Chapter 54 (Arc 2 Chapter 8) Gareth’s Folly
It was late evening when we landed. When I got back to my room, dinner was over, and I found a lamenting Gareth on his bed. He bemoaned, “Oh Storme, I wish you hadn’t left today. I did something stupid. So very stupid.” I touched my friend and looked for wounds with my spell—nothing. I sat on my bed across from him, waiting for him to elaborate.
“So, what happened to you today? Can it be remedied? Did you piss off Aelyn?” I asked as I started using my cleanliness spell to clean up the room, which had reverted to smelling like old socks in the twelve hours I had been gone. Gareth just pulled a pillow over his own head and moaned into it.
“Well, Gareth, I am hungry. If you want to talk, I will be in the kitchen.” I left the room and noticed the twin’s door across the hall was ajar and peeked in. I knocked and said, “Mera and Fera, I am cooking if you are interested.”
“Storme, you are back?” Fera whispered. Some hushed whispers, and then Fera said, “We are coming.” The two girls languidly walked out of their room, and we moved to the kitchen. I knew they played some role in Gareth’s current state by their moods.
I went to the cellar to gather materials for making a four-cheese mac n cheese. We had some dried pasta, so I got the water boiling with two types of salt. “So, Mera and Fera, can you tell me what my friend has done that has signaled the end of the world for him?”
Mera twirled her hail in her finger. Fera wouldn’t make eye contact. Mera finally spoke as the cheese was melting in the butter, flour, and milk. “Gareth and Brianne were found naked in the woods by Jollete. It was the same spot that Gareth took Fera to kiss.” Fera clicked her tongue in anger.
I hadn’t really been aware of Brianne since we started the academy. She was in our class but hung out with Pascal and his friends. I thought Gareth had gotten over her. Fera added, “They were not completely naked.” Mera rolled her eyes at her sister.
“They would have been if they were not interrupted,” Mera hissed. Oh, Gareth. He was probably getting wooed by every eligible girl in Hen’s Hollow after he won the tournament. Sponsors would probably send beautiful girls here to woo him as well. His stock was really high. Callem had even told me he would have finished in the top 8 for the Academy Annuals. If he participated next year by that time, he should be good enough for a top 4 finish. The girls bickered a little back and forth as I cooked.
I wasn’t sure if intervention on my part would be wise. I had flashes in my past life of trying to fix something, and it only snowballed worse. I couldn’t recall details, but interfering was just a bad idea. I did offer advice anyway, “Fera, Gareth is not what you would call strong when it comes to resisting the attentions of the opposite sex.” How best to describe his unraveling libido… “His thoughts will always be focused on the breasts in front of him.” That should be clear enough for them to understand. Maybe I had said too much.
Mera moved in front of me, blocking me from stirring the cheese sauce. “And you, Storme, where are your thoughts focused?” It wasn’t a sexy voice, but it was an attempt at one. At least the young woman was smiling suggestively.
“My thoughts Mera,” I placed my hands on her shoulders, and she smiled brighter, “Are on cooking.” I gently moved her aside. Her face fell, but she grinned as she resisted a little.
“Is the food ready?” Fera asked, grinning at her sister’s attempt to entice me.
“Well, I know good food always makes me happier.” I plated the drained pasta and poured a helping of sauce over each, and stirred it to consistency before sliding it to the girls. Even though the girls had eaten two hours ago, they greedily ate a healthy portion. I assumed they had worked hard today.
When we finished, I used my cleanliness spell to clean the pots and dishes. It made things extremely quick, and the girls then begged me to clean their room tonight as well. I consented since our room smelled so ripe. I guessed theirs did as well. It wasn’t as bad as I suspected because they had packed their dirty clothes in a ball. It had rained during sword training just before the Annuals, and those clothes were at the bottom of the pile. I walked the room after the clothes as the girls put away their clean clothes.
