Chapter 74 — Aura Training (Part II)

Ranger posed proudly as Ria used her magic sight and sensing sphere on him.

With Ranger having yet to find his mystic path, the hints of aspects present in his body were mostly a potpourri of what he had gained through the bond and from the ingredients used for his magic beast transformation.

Though maybe that wasn’t a fair assumption.

His affinity to earth was greatly expanded by the transformation but dogs… and wolves… all seem to have a love of digging. Considering the den and the path he dug to the king’s tunnel, Ranger’s love of digging might be more than most.

But could she find an earth aspect related to digging? Ria’s eyebrows furrowed.

Earth aspects were usually related to strength or sturdiness. Her favored uses for earth energy were body strengthening magic and the sensing sphere spell. The first of which did fit the commonly envisioned aspects, but the second… what did energy sensing have to do with earth energy?

She asked Ranger how he discovered the volents were nesting under Keira’s estate, and he eagerly impressed upon her that it was by the sound of their digging and scratching, pride in his improved abilities flowing through the bond along with his answers.

Sound. Ria didn’t know how sound worked other than it traveled further in open spaces, was muffled by plants, and would echo off of stone cliffs. Oddly, if what Katria said was correct, then it was an aspect of pressure.

Pressure was an aspect of earth energy that Ria was familiar with as it was related to both strength and weight. And sturdiness. If the pressure caused by the weight of stone exceeded its sturdiness, the stone would crack and eventually crumble, crushed by the weight.

How pressure related to sound she didn’t understand. At the moment things were cracked or crushed, a sound was made—she did know that much. And when striking things together. But wasn’t sound more an aspect of air?

Could sound be heard through solid things? Ranger assured her it could.

When Ria wanted to stop sound from traveling, she used shadow energy to muffle it, but the common privacy spell, the one taught by Master Harlow and used by her friends, was air magic. The Whispering Winds spell that she often used for hearing what others were whispering was also air magic.

Ria carefully studied the magic of her sensing sphere spell but didn’t get any closer to an answer. A nervous glance in Lady Asara’s direction showed Faris’ mom still patiently observing her as the servants continued their work. Staying constantly nearby, Albarth issued an occasional direction to the servants or answered a servant’s question.

Feeling pressured to produce a result, Ria wrapped herself in earth energy, drawing it tight and compressing it against her skin. With the affinity gained from Ranger and high attunement from her own practice, doing so was easy—much easier than with fire.

Taking cues from Lady Asara’s example, envisioning the energy as heavy boulders piling up and ready to tumble down was also easy.

The result was better than her previous effort, but still lackluster compared to what she knew of true auras. It felt hollow when compared to Welkin’s life-devouring-the-weak, Hulle’s encroaching chill, Ulren’s desiccating salt, Endriese’s torrents of crushing water, Orlisi’s wrath of nature, Administrator Rente’s pending summer storm, and even Jarrel’s newfound sharpness.

Hers was missing something, fake.

Ria returned her attention back to the qualities of Ranger’s earth attunement. Amid the loamy wisdom and stone-like sturdiness was a strong sense of constance and proud reliability. She thought at first that it was endurance, but the nuance was different, more a sense of purpose—a straightforward determination and doggedness. A chuckle rumbled up from her at the word choice.

His guileless and, at times, obstinate adherence to honesty made things difficult for her when discretion or deceit would have been her preferred choice, but if not for that, Ria suspected she would have made decisions that she would have later regretted.

And now, Ranger was applying that doggedness to gaining fire affinity. Feeling the small amounts of fire attunement Ranger had achieved reminded Ria of Shadwich’s warning about balancing his earth and fire attunement before his spirit-beast ascension.

A worrisome concern halted her exploration of Ranger’s elemental nature. The element she chose for her fake affinity would improve in attunement faster than her others, even if just because of more consistent use—an improvement which would be passed through the bond to some extent. Choosing earth might make achieving Ranger’s needed equilibrium with fire even more difficult.

Of the three elements in their plan to push Ranger toward an orichalcum ascension, shadow was the only one that didn’t need to be balanced with the others—something Ria had observed when setting up her meditation space for soul-strengthening at Keira’s estate.

If not fire, it would be better for Ranger’s progress if she chose shadow.

Shadow attunement, though… There were already rumors of her being shadow attuned, and hadn’t that been her and Hulle’s plan from the start? “…Lady Asara, um, Hulle thought I should pretend to be an apprentice shadow-mage…”

Lady Asara raised an eyebrow. “From what I understand, shadow energy is more difficult to make use of. Especially, without a proper affinity. You seem to be progressing well with earth energy. Are you really more confident that such will be a more productive direction—that you can find what you need in the brief time we have before other duties will require my attention?”

