Chapter 68 — Following in Luventi’s Footsteps

Not long after the doors to the training hall closed behind them, Orlisi swayed on her feet, and Welkin caught her when her legs gave out.

“I told you such a dangerous mental-focus potion was too risky!”

“Eh-heh,” the suddenly exhausted and groggy elf girl said, winking up at her savior. “I needed to show-off for my cute junior disciple, you know? It was a close thing too. If she hadn’t figured it out there at the end…”

Ria’s eyebrows rose to her hairline.

“Welkin, I’ll take Ria on ahead,” Hulle offered. “We can discuss the bloodline matters later; I have another matter I’d like to broach with her.”

“If you would, Hulle,” Welkin agreed, scooping up the lolling elf girl into a princess carry. “I’m worried about Orlisi’s condition. Meet me in Shadwich’s lab later when you’re done.”

Hulle diverted Ria toward the stairs and ushered her along.

Ria couldn’t help twisting around to see what was happening with her elf friend before remembering that she could use Ranger’s eyes and caught sight of Welkin rushing in the direction of the nearest elevator shaft with the petite elf girl cradled against his chest.

A mental-focus potion… was that why Orlisi had been so strong?

Welkin’s haste suggested Orlisi’s sudden power hadn’t come without consequences. Why had Orlisi taken such a risk just to help her? Surely, it wasn’t to impress her as the girl had joked.

“Ria,” Hulle quietly called to bring back her attention. “What do you know about my relationship with Vannesa Sorrel?”

Wha-? Why would he want to talk about that?

A quick glance around, confirmed that they were alone in the stairwell.

“Um, just that you tried to kill her?” Ria reluctantly offered. It really was the only thing she knew.

Hulle stopped as they reached a landing halfway up the flight of stairs and looked at her. “...and it doesn’t worry you?”

Ria grimaced and met his eyes through the glasses he wore. Even with his intimidating confidence and poise, the beautiful, delicate, elfin-featured boy really wasn’t much taller than her, and if it wasn’t for his powerful magic, she would have a hard time seeing him as capable of killing anyone. With his personality it was hard to see him acting in anger, but in a way, that made the possibility even worse. To have planned and attempted it in cold blood…

“Well… it is a little unnerving to be honest,” Ria hesitantly admitted. “Aldri said it wasn’t his story to tell, so I assume there is a story there…”

He held her gaze silently for a while longer before coming to a decision of some kind. “You’ll want to dress for an outing after classes Silverday—doesn’t need to be excessively fancy. Casual attire will be fine.”

Eyes widening in surprise, Ria blurted out, “But what about practice?”

Hulle resumed climbing the stairs. “Taking the day off from practice will be necessary for you anyway; it is obvious you overexerted yourself and damaged your energy pathways.”

She was oddly sore even after the safety magic was dispelled, and cycling her energy hadn’t helped. Infact, just cycling her energy had been painful—something she’d never experienced before.

If she was in this bad a shape, Orlisi’s condition must be far worse.

Ria hurried up a few steps to catch up. “Will the damage heal?”

“With time. If you don’t exert yourself.”

Ugh. With her schedule for the week and the debut coming up, that wasn’t something she wanted to hear. Maybe it was fortunate that she was already skipping this week’s Divinesday tournament for Leriah’s lunch event… hopefully, she would be fine by the following Divinesday.

So… Hulle was planning to take her somewhere again. And, it was apparently important enough for him to also skip the next team practice. Would it be like the Cartographer’s Society—some place selling unusual magic items or training tools? That might be fun, especially now that she knew he was willing to pay!

Though, with the way he had seemed to confirm her loyalty first… maybe he was going to introduce her to underground or criminal society? He had some sort of relationship with Desi, who was part of the Twilight Cloak, after all.

With the conversation having died, the only sounds in the stairwell were the swishing of their clothing and the tapping of Ranger’s claws on the stone stairs behind them.

“Um… Hulle,” Ria spoke into the awkward silence. “Thanks for helping me.”

He didn’t look her way, but Ria thought she saw the corner of his mouth twitch up slightly. “How’s the work on your attunements progressing?”

