Epsilon Twilight
patreon
58. Elemental
🕑 Added 2022-10-25 10:54:02 +0000 UTC“Ah, I still can’t believe we are going to go inside the Arcane Sanctum!” A jumpy and excited Monica told. And by jumpy, I meant it literally. She was hoping from side to side.
“Hold your casts, Monica,” I told her. “It looks like you have been possessed by the spirit of Marissa.”
“Yes, but, you know. The Arcane Sanctum!” She spewed words in quick succession, cutting her phrases without finishing them. They were so fast that even my mage-enhanced brain couldn’t process it. “I’m so excited!” Monica finally said in a coherent pronunciation.
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Marissa threw me a discriminatory glance, pondering over my previous words.
“I think it’s pretty clear what that’s supposed to mean.” Adrian added with a snicker and rose his hand towards me, a gesture I understood, and responded with a high five.
Every class from the first year had come to the outing. Classes in the academy were composed of a small number of students, typically less than twenty. But now, we were around a hundred here. I could even see that pyromancer who had challenged me to a duel at the beginning of the year.
How was he called? Something Nay, if I remember correctly, as he was the member of the main family branch of the noble house Olivia belonged to. Was it Saphar? I couldn’t remember.
Sure, I could use Perfect Recall, but I preferred to leave that spell aside for… an undefined amount of time. The experience from my remembrance-diving had been far from ideal.
As I was zoned out, I noticed I remained looking at the noble scion for a bit too long which prompted him to see me. Instantly, he turned his head to the other side and put haste to his pace.
You know, being infamous was a bad thing. But inflicting this feeling of dread on people was intoxicating. Powerful.
We arrived at the Arcane Sanctum in a short span, not that surprising as the academy was literally inside the grounds of the colossal needle we had for a town hall. We were received by an open equally colossal gate and a multitude of ellari going in and out of the sanctum, much different from the time I came here in my stroll as the gates were closed and only a handful of people were present.
The horde of students quickly grouped together before the gates of the Arcane Sanctum. The teachers stood before us in silence, and not shortly later Sylvia Algor spoke to the multitude.
“As you may have noticed,” she started with her familiar and amicable tone, “we are a few too many people here to enter together to the Arcane Sanctum, so you all will divide into groups of your whole class and visit different sections of the sanctum.”
As soon as Sylvia said that people already began assembling themselves together according to their class. Not that we were mixed with other classes, to begin with. Ellari tended to keep their relationships rather scarce. I wouldn’t be surprised if our group was the bigger in all classes, as there were four of us.
“Alright, it seems you have grouped up already.” Sylvia nodded to herself. “As there are five different classes, we’ll rotate between different sections of the sanctum, beginning by the barracks at the outside.”
A few mumbles and complaints were heard among the students.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry.” Sylvia calmed them. “There’s enough time for everyone to enter and visit the Arcane Sanctum.” Funnily enough, Monica was heavily alleviated by the teacher’s claim. “The other places you will visit are the sanctum’s archives, the governmental offices, the scholar’s laboratories, and the most amazing of them all, the underground where Ferilyn’s main leyline flows across.”
More mumbles were spoken by the students, but now instead of worry, they were filled with expectation. I almost joined them myself. A leyline. The lifeblood of our country, what made ellari ellari, and what powered the mages’ insane mana consumption. A source of nigh-unlimited energy, bursting with arcane power. It was rather stupid I had yet to see a leyline when our country relied so much upon them. But it also made sense as they were heavily protected.
Sylvia began telling us which groups would go where first, but I didn’t pay much attention until the end.
“Finally, Innit’s class will go first to visit Ferilyn’s main leyline. Now, follow your teachers and don’t cause any problems.” Sylvia told sweetly as some laughs were heard. “I’m serious! If you do anything out of the line, I will be mad!” It was impossible to take her seriously with her childish and merry-go-happy way of speaking.
Though I was paying more attention to the person speaking at my side.
