Man, the first half of every day is boring as all heck. Like, I get that it’s basically Val going to school, but they don’t have anyone to interact with that’s their own age. I might look eternally 16 but I’ve been haunting Val since I died 8 years ago and that makes me way older. Though I don’t actually feel that older. And it’s not like I’ve had a variety of experiences since then so I haven’t really matured that much I don’t think. Still, Val’s like my younger sibling and I love them dearly but they would benefit from having another friend besides me. Though they don’t seem lonely. Hrmmm. 

But yeah, sword class is going the same as always, the instructor shouting out positions and Val moving to match them. Supposedly, what this does is train your muscle memory for various scenarios that will occur in a fight. First Position is a defensive maneuver where you hold the sword vertically on your left side to defend against the most common attack with a sword: a right handed horizontal slash. Second Position is blocking an overhead strike. Third is blocking from the left. The instructor mixes the positions around so that the movements from one to the next will be fluid and thus the knight will be able to react no matter how their opponent attacks. 

The instructor is a knight by the name of Sir Bernard Frostsword. Apparently he’s the second child of a merchant that purchased a minor noble title. Sir Bernard wasn’t content with being merely an assistant to his sister who would inherit the business and so taught himself the sword every opportunity he got. Turns out he was a natural and quickly became a fighting machine. During the Bi-annual Tourney he entered and won both the duel tournament and the hundred man melee. The Duke awarded him knighthood and the position of second to the Knight Commander of the Duke’s order, the Order of Grace. So he’s a big deal. And for the last 5 years he’s been teaching Percival how to fight. 

The lesson isn’t all about defense however. Sir Bernard throws in attacks throughout the drill. Val, who’s been training this long and also beat one of Robutt’s best guards just the other week, seems bored by the whole thing. They have the exact expression of a kid that understood a concept the first time it was explained but has to sit through the teacher catching up everyone else. Bored and slightly exasperated I’d call it. But, nevertheless, they persisted in going through the motions. 

Now that I’d seen them in an actual fight I could see how they weren’t giving it their all. Whether that was to practice holding back or just because they didn’t care to put in a full effort was beyond my knowledge. It seems a shame that Val can’t give it their all, though at the same time even when they were in a real fight they still didn’t seem excited. Or happy, or exhilarated, or anything really. Just the same bored expression they always wear when they drill. I don’t know, I just want them to find happiness in what they do, even if it’s not something they can control. Especially since they can’t control what they do. I think a way to do that would, again, be to get someone else in the classes. Even if they aren’t friends they might be rivals and then competition might give Val some drive.

God I normally feel like their big sister but right now I feel like a worried mother. I hate feeling this way but seeing Val have that nightmare put me in a weird headspace. And it’s not like Val doesn’t enjoy anything. When I’m teaching them about crafting their face lights up and their eyes sparkle. God I love seeing them that way. I guess the solution to their happiness is making things with their hands. Which I totally understand. 

“A good showing, as always Young Duke Percival!”

“Thank you, Sir.”

“I’ll have a surprise for you for tomorrow’s lesson, so look forward to it!”

“...Of course, Sir.”

“Very well! Off with you son, the day is still young and wanting!”

“I…Yes. You’re right Sir, I’ll be going now!”

What on the Gods’ green earth does “the day is wanting” mean? ‘Cause it sounds gross.

“Hey, Val, what the heck does “the day is wanting” mean?”

“Um. I don’t know. I just wanted to leave so I was smiling and nodding.”

“Sniff. I’ve taught you so well. It brings a tear to my eye.”

“You’re not the first person to smile and nod through an awkward conversation nor will you be the last. I believe this among other facts that contradict the things you’ve claimed to have taught me.”

“Mhm. Mhm. Right you are Val, I agree whole-heartedly.”

Val started to squint at me real hard.

“You’re doing it to me now, aren’t you?”

“Of course, whatever you say Val.”

“Oh piss off.”

“Pfffttt, ok, I’ll stop. Anyway, I believe that it’s time for us to make our grand escape, before someone kidnaps you and forces you to do math or etiquette or whatever else nobles force their children to do.”

“Sure but where are we going for the mana expansion ‘bootcamp’?”

“You know that spring in the forest to the west?”

“Glenn’s Spring? Of course I know it. We went there together, remember?”

“Yeah, I do, I just wasn’t sure if you remembered. I know as a teenager I lost a lot of my memories all the time.”

