Maturation 11

October 20th, 2032.

“Fuck, no, no tail slapping!” I cursed as I was given a mouthful of feathers by a baby griffin. “It's an unkind thing to do.”

Hunger, pangs of desire and curiosity rippled through the air, like a spike to the brain.

Child, do not use your song against my horde-mate. Would you wish one such as I harm your own egg-mates?

Reyna shielded me from the unfettered mental song of the young opinicus. Who, like most of his species, were deeply connected to the Violet, to the Primal Expanse. This meant they were incredibly effective at manipulating information and memory, which included encoding both into their language.

Sundancer’s great horde had apparently decided I would make the best liaison between their kind and witches. So I was helping get their more skittish and harsh members used to people like me instead of people like them.

Which was how I had learned so much about how their magic differed on a breed-specific basis. Which was mostly a matter of phenotype and culture between different breeds and ring species.

Reyna for example as a Nightscreamer is best at manipulating weight and acceleration. I had seen her apply weight to specific points, like invisible bullets applied to a point. She was a monster, and could almost certainly tear through an army with the right application of her power.

Opinicus as a species used the Violet to manipulate vibrations, they could use their magical energy to produce, control, and dampen waves. There were a lot of possibilities when it came down to channeling the Violet. The law of knowledge was a very unique perspective of the occult, of the ways of magic.

“It’s fine Reyna, I've gotten far better at shielding my mind.” It was a strangely simple process, simply wrapping layers upon layers of khi between my brain and outside input. A sort of filter akin to a bounded field, precisely designed to block certain offensive uses of magic.

It was a technique that wasn't reliant on external power, which meant I could shape my own khi into a flexible mental barrier.

These lessons are to be taught early, Reyna commented. Griffins are beings of memory, keepers, and shapers of knowledge. To use such power maliciously is to flirt with the temptation and allure of absolute power. We are not just the gentle summer breeze, we are the wild wind along the plains, and the hurricane battering the shores.

“Fair enough, having control over the memory of Reality is a power that should be respected.” I guess I was underestimating her wisdom for all that she's only a few years old. “Do you really think I'll be able to convince the griffins to work with other witches?”

Reyna snorted, blowing air onto my face. Horde-mate, darling student. Just weeks ago, you taught us how to fish and farm for food.

I blinked. “But that's not anything difficult, as long as you account for sustainability and healthy practices.”

The memory of laughter flickered into my mind. We are the Children of the Violet Sky, free spirits, nomadic hunter-gatherers. It was not our Way, but you have become a teacher of a New Way. One that won't cost us what we are.

“So it's not a mistake to have my friends come along to learn how to ride griffins?”

Reyna let out a croaking physical laugh, like a lion being strangled by an eagle.

I will not call it easy, but it is a manageable task—

She was tackled by the griffin child, and I winced.

Little guy was a total menace, and very much played into it.

I'm not sure it boded well.

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I flinched when Hakim was rejected by one of the adult opinicus. The griffin merely snorted at his attempt to converse and bond, and immediately leapt into flight.

Which was certainly proof that the truce between Caudalann and Sundiver’s horde was a very tentative arrangement. While their assistance in the battle against a certain Other’s puppets had been appreciated enough to let them stay within their territory.

It doesn't change centuries of being hunted down by witches.

Though I suspected it had more to do with him being a form of undead since Althea was having an easier time with the griffins.

Though undead were sort of confusing as a classification, beings formed from the power of death, often with connections to the Black. Ghouls though were more distant, being closer to spirits that had taken visceral, biological form. But it was hard to say if they had taken hosts and merged with them, or had created bodies wholesale to serve as scavengers of death-related energies.

Even Hakim hadn't been able to offer a more precise answer on that, ghouls had a highly obscure origin. The earliest records of them as a people dated back to maybe twenty thousand years, but there were fragmentary cave paintings of similar beings going back two hundred thousand years

Which could quite possibly be completely different folk that converged on the same spiritual niche. Plus there was the factor that it seemed the origin of various magic-folk came down to patronage with powerful spirits.

