“Really?” Csala asked incredulously. Her body refused to believe even though her heart knew Jerome wouldn’t lie about something like this.
Jerome nodded in confirmation and she crumpled to the floor. The stress that had built up over many days of running for her life and looking over her shoulders finally caught up. She felt like crying and for the first time in a long time, she indulged herself, crying silently.
She heard the remaining two ladies in their group, Selene and Nia, as they shooed everyone out of the cavern. After all, they still had cores to extract from the other twenty-one dead unbound whose corpses littered the front of the cave.
Csala remained in the cave, unable to stop the outpour of emotions. She had thought she’d live the rest of her life looking over her shoulder, or worse — have her soul ripped out by an apathetic succubus.
~~~
The cleanup was quick. The sacred beasts were ravenous and ate all the unbound around, licking their bones clean. Csala finally joined them outside after a while. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying and her hair was a mess.
Selene watched the red-haired beauty as she glided toward Jerome. Her steps were beyond graceful, her bearing otherworldly. This was the kind of beauty that turned heads everywhere, that caused men to go insane and sell their properties just to have a night with her. Where did Jerome find such a person? Selene believed that she truly wasn’t human — just as the person herself had admitted. All evidence and actions point to it.
“We should rest for a while before leaving. Who’s on the first watch?” Selene asked. It was best to settle this now before anything. And to turn the lustful gazes of her male teammates away from Csala.
Her teammates were already looking at her like a piece of steak. Thankfully, Jerome put up her hood the moment she reached him.
“We can all rest for the night,” Jerome said, watching the skies. “I’ll create another barrier to keep us safe.”
“Ye mean one that would crumble like the previous one?” Nia teased.
Jerome smirked, “At least not until we’re all wide awake and ready to fight.”
They all trooped back into the now clean cave. Csala had cleaned it some before coming out, giving Selene a good impression of the red-haired lady. Most people as powerful as her would refuse to stoop low to cleaning. Especially when there were weaker people around. She had seen Csala fight and could tell she was equally as powerful as Jerome. The lady moved with an inhuman grace that was almost impossible to replicate.
She looked in the corner and saw that the wolves didn’t eat the alpha unbound though. It stood in the corner, still impaled on Charybdis. She wanted to ask why Csala didn’t get rid of the corpse, but asking such a thing would seem like she was looking down on the redhead instead Selene delegated the duty.
“Bram, please get rid of that.”
“Don’t touch that!” Jerome and Csala quickly warned, then looked at each other.
”You touched it?” Jerome asked. Selene could see the concern in his eyes. He took the red-heads hands to examine it carefully.
Csala nodded. “Not a pleasant feeling.”
“The spear is an artifact,” Jerome said as he pulled his spear out of the unbound’s corpse and sent the corpse into his spatial ring.
Selene gave him a questioning look.
“For later study,” he said when he saw her raised eyebrow. She felt no essence in the corpse so she wondered how useful it could be. But it wasn’t her kill. No need to concern herself with it.
“I take it, you found it together with the armor,” Ajax probed and Jerome smirked.
“Hmm. They seem to be made from the same metal,” Trudhorn joined in. The boys gathered around Jerome doing what boys do — talk about their toys.
Selene shook her head, saying, “Jerome please don’t forget about the barrier.”
“Sure,” was the distracted answer she got.
She turned around to see a big bed and covers behind her. Csala and Nia had snuggled into the warmth of the covers. “Where in the frozen balls of the north did you find that?” she asked, quickly cleaning herself with her mental energy and jumping in.
Nia giggled. “Csala brought it.”
“I imagine what other wonders you brought, Csala,” she smiled.
Csala chuckled. “Just this. And my girl stuff.”
They all giggled and talked about random things for a while. Selene knew she’d have to ask the questions they were avoiding soon enough, but Csala beat her to it, asking, “So how do you all know Jerome? He only told me of his friends when we entered the mountain range.”
