The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

WM [80] Fire Magic

Tanisha placed her hand back on the device, releasing a small tether of aether into the mechanism. As she guided the stream of energy, she focused on tracing its flow, following the path Signe had described. Almost immediately, she encountered a disruption in the flow. The best analogy she could muster was that it felt like a hole in the middle of a maze. Any energy poured into it was swallowed up, vanishing into nothingness.

She adjusted her focus, carefully nudging the tether of aether around the disruption. It was a delicate process, requiring precision and control. Most of all it required her to maintain focus on that spot while she continued to push the aether forward at the same time. For a moment, she thought she was making progress. Then the energy snapped back violently when her focus on the void wavered. Her efforts unraveled instantly, and the tether was once again consumed by the void.

Undeterred, she tried again, this time using even less aether. Smaller amounts were easier to manipulate, and she hoped it would allow her to maintain control for longer. It didn’t work, no matter how carefully she tried, the tether fell short of reaching its destination. She could feel the aether breaking down before she could complete the circuit.

A deep frustration began to settle over her. Sweat beaded on her brow as the intense concentration took its toll. Tanisha cursed under her breath, rubbing at her temples to ease the growing headache. She had no idea how much time had passed, but she was mentally drained. Her magic refused to respond the way she needed, as though even her own power was conspiring against her. She had not even used ten percent of her total magic yet it felt like she had been pushing herself through magic drills for hours.

“Okay, I am done for right now.” Tanisha screamed as she punched the small device. “Why is this so True above hard!”

She spun around and found Bjorn sprawled out on the floor, fast asleep. Aurelius, ever the vigilant companion, had also dozed off, though unlike Bjorn, he stirred awake at the sound of her ranting. He cracked one eye open, regarding her with an expression that seemed to ask, Are you done?

Tanisha huffed and trudged over to the pair, plopping herself down beside them. Aurelius gave her a knowing look, and the two exchanged a few quiet words about the door before he yawned and drifted back to sleep. She leaned back against the wall, arms crossed and lips pressed into a pout. She sat in silence for a few minutes then decided it was a better time than any to experiment with her magic.

Status Menu

Name: Tanisha Valkyrja Scalebound
Species: Cernunnos
Level: 44
+ Vitality: 100 + 10 = 110
+ Restoration: 100 + 10 = 110
+ Constitution: 100 + 10 = 110
+ Willpower: 130 + 10 = 140
+ Strength: 74 + 2 = 76
+ Dexterity:  83 + 2 = 85
+ Stamina: 48 + 2 = 50
+ Seiðr: =  470 + 50 = 520
+ Seiðr Regeneration: 235 + 50 = 520 (+200 from bond)
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She was disappointed to find that she hadn’t gained any new skills but that was going to change soon. The changes made to her status was good enough for now. She gained the equivalent of fourteen and half levels just from opening her Blood Gate. If opening the others gave her a similar boost she should work to refine her magic as much as possible and open the other Gates. Especially since they didn’t know what waited for them on the other side of the door. She also needed to remind Bjorn to start evolving her, in the excitement she had forgotten.

Straightening her posture, she shifted into a lotus position, closing her eyes as she steadied her breathing. Slowly, she began circulating her seiðr throughout her body. The process felt remarkably smoother now, like water flowing through well-worn channels. Compared to before, when her magic had been forced through restrictive, stubborn meridians, it was like night and day.

The newfound ease in controlling her power made her realize just how close she’d come to crippling herself in the past. In hindsight she could see that the raw energy hadn’t wanted to flow through incorrect channels, and forcing it had strained her body more than she had understood at the time. With the Blood Gate opened, she could see the lingering damage throughout her form. Some of the magical pathways within her had begun to atrophy, brittle and weak from just the few months of misuse. Only the surge of energy from the Blood Gate had reopened them, jumpstarting a slow but steady healing process.

She noticed the seiðr that was in her new mana paths and that which was in her meridians was different. It was barely noticeable but now that the Blood Gate was open the darker aspect of her seiðr, that which was composed of the elements of maya, flowed with her breathing with far greater ease as well.

“Did opening the channel allow the maya-seiðr to have it’s place in my body back?” Tanisha whispered in contemplation.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Tanisha experimented by taking out the maya pipe and pressing it to her lips. She took in a deep drag of the infernal energies and felt the maya burn her meridians. She took another deep inhale and the burn became a soothing ache as her body shivered. She hadn’t felt the calming burn of maya in her meridians in a long time.

