Under the Light of the World at War: Early chapter 25

“She said she was sending it to the Hall of Theory?” Papa asked, and I nodded. I was kicking my legs a little as I sat beside him. 

“Yeah, she was taking it really seriously.”

“It sounds serious. The Hall of Theory is where Magisters check spellcraft.”

“Makes sense.” I muttered kicking my feet, then shrugged. “I don’t really care.” I decided and he looked at me confused. 

“Why not?”

“I don’t need a bunch of old people to tell me if my spell is good or not. I’m gonna use it.” I explained and he nodded slowly. 

“Is it safe?”

“Huh? Yeah, it’s just mana suction, we all do it naturally, this just does it really fast.”

“Interesting. I wonder if you could apply it to enchantment?” I just grinned at Papa’s question, and shrugged. 

“I don’t know. Want me to write it down?”

“Hmm. You can’t really just use a spell to make an enchantment, the mana flow is different, they don’t work the same at all.” He explained and I nodded. 

“Okay, well, that’s what happened.”

“Sounds like you had a complicated morning.”

“Yeah.”

“Well… I do have something.” Papa said, suddenly perking up and looking away from the work he had been tinkering with, he rose up and crossed the room picking up a box on a table and then coming back. He was smiling lightly as he opened it up, and inside were five things.

Four golden red crystal shards, and the fifth in a bottle was sand that seemed to be burning.

“Papa!” I gasped looking at what he had. “Where did you even get these? Oh my gosh! Thank you!”

“I know some reagent vendors. It wasn’t hard. A bit of work, and they happily handed these over. So, want to enchant your sword?”

“Yes!” I said firmly, and he smiled happily, a totally awesome dad moment!

I pulled it off my hip and set it on the table, and he adjusted it to his liking taking the four reagents and then he smiled

“Want to help?”

“Yes!” I agreed instantly. He waved me over and I stood in front of the table with him behind me, his long arms, pointing everything out as he whispered in my ear what he was doing, he had me grab reagents from the box, using the Small Radiant Shards, and helping to break them down to make up the enchantments energy processing.

All the while I just had a big grin on my face. A flaming sword was an adventurer's romance after all!

—---

“I had better not come home to our home burned down.” Mama called out suddenly and I stilled. I was in the back yard swinging around my new fire coated sword, and I hadn’t seen her.

“Mama! I won’t burn anything down!... Unless I mean to!”

“That’s less re-assuring than you think, Dorah.” Mama called out, but she was laughing. 

“Come see! Papa did it!”

“Yes I expected he did.” Mama said as she walked down and across the yard and I offered her the sword hilt first.

She hesitated for a moment, the flames licking up, but none touched me, and she took it and made some space.

“Huh, I’ve seen the enchantment before, but never had one.”

“It’s a fire sword!” I said, and Mama sent me one of her patented, ‘my daughter is cute’ looks, but I was unbothered!

Fire Sword!

An adventurer's romance!

The only thing better could be a full Adventuring Guild where I walk in and take a quest for a quest board!

Mama focused back on the blade and swung it around a bit. She knew what she was doing, but it was all very straight motions. 

“You don’t use a sword much huh?”

“I prefer my bow, but I know how to use a sword.”

“Yeah.” I agreed, but only in straight forward maneuvers, more like a soldier than a warrior. “Want to practice with me? We could get some sticks.”

“Heh. How about you go grab your bow, and we do that. I know you haven’t been using it.”

“Yeeeeah. That’s true.” I said, trying my best not to sigh. I just didn’t really like archery! “Okay! But if I win, you have to come sword fight with me!”

“Oh do I? Alright, if you can win.”

“Heehee!”

I took back my sword, as Mama handed it over and I raced back inside to get the bow. A little bow training with Mama was fine. Besides, even if I lost she’d probably do some stick fights, Mama was cool like that.

—--

“Again.”

I looked over at El’Tela with a grumpy look but nodded. 

“Fine.” I raised my arms, and activated the Mana. “Evocation.” Mana flowed, mana electricity formed around my hands as they acted as additional locations to gather energy.

Everything had been good until I leveled up Evocation and showed El’Tela the improved version.

