Chương 20: Chapter 19 – Intent

Daniel landed right in front of the old sports hall. Within moments, people swarmed out in alarm, Kai's mother among them.

"I need healers," Daniel demanded.

"And someone with conventional medical knowledge. Severe blood loss." Laura immediately rushed to his side and began casting Regrowth on Christoph, leaving Kai to handle his distraught club friends.

"Welcome to Lindenfeld, I suppose," he began, trying to turn panic and disorientation into easier-to-manage awkwardness. He only partially succeeded.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Jennifer screamed.

"Why are we– What is happening to Chris– Kai, what are you even doing here?!"

"Chris is getting treatment. No gnolls around. You're safe," Kai said, raising his hands placatingly. He managed to take some wind out of her sails, at least.

"That's… good. But what the fuck is," she gesticulated wildly, "this? Why were we flying? Who… who was that?" She shuddered.

"Kai's father," Oliver said, uncertainty written on his face.

"He's apparently some kind of demigod arch wizard." Wizard with a capital W, please.

"... That's the best short explanation possible," Kai agreed.

"He… told me to move, and I did," she said.

"I didn't want to move." Shit.

"Probably some kind of spell," Kai deflected desperately.

"It was an emergency, after all. No time for discussion." She shuddered again.

"I– I see." She clearly didn't, but was either too stressed or too intimidated to inquire further. Either works for me. Someone had produced a stretcher from the sports hall, and Christoph was carried off inside. A call for an IV kit and fluids rang through the air. Kai knew too little about this kind of thing to tell whether that was a good or bad sign. Jennifer wanted to follow behind, but Oliver held her back.

"We'd only get in the way," he sighed. Jenny growled in frustration, then started pacing around instead. A few moments later, Daniel emerged from the hall, making her flinch. To Kai's magical senses, he was like a black hole, sucking in copious amounts of ambient mana. He must have spent a lot of MP on the flight…

"He lost a lot of blood, but he'll probably live," he announced.

"A Tier III healer could have handled it in seconds, but we had to improvise."

"... What about his hand?" Oliver hesitantly asked.

"The fingers are gone. Even if they weren't in some gnoll's stomach by now, we would lack the equipment or magical expertise to reattach them." The three HEMA practitioners winced as one. Wielding a longsword required two functional hands, so he would have to find an alternative.

"So they can't be regrown with magic…?"

"They absolutely can," Daniel replied.

"But not with mine. He'll have to wait until a competent healer reaches Tier II and has a few days to spare. Might take a while."

"So there is hope?"

"There is," Kai cut in.

"Chris is strong. He will manage." Jennifer shot him a grateful smile that turned brittle after a side glance at Daniel. Oliver looked around awkwardly.

"So… What now?"

"Now we'll get you situated. Find somewhere to park your bags," Kai said. Given Jennifer's reaction to Daniel, offering a guest room didn't seem like the right call.

"Thanks. You said you still had electricity? Can I make a call?" You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Landline's dead. Power only works thanks to boxes full of lightning magic."

"Shit."

"Yup. Sorry." Oliver shrugged.

"Worth a try. What about that job you mentioned?"

"The offer stands. Your new workplace would be," he pointed towards the hall, "right there."

"Job?" Jennifer asked, curiosity briefly overriding overwhelm.

"We need combat teachers for all these newly integrated people. That's what I came to the city for," Kai explained.

"Oliver recommended you and Chris, actually. Would you be interested? We pay in board and lodging, plus monster cores. They are something like a provisional currency." He gestured towards the notice board, where a list of items hung out for the public. Next to it was another board of offers and requests for various things from food to clothing and tools, all priced in cores.

"... Can I have a night to think it over?"

"Sure. We have provisional quarters set up somewhere. Let me ask around." Kai quickly delegated the issue of finding them a place to stay to his mother, since he had absolutely no idea where to even begin. He organized them some food, access to the improvised bathhouse, and let them process the events of the day while he went to look for his father, who had quietly disappeared in the middle of the conversation.

According to bystanders, he had flown off towards their home, so he borrowed Laura's car and made his way there. Daniel was – unsurprisingly – in the barn, performing the finishing touches on the stupid boxes prepared by Lena, who was already back at spell practice and just gave Kai a little wave.

"What you did to Jennifer. That was sorcery, wasn't it?" Kai asked without much preamble. Daniel didn't look up from his work.

"It was."

"Was it… intentional?"

"That's a good question. When it comes to Sorcery, the line between intent and nonintent is blurry at best."

"That's not an answer, Dad." The Wizard's hands paused in the middle of adjusting a ritual circle. He slowly turned his head towards his son and put down his pen-like tool.

"Is it your intent to breathe? In a sense, it is, and it also isn't. You don't really do it on purpose."

"I guess, but I can just hold my breath."

"Only up to a point. Wait a moment, let me find a way to explain it better." Daniel stood up, paced around the barn for half a minute, then abruptly stopped.

"What are the components of a successful freecast?"

"Frame and… intent," Kai cautiously supplied.

"Correct. The frame depends on the sort of spellcasting you're doing. A Wizard's frame is whatever matrix he can force elemental mana through. A Druid's frame is the nature around him. Things that are consciously controlled and managed." He fixed Kai with an unnerving gaze.

"A Sorcerer's frame is his Concept. His very soul. It is always there, always active, and cannot be 'turned off'. That leaves only intent," he explained in a monotone voice.

"So, even if I don't actively want to use sorcery… If my intent is strong enough, it will happen?" Daniel nodded approvingly.

"Exactly. Naturally, whatever your current intent is becomes stronger the more stress you are under. If that intent is compatible with your Concept–""–it activates, whether I want it or not."

"Well, yes and no. You can learn to suppress it, but from my experience, that is a nigh-insurmountable task. Because in that moment, it will feel like the right thing to do." Kai's eyes went wide. Just like during the fight with the goblins. But…

"... When I tried to call it during the first fight, nothing happened," he admitted.

"You tried to– Of course you did. I would have as well," his father sighed.

"That just means your intent was not compatible. Try to remember everything about that moment and write it down."

"Yessir."

"That is an important factor though. You need to figure out a way to consciously tap into your Concept," Daniel continued.

"Sorcery can be… a powerful asset."

"That's not what you said when I got the class," Kai mused.

"You essentially told me to stay away, never touch it, and forget about it." Daniel froze ever so briefly.

"I know. I had to try. If it just remained dormant for the rest of your life, you would have been better off. But that did not happen, and now we have to handle it somehow. Fear is the worst approach to that." You made that choice for me, Kai noted to himself, even though he understood his father's reasoning.

"Handle it how? I thought every cast risked terrible consequences? Or was that also… an attempt at management?"

"It was an explicit warning, and nothing about it was false."

"But it's also not the entire truth." The Wizard nodded and went over to his workbench, where his pens and woodworking tools were strewn about. His knuckle met the wooden desk, once, twice. Faster than Kai could perceive, the tools arranged themselves by purpose and size. There was something deeply unsettling about the way reality just… complied. I want to do that.

"Sorcery invites chaos. But that is mostly true in combat, where everything is already chaotic. Spellburn is one of the least harmful consequences possible," Daniel explained.

"But if you have time and a clear mind? The risk is… never zero, but dramatically lower."

"How do I start?" Daniel chuckled.

"I have an idea, but it requires some groundwork. Sit down," he pointed to the floor, "and draw your sword. We're going to start with Spellblade training."