Nice try moving the topic of discussion away from herself.
“We met in Terra Praeta,” Selene responded. “Though, we heard of him long before then. He was in conflict with someone from another house but that’s his story to tell. We only heard about him through their conflict.”
“What about ye?” Nia asked. “How did ye meet ‘em? Are the both of ye…ye know?”
Selene giggled at her friend’s antics, looking over at the boys to see them still engaged with Jerome.
“No,” Csala turned red. “No, we’re not.”
Selene wondered why. It was normal practice to get with someone powerful and promising. Especially one so young. Except if Csala was a kind of royalty. She had no idea about that though. And since she wasn’t human, she didn’t know what their traditions here would be like. It immediately dawned on her that Csala was a native of Terra Praeta. Were there others out there like her? Will they be as welcoming as Csala was?
“Csala, you said you aren’t human. But you look very human to us. Except for your eyes, but even that can be seen as a product of essence or heritage—”
“You want to know what race I am,” Csala said. Not accusingly but as a matter of fact.
~~~
The girls held their breaths, waiting for her to speak. Csala had never discussed her race with people outside her race. Who knew what effects that would have? If she refused to, it could cause them to close themselves to her. They were not friends, but they were Jerome’s friends. What would he say to something like this? If they went to him, complaining about her, who would he side with?
Csala sighed. Dealing with people was its own problem. She didn’t really mind what they would think of her if she said nothing, but she was concerned about what Jerome would say. She decided to go with her gut first.
“If I tell you that, you will kick me out of your group,” she said, observing their reactions.
“Are you dangerous to us? From what I’ve seen, you haven’t given us a reason to worry about you,” Selene said.
Csala thought she was a good leader. One who cared not only for those under her but also for those attached to her due to circumstances. But how would she react if she found out that her male teammates would always be distracted and lusting after someone else in her group? Worst of all, what would she think of if she found the one she loved lusting after someone else?
Csala didn’t want to bring chaos to this group. The sooner she left, the better. Jerome however, would choose to remain with them. Somehow, she could tell he was expending energy to keep the males in the group sane. That was very thoughtful of him. She had sensed nothing of the sort with her psychic energy, but she felt deep down that he would do something like that.
She looked over to the boys, noticing them breaking apart. The others left Jerome to bar the entrance to the cave as they went to rest by the columns holding up the roof. Jerome sat at the entrance of the cave and soon enough another scripted circle appeared before him, blocking out the cold wind and warming the atmosphere.
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“In a way, I’m dangerous to your team…to your overall productivity. I don’t want you to think I wish to be. Or that I don’t care — actually I only care what Jerome thinks. And he cares for you all, he has never been this happy since I met him. I know you can figure me out yourself. My race isn’t that rare on Terra Praeta.”
She watched as Selene examined her with renewed curiosity. The girl, Nia, as well. They turned to look at the boys gawking at them — at her to be precise — and back at her, their eyes widening in recognition.
“So, a succubus, then,” Selene spoke under her breath. So silently, only the three of them heard it.
“Do you truly enslave men like the myths say?” Nia blurted out.
~~~
Jerome sat in front of the barrier, listening to the conversation going on. It was like background noise. He wasn’t intentionally eavesdropping but he couldn’t help himself. Csala had led the girls to uncover what she was. Whatever that brings, they’ll sort out in the future. Problem was, he could remember well the last time she fed.
How often did she even need to feed? He’ll probably find out later. Right now, he needed to consult the library. His experience and capabilities with scripts and arrays were adequate enough for him to start learning elemental runes. Achilles had divided his studies into tiers — including his mastery of essence, making sure that he was experienced for the next tier before learning anything about it. Though for his mastery of essence, he supposed he was at the adept tier.
“Not by a long shot, Xerae. Initiate is the tier I’d place you.”
That’s cruel, Achilles. Really? Initiate? I’m better at wielding essence than most Sprouts I know.
