Mage's journey 6

Fortunately, Tanya wasn’t really at liberty to travel, generally. She was still a child, and even in this time, that meant she had some level of constant supervision. Could she slip away unnoticed if she wanted? Absolutely. But it required active deception on her part. 

Knossus’ phantom occasionally spied on her. She couldn’t be sure how often, but Tanya noticed the thing five times a week. 

Well, she supposed it could be some other phantom summoning dark mage, but Tanya assumed that they were sent by the not-so-enigmatic, overweight, otaku-like mage. It was a good thing that Tanya had neglected to mention her contact to anyone, or else the phantom would likely have tried to gut her. 

Her experiments with staff modification progressed slowly, her new formulation proving to be, while not completely ineffective, still very anemic against the bonewalker monsters, and it was less effective against more ordinary targets as well: it looked to be a failure. 

In her other experimental projects, she had successfully caused a small explosion with her modified torch staff. The problem, of course, was that it was far too weak: it was basically a firecracker, a useless waste of resources. The good news was that the materials she used were rather substandard; if she could figure out a way to make something a bit more impressive, she could maybe convince Mennehl to provide her with some combustibles with a bit more kick to them, like proper whale oil instead of the crappy plant oil she used currently, harvested from an unfortunately pungent olive-like local berry that, while the resulting oil was flammable, also carried the scent of rotting corpses. It wasn’t a particularly strong scent, but it was distinctive, and thus no one used the stuff for lamps. The fact that the oil was also one of the lowest quality fuels in terms of brightness and heat just made it even more useless. But that meant no one complained when she claimed it, only when she refined the stuff. The good news was that it washed off relatively easily. 

It did give her the idea of maybe concentrating that scent as some kind of repellant or chemical weapon to induce nausea, but she didn’t really understand the principles of staff alchemy enough yet to make completely original creations, she could only tinker with the formulas she was learning. 

It was quite unfortunate, then, when Mennehl explicitly left her to herself halfway through the day, right after lunch, that it was also a day where she noticed a phantom watching her. She didn’t really understand enough about phantoms to know, for example, whether or not they were intelligent enough to understand what was going on, or whether or not the summoner could see through their eyes, or any number of other things that could lead to the dark mage becoming her enemy in truth. 

So she walked towards the phantom, which backed up until she reached a place just outside the view of most people, when it revealed itself. “Well? Lead the way.” She said, gesturing in the vague direction of Knossus’ cave. 

However useful the phantom was, it was enough that it followed her instruction. She had brought her weapons, but unfortunately she doubted that the phantom, even with its notorious fragility, was something she could effectively combat. 

It was time to learn a little bit about dark magic. 

----------------------------

“You sure took your time.” was Knossus’ first words to her. 

“I can’t just vanish!” Tanya protested, automatically shifting into the more emotional tones she used when dealing with Mennehl and thus needed to act childishly. “I need to be back at the orphanage by sunset, and that assumes you have food.”

“You’re a spoiled little brat, aren’t you?” Knossus snarked. 

Tanya stared at the dark mage. “...I’m a growing girl.” She said bluntly, “I need food. More importantly, I am a guest. Feeding one’s guests is the bare minimum expected of a host.”

“I already ate.” Knossus grumbled. 

“So did I.” Tanya said, “But I also just walked four miles. I’m thirsty, and you haven’t offered me a beverage, either.” She glared at him, using the full extent of her officer’s training. 

Knosses flinched back first. “I’ll make some tea.” He said, grumbling. Apparently he had some of the nicer leaves that could be harvested locally, pre-scorched and dried before steeping. 

Once Tanya’s throat was wet, she unslung the second poison staff. “This one was a failure.” She said idly, “It ended up less effective than the last.”

The Dark mage examined it, his lips moving as he muttered notes to himself. “This really is just… you messing up a healing staff on purpose.” He concluded, looking disappointed. 

“I’m nine, what did you expect?” Tanya said, “That’s what experimenting means: you try things, and see what happens.”

