Type of mage Affinity Primal

Geomancer Ter Eog

Pyromancer Pyr Ustrina

-Glossary of Affinities and their Primals, Nys’vera Aesterith’s Treatise on Mana

“Dragon…” He muttered under his breath as he stood transfixed by their majesty.

“Hmm, yes, I’m a dragon,” a voice whispered in his ear.

“Gah!” Arthur jerked, his entrancement rudely broken.

“ Not that I blame you—don’t you know it's rude to stare?” Said the 5 foot something woman.

Arthur looked from the woman dressed in his oversized shirt to the dragon and back again. A connection existed between the two, he just couldn’t tell what. He furrowed his brow in consternation

“At ease, I am just a simulacrum. That however…” said the woman demurely as she pointed with well-manicured nails that were claw-like. “…is my real body.” There was silence as if she’d paused for dramatic effect. When Arthur did not seem to react she went on,

“I do not suffer visitors who don't yell expletives about someone's mother before coming at me with spell and blade. So allow me to introduce myself suitably.”

She drew herself as regally as a woman in a shirt could be and pushed her chest out. “ Aeskyre is my name—” the words rang, shaking the cavern to its foundations. Arthur rocked and fell onto his behind “—bringer of lightning and thunder. Sky is my domain and Storm is mine to command!”.

“ I forget myself sometimes, ahaha,” chortled the dragon woman, girl? She was ageless so he couldn’t tell. He was tempted to ask but a voice at the back of his head told him something about asking a woman’s age being rude. Was it a universal thing across worlds? Surely, he didn’t want to find out.

Aeskyre lent him a hand, pulling him to his feet. For a woman who was a head shorter if you didn’t count the horns sprouting from beneath her silver hair, her grip and strength were inhuman. Despite her dainty fingers, she looked like she could pinch steel if she had her way.

Aeskyre’s ageless eyes were large, upturned and heterochromatic . They were most captivating feature of her rounded facial profile. While her irises were a swimming cerulean blue and gold, the border towards the whites was gray. A button nose gave her a childish face but the feline pupils that engendered a primal fear.

Nonetheless, even after one glimpse her extraordinary complexion was hard to forget. Pale skin her skin looked as if it had been carved out of alabaster. It had the pliancy of velvet skin and yet gave the illusion of impenetrability.

Swirling down her forearms to her wrists were tattoo-like Lichtenberg markings that did not detract from her otherworldly beauty as they pulsated with unseen power. Likewise the ears peeked from her silver hair and tapering to a point lent her an exotic presence that Arthur would have been hard pressed to find somewhere on Earth.

Even though she was far from a deity, Arthur still held that the woman was a goddess given corporeal form. She caught him looking at her, for the umpteenth time. Rather amused at his goggling, her satisfied smirk showed her pearly white pointed teeth.

They looked predatory, drilling into his skull that she was not to be trifled with despite the delicacy of her appearance. Otherwise she would not have looked out of place lounging on a couch binging drama as she wore his shirt that only came up to mid-thigh.

“Enough dawdling and come hither, you must be famished,” said Aeskyre as she beckoned him to follow.

Scrambling after her as he picked his things, Arthur followed Aeskyre as they skirted her main body and went further into the cavern. Behind them, the flesh and blood body sunk into a rumbling purr as a domed barrier of diaphanous hexagons sprung into existence around it.

Calling Aeskyre's abode a mere cave would have been doing it a disservice. Its size beggared belief seeing as a hill’s worth of rock had been hewed out to make it. And it seemed too regular to not have been made from mortal hands.

Staring up the colossal cylindrical pillars that labored under its vaulted ceiling, Arthur felt awe not unlike that of walking underneath a giant cathedral. The large space was lit by sconces of gossamer light interspersed on the frescoed walls.

In between the sconces were ceiling to floor tapestries large enough to carpet a tennis court. They depicted fantastical scenes that shifted scene to another as you passed them by. There he saw dreadful beasts he could not name, bewitching scenery and surreal people of different races, wars in some and magical phenomena in others. It drove home just how alien his new world was. Aeskyre clued in on his interest and smiled knowingly.

Moments later, Arthur's entire field of vision was taken up by a staggering mass of treasure . Wall to wall bullions of gold and ingots of unknown precious metals glinted under magical illumination, while gems and other crystals twinkled amidst the sea of gold. Arrayed amongst the many shiny baubles and ingots were also racks of weapons upon, most of them swords and glaives in every conceivable shape, both practical and not. The air seemed to haze around some of them as though they emanated heat.

There was also an occasional shield sporting strange sigils and gems and other indescribable, exotic items Arthur could not identify. They too radiated power with their mere presence and jostled for his attention; his head was constantly on a swivel even as he passed by. Veritably it was a treasure vault fit for an emperor and an armory that could fit a small army.

Another wall was taken up by an entire library of tomes, scrolls and parchments. The musty scent of exotic ink and paper almost overwhelmed his inner bookworm, rousing nostalgia from the recesses of his fragmented mind.

