Five days came and went, and with them the anticipation of their eventual departure continued to build. Murabi had his four mentees working on exercises involving their aura, and had them devoting a sizable chunk of their day making a trip around the entirety of the city’s walls - with a focus on balancing the use of their aura and making sure they didn’t run out. Despite a lot of complaints about the run in the beginning, the only one who really struggled with this initially was Meti and her lower aura pool, but her physique without aura managed to cover for her until her aura pool caught up.
According to Murabi, he did this for two reasons. The first several bumps in one’s aura or mana pool came from knowledge - learning things that fundamentally changed your understanding of using the energies. Mages got a few increases from learning to manipulate mana, then a few more from casting their first spells. After that, they usually didn’t get those kinds of increases until they cast a spell of a higher tier for the first time, or they invent a new spell that changed the way that they saw mana.
Aura users work in a similar manner, but with the limited amount of aura techniques that one can easily learn, knowledge based bumps came more from learning to control one’s aura more and more. Making sure their uses of it aren’t wasted, and every aura-infused action had only the necessary amount. Murabi told them that his particular arts focused more on aura control than anything else, but they all decided they would hold off on any specific instruction until they were on the road.
The other reason Murabi had them running a lap around the massive city was because of their destination. They planned to take a horse and carriage through a path that led to the country of Paxoruche to the north, and from there head into the unclaimed lands on foot to reach Isanthyr. The wild, untamed forests of the unclaimed lands made travel with mounts unsuited to the terrain impossible, and said mounts would cost a small fortune. Better to make sure everyone could stand to walk, or jog, for hours on end without getting tired. If everyone could maintain a healthy amount of aura throughout a long walk, they could actually reach Isanthyr with considerable speed.
The equipment they requisitioned came relatively quickly. Hasio had his daggers and Theo begrudgingly accepted a bangle that improved her aura efficiency after insistence from both Tahir and Meti. Hasio also commissioned Meti for some protective light armor pieces when he found out that she was the one who made Tahir’s blade, and she spent her time outside training her aura working on those.
During the rest of the time spent waiting for their entry passes to Isanthyr to be ready, everyone stayed on the lookout for more interference from the collective. Tahir moved most of his things, especially research materials, from his inn room to Callipho’s shop, and they didn’t see any evidence of the collective trying to break in or tamper with anything around the shop. According to the alchemist, he hadn’t even seen a drop in customers.
Tahir thought that Callipho knew more about the situation than he was letting on, but decided not to press. For as long as he’d known Callipho, he always seemed to act in Theo’s best interest, and Tahir’s whenever he became more involved with her. If anything, Theo would probably tell him if anything was wrong with Callipho.
In their free time, Tahir and Meti studied Zorhe’s spellbook. Following the normal process for learning spells, at least safely, would take them a few weeks for basic and intermediate spells, and likely months if they got into advanced and the handful of epic spells within the book. Neither of them were prodigies when it came to learning spells, but they were coming up on learning one of the basic spells that they both decided on when they were able to sit down and go through the book, and would likely be able to use multiple by the time they reached Isanthyr.
Thus, the sixth day after the sponsorship announcement, Tahir and company stood at the city gates, horse drawn carriage loaded down with equipment and supplies for a long trip. Most of which would be carried by the group or packed down into storage bags once they had to relinquish the carriage.
Tahir stood, watching as Theo embraced Callipho in a long hug. This would be the first time she, Tahir, and Meti would be leaving Balrech for the past year - longer for Meti and Theo. “Come now, Theoris.” Callipho placed a gentle hand on Theo’s head. “You’re acting like I haven’t left you on your own for extended periods of time.”
“But this is the first time that I’m leaving, and I’m not even sure when I’ll be back. It kind of feels like I’m quitting being your apprentice.” She replied, finally stepping back.
“It may feel like it, but it is not. Regardless, I’d say you’ve become quite the alchemist in your own right. Besides, it’s taken a while, but I believe you’ve attained the reason you became my apprentice in the first place, isn’t that so?”
“That doesn’t mean I want to just stop.” Tears welled up in her eyes. She had taken an apprenticeship with Callipho to learn how to make, and further develop, the potions that kept her elements in check. Now she’d found another way forward by getting her aura under control, and found another use with the potions that she was in the preliminary stages of. “But I get it. I’ll send you my notes whenever I have a major breakthrough. Whenever I can, really.”
“I’ll look forward to reading them.” Callipho replied with a smile, then looked to the rest of the group. “And to all of you, my thanks for being loyal customers and friends of my apprentice over the years. Hasio, I haven’t known you for very long, but I hope you will appreciate the insight.” He said, pulling two potions out of his coat and handing them to Theo. She took them, and her eyes widened when she realized what they were.
