Book 5: Chapter 3: Elder Magic
Not long after he’d begun working with Tes’s pattern, Victor was dimly aware that someone had come to the door and delivered some blankets and pillows. Valla took them and stacked them on the foot of her bed, then busied herself with some small tasks Victor had seen her perform a hundred times. She polished her boots, went through her spare clothing, checking for stains or tears—a sign of fading enchantments, and oiled Midnight’s blade and scabbard. He’d asked her before why she did it, knowing full well that Midnight would never rust, and she’d just shrugged and said it was habit.
He didn’t pay too much attention to her, though—the spell was enough to keep every bit of his brain occupied. Before they’d left Zaafor, Victor had managed to copy each part of it perfectly, but never more than half all at once. He’d gained some stats since then, thanks to Karnice, and as Tes loved to say, practice and persistence made perfect. He wished she could be there if he finished; he’d love to see her reaction, and, if he were honest, he loved impressing her.
He’d made it through the first half of another written copy of the spell pattern when a knock sounded, and Valla answered the door again. Victor’s nose told him what this disturbance was about; he smelled fresh bread, something savory like stew, and the unmistakable aroma of baked apples. When he looked up from his work, he saw Valla holding the door open while a young Ardeni man wearing a white apron carried in a tray heaped with food. Hot on his heels, a boy and a girl, both bearing a strong resemblance to the man, grunted and heaved as they pulled a narrow table through the doorway.
“Pardon us! We don’t often have folks choosing to dine in their rooms, but I keep telling the old man he needs to put some tables in ‘em. Anyway, this one’ll be all right for ya, I’d wager. Set it there, twins, and then go get them stools. Hustle, now!” He chuckled as the two youngsters hurried, cheeks huffing in exertion as they set the table near the corner of the room behind Victor and hurried back through the door.
“That’s nice of you. Thanks for accommodating us,” Valla said, moving closer to the door.
“Nah, ‘tis a pleasure. It’s a slow season for us—school’s in full swing, so there aren’t many parents visiting.”
Victor cleared his throat and turned further so he could look the man in his bright coppery eyes, “Speaking of visiting, do you know if any airships are coming soon? We’re trying to get passage to Persi Gables soon.”
“Not off the top o’ me head, but I can ask around. How about if I have an answer for you by tomorrow?”
“That would be perfect.” A clatter in the hallway, forestalling any further comment from Valla, announced the twins’ return, and soon they were dragging two short, cushioned stools into the room. Victor chuckled at their efforts, then thought about himself sitting on one of those stools, and his smile widened further. His knees would be up to his chin.
“Appreciate your efforts, youngsters. Come here before you go.” He beckoned the little ones close. As they approached, they ducked their heads, hiding behind their coppery curls, and Victor fished around in his storage rings for something he could give them, something better than a few beads. Suddenly he remembered the rings in his pocket, the ones he’d taken from Karnice, and he scooped them out, holding them in the palm of his hand. “Just a minute, you two. I’m looking for something.”
Victor picked up the first ring and sent forth a trickle of Energy, bonding with it. Nothing happened, and he chuckled, lifting it to see why Karnice might have been wearing a non-magical ring. It was a band of silvery metal but heavy and richly lustrous. “Platinum, I think,” he muttered, turning it around, admiring the nicely etched designs—it was a thick band, and all along it were alternating etchings of towers and fangs. Nothing was on the inner band. Victor liked it, but he didn’t like Karnice and didn’t want a platinum ring on his finger to remind him of the asshole.
He flicked the ring to the little boy and said, “I got that from a great warrior in another world. It’s not magical, but it’s a rich metal; maybe you can get it enchanted someday.”
“Oh!” the little boy said, snatching it out of the air. “Really?”
“That’s too fine, sir,” the man in the apron said, starting to step forward.
“Nonsense,” Victor growled, perhaps louder than he intended. “It’s nothing. Now, for you,” Victor winked at the little girl, and she giggled, further ducking her head. “Just a minute . . .” Victor tried to bond with the other ring, and sure enough, he became aware of a vast dimensional space. He sighed heavily as he began to sift through it, but his initial irritation at the tedium soon gave way to excitement; Karnice had a lot of nice things!
