T. A. Star
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10 - Spirit Bonding
🕑 Added 2024-03-09 01:00:04 +0000 UTC
Phoenix sat excitedly at the edge of the room with her back against the wall. Uriel was on her right as he watched calmly and Dazien sat on her left, grinning like a fool, with Saiya on the Defender’s other side, oddly not touching anyone except the large snowy Familiar sprawled in her lap demanding belly rubs. She hoped the Healer would adjust soon, finding the lack of her hugging behavior so disconcerting. Then she focused on observing the Emerald Caste ritualist perform the first Spirit Bonding ritual.
Rayna seemed to be trying hard to contain the desire to bounce in place as the bard’s fur almost vibrated and Phoenix had to stifle a giggle at the sight. Paul gave the Wayfarer a slight smirk and then told the voxen, “Here we go. Remember not to step out of that center circle. Even if this starts to feel a little odd, it shouldn’t cause any pain.”
Then he began to incant, “From the essence of the Primordials and the desires of the People, the spirit of the world echos through the soul of the Caster to cultivate the gifts of magic made reality,” and as the mana flowed into the runes at the Paladin’s feet near the edge of the circle it quickly spread throughout the diagram. The bright shifting rainbow colors lighting up the lines of the diagram were beautiful and it was fascinating to watch as the six Spirit Gems slowly rose into the air in unison before seeming to begin fracturing and then suddenly shattering into hundreds of tiny glittering pieces.
The shards began to swirl around the ritual circle, separating the Emerald Caster from the target at its center, and seemed to slowly constrict inwards. Piece at a time, the swarm of Spirit Gem shards mixed together and melded with Rayna who had stopped fidgeting by this point as the ritual took hold and was infusing her with magic.
Phoenix wasn’t sure if she would have been able to stay standing as it seemed like her friend was getting stung by hundreds of bees and despite Paul saying it wouldn’t hurt, she wondered if it would be different for her. It always hurt when she used an Aspect or a Spirit Gem and she was already wincing at her imagination contemplating six painful gems at once.
Perhaps she should try doing her next one with a ritual, just to test the theory and see if it was a Spirit Gems thing or her short-cutting talent causing the discomfort. The swarming stopped a moment later, distracting the Wayfarer from her idle thoughts as she refocused on the bard.
“Woah,” Rayna breathed out as she staggered only slightly, “That was a lot.”
“Happy with the results?” Paul asked, smirking as if already knowing the answer.
The voxen turned slightly with a vulpine grin and replied enthusiastically, “Oh, yeah! I am gonna mess some monsters up!”
The paladin chuckled, “Alright, let me just get this next one done for Saiya and we can go test them out in the other room.”
“The warded one?” Dazien asked for clarification.
“Unless you’d rather take her on?” the mentor asked with a raised brow as he began to redo the ritual circle.
The gemite glanced towards the bard who was grinning almost manically while cracking her knuckles and the party leader seemed to suddenly decide to live instead, “Uh, maybe once I ascend as well. The warded one will do nicely for today.”
As Saiya stood to take her twin’s place, Rayna moved with unnatural speed to Dazien’s side and threw an arm around the gemite’s neck as the Striker teased, “Aw, come on little lordling! We can test [Stand Your Ground] against my newly upgraded [Gem Distortion]!”
“Isn’t that the zone one that interrupts my spells while dealing constant damage?” the Defender pointed out with a flat look.
Phoenix’s curiosity got the better of her and she asked, “What did it cultivate into?”
Rayna held out a furred hand and the Wayfarer conjured her [Guide Book] for the bard to touch and pass on the information.
Class Ability: Gem Distortion
Type: Spell (zone, elemental, gem)
Cost: Severe mana.
Cooldown: 10 minutes.
Current Caste: Sapphire 1 (0%)
Crystal Effect: Create a Zone of vibrating gem pillars that cause mana in the area to become disrupted and inflict ongoing low Gem damage. In the Zone, Spells cost more and have an increased chance of failure or backlash.
Sapphire Effect: Any Spells already being cast are interrupted, dealing backlash damage to their Caster. Magic Constructs in the Zone are heavily damaged upon construction.
“Absolutely not!” Dazien exclaimed after reading the information, “That’ll likely destroy my sword and cause like a third of my abilities to backlash on me.”
“Is that the same as when my rituals fail?” Phoenix asked to make sure they were talking about the same thing.
“Exactly,” the bard replied with a grin, “Excellent for taking care of pesky mages.”
“Hey, now,” came the deep voice from the other side of the Wayfarer, “That doesn’t stipulate enemies which means it’ll affect this pesky mage too,” Uriel said dryly.
“Efficiency,” they all heard Saiya say from the center of the room and they all turned in confusion before realizing that the Healer was calling out her gems for Paul to write down as the voxen quickly added, “Empower, Elements, Refund, and Bolster.”