Having as much confidence in her skill with shadow energy as she did with fire and earth, Ria nodded. “I’ll try.”

Ria drew the earth energy back in, carefully this time.

Lady Asara’s skepticism was well-founded. Shadow magic wasn’t as simple as its results made it appear. Like Tina had said so many months ago, it was a tricky element. Sure, under Tina’s expert tutelage, Ria had become quite proficient at destroying her targets with shadow magic channeled through her enchanted training daggers, but the destruction she could now wreck upon her foes was nothing as simple as brute-forcing an explosion with fire or wind. Shadow magic just didn’t work that way.

To create such an effect actually required an advanced layering of magic with different properties. Something Tina had drilled into Ria in stages until she could do it almost by instinct—without the need for rational thought.

The first step had been to create a weakening field. One of the most important properties of shadow energy was its ability to lessen the properties of whatever it came into contact with. Lessening the capacity for her target to resist penetration by her blade gained her the ability to cut through sturdy materials with her wooden dagger. Really, the dagger wasn’t entirely necessary as Tina had demonstrated by using her hand to cut through solid wood without particular difficulty.

The second step involved breaking down the material and the bonds that held it together, often causing rapid disintegration with a strong enough application of the magic. It required a lot of focus, and Ria could still only affect small areas, currently just the cutting edge of her blade.

The third step was to embrace pure destruction and annihilate the targeted material by destroying its physical structure and releasing the energy contained within. It wasn’t quite void magic, but Ria suspected that was the end destination of the completed technique. Whether wielding the concept of void was the fourth step or not, she wasn’t sure if even Tina knew.

Returning her thoughts to projecting an intimidating shadow aura and considering what happened with her fire attempt, Ria found herself leery of incorporating ‘disintegration’ and ‘annihilation’ into her aura—at least directly—but for someone to feel that ‘annihilation’ lay behind the shadows she was cloaked in, that would certainly be intimidating. Or, if she could complete the progression and project a sense of void—an infinite darkness of existential annihilation…

Hmm. The darkness part might not be that different from the absolute black that tarnished her aura representation during her affinity tests.

After considering for a moment, Ria shook her head. No. The shadow properties of her orichalcum affinity were different, and she didn’t have time to progress her shadow attunement in such an ambitious way. She would be better off starting with something easier: either weakening or absorption.

If she could weaken, or even absorb, the confidence of those around her…

No, not absorb, devour. If she could project a sense that all magic would be futile against her and would only feed her growth, no, her hunger… like when she aggressively hungered for the gold in the enchanted shortcake. That. That could be something.

And with her high spirit affinity, she could probably extend the feeling to not just devouring magic, and to more than just devouring the confidence of those near her. A devourer of light and magic was one level of terror. A devourer of souls, another.

But, if it affected her friends, too… She would have to practice making the effect selective like she had to do for Zena’s ember armor when using the orichalcum domain spell.

Ria took a deep breath and focused her mind like when entering the unified meditation technique. She cast a shadow domain spell using the spell construct to get a feel for the magic, then again without the construct, condensing the magic to be tight against her skin, wrapping herself in shadow—’absorbing’ shadows at first. And, tapping into the remembered hunger, they began to change.

That all-consuming hunger that stole her reason and led her to direct dangerous hungry eyes at her friends’ gold-containing shortcakes. Threatening any that would get in the way of her desirous need.

This time it wasn’t gold or shortcakes that she sought to devour. It was anything that stood between her and her goals.

Shadow that devoured light. Shadow that devoured magic. Shadow that devoured her enemies will. Even their very essence.

A realization came to her as she refined the concepts to incorporate spirit energy: her divine affinity and corresponding attunement gave her access to fate magic and power over fate.

Shadow that devoured fate itself. Not even luck or divine destiny would save those that crossed her.

As the idea crystallized into the magic, discomfort began again warning that she was approaching the limit of what her injured pathways could currently withstand without further injury.

Still confident she had found a sufficiently intimidating aura, Ria opened her eyes to seek Lady Asara’s confirmation of her success.

Albarth's open-mouthed stare and almost forgotten write-board drew her attention instead.

“Quite intimidating,” Lady Asara evaluated with a hint of a secret smile. “But a bit too much and too overtly sinister maybe. Remember, you will need to maintain the aura for the entire event.”

Ugh. She was so sure she had found the answer this time! Instead, not only did she overdo it, but clearly there was no way she could maintain this level of energy expenditure or focus for hours at a time.

