"It's good to see you too," Aleas patted the old woman on the back. The patchy fur on the woman's tail was a sorry sight to see, even more so when it was clearly luxurious and beautiful when she had been younger.
"Don't be," the old crone snapped back, "if it wasn't for you people, my home wouldn't have been burned down. "
Aleas could only press her lips tightly. There was nothing she could refute of course, even though she knew the fault lay with the thugs.
"We are doing the right thing," Ryulo reassured her with a pat on the shoulder. The woman shifted a small wooden table into the dormitory building with the help of some of the children.
The Fukas all over Corbin were gathering together, mostly in response to the increasing aggression from Red Water. What started as simple harassment and theft, escalated into assault, robbery and rape in broad daylight.
The gang seemed to have a grudge against Fukas now, and despite Ryulo giving as good as he got, the Red Water was showing no signs of backing down. Ryulo had bought over a number of rundown houses on an outskirt street on the cheap by using Cato's connections with Kalny and some money that Cato had sent as apology for 'running away'.
"The Tyu are moving in next week," Danine said as she ran up the street to report to Ryulo.
"Thank you. That's the last family," Ryulo nodded. There had been no deaths so far, on either side, but the situation was increasingly perilous. Ryulo did not want to be the person who started the killing but his hand might be forced, and when that happened, the knights would inevitably move.
Danine nodded back at him and was about to run away.
Ryulo snaked out a hand and caught her by the collar, "and where do you think you're going, madam?"
"Er," Danine's eyes shifted hesitantly, "the toilet?"
"I recall you went just before leaving to see the Tyu family," Ryulo said, "Master Quol is waiting to start his lesson, are you trying to sneak out again?"
"But his lessons are so boring! I can't even use any of it!" Danine whined, "what's the point of learning how to channel magic when we use Ems?"
"Because you might be the first one to figure out how us Fukas can do what Cato needs," Ryulo sighed. As much as it was frustrating, Ryulo had to admit that Danine was actually stronger than him in magic. She had begun learning earlier and to date, only her gang of six children were at all proficient in using the traditional form of magic.
On the other hand, the Fukas took to Ems naturally and easily. Danine had described it as learning to walk with extra legs and Ryulo had to agree. Master Quol from the Academy had been passing through Minmay and heard from Cato about Amra's independent discovery of Ems. His chosen field of study was Ems and Cato's claim that all the Fukas could use it at a novice level stretched believability to breaking point. Now he was trying to find out why Fukas learnt it easier than humans in exchange for being a teacher to the Fukas here in Corbin.
Apparently humans didn't learn Ems easily, which was a surprise. Ems were easy enough that even after short two months Ryulo already had no difficulty in strengthening his arm enough to lift Danine off the ground with one hand.
Her legs kicked the air futilely. "Aw, but I'd rather just practice Ems," Danine begged him, "I'll even work hard on it! Can't you let me off for one lecture from Quol?"
"You just want to run across town," Ryulo scolded, "the last time you did that, the Red Water started calling us monsters. "
"It was just a little chase over the rooftops, like Cato's hide and seek?" Danine explained.
"A little chase does not involve running all over Corbin, climbing the city wall and flying across streets," Ryulo sighed, "honestly, I was hoping to keep our Ems as a trump card but you just had to let out the secret. "
Ryulo hefted her under his arm and walked towards the small hut that was doubling as the schoolroom.
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"Do that again," Quol said.
Danine levitated the ball of magic up and down, spinning it as she was told. She was always asked to be last.
"Hm," Quol nodded to himself, "all right, after certain complaints," he looked at Danine pointedly, "I'll try to make my lessons more practical. The topic is magical effects in spells. Can anyone tell me how you make an effect happen?"
Tim raised a hand behind Danine, "we change the colour of the magic. "
"We humans see it as structure, but I suppose it's the same thing," Quol levitated a ball of red in front of him, "I have seen you do this before, but can you tell me another way to make magical effects happen?"
What. "But you said last time that without the red, there will no heat," Danine promptly spoke up, "so how can we get heat without making the red colour?"
Quol nodded and thought for a moment, "I phrased my question badly. Yes, you need the red colour to get fire, but the red colour burns magic very quickly. "
Indeed, while the basic disruptive magical effects dissipated over a period of minutes, any of the coloured effects that actually did things all vanished in seconds. You had to constantly supply power to them to keep the ball around.
"So imagine you fire this red ball at a target, by the time the ball gets there, much of it's magic is already gone," Quol shot his ball of red at the large rock they were using as target practice. The stone reacted not at all. "Observe that without supply of magic, the ball is already visibly smaller by the time it hits. "
Quol conjured another ball in his hand, it was only faintly red this time, with mysterious silver streaks spread throughout the inside. And there was no radiating heat from it. He let it hang in the air without supplying it magic. The ball stayed in existence, slowly evapourating. "What if you didn't make the red appear, wouldn't that let you keep the ball without having it lose magic until you needed it to make heat?" Quol fired the ball at the rock and it flared an intense red for a short moment when it hit. The burst of heat was much bigger that the first ball.
