Minutes passed as by achingly slowly. Aedir sent a servant to make a fresh pot of tea as he and Kiera sat in an awkward silence that permeated his room atop the Mage Tower. Kiera avoided looking around as she had often pushed her master to tidy up his quarters, yet he always waved it off as unimportant. Even when she attempted to help with servants to clean the place properly, the man went on a long tirade about how everything is in its proper place and any attempt to tidy would result in months of lost research.
She even tried to throw out a blank piece of paper that she herself brought in without him knowing, exclaiming that surely, he had no need of it. One would have thought she'd drowned his puppies at the caterwauling he displayed saying that if it was in the room, it was of course necessary for his research. When she felt he'd dug himself a deep enough hole to prove her point she revealed the blank page.
Before she could make that point however, he zipped past with a speed far beyond anything she could have imagined a man well over a century could achieve and hopped out the door exclaiming "I've been looking all over for that!"
The servant returned with the fresh tea and poured two cups then quickly escaped out the door and down the stairs. Eager to escape the icy silence.
"Well Master? What did you mean? You said you'd explain why you knew but I'm having trouble understanding WHY you'd keep our people in the dark like this…"
Another sighed passed Aedir's lips as he lifted a teacup and took a deep gulp of his almost scalding hot tea. Placing it back on the saucer, he set both down on the coffee table before giving Kiera his full attention. She wavered for a moment, seeing the intensity in his eyes, before taking a sip and placing her cup down, listening intently.
"Many years ago, before Aegan's time as Champion, we had another Generation of Champions. These were the first to be Summoned after the tragedy that befell Bripran. They were young soldiers from what they called a World War on Earth. One of which, a man from an opposing country, was killed under mysterious circumstances. We knew at the time that it was his fellow Champions that had done so, some version of homeland loyalty that was severely misplaced, yet we could do nothing. They were Champions after all"
"These men and women assisted us in gaining a foothold against the Demons. At this point I was at the peak of my prime years, some 70 odd years ago. I had been teaching most of them the ways of magic, and at one point I too realized what you have today. Their knowledge of the basic laws of this world are centuries beyond ours, what they called science." A brief coughing fit broke up his speech as Aedir paused for a moment before continuing.
"This many years later, I imagine that knowledge has been propelled further even more. Yet when they began talking of using this knowledge combined with magic in order to win the war against Demons, I began to feel uneasy
One of them, a man named Benjamin Stephanson, came up with the idea of condensing fire magic into a cylinder, then launching it long distances. After several weeks, his experiments paid off, resulting in a long tube on wheels that launched these cylinders vast distances before hitting the ground and exploding violently on impact
Many of our allies, upon seeing the results demanded to know the secrets behind it. Despite our common enemy, most of us were confident at the time that we would emerge from the war victorious quite soon. And in their smiles and tones, I could hear gears turning as the pondered how they could use this technology themselves. In his haste to end one war, our Champion was setting the scene for an even greater one to begin!"
Again, Aedir took a moment to gather his thoughts. Kiera noticed his hands beginning to shake as he slowly lifted the teacup to his mouth and emptying the remainder in one go. Placing it down carefully, he rested his arms by his sides and began again.
"It began subtly, bits and pieces going missing, until finally one of the tubes and several dozen canisters disappeared. I took a couple Champions and went to investigate. By the time we discovered the culprit's night had fallen and we had arrived at a cave, many leagues away from our encampment.
What I found was a representative from Jorfrugr, having stolen the technology, was trying to sell it to the Demon Lords. They had gathered far more than I realized, that or they had managed to reverse engineer the technology. They were many, with two full Demon Lords as well as a number of lesser demons and monsters, against the two Champions and me"
His hands shook more as the memories overcame him and took a long, deep breath before finishing his story.
"The fight went on both longer than I could have imagined and quicker than I feared. We fought well, slaying the foul demon spawn left and right. Unfortunately, we were too far to send out a flare, no reinforcements in sight. Gregory, a mountain of a man and true friend went down first. I saw one of the Demon Lords plunge its claws through his chest even as he struck it down.
Yasmin and I were all that was left. She had courage enough for a thousand men and strength enough to put every one in their place" Aedir smiled at the memory briefly, before sadness drew veils across his eyes.
"She turned to me and warned me to flee before charging in headfirst to the swarm, a ball of fire held aloft. Many times since, I have wondered what could have been different had I been closer, had I stopped her, had I gone in her place. Instead in the moment I did as she asked and ran.
