Ch183-Lessons For The Learned (Patreon)

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Ch183-Lessons For The Learned

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With Tera and the children asleep, the only people left awake were Sylver and Bruno. They both sat on the roof of the house and silently watched the various chimeras going about their day. Or rather, night, since the bioluminescent hexagons in the ceiling had somewhat dimmed.

Sylver swirled the cold drink in his hand and made the ice spheres floating around in it clink as they hit the metal rim. In the distance he could see where Morana was hanging from her string, her bone-white cocoon had turned an off-color yellow.

“Tell me about the priests that came looking for me,” Sylver said.

He didn’t need to look to see the grimace that formed on Bruno’s face, he could hear it in his voice. He also saw that the snake chimera, Slinky, had perked up, and was now silently slithering towards the house.

“In regards to what they will do outside of Arda, I cannot say. But I promise you, no one looking for you, because of the curse on Kitty’s family, will ever set foot here again. Lola can be very persuasive when she wants to be,” Bruno answered.

Sylver waited for the old man to carry on.

Slinky arrived at the house and coiled himself. He lifted his head towards the roof of the house, and after flickering his tongue at the two men, returned to the ground and went back to guarding the main entrance.

“It’s handled Syl. I would prefer not to talk about it any further,” Bruno said.

Sylver shrugged his shoulders and took a sip from his mug.

“If it’s handled, it’s handled. How much does Tera know?” Sylver asked.

With his near 360 degrees vision, he could see the way Bruno’s face contorted at the question.

“I slipped up a couple of times around her. Mentioned countries that no longer exist, referred to some ingredients using a name that hasn’t been used for centuries, my choice of framework is allegedly outdated, and she assumed there was something strange about me from the get-go because I am associated with you,” Bruno explained.

Sylver quietly nodded.

“I’d like to tell her everything. About me, I mean. Probably Faust too, we’re kind of a package deal,” Bruno said.

“Do you think it’s a good idea?” Sylver asked after a few moments of thinking it over.

“She’s under my protection. If someone can get to her, they would have to go through me first,” Bruno said.

“I know, but that wasn’t what I asked,” Sylver said calmly.

Bruno’s hand tightened around his mug for a moment and caused his knuckles to turn slightly white.

“No. I don’t think it’s a good idea. She might decide that she doesn’t want to be married to a man who, even if you ignore my past lives, is a monster. I know you said you don’t want to know, but I’ve done things Syl. If I tell her and she doesn’t accept it, what do I… What if she decides to take it out on the babies? Their father is a monster among monsters, Tera is an alchemist, she could probably whip up a potion to get rid of them before I finished talking,” Bruno explained, and Sylver suddenly regretted the fact that he chose this topic.

“If I don’t tell her, and the children are born… I thought she was… I assumed, I never thought to actually ask. I do realize this is all something I should have considered before marrying her, but she just sort of wedged herself into my life, and then 5 years passed, and now I’m here,” Bruno added.

He and Sylver sat there in silence and continued to watch the light orange cows lazily move within their pasture.

“Tell her everything,” Sylver said.

“What?” Bruno asked.

“Tell her everything. Sit her down, start where you think is best, and answer any questions she may have. Whatever you do, don’t lie. Because if she catches you in a lie, no matter how small it is, you’re done. If you lied about this, maybe you lied about something else? You say you did so and so, but you’re a liar, you probably did something worse,” Sylver said matter of factly.

Bruno took a drink from his mug while he thought it over, and his hesitation pissed Sylver off a little.

“Why are you like this? You’ve had wives in your past lives, did you really not tell them anything? I’m fairly certain I remember you mentioning children too, what’s going on?” Sylver asked.

“What’s going on is that this is the first time anything’s felt real. I always had this feeling, even when I thought I was a normal person, that whatever it is I’m doing, whoever it is I’m with, it’s temporary. Just something to pass the time, like a snack after you had lunch but it isn’t time for dinner,” Bruno explained, and despite how crude the metaphor was, Sylver understood exactly what he was trying to say.

“And you feel differently now?”

