Chapter 30: 27: Let the learning begin

Content warning

Religiously sensitive content.

Well, it was bound to happen eventually considering the lore of this series including the Christian God and the subject of cultivation. I do my best to keep it from being straight up sacrilegious, but it gets plenty close to the line this chapter.

Túeth’s POV

“Well, I suppose we should get you started. You came here as my apprentice. It simply will not do for us to put off teaching you about magecraft any longer. So, how about we begin by you telling me all that you know about magic and those who use it?” The master said, putting on a far more dignified face.

“About magic?” Túeth replied. “Well, not a lot.”She looked down. She really didn’t know much, nothing more than any other elf would know.

“Common, surely you must at least know the basics of the greed word. Every elf learns about that as a child.” The master responded.

“Of... of course!” Túeth responded in a panic.

“Well then, tell me that. Tell me about how the green word works.”

“What!? But...” Did the master really want her to go over something THAT simple? Túeth had been under the impression he was going to teach her something about the greater secrets of magic or something of the sort, the that was kept secret from the normal elves and known only to the powerful beings called the magi.

“It’s Ok.” The master said. “I told you. I want to know everything you know, down to the very basics of your knowledge. If you are going to be my apprentice, I need to be sure that your knowledge is sound from it’s very foundations. And, besides. There actually is a common misconception about the green word and some of the other basics. I want to see if you have been led astray by the others or not and if we have to clear anything up.”

“Umm... well, the green word is...” Túeth hesitated with her answer now that she had heard that there might be something wrong with how everyone believes the green word is after all. He had assured her it was alright, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that the master may at some point see he had made a mistake in choosing her and that he would kick her out as soon as he had come to this realization. As frightened as she was of being here, she also did not want to be rejected. She had to avoid that. So, maybe if she could figure out what the error everyone makes is and then give the correct answer, he might be impressed with her.

“Well, normal elves just use it to ask the nymph living in a lakira tree to make a home inside or open a door for them. But... if you are better with it then you can also talk with any plants, right?”Túeth did her best with how she phrased this. If she was wrong, she didn’t want to sound like a fool by sounding too sure of herself.

“Mmm...” The master made a thoughtful sound, it seemed somewhat positive as though he was agreeing with her answer and lifted Túeth’s heart for the split second between that thoughtful sound and the very next thing he said immediately afterward. “How does it do that?” He asks, this time very clearly with the piercing eyes of someone looking for a right answer and ready to pounce on a wrong answer the moment you gave one.

“Ummm...” How!? He’s asking her how? “Uhh... mana. You put your mana into the plant you want to talk to.”

“How do you think that lets you talk to plants?” He asks, leaving Túeth without the words to answer him. His penetrating expectant gaze softens the moment Túeth has run out of words to answer with. “Ok then, how about we try this another way. What is different between a Lakira tree and a normal plant?”

“Ah! The Lakira tree has the nymph or dryads living in them, normal plants don’t.”

“Why does that make them different?”

Why? Túeth was beginning to become very uncomfortable with these questions now. She was feeling more and more pressured by each question that seemed to be specifically pointed toward driving her to think about things she had never thought about or had to think about before in her life. She had never had to think about them because the answers just seemed obvious. Clearly they were different.

This seemed almost like the kind of question a child would ask, and if it was a child asking the question then her answer would simply be that they were just different and that was the reason things were that way. However, the one asking this was not a child. It was a magus who had lived for over ten centuries, an entire millennium. If he thinks it is important for her to answer this question, then clearly there must be some significance to the difference and he was expecting her as his student to be able to find it.

“It’s Ok if your answer is wrong Túeth. The important thing is that you think. This is my first lesson to you as my apprentice. Never be satisfied with the simple answers to things. There is a deeper truth behind everything. A mage is someone who seeks the answers to those deeper truths and who uses the knowledge they gain from those deeper truths to manipulate the world.”

“I am giving you an assignment. As soon as you can complete it, I will teach you how to collect and condense the energy necessary to cast spells as a mage that go beyond the simplified form of the green word most elves use to communicate with the nymph’.”

“I would like for you to answer three questions. The first is the question I just asked you. What exactly is it that makes a Lakira tree different from a normal plant. After you have answered that question, you can then start to think about why that means a normal elf can only use the green word to communicate with the nymph’ in the Lakira trees, but a proper mage can communicate with any plant. As for your third question, this is another one you may have simply taken for granted. What is spirit energy?”

“If you can find the answers to those three questions, then we can begin your training in how to utilize the mystical energies.”

