Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Four — Family Matters Matter
Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Four — Family Matters Matter I set my fork next to my plate, then leaned back into my seat with a happy little sigh. My tummy was so full that I looked like I had a food baby, so I just relaxed while rubbing it down.Across from me, Amaryllis and her sisters looked a lot more noble with the way they ate, patting their mouths with napkins and carefully cutting out little squares from their fillet mignon.“That was really good,” I said.Gen-Gen bowed from his place a few paces away from the table. “I will relate your compliments to the cooking staff, Miss Bunch.”“Oh, yeah, please do,” I said.Rosaline snorted from her spot across from me. “You would be the talk of the town if you showed up at any gathering,” she said.“Why’s that?”She grinned over at me. “Because you’re such a cute little country bumpkin. The way you eat and sit and everything is so wrong it would make some of the ladies lay kittens.”“It’s a lost cause,” Amaryllis said. “Trust me, I’ve given up trying to teach her anything that has to do with manners.”“I could learn,” I said.“I’ve no doubt,” Amaryllis said. “But I have neither the time nor the patience to teach you. And besides, you’re... decent enough as you are. No need to have you sounding pretentious and proper just to please some old birds.”“Aww, thank you Amaryllis. I love you the way you are too.”Clementine made a disgusted face while Amaryllis huffed most mightily and refused to respond to my declaration. Rosaline, on the other hand, was ecstatic. “That’s it! Big sister Rose is taking you under her wing. You too Awen, there’s more than enough room for two girls under me.”“Rose!” Clementine and Amaryllis both said.It made Rosaline giggle into the crook of her wing. “But I’m serious. I’m an excellent teacher you know? Amaryllis said you needed some training?”I nodded. “Yes! I really want to learn how to cast a bunch of spells. And Awen is learning a new sort of magic too. And she’s a mechanic that hasn’t practiced anything mechanical in a while. It’s not fair for her.”Rose returned my nod. “That’s easily remedied. We have a whole shipyard of airships under construction. I’m in charge of the entire operation, so I know a thing or two about which end of the spanner you’re supposed to hit things with.”“Awa, I couldn’t impose on you for that,” Awen said.“Nonsense! We have a workshop here.” Rosaline waved off Awen’s concern. “Are you working on any projects?”Awen brought her hands together, fingertips pressed against their opposite while she focused on her lap. “N-not really? I do have ideas. Um. Things that I think would help my friends.”“Oh, you’re so precious,” Rosaline said. “We’ll get you anything you need while you’re staying here!” She smacked the table and bounced to her feet. “Now come on! It’s time for Miss Rose to teach you girls a thing or two about magic!”I looked over to Amaryllis and she sighed. “Just go with it. She might act like... herself, but she is an exceptionally good teacher, and she is an accomplished mage in her own right.”“That’s right, I’m the best,” Rosaline declared.“It’s too bad she can’t apply any of that know-how to her lovelife,” Amaryllis fired.Rosaline crumbled under the critical hit, her ego deflating along with her entire body. “Amy, my favourite little sister, how could you?”A giggle escaped before I could stuff a hand over my mouth. I figured it was okay because Rosaline’s lips twitched up in a smile before she bounced back.“Okay, follow me, little chicks, we’re going to the atrium! Gen-Gen, is it clear?”“It is, Miss Rosaline,” the butler said with a bow. “Shall I bring the after meals to you?”“Sure!” Rosaline agreed. “Are you two coming?” she asked over to Amaryllis and Clementine.Clementine shook her head. “No. Amy and I have a few things to discuss; don’t worry, she’ll be in one piece when I’m done with her.”“I’d worry for myself, if I was you,” Amaryllis said. “I’ve passed my tenth level, you know.”Clementine snorted. “You’re cute when you try to be threatening. Keep fluffing those feathers littlest sister, you might scare a mouse.”“Whelp, those two are going to argue again,” Rosaline declared. “We’ll leave them to it.” With that, the harpy grabbed one of my hands, then she plucked one of Awen’s, and started pulling us both deeper into the house.Awen’s face took on a strange colour as she stared at the talons carefully wrapped around her hand.Poor thing. She was just getting used to my touchy-feely-ness. I’d have to ask her about it later!