The Iconar Collective (OUTDATED)

[Channelknight Fadran]

Just now, Matrim's Dice said:

Quill instead of Quille?

Scud to the power of scud! I'll fix that later, because my internet is currently all the bad.

[DramaQueen]

That chapter still just makes me really happy. In a way, Quille is literally me, but then at times, she becomes everything I aspire to be.

[Shard of Reading]

I've only read the first chapter but I really enjoyed it. I will read the other chapters later but I can't do it now.

[Experience]

Of course today is the day I'm out of upvotes. Very good. 

[Channelknight Fadran]

53 minutes ago, DramaQueen said:

That chapter still just makes me really happy. In a way, Quille is literally me, but then at times, she becomes everything I aspire to be.

That was... deep.

39 minutes ago, Experience said:

Of course today is the day I'm out of upvotes. Very good. 

Everything is going according to plan *nyehehehehe*

[DramaQueen]

Do you want me to attempt a review similar to the ones Danex did?

[Bearer of all agonies]

10 hours ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

Okay! I just finished XII, so here you go!

Quote

“Welcome to earth Arcana class. Who’s ready to learn how to bully a rock into punching somebody in the face?”

There was scattered laughter through the classroom, not unlike what happened in Professor Eldon’s class.

 

Me likey. Hilarious. Love it. I like how you used: not unlike instead of like. It's more. . . I don't know, proper.

I don't know about the end there though. It kind of ended abruptly. Maybe add another sentence or two in there? I don't know. If my advice seems bad, completely ignore it. This is great! I like how Aurora got to do some earth arcana in there. It was fitting. Thank you Fadran for sharing!

Edited September 29, 2020 by Bearer of all agonies

[Experience]

Just now, Bearer of all agonies said:

Me likey. Hilarious. Love it. I like how you used: not unlike instead of like. It's more. . . I don't know, proper.

I don't know about the end there though. It kind of ended abruptly. Maybe add another sentence or two in there? I don't know. If my advice seems bad, completely ignore it. This is great! I like how Aroura got to do some earth arcana in there. It was fitting. Thank you Fadran for sharing!

I also felt that the end was a bit abrubt. Like engaging class, then all of a sudden, the rest of class just wasn't as interesting as before. The end. Of course, I feel like this might slightly maybe be because we were rushing you.  Who knows? 

[Channelknight Fadran]

For my 3000th Post, I think it's only fitting that I share this chapter:

Spoiler

Chapter XII - Particle Theory

Second Earthlight | The Arcane Academy

    “Class dismissed!” Geniora said, waving her hand again. “Go to your next class! Learn how to dry out laundry with magic, or… something.”

    “Thanks, Geniora.” Aurora said. She got to her feet.

    “No problem guys,” Geniora replied, standing up herself and making her way towards the two of them, “how are you two liking it here?”

    “So far?” Lacy asked. “Well, I’ve already created a bunch of fire with my mind, we’ve met the school rich guy, our roommates are weird but endearing, and that person…” she pointed at Quille, “bruised my left elbow.”

    “In other words, it’s great here!” Aurora said. “I never would’ve imagined that Lacy and I would end up here someday.”

    “Where did you think you would end up?” Geniora asked.

    Lacy shrugged. “Dead in an alleyway somewhere? It’s easy to not be picky when you’re an orphan. You don’t have to worry about making big decisions, because you don’t have the opportunity to do anything other than search through a garbage can for leftover crusts of bread!”

    “Lacy…” Aurora chastised, then looked back at Geniora, “it wasn’t actually that bad. The orphanage was painful, but you sleep on a full stomach there.”

“Good to know that you like it here,” Geniora replied, looking a little unsure of how to react to their memories of the orphanage, “you should probably get to your next class, though.”

“Yep! I’m eyeing Particle Theory next.” Lacy said. “You want to try that out, Amy?”

“I guess so.” Aurora replied. “See you, Geniora.”

“See you too, girls.” Geniora said. “Hope this place is everything you’ve hoped for—after all, I am the management here.”

 

 

---

 

 

“...and then he said, ‘please do not eat the weeds,’ to which she completely ignored him!”

Aurora raised an eyebrow. “That’s why they had to call a Healer the next day?”

“That’s why they had to call a Healer the next day.” Lacy confirmed, then glanced down a series of deserted hallways. “Are we going the right way?”

“Depends. Where are you going?”

Aurora turned around to face the voice. “Veronica? Is that your name?”

“Yes.” Veronica replied, pushing her hair out of her face. “And you guys are my new roommates. Aurora and Lacy, right? Tara told me.” Veronica pointed to either of them in turn as she said their names, getting the two of them confused.

“You’re… backwards, but yeah.” Aurora held out her hand. “So, you study a lot?”

“That’s a yes.” Veronica replied, shaking Aurora’s hand. “And giving us today off was the perfect way for me to get some more studying in.”

“What about… y’know… sleeping?” Lacy asked. “That’s kind of important to our functionality; I mean, you should see me when I get tired.”

“Don’t worry, I remembered to sleep in today. That’s unimportant, though… where are you two going?”

“We’re not entirely sure, yet,” Aurora replied, “we haven’t gone to water Arcana or Particle Theory yet, so one of those, for sure.”

“Well, you’re in luck, because Particle Theory is literally two doors down from here.” Veronica pointed to one of the rooms along the hallway. “Professor Bracken is just about the best teacher for the job you’ll ever find. Everything he says makes sense.”

“Really?” Lacy asked.

“Yes. I dare you to find anyone more knowledgeable than him when it comes to Particles… but I have to go. Studying to do, essays to write. Nice meeting you two—for real!” She was gone before either could reply.

Lacy watched her leave. “Nice girl. Let’s go!”

They entered the room together. Much to their surprise, though, there weren’t any forms of lighting in the entire room apart from a couple glowing purple flowers. They lit the room well enough, and with a soothing violet tinge. The flowers were not the only plants in the room—far from it. The walls were covered in vines, a small tree sat by a chalkboard, and each desk held a potted fern. From the roof, more vines covered in cute white flowers hung, resembling a cave filled with stalactites. To their right, a single brownish bush seemed to move to a nonexistent breeze. The floor was layered with dirt and grass, so that the entire room felt like a forest. The overall feeling wasn’t that of the woods brought into a classroom, but rather a classroom brought outside.

In other words… it looked a lot like home.

“Hello, Aurora. Good morning, Lacy.”

Aurora spun on her heel towards the sound. What she had thought was a bush was actually an incredibly wisened-looking man in a brown cloak. He looked at them from behind a pair of spectacles that reflected the glowing purple plants to look like stars.

A number of questions begging to be asked sprang to her mind. Who are you? What witchcraft brought us outside? Was there something in my morning orange juice?

“How do you know our names?” She decided to ask.

He smiled. “When you come to learn everything you need to know, then you find your own things to remember. The weekly newsletter has a remarkable artist; I recognized your faces the moment you walked in here. Why don’t you take a seat? The lesson will begin in a few minutes.”

Aurora nodded, leading Lacy to a desk next to one that she sat at.

“He seems like a nice guy,” Lacy decided.

“You think everyone’s nice today,” Aurora noted.