[Evocation Lv 2 16/20] It was only one level!

But she had hyperfocused on the changes I had already made.

“And?”

“Nothing firm yet.” I commented, idly, more dry than anything. I liked grinding up my spells obviously but El’Tela was obsessed, and it was a bit uncomfortable.

She was still going over the two pieces of paper. Comparing level one evocation to level two. 

I know she was going to freak when I hit level three! Ugh.

I shook it off whatever, nothing I could do, just keep grinding, and improving. Then suddenly a noise I’d never heard echoed through the room, sounding almost like an alarm!

“What? What’s going on?” I asked looking around and nearly rushing to the windows, was it a Troll alarm!?

“Just the knocker informing me I have a visitor… We went late, I had a meeting with Ma’Rika to discuss something…” El’Tela sighed, obviously not wanting to leave…

But we had been practicing all morning, although most of it was El’Tela making me write out everything about Evocation and explain the changes, when I leveled, and all that.

Guess it was time to go home. We both headed down, once again I took the stairs as she took her elevator rug, and we reached the bottom floor at about the same time.

She walked me to the door and opened it, and there was Ma’Rika. 

“Magistrix.” She greeted El’tela with a kind of bow, and then seemed surprised to see me. “Dorah?”

“Hi Ma’Rika! I’m leaving!”

“Of course.” She said as I walked past.

“If you make any breakthroughs-” El’Tela started to call, but I was already running.

“Make sure I write them down! I will!” I promised, yelling back. Freedom! That had been a less than fun session, maybe I’ll go fishing with Kimi?

Anything was better than being told to repeatedly do the same thing over and over… Wait, that didn’t sound right.

I went home first, we had stayed a bit long with El’Tela and I wanted something to snack on.

“There you are.” Mama called out as I rushed in, I peeked my head into the living room where she currently had her gear spread out across a table as she sat in front of it and cleaned it. 

“Mama! Hi! Yeah El’Tela was super strict today.”

“Hmm, well how about we do something today?” She asked, and I stopped my rush towards the kitchen and turned around and rushed over.

“What?” I asked running to the other side of the table and leaning down so I was just peeking over it. Was today a Mama day?

“Well, I had fun practicing with you yesterday, and I was going to go out to hunt a deer. There is a herd moving through that’s a bit too big. It needs to be culled down. So-”

“Sounds fun!” I agreed. Plus Xp! “I’ll get my stuff!”

“Don’t run in the house!” I ignored such an instruction laughing as I ran up the stairs on all fours just to get up faster!

I slipped into my room, gathering up my camping gear, the heavier leathers, my magical stuff I already wore routinely, but I grabbed my backpack, and my bow and quiver. Then I jumped back down the stairs earning an unimpressed look from Mama but she looked me over eyes narrowing as she checked my gear.

“Supplies?”

“Haven’t been issued to me yet Ma’am!” I responded with my Ranger salute that I knew Mama loved, and her stern look shifted into a smile she couldn’t hide. 

“I guess we better get those issued then, come on.”

—--

I breathed in, then released slowly as I let go of the string.

The arrow whistled as it thunked into the rabbit sending it spiraling.

A good hit.

I breathed out.

“Excellent shot.” Mama said she had let me shoot first, but her bow was up and ready in case she needed to take the shot and secure our lunch. We’d been traveling the rest of the night and it was now the next day, the sun was out, the woodlands were mild and everything was wonderful.

“Tsk. That’s bad luck.” Mama said as she had headed over and grabbed the rabbit but showed the broken arrow. Ugh. It had hit a rock or something.

“Dang.”

“It happens. You remember how to make them?”

“Yeah, I’ll strip the arrow head and fletching and make a new one.” I offered and she grinned quite proud.

“Stupid arrows. Breaking all the time.”

“It’s just part of the process.”

“I know. Still dumb. Should just make enchanted arrows that don’t break.”

“They do sometimes, but they still will get lost or damaged. Even a much stronger arrow isn’t unbreakable.”

“Yeah I guess.” I could just shoot magic though. I didn’t say that of course. Mama and I were bonding, and we took the rabbit along with us. Mama drained it with casual ease. When we stopped for lunch we would cook up whatever we had caught.