“This is the atrium,” Rosaline said as she presented a large, open room to us. It had a nice view of a courtyard in the back of the house and a few open doors leading into other parts of the mansion. “We call it the atrium, but it’s not. It used to be, but the house was renovated, now it’s just a sort of random room, but it’s got some nice seats and nothing irreplaceable, so it’s good for training while staying indoors.”She pulled us over to a few plush seats set near the windows and let go so that she could pull one seat over to face the others. “Okay! We’ll start with the theory and then do the practical stuff later!”“Alright!” I said as I sat down. Awen picked a seat right next to mine.“Ah, I know a bit about magic,” she said. “I had tutors. But, um, Broccoli... I mean. I don’t mind hearing it all again.”“If that’s the case... Broccoli!”“Yes?” I asked.“Explain magic to me! That way, I'll see where you're at, then I’ll use my excellent teaching abilities to turn you into a spell-flinging prodigy in no time!”I grinned from ear to ear. “Okay. I can do that,” I said.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.I wiggled my bum to find the position of optimal comfort on my seat while racking my brain to try and figure out a way to explain what I knew about magic. It was surprisingly difficult. Sure, Amaryllis had told me a thing or two, but what I’d learned had mostly been through discovery and trial and error, that made it hard to condense everything into one small explanation.“As far as I can tell, magic is when you take mana from your body or from around you, and make it do something for you. That’s the base, I think.” Rosaline nodded encouragingly. “As far as spells go, though, from what I can tell that’s about taking mana, shaping it into a specific form, then releasing it for it to carry out its spell.”I felt like someone who had only ever seen cars in movies explaining how an engine worked.Rosaline made a so-so gesture with her wings. “You’re not wrong. I have the impression you don’t know that much?”“I can kinda cast fireball,” I said. “But that’s about it. I have the Cleaning skill high enough that I can use plenty of Cleaning magic, but that doesn’t exactly teach me that much.”“That’s not so bad. What about cantrips?”“What are those?” I asked. The name rang a bell, but I wasn’t super sure.Rosaline wiggled her talons and a small flame appeared at their end. “Cantrips, like this matchstick flame, are really simple spells that let you do very small things. Not everyone can do every cantrip, but they’re usually so easy that most people will know a dozen or so.”“Oh, that’s cool,” I said. “I think Awen knows a bunch.”“Ah, I do,” Awen said. “M-most ladies know at least a few. For make-up removal, and some for cleaning blemishes, or lighting candles.”Rosaline eyed me critically for a bit. “Usually you teach cantrips to kids so that they have something to build on when they get older.”“I’m sorry. My parents weren’t big into magic. They weren’t against it or anything, but, uh, yeah.”“That’s fine!” Rosaline said. “So, one spell... and Amaryllis wrote that you’re a fairly competent fighter, if one that’s a bit creative. Are you sure you need magic to fight?”I shook my head. “I don’t want magic to be able to fight better, although that would be neat. I want magic because it’s magic.”The harpy nodded. “Then that’s a good enough reason. What about you, Awen?”“Awa, I want to learn more too. I was never taught anything past the basics for a person in my position. Um, and now I have Glass Magic Manipulation. I think my natural aspect is shifting towards that, so it would be nice to have some new spells. I’m... not very good in a fight. Not like Broccoli with her spade, or Amaryllis with her thunder magic, but I... Broccoli said that she believes in me, so I want to try my best to become better.” She stopped, huffing and puffing as if that had taken a lot out of her.Reaching over, I patted her knee to remind her that I was here.“Wonderful! I’m sure we’ll have the both of you casting like professionals by the end of the week,” Rosaline said. “So let’s start at the very start. I think learning some easy-to-cast spells would be best for now. They’ll be easier to learn and you can start using them right away.”“Alright!” I said. “I’m ready to learn, Miss Rosaline.”Rosaline crooned happily. “My young pupils are eager! I like it. So, Awen you mentioned that your aspect is shifting over to Glass?”Awen nodded.“That’s wonderful. What about you Broccoli?”“I have Cleaning aspect. Or so I’ve been told,” I said. “I think it’s from all the cleaning magic I use?”“That’s very possible,” Rosaline said. “We could teach you cleaning spells, that way you’d learn how your cleaning skill works, but they would only serve as a teaching tool, and you strike me as more of a talons-on kind of learner.“Like what?”