Onward we press into learning the secrets of Rayileklian magic. Oh hello now. This spell is immediately familiar to me. It’s a bit of a frosty lance, or a sort of ray of frost. This is incredibly similar to some of the native Can’Z’aasian thermokinesis magics I’d been relying on since our outing to Fire Biome. In fact, it’s only a series of five runes, the shortest yet. I guess evoking a simple element in a single direction is one of magic’s most basic functions, then leaving the projectile speed and whatnot to be determined by magic’s own defaults, or the ambient mana nearby is probably one of the easiest spells to represent. Hm, okay, this sort of squiggle, that sort of squiggle, oh hell, they’re three dimensional. Okay, so this planar surface, rounded along that one, a corner on this side that bites back inwards, then juts outward again. Ugh. Yeah, I’m definitely not going to become a master overnight. I’m still not certain I’ll be able to cast anything that requires more than simply tapping the nearby ambient mana. I don’t know if I absorb Rayileklian mana at all, or how my Can’Z’aasian biology might make my absorption different, if at all.
If all this research turns out to be wasted effort that I could have been spending seeking some other answer for Dawn, I, I’d never forgive myself. Come on Reggie, keep trying. Just draw one single rune properly. We need to know if it’s even worth pursuing more magic. Let’s just keep count. Okay, attempt one, already a bust, messed up that edge right away. Oof, attempt two, screwed up on the width. Argh, attempt three, forgot that swish. Dawn looks amused simply watching me drawing in the air.
Okay, attempt four hundred ninety seven, got a good feeling about, sonnova crap. Okay, attempt four hundred ninety eight. Argh. I feel like I’ve been jogging a marathon while doing bicep curls and flys with heavy weights. Hell in a handbasket this takes a lot out of a person. That can’t be normal, can it? Maybe it’s part of the persistent malady that Tiago thinks I have. Huff, pfshew. A bit of a ragged breath for a breather, and back to it. Four hundred ninety nine is looking good, looking good, look- hellspit. Attempt five hundred is, woo I’m getting woozy. Well, messed that one up as I wobbled to and fro.
Dawn asks, “Rej pal, I’ve seen you making the same figure in the air for hours on end, what’s up? Whacha doin’?”
As I attempt to recover from my eyes swimming around in their sockets as my head lolls about, I try to gaze towards Dawn. Loose-jawed, I respond, “I’hufm, hoof, huff, I’m trying to, huff, phew, learn even, hoopf, huff, a single rune. To, to huff, do magic. Gotta be perfect. Failed every time, huff, phew, so far.”
Dawn whistles a low note, “Really, hours of practice on just one figure, and haven’t gotten it right once, yet?”
I frown as I pout, “It’s, huff, harder than it looks.”
Dawn’s face contorts as she asks, “Is that why you sound like a beat-up windbag? I was wondering why you look so winded and worn out.”
I nod silently towards Dawn as I attempt to continue with attempt number five oh one. Hrk. Ow. Muscle spasms ruined that attempt. Now it’s like my body is actively fighting keeping me from making any more attempts. What the heck is going on? I’m just practicing drawing for crap’s sakes. Wait. What if each rune I finish is taking some sort of mana or some other aetheric energy source from me? Well, if it’s anything like Can’Z’aas, then the more I press onward, the greater my pool will grow, as long as I don’t go into energy debt. As far as I know, I can’t trigger energy debt here because I can’t beg the systems behind the world to allow it to happen. I should be safe to practice until I completely pass out.
Seems Teuila is up, and having her own slight chuckle at my expense as Dawn catches her up on what I’ve been doing. Te uses the haft of a spare spear to shove us off from our perch on the muddy riverbank, setting us to resume our heading downstream towards the city Hidden at the Heart of the Wilds. Okay, my head’s spinning, I can barely think or see straight. Seven hundred twenty thr- dangit. Huff, huff. Grr. Seven hundred twenty four. Wait, wait, is this, is this? Ah crap! I forgot that entire runic subtype floret. Seven hundred twenty five. Nope, now my wrist is quivering, quaking, and shaking.
Can, poof, huff. Can barely move. Eight hundred eighty eight. Ugh, hard to draw when I can’t even raise my biceps. Another failure. Come on Reggie, just get one single rune right. You can do this. You have to do this. For Dawn, for the SAP, hell, even just for you. Come on buddy. Give it another go. Eight hundred eighty nine. Oog. Blerf. Nope. Come on, come on. Attempt eight hundred ninety is a-! Another failure. Hell my right shoulder is locking up. Okay, fine, just take a few seconds to breathe and to close my eyes.
Come on Reggie, keep it together, we might even be drawing close to the city at this point. Nine hundred ninety ni- nope. Attempt one thousand is, is so hard to move any of my limbs. Stupid element of cold rune, twice as complex as element of heat. But I need to practice the runes for spells that I have the full spell page for. Okay, come on Reggie, a thousand and one, is, is-. Is sending me to unconsciousness. Whoops.
“Another batch, all sparsely populated, none worth spending an armada of souls to reach into. The prime soul draws nearer each day. We’ll wait until their agony reaches new heights, then their soul will be primed, charged for its greatest purpose. So many billions of little ants waiting for my return, waiting to be reaped, to open new worlds. What about you? Where do you lead?”
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The malevolent force holding me in an ethereal, yet impossibly strong grip demands answers of me that make no sense. Where do I lead? How can I lead anywhere if I’m trapped here? What’s, what’s happening, happening to, to me!? Ahhh!
