WW Chapter 92: Final Preparations (Patreon)

Yesterday's chapter.

Just as Basil had promised, the next days passed quickly. Instead of Ezra’s regular training complemented by special training with one of the Pseudo-Knights, he was actually allowed to leave the garrison again, going on a few patrols. Each was painfully ordinary, and the looming war weighed heavily on Ezra as the citizens he saw had no idea what was coming. More impactful, though, was the opportunity to spend hours meditating in the storm.

Flooding his inner world with more and more aura, only maybe half of it refined to be his own, was a strange experience. This “overeating” brought the same discomfort as when he’d overfilled himself past his limits preparatory to ascending to Adept, but instead, as he continued to stretch his inner world, it slowly adjusted to be able to fit everything he shoved into it, though the newly brought in aura constantly leaked from him.

After just an hour of continuing to swell and tear his inner world’s limits, he felt like one time he’d come across an abandoned, spoiled pile of bread. At that time, he’d been what, ten? However old he was, he hadn’t thought about why the bread had been thrown away, only that it was food and that he was hungry. He’d proceeded to stuff himself as much as he possibly could, his skinny belly pressing out to the point that it seemed like his belly button would disappear. He’d kept pushing more food into his mouth, even as he was too full, just wanting to make sure he didn’t feel hungry again soon.

Instead of forcing away the hunger for any notable length of time, though, he made himself sick. The bread was bad, and he ended up puking through the night instead of enjoying a full belly.

Now, though, the pain wasn’t really physical. It was, kind of, in the sense that his inner world was a part of him, but he wasn’t going to throw up or anything else. Instead, he just suffered. Suffered from distension inside and the constant feeling of tearing. The worst part was that he was too determined to slow down. Instead, he continued to pump more and more aura into himself for hours, his inner world swelling and expanding significantly more than it would have in maybe two or three weeks of meditating and deliberately focusing on expanding his reserves.

The whole time, he was sitting under a summer storm, wind and rain battering him as lightning crashed overhead. It was strange, but this was the first time that he’d been in a storm that wasn’t frigid, more than that, it was warm enough that he wasn’t going to get hypothermia by sitting in it for hours.

Moreover, this storm had much more lightning and thunder than the storms he’d witnessed at home. Here, the lightning was constantly flashing overhead, the rumble of thunder incessant. Ezra, remembering Jormun’s warnings, very specifically did not attempt to interact with the flickering lightning at all. Here, in the center of a training pit, he didn’t think that he was particularly likely to be struck by lightning when spires and towers surrounded the clearing, but he wasn’t going to chance anything.

His mind wandered as he sat there. Was it the difference in temperature that was making so much more lightning? Or was it because this was a heavy rain?

Either way, it was a flash of inspiration he gained when he realized that he needed to incorporate this same warmth into his own inner world. Every storm he’d experienced in Villy was cold, even in the height of summer. Now, though, he could see how limited his own thoughts had been.

He didn’t think too much about it as he started to pull heat from whatever sources he could find and swirl it around with the heavy, wet clouds in the center of his inner world. As he did so, he felt the beginnings of a qualitative change there. The first beginnings of flickers of light inside the clouds became brighter, thicker, betraying the lightning that could eventually appear there.

Even so, understanding that he needed to put more heat into his inner world didn’t mean that he’d suddenly understood the perfect ratios or other adjustments he should use there. Just like how Chloe was stuck on her evolution to Knight largely because she hadn’t figured out exactly what affinity her inner world should adjust to, he wasn’t sure what the concentration should be for each aspect of the storm he needed.

Regardless of the fact that he wasn’t finished, with that better understanding, his inner world’s aura compressed in on itself. For a while, he wondered what exactly this impact would be, but it steadied after only a few minutes. Then, with a new swirling mass of clouds, water, and the occasional flicker of lightning, his inner world resumed to being pumped full of this storm he sat in. Then, the discomfort returned, and he was back to being pushed to progress ever faster.

After most of the day being splattered by rain and wind, Ezra’s fingers were shriveled and his toes even more so. He still didn’t feel like he’d reached the limits of his inner world, but could feel that his reserves had increased by a fair margin. With a groan, he stumbled to his feet as the thick smell of rain lingered on the air. After sitting still in the same position for so long, Ezra took a moment to thread some of his own aura through his body for a short time. With that quick fortification, he was able, once again, to walk like a normal human, and went on his way.

The days continued passing, and it quickly became apparent that Ezra wasn’t in trouble for his fight with the anti-Duke trainees. That led more people to treat him as someone to be feared. Telemachus thought it was hilarious, though Ezra himself hated it. More pressingly, only people who were at least Adepts were being considered to go on the journey. 

Ezra’d tried to push Rose and Miriam to ascend as soon as possible, but it simply wasn’t possible for the two women. Instead, he’d set about learning who would accompany him to the east. Basil was the only Pseudo-Knight officially being sent so far as Ezra knew, while Telemachus, Dirk, Luna, Quinn, Tula, and Patrice were already confirmed to be members of the squad. Other than that, career soldiers, those who had reached Adept and stalled there, were being sent along. Ezra had hoped for Artemis to join in, but she was staying in Brayton. She was staying with the rest of her family, unwilling to take risks after what’d happened to Helen.

And then, it was time.

“Tomorrow,” Adonis said, as Ezra escorted him to his training with Jhas.

“Bright and early,” Ezra confirmed. “You think you’re ready?”

