The Novel's Sidekick

Q: What's the name of the unique Dominion Oscar owned?

A: Oscar named it Dominion of Shift, but I think the name is a bit inappropriate, considering what the Dominion could do.

- - -

I felt a bit uncomfortable from the gazes my aunt was giving me. Was it really a right choice to open about it right now? I thought for the second time, letting out a breath.

“Show me,” Rosalyn said, curious. She still hadn’t believed me; well, it was not her fault.

The problem was that I chose to come clean to my aunt about the casting of evocative flame spells with no chanting. Seriously, it seemed it was a bigger deal than I thought. Well, it was not that I’m the only unique case in this regard. Most of the Grand magus could do it with mental command, while there were a few individuals like me who could cast without chanting with no particular training, but there was a hidden story behind that.

“Well,” Rosalyn said, raising an eyebrow, a bit impatient. “Show me.”

Nodding my head, I concentrated, burning all thoughts, imagining the flames of purgatory. The scarlet flame coiling around my palm to concentrate into a fiery ball of flame.

“No chanting,” Rosalyn said, wheezing. She approached me immediately to stand next. “Do it again.”

I followed, forming two fireballs this time, none losing out to the other.

“What else can you do?” she asked, eyes staring at the flame unblinkingly.

“Pretty much everything,” I said as I manipulate the flames to comprise a small dragon, which came out as a serpent. It was not just the fault of my poor control, the flame was just too dominating to be controlled by my will, not to mention the forming a dragon needs a delicate hand. “Well, my everything kind of limited now. I can do anything, limited to my mental capacity.”

“Hmm,” Rosalyn nodded, not showing even a bit of disappointment. “These . . . only limited to fire spells?”

“Yes,” I answered truthfully.

“Alright, let exercise it a bit,” she said, “try to manipulate the spells as you go.”

And that a bit longed for half an hour, before I finally staggered on the seat, all juiced sucked out of me. I still had spirit energy left, but not much of mental fortitude. “Aunt, I don’t think I can go on for further.”

Rosalyn now had a notebook on her arm. She had noted down everything she had me tested for the time, and even now she looked at it with fascination in her eyes. Wizard, I thought, and smiled to myself. They forget everything provided with something interesting and promising.

“I don’t see what the big idea in this is,” I said, feigning ignorance. “So what if I can cast without chanting? It didn’t make the spell stronger or anything.”

“You talk like a brute, dear nephew,” Rosalyn said, finally resting her notebook and taking her seat across from me. “Do you know why its call spells?”

“Because we have to spell it,” I tried with a grin, “literally?”

“Exactly,” Rosalyn said, nodding approvingly.

“But there were ways to cast other than chanting,” I argued, not just I wanted to feign ignorance, but also because I was extremely curious about this topic.

Yes, I had titbits from the book, but that can’t be compared to magus who practised the high arts for two third of her life. Magic is fascinating, especially to me, who had no prior education in it.

“I had literally seen Yeriel casting a healing spell on Ben with no chanting, and that spell too complicating as well.”

“Yes,” Rosalyn agreed, “there are other schools of casting than the simple chanting. What Yeriel did was far more complicated than simple chanting. I have seen her work, also trained her. She was particularly good at it, and it wouldn't be wrong to say she has the purest spiritual energy I’ve ever seen."

"Even purer than you?"

"I'm not talking about control, but the sheer basis of the energy. You should know, everyone's spiritual signature is different.”

“Yes,“ I agreed. “It forms naturally as we grow. Our emotions, driving force, experience all mingled together to give a unique nature to the spiritual energy. That is why a soldier who spent a decade on the battlefield will have a dominating nature in his spiritual energy than a florist. But what that has to do with Yeriel?”

"Basically, her spiritual nature is odd," Rosalyn continued. "It's as if it was left untouched since she was born. I never thought it would be possible, yet here she is."

"Does it have something to do with her nature?" I asked, recalling. In some part of the story, Yeriel even healed people who had done awful deeds to her and others. People who had no path of redemption.

"I don't know for sure, however, it's related to her pure soul. Her pure spiritual energy is best for these kinds of healing bindings, but it will always lack the destructing force that everyone likes to practise. The healing spell she cast was impossible to cast through chanting. It’s just too complicated."

"Well, Yeriel didn't seem to care," I said. So it's fine. As she had mentioned, healing arts are no way inferior to the arts of destruction.

Rosalyn continued with her explanation. “Chanting is the oldest school of magic. It acts in commands; fast, destructive evocative spells—that’s its advantage. You have to visualise and willed it with the specific a command chant. If you lacked even in one of the three, the casting will fail.”

I knew all that, but it still fascinated me. Like how could it be so easy to cast, spelling some command words, while in other school we have to form some geometrical structures?

“What about the slashing technique we practise?” I asked her. “It doesn’t need any chanting or even any bindings. I thought it was a form of unstructured manifestation of magic.”

“It is an unstructured manifestation of the elements,” Rosalyn agreed. “It’s also an ancient discipline. Usually, a knight or squire went past so long on the discipline that they don’t need any chanting and binding to manifest the element. It's very simple discipline, and all you require is perseverance to learn that.

