Immovable Mage

– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 214, Season of the Rising Moon, Day 31 –

“Aunt Brynn,” started Terry, “You mentioned once that you are aspect gifted in the air aspect, right? Why haven’t I ever seen you cast an air spell?”

Terry, Lori, and Brynn were taking a break from mana crafting practice.

“Is it not obvious?” retorted Brynn and gestured at her crafting materials. “It’s because I do not care about the air aspect. If we were to discover that you could be the world’s greatest carpenter, would you stop your spellwork and mana cultivation?”

“Not a chance,” replied Terry instantly.

Brynn nodded. “My thoughts exactly.”

“I have seen Terry’s attempt at whittling once,” interjected Lori. “I don’t think we have to worry about his wasted carpentry talents.” She grimaced. “That horse looked monstrous.”

“It was supposed to be a dog,” grumbled Terry.

“A monstrous dog,” insisted Lori. “It’s haunting my dreams!”

Brynn chuckled at their banter. “Talents and interests are not always aligned.” She shrugged. “Fortunately, mages in Arcana are at liberty to follow their own interests, regardless of other concerns.” She smiled wistfully. “When I was a little girl, I once saw a show with animated dancing dolls.” Her smile widened. “I knew then and there what I wanted to become. My passion lies in construct work and you cannot craft a golem out of air. At best, the air aspect can be used for enhancements.”

“Your golems at the training grounds do not seem to dance much,” remarked Lori.

“Practical applications pay better, or at least more reliably.” Brynn winked at her. “The crafting challenges for dancing and combat movement are not that dissimilar, actually. I still like to relax on occasion by crafting small dancing golems. I can bring some if you’re interested.”

“Yeah.” “Please.”

“Alright, but if I start rambling on how to properly align the movement inscriptions with the carved mana lines, you will have to stop me or I may unintentionally give a whole lecture. Even though it would be educational, that topic is still a tiny bit beyond your qualification level.”

***

“Are you sure that you are alright?” asked a blonde elven teenager.

“Yes, Calam,” replied Siling. “My soul has completely recovered from releasing the wolf spirit. I am ready to fill my second soul spot again. Just like all the previous times you have asked me that question in the last hour, I appreciate your concern.” She quietly added in a mumble: “Somewhat.” The level of appreciativeness in Siling’s tone had decreased with each repetition of this conversation. By now, it was getting really hard to detect.

“Just saying.” Calam remained skeptical. “Intentionally damaging your soul does not sound healthy.”

“Obviously it is not,” admitted Siling testily. “But that is an unavoidable consequence of releasing a soul spirit. A soul can recover its energy just like you can recover your mana. If I required more time to recuperate, I would have told you.”

“If you say so.” Calam still did not sound convinced.

“I have to admit, it sounds a bit freaky,” said Terry.

Siling frowned, but remained quiet.

“…also kinda awesome.” Terry continued pensively, with a grin. “I am not even able to sense a soul inside of me. Even if I did, I doubt I would have the nerve to fiddle around with it. Having an additional pet companion sounds tempting. I can’t wait to see it in action. I figure looking at beasts from a spirit collector’s perspective changes your view on hunting as well?”

The frown had quickly vanished from Siling’s face and she was happy at the open-minded curiosity. “Guess I look at their abilities not only in terms of threat but also in terms of their usefulness, yes.”

“There comes the last gate on our trip. Next up, Thundervalley.” Terry led the way through the dimensional gate.

The three took a moment to look around the protective outpost. Terry saw Leah in the distance, and the two nodded at each other.

“This way.” Terry moved ahead.

***

“In my last hunt, it was my responsibility to look for the cloud badger’s tracks,” said Terry. “Don’t know how my mana sense compares to yours, though.”

“Not my strong point,” admitted Calam.

“I think I can do you one better,” said Siling. “I can let my falcon soul survey from the air.”

“You sure?” questioned Calam.

“Don’t you rely on the bear soul for combat?” asked Terry. “I thought switching souls was troublesome.”

“This much is fine,” said Siling. “The summoning and returning consumes energy, but there is no upkeep cost. I will have recovered before we engage the cloud badger.”

“Great. Do you mind if I activate my mana sense for your summons?” asked Terry.

“Not a bit.” Siling smiled and started her summoning spell.

