There was a sense of tenseness in the air for a few months after they got back from Allsmeet. Baysil felt rather spooked by how seriously Evaliena took the threat of being tracked back to her hermitage. Strengthening wards, the reforging of the shroud that shielded the Keep from view, the opening and warding of a tunnel beneath the keep that cut through the mountain to its base at the other side. Precautions to allow the other residents to escape the hermitage should worse come to worse. Burr and Cedar seemed oddly unbothered by it all. Jace thought this was all a bit much. Used his studies and training sessions to help bury the feeling of unease.
It felt like he was being watched. He couldn’t sense the same presence he felt when the others scanned for him. This was more unnerving. Jace felt there was something there, something different from what Topaz’s spirit walking was. He had told Evaliena about the feeling. She told Jace he was just being nervous.
Evaliena also changed how she conducted her grocery shopping habits. Normally, either Baysil or Jace would accompany her. For now; she altered her glamour to wildly different yet unassuming fur patterns, greys, sometimes grizzled like his own, and natural reds. It was uncanny how she changed with such practised ease; the forms fitting like gloves, as if she was born into those bodies all along. A changeling in any other context, making himself feel rather plain in comparison. He guessed, after being told so long ago, that this is the reason Town therians, along with the Humes for that matter, are not told about their natural glamour abilities. The chaos and mistrust it would cause amongst the Humes. An intentional lack of information that Evaliena eagerly exploited.
Jace’s feeling of being watched faded over the months. The constant physical training and self defence sessions with Cedar were ending. The old fox had exhausted what knowledge he wished to impart. And Jace could feel the differences. Without reinforcing himself with his mana. He felt he could run all day, or haul heavy bags and chests easily. Overpowering Baysil when they got into playful spats. His reactions sharpened as his body matured.
With his studies progressing at a steady pace, he had run out of his diary again. He built quite the collection of notes. Sketchbooks, notebooks, journals, and diaries had piled up in a corner of his room. Jace surmised he was going to need to collate and refine all of his growing knowledge of this world into a set of tomes that he could reference at some point. Notations, ritual formations, alchemical recipes… That could happen later. There was the matter of the strange gem he got and what the gem could be used for.
He asked Evaliena what he should use the glittering dark gem for. Evaliena twirled her finger on her red mane. “It’s about time you asked me about what to do with that dusk opal.”
Jace felt disappointment. He thought his gem was a diamond. He, however, pressed on. “What can the gem be used for?”
“I’m not going to make your guess.” The yellow vixen started. “I have this hunk of mage’s sloe. I’ve been wanting to get rid of.”
Jace leaned in. When Evaliena said she wanted to get rid of something, it’s usually something she’s had for years, if not decades. “So, me just picking a gem gave you an idea of what to do with the… sloe?” He didn’t know what sloe was. It must have been a type of wood, he guessed, and he wasn’t far off the mark.
“Well, the past years I’ve been teaching mostly how to spellcraft without tools. We can take that dusk opal and the Mage’s Sloe. We make you a simple tool for you to practise with.” She suggested.
“A tool, not a wand, right?” Jace asked for clarification.
“The sloe can definitely act as supporting material for a spellcrafting focus.” She looked at the dusk opal. “The gem, however, wouldn’t survive for very long. You’d want something more durable, like a sapphire or a ruby.”
“Then what could the opal be used for then?”
Evaliena smiled softly. “Engraving runes. Enchanting spell scrolls. So long as the flow is steady and slow, an opal tipped mage tool lets you work for longer without tiring out your mind.”
That made some sense. He could easily summon the various runes into existence and hold them there. Engraving, on the other hand, was long, laborious, requiring special inks and solder. Jace felt disappointed he couldn’t make a wand. “Do I get a choice in how it looks?”
Evaliena nodded. “You’ll be holding for a long time, so make the shape comfortable to hold. And before we start, I wanted to tell you something. Baysil will be finishing her apprenticeship with me soon.”
