Chapter 22: Soothing The Winds

When Alex and Eluril made it to the cafeteria Red and Tom were already eating. They simply nodded at his as he entered. After getting a plate for himself and Eluril, he made his way to join them.

They had not been getting along very well the past week.

Since all three of them were getting less sleep then they were used to, tempers tended to flair. Nothing serious, but it was bad enough that neither Tom nor Red had said a word to Alex.

Alex had not been the same since Tuesday morning when he showed up outside the dorm. Tom could tell, but he couldn't figure out why. When he had pushed Alex for a reason, Alex nearly bit his head off. Even more puzzling was Eluril. After the confrontation with Alex, Eluril would often try to placate Red or Tom with apologetic looks and actions whenever Alex was being touchy.

Once, Red had been chiding Tom over his crush on Eveline during lunch. During their animated discussion, Red had knocked over his drink. It spilled across the table and whetted the notes Alex had made that day in enchanting. It was almost like Alex had been possessed.

The normally gentle giant, immediately began yelling at Red and Tom for their 'childish' behavior, as he put it. Alex even took an apple off of Reds plate and threw it at him. Red dodged it of course. Before it could get worse, Eluril must have said something to Alex. Because he stared in her direction for a while before he sat back down in silence. Eluril climbed down from Alex's shoulder and walked the length of the room to grab a new apple and slowly brought it back to Red.

The look on Eluril's face at that moment spoke volumes. Something had happened, but they didn't know what. There was a deep sadness in her eyes. Accompanied by an appeal for forgiveness on Alex's behalf. Red could only nod in response.

Since then, neither of them had tried too hard to talk much with Alex. They didn't exclude him, but they just figured he would talk to them if he needed to. It honestly kept Tom up nights, wondering what had happened.

"We need to take all of the enchanting jobs we can." Alex finally broke the silence in between bites of food.

"Why enchanting? I mean our enchantments don't even work yet." Tom asked, honestly surprised by Alex's willingness to talk a bit.

Alex proceeded to explain what their enchantments were missing.

"That is a good idea. Most of the first years should not be able to do them yet." Red added. He quickly pulled out his letter and began to look for the enchanting jobs.

It came down to three sets of jobs. One from the Hall of Blacksmiths, to enchant weapons. The pay was variable on the quantity and quality of the work done. But, it allowed them access to new runes. The next was from professor Jarilo Dolus, this was the quest Keller told Alex about earlier. The last was from Keller. He needed an assistant to help him research unknown runes. Like the others, payment would depend on results. They would be spending most of their time in the library looking through relevant information trying to puzzle out any clues based on their shape, as well as how else it had appeared before.

For instance, if a rune only ever appeared in weapons with electric enchantments. That one piece of information could help a researcher quite a bit when trying to understand what a specific rune does.

"None of those specified a specific time in the day. We should do all three." Alex's tone said he would not tolerate any disagreement.

"Look, I know you have been really motivated lately. But that is ridiculous. Each of these jobs only pay out based on results. At best, we should each take one. That way we can make as much progress as possible and get better rewards possibly. We can always share what we learned afterward." Tom really didn't like Alex's tone. Tom's tone said it all. 'I don't care what your reason is, don't be stupid. And since when have you been my boss?'

Red watched as the fork in Alex's hand slowly bent in his grip. "We don't have time to take things slowly anymore. We need to progress faster." It came out as more of a hiss than words.

"What do you mean we don't have time" Alex wasn't listening. The same thought kept running through his mind. It was the same thought that had been pushing him all week. "Why exactly do we need to progress faster? What does that even mean?" Tom was oblivious to the fact that Alex was not listening to his tirade.

'I need to make it worthwhile.' This one thought played on a loop in his mind. Even in his dreams this thought chased him. Even now it was pushing him. Alex realized that there was silence. He looked up to see Tom's red face as he panted from anger. Alex looked over at Red, who was staring right back. He could see the irritation in his eyes as well.

Alex took a deep breath and banished that thought from his mind. Wiping his face he thought about the last week, and how he had been living. This truly was idiotic. If he kept this up for long enough it might just get him killed. His mind had been whipping around like a hurricane all week. Now, he was in the eye of the storm. It was still raging, but now he could take stock of the damage.

Alex finally let out the breath. It was like a great bellows deflating. "Tom, my friend. You are right, you deserve an explanation. You too Red. We may not have known each other long, but that doesn't really matter now does it?"

Red could only smile and nod. He felt a strange kind of pressure coming from Alex at this moment. It was like the air was trying to push him down into the ground. No, that isn't right. It was like gravity. Pushing him down. Attempting to crush him. Tom felt it too. They simply couldn't move if they wanted.

Alex had no idea this was happening. Unknown to him, it wasn't only his mind that had been raging with hurricane like winds. It was his qi. It had been flowing through his body whenever his emotions were out of control this week. It was different from when he would push all of his qi into one organ or another. The qi flowed like a wave through his body. Washing all of his organs in its power, and slowly connections were being made.

At this moment the last of the connections had been made between his organs. A new system was now a part of his body. He had created meridians.

Before Alex could finish his thought he noticed a bright light beginning to grow on his left. It was Eluril. She was glowing.

She glowed softly at first. Alex noticed it because she had been on the table eating lunch in front of him. He had just figured that a ray of sunlight had come in through a window and was reflecting off her scales. That was until she spoke.

"You advanced!" Her happy voice echoed in his mind.

Right in front of his eyes she began to grow. As she did all of her scales began to fall out. Slowly, they grew back. Only this time they were slightly more blue in color. They were still silvery, and hard as metal though. Or at least they appeared to be.

When it was all over Eluril stood on the table and looked at Alex lovingly. "Congratulations." Her smile soothed the chaotic winds of his mind. And his qi stopped circulating so fiercely.

Tom and Red were finally free of the crushing pressure. They were stunned. They had never heard of that happening during an advancement. They were slightly confused, but honestly they had never been present for an advancement before.

"Congratulations." They both said.

"Thanks guys." Alex responded.

After a moment Alex told them about his mothers death. He didn't tell them anything about Eluril or her mother. Only that his mother had died in the attempt to make him a Spirit Contractor, and how Eluril had told him about it Monday night.

"I just feel like I need to make her sacrifice worth it. I need to make the most of her sacrifice. And having fun felt like I was betraying her. How could I dare to take my time and enjoy myself, after all she gave up for me." Alex was looking at Eluril. She new that he was talking about her sacrifice as well.

"So that is why you have been so intense this week?" Red asked.

Alex nodded.

"You big, damn idiot." Tom sighed. "You are such an idiot. Making something of yourself and having goals is one thing. Being a complete ass is another." He said with a smile. "You really can't do anything right can you?"

"Nope. I guess not." Alex laughed.

Slowly they all digested what just happened. During this time Eluril told Alex to keep all of her shed scales. She wouldn't tell him why. When he asked she only said they would be useful.

Eventually, they decided that Alex would take the job at the blacksmith. Tom would take the job working with Jarilo. That only left Keller for Red. They each went their separate ways after lunch. They would take their meals together and share information then. Other than that, they would spend the whole weekend making the most of their jobs.