World Sphere - 38 - Bone Shattering Lessons

CHAPTER 38 Hard Lessons

I was largely disappointed the next day when Callem didn’t mention the mithril at breakfast. After stretching, I went down to the larder and found the mithril gone, so he must know. I prepped some pizza crusts and sauce for dinner. Callem liked a buffalo chicken pizza, and everyone else liked the more mundane toppings with tomato sauce. The morning practice was to be wrestling, and I couldn’t read Callem’s face. Did he not realize I had made mithril?

My first match for wrestling was Aelyn. She was getting really good, and even though I was significantly stronger than her, she almost always won due to her agility. That made me upset as I had thought myself above average in grappling, and getting beaten by a half-elven woman was irksome. She slipped behind me, locked hands around my waist, and leveraged me to the ground with a throw. She managed to keep my back to the ground and straddle my chest.

I was about to bridge and rotate to escape when she put her face three inches from mine and whispered, “I imprinted the spell.”  She was up and off me, walking away smugly as I lay there in shock. I had lost the match and the race to imprint the dimensional spell. I pacified myself by thinking that hers was just a tier 1 version, and mine was tier 3. I think Aelyn had just claimed she was both a better fighter and mage than me.

Aelyn had been getting more playful after Pascal left, and I remembered that she had said she would replicate Leda’s actions when she learned the pocket space spell. Her preening was very deserved, as imprinting a spell was hard. I watched her hips sway as she walked away. I quickly focused on my aether core burn to counter my unwanted excitement following her hips.

After two more matches in which Gareth dominated over Leda and then Aelyn, I was matched against Cilia. As we met in the center of the ring, Cilia said, “Aelyn rode you like a broken-down nag. I am going to do the same!”

Well, smack talk was a new thing for our group over the last few weeks. It was introduced by Pascal and it had quickly turned on him as he had rarely won any contests unless Callem stacked the odds in his favor. The smack talk was all done in jest and to add some levity to the situation, but for some reason, today, Cilia’s words irked me. Maybe it had to do with Aelyn beating me.

I had coasted for months, not going all out. This encounter would be different, as she was about to get my best effort. Cilia came at me, and I easily grabbed her right wrist, pulling her slightly sideways and stepping behind her hips. I wrapped my left arm around her upper torso and pulled her off balance to spin her to the ground. The movement was so insanely quick and smooth that I was in awe of myself. I even caught a surprised Gareth as I brought Cilia to the ground.

I didn’t let Cilia recover. In fact, I kept giving her false hope intentionally. As she got back to her knees, I kept my hips pressed behind her and countered everything she did. It was energy-draining on both our parts, but I just wanted her to wear herself out and concede the match without me getting an arm bar or leg lock on her.

She would not yield and only tried harder. This went on for a good five minutes, and I actually smiled at her futility. “Whose riding who, now?” I gloated. My jibe was not well received, as she only struggled harder but I found it easy to counter her from the top position.

“Storme,” Callem said in a warning tone. Callem usually let things play out, so I knew I had crossed some line. I could not see Cilia’s face, but her grunts almost sounded like sobs. Realization struck, and I decided to break the engagement. As soon as I pushed away a little bit, Cilia took advantage and made a quick roll underneath me.

She had a look of loathing on her face, which turned to anger as her adrenaline surged. I didn’t even track her knee coming up into my chin. The force shattered some of my teeth, and the end of my tongue was severed and went flying. I was in shock and so was Cilia from what she had just done. My vision swam as I tried to focus on healing.

I collapsed, blood flowing freely from my mouth, unable to focus and hold onto consciousness. “Storme, I didn’t mean to!” I heard Cilia shouting, but Callem filled my vision.

“She might have fractured the neck,” he said concerned. “LEDA! You need to heal him enough so he can regain his senses. He will finish the job, but you need to start! Gareth find his tongue!” Nothing Callem said made me feel better.

“His tongue?” Gareth questioned.

“Were you not paying attention?” Callem said forcefully. That was all I heard as I lost the battle and passed into unconsciousness.

