There is no magical focus quite like a melody. Not only does music order magic much like well-practiced words or runes can, but it can enhance one’s resonance. In fact, the state of mind that music requires is one of the few mental states that can increase all three of one’s arcane, divine, and primeval resonances.

My melody was that of a leaf blown by the wind, a mercurial and absentminded song that would move from one cascade of notes to the next, barely connecting the two. As I played, I used my [Air Magick] to push ribbons and ripples of wind out into the air in an intricate pattern that radiated out from me before dissolving into whirling streamers of wind.

I played for only a few minutes before the first of them found me—and a solid spear of air almost knocked me from the mountaintop.

I reached out with my [Air Magick] and split the spear in two, watching the elemental’s mana-dense form divide, slide around the envelope of protective air I’d formed around myself, then merge again.

I played a three-note admonishment on my pipes, each decreasing in pitch. I ceased spreading my streamers of air into the space around me for a moment, my eyes on the elemental. It circled me, curious, little more than a ripple of air to the naked eye.

Then I began to play again, resuming my intricate pattern of music and wind.

The elemental tore at my streamers like a child slapping at the drizzle that runs from an eave in rain. Then it lunged for me again.

Again, I split it, protecting myself with an envelope of air to avoid being thrown from the mountain. Again, I admonished the elemental with the same three notes.

Then I began to play again.

Unintelligent air elementals were not malicious creatures like most fire and frost elementals. Instead, they were dangerous because they were careless, easily fascinated, and because they had no true sense of danger. Their first instinct when seeing something new was to push on it, to feel it and slap it around, spin and toss it, lift it high and drop it: why would an air elemental know that throwing me down the side of this mountain could hurt me? It couldn’t hurt them. Few things could.

They were creatures of curiosity, with little ambitions or wants other than to fly and find new experiences. And because their senses were most attuned to sensing air, one of their favorite new things to experience was music. Even intelligent air elementals lacked the focus, community, and collective memory to develop new instruments and pass down tens of thousands of songs as the elves had.

It took a few tries to get the elemental who had found me to understand that if it pushed me, I would stop playing. Eventually it backed off, circling me and just watching, then finally reaching out to play with my streamers of air, adding its own complex patterns and ripples to mine.

I smiled. Elves are the creation of Sabina, but we are still mammals even if we are immortal. Elementals surpass even me when it comes to [Primeval Resonance] and manipulating the substance of their self. I was awestruck as I watched the elemental create hair-fine tendrils and hollow spheres of compressed air just to dash them into waves and eddies. It was a beautiful thing.

I kept playing, and soon more elementals joined me. My first friend quickly became a sort of bodyguard, intercepting the instinctive first interaction of the others so as to safeguard my song. Soon many elementals were circling me, swooping through my manipulated currents and adding their own patterns and sounds to the air.

I wished that I could have stayed for the rest of the day, playing and watching the elementals play back, listening to the whiplike whispers of their manipulated winds in my ear and responding with more notes on my pipes. I wished that Alcuon sat beside me, playing his lute, our lyre, or my drums—he’d been learning those.

But I was alone. Wretched time takes—takes everything. I couldn’t even stay to enjoy this moment, not for as long as I wanted to. After an hour I rose, pushed my way through my audience of elementals, and took off down the slopes of the mountain, half-falling, half-flying through the mist layer.

I hadn’t met any intelligent air elementals. I’d have to try again in a higher position. The air was highly stripped of its aspect, and the only known circumstances that produced an outcome like this were intelligent air elementals.

Air elementals consumed [Air] keys to sustain themselves and to grow stronger. All air elementals could strip the aspect from the air in a rudimentary way, but air was a fluid: the more its aspect was stripped, the more all of the world’s air would slowly be diluted as it mingled together. Only intelligent elementals could figure out how to siphon the aspect-laden air from the air that was without it—if none were present, the air wouldn’t drop below six-tenths [Air] aspect.