“Cleaning is... close to Holy and not too far from Fire. There’s Water too, on the other end. I think a Holy spell might be easy enough to learn, but those aren’t always that useful.” She tapped a talon to her chin. “What kind of spell do you need?”“Um. I don’t really know? I guess... if we’re talking about fighting stuff, then I’m pretty much stuck in very close ranges. I can do ranged Cleaning magic, but that’s about it. I need to hit things from up close. I guess having something like fireball, but faster to use would be nice.”“I think that might just be up to practice. I think we have a few variations on fireball in the library. Actually, learning those might not be all that bad. There’s a way to combine aspects in spells. It’s usually pretty advanced, but I think you could learn it. Fire and Cleaning, maybe Fire and Holy. That and seeker, moving, piercing and explosive variants of fireball... they’re all quite similar, with small changes. It would teach you a lot about spell construction, and the practice to learn new versions might improve your casting speed.”I was on the edge of my seat, head nodding so hard my ears were flopping about.“And Awen. I imagine you want to combine your magic and your mechanical skills?” Rosaline asked.“Aww, yes, that would be nice.”The harpy hummed. “That can be done. Creation magic is a lot more mana-intensive than normal casting, but not that much harder to learn. We can start with marble shot. It’s a Dirt and Stone aspect spell, but I think there’s a Glass version too. Then more complicated construction spells until you figure it out and can start letting your imagination run wild.”“Awa, that sounds wonderful,” Awen said.Rosaline clapped her wings together. “Perfect! Follow me, my little students. Miss Rosaline will show you to the library, then we can go light things on fire outside.”Visiting Amaryllis’ house was definitely a great idea!
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Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Five — Great Balls of Fire
Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Five — Great Balls of Fire “This is a very interesting variation on the Fireball. There’s a simple spell called Magic Projectile that has a lot of variations. A Fire Mage, Victor Wargenheimer, decided to adapt some of those to his fireball, but he did all of the work manually,” Rosaline said.“Manually?” I asked.We’d moved outside and past the pretty gardens to a courtyard that had tall stone walls all around it. It was an exercise yard, with a few weights left out, and a stomped-on track ground around the edges. The walls were pitted with little craters and divots. We wouldn’t be the first ones learning magic here, I guessed.Rosaline nodded to her two eager students, that was, myself and Awen. “Yes. See, if you were to get the Fireball skill, then all the variations of fireball and then some would come to you naturally. It’s why, while less versatile than skills like mana-manipulation, direct combat skills aren’t anything to scoff at.”I thought about that for a moment.“So if I had Fire Mana Manipulation, I could easily cast any fire spell, but I’d still need to know the spells. Whereas with the fireball skill, I would only be able to cast fireballs, but they could be all kinds of different fireballs?” I asked.“That’s it!” Rosaline said. “There’s usually more potential in wider-ranging skills, but to get to that potential requires a lot of time and work, and in the end you might still not be able to hit as hard.”I clapped my hands. “That sounds so cool.”“The middle ground are skills that encapsulate a concept based around a kind of magic. The Pyromania skill is entirely non-magical at first, but at higher tiers it cansinge off a mage with Fire Magic Manipulation’s tail feathers.”“So like my Cleaning skill,” I said.She nodded. “So, since we want to teach you some offensive skills, we’ll start with a few variations of Fireball. This one is by Wargenheimer, like I said, he created dozens of variations of an otherwise common spell manually.”I nodded. “So what do we start with?” I asked.“Let’s see you cast a normal fireball,” she said before gesturing to a well-worn wooden figure at the far end of the courtyard. It was a bit smaller than a harpy, with a pair of wings made of what looked like coat hangers on its back. “Hit the wooden sylph with yours.”“Uh,” I said. But it wasn’t the time to poke at the obvious specism, it was time for magic!I clenched my fist while pouring magic out around my hand. Then, while stepping forwards, I spun the strands of hot magic into a ball with a trailing tail.My fist shot out in the straight jab, the missile hovering behind it launching forwards with a whoosh.It crossed the courtyard, no faster than a thrown ball, and with a bit of a wobble. It zipped right past the dummy and splashed off the wall behind it.