There was one thing Jace could thank his guardian and mentor for, it was for all the life skills she taught him. Sure, magic was nice, but learning how to cook good food, how to wash and repair clothes. All those little things that kept life interesting. Such as right now he was repairing his quilt, as it had a tear created by his clawed foot.

One thing on his mind since the hunting trip, as he stitched and crossed the tear, was the name, or rather, place, of Allsmeet. What was such a place like? Will Evaliena take him there, he wondered.

Thunk! Evaliena dropped a stack of books on a table nearby. Startling Jace and breaking him out of his reverie, and tearing the neat stitching he just made. He looked up, annoyed. “Jeez, why?!”

The yellow vixen smiled as she leered over Jace. “You’ve forgotten that I have more to still teach you, huh? I left you alone for the week so you could recover from your outing.”

“No, I haven’t forgotten.” Jace shrugged and looked down at his ruined work.

Evaliena placed a hand on Jace’s shoulder. “I’ll repair it later for you. Or maybe get you a new one.” She reached over with her free hand to grab a book from the shelves. “I considered getting you started early in your own spell journal, but…” Evaliena paused and Jace waited. She presented the first of the books the title read.

“Spell crafting theory? Why would I need to craft new spells when I can learn and research them from others?” He tilted his head, still looking at the worn cover.

“You should know by now, my apprentice.” Evaliena gave Jace a mocking smile. “Part of being a good mage is being able to, at the very least, adapt spells you already know, as well as create new ones to tackle with the problems in front of you.” She leaned down and looked Jace in the eyes. “But we’ll start with this one.” She put down the book and grabbed the other. Its title read, ‘Manual to rapid spellcraft - Spell Shapes and Components,’

Jace took the heavy book into his furred hands with care. He opened the book to a random page. Both pages had upon them two clusters of runes. The runes inside were written in simple circles with lines trailing outwards that dictate points of connection. There was no description of what the clusters did. “What are these?”

Evaliena took her hand off of Jace’s shoulder and rubbed her chin. “To hazard a guess, these rune words convert one type of mana into another.”

“Why would someone need to do that?” Jace kept looking at the groups of runes. “I can understand the need, but why?”

“Well… for a few different reasons, self sustaining spells need to convert environmental mana to something they can use. Say if topaz wanted to use more than earth, force and metal mana, she’ll need spells with transducers written into them.” She paused for a moment. “You don’t need them because your gate naturally adjusts. But it’s good to know they exist. Now.” She reached down and flipped the pages to the beginning of a fresh set. The page title read, ‘Spell Shapes’. At least each rune ‘word’ had a description of what it did now.

Jace noticed these rune words are also incomplete, like the previous set and a worrying pattern of the same runes repeating. “I’m sensing a repetition here.”

Evaliena nodded in agreement. “Yes, many of the runes get used as safe branches and connectors, essentially doing nothing but complicating the spell. That’s just how quick spellcraft works. It’s sloppy, however…”

“As you refine the spell, you take out the bits and pieces that do nothing, right?” Jace finished the sentence. Evaliena smiled. “I still would rather learn some more spells than attempt to make my own…”

“I get that. I also understand you realise the intent of a spell as you see it.” She traced a finger across Jace’s shoulder. “It usually takes decades to learn intent, nevertheless you’ve had this intuition from the outset.” Jace felt rather pleased upon hearing that. “However, this intuition, if not properly honed, could get you injured, or worse.” Oh, Jace thought to himself. “I’ll still teach you more spells. I just want you to understand the thought process that goes into their creation first.”

“So I can identify what a spell does by reading it instead of forming it?” Jace surmised. He leaned back in his chair.

The yellow vixen stopped leaning over Jace. “How about we test it?” She held up her hand and began visibly forming a spell construct in its palm. “Now, can you intuit this?”

Jace looked up and stared at the spell construct, watching those loosely connected runes swirl around. He sensed dampness and a need to flow. If he attempted this spell, it would exhaust him easily. “That’s a water spell?” Evaliena nodded, dismissed the spell and started doing a series, picking one for each aspect of mana. Jace correctly guessed every aspect except two. All he could make of one was a pure strength of will and the other pure change. Evaliena dismissed the spell, probably noticing Jace’s frustration. Jace asked before the vixen could say anything. “What aspect or element represents pure will?” or change, for that matter.

“The two you couldn’t identify were both core mana aspects.” Evaliena explained. “Force and Metal. Aspects of will and change, respectively. I’ll teach you about them in time. Core spells are quite dangerous to the unprepared spell caster.”

Jace nodded along. Evaliena spent the rest of the day with Jace, teaching him about the finer points of spellcraft and what to expect. He really needed a journal to compile his notes in.

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More growing pains and sharper sense of smell was what Jace got as his body grew. He felt Evaliena was holding back in her training with Jace just to allow the old fox to keep training him. As much as he didn’t like to admit it, he felt great. If only his arms and legs didn’t ache because of the training. He sat on top of the stone training circle situated in the courtyard, piles of bound up rocks he had been recently lifting in various ways lying right beside him.

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Jace understood the exercise entirely. Cedar was trying to fortify Jace’s growing muscles into something useful. The old fox commented that Jace will never have the same level of physique Cedar had in his youth, or match any of the braves in the party they encountered out in the interior of Eweron. But as long as it prevented mundane individuals from physically overpowering him, Cedar would be satisfied with his efforts spent on Jace. Just starting while he was growing up was uncomfortable. At least he was allowed to rest for a day between training and lessons…

So Jace kept sitting there in the chilly mountain air so his muscles could recover.