Couldn’t he tell with his glasses? Or was that a reminder of the promise she made when selling her attunement info to Martina?

Either way, Ria was glad to have something to talk about. “Thanks to Ranger, I’ve made significant progress with improving my earth attunement. I was thinking to work on my air attunement next so I’ll be able to cast lightning magic without casting aids and because I’ve read that elements become harder to improve when the opposing element has significantly higher attunement, but maybe it would be better to focus on improving my orichalcum attunement…”

Hulle hummed before replying, “Increasing your orichalcum attunement will further disadvantage your efforts with air. Working on air attunement now isn’t a bad idea, and might be something you could do without aggravating your condition—if you’re careful not to overdo it. Besides, have you found a proper place to work on your orichalcum attunement yet?”

She didn’t have one. The small orichalcum sapling at Keira’s estate might help, but other than that, she only had the bracelet and the pearl she bought to use as aids, which wasn’t the same as using a place of power or an attuned meditation space.

And the chance of such a space already existing at the academy was probably zero.

Which meant, making one—a task needing access to a leyline, and access to a ley-line meant permission from someone important enough to have the authority to grant it. Even if she could get permission, finding time to work on it before her debut would be impossible.

And even assuming she could find a room to use in Parthanex Tower or one of the other Towers or Halls, how much benefit she would gain from a meditation room based on her custom orichalcum glyph rather than a natural orichalcum source was an open question. The generated energy density would be helpful, of course, but the insights would be limited to the understanding she had when creating the glyph.

“I’ll leave you here, Ria,” Hulle said, motioning in the direction of the student lounge as they exited the stairwell onto the outer hallway circling the fifth floor.

Ria looked at him in surprise. Had he already addressed the matter he wanted to discuss with her? “You’re going to see how Orlisi’s doing; should I not come with you?”

The corner of his mouth did momentarily tug upward this time. “If a person went to such lengths to impress and mentor a junior, would said person want that junior to see her suffering from the effort?”

Ah-! She hadn’t thought of it like that.

Seemingly satisfied with her reaction, Hulle advised, “Rather than costing her face by showing concern, perhaps a suitable gift would be better received?”

After considering for a moment, Ria nodded. “Thanks, Hulle. I’ll do that.”

He gave her a slight nod in return. “Then, I’ll be on my way.” Hulle turned to leave and paused. “Tallien might have something to speed your recovery.”

Ria thanked him again, but he was already walking away.

Rialle, Katria, and Tallien were sitting at a table nursing energy drinks when she entered the student lounge. Tallien waved for her to join them.

On her way to the table, Ria bought an air-attuned drink for herself and a fire drink for Ranger since he was working on his fire attunement.

Ranger used his paws to down his in one go and went off to the fire section of the lounge’s meditation garden to continue sulking.

“Ria? You okay?” Tallien inquired, pulling her out of her thoughts.

“Ah, yeah. I’m just a little worried about Ranger,” Ria admitted as she placed Ranger’s empty drink in the basket Tallien used to collect the empty glass jars and plopped into the open seat next to the alchemist boy. “He worked so hard to fight at my side, and now…”

“Orlisi shouldn’t have done it like that,” Rialle stated. “Even if she was trying to provoke a reaction out of you like last time.”

Rialle’s imp made a rude gesture and noise.

“That’s not good, Ix,” Rialle chided her familiar. “Even if you’re mad about the other day, you shouldn’t wish ill on someone.”

Ix didn’t seem particularly convinced.

“So… what’s with Aldri, Zell, Iselyn, and me being excluded from your special training session?” Katria demanded with a raised eyebrow. “Neither of these two seem to know.”

Ria didn’t really have a clue and lamely suggested, “Maybe Hulle or Welkin thought you had more important things to work on? Ulren and Endreise did sound annoyed at having to help.”

“So, you don’t know either, huh?” Katria grumbled.

“I was probably there because of what happened last time…” Rialle posited.

