Dorian’s rise to wakefulness was a slow one. Warm and comfortable, his mind gradually drifted up through the many layers of consciousness, drifting like a feather upon a rippling pond.
He lay there, eyes closed, for what seemed an infinite amount of time. After the shock and stresses of the past few days, it was a wonderful way to wake. Gradually the events returned to him. They were concerning of course, but much more manageable when they weren’t all dumped on him at once.
His stomach growled. reluctantly, he opened his eyes. Again in that sparsely furnished stone room, his last hope that this might all be an elaborate dream died.
Dorian’s attempt to stand resulted in him sliding down the side of the bed like a worm, back leaning against the frame. He blinked and rubbed his eyes.
“Right, I suppose I’m not entirely awake yet.”
His bed didn’t reply.
Dorian looked down, realizing he was still in the same clothes as before. He sniffed his robe. “Thank goodness for cleanliness enchantments.”
Having heard the noise as she passed by, Kari peeked her head in. Dorian met her eyes, waving a good morning.
Grinning, she thudded down the hallway. “Daddy, daddy, he’s awake! Dorian’s finally awake!”
Dorian heard a distant chuckle, as well as what might have been an admonishment about running over stone floors.
His stomach growled again, compelling him to move from his seated position. With a soft groan Dorian stood, leaving the room.
On his way to the dining area, he noticed the others’ beds were empty already. Sure enough, as he rounded the corner he spotted them all at the table, talking and snacking.
He smiled and waved. “Morning all. I’m just here for a quick bite, normally I do mana shaping exercises as part of my wakeup routine, but I’m just so hungry right now that I wanted to grab some food first.”
The chatter ceased as they all waved back. Hilmar quirked an eyebrow. “Oh? What kinds of shaping exercises?”
“Oh, nothing special. Just some true north finding divination type stuff, and then pulling water from the air and changing it in various ways.”
Hilmar chuckled. “If your skill with making that shelter wasn’t a one time thing, I imagine your ‘nothing special’ with unshaped water magic is quite impressive indeed.”
To Dorian’s relief, everything on the table looked at least vaguely recognizable, a far sight better than the last meal. He snagged what looked to be a bagel and slathered it with a nearby cream. The first bite bombarded his taste buds with pleasure, and he relished that bite before responding. “If you really want to see I can practice out here, I suppose.”
“If you don’t mind.”
Eira leaned forwards in her seat, smiling. “I’m quite interested as well.”
Dorian nodded silently, refusing to rush through his bagel. He took the last bite, chewed, swallowed, and wiped his mouth with a rough cloth napkin sitting on the table.
Conversation had ceased, and everyone was watching him expectantly. Dorian looked at Bari. “Do you and Kari have any issue with me drawing moisture from the air.”
Bari frowned. “No, why?”
“Just wanted to make sure you didn’t need to air to be wet for some reason or other, I know some species of frog die if the air is too dry.”
“Ah. A valid concern, when dealing with an unknown species. I appreciate your foresight, even if it was unneeded in this case.” Bari leaned back, swiveling his chair to better face Dorian.
Dorian stepped back from the table. He pulled a small iron rod, more of a needle, really, from a pocket within his robes. Placing it within the palm of his left hand, he began to concentrate. Using mental pathways built up into subconscious habits, as Dorian focused on the needle, mana began to flow out of his soul and into the needle, using his body as a physical pathway.
The needle shivered momentarily, then began to rise inexorably. As with the last ninety days of practice, the needle began to move, aligning itself with true North before ceasing.
Dorian released his focus, pocketing the needle and grinning. “I assume that’s not what you’re interested in, though.”
Bari shook his head. “No, no, it’s certainly interesting to see how a different culture uses magic. What did you call that? A shaping exercise?”
