Eli’s workroom was bright with lamplight; the warm glow illuminating polished wood and the neatly folded bolts of cloth that had been carefully set aside on a low table. A tray of thread, needles, and organized parchment patterns lay spread between him and Aria. The quiet din of the keep was muffled here, distant voices and footsteps a muted by the many wards, arrays, and enchantments the regulated sound, and its comings and goings. It was a warm kind of quiet.
Aria leaned forward over the fitted shirt that was currently stretched across the worktable. Her tongue caught lightly at the corner of her mouth as she copied the pattern for durability runes along the inner collar. She stitched slowly, carefully, pausing often to check that each mark she made was just so. Eli had marked it out the script in washable fabric marker, but she wasn’t taking any chances. Across from her, Eli worked with steady precision on a pair of gloves, his smaller needle moving more quickly as he efficiently stitched enchantment after enchantments into the seams between the fingers, arounds the borders, along the fabric of the palms and wrists and the backs of the hands with the confidence of someone who had done this many times before. Returning muscle memory, and his spatial perception field worked overtime to give him the speed and precision he required for such complex workings.
The rhythm was companionable. Only the sound of thread pulling through fabric, the occasional scrape of chalk, or the click of a snapped thread broke the quiet.
“Tell me about the fight this morning,” Aria requested, her voice quiet. Eli chuckled, his hands never wavering, his speed not slowing.
“I have already told you two times,” he teased. “Besides, it was not a fight it was a duel.”
“I know but tell me again anyway.” Her voice was quiet but filled with determination. Eli lowered the glove he was working on and looked at her.
“Aria,” it was fond, and exasperated.
“I just still can’t believe you beat Kara so fast. She gets me every time. Most of the time I can’t even get a hit against Cale.”
“Yes, well, Cailean has been training for two years already, and Kara is more than double your age.”
“We’re the same age.”
They looked at each other, smiled then laughed.
“Okay, I guess so. I have magic though. My mana is awakened, and I can use it. You, and Kara, it is not the same. Besides, she might still have won.”
Aria gave him a sceptical look, which was fair, though his statement was not entirely untrue. Had she been alchemically, boosted or had access to her magic or had undergone full body tempering. Had he come down with some sort of malady, or catastrophic brain damage, or physical handicap that wasn’t able to be healed in time, well things could have turned out differently. But thinking about physical condition, and the ways he could have failed made him consider how he could prevent those conditions from ever coming to pass.
He needed to be untouchable now. As much as he could be at least. Two ranks up. He needed to be able to fight two ranks up from his foundation. Otherwise, how would he ever reach Primus? How would he even contend with those beings from beyond the world who he just knew were even more powerful than that if he had been pushed to tap into his mana just to defeat Kara decisively. Sure, if he had been allowed to use offensive magic, it would have been no contest. Instead of a ‘duel’, the kindest word for what Eli would have done to Kara would have been ‘bullying’. Best case scenario is that she realized she was being knocked out before it happened. But it was not a magical duel it was a martial one, and while he appreciated Aria’s enthusiasm, he was embarrassed by his own performance.
He refused to make excuses.
If he were looking at classifications, until his channels fully solidified and his mana pool fully developed he would technically be at the level of an initiate mage*, though his power was closer to that of a half-step adept, the next rank up (and his archmage* level expertise had thankfully travelled back with him). Kara was firmly at the level of a martial adept*, though her progress towards martial journeyman* was accelerated by the individualized training she was receiving as Eli’s future personal shadow guard. However, her power would soon spike as he and his parents knew that she would have access to magic of her own once she underwent the private awakening ceremony.
That would make her an initiate mage too, compounding her advantage. Right now, she was only one rank up from him comparatively. Sure, she was well trained and older than him too, but that was no excuse. The power she would gain when she began to walk both martial and magical paths was not linear, but exponential.
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In his first life he had primarily trained the mage path, it had been a mistake. One he would not make again. However, while his body was still developing, he was vulnerable, and his full potential was capped. He needed an edge, something that bridged the physical gap even when his mana was sealed or spent, even when he was young, and small, and still growing, because even with his memories, even with all his experiences, he knew he was still just a tadpole trying to force its way into the ocean.
He needed more. More resources, more information, more power, and he really only knew of one sure method.
Body tempering.
It was like body enhancement magic, but permanent, not reliant on mana or enchantments or external energy at all. At least not once the process was complete. It was a permanent physical upgrade. A true method to strengthen a person’s foundations that could be used on anyone, allegedly even the unawakened. It was also one of the few guaranteed methods of power enhancement that produced the best results the earlier in one’s ascent they began.