Again, Ria sheepishly drew the energy back in.

At Ria’s self-chastising grimace, Lady Asara helpfully suggested, “When you demonstrated your aura for myself and Jevaran, there was a hint of regal presence I’ve only felt from powerful Vesali. That might be a better direction.”

Ria blinked. Was there something like that?

Wait. She said ‘regal’... a word used to describe royalty. Ria eyed the politically-powerful city administrator for hints that the woman had already realized the true nature of her bloodline and identity.

The patient slight smile Lady Asara continued to display left Ria with a suspicion that rather than a better direction, the hint of ‘regal presence’ might have been a primary reason the woman had arranged this aura training session.

Closing her eyes, Ria took a deep breath. Even if Lady Asara was intending for Ria to use a faked aura to subtly suggest a royal bloodline, the intent to hide her true affinity suggested that the plan was for her relationship to the king of Revant to remain hidden from those who would recognize the meaning of her orichalcum bloodline.

That meant people who knew the Revant royal bloodline was an orichalcum bloodline would be present at her debut.

Ria calmed her breathing. It was something she already suspected. Being more certain didn’t change the wisdom of hiding her true affinity. It meant that succeeding with the aura technique was more important than just as a way to discourage trouble.

The more she thought about it. Keira was right. Having a royal bloodline wasn’t the problem she needed to avoid—being identified as a descendant of the king of Revant was. And, if she faked her affinity while encouraging thoughts of her having a royal bloodline, it might even provide useful misdirection regarding the source of her bloodline.

Feeling calmer at having resolved her primary worry, Ria entered a meditative state and turned her attention inward, seeking her ‘body’ gate. Lady Asara had called it a ‘regal presence’ but the truth was a bit different. Forming her mystic seed had made the nature of her innate presence harder for her to deny.

A bloodline formed in the primal fires of the world’s creation. Her divine affinity. Ellnys’ Oracle. A ‘presence’ similar to the Vesali who were descended from a land god.

To harness and project that sense of presence, she would need to accept what it meant—the reason why the gods and their priests and priestesses were so interested in her and the path her future would take.

Forming her orichalcum glyph, Ria found the part that resonated with the truth of… her divine nature. Accepting that truth was terrifying. But, under the weight of evidence, continuing to lie to herself and wish for it to be different was what a child would do.

And she left her childhood behind in Shadewood.

Firming her determination, Ria made her choice and removed her amulet of faith, storing it in her vault.

Properly meeting Lady Asara’s expectation would require intentionally directed use of divine energy, and to learn the transformation for divine energy, she needed a Source. The only Source she had was herself.

She formed her true aura unrestrained by Hemse’s amulet and immediately recognized the part that felt like the warmth when she first found Jeni’s staff, felt like the energy present in Hemse’s shrine and the aura that surrounded Ellnys’ high priestess. Letting the rest of her aura fade away she focused on the qualities of the divine energy around her.

With the divine energy under her control and the orichalcum glyph before her, Ria brought forth her bloodline’s pride—the part that felt of something beyond mortal and inspired awe and respect as a truth of natural law.

“Gods… is this girl?” Ria heard Albarth gasp only for him to be waved silent by Lady Asara.

Even with the risk she was taking exposing herself like this, a wry smile threatened to tug her mouth upward at Albarth’s reaction, but now that she was exploring the self she had denied, Ria became aware of a dissonance pulling her attention. Her orichalcum glyph and divinity-concept were subtly off. Both felt too… superficial? Simple? Like the difference between cloyingly elegant clarion notes and a power-infused roar.

The dissonance built in her mind until, suddenly infuriated at the discrepancy, Ria struck the section of the glyph with aggression, rending the lines and curves and reforming them as if splattered, made by violent strokes from a brush heavy with ink.

Shocked at what she had done, Ria almost lost control of the magic as it churned with chaos from both her action and the changes to the glyph—but, the new messy version felt closer to right. Somehow.

The sight summoned forth the hazy memory of similarly-styled ancient glyphs covering the cavern walls during her vision of the orichalcum dragon.

As she maintained the changed glyph, the magic changed—now a defiance against the gods and their order. No, not defiance. It was a raw expression of indomitable will—a will that was a law unto itself, unconstrained by powers whose authority it existed apart from.

Something deep within Ria’s being resonated with the change, and she wrapped herself in the feeling like a comfortable cloak, feeling her bloodline’s pride take its rightful place astride her shoulders—a mantle formed of ancient power.