Hilmar raised a hand, speaking up quickly. “There are two types of actively cast magic. Shaped, and unshaped. Shaped magic uses hand signals, chants, finger motions and other handicaps to basically aid the soul in casting a particular spell. These handicaps often result in a very focused and inflexible spell form, unable to be adapted on the fly. As skill increases with a spell or genre of spells, a caster can begin to use fewer of these handicaps, and indeed remove them entirely, if you practice enough. This is known as unshaped magic, when the spell is essentially burned into your soul’s mana channels. It allows for a great deal of flexibility and is generally better, but the practice required to cast unshaped magic beyond the most basic of cantrips is generally not worth the time investment. Or at least that’s how Manemir, our country, teaches it.”
“Interesting. Our crystals, like the one you see in my forehead?” He pointed at the aforementioned crystal, emitting a gentle blue light. Everyone nodded. “We use these as spell foci. It’s somewhat like a cross between your two methods. We channel the mana, the crystal matrix does the casting, but with a small amount of training you can mentally activate different portions of the matrix to alter the spell toward a desired end.”
Upon hearing this, Dorian’s legs almost collapsed beneath him as he staggered backwards. The others were affected in a similar manner. “You-” he paused. “You can do that? We perform enchanting, and can engrave spells into an object. But it’s certainly not as compact as those crystals seem to be, and it definitely cannot conditionally modify itself. This is huge! How do they work? How are they made?”
Bari smiled sadly. “You must have forgotten. You were still quite tired, after all. You asked me this yesterday, and I’m afraid my answer must be the same today as it was then. I don’t know. The knowledge of their creation was lost, we only know how to use the ones that still remain.”
“Ah right, I remember now.”
Dorian paused, looking closer at the various crystals visible on Bari’s body. “Pardon me if this question seems odd but… are those crystals embedded in your skin? err, scales?”
An indecipherable emotion flickered across Bari’s face. “Indeed, it’s an aesthetic tradition among our people. The process is painless, and, if I do say so myself, quite striking.”
There was a moment of silence.
Dorian clapped his hands together, clearing his throat as he did so. “Right! I’ve pretty much mastered the wayfinding form by now, though it’s still a part of my morning routine.”
He could feel his cheeks reddening a little at the attention everyone was giving him. It’s not like his shaping was anything special!
“There’s some other shaping forms I’m working on but I’ll just skip those for now. I assume the water shaping is what you all want to see most?”
Nods all around the table.
Dorian exhaled, pushing down his nerves. He closed his eyes, and reached out with his mana.
Something not terribly well known was that one’s mana could form an extension of the senses. As Dorian’s mana expanded into the room around him, so too did his mental sense of the same space.
His will reached out. His soul reached out, mana flowing through well worn channels. Dorian extended his arm, closed his fist in thin air, and pulled.
Dorian opened his eyes as a bead of water coalesced before him. It was quite small, just a thimbleful, if that.
He rubbed his chin. “I might have forgotten that colder air carries less water, and it’s quite chilly outside.” Dorian was about to ask for a glass of water, when he noticed that the table had collectively misplaced their lower jaws. Even Jørgen seemed quite impressed.
“Are… you guys okay? It’s not that impressive, really.”
Eira managed to recollect her jaw enough to speak. “Dorian. You just-” She shook her head in amazement. “You just, using unshaped magic, pulled the moisture within an entire room straight out of the air.” She paused. “I didn’t even know that was possible!”
She turned to Hilmar. “Is it even possible?”
Hilmar frowned. “Conventional wisdom would say that no, unshaped magic of that scale and finesse is entirely heard of.”
He turned towards Dorian before continuing his thought. “Dorian, does your family have any potential history of bloodline links to a noble house of some kind? It’s quite possible that the reason you can perform actions like that relatively easily is due to a latent bloodline your family inherited long in the ancient past.”
Bari placed a hand on the table. “Excuse me, what is ‘bloodline?’ The translation isn’t quite carrying clearly.”