Regardless I could see Althea bumping heads with a fully grown opinicus. They were on average about twice the size of Reyna’s own species, but more densely bodied. So anywhere from a literal ton and twenty-seven feet to a ton and a half and thirty feet.

The individual she was wrestling with was the length of a school bus and likely weighed as much as an SUV. The body of a saber tooth cat, and the head and coloration of a shoebill stork. Which sounded derpy if the beak wasn't built more like a hatchet.

“I don't know what I'm doing wrong,” I could hear the painful pitch in Hakim’s voice that meant he was stressed. “Is it my approach, my smell, do they not care for those warped by death?”

“Possibly, but that's speculation. Especially since Reyna doesn't mind you at all,” which disproved that theory then. “I think it's just that they aren't used to friendly witches even with weeks of Caudalann placing them under their protection. Althea is a werewolf and a shaman, and I've been friends with a griffin for months now.”

“Maybe I need to try a different species?” Hakim suggested, clearly uncertain about the response.

“Well the only other species you haven't tried to talk with are the—”

I was cut off by a sudden burst of wind, motion, and force, a blur pouncing on Hakim.

Without thinking, I cast out a bubble of void, trapping the living projectile that had almost trampled Hakim. Sadly I wasn't able to stop him from being thrown into the ground.

“The Keythong,” I murmured with a shake of my head. “The agile, spiky hyperactive species known for their ability for their precise and terrifying magic.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

They were a species about half the size to the same size as Reyna, covered in black spotted down, with a huge, thick mane which could turn as hard as diamond and as sharp as obsidian. Their modified beaks were edged with false teeth, and their wings were well-folded.

Enough to fool people into believing they were flightless.

“Let him go, I've got a good feeling here.”

I sat back, massaging my temples. Fuck my friends are as stubborn as I am, aren't?

“W-Woah?!” Althea was being overwhelmed by three more griffins.

I released the griffin, and felt a headache come on when Hakim was kidnapped by the enthusiastic spirit-beast.

I could hear Sundiver’s sonorous laughter.

“Oh shut up!” I hollered at the skylord.

That made him laugh even harder.

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I watched my friends collapse into the ground, unable to hold back my exhausted giggles at how they had been tired out by training with the griffins.

“Man, witches don't have anywhere near the same endurance as humans do they?” I said between spurts of laughter. “I know I'm more physically fit than average, and way tougher than normal humans but still… being able to match up with witches is absurd.”

Althea groaned. “Shut up, I'm a werewolf. I'm just… taking a breather, that's all. These griffins are pretty energetic.” She added with a dark gleam in her eyes

Hakim seemed far less tired, but it was also harder to tell when he was a kind of undead with how the cycle of life and death was warped within his biology.

“Griffins are powerful spirit-beasts, I know the Feel isn't always precise but I can tell. No wonder the Chantry didn't want them around, just like how they restrict magic under their domain.”

Althea winced, rubbing her arms, claws tugging at her skin. “Don’t remind me, I'd rather not think of what’s probably in store for us.”

“Sorry.” Hakim apologized.

That raised a rather good question…

“Why? Why do people let the Chantry restrict their magic at all, even as far away as the mainland?” I had to scrounge for good textbooks on it but there were none.

All of them had been utterly indecipherable under layers of purple prose and propaganda. I had debated asking Ultima, but she had been quite busy outside her lessons, dealing with lawless witch politics. I also wanted a different perspective, from people more caught within the grasp of the Pale King.

“Back when the Chantry was in its infancy… it was a time of war, conflict, and death,” Hakim spoke honestly, as he brushed back his bangs. “Back then, things were far more stratified. From the slaves and thralls to the serfs and clanless to the noble clans. Witches were wild, chaotic, and unbound with their use of the Craft. With powerful secret orders, pirates and bandits, and people being bound to evil covens.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“That's just what we're told, I don't know how accurate it is.”

I nodded. “Arali’s stories tell me that things were bad back then, but that covens weren't the force responsible for it.”

Covens were a voluntary organization, serving a function more akin to a cooperative community, sharing knowledge, resources, power, and responsibilities. Traditionally they were based on a particular craft, Evocation, Making, Protection and so forth. Which then correlated to more specific professions like shamans, smiths, and hedge witches.

