"I will have to determine if you have something to offer, in the way of mage craft, that is of interest. My technique is arguably more valuable than the single application of it that I have shown here, and my research remains ongoing." Ulric said, not being disingenuous.

When he had the time to sit down and relax back in the glade he'd probably spend a great deal of his time just being a bush mage. He'd gladly retire to working out different ways to manipulate magic and combine the fantastic aspects of Varda with the mundane, if profound, theories of his old universe. This current project of finding and slaughtering whoever had instigated this conflict, punishing the ones behind the creation and use of the Bane, and redressing the responsible parties for the murder of a child and the kidnapping of another, were all tangential to Ulric's goals for this second life.

Ulric's heart sang to return to the glade and be a hermit mage, living amongst the bounty there and, maybe in a few years, traveling the world. Everything following stumbling across Brighteyes lashed, badly beaten, to a pole had been largely reactionary.

Sonsofbitches, Ulric remarked to himself out of habit before returning to the negotiation in front of him.

The non-threatening, yet deeply, instinctively worrying, flash of teeth in Big Sister Werona's passing smile indicated that she was confident in having knowledge to offer of a meaningful sort.

For his own part, Ulric had been trying to get a bead on her since she'd sat down and found he could not. With the Aes'r, you could sort of determine a relative age easily as they grew up but from physical maturity at around fiftyish until they left their prime around the five-century mark there was, more or less, no way to tell exactly how old they were. Signs of being long in the tooth for an Elf were that they got visible crows feet and wrinkles, their hair silvered, and, when they were really fucking up there, they grew facial hair. The men did, at least, Ulric hadn't met an Elven crone yet. With these far less human appearing Beastkin, he was totally without bearing, especially the Sauri, who Brighteyes had said could live to be well over a thousand years. The healthy scaled hide before him might be wrapped around bones older than even Gother and Ulric wouldn't recognize it.

The clawed hands raised and the Sauri murmured "Be not afraid." before she created a brilliant flame that then dimmed and blackened, turning to a whirling, smoldering, not quite solid orb of ash that hid menacing lines of molten heat within.

Immediately, Ulric saw why the mage was interested in his spell; she was on the cusp of a similar one. Hmm…his great advancement in spellcraft was nearly matched here but the difference would certainly be qualitative, just as the difference between a powerful [Flame Crash] and even a low effort [Cinder Pearl] was huge, given their relative density of mana.

Ulric's interest peaked rapidly when he saw the black orb suddenly expand into a cloud filling a spherical space almost a meter in diameter over the firepit and goosebumps raised on his forearms as the pull of heat into that umbral cloud of spinning ash created intense cold around it. This Ash mage was creating a fantastically efficient heat sink! Impulsively, Ulric created a small [Cinder Pearl] and Werona grinned fiendishly as her cloud ate it, ripped the Incendere from it, and added it to its own power.

Watcher's tits! This was better than his [Cinder Shield], by an order of magnitude! It bled the thermal energy almost violently. The cloud of ash grew smaller, small cinders and sparks of fire appearing now and then within it only to fade to black snowlike flakes.

"Is it still hot in there?" Ulric asked, staring into the constrained pyroclastic blizzard.

"Very." the Ashmage confirmed with a wink of her amber, slit pupiled eye.

"Your horn would not merely darken inside my [Pyroclasm]" She assured him confidently.

He watched the spell continue to churn, and felt the cold region growing slowly around him, baffled at the interaction of mana with thermodynamics as he knew it. The Sauri mage did not appear to be exerting any particular effort. Holy smokes, was the spell feeding itself?

"Does…does it store all that energy without loss? Do you need to add mana to allow it to continue to draw or is it using the incoming energy to do it, self-sufficiently?" He tested, almost thinking out loud.

"And I take it that a trade of knowledge for knowledge will be acceptable then?" Werona offered, with a gloating tone.

Oh yes. Yes indeed. A spell that could ravage other sources of mana, consuming them to add to its own power was useful in the utmost.

Ulric had a couple of similar concepts at work in some of his magic. His [Cinder Shield] could absorb heat and add it to the orbiting flame jewels that created it, empowering them for when he struck with the [Cinder Pearls] themselves, as he'd done against Captain Firecracker, the bastard pyromancer that had attempted to assassinate him. [Stormfire] had an element of consumption as well, where Ceraun would ionize the air, feeding it into the plasma contained within and accelerating the explosive bolt of fire combined with electrical arcs.

