The journey, as pleasant as it was, quickly turned routine. After quite some time observing the countryside, I finally opened the book that mother had given me. Sitting on the edge of the rear of the wagon, I was quite pleased to find out this was a general overview of magical concepts.
As well as a quite technical description of how mana was generated by living things – a description that used a kind of pseudo-scientific language that I couldn't follow – it included description of various fields of magic. These fields were something I had been pretty much expecting, given that this world seemed to reflect a lot of concepts we had back on old earth.
There was elemental magic, so, as you would think: Earth, fire, wind and water. There was also mind, void, sprit and soul magic though, which the book didn't cover, saying to read about those in volume IX, which I didn't have access to. Then there was something called Transposition magic. Again, it didn't cover this in detail, but from the little it did say, I surmised this could include summoning, as well as, possibly, teleportation magic, which was an exciting thought.
To the rear of the book there were a few example spells, mostly on the basic element magics, which I'd seen before. Fireballs and so on. I had already memorised incantation programs for these. There was nothing for mind, void or soul magic, but there was an example of Transposition magic, and, reading this, my eyes went wide.
The spell was called Hollow Space, and was, essentially, a magic bag type spell, enabling the caster to create a hole in the interdimensional matrix, where time didn't pass. Depending upon the power of the initial casting, it could hold anywhere from five to, well, hundreds of items in a kind of stasis, although it did say living things may suffer from degradation if they stayed in there too long.
The spell, the book explained, was actually a low level one, in terms of ease, but in reality it was classed as intermediate, because it took a lot of mana to cast. Once it had been cast though, there was no real mana needed, except a tiny, tiny amount to open and close the entrance. The larger the entrance, and separately, the larger the internal space, the more mana was needed, rising exponentially.
I read the instructions with a growing joy. It should be a simple thing for me! If only I had had this before we left, I could have taken so many more books along. Ah well, we live and learn.
Looking back into the interior of the wagon, I could make out Lissa asleep on the makeshift bed. Rath was up front, driving, or whatever you called it in an oxen drawn wagon.
The incantation for the spell was simple, so, closing my eyes and concentrating, I wrote it out in my mind, using my 'programming' method. The first try should be small, I reasoned. Keep it simple.
I scrabbled back into the wagon, careful not to wake Lissa, until I found a small leather pouch I had picked up from somewhere, simply because I thought it looked like something an adventurer would hang on their belt, to keep coins in. I'd never actually used it, but it was perfect for this.
The spell had two main components to it. The size of the entrance and the capacity. For this one, I decided to make the capacity fairly small, about the size of a backpack. The purse itself was only about the size of a man's fist.
For the entrance, you had to kind of draw a magical line, which would be the size of the opening. Once the spell was done, it wouldn't open any larger than this defined size.
I readied my spell. With one last quick check to make sure Lissa was asleep, she would detect magic use this close if she was awake, I opened the bag and mentally started the incantation program. Holding up my index finger, I concentrated the focus on the tip, and sure enough, it glowed a bright yellow! It was working.
Heart beating ten to the dozen, I 'drew' a luminous yellow line around the fully extended opening of the purse, carefully joining the start and end points.
There was a flash, and I gasped as a sudden rush of mana drained out of me, nearly causing me to fall off the wagon.
I steadied myself. This was something I'd not experienced with my oven lighting escapade, probably because that was a basic spell, but also because I'd drawn in mana from the air around me for that. This time I had used some internally stored mana. I wondered how full my cup was now.
Still, it didn't take long for me to recover, and I examined my purse. It looked the same to me, which was slightly disappointing. However, when I opened it, I found I could reach in all the way up to shoulder. It had worked! I had cast my first real spell.
I put my new purse back inside, and suddenly came over all dizzy. Crawling up beside Lissa on the bed, I slumped down and lost consciousness.
~*~
I woke up a little while later, to see Rath was just sitting down next to me with a cup in her hand.
"Little one," she said, smiling down at me. "Did you have a nice nap?"
Sitting up I rubbed my eyes and yawned. "Yes, thank you mother."
"Would you like something to eat?"
I suddenly realised I felt starving! Was this an effect of casting a spell? "Please," I replied, nodding.
She put her cup down on a small box used as a table, which had a kind of cradle to stop it falling over, the wagon could be a bit bumpy, and scooted over to the makeshift cooker.
This, to my mind, was the equivalent of a camp stove in a world of magic. It had a pale disk of some kind of stone, as best I could figure, on a metal block. The user cast some kind of heat spell on the pale disk, and then placed a pan on the top, which cooked things surprisingly nicely.
Lissa was, by far, the stronger magic user of my two mothers, but Rath, like many people of this world, had some ability too, perhaps more than the average citizen. I still wasn't familiar with what abilities the people outside the academy had, but from what I could infer from the books I had read, most 'normal' citizens only had a base, maybe a low level ability. I estimated Rath's ability at, perhaps, low intermediate, but I'd not seen her use magic except for day to day chores, and even then, not often, as Lissa was usually the one to do the cooking and so forth.
In any case, it was more than enough to heat the travel cooker, and it wasn't long before she placed a plate in front of me, with a sort of pancake that was popular where she had grown up, with an egg, a little meat and some greens on it.