“Hey, as the worst person to ever walk the Iconar Collective, I think I would know a nice person when I see them.”

“It’d take one to know one.”

Lacy’s eyes widened in shock. “Did you just… use an insult… to compliment me… but use that compliment to insult me anyways?”

“That I did.”

“Holy Icona. There were so many layers.”

Aurora chuckled, turning her eyes back to Professor Bracken. He welcomed any who came in, getting jumps and even yelps from everyone he greeted. He didn’t seem to take any amusement in scaring them; he only seemed to enjoy meeting everyone.

After a couple minutes, filled by the cacophony of overlapping conversations, Professor Bracken seemingly decided that nobody else was coming and made his way to the front of the class.

“Faira mun,” he said to the class in a wisened voice, “that’s Druidspeak for ‘good morning.’ Welcome to class, everyone. You’re here from one of two reasons, I expect: to learn about Particle Theory, or to get a class out of the way. In either case, I certainly hope you find reason to return other than for the passing grade.” He cast his eyes about the room. “Can anyone explain, in a nutshell, the basics of Particle Theory?”

No hands went up. This, at least, was a relief; Aurora had been worried that they’d find Charles Frain here. The lack of volunteers did not deter Professor Bracken, as he simply continued instructing as though no pause had ever occurred.

“At the tiniest scale of things, there are two core particles: the Icon, and the Rano. They were named these after the two primordial gods: Icona and Ranoc. Either particle is unstable without the other, and by bonding with each other, become stable. This particle, the smallest stable thing in the world, is called an Icara. Can anybody guess the main function of an Icara?” He looked around. “No? Nobody? Alright, then; I guess I’ll explain.”

He cleared his throat. “Icaras are often depicted as an eight-pointed star. They likely don’t actually bear this form, but it’s simplest to assume that they do. See, Icaras will bond with one another to create ‘Icara Compounds,’ generally referred to simply ‘Compounds,’ for short. There are four simple Compounds, which only consist of two Icaras.”

Bracken began drawing on the chalkboard, “first, we have the Compound of ‘heat.’ It is generally depicted like so—” he drew two eight-pointed stars connected to each other from the side. “Second, we have the Compound of Energy; the embodiment of movement and activity.” He drew two eight-pointed stars, one connected to the other by the top. “Third, the Compound that represents Consistency…” this drawing connected the stars diagonally to create an upwards-left slant, “and finally, the Compound of Change,” this one slanted to the right.

“So there you all have it: the barest and most basic Compounds in the Iconar Collective. They, however, are not the only things to construct all of Particle Theory. There are other things to take into account. Sarah!”

A girl in the front row jumped. Aurora couldn’t see much from her seat, but Sarah’s main physical trait, it seemed, was her extensive use of makeup. “Yes, sir?”

“How many different forms of makeup do you have on right now?”

“Umm… fifteen.”

“Thank you… I’ll get back on that in a minute.” He turned back to face the class. “As I have just explained, these,” he tapped the chalkboard with his knuckle, “are the most basic Compounds in the Iconar Collective. That does not mean that they are the only Compounds, though. You see, Icaras love to bond with one another, and oftentimes create very large and complex Compounds, like ‘fire’ and ‘stone.’ However, these Compounds, by themselves, aren’t large enough to create anything of a feasible size. You need more than one Compound to make something of mass or volume. How, though, would one get all those Compounds into the same place? Should the Iconar Collective simply be full of scattered Compounds of random features?”

He shook his head. “Fortunately, Icaras have a unique property; they like to mimic existing Compounds. So when two Icaras bond into, say, heat, other surrounding unbonded Icaras will mimic that Compound to create more heat. This creates a large enough group of Icaras to create what’s called a Faiden Cluster.”

Aurora nodded, leaning forward. Was the Iconar Collective really this complicated? Was she actually expected to learn this all?

“Now, Sarah, you said you were wearing fifteen forms of makeup, correct?”

“No, I was wrong before. It’s actually sixteen.”

Professor Bracken chuckled. “Thank you. So, there’s one more thing to take into account for basic Particle Theory. This is a phenomena known as Shifting. See, Icaras aren’t exactly intelligent, so when they mimic other Compounds, they’ll occasionally get it wrong. When it comes to smaller Compounds, one misplaced Icara could change its entire identity. However, when it comes to larger Compounds… Sarah, do you think anybody would notice if you switched your eyeliner for a slightly darker shade?”

“Probably not.” Sarah admitted.

“Indeed. Your changing a small piece of your extravagant beauty care is not unlike one Icara falling out of place on a large Compound. This is why many things we know as part of our world don’t change. The Dayseasons, trees, mountains; they remain the same from day to day, but with slight changes.”

By now, several small conversations had sprung up from various areas of the room. They were hushed enough that they didn’t disrupt the class, but Aurora was relatively sure what they were whispering about.

“I understand that this topic is a little more… difficult to grasp. Few understand the true inner workings of our beloved Iconar Collective when they first hear about them. Therefore, I suppose I’ll allow you some time to let this all… sink in. You may ask me questions, study, read… otherwise, you are dismissed.” Professor Bracken nodded to the class. “Good day.”

The class fell silent in confusion. A teacher was letting them go half an hour early? More than half an hour early?

Lacy, however, had no complaints whatsoever. “Great! C’mon, Amy, let’s go get lunch.”

“Not Amy.”

“Aurora. Let’s get lunch.”

“It’s only mid-Earthlight.”

“Then we’ll just get a second breakfast… unless you’d rather stay here.”

“Doesn’t it remind you of Feylore?” Aurora asked. “All the plants and whatnot? It’s like the forest.”

“Yeah, that’s…” Lacy swallowed. “That’s why I think we should go.”

Aurora stopped, then nodded. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go.

 

[Frustration]

I can just feel Fadran's excitement at finally revealing to the main readers the secrets of his magic.

[Bearer of all agonies]

ah. . . Now I get the ending of the last chapter. I like how you transitioned into the next scene with Lacy telling a story. It was cool. Well done. This is another great adition to The Iconar Collecrive.

[Channelknight Fadran]

Phew! Finally back on-track. The following two chapters come after the chapter "Training Session," so if you want to go back and reread that... great!

Chapter XIV:

Spoiler

Chapter XIV - Four Young Mages

First Waterlight | Arcane Academy Dorm Rooms

“So!” Tara said, dragging a pillow off her bed and setting it on the floor. “How are you guys liking it here?”

Aurora was about to say something, but Lacy interrupted her. “I love it here!”

“Are you only saying that because you made the biggest fireball in class today?” Aurora asked, spreading her bedsheets out neatly.

“You did what?” Tara perked up. “Your first day and you’re making fire? I’ve gotta see this.”

Lacy grinned, then hopped off her bed and landed before Tara. “Behold, the great and powerful Lacy!”

“Oh dear… this is going to be a long night, isn’t it?” Aurora asked Veronica.

Veronica’s head shot up. “Hmm? What?”

Lacy began rubbing her hands together. “And now, the great and powerful Lacy will summon fire from nothing. It will be the grandest feat ever to permeate the Iconar Collective, and will shock all races so that they cannot speak!”

Tara laughed. “Where are you getting all this from?”

“Good question.” Aurora muttered.

