The city of Srok was one of three. One of three baronies in the confines of the fifth wall, not the fourth, not the scholarly third, not the lordly second, or even the holy first wall at the top of the Mountain ranges. No, there were only three cities of the fifth wall, and as large as they were, they were for the lowest of men and ruled by the weakest barons and baronesses. The cities of the fifth got as much attention as an old dying horse in a stable. They were left to fester with slums, poverty and people of all sorts.
As the lowest city, the people did the same, from the lowest orphans to the powerful criminals with the lowest moral edict. It was a place where all desperate souls found solace from the wrath of the self-justified powerful.
In this corner of Taeralis, there was a modest tavern, modest by all accounts, that pertained to the tavern in the fifth wall and all its poverty. And however much one could try to find similarities, this tavern was not like any place in the fourth wall where tavern owners cared for clients with more coin in their pockets.
‘The Forgotten Apple’ was a simple place, a tavern where people who wanted peace of mind in the dark Alleys of Srok came to have a mug of ale. Unlike other businesses that often held ill repute, ‘The Forgotten Apple’ was a simple building even in its size. It was not a brothel. It was not a place where the lords from the higher walls came to enact their vices. No, the place was simple, for simple men and women, as simple as a man can be to have the ability to make coin in a place like Srok. A place where most actions that were done for coin were not necessarily wrong or bad, and for those among them who held a sense of honor in whatever actions and work they did, this was the place they came to drink.
It was a place where a fallen knight or a runaway guard often came to drown his sorrow. And on this day, no.... for the past few days in Srok.
For the past few days, Ivor, the half-Goliath, half-Aasimar, stooped over the bar with an empty mug in his hands.
“You know I have never seen you Drink this much.”
“Is there anything else to do, Themia?” he asked, looking up at the speaker who beamed down at him.
“I don’t think this is the way to fix the problem,” the half-giantess said.
“fix the problem,” he drugged out. “I see no problem.”
“Is it the boy?”
Ivor grunted.
“I thought he was a promising one.”
“He was promising, yes, but he is naive,” Ivor said, looking down into the empty mug.” His loyalty is given to the wrong person.”
“Was. Have you given up on him?” she poured a drink for another patron-- an older looking human,” pushing him away does neither of you good.”
Ivor closed his eyes, his face sombre and remained silent.
“Weren’t you a loyal guard once,” she asked.
“I was, but there is a reason I am not one any more,” he looked up at her. “Loyalty can not be simply given. “
“You are scared for your new student and you think his misplaced his loyalty,”
Themia knew about what the former knight did under the nose of the powerful in Srok. At first, she had even thought he was building an army, but he simply had a good heart and liked to help those with potential when he came across them, so whoever the kid was, he had truly grabbed his eye.
“He was the one,” he looked her in the eye.
“The one. gods, you always drink like the world’s ending when you care.” she looked at him, at his gravelly bearded and sunken eyes, and if you didn’t know the old warrior the way she did, you would never see it. “Isn’t that a good thing then? His smart. am sure his loyal to the girl for a reason”, Themia said.
“I didn’t come here for a lecture Thamia, The boy’s choices are going to find him nearly dead and bleeding in one of these streets then what will his loyalty say.”
“You are angry then because this Marcus did not choose your path.”
“Another drink,” he pushed his mug forward, and she filled it. He pulled it back and looked down at it, “loyalty given easily will get him killed.”
“And drowning yourself in ale does neither of you any good,” she repeated, “have you perhaps thought of guiding him.”
He looked at his mug, then back up at her and took a long seep, preferring not to answer the question.
“If he is as promising as he seems then letting him die is as much a waste as him choosing loyalty blindly.”
Ivor closed his eyes, “Perhaps you’re right.”
“Of course I am,” the Goliath woman said, chuckling to herself.
—
“So, does it fit?” Zek asked, looking down at the small white-haired girl.
After they had gotten the greaves, Clara had taken them out of Zek’s hands. There were a few points to point out, however-- for example, they had looked around the area and failed to find the other half of the greaves. The second was the greaves were too small for Geneve and too large for young Ethne, the only other person with elemental magic in their group. And by process of elimination, Clara had claimed the greaves, and she intended to wear the armour on one leg.
“No,” Clara said, trying to brush the dirt off the greaves.
“Then are we going to sell it,” Zek asked.
“No, I just… need to ...,” Clara grabbed the straps of the greaves and loosened them. then with her shoes on like a thick sock, she tried on the greave again letting her worn and cut up shoe feel the extra volume before she tightened the straps. “There we go. see it fits. Well?” she looked up at the half goliath boy waiting for his opinion.
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“Uhm…” Zek began trying to find a fitting word for the mismatched appearance on Clara’s feet. He looked at the right leg, then the left one, and tried to find an answer that would not hurt the shorter girl’s feelings.
And as he was still trying to figure it out another voice spoke up.
“I think it looks great on you,” Levin said, startling both Clara and Zek, causing the boy to shoot straight up to his feet and Clara to turn around immediately at the sound.
---
The third time Levin came for the group he didn’t have any intentions of fighting them or Marcus. instead snuck up on them using his concealing magic, he walked through the gates of the Villa and leaned against the broken gateway. He stood and watched them for a moment, looking around at the windows padded by the wooden boards. The compound was cleared and much tidier than two weeks ago.
After a while of not being noticed, Levin decided to speak, much to the surprise of the other two teenagers in front of him.
“You!!” Clara rushed forward her hands aiming for Levin’s face as she asked, “What do you want.”
Levin unfazed by the girl’s display of innate magic reached out and grabbed Clara’s hand, feeling the heat emitting off the girl’s hands Levin pushed his own elemental aether to his hand that was grabbing hold of Clara’s. And to him with his elemental aether concentrated in his own arm it felt like he was holding a highly fevered child’s hands.
