Ed stared at Gillian when she smashed his creation, not out of anger, but surprise. Was she really that frightened by the extent of their shared powers. Ed knew that others had to have these same powers but it seemed that it was mostly sensitivities.
The party the rest of the night went well. Ashra danced and caught up with old friends she had missed since leaving. She smiled politely at old friends but kept a watchful eye on Erust and her Mother talking in the corner. She wasn't worried about them talking, that made her happy but she wondered what they were so intently discussing.
Rennish was watching also from across the plaza. He was telling tales and playing instruments, all the things that made a bard's life happy. He kept an eye on Ed to make sure he was safe. He could tell from across the way that divine energy was being used. In the same way that Ed and Gillian could use divine energy, Rennish should have been able to also, if his powers hadn't been sealed by Ysennia in an act of retribution for his previous failures.
And after the party life resumed the same ebb and flow of work, study, research, and practice. The only change was that Ed and Gillian would take a long walk in the afternoon. Gillian had explained it off to Milanese that he had learned enough to keep her safe should anything happen, and he seemed to accept this begrudgingly.
The first of their lessons was easy enough. Learning to identify living materials using only divine powers. Gillian blindfolded him and handed him different items which he would have to identify using only divine powers. For three days they practiced this until Ed learned that if he looked at it hard enough in his head he could see the divine energy around him without his eyes.
"Good, you have to realize that our physical bodies are not compatible with the energy we are using. So your human eyes will lie to you about what the divine powers are doing." She said to him once he had mastered this act.
Ed nodded and looked at the things around him. He had almost learned to block out auras at this point. They became a background color in a ton of ways. It was like looking at a picture and just seeing that the sky is blue because it is always blue.
"So, my ability to control mana should be easier because I have a physical body then?" Ed asked trying to feel for magical energie around him but not finding any or at least not feeling for the right thing.
"That should be true. But again practice makes perfect. Priests and Mages spend lifetimes to learn what you have the ability to do now as a novice. Even I have been practicing my whole life and I lack the control. You should be able to do even larger things."
"Like what?" Ed said, curious for her answer.
"Well if you can change dirt into wood why can't you change the wind into other things?" She said to him.
Ed had never considered this possibility. "Okay, but what in the air am I changing? It seems like I can only modify things that I have some understanding of."
"That might be true. I can only make patterns I have seen previously or have knowledge of. And I can only modify things I can see in my head." Gillian said to him with a smile. "Can you change the hardness of something? LIke making your cloth shirt as hard as steel? You know about both of those..."
Ed looked at his shirt. Was it possible? Not to change the material but it to modify it somehow? He focused on his shirt and concentrated on trying to add strength to the fibers. He heard something creak in the shirt but it didn't seem as if anything had changed. Gillian looked at him and shrugged. "Maybe you should practice that at home. What does my daughter think of your powers?"
"She isn't bothered by them, she also doesn't ask about my past. I know she is curious..." Ed trailed off.
"Have you seriously considered starting a family with her while you can?"
"Uh... Oh... Well... We haven't decided what to do... She seems to think she is past the age of bearing children." Ed said blushing around his ears.
Gillian laughed, "Oh does she now? She has many years of being able to bear my grandchildren in her yet."
Ed smiled, "Not to be rude but, if she has children that look more human and less like the rest of the village won't they be shunned?"
"That is entirely possible. But you are the pilgrim and anyone stupid enough to make your children unwelcome deserves to be slapped. And Grandma and Grandpa would love to spoil them here in the village and watch over them." She smiled and rubbed her hands together. "Okay! Back to practice!"
Ed didn't break the news to her that her daughter still couldn't touch her husband, and that his divine body most likely couldn't bear fruit. He regretted that fact, seeing how happy family seemed to make everyone else around him.
Rennish spent the rest of his time talking and collecting stories and songs from the villagers. He was amazed at the culture and art of this group of people. In the north, it was a given that everyone in the south lived like savages. The fact that many of the Demi-human races preferred not to wear clothes didn't help this image either.
