Throwing the Distance

[Miro]

70th day of Fall, 513 AV

Miro had been planning on furthering his training for the Ebonstryfe by taking up a new weapon. The throwing dagger was a fine weapon for a man with one hand to wield, and offered him range. Best of all it could be enhanced by his skill in the Flux. So he had departed on foot toward the Defiled Blade, and though it would take some time to reach the destination it didn’t bother the undead. He arrived upon the large stone building and walked in the front door. Inside he was immediately greeted by the presence of an impressive forge and an apprentice who received him. ”Welcome to the Defiled Blade, what can we do for you?”

The Chained One smirked. ”I would like twenty throwing daggers. How long will that take?” He paused nervously awaiting a response. ”It will take a few bells to say the least. If you come back later we will have them forged for you.” The wizard’s smirk turned to a scowl at the remark. ”I think I will wait here, if you don’t mind.” The apprentice seemed unsettled by it. ”It is your time to waste.” Though he would not waste it. He had Ender with him, and together they were figuring out a way to train.

”We have some time to discuss finally. I plan to train in the skill and learn to enhance it with the Flux. With training it can be an effective tool to have at my disposal. The type of thing I require for the Ebonstryfe. It will also allow me to test the limits of my body’s enhanced dexterity. This simple seeming task of throwing daggers should come to me quite easily I do believe. What do you think Ender, care to elaborate on a training strategy?” The Irylid had indeed thought of a few things, though most of them for himself personally. ”Oh I have ideas, but only one for you. I shall make targets of ice and you can practice hitting them.”

It worked for Miro, though he could tell his Familiar had other things in mind. ”And how else do you intend to train?” Ender rose with a powerful emotion of pride that his master could sense with ease. ”I plan to initiate myself into Hypnotism. If you are focusing on you training for the Ebonstryfe, I will train using our magic. It is only fair, I have use for our Djed too.” The wizard smirked at the remark. ”It is not fair, and you know it.” He knew he would have upset his partner. ”I won’t allow you to learn Hypnotism alone when I have the knowledge and skill to ease your struggle. It is time you learn.”

The pride in Ender grew even further. ”Only if you have the time to spare, your training comes first.” Though there were other things on his master’s mind. ”I have been thinking of new para-elements, or at least trying to do so. Thinking back to all of the time I spent in Zeltiva, the stone the city was made of and its powerful ocean are what I remember most. That salty water that would spray up at you.” The Familiar laughed at that. ”Are you being serious right now? It is not that worthless child Nuit, or the master Alchemist? All of the ambition and none of it for anything. We left for Sahova all too quickly.”

The Chained One continued on. ”Left on that long road across Sylira. Surrounded by fools, some knights, some guards, some just eager to be killed. Do you know what I remember most from that?” Again the Irylid laughed at his master. ”Let me guess, you are going to say that time the ground gave out from underneath you and you began to sink.” The wizard turned his head away. ”I had never seen the ground start to sink in like that.” A suspicious feeling could be sensed coming from the Familiar. ”Good thing you had your staff, and that the knight saved you.”

Miro hung his head in shame. ”He just beat me to it is all. I hadn’t cast my Res yet. But it got me thinking, what if I could have controlled it then? It was wet, like mud, but more like sand. What if I can control it now? What if also I can create saltwater using earth and water? I believe I can create them.” Ender understood well enough, but had something more to share. Thinking of Zeltiva, he remembered a time on the sandy beach, a day where Zulrav sent dark clouds to cast down lightning. ”And do you remember that time when on the beach in Zeltiva, a bolt of lightning struck the sand and transmuted it?” It took a while, but he did remember. ”It hardened to a mineral and I claimed I wanted to keep it.”

The undead smirked at that thought. ”What happened to that?” Ender remembered exactly what happened. ”You threw it at the child Nuit, hit it right in the back. She never found out.” Miro let out a burst of laughter, deeply unsettling everyone in the forge. ”Well used indeed. Did it do any damage?” He was sure the element could be created, but still saw little point. ”It hit hard enough to cause a stumble and trip.” But the Irylid could think of one more example. ”And think of what happens when lava is met with your ice and cooled rapidly, what happens then?”

The Reimancer thought hard, but he was not sure he understood. ”A lot of steam and hardened lava, it turns back to a rock like always, only it is usually very brittle. What is the point of this?” The Familiar sighed heavily with impatience. ”Think about the lava, when it is cooled rapidly. Have you ever noticed any change in it? I know you can not see things as well as I, so think hard.” He thought hard and struggled still. ”It hardens, but when it is cooled with ice, it has shiny parts. Black spots across it.” He never really spent much time thinking about such a thing. What even caused it to happen was beyond him.

Ender was quite enjoying this. ”It appeared to create something like blackened glass when rapidly cooled. If you were to experiment with this too, do you think you might be able to reproduce the black substance alone as an element? Miro smirked yet again, feeling quite inspired. ”Yeah, of course I can, and I think I can create yet another element. This one you haven’t even seen before, but I am sure you will like it. Back in Taldera the ground was always incredibly hard because it was so cold it froze. I am sure I could recreate that too.” It was nice to have the idea, though becoming quite apparent he would not be doing this within the city.

”I am quite eager to get to training, but we must take the ferry out of the city to do so. For now I believe the only thing that we may have time for is your Hypnotism. Though that is tricky to just pick up. But at I am expecting you to by our connection have some ability. It will be buried, I am sure, but I am starting to suspect that you are capable of all that I am. So I will work to awaken your hypnotic abilities with my Hypnotism. But you will need to know what to focus on, how to control the magic. I’ll start with this, we will work to Hypnotize each other.”