I wasn’t sure, but they seemed to be folding their undergarments openly in front of me and giggling about it. They begged me to hang out and help them with their aether core exercises when I was finished cleaning. So I sat on Mera’s bed with my back to the wall and one twin on either side of me as I guided them through the 23 exercises. I gave them some pointers that helped me when I taught myself. Really, Selina was a much better teacher than me; all the twins needed to do was practice.
It was extremely late when I made to return back to my room. The girls restrained me for a brief second, and both gave me a peck on the cheek at the same time. “Just a thank you, Storme. For cleaning and helping us study. Maybe we will give you the same if you help us again tomorrow night.” Fera said suggestively. I paused at their appearing innocent antics. Fera obviously wanted Gareth aware I was spending time with her, and Mera was still after me.
“I don’t mind helping you two study, but I have quite a bit of studying to do independently.” Their smiles evaporated. “How about on the 1st and 3rd day? I will help you both after dinner?” The smiles that had almost vanished immediately returned. They nodded enthusiastically.
I opened my room door and found Gareth in the position I had left him. His loud breathing came even through the pillow. After setting a half dozen alarms around the room, I clapped a silent sphere around myself. The door, window, floor, bed, and the chest were alarmed. It was mostly just practice, but the small routine may save my life one day. Each alarm would instantly wake me with a loud sound in my head and an image of the intruder.
After my day off, getting back into training was not fun. Aelyn and the teachers seemed to think I needed to do twice as much work today to make up for missing yesterday. Today was also my time with a saber, so Callem was my teacher, and he made me work hard as well. I watched Brianne a bit, and she did still have eyes for Gareth. The other kids were teasing both Gareth and Brianne all day, so I called attention to myself at dinner and stood on the table.
“So yesterday I heard I missed an eventful day at Academy,” I started, and hollers and cries rang out in affirmation. I let them play out before continuing. “While I admit teasing our fellows is fun, there is a line and a time to stop. I am asking everyone here to abide by this rule. You are allowed to chide and tease someone for one day after an incident. After that time, the harassment is to stop. If it does not, then I will no longer heal you!”
Everyone was silent as I sounded dead serious. I looked around the room and made eye contact with everyone, and I think my teachers had some pride on their faces. I started to step off the table but stopped and stood again, and the room was deathly silent, waiting on my words. “We are going to be here together for the next ten months. It is everyone’s responsibility to help every other person in this room become the best person they can be in that time. Respect each other as you respect our talented instructors.”
I sat down across from Gareth. The twins hadn’t sat with us at any meals today to show their anger, and he was starting to look green. Freya had heard my little speech as she was cleaning dishes and looked at me with eyes of—maybe admiration.
Gareth whispered, “Thanks Storme. It just sort of happened. I didn’t think anyone would stumble on us. She said she just wanted to practice kissing, and before I knew it, our shoes and shirts were off.”
I shook my head back and forth slowly, “Ah, Gareth, you are going to learn a lot in the next ten months on what not to do when it comes to women. I wish I could give you advice, but I doubted my advice is that good, and I doubted you would heed it anyway.” I had very little wisdom or memories to help my friend. As Gareth had mentioned, sex was going to happen… first-year academy was essentially Skyholme’s version of sex education.
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Sitting to my right, Mia asked, “Are you going to follow your own advice and not harass Gareth after a day when he does something stupid?”
I looked at the young woman and back at Gareth, “No, I am the exception to the rule. Someone needs to keep him grounded.” Gareth’s eyes twinkled in mock shock to go with his open mouth. “Besides,” I grabbed my mug, ready to finish it, and go to my room, “It’s not like I’m not going to heal myself if I break the rule.” Mia laughed, and Gareth’s face was in comical disbelief. Leaving the table, I told Gareth, “Don’t worry, I will do it all in private, and I expect the same of you. We will keep each other grounded.” The Gareth grin manifested on his face.
