“You know, Tercius, an idea just came to me,” Mistress Kalina said, as she looked at the gate and the men behind it. “Since they are just standing there so politely… How about I warm them up a little bit? It would be a waste to let all this summer heat just go to waste… You won't mind that, will you?”
“No,” he said as he looked around. It was getting rather hot... And if she were to trap heat around them…
Tercius chuckled as he thought about it. It was pure— “Genius…” he murmured.
Mistress Kalina gave a sharp smile and under his Mana Sight the woman became a torch of murky mana. Even as that somewhat obscured mana left her body, moving like a dark curtain in a lightless night, he was able to see where it morphed from one state to another, while moving constantly over the gate and around the men. As he observed the mana— which under Mistress Kalina's masterful skill was almost completely invisible even to him— encircled the three men and started to straighten itself out into mana-planes. Runes started manifesting along the paper-thin surfaces and he saw that the Runes were more… real the spell to his eyes. Can it be? Tercius thought.
Tercius hurried to switch from Mana Sight to Energy Sight, and in those Runes, just like he expected, he found minute traces of Energy. Mistress Kalina's work was a spell and an enchantment, all in one. Front, back, up, left, and right… Even from below, Mistress Kalina had effectively boxed them in her spell.
“There. All done,” Mistress Kalina proclaimed with a small smile. “Heat can enter, but it won’t exit easily. I also trapped moisture. I imagine that these visitors will be gone within the hour,”
Mistress Kalina had either overestimated the men or underestimated her spellwork and the just emerging Sogean midday. While Mistress Kalina shielded him and herself and even partially his mother from the heat, those at the gate were slowly cooked inside their heat-trapping box. Within twenty minutes all shouting stopped, and within half an hour all three left in a hurry. From the way they walked, Tercius doubted they would spend a lot of time out of a good bed.
Tercius had a smile on his face as he thought about different ways he could use a spell like that. He had seen how Mistress Kalina was not using premade spells, but rather she was assembling her own, as her needs required of her.
He already knew how to manipulate his mana with the same freedom as her, but he easily saw a few areas where he was lacking compared to her. Just regarding Mana Manipulation, Mistress Kalina was moving more mana than he had, at speeds which he could manage maybe a quarter of. Maybe. For both of these, he was given exercises that he could practice on his own, to gain familiarity and make his skill climb upwards faster.
It was Mana Metamorphosis that required a lot more knowledge of different mana states, and he needed to learn how to get his mana from one state to the other through morphing. What skills did to mana to generate all manner of conceivable and inconceivable effects, he would have to learn on his own.
As soon as the men left the street, Mistress Kalina dissolved the spell-box in such a way that she pushed all the accumulated heat and halfway boiling moisture upwards. Within seconds, Tercius noticed a slight tick upwards in the temperature as the environment searched for an equilibrium.
“Come, neophyte. Let’s get your mother inside and use these potions,” Mistress Kalina said.
Tercius nodded.
*********
Reaching out through the web of contacts imprinted in her amulet, Kalina searched for the one that would allow her to speak with her Grand-Mentor, Mistress Prime'era, or Mistress Prime as she preferred to be called.
The link took mana to establish, and a lot of it, courtesy of distance between the two amulets. But the materials and enchantments used for the making of their amulets were the best of the best and Kalina did manage to get through, eventually.
Kalina answered.
From her achievement with the Potion to her talk with her prospective Disciple and his familiar issues, Kalina shared it all with her wise Grand-Mentor. It was not that Kalina couldn’t make her own decisions but that the whole thing that her potential Disciple was potentially involved in, was way above her paygrade.
She also conveyed Master Perdin’nar’s advice regarding Tercius and her own recently reformed opinion on the matter.
Mistress Prime said, excited.
Kalina shared, reluctantly. It would take her a month around the Spring to harvest so much Energy… but that Energy would be hers and not this one… She had thought to keep it and study it for herself, but if it was Mistress Prime who needed it…
Mistress Prime’s amusement seeped through the link.
A momentary silence flowed between them, while both of them gathered their thoughts.
When Mistress Prime started sending some particularly strong emotions, Kalina cut the link with a deep breath. For a few moments she looked up at the cloudless blue sky and she sighed. It wasn’t like she hadn’t tried to get that. It simply never worked for her, for some reason. After a moment, she felt someone trying to reach her through the amulet. She sighed again, for good measure, and let the connection form.
Again Kalina nodded, as she remembered what was at stake.
Kalina sighed.
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Kalina admitted. She did feel pressured into this and for the second time since the boy spoke those words to her, she wondered something. What if instead of the boy coming up with it on his own, it was Master Perdin'nar who had… whispered those questions to Tercius? Somehow, she found herself hoping that this was not the case although she should check it anyway. Either way was possible, but regardless of that, her options going forward were limited.
Although… When she thought about telling the boy everything, she found surprisingly little internal resistance. Reasonable to the point of personal detriment… and yet he dislikes owing me anything, even in exchange for getting what he needs… Well… how about an equal exchange? Or one completely tilted to his side? Would he accept something like that?
Kalina found herself smiling.
