On Bated Breath We Wait

Chapter 8

Over the course of several weeks, both mom and dad have said I’ve made leaps and bounds. The training days with mom followed by days with dad soon became the norm, and the pattern was oddly soothing. From mom I learned how to control my own magic to a degree, as well as basic combat from a wide variety of weapons. Weapons such as swords, knifes, bows, brass knuckles, and anything else we could improvise we trained with; but by far my favorite was when I got to use a staff. It was such a simple weapon to start learning but as I continued to use it, I found myself trying new things that my mom hadn’t shown me.

This however caused me to get cocky when Nikos had joined us for a training session. Mom had instructed me to spar with him, as fighting someone inexperienced with a weapon can also be a valuable experience. As my mom instructed, when Nikos and I sparred I held back so Nikos could get a feel for the weapon. But I wanted to show off to both Nikos and my mom; as we sparred I got cocky and started to increase how much effort I was putting in. Without realizing it, I had struck Nikos with a jab into his chest; but I think I made Nikos mad. He quickly returned a powerful blow right to my stomach, my pride was hurt and my anger got the better of me. Looking back, I realize that I started to use magic to increase my speed and strength, which was unfair to Nikos. As one of my blows hit his arm it bounced dealing a second hit, this time to his jaw. I was worried and Nikos was pissed. I think he was tapping into magic without his knowing; as he was soon swinging his staff at my legs at a rate that I could not dodge. It was now an even playing field, but my mom stopped us from allowing our anger to guide our hand. As she stepped away I channelled my anger to fuel my magic and once again attacked him as hard and fast as I could. Nikos parried all of my blows, so I decided to do something he would not expect. I used my staff as a balancing point to land a kick to his chest, but somehow he didn’t even budge. He swept my leg out from underneath me causing me to tumble to the ground; in a split second I found myself doing something I had never done before. Using my hands to support my body I began to spin and with that momentum I swept both his legs out from under him. Standing up I noticed my mom was grabbing his wrist and mine pulling us inside.

Once we got home, I knew my mom had noticed something but what? She quickly told me to get the book on magic and by the time I had returned she was creating a Training Link between Nikos and herself. To save her some time I quickly started to reform the connection between me and her, as she had taught me over the past few weeks. She explained to both of us that Nikos had a rare magical item on him and went on to explain magic to him. As the day waned and night fell she performed a piece of magic I had yet seem; with a wave of her hand she duplicated the book on magic before sending him home. When I asked her why she went through all of those lengths just to help Nikos, she replied that it had to be done for his safety. I didn’t press the matter anymore. But I was happy to know my best friend and I were on the same journey, but different paths.

My next day with mom turned out to be an interesting and painful day. She explained to me that my tactics in my match with Nikos were far from what it would take to survive as an envoy. She insisted on dedicating several training sessions into training me to properly use magic. My magic usage she said was sloppy at best, and while I could use magic when I pleased I should also be able to do it on instinct. At first these sessions were simple, as she wanted me to hone my sense both magically and not. But her training quickly began that of nightmares, and it all started from her asking, “Is strengthening yourself all you can do or do you just choose to leave yourself defenseless?”

Wondering what she meant, I made the mistake my asking her, “I can do more?” In that moment, I saw her have a flash of anger followed by worry.

“Can you do more? Have you even been reading that book I gave you? Tell me right this instant, how far are you in the book?” Fury filled her voice.

I muttered, “About three fourths done.” Her anger subsided with my response.

She began to quiz me on the fundamentals of magic. What is the source of magic, what are the colors of magic, what emotion is tied to each color and more. But it was when she asked me, “What are the pillars of magic?” that I understood what she meant.

“The pillars of magic are how magic can be used.” I replied.

“And what are they?” She probed and I could truly tell that she wanted to see if I could remember.

“The pillars of magic are creation, destruction, transformation, enhancement, and manipulation,” I stated proudly.

She continued to test my knowledge of magic, “Good, you understand the bare minimum. Now what are two primary ways to use enhancement magic, since you are so fond of it.”

