Saying my goodbyes to the wolfkin couple that is moving into the last house I was enchanting, I head out of the house to meet Bolden and his son again. “I’m heading back home again. How about you Bolden, are you heading back to the keep?”
“Yes Vol. I want to get the council together to talk about the things we discussed earlier.” Bolden says goodbye to his son and walks with me toward the keep.
I talk as we walk. “I spoke to Azzaria about the orchard we talked about. She was going to make sure it was OK with the other council members and discuss the details with Enora. I saw them walking south earlier and I think they were going to get a start on it. We were all busy at first, but lately she was getting a little bored while I was out working on the wall or the houses. I’m not surprised she jumped at this opportunity to do something.”
“That is one more thing that we won’t have to talk to them about then” he says with a big grin.
Looking over to the old gnome that I have formed a friendship with over the last few weeks I know he won’t be too happy about what I am about to say. “I will say more when we get the whole council together later, but I am going to want you to keep working on the houses for half your day going forward. If we finish the wall tomorrow then it will be your last full day doing construction. After the wall I will be paying you for your efforts though.” I can see the question on his face when he opens his mouth, but he stops when I raise my hand. “I’ll tell you more with the rest of the council. I will explain it then.” It still feels a little odd having this kind of authority, but I have been getting used to it some over the last month.
Bolden closes his mouth and we walk in silence again for a few moments. When he finally speaks again it’s to change the subject. “So how are you and Azzaria doing?
“She is amazing. I am very lucky that she is with me. I love her, and that is not something I say much” I tell him.
”Have you told her?” When I shake my head he continues. “I have known that woman all her life and I can tell that she cares for you a lot. Best you tell her how much you care for her lest you leave her unsure. Trust me on this, it’s for the best.”
“OK Bolden. I will.” It was my turn to change the subject. “So, are you going to start teaching the children again soon?”
“I’m going to start again when I have time. We’ve been so busy with the construction that I haven’t been able to” he tells me.
“Well, after tomorrow you should have the opportunity. You can even take the kids in to visit the Altar. I would suggest they pray to Gwydia for assistance. Every little bit helps.”
We make small talk for a few more minutes until we get to the main hall in the keep. When we get there most of the council is sitting at the table and chatting, waiting for dinner to be ready. Hildre has been the one cooking with help from Azzaria this last month, but with Enora missing I don’t think Azzaria is back yet either. I wave to everyone at the table and head into the kitchen to see if Hildre needs any help. She is plating potatoes when I enter and setting it next to other plates on the counter. “Do you need any help?”
She turns to look and, seeing who it is, waves me over. “Vol! Perfect timing come help me carry all this food out.” I grab a couple platters with food and walk them out to the table with Hildre before taking a seat. As I’m sitting down Azzaria and Enora enter the hall and take seats at the table. Azzaria is to my right and Enora is next to her. We all eat before we talk, as usual. The meal is a delicious roasted bird of some sort. I think it’s pheasant but I never had it back on Earth so I can’t be sure. Along with the fowl is baked potatoes and an assortment of fried vegetables. When everyone is done eating I clear my throat to get their attention.
Everyone quiets down, looking to me. “I know that things are just starting to get back to normal since the village moved here, but I wanted to go over a few things. I was talking to Bolden and Beccer earlier about what to do with the extra space within the walls. I think Azzaria spoke to you all about the orchard but there are a few more things we were thinking of.” For the next half hour or so we spoke about what I wanted to do with the free land.
After we discussed everything I spoke to Bolden about earlier. There were approvals all around. Then Dolan asks something. “Lad. Ya say ya be wantin to plant a couple o’ fields o’ crops on top the orchard the lass be startin, but tha won’t take up all the space there. Do ya have sometin planned for that?”
I look at Dolan and can tell from his speech that it isn’t water in his cup. His accent always gets thicker when he is drinking. “I’m glad you asked that Dolan. I want to keep building houses. I will be paying for the work to be done as it isn’t in the performance of the council’s duty to take care of its people.” I hold up a hand to forestall any of the questions they might have. “Let me finish with what I have to say before you ask anything. I want enough housing for at least another 1000 people inside the walls. Even that will still leave plenty of room for expansion should our population grow farther. The reason I want this is because I plan to make trips outside of the forest. Seeing how slavery is wide spread in this world, honestly, disturbs me. I will start freeing those that have been enslaved solely because of their race. First it will be the human kingdom of Plora, but who knows what I will find if I travel farther.” Increasing the number of people here in the center of Gwydia’s budding power also feels like the right thing to do.
When I finish, everyone goes silent for a moment. Then Azzaria takes my hand. “I will be going with you.” Her voice is firm when she says it, but I don’t want to put her at risk of dying or worse, becoming a slave. When I open my mouth to object she glares at me along with Enora, who I can see behind her.
