4 Spells

Theo was sitting inside his small room, focusing all his attention on controlling as much of the aether as he could within his soul.

He had spent the last three hours ramming the aether against the last inch and he was finally upon the brink of finishing the process.

Gathering as much of the aether within his grasp as he could, he drew it back a considerable amount and pushed it forth with all the strength he could muster.

The aether surged forward, ramming into it with such force that Theo could feel the vibrations echoing out in his soul.

The last blockade in constructing his first aetherial pathway finally gave way and crumbled under the force of the aether. Theo took hold of the aether, and it stilled.

Theo opened his eyes to the real world outside, and immediately looked at his right index finger. It didn't look at all different from before, but Theo could feel the difference in his soul.

He glanced at the scroll and looked at the instructions on the third step to make sure he was remembering it correctly, before directing most of his focus into his soul once more and closing his eyes.

He split the aether current residing within the pathway into two parts, sending the first part back into the aether sea and then taking hold of the second part, before directing it to the end of the pathway.

The tip of that current followed the pathway he had painstakingly carved and reached the end of it, before disappearing completely. He could still sense some of it, but he couldn't see it within his soul anymore. Theo slowed down the flow, but still kept it constantly flowing out.

'This is it.' Theo thought as he started to open his eyes slowly.

If the aether was visible, he had the talent to become an Arcanist. If it dissipated instantly and thus wasn't visible, he would have failed.

There was a milky white strand of visible aether on the tip of his finger. The glow emanating from it gave the dim room he was in some light.

Theo stared at his finger intently even as his reserves of aether were slowly being depleted. All the thoughts in his head disappeared, leaving only a pure, child-like fascination towards the spectacle in front of him.

He raised his hand into the air, leaving a small trail of white aether coming from his finger, which dissipated shortly afterwards.

He traced his finger in the air, drawing random shapes. It was like writing or painting something, but instead of using ink and paper, he was using his own aether and the world around him.

It was beautiful. The white strands of aether that hung in the air glowed brightly, as if they were trying to attract something, before dissipating.

Theo was broken out of his fascination by a sudden heaviness forcing itself on his body and an extreme feeling of exhaustion creeping in.

Then darkness.

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Rose was sitting inside of her quarters, chatting with Ben when the caws of the crows outside alerted her.

Ben rose up without a word, nodded at her and left her quarters to go assemble the crew. She stood up and went up to the wall that had an ornamental sword hoisted up on it, before taking and sheathing it on her belt.

She also exited her quarters and arrived on the deck of the ship. She walked towards the helm and spoke to the bald headed old man that was currently steering the ship.

"Who is it?"

"The Bronze Fang, captain." The old man said without looking at her. "They say that they have urgent business with us."

Rose looked starboard and saw a smaller vessel flying a flag that depicted a roaring bronze tiger.

"You guys didn't go ogling at their little princess again, did you?" She asked.

The old man grumbled. "We didn't even have the chance to leave the docks before we were setting sail already."

"That place is a dump, anyways. You'll get your chances at revelry once we reach Zeah." Rose said before walking back to the deck and yelling out. "Drop the anchor!"

The anchor was dropped, and they were soon stopped dead in their tracks as the other vessel did the same. Soon a plank was placed between their ships and a lanky man with greased up hair walked up to her.

"Excuse me, captain." He bowed courteously. "We are looking for a fugitive from our family and we have reason to believe that they might be hiding on your ship."

Rose wasn't surprised to hear their words. Trouble ran in the brat's blood. Though she was surprised to see a member of the church standing on the deck of the other ship, watching her intently.

"We're only running cargo this time, no passengers." Rose said, smiling a little. "We certainly didn't let any rats on board."

The man looked unconvinced. "We'd like to conduct a search of our own."

Ben's expression changed, as did the whole crew's. A frown appeared even on her face.

"You want to rummage through our cargo?" Ben asked.

"Yes."

"That's not possible." Ben said with venom clear as day in his voice.

The man was about to say something, but Rose cut her off. "You wouldn't want your little town to gain a bad reputation amongst our guild, now, would you?"

Rose knew she had struck a nerve. Not many ships made their way to their town, getting a bad reputation amongst the biggest merchant coalition in the kingdom would only lessen that amount.

The man relented. "If you see this man." He showed them a picture of Theo. "We will pay you generously for any information, and even better if you bring him to us alive."

"How much coin we talking bout?" One member of her crew asked.

"A gold for information and a platinum if you bring him to us."

Her crew looked like they had been struck by lightning, but before anyone could say anything more, Rose spoke.

"If we see him, we'll try our best to capture him for you." She gave them the kindest smile she could. "Now, please leave my ship."

The man nodded and backed off the ship along with his goons without another word. They pulled the plank and were raising their anchor.

"Wai-" The crewmember's voice was cut short as the tip of Rose's sword tickled his throat.

"Go ahead, try to yell again." She whispered.

The man looked scared but didn't utter a single word. Neither did anyone else. She looked around and saw that they all looked confused.

"Anyone who says a single word about our passenger will get their head cut off, do you understand?" She asked.

