After discovering that Ezekiel could hold motes of elemental mana within his core in and potentially use them, Warren demanded that Ezekiel not do anything with this information, as it could lead to far more trouble for him and other Void Mages than simply coming up with a method for them to gather and accumulate mana.
This was something that others might consider as stealing when it came to their magic, as no other element could use a different element to cast spells.
With that said and done, and Ezekiel’s mana mostly refilled, Warren went to get the food he had left behind so that they could continue with their training. This continued for the rest of the week, and saw Ezekiel make significant progress with his awareness and agility, until Warren needed to return to his guard duties. Which coincided with the completion of the Guild trials.
Having missed the last three days due to his own training, Ezekiel had to wait until that weekend to meet up and discuss what had happened.
It seemed that the remaining days of the trial were tests to see how well they could use their magic. Many students were wary of this, as one of the tests required them to use their magic to defend themselves for a certain length of time.
For those that hadn’t recently broken through, this meant they might fall to the bottom of the Step they were in if they wanted to move on, which would mean months of work to climb back up, at minimum.
For Shari and the rest of Ezekiel’s friends, this wasn’t an issue, as they all understood that the possibility of bonding with a Spirit outweighed any potential loss of mana they might suffer.
Unfortunately, several others, including Horace and his new posse, also understood this, and were amongst the remaining hundred or so students that would be attempting to bond with a Spirit over the two remaining weeks before the expedition set out.
Worse yet, even though they had managed to get through most of the Trials, not all of Ezekiel’s friends had made it through to the end.
Yennifrey had not managed to pass during the party trials due to a failure from one of her team members. This led to one of her team suffering an injury at Yennifrey’s hands.
Whilst greatly disappointed in her inability to get a spot to visit the city’s Spirit Lands, Yennifrey was consoled by the fact that Ezekiel’s mother was impressed enough with her control that she would be able to work at Evelyn’s shop part time.
Which made sense, as Evelyn would be splitting her time between training Ezekiel and working her shop. If Yennifrey did well during the two weeks Evelyn would be mostly away from the shop, an apprenticeship was not out of the question.
Beyond excited at the prospect of learning from her idol, Yennifrey agreed on the spot, but had to be talked down in order to get permission from her parents first.
While he was happy for his friends for all getting something out of the past week of trials, as Ezekiel left to train with his mother, and his friends went off to the Spirit Lands with the Guilds, he couldn’t help but feel like their real trials were just beginning.
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‘CRASH’
Ezekiel was sent flying through the air as he was thrown by a tendril of shadows that his mother had used to grab his leg and send him face first into a pile of stacked crates.
The training room had been altered slightly to mimic a forested area with obstacles and ‘trees’ in the form of crates and boxes that he had maneuvered around and used to his advantage when dodging.
Something that was much harder when he couldn’t tell where most of the attacks were coming from, as they literally came from the shadows.
If he hadn’t been using his mana to constantly reinforce his body, he would’ve certainly broken some bones by this point.
He felt his back prickle as he lost control over his mana briefly, halting the flow of his mana and losing his reinforcement for a moment.
“Focus!” Evelyn yelled as Reya mentally informed her of Ezekiel’s lapse in concentration.
Reya, who had attached herself to Ezekiel’s shadow, growled in agreement before falling silent. Using her temporary connection to Ezekiel to continue monitoring his mana flow and usage.
“Right!” Ezekiel called out as he rebalanced the flow of mana in his body, keeping a continuous output as he slowly drained his mana at a consistent rate to maintain an unending enhancement.
“Good!” Evelyn called out as Reya informed her that Ezekiel regained grip on his control. “You’ll have some new tricks to show your friends when they return in two weeks. Hopefully they’ll have some new friends for you to meet when they do.”
Ezekiel didn’t say anything. Choosing to continue moving as he avoided a small box that was thrown his way by a shadow twenty feet away.
He couldn’t afford to speak right now, but he could afford to wonder if his friends were having as much trouble as he was right now.
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Two days later, in the northern quarter of the city. Beyond the Grand Cathedral, and into the forested area that was granted to the Spirits who had taken residence within Erenon, right next to the City of Harkem, Shari, Riley, and Drew were making their way through the Spirit Lands with representatives from Tier three Guilds.
