Arras, had done just about all he could on his part. He wasn't exactly magically depleted, but he had a distinct lack of sleep coursing through his being, and that wasn't very conducive to existence. Frankly, he was impressed with himself for even conversing with his frazzled mind.
Arras practically collapsed a few seconds after he walked down the stairs. Yes, down the stairs, because he didn't even bother opening the door with his transformation magic, he just created platforms for himself via force magic and walked up onto the roof. Perhaps, if he had been slightly more awake, he would've realized he could've just opened the door by using force magic instead.
Speaking of force magic, even in his sleep deprived haze, Arras could not deny the objective usefulness of such an ability. Despite really wanting to learn Common, Arras didn't have faith in his ability to do it in a matter of five days. There would always be time after the event to learn more, but as he had been warned prior, if he wanted things to go smoothly he likely should focus on other forms of magic.
As such, Arras currently had his sights set on the refining of his offensive magic. Or well, at least as far as he could set his sights while on the floor and barely awake. Ironically enough, he seemed to have collapsed in the exact same position that he had the last time. Well, if he could sleep there once, he could sleep there again...
...
Once again, Arras overslept. This time however, the consequences were not nearly as dramatic.
His eyes very slowly fluttered open, and it was then that Arras realized his sleep schedule had very suddenly been thrown quite out of whack. The sun outside had almost fallen completely, and Illia herself was currently quietly snoozing with her wing draped over himself... Just out in the middle of the floor.
Perhaps he should wake Illia just to let her know how much he appreciated her? ...The thought occurred that he'd probably be able to show his appreciation more so by not waking them up to begin with. And in order to not risk that, he figured he shouldn't move... That was fine with Arras, because he didn't need to move in order to practice with force magic. Well, his tails writhed around a little bit, but that wasn't quite a deal waker.
So far, Arras hadn't really felt any issues with his usage of force magic, but that was because he was inexperienced and inept in the field. There would obviously be better ways to do it than what he had already come up with. Arras didn't have the hubris to believe that, and he would be right about that assumption regardless.
Even without direct comparisons to make via reading, Arras could already tell his force magic was lacking. Despite being, in theory, the easiest magic to work with. In comparison to any other kind of magic that Arras could use, besides transformation magic, it was his slowest to materialize. Whereas Arras could probably create a fireball and send it flying all within a single thought, in order to use a single instance of force magic he needed to jump through multiple hoops.
First, he needed to visualize what exactly he wanted the magic to form into, secondly, he had to manually construct its shape, and that was difficult. The further he tried to make something the more difficult it would be. He'd ran into that issue when he first tried to use it to begin with. Lastly he needed to keep it stable, more so than any other spell, barring metamorphosis. If he lost control of it the shape would simply unravel and become useless. Meanwhile, a fireball was "ball of flame there, boom." There was, obviously, more to it than that, but that was effectively the amount of mental energy a fireball took him.
So, OBVIOUSLY, Arras figured he was doing something wrong. Which was to be expected with his maybe ten minutes of practice. The first thing he would do to correct these issues? Practice, practice some more, practice with a practice on top. Business as usual.
So, that was Arras's next few hours. Blind trial and error because he didn't wish to wake Illia. It may not have been the best way to go about things, but Arras would be lying to himself if he didn't find the difficulty of it enjoyable. Books were a wonderful thing, hubs of knowledge and incredible creations of dedication and passion... But... They did make it a bit too easy in his opinion. He wouldn't ever choose to spurn them, but if he had the chance to give himself a challenge... Well, why wouldn't he?
...
Arras wasn't quite sure when he'd fallen asleep last night, but it had been some time after the sun had gone down completely. Now, he once again woke to the rising sun. Now he felt as if overslept, and he was dying to burn off some excess energy. Illia was also gone, so he figured he'd once again work on his force magic. He did have all day after all...
First things first, Arras had trialed and errored the hell out of his abilities the night before. And so far, he'd managed to work out two kinks in the method. The first and second "steps" that he had to take, had now merged into one. A change of mindset was all that required. Imagine the shape, and then construct it, had now become, manifest the object like any other spell. It occurred to Arras that he may have been a little bit too far off his usual mindset after having worked with transformation magic for so long, but it should be fine now as far as he was concerned.