Paul nodded and wrote them down one after the other and Phoenix remembered that at Emerald Caste her mentor’s mind likely didn’t forget very much and didn’t need to pause like he had with Rayna.
A few minutes later, Saiya was also infused with new powers and they would both be able to cultivate a half dozen abilities again. Phoenix couldn’t wait to hit Sapphire and join her friends.
“I know we got a bit sidetracked earlier with the rituals and then having an impromptu training session to try out the twins’ new abilities,” Paul said as they both entered his study once more and Phoenix plopped down, completely exhausted, into the plush chair she normally claimed when visiting, “But I wanted to ask how your missions went?”
“Good,” she said with a slight groan as she stretched, her gaze roaming the wall to her left filled with leather-bound books that had no titles on the spines, before focusing on the [Guide Book] conjured into her lap to double-check her profile, “Even managed to get [Meteor Shower] and [Supernova] up to Crystal 3. Those early levels go pretty fast.”
He raised an eyebrow in her direction as he tapped a [Mana Bit] to a rune on the kettle at his desk, the Mundane currency melting into it, and asked, “Exactly how much damage did you do to the tundra?”
“Let’s just say that next Spring there will be some lovely lakes for people to visit in the southwest,” she said with a cheeky grin. Then she frowned and asked, “Actually, does the tundra even get Spring?”
“No,” the older man said with a flat look as he sat down at his desk across from her seat, “We get about three months of summer when the snow melts and some sparse plant growth. If it wasn’t for the Reality Rift below us and the Cultivator’s Citadel, I doubt there’d be a city here at all.”
“Your family must be really important then, with their ties to said deity,” she observed, leaning further back into the chair and contemplating napping right there.
“It is,” the Paladin confirmed, then pushed forward a thick stack of papers, tapping the edge of it that was nearest her as he added, “And if you sign your name right here, it’ll be your family too.”
Phoenix leaned forward, suddenly very alert and interested as she asked, “Seriously? I half expected you to change your mind after I blew myself up in Tulisuda and exposed my secret to the party and almost got caught by the AOA Director too. She was not happy that our party bailed right after the raid without so much as a goodbye.”
Paul grimaced slightly, “Yes, well… you weren’t the only one she decided to berate. Agatha even threatened to make me an Inquisitor.”
She scrunched her nose at the title that gave her some particularly negative imagery as she asked, “What’s that?”
“One of the rarer titles that can be bestowed on Adventurers,” he began to explain for her as he pulled a teacup out of one of the desk drawers and she declined his questioning gesture for one, “She made me an Emissary when I arrived back in Tulimeir mainly because I’m the Lord of a noble House and know how to deal in politics.”
He pulled out his green Alliance of Adventurers’ license to show her the runes, each wrapped in a circle, that was engraved upon it, “It means I can be assigned any missions that might deal with the aristocracy,” then he pointed at the symbol beside the first, “Then she made me a Delegate once I became a Paladin again which works the same way but for temple missions.”
The Emerald Caster placed the stone card back into his belt pouch before adding, “While those are uncommon, they’re not exactly rare or have any extra duties. An Inquisitor, however, is the one who handles the missions that target other Adventurers.”
He grimaced once more at the thought, “Dealing with traitors or conflicts between parties… It’s not a pleasant position to hold.”
The redhead chuckled, “I bet. Let me guess; it causes all the other Adventurers to either be too afraid to work with you or completely despise you as some kind of internal spy?”
“Basically,” he confirmed, “Most people don’t last long in the position and those that do are not the friendly type.”
“Actually, on second thought, are you sure you don’t want it?” the Wayfarer asked, giving a cheeky grin, “Doesn’t that give you an excuse not to have to deal with others unless absolutely necessary?”
He gave her an amused look and said, “That is a fair point but I fear it would reflect poorly upon your own party. Agatha knows this too which is why she used it as a threat.”
“Wait, so she threatened the position not because you would hate it but because it might make others hate me?” the Wayfarer asked, slightly baffled at the idea.
“Welcome to politics. It’s something you’ll have to get used to, unfortunately,” he grumbled, then watched her closely as he prodded, “Unless you’re the one who’s changed their mind?”
Her face scrunched up but she shook her head, “No. I might not like the politics but I want to go ahead with this. You’ve done so much for me and everyone agreed that it will help me in the future. Besides, you said I wouldn’t have to deal with the political side of things that much.”
“True…” her mentor said slowly in a way that made his hesitation obvious.
Her eyes narrowed at him and she clarified with emphasis, “I won’t have to, right, Paul?” he glanced down at the desk suddenly as he fiddled with a few more papers, taking the moment to also pour the now-hot water from the kettle into his cup, and Phoenix pressed him further, “Right, Paul?”
“Well, there might be a few things that you may perceive as political but I wasn’t about to tell her ‘no’ again,” he said in an evasive defensive maneuver.
