章節 63: Ch 63: Seeing the Source Winds
"Does it matter who he is?" Anika said.
The man before them was handsome with his robe loose revealing a well toned body. A female elf was hanging on his arm with a loose robe and flowers painted on her chest. Another two women in tight robes were close behind them.
Anika glanced at Baldeur to see if he was looking at her breasts and found his eyes looking at Melqart. That increased the guilt she was feeling for carrying on with a childhood prejudice.
"If I had known you were coming we could have met up earlier." He said.
"I'm sure you would have enjoyed that. Now if…" Anika started to say.
"We're just out celebrating Madam Bandile adding my enchant to her line. I can see that you admire it since you have it on your clothes." He said.
"Oh Melqart you know this is the superior weave that I showed you the day before you presented it as yours."
"My dear Anika, I thought we put that ugliness behind us. It just shows how talented you are since you were just a step behind me." The women around him started to giggle.
"A step behind really." Anika had to take a deep breath to calm herself. "Madam Bandile isn't going to always fall for your lies. One day you're going to have to handle an enchant above your level and you're going to crash and burn. I can only hope to have a front row seat to it all."
"You're just jealous that Melqart is on his way to being a prime apprentice and you're about to be cast out without being more than a lesser apprentice." The elf hanging on him said.
Anika's face contorted for a moment before a wicked smile formed and her eyes took on an evil gleam. Baldeur began to see the Laksulm elemental threads around them begin to form into a few different spells.
"I have a question." He stepped next to Anika and took her hand. It distracted her enough to stop her spell from forming.
"Why haven't you enchanted your companions' clothing?"
Melqart gave him a look up and down. He was obviously wary of a stranger.
"Such enchants take time and it was a last minute decision to come here." Melqart responded.
"Ah of course time. It's just that Anika here was able to not only enchant her robes but her sisters last minute. It's just confusing that you weren't able to do the same." Baldeur said.
The women around him looked at their clothes and compared them to the animated robes of Anika. Anger could be seen forming on Melqart's face.
"I don't…." He began.
Baldeur stepped forward and placed his hand on his shoulder. As he did a wisp of Infernius entered the other man. An Envy Parasite burrowed into his mind. It would also infect those that he had prolonged contact with in the near future.
"There's no need to be jealous of her speed in enchanting. I'm sure you're quick in other areas." Baldeur finished with a wink to the elf on his arm.
With his mind briefly assaulted by the Infernius spell, Melqart didn't come up with a retort before Baldeur took Anika's arm and led her away. She tried to resist at first but he gave her a quick smile and shook his head.
Once they were away from them Anika spoke, "I wasn't done with him and didn't need your help."
"I'm sure whatever spell you were weaving would have made your point but it might not have had the same impression on Madam Bandile." Baldeur replied.
Anika took a moment to think. "You might be right. She wasn't too happy when I accused him of stealing from me."
She looked down at their arms wrapped together and slowly pulled her arm away from his.
"So what did you do to him? I'm guessing you hid it in your touch." Anika said.
"Just a little thing I picked up over the years." Baldeur had been an envy demon in his previous life and the Envy Parasite spell was their bread and butter.
It would increase thoughts that were already there. Even though it would only last for up to an hour, the thoughts they spawned would affect the target for a while afterward. It would also spread to those he was in close contact with.
"Well thank you for stopping me from doing something I might have regretted. And I'm sorry for holding your previous actions against you all these years. Even though you are a leering bastard, you're not the worst leering bastard I know." Anika said.
"I guess that's the best I can hope for. Since I really am a bit of a leering bastard." Baldeur responded.
"Come on, the fireworks should be starting soon and there's a park not too far that should have a good view." She said.
Their recent encounter seemed to have eased the tension between them, so Baldeur decided to join her.
"How is your apprenticeship actually going?" He asked.
"It was going wonderfully. Madam Bandile is on the cutting edge of Laksulm design not just in our district but in the city as a whole. Even if she doesn't take me as a permanent apprentice I'll have dozens of job offers waiting for me."
"Are you still wanting to go work for your father?"
"Maybe. He does high end repairs which I'm not opposed to doing but I want to create and improve enchants. Which is why Melqart's theft stings so much. I spent over a year improving Madam Bandile's emotional connection design only for him to use our friendship to present it as his."
"And she didn't believe you when you said it was yours?"
"No. He is very charming and her biggest weakness is flattery. But I'll get nowhere if I just keep fuming over what is done. I'll just have to come up with something in the next month to impress her."
"It shouldn't be too hard. Just come up with an idea that hasn't been thought of in the hundreds of worlds that connect to the city." He said with a grin.
"Oh yeah, simple. I don't want to give up but it was hard enough to simplify the design I did. Starting over will take too long. Madam Bandile has an apprentice showing in a month and after that she'll decide which junior apprentices are kept and which are let go. So no pressure."
Their small talk ended on that sour note. Soon they found themselves in a park not too far from the plaza where the main festival was being held. A few revelers were enjoying the less crowded area already.