As I explained that the two ways to use enhancement magic were strengthening and buffing, she raised and eyebrow. I could tell she was leading me to say what she wanted me to realize and so I continued. Strengthening magic requires constant focus and mana and is more powerful than its counterpart. Buffing magic does not require constant focus and will take mana from its caster as needed but allows the caster to focus on other things. Then it hit me, I was so focused on strengthening myself that I limited myself.

“So you have realized your flaw then?” A content look filled her face. I acknowledged that I should be buffing myself first and then strengthening myself if I really needed it. She informed me that it was time to learn a new type of enhancement. Fortification wasn’t the right word for what she began to describe to me. By enhancing a certain location on my body I could prevent myself from being hurt, but enhancing myself this way could easily be done incorrectly. To do it correctly one needed to enhance everything; from skin and muscles to even bone. She proposed a new manner of training. I would sit as she circled me, at first she would only strike me with when I could see her. But as I improved, she would attack me from places I could barely see. It would be only when she believe I mastered the technique that she would attack me from every angle. I questioned my own safety and she reassured me that she would be using a training weapon made of bamboo.

Thus my nightmare began. Days spent with my mom consisted of her hitting me over and over again as I attempted to protect myself from her attacks. It was easier said than done, after the first few days of that training, she informed me that I should use all of my senses not just my eyes. From there I progressed rapidly, soon her attacks felt like a light tap compared to before and she moved onto the next step. Attacks came from both in front of me but also from my sides, I began to feel my limits being pushed. It was time for the final method, but I had little idea what she had in store for me. Not only did she attack me from all sides but also used magic herself in every manner possible. She silenced her footsteps so I could not hear her, she enhanced her speed so her attacks could come from multiple places in an instant and lastly she conjured a second training weapon to attack me as rapidly as she could. It was a struggle, but I did it. When we finally stopped and she commended me did she ask how I did it. She admitted that she put her all into attacking me if it weren’t for the training swords I might have died. Shock filled me as I struggled to say, “I had a buff on me to help me sense your attacks. From there I would strength what part I thought was going to be hit. It took time to understand how to tell what I was sensing but once I did everything got easier.”

A smile lit up her face, “You are ready now.”

Confused I asked, “Ready for what?”

Her smile turned to a grin, “You have my permission to spar during the weekly matches. However, you are only allowed to spar with envoy. You might hurt anyone else.” Excited fill me, as I wondered whom to spar with first, before she said, “I’ll be setting up your matches. I don’t want you facing someone you can’t handle yet like me, or anyone from the Saverum family.” I started to question everything, I knew Meryl’s family was envoy but she wasn’t someone I should face yet.

The following day while I was helping dad in the greenhouse mom showed up to let me know the news, “You first match has been setup. We have four days to get you ready.”

I couldn’t help but ask, “Who do I fight?” She left without saying a word. As the day continued I couldn’t help but daydream what my fight was going to like, who I was going to face, and what their style of fighting was like. My dad on several occasions would shout at me from across the greenhouse to get me to focus on the work right in front of me. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much that night.

The days and hours up until the fight my mom and I prepped. Rather than our normal training she directed me to focus on magic. My time was split between reading and practice what I learned. I was able to get through the sections on creation and transformation magic; both of which I struggled with. But creation magic was interesting; its fundamental principle was that you can only create what you have seen before. The longer someone has seen an object, the easier it was and the less mana it took to conjure it. The same rule applied to creating something, you can only create what you had seen before. But while reading about both of them I had to ask mom what the difference was. She explained that while both are creation magic, conjuring is magically bringing something to you. While creating creates a copy of the original object. Before she let me continue she informed me that creating something you had seen before would only work if the original is still intact. Transformation magic was interesting as the lessons on learning it were focused have two things and transforming one into the other. I started with water and tea. At first I could only transform the color, but soon came flavor and temperature. As I got better and transforming it my mom would walk over and add something to the tea. Sugar was easy to adapt to but honey I had difficulty with. As I continued practicing my dad got home one of the days; and as he saw what I doing made the comment that we would be broke if we lived outside the Temple; tea was how he got things done.

