“Sean. Sean. Wake up Sean!” Gentle shaking brought me up from the dreamless sleep I was having, and I saw Elendria leaning over to stare in my eyes. “We need to have a talk, and I have a feeling that our privacy isn’t going to last too long.”

I looked around, not really surprised that I had slept past noon. In fact, it was probably closer to three or four, and we had to be nearing the end of the travel day. God, how I hated getting of a normal sleep schedule. It was going to take me days to get back. “Alright, what’s up?” I groaned as I forced myself to sit upright.

“I’m concerned about your growth.” She said.

“What do you mean? I’m level 17 already.”

“Truly? Then it is worse than I feared. You need to stop gaining experience and work on your skills.”

“Why?”

“Because, you are progressing too swiftly! You got that celestial sorcerer class, and it’s entirely too powerful for you. Don’t get me wrong, you can probably handle it, but how much mana does it cost to cast your sun spell?”

“Fifty.”

“And before last night, how much mana did you have at your disposal? Three hundred or so?”

“A little more than that.” I nodded, not seeing where she was going.

“How many high level mages do you think there are that are limited to casting seven spells before they are done?” She scowled at me, trying to drive home a point.

“I dunno? Lots?”

“Just you!” She cried, exasperated. “There’s a reason that mages build up their skills slowly! They need to maximize their classes, and to do that they need skills mastered!”

“Well how do I do that? They don’t have a separate novice class for each element, do they?”

“No, they don’t. But, if you maximize some skills in an element for each tier up to journeyman, and start on a master level spell, then you can get the bonus for that. It just doesn’t count as a maximized class. Plus you can gain new classes. Three elements at master level gains the elementalist class, four and it will evolve to the quadramentalist class. Five is penta-elementalist class, and all six will give you the true elementalist class. This does several very important things. First, it encompasses all the individual element classes into one, freeing up several class slots. You can also gain experience for each underlying class without having it equipped, and the bonuses for each milestone. While they don’t give special benefits, maximizing the basic elements will help with your other classes.”

“So let me get this straight. If I master a few basic skills in each element, I can get 18 added to intelligence and wisdom, along with an additional 900 mana?”

“You’re forgetting the bonus from the true elementalist class. Twenty one stat points per attribute and an additional twelve hundred mana. Do you see what I’m hinting at?”

“Yes, and I’m sorry but I didn’t realize that such a thing was possible. I’ve already unlocked air, though I have yet to use it. I should be good for the other elements, but shadow or darkness will be troublesome.”

“Why?” She asked, leaning back. “Most humans have a dark streak, in fact I believe we saw a good bit of yours last night.”

“No arguments against that, but where I come from darkness isn’t an element. It’s simply the lack of light.”

“Hmph.” She cocked her head just a bit as she stared at me for a second. “You’ll have to get rid of that thinking if you ever want to pass apprentice in any spells. But we can save that for a little bit. I think we need to talk of a few things that happened last night, and I wanted the first chance at you. I’m not sure how Carrigan will act, but Bribis has been swinging back and forth in his hatred for your far too much for my liking.”

“Yeah, not really sure what got into the gnome.” I replied, shaking my head. “Before we talk about me, we need to talk about you. You know that I’m married and have a kid, right? And that I’m always going to be faithful to my family?”

“I’m aware. That night I looked at your soul, I saw it condense around an image of two faces. I couldn’t make them out, but there was no doubt that it had to be your family.”

“So why are you making advances on me?”

“Advances?”

“Romantic advances.”

“I’m not.” She said, looking rather confused. “What gave you that idea?”

“That massage. Where I come from, it isn’t something that most people give unless they are either paid for it or if there is a romantic interest. You’ve also been spending most of your time near me, and I notice that your bedroll is a bit closer to mine every morning than it was the night before.”

“Oh. Oooooh!” Her eyes got wide as things sunk in. “No, I promise it isn’t anything like that!”

“Can you explain it then? I’ll try and keep an open mind, I just. I don’t want you to think that you can replace them.”

“Well, the easiest is the bedroll moving. Our previous master, well. He didn’t like sleeping alone. He also set this collar so that I would feel relaxed the closer I was to my master. I guess I must be moving a bit in my sleep to get that feeling of relaxation, I’m sorry.”