“...Do you still forget things easily?”
“Um. Hmm. I don’t think so. I remember most of what we’ve been through together. I don’t remember a lot of what I did besides playing LoT.”

“Don’t you have memories of happy times with your family?”

My mind starts to wander to the closet door where I’ve shoved and locked away the vast majority of the memories of my parents, all of them too painful for me to know how to handle. The door seems to start bulging outwards, the memories desperately trying to escape and consume me. I put in as much effort as I can to push against it and keep it closed. On the outside of my head, Val seems to be waiting for an answer, maybe even a bit worried. Oh god I can’t worry them with my own fucked up past.

“Yeah. Yeah, uhuh. Sure there are some. My younger sister got up to a lot of hijinks that she dragged me into. She was really cute as a tiny kid. Just a bundle of energy waiting to explode into action.”

“I’m sure we’ll make plenty of memories to fill in the spaces of the memories you forgot.”

“...Thanks Val. I’d like that. I really would.”

“Let’s get going then. And Rose?”

“Yeah Val?”

“I want you to know that you’re my best friend. You say it to me a lot but I feel like I don’t say it to you often enough.”

“I hope that me saying it so often doesn’t devalue the sentiment.”

“No. It makes me really happy when you say it.”

“I’m glad. Alright! Enough with the sappy stuff or Imma start crying.”

---

 

Glenn’s Spring was apparently named after the explorer that found it “first”. Considering that he lived 400 years ago I’m fairly certain that he was just the first guy from the empire that found it and marked it on a map with his name slapped on it. Kinda bugs me, but whatever, not like I can change it. I’m also terrible at naming things so I couldn’t do better than him I wouldn’t think. 

It’s an extremely beautiful and tranquil place. The spring is in a small glade in the middle of a deciduous forest with a lot of trees that have multi-colored leaves. When the sunlight shines through them it feels like looking into a sky full of jewels, or maybe a stained glass window that shifts with the wind. The spring itself is a steady trickle of crystal clear water flowing from the top of a small gray rock spire covered in soft moss. The water pools around the spire until it flows onward and forms Break Creek. I, uh, don’t know why it was named that. 

Val practically skips into the glade and breathes in deeply after seeing the spring. Meanwhile, I’m floating on my back, mostly looking at the sun through the leaves. The beauty of this game world still shocks me from time to time. After enjoying the view and taking a sip of water with cupped hands from the pool, Val turns to speak to me, eyes full of determination.

“I’m ready! Let’s get to it!”

“Give me 5 more minutes.”

“Nope! We’re starting as soon as possible!”

“Sigh, Alright, alright. Where to start… Right. So, first let me tell you that there are 5 techniques I’m going to teach you, though most people only really click with 2-3 of them. First off is mana circulation. You remember the feeling of the mana inside you? How you can move it to your fingers? That’s basically all mana circulation is, just moving it through your body. When you first start doing it it’ll move slowly and sluggishly, but as you and your body get used to moving it it’ll speed up. You’ll also get more used to doing it and it’ll become second nature at some point. I know of a few people that managed to do it constantly; just had a little subsection of their subconscious on circulation duty I guess. Make sense?”

“Yeah pretty much. But it seems impossible to move it subconsciously. I was worn out just by doing that much and I didn’t even get to cast the spell.”

“Chin up me bucko!”

“What?”
“Um. Don’t feel bad about it, again, it’s hard to cast magic when you’re just starting out. Especially when you have low mana. Thus today’s lesson.”

“Yeah, alright.”

“Anyway, get to circulating! I’m going to cast the spell Mana Vision and watch your progress to see what you might need help with, sound good?”

“Wait, you can see mana?”

“With a spell, sure! Lots of things are possible with the right spell!”

“That’s cool as heck!”

“It sure is! There’s another spell that lets you- wait wait wait, you’re not getting me on a tangent! Circulate!”

“I’m doing it, I’m doing it!”

As Val said that I quickly cast Mana Vision which didn’t even involve any chants or gestures. You just focus mana into your eyes while they’re closed and then open them. Gives your eyes a cool rainbow-swirl effect in the pupil on top of letting you see the mana flowing through the world, and thus the mana flowing within creatures. Most living things circulate their mana a small amount on reflex, but humans are tricky. There’s a lot we need to be taught instead of having the instinct to do it naturally. Which results in non-mages looking something like a stagnant pool: the swirl of colors that indicates their personal elemental mana mixture just kinda sitting there limpid, pooled into the lower half of their bodies usually. I have seen some people with their mana pooled around their heart. Those people tended to live to be like, 110 years old or crazy stuff like that. To my mind that seems to correlate with the image of wizened old mages and wizards, ancient crones still cackling over the cauldron years past their supposed prime, and such like. That’s one of the main reasons I want Val to learn mana circulation and get it to a high level of proficiency: I’d like them to live longer and be healthier. 