“And have you seen any Spirit Realm experts wield essence? And your little spar with Rihal before you became a sacred artist doesn’t count. That’s just him knocking you out.”
Jerome had no answer.
“I guess the answer is no. Right now, you’re learning the ‘art’ of wielding essence. When you become a Spirit Realm artist, you’ll start learning the ‘science’ of it. And I mean that literally; you’d learn to calculate essence, how to limit its use for specific spells and techniques, how to use ambient essence and the forces to affect the world and physical matter around you.
“Now, that’s what it means to be an initiate. There’s a lot of math and geometry involved as well. And awakening in the Spirit Realm will give you the ability to use your calculations to extrapolate a technique before use. And with almost near accuracy. Imagine what you could achieve with that.”
Jerome nodded. The memory crystals he absorbed knowledge from hinted at all these. And it was an incredulity to his young mind. But he had no way of knowing without being a Spirit Realm expert. If he attempted to calculate essence, or the inner workings of its power at greater depths, he’d be working blind. He’d be like a human trying to calculate windspeed by just holding out his hand. All he could do was make assumptions.
Jerome knew of the elements — or what sacred artists thought were the elements. Because they were different from what the material world presented to them. He knew of what was felt around different elements and forces. But not their origins, not how they affect the world, or how the world affected them. Essence was largely a mystery to him, all he could do was use it and nothing else. But he planned to learn more about it. About how it came to be, and how humans came to learn to wield it.
Anyway, he was done with the apprentice tier. The initiate tier was next, and then adept, then master, and then—
Achilles coughed. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves now, hmm?”
Jerome chuckled but agreed. So how do I access the library from here?
“You close your eyes and let me do the rest, Xerae.”
Jerome did as told. The next moment, information flooded his mind. He was already used to this and was prepared for the flood of information. So much that he had been curious about when creating scripted circles was confirmed. Albeit, if he had tried some of his theories on his own, he would have failed.
Jerome found that the circle was the easiest geometric shape to use in creating arrays. There were other shapes to use but their methods varied and were a little more complicated. The more complicated the shape, the more complicated the method. He could create them, but it would take more out of him.
Jerome smiled. He looked forward to the day he could just create runes out of thin air, without a base. These were more powerful than scripted shapes — and more ancient. He needed a base for every array he made. So far the ground had been the base he used. But what happened when he was mid-air or flying? What base could he use then?
A simple scripted circle wouldn’t work for that. Jerome brought to his mind’s eye, one of the shapes he had learned just now: two equilateral triangles overlapping to form a six-pointed star and surrounded by a circle, with another circle within — extremely simple, but more difficult to hold together. That was four shapes in one. Something he had known in his previous life, but this was no Judaism myth he was trying to attempt. If he failed to hold the scripted shape together, it could blow up in his face.
“It is good practice to call it what it is, Xerae—”
Magen David?
Achilles snorted. “Please don’t insult my people, Xerae.”
Right. Sorry about that. The symbol holds cultural significance in every world it seems. Jerome was no Jew in his past life but he knew a little about the ‘Star of David’ and its cultural significance in Judaism.
Stjarna Iona, Jerome thought.
“‘The star of Iona’,” Achilles praised. “Iona is an ocean. Sailors of Terra Praeta had named the shape after the ocean. The shape itself has myriads of functions in an array. One of which is the function of the compass.”
It’ll be interesting to see such a compass at work, Jerome thought. But I wouldn’t be working with this for now. Let’s start with something simple…a triangle would be great.
Achilles snorted. “At least you know not to get ahead of yourself.”
Jerome smiled bashfully but concentrated on the assignment in front of him. He spent roughly an hour drawing different shapes in the air; an equilateral triangle, scalene, isosceles, even a kite, and other irregular shapes. Without a doubt, it took more effort to hold the shapes in place, with nothing but concentration and willpower. It was simpler to hold a circle in place. A circle has no intersections, which was what made it easier to hold in place and the rest, harder to hold together.