Lacy tore her hands apart, and a loud flash preceded a large flame. The fireball hovered over her hand for a few seconds before fizzling out into a puff of smoke.

“Icona!” Tara said after the show was over. “And you got that on your first day! Now I’ve got to know.”

“Know what?” Lacy asked.

“Everything, of course! We’re roomies, aren’t we? We need to share stuff like funny stories, backstories, and embarrassing inside jokes! You guys have all those things, right?”

“That we do.” Lacy confirmed.

“A long night.” Aurora decided, but didn’t complain, pulling her pillow off her bed and taking a seat on it on the floor. Lacy did the same, but made herself a stack of pillows that she balanced haphazardly on top of.

“Okay, then! So—” Tara paused, then glanced over at Veronica. “Umm… are you going to join us?”

Veronica didn’t respond until she saw all three of them looking at her. “What? Oh, um… no, sorry. I have a, uh… very important assignment that I need to finish—”

“You say that about everything you do! You say that everything you do is ‘very important,’ but we take some of the same classes, and very little of what I do is ‘very important,’ so that leads me to believe that, actually, nothing that you do is very important.” Tara blinked. “Okay, that came out a lot ruder than I expected it to. Sorry.”

“That’s alright,” Veronica said dismissively. She set down her book, “I guess I’ll join you guys.”

“Yay!” Tara said. “You can go first.”

“What? Go first doing what?”

“Telling us about yourself!” Lacy replied. “Duh.”

“Oh, uh… well, my, um… my favorite color is yellow…”

“No no no,” Tara interrupted, “like, tell us where you came from, and… stuff.”

“Your favorite color is yellow?” Lacy asked.

“Oh… okay. I was born under a small noble family in the north. The house was losing a lot of money, so… they sent me here. They wanted me to become a mage and join the military, because apparently, and I quote, ‘military mages earn military wages.’”

“Who said that?” Aurora asked.

“My dad. He was a Captain in the Enclave for awhile before his father died and left him to inherit the estate. Apparently he made enough there to stay afloat for a few years. He married my mom, who came from a relatively wealthy noble house. Together they held out for a good decade or so before I was old enough to come here.”

“Wait, how old are you?” Lacy asked.

“Twelve.”

Tara jerked her head back in surprise. “You’re twelve? But you’re so…”

“Mature?”

“I was going to say ‘tall,’ but that works too.”

“Yeah… my parents are nice and all, so they didn’t want to marry me off at so young an age, and they didn’t think they’d have enough time and money to sustain the house until I got old enough to marry, so they sent me here.” Veronica gestured around herself.

“So that’s why you study so much? To help your family?” Aurora asked.

“That is correct.”

“That’s very… noble of you.” Aurora said, then winced.

There was silence for a couple seconds until Lacy broke out laughing. She was followed by Tera, who released a short series of giggles. Veronica chuckled a little, and Aurora cracked a smile.

When their fits of laughter (or, rather, Lacy and Tera’s fits of laughter) had silenced, Veronica continued. “I’m actually hoping that I can become a Master mage one day; there’s significantly less combat involved, and they have a lot of influence, so I might be more beneficial to my family as a Master than as a soldier. But… that’s a kind of unrealistic goal. I do my best, though.”

“I’m actually here for a… relatively similar reason.” Tara said. “My dad’s a spice merchant, and my mom… doesn’t exist anymore. My dad makes enough to support the family, and even scraped together enough to get me into school here.”

“Wait… you mean school wasn’t free for you?” Aurora asked.

“Um, no… what, it was free for you?”

“...Yes.” Aurora said. “We passed a test and got in.”

“That was a government-paid admission, Aurora, remember?” Lacy replied. “‘All expenses paid’ written in big, red letters all over that massive form we had to sign eleven thousand times.”

“Ah, that makes more sense,” Tara said, “you’re from Feylore; specifically the lower-class tiers. Ivinan struck a deal with Feylore, ah—twenty years ago? Now Feylore will supply their citizens to Ivinan’s armies in exchange for… some kind of tariff removal or something.”

“Wait, wait, wait…” Lacy said. “Hold up. Supply their citizens to Ivinan’s armies?”

“Oooh…” Tara replied, shying away from Aurora and Lacy. “Have I, uh… hit a sore spot?”

“That wasn’t in the million-page-long document we signed!” Lacy exclaimed. “So we’re expected to learn Arcana so we can be supplied to the military?”

“Calm down, Lace.” Aurora said. “It’s… probably not that simple.”

Lacy slumped a little. “I don’t want to be in the army.”

“They probably don’t even conscript girls!”

“They don’t.” Veronica confirmed. “Well, they do, but significantly less often than they do males.”

“See?” Aurora said.

“Like… if we were all males, then probably three of us would get conscripted at some point, but now only, like, one or two of us will. There’s an eighty-two percent conscription rate for males and a thirty-seven percent conscription rate for females.”

Lacy blinked. “Where the heck did you read about that?”

“I didn’t. My dad knew the rates by heart.”

“Why?”

Veronica shrugged. “I don’t know. Tara! You were going somewhere with your story?”

“Ah! Right.” Tara stretched a little. “Uhh… Dad got me into school… and then I met you guys. The end. Next!”

“Me!” Lacy called, shooting her hand into the air. “Me me me me! I want to be undepressed!”

“You want to be… what?” Aurora asked.

“Undepressed. Y’know, like… not depressed. I got all stressed and angsty when you guys read out my own legal document, and now I want to tell funny stories! I’ll start at the beginning, when somebody found my useless tiny baby body in an alleyway somewhere after my parents decided I wasn’t good enough.”

“Whoa.” Tara said. “How is the undepressing?”

“Because it’s kind of funny when you say it like that! Otherwise, it just makes you think about the meaningless of life as a whole and how you were perceived as imperfect and makes you wonder what made your parents hate you so much, but that’s way more depressing than laughing about being a weakling! So I joke about it and move on.”

Veronica nodded appreciatively. “That’s good philosophy.”

“Glad someone thinks so. Anyways, so somebody finds this husk of a half-elven creature and decides hey, you wanna know what might be fun? Raising this kid for a week, getting bored, and then giving her to the orphanage!”

“Wait, what?” Veronica motioned for Lacy to stop. “Are you trying to make this depressing?”

“If I was trying to make this depressing, I’d be talking serious right now, but I’m joking instead!”

“Lacy,” Aurora chastised, “you’re most serious when you’re joking. You send messages through the undertones of your jokes.”

“What the heck does that even mean?”

“It means that it’s okay to be sad about something.”

“Like Icona’s toothbrush it is! If you know me, then you know that I consider advice to be the equivalent of what a sweet-tooth child considers curry; disgusting, dumb, and bad, even though Mom says it’s good for you!”

“Icona's toothbrush?” Tara asked. "Also, I like curry."

“So do I. I was just using a metaphor.”

“Simile.” Veronica corrected.

“You guys done correcting my common?”

The three of them gave scattered positive remarks, ranging from “yes” to “yeah, sure.”

“That’s good, because now’s where it gets boring. I live at the orphanage for a few years, have no friends, and consider the meaning of life.” She eyed the others. “No interruptions? Good, ‘cuz after all that, I met this sorry excuse for a half-elf.” Lacy gestured to Aurora.

