章節 43: Links and Overlays

I had loads of fun during my birthday party. Besides receiving amazing presents, I became an adult. After the party, me and Tara discussed our little business a bit more. Upon her return, she would try to strike a deal with the sculptors, then bring me the items she acquired. In the meantime, I would practice with my new set of brushes. Since the brushes and the inkless method were brand new to me, I had to make sure my Formations worked perfectly. We also told Dawn about our little business. She volunteered to help us out a bit, by promoting my work at Sedon. Her idea was great, so we agreed immediately. After all, the more people got interested, the more we could sell.

The next day, all the guests left, while I got back to work. Of course mother asked me to train myself nonetheless. Her conditions for me to travel alone, remained. 'My senses improved quite a bit. I'm nowhere near my mother's level yet, which makes me wonder. Just when will my training come to an end?', I asked myself. "Anna, don't space out", mother warned me while swinging her sword. "Cling!", "Heh, I can block such attacks with my eyes closed", I proclaimed with a smirk. "Feeling confident?", she asked before increasing the pace. "Cling! Clang! Clang! Cling!!!", she broke through my defence, then positioned her sword on my neck. "Focus is important. It's easy to lose your life due to overconfidence or arrogance", she added.

I distanced myself then assumed an attacking stance. "Let's try that again!", I exclaimed while rushing at her. "Cling! Clang! Clang! Cling! Swoosh! Pak!", mother blocked all my moves, then used the back of her sword to strike. "Ungh", a grunt escaped my mouth, but mother wasn't finished. "Bam!", she kicked my stomach with enough force to fling me away. "Stand up, Anna. Your training is not over", mother said. 'What's wrong with her?', I thought while picking myself up. A few exchanges later, she dropped me to the ground once more. "Stand up", she said again. 'She's playing on my nerves now', I thought while rushing at her once more.

No matter what I did, mother was like an impenetrable wall. "Are you angry at me or something?", I asked angrily. "Angry? I'm proving to you how weak you are. The North is not as safe as you'd think. Not everyone will be friendly or helpful. Especially Humans who visit us. If you can't take care of yourself, how can I let you leave? You might've turned sixteen, but your strength didn't magically increase", she retorted. Her words made me realise my own mistake. I thought that as an adult, I became somehow better and more prepared. In reality, nothing really changed. I was only a bit older than before. "It seems you finally understand. Anna, remember that one of the biggest mistakes you can make, is to believe your own delusions. Since you came back to earth, let's continue", she added.

That day, mother really made me aware how weak I was. My body hurt all over, reminding me of the time I trained my balance. 'I have much to learn, but mom is really strong. She attacked so nonchalantly, and packed so much strength… Just where is that strength coming from?...', I asked myself before falling asleep. The next few days, mother pretty much swept the ground with my body. Whether it was a sword or senses practice, she became much more serious than before. Thankfully, Tara came back after a week, and saved me from that hellish training. "Mom, can we slow down a bit? I want to place some Formations before Tara leaves for the Land of Sands", I asked.

"Fine, we will divide your time between Formations and training. During the morning, you can draw your Formations. In the afternoon, we will focus on your training. Deal?", she proposed. "Deal. Tara, are you going to stay over for the night?", I asked. "Nah, I have a few more things to attend to. There are only four sculptures here, since they just began making them for us. I will be back next week with a few more. Just finish as many sculptures as you can, but don't push yourself too much", she replied while handing me the sculptures. We bid Tara farewell, then returned to our training.

I woke up a bit earlier the next day. Mostly due to excitement of making something for sale. 'There are four different sculptures, and all of them are made from wood… We have an Atol warrior, a bouquet of Night Safises, some sort of strangely shaped sculpture and a sculpture depicting flame', I thought. The most unique of them all, was the strangely shaped vine sculpture. The whole sculpture looked like vines growing in all directions, but the base was flat. Moreover, the sculpture could be placed upside down and it would stand. 'This one is unique… There might be something cool I can do with it', I thought.

Since the sculpture consisted of those vines, my idea was to place a fire Formation atop each vine. Moreover, I had to protect it, because the sculpture would burn after a single use. 'Hmmm, I know how to place both Formations separately, but not together… They need to be activated at the same time too', I thought then searched through my books. I usually focused on the Runes, and how to place a Formation. Other details were usually useless to me, at least in the past. A few books later, I finally found the required chapter. "Anna, your training is about to start!", mother called me over from outside. "I'm coming!", I replied, but marked the page in the book for later.

Mother swept the ground with my body once again. The amount of strength left in my body after our training, was barely enough to drag myself into the bed. 'New day, old struggles', I thought the next morning. Mother called me over for breakfast, so I grabbed the book, then joined her in the kitchen. She chucked when she saw me enter. "What?", I asked half asleep. "You look like some old woman with that book and face that is half asleep. Sit down, the breakfast is ready", she explained. I simply ignored her comment, focusing on my book instead.

The chapter described how to link and overly Formations. Though not difficult to grasp, it had to be done precisely. This allowed both Formations to activate at the same time. Overlying didn't solve all my problems. Overlaying connected two or more Formations together, but only those Formations would be activated. My plan for the vine sculpture included many separate Formations, and that's where links came into play.

Links were also simple to understand, and a bit easier to execute. There was a specific set of Runes that could be used for links between Formations. I already knew these Runes, but didn't know about their other use. That alone would save me a lot of trouble, since there was no need to learn anything new.

Though this meant a huge complexity. I couldn't place one protective Formation over the whole sculpture, but one on every vine. Moreover, I had to link and overlay them. 'From a relatively easy task, this became extremely difficult… I don't have that much time, nor the expertise to achieve it… At least not right now', I thought. The vine Formation had to wait for a while, until my overlaying and linking skills became practiced. That meant, I had to focus on other sculptures first.

"I'm going to my room, see you later mom", I said after breakfast. The flame sculpture became next in line. 'Hmmm.. Let's do one flame, one protecting and one colour change Formation. Two links shouldn't be a problem for me, since there are no overlays', I decided on what to do, then went straight to work.

I decided to start from the protective Formation, which would act as a sort of main Formation on the sculpture. The other two Formations would be linked to the protecting Formation, and activate one after the other. Of course the size of Runes mattered too. The smaller the Runes were, the weaker the Formations would be. The opposite was true as well. There were limitations to that rule. In case the drawn Runes were either too big or too small, the Formation would become unstable, break or even explode.

I was able to finish all the three Formations, before mother called me over for my training. 'Wait a minute, what about remaining active? No one's going to stand there, and feed this thing energy', I thought. In other words, I required one more Formation that collected the Elements. The best Formation for this job was Fire Element collecting Formation. There was a problem though, not everyone had access to fire. 'Moreover, if you have access to fire, why would you need this thing?', I asked myself.

Fire Element collecting Formation was out of the question, but Wind Element wasn't. This added more difficulty, since I required a supplementary Formation. 'They aren't difficult, but stuff keeps adding up, even to a simple sculpture like this…', I thought. The Formation had to wait though, when mother called me over for my training.

The next morning, I finally managed to finish one sculpture. "This took forever… Let's hope it works", I said to myself before activating the Formation. "Swoosh", a flame appeared at the top of the sculpture, and remained there indefinitely. Moreover, the sculpture became dark orange, instead of brown like a piece of wood. "One down, two… or rather three more to go", I said to myself, while grabbing the next sculpture.