Chapter 20: Chapter 20 – Practice

As Grayson walked toward the port city, he should have been ecstatic after escaping the island prison, but instead he found himself lost in his own thoughts. During his escape from the island, he hadn’t taken the time to fully contemplate what having these powers meant.

As much as Grayson didn’t want to admit it, Velos hadn’t lied about everything when they had spoken. Not only that, but from Lord Thran’s comments and actions, it seemed Grayson had grown into his powers faster than he should have, and he was more powerful than he should be. Velos had said that his powers would be potent, and that seemed to be the case.

The more he thought about it, the more confused he became. Velos had wanted him to gain these powers, but why make Grayson go through such a round-about method to obtain them?

The god had said that Grayson was important, so why put him in a situation where it was more likely he would die than succeed. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t think of a reason behind the god’s actions.

I must be missing something. He thought, Something important. Something big enough to explain all these inconsistencies. Does that even change anything? He wasn’t sure. Grayson certainly wasn’t going to forgive the god for the suffering he had gone through.

Letting out a long breath, Grayson ran a hand through his hair as he thought. It had grown longer than he would have preferred during his imprisonment.

Grayson gave up on trying to think up an answer for the way Velos had treated him, and instead moved onto another subject that had been plaguing him. He finally escaped from the Proving Grounds, but what about all the others still stuck there? He couldn’t help but feel guilty that he hadn’t found a way to save them as well.

Grayson knew that it wasn’t really possible, and he would have only gotten himself captured or killed in the effort, but it grated that he couldn’t have done something for them. Making his mind up, he promised himself that he would find a way to help those unfortunate souls if he could.

I’m already plotting revenge against a god. He thought, This should be easy enough in comparison.

He remained lost in his thoughts until he neared the city. Its walls weren’t a quarter the size of the walls of Silmia, but that didn’t mean they were small. If anything, it was simply a testament to how massive Silmia’s walls were.

Grayson paused as he grew near, unsure what to do now. He had been so engrossed by his other thoughts that he hadn’t really come up with any kind of plan for arriving in the city. He face palmed as he thought about it some more. His half-baked plan was to pass through the main gates, and if the guards gave him any trouble, he could pull on his bond to show he was a wavelord. That was a terrible plan now that he bothered to give it half a thought. His appearance made it impossible to blend in, and he didn’t really want to create an easy trail for anyone who might be searching for him.

I need to be smarter about this, he thought, mentally berating himself. If I’m not careful, I’ll end up being captured, and who knows what will happen then.

They wouldn’t be able to send him back to the Proving Grounds, so it was hard to say what might happen to him. They might keep him alive to question him about how he became a wavelord, but there was a decent chance he would be executed on the spot.

Reluctantly, Grayson decided he would wait until nightfall to sneak into the city. He hated that he needed to wait so long, allowing time for word to spread about his escape, but he didn’t really have a better option. He needed both information and supplies from the city.

Looking up at the sky, Grayson grimaced, seeing that it was still morning, and it would be quite some time until sunset. He thought about it for a moment before a smile blossomed on his face as he realized this would be a perfect time to investigate his magic. He could spend the day learning more about what he could do, and if anything unexpected happened, he would be much more capable of defending himself.

First, he decided to move farther away from the city. He wasn’t sure how far away wavelords could sense each other’s powers. He thought back on his confrontation with Lord Thran, and what he had learned from their fight. Based on how quickly the pulsing had grown when the man had closed in on him, he didn’t think it would be more than a few miles, and it was probably significantly less than that, but he decided it was better to be safe than sorry. He ran until the port city disappeared in the distance. Once he was certain it would be impossible for any wavelord in the city to feel him use his powers, he began to experiment.

Something he quickly learned was that the more complicated the command, the less likely it was to work. Simple commands like protect me, and create a sword were easy, and even seemed to put less pressure on his bond. Something like the water hand he had created to fight Lord Thran was at the very limit of what he could create because it had essentially been following two commands at the same time. One to create the water hand, and another to make the hand copy his movements. Anything more than two commands used on his halo simply wouldn’t register and often two was too much.

After that, he had learned that visualizing how he wanted the command to work was important as well. If he didn’t visualize what he wanted from his power, it would often come out wrong. He had learned that after he started throwing commands at the wall to see what would stick, and some of them came out strangely.

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A water whip he created simply splashed to pieces when it came into contact with anything, and a rope he had tried to create didn’t bend whatsoever, it was simply a hard length of water in the shape of a rope. After that, he started visualizing what he wanted each of his creations to do, and he got much better results.

Soon, he started practicing the various things he had tried out, trying to make the use of his powers natural and instinctive. In doing so, he made sure to practice what he had seen Lord Thran doing the most. It made sense that if another wavelord was using his powers in a specific way, those would be some of the more effective uses.