“Ouch.” Aurora decided.

“Oh, hush, it’s all in good justice. Anyways, I met Aurora, and we grew up together! Like that old adage says: birds without parents naturally gravitate towards people with opposite hair colors.”

“That’s not the adage at all…” Tara said.

“Birds… don’t have hair.” Veronica pointed out.

“Then three months ago, we filled out a massive legal form and a very short test, and guess what? Our human heritage made it so that we were both secretly mages, only disguised as orphans! Only, we’re still orphans, but mages also! It’s the perfect cover. And then we both lived happily ever after ‘til the end of our days except not because that hasn’t happened yet… the end.”

Tara gave an applause, which was awkwardly mimicked by Veronica. Aurora nodded in silent agreement.

“So, Aurora…” Tara said, “did she miss anything? What do we need to know?”

“Oh, she forgot all sorts of things.” Aurora replied. “Like her boyfriend—”

“It doesn’t count if you’re a nine-year-old!” Lacy interrupted. “And we were hardly an item. Just, like… really weirdly close friends.”

“Friends don’t break up. Boyfriends and girlfriends break up.”

“Friends totally break up. Remember that one time, in that one forest district?”

“That doesn’t count. Solo survival doesn’t count as breaking up.”

“Solo survival?” Tara asked. “You guys had to survive on your own?”

“Well… yes.” Aurora said. “We both ran away from some of the orphanages because a lot of the mistresses were… impolite.”

“They had big sticks,” Lacy confirmed, “that they liked to whack people with.”

“The orphanages beat you?”

“That’s what orphanages do. Some were rougher than others; we ran away from those ones. There’s a lot of empty room in Feylore; most of the population lives at the capital city.”

“Eighty-three percent of the population lives there.” Veronica confirmed. “And another six live in the towns right outside its walls. I believe most of the orphanages are to be found in the Eighth Verar?”

“That’s right,” Aurora replied, “which makes it relatively easy to get out of the city after you’ve run away from one of them. Because the forest districts are only a few miles away, you just need to either walk really fast or catch a ride with a nice farmer.”

“There are lots of nice farmers.” Lacy noted.

“The police always catch you at some point or the other, though… sometimes they bring the orphanage master with them.” Aurora stopped. The memory was fresh, now.

Lacy hesitated. “Do… you want to me tell this, Amy?”

Aurora only nodded.

“There was… one orphanage mistress who thought herself a perfect parent.” Lacy began. “We had to call her ‘mother,’ or we’d be beaten. It was easier than you might think to slip up.

“Long story short, we ran away. Caught a ride with a sympathetic merchant up to the forests. We stayed put for a little while until we saw the police, then ran off together. We decided to split up, which was probably one of the stupidest thing we’ve ever done. They found Aurora first.”

“The cops aren’t that brutal in Feylore,” Aurora said, “at least, not to kids.”

“The ‘mother’ came with them.” Lacy added. “They started asking her where I was; she didn’t know I was hiding in the bushes just a few feet away.

“The mother hates it when we lie, so when she was wrong about where I was…”

“I have a scar from that.” Aurora said, voice quiet. “Right across here.” She traced it over her shoulder.

“And the police just let it happen?” Tara asked.

“Not exactly.” Lacy replied. “The few that weren’t looking for me were frozen in shock—I don’t blame them. It wasn’t until the chief came back that they made her stop. We were transferred after that, and they shut down that orphanage.”

“That’s a… good thing, right?”

“I guess,” Aurora said, “but… it feels wrong to think that what happened to me was some heroic thing or something.”

“That’s all just so awful, though.” Tara shifted herself. “Was life really that hard?”

“It wasn’t to us.” Aurora replied. “You can’t miss something that you never had.”

“But we’re here now,” Lacy said, “and we’re never going back.”

“If that place taught us one thing, it’s that if we ever have kids, we’re never giving them up. Not like my parents did to my brother and I.”

“You have a brother?” Veronica asked.

“Yeah. He and I got separated awhile back, though; a lot of the orphanages are gender-specific. He actually got adopted by some noble eventually, so… that’s good for him. Hopefully I’ll be able to see him again someday.”

“I could write to my dad,” Veronica proposed, “have him ask around for an adopted kid from Feylore. He’d be willing.”

“You’d do that?” Aurora asked, hopes up.

“Yeah, no problem. My dad needs something wholesome to do every once in awhile.”

Aurora hugged Veronica, much to Veronica’s surprise as well as her own. She broke away awkwardly after only a couple seconds. “Ah, um… thanks.”

“So are we going to bed now?” Tara asked, breaking the awkwardness.

“Of course we aren’t!” Lacy replied. “We’re a bunch of teenagers in a dorm room! I expect that the teachers’ll find us collapsed on the floor when we’re supposed to come into class tomorrow. A bunch of misfits like ourselves deserve a little disobedience after their first day of school.”

Chapter XV:

Spoiler

Chapter XV - Sword Forms

Second Airlight | Camp Thunder

    A week after the mock battle, when Dain had recovered from his arrow wound, Corrin and the rest of the squadron had begun training. His kinship with the others had deepened not just by his successful capture of the banner during the mock battle, but by training and bunking alongside them all. Two days ago, Iolar and Quarden both decided that they and he had become friends, and a day after that, Mareth had said the same. He knew most of the assorted spearmen by face—a few by name—and occasionally demonstrated a swordplay attack by their request.

    Corrin and Teren didn’t speak much, but they worked alongside each other now and again without any ire. He shared jokes with Kent, cleaned armor with John—he even tried improving his Arcana under Uia’s instruction a couple times, to no avail. He hadn’t asked what an Alch-MT was, yet; every time he thought to bring up the topic, the words died in his mouth.

    Sufficeth to say that Corrin was officially a member of the squadron.

    “Tighter!” Dain called. “Points up, men! You aren’t going to stop a charging barrage of demons by stabbing their knees. Corrin!”

    “Yes, sir!” Corrin replied.

    “You stance is awful. Bring that elbow back!”

    “Yes, sir!” Corrin repeated, pulling back his right elbow. The spear that had been placed in his hands felt awkward and off-balanced as he hefted it forwards towards a collection of straw dummies.

    “Much better.” Dain said. “Now, demons are ruthless! They won’t stop fighting until every last one of them has been destroyed, and even then you can practically feel their souls trying to claw into yours. This means two things. Thing one: we never count on making the enemy retreat. Fall back, maybe, but never retreat. Thing two: they often jump at us with little regard for their own safety. Tio!”

    “Sir!” One of the soldiers yelped.

    “What’s the best thing you can do against an onslaught of mindless demon invaders?”

    “Hold a spearline, sir!” The soldier, Tio, replied.

“Right you are!” Dain said. “Make an impenetrable wall of death for them to only pray they can get through.” He stopped talking for a second. “The enemy’s on you! Positions!”

Corrin tensed, holding his spear out stagnant before him. He tried to imagine a demon crashing into him, his only protection from it being the spear—the instinct didn’t come. His arm loosened, trying to grasp the spear like it would a sword.

“Corrin!” Dain yelled again. Corrin readjusted his grip, but the damage had been done. The captain motioned for everyone to stop, then walked to Corrin. “What have I told you about spear combat?”

