Chương 67: Chapter 4

"Alright," Shaya agreed with a nod, "I'm happy to follow your advice. So, no new runes or glyphs then?" He shook his head.

"None yet, I want you to keep focusing on modifying your current stock of spells—and mastering those you need to do well on your mid-terms. Once the tests are done, I want you to focus on containing your aether to minimize the visual manifestation of your esper. As I'm sure you know, the element of surprise is very useful."

"Definitely. Oh, before I forget, two things I want to raise."

"Go on."

"First, can I pick up full shifts in the weekend?"

"Sure," he said, "but I'll be keeping an eye on your grades. Breaks exist for good reason, and smithing is far from relaxing. I've seen you, Bri, and Shepherd jogging about campus, so you'll want to adapt your exercise routine accordingly as well, otherwise you'll burn out your muscles. As it stands, you'll need to rely heavily on Jade magic and, therefore, increase your diet by no small amount." She winced. Her diet was already getting prohibitively expensive.

"Okay," she huffed, "I'll figure it out… I have to." He nodded, empathy etched onto his face.

"Next, I'd like to skip Monday's class and… challenge the Combat Foundations' mid-term for credit," she blurted, flinching as he frowned at her.

"I really need the free time back, as you just noted, and I also need to talk to Rea in private, but her office hours are during the class." He hummed in thought, rumbling like an avalanche.

"While several of your peers outrank you easily in their weapon of choice, your martial skills certainly have greater breadth than most of them—which is what the course aims to achieve. You seem to be good about adapting between martial, magical, or other skills, so maybe there isn't much more for you to learn in the course. I'll talk to Bari about it, see if she's comfortable with it as well."

"Perfect, thank you." Shaya smiled.

"And don't worry, I'll stay in the loop in case there's something I could benefit from!"

"Good, now let's go over how you modified your barrier spell and see if we can't improve on its design and apply it to other runes."

"Happily!" Shaya said.

"Wearing lighter armour made me realize how much I miss my mobility, so I'd love to find a way to maximize that without sacrificing defence or offence. I have some ideas for my armour spell I'd love to run by you."

"Weaponizing the edge of a single plane is one thing," Auric cautioned, "but trying to weaponize a spell with as many complex sub-circuits as light armour might be beyond you currently—even at Second Circle."

"I'm already pushing into second-tier spells and would like to leverage this as practice before I dive into third-tier spells. Don't worry, this isn't a short-term goal for me, I intend for it to push my abilities—so I can learn to keep leveraging my power to the max." Auric chuckled.

"Very well then, far be it from me to deny you the hard lesson." +++++ Horses tossed their heads in delight as Shaya's mounted combat lesson wrapped up, students dismounting and feeding treats to their sweat-coated steeds. Those who had bonded with the animals they rode, such as Shaya, would stay to stable their mounts and brush them down after the class, deepening the bond further. Most of the students had no interest in doing so, and even a few of the usuals handed off their reins to Bari's volunteers this time.

Like their steeds, each rider stank from riding hard in full armour on the unusually hot autumn day. Bari had them training in close order drills, each rider driving their steed within arm's reach of other cavalry to simulate charges against enemy ranks. They practiced in various formations, from simple lines to Zothiri's complicated "lance" formation, where a tight, narrow wedge of heavy knights would punch into a block of infantry to break through their ranks.

Shaya felt bad for the horses; poor handling by some of her peers had led to more wear and tear as tense riders dug into their sides or sawed at their reins more than necessary. The same tension had led to more than a few collisions requiring healers to intervene on behalf of horse or rider, but luckily nothing catastrophic. She led her enormous Jhagsdale horse toward the stable alongside Bri and Shepherd, eyes drawn to Bri when her friend laughed.

Her horse nuzzled her and she giggled again, petting the giant animal's nose as she tried to keep an apple away from him. Much like herself, Bri seemed to be most relaxed around animals—horses more so than the terror birds and giant raptors Bari was also teaching them to ride. Bri noticed Shaya's attention and cocked a curious eyebrow at her.

