Aether Beasts

The second day of the journey to Orton was much like the first. After a quick breakfast stew which seemed to set the standard for what we were going to be having this entire trip, we started off down the path. This time I was at the back of the caravans as opposed to the front. Samuel had offered to let me walk alongside him again, but I'd come up with the excuse that I needed some time to think, which was not false, I just didn't need to think about the war. I already knew I was going to be taking part in it. West Vale was now known to the twin horn and no doubt they'd be taking word of their defeat back to their sect and information about promising young steel heart arcanists. Samuel had told me that bounties were common nowadays as each sect gunned for the best of the other. It was best after all to cut the problem off before it could fully bloom. Just imagining the twin horn in control of West Vale made me sick.

What I was mostly thinking about was the next step in my training. Zirani already had a list of things she wanted to teach me, which included a movement technique. Movement techniques were self-explanatory, they allowed for increased movement often increased speed but also other things like the air hop technique Lucas used. He'd confided in me that it was part of a higher-level technique that allowed one to essentially walk on air.

Zirani hadn't yet told me what the technique was but she had given me a few exercises to get ready for it. She herself was still going over the mutation. She had the basics down and was now trying to incorporate them into some techniques she knew and trying to make all new ones. Sometimes I forgot just how powerful she had been and just how knowledgeable and smart she was. In fact, she was probably the smartest arcanist in the northern plains.

The exercise involved moving aether down to my legs and creating a unique pattern along with circular rings. It was near impossible at first since I just couldn't seem to be able to create the rings but when I complained to Zirani she laughed and showed me that I was using the same method I used for my first techniques when I should be using an entirely new method. She explained that was one of the reasons why many of the techniques we saw in the tournament were so crude. The methods they were using were as basic as they came and many were just trying to will the aether into a shape or pattern.

"You can't do something like that until you hit the higher stages of the arcane," She commented. "Honestly, I'm surprised they can even get basic techniques by doing that. The amount of aether they're using for simple techniques is just foolish."

"Well not everyone has a four-hundred-year-old aether beast as their first core and remember where we are? You're always talking about the gap between the northern plains and the lands below the great scar."

She mentally sighed. "I know it's just I didn't think it would be this bad."

"You know it makes me more grateful that I stumbled upon you," I said, laughing. "Hell, I think I should thank those gale wolves as well. Without it, I would have never found you."

"True," She replied. "How's the training coming along?"

I shrugged. "Fine, those rings are the hardest bit. I don't see why you want me to try and bounce them off each other."

She chuckled. "I'm just trying to get the basics ingrained. Trust me all this formation training you've been doing is useful and you'll see when we start to truly train, but first, we're going to need to pick up a few things when we reach the city."

"Like what?"

"The elixirs in the plains might be ok, but I'm not fine with ok. I can make high-grade elixirs and pills with ease, and powders."

I stopped for a moment. "You were an alchemist?"

"Aiden, I'm a four-hundred-year-old nature affinity beast," She said in a tone that made it obvious that I should have known. "Most of the ingredients they get come from nature, Aiden. I wasn't just a simple alchemist. I was one of the best in the green court. We'll need to get some ingredients and I'll cook up what we'll be using."

Just when I thought I couldn't get surprised anymore. Alchemy was a very well-earning trade since you could make almost anything with it if you knew how. From things like water breathing pills to aether gathering pills. If what she knew was from beyond the great scar then it was probably ten times better than anything here.

"We could make a lot of money with that," I mused.

"Oh no," SHe said. "Not until we're strong enough to deal with the consequences of releasing powerful new alchemy into the northern plains. We'll have assassins and arcanists out for us, trying to find out our secrets and before you say the steel heart will protect us, they might but they too will want to know. Just because they seem nice doesn't mean they are unlike the rest and not selfish.."

We stopped for the night in a clearing that was apparently used often and after another dinner of stew, I was about to head to my tent to practice when I overheard Markem talking with Samuel.

"He said he stopped someone trailing us," Markem whispered.

"Did he get a good look at who it was?" Samuel replied.

"No, but it was definitely human."

There was a pause before Samuel replied. "Increase the sentries and I want you to send a scouting force to check the nearby area, only the best. I don't want whoever it is to spot us."

"Do you think it's them?"

"Perhaps," Samuel said. "Though I hope not. We're not exactly in a good defensible position now are we."

I tried to overhear more, but their voices were already faint. What exactly were they talking about? Were we being followed? I knew that bandits did exist, but what bandit group would be stupid enough to attack a sect caravan. We had at least over fifty arcanists including the merchant guards.

I entered my tent and tried to clear the worries from my mind.. There wasn't much I could do about it but be ready just in case something happened, and that involved training.