Currently I could say that I have found two ways to use arcansics, technically three if I add chanting to the mix but that's not what's important. Two different methods where affinities count and two different affinities for them but what if that wasn't really the case. What if instead of the affinities being for different forms they were universal. In the first place affinity isn't something that prevents you from using other outer energy spells, it just makes them very energy and time ineffective so there's nothing stopping me from trying, especially since it's exactly that type of spell that I want to try.

Letting the energy inside me flow semi freely I watched the outer energy respond in turn. It did take a considerable amount of time to form but still it didn't compared to an ice spell for example. Both the time and energy spent just meant that it depended on the situation whether it should be used in active combat whatever the effect was. The weird shape, only once seen before, took form and I realized it. Space warped before my eyes as the wavelengths got all messed up. What little energy was escaping from the almost dry bushes was now redirected from its free flow to supplying the warp on top of the outer energy rushing in. From the looks of it, it wasn't expanding or shrinking in any sense, it was only sustaining itself. Which, if it was what my instinct was telling me, made perfect sense.

Picking up a nearby rock I throw it in the warp resulting in it collapsing as the sound of the stone hitting the ground reached my ears drowned by distance, way further away from where it would normally land. A wide smile, my teeth in full display. What I just casually created was nothing other than a wormhole. Truthfully speaking I don't quite know how it compares to a real Einstein-Rosen bridge as theorized by the men themselves but still it served the same purpose in a more personalized style. As quickly as possible I opened a new one this time hyping myself into jumping in by taking a deep breath. Giddy like a young child during clearance day on their favorite toy store I jumped in, only to immediately regret my decision. For less time that it took me to blink I felt like the entire universe bitch slapped me to oblivion.

As I was throw out the other side my body couldn't support the landing so like a sack of meat in the wind I fell head first to the ground. I forgot about that part of the theory... and I'm very lucky that it was calmer than the theorized 20g of pressure by a lot, like for me to survive with all my body parts and this much pain in my body... a fourth of the original, a fifth? Regardless of the exact number it's survivable for that short exposure even for my body, now I hope I don't turn into a walking, miserable bruise of a person by morning.

After my involuntary relax time I got and started moving again, my body still biting a bit but feeling overall lighter that before. The road I was taking needed a couple of hours by carriage so by tomorrow I should have reached it. It should be faster with a wormhole at hand but oh well... Still to think that I would not only see but actually create a stable, person-sided wormhole, even now, after that, I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. A doorway between two places in space, the way it wrapped space around it, how it absorbed energy to sustain itself, how it peacefully collapsed due to an outside factor creating an energy imbalance, even the shape the outer energy took to form it. Magnificent, an absolute treat for pained eyes.

But that didn't meant that I had forgotten my original purpose. Just as daybreak greeted the world, the biggest city of Troupe county, Myira, was illuminated before me. The city of two halves, an oasis cut in two by a river. In fact more than half the cities in this part of the kingdom were supported by this river but unfortunately due to the unique morphology of this part river boats couldn't operate. Imagine a city were the, inarguable, best type of transportation can't reach, from either side. Troupe ancestor must have pissed of the wrong people, back in the day, to have been assigned this part of the land. And to think that no one ever thought to just dig a new river, like come on people.

You can tell a lot about a city from the state of its walls and the fact that they were in disrepair and further inside that the outskirts of the city itself spoke very loudly. It does stand that neglected outer walls means peaceful times but when a neighboring city, only a few hours away, had pristine, siege ready walls with around the clock guards stationed it doesn't paint quite the good image. But at the end of the day I shouldn't complain much since this served for easy access in the city, without raising any alarms.

Walking through the empty streets of a waking city I found the first narrow alley and decided to spend in there the few final moments between daybreak morning, take my breakfast and catch a short nap while the city fully woke up. Stiff bread, cured rabbit meat and a handful of nuts, that was the breakfast I painstakingly took using my, mispport, palms, mouth and a ton of time and effort. Damn I really took Estelle for granted didn't I. Sleeping lightly I got awaken by the bustling city coming to life, as soon as I saw children walking about both behind their parents and by themselves I figured it was time for me to move.

Outside from mapping the city itself I didn't had much to do during the day, still that didn't meant what I was doing wasn't important. From what I saw the underworld was running rampant with the city divided and the various gangs all claiming their own territory where they openly operated. Watching two groups of hot-blooded youths enter an altercation could be said to be the highlight of the day. I suppose what Dovera and Estelle told me about the Comte's management was a charity compared to how bad things really were.

