World Sphere - 29 - New Friendships

Chapter 29 New Friendships

The next morning, there was still some tension with our new arrivals. Aelyn had taken weeks to acclimate to Gareth and me, and now we had two more young women sharing the bunkhouse with us. While Gareth was uncertain about living with two more women, it didn’t bother me. However, there were challenges. The biggest negative that morning was how loud Leda was after waking up. She was a loud talker, and I was thankful that at least Cilia's responses came softly from their loft. So far, Cilia's only positive was her quietness.

The five of us dressed in our workout clothes and moved to the farmhouse for breakfast. Callem was inside and had ham steaks, pancakes, fresh fruit, and the red juice out. He was all smiles this morning as well—Callem rarely smiled. He was probably thinking about how to torture all of us today during training. As we dug in, I learned the new daily routine they had discussed last night while Sebastian gifted me spells.

After breakfast, we would all stretch, and most of us would do farm work for two hours. During this time, I would prepare dinner with Wynna, avoiding the farm work. We would then do an abbreviated stretching routine, as, apparently, Cilia and Leda had failed to meet Callem’s minimum expectations for mobility. Then, we would work on wrestling, hand-to-hand combat, submission holds, and escapes for three hours. During this time, Wynna would prepare lunch.

After lunch, we would have a free hour. Then, we would do strength and conditioning training for two hours. Immediately after that, we would have two hours to practice sword forms, with absolutely no sparring. Following that, we would have two free hours before dinner to bathe, relax, or study. My free time might be a bit limited since I had to prepare dinner for everyone. After dinner, we would have about an hour of instruction from Wynna and Aelyn about the lowlands. When I asked when we would get a day off, Callem simply said he would give us a day off when he thought we needed it, which to me implied we would never get a day off.

Well, when we started the stretching routine, I was in heaven. Cilia and Leda were both less flexible than me, so I was no longer at the bottom of the ladder in something! I kept my face straight, not revealing my joy, and it seemed Aelyn went out of her way to show how much better she was at stretching than the two new arrivals. Watching the young woman set their hierarchy of competency in stretching was humorous. Gareth was engrossed watching all three of them for other reasons.

After stretching, I went to prep dinner and decided to go with southern fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, coleslaw, and cornbread. It was the first time I would be making this meal, and it really required little preparation on my part, so it gave me time to study the obfuscate spell. I prepared enough for twenty people, and I hoped it was enough to feed everyone, but I had been wrong before.

The first wrestling and hand-to-hand combat did not go well. Everyone was trying to prove that they were the best. There was really no contest, as Gareth could easily best any of us. Aelyn was slippery, quick, strong, and learned quickly. She elbowed Gareth in the sternum twice when he had wrapped an arm around her chest while they tangled their legs. I had to heal his broken sternum, broken noses and many other injuries. Cilia was also fairly aggressive against Gareth and me. I did my best not to grab anything that would cause me to get an elbow to the sternum or face, but she did not make it easy.

Leda, on the other hand, was having a blast as it was apparent she liked wrestling. She may be in love with Cilia, but she obviously also liked men, and she made an effort to put me and Gareth in compromising positions. I was glad my aether core growth was still hindering my own libido once again. Gareth wasn’t so lucky and had to break an engagement with Leda twice due to his growing embarrassment. Of course, all this did was make Cilia disgusted with Gareth and me.

Cilia and Leda were shocked as I healed everyone a few times during the training. I ignored inquiries by Leda asking how much aether I actually had but knew it wouldn’t be the last time she asked as I spammed my minor healing spell dozens of times. With revealing my endless aether to Cilia and Leda, I hoped Callem and Sebastian had a plan to keep my secrets.

I was happy for lunch, which consisted of a hearty vegetable stew and sandwiches. The sandwiches were smoked turkey, cheese, lettuce, and bacon with a mayo spread. It was a combo I had suggested to Wynna in the morning while I was cooking. I was happy to see Leda talking with Aelyn during lunch. She was offering to share some of her clothing with her so she could dress better. Cilia would have been a closer fit, but she was still tempering her interactions with Aelyn. Wynna took that as a cue to promise to go to town tomorrow to get some clothes for Aelyn.