Or so we thought. This world was unlike anything we’d encountered: I couldn’t discount the possibility that some unknown mechanism, perhaps borne of the high concentrations of mana, allowed even the unintelligent elementals to strip aspects beyond our expectations.

Still, I had something to look forward to: with the keys I’d brought, I’d be high in the air, enjoying the power of continuous flight, in no time. I had the keys to at least upgrade my [Air Magick] now, but I’d hold off until I could talk to Hassina—I hadn’t needed the boost to kill the wyverns, and a few extra minutes traveling home wasn’t worth spending them, either.

In our current circumstances, the normal order of things was reversed: [Elemental] keys were less valuable than [Air] keys. Better to rank up my [Air Magick] with those, once I could, and leave the [Air 2] keys that I’d gathered for our other elementalists.

I searched through the boons I’d been given for killing the wyverns—it was a huge amount of [Air], [Animal], [Body], [Life], [Reptile], [Sight], and [Wild].

I queried the Verse to simplify things:

?—You hold 27 [Boon], 9 of which can create [Air 2]. Of those that cannot create [Air 2], 12 can create [Sight 2].

“Better,” I muttered. Hassina could sort through the complexities.

Soon I landed in the mist before the cave entrance. The mist layer that was now on a level with the colony had seemingly finished getting lighter—it now glowed bright white like the layer above it. I walked inside and found Hassina making plans with some of the enchanters. She excused herself when she saw me, then came and took my offered hands. I gave her 332 864 Essence, along with all my boons.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Your level limit has increased to 25!

“Oh, wait,” I said. “I’m going need 11,000 essence back.”

“Is that twenty four?” Hassina asked.

“Twenty five,” I said, smiling. I took her offered hand:

+ 11,000 Essence!

“Excellent,” said Hassina. “We’ll have to let Fireesha know you’ve got another binding. I didn’t expect it until your next trip out.”

You spend 11,000 Essence to gain 1 Level! Your level is now 25 / 25

For reaching level 25, you gain 1 [*Primeval 5] skill core.

For reaching level 25, you gain 1 Binding. You now have 4 total Bindings.

You gain 1 [Bestow 14]!

For reaching level 25, your [Bestow] increases from 14 to 16.

You spend 1 [Bestow 14] to add 14 to your [Source]. Your [Source] is now 194.

“And look! [Sight]!” She was grinning at me.

“And [Air],” I added. “I was as happy as you are, trust me. This doesn’t solve all our problems, but Mirio was right to make sure I saw those wyvern skulls. I didn’t make contact with any intelligent air elementals, though—I’ll have to fly higher.”

“All right,” she said, moving over to her flat slate of wall. “But we can manage that. New attributes?”

I told her:

!—Aziriel’s Attributes:

213 [Aegis]

234 [Agility]

101 [Strength]

124 [Channel]

61 [Focus]

194 [Source]

106% [Primeval Resonance]

1940/1940 Mana, 57% Primeval

100/100 [Life Pool]

100/100 [Surge Pool]

“It’s good for morale,” she said, chalk scraping across the stone as I read her the numbers. Then she copied out my skills:

!—Aziriel’s Skills:

0: [Primeval Power 30]

0: [Sable Grace 20]

0: [Life Magick 7]

2: [Avian Grace 11]

4: [Air Magick 9]

6: [Primeval Mana Hide 14]

8: [Might 9]

10: [Surge of Might 9]

15: [Wild Bond 6]

20: [Lightning Magick 8]

25: [*Primeval 5]

B: [Conjured Missiles 7]

B: [Primeval Mana 7]

B: [Surging Power 7]

B: Empty!

“Well, we can fix at least one thing right away,” Hassina said. She offered me her hands.

+ 1 [Air 3]

“That should at least come close to putting you in the air.”

I made [Kite’s Grace], by adding the skill key to [Avian Grace]:

You add an [Air 3] skill key to [Avian Grace 11] to create the skill: [Kite's Grace 14].