Unfortunately, apart from how much more refined and efficient the tempering methods of the Families were compared to the lower step nobility, or the guilds and commoners, Eli didn’t have much information on body enhancement. He remembered his own skin tempering, but his father had provided the resources, the method, and helped him handle the process. It had been a horrific experience, and Eli had refused to complete his body tempering. Besides, he was a mage at heart. So, outside of the foundational information learned at the academies or through one’s own house education Eli was mostly clueless.
He wouldn’t bother regretting not taking the time to learn more in his past life. Firstly, because regret was one of the least productive things that he could spend his energy on right now. But primarily, because trying to do research back then, in the time before the Great Betrayal, would have been like fishing in a shallow pond considering the information difference between his world and wherever the aliens had come from. He did have some suspicions that the invaders had not only played a role in aiding the Families with advanced information and techniques on body tempering, but that these methods that were ‘so advanced’ on Vereth were not even remotely close to the best methods they possessed.
He knew for a fact that they used body tempering, he was a spatial mage and a life mage. A cursory probe was enough to recognize the effects of a tempered body, and the few invaders he’d had the displeasure of being in close enough proximity to probe so closely were uncontestably physically superior to the planet’s natives. Most of them had what felt like individually adjusted tempered bodies as even those who felt similar never felt the same, with only a scant few feeling close to the way the Family’s awakened felt after tempering. He had noticed that sort of personalization with awakened from the Families before, but he hadn’t recognized that variability as a form of advanced tempering until long after the Great Betrayal.
That meant that he would need to do more research, and it would need to be individualized. He needed a method created for himself.
No.
He needed the best method created for himself. Lost in thought he barely noticed himself finishing one glove and moving on to the next in near silence.
“Eli?” Aria asked, snapping him out of his reverie. Eli glanced at her.
“Hm? I am sorry, Ari. What were you saying?” He asked before lowering his eyes back to the glove he had just picked up and beginning to sketch out the enchantment script in neat, practiced motions.
“It’s okay.” Aria still found it strange, and a little uncomfortable when Eli apologized to her. When anyone deferred to her in general. It was a recent thing, but being with Eli meant it was happening more often, and she was learning to get used to it. “I was asking about the magic, you said that’s how you won the second fight so fast. I just thought, if you don’t want to tell me the story again, you could maybe explain it to me?” She asked. He smiled, his eyes still on the glove. His voice was kind as he spoke.
“It is no big secret. I used body enhancement magic,” he said. “It’s not complicated once you learn control. The basic principle is to make your body better using magic.”
“Better?”
“Yes, stronger, faster, more durable, more observant. Hear better, see better, move better, and if you are very good and very careful, you can even help yourself think better. Basic body enhancement magic is just pushing mana into your muscles. Strength, speed, endurance. I did it in the duel yesterday because, well she is over double my age,” he smiled and Aria laughed. “It would not matter so much if I was 20 and she 40. I will have surpassed her by then,” he said.
It wasn’t boastful but matter of fact. He would be just approaching his physical prime. He would have reversed the reach advantage, the strength advantage, and his affinities were stronger than hers. Even in his past life when he had poured his considerable genius into magecraft and just coasted on his inherited martial talent and conditioning, he was already going toe-to-toe with Master Moss and the instructors at the first academy. With his knowledge now, a twenty-year gap would be meaningless.
“For now, though, body enhancement was the only way to match her.”
Aria’s hands paused as she contemplated. “So, if I awaken during the ceremony-”
“When you awaken,” Eli corrected. Aria smiled.
“I mean, if I ever become a mage, or a reservoir, could I learn body enhancement magic too?”
“Maybe,” Eli said, evenly. He kept his eyes on the glove, measuring the seam. “It depends. If you awaken with active channels, you will have more options. But even a reservoir can manage basic reinforcement. It is not limited to mages.”
Her head dipped, hair falling across her cheek. “Then I’ll work hard. I won’t slow you down.” She added the latter part in a quiet voice that Eli heard all the same.
“I know,” was all he said in response. He didn’t smile, but his tone carried quiet reassurance. “You never will.”
She looked up, eyes catching his for a moment before she bent back to her work. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly as she set another stitch.
Magic Path: Mages
- Initiate Mage
- Adept Mage
- Journeyman Mage
- Veteran Mage
- Master Mage
- Archmage
- Primus
Martial Path: Blades
- Martial Initiate
- Martial Adept
- Martial Journeyman
- Martial Veteran
- Martial Master
- Martial Saint
- Primus