Excerpt from Alexan’s Seventh Journal, Tour of the Small and the Strange.

It probably shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Gnomes have such a good sense of danger. Being small enough to be prey for many a beast, they have the patience to match. Suly has been with me for quite some time now, and she is a very good example of that gnomish sensitivity and patience.

On the other hand, she’s also very sensitive to the mispronunciation of her name. The patience that seemed intended to help her avoid danger doesn’t extend to her name being misused.

Unnamed Talkarn

"I can throw them just fine, though," Tal complained.

Nolsa gave Tal a look that said that he should know better. "That might be the case, but not all spells can be thrown like that. How would you like to grab a ball of fire with your bare hand?"

"Mmmm," Tal grumbled, getting ready to start over. Nolsa interrupted him by lightly touching his knee.

Tal and Nolsa sat in a pair of weathered chairs in the ruined main room of the mining hut. Easil sat on the ledge at the window, gem fruit pit in his hands. While Nolsa was giving Tal some one-on-one lessons Easil idly worked on storing a spell in the pit and kept watch outside.

They’d set up just at the door that led from the main room to the workshop, and at the other end of the long room sat the ravaged remains of the rest of the furniture. In the middle of that furniture stood three planks jammed into the mess to act as targets.

One look at her face and Tal could see Nolsa was definitely in teaching mode as she started into a full lecture. “Now Tal, I’ve been watching how you use dark mana. You’ve done quite well and I can see how comfortable you are with taking advantage of its natural traits. But I also see you’ve been leaning on jamming a bunch of mana together and slapping it against something to trigger the effects.”

“It works though,” is what Tal almost said. He managed to keep his mouth shut before saying it out loud.

Clearly, Nolsa could see it in his expression. “I understand you have a difficult time holding mana and have developed a bad habit of just cramming in more mana until there’s enough to last for whatever you want your clumsy spell to do.”

The observation hurt, but it wasn’t wrong. Tal felt the heat of embarrassment crawling up his neck.

With hand facing upwards, Nolsa pointed at Tal’s chest. “But if you can apply the proper component to your spell, that component will do that work for you. If you can master the shoot component, the spell will hold itself together.”

“You say it like a component is just something you can slot into a spell,” Tal complained, his annoyance getting the better of him.

Nolsa smiled, even looking a little smug. “Oh but it is… if you’re good enough.”

Tal had his doubts.

“I can see you questioning me still, but you’ve already made good progress on mastering one component, that of spell shape. I know you’ve created thin domes and walls of darkness to hide behind. Don’t you find it easier to maintain spells that you’ve given a specific form? And if they’re tiring, isn’t it because of how much mana you are attempting to hold?”

Tal opened his mouth to speak, then snapped his jaw shut as he thought about it. He hadn’t really considered that before, but Nolsa had just hit a target Tal didn’t know was there.

“Certain components tend to fit better with certain elements, it is true. Since condensed dark mana seems to create solid mass out of nowhere, that allows you to make do without needing to instill it with the self-guiding shoot component. But you’ll never be able to grab and throw a ball of fire mana. It’ll burn you for sure. And you can’t grab hold of wind mana with your bare hand either, even though a thin enough creation of wind mana can slice deeply into a target.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Tal admitted, staring at his empty palm.

“You do need to learn the shoot component. If you can nail that, then along with shaping, you’ll have learned the fundamental ranged components. Every ranged component after that is just an extension of those two.”

“Okay,” Tal nodded to himself leaning in to concentrate on the wand in his left hand and his empty right hand. “Okay.” He repeated as he gathered himself.

Tal’s mouth formed a thin line as he concentrated on the construct he was building. Outwardly, it didn’t look any different than any other ball of dark mana, but again he could feel the added complexity of the spell’s core. The nugget of the idea was there but it didn’t have the power to support itself.

He could still use the natural mass of the dark mana to deliver an impact, even enhance it a bit to add some stickiness to the spell, but those were practically extras compared to the effort of the core. The orb filled out, the core growing from a shrivelled looking pebble into a solid marble. The outer shell filled in next, growing in bits and bites.

Judging the spell complete as the last of the shell filled in, Nolsa didn’t give Tal time to think. “Good, now shoot!”

Tal fixed his aim on one of the standing planks jammed into the nest of the winghound and willed the ball to strike.

The ball fired out as Tal let it go, unfortunately disintegrating on its own and scattering like he’d thrown a handful of water. Only a few drops of mana hit the plank, and those drops quickly dissolved on their own. Tal sighed at the failure.