"And that," Quol concluded, "is the basic firebolt. A magical effect of pure fire is inefficient and useless at range, it simply costs too much magic to deliver it to the target. You have to make the spell create the fire only after it hits. "
Danine raised an eyebrow, that was easy to understand for once.
Quol snapped back to the blackboard behind him. "There are two considerations for such a firebolt," Quol switched back to lecture mode, "one is how to make the firebolt detect that it has hit the target, the other is how to create the fire. I will talk about detection another time, today we will focus on how a spell can create fire after a trigger. "
Danine sighed and steeled herself for the upcoming battle against sleepiness.
"The structure you see as red is the structure of magic that creates fire," Quol said, "the spell must have a structure that then creates the red colour upon the trigger. There are two primary ways this is achieved.
The first way is simply to create a converter that structures magic for creation of fire and supply it with a pool of power. Like so. "
Danine tried to sit up a little straighter as a ball of magic appeared. It wasn't as complex as the first time Quol did it but there was a ring of silver inside. No, not silver, there were flecks of red in it. He flicked a finger and the ball... seemed to squeeze itself through the ring, turning red as it went. The ball folded in on itself, burning merrily in the air.
"What you saw is the structure for making the magic that makes fire," Quol dictated, "this method is more stable and simpler than the second. However, the conversion rate is limited so you won't get a concentrated blast of fire. The magic you use for the converter cannot be converted so building a larger converter to make it faster causes you to lose more magic. "
Quol held out his hand and created yet another ball. This one was light red, similar to the first ball he fired, but without the silver streaks. He took a step back and prodded it with magic. The entire ball flashed bright red and disappeared in a blast of heat.
"The other method is to create the fire magic structures in almost complete form. They are merely short one signal before they begin creating fire, by supplying the signal manually or by spreading it from the trigger," Quol demonstrated the silver streaks again, "the signal then instantly converts all the magic power you have reserved in the incomplete fire magic structure into fire magic..."
Clap!
Danine jerked awake and looked around frantically.
"Class is over," Tim smiled, "you were sleeping again. "
"Ahem, you might want to let Ashild go," Amra coughed awkwardly.
Danine looked back to find her tail coiled around Ashild's neck. The small girl liked to sit beside her, even though little accidents like this tended to happen.
"Honestly, can you not keep your tail to yourself?" Ikine glared at the boys who were eyeing them speculatively.
She sighed, "I can't help it, I'm sleeping!"
"It's all right," Ashild said quietly, unwrapping Danine's tail, "I don't mind. It's nice and warm. "
She stroked the fur but Danine whipped away in shock. The boys looked away and Danine felt the heat rush to her face.
"Ashild!" Ikine hissed urgently, "what are you doing!"
She looked a little confused and hurt, "I just... I'm just envious she has a tail like that. Mine is so..."
It was their turn to look awkward. Ashild's left ear and slightly charred tail was a hard topic to bring up after all.
"It's all right," Danine stroked the small girl's head, "you can admire it all you want. "
Ashild brightened up and patted her tail again. The boys stared at them until Ikine chased them out of the room.
"Is that really all right?" Ikine whispered, eyeing Ashild playing happily with the furry tip, "I don't think she understands. "
Danine tried to keep the heat in her cheeks down but nodded anyway, "she's just a kid. She'll find out sooner or later and then she'll stop. I... don't want to take away her fun. Not after 'that'. "
"What are you two whispering about?" Ashild asked curiously.
"It's nothing important," Ikine smiled sweetly at her.
Ashild looked unsatisfied with that explanation but let it go.
Or not. Despite their attempts at aversion, or perhaps because of it, Ashild asked her mother anyway. She came back the next day red faced and couldn't meet Danine's eyes for the rest of the week.
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Ryulo woke up suddenly. The night was quiet and still with only Aleas's gentle breathing beside him. Her ears twitched and she stirred on the bed.
Ryulo smiled at her sleeping face, relaxed and untroubled as a simple child. Returning to sleep with that face in front of him was like the best dream he had, but there was a duty they had to perform.
"Wake up Aleas," Ryulo shook her shoulder. She didn't stir. "There's intruders in the street again," he sighed.
Fine, if she wasn't going to wake up, he would have to resort to harsher measures.
"Uah!" Aleas shot out of the blankets like an arrow, hands holding her bristling tail.
"Oh, that was a weird sound," Ryulo laughed.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
"The base of the tail is forbidden!" Aleas pouted, "I already told you I'm weak there!"
