7 Geralt Not Yet Of Rivia

  Three days after his trials, Troy finally awoke from his recuperative sleep. This was something that was usually permitted, given the deadly nature of the trials. Normally Kaer Morhen wasn't known for its leniency, break times, or exceptions but it simply wouldn't do to have their already overworked trainees dropping dead from preventable causes. Those who could actually survive their trials were a precious resource, after all.

      Rising from his cot, Troy immediately noticed a difference in his perception of his body and his environment. Despite only having just woken up, his eyes adjusted to the increase in brightness almost instantly.

      After inspecting and feeling out the rest of his body, he realized he had an entirely new level of control.

     Troy felt exhilarated, upon realizing this. Ever since first arriving in this new world, he had known how terrifyingly dangerous it could be. He had wished desperately for the power and strength to allow him to survive and thrive in this world and now he had taken his first major step towards that power. 

     He had survived the Trial of Grasses and he now felt a renewed enthusiasm for his training. One day he would possess power beyond reason, he just knew it. It was written in the stars and on his heart. He was destined for greatness!

     With a feral grin upon his face, Troy began testing his newfound strength, by running through a few of his sword forms. Twisting, turning, blocking, feinting, and reposting. He moved gracefully and swiftly across the floor.

     "Having fun?" Came a voice from behind him.

     Troy spun on a dime and centered on the person who spoke. "How's it going, Lorkin?" He asked, upon realizing who it was.

     "Shouldn't I be asking you that? You've been out for three days."

     "What the...three days? Although, when I think back on it, that was a pretty brutal experience. I guess it kinda makes sense. Actually, considering everything, I'm surprised I wasn't out for longer. So…" Troy hesitated. "...how many survived?"

     Lorkin narrowed his eyes and looked at the ground and then back at Troy. "None. You're the only one."

     "Oh… I guess I probably should have expected that, too. It's not like life is fair or anything. I don't suppose there's much to be done about it, though. Our belly aching certainly isn't going to bring them back. We just have to pick ourselves up and do what the living do. Move on."

     "You know, in moments like these, it's easy to forget how young you are. Ever since that day, I've rarely ever seen you as a child. I don't know how you became like this but it seems pretty obvious to me that you're destined for great things. You're smart, cool headed, and dedicated. Yep, I figure one day you'll up and leave me the others in the dust.

     'You don't say.' Troy thought. 'Turns out, I was just thinking the same thing.'

     "But…" Lorkin pushed himself off of the wall and opened the door. "That's enough of my rambling. Nazad said to send you his way, as soon you woke up. So get going." Lorkin ordered, by waving his hand at the doorway.

     "Alright. Thanks, for the heads up, Lorkin."

     "Yep, see you around, Troy."

     Troy used this opportunity to utilize his newly heightened reflexes and began dashing down the hallway. Turning up the stairs and onto the next floor, he made it to Nazad's classroom in record time.

     After knocking on the door and being allowed in, Troy walked in to see Nazad hunched over one of his tables fiddling with one of his instruments.

     "You wanted to see me?"

     Nazad had been engrossed in his work and hadn't even bothered to look up. However, whenever he heard Troy's voice his head snapped up and he began smiling, upon recognizing who had entered his room. "Troy, mi boy! It seems you've finally recovered! Good, good, good! Tell me, how do you feel?"

     "Brand new! Like, I have a completely new level of control and I can react in a fraction of the time it would've normally taken me!"

     "Excellent! That's wonderful news! As it turns out, I was there when you passed your trials and something unusual happened. Can you guess what that something was?"

     Troy could actually guess but he decided to play along. "Umm… I didn't die."

     "Hahah! No besides that, obviously. Didn't you mention that you had been hoping for a certain moment to occur?" Nazad said suggestively, while raising his eyebrows.

     "You mean…"

     "Yep, that's right! You are an officially confirmed conduit! No doubt about it! Happened right in front of my eyes! 

     "Whatever, you did during your conduit moment, it caused your mutations to be fully and completely integrated into your body. Meaning, your old body and your mutations are working in perfect synchronization, in perfect harmony, with each other."

     "Wow, I guess that's pretty great news! So, were there a bunch of pretty flashing lights and awesome effects!?"

     Nazad looked confused at first. "What...no…" He narrowed his eyes at Troy who had a slight grin on his face. "Dammit! Troy! Are you playing games with me? You already knew you had a conduit moment, didn't you?"

     "Well, not so much knew as suspected but thanks for confirming anyways."

