Chapter 20 — A Mischievous Elf and a Deepways Hound

The first lecture for Geometry and Trigonometry of Purpose was an overview of the rules of numbers and ratios—material that was already explained in the first chapter of their recommended reading.

Though she was jotting down anything insightful Researcher Vimlov said, Ria couldn’t help letting her mind and gaze wander toward the sculpted shape of the Tower of Dreams, visible outside the classroom windows. Orlisi, seated next to her, couldn’t help smirking each time she noticed Ria looking, either.

A secret Moon Elf garden…

Ria halted the line of thought. The academy was huge and no doubt full of a great many secrets. If she got this worked up about every rumor she heard, she’d be chasing squirrels her entire time at the academy.

Instead, she tried to distract herself by looking at the mantles worn by her fellow students and recognized patterns for both the Woven Dream and the Order of Celestial Knowledge. Others she didn’t recognize were probably divination or enchanting Orders.

Arthur had found a friend wearing the same harvest themes of the Order of the Bountiful Harvest before class started and had chosen to sit with him instead. Was math important to their Order for calculating optimum planting and harvest times? Did they use astrological prognostication?

A secret smile slipped onto Ria’s face after successfully pronouncing those two big words in her head.

“Surely, Researcher Vimlov’s lecture isn’t that amusing…” Phoebe whispered her way when their frazzle-haired instructor paused to draw a series of diagrams onto the write-board.

“Ah…” Ria’s ears colored from getting caught letting her mind wander. “Say, Phoebe, have you heard anything about a secret garden in the Tower of Dreams?”

The curly-haired blond girl laughed. “I’m sure all the researchers have gardens of some kind. But that’s hardly anything exciting.”

Orlisi leaned over pretending to cover her grin. “She’s doing the Academy Mystery Tour.”

“Oh! Is that what it is?” Phoebe also pretended to hide a grin.

What was this? Ria looked back and forth between her two… friends?

“If you are looking for mysteries about the Tower of Dreams… the most famous one is the missing floor,” Phoebe offered, amusement showing in her eyes. “There’s one less floor on the inside than the outside.”

Really?

“Ehem.”

Ria glanced toward the front with a bit of dread, and sure enough, the throat-clearing had come from her unamused instructor who was staring her way with a raised eyebrow.

“If it’s that important a matter, perhaps you’d like to share with the class?”

Some snickers sounded out from around the room.

Orlisi waved a denial and answered the instructor with unphased enthusiasm, “Just girl-talk. I heard a rumor that Phaelys Versali might be accompanying Ria during her debut and was curious. Don’t mind me, and please proceed.”

Wha-? Why was her elf friend bringing that up now?!

“Is that really true?” Phoebe blurted out—and she wasn’t the only one. The room erupted in queries and confirmations of the rumor among the other students.

“No, not yet. He said he had to ask his dad,” Ria hedged, but for some reason, her denial inspired a mix of squeals, gasps, and outrage.

“You really asked him? Even after he hit you in the face…?” Phoebe asked in disbelief.

“I guess…?” Ria tried and shot Orlisi a glare, but the elf girl was looking the other way with her shoulders shaking.

Researcher Vimlov sighed, cast a spell that silenced all voices other than his own, and resumed his lecture.

That, of course, didn’t stop the vigorous passing of notes.

Ria decided she would have to write Researcher Vimlov an apology later.

When class ended, Orlisi grabbed Ria’s hand and they made a run for it, heading up a floor and crossing a bridge into an adjacent building before exiting out the building’s far side. Once outside, the path the elf girl chose skirted the walled edge of the Garden of Elements.

Ria was fairly certain that the second-year diviner had worked a spell before the end of class to have come up with this route. Even so, it was interesting and scenic. If there was anything she could say about the girl, attending classes with her was anything but boring.

One of her communication stones pulsed with magic to notify her of a friend wanting to talk. Ria made the stone appear and supplied it with energy to form the connection.

“Ria! You didn’t contact me! Is everything okay?” Keira’s voice queried from the stone.

“Yep! Orlisi is with me, and we’re headed to Parthanex Tower now. I’m going to see how Ranger is doing, and then I have a meeting with our Grand Games team.” Ria glanced over at the whistling elf walking beside her. “How long do you think the team practice will be, Orlisi?”

