Before the Moon King’s rise, the spread of knowledge was slow and exchange of culture almost nonexistent. When every channel and stream is an impassable barrier, isolation comes easily.
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Raina Serin sat quietly in the center of her student apartment living room, trying to meditate like Jair had suggested. She had nothing better to do and no distractions for once. No demands on her time, no classes for the rest of the day, a perfect time to work on attuning her soulspell.
In theory.
In reality, her thoughts kept jumping back to Jair. Something had clearly happened. He seemed fine, but the wave of power when he accepted the class had been enough to knock her breathless.
She’d never doubted he had what it took to successfully reach initiation. They'd spent the past week exhaustively testing and triple verifying that his soulspace and manabody were perfectly according to specification. Yet he had still worried. Perhaps he had overprepared, somehow.
But she could have sworn his sword had changed, in the moment before sheathing it, and that just didn’t happen. Reforging a soulsword took years, specialized tools, expensive ingredients. Not something you could do on a whim or in an instant.
She must have been mistaken. But he looked so distracted, clearly something unusual had happened.
Where was he, anyway?
Raina took a deep breath. Meditating. Focus. Soulspell.
No wonder she hadn't been able to unlock it yet, she couldn't even keep her mind focused for a minute without thinking about Jair again.
Where was he, anyway? It felt like she'd been sitting here for hours.
And she was hungry. She skipped breakfast when Jair insisted on going over his qualifications for the thousandth time, and though she’d filled her plate to an almost impolite degree, the initiation snacks weren’t sufficient. Would there be anything left at the dome worth eating, if she ignored courtesy and protocol and went back for more? Probably not. And lunch wasn’t for another two hours.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Startled, she jumped to her feet, her soulsword clattering to the floor.
"Jair? It’s not locked, stop fooling around—" She yanked open the front door.
Instead of a smirking Jair, she found Denor Veshin. The Veshin heir’s soft elegance belied a hidden strength, but despite his string of victories in the formal dueling ranking, Raina found it hard to see him as anything but the boy across the oasis.
"Oh, hey Denor.” She smiled distractedly. “Haven't seen you in a while. What brings you here?"
"Just delivering your invitation, my lady," Denor said with an overwrought bow.
Raina punched him in the shoulder. "You don't have to start with all that nonsense."
"Well, since you've resisted all my efforts to lure you back, I assumed that meant you were finally turning into a proper heiress. But, your lamentable lack of enthusiasm for swordplay aside, you are still invited to attend our annual exhibition." He held out an embossed envelope, sealed in blue wax and marked with the Veshin family seal printed across the front: two entwined trees on either side of a shield.
"Thanks, but I'm going to be otherwise occupied this afternoon." There was no way Jair would be allowed to attend such a prestigious event, and Raina had more than enough prestigious events to attend without watching people flashing their thoroughly boring swords around. Jair’s sword, on the other hand—
"Oh." For a moment, Denor looked confused. Then he shrugged. "I'm sure your charity case will be disappointed to hear you won't come watch, but that’s the risk he took hanging out with someone as important as you. Good to know you’re living your own life."
“Wait. Go back. You’re talking about Jair?"
"Who else would I mean? I'm surprised you wouldn't want to see his first public showing, when you're so obsessed with him. You follow him around like you're his bodyguard.” Denor snorted, tapping his chin with one finger. “Shouldn't it be the other way around?"
She could never admit that part of her hated the pressure of her position as lone heiress, that Jair was the only person who bothered to treat her as herself and not as an extension of House Serin with all the politics that entailed. By training as a mageblade, she would be free for a few years at least from the obligations of her birth. Perhaps it was cowardice, to play at being ordinary and avoid taking on the family responsibility as long as possible. But this was her one chance to make friends rather than allies, and she wasn’t inclined to throw that away lightly.
"I like him," was all she could think to say. "What public showing is this?"
"Have you forgotten already?” He waved the envelope. “The exhibition."
"I wasn't eligible to participate this year, and as you've said, swordplay isn't my preferred activity anyway." She blinked as what he'd been saying finally sank in properly, and snatched the envelope. "You're saying Jair is participating? Since when?"
"Since about fifteen minutes ago.” Denor gestured back toward the dome. “And now that I’ve delivered your invitation, I need to go and help him get ready. Good luck with your important afternoon."
Raina stared down at the envelope. Jair shouldn’t even be in contention, let alone selected for the final exhibition.
Was this why he wanted to go talk to the nobility? It was unusually forward of him to take the initiative, but he was plenty clever when he wanted to be.
What is he up to now?
Laughing, she snatched up her fallen sword, transitioned the weapon back into her soulspace, and ran out the door after Denor. "Wait, I'm coming with you."
