Unknown time on an unknown day of Winter

Life in the cavern was beginning to wear on me. With no way to tell time, complete silence, only as much light as is necessary, and spending large parts of my day naked in the water it was like camping in a sensory deprivation chamber. Small sounds that Schrodinger made padding around echoed like drums in my head. I'll be honest, it was a bit maddening.

It doesn't help that the printer spell is an exercise in abject frustration. Things are a bit more complicated than I thought at first. While I was roughly correct that death magic could print arbitrary materials in arbitrary shapes, the practicality of it was that it was like a printer with no software. I had to hold the design in my head perfectly. If my mind slipped it could have consequences ranging from unstable elements to violent chemical reactions. One time I accidentally ended up with a bunch of sodium metal which caught fire in the water and burned my hands. Further, testing with the radiation detector showed that enclosing the process in my hands blocked all neutron, alpha, and beta radiation, but some gamma radiation still got through. I had to specifically focus on a mental image of its absence to prevent its release during printing. This currently took almost half my concentration and made everything else harder.

I realized that, while it was possible, it would take an enormous amount of practice to safely do anywhere but in some amount of water. Still, it didn't have to be in deep water anymore. I found a nice corner of the lake that had a shallow bowl with a ledge just the right size for sitting. I was making a lot of progress turning the minerals in the water into useful elements. I had already managed to make copper, silver, and even gold. I had one aurum, the kingdoms’ gold coinage, left in my bag and spent the whole day today trying to make another one. It came out slightly misshapen and was made of pure gold rather than the alloy the coin was made from but I was encouraged by my progress nonetheless.

It was as I was examining the finished product in my light that I heard a noise off to my left. I jumped to my feet and turned my light in the direction of the noise only to see a young woman standing on the shore. She was fair skinned with hair glowing softly like candle light. She had a shocked look on her face. I recognized her then as the girl who had stepped in to save me from the kith demons just before my awakening.

"Sorry sorry sorry!" she said as she spun around. "I didn't see you there. Clearly the lake is occupied, I'll just come back later."

She started marching off. Damn! I need to stop her. If she tells anyone I'm here I wont be able to finish the research.

"Wait!" I called out to her.

She froze in mid stride.

"Please wait." I said.

I had to think fast.

"I … I recognize you. You are the one from before. The one who saved me." I said.

I needed to buy time. What could I say to keep her here?

"I would like to thank you. But I'm not really dressed for introductions at the moment. Can you wait for me to dress?" I said.

She paused for a few seconds before responding.

"Yes, I can do that. Yes." she stammered.

Then she left. After a minute, I could see the light from her hair pause a short way down one of the exit tunnels.

Okay, that bought me some time. I got out of the water and started to dress. What was I going to do about her? It was clear she wasn't here looking for me. What do I know about her? She is probably in her early twenties, perhaps in service to the mine guard rather than the legion. She is a light mage. I know she's not from any of the big mage families in the city or I would recognize her. She could be from one of the smaller families but something about her manner of speech was giving me the impression of a lower class upbringing. Perhaps she's a mage born to mundane parents.

I finished dressing and started to walk toward her light. Somehow, I needed to get her to swear she wouldn't tell anyone about me or this cavern. But asking that kind of thing outright is super suspicious. I would have to be careful.

I saw her pacing back and forth in the wide tunnel entrance and thought quickly as I approached. Maybe I could lean on how grateful I am for her saving me. It has the benefit of being true and also gives me an excuse to bribe her for silence. As I entered the range of her light she turned to face me. She was striking in the soft light flowing through her long hair. For a moment I forgot everything I was about to say and just looked at her for a second.

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"Sorry again." she said.

She shuffled her feet but looked straight at me.

"I take no offense so think nothing of it." I said.

She was much shorter than me. Perhaps 150 centimeters to my 180. She had a small, slightly upturned nose and full lips. Her expression was a bit shy and was that fear? No, she was intimidated by me. Well I was probably being rude by staring at her.

"My name is Theod." I said.

"Hi Theod." she said.

"My name is Arin."

Just Arin, not Mage Arin. Definitely from non-mage parents then.

"I take it by your armor that you are in service. Are you with the mine guard?" I asked her.

"Yes." she said.

I thought of something really important and had to ask before anything else.

"I noticed that you were alone when you saved me, and again you are here alone. Where was your team? Where are they now?" I asked.

"I'm off duty, they're probably on the surface by now." she said. "Same as then… Hey, what's with all the questions?"