“Yes, sir, I’m… sorry, sir. I just—” He was stumbling over his own words.

“Teren!” Dain called. “Run these soldiers over some more exercises while I’m gone.”

“Gone?” Corrin asked. “Where are you going?”

“Where I’m going is inconsequential. It’s where I’m taking you that you’ve ought to think about.” Dain walked to the door, reaching for the handle.

“Sir, it’s Airlight.” Corrin said hastily. “The dust storms are out.”

Dain raised an eyebrow, then pulled open the door. Dust, blown by torrential winds, swept into the building, causing everyone training there to cover their faces and avert their eyes. Corrin covered his eyes as well, but when his captain beckoned him outside, he managed to struggle through the doorway and into the Airlight winds.

“What are we doing out here?” Corrin asked, yelling in an attempt to be heard over the winds.

Dain didn’t reply, instead forging ahead through the dust. Corrin followed, unsteady by the storm. The captain had crossed the walkway before Corrin had even come halfway, turning around to face the soldier with the look of a father awaiting a child to cross a bridge.

Corrin growled at that thought, then fell in next to Dain beside another building. When he asked the captain whether or not they could return to the indoors, Dain opened the door to the building, gesturing Corrin inside.

He didn’t have to be told twice. He ducked through the doorway, and when Dain closed the door behind the two of them, he began spitting dust out of his mouth. “Was that necessary?” Corrin demanded, grabbing a waterskin at his side to wash out the dust.

Dain took a seat on a bench. “Yes, it was. Now we’re in the right place.”

“What is the right place?” Corrin asked.

“Here.” Dain replied. “Do you know where here is, Corrin?”

“No.” Corrin said, then started looking up and down the walls: they were covered in swords, spears, axes, and any other weapon Corrin could think of. “The armory?”

“Close.” Dain stood up again, unsheathing his own sword and placing it on a table. “We’re in a more… special training room.”

Corrin sat down at the table, then frowned at a shape engraved into it: The six-pointed arrowstar of the Iconar Collective. At the end of each point, though, a single word was written. From the arrow of Ivinan, the word “Furyform.” From Feylore, “Lightform.” There was “Breathform” from Vitera, “Stoneform” from Drakefell, “Darkform” from Sunken Deep, and “Skullform” from Carnon.

“I think I’ve seen this before.” Corrin said. “At Uncle Lars’ place.”

“These,” Dain explained, “are the six Weapon Forms: complicated arts that few will ever master. When you first learn how to use a weapon, you are taught how to attack and defend. There are many who achieve proficiency in their weapon of choice and go no further. However, there are also those who learn these arts; those who have chosen a path easily begun, but far less easily trod.”

“Okay.” Corrin replied. “What exactly does this have to do with me?”

“Well, you seem quite aversive to any weapon other than the sword.” Dain answered. “So I decided that you might as well learn how to use your sword like a master.”

“Really?”

Dain didn’t answer his question. “So, I take it you don’t really know what comprises these forms?”

“Nope.”

“There are six elements to combat: Strength, Speed, Evasion, Defense, Power, and Will.” Dain began. “Strength is one’s ability to inflict damage to an opponent. Speed is self-explanatory: your actual physical swiftness. Evasion is your ability to dodge an attack, and Defense is your ability to deflect or nullify an attack. Power is similar to Strength, but individual in its own way; Strength is more reserved, more balanced. Power is sheer muscle, unparalleled ability in might alone.”

“And Will?” Corrin asked.

“Will is intent. It is best described by its sister word, Willpower. Your mental capacity to keep fighting no matter the cost.”

“Huh.” Corrin replied. “So which form focuses on which element?”

“Each form focuses on two of these, actually.” Dain corrected him. “Furyform is Strength and Speed. Lightform is Speed and Evasion. Breathform, Evasion and Defense. Stoneform, Defense and Power. Darkform, Power and Will. Skullform, Will and Strength.”

“Do you do any of these?” Corrin asked.

“I do.” Dain confirmed. “I use the relatively unconventional Skullform.”

“Strength and Will?” Corrin recalled. “Seems like a good combination for a leader.”

“I like to think so.” Dain replied. “It’s served me at times.”

“Which one do you think I should do?” Corrin asked. “And, uh… is there any difference between them all besides skill archetypes?”

“Second question first. Yes, there are differences between any form. The nature of the forms themselves are unique in every way. Furyform is a form of balance between swiftness and strength to create an unstoppable offensive force—the swordsman you faced during the mock battle was actually a Furyform fighter, as far as I could tell, and a good one at that. Lightform requires a kind of enlightenment to become quick and evasive, able to predict and dodge an enemy’s next attack before it ever lands. Breathform combines evasion and defense to render any enemy attack useless—it’s quite similar to Lightform, in many ways. 

“Stoneform combines power and defense to make you a fortress in on yourself, able to fell any foe with one strike, and take any amount of damage without stopping. Darkform takes power and will to create a reckless warrior, who attacks with all their might without any regard for themselves. Skullform, using willpower and strength, is similar to Darkform, but makes a determined warrior rather than a reckless one.

“As for which of these you are…” Dain fell into thought for a few seconds, “I’m not sure. Will, for sure—you’re a hard worker, and you keep trying. However, you aren’t strength or powercentric… you’re more evasive, as shown by that stunt you pulled during the mock battle. Perhaps Breathform, or Skullform, like me?”

“Could I try both, maybe?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Dain replied. “I don’t exactly know Breathform—it’s considered the opposite of Skullform, which makes the fact that you could tend to both a little strange—but I know the basic principles. We’ll start with that.”

“Alright, then.”

“Good. Get your sword and shield out.”

Corrin unsheathed his sword, then unslung his shield from off his back. He slid the ladder onto his arm, then grasped his sword with both hands.

“Alright. Breathform is all about protection. You need to become impenetrable—a master of this form could fight a hundred foes and never take a hit. What you can’t deflect, you dodge. What you can’t dodge, you deflect.”

“What if you can’t do either?”

Dain shot him a sly look. “No Breathform master would put himself in a situation where he couldn’t defend himself.”

“Oh.”

“You know the basics of swordplay stances?” Dain began walking in a circle around Corrin. “Name a couple.”

“Stay light on your feet. When you’re attacking or defending, you move from one defensive stance to the next.”

“Exactly. Those two are key for this form. You need to be able to jump back at a moment’s notice, and keep yourself defended no matter what happens. You got any stances that might fit that?”

Corrin thought for a second, then put his feet apart and turned to the side. He held his shield out in front of him, holding his sword behind that.

“Hmm… Danex Shield Defense. Not a bad choice.” Dain finished his arc around Corrin, standing before him, then pulling out his sword. “Focus entirely on not being hit. Neutrality and self-preservation are key to Breathform.”

“Yes, sir.”

Dain fell into a stance of his own; low, with his sword pointed directly at Corrin. Then, without warning, and struck.

Corrin swung to the side, carefully deflecting Dain’s blade to best direct the captain away from him while he fixed his stance. Dain attacked again, and Corrin barely caught his sword on his shield, springing away. The captain was relentless, striking again and again. It was all Corrin could do to duck, deflect, and dodge the attacks.