She smiled, and her pride laughed at the concept of subtlety. There was no need to insecurely posture or subjugate others with the truth of her existence. It just was. She could show as much or as little as suited her purpose.

As Ria let the mantle of divinity settle to a whisper and then only a hint, she became aghast at just how much it had influenced her mental state and thinking. Leaning too much into her divine nature was dangerous!

Amid the fear at what she was doing, a rush of achievement washed over her at her accomplishment. The changes to her orichalcum glyph fascinated her and she found herself mesmerized by it for a while before reluctantly letting it fade.

She wasn’t done yet. Even with the matter of projecting her ‘presence’ resolved, she still needed to choose an affinity to fake, and projecting a shadow affinity still felt like the right direction. She just needed to refine the concept into something more subtle and less sinister.

Devouring souls was probably a bad direction to go anyway, particularly if she didn’t want to draw more attention from the Inquisitors. She could drop that part. And devouring light was a bit much when considering she’d be wearing a saintess regalia. Was she planning to look like a priestess of darkness sinisterly cloaked in shadows at her debut? During a celebratory gathering for the Spring Moon Festival?

Ria shook her head as her lips raised in a self-mocking and twisted smile.

The fate direction was more subtle than the others, and could likely be enough even if substantially weakened. It fit better with her seed as well—a warning of judgment.

A revised plan in mind, she tried again. This time focusing on the idea of shadows that would devour the fate of those who incurred her divine—er, royal—judgment.

The magic again refined, and aligning the magic with both her seed of truth and the properties expressed from her true affinity gave the effect an authenticity that it lacked in her earlier attempts. Further, without Hemse’s amulet and with her now conscious understanding of the divine energy transformation, projecting a hint of 'fate devouring' had become surprisingly more efficient, requiring a fraction of the energy used prior.

She felt nervous being without the amulet that she had worn for so long, and if this aura was chosen, it could mean committing to being in public among powerful people and peers without the amulet for the entirety of her debut.

Taking a deep breath to again steady her resolve, Ria again raised her eyes to receive Lady Asara’s evaluation.

An almost evil smile greeted her, and Ria couldn’t help gulping. Lady Asara looked more than pleased.

Albarth was looking a bit paler than even after her soul-sucking attempt, and effort was required to not chuckle at his expense.

“Much better, and could be good enough with some practice—promisingly good even,” Lady Asara evaluated, her expression settling back into a faint smile. “After your display in front of Lord Jevaran and myself, I suspected you would be naturally talented at aura manipulation, but for it to be to this extent… gives me certainty that this was the correct choice, and I am encouraged at the improved prospects for you to gain adequate mastery of the technique by this Divinesday.”

Ria blushed a bit at what sounded like high praise from the powerful and respected water-mage and, to hide her embarrassment, let her gaze fall to the fancy leather-soled slippers peeking out from her academy robe.

“This is, of course, only the bare basics of manipulating your aura. There are many more tricks to practice, such as concentrating aura in your eyes to more strongly affect those that meet your gaze,” Lady Asara encouraged and motioned for Ria to come alongside. “Maintain your aura manipulation and walk with me as I oversee the servants’ efforts. There is much I’d like to further discuss while we have the time.”

Lady Asara continued to give advice and began to casually chat as they made a circuit around the dance hall, Albarth discreetly following a few steps behind.

Though distracted by the effort to properly maintain the aura, Ria did her best to answer her ladyship’s questions. The first topic, concerning the situation at school and the arrangement with Administrator Rente, was one that she had been dreading, but Lady Asara seemed surprisingly accepting of the outcome and only cautioned that seeking her assistance would be advisable should Rente (or any other administrator) require anything worryingly unwise or undesirable.

Other topics touched upon how she was doing in her classes, whether Keira and Faris were successfully making new friends, and so on. They completed half the circuit of the hall before the next potentially worrisome question arrived.

With a tone of casual curiosity, Lady Asara asked, “Were you able to find enough people to invite?”

Even if Keira and Administrator Rente had looked over her list, Ria couldn’t help worrying that having her choose was a test of some kind.

“I believe so. I’ve prepared a list if you would like, your ladyship,” Ria nervously offered, summoning the paper to hand.

Lady Asara gracefully received the list and her eyes passed along the paper before she handed it over to the fancy dressed old man. “Albarth, if you would.”

“Yes, my lady. I’ll see the names are properly added to the guest list.”

When they resumed walking, Ria tentatively asked, “Did I cause any inconvenience?”

Lady Asara gave her a reassuring smile. “Quite the contrary. There are some interesting names. It will be amusing.”