"Would you like some tea little one?" she asked, picking up her own cup and taking a sip.
"Yes please," I said, around a mouthful of food. I really was hungry!
"Such a well mannered boy we have." Smiling, Rath made me a small cup of green tea.
I was too busy eating to thank her this time. Again, I wondered if this was an after effect of casting my spell. It had to be. Hopefully this wouldn't be the norm, or I'd have to cast another, larger Hollow Space to keep food in!
No, I decided eventually, as I polished off my meal and took a sip of tea. It must be because I, or at least my body, was still so young. Maybe even not full of mana yet. I hadn't checked myself recently for mana leakage, so I held a hand up and adjusted my vision.
Yes! I could see a very slight level of mana smoke exuding from my skin. I guessed that meant my cup was 'full'. So I was at full power now. Then again, the books said my capacity would grow over time. I was still very young. That was promising.
Even so, I decided that next time I cast a powerful spell I would draw energy from the atmosphere, and not use my own.
As the day wore on more small houses began to dot the side of the road, and as the sun started to sink in the sky, we entered a village.
Once again I sat next at the front, next to Rath, who was holding the reins, and took in the scenery.
Here there seemed to be much less diversity in the people, which made sense I guess. The academy took in students from all over, and the town, small as it was, had people from different countries too, to support the students and staff, as well as the small standing army stationed there. This village was, I guessed, just a normal kind, and hence had less foreigners.
Even so, we didn't draw any real attention, other than the looks, mainly from men, that Rath, as an attractive woman, or perhaps a ferocious warrior, would usually draw.
"Shall we stay at the same inn?" Lissa popped her head out of the wagon, ruffling my hair at the same time.
"That's where I'm heading. We're nearly there."
"I'll get our stuff together then." Lissa disappeared into the back again.
"We're staying at an inn?" I asked.
"Yes little one, we usually stop here. It's the last comfortable place for a while, so make the most of it. We'll be sleeping in the wagon for most of the rest of the way."
"I don't mind."
Rath chuckled. "No, I don't suppose you do. It's a bit of an adventure for you, isn't it? I'm sorry we've kept you closed up in the school for so long. A young boy should have more room to run and play."
"I don't mind."
"No, I know. You never complain. We've been blessed by the Mother with you." Rath glanced at me with her intense eyes. "When we get to the farm, I'm going to give you some beginner lessons in the sword, all right?"
"Yes mother! But..."
"But?"
"But I'm so small."
"It's never too soon to start learning the moves. I have a small practice sword you can use. It may be a little large for you still, but it will do you good to exercise more. You need to build up muscle. There are times that you will need to use physical combat, not magic, in your life."
I nodded and thought about what that statement meant. This world was a brutal place, where violence, and threat of attack by bandits, or monsters, was very real. I needed to remember it wasn't old earth. Dex had said something along those lines too, although I don't think that was actually what he was talking about.
A few minutes later we turned into a walled area, through an open gate, and into a courtyard in front of a large, three storey stone building with light spilling from the many windows.
"Here we are. Come on. Rath picked me up as easily as I would pick up a mouse, and jumped nimbly down to the ground. A youth dressed in a plain grey tunic trotted up and gave her a small bow.
"Mistress Helmage, welcome back."
"Good to see you again Tom," Rath said. "We'll be staying just the night."
"Yes mistress." Tom was about to move off when Lissa walked up, carrying several bags.
Tom saw her and gave her a deep bow, much deeper than he had done for Rath. "Blessed, welcome back to our humble inn," he said, in respectful tones.
I raised my eyebrows in surprise.
"Thank you Tom. Please, stand. You know I don't like formality."
"As you say Blessed." Tom, despite what he had just said, straightened up, then gave both my mothers another small bow before scurrying off to take the wagon away.
This brought home to me that Lissa was a representative of the Blessed Mother, a much revered deity in these parts. I guess this world took religion a lot more seriously, which made sense, as the gods actually existed here, and even showed up, or meddled in people's lives, and had incredible power to boot. Hence a sister of the goddess would be treated with more respect than even a powerful fighter, like Rath.
Whilst I was carried inside I mulled this over. I would have to rethink my views on the social order of this world more than I thought. I mean, I knew there were kings and nobles, and even in my last world, where the gods were simply made up, the various churches still had influence. Here the gods were very real, and wielded very real power, and no doubt social and political influence as well.
My thoughts were distracted as we entered the lobby, which was a decent size, and quite nicely decorated, with a counter in one corner. Behind this was a very attractive girl, probably no more than sixteen.
As we approached, this receptionist, seeing us, also gave a shallow but respectful bow to, first Lissa, and then Rath.
"Welcome back," she beamed and stood straight again. She really was very pretty, and once again I felt impatient to grow up some.
"Hello Rapunzel," Rath said. "Just a room for the night please."
"Oh, is this your baby?" she asked, spotting me. "How cute he is!"
I smiled. Even at this age, I was rather susceptible to flattery from pretty females it seemed.
"Thank you Rapunzel," I replied. "You are very pretty too."
"Oh!" Rapunzel put a hand over her mouth in shock. "How well he talks!"
"Yes, he certainly is something," Lissa said, in a slightly dry tone.
I just giggled. Meeting new people was fun.
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