A Soldier's Life - 390 - A Journey Of A Thousand Miles Begins With A Single Step (5-14-25 minor edits to Evie's affinities)

Chapter 390: A Journey Of A Thousand Miles Begins With A Single Step

After I wrote out my message to Raelia in the Adventurer’s Guild Hall and paid my silver, I returned to sit with the others. I hoped her family could understand my delay.

“You can’t bring your kids in here!” A rather drunk and stocky adventurer slurred out in a thick Telhian accent. When the locals learned we were Telhian, our warm reception cooled considerably. She took a long pull and meant to come to our table, but a man at the table held her down with his massive hand. The woman had aged pink scars lining her face and neck, which told me she had been in a number of fights and hadn’t received aetheric healing. She was obviously just looking for a fight, and I didn’t need the aggravation at the moment.

After we were sure the local adventurers were not going to cause trouble, Blaze spoke. “The captain says it will be seven days, eight at the outside. He has four stops on the route, but we will only be docked for a few hours. If we are not aboard when he pulls the anchor, it is our own fault. I got us four cabins in the stern he had left. They are all together.” I nodded as Lesna and Evie would be sharing a cabin.

“I didn’t like his ship. The Sensible Seahorse looked like she had seen better days,” Lesna said, a little tipsy. She was also eyeing the adventurer who had yelled at our table, and I was sure the woman was in store for some mischief from the halfling tonight. I would have to remind her not to do anything to draw attention to us, but I liked the fact that she was defending our group in her own way.

“Wander the city and collect some decent cooked food tomorrow, and bring it to my room. I am guessing the Seahorse’scook matches how she looks,” I ordered. The ship was a cheap passenger ship, with a small hold, and she had seen better days. I doubted the food would be terrible, but I also wanted to give them something to occupy their time that might be fun after so many weeks in the saddle.

“I want to try the pastry with the sweet-smelling red jam we saw on the way here!” Evie said excitedly. I recalled the vendor, he was spooning hot jam over a bowl-shaped flaky pastry, and I think that spread was raspberry by the smell.

I shook my head decisively. “No, you are going to stay in the room with me.” Evie deflated and stared into her half-eaten shepherd’s pie. The meat was gristly, and the vegetables had wilted. We would definitely not be taking another meal in the Adventurer’s Guild common room. I looked at my three companions, “Sell the horses except for Ginger. I will stop by and say my goodbyes to her tonight.” Blaze nodded in understanding. “And don’t forget to get raspberry tarts, Evie wants to try.” Evie looked up, eyes wide, a smile forming.

Lesna, Benito, and Blaze left as I retreated to my room with Evie. She wandered around the sparsely decorated room. It smelled of sweat and ammonia. The adventurers in the city were mostly mercenaries hired by small estates fighting each other for various land rights. The lords were fighting by proxy instead of risking their own men.

“What are we going to do?” Evie asked, looking around.

“Well, we are going to start with some Elvish lessons, and then you are going to start studying your first spell form,” I replied.

“I thought you said I was not to imprint any more spells,” she said flatly. I had been angry with her for days about creating her pocket space. I never voiced it, but my body language was easy to read.

I sighed, “I don’t know if the Death Hunters will accept you to train, but if they do, I want you to be prepared,” I said as the Elven Assessment Table appeared.

Magical displays still caused the girl to smile. “Are you going to teach me to fight with a blade, too?” Evie asked excitedly. “Lesna gave me this,” she said, drawing a small blade from the folds of her clothes. The blade was barely as long as my thumb. It was sharp, but mostly used as a pairing knife. “Benito is already showing me how to stand.” She crouched slightly and held the blade out.

“You don’t fight with this,” I said, taking the blade from her, inspecting it. “This is a tool for eating, and if someone tries to take you, you can stab them in the neck, groin, or eye and escape. But it has no reach in a real fight.” I pulled off my spider silk gloves and bracers and flexed my arms. “These are tendons in the wrist, cut them with your knife and your enemy will not be able to hold a blade.” She nodded, as if I were dispensing sagely wisdom.

“What about my magic?” she asked softly.

“The only spell form I am insisting you learn is called Essence Feast. It will allow you to get the most out of any essences you consume. With your forty-two affinity, you should get sixteen to seventeen times the benefit from each essence you consume.” I explained as I produced the pages I had copied from my back and forth to the dreamscape during our journey.

“What are essences?” She asked standing over the Elven Assessment table and activating it. I had told her I would teach her to read Elvish, starting with the numbers on the table during our ride.

“There are a few theories out there. The most popular is that they are the soul of a creature.” Her eyes widened. “But I do not believe that. I go with the second most popular theory, they are the breakdown of a person’s aether core and whatever aether is saturated in their tissue when they die. When you create an essence from a recently dead monster or person, the essence is pulled from the entire body, but mostly from the area around the heart where the core resides.” Evie looked fascinated and not disgusted at all. When I first realized I had essentially been eating dead people and monsters, I had at least been briefly queasy—well, the people I harvested myself anyway.

“Let’s start with numbers first.” I led her to the assessment table and started to review the Elven numerical system. Thankfully, it was a base-ten system. She was extremely bright and thirsty for knowledge, or perhaps a distraction to focus on.

