Chapter 71.

PART 1.

The next morning, Zeko is training Hatori. While Hatori is doing his physical workout, Zeko is meeting with his friends. He’s currently telling them about how he can’t take them to the castle for now. “That boy needs to train harder. I can’t do it in the castle. I can arrange for you to be dropped there, but I can’t take you there myself yet.”

“For how long?” asked Josh.

“For the entire summer.” Said Zeko.

They all huddle together for a moment, and after a quick discussion with lots of gestures, Raven comes forward. “We don’t mind living here, as long as you don’t have a problem with us.”

“You can stay here. I don’t mind.” Said Zeko.

“Then give us some basic texts on elemental magic; we can’t just sit here and do nothing.” Raven bargained.

“Deal.” Agreed with Zeko.

It is not like those are some secret texts, which need to be protected. They just talk about how to train an element at a basic level. He would have given them those texts if they asked for them, but this is also fine. Looks like these children are learning that nothing in this world is given for free. Everything has a price.

Dhoom Ketu had already left, with the king's secret agents coming to pick him up in the night. He will be directly taken to the castle, where he will stay as long as he lives in the country.

In the afternoon, Zeko is teaching Hatori more spells using the fire element. “For now, you’ve used the basic shielding spell. But elements can be used as shields. Observe this for example.”

Zeko puts his hand forward, with his palm open, and fingers spread out. Fire comes out of his body, and congeals in front of his body in the form of a wall. “Of course, this spell can be modified, to protect from all directions, like this.”

The wall circles Zeko, putting him in the center of the fire. “Of course, this can be dangerous. You can run out of oxygen if you stay in the middle of this fire for too long. This is not a problem in the open area like this garden, but you will suffer this problem in an enclosed area.”

“But the advantages are also good. Nothing can reach you if your flames are strong enough, for they will be destroyed by the fire before it reaches your body. You can also use it as part of your offense, but how to do that, I’ll leave for you to figure that out.” said Zeko.

“Shouldn’t I practice this in the enforced room?” asked Hatori. “What if the garden caught fire?”

“Your flames are still not enough to overwhelm my enchantments, remember?” reminded Zeko. “Now don’t worry about small things like fire. Just practice.”

Hatori shook his head. ‘Who calls a fire a small thing?’ ignoring Zeko’s comment, he tries to remember the flow of magic when Zeko performed that spell.

Using his hand, just like Zeko, he focused on the fire. But apart from a sputtering flame and some smoke, nothing appeared. No wall, no shield of fire around him, nothing.

“Try using both of your hands.” Advised Zeko. “Once you gain enough control, then you can try to bring the shield up with just one hand.”

“And you couldn’t tell me this before because…” trails off Hatori.

“Because it is amusing for me to see you blunder around. An old man has to get his fun somehow.” Said Zeko.

Of course, casting the Fire Wall spell would be easier with a foci. But Zeko won’t allow that. Ever since Hatori trained with the fociless magic with the help of the book, which Zeko recommended, he has gotten even more insistent on learning every spell without a foci. Nowadays, Hatori often forgets to reach for it.

PART 2.

This is the first court Porus is holding after the duel. The king does not rest, for the country needs him (sometimes her). When he enters the courtroom, there is a suffocating silence, because the duel has just reminded everyone how strong Porus still is. Time has not affected him yet.

The silence is broken by the chants of “Hail, your majesty! May you reign for a long time.”

Porus is happy to see that he still has some supporters. Lately, he only sees enemies in every corner, trying to manipulate him, or trying to subvert his power. but looks like his performance has helped him in revitalizing his supporters, and even gained some new ones.

He can tell with some unhappy faces, though, that even though they may congratulate him on his victory, they are fuming internally. You get good at sensing the real intentions of people after holding the position of a king for hundreds of years.

Various ambassadors have come to congratulate him, especially from the Nihon, and Zhongguo, countries with whom the Subcontinent has good relations.

“Begin the court.” He orders. “What is the first issue we need to discuss today?”

