It started innocent enough with my exercise, followed by Catherine taking some more of my blood. I then took out my clothes and packed them onto the mule. Catherine wanted to come along to see where I would live from now on, so I had to wait for another two hours while she processed the blood. When she was done we headed out together. She had taken along a few mana regeneration potions and even two health potions. I wondered if those were some precautions for one of my excesses and I certainly didn't mind.

“I will soon be out for a while to get a few ingredients. Can you manage with the potions I brought along or do you need more?”

“By now I am not dependent on them any longer. I still have a use for them, but I hope in a week or so there will be no more need for them.”

“Keep one or two as reserve just in case. If you need any more by then, you know where to find me.”

We walked in silence for a while. Somehow we had talked less and less once I had gotten settled. I suppose we were never meant to be more than acquaintances. Some time later I came up with a question that had been on my mind:

“Do you know who Parangante is?”

“I don't suppose you are going to tell me where you got that name?”

I just grinned at her.

“Sigh. Parangante is the goddess of nature. She is said to grant a few related professions like herbalism or gardener. When I attuned to herbalism I supposedly attuned to her, but she isn't always mentioned in the attunement. I didn't really care, and don't know much else about her. The elves should know the most about her, if you want in depth information. It isn't really relevant for the professions, so you don't have to take it into account.”

That might be true for most people, but I definitely didn't want to offend her if I ever attuned to something she supposedly held domain over. Either she really was responsible and an improper attunement was offensive, or she didn't and using her name without her permission was. Of one thing I was very sure, she was real and no pleasant company.

What counted for a god in this world? Parangante was very powerful, so much in fact that it was beyond my ability to measure. It was however still limited. She had needed some time to find me and her aura was not omnipresent. Would I have to be mindful of other gods too? And what did that make Majal? I had my doubts she was known, and it might be best to keep her name to myself. Her existence might be a secret and telling could have horrible consequences. It would be nice to be informed about this situation.

When we arrived at my new home, we quickly unpacked and I gave Catherine my thanks for her assistance so far. She didn't linger for long and shortly left. I took a little bit of time to put the room into order and then found myself without anything to do for the rest of the day. I wanted to start really reading the advanced inscription book I had only scratched, but that was something better done at night, when there were no other activities available.

I decided to take a look by Silvia's house. Just before I wanted to knock I realized that there weren't even any auras present, so I left without knocking. I walked along the river for awhile until I was at the outskirts of the valley. Then I sat down close to it. I watched the water peacefully float by. I took up a small stone and threw it along the river's flow. It bounced a few times, although I had cheated and used magic to do so instead of proper throwing technique. Some more stones followed in its wake until I saw someone sitting down next to me.

I hadn't been paying any attention or I would have been aware before then. I looked up to see a young man. That was not a situation I wanted to pass my time with. I ignored him and continued throwing stones. He took up his own and started copying me. His technique was good and it bounced without any assistance. When he next threw a stone I drowned it after the first bounce. I stole a hidden glance at his incredulous look.

We continued on without saying a word and I had all but forgotten him when he finally mustered up the courage. He began to draw in the breath that signaled his intention to speak, but I just shot him a frown that shut him up again. It didn't take too long for him to disappear again, not a single word spoken between us.

While I continued to watch the water I began to draw small circles inside it and saw it form little swirls. There wasn't really any effort behind it and I just let the time flow by. I can't tell how much later it was when I awoke from my stupor.

I had rolled on my side, but was irritated by something in the pocket of my pants. I took it out and saw the seed of the strange apple like fruit I had eaten. Just before I had decided to keep from doing anything stupid in regards to her, but now boredom was driving me again, as well as curiosity. I had remembered that attunement required either the help of a practitioner of a profession, an item belonging to the craft or direct connection to the deity.

I certainly had a direct connection, but directly asking Parangante about anything was out of the question for me. But I wanted to learn more about the attunement, now that I knew gods were real and the common idea that they were responsible might be based on more than just conjecture. I could hold myself back for a few more minutes until I lost to my curiosity.

