On the first day of the second week, the exercise involved picking out which wooden coin pallets were infused with aether. And as the days went on, Ivor increased the number of pallets, infusing aether into them and asking which ones were infused-- sometimes all were infused, sometimes none. This continued for four days.
On the fifth day, Ivor realized that no matter how long the sessions took, the boy’s Arcane aether seemed endless. This realization was both worrying and exciting. Worrying because he could not tell what the boy was capable of, exciting because he had the potential to change the world.
Ivor paused their lesson and told him to sit. “Can you tell how many spell tiers there are?”
“There are five tiers of magic.”
“And do you know to which tier the arcane sight belongs?”
From the reading he had done, there were five tiers of magic that he had gleaned from the few books and scrolls Ivor kept around- the first tier dealt with basic magics, easy to cast with their simple spell forms, and then tier two was more advanced adding complex spell layers and understanding this kept on for the higher the tier. Tier three and four separated the magicians from war crafters who used tier one and tier two spells. And strongest of all were the tier-five spells. And many times, scholars argued that the royal magics- the heirloom spells of the houses- should be put in this category as well because of how unconventional they were, like the Wyvern Lords’ taming spell. Lastly, the old magics, there was nothing much written about them because of their rarity.
“Three,” Marcus was not so sure, and of course, he didn’t want to oversell himself.
“Close enough. It’s a Tier four or five spell, I suspect, and it’s a Royal Magic”, Ivor corrected. Unlike other mage sight spells out there, the efficiency of the boy’s spell seemed near perfect. “And one of the very few I have come across,” he added in his sombre, grating voice.
Well, that was something Marcus thought. At least he had a strong Affinity presence in the arcane, which meant that teleportation spells, at least to his understanding of the scroll he read, were not far out of reach.
“With your ability to see the affinities of others, I hope you can choose your battles wisely.”
“So if my affinity is far stronger than my opponents does this mean I will have a better chance of winning.”
“Sure, in most cases,” he said with a slight shrug, “if you can keep channeling as much aether as you have over the past weeks.”
The following week, the third week of his tutelage, Ivor had Marcus tie a cloth over his eyes, and the tests continued. This time, seeing the magic behind the blindfold became more challenging. Unlike when he was using his eyes to look at the objects directly, the goal of the exercise had changed and become more complex-- Ivor had instructed him to focus more on his aether, with the goal being to catch the simple traces of any type of aether by hind any obstructions to his path.
----
When Marcus went back to their camp, Clara was the first to speak “Hi Marcus, what does Ivor have you doing this time, i hope not reading again?” Clara asked as she watched him nibble at the roasted meat.
“His having me use my innate magic to identify aether infused in objects with a blind fold on.”
“That’s amazing,” Geneva said.
“does that mean you can see with you eyes covered,” Clara asked.
“Sure you could think of it that way.”
“So can you see in the dark,” Linus asked.
“no, I cant. I can only see aether infused things or anything with aether really.”
“Could you Show me, “Geneve asked?
“No, show me,” Linus said only for Nel to push him to side asking with excitement and awe.
It was times like this he remembered he was in the body of a young man -- and the teenagers around would be looking for something exciting to do.
Marcus looked around at the eight teenagers of the troop who were slowly becoming his friends and family in the street alley where they slept.
“Okay, okay.” Marcus said, calming down his eager crowd, “You may feel something. Don’t worry; it’s not dangerous. “Looking at her face, the towering Goliath girl was having second thoughts, but to everyone’s surprise, she didn’t back down.
Marcus cast his Arcane Sight instantly without a need for a spell formation, and he looked straight at her.
Geneve felt a cold sensation on the back of her neckline, and her eyes widened. “I felt it-- it feels weird, but its like i blinked and it gone,” she said.
“Me. do me.” Nel said.
“Me .” Linus raised his hand.
“I wanna try it,” Ethne said sheepishly.
“No, show me.”
Gabe and the others quickly raised their hands, all of them taken up by the excitement to volunteer. Marcus, being Marcus, looked at each intern, and some felt it-- others, however, did not.
“I felt it,” Geneve said.
“I did too,” Gabe said.
“I didn’t.” Nel said
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“neither did I, “Linus added as well.
Looking at the orphaned teenagers who had just recently become his friends and family. This is what he saw.
Zek had four collective colours, red threads that represented bloodline magic smoked off his body, covered with slivers of black, yellows and grey for dark magic, arcane magic and shadow magic respectively.