[Kite’s Grace 14]

Components: [*Primeval 5] + [Air 3] + [Body 3] + [Bird 3]

+ 95 [Agility]

+ 49% Efficiency when air close to your body with [Air Magick]. Efficiency refunds a portion of spent mana.

You can lighten yourself to be up to 87% your ordinary weight.

You don’t suffer airsickness when moving between altitudes.

Your gaze now detects birds as well as air, and both your gaze and threshold are easier to extend through such creatures and substances.

It is easier to hide and defend yourself from psychic attacks using the [Wild Bond] skill and all similar skills.

“That’s it,” I said. “That’s continual flight, right there. Easy enough to reach with [Primeval Mana Hide] in this place. Still, since it’s preferable that I don’t run myself out of mana from maneuvering and throwing lightning, my open skill core should bolster flight, somehow.”

“That doesn’t narrow it down by much,” said Hassina.

“[Elemental Power] is the obvious choice,” I said. “It’s just a matter of weighing it against any other options you can think of. I’m still gaining [Source] to keep up with my natural ability to throw lightning, but that won’t last long. After that I’m not sure—I want everything but more [Agility]. [Channel] for faster lightning and flight, [Focus] for bigger bolts and more efficient flight, and [Strength] to pierce [Aegis] with my weapons.

Hassina sighed. “So you don’t want to lean on your [Channel]? The one attribute you have that’s 163% more effective than it should be?”

I shook my head. “I don’t have the mana to use it,” I said. “My innate capacity to channel is more than a hundred—my overall effective channeling rate is as if I had a [Channel] of more than seven hundred. [Primeval Resonance] is essentially doubling [Surging Power]’s [Channel] bonus twice.”

I looked at my attributes on the wall before me, frowned, then shook my head. “The lightning is quite strong already,” I said. I worked my mouth, then added: “It’s not exactly an easy decision. Mightier bolts would help me put forth the needed amount of power against a strong foe.”

“Which is, if we’re being honest, sort of your job.”

I smiled. She wasn’t wrong. Some creatures were so powerful that normal fighters had no chance of even hurting them. The point of a champion was twofold: to fight such creatures, and to be one.

“I still think [Focus] might be a better choice. It’s not like faster flight, greater air control, and a larger claim and gaze aren’t useful in mortal combat,” I said. “And the usefulness of having me cover great distances quickly is manifold.” Then I shook my head. “The point may be moot, however. Consider anything you like, but run their numbers against [Elemental Power].”

“And the binding? You want a [Focus] skill?”

I shook my head. “I want it, yes. I want a lot of things. [Earthen Might] to bolster my [Aegis] and the [Strength] I gave up while giving me the power to wholly sense the terrain again. [Storm Surge], [Melee Surge], [Missile Surge] and [Blood Magick]... throw in a nice multi-aspect [Lightning] skill…. Ah, but I’m daydreaming. For now, for the binding? Get me [Animal Sight] and the next time I go hunting I’ll scout far, come back with more than a million essence, and do a better job of seeing about these air elementals.”

“Are you going now?” Hassina asked.

I shook my head. “I’m fast enough now that we can send Valir and his hunters out—I’ll stay back and keep watch over them. I’m level 25, now. My own limit will increase slowly and my next four levels are gap levels. As long as we’ve already gotten the essence to keep the hunting parties leveled to their limits, I’d rather them go out now.”

“You sure? You did just promise a million essence.”

“I know,” I said plaintively. “And I’d very much like to be flying around hunting wyverns and exploring some of the further mountains, believe me. But getting the hunters started is an investment. Once they start, they’ll just get stronger and stronger. I can only harvest so well because I’ve had the time to build strength—it’s worth the investment to start with them now.

“As you wish, Lux Irovex.”

I nodded. “I’m going to make the rounds now. Let the people see my face. Send word to Valir to get started.” I hesitated a moment, then added: “And send word to Seriana. It’s not urgent, but I’d like her to find me when she has some time.”

“All right,” said Hassina. “Should I tell her what it’s about?”

I might have said: about her treasonous husband.

“No,” I said. “She’ll know.”