A Soldier's Life
chapter-68

Castile smile faded, “It is about survival, Eryk. In that way, I lost the Tribunal. Ten more years without being able to draw replacements over the company minimum? As a mage commander, I have built a loyal following and developed competent men.”

I was confused, “I thought you were just not being paid.”

Castile laughed without holding back, “No. I am being cut off from all resources. No replenishing my ranks beyond the minimum size for a company. No annual payout for service and my existing accounts have been seized. No purchasing of potions from the Imperial Alchemists at the discounted mage company rate. I am sure my new benefactor, Duchess Veronica, has a plan that will bind me to her.” Castile pointed to a sealed letter on the desk, “I will find out her plan for me when I open that.”

I looked at the letter and then back to Castile, “So what do you want from me?” I asked.

“I want you to be invested in everyone’s survival,” she said levelly. Before I could protest, she continued, “I do not need to know your secrets. In fact, it is better that I do not. Being around me is dangerous. I doubt Duke Octavian is finished with me, but he should be content that I am trapped for another ten years, giving him time to exact revenge.”

I thought about it, “Is the blood tracking real? Can we not just leave the Empire? Seek sanctuary in another kingdom?”

Castile sighed and huffed resignedly, “The Hounds always find you.” She looked me in the eyes, “A legionnaire like you could probably flee. They would not pursue you far outside the borders. I could not say for sure. Maybe they would send a phantasm to hunt you or try to track you with agents in other kingdoms. Myself? They would track me no matter where I went to make an example of me.”

Castile noticed me processing, “Yes, you could flee. But if you are an outworlder, like I believe, you are not prepared. I can help prepare you. If your tablet reading is correct, you can not learn true magic. Your shaping attribute is too abysmal. But maybe you have other spell forms beyond healing and space you need help imprinting? I will help you with that.”

I was thinking, and Castile decided to wait for me to process. Castile picked up the letter and started to open it. As she read with her eyes focused on the parchment, she spoke to me, “If you imprinted self-healing, then I am assuming your second most powerful affinity of time can receive a spell form. Do you want help with that?” I was silent and considering her offer as she read the letter, and a look of distaste formed on her visage as if she had bitten into something sour.

“Why is my poor shaping preventing me from learning true magic?” I asked after she put down the letter. Damian had explained it, but I wanted further clarification from a true mage.

Castile was distracted for a moment but decided to demonstrate. She put her hands about twelve inches apart, and a blue light started to trace out what I recognized as a spell form. It was slow and deliberate. “This is the speed someone with a ten in shaping can mold their aether into runic script.” She spent about five minutes tracing the lines in the air between her hands. “You also need to keep aether running through it at the same time as it will dissipate if not,” she explained. The spell form finished, she dropped it, and the entire thing quickly vanished.

“So I could cast spells then, and it would just take a long time?” I asked.

She smirked like I had fallen for the punch line in a joke, “That was one of four spell forms for a spell. Now watch as I cast the spell with all four forms and a sixty-six attribute in aether shaping.” Light flared between her hands in a blink, and the smokey tendrils I was familiar with oozed from her fingers.

She looked at me, “All magic affinities and traits are exponential; each step of ten is twice as powerful as the last. Twenty is twice as strong as ten, and thirty is four times as strong as ten.”

For the readers:

Magic Affinity	Relative Power
10	1
20	2
30	4
40	8
50	16
60	32
70	64
80	128
90	256
100	512

I stopped her, “I am already aware of this. I did not know it also extended to the five magic attributes on the tablet, though.”

The small woman stood and walked to get water from a pitcher. “Remind me of your magic attributes.”

“Aether pool fourteen, channeling fourteen, shaping eight, tolerance twenty-two, resistance five,” I said from memory.

“Do you have a tablet in your space? That is higher than I remember, closer to your potentials,” she asked curiously.

I shook my head no, “I got a reading in a city after we escorted the First Citizen.” She nodded at my explanation.

She took out a quill and paper, “Write them out for me with your potentials then, it will make things go quicker.”

Aether Pool	14/22
Channeling	14/55
Aether Shaping	8/8
Aether Tolerance	22/50
Aether Resistance	5/19

I wrote them out, and she reviewed the sheet before continuing her teaching. “So your aether pool is small. Usually, anyone with any of the magic affinities is going to have a potential of at least ten. If you continue using your aether and maximize your pool to twenty-two, your available aether should more than double going from fourteen to twenty-two.”

“What does the potential of fifty-five in channeling and fifty in tolerance mean?” I asked Castile.

“Channeling is how fast you can replenish the aether in your core. There are exercises to help you train that, but it also happens naturally,” Castile said to my nods. Damian had given me a very simple meditation technique. “We can work on those in the future.” She tapped aether tolerance on the paper.

“Your aether tolerance is how much aether you can channel in a day. Your maximum potential is actually quite impressive. If you reached fifty in the attribute, it means you can channel sixteen times your total aether core in a day without burning your channels,” Castile explained. “When we fled along the aqueduct, I was pushing the extreme limit of my thirty-three in aether tolerance. If you exceed your tolerance, you can reduce your aether pool permanently; when that happens, channeling any aether becomes painful. Mages who do this are referred to as ‘burnt.’”

“Is there a way to know if I am getting close to my limit?”