“But this Yesod rune’s ruining it.” Knossus said, pointing it out. “See how the wood’s more rotted than the runes next to it? That shows that this is where the alchemical intent is getting confused.”

Tanya’s eyes widened. Of course! It’s like a circuit with unexpected resistance! “So… I should remove it?”

“God no.” He said immediately. “That sounds like a good way to poison yourself. You should replace it with a better one.”

A grin found its way onto Tanya’s face, which she hid by sipping at her tea again. “I only know three staff formulas.” She admitted, “I don’t know what does what, Mennehl’s teaching me dragontongue, not divine script.” If she had accepted training to become a priestess, she’d have learned that eventually. 

“A clear oversight.” Knossus grumbled. “Waste of potential, is what it is. You can make staves using dragontongue, you know.”

Wait, you can? “Mennehl said-” Tanya said carefully. 

“Mennehl’s a skirt-chasing meathead!” Knossus said spitefully. “He learns one way to do things and thinks it’s good enough. All he cares about is money and women. He thinks the pursuit of greater mysteries is a waste of time!” 

That wouldn’t be Tanya’s assessment of her Master’s character flaws, particularly as there was nothing wrong about focusing on what was important in life rather than focusing entirely on science, on an individual level at least. She knew that well; just because she aimed a bit higher than most didn’t mean her ambition was limitless, like some people she knew. Like that damned Schugel… 

Still, it wouldn’t do to contradict the dark mage; he possessed most of the power in this exchange. “I asked him to teach me…” She said with a rueful tone, huffing. “I have to gather the ingredients for my experiments…” This was only technically true. Mennehl did budget some staff materials for her to ‘ruin’ with her experiments, so she only had to gather the parts that constituted the actual experiments; the poisons and flammables. 

Still, even this minor injustice seemed to endear her to Knossos. “Exactly!” He crowed, “Rote memorization is a waste of time! It’s greedy, sabotaging you so he can profit off of your labor sooner!” Yes, that’s exactly it. If Mennehl hadn’t taken the approach he did, she’d have been screwed if he ended up getting himself killed by monsters while on patrol with his wife. With the focus being more on making money, she could in theory sustain herself right now as an apothecary; albeit a limited one. It was far more useful than theory, which can always come later once starvation is no longer a concern. “I can teach you so much more…”

“You can?” Tanya asked, faking more enthusiasm than she felt. “Like what?”

“...What do you know about elder magic?” Knossus asked after a moment of thought. 

Tanya had anticipated this question, so she had brushed up on the subject. “Elder magic, sometimes called dark magic, is the art of contracting dark entities from beyond this world, drawing on their power. It is called Elder Magic because these entities are older than elemental spirits.”

“Older than God, too.” Knossus corrected, “Some say that God used to be one of those elder entities, using an old name: Ein Sof, the Infinite Light. His influence now overwhelms that of his kind, which means their powers can only flourish in the darkness, away from his light.”

Hm. “That seems more like a story.” Tanya said, “Instead of something that actually happened.”

Knossus grinned. “You’re skeptical. Good, hold on to that. Trusting everything you hear without verifying it is the first step to being a mere sheep, following the teachings of the church and laying down for slaughter when the nobility demands it.”

While worded in an extreme way, Tanya couldn’t fault the sentiment. Skepticism was an important thing to have. “So how does it work?” She asked. It couldn’t hurt to know. 

“You need to learn Maiororatio.” He said, “Condemned by the church as demontongue. It’s the language the ancient gods use to communicate with us mere mortals.”

Ugh, another magical language? “Can you make staves with it?” She asked. 

“In theory.” Knossus admitted, “I’ve never tried it, though. Perhaps we could discover that together…” He chuckled darkly. “How exciting!”

“Is there anything else required?” Tanya asked, “I’ve heard the basic dark magic spell is called ‘Flux’, how do you make that? What entity does it contact?”