I close my mouth for a minute as I think. “I will only let you come if we can take sufficient measures to make sure that you can’t be enslaved. I won’t risk you to something that could be so much worse than death.” I turn to Bolden and ask “I have heard that a collar is used to enforce enslavement, This is an enchantment?”
Bolden gets a sad look at this question. “Yes. It’s an enchantment that enforces the will of the master on the slave. This is something from the darker side of our profession. I know what you are thinking and you can’t disenchant it while it’s active. I have learned the enchantment so that I could study it and try to counteract it, but once it’s active I don’t have anything that can remove the collar. After that it’s up to the one who is blood bonded as the master of the collar to release them or die.”
I take a moment to think about the issue. “You said you could create the collars. Can another slave collar be placed on an individual that already has one on?” When he shakes his head no I give him my idea. “Can you make a collar that can be put on Azzaria that will be bound to her, thus giving her free will and preventing another from taking her as a slave. It would also serve as great cover so that others wouldn’t be suspicious of her.”
It’s obvious to everyone that this is a new approach for the old enchanter by the look of excitement that blooms on his face. “I think I can do that, but let me ask you this. If you are unable remove the collars of those that are already enslaved then how are you going to free any of them?”
“I would still like to try a few things and see if we can figure out a way to do that” I tell him. “If we can’t figure out a way then I will just have to be more creative. I have plenty of gold, so I can buy some. Unfortunately I fear that the worst offenders of slave abuse will not want to sell. There is one thing that may work. On my last level in Enchanter I took the option for remove enchantment. I have used it a couple times to test it and it seems to work very differently from disenchant. I think there may be a chance that it will work on an active enchant because of how it operates.”
Bolden looks thoughtful at my words and responds a moment later. I don’t have that in my profession’s talent tree yet so I haven’t tried it. I will make a few test collars for you to try later along with trying your idea of a self owned slave.”
“OK, moving on then. Anyone else have something they want to add in about anything?” I look around the room at everyone. Out of the corner of my eye I see movement.
Turning in that direction I see Timbre get up from her spot over by the wall and start padding my way. Half way she begins to shimmer and then changes into her wolfkin form. Slinging her shield on her back and her hammer through a belt loop she steps up next to me and places a hand on my shoulder. “I come” is all she says.
I give her a squeeze of the hand on my shoulder and smile to her. “Of course you and Thia will be coming. You two can also help me make sure that nothing happens to Azzaria, right?” With a nod she walks over and stands near the wall where she came from. Next to Thia along the wall she stays in her wolfkin form. Looking around I don’t see anyone with anything else to add. With that out of the way I turn to Azzaria. “Are you up for a little training?” With a smile she gets up and we walk out of the keep.
As we walk to the north where I have been practicing my spells I cast a Wisp in order to see. Looking around at the dark Town I think, not for the first time, that we need street lights or something. It just keeps getting put off for other things that are more urgent, like housing. Soon we might have some time to think about such things. Azzaria and I hold hands as we walk, just enjoying the comfortable silence and each others company. At our practice sessions she has been working on her Life magic so she can learn the Heal spell. It’s basically just a stronger version of the Lesser Heal she has now, but it’s more useful in battle. She may get it tonight. She needs life magic at level ten and she has been stuck at level nine for a while now.
About halfway to the area I have been practicing in Thia makes an appearance, landing on my shoulder. From our bond I get a little concern from her. I can tell it’s about the trip to the human kingdom that is making her anxious. I scratch her head to reassure her a little and project the feeling that everything will be fine. We can talk through the bond we have but sometimes there is nothing really to say and we just send feelings to each other. Thia takes off again after a minute riding with me and flies the direction we are headed. She trains too, and has brought her Zapp to level 12, Chain Lightning to level 7, and together we got to level 3 in Merge. The rest of her skills are now level ten. We have been using level ten as a goal for our training before moving on to something else.
The rest of the way there I chitchat with Azzaria about her day. Apparently Enora had wanted to do something like the orchard I proposed for a while. She was quite happy about it when Azzaria came to talk to her. They had decided on what to plant but I didn’t know what any of the fruits she mentioned were. I don’t think they existed back on Earth, or they went by a different name. When we get to where we are headed it is just a section of the cliff face a little ways from the lake and far enough from the buildings to not risk hurting anyone. Azzaria steps a little ways off and I create a person shaped dummy for her, Thia and myself using Shape Earth. For Thia it’s a cluster of targets so she can continue practicing her Chain Lightning.
Before I get started with training my Space type magic I go through the new spells that I have learned since making this place my home. The first thing I cast is Flame Wave. I learned this from a spell book when I got Fire magic to level ten. Pointing my staff at the stone target dummy I will the spell through the lightweight metal of my starlite staff. It takes a couple seconds for enough mana to build up, but then a wall of fire ten feet wide and high springs up in front of me. Immediately it starts to roll forward and envelops the target dummy I created. When the fire passes and then dissipates it leaves the target a black statue of scorched stone.
