The next several months were largely uneventful, although they didn’t feel that way at the time. For my part I felt like I was discovering new parts of myself every week. While neither me nor Almon had managed to unearth any more abilities yet, Almon said it was just a matter of time. I didn’t really mind, honestly. It had taken me a while to notice, but almost a year after my awakening I was definitely stronger and faster than I had been just after.

  My other abilities were progressing similarly. My illusions were basically all stable now, and so long as I could fully concentrate on it, then I could make something that moved. Anything too complex strained me though, so I was pretty limited in uses. Still, it felt good to slowly figure it out. I had found myself enjoying my illusions far more than I had expected, and part of me was immensely satisfied every time somebody fell for them. Once, I’d had my mother failing to grasp a door handle for several minutes, which was the day I admitted to being able to create illusions.

  My shapeshifting was progressing very nicely as well. I could shift completely over the course of about ten seconds if I needed to. I had also figured out how to slowly change while doing other things, so that I didn’t need to stand there fully concentrating on the changes. The process was a bit like making static illusions, planning out in my head what should be there and then holding on to those fine details. I was almost glad I’d had so much trouble with illusions at the start, since it made this so much easier.

  Unfortunately, I still hadn’t managed to stay in one form for too long, although I had kind of sorted it. I got really uncomfortable if nothing about me had changed for a few hours, but my body didn’t seem to care what changed. Once I figured that out, I had started changing things that people wouldn’t notice, like the length of my toes or the sharpness of my back teeth. I didn’t really have a handle on the spontaneous changes caused by my emotions, but I think Cassie was used to checking my eyes at this point, so I was alright with that.

  Speaking of Cassie, she was also doing well. For a couple of weeks after the incident with her mother she was… down. It was a strange sort of sadness. She did most of the same things, still joked and teased and studied. Still, her smiles didn’t always reach her eyes, and sometimes I would catch her staring into the distance with a hint of that hollow expression from before on her face. Whenever that happened, I would pick up whatever I was doing and move closer to her. Not touching, just close enough to remind her I was here.

  Thankfully, she seemed to resolve whatever about that encounter was plaguing her about that day soon enough. I was glad to have her back. It broke my heart to see Cassie – usually so self-assured and confident – appear so defeated. I didn’t mention her sadness to her, or ask any of the many questions I was still harbouring from that day. I didn’t want to risk seeing her so upset again, and I certainly didn’t want to be the cause.

  Cassie’s magic was coming along just as well as her emotions. She finally learned her first non-lightning aspected spell. According to Almon, learned casters like wizards and witches weren’t as chained to their affinities as sorcerers were. Of course, Almon also said that since she had such strong lightning affinity that most of Cassie’s spells would end up being related in some way to it. Still, there were some spells that just about every wizard knew, and this was one of those.

  I was helping her practise it, so we were in the fenced-off area that Laon and I used for swordsmanship lessons. Laon was also present, but he was standing off to the side. I was standing near the edge of the arena, facing Cassie who stood opposite me. I reached into the bucket of acorns next to me, picking one out and straightening up before looking back at Cassie.

  “You ready?” I asked.

  Cassie shot me a look. “It would be better if I wasn’t, but yep.”

  With no more warning, I cocked my arm back and threw the acorn as hard as I could at Cassie. I briefly worried that I had thrown it to hard, but Cassie flicked her wrist and the acorn bounced off a muted flare of blue, which hovered in the air for a fraction of a second before fading like it had never been there. Cassie graced me with a cocky grin, before nodding her head to the acorns still in the bucket. When I didn’t respond she gave a ‘come at me’ gesture, dropping into an exaggerated martial stance. I heard Laon laugh in the background.

  For my part, I was still absorbing some new sensory information. A while ago, Almon and I had come to the conclusion that I could feel when magic was cast, although we were split over why. He thought that magic being cast disrupted the flow of magic my body absorbed, while I thought that magic being cast disrupted the mana that made up the majority of my body.

