Jeb went to bed, happy with his new Skill. In the morning, he woke up and practiced the lute again. It was shocking how much of a difference the Skill made for his playing.
He noticed immediately that he had been gripping the neck too tightly. Unlike before he had the Skill, where adjusting would have taken attempts to not hold it too loosely, he was able to just adjust his grip immediately. Jeb could hear the difference. The notes came out smoother, and he could tell that he would be able to play for far longer as well.
Jeb realized that he had a Quest Notification.
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Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Become Personable Second Tier “Learn an Instrument” Use this knowledge to win the hearts of those around you. Rewards: 2 Charisma, 39 EXP
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As he accepted that Quest, he saw that he had another Notification.
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Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Become Personable Second Tier “Become Charismatic” Use this Charisma to lead others on your Quest. Rewards: 2 Charisma, 39 EXP, Gift of Gab upgrade
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He couldn't find a difference in the description for Gift of Gab, but that didn't mean that there wasn't one.
At breakfast, he told his aunt that he had gotten the Skill.
“Well, I doubt that the Bard will keep you all day. Go over there first, and then I’ll work with you when you get back,” she said.
“Thank you Aunt Esther!” Jeb said. When breakfast had ended, he went back upstairs to grab his lute and then went to go find the Bard.
Thankfully, he was exactly where Jeb expected him to be.
“Back already?” he asked, coming off the stage. “Did you get the Lute Skill already?”
“I did!” Jeb exclaimed.
“I see that now,” the Bard said. Jeb remembered what the Librarian had asked him about the Bard’s Skill. He tried to focus on the Bard was doing as he read his Status. The only impression he could hold onto was some idea of a faint song in the wind.
“What are you so focused on?” the Bard asked, noticing Jeb’s concentration.
“When I asked the Librarian about your Identification Skill, he told me I should see if there were any sensory cues involved with it,” Jeb explained, “so I was trying to notice if there were any.”
“You could just ask me what Identification Subskill I have,” the Bard said.
“I hadn’t thought about that,” Jeb admitted. “What Identification Subskill do you have?”
“Oh, I have no intention of telling you that,” the Bard replied with a wink, “but now you’ve asked and I’ve refused to tell you, so no one will fault you for trying to find out on your own.”
“I’m confused,” Jeb responded.
“Understandable. Anyways, now that you have Lute Playing, we can start working on getting you Singing. My advice for you is to sing scales as you play them on the lute. Work on doing them slowly at first, and then slowly speed up, as you did when learning to play them.”
“That makes sense,” Jeb said, “anything else?”
“Let’s see, your Intelligence is-” the faint song came back for a moment, “21. Wow, great job with that! Anyways, that’s probably high enough that learning the syllables for scale parts shouldn’t be too hard.”
Jeb looked at him blankly.
“Sorry, again, I should remember where I am.” The Bard grinned sheepishly. “Have you noticed that the notes in the different scales sound the same relative to one another?”
Jeb thought about that for a moment. “I guess so.”
“A common way to teach singing is to teach syllables to each note in a scale, so that you can transfer those notes between scales. It makes learning new music easier, especially if you have the Singing Skill.”
The Bard walked Jeb through the syllables and wrote them down on a scrap of paper for him.
“With that out of the way, do you have any other questions?”
“I have been wondering about the difference between Bardic and Glyph Magic,” Jeb responded.
“For starters, Glyph Magic isn’t technically the right distinction. Glyph Magic is just the most common subclass of Mage Magic.” That was news to Jeb, but the Bard kept going, “Mage Magic is awkward to say, though, so I’ll use Glyph Magic, especially since I think there are maybe two people in the Republic who practice another form. The biggest difference between the two is the way that they effect their changes.”
“In Glyph Magic,” the Bard continued speaking as he took his lute out of its case, “the world is a series of boxes. Early Glyph Magic distinguished everything as Solid, Liquid, Gas, or Flame.”
As the Bard named those, what seemed to be pebbles started floating around his hand, joined by a stream of water, steam, and flames. “In time, those categories shifted to the Base Elements that you’re now familiar with, Earth, Air, Water, and Fire.” The pebbles turned into what was clearly Earth, though Jeb didn’t know how he knew that. The Earth streamed around the other elements, merging with each of them.
“Obviously, though, nothing is quite that simple. You’re a Least Mud Initiate, so I’m sure you understand that much at least,” Jeb watched the Earth and Water merge, creating something new.
“As Earth grows wet it becomes Mud, which slowly fades into Water. As Water is whipped it turns to Mist, which dries into Air. Air heats and fills until it becomes Smoke, which heats more into Fire. Fire dies and becomes Ash, which filters back into Earth.” As the Bard spoke, the Mud that was spiraling around his hand shifted along with the descriptions.