“I don’t know how else to say it, everything just feels so much more real. The food tastes like something, I talk to people and I can remember what they said, I can picture their faces, I wake up and I’m excited for what I’m going to be doing during the day. Tera nearly got eaten by one of the newt chimeras once, and I can’t describe the speed at which I felt everything inside me turn hollow,” Bruno explained.

“Your soul might have been stabilized by being put into a simple body… Or, the more likely answer, is that you imprinted yourself onto Tera, or this house, or Arda, either of which would theoretically be enough to function as an anchor…” Sylver guessed, although without cracking Bruno’s soul open, which was deep down in a dungeon far far away, he couldn’t say for sure.

“Can I be honest with you?” Bruno asked.

“I’m almost insulted that you have to ask.”

“It’s Faust,”

“What about him?”

“He’s just… I’ve killed him before, tortured him, and who knows what else… I’ve seen him lose his family, his wife, children, parents, I’ve even taken some of them away from him, but he had this look that night. When Mira broke off the engagement, he came to see me. And it wasn’t anything he said, but he had this sadness within him, I could almost touch it,” Bruno said.

“I get it, and now you’re worried you’re going to feel the same if you tell Tera the truth, and she decides to leave you,” Sylver said, as Bruno sullenly nodded along.

There was another silence.

“Tell her anyway,” Sylver doubled down.

“What if-”

“My advice, as an ancient lich, and more importantly, as a man that has been in a very similar situation, tell her. Everything. If you at any point feel like something isn’t worth mentioning, mention it,” Sylver offered.

Bruno brought his hand up to his face and rubbed his eyes, and then took a deep breath to calm himself down.

“The sooner you tell her, the better. Because if it ends poorly, and it might, you’re going to feel a million times worse if you tell her in a day, a month, a year, 10 years, that I promise you,” Sylver said.

He did his best not to sound bitter, but too many bad memories had been stirred up. They were as uncomfortable as getting a mouthful of fine ash.

“You love her, right?” Sylver asked.

Bruno almost stood up from his seat from the sheer amount of insult he felt.

“What kind of question is that, of course I love her,” Bruno snapped.

“Then if she rejects you, it’s going to hurt you so much you’re not going to believe it. It’ll be like finding an arrow sticking out of your chest, you look down but can’t even feel it. Then slowly, gradually, you will feel death breathing down the back of your neck, you will die before your heart even stopped beating,” Sylver explained casually.

“I forget, are you trying to persuade me to tell her, or not tell her?” Bruno asked.

“I’m not trying to persuade you to do anything, the choice is ultimately yours. I’m just warning you how much it will suck if the woman you married, and are in the process of having 2 children with, decided to reject you, for being a god cursed monster,” Sylver said, and heard something not too far away from a nervous giggle from Bruno.

“You’re still alive, so I’m assuming it was bad, but you lived?” Bruno asked.

“Why did you marry her before you told her? Did Faust tell his fiancé, is that why they broke up?” Sylver asked.

“He didn’t tell her anything, I don’t know why they broke things off. As for Tera… I don’t know. I honestly don’t have an explanation for it. I felt at ease when I was with her, and she said she wanted to get married, and I liked seeing her happy. It sounds so stupid when I say it out loud, but that’s what it is,” Bruno explained, without actually explaining.

Sylver stood up from his seat and stretched out of habit, even though there was no point to it now.

“I’m going to go. But personally, from what I know about Tera, I think everything is going to work out well,” Sylver said to the old immortal.

He spread his arms out and hugged and patted each other on the back.

“Now that you’ve said it, I think I’ve got a good feeling about this,” Bruno offered with a wry smile.

“You know what? Me too,” Sylver said.

***

With Morana still siphoning Sylver’s mana to finish adjusting her new body, he decided to wait until she was done, before turning the chimeras Bruno had prepared into shades.

As Sylver meandered his way through the morning streets he consulted his mental to-do list.

Create a staff for Ria to use to cast magic through “Sylver’s” ribs.

Get Faust and Bruno into one room to check to see if the framework Sylver had carved into their bodies was triggered.