“We will see a leyline, ah!” Monica added with a girlish screech. That or one of a dying bird. “It’s my first time seeing one.”
“Me too, Monica,” I told her. “So, there’s no need to burst my earlobes.”
“Sorry, sorry!” She apologized, bowing hastily.
To be honest, it was very amusing seeing her this excited. Monica was normally calm and collected, even more so than I was. It was refreshing watching her unleashed.
“Come on, class!” A surprisingly well-dressed Henry saluted the class. “Follow me inside, I’ll assure you you will love what you are going to see.”
“Huh, Innit’s as excited as ya’.” Adrian gave Monica a sassy look.
Instead of saying something, Monica responded to him with a low growl. Ignoring my friends’ antics, I was interested in professor Innit’s garments. Unlike the common male ellari tunic, he wore blue baggy pants and a shirt that seemed too big for him, along with a small lavender jacket on top that he left open.
His clothing was so different from the norm that I actually liked it. And yet they didn’t feel inappropriate as ellari clothing and fashion tended to be open and loose. Tunics were cool, but those open and baggy clothes felt incredibly comfortable.
Together in a group, we crossed the monumental gates inside the Arcane Sanctum. From far away they looked big, but when standing below them, you could feel the sheer overwhelming size you were dealing with.
“Wow~” An astonished Marissa sang at my side. “This place is huge~” At least she had the modesty to keep her voice low. I gave a not-so-subtle look to Monica.
“I’ll be damned.” Adrian followed in surprise, looking up, towards an unseeable ceiling. “I can’t even see the ceiling.” Not even tilting my head to the maximum, pushing the limits of my neck, was enough to have a line of sight of the top of the tower.
All of my classmates looked around in amazement, though I was a tad bit more reluctant. The place felt off. Something about the souls in the sanctum weirded me out, though I couldn’t really point out why. They had a slight Arcane corruption on them, but far tamer than mine. Yet something about the whole aura left me oppressed.
I cycled a wave of fresh soul mana around me, and let those thoughts dissipate.
To traverse the impossibly high tower, a bunch of levitating elevators moved from floor to floor along the place. I was more amazed by the invisible bridges and those ellari who walked in the air across the gap to move between the floors. I mean, that was a safety hazard. Who approved this?
The big central hole along with the floating mages gave the Arcane Sanctum a sense of mysticism and allure. But if we talked about alluring things, one could not ignore the low-powered column of arcane energies that pierced the needle from the floor at the center of the hall towards the very top.
“That’s a redirected part of the leyline which powers the whole Sanctum.” Henry Innit said at my side as he noticed I was looking at the column of pure energy.
“Is it possible to redirect a leyline?” I asked in surprise.
Leylines were the veins of the world, more powerful than any river’s torrent. The lifeblood of a planet coursed across these magical channels, it was surprising it could be manipulated in such a way.
“But of course,” Our professor referred to the whole class. “Whilst incredibly complex and a majestical display of engineering, you can see with your own eyes that we can manipulate the very essence of the world.” Innit spoke with invigorating enthusiasm.
One thing I noticed about our teacher in this first year of the academy was that the man truly loved what he taught.
“Quit gawking and follow me, students.” He snapped for the attention of the class. “We haven’t even started with the tour to be amazed.” A roguish smug was plastered on his face.
Henry guided us to the very center of the Sanctum, besides the redirected leyline. A circular pattern was inscribed on the floor, made with gold, silver, and white stone. It resembled the two circumscribed stars Novela had on her store sign, plus the circular opening for the leyline to filter through. I was keen to notice a semi-hidden stairway downstairs.
Just the fact of being near a leyline I could feel my skin tickle. My superb Arcane affinity jumped all over the place at the overwhelming quantity of pure arcane mana. I was very sensitive to mana as an arcanist and a manaweaver, so even the faint handmade leyline blinded my senses besides the sight (even if the beam was bright by itself).
It would seem I wasn’t alone in this reaction, as my fellow arcane users reacted to the surprising overcharge of mana. It was akin to having a hundred Mana Reservoirs providing me a mana regeneration I was incapable of managing.