None of the Tier four Guilds had been willing to play chaperone, which made sense as they were preparing for their expedition, so it was up to the lover Tier Guilds to make sure the students weren’t harmed during their trip.
Something they had failed to do, as three students in their group of ten had already tried to bond with a Spirit, only for the Spirit in question to turn violent, and injure them to the extent that they needed to return home.
Shari and Riley had come close to bonding with a Spirit, but a last-minute decision had caused their potential Spirits to run away, rather than complete the bonding.
That had happened yesterday, and for now, both girls were sitting in their groups camp with one of the Guild representatives standing guard. The rest of the group was looking for Spirits with the other Guild reps, or off gathering firewood or water.
“It’s alright, girls, I’m sure you two will be able to find a proper bond before we leave. You’ve still got over a week left. Before we’ll be required to leave.” The Guild members said as encouragement.
Neither of them said anything, both feeling a little dismayed at the fact that they’d failed at the last step. A call of joy from a voice they both recognized pulled them from their thoughts.
Rushing towards the direction they could hear Drew making a ruckus from, they burst into a clearing near a small pond, the Guild member that was supervising rushing ahead of them and standing in front in case of any dangers.
They needn’t have worried, however, as Drew stood in the middle of the small clearing, a small, plump, gray bird chick of some sort was sitting on his head as he spun around in joy.
“I did it!” Drew exclaimed as he looked towards Shari, Riley, and the Guild representative. “I bonded with a Spirit!”
Shari and Riley looked shocked, as they had been in the Spirit Lands for two days now, and not once had Drew been approached by a Spirit. Although, they hadn’t run into many Tempest Spirits during that time either.
“Congratulations.” The Guild member said with a tight smile and a polite clap of his hand as he approached Drew and his newly bonded Spirit. “It’s always a wonder when a commoner manages to bond with a Spirit. Have you determined its name yet?”
The mention of Drew’s status as a commoner drew a glare from Shari and Riley, as they finally realized that this Guild member was part of the Noble Faction in the city.
Drew didn’t notice, too excited to care as he picked the little fat bird chick off his head and looked it in the eyes. A small voice gently whispered at the back of his head.
“Jesse.” Drew said as his Spirit nodded in affirmation. “My Spirit’s name is Jesse.”
Shari and Riley looked on in jealousy as they saw the smile and joy on Drew’s face. They were now more determined than ever to bond with a Spirit of their own.
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One week now remained before Ezekiel would be sent off on the expedition. Unlike days before, however, he was currently sitting next to Yennifrey in a back room of his mother’s shop as Evelyn went over the basics of repairing enchantments and understanding the basic principles of enchanting and Rune crafting.
Ezekiel had already memorized the Runic alphabet, but only regarding how it pertained to the Ancients as a language. Not how it was used in enchanting, as both a mixture of symbolic and definitive representations meant to cause certain effects to happen under certain conditions.
“Each and every Rune has a different purpose when used in enchanting.” Evelyn explained. “In order to find that purpose, we must first define what the gold of the Runic sequence is going to be.”
“For example, you would use the same Rune for ‘weight’ in enchantments for making something heavy or light, as it has a defined aspect in both situations. However, the purpose of that Rune will be different. As such, the placement of that Rune and the supporting Runes that define what we will be happening with the ‘weight’ of the object will differ.”
Evelyn would spend quite some time defining and explaining the purposes and definitions of different Runes. She knew that this information wouldn’t be immediately useful to Ezekiel, as it took years to figure out all the different ways that Runes could be sequenced before a new enchantment could be made.
Her hope with these lessons was only to give her son the best chances of surviving enchanted defenses as was possible. The fact that these lessons were also a good introduction for Yennifrey was also a boon, as the younger Obscurity Mage was looking to be quite the enchanter from what she had seen so far.
Ezekiel wasn’t doing bad either, but he had the distinct advantages of knowing all the Runes already, having lived and worked with his mother at her shop since he was a child, and having a history from his past life where he was an archaeologist student. So, picking up patterns for languages wasn’t new to him.
“Okay. Now that we’ve gone over the basic mechanics of weight altering enchantments, I want you both to take a look at these strips of cloth.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Evelyn held out two strips of white fabric. Each one had Runes stitched into them that ran the full length of the cloth.