Both spells were far weaker in this consuming aspect than Werona's working, both were slower too. Ulric could magnify his [Cinder Shield]'s ability to defend against pyromancy and, potentially, amplify the speed at which [Stormfire] hit its critical threshold to launch, making it better able to be used against fast moving targets, which it currently was nearly useless against. Either, or, and both were wonderful and Ulric was certain he could make use of the mana consumption and self-sufficiency concept in general. It might bypass his need to create so much unaspected mana within himself.

"Fuck. Maybe I can just create a seed of the spell and let it feed from nearby aligned mana sources, instead of tapping my own power. That's…like true elemancy, instead of merely weaving my core's own limited energies." Ulric mumbled to himself quietly before pouncing on her offer.

"Alright Lady, you've got yourself a deal. I'll teach you how to create an architecture that crystallizes your mana if you show me how to draw and store ambient mana with my spellwork at such lovely efficiency." Ulric declared.

He wondered if she knew she was, in essence, teaching him how to battery his magical potential massively from the environment. Probably, if her smugness was any indication. An excellent artisan is frequently proud of their work, especially when another craftsman looks upon it with as much appreciation as Ulric had viewed her ash spell.

The Sauri mage released her black blizzard and the heat it had been stealing, which had nearly included their unfortunately diminished campfire, abruptly rushed out in an intense rush, like opening a blast furnace. Ulric had to close his eyes against it and check his facial stubble for singed stubble. Gods' blood, good thing he'd shaved recently. Wow.

He was so stirred up with imagined applications he almost didn't notice the dainty, mocha hand on his shoulder. Instinctively he looked up to his Shadow-Wife and told her, bleeding enthusiasm with his tone, "Hey Taipan, look! I met a mage and she agreed to show me- AH! FUCK!" he broke off when the surprise of her presence registered.

Ulric flinched and scowled at the superior leer of his too stealthy partner. Bells on them at birth says I! The twice-born mortal bitched to himself quickly before directing his ire towards its source.

"I told you not to sneak up on me like that, you'll give me a heart attack! Or I'll accidentally shock the ever-loving piss out of you again, one or the other." Groused the Valin engineer.

"And I would stop, if only you weren't so cute when you startle. It is worth the risks, Husband, I assure you." Answered the paragon Huntress cheerfully.

Seeing a losing battle, down a road he'd rather not go if he weren't careful, Ulric withdrew with as much dignity as he could, conceding the field to the chocolate slattern before him. For now.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"On your head be it then, I will not accept responsibility for any lightning calling that you may or may not receive for belligerent sneaking. Anyway! Welcome back from your jaunts Wife. Look what I found!" Ulric announced, gesturing to the bemused Sauri mage, who was taking in the odd couple before her with a thoughtful countenance.

"A mage! A good one, too, she has some good techniques for energy sequestering and heat transfer that I should be able to -" He was cut off by the somewhat put-upon shake of his Shadow's short locks.

"Husband, I do enjoy your childlike glee at discovering another to torture with questions, but you know that I will not be able to follow your coming rant and your guest is awaiting introductions overlong." Taipan paused him, with another comforting pat on the shoulder, causing Ulric to subside.

Hmm…well, it was true that his tangents did tend to make his sylvan lass go blank. And rudeness towards their guest would not do, so he let her off the hook. But only this time! Ulric promised himself. Next time, he was going to share his budding hypothesis on getting a pulsed radar spell off the ground and then she would rue her decisions! Oh yes! The reforged man cackled to himself evilly, such ruing as never was rued before there would be.

He returned his attention to the lovely Sauri lass, or maybe matron, he still couldn't figure out how old she might be, at all, and made introductions.

"Taipan, this is Adept Werona Autumnclaw, with whom I wish to exchange magery. Lady Autumnclaw, this fine specimen of Aes'r Iriel'en is my wilderness guide, and, I suppose, at some point she decided without asking, Wife, Taipan." Ulric informed Mage Werona, who coughed a laugh into her hand while his Shadow turned a disapproving gaze that bore into the back of his head.

Ulric couldn't see the emerald glare, but he had gained that additional sense that husbands gain for the attention of a hateful mate, something akin to the feel a mouse has when it sits within the sights of a rattlesnake. Thus, Ulric had initiated another gambit to launch a series of future exchanges, a duel of barbs, riposts, and verbal traps that garnished well their relationship. He would find time to accuse her of being a cradle robber again tonight, one of his favorite jests. His age put him well inside the Valin prime of life but he was younger in years than her little brother Brighteyes and being implied to be a pervert was a sufficiently advantageous position from which to begin the next round of their running combat.

