The Caverns, Near the Town of Eldor. Troug, 13th.

Olea Munroe

The moment had finally arrived.

I had awakened from my fitful sleep ready to use my spells in the monotonous and repetitive order as prescribed by the elf servant to Madame Andrea Avery when I noticed a slight ping on my consciousness.

It felt like the sensation I received when I accessed my Soul Vault skill, and I had a moment of clarity gifted upon me as the feeling rushed through my core. Yep, I had my answer. I knew now that if I had the inclination, I could throw myself into the skill at that point in time and interact with whoever may be inside the skill at the point of activation, and somehow, I also knew that others with access to this skill could and possibly would be able to do that same.

Yet, as interesting, and informative as all that was I had only one thought cross into my stream of consciousness at that point in time.

Food.

In the very next instant, I received the equivalent of a mental smirk, and a soft nudge from my feathered companion and a feeling from my Dowsing skill let me know that he was quite a distance out to the southeast and stationary, or mostly so.

I checked through my little hoard, skipping over the pile of fungus and tubers that were sitting in a single corner and quickly found my prize, or prizes.

Yes, sitting neatly on a folded cloth that I did not place here myself was a small collection of beautifully moist, steaming, saliva stimulating meat pies. My lust for delicious treats was so powerful that I almost did not notice the very wonderful glint of a sturdy dagger. Honestly, I would have missed it entirely if it were not embedded in a large wheel of orange cheese. There also seemed to be a hastily tied piece of parchment rolled up and leaning against the edge of said cheese.

I made a quick promise to my bonded companion without delay to the effect of cooking him an equally yummy meal when I escaped this monotonous hell and sent it away with a thought. What I got back from the mental link was a sharp denial of any food prepared by me, along with the mental image of what I could only assume was a scorched pot of mushroom stew.

Fine, simply fine. I would shell out the money for a proper meal at a proper establishment sometime in the future, a meal without mushrooms.

I scooped up one of the yummy pies and used the knife to cut it into five pieces, making sure that the piece for me was only slightly bigger than the others. I know that sharing is caring but I also know that the others were not starving and in dire need of the food in my hands. I also knew that the mere presence of this food in the caverns would surely make some of the more observant guards very curious as to why they smelled something of this nature in our little pit of despair.

Meh, the evidence would be gone before anyone took note and by then I was sure my growing syndicate would have destroyed all traces of the food.

I shifted my attention back to functioning reality, making the conscious effort to bring the food with me, leaving the dagger behind. There was no way I would let someone catch me with that particularly useful item on hand. Nope.

Once I was solidly back, I called over my friends and smoothly pulled the pies from behind my back, showing them off to the bewildered teens.

Quinn and Mouse both grabbed a piece of the blissfully spices and perfectly baked pies before backing up to take a kingly sized bite from the treasure.

Derek hesitated for a few moments before taking a piece with a huge smile on his face as he nibbled at the thing, savoring every bite. I had honestly expected that behavior to belong to Mouse, but one look in her direction showed that the pie had had no chances in all the hells of lasting more than a moment. Frightening.

“Where did these come from?” Malory asked, even as she slowly took the fourth piece from my outstretched hand.

I should not have been surprised that she would ask about the mystery meat-pie in the room but, maybe show some appreciation; or at least do not let your food get cold! She had grown increasingly curious over the past couple of days.

“A little bird got them for me.” Was all I said before I started eating my own little treat. It was everything I had been wanting in food since I had recovered from my cursed purgatory. It was delicately balanced with some form of wheat or barley; it was hard to tell as the spice profile hit my tongue. Salted to perfection and sharing some of the commonalities of fresh sage, rosemary, and peppercorn and a pinch of cardamon perhaps.

I savored every bite, ignoring the look from Malory. She had not even started eating yet.

Oh, well.

After dusting off my hands and expelling a little more magical water for cleaning purposes I set to my daily ritual of casting my spells one by one.