“You just know. It feels like your blood is boiling, and your head is about to explode. It is your body’s way of telling you to stop,” Castile educated me.

“And aether resistance?” I asked about the last attribute.

“It is a person’s natural resistance to magical influences and backlash. For instance, when a mage tries to use a charm spell on you. They need to have an illusion affinity about thirty points higher than the target’s aether resistance to succeed,” she noted. “A normal person’s potential is between ten and thirty. But most people never train their aether resistance, and it is less than five.”

She asked, “Have you tried to move a living creature into your dimensional storage?”

I nodded but did not offer that I had succeeded. Castile explained, “Then you already know about backlash. When a creature resists an imprinted spell form, it reflects back on your aether core. Backlash does not happen when you use a true spell, as it is not anchored on your core. You were probably slightly ill or lightheaded for a few hours from the backlash.”

I thought carefully and said, “I have moved a live rat into my dimensional space before. But two rats...” I let the question hang.

“So you must have a space affinity in the sixties to be able to move a small creature with a small aether resistance. That is actually quite impressive and makes me wonder how big you are,” she smirked before continuing. “But yes, two creatures at once is exponentially more difficult as their resistance is multiplicative.”

Curious, she looked at me, “I would ask your space affinity, but it is better that I do not know.” I could see the burning desire to know in her eyes, though.

I was still thinking, and Castile asked, “So, do you want help learning a spell form for the time affinity?”

“No,” I started. Castile looked surprised and a little hurt. “I actually want to learn a spell form for protection first. I pulled the spell form reference book from my dimensional space.” Her eyebrows arched, but she did not seem surprised.

She took the book from me and noted, “Volume two…” She paged through it and then looked up, “And what spell form did you decide on?”

“My protection affinity is thirty,” Castile’s eyebrows went up, but she did not offer a comment. I had just revealed that my time affinity was at least thirty. I decided to be funny. “I think I want to imprint the protection from the elements. If I choose either of the other two, then my mage commander will send me into more dangerous situations.” Castile read them quickly and then smiled at my joke. I added, “I really want to know if there are other options for me to imprint.”

Castile was patient as she reread the text, “Aetheric armor is a common magic item used by mages. They are expensive but extremely useful.” She reached into her shirt from the top and produced a fist-sized amulet. “This is a similar artifact. It can repel three or four strikes before being drained. The problem is it takes a lot of aether and some time to recharge.”

She paged through the book again, “These are definitely the spell forms to maximize your protection affinity of thirty. Wind barrier has the most utility in and out of combat utility, but the strength of the barrier is related to your protection affinity.”

“So it is like my dimensional pocket? My higher affinity made it a larger pocket?” I asked, as Castile already knew my space was larger than advertised.

“Exactly. Wind barrier can be used as a shield in combat, a way to block a passage in combat, or even a platform to stand on momentarily. Even though the barrier is not strong you could cast many of them as layers until you ran out of aether. Aetheric armor would drain your aether directly, and you could run out rapidly,” Castile explained.

“The wind barrier also only lasts about ten heartbeats, according to the text. So, do you think protection from the elements is not the correct choice?” I asked for her honest opinion.

“It is not a bad choice. But you realize that if you use the ability openly, you are displaying your spell form for all to see. With protection from the elements, rain will never touch your body, and you will not sweat in extreme heat. Even your hair would not be tussled in the wind. Aetheric armor is the same as blue sparks would flash when you are struck. Only wind barrier would leave no trace and be invisible,” she said, offering her educated opinion.

“And, if I was not concerned about showing my spell form? Which of these three would you choose?” I asked again.

“If I was not in the Legion, definitely protection from the elements. In the Legion, wind barrier. With aether shield, I would be too worried about having my aether drained involuntarily by repeated attacks. I would get an amulet instead. Also, if you are a battlefield and flashing blue sparks, you quickly become a target of the enemy as well,” she explained her reasoning.

I considered her reasoning, and it made sense. Only if I was not going to be fighting, then the protection from the elements made sense. I considered showing Castile my amulet but thought I might be able to get it identified in the city on my own. Complete trust was going to be baby steps. “Okay, I would like help with wind barrier.”

Castile smiled since I took her advice. She started by showing me a few exercises to work on improving my channeling. Castile had more knowledge and better understanding than Damian. She fine-tuned my visualization for meditation and showed me how to cycle aether in my core to draw in aether faster. Then, she gave me a few hints on imprinting the wind barrier spell form. We spent nearly three hours together in her room.

“I need to bathe, eat, and sleep,” Castile said as the sun had set. Tell Konstantin I will talk to him in the morning about when the rest of the company will arrive.

“Thank you, Castile. Even though I can not cast a true spell, maybe you can show me how to write out the spell forms in the air?” I asked hopefully.

Castile studied me, “If we have time. It would take you years to learn with your attribute, Eryk. It is much harder than I have shown it to be.” She sighed, “But yes, I can teach you.”

I felt good about my situation as I returned to the bunk room. As I entered, Konstantin, Pavel, Bentio, and Linus looked at me. Konstantin started to get up, and I said, “Castile said she would talk with you tomorrow. She is going to bathe and rest up as she is exhausted.”

They all looked at each other. Benito blurted, “Told you! You all owe me a silver!” I was confused. What did they think happened?