“Ah,” he said, flicking his consciousness through a corner stacked high with Energy beads of all sorts, stored carefully in labeled bags—beads attuned with water Energy, beads attuned with fire Energy, beads with multiple attunements; it went on and on.
“What is it?” Valla asked, watching his face.
“Karnice was an organized guy. Like, borderline crazy organized. Hang on . . .” Victor skipped past the mass of beads, through boxes of gems and precious metals, then he skimmed through dozens and dozens of weapons, from knives to axes to bows, and then, taking up half the space in the dimensional container, quite literally, hundreds of spears. “Sir, is your daughter planning to train with any sort of weapon?”
“Well, I . . . my wife’s a guardswoman, but she used to be a huntress out near Tarn’s Crossing. You wouldn’t have heard of it—’tis a frontier town. She wants to send Beela out there to train with her grandfather. Isn’t that right, Bee?”
“That’s right, Da’! I’m going to be a Huntress,” she grinned at Victor, and her sharp little teeth glinted in the glow lamps, her eyes narrowing fiercely.
“A Huntress? I’ve got just the thing.” Victor ran his mind through the ring again, over all the spears, looking for one that wasn’t nine feet long and didn’t weigh a thousand pounds. He settled on one made from a silvery wood, graceful and slender with a leaf-shaped, brassy blade. He produced it, holding it before himself, and said, “Here’s a fine spear to get her started. I’ll let you take it, sir, and pass it on when the time is right.”
“Are you . . . are you serious, m’Lord?”
“Very serious. I have plenty, don’t worry.” Suddenly Victor thought about Tes and how she’d passed up treasure after treasure on the monster hunt. She probably looked at those things the way Victor did these extra weapons. These weren’t even Karnice’s favorites—he’d taken his two best spears after the battle and doubted he’d ever use them. “This is the smallest one I could find among my things, but I think it’s just right.”Ñøv€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.
“Take it, Bee,” the man said, his voice hushed, and the little girl stepped forward and slowly reached out with a tiny blue hand. She grasped the silvery spear shaft, and her eyes widened with wonder.
“It’s full of Energy, Da’!”
“Bond with it. Do you know how?” Victor pressed.
“I do!” She nodded solemnly, and then, after a couple of heartbeats, the spear flared with golden light, and she laughed. She lifted the spear, easily two and half times as tall as she, and walked backward toward her father. “It’s light as a feather, Kip!” she said to her brother, who was watching her with wonder in his eyes. Suddenly Victor felt like he’d given the boy the short end of the bargain, and he began to fish through his ring again.
“What will you be when you grow up, Kip?”
“Sir, you spoil them! Already you’ve given the lad a king’s ransom!”
“It’s true, sir,” Kip said, holding up the ring. “I’m so happy with this gift. Thank you.”
Victor frowned for a second, then nodded. “Yeah, my pleasure. Seeing some happy kids makes me feel better. Trust me; I got more in the giving than you did in the receiving. Use them well.”
“Many thanks, Lord,” the man said, grasping his kids by the shoulders and pulling them toward the door. He looked at Valla and said, “Lady.” Then he stepped into the hallway, pulled his kids through, and closed the door.
“Hah! It was like he was retreating from battle,” Victor chuckled.
“You just gave his two children more wealth than he likely has squirreled away from all his time in this job.” Valla snorted and walked over to the table, sitting on one of the stools and inspecting the food.
“If that’s true, it’s just sad. There are probably two hundred spears in this ring, and that was one of the least impressive ones.”
“Come get some food. And, yes, it’s sad, but it’s not something you should cry over. He has a happy life, working in this inn. His wife has a nice job, and they have happy children. He’s chosen this safe, stable existence in exchange for not finding treasures and gaining power. He’s probably out there trying to think of a way to talk his daughter out of using that spear, but you’ve lit a fire in those children’s hearts; they’re going to remember the visit from the strange giant for the rest of their lives.”
