Time passed, and the party grew closer. Tyr was still an outsider, but they treated him well – sharing their meals and gear freely even though he had need of neither. Already set into their team dynamic, Tyr was relegated to the rear where he acted as a support. Peeling monsters off their flanks, but only rarely. The deeper they went into the jungle, the more dangerous the situation got – and they traveled for... Days? It was hard to tell here in the jungle. There was a night cycle, but it didn't seem to follow any kind of logic. Sometimes, it would be daylight for dozens of hours straight, and on other days the sun would only hang in the sky for a scarce few hours. Night time rarely lasted very long, though.
Streaking across the sky at a visible pace before disappearing over the horizon. Most bizarre of all, were that there seemed to be three suns. Never were all three visible at the same time. One was yellow, another a bright and piercing red, with the final star being a dull and cool blue. Each bathing the land in their color, while the plants reacted in different ways to each individual source of light. Some trees, even, would completely retract all of their leaves when the red light came out, and on those days monsters were exceptionally rare.
“It's only natural. We are not in Hjemland anymore.” Abe was all too willing to take on the role of a scholarly mentor. Even to Tyr, who he had just met, or perhaps he just liked the context of their conversations. “We've been here for... Three months or so. You've been here for roughly fifteen days. That's in Hjemland time. On the outside world – we have no idea how much time has passed, astral spaces are inconsistent in their relation to our world.”
Tyr paused in the strumming of his shamisen. He still wasn't very good, but it set a good tempo for the team, and with pointers from Abe on proper enchanting, he was improving. Though, for the time being, it was a very simple projection of elemental infusion into their bodies. Very complex for a normal mage, and not worth the mana expenditure required of them. For Tyr, it came naturally – and the speed at which they were able to clear beasts out of various districts was greatly increased. With Tyr filling their bodies with might, durability, speed, or flexibility – allowing Abe to take a more hands on approach rather than sitting in the back waiting for an inevitable injury.
“How is that possible?” Two weeks made sense. Fourteen days was well within the realm of possibility, but their having been in this place for three months did not. Abe and the group were aware of events that had occurred in the outside world within that frame of time. “Do you get reports from Aurora?”
“No.” Girshan said. “Not us. Maybe official adventuring teams, but not slaves. They barely want to recognize that we're in here at all. It's less about freedom to them, and more about complicity. Dealing with undesirables, that sort of thing. If they ignore the fact that they are complicit in the act of using literal slave labor, they can rest their heads at night thinking themselves innocent.”
Abe gave Tyr an odd look. If there was a list of the most famed academies for magic, the Red Dragon would be towards the peak if not the best. Only challenged by, in his opinion, the Teluria Pavilion – or the Ludus Rex in Varia. Academically, that is. Naturally, he'd never scoff at the Krieg academy, nor the colleges in Haran that were capable of producing such ferocious adepts and battlemages. Theirs were more for practical use, whereas many of the others were more scholarly organizations.
With that being said, Tyr wasn't very knowledgeable. Wholly ignorant to the most basic of concepts regarding magic. He had no shortage of unique talents or strange abilities, but his knowledge of theory was rudimentary at best. For humans, if that's what he was, they were a race that held theory in the highest regard. Whereas Telurian's were more spiritual in their approach, the human were all about their etheric sciences.
All Abe had to do was access the boys file, giving him a free look at his qualifications before he and Girshan had privately discussed his addition to the team. While they appreciated his help, for what it was, and his promise to 'free them' – as impossible as it might be – he was still a stranger. They hadn't lived this long in the fighting pits and various other dangers of enslavement by being anything but suspicious.
“Didn't you graduate from the Red Dragon?” Abe asked, curious.
“No.”
“Apologies if this comes across as a violation of your privacy, but Girshan and I have access to your dossier. It says that you did.”
“So it does.” Tyr shrugged. “Some trick, I'd imagine. I've stopped thinking about the significance of why people do the things they do – and I don't care who listed that on my file. Their problem, not mine.” And that's just the way it was. Tyr had struggled to adjust to his new mindset, what one might call a new lease on life, but it was easier in the astral space with all of its tasks and clear objectives. To stop planning ahead. Forego the 'game' that had stuck him in a loop for so long. He just wanted to 'be himself', to do what he wanted.