After lunch, I was studying my spell under a tree at the edge of the fields when Leda sat beside me. Aelyn was nearby practicing her tumbling and keeping an eye on the interaction, probably reading Leda's thoughts. “So, Storme,” she started, “tell me about yourself.” I put the book down and tried not to show irritation at being interrupted. We were going to be living together for a few months, and I planned to try to be nice.

“You first,” I said, reflecting the question.

She had a bright white smile on her face, highlighted by her tanned complexion. “Well, I come from a good family. We have been enchanters for six generations. My older brothers and older sister are carrying on the legacy, but I am terrible at it. My father sent me to the Mage’s Academy, and I only had minimal space to imprint spells, so I transferred to the Naval Academy in the first month. I am in training to be an attendant. That is someone who serves as the right hand of an officer, doing their paperwork, handling meetings, and such. That is how I was paired with Cilia since she is on a captain’s track.” So, captains were not chosen because of merit in Skyholme, apparently. Finished, she asked, “And you?”

“Tell me about enchanting. I have always been interested in the craft but never had the opportunity to study it.” Once again, I deflected to make her talk and closed the book to show she had my attention.

She seemed to acquiesce and began speaking, “Well, enchanting is really about creating spell forms with metals. You need to have a steady hand and be skilled at working with metal. Silver mixed with tier three aether dust is the most common mixture for writing out the runes with an artificed stylus. Those enchantments should last longer than a human’s lifetime. The silver will degrade over time, but as I mentioned, it should last fifty to seventy years, provided the silver lines are thick enough.”

“You could use platinum, which lasts ten times as long, but that gets expensive. Then there is mithril, which doesn’t degrade at all over time. Then there are the materials you put the runic spell forms into. Certain types of wood are good insulators. Gold is a good insulator as well, but once again, it can be expensive, and the gold actually degrades over time, usually at a pace similar to platinum. Adamantine is the prime insulator; aether cannot permeate it at all, and it never degrades. My family primarily uses wood and silver to create household items such as cooling chests, freezer chests, cooking surfaces, room heaters, various lights, and sound capture boxes for recording music. These are our main products.” Leda was finally not flirting and seemed happy to talk about her family. “You have to share something about yourself, though. Come on! Cilia and I are curious, not that she would ever ask!”

“I didn’t realize how involved enchanting and artificing was. Thank you for the lesson.” I took a deep breath and then spoke about myself, “I have a younger sister and older brother. My father is a skyship guard, and my mother is a leather carver. I have been friends with Gareth since before I was allowed to go out on my own in town. As you know, I have an awakened core and you also know I have some healing magic and the cleanliness spell.” I thought that was enough.

“Yeah, I never thought I would ever be jealous of someone’s magic like I am of your cleanliness spell. What is that intoxicating smell? I can't seem to place it.” She asked, smiling.

“Vanilla,” I said.

“Vanilla,” she mumbled, committing the name to memory. “I only have one free spell slot left, and I am seriously considering that spell. Can I borrow your spell book?” She asked with big brown eyes and a grin. She actually looked kind of cute, and I could see Aelyn eyeing her interactions with me from a few yards away. Aelyn reminded me of a mother hen ready to protect her chicks. Is that what Aelyn thought of me, a chick that needed protecting? I suppose she needed to protect me since I wore her ring.

“Sure, do you have any enchanting books I could borrow in exchange?” I asked.

“Yes! I have three basic primers with me. One for the heating rune, one for the cold rune, and one for the light rune. You can borrow all three while I work to imprint the cleanliness spell.” She was actually pretty excited as she left, and Aelyn came to me and squatted to talk to me.

“She was being genuine with you. She truly wanted to know more about you,” She paused. “Can I borrow the cleanliness spell after Leda?”

This caught me off guard. She had lied to me about knowing a spell and I didn’t know if she had an awakened core. “Do you have any spells? How much space does your aether matrix have?” I asked, but she shrugged her shoulders, not knowing the answer.

“I never had money to get a spell I really wanted. I probably wouldn't have had the patience to learn it anyway. I did talk with Wynna and she said when she went to town tomorrow, she would bring her daughter back to do a joint reading on me. Apparently, they are stronger together when they do a reading together. Is that okay?”