Tallien nodded. “Most likely. The others were obviously the only ones strong enough to maintain the barrier. No clue why I was picked. Maybe the idea was to have my potions on hand in case of an injury when everyone was tapped out? Still weird I wasn’t told ahead of time.”

“That was pretty crazy, huh,” Rialle mused to Ria. “Even for a commoner girl, you’ve got a worrying amount of grit to have made it to the end of that session without giving up. I’ve never seen Orlisi show that much power before.”

Ria ducked her head and looked down into her drink. “I thought I failed. If not for what Orlisi said at the end, I would have.”

“I heard from Rialle about what happened. It’s really impressive that you’ve already formed a Seed, Ria!” Katria enthused, looking jealous. “Orlisi has been explaining the theory and stuff—so we can have an advantage over the other teams—but only our top four have had much success. And that’s because of their strong elemental affinities.”

Ria was a little surprised at the information, but unless the elven mysticism was a guarded secret, it made sense for Orlisi to want to improve her teammates’ strength. “I think Rialle is close to forming one as well.”

Rialle and Tallien’s eyebrows rose and they exchanged glances. Rialle’s imp proudly squeaked and chittered something and Rialle nodded, patting her familiar on the head.

“Figures Rialle’d be next,” Katria groused. “She’s so focused on fire.”

If the sense of element was how to tell…

“You might not be far off either, Katria,” Ria offered.

Somehow, since understanding her own Seed, the ability to feel the auras of others seemed improved. The impressions were clearer, less hazy. Rialle felt like a banked flame waiting for air, and there was something… vibrant about Katria. Tallien though… she didn’t understand his at all.

“Oh?” Katria’s eyes lit up. “You really think, I’m getting close?!”

Ria nodded. “I’m sure of it.”

“Yah-ha!” Katria hopped to her feet and excitedly pumped her fist. “That must be why Hulle told me to work on sound magic!”

The girl darted to the gallery above, her red twintails bouncing behind her.

From the patter of the girl’s soft shoes on the wood, Katria had run to the reservation board for the tower’s practice rooms and meditation locations. The steps quickly rushed for one of the 6th floor exits before turning around.

Katria leaned over the railing and called down, “I’m gonna make this old tower bounce! Hahaha! Wish me luck!”

Wide-eyed at her teammate’s sudden enthusiasm, Ria held up a thumb in support and yelled back, “Xander’s Luck!”

“Whoohoo! Go, go, go!”

With that the girl was gone.

Rialle chuckled as Ria blinked a few times. “Katria’s always like that. You get used to it.”

Ria nodded. The behavior did fit the seed that the girl was working toward, and she couldn’t help wondering whether it was the seed that affected a person’s personality or the personality that determined the seed?

Tallien looked down into his drink. “My efforts didn’t get a mention, huh.”

Ah-!

“Sorry, Tallien. I didn’t mean it like that…” Ria blushed a bit in embarrassment before reluctantly deciding to offer her observation from the training, “It’s just when you used potions to enhance your power, your magic didn’t have the strength of meaning contained within that Orlisi’s and Rialle’s magic had, so…”

He swirled his drink a few times. “So… if I used spiritual ingredients from the Reserve to make my potions, maybe?”

That seemed like it was going in the wrong direction and not addressing the main problem…

Ria took another pull of her delicate and fluttery-tasting drink, grimacing at the energy again flowing through her sore pathways as she distributed it around her body to improve her attunement. She was a bit hungry, and her thoughts drifted back to the shortcake from lunch.

“Tallien, can you make metal element drinks?”

Tallien gave her a wry smile. “If I make orichalcum ones, you’d be the only one to drink them. And, I’d need a steady supply of orichalcum.”

Ria shook her head. “I wasn’t thinking orichalcum—not that I wouldn’t want to try it… but gold might be fine…”

She trailed off. Would ordinary gold work? Or was it something the chef had done?

Taking out a gold coin, Ria sniffed it then cautiously nibbled at an edge. Something about her saliva changed, and the metallic taste of the coin became stronger in her mouth. She quickly wiped the coin on her mantle and checked for damage, sighing in relief when the coin still looked fine.