“Each of you take a cloth and tell me what the Runic sequence is supposed to do, as well as what is preventing them from working. Nothing that we haven’t gone over here was used when enchanting these bits of cloth. So, there won’t be any surprises.”
Yennifrey and Ezekiel both took a strip of cloth from Evelyn. Ezekiel noticed right away that the two strips were different from one another, so there would be no copying each other to figure out what was wrong.
Looking over the cloth in his hands, he immediately noticed the Rune for ‘direction’ was the focus of the Runic sequence. Meaning that the purpose of this cloth was to move in a specific direction.
Looking over it further, he saw that there were five more ‘direction’ Runes, but they seemed to be inverted from the main one. From there he realized that the Runes weren’t spaced appropriately according to the purpose of the ‘direction’ Runes. Thus, causing the Runes to conflict with one another, the connecting lines weren’t properly placed as the flow of mana was mixed up due to contradictions in the sequence.
Raising his hand to indicate that he was finished, Evelyn motioned for him to wait as Yennifrey finished checking her own piece of cloth.
Deciding to check over it again, just in case he missed something, Ezekiel waited for several minutes as Yennifrey finished looking over the Runes in her hands.
As they were both now finished, Evelyn called on Ezekiel, as he had finished first.
“The sequence is a really weird weight reduction enchantment. Instead of focusing on reducing the weight to make it lighter, the Runes focus on ‘pulling’ from the sides and the top, and whilst ‘pushing’ from the bottom. I’m assuming that the ‘pulling’ is supposed to provide energy for the ‘pushing’ making it easier to carry upwards, but probably makes it slightly harder to move side to side when lifted.”
Ezekiel finished his explanation as his mother watched with pride.
“And what is preventing it from working?” Evelyn inquired.
“The connections from the side-to-side directions are messed up. So, the flow of mana can’t properly activate, as the directions contradict with the purpose of the Runes. Causing the enchantment to fail as the mana has no clear instructions on what effect it’s supposed to make.”
“Exactly.” Evelyn exclaimed. “Now, how about you, Yennifrey. What does your cloth do?”
Looking up shyly, it seemed like Yennifrey didn’t want to answer after hearing Ezekiel’s explanation.
“It’s alright, Yennifrey. Ezekiel has been working in my shop since he was five. He’s learned a bit more than you just from being around me. There’s nothing to be worried about. Just tell me what you think you found out.” Evelyn encouraged, after Yennifrey didn’t speak up for several seconds.
“I think this sequence makes the cloth harder?” Yennifrey said as she pointed to different parts of the cloth. “This is a focus on ‘hard- no! ‘Toughness’ and I think these mean ‘to grow’, or ‘more’. While the supporting Runes are for... ‘stillness’?”
“Correct!” Evelyn said as Yennifrey got her Runic sequence right. “Your cloth is meant to become tougher in exchange for losing its flexibility. Now, what’s wrong with it?”
“The Rune? I think the Rune here is meant to define ‘motion’ stillness, but in that case, shouldn’t the Rune be ‘stiffness’ if we’re trying it together with flexibility?”
“Correct!”
These lessons continued for a couple of days before Ezekiel found himself back in the training room at the Alkena’s. A cluttered mess now taking space rather than the nicely cleaned and straightforward sparring rings.
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Riley and Shari had spent ten days with their group within the Spirit Lands at this point, and neither one of them had managed to bond with a Spirit.
Drew and one other had bonded with Spirits, so they had returned to the Cathedral earlier than the rest, leaving Shari and Riley with the three remaining members of their group.
All of them had gotten close to a Spirit at some point over the last few days, but it seemed like none were interested in the remaining children as they continued to spend time in the forest.
The party was settling down for the night. Shari and Riley had set their tents up next to each other, and there were only two Guild reps remaining to watch over the group.
A few hours after the sun had set, a rustling sound could barely be heard from Riley’s tent as she did her best to quietly open her tent and make her way out to the edges of the campsite.
Making her way through the brush, away from the camp Riley had managed to get quite some distance without a sound, when suddenly her foot went flying out from under her, bringing her to the ground with a small yelp.
“Ahg!’
“What are you doing!”
Riley pushed herself up to her feet as fast as she could as she heard Shari’s quiet exclamation.
Seeing that it was just her friend, Riley relaxed a bit and brushed herself off.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m going to find a Spirit to bond with.”
