However, waving my hand in a set of arcane motions I had already begun casting Holy Aura before Elwin could finish his retreat. I had decided against using the Silent Cast in conjunction with the spell, to establish a baseline for the ‘normal’ way of casting the magic. My fingers traced strange patterns in the air and my voice started to chant a language I had never heard before. As I incanted the words, I noticed that there was a slight echo, as if another being was chanting alongside me.
As my chant reached a crescendo, I uttered, "Holy Aura," and a single pulse of golden light expanded away from me, its epicenter. The immediate area around us was bathed in its light. Then the light finally settled around us as if it were warding us against the darkness.
Kidu and Elwin both held up their hands to inspect the golden light that had surrounded, then wrapped itself, around them. They looked incredulously as it played in intricate arcane patterns all about us. Then a small shock hit me as I looked closely at my Status bars. The spell had used two Mana, and my maximum Mana had also dropped by two. Quickly, I stopped the Aura spell, and the golden glow softly disappeared.
My companions spun around, as if trying to determine to where the golden light was retreating. With a sigh of relief, I saw that my maximum Mana had risen again to thirteen, but my current Mana remained at eleven. Intriguing, I thought to myself. What would happen if I tried to cast the spell again?
Kidu and Elwin looked distracted by the disappearance of the miraculous light. Seeing this and deciding that it was better to beg for forgiveness rather than to seek approval, I decided to cast the Aura spell once again.
This time I invoked the spell while using my Silent Cast skill. I could feel a sense of resistance now, similar to a recalcitrant child going against their parent’s wishes. It took a long while, perhaps six to eight seconds, before I could complete the spell and a golden ambience bathed us once more. It certainly took a lot longer to cast without the somatic component of the spell and, mentally, it was a lot more draining.
Looking at my Status, I could see now that both current Mana had dropped a further two points to nine, and my maximum Mana had again dropped back down to eleven. I gave a silent prayer of thanks, to no god in particular, that I had not damaged my Mana reserves permanently.
“Do you feel any different? Anything at all?” I asked my companions hesitantly.
“Apart from the pretty lights, nothing. Pretty impressive though. Probably could make a few copper pieces at the next mummer’s faire,” piped Elwin, a little sarcastically.
“As the small one said. I am thinking that answers never come easy in the understanding of the ways of the gods,” retorted Kidu, “Perhaps this magic is a ward against evil and misfortune?”
Realizing that his words contained surprising insight, I nodded to him in acknowledgment. “We also need to do something about these,” I added, holding up the remains of my chains on both wrists. Casting Rust on metal that was in contact with my skin was a painful operation I honestly did not want to repeat anytime soon.
Just as I was beginning to think about how to get out of this predicament, I noticed something about Elwin and Kidu. They were now free of the manacles that had bound their wrists and ankles!
“Yes, about that,” Elwin began with a smug smile on his face, “We didn’t want to disturb you while you were having your beauty sleep,” he said, producing a thin sliver of metal out of nowhere as he walked over to me.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Kneeling before me, he began work on my bindings, popping them loose from my ankles, with dexterous ease.
“Strange skills for a Forester,” I said, looking him firmly in the eye.
“Let’s just say I had a troubled youth,” he replied in an even tone, dodging the subject as deftly as he had unlocked what remained of my bindings.
“Now for your wrists.”
I held out my wrists, and with an artisan's grace, he jigged and manipulated his crude sliver of thin metal into the sockets of the manacles. He released me from the iron in a matter of seconds, tutting as he worked. Touching my now liberated wrists in confirmation, I reveled in the feeling of greater freedom, now that the metal hindrances were finally gone.
“Thank you, Elwin, much appreciated. You are certainly a good man to know to get out of a bind,” I said gratefully, testing my range of motion now that the chains and manacles were no longer there. “Now if only we could do something about these collars,” I continued, smiling wryly as I pointed to the metal at my neck.
Kidu began to raise a pickaxe in his hand, his answer to my question clear, which drew a worried glance from our Rogue. Almost jumping in surprise, I waved a hand to stop him from his obvious plan of action. Comically, this caused my loose helm to begin to slip, and I had to hold onto it to stop it from falling off.
“I don’t think we need to resort to that just yet, I think my magic could weaken it a little more first!” I almost shouted. It would also be a chance to test, albeit potentially painfully, the level of control I had with my spell.
“Your choice.” He shrugged as he lay down to sleep on the green moss of the forest floor, throwing another loose branch into the crackling fire before closing his eyes.
Elwin threw a worried glance at me. “You’re not thinking of starting off with me, are you?”
“No, Elwin. Have no fear, at least for the moment. At the very worst, the spell will simply turn your collar into hot slag. I am pretty confident I can heal you through that,” I said, sneaking him with a mischievous grin. “Please keep an eye out in case anything goes wrong… Maybe keep some water close, eh?”
Even with a cloud of doubt staining my thoughts, I concentrated as best as I could and brought the magic to my center. I focused on trying to tamp down the dark energies, trying to resist unleashing its full power. My tongue spoke eldritch words of dark things in a language not meant for mortal tongues, and I could see Elwin looking visibly perturbed. With my mind fully engaged in staving off the stronger aspects of the spell, I had simply lacked the focus to use my Silent Casting skill.
My fingers, stilting in their movement, drew esoteric symbols in the air that left traces of ozone and oily dread blackness. Even as I went through the motions of casting the spell, a small part of my mind had registered that Kidu had begun snoring already, the sounds of which would rival any great beast in a rut.
Just as the spell was about to reach a crescendo of arcane power, the powers began to subside and deflate. Sensing the time was right, I released the black lightning into my collar, causing it to heat up, but not painfully so. I surmised that I had succeeded in my experiment of taming the dark alien energies, as I had only lost a single point of Mana in casting the spell.
Smiling a cracked grin at the Rogue, “Well, it seems that wasn’t too bad. I appear to have learned how to control myself a little.” Elwin simply looked back quizzically at me.
Straining, and failing, to look down at the collar around my neck, I waited for the roiling energies to finally subside before casting Identify on the collar to see how much damage I had inflicted on its durability.
Iron Slave Collar
Durability 258/400
Thirty-six points of durability damage. Not bad, I thought to myself. Although the level two spell did more damage, it was extremely painful and required me to spend additional Mana on healing. This was the most efficient and safest way to go.