-”Fleck, Fleck, tell me!”- Selvin says as the automated cart levitates once more and turns, resuming the trip towards New Arcadia.

Fleck turns into stone at his words while rubbing his eyes.

I think he will continue to bother if I don’t explain it to him… but how I go about it?… no, wait…

-”What exactly are you talking about?”- Fleck asks Selvin that is beside him, pushing against him with both hands.

-”Magic of cu’se!”-

Fleck snorts.

I see, good that I asked then. Misunderstanding can be a tiring thing to deal with.

-”There are many types of magic out there boy, what exactly do you want to know?”-

While asking this question, Fleck raises his eyes to the other side of the automated cart, catching Hashi speaking already with Ana.

Hope this misunderstanding is solved fast enough.

-”A pervert!”- Ana yells as her face blushes like a tomato.

Or not…

Fleck sights as he sees how Hashi tries hard to contain her laughter and continues to mutter words to Ana’s ears, while the other three mercenaries left continue their sleep.

-”Chanting!”- Selvin yells to Fleck’s ear.

-”Whoa! What was that for?!”-

-”So’ry Fleck, yu’ were spa’ing out.”-

-”Oh, I see. I guess I was.”- Fleck admits, then continuing -”So you want to learn to chant magic, uh?”-

-”Yeah! Yu’ all we’re awe’sme back there.”- Selvin exclaims -”I woul’ lik’ to be abl’ to do that too!”-

Fleck chuckles and says -”Awesome uh… well,”- raising his head, Fleck looks around the automated cart which is moving slowly through the grassland, a small breeze hitting against it, the Ether Storm finally having settled down while the crimson sky was still over them, and the small trail of steam that the engine right under the automated cart was letting out because of how hard it was pushed in the escape against the J’avo. Taking all of this in, Fleck mutters -”This isn’t the ideal place to learn, uh? It also is quite dangerous…”-

-”Uh? Then… yu’ will not t’ach me?”-

-”Never said that. Ideally you would want a special place where you can safely learn chanting, and Arcadia,”- Fleck says as he raises both arms to the sides -”right here where we are, isn’t that place. There are a lot of things that would be attracted to any kind of magic or Ether gathering and put the person in real danger. But…”- Fleck goes into silence.

-”Mi’ter Fleck?”- Selvin says.

Breaking Fleck’s silence, Ana at the other side of the cart yells -”That big?!”- with her mouth and eyes wide open. Raising his eyes, Fleck sees how Hashi is holding both hands parallel to each other in front of Ana. There was considerable space between them, and Fleck felt that maybe that was the size of Hashi’s lack of shame as he caught how Hashi started to shake because of the laughter that she couldn’t contain.

Fleck lets a big sight escape.

What in the world is she thinking?

Looking at Selvin, who gives back an innocent look, Fleck says -”Well, the first thing you need to know about chanting is that it is the same process for everyone.”-

Selvin’s face brightens and starts nodding, as he incorporates himself into a sitting position facing Fleck, both legs up in his seat.

-”Chanting is composed of two parts. The first one is a chant, and the second one is a keyword or sentence that fires the spell.”-

Selvin continues to nod vigorously.

-”The keyword or sentence always it the same, no matter the situation, but the chant is different from people to people. No two or more chants that are the same.”-

-”Wai’ wai’, do’s that mean I can’t use yours?”- Selvin asks.

-”No at all. You can use others, in fact when you are properly learning the first thing you are encouraged to do is to use the most well-known chants, all in order to discover your affinity, but by the end, you must develop your own.”-

-”Affinity? W’ats that?”-

Fleck chuckles, and then, raising his hand to his chin, he gets deep in thought. Finally, after some moment of thought, he says -”Do you remember back there when we were running away from the J’avo, how every one of us were spelling different chants?”-

Selvin nods.

-”Did you notice how every chant was of different length?”- Fleck says as he raises both hands in parallel, shrinking and widening the gap between them a couple of times.

Selvin’s expression lightens up, his eyes go wide and eyebrows rise up as he nods with more energy.

-”Even when many of us were using spells that would fall into the same type, the reason why the chants where of different sizes is that-”-

-”The affinity?”- Selvin interjects.