“I see...” Abe cleared his throat. “As you may or may not know, time is relative, despite being a linear construct. These astral spaces all occupy a slice of a world that is not our own. Parcels of land that come here from some other part of the cosmos. According to popular belief, that which was originally land of the republic has gone elsewhere, perhaps in exchange for this bit of land. Probably on another world, nobody knows how or why it happens, but that seems most likely.”
“Ah.” Was all Tyr could say. There was a saying in Milano. The proof was in the pudding. And so it was, here and now, staring out over the sharp ridge into the distance. Trees clearing to give way to an incredible vista. Fifty, perhaps even sixty miles ahead was the horizon. No sign of the mist that made up the wall of the astral space. A dizzying vista, if ever he'd seen one.
“Their size.” Abe said. “Is similarly relative. This is, by far, the largest astral space that I've ever seen.” They'd traveled for days in a relatively straight path towards the core at a breakneck pace. They only slept about four hours a night, when they did – and Tyr rarely ever joined them in rest. Eliciting some concern from the others, until over a week had passed between naps and he'd shown no signs of exhaustion. Chalked up to 'magic', the easiest excuse in the book.
“Do you know how much time has passed on the outside?” Tyr asked.
“Chronologically, according to my calculations, we are not supposed to be here for another one hundred and twelve years.” Abe chuckled at the scrunched look on Tyr's face. As if he had bitten into something too sour or cold, freezing his brain. “There is no exchange rate for time. An hour here could be double that outside, or half of it. Or any other amount. Without the barrier that stabilizes the mana that composes these places, we could be here a day and two hundred years could pass in the outside world. The wall exists just as much a focus for stabilizing the rift as a defensive measure. Otherwise, it'd have no need for such extensive enchantments. And, it would not need to be near as large.”
“Huh...” Tyr mused. That was sort of how dimensional artifacts worked, he'd noted via Valkan that they weren't actually 'outside of time' – just compact pocket dimensions. In stasis, time might pass a million or more times slowly, but eventually change could be observed. Just not on a scale humans perceived.
“Really?” Xavier asked, pondering that bit of information. “So... Are we traveling through time?”
Abe shook his head. “Time is one of the universal laws of reality. It is not possible, or shouldn't be. If it is, it's the realm of the gods, and they alone, but they claim the same – so I doubt it. Time can move faster or slower, but never backwards. No living thing can break the laws of a dimension above their own. For this reason, teleportation and free traversal of time are impossible to us or any other. As far as we know.”
“One thing to note.” He added with a deep look on his face. “Is that technically, we are traveling through time. This space is a vehicle of sorts, and once astral spaces are more appropriately surveyed, if the temporal dilation is favorable, many mages will flock to this place. For them to spend a year or two here while two days pass in the real world would be extremely valuable for some.”
“We teleported here, though.” Xavier questioned. “Right?”
Tyr chuckled, remembering something from the past.
“It's a nice laugh, lad. Another honest one. Only two in two weeks, but I am interested. Why do you laugh?” Abe asked.
“Sorry, I didn't mean to mock anyone. It's just that I asked a similar question once and had to sit through a long lecture about teleportation.”
“Nobody took your expression as offense. Elaborate, please. Show your handsome and incredibly wise mentor the depths of your knowledge.” They'd made camp at the ridge. Tyr stared down into the winding valleys and ravines. Waterfalls and floating islands spinning sluggish circles in the sky. Large winged creatures passing between them. Something of a cross between a wyvern and a pelican, with no feathers on them. Rolling jungle dropping away before erupting skyward again in a collection of highlands, ridges like serrated blades all made up black volcanic stone. Life so plentiful here that Tyr's senses were assailed from all directions with sounds, sights, and a panoply of colors. Things that didn't seem to bother the others.
“We can traverse space by bending it, but there has to be a reaction or stabilizing component at both sides.” Tyr cupped his hands, failing to make for a proper demonstration before turning to the earth and scrawling patterns in the soil. “Like a tunnel. You can't take a physical object and translocate it. Teleportation, for example, would kill near anyone who used it. Could come out on the other side with a bird fused to your flesh – or atmospheric particulate riddling your brain. Even if it doesn't result in a displacement phenomena that turns you inside out – it will almost assuredly kill you. Mages who try it most commonly found themselves melted into the ground, experiencing a brief moment of agony before exploding as molecules were forced together. Gates, on the other hand, displace on behalf of the mage. Because you're bending space via a tunnel through the plane of mana, and physically moving from one point to another. Think of it as taking a shortcut versus jumping down a mountain. Except in this instance it take the same amount of time, but you'll naturally want to forego the convenience of energy efficiency and take the safer path.”