Kalina sighed as she stood up from the stone bench. A weight had been lighted off her shoulders, now that she had Mistress Prime’s permission.
The ‘Inner Garden’, as Tercius called it, was indeed an apt name for the green garden. Cornered on all sides by the integral parts that made any Sogean home, it was a meeting point, one which she occupied currently precisely because it was a part of the house, yet at the same time it was apart from it. That spirit was prowling her, Kalina knew, and she had needed some time to focus.
But now it was time to return the garden to the children and the pets. She went into the house and nodded to Seliana and Tercius to inform them of the newly freed status of the garden. Seliana was minding Tercius's younger brother, Leo, while the boy himself was tending to the newest addition to their family, a baby girl, with a small smile on his face.
The boy's other sister, a whirlwind of long hair and overwhelming questions chased after Seliana's daughter with surprising speed. Kalina's nose told her that a skill was present there.
The boy's mother and grandfather were still asleep next to each other inside the living room, so she went to check on them. It had been close to two hours since the two of them had drunk the potion, but Kalina insisted on that extra time.
With proper dosage, two times what she gave to her new temporary attendant, and used on relatively healthy individuals the potions truly shined. Kalina's diagnostic spells— a staple for Healers and Alchemists, primarily— informed her that the older man, Ciron had mended his hearing, along with three previously herniated discs, two of which had been in his lower spine while the third was close to the middle. The healing did not stop there. The advent of arthritis along the joints had been regressed significantly, and Kalina suspected that two more potions of this kind would completely restore the man's physique to his peak. Visually, it was Ciron's skin that had seen the most improvement, losing a lot of that suntan and weathered lines.
But for Kalina, it was the repaired teeth that gave her the biggest surprise, in the same way, that Kriti's completely new ones did. The potions of regeneration meant to grow new teeth and repair old ones had special ingredients— of which only one was present inside this version of the potion. She had expected some repairs to occur, but not to the point that had occurred. The more she saw of how potent this potion was… the more her stunned state grew. But somewhere along the way, she went into this strange state of saturation and it wore off. Now only curiosity and excitement remained.
Tercius' mother, Petra, was still a young woman of thirty-two cycles of age and in good health— other than some abnormalities that she spotted inside her abdomen, but those seemed to be the natural state to which her body had grown into and therefore it was not even considered for the rapid state of overhealing that the potion allowed and provided resources for. Considering that the woman had had four biological children, she already probably knew of these abnormalities in some form, but Kalina decided that she would have to inform her in any case.
Tercius’s grandfather had regressed at least four cycles of age, back to his early sixties— visually the man looked in his fifties now— while Tercius’s mother had turned back the clock for at least seven cycles, to her mid-twenties. That would be a surprise, she was sure.
To the good fortunes of these non-mages, she could only shake her head.
Her spells and skills, a recipe that they would never find, enchanted equipment that even mages would kill for, ingredients that were a few notches above what people of the Empire had access to, and above all that Energy that allowed her to work on a level she never experienced before.
All in all, Kalina would say that the potion was a success of such a magnitude that she would have to keep quiet about it. White Heavens, she should even consider going to Mistress Prime to place a lock on her memories…
But those were considerations for a later date.
Right now, she did have two point seven doses of the potion remaining and she planned to speak with the boy about that. If the boy was agreeable one would be for Seliana and the rest for her if just to see how well the potion works on mages.
Mistress Prime was certainly right about one thing, she could tell even now. There was a lot more excitement happening lately. Whether that proved a good or a bad thing, Kalina would have to wait and see— two of the strongest points any mage had to be good at.
*********
“Brother…” Aurelia said as she used her little hand to give a gentle caress to Petra’s sleeping face. “Momma looks so nice…”
Tercius could only nod in agreement, as he slowly bounced the sleeping Portia in his arms. After Petra told him to do it, he realized why. The little girl was asleep within a minute of the first bounce.
As he looked at his mother’s face, he had a strange feeling of deja vu. It was as if time had turned back and restored Petra to that same young woman who once held him in one arm and worked around their village house with the other.
“I must say,” Seliana said. “Your grandfather isn’t bad to look at. Not bad at all,”
Tercius glanced at Penelope and then together they glanced at Seliana.
“What? Don’t give me that look. I’m just saying. I mean, just look at that skin…” Seliana said with a shrug. “I imagine people won’t even recognize him anymore…”
Tercius stilled as he heard those words and then his eyes fell to the floor. He didn’t even think of that! Maybe it’s not so… pronounced…
He took a deep breath and took a good look at Ciron’s sleeping face. With Visualization, he recalled the version from two hours ago.
Fuck, he thought as he saw the differences. He didn’t even have to try. The differences were obvious now that Seliana pointed it out.
Mistress Kalina told Tercius that his grandfather’s body was rejuvenated four or so cycles, but… With the skin on his face and neck tightened and even a bit lighter in tone, compounded with all of his teeth to fill that massive upper and lower jaw space properly… The end result was that his grandfather looked a decade younger. Maybe even more. Luckily, his hair was still gray…
Maybe this is good… Tercius thought. It’s… it’s fine.
