"Madam Dawn, in order to acquire a part of your pet's abilities, you must complete the taming ritual. It's a complicated process which bounds your mana together, possibly causing you to obtain the abilities of your pet. This taming ritual is very complicated, the pet must be familiar to you and not have any hostile intent, allowing it to be bound to you." A short man of stature was sitting down, petting a fox with white fur sitting in his lap.
Orou noticed that the man and the fox seemed to slightly resemble each other as the man continued talking: "It's not always guaranteed, I made the pact with Mel," he pointed down towards the fox on his lap, "and what I got was different from what I expected."
Dawn was nodding along while looking at Orou, his eyes were glowing with blue and red light as he inspected the both of them with his spirit sight. He couldn't see anything different about them, but perhaps he needed to observe the spells they cast in order to see what's the difference.
"I was planning on bringing him around with me anyways. There's no way I can't succeed in this even if he doesn't like me." Dawn spoke with absolute conviction in her abilities
"That's not how magic works," he sighed as he passed her a book, "you promised me a scroll for the taming instructions and the ritual, I can be confident that the scroll of blinding light will reach me in no time, is that correct?"
"Absolutely, I will deliver you the scroll after I return home, it might take a few hours before that."
She took thrust her arm out and the book dissipated. This time, Orou clearly caught the process, though it wasn't clear to him even if he saw it in spirit sight. Her arm simply disappeared, even in spirit sight.
"Let's go," Dawn said as she moved out of the house, Orou saw the man let out a breath of relief as she stepped outside and house, Orou slowly following behind her. To Orou, the man earlier resembled one of the beastmen, though he didn't have any fur or scales. It was difficult to explain why he thought that, maybe because of his resemblance to the fox, or maybe because of something else.
The man's house was in the same sector as Dawn's, so they hadn't gone too far. Orou didn't have much trouble following behind her as her pace wasn't that fast as they slowly made their way towards the city center. This was a bustling city and activity could be seen everywhere, whether it was children playing around or merchants advertising their wares, the streets were never quiet.
In the centre of the city was a huge statue, around twenty meters in height. It was of a man in heavy armor aiming a crossbow towards the direction of the Forest of Shadows. The carving was exquisite as it seemed like the statue could come alive at any time. There was a plaque at the bottom of the statue and Dawn seemed to glance at it, but she didn't say anything.
They continued to head towards the north-west, traffic clearly not flowing through here as much as the other districts. The buildings here were in a state of disrepair, the road was uneven and the surroundings glum. It was approaching evening as the sun was slowly setting, Dawn looked around and spoke: "I'm feeling quite generous today, the people here don't see the light of sun too much."
Orou wasn't sure what she spoke of, but he continued to follow her regardless. He soon saw what she spoke of - people dressed in rags, clearly malnourished and diseased. Dawn stood out like a bright flame in the middle of darkness. Her cloak made out of white feathers was flapping around as she surveyed the people around her with a cold look in her eyes.
Besides people idling on the streets, Orou also saw people in groups residing in the abandoned buildings. Just as Dawn was observing them, they were observing her as well. Their hostile intent dissipated as soon as they saw the several meter long snake travelling with her. Orou hissed and bared his fangs, ready to strike at anyone who would come at them. He hadn't gotten a good meal today, and surely one of them must be decently fed, enough so for a decent meal.
The figures in the building shrunk back at the sight of his fangs, retreating further into the building. Orou was a bit disappointed a meal didn't deliver itself to his mouth, but he kept looking for anyone foolish enough to do so. They continued to walk forwards until Dawn stopped and began to walk into one of the buildings.
Orou saw nothing special about this building, but he followed nonetheless. The building had several people inside of it, it looked like a family was living here. They shied back when Dawn entered the building, but she didn't seem to care as she kept approaching them. Only now did Orou realise that they had multiple black spots on their bodies, their flesh rotting and festering.
The woman Dawn was approaching had a makeshift knife in her hand raised up as she covered in the corner. She winced as Dawn came closer, but Dawn simply knocked the weapon out of her hand. Dawn audibly started chanting a spell, and Orou wasn't about to let this opportunity slip. He managed to cast his spirit vision before she could finish her spell, and saw one of the more complicated formations he had seen in his life.
The middle of the formation was that of an eye with three dots above it, circling the eye was an unusual circle, deformed and twisted. Various runes surrounded the circle with the eye, and they all the runes were interwoven between each other. The formation was finished a few seconds later and he saw the eye light up. The spirits forming the eye coalesced together to form a scintillating spirit in the shape of a ball, though the ball was split into various pieces.
With the scintillating spirit in the middle, the formation began to take form in front of the woman. A wave of light washed over the woman, the black spots on her body retreating as if fearing the light before burning up, leaving behind only the smell of burnt flesh. The woman's face regained color as a healthy blush spread throughout her face. Her body relaxed as she continued to bathe in the light. Not long after, the light dissipated and Dawn looked over to a man, curiously looking at his wife. She relaxed for a minute or two before once more casting the same spell, healing the man of his illnesses.
