“Sit straight, look forward, hold the reins firmly, kick to run, pull back to stop.” Evren said to himself repeatedly. “It says nothing about what to do with your ass. Why does it hurt like it does?”

Evren had been riding the horse for three hours, while wearing this uncomfortable armor and uniform he was beginning to get aches and pains in completely new places. “I don’t see how anyone can find fun in this, give me a flighter any day.”

He had prepared a note and sealed it with wax. He didn’t have a signet to use, so he used the pommel of his sword that had his unit insignia on it. He was planning to ride ahead, give the note to Captain Galand and await a response. Since his face had been broadcasted to everyone, he was planning to use an illusion to make his face look different.

He looked down at the horse and ran his fingers across it, deciding to slow it down so that it could rest a bit. When it started to walk, Evren cast ‘restore’ on it. Looking down the road, he saw nothing, so he stopped and got off the horse. He pulled a bucket out of his backpack and filled it with water, setting it down in front of the horse for it to drink. He cast regeneration on himself, hoping it would reduce the discomfort.

When the horse finished drinking, Evren dumped out the bucket and put it back into his backpack. He hopped back on the horse and walked it for a while. “No running after drinking that much, you’ll feel bloated and vomit.” He said to the horse. Occasionally he would use ‘monocle’ to see further ahead in hopes of finding some sign of the advancing troops.

As night approached, he found a spot to camp at, fed, watered and brushed the horse and relaxed with his back to the tree. Before he fell asleep, he did a sensory scan of the area. Finding nothing he nodded off. He woke frequently during the night, checked the area and went back to sleep. The next morning, he saddled up and headed east down the road. He kept a pace he thought would be good for the horse, but he wasn’t sure what signs to look for.

After ten hours of riding on the second day, he finally saw the army ahead. He cast ‘illusion’ on himself and kept riding. When he got close, he stopped the horse and got off about fifty meters before the lead. The unit sent someone forward and Evren pulled the note out of his saddlebag, handing it over awkwardly. The new face he had given himself was a youthful looking one with sweaty blond hair and pale blue eyes. If one were to look at him carefully, he would look like a younger version of Joseph.

After fifteen minutes, a man came forward on a horse and demanded, “What is the meaning of this?”

Evren replied nervously, “I dunno what that is yer highness. I don’ read none.”

The man looked down disdainfully, “I’m a captain, you will address me as such.”

Evren nodded, his eyes darting from soldier to soldier, “Aye, yer majesty.”

Angrily he said, “That’s captain!”

Evren dropped to his knees and said, “I’m sorry your grace! Sir. Captain. Sir.”

“Tell them this is my response.” He said as he tore the note and threw it to the ground.

Evren nodded and said, “Yes your… captain sir.” He turned and started to ride away on the horse and Evren reached down to pick up the torn note. Captain Galand turned around and asked, “What are you doing?!”

Evren looked down at the note in his hand and said, “I was instructed to bring somfin back wif me y.. captain sir.”

He turned back and said, “Get out of my sight.” As he rode away.

Evren put the halves of the note back into the saddlebags and headed back towards St. Gloria. He dropped the illusion when he was out of sight of the troops. When he arrived back in St. Gloria two days later, he returned the uniform and horse to the guards and said goodbye to the horse. He headed to the cathedral at the noon bell and saw everyone leaving the cathedral. He walked up to Jonathan and asked, “Thanks for taking over for me. How’d it go? Did you find anyone to help out?”

Jonathan nodded, “You’re welcome, and yes I did find some to help out.”

“Awesome.” Evren declared. “Oh, I wonder, have you been working on writing some laws yet?”

“I’ve thought about it but put nothing to paper yet.” Jonathan replied.

Evren frowned a bit and said, “Hmm, I guess we’ll just have to wing it.”

“Wing what?” He asked.

“The trial. They’re about five days out.” Evren replied.

Jonathan’s eyebrows went up and he asked, “What was his response?”

Evren shrugged, “Tore it up.”

“What do you plan to do?” He asked.

“Well, there’s twenty soldiers and then the captain. I’m thinking of scaring him a bit and threatening him to surrender.” Evren said nonchalantly.

“Just you?” Jonathan asked.

Evren shook his head, “Nah, I’ll get Harley to give me a hand.”

Jonathan squinted his eyes in thought, “Five days you say?”

Evren nodded, “At their current pace, yes.”

“I’ll try to get something written up by then.” He said.

“Thanks,” Evren said, “I appreciate it.”

Jonathan walked away, heading towards the government building, and Evren turned to the four where were standing by waiting for him to be free. “Hey guys, what can I do for you?”

“Oh, hey man, we all read the books you gave us, and I think we’re ready, dude.” Orion said.

