After finishing his conversation with the Librarian, Jeb made his way over to the Inn. Inside, the Bard was sitting, clearly waiting for him. He gestured for Jeb to take a seat with a nod.
“Congratulations are in order, as I understand it,” the Bard said.
Jeb looked at him in confusion. “Thank you,” he said, “but how did you know?”
“Because you completed my Personal Quest?” the Bard replied, joining Jeb’s confusion. “I did tell you that I would receive a Notification when you finished it, did I not?”
Jeb thought back to that conversation. The details were somewhat hazy, but he did remember. “My apologies,” Jeb said.
“Not at all! Now that you’ve bound your lute, though, we can begin to have fun.”
Confusion once more took over Jeb’s expression. “I’ve been having fun with Enhancing my lute and interacting with the hive. Should I not have?”
There was a pause in the conversation. “I’m guessing by the fact that you put interacting with the hive in the same sentence that you have also bound the hive?” The Bard said tentatively.
Jeb nodded. “Well,” he amended, “I bound the hive and the swarm. They had already bound each other, though, so I’m not sure if that makes any difference.”
“I assume you’ve told the Librarian and your family about that?”
Jeb grimaced. “I have told the Librarian,” he agreed, “but I haven’t told my family yet. I wanted to make sure that everything was okay.”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“When I bound my lute and the hive, there was a bright flash of light. I remember the flash clearly, and I’m at least mostly positive that it was visible in non-Magical sight.”
The Bard nodded.
“After the light,” Jeb continued, “I collapsed, as did the entire swarm of bees. I was the first to wake up, and I had to send Mana into the bees to get them to arise.” He stopped, correcting himself, “I had to send Mana into the queen to send into the other bees to get them all to arise. Even as I did, though, I did not notice my own Mana pool draining at all.”
The Bard stroked his chin thoughtfully. “None of that is unheard of when Binding,” the Bard stopped himself from speaking, clearly not wanting to say something that might upset Jeb.
“What is it?” Jeb asked.
“It’s strange that you were the default resting location for the Mana,” the Bard finally said.
Jeb cocked his head.
The Bard hurried to explain, “the reason that you did not feel as though you were losing any Mana is because you were not. In Binding, it is common for one of the parties to temporarily take the majority of the other’s Mana until an equilibrium can be established. It is rarely so much to cause the other party to collapse, though I suppose that I have minimal experience with bees, so that may be more normal for Apiarists. As to why you fell unconscious, however, I have a much more sure answer. Your body was overloaded with the new sensations of having bound a lute, a hive, and a swarm all at once. Add to that the fact that you also pulled all of their Mana inside of you, if only for a second, and I am not surprised in the slightest that you fell unconscious.”
“So nothing bad happened?”
“Assuming that no one was injured, then no, nothing bad happened.” Seeing that Jeb was about to ask the obvious question, the Bard continued, “and you would know if someone had gotten injured during a Binding. It would not be subtle.”
“So what now?” Jeb asked.
“As I said, now we begin the fun part of Bardic Magic. Thus far, the only Song you know is Lute Enforcement, correct?”
Jeb thought about that. He did have an idea now how he could shift Lute Enforcement to become Hive Enforcement. He deliberated about whether that was what the Bard was asking.
Apparently he deliberated for longer than the Bard was willing to wait, because he added, “The only Song you know is Lute Enforcement and Variations on it, correct?”
“Correct,” Jeb said, though privately he was unsure if Lute Enforcement was the Base Song of whether it itself was a Variation.
“Then I think that it is time to teach you your first Ephemeral Song.”
Jeb leaned forward.
“As far as I have gathered, all of the Magics that you have learned up to this point have been permanent. Your Enchantment will last far longer than you feed it Mana for, and Lute Enforcement makes the lute stronger after your Mana is pulled away.”
“What about all of my Move Spells?” Jeb asked. “When I stop pulling water up, it falls back down.”
“If you had used Least Shape Water to move Water into a different container, would it stay there when you finished the Spell?”
Jeb thought about that for a moment. “I assume so,” he finally said.
“It would, barring other forces acting on it.”
Jeb nodded. That made some amount of sense.
“Ephemeral Songs, by contrast, have effects which only last for as long as they are fed Mana. The Song I will teach you is often classified as an Illusion Song for that reason, though I am happy to explain where that is inaccurate with you if you would like.”
Jeb considered the offer. “Not right now,” was the answer he eventually settled on. His mind still hadn’t fully settled into the new sensations he was experiencing.
Even as he thought about that, Jeb briefly had the feeling of being trapped within a soft felt case. That was his lute, he knew. He noted with interest that there was no sense of panic like he might expect. Certainly if he was in a sealed container, he would not feel calm and safe.
