Under the Light of the World at War: Chapter 51

I made a quick note in my journal, and then nodded. 

“Okay test three.” I’d spent some time testing out this new discovery, figuring out exactly how it worked.

Or at least I was trying to. The first few tests had been simple. Try to figure out more about the Light inside me. 

I’d discovered that it had a few limits. Praying, or holding to my beliefs seemed to make it appear a bit quicker, otherwise I could go through a long time without even a speck of the golden Light. 

Which had led me to realizing I was definitely doing something wrong.

It took hours to gather up enough Light to then spread it over my body to get a single point in Divine Strength. I’d tested it twice while working on it.

[Divine Strength 3/10]

That was far too slow, so I was definitely doing something wrong. Yet, despite the setback, I felt like I was really making some progress on the Light, that meant any amount of time was worth the effort as long as I was finally improving. 

Hence why I was going at this a little bit scientifically. 

I knelt down, closed my eyes, focusing inward. I will succeed. My slowly growing strengths would grow, and I would protect those that need it. 

While I did, as the tiny sparks of Light appeared, I converted my Mana into Light, and following what I had learned I locked it inside me. The hope was to try and increase the rate of the little Belief sparks? Holy glimmers? Wacky wavy inflatable arm flailing light magic?

I shook that last one off. 

Visibly glowing I knelt there, letting the Light power exist inside me, and as I did I held my conviction. This would work. 

It did not in fact work. The Light I held onto, washed out what I could sort of see, and whether more of the Light was… Gathering? Appearing? Forming? The wording was important, but I just wasn’t sure yet. Either way I couldn’t tell if there was more.

I shook it off, and focused, instead as my Mana slowly refilled, I focused on once more gathering those tiny sparks. Until I had a small light within me. Now test three.

Okay now test four.

Instead of trying to convert mana into Light, and see if that can draw more, do it the other way around. Gather the little sparks, and then convert Mana into Light, and see what happens.

I breathed in and out, gathering a small bit of the golden sparks, and then converted Mana into Light, and brought them together. At first nothing seemed to happen, I was sitting there burning through Mana grabbing more and more Light towards the Golden Spark and then.

It reacted, The light was devoured, that spark grew, and then, as my Mana ran out, the Spark seemed to keep trying to devour, it wobbled, despite what I tried and then a moment later. 

It exploded.

I stared up at the roof flat on my back. My ears ringing, my body felt weird.

Then a buzzing in my ears and I blinked, realizing it was someone yelling.

I shook my head, and with a pop my ears suddenly could hear again.

“Dorah!” El’Tela was at the top of the stairs looking down at me, and I could hear all sorts of noises as I definitely disturbed everyone. Papa came out of his room in a rush a moment later and saw me, and ran to my side. 

Honestly it was one of the few times I ever saw Papa really running before. 

“I’m okay!” I called out, arm raised, but Papa grabbed me and looked me over.

I was fine, but it only took a moment to look around to see that just because I was, doesn’t mean everything was.

“Aww. There goes my journal… And the fountain.” I whispered, realizing what the cold wetness I was sitting in was.

I’d exploded part of the fountain.

Raising a hand I was going to try and cast some ice cubes, to freeze up the side so it would stop pouring out, but I was completely out of mana.

That explains the sort of dazed feeling I had.

“I need a Mana gem.” I muttered, rising up, and Papa soon helped me, as I looked up. El’Tela wasn’t looking happy.

Crap.

Sha’Narin, and Tira’nore both were watching as well. I’d definitely made a mess of it.

“Sorry! Sorry. I’m okay. Magical accident. I’m okay!” I called out, trying to reassure everyone, but Papa’s grip didn’t waver as he held me. Even if I was getting his robes all wet. 

“Fool girl.” El’Tela snapped and I winced as she glared at me from the top of the steps. “You two. Clean this up, and call a mason, we’ll need to get the fountain fixed.”

“Sorry.” I whispered, and El’Tela turned back to me.

“Go get cleaned up, and then come see me. I want to know what foolishness brought this on!”

“Sorry.”

—--

I stood nervously in front of El’Tela as she glared at me. She had very specifically pointed at a spot in front of her, instead of letting me take a seat. So I was standing there a bit nervous. 

“Explain.”

“I made a breakthrough with the Light. I was doing some testing… I blew up the Journal or I’d show you.”

“You think causing explosions in doors is smart?”

