Under the Light of the World at War: Early Chapter 54

“Please just accept it, Mistress Dorah.”

“Still just Dorah.” I whispered back, peeking in through the door.

Nata’liore was here, and it was getting awkward. As expected a military contract did come through. We were hired to enchant some of the kit for the city guards that had been expanding wildly over the last few months. 

Or so I was told. 

I hadn’t really noticed but then again the city streets were filling with more and more people so I wasn’t surprised. 

Regardless Nata’liore had been brought in to help with the enchanting work.

It was a lot. The entire back ally was now packed with crates and there were even guards stationed out there to make sure nothing went missing.

The workshop was bustling Papa and I had gotten to work, and it had even pulled me away from my normal schedule for a bit.

Then Nata’liore had shown up peacocking in her revealing outfit, and acting almost like a mysterious enchanter, when Papa and her had met.

Papa had not been… Well he hadn’t been rude, but he had told her very directly she would have to enchant to the level of the Atelier if she wanted the work.

It was very direct for Papa, but then again it was about Enchanting, and well…

Nata’liore hadn’t taken it well.

She was sitting in the workshop enchanting with Papa on the other side and both were now mostly ignoring the other.

“You think we should just ignore it?”

“Nata’liore, is prickly, but she knows what she wants. She will get over herself eventually to ask for assistance to learn.”

I quirked up an eyebrow, my long elf eyebrow twitching at the action. “You think Papa will teach her? Is that a thing?”

“She does work for the shop at least partially. One of the reasons she works with us is for the Ateliers knowledge.”

“So we should train her.”

“If she can get over herself and ask your father. It will be up to him to accept or not.”

I didn’t reply, instead looking in. It didn’t make much sense to me. She didn’t really work with the Atelier, and training an enchanter that would take the knowledge for her own shop seemed a bit weird, but elves were kinda like that I guess. 

Sometimes they did things that seemed weird, because when you were looking at a perspective of millennia it wasn’t that big a deal. 

I shook it off, either way Papa had ordered me to go play after a few days of enchanting, and even El’Tela had grumpily let me focus on enchanting instead of training. 

So… I was free to go freely grind, for the first time in days.

Not that I hadn’t been training my spells while enchanting. 

Blessing of Wisdom, Power Word: Fortitude, and Arcane Intellect, were very easy to keep casting while I worked after all.

And my Light Spells could be trained when I had free Mana as well.

So, it wasn’t that bad.

Moving away from the workshop that I’d been peaking into, I decided I couldn’t train outside, in the alley, and I couldn’t train upstairs. El’Tela had been firm. So I really only had a few other options.

I left, enjoying the fresh air as I walked out through the city. Now that it had been mentioned I did see more Guards around the corners, although with just how many people there were walking the streets once you get past the Court of the Sun, it hardly seemed to matter.

More and more people. Had they started fully evacuating all the villages behind the second Elf Gate?

I knew it was inevitable that the Trolls would make it to the gates of Silvermoon, but it was still disheartening.

Shaking off the thought, and shuffling it into the same mental folder where I put all my desires to keep growing stronger to try and do something. I instead broke out into a jog, or as much as I could while maneuvering through the city streets.

I made it to the Hawkstrider ranch, and relaxed as it was quieter here, despite all the animals. This side of the city was a bit less packed, as it was more private land for animals. 

I reached the pen where Chocobo, and Chocobo Too both lived. The family of Hawkstriders was as always growing. 

Chocobo truly was living her best Mama life. 

The little birds noticed me as I arrived and leaned up against the fence. I wasn’t an unfamiliar sight, but well…

Bird brains.

Most of them came over mostly thinking I might give them food, and some were puffing up like I was something that needed to be attacked.

One of the unfortunate reasons why I couldn’t just climb over and play with them.

Hawkstriders were fairly territorial, especially around the babies, and I could see their father watching me closely.

Then of course Chocobo Too came over. As always she just… Ran in straight lines. Smashing her siblings out of the way whether they were bigger than her or not, simply heading straight for me.

She slammed into the fence all ungainly limbs and feathers flaring everywhere, as she stuck her head over the fence, her large beak open.

“Aaa!” She shrieked at me, demanding.

I could only just scoff. At her wild bouncing up and down as she practically hurled herself against the fence. 

Chocobo Too, really was a unique Hawkstrider. 