  In either case, the end result was that magic tended to cause a tingling sensation on my skin. Recently, I had been trying to learn to read it, because I had noticed that the tingling was a little different when Almon summoned a rabbit compared to when Cassie summoned lightning, although the differences were insanely subtle. After a few moments, I decided that her shield felt the same as her lightning. I wasn’t sure if that was because they were both cast by a wizard, or because they were both cast by Cassie. Something to ask Almon about, I suppose.

  Turning my attention back to Cassie and seeing her confidence, I decided to up my game. I scooped up several acorns, letting my hand shift and widen to better hold them. I scanned the five acorns in my palm and focused on one in particular for a moment. Summoning up a mental image of flying acorns, I allowed my mana to flow into the right pattern and stuck my illusion to the second to last projectile in my palm.

  This was something I had figured out how to do while I was trying to make them move. While manually dictating the movement of my illusions was far too complicated for me at the moment, I had followed more of that weird magic instinct and ended up figuring out how to anchor my illusions to other objects. It was quite a lot harder than just having them floating in the air, and the actual images themselves were still static, but it did mean that I could do this.

  The second acorn was blocked just as handily as the first. The third almost reached Cassie, because she was busy making different gestures at Laon behind her back. In contrast, the fourth was blocked even quicker. Then my magicked acorn flew. The moment it left my palm, it seemed to split into four more acorns, none of which were in the same position as it was. Cassie panicked and tried to block all of them, which clearly strained her spell.

  The main drawback of the ‘Shield’ spell, at least according to Almon, was that the price of its low cost and quick casting time was that it required precision. It was less a bubble of protective energy and more of an ephemeral wall, which had to be manifested with pinpoint precision. This meant that while Cassie was busy trying to manage five separate instances of the spell for my illusions, the real acorn clocked her directly on the forehead.

  Cassie yelped as the acorn bounced off her and hit the floor, causing Laon to once again burst into booming laughter. I doubled over, taking a moment to catch my breath. That had been the first time I had succeeded in making something invisible, and I was glad that my theory had finally worked. Still, it had been a whole lot more taking than I had expected.

  Technically, I didn’t really make the acorn invisible at all. Rather, I just shaped a roughly acorn-shaped illusion around it that showed everything directly behind it, as if it were transparent. It wasn’t perfect, and if someone knew what they were looking for they would be able to pick out the weird blur in the air pretty easily. Still, I was proud of myself for making an illusion that was reactive like that, even if it was rough around the edges (literally).

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  By the time I had regained my composure, Cassie was already stomping over. She reached out and poked me in the chest. “Since when could you do that, missy?”

  I chuckled. “Not telling. Can’t just go around away giving tricks of the trade, I’m afraid.”

  Cassie stared silently at me for a moment. “That was the first time, wasn’t it?”

  Damn it.

  I shrugged. “Maybe.”

  Cassie let out a tiny shriek, wrapping me in an embrace for a moment before pulling away far too soon. “That’s great! Besides, I’m allowed to miss that one. I got all of the others.”

  “True. Hey, Laon,” I said, seeing the giant elf stride over from where he had been leaning on the fence.

  “Little Wolf! You and Cassandra have done well!” He boomed, before lowering his voice. “You are leaving soon, are you not?”

  We nodded. “Yep. A couple of days after my birthday,” answered Cassie.

  Our plans to leave did mean that we would be spending this year’s festival in the middle of nowhere, which was sure to disappoint the kids. Still, I had found myself understanding Cassie’s burning desire for adventure over the last few months. Leaving with Cassie felt like I had a real goal, something to strive for that wasn’t just the course of life. Suffice to say, I was excited.

  “Then you leave in only two weeks? In that case I have something to give you, both of you. Please come with me.” As soon as he finished speaking, he turned on his heel and began walking. We turned to each other and shrugged before following the elf.

  Laon was silent as we walked through town, although Cassie and I certainly made up for that. Cassie had decided to correct a slight misunderstanding in how her shield spell worked, which was almost completely unnecessary given that I had no way to cast it. Still, this was just her way of venting her excitement for getting it right. Besides, I had always found her voice calming, and walking through the centre of town next to Laon tended to bring far more attention than I was comfortable with.

  It didn’t take long until we had stopped at the lone weapon smith in Vernal, and man I only knew as Smith. As far as I was aware, he didn’t speak to anybody, and rarely left his workshop. Still he was a spectacular blacksmith, to the point where a few people had speculated that he used to be far more high-profile and moved here to get away from it all.