“Tell who ‘no’? And ‘no’ to what?” Phoenix asked suspiciously.
“Well, you see,” the Paladin tapped the stack of papers once more to make her attention focus on the task rather than the man himself as he explained, “This will legally make you my heir. The sole inheritor of not just my physical holdings but also my title… and the responsibilities that go with it.”
He paused for a moment as if to make sure she was following along and she nodded, still glaring at him with suspicion, so he continued, “Since I am the Lord of House Wayland that would make you next in line automatically since I haven’t declared another. This gives you much protection in most regards but will make you a target in other very specific cases.”
“Like when an AOA Director who is lower Caste than you wants to exert some form of authority… or threat?” Phoenix hedged with a frown, finally starting to see the potential ramifications.
“Exactly so,” he confirmed, steeping what looked like a round metal jingle bell that she knew had tea leaves within in the hot water, then added, “Now, I currently plan to pass that title over to my sister once the blood moon has ended. Pati believes that, if I remain as Lord during this time, it will not only help make the House look even stronger but give hope to the people who have placed their trust in our family.
“When Pati becomes the Lady of the House, then her oldest child, Patric, will become the next heir. This means that once I abdicate, then the focus around you will lessen but not vanish. You will be a Wayland from this moment forward, with all the privilege, attention, and responsibility that entails.”
Phoenix mulled over his words for a few moments, while he tentatively sipped at the bitter concoction, then leaned forward and took the pen he had laid on top of the stack, carefully signing her name at the bottom of the page next to Paul’s own.
They smiled at each other warmly before Paul broke the moment by saying a bit sheepishly, “I don’t suppose now would be a good time to inform you about the celebration I couldn’t say ‘no’ to?”
Her eyes grew wide with panic as she replied quickly, “Celebration? How is a celebration part of noble duty and responsibility?!”
“Don’t get too angry at him,” a playful feminine voice came from the door behind her and, when Phoenix turned to look, she found none other than Patricia Wayland standing there smiling cheerfully. “In his defense, he was against the whole thing, knowing that you would likely be uncomfortable.”
“Extremely uncomfortable,” the Wayfarer emphasized.
“But, I insisted. Despite both of your distaste for politics, it is customary to hold a celebration when a noble House gains a scion, especially an heir. The other Houses will want to put a face to the name and understand the new potential dynamics. It’s not every day a new noble is born, after all.”
“So, just to make sure I’m understanding this correctly,” Phoenix began as her gaze narrowed on her now-aunt, “You want to have a party that parades me around so that all the other nobles know exactly who to target for their political shenanigans?”
Patricia’s smile widened, “Exactly.”
“Whhyyy?” she whined incredulously.
“The name won’t protect you much if nobody knows that you’re the one who has it,” the older woman pointed out, then feigned a moment of contemplation as she said, “You should also make sure to wear something that will proudly show off that Soul Mark.”
Phoenix’s jaw dropped then she turned back to look at Paul for backup but the man seemed thoroughly engrossed in reading the book he suddenly held in his hands while sipping at his tea and she realized with horror that this was one battle he was going to make her fight entirely on her own.
Before she could ask, the priestess explained, “There are many reasons for this but two specifically that make me want to insist on the issue. First, if the other nobles see that you are Favored by six deities they will be much less likely to use you as a political tool for their own agendas. None of them want an angry god interfering with their aspirations, after all.
“Second, if the people under our own banner hear you are Favored by the Cultivator, they will be much more accepting of your newfound position. While our family hasn’t been exactly strict about who marries or is adopted in, I suspect your particular position as heir apparent, however temporary, will make some feel ill at ease thinking the House will be stolen by someone who is not of the bloodline.”
“Uhg, I don’t care about any of this heir nonsense. Despite what Dazien says, I’m an Adventurer, not a princess,” Phoenix complained as she sank further into her seat. Then she muttered in a more subdued manner, “If it will shield me from the nastiness of politics, though, I guess I can suffer through one party.”
The noble priestess clapped her hands together, “Excellent. We’ll hold it in a week. That should give the others plenty of time to prepare and, hopefully, your Noble Reveal will put some of our rivaling Houses back in their places.”
Phoenix’s jaw dropped in disbelief as she stared at what she suddenly realized at that moment wasn’t a noble lady or a generous priestess but a venomous politician who was poised to strike.
As she turned to stare at Paul, he glanced up and gave an apologetic shrug as he muttered, “Probably should have checked the fine print before signing.”
Comments
T. A. Star
I curate most of them using Midjourney, editing as needed by hand in Clip Studio, and commissioned some of the monster ones (with signatures) from my kid 😁 I enjoy the process of prompt engineering and adding them as a fun little bonus.
Calvin Hughes
Thanks for the chapter. Btw, I assume you are drawing all of the chapter illustrations? I absolutely love them!
Custus
Thanks for the chapter!
