Zerine was warming up in a sparring room in the largest training facility. The area was similar to the beach, with sand covering the floor, but there was a large magical circle surrounding the area to stop stray magical attacks. She had already done her attempts at the obstacle courses and had done her best attempts at The Wash and Howling Cliffs courses so far. As for the other courses, well, she was still struggling but making steady progress.
“Alright, so today is the day you fight your first magical opponent. The Training dummy will be the same, but with the addition of it being able to use magic,” Ava said, pacing back and forth in the entranceway to the sparring area. “Now tell me what the four basic magical combat techniques are.”
Zerine frowned, but with one look from Ava, sighed and answered.
“There is the domain also called area dominion. This technique either enhances or condenses the affinity one has that is in the ambient magic. The technique is used primarily used for large area attacks,” Zerine said, stretching.
“Correct, and the others?” Ava wondered.
“There is conjuration, also known as forging. It does exactly what it sounds like, forging mana into whatever shape you want, often times imbuing concepts to the shape to add more effects. The next is enforcement or internal enhancement. That technique allows you to become faster, stronger, and able to use magically enhanced movement.”
“That is partly correct. Enhancement is one of the techniques that impacts someone’s fighting style the most, as it affects one’s physical attributes and how one can move in combat. But go on,” Ava said.
Zerine nodded, “I forgot about that. But the last is called projectile or striker techniques, or classical spell casting. Your internal mana and willpower to cast a spell that affects objects at a distance,” Zerine answered. She began to stretch her legs. “Just because I know those four things doesn’t mean I understand any of it. Channeling mana, affinity manipulation…just none of it make senses.”
“The books about channeling magic are meant to be advice to help people figure it out on their own, not spell it out. This allows the person to make the spell or technique truly their own instead of a lesser copy. So, it’s expected that you wouldn’t understand any of it without a crest. All you need to know is those four techniques because nearly everything boils down to them. We will spend quite a lot of time making it so you can recognize or do an educated guess on what your opponent will do based on what you can sense. That’s why I expect you to, hmm, lose the next ten matches relatively quickly.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Zerine muttered.
“I’m confident you will lose,” Ava said with a grin, which got a snort of laughter from Zerine.
Varino chimed her encouragement, saying she trusted Zerine wouldn’t lose too quickly.
“I guess if Varino says that, then I will adjust my expectations to,” Ava paused, thinking. “Hmm, I guess if you make these matches take over ten minutes, I will be impressed. But try and not get hurt too badly. We have training planned for after this.”
“That…really doesn’t help with my confidence, but I will try my best.”
“Good, that is all anyone can ask of you. But might as well get this over with. You look ready,” Ava said.
She had her hand on a normal-looking training dummy. Worn leather covered what Zerine assumed would be some sort of wooden skeletal structure, with additions to make it feel like fighting a living being. But as Zerine focus on her magical sense, she could feel Ava channeling energy into the dummy.
“Just so you know, the reason you're doing this now is that you can fight the old dummies at their highest setting without magic but,” Ava paused for effect, “that difficulty is the lowest setting of the dummies that can use magic.”
Oh, fuck, Zerine thought.
The dummy twitched several times, then moved to stand across from her.
“It doesn’t have a weapon?” Zerine wondered. She was brandishing two practice swords.
“Oh? I didn’t notice,” Ava said. When Zerine gave her a sharp look, Ava chuckled. “It doesn’t need one. A very important lesson is the world has many paths to power. Weapons may be what many use, but everyone can fight without one and some make their hands turn into their true weapons. In short, never underestimate your opponent based on their weapons.”
“Got it,” Zerine said, keeping her gaze on the dummy.
“Alright, Varino, get ready for healing,” Ava said.
“Wait what?” Zerine was saying, but Ava shouted, “Begin!”
Zerine’s instincts screamed at her. She dove just in time to avoid as a blur of motion turned out to be the dummy as it lashed out with a palm strike. A blast of air shot over Zerine’s back from the wind magic it was using.
Way too close, she thought.
