Chapter 22: 21. Squeaky Clean, sort of.

Following his decision to become a scout, the group decided it would be best to rest and prepare for the next day. Jake made a small modification to the room, sliding the table out of the way so he could use Rock magic to form a small depression on the open floor. As he smoothed and rounded out the walls of the pit, he used the excess material to create a lipped edge that would contain the material inside. He also created a separate hole at the bottom, which dropped downwards a few inches for additional safety. Then, he fed mana into the bowl and created a fire rune at its base. Applying mana to the rune, he ignited a small flame that illuminated the room and began to fill it with heat.

The eyes of his friends all widened with surprise. Xul and Yae both clapped happily as the small fire warmed their cold, dreary home. Tul only smiled. His attention was more on cleaning up and readying the room for sleep. He pulled out three mats and blankets, and also covered the window with a black cloth. The door was both locked and then braced with a long chunk of wood laid across it, ensuring additional protection for the room. Jake found it odd but because of the location of their home, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to be extra careful. Especially with Yae in their midst.

Jake was given a mat by Tul and a blanket as well. Though, the fire was doing its job. The room was steadily warming to a comfortable temperature and the blanket would likely only be for additional comfort while sleeping. However, before they slept, they would need to bathe. Jake felt gross. While he was blind to his stench, he had a feeling he wasn’t exactly the best person to be close to. He also wanted to clean his clothes, if possible. At the very least he wanted to soak and rinse them.

The problem? The other three were already about to crawl into their sleeping areas. They didn’t shed their clothes nor did they even splash water on their faces. Xul and Tul lay their spears in the corner, and Yae used a small brush on her hair for only a few minutes before she was satisfied enough to prepare the bed.

“Wait, you all aren’t going to bathe?” Jake asked, both curious and feeling a bit anxious about the potential lack of hygiene among them. He was right to question them as the other three just looked at him as if he were the crazy one. Jake immediately stood up and raised his hands.

“No! Bath time! Now!” Jake conjured up two large balls of water into his hands, his eyes jumping from one person to the next as he looked to decide who would be first. Xul’s eyes shot open almost by instinct and he immediately retreated to the furthest corner of the room. Did he not like water?

“We bath once a week. Not enough water.” Yae spoke, speaking as if it were normal. Granted, Jake should have guessed that was the case. Their living conditions were meek and the tub in the corner was used for a plethora of tasks other than just bathing. With only one faucet in the entire living space, Jake doubted they identified the need to maintain their cleanliness regularly. However, he expected at least Yae to be pushing for them to clean up. Unless she learned it was either inconvenient or the other two had always argued and put up a fight against it.

“Not anymore. Get in the bath.” Jake snarled and glared down at Xul. Seeing that Jake wasn’t joking, Tul was already sighing and taking off his shirt. Xul, on the other hand, looked like a cornered rat. His attention darted around the room as he looked for an escape. Jake’s back was to the door and the window was certainly a way out, but the window was directly above the ladder, not the landing outside of the door. If Xul wanted out, he would have to jump from the window and hope he caught the rungs of the ladder on the wall. Jake wasn’t slow enough to let him make it by unscathed either.

“Xul,” Tul said, folding his shirt and placing it beside him. Xul didn’t answer, his eye entirely locked onto Jake as he tensed up. Tul called out to Xul again. This time he said it a lot louder. Xul snapped out of the staring contest and looked over at his brother. The two shared a few words, with Xul inching away from Tul as Tul made his way over to the tub.

“Does Xul not like to bathe?” Jake asked Yae. Painfully aware of Xul still looking to slip away, he never took his eyes off Xul. The moment Jake would lose eye contact, he’d lose Xul.

“No. Xul gross.” Yae pinched her nose and leaned away from the other boy. Xul’s eye narrowed and he crouched into the corner, his muscles tensing up.

“No! Water gross! Xul clean!” Xul hissed. Jake clenched his jaw and lowered one hand, pointing the water ball in it at Xul. While doing so, he fed mana into the floor and slowly crept it towards Xul. Tul turned the faucet of the tub on and then removed the cloth around his waist. While Xul was being the baby, Tul stepped into the water and began to shiver as he rinsed his body.