Dorian opened his mouth to answer, but Jørgen beat him to the punch. “Bloodlines refer to one or more inheritable magical abilities or other trait. In Manemir, you can’t even attempt to become a recognized house without one. As an example, Noble House Barden is known for the ease with which we can shape heat and concussive force. The strength of the ability varies, but the central line of a house always manifests it quite strongly.”
He grinned, placing a hand on his chest. “Like myself, of course.”
Hilmar rolled his eyes. “People aren’t really sure how bloodlines form, if they are indeed made at all. I’m sure Mr. Special here could shed some light on the matter, but I’d be surprised if he wasn’t under some kind of geas or enchantment that forbids discussing bloodline formation.”
Silence. The group looked at Jørgen. He looked back.
“…why are you all looking at me like that?” Jørgen rubbed his eyes. “Sorry, I must’ve dozed off. What were we talking about?”
“I see.” Bari leaned forward. “Never mind that. To clarify, these bloodlines are inheritable abilities mirroring those of magical creatures?”
Hilmar nodded.
Bari inhaled sharply.
“What is it?”
Hesitation. He looked around the table, gauging their expressions. “Ah. It’s nothing important, and pray I am wrong.”
Anxious for a change in topic, Bari turned to Dorian once more. “Oh! You were lifting that water this entire time.”
Dorian started, looking down. The thimbleful of water was indeed still floating before him. “Huh. So I was. I didn’t even notice.”
Attempting and failing to ignore what Bari had said, or rather, not said, Dorian reached out with his mana towards his glass of water. After a moment’s consideration, he also reached out towards the main jug.
The water within both raised into the air, and he siphoned them together into a single ball.
“Are you ready?”
Nods all around.
Dorian started off simple, at first. He turned the orb into a cube, a pyramid, a cylinder. He portioned the water into three parts, and then looped them through each other without touching, forming an impossible knot made of water.
Then he moved onto more difficult shapes. An apple, that one odd orange fruit sitting on the table, a pine tree, needles included.
With an effort of will and expenditure of mana, Dorian caused the water to boil. He then began to form art out of the rather large cloud of steam.
Sweat beaded his forehead. Steam is a good deal less dense than water, and was fighting to escape his control and expand into nothingness. Added to the difficulty was that precision control with formless magic was usually impossible below the scale of centimeters, and he was shaping clouds into statues of people.
At the edge of his ability to control, Dorian slowly lowered the temperature of the steam, turning it back into water and collecting it back into a ball. He paused, taking in the room.
Dorian looked at those seated at the table, he looked at the furniture, the art on the wall. He closed his eyes.
Keeping the image of the room fixed in his mind, Dorian turned the water to ice, attempting to make a sculpture of the room.
Dorian cracked one eye open, then opened both wide in surprise. It had worked!
Floating before him was a table, chairs, and people seated at them. Individual details were difficult to make out, but the people were quite clearly engaged and amazed in whatever they were looking at beyond the bound of the scene.
He placed the sculpture onto the table before collapsing in his seat.
For the third time this morning, silence. To Dorian it felt like the silence lasted forever and no time at all, though it was surely no more than ten seconds.
Hilmar shook his head in amazement, and threw his hands into the air. “That was amazing! How did you pull it off? I was watching closely and no shaped magic was used. Normally to get such detailed control you’d need to use a divination spell for the three dimensional spatial awareness, something near impossible to cast unshaped!”
He pointed at the sculpture, everyone at the table following the movement. “Look at this! Sub centimeter precision with his eyes closed!”
Dorian just smiled, somewhat embarrassed but also rather pleased. “I just learned to permeate the water with my mana, and then use that sixth sense to detect relative positioning. It’d work with any liquid I assume, though I’ve never tried with anything waterless before.”
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Hilmar made a noncommittal noise. “That shouldn’t be possible either, at least not in such detail. Just how good is your mana sense? I can only really detect solid objects and mana charges with mine.”
“Uh, hmm.” Dorian frowned. “I don’t actually know. I’ve never tried to measure my detection range or fidelity before.”