Finally it was only an hour before this week’s sparring group. From the rumors I had heard at lunch that day people knew that someone new was going to be sparring against an envoy member but no one knew who. Knowing that I was the mystery person everyone was talking about only got me more pumped up for the match. As the matches began I could hear the whispers in the crowd. Only for a familiar feeling to start, “Mom?”

“Yes, I thought it was a good idea for this match to have a Training Link active.” I could feel the concern in her voice, she was worried. I did my best to reassure her but to no avail. Each match until mine only made her worry more.

It was finally time for my match. As I stepped into the ring that made up today's session, I could hear the confusion and worry of the crowd. To my knowledge mom and I did our best to make sure that no one saw any of our training sessions and it was clear to us that it worked. A man I didn’t recognized stepping into the opposite corner and in a rough sounding voice he asked, “Weapon of choice?”

“Fists,” I replied.

“Good choice. You can really feel your opponents pain when you hit them directly.” He said as he started to have a creepy smile and with that the match began.

Not wanting to get hurt I quickly casted a buff to heighten all my senses, so I could do as mom and I practiced. But I didn’t expect him to be so fast; before I even had a chance to start he landed a strong punch right to my stomach. As I winced in pain I could hear the crowd react. Some winced as if they to had felt my pain, others egged me on to return blow. I decided to use the pain as a trap. I winced again and as he attempted a second punch I chose to deliver a punch myself. As our punches connected I could tell he was doing the same as me, his body felt like I was punching something solid. As we both stepped back I saw another smile on his face, he also knew. For several minutes he and I traded blows and the crowd was in a frenzy, this match was nothing but a slug fest to them. Blow after blow, the match became a test to see who had more mana, and who had a better control of it I thought I was no match for him on both parts. But to my suprise I could see him starting to break a sweat, I stood a chance. I decided to lessen my buff and to refocus that mana into strengthing my punches. As I threw my next punch I could tell I made the right decision, I knew the look on his face all to well. Pain, my punches were finally having an affect. I continued to throw punches, jabs, uppercuts, anything I could land. With each blow he was easier to hit, but it must have been a ploy. With one swift movement he had his hand on my throat, stepped around me and threw me to the ground.

As I hit the ground I heard my mom through the Training Link, “Remember your fight with Nikos, and how you attacked.”

With that I used my hands and fully lifted my body. Putting one hand by the other, I soon was spinning my legs in a whirlwind. In brief moments I could see him while spinning, I could see he was confused and in that confusion I attacked. I pushed off the ground towards him, and strengthen both my legs as I wasn’t sure which would hit him. One, two, three. Three kicks landed and as my momentum stopped I kicked off and landed on my feet. He was clearly injured now, as he began to stabilize himself from collapsing he looked up from his legs. His eyes unblinking stared at me. For a brief moment he looked full of himself like he knew he could win, but that look quickly soured and he began to reach for his boot. From his boot he pulled a knife and I knew what I had to do. I would not let this match become one sided, reaching down into both my boots I quickly created two replicas of his knife. The moment I pulled the knives out, I could well something was wrong. Something about my spell to create the knives was still draining my mana; but since it was only taking less mana than that of a buffing spell I chose to ignore it. He noticed that my mind was preoccupied and he rushed in to restart the fight. We each attempted to cut each other, only for the other to block or dodge the blade. He was starting to slow down, his attempts to stab or s***h me soon started to look like he was having issues holding up his blade. I went in for a quickly thrust, hoping to end the fight. Only for him to dodge and as he evaded I saw a single droplet of liquid fall from his blade. My brain tried to play it off that a bead of sweat and somehow made it onto his blade and then fell off. I was filled with doubt and stepped forward to where the droplet had fallen and looked down. It was greenish and instantly I realized, poison. That was the reason why my spell to create the knives was still draining mana, I hadn’t finished creating them exactly as I saw them. I completed the spell and rushed to him not letting him get any rest. As our blades clashed, I could tell this was the perfect moment. The crowd was louder than ever, anything I said wouldn’t be heard by the crowd. I said, “That’s some nice poison you got there, but mine is better. It’s Death This…” Before I could finish saying thistle he jumped backwards as far as he could. Once he landed he raised his hands into the air and dropped his knife. The fight was over.