"Thank you miss, thank you." As Dawn started to leave, both the woman and the man sincerely thanked her, only to not receive a single word in reply. She went through this ruined district and started healing people, though she didn't heal everyone she encountered. Orou didn't know on what basis she healed people, but he excitedly followed her, looking at every single spell she cast.
Throughout the rest of the day, she had cast many a spell. None were as complicated as the spell she cast on the couple in the building. Orou focused in on the easiest formation she saw her cast, a rune formed with various triangles next to a curving line. She cast that on a man lying on the streets, severely bleeding out. His wounds knitted together as the blood loss stopped, the man's face was the definition of shock and surprise, along with gratitude after the fact.
He stood up, still dazed from all the blood he had lost and said to Dawn: "Please, my child, he's sick with a terrible illness."
He dropped down on his knees and pleadingly said: "I don't have anything to give, but he's my everything, I can't bear to see him gone."
Dawn nodded and the man jumped to his feet in joy, almost falling in the process. He started hastily making his way through the streets, Dawn and Orou following him. Entering another half-ruined building, Orou saw a woman with a child in her arms. The child was peacefully sleeping as the woman looked in alarm towards the people bursting in. She gasped in surprise as she saw the man's bloody shirt and she gently placed the baby down before rushing over to hug him.
"I'm so glad you're safe, I thought that you died out there." The woman softly spoke to not wake up the baby.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"This kind lady healed me as I was about to die. I've asked her to take a look at Chance, maybe she can cure his illness." The man replied with as much enthusiasm as before, turning around to look at Dawn with pleading eyes. The woman once more picked up the baby and held him in her arms. She didn't say anything, but she was as excited and nervous as the man.
Dawn looked over at the baby, the cold expression on her face ever-present. Orou saw her casting another spell that he assumed to be some sort of healing spell, but as he glanced towards it, the formation was completely different. Numerous lines formed a huge pillar with spirits filling the entirety of it.
Dawn's chanting was loud enough to wake the baby up as he started crying. The mother cradled him in his arms as the spell was completed, she was whispering and calming down the baby as a pillar of light appeared in front of her hands and fell onto the baby. The crying stopped as all that could be seen was the bright pillar in the place of the baby. The pillar receded as the room lost brightness and all that was in the woman's hand was a pile of ash.
"The poor boy was incurable, his life bound to end in a few days. I am terribly sorry for your loss." That was all that Dawn said as he turned her back and started walking out of the building, her expression still that of indifference.
Both the woman and the man were in a state of shock as they heard Dawn's words. Then, it hit them. The woman started screaming and wailing, still holding the pile of ash in her hands. The man's face was twisted in anger as tears fell down his face, he screamed and pulled out a knife, charging straight at Dawn.
"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS," the man screamed in his anger, but before he could reach Dawn, Orou's fangs greeted his neck. Even as Orou started pumping venom into his body, his eyes didn't leave Dawn. He was trying to lift up the knife in his hands, but he was struggling with the onsetting paralysis. His body slowly went limp as Orou started coiling around him. He dropped the knife as the bones in his body were being broken by the huge force Orou was transmitting to him.
By instinct, Orou's jaw unhinged as he started to slowly devour the man. He didn't get far before he saw the woman walking away, the distance between them gradually increasing. Orou remembered what happened last time as he reluctantly left his meal behind him. It was too much of a hassle to drag the man with him and Orou was sure that the woman wouldn't stop for him to eat the man while they were here.
Even as they left the building, the woman's wailing was as clear as day to everyone in the vicinity. The once friendly gazes turned hesitant, no one willingly approached Dawn anymore as she made her way through this district. Orou was wondering why Dawn would kill the child, but he realised that he didn't care enough.
The sun had already set and Dawn started heading back. After leaving the ruined district, the surroundings were a lot brighter. Multiple balls of light were floating in the air, lighting up the surroundings. In spirit sight, he realised that they had the same formation as the one he had cast earlier. The strange thing was that the size and the mana in them was the exact same, Orou couldn't see a difference between the two of them.
The activity in the city didn't diminish, it was just as active as it was during the day. They returned back to the house, but they didn't stay there for long. Dawn grabbed a couple of scrolls and started going back to the tamer's house. She simply dropped the scroll off without saying a word and continued onwards, this time towards the tower not that far off from here. The tower was glowing with blue light, illuminating the surroundings with merely its presence.
Even at this late hour, mage's were coming and going from the tower, carrying staves, books, and scrolls in their hands. The most interesting thing at the base of the tower were two obsidian statues clad in heavy armor with massive two-handed swords in their hands. Each time someone entered or left the tower, they would pull out an amulet and show it to the statues before passing through.
