Chapter 29
Lilith and Celeste quickly made it to the tower walking through the streets of Daggerford as fast as Celeste could go. Once they were on Hill Road with the tower in sight, Lilith reached out her hand for Celeste before the two of them jumped twice, landing just in front of the tower door. Surprisingly the guards were not put on edge in the slightest but instead had slight smiles to greet them. After all the two well dressed ladies hardly looked threatening despite the questionable state of Lilith’s hair.
Celeste excused herself heading up to her room to put on her wizards robes leaving Lilith in the library with Wendel for the time being.
“Glad you could make it. I was a bit worried the two of you would over do it last night and not have the stomach for practice this morning.” Wendel began, motioning for Lilith to sit down in a lounge chair.
“No I’m fine and Celeste should be down any minute now.” Lilith said as she chose to remain standing.
“Are you going to wear that for practice?” he asked, motioning with a hand at Lilith from head to toe.
Lilith looked down at her red and white dress and realized it was far too nice to risk getting singed or corroded by a stray spell. “No I had better change too.”
“Ok we will wait for you.” Wendel said calmly.
Lilith then walked over to the spiral staircase that went down the outer edge of the tower. Looking out a window she focused with her eyes on the ground below and jumped through the ethereal plane. She was standing on soft grass in an instant. Her eyes then shifted forward before she once again jumped, this time to the main gate of the Ducal Castle. Walking the last 20 feet she waved at the familiar guard. “Morning Tom.”
“Ma’am” he replied as he allowed her to pass with barely a movement on his part. There was no mistaking Lilith’s glowing red eyes after all.
Lilith walked to her room and found it in much the same condition she had left it. Thinking for a second she settled on undoing the buttons she could reach, putting her arms over her head, bending over at the waist and shedding the dress with only a bit of a struggle. She then hung it up and cleaned it with prestidigitation. She then put on her arming jacket and armor before checking herself in the mirror. ‘Oh my god, my hair is a mess.’ she realized after looking at the red tangle of locks. While trying to smooth it out with her fingers she couldn’t help but admire how the armored skirt had made room for her tail. It really did seem to be the only clothing she had that fit her perfectly no matter what. ‘Too bad it makes me look like some evil vixen who wants to bargain for your soul’ she pouted while looking at herself from a few different angles. Satisfied that her hair was at least presentable, she finished by putting on her sword before leaving her room.
Now exiting the Ducal Castle, Lilith again walked off the path, onto the grass, before jumping twice in rapid succession arriving at the tower door where the guards were a bit more surprised to see her than last time.
“Wait, how’d you get out here?” The guard asked looking a bit confused.
“I had to change” she said tilting her head slightly.
“Ah nice armor.” The guard said as he looks Lilith over, his eyes seeming to get caught on the boob window for a second before he gave her a smile.
“I know, so protective” Lilith said as she poked herself in the breast with one finger demonstrating the armors glaring lack of protection.
The guards both let out a nervous laughs as they opened the doors so she could enter the tower for the second time in ten minutes.
Going up the stairs again, Lilith finally arrive in the library where she was greeted by both Celeste and Wendel. The two very excited ladies began talking about the types of spells they were going to try before the master wizard invited the two of them to sit at the study table where he had laid out two rather intricately decorated books that looked vaguely familiar. It was Wendel’s spell book and a copy that he must have made some time that week. Both Celeste and Lilith sat behind one of the books and Wendel remained standing sometimes pacing around the room as he laid out their plans for the morning’s practice.
“Beginning with defensive spells you should copy in the basics if you don’t already have them. That means Mage Armor, Shield, and Absorb Elements.” he explained.
Lilith began reading off the runes for each spell, storing them in her codex. She then got curious how the real spells differed from the ones in the table top game, so she read out the rune word sequences, her mind somehow translating them into common speech.
[Mage Armor] Creates a reserve of magical force that can be used to deflect 2 fatal blows and 5 non fatal blows before becoming depleted. The sequence was a bit long, taking at least 10 seconds to cast but it could last all day, up to 16 hours. This was way more powerful than it had any right to be. No wonder wizards were so well respected in this world. They would always be durable enough to get a spell off on an attacker as long as this spell was active. Lilith then thought about how the memes from back home about wizards dying to 1d8 damage from a house cat attacking their hand would need to be revised.
