by R. A. Mejia
Dear Lilliandra,
Hey. How’s my favorite mentor? Rex and Keans doing well? Hope everything is going well for you. Ok, now to business.
I’m sure you’ve been wondering how our rescue attempt went. It’s sort of a good news, bad news type of situation. Good news: We saved a bunch of slaves, including the kidnapped citizens from Restrian, from the clutches of a slave trader. Bad News: I sort of murdered him before I could get him to tell me who he sold the kobolds to. Good News: I took all his accounting books, so I think we have a record of who he sold the kobolds to. Bad News: I took all his accounting books and have no idea how to read them. They’re either in some language I don’t know or are in some kind of code. I’ll include a copy of some of the symbols he used in his books. If you can read it, I’ll transcribe everything for you to translate. If you can’t, then any advice on what to do next would be greatly appreciated.
We’re currently safe but on the run from the Empire. We’re heading towards Monstrum to hide out till we can decipher these books. I appreciate you taking the time to help with this matter. The kobolds are important to Vrax and me.
With love your student,
Armon Ellington
P.S. - before you ask, yes I’m staying warm and eating regular meals.
Having finished my well crafted plea for information, I carefully copy the first page of one of Mr. Gerald’s books and include the information in the message then send it off. I think about what Mary said when we found that other tablet and decide that I should also write to Sonya while I’m taking care of my correspondence. I’m definitely past the three day rule, but our last date also ended with us killing a bunch of Imperare soldiers and running for our lives. So, I don’t know if that adds a couple days to that rule or not. I know she’s a much better fighter than I’ll ever be, so I’m not too concerned for her safety. However, I should at least ask, just to show I’m concerned. Damn, I haven’t even started writing, but I’m nervous. I waste more time just wondering what to write and end up deciding to just start.
Once I get started writing I find it much easier than I thought it would be. I ask about Sonya’s health and the health of the people she was escorting to Secundum. Then I write about everything I’ve been through since we parted. Starting with the discovery of the massacre of the kobolds and how we tracked them to Valse but were too late to rescue them. I let her know that we did save some other people and that most of them are headed towards her in Secundum. Finally, I let her know about our plans to head into Monstrum and our hope to find someone to help read the accounting books we picked up from Mr. Gerald’s office.
“You misspelled longing.” A voice whispers into my ear. I leap up, surprised, and find Mary giggling.
“Where’d you come from? I thought you were out foraging for food?” I ask her, annoyed.
Mary giggles for another second before getting control of herself. “I came back a few minutes ago. You were so enthralled with writing to Sonya that you didn’t even hear me come back. I left some vegetables, fruits, nuts, and herbs near that pile of wood over there. My part getting breakfast ready is done.”
I look around and guess from the position of the sun above the tree line that at least an hour has passed. I really was distracted by my writing.
“Getting back to your love letter to Sonya. You gonna need any help writing something this time?” Mary teases while hovering in the air.
I screw up my face in irritation and reply in a mocking tone, “No, I won’t need any help writing to Sonya. I’m an adult with plenty of experience talking to women. I can manage a simple letter to a beautiful lady.”
Mary raises a single eyebrow at me, and I remember the last time I tried writing to Sonya. Mary and Vrax told me my letter came out sounding like an imbecile was dictating his day’s experience, and they had to help me re-write it three times before they’d let me send it. That letter had scored me a second date with Sonya.
Looking down in embarrassment and speaking with a more humble tone I admit, “But if it’d make you feel better, you could look over the letter before I send it off. You know, to make sure I spelled everything correctly and stuff.”
“Uh, huh. I’ll look over it for ‘spelling errors.'” She says while flying over and landing on the tablet in my hands. She reads over what I’ve written. Nodding in agreement for most of it. Once she finishes, she smiles and says “This is crap.”
I raise an eyebrow in surprise, “What do you mean? You were smiling the whole time you read it.”
She waves her hand through the air, dismissing my statement, “Yeah, I kept saying to myself ‘Armon is such a guy’ as I read it. Of course, I’d smile and agree.”
“What’s wrong with it?” I ask, trying to keep my growing frustration in check.
Mary smiles, letting me know she was just teasing, then answers, “Well, in all seriousness, it’s nice that you told Sonya about all the things we’ve been through. You even asked about how she’s doing, but…”
“But?” I prompt.
“But, you keep forgetting that she’s a girl. Girls talk about feelings. The letter you’ve written is more like a newspaper.” One of her hands cups her ear, the other mimicking holding a microphone to her mouth. In an announcer's voice she says, “Breaking Headline: Rescue from slavers. Further details at 11.” Then she shrugs and in a normal voice continues, “Not exactly romantic.”
I’m starting to understand a little of what she’s trying to tell me, but I don’t know what to do about it, and I ask, “Oh, so?”
As if talking to a child she says, “So, add some mushy stuff. You think she’s beautiful? Write that. Try to remind her of the good time you had on your last date and that you’d like to see her again sometime.”