“Without the Guild reps?!” Shari asked incredulously. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”
“Of course, I do! I was there when we saw that one member of our group get gored by that bull Spirit when he tried to force a bond on it.”
“So why do you think that this is a good idea?”
“Because nothing else is working!”
Shari fell quiet as Riley nearly screamed in frustration. She knew that Riley was upset at not getting a bonded Spirit just yet but had thought she was dealing with it better than she apparently was.
“Walking around with a group isn’t working. Keeping it safe right now isn't working. I want to bond with a Spirit. I didn’t think that it was that big a deal before, but after seeing Drew, and that other kid, bond with their Spirits, I realized that I want this. I really want this.”
Shari opened her mouth to say something, but quietly shut her mouth as she just pointed at something that was behind Riley.
Turning around, Riley saw a small red glowing lizard sitting on a rock not far away from them.
Locking eyes with the Spirit, Riley silently walked forward holding her hand out and channeling a small amount of mana to create a flame in the palm of her hand.
The lizard cautiously approached the flame in her palm, sticking its tongue out as it did.
After tasting the flame for a few seconds, the lizard looked up at Riley, gazing deeply into her eyes as it seemed to see something in her that she wasn’t aware of.
Finally, after nearly a minute of staring, the lizard crawled into her hand in full, and Riley felt something settle into her core right next to her mana.
“Celia...” Riley muttered quietly as she stared at her bonded Spirit.
“MOVE!” Shari suddenly screamed, pulling Riley from her almost trance like state.
She had no time to express her joy as Shari tackled her and her Spirit behind the rock the lizard had been sitting on.
‘CRACK’
A body roughly a foot tall at the shoulders rammed face first into the rock that Riley had been standing in front of. A crack now split the rock in half as a small brown pig struck it with its head.
Riley had no time to react as Shari threw up a short wall of stone around them to keep the raging Cavern Spirit away from them.
“SQUEEEEL!!!”
The little hog went wild as it jumped at the girls tusks first. Shari threw up a stone to knock it off course. The little pig then rolled on the ground before charging once again. It looked even more pissed off after Shari’s attack than it had before.
Riley tried to help, sending a stream of fire in its direction, but that didn’t seem to do much as the pig just kept running through the fire, a rusty orange shine covering its fur as it barreled forward.
Shari threw up a wall of earth to act as a shield, feeling it in her bones as the wall cracked under the impact of the pig’s attack.
Riley then heard a small voice in the back of her head. She looked at her familiar in shock before turning back to Shari in shock.
“Riley! Do you think you can get back to camp?” Shari yelled as she did her best to patch up the cracks that were breaking through her shield.
Looking down at her Spirit for a moment, Riley looked back at Shari before sitting down.
“What are you doing?!”
Shari was shocked. She had hoped that Riley would be able to run to camp and get the Guild reps to come help, but now she had just sat down doing nothing.
“Riley!”
Riley didn’t respond as Shari yelled at her.
Shari then fell silent, doing her best to hold out against the attacks from the small Spirit pig.
This went on for several minutes, cracks constantly appearing, only to disappear as Shari channeled her mana over and over again. Suddenly the impacts lessened for a moment.
Focusing for a moment, Shari extended her senses into the ground, only to widen her eyes as she threw as much of her mana as she could into the wall in front of her.
‘CRACK’
Much like the rock from before, Shari’s wall cracked in two, right down the middle.
Just through the crack in the wall, Shari could see the little pig in front of her staring at her with an intense glare. Suddenly, it huffed before backing away and sitting down and staring at her expectantly.
“Shari.”
“What!?”
Shari turned to give Riley an angry look, only to see that Riley was biting her lip so hard it was bleeding.
“That Spirit. It wants to bond with you.”
“Huh?”
Riley held up her Spirit and placed it on her shoulder.
“Celia knows that Spirit. Apparently, they’ve been friends for a while. Celia would sit on that rock, sunbathing, while that boar would defend it from anything that tried to hurt her.” Riley explained. “She was upset when Celia chose to bond with me, but was surprised when you tried to protect me, just like it would for Celia.”
“It wanted to test you. To see if you were just like it when it came to protecting your friends.”
“You mean to tell me this was a test?”
Shari was shocked. She had genuinely thought that she was fighting for her, and her friend’s, lives.
Riley didn’t say anything. She merely turned her gaze to the ground in guilt.