Geneve, like his brother Zek, had the red of bloodline magic, which was not as prominent the purple of psychic magic. The yellow of arcane magic and thin strands of the grey of the shadow aether.
The threads of magic floated off their bodies and into the air and joined the magical ley lines.
Gabe had Thin wisps of arcane Aether and blue elemental Aether spiraling off him. Linus and Nel had the same thin wisps flowing from their bodies to the Aether ley lines.
It wasn’t surprising to see Clara’s Aether blazing, in blue elemental magic along with smaller smoking threads, the white colour of light magic, the yellow of arcane, the red of bloodline magic, and a much smaller strand of grey shadow aether.
The thing that surprised him even more was the number of colours around the youngest of the girls. Ethne, the youngest among them, had a ribbon of colours- all the colours were solidly flowing off of her, apart from the grey shadow magic.
His eyes widened as something suddenly became clear: although Ethne had as much magic flowing around her, it was not solidly made manifest like Clara’s. Therefore, he came to the conclusion with the evidence in front of him that innate magic was formed when enough Aether of a single affinity converged on itself and, like a big bang, formed a spell form. It meant that although Ethne had a lot of Aether, it was too split among many affinities, and she would never have innate magic.
“What’s wrong?” Ethne asked as she slunk back, her large, flaked golden eyes reflecting the campfire and hid behind Geneve, sparing a look for Marcus that he could only describe as fearful.
“It’s nothing. I was just surprised and realized something was in fact. Thank you.”
“Ahh, you’re welcome,” Ethne said, “blushing as she stuffed her face with roasted rat meat and looked away.
The next morning, when Marcus did not make his way to Ivor’s cabin, Gabe was fast to notice or, rather, to question him.
He questioned him why he hadn’t left for the cabin as they stepped out of the gate.
“Old man Ivor is gone to visit the markets in ForgeHold city, he says that he will be back in a week.”
“That means you get to spend the rest of the week with us,” Gabe said.
“yeah, I will be taking the time to see what else my spell can do.”
“And I will help you,” Gabe suggested, an excited look on his face.
Together, all the young teenagers made it into the Ashfields filled with the dull smell of ash. If one of the scavengers scoured an area for scraps of iron and wood and failed to find anything, they would move on, never staying in one place.
“This is the place we searched yesterday,” Clara said as she looked around at the shallow ditch, “let’s move forward to the next spot.”
Linus and Nel were the fast to run forward and started digging around-- their strategy was that those with small fingers were used to lightly pick at anything interesting and after they let Zek and Geneve carry away the heavy hips of soil if their was anything intresting.
It was hours later, much to Gabe’s insistence, that Marcus cast his spell.
” How does it work? Can you see me ?” Gabe asked, passing his hands in front of Marcus’s face, which was covered in rags that only let him see using his magical spell.
“I can see aether.”
“What does it look like?” Gabe asked.
“It looks like–.”
Marcus looked up at the sky, where the many Ley-lines of aether of different affinities were attracted to each other and formed large floating threads of The different affinities that worked their way through the many mountain cities.
“It looks like a child was given colours and drew lines across the mountains,” he said in awe.
“That. That sounds wonderful,” Ethne said from beside him and Gabe, looking up at the cloudy grey-blue skies filled with nothing but the smog of clouds.
When his gaze landed in the war-torn grounds of the ash field, Marcus cocked his head to the side as he watched thin tendrils of magic leave the ground and float up towards their respective colours of aether. Slowly, he understood what he was witnessing.
—
The Ashfeilds were the place where the people and the great houses came to fight against the monsters that attacked mountain cities. It was the place where if a soldier died, their armour, sword, or shield could be found buried in ashes, and if the weapons and armour these men and women carried were anything like the enchanted daggers Ivor kept, then they could sell it for a lot of coin.
Marcus ran to the closest spot with aether licking towards the sky and started digging undaunted by the soil. His fingers grew dirty with ash and earth as he dug, and the more dirt he pushed to the side, the more the aether escaped the ground. Seeing Marcus digging with a fervour, She had never seen in him.
Clara was curious,” Marcus did you find something.”
“Yes,” he nodded, heaving a heavy breath.
“Zek, Geneva, guys over here ,I think we found something,” she called out to her band of friends.
“What is it, Marcus?” Zek asked, getting to his knees and using his large, half-Goliath hands to shift dirt and ash like a burrowing mole.
