Azyl Academy (Elemental Gatherers Book 1)

by Chris Vines

  “Now that you have seen the heights to which this technique can reach, I will teach you the first level. You are only able to learn the first two levels at your Aether Gathering level, then the next two levels can be learnt when you reach Aether Compression, unless you are extremely accomplished. Running on Air and Flying with Air can only be accomplished once you have created your Core Seed, as they require vast amounts of Aether.” The instructor began lecturing and guiding the student on how to work the first level of the technique.

  Similarly to the previous technique we learned, they never told us the name, if it has one, you started by circulating the Aether through your leg meridians. This time, however, you had to pull the Aether out of the meridians onto the surface of your legs and draw runes all over the legs. She was explaining what each rune meant, and I realized it was similar to a programming language. You had to define how much Aether to use, how far to drift, and how to divert the air around you, which let you move faster. You also got a small boost from the air behind you. I watched the student move their Aether and work on forming runes for the rest of the hour I had until lunch.

  I pulled away from the memory stone more excited than I had been for, like, a day. Okay, I’m getting excited over and over again here. There are just too many things I get to do that I would never have dreamed possible on Earth. I’m going to become a literal superhero, saving villages from monster attacks. I started to jog towards lunch before I slowed to a walk. “I should practice Aether Shield.” I said out loud, and began to work on creating an Aether Shield. The first time I did it, it worked perfectly, even better than it did before. Huh, the Aether moved away from where I directed it and went into my Skin meridian. Making an Aether Shield is now as easy as pushing more Aether into that meridian. Well, let’s keep practicing; get it to come up faster.

  As I walked, I continued to practice the Aether Shield technique, while looking for ways to make it faster and better. As I was reaching the dining hall, I realized that I could focus the shield on a single part of my body, making it stronger and denser there, while weaker everywhere else. Can everyone do this? Or is it a benefit of my skin meridian? After grabbing food, I sat down with Jon, Lucas, Brett, and Louis. “Have any of you all picked your advanced techniques?” I asked as I sat down. Louis got a very surprised look on his face, shook his head, and ran off. The rest of us laughed a little as he did so.

  Lucas chuckled and said, “Yeah, I went and browsed through the Offensive aisle and picked up an Ice based slashing technique that can freeze people at higher levels.” Jon had picked a Defensive technique that made the air around him colder, restricting his opponent’s movement speed and Brett had found an offensive technique that let him make blades of Air come off the ends of his weapon.

  “So every one of you only got one? Did any of you speak to the head librarian?” I asked. They all said no, and I could see the question on Jon’s face. “Hmm, I was trying to decide where to look when I was approached by the head librarian, who had me tell him what I’ve learned and my Affinities. He seemed excited to talk to someone, and gave me three techniques.” I told them the names of the techniques and described the Dancing Northern Wind as “making me able to dodge better.” I also told them about the tournament at the end of the month mentioned by the librarian.

  “That is amazing dude. A tournament. We will have to work our butts off to do well. I want to beat at least one of the annoying nobles.” Jon said, glaring at a table off to the side. I didn’t recognize anyone there, but apparently, there was an annoying nobleman, or woman, there. “The most annoying are the minor nobles. They have to lord their status over others as much as they can for some reason. Soooo annoying.”

  We continued to talk about the tournament and speculate about what it could entail the rest of lunch. As we were cleaning up, Louis came in with a huge grin on his face. He announced that he had talked to the librarian, and was given two techniques. One was a defensive technique for his Earth affinity, and one an attack technique using both Metal and Wood affinities. “That’s awesome man.” I said, patting his back as we walked out. “Did he say anything about the tournament at the end of the month?”

  “No. He did not mention it. He did say he pitied me a bit. I was pretty panicked when I walked in.” Louis replied. I told him what the librarian had told me about the tournament and we continued to talk about our speculations all the way to the Inscription building. The building looked like most of the others, like a few stories tall square apartment.

  “Do any of you know why the buildings are almost all the same?” I asked.

  “They are built by Earth Gatherers, and it is the easiest way to build them.” Louis told us. “I want to learn how to do that too. I want to build stuff that lasts.” The inside of the building was different though. It had a small lounge that only extended a third of the way through the building, rather than all the way. Some books were on a shelf that lined the far wall on either side of a large, reinforced door. A staircase led up to our left and the right wall had two more doors. The second door on the first floor had ‘Group Two’ written on it.

  A round of goodbyes prefaced the group splitting up to head to our respective classrooms. The Counselor in front of the class waved us in. She looked much younger than every other Counselor, maybe twenty five years old. She had strawberry blonde hair and lacked the scars that every other Counselor had. She was pretty in the girl next door kind of way, and I could see Jon had fallen in love at first sight. For the third time this week I’m sure.

  We found a seat at the front of the class and waited while the last few members of our group filed in. The Counselor was writing something as she waited. Once everyone was here, she stood up holding the paper she had been writing on. I saw a small flare of Aether and the paper transformed into a ball of light that floated over her head.