She wanted food, or at least to bite my hand either was something she’d be happy with, but I didn’t have any on me, so I walked over, she followed me the whole time bouncing up and down against the fence the whole way until I found the food trough, and picked some up through the fence, and then just started throwing bits of the… Corn? It kinda looked like corn into her beak.

She made little gagging noises half the time as it took a moment for her to realize to swallow instead of just keeping trying to attack me.

Once I was done, with the handful I decided enough was enough.

“Okay go on now.” I reached through the fence and pushed her back which sent her tumbling a bit but it knocked her out of the one track mind. She looked around seemingly confused at the new position before just wandering off.

“What a dork.”

“Ah, is that you Alah’Dorah, come to check on them?” I looked up and smiled at the Rancher. 

“I am. Might hang around a bit if that’s okay. I could use some peace and quiet for a bit.” My comment earned me a scowl.

“What is the Convocation even thinking! Dragging every elf into the city!? I’ve been kicking people trying to sneak into the fields for months now.”

“Oh?”

“Just fools trying to find cheap quarters, I know things are getting expensive, but I can’t have them sleeping in the barn, the animals won’t accept that.” He grumbled, running a hand through his hair. “Should send all these elves home.”

“Most can’t go back. The Trolls.”

“I know.” He grumbled, as he chewed on it. “I know it’s not their fault. I’m just annoyed girl.” 

Yeah I feel that.

“Feel free to hang around, you know what not to do?”

“I do. I remember your rules.”

“Good. Then stick to them.” He waved at me as he walked off, and I realized he’d probably come rushing over to see who I was when I just showed up.

Poor guy.

I shook it off and found a spot against the fence where I could sit, and just closed my eyes.

Progress in everything was going well. With the new discovery of the Light Sparks, or whatever inside me, I’d also discovered some of the older Light spells were a bit easier to cast if I used those sparks.

And the more I got used to using them, and learning how to bring them about, the easier it was getting.

It wasn’t quite combat ready, it took too long to concentrate on my beliefs. Practically praying to get them to appear, but I could level Holy Light again.

Which I had done a little mostly to test things out, The limit of how much Mana I could regain in a certain time was still limiting me. 

Casting a spell once or twice. Then Evocation, to cast it once or twice more, meant I then had to either do something else for the six to seven minutes it took Evocation to recycle, or try to regain mana through drinking and Mana Gems. 

Which then meant I needed to train mana gems and Refreshment to have that available, which meant-

Well it was like that. 

Constantly cycling through the spells, trying to master them. Once the spell started becoming more Mana intensive to train it took longer and longer, especially since some of the spells needed hundreds of casts to level up. I’d cast Mana gem…. Like two thousand times at max level now?

It took time. 

But it was getting faster. 

Just not as fast as I would like.

I needed equipment, and levels to help mitigate the training time, but I couldn’t gain levels until I was ready for war, and I couldn’t gain Equipment until I could actually wear it for longer than a few months. 

Stupid body was still growing.

The only thing I could do was keep dedicating time to training.

All of my buff spells constantly on, all of my useful combat spells trained as much as I could, and of course picking up any minor spells and training them up for Masteries. 

Yet even with all my training I knew I hadn’t unlocked everything. 

Paladins weren’t just healers, and holy attackers. I’d already started on the blessings, which were just the best buff spells, but they also had Aura’s.

Aura’s which I hadn’t even touched on yet.

“Aaaa!” I jolted as a screech in my ear startled me. I looked around. Chocobo Too was there mouth open. She’d snuck up on me, and basically stuck her beak through trying to either bite me, or be fed.

“Troublemaker.” I told her, and I didn’t have any more food. But I did know animals could eat conjured food… It was just as safe for them as it was for us.

So I brought my hands together and conjured a muffin, the best I could.

It wasn’t… Well it wasn’t ash and cardboard, but it still wasn’t something you wanted to stop and enjoy. I grabbed it and stuffed it into her beak, causing her to flare up for a moment, her wings flapping as she chomped and absolutely destroyed it.

Then she swallowed. There was a moment like she wasn’t sure what to do but then she cried out again.

Ugh.

I conjured one more, and then when she finished I pushed her away.

“Off you go.” 

Right, back to my thought that had just been interrupted. 

Aura’s.

Another of the special things that Paladins got. I closed my eyes and breathed in and out, letting a spark get conjured up inside me. 

