[B2] Chapter 67 — A Seed Defined (Part II)

Ranger woke up not long after being moved outside the barrier. Upon learning of their failure, he looked really depressed, laying with his head on his paws, brows scrunched up in the doggy version of deep contemplation.

Ria’s mood wasn’t much different, stunned by her complete and total defeat. The feeling of being outclassed in every way reminded her of the match with the elven team Nature’s Fury, but Orlisi’s dominance had been complete, leaving no room to work an underdog’s turnabout through creativity and stubborn tenacity like she had done with Aelyri.

Half-measures weren’t going to be enough to eke out a victory or even a temporary stalemate. Superior strength would be needed to overcome Orlisi’s superior skill. But her strength hadn’t even been enough to withstand Orlisi’s water magic. Short of risking a technique from the manual Soulkeeper Renard had lent her, competing with the girl’s true power seemed impossible—if she was being honest with herself.

Was it really a matter of strength though?

Surely, apprentices weren’t expected to actually defeat an elder disciple to prove themselves? The challenge was to prove the truth of her path. But, what did that even mean?

Orlisi’s words and manner indicated this was a matter of Furren-style martial arts, so it had to be related to her martial arts, and Ria was fairly certain that unlocking her ‘body’ gate was the trigger for the elf girl’s current enthusiasm and the challenge—which would mean that what was expected of her had something to do with her bloodline and orichalcum affinity.

What her bloodline and affinity had to do with her martial arts was surely the missing puzzle piece. Orlisi’s magic flowed naturally together with the girl’s martial arts. For Tina it was the same, a sense of shadow permeating everything the woman did, and Tina’s shadow magic was perfectly integrated into her combat style, from the body-strengthening to the way she used it to constrain her opponents’ choices.

Ria could admit that she had yet to fully integrate her new orichalcum magic into her martial arts. She didn’t fully understand what it could and couldn’t do, and she wasn’t as practiced with it as with earth, fire, and shadow. Or even air…

But even if she could better integrate her element into her combat style, Ria didn’t see that as enough to stand before a serious Orlisi who could wield the forces of nature like an enraged elemental spirit.

Grasp your truth and impose it on the world and your opponent was what Orlisi had told her she must do to succeed. But wasn’t that what she was doing with the domain spell? A groan of frustration threatened to voice itself. Instead, she put her aggravation toward more aggressively refilling her reserves.

Directing her senses in the elf’s direction, Ria noted that the girl had finished instructing Tallien and Rialle on what would be expected from them. Her reprieve and time to find a solution were growing short.

“Ria, you’ve recovered enough. Have you found your answer?”

Gah!

“No,” Ria admitted as she rose to her feet and cycled her orichalcum energy, trying to get a better feel for how it was different from her normal energy and how to better make use of it.

“Then we’ll move on to tasks to help you find the truth that is presently eluding your grasp.”

Tallien and Rialle took up positions equidistant from Orlisi and Ria on opposite sides of the dueling oval.

“Welkin, if you would?” Orlisi prompted, and with a nod from the fifth-year, the safety magic flared back to life. “First Tallien, then Rialle, then me. Using the same amount of energy on each of us, Ria, you will try to overcome our magic with your magic-suppressing chains. As soon as Tallien says he’s ready, you may begin.”

With three of his barrier stones already floating around him, the alchemist boy grimaced and drank a potion that made his skin and eyes glow. To Ria’s surprise, Tallien had chosen a potion that increased his light energy and used a gem-tipped wand to cast a barrier formed of light magic.

She supposed she shouldn’t have been that surprised, considering ‘a tool to make light-aspect barriers’ was the task Hulle had assigned Tallien after their evaluation matches. That Orlisi intended for him to use it against her was more of a surprise.

“Ready.”

Determined to make a better showing this time, Ria sharpened the concepts of her orichalcum magic in her mind and applied them as she brought the chains into existence around Tallien’s barrier.

Her eyes widened in surprise at the results. Tallien’s magic didn’t eat away at the meaning contained in hers like Orlisi’s did. In fact, it was her magic that was eating away at his, absorbing the light of his barrier faster than he could desperately replenish it. Feeling her confidence return, Ria pressed her advantage, making use of the absorbed energy to reinforce her magic.

“That’s good enough, Ria,” Orlisi called out to stop her just as Tallien’s light barrier was about to fail.

