Chapter 12: Meeting.

After that first fight, the rest of the travel was relatively uneventful, a few more beasts attacked in the next few days, there was even an attack of two at the same time where father and I fought side by side.

That was a really good fight, I slayed my enemy in a similar way as the other times, by now every encounter went more or less the same way, stunning the beast and attacking at long range to limit its mobility, then deal the finishing blow to kill it.

It was almost boring, really, I had probably killed hundreds, maybe thousands, during the years and all of them attacked the same, very strong physically, but very predictable and easy to pierce and cut, the only problem was finding their weak spot inside of their enormous bodies.

This time apparently there was no merchant coming from there, it was probably because it wasn't one of the usual travel days and the merchant from the other side wasn't going to depart until a few days later.

The real problem came the moment we passed through the spot where the storm hit us on the way back, the place where we found that crater.

The crater I kept thinking about, the one filled with the magical fog that called to me.

I still felt it, as long as we were in Icerock I could deal with it, but the closer we got to that crater the more I felt its call, apparently father didn't feel anything.

Maybe I was the weird one.

But I somehow managed to hang in there and resist the call.

Eventually we managed to reach Kilbury and after making our way through the usual entry procedures we made our way to the city hall.

"Hello, we're from Icerock and are here for a meeting with the outsiders." who the outsiders were was needless to say, there were only two in the entire city after all.

The girl who worked there seemed happy to lead us to the same room that we used the last time we'd been there, this was probably one of the most eventful times in her career at the city hall.

I would probably never be able to bear doing such a boring job for more than ten minutes, writing and signing papers all the time, she had my respect for this.

A few minutes later both envoys and another man I didn't recognized entered the room.

The third man, who was maybe ten years older than my father, introduced himself as Kilbury's mayor.

He dressed in the typical clothes a person in the Wild Lands wore, a bland pale green colored shirt with similarly colored pants.

Materials weren't a commodity we were willing to waste resources on as we had far more important matters to address, like food.

Our clothes were mostly made of the same material, the leaves of a certain type of tree called Aescolla, that could grow here, it was very soft and durable at the same time and could be turned in clothes relatively easily.

It was basically the best material possible for our situation, it was also used to create sheets and pillowcases for our beds, curtains and a good number of different things.

The man had a thick pair of mustaches without a beard to accompany them, I found the look weird, but the man looked good in it so I couldn't really object on his fashion sense.

But most of all, just like grandpa Sigmund, this man's eyes radiated vast amounts of magical power, less than the old man, but still great.

"Laurence! It's great to see you again so soon!" said Sikra as soon as he entered the room.

"Good to see you too Sikra, I hope we haven't interrupted any discussion between you guys and the mayor." replied my father, but he was answered my the mayor himself.

"No need to worry, I believe that the next few years will bring an enormous change to the entirety of the Wild Lands, so dealing with this as a group rather than individual armored cities should be a more fitting way of doing this."

"I couldn't have said it better, nice to meet you, I am Laurence Winterridge, spokesperson for Icerock, and this is my daughter Avys."

"Nice meeting you Laurence, I am Isaac Winston, mayor of Kilbury, but may I ask how come you brought your daughter here with you?"

I cut my father off and said, "I need training in beast hunting and it helps with my research."

"She is a brilliant mage despite her age, as long as she gets a bit more experience in combat she'll become a beast slaying machine."

But I rebuked his words, I already was as efficient as possible in slaying those things, but he dismissed me, "You still take around ten to twenty seconds to kill one alone, that's too much."

All others in the room slightly hanged their jaws after hearing his words, but I pouted, I was sure that I could do better with enough time to practice.

"Well, now about more serious things, I reported your words to our city assembly, we decided that before coming to any decision we want to have a meeting with your king on our soil, we can't trust someone who doesn't even want to meet us."

"That won't be a problem," replied Sikra almost immediately, "that was already decided from the start, at the moment its impossible, his highness' efforts are currently extremely focused on creating order in our new territories, but in a few years time he will come to meet with every single city's representatives and to show himself to the population."

"Perfect then." the discussion went on after that, but I was far too busy to listen to more of it.