Knossus preened under Tanya’s questions. “It is the basic magic because it does not contact an entity.” He revealed gleefully. “Instead, flux is taking the basics of dark magic and applying it to create a small area of distorted space. With those same principles, other spells reach out to the realm of an elder god, and the deal is made. If you instead connect to some random spot in the astral plane, it just violently rips apart… Well, you, if you screw it up, but with a bit of finesse, you can have it instead tear up someone else.”

Fascinating. “How do you fuel it?” Tanya asked, curious. 

“That’s the key difference between elder magic and elemental magic.” Knossus explained, “You must generate the power through sacrifice, through death.”

Ah. There we are. That’s the catch. “...Sacrificing what?” Tanya asked, deadpan. 

“Depends on the spell.” Knossus said, “Small things like chickens and rabbits are enough for Flux, but if you want to make actual deals with elder gods, it’ll take something with more heft. Absalom demands the lives of women to power his contract, Nosferatu.” Ah. So the rumors of human sacrifice were true. “Chia demands the lives of men to power her lesser contract, Luna, and young children for Eclipse.” He scoffed as he looked at Tanya’s failure to keep her face neutral. “Oh come on, it’s not like you get only one spell per sacrifice. It’s not like there’s a shortage of criminals and the forgotten to offer, either.”

“Is Flux the only spell that doesn’t require murder?” Tanya asked. 

Knossus considered the question. “Formotiis requires a royal sacrifice for Naglfar, Typhon demands pure maidens for Ruin, priestesses for Mire…” His eyes widened. “Oh! Typhon demands the blood of dragons for the power of Apocolypse!” He said proudly, “That’s not a human sacrifice. Also, Odin demands self sacrifices for Fenrir, Goetia, and Glepinir, only the last one requires full suicide.”

“...So they do.” Tanya said, a little put out at how easily the man listed off names she had previously only heard in Final Fantasy games. They were real? Also, wasn’t Formotiss the name of that Demon King?

“Elder magic is powerful, but dangerous.” Knossus continued, “There’s no such thing as developing a good relationship with the elder gods, not like you can with anima magic or even light magic. You offer up their price, they provide the power, if you didn’t insult them while doing so. If you’re exceptionally stupid, your sacrifice can offer you up instead, and no amount of previous sacrifices will get Chia to remember who you are beyond ‘puny mortal’. That is the nature of elder gods, to be so much greater than us that we are as ants.”

This sounded like excellent advice. If Tanya had actually wanted to delve into elder magic. Still, it led to a potential out. “Uh… I’m not sure if I want to learn elder magic anymore.” She said, adding a fearful quiver into her voice. “I don’t think I want to sacrifice people.”

“You’ll change your tune the first time you get caught by some bandit who thinks you’re pretty enough.” Knossus said darkly, scowling into his tea, “It happened to my sister, when I was at school. Only it wasn’t a bandit, but a nobleman.” He chuckled as he patted a dark tome that he had tied to his robe. “He lived just long enough to regret his choices.” He looked at her. Considering. “You kind of look like her.” He admitted. 

“Like your sister?” Tanya asked, after the silence stretched a bit too long. 

“Yes.” He said, “she looked just like you when she was your age.” He looked at her closer. “...well, the hair color’s a bit different, but she had those same innocent eyes.”

Oh great, the dark mage has a tragic backstory. “...What else do you suggest we do with the staff?” Tanya said, changing the subject. 

“Oh. Well, you’ll need to completely rework the alchemical language used to improve it.” Knossus began,  “Divine script isn’t my strong suit. But I know these, so first you need to know what the heck these chicken scratches mean. A rune sequence is generally structured like a poem, or prayer. You start off here…”

Tanya was a little late to get back, but did so with a much fuller understanding of how to structure her future experiments. 

----------------------------

It was fortunate that Knossus seemed satisfied with infrequent lessons, spending the time between developing his own variations of the poison staff using demontongue. 