“By placing all magic into these neat categories, though, Glyph Magic has an inherent loss of precision. After all, there are an infinite number of points between Earth and Water. What’s halfway between Earth and Mud?” The Element cycling around the Bard’s hand started shifting again, this time stopping between Earth and Mud. Jeb found that, while resonant, he couldn’t tell what it was resonating to.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Any time you draw a line, there is a finer distinction that one can make.” The Bard shook his hand and the Earth disappeared.
“Bardic Magic, by contrast, was not created but discovered. It creates no false distinctions, and so is freer and less restrained than Glyph Magic. There is nothing that a Bard cannot do, but there are no rote-learned Spells to build a wall. It is a simple expression of your Will against the World’s.”
“If you read the Bardic Magic Primer that you have, it will likely tell you that the first Song Bards learn is an Illusion Song. That is because the book is written by a Mage. After all, what difference is there between the sound of a lute from the instrument itself,” Jeb watched and heard the Bard pluck the string, “and the sound produced directly through Magic?” Jeb heard the same note, without any motion of the lute.
“Or, what difference is there between a true flame,” the Bard reached out, pulling the flames from the torches, “and an illusion of fire and light?” the flames began to burn an emerald green. “Is one more beautiful?”
Jeb waited for the Bard to continue, only to realize that it was not a rhetorical question.
“Is one?” the Bard prompted again.
“I’m not sure,” Jeb responded. “The real flame can keep someone warm, and there’s something beautiful about function.”
“A woven flame can warm as well,” the Bard said, and Jeb felt warmth coming from the emerald tongues. “But you answered well at first, everything is beautiful for two reasons: because it is, and for what it is.”
Seeing Jeb’s confusion, the Bard dismissed the flames, “Though, now may not be the best time for philosophy. Let me demonstrate some True Magics instead.” The Bard began tapping on the table, like he had the day before.
This time, though, each tap seemed to be deeper and more resonant than the one before. Before long, Jeb felt as though the earth itself was shaking with each finger strike. The flames on the torches seemed to move in time to that beat, and everything grew sharper as the Bard started to play on his lute.
The sounds seemed far more primal than anything Jeb had realized a lute could produce. It was no longer the sound of a plucked string, but the sound of a goodbye, a hello, and a learning all in one. Jeb was so entranced that he missed the first line that the Bard was saying.
Even when he heard what the Bard was chanting, though, Jeb couldn’t understand it. Clearly the Bard was speaking some other language than he knew. Still, Gift of Gab started resonating, and he slowly began to get impressions of the meaning behind the Bard’s song.
More than anything else, Jeb had the overwhelming impression that the Bard wanted him to join in playing. He picked his own lute up and started trying to play something that would match the Song the Bard had started. Without his Lute Playing Skill, Jeb doubted that he would have even been able to find the right scale to work in.
As Jeb struck the first note, he suddenly saw that there was a space in the Song for him to play. His first note was wrong, though. The second worked better, and soon Jeb had slotted fully into the Song.
He was too engrossed to notice when the Bard stopped singing. Even as the Bard slowly stopped playing the lute, Jeb didn’t notice, though a part of him did notice his Mana start to drain. When the Bard had gotten to the point of merely tapping on the table, some small part of Jeb finally noticed that his own playing had grown to fill it.
Too quickly, though, his Mana ran out. The tapping of the Bard’s fingers stopped carrying a resonance beyond themselves. The room grew dim and clouded again.
“That was the Song of Intention,” the Bard said. “Do you think you can find it on your own again?”
Jeb hardly understood what the Bard was saying. The Song was still resonating around his body and spirit. He felt like he could reach out and touch it, if only his body would respond.
“Ah, right, the first time joining a Song always is the most intense. Next time you sing it, make sure you stop before you run out of Mana. I caught the backlash this time, but I won’t always be able to.”
“If I’m going to be singing a Song, why did I need Lute Playing?” Jeb asked.
“The lute makes it easier to catch the Song, especially since you can play multiple notes at once with it, completely without Magic. The lute can also catch some of the backlash if you don’t end the Song totally correctly. If you just sang the song, your body would still take the backlash, which isn’t what you want.”
“I think I understand,” Jeb replied.
“I certainly hope you don’t! Mana backlash is a terrible feeling. Still, that’s an issue for after you’ve become a Musician. Remember the scales, and come back after you’ve unlocked Singing.”
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
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Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 697/100
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Total Statistic Load: 130 Physical Load: 59 Strength: 15 Dexterity: 8 Endurance: 17 Vitality: 15 Presence: 4
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Mental Load: 71 Intelligence: 21 Willpower: 20 Magic Affinity: 15 Mana Depth: 3 Charisma: 12
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Mana: 260
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Glyph Attunement: 8 Least Conjure Water Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Create Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth - Efficient Tier 3 Spell Least Move Air Tier 1 Spell Least Create Fire Tier 1 Spell
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Skills: Least Mud Magic Meditation Mana Manipulation Spell Glyphing Improved Glyph Groking Gift of Gab Running Identify Soil Savvy Animal Handling Fertilizing Lifting Athletics Lute Playing
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)
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