“Ah, thanks for your assistance, Tallien,” Ria offered as she withdrew her magic.

Tallien nodded, waving away her concern and sighing out, “Anasari above! That was scary.”

“Now, the same magic on Rialle. Remember: only the same amount of energy,” Orlisi sharply instructed from where she was impatiently observing.

To prepare, Rialle was methodically working a complex spell with custom fire glyphs that Ria had never seen before. A powerful barrier of fire formed—one that flared vividly wherever it came in contact with free-flowing energy.

Had Rialle also succeeded in her task assigned by Hulle? Setting aside the thought, Ria again focused on the properties of orichalcum and readied her magic.

“Ready,” Rialle voiced.

Using the chains on Rialle after what happened… Ria wasn’t entirely sure she could bring herself to do it, but seeing Rialle’s resolve, she forced out the orichalcum magic. The fire magic met her chains with more resistance than Tallien’s light magic. Whether to be relieved about that… was complicated.

Ria firmed her own resolve and refocused her effort: her element’s fire was formed at the creation of the world and had no earthly equal. Even so, Rialle’s fire magic burned fierce where it came into contact with the chains. Not only did the fire resist being absorbed, but it actively sought to consume the chains, to burn the suppressing magic as fuel.

Unfortunately for Rialle, the girl’s flames were subject to the orichalcum magic’s time aspect, allowing the shadow aspect’s absorption to gradually win out over the flames’ insatiable consumption, but it was no simple matter. There was a strength in Rialle’s flames that reminded of Orlisi’s water and wind in a way Tallien’s alchemically-boosted light magic had been lacking.

Under the pressure of Ria’s relentless assault, Rialle’s face scrunched up in determination, her eyes as fierce as her flames. The eventual outcome would have been the same as before, but the older girl put up enough resistance this time that the barrier was still holding when the allowed amount of energy was used up.

As the both magics dissipated, Rialle dropped to one knee, breathing heavily from the exertion. “So, it’s like that…”

Though dissatisfied at not being able to overwhelm Rialle’s magic as she had before, overall, Ria felt encouraged by the result. Rialle was a third-year and by no means weak. To have overcome the lingering mental trauma and pressured the girl to such an extent…

Rialle’s imp complained from outside the barrier and the irritated whipping of its glowing barbed tail momentarily drew Ria’s attention. If even Rialle’s familiar couldn’t safely participate, then maybe Ranger didn’t need to feel so discouraged either.

“Now, show me if you’ve learned anything,” Orlisi challenged as she prepared the barrier of swirling water and wind from before.

Ranger whuffed encouragement from where he was watching and through the bond.

Closing her eyes, Ria reviewed the difference in how her orichalcum magic had fared against Tallien and Rialle compared with her prior attempt against Orlisi. The concepts of her magic had shown strength against the two third-years, imposing her magic’s concepts onto theirs. That must be what was meant by imposing her truth on the world. She wasn’t wrong that the domain spell did that, but this was something more.

The struggle against Rialle’s truth firmly in mind, Ria conjured the molten chains with determination and her brows rose in surprise at the result. Unbidden thoughts of Orlisi’s earlier maliciousness against herself and Ranger joined together with past grievances and made her pride rear up. The chains’ intensity surged with the eye-narrowing recounting of grievances, easily twice as powerful as what manifested against Rialle and Tallien.

The sudden increase in energy and the superior manifestation of her magic wasn’t the only change! The concepts of her magic were holding against Orlisi’s—no, she was actually slowing the girl’s protective tempest, drawing out its energy!

Orlisi made an unnervingly wry smile. “Are you sure that’s the same amount of energy?”

“It was, but…” Ria asserted with a bit of disbelief, surprised at the difference herself. Was this what Orlisi meant by her truth producing energy? But… why only against Orlisi?

“Why so surprised?” the elf girl cocked her head quizzically at Ria, an eyebrow raised. “Haven’t you noticed that my elemental attacks are stronger than they should be and contain the force of nature? Why should your truth be any different? That’s the secret of this world, my dear junior disciple: magic might be born from energy, but truths are what creates that energy.”

Wha-? Rather, wasn’t it simply due to Orlisi’s elven bloodline and affinities?

But that wouldn’t explain why her own magic became dramatically more powerful depending on the target—even when using the same amount of energy.