In my room, I had planned to continue studying my lightning reflexes spell, but after some consideration, I switched to focus on the neutralize poison spell. It was a tier 2 spell that had a lot of utility. It could easily take care of being drunk and quickly remove up to tier 2 poisons. Tier 3 poisons could be eliminated with multiple targeted casting. With some evolutions, it could hold off the effects of tier 4 poison but not eliminate it. Hopefully, those tier 4 poisons had a duration that could be overcome with time.
Gareth came in and plopped down with a sigh on his bed. He normally would be hanging out with Fera right now. I let him be. I had done quite a bit for him with my speech at dinner and wanted to learn this spell quickly to return to my first offensive threat spell, lightning reflexes. Since he was being ignored, he left the room, so I put up a privacy screen and focused. Before going to sleep, I started making platinum coins. I was going to need some wealth in order to build my headquarters.
The next day I was shocked at how my words had affected the group. Everyone was being overly helpful to everyone else during class sessions. At meals, the jokes and jabs were flying non-stop, but everyone seemed supportive. The twins were back eating with us but sat on either side of me. Normally Fera would have sat next to Gareth. I was sure the relationship would mend in time.
The enchanting class became a huge focus for me. If I was going to establish a headquarters, I wanted it to be filled with as many magical artifacts as possible to create a high standard of living. I planned to spend the next few classes perfecting my aether lights. It was one of the simpler enchantments to do, and the quality of the materials would determine how good the device was.
My aether light was going to be a softball-sized white globe. I wanted a touch enchantment with four settings. Off, 125 candles, 500 candles, and 2000 candles. Each touch of the ball would cycle through the settings. Instructor Aethon was fascinated with the project and was helping me write out the enchantments. They were a lot more complex than I had planned. I planned to use a durable type of frosted glass ball and then use my metal shaping to do the runic script on the inside of the ball. The recharging aether crystal would be at the hole in the blown glass. I hoped to start making them in a week or so.
Well, that evening, I made good on my promise to tutor the twins in magic. They were eager students and really liked sitting on either side of me on the bed to study. They had wanted to study in my room, but I knew they just wanted to torment Gareth, so I insisted we study in their room. Of course, they kept the door wide open, and with our room being across the hall, Gareth would see us. Being so spiteful was not how I imagined the twins, and I told them so. They just rolled their eyes at me in unison, a little spooky with their coordination, and said they just wanted Gareth to know what he missed out on.
The fourth, fifth, and sixth days of the week progressed a little too slowly for me. I was starting to feel the burden of routine. The twins were also tying themselves strongly to me in an attempt to make Gareth jealous. On the fifth day, Gareth had given up and was seen sneaking away with a more receptive Brianne, which only infuriated the twins. He was much stealthier and they were not discovered this time. I wasn’t sure what they had done, but Gareth was in a much better mood after.
The special order globes for my enchanting lights came in on the sixth day, a crate of 24. We were still working on the actual runic script for the lights, but I now had something to practice on when I was ready. Master Aethon had also purchased twenty-four bottles of hardening resin. He thought it would be a good idea to coat the globes with it to protect them. The resin could also be tinted in different colors if I was interested. It was a good idea.
On the sixth day, everyone was excited to get the following day off. For me, that meant I would be spending my day with Selina on additional spell lessons. I was physically and mentally fatigued and not sure I wanted another lengthy instruction period. During the week, my spells had leveled, and I was beginning to think the larger variance in how I was using them was adding to the increased speed. I made a mental note to see if Ennet would do a reading on me so I could see the progress of my aether core.
My cleanliness spell had reached level 14. I completed the range evolution to extend it from 3 feet to 6 feet. Since I seemed to be spending a lot of time cleaning up other people’s messes, it made sense to speed up the process. It also allowed me to clean ceilings with ease.
My mend flesh spell reached level 12, and at level 11 the evolution that I added was something called replenish. It restored a person’s muscle energy and removes fatigue. It was not as effective as I had hoped. It didn’t offer endless stamina, just washed away fatigue and eliminated muscle burn. It was also only effective once a day which I didn’t understand, so I asked Selina. Selina explained the limitations had to do with aetheric aura manipulation on a person and the tier of my spell. The lengthy lecture on the topic was over my head at this point in my mage craft.
