Life magic training, as it turned out, was a bit sillier than I might expect.

The elf woke me up first thing in the morning, somehow sneaking into the tavern and poking me with Daughter Bark until I woke up. Then he dragged the both of us out of the gates past some sleepy guards and into a nearby thicket a bit away from the riverbed, tossing me onto the ground dressed in my underwear.

“Good morning Church-child. We will begin your training now.”

“Good… Morning?” I groaned, rubbing the sleep from my eyes warily as I stretched out. Before curling up again, it was a bit chilly outside. “Couldn't you have let me get dressed before taking me out here?”

“No.,” the elf said simply, before hopping up into a tree. “You need to connect with nature, be glad that I did not strip you nude out of respect for your human standards of decency, and the fortress is dead, dead, dead, dead. Nothing lives there that isn't brought in from the outside.”

I looked at the elf incredulously before climbing to my feet. “What am I supposed to do exactly?”

“Connect with nature, let your aura flow out of you. Tie your own magic to the life of things around you, it is simple enough for even a child like yourself to understand it.” The long-bearded elf stifled a giggle and I wondered internally if this was actually such a good idea.

“Yeah, but what do I actually do?”

“What do I do?” he parroted back in a childish voice. “This isn't light magic church-child, you need no complicated magic words to constrain it to a specific effect, nor any circle. Life magic is positive, yes, but it is aligned towards change, to being free and variable, not the order and constraint you are used to imposing on your magic.” The elf gave a toothy smile “Simply choose to do it and you will likely find that you can, or you won't, but I find that unlikely.”

I grunted, nodding, it sounded like wishy-washy Yoda-speak to me, but if that was what I needed to do then that was what I needed to do.

‘Alright, aura huh?’ that probably meant the magic that all creatures retained inside of their bodies, a field of sorts that you could project.

Was life magic about expanding and controlling that? It was a little hard to conceive of even trying to control something magic outside of my own, but after a few moments, I decided that I might as well at least try it.

Hesitantly I reached towards my magic, my will stretching out into my body. It was an odd feeling, and I was distinctly unused to dealing with it directly. I mostly used myself as a conduit for the light in the past.

‘Then again, I guess it makes sense that life comes from within.’

For a while I just sort of probed around, getting used to the concept of messing around with my magic more directly, shifting my body and seeing how it flowed up and down my limbs as I moved or turned. I tried to narrow it down, avoiding the conceptual magic of light that I was so used to and instead focusing on ideas of life. Birds singing, the old oak in the courtyard, Daughter-Bark, the grass around me and the animals who would befriend me.

Eventually, I had a fairly firm grip on it, and with a gentle nudge, I tried to push it out of an outstretched hand, extending my bodily magic just a little beyond myself.

It turned out to be more than a little effective as I almost immediately felt my will begin to deplete, my magic pouring forth from my hand like a raging river through an opened dam. Feeling nearly all of my magic drain out I shut off the flow, worried of exhausting myself through the practice. Even with as quickly as I acted I was left light headed and dizzy.

I panted heavily, laying back on the ground behind me and clearing my thoughts as I gave my magic a moment to recover. ‘That was dangerous.’

The elf’s voice chimed in above me, clear as day despite my hazy mind. “Hmm, well, I can't deny the effectiveness, but you're missing half the understanding.” The elf laughed in a barking manner I hadn't heard before. “Giving of yourself to nature is all well and good, but taking something back is traditional.”

“Effectiveness..?” I opened my eyes to glance up towards him, and found that he was obscured behind…

“Whoa…”

“Whoa indeed, Church-child, as I told you when we first met, your raw power in life magic is second to no other mortal I have met. Though your control…”

I stared up at the enormous and still growing plants around me. With my senses as attuned to magic as they were, I could literally feel the energy coursing through them, and it felt like my own, or at least close enough that I didn’t notice any difference at the time. The trees creaked and groaned, spreading taller into the sky and adding new branches to their canopies, the grass grew till it was probably as tall as Strong, each blade perhaps 4 inches across and densely packed, and the thorns, the brambles and the vines all grew as well. It was like I had stepped into Gulliver’s travels as roots literally grew up under my feet, I nearly fell off of them as they dug into the ground and carried me into the air.

I scrambled back up onto the perilously rising root as the forest's growth slowed, I could feel my aura fade from the environment, the life here finishing it's consumption even as I stared up in awe at the wonder I had wrought.