“Ok.” I said with a sigh. “That’s something we can easily work on. Now, about the massaging?”

“Did it not feel good? I tried my best.”

“It’s not that, I just want to know why you felt the need to do it.” I interrupted her, holding up a calming hand.

“You were tense. Too tense.”

“I understand that, and realize that after a battle everyone should still be tense. Now, could you please just tell me what is going on?” I asked, interrupting her deflection again.

“I want to serve you.” She said after an uncomfortable minute. “Even if we get this collar removed, I want to be by your side, helping where I can. I felt the winds of fate shifting as you solidified your resolve, and I want, no. I need to be part of that. You’ve treated me and the other slaves so well since becoming our master, but it’s not just that. Your dedication to your family, your fierce desire to get back to them no matter the obstacle, it calls to me. Even your dark side, I don’t know how to describe it. What you were describing was exceedingly cruel, beyond what all but the foulest of this world could conceive of, and yet the entire time your soul was crying out at the descriptions. As if you were only using the description as a way to break through to the thrall and get what you wanted in the swiftest manner possible.”

“Considering your history, that cruelty doesn’t bother you?” I asked, flabbergasted. Yeah, a part of me was rather disgusted by what I had been describing, but there was another part that was trying to think of even worse horrors. That part scared me. Badly.

“Look at the prisoners we freed. Even now you are trying to find a way to get them that money from the adventurer tags, aren’t you?”

“Damnit. Yeah, a part of me is. I’m all for being practical, but there are just some things I couldn’t do.”

“That. That light right there, that no matter what refuses to sink to rock bottom. That’s why I want to follow you. Will you accept my services?”

I looked at her for a second, then closed my eyes and leaned my head back. I. I couldn’t just agree, this was something that I had to think about. Some flippant answer would shatter whatever was building between us, and likely shatter her psyche. While it seemed like a good deal, there were going to be some obvious drawbacks. The first of which being her brothers. If we managed to free her, the illusion cast by the collar would be gone. As of right now, there was no way that I would be able to hold off the resources of two elven royals. I would also eventually need to take care of them, as someone willing to enslave their sister just for an ability didn’t need to be in power.

But. She had already been helpful. Organizing the remaining slaves and taking care of things I was just too busy to right now, not to mention the fountain of information she was willing to teach to me. Having a staunch ally in this world would be a necessity, could I really afford to let one willingly go? Plus, she was already a tier two species, something that I would be needing a lot of information on.

“Alright, but there are a few conditions.” I said before she could get too excited. “First, I need your help with information in this world. Tell me what I am doing wrong, and the why. Second, we avoid the elf lands until we have a chance to consolidate our strength. I don’t know if you want vengeance, but taking out your brothers isn’t something we can do just yet. Last, and most important, keep me from the dark. Let me know if I’m starting to slide from the path, as I don’t want to become a monster.”

“Thank you, master. Though a slave right now, I pledge myself to your service. I will be your teacher, your guide, and your friend if you let me. Before we go on to other important things, I already see you trying to wall yourself off. People need contact, be it a pet, or just a friendly hug now and again. For you, most of that was coming from your family. They can’t do that anymore, so you will have to accept it from other sources. Otherwise the stress will eat at you until you explode.”

“Very well.” I said with a sigh. I knew she was right, but I still felt undeserving. That it was cheating on my family. That I could have done something different and still been with them, instead of getting pulled to this world. “Just, can we avoid the massages for a while? It’s a bit too much, too soon.”

“Not a problem.” She said with a kind smile. “Now, from where I sit there are two major issues that need correcting. You need to sit down with Carrigan and Bribis tonight and talk. They’ll listen, and hopefully Carrigan being there will mellow Bribis out a bit.”

“Didn’t really want to do that tonight, but I suppose I could.” I grumbled. “Anything else?”

“Normally this is an incredibly rude question, but what have you been putting your attribute points into?”

“Wisdom and intelligence.” I replied.

“Damnit. I was afraid of that. From now on, you need to stop. Bring up your other attributes, namely constitution, endurance, and agility. Those three need to be at least twenty, and hopefully we can get the others up to ten.”