I lifted the seed up before me and keeping its connection to Parangante in mind whispered to myself:

“I hereby wish to obtain the profession of gardener by the grace of Parangante.”

It was a bit over the top in my own opinion, but it could never hurt to make a good impression.

Gardener has been obtained.

The message let me jump up and stumble backward. I immediately activated my senses and looked around for anything out of the ordinary. I had asked for it, but it still took me by surprise when I was actually successful. My heart was bumping heavily and it took a long time for me to calm down again.

Even after a short while nothing happened and I slowly became able to think again. Thinking is bad. The moment I could draw connections again I remembered the other profession Catherine had mentioned in regard to Parangante and I already knew that sooner or later I would try it anyway so I took heart and got it over with right away.

Just now I had calmed down, but now my nervousness shot up to a high level again, even before I actually did something. The whisper I let out was hardly even audible to myself.

“I hereby wish to obtain the profession of herbalist by the grace of Parangante.”

Herbalist has been obtained.

The message didn't frighten me this time, but I was gnawing on my teeth while waiting for any further consequence.

And there it was. A slightly amused and curious intent focused on me. All I could do was stare straightly into the water below me. My muscles were all clenched up to the limit while the intent lingered on me.

Then something violently flushed into my mind and pressed itself into a corner, much like the Analyse spell had done. The sudden imprint left me a heavy headache and turned my thoughts to mud.

“Tonight”, the intent whispered to me before disappearing again.

Even after it was gone it took me a very long time to slowly relax again. I held my head and endured the pain that was deep in an untouchable place within. My eyes were pressed closed and my muscles quivering. That was just too much. To have my mind played around with, left me feeling extremely vulnerable. I had been thrown around again and again by Majal and now something had penetrated into my very center of self awareness.

I can't say what made the difference to when the Analyse spell had done its imprint. This time I felt violated to no end. Under the pain and emotional weight I wept and wept.

When the pain began to dull, or perhaps when my tears had run dry, I opened my eyes and realized that some people had been gaping at me while I sat here. This was too much. I picked up the seed and walked away, trying hard not to start running. I tried to look at no one at all and just focused on the ground in front of me.

Just a short while later the forest opened its welcoming arms and the moment I was past the first few trees I started to run until the continuous movement had begun its dulling effect on my mind. The only wolf pack in my way were just wildly torn apart before they could even get close.

I found a resting place on some large rock that stood out from the forest ground and the moment I sat on top I cried again. I drained myself out until I only lay on the rock. Sleep would offer a nice relief, but I was forced to stay awake and lie in the after waves of my outburst.

The worst thing about the whole affair was how I had determinately walked into it myself. I had known how dangerous it was to mess with such powers. This wasn't even the first time I had to feel the consequences of my reckless actions and still I continued with them.

The problem about what happened hadn't been what now laid somewhere in my mind, but that and how it had it been put there. When I was coherent enough again, I sat upright and closed my eyes. I had to find what now lurked down there, and I had to analyze it and I had to draw every secret out of it till it laid completely bare before me. And if there were any kind of trap or harm in it I would work through my mind over and over until it was nothing but an accessible memory to me: Open and harmless.

Just like the Analyse spell I could find it in my mind, but it was compact in a form that made it nearly impossible to decipher. This time I didn't trust in the irrefutable reputation like I had with the archive. And even that had been naive, considering that I had to trust in the opinion of just Catherine and Mr. Heart, who I both hadn't known for very long.

I couldn't calm down, but tried to pierce the thoughts of it again and again. When you try to remember some old event many related things will slowly begin to appear in your mind. People who were there. Activities you did, things you talked about and it begins to fill out more and more. But no matter how hard I tried to penetrate the block in my mind, it was too compact and didn't release any fragments that I could look over and try to understand.

The only thing I was able to discern was how it related to life. I stared at a little flower that was growing on the rock right next to me. Something in my mind activated and began to gather information about the flower. It looked at criteria I never considered. I didn't get a return of information like with Analyse. Instead there was a procedure of looking at the flower I went through.

