《The Gray Mage》0022
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"Look at your ten o'clock," Ryan told Tyler. "About ten feet away. What do you see?"
He waited as Tyler looked, and sensed the confusion in his servant's mind. With someone else, there would probably be annoyance there, but Tyler was used to Ryan's random things and knew Ryan was actually searching for something. That resulted in just confusion every time 'nothing' was pointed out to him.
"Nothing there, either," Tyler said. "Unless this time, you're actually sensing something I can't see. Or you're talking about the trees again."
"Not the trees," Ryan manifested twelve points of water around him. "The air currents are concentrated there, rippling in a fashion similar to a water elemental's water. I'm not detecting any communication points, but Rippling Tide said that speakers of one elemental language can at least understand all of them, and I'm fairly decent with this one, even if I do still miss things from time to time."
"Hello," Ryan spoke with the language of the water elementals. "How are you today?"
Immediately, he noticed twelve spots of air shifting, and they formed familiar patterns, even if a couple were slightly different.
"Hello, Blind-" Ryan didn't understand the next word spoke. "I am doing just cool today. The air temperature is quite pleasant right now."
"Is," Ryan imitated the unfamiliar pattern, which slightly resembled a tornado or vortex of some sort. "Meant to convey the term when the winds gather, funnel, and spin in a circle?"
"Wreaking death and destruction as far as they go," the elemental responded. "As you do. How do you fare today?"
The water elementals called him Blind Ocean, and an air elemental called him Blind Tornado. He'd also been called something he still hadn't figured out. Ryan really wanted to meet other types of elementals, to find out what they would call him. Blind something for sure.
"I am quite well, thank you," Ryan responded. "I wasn't aware there were air elementals around. Would you be willing to teach me some of your magics, as the water elementals do here?"
"The Fluid Wills have informed me that you are learning from them," the elemental responded. "I would be willing to teach you some magics. Your friend has studied some of the spells you have performed under the Fluid Wills. In the previous run you made of this time period. Will he be studying with us as well?"
"He cannot speak this way," Ryan told the elemental. "But he will likely learn a few of the air spells I study, and I will teach him a few as well. Even if it will be lost when I reset again, I would not feel right not allowing him to expand his magics."
"Very well, then," the elemental said. "I am Calm Sky. Would you like to learn some now? There are a few others around we can work with as well, if you would like them to join us. They may anyway. It is not often a Solid One can communicate with us."
"You have spoken with Solid Ones before?" Ryan asked, assuming that 'Solid Ones' were the air elementals' term for humans.
"Not this one," Calm Sky responded. "But others have. There is a pair of Solid Ones living near some of the Hard Folk and Ember Bodies on a-" it used a word Ryan wasn't familiar with. "They are ancient. Born during the time this world was in turmoil after the-" another word Ryan didn't know. "-broke."
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Ryan played with the first unfamiliar word several times, studying it in an attempt to figure out if there was any context he could use to learn it. He knew the elemental was watching him, probably aware he was attempting to learn the word. The Hard Folk and Ember Bodies were likely earth elementals and fire elementals, respectively.
And just the day before, he'd heard mention of a place with both. Repeating the pattern with his water, then some air, Ryan realized that in a way, it could resemble a mountain.
"Is this pattern," he asked. "Meant to represent a great rock which stretches far across the land and high into the sky?"
A mountain, when put more simply.
"Yes," Calm Sky responded.
Ryan began to play around with the second unfamiliar term. It was some sort of ring that shifted into a disk, then back into a ring. Unlike the mountain pattern, which required using four different nodes to create the word, that one seemed to only require one communication point, but had been performed in half of them.
"Ryan?" Tyler asked, and Ryan turned his head to face his servant, even though he didn't need to in order to make out his friend's from. "Sorry, but I was wondering why you kept doing that? You suddenly started making the same pattern over and over, and it actually looks like something."
"I'm trying to figure out what it means," Ryan explained. "I was about to ask Calm Sky, since I can't make it out."
"Okay," Tyler said.
Ryan could tell his servant was contemplative, but decided not to ask what he was thinking it might be. At least, not of his servant.
