Summer.
Fall.
Winter.
Spring.
I sighed. "Ready?"
"I still don't think this is a good idea," said Kelser as he picked up his hide backpack.
"No, it's a wonderful idea, the best idea ever!" said Princess Kol as she fixed her boots. The princess' old clothes had been discarded long ago. Now, she was wearing monster hide clothes like the rest of us.
"You're biased," said Kelser.
"So are you," said Kol.
"I just don't think we should be leaving everyone behind like this," he said.
I paused and stared at the wide expanse in front of me. Mountains, rolling forward, melding into glaciers in the distance. I glanced over my shoulder. Almost all of the elders had come up here to see us off. Only Priest Mal had stayed behind at the city. Elder Kezler looked at Kelser with a mixed expression. He was probably worried, but also glad to see the young kid—no, by this point he was a young man—going out on his own. Over the past two years, Kelser had widened the gap between himself and all of the other humans. It made sense that he'd accompany me on this journey.
And what Kelser was saying was right. I'd had bad experiences with leaving people behind like this. But during two years of training, learning, and inventing new things, I hadn't come across the immortals at all. The moon and the red star never appeared at strange times, followed their paths through the sky and the calendar, perfectly, and never gave off a hint of the supernatural.
And the humans had become ridiculously powerful. The interesting thing about this type of knowledge based magic, was that it scaled exponentially. As one gathered more and more knowledge and practiced enough to build up their wisdom, their magic became stronger faster than it had back when they were just starting off. I wasn't worried about them anymore. I snuck a glance at the princess. The princess did not know the magic system the others were using, but she could see how much more powerful they were. It was only after discussing her homeland's power and deciding the humans were powerful enough to defend themselves, that I finally agreed to her request.
I stepped forward. The humans behind me stirred. The Oko tribe's final base camp felt cramped with this many people in it, but there was a certain homeliness in it still. Kelser hugged Elder Kezler one last time, and joined me. Princess Kol thanked the elders, especially Elder Konri Oko to whom she'd grown very close to, and joined us as well. Our little party of three waved as we descended down the mountain side. The crowd dipped behind the peak and disappeared from my perspective, but I could see them as little concerned dots even as we stepped onto the glaciers.
"Right," I said, "ready to get this started for real?"
"Let's just get on with it," said Kelser.
"I am not looking forward to this," said Princess Kol. "Are you sure there isn't a more dignified way of doing this? Carry me in your arms, great elf!" The princess batter her eyes at me.
I chuckled dryly. "No." I pointed at her with two fingers and then raised the fingers into the air. The Princess let out a quiet yelp before floating in the air. She grumbled as I kept her aloft with magic hands. I ignored her complaints, gathered my energy, and began dashing forward with balance, motion, and air magic. Kelser yelled out for me to wait for him and began racing after me. I had to slow down a little so I wouldn't lose him.
---
"Please!" yelled Kelser.
"Alright, alright," I said. I blasted a hole in a little rocky overhang and got in.
Kelser, his eyes brightening, rushed in as well and collapsed onto the ground. I unceremoniously dropped the princess on top of him. Kelser shouted in protest and pushed the princess off. The princess, already embarrassed at being carried so ignobly through the glaciers, cried out when she hit Kelser, and then began angrily berating the young human. Kelser pretended not to hear her, which only made her angrier.
I put my hands behind my head, laid against the wall, and lit a small fire with some firewood I had been carrying. The fire crackled to life and some pieces of dried and salted meat floated out of my pack and dropped into an iron pot full of melted snow. I could've made the water myself, but this felt more extravagant!
As the food cooked and my two companions bickered, I reflected on myself. I didn't feel tired at all. Neither my magical energy nor my physical energy had been depleted too noticeably. In fact, I felt like I could have made it through the glacier in one day if I hadn't been held back by Kelser. I snuck a glance at Kelser. The red haired young man wasn't looking at the princess as he said snide remarks to the air.
Over the past two years, the gap between Kelser's magical abilities and those of the other humans had grown, but so the same was true for my magical abilities and his. There were still a few spells that I had learned that he hadn't yet, but that wasn't the main difference. The biggest issue was our magical experience or 'wisdom.' If Kelser and I used the same spell repeatedly, his magical energy would deplete much faster than mine. His spells were also weaker than mine, and couldn't be used as creatively.
I had an idea of why this was the case. Since I was the one who had 'invented' the spells, my understanding or 'wisdom' of the spell was much higher to begin with. But since 'wisdom' seemed to grow exponentially, I had gathered more of it than he had. Moreover, since I had invented the spells and done the experiments that 'justified' them, my 'wisdom' seemed to be of a higher quality than Kelser's too. It was because of this that I'd had Kelser go through the process of 'inventing' a spell instead of learning it from me, and although it took him far longer to come up with the spell since he didn't have my otherworldly knowledge, the spells he learned this way did end up growing stronger more quickly than his other spells.
It was this realization that made me change up the entire way I was spreading my knowledge to the humans. Instead of having them wait for my teachings, I started trying to give them the tools and mindset necessary to invent, create, and think on their own. I even expanded this way of thinking to other more material fields. Already, there was a thriving blacksmithing community in the city which invented tools and weapons I hadn't taught them. Agriculture was doing well too, since after teaching them how to invent spells to deal with spells, the humans had started inventing spells aimed at different types of pests and parasites on their own. If everything went well, there would be a massive revolution in the city soon! A revolution of ideas, learning, and perhaps even culture!
But for now, I was making my way to a foreign land. The princess had grown tired of quarreling with Kelser, and sat down next to the fire to wait for the food to cook. Kelser was stirring the pot with magic hands. Soon, the food was ready and the three of us ate in silence. We cleaned up and rested after we were done.
"I think I'll walk this time," said the princess.
"No, you won't be able to keep up," said Kelser with a grin.
The princess shot him an angry look. "Just teach me that magic then! I can tell some of it is air magic. Just teach me the rest!"
Kelser frowned. "Oh, so you can spread that to your people and come back to conquer us? No way!"
The princess stomped her feet. "There's no way I'd do that to you guys! You're like family to me by now!"
"No," said Kelser, "family is family. You're a princess!"
"You don't even know what a princess is, you hick!" she exclaimed.
"And you don't know what family is, you loner!" he said.
I sighed. Was this a babysitting mission? I raised my fingers in front of the panicking princess and pointed up again. Kelser giggled as the princess squirmed in the air, shouting down at Kelser to stop laughing.
"Why should I?" he said, still chuckling, "it's funny!"
I raised another hand and pointed two fingers at Kelser. His eyes widened slowly but before he could do anything, I raised my fingers to the air and he started floating as well. Kelser started wiggling like a worm, shouting at me to let him down. He even tried using magic to free himself but I overpowered him easily. The princess was the one laughing and pointing this time.
Kelser blushed. "Stop laughing!"
"Why should I?" said the princess, with a laugh, "it's funny!"