Unfortunately, Arras hadn't quite worked out the final issue. Force magic was certainly an interesting concept, but so far it only seemed to be useful in his immediate vicinity. With the reason for that being, that making any actual use of it at a distance where he'd be able to use other forms of magic was so incredibly inefficient that there was no possible way to justify it.
An interesting part of force magic that Arras had noticed, was that due to the lack of any other affinities affecting the magic that composed those spells, it was actually possible to "recycle" the magic that went into such spells. While force magic did take considerably more magic to make work when compared to other spells, it still ended up being more efficient because you were able to reuse most of the magic that went towards the spell to begin with. At least, that held true for as long as it was still close to you.
When force magic was used at a distance, it became EXCEEDINGLY difficult to reuse that magic. Not to mention the magic already lost in the trip from Arras to where he wanted to cast a spell to begin with. If manipulating earth at range took maybe.. Half a percent out of a hundred percent of Arras's magic to make it work, then a force magic construct at a distance would take two percent. Unjustifiable, outrageous. It NEEDED to be corrected.
So it was, that his focus was completely wrested from any other part of his day. Even despite his growling stomach, his body informing him of the need for other actions, this simple deficiency in this new form of magic that he had picked up would not stand with Arras. It wouldn't be until Illia flew in much later in the day that he stopped to take a break at all.
...
"God Arras, were you planning on starving yourself to death!?"
"...No, I was just close to-"
"Yeah! Real close to collapsing from hunger, holy hell!"
"Illia, I'm fine." Arras did his best to reassure his irate friend, but there was no reprieve from their concern.
"Nope, absolutely not, we're going out for dinner no ifs ands or buts, I don't care about whatever it was you still had to do but you're not doing it until you've eaten!"
"Illia, I'm serious."
"And so am I!"
Arras was about to fire back with a retort, but the thought occurred that she was only looking out for his best interests.
"...Alright, but I need to head back to the Baron's manner in about..." Arras gazed over at the clock, numbers were a pretty interesting concept, not too difficult to understand, and it wasn't like he needed to know the rest of the language to know what numbers did. "Two or so hours."
He didn't have an exact time, but he'd been told "end of the day", so it should be about right to head over when the sun was going down, no?
...
For the record, dinner was pleasant... Outside of how hungry he'd been waiting for the food anyways. Arras wasn't even aware of how much he'd wanted food until he actually smelled it. Somehow, he'd been ignoring his own stomach effectively twisting in on itself. It had been a good... He wanted to say, twenty hours since he last ate? So he hadn't even taken much time to appreciate the taste of his food like he normally would.
After incessant pleas from Illia for Arras to take better care of himself, he promised that he would do just that and was finally given his own free will back. By now, he figured he had about an hour left...
His first thought was to simply resume practice with force magic, because he still hadn't been able to circumvent the third issue, but on second thought it may be better to just read about the proper method. There was also the fact that he couldn't trust himself to not go into a trance when he began to practice, which would end up being quite awkward if he made himself late.
So, something something advice Illia had given him, always be fashionably early? Well, he wasn't sure if an entire hour was considered fashionable... But it was what he saw as his best option at the moment. So, without hesitation, he followed that specific course of action.
It didn't take him long at all to arrive, he had the town memorized at this point. The entire place at that, no shortcut or alleyway had escaped his notice. As such, he had quite the shortcut to take. When compared to being escorted, this was a good ten or fifteen minutes faster, and he quite liked that. Even if it did result in the occasional scare for somebody else, well, they'd be fine.
In short order, Arras arrived at the gates. His presence was well known among the guards by now, so he was allowed in with little issue. Well, he was allowed in the courtyard anyways. Actually entering the manor took a little longer. Pennsworth had to be informed, for some reason. Arras very much detested this whole colonial society process of doing things. But, as he had noted before, they had cool stuff that made putting up with it worth it.
It didn't take too much longer from there, and after he was inside it was smooth sailing from there.
...
"I had figured you would be arriving somewhat soon. So instead of boring you with my presence, you will simply be escorted by one of the guards."
"Thank you."
The Baron did not respond. He merely waved Arras off.
