A Jaded Life

Chapter 1339

When the group of four stepped through the wards around my tower, specifically those centred on the gate in the wall around the old quarry, I immediately knew about it. Those wards were, after all, specifically set up to notify me if someone entered; that was their whole purpose. Other wards were more protective in nature, but these were the equivalent of a doorbell.

In response, I stepped through the shadows and into the shrine at the bottom of my tower, preparing my poker face and considering what I should say. How surprised should I act? How much confusion should I allow into my voice? It was a delicate balance between showing that I didn’t know about Joshua’s misfortune and maintaining my controlled and all-knowing image, even if those guys had to know that my image was just that, a projection.

Feeling the four guys step up in front of my tower’s door, I reached out with my magic and smoothly opened it, allowing them entrance into the heated space. Normally, I wouldn’t have bothered to warm the shrine, but these guys had made their way through the winter-forest, so I felt like rewarding them with a bit of comfort.

“Enter, and be welcome, Seekers of Knowledge,” I intoned, intentionally acting the formality up, despite having seen those guys only two days before. This was pagentery and ceremony; they were supplicants before me, and some formality was necessary. Or it should be, at least in my mind. I couldn’t imagine walking up to a place like the Grandmother’s odd house back in Neyto and simply greeting her with a “Whassup,” or something along those lines. Why, she would likely turn the person doing so into poultry or other livestock, at least after laughing at the audacity.

My formal approach seemed to take the four aback, and I intentionally let the calm and controlled expression on my face twitch into a frown for a moment, as if I had noticed only in that moment that there were four people before me, not five.

“Did you meet some misfortune on the way here?” I asked, partially to break the four out of their confusion, partially to cement my supposed ignorance about their circumstances.

“We had some trouble,” one of them, a guy from Maggie’s community whose name I had never learned, replied. “Not sure why, but Joshua decided to go ahead while he should have kept watch and, well, things didn’t turn out so well,” he explained, a bit of pain evident in his voice. Again, I let my face twist into a frown for a moment before bringing it back under control. Hopefully, the lapse had been brief enough to seem natural without destroying the image I had cultivated in Maggie’s community.

“That’s… unexpected,” I admitted, “I knew he was eager to get here, but to what?” I paused, shaking my head, “To take a risk, just to get here a few hours early? Did he think I would favour the first person to get here, or something like that? Some weird form of first-come-first-served?” I muttered, speaking under my breath, but just loud enough for the four to hear. I didn’t want to seem as if I was badmouthing the guy, given that the inference he had passed away was fairly obvious.

“Anyway,” I made a show of visibly pulling myself together, looking at the four people who had come to me to learn. “As you know, my name is Jade Morgana. You made this trip because you wish to learn Arcane Magic from me. Introduce yourself, then I’ll show you to your rooms, so you can drop your stuff. Afterwards, the teaching starts with a bit of testing,” I explained, taking charge of the situation to keep them from focusing on the circumstances surrounding their journey.

About an hour after the four had entered my tower, we were back in the shrine. They all looked a little better than when they came to the tower, mostly because they had taken the time to shower in the rooms I provided them with, but they also seemed a little more upbeat.

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“Now, take a seat, then we’ll begin with a bit of testing,” I explained, gesturing to four chairs placed in a semi-circle in front of the slightly larger chair I had set up for myself. “As you might have heard, not everyone is equally suited for each type of magic. Some people are better with Earth Magic, others innately lean towards Wind, or even more obscure domains.”

“Does that mean you can only learn magic you have an affinity for?” Landry, the guy who seemed to have taken over as leader after Joshua’s misfortune, asked.

“No,” I immediately shook my head, “Personally, I believe that anyone learning arcane magic should start with a domain they have a strong affinity for, as it greatly helps with those initial steps. Once you are accustomed to wielding magic, you can branch out,” I paused for a moment, looking at the four in turn. “As an example, you have all seen what I can accomplish with Earth Magic, correct?” I asked, and they all nodded along.

“Would you believe that Earth Magic is one of my lesser elements? While I’m capable with it, that’s mostly because the element is incredibly useful and versatile outside of combat situations. It’s nothing but a case of repetition making me good at using it,” I explained, noticing a few looks of wide-eyed surprise. They even made a few noises of disbelief, but they were quickly strangled.

“Now, the first step is to figure out what your affinities are,” I told them, briefly considering whether I should warn them that, depending on their affinities, or lack thereof, and innate magical ability, I might put their teaching on the back burner entirely. But, given that they had lost one of their number coming here, I wasn’t that cruel, even if it might be more productive in the long run. Or I might use a bit of Soul Magic to enhance an affinity or two, just to observe what happened with them in the process.

“There are traits that can tell you, if your affinities are high enough, but I personally prefer to use Soul Magic to figure them out,” I continued, looking them over one after the other. “That’s not something you have to learn, not something you might ever learn, but it’s quite useful.”

With that said, I drew on my Soul Magic, causing my eyes to shine with an unearthly, apparently rather creepy, light as I studied them. The first I looked at, Trenton, had an adequate affinity to Wind Magic; the second, Waylon, almost made me cringe, as even his strongest affinity was pitifully weak, but it was to Ice Magic, while the third, Landry, was similar to Trenton, only that his Wind Affinity was weaker, barely scraping into an adequate range. Lastly, Richard had the strongest innate magical ability of them all, with an affinity to Fire that barely missed the mark to grant him the appropriate trait.

Considering their elements for a moment, I felt it made sense. The three with any real affinity, where the magic might innately affect their actions, had energetic elements. Wind and Fire were both centred on action and movement, so heading out to have an adventure fit well with that. Waylon, on the other hand, barely had any innate magic, so it wouldn’t affect his actions, meaning there was no drive to remain static, as I might expect in an Ice User. Though, looking at my own elements and actions, that might just be a complete coincidence, as I certainly didn’t fit the mould of a glacially slow and eternally placid Ice User, despite it being one of my strongest elements.

For a moment, I wondered if I should even try to teach Waylon. His affinity was pitifully low, and he didn’t have any extraordinary innate magical ability to make up for that. It might be kinder to just reject him outright, point him towards the training dummies still installed in my tower and give him a head start on becoming a warrior of some type, or maybe an alchemist if he had an interest in that. I doubted it; he didn’t give me any deeply intellectual vibes, but first impressions could be deceiving, and often were. Or maybe I should take him aside, quietly explain the situation and offer him assistance with his affinity. It might actually be quite interesting to see if I could enhance his Ice Affinity to the point it became useful, especially as it was Ice, an element near and dear to my heart. Maybe introducing some Giant Blood would cause some interesting effects.

“Now, as this is a rather personal revelation, I will create a sound baffle around each of you, so only the one I’m speaking to can hear what I say. If you wish to share afterwards, that’s on you, but I ask you to respect the privacy of the others,” I explained, looking at them, one at a time, trying to drive home that this wasn’t something to banter about.

Then, once they were all suitably cowed, I started the individual teaching, going to them one by one. Especially since the only way Waylon could succeed here was if I offered him a deal. Not quite a Faustian bargain, but certainly something I wanted him to consider privately.