Before this had been a small thicket, now these oaks might as well belong at the center of a great forest. They were no Yggdrasil, but they had gone from being youthful trees perhaps twenty feet tall to now being at the very least sixty or sixty-five feet from the ground to their loftier branches.

“Well, your control could use some work.” The elf swung down from a branch to land beside me, stepping up the root until he could look directly into my eyes. “Traditionally one does not simply flood the area they are currently standing in with the power of life, after all.”

I nodded, still not really able to muster speech at the enormous changes around me. ‘I did that?’

Was my talent for life magic so much greater than my talent for light? This was far more than I had ever-

“Wipe that stupid look off your face Church-child, it is unbecoming of you.” I shook my head and the elf nodded before continuing. “You are obviously a bit surprised at the scale of the effect of your magic, and that is unsurprising.” He paused for a moment, selecting what laugh he wanted to use I was sure. “You must believe that this was all your power at work. An easy mistake to make, but a fundamentally incorrect assumption. It is not only your own magic at play here.”

When my mind was done reeling, I nodded slightly, that made much more sense and I could see where he was going with it. “The plants then?”

“Yes, that is correct.” the elf reached out, running his hand down one of the colossal blades of grass that reached up to where we were standing. “Each and every creature has magic within it, indeed, if one listens to those most familiar with the subject even rocks and metals, and perhaps the wind and rain, have some capacity for magic, though those are not my specialty.” The man reached out quick as a dagger and moved my hand to the blade of grass. “I know, Church-child, that your magical senses at least, are acceptably developed. Take in the magic within this blade of grass, and you will see in truth what you have done here.”

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I nodded, feeling the supple plant flex under my grip. I opened myself to the magic of the world around me and was immediately hit with a staggering amount of information. The plant pulsed with the magic of life, that was true, but it felt like a mix of my own and that of the plant itself, just as I had felt earlier when it was growing. My own magic easily made up the majority of the power in the relationship, indeed I could even feel traces of light magic mixed into it by some manner or another, and the plant felt mine. Like I owned it. If that makes any sense. My thoughts were quickly confirmed by my instructor.

“All life is a give and take Church-child, or at least for most creatures it is. The lamb eats the grass, the lion eats the lamb, and when death claims the lion he too is eaten. In this way even as we give of ourselves to other life around us that life begins to follow our will.” The man gestured down towards Rem. “Do you think it a coincidence that animals cluster around you as they do? An attraction merely? No, they become more than themselves with even the bare hints of power which leak out of you into the world around you. With control and understanding, you can make them greater still.” The elf pressed a boney hand against my forehead, making me look upwards. “Look at the branches of the trees, can you tell me what is odd here?”

I opened my eyes, letting go of the plant and looked up as he asked, tracing my eyes over the lengths of the trunks, and up into the canopy above us, everything looked fairly straightforward as far as I could see, all very nice and pristine and…

‘Wait, that's it.’

“The Trunks are too straight, and the branches are geometrically splitting. It's all too orderly for a normal forest.” The elf let me turn to face him. “What did I do?”

“Ah, when you touched the grass, did you feel the light magic within it?” at my nod he continued. “Light magic is about order, structure. It's about making things better by making them more pristine, even it's healing comes from this idea, to repair things to be as they should be. That is why it is the strongest form of magic in regards to healing injuries.” The elf gestured towards the trees above us with his arm. “When you filled this glade with your power the energy of light came through as well as that of life, and when these plants consumed that magic to spur their own growth, they bound themselves to you in that aspect as well.” The elf gave a smile at that, laughing like a little girl. “ This is one of the most powerful, if power intensive, varieties of nature magic. If you were to remain here, continuing to funnel power into these trees, this would eventually become a sacred grove. Many powerful dryads and forest spirits hold such places, the most powerful of them can even hold whole forests under their sway. The great forest along the border between Veluca and Brindon, for instance, is under the sway of a particularly dangerous goddess of fertility. I would advise that you try not to offend her or her innumerable children should you venture into that wood, it is many dozens of days journey across and she can draw power from its entire expanse.”

I stopped for a moment hanging on to the end of what he said.

“There are still Pagan God's alive?” I asked plainly, “I was under the impression that they had all died long ago.”

“Oh, the old empires human God's did, but many of them had children to whom their divinity fell to. Of course, none of the remaining God's are half as powerful as their parents, even the Mother of Beasts of whom I speak is nothing compared to what Mudra was at his height. God's draw power from worship as much as from their own magic, and with the rise of your church they have few worshippers remaining as I understand it.”