—--

“Did you find it?”

“No.” I grumbled, I’d shot an arrow and it had landed in a river when the stupid bird had dodged it.

It had definitely dodged! I hadn’t just missed!

So Mama had told me to dive in and see if I could find it.

Spitting out the water I climbed out grumbling. I only had ten arrows to start with!

Whatever. It was fine. I’ll just be more careful.

—--

“Ow.”

“You okay?”

“Only my butt.” I groaned as I sat up. We’d been tracking the deer and all had been good, but some mossy ground had slipped out from under me.

And now I was down in a crevice and my ass hurt.

Grumbling at my mistake I made to sit up and hear it.

Crunch

I looked down… “Oh come oooon!”  I whined, because my quiver had shifted when I fell and I’d just snapped a bunch of my arrows!

“Dorah!?”

“I broke my arrows! Dangit!” I groaned as I sighed. Taking control of myself. I cast Holy Light to make my ass stop hurting, and then gathered up what I could. Was the gods of Azeroth pissed at me!? Was this divine punishment? Was I not allowed to have arrows?

“Here grab on.” Mama offered a hand, and I grabbed her hand and she hauled me easily back out of the crevice.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” She asked, checking me over.

“I’m fine. Only my ego, and my quiver I guess.” I mumbled checking my stack. Two. I had two non-broken arrows.

“Looks like we’ll need to stop early so you can fletch new arrows.”

“Yeeeeah.” I groaned. I didn’t want to fletch arroooooows!

Whatever. I would do what I needed. I never had leveled up the skill very much, so it’s fine. I’ll just… Make some more.

—--

“You’re doing good.”

“It’s fine Mama. Just an annoying task I guess.” I stuck the stick into the fire a bit to harden it. It was… Mostly straight. It was a good skill to have. Arrows were useful. You might need to make more quickly in the future.

It was fine. Everything was fine.

“Here, My Light, take a break and have some rabbit.” Mama offered, the bowl of stew and Rabbit meat was very tempting, and I happily stopped struggling trying to make straight arrows to eat.

As I did I stared into the fire.

Arrows. Arrows. I was not having fun making arrows. My Fletching skill was a godsend, because it gave me some muscle memory of how to do it, but it was still a chore, and not one I really expected to get much out of. Creating new arrows was not a thrilling affair, and it probably wouldn’t give me much in stats or skills.

Fancy arrows weren’t that common, the upgrade was usually Arcane arrows.

Arcane arrows…

I mean, it was a nice merging of my interests. Doing things with Mama, and learning magic. I could probably figure it out, and it would certainly be better than just the crappy arrows I could make…

I quickly finished my food, and got back to work. It was definitely possible. I had Mana Bolt. Sure it wasn’t that refined as a spell, El’Tela hadn’t really given  me a lot of time to test it, and I’d only hammered it at first before eventually getting distracted. A bad habit of mine.

But, the spell was there. Turn Mana into an attack, the only difference would be… Casting speed, it needed to be fast, much faster, and firm enough I could cast it through a bow… That’s more difficult. 

Wait… Why even make Arcane arrows if you were just making a spell attack anyways, there had to be some benefit.

“Mama?”

“Yes?” She looked up from her own meal.

“Do you… Why do Rangers use Arcane Arrows? If they can cast the spell, wouldn’t it just be better to just… Cast the spell instead of using a bow?”

“Oh, I’m not sure I can really answer that Dorah. I never learned that spell… Hold on. Let’s see.” She closed her eyes as if remembering. “My father tried to have me tutored to use them once. I wasn't able to pick it up at the time. Honestly it was a bit too early for me, but Talanas said… Arcane Arrows weren’t a mages weapon, but an Archers… Something about not needing to aim the spell, so it made it cheap enough for Rangers to use?”

I blinked thinking it over. Right… Right. I was thinking of things from my perspective, if using a spell, why not just make the best spell you could, but not everyone was a Mage.

Sometimes you just needed more arrows, and burning Mana for arrows was a positive. 

It would have to be cheaper than a Mana Bolt as well, but you need to make it physical to act with the strings… But you could take out the control aspect? If you are just shooting it with a bow… The force of the Bolt could be removed as well…

I started thinking through it, as I worked, forming arrows with my hands, while my mind tried to form the spell.

