After the contracts were in the system, Avery quit threatening her with death. It was a little jarring how much confidence she had in the system-enforced contracts. Violet decided to be very careful with any agreement she created in the future. Wording something poorly could have horrible consequences.

“Go ahead and pick up your other Water aspect, dearie. I would suggest picking up something you can attack with.”

When Violet gave her a blank look, she elaborated. “Hun, now that I know you can't spill our secrets here, I don't need to hold you captive. I will still help you get in touch with your parents, and I am still willing to teach you for your company. My terms for teaching you have changed. I will give you a month of training and then give you a challenge you must complete. You will need to decide by then if you will be staying and completing the challenge or leaving with one of my kind dropping you off at the nearest town.”

“Why did you change your mind? I thought you said you needed someone to sing and dance and entertain you while you tend your eggs.”

That statement set Avery off to a round of laughter. “Oh, girlie! The look on your face when I demanded that was priceless. Just you being around will be enough entertainment for me. Dealing with someone who does not want to be here while trying to tend to my babies is not my idea of entertainment. I would like you to stay, honey, but I don't want a prisoner.”

With the air clear, Violet decided to wait on word from her parents to decide to stay or go ultimately. After picking up the Ice Shards aspect, Avery had produced ink and paper to write her parents a note. She had written a short letter to her parents, letting them know that she had been rescued by a master magician who was willing to teach her. She asked if it would be good to stay in the letter or if they wanted her back with them immediately.

She had no idea what had happened to her parents. Avery said she did not keep up with politics, but it was likely that her parents would be accepted as refugees. Violet hoped this was true. Her parents were both hard-working people. Even if they could not find jobs as researchers, her father liked to carve, and her mother did well with embroidery.

It had taken two weeks before the messenger bird came back with a response from her parents.

Dearest Violet,

Your father and I were both very distraught when you were taken from us. The soldiers with us searched the hills for over a week before the search was called off, and it was presumed you were dead. As a result of their folly, we were granted citizenship in the Queendom of Kasmaya quickly after that. We are currently staying with a kindly grandmother who needs someone around her house to help with daily chores.

Magic is not controlled here like it was in the dominion, but finding a teacher for you would be costly. The mages here require a minimum of five years of apprenticeship and a contract to train you anything. If you have a teacher who only requires two years of your time, learning magic there is the best option.

Know that we miss you terribly and love you with our whole hearts. Please write us as often as you can.

With love,

Mom & Dad

Avery had read the letter before it was given to Violet. She claimed it was for security, but Violet thought the bird was just nosey. “It looks like you have your parent’s seal of approval.”

“If they only knew I was learning magic from an ancient bird,” Violet replied, chuckling.

“Hey now, missy! I’m not THAT old, only a few centuries. Besides, those hacks that call themselves magicians are all frauds. Oh, don't get me wrong, they can do spells, but they are all a watered-down version of what we can do.”

After receiving the letter from her parents and formally agreeing to undertake the challenge that Avery mentioned, she was constantly doing some form of training. The main focus of her training was on combat and defense. Avery did not say what the challenge would be, but she assumed it would be dangerous based on this training.

Every morning would start with her shooting ice shards at several targets until she could hit them consistently. Once she was able to hit them, the marks began to move. At first, the movement was predictable, but when that was mastered, the targets became erratic. Target training would only end when she had drained all of her mana.

Once her mana was gone, she was told to meditate and feel the mana in the air. It had taken her three weeks, but she was able to cross her Meditation barrier once she was able to identify the mana in the air. Avery was able to walk her through gaining her next skill.

[Skill gained: Mana Regeneration 1]

Mana Regeneration was a novice ranked skill that allowed her to absorb ambient mana from her surroundings to increase her regeneration rate. Her regeneration rate would change based on how much ambient mana was in the air and how high her skill was. According to Avery, their area was rich with ambient magic and warned her not to get used to getting so much back.

She was a little confused when she received a skill for magic. So far, she had been thinking of the two screens as separate entities. Asking Avery about this oddity caused another round of laughter for the gigantic bird. Her screens were part of the same system, so it made perfect sense for Violet to gain a magic-related skill when it was not connected to a specific aspect.

After she had regenerated a quarter of her mana back, she would move on to the next task of the day. This task varied from day to day based on Avery’s mood. There was often a lecture about a specific aspect followed by her using that aspect in a new way. She had been using Hypnotize almost completely wrong this entire time.

Hypnotize could be used to plant subtle suggestions in a mind. For non-sapients, this meant that she could suggest to the animal that it should do something. Success was based on what you wanted it to do. For example, if you asked a squirrel to do something it felt was dangerous, it would likely fail. If you had instead suggested to that squirrel that it should pick a few nuts from the tree it was in and drop them, it would have a higher success rate.

What Violet had been doing was the same as yelling at the squirrel with no instructions to follow. The animals froze because they were waiting for instructions. She was a little embarrassed at that mistake. Intellectually she knew what it meant to hypnotize someone.

By the second week, Avery had ordered her flock to hunt and bring back living samples of the wildlife. Several cages along the walls contained several kinds of cats, foxes, monkeys, and even some lesser birds. These animals were used for her to practice Hypnotize, Fear, and Disguise Self. She was given a set amount of time to study an animal and then disguise herself as that animal.

Her aspect lessons lasted until she had regenerated 75% of her mana. Once that happened, Enchanting classes would begin. This was another source of amusement for Avery. Violet was doing it completely wrong. She was doing it the most expensive way the ancients could devise to discourage people from learning how to enchant.

The cubes she was using were a work of a master enchanter to force unworthy people to lose synchronization and use astronomical amounts of mana. When she used one of the premade cubes, most of the mana cost would maintain the master enchant instead of what she was trying to do.