I popped off a quick Detect Magic before firing a Protection from Evil to start the round, watching forty-five mana fade away into the air around me as small motes of extended energy. I could even feel it ever so subtly whenever one of the motes would drift nearby caressing the aura my own body maintained around me.

I had noticed that other people had similar auras though theirs would often lack the variance in color that my own contained, a difference in the flavor of mana or perhaps I simply could not fully discern their type as well as my own.

I drew two more spells to the front of my mind; casting Water Walk and Water Breath back-to-back. Again, I felt the dryness in the back of my throat as the water was dispelled from my leaving only the oxygen and various other particles in my mouth. It felt quite a bit like waking up after a good night of drinks and only being able to taste the film of grease from a burger you had eaten the night before.

While the uncomfortable feeling hit my throat, I found myself slipping sideways with my left leg while my right was firmly planted on the ground. I looked down to see that my foot had risen above the small amount of water that had pooled at my feet during my earlier cleaning. I gave a mental nudge forcing the water beneath my feet to provide a bit more stability and it seemed to firm up ever-so-slightly.

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Neat.

I still moved my foot to a dryer spot so as to avoid invoking some other form of bad luck that would have me knocking myself unconscious. These things seemed to be right in my wheelhouse, as if some evil Mushroom Lord were somewhere plotting against me as I disparaged fungal his kin for their unwelcome entry into my day-to-day diet.

I did not dislike mushrooms, I just wanted something different than mushrooms. There was such a thing as too much of a good thing; it was true for many, many things.

I had now burned down sixty-five mana from the use of four spells, as both of the water related spells had a mana cost of ten. I had also spent enough time in the casting and observation of the magic to have regenerated just a bit.

Mana: 153/214.

Next up was the spell, Dispel Magic.

I focused on the magic and uttered the words while I moved my right hand up to rest on my left shoulder and shuddered as the spell took hold.

The spell surrounded me in a small explosion of black motes that rushed through my aura, causing it to quiver and pulse. I immediately noticed the loss of my Protection from Evil spell, as well as both water spells. My throat spasmed a little bit as it quickly moistened with saliva, it was terribly similar to the feeling one gets when they inhale a small whiff of vinegar on a salad, that involuntary reaction of the body both strange and familiar.

This was also the first time I had seen the spell in action as it had promptly dispelled my Detect Magic spell the last few times I had cast the spell. This time I could see the motes slowly dissolving into nothing, my aura eating it away and regaining its former passive solidity.

Also, neat.

And forty mana, ouch.

Now for the fun part. Honestly, I should have changed it up ever so slightly as I could see Derek backing toward the other side of the barred in area holding his hands up in a pleading gesture.

Just as Derek began to protest the action I stood up and faced him as I cast the spell.

Command.

Unlike my other spells, this one required me to focus on the intent of the spell while using a single word that was not the marker for the spell.

In this example I simply said with my voice firm as I held the spell in my mind and felt the release of mana one word, “Beg.”

The look of wariness vanished to fully shift into his earlier pleading visage, though this time it would get him no more food.

Was it a petty thing to do?

Yes.

Would I apologize afterward?

Yes.

Was it not still somewhat funny?

Yes.

His eyes took on a slightly panicked expression for a moment and he began dropping unsteadily to one knee, and I decided I had done enough damage to his esteem for today; Derek was a good kid, and even I knew I had probably been too close to being a bit too harsh to my volunteer.

I cracked a small smile as I cancelled the spell by focusing my intent on something that was not the command issued, and as quickly as that the spell vanished leaving the compulsion to fade into nothingness.

“I want to go next!” Came the voice of Mouse next to me.

“No.” I said, even as Derek was looking to side with her instantly.

“Why not?”

I sighed; we had been through this conversation several times already. I chose Derek because he had a measure of self-respect, he was also innately stubborn. The first cast of this spell had failed to take hold, causing him to only stumble for the briefest of moments.