"Something on my face?" Blushing, Shaya shook her head and replied quickly.

"No, I just noticed that you seem to like our mounted combat lessons the most."

"Oh," she replied, blushing a bit as well.

"Yeah, I just… miss home. There are a lot of Zothirians here," she added, "but there's so much more pomp and ceremony here than what I'm used to. Even the masses at the temples here are so different, completely devoid of the grounded lessons we can take away from the Seven's scriptures."

"Indeed," Shep added, their eyes gazing into memory more than the path ahead.

"The sermons are much more focused on aggrandisement of the nobility, though they at least still include some emphasis on the responsibility that comes with that rank."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Shaya murmured.

"I had no idea that even the Imperial religion could feel alienating at times."

"Don't worry about it," Bri said, petting her horse again.

"Being around horses reminds me of the good times at the fortress-monastery of Astoria that took me and raised me. The lessons I learned of what honour and chivalry really mean. Of the races, jousts, and melees me and the other orphans watched and even participated in at times to prove and hone our skills." Shaya wanted to provide additional words of comfort when Bari rode up to her. The large golkah woman looked down at her from atop her own giant horse, her horns casting a long shadow over Shaya.

Bari cleared her throat, then spoke with her usual guttural accent: "Shaya, can you stay awhile after class?" Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Shaya looked to her friends, who shrugged, then turned back to Bari.

"I can spare thirty minutes before getting to my next class. What's up?"

"Keep Marengo saddled then and join me for a ride," she replied.

"I owe you a conversation, if I recall correctly."

"Got some energy left for me, boy?" Shaya asked her mount. The enormous silver stallion snorted, as if insulted by the question. Shaya laughed, mounting up in a smooth gesture she hoped worthy of her Asharan ancestry. She turned to her friends with a grin.

"I'll see you folks after Abjuration!"

"Have fun!" Bri said, returning the smile in kind. Shaya waved at them as she trotted to catch up with Bari, her friends returning the wave before heading into the stables. It only took Marengo a few seconds to pull up beside Bari, and both women slowed their horses to a walk. The young woman took in a deep breath, enjoying the fresh air away from the rest of the class.

The mix of sweat and leather she didn't mind, but the added mix of conflicting and competing perfumes and colognes would always aggravate her sensitive nose.

"Your friends didn't smell that bad," Bari scoffed.

"They don't," Shaya agreed, "but I don't get the people who wear their perfumes to a rigorous class like this one. The riot of smells is brutal."

"Some are worse than others," Bari said.

"I think that smoke scent Galo wears actually spooks his horses and Azreon smells so much like a bouquet I fear the apiaries will migrate into our training yards." Shaya chuckled.

"You can differentiate what each person smells like?"

"Oh yes. Did Devi never teach you to hone your senses? Even your nose should be sensitive enough to identify people by scent alone." Thinking back to her friends, Shaya thought she could recognize a few of them from back home, but she had known them for a couple years. She didn't think much of her mother, but looking over the memories she cherished with the supposed heretic and traitor, she didn't recall any teaching her about how to follow her nose.

"No, I guess she didn't," Shaya reported, tone turning bitter.

"Maybe something she planned to do when I grew older."

"Probably," Bari said with a nod.

"I'd be… happy to help you with that, if you'd like. A few basic exercises would set you on the right path, might even fit into your busy schedule."

"Thanks Bari, I… appreciate the offer. I think I'd like that, I feel like there's so much I don't know about my heritage."

"So," Bari said, "what do you want to know?" Shaya laughed.

"Bari, I want to know everything. I'll try to limit my questions though." The older woman frowned at her.

"Why, thank you for your concern."

"Alright," Shaya said, "why did you leave me purple?"

"That's it?"

"I need time to think," Shaya chuckled.

"I'm buying time with an easy question." Bari snorted.

"A healer prioritizes critical wounds on their patient, especially if the injuries are severe enough to tax the patient's body. I focused on the hairline fractures I detected across many of your bones and damage to the ligaments."