“No bath,” Xul rumbled, his fingers digging into the ground as he started to creep to the left, aligning himself slowly up with the window. Jake’s mana spread out through the floor in front of Xul, the thin line boxing the other boy in. Then, without a sound, Jake erected a wall of stone, shooting it upwards and completely locking Xul in the corner.

There was a pained wail from the other side and Jake couldn’t help but laugh. Xul knocked and thumped against the wall in front of him but there was no way out. Unless Xul knew rock magic, he was stuck. Jake canceled out his two water ball spells and moved over to the tub. The water coming from the faucet was cold as ice, but Tul braved it and rubbed at the grime on his skin. Jake placed his hand on the faucet and applied fire magic to the water, heating it to make it more tolerable. 

“Soap?” Jake asked. Tul shook his head.

“Only water. No money for soap,” Tul said. Jake frowned and then looked over at Yae. Her brush was a small one, but the bristles were rough and coarse.

“Yae, can I have your brush? I promise I’ll get you another one.” Jake asked, hoping she might be willing to give it up. She hesitated at first but offered the brush over anyway. Jake thanked her, and then he handed it to Tul. “Use this to scrub your body. We’ll get soap tomorrow.”

“How? No money.” Yae was a bit confused, but Jake had an idea.

“Yae, Tul. You all know that the Maedra, the Beasts, drop mana crystals when they die, right?” Jake asked. The two nodded. “Can we sell them here?”

Tul shot Yae a glance. Yae frowned. The two were beginning to understand what Jake was saying. Jake could fight the Maedra, and he could kill them easily. If they hunted the Maedra and gathered their crystals, they could sell them for money- a lot of money if the village needed them. However, Jake didn’t quite know their value. The other option would be to venture into the tunnels and hope to stumble across other stuff they could sell- or do odd jobs for money. He was more of a fan of fighting the Maedra, though.

“We can,” Tul said. Yae glared at him.

“Tul.” She snipped, annoyed with his playing along, but Tul shook his head.

“Mana crystals necessary for village. Reason for fighters and scouts. Both security, and beast hunters. Hunt and kill beasts. Bring back crystals.”

“Tul!” Yae yelled. Tul looked over his shoulder and yelled at her. The two went back and forth for a short time. Yae eventually gave in first.

“Yae scared. You soon be Scout. You learn anyway.” Tul huffed and went back to cleaning himself, using the brush to scrub at his arms and legs, his skin slowly coming back to life as he did so.

Jake sat down against the wall and stared at Yae, who still looked annoyed. She curled up and began to pout, staring at the ground rather than look at either him or Tul. Only the sound of Xul struggling and the water filled the air as Jake nipped at the inside of his lip.

It all made sense now, the reason for why the Scouts and Fighters existed, and why both needed to know how to fight. The existence of the tunnels kept the Maedra from finding the village easily. The Guards could handle those that stumbled in. Scouts would likely go out on a regular schedule to find nearby Maedra and then either dispatch them if the Maedra were alone or call in the Fighters if there were too many. Then, the Fighters would take the crystals back with them to the village while the Scouts went on to find more Maedra. It was the only thing that made sense to Jake. The village used mana crystals to illuminate the cavern and there were likely other ways to use them that he didn’t know about. Chul’s crystal was able to contain a whole new power within it, a set of sigils and a sphere of mana. The crystals could likely be utilized for holding other things, too. So long as they weren’t damaged or their cores compromised, crystals were probably great containers for mana and enchantments.

Jake pulled out his necklace, the gift from Thaedraun, and closely examined it. While the outside was finely polished gold with a beautiful ornate design, its core was a green crystal. If he looked hard enough, he could see the sigil slowly spinning inside of it. That magic circle was likely what held the enchantment. When the enchantment detected something of value, it would cause the crystal to glow or so he was told. Did that mean he could use sigils to bind enchantments to physical objects? Was that how they worked?