  “Welcome to introductory Inscriptions. I am Counselor Whynn. Here we will learn more about runes and how they can be used outside of gathering. The world of Inscriptions is vast and covers everything from the defensive runes you’ve seen on the Armory or the main gate to attack glyphs and auxiliary runes like this Light Ball Inscription. If you decide to stick with Inscriptions we will learn how to create elemental attacks, shields, and enhancements. In the next year we will learn how to make Formations, which are large scale Inscriptions that incorporate thousands of Runes, such as the Formation around the Meditation Grotto that draws Aether into it.”

  A couple of Mentors came forward from the back of the class. One young woman who was wearing third tier robes, with dark skin and hair, grabbed a stack of paper and began handing it out. The other Mentor, a fourth tier young man with blonde hair and fair skin, started handing out what looked like metal quills and jars of a reddish-brown ink. “Inscriptions require special materials. The paper being handed out is produced from ten year old Towering Pine trees, the ink from Earthen Willow bark and the quills are treated Elemental Fowl quills from Metal-aligned Fowl. Inscriptions are not cheap, but they can work as many miracles as Alchemy.” The Counselor explained as the materials were handed out.

  “Today we will learn how to make the Light Ball Inscription. The set of runes is fairly simple for this, as only four are required. The first,” she started drawing on the board behind her, “represents light. The second defines where it will go, namely above and slightly behind your head. The third defines the intensity of the light, while the last defines shape and size.” She finished drawing the four Runes on the board.

  “Now, Inscription would be easy if all it was was drawing Runes on paper. That is not the case. The hardest part is actually drawing the Runes because you have to insert Aether into the quill while drawing them. For these runes the Aether amount is important only in that it is consistent. In most of the more complicated runic structures, you have to vary the Aether input as you write. Carving Inscriptions makes them reusable, but requires even more variation of Aether, as the runes become three dimensional. For now, you have been
given five pages. Attempt to create the Light Ball Inscription. We will be watching and helping out.”

  Just like a program. You have to tell it what to do and how to do it. I need to get a dictionary of runes and look at creating high-level ones. Also, I need to figure out the Aether rules to this. Why would the Aether amount need to vary? I pulled a sheet of paper out. Okay, first I should work on making sure the Aether I put into the quill and flow into the paper is consistent. I dipped the quill in the ink and watched as it absorbed it. After a few seconds, I pulled the quill out and focused on pushing Aether into it. I set up an Aether cycle just like when I was working on the Aether burst from my trisula. I slowly started to draw the first rune, focusing on the Aether flowing through the quill rather than getting the rune perfect.

  After a couple of tries, I made the first rune consistent and had a feel for how the Aether flowed. Now I started drawing the runes, smaller than I would for the final version. I filled the front and back of the first sheet working through them. I set it to the side and pulled out a fresh sheet. This would be my first real attempt. I started to write after getting a fresh pull of ink and made it through the first two runes before a swirl on the third was drawn incorrectly. I looked up to the Counselor, who was a desk away, and asked, “If we mess up on the front, can we try to draw the Inscription on the back?”

  “Yes, that would be fine for this Inscription. For some others that can be detrimental, but this one is very forgiving,” was the answer I received. I flipped the page over and started again. I almost succeeded but failed near the end of the last rune. The third page came out, and I started drawing. This one was successful. “Good, now, to use the Inscription, simply feed a small amount of Aether into the first rune. Probably best not to stare at it as you do so though,” Counselor Whynn said as she watched me. I picked the paper up and pushed Aether through my hands into it, and watched as the paper morphed into a ball of light. Of course, it had the same effect as looking into a flashlight and I was blinking for another minute to get the spots out of my eyes.

  “Counselor, what defines how long the light lasts? There wasn’t a rune in there for that.” I asked her.

  “For this Inscription, the length is defined by the amount of Aether you used to create it, which is almost always the case. You can put a rune in to limit the timeframe, but that would require you to know how much Aether to put in for that. Too little and it will fizzle early anyway, and too much will leave you a ball of Aether that will disperse violently when it no longer has an outlet. That is why we often will leave the timeframe off until you get much more experience with the Aether required. Good job on the Inscription. You may leave if you wish. If you are interested in learning more, browse through the books and memory stones outside. I will see you in a week.”

  “Thank you ma’am,” I said as I stood up. “What should I do with the quill and ink?” She thought for a moment and then told me to keep them. I bowed to her and packed up, stopped up the ink and wiped the quill off on the failure paper. After I gathered everything into one of the pockets on my tunic, I left the room to browse through the library. I pulled out the occasional book since most of them didn’t have names on the spine. The first book was on defensive Formations. Way too difficult to start with I thought as I browsed through the book. I started searching for a compendium of runes or something like that. After about fifteen minutes, I noticed several others browsing, including Ming and Bridget.

  Finally, I found a book entitled Introductory Runes and Inscription of which there were three copies. I grabbed all three then walked over to Ming. “I found this as an introductory, want a copy?” I asked.

  He shook his head and said, “Thank you, but I’ve fairly well versed in Inscriptions already. My Clan has a number of Inscription and Formation Masters in it. Bridget might though, as well as Alexander over there.” I thanked him and headed over to Bridget. She was excited by the book. Alexander thanked me for grabbing it. I suggested we should look through the book, then maybe meet up tomorrow at lunch to talk about what we read.