Bari entered the conversation. “On the topic of practice and measurements, I’ve actually arranged for safe transportation to our capital, Nidellia.”
Dorian only belatedly noticed that during the conversation, Bari had simply been intensely observing him, hand resting on lower jaw.
“They have excellent training facilities there, and exceptional research facilities. An Elder will be personally coming to retrieve you. She, and the Council by extension, are quite anxious to meet you!” Bari smiled.
Eira straightened in her seat. “We’re leaving so soon?”
“Indeed. We must learn how you pierced the barrier, and we don’t have the means to do so here.”
Jørgen turned to Bari. “What is her name, and proper form of address? I wouldn’t want to inadvertently cause offense to royalty.”
“Royalty? The translation is struggling a bit.”
“Ah. The head of a monarchy, the leader of a state?”
“I see, the meaning transferred now.” Bari shook his head. “She’s not actually royalty, though our Elders should be treated as such. In any case, she has no name. The proper form of address would be Elder, which goes for anyone on the council. Those of rainbow scale know which of their number you intend to address.”
He glanced at a device hanging off the wall, possibly a timekeeper of sorts. “There will be time later to go over proper protocol. For now, eat! Eat, rest and heal! I must leave for a time, I have maintenance to perform. Enjoy your meal!”
A chorus of goodbyes gently ushered him out the room, though Kari stayed behind.
Hilmar realized this as he turned back towards the table. “So, uh.” He turned towards her, scratching his arm as he did so. “How’ve things been?”
She glanced at him, then shrugged. A frown was present on her face, revealing rather sharp teeth within her reptilian mouth.
“Oh right, translation spell’s gone now.”
Hilmar turned to the rest of the table. “Ideas?”
Eira just shrugged back across the table. “Sorry Kari, can’t speak the local language yet.” So saying, she went back to eating.
Everyone else followed suit. Dorian could tell that the rest of the group wanted a private conversation, but the chance Bari could overhear in some way was just too high.
They ate in silence, aside from asking Hilmar if a given food was safe for human consumption. Kari, presumably bored or needing to go perform a chore, eventually left them to their meal, tail drooped despondently on the floor.
When the meal was finished, and everyone was leaning back in their chairs contentedly, Eira finally broke the silence.
“So… what do we do now?”
Hilmar’s response was slow in coming. “There might be a training room, or a library of some kind? I assume a library wouldn’t be useful due to the language barrier, though.”
Dorian shrugged, and spoke nonchalantly. “I wonder if we could go outside. I’d like to practice my shaping with more water.”
Though his tone was relaxed, his focused gaze and nod towards Hilmar were not. He hoped that Hilmar picked up on his desire to have a private conversation, preferably outside the bounds of Bari’s warding scheme.
Hilmar’s eyes narrowed, analyzing Dorian for a moment before he nodded back. “Indeed, I’d quite like to see that.”
The conversation died again and stayed that way, no one having the inclination to resuscitate it.
They sat in silence for an eternity. Eira eventually spoke again, scratching her arm. “It sounds like we won’t be going back home for awhile. Jørgen and I should probably teach you what we know of combat magic, though of course our education isn’t complete either.”
Jørgen frowned. “It’s quite possible that even with my noble education, you know more than I do. You are a year ahead, after all.”
When had they discussed this? Dorian could remember talking about his own education, but didn’t remember many details about the others beyond the direction of their studies. He leaned forwards. “Sorry to disrupt the flow, but uh. What year are you all in? I only remember general occupation being mentioned previously.”
“Ah!” She smiled. “Sorry, we must have talked about it while you still slept. I’m in my sixth year for combat training, Jørgen here is in his fifth, and Hilmar is in his fourth year.”
She paused. “You were… third year, right?”
He nodded.
Eira spoke ruefully. “Three years younger, and still with finer mana control than anyone else I know. At least it’s probably a bloodline ability, and limited mostly if not entirely to water. There’s still hope for us rubes yet!”
Before Dorian could respond with what would have hopefully been a sufficiently witty reply, Bari stepped back into the room.