She started to look more defiant than intimidated and I knew I had to change my tact.

"And you managed to defeat three demons, each with their own potent fire magic" I said.

Her expression shifted to a bit abashed and I saw a hint of a blush.

"I didn't really beat them. I just ran away. Managed to lose them in a narrow spot." she said, reaching up to scratch the back of her head.

"You provoked them to save me." I said. "Their aim would then be to kill you instead of me. Escape from that is victory."

Definitely blushing now.

"I want to thank you for saving my …" I started to say but she interjected

"I don't think I really saved you." she said. "The second I stepped in, the monster kicked you over the ledge. Not really a hero's work."

I paused to consider her words.

"Nonsense. I was moments from death when you distracted them." I said.

Now for the bribe.

"I … I would like to give you a gift to thank you for my life" I said. "But I don't know what your needs may be."

I thought about it for a bit and it wouldn't be terribly hard to pay her off in aurum.

"If money is what you need then I could … procure some." I said. "Although, I would ask a favor if you accept my gift. Whatever it is, you must tell no one how you came by it. Of me, of this cave, nothing."

I looked her in the eyes and made sure she knew I was serious about this.

"So, Arin. Tell me what you need." I said.

She seemed taken aback by my offer.

"I don't need money." she said.

Though her tone was unconvincing. Maybe she needed something else more? After the initial surprise she seemed to really consider the question. She taped her chin while swaying from foot to foot.

"What I need is combat magic." she said confidently. "You're from some mage family right? You guys hord spells like they're food in a famine. And that goes double for combat spells."

Oh great, what have I gotten myself into? Spells? I didn't know any spells. And there are lots of spells available at the library. Oh, the private library that only the most prominent families in the city can access. Perhaps she has a point.

"Wait, how did you know I am from a mage family?" I asked.

She seemed confused by the question.

"My first clue was your hair." she said. "Silkily smooth texture takes daily baths and fancy oils and stuff. Believe me I know."

She reached up to her own hair and ran a lock of it through her fingers as if to make the point.

"Then you said 'I'm not really dressed for introductions at the moment' and that sealed the deal for me." she said mimicking my voice rather well. "Only rich mage folks talk like that."

I ran a hand through my hair. Silky? Apparently she learned more about me from a glance than I did about her. Impressive.

I thought back to her request. Of course I don't have access to that resource from down here. But what is a spell? I have looked them up before and they are essentially very clear descriptions of the spell's effects in different conditions. My own magic is based on having a clear picture in my head. If I didn't have someone to show me a spell then a detailed description would be the next best thing to build that image.

"You are a light mage?" I asked her.

"Obviously." She said with a smirk and a toss of her hair. I just rolled my eyes.

"What sort of combat spells do they teach you in the mage core?" I asked. "Surely they taught you some basics."

"Flash, darkness, and invisible light." she said. "Those are the basics. They spend the rest of the time on how to send and read signals with flashes of colored light."

"Invisible light?" I asked.

"Light mages can see the heat that comes off living bodies." she explained. "Invisible light is a spell that creates a bunch of it so you can see fine in total darkness."

Light mages can see in infrared. I had heard that they had enhanced vision but I had always imagined improved distance or clarity. Well whatever. The point was that she could make colored light or even light outside the visible spectrum. That gave me an interesting idea.

"Anything on narrow, focused light?" I asked.

She thought about that for a second.

"Well there is the firestarter spell." she said. "It's a utility spell that starts a fire by creating a bunch of invisible light focused on some kindling. It's short range though and burns you too if you're not careful."

"Interesting. But no, what I'm thinking of would be a long range spell." I said.

"No, never heard of it." she said.

Excellent. I know quite a bit about lasers and how they work. I figure that if she is powerful enough to burn something with infrared then she could probably make a fairly strong laser. It might be a pain to teach her but maybe I could learn more about light magic in the process.

"It is possible I could help you learn combat spells with light magic." I said. "Light can be extremely flexible and powerful. If you could learn to make gamma rays for example you would be as dangerous as a death mage."

Her eyes went wide at that.

"Don't get ahead of yourself." I said. "I said it might be possible. I am not a light mage myself so what I could teach you would be … theoretical."

"And you're just willing to teach me?" She asked, her tone thick with disbelief.

"Yes. But remember the caveat. Tell no one where you got the spells. Tell them you came up with it yourself through experimentation." I said.

"Of course, I can do that." she said. "So… when can we start?"