Chapter 30: Chaos Everywhere
The slight knock on her door surprised Lady Dhalia who was in the middle of reading an old manuscript in her little house. The house was still within the area of the academy, but just barely, and not many people would come here on a late Saturday morning.
All her servants and students would usually go home over the weekend and it was rare for someone to stay behind.
She walked to the door and opened it a little bit to see who was outside.
In front of her door inside her courtyard stood a young woman, probably a student of the academy, as well as a little girl. She quickly recognized the student, because this young woman recently caused quite the uproar in the latest tournament.
"Good morning, what brings you to my door this morning?"
Myra used her usual happy smile to look at the woman, who was not only an instructor of the academy, but a priestess of Reia, Goddess of Chaos.
"Hello Lady Dhalia. I recently had a lucky encounter and found this little sister, who has a lot of talent. I was just planning to teach her some of the basics that she might need and I wondered if you would like to join us. My teaching ability is really not very good when it comes to explaining what I'm doing."
Dhalia was really surprised with this sudden visit.
'Teaching a child? Is she talking about magic? Why would she come to my place for this, and why would she ask me if I want to join her?'
There were many people who would ask or even plead with her to become her student, some would even bring her gifts and all of them would be very respectful and demure when talking to her. This did not guarantee their success though. She always picked the ones she liked, no matter if they were bringing gifts or not.
This was the first time though that someone asked her if she wanted to join them, as if she were a student who might learn something just by coming along. As unexpected and strange this offer might be, it had an odd charm and her instincts told her that it would not be a bad idea to do just that.
Dhalia always followed her instincts and mood, in the end, it was the same as following her goddess. Some might think that living this kind of life would be strange, without a set schedule for her day, without any fixed responsibilities and just coming and going whenever she wanted to.
Those who would really understand her though, would know that she did indeed follow a certain schedule, just that you could not base it on time or day or even on any fixed structure. Following your mood and emotions was just a very different kind of schedule that others might not easily understand.
"Sure, why not, just give me a moment to get ready."
If others had seen the way that Myra used to have Dhalia join them, they would be utterly devastated. All their efforts did not work as well, as a simple offer from a student, who was not even very respectful.
Shortly after, they headed for a little grove. There was a small pond right next to them, with some trees surrounding the area. Benches were placed around the pond grouped together into sitting areas and the scenery was really beautiful. Many people used this place to just enjoy the view and relax, or find some peace to meditate.
They sat down in one of the sitting areas and Myra started to explain the basics of magic to the little Zora. The child had never heard of magic theory before. She was like an empty piece of paper, still untroubled by all the ideas and theories that were used by everyone else.
"There are many ways to cast a spell, each has their own interesting sides. There are ways to cast magic through the power in blood, or life power, through various types of energy in the elements and natural forces as well as using spiritual power and emotions."
"Most mages in this land, start learning to use their magic by first forcing their will on their surroundings. They learn about a different type of using spells much later, if at all, making their progression very hard."
While Myra explained the basic theory to Zora, Dhalia really wanted to interrupt and ask some questions, as the content of Myra's explanations were different from anything they would teach their own students. In the end, she just listened though, as if she was just another student.
For the first time Dhalia realized, that the natural world around her, was not just some inanimate thing that they could use like a tool. It was able to react in a strange way, not living, yet far different from what she had expected.
"These mages have been so used to forcing their will on the natural order, that they later have a very hard time, when they are suddenly required to ask the very nature they abused all this time, to help them with their magical spells."
"The first thing you have to learn is that the laws, that mages are able to break if they want to use force, have their reason for existing. There are many different ways to change these laws. One can just trample on them and change the way they work. That is really rude though. If you ask them for help the next time, chances are it will be a lot harder to convince them that you wouldn't abuse that power."
"You can also ask them nicely to go take a walk for a while because you need to change things around that would make it troublesome for them to be around. That's usually what people do who reach what is called the green realm of magical power, or the spiritual stage. That's when they communicate for the first time and realize that it won't work without interacting and playing nicely."
The first things Myra taught the child after accumulating power, was not to release it and force it upon the fabric of the world, but to use the power to call those laws that were necessary, while sending away those laws unnecessary. It might have looked very similar, even to mages, but it was a totally different approach to using all this magic.
