Jeb knew that his Mana was only ever so slightly Attuned to Mud. Apparently that slight Attunement was still enough to make it difficult for him to force the thread through the Attune Air Mana Glyph. As his Mana ticked down without the Glyph being formed, Jeb started to get worried.
If I can’t get Air Attuned Mana before I’m at a third of my Mana left, I’ll give up for now, Jeb decided. A third of his Mana would still be more than enough to push it into the lute, and it would give him more time to try wresting control over the unruly thread.
Jeb focused more intently on the thread. He was no longer content to let it move on its own, only being guided by his will. The Bard had mentioned that at different times Charisma and Willpower would be more important in a Song, and now Jeb had object experience with that.
He forced the thread of Mana to flow according to his design, despite the fact that it was nearly counter to what the thread wanted to do. Each piece of the Glyph resisted Jeb more. It made no sense to him. His Mana should have been getting less attuned to Mud with each point, and yet it felt like it was only getting further from Air.
Point by point, Jeb forced his way through the Glyph. When he finally got it attuned to Air, Jeb hurriedly sent the thread into his lute. Thankfully, it didn’t resist him there.
He felt the Mana flow into the lute after what felt like an agonizing age. His Mana was less than half full, which was frustrating. So much Mana wasted.
The fact that his Mana regenerated so quickly was hardly relevant here. Still, as the Mana went in, Jeb was curious what the newly Attuned Mana would do to his instrument. Water had made the lute water resistant, and Earth had made it more resistant to blunt force damage. As it turned out, Air Mana made the lute more resistant to slashes.
It felt like a nice symmetry, especially given how sure Jeb was that Fire Mana would make the lute more fireproof. Air and Earth were often seen as opposing elements, so the fact that both made the lute more resistant to different kinds of damage made some amount of sense. He had no intention of testing any of the resistances, but Jeb was glad to know that his lute was becoming harder to damage.
As the last traces of Jeb’s Mana flowed into the lute, he was incredibly curious what differences he would see and hear in it. The Water Mana made it seem like there was deep water in the finish, making it darker and glossier. The Earth Mana made the lute look more like stone, darker and more matte.
The Air Mana also seemed to affect the finish. It made the lute seem brighter, as though the sun was shining directly on it. The grain in the wood seemed to glow in the sunshine, reflecting all of the light.
As Jeb started plucking out the notes, he heard the smoothness from the Water Mana and the depth from the Earth Mana. Listening more closely, Jeb heard the effect the Air Mana was starting to give the lute. It sounded like the sound was carrying further. If Jeb kept Enforcing his lute with Air Mana, he was sure that it would eventually be audible for miles.
As Jeb waited for his Mana to refill, he started daydreaming about his bound Lute. He would play a little ditty, and it would resonate through to the Capital, sounding like a Song the whole way. Shaking himself out of his consideration, he went back to practice.
By the time that he’d finished learning the song in the book, Jeb’s Mana was nearly refilled.
He accepted the Quest Notification.
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Lute Playing First Tier “Learn a Piece for Lute” Go forth and serenade. Rewards: 1 Charisma, 20 EXP
Jeb realized that he hadn’t accepted the Quest Notification for his Gift of Gab Quest.
Become Personable Minor Quest Third Tier Become More Charismatic Become more Charismatic. Double your Charisma Score (Repeatable, Update Available)
Congratulations! You have completed the Minor Quest Become Personable Third Tier “Become More Charismatic” Use this Charisma to lead others on your Quest. Rewards: 4 Charisma, 59 EXP, Gift of Gab Improvement
Just like that, Jeb’s Charisma suddenly became his second highest Mental Statistic. He checked the Skill Description for Gift of Gab, but it remained unchanged.
Congratulations! Through your efforts to complete your Major Quest, the Paragons have rewarded you with the Special Skill: Gift of Gab Charisma +5, You gain the ability to communicate general concepts with other sentient beings, even through language gaps. Use this skill to help recruit others to your holy and noble mission.
As Jeb checked the tuning on his lute, he saw his bees start to prepare to dance. They seemed excited and ready, which seemed more like a real message and not just his anthropomorphizing the hive. He started playing the Song, ready to force the Mana to Attune into Fire Mana.
It resisted him if anything more than when he tried to form the Air Glyph. This time, though, Jeb had experience with wrangling an uncooperative Attunement. Point by agonizing point, Jeb watched his Mana shift from a light brown to the clear of Unattuned Mana and then slowly into the colors of Fire Mana.
When he had finished pushing the Mana through the Glyph, Jeb hesitated for a moment. The Mana was shifting between shades of red and yellow, giving off an impression of heat. Jeb was a little worried about what that could do to the lute.