Though my reaction proved far stronger than the rest, as the others would just scratch their skin in discomfort, whilst I felt like dying inside. Like I was cooking in an oven. I wasn’t used to having so much mana at my disposal. My superb affinity had handicapped me all these years in terms of mana regeneration and mana pool growth, and now that I had infinite mana at my disposal, I couldn’t tolerate it because I wasn’t used to dealing with such quantities.
As we descended below the floor on the stairways, I began cycling soul mana across my body. Not only to pseudo-cast healing cantrips to soothe my body’s ache, but also to stabilize my soul. I feared this overloading arcane influence would tip the fragile balance between my affinities in my soul.
It had been a long time since I had worried myself with the battle occurring in the insides of my soul. I could already notice the Arcane part of my soul sizzling like a tea kettle, and the little tendrils writhing as if they suffered a spasm. Superb affinity appeared to be only a negative when being right beside a leyline.
I felt every step on the stone staircase as we descended. Every step was heavier than the rest, more charged. At some moment, the chatty classroom group had become silent and focused on the eerie aura coming at the end of the stairs. The arcane mana had become so concentrated that even the non-arcanist could feel it, even if they weren’t affected by it.
By now, I could see a single known high Arcane user of the classroom who was scratching furiously in a recognizable manner, albeit in his attempts trying to hide it. Meanwhile, I had to use the pure parts of my soul to create a veil against arcane energies. A metaphysical barrier that should protect me from mana radiation.
“Are you alright?” A worried Marissa whispered to me. “You are looking pretty pale.”
“It’s the leyline,” I explained. “It’s overloading the mana pools of the arcane users. Look at that high affinity one.” I pointed to her at the one I had been looking at.
“Wait,” Marissa stopped, her visage covered in dread, “What about you? You have…” She stopped herself, giving a quick look at her surroundings. “…Your own affinity.”
“Don’t worry, I’m healing myself with my soul,” I told to calm her. “To be honest, I fear more about our classmate here than me. He cannot shield himself from the leyline.”
It was at this moment that I remembered the compendium I had as a child, the one I had been gifted on my second birthday. I recalled a singular and very important fact: mana diseases.
I had done this comparison a long time ago, but leylines were disease incarnate. Taking in foreign mana was prejudicial for the body, and leylines were the most diverse and powerful source of mana in the world.
Upon my realization, I sprinted toward Innit. He noticed me quickly as the staircase was more silent than outer space.
“Is something wrong, Master Nightfallen?” He inquired without worry, followed by his ever-welcoming smile.
“Yes!” I shouted at him. How could he not notice the illness overwhelming his students? “We have plenty of arcane affinity users being affected by mana sickness!”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Henry told with an unwavering smile. “It always happens when we do a visit to the Arcane Sanctum. We have it all already planned. We are almost at the leyline, follow me and you can see it by yourself.”
As the seemingly infinite staircase finally came to an end, we were greeted by a blinding light. Incredibly more powerful than the redirected leyline at the top. Ferilyn’s main leyline, and one of the most important leylines of the world, laid before our eyes.
It traveled through the ground horizontally, as one may expect from the blood vessels of the world. But a glass and golden contraption siphoned energy from the leyline upwards, to create the one being displayed at the Arcane Sanctum. At its roots, the redirected leyline was as bright as the real deal.
It took the whole class a few seconds to get used to the light. I suspected that not even looking up at the sun would be as painful as this. But in a weird and mystical way, as magic always did, the light became less and less oppressive as time went on. From a scorching sun to relatively tolerable limelight, and finally, to an overcharged Mage Light.
As now I could discern my surroundings, I looked around the leyline casing. We found ourselves in a high-celling cellar. The walls were made with stone bricks, along with the ground and the ceiling. The only part where stone wasn’t allowed was the casing protecting the leyline, which was made with tainted glass and gold.
