Eldritch Guidance

Chapter 43 - Moths to a Flame

"When it comes to combat magic, the most important thing is Wards. Without one, ya won't last very long in a fight. They take the hits and blows so ya don't have too.

"Ya can make one around yourself if ya know how to cast wards, but this is hardly a good idea. Ya need to constantly concentrate on it to make it work, and that concentration can be used for a lot of better things in the heat of combat. Instead, ya should get some armor or a charm with a ward enchanted on it. With that kind of ward, all ya need to do is supply it with a steady flow of aether and it's good to go, same effect as if ya were to cast it yourself. Not much concentration is required when it's on an item.

"But be warned, wards don't make ya invincible. They can only take so much damage before they break, and when they break, ya lose any protection they could've given ya. You'll likely be in a world of hurt when they break. And, if the ward around ya is from an item, when that ward breaks the item is going to break with it. So don't grow too attached to an item with warding magic on it, ya might very well lose it when your ward fails.

"And don't think ya can carry around a bunch of items with ward enchantments. Wards don't play nice with each other. If ya have two or more warded items on ya, the magic will fight with each other, and your wards can break before you even get a chance to use them. So don't be greedy, and only keep one ward on ya at any given time."

—"Combat Magic 101" by Warren Delk

It was ten at night. On the roof of a tall building overlooking one of the Shroom Pact dorms, Alan and his friend were sitting by the edge.

The building they were on was a highrise building used by both Silverwing and Shroom Pact students to grow herbs and plants indoors. Being a Silverwing herself, Sere was able to get access to the building even though it was late. And, with no one around at this time, they could easily sneak on top of the roof like they were.

Jafar was looking over the edge with a pair of binoculars while both Alan and Sere were sitting off to the side. They were each taking turns watching out for Cid with the binoculars.

Alan: "You couldn't get us more binocular, so that we could all be watching at the same time? More eyes on this mean were less likely to miss something."

Jafar: "Sorry. The binoculars with night vision were actually harder to get a hold of than I thought. I had to beg another Ember Gear student, and could only get one pair," he said while continuing to stare through the binoculars at the Shroom pact dorm.

Sere: "It's getting close to the time. I hope we haven't missed him."

Jafar: "Don't worry. He's still in his room right now."

Alan: "How can you tell?"

Jafar: "Besides that fact that we saw him enter the dorm earlier when we started our stake out and haven't seen him come out yet, the lights are on in his window."

Alan: "You can see the window into his room from here? Can you look and see what he's doing?"

Jafar: "No. He has curtains up. I can only see a little bit of light coming through the gaps in the window that are not covered."

Alan: "Hmm. I guess that's another way to tell if he's still in or not. As long as his roommate is not going into Cid's room."

Sere: "He didn't seem like the kind of person to go into CId room. Quite the opposite. He was staying away from Cid."

Alan: "Yeah... you're probably right."

After that exchange, it went quiet between them. There wasn't much to do for Alan and Sere, since there was only one pair of binoculars and it was too dark for either of them to see much from this distance. The silence was uncomfortable for Sere, so she tried to fill it with idle chit-chat.