“I didn’t mean to!” I waved my hands because I really hadn’t! “I found out how to make myself stronger with the Light, Permanently! It’s great, and it opened up a whole new thing to figure out, but when I pushed Light into the Light… It exploded!”

She looked at me with her piercing eyes for a long while before she sighed.

“That doesn’t explain anything. Be clearer. What happened?”

I nodded hurriedly, and then took a breath. Relax Dorah. “I discovered a new form of Light. Something internal. It was Arcane Mind and Meditation that gave me the idea. And Meniel from the Halls of Healing. A Light Spell that doesn’t use Mana. So I took the ideas of how Arcane Meditation worked, and tried to do it with the Light. It let me gather Light inside me, and it… It shifted the Mana inside me, to make me stronger?”

It hadn’t really used Mana, but it had fundamentally changed me, and it had done so sort of like Arcane Mind. 

Ugh this was complicated! I was really going mostly on feelings right now.

“Ah.” She whispered quietly, as if she understood. When even I didn’t. “And the explosion?”

“The internal… Shift, gathers a more… Potent? Version of the Light inside me. I tried to convert Mana into Light and feed it to the spark to see what would happen… It worked, at first, but once I ran out of Mana it destabilized, and exploded.”

“I see…” El'Tela, to my relief, brought her hand up to her chin and seemed to be considering what I was telling her, thinking. She didn’t look angry anymore either, which was nice. 

She went quiet and I stood there nervously…

“I’m sorry about the fountain.”

“Hmm? Oh, that. I hated that thing. My fool Grandson added it in while I was gone. Ugly thing. Water features inside are some new fad from the last millenia.”

“Oh.”

“I am no longer upset. Alah’Dorah.” I jumped a bit at her using my name like that.

“You’re not?”

“I thought you had tried some combat spell inside, which would be very very foolish, and if I ever catch you doing such a thing inside my home, you will not enjoy the repercussions.”

“I wouldn’t! I even practiced Arcane Arrow, and Arcane Bolt outside!”

“I know. Now, this is fascinating and I forgive you for the damage. It was obviously an accident. I suppose you’ve discovered the start to a fine combat spell. Destroying stone like that isn't so easy.”

“No. It’s not a combat ability.” I said instantly, and then realized that my instinctive response was correct. 

What I had done wasn’t correct. I hadn’t gotten a spell or anything after all. But more than that… It didn’t feel right. It was missing something…

“Indeed? What makes you say that?”

“Instinct.” I muttered, as I started tapping my lips with a finger. It wasn’t instinct alone of course. 

I already knew what a Paladin could do, or at least what Human Paladins had developed through the Church of the Light, and exploding with Light wasn’t something anyone did. 

What was the most basic thing a Paladin could do? Besides healing… Seals, and Judgement? How was I supposed to do that? Wish the Light into a seal and bash someone with it?

I looked up slowly. 

While stupid… That wasn’t a bad idea. 

The Sparks of Light I gathered, the golden energy that was running through me, I gathered it into a ball because it just was the easiest thing to do, but…

“I need to test something.” I said without hesitation and El’Tela gave me a long look before pointing. “Not in here.” She said flatly, but she wasn’t pointing back outside, instead towards one of the doors out of the room. The doors I had never gone through. I knew one was her bedroom, but not the others. 

I’d always just practiced spells in her drawing room, but as she slowly got up and walked over I followed her. 

She opened the door and I walked… Into a fairly familiar room. 

“It’s like back at the tower?”

“That’s because I’ve been remaking it. Losing the tower for now has set back what research I still do completely. I need a Mana gathering Glyph to even- Nevermind. It is a safe room, and the Glyph should keep any further accidents from damaging anything.” She explained, as I walked over. The Glyph was new, I could tell just from how the lines glowed. 

“I would have helped, if I had known you were working on this.”

“This is a task I can still do, besides, haven’t you added enough on your plate?” She asked as she wandered over to a chair that floated over to her as she motioned for it. The massive padded thing floated over and barely dipped as she eased herself back into it. 

“Flying chairs?”

“I’m old, enough pointing out the obvious. Let’s see what you’ve come up with this time.”

I nodded and walked to the Glyph and stepped in, the feeling of suddenly having more Mana around me than normal felt sort of familiar, although the amount inside the Glyph was miniscule compared to the old tower. 

“Do you want me to bring in some Mana gems and try to power this up?”

