I should have spent the rest of the day learning the limitations of my abilities. How far can a binding be stretched before it breaks? The maximum distance at which I could bind a source and a load. Calculating how much the efficiency in a binding scales to the distance between the source and the load. I knew this was important and likely the first thing I should do. But I didn't. My first task was making a weapon.
The arcane circle for Candle was rather complex. Not due to the de- and recomposition, but several reduction and energy regulation runes that kept the flame still and stable. Once it reached its maximum regulated power, no matter how strong I made the binding or how much energy was in the source, the flame remained roughly five inches tall.
The inspiration to feel power at my fingertips pushed me to weaponize the circle. The first step was removing the reduction and regulation runes. All arcane circles needed them; instead, I reversed the meaning. Limitations and regulations were replaced with maximization of the recomposition rate.
I sat on the stone, staring at the altered circuit. It took a dozen tries before I found the proper combination. Like before, I activated my Animus, bound the arcane source, and load, creating a complete circuit.
Nothing happened. Odd, since I felt the flow of energy. I strengthened the binding, increasing the flow from the stack of wood, rapidly turning them black, then grey. Then it exploded, deafening me. A shockwave rippled across me, taking several minutes before the ringing in my ears ceased.
"Interesting, but not what I wanted."
I stared at the slightly grey wood. "Still some energy left."
Sitting down, I tried to figure out the problem before it hit me. I was just creating a large amount of flammable gas and then igniting. I needed the air to move like a dragon breathing fire.
"I need an arcane circle to push the air upward relative to the circle."
~
That took almost half a day to figure out. But in the end, it was rather simple and didn't cost much in terms of energy. Though I did have to create a second Arcane source to power it.
I had long since figured out that I can maintain multiple bindings at the same time. Once a binding was created with the animus, I didn't actually need it to maintain it. That took a relatively small amount of will. But if I wanted to modulate the strength of the binding, I would have to activate my animus again.
My limit was six at the same time; trying to add a seventh caused me to completely lose control of almost all the bindings. I wasn't sure if there was a limit on unfocused bindings yet.
~
It was another day, but now I had two circuits. One that created the gas, another that pushed the air forward. Fortunately, it made no difference if I made arcane circles inside each other so long as what they were doing didn't conflict. My theory was to sequentially create a constant stream of flammable gas, ignite it, and continue the stream, creating a cone of fire.
It took several tries to get the proper combination of gas generation and air speed.
I even had to remove the part of the candle spell that ignited it to make another circuit dedicated to heating a very small amount of air. So to do a simple stream of fire required three simultaneous bindings. However, once the fire started, I didn't need the ignition circuit.
My first attempt didn't ignite; the second produced pulses of flame. After ten, I finally had a constant stream.
I stared at my rock, standing back from the coals, watching as a five-foot stream of fire erupted from the large stone. The wood serving as the source turned black, then to ash in only four seconds.
"Energy degradation was rather inefficient," I said, shaking my head. Still, I was pleased beyond words. Reveling in my success, my mind went back to Elis, a question forming.
"What was she using as a source?" It made no sense. There had to be a source, no matter the circumstance. The Ocularums were adamant. I sent my mind back to when she was using magic. Remembering how she threw lightning, she placed one hand on her chest and used lightning with the other. Source and load.
"The left was probably for the source!"
Then it hit me, the powder in the small pouch and the small glowing stone.
'We have only one shot,' Elis said.
Did she have two stones? If so, then she used up all the power in the one around her neck, turning it to dust. The smaller one was likely far less powerful. That's why she went from touching her chest to her waist. She was using two stones!
I shot to my feet, ran into the shack, and sifted through my crudely made sack of cloth. Finding the stone inside the silk pouch, I ran back to my arcane circuit.
I didn't know what the stone was or if it even was a stone, but I had no problem experimenting. Gathering some more wood, I activated the circuit I was calling Dragon's Breath again, creating a stream of fire. Before it completely consumed the wood, I tossed the stone inside the sphere of influence.
That was a mistake. The five-foot stream of fire grew to thirty. Its flames became a mixture of bright red and blue. It roared as it pushed a massive amount of wind. It was so terrifying that I lost control of the binding.
After a few moments, I stood there in silence, my skin slightly warm from standing so close to so much fire. Then I started laughing. It was glorious; with that kind of power, anything and everything would be mine.
I looked at the pile of ash where the stone was sitting.