If Jair had somehow gotten into an event like this… she wouldn’t miss it for the world.
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Veshin Oasis during the day was a brilliant jewel of a place. The silver-domed roofs of its subterranean workshops glinted with sunlight and pulsing streaks of pale blue as free-drifting mana was snared and drawn inward. Dark packed lanes wound between buildings, surrounded by tall trees and low grasses. All the greenery had a faint teal tint to it, and during the night would give off a steady glow. Though the plants were initially sparse toward the edges of the oasis, the further inward you went the more fully the grass filled in the cracks, the more blossoming trees grew in lush profusion. Blue-veined white petals drifted in the air and added a light floral scent to the heavy earthen undertones of the rich dark soil.
Each oasis had its own distinct feeling to it, and Veshin’s was all blue and white, alive and shining. A balanced mix of modern production facilities amid a profusion of natural beauty. Unlike the extravagant (and unnecessarily expensive) display that was the Astralla Mageblade Institute’s central dome, the Veshin arena did nothing to draw attention to itself, subterranean and indistinguishable from the buildings around it.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Jair stole a glance toward the eastern half of the oasis, where taller buildings set aboveground in the ancestral Serin land. Their architectural style was a bit less modern in design compared to the Veshin structures, more classical with carved tiles and blocky profiles, but much more varied. Lifeless, at the moment, no one coming or going. The artisans and workers would all be inside or safely away from the oasis.
Prolonged unconscious exposure to the erratic mana of naturally occurring places like this could cause damage or warping of the manabody, so no one lived in an oasis. There were the usual courier posts to send runners and collect anything that may be needed, of course, but from this angle Jair couldn’t see if there was anyone present at the moment.
“Right this way, right this way!” Lord Curad Veshin patted Jair’s shoulder and beckoned him back toward the center of his side of the oasis. “I’ll have you know, our workshops are the finest in the world.”
“Indeed. So I hear. I understand you also have practice facilities here as well as the main theatre?”
“Yes, we do indeed! I'd be happy to show you, if you're interested."
"I am, very much so."
"Naturally, naturally.” He adjusted his direction minutely, heading toward one of the low roofs off to the right. “We need to test our products extensively before shipping them out, you see. Even with the mana glaze, pottery armor with even a single imperfection would be worse than useless. Shatter after the first blow.”
There it was, the official explanation, practically word for word. It was only natural for Veshin to keep a vast array of weapons on hand, it was all part of the business. Nothing unusual about it. Jair picked up the conversation. “And since you have the equipment on hand anyway, may as well let the kids train with it too. Right?”
“Exactly! And if we can provide our dear neighbors with some entertainment as well, all the better.” The fact that House Veshin also produced a disproportionately high number of blademasters compared to its population, completely unrelated.
Jair knew better, but there was no point in making a fuss about it. “What will I be facing in this exhibition?”
That left Lord Veshin free to ramble off on an explanation of the nature of hardlight, the prestige of the expert they’d ‘hired’ for the occasion, and repeated at least four times that Jair was in no danger as a participant. “We’ve a healing specialist on hand to deal with anything out of the ordinary, but the lower tier that you’ll be in generally only causes bruises at most.”
"How many tiers are there?" Jair already knew the answers, but Curad Veshin did love to talk, and giving him the chance to subtly brag about his cousin's skill would make him that much more kindly inclined toward Jair.
"The encounters are divided into four sets of five. The first, initiate levels, are for those without any imprints and a standard soulsword." He winked cheerily as he tugged open the door over a stairway leading down into one of the preparation rooms. His behavior was enough that, if not for the cut of his robes and the Veshin insignia over his thigh, he could be mistaken for a servant guide rather than the master of the house.
“So there would be a set of challenges for imprinted but not reforged, and one for both?” Jair asked as they descended, natural lighting giving way to bright blueish-white. “What would be the top level?”
“Very astute of you,” Lord Veshin praised with enthusiasm. “The top tier is for ascendant mageblades, but we’ve only had someone reach it twice. Even most ascendants aren’t sufficiently powerful to outlast the top level simulacra.” His booming laugh echoed as they stepped out into the room at the bottom of the stairs. “I certainly wouldn’t go against them myself.”
The interior of the preparation room was simple, a wide open floorplan with white walls and a thick spongey teal moss covering the floor. Jair bounced a couple times, testing the spring of the moss, and found it quite satisfactory. Above, trails of brilliant blue mana periodically pulsed across the ceiling in skittering streaks before gathering in crystal panels to light everything uniformly bright.