Val’s mana is, for the most part, stagnant. There’s a lot of light mana in there, mixed with a decent amount of fire mana. The last significant amount was a small amount of nature mana. There are of course traces of the other elements but those three are the most prominent. I guess what Val said about the family absorbing fire mana was true. Wonder how that really happened. I don’t believe the story that a man was burned to a crisp, walked it off, and bingo bango my hair’s now red because I absorbed the mana that was turning me into one of the fries that leaves the basket and stays in the fryer until they clean it. 

Maybe I should take this time, while Val is nice and quiet and I’m bored, to talk about the elements. The list is Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Nature, Light, Dark, Soul, and Mind. Fire is self explanatory, has to do with heat and to a large extent destruction. However, nearly every spell that involves cooking is fire related. There are also a few restorative spells in the fire school, which indicates to me that the devs believed that fire isn’t solely a force of pain and destruction, but also, when tamed, can be a source of life and warmth. There’s the idea of the hearth being the center of the home, the solace one can get from a warm meal, and the expression does say that when you love someone they’ve “lit a flame in your heart”. 

Water is also, well, let’s be frank here, most of the elements are self explanatory. Water deals with the wettest substance around. Conjuring it, manipulating it, freezing it, these are all things that spells in the school of water can do. Want to make a spike out of ice and shoot it at your foe? Water. Want to summon a tsunami to wipe out an invading army? Water’s got you covered at the higher tiers. Need to refill your canteen in the depths of a dungeon? Water again! You can also breathe underwater or swim like a dolphin with water magic. There’s not much in water that’s super out of the realm of expectations I wouldn’t say.

Earth is anything related to dirt and minerals. Rocks, dirt, gems, metals, clay, you name it Earth’s got it. It’s got some great support spells, such as a spell to cover yourself in stone armor while buffing you to not be crushed by the weight. A spell to appraise gem and metal quality, very useful for merchants and crafters alike. A spell for restoring the fertility to farmed soil; crop rotation begone! A spell to form and solidify bricks and pottery without the need for a kiln. I don’t really like that last one as much, takes the fun out of crafting with clay. The reason it hasn’t completely overtaken the pottery business is that it only has 1 design for any one thing. Want a deep cereal bowl? How about a serving bowl? Sorry, you get a small, shallow bowl. Want a plate that kinda works as a bowl for your pasta? I’m sorry, all I know is that a plate is a flat piece with a bit of a lip. But yeah, earth is great for buffs, mostly in the realm of the physical though. Not a lot of magic protection coming out of turning your flesh to steel, but if the sword your enemy’s swinging at you is made of poor quality steel or, god forbid, iron or even copper? That enemy’s going to have a bad day and a broken sword as the least of their worries. 

Moving on, we have Air which has a lot of buffs and some good damage dealers. Mostly dealing with speed and flight buffs, I’ve used air magic in the past to not only have the power of flight but also to increase my speed fourfold which, let me tell you, made me essentially a human missile. I combo-ed it with some earth magic for defense: both the steel skin and the rock armor. I thusly became not a missile but a wrecking ball. God it was fun but gave me such a headache. But yeah, air magic can also turn wind into blades that can slash up your enemies. Were you wondering why there was no element for electricity? It got folded into air, probably because of lightning being a phenomenon that happens midair. Well not actually, lightning actually starts at the ground and goes up if I recall correctly. I digress, it lets you shoot lightning at people so that’s pretty sick. 

Nature magic involves everything living. So animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, all in there baby. Spells to transform parts of your body into animalistic forms, like giving you a wolf’s snout complete with teeth, or, for instance, giving you the tough hide of a boar for a bit. It lets you grow plants fungi and micro-organisms depending on the spell. I pulled a “prank” on my friend one time that was just me growing the e-coli on his ingredients and thus poisoning him. I gave him a remedial potion soon after but he didn’t forgive me for a while. I also decided that it might’ve been too mean for a prank. Nature also lets you do stuff like harvest from natural resources without killing them. Need some wood from a 10,000 year old tree? Don’t even think about cutting that thing down, use Wood Harvest on it. Need about 50 of a super rare mushroom you’ve only ever found one of? Fungal Harvest is your best friend. You can even get meat or hide from an animal without killing it if it’s chill with you touching it for like 20 seconds. 

