Under the Light of the World at War: Early Chapter 37

Considering I was sleeping next to Mama and Papa, I couldn’t exactly stay up all night trying to make a new spell, so instead I went to sleep like a good elfling.

But the next morning?

I hurried over to El’Tela after checking on everyone the next morning as we got started. Dropping another heal on El’Tela, as her hip was still bothering her, but at least she had more time to get down from the carpet and rest in more comfortable positions.

But then I climbed on board and sat cross legged on the carpet, closing my eyes to the morning sun and letting myself go quiet. 

The problem with making a spell of Light, was that I was actually using it through Holy.

Light was too pure, the same way Arcane was a derivative of Order magic, but no one could use pure order.

I’d been thinking Light, when I should have been thinking Holy.

Which wasn’t as big a deal as you might think. Gods were real, but Holy Magic didn’t really need a God involved. It was more about belief than religion. It was like how Arcane was about mathematics instead of perfect order.

So I closed my eyes, but opened my heart. 

Light was wonderful, a magic that allowed the impossible to be possible. I stopped trying to make the spell like an Arcane spell, and instead simply believed. 

The Light magic I gathered would do what I needed done, because it was Light. Because that was what I needed. Because I believed it would support me.

I spent my Mana, converting it into Holy Light, letting it flow over and around me. Then I pushed my belief into the mana, I know what it can do. I believe it can do it!

The Holy Light flowed away from me, but that was fine. I did it again.

Calm, don’t get frustrated just believe, this will work! This time!

This time it will work!

Then this time it will work!

The repetition wasn’t terrible, I knew I was on the right track.

Elune above though, the Light really didn’t want to work!

No, frustration was bad. That meant I wasn’t believing enough!

“Child. Is the lightshow necessary?”

I opened my eyes, realizing I had been glowing over and over again with Light and El’Tela was looking at me in irritation.

“Yep! I’m figuring it out!”

She looked like she wanted to kick me off her carpet, and I think if it had been any other circumstances she would have sent me away.

“Fine, but do it over there, I’m starting to see spots because of you.” She ordered pointing behind her and I chuckled a little. That was kind of embarrassing.

“Sorry.” 

“Just move and get back to it.” She demanded, and I did just that, crawling down the carpet, until I sat behind her and then I closed my eyes once more, but…

“Grandma… When I cast Resurrection something spoke through me, it helped me… But I don’t know what it was, or who I guess.”

“Hmm.” She grunted out and then to my surprise the Carpet flew a bit higher, then a bit more, high enough we were above the treetops. “Did you call out for a particular God?” She finally spoke and only quietly.

“I… I don’t know… I called out for anyone, but I asked for Elune, and the Light, and… Anything.”

“You… Called out to Elune?” She asked, turning around and looking almost bewildered.

“Yeeeah… Is that wrong?”

“No. Not wrong, just… Why would you-Because I mentioned her right… Do you even know who Elune is? No, of course you don’t. No one worships her anymore… Not since we started worshipping the Arcane.”

“Err.”

“She is the Goddess of the Moon, she was our Goddess. Before we became what we are now. She… I don’t think she listens to us anymore.”

“Someone did.” I said and she looked at me as always, her eyes piercing.

“If you want to know then send her a prayer child, and she will either respond or not.”

I still wasn’t sure if it was her, it could have been the Naaru as well, but… I closed my eyes.

Elune, even if you weren’t the one to help me… Thank you, for watching over us Elves. I hope I’ll be the elf you can be proud of.

My prayers were quiet, and I felt nothing, no change. I opened my eyes, El’Tela was watching me like a hawk.

“What?”

“Considering all I have seen, I expected well, it doesn’t matter..” She said simply. “Perhaps another time we can speak of Elune if you are still interested.”

“That would be great! Elune is a Goddess and there are a lot of monsters that need to be stopped. She’d definitely agree.”

“Perhaps.” The carpet lowered back down, and I returned to where I had been sitting behind El’Tela, and closed my eyes. 

Believe in what the Light can do. Let the power flow, and maybe if someone out there is listening, I could use a helpful push too.

I let the Light flow, trying to believe it would flow into the form I wanted. 

Well next time.

Next time.

Next time!

Grrrr!

—--

I took a break from trying to make a new Light spell, it wasn’t working very well. “Hey Kimi, what are you doing?” I asked, after once more checking up and down the convoy. I was starting to feel anxious if I wasn’t checking on everyone, hopefully something that will go away when we stop.

