2 – Bad News

Within minutes of Arielle going to her room, things got loud.

She attempted to tune it out by reading her new book, but she still had to clap her hands over her ears when she couldn’t take the yelling anymore. Irritation poked at the corners of her brain. She was sensitive to the noise, but it seemed no one else in the family was, and so it was constantly her cross to bear.

She concentrated on the buzzing orbs to drown them out. She also forced her eyes to open and focus on the words near the very front page of the book: Lysan’s Beginner Essence Manual.

“Essences are in the world around us,” she recited, her voice low to contrast the shouting. “In their raw form, they are unusable, but once processed by EPUQs (Essence Purifiers and Unit Quantifiers), they can then be utilized to create spell equations.”

Arielle didn’t entirely understand what she’d just read, but she kept going, learning more about how each essence and its variations were discovered and the spells they created. It also spoke about spell equations and scripts, and ensuring the final charge of any spell was always zero.

She lost herself amidst the words and the glyphs, so much so that she barely noticed when things had gotten quiet again. She also didn’t hear anyone coming up until there was a knock on her door.

It opened to reveal Master Elric.

“Arielle,” he said. “I’m leaving.”

“Okay.” Arielle assumed he was here to ask for his book back, and she closed it reluctantly, wishing she’d hidden it before he came so he couldn’t take it away from her.

“Are you enjoying the book?” he asked, and as he moved into the room,

“Yes,” she said as he brought over a chair to sit. She held the book to her chest, possessively, fingers gripping the edges.

Elric smiled. “It’s the very first book I received before I started at the academy. I keep it in system storage because sometimes I forget basic spells and need a refresher. I’ve learned thousands of spells in my lifetime, and my grimoire only holds the more complex spells now, but sometimes the basics are needed.”

Ari nodded. He sat there and nodded also, patting his knee. Then he began to drum on them, gaze travelling around the small room Arielle shared with her sister.

The silence felt heavy.

This was just like when her Uncle Brom the Second had been killed by a mossgiant, and her father had sat there for hours talking about everything and nothing before saying the words: “Uncle Brom is dead.”

“Don’t tell anyone I gave you this, by the way,” Elric spoke up again. “Or I could get in trouble.”

“Can I do magic with it?”

“Oh heavens no. I wouldn’t have given it to you if you could. That would take this from a misdemeanor to a severely punishable offense. As I said, you’d need to be awakened with refined cores for control essences. You’d also need a wand and an EPUQ for that. Only high skill Archmages can manipulate essences without these.”

“Do essences really look like that?” She pointed at the diagrams in the book she was reading, where the essence Calor had been drawn as a red ball.

“Yes. It’s from an old diagram found in the cave of Emberfoot, who was the man who discovered the first Calor essence on Earth. You know, historically, people say that essences are like little spirits. They’re everywhere around us, but we never notice them. The ancient cultivators even used to pray to them. Some of them claimed to see essences in the air, but modern mages don’t have that skill anymore. We lost it millennia ago.”

“I see the spirit orbs.”

“In the textbook?”

“No, around you.” She pointed at where his mage robe was belted. “More over there.”

“Ah,” he said, looking at it. “That’s where I keep my EPUQ and miniature essence reservoir, in case my EPUQ is faulty, or I’m stranded in an environment without external essence.”

“There are lots of spirit orbs there. And in my room. I see them all the time.”

Mage Elric gave her a look she didn’t quite understand, and Ari regretted telling him what she saw. It had slipped out unintentionally. He likely thought she was strange now, too.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

But he didn’t call her a liar. At least not yet.

“I see,” he said

They stared at each other for a few more seconds.

“I’ll leave the book with you,” he said. “Again, don’t tell anyone you have it, or I could get in trouble. Nothing too bad, but I already have two other demerits. One more, and I get shipped up to the Northern Pillage Mountains for a month. Maybe even a year, considering that last demerit was practically egregious.”

“Why?”

He shook his head. “It’s a funny story, but not even remotely age-appropriate.”

“No, I mean, why are you giving this to me?” she asked.

His eyes fell to the book she was clutching to her chest like treasure. “You mentioned you’d read all your books. I thought you might need more.”

She frowned. “Do you have bad news for me?

“Why would you ask that?”

“Strangers only give me presents when there’s bad news or when it’s my birthday. And it’s not my birthday.”

“No I dont…” He hesitated and said, “Your father might be going away for a long while. And your mother will likely be busy too. I thought this might help…soften the blow.”

Ari felt a turmoil inside that she never knew how to properly express, but she nodded. “Okay.” She bowed her head and put one hand on her thin chest as her father showed her to do. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” he smiled gently, regretfully. “I’m sorry about all this.”

She shrugged. He didn’t have to be sorry. Her father went on long trips all the time, even though he hated it and sometimes returned hurt and grouchy.

She didn’t see what made this time different.

Then again, she wasn’t thinking about it. Her focus was still on the bouncing, colorful orbs circling his waist. He followed her gaze and gave a brief pause.

“You know what?” He unclipped a rectangular, smooth obsidian brick that had been attached to his sash, next to the other black box. “This battery is almost out of essence anyway. Why don’t you keep it?”

“Really?” She reached for it with wide eyes, delighting at the orbs that danced over her fingers, the way they buzzed slightly.