Chapter 18 — Places of Power

Almost a week after Jarrel returned they had finally finished preparing everything on Jarrel’s list, and as expected, Ria’s training now included wearing the fully-loaded pack.

With both the magic and alchemy books, her pack was already heavy. Adding the pots, tools, rope, food, her father’s stashed coins, and her bedroll made it torture. At least, Jarrel was carrying the tent and the heavy items like sacks of flour and sugar.

Somehow, she still managed to save enough room for the magic robe. The previous evening, Ria tried wearing the air robe even though it hung off her narrow shoulders and draped onto the floor. The effect was incredible, and she was finally able to successfully perform an energy transformation. She still had a long way to go before she could do air magic without the robe, so it had to come no matter what.

The remaining final space went to a simple linen shirt and breeches, a few pairs of underwear, and her mom's silver hand mirror and hair comb. She needed to take at least one or two things to remember her mom by. With all of that, her nightgown sadly didn’t fit.

The magic stones all went in a sock in her tool pouch to be joined with a bar of scented soap wrapped in wax-cloth. The soap was just a small luxury, and scented soap didn't take up any more space than normal cleaning soap.

That was it… even with all her hard work, everything else would have to be left behind.

“Let’s take a break, Ria. You’re already exhausted,” Jarrel called back to her.

Truthfully, she was beyond exhausted, and her thoughts were wandering as she just focused on moving one foot after the other. That meant getting a faceful of tree branch or spiderweb every so often. Too tired to speak, she just nodded and slipped to her rear end not caring whether the ground below was dry or not.

Jarrel chuckled. “You’ll get used to it before we leave.”

Ugh. And every day until then will involve pain. Ria couldn't even imagine how much worse this would be if she hadn't been training with the water pails.

She took a gulp from her waterskin and massaged her trembling leg muscles. It wasn't just her legs either. The pack was heavy enough that her back and shoulders were being put through torture as well.

"So… where are… we headed today," Ria asked after getting her breath back.

Jarrel's face made a mischievous grin. "I was thinking that a trek up to the rock on the hill would be just the thing."

Ria stared in shock.

"Haha, what's with that look? Weren't you asking me to take you out there so you can meditate on the rock again?"

Sure, she was asking that, but… there's just no way… Ugh, this was going to take all day.

Sighing in defeat, Ria pushed herself back to her feet and half-heartedly motioned for him to lead on. Might as well get on with it.

Ria stumbled to the large rock and slipped her pack to the ground. She pushed her staff onto the sunbaked surface and pulled herself up, rolling to her back. She just lay there completely spent, the heat soaking into her strained muscles causing them to gradually unknot.

"Hahaha. See, you can do it," Jarrel told her as he walked up beside the rock and shielded his eyes to look into the distance.

Says the guy who had to push her from behind when she ran out of strength halfway up the hill, but she lacked the physical energy to glare at him. Lightning might be possible though…

"Really is a beautiful view. There were a few times that I used this location to spot a quarry to hunt," Jarrel said conversationally. He wasn't even winded, or he was good at hiding it.

Sitting up wasn't going to happen anytime soon, maybe she could just do the meditation without doing the meditation pose.

Ria kicked herself mentally for thinking something so half-hearted. This was her first time back to this location since she learned how to sense magical energy. She was almost certain that this location was a place of power, and she wanted to sense it properly. Pride would have to be set aside if she wanted to do this properly.

"Jarrel… cookie… please," she asked.

"Oh, that's probably a good idea." Jarrel rummaged in one of his pack's side pockets. "Ah, here you go. Have some jerky, too."

Ria received and ate both and turned her head to the side to suck water from her waterskin to wash down the salty taste. Her stomach threatened to rebel, but she still felt a little better after the snack.

After regaining a measure of strength, Ria reached out for her staff, rolled to her side, and used her less-fatigued arms to push herself up into a sitting position. From there, she assumed the Outwardly Focused pose, this time with her staff laying across her hands.

