World Sphere - 54 - Gareth's Folly

Chapter 54: Gareth’s Folly

It was late evening when we walked back to into Hen’s Hollow. When I got back to my room, dinner was over, and I found Gareth lamenting on his bed. He bemoaned, “Oh Storme, I wish you hadn’t left today. I did something stupid. So, very stupid.”

I touched my friend and looked for wounds with my healing spell—nothing. I sat on my bed across from him, waiting for him to elaborate. 

“So, what happened to you today? Can it be remedied? Did you piss off Aelyn?” I asked as I started using my cleanliness spell to clean up the room, which had reverted to smelling like old socks in the twelve hours I had been gone. Gareth just pulled a pillow over his own head and moaned into it.

“Well, Gareth, I am hungry. If you want to talk, I will be in the kitchen.” I left the room and noticed the twin’s door across the hall was ajar and peeked in. I knocked and said, “Mera and Fera, I am cooking if you are interested.”

“Storme, you are back?” Fera whispered. Some hushed whispers, and then Fera said sullenly, “We are coming.” The two girls languidly walked out of their room, and we moved to the kitchen together. I knew they played some role in Gareth’s current state by their moods. 

I went to the cellar to gather materials for making a four-cheese mac and cheese. It wouldn’t take long to make fresh egg pasta, so I got the water boiling with two kinds of salt. “So, Mera and Fera, can you tell me what my friend has done that has signaled the end of the world for him?”

Mera twirled her hair on her finger. Fera wouldn’t make eye contact. Mera finally spoke as the cheese was melting in the butter, flour, and milk. “Gareth and Brianne were found in the woods by Jollette. It was the same spot that Gareth took Fera to kiss.” Fera clicked her tongue in anger.

I hadn’t really been aware of Brianne since we started the academy. She was in our class but hung out with Pascal and the older students. I thought Gareth had gotten over her. Fera added, “Jollette said they were kissing and Gareth had his shirt off.” Mera rolled her eyes at her sister.

“Who knows what they would have done if they were not interrupted!” Mera hissed. I sympathized with Gareth as he was probably getting wooed by every eligible girl in Hen’s Hollow after he won the tournament and he lacked the defenses and sense to resist.

Sponsors would likely send beautiful girls here to charm him as well. His stock was very high. Callem had even told me he would have finished in the top 8 for the Academy Annuals. And Callem thought next, he should be good enough for a top 4 finish. The twins bickered about Gareth’s unfaithful nature to Fera as I cooked.

I wasn’t sure whether intervention on my part would be wise. I had flashes from my past of trying to fix something, and it only snowballed into a worse situation. While I couldn’t recall details, I knew that interfering was just a bad idea.

Still, I couldn’t help but defend my best friend. “Fera, Gareth is not what you would call strong when it comes to resisting the attentions of the opposite sex. His thoughts will always be focused on the woman in front of him at the time.” That should be clear enough for them to understand, but maybe I had said too much.

Mera took the opportunity to move in front of me, blocking me from stirring the cheese sauce. She asked a little forcibly. “And you, Storme, where are your thoughts focused?”

“My thoughts at the moment, Mera,” I placed my hands on her shoulders, and she smiled, “Are on cooking.” I gently moved her aside. Her face fell, but she grinned as she resisted a little. She was actually very strong and it took some effort.

“Is the food ready?” Fera asked, grinning at her sister’s failed attempt to entice me. The action had at least cheered Fera up which I think was Mera’s intent.

“Well, I know good food always makes me happier.” I plated the drained pasta and poured a helping of sauce over each, and stirred it to a homogeneous consistency before sliding it to the girls. Even though the girls had eaten two hours ago, they greedily ate a healthy portion. I assumed training had been difficult today.

When we finished, I used my cleanliness spell to clean the pots and dishes. That spell made life so much better, and the girls then begged me to clean their room tonight as well. I agreed since our room smelled so bad, I assumed theirs did too. It wasn’t as bad as I suspected because they had stuffed their dirty clothes into a ball. It had rained during sword training just before the Annuals, and those clothes were at the bottom of their pile. I walked to every corner of the room as the girls put away their clean clothes. 

They seemed to be giggling as they folded their clothes. “Storme, can you stay and help us with our aether core exercises?” Mera begged as I was about to leave.