Before Ria could think about it further, her elation and relief from having finally pressured the unbelievably talented elf girl turned to ash as the girl’s magic gradually became more dense with the meaning and properties of nature until it was again overcoming the properties of Ria’s with its own.

Why was Orlisi’s magic so much stronger than even Rialle’s?!

The elf girl’s smile turned challenging, and Ria’s frustration burned, but she pushed it into her soul’s emotional reservoir. She needed to think about this calmly and clearly. This was an exercise intended to help her find the answer that would allow her to better match Orlisi’s truth with her own.

There was a reason Orlisi had her start with Tallien and Rialle first. Comparing Orlisi’s magic to Rialle and Tallien’s, it wasn’t simply a difference in strength; there was a difference in quality—a difference that could impose itself on her own magic, defeating and overwhelming the imaginings that she envisioned to reinforce her own, and she didn’t know why. It was as if Orlisi’s magic was overwriting her own with its own truths.

Stopping her own truth from being overwritten—was that the heart of the challenge and the task required to prove the truth of her path? Ria felt a crystallizing certainty that indeed it was.

Such a task was easier said than done. No matter how hard she tried to refine her magic’s properties, the effort barely slowed the encroachment.

When the imposed energy limit was reached and they both allowed their magics to dissipate, Orlisi frowned and admonished, “A truth isn’t something you use. It permeates your entire existence, becomes a part of your daily life, everything you do.”

Ah-! Was that why her orichalcum lacked the sincerity of Orlisi’s nature element?

That sense empowering fluidity of water and a sharpness of wind balanced with a sturdiness of wood and filled with the vitality of life. Phaelys had called her ‘Orlisi of the Nurturing Tempest’. If Ria had to define the concept more concisely, it was ‘Life as a Force of Nature’—a concept that the elf girl clearly embraced in her daily life.

Maybe that was a hint to where she was going wrong. Her truth would be something that defined her life, not just her magic or her combat style.

Maybe something like the strange flares of pride since unlocking her ‘body’ gate? There was also the time Desi burned herself when she tried to grab Ria’s arm in the washroom, and she had become more resistant to heat and fire. And there was the new hunger for gold… Was all of that part of it?

Or was it more of a mindset thing? An unyielding will? A resilient spirit?

If she went by the properties of orichalcum, should she have an inexhaustible stamina? An indestructible body? An ability to absorb any magic or element around her?

For the next exercise, Ria was made to stand equidistant from Orlisi, Tallien, and Rialle while they challenged her domain with their own. Orlisi had Welkin and the senior team members extend out their own domains as well while taking a break from maintaining the safety barrier, just like they had when Ria first entered the hall.

Even if Orlisi was the only other martial artist, now that Ria had a better understanding of what she was looking for, she found a truth present in each of their domains—truths that each challenged her own.

The exercise was enlightening, and Orlisi kept the truths of her domain scaled to Ria’s as Ria continued to solidify and integrate her element's concepts.

Sparring followed with her facing off against Tallien, Rialle, and Orlisi separately and then together. As with the earlier exercises Orlisi scaled her truth to be just strong enough to make Ria struggle but not enough to overwhelm.

Ria felt she was making progress, but Orlisi’s mood was still worsening…

“I can feel your truth in your magic, and it’s much better than when we started, but it’s too weak!” the elf girl grumbled with brows knotted together in puzzlement as they again meditated to restore their energy. “I don’t understand why the conviction of your truth is so weak. This is not enough to form a Seed, and yet I’m almost certain that you have one…”

Ria didn’t have any response to that. Orlisi was the one who had decided on her own about a so-called ‘Seed’ and imposed excessive expectations from the start. What if the elf girl was mistaken? What if she was being put through all this on the basis of a mistaken assumption and without a way to succeed?

No. Ria shook off the thought. Even if she didn’t have a ‘Seed’ yet, there was definitely something there—something that empowered her and made her stronger, something that if she could consciously harness...

The eccentric elf girl had yet to steer her wrong. Ria further firmed her determination. She needed to rise to this challenge and find the missing piece of the puzzle, that something she was lacking to unleash the power Orlisi was sure was there.

“Thanks for your assistance Tallien, Rialle. Go ahead and have a seat,” Orlisi said, motioning toward the bleachers while returning to her feet, her patience having reached its limit, and decided, “Seems, as Crazy Tina’s disciple, Ria may be the type that must be pushed to the brink to realize her truth.”

