The Sun was setting, and over the week and a half, Ivor had watched the boy. he had spoken to him, and when they spoke of matters of politics or consequence on the broader world, the boy seemed older than anyone his age should have been. He was more informed and could see the similarities between the breadth of knowledge he showed and that of the nobles. Unlike a child's wanting and curiosity, there was a deeper search for understanding behind the questions Marcus asked. And when he answered even some of the most mundane of questions, Ivor watched as Marcus stopped and thought about his answers.
"Before we begin, use your Arcane sight. This will help you understand who you are fighting," Ivor said, taking a stance and facing Marcus.
After extensive use of the Arcane Sight innate magic, Marcus had begun to accurately analyze people’s affinities. This was all thanks to Ethne, who possessed all seven affinities. After Ivor had told him to start using his magic more skillfully and broadly. Marcus had taken it a step further,he had got the idea from the Katch paper everyone used to understand their affinities and spells. he had worked with Ethne to measure her affinities with the Katch paper and cross-referenced them, matching each number to the affinity colours he saw using his innate magic. Unlike Ethne, his true test had come as he identified Geneve and Zek, the two the only ones willing to give up what, in most cases, were secrets of power and undergoing his constant use of arcane sight around them.
Geneve had three colours that flowed off her body. A heavy amount of purple aether flowed to the sky, and besides it, there was red for bloodline aether and yellow for the arcane affinity, the two flowing in similar amounts.
"You have probably an affinity of three in arcane and bloodline and about four affinity in Psychic." he had said as they practiced.
Geneve squinted her eyes at him and When she used the single Katch paper the group shared between them this is what they all saw.
Geneve
Affinity Strength/ Weight
Light 0
Dark 0
Elemental 0
Arcane 3
Psychic 4
Shadow 0
Bloodline 3
Magical Weight 10
Ethne
Light 3
Dark 2
Elemental 4
Arcane 3
Psychic 2
Shadow 1
Bloodline 2
Magical Weight 17
Zek
Light 0
Dark 2
Elemental 0
Arcane 3
Psychic 0
Shadow 1
Bloodline 4
Magical Weight 17
By the end of his practice he looked up at them with a big grin on his face, he had done it, his first true success in this world.
And it was after that magical feat, after he successfully developed a method of telling exactly what someone's affinities were, a method of looking at their pseudo stats, that Marcus smiled all day. For all the time Ivor had spent with the half-human half-Aasimar, he realized Marcus was someone who was never excited for much and took everything seriously, especially when it came to fighting. He had a completely different air about him. When it came to magic, however, the boy was always excited.
After the morning session, where he taught the boy to fight the mundane way without magic, Marcus spent the rest of the day learning about magic and its ins and outs. He asked questions about magic, some of which Ivor thought were well-known to everyone. Then, on other occasions, the boy would ask him questions that were a lot more complicated, like. 'Where is magic from.' these were all good questions, but Marcus was too curious. And it was the sort of curiosity that made him create a spell form that could have killed him.
So Ivor had decided to step up his lessons on magic, the books he had given him had not been written to teach magic, they were simple descriptions of magics and warcrafts. They told of the different ways the magic acted and were incomplete representations of the different affinities of magic. So he decided to tell him more about the magic of the scholars and how they used spell forms to create complex spells, with his simple basis of understanding.
“You said that my spell was wrong what was wrong with it,” he asked looking at the older half-aasimar half Goliath man.
“It was an elemental spell written with elemental runes it can not use any other form of aether," he looked at him lowering his wooden dagger to his side, ”do you have an elemental affinity,” he squinted his eyes.
"No, I have no elemental affinity," Marcus said, lowering his practice dagger and scratching his head with his other arm.
Ivor narrowed his eye and chided himself as he felt relief. If the boy had no elemental affinity, then his situation was not something new, however gifted by the other affinities he was. And, at the end of the day, Marcus was normal, strong, but not like the old masters—or at least he hoped.
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“There is the Core layer this determines the magical affinity and what school the spell you cast belongs to,” he begun and noticed the boy was paying unblinking attention to his every word.
“Spell intent is the heart of the spell, defining its primary effect. It could be a single set of runes or more,” he said, looking up to the ever-greyish cloudy sky as though he was looking for aether ley lines.
He paused and looked at Marcus, waiting for a question that never came before he continued. “In the formation there are layers, this is where the magical energy can be used to hold and maintain the spell. " He pointed at Marcus’s chest, seemingly indicating where the affinities were located.
Ivor stepped back and suddenly attacked, his makeshift dagger aiming for a slush, testing Marcus’s movements, which the boy clumsily blocked. “You’re too stiff. Use the [Iron Bone] spell. ground yourself,” he said, watching as Marcus tried parrying.
“When fighting, you must understand how many spells you can remember and meditate on them,” he continued. "Depending on how strong your magic is, it takes effort to use many spells all at once. The magicians in the academy can explain it better,” he said, stepping back as he watched Marcus nod his head back and forth.
“Then there is control. Use too many, and the spells grow weaker with each one you cast. As a warcrafter, focus all your magic on one spell, and let the aether from all your affinities hold it and make it stable. " He looked at Marcus. If you cast an arcane spell, use Arcane aether for the runes; all the other aether should act like a mug to hold it.”
After that, Ivor talked about the universal runes that allowed the combination of different Affinities.
“And before you try doing something foolish, It’s not possible to use more than three affinities in a single spell,” he said, pausing as he watched a question flicker on the boy’s visage.
“Then why don’t people use the joining runes to create a sort of universal spell,” Marcus asked.
“It’s not useful. To wasteful and complex,” he said.
Over the days they had been training, Marcus had gotten comfortable asking the older man all sorts of questions, and Ivor had gotten used to most of his odd questions.