"That's all, eh?" Bari's eyes narrowed under her heavy brow.

"No, I left you—and plenty of other students—with ridiculous-looking superficial injuries to temper your pride. I find it especially critical after someone is first blooded in battle and in competitive environments like this."

"Couldn't leave any cool scars some of us might find attractive?"

"Gods," she shook her head, "you sound just like my husband with this talk of attractive scars."

"I dunno," Shaya continued pushing her luck, "it sounds to me like you're attracted to scars."

"Hmph." Bari looked at her.

"Cyren is rubbing off on you. Hopefully not literally." Shaya flinched at the image, then laughed.

"Alright, alright, point to you then." The beast-woman scoffed.

"Don't bother keeping score until your wit develops, cub. We're not even in the same league right now—if you think Cyren is bad, you're best not riding into battle alongside the Asharan tribes."

"Is that how you met my mother?" Shaya asked, letting the conversation flow naturally and hoping that would get Bari to open up more.

"Yes," she replied.

"During the last Succession War, our tribes—like all the others—were called to support Astoria's claim, as usual. We were from rival groups, but we worked together closely in some of the early battles and she rose through the ranks quickly as a skilled and merciless commander. Our losses mounted until neither tribe could support itself, to Devi's grief, but that's what brought us together."

"What happened?"

"Despite their opinion," Bari continued, "the Zothiri are not the most skilled martial force in the Empire." You'll get no arguments from me.

"The Kelahkese garner the most amount of practical combat experience since the Titans have a heavy presence in their lands and focus their assaults from the ocean at the start of each war. We Asharan are often called in to help them when the Empire is unified, granting us plenty of experience as well. Yet when a Succession War begins, we always find ourselves on opposing sides of the war, throwing away the lives of our greatest veterans while the eastern kingdoms just…politick."

"That sounds frustrating." Shaya nodded, the story making her recall faint memories of her mothers arguing about that.

"Devi agreed with you," Bari said, shaking her head, "she found the entire situation madness, and wanted our grand chief to sue for peace with Kelahk.

'Let the easterners play their games,' she would say, 'without wasting our blood on it.'""Sounds sensible to me," Shaya said, "but the treaties that unified the southern kingdoms behind Astoria's successors and the northern ones behind Vynderwynd's successors are ancient. That's not something rationality can overcome easily."

"You have the right of it," Bari said, looking off to the horizon where the sun blazed over the Jade Sea.

"Devi's 'suggestions' were declined and she was warned not to speak of them further. But, despite how bloody that war was, Devi used her cunning to minimize casualties on both sides of the war, oftentimes ignoring orders from our superiors entirely."

"We know that's not good," Shaya said, referring to Azreon.

"What happened?"

"She was recalled by the grand chief." Bari kicked her steed into a canter as they climbed one of the artificial, grassy hills in the dome. Once Shaya caught up, she continued, "Devi didn't take kindly to being dressed down by someone who had failed to overcome the enemy herself, yet continued to throw our lives away against them anyway."

"Did she challenge the grand chief for control over Asharel?" Bari chuckled.

"It's not that simple, but yes." Shaya waited for a longer response, prodding when one wasn't forthcoming: "Did she win?" They crested the large hill and let their horses rest. Bari and Shaya scanned their surroundings, eyes drawn down the steep hill to Quill as he lunged at Storm Breaker and nipped at his heels. The large gryphon leapt away from the attack with a flap of his wings, landing to face the gryphlet and issuing a squawk of challenge.

Quill recovered from his attack and lunged again, using his wings to gain some speed in the air. Shaya giggled as Storm Breaker let Quill pounce on his foreleg, crashing to the ground melodramatically. The little gryphlet let out a triumphant screech as he stood upon his vanquished foe, Shaya feeling the echo of that emotion through their growing empathic bond. She felt his surprise when his keen eyes noticed Shaya watching them. He took off towards her, three legs pumping to close the distance as fast as he could.

Once he had picked up speed, Quill leapt into the air, wings fluttering.