Racks of weapons and armors spread around the edges of the room, practice targets and swinging mechanisms in a variety of styles filled one end of the room, and a collection of simple ceramic armor stood beside the entrance.
“Admiring our designs, I see?” Lord Veshin walked to the first set, scaled with overlapping plates of deep blue, and ran a hand across its sleek shiny surface, making the plates clink dully against each other. “This one is medium-heavy, best for dealing with a large number of enemies utlizing ranged attacks, but limits mobility. This next one,” he tapped it with a knuckle, white and molded, looking most like traditional armor, “is light and durable, but less effective against magical disruption.”
“I’m curious…” Jair pointed at the third armor in line, thick black plates doubled one behind the other with padding in between. “How long would it take to get a custom set like this, with some modifications?” He all but held his breath waiting for the answer. He’d planned to order custom armor from a blacksmith in Astralla City, but Veshin ceramic might be even better.
Lord Veshin smiled. “Going straight for the heavy, I see. Excellent against impact, decently deflective. A custom set, now, that would depend on the modifications. Ordinarily, we ship within one terluna cycle of ordering.”
“That’s too long. I’d need it by the end of this week.”
Lord Veshin drew himself up, tapping the side of his chin in thought. “Rush order, hmm. Assuming nothing goes wrong and we get it right on the first casting, that could be done, but it would require putting everything else on hold.”
“Assume I can cover whatever late fees or cancellation costs necessary to assuage the other patrons. Can you do it?”
“I couldn’t make any guarantees. If we’re unlucky with the first set, there wouldn’t be time to try again.”
“That’s fine. My only condition in that case would be—“
“Condition?” Lord Veshin laughed, patting Jair’s arm again. “Slow down, lad, you haven’t even tried your sword in battle, much less be ready for something like bespoke armor.”
“If you can’t do it, just tell me. I’m perfectly willing to use Knightstone Smithing if Veshin can’t handle it.”
“Ho, ho. You’re in that much of a rush?”
“I am.”
“And this isn’t some kind of joke?”
“Not at all.”
They looked at one another, Veshin weighing, Jair immovable.
“My condition is that if something goes wrong, I want you to tell me exactly what the problem is.”
Lord Veshin scoffed. “You wouldn’t understand. I barely understand.”
“Tell me anyway. And after this week is over, you can keep the full payment amount either way. As long as you give it your honest best.”
Lord Veshin’s eyebrows rose. “That’s quite the offer, young Welburne. You certain you can back it up? Our armors don’t come cheap.”
“I’m certain.”
“Eight hundred thousand lirei for materials and crafting, fifty thousand for the rush, and two million for delaying other orders. It would be more, but without retries…” Veshin squinted at Jair. “This is a very strange order you’re placing.”
“I’ll have it to you first thing in the morning, along with the plans and measurements.”
“You’re very serious about this.” Veshin chuckled and patted Jair’s back. “You certainly get straight to business.”
“It’s an urgent matter of life and death. Why don’t you show me how these training setups work, and then I’ll stop monopolizing your time.”
Veshin began proudly demonstrating each of the practice tools available, from swinging targets and practice dummies to a full on obstacle course in one section.
“I've been eager to spend more time with your son,” Jair mentioned casually as they walked between rooms. “Would it be possible for us to borrow your training rooms now and again in future?" Having Denor and the Veshin resources at his disposal while returning his body to its proper strength and flexibility would be indispensable. Very little came close to Veshin for training the blade.
"We'll have to see about that." Lord Veshin winked conspiratorially. "We have so many people asking after them, you know. Can't be seen to play favorites. If we start letting in anyone but the best of the best, we'll never have a moment's peace."
Translation: do well enough in this demonstration to prove you deserve the time.
Veshin may have been willing to sponsor Jair into the event, but he wasn’t going to bet quite that heavily on him without some proof.
Jair bowed. "I'm sure you'll have nothing to complain about with me."
"I'm sure, I'm sure."
Once they finished going over the equipment, Veshin left Jair to his preparations. He had another hour before anyone started arriving for the main event, which time he spent doing his best to prepare his miserable body for the upcoming demands he’d be making of it. With how low his current stamina was, he didn’t dare push beyond stretches and a few slow katas, and even that left him aching with the strain. But at least he felt a little more flexible as he left the training room via a connecting passage to the arena.
It’d be a while yet before he could challenge the top tiers, but if he couldn’t even clear the initiate tier, he’d never catch the kind of attention he needed. This was going to be painful, but he couldn’t deny the excitement bubbling through his chest. So many new options, open to be explored!
Time to see who else would be attending, perhaps make a few more connections, and get in position for his first showing as a mageblade prodigy.
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