Learning About Spiritual Matters
Lariss placed her hands over her eyes but made sure to spread her fingers wide enough so that it didn't matter. Thelora placed her hand on her chin in a thoughtful expression as she eyed me up and down. I turned my back to them in an unconcerned manner and put my pants on. When I was dressed I joined them at the fire for some eggs and bread.
"Based on the number of bodies, Siguror thinks there are only two people still at the center of the marsh and maybe one person still at the entrance." Thelora said.
"It seems we were lucky." As I looked around everyone was wounded. Hrothgar had his arm in a sling and half his face was bandaged. Feadr had burn marks around his eyes and looked like he hadn't slept in a week. Siguror had his leg propped up and bandaged. Vragi's face was covered in bruises as well as having a broken nose and a busted lip and his hand was heavily wrapped. Cedric was walking stiffly, his right arm was bandaged and his eyes were still very red. Thelora and Lariss looked the least injured but they had numerous marks and cuts on their clothes and armor.
"Where's Thorarinn?" I asked when I noticed he was missing.
"He took a sword to the gut among other injuries. A Healing Potion saved him but he'll be down for a few days." Cedric said. Death wasn't always instantaneous which allowed the winning side to use magic to save their own. Back on Earth he would have died from his wounds. Hell, I may have died from my wounds back on Earth.
"Now that you're awake the rest of us are going to head to the center of the marsh and see what's there. Cedric, Thorarinn, and you will stay here to recover." Thelora said.
"You're leaving me behind. I can't look nearly as bad as some of you." I said.
"You look a lot worse than you think." She replied.
I had a witty comeback about how her eyes let me know I didn't look half bad earlier but held it in. Flirting with her appeared to be lowering her guard but I also felt my guard lowering.
"Alright." I didn't argue since that would mean that Cedric and I could talk about spiritual powers for the next few days.
After I finished breakfast Thelora handed me a heavy pouch. When I looked in I saw a bunch of gold, silver, and copper.
"35 gold, 67 silver, and 51 copper. That's your take from what we found on them. Most of it was from Torfredr." She said.
I looked over to the loose dirt from the freshly dug mass grave and gave them my thanks. With this, what I currently had, and what I'd get from the sale of the monster parts I had on me, I'd be able to buy a few pieces of armor with the Osgar enchant on it. Of course I'd be broke again and I still wanted a few resources to improve my magic.
Not long after they left, Cedric asked me a question. "So do you want to learn the quick and easy way or the long and hard way?"
"What's the difference?" I asked.
He scratched the back of his head and looked frustrated. "Man, this is going to be harder than I thought. Understanding the difference will take a bit of an explanation. I'm going to need to start at the basics aren't I. Follow me."
As he walked towards one of the gates, he picked up a few rocks. Once we got outside the wall and near the water he tossed one of the rocks into the water and pointed to the ripples it caused.
"Everything has some level of spirit energy to it. Not just living things. And that spirit energy is constantly rippling out from everything. With magic you rotate motes to achieve spells and with aura you circulate your life energy through your body. The way you manipulate spiritual energy is by altering the flow of the ripples that come from you and the world around you." He looked at me to see if I was getting it.
He continued after I nodded. "The first thing you need to do is learn how to sense the spiritual ripples around you. The second thing is to learn how to alter those fluctuations. The last step is to understand how those alterations interact to form spells. The chants and prayers we use actually contain the cadence of the spell we are using. The actual words don't matter, it is the pattern held within those words that form the spell. They could be cast without any verbal component but that can take years to master. Have you ever had any formal training with music?"
"I had a little." Back on Earth my mother insisted I learn to play the piano when I was young and in college I was briefly one of those guys that thought playing a few cords on the guitar would woo the chicks. I was an idiot. But it helped me understand what he was saying about patterns.
"The quick and easy way is for me to force you into a spiritual state where you can feel the ripples. I guess I should say that it is also the painful way. You also need to be aware that I'll be able to look into your spirit at that time and could even harm you in some way if I wanted." He said.
"That doesn't sound ideal." I said.
"Well that way only takes a few days while the long and hard way could take weeks or months and that's only if you have a knack for it otherwise it could take years. It's also exhausting for your spirit and you won't see any results right away which can be frustrating." He said.
"What do I have to do for the long and hard way?" I asked.
"Since you're already at the Intermediate stage of the basic aura, you're familiar with mediation and rhythmic breathing to enhance your life force. Focusing on your muscles increases strength and agility, the bones will help you durability, and your lungs will help your endurance. It's a little similar to that. Once you can sense your spirit, you'll find there are different parts that can be strengthened and that will make certain spells easier for you. Are you still with me?" I gave him another nod.
"Good. Unlike training in basic aura, you can't improve each part of your spirit at the same time. They kind of produce their own different ripples and you improve them by altering the spiritual fluctuations around you to match that part of your spirit and absorb them." He said.
"So what are the specifics of learning to sense spiritual ripples around me?' I asked.
"The good news for you is that I can still help you with that even if you don't do it the quick and easy way. Come on." He led me back into the walls.
He sat down cross legged in the center of the resting place. After I did the same opposite of him he cupped his hands in front of him. A bright light started to flicker in his hands. It moved in a steady pattern.
"Match your breath to the light and try to sense the spiritual ripples coming off of it. And yeah I know it's not that easy. This will at least help get you started but don't expect to feel anything. Like I said it will take you a few weeks or months to even get started." He said.
Breathing in and out I matched the flicker of the light in his hands. Hours went by and I felt nothing. We only stopped to eat and for Cedric to check on Thorarinn. Then we continued the exercise. As night set in he stopped. At first I wanted to continue but he pointed out how exhausted I looked. He ended up being right as I barely had the energy to stand and walk to my tent. Awakening my spiritual senses was similar to working out the same muscle for hours on end.
The next day we did the same thing but with longer breaks as I was still worn out from the previous day's exercise. Once again the day ended with me feeling nothing. Even though he told me it would take weeks or months to even start to sense spiritual ripples, I was a little disappointed that I wasn't feeling anything. My spirit was supposed to be large and I had three blessings in me.
The third day went exactly the same with the addition of Thorarinn joining us. He didn't seem to understand what Cedric was saying when it came to how spiritual energy works but he wanted to get stronger. By evening the rest of our group arrived back with two alchemists in tow. They had them blindfolded to keep them from seeing our faces. Their fear told me they didn't really think they were saved.
Lariss filled me in on what the center of the marsh was like. There was a large lake with a walled island ten times as large as the resting place. There was a tower in the middle with a few buildings around it and they had a large set up for the alchemist to produce the drugs. Thelora had most of the set up destroyed with Lariss taking a few choice items for Vegaror.
After one more night we left.