Something she hadn’t told Joha was that her meridians had stopped growing after she gained seiðr but she assumed it was because the energy was different from normal maya. However, now she saw it was because her channels were being damaged because she was focusing all of her alloy through it, not just its darker aspects. Now with the pipe she was also repairing the damage she inadvertently caused to this part of her too.

It wasn’t perfect though, both the mana and maya channels in her body were being invaded by aether which was still causing damage though far less than before. She needed to find out how to utilize the aetheric side of her alloy in the same way she had learned how to control the darker aspect of maya. She didn’t know how to do that though, but now that she knew there was damage happening to her she needed to find out.

“Fuyumi may know.” Tanisha said to herself as she stood.

***

Tanisha found Fuyumi on patrol, the ghostborn woman was scanning corridors near the door they had camped beside. She stood silently, observing a sign near another blast door. Fuyumi turned at Tanisha’s approach, her expression neutral but curious.

“Still no luck opening the door?” Fuyumi asked.

Tanisha felt a flush of embarrassment heat her cheeks. 

“Not yet,” Tanisha admitted, quickly changing the subject. “What’s this door?”

Fuyumi gestured toward the sign. “I think it says ‘bunkhouse’ or ‘barracks.’ Hard to tell—it’s written almost like an ancient dialect of Muaian. Why don’t you try opening it?”

Tanisha nodded. “Sure, but I don’t think I’ll have much luck with it.”

Placing her hand on the console, Tanisha focused and channeled a sliver of aether into the mechanism. The response was immediate. A low hiss echoed through the hallway as warm air gusted from the seal, and the ancient blast door slid open with uncanny smoothness.

The moment the door revealed the shadowed interior, Fuyumi tackled Tanisha to the ground. A deafening crack, like thunder splitting the air, echoed through the corridor. Before Tanisha could process what was happening, Fuyumi was already on her feet, sword drawn, her ghostly visage eerily calm despite the rapid succession of sharp, piercing bangs that followed.

Instinctively, Tanisha yanked her bardiche from her inventory, the weapon materializing in her hands. She activated Arcane Shift, teleporting to the side just as something invisible whizzed past where her head had been and struck the ground with a metallic ping. Sparks flew as the projectile ricocheted off the floor.

Fuyumi sprinted into the passage, her movements fluid and precise, and Tanisha followed closely. The new room was dark, the only light entering from the corridor outside. Even so they could see the attackers, four hulking constructs pushed forward into the light. Their upper halves were humanoid, complete with arms, torsos, and heads, but their gleaming metallic bodies were unnatural, more machine than creature. Their lower bodies were just wheels inside of wheels with a band of metal connecting them. Tanisha's eyes widened as she studied them, her mind racing. 

“Golems?” she murmured, the word slipping from her lips.

Their arms ended not in hands but in strange, cylindrical devices that emitted bursts of light and flame with every crack. To her untrained eyes, they looked like wands channeling fire magic but, the damage they caused was too precise and fast.

One of the constructs swiveled its head toward her, and the next crack hit her square in the leg. The impact sent her staggering back, pain flaring briefly before her enchanted armor reacted. A golden shimmer erupted around her as feathers of light shot back toward the attacker, piercing its chest with a sharp clang. It shuddered but continued its assault.

Tanisha's breath caught as she noticed the small, jagged piece of metal lodged in her armor where she'd been struck. 

Her eyes narrowed. “They're not using fire magic—they're launching metal at us.” She grimaced, her thoughts racing. “Metal manipulation magic? No... something different.”

The constructs advanced relentlessly, their cylindrical wands continuing to fire. Fuyumi dodged and weaved, her sword slicing cleanly through one of the golem’s heads, which sparked and sputtered before the entire body collapsed in a heap. Tanisha lunged at another, her bardiche glowing faintly with imbued seiðr. She swung upward and cleaved through its torso. The pieces fell with a resounding crash, its wheel spun the remains in circles.

Pausing for a brief moment amidst the chaos, Tanisha crouched near the remains of one of the fallen golems, her fingers brushing the cold, metallic surface. 

“What are these things?” she muttered.