"Lady Dhalia, I think little Zora would really benefit if she could train this technique together with someone. Would you mind helping her out in my stead? I told her the basics now, but I'm sure a priestess of Reia is much better suited for teaching someone with a chaos bloodline than I am. You probably understand her problems much better."
"A chaos bloodline?" up until now, the wondrous things Myra taught occupied all her thoughts, but now that she heard that Zora had a chaos bloodline reassessed this once more. Maybe this wasn't just some random child Myra had picked up and maybe it wasn't just by accident that this academy student picked her of all the instructors to join them.
"I will do my best to help Zora, it's the least I can do to help a young mage that is so blessed by our goddess."
'A child with a chaos bloodline. How rare. I wonder if this princess Myra had known all the time that I have been looking for a student that I could teach who would also share that kind of bond and understanding that I have with Reia. Not to mention that she taught me all of this without pointing out that I didn't know it myself under the guise of helping the child. Really smart. A very unconventional approach but smart.'
Dhalia was extremely happy. Not only did Myra just help her out with finding a student who could actually inherit all her skills, it was even such a young adorable girl that was not yet tainted by all the common beliefs and burdened by those social norms.
Not to mention that those things that she learned today would help her tremendously to reach the green realm of magical power. It was just like telling someone who had always just used their left foot, to try using their right foot and then start walking.
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While Zora was learning more about magic from Lady Dhalia, Myra and her friends discussed all their plans for the shop with Yannis. They quickly decided that they would start with items Myra would create and then later once they found some more reliable people, they would expand their business.
They already created a map of various rare resources that were scattered all over the countryside. Most of it was somewhere out in the wilderness, owned by the empire and could be claimed by anyone willing to purchase it for a certain amount of money.
"Yes, this should do for a start." Nell pointed out all the resources they might get and an estimate of what they would have to pay for the properties.
"What will the name of the shop be?" Aaron asked and everyone turned their attention to Myra.
"Celestial Armaments" Myra decided after some time, happy that this crazy idea would actually happen soon.
"What should I create first? Should I focus on one product or should I create different things and try to have a good variety of everything?"
"I think variety might be better. We will never really specialize in anything specific after all and it would only confuse people if we start with just one product." by now Yannis was used to just speak out whenever he had something of value to add to the conversation. Everyone seemed to quickly agree, after all Yannis was in this type of business for much longer than any of them.
"If you teach me what to do I can help you with some things." Aaron offered and everyone else offered their help as well.
"I'm sure we can think of something. I also want to build some magical wards and defenses. I don't want to have a property with rare resources and then leave some weak mercenaries to guard it and we need to include enough defenses for the shop. There will be lots of valuable items inside that might attract some unwanted attention as well from thieves and robbers."
In the end, the construction plans for the building were finished. It would be a huge building that contained the large shop area in the front area on the lower floor and a living area above it, with a few rooms where they would be able to meet or stay for the night. In the back area there would be all kinds of storage space as well as the forge and some worktables, while some more worktables for tasks that required a more quiet environment and a greenhouse was above it in the back part of the living area.
"Liam! Alyn! I have a task for you!" Nell told them with a grin. "You two go to the city and find some construction workers who can build this for us. Make sure they do it right. I don't expect you to return quickly, so don't worry about being late."
Nell's brother blushed and Alyn looked away shyly, even Aaron looked at them as if he was jealous of their relationship that seemed to advance far faster than his own, the only one who yet again failed to notice what Nell was hinting at was Myra.
"Your perception is really exceptional Myra!" Nell joked and started to laugh. "You think so? Well I'm very sensitive to anything going on that causes magical fluctuations, probably that's why." Myra replied honestly, a little confused why he would bring this up.
"Oh forget about it, I wasn't talking about that kind of perception!"
"Rude!" Myra grumbled. "Don't make fun of me just because I might miss a few things here and there. I'm not good at associating one thing with another, if you want to tell me something you have to tell me what you want, not just talk about three other things that might hint at it."
Her words just made Nell laugh even harder. "I know I know, it wouldn't be so fun teasing you if it were otherwise. Don't make me eat all the veggies at lunch!"
"They are mine anyways, you already have your own veggies." Aaron argued, basically turning their conversation upside down and ending their little meeting.
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