“Copper can be used to reinforce the mana structure of enchantments. It works as cheap and good mana conduits for artifacts that have a mana crystal as its power source. It is mined quite easily and is very wide-spread, making it inexpensive for the common man.”
Vaunce was flipping through “The Art of Forging by Master Blacksmith Gruft” he had paid to be copied yesterday and picked up earlier this morning. He did have plans to meet up with Lilith, Fred, Bryce, and Tim; but his parents had asked him to stay home for the day and watch the kitten his brother had brought home as a gift to him. His parents were not happy about it, as Wade had not talked to them about it first and they would mainly be responsible for it while both brothers were busy with their Taskings, but after pleading with them for a half-hour and promising that he would pay for all its needs with his allowance; they folded and let him have it. Although his father muttered something about him still paying for it since he gave them their allowance.
Ding
Vaunce looked at his speaker-watch and groaned. It was Lilith in their group chat.
“Vaunce where are you? It's our only day off unlike someone.”
“Yeah dude we only get 1 day off a week since we’re training to do cool shit with the forces instead of swinging a hammer like some commoner”
“Okay i'm joking but seriously where are you?”
Those last two were Fred, always the teasing because he knew Vaunce wasn't able to join any of the forces because his mana alignment wasn't allowed.
“My parents said I had to stay home today to watch this new kitten my brother brought home yesterday. I'm really sorry but you'll have to go to the hideout spot without me.”
“New kitten? I wanna see” Lilith sent into the group chat excitedly
“Well the only reason we were going was to help move stone around for your forge or whatever” Bryce messaged. Tim and him didn't message a lot but were always there, and showed up at the meetings they had or whenever they made plans to meet up.
“Oh that’s a good point, I can probably do it tomorrow if any of you are free then” Vaunce responded, stroking the kitten that was purring on his lap.
“Okay so I guess meet at Vaunce’s to pet the new cat” Lilith sent, getting affirmatives from everyone else
“Sure” “Okay” “On my way”
“Wait guys I need to ask my parents” frantically Vaunce sent a reply but it must have been ignored because a short while later he heard knocking at the front door and went to open it. Seeing Fred, Lilith, Tim and Bryce all standing on his front step. He had sent a message to his Parents, but they haven't responded yet.
Sighing heavily, he waved them all in, leading them to the fire pit in the backyard. At least if there was a mess made, they would already be outside.
Vaunce brought out a pitcher of cold water from his house. His family had a coldbox that basically just took all the heat inside it and pushed it to the outside of it. It made the area it was in uncomfortably hot, but it was in the room they used to dry their clothes after Vaunce’s mom washed them, so it worked pretty well. Bringing the pitcher to their outdoor table, he gave the kitten to Lilith and started to pour out glasses for everyone. Lilith squeaked in excitement and sat down to start playing with the kitten enthusiastically.
“So what’s the deal with the cat?” Tim sent into the chat while picking up a glass.
“My brother brought her home yesterday without telling anyone, our parents were pretty angry about it, but we managed to get them to let us keep it. We haven't thought of a good name yet though”
“Oh neat, how about Clara?” Lilith sent into the chat, typing with one hand while cuddling the kitten.
“I’m not sure if I'm allowed to name her or not honestly” Vaunce shrugged, sipping at his water “Anyway are any of you free tomorrow? I found a section on building a forge with stone that can handle some of the lower temperature ore and I would like to start building it at the hideout so I can practice forging.” Vaunce glanced at Tim
“I should be,” Tim replied, having taken the kitten from Lilith “I’m honestly almost bored to death doing all the farming stuff. I know it's important for the city and the Kingdom at large, but by Life’s Luscious Tits it's boring. I do get 5 days off though so that’s nice.”
Vaunce almost spit out his water. “5 days??? That’s insane. What do you even do then?”
“I’ve been working on poetry and reading, and stuff at the hideout. At work i basically just mass till fields until they are satisfied with it, but it always tires me out pretty fast so I sleep mainly on days I work.” responded Tim, yawning widely into his fist.
“Wait, it tires you out? Like low on mana tired?” Lilith sent into the chat hurriedly
“Yeah” came the short response
Vaunce, Fred, and Lilith stared at him, while Bryce just snorted while taking the kitten from Tim.
“Your mana reserves are ridiculous compared to us, how much land are you tilling to get tired that fast? In school you literally never complained about low mana reserves” sent Lilith continuing to stare at Tim
Tim just shrugged under the scrutiny he was experiencing.
Ding
Vaunce's speaker-watch made the sound of an incoming message.
“Sure, your friends can come over; especially since I know they are probably there, but that's fine. We know you had plans to go out today and we did stop you from going anyways. We will be home soon. Also did you come up with a good name for that cat? You dad says it needs a name or he's gonna throw it out”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Quickly sending back the name Clara he closed the message and relayed to the group that the kitten’s name was now officially Clara.