The spell looked… weird. Terry could roughly make out the usual stages of spellwork, but the spell structure did not look like anything Terry had ever seen before. First of all, it did not seem to revolve around a normal casting center. Instead, it circled around Siling’s whole body and several mana strands were even passing right through her and coalesced at specific points.

During the priming phase, the primer flickered and changed color slightly whenever it moved through one of those points. After the priming had finished, the structure melted and stuck closely to Siling’s body like a glowing protective layer.

Siling moved her middle and ring finger on one hand from her forehead down to her sternum and then thrust them forward. The glowing layer followed the finger and converged at her fingertips. In the next moment, the glowing blob took shape and a white falcon with purple markings appeared.

Siling exhaled sharply. “There. All done.”

“It’s pretty,” exclaimed Calam.

“Neat,” said Terry. “I wondered how to distinguish soul spirits from the real thing, but I guess the coloring is somewhat of a giveaway.”

“Can I pet it?” asked Calam.

“Good question. Do they feel real?” added Terry.

“Sure. Try it.” Siling chortled and directed the falcon to fly over to her two companions.

“I want one,” said Calam and laughed.

“I am looking forward to the bear,” said Terry. “Always thought bears look really cuddly. If it wasn’t for their whole mauling people schtick, they would make such great pets.” He grinned. “Finally, I can have a bear cuddle.”

“Hey hey hey, wait a minute,” said Siling with a gasp. “We barely know each other, and this is our first mission. Who says I will let you cuddle my bear on the first mission? What kind of lady do you— pfffffffffffft ahahaaha.” Siling had tried her best to keep a straight face, but Terry’s confused look had proved it impossible.

When Siling broke out into laughter at her own joke, Terry caught on that she was kidding. He chuckled and shook his head. He was not sure why Calam blushed, but he thought little of it – Calam tended to blush a lot.

Siling let the falcon take off into the air and look for a cloud badger.

“So, how does this work?” inquired Terry. “You see through its eyes or something?”

“No.” Siling grimaced. “Sounds headache-inducing. I just kind of speak to it. Figuratively.”

“It speaks?” blurted Terry.

“Figuratively,” stressed Siling. “It won’t recite any poems, but you know – ‘movement’, ‘danger’, ‘food’, ‘pretty falcon’ – that kind of information can be communicated. The more intelligent the soul, the more complex the information that can be communicated. Birdbrain does not make for a great conversational partner, but what it lacks in eloquence it makes up for in wings and eyesight.”

“What about distance?” asked Terry.

“Depends on my mana control and soul strength.” Siling stopped in her tracks and pointed. “Found one. Over there.”

***

“Everyone brought their scent masks?” asked Terry.

“Yup.” “Right here.”

“We want to immobilize it and then take it out by crushing its head,” explained Terry. “I brought some sticky traps for the former and rented a war hammer for the latter.”

“A direct Kinetic Push should also work for crushing, no?” asked Calam.

“I hope so,” agreed Terry. “Then we can use the hammer as backup without risking damaging it.”

“I would prefer to postpone experiments until I have my second soul spot filled,” interjected Siling.

“Alright.” “Sure.”

“So… The trap?” prompted Siling.

Terry summoned one of the purchased sticky traps from his storage bracelet. “Right here.”

Siling examined the trap. “Is this mana crafted or…?”

“No.” Terry pointed. “It has a pressure trigger in the middle and some pressurized liquid in the compartment inside.”

“How do we use it?” asked Calam.

“I guess we just place it on the ground and lure the cloud badger to step on the trigger,” said Terry.

“Can’t we simply have Calam chuck it at the creature?” suggested Siling.

“Sounds fun, but no bets on my hand eye coordination,” said Calam. “I am used to throwing out force, not objects.”

“Sounds like an experiment, so let us hold off for now,” said Terry. “We can place some food on it and move away, can’t we? We only need to put it upwind from the badger and it should get a whiff.”

“I could also help it along with a Breeze spell,” added Siling. “What do we use as bait? What does it normally eat?”

“Around here, apparently the death apples, but I don’t think we are qualified to harvest those,” said Terry. “The cloud badger should be an omnivore. So any of our food rations should work as well.”

“Can we use the soul falcon?” suggested Calam. “Then we wouldn’t waste food.”