[Shield] Creates an impenetrable bubble of force that protects 1/4th of the caster from incoming strikes or missiles. The shield moves with the hand as directed by the caster. The casting runes are very short only having a single word but the duration is limited to just 10 seconds. This spell too was much more powerful, the only down side was that it required a hand to control and it didn’t last very long.
[Absorb Elements] Creates a negative energy gradient that absorbs and collects a single magical element type directed at the caster. This had a very short activation sequence of only two words but required more magical energy depending on the amount of element it absorbed. The absorbed elements could of course be used to enhance the next spell that the wizard cast. The limitations were that this only worked on elemental attacks directed at the caster. It couldn’t stop an area attack like a fire ball. You would use Shield for that.
Lilith now had all the basic defensive spells, so she began to inquire about some of the utility spells that Wendel had access to. She soon had [Identify] [Mending] [Sending] and [Scrying] copied into her codex.
Wendel then explained the methods for mechanisms for concentration spells. Certain spells either required part of the mind or part of the body to remain in effect. A spell like Shield required a hand to be pointed to direct the shield. Similarly a concentration spell like Wall of Fire required that part of the mind retain several of the Rune words in a loop. This would prevent a second Concentration spell from being cast unless the spell was held in hand. And no spells could be cast at all if both hands were occupied.
Once all the theory crafting was out of the way It was time to select a spell to test. When asked they said at the same time and with the same enthusiasm “Fireball!”. As if they had practiced it.
Before they left, Wendel brought out a small cloak and a ring. “And to commemorate you training as a wizard I would like to present Celeste with…..
“Oh, my things! I had almost forgotten about those.” Celeste said as she went over and quickly put on her ring and cloak as if they were her favorite pair of shoes.
Wendel looked at her like she was giving away some kind of secret. Which she kind of was.
“Bah, don’t worry Wendel. I told Lils all about our spying and stuff this morning. No need to gift my own property back to me.”
“What do those do?” Lilith asked.
“The ring of the Iron Mind protects against charm sleep and fear effects. And the Spell Mantle Grants me some resistance to area spells. My Father gave them to me as a going away gift.” Celeste seemed to beam with pride as she described them.
“They are rare magic items that most wizards wouldn’t be able to afford for the first 10 years of their service.” Wendel said with a bit of a grumble.
“Your father must love you very much then Celeste.” Lilith said with a smile.
“Of course he does.” She confirmed with absolute certainty.
“Sorry Lil I don’t have any pretend gifts for you.” Wendel said with a smirk.
“I will settle for you not scrying on me while I am in my room. If its all the same.” She said with a serious look.
“Oh! We actually have a system for that. Didn’t Sir Tanel explain it to you?” he asked pointing a finger at Lilith's hand.
“No but we haven’t talked since the party.” Lilith said while thinking that she really needed to have another chat with Sir Tanel to clear the air.
“That box that came with the ring, it is lined with lead. So you simply put the ring inside the box when you want privacy. That's the whole reason we give you a specific item like that. So that you have some semblance of control.” Wendel explained calmly.
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“But you and I are the only ones here that can cast Scrying correct?” Lilith asked with a lot of uncertainty in her tone.
“Well yes but there are magic items that can cast Scrying as well. In fact, I keep a scrying orb charged in the keep’s Master Study. That way the Regent can check in on his fiduciaries as needed.” Wendel explained in his usual calm tone. “Now then, if there aren’t any more questions, we can set off for the river and practice your spells there.” Wendel teased before he picked up his staff and his spell book placing it back into his robes as the two ladies nodded at him in agreement.
The three of them prepared to leave, heading down the stairs, each saying a friendly set of curse words to Pencheska on their way out of the tower for good luck.
Walking down to the river, they talked about Sir Tanel’s battle plan and the real possibility that the orcs could return before the new weapons and shields were ready. Before long they were set up on the river bank up stream from the docks, to the East, where there was a sand bar in the middle of the river that could be used as a target. Wendel and his familiar kept lookout for oncoming boats. The white owl flying overhead in circles.
“It should be clear for a while. Celeste why don’t you go first.” Wendel suggested as his head moved on a swivel looking upstream and down before he watched her intently.