My last sight of Yasmin was over my shoulder as I ran off into the forest. Even at that distance I could see as she turned to look in my direction, a warm smile on her face. It haunts me every time I close my eyes even now. The next moment a massive explosion shook the cave and burned every single one of the Demonkin and even the two Demon Lords were not able to escape.
I was thrown clear, waves of sound burst my eardrums and I barely made it back to camp. Afterwards all of the devices were destroyed, and I forbid any Champion from spreading their knowledge. Had it fallen into the Demons hands that day, I believe it unlikely we would be here to discuss it"
Finally, Aedir fell silent, tears slowly streaming down his face.
"And that's why I'm teaching them" Kiera said slowly, putting two and two together.
"You want me to keep them from spreading their knowledge around the world. And not use it myself"
A wry chuckle came from Aedir's mouth.
"I never said that. Keep them from spreading it yes. Allow them to create weapons of mass destruction that can be turned against us? Absolutely not. But…" A smile tugged the corner of his lips gently.
"Learning from them to make yourself stronger and to discover more of the world for your own benefit? Of course, you should. Why do you think Aegan was my apprentice for four years instead of the traditional three?"
A smirk crossed Kiera's face at these words. Followed by a much gentler smile. The High Archon may be a difficult, crotchety, messy, argumentative son of a bitch at the best of times. But his genuine trust and care for her in allowing her to teach and learn what she needed touched her heart.
He would have known he would have to tell this story when he assigned her as their teacher. He would have agonized over it before building the courage when she finally booted his door down, no matter the pain reliving those memories cost him. A pain she could still see behind his sharp ageing eyes.
Shuffling closer, she reached out and took one of his aged hands in her own.
"Yasmin is a pretty name. Tell me about her"
Another wry chuckle told her that her ruse had not been as subtle as she thought. Yet he gave her hand a squeeze in appreciation and spent the following hours until late in the night, spinning tales of the Champion he had met so long ago. The only woman to live who had managed to steal his heart.
.....................................
Aaron was eager to finally get some time alone. After pouring over the book some more he was ready to attempt a few new spells in order to give himself some offensive options. Going to the window, he opened it gently. His room was on a second story, a wall surrounding the palace with guards patrolling it at regular intervals.
Outside was the city, the sun slowly heading down towards the horizon. People were still walking through the streets, too far away to make out more than an outline of ants wandering back and forth on their business.
Changing his class to Water Mage and taking a deep breath, Aaron focused, holding his hand out like a gun. He concentrated a small amount of mana into a droplet of water on the end. His eyes closed he built up the mana as much as he could in the small droplet the size of a walnut. Holding on as long as he could, he then expelled the bullet as hard as he could.
When he had practiced with creating the huge water balls, he was barely able to fling them a couple metres. This time the small droplet disappeared at lightning speed followed by a loud BANG and the recoil made Aaron's hand flick back up over his head, sending him off balance and crashing to the floor.
When he slowly got back to his feet his jaw dropped. A large crack had appeared in the wall where the bullet had hit. In fact, now several guards were sprinting around the area, searching for an intruder.
"Sorry! Sorry, I was practicing my bad" Aaron called down to apologize, the guards looking up and seeing a Champion had caused the loud bang then calmed down, finding that there were no issues or breaches of security.
Aaron closed the curtain red faced, until he heard the expected Ding, followed by a message.
Spell: Water Bullet learned.
Level 1
Cost: 3 MP
Creates a tiny water bullet that is propelled with great force. Can be upgraded.
He did it! This was amazing news. It was exactly as he envisioned proving the key to magic in this world is imagination and knowledge. If he'd known he'd be getting transmigrated to another world he would've devoured all the physics books he could! Unfortunately, if wishes were wings even pigs could fly.
Hmm, flying. That would be amazing. With air magic it might be possible. He'd need to spend some more time practicing. More importantly now though, he'd need to try this spell again, he had no way of aiming at the moment. The second he'd released the water bullet he'd been blown away so he may need to reduce its power as well.
Running to the door, he stopped a nearby servant.
"Excuse me, is there somewhere I can go to practice casting spells without causing… damage to anything important?"
The servant had already been made aware of the commotion downstairs and it seemed she'd found the culprit. At least the boy was endeavoring to not repeat his mistake. He seemed excited as he looked up at her with a gleam in his eyes.
She considered for a moment before an idea sprung to mind.
"Yes sir, if you would please follow me"