"Dammit," I said, picking it up.
Its glow was greatly diminished, almost half as bright as before. My dreams of becoming some unbeatable goddess of fire diminished a bit. I only maintained it for roughly four seconds. That meant that the stone had at best eight seconds of power to fuel the circuit. Why does it work so well? I could only guess that the stone contained pure primal energy. So the circle wasn't doing any degradation, making it nearly perfectly efficient. With no regulation on the load, it drew as much as my binding could transmit.
I sighed. 'Shame I wasted so much energy, but it's good that I know what I have now. '
"That's why Farketh thought the ambush would work. Elis had no source, so of course, he thought she could be captured! But whatever this is, it was a secret."I shouted as everything started to make sense.
Staring at my gloved hands, I smiled and went back to the cottage.
I stared at the old fireplace and said, "Time to make this space a bit more livable."
~
My first step was making a crude energy furnace. After I lit the fire, I created five circuits. Two were Candles, so I could have light. It was relatively easy to carve them into flat stones using my dagger. Another was the same circuit to push air. It was inside the chimney, creating suction, pulling the heat up faster than normal.
For heat absorption, there existed what was called a minimum energy point. More accurately, the temperature at which an arcane circle could no longer absorb and convert the thermal energy into primal. Air had the lowest energy point. It got so cold that the chimney froze through to the stone, cracking it when I tried to tie the source to my stream of fire. Constantly streaming in hot air to be converted was how energy furnaces worked. The more heat contained in the air before absorption, the more energy can be absorbed before reaching the minimum energy point. Water was even better; however, its minimum point was when it froze.
The last two, were arcane circles inside the chimney, were simple heat absorption sources, as close to the fire as possible. Carving the arcane source circles into the stone of the chimney took hours.
But now, in the dead of night, I had two candles sitting on small stones providing ample light if I decided to go outside. It was also the perfect opportunity to test bindings.
The maximum distance I could move before the efficiency started to drop was twenty paces, or around 40 feet. At forty, the flame was half the size; at eighty, a quarter. So I assumed that every time the base distance was doubled, the efficiency was halved, until the binding either breaks or I strengthen it to account for the efficiency loss. The same principle worked for permanent bindings. The maximum range I could create a binding was around 250 paces. At 450 paces, both forms of bindings broke regardless of strength. It seemed to be a hard limit, or perhaps it was a lack of skill on my part. Unless I was creating something like The Baron's castle, the source and load were unlikely to be so far from each other.
~
The next step was more practical with matter manipulation. The circuit to directly manipulate the substance of a material was complex. First, the material had to be defined. The book defined iron using the runes, “Palar”, “Alur”, or earth metal.
I needed to maintain two bindings to manipulate the iron. The first was to keep it heated until it became liquid; the other was the shape transformation circuit.
Heating the iron was simple; shaping, however, was incredibly costly. I had to work with perfect focus to morph the molten metal into my desired shape. Even creating an ugly, misshapen ring used so much energy that the stone in the chimney froze and cracked, causing the arcane circle to be disrupted and the source failing.
I was left with an ugly, misshapen abortion of a ring.
'I need more power.'
~
Using the energy stone nearly killed me. For one thing, no matter what I tried, the power couldn't be regulated. Even the smallest wispiest pathetic excuse for a binding resulted in massive amounts of energy flowing through. Reduction and regulation runes did nothing.
And it only worked with the potential energy degradation circuit. I was not prepared for the revelation that iron could boil. The only reason why my Dragon’s Breath worked was that it was simple; maximum overkill was the point.
But I would rather not try to heat a bowl of water, only to end up with a steam explosion again.
'I need a proper energy furnace if I want to do any magic with finesse. That means I have to leave. The only question was: where should I go?'
South was out of the question. Farketh was likely being torn apart by the baron, and I was certainly not going to stay in Vinlan or Redstone. I needed somewhere I could be anonymous while allowing me to sit and plan long-term.
There were massive gaps in my magic knowledge, like how exactly two circuits can interact with each other. How does one create magical items that can operate using mundane means? Like the teapot or the levers for the burners in Darion’s store.
I needed to research to grow my power. Even more so was the threat of the magisterium. Apostate was what they would call me. My existence was illegal. Imprisonment or death would be my end if I allowed myself to get caught. So, no heading to the capital of the empire.