That was close! She almost damaged another coin!

But she did learn an answer to her question. She was pretty sure she could eat normal gold, but… it didn’t awaken a hunger like the gold in the shortcake had—which was a bit of a relief.

A girl’s snorting laughter snapped Ria back from her thoughts.

Both Tallien and Rialle were staring at her and the imp sniggered something derisive.

“You really are a weird one, Ria,” Rialle told her while shaking her head in bemusement.

Ah-!

“Suppose a gold element drink wouldn’t be that difficult to make, and the others might try it just for fun,” Tallien offered with a chuckle.

Ria looked away, her cheeks reddening. “Thanks, Tallien.”

After an awkward silence, the sound of a chair being pushed back drew Ria’s attention back to her teammates.

Rialle had stood and was stretching. “Guess, if we’re getting free time, I should get at it too and work on my fire meditation, huh.”

“Good luck with that,” Tallien offered.

The fire girl gave Ria a wink as she left, the imp riding on her shoulder.

Another pained sip of the air drink reminded Ria of Hulle’s parting advice. “Tallien, you wouldn’t happen to know of a treatment for overstrained energy pathways, would you?”

He rolled his eyes at her. “So, it’s not the taste of my air energy formula, after all. How bad?”

Ria looked away with embarrassment and grimaced. “Hulle said I’ll miss the next Games practice.”

Tallien rubbed his forehead. “If that’s all he said, then it could be worse—especially when considering the reckless way you were drawing in energy and throwing it at Orlisi.”

She didn’t even want to think about worse. Not being able to use any magic for who knew how long would be terrible—not to even mention if she’d done permanent damage. It really had been reckless.

“It’s true that my House’s bloodline commonly encounters the problem of overstrained energy pathways due to our method of empowering our magic, so you’re not wrong to come to me about it.” Tallien placed a ribbon-wrapped bundle of sachets on the table and slid them over. “Steep it in hot water. Use one each night before bed.”

Ria thanked him and offered to owe him a future favor.

He nodded and got up, collecting the coins, spirit-token payments, and empty drink jars from the self-service store before telling her to get some rest and leaving to work on his own tasks.

Once she was alone in the lounge, Ria called out to the towerkeeper twice like Tallien had told her before the ordeal with her seed and was rewarded with the towerkeeper’s voice responding almost instantly.

“That was quite the dangerous training session. I’m frankly surprised Welkin let it go to that extent,” Towerkeeper Alenna’s voice floated out of the empty air nearby. “I was of half a mind to put a stop to it.”

“You can watch the training sessions?” Ria asked in surprise.

“Of course, dear. I am a Towerkeeper,” the voice answered as if that explained everything. “I don’t mind chatting, but I imagine you contacted me for something else.”

“I did,” Ria confirmed and proceeded to arrange for a ‘key’ for her student vault that she’d set up when consulting with Researcher Shadwich that first time. She was worried about Jeni’s pouch and the things kept inside getting damaged if she faced energy-siphoning magic like that used by the Unseen Hand girl. Having a vault key would let her send her enchanted items to her vault to keep them safe.

After the coins for the fee were summoned away, a silver key just like Iselyn’s and Orlisi’s appeared on the table and Ria promptly tied it to her belt.

“Anything else?” Towerkeeper Alenna inquired.

Ria hesitated before bringing up the main reason she had contacted the towerkeeper, “I was wondering if I could make an orichalcum-attuned meditation room in the tower…”

“Using the tower’s access to the ley-line nexus to power it, I assume?”

“Ah, yes, if that would be okay?”

There was a pause that made Ria’s stomach twist. “...did you know that we have a mithril-attuned room that Archmage Luventi added when he was a student here?”

Ria was shocked. “We do?”

“Of course, dear. Didn’t you see it on the reservation sheet? These days it’s mostly used by students of other Orders for enchanting projects.”

It turned out that Alenna was fine with the request but suggested Ria first study Luventi’s design and to work with Wendra and Researcher Shadwich to submit a design proposal. Ria made sure to sign up for a timeslot to reserve the mithril-attuned room.