She rolled away, avoiding a kick, but the dummy had infused it with yet more wind magic. The glancing blow was strong enough to send Zerine flying across the sparring area. Her body skipped across the sand till she slowed down, then hit the protective barrier. Luckily for her, she had lost enough energy, so hitting the barrier hurt, but wasn’t enough to knock the air out of her lungs.
A blast of sand made her cover her face with her arms. Zerine peak through her arms and stiffened. The dummy’s foot was an inch away from her face.
“You lost, reset,” Ava called.
The dummy bowed, then moved back to the center of the room.
That only took a few seconds, Zerine thought, stunned for a moment.
“You aren’t hurt, are you?” Ava called, echoed by a concerned whistled from Varino.
“I’m fine, some bruises,” Zerine called, getting to her feet.
And with that match, so began a once sided beat down. The next matched ended nearly as fast as the first. Soon, bouts three and four ended in a similar fashion. The only difference was that Zerine was knocked to her back in the third match and sent flying in the fourth.
In the fifth match, Zerine had been able to react in time to avoid the first punch and the wind blast the dummy used along with it. She never found time to strike, however, and was forced to stay on the defensive. Her defensive strategy lasted a total of a minute before she was simply unable to keep up and the dummy who knocked her feet out from under her.
Zerine may have had her instincts telling her to dodge. It didn’t tell her what the dummy was going to do exactly so much as it was going to do something. This wouldn’t be so bad if the dummy couldn’t use magic because there was only so much in the moment it could do. Mixing magic into a fight meant she could only guess that it was going to do a kick or punch enhanced by magic. Even if the attack left the dummy open, magic allowed it to recover, dodge, or even follow up easily with another attack. To make it worse, magic was hard to predict and so her guesses weren’t great.
She slammed into the sand; the air getting knocked out of her for the third time?
Wait, was it the seventh match? she wondered.
Whatever number it was, this one had lasted the longest, probably nearly two minutes. Had she been able to land a hit? Not even fucking close. Did she feel like she was making progress? To be honest, she had no clue, but she really hated that Ava, and the dragons were right. She wasn’t ready to handle magical fights.
Learn from these fights, she thought as the eighth match ended with her being thrown across the sparring area taking less time than the seventh match.
I need to relay on my magical sense more than simply my fighting experience and instincts, she thought, panting.
The next fight Zerine focused on trying to combine her magical sense and her instinct, which didn’t quite work as she wanted, but the fight lasted a little longer at least. Her magical sense was better than pretty much any crestless, but was still limited in range and it took concentration to feel the surrounding energy. Concentration was a valuable resource, which she needed to stay ahead of the dummy’s attacks. But when the ninth matched ended with her on her knees gasping for air, she felt like she had made a little progress.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Progress. But unfortunately, I will need to make it so both work together in combat and that will take way more than ten matches, she thought, still gasping for air.
The tenth matched ended with Zerine making a little more progress. This time, she managed to attack, but it had no effect. Her sword smashed into a mana barrier the dummy had conjured, leaving her open. Zerine had enough time to twist as a fist encased in wind just missed her side. Spinning away, she struck out with her second sword, but the blade met the air. The dummy moved in a blink, dodging her attack, and countered. A kick careened into her chest. Zerine shot backwards from the impact rolling in the sand.
“And that was the tenth,” Ava said, appearing next to Zerine. She looked down at Zerine, whose chest rose and fell from her labored breathing. “Varino, here’s some healing practice,” she called.
A bright chime announced Varino, who landed lightly next to her. Zerine smiled tiredly as a tingling sensation emanated from Varino’s small hands. Warmth spread through her and soon she was ready for whatever Ava had up next.
“Eight and a half minutes is more than I expected. So, good job,” Ava said. “You understand what and why you were struggling, though, right?”
“I don’t concentrate on my magical sense in fight and whatever my instincts do in a fight needs to work in conjunction with my magical sense. I started to feel it better near the end, but I don’t know magical tells or how to identify them like physical tells in non-magical fights.”
“Excellent,” Ava said with a proud smile. “That weakness is what Varino and you are going to work on.”
“How? There are an insane amount of techniques and affinities,” Zerine said, confused.