“You’re doing quite well,” Dain decided, jabbing at Corrin’s right, “but this style doesn’t seem to fit you.”

“It doesn’t,” Corrin replied, batting aside Dain’s blade, “I’ve always considered myself as more of a reckless type.”

“I wouldn’t call you reckless. You’re about as reserved as they come.” Dain took a step back to catch his breath. “But if Breathform doesn’t fit you… then we can try Skullform instead.”

“That might be best,” Corrin decided.

Dain nodded, then motioned for Corrin to put his guard down. “Alright. I’ve been practicing Skullform for years, so hopefully I’ll be able to instruct you in it better.

“Skullform is for those who have experience in battle. Granted, you don’t exactly have battle experience, but the it isn’t experience that guides the principle here. Battle leads to death and those who dwell on it. In Skullform, though, you cannot dwell on death,” Dain sat down, “you respect death, and avoid it when you can, but you do not dwell on it. Mourn your comrades, wish your enemies a peaceful rest, and then move on.”

“Okay.” Corrin leaned forwards, interested.

“Understand that there are three stages of any weapon form—Mindset, Capability, and Mastery. For Skullform, the Mindset is what I just explained; a respect of death, and an ability to move along. Capability has to do with your weapon; once you’ve become fully proficient in its killing capabilities, then you must learn to treat it after a fashion according to your form. Respect for your weapon in this regard must be balanced between the strength to kill and the will to show mercy.

“The final stage, Mastery, is the stage at which a Skullformer has become truly attuned to their weapon. They must show perfect breadth of mind and restraint. In return, they have become a master warrior, able to kill in need or restrain in opportunity. A master of any form is a force to be reckoned with, but a Skullform master shows to the ones that call those who show mercy weak.”

Corrin nodded. “So where do we begin?”

Dain gestured at Corrin. “Stand up.” He got to his feet.

Corrin unsheathed his sword, and Dain did the same.

“Your stance should focus on an unyielding attack, but not a relentless one. The goal is to defeat your enemy, not brutalize them. At the same time, you shouldn’t hold back; remember that death is just a fact of the battlefield. To first truly respect death, you must deal it yourself. To show restraint, you must know what you are restraining from.”

Corrin nodded again, then chose a more open stance: his sword ahead of him, shield out of the way to his side—still protecting him, but not holding back his attack—and one foot behind to other to better spring off the ground.

Dain adopted a similar stance, but grasping his sword with both hands rather than with only one. “I’ll start on the defensive so that you can get a better feel for offensive swordplay. You ready?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then come at me.”

Corrin sprang off his foot without hesitation, striking from the left and down at Dain. He brought in his shield with the momentum of his attack, so as Dain deflected Corrin’s attack, he had to block an onslaught from the shield as well. Corrin held his shield before him to hold Dain’s blade in place, then brought his sword back up to strike at his right.

Dain caught all these attacks dexterously, twisting and weaving his sword through Corrin’s means of offense until he managed to push Corrin back and step away from him.

Corrin continued his attacks, grasping his sword with both hands and relying on his strap to hold the shield in place. He struck from the left to right, being careful to move Dain’s blade aside with his shield. Dain, however, dodged out of this, somehow managing to spin behind Corrin. Dain struck Corrin’s side with his blade, knocking him over.

Corrin took the momentum, rolling onto his front and jumping to his feet. He held his sword before him, grasping it with both hands so that his shield was parallel to the blade.

“Good—persistence. Will.” Dain said, then attacked.

Corrin caught the first few of his attacks, but soon found himself back on the defensive. “You’re way better than me.”

“Well, I have been training in this form for basically my entire life,” Dain replied, ducking underneath a swing and jabbing back at Corrin, “perhaps that would have something to do with it?”

Corrin knocked one of Dain’s attacks aside. “Who are you, Dain?”

Dain returned this with a feint, striking Corirn’s arm hard. “I’m your captain. I was once a Knight, though.”

“You what?” Corrin almost dropped his guard, and was forced to deflect Dain’s next attack with his shield. “You were a Knight? What changed?”

“Leading a battalion didn’t suit me, so I demoted myself. Now I’m just a captain, and a darned good one, I hope.”

Corrin ducked aside an attack. “Okay.”

“What about you?” Dain jabbed, then deflected another attack. “What’s your ambition, Corrin? Why are you here?”

“I want to be a General,” Corrin admitted, “lead an entire army to battle against the demons of Sunken Deep.”

Dain chuckled. “That’s an ambitious goal, but if it encourages you to work hard, then I’m all for it.”

“Right now, though… it’s just a dream. Being a soldier is the first step, right? You work hard, take orders, learn. Learning to lead a battalion is more than study—there’s practice and experience you need to do it properly.”

Dain swept his sword uncannily close to Corrin’s face. “Couldn’t have said it better myself. But speaking of taking orders and working hard…”

Dain jabbed at Corrin’s right, then deflected an attack. He twisted his sword around Corrin’s shield, then stabbed right into Corrin’s chest, knocking him over. Before Corrin could get back to his feet, though, Dain had his sword held at his throat.

“If you want to learn how to lead a battalion, Corrin, then you’re going to need to be one, first. To truly respect death, you must deal it yourself. To show restraint, you must know what you are restraining from. To lead an army, you must know who it is that you’re leading.”

Corrin fell quiet for a couple seconds, then chuckled a little. “Was this entire thing just one really long Dainspeech?”

Dain sheathed his sword and held out a hand. “Perhaps. I hope that you won’t have any further struggles learning to handle a weapon other than your sword?”

“Of course not, sir.” Corrin took Dain’s hand and let his captain hoist him to his feet. “Though I was never not trying to learn; I was just really bad at it.”

Dain patted him reassuringly on the back. “That’s what I plan on fixing. We’ll make a good sure soldier out of you yet. Now come on—I’m sure there’s still enough dust blowing around to make getting back to the others a pain."

 

[Bearer of all agonies]

2 hours ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

Corrin sat down at the table, then frowned at a shape engraved into it: The six-pointed arrowstar of the Iconar Collective. At the end of each point, though, a single word was written. From the arrow of Ivinan, the word “Furyform.” From Feylore, “Lightform.” There was “Breathform” from Vitera, “Stoneform” from Drakefell, “Darkform” from Sunken Deep, and “Skullform” from Carnon.

 

Love this. It's slightly similar to the ten stances, but different at the same time. I love the Lacy and Aurora chapter. It was heart warming. I love when authors do something like that. It gives it more realisticness. (I don't think that's a word). I like how Dain acknowledged that Corrin couldn't use the spear, and decided to give him extra training.

I absolutaly love the dayseasons. It's the most original idea ever, and super different from every authors worlds. It really helps your worldbuilding, giving it a senselike that when you read Sanderson. Can you answer one question though? Airlight is duststorms, water light is rain, but what are the others? Earthlight and Firelight? Whaat happens during them?

Spoiler

Please don't use a RAFO on me.

 

[Mat]

2 hours ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

Phew! Finally back on-track. The following two chapters come after the chapter "Training Session," so if you want to go back and reread that... great!

Chapter XIV:

  Reveal hidden contents

Chapter XIV - Four Young Mages

First Waterlight | Arcane Academy Dorm Rooms

“So!” Tara said, dragging a pillow off her bed and setting it on the floor. “How are you guys liking it here?”

