“Crystallization is the prosses of compacting essence or mana into a simile of a core. Start by filling your mana pool. Then compress the mana. Keep doing that until the mana is so dense it crystalizes. Remember this is a level up. It will hurt physically and possibly mentally. Each time you level up you have to go through the same nine steps: awakening, gathering, circulating, purifying, directing, conserving, storing, transforming, and dispelling. You can rest and eat while you fill your mana pools. Tintreach, Ailish go eat. Erameya, when you have finished resting, we should work on your martial arts and combat skills. There is a cave up there,” Laird Tokavaig pointed to a hill, “you can use for shelter until you are safe to be around.” Laird Tokavaig rubbed his chin. “I realize we left your aunt in a panic. I’ll go let her know you will be fine and get the supplies she will demand I bring. Master Gareth is there anything I need to do for you in the city?”

“I had several patents to see today, as well as some elixirs, poultices, and potions to make. Lady Elfie would have let everyone know I am busy. You can ask her if there are any emergencies that need taken care of.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Laird Tokavaig shifted into a huge white dragon and flew off toward Edinburgh.

“Lady Elfie?” Laird Tokavaig asked as he walked into the great hall where she was mending a tapestry.

“Laird Tokavaig!” Lady Elfie jumped to her feet dumping the tapestry, needles, and thread onto the floor. “How is Erameya?” Laird Tokavaig could read the concern on her face.

“She is coming into her magic and doing well. I am sorry for frightening you.” He kissed her hand.

“I am just happy she will be okay. Is the curse truly broken?”

“Yes. I have found no trace of the curse on any of Ethelred’s children.” The laird scowled. “Truthfully, I found no trace of it on either of your boys, before or after they died. I didn’t tell Master Gareth, but your boys both died of a childhood illness. I know it doesn’t bring them back, but that crone’s curse did not take them.”

“Thank you. It helps, as did master Gareth’s confession that you helped him and Ethelred find a cure. I just wish I had known sooner. I would not have resented you for so long.”

“You needed someone to blame, and I was convenient. I forgive you. Also, your niece will be better than fine, she has more power than I have seen in anyone except myself. That includes my children.”

“Thank you. How long will they be gone?”

“I do not know. Even though she has learned to pull in less essence, her output is too powerful to let her around other humans. The possibility of her losing control and harming herself or someone else is too high.”

“Let me have Duncan get a pack of supplies ready for your return.”

“M’lady! A pixie is looking for Laird Tokavaig. Laird Tokavaig?” Duncan did a double take as he saw the grand dragon in the hall.

“Duncan. Send the pixie to me. Lady Elfie has some instructions for you.” Duncan nodded and returned seconds later with a blue light flying behind him. As he walked over to talk to Lady Elfie, the pixie flew over and landed on Laird Tokavaig’s outstretched hand.

“Laird Tokavaig. I have a message for you.” The six-inch-tall man bowed as he handed a small scroll to the dragon. A pixie said after flying into the room. The scroll was sealed with magic. Laird Tokavaig felt the magic and found the signature of his favorite son, Ian Donan. Ian’s mother, a human named Eilean Donan, was a powerful witch. Ian had her magic as well as his. Although Ian had never learned to cultivate, he was a powerful warlock in his own right. Laird Tokavaig opened the scroll with a smile.

Father.

I am unable to teach your grandson anything else. He has far surpassed me in magical abilities; as well as all other fields of education. Please find someone, who will not bore him, to teach him.

Love,

Ian

Laird Tokavaig started laughing. “So, young Angus is more powerful than his father?”

“Pixie, will you wait for me to write a letter?”

“Yes M’laird.”

“Duncan, could you find me a pixie parchment and pen?”

After Duncan handed him a small sheet of parchment, he wrote,

Master Gareth and Erameya,

I had a family emergency and will return as soon as may be.

Master Gareth don’t let Erameya do anything stupid.

Laird Tokavaig

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He sealed the scroll magically and sent it to Inchkeith Isle. “I will return for the packs you have put together or you can send them to Inchkeith. I’ll go there first so if the supplies are not there, I’ll come for them. Farwell, Lady Elfie.” He bowed, “Oh, before I leave, is there anything I can do for you or any of Master Gareth’s patients?”

“Yes. There was one patient I couldn’t help, and Master Gareth didn’t have the potion he was going to give another person.”

“What do you believe is wrong with each patient?”

“The first was Abner, our gardener. There is a cut on his leg that is not healing. I put honey on it but was unsure what else to do.”

“Honey was the right treatment. If he can be found before I leave, I will try magical healing.”

“The other is young Callie, our cook’s daughter, she is in need of more of the potion to help her urinate without pain.”

“I don’t know the potion, but I will try healing her. While you send for her, I would like some of your fine whiskey.”

“Very good, sir.” Elfie poured him a drink as she gave instructions to Duncan.

Duncan soon returned with a small girl who felt way too hot for a human. Laird Tokavaig took her in his arms and felt the pathways of her body. He could tell the channel between her kidneys and bladder was too long for her, causing the infection and fever she currently had. He gently coaxed them to shrink as he burned the infection out of her. He pulled the heat out of her fever as soon as he knew everything was working right and the infection was gone. He handed the little girl back to Duncan. “She should not have the pain or the fevers again.”

