B4 – Chapter 29: Secret spellcraft

The morning came swiftly, and the group awoke, slurped down some clearcool elixirs, and gathered up. Tristan used his paired spells Wing Glide and Dragon Leap to carry Eloise across the deserts of Brightmarch. Felicity remained perched on his head, and instead of following the obelisks, they went on a straight course to the east. As they glided, signs of destruction were scattered about. The enormous burrowing creatures had breached the surface of the desert dunes and died, their bodies exploding into the white, infectious sludge.

“Seems like it has spread pretty far,” Felicity shouted over the wind as they sailed over the fifth creature slain by the disease.

Eloise nodded. “I just hope it hasn’t reached other settled areas.”

They had to land a few times for Tristan’s crucible to refill. During those moments, they would walk along the sand, and Eloise guided Tristan in trying to isolate his essence crucible further. Refining his technique, as it were. She held his hand while he kept his eyes shut and listened to her instructions. He did not spend any essence, but was simply trying to master the ability to spin set portions of his crucible to enable the constant fueling of specific spells at the cost of his essence crucible’s capacity.

It was a slow process. While two-direction spinning almost came naturally – Tristan reasoned because of his connection with the Fey Realm – he had a much more difficult time isolating a small sliver of his crucible to dedicate to a specific spell. Felicity, on the other hand, had no trouble with it. And the first thing she did was put Alter Form on Tristan, while crowing proudly about her prowess.

“I’m so skilled.” She made happy paw-claw biscuits on his skull.

“You did pick it up quite quickly,” Eloise commented.

“Mmm. Praise me more.”

Tristan ignored the two conversing and measured his current essence. “I’m ready for another few jumps. Let’s keep going.”

It took a total of three days, and by the thirty-eight of Winds Season they reached the edge of the desert. The trip was, thankfully, without incident. But that did not bode well, as that implied that the Creampox had spread and killed off or driven out the wildlife. The sands gave way to prairies and grasslands, where the sand was hidden under the long reeds. The desert continued to give way to the lush grassland, and by the time evening began to fall they were past the warmer climes and beginning a slight, upward ascent. The rolling hills of lush grasslands spread out before them. Hills and dells created a series of interconnected ponds, rivers, and lakes that thrummed with life. Tristan saw fish swimming in the shallows, amphibians on the shores, basking on rocks, small game in the underbrush, and even some odd deer-like creatures with eight legs and massive tines atop their skulls.

They landed on a hill and Eloise sat down, patting the ground next to her. Tristan sat as well, and Eloise pointed further east. “I think tomorrow we’ll hit the Tousles territory and see some buildings.” She glanced around. “Good thing that the wildlife here is thriving. I don’t think the disease escaped the desert – at least in this direction.”

“Hope so!” Felicity said as she jumped off of Tristan’s head and flew down the hill toward one of the ponds. “I’m getting some fish! Anyone want some?”

“Sure,” Eloise said.

“I’m good,” Tristan replied as he shut his eyes. “Keep an eye out, I’m going to my inner world.”

Eloise gave him a pat on the back, and Tristan shut his eyes. He spun his crucible and envisioned his inner world. In the blink of an eye, he was standing on the flat, glass surface. Going to the tree, he placed his hand on it. “All right, show me where I’m at.”

The glowing spiral filled up until it reached the fifth notch mark.

“Hells yes!” Tristan shouted in excitement. I can open another Vault when I get back to the Fey Realm, he thought. And I can start learning more from the Omnitome. But first . . . he looked around the space and spotted lots of dents. Far more than he was used to seeing. Huh. Maybe because of my training being so different? He shrugged and set to smoothing the surfaces. Once the whole crucible was nice and rounded out, he returned to the waking world, spun his crucible, and opened his Pocket Dimension II. Fetching the Omnitome, he began flipping through it.

Eloise had a series of black rocks piled in front of her that radiated a gentle heat, and Felicity had plucked, gutted, and skewered a few fish which were suspended over the hot rocks. “Smells tasty,” Felicity said as her mouth watered.

Eloise nodded. “I told you spices would come in handy.”

Tristan flipped open his book. What do I want to look up first? Oh, let’s do Dragonbane. Maybe there’s something for more permanent wings. He flipped to that section of the Omnitome and began reading.

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Breath Weapon – Greater (Fifth)

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

Spell Gesture: Hold your hand up to your mouth (or if you have a helmet on, where your mouth would be). Form the index finger and thumb into a ring, and bring the other fingers into line with the index finger. Exhale outward as you speak the spell phrase.

Other Notes: As Breath Weapon – Lesser and Breath Weapon – Minor. The exception is that this is even bigger for the area.

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Aspect of the dragon – Muscles (Fifth)

Spell Phrase: Your mighty strength will flow through me and lift me to heights never thought possible!

Spell Gesture: Put your hands into the shape of the letter C, using your index finger and thumb to form the shape, and run that C up your legs (ankles to groin) and down your arms (shoulders to wrists), with your hands ending in a forearm-handshake with the index fingers resting along the inside of the forearm of the opposite arm.

Other Notes: Do not use this spell if you intend to work on anything delicate. It lasts for ten minutes, and you can easily crush things you care for. Push the essence through your fingers.

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“Now that sounds interesting,” Tristan said as he closed the tome and stood up.

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“What does?” Felicity asked as she pulled back from fawning over the fish.

Tristan leaned down, put his hands in the appropriate gesture, and ran them up his legs, and then moved them up his torso, to his shoulders, and as he brought his hands down along both arms, he muttered the spell phrase. As he spun his crucible and poured the essence as directed. As the spell phrase concluded and he held the final gesture, he could feel it. His armor felt incredibly tight, and he felt a little bit of pain along his limbs.

“You’re bleeding!” Felicity said in panic.

Tristan glanced down and saw blood dripping out of the crevices of the armor. “Oh. Wow. Help me get this off.” Felicity immediately flew over to him and helped him remove the gauntlet and then the rest of the armor covering his arm. His skin had cracked and broken in places, revealing deep, wiry muscle beneath that pulsated with every beat of his heart.

“That seems like a risky spell,” Eloise commented.