“Hmm, try again.” Nolsa put a finger on her lip as she observed Tal.

And so he did. Tal took a deep breath and circulated his aether. Slowly feeding the hollow wand, he gathered the produced mana in his right hand and concentrated on the image. An orb of mana, hardened and heavy. It would fly out and strike that plank dead center. It would fly straight and true under its own power and snap that plank in half.

The core formed and slowly the shell grew in, surrounding that core.

“Now shoot!”

The ball fired out, and splattered into droplets once again.

Tal clenched his teeth with frustration. He’d already had a few almost successes earlier in the lesson, when Nolsa was allowing him sufficient time to get a feel for the completed spell. Her lesson’s focus now was on not having to check multiple times to see if the spell was ready.

Tal took another breath and started on the next attempt.

“Let’s try something a little different.”

Nolsa pulled her chair close and leaned in to place her right hand under Tal’s. “Continue to generate the mana as you have done so far,” Nolsa murmured as she sidled up rather close to Tal’s side, “but allow me to take the mana and instead try to observe how I build the aimed orb.”

“Uh, okay.” Tal replied as he worked hard to maintain concentration.

There was something soft pressing against his arm.

Tal took a deep breath and once again started pushing aether through the wand.

Aether carried the will of the user, and converting it to mana didn’t remove that will. Still, concentrating solely on producing mana and watching what happened to it required a shift in mindset and lots of concentration.

Tal felt himself lose control of the mana as Nolsa put it to use. He was trying to mind what she was doing, but the distraction was making things hard.

Nolsa completed the spell and held it in place. “Were you able to feel it come together?”

He could feel something all right. He gave an honest answer, but only to the question Nolsa had asked of him. “I felt myself lose control of the mana, but I wasn’t able to feel how you built the spell,” Tal replied. “I’ve still got aether to spare, try again?”

“Mmm,” Nolsa flicked her hand and the orb dissipated into a big puff of black mist. “Try to maintain a little control, don’t let your awareness of the mana slip entirely to me.”

Tal nodded. The second time went better. As Nolsa gathered the mana created from the wand, Tal could feel Nolsa putting in some effort to make the mana do as she wished. But he could also feel the way the roots of the spell anchored themselves into the initial core of the orb, how those roots grew tendrils that expanded to create the outer shell, surrounding it evenly in a steady formation of tendrils that solidified into a solid ball.

Nolsa waited a moment for Tal to look at the spell, then let it go. It flew out and struck the top of the plank, knocking the wood out of its makeshift support and into the nest.

“That felt different,” Tal admitted. “Mine was missing something.”

Nolsa nodded and he could see her smile from the corner of his eye. “Sounds like progress. Your ability to hold might lag behind, but your observation is good. Let’s do a few more.”

“Please.”

Two tries later Tal had to get up to stand up the planks again.

“Why didn’t you get me to watch the construction like this before we started?” Tal asked as he pushed a broken bed frame into place to hold the planks vertical. “Or even before, when we were in class?”

Nolsa sat with her hands folded in her lap. She smiled as she replied, “Well just now, having attempted the spell gives you the ability to see what is different.” Her smile shifted slightly, seeming almost sad to Tal. “As far as doing so in class, I suspect treating you so favourably would not have made interactions with your peers any easier.”

“Oh,” Tal paused as he jammed the third plank back into position. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

He returned to sit down with Nolsa. Again she pressed close and the lesson resumed. After two more shots, Tal spoke up.

“I think my impression was wrong,” Tal mused. “I had the image of telling it to shoot. Yours feels like you are just letting it go.”

“Which I am!” Nolsa said cheerfully. “Can you tell what else is different? I could see it when I was watching you forming.”

Nolsa continued with the third of the set, but the spell formed visibly slower, the core filling in, then sprouting out to form the shell. It was event different visually from Tal, his orb was coming in…

“All at once,” Tal realized. “Yours forms the outer shell slowly, but evenly. Mine formed by pieces.”

“Indeed!” Nolsa confirmed. “You’re trying to force yours to fill in, but you have to feed it and let it grow. Are you ready to try again?”

“Yeah, I am,” Tal nodded as much to himself as to Nolsa. She withdrew from his side and let him concentrate.