The tone in Orlisi’s voice sent a chill down Ria’s spine. Ria tried to object with an “Um, Orlisi-” only narrowly casting her body strengthening and rolling to her feet in time to dodge the initial attack as the first round of one-sided terror began.

After what felt like an hour of constantly being cornered and barely surviving a beating more unforgiving than Tina at her most excited, Ria was starting to find it hard to focus. Though frustration again filled all her thoughts, she still refused to give up. Even if it was just for the sake of churlish spite, she would fight until the safety magic rendered her unconscious, and even then she would struggle and resist. It was a matter of stubborn honor now.

Her sight blinded by an excruciating simulated injury, her body painfully full of simulated cuts and wounds, and her reserves nearly empty, Ria forced herself to her feet again regardless, her pride causing her emotions to roil. Through her sensing-sphere she could see an expressionless Orlisi walking slowly toward her, unphased and not even winded.

Ranger pushed his concern through the bond, but Ria blocked him out and clenched her fists. If this was the pathetic extent of her power, what good was her bloodline or blessing or whatever?! If she couldn’t even defeat a second-year elf, how could she ever bring down a kingdom? She screamed out her frustration at the arched ceiling above. Were all her intentions at avenging her family and village just childish fantasy?

“I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong!” Ria gritted out at Orlisi between labored breaths as she viciously drew in energy in preparation for the next round of exchanges. “Tell me what I’m doing wrong!”

The elf girl’s face fell with such disappointment that Ria’s heart seized even through her anger and frustration. “Maybe it’s too soon after all.”

It was a declaration of failure.

“This is a waste of time, Welkin,” Ulren grumbled.

“I’m inclined to agree,” Endreise added. “It’s too much to expect of a first-year.”

“Keep it to yourself, you two,” Welkin voiced. “I promised Orlisi that we wouldn’t interfere.”

The elf stood before her, brows furrowed. “Disciples who have coalesced a Seed of Truth must have their Truth tested to be recognized. Somehow, you have formed a seed without having any understanding of it. How can you prove your truth if you don’t even know what it is?”

Recognized? Was this an initiation? Did Tina go through this?

Ria pushed those thoughts aside. Why had she failed? She had demonstrated her orichalcum magic. She was misunderstanding something. Didn’t she already know what her truth was?

“Proving the truths of my orichalcum bloodline—isn’t that enough?”

Orlisi motioned denial with her hand. “No, for you the truth of orichalcum is a possible path for the future, but it is not yours yet. Your seed must be something else.”

Huh?

The elf girl paused to prepare what she wanted to say. “At first I thought it was something simple. The way the quality of your magic changed when you became angry made me suspect you had a rage-type path, but I began to realize it was something more complex where you couldn’t use it unless attacked first—something like ‘retaliation’ or ‘retribution’, but the incident with Rialle suggests you can ‘retaliate’ on behalf of others as well, which further complicates the concept to something like a personal ‘law’ and sense of ‘justice’, maybe.”

A law…

Orlisi’s earlier words came back to her.

A truth isn’t something you use. It permeates your entire existence, becomes a part of your daily life, everything you do.

Not just something she used in combat, but something that would show in her daily life…

Ria liked to think that she was practical-minded about most things. Was there really something that she was stubborn about to such an extent to call it a ‘law’? Surely, there wasn’t such a thing.

She didn’t approve of theft, but didn’t hesitate to take the books on crystal magic. She thought killing was terrible, but she didn’t even know how many people she had killed—and she was actively intending to murder more. For her to assume the moral righteousness to…

Wait. Theft. There was something.

When Gebs tried to take her inheritance money, she cut his shirt in exchange.

Exacting a price…

How many times had she justified her actions that way? She was determined that those who wrong her pay a price. It was natural and right. But when did she decide that? When did she become so rigid about it?

The obvious answer was after losing her family.

But… she couldn’t think of a time even before then that she thought differently. Even when her brothers would play pranks on her, she was determined that they pay a price.

And it wasn’t vindictiveness. It was something deeper. She wanted to say it was a matter of justice or balance, but the price was always meant as a punishment—a correction of a wrong. It wasn’t just wrongs against her, but also wrongs against those who were hers: her family, her familiar, her friends, her companions—anyone she cared for and maybe even those under her protection.

Ria had felt strange spikes of pride since unlocking her ‘body’ gate, but had those feelings always been there, lurking in the back of her mind? No, not feelings. Truths. Her bloodline demanded that those truths be respected.