I gave the flower no mind. It was a strange thought process, but I looked at it and tried to pick apart the analytical thoughts about it I was having, completely ignoring what they told me about the flower itself. The work was tedious, but I began to cut apart certain thought patterns from the inaccessible block and made them mine. The block remained, and it was still gigantic. When the flower didn't yield any more patterns, I looked at a brush of grass.

Herbalist has increased to level 1.

Continuing in the same way, I observed my thoughts and tried to cut away every single piece from the block I could. Different trees and flowers, grass and moss all became subject to my self analysis.

Herbalist has increased to level 2.

Only when I was looking at a flower with purple petals did I stop. The ways I analyzed plants were more than just visual. My perception of energy was part of it, and I was also determining the very nature of a plant by getting closer to its very essence.

I can't say anymore what information all the others had yielded, they were not the actual focus of my study, but this flower was interesting in its own way. There was a nice scent to it and it felt like it could heighten arousal? I had become so engrossed in it that I only now realized how my nipples had hardened and a strangely nice feeling was traveling down my body. I jumped up in annoyance at the flower and took a few steps back to clear my head again. This was an aphrodisiac!

The effect continued to last on, but I was still able to put it aside. I might not want to return to it, but there had been new thought patterns that activated at the analysis of this flower and I was still as determined as ever to pull them apart.

With a deep breath to steady myself I stepped closer to the flower again and started to look it up anew. The form and colors, I even dug for some of the roots to study them. After a while I had ascertained most patterns that were related to the flower and then I looked for more information. What small insects were visible on the leaves, the type of soil...

And the sweet smell. While watching it I had laid down in front of the flower and my hands had started to travel. One had slipped beneath my bra and begun to slowly massage one of my breasts. The other had gotten closer to my legs and was starting to draw slow circles toward my pubic area.

It was relaxing and pleasant. I continued to touch myself until my lower hand reached... nothing. The awareness brought me back to my senses. I had grown wet down below and become ready to - I tore away both my arms and summoned a large amount of water right above my head. As it crashed on top of me I became clear headed again. Today was an emotional roller coaster and I didn't have use for anything else that might push me towards insanity.

My upper body was completely drenched and my hair hung to my face. My pants had not been soaked completely, but had still soaked up a lot of water. I had gotten up and took one last look at the flower below me. I carefully stepped away, wary of any further effect it might have on me. When I had reached a safe distance I turned around and walked off to find a place where I could dry myself. Every step still sent the remains of a pleasant feeling through me of something that was not quite satisfied.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Only when I was sure I had completely returned to myself did I think about getting dry. Creating the water had taken a lot of mana out of me, so I couldn't rely on my magic to use a drying wind or other method. I decided to let my clothes dry on their own. A quick flight in my energy form revealed the right direction and I headed back to the city. As long as I kept moving I didn't cool down too much. The slight natural breeze helped along and by the time I left the forest I had mostly dried up.

It's difficult to describe the effect of being thrown from one situation into the next when everything is completely unknown and new to you. Right now I was stumbling from one out of my control thing into the next and I couldn't hold on to anything familiar. My identity felt very weak to me now and it seemed as if a little push could carve something into my personality. I had to get myself back together before another visit to the garden. If I wasn't grounded by then it might become hard to endure the night without committing some other regrettable mistake.

My starving stomach offered me some familiar action to take. I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, so I went into a little restaurant and ordered some stew. I took my good time to eat and tried to find peace, but it was still visible that I had been drenched in water today. Even without the looks I didn't really feel comfortable and so I left directly after eating.

When I arrived at my little home I filled a bucket with some more created water. I took off my clothes and began to wash myself. It was nice to be out of the used clothes and get myself feel clean again. This wasn't the best activity to steady myself though. I rushed through it and was glad when I was wearing something again.

I emptied the bucket of water into the river afterwards. There were no sewers here, but at least the streets were clean. I had seen others clear out their waste into the river, so I decided that if I ever wanted to take a bath in it, it would be far upstream. Washing my clothes might also become an annoyance, my decision to move into the town felt worse every moment.