“Not unless absolutely necessary, please,” interjected Siling. “Any damage to it will be transmitted to my own soul. Even a strengthened soul is only as strong as the potential of its core soul allows. A soul falcon is still a falcon, which is to say quite fragile.”

“That’s a no then,” concluded Terry.

“Yup, better to waste a sandwich,” agreed Calam.

“Not sure if we need a sandwich.” Terry began looking through his storage. “I have some honey and jam with me. Let’s try that first.”

“Specifically prepared for today, or do you have a sweet tooth?” asked Siling curiously.

“I also have some chocolate with me, but no way am I sacrificing that,” continued Terry.

“Sweet tooth, got it.” Siling nodded with a grin. “Should I switch to my bear soul?”

“Hmm…” Terry was not sure.

“We could first see how the trap works out,” suggested Calam. “Maybe we don’t have to rely on the bear for combat. If we want to look for other badgers, the falcon would be more useful.”

“How long does the switch take?” Terry asked Siling.

“Calling the falcon back only takes a few seconds, and you have already seen the summoning invocation.” Siling tilted her head and gave a lop-sided shrug. “Same duration.”

“In that case, I agree with Calam,” said Terry. “Let’s wait and see if it will be necessary.”

They put on the scent masks and moved closer to the cloud badger. Once they were only a few steps away, Terry dug a small hole and put the trap inside so that the pressure plate was on ground level. Afterwards, he spread some jam and honey on it and pulled the cord for arming the trap.

Terry and the others spread out around the trap and crouched down. Calam gripped the war hammer in one hand. Terry was readying his barrier spear. Siling was preparing a metal-reinforced quarterstaff.

When everyone was ready, Siling activated her Breeze spell and directed the sweet scent towards the cloud badger. After a brief moment, the creature raised its nose into the air and stepped towards the trap.

*Fluummmm* The trap activated.

The cloud badger was now covered by a sticky substance. The creature immediately released its stench liquid and activated its air coating.

Unfortunately for the beast, the air coating did not remove the sticky substance that had already covered it. Instead of helping, the additional air flow actually worsened its condition by accelerating the hardening of the sticky liquid.

Terry and company waited a few minutes like that. The sticky substance had hardened and turned more and more rubbery, and the cloud badger had completely exhausted itself by struggling against it.

“Now?” asked Calam.

“Yes,” agreed Terry.

They both moved closer cautiously – step by step, and eyes focused on the corrupted creature. When they were close enough, Terry activated his Blinding Flash glove near the creature’s eyes as an additional precaution. A second later, Calam had swung down the war hammer.

“Huh,” uttered Calam flatly.

“That was it?” asked Siling incredulously. “I thought mana corrupted would be tougher.”

“Last time, my siblings and I did not bring a sticky trap,” said Terry wryly. “Without the trap, its skin, its air coating, and its lightning charge are a lot more bothersome.” He added another warning: “Be careful of its jaws. Its spit may be drenched in death apple poison. You really do not want that on your skin.”

While Terry was talking, Siling had already moved closer and started her soul capture spell. After a few minutes, Siling opened her eyes and wore a broad smile. “All done. I am now the official owner of a mana corrupted soul spirit.”

“Congrats!”

“It is still ethereal, though,” said Siling. “I need to strengthen it with further souls before the spirit itself will be of use.”

“How many souls until it becomes corporeal?” asked Terry.

Siling shrugged. “Never strengthened a mana corrupted soul before. It ranged from three to ten with regular beasts. Double that for improving the soul’s power to its limit.”

“If every hunt goes as smoothly as this one, then it should not take too long before Terry can cuddle your badger,” said Calam.

“Huh? Why would I want to cuddle that stinky thing?” Terry scrunched up his face.

Siling gasped and tried her best to look offended. “How dare you?!”

“Take this.” Siling used two fingers to tap at Terry’s shoulder.

*Ssstz.* Terry was hit by a minor lightning charge. “Oww, what the…?”

“Uh, s-sorry.” Siling immediately felt guilty. “I thought it would only sting a bit. I should not have done that.”

“No worries. It did not hurt badly, but I did not expect that.” Terry massaged his shoulder in order to get rid of the numbness. “What was that, by the way? I did not see any spell structure.”