Aurora was about to say something, but Lacy interrupted her. “I love it here!”

“Are you only saying that because you made the biggest fireball in class today?” Aurora asked, spreading her bedsheets out neatly.

“You did what?” Tara perked up. “Your first day and you’re making fire? I’ve gotta see this.”

Lacy grinned, then hopped off her bed and landed before Tara. “Behold, the great and powerful Lacy!”

“Oh dear… this is going to be a long night, isn’t it?” Aurora asked Veronica.

Veronica’s head shot up. “Hmm? What?”

Lacy began rubbing her hands together. “And now, the great and powerful Lacy will summon fire from nothing. It will be the grandest feat ever to permeate the Iconar Collective, and will shock all races so that they cannot speak!”

Tara laughed. “Where are you getting all this from?”

“Good question.” Aurora muttered.

Lacy tore her hands apart, and a loud flash preceded a large flame. The fireball hovered over her hand for a few seconds before fizzling out into a puff of smoke.

“Icona!” Tara said after the show was over. “And you got that on your first day! Now I’ve got to know.”

“Know what?” Lacy asked.

“Everything, of course! We’re roomies, aren’t we? We need to share stuff like funny stories, backstories, and embarrassing inside jokes! You guys have all those things, right?”

“That we do.” Lacy confirmed.

“A long night.” Aurora decided, but didn’t complain, pulling her pillow off her bed and taking a seat on it on the floor. Lacy did the same, but made herself a stack of pillows that she balanced haphazardly on top of.

“Okay, then! So—” Tara paused, then glanced over at Veronica. “Umm… are you going to join us?”

Veronica didn’t respond until she saw all three of them looking at her. “What? Oh, um… no, sorry. I have a, uh… very important assignment that I need to finish—”

“You say that about everything you do! You say that everything you do is ‘very important,’ but we take some of the same classes, and very little of what I do is ‘very important,’ so that leads me to believe that, actually, nothing that you do is very important.” Tara blinked. “Okay, that came out a lot ruder than I expected it to. Sorry.”

“That’s alright,” Veronica said dismissively. She set down her book, “I guess I’ll join you guys.”

“Yay!” Tara said. “You can go first.”

“What? Go first doing what?”

“Telling us about yourself!” Lacy replied. “Duh.”

“Oh, uh… well, my, um… my favorite color is yellow…”

“No no no,” Tara interrupted, “like, tell us where you came from, and… stuff.”

“Your favorite color is yellow?” Lacy asked.

“Oh… okay. I was born under a small noble family in the north. The house was losing a lot of money, so… they sent me here. They wanted me to become a mage and join the military, because apparently, and I quote, ‘military mages earn military wages.’”

“Who said that?” Aurora asked.

“My dad. He was a Captain in the Enclave for awhile before his father died and left him to inherit the estate. Apparently he made enough there to stay afloat for a few years. He married my mom, who came from a relatively wealthy noble house. Together they held out for a good decade or so before I was old enough to come here.”

“Wait, how old are you?” Lacy asked.

“Twelve.”

Tara jerked her head back in surprise. “You’re twelve? But you’re so…”

“Mature?”

“I was going to say ‘tall,’ but that works too.”

“Yeah… my parents are nice and all, so they didn’t want to marry me off at so young an age, and they didn’t think they’d have enough time and money to sustain the house until I got old enough to marry, so they sent me here.” Veronica gestured around herself.

“So that’s why you study so much? To help your family?” Aurora asked.

“That is correct.”

“That’s very… noble of you.” Aurora said, then winced.

There was silence for a couple seconds until Lacy broke out laughing. She was followed by Tera, who released a short series of giggles. Veronica chuckled a little, and Aurora cracked a smile.

When their fits of laughter (or, rather, Lacy and Tera’s fits of laughter) had silenced, Veronica continued. “I’m actually hoping that I can become a Master mage one day; there’s significantly less combat involved, and they have a lot of influence, so I might be more beneficial to my family as a Master than as a soldier. But… that’s a kind of unrealistic goal. I do my best, though.”

“I’m actually here for a… relatively similar reason.” Tara said. “My dad’s a spice merchant, and my mom… doesn’t exist anymore. My dad makes enough to support the family, and even scraped together enough to get me into school here.”

“Wait… you mean school wasn’t free for you?” Aurora asked.

“Um, no… what, it was free for you?”

“...Yes.” Aurora said. “We passed a test and got in.”

“That was a government-paid admission, Aurora, remember?” Lacy replied. “‘All expenses paid’ written in big, red letters all over that massive form we had to sign eleven thousand times.”

“Ah, that makes more sense,” Tara said, “you’re from Feylore; specifically the lower-class tiers. Ivinan struck a deal with Feylore, ah—twenty years ago? Now Feylore will supply their citizens to Ivinan’s armies in exchange for… some kind of tariff removal or something.”

“Wait, wait, wait…” Lacy said. “Hold up. Supply their citizens to Ivinan’s armies?”

“Oooh…” Tara replied, shying away from Aurora and Lacy. “Have I, uh… hit a sore spot?”

“That wasn’t in the million-page-long document we signed!” Lacy exclaimed. “So we’re expected to learn Arcana so we can be supplied to the military?”

“Calm down, Lace.” Aurora said. “It’s… probably not that simple.”

Lacy slumped a little. “I don’t want to be in the army.”

“They probably don’t even conscript girls!”

“They don’t.” Veronica confirmed. “Well, they do, but significantly less often than they do males.”

“See?” Aurora said.

“Like… if we were all males, then probably three of us would get conscripted at some point, but now only, like, one or two of us will. There’s an eighty-two percent conscription rate for males and a thirty-seven percent conscription rate for females.”

Lacy blinked. “Where the heck did you read about that?”

“I didn’t. My dad knew the rates by heart.”

“Why?”

Veronica shrugged. “I don’t know. Tara! You were going somewhere with your story?”

“Ah! Right.” Tara stretched a little. “Uhh… Dad got me into school… and then I met you guys. The end. Next!”

“Me!” Lacy called, shooting her hand into the air. “Me me me me! I want to be undepressed!”

“You want to be… what?” Aurora asked.

“Undepressed. Y’know, like… not depressed. I got all stressed and angsty when you guys read out my own legal document, and now I want to tell funny stories! I’ll start at the beginning, when somebody found my useless tiny baby body in an alleyway somewhere after my parents decided I wasn’t good enough.”

“Whoa.” Tara said. “How is the undepressing?”

“Because it’s kind of funny when you say it like that! Otherwise, it just makes you think about the meaningless of life as a whole and how you were perceived as imperfect and makes you wonder what made your parents hate you so much, but that’s way more depressing than laughing about being a weakling! So I joke about it and move on.”

Veronica nodded appreciatively. “That’s good philosophy.”

“Glad someone thinks so. Anyways, so somebody finds this husk of a half-elven creature and decides hey, you wanna know what might be fun? Raising this kid for a week, getting bored, and then giving her to the orphanage!”

“Wait, what?” Veronica motioned for Lacy to stop. “Are you trying to make this depressing?”