“I’m glad you asked,” Ava said and waved her hands.
The dummy was suddenly standing next to her.
“These dummies can demonstrate nearly every technique in the Grand Technique Codex. This means we have comprehensive training that will have you work with a verity of techniques. By the time you go to the academy trials, you will identify a person’s technique within a second,” Ava said.
A trilling flute note made Zerine and Ava look at Varino.
“Yeah, a time trial till you can identify it perfectly,” Ava said, nodding.
She snapped her finger, and the dummy shifted into a fighting stance. Zerine felt the magic flowing through the dummy change. Then the dummy lashed out at the air with a punch. The strike was so fast that she couldn’t see it. Wind howled as what appeared to be a horizontal cyclone blasted out from the dummy’s fist.
“A casting attack,” Zerine said.
“Yes, but could you tell that before it was cast or only after?” Ava wondered.
Varino made a thoughtful sound.
“Ah, I see, so that is the training. We’ll focus solely on our magical sense and will guess till we start actually noticing how an opponent channels their power,” Zerine said.
Ava nodded, “that is what you two will be doing every day, twice a day. Starting now.”
***
The training had gone…alright. Varino had gotten better faster than her because of her own experience of channeling magic for her entire life. The spirit had given Zerine some tips and tricks that had helped her start sensing what a person was doing with their magic, so it was still a productive training session. When she had left the training space and appeared back at the household, she found out Bernard was busy with something, so Zerine headed to her second favorite place in the city.
Zerine walked into the library, owned by the temple of magic and knowledge. The space was vast. Twenty floors filled with shelves of books. With all these books, one would expect the air to have the scent from the variety types of paper, but it smelled more like a garden. In fact, there was a garden that cut through the middle of the library floors. A large glass domed filled the space with warm natural light.
The entrance was on the tenth floor. A large circular desk was twenty feet ahead of her with intimates and priests working at it. She headed towards the desk when a voice made her stop.
“There’s the clever fox,” came a feminine voice.
A light guest of wind flowed around Zerine, and elven women appeared in front of her. She was taller than Zerine with a thin, athletic frame revealed by her temple robes being tighter and had short sleeves instead of the normal long-sleeved robes. She had glowing green eyes that were sharp and felt like they could see more than what normal people could.
“Vinyáya! Good to see,” Zerine said with a bright smile, opening her arms.
Vinyáya smiled back before giving Zerine a quick hug. Zerine saw those at the desk staring wide eyed at them. Zerine had seen these reactions off and on, but wasn’t certain why. Vinyáya may be stern and even scary at times, but she was easygoing, fun, extremely knowledgeable, and kind once you got to know her.
Vinyáya smiled to herself, flicking a glance towards those gawking at them who busied themselves with work. It was common knowledge in the temple the notoriously scary librarian had a soft spot and oddly; it was a Celarian crestless child.
Vinyáya stepped back with a bright smile, “I’m happy to see you're not covered in bruises from your training.”
“Yeah, Varino helped with that. I started fighting against training dummies that use magic,” Zerine said excitedly.
“Really?” Vinyáya said, titling her head and raising an eyebrow.
“It did not end so well. I lost every time,” Zerine said.
Vinyáya smiled, “it’s always like that the first time. I know you will figure it out. Your tenacious fox, so it will only be a matter of time.”
“I hope so. It was just…a lot,” Zerine said, then sighed.
“I can imagine. Let’s get you settled in and put you to work. I’m glad you showed up today. We have just received a host of new books and records to enter. We could use your help. Oh,” Vinyáya said, her smile growing. “I got some books I think you will find interesting.”
“Lead the way.”
***
Vinyáya left Zerine at the archive desk. From the corner of her eye, she spotted the familiar that had been following Zerine.
Ava’s familiar, Vinyáya noted.
Ever sense the attacks on the Gravefield and Trevel compounds, both families had their children either guarded or watched by familiars or magic. The temple didn’t mind it at all understanding the circumstances.
She had even helped with Raith do research to ensure that there wouldn’t be lasting negative effects for Zerine after regenerating part of her arm. They had confirmed that Zerine would be fine. But one thing they had discovered was that if she had needed to regenerate more than a limb, she would have been recovering for nearly a year.