Spending the rest of the time messing around with the kitten, making tiny balls of mana for it to chase around, and just hanging out until everyone had to go; Vaunce thought to himself that it was a pretty good day off. He definitely felt more relaxed than before, and he had made plans with Tim and Bryce to meet at the hideout tomorrow to work on the stone forge. Bryce normally had work, but the owner of the Jewelry/Accessory shop he worked at was traveling to another kingdom for trading. So Vaunce asked him to come and make some of the more delicate tools he would need since they were expensive. Plus glass made from mana was much stronger and resilient that any non-magical metal, it was just normally expensive. That wasn't the issue here, since Bryce could just pour the mana into molds and make the tools needed himself.
Watching everyone leave, Vaunce was glad that he had made friends with them all, even if they were a bit weird; but so was he, so it was okay. Putting Clara on his shoulder, he walked to the training area. He wanted to practice his mana manipulation a bit more while everyone was out, because although his parents forbid him from it; He sorely wanted to try using void aligned mana.
Calming his thundering heart, he focused on how it felt to wield the other four elements. Earth always felt stable and unmoving, like a forested mountain protecting animals for the elements. Fire always felt like a beam of sunlight, warming the skin on a pleasant day. Air felt like taking a deep breath of wind after having walked out of a musty cave or swamp. Water felt like the rushing water of a river, always moving and changing shapes. His void aligned mana never felt like those things, despite the fact that he transformed it into the other types so he could use them. It felt like walking alone at night, and seeing a person in the corner of your eye, but turning you see nothing but shadows. It felt like the hair raising on the back of your neck from something unnatural staring at you from behind. It felt like the beckoning into the darkest part of the woods, where parents have told children long missing not to play. It was the feeling of silence, the unknown, and fear mixed with darkness, but it was not shadows. For that would be too simple for someone to know and lose that fear.
Feeling unnerved, Vaunce pushed away at his fear, hiding it deeply. This was a part of him and he should be familiar with all parts of himself. He slowly pulled at it, feeling that if he was slow enough, the feeling would disappear. Slowly, he felt the mana forming on his palm, shrouding it in the fading darkness of the evening. When he had a tiny ball the size of his fingernail, he stopped pulling. Remembering what his brother had said about spell shapes, he focused. The ball started to change its shape, expanding until it became a dark colored bubble. Vaunce sighed in relief. He had always thought using void aligned mana was dangerous considering how his parents and anyone who knew reacted, but he didn’t feel it was that dangerous with his level of skill.
Hearing hissing, Vaunce quickly broke his focus. Looking around he saw Clara hiding under the table, backing away as far as she could. Vaunce focused and made the void mana dissipate, reaching out to calm Clara as much as he could. Picking her up and walking inside he thought about what had just happened and the emotions he had felt. He didn’t feel like anything had changed, besides Clara hissing and obviously being afraid. Wondering to himself where he could get more information on his void aligned mana, he resolved to ask his parents about it sometime after he built the forge at the hideout.
His parents arrived home with Wade and made dinner for all of them. Once he helped clean up and had taken care of Clara’s needs, he walked into his room to study in preparation for tomorrow.
“Making a stone forge is good for weaker metals of the mundane type. Copper, Silver, Tin, and Softer types of Iron can all be processed in a stone forge if the stone is of the right variety. It is recommended that someone of at least decent earth aligned mana, and sufficient control, make the stone with mana instead of trying to carve it from a mountain or quarry.”
Looking over the instructions, Vaunce was thankful that Tim had agreed to help him. Otherwise he was not sure he had the capacity to do it all in one go like the book recommended. Feeling himself getting fatigued, he decided to do one more check to make sure his backpack was filled with all the supplies they would need. Making sure it was all there, Vaunce heard the door slightly open and Clara walked in, using his leg to climb onto the bed to fall asleep on his pillow. Vaunce chuckled and laid down next to her, falling asleep.
Feeling a pressure on his head, Vaunce woke up and saw darkness. Startled, he put his hands over where his eyes would be and felt a fuzzy sensation. Realizing it was Clara, he picked up the kitten and placed her limp form on his pillow before getting up and getting dressed. He glanced over at the soundly sleeping kitten before walking out and grabbing something to eat before it was time to go meet up with Tim and Bryce. Eating quickly he grabbed his backpack and waved to his mom, who was the only other one that woke up this early.
Ding
Glancing down, Vaunce saw his mom’s message saying to be home before it got dark out and waved to show he understood. The hideout was a good 30 minutes of walking into one of the forests that was kept for animal preservation. This forest was surrounded by cities and towns, so not many animals were in it due to the proximity of humans. The fresh air relaxed Vaunce, and he felt the tension his body had been holding in since last night’s incident with Clara release. He would ask about it when he got home.
