing for it but to do it.
I closed my eyes, tempted to cast Access Self one last time.
But I knew the results would come back the same. Thirty-three for Nature, Worlds, Storm and Arcane and eleven in Water, Air, Fire and Earth. Even my lower affinites would’ve been enough to make most mages jealous.
So, instead, I pushed the spell out of my slots.
I gathered my mana and set to work. It wasn't enough to simply create the four pointed structure I'd originally planned. With eight affinities I wanted to continue growing, it needed four auxiliary struts as well. I also needed to branch out to heal the micro fissures without closing off access to any of my spell slots. In theory, the patches could serve double duty, acting as braces for the structure.
But only if they didn’t degrade the support.
The work felt surprisingly exhausting, considering it took place entirely within my mind. The first step required me to line up motes of mana in a cross, and getting them to sit still soon had me breathing heavily. And I hadn’t even made it to the second cross for the other elements. Despite all the exercises Nexxa had me do as practice, it felt like I was already at my limit.
Yet I knew my mana would recover with time, so instead of pressing, I simply waited. Soon enough, there was even more free mana floating around me. Instead of attempting to wrestle the new motes into place one at a time, I used the existing cross as a template, guiding them into the same shape.
Yet that had the unfortunate effect of directing them into reinforcing my existing structure. I had a very sturdy connection to my higher affinities. In theory, it should make improving them easier in the future. Assuming I didn’t fail and have to rebuild my core from nothing.
That thought made me decide I’d only make one more attempt. Having four excellent affinities was better than restarting from scratch. Especially since the others were primarily for experimentation anyway.
This time, when my mana regenerated, I took the slow path, dragging a single mote into place, taking a deep breath, then moving on to the next.
I don’t know how long I spent like that, but it worked.
Slow is smooth, and smooth is success. I think that’s how it went.
Didn’t matter.
Once the second cross was in place, I did my best to check everything over once more. But I was nearing my limits. It was time for the do or die moment.
Now that I had the structures in place, I had to flood them with moving mana.
Opening myself to the outside world, I was struck by the variety of the mana around me. It was coming from everyone watching, I realized.
Again, didn't matter.
I let the mana in, converting it as it entered, fueling my construct.
Everything shook. But that was normal. It shook for everyone, even Nexxa, the prodigy. At least, that’s what she’d told me.
Yet as everything threatened to fall apart, I couldn’t help but doubt. I didn't know how long I endured the shaking for, moving my attention back and forth to continue patching as best I could until finally, the shaking stopped.
When it stopped I knew I was done.
Either I'd succeeded or… or I'd have to disperse everything and rebuild from the bottom all over again. If I was lucky. Either was better than a broken core, and while that had been possible, I wasn’t writhing in pain, so it was unlikely.
Still, I was afraid to turn my attention inward.
With it completed I sat in silence for several long seconds, until Nexxa's voice shattered the silence. "Good job, Perry. Knew you could do it."
At her words, I risked a peek.
The structure was intact. I’d managed to connect everything.
I now had an Astral-soul, complete with one shiny second order spell slot and five first order slots whose spells would now be twice as strong. When I opened my eyes, I looked around at all those watching and asked, "So, who won?"
Then, before anyone could answer, I added, “Other than me, of course.”
Comments
Kooooomakimi
So is there a hard limit on the amount you can raise your affinity in each stage? Or is it possible to spend more time increasing your affinity in the second stage, such that there would be no difference when compared to a mage that'd max out their affinities in the first? I don't really understand why you wouldn't just push all your affinities as far as you could.
