The morning came, and everyone once again assembled for breakfast. Marsai opened the meal with some information for the companions. “Good morning. I hope everyone slept well. Here is the agenda for the day. Eiko and Hansa, you have your normal duties for the day. Greta, please take master Vinny to the gardens and begin training him.”
Vinny’s eyes about popped out of his head, “Uh, what?”
“You came here all those years ago for an herb, one that takes a small amount of alchemical skill to realize fully. I assume you have that minimal amount of skill, yes? Well, Greta is an amazing cook but is a master alchemist. Do you not want to be trained by one of the premier alchemists on the continent?” Marsai said sternly.
“Um, uh,--” Vinny was speechless.
Wali jumped in to help, “I think we are missing something. Last night we talked about the history of the Demon Lords and what was done to stop them. We talked about how the prophecy and how that relates to me. We never did talk about the next steps.”
“I thought that would be obvious. I will train you, all of you, until the time comes for you to act. We have less than three years before the weakest of the bindings is broken if things proceed as they are. Maybe less, maybe more. Those weak bindings hold the power of the Demon Lords’ generals and heralds. Lesser caretakers.” Marsai said.
“That’s the part we are missing. Next, I would like an idea of the training plan, like the rest of us.” Wali said. “I will not tell Yacob or Vinny they even need to be a part of this. We aren’t talking about a tropical beach vacation. They get to choose if they want to be a part of this. Not me, not you, not the gods.” He said firmly.
Marsai looked at Wali for a moment, not expecting this sort of pushback. She then looked at Vinny, “This is your friend, yes?” She asked, and he nodded. “Would you like to be trained in alchemy and other things in exchange for helping your friend become one of the most powerful mages in history? To earn a name for yourself in the glorious annals of time?”
“That sounds hard, possibly even deadly.” Vinny said, “But if I can learn to make a Panacea Potion that will cure White Alune Toxin, then I’ll pretty much do almost anything.” Vinny replied, “After I get the potion, and save my little sister, then I’m yours.”
Vinny had not talked much about his family or life before meeting Wali and Yacob or his cursed time. They knew he was not welcome in the elven cities. He had been shunned for his curse. He had kept all other details about his life private.
Marsai nodded and then turned to Sas’cha with no further comment. Before she could talk, Sas’cha said, “I’m already in. Wali is mine. I claimed him. If he needs to save the world, then I’m a part of that.” her voice was fiercely possessive.
Marsai looked at Sas’cha oddly before turning to Yacob, “What about you?”
“He’s my friend, my brother in many ways. I’ll go where he goes.” Yacob said, resolved.
Marsai nodded and turned to Wali. “What about you? How do you feel about all of this?”
Wali sat for a moment to gather his thoughts, “As a boy, both times really, I dreamed about being a glorious hero of legend. Now that I am faced with it, I am a bit apprehensive. This is something that needs doing though, and I have never been one to shirk my responsibilities.”
Marsai pursed her lips, “Then it sounds like we are all onboard. Let’s start again.”
“Master Vinny, you will work with Greta to learn herbalism and alchemy. You should be able to make the panacea potion within a year if you work hard. I know of your sister’s plight, and I do believe that White Alune Toxin is a correct assessment.” Marsai said as she looked at the orc and elf. “We can talk more about that later. With the curse lifted, I think your talents as a healer should be accessible again.”
Vinny brightened, he looked down at his hand, and an aquamarine glow spread across his fingers. He grinned.
Yacob looked at him in disbelief, “You’re a healer?”
“I was before. Now I am again.” He couldn’t wipe the grin off of his face. You never appreciated what you were born with until it was gone.
Marsai turned to Eiko and Hansa, “You two carry on as normal for today. I’ll have something for you tomorrow.” Then to Sas’cha, “I don’t really know what to do with you. You can do whatever for today. Tomorrow though, will be a busy day.”
Sas’cha’s face fell. “But I….”
“No buts, you signed yourself up for this. You get to follow through with it.” Marsai said firmly.
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Sas’cha hissed, then stuck her tongue out like a child before sitting back and pouting. Marsai and the others laughed, which caused her to pout more. This just reminded Wali that she was a cat at heart. Sas’cha may be an ancient and powerful Spirit beast, currently dressed up as a cat-type beastkin, but still a cat in her soul.
Marsai turned to Yacob and Wali, “You two are going to work with me this morning. Yacob, we are going to test you for further aspects. I know you are a natural talent, but I think there is more to that than you suspect. Wali, I know Longtooth likely went over the basics, but some things will help Yacob be a force to be reckoned with. As for you, Wali, you are now my new apprentice. Instead of taking you in as a child, you get to unlearn some bad habits and rebuild from there. Longtooth was a good kid, but the Colri mindset contaminates his magic. You two get to train with me.” She said.