“Ah. Oops?”Rosaline giggled. “We’ll have to work on your aim too.”My face burned in the dummy’s stead. “I guess so. My cleaning magic is a lot easier to aim with.” I threw another punch and a ball of cleaning magic zipped out of my fist, shot across the courtyard faster than the eye could track, and smacked against the dummy with the strength of a spoon smacking someone’s hand when they were reaching for the cookie jar.Rosaline tilted her head to one side. “Combat Cleaning magic. Not something you see every day. And... not that effective, it seems.”“It works on some things,” I defended. “And it’s really handy. I can go entire weeks without showering.”“B-Broccoli, you’re not supposed to tell people that.”Rosaline blinked a few times. “Well. Okay. Right! Fireball variations.” We had stopped by the house’s huge library for a bit so that Rosaline could gather a few books. She pulled one of those out and used the tabs set into the pages to find the one she was looking for. “This is the one I want you to practice with.”I eyed the open page before me.Wargenheimer’s Multicast FireballA staple variation of the standard Fireball spell. Sacrificing power for the ability to cast the same spell up to three times with a single cast. Increased mana cost and standard casting time.The rest of the page had a few illustrations that showed what the spell was meant to look like. It was, for the most part, a normal fireball. Or rather, three of them. Each was linked by a thin filament of mana that I recognized as the ‘trigger’ to the normal fireball only wrapped around to all three.“Oh, that’s clever,” I said.“It might help with your aim a little,” Rosaline said. “Next is this one.”Wargenheimer’s Sticking FireballA staple variation of the standard Fireball spell. By combining the standard Fire-attuned magic with Sticking-attuned mana, the spell loses most of its damage on impact, but will spread across the impact area and burn until its mana runs out.“Uh,” I said. That sounded a lot like firing a ball of flaming napalm. Awesome. “What’s Sticking attuned mana?”Rosaline blinked. “Ah... darn.”“W-what is it?” Awen asked.“I forgot to explain metaphysical mana,” Rosaline said. She huffed. If she was Amaryllis, it would be a ‘I’m disappointed in myself but won’t admit it’ kind of huff, but I wasn’t sure if the sister’s huffs translated perfectly. “Well, whatever. There are kinds of mana for nearly everything. The most common, of course, are the physical ones. Dirt, fire, air, water, things that are part of nature, then we see less common but still physical things. Lightning, Glass, Metals, Ash. those are still tangible. But what about things like Cleaning? Can you fill a bucket with cleanliness?”“Um, I guess not,” I said.“Exactly. You can’t grab a fistfull of justice, or a pot full of love, but those are kinds of mana, they are legitimate fuels for spellwork. They’re just a lot harder to wrap your talons around.”“So there is Friendship aspect mana!” I said.“Of course there is,” Rosaline said. “It’s probably really hard to make and use, but it definitely exists.”Could I combine Friendship magic with Fireballs?I tightened my fists.I would combine Friendship magic with Fireballs.“Awa, Broccoli, you look scary.”Rosaline snorted. “You look like Amaryllis when she’s discovered a particularly explosive spell. Anyway. Sticking attuned mana is mana that embodies the idea of... stickiness. I think you could replace that with Cleaning magic. They’re far apart, but functionally they’re similar enough.”Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.I nodded. “That sounds doable. What will the fireball do if I replace the sticky bits with clean bits?”Rosaline shrugged. “I have no idea! It’ll be great, I’m sure. There’s this last one.”She flipped over a few pages and tapped another spell with the tip of her tallon.Wargenheimer’s Delayed-Cast FireballA staple variation of the standard Fireball spell. More of a technique than an actual unique spell, the Delayed-Cast Fireball allows the caster to launch a series of fireballs in rapid succession after preparing a set of components for each spell and assembling them in rapid succession. Overall cast time is usually the same as casting individual fireballs, but it allows the user to cast them all in quick succession.The rest of the page had a lot more diagrams on it than the ones before.“This one’s a bit unique. See, instead of making the spell and then casting it, you make all the parts for four or five, then assemble and fire them all quickly. In the time it takes to fire four fireballs, you’ll fire four. But all four will be fired with only seconds between them.”I... kind of understood. “It’s more about rapid firing over sustained fire, then,” I said.