There were a few other mages of a similar rank as this Henry Bastian that offered similar training services but Arthur instead looked at the information regarding Henry. The short little information box explained that he is a Wizard within the guild and that he actually specializes in the four evocations. ‘Not a bad option if I do say so myself, Calavia really did know what she was talking about. My only worry is that since this posting is at the bottom of the list it means that this posting has been here the longest.’
Arthur followed the instructions that the older woman gave him to send a message through the grey orb that turned out to be a modified communication orb that multiple people could use. Arthur then ‘wrote’ a letter through the device and sent it with all the information regarding who he is and asking if Henry was still offering training to apprentice mages like himself. Once he was done he looked up to the older woman.
“Don’t worry about receiving his response, the orb communicates that it is one owned by the guild and we will send any message he gives to your mailbox in a written form. Just check in every so often and I am sure you will find his response soon enough.”
“Where exactly can I buy one of these? They seem very useful for long range communication and are very easy to use.” Arthur marveled at the magic creation before him now understanding just how wonderful such a thing would be to have. ‘This must be the same thing that Lyro was using during the expedition to contact that old man.’
“Oh the last time I checked they sold for at least 100 gold coins each. With all the work and magical knowledge that goes into them the price quickly goes up and through the roof.” Arthur gritted his teeth at that answer, he could easily buy his own house ten times over with that much money. Acquiring such a device would clearly be a long term goal.
“Oh, well thanks anyways. You were a big help.” Arthur said as he turned to leave. “You're welcome sir, and have a good day.”
Arthur left the room and then the guild building as well, since it was past noon at this point there wasn’t much point in staying at the guild unless he needed something specifically done, like paperwork or something else equally important.
********
Arthur continued practicing the aeromancy spells with some level of success for the remainder of the day and in the evening he spent his time brewing a few potions that he intended to sell the next day. The potions in question were basic healing potions, the healing potions that were useful for healing small injuries and preventing more serious ones from getting worse.
In the morning Gaelin arrived with his regular amount of ingredients he collected earlier in the morning and Arthur paid the regular six copper coins. Arthur then spent the next ten minutes organizing and sorting them out in his system of organization. When he was done he quickly collected all the potions he wanted to sell into his dimensional bag and began walking towards the mages guild with the intent of first selling his potions and then check his mailbox to see if he received a response from Henry Bastian.
Selling the potions went very quick and Arthur received several silver coins for his work, though he would undoubtedly be spending them on aeromancy lessons soon enough. Arthur then quickly backtracked towards the mail room and into the back where all the mailboxes were. With his photographic memory Arthur had no difficulty finding his own and quickly opened it with his mana.
Inside was a letter addressed to him and when he opened it he was happy to see it was a response from Henry Bastian. The letter surprisingly had a date and time attached to it, most likely when the magical letter was sent from his own communication orb to the modified one owned by the guild.
21st of Malachite, 4:37 PM
Good day to you Apprentice Arthur
Thank you for reaching out to me regarding my services as a magic teacher, I am happy to state that I am still offering those services. As it should state on the Magic Services board I charge 2 silver pieces for each hour of lessons, if this is still an acceptable amount please come and visit me at my residence located within the northern district on Via Margutta street. You will be able to recognize it by the large art gallery made with large amounts of white marble that was imported from the Aeoniara islands. My residence is a historical church once dedicated towards one of the old gods, it is the only church on the street and is recognizable by the twin towers that it has.
I look forward to seeing you, but if something else happens please let me know.
- Henry Bastian
Arthur was more than excited by what he read in the letter, this was exactly what he was hoping for if not even better. He quickly pocketed the letter and walked out of the mages guild building and towards the northern district where this old church that this mage called his residence. Getting to the northern district was quite easy but finding the Via Margutta street was much more of a challenge. Arthur had to ask a few people for directions and even got lost a few times before he eventually found it, and Arthur knew when he was looking at it.
Like most of the northern district it was an upper class area with most of the people walking around wearing expensive clothing and sometimes jewelry with it. But Via Margutta street contained some above average sized structures, the first building on the right was what Arthur assumed was the art gallery as it had several white marble pillars on the outside that gave Arthur the impression of a government building for some reason. The interior of the building was blocked by polished white stone walls that looked to be limestone though from such a distance Arthur could not be sure.
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On the other side of the road was the church with the two towers that Henry Bastian mentioned in his magic letter. It was a beautiful structure that was clearly of an almost ancient design standing out from practically everything else he Arthur had seen. The art gallery behind him was also beautiful but it was also very simple with very little decorations built into the building itself. This old church on the other hand was a work of art, with grey bricks making up the exterior, along with the height of the church came complexity and beauty as grad windows were all over with a large symbol that was likely of whatever god this church was dedicated to was placed on an open space above the second story. The symbol in question was a large circle with something that resembled an eye, the symbol was made from a grey metal that was most likely iron. Next were the two towers that were of uneven sizes, one only had around one story above the symbol and had grey shingles forming a roof that went up another four or five stories. The second tower started off with a small square base that went up three stories before forming into a more ornate and thinner roof that went a little higher than the previous.
