CHAPTER 66: MUSIC SOOTHES THE WEARY SOUL
Jeb plucked out the first notes on his lute, wincing slightly at the sound. While not everyone was in the home today, the storm was certainly keeping more of them inside than normal.
To his surprise, as he wished that the lute would be softer, the sound dimmed. It was a strange change. As Jeb listened, it wasn’t as though the lute had been muted as with a piece of cloth. Nor was it like the lute sound was coming from far away. It really just sounded quieter.
Jeb probed the feeling, trying to understand what was allowing the change in dynamics. As his soul twinged with pain, though, he resisted the urge to keep searching. For once, he would accept the gift for what it was, rather than try to understand why it was as well.
He debated what to play. None of the songs he had learned felt appropriate for the mood he was in. Staring at the pouring rain, Jeb felt inspired to improvise.
He started with a simple scale. As he moved to the top of the scale, he shifted his fingers’ position on the lute and extended the scale. Coming back down, Jeb added some embellishments and leaps to the scale. The longer that he played, the more that he felt like he was really connecting to the storm.
As the storm passed, he finished playing. Smiling, Jeb set the lute down. As soon as it left his hands, it occurred to him that of all of the Skills and skills that he had, it was playing the lute that he defaulted to when he needed to restore his soul.
Trying to probe why that was still didn’t feel comfortable. Instead, he went outside to see how his hive was doing. The storm that had just passed, while relatively brief, was by far the most intense that he had seen since establishing them.
Looking at the hive as it pulsed with Mana, Jeb realized that he shouldn’t have been concerned. After all, when nearly a fifth of the hive actively Attuned to Water Mana, there was not much that a little rain could do to the hive, to say nothing of the fact that all of the hives had to live through storms. Jeb spent some time with the hive, just chatting and sending out Attuned Mana as they requested it.
When the day ended, he went to sleep. In the morning, Jeb felt far less strain in his soul. Thinking about Glassblowing didn’t give him the same sense of horror as it had the day before, which he took as a good sign.
He had the feeling that rejecting the restrictions of his Class wouldn’t do much more to help him. If he had to guess, it would be necessary for him to try deluding himself into thinking that a good Mud Mage would be able to blow glass. Since lightning had been a good point of contention the day before, he considered how lightning could be in and of itself good for a Mud Mage.
“Creating healthy soil is well within the bounds of a Mud Mage,” he tried. He felt himself continue to float down the Currents of Fate, which was a good sign. The System didn’t disagree with his assessment, so Jeb kept going. “Good soil requires nutrients, and lightning makes some of those nutrients.”
Jeb had studied up on farming before getting his Class, and that was something he remembered. Now that he had Soil Savvy, it was fairly easy for him to see what soil had bound air in it and what soil didn’t. Sure, some plants could bind air, but that wasn’t what he was arguing right now.
Seeing that the System didn’t disagree with him there, he switched arguments. “Even if Glassblowing doesn’t do anything to directly improve soil, it is still useful for a Mud Mage to know.” He hoped that just stating it so boldly might work. Of course, Jeb immediately felt the weight of resisting the Current.
He hurried on, “at the very least, knowing how workers of Air and Fire behave is useful for when I might need to combat them.” That seemed to work, so he continued on, “as a Mage, I might need to make my own apparatus for different experiments, and having the skills and Skills to do that will make me more able to do so.” He continued through most of the morning, pausing only to go and eat breakfast.
After lunch, he sought his grandfather out. “I think that I can do Glassblowing now,” he said.
Back in the shop, his grandfather began lecturing from the beginning. “Most of Glassblowing is similar to Smithing, though there are obviously some differences. If your metal cools too much while you work it, it will just stop changing under your hands. If glass cools too quickly, it’s likely to shatter. With your Vitality as low as it is, I would not recommend breathing in glass dust.” The unspoken message that at some level of Vitality breathing glass dust might be helpful was not lost on Jeb, but his grandfather kept going.
“Once more, pick up a small bit of molten glass,” he said, demonstrating, “and then blow it into a bubble.”
Jeb was still unable to force his breath out, but he had an idea. He pulled his face back from the tube and used Least Move Air to force the glass to expand.
Had he been thinking more clearly, he might have considered how little practice he had with controlling that specific Spell. While he was more than able to control exactly the shape that he formed water into with Least Shape Water, very little of that control carried over to the Air Glyph.
The bubble quickly popped, and his grandfather activated a vacuuming rune. “Do you want to tell me what you were thinking?” he asked, tone shockingly gentle.
“I still couldn’t breath out,” Jeb said, “so I was hoping that I might be able to slowly edge into the Skill by using Magic to shape the glass at first and then switching to my breath when it becomes easier.”
His grandfather considered that idea and nodded. “I suppose that could work,” he said, “though you certainly need more practice with your control if you want to attempt that. I don’t want you to get hurt when a bigger bubble of glass bursts.”