“Interesting,” Selene said. Her eyes were glued to the upside golden triangle floating in the air. “You seem to be learning by shape. The elites of House Rurik learn by script. Why is that?”
“Probably because they don’t need to learn from scratch,” he answered, and the inverted triangle wavered. “The shapes can be imbued into tools that’ll project them onto a canvas and then they carve out the scripts around them. Mind you, their method cannot be considered easy. Tracing already carved scripts can be considered easy but carving them out yourself from scratch is hard work.
“It takes essence to empower scripts and if you’re carving out new scripts, even more essence.” The triangle snuffed itself out like a candle. “Ah, shit.” He started over again.
“Hot and humble, yer sure ye don’t want ‘em?” Nia said to Csala, causing Selene to giggle.
Jerome blushed and then coughed. “I’m right here ladies.”
“I don’t. You can go ahead. He’s all yours,” came Csala’s witty reply.
Jerome could tell she was trying to concentrate on what he was doing but it seemed Csala was more interested in the scripts than the shapes. What she probably didn’t know was that the shapes were the base for the scripts surrounding them, because scripts couldn’t function on their own. Or maybe she was studying them for other reasons. Jerome didn’t know. Jerome faced away from them continuing his training.
Women, he thought to himself. Nia was giggling and eyeing him playfully. What could go wrong when you’re surrounded by a bunch of them?
“Doesn’t that mean you’re taking the more difficult path?” Selene asked. “You could as well imbue those shapes into tools that can be used and reused.”
“True. But this slow path would bear better results down the line.”
“Which means the Ruriks are cheating themselves then,” Selene gave him a pointed look, with her eyes smiling. Well, point taken, but…
“Not exactly. They’re probably just learning in reverse. At some point, their leaders and tutors might get them to train in drawing shapes without tools. By then they’d be capable enough to hold the shapes on their own without external help.”
“And what is it you’re doing?” she asked.
“This? I’m learning to hold shapes other than a circle together, without a base.”
“That’s an upside triangle. Looks easy to me.”
Jerome chuckled. “Easy to make, but difficult to hold together. Especially when you gotta hold it in the air. That’s what I mean by ‘without a base’.”
“Oh. How so?” she asked.
“A circle is just one closed and continuous curve with no endpoint. Simple to hold together, because it’s just one line. However, I’m working with a triangle which has three intersections. I have to make sure I hold the intersections and the lines in place, making my practice more difficult by drawing the shapes in the air without a base. Everything must float in the air. Next, they must rotate one way or another at a consistent pace. That’s easier said than done.”
“So simple to understand, yet so complicated to perform,” Selene muttered.
“Are you studying arrays as well?” The way she said it made him ask.
“No. Artifact refining. I’m an apprentice artificer,” she smiled. Her pride in that status practically oozed from her. “Though I work in the smithy for now, I would soon be promoted…once I can successfully complete my first artifact.” She said that last part with much less confidence.
Artificer? “You don’t sound so confident,” he said.
“I have every bit of confidence that I’m going to succeed,” Selene said. The confidence was back in her voice. With a lot of determination.
“Huh. How does someone who’s on the path to becoming the ‘Ice Queen’ become an artificer? Artifact Refining is more common with other members of noble families, is it not? Not direct descendants of the pure bloodline.” The Itakars were more civilized than he gave them credit for it seemed.
“And why do you think I can’t learn to be an artificer?” she shot back. “Just because I’m an heir? There’s a lot to me you don’t know about, Jerome.”
Jerome shrugged. “You must have some very toned muscles underneath all that leather then,” he teased.
Selene caught him checking her out and smirked. She took off her upper armor. She wore sleeveless tight black clothing that hugged her shapely body. Then she flexed her muscles for him to see.
Selene had the right amount of muscles in the right places and yet, still managed to appear feminine and beautiful. Talk about natural cheating.
“Cute,” Jerome said.
She chucked her boot at him.