“Is he still here?” A young man hobbled into the room with the help of a cane. His face was creased with pain as he looked around. “I beg your pardon, M’laird, I didn’t see you.” He bowed slightly toward the dragon.

“Abnor, I presume.” Laird Tokavaig walked over to the gardener and motioned for him to sit down. “Tell me what happened.” Laird Tokavaig had him remove his chausse from his injured leg and removed the bandage. There was a wound that appeared to have once been a scratch just below his knee. It was about five inches long and had red lines running from it. There was puss seeping from the angry sore.

“I was working in the herb garden when one of the plants scratched me. I didn’t see which one it was, but I fear it was poisonous. It didn’t hurt at first, I think it numbed me.”

“I think it was a spider plant. They can crawl around and their poison is a narcotic. We use it in mild sedatives, but the thorn can be deadly.” Laird Tokavaig placed his hands on either side of the leg to feel the pathways. The infection had spread through the man’s body and he drew out as much as he could without damaging the patient. “Lady Elfie, will you apply honey to this wound again? I have pulled out most of the poisons but I will cause more injury if I pull any more out. You need to keep off of your leg. Lady Elfie will set you up with crutches from the healer’s tower.”

“How do you know when and where it hits?” Master Gareth asked Erameya after she had again thrown her dagger further than either of them could see.

“I don’t know, I can just feel exactly where the dagger is. Same with the sword. It’s like they are a part of me.”

“Okay, is your mana full?”

“It was, I compressed it while I was throwing the dagger at the target with my eyes closed. It hasn’t refilled.”

“Very good. I have an exercise that the all-powerful dragon may not think of. Try to picture a ball of energy in your hands. Trickle energy into that, until you feel it become viscus. Once it is thick enough to hold together, toss it back and forth between your hands. Eventually you should be able to play catch with it without it exploding.”

Erameya started to gently push mana into her hand, concentrating on moving the mana as slowly as she could, “Why would Laird Tokavaig not think of this?”

“It is a human method of magical control. I learned it from the healer who taught me. We used to try and keep as many balls of energy in the air as we could without losing focus. We got up to twelve. She had the most amazing control of magic.”

Erameya felt the ball of energy becoming viscus and moved it to one hand. She tried to toss it but it stuck. She pictured it gliding through the air and landing on her other hand and she was able to do it. After she perfected, tossing the ball of energy back and forth, Master Gareth threw one at her and she pictured her mana ball flying into his hand. It worked. They tossed the balls back and forth until a pixie from the pixie post got their attention.

“Master Gareth, Princess Erameya, I have a note from Laird Tokavaig.”

“Thank you, Tutu.” Erameya said as she took the note. “How is your daughter?”

“Very well, M’lady, she just learned how to fly. Bonbon is the proudest mother you have ever seen. You’d think no other pixie ever learned to fly. Thank you again, Master Gareth, I was scared that her wing would always be crippled. You have no idea how sad it is when a pixie cannot fly.”

“Tutu, you are more than welcome. My job in this kingdom is healer. King Cnut takes care of me very well so I can help every citizen and ally of the empire. I am just happy Laird Tokavaig taught me to heal that particular deformity. As someone who flies, he would not like any being to be denied the opportunity.”

“Read this!” Erameya interrupted. “Master Gareth! Laird Tokavaig thinks I am going to do something stupid.”

“He said not to let you, not that you would.”

“I still take offence. I think I will throw a mana ball at him when he returns,” she laughed. “I just wonder how you would try to stop me.” Erameya taunted. “Should we have tea and then work on archery? Tutu, would you join us for a meal?”

“Gladly. I believe your aunt is sending more supplies.” Tutu sat down on a toadstool.

They all ate a picnic dinner, then Erameya started to practice her archery.

“Erameya, put one foot forward like this” Master Gareth showed her how to stand, hold the bow and knock the arrow. After she learned the basics of stance and draw, he taught her to look at the fletching and make sure her arrows were strait. She tried to attach a mana ball on the end of her arrow and explode it after her arrow hit. It worked a little too well, destroying the target and the ground around it.

“Try not to blow up the island. How is your mana?’

“Still compressing. It feels like it will compress infinitely.”

“Technically it will. Cultivation is a journey, not a destination.”

“Eastern proverb?”

“No something my mother used to say.” He smiled. “Let’s play with mana balls again for a while and see how small we can make them. It is a good way to learn to condense mana and still keep it in an energy form.”

They were throwing the mana balls back and forth playing around with number and size when they were startled by a great beating of wings, and a young man was falling from the sky.

“Grandfather, I have no idea what Father said,” he yelled as he fell, “but I hate being picked up and flown around without my permission!” He threw the javelin that he held under one arm at Laird Tokavaig. The dragon rolled in the air, transformed, and landed in human form.

“Angus! You are here to learn.”

“I was jousting. You scared my horse half to death.”

“If your horse was scared, he hasn’t been at your father’s keep long enough.”