I awoke in Callem’s guest room with Wynna by my bedside. “Storme, it’s going to be okay, but don’t move for a moment. Callem said if you’re up for it, you should try to heal yourself. Leda did some minor healing to close things up and stop the internal bleeding, and we used a strong healing potion on you.” Wynna was holding my hand. “Try to heal yourself,” she repeated soothingly.

I focused and used my self-diagnostic spell on myself. My neck had a fracture, but the spine was intact. A half dozen teeth had been shattered, and a quarter of my tongue had been reattached poorly. I channeled aether to heal my tongue first. I then accelerated the healing on my neck. I couldn’t heal or regrow bone, just accelerate the process with my tier-one spell. I ran my tongue across the sharp, broken teeth. Clots had formed to stop the bleeding. “My teethhh?” I asked worriedly.

“Callem got most of the pieces, and Gareth went to get Antal in town. He should be back shortly and your teeth will be repaired,” she said consolingly.

I channeled more aether into the spell to heal myself as much as I could. I felt exhausted as Callem entered the house, his footsteps unmistakable. “When you can walk, you can apologize to Cilia.”

“What?” I asked incredulously.

In a disappointed tone, Callem said, “You know why she’s here training, Storme. You made her feel defenseless and probably stirred up memories she wanted to forget.” I didn’t argue because Callem was right. “Don’t worry, she feels absolutely terrible and will apologize to you, too."

When Antal arrived, he smelled like garlic and guessed he had been preparing dinner. Callem had a small bowl of my shattered teeth. I directed him to my spine first before he worked on my teeth. It took him about twenty minutes before I could run my tongue across my restored teeth. Antal nodded at his work, “As long as the root is intact, I can restore a tooth completely. Teeth are a bit easier to deal with as I can stimulate their growth and shape them if some pieces are missing.”

After I thanked him, Wynna handed him some coin, and he left to return to Hen’s Hollow. I stood up, but phantom pain erupted. The memory was too fresh. Wynna supported me, and I walked a little unsteadily for a moment before regaining my balance. I guessed I had a sizable concussion as well that Leda had healed.

In the common room, I got to the couch and sat down. Wynna was already bringing me food to replenish me from the extensive healing. Callem sat across from me. He was accessing my mental and physical state with his golden eyes. “I’m good, Callem. Or at least I will be in a little bit.”

“Storme, no one should go through something like that as young as you are. And this is the third time you have suffered grievous injury.” He was right, I had almost died three times now in six months. Callem adjusted his position, “We have two options, Storme. We can do nothing and continue as we have done or…” he took a deep breath. “Normally, I wouldn’t suggest anything this extreme…especially for someone so young. We could train you to function through the pain. If we do so, you should be able to access your healing and other spells no matter how much pain you are in. It is not an easy path, and I am unsure if it is right for you.” I almost wanted to laugh at Callem calling me soft. Even though I wanted to avoid injury, it kept finding me.

Callem waited for my response. I asked tentatively, “So you would what, injure me, and I would try to cast spells?” When I said it aloud, it did not sound so great to me.

“It would be a gradual process. There are exercises, focusing exercises. I will teach you how to concentrate initially and handle other stimuli. Then, yes, we would gradually increase your pain tolerance…” Callem’s golden eyes had never looked so torn.

“Is this something you have done before?” I asked.

“Yes, I’ve done it many times before to others. The Skyholme elite marines—mind you, not the Wolfsguard. Each year, we selected the top twenty men and women from the sixth year of the Naval Academy who were destined to be marines. Typically, seven or eight from that groupwould pass, becoming the elite marines, the pride of the Skyholme navy, the shock troopers. The program was discontinued to fund an expansion of the Wolfsguard. 

Callem sighed, taking a pained breath. “The remaining elite marines I personally trained, 137 strong, were sent on a mission to seize the Sadian town of Forestdeep. It was a suicide mission, but they succeeded. When they called for reinforcements… no reinforcements came. They held out for eight days…” Callem drifted into painful memories, and I think his eyes watered. He rarely told us his stories, and it was easy to see why he had retired to Hen’s Hollow.