If he could bind an enchantment to a crystal and trigger it with mana or give it a proximity detection spell like the necklace’s gem, then what else could he add? Jake had seen Chul enchant his limbs with runes of strengthening, and piercing, and had even increased his carapace’s defensive capabilities with runes. Those runes were etched directly into the Arachkin’s carapace. Chul hadn’t cast any spells on himself other than those and he hadn’t used any incantations. Actually, Jake couldn’t remember hearing any incantations from Chul at all. Though he did hear the Arachkin’s fangs chitter before a few spells. Everything else was done in silence.

Did that mean Chul never cast any enchantments on himself? Did he use the runes on his body for it all? If that were true, could Jake do the same?

He looked at his arms and then at Tul and Xul’s spears, curiously thinking of what he could do. Light magic had provided a plethora of runes and sigils to use for strengthening and defensive enchantments but their designs were very complex. Light magic runes were likely a higher caliber than other elements, which would explain the increased detail in them. However, he hadn’t come across enchantments with the other elements thus far. Granted he’d only read introductory level books for them, but they hadn’t touched on enchantments at all. There were no references in those books about the enchantments period. It had been a foreign concept to him until now. He assumed that it was done on purpose to keep lower-ranking Magicians from being discouraged over the range of things they would need to learn later on.

However, Jake viewed that as a disadvantage. If he had learned about enchantments earlier on and questioned Chul about them, he wouldn’t have the questions he had now. He would have been able to test and experiment with Chul and likely would have been more accustomed to the idea of using enchantments.

As Tul finished his bath, Jake walked over to the two spears and picked up Xul’s. Tul’s was clean, sharper, and looked well-maintained. Xul’s on the other hand looked a bit more ragged. Xul likely didn’t put as much time into servicing his weapon, for whatever reason. Or, Xul used his more. Certainly, that would be a more respectable reason for the excessive wear on it.

Jake poked the tip of the spear against the wall. As expected, it bounced off and was easily repelled. Jake gripped onto the spear and applied mana to it, feeding his mana into the shaft and gathering it into the tip of the spear. The sharpened rock began to glow faintly, a purple outline coating the sharpened spearhead. Once enough mana had gathered, Jake poked at the wall again. This time, the spear sank into the stone. It wasn’t far but it was enough to continue spinning the gears in Jake’s head. He withdrew the spear and set it back down on the floor. When he turned around both Yae and Tul were staring at him.

“Tul, I’m going to turn your spears into Beast killers,” Jake grinned. Tul blinked a few times and then looked at his spear.

“S-Spear fine?” Tul was confused and concerned. He didn’t look comfortable with what Jake had said. Jake could only grin and laugh as he placed a hand on the wall. He fed mana into it and then began to fill the other space with water. Xul screeched in fright.

“Yes, it is, but I’m going to make it even better. Tomorrow, after some training, we’re going to hunt the Beasts and we’re going to gather a lot of crystals.” Jake felt his skin tingle with excitement. His prior engagements with the Maedra had all been out of desperation and rage but to him now, they looked only like cattle. The Maedra were weak, fragile, and could easily be defeated with coordinated magic attacks. If he armed his friends, who were both skilled in close combat, with powerful weapons then the Maedra would be even easier to defeat. Of course, there was always the risk of being overwhelmed but Jake could handle those odds. His magic skills were only growing. Fostering that growth was always on the table and he planned to use the Maedra to do it.

Xul’s screeching of discomfort finally ceased and Jake used his mana to sense what was happening on the other side of the wall. Xul wasn’t dead or drowning. The water had barely filled a few inches on the floor. Instead, Xul was just sitting in it. Jake added more water and then opened a small hole in the wall. He motioned for Tul to hand him the brush, and then tossed it into the space Xul was locked in.

“Scrub yourself clean, Xul. Then I’ll let you out.”

“Evil.” Xul groaned.