“I’m back! Sorry for my absence, certain parts of the warding scheme require fairly active repairs to maintain functionality.”
“Ah, welcome back Bari.” Eira spoke as the others simply nodded in acknowledgement.
“We were wondering, is there some kind of training anywhere in this building? Jørgen and I would like to have an impromptu combat class with Hilmar and Dorian, seeing as we have combat training and they don’t.”
Bari nodded. “Indeed.” He pointed to a closed door to the left of the archway to the bedrooms, camouflaged with the stone and barely visible. “Through there and on the right is a training room, equipped with safety and dampening wards and the like.”
He rubbed his chin. “Would you mind if I follow? There’s a short test I’d like to run.”
Jørgen arched an eyebrow. “And what, pray tell, is this test?”
Bari smiled. “Nothing terribly difficult. I have access to a crystal that can gauge the size of your mana pool by having you pour your entire pool into it. I’m rather curious how large yours are.”
Hilmar inclined his head, not so subtly eyeing Bari. “I suppose that’s fine.”
“Great! If you’d follow me, then?”
Bari, still in the archway leading to the bedrooms, simply turned right and ran his palm along the edge of the door. Light flashed and it shuddered to life, near silently sliding into the wall. He strode through. Sharing glances, the others followed.
This hallway was near entirely identical to the hallway by the bedrooms, made of the same stone and proceeding near unnaturally straight. Bari didn’t walk for more than ten steps before turning right into an archway.
The room was fairly large, and despite being near spotless, Dorian felt a strong sense of disuse from it. A rack of various weapons hung on one wall, the only wall not entirely covered in padding. Other than the swords, spears, and other weapons hanging on the rack, the room was entirely empty of decoration or items.
Bari waved a hand against the edge of the arch. Dorian could feel a slight fuzziness in the air fade as the wards presumably deactivated or retreated, leaving even their low power state offline.
Bari strode forwards, crossing the room quickly. Another wave of his hand and a bit of the padding swung forwards, revealing a glass case embedded in the wall, containing a number of crystals. He removed one before resealing the case.
He turned around, addressing the group. “This is the testing crystal. It will glow based on the amount of mana flowing through it in a given moment, with the color shifting up the spectrum as it measures your total. Allow me to demonstrate.”
He waved a claw and Kari, previously unnoticed by the others, bounded across the room. The group leaned forwards, curious. When Bari nodded, Kari turned from him and focused on the crystal.
Nothing seemed to be happening at first, but suddenly the crystal began glowing faintly red, shifting up into orange over about five seconds.
Kari let out a gasp, and the crystal went out.
Jørgen raised an eyebrow. “That’s it? Red and orange?”
Bari frowned. “I’m not sure what you mean. She’s quite strong for her age, though her per second output is low.”
Dorian hmmed. “Is there a color below red?”
Now it was Bari’s turn to arch an eyebrow. “…of course. Red and orange were only the last colors the crystal glowed with. Can you not see the same colors we can?”
The group just looked at each other, somewhat nonplussed. Dorian spoke again. “You’ve used mind magic before. Could you maybe send me your memory of what it looked like?”
“Ah, sure. Just give me a moment. I’ll have to remove the translation crystal for this.” Bari reached up and plucked the crystal from between his horns, its light fading as he did so. He placed it into a pouch attached to his belt on the right side, rummaging around within.
Another crystal was removed from the pouch and snapped into place, floating between his horns.
As before, Dorian was overwhelmed with the sense of an alien mind brushing against his. Feelings and thoughts mixed between their minds, floating across the divide occasionally. A moment later, a large bubble, a memory, crossed the gap as the other mind withdrew. The bubble popped, and Dorian gasped as he relived a memory with senses not his own. Though the memory was fragmented and disjointed, damaged by his lack of mind magic training, it still worked!
Dorian’s eyes opened as the memory faded. “It’s true! Our eyes work differently!”