“Gods above, no,” Adonis chuckled. “Fortunately, Hector is the one who’s actually in charge of things. I just retain information better than him, so I can provide that to him.”

Ezra nodded along, though he couldn’t imagine that the journey they were about to embark on was going to be nearly so simple as Adonis made it seem. Then, thinking for any real measure of time, Ezra quickly realized what Adonis was doing.

“I’m scared,” Ezra shrugged as he stepped closer to the training room. “We’re going into a dangerous situation, with people who hate us, apparently, to try to get them to send a Knight to our support? Sounds pretty dicey to me.”

“The Ember Duchy doesn’t hate us,” Adonis answered, wringing his hands nervously. “They’re our competitors, rivals, at most. However, neither they nor us will benefit from any fighting that comes out of this exchange. Plus, there are centuries of dealings between our two houses, and, historically, the balance has always weighed in our favor. If we must, as my father said, twist, manipulate, and influence to the best of our abilities, we will, and we’ll be fine.”

Ezra raised his eyebrows for a split second, something that Adonis didn’t miss. There were grumbles exchanged after that, but the reality was that Ezra was right. Eventually, Adonis sighed, looking at Ezra as he opened the door to the training room.

“I’m scared too.”

“You’re too smart not to be. You know what’s at stake, and you know we’re coming from a weaker position.”

“I hope my lessons can help you both,” Jhas’s voice interrupted as they walked in. The illiar’s face was as strangely enticing as ever, wooden-looking and glowing from between the cracks of his “bark” skin.

“I’m certain they will,” Adonis greeted. As he inclined his head, his brows narrowed as he slipped into the “polite” form of speaking with the foreign-born Pseudo-Knight. “I can see that you’ve made no efforts to prepare the room for training tonight.”

“We won’t be practicing tonight,” Jhas said by way of explanation. “Instead, you’ll be helping me pack.”

The room was silent for two beats before Adonis’s face opened in a wide smile. “Then I can anticipate your participation in our journey.”

“To Ember, yes,” he confirmed. “I won’t enter the Duke’s home and I can’t be your guard or companion due to my oaths, but I can accompany you all and lend the strength of my mind and arm when necessary everywhere else.”

Ezra’d learned something about how illiar lived, but not enough to understand the exact reason behind this “oath”. However, he did know it was exhausting to talk to one politely, because a question was, apparently, impolite. Too direct. And, worse still, Jhas was supposed to be one of the more patient of the illiar, being something like a brusque old man, by his own admission.

The way Jhas spoke about his oaths, Ezra figured it was something that Adonis already knew about, so he didn’t say anything. Instead, he just looked at Jhas and found himself finding some comfort in the presence of another strong companion.

“Then your purpose among us will be as a healer,” Adonis said, somehow inferring that. “Primarily, at least. If necessary, you’ll draw the blade, but only if the situation demands it and not before, while also being unable to serve as a blade or shield while under the Duke’s direct jurisdiction.”

“Exactly,” Jhas smiled. “I’ll be preparing plenty of materials to allow me to instruct, as well as to minister to any in a more mundane way. And you two, if willing, will assist me in this.”

“Sure,” Ezra shrugged, walking forward. “I’d be willing to carry your things anyways, but to use that as my payment for you to come along is plenty cheap enough for me.”

Jhas chuckled in his usual way, the sound soft and warm as he stepped closer. On a table in the center of the room were two trunks, each lined with velvet and filled with carefully shaped indentations for vials. Most of the indents were already filled with… something. In fact, there didn’t seem to be much for him to do, but he followed Jhas’s instructions for the next hour, preparing the two trunks for the journey ahead.

“We’ll see each other at daybreak,” Jhas dismissed them. “Enjoy your evening, because once we begin our travels in truth, it will be more difficult to find such luxurious rest.”

“Of course,” Adonis nodded. “We’ll remember your advice.”

Ezra raised his eyebrows at the other man, who inclined his head and chuckled at the unspoken reminder. “Yes, Ezra here knows just how trying it can be to travel for a long time. How fortunate that he won’t be forced to learn to ride a horse now, as doing so on a prolonged journey such as this would be most… uncomfortable.”

The conversation continued from there for a short while, though, it wasn’t long before the night came and it was time to rest. The late meal had been shifted around to allow everyone to get to bed early, though Ezra couldn’t guess why. It wasn’t as if he was going to be able to sleep particularly well. 

Regardless of how much or little sleep he could get, night fell and morning came, and even before the first light of the sun could color the sky, the Duke’s manor was bustling with activity. Ezra stood among the rest of the small squad that would accompany Hector and Adonis’s trip. Even though just over twenty people were going, over a hundred people hurried in every direction to prepare the carriage, supplies, horses, equipment, and marching orders, and Ezra was, he now learned, Basil’s second in command.

Before he felt even halfway ready, a piercing whistle sounded over the grounds. Every eye turned towards the Duke, who pulled a small whistle from his mouth.

“Thank you for your willingness to participate in this excursion. Since you’ve all been warned in generalities of what you will be going into, I will simply give my profound gratitude. Thank you for protecting my sons, for being willing to fight for them and for our people. To be here is a sacrifice, even though I do not fear for your lives. Now go, and find victory and success.”

He didn’t say anything more, there was no grand fanfare, and then, while the city began to wake, the group made their way out of the manor’s grounds and then into the streets. Still, as only the earliest risers were up with the early summer sun, the delegation made its way out of the northern gate, towards the Ember Duchy.