Abe raised his eyebrows with an assessing glance, but said nothing. Jura yawned. While capable of magic, she was no scholar and found such topics boring. Girshan tended the fire, while Yana assisted him with shrouding their position with illusion magic. Xavier clutched at his knees, staring on at rapt attention, a sparkle in his eye. He'd taken some kind of 'little brother' role with Tyr, and had never heard him talk so much at one time.
“It's similar to the most basic concepts of mana relative to how we use it. Conservation of energy. All spells have some associated cost. For humans, most of the time, it's our internal energies. Advanced magic almost always has a downside unless performed in a very particular way. Years of your life, or worse could be the cost – taking what it needs to exist in a world alien to it. Teleportation magic, if it could even be called a study, seeks to forego the normal cost. Without a focus, very few mages can stabilize their own gates due to the magic necessary. They require special artifacts, a binding ritual, or some kind of anchor. Like the academies. That's the way I understand it, in any case. Does that make sense?”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Xavier nodded slowly. He understood some of it, being capable of magic himself, though he'd never be a true mage. Theory was mostly useless to him, as he was an adept that required physical catalysts to use his abilities. For example, he could fire shards of metal from his body when changed, or harden himself and others he touched, but he'd likely never be able to shoot a ball of fire.
“Interesting. You've a fairly adequate grasp of spatial magic. How do you know this – but not understand the concept of astral spaces? Astral spaces are quite literally an extrapolation of the small sliver of space travels when moving through a gate. That's why they call it a rift.”
Tyr shrugged. “Because I was taught. I am excellent at memorizing things when they seem important, but I have trouble connecting the dots. Critical thinking, that sort of thing. Perhaps I'm just not very creative.”
“In your opinion.” Abe chuckled. “I've never seen someone use magic the way you do. Perhaps it is less to do with your faults as a student and more to do with the fact that teaching someone who feels and wields magic so differently than them is so difficult? What is your passion?”
“My passion?” Tyr tilted his head, drawing a wry chuckle from Jura, holding her hand out to Yana – accepting a single copper coin from the other woman. “What was that?”
“Nothing.” Yana cleared her throat, blushing. Perhaps from embarrassment, perhaps from the fact that she'd apparently lost some sort of bet. Maybe both. “The illusion array is all set, so we can start preparing our meal. Unfortunately, we have no meat... So I hope you like mushrooms, and... Ah, we do have some gem berries and star fruit! Yay...” Their supplies had long run out, and without Neal to requisition more, leaving the space before they were finished with their task here was impossible. Forcing them to finish their contract before taking a break. A speed bump in their plans, having to forego some conveniences and comforts, but it wasn't altogether unwelcome.
Xavier sighed, the light fading from his eyes as his face took on a disheartened look. Toeing his boot into the black dirt. “This sucks.”
“You want meat?” Tyr asked. Holding out his finger, he allowed no less than fifty animal carcasses to flop onto the ground. “I've got stags, boars, an albino moose, two bears, few others things. Goats, sheep, turkey.”
“...”
“They're all bled and cleaned, but please be careful with the pelt of the moose if that's what you want.” Tyr said. “I plan to make a cloak out of it. Or something, I haven't decided yet. It's not like I need winter clothes since I do well in the cold, better than this place anyways. So it was either that, or a cool hat. Maybe a gift? It is nice, the pelt that is, it's unfortunately got some damage at the rear where the cart that broke its back struck. The others are mostly normal animals, but the boars in the collection are all 'mountain' variety. Monsters, technically, so I planned on figuring out they were safe to eat once I was out of here. They do smell good.”
“...”