Arras, for his part, simply assumed that the man had work to do. Pennsworth seemed to never miss out on a chance to chat with him, despite his clear aversion to the Baron. If he was choosing to not do as such, they likely just had other things to do instead. Regardless of his musings, Arras was here for a reason.
Once again, he was led through the manor. This time to a still yet unseen part of it. Well, it wasn't really "unseen" any more for obvious reasons, but that didn't matter. At last, Arras came face to face with Jakobs. The guard who had escorted him bowed, first to Jakobs, and then Arras himself, taking his leave immediately afterwards.
"Hello."
Arras just felt at ease using the same greeting. At this point, he felt it to be a bit redundant, but if it's not broken, don't fix it, no?
"I see you've arrived somewhat early, Arras."
"I figured I might as well. If I had started practicing again I'm not sure I'd have gotten much else out of it by the time the sun went down."
"Hmm... Well, Mrs. Nilliea is almost finished. You lit quite the fire under her yesterday, it's not often that she puts this much effort into a single work. Especially with our given time constraints..."
"...? What do you mean?" Arras tilted his head up at the boy, there was something he'd said that didn't quite sit well with Arras.
"I mean she's doing more then she normally would-"
"No, you mean to tell me that you're not always doing your best?"
"...I, suppose so? Sometimes there simply isn't enough time to do as such."
"..."
"It's simply a way of life. Consider yourself lucky that Mrs. Nilliea is giving you her best."
That just didn't sit well with Arras. It was one thing to work for yourself, but to offer your services to another and not give your best...? That just sounded... Wrong. He didn't ask any more questions, and instead cut off the link. Though, he didn't have to wait for long.
With an exuberant cry, the woman emerged from behind the door with gusto! Flinging it wide open with one arm and proclaiming something that Arras couldn't understand. She almost trampled Arras('s force barrier) before she stopped mid step at the words of her apprentice. She looked down, and Arras similarly didn't waste much time.
"Hello."
"Ahah, you'll have to allow me to apologize. I did not realize you would be here quite yet, but this is fine! Come along Arras, we may get you outfitted right this moment."
"...Before that." Arras remained still.
"Hm?"
"Your... "Apprentice", tells me that you do not often put your best work forward." He hadn't asked any more questions of Jakobs, because he had wanted to ask the woman herself. "May I ask why?"
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It wouldn't do to jump to conclusions, so as he had done so many times before in his short life, Arras would research and learn.
"Hm? Did they tell you that now? Well, I suppose it matters not. How should I put this... I do not often do my best work because often times, people simply have no need of it. That or they do not recognize the true value of pushing ones own work to its limits. When we spoke, what I heard from you was passion for your craft, a thing that I can respect. So, you ask me why I do not do my best work at all times? It is simple, some, simply do not deserve it."
Arras couldn't help but notice her constant smile, it was both endearing and off putting. "Now! Come along, I've created quite the piece of work for you my fine acquaintance!"
He hesitated for a moment, but nodded and followed after Aria as he ruminated on what she'd said. Others... Not being worthy of your best? Well... If your best was more than what people needed, why give it? It was a fair point, and thus his worries had been extinguished.
"Now, this is quite the compact piece of magic! You're rather lucky the budget was large, otherwise even with your rather stable spell I'm not sure I'd have been able to fit five enchantments into this artifact!"
"...Five enchantments?" He asked a moment after he once again climbed up onto a table. What exactly were these "enchantments"?
"Four different spells all infused into this artifact. It was a rather tight fit, if I were to explain this in a way that those inexperienced could understand... You might say it's a sort of point system. This particular artifact had a capacity of twenty five points, your metamorphosis spell took up seven points, the size adjustments took six, the auto repair took five. I had expected to be working with a spell that would've taken up just about half of the available "points", so I had figured nothing else would fit, but you did surprise me!"
"I... I apologize, I'm rather unfamiliar with most of this terminology."
"Hmmm, your clothes will fix themselves, you'll be able to activate your metamorphosis spell without extra difficulty as long as it's supplied with magic, and of course, your clothes being able to change shape. Make sense?"
Arras found himself nodding subconsciously. This human was quite agreeable. "Yes, thank you."