Meanwhile, she learned enough about the grammar of staff creation to create what she thought was quite the nice variation of the torch staff using dragontongue runes instead of divine script. Unfortunately, it wasn’t nearly as fast as a fire or elfire tome, but it created a rather large amount of flame that persisted for a few minutes, even on solid stone. She called it her ‘Bonfire’ staff, and with practice, she learned how to shape the flame to be more of a barrier rather than just being a hazard. Combined with her refined ‘Harm’ and ‘Rot’ staves, one oriented towards paralyzing agony and the other towards structural damage against organic foes, including those pesky Bonewalkers, she had quite the arsenal. 

It was shortly after she convinced Mennehl to allow her to create a job lot of the Bonfire staves so they could be brought to someone interested in military goods and offered for sale that, after two years, L’Arachel returned to their sleepy village. 

L’Arachel had grown, the twelve year old having gained ten centimeters of height in the time away. She had taken to wearing a breastplate sized for her that exposed her shoulders and arms, showing off her muscles. Tanya suspected that there was a set of pauldrons she was supposed to be wearing, as she was wearing a set of faulds around her hips and over her skirt, which made said hips look wider than they really were. Her shins had greaves, and she paired them with high-heeled riding boots. “Tanya!” She shouted, sticking out her chest as she posed dramatically in the orphanage courtyard. “The hero has returned, to protect the people from the forces of evil!” 

…Tanya suspected that her chest armor was similarly flattering. “Hello, Lady L’Arachel.” Tanya said simply. “It’s nice to see you again.”

If L’Arachel was bothered by Tanya’s lack of excitement, she laughed it off. “Come with me, and we’ll ride forth and defeat all that we come across!”

Tanya sighed. There was no escaping this. “I’ll need to get my gear from my Master’s workshop.” She would be an absolute fool to keep such expensive weapons anywhere where young orphan fingers could find them. So she kept her weapons at Mennehl’s workshop. She gave the amused Dozla a sharp look. “Also, I expect to be paid.” She added, “Directly.”

“Of course!” Dozla said, laughing. “You’re old enough to get some pocket money.”

“I know how much mercenary work, particularly healing work, pays.” Tanya corrected, “I expect to be paid accordingly.” The local currency was primarily gold coins, called ‘crowns’. They were not minted here locally, but instead by the neighboring Jehenna. The Latonan church, similarly to the Catholic church’s ban on moneylending, forbade its church, including the Theocracy’s government, from minting coins. 

Anyway, gold crowns were actually electrum, a 50/50 silver/gold alloy by weight, and they also weren’t very large: each one weighed about five grams, so between that and just how many tons of gold were around, one began to understand why it was a practical currency. Even if it was still rather heavy. Among the townsfolk, they usually kept tabs that were paid weekly at the fastest. 

So a typical mercenary’s daily pay was twenty crowns a day, twice that if they had to handle their own weapon maintenance, food, lodgings, etcetera, and doubled again on any day where battle was engaged. Usually with some caveat on how many random monsters could attack the military convoy without it constituting a battle. On top of that, magical mercenaries earned half again as much as sellswords, usually. 

Dozla tried to haggle her down, citing her inexperience, but Tanya had an unbeatable edge in this negotiation: she didn’t actually want to go, and L’Arachel was unlikely to accept Dozla refusing a fair offer. So by virtue of never budging from her initial demand of thirty crowns a day plus expenses, twice that if they fight any humans, or a group of four or more monsters, or a total of twenty monsters, she secured a deal with the veteran axeman. 

Even this figure could, if she was too loose with her staves, prove to make her operate at a loss. Fortunately, as she crafted her own staves, her costs were much less than market: even the most basic of healing staff ran six hundred crowns new, so if her services as a healer were actually required, Tanya’s purse would be quite heavy indeed at the end of it. 

The group approached the workshop, and Tanya knocked politely. Mennehl had tried to get Tanya to just walk in when needed, but Tanya knew for a fact that those work tables have been desecrated by the young couple, so she was not going to risk it. 