And yet, the lute did. It was an interesting enough feeling that Jeb was tempted to explore it further. But, he realized that the Bard was already speaking.
Smiling sheepishly, he interrupted the Bard. “I’m sorry, but I was distracted by the feeling of being bound to my lute,” he said, “could you repeat what you just said?”
The Bard smiled at him warmly. “I remember those days well,” he said, “if you are wondering, that feeling never truly goes away. It gets easier to deal with, certainly, but there is still a sense of wonder I feel whenever I consider the connection between my lute and myself.”
The two sat in silence for a moment until the Bard shook his head. “I apologize. I was distracted by memories. Now, as I was saying, while I could explain what an Ephemeral Song is, what this specific Song is, or even how to explicitly effect the change you want to see, I believe that it will likely be more beneficial for you if I do not lecture on the topic.”
“How should I learn it then?” Jeb asked.
The Bard’s smile grew a touch wild. “How else but by doing? Follow my lead,” he said, pulling his lute out of it case.
Now that Jeb had bound his own lute, he had expected to notice some difference when he looked at the Bard’s. To his disappointment, it looked the same as it had before. He couldn’t even sense an overabundance of Mana in it like his own lute had. Jeb wanted to ask why that was, but the Bard began playing before he could.
The pattern that he plucked on the lute was not particularly difficult. Or, at least, it was not difficult for someone with a bound lute. Jeb quickly picked up on the pattern until he started paying attention to what he was doing.
Somehow, despite fretting and plucking a single note, the lute sang out with two. As Jeb noticed that discrepancy, the pattern started to collapse.
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“Try not to think about what you are doing,” the Bard advised. He quickly followed that statement with an amendment, “in this specific scenario. In general, please do consider the potential consequences of your actions.”
Jeb took the words to heart and tried to slip into a Meditative state. As he did, he felt the pattern flow out of his hands and the lute more easily. When he was performing to the Bard’s satisfaction, he nodded.
“You mentioned having Magical sight,” he said, never breaking the pattern. “See if you can follow this.”
As Jeb watched, the Bard started putting Mana into the Song. He did not work his Mana the way that Jeb did, at least in this song. Rather than a thread of Mana or an outpouring of something, the Bard’s Mana seemed to form as a loop.
Jeb watched as the loop of Mana seemed to start rotating. Even as it began to rotate, it formed into more and more complex shapes. The loop began to weave around itself. Throughout the whole process, though, it remained a single loop.
The Bard seemed to notice Jeb’s confusion, because the complex knot reduced itself until it was only folded over itself once. Jeb tried to mimic that effect with his own Mana, trying to pull it out as though it were a shape, not a strand. It worked poorly enough that the pattern he was plucking out collapsed as well.
He watched the Bard’s knot slowly fade from view as the Bard wound down the Song. “I apologize,” he said, “I had not considered the difference between how our Magics manifest. Let me try again.”
Before Jeb could ask about what that meant, the Bard once more started pouring Mana into the Song. This time, though, it resembled a thread of Mana floating through the air. Jeb was able to quickly copy this, weaving together the different strands of melody and Mana into one cohesive whole.
The Bard nodded. Then, Jeb watched the end of the Mana thread unravel. As it did, he saw an image begin to form.
An apple appeared in the space where the thread disappeared. On an instinct, Jeb stopped looking with his Magical sight and saw that the apple was still there. It glistened in the light, a ruby red that begged to be eaten.
Returning to his Magical sight, Jeb saw that the Bard formed another thread of Mana and melody. This one split into the sound of logs crackling in a fire, even as the image of an apple became one of a fireplace. With another thread, the Bard gave the scent of wood smoke. Another became the warm heat of a roaring flame on a cold winter’s day. Finally, Jeb was able to taste the apple that had disappeared.
With a flourish, the Bard tied each piece back together until the entire scene was a single thread. “Now you,” he said, nodding at Jeb.
Jeb split his thread apart, shaping the loose Mana and music into an apple. The Bard’s apple had resembled the most perfect form of an apple. Jeb would have been happy if his resembled any apple so perfectly. Instead, though, it looked like a child’s drawing of one.
He split another thread off, hoping to add the scent of apple blossoms in the spring to the image. When he unraveled it, though, the entire image destabilized and he felt the Mana as it whipped out. Instead of striking him, it ran directly into the lute, which accepted the Mana as though it was being Enforced.
“I had expected that,” the Bard said, nodding.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 6457/100
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Total Statistic Load: 352 Physical Load: 127 Strength: 29 Dexterity: 22 Endurance: 31 Vitality: 41 Presence: 4
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Mental Load: 225 Intelligence: 47 Willpower: 52 Magic Affinity: 55 Mana Depth: 37 Charisma: 34
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Mana: 1070
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Glyph Attunement: 26 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 Water Mana - Efficient Tier 2 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)