Walking into the forest, he saw Tim and Bryce standing at where the path forked to go to different cities. To the north was Felker and to the south was Mehnus. Vaunce had never been to either one but he had heard they were pretty much just farming towns. Waving Vaunce walked up as Tim began to form a spell shape. After they had started coming here, the five of them had agreed to keep the hideout secret by using mana to erase their tracks and make it harder for others to follow them. Tim normally did this by making it so they left no tracks in the earth and passed through the forest quietly. Bryce usually created a thin glass veil around them that was just big enough to bend light to make them seem more like a blur than people. Clumping up into a tight group, they walked deeper into the forest towards their hideout. Finally arriving, they ducked into an opening Tim created in a seemingly innocent tree. It had a small opening that had a ladder cut into the inside leading down. Entering first, Vaunce climbed downward until he arrived in the spacious front room that was their hideout. Their hideout had been their haven for doing things that required privacy and for messing around away from their parents and expectations. Each of them had a room for sleeping and privacy. There was an area that was used for storage, which even contained a cold box that Vaunce and Fred made together. The coldbox didn’t work as well as those that professional enchanters made, but it was enough to keep some water cold and food somewhat fresh, if a bit stale. Lastly it had two big rooms that were used for training and production; either using mana, or more mundane training of swords and other normal weapons. Vaunce was really the only one that used the production room, but Tim had plants that he was growing for Alchemical experiments.
Hearing a pair of footsteps follow him down the ladder, he turned around and yawned widely. Tim and Bryce joined him in the front room and they all began to send messages into their local group chat for the hideout.
“Okay are we ready to start? The book recommends one complete piece in this style” pointing at the book, Vaunce showed the design that the book recommended before walking to the area they had set out for the forge.
“Yeah let me just start with digging another air vent specifically for the chimney” Tim responded getting to work.
“Let me see the book and ill start making the tools so we can hopefully be finished today, i can’t control earth mana so ill be useless on that front” sent Bryce, receiving the book as Vaunce handed it to him.
With rising anticipation, they started working on their assigned tasks. Reinforcing the air vent, walls, floor, and ceiling, they focused on bringing the stone together just how the book showed. There were no flaws, but Tim put in lines to make it look like brick because he thought it looked better that way. Bryce made tongs and an assortment of tools the book showed, unsure of which ones would actually be useful. They worked late into the afternoon, only stopping for lunch and then going right back to work.
Beep beep
Looking down at his speaker-watch, Vaunce saw his alarm was going off saying it was time to head home. He waved at the others and motioned that they had to go, else he would get in trouble for being late. They nodded and moved towards a cleared area near the ladder. Tim put his hands on Bryce’s and Vaunce’s shoulders, and suddenly Vaunce could feel the fresh breeze of the forest brushing over his sweat-ridden skin. He gave a thumbs up to Tim and they started walking back to their homes.
‘Walking’ spells always impressed Vaunce. They allowed for travel through the elemental mana in the environment, meaning you could bypass walls, and anything else that would normally obstruct you. The elements had various different types and were accomplished in different ways. Earth walking was by far the most common since it was simple and allowed you to move your body through the earth to another part of the earth within your max distance. This was the one Tim had used because he was good with earth mana, and they had been in the underground hideout they had built. There was also Water walking but it was mainly only used for ships that could afford a water mage that was able to use it with any proficiency, since the water had to be continuous as well as the amount of area they needed to move was massive. Fire walking was really only talked about from a research perspective and in story books. Since there wasn't really a fire that burned continuously or an area that was always on fire, it was almost useless to try. There wasn't enough fire mana in the air naturally to rely on. Air walking was very dangerous, or so Vaunce had heard. Vaunce had been told that it was essentially flying, and if you didn't have wings or a way to float, you would fall to your death since for the air mana to be dense enough you had to be above the clouds. Under the clouds was a mix of air mana and earth mana, which is why you couldn't use the air.
Feeling his shoulder get slapped, Vaunce was pulled out of his thoughts to see Bryce and Tim waving at him as they split off towards their homes. He waved back and continued to walk towards his house, wondering what was for dinner.
Walking into his house he saw his parents talking to someone. He walked into the kitchen as his mother noticed him. Getting up she waved him over to a counter where they had a specialized device that used fire mana to keep food, and anything placed under it, warm. Pulling the top off, Vaunce saw beans and other assorted foods, and quickly realized they were tacos. He quickly made 4 tacos and his mother waved him to go off into his room.
Walking to his room, he found Clara following him as he closed the door most of the way. Leaving it open just enough so that Clara could leave the room if she wanted to, he sat down at his desk and started scrolling the Internet on his speaker-watch. The development of the Internet had sped up considerably and it seemed like you could do pretty much anything on it now. Nothing interested him more than forging thought, and he spent the rest of the night reading “The Art of Forging” before finally going to sleep in anticipation for continuing his apprenticeship tomorrow. Falling asleep in his bed with Clara on his chest, he sighed in contentment about how his days off had gone and how the forge building had gone in the hideout. With a bit more work and some transportation of materials, he could start practicing forging to begin laying the framework of making his own technique. As he lay in the darkness, he heard a small squeak before he felt a small breeze wash over him and then he was asleep.