I ponder what Mary said. It’s basically the same advice she gave last time. I should really write this stuff down sometime.
I look over the message I wrote Sonya and consider what I want to convey. Writing about how much I miss her is challenging because I don’t want to get too mushy. However, the words seem to flow out of me of their own accord. I write about how I think about her late at night when I can’t sleep. How thoughts of our last kiss haunt my dreams. How I wish she was here with me right now and not just so she could beat up all the bad men trying to kill us. I’m eager to share the details of what’s happened since we parted. Although embarrassed, I add how angry and sad I was when we discovered the kobolds and how much of a release it was to deal with the man who ordered the raid on the tribe. Looking over my work, I decide to add more detail about the more recent events. I try to describe the tension I felt sneaking through the front gate in Valse, the fierce battle with the horsemen that chased us down after we escaped, and the relief I felt when Gorbash saved us.
I hand off the revised version to Mary, and she gives me a thumbs up of approval after she reads it. I send the message off to Sonya.
“I hope she waits a week to message you back,” Mary says as she flies into the trees above us.
I look up at her in the tree and ask, “Why would you say that?”
She shrugs, “Cause that’s how long you took to write her. Turnabout is only fair play after all.”
Though there may be some hidden girl rule I’m not aware of, I just shake my head and hope that Sonya is a better person than Mary is.
I start to organize the pile that Mary dropped by the firewood I’d collected to see what kind of snack I can make. I start by separating the items into two piles. Food and herbs. I then separate the herbs into their different groups: green Viride leaves for poison, yellow Crocus leaves for stamina potions, blue Azureus leaves for mana potions, and red Rubrum leaves for health potions. The food pile is composed of some large leafy lettuce like leaves, a variety of edible berries, and some root vegetables. There’s enough food for a couple of meals. Mary must have gotten at least a level in her herbalism skill for this kind of haul.
I hand off some of the berries to Mary to snack on while I nibble on a we
ird vegetable that looks like a purple carrot. It tastes like a strawberry. Which is a strange flavor to mix with the crunchy texture of the plant. Still, food is food.
As I snack, I pull out the journal on spellwriting that Lilliandra gave me from my [Inventory] and examine it. The journal is the very same one that my mentor Lilliandra kept when she first learned her magical craft. Before we’d had to flee Restrian, I’d been working on a new arcane symbol I’d hoped to use to create an ice or freeze spell. I found a complex symbol that loosely translates as ‘remove.' I theorized that I could combine the symbols for ‘remove’ and ‘fire’ to draw heat away from something. Effectively freezing it. I’ll readily admit that I stole the principle from a thermodynamics teacher who was explaining how refrigerators worked. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to even master the intricate pattern of the ‘remove’ symbol. During my training with Lilliandra, I had to learn the ten basic arcane symbols. There was a brutal magical backlash when I didn’t write those arcane symbols just right and tried to activate them with my mana. I’d hate to feel the backlash from messing up a more complex and powerful symbol like ‘remove.' So, until Vrax gets back, I can experiment with spellwriting the symbol in the air. Without sending mana into the symbol, I’m mainly just drawing in the air with light. Still, it’s a good way to practice without needing a pen and paper.
I look at the notations from the journal about the ‘remove’ symbol. I read that there are patterns that can be memorized to aid in learning the various parts that make up the arcane symbol. There’s a right triangle with a curve, over a hexagon made with squiggles, overlaid with a circle that has to touch just the right places on the triangle and hexagon, and then a corkscrew pattern from the top.
God that’s complicated. No time like the present to practice though. I begin by imagining the mana inside me was a still pool, then I visualize the mana flowing through my body all the way to the tip of my index finger. I move my finger in the air and use the mana to spellwrite in front of me all of the parts described in the journal for the arcane symbol. I compare my writing with what’s in the journal and see that I forgot a small apostrophe mark on the left side of the circle. I add the little mark and intently scrutinize my work for any flaws. It only takes a small amount of mana to write in the air like this, so I don’t mind taking the extra time to make sure the symbol is correct. The dangerous part comes when I power the arcane symbol with my mana.
Checking the symbol for the third time, I conclude that it looks exactly like the picture in the journal. Ok, time to test it out. I project my mana into the spellwriting, filling each curve and line up with the magical energy in my body. After a minute of careful work, the symbol pulses blue and activates. I wipe the sweat from my brow and thank anyone that’s listening that the whole experiment didn’t blow up in my face. Now to add the simpler yet equally important symbol for ‘fire.' Having memorized that symbol early in my training, it only takes a moment to spellwrite and activate it next to the ‘remove’ symbol. I carefully use my mana to connect the two symbols and they both pulse and glow a purplish color. While I know academically that I’ve successfully spellwritten, I don’t notice any visible effects until I pass my hand through the air in which the arcane symbols hang. It’s slightly chilly! I mean, it may just be my imagination, but I’m pretty sure the air in front of the symbol is cooler than the rest of the air. I put my hand behind the arcane symbols and note that the air there feels warmer. Of course. The heat from the front of the symbol is being removed to the air behind it.