“Stop dawdling… And yes, that might save me some time. That’s for later. Focus girl.” El’Tela demanded and I nodded looking away to hide my smile.

I knelt down, and took a breath, focusing on that liminal space inside me, that could only be felt when you could feel the Mana flowing through you. 

The Gold Sparks were still just as hidden, just as difficult to properly gather. Yet gather them I did. Slowly, trying to focus on that feeling of Prayer, and belief that caused them to manifest, even if so lightly. 

As each appeared I gathered them up, collecting them all together, and slowly I had a small gathering of them. 

This time instead of just holding them in that shape, I mentally reached out, in the same way I had shifted Mana within me, to create the Arcane Mind, I shifted the orb. I wasn’t sure what to do at first. What did a Seal look like? Was that even what I should do? But in the end, I was experimenting. 

The simplest spell that a Paladin learned, the one they started with. Seal of Righteousness. It gave the Paladins swings extra Holy damage. 

But this wasn’t the Arcane. I needed to stop thinking about things with math like precision. 

This was the Light and it would do what I believed it would. I formed the Seal into the symbol of Justice in Quel’Thalas. There wasn’t much crime, but we did have a court system. I’d seen guards carrying shields with the symbol a few times, and it was said those guards and system were very good, each of them took oaths to be moral and good. Almost like a slightly different Knighthood. 

Either way it gave the right idea. 

The Sparks… Mostly looked right. And I wondered what next. 

Staring at the sparks, that I was still holding together with a bit of effort, I had to think. I wasn’t sure what to do, but… It was the Light. I should just apply what I knew, right?

If someone showed me a piece of metal like this and it was falling apart… Well you hammer it until it’s all joined.

I converted Mana into Light Magic, and then when I thought I had enough…

I smashed the power into the Seal.

Ow.

Huh. I was fairly certain I had spoken then, but my ears were ringing again. 

I was once more staring up at the ceiling, from the floor, and I think I exploded again?

El’Tela suddenly appeared leaning over into my sight still in her chair. And her lips moved.

My ears popped.

“Dead? I will be quite disappointed.”

“Not dead.” I said and then groaned as I sat up…

Then I blinked. 

The sparks, the symbol I had pushed them into was still there, inside me.

Floating, and feeling kinda of… Solid? I wasn’t needing to hold it anymore, it was just sort of there, a part of the flow of Mana inside me.

“Hang on.” I whispered pushing up and then moving a bit away from El’Tela… Instinct.

I pushed mana into the symbol.

The rush of Light over me was instant

[Spell Learned: Seal of Righeousness]

Huh… So I’d done it? Somehow? It was… I didn’t need to convert Mana into Light to cast it, instead it had just taken the Mana and done it and oh my god…dess. Elune. Oh my Elune, I may be your stupidest warrior…

“I was converting my Mana into Light.” I whispered to myself, realizing. I had been trying to cast a spell like the Arcane, convert the Mana into Arcane, and then shift the Arcane into the spell formula, and you get a spell.

I’d been overcharging it. That’s why the sparks had exploded…

I didn’t need Light, I just needed Mana…

“And what does this do?” El’Tela asked, but I shook my head for a second, and once more knelt down. Come on. Dorah Focus. Gather a spark, it took a while because I was practically buzzing, whether because I had exploded twice, which I never expected to live through. Or because I was just excited. 

Finally I managed to find a spark inside me, and this time, instead of trying to stick Light into Light, I brought Mana into the spark.

The reaction was instant. The Mana burned, igniting the spark, it grew brighter and larger. It devoured my Mana in a rush, only growing so much despite how much Mana I had pushed into it, but it was enough. 

It had grown, and I know how even more of the Light Sparks to work with. 

“Well that’s a relief.” I whispered, a problem solved, now I just needed to figure out what to do with all this new knowledge. This path that I needed to figure out how to walk. Yet, I’d taken the first step.

I had a little practice and I let the Spark flow into my body. Into my muscles and noticed the change.

For the first time ever I watched as my stat screen jumped numbers. 

[Divine Strength 9/10]

With my Mana charging the spark it had been worth six times what I had managed to collect over long periods of focused prayer. 

“An interesting light show. But do walk me through what you just figured out.”

“I… I think I just figured out a big step.” I replied looking at my hands, the muscles under my flesh still glowing lightly, but it was fading. It felt close. Like just a little more of the light under my skin would once more shift. 

A slow gathering power, unlike the Arcane. This wasn’t knowledge converted to use, it was building a house of power inside me.

