Framework of the Frontier, Sain Artwell [read me a book .TXT] 📗

“Thank you. That’d be nice.” He gave her a gracious tip of the imaginary hat, before turning to Ember. “Could you help me with something?” When a weary groan began to form on her face, William quickly added. “There’ll be no heavy lifting or pest removal involved, I need your eyes.”

“Oh.” Ember looked relieved. “Yeah, of course.”

They promised to be there for dinner and walked to a small flat area next to shrubbery growing from the seams of the slabs on the ground. Ember seemed to be in a chipper mood; her ears flopped perkily and steps had a cheery springiness.

“Not so bad at making friends after all, huh?” he asked.

She glanced at him and away, sounding wistful. “That would be nice. I hope they’ll come by Nastall often.”

“Wouldn’t mind it either. They seem like a nice bunch.”

“Was it my Sorcerer’s Eye that you required?”

“Basically, yea. I’d like to spend a few doses of my divine energy to test some alternative blessings and do experiments on the one I know. I know you said you only did one course on divine magic, but that’s still infinitely better than where I’m at. I could use your brain to help me figure out what makes my powers tick.”

Her expression turned firm with determination. “Okay. How would you like to begin?”

“First, I’ll spend two blessings on testing some alternatives to strength. If I have healing powers I’d like to get access to them as soon as possible. Maybe you could look at my energy and tell me whether something happens or doesn’t.”

Ember muttered an incantation too fast and quiet for William’s ears. Magic lit up her amber eyes, surrounding her pupils with rings of arcane patterns. “Could you lean down a bit? It’s hard to see divine energy without touching you.”

“Ah, right.” William felt his ears warm up as he bent his knees to a half-crouch.

Velvety fingers traipsed over his face. Ember closed her eyes, pressing her forehead against his. Those perfect lips, cute soft features, and girly scent were too damn much even before accounting for her body, which was another category of a bomb shell.

“I’m ready,” she said.

“Alright, let’s go. God give me…” Health, healing, regeneration, rejuvenation — William went through a small dictionary of healing related words, and plenty of alternatives for the starter phrase.

Nothing worked.

“The divine energy moves when you start the words, but never takes form. If this was normal magic, I would say that you have a good intuitive grasp of channeling, but lack the aptitude for the sphere of magic you’re trying to invoke, or the correct ritual, or the mental image of the spell. But, I’m not sure if divine magic has the same structure. Maybe you should try something other than healing?”

“Okay, let’s have another go.” William loosened his shoulders and began, “God help me endure suffering—”

“I see it!”

And so did William. White speckles of misty light moved from his palm to chest. Pain disappeared instantly. Sadly, it didn’t seem to actually heal wounds.

Ember’s brows furrowed. “Please hold still.”

“Sorry.” He stayed very still.

Ember hummed ponderously. “The divine energy has surrounded your body and insides in a funny way. It sort of resembles armor enchantments, but they usually only protect the skin.”

“Sweet.” Exact limits of it were probably a pain in the ass to gouge. “Well, it’s something to cast in a pinch if I’m about to take hits.”

“You shouldn’t try to get hurt.”

“No, of course not. But I probably will.”

The itching ache on his arm and chest trickled back into William’s nerves at about nine second mark. A giddiness swelled inside him. Finally progress. Maybe I can figure out blessings in a couple of days and move to auras or whatever else I might have. I’ll be an OP combat machine by the time we meet up with the old gang.

“Alright, I wanna figure out one more blessing today.”

***

By the time William gave up, the deep blues had begun to overpower the last reds of the sunset. He sat down with a resigned sigh. “Okay, that’s it. I guess, learning these is going to take a loooot longer than I hoped.”

Ember was opening and closing her eyes with a strained, almost pained, look.

“You okay?” he asked.

She rubbed her eye. “They’re a little itchy. My incantation for Sorcerer’s Eye is not quite perfect yet.”

“Alright. Don’t strain yourself for my sake.”

“Uhu… It’s okay though.”

“Well, I kinda wanted to test auras too, but with those I don’t have the slightest guess for where to even begin… Let’s leave that for later. We promised to make it for dinner.”

“Sure. If you don’t want to continue, that’s okay.” Ember’s shoulders relaxed with relief.

He didn’t want to push her too hard. She seemed like the kind of girl to downplay her own pain, the strain of her spell included.

Ember blinked forcibly as she shifted from hoof to hoof. “Um, one thing William. Would you like to quickly try your blessing on me again? I didn’t have time to analyze it last time. It wouldn’t take long.” She rubbed her neck, twirling hair with a finger. “Although, it was a bit… Eh-he-he. Um, intimate. I wouldn’t mind. I mean, I would see it happen.” She glanced his way for a second.

God damn those eyes of hers.

“Yeah, intimate is the word…” William swallowed, feeling his mouth dry. Go for it. Go for it man, she’s into you. “…maybe Trotto could agree to receive it if—” Yeah, that’s a big fat nope. I’m all for making bros, but no way am I seeing into that troll’s soul. That’s gay as heck. I guess I’m only using it on girls. Though maybe that’s dumb. Yeah, it is dumb, but fuck it.

“Mm-hm. It would be best to do it like that, I guess….” Her ears drooped