"Now! As I was saying!" Aria snapped her fingers, and in her hand appeared a black and red bow tie. With red being the main color, and black splotches having been tastefully placed across it. "I was able to fit a few additional enchantments within this artifact because it had taken less "points" than I expected to work with your spell. Those enchantments being physical strengthening, and a magic refinement spell. For the physical strengthening, it took four, and the refinement enchantment took three. Ah, before you say anything, the refinement simply maximizes the efficiency of the enchantments, so they will take less magic to activate."
Arras could only nod in response, she had done a rather good job of explaining everything. Also, the mention of physical strengthening being part of the artifact... The prospect somewhat excited Arras. He knew he was bereft of the skill to make use of that magic, so... It could actually be rather invaluable for him. Had this human taken the fact that his race could barely use strengthening magic into account?
"Now, hold still would you?"
Arras did as instructed, and held still. Even when he felt like jumping away as her hands got closer... And closer... And...
And she backed off after having held the bow against Arras's chest. It seemingly attached without any further requirements.
"Wonderful, now simply let your magic flare and bind the artifact to yourself."
Arras paused for a moment, what exactly did they mean by letting his magic flare...? He mulled it over for a moment, before coming to a conclusion. A rather obvious one after he actually thought of it at that.
Arras let his aura flare up for the first time in a good long while. Curiously enough, it felt weaker than the last time that he had used it. That couldn't be right, could it? Magic didn't leave a creature once it used up its reserves, it just... Took time to recover. Capacity never went down, only up. So now that he took a good census of the magic he held... Arras found it rather worrying that this was at least two and a half times less than what he had felt back in the forest at the time he assumed he had grown his third tail. But, not like he could do much about it.
"Perfect, now, if you would activate the metamorphosis spell?"
Arras initially attempted to do the spell himself, but before he went through with it he realized he was meant to use the one already within the artifact... There was just a slight issue with that.
"...How?"
"Ah, of course, it's simple, worry not. Simply imagine activating the spell without using any of your own magic."
"...If you say so-" A moment later, Arras began to feel his body contort, which was actually horrifying when you weren't expecting it to happen. Fortunately enough, it was the exact same spell he'd used a dozen or so times by now, but by the end of it he was still panting in terror.
"Wonderful, just as I envisioned it!"
So, there he stood, once again on the table, except now actually wearing clothes. It was actually somewhat similar to what he'd seen the Baron wearing, but with a color scheme a bit more than far removed. Pairing with his hair, Arras's outfit was primarily red, a long coat which draped down a little more than half way over his legs. Speaking of his legs, his pants were plain black with a slight opening for his tails to poke out of. They ended up holding his coat up, only very slightly though. It didn't do nearly enough to even approach ruining the outfit. Regardless of all of that, his coat did more than enough to make up for the mediocrity of his lower wear.
Intricate patterns of flowers lined Arras's shoulders down to his chest, a pure white striking against the dull red beneath it. At both the center of his coat and the end of his sleeves was where the black of his outfit rested, those same patterns intrinsically tied to the darkness. Right below his neck rested a bow similar to the one that he had donned moments ago, yet instead of being colored seemingly at random, this one was primarily red with a black center.
Arras... Would not consider himself a creature that cared for fashion... But, he did not outright detest his appearance. So in other words, he found himself to be dressed well. In other words, he found himself stunning.
"...Incredible."
"I see you are quite enamored! But, we're not finished yet. There's still one more thing you need to see before leaving."
"Okay, what should I do?"
"That's certainly a change of tone." Aria noted slightly amused. "Simply deactivate the spell, just need to make sure the bow's are working properly."
Arras nodded, somewhat awkwardly cause he wasn't used to this form quite yet, and well, with a basic inference, he willed the spell to end. This time, he braced himself, and didn't get blindsided by his form changing at the whim of another source that wasn't himself.
Curiously enough, the bow tie was now gone from Arras's chest. But Aria was still appraising something on him?
"Ah, good! I wasn't sure if it would split properly, I haven't tried something like this before."
Arras tilted his head at her, what did she mean by split properly...?
"Take a look at your tails."
Arras blinked, but did as instructed. This was something that he was... Slightly less enthused with when compared to his previous attire, but maybe it would grow on him? He wasn't quite sure...
Resting on each of Arras's tails was a separate bow, curiously enough they each took on different patterns, the bow on his middle tail the same as the one that he'd initially put on, yet the bows on his right and left tails respectively were primarily red and black like the one on his outfit had been.