Bari smiled, having already swapped crystals again. “Intriguing. Something that might be worth investigating more deeply at the capital.”
He indicated the crystal, and Kari passed it back to him. “In any case, it seems you are capable of seeing the higher outputs, and so should still suffice just fine for our purposes.”
Bari held out the crystal. “Who would like to go first?”
Hilmar went first, the crystal emitting green light, brighter than Kari’s but not by much, before fading. Bari shifted from foot to foot after seeing that, giving what Dorian thought might be the Vrauden equivalent of a frown.
Jørgen went next, flashing rapidly through the color spectrum, reaching greenish blue before winking out. Dorian blinked, trying to get rid of the light’s imprint, still in his eyes.
Bari crossed his arms, silently watching as the group each took their turn.
Eira yielded to Dorian, waving at him to go first. Dorian’s light was certainly brighter than Hilmar’s, though not at all comparable to Jørgen’s. He reached green before running out of mana.
Eira, going last, now had the full attention of everyone in the room. Her output was brighter than Dorian’s, but not as bright as Jørgen. Red, then orange, yellow, green, light blue. It just kept going. And going. And going. Bari’s eyebrows climbed up, away, and off of his forehead as Eira’s light finally faded out, having reached dark blue before she ran out.
She reached towards Bari, handing the crystal back.
He looked at the group.
They looked back.
Bari opened his mouth as the look of surprise slowly faded. He clamped it shut again.
He hesitated. “So… how old did you say you were again?”
Hilmar spoke slowly. “Between eighteen and twenty one, still in school. I assume that translated?”
Bari moved as if to begin pacing, before stilling himself. He muttered under his breath, something about hatchlings, though Dorian couldn’t quite make it out. He turned, placing the crystal back in its enclosure.
“I must be going. Things to do, and I need to… think. Yes, I need to think about what I’ve learned. Enjoy your practice session!”
With a wave of his claw against the edge of the door, Bari was out and away before anyone could respond. Kari turned, presumably pondering whether to follow him or not. She nodded, presumably to herself, and then moved to sit in a corner of the room.
Dorian noticed the wards power back on, even more oppressive than before. He felt it as a faint pressure in his mind, and the air had a slightly fuzzy feeling. Presumably, Bari had reactivated the wards as he’d left the room.
She saw them looking, gave a toothy smile, and waved a claw. Realizing that Kari wanted to watch their training session, they put her out of their mind and focused on what Eira was saying.
Her hands were moving animatedly and a massive smile was plastered on her face. “Right. I’m gonna preface the actual fun stuff with a disclaimer real quick. Combat magic is not to be used save in self defence, modifying combat spells is dangerous without a trained professional to assist you, and don’t point the rod of force bolt at anything valuable.”
She looked around. “Though I suppose we don’t actually have magic missile rods, do we. Hilmar, you know enchanting. Could you potentially inscribe something like that?”
Hilmar frowned. “I don’t actually know the spell function. If you showed it to me I suppose it’d be possible, though I’d need to do some experimenting. I can guarantee it wouldn’t be compact, though, which might not work with our current situation.” He tilted his head, looking at Eira. “Why, though. Wouldn’t it be better to cast the spells ourselves rather than rely on a handicap?”
Jørgen answered the question before Eira had a chance to respond. “After proper training, yes, hand casting is generally better unless the item is of very high quality and actually improves the spell in some way. I ask you, however. How quickly can you cast a spell while a wolf or bear is charging at you? What if you fumble? What if it’s a new spell, and thus even harder to cast quickly and reliably? Eira and I have been practicing for at least three years now, you two have not. I’m doubtful of your ability to cast reliably while under duress.”
Eira removed an elastic band from a pocket and began compacting her long ebony hair into a ponytail. “While not necessarily as tactful as I would have been, Jørgen is fundamentally correct. Rings or maybe bracelets with shield and force bolt embedded within would be best, but I’m not sure if we’d be able to find something like that around here. Maybe in the capital.