While I was a huge fan of Retribution Aura, that struck back at anyone that attacked the Paladin, or in their party. That wasn’t where Paladins started.

I’d gotten lucky with Seal of Righteousness as it was the first skill they learned, so I decided to stick to that.

Devotion Aura. The Aura that granted armor to the Paladin and team. Armor equivalent in some cases to an extra chest plate of Platemail. Which would be fairly helpful against the Trolls, since they wouldn’t have magic inside the Ban’dinoriel. 

I tapped my fingers on my knee as I leaned back against the fence and just thought it out.

It wasn’t like a normal spell. It would have to work differently. But how?

Could I figure this out without help? It felt complicated, but that just made my resolve firm up.

I had so many advantages to learning, sure it still wasn’t easy, but if a bunch of priests and Knights could figure it out in the future, I could right now, already knowing it exists. 

First step… I gathered some sparks of Light. It came quickly, as I felt inspired, in some way and I rode that wave. Gathering up the spark, then I decided to gather more. I wasn’t just empowering Divine Strength, or something. I was trying to create a new thing. Just like how I had with the Seal…

I gathered more sparks, resting against the fence and just letting myself focus on the task. 

“Please help me Elune. Help me protect my people.” I whispered, a quiet prayer that really was the most crucial part of my desires right now. The sparks formed, and I gathered each one, binding them together. It took time, I sat there, just letting the time pass as I rested, which did make me antsy at doing nothing, but needs must.

Then finally I felt like I had enough. 

Devotion Aura. What was a symbol of Devotion? Should I make it into a seal, like I had before? That didn’t feel right. 

Yet, what else could I do?

Then it struck me, it didn’t matter what the symbol was, not really. I just had to make something that represented it to me.

Or maybe could represent it. 

Elune. 

I guided the sparks inside me, until they shaped a crescent moon. It felt tiny. Too small to do what I felt like it should represent, but…

That was just it. A representation. I just had to believe, that’s how this all worked, right? 

I exhaled, and gathered the symbol into place.

Then just before I started blasting it I realized how stupid I was being.

Opening my eyes I looked around.

“Aaaa!” Chocobo Too was still practically breathing on me…

“Go away you silly bird.” I laughed, reaching out and carefully pushing her back by the chest avoiding her snapping beak. 

I stood up and moved a bit further away. Then I gathered the symbol I’d made, the moon, my personal symbol of Light created to show my Devotion.

To protect those around me. To protect everyone.

I gathered Mana, All the mana I had and instead of hammering it into the Symbol, I grabbed a spark, filled the spark with all my Mana converting it into Light, and then blasted that energy into the symbol. A hammerstroke, the exact sort I’d learned from forging steel.

“Uah.” I coughed as I came to laying flat on my back, ears ringing.

Dangit… I really needed to stop exploding.

Just giving myself a minute to let my ears stop ringing until I could cast a weak Holy Light, I lay there wondering where I had gone wrong.

Had the symbol been wrong? Or maybe incompatible, was it not the right thing at all?

I groaned and sat up, before blinking.

Oh…

It was there. My Mana flowed into it as naturally as breathing. 

[Skill Learned: Devotion Aura]

And yet… That feeling inside me, the same luminal space that was filled with Mana, and that only existed in my own understanding of myself it felt different.

It wasn’t gold.

It was silver.

“Elune?” I whispered, wondering if she had done something, or maybe I had?

Either way the understanding was there, What I had done, what I needed to do.

I could make more Aura’s. Easily in fact. I’d been close when making Devotion Aura, just not quite right. 

But there it was. Working.

“Heh! Heeheehehehe!” I laughed into the sky, only the shrieks of Chocobo Too interrupting as she wanted more food, or to just bite my hand off. One or the other. 

—--

“The enchantment is holding! It works!”

“It’s not right!” Papa snapped and I looked up.

Nata’liore was… Still being difficult. Papa had eventually gotten frustrated with her work and had tried to teach her.

It turned out that Nata’liore was not a good student. At least about this.

She’d gotten into the habit of just making sure the Enchantment worked by overusing reagents, and while functional… Well Papa wasn’t having it.

I looked up from the sword I was enchanting, shook off the distraction and decided to just get it down.

“Then show me what I’m doing wrong!”

“I have!” Papa yelled, angrier than I think I’d ever heard him.