"What does this pattern mean?" Ryan asked in the language of the elementals.
"That is-" Calm Sky repeated the pattern. "It is when something is not free. When something is placed over or around to prevent passage or entry."
It continued on, using a few more words and phrases Ryan didn't understand, but after a minute, Ryan figured out the word.
"It means 'seal'," he said aloud.
"What is this seal you mentioned?" He asked the elemental.
"It sealed the world," the elemental responded. "When the seal broke, turmoil entered, as did magic. The Blessed Ones were born in that time."
"The Blessed Ones?" Ryan only knew 'blessed' because of the water elementals discussing how ridiculous humans were for thinking they could actually bless something as mere mortals. "What are those? Are those the two you mentioned who live among the Hard Folk and Ember Bodies?"
"Yes," Calm Sky responded. "They moved there sometime after the turmoil ended. The Blessed Ones are kind. They are the children of the one who ended the turmoil, as long as the event took."
Ryan frowned as he thought about that. The turmoil they kept referring to, it had to be the Great Collapse. Calm Sky explicitly stated that magic entered the world after the seal broke. If the Blessed Ones were the children of the one who ended the Great Collapse, then they were the children of the Gray Mage.
With his desire to become the second Gray Mage, Ryan wanted to meet them. Immediately. If they knew their father, then they might be powerful as well. Master teachers who could potentially train him.
He became conflicted. On the one hand, he wanted to reset back to his birthday immediately, restart everything and go to where he suspected the Blessed Ones were. He'd only just heard about a mountain with fire elementals and earth elementals, and then an air elementals mentioned one. If there was a connection, that coincidence told him where to go to meet the Blessed Ones.
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They could teach him magic even better than elementals might. By they might also not be friendly.
On the other hand, resetting then and hurrying would undo everything he put into motion, and he would not be able to see the fruits of his geass in action. He would not see how things played out with his current run. A run where his father and servant knew what he could do, where his trust in them would be tested. Justice would be served, but delayed.
"You are conflicted about something," Calm Sky said.
"I am," Ryan responded.
"Care to explain?" Calm Sky asked. "Perhaps I could help you decide what it is you wish to decide."
"I wish to meet the Blessed Ones," Ryan said. "See if they will teach me magic. If they are from the turmoil, if they are the children of the one who ended it, then they may be able to teach me how to become just as talented and skilled in magic as their father. At the same time, I do not know if I can trust them, and I have other stuff going on here, now, that I wish to see play out. Events I have set in motion."
The elemental didn't respond for several minutes, but Ryan waited patiently.
"The Blessed Ones are decent folk," it finally spoke. "They will respond positively to your presence, and may teach you things you seek. If not, you will be able to learn under the elementals there, as you have done here. They do not live outside of time as we elementals do, and their powers over time would not prevent you from resetting."
"There are other ways to disable me," Ryan found himself running his fingers through his hair, a new experience for him. "I have been too open with comments."
"As long as you are friends with the elementals," Calm Sky told him. "And are near our kind, we will come to assist you."
"Why?" Ryan asked in confusion.
"Because you have done nothing to anger us," it answered. "And instead become friends with us. Unless you give cause for us to dislike you, we will aid you if you are in danger and we can react in time. If someone disables you, we will have time. This holds true even if we are friends with the other party. Attacks must be warranted for us to support them."
Ryan thought it over. Resetting looked better and better. If he could trust Calm Sky's word, that was. He had another concern as well.
"What if they killed me, like Nicholas did?" He asked.
"You are not so easily killed," Calm Sky responded. "Though if you are truly nervous, Blazing Whisper and Silent Boulder can accompany you for the visit. They are the strongest of the Ember Bodies and Hard Folk in that region. The Blessed Ones are not powerful enough to pierce their defenses or stop their attacks. They will protect you from any possible attacks, should they accompany you."
"I will need to think it over," Ryan responded.
"That is acceptable," Calm Sky told him. "With your power to reset time, you may take as much time as needed."
Ryan was about to confirm that when a thought came to him.
"Calm Sky," he said. "Is it possible for someone to prevent me from resetting? Or preparing something in case I reset?"