The next few weeks were a bit of a blur. Yacob turned out to also have the Fortitude and Hands glyph aspects. Vinny was revealed to have Life, Blood, Breath, and Body glyphs. Yacob was marked for war and Vinny to heal. Sas’cha had aspects of Spirit, Darkness, and Movement.
Vinny spent most of his time in the gardens with Greta and then in the kitchens. He learned cooking skills in addition to Alchemy.
Hansa took Yacob in hand; Hansa was an Elementalist and Natural Talent like him. They spent much of the time simply fighting in a fenced-off field, Hansa with staff and Yacob with his fists. The density of the local mana meant that they could go for hours without tiring or emptying themselves. Sas’cha was most often found participating in these bouts and training sessions. After handling the small herds living in the idyllic crater’s fields, they would begin their sparring bouts.
Wali had the most onerous task. He would later liken it to cramming for a test. Between his Adept Learner gift, Mind, and Clever Glyphs and Marsai’s teaching skills, he absorbed all of it. To say he grew in power and knowledge by leaps and bounds would be to downplay his growth rate.
Awakening the third and final set of glyphs as Marsai had done wonders for him. His internal pool of mana was the easiest way to measure this. Imperial magic had tried to measure mana and classify the rules that it followed. They were somewhat successful. An average person with a single glyph had 100 mana points by their classification. The growth of a person’s base mana pool based on the number of glyphs was an exponential function. Three glyphs meant that a person had three times three multiplier to that 100, or nine hundred mana. The unique nature of the magic glyph added another exponential increase. This meant Wali had nine times nine times nine or seventy-two thousand nine hundred mana by Imperial Standards.
One of the things a mage learned was how to use mana more efficiently. A normal person could use ten mana to make a candle flame for one minute if they knew the correct cantrip. A fire-aspected mage could do the same thing for a single mana point. A skilled mage who was not fire-aspected could do it for five mana. That was the efficiency of skill.
Longtooth had laid the groundwork, Trickster built the frame, but Marsai did the rest. Wali’s grasp of magic theory, mana efficiency, and technical knowledge was now a livable home. Beyond the basics, she focused on the aspects that Wali had. She capitalized on the Mind and Clever glyphs to short-cut his education in how spells worked. She forced him not to rely on the work of millennia of mages before him. He had to construct the idea, figure out how to empower it with a mix of glyph-aspected magic and runes, and then perfect the spell.
He quickly became very skilled at unbinding and dispelling magic. A lifetime of applied engineering as a craftsman and combat engineer showed him where finesse was best or applied brute force would work better for the situation at hand.
Mixing Void and Distance magic in creative ways opened portals or allowed Wali to teleport. Switching Mind and Void gave telepathy, used slightly differently, and he could project illusions onto another’s mind. Applying the Void glyph to any other glyph was a powerful attack.
The Blood and Heart runes were a bit more complex, used primarily for body strengthening; applying them outside himself was difficult. This was until he mixed them with the Mind, Spirit, and Magic glyphs and applied them to his totems. After an initial very gorey experiment, he added some rune work, and suddenly Gulli, Tag, Neferu, and Noodle could manifest in the world as flesh and blood.
Wali’s totems had grown in power as much as he had. Their spiritual bond fueled them as much as it did his. Gulli was the size of an SUV; Noodle had grown to some ten meters in length and was thicker than Yacob’s thigh. Tag was no larger, but her speed was beyond the sound barrier. Neferu would have a hard time fitting inside an articulated bus. Only Trickster was unaffected, as it did not have the same bond as the Totem Spirits.
Gale too, had grown in power with Wali. The bound elemental had ceased to be so violently loud in the back of Wali’s mind. It could be empowered with Wali’s glyphs and manifest itself outside Wali for longer and in a much more powerful form. Its personality had shifted with Wali’s evolution. It was still as bloodthirsty and rage-filled as always but now had a strong sense of subservience to Wali. Wali had unknowingly tamed the wild fury of the storm.
Yacob’s advancement in his arts was also impressive. With Hansa’s help, he had grown in power. He could completely convert his body into stone, not the simple gray limestone but in quartz-like crystals. He was impervious to flames and the strongest claws. He could call flames and shoot gouts of magma from his fists. There was only one word in Wali’s mind, “tank.” Yacob was a tank, a juggernaut of stone and fire, nearly unstoppable and firing big hits.
Vinny also grew, but more in the skill department than in power. He spent much of his time healing Yacob, Sas’cha, and Hansa when he wasn’t in the kitchen with Greta. In the kitchen, his foundational alchemy skills were fortified. Alchemy was an art that took years to master, but Vinny’s talents were not lacking, just rusty. With the sprawling gardens of ancient and powerful herbs at his disposal, as well as a master alchemist as a teacher, he produced potion after potion. These started as weak healing potions but swiftly progressed into healing potions most Hunters would pay ten or more gold for.
Three weeks into their respective apprenticeships, an elven runner came leaping and sprinting down one of the many switchbacks that dropped into the crater from the jungle above.