“Why? Shouldn’t I specialize?” I asked.

“Specialization is fine, but you will need the others to reach a tier two species. The trials are going to be rough for you. What are your attributes at?”

“Constitution is 8, endurance 10 and agility is at 5.”

“Damn. You’ve only got 16 points to spare, so start by bringing constitution and agility to 10. By the time you hit max level, we can have endurance and agility at 12 and constitution at 13. That’ll have to do.”

“Alright, I’ll work on bringing those up. Do you have any ideas on what to work on for training?”

“Yes. We need you start building a spell base. In order to get the additional class bonuses, you need to max out five novice spells, three apprentice spells, and one journeyman spell. That’s in addition to learning a master level spell. Those are our goals, and we will work with one element at a time. The additional bonuses from that will increase the amount of time you can spend training.”

“Ok. Tomorrow we will start training air magic, hopefully Carrigan can give me some spell ideas.”

“If not, you could ask some of the rescued people. Sharing spell knowledge could be a way for them to pay back their debt to you, and then you could let them keep those adventurer tokens.” She said with a sly grin, settling next to me.

“Good idea. Can you try and feel out what they can teach me tonight?”

“Of course.”

We relaxed with the gentle rocking of the wagon, but I was starting to feel the need to do something. Surely a novice spell wouldn’t be that hard to stumble on, right? I tried condensing a small bullet of air mana in my palm, but it was just too fickle. It didn’t want to hold any rigid shapes, far more content to shape itself into a small sphere. Once there, it didn’t want to move. Mental shoves just deformed the area, often rupturing it and sending out a small puff of air.

I studiously ignored the giggling coming from my right. It wasn’t malicious, just a quick reaction every time the air brushed her knee. Ok, stop for a second Sean. You aren’t getting anywhere this way, so let’s think this through. What do we know?

Air won’t structure well, so you can’t fire it off with a mental push. I can easily create a pressure difference, though my method isn’t perfect. If I just hold it for a minute, half of the condensed air escapes. I can’t get it to increase beyond what a strong set of lungs could blow out. It’ll be great at parties blowing out the birthday candles.

So. How to increase it? Let’s try dropping the containment on the back half of the sphere. A gentle puff of air shot off, dissipating quickly. Less than a foot range, not something I could use. Well, it works on hoses with water, it should work on air. Let’s put a nozzle on this bitch. This got me a better stream, tripling my range and extending the effect for ten seconds instead of a near instantaneous hit of air. That might just be good enough. I tried it again, only this time actively squeezed the sphere of air, as if I were forcing the air out of a balloon. Both pressure and range increased again, though the lifetime of the blast dropped. It seemed that was good enough for the system that I earned my first spell.

Gentle gust (4/5)

Air novice

Create a short lived stream of air. Great for clearing dust from an area.

“Heh. One down, four to go.” I muttered, getting an amused look from Elendria. “Just earned my first air novice spell. Gentle gust.”

“Not bad. Utility spells are great, and that can kick up dust to reveal tripwires.” She nodded. “You’ll want a way to increase the range of that. Stuff to think on for tomorrow. Now, relax for a bit, we’re almost done travelling for the day.”

Half an hour later, and we were stopped for the day. Bribis’ crew had everything broken down and set up for the night in record time, and while the cooks were prepping dinner, he called everyone for a quick meeting.

“Listen up everyone, I have some important matters to discuss.” He said, standing on a log to get some height. “As you all have probably noticed, we picked up a handful of captives recently. This is going to put a bit of a strain on our food stores, but rest assured we have enough to make the trip. In about a month’s time we will be in the city of Three Rivers. Until then, we will be on rations. Those who were captives, however, were underfed and are in desperate need of food. So they will be receiving a normal allotment of food for a week, then join the rest of us on rations until we reach the city. Thank you all for your sacrifices and your understanding.”

Speech over, he jumped down and let everyone else get served. I nodded in approval, seeing the former prisoners were being served first. The rest of us received the same gruel that the slaves had been getting when I first arrived, though we had a bit more water to wash it down with. Several of the guards grimaced with the first bite, then practically inhaled the rest. I didn’t blame them, the stuff was bland. As everyone finished and started relaxing, I headed over to where Carrigan and Bribis were sitting.