He was definitely frustrated. He wasn’t a good teacher, not really. Sure I enjoyed listening to him chatter about Enchantment, but if it wasn’t for the Gamer system… Well I probably wouldn’t know much. He talked in complex statements that only someone truly understanding of Enchantment to start would properly understand.

That and he got distracted while teaching.

And when he tried she got frustrated and started yelling, which made him get frustrated.

The noise of the Enchantment locking into place, the chiming noise of Mana adhering the dust to metal echoed out as I finished. 

Then I put the sword to the side, and looked up.

They were still fighting, and I was getting annoyed.

Standing up I crossed the room ignoring how Nata’liore was probably deliberately at this point annoying Papa with her bad enchanting and I walked up and pushed Papa from behind.

“Wha- Dorah?”

“You go sit, cover the work, relax, you’re getting worked up Papa.” I ordered and he blinked, looking from me to Nata’liore. “I have to make sure she-”

“I’ll take care of it. Go on. Trust me.” I waved him away, shooing him and he did slowly move.

“What?” Nata'Liore asked, obviously hearing what I had just said. “You must be joking.”

“I’m a better Enchanter than you.” I told her bluntly, without any sugar coating. “But you definitely know more enchantments, and you can do this. Papa is no good at teaching, and I might not be any good either, but we can at least try. Or are you happy with your current level of skill?”

My comment earned a flinch, the woman's nose curled up and her lips pursed. 

I’d had some time to figure out Nata’Liore at this point, and I think she was fairly simple.

She felt slighted that her skills were never enough. Her enchantments were good enough, but never excellent, she worked with the Atelier, but she ran her own shop, yet apparently didn’t sell many enchantments. 

She was a woman constantly trying to gain the respect she felt she earned.

“I don’t need to be taught by a child. I’ve been enchanting longer than you’ve been alive.”

“So you should be doing it right. How are you with spells?” I asked her as I sat down and grabbed some paper and a charcoal stick, something within easy access to hand.

“I’m… Excellent at it. I know hundreds of spells.” She scoffed, taking what I said as an insult. Which was fine.

“Good, then you shouldn’t have any trouble learning this one. I came across it and Papa has been using it, you probably saw. It was originally a cleaning spell but it works on reagents as well, so it’ll help you clean up your enchantment lines.”

“I can-”

“Don’t argue, I think that’s one of your biggest issues, you keep blowing out the enchantment leylines because they aren’t straight enough, or you aren’t comfortable trimming them down. The spell really helps.” I finished writing it down and slid it across the table at her.

Our eyes met, and she was red, from embarrassment, and she was fighting back her irritation. 

“I am not some child.”

“Nope, but if you want to be a Master Enchanter, this can be your first step… Otherwise you can always leave. Cause your quality isn’t passing Papa’s requirements.” I reminded her on the other side. And she looked at the page.

“Fine. But don’t think I’ll call you Master.”

“I don’t expect you to, I’m just tutoring you in Papa’s place. He’s the Master.” I reminded, and for all her irritation she nodded at that. 

Despite Papa and Nata’Liore’s fighting it was obvious she respected him, which was interesting to see. 

I think if Papa had shown any interest in her body she might have even tried to seduce him, as she was dressed more like a flamboyant showgirl, than an enchanter.

I don’t think Papa had even noticed since her clothes weren’t enchanted. Heh. If she did enchant her clothes she might have actually gotten some mixed signals. 

Either way, she started looking over the spell, and within a few minutes she was practicing it, getting the dust to shift a bit as she attempted the spell.

Good. Nata’Liore was well on her way to fixing some of her issues, and then Papa would have another enchanter, and I’d be doing less work.

Wait. I liked Enchanting! I didn’t want to do less work!

Crap.

Oh well, sometimes I just suffered from my own success I guess.

Just as I was turning to start walking Nata’Liore through what she needed with the spell the door the workshop opened, and I gasped.

“Mama!” I cried, jumping to my feet from the chair and racing across, I made it half way through before I noticed something off, and I skidded to a stop just before crashing into her when I noticed what was twitching in my hindbrain.

“B-b-b-b-BUMP!?”

“Ugh I know. I really thought I was just sick for a while, but this one is definitely coming along.” Mama said looking embarrassed as she patted her stomach a little.

Her stomach that was definitely showing signs of a pregnancy!

“D-Dorah!?”

Huh… Oh the room was spinn-