A noble is to sacrifice anything needed to fight against the demons. - Althaen Code of Law

Adrian

“That grey void isn’t as difficult to work with as you think.”

“What do you mean?”

“You use it to answer questions like ‘am I better at swords’ or how many of a spell can I cast right?”

“That is what it is for, and when we are ready it gives helps us make the next step.”

I sigh, “how do you interact with it?”

“You meditate on what skills you worked on that day and if you are ready things become clearer.”

“There is a better way. . .”

The three all look at my like that’s ridiculous. They are about to start talking and I raise my hand a little bit. They immediately stop, and I continue “. . . the grey void dream whatever it is responds to questions that you think of while in it.”

“That can’t be right, we are taught what it can do as children before we are ever able to go in there ourselves.”

“And have you ever tried anything that you were not expressly told? I never had this Grey Dream before yesterday, but I got this Grey Dream to teach me. How did I do that, when no one ever told me about it?”

Talia and Lysan close their mouths, K was just sitting there listening. I think she tried out my reverse blood magic idea; I should ask her how that went later. I wait a few seconds and K responds to my rhetorical questions.

“By thinking and asking yourself questions while in the Grey Dream?”

She isn’t sure. I nod, “that’s right. It responded to the questions within my thoughts. The Grey Dream is some sort of astral void. A plane of thought, were you interact with something. It says that it is a piece of something else made by the gods of Althrá. I assume that is the name of your world?”

They nod. “I am not sure if everything that it told me is the truth. I am not a follower of whatever gods that exist in your world, but the grey void responded to my questions. At least some of them. I got the void to converse as we are now, it still caused more questions than it answered. But there is one thing that you can use.”

The girls are leaning forwards now, I guess they really want to know. “When you go to sleep tonight and enter this Grey Dream do two things. First think of a question along these lines, ‘how can I get this dream state to converse with me’. Next I want you to ask for a character sheet about yourself. Ask questions afterwards to help you understand just what that is.”

“But how does that answer the question of how you learned elvish? How could you ask about that language without ever having looked at it?”

“You’ll understand when you have done what I just told you. The grey space awards accomplishments, it does not care if you cash in on things that you were not working on.”

Lysan opens her mouth, “I will only answer a question about this after you have tried what I said.” Her mouth closes. The three of them are sitting there, they seem excited and skeptical. Well so would I, if I didn’t see this myself I wouldn’t believe it. But then maybe I’m not a good example it took grandpa weeks to convince me I could do magic. I just thought it was really fun to shock people all the time with static.

I turn to look at K, I going to have to just guess her name. I hope this goes right. The only one that didn’t feel wrong was Kythia so I hope that is right.

“Kythia, . . .” she looks up, I should at least be close. “. . . did you try out my ideas on healing from yesterday?”

And she looks really excited, and starts to talk really fast.

“Ididanditwhileittookmeawhile. . .”

“Talk slower, start over.”

She takes a deep breath, “I did and it took me a while to figure out how to make the blood magic go in the opposite direction. I am sorry but I am not good at making my own spells could you show me how to do it. Would you teach me magic?”

Wait she actually got it to work. I was expecting it to fail, that’s just an excuse I make to have healing spells as a necromancer. She said something after that, she wanted me to teach her. I don’t know how to do any magic with mana. I don’t even know if I can, grandpa always told me our family doesn’t use crap like mana.

“I can’t teach you . . .” and she slumps down into the chair. “. . . I don’t know how to use mana; my magic is different.”

“I knew it!” shouts Lysan. Damn her voice can get loud and high pitched.

“I know a lot of theory about how magic should work, that’s it. I don’t know how to do that kind of magic myself, I don’t even think that I could learn. I think that it might conflict with what I can do. I can explain my ideas to you but I will never be able to demonstrate the how to make it work.”

Well, maybe if I learn to warp mana? It is a type of energy so it should be possible. No, I shouldn’t try it. Mana is used to warp reality, why should I learn to use it to do what I already can directly? They don’t suffer reality backlash though. . .

“What do you mean it might conflict with what you can do?”

“What you use mana to accomplish, I just directly manipulate. You use mana to produce or control fire, I just skip the mana step and play with fire.”

“Why would adding mana cause problems? Wouldn’t that make it easier?”

“I don’t think so, how can I explain it? . . .” What would even relate to them? “Do you know of woodcarving?”

The trio nods, good I might get my point across. “What if someone gave you a different type of blade, something a different shape than you have ever seen. You can watch them carve the same thing as you but can’t figure out why. With his tools, could you still carve?”

“I don’t get it. How is woodcarving related?”

“It’s not. if you and your sister switched weapons could either of you do as good of a job as before?”

“No, why would we switch?”

“But you understand what Talia can do with her sword right?”

“Well yes . . .”

“My magic is the same, I don’t understand how to manipulate mana. What it should be able to do, yes but not how to do so myself. You understand what Talia can do with a sword but cannot do them yourself.”

They still look confused. K, I’m still not sure if Kythia is right, seems to be thinking about something.

“Do you mean like learning two conflicting sword styles?”

Why didn’t I think of such an explanation? Learning two ways of fighting can cause problems.

“That would be a good example.” K smiles, and says something in a language I don’t understand to the sisters. They know another language that this one? The sisters don’t seem to understand her either. Is she from a different place than the elf sisters? Probably she is human and they are elves.

“Anyways, we will be heading out as early as we can tomorrow. Come with me, I’ll show you how . . .” elvish doesn’t have word for gun, I’ll just say the English, “firearms are used.”

The four of us walk to the indoor shooting range at the back of the camping section. It’s meant for bows but it will work. There are no counters like most shooting ranges, just a room with a table on one side and a few targets set up on the other. When we enter the room the elf sisters rush over to the table where Bryan and me laid out most of the weapons we found. Well, actually a few of each type of weapon. They both pick up one of the composite bows and are whispering to each other about metal bows.

After a moment, they turn around the bows hugged tight to their chests, well the bow is pressed into their breasts. They seem less flat now, they weren’t flat before but now I can tell they both have a nice rack under that loose armor. I look away and cough, they seem to want the bows. Their eyes look like a ten-year-old kids in a candy store.

If I give them the bows will that be asking both of them out again? “You can have them but I’m showing all three of you how to use firearms first.” Their grins are so wide I now know they were just like ten-year-old kids in a candy store. They set their new bows over by the door. Should I show them the nanocarbon arrows now, or later? Later, I don’t think I could stop them from playing with bows if I did it now.

I pick up three pistols from the table and give one to each of the girls. “That is called a pistol, I don’t know the name for that exact version. It is the launcher for these.” I pick up one of the 9mm bullets from an opened box. No way we can bring all of the bullets tomorrow I guess I won’t worry about ammo conservation tonight.

I set the bullet back on the table and pull out one of the pistols on my belt. I need to replace that before we leave. I remove the magazine and pull out the top bullet, “You have to load the ammunition into this small box like so.” I take the bullet in and out of the magazine a few times so they can see.

“And to ready the weapon the small box must be inserted like this. The rifle . . .” I point to one of them on the table, “. . . also must be prepared the same way. You can fit up to fifteen shots into these boxes, other boxes and weapons may have a different number.”

I pass each of the girls one of the magazines and a box of bullets. They figure out how to fill the magazines fast enough. “The next part is shooting the weapon itself, these weapons are dangerous. Now without the small box in the weapon hold the gun like so.” The girls mimic my posture, I’ll have to correct them when they get to actual shooting. That will be fun.

“The weapon will . . . release the attack when you squeeze the bit of metal with you finger inside of the metal loop. On the side of these there is a small switch here that can lock the metal bit in place to prevent accidental attacks. If you ever point these weapons at someone who you are not prepared to kill I will take these items away from you. A single shot can kill people.”

I walk over to the line marking one hundred feet from the targets. “Line up parallel to me and watch.” I focus on grandpa’s Spatial Aim, “These weapons are loud but watch how to use them. You aim by looking down the . . . top of the weapon. Line up the metal ball with the grove closer to you eye, the bullet will hit whatever is on the other side of the small ball. Not accounting for drop and wind.”

I fire five shots into the center of the target, quarter sized. Well beyond what I can do without cheating. I hold my left hand out pulling the target paper through space. If I’m going to show off in front of girls I might as well go all out, right? They look at where the target was before and back to me.

I grin, they look impressed by how close the holes are. “Now I’ll help each of you on the proper way to aim this weapon and you will try. Who wants to try first?”