     "Hmmm...perhaps we need to delay your magical training for a bit. It might be good for you to review the theory for another year."

     Troy's face became ashen. What kind of sick joke was this? This kind of development could not be permitted. "Ahhh, Master Nazad! How gracious of you to offer your wisdom to me! It's true I had known about the conduit moment but, being just a lowly trainee, I had hoped that master would lend his vast wisdom to expound further on the subject." Troy quickly added with his head lowered.

     Surprised at the sudden shamelessness of his student, Nazad soon began grinning as he replied, "Good, good, this is an attitude much better suited to your position.

      "Now, as for the conduit moment, let's see...ah, yes, during this event, the Chaos in the environment that would normally not enter or interact with the uninitiated will respond to extraordinarily intense emotions and desires of the soon to be conduit. 

      "Once the conduit's desires have reached a certain level of intensity and are harnessed, they can influence the Chaos around them. After this initial controlling of Chaos has occurred, the Chaos in the environment will then naturally be drawn into the Conduit for his or her use. 

      "It's almost as if it's responding to the authority of the conduit, once it is commanded, it recognizes you as an authority over it. Thus, one could categorize magical talent as being different levels of authority. Whereas, non-conduits learning magic could be thought of as earning their authority.

     "Is all of this making sense?"

     "Hmmm…yeah. I was actually just being shameless earlier but that's actually really interesting and helpful. So, does that mean that emotions and desires are tools that we use to control Chaos?"

     Nazad's eyebrow twitched upon hearing his pupil having completely surpassed his earlier levels of shamelessness. He soon composed himself, however, and addressed his pupil. "Ah, no. You see, the conduit moment is unique in that these desires and emotions essentially transform into potent forms of Chaos. Desires and emotions are simply aspects of one's will. 

     "Once your will has become intense and chaotic enough, it manifests as actual Chaos and it is then through the use of control that you are able to direct that Chaos that your will has manifested.

     "In your conduit moment, the Chaos that you've manifested through your will interacts with the Chaos in the surrounding elements and bends it to your will. It is this initializing event that then marks you as a conduit and thus from then onwards Chaos will flow into you naturally.

      "This manifestation of Chaos, however, is not something simple and, because it relies on such an intense manifestation of will, there are usually few other moments in a mage's life when this will occur. As best we can tell, this initializing moment seems to be much more easily achieved than future attempts at replicating such events.

      "It is because of all these things that a conduit learns to harness Chaos drawn in from the environment, unless one is a Source, of course. 

      "A Source simply being someone, of a particular bloodline or talent, who can reliably manifest their own Chaos. These types of mages, however, are few and far between so I wouldn't worry too much about that, for now.

      "We'll eventually go deeper into these subjects but, as of this moment, your training in practical magic has officially begun. Come, have a seat. There's only one year, until you face the Trial of Dreams. I don't know if you'll be able to pull off something like that again but, the way I see it, the more you learn about magic now the more likely you'll be able to replicate your earlier success. So pay close attention. Your life may well depend on it."

      Troy nodded earnestly, walked over to the only chair in the room, and sat down to begin his first lesson in practical magic.

[===== 1 Week Later =====]

      A couple of hours past midday, Troy was walking past one of the trainee classrooms and he could hear the instructor inside carrying on about Nekkers. He wasn't really paying attention but there was a particular string of words that caught his ear and made him stop dead in his tracks.

     "...that's correct, Geralt."

     'Wait...what? Did I hear that wrong? No, I'm certain I just heard him say "Geralt." But isn't this Patrov and Jorgen's class? If those two are less than a year behind me, doesn't that mean that I've been training in the same Keep as Geralt of Rivia for several years without even knowing it? 

     'Although, I guess it makes sense considering that our rooms are just given to us randomly and, being in different classes, it's only natural we'd rarely see each other. Heck, Patrov and Jorgen are basically like full blown rivals and, outside of the time spent in our quarters, we still barely see each other. The entire thing honestly is just an unspoken determination to get the best scores and assessments, we've rarely actually voiced our intentions aloud.

     'Well, since this Geralt, assuming he's the same Geralt, is in their class I'll just ask them if they know him? Assuming that I can actually get an opportunity to speak to them. I can definitely see plenty of benefits in having Geralt as an ally, once we're all graduated. 

     'That, of course, will have to wait. I've got to get to my class with Nazad. He'll be none too happy, if I'm late.'

     Troy continued onwards towards Nazad's classroom, while wondering what a ten year old Geralt would look like.