"Everyone, move away. Let them have some space," Mistress Kalina said as she approached Ciron. People moved away and Mistress Kalina waved that little vial under Ciron's nose. His grandfather jumped up to sit as if a horse had struck him straight in the back. He used his hands to cup the middle of his face gently as if something was offensively stabbing him between the eyes.
“That smell…” he mumbled, then groaned with tightly closed eyes.
Mistress Kalina moved to Petra and waved the vial under her nose, narrowly missing a swift swipe of an arm in the process.
Both of them showed signs of disorientation, even minutes after they woke up, which Mistress Kalina explained was quite normal. Even their brain, she confided, had its fair share of repair done on it.
“Let them sleep properly tonight. Their bodies need some time to process their new state,” Mistress Kalina said and she gave him a tonic— one large dose to put into their meals— and a small amount of a powder for them to drink with water before sleep. “The first one is a supplement of commonly needed materials for a healthy body and the second will place them into a deep sleep for ten to twelve hours,”
“Thank you, Mistress,” Tercius said.
"Now… regarding the rest of the potion…" Mistress Kalina began. "It would be best if it is spent in the next few hours, but it can stay for up to six months or so if that is what you wish, but any more than that and its magic will be gone completely,"
Tercius nodded and glanced at Seliana. Other than Rona, Septimus, and Lux, she was the only one of non-mages he would consider giving it to. Perdy also came to mind, but he was a mage, and… well, Tercius would have to visit that man.
There was a strong curiosity in him that wanted to see how the potion would work on Seliana, but he also saw another angle here. He had a way to clear some debt he had to Mistress Kalina. Without her, nothing of what happened would be possible, and regardless of how things turn out between them, she merited a proper recompense for everything.
And then, of course, considering Mistress Kalina's link to Seliana, there was a chance for him to get his wish anyway… Two rabbits with one stone.
“You do with it as you will, Mistress,” he said. “I’m sure you know someone who needs it,”
“Are you sure?” Mistress Kalina asked.
He nodded in answer, only to remember something.
"Let me be presumptuous, Mistress," he said, Mistress Dea's lessons on the proper way to address any senior mage easily coming to him. The patterns for particular cases that she had taught them were a very helpful tool, one that he really should start using more often. "And offer you the remaining portions as payment for the time I took you away from your work,"
Mistress Kalina accepted with a single nod of her head. "I thank you, neophyte. I won't refuse because I need it but know this. I did not spend everything of that which you gave me, so the payment you mentioned has already been paid in full. Well— now that I think about it— considering that no payment at all was mentioned previously, I think that this means that now I owe you two favors," she said with a straight face.
Tercius’s eyes darted across her face. She seemed serious.
She probably understood that she could have walked away even with him owing her a single favor— though he would have argued that the table was clear between them. So why did she want to owe him a favor, let alone two? Nobody wanted to owe somebody a favor…
And if you want to owe me two, then shouldn’t I get another? Tercius thought.
Tercius knew that she didn’t spend all of the Energy he gave her either of the times he provided Energy, but the remaining amounts that he saw in her hands were not something to talk about. Approximately… it was enough Energy for… maybe four or so levels of Running, back when it was in its early twenties. Even combined, the Energy that she kept was around six or seven times less than what he needed to get Running over its first barrier. For the umpteenth time, he lamented not having a reliable way to measure these things and having to use approximate estimates. Interface, Interface… he thought, calling for the name of one of the skills he was creating from scratch by design.
“No, no,” he shook his head. “Mistress, I can’t accept that—”
“Don’t be so hasty to refuse, neophyte, you did earn it,” Mistress Kalina said. “For example, you can order another batch of the potion— only this time with even better ingredients and an Alchemist that has had… experience in handling new ways of doing things. You could exchange a favor to travel over vast distances, instantly—”
While Mistress Kalina continued to tell him the various ways in which her favors could be useful to him, like golden sunlight parting dark clouds, a revelation dawned on Tercius' mind.
She is giving me her own rope to use and then letting me rope myself into using it… Tercius though. So that I learn to lean on her… Is that it? Well, I do need to travel to Rona and Septimus… and eventually, I will need more of the potion for them… and she is offering it as a favor, so…
It was the easy way out, he realized as he stood before Mistress Kalina, the one he spoke to her about just a few hours ago. She was eliminating the source of his hesitation and offering him that which he needed in such a way that he had no obligations to her after that.
It was devious of her to present it in such a way and it showed that she had already started to understand and work with some of his idiosyncrasies, which was worrying, but on the other hand… people who did that for him had always been rare.
So despite her devious ways, which he completely saw through, Tercius couldn’t help but feel some gratitude. Even as he accepted her offer, he reminded himself firmly that this didn’t mean that he should lower his guard around her. She was using him and he was using her— a deal as old as life itself.
“Good,” Mistress Kalina nodded, clapping her hands. “Seliana. If you want, a single dose of the potion is yours. Just lie down there somewhere and—”
Even before Mistress Kalina finished her sentence, Seliana had run over and made herself comfortable on the spot where Ciron had rested just minutes prior.
“I’m ready!” Seliana said, practically wiggling with excitement.
"—We can…" Mistress Kalina finished slowly. "Start…"