Obfuscate Abilities ticked up to level 6. The dimensional closet ticked up to level 12, but I was no longer emptying my core at night with this spell. I had switched to using my aether to stockpile platinum coins. My alarm utility spell reached level 8, and at level 7, I increased the brightness of the flash effect. I estimated it would be effective in the dark conditions to blind someone, but I was going to have to scale the brightness again to have the same effect in daylight. I didn’t care about actually blinding someone because magic could easily heal the injury. Once I got my alarm spell and imprinted lightning reflexes I was fairly certain I would be able to defeat Gareth in combat.
My privacy spell went from level 2 to level 6. This was mostly because I worked on this spell in class with Selina. At level 3, I added a milky opacity to my bubble to obscure sight. At level 5, I amplified the bubble so I could see out while people couldn’t see in.
I was getting close to imprinting my neutralize poison spell. I hoped to get enough help on the seventh day with Selina to cross it off my to-do list. Selina had me meet her in town at her rented loft apartment. It had a nice view of the town square and was nicely decorated. Selina explained a few things in the place from her travels, mementos. Then we got to work. It was around lunch when I imprinted the spell. Selina was impressed and happy for me. The first evolution was to be able to use the spell on something else.
We started working on the lightning reflexes spell next, and I brought the book out. Selina was helping me see the patterns in the spell forms. We went to the tavern for lunch, and there were a number of students from my class there. The food was very average, but I was hungry. I was sipping on a weak ale and testing out my new spell.
We were getting ready to return to Selina’s place when a familiar small wolfkin entered. Of course, Bylura was drawing a lot of attention. We just didn’t get Wolfsguard in Hen’s Hollow. On seeing me, she approached with a lopsided grin. She sat at our table, and Selina raised her eyebrow as the wolf girl started talking.
“Storme, I brought you an architect. She was personally selected by Loriel.” The girl took my plate and started eating. After two bites, she made a face and slid it away from her with a sour look on her face.
I made the action of looking around the tavern room. Bylura took my cup and drank my ale, “She is looking for a place to stay in town. Most likely, she will head to the nearby city as your quaint little town doesn’t have much to offer.” Her tone indicated she didn’t think much of Hen’s Hollow herself.
“So Bylura, you were sent to me again. Did you volunteer because you missed me?” I asked. Her eyes narrowed at me.
“I am the only one Loriel can trust,” she said with a little annoyance.
“Well, now that you know where I am, will you bring this architect to me?” The wolf girl didn’t seem to like taking orders. She just reclined in her seat and gave me the stink eye. Freya came barreling into the inn, found me at my table, took a seat, and stared at the wolf girl who seemed suddenly uncomfortable.
“Freya, Bylura. Bylura, Freya,” I introduced them. Monty came into the tavern, rushed to Freya, noticed Bylura, and let out a cautious bark. Bylura probably weighed as much as the large fluff monster Monty. When Bylura didn’t back down, he started growling at her, and Bylura growled back—a canine showdown.
I started laughing at the display of dominance. Bylura stood up and left in a huff. As she was leaving, Freya looked disappointed. She turned to me and asked, “She is adorable. Do you think she will let me pet her fur?”
“Oh, definitely ask when she gets back, Freya,” I said, anticipating the interaction. I started talking with Freya about her business operations. She was doing better than Gareth, and I had in our endeavors. She was making about 20 silver a week. She also had a small army of town kids helping her.
When Bylura returned, Monty was on alert. A woman, maybe in her 20s, followed her. She had dark blonde hair tied into a bun. Her eyes were dark brown, and she was wearing a sharp outfit that looked fairly expensive. Bylura locked eyes with Monty as she approached. Monty was quiet this time but hadn’t deferred dominance to Bylura.
“Storme, I present your architect, Isla Carille Bricio,” she said with a smile. A Bricio? Well, this was not going to be fun especially when I declined her services.