After making sure that everything was ready for a prolonged session of spell-casting and telling my party and the wolves around us to take cover, I took up my position in the middle of the ritual circle Lenore and I had set up. For a moment, I considered sitting on the ground, as I normally did when using magic circles that didn’t involve me dancing as part of the ritual. It was a curious thing, using dance to guide magic, it worked but, if asked, I hadn’t got the slightest idea why, or how. I simply moved with the magic, guiding it by a rhythm that I heard during casting, the actual steps improvised along those ethereal sounds of magic. While there might be some sort of rhyme or reason to it, I had no idea what it was, I simply let myself be carried along that feeling.

But this ritual wouldn’t be use by me, it was Lenore’s spell, with me merely providing power as she often did for me, so there would be no dance on my part. The idea to sit the ground was quickly discarded out of practical reasons, I needed to hold the staff roughly three-quarters of its length from the ground to get the complete effect out of the enchantments I had woven into it, which meant that, if I sat I would have to permanently stretch my arm upwards, which sounded annoying. So, with a thought, I sent my magic through my new staff, quickly creating a sturdy armchair out of ice, before adding upholstery out of snow. For me, who wasn’t bothered by the cold, it made for excellent and comfortable sitting, while allowing me to place the staff next to me with ease. Lenore cawed in amusement before taking her place on the head of the staff, sitting comfortably, fluffing her feathers one last time and then it was time to start.

For me, the whole ritual was almost ridiculously simple, I had to sit here and channel a constant load of Astral Power into the staff, allowing Lenore to weave it into her spell to manipulate the storm. At first, I channelled a strong surge of power into the staff, priming it for use and giving Lenore a comfortable buffer to work. As soon as that was done, I felt my regeneration kick in, replenishing the power I had just used and that was the amount of power I needed to channel, that way, I would be able to keep the same load, for hours on end.

And so, I mentally settled in, letting the calmness of the Astral Meditation-skill wash over me, drawing as much power from the Astral River as I could. At the same time, I gently channelled the regenerated Astral Power into the staff, trying to find that perfect spot where the amount I regained from my regeneration and my meditation was as high as the amount I channelled into the staff.

Delving into the Astral River was always a curious sensation, the various streams inside giving off vastly different yet similar feelings. Feeling around, I looked for the chilling cold of Ice-aligned streams, feeling that those would be the best to settle into, maybe with some of the crisp, yet playful, feeling I had felt in some of the Wind-aligned streams, those should work just as well, at least in my opinion. My normal regeneration simply took whatever there was to get, giving me a chaotic, unaligned mix that didn’t lean strongly in any direction, but now, I had the mental capacity to look for the best mixture for the ritual.

After feeling around for a bit, I found a good spot, an agitated mix between Wind, Ice, Water and Storm-streams, coming together with a certain ferocity. Maybe it was the magical representation of the outside world, a cold storm, but not a blizzard, the environment having an influence on the Astral River itself. I felt it was possible, in the valley of the Wind Raptors, after Lenore and I had created a zone of wild magic, the Astral River had changed, either as an effect of the wild magic or the wild magic zone had been an effect of the changed Astral River, I didn’t know which was true.

But here, I hardly cared, I just needed the power to help Lenore turn the storm into a lasting annoyance for the ponies.

Feeling the Astral Power surge through me, I opened my eyes, guiding the power into the staff, causing a soft glow to emanate from it. At the same time, I started to watch what Lenore was doing.

The circle around us was glowing with soft light, the runes charged and ready to strengthen Lenore’s magic, allowing her to change simple gestures infused with the right magic into serious changes to our environment. That simple gesture was the beating of her wings, not to create lift but instead, to cause the air to flow away from her. That airflow was then used as a base to be modified, her magic linking it to the storm, each beat guiding the storm into a series of gusts, slamming walnut-sized hail into everything in its path.

After watching Lenore for a moment, I focused on the deeper mechanics of the magic we were crafting. For once, I didn’t need to think about directing the magic, I could simply lean back, drawing power and observe the ritual in action.

At first, I focused on the staff we were using to channel our power, curious how it stood up to the amount of Astral Power we were sending through it. The first thing I realised that the enchantments we had created were far from perfect, letting some of the power channelled through them leak out. The obvious sign for that wasted power was that the staff was softly glowing with silver and teal light, corresponding to the types of magic we channelled. The staff was still providing a bonus but I thought there might be options to improve on the enchantments to eliminate the loss. But that would require a lot of study and experimentation, so I made a mental note to get to it later.

Widening my focus, I looked at the magic formation around us, trying to get a feeling for the streams of magic that were flowing through it, surging and merging at Lenore’s command to infuse the howling storm around us with our power. Sadly, I was unable to get a clear picture without Lenore’s sight, my own magical senses were based on smell and taste, allowing me to determine things like the magic in a substance, like blood, with great precision but when dealing with magical formations, I was far less perceptive. I could smell the magic that made up our ritual, even without knowing what we were channelling, it would have been easy to determine that it was wind and ice, but the exact interplay wasn’t something I could see.

There was a small temptation to use Lenore’s sight but in reality, I knew that she needed her focus and that disturbing her might cause the ritual to surge out of control and, given the amount of power involved, that would be seriously bad.

Knowing that there was little more i could do, I wiggled a little to get comfortable, settling in for the long run. At least I had the foresight to place my chair in such a way that its back blocked the wind and hail from me, otherwise, I would have been quite uncomfortable.

For the first couple of hours, I felt elation shimmer through the bond I shared with Lenore, she was having a blast. Controlling the ritual allowed her to harness the power of something she normally feared, taking a storm to wield against her enemies. For her, Storms weren’t just uncomfortable and slightly scary as they were for land-dwelling creatures, they denied her part of her being, forcing her to take shelter, so using it was a special thrill for her.

But after those first eight hours, the new-ness and the elation ebbed off and the ritual turned into a bit of a chore, the consistent casting weighing on her mind, like a headache. Sadly, I was unable to help her with the casting itself, my magic not compatible with her wind-magic, otherwise I would have let her take a break. What I could do, and did, was use a hint of blood magic to heal the fatigue from her body. She had been beating her wings for hours on end, unable to simply spread them and glide as she would have done while flying and the pain had started to seep into our bond. After healing her, I felt gratitude through our bond and she focused back on the ritual, letting the storm batter the centaur’s camps.

We carried on and I felt my sense of time slowly slip away, my whole being focusing on the process of drawing power from the Astral River, channelling it into the staff and healing Lenore from the physical effects of the strenuous casting. How long I sat on that chair, I was completely unable to tell and I would have kept sitting there, if Lenore’s body hadn’t given out.

Despite my healing, I felt weariness overtake her and felt her mind going blank. That change over our bond caused me to snap from my trance, quickly channelling the power contained in the staff into a burst of coldness while catching Lenore before she could impact the ground. She was completely out of it, deeply unconscious and I noticed that, thanks to our connection, I could still feel her body. It was unharmed and, acting on instinct, I was able to draw her into her Hallow where she would be able to rest.

Forcing my legs to stand was a chore in itself, while my chair had been comfortable, I had sat on it for what felt like days, so I staggered a little when walking over to where I could feel Sigmir, falling into her arms, telling her that I needed to sleep before doing just that, clinging to her and let my eyes close.