Raising an eyebrow, Fleck gets surprised by Selvin’s deduction -”Well, look at you, didn’t expect you to have some knack for chanting.”-

Selvin blushes a little, but before long a large smile appears on his face, showing his teeth.

-”Indeed. The affinity between us is different, so the size of the chant changes accordingly. Those that have a poor affinity with a type of spell will need longer chants in order to be able to chant a spell. Those with good to great affinity will only a small chant to chant their spells. Some have such a great affinity-”-

-”That they don’t need to use a chant, at all.”- A voice from the side reach both Fleck and Selvin. Turning, Hashi is standing right there, hood up, wearing her cloak a bit more openly instead of covering herself with it as if it were curtains.

-”Yeah!”- Selvin exclaims, excitement in his voice as he points towards Hashi -”Jus’ lik’ how you chanted a spel’ with a sin’le word the sam’ day we fell from the waterfall!”-

Raising her right hand, Hashi covers her mouth and looks to the side, saying -”Ye-yeah, sorry about that boy.”-

-”No matter! It was so cool!”- Selvin continues to says, excitement still present in his voice.

-”It is a rare ability to have, and very sought after.”- Fleck admits while looking at Selvin.

-”Really?”- Selvin says.

-”Yeah”- Hashi says, then asking -”Let me ask you: Between someone that takes thirty seconds to chant a spell and someone who takes one to two seconds to chant a spell, which person will fire their spell first?”-

-”Of co’rse!”- Selvin exclaims -”The se’ond person wins every time!”-

Hashi giggles, seeing Selvin’s excitement as he learns the basics of chanting.

-”That is why”- Fleck says -”They make people who are starting to learn to chant to use the most commonly known chants. To know their own affinity is the most important thing. If the affinity of a person with a type of spell and its element is poor, the spell will not fire, all the while they can keep the person safe from the backlash. If it fires, then usually it is worth to push that person into developing more in that direction. It is a push to make sure that every person that learns to chant to keep their chants as short as possible. The value of a magician goes up high into the sky the shorter his or her chants are.”-

After saying all of this, Fleck looks to the side, only to see Hashi sitting beside him. He can devise Hashi’s lips curling.

-”He isn’t here anymore.”-

Fleck takes a moment to process what happened, then puts a hand to his face as a small sight escapes him.

Hashi giggles -”You were enjoying yourself, weren’t you? You are surprisingly ok with kids, are you sad that he stopped giving you attention?”-

As Fleck incorporates himself in his seat, he says -”Something tells me you didn’t clear the misunderstanding with his sister, at all.”-

Hashi looks away from Fleck, to her right, as she says -”I had… a little of fun with her. Look at how she looks at you right now.”-

Raising his eyes, Fleck sees how Ana is looking right at him, and just as fast as Fleck met her eyes, Ana looks away and her face turns again into a tomato, just as Selvin puts both hands on her face.

-”You’re quite a handful.”-

-”Relax, Fleck…”- Hashi giggles -”I’m just enjoying myself a little after that nightmarish encounter. I did clear everything with her, beside… it is not like I told her pure lies.”-

At this moment, a howl can be heard at the distance. Standing, Fleck looks around but nothing can be seen yet -”I’ll go to speak with Masha, you wake everybody up.”-

Hashi nods as Fleck moves towards the driver’s section, from which Masha comes out.

-”Boss…”-

-”Do you know what was that?”- Masha asks.

-”Yeah, a warning. We need more hands, Masha. This travel was already tight when we had nine people, we are now down to five. If you want to survive the trip, we need more hands.”- Fleck says.

After thinking for a moment, another howl breaks the silence and Masha’s hesitance -”Very well. I can’t say I agree to put the merchandise on the line, but it is true that it will not matter if we can reach New Arcadia.”- turning to the driver’s section, he adds -”Pick one.”- as he enters back into the driver’s section.

-”Great. Will do.”- Fleck says, then adding -”Go as fast as the engine right now allows you to…”-

With a wave of his hand, Masha sits back into his seat and the automated cart starts to gain some speed.

Going to the back, Fleck knows exactly which of the slaves to pick in order to guarantee their survival, as he moves straight to her cage, removing the dark fabric on top of it.

A large, slender, curvy thick legs, a white-haired bunny woman is revealed, her red collar gleaming with a red light.