A silent pavilion awaited them at the top of the stairs. Cira’s whole crew was on edge, and nearly bereft of mana as they nervously looked over their shoulders. Her paladins valiantly formed a circle around her even as their golden light flickered.
“Be on your toes.” Jimbo addressed everyone, “They could attack at any moment.”
“I really don’t think we need to worry about that.” There was a reason Cira hadn’t said anything as they passed the dormitories. All the doors were closed up and there was no sound to be heard, not even a rat. In place of all the bodies they left earlier were only bloodstains. In some places the goblin corpses were half pulled into an alley and seemingly dropped in a hurry.
For better or worse, they had struck fear into the goblins’ hearts.
“The girl is right.” Kuja backed her up and the crew let out a collective sigh of relief, “They may trouble us next time, but today they mourn the dead.”
“Well, that doesn’t make me feel any better.” It set everyone else at ease, but now Cira felt like she had trampled on some woodland critters. She found it hard to believe they were a peaceful people, but even if it was the warrior she disgraced that led them into battle, they certainly would have eaten her flesh if afforded the opportunity. It sounds like Kuja may know a thing or two about goblins.
They exited the living quarters with no trouble, even stopping for a peaceful water break in the middle in case they ran into more bugs. It made sense that they didn’t, though. They were surely one of the goblins’ primary food sources.
Did their leader hoard all the nutrients, and that’s why he was so much taller and musclebound? What bothered her was why the smaller ones were so frail. It didn’t make any sense for a single specimen to have such drastically different physiology.
The mysteries of goblinhood would have to wait, however, because they arrived at Breeze Haven safely after an uneventful hike, and Cira was grateful. Her newest mortal enemy, stairs, had kicked her ass the whole way.
“That sucked.” Jimbo said the moment their expedition could be considered over—as soon as he passed the gate to Cira’s garden. “Can we drink yet?”
“I’m starting to think you have a problem.” Isn’t it a hassle to drink all the time? Maybe my life is just too much of a hassle. “And don’t you have a book to finish, or have you decided sorcery is too much for you?”
“W-what?! Of course not. I can drink and read at the same time. Been doin’ it for years…” His words trailed off as Cira squinted in a progressively disapproving manner, “Right… maybe I’ll drink later.”
As far as drinking went, Jimbo was a trained professional. The man himself would and has argued he was twice as good at anything with a few glasses in him, but academics were another matter entirely. Cira knew drinking was inconducive to learning and impaired one’s ability to retain information. It was her dad’s reasoning for only drinking on rare occasion, and it was something Cira had experienced herself when she woke up in the plague ward.
“Lady Saint!” Her lightning mage threw himself to his knees before her, “Please teach me. I… I want to be stronger!”
Looking down at him, Cira let out a long sigh, “I was already planning on it. You’re all far too weak, no offense, now get off the ground.”
He missed the last part, but the rest of her mages seemed to overhear and surrounded her like a flock of gulls. “You’ll teach all of us?” the fire mage asked.
“Do you hear that, Brother?” Lero was exhausted and perked up at the news. Cira hadn’t thought about it, but since there were no more bug encounters, they failed their mission for the day. “The Saint will take us as her apprentices!”
“Make no mistake.” Cira clarified with a stern tone. “If you prove unreceptive to the path of sorcery, I will kick you out with no hesitation. I will also expect you to read the Compendium when Jimbo finishes; perhaps aloud in a group to save time. Lastly, and most importantly, the next person to call me Saint or kneel is on the next boat to Green Pit.”
“O-of course, Captain!” Her paladins were quick to take a stiff pose and salute, as if they were so innocent.
The lightning mage turned out to be the least irritating. He seemed a little reserved and hadn’t called her a saint since the first day. A young man closer to Skipper’s age with light hair and an unkempt mustache. “Do we start day after tomorrow?”
“What?” Cira was taken off guard, “Of course not. I just need to take a bath, and I expect to see all of you in the training hall when I’m done.”
___
There was nothing relaxing about this bath. In fact, she felt more tired after she was done. Everything still hurt and Cira just wished she could heal it all away. Not only that, but the bed waiting for her at the end of this long day wasn’t even as comfortable as that of the suite in Nymphus.
Evidently Skipper anticipated her sorry state and had dinner ready in the training hall—mashed potatoes and boar. She thought it looked like quite a hearty dinner but couldn’t help wondering if it was to take her mind off the table, chairs, and barrel of ale they had set up in her absence.
“If you drunks can’t learn anything, it’s on you now.” She would kick them out if she had to but was too tired to care beyond that. Her lesson today would be short and swift. When she looked over her new students though, she counted a few too many heads. “James, what are you guys doing here? And Kuja?”
“I just wanted to listen in.” Kuja replied.
James gave her a shrug, “What? We can’t learn magic too?” Skipper sat next to him with the training goggles on his face.
