Chapter 29 New Friends in Progress

The next morning there was still some tension with our new arrivals. Aelyn had just come a few days before and now we had two more young women of the same age in the mix. The big negative to the first morning was how loud Leda was after waking up. She was a loud talker and I was thankful at least Cilia's responses were soft from their loft. So far it was Cilia's only positive trait.

The five of us dressed in our workout clothes and moved to the farmhouse for breakfast. Callem was inside and had ham steaks, pancakes, fresh fruit, and red juice out. He was all smiles this morning as well…Callem rarely smiled. He was probably thinking about how to torture all of us today during training. As we dug in I learned the new daily routine they had discussed last night.

After breakfast, we would all stretch and most of us would do farm work for two hours. During this time I would prepare dinner with Wynna, avoiding the farm work. We would then do an abbreviated stretching routine as apparently Cilia and Leda had failed to meet Callem's minimum expectations for mobility. Then we would work on wrestling, hand-to-hand combat, and submission holds and escapes for three hours. Then we would have lunch prepared by Wynna.

After lunch, we would have a free hour. Then we would be doing strength and conditioning training for two hours. Then we would have two hours for practicing sword forms with absolutely no sparring. Then we would have two free hours before dinner to bathe, relax or study. My two free hours might be a little limited as I had to finish dinner for everyone. After dinner, we would have an hour or so of instruction from Wynna and Aelyn about the lowlands. When I asked when we would get a day off Callem just said he would give us a day off when we needed it. Which to me meant we would never get a day off.

Well, when we started the stretching routine I was in heaven. Cilia and Leda both were less flexible than me! I was no longer at the bottom of the ladder! I kept my face straight not revealing my joy and it seemed Aelyn went out of her way to show how much better she was at stretching than the two new arrivals. It was humorous to watch the young woman setting their hierarchy of competency in stretching. Gareth was engrossed watching all three of them.

After stretching I went to make dinner and decided to go with southern fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, coleslaw, and cornbread. It was the first time I would be making this meal and it really required little preparation on my part so it gave me time to study the obfuscate spell. I prepared enough for twenty people and I hoped it was enough to feed everyone as I had been wrong before.

Wrestling and hand-to-hand combat did not go well after. Everyone was trying to prove that they were the best. There was really no contest as Gareth could easily best any of us. Aelyn was slippery, quick, strong, and learned quickly. She elbowed Gareth in the sternum twice when he had wrapped an arm around her and cupped her breast to hold her while they tangled their legs. Cilia was also fairly aggressive against me and Gareth. I did my best to not grab anything that would cause me to get an elbow to the sternum or face but she did not make it easy.

Leda on the other hand was having a blast as it was apparent she liked to be dominated. She may be in love with Cilia but she obviously liked men as well and she made an effort to put me and Gareth in compromising positions. I was glad my aether core growth was still hindering my own libido once again. Gareth wasn't so lucky and had to break an engagement with Leda twice due to his growing embarrassment.

The girls were shocked as I healed everyone a few times during the training with my healing spell. I ignored inquiries by Leda asking how much aether I actually had but knew it wouldn't be the last time she asked as I spammed my minor healing spell.

I was happy for lunch which was a hearty vegetable stew and sandwiches. The sandwiches were smoked turkey, cheese, lettuce, and bacon with a mayo spread. It was a combo I had suggested to Wynna in the morning while I was cooking. I was happy to see Leda talking with Aelyn at lunch. She was offering to share some of her clothing with her so she could dress better. Wynna took that as a cue to promise to go to town tomorrow to get some clothes for Aelyn.

After lunch, I was sitting and studying my spell under a tree at the edge of the fields when Leda sat down next to me. Aelyn was practicing her tumbling nearby and was keeping an eye on the interaction, probably reading Leda's thoughts. "So Storme," she started, "tell me about yourself." I put the book down and tried not to show irritation at being interrupted. We were going to be living together for a few months and I planned to try to be nice.

"You first," I said deflecting the question.

She had a bright white smile on her face highlighted by her brown complexion. "Well, I come from a good family. We have been enchanters for six generations. Both my older brothers and older sister are carrying on the legacy but I am terrible at it. My father sent me to the mage's academy and I only had minimal space to imprint spells so I transferred to the naval academy in the first month. I am in training to be an attendant. That is someone who serves as the right hand of an officer, doing their paperwork, handling meetings, and such. That is how I was paired with Cilia since she is on a captain's track." So captains were not chosen because of merit in Skyholme apparently. She continued, "and you?"

"Tell me about enchanting. I have always been interested in the craft but never had the opportunity to study it." Once again I deflected to make her talk and closed the book to show she had my attention.

She seemed to acquiesce and started talking, "Well enchanting is really about creating spell forms with metals. You need to have a steady hand and be good at working metal. Silver mixed with tier 3 aether dust is the most common for writing out the runes. Those enchantments should last longer than a human's lifetime. The silver will degrade over time but like I said it should last fifty to seventy years as long as the silver lines are thick enough. You could use platinum which lasts ten times as long but that gets expensive. Then there is mithril which doesn't degrade at all over time. Then there are the materials you put the runic spell forms into. Certain types of wood are good insulators. Gold is a good insulator as well but once again that gets expensive and the gold will actually degrade over time, usually around the same pace as platinum. Adamantine is the prime insulator, aether can not permeate it at all and it never degrades. My family mostly uses wood and silver to make household items. Cooling chests, freezer chests, cooking tops, room heaters, various lights, and sound capture boxes for recording music are our main products." Leda was finally not flirting and seemed to be happy to talk about her family. "You have to give me something about yourself though. Come on! Cilia and I are curious, not that she would ever ask!"

