Week 5: Archmage - Part 1

“You are trying way too hard, it needs to come naturally.” Aregoma said. “Once you are attuned is just about keeping the balance.”

“It doesn’t feel like I can keep the balance.” Lu panted. They had been practicing attunement for the last two hours and it seemed like they were getting close to their limit. “I feel like I need to keep pushing to keep the attunement, like I am holding boulder over my head.”

Aregoma and Lu were in one of the unused rooms in the top floor of the tavern, quiet enough for their conversations and to concentrate in peace, but close enough to the kitchen that she could still go help when needed. They had built a routine in their few days there: in the mornings she had about three hours for studying theory and practicing attunement with Aregoma, work until dinner was ready, then do some sparring with Helvia. Lu barely had enough time to do everything they wanted and ended their days exhausted, sleeping only for five or six hours before doing it all over again. It was not sustainable, but it didn’t have to be, it just needed to be enough to get them to survive the six months. Five at this point.

Lu took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, focusing on feelings of warmth, love, happy memories... Memories of their father and childhood friends worked best, even if they came with a pinch of melancholy. After a minute they found the right mental state again, their chest began to tingle and their mouth tasted slightly sweet. They focused their attention on the Acolyte’s Lamp they were holding on their stretched hand, a metal rod about twenty centimetres in length with runes engraved and a transparent sphere at the top. It was supposed to light up when the holder was attuned to one of the paths, but right now it was inert even though Lu was convinced that this was what it was supposed to feel like.

“See? This thing is not doing anything, is not showing it, I need to push.” Lu whispered between their teeth.

Aregoma pinched her index finger and thumb and looked through the whole as if she was using a monocle and intonated the incantation for the Essence Sight charm. “weeeee...”

She stopped after a few seconds. “No is not picking it up because there is nothing to pick up yet, your essence is all over the place, you are not attuned yet.”

Lu focused on that feeling in their chest, pushing like they were trying to flex some unknown muscle in their soul, pushing until there was barely anything in their head but the thoughts and feelings that were supposedly the key for attuning to the path of life. It was mentally and physically taxing. The lamp started to glow with sky-blue light, which indicated that they were correctly attuned. Their hands also started to glow, and their feet, and Lu guessed that probably the parts of their body they couldn’t see were glowing as well.

“No that is too much again, you need to be measured.” Aregoma interrupted, exasperated.

Lu sad down on the one bed in the room “I am telling you there is no middle ground, as sooner as I get the tingly thing I need to focus really hard and it all comes out at once.”

Aregoma sighed. “Ok let me try one thing, but I need you to trust me.”

“Never once in the history of the world has that sentence preceded anything good.” Lu stood up again, stretching and whipping the sweat of their forehead. “C’mon, do your worst.”

Aregoma grabbed the acolyte’s lamp and it lit up blue within a second as she effortlessly resonated with the path of life. Then it turned red, then blue again, switching back and forth every few seconds. After a brief pause it turned purple, then after about twenty seconds without light it turned green, and finally amber.

“It seems to be working fine.” Aregoma handed the lamp to Lu. “Hold my hand, I need you to focus on attuning again, but do not put too much effort, let me guide you. It will be uncomfortable but you need to relax and trust me, I can’t help you if you resist.”

If anyone else had said that Lu would have probably jumped out of the window on the spot and ran as fast as they could. However, when it came to their beautiful teacher, Lu’s instincts seemed to malfunction. They did as instructed, holding her hand and focusing on happy thoughts again. After a few seconds they felt something warm creeping through their hand as it made its way to their chest, but there was nothing Lu could see. The sensation was like having a needle or a straw moving under their skin and reminded them of that time Nauzet had made them throw up. They stayed steadfast, letting this creeping sensation spread through their body, filling them with the soft comforting sensation of being hugged by a friend. Then the chest tingles began and the feeling abruptly stopped.

“Almost! You were doing so well.” Aregoma smiled as if talking to a child. “We can maybe try again tomorrow.”

“What do you mean?” Lu asked. “I was doing everything you told me and then you stopped.”

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“No, you started resisting. Transferring essence like that doesn’t work properly unless the target is fully willing and I am not going to do it by force.” She answered

Lu stopped to think for a few moments. They felt less tired now for some reason. “Well can we try again with the other paths? I want to have something to show to the Archmage when I see him this evening.”

