B3 – Chapter 16: Cramming new spells

Tristan walked over to the desk and set his Omnitome down. Right, he thought, I need to put essence into the room to get this started. First- he flipped the book open to the dragonbane spell type section, leaving it open to the first pages.

Sitting on the chair, he took several deep breaths and spun his crucible, closing his eyes and peering into his inner world. The effect was almost immediate, and he walked up to the tree to find that the third ring had been fully reached. A long way to Fourth Order, he thought as he observed that the next ring was double the distance he had achieved between the Second and Third rings. And even more essence capacity required for the next one, he observed as he measured the distance between the different rings.

Moving his gaze to the words surrounding the spiral, he took stock of the spell types he had access to. Dragonbane. Ice, fire, smoke, and lightning elementalism. Artifice, flora, illusion, imbuement, enchantment, fortune. He sighed and pondered his options. If I’m going to be focusing on killing dragons with Bertram for the next few days, I should focus my attention on dragonbane spells.

He stood back from the tree and looked at the other options available to him. I have to hold off on Artifice and Imbuement, but those don’t really need to be memorized anyways, because I’ll pretty much always do that when I’m in a safe location and can look at my Omnitome to reference. I plan on putting fortune, enchantment, and illusion spells into items since I don’t want people to know if and when I’m using them. So that means I need to memorize dragonbane, the elementalism types…but what about flora? It only has that one Thornfall spell, and that spell requires plants to be present. I’ll put some of those spells into items as well.

He already had an idea as to what he would ask the Gnome smiths to make: a bandolier or belt that could house several well-crafted and artifice-requisite-meeting objects. A means to have several spells on hand and just have to tap his chest or hip to funnel the essence to activate. Plus, he could get some metal vials, he was sure, to put elixirs in so they would be in reach and not have a chance of shattering. Dragonbane, then the elementalism spells.

With a game plan in mind, he returned to the waking world and opened his eyes. Still spinning his crucible, he poured essence into the floor beneath him. The walls, floor, and ceiling glowed a slight yellow color before fading to a dull, brown glow. Tristan could feel the pressure around him, almost like something was pushing against his skin.

Dragonbane, he thought as he flipped to the Third Order section. I already have the Second Order ones memorized.

Breath Weapon – lesser (Third)

Spell Phrase: The power I took from you is now mine to wield, and it responds to my call!

Spell Gesture: As Breath Weapon – minor (First Order)

Other Notes: This spell functions the same as the First Order version, however the area spread is increased. Testing with fire, it’s about sixty feet in a cone.

Tristan stood up and faced the wall with the blast marks. Placing his hand up to his mouth with the index and thumb in a ring, other fingers in line, he poured his essence into his throat while speaking, “The power I took from you is now mine to wield, and it responds to my call!” As he spoke, he pictured lightning arcing from the skies above.

He could feel the buzzing sensation in his throat that was on the edge of a tickle or itchy throat, and that sensation traveled through his mouth, and from the small circle made by his fingers, a blasting cone of lightning surged outward – bright, arcing yellow with light-blue tinge. It was not a torrent that continued, but a brief, instantaneous zap that he almost missed – and would have missed if he had blinked.

I wonder…can I do multiple elemental spell types in one go? He took another deep breath and repeated the spell phrase, but this time he envisioned the flames, ice, and lightning all in one go. The essence that he had been building in his throat burned, chilled, and scratched all at once, and as he opened his mouth a gout of steam blasted outward for a brief second before lightning coruscated behind it.

Damn, he thought as he lowered his hand. Looks like opposite spell types cancel each other out. Fire and water I figured would, but it looks like ice and fire do, also. He tried once more with lightning and fire – and found to his satisfaction that the burning torrent and lightning both surged out together.

That’s one down. He turned back to the book.

Aspect of the dragon – tail (Third)

Spell Phrase: With this tail, I shall crush my foes!

Spell Gesture: Reach a hand back to your lower back and tap just above your butt with your index and middle finger.

Other Notes: The tail is a good bludgeoning weapon, and you since it is an essence-based construct (just like the Wing Glide spell), if your tail is “hit” nothing will happen. It doesn’t have any weight, either.

He turned back to the spell practice side of the room and reached a hand around to his back, whispering the spell gesture as he spun his crucible. But he didn’t know where to direct the essence, which was irritating. Swirling it in my chest and just pushing it through my body like its circulating isn’t doing the trick. Maybe the fingers? He tried pushing the essence there, but nothing happened. Okay, maybe…just above my rear?

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As he pushed the essence to that point, he felt an unbearable itching sensation. Keeping his head craned back over his shoulder, he could see a phantasmal tail that was long, thick, sinuous, and tipped with a huge, black club-like tip. Moving his hips back and forth, he could almost feel the weight behind it. Spinning in a tight circle, he felt the tail instinctively tuck in, and stopping the spin abruptly, he bucked his waist toward the wall.