That caught Jace’s attention. “Soon? She’ll be leaving shortly after as well?” He knew Baysil was progressing well, but not to the point of completion of her studies. A sadness filled Jace’s chest as the words sunk in. “However, your idea of soon can be anywhere from a few months to a few years…”
“When I mean soon, it’ll be this next winter.” Evaliena took a sip of water after she spoke. “You’ll be part of her final test and if she passes, you’ll also get to see her receive her Lemis.” The construct that everyone at the hermitage, apart from him and Baysil, seemed to all have.
So he pushed and asked. “Is the Lemis the reward for becoming a fully trained mage?”
Evaliena ‘ummed,’ and ‘arred.’ “I can’t speak for other mage traditions. But for mine, a Lemis construct is the reward.” She waved to Jace. “Come along. We have some wood to go shape.”
After a few days, with the result of which, Jace wielded his new spellcrafting tool. Was a simple pen, tipped with a silvered chisel point and the Opal embedded into the handle near the base of the tip. The pen felt comfortable in his hand, if slightly bigger than it should be. He still had room to grow. So long as he treated this tool with care, the pen should last a long time. He put it away in a padded case for safekeeping.
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And time passed on. Today, his hands hurt, having practised for weeks with his new engraving pen. But today, Jace was part of Baysil’s last hurdle, her last test, before becoming a fully realised mage. Weeks before. The younger vixen became mildly alarmed when Evaliena handed her the scroll for a teleportation spell that she was supposed to learn. Much to Burr’s and Cedar’s amusement. Too complicated, too long, Baysil complained when she laid eyes upon the script. Jace was intentionally kept away from the living while it happened.
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But now she was confident she could pass her final test, having practised the overwrought spell over and over, so it was clear in her mind. However, whether she was to pass or fail was entirely down to the judgement of their mentor. As Jace had come to know Evaliena across these years; She was neither cruel nor mean. Her choice of test and the spell she carefully picked for this occasion was to test Baysil’s spellcraft. Though he didn’t know entirely why he was standing here with them. He knew his eventual test may be something different.
“You can begin when you are ready to.” Evaliena directed Baysil as the three of them stood in a clearing nestled against the mountains of the valley. She took a seat on the floor, baying for Jace to sit as well. Indicating that Baysil would take a while.
Jace could see the determined look on Baysil’s face as she raised her black furred hands up for the cast. Prevented from performing the spell until now, only allowed to memorise and reconstruct parts of it. “I see your faith in me is… low.” She dismissed as the silvery threads of runes slowly formed before her. The spell construct dissipated as her concentration wavered.
Evaliena said nothing. She wasn’t even watching. Her eyes closed and serene, Jace detected the slightest curl of a smile on Evaliena’s face. Baysil started again, the construct dissipated, started again, the construct dissipated. Over and over. Jace watched as the spell formed. He knew this was the construct for a teleportation. He felt the intention to move from one place to another buried deep inside it. The spell was definitely more complicated than it needed to be. However, Jace could not interfere with the test unless Baysil asked for help.
An hour. One excruciating hour of Baysil punching against an intangible wall. From Jace’s perspective, it is clear that she wasn’t meant to overcome that obstacle. At least, the view and the crisp mountain air were something he could enjoy between the groans of frustration.
“This is torture.” Jace implied. Baysil doesn’t have the skill or experience to keep a spell construct of that complicity in place.
“You’ll remain quiet, Jace.” Evaliena used his name directly. “Unless asked to speak.”
Baysil let out a frustrated growl. She dropped to the ground and let out a long sigh. She sounded tired. “Can I have a hint?” She begged her mentor, lazily tilting her head in Evaliena’s direction.
“I just gave you one,” Evaliena replied with a slight smirk.
Baysil looked to Jace with mildly pleading eyes. If she failed this, well, Jace didn’t know what happened when an apprentice failed to pass. “Could you come over here and look at the spell?”
Jace looked over at Evaliena, who didn’t react. He shifted and moved closer to Baysil as she pulled out a sheet with the entire spell written on it. The two started going over the spell. With the knowledge of quick spellcrafting fresh in his mind, he immediately could see the problems. “This spell isn’t going to work.” He circled his finger over the sections of the “teleportation” spell that were extraneous.
