A Soldier's Life - 10 - Renna

Chapter 10: Renna

When we got to the bunk room, Mateo asked Renna with a formal bow, “Top or bottom, your mageness?”

The young woman did not appreciate his humor, ignored him, and took the lower bunk, forcing me to move my things. She opened her satchel and pulled out two large tomes. Although I had gained a lot of experience speaking the language, I only recognized some basic words. The alphabet was somewhat similar to what I was used to, but most of the letters were written strangely, though it was close enough for me to read, albeit extremely slowly.

On examining one title, I puzzled out it was a book about learning spells, and the other text focused on manifesting innate spell forms for your affinities. Renna was focused on the second, so I asked, “What affinity are you trying to develop a spell form for?”

Rather than being annoyed, she looked at me with some surprise. “Earth. That is why I am traveling with Master Mage Dacian. I already manifested my air spell form. Once I gain my earth affinity spell form, I think I will be assigned to a master fire mage next.”

“Were you the young woman with all those elemental affinities over seventy?” I asked.

Renna smiled shyly. “I cannot believe I am famous enough for a common legionnaire to know who I am.”

“I did not know your name, just that there were a number of people excited about your potential.” I tried to keep the conversation going as Renna tried to turn back to her studying. “What ability do you have with your air affinity?”

She put on a bright smile. “Flight!” My roommates were quickly interested in the conversation, overwhelming her with dozens of questions on what it was like to fly. She admitted her ability gave her flight as fast as a horse, but with her aether stores, she could only manage about twenty minutes of flying.

“That’s still amazing. I can only store items in a dimensional space,” I responded.

“You are a porter? That is rare!” She looked dubious suddenly, like I was lying. “Show me. Make something appear out of thin air.”

I pulled a tray of coins out, watched her eyes bug out, and put them back. My roommates also showed envy for my magic—or maybe it was the tray of large silver coins I briefly revealed.

“How big is your space? Do you have any other spell forms?” she asked, sitting next to me on the lower bunk, now extremely interested in me as a fellow mage. She sat so close that our hips touched.

My face felt hot, and I thought Mateo was going to say something, but I gave him a hard glare, and he kept quiet. I answered her, “A man never reveals his size on the first date. And I don’t have any way to learn a new spell form. I had the help of a spell book for the dimensional space.”

“I was given an attunement stone.” She reached into her satchel and started searching. “Just channel your aether into it, and the stones will light up if you have an affinity over fifteen. That is considered the requirement to manifest a spell form.” I remembered that Damian had said the cut-off was ten to learn a spell form, but I did not challenge her knowledge. There probably was a difference between learning and manifesting. Renna produced a circular disc from the bag and held it up. Three circles were inscribed on it, and each circle had seven gems. I wanted to use it, but not in front of everyone.

I took it from her and asked, “What do the different color gems represent? I mean affinity-wise.”

She pointed at each one as she explained, “The inner circle is the rare affinities, the middle circle is uncommon, and the outer circle is common. This book lists them all, and these are the associated stones.” She went through and identified all the gemstones.

Rare Magics
Space – Labradorite
Time – Rutilated Quartz
Displacement – Opal
Materialism – Garnet
Worlds – Chrysocolla
Void – Black Tourmaline
Convergence – Alexandrite

Uncommon Magics
Charm (Mind) – Rose Quartz
Illusion – Moonstone
Clairvoyance – Amethyst
Protection (Guardian) – Tiger’s Eye
Necromancy – Obsidian
Celestial – Selenite
Abyssal – Onyx

Common Magics
Fire – Ruby
Air – Sapphire
Earth – Emerald
Water – Aquamarine
Lightning (Energy) – Topaz.
Spirit (Healing) – Clear Quartz
Nature (Plant) – Peridot

Renna smirked and took the device back. I thought I could feel her aether flow into the device. It was the first time I felt someone else’s aether, likely because our bare arms were touching. The gems that lit up for her were Fire, Air, Water, Earth, and Nature—five of the elemental magics. The air stone also pulsed repeatedly, almost like it was blinking.

Renna pointed at it. “That pulsing means I have already imprinted an ability with that affinity. Flying around the woods does get you noticed,” she mused. She handed me back the disc. My roommates also seemed extremely interested in my effort and craned their heads.