Taking a few deep breaths to begin the meditation, she let her sense of touch expand into the rock and the nearby air. After a while of feeling her surroundings, she was certain that the whole area was pulsing with magical energies.

This place was full of power. Even more so than Hemse's shrine in the village, and it wasn't just the rock, which was a source of heat energy as expected. The air above was a vortex of air energy, and the primary energy suffusing the area beyond the rock was something new that she hadn't felt before—warm, throbbing with vitality, and having a texture like passing through leaves or grass. Without a doubt, nature energy.

She was surprised that light energy wasn't present, but… focusing more on the rock, in fact, she did find some. Very small amounts speckled here and there throughout the rock.

Ria sucked in a surprised and excited breath, almost breaking her meditation. This location was a tremendous place for improving affinities!

Her inner energy was full, so she pushed about half into her staff to store, and like she practiced at Hemse's shrine, pulled at the nearby energies with her will, drawing the foreign energy into herself a small amount at a time, carefully moving it about her body and letting her muscles and organs absorb it.

Each of the different energy types seemed to have subtle effects on her body as they were absorbed. Her sense still couldn't see specific details, but she could now see enough inside her body to get a general feel for what the effects were.

The heat energy was slowly restoring her stamina and relaxing her overtaxed muscles.

The nature energy was supplementing her body's natural restorative and growth processes, using the available nutrients to repair her strained connective tissue and slightly increase her muscle density.

The air energy was invigorating her with every breath she took, and feeling the synergy of all three energies, Ria could understand why the large birds enjoyed circling overhead.

"I'm amazed that a girl your age can sit so still for so long and not get bored," Jarrel commented and chuckled.

Who's the bored one here? Ria wondered, but she did feel like she had lost track of time somewhere along the process. Feeling her body and mind improving was addictive and gave her a sense of accomplishment, and even though those improvements were in barely noticeable increments, those tiny increments had quickly grown into measurable gains.

"I like moving the energy around and improving my control. It's hard work, but each day I can feel improvement," Ria explained, her voice sounding oddly monotone and distracted.

"Hmm… For all that hard work, I don't see much happening. You sure you're doing it right?" came Jarrel's reply.

How rude… but a thought occurred to Ria, just because she couldn't transform her inner energy to air energy without the air robe yet, didn't mean that she couldn't make use of the external air energy that she had brought under her control.

Focusing on a small amount of the air energy at first, she began the 'breeze exercise', causing the air to flow in a unified direction. Creating the effect without the air robes was hard, but without the need to transform her inner energy, she was able to focus all her effort on just using the energy to create the effect.

Fairly constant breezes were already moving about, making the practical application of the magic more one of controlling and redirecting the existing flows. Unifying the disparate and conflicting currents, Ria used more and more of the energy to reinforce the swirling winds into a gentle cyclone of air around her.

"Heh. I stand corrected. That's rather impressive," Jarrel admitted.

The amount of concentration required to maintain the effect was mentally exhausting, still Ria couldn't help smiling ear-to-ear at her success.

When she felt her focus starting to slip, Ria released the effect and flopped backward onto her back. "Aaaah, that was soooo tiring."

"Haha, I bet. So, you satisfied? Ready to head back?" Jarrel asked.

"Yeah. Just give me a few minutes to relax," Ria replied. Disappointing though it was, with her mental strength used up, there was no sense pushing further today. "And, I definitely want to come back a few more times before we leave for Crysellia."

Jarrel laughed again. "Sure. I'll bring some arrows to fletch next time."

Ria took her time breathing in the power of the place, letting the energies seep into her. Leaving such a place behind seemed like an opportunity lost. But a chance to study at a Magic Academy was probably worth more to her. Maybe she would be able to find more places of power in Crysellia? Surely if they have Magic Academies, there must be places of power as well?

Feeling rested enough, she slid off the rock and hefted her pack. The trip back was going to be tough, but after recovering her strength, she had a feeling that it wouldn't be as bad.