“I’m waiting,” Jake cast a small ball of light in the space, illuminating Xul as Jake looked through the small hole. Xul groaned even more loudly, no longer able to hide. Sulking the entire time, he did as told. He stripped, grabbed the brush, and began to scrub at the thick layer of grime on his body. He worked slowly, methodically cleaning his body of filth. When he was finished, he stood up and showed himself to Jake. Satisfied with what he saw, Jake opened a hole in the side of the house to let the water drain out of the space. He then created a gust of wind and ignited a flame at the top of the wall, heating the air as he swirled it around Xul to dry him off. Xul laughed and shivered, his body being tickled all over by the rough breeze. When he was dry, Jake finally opened a large enough hole in the wall for Xul to crawl out of.

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“Still evil,” Xul mumbled as he shimmed out of the hole and over to his mat. Jake huffed and then turned his eyes to Yae.

“Your turn,” Jake said. Yae blushed and nodded, slowly moving towards the tub. Jake made a noise and held up a hand. “N-No… You can use this.” He pointed at the wall his hand was against. He didn’t feel comfortable letting Yae use the tub out in the open. He hoped that another reason they bathed once a week was so she could have some privacy during her turn. With Jake’s rock magic, there was no need for all of that. Yae nodded again and crawled into the separate room. He closed it off and then also closed off the viewing hole he’d used to watch Xul. He sealed the drainage hole and then applied magic to let the water fill the floor of the space.

However, he forgot one detail. His sensory mana still stretched into the attached space. Yae was already undressing and Jake tensed up as he realized his mistake. Quickly, he detached himself from the mana and cut off the view he had, giving her the privacy she deserved. He let out a sigh and filled the room with enough water for her to clean in.

“J-Just knock on the wall when you’re done,” Jake said aloud. Yae didn’t answer. The three boys stared at each other awkwardly in silence while they waited. “Put all of your clothes in the tub.” Wanting to give them something to do and help with the awkward air, Jake decided to get to work on cleaning their clothes. “Fill it partially with water and let them soak.”

Tul did the work as told, taking his and Xul’s clothes to the tub. He drained it of the used water and then refilled it with fresher liquid. Tul set the clothes in the water, and Jake walked over to help. Using rock magic, he applied mana to the tub and created ridges on its side. Using the ridges, he began to strongly grind and rub the clothes against it, ringing out the grime. He stripped out of his clothes and repeated the process for himself, kneading the fabric against the rough ridges until he was satisfied. Then, he soaked the clothes in the hot water and rang them out. The tub was emptied, and then Jake used the basin to circulate air through, drying the clothes with heated air.

Just before he finished, he heard a faint knocking on the wall- Yae was finished with her bath. Jake hurried over and placed a hand on the wall. He drained the water and then proceeded to use wind and fire to help dry her off. When she was satisfied, she knocked on the wall again. However, Jake didn’t let her out. He made a small hole in the wall instead to talk through.

“Yae, can I have your clothes? I want to clean them, or can you do that inside?” Jake asked bluntly as Tul passed his clothes over.

“I-I can do it,” Yae spoke sheepishly and Jake felt his cheeks redden as he realized what he had asked. He nodded to no one in particular and then used magic to create a small washboard for her to use made out of the stone wall. He added some water into the room again and shortly after, he heard her begin to clean her clothes. Jake gulped and moved away from the wall, closing the hole before he got any weird ideas. She finished quicker than he was ready for and began to knock on the wall again.

He used wind and fire magic once more to apply heated wind into the space and then created a hole for her to use so she could get out. Her skin was a lot fairer now without the thick layer of filth. Her hair was neatly gathered into a ponytail and didn’t look all frayed and thin. Her clothes lacked their previous splotches of dirt and sweat, and she looked more comfortable in them.

“T-Thank you,” she whispered, her voice barely audible, and then quickly walked over to the bed. She didn’t look at any of them before crawling into it. Jake felt a lump in his throat and didn’t answer. Instead, he saw Tul staring at him- grinning. Feeling even more embarrassed, Jake scuttled into the separate room and quickly sealed it off. He dumped cold water on himself, instantly feeling the heat in his face vanish.

Girls were scary.