"There are no Solid Ones capable of resetting time on this world," Calm Sky stated. "Nor of traveling through it. Of the four time mages on this world, you are the only one with those powers."
"Four?" Ryan asked.
"A woman from the bunny island, not much older than you," Calm Sky explained. "And the two Blessed Ones."
"The bunny island?" Ryan asked.
"Yes," Calm Sky responded. "A large landmass not far north of an even larger one, far to the east of here. Across the ocean."
"Oh!" Ryan exclaimed out loud. "Britain! Kayla Veloas!"
"I have met her before," he spoke through the water. "She is to marry my… the son of the brother of my father."
"The formation for that is this," Calm Sky showed Ryan the word for 'cousin'. "A child between the two of you would likely result in another time mage Solid One. A Blessed One as well."
"A Blessed One?" Ryan asked. "What are those? Am I one?"
"No," the elemental responded. "You are a-" it used the word first used to refer to Ryan by name, the formation he didn't know. "Children of your kind and ordinary folk are Blessed Ones. It is also why you are much more difficult to kill than you might believe."
"What do you mean by that?" Ryan asked. "You have mentioned it twice."
"All of your kind," the elemental responded. "Are capable of resetting time. If you receive an injury which you cannot quickly heal you from, or which persists too long with reinjury, then you will reset to the previous reset point. That is why you reset when you were killed by Hostile One."
Ryan frowned. If Calm Sky were to be believed, he was immortal. Sort of like-
"A god," he realized.
"What about gods?" Ryan jumped at his servant's voice, having entirely forgotten that he wasn't alone with the elemental.
"Sorry," Ryan told his servant. "Calm Sky made me think of something."
"Calm Sky," Ryan spoke through his water. "Are you saying it is impossible to truly kill me?"
"You can be killed," the elemental responded. "But only by another of your kind. You are currently the only of your kind on this world. Should another arrive, you will know it."
"Thank you," Ryan said, though he wasn't certain he could fully trust the elemental's word on that, especially as it was saying he was effectively a god. Gods weren't born of mortal parents, from the stories he'd heard. "On to the lost topic of disabling me or preparing in case of a reset. What can be done to do that?"
"To disable you," the elemental told him. "To the point in which you are not able to reset would mean keeping you unconscious. If you are unconscious for too long without a valid reason, your magic unable to wake you, you will reset. To prepare in case of a reset, you can always go back to before the discovery you could reset. What are preparations when you can return to before awareness exists?"
That made sense. It was a relief to know that it wasn't possible to stop him from resetting, and he hoped that nothing which could kill him came to Earth.
"What about mana-draining cuffs?" He asked. "Or magic-sealing things?"
"Only others of your kind can create ones which will affect you," the elemental informed him. "Those made by Solid Ones would fail with swiftness."
Which meant that, if everything held true, then Ryan only needed to worry should another godlike being arrive on Earth. He really hoped one didn't show up and think there wasn't enough room for two beings of that much power.
Then he wondered why the Gray Mage left. If he was a godlike being, why didn't he stay on Earth and claim it as his territory? Would his children know? Was he not interested in ruling the world? Did he really only come to deal with the Great Collapse? Him being the cause of it, as some people apparently suspected, made little sense if he didn't have other plans. Or did something stop him halfway?
"To inform you of the winds," Calm Sky spoke as Ryan pondered about the Gray Mage. "The Blessed Ones know of your existence, Blind Tornado. Their plans are to approach you on your twenty-first birthday, to teach you. Or if you move in near them, even if only temporarily. They had wished to wait until you were fully-grown first."
Ryan would need to verify information with water elementals he already knew. As long as he trusted them, he would reset, so that he could meet the Blessed Ones and find out more information. If necessary to continue his training in elemental magics of water and air, he would return to the islands in another reset.
"Thank you," Ryan said. "You have been quite informative."
"You are most welcome," Calm Sky responded. "Would you like to learn some air magics while you are here? I can assist you with those as well."
"That would be appreciated, if you are not bothered by it."
"Then I will do so," Calm Sky told him.
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