  “Learning as a group can work as we can help each other answer questions, and anything that confuses all of us we can take to the Counselor or maybe Ming.” I finished saying. Alexander looked pensive, while Bridget quickly agreed.

  Alexander then told us, “Uh, I’ll think about it,” before heading off. Bridget looked confused by his answer, and I just shrugged.

  “It’s okay. It is his loss if he doesn’t want to work together,” I told Bridget before excusing myself. I lightly jogged back to my room and deposited the book and Inscription materials. After that, I headed slowly to PT, debating about what I should focus on. I’m really curious about both Inscription and Alchemy, and I really enjoyed the metallurgy class I took at USAFA. I need to pick two at most though, so I’ll go with Alchemy and Inscription. Maybe I’ll be able to look into blacksmithing at some point in the future. I need to write down what little I remember about steel creation and see what they know about that here too.

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  When I got to the PT field, I was waved to do my starting run of ten kilometers. I pushed myself, working my muscles and my knowledge of the running technique to get the run done in less than a half hour. After finishing and doing some light calisthenics, I was called over to Counselor Might. “So, what technique did you pick up?” He asked me as I approached.

  “I was given three techniques by the head librarian, sir. I started looking into the Dancing Northern Wind movement technique first because I am still working on getting the introductory offense and defense techniques down. The offensive technique I was given was the Four Twin Lightning Stab technique and the defensive was the Iron Bones, Granite Skin technique,” I answered as I stopped in front of him.

  “Good, you spoke to Head Librarian Narwan and listened to his advice. Though I doubt he gave you a choice in the matter. Let me see the Dancing Northern Wind memory stone.” I handed the stone over, and he put it to his head for maybe twenty seconds. “This is a remarkable technique. Okay, follow me.” He walked away from everyone else, to a clear spot on the fields about twenty meters wide and forty long. He gestured at the field, and circles of stone rose about a foot off the ground. The circles were staggered back and forth, like you would put tires for agility exercises, though these started at a meter apart and ended at probably ten meters apart as you moved forward.

  “This should do for you to train on. Use the technique to move side to side down the field. Each time you fall, come back to the beginning, and try again. Once you have mastered the second level, come back to talk and I will adapt the course. There may be some others who use it, depends on if anyone else took an agility technique. Now begin.” I was just staring since he had just created an agility course by waving his hand! Magic! Was resonating in my head. “Now!” came the shout that broke me out of my daze.

  I started to circulate my Aether as the technique directed and tried to move down the course. I could physically power through the first eight steps, but the ninth I couldn’t quite make it. I tried a couple of times before I moved off to the side and looked through the memory stone again. I figured out a trick that let me fast-forward to the point I was looking for and watched the student learning the first level again. After that, I got back on the course. By the end of the first hour, I had managed to make it fifteen steps in, though that still didn’t count as mastering even the first level.

  I took a break to gather and replenish my Aether. I watched the memory again. Like this, another two hours passed and it was time for dinner. I had been excused from the end run to continue working on the technique. Not that I was thankful for that. The run would have been easier at this point. I was hobbling with aching knees on my way to the shower and dinner. Thankfully, the soreness mostly passed as I ate dinner, especially as the Aether in the Lightning Elemental Fowl meat flowed into me. Well, this makes working out to a stronger level much easier. Just destroy my muscles then refresh them with Aether. E
specially as my multiple Affinities make it much easier to find food that is an element my body can utilize well.

  I was eating alone since I had taken longer than most of the kids in my class, and the third tiers were filing in to eat as I was finishing up. Karl and the other servants cleaned up around me, and I brought my plate up to the bin once I was done. A few third tiers looked at me funny as I did so. I went to leave and a large third tier blocked my way. “What have we here, a youngin’ intruding in our space. What makes you think you can take our time?”

  “I was late getting back from physical training. I need to go now, so please move.” I said, not backing down as I felt he wanted.

  He stepped into my face and said, “No,” then moved to grab me. I immediately circulated the Dancing Northern Wind that I had been working on and dodged to the side. His groping hand missed me, and he stumbled slightly. I moved forward, slightly shoulder checking him, and used the rebound off him to move around him. I sprinted out the door and ran for the Grotto. Behind me, I heard laughter as the bully shouted at me. I ignored him and kept going. Thankfully, he didn’t follow. Bullies are the same everywhere. Pick on someone weaker, but will back off if you aren’t afraid and can back that up, I thought as I turned into the small cutoff that led to my pavilion.

  I sat down and centered myself, using this to help calm my racing heart. Now, what should I work on now? I thought. What I need most is more Aether. Time to gather and see if I can advance! Having made my decision, I stood up. No one else was here, so I was going to use the Eight by Eight Gathering Form to gather as quickly as I could. I always felt like I was doing a slow dance when moving through the forms, so I began to dance. I was able to make it through the first and second set, before I remembered I still had a dose of the Simple Gathering powder we made in Alchemy.