“Ok so I should aim for the middle of that sandbar correct” Celeste asked, waiting for Wendel to nod. When he did, she quickly began chanting the rune words for the spell. “Fur, Dan, Bul, Lok!” [Fireball]. With little noise an orange orb the size of a baseball left Celeste's hand flying rapidly to the middle of the river in a smooth arc. There, striking the near side of the sand bar, it exploded in a ball of sand, fire and steam. All three of them cast shield as the shower of water and sand continued for a good 20 seconds while the sound echoed off the town walls. They each kept an arcane dome above them with a clenched fist pointed up. Lilith couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of them. ‘We look like we are holding transparent blue umbrellas while waiting for a bus.’ she snickered internally.
Once the sound of falling sand and water stopped there was a sudden cheer. “Wow!!” Celeste exclaimed as she jumped up and down with joy.
Lilith clapped for her friend and gave her a nod of approval.
“Very well done Celeste. That certainly had a lot of pop to it. But, perhaps you could try focusing a little more of the fire element into the ball and you should get a greater effect.”
“Ok. Should I try again?” she asked with way more glee than a human should be able to muster.
“Yes, go ahead but focus on the first rune more.” Wendel explained.
Lilith watched as Celeste tried once again. This time calling out the first rune with more vigor. Just as before an orange ball of light flew from her hand at what looked like 70 mph. With impressive precision it impacted the back edge of the crater she made with the first explosion and detonated. This time there was a massive plume of fire and smoke. The pyrotechnic display was way more impressive having less concussion than the first one. The radiant heat could be felt quite strongly even 100 ft away causing the young wizard to back up a step as she marveled her most recent work.
Celeste did a jump and a twirl causing her robes to bounced around with her long hair. Luckily, there was no debris falling this time. “That had a lot more heat didn’t it?” She asked with a huge grin.
“Boy I’ll say. I think you singed my beard.” Wendel frowned in jest while stroking his short beard which went around his mouth and down to his chin.
“That one didn’t have as much pop but it would be a lot safer to use indoors or in a dungeon.” Lilith commented noticing the lack of a shock-wave on the second Fireball.
“Alright, now its your turn Lilith. Show us what you got while the river is still clear.” He said as he motioned to her.
Lilith wondered ‘ya, what river captain in their right mind would sail into a series of explosions.’ With a great deal of eagerness and a watchful eye upstream, Lilith began chanting the four runes words before she cast a ball of white hot energy at the now half moon shaped sand bar resting in the middle of the river.
The explosion was hot and persistent. The fire seemed to cling to the air covering a wide area. For a few seconds they could even hear portions of the sand sizzling after the smoke had cleared.
“Oh, I could get used to this. Honestly, who needs a gun?” Lilith exclaimed as she watched the mushroom cloud ascend leaving a smoke ring that was sure to get the towns people talking.
“That was impressive Lilith, I haven’t even taught you how to up-cast spells yet and you did it without thinking.”
“Ya I was just just focusing on the rune words and the target.”
“I like the smoke ring cloud, when can I do that?” Celeste asked.
“Not too long actually. You keep practicing and you will be casting empowered Fireballs in 2 or 3 years.” Wendel assured her with a nod.
“Ah that's no fair and Lils just started doing this too.” Celeste half pouted in a mocking fashion.
Looking at her friend’s reaction Lilith could tell she was slightly upset at her display. ‘She seems to be really competitive when it comes to magic. How can I cheer her up?’ “Does it help if I remind you that I am ten years your senior?” Lilith said in a similar mocking tone.
“No it doesn’t because you weren’t doing magic at all until this week.” Celeste admitted with a huff.
“Well at the age of 19 I can’t imagine another wizard with your talents Celeste.” Lilith said trying to take the sting off of Celeste’s mood.
“Yes, she really was the star pupil back at the Blackstaff Academy.” Wendel assured her.
“So, now can we try out Polymorph practice?” Lilith asked.
“Or can I shoot some Ice?” Celeste asked. Both girls now giving Wendel puppy dog eyes.
“Ok, how about this, we let Celeste cast all the Ice spells she wants and then Lilith can turn her into something that walks faster so we can get back to the castle for an early lunch.”
“Oh ha ha.” Celeste mocked in a sing song voice.
“Sounds good to me.” Lilith agreed as she prepared another spell for practice, blinking and twitching her eyes.