"...It's alright, I suppose." Arras relented after a moment. Not the worst thing he could imagine, couldn't even feel it either, unlike his clothes which had been somewhat grating.
"I suppose that's adequate praise from one as reserved as yourself." Aria's ever present smile didn't weaken for even a moment, but it seemed as if it was time for her to go. "Very well, please do enjoy your new outfit Arras, I will be off to claim my compensation. Perhaps if we meet in the future, you may show me the spells you claim you may improve further."
Within short order, Aria was out of the door and quickly being pursued by her apprentice. This now left Arras with of course, the lingering question of,
What in the world am I supposed to do now?
...
There was a deep pit of dread in Arras's stomach that he couldn't quite work out, maybe it was the knowledge that he'd have to hold his transformation spell for about seven hours? No, his artifact would be able to manage that without much issue... Or was it that Illia was in a seperate carriage?... No... That wasn't it either, he always knew he could strike up a mind link at this range even if it would've been horrendously magic inefficient. No... The reason he felt so... EUghgahhh... Was the carriage itself.
At this point, the only thing keeping Arras from just walking alongside the carriages was because he had a "reputation" to uphold. What reputation?! It certainly wasn't his! But, he supposed that was the entire point of this specific excursion.
Every single bump in the road, or sudden movement reminded Arras of his oh so dreaded thunder storms. Unknown impacts which served to send him flying every single time they occurred. It wasn't quite as bad as those aforementioned storms, but it still struck that same irrational fear which Arras held in his heart. He even knew it was irrational too! Nobody he'd ever known had been so scared of things like this. So it was, that Arras had to ask himself why he couldn't just GET, OVER, IT! After his heart almost burst out of his chest for the twentieth time in that hour alone.
He thought it might've been a bit easier to stomach if he could perhaps use his transformation magic and slip into a different state of being more suited to the bumpy path, but he needed to save magic for the gathering.
"T&e (i$y !s ^ith!n si(h!!"
Fortunately for Arras, the ride wouldn't be too much longer as his coachman so graciously announced. Or well, at least he thought that was what he had said. His understanding of Common was still... Quite poor. Though, the fact that he had any understanding of the language at ALL within the span of a short few days was just as impressive as his learning of a metamorphosis spell from scratch in a little over a week.
Illia, bless her heart, had done her utmost to assist when Arras expressed interest in learning the most he could before the event. So, alongside his force magic, Arras practiced relentlessly day in and day out. The one limiting factor to that being that as long as he was with Illia she wouldn't let him overwork himself, even if he had wanted to.
As he reminisced over these past events in an attempt to not explode from stress, the carriage grew closer and closer... Until eventually, it had finally stopped at long, long last.
There was a cacophony of voices outside, a jumble that Arras wouldn't even bother trying to understand, and a moment later the door to his carriage was opened.
"%lea$e st#p o^t$!de $ir."
Arras paused for a moment, before figuring out that they'd said "please step outside sir." So, he obliged. Taking slow steps towards the exit of the carriage as he gathered his bearings.
Once he reached the door, Arras activated the spell built into his artifact... And once again took his more human shape. This time, for the foreseeable future. Already, he could feel the magic in his own artifact begin to drain, but it should last for about four hours or so before he had to begin drawing on his own reserves to keep the spell active.
"Walk with me Arras." Pennsworth, dressed even more regularly than normal, strode past Arras toward the city gates. Arras, for his part, simply nodded and did as told. It wasn't until a few moments later, that Illia descended onto his shoulder.
"So, are you ready?"
"No, but with the time constraints I had I'm about as ready as I can be."
"That's fair." Her beak twisted into a slight smile and she leaned against Arras's neck. "You know, you don't look half bad, but I still think I'd rather be with you in your normal state."
"The feeling is mutual." Arras raised his hand and lightly scratched at Illia's head. It was definitely weird being about ten times larger than her... "But, not much we can do, no?"
"Mhm, no big deal though... Hey, Arras, you'll be alright won't you?"
"Of course I will. I've been through worse than dealing with a bunch of obnoxious creatures."
"...You know, you might be underestimating just how obnoxious they can get."
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