"It did wake you up quickly," Ryulo winked.
"At least give me some warning," she muttered then her ears twitched towards the window, and the offended look disappeared in a puff of seriousness, "is that...?"
"Yes, metal armour. A breastplate I think," Ryulo was already shrugging on the cured leather and stringing his bow, "I wonder where they got it from. Someone rich doesn't like us. "
Aleas sighed and got up to prepare as well.
A short while later, two tails disappeared out the window into the night, leaving the room empty.
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"A little late for an evening stroll, don't you think?" Ryulo said mildly.
The nocked arrow in his bow was not at all mild however. The gang of ruffians and thieves had to be chased away regularly, even if Danine's gang split up between the houses made thievery quite unprofitable.
The leader of the Red Water ruffians looked a little too big for the armour he wore, probably a donated set. And the malicious grins around him were visible under the red light of Selna, improvised weapons like chains and knives clutched in cruel hands. Perhaps twenty, more than the last time.
"You sure took care of my people last week," the leader said, "come on, that was just a little friendly extortion. " The crude laughter echoed his words. Pitiful people, Ryulo thought, they barely qualified as fighters. That man couldn't even crack a joke to save his own life! "I'll have you pay me back for that, what do you say?"
Aleas behind him stepped forwards, drawing an old short sword amid catcalls and jeers. Ryulo was tempted to shoot their eyes out but stayed his hand. He would not be the first to start the bloodbath.
"Go home to your beds, the streets are dangerous at night in Corbin," Ryulo warned them. They were clearly not going to listen though.
"If you leave that woman here to play with us, sure we will," the man growled, to more raucous laughter, "our beds are empty and cold, you know?"
Fools. They outnumbered Ryulo and Aleas ten to one and still had to psyche themselves up. Trash, all of them. "You know this is futile," Ryulo said, "how many times do we have to do this until you're satisfied?"
"Until we've burnt every last trace of you furry tailed monsters out of our city," a shout from the crowd sent a ripple of nods.
Ryulo sighed. Fine, bring it on then. Ever since they learnt Ems, Ryulo was finding that they could take on any number of street trash. Well, twenty might start to get a little risky, he might run out of power after all.
No matter what, he didn't want to end up letting Danine and her gang of children fight them, even if they had more magic than he.
"You six, follow me and get the girl!" the leader shouted, "the rest of you go loot their houses!"
Oh shit!
Ryulo drew the wound iron string and fired an arrow at the scattering ruffians, sending one man tumbling to the ground screaming. His small metal bow was far too powerful to draw normally but that meant he didn't have to move very far to shoot a decent speed. And with movement and resist Ems, Ryulo could fire arrows nearly as fast as he could draw them from his quiver.
Aleas clashed with the armoured leader, her sword hitting arms and legs. Men tumbled and staggered away from her, clutching painful slashes and cuts, but clearly non-fatal wounds. She was a whirlwind of iron that moved fast and brutally, letting none approach Ryulo. A faint glow of magic rose from her skin, from which their chains and knives bounced off futilely.
Even knowing that they couldn't hurt her, Ryulo still wasn't happy about it. What if she made a mistake or they damaged her tail? That would be unforgivable!
But he was a better archer and they needed every edge they could get. Besides, Aleas's form under the red Selna glow amid the red bloodstains was beautiful, in the same way a wild Reki was dangerous. He wondered if these people had any husbands or wives waiting for them to come home and tend to their injuries.
Nah, probably not.
He drew and fired mechanically, the interplay of magic over his fingers as he went through the motions of drawing and firing became second nature terrifyingly fast. As if all his experience with the bow was just practice for when he learnt how to make Ems work. Quol had commented that all of the Fukas easily learned how to use Ems in their normal movement, as if they were fish learning to swim. That is, they didn't have to learn it at all.
It still wasn't enough, a few of the ruffians made it to a house and kicked down the door, torch light flooding into the interior.
There was a high pitched scream from inside. Oh, darn. Then a flash of magic and a ruffian came sailing out of the doorway to collapse on the ground, blood frothing from his mouth. His right chest had a caved in look, probably a few broken bones there.
The fighting stopped for a moment as the ruffians at the door looked skeptically at the tiny girl who barely came up to their chest. She was awkwardly holding a stick of wood nearly as tall as herself and her frightened crying face was clearly that of a young immature child. But still, that man was lying back there with broken ribs.
"And they just had to pick Ashild's house too," Ryulo muttered. Well, bad luck was less than they deserved.
Then the closest one to her raised a fistful of chain.
Oh no, you don't. Ashild was magically strong but lacked control enough to defend herself properly. One hit from that chain and... Ryulo aimed and fired by reflex.