“Exactly,” she said with a dangerous grin. “You wouldn’t imagine the amount of trouble you can get in or out of when you can punch above your weight for just a few seconds.”I grinned right back. There was an understanding between Rosaline and I in that moment.“Awa, now you’re both scary,” Awen said.I snorted, then broke out into giggles. “Will you be showing me how to cast this spell?” I asked.“I don’t think so? I think you should figure it out for yourself. Start with the multicast Fireballs first, at least until you run out of mana. I’ll be with Awen for a bit. Glass magic is a lot trickier.”I nodded and took the book so that I had something to reference. I’d be very careful with it and would do my best not to light it on fire.“You know a lot about magic,” I said.“Amy probably knows more, actually. She was always dreaming of being an archmagus when she grew up.” Rosealine’s smile turned wistful. “It’s... not exactly something she was encouraged to become. But now she’s gone and become a Thundere. Past her first tier even. I don’t doubt that in a few years she’ll be tearing apart landscapes with great blasts of thunder and lightning. She’ll make us proud, but in her own way.”I pulled Rosaline into a quick hug. “You seem like a good big sister,” I said. “I wish I had a big sister, one that was just like you.” I pulled back to see Rosaline’s face all flushed. “Amaryllis is real lucky.”“Ah, well... I wouldn't mind a little sister like you,” she said before rudely patting the top of my helmet right between my ears. “And you too, Awen!”Rose pulled Awen into a hug, because she’d gone without for entire minutes.“Unless you’d like to be something more?” Rosaline asked, her voice turning strange.Awen’s entire body froze up and her face went very red. She looked like someone having a hard time breathing. I worried for a moment but she soon got her breath back. “Ah-awa.”“So cute!” Rosaline said. “Come! I’m giving you your lesson one-on-one. Glass magic is real tricky, or so I’ve heard.”I watched the girls move over a little ways away, I could still hear them talking, Rosaline jumping right into a practical demonstration with Awen. She was being very encouraging.Maybe Amaryllis did know more about magic, but her sister was definitely the better teacher. And she was supposed to be a big business woman too. Maybe she had missed out on her true calling, on the thing that she was passionate about. I wondered if that was why she didn’t seem to begrudge Amaryllis running off to do her own thing?I set that aside for the moment and looked at the instructions for the first new kind of fireball I was meant to learn. Though really, it was more like a normal fireball, but in triplicate.I held a palm up before me and started to form one, then two, then three. It was slow going, slower than just making one entire fireball by far.It had been a lot easier to cast a spell while I was moving. A side-effect of my Way of the Mystic Bun, maybe? It had merged with my Physical Manakinesis.Trying cost nothing. I cupped a ball of hot almost-fire mana in my hand, then I rolled it in the air like a ball of dough. With a flick of my wrist and a bit of concentration I turned it into an unfired Fireball.That had been a lot faster.I let it fly across the yard where it hit the ground a meter ahead of the dummy with a dull ‘thwump.’So, motion made crafting a spell easier. That... made sense. I’d always been a little bit of a tactile learner.I made a couple more Fireballs and let them fly across the yard. One of them even came close to the dummy.The multicast was the same as a single fireball, but three times at the same time. I scrunched my nose and took a gander at my mana.Mana 85 / 125Plenty left in the tank.Nodding to myself, I imagined juggling with a trio of balls, the metallic sort that made cool noises when you rubbed them together. I’d played with something like that once, large marbles that could be spun by waving your palm around with a slithery motion.I tried that with some plain old Cleaning mana. It took some doing, but I managed to create three spheres. Then all I had to do was shove my arm out while creating three tails onto the balls and they would launch ahead and across the yard. The three taps of the spells hitting the dummy head on were wonderful.But that was Cleaning magic.I started doing the same thing, but with Fire-aspect mana. The circular motion was just shy of being uncomfortable as heat washed over my palm.The first try ended in complete failure. I ‘eeped’ as the triple fireball burped apart in my hand.The next attempt exploded a meter ahead of me.The third launched one deformed fireball, and one tiny fireball that flew off into the sky until it fizzled out way above me.I cheered. I was getting so close!
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