“What?” Tyr asked, realizing he'd rambled on for some time. They were staring at him with mixed looks, most of astonishment. “If you don't like red meat, I have some chickens in here too. Ducks as well. No fish, though, but there is a huge river down there. I'm sure we could catch some if you'd like. I've never been fishing before, my father was supposed to take me on some fishing trip up and into Oresund, but then...” His mother had been killed, ruining any sort of relationship the two might've had.
Girshan shook his head slowly. “First. I think we're all confused why you carry around so many animals, do you have no consideration for your impact on the environment? This is... It's a lot. You could cause considerable harm on the ecosystem by slaughtering things you do not need.”
“Oh, I guess you're right.” Tyr asked. “But in terms of herd animals, they were all purchased from farms. Some are from Milano, Amistad, Haran, the Republic, and the moose is from Asmongold. It's not like I got them all from the same forest. And it's not necessarily for me, I have a... Friend. My bonded partner. Eats a lot, and at least eighty percent of this belongs to him. But I know he would be fine with sharing.”
“I suppose that's fine.” Girshan relaxed. As with many beastkin, he thought about these things whereas typical humans did not. “Your bonded partner must have a large appetite. He is here, in this space?” Assuming that this mystery duo were separated was his first thought.
“Nope.” Tyr shook his head, rising and pulling a fat cow from the pile and letting the rest descend into the ring. Next was a cast iron skillet near half as long as the cow. Heavy, flat, and black. Followed by several spices and enough salt to make the gathered men and women salivate. Salt was fairly expensive, but they'd had it before. The most surprising thing were the exotic spices. Black pepper, something only Abe had ever tasted. One of Teluria's chief exports. Garlic and onion powders could be found everywhere, but mustard, pepper, cumin, and various peppers were very expensive.
Yet here was Tyr, handling them casually, as if it was so normal a thing to prepare an expensive feast in the middle of an astral space. Before, he'd eaten their food as a sign of respect, as terrible as it was, sneaking some dried meat here and there. Now, he'd use what he was capable of to reciprocate, realizing that although he'd offered to share he had been quite selfish. “The guards wouldn't let me bring a direwolf through the gate. He can shrink too, being a shapeshifter, and they still wouldn't allow it.”
“...”
“...Did you just say direwolf?”
“Yes.” Tyr focused on greasing the pan with beef tallow, setting it on a rack designed to hold the cast iron over the fire. Butchering the cow was easy enough, and it only took him a handful of minutes while the others glanced repeatedly at one another. The cow was kept chilled, so cutting the loin free was a simple thing – letting the rest disappear back into his dimensional ring where it would stay fresh and cool. “Anyways, as for my passion. Sorry, we got a little side tracked there. I'm not sure if I have one.”
“The culinary, perhaps?” Yana laughed nervously, still trying to wrap her mind around the idea that he'd claimed to have bonded with a direwolf. She, like others of her kind, didn't consider awakened beasts as monsters. Where Sinea had been, just before human lands met that of the elves, there had been direwolves. They were one of the greatest dangers in the wilderness. Incredibly intelligent beasts, guardians of the wilder places. But offend one of their proud kind, and an entire village might disappear overnight. One of them was equal to some of their greatest warriors, considering that they roamed in packs of six to twelve. Over the ages they had come to be revered and respected, many villages would leave them offerings in exchange for their protection.
Tyr shook his head. “No, definitely not. I've prepared most of my own meals for the last... One or two years? I'm not sure. To be honest, sometimes I take it raw if I can't light a fire. Believe it or not, it doesn't bother my stomach. I tried it once when I ran out of bread.” He petered off, tending to the fire before dropping the fatty steaks on the cast iron, humming in satisfaction at the scent of sizzling fat and cloud of aromatic smoke.
Jura snorted in annoyance. “You do that far too much. Just get to the point. Do you just forget that you were talking?”
“Runesmithing, I'd say. It's the only thing I'm any 'good' at besides killing things. And as Girshan observed, I rely on my ability to heal much faster than others to make up for weaknesses in my technique. So... Probably runesmithing. If it's not that, I don't know what is.”
“You never struck me as a smith. As they say, never judge a book by it's cover – I suppose.” Girshan mused.
“Oh?” Tyr raised an eyebrow. “What did I strike you as?”
Girshan shrugged, a toothy grin slowly splitting his lips. “A noble boy from an imperialist nation unaware of his own privilege. An overblown sense of justice and warped concept of honor. A bit of a rock in his skull, but not all that bad. He's got all that meat, after all, and he sourced it with a modicum of consideration for natures balance.”
