Chapter 70.6 - Gifts (Patreon)

Arien hated storms. Especially when he was outside and the only thing keeping the rain off him was a miserable umbrella he had to share with Bud. They tried to avoid the larger puddles as they walked, although every detour cost them part of the little protection the umbrella provided.

“Finally. How long were you planning to keep us waiting?” Gilly called from beneath the covered arcade running along the front of the building, where the rest of their group had gathered.

“Arien decided he needed a shower because he got sweaty in this weather,” Bud replied, jumping the last stretch between them and the shelter.

Arien joined him and gave him a flat look. “And who asked me to cast Mana Shield over and over until I was sick of it?”

Bud only shrugged and shook the water from the umbrella onto the ground.

Arien looked around.

The building Reyna had chosen for their first meeting stood fairly close to the dormitories, but he had never been here before. The Barracks, as the students called it, really did look more like a military building than part of the Academy.

It was broad, blocky, and awkwardly shaped, with plain stone walls and almost none of the decoration found elsewhere around the Palace grounds. The only thing that made it stand out was the amount of mana in the air. Arien could feel it before they even stepped inside, denser than anywhere he had been at the Academy except the Tower.

“Where are Reyna and the others?” Bud asked.

Pori, who looked as though she had barely slept, sighed. Maybe she really hadn’t. “Inside. We told them we’d wait for you so you wouldn’t miss anything.”

“How thoughtful,” Arien said with a laugh. “Shall we?”

They passed through a small reception area and between two gates guarded by a pair of bored-looking men. Neither stopped them. One only glanced at their robes before waving them through.

The corridors beyond were plain and wide, with stone floors, bare walls, and doors spaced evenly along both sides. Every so often they passed another student, usually carrying weapons, bags, or some piece of training equipment.

“They’ll search us when we leave,” Pori told them. “Just in case we decide to steal an artifact.”

“I don’t see many students our age,” Arien noted, watching another older student pass them with a tired expression.

Pori shook her head. “Because there aren’t many. Renting these rooms usually costs Arena points, and we can’t earn those until fifth year.”

“Then how did Reyna get one?” Arien asked, while trying to imagine himself fighting other students on the sands of the Arena.

He had to admit, it was difficult.

“You can also just pay,” Bud said quietly, shaking his head. “But even the cheapest rooms cost a fortune.”

“Room seven,” Gilly announced, stopping in front of a wooden door and pulling on the handle. Nothing happened. “Ugh. Pori?”

“Maybe knock,” Pori suggested, rolling her eyes.

Gilly huffed, but knocked. A moment later, the door opened.

“Oh, hi,” Matt said, standing in the doorway and smiling at Gilly.

She walked straight past him without even looking his way.

The rest followed, exchanging quick greetings as they entered. Arien came in last and looked around the room.

It was almost twice the size of their dorm room, and with no furniture inside, it felt even larger. The bare walls glowed faintly with magic. A few brass artifacts had been built directly into them, each one little more than a metal plate with mana crystals protruding from its surface. Apart from that, the only thing in the room was a large burlap sack lying on the floor.

“Hi,” Reyna said. She was fiddling with one of the artifacts. “I’m glad you agreed to join my group.”

Arien looked at the others. When did we decide it was her group? Pori only shook her head, while Mel, quiet as always, moved a little closer to her friend.

“And why exactly is it your group?” Gilly asked. 

Behind Reyna, Sebastian smiled faintly.

Reyna looked at her pleasantly. “Do you want to organize everything? Because if you do, I’m perfectly happy to let the group vote on who should lead.”

Gilly clearly hadn’t expected that. She went quiet for a moment, then shook her head. “Maybe you, Pori?” Pori hesitated, but eventually shook her head as well. “Arien?”

“Gods preserve me,” Arien replied immediately. He had no need for that kind of responsibility.

“Fine,” Gilly said. “So what are you suggesting? How often do you want us to meet?”

“I don’t know yet. First I want to see if we actually work well together. If we don’t, then we can just stop.”

Arien nodded. That made sense, although the way Reyna said it sounded almost rehearsed.

“For today, I mostly wanted everyone to get to know each other. After that, we can practice Mana Shield.” She pointed toward one of the brass plates built into the wall. “This room improves Perception and mana regeneration, so it should be perfect for that.”

“Great,” Gilly said, looking noticeably friendlier toward Reyna.

Arien smiled too. Extra mana regeneration was always useful.

“But that’s not all.” Reyna bent down and picked up the burlap sack. “I brought presents.”

Everyone immediately looked toward the bag as she began pulling things out.

“This is for you, Bud.” She handed him a small metal cube covered in engraved lines. “It’s a Young Mage Casket. I had one like it when I was learning Mana Manipulation. See these lines—”

“I know what it is,” Bud interrupted, staring at the cube. He closed his eyes for a moment, lips moving silently. “A new one costs two mithril talents. I can’t take this.”

He tried to hand it back.

Reyna shook her head. “If you’re going to train with us, you need to catch up on the basics. Besides, it was just gathering dust in storage at our townhouse.”

Without waiting for an answer, she moved on to Mel and Pori and handed them a beautifully decorated scroll case covered in leaves and flowers.

“This one has an active Levitation matrix. I heard that’s the next spell we’ll be learning once most of us can manage Mana Shield.”

“Thanks, Rey,” Pori said, turning the case in her hands.

“And for you, Gilly, I have Mana Shield.”

Reyna handed her another scroll case. Gilly immediately went a little red.

