Chapter 69 - Truth

Vivienne’s approach to spellcraft was vastly different from Master Sethril’s. Where the old man would demonstrate a technique and leave Hump to flounder about trying to replicate it for weeks, Vivienne taught him the intricacies of the spell bit by bit. He’d been able to use his spellbook to see how his essence should be used, but that hadn’t spared him. It was worse than it sounded. Far worse…

“Again!” Vivienne snapped.

Hump gripped his staff in the centre with both hands and swung at his imaginary foe, trying to project his essence as he did so. They’d decided to start his training with Parry Shield, seeing as it primarily relied on a wizard’s control. Vivienne thought it best to save the potentially more damaging spells for when Hump had grown used to his expanded essence pool.

“Focus, Hump. Your essence is all over the place. Swing and cast. Swing and cast.”

Hump gritted his teeth. “I’m doing that!” He swung at the air again. The sweeping movement made it exponentially more difficult for him to envision what his essence should be doing, and because of that he lost control—his power dissipating into the open air before him.

The goal wasn’t even to cast a spell. While Parry Shield was much the same as the basic Shield spell, it required a concentrated burst of essence carried by momentum. What he was doing now was just the first step—incorporating movement into his essence manipulation, something he’d done often enough in the past when using Rockshot. Though that was a fully formed spell; the magic did most of the job for him. What Vivienne asked him to do relied purely on will and intent to make his essence move as demanded. There was no formational support to picture as he cast, just a vague direction. And vagueness never went well with magic.

He swung again, then fell against his staff, gasping for breath. Thirty minutes of batting at the air alone would have tired him out—after the morning’s activities, it brought him to exhaustion. He was cold to his core and had nothing to show for it. Not a single successful attempt.

Vivienne must have sensed his frustration as she said, “Let’s take a break.”

Nearby, Celaine looked up from where she’d been seated on the ground, her brow damp with sweat. She’d been demonstrating the shaping exercise Hump had attempted to teach her to Vivienne. “I can keep going.”

It was just the three of them outside. Spellcraft was of no use to the other two, being Chosen of the Pantheon, so Vivienne had tasked Dylan with teaching Bud one of the meditative techniques to help strengthen the soul.

“There’s no need,” Vivienne said. “I believe I’ve identified the reason you’ve been struggling. To start with, Hump’s been teaching you all the wrong things.”

Celaine lowered her hand, allowing the meagre amount of earth essence she’d managed to gather dissipate. “He has?”

Hump blinked. “I have?”

Vivienne smiled. “You lack talent for external essence, which is why you’ve been having so much trouble projecting it. It makes sense, really. All of your blessings use internal essence techniques, and that’s where your talents lie.”

Hump chuckled. “I knew you were the problem! My teachings were excellent.”

Celaine glowered at him.

Vivienne gave him an unamused look. “Don’t feel like you’re off the hook for this. You’ve been training as a wizard for years and should have recognised the issue yourself.”

“It took me years to be able to properly perform shaping exercises,” Hump said. “A month or two for her to progress as much as she had didn’t seem exorbitant.”

Vivienne shook her head. “You were a child! Of course it took you years. Celaine’s soul is in its period of growth, and she has the benefit of holding the essence of a god within her.”

“I actually thought that Owalyn’s problem might be the problem,” Hump said, leaning on his staff. “It seemed possible that divine essence simply wasn’t compatible with our wizarding techniques. That would explain why I’ve never heard of another Chosen interested in wizardry in the first place.”

“The issue is not with the essence but with the rules,” Vivienne said. “The gods do not allow their Chosen to wield their essence as they wish. At least, most of them don’t. Owalyn is not of the Pantheon, and it seems her rules differ. Either way, we should be able to resolve the issue now.” She turned back to Celaine. “I assume you’re most interested in basic spells to fill in some of the gaps that your blessings don’t cover—spells that don’t require much study.”

“I don’t know what options I have,” Celaine said. “Honestly, I just thought it looked interesting, so I wanted to give it a try.”

Vivienne nodded thoughtfully. “Interest is good, and I think this option will satisfy that. I suggest we start with a basic meditation technique which will help with your recovery, then move on to body enhancement. They’re both fairly simple, so you should be able to get the hang of them during our time together without having to invest too much time. How does that sound?”