“That’s because there was none. Give me a moment.” Siling concentrated with her eyes closed. After a brief moment, the air gathered around her and…

“Air coating?” Calam and Terry were stunned.

“Yup. Straight from the soul spirit.” Siling’s grin could not possibly become any broader. “One reason why I was looking forward to collecting the souls of magical creatures. Still consumes my mana, but no formal spellwork is necessary.”

“Pfffft.” Calam was visibly strained, trying not to laugh out loud. Terry started to chuckle as well.

“What?” Siling blinked and tilted her head.

“Nothing,” replied Calam. “Pfft.”

“You may want to bring a hair band the next time you try that,” suggested Terry and smiled.

After Siling had grasped the implication of those words, she quickly deactivated the spell and turned around to fix whatever was left of her hairstyle. The remaining electric charge on her fingers did not make the task any easier.

Siling turned around with a flushed face and a forced deadpan expression. “Glad to be of some entertainment.” She nodded at them.

“Yeah thanks.” “Appreciate it.”

“Next time you want to test a new ability on me, please be so kind as to inform me beforehand, will you?” requested Terry.

“Sorry for that,” mumbled Siling and she agreed with a nod.

“You can make it up to me by summoning your soul bear later.” Terry grinned and then turned more serious again. “However, we should finish our planned quota first.” He moved towards the cloud badger and took out one spray bottle of the dissolving liquid that was sold as a set with the sticky traps. He used the spray on the hardened, sticky substance.

Siling directed her falcon to look for the next cloud badger.

“Will you be able to spray stinky liquid now as well?” inquired Calam.

“No.” Siling pouted. “I know, pity right? Would have been great for pranks. Or useful at parties.”

Siling started to act out an imaginary scene. “Hey there, pretty elf. Fancy meeting you here. Come here often? How about— squitt.” She gestured and imitated a noise that Terry assumed was supposed to signify spraying liquid. “Alas, I can only channel the mana-related abilities directly. The purely physical abilities can only be used by the soul spirit itself.”

“I guess your scene would play a bit differently if you had to spray the liquid from an anal gland,” remarked Calam.

“You would have to install a butt window if you want to avoid ruining your outfit,” added Terry, who was working on the cloud badger in order to dissolve the sticky liquid.

Siling’s face scrunched up. “That would send all the wrong signals.”

“If stench is enough,” began Terry, “You could simply fart to dissuade the pushy suitor. If your bowels suffer from stage fright, I can introduce you to my brother. He can coach you.”

“Nah. That would still leave too much ambiguity for some,” complained Siling. “And who told you that elven women fart?! That was supposed to be a secret!”

Calam rolled his eyes. Hard.

“Merely an educated guess based on my experience with dwarven women in the family,” replied Terry absentmindedly. After he had spoken the words out loud, he realized what he had said and added: “Please don’t quote me on that.”

Terry moved the badger further to the side. He took out a jug of water from his dimensional storage and cleaned the remains of the sticky solution.

“Found another one,” announced Siling.

“Mhmh,” acknowledged Terry. He put the cloud badger into the dimensional body bag provided by the Guardians.

“Can we try the Kinetic Push this time?” proposed Calam.

“Sure, why not.”

***

Terry’s group had hunted five cloud badgers before they ran out of sticky traps and called it a day in the late afternoon.

Their day had been very profitable. Terry decided to buy a war hammer instead of renting in the future. Even deducting the cost of a good quality non-magic war hammer would leave him with over five hundred coins of profit for the day. Mana corrupted hunts were really on another level than non-magic beasts. A few more days like this, and Terry could even invest into a second barrier spear.

Luckily, Arcana was an empire of magic study. Magic and construct assisted blacksmithing was a lot more standardized and productive than the traditional craft. There was no shortage of people trying to supplement their income with mana crafting, either.

“Tea house in Arcana?” suggested Calam.

“Sure, I’m in,” agreed Terry with little hesitation. Five coins for mana-imbued tea did not seem as worrisome as it had in the past.

“Can we go to the Peaceful Porch?” asked Siling. “I heard it opened a week ago, but I haven’t had time to go there yet.”

Terry shrugged. He did not know enough about the different places to have a preference.