“Aelyn, that mark on your neck means nothing to me. You can do whatever you want. There is no need to ask for my permission. I would prefer if you didn’t go around reading other's thoughts but I must admit the ability is useful.” I admitted reluctantly. “I count you a friend,” I added while making eye contact with her. She nodded, looked away quickly, not wanting to show weakness, and returned to her practice. I went back to my book.

Conditioning was actually fun for me today as well. Gareth and Aelyn had their own private competition, but I easily outclassed Leda. Even though Cilia was quite strong, I still managed to beat her on the obstacle course and during the weight training, which annoyed her to no end. I don't know if it was the fact that I was five years her junior or the fact that I was a male.

We moved on to sword forms next, and it was clear Cilia was skilled with her blade. Callem still spent a lot of time correcting her. It was the first time I noticed her putting in a tremendous amount of effort. She was probably imagining using the blade against Abaddon Bricio. She also understood the value of Callem's feedback.

Gareth, for his part, was able to perform his forms easily while still observing everyone else and occasionally voicing corrections for us. He usually directed his comments at me, as Aelyn and Cilia seemed to ignore his corrections for a moment before actually making the suggested adjustments when he looked away frustrated. With everyone sore from conditioning, the sword forms were quite challenging. ‘Not easy’ was Callem’s way. It had something to do with working through adversity.

When we were finally done, I was glad to have a few hours to study while the girls bathed in the stream. Gareth tried to talk to me, but I told him I needed to study, so he went for a walk in the woods. After he left, I hoped he didn’t get caught spying on the girls bathing because I was fairly certain that was his plan.

I was called by Callem to make dinner and prepared a massive southern fried chicken dinner for everyone. I was amazed at how famished everyone was. After I told them they were supposed to eat the chicken with their hands, I had trouble frying it fast enough to keep it stocked on the table. There wasn’t much conversation at the table other than everyone giving suggestions to Wynna on what types of clothes to get Aelyn in Solaris City. I also gave her a list of ingredients I was running low on. I planned to make mini bacon cheeseburger sliders tomorrow with a three-bean salad and roasted corn on the cob.

After dinner, Callem said I could heal everyone who needed it. I had healed myself earlier, so I just had to get everyone else. The lesson tonight was on the Sadian kingdom. Wynna had a map showing their territory in detail and the arcs that the Skyholme islands traveled over their lands. We had five outposts in the lowlands, according to the maps on the table but they were old maps. Three were near the Sadians, and the other two were by dungeon entrances. Aelyn did most of the talking tonight about the cities on the map she had visited, and we all listened intently.

After dinner, I went to my loft immediately and returned to my studying, but Leda interrupted me by climbing up to my loft with the three enchanting primer books, so I gave her my cleanliness spell book off my shelf. She was shocked by the author, Sana Velin. Apparently, she was more famous than I had known, an archmage who grew up in Skyholme, and all her spell books were quite valuable. She promised to treat it with respect.

My head rested on the wooden wall divider between Aelyn’s bed and me so that when she climbed up into the loft an hour later, we could talk quietly. “Gareth is upset. He thinks you are becoming attached to me.” I was a bit shocked by the revelation. “I think you should move over to his loft. It would solve his insecurities.” This was a bit shocking as Gareth and Aelyn butted heads daily. This showed she was concerned for him. Maybe he was rubbing off on her.

I yelled across the room to Gareth’s loft, “Gareth can I move over there tomorrow? Aelyn tosses and turns in her sleep and keeps me up.”

Gareth sat up instantly, “Yes. I will clean things up a bit. We can move you tonight!” Aelyn had been right. Gareth missed me. I didn’t miss his stinky feet, loud breathing when he slept or him constantly leaving his dirty clothes on the floor. At least I had my cleanliness spell and maybe I could make some earplugs.

“Tomorrow is fine, but clean up tonight,” I yelled back.

I was the last one asleep as I struggled to imprint the obfuscate spell. I did get some good news as I was able to feel my mend flesh spell had advanced to level four. One more level, and I could evolve the spell again. My cleanliness spell was also on the verge of level six. Even though I only had the two spells, they were advancing. I fell asleep doing aether core exercises and casting my cleanliness spell, filling the entire bunkhouse with a vanilla scent.