Our conjured flames danced around the room until it reached a reasonable temperature and dismissed the magic to preserve what little mana we had.
“You are quite skilled in pyromancy.” I told Calavia. I knew she was capable of casting tier three magic as she had done so with me in the past, however this was definitely a little bit more than just that. If i had to make a guess I would she had the skill for tier four pyromancy.
“Thank you for noticing, pyromancy was my favorite type of magic for most of my magic career. Though I haven’t had as many opportunities to use it as I would have likely.” There was a level of nervousness in her voice as she spoke. I quickly recalled when she spoke of the classified ruins where she lost many of her old colleagues, we hadn’t had the opportunity to speak of that in this life yet.
“So what brought about the change then? Did you just want to take things a little easier for a while or was this a pursuit of knowledge?”
“No, I lost some close friends while working for the mercenaries guild. I can’t say much about it as the crown forbade it, but the event really put things… my life and what I have done into perspective.” Calavia took a seat in one of my chairs as she explained. I did the same and took the second chair opposite of her as she continued.
“For a while I wanted to do jobs like that with my friends in the mercenaries guild for as long as possible, when that happened those of us that survived stopped doing jobs together. Eventually we disbanded all together. I didn’t really know what to do at that point, I was mostly just looking through the offers and postings through the mages guild for something magic based to take my mind off things. For a small amount of time I actually worked in masonry using my pyromancy skills to help lay and dry bricks.”
“Masonry? Not exactly the first thing that comes to mind for a guild trained mage.” I was a little surprised by that piece of information. I wasn’t aware of such uses for magic.
“Oh you would be surprised by all the things that magic can help with.” Calavia replied with a soft yet sad smile. “Lots of apprentice hydromancers use their skills to work in irrigation, you might even see them in the fields just outside the city on occasion. Many apprentice geomancers work in farming, mining, and other jobs that require moving large amounts of dirt or stone. The only real odd one out is the aeromancer, I can’t really think of anything off the top of my head that they would be useful in other than typical mage craft.”
“But when I first joined the guild I was having a terrible time finding any long term jobs related to magic. I did manage to get an alchemy apprenticeship, but it wasn’t even an advertised one. I only received the offer after doing something for the alchemist.”
“You must have joined the guild at a bad time.” Calavia just sort of shrugged at my statement. “Things in the kingdom have been getting worse over the past few years for just about everyone, now it has been starting to affect mages as well.”
“Since the previous war with the empire?”
“Yes, though there has only been one war between the kingdom and the empire. You say that as if you are expecting another war between the two.” Calavia gave a small smile as she spoke as if I told a joke, I neither smiled or laughed.
“Would you like something to eat?” I asked, trying to avoid the topic of war. “I have some food in here that is good enough for a hasty dinner.” Looking through my pantry I pulled out a loaf of bread and some butter. I placed them on the table and returned to my small kitchen area for a knife and two plates. Soon we found ourselves eating a simple dinner of bread with butter, and after all the work we did on that day it was one of the best meals I recalled having.
“Do you normally eat slices of bread with butter on it, or is this just because you are far too tired to make anything more complicated?” Calavia asked me in a rather innocent tone. I knew she didn’t mind the simplicity of the meal as she was eating just about as much bread with butter as I was, and I am noticeably larger than she is.
“Usually I like to make up a big pot of soup at the beginning of each week and then eat it throughout. Unfortunately I do not have the energy to either make up a soup or the mana to warm any of it up. I use up most of it to just have a decent temperature in this room.”
The two of us continued eating until the loaf and a good portion of the butter was gone. By then both of our bodies were stiffening up to recover from the physical toll of our work thus making even just standing from our chairs a strain.
At that moment I realized that Calavia likely wouldn’t be leaving my home for the evening. My mind raced for a brief moment as I wondered where one of us was going to sleep, I only had the one bed after all and there were two of us. The first option of course was to take the bed for myself and force Calavia to sleep elsewhere, that would likely be nice for myself but be rather rude to Calavia. The other option was to allow her to take the bed while I sleep elsewhere, not likely to be very comfortable but a nice gesture to Calavia.
Suddenly and also hesitantly Calavia spoke up again. “When you said you wanted to leave the city and go do your own thing elsewhere, what exactly were you planning on doing? It has been bothering me because the way you told us made it sound like you are trying to get away from the city for some reason.”
The question was a bit surprising, not just because she seemed nervous asking me but also because she was quite accurate in her deduction.
“Well…” I started. “I just have a feeling that things are going to be getting worse in the next year or so. Tensions between the kingdom and the empire are brewing like an insane pyromancer, and that throughout history often will lead to war.”
“But isn’t there anything that can be done to stop a war from happening?” Calavia’s voice pitched up slightly, she was worried about the war as well. Unfortunately unless I chose to lie she wouldn’t be reassured by my thoughts on the matter.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“There might be, but nothing that anyone as small and unimportant as us and can. Wars are typically about the kings and queens or whatever the name of the leadership is, there have been cases of people outside those few performing great deeds that stop and start wars, but those people typically have the favor of a powerful god.” As I was speaking I realised that I had never actually read any of what I was saying in a book, I didn’t know where the information was coming from but it felt like I knew from experience.