Rennish discovered that the most common thing among these people was the pride they had in their differences. They loved to show off and celebrate what makes them individuals. That meant that if you had a fabulous mane or wonderful fur why would you cover it in clothing. This was abnormal for humans of the north that absolutely felt that modesty was necessary in all things.
Rennish was enjoying the freedom he felt around these people and their customs. He wasn't ready to go around nude and flaunt it all, however it was nice to see that they accepted him for who he was.
And that doesn't mean that the people in the town didn't have suspicions. They always had an eye on Ed and Rennish. To them, it was weird that a human would travel this far south or be married to one of their peoples. The whispers of slave trades and so forth followed them where ever they managed to go.
Rennish sat in a courtyard teaching children songs he had learned in his previous times as a spirit. He was singing a song about victory and strumming along on a stringed instrument not too unlike a guitar.
"Mr. Rennish," A kid in the front said. "Why do you play so much music?"
Rennish smiled and kept playing chords while looking at the kid. "You know, a long long long time ago, I was just like you. Young and full of wonder. And one day my parents moved me from my home to a town way across the whole planet.
And I couldn't make friends because I was tall, new, and everyone else had friends. So I started playing music. And one by one people came to hear me listen. And the more songs and instruments I could play the more they listened."
Rennish put down his guitar and pulled a long metal fluit from his bag. He played the same song but in the high whistle you get only from a metal flute. "And you see many people started sharing their songs with me. So I played them and carried them on. And I have learned some your songs and I will carry them with me when I leave. And in that way you will live with me where ever I happen to go next."
The kids all looked at him and scratched their heads, "But we can't play your songs..."
"That's perfectly fine also. Just sing them or hum them when you can and think of me."
A small kid clapped, "Can we clap the tune?"
Rennish started tapping his toes, "You can remember it however you want. That is how you always remember the friends you make along the way."
Ed was sitting in a clearing a few blocks away from the training ground the town guard used. Ed was trying different techniques to blend his divine powers with mana. Gillian had been slowly showing him how to release it using fingers, hands, toes, and sometimes just with thoughts. He still needed far more practice and this space gave him the anonymity he needed to do this without raising suspicions.
"What are you doing Erust?" Ashra said and she walked up into the yard from around a building.
"Practicing, I need to control my gifts better and I can't just do that in public." He said putting down a stick he had been using. "I am trying to change the properties of the stick while keeping it a stick. Can I make the wood as sharp as steel? Or make my clothes as hard as the strongest armor."
"Has my mom been showing you this?"
Ed smiled and nodded before walking towards her. He stopped a respectable distance away, knowing that she was still affected and his presence gave her tears. "She made suggestions when she saw my powers."
"She knows about this curse on me," Ashra said putting her arms across her chest and lowering her head. "She told me she can see it on me."
"I figured she might talk to you about it. She told me one time that I had the power to break it. I keep telling her I am only gifted slightly above average but she pushes me. I never knew my Mom real well so I am assuming this is what loving mothers do to their children."
"She talked to you about kids too I take it?"
Ed smiled. "Yeah, but I think that is what mom's look forward to the most after their kids become adults."
Ashra laughed and looked up at the sky. "You know, I look up at the sky Erust. And I see the blues and grays during the day. I see the Reds and Ambers at dusk. And the dark blues and purples at night. I wonder often about the miracles that determined these colors. Mom showed me her powers once as a kid. She told me that the water was blue because someone made it blue. She put her finger in a cup and made the water yellow."
Ashra started to pace. "I was surprised when the water tasted like lemonade. She had made me a drink and that's when I knew that my mom wasn't normal. I am glad she got to meet you, someone like her."
"I am glad to meet her too. I am glad she accepts me even though I'm just human."
"Yes well, Dad is a whole other issue. We need to leave in the next day or so to go see the oracle. It's only a days trip from here to there."