I raise both hands in the air and laugh maniacally, “I’ve done it! Mwahahaha!”
“Shhh! Some of us are trying to nap over here.” A sleepy voice calls out from behind me.
I turn in my sitting position and see Kitsune propping herself up on one elbow, looking at me through half closed lids. Her fox ears twitch as she yawns and one hand rubs her eyes. “What are you laughing about?”
Mary, sitting in the tree above Kitsune, looks at me suspiciously and adds, “Yes. What are you laughing so evilly about Armon?”
I look up at Mary, insulted at the accusation. “Evilly? I wasn’t laughing evilly. Don’t you recognize the laugh of a genius making a breakthrough?”
“Genius? Ha! You forget that I saw your records. You didn’t learn how to tell time till you were seven.”
“Hey, telling time is hard for some kids!” I yell back without thinking.
An embarrassed silence falls on the group as Mary looks at me with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.
I sigh and admit, “Ok, maybe it’s not a genius breakthrough. But I finally confirmed that combining the arcane symbols for ‘remove’ and ‘fire’ creates a transfer of heat energy.”
Kitsune and Mary look at me with blank faces, so I continue, “Which means that I can make things cold.”
They continue to look at me unimpressed by my statement. “Which means that I can freeze things. Like food, water…monsters.”
A look of understanding comes over Kitsune, and she says, “Oh, so this is a combat spell? I’ve seen ice magic plenty of times.” Then with only a murmur of magical words and a wave of her hand, a needle thin piece of ice forms in front of Kitsune and launches into a nearby tree embedding itself for a moment before disappearing.
I look at the casual display of ice magic with open mouthed astonishment. A feeling of disappointment comes over me, and I draw my knees to my chest, wrap my arms around my legs and put my chin on my knees. It seems I didn’t invent ice magic after all. Guess I shouldn’t have thought I was being so smart.
“Don’t pout Armon. I’m sure what you did was pretty cool too.” Mary says with a laugh, “Ha, ha. Cool? Get it?”
“I get it, and I’m not pouting,” I say, trying to keep the whine out of my voice.
“Yes, I’m sure it’s a fascinating discovery. Why don’t you show us?” Kitsune adds, trying to cheer me up.
I raise my eyes from the spot on the ground I’m staring at and look at her. “You’re really interested?”
Kitsune nods enthusiastically.
Feeling a little silly for being so disappointed that I’m not a genius, I smile at Kitsune. “Ok, follow me.” I stand up and walk over to the trough. The horses had come and gone, leaving half of the water I’d filled it with. Mary flies over and hovers near Kitsune who is standing behind me. The journal on spellwriting in hand, I kneel in front of the trough, and I painstakingly write the arcane symbol for ‘remove’ over the water. I triple check it against the journal to make sure it’s correct. Then, with a practiced hand, I write the symbol for ‘fire’ next to ‘remove.' I look at Kitsune and Mary, a bit of excitement building in me as I plan to show off what I’ve learned. Only, I find Kitsune sitting on the grass, her hand propping up her face, snoring. Mary is rests on Kitsune’s shoulder, her head bobbing up and down as she nods off too. Annoyed, I clap my hands together loudly, and they both wake up.
“I’m up. I’m up.” Mary yells, startled. Kitsune just yawns and stretches her arms, not embarrassed in the least at having fallen asleep. I feel my annoyance drain away from me as I remember the long day and night Kitsune had.
“Ok. Now I’m ready to show you what I’ve been working on.”
The two nod and smile politely.
Determined to impress my two watchers I pour more mana into the two arcane symbols. Last time I only dribbled enough mana into the symbols to test if they worked but this time I open the flood gates. The two symbols flash a bright purple and pulse as my mana continues to flow into them even after activation. At first, there’s no noticeable effect. Then slowly, a single dot of frost appears on the surface of the water. Slowly it grows, forming a thin layer of surface ice. Then, wanting to quicken the process I force all the mana I have left into the spell, and there’s a burst of heat from above the trough that forces me to lean back. My head throbs like a jackhammer is working on it, I fall back onto the grass, and the world around me starts to fade. Before my consciousness leaves me, I have one last
thought.
I wonder if girls are impressed by ice cubes.
Chapter 2.4
When I wake up, I find myself lying on the ground, staring up at the sky. The sun is directly above me, and the light hurts my eyes. I sit up and see not much has changed around me. Kitsune is back under her tree sleeping. Mary is in the branches above her laying back, eating. The only noticeable difference is that Vrax has come back and is cooking rabbit meat over a small campfire. I get up and stagger towards Vrax, still unsteady on my feet. He notices my movement and looks up from his cooking. He looks at me for a moment then calls out to Mary, “He’s awake.”
Mary puts down the food she’s eating and flies over to me, “Stop moving you idiot.”