“Thank you Grandfather!” Jeb said, rushing out of the shop. By the hive, he called to the bees, “I was wondering if any Air Attuned bees are here?” A small swarm gathered around him, buzzing in question.
“I need to practice my control with Air Magic, and I wasn’t sure if that left out excess Mana you might want to collect,” he said. It was at least part of the truth, though he also hoped that somehow being near the bees would just naturally help his precision. They agreed, and he started using Least Move Air again.
As he did, Jeb realized that there was no good way for him to know how well it was working. After all, air was naturally completely transparent, so he couldn’t watch it move like he could water or earth. He considered what to do for a moment.
After a while of thought, he realized that he might have a solution. He ran down to the inn.
“Do you have a flute I can borrow?” he asked the Bard without any prelude.
“Sure,” the Bard said, tossing a roughly carved piece of wood towards Jeb, “what do you need it for?”
“I’m practicing control over my Least Move Air Glyph, and this seemed like a good way to know if I am doing it right.”
The Bard just stared at him. Jeb looked around, a little uncomfortable with the intensity of the Bard’s gaze. Shaking his head, the Bard finally spoke, “have fun with that.”
“Thank you!” Jeb said, rushing out.
Back at the hive, he considered how best to practice playing the flute. Bringing it to his lips, Jeb immediately felt the way that Musician was helping him. For better or worse, coming up on the border of his Class was at least helpful in recognizing the unseen hand of the System guiding his actions. Since there was no reason not to trust the System’s input on how he should play it, he followed the instincts he was provided.
It was relatively easy to play a scale, though he did struggle with his breath support once or twice. When he didn’t put enough air into the flute, it didn’t produce a sound. When he put too much in, it began to shriek. A few bees popped out of the hive to express their displeasure at the sound of shrieks, not that Jeb could blame them. It was painful to his ears too.
On the bright side, though, he noticed that there was not a wide margin of error in how much air he could push through the flute. That would be invaluable to his training, assuming that he would be able to control the pressure even close to that well. Jeb pulled the flute away from his lips.
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Holding it slightly in front of himself, he pulled the Glyph for Least Move Air into his mind. Activating it with only the barest trickle of power, he started to send air through the instrument.
Jeb was almost certain that he had activated the Glyph and that Air was running through the flute. The lack of sound made him question that, though. Carefully, he began to feed more Mana through it, increasing the rate that the Air moved.
Unsurprisingly, he did not have the same level of fine control with airflow through a Glyph as with his breath. There was no transition between the instrument not producing a sound and shrieking even louder than he had done before. He wasn’t able to control the airflow before the entire hive was angrily telling him to stop trying.
The fact that his aunt came by to ask what was dying didn’t help matters either.
Sighing, Jeb considered how else he could practice moving air in a way that required slightly less finesse, at least at first. He watched a leaf drifting by and had an idea.
Jeb tossed a handful of dirt into the air and tried to catch it with Least Move Air. The dirt fell before he was able to increase the Mana flow enough to support it. The second handful also fell.
By the third handful, Jeb managed to keep the dirt from falling. Unfortunately, he had over-corrected, and the dirt flew into the air. When it fell back down, it landed with a heavy thud that he could feel from a few paces away.
On his fourth attempt, he was able to hold it mostly steady in the air, though. The dirt bobbled as he corrected for pushing too much or too little Mana in, averaging the right amount. When he finally ran out of Mana, Jeb was mentally exhausted.
The slightest distraction while working had made his Mana flow rate much less consistent, which meant that he had to remain hypervigilant as he stared at the clod of dirt. Lying down, he stared up at the afternoon sky, just enjoying the view. The feeling of the late summer grass beneath him only heightened his sense of relaxation.
As he relaxed, his mind began to wander and consider what he was doing. For all the effort that he was putting in, Jeb knew that it was worth it if it would help the farm to grow and prosper. More and more, he was realizing that he was not going to end up working the land directly like his father and grandfather.
He probably wouldn’t be managing animals like his uncle, or producing secondary products like his aunt. The Currents of Fate were pushing him somewhere else. As long as they didn’t push him too far from the farm, though, Jeb was willing to generally let them guide him.
Well, after he learned to blow glass at least.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 5721/100
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Total Statistic Load: 336 Physical Load: 124 Strength: 28 Dexterity: 21 Endurance: 30 Vitality: 41 Presence: 4
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Mental Load: 212 Intelligence: 47 Willpower: 48 Magic Affinity: 54 Mana Depth: 33 Charisma: 30
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Mana: 910
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Glyph Attunement: 25 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 Shape Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Conjure Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Mud (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Earth Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Water Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Air Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Fire Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Sand Mana Tier 0 Spell Least Create Sand Tier 1 Spell Attune Sand Mana - Efficient Tier 2 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 Wood Identification Woodworking Soil Improvement Enchanting
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)