After another steadying breath, Tal started over. It wasn’t him throwing the spell. The spell would strike the plank. The spell wanted to strike the plank and deliver its load of mana. He focused on the core of the spell, its purpose for existing and the rules of that existence. The core filled in and sprouted, the shell slowly filling in.

Not quite evenly, not so smoothly as Nolsa’s. But Tal could already feel the difference.

“Someone is screaming!” Easil shouted from his perch at the ledge of the window.

Surprised, Tal let go of the spell. It sailed out, partially completed, and poofed into a ball of smoke as it hit the third plank.

“Where is it?” Nolsa asked, already heading to the door as Tal followed, snatching up the rucksack next to the door.

Pulling the pack onto his back and shrugging it into place, Tal stopped by the window long enough for Easil to climb in.

“Straight towards the tree, the voice was higher pitched,” Easil explained as he climbed in.

“So probably a gnome?” Tal assumed. “Why would another gnome be this far out? How would they get here?”

Nolsa was peeking through the door as Tal joined her.

“If it was a gnome, they probably just kited down,” Easil guessed. “As for why? Maybe they heard us fighting the winghound? We did shout once or… another scream! They need help.”

“Let me go first,” Tal said, placing his hand on Nolsa’s shoulder.

She looked at him and then nodded, stepping away from the door.

Tal yanked it all the way open and ran out. Easil pointed straight ahead and Tal didn’t hold back. His feet pounding on the wood, Tal moved as quick as he could with Nolsa following behind.

He couldn’t move full tilt, the forest of branches making him dodge left and right as he ran.

“She’s in pain!” Easil called even as he bounced around in the rucksack. “We’re almost there!”

Tal burst through a pair of bushes growing close together, then had to jump to avoid trampling the gnome that appeared in his sight, and the long furry animal that had caught her. Tal skidded to a stop, turned and came running back at the pair of figures wrestling on the ground.

The two of them had been wrestling until Tal showed up. The surprise of having him vaulting overhead had caused them both to freeze for just a moment. A small spurt of fire from the Gnome hit the second figure, forcing the small beast to back away.

A familiar face stood up and faced the hissing marten, its orange fur now scorched. Tal stepped between her and the marten gave it a swift kick. The marten flopped back and came to its feet with a growl followed by a hiss. Tal took a knee to hide her from sight. Even kneeling, Tal loomed over the smaller animal, causing it to sidle backwards with caution.

“Layessa!” Easil hissed. “Climb up!”

“Easil!” she called out in surprise and relief. Tal felt the tug of her climbing up his clothes and into the backpack.

The beast stared at them with beady black eyes for a long moment. Judging its meal to have escaped, the marten escaped into the bushes.

“We should retrieve my pack and kite,” Layessa mumbled from the ruck-sack. She was still panting, exhausted and shaking from her experience.

“Okay, where is it?” Tal asked.

“Who?” Nolsa asked, panting as she caught up.

Tal felt the shifting on his back as Layessa’s head popped out, loose blonde hair fluttering. “Nolsa! It is good to see you. And the pack should be that way Tal.”

“Okay, let’s get your stuff, then let us know why you’re down here.”

“Sounds reasonable!”

Teacher Nolsa

It hadn’t been a long run, but she could swear it had tired her out more than such a jog would have done before fate had intervened in Tal’s life.

She was starting to feel the effects of the storytelling.

“A few of us had a powerful enchantment of hearing in the chance that we could hear you in the lower wilds,” Layessa explained as they walked back, her damaged kite and small pack in Tal’s hands.

“So anyone could have heard us?” Tal said, his voice taking on a hint of fear.

“If the Wardens were listening like that, they would have found you before I showed up,” Layessa scoffed. She paused for a moment in reflection. “On second thought, I came in on a kite, they’d have to walk. Maybe we should hide somewhere else?”

Nolsa was split between thinking about the next story and how Layessa would react to hearing the life-tales of Alamia.

She realized she was holding, no, covering, the tip of her braid where the hair had gone grey. A tell-tale sign of the cost she was paying. When did she become such a child that the appearance of a friend would make her nervously hide from sight? Or so distract her from the issue at hand to begind with. Nolsa let go of the braid, she wasn’t ashamed, and she wouldn’t let herself hide it. Such feelings would bleed into the tales themselves and hurt Alamia.

And the less holding Alamia back when she arrived, the better.

“Well then we should consider moving on,” Nolsa said, joining the conversation. “And while we prepare, as fond as I am of you Layessa, do tell us why you’ve chosen to follow us.”

End Chapter