I took a deep breath and then spoke, "I have a younger sister and older brother. My father is a skyship guard and my mother is a leather carver. I have been friends with Gareth since before I was allowed to go out on my own in town. As you know I have an awakened core and you also know I have some healing magic and the cleanliness spell." I thought that was enough.

"Yeah, I never thought I would ever be jealous of someone's magic like I am of your cleanliness spell. What is that smell? I can't seem to place it." She asked.

"Vanilla," I said.

"Vanilla," she mumbled committing the name to memory. "I only have one free spell slot left and I am seriously considering that spell. Can I borrow your spell book?" She asked with big eyes and a grin. She actually looked kind of cute and I could see Aelyn eyeing her interactions with me from a few yards away. Aelyn reminded me of a mother hen ready to protect her chicks. Is that what Aelyn thought of me, a chick that needed protecting?

"Sure, do you have any enchanting books I could borrow in exchange?" I asked.

"Yes! I have three basic primers with me. One for the heating rune, one for the cold rune, and one for the light rune. You can borrow all three while I work to imprint the cleanliness spell." She was actually pretty excited as she left and Aelyn came to me and squatted to talk to me.

"She was being genuine with you. She truly wanted to know more about you," She paused. "Can I borrow the cleanliness spell after Leda?" This caught me off guard.

"Do you have any spells? How much space does your aether matrix have?" I asked but she shrugged her shoulders not knowing the answer.

"I never had money to get a spell I really wanted. I probably wouldn't have had the patience to learn it anyway. I did talk with Wynna and she said when she went to town tomorrow she would bring her daughter back to do a joint reading on me. Apparently, they are stronger together when they do a reading together. Is that ok?"

"Aelyn that mark on your neck means nothing to me. You can do whatever you want. There is no need to ask for my permission. I would prefer if you didn't go around reading other's thoughts but I must admit the ability is useful." I responded while making eye contact with her. She nodded and returned to her practice. I went back to my book.

Conditioning was actually fun for me today as well. Gareth and Aelyn had their own private competition but I was able to outclass Leda easily and even though Cilia was quite strong I still manage to best her on the obstacle course work and during the weight training which annoyed her to no end. I don't know if it was the fact I was 5 years her junior or the fact I was a male.

We moved on to sword forms next and it was clear Cilia was decent. Callem still spent a lot of time correcting her. It was the first time I noticed her put in a huge amount of effort. She knew the value of Callem's feedback. Gareth for his part was able to do his forms easily and still observe everyone else and add voice correction every once in a while toward us. He usually directed his comments at me as Aelyn and Cilia seemed to ignore his corrections for a minute before actually making the suggested correction. With everyone being sore from the conditioning the sword forms were not easy. 'Not easy' was Callem's way…something to do with working through adversity.

When we were finally done I was glad to get a chance to study for a few hours while the girls went to bathe in the stream. Gareth tried to talk to me but I told him I needed to study so he went for a walk in the woods. After he left I hoped he didn't get caught spying on the girls bathing because I was fairly certain that was his plan.

I was called by Callem to make dinner and prepared a massive southern fried chicken dinner for everyone. I was amazed at how famished everyone was. After I told them they were supposed to eat the chicken with their hands I had trouble frying it fast enough to keep it stocked on the table. There wasn't much conversation at the table other than everyone giving suggestions to Wynna on what types of clothes to get Aelyn in Hen's Hollow. I also gave her a list of ingredients I was running low on. I planned to make mini bacon cheeseburger sliders tomorrow with a three-bean salad and roasted corn on the cob.

After dinner Callem said I could heal everyone who needed it. I had healed myself earlier so I just had to get everyone else. The lesson tonight was on the Sadian kingdom. Wynna had a map showing their territory in detail and the arcs that the Skyholme islands traveled over their lands. We had five outposts in the lowlands according to the maps on the table. Three were near the Sadians and the other two were by dungeon entrances. Aelyn did most of the talking tonight about the cities on the map and we all listened intently.

After dinner, I went to my loft immediately and returned to my study but Leda interrupted me by climbing up to my loft with the three enchanting primer books so I gave her my cleanliness spell book off my shelf. She was shocked by the author, Sana Velin. Apparently, she was more famous than I had known and all her spell books were quite valuable. She promised to treat it with respect.

My head rested on the wooden wall divider between my and Aelyn's bed so when she climbed up into the loft an hour later we could talk quietly. She told me Gareth was upset as he felt that I was becoming attached to her. Aelyn suggested I actually move my bed over to his loft as she felt it would solve a lot of his insecurities. I didn't want to do this because he breathed so loudly when he slept. I also had to constantly clean his clothes to keep the smell down. At least Aelyn slept quietly. In the end, I decided to take her advice. I yelled across the room and asked Gareth if it was ok if I moved over there tomorrow. He was giddy in his response and said he would move all my things for me during our free time tomorrow. Maybe I could make some earplugs?

I was the last one asleep as I struggled to imprint the obfuscate spell. I did get some good news as I was able to feel my mend flesh spell had advanced to level 4. One more level and I could evolve the spell again. My cleanliness spell was also on the verge of level 6. Even though I only had the two spells they were advancing. I fell asleep doing aether core exercises and casting my cleanliness spell filling the bunkhouse with a vanilla scent.