“Summon her.” Cedar commanded.

“Summon who?”

Cedar stared at Jace sternly. “You know who, the Gem spirit.”

Jace shrugged. “Topaz will not come out unless she wants to.”

Cedar grumbled quietly about Jace being handed such a powerful tool, then spoke again. “Then coax her out. If you ever intend to use her at all, she needs to be trained as well. Even if she’s crafted from pieces of a soul, a gem spirit is meant to be used.” The old silver argued.

Jace pulled the hanging citrine coloured gem that served as the housing of Topaz’s armature out from under his poncho. Currently, Jace had wrapped the gem in a durable brown string so that he could hang it around his neck. “Even if I wanted to, she’s currently in a deep sleep.” He felt the slow pulse of the armature inside. “And she rarely humours my calls.”

“You’re a mageling, you dolt! Sandal didn’t tell you how to care for constructs yet? Pour your living mana into her gem, as much as you are willing to allow. It will force her to wake up.” He paused for a moment as he thought about it. “And since it’s your mana, she will have to listen to you.”

Jace felt uncomfortable with taking control of Topaz like that. But it looked like Cedar wasn’t going to relent. Jace thought the old fox was being too pushy. So he poured some of his Feina’s mana into the yellow gem. He sensed a stir, sleepy at first, then Topaz’s armature became angry.

“Why, you little grey fur shite!” The gem spirit growled angrily as she slowly faded into existence. She sat opposite of Jace, waiting for instruction with a dangerous expression on her face. “I was sleeping! You know, sleep is important for spirits?!”

“You’re not a true spirit girl.” Cedar spoke derisively with his arms folded. Topaz looked over to the old Reynard. “And shouldn’t be dreaming the world away.”

“Ugh, it’s the creepy old man.” Topaz rolled her eyes. Jace thought that was harsh. Cedar is crude, but he wouldn’t go as far as to say that about him.

Cedar snorted, bemused. Then he raised his wooden sword into a simple guard. “I want to see how you handle yourself. Especially since you’ll be working with Ashwood soon.”

Topaz looked at Jace. “You have my leash…”

Jace just shrugged. “Go ham I guess?” Jace would immediately regret saying that. As Topaz leapt into action with a twirl. He senses several grey lines of mana crack against several blinking in and out grey disks in front of Cedar.

Cedar recoiled slightly in surprise, before immediately recomposing himself. “This is a sparring match, not a duel to the death!” Topaz didn’t respond, just hovering curled in midair, keeping up the barrage of grey lines. “You’re not going to break my defences with force lances, girl! Ashwood!” Jace had learned one simple thing about core mana, is that you could only control one core mana type spell at a time. And it was the only reason Cedar was surviving.

It wasn’t a moment longer until Evaliena appeared at the lip of the platform and smothered the barrage with her aura. Topaz growled then calmed down, slowly landing on all fours. “Are you two stupid?!” Evaliena looked between Jace and Cedar. The stare of concern and anger was… disturbing. Her gaze eventually stayed on Jace as if to stare a hole through him. “Tell her to spar next time, not to just go at it!”

Topaz just stood there, smirking and revelling in the chaos she wrought.

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Being forced to scrub the floorboards of the living area was probably the lightest punishment Jace could get. His negligence with Topaz could have easily cost Cedar his life. However, he could rest easy in the knowledge that the old fox was also being punished in some way, too. He finished with the floor soon after, flexing and rubbing his poor hands as the salt soap burned his skin. Cleaning out the firepit of the hearth nearly killed him from the amount of ash that kicked up into the air. And all the while, Topaz was bound and forced to stay outside of her armature.

“This is your fault.” Topaz squirmed uselessly against the magical bindings Evaliena had put around her.

“I’m not the one that immediately went for the kill…” Jace mumbled as he sat on the floor.

“So what? The witch could have easily stitched him back together.” Topaz spat and inch-wormed towards Jace.

“With the number of force lances you were sending towards Cedar, it looked like you were trying to wipe him off the face of the planet.” Jace sighed, then a question popped into his head. “I wonder, though, are you even capable of non-lethal combat?”

“Of course, I have a couple of spells for just disarming and disabling people. I’d be pretty useless as a guardian otherwise.” Topaz chirped. Jace’s belly growled loudly. “Excuse you.”

“Time for some lunch, I guess.” Jace sighed and looked up to the ceiling. Hanging dried meats littered the rafters near the hearth.

Continuing to inchworm over. “Feed me too!” The gem spirit yapped.

“You don’t need food.” Jace looked out to Topaz. “Where would your body even store it?” He got up and reached for a link of sausages.

Topaz scoffed. “I have a functioning body once I’m outside of my armature, you know.” She rolled back and forth impotently.

“First you just wanted to sleep, now you’re demanding food. You remind me of my family’s cat.” Jace grabbed a cast iron pan and set it on the hearth’s cooking rack. Topaz just scowled at Jace. Jace would have to keep one eye open tonight, lest the spirit attempt to take her pent-up frustrations on him. “Fine. What do you want?”

“How about that spicy looking sausage over there?” The small canid wagged her head towards the deep red link of sausages hanging over head. Jace had tasted these before. They were mildly spicy, but they certainly cleaned out his guts whenever he tried one.

“Do you think you can handle that variety?” Jace narrowed an eye at Topaz. She nodded, and he went to cook them both lunch. Topaz regretted her decision a day later.