Will went through his apothecary and found the recipe for the Dragon’s Heart potion. He gave it a quick study, making sure the procedure wouldn’t be too difficult, and then copied out the ingredients he would need to purchase. After that was done, he found the next item he was interested in, alchemical fire. The ingredients for that were simple, though one in particular was exceedingly dangerous. “White phosphorous,” he muttered to himself. He’d never used it before, or even seen it, though he was fairly sure the Alchemy Department had access to it. He hoped it wasn’t too expensive.
He added everything to his list, then handed it over. “I hope it doesn’t cost too much, but unless it’s astronomical I’ll find a way to pay for everything. Tell Karlovic they can put everything in the laboratory I’ve been renting.”
She took the paper, folded it up, and slipped it into an opening in the side of her kirtle. “Do I need to take some coin with me?”
“The professor trusts me,” said Will. “I can settle accounts with him later as long as it doesn’t run into hundreds of marks.”
“What will you do in the meantime?” asked Janice.
“Learn some new spells,” he answered. “I’d like to be better prepared tonight. If it hadn’t been for Tiny, I wouldn’t have lived to see the dawn today.”
She smiled—at Tiny, not him. “Anyone would feel safer with such a friend nearby,” she remarked. “It was a pleasure meeting you, John.”
Tiny dipped his head. “And you, Miss Edelman.”
“Janice,” she corrected as she made her way to the door. “Try to stay safe tonight.” There was a short pause, then she added, “Both of you.”
After the door closed, Will couldn’t help but laugh, whereupon Tiny gave him a mild punch to the shoulder. At least, he assumed it was supposed to have been a mild punch, as he collected himself from where he had fallen. The big man didn’t ordinarily engage in horseplay, for reasons that were now obvious to him.
“Sorry,” said Tiny.
Will rubbed his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t have laughed.”
“I don’t know why I did that. I’m just a little punchy since last night.”
Sure, that’s what it is, thought Will sarcastically, but he held his tongue. “My nerves aren’t much better,” he sympathized.
“I’m going to clean my armor and gear. Since you’re going to be busy learning spells, do you want me to do yours too?” offered Tiny.
It was a generous offer, but Will had to decline. Selene’s spell had done the trick when he had cast it that morning. He hadn’t known it could handle armor, but apparently his brilliant wife had thought of just about everything when she had designed it. “I did mine this morning,” he explained.
“I won’t disturb you until you come down. See you this evening.” Although Will knew his friend wanted nothing more than to not have to go back out, the big warrior didn’t whine or wheedle about it. Some might have said it was because he was a professional soldier, and while there was some truth to that, Will knew that soldiers loved to bitch and complain as a form of stress relief. Tiny was just solid. Rock solid.
Damn, I’m getting sentimental again, thought Will. Shaking his head, he sat down and tried to concentrate. The first spell he was interested in learning was Ethelgren’s Illumination, which turned out to be approximately sixth-order, in terms of difficulty. Of course, there was no official rating listed with the spell—it was too old for that. Will judged it based on prior experience.
Given the difficulty, he guessed it would take him an hour or two to successfully construct the first time and possibly several days before he could recreate it without referring to his notes. He could try it out once and then keep it prepared for use that night. As long as he only needed it once, that would be fine. The time required to learn it, though, meant he’d have to forego learning anything else but one or two of the simpler fire spells.
He thumbed through the other book he had ‘borrowed’ from the school library, Fire Spells for Fun and Profit. The author turned out to have quite a sense of humor, though the man had apparently not thought much of using fire in battle.
Fire is arguably the least imaginative form of attack. Easily seen, easily countered, dangerous to self and enemy alike, it is the first choice of fools and novices. To master it, one should learn to use it as a tool first, rather than for battle, and for battle it should generally be one’s last option.
“Damn,” muttered Will. “He didn’t beat around the bush.” He flipped through the pages and then went to the index in the back to find the page numbers for actual spells. He didn’t have time to spend on philosophy lessons.
He found a variety of different spells, some quite simple and others vastly more complicated. One that caught his eye was a spell that launched a small number of flaming spheres at an enemy, but when he turned to its page, it was fourth-order at least. He wouldn’t have time. Eventually he settled on a third-order spell called ‘bonfire.’ It was essentially an enhanced fire starter that included parameters to allow the user to start as well as maintain larger fires. It wouldn’t be much use in combat, but against an unmoving target it would be handy. He figured he could use it to get rid of vampire remains.
Maybe I should tell Janice not to worry about the ingredients for alchemical fire. I might not need them if I can use this spell. He’d have to bring it up when he saw her later.