“Mind if I join you two for a second?” I asked. Carrigan nodded immediately, but Bribis held the inhale he had just taken from his pipe.

“Bah I suppose.” He said, speaking through a cloud of smoke.

“Thanks.” I said, sitting down. “Let’s do the hard stuff first. I’m sorry about yesterday. I was out of line, and my actions were horrible.” Carrigan hid a knowing smile, but Bribis looked pretty shocked. “This world. It’s difficult for me. That was the first time I actually had to defend myself with lethal force, and watched the light die in someone’s eyes. I know it just sounds like a justification, but I’m not trying to make an excuse for what I did. Losing my family, immediately getting enslaved, then fighting for my life, it all. It just.” I paused for a second, searching for the words. “Everyone has that part of them that screams for you to do the wrong thing. Punish others for perceived transgressions. The best of us rise above those, and choose a better path. Last night, I failed. I lied to myself, saying it was justified. I snapped, and the worst of it? I realized it today. I wouldn’t let the man I was last night near my little girl.”

“Bribis?” Carrigan asked, looking at the uncomfortable gnome.

“Yah.” The gnome grunted. “I can’t accept your apology yet.” He said after a second, holding up a hand to Carrigan, who had immediately shifted to look at him. “I’ve not known you long enough. I’m not saying I’ll hold it over your head, everyone has a bad day. Some bad days are just worse than others. What I can do, is give you another chance. Prove to me that the person you are is the person you would let near your little one. Overcome your darkness, and do it swiftly Sean.” He looked up at the sky, thinking. “There are things in this world that will latch on to that darkness. Once they do, your very soul may be lost.”

“I’m telling you Bribis, those are just old stories.” Carrigan chuckled, though I wasn’t too sure. “I’m sure whatever shadow Sean killed was just whatever made it a nosferatu lord.”

“Think what you will, we gnomes remember.” Bribis waved away Carrigan’s comment.

“So. How goes the training?” Carrigan asked after a few minutes of silence.

“Not too bad. Almost have one novice air spell maxed.” I answered. “You interested in a knowledge exchange?”

“Hmm. While I doubt you have spells that I can use, I wouldn’t mind a bit of knowledge to boost my spell power. Think you could spare a bit of otherworld knowledge of fire?”

“Sure, if the exchange is worth it. Can you tell me how to do that knowledge transfer thingy you did when we first met?”

“Oh, as to how I gave you the language? That’s not something I can teach yet. You need at least a grandmaster rank in mind magic. Anything you want to transfer you have to first have maxed the skill, and you can only transfer half the skill levels. It’s also limited to one skill transfer per day, so not something you should rely on.”

“Well, that’s sort of depressing.” I chuckled. “Alright, how about you give me the bare bones of a few elemental spells, preferably spells to boost allies. How does that sound?”

“You starting off at novice levels and going for elementalist?” At my nod, he continued, “I can do that. Let’s hear what you got.”

“Sure. This bit comes from my dad. Before he retired, he was a firefighter back home.”

“Firefighter? What’s that?” Bribis asked.

“Hmm? Oh. Right. Back home occasionally buildings will catch fire. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes due to bad planning, sometimes just a simple accident. Firefighters are people who put their lives on the line to try and put out the fire. Sometimes all they can do is contain the fire so only one building is destroyed, sometimes there are grasslands fires that threaten entire cities.”

“How do they do it with no magic? That’s madness!” The gnome complained.

“It takes a strong person, that’s for sure. Usually they use water, pumped through a hose so they can direct it. Anyway, when we were younger my cousins and I would always ask to hear stories about the biggest fires he ever fought.” I leaned back as I let the memory take me.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Come ‘ere Sean, I’ll tell ya the most important thing to remember about firefightin’.” My dad called with his brogue. Twenty years in America had barely put a dent in the stubborn accent. I rushed into the living room, and dove into an open spot on the ground where cousin Tim had left a pillow for me.