He longed for the woody waft of the books, the grainy feel of old paper in his fingers as he pictured himself thumbing the pages—’What am I thinking? I just talked to a dragon and all I think about is swimming in books?’ Arthur shook off that reverie and focused on his host. Now was not the time to stick his head in the clouds.

And amidst the sea of treasure that could make a pirate king sell their mother, was a gazebo sitting on a carpet of grass. Real grass or just carpet, it felt both homey and outdoorsy, comforting even as he walked to the garden fixture.

While incredulity had stalled his pace, his hostess was already sitting on a high backed chair with aniline leather-worked cushions. The view of her as she poured tea from a gilded kettle into ceramic cups would have been worthy of many a painter's muse.

While he had no frame of reference for the quality of the items on display, even he could tell that the workmanship was peerless—such was the wealth of a dragon hoard.

Buffeting the marble top table were plates of bread, patisseries, a jar of honey and what he thought was cheese. There was also a basket of exotic fruits that resembled apples cut into bite size pieces as well as grape-like berries. He took the seat adjacent his host’s and accepted a cup of tea still steaming; he hadn't noticed the kettle being brought to boil.

Nonetheless, aroma was unlike anything that he’d ever sampled; it had the aromatic tone of lavender and the crispness of a cut apple. The chartreuse liquid sparkled with glints of purple when it caught the light. Arthur’s scrutiny did not escape the dragon as she explained with the pride of like a tea connoisseur

“Valerian tea. I appropriate it from an Dwarven [Aership Merchant]. It was a premium batch,” She grinned toothily. “Uh, I forget you have no context for what I’m talking about. We shall correct that in due time,” she added with a wobbly flick of her wrist. She had the pomposity of a pampered princess.

“How or why are you able to speak brackets?” Arthur asked, befuddled as he took a curious sip from his cup. His eyebrows flew to his hair in surprise at the revitalizing taste. As the tea passed through his parched throat, he felt as if he had woken up from a restful nap on a drizzling morning with the air suffused with the smell of thyme and mint freshener.

The fog that he had no idea was on his mind lifted and he found himself thinking with clarity. Besides the reinvigoration, he felt as if he was getting to know his body for the first time. A sixth extrasensory awareness he didn’t know he possessed, came to the forefront of his mind.

“We were just getting to that. That’s what Valerian tea is for. Part of it anyway—How much do you know about magic?”

Arthur stopped himself from doing a spit-take. It would not do to sully his host’s magnanimity by wasting tea she took pains to acquire. Coughed, he dabbed away the tea dribbling from his chin and nostrils as he composed himself.

Aeskyre had a big shit-eating grin on.

‘She's getting a kick out of this, isn't she?’ Artie thought as he cleared his throat. As the flush receded from his cheeks, he looked up from his cup.

“Do you mean spells and stuff?” Arthur mumbled, unsure of himself.

“By Aeris!” She palmed her cheek tutting in exasperation. “ I am going to have to build you from the ground up aren’t I?,” she added.

Tapping on the marble top with the claws on her other hand, she seemed to come to a decision. Her feline irises bore into him with a stare as though assessing him.

Arthur gulped and shifted in his seat. Every time she looked at him, she provoked a visceral fear and awe in equal measure.

“And here I thought you had an above average amount of mana, “ She remarked. Leaning into her open palm and quirking her silver brows, she asked, “Strange… were you not a [Mage] whence you came from?”

‘Honestly woman!, before today I didn't. ‘ He wanted to throw up his hands in confoundment. ‘The only magic I knew lived in a bottle of coke. Guess I won't be having none of that now’ he left unsaid. What he did say however, was prefaced by a sputter as he weighed the gravity of the draconic woman's bombshell.

“Believe me when I say, I have no idea. You said I have mana. Like that mana, mana? The aether?”

“Correct. Now that I see it, you have no attunement to any affinity. Even though you are unaspected, you can be considered mageborn. That should make you easy to work with,” said Aeskyre as she dabbed her luscious lips with a napkin. “Hmm, with the volume of mana you possess, it won't be such a stretch to master at least three synergistic elemental affinities. Hmm, we should choose them wisely.”

“Hold on, hold on. You lost me. Did you just say you’re going to teach me how to be a magician?”

“Hmph!” She snorted, unexpectedly coming from someone of her demeanor, “Not those street performing charlatans you dolt; a proper [ Mage]. As soon as you get your affinities and cast your first cantrips, you should be able to get the Class. She paused to let it sink in.

“ However, depending on the level of proficiency though, the World may judge you wanting and give you the [Apprentice Mage] Class. You have to put in the effort.”

“A Class?”

“Hmm, this is going to be a long one,” she huffed, kneading her temples.