“Sounds like a plan.” Calam smiled before pausing momentarily. He squinted at Siling with uncertainty in his eyes. “You’re not going to… make the waitstaff cry, will you?”

“Huh? What?” Siling scrunched up her face with bewilderment. “Why would I do that?”

“Just checking.” Calam shrugged. Terry chuckled before explaining their experience with Nassim.

“Wow, sounds like a real charmer,” exclaimed Siling with strong sarcasm. “Sadly, there are no healing spells for curing wasted personalities.”

“Illusion or dream aspect spells might work,” offered Calam. “Or maybe mind magic?”

“Yeah, I guess those could technically cure bad character traits,” pondered Terry. “Together with any other character traits and sense of identity or cognitive function.”

“I admit it may be somewhat of a drastic cure.” Calam puckered his lips.

“Siling?” Terry noticed that Siling had fallen slightly behind their step.

“Hm?” Siling jolted out of her daze. “Sorry, I’m hungry and trying to remember if the Peaceful Porch was supposed to serve cake.”

Terry chortled. “Anyway, I was wondering if you two have any particular mission type preference from the intermediate core curriculum?

***

“Pheww… I’m spent,” exclaimed Jorg. “Short break, please. Then we should switch again.”

Jorg, Lori, and Terry were on the training grounds. Even though they currently did no missions with each other, they still had regular spars. They took turns battling one against two. The disadvantaged party was allowed to use bursts to compensate for the numbers difference.

Lori looked at Terry. “So your group is still going for cloud badgers?”

“Not for long. It has been profitable, but repeating the same mission does not help us advance in the curriculum and Siling’s cloud badger soul spirit has hit its strengthening limit.”

“Want to switch?” asked Jorg. “Miguel, Gellath, and I are nearly done with the intermediate curriculum mission requirement, but…” He made a dramatic pause. “We’re completely broke.”

“Again?” exclaimed Lori aghast.

Jorg shrugged. “If I had known what a pain the swamp boas are, I might have voted to stick with the badgers. At least until we had upgraded our equipment.”

“The corrupted swamps? Really?” Terry felt incredulous. “What the Wastes were you thinking?”

“Objection!” shouted Lori and raised a finger to the air. “Assumes facts not in evidence.” She guffawed.

“Yeah yeah yeah. Save it,” grumbled Jorg before shaking his head. “Miguel is the only one not bothered by these wasted strangle noodles. They avoid him and his coldfire aspect like the plague.”

“It’s not too late yet,” said Lori. “We could lend you the coins for a sticky trap. And by ‘we’ I mean preferably Terry.” She stuck out her tongue.

“Anyway,” started Terry, “We want to take the mana cursed introduction class next.”

“That’s not part of the core curriculum, is it?” asked Jorg anxiously. He thought he might have overlooked something, and he was not looking forward to taking yet another theoretical introduction.

“No, it isn’t,” assured Lori. She looked at her human brother. “Why have you decided to take it?”

“Calam, Siling, and I looked at the gap between our mission record and the advancement recommendation limit,” explained Terry. “Siling is still one courier and one escort mission short. Calam still requires a few gathering missions before he can advance in the curriculum. We plan to do a multi-mission run to wrap it all up in one go.”

“Trying to complete the gathering missions on your way back?” Lori nodded slightly.

“Yes,” confirmed Terry. “We had a look at the open missions and the best fit is a mission further out in the south. Escort some kind of scholar to Biant. Deliver a storage item to Delwood Fort. On our way back, we can stop in Corsteau.”

“And the cursed?” asked Jorg.

“We searched for other missions that we could pick up for the trip and there is a perpetual mission for checking the local wildlife for signs of mana curse infection,” explained Terry. “Some researchers have marked certain animals before. They will hand us a device for locating the marked animals and then we need to scan the markings. The reward is surprisingly high.”

After his explanation, Terry turned to Lori. “How about your group?”

“I’m doing fine,” said Lori. “We haven’t encountered any serious trouble in our missions and the pay is good.” She exhaled sharply. “But Alrik seems to always be pressed for coins no matter how much we earn and Elena…” She shrugged while grimacing. “…has an unfortunate tendency to break equipment.”

“Are you sure it is a good idea to work with Elena?” asked Jorg with a frown. “Berserkers have—”

“A reputation, yes,” interrupted Lori testily. “I am well aware, but she can’t help that her mana is blood aspected, can she?”