“That's not a passion...” Tyr lowered his eyebrow, not the biggest fan of his critique but also not willing to rise to what was obviously bait.
“Seem like a warrior to me. Cold and brooding. Watching you nearly disembowel Girshan was very impressive.” Jura observed. “It makes me--”
“Definitely.” Yana said, elbowing Jura in the ribs before she could begin lusting after Tyr again. Talking about 'breeding' and 'mounting'. “I thought you were a vampire at first. I'm not sure if I'm the best judge of character. Maybe... Gardening?”
“Might be closer to a passion than anything else. I was a lumberjack for a time, and I worked on a farm for a brief while. It was nice.” The others looked at him with their various looks of disbelief, but nobody questioned him. Tyr didn't seem like the type to lie, and was by no means a prissy nobleman afraid to get his hands dirty. He was always blunt and candid, sometimes to the point of it being a fault, using the adjective of 'sour' to describe how Yana had smelled, which earned him a heavy fist to the back of the head while she ran off to furiously bathe under a waterfall. A kick from Jura had come after, but he didn't complain.
“I thought you were a knight.” Xavier said. “Maybe a battlemage, since you're from Haran. I heard they're all over the place there.”
“Well...” Tyr mused, mouth watering as he found it increasingly difficult to focus on the string of conversation, what with the smell of crisping meat filling his nose. “I suppose both are true. I was a knight before my titles were stripped. I was trained by knights, and squired into the dawnguard. I was also a marked mage. Past tense, though. Can't claim to be either anymore. What about you, Abe? Any completely random and unsolicited commentary on why I am as a person?”
Abe had been contemplating his answer the whole time. How did he see Tyr? The boy was an enigma, and old beyond his years. The eyes were the windows to the soul and the boys were hard and incredibly cold. Only warming in the rarest of circumstances before returning to their normal state. “A very conflicted young man turned vagabond adventurer--”
“That's true, too. In a way.” Tyr interrupted, a soft smile on his lips. This one did not reach those eyes. The only emotions that seemed common in the blue orbs were frustration or melancholy. Often, he would sit alone outside their camp – taking more watch shifts than anyone. Strumming his instrument softly and staring with dead eyes into the distance. Never once was he caught off guard though. It wasn't a fugue, it was a reflection. Abe didn't think it was right for such a young man to have the shakes or the battlefield stare, but Tyr was who he was. He would accept guidance or instruction, but very rarely any help. Too proud – incredibly stubborn.
“Traveling from village to village.” Abe said, his voice taking on the tone of a story teller. “Rescuing maidens from monstrous beasts and only taking their chastity as payment. But alas, so handsome and shining is he that all the little villagers love him so, and offer this and more to their hero. The tall dark and handsome, dashing adventurer.”
Girshan belted out a laugh. “As Xavier says, you've a good look for a human. Little inexpressive, but I don't think human women care for that overmuch. The rogue mercenary plying to the lands for nubile young village girls fits your aesthetic far better.”
“...”
“Skilled combatants should never go long without bedding. It is a warriors duty to spread their seed.” Jura nodded. “My father was a fine fighter for a human, but my grandsire was legendary. Siring no less than forty one children. That was a man. How many?”
“...How many?”
“Yes, Tyr. How many?” Yana asked, her voice cracking as a twitching began in her eye. Tyr knew what that meant. That her anxious and bashful self was about to hard switch to the woman that had rung his bell a dozen times over. Only difference now was that he was lacking the helmet necessary to save him from her wrath. “How many women have you defiled?”
“Oi...” Tyr groaned. “Defiled? What the hell kind of person do you think I am...?”
“A man, like any other.” Yana replied, already pulling the pendulum from her belt. They'd only been together for a few weeks and this conversation seemed wholly out of place. “Confess your sins, cretin!”
“I am a virgin. I have been with nobody. I've never even kissed.” Tyr replied flatly. He did not blush as others might, right now was all facts. Twenty or twenty one years old, whatever the case, most married around fifteen or sixteen. At his age, for a human, he should have fathered one or two children already, more if he was someone who took their duty seriously. “Shit, my steaks!”