Once he was clean and dry, Jake cleaned the inside of the space and then dried it out entirely. Only then did he drop the rock wall he had made back into the floor. The other three were already in their beds by the time he was done. Xul snored peacefully in his corner, and Yae had the blanket over her head to conceal herself beneath it. Tul was under his blanket but he sat up, staring at the fire in the middle of the room. Jake went to his mat on the other side of the room, plopping down on it and wrapping himself up in his blanket.

The two sat quietly for quite some time before Tul finally decided to speak. He had a bit of trouble at first, but his words came eventually.

“You very strong, Jake. Very smart. More smart than us,” he spoke quietly, his eyes staying glued to the fire. Jake peered over at Tul. The solemn-looking boy didn’t meet his eyes. “Been much fun with you. Always new experience. Make life different. Glad to have met you.” Tul smiled softly and nodded to himself, and then he turned away to lie down on his mat. He rolled onto his side, his back to the fire and Jake. Jake smiled as well and looked over at the other two, watching them both as they lay in their respective spaces.

Since coming to the ravine the first time, Jake’s life had been changed entirely. It was a lot of fun, even though he still had his worries. While he wanted to go home, he wouldn’t trade anything for the feeling he had in his chest. Even in this foreign place, surrounded by strangers and creatures out to kill him- he found comfort with friends.

Jake curled up beneath the blanket and closed his eyes. Feeding mana into his mind, he imagined the Library and let himself drift off to sleep. The sigil activated as he did so, and Jake felt himself separate from his body. It was always a weird feeling but he didn’t fight it. The darkness behind his eyelids settled and his breathing steadied. His mana flow hastened just a bit as he felt his consciousness transfer from the room to the Library. A bright light formed on the other side of his eyelids and his nose filled with the familiar smell of books.

When he opened his eyes, he was greeted by white walls and shelves. After finding himself full of questions on the topic, tonight he wanted to focus on Enchantments. He wanted to learn an array of sigils and runes that he could use back in the real world to enhance his fighting skills and the weapons of his friends.

To start, he wanted to look into Light magic enchantments and then he would look into those from the other elements to see if they existed. By comparing the elements, he could use the strongest ones from each of them, or mix and match depending on what the uses were.

“Stop.”

Just as he reached the second floor, he heard a hiss come from behind him. Jake felt a chill shoot down his spine, causing his skin to crawl and stiffen. He couldn’t move. His heart began to race and his eyes widened as he stared ahead of him, unwilling to turn around and face who, or what was behind him.

“Ran’tauma hus, Vil ru hauh mah.” While he had never heard the tongue before, the language was familiar to him for some reason. His mind recognized it. His ears didn’t.

...Seraphym.

“W-What…” Jake felt his tongue stick in his throat and he felt something tighten on his body. Jake felt rooted in place. This triggered instinct and he flooded the air with mana as he fought to break free. The shackles holding him in place shattered from the pressure and Jake stumbled forward a few paces. He immediately turned around and conjured up two massive fireballs into his hands.

In front of him, nearly ten paces away, a thin but tall creature with six arms hovered in the air. Its clothing was pure white, lined with gold and jewels. Its head was enlarged and oval-shaped but lacked hair. It had six eyes, all in a line and spread evenly across its face. There was no nose. Only two thin nostrils just above its small mouth. A mouth made up of several tiny tentacles dangling down into the air. The creature hissed at him again, its eyes narrowing as it threatened to float closer.

Jake tilted his head and enhanced the fire balls in front of his hands. The Seraphym whispered a few words and the fire balls vanished, only for Jake to immediately create them again- this time larger.

“Do it again and I’ll burn you to a crisp, tentacle-face.” Jake snarled and his body tensed as he challenged the Seraphym. While he doubted fighting was okay in such a sacred place, he wasn’t about to be bullied by such a strange creature. Especially when it was looking at him with that stupid look on its face.

Before things escalated, a massive thunder cracked through the Library. The Seraphym backpedaled immediately, a large barrier forming around it as lightning struck in the middle between the two. Jake held his ground, closing his eyes to avoid being blinded by the flash of light. He felt the tension in his hands vanish as the mana in his arms was forced back into his body. The outside force had disarmed his magic. This time, he didn’t fight it. He knew who it was before she even said anything.