He had to admit he had a lot of fun with the pressurized beam of water. It sliced through trees with ease, and managed to even carve into stone. The only drawback was that it tired out the bond rapidly. He guessed it had something to do with the water he lost. Most of the other things he created returned the water to his body after use, but the when he shot the beam, at some point the connection between him and the water was lost, and with that loss more pressure was created on the bond.

He had to take frequent breaks over the course of the day when he became too tired from using his powers, but that didn’t stop him from starting up again as soon as he could. There was a part of him that looked on with childlike glee as he created a water sword and used it to chop into a tree.

His experiments eventually came to an end when the sun fell toward the horizon, and Grayson switched to doing the exercises that Trest had taught him. He wanted to give the bond time to recover before going into the city, just in case he ran into trouble.

He wrapped up his exercises after the sun had set, and started making his way toward the port. Unfortunately, Grayson hadn’t managed to think of a way to enter the city without using his powers, but he would be able to enter without the guards noticing. He hoped that there wouldn’t be a wavelord in the city that would make his life much easier.

He stopped a fair distance from the city before taking a deep breath and preparing himself. Watching carefully, he could see torchlight from the guards manning the walls, and couldn’t help but sigh at the sight. He was hoping there wouldn’t be lookouts, and he could easily get over the wall without having to dodge any unwanted attention. Unfortunately, it looked like he would need to go far above the wall, where he wouldn’t be seen, and he hadn’t come up with a great solution to do so. Most of the ideas he had come up with required commands that were too complex. He had gone simpler, and found a way that wasn’t exactly fast, but it would work.

The first thing he did was take off his shirt, and hold it above his head, feeling ridiculous as he did so. The reason why he was holding the shirt above his head was demonstrated a moment later when he flexed his bond, and the disk appeared, giving off light. It wasn’t a bright light, but it was enough that he was sure it would be noticed in the darkness. The shirt placed in front of the disk kept most of the light from getting through, enough that he was confident he wouldn’t be seen in the darkness.

Grayson started running, a little awkwardly because his arms were above his head, but once he built up a good amount of speed, he jumped into the air, and commanded his power to make a platform beneath him. He then jumped off that platform, dismissed it, and created another beneath him and jumped once again. He continued in that fashion, jumping from platform to platform, getting into a sort of rhythm as he moved higher into the sky, adjusting the angle of his shirt as he went to make sure it was between the halo and the guards. Eventually, he was high enough that he recreated his same altitude walk, and ran above the city.

He looked down at where the guards stood, but none of them seemed to see him, and he didn’t hear any shouts, so he was fairly sure he had gone unnoticed. He passed over the walls, and found a particularly shadowed part of town where he decided to set down. To do so, he simply turned a platform command on and off, falling incrementally until he reached the ground. From there he dismissed his powers entirely, and ran from the place, just in case a wavelord from the city came looking.

He put his shirt back on, cursing the thing for being too tight before he started stalking the back alleys of the city. They weren’t as empty as the streets in Silmia had been, but there still weren’t many people moving around.

Grayson moved with a purpose, keeping an eye out for anything that he could use to cover his skin. He needed to find something to disguise himself before the sun came up. It took quite some time, but eventually, he came across a ratty looking blanket. He had been looking through a pile of trash when he found the thing, having been thrown away by its previous owner. It smelled terrible, and Grayson grimaced before wrapping a portion of it around the bottom side of his face, and fashioning the top into a sort of cowl. All in all, he wasn’t too unhappy with what he had created. For an old smelly blanket, he felt he had done about as good a job with the disguise as could be expected.

After that, all he needed to do was find something to cover his hands, and he was fairly sure he knew a place he could find a pair of gloves. Grayson made his way straight for the docks. He saw a few other figures in the alleyways as he walked, but none of them seemed interested in bothering the crazy man with a blanket covering his head, and he made his way unimpeded to his destination.

He strolled along the docks until he saw exactly what he was looking for. A man sat in a boat, a lantern set on the dock nearby. The man appeared to be mending some fishing nets, tying new knots into places where the old material had frayed. Sitting on the dock, next to the lantern looked to be some kind of tool box with various instruments inside. Grayson ignored those, his eyes fixed instead on a pair of leather gloved sticking out of from the box. He slowly moved toward gloves, keeping one eye on the fisherman, who seemed engrossed in his task.

He was hoping to grab the gloves and leave without the man noticing, but something must have tipped the man off because he looked up sharply, and gasped in surprise when he saw Grayson walking in his direction.

Grayson tisked before dashing over, grabbing the gloves and running away.

“Hey- Stop!” the man cried out, but Grayson was already gone.

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