“In any case, all that is irrelevant to the current situation. Can either of you two-” she looked at Hilmar and Dorian, “cast shield or force bolt already?”
They both shook their heads.
“Alright, we’ll start with that then. Since we don’t have any practice staffs, I’ll just show you by hand and we can go from there.”
The two looked closely as she began forming a force bolt. Eira did so as slowly as she could without the spell unravelling, hoping to give them plenty of time to observe the motions of her hands and the shape the mana was taking.
As she finished the spell, the bolt of kinetic energy flashed across the room, shedding light and a small amount of heat as it did so. Eira was rewarded with a soft thump as the energy of the bolt was deposited into the wall’s padding.
Kari applauded from the corner, a huge toothy grin plastered on her face.
She turned back to them. “That was just an orb, the simplest shape to cast, and the least lethal. A dart or needle shape would be more effective, able to cut as well as impart kinetic energy. Of course, modify the spell enough and it’s essentially a different spell. For example.”
Eira turned back towards the wall, hands moving in well practiced motions as she chanted softly. She swung her hand in an arc and a scythe of force leapt towards the wall as she finished casting. This one was quieter than the first, but Eira seemed quite pleased nonetheless.
“That was a force scythe. It works well for cutting unarmored targets, though it’s considered too lethal for self defense.” She paused, realizing her demonstration had gotten carried away. “In any case, did either of you get the spell form for force bolt from that?”
They both shook their heads. After several more examples and numerous failed attempts, Hilmar finally succeeded in casting the spell. It was weak, malformed, and died out before reaching the far wall, but it was technically a force bolt.
It took several more tries for Dorian, but he finally managed to succeed as well. “Whew! This is so much harder than shaping water is.”
Hilmar stuttered mid cast, his force bolt dying half formed. He turned to Eira. “What are the chances that Dorian could learn to use snow and water in combat, either for offense or defense? There’s plenty of it around, at least.”
Eira turned to Jørgen. He shrugged. “Much as I use shapeless fire magic, Dorian may find that works quite well. I believe it would be excellent for defense, but I doubt it would function offensively.”
Dorian tilted his head. “Why not?”
Jørgen snorted. “Spell disruption. If you reach for me with water tentacles or what have you, I could simply pulse unshaped mana into the water and disrupt your casting. I suppose you could hurl ice at people, but physical attacks like that aren’t terribly dangerous save for at large scale.”
He frowned. “I suppose if you had monstrous mana reserves you could hurl ice boulders, but that wouldn’t be effective save for in large scale combat.”
Eira interjected. “If he refines it enough, small unguided ice projectiles could be quite the effective distraction, if nothing else.”
“Hmm, true I suppose.”
Jørgen looked towards the door. “Bari said that outside was in this direction? Would you like grab some snow, and give it a try?”
Dorian just nodded.
The group left the training hall, waving to Kari as they did so. Turning right, they rapidly encountered the end of the hallway.
Here they ran into a problem. None of them could open the door.
Dorian turned, hearing a noise from behind. Kari had followed them, and was waving one crystal embedded palm at them.
She approached, waving her palm at the wall. The hidden door slowly slid into the wall, revealing an icy landscape of nothingness.
As the group stepped outside, Hilmar turned back and looked up. Bari’s house, facility, whatever it was, was embedded within a (hopefully) dormant volcano! Snow covered much of the slope, but near the top he could see bare rock.
Hilmar pointed this out to the others, who were suitably amazed. It didn’t last long though, as the group was quickly growing cold.
“C’mon, hurry up! It’s freezing out here!”
Dorian reached out once more with his mana, sinking his senses into the snow beneath them. He grunted, as a large circle of snow rose into the air around them.
Jaws dropped. Eira turned to him. “You can move that much at once?”
He nodded, concentrating fiercely to avoid losing control.
Jørgen rubbed his chin. “With that kind of scale, even a disrupted spell could still be quite dangerous, imagine if you heaved a tidal wave at someone!”