The man twitched and dropped to the ground, the iron arrow smashing his neck bones.
Ryulo paused in shock, he hadn't meant to kill the man. But that wouldn't matter to the rest of them. He forced himself to act. "Aleas!" he shouted a warning.
The gang had paused as well and he followed up the advantage by shooting the rest of the ruffians surrounding Ashild in the arm or hands. Aleas took the chance to ram the leader in the chin with the hilt of her sword, putting him down, then stabbed the rare female Red Water gang member to her left through the thigh. No blood spraying, she had expertly avoided the main vein.
The rest of the gang not disabled or unconscious were now left in a huddle, bloody wounds all over them. Their eyes bloodshot, anger clear as daylight. One of them had died, everyone knew that now. Ryulo sighed, they were going to fight even harder and he might even have to kill a few now.
A pulse of magic from the somewhere behind him made him look around. Danine was sitting on the roof, gathering her magic into a ball in front of her.
"Magic!" the ruffians screamed and charged forwards desperately. Aleas stepped forwards to meet them.
"Don't do it!" Ryulo shouted but it was too late. A red streak shot out from her nest on the roof and it hit the crowd in a shower of burning hot heat. A true firebolt! Men went down screaming and rolling, the suddenly superheated air causing clothes and hair to flash into flames. Many coughed and screamed as their lungs seared with boiling hot air.
He aimed and shot another ruffian in the lower leg. Aleas hopped away from him and knocked another man to the ground.
Another firebolt flew out and burst just above their heads. The heat spray above them caused more distress with scorching air. Then the gang had had enough, slowly and with increasing speed, they began to run away. Only the few unconscious or too badly injured were left groaning on the cobblestones.
"Tch!" Over the screams, Ryulo's ears picked out a definite tongue click from Danine.
He would have to talk with her later about not escalating. But for now, it was time to clean up until the knights got here to take care of the mess.
Ryulo had no expectations that the knights were going to do anything about two gangs killing each other.
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"My my! What a mess," a certain unwelcome voice jerked Ryulo up from his tending to the fallen man.
"You," Ryulo hissed. In one swift motion, he drew an arrow, nocked it and pulled it back to full draw. After all, a bow optimized for Em enhanced drawing strength, courtesy of Cato, was far stronger and more accurate than any bowgun.
"Woah there," the man held up a hand holding his cane, "please don't do that, it could kill me. "
"Then tell me why I shouldn't just shoot you right here and now, Klaas?" Ryulo growled. He glanced at Aleas, she was already taking up a flanking position, out of his firing line.
"I understand that we have a little history," Klaas said, still with that irritating smile on his face, "but can't you just let it go? I have a proposal you may be interested in. "
"Speak quickly, before my fingers get tired," Ryulo said, although he could keep the bow at full draw for minutes if necessary.
"Firstly, let me reassure you that despite my past dealings, I have had nothing to do with torments these people are putting you through," Klaas indicated the unconscious ruffians with his cane, "the Ironworkers have already washed their hands of the Red Water gang. "
Ryulo raised an eyebrow, so who was their backer? He let Klaas continue, "however, we find ourselves in need of a strong fighting force. Since the Red Water have proven themselves incompetent in the last few weeks, the position is available. I've watched you over the last few days and I'd say you could be a match for a knight. So I'm here to extend our offer to you. "
Ryulo narrowed his eyes, still aiming at the man's heart.
"We pay well," Klaas looked around, "we can also pay in other ways, like keeping the Red Water busy. Or perhaps you would prefer them destroyed? Or how do you like the sound of a Fuka apprentice Ironworker?"
"Who is the target?" Ryulo asked.
"You can't be considering it!" Aleas exclaimed, "they can't be trusted!"
"You wound me, fair lady," Klaas swept an apologetic hand to his waist, bowing shallowly, "trust is the most important commodity in business. The Ironworkers will never break a promise. The target is Mayor Corbin. "
He chuckled at the frozen looks of surprise on their faces, "or more precisely, the iron furnaces she's trying to build. Cato's leak of the books has been very damaging to us and we would like to at least soften the blow here. Not to mention that Corbin is a little too power hungry for our liking. "
Ryulo stared at the man in silence and then pointed at the street further down. "We will consider it, but for now, please leave," he said.
Klaas's smile grew wider and he bowed once before backing away warily.
"Really?" Aleas walked up to him, "or was that just a lie to get him to go?"
Ryulo sighed and looked down at the Red Water gang members spread out on the ground. He wanted to reject the offer, his heart said that the oily Em master could never be trusted. But looking at the attacks and knowing that it would only escalate still further after one death, the offer to simply get rid of Red Water was tempting.
"I don't know," Ryulo said, "I really don't know. "
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A/N: Now we're back to the routine length of the non-Morey chapters.