“Flowers.” Kimi responded with, and yes that was fairly obvious. She’d picked dozens of flowers at some point and was now basically covered in them, as she slowly weaved them together. Her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth as she worked. She was concentrating super hard!

It was cute.

I settled in to watch as it was a nice distraction and then finally she seemed satisfied as she lifted the crown of flower in the air and then dropped them onto her head.

“What do you think?”

“Super cute!”

“Do you think so? Do you… Do you think Cal will notice?” She asked almost bashfully and I instantly felt myself puff up in annoyance.

Will love bloom on the battlefield? Probably not, but Kimi’s crush was still going strong.

“What?” She asked, noticing my look.

“Nothing. Cal is just busy so he probably won’t notice.” Young Ranger that he was, he was still working hard while we traveled hunting food, and keeping an eye on things. Despite being through the Elf Gate no one felt entirely safe.

Kimi was pouting at my words, so I decided I had to cheer her up.

“But I bet we can find some more flowers to add to it, that’ll make you unmissable.”

“You think so!?”

“Sure.” I agreed and we both jumped off the cart running around giggling as we found more flowers to pick. It was a relief to just have some fun with something so simple.

“I think we picked too many.” I said looking over the pile of red, white, and pink flowers.

“Nope! Just enough.” Kimi said giggling and then she started weaving more flowers together, but not into her own flower crown. Her little grin like she was playing a trick on me told it all.

“I don’t need a flower crown, Kimi. I’m not trying to get Cal’s attention.”

“That’s fine! Princess Dorah gets a crown anyways!” Kimi said smiling, as she continued to put the flowers together. “It’s what I can do to say thank you.”

“Thank me?”

“For saving everyone!” She said and I blinked a little taken aback. “You were so amazing, always running around getting everyone to keep moving, and healing and taking care of everyone… I wish I could be like that. I was too scared, all I could do was hide and play games.”

“I like games.” I said interrupting as she was getting down on herself. “It was nice to come sit in the cart with you and play a game or something. Be normal. I needed that, so don’t feel bad.”

She glanced up at me, her eyes telling me she didn’t really believe me but a moment later a pretty flower crown was dropped on my head. “That’s all I can do so far to say thank you, so thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” I whispered back, blushing a little at Kimi’s heartfelt words. 

—--

The moon was up, and I was bored. Mama was gathering some stuff to finish her meal, Papa was a bit distracted by some of the Trolls' Axes.

Some of them were enchanted. 

Not just magic from the materials but actually enchanted as well.

I hadn’t even known the Trolls had enchanting!

Either way, he was looking over them and I was left alone by the fire where Mama was cooking a stew tonight and…

I closed my eyes

Bringing up the Holy Light, I once more tried to shift it into what I wanted. 

I knew it was possible. It wasn’t even something I thought might be possible, I knew. I believed it completely! And yet, the magic just wasn’t flowing into the spell. There was a disconnect I wasn’t sure how to overcome.

Groaning I flopped backwards, staring up into the sky, the moon hung over us, peering down at me through the tree tops.

“Elune, if you are listening or watching, or anything, I could use some help. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, but I need to figure this out. If I get stuck here, then I’ll never be able to protect everyone.” I whispered out, a prayer of sorts as I closed my eyes, feeling the moonlight on my eyelids. 

As I gathered the Light. I prayed.

Elune guide me. 

Because at this point I was beyond frustrated with a day of nothing. Praying to whatever God would hear me was where I was at. Not exactly a strong belief if I was doing that.

The Holy Light swirled around me, I shifted it, deciding to just give it all. I drained more and more of my mana into the Light, just work! I know you can do this! Give me the spell I want!

No, the spell I need!

The fact I needed all of them was a minor quibble. 

Then… The Light flowed away, but unlike before, the additional Light I had created that I’d burned a majority of my Mana to form, shifted, compressed a bit more by the light around it? Or… No it wasn’t flowing, and I just didn’t know why. A part of the Light around me wasn't flowing. I reached out, and gripped it mentally, forcing the magic still and then it sparked.

I opened my eyes, as a symbol appeared above me, it felt like the spell had barely worked, and if not for what happened a moment later I wasn’t sure I would have even known how to properly hold the Light to be able to cast it again, but once was enough.

[Spell Learned: Blessing of Wisdom]

I sat up, grass and flowers fluttering around me as I’d been half laying on the flower crown. That!