“No, but bursting is dangerous enough to begin with,” said Jorg. His frown was still frozen on his face. “Bursting with blood-aspected mana is madness. Literally.”

“Elena has it under control,” assured Lori. “She breaks a rented weapon here and there, but if it was not for her close combat ability, we would not be able to take the missions we do.”

Jorg grumbled quietly and then shook his head in resignation. “Well, it’s your call, but if I were you, I would keep a blowpipe and some tranquilizer darts with me.” He puffed his cheeks. “Anyway, it is good to know that we will all be done with the intermediate missions soon.” He looked at his siblings. “Everyone still in agreement with our pick for the advanced class?”

“Of course,” replied Lori firmly. “In fact, I believe if you hadn’t already suggested it, then Alrik would have.”

“No objections from us either,” added Terry. “That being said…” He sighed. “You do realize that Ma will not be happy with our choice, right Jorg?”

“And that they will identify you as the main instigator?” warned Lori. “I don’t believe they will appreciate your little ‘loophole.’”

“Yeah yeah.” Jorg shrugged. “I would have to cross that bridge sooner or later, anyway.” He clapped loudly. “Enough chatting. Next round?”

“It’s Terry’s turn,” said Lori.

“Spears first, please,” requested Terry.

The three of them stood up. The twins faced Terry together. All of them had their practice short spears in hand. However, while the twins carried one in each hand, Terry only used one.

“Oh?” exclaimed Lori with a raised eyebrow. “Only a single spear?”

“Thought I would try something new.” Terry grinned sheepishly.

“Mhh…” Lori narrowed her eyes. “Suspicious.”

“Maybe he is just getting cocky?” offered Jorg before he gasped exaggeratedly. “Perhaps Terry has finally hit puberty?”

Terry rolled his eyes.

Lori snorted. “If lacking humility was a sure sign of puberty, you must have hit it at five, Jorg.”

“Sis, what are you doing?” Jorg gave a betrayed outcry. “You are supposed to be on my team now.” He whined: “No siding with Terry until the round has ended. Verbal sparring is part of sparring, too.”

“Right,” replied Lori with a blank expression. “Time to get serious.”

Jorg circled around Terry’s left side so that Terry would be between him and Lori. It was one of their usual openings. Terry could not monitor both at the same time, and this opening forced him to move.

Only this time, Terry did not move to the side as usual. Instead, he burst forward into Jorg’s path. His spear was kept at his right and pointed at Lori.

Jorg thrust his right spear forward while Lori tried to circle around Terry to close in.

Terry put his weight on his left heel and rotated his body to the right so that Jorg’s spear would pass in front of him. He rapidly struck out with his left palm against the weapon before dodging Jorg’s second spear.

“What the—?” Jorg wanted to move forward but was held back by his spear. “Hey!”

Jorg stepped forward and abandoned his transfixed spear that was now hanging firmly in the air. “So that is how you want to play it, huh?” He grabbed his remaining spear and slowly moved closer to his accepted brother.

Terry grinned. His mana crafting attempts had not been successful yet, but the crafting practice had been a tremendous boon for his spell control. It was enough to finally make the spell somewhat usable in normal combat. Unfortunately, his inability to cast hands-free was still a major obstacle.

“Oh? Are we allowed to use spells now?” exclaimed Lori cheerfully and a mischievous grin was plastered on her face.

Terry’s own grin immediately vanished. “Uh-oh.” The next he knew, the earth beneath his feet had already been liquified and he was slipping thanks to a push from Jorg. He instinctively tried to catch his fall with his left hand – only to sink into the earth up to his elbow. He sighed. “I hate that spell.”

“Aww, that’s too bad, because it’s my favorite!” Lori smirked at him.

“Yes, I am warming up to it, too,” exclaimed Jorg teasingly. “Maybe I should take some lessons from Lori?”

Terry puckered his lips and tilted his head to the side. “You know, Jorg, if you want to frighten me, try something more believable than you voluntarily practicing spellwork.”

Lori snorted and laughed.

Jorg frowned. “How rude! You could at least pretend a bit before you call my bluff. Come on, get up, my muddy brother, or are you going to forfeit?”

“Not a chance.”

***