An Unlikely Friend. part 1

Chapter 19: Lepisents

Iona

Ryder, Korbin, Iona, and Thea tumble into the training room like a tangled mass of vines. They immediately sort themselves out and stand in a straight line. Sosimo watches them while riding a stationary bicycle hooked to an Aether generator.

“You know you’re thirty minutes early,” he says as he gets off the bike.

Ryder steps forward. “We finished all the chores so we were hoping to start with the lepisent lessons early.”

“You finished cleaning the chocolate molds, wiping down the front display window, sweeping the shop floor, dusting the vintage grinders, and organizing the new candy?” Sosimo asks.

Ryder nods. “We did and we also mopped the mixing room floor, set aside the quantities of ingredients for the next mixing, took out all the trash, and washed Gracie.”

Sosimo smiles. “I’m impressed.”

“You smiled!” Thea squeals. She runs up and jumps on him. “I knew you could.”

“Smile or not, we’re still in the training room, so if you don’t act like it, I won’t do it again.”

Thea jumps off Sosimo, runs over to the others, and stands perfectly straight with her arms to her side and a straight face. The rest of the children do the same.

Sosimo lets out a huff. “You’ve finished all the chores and you’ve learned how to use Fundamental Aether well enough, so there’s no reason to wait any longer. Let’s get started then.” A wave of semi-controlled excitement runs through the children and Sosimo eyes them as they try to contain it. “You all might be excited about shooting fire balls and bolts of lightening but there is a lot more to lepisents than just offense. They’re equally as important for defense.”

“Really? But how do you defend with a lepisent?” Ryder asks.

“We’ll cover defense as soon as you manage the basics. Now, hop on that bike and start pedaling, I’ll need Aether to demonstrate how to use the different lepisents.”

Sosimo lashes a leather harness to his forearm and brings two crystal rods from the table to the generator. The crystal rods each have inlaid wood that curls around their base.

Sosimo holds up his forearm to show the children the harness. “This is the most practical way to hold lepisents. It’s cheap and it’s easy to change the lepisents you’re using.” He shows them a little slot on the top of his arm that the crystal rods can slide in to. “These are the lepisents we'll be using.” He flips the lepisents over to reveal carved symbols on their undersides. “Each lepisent is typically labeled by three symbols, which represent the cast, the behavior, and the type.” Sosimo points to the first symbol. “Who knows what this means?”

“That's Moltrik Aether,” Thea blurts out.

“Very good. And this second symbol means electricity, so both of these rods create some sort of electrical attack using Moltrik Aether.”

“What's the last symbol?” Korbin asks.

Sosimo points to one of the wands with three solid circles on it. “This symbol represents its type and means it’s a pulse lepisent.” He then holds up the next lepisent with three solid lines. “And this one is a continuous lepisent.”

“What's that mean?” Iona asks.

“It's how they’re used which is just how it sounds,” Sosimo says. “Pulse lepisents require a little more finesse to use though. Let me show you.” Sosimo slides one rod into his forearm harness. “This is the continuous one.” He grabs the Aether generator and a stream of electricity arcs from the lepisent to a stone target in the shape of a person, partially blinding the children.