Not wanting to deal with Gareth at the moment, I agreed. I sat on Mera’s bed with my back to the wall and one twin on either side of me as I guided them through the 23 exercises. I gave them some pointers that helped me when I taught myself. Really, Selina was a much better teacher than I; all the twins needed to do was practice.

It was extremely late when I made to return back to my room. The girls restrained me for a brief second, and both gave me a peck on the cheek at the same time. “Just a thank you, Storme. For cleaning and helping us study. Maybe you will help us again tomorrow night?” Fera said hopefully. I paused at their appearing innocent antics. Fera obviously wanted Gareth to be aware I was spending time in their room to make him jealous. Mera—well, Mera wanted more but I was focused on my studies and didn’t want distractions.

“I don’t mind helping you two study, but I have a lot to do myself outside of classes.” Their smiles evaporated. “How about on the 1st and 3rd day I will help you? After dinner?” The smiles that had almost vanished immediately returned. They nodded enthusiastically. 

I opened my room door and found Gareth in the position I had left him. His loud sleep-breathing came even through the pillow. I guess he couldn’t be too distraught if he had fallen asleep.

After setting a half dozen alarms around the room, I clapped a privacy sphere around myself. The door, window, floor, bed, and chest were alarmed. It was mostly just practice, but the small routine may save my life one day. Each alarm would instantly wake me with a loud sound in my head and an image of the intruder.

After my day off with Callem, getting back into training was not fun. Aelyn and the teachers seemed to think I needed to do twice as much work today to make up for missing yesterday. Today was also my time with a saber, so Callem was my instructor, and he made me work harder than normal.

I watched Brianne a bit, and she still had eyes for Gareth. The other students were teasing both Gareth and Brianne all day about the incident and I guessed I needed to intervene.

I called attention to myself at dinner and stood on the table. “So yesterday I heard I missed an eventful day at the Academy,” I started, and hollers and cries rang out in affirmation. I let them play out before continuing. “While I admit teasing our fellows is fun, there is a time for it and a time to stop it. I am asking everyone here to abide by this rule. You are allowed to chide and tease someone for one day after an incident. After that time, the harassment is to stop. If it does not, then I will no longer heal you!” 

Everyone was silent as I sounded dead serious. I didn’t want to be a leader, but Gareth was my friend and if this heckling continued, it might make him bitter. I looked around the room and made eye contact with everyone, and my teachers had some pride on their faces.

I started to step off the table but stopped and stood tall again, and the room was deathly silent, waiting on my words. “We are going to be here together for the next ten months. It is everyone’s responsibility to help every other person in this room become the best person they can be at that time. Respect each other as you respect our talented instructors.”

I sat down across from Gareth. The twins hadn’t sat with us at any meals today to show their anger, and he was starting to look green. Freya had heard my little speech as she was removing dishes from tables and looked at me with eyes of—maybe admiration. 

Gareth whispered, “Thanks, Storme. It just sort of happened. I didn’t think anyone would stumble on us. She said she just wanted to practice kissing, and before I knew it, our shoes and shirts were off.”

I shook my head back and forth slowly. “Gareth, you are going to learn a lot in the next ten months on what not to do when it comes to women. I wish I could give you advice, but I doubt my advice is that good, and I doubt you would heed it anyway.” I had very little wisdom or memories to help my friend. As Gareth had mentioned, relationships were going to happen. The first-year academy was essentially Skyholme’s version of coed living. 

Sitting to my right, Mia asked, “Are you going to follow your own advice and not harass Gareth after a day when he does something stupid?”

I looked at the young woman and back at Gareth, “No, I am the exception to the rule. Someone needs to keep him grounded.” Gareth’s eyes twinkled in mock shock to go with his open mouth.

“Besides,” I grabbed my mug, draining it, and standing to go to my room, “It’s not like I’m not going to heal myself if I break the rule.” Mia laughed, and Gareth’s face was in comical disbelief. Leaving the table, I told Gareth, “Don’t worry, I will do it all in private, and I expect the same of you. We will keep each other grounded.” The Gareth grin manifested on his face.