  Laon held up a hand to indicate we should stay outside, before striding into the smithy. The moment he opened the door heat blasted from inside, which made me wonder how anyone could spend all day in there. I suppose that explained why the whole building was made from stone, which was pretty rare around here. Laon left again barely a few minute later, already sweating from the heat of the workshop. In his left hand was a something wrapped in cloth, maybe thirteen or fourteen inches long. In his right was another bundle of cloth, larger and less shapely.

  “What have you got there, Laon?” Asked Cassandra, although I knew that she likely had the same suspicions as I did.

  “Patience, Cassandra. Allow this old man some showmanship.” It always got me when Laon referred to himself as an ‘old man’ because he didn’t look a day over thirty, but Cassie took it in stride.

  “Fine, fine. Please, show us the way O’Wise One.” Cassie bowed to Laon, getting a chuckle from the man as he lead us on.

  Our next stop was a leather worker, where Laon went through the same procedure. Once he stepped back outside the shop he was burdened further with what looked to be a bag or satchel of some kind. He moved on quickly, leading us to a building which appeared to just be a home. When he left, he seemed to be carrying no more than when he entered. He proceeded to walk us both back to my house, again in silence. Cassie and I were quieter now, both wondering quite what he had gotten for us.

  Soon enough we were perched out the front of my house, with Laon standing in front of us. He had placed each item gently on the ground and seemed to take a moment to compose himself. When he turned back to us I was surprised to see him looking so vulnerable, with some old scar showing through the hurt in his eyes.

  “I will have to apologise, but I am afraid that I will not be here to show you off. My mother has fallen ill, you see. It is a turn of events that allows even me to return home, at least to visit. I am leaving myself in two days, and will not be returning for many months.” Laon paused, seeming to consider his words carefully. He let out a deep breath before he continued.

  “When I was young, still little more than a child, I had a sister. She was something akin to an adventurer, and a good one too. She would regale me with stories and show me what trophies she kept. She was my idol. I had wanted to grow up just like her. By the time I was asked to leave our lands, she was no longer with us. It was a shock to us all, for she died at the age of fifty seven. Incredibly young, by our standards. The loss of her shook our whole family.

  “It is because of her that I wish to give you these gifts. Even if I had known what would happen to her, I would not wish to deny her calling. But I would want her safe, much as I wish for you to be safe. I would have preferred to give you these as you leave, but circumstances force my hand. First I have this blade, for the Little Wolf.”

  Laon picked up the long bundle of cloth, revealing it to be a sheathed arming sword. It looked to be about twelve inches long, and it was beautiful. Nothing about the weapon itself was ornate; it was made of simple steel, with a dark wrapped handle a crossguard that tilted somewhat towards the blade. Still, something about the blade told a story of craftsmanship, sang of strength and sweat and heat. I took it gently, holding it by the flat of the blade and the grip. On closer inspection I saw that the pommel had my initials engraved into it on either side. Taking it by the handle, I realised that the covering on the handle made it surprisingly supple, and very comfortable compared to the training swords I had used to practice with Laon.

  “I… don’t know what to say, Laon. Thank you!” I looked into his eyes and remembered how he had spoken of his sister. “I’ll do what I can to stay safe, I promise.”

  He looked at me intensely for a moment, before nodding and moving on to the other bundle of cloth. “This is for you, Cassandra. I understand that most mages abhor heavier armours, and so I have had this made as a last resort.” He revealed the bundle to be a long shirt, which seemed decently thick, although no more than some winter clothing. No, the real protection came from the chainmail that lay on top of the shirt.

  “This chainmail should be light enough not to restrict your movement, although I would suggest practising moving in it. The attire underneath is not a protective as a true gambeson, but it doesn’t need to be. It is mainly there so that you can wear the chainmail comfortably. You can probably get away with some light clothing on top of this, if you wish to hide your defences. Of course, once the weather warms that will become less feasible, but by then who knows where you will be!” Laon seemed to lighten considerably as he handed over the chainmail, but I don’t know if he was putting it on for our sake or not.