Harlock! High crime, an apathetic baroness. The perfect place for an apostate. I bet I could carve out a little part of her city for myself. Use that as a base of operations, gather information and resources. The only thing I wanted now that I had power was more power.
I stood, gathered the five Ocularums. The books were priceless, worth far more than their weight in gold. Hundreds? Thousands? It didn't matter in the end; they were now useless. I practically had them memorized.
So, I tossed them into the fireplace. Elis protected the things like a newborn, and I couldn’t afford to travel with such dangerous items.
I watched as the books caught fire, the invaluable items burning away to ash. Leaving behind a few slags of gold.
~
It took another few days before I was confident and ready to leave. As if the universe wanted to bless me, the stone was glowing brighter. It still wasn't at the same level as before. But at the rate it was going, it would take another day or two. That meant, so long as I didn't completely drain the stone of energy, it could recharge. Considering that it was half brightness and it's been three days since I used it, it must recharge at approximately 10% per day. Damned slow, but it was nice to have a backup if things ever went south.
I put on Surian’s white gloves. On the palms were the arcane circuit for what I was now calling Dragon's Breath. It would be emitted from my right. On my left palm were the sources for each magical effect. So long as I had access to wood or my stone, I could make fire with just a thought.
I put on Elis's dark blue shirt, black bodice, and leather pants. It was hell to get all the blood out, but I managed. It fitted well enough. Though once again, I lost weight and needed to fill out again. The remnants of my dress I fashioned into a sack to carry my things. My dagger was at my waist, and I kept Elis's pocketknife. Brilliantly, Elis's dark brown leather pants had pockets. So, I was able to store the five silver eagles, a single golden royal, and the random slags of gold from the burnt Ocularums. It was relatively easy to turn them into small squares of gold, five of them to be exact. Everything but my simple silver earrings were melted down into crude slags of precious metal. If I had to guess, I had at least 450 silver worth of precious metal and currency. Gold was many times more valuable than silver after all.
After lacing on Elis's boots, I let my hair flow free, reaching the middle of my back.
Before I walked away, I smiled viciously, pressed my left hand to my chest, braced myself, and muttered the bindings for the fire stream. I should have known earlier that it would push back against me when emitting so much fire. Fortunately, I didn't burn myself to a crisp. As I stood with my right palm facing the small wooden hut, a thirty-foot-long stream of fire erupted, turning the house into a kindling in seconds. I cut off the stream and watched as the house burned to ash. Taking away all the evidence.
I breathed in the fresh morning air and headed north, walking away from the building quickly smoldering into ash.
'Someday I'll return to Farway. Mother, Bren, Aalis, Treanor, Laron. I'm sure you've missed me. And Greg, I haven't forgotten you. I'm going to kill you and burn your village to the ground. There's no good reason other than I want to. None of you ever gave me any warmth, so I'll burn you all to feel it. I will burn everything; not even vultures will find scraps left behind.'
I started laughing as I walked away from the fire.
~
It took a day to find the main road. Not wanting to draw attention by walking with a magical flame, I tossed my rock before I reached. It was midday as I stepped onto the wide highway. There was quite a crowd; hundreds of peasants were walking towards Vinlan. Some were in carts pulled by ragged nags and donkeys. While others walked in groups, looking as pathetic and downtrodden as the poorest of Lakeshore. My clothes stood out since they were clearly of excellent craftsmanship. At the very least, I wasn't the only one dressed well. There were a few people on fine horses, while a few mercantile families rode in carriages.
I shrugged, not knowing what to do, and joined the horde of people walking north. It was very strange how little they spoke to each other. They had to be refugees by my estimation, staying within their small groups. While I looked odd, most weren't willing to hold my gaze for long.
‘How exactly do I ask someone for information without looking too strange?’
Taking stock of the people around me, I considered whom to approach.
'A rather pretentious-looking man on a white horse. Some mercenary types. Ahhh, there we are, a nice, detached family man, woman, and starving daughter, perhaps ten. All brown haired and dressed in cheap homespun.'
I slowly drifted my path in their direction. After ten minutes of walking, I was next to the man with the girl in the center.
I tossed a nut into my mouth, turned to the man, and asked, "So where are you all fleeing from?"
Brown eyes stared at me in confusion as if he didn't expect me to talk. They looked me up and down, no doubt confused about what I was or why I was dressed like this.
"Nirol, south o' Hendesburg."The man answered.
"I see, the war has reached that far north, has it?"