After all, if the forge was giving off Fire Mana, he wasn’t sure if he wanted that in his lute. Then again, the Librarian had assured him that he couldn’t do any damage to the lute with his Magic, and Jeb knew better than to doubt the Librarian. When the thread connected to the lute, nothing terrible happened. The instrument took the Mana, just the same as it had every other time.
Time still felt like it stopped, but Jeb was growing used to the feeling. As the Mana flowed in, Jeb felt, just for a moment, like the lute was a part of him. The feeling passed, but he felt like he had an inkling of what it would be like when he had fully bound the lute.
He was right in his initial guess. Fire Mana did, in fact, make his lute more resistant to fire. It also seemed like it would help the lute to dry faster in the event that Jeb got it wet. As he probed that feeling, he saw that the Water Mana would also help prevent the lute from being damaged if a fire did happen to get past the Fire Mana’s protection.
When his Mana was emptied, Jeb took the chance to look at his lute and see what had changed. He saw some bees buzzing their curiosity, confused why Jeb was looking at his instrument so often recently.
“I’m trying to Enforce my lute with Elementally Attuned Mana,” he explained, “and I’ve noticed that the Mana changes how the lute looks and sounds.” The bees buzzed closer, confusion turning into excitement.
Jeb ignored them, focused on the new changes to his instrument. The Fire Mana almost seemed to make the lute light up. The wood seemed to be giving off its own light, dispersed like a candle behind a screen.
The overall effect of the four Manas was difficult for Jeb to put into words. Somehow the lute seemed both brighter and darker, glossier and more matte all at once. As Jeb turned the lute around, it almost seemed like each piece of light striking the lute did something else. It was subtle for now, but Jeb could tell that it would quickly become a striking effect.
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Jeb thought a little more about the changes Attuned Mana made to the lute. It was a cycles, of sorts. Water Mana was darker and shinier. Earth Mana was darker and matte. Fire Mana was brighter and matte, and Air Mana was brighter and shinier. It was interesting that both Water and Earth made the lute darker. He wondered if that meant anything for the kinds of Magic that he would be called towards. Then again, he realized that he would be thinking something similar if he’d gotten any other pair of elements. Other than the opposites, each pair shared something.
Jeb broke out of his reverie, though the trail of thought was interesting. Now that he’d seen what the different Manas did to the appearance of the lute, it was time to look at what they all did to the sound. Jeb played a slow scale, listening carefully to hear the slightest differences. He still heard the sounds from the other three Manas, but it was immediately clear to him what the Fire Mana was doing.
Each note seemed to be brighter and sharper. In complete opposition to the Water Mana’s effect, the music seemed to be moving rapidly and pointedly. Combined with the Water’s effect, it made a beautiful sound. Each note sounded sharp and pointed, but they flowed together into a smooth melody.
That was another interesting set of effects. Air and Earth Mana affected the way the sound carried, while Fire and Water Mana affected the way that each individual note sang. Jeb stopped himself before he got too far into that line of thought. Rather than continue to daydream about the effects that continuing to Enforce his lute might bring, Jeb decided to try communicating with his hive.
He faced his hive and called out. “Hello, can you understand me?” Jeb asked, feeling a little ridiculous. Gift of Gab shouldn’t have changed their ability to understand him that much, so the answer shouldn’t have changed from any other time he’d just spoken to the bees. Still, it seemed polite to check.
More bees than Jeb knew were in the hive started to swarm around him. None of them individually seemed to be talking, but as a whole, Jeb started to get an impression of what they were saying. As Jeb stood in the swarming bees, he slowly understood what they were saying.
Dancing?
Regardless of how to refer to the way that the bees were communicating, Jeb got the feeling that they were asking him why he was only now asking if they understood. That was a good question, one that Jeb didn’t immediately know how to answer.
After a moment of thought, he started speaking. The bees calmed down as he explained, “at first, my aunt recommended that I talk to you as a way to establish trust. As I kept talking to you, though, it became a great way for me to work through whatever I was dealing with. These past few days, though, I’ve started to feel like our conversations aren’t as one sided as I used to think.”
The hive kept buzzing, letting him know that he wasn’t wrong about that.
“So, have you been Enforcing your hive? It seemed like you started dancing along when I was working on my Song.”
The hive went into a flurry. They were clearly communicating something, but Jeb was unable to understand what they were saying. Apparently it was far more than just a general concept.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 4203/100
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Total Statistic Load: 278 Physical Load: 124 Strength: 28 Dexterity: 21 Endurance: 30 Vitality: 41 Presence: 4
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Mental Load: 154 Intelligence: 25 Willpower: 25 Magic Affinity: 51 Mana Depth: 25 Charisma: 28
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Mana: 585
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Glyph Attunement: 22 Least Shape Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Conjure Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Mud (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Water Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Earth Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Air Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Fire Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell
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Bard Songs Known: 1 Lute Enforcement
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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 Singing Musician Pollination Brewing Distilling Bardic Magic Smithing
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)