Sweat beaded Dorian’s brow. “I’d love to talk all day about how amazing I am, but this is quite heavy. Can we head back in?”
“Indeed!”
So saying, Jørgen turned and began heading back inside.
Dorian followed, compacting the snow into a more manageable tube as he did so.
---
Bari was seated in the dining area. He looked up, and his eyes went wide. Behind the group of young humans, the hallway was filled with snow! Looking closer, he quickly realized Dorian was lifting it all. The view was quite odd, a hallway sized tube of snow bending as it followed Dorian into the training room.
“Stranger and stranger.” Bari spoke in his own tongue, before sinking back into his ruminations.
---
Dorian placed the lump of snow in a corner, or at least tried to. It really was quite large, and took up about a quarter of the room.
The group stood around uncertainly for a short time, before Jørgen eventually spoke. “Right! Well I would like to test my fire against Dorian’s ice. Eira, could you show Hilmar shield? I think Dorian will profit more from learning to shape water faster, and combat practice is a good first step to that.
Eira nodded. Jørgen backed off to the wall nearest the door, and motioned for Dorian to line up across from him.
Nervously, Dorian acquiesced.
“So in a proper mage duel, it is appropriate to bow to your opponent as the signal to begin a fight. Fear not, I promise not to harm you. The wards wouldn’t permit more than minor bruising or burns anyways, even if I was to lose control.”
Dorian just nodded. At Jørgen’s signal he bowed, and the fight commenced.
Immediately Jørgen moved forwards, and a small burst of flame leapt at Dorian’s chest!
Almost without thinking, he reacted. His mana reached out, Dorian swung his arms, and a portion of the snow pile flew in front of Dorian!
The flames dispersed against the compact, snowy barrier.
“Excellent! Now try attacking me.”
Dorian punched the back of his shield, the motions helping to aid what was otherwise shapeless magic. Chunks of compressed snow flashed across the room, essentially balls of ice. Jørgen ducked and leapt, dodging all but one. The last broke upon a shimmering plane of force, summoned just in time to block it.
“Good. And now the gloves come off.”
A massive wall of fire blew across the room, avoiding the others but clearly targeting Dorian. Again, he instinctively reacted. The entire pile of snow lifted into the air as Dorian hurled it across the room. The inferno was quenched by the sheer mass of freezing snow, which continued unimpeded.
Jørgen gaped for a moment before summoning his shield once more, which held up for approximately half a second before shattering into glimmering lights. The snow plowed into him, knocking the breath from his lungs and slamming him against the wall.
The wards and the enchantments on his robes saved him from most of the force, but it was still enough to stun him. He shook his head like a dog shedding water. Looking around, Jørgen realized that he was buried up to his head in a pile of snow. Dorian stood astride the pile, three sharpened spikes of ice floating above one palm.
Dorian looked surprised to be there, and his voice was shaky as he spoke. “Do you yield?”
Jørgen blinked. Then he laughed. He laughed and laughed and laughed. The rest of the room joined in. The humans laughed, trying to cope with the unreality of the situation they’d found themselves in. They laughed, trying to deal with being teleported from all they knew and loved. They laughed, simply because what had just transpired was genuinely amusing.
Jørgen chuckled, blinking away tears. “I suppose I stand corrected. I have no doubt your talent with water is indeed viable for combat!”
He wiggled but was unable to free an arm. “I’d shake your hand for a duel well fought, but I find myself quite unable to move at this time. Could you?…” He gestured with his head towards the snow.
“Oh! Of course!” With a motion of his hand, Dorian had the snow sliding away from Jørgen and back into the corner.
The group trained for a good while after that. Dorian did learn how to create a shield, but found he much preferred using his water. They ran out of mana multiple times, needing to stop and meditate before continuing practice. They talked with Bari some after practice, but were so tired from the training that they went to bed quite early.
“Just remember, the Elder will be here tomorrow. You leave for the capital then!”