For someone Ivor suspected to be one of the failed child assassins of the Great Houses, the boy had mannerisms that often made him look odd and not suitable for a warrior. There was the tapping of feet and the bobbing and humming of sounds, and he did not have a rigid posture or soldier's mannerisms; these were not things that one would find in a dedicated fighter looking for strength in every lesson.
However, Ivor was more interested in the boys’ unarmed way of fighting. It was the question that often fell into his mind: Where had Marcus learnt how to fight like that? Which noble house did that way of fighting belong to, and why teach someone to fight with a hand when a sword would be much more efficient?
“You fight well without a sword or dagger. Who taught you how to fight like that?” Ivor asked during one of their sessions.
Marcus tried not to give away anything with his expression. These were the types of questions he didn’t want to answer.
“I had a master.”
“Where was this master.”
Marcus thought of earth and how to describe it. he couldn’t say somewhere far away. the mountains were the only place in this world, the last vestige of civilization. Seeing the boy was having a hard time answering he moved on asking another question.
“What house colours did They wear," he asked. Thinking this question would be much easier to answer.
“No colors,” Marcus answered with a shaky smile immediately because there were no such things on earth. He knew that Ivor was looking for an answer that would help him match what he would say to the noble colors of one of the houses of Taelaris.
“No colors,” he repeated, eyebrows knitting and twitching clearly skeptical.
Of course, if he really thought about it, the boy would have been hidden from the outside world, which would explain his questions.
“And is that all they taught you,” he asked, looking down at his wooden practice sword.
That's all they had taught him about kickboxing, but he had watched and learnt more from watching others fight. Thinking of it, Marcus put on smile, something he rarely did. Even Ivor was surprised by the expression. As a boxer, Marcus was a martial arts enthusiast. He had watched many fights and videos about martial arts, and he had often tried replicating the movements.
“I can show you," Marcus said, getting to his feet.
Ivor stepped to the side, eyebrows raised, “go ahead.”
Marcus stepped up more confidently than he had been a while back and started his demonstration. He moved forward like a boxer, his hands moving fast, his body twisting the blows carrying weight from one side to another.
Ivor watched on silently and intently.
Marcus shifted and kicked out. He kicked high and then low, his leg raised high above his head in a karate kick. Then he switched again, and his knees and elbows began doing all the striking, using his shins. By the end of it, he was winded.
“I can see a use for you using your fists but using your legs," Ivor shook his head and paused, “I suppose I can see why, but you.. you’re a human and half aasimar. A Goliath will always have stronger bones than you and the tide monsters will think to simply take a bite out of you,” he pointed out and soaked the boy raising excitement turned entering the cabin
"Ohh…” Marcus deflated, “but I have never seen a tide monster?” he asked in confusion and followed the giant half-Goliath into the cabin.
"Don't worry, you will. Everyone in Srok does." the half-goliath said.
“there are spells to make the skin more durable and enchanted gears. you can still fight with fists can't you?"
"There is no point in the way you fight.” Ivor continued.
"if you do it right-" he started.
“There are… but like spells, enchanted gear is expensive in all its workings.”
“Right and Can’t people just engrave the runes themselves.”
Ivor nodded. “No, and it’s something I have been meaning to teach you, but your vendetta…” he sighed.
Ivor walked over to the back of his room, and started emptying his cabin as he had done all week he had started preparing, packing to leave, making the cabin feel empty as the days went by.
The bearskin rug next to the strew bed was gone, and the blackened iron kettle he kept by his stone brick stove was missing. He also had three wooden spoons and a ladle waiting on the table, and even now, he wrapped a bundle of candles made from animal fat in rags before placing them in the large chest.
“Enchanting can not be done by just anybody. it needs someone with an arcane affinity," Ivor said, setting the small enchanting chest on the table between them.
“What is this?”
“This is for enchanting. I thought to help you learn,” Ivor said, pushing it towards Marcus.
Marcus was curious, and it did not take long for him to reach out and open the chest. there was a Quill, three Chisels for curving symbols, an Etching Knife used for delicate rune-cutting and lastly, inside the well-put-together box was an Enchanter’s Grimoire, a small book of basic runes when he looked through it.
There were mainly two reasons why Ivor wanted Marcus to learning enchanting, besides the obvious wealth of any good enchanter in Taeralis.
Enchanted items were powerful, and learning how to make them often meant that he wouldn’t have to struggle like many did. If he decided to pick up a sword, it would be easy for Marcus to maintain and create his own. enchantments
Seeing the boy’s gaze fixed on the enchanting tools, he walked back, collecting items from all over the cabin. He did not notice Marcus pause in his examination.
Marcus watched him, and in the end, he simply asked.
“Are you going to move into the city because of the tides?”
“Yes, the tides begin at the end of this month,” he said, thinking of what he suspected of the boy. I guess it could be hard for you to know.
If what he suspected was right, then the boy had probably never seen a monster tide before. He suspected that the boy had been locked up somewhere dark, somewhere they could train him in secrecy and never let him out to even see the world until he was ready to be an assassin of one of the nobles.
Pity.
“Where will you go if you’re leaving this place?” Marcus asked, wanting to know where he could find the man.
“I will be at the broken Manor in two days.”
“Two days? That’s when Thornan said he is coming. I thought you didn’t want to envolve yourself with the rats guild and the Veystrix.” He stated.
“Yes, but I can hope my presence will temper this boy... Thornan.”
“Why don’t you just help us ?” He said, “you know what Clara is trying to do. Right?”
“It’s pointless. She is not the first to try something like this. Most times, they don’t get that far or worse they become a servant house.”
“But…”Ivor raised his hand, stopping his next words, “Go back to the city. The last light of the day fades soon, and the guards will not be kind if you stay any longer.Go to your friends.”