“Wait Really?” Celeste asked?
“Ya, you might get to spend the walk back to the castle as a cheetah.” Lilith teased with a smirk.
“Fine, fine but I am casting mage armor first.” she said as she began the runes for Mage armor.
With that, the practice continued. Celeste practiced casting Snowball Swarm so that she could work her way up to Ice Storm eventually. Meanwhile, Lilith was moving a Flaming Sphere around melting the sand into glass spelling different words. Finally, when Celeste was out of spell energy Lilith began wondering what animal to change her friend into. After all, a cheetah just seemed too boring. This was a world of magic there were animals here that didn’t even exist on Earth.
“So, what do you want to try first? Remember it has to be something fast.” Lilith asked with her head tilted down at her friend.
“Ok, lets try a giant Eagle. Forget running, I want to fly!” She said with a big grin.
“Good choice.” Wendel said as he nodded in agreement.
Lilith brought up the spell and started chanting the rune words. As the spell completed, Lilith thought of a giant eagle getting a clear image in her mind before sending the twisted weave energy directly at her friend with an outstretched hand.
Celeste's clothes and hair were immediately replaced by a thick coat of white and black feathers. Her body then expanded into its new shape and size. Strong wings about 40’ across, taloned feet and a large, sharp, yellow beak now defined her look. Celeste turned her giant bird head in several directions while speaking in a language specific to giant eagles. “Body feel light.” “Eyes good.” “Should I walk?” She asked looking at each of them in turn.
Lilith and Wendel both shrugged. Wendel because he couldn’t understand her and Lilith because she wasn’t sure she could squawk back. So they both turned in unison and started walking West, back to the River Gate House which was the nearest entrance to the town of Daggerford. The master wizard motioned for Celeste to follow not seeming to be a bit concerned with the giant winged predator just over his shoulder. Celeste looked a bit confused at first, trying out her wings before scratching the dirt with her talons. She then began walking behind them, easily catching up before calling out once again. “I smell dead fish in River.” “from booms.” Celeste said while looking at the river and hopping like she really wanted to go check it out.
Seeing as her friend expected an answer Lilith tried imitating the language finding that some magical force allowed her to speak it fluently on only her second try. “Go, eat fish. Then fly to River Gate. I will meet you at the River Gate” Lilith said in perfect Giant Eagle. It sounded like a series of screams and beak clicks. Lilith clanking her teeth together in place of a beak while the wizard gave her a questioning look.
“That planes walker ability sure must be nice. Being able to speak every language would make you one hell of a scholar.” Wendel mused with a bit of sarcasm before asking. “What are you two going on about?”
“She is following her nose. I think she is going to try and eat some fish in the river so I told her to meet us at the gate.” Lilith said in perfect common. “So lets get going.”
“You aren’t worried about your friend flying off into the forest and getting lost?”
“I don’t think she is used to her new sense of smell so she is probably going to follow it for a bit. I doubt we could stop her if we tried. So best just to meet her at the gate, but if she is late I can go look for her pretty fast.” Lilith said as she pointed to the Giant Eagle hopping down to the river.
“Oh that's right, now I’m the slow one.” Wendel said with a laugh as he started walking faster up the path back to the River Gate.
After a few minutes when they arrived at the gate, sure enough, Celeste wasn’t anywhere to be found. Wendel gave Lilith a disappointed look but refrained for saying what she knew was on his mind. Instead they both stood there patiently waiting as a steady flow of traffic entered and exited as the gate guards allowed. About 5 minutes later, a large, fast moving shadow got their attention as it swept over the line of carts waiting to be inspected. Looking up they spotted the shape of their friend silhouetted against the bright blue sky.
She was flying over the river looking down at it, seemingly looking at her own reflection. Either that or she was looking for more fish. At her speed, she quickly had gone past the entire town following the river heading out of sight to the West. Soon she returned, coming right towards them. The giant eagle flared her wings, slowing while gaining height some 30 ft over Wendel and Lilith before descending with two more great wing beats landing on her taloned feet about 40’ away from the road off to the side.
“Fun. Big view!” Celeste exclaimed in a series of calls, looking side on at Lilith. She then lifted her head well above both her friends before saying “You short.” followed by a series of head bobs.
“I don’t know Wendel, it seems like she is having a good time. Maybe we should just keep going and meet her at the keep?”