I do this again but slow down the casting like I have been doing during my training. Concentrating on the point I’m launching the spell from I will it to build up. I noticed in the past that the casting of spells involves a lot more than I previously thought. It lends credibility to what I have been told about the difficulty of creating a spell. The Mana for the Flame wave spell builds in my staff. As I channel the spell I can detect a shape. The instinctual information that was loaded into my brain is causing a circle to form from the building mana. It reminds me of when I summoned Thia, but inside of what I channel the spell through. This isn’t new and I have started doing this with all my spells in an attempt to memorize, or at least familiarize myself with, the building blocks of magic.
What I figured out so far is that the spell circle has symbols inside and out that determine the effect of the spell. I can only assume that certain things are designed to be manipulated by the caster’s will or I don’t think I could change the trajectory of a spell like I can. In my minds eye the spell circle that is created makes me think of rituals like I have seen in movies. These aren’t drawn out ahead of time. They are created from mana. By pumping more mana into them the spell circle’s lines thicken, but if I do it too much there is a backlash because the circle is overly distorted. I think I’ll be able to pack more mana into a smaller area as my WIS increases, allowing me to increase the effect even more. When I have channeled as much mana into Flame Wave that I can I finish the cast.
Changing spells I channel mana again and a four foot long spear of ice forms in front of the jewel set in the top of my staff. A moment later it rockets forward, a blue streak is all that is seen as the Ice Lance travels forward to impale the dummy. The force of it knocks the stone loose from the ground and the person shaped hunk of stone thumps on its back, a jagged piece of ice standing up like a flagpole. The last one I cast is Quicksand. The ground around the downed target dummy turns sandy in a circle five feet in all directions from it. Slowly it slips down until it is completely submerged in the ground. A minute after the spell was cast the ground returns to its normal color and consistency.
It’s then that I remembered my increase to Earth type magic today. Looking through my dimensional storage space I find the spell book I was looking for. I quickly open it and start reading. Like always, the book glows and the pages turn on their own as I can feel the information being absorbed by my brain on a subconscious level. When the back closes over the book and the last of the information absorbed the book turns gray, like the color is draining out of it. Then it crumbles into dust. Coming back to my senses I look over to see Azzaria headed my way.
Before she is even to me she is calling out. “OK, let’s see what you got this time.” With a big smile on her face she steps up next to me.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea Azzaria.” I try to put on a serious face but her smile is infectious.
“Why not!” She puts on a mock pouty face.
I can’t help but laugh at her antics. “Well, dear, the spell I just learned is called Quake. It’s designed to stop people from moving. It can also be used to damage or destroy buildings and other structures. Also, once cast, it will last for 10 seconds and I can’t stop it.”
From her expression I can tell she still wants me to try it. “We should be far enough away from any of the buildings. What’s the problem?”
“Well honey, sweetie, I’m starting to wonder about you, but I certainly don’t want to get caught in a rock slide” I say in a super sweet voice. Then I point at the large wall of rock in front of us. I can see when it registers that I won’t do it for safety reasons because there is a look of disappointment in her eyes. “Don’t worry. When we are away from town sometime we’ll give it a try.” After that she heads back to her spot to continue training.
As she is walking away I see Timbre in her wolfkin form approach. This isn’t new either and she often comes out here to practice in her alternate form. I create a group of dummies for her to bash on with her shield and hammer in her regular spot. She doesn’t have any other skills than Shield Projection, the one we gave her during the battle with the human soldiers. She seems to have passive skills and maybe something that she uses for short bursts of speed. I’ll need to take her shopping before we head out to the kingdom of Plora.
I turn back to where my
target was and create a new one. For the next hour or so I practice with my spell Folded Space. It doesn’t have a cooldown like Phase does and I can use it in a wide variety of ways. I step forward instantly covering the 30 feet to the dummy. A strike from my staff and a step backward brings me right back to where I started. That is the easiest thing to do. I can also throw a rock or fire a spell in any direction, only to fold the space in a small area and have the object come out at point black range and hit the target. That last one is less mana intensive because I am folding a smaller area, but it’s harder to aim. It does seem to be helping my progress with controlling it because during my training tonight, I got Space type magic to level nine.
About done with training for the night I hear Azzaria yip for joy. I look over to see her pull a spell book from the armlet I enchanted for her with Dimensional Storage. She opens it and starts learning her new spell. It looks like she hit level ten in Life type magic. As I’m watching her use the spell book I get a big wet lick on the cheek from Timbre, who has walked up next to me. Still in her humanoid form she begins to nuzzle into my neck. I’m getting used to the more wolf-like actions from her like this. I reach up and scratch behind one of the wolf ears on the top of her head. This earns me a lick of appreciation on the neck as she buries her face and inhales deeply.
A Mage Rising: (The Chronicles of Herst 2: A LitRPG Saga) Page 4