Not too long after they arrived the sky above the plaza began to light up with magical fireworks. It was nothing like what he experienced in his first life on Earth. The sparkling colors that burst forth above them moved to create larger scenes from legends of Ohskyo.
As it ended Anika continued to look at the sky. She had a wistful look on her.
"What's it like to always see so many different Source Winds? Right now I can clearly see the dark indigo of Laksulm and the faded red of Infernius but only because that Source is particularly strong tonight. The sky must be so vibrant for you." She said.
"It certainly is something." He replied.
Like most people, she only thought he saw the blue of Mana, the yellow of Divinus, and the green of Anodular. But to him the sky was filled with seven colors dancing through the sky like the Aurora borealis of Earth.
"I wish I could see it." She said.
When he looked at the longing on her face, an idea struck him.
"I might be able to fulfill that wish." Baldeur sat cross legged on the ground. "Here, put your head on my lap."
"What?"
"It's nothing perverted I swear. You can even tell your sister if I do anything bad."
She still didn't move, giving him a quizzical look. Was she really right about him all along?
He sighed and pulled a pillow out of his dimensional storage and set it in front of him.
"It's this better?" He said.
"I'll trust you. Don't make me regret it."
Laying down on the grass, she rested her head on the pillow.
"I'm going to move my hands in front of your eyes. Trust me, you're going to love this."
She still wasn't sure but didn't protest.
He moved his forefingers to form circles with his thumbs and placed them over her eyes. Green energy from his aspect of the Rising Sun entered his hands as he hummed a tune before muttering a spell.
'Light bend and reflect the unseen. Connect with the flows of power guided by my will. Echo not of sound but of that which courses through the universe. The Sun has Risen and the Song has been sung. Show now your spenders. Contain within the ring I have formed: Wind Sight.'
Anika knew that the words of the Mana spell weren't what gave it power but rather the intent and focus behind the words. The only reason to make them longer was to refine the casters' intent and focus on something more complex.
It made her wonder what he was trying to do.
When the spell finally formed in the circle of his fingers, she gasped at what she saw.
"How are you doing this? Experts have tried for years to accomplish this on a simplified scale and you just…." She stopped talking as her eyes took in the sight before her and her mind marveled at what he just accomplished.
In the sky she not only saw the dark indigo of Laksulm and the muted color of Infernius, but blue, yellow, and green. They weren't as vibrant as her Source wind but we're a lot clearer than the Infernius winds.
"It's been something I've been thinking over. Recently I had an epiphany of how my Sources could work together. You're the first to see this spell." He said.
There are a number of devices that could tell the strengths of the different Source Winds and chart their patterns over time. Anika could build such devices easily.
But showing the Source Winds like this was extremely difficult. Because of the amount of different energies in the winds only higher level spells were able to produce a visual. And from what she had read they were usually much more muted than this.
"Wow. I know I can't reproduce this, but can you at least tell me the theory behind your spell? It doesn't look like an illusion." Anika asked.
People have tried to recreate the look of the source winds with illusion magic. But there's an etherealness that they can never capture but he somehow could.
"Well… it's a little more complicated than this, but it comes down to two principles. Echolocation and light refraction.
"I'm sending my own power to bounce off the Source Winds. Then using pure energy to refract what bounces back."
"That sounds like it would require a lot of energy."
"It does. In fact, I'm pretty much spent." Baldeur removed his hands from above her face as he leaned back taking a heavy breath.
His Mana, Divinus, and Anodular were nearly depleted. He'd be in a lot worse shape if he didn't have four other Sources.
It then came as a surprise that Anika hadn't moved her head from his lap. She was still staring at the sky in wonderment and she started to mumble to herself.
"Now if I wove aether into a mix of… no it might need to go into…. And if a Thertien branch hoop locked past… it could…. But I'd need to…"
Baldeur laughed to himself as he had seen this in a few other geniuses he had met over his lifetimes. The creative spark of new spell work.
Part of him wanted to join in on the theorizing but then he'd have to reveal that he had Laksulm as a Source.
Suddenly Anika stood up and started to walk away, all while still talking to herself. She stopped just as suddenly and turned back to him.
"Sorry I have to go. This ended up not being too bad of a date." She said.
He almost replied by saying, 'anytime a beautiful woman's head ended up in his lap, was a good date for him.' But he didn't think she'd appreciate the joke at this moment.
"Well I'm glad. Have a good night."
She took two steps away from him before turning around again.
"I don't want to be like Melqart. Is it alright if I make a Laksulm design based on what you said and showed me tonight? I can give you any credit that you want for it." A small part of her feared that he might say no.
"Go ahead. And you don't need to give me any credit if you do figure it out."
She gave him a beautiful smile and a bit of a curtsey before leaving. As she left he couldn't help but admire the sway of her tail poofing outside her tight robes. Robes that were no longer storming but showed a clear sky.
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