In my room, I had planned to continue studying my lightning reflexes spell, but after some consideration, I switched to focus on the neutralize poison spell. It was a tier two spell that had a lot of utility. It could easily take care of being drunk and quickly remove up to tier two poisons. Tier two poisons could be eliminated with some evolutions and multiple targeted castings. With some evolutions, it could hold off the effects of tier four poison, but not eliminate it. Hopefully, those tier four poisons had a duration that could be overcome with time. 

Gareth came in and crashed down with a sigh on his bed. He normally would be hanging out with Fera right now. I let him be. I had done quite a bit for him and wanted to learn this spell quickly to return to my first offensive threat spell, lightning reflexes. Since he was being ignored, he left the room, so I put up a privacy screen and focused. Before going to sleep, I started making platinum coins. I would need some wealth to renovate the Shiny Platinum.

The next day, I was shocked at how my words had affected the group. Everyone was being overly helpful to everyone else during sessions. At meals, the jokes and jabs were flying non-stop, but everyone seemed supportive. The twins were back eating with us, but sat on either side of me so they could give Gareth the evil eye. Gareth wouldn’t make eye contact with Fera and remained mostly silent during meals.

The enchanting class started to become my primary focus. If I was invest in the Shiny Platinum, I wanted it to be filled with as many artificed devices as possible. I spent the next few classes perfecting my artificing of aether lights. It was one of the simpler enchantments to perform, and the quality of the materials would determine the quality of the device.

My aether light was going to be a softball-sized white globe. I wanted a touch enchantment with four settings: off, and three brightness settings of 125 candles, 500 candles, and 2000 candles. Each touch of the ball would cycle through the settings.

Instructor Aethon was fascinated by the project and helped me write out the enchantments. They were much more complex than I had planned. I intended to use a durable type of frosted glass ball, then apply my metal shaping skills to inscribe the runic script on the inside of the ball. The recharging aether crystal would be placed at the opening in the blown glass. I hoped to start making them in about a week.

That evening, I made good on my promise to tutor the twins in magic. They were eager students and really liked sitting on either side of me on the bed to study. They had wanted to study in my room, but I knew they just wanted to torment Gareth, so I insisted we study in their room.

Of course, they kept the door wide open, and with our room being across the hall, Gareth would see us. Being so spiteful was not how I imagined the twins, and I told them so. They just rolled their eyes at me in unison, a little spooky with their coordination, and said they just wanted Gareth to know what he missed out on. 

The fourth, fifth, and sixth days of the week progressed a little too slowly for me. I was starting to feel the burden of routine. The twins were also trying to tie themselves strongly to me in an attempt to make Gareth jealous.

On the fifth day of the week, Gareth had given up and was seen sneaking away with a more receptive Brianne, which only infuriated Fera. He was much stealthier and they were not discovered until they returned. I wasn’t sure what they had done, but Gareth was in a much better mood.

The special order glass globes for my enchanting lights came in on the sixth day, a crate of 24. We were still working on the actual runic script for the lights, but I now had something to practice on when I was ready. Master Aethon had also purchased twenty-four bottles of hardening resin. He thought it would be a good idea to coat the exterior of the glass to protect them from shattering. The resin could also be tinted in different colors if I were interested.

On the sixth day, everyone was excited to get a day off tomorrow. For me, that meant I would be spending my day with Selina on additional spell lessons. I was physically and mentally fatigued and not sure I wanted another lengthy instruction period. During the week, my spells had leveled, because of high level of castings and the variant ways I was using them. I made a mental note to see if Ennet would do a reading on me so I could see the progress of my aether core.

My cleanliness spell had reached level 14. I completed the range evolution to extend it from 3 feet to 6 feet. I chose this since I seemed to be spending a lot of time cleaning up other people’s messes, it made sense to speed up that process. It also allowed me to clean the ceilings with ease. 

My mend flesh spell reached level 12, and at level 11 the evolution that I added was something called replenish. It restored a person’s muscle energy and removed fatigue. It was not as effective as I had hoped. It didn’t offer endless stamina, just washed away fatigue and eliminated muscle burn. It was also only effective once a day, which I didn’t understand, so I asked Selina why. Selina explained the limitations had to do with aetheric aura manipulation on a person and the tier of my spell. The lengthy lecture on the topic was over my head at this point in my mage craft.