Suppressing a smirk that would have tipped off his partner to his plotting he looked up into those disapproving bronze-flecked gems, squinting their judgment, and took her hand in his to kiss it lightly. She didn't smack his head so he knew she was only mostly faking her displeasure, as she did to manipulate him into being less of an ass or to tease him for being his normally abrasively sarcastic self. Not this time lass!

"It is just as well that I am young and foolish," Began Ulric, speaking conspiratorially in a false whisper to the scaled dinosaurian woman across the fire, "Or I might not have risked her company and chosen a safer traveling partner, like a [Shadow Panther]. Less clawing involved, prob- GACK!"

He'd earned his just desserts and rubbed the bleeding spot on his shoulder gingerly, wondering how deeply she'd chosen to express her now real pique. Like Mother like Daughter. Hmm…Ulric gently fingered the shallower than expected wound. Not so bad, he thought, can I push her a little farther? Ulric mused briefly, before choosing life.

"If you have finished having your fun Ulric, I would insist, for your own benefit, that you stop making your prospective peer rethink the value of whatever supposed wisdom you might have to offer." Warned Taipan, casually wiping her newly wetted belt knife on his robe before replacing it in its sheath.

Ulric cleared his throat and addressed his wife seriously as he could manage, "But of course My Lady Taipan. I will endeavor to represent us with due hauteur. Please, forgive my lapse, I was only pleased to see you again."

The knowing bounce of her ears suggested that she, for good reason, wasn't buying his shit but would allow him to continue. She liked to give him plenty of rope, the better to abruptly halt his inevitable fall.

Their reptilian rakshasa guest was clearly enjoying the show, eagerly watching, as a race fan tunes in for the purpose of observing high speed, multicar smashups, to see where this interplay would go. When both parties seemed content to avoid any further bloodshed she decided to get the conversation back on proper track, as amusing as this diversion had proven.

"It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance, Noble Wife of this odd Valin Adept." Werona said, her pleasant mellow voice addressing the true power in this clearing, "I hope I am not intruding on your camp. I am afraid that I quite invited myself, when I saw your mate performing an astonishing feat with what appeared to be ease. We discussed briefly and found that we might have things we might learn from one another."

Taipan gave a gracious dip of her chin, "It is well and you are welcome to our fires, Adept Autumnclaw."

Waving a clawed hand back and forth, the Sauri mage decried such formality, crying "Please! We are as equals here, Werona is fine, I would not think to hold to titles amongst such company."

She seemed, genuinely, to disdain being regarded in a forestanding light. Which was good, his meetings so far with uppity folk never failed to end in disaster.

Taipan acceded to the insistence and gestured to include himself, as well as her own person, before continuing the pleasantries.

"Then you may simply call me Taipan, and this, of course, is Ulric, my ward and husband. Welcome again. Please, forgive him, he is sometimes prone to having worms of the head and rambles about abstractions until reminded of common decency." Taipan said, her warm alto officially welcoming their guest and warning her of his bad habits.

He offered no complaint to that, he was long grown used to her observation that he was a madman, despite his insistence that his apparent insanity was merely the manifestation of having lived amongst two worlds. Strictly speaking, Ulric was not unwilling to entertain the proposition that he may or may not have a few screws loose. Not that he'd admit it to his bosomy lass, mind you; some cards you hold close to the chest or see them played against you.

With the introductions made, Taipan subsided to her normal role of keeping an eye on things while enjoying the potential for him to fuck up so that she could mock him before suggesting an alternative. Such was love amongst the Iriel'en. Or maybe that was just Taipan's rather distinct inflection of it, Ulric only knew for certain that he would never know for certain.

Ulric scratched his fingers through the imagined beard that had covered his chin before he went ahead and admitted he didn't know what he was doing, honesty being the best policy and all that.

"I'm afraid I have only ever bartered for goods, this exchanging of knowledge in a transactional manner is foreign to me. Please, feel free to explain how you would like to proceed."

The Sauri Ashmage was happy to that judging by the way she assumed an erudite posture. Ulric could feel her adjusting the imaginary spectacles on her nose as she began.

"Since I was the one to initiate the exchange it is proper for me to be the first to open. I will begin by noting that this is not a casting unique to Ash magic, although that mana form excels in this task. I believe, absent appropriate testing, that there are ways to apply this archetype towards other manaforms."

After a pause, seeing that her audience was following, she began to pick up steam, subdued excitement pervading the instruction.