I had no clue where he was talking about.
"Aye," the man said, clearly cautious in how he was talking to me.
‘Damn, I should have gone with the peasant drawl. Too late now, I suppose.’
"Any news other than bad? I've been on the road for days." I asked.
All three of them went grim-faced. "That bad?"
"Looks like it's going to be coin," I said. There were hundreds of people milling about near the drawn bridge. A line of guards in heavy leather prevented anyone from crossing.
Jed sighed, craning his neck to see past the crowd to the small group of people talking to the guardsmen. "Some merchants bein' let in, but everyone else is gettin' turned away."
I stood silent for some time, formulating a plan. "Jed, how good a speaker are you?"
"You 'erd me talk," Jed said.
"I'm a little better," Hannah said.
I smiled widely. "Care for a bit of acting?"
They looked at me, confused. "When we get to the front, I want you to speak for me. Pretend like you're my maid and heavily suggest that your mistress wants to pass. Make sure to emphasize that I'd be willing to demonstrate my generosity with gold."
Eyes widened at the mention of gold.
"Why don't you do it?" Jed asked.
"It's just a quirk of the wealthy. If it works out, we all pass, and you get a silver for your troubles. Deal?"
Hannah looked to her husband, whose shoulders slumped, and said, "Fine, not like we got much better options."
I clapped. "Wonderful. Now I'll put on my stuffy noblewoman persona. Do, forgive me."
I straightened my posture, my face losing all emotion. I looked at the family as if they were insects; I wasn't sure if I wanted to dirty my boots by stepping on.
"That's scary," Lisa said, hiding behind her mother's skirt.
Jed and Hannah looked me up and down as if I had transformed into a dragon. "I ain't never seen a noble. But I sure as hells don't wanna meet one." Hannah had a chill in her voice. I gave her a vicious smile.
~
We reached the front after elbowing our way through the crowd of stinking bodies. Finally, we were stopped by men in heavy leather holding spears.
'Good. They're not knights. This might work.'
"State your business," One shouted as we walked forward. I nodded to Hannah, who cleared her throat.
"Good day, guardsman. Ahh, my lady would like to do some business in the town." I couldn't blame her for being nervous. The men were rather intimidating in their full armor.
"Your lady?" He said, stepping a bit closer to her. He was at least a head taller. Jed looked ready to step in, but the guardsman didn't do anything else.
"Y-Yes," She said, pointing to me. I gave him my most baleful gaze, as if the entire waiting process was insulting to me.
That gave him pause. Hannah, with surprising bravery, walked up to the man. And whispered, just loud enough that the guard could hear.
"My-my lady is very generous and would like to get off her feet. Some say she's as generous as gold is pretty."
He licked his lips. Greed was such a base human emotion. Even more so was the motivation of not having to deal with some wealthy woman's tantrums. Anyone with sense knew that it only brought more trouble. Might as well get paid for doing something you were already inclined to.
"A moment."
The guard walked off and had a conversation with two others, who nodded eagerly.
"Come on then, let's get this done."
The relief on Jed's shoulders was palpable. In no time, the line of guards opened, allowing us to pass through. As soon as we reached the end of the bridge. I walked up to the guard.
"The Blessings of Anier upon you," I said imperiously.
Then I dropped one of my gold squares into his hand. His eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. It disappeared into a pocket. Considering it was at least a third of a golden dragon, the man just pocketed several years' wages.
"Where's the best Inn?" I asked.
"Carps Run no doubt. Tell 'em Darius sent you." "My Lady." He quickly added.
"Good day, Darius," I said, turning on a heel, followed by the family.
"How much coin was that bit of gold worth?" Jed asked.
I shrugged. "Depends, about sixty silver. It's not full purity, but even that should sell well."
Jed shook his head. "I'll not ask?"
I took out three silver coins. "As agreed."
"We hardly did nothin'," Hannah said.
"I'm a woman of my word. Now we part ways as friends."
Jed buried his pride and took the coin. "It has been good to know you, Ember," he said.
Hannah looked like she wanted to ask something, but it never came out of her mouth.
~
We parted ways. Over the next town, Hannah had family, and they were planning on leaving immediately. If they were ever interviewed about me, I hoped the good impression would prompt them to lie or obscure what they knew. People could behave strangely if they felt like they owed a debt.
I breathed in the scent of the busy town and grinned.
'I'm going to eat myself into a coma for the next week.'