  Cassandra took the bundle, leaving the shirt for now slipping the chainmail on over her clothes. After a bit of fumbling, she was standing in front of us both. She laughed and gave us a twirl, before lunging for Laon and pulling him into a hug.

  “Thank you Laon!” She exclaimed, holding on to the hug for several seconds until it was clear that Laon was uncomfortable. Once she finally let him free, Laon shook his head and reached for his final gift.

  “It is no worry, Cassandra. Now, this final gift is for the both of you.” He crouched to pick up the satchel, before opening it to reveal a decent supply of salted meat and trail rations, as well as two canteens.

  “This should be enough food for the two of you to last a week or so, just enough to get your bearings for travel. I don’t imagine food will be too much of an issue with Little Wolf here, but life on the road is very different from life here.” As he spoke, he handed us each a canteen, and I noticed that again the lids were engraved with our initials. Aside from that they were identical, likely enough to hold half a litre of water at maximum capacity.

  “I wish for you to remember that travel through the wilderness can be as dangerous to the unprepared as any monster. Many have lost their lives before ever reaching their foe, simply because they underestimated nature.”

  We both nodded, and Laon stood. “I am afraid that I have my own trip to prepare for. I am sorry I will not be present to see you both off.”

  “Don’t worry about it Laon,” I said.

  “Yeah, make sure your mum’s alright,” Cassie added, before giving him a much shorter hug.

  Laon smiled. “Thank you, girls. Now, I should be off. I wish you both the best of luck.” With that, Laon made his way to his own home, humming an unfamiliar tune as he went. We stood in silence for a time, absorbing Laon’s gifts, words and well-wishes. I looked down at my new sword, and then back up at Cassie, who was grinning in her chainmail.

  I guess we have a more interesting way to test Shield now.

  Extract from 'Elves: An Outside Perspective', written by Professor George McElroy, professor of 'Occulture' at the Verdant University.

  "The elves are a strange folk. From the outside they seem isolationist and austere, unwilling to interact with the other races. My time amongst them showed me a different side to them, however. A side that those who know the few elves who leave their verdant lands are likely already familiar with. When I first gained passage into the Elven Lands, which they call in totality Verd'Saithe, I was shocked to see how openly they live. It seems foolish to me now as I write this, but I had assumed that every elf was elitist and aloof. How wrong I was.

  It must be a product of living such long lives, but many elves hold little concern over transient issues. They seemed a community focused people, more intent on fostering a combined strength than I would have expected. They also did much that shocked my sensibilities, although I would quickly recover from my culture shock as my journey progressed. Still, they had no central Church or local Magistrate that organised their communities. So long as they did no harm to each other and respected their environments they could do much that would be... frowned upon, back in Althea.

  As an example, displays of magical power that would have shocked a human court into silence were commonplace here. I passed through a small town on my way to the capital, a place called Nys. At first glance I thought it cosy, small wooden structures holding comfortable families and happy residents. That was until I stayed the night. I learned then that elves used magic for everything. The lived in houses grown by magic, heated and lit by magic, often they would have functions like doors that opened for you and containers to preserve food that run solely off magic. When I asked how they powered these wonders I learned, to my dismay, that they did so manually.

  Apparently, the average elf had enough mana to power a home full of magical appliances and simply go about their day. I shudder to think how an elven mage must live. It was not just this though. Their culture was so open, so trusting compared to many I had seen in the various lands in Althea. A member of the Church of Purity would have suffered a heart attack if they had seen some of the things the elves did just to pass the time. I saw couplings of all forms, competitions of strength done not for training or reward but entertainment. I saw magic shows that used enough mana to power a train made purely to keep people busy.

  This is not to say that they were an unserious people. If anything, it was the opposite. I saw many a busy elven workman who seemed hurried beyond reason to keep their lively communities afloat, which must have been quite the task without any visible agriculture. Still, the average elven citizen seemed rather genial once they got used to my foreign presence. A quick adaptation for those in the border towns, who must deal with strays from our lands fairly regularly if their attitudes were to be believed. That was not the case as I journeyed deeper into Verd'Saithe, but that is a story for later."

  Extract end.