“Guys come out here,” Zek called out.
---
Marcus was seated on the upper floor of the manor, trying to answer every question Ethne had.
Ever since he had used his arcane sight on the girl and seen her distribution of aether, he had tried getting her to use all the enchanted rings.
“Focus, send the aether into the ring.” Marcus said.
Ethne sat on a wooden crate, glaring at the ring.
When Ethne had seen Clara and Marcus using enchanted magic for the first time, she had been captivated by the display, and convinced by this fact she had decided that she needed that kind of power. So she asked Marcus to teach her, much to the older boy’s surprise.
Marcus had looked at her and activated his Arcane sight much to her discomfort and he had simply nodded. And the next day she had found herself sitting on a wooden crate in a room filled with incomplete runic writings, the room had charcoal drawings on the walls and floors. mugs of water and broken glass sherds.
As Young as Ethne was she had been curious about the odd setup and whenever she tried touching something she would often be told not to by Marcus.
“Seat. here.” the odd boy grabbed a wooden crate and placed it in the centre of the room.
Ethne sat down, her eyes moving about the room before stopping on him. “What are you doing here?” she had asked.
“i am studying,” he had responded.
“Studying? She asked, “how can you do that without a scholar.”
“Well you don’t need a scholar to teach you everything.” She tried to speak and argue the point but he spoke over her, “take this fact. when you were learning to walk, you hold onto the walls, right. who told you to do that,” he looked at her and she nodded starting to understand what he meant,” now for me i may not have seen these writings before but there are patterns from the much I have gathered from the rings enchantments.”
“You are odd, you know,” she said, looking at him and seeing him chuckle lightly at her joke.
Marcus reached into his pocket and pulled out two of the three rings he had been told to keep. Between the two innate magic users, Clara kept the elemental and light healing rings close at hand, and he kept the arcane, dark and bloodline magic rings with him.
He placed one of the rings in her hands and he placed the other on his index finger.
Watching him, Ethne also placed the ring she had been given on her index finger but it was just too large. she took it off that finger then placed it on her thumb before placing her hand out and admiring the ring.
Then quickly before she was caught acting like a princess from the high walls she placed her hands down on her laps trying for an air of nonchalance but Marcus was not paying her any attention, he was looking down at the enchanted ring and focusing.
“Uhm…” She scratched the back of her head trying to get his attention and looked at him, “how do i do this?”
Marcus looked up from the ring to her, “Oh, it’s easy. just focus on pushing your arcane aether into the ring,” he said easily.
“How... how do I do that.”
“Focus. just focus on sending arcane aether into the ring. you will feel a buzz or numbness. don’t forget it, that’s the feeling of aether leaving your body.”
“I--I... don’t know,” she said, looking at the ring.
Of course it would be hard for someone without innate magic, the only reason it had been easy for him and Clara was because their aether was sort of unlocked already and the feeling of it leaving their body was familiar and pre destined. Perhaps some breathing exercises from his world would work-- he didn’t want to disappoint the girl.
“Don’t worry its different for everyone. once you figure it out and know how to separate the affinities it gets easier but try controlling your breathing.”
“How do you know that? Can’t you just help me?”
“Uhm…” Marcus looked around and about the room, then a thought came to him that if he could see someone’s aether then he could tell her and guide her, letting her push the right type of aether into the rings.
Marcus grabbed a broken brick off the ground and placed it down in the distance next to the wall. He stood back, trained his eyes on Ethne and watched the aether flowing around the girl. He had thought of an idea to let Ethne learn how to control her aether. And it simply boiled down to watching how her aether flowed as she breathed and tried controlling it outside her body.
“Try doing it now i will tell you if you are doing it right,” Marcus said, as he intended to use this experience to collect even more data.
Unlike when he used the enchanted ring without any other spells-- When he pushed the aether into the ring and held it along with his arcane sight, the arcane aether left under his control was much weaker, and when he used the ring without his arcane sight, the power was much greater. He didn’t know how much greater, and he needed to understand the numerical difference by how much aether someone’s body held.
But before they could begin, they heard Zek’s voice call out from the compound.
---
Levin grabbed Clara’s arm, turned her and held her neck and arm in a hold that had her facing the manor.
There was movement around the building, and from the top window, Levin watched as Marcus jumped down from the second floor, landing on the ground, seemingly uninjured.
Levin cocked his head to the side and tried not to be all that surprised, “Bloodline magic. Lesser strength”, he murmured, looking around Marcus’s fingers and noticing that one of the rings the group had found was on the boy’s index finger. Last time, it had been a ring with an arcane spell held in it.
‘So... this ring had an enchantment of lesser Strength. Interesting.’
“Listen, am not here to fight,” Levin said, releasing Clara and letting her join her band before raising his hands in a universal gesture that showed his hands were empty and he meant no harm.
“Then why have you been attacking us, attacking Marcus.”
“The old man told me to,” Levin Shrugged, “i believe his words were. ‘Bring him back only when he can fight.’”
“What do you want now?” Clara asked.
“The old man wants to see you Marcus,” Levin said, his eyes moving to the ring around the boy’s fingers and never leaving.
“Why?”
Levin shrugged.
He was so distracted by the rings that he had to say something. “Those are some nifty enchantments? Keep using them out in the open, and you may lose a finger or two,” he said, and Marcus balled his hands into fists.
“When does he want to see me?” Marcus asked, his anger masked by his calm voice.
He was not angry at Levin particularly. No..., he was angry at Ivor, not only because he had refused to help him and the group but because he had let a veystrix on him. and then there was the request after the fact. why did he want to see him now? Marcus could only guess and if the boy had just come to talk he was comfortable with letting him do so because even now he wasn’t sure of taking on Levin.
——