“I certainly will.” Hasio replied with a nod. Tahir couldn’t help but wonder whatever they could have talked about, but settled for hoping he’d find out from Hasio later.
“We’ll be seeing ya, Callipho.” Murabi gave a wave, then made to climb up onto the driver’s seat of the carriage. “Maybe we’ll catch up after all of this sponsorship business over a drink.”
“I’d be happy to.” Callipho waved back. “Now, don’t let me delay you all any longer. Isanthyr’s not getting any closer while you’re standing still.”
While repeating their own goodbyes, the group climbed into the carriage proper, and once he made sure the doors were closed, Murabi grabbed the reins and pulled for the draft horse to set off, traveling up the northward path that would eventually lead them to Paxoruche. Callipho watched them go for a bit, before beginning to make his way back to the shop. Tahir, Meti, and Theo glanced back out the windows until the sight of Esharia’s capital city disappeared over the horizon.
###
“You’re telling me you three fought a lich and survived?” Hasio spoke. After a couple hours riding down the path, making sure they’re gotten well away from the city and hopefully the collective, Tahir felt it appropriate to go over what he and the others found at the ruin in the same detail that they told Fenian.
“Moreso that the erinyes fought the lich.” Meti corrected. The carriage was small, with enough space to seat the four of them and maybe one more on each side if they squeezed. Meti and Theo sat next to each other on one side, while Tahir and Hasio took the other. “While we interfered with the minions. As she said herself, our presence did end up being pivotal to victory, but to say we really fought the lich is a bit of an overstatement.”
“It blocked whatever I threw at it.” Tahir chimed in, his memory of the lich dispersing his fire bolt with a wave of its hand vivid in his mind. “And I remember it having to actually dodge Theo’s ice magic when she was unbalanced toward water, but we couldn’t really call that reliable firepower at the time.”
“I’m suddenly very glad that we’ll have, what four mithral ranks at the ruin we’re going to? Can’t imagine I’d be able to do much of anything if we run into another one of those.” Hasio said.
“No telling we’ll find a lich in every ruin.” Murabi’s voice called from the front of the carriage. It had a small slot that they could open in order to talk to the driver, and they kept it open while they told their tale of delving into the ruin. “I’d imagine erinyes would have popped up whenever any of them had been opened if that’s the case. I wasn’t told that anything like that happened at the one in Isanthyr. Still, the fact that you guys found a lich probably speaks to the caliber of things we’re likely to find down there. By the sounds of it though, you handled everything leading up to the lich easily enough. I’ll make sure you’re more than capable of taking care of yourselves by the time we get to Isanthyr, you can count on that.”
“That’s great. I’m hoping I can make up for the fact that I couldn’t get another spirit before we left Balrech.” Tahir replied. With how the collective tried to get him kicked out of the sponsorship, he didn’t even want to go near the building.
“With four tier zero spirits, and two tier one, did you consider contracting with a tier-two spirit, Tahir?” Meti asked.
“Not really. The materials for it cost about 1000 gold, which I have the money for, but the actual issue is in the mana needed to safely maintain a tier two spirit. It’d have to be closer to your mana pool. If it takes over half of mine then possession becomes a major possibility.”
“I see. It’s unfortunate that you weren’t able to use Balrech’s leyline crossing to increase your mana pool. On the off chance that we do get access to the one in Isanthyr’s, perhaps you should prioritize that over summoning.”
“That would probably be good for me. Is there anything special I have to do?”
“Not particularly. It is a couple of hours of continuously cycling your mana within your body, and letting it meld with the energies of the leyline crossing. It takes patience, as trying to rush might end up reducing your mana pool instead, and it is only something that can be done every couple of months at the same crossing. But, if it is possible, I would have you do it at the crossing in Isanthyr, and then again at another if we’re able to make it to one.”
“Right…” Tahir, Metilia, and Theo decided to keep the location of the unmarked leyline crossing that Callipho shared with them a secret from Hasio and Murabi for now. It wasn’t like they could get them to drop everything and head toward that crossing when they had business in Isanthyr anyway, so it’d be something for them to bring up after their upcoming ruin delve in the elven city was finished - if they had any time between that and their eventual next destination of the far larger ruin that Fenian described.
“I don’t know about getting in good with them, but I think the four of you will do fine with the elves.” Murabi called back once again.
“Have you talked to elves a bunch, Murabi?” Theo asked. She’d asked if he wanted them to refer to him as ‘master Murabi’, but he refused to be called anything of the sort.
“A good bit, yes. They’ve visited my homeland quite a bit, so I’ve gotten to know a few of them personally.”
“Your homeland?” Hasio asked.
There was a pause from Murabi before he answered. “Yep, guess I should tell you a bit about it. Tell ya what. We’ll be stopping to find a good place to start training in earnest tomorrow, I’ll fill you in on where I’m from then.”
