Hump was starting to quite like wisa. Sure, it tasted like hot, bitter water, and looked like someone had stirred mud into a cup, but it perked him up in the morning. Vamir had left early. He was leading a training hunt for some of the younger dragon-blooded today. Spring was truly in its beginning now, so their training would start in full.

There was a knock at the door and Celaine entered, a pair of leather boots in hand. A woman that appeared to be about the same age and with very short, brown hair accompanied her.

Nishari bolted toward them, completely ignoring Celaine and circling around the new woman’s legs, sniffing and rubbing up against her. The woman laughed, bending down to pet her. They were both in hunting gear—long cloaks, Celaine still wearing her Shadow Cat Cloak, bows over their shoulders, and quivers at their hips.

“She really is adorable!”

“This is Eva,” Celaine said. “I think I’ve mentioned her a few times.”

From the hard stare Celaine gave him, Hump knew his only choice was to agree. “Oh yeah, it’s good to finally meet you, Eva!”

“Don’t bother,” the woman said. “As if Celaine mentioned me. Good to meet you too though. Hump, right?”

Hump nodded. “That’s me.”

“Your dragon’s adorable.”

“Thank you.” Hump smiled. “She’s a bit of a traitor though. Always far too happy to meet new people.”

“Better happy than the alternative. Few things scarier than a wolf dragon deciding they don’t like you.”

“I can imagine.” Hump nodded toward Celaine’s equipment. “You going hunting?”

“Vamir invited me on the training hunt today,” she said. “Wants me to tell the kids about my adventures. Eva decided to tag along.”

“You make me feel so valued,” Eva said wryly. “Forgive me for wanting to spend some time with my friend that I haven’t seen for a year.”

Celaine frowned. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“She’s always been like this,” Eva said. “Her eyes always wandering off to the stars instead of looking at what’s in front of her. I swear, I’m more surprised she came back at all than left in the first place.”

“You’re being dramatic,” Celaine said, approaching Hump and holding out the boots. “Here. Check that they fit quickly.”

Hump tried them on. The leather was stiff, but the soles soft, making the ground feel hard against his feet. He wiggled his toes inside.

“They’re a bit tight.”

“That’s good,” Celaine said. “They should feel snug. The leather will conform to your feet.”

“I think they’re good then,” Hump said.

“Worse comes to worse, we’ll get you a pair built for size once you’ve figured out your enchantments.”

“What enchantments?” Eva asked.

“Hump’s trying to use magic to avoid learning how to leaf walk,” Celaine said.

Eva snorted. “Good luck.”

“You don’t think I can do it?” Hump asked.

“I’ve seen magic like it work in some ways,” Eva said. “But you won’t be able to leaf walk, no.”

“As long as I’m not stomping around, it’ll be worth the effort.”

Eva shrugged. “That much sounds achievable. Was good to meet you, Hump,” She grinned downward. “and you Nisha. We’ll need to find some time to chat later. I’d love to hear what it’s been like adventuring with Celaine.”

Hump chuckled. “Just tell me where to be.”

He liked Eva. She was blunt and straightforward; a person he thought he could get along with easily. She reminded him of Gerard’s party of mercenaries in Bledsbury—people that knew their business and didn’t want any drama.

The two women left, and Hump finished his wisa before heading back to his room to collect his supplies, Nisha following happily at his feet. He took his enchanting gear and Walt back to the main room, placed the shoes on top of it, and took out The Book of Infinite Pages.

SPELLBOOK

Echoless Passage

Illusion | Battle Magic | Tier 1 | Range: Short

Description

Muffle sounds and prevent them from travelling.

The spell had come from the Daston library, and seemed like one with many potential uses, so Hump had made an effort of recording it. Illusion magic was far from Hump’s specialty, though he liked to think he’d become skilled enough with magic in general now to be capable of casting the Tier 1 spell proficiently. Now whether that meant he could create a working enchantment was another question. The thing about enchantments was that they didn’t just require a single formation. For this one, he’d need to weave a pattern of formations across the soles of the boot, covering them entirely.

Three days was hardly a long time to craft a working enchantment, particularly one that would need to remain functional for the duration of a hunt. The channels had to be perfectly etched and the runes imbued with just the right amount of intent. But Ado had told him enchanting was a good method for him to practice controlling his soul and intent, so success or failure, he’d gain some good benefits from the project. Besides, it was only by pushing oneself that one could reach new heights.