      Nazad had already informed him that continuing his witcher training was entirely up to him. If he so desired, he could completely give up on that and focus solely on becoming a sorcerer. Troy, of course, was well aware of how long it would actually take him to become proficient enough in magic to protect himself from the greater threats that were out there.

      He had already decided that he would become a witcher and then subsequently also become a sorcerer. He needed lots of power, training, and experience as soon as he could get it and the witcher path was the fastest way he knew. When considering what a success his first trial had been, he was now even more confident in continuing to pursue the witcher path.

     Once he arrived and found Nazad hunched over his usual array of various instruments and concoctions, he took the initiative to preempt his teacher's usual greeting.

      "I've been curious, Master. I wonder if it would be possible for me to learn about the concoction used in the Trial of Dreams? The specific mutagens and other ingredients. Specifically, what change each mutagen is supposed to manifest and how it goes about doing so. I feel this would be greatly beneficial in helping me to pass my next trial."

      After rising up from his work, Nazad took a moment to consider Troy's request.

     "Hmmm...yes, I suppose that could be accommodated. You're starting your training very young, so it isn't necessarily a set back to shift focus for another year, especially if it could aid you in your coming trials. Also, it's not like you're asking to learn how to make the concoctions, which is completely beyond your level. 

     "Very well, on top of adding an extra hour to your special training, half of your training time will consist of familiarizing you with the Trial of Dreams concoction. Was there something else, before we begin?"

     Troy opened his mouth to protest the extra hour but then quickly closed it again. He probably should've expected this and it isn't like he had any bargaining power, considering that he's asking for a concession to be made. "Nope, nothing at all."

     "Good, then tell me, have you been doing your meditations?"

     "Absolutely!"

     "Excellent! If I'm not mistaken, during yesterday's class you were able to successfully lift your rock without the use of the incantation. Which I'll acknowledge is quite impressive, for someone so new to magic.

     "That being said, let's see you perform it once more, simply for validation. Even talented people can have fluke moments. Repetition and validation are always important."

     Troy nodded, as he gathered the rock and flower and placed them on top of the table in front of him. Having come from a world of many wondrous scientific advancements, he was well aware of the importance of Repetition and validation. 

     In fact, the importance he placed on repetition was the primary reason for him having never fully dropped his sign training. Sure, he would let it go temporarily, if necessary, but he would always fall back into that practice at the first opportunity.

     Mostly he would focus on his tracing, in order to increase the speed in which he could cast his signs. Although, it wasn't unusual for him to go through all three stages of practice for each and every sign.

    In the same way that Troy had repetitiously mastered his signs, he, of course, had brought that same steadfast dedication to his magical training and had progressed quickly, so far.

     Taking the flower in his hand, he connected himself to the Chaos within the flower the way Nazad had taught him. Recalling the desperation he had experienced during his trial, he commanded the Chaos to manifest the meaning of the incantation he had conjured into his mind and made the rock the target of that manifestation.

     Slowly, the rock began rising from the table, until it was hovering just about level with the top of his head. Then, at the same speed, the rock seemingly lowered itself gently back onto the tabletop.

     Of course, the spell itself would usually raise the rock faster than this incident but Troy had made an effort to control the effects of the spell. Nazad had hammered into him how important control was in the process of magic and thus every time he cast the spell he exerted maximum control over the target.

     In Troy's mind, every spell that he cast, no matter how trivial, was another opportunity to train his control. He knew that half assing things would never get him anywhere and so he made every effort at every opportunity to whole ass everything.

     Once the rock was resting upon the table, Nazad looked at him and smiled. "It seems you did a little extra practicing, after your lesson last night?"

     "As always...or most ways, at the very least."

     "Very good, very good, just make sure you're getting plenty of sleep. Until you finish or decide to drop your witcher training, you're going to need it.

     "Now, what you just displayed was an impressive amount of control, for someone of your age and learning. As you may have noticed, focus plays a large part in being able to maintain your control. This is why, even though signs aren't directly related to more intensive forms of magic, they do require one of the necessary skill sets required for excelling in the field of magic.

     "In order to conjure an incantation in one's mind requires a great deal of focus. As such, I had suspected you might be particularly adept with this particular method of casting.

     "Do not, however, allow your success in this task, lead you into overconfidence. It will ruin you, as it has ruined many mages before you. You still have quite a ways to go, before you can call yourself a mage.

     "Now, as it pertains to the concoction used in the Trial of Dreams, these are the ingredients you'll need to focus on."