Its head, if she could call it that, was featureless except for a single glowing red eye that flickered and died. The cylindrical wand that had attacked her was unlike anything she'd seen, a hollow tube with a strange mechanism she couldn’t make heads or tails of. 

“They're not like any golems I've ever heard of,” she said aloud. “No cores, no visible magic just... machines?”

“Now's not the time for study,” Fuyumi called out, her blade slicing through the arm of another golem. “Focus!”

Tanisha snapped out of her thoughts, gripping her bardiche tightly. Another golem aimed its weapon at her, and she raised her weapon letting the flat of her blade block the barrage of metal the golem shot at her. There was no magic in the attack at all, just pure force and kinetic energy. She didn’t bother dodging as she closed the distance. She grunted as a powerful swing of her axe shattered its arm. Sparks and fragments of metal exploded from the impact as the construct staggered. Fuyumi finished it off with a precise thrust to its torso, disabling it completely.

The final golem fired at Fuyumi, but she deflected the projectiles with her sword, the ricochets creating a cacophony in the confined hallway. Tanisha teleported behind it with Arcane Shift, driving her bardiche down into its base, severing its tracks and sending it toppling over.

As the echoes of battle faded, Tanisha and Fuyumi stood amidst the broken remains of the strange constructs. Tanisha bent down again, examining the intricate mechanisms. 

“They're so... strange,” Tanisha said, as she hefted the bardiche onto her shoulder. “No runes, no mana... just tubes and more metal? How do they even move?”

“Ancient golems, I have heard of these things guarding in old ruins like these.” Fuyumi replied, sheathing her sword. She glanced toward the darkened corridor ahead. “And I doubt they’re the last of their kind. From what I heard they are pretty rare and dangerous to non-mages. They don’t use mana at all so their attacks are purely physical.”

Tanisha nodded, her grip tightening on her bardiche. “Let’s regroup. But first…” She swung her weapon in a clean arc, severing one of the golem’s twisted, metallic arms. The limb clattered to the ground with a hollow clang. “I’m keeping this. I want to figure out what makes these things tick. I think Signe would be interested too.”

“Good idea,” Fuyumi replied, glancing over her shoulder. “But let’s close this door, just in case. No sense in letting more of them rush out.”

Tanisha moved back to the console and resealed the blast door. The hiss of the mechanism echoed in the now-quiet corridor as the reinforced barrier slid back into place, locking with a satisfying thud. With the immediate danger contained, the two women turned and began retracing their steps. It wouldn’t take long to rejoin the sleeping pair and she was already excited to look at this weird new metal wand. As she thought about it she was reminded she went looking for Fuyumi for advice. 

“Fuyumi, Do you know how I can find the proper way to channel my alloy?” Tanisha asked. “I was working on circulation and I found out that both my maya and mana have stabilized but my magic channels are still being damaged by my third magic aether.”

“Aether? That is the power of the Human Divines.” Fuyumi said with a raised eyebrow. “Is that why you can open the passageways in here?”

“Yes, the building seems to run on aether like a massive spellform.” Tanisha said.

Fuyumi’s expression grew more thoughtful. “Is your True a Human Divine?”

“No, not at all,” Tanisha replied, shaking her head. “But he does have connections to aether.”

Fuyumi placed a hand on her chin, deep in thought. “The Yuki follow the Human Divines. Our creator was adopted into their pantheon, and he too wielded aether. Generations ago, my people lost our connection to it, and when we did, our bodies changed, becoming what you see today. Many of our rituals are still steeped in the old ways, though. Perhaps training is the answer. You may need to learn the Walking Armory magic and take the first steps on the Path of Enlightenment.”

Tanisha tilted her head, puzzled. “How would learning your fighting techniques help me control aether?”

Fuyumi’s voice softened, carrying a hint of reverence. “Spirituality may hold the key to understanding your connection to aether. Our Sage, who has lived tens of thousands of years, tells us stories of how our ancestors used aether as part of their path to enlightenment. Though we lost that connection, our combat techniques were built upon the remnants of that path. It’s all speculation, of course, but I promised to help you train, and I will.”

Tanisha stopped and bowed her head. “I will be in your care then, master.”

Fuyumi immediately stepped forward, placing a firm hand on Tanisha’s shoulder. “None of that bowing. We’re equals. Both of us are warriors working to improve our craft, nothing more.”