Mana bolt, but without the power, the control, but faster, slimmer.

Possible… wait, the edge, the Mana Bolt edge was already physical enough to cut and tear, so obviously you could just make the whole bolt out of that same part of the spell… The structure would be locked in…

“Alright Dorah, get some sleep okay?”

“Yes Mama.” I whispered as I put the arrows I had made to the side and crawled onto my little sleeping mat.

Now I just needed to alter the firing mechanism-

—---

“Dorah, it’s late, go to sleep.”

“Oh right… Yeah sorry.” I looked away from the dirt drawing I’d been making as I went back to my bedroll…. Maybe just one more-”

“Dorah. Go to sleep.”

“Yes!”

—---

“Okay so just…” I pulled back on my bowstring, letting the mana flow through my fingers, the spell structure should do the rest, I am casting the spell… I am casting the spell…

I am casting the spell!

“Not working.” I grumbled. I wasn’t casting the spell the normal way, It was a very different sort of ability to cast a spell without really casting it. More like… Rote repetition becomes a sort of pseudo spell through yourself.

That made it fairly hard.

I brought the string back, pushed the mana to my fingers, form it into Arcane, and as I pulled back, actualized the effect, the spell should form and…

Nothing.

My fingers were glowing, but that was it. I sighed and looked around our camp. We had stopped for a break, Mama was using the bathroom, and I was practicing when I had some time. Come on, just… Stop thinking of it like a spell. 

It’s not a spell, it’s more like a skill, shift the mana, let the form flow as you move.

Nothing.

“Dorah, ready to go?”

“Yeah!” I would keep trying.

—--

“Everything okay?”

“The deer are running, and they have been traveling hard. Something is wrong.” Mama said finally as we stopped to look over the tracks. We were easily a day further out than we intended and Mama had been growing a bit concerned at why the deer were traveling so far.

“Trolls?” I whispered, and Mama sent me a look.

“Not unless Trolls started becoming Wolves.” Mama said, pushing aside some fallen leaves and showing a dog print in the mud.

“So a wolf is hunting them?”

“More than one, there is always more than one wolf, but… Come on, we might need to do some wolf culling as well.” 

“Okay.” I rose up and Mama moved forward, the two of us moving through the forest rather quickly. But our pace couldn’t last and eventually we slowed for a break. Or rather I slowed, and Mama called a break.

“I can keep going.” I panted, but Mama shook her head. 

“It’s fine Dorah, catch your breath and drink.”

“Right… Right.” I did just that, crossing my legs and settling in as I looked at my bow.

While we both rested I grabbed my bow and aimed at a tree, and pulled the string back.

Then again.

And again.

I breathed in, and out. Just let the mana flow.

Then push it to my fingers, form the attack and release.

I did so, and the Arcane around my fingers just flowed around, not solid enough. Like trying to shoot a cloud.

Harder. Literally. Come on Dorah, you know how to do this, it’s not a spell, so it’s not the same, but you know how to form something out of Arcane. You cast Mana Bolt like a million times.

I pulled back the string, Mana flowing.

Nothing.

And again.

Nothing.

I could feel my temper snapping.

I pushed all my mana into my hand and grabbed the string pulling back I released. It pewed out, and I just sighed. 

Nothing but gas, what was I missing?

I sighed, bringing the bow to my forehead, pushing both my hands together, mana still flowing through my right hand… No, don’t give up.

I sat up, let the mana flow and brought my hand back to grab the string.

And for a moment…

Oh.

I’m stupid.

An Archer doesn’t just use one hand. If I couldn’t cast the spell with one hand, what about with two? My other hand could form part of the spell! 

I shifted my thinking, and this time pointed out my index fingers on my left hand pushing mana out, forming and when I pulled back.

Blue light sparked, it stuttered not quite, but I let go.

The noise wasn’t the same as an arrow, it was sharper. And the blurry construct fell apart as it hit a tree, not quite cutting but making a blunt noise as the mana dispersed.

[Spell Learned: Arcane Arrow]

Finally!

“Dorah!? What was that!?”

“Heehee!”