There was a metaphysical aspect to the coven, it was a way to share out the oaths and bonds of each pillar of magic. Bound by Teachings, Family, Contracts, and Loyalty. But it wasn't an unrelenting pact, there were rules and laws and one could leave the coven.

“But keep going, I want to understand,” I said, shifting my attention back towards my friends.

“The Pale King rose to power during that period, preaching a New Way due to the failures of the old powers. The rituals that once supported the hundred and fifty taifa were failing, so they chose to follow the Chantry.” Althea was the one who continued the history lesson. “Huge disasters followed due to uncontrolled and unrestricted magic from the people who didn't follow the Pale King. Tens of thousands died… and back then our population was only five hundred thousand.”

“People were afraid,” I said with lips pulled down in a grimace. “Fuck.”

Hakim nodded. “There's more to it. The Pale King enacted what he called the Circles, a better, more controlled alternative to the covens. Instead of making oaths and agreements with wild and disparate covens, one circle would serve as a means of saving us from our own power. One circle for each kingdom, as part of a greater organization. A way to provide universal education and literacy, with the clans receiving the first priority.”

I leaned back. “They do provide most of the schooling, don't they? Don't they also receive funding from many taifa in the form of donations?”

“Land donations are a thing too, it's how the Pale King became the sovereign of the Head,” Hakim said with a tilt of his head.

“Exactly how does a Circle work?”

“It’s a manifestation of the distinction between different forms of magic, like the sources,” Hakim explained with a cautious laugh. “It’s said to act as a layer between a person and their magic, modulated and regulated by the Pale King and his head witches, feeding some of that power to make that possible.”

“Why the hell would nobles let the Chantry have that much control?” I asked, befuddled at the idea.

Althea squinted. “Celia… who do you think joins the highest ranks of the Chantry, working their ways into the offices of the church.”

Oh.

Which meant breaking the world out of the hand of the Chantry would also piss off every power-hungry noble across a continent.

A realization kicked in. “Caudalann has independent education… and were highly literate even back then.”

Was that why the Pale King had decided to cripple them, so he could subvert them?

“You think that's why he brought down so many independent taifa?” Althea asked, fangs chewing on her lip. “So he could influence the people with the most power?”

“Oh absolutely, it's easier to keep things in control when governments operate such a centralized model. How common is it for noble clans to actually work with families outside Danab?”

“True…” Althea mused. “Even here there's an undercurrent of superiority among a few of the clans.”

“What’s the alternative?” Hakim asked, curious.

I folded my arms behind my back. “Build a more egalitarian power structure that narrows or even removes the gap between clan and clanless. You've got the local Koza and the Grand Koza with lower and upper houses. Expand on those principles, implement a system of government that keeps the power in the hands of the people, instead of in the hands of smaller groups of individuals.”

The two of them blinked.

“What?” I asked defensively. “Arali and I talk a lot and he's a smart kid with a hyperfixation on politics, sociology, and economics.”

“That makes me worry about what he’ll be like as an adult.” Hakim said with a smile.

Something else registered in my mind. “Guys… you do know there's an alternative to being caught within the web of the Chantry right?”

“We do but the Chantry has been known for forcing people into a Circle, like they did with you.” Hakim sounded afraid. I hated it.

“Did it succeed though?” I was confident for a good reason. “I saw its nature, and I unraveled it. Which means being forced within the Chantry’s layer of binding magic isn't inevitable.”

“But we don't know how to do what you do,” Althea said.

“I've been learning things with Ultima, as a free witch she knows plenty about the natural binds and oaths of a witch. Both in the form of covens and circles, in ties of blood and covenant.” I dramatized it for their sake. “I might not be able to help an entire world… but I can help my friends. I promise.”

Both of them stared at me with unreadable expressions.

Althea chuckled and I blushed when she placed her hand against my face. “You really do have a lot of confidence in such a small body.”

I pouted. “I’m trying to be reassuring.”

“I never said it wasn't working, Celia.” Althea added, Hakim, hissing out an agreement.

Good.

I wanted to keep my friends safe, even if I had to fight the whole world for it.