“Now. You first ‘ave to remember to respect the flame. Every fire is dangerous, and complacency will kill ye. The other thing to remember, is that she be alive.” He leaned forward, looking each of us in the eye. “Not like you ‘r me, she can’t think. She’s like a beast, and a beast is always lookin’ fer the things it needs. The first thing the beast needs is a home. And this beast, she loves the heat. Thrives in it. So the hotter it is, the more likely ya are ta find a fire.”

“What else does it need Uncle Liam?” Tommy asked.

“Well. Ev’ry beast needs ta eat, so she looks fer food. And she’ll eat just about anythin’, she ain’t picky. Oh, she’ll go fer the easy stuff first, any animal will do that. But once she’s done with the easy stuff, she’ll move on to the hard stuff, and gnaw on it all day long. And don’t go thinkin’ she won’t try gnawin’ on li’l boys neither!” He gave us a good glare, before leaning back in the recliner.

“Now. The last thing she needs is to breathe. She loves the free air, and will happily rampage through things. But when she uses all the good air, this. This is where she’s at ‘er most dangerous. She’ll lay in wait, like she’s hibernatin’. She’ll wait, patiently, fer some’un to foolishly open the door. Or window. Then, she strikes!” He darted forward, hands forming into claws as we both shrieked. Chuckling, he sat back in his recliner and started his story again.

“Oh, you give a sleepin’ fire a bit o’ fresh air, and she’ll come screamin’ out of there with her claws and fangs a ragin’. And if ye be in ‘er way, well. She’ll tear ya ta bits, don’t ever be doubtin’ that. So if ye ever find yerselves in a house on fire, make sure ye check every single closed door. If it’s hot to the touch, move right along. For the beast, she only needs ya ta make one mistake, and ye’ll be lucky to carry the scars the rest o’ yer life. I was lucky, and I was the second in line.” He said, slowly pulling up his left pant leg. The skin was taut over the angry red lines, and all the hair was permanently singed off. That image burned into our minds, as to the consequences if you didn’t respect fire.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

I finished my story, and both men were silent. They both had that far off look in their eyes, as if they too were reliving my memory just from the telling, and trying to figure out every single possible lesson.

“Your dad. He sounds like a man I would like knowing.” Bribis finally spoke, breaking the silence. “You were a bit ambiguous, but I do hope he is still around. Probably not standing in front of the fire to protect others, save in spirit.”

“He’s still going strong.” I said. “He retired from firefighting years ago, calling it a younger man’s job. Much to my mother’s relief. Now he spends most of the summer days either babysitting the grandkids, or going fishing with some of his old engine buddies.” I chuckled through the tears on the last bit.

“Fishing?” Carrigan asked. “Man, that sounds like a great way to relax.”

“Heh, depends. His brand of fishing is unique.” I chuckled. “Erin (aye-rin), he would say. The boyos and I be feelin’ the itch. And my mom would just laugh and swat at his grabbin hands, before letting herself be pulled into a hug. She’d give him a kiss on the nose for luck, and send him on his way.”

“Doesn’t sound too unique.” Bribis said.

“Well, it is when they got to the ‘lake’.” I said, putting lake in quotes. “They’d sit under a massive oak tree, each with their own six pack of beers in a cooler and toss a line into the lake. The lake was so shallow it would freeze solid in nearly every winter, so there was no way there was a living fish in there.”

“Ha!” Carrigan chuckled. “So what did they do?”

“What all old men do.” I answered. “They sit around and talk about the old days, and brag about their grandchildren. I just wish I could have seen his face if I had gotten the chance to get him with my little prank.”

“Oh?” Bribis perked up. “What would you be wanting to do to prank an old man?”

“Well, I was going to have some fish added to that lake on the sly. Imagine their confusion when they toss out a line, and actually get a bite in a lake with no fish!”

“HAH!” Bribis rocked back in laughter. “Oh, that’s a right good prank right there.”

“Gnomes love a good prank.” Carrigan explained to my confused look. “Thanks for sharing your story.”

“No problem. Hope it helped you out with your magic.”

“We’ll see in the morning. If you two don’t mind, I’m going to get some sleep and think about what you said. See you in the morning.”

“G’night.” I nodded to him. “Sleep well Bribis. I’ll see you in the morning.” I told the still chuckling gnome, and headed back to my bedroll. Sleep was a long time coming, as I thought back to my family.