25. Results
Eryndor stood there a smile beaming on his face from having memorised the paths of every magic vein in his body from all paths of his body. Because he was still a beginner mage the number of magic veins would be considerably less but even so memorising them was nothing short of remarkable. By the tenth hour Eryndor was beginning to feel drained and mostly hungry, to him time had stopped.
He finally exhaled and opened his eyes to be bathed by the rush of light from the sun. The sun was apparently setting but it's reflection off the snow to the eyes of the prince that had been shut for ten hours was nothing short of blinding.
"Damnit, it's evening." Eryndor said without breaking form. "I can't believed I spent the whole day and failed to do what needed to be done."
He caught sight of Thalvarin his uncle standing opposite him, a few meters away. On his face was a mad grin as he examined Eryndor who misread the mischievous grin for something else.
"Hey uncle, what up?" Eryndor asked with a shaky voice. "Did I piss you off perhaps?"
But Thalvarin was silent, worse his grin was even madder than it was at the start. Eryndor panicked and thought if he should feel threatened, he even considered running away but what were the chances of him escaping from his powerful uncle?
Weakly he resigned to his fate, head pissed off the mighty cinder king and he was going to pay for it dearly.
Just then the familiar voice of his master who resided in the golden eye relic that now inhabited the socket once used by his left eye spoke to him:
["Haha! I would expect no less from my gifted disciple, I had no doubt in your ability"]
Eryndor was deeply confused now and he did not bother to hide it. "What did I do? I don't get it."
["You might be half brained but you are talented. Worship my mighty"]
Eryndor shrugged and asked. "What's got you so worked up? Did something happen while I was practicing?"
The eye kept quiet for a long time that Eryndor feared it was ignoring him. But it spoke after a while.
["Look at yourself, notice anything different?"]
Eryndor's eyes spiked as he turned his attention to his body and what he saw caused him to gasp in amazement. All around his body were tiny shimmers of red light, they looked very much like tiny stars. Confused he looked up just as a gust of cold wind blew in his direction causing him to swat it away in order to see Thalvarin clearly.
It was then he realized what was happening. The reason he was able to stay outside and train for so long was because Thalvarin was training and generating enough heat to keep him fairly warm, or as close to warmth as he could get on the icy mountain peak. And if Thalvarin was no longer training then that must have meant one thing, Eryndor had been supplying his body with the heat it needed the whole time.
On realising this Eryndor gasped again and asked himself. "H— how long as uncle been standing here?"
The left eye was all but eager to respond to him:
["It depends though, he stopped training about a six hours ago and went hunting.
"To think you got flame body tempering on your first try. I knew you were a natural"]
Eryndor rolled his eyes at well— his left eye and said with a hint of sarcasm. "Says the guy who once said I'm the lowest of the low."
["Grow up kid. That was reverse psychology at play"]
Thinking back to the main matter Eryndor could not dismiss the fact that he had learned something so advanced and tricky in ten hours, not to mention sustaining it for so long. But he did not entirely understand what he did.
"I don't get it, all I did was trace the veins in my body and try to memorise them." He was not even actively maintaining his mana flow.
["Did you just say you memorised the mana veins? Who would have thought you were a monster underneath?"]
Eryndor could not help but smile at being flattered. To think the good for nothing was actually good for something. Before he good doo a happy dance Thalvarin approached him with his mad grin on his face.
"I guess I did it, so what's next." The joy of finally achieving something in his own made him too jumpy to get to the next step.
Thalvarin did not see things the way he did, he sparked in rage. "What's next? Boy you did not just say that. I spent years perfecting this technique, learning it and you just did it in a half a day. I thought you were trash."
Feeling a bit of confidence for once Eryndor spoke up. "Not to gloatbut I used less than half a day. Don't misjudge me because I'm good for nothing I'm ready for whatever you throw my way."
Thalvarin gnashed his teeth so loud that it sounded like two pieces of sharp iron scraping on each other. Eryndor's body vibrated from the odd sensation.
"Eryndor, I was thinking we would spend at least a week on this but this is good. We can speed things up to real spells." His uncle said with a proud smile.
Eryndor jumped up for joy. "Yes, that's what I'm talking about. Real spells, and teach me your sword play."
Thalvarin snorted and walked past him and back into the cottage. "Swords are not for children, they are for men."
Eryndor whined as he followed after him. "Technically I'm eight now so..."
Thalvarin chuckled and replied saying. "well that changes things. I'm not like your palace instructors so pardon me if I don't use books to teach."
Eryndor danced into the room happily and leaving Thalvarin to shut the door behind him. "My best type of teaching, no books."
Thalvarin, "But I will teach you how to read and write so you can write back to your parents."
Eryndor stopped and glared at his uncle. "I don't wanna, they kicked me out remember?"
Thalvarin pat him on the head and walked into the kitchen. "No can do kid, your dad's orders. He wants to know if your alive probably."
Eryndor felt an odd sensation of being pat on the head, since no one aside from his family ever touched him. Even that was rare, he was not sure how to feel at the moment. Before he could say a word more he gagged and doubled over sending a release unto the floor.
"What the hell!" He coughed and vomited again. Since he had been born he had never fallen sick so this was new territory for him.
His body started to itch violently and his insides were stmer on fire. Instead of being concerned like a normal person Thalvarin was infact in a more cheerful manner, he threw himself over the counter and laughed.
"What is wrong with you?" In Eryndor's mind he was seeing a mad man.
Thalvarin paused and said. "I was wondering why the side effects didn't kick in earlier."
Eryndor could hardly catch his breath. "Side effects?"
Thalvarin nodded. "Body tempering is tricky business, the longer you do it the longer you throw your body into discomfort. Technically you used your body till it burnt out."
"And how is this funny?" Eryndor doubled over again and barfed again.
Thalvarin laughed again. "For once you are actually shitting the garbage that comes out of your mouth."
Eryndor bit his power lip and cursed under his breath. "You are a senile person."
Thalvarin laughed again. "That I am."