He opened up the small box containing the enchanting set. His spellbook referred to it as a silver tier item called the Stylus of Enchantment. At the time, he hadn’t quite realised how valuable the equipment had been, but after experimenting with it on the road from Sheercliff City, it had become clear. Not only was the stylus made of gold, but it was also enchanted to amplify and concentrate the wielder’s intent directly into the tip, and contained a hole in the top where different metals could be added. The enchantment would soften and melt the metal, allowing one to etch items out of various materials. His experiments on the road had so far produced nothing permanent. While the enchantments functioned, they burned out, destroying the etched runes or at times the item entirely. Previously, that had only been bits of wood or scrap leather. Now, it was a fine pair of leather boots that he didn’t want to ruin.

For this project, he decided to use the essence saturated metal he’d discovered in the mine. Due to the size of the hole, only a dozen or so nails that he’d found would fit. If he wanted more, he’d need to speak to a blacksmith about cutting some of the larger pieces to size.

With everything in place, he took a breath, imbued the stylus with essence, sensing the metal within begin to melt—that was a good sign, so far he’d only attempted it with copper and silver. Slowly, he lowered his stylus toward the sole of the boot, intent on the first rune.

“Morning!” Walt said happily. “What you up to, kid?”

Hump jerked back and let out a long sigh.

“Oh, sorry, did I startle you?”

Hump chuckled. “A little. I’ve been invited on a hunt in honour of Celaine’s return, so I’m trying to create an enchantment to muffle my steps a bit.”

“Ah, gotcha. Don’t you worry. Ol’ Walt here can be as quiet as a mouse when you need him to be.”

“Thank you.”

Hump glanced at his spellbook once more, memorising the formation on the page, then lowered his stylus back to the boot.

“Is it that spell in the book?” Walt asked. “Looks complicated. What does it do?”

“Walt!” Hump snapped.

“Sorry! Sorry! Quiet as a mouse.”

Nisha popped her paws up on the table beside him, staring at Walt.

“Oh no, not the demon!” Walt said.

Hump grinned, lifting up the soul stone. “Here you go, Nisha.”

She happily closed her teeth on it, holding it gently in her mouth and running off to the side where she lay down, wagging her tail as she stared at Walt’s small figure inside.

With the distractions out of the way, Hump got to work, etching tiny runes into the sole of the boots. The metal flowed from the tip easily, a thin trail of molten nail marking where the tip of his stylus passed, penetrating slightly into the boot. Each one required nail-biting focus. He threw every shred of will he had into it, forcing essence into the runes, imbuing them with clear intent. Between each rune, he added channels, combining them together.

After the first few, he got into the rhythm of it, almost enjoying the work. He completed one on each sole, then tried the boots on to test them. Channelling essence into each boot, he started to walk around. His steps were definitely quieter, though when he tried running the marks barely seemed to do anything. Still, the first runes were a success.

He sat back down, continuing with the next. He was halfway through when a quiet pulse of power shattered a rune. It triggered a chain reaction, an overflow of essence passing along the channels and back to the first rune, obliterating more than an hour’s work.

Hump let out an enraged groan, slumping in his chair. He was sweating from focusing so hard and had already ruined half the work. What had been at fault? His technique, essence control, or was it the material. Perhaps silver or gold would have been better than the essence imbued metal—he had more than enough if he needed it.

Staring at the still intact formation on his other sole, he decided to call it. If he kept going, he’d only make more mistakes.

This is going to be tough.

“Didn’t work out?” Walt asked.

“Not this time,” Hump said, retrieving the soul stone and placing it on the table. “How you doing, Walt? Are you alright being locked up in my room on your own all day?”

“I’ll be honest, kid,” Walt said. “Feels like we only spoke a few minutes ago from my perspective. I don’t know what it is, but time just seems to blur by. How long have we been here?”

“Almost two days now.”

Walt’s ghostly face blew up its cheeks and let out a mist of essence within the stone. “Wow. Feels like we met that scary lady an hour or so ago.”

“Owalyn?”

“Yeah. The one with the antlers.”