That wasn’t me. I hadn’t done anything to stop my magic from flowing around me, but something had! And in doing so, it had shown me how to grip the light  around me… The light wasn’t Arcane, it shouldn’t flow. Arcane was like water. Flowing through the forms and structure to power the spell, but Light was like…

Force. You stopped the Light from moving, with your will and belief, and that was the way Light Spells were formed.

Holy Light was technically the same way, but I’d never properly conceptualized it like that.

I had to take the Light, while I had to form the Arcane.

“That was nice. What spell was that?”

“Wha?” I looked up to see Papa glancing at me. “Oh… I finally figured it out! Blessing of Wisdom.”

“Oh what does it do?”

“It draws in Mana constantly, even when I’m casting spells… It’ll let me keep casting even longer if I need to.”

“Sounds very useful.” He said and I felt myself grin as I had finally done it! I’d finally learned a new Light spell that was going to totally break everything! Paladin spells! Whoooo!

“I wonder if it does that glow every time. I wonder if I can make an enchantment to mimic it. The light really went well with those white flowers. ” Papa asked and I just shrugged.

“I don't know what color was the sigil that appeared, I couldn’t really see it.”

“No, I meant the silver light that appeared.”

I blinked. What Silver Light?

I hesitated but slowly tilted my head up. I’d been praying to Elune first before trying the Naaru or whatever else, but…

“Thank you?”

Had she been listening, was she the one that had helped me?

“Food! I got the bread! I knew that Liennar was holding out!” Mama said happily as she called out jolting me and making me focus on her. “Who's hungry?”

“Me!” I called out, because I was. Elune questions could wait.

—--

“I got it!” I told El’Tela the next morning as I hopped up onto her carpet without even waiting. I'd been wanting to show this to her all night!

She was going to lose her shit!

She gave me a disgruntled look as I leapt on without a word, sending the carpet rocking lightly. 

“Got what Child? And I’m aware you are without manners, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.”

“No time for manners! I got a new spell, and you’ll love this one! I was inspired by you!”

“Inspired by me were you?” She asked sardonically. “Well, let’s see it, if you zap me with Lightning I’ll be displeased.”

“What? Oh yeah your lightning spell was so cool! But it’s not that. It’s my first Light Spell I came up with on my own. Holy Light and Resurrection don’t count… Even if I think Elune helped me figure it out last night.” I whispered, and her eyebrows rose twitching a bit as they were long.

“Oh?”

“Well I was stuck so I tried praying, and then tried a bunch and Papa mentioned I was glowing with silver Light, which isn’t normal, the Holy Light I use is more gold, although now I’m super curious if I can convert my Light spells to Moonlight? That’d be cool too.”

Silver was totally better than gold.

“Focus.” El’Tela said, snapping me out of my idea. “Elune… Helped you?”

“I think so? At the very least I’m sure enough that I’m convinced.”

“That’s… Unusual. We didn’t bring any priestesses with us. I’ve never heard of her reaching out to anyone.”

“Well I think she helped me out and maybe helped out before with the Resurrection. So yeah.” 

“You cause too much trouble.” She finally said and I blinked at her grumpy snark. “All I asked for was a peaceful few final centuries, and yet look at me. I never thought I’d end up in this position again. Watching my people travel to avoid dangers… Well if there is any reason for me to live it’s to see what comes next. Go on. Tell me about this spell that I inspired.”

“It’s called Blessing of Wisdom!” I told her, not bothering to hide the name. Then I grinned evilly. “It increases your mana regeneration… Even while Casting.” I explained and then kept grinning as she looked at me, her eyes narrowing in irritation.

“I don’t know whether I should praise you or throw you off my carpet.”

“I like praise!”

“Then show me the spell.” She grumbled, and I did just that. Sitting back I cast the spell once more, it came easily to me, I didn’t even have to think about it since I had unlocked the spell.

And the sigil of the Blessing appeared above her head a moment later, and El’Tela breathed out, seemingly testing her regeneration.

“It doesn’t interfere with Arcane Meditation.”

“Nope! Should work completely in tune with it and Mage Armor.” I continued to grin as she tested out the limits of the Blessing before finally she nodded.

“Write it down.”

I slumped, writing down Light spells was different and hard though! She pulled out a piece of paper from her hip pouch, and I took it and sighed, as I got to work with a charcoal pen she gave me.

—--

“Another Gate.” I whispered seeing it come up in the distance, and El’Tela humphed. 

“About time. We’re getting closer to Silvermoon, only another day or so out, depending on how quickly this lot moves.”

“You could probably go ahead couldn’t you? You don’t have to follow along with us.” I reminded her and she sent me a look like I was being stupid and then just ignored what I had said.