“Moreover, I don’t know if you know this, but most knight unknowingly sacrifice a part of their spiritual energy to that of their element, so that they won’t have any hindrance in the manifestation.”

“Isn’t that improper?” I couldn’t help but ask. Yes, element could be powerful, however, there were many things a single element can’t do. Spirit energy has a lot of usages, other than the destructive spell, it can heal one’s body far sooner than normal, and give extraordinary sensory ability, however, the more you transform energy to a particular element, the less advantage you will get in these other quirks.

“Not particularly,” Rosalyn said. “Yes, it would be a waste for a Magus to do it, but for a knight who lacks the control, precision, and delicate hand, it’s probably the best thing to carry out. If you have no hope of learning any high arts, it's better to sacrifice some part of your spiritual energy for the destructive force.”

“I think my non-chanting casting is some form of the slashing,” I added, hesitantly. Actually, I don’t know everything about it, and wished to learn what my aunt found out from all the tests. “Probably some kind of non-structural casting.”

“It is, but it’s far complicating than I can interpret,” Rosalyn said. “If I take the liberty of words, then what you doing is not any casting, not in the way of magic—we practise—at least. It's more like the pure manifestation of magic. You realise what I’m saying?”

“You mean a natural occurrence like lightning?”

“Exactly,” Rosalyn said as her eyes beamed, “however, you are doing it purposefully, and to do that, you are unintentionally binding yourself as the anchor to form the manifestation. Which makes it particularly easier for you to wield the flame, however, if anything goes wrong—“

“I alone will suffer the backlash,” I completed her sentence.

“Yes,” Rosalyn said and stood up. “I think I’m missing a lot of things. It isn’t all like the bloodline ingenuity of the Emberheart, where almost all the spiritual energy transformed into flames, however, your spiritual energy did go through some mutations. I need to do more test to find out more.”

Rosalyn paused for a second, arching her eyebrows at me. “You know what? You are not the only unique case in this regard. Elinor, the lass you helped before, had gone through this kind of mutations as well, however, her condition is a lot different. Now that I think about it, she could probably cast without chanting as well.”

I frowned. It seemed my hypothesis was right. Seemed like all or at least most of the wielder of the twelve powers can do non-chanting casts. It would be a bit easier for me to find them, getting this knowledge.

“Aunt,” I asked hesitantly, “do you know anyone who could cast without chanting? Not like the mental command one cultivates in the grand magus ranks, but natural casting like me.”

Rosalyn looked at me carefully, probably probing where I’m getting at. “Yes,” she said, “I know a couple, and both of them held high positions in the realm. The first is the emperor, the strongest man in the realm, while the other is our President.”

I was hoping for something like that, yet I still couldn’t help but suck in air.

“Whatever it is, you should still imitate the natural evocation way in front of public eyes, before we figure out more. Have you said anything about it to anyone else?”

I shook my head and didn’t go deeper into the topic. We have already gone quite deep into it far earlier than I intended, so better not give any more ideas to my overly smart aunt.

“Good,” Rosalyn said, and gazed at the clock, which was striking close to six. “It’s late, you better go and rest.”

I nodded, but remained there, bringing out a pamphlet out of my pocket. “Aunt,” I said, pausing, “there is something else I need your help with as well.”

I held the pamphlet out towards her, and my aunt took it. She read as a frown appeared on her brows. What I gave her was actually a mission hall pamphlet, describing the nature of the particular mission that I'm intending to take. Actually, it wasn’t the mission that interested me, but the place the mission needed me to go. It was quite close to the place where the Dominion was hidden. It would be the best camouflage mission I could get my hands on, without putting out too much suspicions. Naturally, it would interest me.

“Warlock sighting,” Rosalyn read, shaking her head. “And it’s in Victoria. This single mission would take you a couple of weeks to a month. Are you seriously thinking of dropping your education for an entire month just to do this single mission?”

“Yes,” I said, and mentioned the excuse I prepared beforehand. “Aunt, I’m out of shape and wasted over a year. Despite all the practice I did, it wouldn’t be enough to get me back to my old form. I think I require something like this. A long break where I can practise as I please, and do some actual missions. Also, it's Victoria. I haven’t been there for a long time.”

Rosalyn became silent. Victoria was her land. She was born and raised there, and so did Scar’s mother. After her death, Scar had never been there, not even at her funeral. “Still, you will miss a lot of classes.”

“Yes, but I can recover from that, if you help me later,” I said, beaming a smile at my aunt. “Or you aren’t willing to help your favourite nephew?”

Just as I thought, my smile was too much for my aunt to handle. Finally, she exhaled, saying, “When are you intending to leave?”

“Tomorrow or the day after, the sooner it's possible.”

Rosalyn grunted. “I need to make a couple of calls,” she said. “Meet me tomorrow morning.”

“Thanks, aunt, you’re the best.” I stood up from the seat and moved my way out of her room, only to stop near the door.

I looked back at her and said again, “There’s something else. I would need your help too. Do you have something that can help me hide my aura?”