“Aeris be my witness—," she grimaced with an impression of one who'd eaten some dirt. Hesitantly, she squeezed out words as if they sullied her own lips, “I am not the best of teachers. Perhaps it’s easier to have you feel instead of showing you what a class is. When I said you were as inexperienced as a wee babe I meant that you were unclassed. “

“Succinctly, a Class is an archetype by the World that determines a sapient being’s abilities and inclinations. Let’s see, I could just have you get a feel for my mana. The World should allot you some of my affinities, assuming you survive the process― don’t worry, it will only hurt, a little.”

Alarmed, Arthur fumbled and dropped his cup but Aeskyre managed to arrest its fall before it hit the floor, tea and all. He watched as the dragon levitated the cup in mid-air and the tea returned to it like a video playing in reverse. For Arthur nothing could have surprised him more.

“Can you discern what I just did?”

“Uh, telekinesis? I guess?”

“Correct, [Telekinesis] is a basic skill that makes use of raw mana. Other spells like [Mana Bolt] and [Mana Shield] also use unaspected mana similar to [Telekinesis]. Their underlying principle is using it like you would a prehensile limb.”

She then went on to assert that teaching one to use unaspected mana before one awaken their affinities might make them more resistant to attunement as time went by. Something about an aethovascular system getting too accustomed to using unaltered mana and shunting out the rest which went over his head.

Unsolicited, she delved into how that was how people, his people who were not really his people, taught at Mage academies. And went on to put them down as using archaic methods of imparting magical knowledge.

“So where do we start?”

“ Your hand”

“Huh?”

“What are you gawking at? Your hand, give it.”

Arthur let her grasp his right hand after wiping off the crumbs of pastry on his pants.

“Here, you have naught to worry. Clench your teeth I don’t want you biting off your tongue— You might also want to close your eyes.”

She paused to gather her thoughts, “I am going to push my aspected mana into your body. I want you to get a feel for it. Remember the feeling you got from the Valerian tea? It should feel just about the same. Valerian tea is a staple of mages everywhere; it is common knowledge that imbibing it replenishes mana wells.”

“However—,” she stalled, Arthur opened his eyes the barest of slits and saw the serious expression on her face. Doubt began to sink it's teeth into his desire to touch the arcane but he was far too gone now, he could barely budge his hands in that deceptive vice like grip of the woman.

“What I am about to do is rather invasive and your body may try to resist it. I can’t do it for long lest I give you mana poisoning—you have a narrow window to awaken your affinities.”

Swallowing his apprehension, Arthur locked his jaws.

Aeskyre must have seen through him because he found himself held in place, locked by the dragon’s telekinesis spell. His heart thundered in anticipation as goosebumps rippled across his body like a Mexican wave.

“Steel yourself―”

Without warning, a feeling like electrostatic shock seared into his nerves, crawling up his arms, and spasming his muscles. He ground his teeth in discomfort; he couldn’t help wanting to pull his hand away and thrash.

Like Aeskyre said, it was rather invasive; not unlike feeling things squirming underneath your skin. He felt his entire being and soul dissected, probed and laid open for someone else to see.

Then as soon as it happened the feeling was gone. In its place, he felt hot lava circulating through his veins, only it wasn’t his veins but another form of vascular system. He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood as he endured the agony of cooking from the inside out.

“Do you feel something flow in your being?” to that Arthur gave the barest of nods in his restrained position.

“Good―latch onto that sensation and try to maintain it for as long as you can, follow it and look inwards"

Arthur locked onto the feeling of turbulent energy flowing around his body. At first, grasping the feeling was like trying to hold water in a porous reed basket. He felt the incorporeal power moving through what he felt were his mana veins, awakening from years of being vestigial.

The pain he was feeling was from the pathways as they stretched to accommodate what they were meant for. Even though they weren’t a tangible part of his body, it still accepted them like they were always meant to be there, waiting to be used.

Arthur tried not to lose feeling. Notwithstanding the strain of the exercise and the saltiness of sweat stinging his closed eyes, he followed it from his right hand, to his chest, past his heart, to just above the navel where he lost himself as though sucked into a whirlpool.

In his mind's eye, he found himself gazing upon a pulsating core which beat like a second heart, ejecting gyres of power like a miniature star going through a coronal mass ejection.

While his senses were spread thin, he could hear the thumping of his own heart, the breathing of Aeskye’s simulacrum, the warm touch of her hand as it held his and the almost intoxicating cocktail of her body’s fragrance—the musky fresh smell of soil after the rains and ozone.

Her scent gave the illusion of standing next to a storm as she leaned towards him. In a trance, he continued to sink into the rhythm of his core pulsating to the beat of his heart as the outside faded to the edges of his perception.

“…up..”

“Huh?”

“…get…of …it”

“Whuh?”

“Forgive me for this, it is the only way.”

Arthur felt Aeskyre’s palm on his chest, and like a bolt from the blue, electrical shock wracked his frame, jolting him from his stupor. His eyes rolled up his head and the world went white as consciousness abandoned his senses.