There were people everywhere, and I always felt observed. The time in the forest and even taking care of the daily needs had almost seemed like a vacation. Now there were crowds everywhere and I couldn't calm down. And then there was the fact that almost nothing escaped my perception. I thought I had gotten used to it by now, but the way I could sense so many impressions were overwhelming right now. People who kept glancing at me from the back and sometimes I could even feel their thoughts following me along, but that might just be my imagination.

The door fell closed right behind me and I slumped down on a chair. I pulled in my senses as close to myself as possible. The continuous influx of information had to stand still for just a moment. Once the radius was reduced to less than the room I sat in, I calmed down a bit. A bit of sleep to cleanse my emotions would have been perfect right now.

Whatever my mind choked up, I just let fly by. Slowly the slide show calmed down and I remained in some semblance of stability. I still felt torn apart. Everything was off. Letting the time flow by didn't really improve my state of mind, but by the time it had become night I felt at least able to go on.

I laid down and left for the east. I knew that the imprint Parangante left behind should be considered a gift, but I was still very unhappy about the way it had been put into my mind. Hopefully I would not have to face her tonight, it might be difficult to keep up appearances after this much stress and having her do something actually harmful was a horrible imagination. Of course it was still possible that there were parts in the block in my mind that contained ways to hurt me. There was nothing I could do for now except continue to work through it until it was unraveled.

As if the day hadn't been bad enough something immediately seemed wrong. At least Parangante was only somewhere in the distance and didn't mind me, but Majal was different today. I didn't have to wait long to find out what it was.

“Show me how to hide myself!”

Was everything relating to this girl pushed unto me? I couldn't evaluate if the strange imprint was considered payment for babysitting or if it was in some way related to my learning of herbalism. As always I wouldn't ask. And I would just go along with whatever Majal wanted. It might even be a nice diversion. First I would see how capable she was.

“Watch closely.”

I covered up the aura I had let out freely till now. It's difficult to describe how the body moves when all you see is energy, but I think Majal was squinting while boring intensely at the place where I stood right now. Since this was all my body consisted of, I might as well be invisible to someone who couldn't detect energy.

She had seen me disappear right at this place, and now it was causing her trouble to find me. I must have gotten even better at this lately. Of course she detected my presence, but the intent that she sent at me from all sides was massive. She was watching me very closely now. It was a good opportunity to train, so while she was studying me, I concentrated on my aura and looked for any minuscule leaks that I could still hide away.

Whenever a leak disappeared her intent bore into other places even more strongly. But wherever she held her concentration I found my weaknesses. I couldn't keep all these newly discovered leaks closed at the same time, so Majal always had some fix points left over.

After some time she seemed to have made up her mind to try it herself. Her first attempt was laughable and I had to keep myself from snickering at her. For one her aura was far stronger than mine, so any leak would of course be far more intense too. And then her technique was not developed at all. The way I perceived it it was like hiding behind a see through bush. My own ability was heavily pulling in any emitted aura from all directions.

Like with Silvia I decided to direct her by sending the right feeling through her body.

“Try it like this.”

Her aura was far to strong for me to actually influence this way, all I could do was give her the impression and let her do it herself. She grasped it quickly and began to really hold the emitting energy in. It couldn't be considered hiding in any way, but the will was there. I was actually still able to see her entire aura and not just parts of it.

I poked at the strongest emissions and for a while she was really into it. After a while she slowly began to realize that no matter what she did, I would always find another place to poke at. And then it didn't take her long to become annoyed again and chase me around the garden. Still, it was a nice change of pace for a short moment. We didn't switch games to hide and seek, because she must have realized that it was laughably easy for me to either evade or detect her. A pity really, I liked that game much more.

Then after she had had her fun with me and calmed down a bit she surprised me for the second time this night and actually talked to me as more than some toy.

“What do you do when it is day?”

Normally I didn't like being asked about my affairs, but I didn't mind it with her. Perhaps it wasn't relevant in a relationship that was as unequal as this, or the fact that she asked with childish innocence. In any case I became curious where this was going.