With that decision made he turned to the third spell he needed to learn, the iron-body transformation. He had only glanced at it the day before, but it was as he remembered, hideously complex. It was also an old spell, and not officially rated for its difficulty, but he guessed it was at least eighth-order, or possibly even ninth. This one could take weeks, assuming I’m even able to manage it. He had only just succeeded with his first eighth-order spell that morning.
Will took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. It was easy to let things overwhelm him, but he’d learned to manage by breaking problems down into small pieces. Ethelgren’s Illumination was doable, so he would work until he had succeeded once, then prepare it for later. After that he would memorize the bonfire spell. It was simple enough he would be able to recreate it when needed. Once those two things were done, he would spend half an hour on the new iron-body transformation.
The trick with complex spell constructs was to approach them slowly and methodically. With Selene’s Solution he had done the same thing, familiarized himself, then spent a short period of time each day attempting to construct it. It was simply a matter of patience and perseverance. While most second-year students were still fussing over third- and fourth-order spells, he had just succeeded with an eighth-order spell.
Ethelgren’s Illumination took him a little longer than he had anticipated, but the bonfire spell took less. After his self-imposed hour of familiarization with the iron-body spell, he used his remaining time to run through his daily practice of forming and dismissing each spell he had learned up to that point, everything from the source-link to the sleep spell. Now that included Selene’s Solution as well. The point of the exercise was to ensure that he retained all the skills he had previously acquired.
Arrogan had told him that such a routine would eventually result in him being able to reflex cast almost anything he had learned, though it might take years, or even decades for the more complex spells. At the moment the only thing he could reflex cast was the point-defense shield, and that had proved enormously useful, having saved his life at least a dozen times already.
He even finished that routine with some time to spare, so he went outside and practiced the force-lance as he had been doing for months. Repetition was the key to speed, and he was sure that soon it would become the second spell he could use with just a thought.
The sun was getting low in the sky when he finally decided to stop and rest. Sitting down on an old stump that frequently served him as a chair at such times, he summoned the limnthal and sought Arrogan’s advice.
“How long as it been since you asked me about the vampire storage thing?”
“That was last night. It’s almost evening again, so I’ll be going out again soon.”
“Idiot! That means you don’t have time to do anything.”
Will sighed. “Before you get your tail bent, let me bring you up to date.” He detailed the afternoon’s events, from Janice’s visit and news, to his study and practice choices. It took almost ten minutes, but the ring waited patiently until he was done.
“All right, maybe you didn’t do too badly,” admitted the ring. “Your priorities line up pretty well with what I would have advised. Now shut up and listen. There are some things you need to be made aware of. Where are you now?”
“Outside, behind the house Selene bought.”
“Move farther away, maybe a hundred yards or so, then put a force-dome around yourself.”
“Can I ask why?”
“Not until you do as I say, jackass!” swore Arrogan.
“All right, fine! Calm the hell down,” Will snapped, already beginning to move. After a few minutes he had found a secluded area out of sight of the house. The force-dome took him five or six seconds, and then he told the ring he was ready.
“Now, look around yourself. Make certain the area inside the force-dome is empty.”
That seemed silly. “It is. I’d know if someone was next to me.”
“Do it! Look carefully. You aren’t looking for someone physical. You’re looking for astral presences.”
“Excuse me? Did you say astral presences?”
“Sorry, I should have said asshole presences, since obviously we have one here already. Yes, you lackwit, astral.”
“I have no idea what that is, much less what it would look like.”
“Pretend you’re looking for ghosts.”
“I thought ghosts weren’t real.”
A low growl issued from the ring. “I used to think that too, until I realized your brain died of stupidity ages ago and that I’ve since been listening to your ghost talk out of your ass. Just humor me.”
Will did his best. “I don’t see anything, but the question is, would I?”
“Probably, yes,” said Arrogan. “You’ve demonstrated astral abilities on two occasions that I know of. The corollary of that is that if you’ve developed that ability to any degree you should also be able to sense others proximal to you on the astral plane.”
It took Will a second to process that sentence. His vocabulary had expanded dramatically in the years since he had started studying with his grandfather, but it didn’t mean he was used to using all those new words in actual conversation.
“Proximal means close or nearby,” explained the ring condescendingly.
“I knew that,” said Will in exasperation. “It just took me a second to sort it all out. You’re talking about when I left my body after the snake bit me, right?”
“And again, when Aislinn and I were talking.”
“There was a third time,” offered Will. “When I was being whipped. I left my body and the goddess talked to me.”
“That one sounds more like a delusion, but either way, you’ve definitely developed some astral ability.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“Mostly, yes. Over time, a large portion of practitioners in my day would eventually develop such abilities. It was rather random to be honest. Periods of extreme stress, like nearly dying, or being whipped half to death, are excellent experiences to initiate such events, but if you live long enough, it’s almost guaranteed to happen eventually. The important thing for you to know is that some people can and do use those abilities to spy, just as you did the other day.”