That didn’t sound like a ringing endorsement of her choices.

“Are you having regrets?” Lady Asara asked, glancing her way.

Ria vigorously shook her head. “I feel very blessed for the opportunity and assistance that your ladyship is providing me.”

“That’s good. Have you thought about the talent you want to display during the talent competition?”

Talent competition?

Ria’s steps faltered and an accidental flare in her aura caused one of the servants to let out an “eep!” and almost drop a fragile decoration.

A tutting sound from Lady Asara stopped Ria from offering an apologetic gesture to the servant.

“Head up, eyes forward,” Lady Asara chided. “Those beneath your gaze are worms stuck to the bottom of your slipper—a slipper that cost more coin than they will earn in their lifetime no matter how hard they futilely strive. Or so you should convince yourself in order to maintain a proper expression when commotion or distraction occurs around you.”

Ah-! The placid gaze that Phaelys and Hulle were able to do so well!

“Not that you should treat others poorly or actually look down on those that labor for a living, mind you, it is the visualization that is important until you gain sufficient discipline,” Lady Asara added.

Ria mostly stopped her eyes from widening at the realization and carefully nodded.

“Good. Like that,” Lady Asara approved. “Surely, you have a talent that you are confident in? Playing an instrument, singing, entertaining with a delicate demonstration of magic?”

None of those were things Ria was particularly good at. ‘Delicate magic’ probably referred to something like the complex color-changing spell Keira had showcased at their first meeting back in Vorshan’s Hills. Other than maybe showing off the Serpentine Fire exercise, Ria wasn’t sure she was skilled in anything suitable. Her shadow exercises weren’t particularly entertaining.

If it was a matter of choosing something she enjoyed, she enjoyed dancing and painting. But painting would take too long, and other than the simple festival dances, she only knew the basic dances nobles were expected to know for such events.

Her calligraphy, martial-arts, and acrobatics skills seemed good to her. But whether she was good enough at any of them to impress nobles who could hire the finest artisans and performers in all of Crysellia? She already knew Phaelys’, Hulle’s, and Iori’s calligraphy was far above her own. Wouldn’t she just embarrass herself?

If she thought back to the times her noble friends had been impressed… her large number of attunements had impressed Atresia and impressed her fellow Order members when they challenged her in the student lounge. Maybe that was something?

Luventi’s beginner grimoire detailed a practice exercise called ‘The Wheel of Elements’. Doing the initial six was certainly achievable. And if she simplified the casting with a propagation array to create an element ‘wheel’ template and fill in each node with a different element, then the composite elements might also be achievable. Lightning and storm were still difficult for her, so she’d need to work on her attunements or use a focus tool.

Did she have enough time to work on something like that?

Maybe her skill with archery was good enough? She really didn’t know enough about what was expected to offer any ideas.

Ria shook her head. “I’m sorry, Lady Asara. There really isn’t any such talent that I’m confident in showing. Now that I know, I’ll consult with Keira about it.”

“A good answer. It keeps your options open and flatters me by showing you value my niece's advice,” Lady Asara accepted before adding, “But you took too long to come up with it. You should practice your answers to such topics with Keira as well.”

“Thank you,” Ria replied, ducking her head a bit. “I will.”

Thinking about her archery training had reminded her of something else she needed to consult Lady Asara about, and Ria spoke up again before a new topic could be introduced, “Lady Asara, about my adoptive father, I’m worried about how safe it is to be honest about being an orphan adopted by a commoner.”

Lady Asara held Ria’s gaze for a long moment. “I’m encouraged that you’re aware enough to have foreseen such a risk. Worry not. Swordmaster Jarrel is not without connections and backing here in the capital.”

He… what?!

“Besides, most will likely think his adoption of you to be a cover story for hiding your true identity—particularly if you can master this aura technique well enough.” A corner of Lady Asara’s mouth twisted up with amusement. “Something you’re currently failing at.”

Ah-!

The sound of a decoration crashing against the polished floor punctuated Lady Asara’s evaluation, and trying not to cringe as she said a silent apology, Ria pulled back her writhing (un)holy aura of fate devouring tight against her skin and again refocused the projected properties, careful not to turn her gaze on the terrified servant girl.

Ria was more than beginning to suspect the noble woman was distracting her on purpose!

As frightened servants quickly moved to clean up the mess, Albarth made notes on his write-board.

Lady Asara ignored the commotion, gazing out past the open framed-glass patio doors to the color-splashed entertaining areas outside. “Shall we head out to the garden?”

Ria simply nodded, Iori’s advice in mind as she realized her test was just beginning.