“No fighting in my Library,” Yir snarled, her voice booming through the air as the fairy made her presence known. Several other Fairies peeked out to see what the commotion was. Wisely, they kept their distance. Yir floated a few meters off to Jake’s left, her wings keeping her in place as she glared at the Seraphym. “Lady Ferynith may have granted you access but I will very quickly change her mind, Seraphym.” She snapped her fingers and the Seraphym’s barrier shattered. The creature’s eyes shot open as it tried to protect itself again, only for the barrier to collapse once more.

“And you, boy, should know better.” Yir’s anger wasn’t only directed at the Seraphym and he felt her ire as well. Jake immediately bowed his head and apologized.

“I was only defending myself from the ill intentions of that thing.” Jake jerked his thumb in the direction of the Seraphym. There was no verbal response from Yir but he was whacked over the head by a whip made entirely of wind. It knocked him off his feet and onto his backside.

“Mir Listulah, Hooman ak’tasha!” The Seraphym shouted, and Jake’s mind deciphered it- “Miss Librarian, he is Human!”

“And? So what if I am?” Jake regained his footing and glared at the Seraphym. The Seraphym blinked and stared back. Yir’s eyebrows raised. “I don’t need Yir to protect me from a frail-looking thing like you.”

“You insolent-!” The Seraphym’s tentacles energized. Yir cracked lightning through the air once more. A reminder once more of where they were.

“If you want to fight, do it outside of the Library. I won’t warn you again. Either of you.” Yir shifted her attention between the both of them, her eyes looking for any sign of violence from the two. Jake scoffed and turned away first, his feet quickly carrying him up the stairs to the upper floor. The Seraphym hissed for a few moments but it too turned away, not daring to risk further contention with Yir. Yir sighed before fluttering off, returning to the upper levels of the Library.

Jake didn’t stop moving until he reached the fifth floor. He collapsed in a heap at the top step. His heart thumped in his chest and he felt the rush in his face. But while he was uneasy and a bit scared to fight the Seraphym- he was still grinning. The idea of duking it out with something of that caliber made him feel giddy inside. He was eager to sling spells at the creature. For whatever reason, just looking at the Seraphym ready to do the same made him feisty. While he doubted he could win, he felt confident that he could at least give the Seraphym a challenge. The creature didn’t look as terrifying as the books said and Jake was more than ready to put his skills to the test against such a foe.

The Maedra were powerful and dangerous, but they relied on close combat and their spells were pitiful. The Seraphym were considered one of the best magicians. It wasn’t just their spells and skills either- Magic was their entire being. They had evolved to make full use of their magical prowess. It was in their genetic makeup to be powerful mages. The opportunity to fight such a creature would likely be rare and Jake almost instinctively decided to take advantage of the chance in front of him. If it weren’t for Yir, Jake no doubt would have lobbed his fire balls at the creature.

However, the interaction left him curious. The Seraphym spoke as if it were above Jake and spoke as if Jake were a rat or something. The way it said “human” brought heat to his ears. As if Humans were beneath it. While Jake held respect for the Seraphym race as powerful magicians, their hatred for Humans was excessive. Then again, the Seraphym were a race that lived among the Gods and the Humans had sided with the Myr during their little dispute. It did make sense as to why the Seraphym looked down on him.

But if it thought Jake would just roll over or kneel before it, it would have to give up a tentacle or two first. The only people Jake knelt to were his elders, his Auntie, his father maybe, the Royalty of the Sands, and a woman he loved. Everyone else he would treat equally. The warriors of the village would bow to each other before and after combat but they were instructed to never kneel- even when bested in battle. Kneeling was a sign of servitude. The people of the sands served no one.

Jake scoffed at the idea of kneeling to such a creature but he didn’t let himself linger on the thoughts. He eased his breathing to bring his emotions back under control then headed into the rows of books to find information on Light magic enchantments.

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