“Hmm,” the older girl considered and shrugged. “Maybe two hours? Could go a bit longer depending on what Welkin and Hulle want us to work on after the evaluations.”

“Okay. Aunt Asara sent me a visitor's pass for the Hall of Inquiry, so I think I’m going to visit Amilee for a while,” Keira decided. “I’ll come by afterwards and see how you’re doing.”

“Oh! That’s great!” Ria encouraged. “I’ll contact you if we finish up early.”

A few non-nine-circle students were leaving Pathanex Tower when she and Orlisi arrived, but the most attention they drew were acknowledging nods. Orlisi showed Ria the way to the elevator shafts from the first floor, and they rode to the fifth floor.

“The meeting will be in the third-floor hall,” Orlisi reminded her as she stepped off the platform and gave her a wink and arm flex. “Good luck on your familiar’s transformation results.”

“Right. Thanks.” Ria nodded and pushed energy into the floor number for Shadwich’s lab. “See you in a bit.”

Ria felt herself pressed down and then stretched upward as the platform accelerated then slowed to a stop at the desired floor. She was feeling a bit nervous. Amilee’s feline familiar had tentacles and extra eyes. What if Ranger had changed in some gross or weird way?

Researcher Shadwich’s door was ajar when she drew near, and an earthy smell of rich loam, metals, and gemstones wafted out from within… wait. Did gemstones have a smell?

She must have cast a shadow into the room or something because Researcher Shadwich enthusiastically called over, “Ah, Ria! You’re just in time!”

At first she entered hesitantly, but the monocled master mage excitedly waved her closer.

A glance at the tank showed Ranger sitting in his silly meditation pose, looking the same as she had left him in the morning… maybe his coat color was darker… richer? She sighed out in relief, but honestly, the change was underwhelming compared to both her hopes and her fears.

“How’re you doing, buddy?” Ria asked as she squatted down in front of the tank.

Ranger indicated he felt stronger. He seemed excited about that but couldn’t help grumbling a sentiment of itching all day long and not being able to scratch or chew at it.

That sounded like torture. Staying in the tank must’ve been really boring too.

“You did great, boy,” Ria offered, proud of his perseverance.

“One last step for today,” Shadwich announced as he brought over a potion flask from a counter with alchemy alembics and spiral-coiled tubing.

As Shadwich approached, Ria quickly realized that the potion was the source of the earthy smells from before, and as she focused on the vial, her vision changed to be full of glowing auras like it had for a moment during lunch. Not just the glass flask glowed, Shadwich, Ranger, the tower walls and floor… Rather, she was hard pressed to find anything that didn’t glow. The constant visual distraction was giving her a bit of a headache.

Was this how Ranger saw magic now? Was this why mages sought to bond with magic beasts? Ria was even more curious to see through Ranger’s eyes but was still worried that sending her energy and will across the bond would interfere with the process Ranger was undergoing, and she didn’t want to mess things up at this point when the results were looking to be a success.

“There were some difficulties that prolonged the process, but Ranger’s organs have undergone the transformation to properly metabolize earth-type energies,” Shadwich reported as he poured the glowing potion into the tank’s odd liquid, and the glow formed into a swirl around Ranger, absorbed passively by his fur and by Ranger actively breathing it in through his nose. “Interestingly, the transformation is much greedier than expected, as I’m sure you noticed from the draw on your bond earlier.”

Ria nodded. She’d actually needed to drink an energy replenishment potion when the energy stored in her staff was fully used up.

“My guess is that a combination of factors were involved, from Ranger’s age and the higher than usual quality of the reagents used, to traits passed along through the bond, and especially, continual exposure to your special affinity,” Shadwich explained, giving her a suspiciously evaluating gaze before returning his attention back to the slowing swirl of energy in the tank. “And with that, he’s finally reached a saturation point. Ready to come out, Ranger?”

Ranger shrugged and continued to meditate, which caused Shadwich to chuckle, and with the same wand the researcher had used to levitate Ranger into the tank, he levitated Ranger out and onto the enchanted cleaning platform.

