BrightMoon: Path of a Witch King

Chapter 10

The thought of teaching other people how to be witches never crossed my mind, though honestly I couldn't say I knew enough about practicing witchcraft to teach others.

“Perhaps in the future. For now just watch.” I said to Satera. She nodded and she and her sisters watched on with curiosity.

I continued to paint my circle, once it and the runes were complete I placed my hands on the edges of the circle and pushed my mana into it. Just like before the runes and circle lit up, I kept up the mana expenditure until I was nearly drained.

I let go of the mana and sat back, very quickly the summoning circle grew too bright to look at, when the light subsided there were six tiny figures standing where the summoning circle had been.

The tiny sprites looked around the cave, when they spotted me they all gave tiny bows and said in their special chittering language, “We are here to serve.” 

I smiled and gave them each a silver cube, the nine sprites I had already summoned ran over and cheered with joy, they soon ran off to do whatever it my little sprites liked to do.

The girls were still marveling at the magic I had performed, not that I blamed them either, I was just a bit more used to it then they were.

Once the sprites had left the girls returned to their own tasks, though Satera would glance my way every now and again.

I ignored the extra attention and turned back to my grimoire, there was so much to learn but looking at the words my mother had written down I decided that I would honor her memory and not only learn from her but also pass down her ways.

Though they would have to be adapted to this world, I would do what I could to make a coven of witches, but first I was going to have to learn enough so that I could teach my first three apprentices.

My grimoire being as mystical as ever filled in the pages, one side with my mother had written, and the other with adapted writings that could be translated to this world's understanding of mana and how it affected everyone around it.

I read through my mothers writings mostly, there were bits and pieces about offering oneself over to the forces of nature to acquire their blessings and power.

When I checked the adapted version I was relieved and stunned, so long as a being could harness mana they could essentially choose many paths; witches, wizards, knights, martial warriors, spirit cultivators. All these paths and their many branches used mana, or spirit energy, depending on who you talked to.

In my case I was born of the world Yallahn, she or it was my mother, my grimoire pointed out to me that eventually I would be able to bestow the blessing of power my mother spoke of, thus being able to create witches from those who couldn't wield mana on their own.

Though I had no idea when that would be possible, so first I would need to see if these girls could sense or wield mana on their own, if not the grimoire did have another way until I could learn how to bless them. It suggested there was a way to take away another person's ability to wield mana and pass it on to another, though in my mind that was something dark and I wasn't willing to do.

“Dinner is ready.” Indra called.

I closed my grimoire and came closer to the fire, Indra seemed to be following the directions of their youngest sister Cera. She seemed to be the one who was in charge of the kitchen;  Cera stirred the pot making sure the stew was ready, Satera prepared the portions and side dishes, and Indra served the dishes.

We all sat together and ate quietly, the cave was  warm and peaceful, after eating for a few minutes I put my empty bowl down. “Indra.” the young woman looked up from her bowl, a great deal of stew in her mouth made her cheeks puff out slightly.

I coughed to hide my struggle not to laugh, though by the blush on her face and the giggles coming from her sisters it was evident I had failed. After clearing my throat I continued with my interrupted inquiry, “So; Indra, Satera, and Cera. I know this is sudden, but can any of you sense or manipulate mana?”  I would have to ask eventually, and they had already asked about learning magic so I might as well get it out of the way.

I wasn't some old master who was picky about who my students needed to be, these girls were in need of a home and safe haven from the world that had been cruel to them. 

Indra swallowed her food but Satera was the one who answered, “Indra is the only one who has manipulated mana before, but me and Cera can sense it, we are all half human see?” Satera pulled her hair up and showed me her small but pointed ears. They were not nearly as long as the knife-eared elves I had seen in town, or like myself, though I wasn't sure what other spirits looked like in general.

“So you are half elf then?” I asked to confirm my suspicion.

“Yes master.” they said together, but they seemed sad that I mentioned that..

I tilted my head to the side, “Why do you look so sad that I mentioned you being half elf?” If anything it was their elven sides that let them sense mana so easily. The grimoire mentioned that though humans made up the majority of magic users like wizards, that was only because their numbers were so great.

Unlike other races, the human population was massive but that also meant that not everyone was gifted with the ability to sense or manipulate mana. Elves however were far fewer in population but they lived longer and almost every elf could sense mana if not manipulate it right away.

“It is because we are half breeds that we are unwelcome in elven lands, otherwise we would not have been taken as slaves.” Indra said with a downcast expression.

I leaned forward and placed a hand on her shoulder, “Do not worry yourself about it any longer, your race doesn't define you once you become a witch.”  She looked up at me. I saw something in her eyes that wasn't sadness, fear, or shame. 

Her sisters came forward and held onto one another.

I left them to comfort one another and returned to my studies. In my past life I was just becoming an adult, and in this one I'm a powerful spirit. I could feel my mentality had changed since the first day I arrived.

My priorities had drastically changed, there wasn't college or a job waiting for me, I could live forever, immortality. The thing humanity wanted on earth more than anything else, but to reach that immortality I was going to need all the tricks I could get my hands on.

Indra collected the bowls and I laid on the furs and read my grimoire, the next morning I summoned another six sprites, bringing my total to twenty one. I sent the sprites out with their silver weapons to hunt one horned rabbits while I continued to reshape the cave.

I set about making a bathing room and a restroom, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, the toilet was basically a seat with a hole. The hole was hundreds of feet deep, once a day I would shift the earth below, and for now that would have to work.

The toilet in question wasn't for me, it was for the girls, spirits apparently didn't need to use the restroom. Our bodies burned everything and converted it to energy, trace amounts of mana, there was no real reason for me to eat other than taste and habit.

The bathtub was a bit trickier, I had no idea how to add plumbing, so I needed to rely on good old gravity. I made the bath underground, there was a pipe made of stone that went up into the bay near the barrier of stone. Water flowed in from the river and filled the tub, once it was full I would seal the pipe, heating the water I had two methods.

The first was to use the hot stone method that the tailors had used, the inn however had a different method by bringing hot water to the tub, they would heat it elsewhere and haul it up. My method was a bit different, I hollowed out a space where I would place firewood and essentially turn the stone bath into a pot.

It took quite a bit of experimenting to get the tub to the right thickness as to prevent the water from getting too hot while the wood burned but by mid day I had gotten it down.

After the tub was done, I ate with the girls. The sprites had brought us plenty of one horned rabbits to feed us for the next few days. The sprites seemed to be like me. They didn't need to eat but they got curious over food, they told me they preferred silver essence, but it seemed they wanted alcohol more than food.

Surprisingly they loved the ale I had kept from the ship, they even made themselves a silver cup each, of course the tiny cups could only hold a small amount but they still enjoyed it.

After lunch I meditated, absorbing the mana around me at a much slower pace than the earth blossoms could offer, though I felt like it was better to follow my routine of eating an earth blossom after summoning the sprites. 

It would recharge my mana which let me work longer during the day, and I could always meditate if I started to feel low. I always had a few sprites watching the entrance of the cave and the ship, just in case someone came snooping around.

I planned to head into town in a week or so, I had a lot of work to do around the house; clear the surrounding trees for firewood, make rooms for the girls, the sprites, and myself. I also needed to practice my spells and study my grimoire.

With my schedule so full I didn't have a whole lot of time to invest into exploring the rest of town just yet.