“That was an accident,” argued Will.
“Whatever. The point here is this: force effects extend across both the physical realm and the astral and ethereal realms, so if you ever want to be certain of your privacy, a force-dome like this is a must.”
“Ethereal?”
“It’s like the astral but it’s physical, and considerably more dangerous to play around with. Let’s not get into that today.”
“I don’t have enough context for any of what you just said to make sense,” complained Will.
“You don’t have much time left either, numbskull, but fine. You know about congruences, places where our plane of existence touches other worlds, like Faerie. The astral plane is one that doesn’t have any congruences with our world because it touches it everywhere. It touches our world at every point. It’s sort of like skin, covering every part of your body, but in this case, it covers every part of our world, as well as every other world.
“So the key here is that you won’t see congruences with the astral, because it’s already everywhere. Another point to remember is that it isn’t a physical plane, like ours is. Only the mind or spirit, whatever you want to call it, can travel there.
“The ethereal is similar, except it actually is a physical plane and you can travel there. It’s sort of like a mirror copy of our reality, except that when you’re there, this world is intangible, ghost-like, and when you’re here, the ethereal is intangible to you. Do you understand?”
Will rubbed his temples. “I have so many questions.”
“Well, stuff them for now. We have a few high-priority things to cover before the sun goes down. Number one, your grandmother may or may not be trying to kill you.”
He had gathered that from the conversation he had overheard previously. “And you think she’s using the astral plane to spy on me?”
“She can’t access the astral plane,” said the ring. “She’s fae. They quite literally don’t have souls the way we—er, you—do. Their physical existence is actually a piece of the Faerie realm, so they can’t separate from it and access a purely mental plane like the astral.”
“Then why did you want me to use this force-dome?”
“How many friends do you have, Will? No, never mind, don’t answer that. There’s no point in me humiliating you by focusing on your stunted social growth. Think instead about how many people you know, how many you can ask favors of, how many owe you a debt, or could be paid to help. You’re still just a child. Aislinn is powerful beyond your conception. She’s regarded as a goddess in many parts of the world, and she’s had centuries to cultivate allies and resources. What does this tell you?”
Will was nodding along, having already gotten the point. “She could have all sorts of different people or beings spying on me in any number of ways. Also, you have a lot of balls saying my social growth is stunted. You were a hermit when I met you.”
“I used to have lots of friends,” argued Arrogan, “but let’s not get into what I did to them. I just want you to be aware that you can’t blindly trust Aislinn.”
“It’s a little late for that.”
“You just need to keep in mind that she’s essentially insane. She’s almost like two different people battling for control. One is the memory of her human self, the one who promised to stay true to her original principles as a decent human being, even as she was slowly being eroded away by the essence of Faerie. The other is what she actually is, an immortal, immoral, and ultimately selfish creature that vehemently despises the promises that her previously mortal self made before her transformation was complete.”
He shook his head. “I just don’t understand how she can be both.”
“Imagine this as an example. Perhaps there’s something dangerous about to come along, like a vampire apocalypse. Her promise forces her to help you, but she can justify a lot by telling herself that surviving such a thing without her assistance will make you stronger. A lot can be ignored by saying it’s for your own good. Depending on how she stretches things, she could almost justify trying to kill you herself, or setting you up for any number of near-fatal challenges. One part of her is bound to offer you advice, while the other is actively hoping it can find something that will put you out of her misery.”
Thinking back on Tailtiu’s frequently murderous attempts to teach him to expect surprise attacks, he could see how Aislinn’s methods might be similar on an entirely different and more terrifying scale. “Are you suggesting she engineered this vampire problem?”
Arrogan was silent for a moment. “I don’t know. I can’t say for certain either way, but there’s a possibility of that and you should be aware of it.”
“But if that’s true—” Will stopped; his brain couldn’t complete the thought. Finally, he burst out, “Tailtiu is her daughter!”
“Maybe that was accidental. Then again, maybe she felt Tailtiu was helping you too much. Either way, I can assure you she won’t feel a thing no matter what happens to her daughter.”
The sky was growing steadily darker, prompting Will to hurry. “So what do you think I should focus on right now?”
“First, you guarded that bastard Nerrow’s house last night. There was an attack, but what about elsewhere? Was there a slaughter like I predicted? Were there a few attacks or many? You need to keep your eye on the bigger picture. Laina Nerrow may just be a small part of the story.”
Will hadn’t inquired about any of that. But I should have. There were simply too many things that needed to be done, and he was only one person. “I’ll find out what I can in the morning.” Then he released the limnthal, dismissed the force-dome, and headed back to the house. Tiny was waiting for him.