Emily lounged next to Ashe, the sounds from outside muffled by the thick material. People moved to a fro around the tent with the odd fight breaking out in the distance.
“Wait, I don’t understand. I thought the source inside me was what I was trying to manipulate. Why can’t I use it to power spells?”
Ashe passed the scepter back to Emily and nodded.
“You’re right that Mages practice with their internal source to improve their control. The better you get, the better your spells will become, but it's the same for the new source that enters you. Once your bridge draws it in the source becomes yours to use, even if just temporarily, which you can then put into a spell.”
Emily understood that so far but the explanation felt incomplete, Ashe proved her right a second later by continuing.
“Obviously if one could just get rid of all the source we drew in then we wouldn’t suffer from exposure. The problem is that we can’t get rid of all of it. A small portion of the source you use settles in your bones for a time. The more you draw and release. the faster it builds up in your system. The size of one’s internal reserves are different on a case-to-case basis, but even the largest reserves are mostly negligible”
Emily spun the scepter in her hand.
“So most people have more control but they can’t pull from their reserves?”
Ashe grabbed the scepter as it fell out of Emily's hand.
“Oh, they can but the outcome would be minor without some kind of method assisting them.”
Emily had a feeling her reserves were far from the norm. All the wards she’d powered so far were done using her internal source alone. She’d never had a problem before, in fact, she’d burned out the source chalk that Alex had her use almost immediately.
“Okay, so the wave method you taught me. You said it was the best one for beginners. What are the others like?”
Ashe hummed.
“Well, there are quite a few, different methods and each has its advantages. But honestly, it's all about how you pull the outside source into yourself. For example, I’ve taught you the wave method. This method is the best for spells as it pulls in a large amount of source and dumps it directly where it’s needed. Whereas the stream method would work better for this enchanted item. The method is exactly as it sounds it pulls a constant stream of energy through you and into the scepter.”
Emily sat up. She’d done something similar down in the tomb to sustain the ‘lift’ spell, sadly she hadn’t quite gotten it right.
“Okay wave method works for spells, the stream method works best for items. What about wards? Or blood wards.”
Ashe remained lying down and crossed her hands behind her head. Emily could see the woman was in her element and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the questions.
“Mmm. First off, wards and blood wards are not that different. From what I’ve learned from your book, it's only a matter of medium and understanding how the life source comes into play. In regards to method, I’d recommend a combination of the stream method and the wave method.”
Ashe then began to show Emily the best way was to draw in a burst of source and then keep her bridge open.
She found the steam method a little more difficult to master than the wave method but eventually Emily managed to keep a smaller constant stream of grey source entering her body. Of course, it wasn’t perfect. The wave method created a large bust of strength where as the stream method could draw in a constant amount of source but it was nowhere near the strength of the wave method.
Emily still couldn’t get her source to move in any useful manner, but eventually, she gave up.
“Oh, how about teaching me a new spell? I’ve been happy with the lift spell you gave me but it has its limits. Do you have any others that might fit me?”
Ashe sat up for the first time since Emily had entered the tent and cleared her throat.
“I was wondering when you would ask, but honestly I've run into a problem.”
Ashe almost sounded ashamed as she spoke though Emily didn’t mind.
“Look I know you are helping me here so I’ll be glad with whatever you come up with. Take your time, I’m in no rush.”
Ashe seemed to like what Emily said over and then snort to herself.
“Sorry I was being silly, I’m not at the academy anymore. I don’t have to hide my findings from you.”
Emily frowned, was this academy in Lorethil a place you had to hide your research? Ashe didn’t notice Emily’s frown as she went on.
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“Yeah, so I have managed to craft you a spell but I’m embarrassed to say it’s desperately long, too long to be usable in a fight”
Emily thought about her current spell. That one had two simple hand gestures that she had practiced whenever she had time and even then, she didn’t always have the space to use it.
This caused Emily to scratch the back of her head.
“I understand that it's difficult to make a spell with a colorless source but I see where you’re coming from. What's it supposed to do?”
Ashe nodded.
“So, as I said before I don’t have a lot of resources here, just what I brought along. The runes that can work solely with colorless source alone are vanishingly small. However, I thought that if I could use runes to convert your grey source into green you might be able to use the magics I’m familiar with. Kinda like switching magic accents.”
Ashe looked downtrodden as she said this but she continued.
“Sadly it’s become incredibly obvious as to why most people don’t bother converting their source into other colors. For one, the process of changing them is long-winded and complex, and to be honest, the conversion ratio you get out is just not worth it.”
Emily tried not to look too disappointed as she nodded at Ashe.
“I see, but it is possible?”
Ashe nodded.
“Yeah, and because you don’t carry an inherent ‘accent’ it's a bit easier for you to convert your source, but even with that it causes problems.”