“J-just a minute!” Mennehl shouted, slightly panicked. Proving the wisdom of her knocking policy, Mennehl’s robes were askew, as if he had just put them back on. He distinctly did not open the door fully to invite her inside. “Ah, Tanya! I could have swore we didn’t have anything today.”

“We don’t.” Tanya said politely. “Lady L’Arachel has returned, and I need my gear.”

Mennehl’s eyes widened as he peered behind Tanya, where Dozla and L’Arachel stood slightly outside the picketed fence that designated his herb garden. “Oh.” He said, his previous awkwardness having vanished. “I thought I had more time…” He muttered to himself. “Tanya, you don’t have to go with them.” He said firmly. “It’s dangerous.”

“I appreciate the thought,” Tanya said, smiling sincerely. “-but I’ve already agreed.”

Menneh grumbled. “...I could come with you?” He offered.

“Genivere might actually kill me if you did.” Tanya said with complete honesty. “We’ll be fine. I’ll be bringing my Bonfire staff to cover our retreat if necessary.”

“...When you come back, we’re getting started on your spellcasting training.” He said, his tone firm. “Your staff weapons are interesting, but they’re not as effective as a tome.”

“Understood.” Tanya said, gesturing for him to open the door. Mennehl looked back, then opened the door more fully. Tanya quickly packed her three combat staves, a healing staff, and a restore staff, which was the limit of what she could carry, and even that much was kind of awkward. 

L’Arachel had  exchanged her pony for a full-sized horse; she still had her enchanted hatchet, although she probably had replaced it at some point, but she also had a longer axe, clearly designed to be quick and nimble over heavy. “Let us ride forth!” L’Arachel announced once Tanya had made it on the beast’s back. Despite her dramatics, the horse started off at a sedate trot. 

----------------------------

L’Arachel seemed to have developed a nose for monsters, as they had dispatched, one by one, seven of the evil things within two hours. Unfortunately, after that point they gave the horses a break, which allowed Tanya to work out exactly where they were. 

That is, they were unsettlingly close to Knossus’ cave. The dark mage had grown on Tanya, a bit like a fungus. More importantly, she did learn a fair bit from the man, and could learn more. She couldn’t manage to secure enough time with him to learn much of anything about demontongue beyond being able to recognize the main sigils of the elder gods he knew of, but…

The man may be kind of mad, but Tanya doubted that she could find another way to learn demontongue. His rot staff formula using it was substantially faster and more effective than the one she made with divine script, and unlike Mennehl he seemed to respect her desire to create her own magic, not relying on external entities. 

Frankly, the only reason she wasn’t pursuing dark magic already was because of the stigma. One rightly earned, if Knossus was telling the truth about the sacrifice requirements, but between begging Being X or spirits like Lord Raikyu for power and seizing it with her own hands like she could with Flux? It’d be a nice way to supplement her alchemical weapons, and apparently using blood in her alchemy would allow her to push things further. 

The question, then: does she take steps to protect Knossus? Frankly, if the man decided to send his phantom to spy on her, he may take her location and company as proof of a betrayal already. 

On the other hand, she could also push L’Arachel towards Knossus. Either to ambush them with the dark mage, or to root out the man out of her life for good. Much as he’s grown on her, he did basically kidnap her and use the threat of his phantom to keep her from turning against him. 

It was a big decision. She hated making those. Even letting the chips fall where they may was a betrayal. 

Worse, if she did commit to protecting Knossus, and she gets caught, that would mean she’d have to run away with the man to have any hope of recouping her losses. Become his apprentice full time. He’s offered to go dress respectably, go to the orphanage, and just flat out adopt her as his apprentice, which was more than Mennehl ever did, and it was admittedly tempting. Or she could go back and learn anima magic, like Mennehl wanted. 

Decisions, decisions…

[Branch of Fate - Choose your path]

Your Apprentice has been promoted!

-Mage

-Priestess Your choices have barred this path…

-Shaman

(note: this is not a poll)