With Mouse, it was hard to tell if it was the spell taking hold or her just doing whatever I told her to do, as she considered it the most exciting of games.

Do not ask me, I had no idea what was going through her head at times like this.

In any event, I was done with the volunteer, and I bid him back to his business. They were still chatting up the other local prisoners in the hopes of getting some semblance of cohesion formed for the moment we stormed the gates and fled this place.

I handed him a nice thick potato as his participation trophy and smiled as I turned back to my practice.

Next up was my second favorite spell, though it was probably the most versatile and powerful for now. That is correct, I was going to be using Conjure Elemental Spirit.

I prepared my reagents as I sat there huddled, quite conscious of the fact that Malory had not stopped watching me for even a moment since I had produced her lunch. I would need to ask her about her recent switching of gears some time soon. From friendly and caring to nervous and wary; it was an odd shift even for a teenager.

Water in hand compliments of my Create Water spell, I spit allowed blood from a cut on my finger to collect and mix with the liquid before I uttered the words of the spell, making sure to infuse double the mana to make sure I was summoning the proper spirit.

I had tried without the blood while using double mana and been rewarded with a similar elemental, but I could tell right away that it lacked the recognition that my other spirit friend had possessed.

I had then tried it with the blood and not the double mana investment and received a smaller and much weaker version of the elemental in question, though it did seem to possess some of the original spirits characteristics.

After that I had deemed it unethical to summon any water elementals with half-arse rituals. It was cruel to weaken my friend and it felt plain strange to be reliant on someone or something that did not have a connection to me.

Especially for what I had planned.

Mana: 78/214.

My friendly water spirit rose from the pool of water barely contained in my hands to take shake and spill down my wrist and up my arm to stare at me from my shoulder.

“Hello again, my little friend.” I said to the small body of water.

All I got in return was a shimmering pattern radiating through the small form and a small mental hug of sorts, like a phantom touch along my shoulders.

I made funny faces at the little lady of the azure sea, even as their own form shifted to make a mockery of my pantomime. It was cute and an utter waste of time, I liked it.

It was time to begin though.

I gave some mental commands to my link elemental spirit and watched as she sloshed to the ground and joined in the puddle that had been pooling nearby.

A second later she was under the bars and moving to collect my prize; a small rock that I had been watching get kicked about by the patrolling guards.

It took some time for the puddle to fully encompass the rock and then slowly push-pull-tumble the earthly goodness to the edge of our cage where Derek picked it up and pocketed it for me before getting back to his conversation with a rather handsome young dwarf in the neighboring cage.

This one even had a beard, scraggly and unfinished as it was.

Focus.

I sent another series of commands to my conjured spirit and watched her flow toward the section of the caves reserved for the small potty breaks we were permitted.

Side note: Magical food was wholly absorbed by the body and therefore did not contribute to an excessive need to make a poo. Yay, science-Magic!

I fiddled around with a small yellow carrot as I waited for my mana to tick back up before playing with some other spells. I needed to do some more testing with Armor and Wind Walk as I had found a small nugget almost-useful information regarding their interactions.

Sure, I had enough mana now for one of them, but I would hamper my overall spell usage if I were to lower my mana too much as my regeneration dropped by a percentage that was nearly half of the percentage of mana I was missing.

As I was missing most of my total pool right now, I would be regenerating mana fifty percent slower than normal, though that number would climb as my mana pool refilled, gaining a percentage point for every two percent of my total mana I regained.

If I were to say, drop to zero mana instead of stopping at my current ten by casting Armor my mana source or pool would also suffer from mana fatigue which would stick me at half regeneration until the pool had fully recovered; as well as giving me the mother of all headaches, and possibly another fit of unconsciousness.

Not cool.

Anyway, I needed to get quite a bit more mana before I played with my next little bit of magic, and I also needed to give my spirited friend some time to get in position for exploration.

I wanted to see what kinds of combat capabilities my elemental had.