Then, the day turns into just another normal day on the court. Ketu watches all of this happening from the crowd, dressed as a normal courtier so no one would recognize him.

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PART 3.

While his friends are busy learning elemental magic for themselves, Hatori is learning runes from Zeko. But this time, he is sharing his techniques, so this lesson is being conducted in the enforced room, while his friends practice in the garden or outside of the house. Hatori thinks for a moment about whether everyone resents him for forcing them to play catch-up all the time. but he dismisses the thought; for Zeko would not like his wandering attention while he is teaching him.

“Now, so far, the runes you’ve been using are pretty standard. But these aren’t the only runes in the world; often various mages invent their system of runes, which is passed down from master to apprentice. My runic system is also this way, but I haven’t taught it to anyone; you will be the first one to learn about it. and of course, it is just so much superior to other runic systems.” Bragged Zeko.

“Please teach me this superior runic system.” Said Hatori drily.

“Of course.” Nodded Zeko. He shouldn’t behave like that in front of his students. What kind of impression will he get?

“Now, this is the standard rune.” Zeko moves his finger in the air in the shape of one of the standard runes, and the symbol appears in the air floating in front of him. Hatori touches it to confirm whether what he is sensing is true or not.

“And this is my design, my runic system.” Zeko does the same thing again, but the rune which appears in the air is different this time. comparing them side by side, Hatori gets the differences between them.

He translates the rune to his programming experience, which he has been doing so far. Not that anyone else calls them any differently; here, the runes which are curly braces are curly braces in the magic world as well. but while a standard rune script is filled with braces to keep the various parts separate from each other, Zeko’s rune is just a parenthesis; more specifically, an opening parenthesis.

“Now, here are the advantages of my runic system. First, it is easier to work with direct magic through it, and a second advantage is that you can create new whole systems by the use of it. Think of runes creating more runes, which accomplish a specific result. Third, you can bend it in whichever way you like, allowing you to create new and custom symbols, which you will need in the future to perform complex tasks, like creating a yantra with true sentience. like we have in our basement.” Explained Zeko.

“It would be just like a yantra creating more yantras.” Said Hatori, while imagining how the entire thing would work.

“Exactly.” Said Zeko. “Now, the system is simple; you will understand it in no time. However, modifying it for your own needs, all the while making sure that you don’t shoot yourself in the foot will be the real challenge. But we’ll deal with that when we get there.”

“A question.” Said Hatori. “How do you keep it a secret? I mean, if someone were to read your script, they will understand it if they analyze it carefully enough.”

“That is true.” Said Zeko. “There’s no such system which can keep itself hidden. However, even if someone were to understand my system, running my scripts won’t be so easy. Besides, remember what I said about creating whole new systems with this one system? It also applies to it. I can modify it. You might understand the old version, but you will never get a complete understanding of what I can do now.”

“That is what you do with your notes, right?” asked Hatori.

“Now, now, you should not ask such personal questions. Practice the first few runes, you will need them since it is new to you,” said Zeko, avoiding the question.

After that training, Hatori goes to the pool to practice with the water. He has gotten good enough with it to move the water in shapes, right now, he is moving the water in the shapes of the new runes he has learned today.

The Yaksha watches him, and he speaks suddenly. “You should start to learn about how to conjure water. the training will be useless to you otherwise, without a source of water nearby.”

“I don’t think that is going to be easy.” Said Hatori. He feels he is swamped with new things all the time, and he needs some breaks.

But of course, people trying to kill him or make him join them (with force if necessary) means he cannot have any breaks. If only his parents could see him now, he is turning into a workaholic. He used to be so lazy back in his home, especially during the summertime.

While the Yaksha explains the theoretical process of conjuring the water, the spirit carefully made sure that he did not divulge that Josh came to the pool to practice the water element as well. At first, he didn’t give a damn about what a human child wants…

“Please don’t tell anyone, but I need your help. please train me, wahhhhhh!” sobbed Josh.

“Okay okay, stop with the waterworks. I’ll help you. get off me already!”

Let’s just say that the water spirit was convinced by Josh’s charms.

(End.)