Digging hands reached out and felt something hard beneath the thin, dark soil, and using his massive hands, he jerked and pulled.
If Clara had been expecting a torn, broken piece of armour or sword, it was not what she saw. All the searches she had done, searching deeper than they were digging right at that moment, Clara knew in those times she would have found nothing, not even a scale from plate armour or a fully functioning helm. Yet here they were, grins plastered on all their faces. They had found it, a shield fully functioning and reacting to aether as Marcus held it. It had a few snaps and dents, but so what? Even she could see the enchantments running along it.
“We did it,” Gabe yelled, and the entire cadre of teenagers let out whoops and yells of happiness.
They spent the next couple of minutes making their way back to the city, and Marcus walked with the rest of the group. Although his body moved along with the ragtag band of orphans, his mind was elsewhere, and his hands were caressing the inscribed letters of runes on the rounded shield. The writings were commands guiding the aether in the enchantment.
“Marcus, come over here, bring the shield with you,” Clara called, breaking him back into reality—like the first time he had been brought to the city.
Jethro, the shady merchant, had a welcoming smile, the man not one to let something as valuable as the enchanted shield pass him by.
Come on, Clara told me you guys found something interesting. He rubbed his hands together and watched Marcus place the shield on the shady merchant’s counter. “Interesting, this is very interesting, Clara.”
“How much are you offering,” Clara asked.
Jethro looked down at the shield, his hands gliding over its intricate carving. “You can’t rush a professional darling, I can get you the best deal,” he admonished.
Deep in his thoughts, Jethro was excited, to think that out of the rubbish, wagon wheels, and destroyed armour the kids often brought from the Ashfields, they would bring back an enchanted item. Finally, even this cover he took on as a job was paying off. If he actually thought about it though, Jethro could probably sell the shield in Forgehold for five small gold coins which was fifty silvers-- a wealth man’s pay in Srok.
A snap of fingers broke him out of his thoughts.” How much for this?” Clara kept asking and focusing on the merchant.
“Five small silver,” Jethro said.
“That’s enchanted,” Clara frowned, looking at Jethro,” it costs hundreds of gold coins in the high markets.”
“Fine one large silver,” the merchant clenched his jaws.
“Nine large silver,” Marcus countered. If he knew anything about enchanted items, it was that Ivor kept those he owned like treasured jewellery.
Jethro frowned and looked at Marcus, who met his gaze steadily.” Two small silver.”
“Eight large silver.”
“Three large silver,” Jethro said, eyes widening.
“Seven large silver.” Marcus had a slight smile slowly creeping up on his face.
“Four large silver.”
“Six-,” Marcus started, only to be stopped by Jethro raising his hand to halt him.
“Fine, fine. I will give you five silver for the shield,” Jethro assented, whining about how children should not be taking this much silver and how useless it was to orphans in the Slams of Srok.
Slowly and hesitantly, Jethro counted out five large silver coins and placed them in Clara’s hand. Immediately, he reached for the prized shield, covered it in rugs, and placed it in his wagon.
Five large silvers meant fifty small silvers or five hundred large coppers.
(5 large silvers = 50 small silvers = 500 large coppers)
Clara held the coins tight in her hands and close to her chest. Moving to their alley, she looked down at the silver. With this, Clara could help Zek and Geneva keep honouring the promise of the or she could completely buy out their debt from Agmak. A promise that they had made between them, as long as she could help them pay their debt, they would always have her back and be a part of her dream. She stared blankly at the wall, tears wailing in her eyes. this was it a chance as she realized it could be over between the half Goliaths sibling and Agmak forever; she had helped her friends and her family.
“Are you alright?” Marcus came up from behind her, his hand on her shoulder.
“Yes, I’m alright. I was just thinking.” She said,” Thank you. With this, we can pay for Zek and Geneva’s debt, and we can be done with the rats guild.
“You were planning to leave the guild?” Marcus asked.
“Yes, we planned to leave and start a house with Zek, Geneva and me. We would have enough strength to be a house.”
“What would you call this house?” He asked, looking up at the blue-grey sky.
For all Ivor said about his time as a House Knight for the nobles, there was one thing Marcus had mentioned that still rang in his mind. With his high affinities, he had said it in passing, and the fact that the houses got access to knowledge forbidden to most of the populace, it would help him to find out if it was possible to return home, his only goal at the moment.
“House Morkan... It means hope from darkness.”
“It’s a good name.”
—
Working on act 2 of the story need some house Names.