Baysil, when Jace pointed the problem out to her, realised what she was doing wrong. “Oh, I see what I need to do.” She clicked her fingers and urged Jace away. It took her another half hour of rewriting the spell so it would function.
“Took you long enough, girl.” Evaliena snickered with a certain satisfaction. Baysil prepared the spell construct a few times, doing so with significantly more ease than before. Presenting the finished construct towards Evaliena. Evaliena responded, opening her eyes and held up a similar teleportation construct. “Hmmm, very close. Why don’t you step over there with your spell?” The older vixen nodded her head in the direction behind her.
Jace sensed a little anxiety in Baysil’s voice. “Like right now? Isn’t far stepping dangerous for first timers?”
“If you had written the spell correctly, it’ll prevent you from hurting yourself.” Evaliena said in a calm tone. “I’m around, so you’ll survive more or less. Remember, you just have a line of sight to worry about, so focus on a point in this area.”
Baysil looked at her construct back and forth fearfully, then she finally stepped. In Jace’s vision, Baysil had vanished in a blur, only to appear several paces away to his left, behind Evaliena.
“Woooo! I did it!” Baysil cried in celebration. Jace felt happy for her.
“Well, my apprentice.” Evaliena spoke formally as she got up from her seated position. “You’re ready for the rest of the secrets now.”
This left Jace wondering what his test would be, as it couldn’t possibly be this.
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Baysil’s celebratory meal was a simple affair, nettle tea and a dish from her home clan, which was a mixture of spices, nuts, berries for sweetness and meat for filling, simmered in a pot until of a casserole like consistency. The stew smelt potent and had a flavour Jace couldn’t quite describe. But with the meal done, came Baysil’s real gift.
“Baysil. Will you stand for me?” Evaliena asked respectfully. Everyone else sat around the hearth as Evaliena got up from her cushion. Baysil nodded with a smile and followed, meeting Evaliena’s eyes as best she could. “I Believe I owe you these. Your own mage’s robes.” Evaliena pulled out a neatly folded set of robes from her Lemis, coloured simply with browns and pale blues. Baysil grasped the set, ready to try them on. Evaliena held her hand up to halt her. “Now, for the last part.” Evaliena began constructing a complicated spell. Jace roughly recognised it as the Lemis itself, only slightly different.
Rather than the simple construct of what it should be, Evaliena’s was an overwrought mess with extra lines and squiggles that served no purpose. When she finished creating Baysil’s Lemis, Evaliena added another line to the messy copy. She pushed the construct toward’s Baysil. “Hold out your arm.” Baysil held out her left arm. Evaliena coaxed the complicated construct into Baysil’s left forearm. The spell is shrinking and disappearing. Jace saw the spell snap into place around Baysil’s arm tightly, linking to Baysil’s Feina, to the channels along her arm, to her core. “Give it a try. I’ll tell you how it works.”
“Ten years, Sandal.” Baysil stammered. Tears welling in her eyes as the years of hard work and study crash upon her in the singular moment. It was over her. “Where do I go now?” Evaliena put her arms around her student in a caring embrace.
“Lass, you don’t need to go home yet,” Cedar commented. “You can have a few seasons to think about it if you wish.”
“Yeah, it’ll be a big change from being an errand girl and student to clan mage.” Burr raised her cup. “Not to mention to the males that’ll be clamouring at your feet,” she jested as she drank her cup.
Baysil had grown up, however, no longer the apprentice girl Jace had first met when he was stuck on four legs. She was quite… alluring, both physically and in her own way. Jace did his best to tamp down on his teenage feelings, not to ruin this moment in his mind.
“Butterbur!” Evaliena laughed while trying to be chastising the orange vixen. Burr just chuckled in response and went to fill her cup some more. Cedar held his tongue for once. “Still, I have a few more lessons to give before you leave, Baysil. So relax and forget about the world for a while.”
So Baysil stayed for a while longer. And things were going to change, for better, or for worse.