We’re standing along the edge of a volcanic plain. Its slate-gray monotony broken up only by a series of yellowish red rivulets of lava. Another thing breaking up the monotony of the landscape is a swath of shadows pouring forth as if from thin air. The shadows drip like ink even as they take on some semblance of form, all across the landscape. We continue to back away from the volcanic plain, down the pristine sandy beach.
Our backs are to the proverbial wall, up against the ocean’s edge. Despite our attempt at fleeing the encroaching host of shadows, we’ve nowhere left to run on land. We’ll have to take to the skies to have any chance to survive. A point of interest lies in that direction, and since its elevation is far above us, it likely belongs to a chain of skybound floating islands. We had caught a glimpse of it while plummeting to our doom earlier. A doom that was thankfully averted, though that averting may prove to be short lived if we can’t produce enough lift to begin a strong glide.
Running along the beach, we instinctively cast our senses about, feeling the breeze in each location as it changes, raising and dipping as its pressure builds and wanes. There, there’s a strong updraft. We simply have to leap over a horde of clamoring inky shadow beasts to reach it. No problem, right friends?
Dawn pokes me, from her position beneath Teuila’s straddle, as Teuila guides our carriage-raft from within. I rouse and flex my face, stretching my jaw and forehead repeatedly. For some reason it feels like my face was locked in a shocked or frightened expression for a long time, ow. Oh, right, world around me. I raise an eyebrow towards Dawn.
She flashes a grin and chuckles as she says, “Rej pal, Boss was wondering how you got so tired. You shoulda heard her laugh when I told her about how you were fingering the air so hard and so long that you just couldn’t finger any more.”
I’m mortified beyond reason as I flash between pale, drained of all color, and blushing brightly, heatedly. Dawn starts full on belly-laughing while Teuila struggles to maintain course as she joins the laughter. Our carriage is rocked wildly, causing the spray of the river to splash through the viewing ports, mostly dousing Teuila and Dawn, though a fair spritz hits Percy and me as well.
I’d make a joke about karma, but I don’t actually want Dawn or Teuila to feel bad for their jokes. I resume stretching my jaw, since the smile my face is currently pulled into is causing my mandibular joint to lock up. The sort of nervous-embarrassment smile that wants to laugh along, but can’t quite manage. After several seconds, it finally feels like my facial muscles are my own again. I wipe a tear from each of my eyes before rolling them at the still laughing pair.
Despite just being teased about it, I have to resume my practice trying to learn to draw the runes in the air. It’s easy to imagine that some spells could certainly take an entire hour to cast, if one had to carefully draw thirty two or thirty three massively intricate runes in the air. Alright, we were in the middle of our one thousand and first attempt when we passed out. Let’s start our count off back there. Oof, my limbs still feel a tad leaden.
Alright, let’s see where we screwed up on attempt one thousand and one. It. Wait. Wait, I think. I think I did it! I’ve had to continually refresh the aura sight spell from the staff during my trials, but I can almost feel the rune’s existence in front of me at the moment. It feels like a tiny vacuum pulling ever so slightly towards itself. Reaching towards it, I poke the rune. The rune, finally drawn correctly, begins to propagate. A tad unfortunate for Teuila, Dawn, and Percival, because it’s the rune for the element of cold. The temperature within the cabin drops easily thirty degrees or more, settling frost into the damp clothes of Dawn and Teuila, and upon Percival’s leaves.
I bite my lips to refrain from laughing. My own thermal resistance seems to extend outward enough that the element of cold can’t reduce my temperature, or that of my clothing. Blushing with chagrin, I scratch the back of my head as the now freezing Teuila and Dawn glare my way in a mix of shock, humor, and annoyance.
Coughing, I apologize, “Ah, koff, err, ahem, sorry about that. Looks like I’ve got one rune down pat. Only a few quintillion to go. Thankfully most of those are largely the same, with minor alterations to details. Guess you could say it’s pretty cool that all my fingering paid off. I think I’m going to chill out for a bit and relax my weary digits. I’d hate to freeze up if I needed to actually cast any spells any time soon.”
Teuila’s expression reaches new heights of simultaneous humor and annoyance. She’s struggling hard to keep from laughing and leaping to tackle me out of the carriage. Suddenly Teuila begins to grin quite wickedly, and our vehicle slows considerably. In a moment, our motion is completely halted, save a gentle bobbing as if we’re sitting at a dock.
Uh oh. Teuila shoves off of Dawn who starts laughing again. Teuila’s shove launches her my way, and allows me a momentarily clear view out the front viewing port. We’re definitely being tied to a dock at the entrance to a city of natural splendor. I’ve no time to enjoy it however as Teuila’s thrust bridges the short gap instantly. She tackles me and we’re stuck trading pins and laughing in the extremely tightly confined space within the carriage’s cabin. We end up in a Shellcracker Family Slap Fight. The joy that spreads across my face hurts my jaw once again, but I can’t help the smile or the laughter. Teuila’s right hand rests along the middle of my face, smooshing my lips towards my nose. I chase her right hand away with my hands, and her left hand comes to rest upon my face, scrunching my nose towards my right cheek. I chase that hand away, and the right returns.
We continue our chicanery and tomfoolery for several minutes before Dawn politely coughs. When Dawn has Teuila’s attention, Te politely coughs and avoids eye contact out of embarrassment. In the sudden silence and lack of slapstick comedy, I find myself also coughing and glancing about, avoiding eye contact out of embarrassment. I nervously chuckle. It does strike me as a bit humorous that this particular bit seems to be a bit of a running gag with the three of us. Maybe four of us. I heard Percival rustle, and he appears to be leaning away from the rest of us.