‘I was almost certain that she would have refused to help, keeping me on a short leash and yet… I need to ask Protector about the beasts’ customs because something strange just happened here.’
The moment Lith left, Faluel released her son from the spell that had been restraining Sedra until that moment. She couldn’t bear the thought of raising her hand against her own child, but discipline had to be enforced.
“How dare you insult me in front of an esteemed guest? Even attacking them while they are under my protection in my own home!” The seven-headed Hydra was back to her full size, so big that even in his Emperor Beast form, Sedra looked like a snotty brat in front of an adult.
“You say that you despise humans for their arrogance, yet you behave just like one of them. How could you breach the host-guest relationship that our race holds sacred?
“Did you take the human treachery along with that ridiculous eye-candy form?” The seven heads spoke in unison, their voices roaring like a choir of angered gods.
“But mother…” Sedra had never seen his parent enraged before. His earlier arrogance had disappeared like snow under a scorching sun.
“No buts!” She roared, cutting him short. “Because of your foolishness, I had to give more than I could take to keep my honor. What kind of master can I possibly be if I can’t keep order in my own house?
“What lessons am I supposed to impart if I’m incapable of teaching my own children how to behave? You embarrassed me for the last time. Get out of this house and don’t return until you’ve found a master willing to Awaken you.
“Only then will I know that there is at least one person on Mogar who thinks you’ve proven yourself worthy of becoming an Awakened.” Both mother and son knew that the assigned task was arduous.
The older an Emperor beast got, the more powerful the master needed to be to allow them to survive their Awakening. Moreover, powerful beings were usually very picky, just like Faluel.
“For someone who thinks of himself as a Wyrm, you’re nothing more than a worm. Prove me wrong if you can.” Faluel’s words struck a nerve, hurting Sedra more than any spell could.
All the lesser Dragons suffered from an inferiority complex towards their forefathers and dreamed of claiming for themselves the ancient title describing them, Wyrm. At the same time, being wingless creatures, often resembling more a snake rather than a dragon, worm was the worst slur that could be inflicted upon them.
A squishy, helpless creature forced to hide and eat dirt to not be eaten by predators.
***
Ernas Manor, Later that day.
After saying goodbye to Ryman, Selia, and their kids, Lith could finally relax after days and days of careful preparation against the human Council. He hated to admit it, but he was going to miss Phloria’s house big time.
It had a huge library, all the training facilities he could dream of, and was full of people that would take care of him, unlike what happened when he was in Lutia. There someone would always get hurt, need his help, or his attention.
The only exceptions were the Verhen kids, that despite the protection their enchanted clothes offered they often managed to do all three things at once. Moreover, at the manor he would get to share with Kamila every moment of respite she had.
After their talk at Protector’s house, she had become even more loving and affectionate, to the point that she was almost being clingy. Yet it didn’t bother Lith since he had expected Kamila to treat him differently, at least at first, but never that she would become kinder.
Solus was working on the translation of the booklet from Huryole while Lith was practicing spirit spells. This time they were splitting their focus for a good reason. The booklet was only about practical lessons and explained only the bare minimum of theory behind the experiments that the students needed to understand how the spell worked.
Expanding a few lines into a proper explanation of an unknown discipline required a tremendous amount of focus and brainpower. Solus could do it only by constantly switching the books from the Ernas library to Soluspedia and back.
She was giving her all to understand the foundations of Runesmithing, going over the first chapter in meticulous detail to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. If Lith were to work on the following chapters, it would be a mechanical work that could make important details be lost in translation, forcing Solus to do them over.
After reviewing his memories about Spirit Spells, Lith preferred to work on replicating those he had seen in action and then share his discoveries with Solus, just like she would do with Runesmithing.
‘No wonder Faluel wasn’t willing to teach me, this stuff is damn hard.’ Lith thought during a common break. ‘Without the world energy, every part of the spell must be imbued with will and shaped with precision.
‘Elemental magic is akin to using a mold to give shape to clay, whereas spirit magic requires you to start from scratch every single time. Without elemental energy as a guideline missing a single focus point of the spell, it’s enough to turn it into a waste of mana.
‘To add insult to injury, each failure consumes roughly the same energy of five tier-three spells, and every time I’m forced to stop to understand what went wrong.’
‘Same here.’ Solus sighed. ‘Whoever wrote this book assumed that the student had a knowledge that we currently lack, even after our conversation with Faluel. Still, I’m positive that once I understand the foundations of Runesmithing and with a bit of practice, things should go smoothly.’
Lith nodded. Their bigger obstacle wasn’t engraving the runes so much as identifying their different patterns and their properties. Once they managed to do that, every time they met an opponent with a runed weapon, Solus’s mana sense would allow them to learn its secrets.
Unfortunately, as long as they failed to understand the runes’ meaning, how they worked both separately and as a whole, the words of power would be nothing but gibberish.
Lith took a deep breath with Invigoration before resuming his practice of spirit magic. He had only seen Gaaron use two spirit spells: a barrier and a mind link. Solus had studied their matrix with mana sense and Lith had more or less understood how the mana had to be manipulated.
Yet a mind link required two mana cores to be linked together, making it too dangerous. Since Gaaron hadn’t used it as a means of attack, there wasn’t the risk of damaging Lith’s subject but the concrete chance of sharing more than he wanted to.
So his only remaining option was the barrier. In theory, it was a simple matter, but putting it into practice proved to be far from easy. Barrier spells were all similar in their matrix, requiring the caster to give a specific elemental energy shape, size, and thickness.
Yet Lith’s problem was that now he needed to give substance to something that was ethereal by nature and to give it form away from his body. So far, all of his attempts that didn’t use tendrils of mana to shape his creations had failed.
Thanks to Morality01 for his generous Ko-fi