As the day progressed I moved deeper inside, from the commoner's and craftsmen's side up to the edge leading to the rich side of town where people either held government positions, hereditary titles with no land affiliated or military roles. Although there was no wall present separating those two parts of town the public order was like day and night, clean roads, well maintained buildings, no loitering of any short and no hooligans, it was as if this place was declared holy ground. And in the middle of it, closed off my a much better wall was Troupe family's castle. With how empty the streets were walking around surrounded by those mansions was only going to draw unnecessarily attention to myself so after confirming the route I was going to take I went and get a good lunch at a tavern and wormholed myself from an alley up to a building, calling it a day using the duster as a blanket and the coat as pillow.

The cold of the night worked wanders in waking me up as I quickly dressed up and moved down to the street. The night sky was more heavily clouded than yesterday which meant a warmer night, more cover and a bigger reliance to realm for guidance. I couldn't see the wall I needed to reach like yesterday but since I feel asleep with my head pointing at it all I needed was to keep in that direction. That was easier being said than done since the body normally gets easily disoriented without any visual indications or marks, one might be going in an endless circle while believing they are moving in a straight line. This was a non issue for myself though since I had already made a mental map of the route I needed to take and was keeping close to a row of buildings acting as a ruler keeping me in a straight line.

Standing by the inner wall I realized that realm reached the other side, unlike the walls of Prunce those weren't siege walls. The real siege walls stood abandoned at the front and where indeed thicker than realm but this one was build different. A pathetic symbol erected for a petty game of power by people long dead and maintained by those just as delusional. Opening a wormhole I passed through, dropping to the ground as my body recovered. Getting back on the saddle I navigated the grounds of the castle with even more ease, no prior mapping was necessary since this was Cadence's backyard.

Reaching the main building I opened another wormhole from a wall to a reception room to pass through without any of the knights finding me, my body screaming from all directions this time. Most likely I overdosed on the g force in a short time and now my body is paying the consequences, from now on I better keep a four hours downtime before this particular spell, duly noted. Recovery this time took considerable longer, so much so that I was afraid I'd get caught by someone on a late night toilet run and my only escape would be another wormhole.

Finally able to move again I made my way towards the Comte's study as silently as possible. Originally I was simply going to go in and out, completing my objective and running away, but after seeing the state of the city with my own eye it got my wondering, how can someone run shit so badly, curiosity took the better of me and I was dieing to take a peek at Trounce territories' ledgers. Mispporting the door against the wall so I could put it back later I stepped in only to immediately be assaulted by a filthy smell, a combination of rotten fish, copious amount of dried human sweat and spilled wine. It didn't take me long to figure that the smell originated from the couch sitting across the wall.

"I suppose the Comte was too busy making a heir to check the ledges..."

If you remove the fishy smell I guess this does bring back memories after all Arthur was an adult woman with needs and a... roommate sharing the same needs... both to an alarmingly frequent degree. Regardless of how the dead spent their time, I opened the window, lit a small flame with my spell and started reading documents, first the ones laying around in the desk and then opening drawers to see other documents. The books were so fucking cooked I couldn't trust a single digit in them. They speak of creative accounting but this shit's a space opera in the making, I couldn't help but shake my head at this travesty of book keeping. Expenses for projects that never happened, taxes through the roof, overblown payments and salaries. Normally, with more realistic numbers, those ledgers and statements would be proof of development, of progress and growth, unfortunately this growth was nowhere to be seen other than those papers. Out there there's anything but progress.

I didn't wanted to look any further in how they turn numbers to a joke but that didn't stopped me from opening the rest of the drawers. Reaching a locked drawer I mispported it to the ground, inside it was, to my surprise, the wand but I didn't reached in to grab it. I couldn't, my body was refusing to move as sweet covered my body and a chill run down my spine. Next to the wand was the loaded riding crop that Cadence was all too familiar with. The reasons why she was seeking attention from other people was firstly because her mother completely ignored her existence, living the frivolous life and secondly becuase she was afraid of her father's attention since that thing's attention was synonymous with this crop. Now those memories of attention giving where flooding my mind en mass.

But I wasn't Cadence and I sure as fuck wasn't going to let this thing affect me anymore that it already has. Steeling myself I picked it in my palm before lighting the tip in fire and mispporting it out of the window. No one is allowed to hurt me like that and for those who do, they'll pay it a hundredfold. Grabbing the wand, my original objective, I realized that those two items were sitting on top of a folder. Out of everything I saw and that happened tonight reading its context was what did it for me. I felt sick to my stomach, disgusted in sharing the same blood as that dreg of humanity.

"That's it. The bastard dies tonight."