The crowd quickly flooded the arena to celebrate my first win, and in the back of my mind I heard my mom said, “Celebrate and come home quickly. You can get experience from both the fight and from discussing it. The latter is easier when it’s fresh on your mind.” The celebration lasted a good bit before everyone else wanted to see the next match; while they enjoyed celebrating with me, everyone there really wanted to see people fight even if it was only a sparring match. Once the next match started I made my way home only to find mom waiting at the table.

“Welcome back, are you ready to reflect and learn from your match?” She said with a smile.

Sitting down I reluctantly said, “No, but like you said it will be easier while it’s fresh on my mind.”

Instantly she asked, “Right, first question. Why did your opponent resort to pulling out a knife?”

“I think he knew that he couldn’t beat me in a fist fight like he wanted,” I explained. Only for her to retort, but why. I could only guess why, “It’s not because I’m a better fighter, he should have years of experience on me.”

She nodded, “Correct, he was more experienced. But the answer lies in your usage of mana, in terms of that you were better trained. I believe that he was never taught to create a buffing spell to enhance his senses. Thus every time you attacked he had to strengthen his whole body and before you ask… Hopefully he will also treat this as a learning experience, and if he doesn’t I’ll enjoy reminding him of the fight each and every time I see him until he does.” A sinister grin filled her face before turning back to a normal smile, “Next question, why was he so desperate that he had to pull out a knife?”

“Um, didn’t we already go over this? He knew he could beat me in a fist fight.” I replied.

Only for her to respond, “But why? I’ll give you a hint, his other way of attacking was thwarted by the Training Link.”

It took me a moment before I realized, “The Training Link stopped him… Was he trying to attack my mind?”

She clapped her hands together, “Exactly, the Training Link empowered your mind. I don’t believe you have gotten to the section on manipulation, so I will explain the most basic rule of manipulation. You can only manipulate what is weaker than you. Now I’ll ask you one more question on the matter before we continue. How did the Training Link make your mind stronger than his?” Minutes passed before I gave up, she explained that he wasn’t attacking my mind but ours. The Training Link made it so my mind was as strong as hers.

We continued on and rather than me being questioned she asked to see the knives I had created. As she inspected them she paused only to comment that my magic that had created them was subpar at best. She pointed out each and every detail that was obviously wrong. Before placing the knives down in front of me she asked, “So about the poison that is clearly on these blades. Is it correct of me to assume that is why he gave up so quickly?” I nodded in agreement. She continued to ask about the poison, “So, did you conjure or create this poison? I noticed that he also had poison on his blade but your poison looks completely different.”

I smiled, “I created it. It was a sparring match, I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”

Confused she questioned my choices, “But you did make poison.”

Laughing I said, “Nope, I didn’t. I created a green sauce I ate in the mess hall the other day and instantly applied transformation magic to it to make it look like poison. But since the only poison I had really seen was the one you have in a bottle that what I made it look like. The rest was a bluff and he fell for it.”

She touched her finger to the liquid on the blade, once a fair amount was on her finger she brought it up to her mouth and licked it, “Hmmm, so it is. You applied creation magic and then instantly applied transformation, I guess I can say you don’t need to practice that anymore for a bit. You could have even fooled me with this.”

Before she let me turn in for the night, she let me know that she would schedule my next match as soon as she could. But this time she would give me more than four days to get ready. I thanked her and went to bed.

That night I had the strangest of dreams. I was running around the Temple, I couldn’t remember what for. Was I being chased or was a looking for something? Each time I rounded a corner I felt as if I found the thing I was looking for, only for there to be nothing there. Twice during the night did I wake from that dream only to return to it when I fell back asleep.

The following morning I thought I would ask my parents what they thought of the dream only for them to both comment that dreams are a gateway into the unknown. Dreams can be predictions of the future, or memories of the past. Perhaps sometimes a link to another world where things turned out differently. Either way they wanted me to remember the dream and if I felt I was experiencing it in real life, to do the opposite of what I did in the dream. They stressed that it doesn’t matter even if I had to jump out a window, diverging away from the dream would save my life.