Obfuscate Abilities ticked up to level 6. The dimensional closet ticked up to level 12, but I was no longer emptying my core at night with this spell. I had switched to using my aether to stockpile platinum coins.

My alarm utility spell reached level 8, and at level 7, I increased the brightness of the flash effect. I estimated it would now be effective in the dark conditions to blind someone, but I was going to have to scale the brightness again to have the same effect in daylight. I was not worried about accidentally blinding someone because magic could easily heal the injury. Once I imprinted lightning reflexes I was fairly certain I would be able to defeat Gareth in combat but having a few tricks might be needed to accomplish the task.

My privacy spell went from level 2 to level 6. This was mostly because I worked on this spell in class with Selina. At level 3, I added a milky opacity to my bubble to obscure sight. At level 5, I amplified the bubble so I could see out while people couldn’t see in. 

I was getting close to imprinting my neutralize poison spell. I hoped to get enough help from Selina to cross it off my to-do list. Selina had me meet her in town at her rented loft apartment. It had a nice view of the town square and was sparsely decorated.

Selina explained a few things about her travels, showing me mementos. Then we got to work. It was around lunchtime when I imprinted the neutralize poison spell. Selina was suitably impressed and happy for me. The standard first evolution at level one was to be able to use the spell on someone else. 

We started working on the lightning reflexes spell next, and I brought the book out. Selina was helping me see the patterns in the spell forms. We went to the tavern for lunch, and several students from my class were there. The food was very average, but I was hungry. I was sipping on a weak ale and testing out my new spell. 

We were getting ready to return to Selina’s place when a familiar small wolfkin entered. Of course, Bylura was drawing a lot of attention. We just didn’t get Wolfsguard in Hen’s Hollow. On seeing me, she approached with a lopsided grin. She sat at our table, and Selina raised her eyebrow as the wolf girl started talking.

“Storme, I brought you an architect. She was personally selected by Loriel.” The wolf girl looked longingly at my plate and I pushed it toward her. After two bites, she made a face and slid it away from her with a sour look on her face. 

I looked around the tavern room for the architect. Bylura took an empty cup and poured herself some ale. She drank greedily and I assumed she was parched. “She is looking for a place to stay in town. Most likely, she will head to the nearby city, as your little town doesn’t have much to offer.” Her tone indicated she didn’t think much of Hen’s Hollow herself. 

“Bylura, you were sent to help me again. Did you volunteer because you missed me?” I asked. Her eyes narrowed at me.

“I am the only one Loriel can trust with such an important mission,” she said with a little annoyance. 

“Well, now that you know where I am, will you bring this architect to me?” The wolf girl didn’t seem too eager to bring the architect over. She just reclined in her seat and stared. Freya came barreling into the inn, found me at my table, took a seat, and stared at the wolf girl who seemed suddenly uncomfortable as the two locked stares with each other.

“Freya, Bylura. Bylura, Freya,” I introduced them. Monty came into the tavern, rushed to Freya, noticed Bylura, and let out a cautious bark. Bylura probably weighed as much as the Monty the fluff monster. When Bylura didn’t back down, he started growling at her, and Bylura growled back.

I started laughing at the challenge of dominance. Monty didn’t back down, and Bylura stood up and left in a huff. As she was leaving, Freya looked crestfallen. She turned to me and asked, “She is adorable. Do you think she will let me pet her?” 

“Oh, definitely ask when she gets back, Freya,” I said, anticipating the interaction. I began discussing Freya's business operations with her. She was doing better than Gareth, and I had in our endeavors. She was making about 20 silver a week. She also managed a small army of kids in town. I wondered if they were following her because of her brother’s performance in the Annuals. Although Gareth had won, I had earned some accolades myself.

When Bylura returned, Monty was on alert. A woman, maybe in her 20s, followed her. She had dark blonde hair tied into a bun. Her eyes were dark brown, and she was wearing a sharp outfit that looked fairly expensive. Bylura locked eyes with Monty as she approached. Monty was quiet this time but hadn’t deferred dominance to Bylura.

“Storme, I present your architect, Isla Carille Bricio,” she said with a smile. I was stunned. A Bricio? Well, this was not going to be fun especially when I declined her services.