When you enchant something, no magical menu would pop up and walk her through it. All she needed to do was focus clearly in her mind on what she wanted the enchant to do and have a big enough object to inscribe a rune on. It would save her mana if she etched the symbol on the thing before trying to enchant it. Without a symbol, it would cost her mana and synchronization to inscribe the object’s rune magically. With the rune, mana smoothed out any imperfections, and synchronization would only be lost if she messed up the rune too severely.

When she asked Avery how to do complex enchants as the ancients did, she was told she needed to hit tier two before accessing anything more extensive. ‘Tier two?’ Asking about the tiers had the poor bird in another round of laughter.

“Oh dear girl. I have never met someone so uneducated in magic before. Tier two happens when you reach 100% synchronization overall between your two magic schools. It is likely your limitless trait will be a hindrance to you here. You will either get the new magic system screen when Water plus Illusion adds up to 100%, or you will get it when each school of magic hits 100%. I am quite interested to find out, girlie.”

To finish her day of training, she ran laps around the room while hitting distant targets with her Ice Shards and near targets with her Shadow Blade. She was expected to run until her mana ran out and then move on to situps and pushups until she dropped from exhaustion.

When she reached 100% synchronization adding Water and Illusion, nothing happened. She was disappointed that she did not even receive some bonus experience for the feat. Avery said not to worry. She had never heard of anyone who put effort into gaining synchronization, not eventually getting it.

When Violet inquired about making simple contracts to level her aspect, Avery informed her that she would only get synchronization for three contracts per person. Her answer to helping Violet level that part was to teach her how to make contracts that did not involve the system.

There were three types of contracts that Violet could currently make. System-based in-person, system-based via paper, and non-system-based via paper. The first type was what she had created with Avery and the most potent form of contract. She needed to be very careful about using this method and not take them lightly.

The second type of contract she could create was system-based via paper. She needed to be very careful with this type of contract as well. Death was not an option for this type of contract’s consequences, but a lifetime of slavery was. The agreement was written on special paper that could hold mana, and both parties would need to sign it using their blood as ink.

The third type of contract was the most common type of contract she should be writing. While this type of contract did not use the system interface, the system was still used to track terms. This type of contract could do several things. If the contract was for services rendered, the agreement would hold the promised payment in trust to complete services. Another use for this type of contract was for employment or to keep a secret. Both parties would be informed if the contract was broken, but the system would render no punishment.

The huge disadvantage to using the third type of contract was only an ancient Nature mage could create the paper needed to contain these contracts. Avery knew of such a mage but they did not work cheaply. When Violet asked about contracts that were being made in the city that her parents referred to, Avery said those were just paper contracts with no way of enforcing them other than being physically caught breaking one.

If someone tried to sign a contract with another’s blood, it would void the agreement. The system was heavily involved in all contracts, but it did not judge. Unfair contracts could be made, and the system would not do anything about them. With how dangerous this was, Violet made a vow to never use contracts again. She would get her synchronization up to 100% and then never touch it again.

When Violet reached 16% synchronization with Water, she asked for and was granted access to the crystal to gain another aspect. The mindscape had not changed for her. The only aspect she had easy access to was Create Water, and she felt with her use of Water Manipulation, it would be a wasted aspect for now. The middle row of aspects had two feet of water covering them.

Using Water Manipulation, she began to drag the top layer of sandy dirt away from the buried aspects.

You have located the aspect for Waterbreathing.

To obtain this aspect, you must completely unearth it. If the aspect becomes damaged, it is possible to lose it or obtain a weak version of it. Proceed with caution.

Waterbreathing was located quite deep in the dirt before she had discovered it. With this thought in mind, she was quite a bit more aggressive when she started to search the middle plot because she wanted to have enough mana left to dig all three plots. Digging down to about an inch above where she had located Waterbreathing, she used her water manipulation to dig the dirt up in that section.

You have located the aspect for Etching.

A loud crack could be heard from the plot she was digging in. This aspect was not buried anywhere near as deep as Waterbreathing had been. With her rough handling of the dirt, she had already damaged the fragile object that represented this aspect. She was afraid if she let go of the soil her manipulation was holding back, it would break even more.

Using her hands, she began to uncover and move the dirt away from the aspect gently. Unfortunately, she ran out of mana before she could completely clear the side of the soil. When her manipulation failed, she heard another crack coming from the object. She took this time to calm down and regenerate her mana.

After several hours of Meditation with Mana Regeneration, she was at full mana once again. She took her time to ensure no more damage occurred while she was excavating.

Excavation integrity calculating…

69%

Due to damage caused in the excavation process, no bonus synchronization will be awarded. This aspect will not be obtainable using this method.

Be aware, anything less than 80% integrity will begin to degrade the effects of an aspect, and anything less than 70% will destroy it.

She collapsed in mental exhaustion when she was kicked from her mindscape.

“Oh dearie, how badly did you botch it?”

She mumbled her reply.

“That is not the end of the world, sweetness. It just means you need to have someone to teach you how to use that aspect before gaining it. The process to learn any aspect manually is extremely difficult but possible with someone to guide you through it.”

[Magic]

Type

%

Aspect

Illusion

86%

Illusion

100%

Cloaking

Illusion

36%

Contracts

Illusion

100%

Dazzle

Illusion

100%

Decoy

Illusion

100%

Disguise Self

Illusion

37%

Enchant

Illusion

100%

Fear

Illusion

100%

Hypnotize

Illusion

100%

Shadow Blade

Water

16%

Water

100%

Water Manipulation

Water

39%

Ice Shards