Calavia looked down at her hands without saying anything else. She wasn’t disappointed with what I said, just mentally defeated.
“The favor of a god.” I could hear her mutter under her breath. I ignored it and turned my thoughts back towards the sleeping arrangements.
“So I am assuming you don’t really have the energy to go back to your home so late at night, if you want you can sleep in my bed for the night.”
“But where will you sleep then? I don’t exactly see a comfortable chair or bed roll in here.”
“It is alright, I have some spare blankets and a few thick carpets to sleep on.”
“You are going to sleep on a carpet?” Calavia looked at me with a mix of thankfulness and surprise. “That can’t be comfortable. Wouldn’t it be better for me to just walk home? I don’t live all that far from here.”
“No no, it's alright. I have slept on a mat before, this is an upgrade compared to that since I actually have blankets to keep me warm this time around.”
Slowly I began setting up my makeshift bed with the thick wool carpet and a thin blanket over top. I placed the two at the end of my bed where I wouldn’t need to worry about being in Calavia’s way. Then I brought out the spare thick blanket I had and placed it atop my makeshift bed. I would be sleeping under it when we would eventually go to sleep.
Soon after when the night sky was fully visible we decided to call it a night and go to sleep. But as I made myself comfortable as I could Calavia spoke up with a question.
“Hey, Arthur?”
“Yes?”
“Would you be willing to allow someone else to come with you when you leave the city?”
For a moment I said nothing as the question surprised me.
“I don’t see why not.” I eventually answered after a slightly long silence.
I didn’t see Calavia’s face, but I figured she was happy with my answer.
********
Days then weeks and finally months passed as both Calavia and I continued with our apprenticeship becoming closer as time went on.
Almost every other day we shared dinner at my home which was usually followed by Calavia staying the night. For a while I would let her take the bed while I found somewhere else to sleep, however in recent times we just shared.
When it came to our shared apprenticeship we both progressed very well in our studies in restoration magic and humanoid anatomy.
/- - - - - -\
+ Restoration Level 21
+ Anatomy Level 11
\- - - - - -/
We were both able to quite easily identify the common ailments with just a normal inspection, our skill in restoration however more than easily made up for any problems we might have faced during our time at the clinic. We had even both started learning a few tier three restoration spells, specifically those for dealing with far more dangerous diseases.
There was one more discovery however that is worth talking about. During my studies in some of the books on restoration and anatomy in the guild library I found a few pieces of text referencing something called necrosis. Looking further into the matter I discovered that it was a symptom of a handful of terrible ailments in which the skin of the victim would quite literally start to turn black and rot while still alive.
Curing someone of such an ailment was a reasonable task for someone skilled in restoration magic, however that wasn’t what I looked into. Instead I discovered a way to artificially cause necrosis to someone.
I say discovered, but in actuality it was more of a rediscovery by following the instructions of a handful of books. My first test subject was a rat I managed to pick up off the side of the street during late autumn.
*********
13th of Timber 1148 3rd Era
The small rat circled around its cage in fear as I stepped into the old abandoned warehouse, the very same in which I used to practice casting ritual spells.
Around ten minutes prior on our way back from the clinic I had told Calavia who wanted to have dinner with me that I had some important tasks I needed to deal with tonight. I didn’t enjoy lying to her, but this was important and I didn’t have much time to work on it.
Slowly I opened the cage and reached inside, I grasped the rat in my gloved left hand and brought it up and close to my chest. The rat struggled and squirmed in a desperate attempt to be free, unfortunately for it my grip was firm and I had no intention of letting it go.
With my right hand I began the casting of the simple yet unfamiliar tier one necrosis spell I found called Rotting Hand. I placed my index finger that was covered with a thin layer of black energy and it was quickly absorbed within the rat's hind leg. For a minute I held my breath as I watched the leg wondering what exactly would happen.
Slowly and surely the leg began to slowly lose its hair and eventually started turning white and pale. Not willing to hold the rat in the same position for the effects to continue I quickly placed the rat back within the cage and continued my observation. Over the course of around half an hour the skin on the leg slowly began to turn black and brittle, the rat of course didn’t like this and clawed off the dead skin the moment it could.
‘Not what I was hoping for.’ I thought to myself as I returned to the book on a table opposite of the one with the cage. ‘But this is just a first attempt after all, I am certain that with time I will be able to do far more than just kill a layer of skin.’
*********
8th of Obsidian 1148 3rd Era
I stood in my home looking out the window at the cold street below, it was early morning and I could see a handful of people walking around. Most were just common folks on their way to their jobs, I even noticed one of them was dressed in the mages guild secretary attire.
I wasn’t very worried about the cold as I was using a pyromancy spell Calavia taught me to keep myself warm. The spell was just a tier two and called Inner Warmth. The spell would use up a small amount of your mana to generate heat just on the outside of your skin and direct it towards the caster. It wouldn’t last for more than a handful of minutes with my own skill, but it was a good tool for going to work during the winter.
Turning away from the window and closing it I looked towards Calavia who was getting herself breakfast which was just the soup from the night before.