Aregoma nodded. Lu did not pick up the lantern this time, it was not needed. They reminisced about their short time on the cell at Galara’s hold, the anticipation, the anxiety, the fear. Within a few minutes they felt ready and pushed for it, shining with purple light and holding it for about thirty seconds, enough to prove they were in control. They then reminisced of the time they saw their father die while they hid under the floorboards, splinters piercing their back and the heat of the fire caressing their skin. They could almost feel the pain still. The scars in their body healed quickly but the ones in their heart were still open and aching. Lu turned bright red easily in less than a minute. Finally they tried to attune to the path of matter, which according to Aregoma and the books they had required some sort of intense love, desire... Aregoma mentioned that sexual arousal was a really effective anchor, but Lu was not about to try that right now. They looked through their memories for what feels like hours, they even made up some scenarios in their mind trying to evoke that desire, or love, or whatever it was, to no avail.

“Matter is not coming out yet.” Lu clicked her tongue. “Do you have any advise other than... what you already mentioned?”

“Well that is unusual since you have had no issue with the path of Space, which has the path of matter as one of its components. You should be able to attune to it, in theory.” Aregoma sat down and looked through one of the basic books she had borrowed from the library, looking for maybe some advise she had missed.

Lu readied herself again. The path of space only required an intense need to run away, to run towards something to chase a goal just beyond the horizon. That was easy for them, although admittedly they had found it slightly more difficult since they arrived on the island. A soon as the ochre light started to appear around their body, Aregoma pointed a finger towards them and Lu felt the unmistakable push of her essence piercing through theirs, trying to break their concentration. Lu felt horribly sick, but held onto it for no reason other than proving to themselves that they had improved in something.

“Stop it Lu!” Barked the elf. “You are not allowed to use that, It requires authorization.”

“I am not even using it!” They complained. “I am just checking to see if I can still do it.”

“That is also not allowed.” Aregoma said, closing the book. “I think we have had enough for today, you should rest a bit before going to see Xherez, only the gods know how he would want to test you.”

*****

Lu sighed. They walked downstairs together leaving the books and the lantern on their study room. They waved each other goodbye as Aregoma left for some appointment while Lu went to work in the kitchen. The job wasn’t specially intense of difficult, mostly just keeping things clean and in order, helping Dalioth with the cooking every so often, but it required that they were available to help at the drop of a hat so they needed to stay nearby.

Prakash had taken an old guitar and was performing downtown by the docks in an effort to advertise the tavern. It didn’t seem to have amounted to much yet, but it looked like he did it out passion more than anything. He got to wear a cool mask that covered the disfigured half of his face, a colourful exotic suit and speak with dramatic cadence to whomever happened to look at him for too long. He called it a publicity stunt, the guards had called it begging in more than one occasion.

While he wasn’t there the time with Dalioth was mostly quiet, he wasn’t much of a conversationalist and Lu was more than contempt to hang around without the expectation of having to entertain anyone. Lu would have loved to have some insight into his weird mannerisms, but knew their questions were going to be dismissed or shrugged off if they were not asked at the right time and Dalioth was not in the right mood, which was difficult to tell since he seemed be unable to change his facial expression.

Helvia would also stay with them, usually hanging around at the bar reading or drinking when she was not training or being called upon for some random odd job. Apparently the library had a good selection of history and foreign literature and she enjoyed, or at least tolerated better than doing absolutely nothing, reading about cultures and countries outside of the empire.

The day was quiet as usual, with only Jake to come around at lunch to cause some trouble and try to wind up Lu. It was worth it just to have some time with Cripply, the old large black galgo who followed him everywhere. Jake had apparently found him as a puppy during his first trip to the island and gave him the name Cripply for self-evident but cruel reasons. The dog didn’t seem to mind his name much, so it was probably fine.

*****

As the clock tower of the town struck five, Lu and Helvia Left the tavern and walked towards the base of the mountain over which the academy was built, where they found a platform excavated on its side. Over the platform there were three disks of metal that looked similar to the elevator Lu had used at the lighthouse about a month ago, if a bit more rudimentary. As one of the three rose, the bottom side exposed a large network of runes and symbols that were definitely different from those of the faith-powered mechanisms of the rest of the empire.

After about five minutes of waiting in queue it was their turn to ride one of them. Standing on it, the disk looked simply like a large slab of polished red stone, on its centre a pedestal with a lever and more runes. There was a small fence around it, which did not seem specially sturdy or very safe at all. Once the elevator had about two dozen people on it the operator closed the door of the fence and pulled the leaver, making the platform raise slowly and steadily by the side of the mountain following a metal rod to which it was not attached. The ride to the top took only five minutes, during which the view was breathtaking with the colourful town below and the crystal blue ocean all the way to the horizon, flanked by the emerald forest and dark spiky mountain crests. At the top it was noticeable colder and the air felt thinner.