Rather than dump more Energy into it, he tapered off the flow until, like his first two affinities, only a tiny thread attached the spell, woven through his every cell, to his Core, maintaining it and keeping it active. When he felt the magic settle and cease its alterations, he smiled. He still felt very much like himself and was quite at peace. His Core equalized, and he saw his three orbs of Energy gradually swell until they each pulsed with light, less than half their original size—the spell was hungry and seemed to require a lot of Energy to maintain.
When Victor opened his eyes, ready to observe his handiwork, a System message took up his attention:
***Congratulations! You have earned a new spell: Alter Self - Basic.***
***Alter Self - Basic: You have mastered the magic necessary to change an aspect of yourself, reducing your physical size and mass. This spell will last as long as you supply it with Energy, though it will reduce your maximum Energy pool so long as it is in effect. Due to the spell’s reduction of your Core’s potential, you’ll find that your other abilities and spells are similarly reduced in efficacy. Energy Cost: Variable - 5000 minimum. Cooldown: Long.***
***Congratulations! You have gained a new feat: Elder Magic***
***Elder Magic: You’ve gained an understanding of spell weaving beyond those designed and granted by the System. Your ability to grasp and manipulate the threads of Energy in yourself and the world around you is enhanced. Beware the freedom this ability affords—great harm walks hand in hand with great potential.***
“Nice!” Victor said and was momentarily confused by a certain lack of timbre in his voice.
“It worked!” Valla said, and Victor looked up at her. She was no longer sitting on the bed but standing before him, and he quickly stood, hoping to use her size as a measurement for how much he’d changed. He felt a bit woozy for a second, his vision darkening at the edges. When he recovered, he looked down at Valla and smiled. He was still taller than she, but nothing like before. He held a hand up and touched the ceiling—where before the top of his head had brushed the planks, he now felt the gap between the top of his head and the wood and estimated he’d shaved something like a foot and a half off his height.
“You’re around the size you were when we first met, I think,” Valla said, exposing her sharp teeth in a grin as she clapped him on the shoulder.
Victor quickly glanced at his status sheet, looking to see how his attributes and Energy had changed:
Energy Affinity:
3.1, Fear 9.4, Rage 9.1, Inspiration 7.4
Energy:
9274/9274 (4274/4274)
Strength:
202 (93)
Vitality:
302 (153)
Dexterity:
82 (38)
Agility:
105 (48)
Intelligence:
74 (34)
Will:
455 (209)
“Holy shit! It worked, but my attributes are all diminished. It seems proportionate to the amount of Energy being sapped from my Core. Mierda! Can you imagine Tes’s stats when she’s not shrunk down to our size?”
“It would depend on her true size, I suppose . . .” Valla frowned, contemplating.
Victor laughed, suddenly feeling a wave of relief and pride—he’d done something incredible, worked some magic beyond what the System usually granted, and managed to solve a problem that had been gnawing at the back of his mind for months. “Thank you, Tes!” he said, pumping his fist, unable to stop smiling. Suddenly he saw something strange in the air around him, a dozen little bright motes of light, sparkling like iridescent pearls, shimmering with a rainbow sheen.
“Are those Energy motes?” Valla asked, taking a step back. “I’ve never seen them look that way . . . they’re growing!”
She was right—the tiny pearls grew to baseball-sized bubbles of Energy, their weird, colorful sheen pulsing and throbbing, reminding Victor very much of soap bubbles in sunlight. They shimmered and bobbed and gradually floated toward him, and he stood still until they each sank into him, soaking through his clothes and flesh and then exploding into his pathways. The surge of Energy poleaxed him just as much as when he’d helped to kill the wyrm in the wastes. Those pearly bubbles were far more potent than the golden or purple motes he’d experienced before.
When his paroxysms of euphoria faded, and Victor found himself standing, dazed and flushed, before Valla, he had another message from the System waiting for his attention:
***Congratulations! You have achieved level 49 Titanic Herald, gained 12 strength, 22 vitality, 12 dexterity, 12 agility, 12 intelligence, and 12 will.***