Of course, at the sight of the statues, Orou turned on his spirit sight. The statues were imbued with spirits, merging together with the obsidian. He could tell that there were more spirits at the joints of the statue than the rest of the body. The sword held a surprising amount of spirits within it, more than he had seen in any other weapon, the polished obsidian swords were illuminated by the blue light of the tower and that only made them seem more menacing.
Dawn did the same thing as the other mages, she pulled out the amulet from who knows where and simply held it in her hand as she entered the tower. Orou stuck close to her as he didn't like the sight of the obsidian statues, but he safely passed through without any problems.
Orou thought that both Dawn's and Dirk's collection of books was impressive, but this was on an entirely different scale. The first floor of the tower was a massive library, probably housing thousands of books. The walls were entirely covered with bookshelves, even in places where humans couldn't reach. A circular staircase was leading up to a different floor, the staircase most likely looped to the top of the tower. Small crystals were floating around, zipping from one book to another. Orou saw the spirit float up to a bookshelf, and the book simply stuck to the crystal, both the book and the crystal zipping away.
Each of the crystals only had a single spirit, and Orou was not sure how they were moving, seemingly of their own will. The crystal stopped in front of a group of mages, all enthusiastically discussing with each other, flipping through books with more being delivered to them by the crystals. Simply looking around, he saw multiple groups of mages, as well as some lone mages, quietly reading and writing notes by themselves.
Orou was used to people staring at him before noticing the collar and sighing a breath of surprise, but this time, the mages didn't even spare him a glance, completely oblivious to the world around them. As someone who stalks their prey in stealth and ambushes it, being completely exposed was uncomfortable for Orou, so being able to observe humans without them freaking out was a breath of fresh air.
Just as they didn't pay any attention to them entering, Dawn didn't pay any attention to them. She was looking towards a man sitting on his own, separate table. Occasionally, people would approach him and one of the crystals floating in the air would zoom towards one of the bookshelves.
The man was pointing at a crystal when he saw Dawn approaching him. A slight smile was on his face as he greeted her: "What an unexpected visit, Siccus has been wanting to see you for a while now, it's related to your scroll making abilities of course."
"Lead me to him."
All of the enthusiasm that the man had was dissipated by Dawn's stony expression. The man grumbled something before he stood and up and started walking towards the stairs leading up. There weren't that many people here, so the only thing you had to worry about was getting lost between all the bookshelves. After navigating through the maze of books, they reached the stone stairs leading up towards the second floor.
As they were about to step on the stairs, a man came down from the second floor. He was stroking his goatee and was pondering something as he spotted the three of them. His wrinkled face had a slight expression of shock as he dusted off some dust off of his red robe, speaking directly to Dawn: "I was wondering when you would come."
"I've spent a large amount of gold purchasing this snake over here, so I've come to deliver some scrolls." Dawn briefly looked at Orou before thrusting her arm into the air and pulling out some scrolls from thin air.
"Is this the snake that can see magic? How exciting," Siccus' attention shifted to Orou as he carefully inspected Orou's eyes. Orou was annoyed at being treated as an object of curiosity, but there was nothing he could as he coldly looked back at the man.
Siccus snapped his fingers and said a word that Orou couldn't understand before barrier surrounded them. Just like a little child's, Orou's eyes snapped over towards the barrier. It was translucent and Orou could see outside of it just like looking through glass. It wasn't that different from the barrier he had seen in Dirk's room, so he was instantly disappointed.
"Now that we can't be overheard, we can proceed with our business. I've got the usual payment for the scrolls with me, but that isn't what I wanted to talk to you about." Siccus used his arm to bring out a bag of coins out of thin air, just like Dawn did.
"I wanted to offer you a deal. If you could mass produce scrolls of offensive and healing nature, we would purchase them for a higher price than usual. Of course, we would pay a lot more for any scrolls of advanced magic that you could produce, and we will take any scrolls of simple magic that you might be willing to sell outside of our deal with you. How does this sound to you?" He handed over the pouch of gold to Dawn as she sunk deep into thought, contemplating about the deal laid out for her.
"I must refuse this deal. I quite like the freedom of doing what I please, and money has never been an issue to me. I don't want to make scroll making my profession and I most certainly don't want to be making scrolls all day. That being said, I can provide a few scrolls I have lying around in my house, but I will have to see what's in stock." Dawn carefully deliberated over her choice of words and slowly spoke, seemingly giving him some respect.
Siccus was disappointed in her choice, but he gave her the same respect she gave to him as he spoke: "If you ever reconsider, there's still some time."
Orou wasn't paying attention to the conversation, but he knew that Dawn was done when the barrier he was inspecting dropped. He looked towards the second floor, hoping to see what was up there, but Dawn was already walking towards the exit. Orou reluctantly followed her, ridding his mind of thoughts about the library and pondering about the formations of the spells she cast earlier.