“Don’t you have a spell to work on?”

“Actually I’m trying to make another one now.” Unlocked Blessing of Wisdom was amazing, but it was a long term grind, nothing I needed to focus entirely on now, there were a lot of Light spells after all, and even unlocking a few of them would make a drastic difference.

“Well, do that then.” She grumped at me.

I shrugged sitting on her flying carpet as we slowly came closer and closer to the second Elf Gate. I did just that. Closing my eyes and gathering more Light. I wasn’t entirely sure at first what spell I should aim for, it could take days or more to get it, or it could be nearly impossible, depending on how hard it was without literal divine intervention.

So I just gathered the Light, and did what I tried last time. More and more Mana was converting, but it hardly even mattered, as my Mana was restoring fairly quickly thanks to all the benefits I had towards it.

Released the magic, Light flowing around me, and just as Elune had revealed, I grabbed onto that magic stopping it cold.

You will become a spell. My demand ran through the magic I was mentally gripping and then the light shifted as if heeding my call, which was amazing, and then…

Too many options, and instead of finding what I wanted it all just flowed away.

I blinked open my eyes as I realized that if I wanted to learn a specific spell I would have to be more specific. We were passing through the second gate, and I watched as many many guards were here. Actually armored guards, along with Rangers manning the area. 

As we passed through Mama, and Liennar split off to talk to the Rangers, and I noticed there appeared to be an actual army gathered behind the gate. The armored elves were camped in groups, and the forest quickly hid just how many of them there were.

“Hmph. The Brat is putting together an army.” El’Tela spoke as she looked over everyone.

“That seems fast. They all have armor and weapons.’

“Of course they do. Many households have armor and weapons ready in case of something going wrong. Most of those brats are wearing their grandparents' equipment.”

“Oh.” 

“I suppose it’s the sort of knowledge you wouldn’t have, living your entire life in our little village distant from everything.”

“Yeah, and now we’re going to Silvermoon.”

“It’ll be your first time. That’s right. Have no fear, child. The stories of what happened to your father are not the norm.” She spoke, surprisingly trying to comfort me, but that was never really the problem. I just didn’t want to get stuck dealing with snooty jerks all day.

Oh well, I’d rather deal with that, than the Trolls.

Eventually we all just passed by, ignoring the army gathering up. It wasn’t our business, but it did leave everyone in the convoy perking up. It was one thing to see the gates and the guards, but another to know that your country was going to stop the bad guys from trying to hurt you anymore.

I just feared it wouldn’t be enough.

That feeling urged me on and I closed my eyes once more. Try to get some spells.

—--

“So that’s… Silvermoon.” I whispered, staring at the massive walls and almost golden buildings that made up the city. It was something utterly unique, nothing like it back on earth. The buildings floated. Many of them had designs that were completely impossible if not for magic holding things up. Floating towers, buildings connected to another above it by a set of stairs and nothing else.

It was what happened when you put thousands of mages together over the course of millenia and let them build as they liked.

Or maybe not considering all the buildings had a similar style, so I guess it was managed at least somewhat.

“We’ll split up once we enter inside… Eastern Outpost 4, and Windhome may be lost to us for now, but we will see it again. Until then please settle yourself comfortable, find work, and continue living. Do not look forever behind you, but what is in front of you now.” Ma’Rika spoke, having climbed onto one of the carts and talked to the gathered villagers. 

“W-where do we go!?” A voice in the crowd shouted out, and Ma’Rika raised her hands.

“If you have no family in Silvermoon to take you in, then do not fear. Stay with the convoy while we get settled and housing will be opened to you until this Troll threat is dealt with. The Magisters of Silvermoon will not abandon you. I will be speaking with a member of the Convocation within the next few days. Be at peace, all will be handled!” 

Ma’Rika was really good at sounding comforting. But she was reliable, it wasn’t just a show, so hopefully she would handle everything. 

“Come one Dorah, we’re going.” Mama said, and to my surprise and definite delight. She handed me Chocobo’s reins. I stroked her beak until she nipped lightly at my fingers, already begging for food.

“So we have a place to stay?” I asked, and Mama looked at me in confusion before smiling and patting my head. 

“Of course we do. El’Tela has already demanded we stick to her. We’ll be staying well with your fathers family.”

“Awkward.”

“Oh it’s going to be very awkward, yes, but El’Tela demanded it, and it’ll be best. It’ll be in the good part of the city.”

“There are bad parts?”