Light magic is said by the empire to be holy, as they worship the Goddess of Light and Mercy. Which I think is hilarious for an expansionist empire but I didn’t write the setting. Light magic works with not only shining a light in the dark, but also lets you do most healing spells. It has a few esoteric buffs as well, such as Saint’s Succor  which means you don’t have to eat for 24 hours after applying it. There’s a spell that turns undead and one that summons a literal angel to assist you in combat. There’s also a high tier spell, literally Mercy’s Judgment that heals everything in a ten mile radius. Cures their diseases, seals their wounds, can fucking cure a migraine and I heard it once delivered someone’s baby mid-labor. It’s a stupidly powerful spell and I’m glad they balanced it so that the caster can only cast it once every six months. It also has one of the highest if not the highest mana costs in the game. It also isn’t picky about who it heals, so using it on a battlefield is pointless unless you’re a third party I suppose. 

Dark is my favorite school. Involves summoning, manipulating, drawing power from, darkness as well as vacuums, and cold without ice. It feels more like the absence of heat rather than a reduction of heat if that makes sense. Very cold in essence. Heck, one of the top tier spells is Absolute Zero which, let me tell you, ain’t kidding when it says that. I cast it once and froze a fire dragon solid. My party’s warrior gave it a love tap with a maul and it shattered like heated glass hitting water. Was pretty sick but also kinda grisly. 

Soul is a narrow field of magic. It involves altering, destruction of, capturing and or sealing of souls. It’s how you can bring someone back from the dead: seal their soul in an object, heal their body quickly, then shove the soul back in. In theory it’d work, in practice it has been attempted numerous times to, let’s say less than stellar results. The mages attempting it all described a sense that something resisted the implantation of the soul. Makes me wonder if the gods forbid it at some point or if once the soul leaves the body the body dies for good. I don’t muck around with soul magic at all though. Wigs me out. Like I know the spells I just don’t use them thank you. 

Mind magic, as mentioned previously, is a bit fucked up and by a bit I mean almost entirely. I won’t rehash the specific spells and their awful effects but suffice it to say that Induce Dream is far and away my fav spell in the school. There are a few good resistance ones, such as Resist Mind which lets you resist spells from the mind school better. Pre-mortem I kept this one active at all times. I don’t like taking risks with my brian or my autonomy. 

“-ose. ROSE!”

“Jeez no need to shout I’m right here!”

“You’ve been spaced out for 2 HOURS! When was I supposed to stop, 2 weeks from now?!”

“It can’t have been 2” I look at the sun. “Holy shit it’s been like 2 hours Jeezy Creezy I’m so sorry buddy.”

“Can you at least do what you said you would and tell me what I’m doing wrong?”

“Sure can friendo. Hmmm. It looks like you’re doing a good job! Everything is flowing smoothly and your mana is maintaining a constant ratio. Seems good to me! If this is something you don’t hate doing, you should repeat it for at least 30 minutes to an hour every day. Once it gets easier you’ll be able to do basic tasks while circulating.”

“Hmm. I mean, I do find it a bit challenging but it did get easier over time. I’d say that I don’t hate it.”

“Great! Now then, the second method is-”

“Rose I hate to cut you off but we have to go home now.”

“Whaaat? Why?”

“Because dinner’s going to be served soon and I don’t want my food to be any colder than it usually is.”

“Wait your food’s normally cold?”

“Yeah? I’m a noble, it sits for ages until we eat it and has to be poison tested and all sorts of stuff. By the time we actually eat it it’s usually stone cold.”

“That’s awful! But worry not Val, I shall save you from disgustingly cold food!”

“How?”

“Through magic of course! A little spell from the fire school called Warm the Soul.”

“I don’t know that I need my soul to be warmer than it is.”

“No, ding dong, it warms up food which when eating helps to ‘warm the soul’”.”

“Why would food do that?”

“Uh, because warm food makes you feel all warm and happy inside. Trust me, you’re gonna love it!”

“If you say so, I won’t argue.”

“Excellent! Then, onwards!”