... So, this is what it was. Túeth was left rather dumbstruck by this first lesson from her master. It immediately made her feel very small and useless. She had always been told about how the world worked by her parents and her neighbors as she grew up. This was the first time someone aside from a child had demanded that she be the one to answer such basic questions, except he phrased these very basic questions in such a way that it left her completely unable to answer them. In fact, she wasn’t really certain she knew the right answer.

It was exactly as the master had said. All three of the questions he had asked were all things everyone had just taken for granted but never really asked about all that deeply. And yet, the master was telling her that in order to be a mage she had to be able to find a satisfying answer to these questions on her own, and to not just settle for the simple answers that everyone else would settle for.

It was a test. A test in order to become a mage for real. He had said it himself. He would not give her the real training until she was able to answer these questions. If this was only the test to become an apprentice though, she felt this was a sign of things to come that this would be anything but easy. It would be a constant torture for her head, and there is no way this would be the last of such questions from the master.

Given this dismal future, Túeth considered running away from this once again. She never wanted this in the first place. However, now that it was offered, what kind of foolish person would even consider turning down such an opportunity? She would have to be a real insane person to turn down the opportunity to become a magus.

“Take as much time as you need to answer,” the master said. “I will be over here doing my meditations. You may keep your seat there at the table if you think you think you can come up with an answer within a few hours, or you may choose to leave and think about it throughout the day and return when you have your answers.”

With those words, the master went over to an alcove of the first floor where several layers of woven fiber mats were put together and laid out on the floor, and then he took a seat right in the middle of it. Soon afterward, he closed his eyes and rested his palms in his lap as he quickly went off into the often talked about mage’s meditation, the meditation used to gather power in order to both restore their expended spells as well as to advance their ability to use new and more powerful spells, increasing their power as a magus.

This left Túeth to decide what it was she was going to do. How it was she was going to try and think about how to answer these questions. She looked up toward the second floor for a moment and then considered the stairs. She was filled with a very uncomfortable feeling. A feeling that both compelled her to go up those stairs, and at the same time warned her of how her life would be changed forever the moment she did.

-

Aerien’s POV

“Ok, so, why are there two of you?” As soon as I arrived in Gaerien’s inner world, as she called it, I found myself suspended in the air by nothing, as though gravity had simply decided to ignore me. I could not even feel a surface beneath my feet, and yet I didn’t fall. There were several sights to be seen with large crystals filled with runes in some ancient language below us, an ocean of swirling lights all around us, and all manner of other amazing sights. However, I had no real time to take in all of this information. The reason for this was because I was instantly confronted by a woman as soon as I got here.

Standing in front of me, occupying my view and drawing my attention away from all the fantastic sights all around me was a lovely woman wearing a flowing white robe, extending down past her knees and keeping the curves of her body indistinct. The design was simple, but that is not to say it was like she was just wearing a bag over her to hide her body. It was actually quite tasteful in a way with an underpronounced violet trim running down the center.

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Actually, on second thought, considering the era she must be from violet would be a very ostentatious color to be wearing. Up until fairly recently in the industrial age, violet was the single most expensive dye to produce. It could even be said that violet dye was worth more than its weight in gold.

Well, at least she kept it restrained to only having the trim of her white robe in violet. If it was the entire robe, not only would that be creating an entirely different image, but that would be taking the vanity up several levels as well.

“Are you going to just keep gawking or are you going to answer me? I know both of you are Aerien, nobody other than Aerien could possibly come in here, but why are there two of you?”

I turned to look at my young 4 year old self, the cute little elf-eared girl who I was going to grow up to be, and my old man self, a strong but gentle looking man who looked to be only in middle age despite his 60 years of age. Actually, if I were to look closer, it looked as though he had fewer grey hairs than I had in my previous life before I died.

“Umm...” my younger self responded with an exaggerated shrug, holding her hands up at shoulder level as she shook her head from side to side.

“Well, I did tell you all before about how I had an older self from my past life and a younger self that seemed to be the owner of my new body before. It seems like maybe that was manifested more plainly when you brought me into this whole inner world thing.”

The woman who could only be Gaerien’s manifestation in this inner world didn’t quite seem to know what to make of this. In fact, I would have to say she seemed quite flabbergasted, and my younger self was getting a real kick out of it as I looked at Gaerien’s confused expression and then instinctively drew closer to my older self just in case she suddenly got angry at my behavior.

“Well, I think I have heard of split spirits like this before, but... I can’t say for certain whether it is good or bad. I suppose it depends on how well you get along.”

“We get along great!” My younger self announces cheerfully as soon as I realize that Gaerien doesn’t have anything against my little girl appearance.

“We have never had any reason to disagree about anything. In fact, I really don’t even think of us as different people at all.”