I made a sad face, mimicking a mixture of frustration and disappointment. “I’m still learning how to channel my aether,” I explained softly, trying to hide my subterfuge. “I can’t activate devices yet,” I added, forcing a hesitant smile.

Renna put the device on my pillow on the top bunk. “You can practice tonight. The disc is quite durable, so don’t worry about breaking it. Do not lose it; I have to bring it back to Master Dacian.”

A loud knock came at the door. Delmar, Castile’s other first, entered. “Now that the bulette crisis is past, we are back to the normal routine.” My roommates groaned. I was not looking forward to our next encounter with a fantastical creature. “Weapons training will be done two hours before dinner. Eryk, you are still unassigned, and no weapon specialty was noted on your paperwork. What do you prefer to fight with?”

I hesitated briefly. “Dual-wielding short swords against humanoids, and a spear and shield against monsters.” Delmar frowned, but he nodded as a smile slowly formed. Felix smacked his forehead, clearly a warning to me that picking two styles was a bad choice.

With a grin, he said: “Fine. Three hours of practice for you then, Eryk. Split time between the two styles. Firth can teach you the spear, and Konstantin can work with you on your dual wield.” Mateo winced like he had been punched in my stead at Konstantin’s name.

After Delmar left, Mateo said, “Firth is an alright sort, a bit of a rogue. But Konstantin is a real bastard in training. One of the best fighters in our company. He doesn’t talk much and hates working with others. His last sparring partner died in the cyclops campaign. He serves mostly as our primary scout, and he’s damn good at it. We are all grateful to have him, but...” he trailed off without finishing.

A short while later, I geared up and went outside with two short swords, two spears, and a shield. As I entered the designated training yard in town, the company was training with their weapons in an orderly fashion by pairs or threes.

I was surprised, as everything we had done so far seemed to be done informally on the surface. This was clearly serious practice with men attacking and defending with short bursts of strength and speed. It reminded me of the rankings matches back in training. I was directed to a man who was half a head shorter than me and whose biceps matched his thighs.

“You are the recruit? Let’s see if you can learn enough not to get yourself killed, then,” the gruff man intoned.

“Konstantin?” I asked and he only grunted and began. He was not a bad teacher, though he was extremely strict and did not like to repeat himself. I learned more in ninety minutes from him than I had learned in three weeks at the training camp. I had bruises and shallow cuts to mark every time I did not follow his instructions in detail.

When he finished, he directed me. “Go see the company medic before your spear training.” He then turned and jogged out of town. I guessed he was going to relieve one of the sentries.

We actually had two medics, Linus and Malcolm, though Malcolm was more of an assistant. He gave me some of the horse salves for the bruises and large leaves for the cuts. They smelled like peppermint and acted as an antiseptic for infection. They were held in place by a wrap after they were soaked in hot water. Unfortunately, they would not prevent scarring. I was not the only man in the company who silently wished we had a healing mage.

Firth had me work my spear on a makeshift training dummy while he watched and chewed on jerky. He went over the common tactics for attacking beasts and defending myself. He was not as good an instructor as Konstantin, as he believed in repetition. My hands were already callused, but still ached and bled after a few hundred parries and thrusts. “Your done, go eat,” Firth said and walked away.

I took a large bowl of meat stew to my room to eat—lying down, as standing was painful. The room was empty, and I quickly used the tablet. I channeled my aether, and it glowed brightly. As expected, the inner circle had six gems glowing. The only one absent was materialism.

The middle circle had a single gem lit. It was the protection affinity, also known as the guardian affinity. That meant I had over a fifteen affinity in that magic. The outer ring also had one gem glowing, and it was the most joyous sight I had ever seen. It was the stone that signified the healing affinty. I could manifest an ability to heal. My eyes quickly returned to the center ring. The space gem was flashing, which was expected because I had manifested my dimensional storage space. A second gem was also flashing, indicating I had manifested another ability or spell-like effect.

It was the convergence gem that was flashing. Convergence was the magic affinity that dealt with drawing power from ley lines—at least, that was what I was told. I heard steps in the hallway and stopped channeling aether to the device. My convergence affinity was seventy-four, so that meant I should have a powerful ability, but what was it?

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