The leyline was incredibly pretty. A beauty one couldn’t describe with ease. The powerful and chaotic stream of mana advanced without stopping, intertwining with smaller streams of blue and pink mana like a rope. Yes, surprisingly enough, a leyline wasn’t purely purple.
Lights danced around, as one color gained more prevalence than others. Only to then fade and be substituted by another one, as if they were liquids beings separated by their densities. The emitted light formed patterns much like those a pool reflected on a sunny summer day.
Hmm… I was unbeknownst of this ‘summer’ and I had yet to go to a pool in this life, but I could clearly visualize white waves on the walls, instead now they were a myriad of colors. Curiously enough, no ache came from my soul.
As the fascination of the leyline faded away, I was reminded of the fact that I was burning alive from my insides. Perhaps I did feel some ache from my soul, but the overwhelming quantities of mana mitigated it.
I clenched my teeth in pain as fire filled my veins and my body cried in pain. The mana was so violent and uncontrollable that not even my soul could mitigate it by now.
“Where is…” I stopped to recover my breath. “… the solution you talked about.” I told to our teacher.
“Right, right.” Then Innit clapped two times and spoke to the leyline. “Excuse me, Kashar. I have brought a group of students from the academy, and we need a Disruption Field for our Arcane users.”
Suddenly, the leyline darkened in response. I thought I was seeing things, hallucinating from the pain, but as the class took a step back, I knew it was real. Then a person came out of the never-ending streaming of magic.
It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Whilst it was purple, it wasn’t of ellari origins. A vaguely humanoid shape walked toward us. It was surrounded by arcane mana, magenta fire on its head, two points shone brightly with a violet light to represent eyes.
With a head of magical-based fire, a whirlpool of mana for legs, rays of energies as arms, and a rock working as the torso, the being approached us and casted an advanced spell.
Mana diluted as the casting finished, and in a matter of seconds, I could feel my body return to its natural state.
“Sorry about that.” The silhouette talked without the need of a mouth, an androgynous voice coming out of their body. “It would seem I have overslept. I didn’t detect abnormal accumulations of mana in anyone’s body, so there shouldn’t be any damage left after a few hours.”
“Thank you, Kashar.” Henry slightly bowed to him and then turned towards the class. “Everyone, this is Kashar, the guardian of the Arcane Sanctum’s leyline and elemental.”
Our group was filled with whispering, exclamations, and gasps. I would have joined them if I didn’t feel like I had been stabbed in the stomach. I cycled a considerable amount of soul mana through my body to dissipate the pain. Enough to regenerate a nasty wound.
A person took a step forward from the group and asked.
“Are you truly an elemental?” I was dumbfounded to see a serious and passionate Monica before the arcane being, but not surprised. Whilst I was the most advanced and dedicated person in our group, Monica was the most scholarly one by far. Her passion for learning surpassed far beyond my own. Even her shyness vanished in order to ask the elemental to clear her doubts.
“Of course.” The fire moved around in something I could only discern as a smile.
“Aren’t elementals supposed to be ellari-shaped?” Her wording was off to me as she meant humanoid shaped, but considering she was an ellari and had never seen a human in her life, it made sense.
“Well, yes.” They responded patiently.
“Then why are you…” Monica stopped herself from saying anything too offensive. “…like so.” And failed either way.
“I understand your doubts, to my knowledge, I’m the only elemental present in Ferilyn currently. Though I haven’t checked in years.” Whilst elementals were long-lived, they didn’t live as long as the ellari. Yet they sounded ancient. “To answer your question; yes, elementals are very much like ellari. Only that our skin tone changes according to our affinity.”
A rogue thought raced through my head as I repeated words ‘only elemental present’ to myself. There were only ellari in Ferilyn, but they weren’t ellari. They were the only one who wasn’t ellari. Could they have written the soul compendium?
But it didn’t seem possible. Especially if they were the guardian of the leyline. Anyways, as I was lost in thought the conversation progressed.
“Then-“ Monica was cut off by Kashar.