Other than that, Sylver was just waiting for Lola to finish preparing everything for him. The Schlagen mountains weren’t the friendliest to outsiders, but Sylver would be entering under the guise of a traveling merchant. And with Bravo teleporting him to just outside their border, Sylver was saving weeks’ worth of travel.

He just had to wait for the teleportation mage’s skill to finish cooling down. The man could apparently teleport anywhere where he had already been, but he was limited to doing it once every 20 days.

Oh, right, I need to update my adventurer’s badge. Sylver remembered as a trio of adventurers passed him by.

I also need to talk to Faust. Sylver remembered as he saw a man swaying on his feet, so red in the face that it almost looked like makeup.

And convince Ciege to talk Yeva out of burying her head in the sand…

Sylver struggled to remember what exactly Ciege’s opinion on the matter was. It was probably the same as Yeva’s, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask…

On the other hand, he understood exactly what Yeva was afraid of… Not to mention it wasn’t like he had a say in how they raised their child. He could force the issue, but to what end?

Force Ben to study under a powerful mage? Force him to attend the Silian academy?

Then what?

It wasn’t as if Sylver could take him with him, regardless of how powerful or competent he became.

Right, talk to Lola about pressuring Ciege into becoming a noble…

Or I could try convincing him myself, and if he says no, then talk to Lola…

I should have asked Bruno about the Krists, how did I forget? And I need to find a golem that Ria would be able to control…

Might as well start with her, so she has time to train while I’m doing other things.

Sylver shot a pulse of fog through one of the drain pipes embedded into the floor and materialized barely 10 seconds later right outside his house.

***

Sylver walked around the workshop and gradually sealed it up, so they wouldn’t be disturbed, and so that Ria wouldn’t accidentally shoot a lightning bolt through the ceiling and kill one of the rabbits.

Sylver adjusted his robe and gestured at the blackboard. A piece of chalk floated up into the air and started writing on it.

“Sigils can be broken down into 1 of 6 categories. At the very top is light, and directly underneath it, gas, and plasma. In old texts it is also referred to as wind, fire, and push, and some even go as far as to distinguish lightning as a 7th category, even though that’s just plasma,” Sylver explained, as the floating chalk drew a triangle around the three words.

It took Ria an entire half-hour to learn to read Eirish using some of the books the rabbits had laying around.

Sylver gestured at the chalk piece and it drew an upside-down triangle underneath the gas and plasma triangle.

“And as you might have guessed, down here we have solid, liquid, and dark. Also known as earth, water, and pull,” Sylver said.

He gestured at the blackboard and the two triangles joined together and formed a rhombus. He gestured at the board again, and the rhombus became wider and formed into a hexagon.

“Here is the part that’s important to you. Going clockwise, starting from the very top, the order is light, plasma, liquid, darkness, solid, and gas. The top left line is gas, the top right line is plasma, the bottom left line is solid, the bottom right line is liquid, the top line is light, the bottom line is dark,” Sylver repeated, and could almost hear Ria making mental notes.

“Now, this isn’t the only way to break down magic. There are as many interpretations as there are languages, the dwarves prefer runes, the elves prefer vine script, and humans prefer sigils. Each style of framework comes with its own strengths and weaknesses, which is irrelevant to you, given that there are only sigils within that rib,” Sylver explained.

He wiped the board away with a wave of his hand, and the chalk began to draw again.

“The very first thing to consider when trying to cast a spell is whether or not you are moving. The framework for a spell while you are standing perfectly still, and while you are running, flying, or falling, is different. With solid and liquid, casting while standing still is usually more efficient, whereas, with gas and plasma, the moving variant will usually be more efficient, and therefore, more powerful.

“You’ll notice it when we fight a mage, when they’re casting a spell to move earth, they will stand still, and move as little as possible. Whereas the ones trying to cast lightning, or air-related spells, will wave their hand in an arc, or they will attempt a summersault,” Sylver explained.

“What about light and dark?” Ria asked.