“Fine, suit yourself but if she ends up grabbing someone’s pig or cow I will never hear the end of this.”
Lilith turned back to her feathery friend saying in a series of calls and clicks, “Go Fly. Meet at Grass Field Near big Keep. We walk.”
With that Celeste turned away, starting to flap her wings while taking three steps forward before she pushed off with both legs. Airborne again, she flew directly away from the town while circling to gain altitude. Lilith was surprised by the speed and power and soon lost sight of her friend as she crossed paths with the sun overhead.
As they walked back together, Wendel began to talk about the magic lesson and how quickly Lilith was picking up on the methods of using the spells.
“Well I am kind of cheating I think. These demons seem to be innately magical. Like, it is built into their biology somehow.”
“Yes I know, you don’t even need a spell book. Are you recalling all the runes from memory?” Wendel asked.
“It seems to be a specialized form of memory, just for magic. It is even organized in the same way as your spell books.” Lilith explained while pointing at Wendel's robes and the side where his book was stored.
“That's not surprising. Humans were originally taught magic from the elves. And they are innately magical as well. Perhaps they taught us the same way as they see the magic.” Wendel surmised now with a finger resting on his chin.
“Are there any orcs that know magic?” Lilith asked with a bit of hesitation.
“A few, but they can’t learn it on their own. It is very rare and is usually due to the intervention of a witch or warlock that plans on using them for evil purposes.” he explained.
“Well I didn’t see any spell casters the last time they came, just a bunch of 7’ tall hulks of muscle that seemed like they weren’t eating as well as they would have liked.” Lilith said as she became more lost in thought.
“Is that Celeste over there?” Wendel asked with a bit of urgency to his voice.
Now passing the temple of Lathander, Lilith could see a giant eagle in the field outside the keep entrance being harried by a gate guard. It was Tom. He had left his post and was holding his spear over his head in an attempt to chase off the giant bird, like it was some kind of pest. This of course did not go well for him as Celeste grabbed the spear and began to lift it and Tom off the ground. Thankfully the guard let go of his spear after his feet were 3’ off the ground causing him to land on his back in the grass. He then rolled backwards quickly standing and dusting off his chain armor before looking back at the keep as if to ask for help.
Celeste had tossed the spear to the side by now and was making a series of loud noises at the overzealous gate guard who had come at her for seemingly no reason. Lilith, seeing both of Celeste’s feet firmly on the ground quickly decided now was a good time to cancel the spell.
Emerging from a cloud of feathers, Celeste stood with her hands defiantly on her hips staring daggers at the confused guard in front of her.
As Wendel and Lilith approached laughing loudly, Tom went to retrieve his lost spear. Meanwhile Celeste began to skip towards her two friends, flapping her arms at first then resting them back down to her side and resuming a normal gait. The three of them then approached the Castle entrance waiting for Tom to return to his post so they could question him about what exactly was going through his mind.
“Well, what exactly were you thinking, leaving your post like that Tom?” Wendel asked a bit of frustration in his voice.
To their credit the other guards looked at Tom expecting an answer. It seemed they too thought he was crazy to have walked up to such a giant beast. Seeing as he was now the subject of many doubtful glares he decided that some explanation was needed.
“Well you see, we guards have to spend a lot of time standing still under these arch ways. You might not know this but pigeons like to roost in them. So if we don’t chase them out they will build nests and then fill the entrances with debris and bird droppings. Anyways, so we have a standing order to chase away any and all birds that try to roost in these entrances. So then this giant bird lands and starts staring at the gate, like it wanted to be let inside. And I just went out to shoo it away like it was any other pigeon. I thought this lot here was just scared to do their duty.” he complained pointing to some of his fellow guards who just shook their heads in dismay.
“Tom, do you know where Giant Eagles normally go to roost?”
“Ahh.. Ya, in the mountains. We can see them from the trade way some times.”
“Ok. Then what made you think a Giant Eagle was trying to start a nest in the keep?”
“I don’t’ know… Ask the eagle!” he demanded motioning towards Celeste getting a few laughs from the other guards.
After the laughter died down Wendel decided it wasn’t worth spending any more time on the matter. Instead he stepped around the either brave or stupid man, walking into the busy Ducal Castle while Celeste and Lilith followed behind.