A Jaded Life

Chapter 1340

“Now, Waylon, you face a challenge,” I started, once I had enclosed Waylon and myself into a sound-baffle, making sure that only he could hear me. I had already talked to Trenton, telling him about Wind Magic and its potential, noticing a keen interest, especially when I described a few tricks Adra had used on Mundus. While she hadn’t been a real Wind Mage, her innate nature magic had given her some very similar abilities, and I was fairly confident that those tricks would work here, too. But it would take some dedication and training, especially when it came to building up the required strength for a truly powerful bow. But I could see that Trenton had the interest and might just manage.

Waylon, on the other hand, didn’t have the same affinity, which was why his talk would go very differently. However, he was a potential Ice Mage, and I wanted him to succeed, even if I might be biased towards his elemental affinity. If he had an affinity for Fire or Light, I wouldn’t even consider trying to help him, but Ice was near and dear to my heart, so he was in luck.

“Your affinity is, well, without trying to demean you, it’s horrible. You might be one of the least magically inclined people I have ever seen, and that’s saying something,” I told him, keeping my voice calm and polite while I delivered that fairly devastating news. Unless he was willing to go along with my deal, his journey on the arcane path would be exceedingly hard and, most likely, quite short.

“If I had to put it to a numerical scale, your strongest affinity sits at a two,” I paused for a moment, “Two, out of a hundred, that is,” I added, noticing how his face fell when I clarified that it wasn’t two out of ten, which would have been bad, but that it actually was worse. “However, you can consider yourself lucky. Your innate affinity, as bad as it is, leans towards Ice, a domain I’m greatly accomplished in. Thus, there might be some options for you, some paths that you could explore,” I explained, and now, his eyes were suddenly laser-focused on me.

“Tell me, why are you so eager to learn Arcane Magic. Believe me, it’s not an easy path in the first place, and, for you, it’ll be harder still. There are other, easier ways to gain power and be able to stand on your own, and that’s coming from someone who has dedicated themself to the Arcane Path.” I challenged him, curious how strong his interest in this actually was. If it were merely a passing thing, there was no way I would offer him the deal I was considering.

“It’s a dream,” he admitted, flushing a little. It was almost adorable that a guy roughly my age, maybe a year or two younger, in his late twenties, was acting like a schoolboy who was admitting to an interest in girls for the first time. Or something like that. There was a trace of childish enthusiasm in him, something I had rarely seen since the Change.

“When I realised that people could use magic after those fires, I tried a few things, but nothing worked for me. So, when you offered, and Joshua asked if someone wanted to come with him, I happily joined in,” he explained, making me frown for a moment.

“Interesting,” I nodded, “As I said, there are paths that can be explored. But those aren’t paths you take due to a passing fancy; those are paths you’d have to dedicate your life to,” I told him, my voice severe, threatening dire consequences. “Take the day to consider if you are willing to embark on such a path, a path that will challenge you, that might torture you and require you to give it your all. Tomorrow, we will talk again, and you can make your decision.”

He only nodded, looking rather intimidated, just as I had hoped. This wasn’t a decision he should make casually, but one he should consider, or he would almost certainly regret it. Which would be a waste of my time, I had no interest in offering up a good deal of my time and a lot of effort, only for him to whimp out after a day or two of effort.

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The lessons I had to prepare for Trenton, Landry and Richard were, quite frankly, routine. None of their situations was something I hadn’t dealt with before, and, by now, I could give those lessons almost without thinking about it, especially the basics. The three weren’t all that remarkable, so I could readily set them to read the various texts prepared in the shrine and give them some advice regarding their future training. Their magical abilities would give them a useful tool, but they didn’t have the innate magical ability to lean on it as others might. It would, sadly, always hold them back, so I advised them to pair their magical abilities with a different path.

Trenton and Landry were almost immediately on board with that, partially because Wind Magic was at its strongest when paired with something else, allowing its supportive aspects to shine, but also because they must have realised they wouldn’t be conjuring up storms any time soon. And if they did, they wouldn’t be able to guide the storm precisely, which would make things rather difficult. Instead, Trenton had already started working out, trying to strengthen his body so he could draw a heavy bow, while Landry had found some texts on human and animal anatomy I had stashed away and was studying those.

Some might think he was trying to become a doctor, but I knew better. Wind was decent for concealment, and knowing the body’s layout was a crucial skill for any assassin. If he stuck with it, he would eventually be a seriously dangerous fellow. But not for a while, and not for me, not unless he could push that Wind Magic far beyond anything I could conceptualise. Simply because Wind Magic was rather useless when it came to some of the esoteric tricks to find someone, it was strongly focused on the physical.

Richard, on the other hand, wanted to be a proper wizard. He wanted to lob fireballs, conjure pillars of flame and maybe even wield a whip made of fire; he was just a little pyromanic in that regard. Maybe not a bad trait, and he certainly took to all things mystical like a duck to water, but only the future would tell if he could stick with it. For now, he was happily conjuring up small flames and had already managed to delve into the Astral River to learn Rune Magic, which was a fair accomplishment. Especially as I hadn’t instructed him, he had managed that with nothing but the writings I had prepared for the shrine.

And then there was Waylon. The problem-child of the group, though the others hadn’t picked up on that just yet. Probably because it was only the first day, but that wouldn’t last. A part of me wanted to separate him from the rest of the group, to keep their presence from influencing him either way, but that wouldn’t work.

Instead, I was working the three hard, pushing them so they wouldn’t have the time or mental ability to think about their fourth member. Additionally, I made sure that they all knew about my expectations. I wasn’t their mother, as privately amusing as that was, given my connection to the divine domain of the same name, and I wasn’t running a boarding house. They could use the kitchen I opened up for them, but they would have to hunt for their own food. I had decided to provide some staples for them, simply because hunting for grain or potatoes was a rather difficult task, but they had to work for their food. Quite hard, at that, especially as travelling to Maggie’s community and back wasn’t a casual trip, not with the dangers in the forest, a fact driven home by Joshua’s disappearance.

“I still wish to learn,” Weylon told me right after breakfast. Looking at him, not just with my eyes but using Soul and Mind Magic to study him and his motivations, I couldn’t help but smile. He had thought about the path he could take and made his decision. His motivation was strong, and he was willing to do just about anything to traverse the arcane path. Not because he was desperate, or because he had some deep, unrealised desire, but because he wished to learn. Joining Joshua had been a decision made in the moment, but that was more due to ignorance of the possibilities than to disinterest. He wished to wield magic, something some might dismiss as a childish dream, but it was a dream that had burst into an all-encompassing passion.

He was, quite frankly, the perfect student in that regard. Now, I only had to give him the tools to traverse his chosen path, as challenging as that would be, given his innate limitations.