“That makes sense.” At the mention of the old god of fertility and agriculture, my mind went to the cornucopia held in my bag in the room. Father had said he had acquired it in exchange for doing a favor for Mudra, but he had never quite told me what it was.

Still, a lot of things made sense now. The Old Oak was probably the Guardian spirit of the whole mountain. I turned to look at daughter bark, who I was sure had grown an inch longer with the surge of life energy as well. What did that make her then? The heir to the throne? Was I bandying about with a Disney princess? And here I thought that that was me.

After a moment of contemplation, I turned back to my new teacher. It was fun learning this stuff, and he seemed nice enough after all, despite my worries.

“Alright, let's keep going then. I want to learn more.”

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Karsten stood waiting outside the gates of the city with his captain's belongings held under one arm as he glared at the ridiculous, incredibly conspicuous grove of trees. If he hadn't been traveling with Abbot for some time already and he wasn't bound by an oath he would probably be heading for the hills right now.

The concept of that many trees basically doubling in size, along with almost everything else there was patently ridiculous, and not something he would normally go anywhere near.

Apparently he was the only one who felt that way, however, as the new guys had pretty much all just shrugged it off, telling him it was magic stuff and not to worry about it too much as long as it was on our side, and Mary for her part had gotten gold coins flashing in her eyes when she saw, frantically asking him if he thought Abbot might be able to use it to make Crops grow like that, as if he would know the answer.

After enough questioning from her he had decided that his captain would probably want to wear clothes when he was done training, and politely excused himself to go deliver them. Now he was standing just outside the gates watching the forest for any sign of movement.

“How long are ye gonna ignore me for lad?”

Oh, and there was a dwarf here too.

“We've got nothing to talk about. I know nothing about my captain that I haven't already told you.”

“Aye, and you've told me he's a bleeding saint, just like everyone else here. What I want to know are the problems he has. I don't aim to be swindled into joining up with some group of tosses without knowing their character, not after my last boss.”

“I don't have any problems with the Father.”

“Neither does anyone else except yer bint, and all she does is complain about him singing and attracting bugs like some sort of fairy tale princess. I want to know what his vices are, and if he's gonna get me killed.”

Karsten turned a harsh glare at the dwarf. “Hold your tongue. I will not here you talk badly of my captain or of Mary. Abbot has done nothing but help people from the moment I met him.”

“Aye but what I want to know is-”

“Heeey, Karsten, can you bring my clothes over here?”

Karsten smiled at the distraction, essentially letting him get away from the hairy man with an excuse. He moved towards where a very embarrassed looking Abbot was peaking out from behind an enormous blade of grass, obvious discomfort on his face. “Sorry for the hassle. Theen decided it would be easier to get in contact with nature if I was basically naked. I think it only mattered when he was having me make bugs crawl all over my chest though.”

He tried not to wince as he handed Abbot his bag. He might need to have words with the freakish elf later. Though since it was befriending animals he imagined the Father didn't mind.

A few moments of shuffling in the grass and a fully dressed Abbot walked out, followed by the stupid elf, who was clearly lost in thought about something. Karsten idly wondered if he was going to need to protect his captain’s chastity from the animalistic creature before shaking the thought from his head. If the scene at the tavern in Brindon was any indication the elf would likely have his skin scorched off should he try anything untoward.

Still, he found himself gripping his spear more tightly at the thought, even as the Father wandered quite happily back towards town, cheerfully greeting the dwarf at the gate. Karsten decided to properly keep up with him, they needed to discuss when their next trip into the city would be after all.

He was a little surprised when he saw that Abbot had stopped just inside the gates, then he saw that he was apparently engrossed in conversation with the stuffy chamberlain from before.

“Ah, Karsten, did we leave you behind? I'm sorry.” Abbot blushed a little as he spoke to him, and he wanted to correct the boy that it was his fault he didn't keep up, but he held his tongue in front of the chamberlain like Mary had drilled into his head during the trip from Brindon.

“It's no problem” he grunted instead and Abbot looked satisfied enough after a moment. “Anyhow, what are you doing out here sir chamberlain?” he couldn't remember the man's name anyhow. Didn't seem worth remembering.

“Ah yes, we'll actually my Lord has asked me to give an invitation to meet this evening to the young Father here.” the man fished a letter out of his pocket and Karsten wanted to roll his eyes.

‘Couldn't get out of his tower and walk fifteen feet to greet us himself?’

Still, Abbot took the letter and read it over quickly, before turning to face him with one of those absurdly cute smiles he could create with his angelic features.

“I've been invited to a tea-party.”

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