Her eyebrows raised at the realization. Her bloodline demanded…

What was her heritage that such wasn’t arrogance but truth? It was as if wronging her was an act against the natural order of things. Was that what it meant to have a royal bloodline?

A terror gripped her at an even more worrisome thought.

Her affinity test.

If her divine affinity was from her bloodline and not a blessing… and divinity was the source of such truths-

It was too much. Ria refused to think on it further.

“Come to a realization, have you?” Orlisi suddenly crowed, her eyes shining with renewed light as she took a battle stance. “Shall we test it?”

The elf girl didn’t wait for permission, already blurring forward like rushing water.

Irritated and flush with a sudden surge of energy, Ria met the truths of nature with her righteous indignation—Tempest met Primal Magic in a clash of opposing elements.

Retribution, retaliation, both were wrong. Her price was a judgment. A settling of accounts that reminded lesser existences of their place under the natural laws of this realm.

This time she wasn’t pushed back by Orlisi’s superior truth but challenged it with her own. Each exchange of blows, blocks, redirections, counters, and near misses resulted in explosions of clashing energies that formed into expressions of chaos around them.

Lost in her focus and the overwhelming sound of the minor cataclysm wrought around their fight, Ria didn’t hear it at first, but Orlisi was laughing.

The elf’s face twisted with ecstatic joy as she reveled. “Yes! Yes! That’s it! You’ve found it!”

Ria still felt annoyed that she’d given the battle-crazed elf what the girl wanted but couldn’t deny the strength flowing from her own truth, her Seed. It all made sense now—all the times when her magic exceeded what should have normally been possible, the grillot, after the quickslime, the barbarian chief, the incident with Rialle.

Channeling that realization, she fought, pushing herself past her limits. Orlisi had built up quite a debt. Honor the challenge? Sure, she’d use that excuse to smash that smug grin from her elf friend’s face. After everything the girl just put her through, no hard feelings, right?

Or so, for almost a full passing of the sands, such a dream seemed possible—until it wasn’t.

Unfortunately, even with her strong affinity, she still lacked sufficient attunement with orichalcum to make its use efficient and was soon forced to frustratingly admit defeat. Again.

Her truth made her orichalcum element stronger than Orlisi’s Nurturing Tempest as needed, but as a scion of a martial arts family, Orlisi’s skill and efficiency were achievements Ria couldn’t yet match.

It was a bitter reality, but for now this was the limit of what she could achieve. Though rather than despair, Ria felt renewed confidence. Having found her path, defeating the elf girl was no longer an insurmountable mountain. It was a matter of time and effort and certainty.

“Congratulations, and well done, you two,” Welkin praised and approached while clapping in approval as the safety magic dissipated around them, and with it, Ria’s illusionary injuries, leaving only leaden exhaustion and overstrained energy pathways. He turned to address Orlisi. “I admit I was skeptical when you insisted we use one of our critical practice sessions for this, but the change in the quality of Ria’s attacks… If she continues to train hard, by the time the Games start, she might be able to hold against fourth and fifth-year opponents.”

“Heh, heh, heh,” Orlisi smugly laughed and struck a victory pose. “I promised, didn’t I?”

“Hold her own against the top fourth and fifth years? Against Presius? That seems unrealistic,” Endreise dismissed, her voice breathy from the effort of maintaining the safety magic. “You shouldn’t give the girl unreasonable expectations.”

“I agree with Endreise. Efficiency still seems to be an issue, and the boost in strength hasn’t improved her casting speed,” Hulle cautioned.

“Hulle, what about further awakening her bloodline? Should I inquire to have the pills made?” Orlisi queried.

“Um…,” Ria tried to interrupt as grasping tendrils of panic seeped up her fatigued limbs at the idea. Did she dare continue awakening her bloodline? Would it draw more attention from the gods? What would be the consequences of such an act? The changes were already affecting her mind. Would she really be okay? Would she still be herself?

Hulle hummed in thought. “We might want to have a sample of her blood and hair tested by Shadwich first. Ria’s already showing physical changes.”

“So, we’re done then?” Ulren grumbled from where he was meditating to restore his depleted reserves.

“Ah, yes, feel free to practice on your own or in smaller groups if you like,” Welkin replied. “Ria, Orlisi, Hulle, let’s walk somewhere more private to finish this conversation.”