Elemental Magics (Common)

Fire0

Air20

Water0

Earth0

Lightning (Energy)0

Spirit (Healing)0

Nature (Plant)0

Unaffiliated Magics (Uncommon)

Charm (Mind)0

Illusion0

Clairvoyance55

Protection (Guardian)44

Necromancy92

Celestial0

Abyssal0

Rare Magics

Space18

Time15

Displacement31

Materialism0

Worlds33

Void0

Convergence42

As far as I knew, Evie had only used the facets on her core for her necromancy and space affinity. This meant she was going to be able to learn six more spell forms in time. I had not found any spell forms or spells for the world affinity, so maybe only five.

We started on the letters and she struggled a little as I thought perhaps she might need a vocabulary first. Four letters were the shortest words in the language, but each letter also had its own stand-alone meaning, so I pivoted to that.

When she started to fatigue, I paused the lessons and did my best to explain the methodology I had for learning spell forms. “Spell forms channel your aether on paths to create unique magic. There are an infinite number of ways for aether to flow, and spell forms have multiple layers to them. Your body will convert raw aether into aether flavored with the affinity and press it through the spell form you imprinted on your core.”

“Lesna already explained this. I just stare at pictures until it appears on my core,” Evie said tiredly.

I laughed, “If only it was that simple. You not only need to have a clear picture of what you want, but you also cannot try to imprint something that will not fit. You could imprint a partial spell form, and it could end up doing nothing.” Evie was suddenly awake, her eyes wide at the possibility of failure. That was extremely rare from what I had read in the dreamscape; most of the time, an imprinted spell always did something, even if it was different than the intent.

I had Evie trace the spell forms until her eyes got too heavy. I then let her sleep, but Blaze and Benito returned carrying an array of food, waking her. Blaze dropped his bundles. “Benito had to sample everything to approve it for consumption by the group.”

Evie was sifting through the packages when Benito handed her a package that she unwrapped. Sweet berry fragrances wafted out. It still looked warm, but the wax leaf had somewhat flattened it. Evie didn’t care as she dug in. “I think we should get more of those before we leave. Where is Lesna?” I didn’t see her hiding with my aether sight.

“In the common room, playing cards with the adventurers. Don’t worry, she told me she wouldn’t cheat,” Benito said with a grin. “I am going to head down if you don’t need me.” And just like that, Benito was gone. I went through and stored all the food they had gathered systematically in my space while Blaze told me what everything was so I didn’t have to unwrap it. Finished, he left, leaving Evie with jam on her face.

“Go ahead and sleep, I have some work to do,” I told her, and she was passed out again in no time. She was keeping a brave face while travelling with strangers into the unknown. When Lesna came up the stairs hours later with Benito, I carried Evie to her room.

“Got most of her silver,” Lesna said with a smirk.

“Mine too,” Benito whined before heading into his room.

I exhaled slowly, “Lesna, I need your help watching her. Evie cannot be left—unsupervised. Can you at least watch her at night and not indulge in your social activities?”

Lesna put on her contemplative face. “I understand. I will refrain from having—fun.”

“Thank you. At least until we reach Nausis,” I said, relieved.

“I am sorry I showed her how to imprint the spatial spell, Eryk. I thought I was helping her, but I was making your life harder. I tend not to think too far ahead.” She looked into the room at the sleeping Evie. “She is a good person. Lexi and her shouldn't have to deal with everything they have been through.”

“That is a very adult thing for you to say,” I complimented her.

“Then forget I said it,” she winked and slipped into the room and silently closed the door. I turned as I still had a few things to do tonight.

The stables were dark as I entered. My footfalls were soft and unnoticed as I approached Ginger. Her eyes were half-closed as I touched her snout. She jerked awake, spraying me with the force of her exhale through her nostrils. “Ginger, calm down. It’s me. It is time again to rest. Look at the bright side, girl, the more time you spend traveling in my magical space, the more years we have together.”

Ginger was nudging my hand for an apple, probably not understanding any of my words. “I produced a thick yellow carrot. She sniffed it before deciding it was an acceptable midnight snack. I let her chew, savor, and get some water before storing her away. I exhaled as I claimed my saddle and tack. One day, I would settle down and live a normal life—at least for a few decades.

We boarded the Sensible Seahorse two days later. I had hoped Raelia might have returned a response to me, but I knew the message had to travel from the Adventurer’s Guild Hall in the Bartiradian capital of Seira and then make its way to the Glavien estate from there. I knew there was little chance she would be able to return a message in just two days.

My cabin on the ship had four bunks but was much cleaner than I expected. I could hear Lesna and Evie talking through the wall on one side and Benito and Blaze arguing on the other side about who got which room. Apparently, one of their rooms smelled strongly of fish. What a glamorous life we led.

I didn’t have a window and secured my cabin door. The assessment table came out for future lessons with Evie, but for right now, I wanted to check on my own progress.

© Copyrighted 2024, 2025 by AlwaysRollsAOne

No Permission is given to translate, copy, or repost this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon it has been stolen without my permission and is a violation of DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA.