Chapter 11 – Wet Behind the Ears

Halvarr is eccentric, but I’ve found that he is not a bad person. I still haven’t figured out why he insists on forging in the buff, because the only thing separating his ‘bits’ from the white-hot iron is a worn out apron. He had asked me to do the same, but I had to politely refuse.

The other children are doing just fine. I mean, our living conditions aren’t the best, but they are safe, for now.

After I’d finished sorting Halvarr’s stock of iron and scrap, I went back to my quarters behind the bandit’s hideout. I could probably escape whenever I wanted, but that would mean leaving Ulrich, Talia, Rukh, Thurr, Elena and Ciel behind, and that’s not an option. I’m just going to go along with this setup for now.

The front of the building was a bar, which was perfect if your employees and clients are of the unsavory variety. Through the kitchen, in the back, there was the stairway that led down to our… eh… holding cell… if that’s what you want to call it.

“Hey guys, I’m back.”

Over the past few days that we’ve been here, the 5 other kids had been working the front of the house, but I still haven’t seen Ciel. I had told them not to mention her, because it was a good chance that they didn’t even know about her at all since Tiral escaped with her rather quickly that night, and she had never shown herself except to cast Rock Javelin> from the forest’s edge.

“Tch! If it wasn’t for these damn bracelets we could have escaped by now,” Ulrich said, kicking some scrap metal around.

“Ulrich, don’t speak so callously. As it stands, even if you could use magic, it’s only of the beginner level and at least one of them is able to cancel out magic, so behave yourself until we have a plan,” I said, trying to be the voice of reason, but it just seemed to aggravate him.

“Why are you siding with them!? They killed Chey and Ciel is missing, Cal!”

“No. Ciel isn’t missing, and I cast Phoenix Down> on Chey before I got captured, so she should be fine.”

“You’re just saying that because it’s convenient for you!”

Having had enough, Ulrich lunged at me, tackling me to the ground. Having been caught flat-footed I hit the dirt immediately.

“Ulrich!” Thurr called out, running to pull him off.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t nearly fast enough. Ulrich managed to hit me a few times through my guard.

“You’ve heard the gossip at the bar haven’t you!? I was only passing through for a moment and I still heard a few guys talking about how a woman with raven black hair was going from town to town icing over bandit camps. Who else can that be but Chey?”

As I’d said to Ulrich who just stormed off to his bunk, there were rumors that the ‘Polar Queen’ had returned and was rampaging through various towns asking for our whereabouts.

“Even Halvarr, the dwarf I’m working under, is talking about her.”

“Halvarr? You mean the Mithril Dragon Armorer, Halvarr?”

“You’re telling me that the deranged nudist dwarf has a title like that, Thurr?”

“Yeah, Chey had told me that he’s a legendary blacksmith who is known for his magic equipment made of mithril back in the Biruth revolution 50 years ago.”

I blinked a few times while I tried to process what I’d just heard. No, I refuse to believe that Halvarr has such a dignified title.

After talking back and forth with Thurr and Rukh, I was unable to handle the unbelievable revelation of Halvarr’s history, so I decided that I’d turn in for the night.

On the way back to my room I overheard Liorre for the first time since we were kidnapped.

“… yeah, he’s cooperating… for now at least. He’s learning adequately. As long as everything proceeds smoothly from here, we should be able to reach you.”

Tiral came around the corner at the end of the hall, so I had to sneak away before I could hear anymore. What in the world was that about?

Not wanting to think about anything else today, I began my mana breathing routine. My mana capacity has increased a lot, so unless I’m firing off major spells back to back, I’ll never run out of mana. I did that for the rest of the night until I eventually fell asleep.

The next morning, I was hard at work with Halvarr again. In light of the full moon during mid-day, I decided to work around the other end of the shop until Halvarr spoke up.

“Hey sprout c’mere. Can you use magic?”

“Not with these bracelets on, I can’t.”

“Oh hush, your mana is leaking out like you’ve got a hole in the bucket. I can see it from here.”

“You can see mana?”

“Yeah, and those bracelets haven’t been working properly for a while now, so now I’m curious. If you can use magic, and you have that much mana, why haven’t you used it to escape yet?”

“You’re okay with me being able to use magic even though I’m supposed to be here against my will?”

“Are you saying it’s not against your will?”

“Fair point. If I were to try an escape, it would have to be with the other kids that I came with, and I wouldn’t be able to do that without using large scale magic at my current skill level.”

“To what degree can you use magic, boy?”

“Well, as far as I can tell, it’s either Advanced or Master class magic.”

“… Hmmm… no offense sprout, but I’m going to need some proof of that. Ah, don’t worry, you’re more valuable to me if you are able to use magic, so I’ll keep it a secret.”

“Sure, and thanks. What kind of magic do you want to see?”

“I need fire magic, so show me the hottest flame you can make.”

Say no more, friend. I moved to the center of the room and started gathering my mana.

“You’ve got excellent control of your mana. I’ll tell you the secret to seeing mana after this.”

Nodding my head, I cast a high intensity . The flame was a bright white jet erupting from my palm.

“I need it hotter, sprout.”

I focused my mana and began to forcibly feed the Flame Lance. It shifted from bright to dazzling, but I kept increasing the intensity until it burst into a roaring blue jet of flame that rose to, and began scorching, the high ceiling.

“Make it smaller! A flame that large is useless to me… and it will probably set my shop on fire.”

Using considerably more mana, I began trying to reduce the size for the panicky Halvarr, but I felt it lose intensity when I tried. To avoid losing heat and intensity as I reduced the scale of the jet, I increased the amount of mana consumption to the point where I thought I could physically feel the mana coursing through my body as if it were blood.

The blue color grew brighter and hotter until it was so bright that we had to look away, but after I’d reduced it to about 6 feet, the already considerable mana consumption spiked and the flame instantly turned violet and shrunk to a single foot in height.

“…!”

­­ Halvarr’s eyes widened and he waved at me to stop as the noise from the violet jet muffled any attempt at speech. I cut off the supply of mana, and let it die out.

I slumped down and sat on the ground, winded. I still had about half of my mana remaining, but it tired me out at the rate it had been draining.

“Amazing! That was a variation of flame lance… right?”

“Yeah… i-it is… I just… ramped up… the mana cost.”

I wasn’t aware that spells could exhaust you physically like this; it’s something to be mindful of in the future. I wipe the beads of sweat from my brow and look up at the ceiling and it’s been charred completely black. The point where the fire had licked was still glowing red. There’s no one above us… right?

“Rest up sprout, because tomorrow I’m going to need you. I swear on my life and my name as Halvarr, the Mithril Dragon Armorer that your secret remains between us as long as you are willing to use that magic for me.”

“As long as I don’t have to do anything bad, and I’m allowed to come here and practice my magic when I please, then you’ve got a deal.”

“Ha! I accept your terms. I’ve been waiting 50 years for this opportunity, I’m not going to let a bunch of lowlifes ruin it for me. Remember, just because I helped them in the past does not mean I owe them my allegiance.”

“Thank you, Halvarr. Would you mind telling me what we’re doing tomorrow? If that’s okay, that is.”

“I’ll fill you in when you arrive tomorrow, but I can tell you that it’s not malicious in nature, so of that you don’t have to worry.”

“Umm, okay. I can live with that. I’m just going to rest here until I can feel my legs again.”

Halvarr gave a hearty laugh and handed me a flask of water from the table against the wall. I drank it gratefully, while Halvarr disappeared into another room of to the side.

When he returned I felt my jaw unhinge as it dropped to the floor in surprise. He was wearing clothes.

Author's Note:

Hey guys, I'm sorry about the super long delay for this chapter. A number of things came up at work, and my significant other had been down for the weekend from university, so I had to put 'Intervention' on the back burner for a little bit, but I worked on it when I could, so here's chapter 11! Chapter 12 is currently in the works and I'm still super excited to continue writing.

Thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoy the chapter!