“Well, if you can, you can, I guess.” She returned the shrug and set a stack of books on the table before addressing her crew. “I am much too tired, so we will only be covering one subject tonight. It is a very important one, though. All of your auras are on the small side, save for Tawny, and even hers doesn’t stack up to the average witch.”
Considering Estelle’s was a few orders of magnitude greater than her sidekick Lyren’s who was about the same level as Nanri, Tawny hardly had any mana at all.
“Uh, hang on a minute.” Joe respectfully raised a hand, “Do I even have an aura?”
“If I recall, your aura is a little smaller than Jimbos, but I haven’t seen Skipper’s.” She looked at him with scrutiny for a moment before turning to Kuja, “Could you help me out?”
“He’s about the same.” She replied, “Until today I haven’t used much magic in easily a cent—a few decades—can I increase my aura too?”
“That should make no difference in theory. You’ve proven you can still cast, so it doesn’t seem you’ve lost the ability, but did you perhaps used to conjure faster?”
“I… did.” She answered nervously for some reason. “Why do you ask?”
“Thought so.” Cira whipped her gaze around to settle on Tawny, “This brings me to you. While Kuja here has merely gotten rusty, you’re just plain bad at it.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“W-what did you say?!” The girl was offended at first, but begrudgingly let it go. Like it or not, she had learned that Cira was an authority on the subject. With no aura of her own, she had plundered Tawny’s to prove a point. “Bad at what? Magic?”
“In a sense.” There was a large tome on top of the stack, bound in green leather. Cira dropped it in front of Tawny and its weight shook the table. “Your aura is… respectable for your level of skill. You have great potential, but you are absolutely terrible at mana induction. Now can anyone tell me what this is?”
When she was met with the expected blank stares, Cira continued, “It is the ability to transfer mana from your aura into the environment. It appears you tire after hardly scraping half of your stores, and your control is paltry, owing to the fact that you treat fire and wind the same from what I gather.”
“I-what? How else am I supposed to do it? They both work the same.” It wasn’t an unreasonable way to think. Neither were solid, and flames were often seen blowing in the wind or wisping upward as they do. One could also feel the draft created by a flame and come to the same conclusion.
“And you will never progress as long as you think that. There is a certain order of operations among the elements. A chain of predation if you will. Just as light consumes darkness, fire consumes wind—better known as air.” It was known as wind sorcery for the sake of brevity. “They are not comparable by any means, and the only reason they act the same in your hands, is because you have probably thought as much for many years.”
“And… how do I change that?”
Cira tapped on the book in front of her. “You’ll have to read this for now when you find time, and of course, you are welcome to as well, Kuja.”
“Oh…” She replied with trepidation as she gazed upon the heavy book, “Okay then.”
“Is that it?” Jimbo asked. “I was ready to learn another spell.”
“You haven’t even learned your first one yet. There will be no new spells tonight.” Her students all looked a little crestfallen with that. “I’ve only mentioned mana induction because it is fundamental to all other aspects of sorcery. Master induction and it will help you extract mana from the environment more efficiently as well.”
“Is that how we make our auras bigger?” Eros asked earnestly.
“It will help, but not exactly. There are two primary ways to increase one’s aura without external catalysts. The easiest and most reliable method is done every time you cast.” She was surprised to see the shocked looks on everyone’s faces. This was the most basic of the basics. “Your aura is like a muscle in some ways. Though it is marginal, each time you tap into your aura, it’s capacity increases. The rate of expansion is higher the closer you are to empty, and as well when you expend a great deal of it at once. If channeled constantly, the rate at which your aura expands will increase continuously.”
Maybe not James and the boys, but all the mages’ expressions sunk at her last words that she let hang in the air. Those who could cast knew what that meant. Still the fire mage Gil held onto hope in his heart, “So… are we going to drink a bunch of potions and cast large spells?”
“I hardly have a crate left, so that won’t do. Besides, recovering mana naturally is best for such training.” Now all the mages looked at each other and frowned. They knew from experience that the longer one kept a spell activated, the greater strain they had to endure. A few minutes was fine, but an hour or more left one winded. Many hours was enough to get someone ready for bed and beyond that, it wasn’t uncommon to be completely bereft of strength and mental faculties if your aura didn’t break first.
“It is best, of course, to combine methods,” Cira continued, “Since we haven’t covered the deceptive concept of affinities yet, you will cast a spell with your own element, or both if you have them.” There were only two dual casters present, three if she counted ice as different from water, so she gave them a pointed glance, “No using Lamplight, though. That spell in its base form consumes less mana than the average person regenerates. In any case, you must hold the spell of your choosing until the sun rises, and if your aura isn’t skirting on empty by that time, you fail. Any questions?”
They all stared at her blankly until James spoke up, “Yeah, I got one. You know the sun hasn’t even gone down yet, right? It’s like four o’clock in the afternoon.” He closed a silver pocket watch and put it away.