Oh Elune, please don’t tell me I was a cultivator now! I don’t like face slapping!

—--

“So yeah. El’Tela hates the fountain, but she still got it fixed, and I don’t practice new magic out in the front area anymore.”

“So you can glow now?”

“Sometimes.” I brought up some mana and poured it into the seal.

The Glyph inside me glowed ringing like a bell, as the light surrounded me. A spell cast through a luminal creation. El’Tela had been very interested in the end on what I had discovered the Light was capable of. 

The Arcane formations like Arcane Mind were still being researched, but to have proof of a spell formula completely separate from direct spell casting had caused her to float around the room looking at books and making notes. 

“Wow Dorah, that’s really awesome.” Kimi said, looking me over this way and that. “So besides making you glow what does it do?”

“Well… I…” I looked around and couldn’t really find anything to hit to show it off, so I looked down. Sorry grass. “I filled myself with Righteousness, Righteous Punch!” I cried out and slammed my fist into the grass.

Instantly light erupted, and all around my fist the grass was damaged. A mix between a weedwacker and a hammer.

“Neat!” Kimi said looking at the spot I had left then looking at me. “So you want to come meet the new kids? You have to meet Elin’Kor, she’s super awesome, like Sav’Kinara except not mean and grumpy.” Kimi whispered the last part grinning, and I couldn’t help but feel amused and a bit annoyed.

Show my friend a new spell, using fundamentally different characteristics to Arcane magic?

Oh that’s neat Dorah, but have you seen these other cool kid?

I mentally pushed away the annoyance. While showing off to Kimi was part of why I was here, it was also just to spend time with her, and away from constantly working.

Dorah needed to play sometimes too.

“Sure, This Elin’Kor, you said she’s new?”

“Yeah! She came from one of the villages just outside the city! Turns out her parents were worried about the Trolls, anyways, she lives a block over in the merchant houses, she’s got a big one, but she comes to spent time with everyone and she has this awesome necklace! Her dad bought it for her, and it’s Mithril!”

“Oh cool.” I whispered, because honestly that was cool. Mithril was cool. I wish I could work with Mithril. What kind of Elf didn’t have Mithril armor? That was like the standard for elves!

Me. This kind of elf. I didn’t have any armor.

Ugh.

I listened to Kimi chatter as I followed along, away from the apartments Kimi now lived in, down the streets deeper into the city away from the front gate. The fact we were going so far was a bit weird, usually the kids that lived in the area hung out in the yards or in the courtyard inside the apartments, but instead we were leaving the area entirely.

Down the road, a left into a side street, then down a ways and a Right into an alley…

An Alley?

The fact the alley was full of kids around our ages was weird. This was weird right? “Elin’Kor! Hi!” Kimi called out, and I shifted to look from around her, seeing the girl probably a little older than Kimi sitting nonchalantly on a stack of crates…

Wait a minute.

“Well now, if it isn’t Kimi’Thas, finally woke up sleepy head?”

“I’ve been up! I had a friend come over! Elin’Kor, meet Alah’Dorah! She’s a little younger than me, but Dorah is great at everything.”

“Well, that’s a compliment. Nice to meet you.” The girl replied with a smile that was just way too fake. 

I looked around. I looked at her.

Ain’t no fucking way that was a ‘merchants’ daughter. 

I knew a Goth rebel teenager, and this wasn’t it. The leathers were fine, and expensive, not something a teenager wears to play around in. The fact she had a dagger on her hip, and a good one at that?

Kimi!? How did you walk into a Thieves den and not notice!? Bird brain!

“Sup.” I replied instead of yelling, and the girl gave me an up and down, for a moment she looked like she was going to dismiss me, her eyes catching on my rabbit cape.

But then she looked at my clothes and her lips peeled. 

“What’s a rich girl doing down in these parts?”

“Meeting my friend from home.” I said back, and shook my head. “I’m not really rich. My parents aren’t really-”

“Right right, so, welcome to the Back Alley, my little kingdom. I’m sure you’ll find a place here, if you have what it takes.” She said smirking, and Kimi jerked up.

“I can show you I have what it takes Elin’Kor! And Dorah is amazing at like everything! She can do stuff like Enchant and-”

“Kimi, you don’t have to overshare.” I cut her off definitely too late.

Ugh.

Now Elin’Kor was looking right at me.

Dammit Kimi! I was going to tell your Mom!