My thoughts were currently immersed in a new book that grandpa gave me to excuse him for not teaching me space magic.

It was a book about everyday applications of magic and how they could help a person feel closer to their magical side and consequently learn how to better control their magic.

It went into great detail on the different things that one could do, from lighting a candle to heating up a cold meal, from controlling the nearby temperature via wind magic and how to create stand alone light sources in the air with light magic.

This was actually the first time I saw light magic detailed in one of our books.

Up to this point it was only referenced, but this one went into detail on how to change the normal mana in light attribute by sending the intent of light and healing to my mana.

I didn't really like this kind of method, it felt too unreliable to just trust in something like intent, I wanted to understand the very essence of every different kind of mana, but that was very, very far away from me.

For now intent worked and there was no way I could change it.

Basically, what I had to do to create a light source that lingered for as long as I supplied it with mana was to visualize a sphere, above my hand to begin, and create it out of light mana.

I would then have to create a link between the sphere and me with normal mana to control its movements and to supply it with mana to fuel it.

It was pretty easy after learning this method and a light sphere appeared above my hand, confusing the people around me other than my father, who smiled proudly at me.

"I knew you could do it, I'm proud of you." He interrupted the conversation just to say this to me and pat my head, it made me happy.

"What was that about?" asked Zarvo, the other envoy from the Soulborne Kingdom.

"This is the first time she succeeds in casting light magic." he replied, to which I puffed my chest up with pride.

For some reason the others seemed agitated by father's words, but I ignored them and went back to my magic.

I thought that if I could shape it into a sphere, than why couldn't I shape it into different ways, for example, a line.

And a line I visualized, but when I reached halfway through my construction it dissipated.

This was still to much for a second attempt, but I was sure I could manage it with just a little bit of practice.

The rest of the book was relatively boring, I did indeed learn other new things, but I already used and practiced magic in every possible way I could every day, so I knew already a lot of the things in the book.

But the light magic was a very good addition to my arsenal and a step forward in the direction of space magic.

Not long after finishing the book and succeeding in creating a light in the shape of a flat cube, the oldies shook hands.

"It was great meeting you Laurence, Avys, I hope we'll have more time to talk next time, but for now excuse me, but I have a previous appointment I have to attend to." were the mayors parting words.

He seemed like a good man, very concerned about his city and capable and experienced in the way of handling other people, I could see from how he talked that he had great confidence in his own capabilities.

After him Zarvo left too to go wherever he needed, I still didn't like the guy.

But before Sikra could leave I tapped him on his shoulder, "I want to be trained in magic by you guys."

He looked at me confusedly, not understanding where this was coming from.

"Dear, we already talked about it and they accepted to forward our requests to their superiors, weren't you listening?" asked my father looking at me weirdly.

"Evidently, I was not," I replied before returning my gaze back to Sikra, "How does it work? You guys' magical training, I mean."

"It starts at twelve years of age up until sixteen when the person is recognized as an adult, everyone with the necessary talent is admitted, but you'll have to pass a test.

Which academy you join is entirely dependent on your talent, but the best one is Nerre's academy, named after the headmaster who is also a member of the kings closest aides in his rise to the throne."

And there it was, Sikra's worshipping gaze at the mention of his king, really, this man was anything if not devoted to his ruler.

"What kind of test?"

"Well, you have to show the best spells you're able to cast and depending on either its complexity or its power you could be accepted, most of the times you need both."

"Great, thank you." I replied.

I now had two years to prepare, I hoped that the negotiations went well and that I'd be able to join as soon as I can, not only to learn more about magic, but also because I couldn't wait to see what the outside world really looked like.

"No, thank you, I hope that you'll become a magister as soon as you can."

"What's a magister?" his words confused me, this was the first time I heard about such a title.

"Oh, right," he said while lightly bonking his own head, "We give mages different titles based on their power and contributions to the kingdom, first is the student, the level of every child from twelve to sixteen years of age who attends an academy, next is the mage, plain and simple, for average mages who successfully graduated from an academy.

After that there are the magisters, masters of their field far above others, but above even them there are the archmages, people who might as well be considered one man armies."