“Perfect.” She smiled, “Given the size of everyone’s aura, I hope to see progress by the time I awaken. Of course, you four can’t participate.” James, Joe, Jimbo, and Skipper couldn’t cast. “And you don’t have to, Kuja. But these three, I expect to watch my paladins closely. Holy magic is going to be your fastest starting point into mana induction so don’t be scared to hold their hands while they cast.”
“You… you want us to hold their hands?” Jimbo asked with a dumbstruck look on his face, “Like, all night?”
“You may obviously take bathroom breaks.” I’m not that strict. “And you should find time to finish that book so the others may begin. I’ll bring you Volume Two tomorrow and we’ll see if we can get you to cast something.”
“Hold on a second.” Rictor said, counting on his hands, “You’re saying we have to cast for the next… fourteen or fifteen hours? Do we at least get potions for that?”
“Of course, I will afford you one each.” She started pulling them from a freshly restocked pouch. “Think of it as a second chance. You will need to control your mana output so as not run out overnight, while also trying to pull as much from the atmosphere as possible to sustain. Luckily for you, this training hall is somewhat rich in mana so hopefully you can manage. Only drink these potions if your aura is about to break.”
They took them in hand and looked up at her nervously, not at all excited about what came next. James turned to her with exasperation, “And while we’re down here ‘training’, you’ll be doing what? Sleeping?”
“Indeed. You all will become stronger while I regain my strength. Is it not the wisest course of action? Do not forget our experience down below.”
Kuja chuckled, “She’s a growing girl, you know. She needs her beauty sleep.”
Cira tried not to turn red, “W-what do you mean by that? I am not a child.”
“It’s difficult not to be a child before me.” Her eyes were tired, and she held a playful grin. “By the way, what is the second way to increase our aura?”
“Ah, that will come later but maybe you can do it. You need simply continue to gather mana after your aura is full. Not so much that it burst,” This was the second way to break one’s aura, and Cira potentially did so uncontrollably on Fount Salt. Anyone who tried to gather mana when they were full innately knew it wasn’t healthy. “Just enough to give you a mild headache, and of course, without stopping.”
“I may consider it…” She wasn’t thrilled.
“One more question before I retire. Why do none of you carry a staff? Is that common around here?”
“I used to have one,” Kuja said, “but it rotted away after I left it in the village.”
“Staffs are damn expensive, too.” There was a bitter expression on Gil’s face, perhaps reliving a not-so-fond memory, “And if one shows up on Lost Cloud, it belongs to Captain Wick.”
Cira knew the man was greedy, and that he took from the people of Lost Cloud, but this was altogether new information for her. “That might just be crossing a line… How many mages does he have again?”
To steal another sorcerer’s staff was a grave offense, at least that’s what her father said. Beyond the entry level sorts the average mage could buy from an artificer, staves were highly personalized as the caster usually carved their own glyphs or created the entire artifact. Cira learned sorcery using her father’s, but still found herself modifying the odd rune or otherwise reworking any equipment she scavenged.
“A handful or two at most.” Jimbo replied, “Not enough to even try and justify it. I’d wager my crowns that he’s got a locked room somewhere filled to the brim with all the weapons he stole.”
Cira was allowed to do what she wanted because Gazen left her everything, and none of the pirates around these parts were likely ‘sorcerers’ per se, but something about rounding up all the staves and hoarding them didn’t sit right with her. She would be pissed if someone stole even one from her collection and couldn’t help but sympathize with any mage who had their own snatched away.
“Then we need only add that to the heist list. Now then. spells up, everyone.” She watched their magic flare to life. Her paladins enveloped their swords in holy light, Tawny wrapped a ball of flame in wind and Cedric held an orb of water as electricity arced across its surface. Next to him were the brothers, one of which added ice to his water. Curiously, Kuja conjured a wisp of pure white—Cira expected the dark element, but it made sense that her people were more versed in untainted aether—that was the soul’s composition after all.
Last, her gaze fell on Rictor, whose hands started overflowing with iron nuggets. He looked nervous as they began to hit the floor, and everyone turned to him with a glare. Cira stifled a laugh and offered some advice, “I’m sure you’ve practiced making your conjurations last longer, but have you ever tried the other way around?”
There was a big difference between not putting enough mana in for a spell and making the duration shorter. Any element would instantly disperse upon failing a spell, but even then traces of it lingered. Likewise, conjured elements naturally dispersed at different rates.
Light dispersed imperceptibly fast, but rock or especially metal, being quite permanent in their natural state, took much longer once fully manifested. Seconds, sure, but enough for each piece of iron to clunk against the ground. This fact was the origin of Rictor’s uneasy expression.
“Is that possible?”
“Of course it is. Just try to work on it by morning.” Cira made one last address to the crew with a yawn, “Goodnight, everyone. Remember we have a big day tomorrow, so work hard.”
“I thought tomorrow was a rest day!” James cried.
“It is.” She reasoned, “But once you wake up, we have a big day ahead of us.”