Hump snorted. “Yeah, that was two days ago.”

“Well don’t worry about me. I’ll keep myself busy.”

***

When Hump arrived at Ado’s house, he heard the man singing coming from around back and went around to meet him. He found him outside a small workshop, manipulating a long beam of wood.

“Morning, Humphrey,” Ado said.

“Morning. What are you working on there?”

Ado glanced at him with a frown. “What do you think?”

It was a beam shaped piece of wood. “A spear?”

Ado laughed. “Close. It’s a bow. I’m surprised Celaine didn’t mention it.”

“That you’re a bowyer?”

He nodded. “I made her bow.”

Hump paused at that. Celaine’s bow was crafted from the wood of the Great Tree—a gift from Owayln to her sister, Myra. For Ado to have been the one to craft it… he had to be a true master. No wonder he’d encouraged Hump to continue enchanting as a craft.

“I’m surprised she never mentioned it either,” Hump said.

Hump spoke with Ado about his experience once he arrived for the day’s training. It was outside the shaman’s area of expertise, so he didn’t know what he’d been expecting to hear. There was nothing he could do but try again. Time was ticking. Worst case scenario, he’d be stuck stomping around the forest during the hunt like a fool. Or maybe it wouldn’t matter. They were hunting a dungeon guardian after all. Maybe he’d save them all some time and bring the beast to them.

Myra visited around lunch time again, stopping by to see Stonefang. Nisha greeted her excitedly, and Hump exchanged pleasantries until Ado decided it was time to head to the Temple of Moss again.

They were about halfway there when Ado held up a hand, gesturing for Hump to stop.

Hump went tense, eyeing his surroundings and mentally calling Nisha back to his side. She ran up to him, pressing herself up against the side of his leg, looking around nervously.

Ado took his giant war bow from his shoulder and nocked an arrow. He drew it back slowly, his entire body becoming tense, the bulging muscles of his arms and right shoulder showing through his tunic. He aimed into the distance. Essence stirred. Hump felt a shiver down his spine as he felt Owalyn’s deadly intent pervade the area. Every instinct urged him not to move. Fear crawled up from within, and only by pressing back with his soul and will could he resist.

Ado released the arrow. It blurred into the distance, lost to the shadows of the trees.

“Come on,” Ado said.

They continued forward. As they neared, Nisha sniffed at the air, then ran on ahead.

“Stay close!” Hump called, prompting her to glance back.

“It’s alright. Let her get it.”

Hump glanced at him curiously and then gave Nisha a mental push to continue. A few seconds later, she returned with a bird as big as she was in her mouth. It had a body of colourful feathers of blues, yellows, and reds. There was no arrow, but as Hump got closer, he spotted the bloody hole through its neck, half tearing its head off.

“Gods above, you’re a good shot,” Hump said.

“And not your gods. You’ve got to learn to thank the Mother in Drakalyn, and the rainbow hawk that died for our lunch.”

“Force of habit,” Hump said. “I’m not partial to anyone’s gods. Still, that was a better shot than Celaine even.”

“Better than Celaine even.” Ado scoffed. “As if that girl could shoot as well as I can. Maybe in another decade or two. It’s an important skill for any hunter—we call it shahdva. Think of it as the art of killing our prey painlessly. A hunter that kills poorly, kills without honour.”

“Shahdva,” Hump repeated, liking the ideology. “Where I come from, people don’t generally care much about how quickly a monster dies.”

“They are little different than animals,” Ado said. “More powerful, and beings of magic, yes, but they feel pain just as we do. And they return to the earth just as we do.”

Ado approached Nisha and asked her to hand over the kill. She obeyed immediately, once again showing Ado a respect and fondness Hump hadn’t seen her show anyone else.

“Come on,” Ado said. “I’m curious to see if anything has changed since yesterday.”

“You mean when my head almost exploded from too much soul manifestation?” Hump asked.

“We have a saying,” Ado declared, his voice resounding with wisdom. “The spirit, like a mighty tree, thrives on necessity. Whether nourished by the tears of defeat, the sunlight of victory, or the relentless toil of endeavour.”

The cheerful tone with which he spoke was a little unsettling. It made Hump wonder if perhaps the shaman was enjoying this side of training a little too much.