Celaine hesitated, considering something. After a few seconds she pulled Kassius’ dagger from her belt; the silver blade gleamed dangerously. “Actually, I had something else in mind that I thought you might be able to help with. Is it possible to train me to use this?”

Vivienne frowned at the dagger, then held out her hand. “May I see it.”

Celaine passed it to her and Vivienne’s frown deepened.

“Where did you get this?” she asked urgently.

“The dungeon,” Celaine said. “It has some sort of ability to manipulate shadows, so we decided it would best fit me.”

Vivienne glanced at Hump. “You found this in Bledsbury Dungeon, did you?”

“It’s true,” Hump said.

“Don’t play me for a fool! Celaine may not know me well enough to make an informed decision, but you should. Where did this really come from?”

Hump held his ground. “According to Overseer Oswald and the Adventurers’ Guild, we found the dagger in Bledsbury Dungeon.”

Vivienne narrowed her eyes. “According to them?”

“Yes.”

She looked between them both, then nodded. “I see. Very well, I won’t push you. Are you at least aware of what this dagger is?” she held it up, drawing attention to the glimmering heartstones embedded in its hilt.

“I took it to an identifier in Sheercliff City and they couldn’t make sense of most of it,” Celaine said. “It’s imbued with some standard weapon enchantments, like sharpness and toughness. The heartstones are able to draw essence from blood, and it’s imbued with dark essence that they couldn’t figure out the function of.”

“We figured that part out ourselves,” Hump said.

“You used it?” Vivienne asked incredulously.

“Hump tried,” Celaine said. “It almost ended very—”

“You fool of a wizard,” Vivienne snapped. “What were you thinking?”

Hump frowned. “I thought I’d experiment as wizards do. After the first attempt went… precariously, we decided to take things slowly. But I got results. My spellbook was able to partially identify it as a weapon known as Bloodshadow. From what I could tell, it seems to have the ability to manipulate shadows. It caught me off guard, but I didn’t think it was that dangerous. What is it?”

“The dagger isn’t important,” Vivienne said. “It’s the heartstones that matter. They’re known as bloodlets, each taken from the heart of a tyrannous raven. Master Kelsden owns a wand made using them. You may have heard of him.”

“As in Kelsden Bloodseeker,” Hump said, gulping. “Yeah. I’ve heard of him.”

“Who is he?” Celaine asked.

“He’s a battle wizard that specialises in blood magic,” Hump said. “He made a name for himself during the last monster tide, when the Fallen Lands claimed the Tither Fortress. The stories say he can heal from any wound.”

Celaine raised her brow. “These bloodlets must be valuable then, if somebody as powerful as him uses them.”

“Valuable and dangerous in equal parts,” Vivienne said. “Even I would be cautious using them, for the will of the tyrannous raven still dwells within.” She frowned. “I’m a little surprised you managed to resist them at all, Hump.”

“I’m not completely stupid,” Hump said defensively. “I took precautions.”

Celaine laughed. “By that he means it almost killed him and I very nearly chopped his hands off, but then Bud returned and saved the day.”

“Exactly,” Hump said. “It’s all about choosing to travel with the right companions. So far, I’m fifty-fifty on that, but it’s a work in progress.”

“This is no joking matter,” Vivienne said. “You got lucky. Very lucky. Almost any other wizard of your level would have succumbed to it. In that case, I need not tell you that we would not be speaking right now. While of course experimentation is important when practicing wizardry, precautions and planning are perhaps even more so.”

“Right,” Hump mumbled. “I know I got lucky, Vivi. Don’t worry. After using it though, I saw its value as an asset. Bud’s frostfire severed its essence with ease, so under his supervision, I thought it would be safe for Celaine to train with it.”

“While Robert’s skills are impressive, I fear that would still be too risky an endeavour. One mistake is all it takes.”

“You can’t teach me then?” Celaine said.

“I didn’t say that,” Vivienne said, handing the dagger back to Celaine, hilt first. “Understand though, this is no small task, and it will take time. Something like this cannot be rushed even with me watching over you.”

Celaine sheathed the blade. “How much time?”

“At the very least, you should be of the third circle, preferably fourth. By that point your soul may rival mine. You’ll need that strength to master this weapon. It needs a constant stream of will and focus. A moment’s distraction is all it would take for control to be taken from you. Sentient heartstones are always dangerous, particularly ones that fight the wielder for control. There are countless cases of people being killed by their own weapon.”