“Ok, Callem I am in.” I didn’t want to become a masochist, but I did want to increase my chances of survival. I was certain Gareth would want in as well. Hell, he would probably think it was all fun. “When do we start?” I asked hesitantly.

Callem sighed, “We will start with meditation and focusing exercises.” He got up and grabbed a thick book on the counter. “In the first chapters of this book are two important meditation exercises. One teaches you to focus on one thing, ignoring other things. The second set of meditation exercises starts you down a path of becoming aware of your pain senses and turning them off. You must practice and grasp the exercises before we proceed any further.”

“Thank you, Callem,” I said as I walked out shortly after. Wynna looked at me with a hint of pity as I left. Cilia was outside the door, waiting for me. She approached and stood in front of me. I felt a phantom pain at the sight of her, reliving the experience.

Cilia spoke with misery in her voice, “I am sorry.” She breathed deeply. “When you…when I saw…I remembered…I panicked…I saw his face, not yours…” I put up my hands to stop her.

I thought briefly before speaking, “You did the right thing, Cilia. This is why you are here. I do not hold anything against you. If you are ever in that situation again, do exactly the same, don’t hesitate.” I paused. “I am sorry that I…”

Cilia halted my words, her hand gesturing dismissively. “No, don’t apologize,” she insisted, a guilty heaviness in her tone. “Let’s just drop it.” To break the atmosphere, she added with a small grin, “Leda said you can practice with her next time. She promised not to break your neck.” I rolled my eyes.

I showed her the book Callem had given me, “Callem gave me some homework. I should get to it.”

As I was walking away, Cilia said, “Callem gave me the punishment to make dinner tomorrow. So you have the evening off.”

I stopped and turned, “Why is Callem punishing everyone?” I grinned at her, and she looked incredulous. “I better help you prepare it. Let me know when you head to the kitchen.” Cilia nodded and smiled.

I managed to make it to my loft after getting checked by everyone. Aelyn climbed up just as I opened the book Callem had given me. “So, Storme, are you planning to move back to the other loft?” Aelyn asked conversationally.

“If Gareth asks, I will,” I replied, not looking at her reaction. I started reading. The best part of the book was it was weakly enchanted, helping guide the reader through the exercises. I multi-tasked while talking with Aelyn.

“Good, he won’t ask. I just talked to him and told him you sleep better away from his loud breathing at night.” She was smiling. “Do you want to see my spell?” I nodded and gave her my full attention. She cast the spell, and a small portal appeared before her. I looked inside, and it had a bunch of Aelyn’s clothes.

“You know if you put all your clothes in there, I won’t be able to clean them,” I said half-jokingly. I had been cleaning her bedding and clothes since I had moved back to the loft. “The spell is impressive. Callem has some weapons I made for you. You should store your smaller weapons in your space in case you need them.” The conversation petered out, and I started in on the meditation techniques with the aid of the book.

Over the next few weeks, I found my plate ridiculously full. Freya only visited for a single afternoon with Monty. She was actually busy running a delivery service in town, much like Gareth and I had done. She had become addicted to making her own coin, and I praised her for it. My parents knew about my magic now too. I was actually surprised they had not visited Callem’s farm themselves.

I spent every waking hour training or studying now. The meditation techniques were not challenging to learn, but mastering them took time, even with a magical book guiding me and Callem answering questions when I encountered them. The focus was also helping in my physical training and weapons practice. I was rapidly gaining ground on Aelyn and Gareth.

The other great benefit was that the focus meditation helped me advance in my imprinting of the dimensional closet spell. It took me over two weeks to learn the meditation techniques to Callem’s satisfaction. I was far from being a master but had enough of the basics for him to proceed. The next phase was meditation while under duress. Noise while running the obstacle course, in sword practice, while cooking, and whenever else Callem could think of.

I was a bit shocked when, while meditating while working on my spell, it just clicked! I was certain my matrix now had the spell form imprinted on it for the dimensional closet spell! It had taken over two months, but finally, I had it. The new year was approaching soon, just 19 days away, so the timing was perfect.