“Yeah! I get to know all kinds of stuff from my old life, but my brain couldn’t handle it so I’m the one who was made to be Aerien while the old man inside my mind is still also me and he... and... why am I talking like this! I don’t have to! I know everything he does too, so I can talk better than this, I promise!”

“Right, I’m really confused now.” Gaerien responds to the excited nonsense from my younger self. Well, despite what she said, my younger self is easily excitable, so I doubt she can really do quite as good a job of explaining something even if she does know all of the knowledge we have shared between us.

“Basically, we share the same subconscious mind. That is, everything I know, both of us know it. That’s the reason why my younger form here is a 4 year old and not an infant. The knowledge she has gained from me has caused her to mature a lot faster than she would if she was a normal baby.”

“Wait! Wait. I get it now!” Gaerien interrupted me. “So, the surface level of your mind is split, and by the sounds of it this happened because you did not fully integrate your mind into your new body?”

““No, that’s not it.!”” I say in unison with both my forms.

“I fully accept her” My past life self continues. “Actually, I feel I may be slowly becoming more like her as time goes on. It’s just that her physical brain is not ready for everything I know yet.”

“I think Gaerien should also have someone like me! We can be closer sisters that way!” My younger self follows up.

“What? Don’t be ridiculous!” She responds, looking down at my younger self. “Besides! I’m pretty sure I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

““Too late, isn’t it?”” Both of my manifestations say in unison once again.

“Yes... but, now come to think of it, I may be starting to regret it as a lost opportunity now.” Gaerien responds as though she wants to kick herself. “There were some rumors spreading around saying that god you worshiped before had three manifestations in his inner space, and even got to such a level that he could project two of them outside of himself. It seems you have already discovered on your own yet another one of the most sought after secrets of cultivation that could ever be achieved.”

“Mmm...” I was feeling very uncomfortable about this comparison to the god I worshiped in this manner, and it easily showed on my younger self’s face and actions. As my older self, I fixed Gaerien with a harsh stare for a moment, before going into thought.

“Gaerien,” I say in all seriousness, focusing in on her as my older self only for the sake of added effect. “If we are going to be talking about all of this god stuff, I would like to set a few basic ground rules first. It is a value that was held in our religion that we should strive to be like god. As such, this cultivation thing is fine to an extent. However, there is a line I absolutely do not want you to ever cross, and doubly so in trying to encourage me to cross it. That is, there will be absolutely no talk, ever, of trying to become greater than my lord of the former world in any way. What you were just talking about can be seen as flattering in a certain light, but the way in which you said it makes it so I have to be certain you are not going to push things in that direction.”

“Uhh… really…” Gaerien has a stunned look on her face in response to my shpeel just now. “I am jealous. That guy… his worshipers really take him seriously to this extent, huh? You know we aren’t even in that world anymore, right? Why do you still care so much? With that heavy barrier of his that he set up around Earth, I doubt he is even going to be able to hear you praying to him anymore!”

“That sort of thing doesn’t matter.” I respond. “I suppose if you don’t want to see it as a normal worshiper relationship, you can view it instead as something of a samurai code. I did train in a style related to the samurai arts after all. Even in a foreign land, I will hold my loyalty. I am grateful to you for saving my granddaughter, but I will not let you harm my honor on this one. I don’t expect you to understand, but this is a line for me that is not to be crossed.”

“Wow! Ok, Ok. Jeez! Yeah, don’t mess with a fanatical worshiper. Still, for someone who’s about to begin the road to cultivation, you have no idea how little sense this makes for you to have that attitude.”

“Well, according to what you’ve already told me, that would not be the first thing about me that doesn’t make sense given the circumstances.”

“You mean like being ready and willing to throw out a meditation that goes beyond being top-tier in nature? Yeah, there is something very screwed up about your priorities. But, I’ll play along with how ridiculous you’re being here. I’m not exactly in a position where I can afford to piss you off. I mean, look around this place! The gate you just walked through to get in here is actually a connection directly to your spirit. This means the structure of my entire cultivation could crumble if you decided to do something crazy.”

“Hah! And you say I’m the crazy one! I don’t really understand much about this cultivation stuff, but it really doesn’t sound like a stable position to be that reliant on someone else.” I said, my younger self having gotten upset enough by this point she was hugging onto the leg of my older self. With the tension gone now though, I took a step back to look at the portal I had come from.

The portal, as it appeared from her end, seemed to be a shining light suspended inside a doorway floating out in the middle of open space. By the looks of it, I would guess it actually looked identical from both sides, and could probably allow us to pass through from both sides as well.

“Well then, I guess you must have invited me here to discuss the stuff you have in this space. Care to give me the guided tour?”

Author's note

Yeah, tense moment. So, now you know Aerien's stance on the subject.

(Not gonna force myself, just keeping the note short this time.)

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