Turning around, Shari glared at the little boar that was still sitting in front of her. A look of confusion seemed to cross its face as it perked its head to the side.
“Hargrah!”
Shari let loose a sound of frustration but knew that finding a Spirit was too rare of an opportunity to pass up on, so she approached the little pig and placed her hand in front of it.
The Spirit immediately moved forward, nuzzling into Shari’s waiting hand. A moment passed as Shari felt the Spirit’s mana touching her own, before she felt a presence settle next to her mana within her core.
Her expression immediately relaxed as she felt the thoughts and emotions of her newly bonded Spirit, recognizing someone that just wanted to protect their friend.
“... Bonnie...” Shari muttered as the name of the little Spirit boar clicked in her head.
Picking up the little boar and holding it close to her chest, Shari turned around to look at Riley.
Only to freeze in fear as she noticed the Guild member that was guarding their group standing beside Riley with a hand on her head.
“Congratulations. Let’s get back to camp, shall we?” The Guild member said quietly. “We’ll discuss your punishment when we get back.”
Shari and Riley couldn’t help but swallow nervously in unison.
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The final two weeks before Ezekiel’s departure had passed seemingly in an instant. He and his friends decided to spend one last day together before Ezekiel had to leave.
To do this, Shari dragged them all out to check out the various stores at the closest market district.
Ezekiel and Drew had been around here a couple of times. Drew because he lived in the area, and Ezekiel from the time he’d visited Drew’s store.
For Ezekiel this was a fun way for him to spend his last day in the city before he left. For the others, it was a way to get their bonded Spirits more accustomed to human society. Bonnie, Celia and Jesse were all excitedly looking around at the different things that they’d all never seen before.
Jesse was silently communicating with Bonnie and Celia as he had been in the city for a week longer than the other two and had been with Drew around most of this area.
For Yennifrey, she had tagged along too, even though she felt like she’d much rather be learning more from Evelyn right now. She still enjoyed the trip, however, and was slightly disappointed that Ezekiel would be leaving them.
They all quietly ignored the fact that it was possible that he wouldn’t be coming back.
Just as the group was entering a restaurant for some lunch, Shari insisted on treating them, an unwanted, but familiar voice, called out to them.
“Hello, Shari, I see you’re still spending time with the riff-raff.” Horace called the middle of the street. “When will you learn that you need to be spending time with people who actually matter?”
Ezekiel and his friends turned around to see Horace and his sister standing behind them. A small brown rat sat on Horace’s shoulder, squeaking angrily at them.
Shari moved to call out, but Ezekiel grabbed her hand to hold her back.
“There’s no need to make a scene. You answer to him now, and he won’t shut up until we make him run off with his tail between his legs. He’s not worth your time, and you know it.”
Shari just nodded at Ezekiel’s words before turning to head into the restaurant, the rest of their friends were glaring at Horace and his sister as they waited inside.
“Funny that a brat like you would be talking about worth. You worthless Void Mage.” A loud and obnoxious voice called out.
A chill went down Ezekiel and Shari’s spines as they vaguely recognized that voice. A voice they hadn’t heard in over five years.
Aldor was approaching from down the street, walking with an arrogant swagger as he came to a stop next to Horace and his sister. A vibrant red and orange snake was wrapped around Aldor’s neck.
Clenching his hands as he was reminded of the first time an attempt was made on his life, Ezekiel forced himself not to react as he moved to enter the restaurant. He gently gave Shari a push when he noticed she seemed frozen where she stood.
“I see you’re still good at running away! Well, we’ll see how well you run when you’re stuck in the Ruins!”
Ezekiel flinched at that, confused by Aldor’s words.
Turning around, he took a closer look at Aldor, and this time he noticed something that made his heart nearly stop.
A black sash with a spiraling tower reaching above the clouds was worn on Aldor’s arm. Two bars stitched into it to indicate his Tier.
Seeing that Ezekiel had noticed his Guild sash, Aldor’s face contorted into a condescending sneer as he raised his arm to emphasize the symbol he so proudly wore.
“That’s right, scum. I’ll be seeing you at the Ruins. And this time, I’ll be finishing what I should’ve done five years ago.”
Ezekiel said nothing, as he did his best to calm down. A million scenarios were running through his mind as he realized that the expedition just got much more dangerous for him.