The team including the dragon familiar arrived at their true base of operations. It was a trio of relatively small buildings compared to the grand marvels of the holy capital. It included a small training area in the center, with a building for some office desks, a dormitory, and an equipment shed. To Velle it looked like a good place to stay. Conroy instructed them that he was heading back to the capital to finish some paperwork, but the archaeologist would be along shortly. They had a little under the original three months to train the group into a combat-ready unit between the holy knights and the witches. She looked over at the dragon who had come with them. “Aneris, this is Alicia. The first of the new witches in this era. Would you mind letting her be your summoner and you can help her learn?” She said suddenly.

                Aneris nodded and Alicia made a sudden face of shock and horror. “Wait, you can’t just dump that on me! I don’t even know how to summon!” She exclaimed.

                Aneris laughed. “It’s simple, really. Just call out for me, once you know how the power of summoning feels by doing that a few times you can start to do it without the name. Besides, I won’t be returning to rest anytime soon. It’s been ages since I’ve stretched my wings.” He seemed cheerful at the idea of teaching a new witch.

                The other three were annoyed. “How come we don’t get anything like a dragon?” Asked Eiler.

                Velle chuckled at the suggestion. “You mean the holy knights don’t have summons or enchantments anymore? If only I hadn’t signed that geas I could’ve taken the whole church down in a month or two if that’s how weak they are. But, war is not the play here.” She turned to face the other three.

                She explained that she can’t use holy magic for enchanting or holy summons, but she knew the circles they would use. It was up to them to figure out how to recreate them, since it had to be drawn by them to function. She sighed. It was getting dark over the training area; the group would want to rest soon. She offered to start teaching them basic combat tactics while they waited for the scientist. She reminded the holy knights of what she had taught them prior. Then turned to Alicia. “You and I work differently because our magic is intuitive and channeled directly in our bodies. If you want a shield, you imagine it and focus on moving the mana into that shape. The further you stray from physics the harder something is to do.” She was speaking in a teacherly tone.

                Alicia nodded. “So, if I wanted a sword, I could just think about it? Or if I want to push something I focus on the force required to move it?” She asked.

                Velle nodded. “That’s correct. But keep in mind something like creating a sword is easy compared to something more advanced, for example- you can theoretically bend the laws of physics around you by increasing or decreasing your own bodily density- though for an average human that will feel extremely weird.” She seemed to enjoy being questioned.

                Elren raised a hand. “What’s the most difficult spell to pull off in terms of focus, but not necessarily power?”

                Velle snapped her fingers. “Excellent question! Spatial expansion, making a very short distance longer, or vice-versa. For example, try to hit me with a straight thrust of a sword.” She offered.

                Elren obliged her and stuck his sword straight out. Despite the distance between them being shorter than his full extension, the end of his sword was a few inches short. To the others looking at it, the visual was strange, his arm and sword seemed slightly disproportionate to the rest of him. Velle explained that the distance was extended by a small amount, and that reaching into the effect would look from the outside like there was something slightly off, but that to him he would simply see he had come short even if it was impossible. “This effect is difficult because humans naturally want the world to work properly and adding that distance is unintuitive and looks wrong- so the impulse is to correct it.”

                The others nodded as Elren pulled back. Erich now joined in. “If you’re actually at least in part the goddess Megia, where have you been all this time? I know the church sealed you, but how?” His curiosity getting the better of him.

                Velle sighed. “They created a plane inside the seal where all sensory input was essentially modified in real time to make sure you couldn’t get your bearings. When entering the space it takes a sort of identity check of your soul, and if you were sent in, then it works to try to keep you in. When my human side accidentally entered, this is why they couldn’t escape either. The only way out was to join souls so it stopped recognizing and obfuscating our senses. It was a tiring place.” She said coldly.

                The three seemed satisfied. At that moment the teleport circle glowed and a young girl with a strange stone table appeared. She seemed to be cursing something she found annoying. Velle waved at the girl. “Over here!”
                She came semi-stumbling over herself as she came over, she seemed distracted. Velle recognized the item she was holding as soon as she got close. She tilted her head. “Struggling with that?” She asked, curious.

                The girl nodded. “It seems to be some kind of tablet meant to explain or map out something. But I’m having trouble translating the last lines here. I can read the beginning of the activation incantation- but the language is so old we don’t know all of it.” She explained and turned it to Velle could see.

                The other four around other than Velle and the newcomer sighed and did various iterations of being tired of seeing the impossible be made easy. Velle simply smiled. “Aha! It is what I thought it was. You’re half right. It is a map of sorts, but its closer to a primitive radar, showing you sources of magic nearby when you read the incantation.” She seemed pleased with herself to know this.

                The girl looked up at her. “How would you know? No one’s seen one of these before.” She seemed annoyed by Velle’s explanation.

                Velle reached out a hand for the tablet. “Here, let me show you.” The girl tentatively handed it to her, still suspicious.

                Velle read out the incantation and the surface glowed and flashed with a multicolored light. The girl’s eyes went wide, and she made a squealing noise. “That’s incredible! How do you know the language? No, more important, how did you know what it did? This is a pre-goddess war era relic. No one can speak this; I’m the foremost expert and I only know enough to be a novice by my estimates.” She looked at Velle as if she was a precious relic.

                Velle laughed nervously. “Well, this might come as a shock. But I created that language, and that artefact.”