“I’ll explain those later; they’re technically speaking not a category of magic. They are what my people sometimes referred to as “complementary” magic. Just focus on the other 4 for now,” Sylver said as he flicked his wrist and summoned a blue ball of fire into his hand.

Sylver gestured with his other hand at the blackboard and the chalk drew a circle. On the outside of the circle were sigils, and on the inside, a single symbol that looked like a scribble.

While still holding the flame in his hand, Sylver walked over to the blackboard and pointed at the top left portion of the circle.

“Notice how dense the sigils are here. This section of the framework is responsible for gas-related magic. In this case, I’m using it to gather the gaseous moisture in the air,” Sylver moved his finger down to the bottom right, “then I separated the condensed liquid into hydrogen and oxygen,” Sylver moved his finger back to the top left, “then I shape and mix the two gasses,” Sylver moved his hand to the top right, “and then I ignite them,” Sylver finished.

He snuffed out the flame, and slowly recast the spell. Top left, bottom right, top left, top right.

As he did this one more time, Ria noticed that the squiggle in the middle of the circle looked exactly like the movements he had done with his finger.

He tapped the squiggle line.

“This is what we refer to as the “circuit” of a framework. The outside of it, where the sigils are, is the frame. The two combined are a “framework.” This next part will be very important later,” Sylver explained.

He nudged the squiggly line inside the circle until one part of it was pointing to the top right.

Sylver moved his other hand away from him, and it made a soft whistling sound before it exploded with bright blue light, but no ball of fire remained.

“What do you think happened there?” Sylver asked.

For a fraction of a second the absurdity of the situation settled in, and he just stared at the liquid gold creature he was currently attempting to teach magic.

“You changed the order of operation, and ignited the gasses before they were mixed together, and before you manipulated them into a safe shape,” Ria answered.

Sylver flicked his hand again, as the line he had moved away on the blackboard, returned to how it was.

“Exactly! Now, look at this,” Sylver said, as he kept the ball of fire in his hand, and used his free hand to extend one line, to the point it touched the edge of the circle. As he did so, the fire in his hand became longer but weaker.

“You increased the amount of power you used when controlling the gasses, but because the amount of moisture being converted into hydrogen and oxygen remained the same, the volume of the flame increased, but the energy was spread out over a larger volume and became less dense!” Ria answered excitedly.

She actually made the table she was sitting on shake a little.

“Perfect. Simple, right? A spell like this is what we refer to as a tier 1 spell. The lower end of tier 1, the higher end can have up to 5 frames. Then there are dual circuits, quad circuits, and a theoretical limit of hecta, or 100, circuits.

“Although then you get into the question of whether combining two separate frameworks into one means that tier 10 spell used 200 circuits, but according to-” Sylver caught himself as the blackboard was now barely visible as all the extremely tight and illegible circles, lines, and sigils were no longer on the board, and were instead floating over the edge of it.

“Sorry about that. Look for sigils that have this shape,” Sylver said, as the blackboard was wiped clean, and only a single sigil remained. It had a flat base, with small lines and dots sticking upwards from it.

“I found 11,” Ria said after a moment.

A piece of paper floated over to her, and she quickly used the pen near her to write out all 11 sigils.

Sylver looked over at them.

“Hmm… What about the other two ribs?” Sylver asked. Ria reached out towards the other two and drew another 22 sigils onto the page.

“Hmm…”

Ria just sat there, with the three ribs sticking out of her like an insect’s mandibles.

“This one is going to be hard to explain, but you’re familiar with the concept of resonance, right? When you have two identical tuning forks close together, and you hit one, the other will also start vibrating?” Sylver asked.

Ria nodded, and adjusted her grip on the three black metal ribs.

“It’s a thing in magic too. It’s how I can cancel out someone’s spell if I know exactly what they’re casting. If I have more mana than them, I can force a resonance even if I don’t know the specifics of the spell…” Sylver explained, as he took the paper on which Ria had drawn the sigils, and circled 5 of them.

Sylver redrew them in order on the bottom of the page. He pointed a the first one.

“This is the lowest level. See how the lines and dots are very close to the baseline? It’s weak. See the one at the very end? It’s the strongest, and costs the most mana,” Sylver explained, as Ria nodded.

