by Taran, David
“So that’s what that was! I remember the feeling of something breaking when I was trying to help Sarena. I wasn’t able to talk to her until then.”
Sarena nodded. “I was wondering why you never said anything before then. I thought you were just shy. And what exactly is mana Uckey? I don’t really understand.”
“Mana is the base form of almost every other element. It can be used in its pure form to direct the power of other elements, or converted directly into the element itself. Usually it is used for enchanting objects temporarily, but among all the elements it is the most versatile. In my time the practice of binding enchantments upon mana wielders was banned because of situations like yours. All other elements become mindless elementals. Binding those to an object is standard practice, they are a danger to everyone if left alone. Mana wielders, on the other hand, are still alive and retain all of their memories. Under normal circumstances that is.”
“What do you do with them then? I remember when I woke up after the explosion. I couldn’t move or do anything at all, I couldn’t even tell how long I had been there," Tyrus said.
“We construct a new body for them of course! We put bindings on it similar to a normal enchantment, but allowing the mana wielder full control. It was exceedingly rare for that to happen, though. Only a pure mana mage could cause it, having even the slightest amount of any other element would cause an elemental to appear instead. In all of history there have only been two cases that I know of. Both were from the shavren of course. The elves are only able to use Life magic, and the dwarves are similar to the gnomes with respect to the elements. To the east are the Eniat, but they do not wield any elements at all, instead relying on their summoned spirits, and the beast races south of them are warriors, not mages," Uckey rambled on, creating more questions than he answered.
“Just how many races are there Uckey?” Sarena exclaimed, surprise in her voice.
“East of the mountains there are six Greater races, seven I suppose if you count yourself. I doubt there are any other humans though. There are hundreds of lesser races, but their intelligence is so low that they aren’t recognized by the others. Most of them keep to themselves out in the wilds, but occasionally groups of them will prey on travelers like ourselves. We will have to be on the lookout for them once we get further north." Uckey suddenly snorted. “And now enough of that! We can speak more of the lands around us later, for now we need to concentrate on your lesson! Sarena, how do you draw on Tyrus’ power?”
“I just feel the warmth he emits from his handle and pull it into myself, then I focus on what I want from it and it changes to either stone or wind," Sarena explained.
Uckey stopped moving suddenly, almost causing Sarena to fall. “Incredible! That sounds so primitive, I can’t believe it actually works! This is an amazing opportunity, to finally work with someone who is bound to another’s power! Sarena, try to focus on Tyrus, not drawing on his warmth but instead going past it. Your goal is to find the core inside of him. With the bond Tyrus created between you it should be possible.”
Sarena nodded and closed her eyes, the activity in her aura slowing down considerably as she attempted to do as Uckey asked. A moment later Tyrus heard Uckey’s voice in his mind, feeling that he was speaking directly to him and leaving Sarena out.
“For you Tyrus I have another task. Your power gives you knowledge that makes much of my training unneeded, but it has areas that it does not cover at all. From what I’ve seen, all you do is push power randomly into Sarena. What attributes does that enhance for her?”
Tyrus thought for a moment before replying. “Speed, perception, and stamina for the most part. She’s told me it makes the world slow down around her, and I’m able to guide her somewhat to make sure she doesn’t stumble while under the enhancements. Oh, and she heals much faster as well.”
“Hmmm, those must be the qualities she is most adept in. While giving her unfocused power like that probably worked well enough in the Godwoods, I want you to try and focus on one aspect - strength. Your knowledge shouldn’t help you with this, aside from letting you know it is possible. Let me know when you succeed.”
The rest of the morning passed in silence, with Uckey continuing to walk untiringly on. Tyrus spent the first several hours just studying how his power interacted with Sarena. He had never considered that he might be able to change how it affected her. He had always assumed just adding more would be better. But as soon as he thought of specifically increasing her strength, new knowledge burst into his mind. Just like Uckey said, it wasn’t very helpful. He knew he could do it, but the knowledge only told him that the answer was in her aura somewhere. Tyrus had done everything relying on his raw power up until now, even creating the channel had been more of him just flooding power into a haphazardly woven net, but this would require him to focus more on control than anything else. The first step would be to find out what part of her aura was tied to her strength, and the only way to do that was trial and error.
Sarena had been sitting perfectly still all morning, her aura calm and serene as she focused on the task Uckey had given her. Even Tyrus was impressed with her control - he knew how difficult it could be to focus on one thing for so long without any results. He could feel her presence trying to find its way into the sword, stumbling around outside of the channel he had created. It would have been easy to guide her to his core, but he left her to discover it on her own. Uckey was having her do that for a reason, and Tyrus needed to focus on his own lesson first.
Focusing directly on her aura, Tyrus increased the power he was giving her and tried to watch how it changed. As far as he could tell the only difference was the strength of the aura itself, it became brighter and swirled faster around her. He knew that meant that she would be more powerful, but he didn’t know how it was causing that. There must be more to it. Both Uckey and his own power told him there was, but he wasn’t sure what to do without any guidance. When no answers presented themselves in his mind, he decided to just observe as closely as he could.