Vinyáya frowned as a memory flashed through her mind. A Zerine’s blue and teal eyes had a listless gaze, her body so weak she could not move or even stay awake for more than minutes at a time. She wished she hadn’t pushed for Raith to share it, but it was great to see her doing so well now.
The child had always stood out as…different. Not a bad different, just incredibly aware of the world around her and curious, always curious. Zerine’s willpower stood out to Vinyáya as well. She and Ai had looked into crestless children using ambient magic and found plenty of results, even using resources from other temples. The records were about many children and teenagers from all walks of life and races, but the only thing common was that they could barely do anything. And yet, Zerine was able to use telekinesis, create a weak mana barrier, and had even improved her skills after the attack somehow.
Then there is that, she thought, glancing back at Zerine, who had a book fly to her hands from feet away, a feat she wouldn’t have been able to do months ago.
There was always a sense of a distant gaze on Zerine. This feeling was something that Vinyáya knew she was the only one that was aware of it. There are a few rules that are universally understood in their world. One of those rules was never fight a witch in her domain. The library was her domain and thus she was aware of everything within it. Even if that was a dragon keeping an eye on his…was she Falkor’s niece or something?
Vinyáya sighed. She had contacted the Triarch Coven about the strange Trevel family in charge of this region and was immediately forced into a secrecy contract, something as priestess of magic and knowledge she wasn’t a fan of. But when her god gave permission, she had formed the contract and learned some rather fascinating truths about the two most powerful Trevel’s on the coast. The fact that dragons and fairies were returning to the land that had been ravaged was a good sign. It was just a shock that two Trevel’s were the main reason for that and literally no one knew, nor did people realize that a peak gold-rank and a near peak gold-rank dragon rider and his partner had made this region their home.
After doing more research, she had discovered that this region had been far more magical and even a place where fairies and dragons, normally more reclusive, could be found. There was more she had discovered about this region, but the knowledge had slipped from her mind, which only meant one of two things. Either a god or ascendents were involved and she couldn't fully comprehend the knowledge just yet.
And the Lord of Water keeps an eye on a crestless child? she thought, strolling along.
Zerine’s thirst for knowledge and open-minded nature was what had made Vinyáya take note of her at first, well other than the child's constant curiosity and how quickly she learned things. With her discovery of who was observing the child, she had only grown more curious.
Maybe I should teach her some good old fashion witchcraft. It does utilize alchemy techniques and requires an awareness of more than just magic, willpower, and a keen mind. Hmm, she has all three. But I don’t want her to be spread too thin, she thought.
She made a mental note to discuss her idea with Ava, Callahan, and Bernard. She would also have to check in with her coven to see what they thought.
Maybe I should even ask the God.
***
Zerine worked for hours, mixing time to read alchemy books and several other topics that Vinyáya thought she would find interesting. Zerine had to admit that Vinyáya really knew what truly interested her. Books about the history of the world and nations, tales from far-off lands, magic used in unique ways, interesting fighting styles, and more.
She hardly noticed the glances she got from the priests and priestess as helped out. It probably had something to do with them, knowing she was done with classes before everyone her age. They didn’t comment, but just assigned more work when she asked if she could help with something. Time flowed by as she helped with the work around the library and archives.
Zerine was looking over homework from another class with children her age and was tasked with grading them along with adding suggestions to help guide them. Zerine’s brow furrowed as she tried to figure out what the hell one student had created for a magical array. It was a complete and utter mess. Runes and sigils were all wrong.
“Hey Zerine!” came a familiar voice.
Zerine looked up to find Estel heading towards her.
“Hey, sis, what’s up?” Zerine wondered.
“Class just ended, and Zara wanted me to tell you to hurry up, so she can do some training with y-” Estel was saying when an aura washed over the entire library.
The priestess sitting next to Zerine turned pale and went to the floor, Kowtowing. Zerine saw others doing the same throughout the library.
Her head snapped back to Estel as a humanoid being appeared next to her.
“Hello, there Estel Trevel,” the being said as everything froze.