“But you can already see this isn’t the case for me.” The pair of dots darkened for an instant as if they had blinked. “As elementals get older and have a higher affinity, they sometimes become incarnations of the element they were born here. That’s where our name comes from, to begin with.”
I could already tell Kashar wasn’t simple elemental. Just by their explanation alone, they had to have a high affinity. But they also had casted an inconceivably complicated spell and walked across a leyline like nothing.
“Could I ask you your-“ Monica was cut off again by the elemental.
“My affinity, of course.” Kashar nodded. “I am an Arcane superb affinity user.”
The class was soundly surprised by the revelation, even more so than when they had walked out of the leyline. Yet I was even more surprised by that fact. How? I was almost dying by being nearby the leyline, and they not only touched it but were entirely submerged inside. How they were even alive?
“How?” I asked.
“How what?” Kashar turned his flame-for-a-head towards me. “How did I get my affinity this high?”
“No, I don’t mind that.” I responded.
“Oh.” They let out a gasp in surprise and disappointment.
“I was wondering how you are even alive. I have a high Arcane affinity and I was taking considerable damage by being in the proximity of the leyline, yet you are completely unaffected by it.”
“A high Arcane affinity, huh.” Kashar snickered, the fire in his eyes twirled in an impossible motion. “Haven’t you thought I was using the spell I had casted to protect myself against the leyline?” They responded with a hint of sarcasm, as Henry did when tricking students into giving wrong answers.
“No, because that isn’t the case,” I responded with absolute resolution. “You weren’t using any spells or weaving mana. As a matter of fact, the mana in your body behaves like ambient mana or the leyline behind us. It isn’t a spell, and you aren’t casting anything right now.”
“Innit, you have a good student here.” The fire gave a look at Henry, the main body unmoving. “She can even tell about the inner movements of my mana.”
“Indeed.” He nodded in agreement. “Master Nightfallen is the best student of his promotion. Though I must tell you that it’s a he, not a she.”
“Now that you say that, it’s true. The exterior looks like a female, but the voice is rather deep.” Kashar told Innit then directed me once more. “Sorry for the confusion. I have problems distinguishing between ellari. I apologize if you have been offended.”
“No offense taken,” I responded, though it was quite amusing they mistook me for a woman. “But I would be more interested in the answer to my question.”
“Right.” The fire-head made a nodding gesture. “We elementals are near immune to our corresponding element. I know that’s also the case with other races when they have considerable affinities, but elementals are innately resistant. Even if our given element is low on the elemental ladder.”
“Do you have other affinities?” Even if the question sounded rather innocent in the context, there was a hidden motif.
“No, I don’t.” Kashar swayed their head. “Elementals can only possess one affinity and we are limited to that one. We have null affinities in all other elements, it’s quite impossible for us to use other types of magic. Plus, our innate affinity marks our skin tone and our growth.” They highlighted their purple, violet, and pink body with their hands of pure energy.
So, they couldn’t be the author of the anthology. Damn. For once that I got a clue, and it quickly vanished into nothingness.
The nature of the elementals proved quite saddening to me. As someone who was used to wielding multiple elements, I couldn’t imagine being restricted to a single one. Even beyond my Arcane and Soul affinities, I had used Wind and Force elements from time to time.
“Is that everything you wanted to question?” The flames gazed at me.
“Yes, I suppose.” I responded in defeat.
“Well, then.” Kashar took a step back, getting dangerously close to the leyline. “I guess I should continue the tour.”
Kashar began explaining about leylines and the workings of arcane mana, but they said nothing I didn’t know already. Henry interrupted the elemental’s explanation from time to time, adding bits of information of his own. That was when it clicked in my brain that he and Kashar were awfully close.
Sure, Henry had done this visit an awful lot of times as a teacher of the academy, but this went beyond that. They sounded like long-life friends.
Between my thoughts and the fact that I continued looking at the embellishing lights that were the leyline, the time of our visit was over, or at least on the lower floors of the Arcane Sanctum.
Comments
Dominic French
The elemental kinda seems like an arrogant ass