As Ranger coughed out the green liquid and it was purged from his fur by the enchantment, Ria realized that she had underestimated the extent of Ranger’s transformation. His coat gained a metallic sheen with deeper slate colors and his eyes-! The whites of his eyes caught the light as if milky quartz! His irises glowed deep amber with realized power. After the coughing subsided, Ranger yawned deeply and stretched. His fangs gleamed and glittered. His muscles groaned like rock under pressure.

Ria grinned. Even if he hadn’t grown any weird new parts, he still looked so much cooler! Er… rockier? Ranger seemed to sense her admiration through the bond and gave her a proud woof.

“Is the transformation a success? Do you know what he’s become?” Ria asked eagerly.

“A Deepways Hound would be my guess going by an entry I saw in a Dwarven bestiary some years back. Got to say, I’m rather pleased with the initial results; it’s a strong foundation for the next step. We’ll need to do some testing, of course, and examine him again once the changes stabilize.” Shadwich rubbed his chin, looking proud of his work. “Speaking of testing, how about we test his new claws and his jaw strength?”

“Ah, testing…” Ria grimaced. “Welkin and the others are probably waiting on the third floor to do my evaluation by now…”

“Oh? I’ll come with you then.” Shadwich grinned and wandered off to rummage in a metal chest in another part of the laboratory.

Ria shared a look with Ranger, who shrugged and hopped down from the cleaning platform and gingerly tested walking around and sniffing at the air while they waited. With the transformation complete, Ria couldn’t hold her curiosity back any more and tapped her foot, using her Sensing Sphere to explore Ranger’s changes in more detail.

The nodes and flows now present within his body reminded her a lot of the changes her own body underwent after training with Tina and particularly after she had pushed herself beyond her limits to defeat the barbarian chieftain. It made her wonder if there was more she could do to improve herself. After all, her bones weren’t anywhere near as energy dense as Ranger’s were now, and if she could make herself stronger and sturdier, then Jarrel wouldn’t have to worry as much...

Shadwich’s grin was even larger as he returned holding up a sack that glowed in her new vision. “I’ve got just the thing. What do you say we give Ranger the opportunity to show off a bit then?”

“Woof!”

Ria was curious about both the contents of the sack and what Ranger’s new body could do and didn’t have any reason to object.

When Ria, Ranger, and Researcher Shadwich arrived at the third-floor hall, Iselyn and Malleron were already dueling with Zell, or at least that was how it looked as a furry-armed Zell dodged a puff of spores and a vicious jumping slash by Malleron to charge at Iselyn only to get slowed by a gusting wind spell.

Four of the other second and third-year team members were standing in circles inscribed into the floor and maintaining a barrier around the duelers. Welkin, Hulle, and the remaining team members observed the ongoing fight with interest.

Noticing them enter, the Order’s acting student leader waved them over.

Ria could feel Welkin’s aura of vitality wash over her as she approached. The range and power were considerably stronger than during their previous meeting.

“Oh, I see your familiar has had a breakthrough! He seemed close when we met the other day, but this has exceeded my expectation,” Welkin enthused and smiled in Shadwich’s direction. “I’m guessing Researcher Shadwich had something to do with it.”

“Indeed,” Shadwich agreed with a laugh. “It’s about time the Sages made a run at the Summer Games.”

Welkin chuckled. “Indeed it is. You have my thanks.”

“Ah! Ria’s here! Oooh, and Ranger’s looking great too!” Orlisi cheered from where she was maintaining the barrier at one of the four anchor points. “I’ve got dibs on the next battle!”

Welkin laughed. “She demanded the first fight against you, Ria, after seeing the hologram of your fight with Verdin.”

A hologram?! Was that why Phaelys had such high expectations for their duel?

“Ah, but I’m kinda low on energy right now…” Ria hedged.

“Better hurry up and meditate then,” a smirking Katria advised. “I don’t think Orlisi is going to wait long.”

“I’m afraid it’s like Katria says,” Welkin confirmed with a sympathetic smile.

Ria glanced over at Iselyn using a water-whip to strike at Zell while running around the large mushrooms that Malleron had grown to provide defensive obstacles and agreed, she'd better hurry.