“If I want to use the level of strength between 1 and 2, I need to activate both of them,” Ria said.

Sylver shook his head.

“If you activate 1 and 2, you’ll get 4. If you activate 5 and 3, you’ll get 1.25. If you activate 1, 4, and 5, you’ll get 2.75,” Sylver explained, and for the first time since he’s had to teach this to someone, he didn’t enjoy the blank confused look on the young mage’s face.

In Ria’s case, he just felt bad.

“I don’t… That doesn’t-”

“It makes perfect sense if you can perceive mana. At the end of the day sigils, frameworks, circuits, any kind of structured magic is a way of translating magic and mana into an easy-to-understand format. At my level, I can cast spells almost instinctively.

“We call that “ascending”. An ascended mage understands their field of magic to such an extent that they can not only create custom spells, but they can also find loopholes in previously unbreakable rules, and go beyond inventing, to downright revolutionizing,” Sylver explained, as Ria went from upset, to pissed off, to confused, and ended up at a mixture of the three.

“What is this for anyway?” Ria asked.

“Telekinesis. It will most likely be your main method of transport. You don’t weigh a lot, so it will be cheap in terms of mana. These 5 sigils are safe, worst case scenario you’ll send yourself flying, but at least you won’t explode,” Sylver explained, and if a woman made out of liquid metal could turn pale, Ria would have.

“The others will explode?” Ria asked.

“These sigils are all solid, light, and dark, based. Sigils with plasma in them, tend to explode if misused. With these 5 you might break something, but the staff will be sturdy enough to handle it,” Sylver said.

Ria just stared at him.

“There are 3,125 possible combinations, with these 5 alone,” Ria said.

She was thankfully not a violent person, otherwise, she would have slapped Sylver due to the face he had just made.

“Way more. Timing is a factor. But you have the advantage of having a perfect memory. Once you learn how to cast a specific spell, you’ll be able to cast it perfectly. Oh, and as I said, standing, or moving, is important too. And with telekinesis specifically, latitude is critically important,” Sylver explained, as the little liquid woman deflated into a puddle.

“Listen. I never said it would be easy. But at least you’re spared the worst of it. Magic likes precision. And despite how much hands can do, muscle isn’t what I would personally consider precise. Even when I “mastered” a spell, something as simple as my hand getting bigger from growing up, is enough to completely reset my progress,” Sylver explained, and Ria perked up a little.

“If it’s this difficult, how are there mages at all?” Ria asked.

“This is why they’re rare. Or, I mean… Proper mages are rare… Once someone can perceive mana, it makes things a lot less difficult,” Sylver explained.

Ria raised an eyebrow at him.

“What about the finger thing? That resets your progress,” Ria asked.

Sylver pointed his finger at the farthest wall and wiggled it around. A tennis ball sized sphere of blue fire appeared at the tip of it and with a spurt flew off, and left a tint golf ball sized scorch mark on the stone wall.

“Any idiot that can sense mana can cast a fireball,” Sylver explained.

His finger became straight, and the muscles in his palm made a noise as they moved around underneath his skin.

A tiny ball of blur fire appeared at the tip of his finger, barely the size of a small marble. It seemed to flicker out of existence, and then nearly deafened Sylver from the whistling it made as it flew away.

Ria was caught off guard as the wall Sylver had been pointing to became engulfed in blue fire, which Sylver snuffed out 3 seconds later with a wave of his hand. The previously brownish wall was now a pure jet black.

“But it takes a lot of practice to cast a proper fireball. I used the exact same quantity of mana, the only thing that changed is I was a bit more precise the second time,” Sylver explained, as Ria continued staring at the black wall.

“If I write out all the sigils inside of this, could you show me safe combinations to use?” Ria asked.

Sylver smiled at her and pulled out a notebook from within his robe.

“I will. But start with telekinesis first. Once you can prove you’ve mastered it, we can move onto the next combination,” Sylver explained, but Ria seemed to be too engulfed in exploring all the sigils within the 3 ribs to say anything.

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