“I am working.”

“What do you work?”

“I enchant items.”

“What is enchanting?”

“It is giving special power to items.”

“What special powers?”

“They are harder, or sharper or can glow.”

“Why?”

“Because that is useful for many people.”

“Why is that useful?”

Perhaps it was my own fault for giving such short answers. Perhaps this was another of her devious games, but no matter why it had started out, it did end in this fashion. Even when I gave her a long and detailed answer she would follow up with the next one liner question, sometimes not even bothering to ask about anything sensible, repeating similar questions or closing circles to the question we had begun with.

This child came up with ever new ways to aggravate me. At one of her more ridiculous questions I turned the attack back at her.

Majal: “Why is the water blue?”

Me: “Why do you sit on the ground?”

At that she hesitated.

“Because I like sitting here! Why is the water blue?”

“Because it reflects blue light back.” Wasn't water actually colorless? “Can you hop like a rabbit?”

Finally I got her and she really began to strangely jump around.

“You also have to jump like a rabbit!”

Something new again? I decided to try out changing my energy body and compressed it until it might have resembled a rabbit. It was a bit strange, because although I could still sense everything around me, when I moved my arms or legs they felt shorter and different. My perspective was also centered on a lower height. However well my approximation was, it really felt like my form was a rabbit now. Much to Majal's delight. The rest of the night I wasn't allowed to switch out of this form and had to take on the role of her house pet.

When I returned to my body my movements were a bit strange until I had reaccustomed myself to a humanoid body. I hoped my self-identity problems wouldn't increase if I had to repeat this. It was high time that I went through some regular activities.

Instead of walking through the city to get into the valley, I looked for the closest path out, which led me into the deforested area around this district. It was still comparatively dark and this district didn't feel as safe as it could be. With my senses stretched out I felt assured that no one was targeting me when I passed through a few darker alleys.

Outside of the city I quickly found an obscured area where I finally felt at peace. I went through the exercises and then returned. The city had woken up by now and the way around had lost any ominous feeling.

I was at the enchanter very early today. Mr Heart ordered me to start on another scroll. I hadn't been working on it for long, when a customer entered. I didn't usually pay attention to them. I wasn't very motivated to work on the current scroll, which was another one of those random creations that somehow worked with no regard to the way it was made up.

So when I realized a person had entered, I took note of him. Something about the aura was off. It wasn't overly strong, but that seemed to be deliberate instead of natural. I listened in.

"Lord Quay, it is an honor to see you. How may I serve you?"

"I have an urgent order that I need assistance with. You will be able to make time I presume?"

"Of course, I can start right away!"

"These are the instructions. Produce as many units of it as you can and bring them over right away. You will be payed ten gold for each. I expect the absolute best quality."

"You will find no blemish on them, my Lord."

"I am sure I won't. Bring the first batch over by the end of the week."

"As you wish, my Lord."

I had sneaked a peak through the door. The man in the shop looked to be around thirty, but his bearing gave the impression of someone much older. I think he might have been aware of me, but if he was, he was ignoring me completely.

The way he acted I understood why Mr. Heart was treating him so courteously. This man could have been dressed in rags in still make a king look like his servant. Of course he wasn't. Instead he wore a comfortable, dark garb. The quality looked very high to me, not that I had the eye for it.

Once the man left the shop I could hear Mr. Heart take a breath. A short while later he came into the workshop, where I was trying to look busy.

"Put away that scroll, I have another job for you."

"I heard about it. A simple apprentice like me can't really do something difficult like that."

He was taken aback. Then he considered the situation.

"It's true that you are no regular apprentice. There are a lot of basics I didn't have to teach you. I suppose it's only proper if I consider you an inexperienced, but learned enchanter and pay you accordingly."

"I want 90% on every one of the scrolls I finish on this job. There is no limit to how many you can turn in, so you basically get free money for each I finish."