Evren perked up, “Oh? Excellent.” He took off his backpack and began fishing through it, “I think I have four of those. One, two, three, yep.” He pulled four booklets out of his backpack. “Ok these are the basic spells.” He said as he exchanged the books, they had for the ones he was giving them. “They are the basic spells from the general, elemental and holy categories. I haven’t gotten around to the basic spells for the remaining yet. I’m kinda hesitant about some of them. And the intermediate and advanced spells would give you a headache still.”

They all took a booklet each and opened it up. “Ok, first spell, everyone. ‘Light.’ Read through it, get the mental structure of the spell in your mind. Now, picture a light in or at the place you want it to be and chant ‘light.’”

As Evren watched, a glowing light appeared in the hand of everyone in front of him. He nodded and said, “Excellent. Now, you’ll know when your magic starts getting low, you’ll get a headache. If you continue, you’ll pass out.”

“Did you pass out dude?” Shane asked.

Evren nodded, “Yes, but I was doing something different. I’ve gotten better at it, but in the beginning, I really didn’t know spells. To start a fire, I did something native to my planet.”

“Native to your planet? You’re not from earth?” Louise asked.

Evren shook his head, “No, but we’ll get to that later. Anyway, my people have a weak psychic ability and I tried to use that to start a fire. I did it, but later on I tried to create water and I passed out.”

“Really?” Louise and Shane said together.

Evren nodded, “For example, to create fire, you use the ‘flame’ spell.” As Evren said, ‘flame’ a flame appeared in his hand.

He extinguished the flame and followed up with, “But, if you use pyrokinesis, you can do the same thing.” He focused on his hand and made a small flame appear. He let the flame extinguish and closed his left eye. I was never good at pyrokinesis, I still get a headache from it.”

“Dude, what psychic ability did you get?” Orion asked.

Evren smiled, “I have something called telekinesis.”

“Oh dude! Like a jedi! Awesome!” Orion said as he was nodding happily.

Evren shrugged, “Sure whatever a jedi is.”

“Oh dude, they’re awesome. Like they can move stuff with their minds, and they’ve got a light sword that are d… Dude! You’ve got a blue sword! That’s so awesome!” Orion exclaimed.

Evren looked at the others who were smiling at Orion’s enthusiasm. “Ok, so I want you guys to try all of those spells. Once you have been able to cast them all, pick one and keep casting it over and over again until you get a headache. Rest until the headache goes away and repeat. This will raise your magic capacity, and allow you to cast more spells, and some of the higher spells. I did include a spell in there from the air category called ‘squall.’ It’s a persistent spell, which means as long as you keep feeding it magic, it’ll keep going. You can use that one to drain your magic quicker if you want.”

“Oh! I almost forgot. To stop a persistent spell, like the light one in your hands you have to cut off the feeling of magic. Pull it back into yourself.” Evren said using hand gestures.

“Dude, that’s so weird. It’s like trying to stop peeing.” Orion said.

Evren chuckled, “I said that too.”

“When are we going to learn the music spells?” Chad asked.

“Music spells… I don’t know any music spells. Well, I guess I can teach you how to use ‘aural.’ That could probably be used with music somehow.” Evren said.

“That’s the one you used the other day, where your voice came from somewhere else.” Louise said.

Evren nodded and began explaining how the spell works and when he finished, he said, “Now, one at a time try casting it.

Louise chanted ‘aural,’ and her voice said, ‘Test.’

Orion chanted ‘aural,’ and in his voice said, “Dude.”

Evren shook his head, “You aren’t supposed to say it out loud, just imagine it.”

Orion nodded, chanted ‘aural’ again and this time cast the spell successfully and the spell quietly said, ‘Duuude.’

Chat said, “My turn!” and chanted ‘aural’ and instead of his voice, he did a drumroll.

Shane nodded and said, “Sweet man. Check this out!” He chanted ‘aural’ and music started playing, a song that he was familiar with. He kept playing the song, his head nodding to the beat and suddenly the music stopped, and he grabbed his head, “Owww!”

Evren pointed to him and said, “There’s the headache. Maybe your practicing ‘aural’ would be a good way to increase your magic capacity.” Everyone laughed including Shane and Evren continued. Now, go and practice, preferably outside, so you don’t set anything on fire. That’s the reason why you learn water spells before fire spells.”

“Dude, do you have any spells specialized for me, dude?” Orion asked.

“I’ve got a few days before the troops get here, so I’ll check the vault.” Evren said. “I can’t promise anything, but I’ve found nothing related to botany so far.”

“Total bummer bro.” Orion said with a sigh.

Evren chuckled, “Practice up, guys and when you’ve finished with those books, come see me for the next batch.”

““Thanks Evren!”” “Thanks dude!” “Laters bro”

Evren then walked off in search of Harley.