Arthur was almost content to just look up at the beautiful architecture but eventually pulled his eyes away and walked up to the large double doors at the base of the building. He gave three loud knocks that Arthur could hear echoing throughout the entire building even while outside, soon a human man that looked to be in his late forties opened the door. This middle aged man had dark brown and unkempt hair as if he had just awoken from a midday nap. He also wore some rather expensive robes that were likely to be enchanted given his position of Wizard in the mages guild.
“You must be Arthur, please come inside.” Henry quickly waved Arthur inside before he closed and barred the double door from the inside. “Sorry about the mess, I wasn’t really expecting to have any visitors, it has been quite some time since I have had anyone come over.” Arthur looked around the room with a confused look on his face, the inside of the building was very clean and tidy without a single speck of dust on anything.
The inside of the old church was just as beautiful as the outside with rows of masterfully carved wooden benches all pointing towards an elevated pedestal on a stage with various symbols that were related towards the god that was worshipped here.
“Please come with me, I try to leave all this alone as much as I can, and besides I have far more comfortable accommodations both above and below.” Henry brought Arthur up to the third story of the church which had actual enclosed rooms unlike the second story which was just a balcony for more people to watch whatever happened on the stage. Inside one of the rooms that was converted into a comfortable office space Henry offered Arthur a seat while he sat at a desk. “So I assume you are still interested in learning evocation magic from myself.”
“Yes, that is correct.” Henry smiled softly at Arthur’s answer. “Right now I am focusing on aeromancy and I was hoping you could help me with that as my progress has appeared to slow to a crawl.”
“Yes, of course I can. I am sure that you know aeromancy is actually the hardest of the four evocations to learn and sometimes requires double the time dedication to master the equivalent level of another of the four, but it is also one of the most versatile in terms of utility and non combative uses.” Henry quickly conjured a ball of air so dense that it could be seen like a solid object. “While the most obvious are the combative applications, the most powerful are the utility. I am sure you know of both the levitation spell as well as the flight spell.” Henry said as he began to mutter a few eligible words and slowly begin to float above both his chair and the ground. He then followed it up by casting a second spell that took around twice as long that allowed him to float even higher and control where he went without any bursts of air.
“This is the truest and most effective application of aeromancy, but it is a lot harder and requires a lot more time dedicated towards it. I would understand perfectly if you would rather take some time to learn more about one of the other evocations instead.” Arthur smirked, he knew that but he also knew that he couldn’t give up. He did briefly consider it when he was stuck at that impasse, but now that he had someone to help him, giving up even if only temporarily was foolish.
“I appreciate your concern, but I have no intention of giving up even for a second. I am here to learn from you and I will only stop if you tell me that it would be better to spend my time trying something else.” Henry also smirked, he understood that feeling and he respected it. ‘It has been some time since anyone has come to me asking for help, so why not try again with this one. And besides I need something to take my mind off of that old relic in the basement, if I don’t take a break from that I will probably go insane.’
*********
Arthur and Henry agreed to have two hours of lessons every day excluding the last two days of the week. The lesson would start at noon and end at two o’clock unless someone changed it ahead of time. Henry also offered Arthur to teach him about other magical topics once he reached the rank of evoker and was authorized within the mages guild to actually learn those things.
Arthur’s first lessons actually started on the third day of the week, the day after the two worked out their agreement. The lessons took place within the office space, Henry made sure to clear a corner of the room for Arthur to actually cast his spells while being supervised and critiqued.
“Now for our first lesson I want to see where exactly you are in terms of skill, so I want you to take control of as much air as you can and try and compress it into as small of a space as possible. I will tell you when to stop.” Arthur nodded to Henry and raised his hands as he took control of at least ten cubic meters worth of air within the room, Henry nodded and he gestured for Arthur to continue. Slowly Arthur began to bring that air together towards himself as more air from outside the room filled the void that was created. Over the course of a whole minute Arthur managed to compress that ten cubic meters of air into roughly one cubic meter, but even that was putting tremendous strain on his mind and mana as the air pushed back in an attempt to restore itself to its natural state.
After around five minutes of maintaining the air in such a state the burden was too much and Arthur lost his control over it allowing it to expand and return to its natural state. Arthur dropped to the ground from exhaustion as a few of the lighter objects in the room were either pushed by the rush of air or tipped over. “Well done Arthur, though I must point out you didn’t hold on until I told you to. You did compress the air into a smaller area than I was expecting of someone with your short magical history.” Arthur was a little confused by that statement, but that quickly changed when he saw Henry pull out a folder from the desk he was sitting at and was shown the contents. It was his own file regarding his rank within the guild and previous affiliation and apprentice with Georgius Calvus.