“You’re not making it sound appealing,” Celaine said.

Vivienne smiled. “Master Kelsden has been using his wand for decades, to great effect. Most often, accidents happen through inexperienced wielders getting their hands on something they shouldn’t.” She glared at Hump who grinned innocently. “Though I don’t like the risks involved, I do agree that this is an asset. If you master it, then it could see you through many years to come.”

“And what would I need to do to master it?” Celaine asked.

“We were already going to work on the strength of your soul,” Vivienne said. “With some additional focus training—something the internal essence exercises will help with—this will be a natural path of progression. Once we reach the point where you can wield the artefact safely, I’ll do what I can to help you master its will and control its powers.”

Following their discussion, Vivienne refocused Celaine’s efforts on a meditative technique that required her to direct essence throughout her body. It left Hump a precious half hour to recover his essence. He made himself a cup of tea and watched Bud and Dylan through the window as they practiced what he could only describe as intense, strained staring. Their eyes were fixed on one another, sweat beading down the knight’s head while Dylan seemed relaxed. There was a faint aura in the air that Hump realised was Bud’s attempt at soul manifestation, though judging from Dylan’s at ease appearance, it was just that. An attempt.

Shortly after finishing his tea, Vivienne joined him in the lighthouse and led him up to her study where they began work on the formation Kassius had used in Bledsbury Dungeon.

“Have a seat,” Vivienne said, wandering over to her bookshelf where she ran a finger along the spines, searching. “I don’t expect you have much experience analysing formations.”

“No. I’m able to create some basic formations, but generally it’s not something I’ve spent much time on.”

“Seth never found much interest in it either. I, however, am the opposite. Each formation is like a puzzle. At a distance, it’s confusing, all the pieces seem jumbled and don’t make any sense. But once you figure out how everything fits together… it’s magic.” She laughed. “Literally.”

She paused on one of the books and pilled it from the shelf. “Ah, here it is.”

When she sat down, Hump leant forward to see what she’d take. The title read: Index of Runes and Enchantments. “I think you’ll find the first step of the process logical. We identify every aspect of the spell that we can—its meaning, intent, and functions. After that, the difficult part begins.”

“The difficult part?”

Vivienne grinned. “We figure out how all the pieces fit together. For example, the rune Power could be used to fuel the formation or project force, along with a number of other things. We need to identify what intent each of those runes must be made with to give the formation life.”

Hump frowned. “I’m feeling like this is a little outside of my expertise. How do you want me to help?”

“For now, get your book out. There were quite a few runes I didn’t recognise. Hopefully we can find them in one of my books, otherwise we’ll need to test them out ourselves, which could take months on its own if we’re unlucky.”

Hump took his spellbook from his belt and set it on the table, opening it to the middle.

Spellbook
The Binding of Thirteen

Description: Unknown
Classification: Formation
Quality: Unknown
Origin: Unknown

Abilities
Unknown.

As the ink spread across the page, Hump caught Vivienne watching. “What is it?”

She glanced at him. “Nothing. It just brought back memories. It’s just… Where you can avoid it, you shouldn’t use the spellbook. I think it could get you killed.”

“I can tell there’s something you’re not telling me,” Hump said. “You know more about this book than you’re letting on. That’s why you were so suspicious of me the other night.” From her face he could tell he was right. “What do you know?”

Vivienne sighed. “Only a little. Enough to know it’s dangerous.”

“Do you really think it’s the reason that Master Sethril was killed?”

Vivienne hesitated; consideration written on her face.

“I need to know, Vivi,” Hump said. “If I’m prepared, maybe I can do something to avoid the same fate.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Very well. You’re aware that Seth and I were at the academy together.”

Hump nodded.

“Well, when Seth’s master died, Seth brought that book to me thinking I could help him understand it. Suffice it to say I could not—the enchantments that keep it sealed are far beyond my capabilities, and that’s not to mention the things it can do. I was clueless. However, we figured one thing out. As Seth grew stronger as a wizard, the spellbook grew with him, providing him with new functions and spells. When he finally reached Rank 4 and manifested his soul, something happened. Something changed.”

“What? What changed?”

Vivienne shrugged. “He never told me. He left the academy that same night and never returned.”