They all nodded. Satisfied, she drew her sword back and turned to look at the Bronze Fang's ship as it drew away from them and started to head back into the direction of Riverrock.

She turned back to her crew with the same jovial smile she always wore.

"Raise the anchor and get back to work!"

/-/

Theo was sitting on a chair in a small, cold and dimly lit room made out of stone, behind a desk filled with papers, some of which were stained with blood.

The room also had dozens upon dozens of books chaotically thrown about, either lying on the floor with their pages splayed open or chaotically organized in the few shelves that took most of the space within the room.

There was a single entrance to the room. A door made of wood that seemed to have been blockaded with a brightly glowing sigil of some sort. But it was growing dimmer by the second.

Theo was able to catch this all from the corner of his eyes, but he wasn't actually able to move himself at all. He had no control over his body.

It was like he was a spectator inside his own body.

"Memorize. Memorize. Memorize." His mouth uttered continuously.

His eyes were zeroed on to the two large pieces of paper in front of him. One of the papers had a bunch of words written on it in a foreign language that Theo couldn't understand, while the other one displayed a number of intricate and complicated looking patterns.

The glowing sigil had almost completely lost all of its light, and the moment it did, the door was shattered, and an old looking elf woman could be seen behind it.

The woman raised her hand and orange aether drifted out of all five of her fingertips. Theo's eyes never left the papers, but he felt himself raise both of his hands.

Yellow aether drifted from each and every one of his ten fingers, drawing an incredibly elaborate inscription. The skin on his fingers had far more wrinkles than he remembered.

It was completed before the old woman's spell and a veritable glacier appeared out of nowhere in front of him and shot out towards the woman standing in the doorway.

The elf didn't seem surprised and stood her ground, but before the glacier hit her, it shattered right in front of the door.

It sealed the whole room in a layer of ice, leaving only the chair he was sitting on and the two papers untouched

"Done." His mouth moved on its own again.

He raised his gaze to look at the woman in front of him. "It was never anything personal."

A single tether of yellow aether floated from his index finger, and he used it to draw another, smaller and simpler, inscription. A small flame appeared out of nowhere and started to burn the papers in front of him.

The woman roared in response to his actions, creating an orange aura around herself, and the ice began to melt at an incredible pace, soon it wouldn't be thick enough to keep the woman off.

"I understand your blight, I truly do." The papers were already smoking ash at this point. "After all, I basically had the same shackles, just a little lighter."

The ice melted completely, and the woman lunged at him, a dagger of fire between her hands. "You understand nothing!"

He didn't put up any more resistance and Theo could feel the satisfaction that swirled inside of him. Even as the scorching hot blade sank straight through his heart.

"I promise that I won't hold this grudge against your descendants." Blood burst out of his mouth as he spoke.

"You won't have the chance to hold anything, ever again!" The elf yelled.

He just chuckled in response, even as life fled his body.

/-/

Theo awoke in a dark room, springing up from the uncomfortable position he had been in and began dry heaving, he could still taste the blood in his mouth.

He hastily checked his torso to make sure that there was no flaming, gaping hole in it before looking around the room in a panic.

Theo calmed down somewhat when he recognized the room he was in was the one aboard the ship.

"What was that?" Theo muttered to himself.

It had to be a dream, but it felt too real to be one.

"Did I get drugged?" It was possible, but unlikely. Theo was confident in his self-preservation skills.

Moving himself proved difficult, like something was weighing him down and making him sluggish. All signs seemed to point towards being drugged, but Theo refused to accept it.

He was an herbalist, his one area of expertise, for crying out loud. It would be too embarrassing for him to be caught unaware like this. What would his father have said if he saw his current state.

Theo looked at his soul and was surprised to see the aether within his inner core was noticeably depleted.

He then remembered he had blacked out suddenly when he had been playing around with his aether. The depleted levels of aether would explain his sudden black-out and his current sense of sluggishness and heaviness.

The scroll had warned him not to use too much of the aether at once, otherwise such symptoms could occur or something even worse.

Theo broke out into a cold sweat when he remembered his mother telling him a story about a friend of hers who had tried to cast a spell above his strength, draining himself completely of aether in the process. That friend had never been able to replenish the aether reserves within his soul, ever again.

Thankfully, he had only played around with the aether and hadn't tried to cast any spells.

'But it still doesn't explain that dream.' Theo thought to himself.

He could still clearly remember everything that had happened in the dream. The two papers, the office, the elderly elf woman and the intricate spells both 'he' and she had weaved together.

It was puzzling. Theo normally had trouble recalling his dreams, but this one he could remember, clear as day.

Even more curious was the dream itself. An elf attacking a human? It was practically unheard of.

Theo shook his head. It was just a dream, there was no point in thinking too hard about it. He instead decided to do something productive and started to count the coins he had.

His current savings were entirely a product of his partnership with the Bronze Fang gang, and just after two months he had a whopping five platinum, two gold, seven silver and twelve copper pieces.

It would be enough to get him everything he needed for the Academy. And it would be enough to afford him lodging in the capital till it was time for the entrance exams. If no sudden expenses sprung up, which was always a possibility.

Once Theo was certain that everything was fine, and that he wasn't under any danger, he went to sleep.