"The first problem with fire magics in particular, as you are no doubt aware, judging by your own workings and those [Cinder Pearls], as you call them, is that they are prone to radiance. The Incendere has a natural tendency to spread itself out, as if a gas, attempting to fill the space. I have made notes indicating the mana concentrates not in empty spaces though, unlike Caelum, but in cold spaces. Incendere seems drawn to even the temperatures across its surroundings."

Ulric was completely spellbound. This Werona, this Sauri woman, was one after his own heart, a true nerd! She was over there spouting off the mana equivalents to the laws of thermodynamics. He hadn't explicitly tested the relationship but, now that she was describing it, it made complete sense! Heat transfers according to the second law caused heat to tend towards a single, same temperature entropic state. Why shouldn't the magic of heat do the same? Ulric's efforts had been more along the lines of creating reflective spellforms and something akin to total internal reflection along the boundaries of the weaves of his magical constructs, guiding the energies towards the interior and preventing their escape actively. His attention locked onto the Ash mage completely.

Seeing she had caught her pupil's interest she dove in, "I see you are not unfamiliar with this concept, and also that you appreciate the gravity of its import. Excellent. Forty three years ago I noticed that the hot rooms around [Sunstones] that were coated in charcoal paint were always cool to the touch, even when the room itself was quite warm. Imagine my surprise when I found that if I directed a gentle flame towards a sheet of charlaquer that I could immediately touch it, could pick up the entire piece, or, even hold it while I bathed the sheet in Incendere!"

A fanatical light burned in the Sauri's vertically slitted burnished orange eyes.

"The charlaquer did not reflect the heat, it stole it, hungered for it, and released it back into the environment so rapidly that my weak injection of fire magic could not even raise its temperature! For the next four decades I continued investigating. I learned many things about the tendencies of Incendere and the ways that heat moved in or through materials of various kinds. A [High Quartz] glass blown by a Terra mage, for instance, will not permit Incendere through it, at all. It is as if the magic is somehow repelled from entering the glass. Almost as good, but far lighter is a simple mesh of carefully layered wool coated in pitch mixed with the finest ground coke that is then baked at high temperature until it, well, I can simply show you later, anyway…"

For nearly an hour Ulric delighted in the wash of Werona's winding tale about studying thermal conductivity and pyromancy. The woman knew the rough process for how to make C/C! Carbon-Carbon, an almost thermally indestructible composite ceramic. How the fuck did she figure that out? All from noticing that a black paint stayed cool in a hot room?

A quick glance at Taipan confirmed what Ulric knew would be the case, her eyes had long since glazed over, lulled nearly to unconsciousness by the sheer power of the nerd energy radiating off the Ash mage. It was hard to suppress a grin at his Shadow's weakness to geeks.

It wasn't that she was, in any way, too stupid to follow the discussion; Ulric couldn't have been able to enjoin himself to an unthinking mind, he'd have gotten bored. Taipan had a mind like a spider web made of razor wire when it came to most matters. No, the issue was that his partner lacked even a single whisker of interest in the topic of magery and the esoteric principals of physics. She didn't care so hard that her mind shielded itself from basking in the semi-autistic radiation of a nerd in their element by turning off.

He was tempted to pinch her to bring her back but he'd already prodded her enough for one day and going over quota on harassing his beautiful, vengeful, sylvan wife was unwise. The key to handling venomous snakes was in recognizing the extent to which they were going to tolerate your attention before checking to see if you might be food.

While Mage Autumnclaw continued her dissertation on thermodynamics of Incendere, Ulric noted that they had not even arrived at the first inkling of specifically how her ash spell had eaten his [Cinder Pearl], though he had a general idea of what she was doing with her magic. Werona was an antipyromancer, which thought almost made him giggle aloud; her magic centered itself around thermal conductivity and using carbon to pull and isolate the mana of heat.

The shoe was on the other foot indeed. This Sauri's nerd peen was every bit as large as his own. He needed to bring her down, gently, so that he could rest without losing any of the torrential outpour of knowledge she had to share on the matters of thermal magic.

He raised a hand in surrender, "Mage Werona, I am afraid you've given me too much at once. I need a pause in our lesson to absorb and process these findings. Please, let us take a meal together, it is the least I can offer for so fascinating a discussion."

Discussion was, of course, a generous way to phrase that given that he hadn't said a single word in the last Round of the Twins. Speaking of which, those dancing orbs of blue and orange glory were whirling at their peak. It was already Sunscrest!? Time truly flies when you're having fun.