Tyrus focused his perception tightly on her aura, looking at it as closely as he could. At first it looked the same to him, the vibrant colors filling his vision to the point that he could see nothing else, but when he was finally beginning to think he was wasting his time, he started to notice some changes. Certain parts of her aura were swirling in the same way constantly, almost as if they were flowing towards something. Tyrus focused on a stream of green that was winding its way around her leg, and as he watched it was as if he was suddenly looking through the aura, at Sarena herself. It was different from when he entered her body and was able to view those golden channels, this let him see her as she actually was. While he knew it wasn’t how she truly looked, he could see the individual strands of power that made her what she was. And with that view came more knowledge from his power.
Some of those strands of power stood out from the others, thicker and obviously stronger. Tyrus knew that the power he gave her was running through those strands, and they enhanced her natural talents, but the problem was that they were only running through the largest strands. There was no way for him to tell what each strand affected until he put power into it, so Tyrus decided to just choose one at random and see what happens. Finding a thin red strand on her arm, Tyrus pushed his power towards it, only to see it flow around the strand and enter one of the thicker ones nearby. Obviously just blindly trying to force it wasn’t going to work. His power naturally looked for the easiest path. Taking direct control of a portion of his own power, he formed it into a thread as thin as the red strand and pushed it carefully into it. Instantly he felt the power in the larger strands dissipate as all his concentration was drawn toward his current task, while the red strand began to pulse with power. Sarena suddenly gasped, pulling Tyrus back to his normal view.
“What did you do Tyrus?” She asked.
“I’m trying to change the attributes I enhance for you. How do you feel?” He said, unable to hold back the excitemen
t in his voice.
“Heavy. You took away my speed didn’t you?” Sarena accused him.
“Stop putting so much power into that Tyrus!” Uckey yelled. “Do you know how hard it is for me to move with her weighing so much suddenly!”
Tyrus used his senses and realized that they had stopped moving, and Uckey’s legs were trembling under the weight of Sarena. He immediately pulled his power back and switched to his normal method again.
“Sorry, I wasn’t really sure what would happen. I guess I’ll need to try something else," He apologized meekly.
“Wait, are you experimenting with my body now? Since when did I give you permission to do that!” Sarena yelled at him in indignation. “At least have the decency to ask me before you go meddling around in there!”
“I was just doing what Uckey told me to do! Blame him for it!” Tyrus said defensively.
“I told you to make her as strong as an ox! Not as heavy as one!” Uckey instructed him.
Tyrus could sense Sarena’s anger disappearing almost as fast as it came on, to be replaced with amusement. It was only a moment later that she started laughing. Uckey and Tyrus couldn’t help but be confused by the sudden change.
“I’m sorry Tyrus," She said when she had finally stopped laughing. “I just wasn’t expecting that is all. You’ve always seemed so good at everything, hearing you make a mistake makes you feel so much more human to me.”
Tyrus was relieved she wasn’t going to hold a grudge, but he still couldn’t understand how her mood could change so quickly. He tried to change to subject before it could go any further, although he knew he would have to bring it up again when he asked her for permission to try again.
“Did you have any success, Sarena?” Tyrus asked, not mentioning that he knew she had just been stumbling around the entrance. “I’m not sure how long it’s been since we started, it’s difficult to tell the time when I can’t see the sun or sky.”
“No, it felt like I was trying to break through a castle’s gate with my bare hands” She sighed dejectedly. “I wasn’t born to this kind of thing like you. My grandfather taught me to meditate, saying it was a way to stay calm and train my mind. But neither one of us took it very seriously, it’s not like I could use it in the middle of a battle.”
“Your grandfather was very wise," Uckey interjected. “Without that training it could take years to accomplish what you’ve already done. Even though all shavren are born with magic, most are unable to use it until they have trained for most of their childhood. Just being able to even feel the gateway to Tyrus’ power within half a day is already impressive. Now stop talking and get back to work, I want you both to have finished by the time we arrive in the shavren’s territory.”
After a quick discussion about Tyrus experimenting on Sarena again, which Uckey ultimately won, the two of them continued to train for the rest of the day. Tyrus wasn’t sure how far they had traveled by the time they set up camp, but Uckey said they would arrive in time. Stewrix was in the mountains north of the Agraven, roughly five hundred miles away. At their pace they should be able to reach it in under a month, but none of them wanted to waste too much time. Uckey assured Tyrus that once they arrived in Stewrix the gnomes would be able to construct a new body for him, and if they were careful Sarena should be able to survive on her own soon enough. While it should have been comforting, Tyrus couldn’t help but have an ominous feeling about their upcoming journey.
Chapter Eight
Two days later they reached the top of a small hill just as evening was approaching, and were able to see the forest that Uckey had told them about, with a small village just at the edge. In Sarena’s time the plains had gone all the way to the river, so the sight of the trees was another blow against her. She hadn’t been able to let go of the hope that maybe Uckey had been wrong and Ankaros had just tossed them somewhere similar to home, but not after seeing the trees ahead of her. They weren’t in her time any more. Everything she knew was gone. And she was stuck in it with a talking sword and horse. She couldn’t help but wonder how her life had come to this.