Ashe took out a notebook and opened to a page where we’d scrawled several notes as well as the runes she had selected.
“The spell I prepared for you is called ‘gather stone’. It turns nearby sand and mud into hard rock, and is often the beginning step to higher-order spells. The thing is, if I were to do it, it would take me no more than two gestures. But as it is now it would take you twenty-eight hand gestures to complete, and cost you almost three times the source.”
Emily’s eyes widened, she knew it was a long shot but she hadn’t expected it to be in another court altogether.
What idiot would wait around for her to sign twenty-eight runes? Maybe she could use it in an ambush?
Staring down to the notebook Emily cocked her head.
“Wait… you once told me that hand gestures were like the spoken word and that wards were like the written, right?”
Ashe beamed, looking glad Emily had been paying attention.
“So what if you were to convert these hand gestures into a ward?”
Ashe nodded slowly.
“I mean, it’s theoretically possible… but then you’ll run into the same problem of it taking too long to draw it.”
Emily grinned to herself as a plan began to form.
“Could you do me a favor and make this spell into a ward?”
Ashe looked at the notebook thoughtfully for a second.
“I think I probably could, but why?”
Emily felt excitement rising in her chest.
“Because I might be able to get around the long incantation.”
Ashe’s spine straightened, and she rummaged in her pack, taking out two other books.
“Okay, but if I do this, you have to stay and help. You can familiarize yourself with the runes at the same time.”
Emily found she quite liked the idea, so she agreed readily.
They spent the next five hours poring over the rune books Ashe had on hand. Emily tried her best to memorize each rune she encountered, but there were so many, and most of them were better suited for green source. For obvious reasons, Ashe ended up doing the majority of the work, but Emily tried to help by searching the relevant passages, even though it was quite a needle in a haystack.
Soon, the afternoon began to draw to a close, and Emily felt herself getting hungry. Selia had poked her head into the tent a couple of times, but when she saw that Emily was with Ashe, she stayed away for longer periods.
“Hmm, what do you say to us going to grab some grub? I can smell that Fox is cooking up a storm out there. I might be able to steal us something good,” Emily said as the heady scent of red meat grilling on a skillet wafted into the tent from outside.
Ashe glanced toward the tent flap but then looked back at the book to scribble something down.
“Almost got it… there. Done!”
Emily leaned over her shoulder to look at the ward to see a completed square ward with harsh lines.
“Really!? ” Emily questioned the thought of food vanishing from her mind.
“Yeah, but we should go someplace other than the tent to test it.”
Emily nodded the warning from Jerhia bouncing through her head for less than a second before Emily banished it. A new spell and possibly a new method to her was just too alluring to turn down.
Ashe and Emily headed out of the tent but instead of moving deeper into the camp they moved to the outskirts where there was a large amount of debris around.
When they found a spot that was less noticeable, Ashe handed Emily the new page with the rune on.
“I’m not too sure how strong it’ll be, but just don’t draw it too big we don’t want to cause a commotion.”
Emily nodded as she held the paper in front of her face, studying every line and angle that made up the ward.
As she did so she summoned a droplet of blood no bigger than a marble in her palm. She didn’t need people spotting her as she used her blood so she made sure it was small enough that no one would notice.
That was when she began to shape the blood. The wards Alex had shown her were often as complex as this one. The one in the airless chamber easily rivaled this ward, so it didn’t take long before she felt everything slot into place. Scarlet Sister was only triggered once when she made a big mistake near the ‘convene’ rune. Having studied these runes for a considerable time, the ward fell into place neatly, and Emily felt her blood humming as the ward activated.
Emily kept her hand close to the ground to avoid taxing the magic, but she needn't have worried, as the grains of sand and clumps of soil rushed up to her palm with little resistance. They rapidly gathered and compacted down into a loose stone.
The ward hummed happily and Emily felt the tiny thing trying to pull in more soil, as it faithfully took in her source and converted it into something else it could work with. She could feel it had ample power and it was only the size of the ward, that was limiting it.
Even now, Emily let her internal source rush into the ward as it pleased. Yet she felt no difference in the levels of source in her bones. The energy still didn’t listen to her, but it happily flowed towards the ward with little resistance, almost as though it wanted to be used.
It took a fair amount of vitality to maintain the integrity of the ward but Emily had found a way to combine her natural abilities and her new magic. With this, she could circumvent the need to prepare wards.
Emily let the ward fizzle out as she got up, unable to keep the triumphant smile off her face.
Ashe had been watching wide-eyed as Emily now held a baseball-sized cube in her hand.
It had taken her around ten seconds to create the ward, but that was her first try.
As time went on it would only get easier to have her blood take on the shape of specific wards if she needed to.
Obviously, this one was just a proof of concept, but in essence, Emily could use any spell if she could only come up with the corresponding ward to match it.
Blood points: 158