"Don't you start thinking that just because I acknowledged some of your work, that you are suddenly a learned scribe. You are still gaining a lot by working here. Experience, my teachings, access to good learning material, mana reserves and you come into contact with a wide variety of possible applications of this craft, that you never would have come into contact with otherwise."

He prattled down this list in one go. He must have prepared for a similar discussion like this beforehand, but this particular situation left me with advantages.

"And you are going to keep instructing me while we are working on this order?"

"Perhaps not while we are working on it..."

"You were very courteous to this Lord Quay. I think just the reputation of properly fulfilling his request is worth something to you..."

"Listen. Aside from everything else, I tell you this. Never offend that man in any way, do you hear? He isn't the head of the local Quay family. This is Iridius Quay, one of their highest ranking members from the capital. All I know is that he is very, very powerful. Just his strange presence is giving me shivers, not to mention his political background. That all means that our work must. be. perfect. I will have to go over every part three times to make sure it was done correctly. Yes this order is extremely important to me, but I hold the responsibility and without me you would never ever have gotten the chance to work on this. I will be very generous when I offer you 60 percent. I won't spend time on teaching you for the time we are busy with it, unless it has to do with the project itself, so I can finish a proper amount. We can discuss the conditions of your continuing time after the project when we have finished it. At least for now I expect you to work overtime however long you can. Is that agreeable with you?"

The pronunciation of that last sentence contained irony as well as forcefulness. They were actually good conditions. I agreed without further ado.

The plans Mr. Heart opened were different from any I had seen so far. There were examples for each component anchored to them. What amazed me was how sharp and precise they were crafted. This certainly was a standard to live up to.

What was even stranger was the construct itself. It was very large, but actually very simple. It was the same part over and over again, all connected with some ever larger and more durable pathways, until there was one thick tube out of the construct. There were some minor control units with special purposes, but the main part was only the multitude of the same basic components.

I looked over the three scrolls we had to produce. The three main basic intents they contained and multiplied were suppression, drain and onslaught. I had some ideas what this might be used for and would really love to see whatever final construct they would be incorporated in, as well as the ways it made use of so much power. This was going to be used against something really powerful.

For Lord Quay to order something of this scale meant that he had the financial means as well as a purpose for this thing. It might not even be the first construct of this type he ever built.

What powerful weapons were out there in the world? With methods like inscription no one was safe even from much weaker opponents. That thought scared me, some long prepared life saving scroll seemed like a good idea now. It would of course be difficult to defend against the many possible ways of an attack. I put the thought aside for now and concentrated on the task at hand.

"Keep quiet about this project, knowing of such things is dangerous, even if we aren't forbidden from talking about it. For a construct of this scale we can't use scrolls anymore, it might get torn apart under such massive flows of mana. There are other materials more suited to this."

He went into the back of the room and unlocked a safe. He took out a red crystal and showed it to me. It's purity was very high from the way light easily traveled through without hitting any cracked part.

"Do you know why we don't use scrolls for mana storage?"

I had never considered it, but it was an interesting question. I shook my head.

"For one the mana can be put inside without accumulating intent. Put undefined mana into a piece of wood and it transforms into nature energy. You get the drill. This effect can be used in some ways, but is an obstruction in most enchantments.

Another advantage is how freely mana can flow through crystalline structures. If you have the skill you can drain a crystal in an instant, while pulling the mana out of something else might be tedious.

This crystal here can easily send out whatever is contained within it in an instant, and that without corrupting it. It is also easier to have a some crystals put in as part of a larger construct than a few scrolls.

I will have to buy some more of these, and they don't come cheap. So don't be surprised when your part of the revenues are smaller than expected."

Then we went to work. We took great care to do our best. We worked on our own separate sets of components, so that we could later calculate my share of the profits. We both worked late into the night and were not even done with enough components for a single construct, even if everything we both produced were put together.

Scribe has increased to level 11.

Scribe has increased to level 12.

When I went home the possible income motivated me to do even more of the work, though I might have to come up with a way to explain my sleepless night. I might just slip them in over the day.

Scribe has increased to level 13.

I spent the entire night working on more components.