“I hope everyone’s happy.” Reyna looked around the room. “Matt and Sebastian already got theirs earlier.”

Arien looked from Reyna to the sack. There was still something inside. 

Reyna caught his eye and winked.

“What about Arien?” Gilly demanded suddenly, saving him from having to make some awkward comment.

At that moment, he forgave her for every outburst she’d ever had.

“Oh, of course.” Reyna laughed and pressed the back of one hand dramatically to her forehead. “For Arien, I have two presents. Levitation and Fire Fist.”

Arien accepted both tubes with a grateful nod. He had heard about spell formulas before, but he had never had a chance to examine one up close.

He had no idea how much they were worth, although the tubes alone looked expensive. Both were made of dark polished wood, with thin silver bands around the ends and delicate patterns carved along their sides.

“Are these new?” he asked, surprised as he examined the unbroken seals.

“Of course. I ordered them from Eleander’s Spell Scrolls. My family gets a considerable discount there.”

Arien remembered the name from his trip to the Craftsmen’s District with Will. He had even considered going inside at the time, but one look from the guard standing by the door, followed by the prices displayed beneath the scrolls in the window, had quickly changed his mind.

He broke the seal and pulled out the scroll as carefully as he could, half afraid he might damage something.

The roll of parchment was thicker and heavier than he had expected. He unrolled it slowly, admiring both the neat handwriting and the precision of the geometric shapes covering the page. Alongside the spell matrix were detailed instructions explaining how to cast the spell step by step, as well as notes on the parts that usually caused problems.

“Can I activate it?” he asked Reyna.

“Of course. It’s yours.”

Arien touched the mana crystal fixed near the center of the parchment. A moment later, the spell matrix appeared in the air above it, almost as clean and precise as the one Master Terynheim had demonstrated in class.

“Wow,” he said before he could stop himself.

That would make practicing in the dormitory considerably easier.

“Right?” Gilly exclaimed from nearby as she tested her own scroll. “I’m starting to like this group more and more.”

Arien smiled and nodded. Reyna certainly knew how to keep people motivated.

He was sure she had reasons of her own, and considering she came from an Old House, he could even guess what some of them were. But he wasn’t going to judge her for the family she had been born into. That would make him no better than the nobles who looked down on everyone else.

By the time half an hour had passed, the training room had filled with quiet conversation and occasional bursts of laughter.

Bud sat against one wall, turning his artifact over in his hands and nodding while Reyna leaned over him and pointed out its different functions. Gilly had joined Sebastian and Matt, taking turns trying to cast Mana Shield, while Pori practiced a short distance away with Mel quietly giving her advice.

Arien sat cross-legged on the floor, staring at the Fire Fist matrix for what had to be the last fifteen minutes.

Unlike Mana Shield, Fire Fist required an incantation, and casting it involved several times as many steps. Even after years of practicing Fire Magic, Arien found it hard to believe this was only a First-Circle spell.

“How’s it going?” Reyna asked as she walked over and sat down beside him. “Having trouble?”

“I don’t even know where to start.” Arien shook his head. “It looks a little intimidating.”

“I’ve heard that once you assign Spellcasting and Words of Magic, all of this suddenly gets much easier,” Reyna said.

“You don’t have them yet?” Arien asked, a little surprised.

She shook her head and looked away. “Not yet. I’m focusing on Mana Manipulation for now.”

“I think I prefer unstructured magic.”

Arien gathered mana in his hands and cast Mana Shield. To his surprise, it worked on the first try. Maybe spending half the day demonstrating it to Bud had been useful after all.

“My tutor always says that if you don’t know how to approach a spell, don’t try to understand the whole thing at once. Practice the pieces separately first.”

“Thanks. Maybe I’ll try that. What do you think—”

A loud burst of laughter cut him off.

“I don’t believe you!” Matt said, clutching his stomach.

“I’m not making it up!” Gilly protested, eyes bright. “He really said that.”

“Looks like they’re starting to get along,” Reyna said with a small smile.

“Gilly might say whatever comes into her head, but she can be really funny. And helpful,” Arien said, watching the three of them.

Reyna gave a quiet snort. “That sounds a lot like Matt.” Her expression turned more serious. “What about you? What matters most to you?”

Arien leaned back on his hands and looked at the others. His new acquaintances. Maybe even friends. He knew there was still an entire adult life separating him from them in his head. But after years of pretending to be a child, sometimes it stopped feeling entirely like pretending.

Reyna was watching him closely. He doubted she had asked the question without a reason.

“Freedom,” he said quietly.

The girl raised an eyebrow. “Freedom from what?”

Arien shook his head. "I don't mean freedom from, but freedom to."

“I don’t understand.”

“Sometimes I don’t either,” he admitted. He looked back at the Fire Fist matrix. “So you’re saying I should split it into pieces first, and only put everything together afterward?”

Reyna stared at him for a moment. “No offense, but you’re a little weird.”

Arien only laughed quietly.

Author note:

I’m feeling a bit better today, and I even managed to finish the chapter.

Here’s a small snippet for anyone interested ^^. It may still change a little during the final editing pass.

But what caught Arien’s attention most lay a short distance beyond the dying Monster.

Between the trees hung what looked like a wound in the world itself. A black circle rose upright from the ground, the air around its edges twisting and distorting as it seemed to swallow both light and the mana around it. And it was that swirling mana that sent a shiver through Arien’s whole body.

He could recognize many of the dozens of Aspects churning within the inky blackness, but one dwarfed all the others.

Space.

At last, he was looking at the thing he had heard about and dreamed of for so many years.

A Portal.