The past two days had been a silent journey, with Sarena and Tyrus focused on trying to accomplish what Uckey wanted them to. Tyrus seemed to have no trouble, succeeding by the end of the first day and being made to practice his control after that. Unfortunately that made it much more difficult for Sarena to concentrate on her own training, what with him experimenting constantly. At one point Tyrus had managed to enhance her sense of taste, which made her realize just how badly she needed to wash her mouth out. Eventually she couldn’t stand it anymore and told him that once he enhanced her strength he could do no more to her until she had finished her own task. At least he had the decency to sound embarrassed when he apologized. She had been expecting Uckey to speak up and defend him at that point, but the gnome-turned-glow horse had been strangely silent the entire time.
Sarena could feel her frustration building as she continued to try and find Tyrus’ core. It had taken her a full day just to find the gateway, and that was as far as she could go. She knew she could draw power from the warmth she felt, but no matter how hard she tried the gateway just wouldn’t budge. Uckey had been useless, saying that finding the way inside was her task, and that all he could do was guide her in what she was to accomplish. To her it sounded like he was just distracted by his thoughts and didn’t want to bother, but she wasn’t about to admit defeat that easily. Or so she told herself, but she still couldn’t find her way past that doorway to Tyrus’ core. Finally, as they were less than one hundred yards from the forest edge, Sarena couldn’t take it anymore and let out a yell as loudly as she could, venting her frustration and causing Uckey to stumble as he missed a step underneath her.
“Feeling better?” Tyrus asked.
“No! I’m tired of this! How am I supposed to get through this gateway without even a hint! This isn’t teaching me anything, Uckey! I wasn’t born to this like Tyrus was!” Sarena slapped the back of Uckey’s neck. She knew she was being childish, but after two days with no progress she just couldn’t hold herself back. Uckey had even forbade her from drawing on Tyrus’ power herself until she succeeded, instead having him provide just enough power to keep her aura healthy.
“I can’t teach you something that has never been done before!” Uckey protested, “According to my research it should be possible, and it is vital that you succeed! You won’t be able to form your own core until you can reach Tyrus’ on your own!”
“You don’t even know if this is even possible? You might have set me an impossible task and you just expect me to succeed, with nothing to go on but speculation? This isn’t training, Uckey!” Sarena spoke, her voice brimming with barely contained fury.
“Regardless of if you succeed or not, I can teach you nothing else unless you are able to. Gnomish magic doesn’t work the same way as shavren! The only reason I can even do this much is because my research was focused on your exact situation. I can guide you to the correct path, but I can’t tell you how to travel it. Only a shavren Highmage could teach you how to use your power, but with my guidance you will eventually be free from the bond!” Uckey explained hurriedly.
“You-why didn’t you just say that in the first place? Why tell me you could train me when you can’t?” Sarena’s anger dissipated at his words, but there was plenty left to let him know her displeasure.
“Well, you seemed a little bit prickly about the bond, so I thought I would try and help you with it under the guise of training. You’re much smarter than I expected, I didn’t think you would figure it out until much later on! Or maybe that means you’re just impatient?” he bluntly replied, his voice back to its ordinary cheery and high-pitched volume.
Sarena was speechless. She hadn’t expected him to admit it so easily, and she wasn’t even sure if he had just complimented or insulted her. Deciding to go with the safer route, she closed her mouth and frowned, trying to will her anger at him regardless of how immature it made her feel. Th
e village was only moments away at this point, and they had already discussed that Sarena would have to do all the talking. Tyrus was only able to speak to Uckey because of Ankaros, while Uckey was a horse - a gigantic horned horse, but still not something that could normally talk. Which left Sarena, the only moderately normal one of the group, and even that was stretching it considering humans don’t exist here.
Before they even entered the village Sarena was able to see her first shavren. He was standing outside of his home, a simple log cabin that looked to be the standard for all of the buildings. From a distance he looked human, but when she was closer she was able to see the differences. Standing around six feet tall, with a thin body and tanned skin, his hair was a fiery red that looked almost alive, falling down slightly past his shoulders. If that was the only thing Sarena would have thought him just an odd looking human, but his eyes left no doubt that he was different. The whites of his eyes were the same fiery red as his hair, and there was no pupil to speak of. She couldn’t help but feel a shiver go down her spine as he stared at her, his face neutral and giving nothing away.
As Uckey had explained it the night before, shavren were born looking identical to what she would expect a human to look like, but as they grew older they began to take on aspects of their element. Usually their eyes and hair would change first, but after that would be their personalities. The man she saw was obviously a fire mage, but beyond that she wouldn’t know until she spoke with him. She had thought that every element was the same for everyone, but apparently there were vast differences within each one. Uckey had used fire as an example, saying that they could have an explosive temper, matching up with what she would expect from the dangerous element, and their use of the power would be equally as dangerous. But others could have a warm and friendly disposition, and their fire could help nourish those around it.