“If I was trying to make this depressing, I’d be talking serious right now, but I’m joking instead!”

“Lacy,” Aurora chastised, “you’re most serious when you’re joking. You send messages through the undertones of your jokes.”

“What the heck does that even mean?”

“It means that it’s okay to be sad about something.”

“Like Icona’s toothbrush it is! If you know me, then you know that I consider advice to be the equivalent of what a sweet-tooth child considers curry; disgusting, dumb, and bad, even though Mom says it’s good for you!”

“Icona's toothbrush?” Tara asked. "Also, I like curry."

“So do I. I was just using a metaphor.”

“Simile.” Veronica corrected.

“You guys done correcting my common?”

The three of them gave scattered positive remarks, ranging from “yes” to “yeah, sure.”

“That’s good, because now’s where it gets boring. I live at the orphanage for a few years, have no friends, and consider the meaning of life.” She eyed the others. “No interruptions? Good, ‘cuz after all that, I met this sorry excuse for a half-elf.” Lacy gestured to Aurora.

“Ouch.” Aurora decided.

“Oh, hush, it’s all in good justice. Anyways, I met Aurora, and we grew up together! Like that old adage says: birds without parents naturally gravitate towards people with opposite hair colors.”

“That’s not the adage at all…” Tara said.

“Birds… don’t have hair.” Veronica pointed out.

“Then three months ago, we filled out a massive legal form and a very short test, and guess what? Our human heritage made it so that we were both secretly mages, only disguised as orphans! Only, we’re still orphans, but mages also! It’s the perfect cover. And then we both lived happily ever after ‘til the end of our days except not because that hasn’t happened yet… the end.”

Tara gave an applause, which was awkwardly mimicked by Veronica. Aurora nodded in silent agreement.

“So, Aurora…” Tara said, “did she miss anything? What do we need to know?”

“Oh, she forgot all sorts of things.” Aurora replied. “Like her boyfriend—”

“It doesn’t count if you’re a nine-year-old!” Lacy interrupted. “And we were hardly an item. Just, like… really weirdly close friends.”

“Friends don’t break up. Boyfriends and girlfriends break up.”

“Friends totally break up. Remember that one time, in that one forest district?”

“That doesn’t count. Solo survival doesn’t count as breaking up.”

“Solo survival?” Tara asked. “You guys had to survive on your own?”

“Well… yes.” Aurora said. “We both ran away from some of the orphanages because a lot of the mistresses were… impolite.”

“They had big sticks,” Lacy confirmed, “that they liked to whack people with.”

“The orphanages beat you?”

“That’s what orphanages do. Some were rougher than others; we ran away from those ones. There’s a lot of empty room in Feylore; most of the population lives at the capital city.”

“Eighty-three percent of the population lives there.” Veronica confirmed. “And another six live in the towns right outside its walls. I believe most of the orphanages are to be found in the Eighth Verar?”

“That’s right,” Aurora replied, “which makes it relatively easy to get out of the city after you’ve run away from one of them. Because the forest districts are only a few miles away, you just need to either walk really fast or catch a ride with a nice farmer.”

“There are lots of nice farmers.” Lacy noted.

“The police always catch you at some point or the other, though… sometimes they bring the orphanage master with them.” Aurora stopped. The memory was fresh, now.

Lacy hesitated. “Do… you want to me tell this, Amy?”

Aurora only nodded.

“There was… one orphanage mistress who thought herself a perfect parent.” Lacy began. “We had to call her ‘mother,’ or we’d be beaten. It was easier than you might think to slip up.

“Long story short, we ran away. Caught a ride with a sympathetic merchant up to the forests. We stayed put for a little while until we saw the police, then ran off together. We decided to split up, which was probably one of the stupidest thing we’ve ever done. They found Aurora first.”

“The cops aren’t that brutal in Feylore,” Aurora said, “at least, not to kids.”

“The ‘mother’ came with them.” Lacy added. “They started asking her where I was; she didn’t know I was hiding in the bushes just a few feet away.

“The mother hates it when we lie, so when she was wrong about where I was…”

“I have a scar from that.” Aurora said, voice quiet. “Right across here.” She traced it over her shoulder.

“And the police just let it happen?” Tara asked.

“Not exactly.” Lacy replied. “The few that weren’t looking for me were frozen in shock—I don’t blame them. It wasn’t until the chief came back that they made her stop. We were transferred after that, and they shut down that orphanage.”

“That’s a… good thing, right?”

“I guess,” Aurora said, “but… it feels wrong to think that what happened to me was some heroic thing or something.”

“That’s all just so awful, though.” Tara shifted herself. “Was life really that hard?”

“It wasn’t to us.” Aurora replied. “You can’t miss something that you never had.”

“But we’re here now,” Lacy said, “and we’re never going back.”

“If that place taught us one thing, it’s that if we ever have kids, we’re never giving them up. Not like my parents did to my brother and I.”

“You have a brother?” Veronica asked.

“Yeah. He and I got separated awhile back, though; a lot of the orphanages are gender-specific. He actually got adopted by some noble eventually, so… that’s good for him. Hopefully I’ll be able to see him again someday.”

“I could write to my dad,” Veronica proposed, “have him ask around for an adopted kid from Feylore. He’d be willing.”

“You’d do that?” Aurora asked, hopes up.

“Yeah, no problem. My dad needs something wholesome to do every once in awhile.”

Aurora hugged Veronica, much to Veronica’s surprise as well as her own. She broke away awkwardly after only a couple seconds. “Ah, um… thanks.”

“So are we going to bed now?” Tara asked, breaking the awkwardness.

“Of course we aren’t!” Lacy replied. “We’re a bunch of teenagers in a dorm room! I expect that the teachers’ll find us collapsed on the floor when we’re supposed to come into class tomorrow. A bunch of misfits like ourselves deserve a little disobedience after their first day of school.”

Chapter XV:

  Reveal hidden contents

Chapter XV - Sword Forms

Second Airlight | Camp Thunder

    A week after the mock battle, when Dain had recovered from his arrow wound, Corrin and the rest of the squadron had begun training. His kinship with the others had deepened not just by his successful capture of the banner during the mock battle, but by training and bunking alongside them all. Two days ago, Iolar and Quarden both decided that they and he had become friends, and a day after that, Mareth had said the same. He knew most of the assorted spearmen by face—a few by name—and occasionally demonstrated a swordplay attack by their request.

    Corrin and Teren didn’t speak much, but they worked alongside each other now and again without any ire. He shared jokes with Kent, cleaned armor with John—he even tried improving his Arcana under Uia’s instruction a couple times, to no avail. He hadn’t asked what an Alch-MT was, yet; every time he thought to bring up the topic, the words died in his mouth.

    Sufficeth to say that Corrin was officially a member of the squadron.

    “Tighter!” Dain called. “Points up, men! You aren’t going to stop a charging barrage of demons by stabbing their knees. Corrin!”

    “Yes, sir!” Corrin replied.

    “You stance is awful. Bring that elbow back!”

    “Yes, sir!” Corrin repeated, pulling back his right elbow. The spear that had been placed in his hands felt awkward and off-balanced as he hefted it forwards towards a collection of straw dummies.

    “Much better.” Dain said. “Now, demons are ruthless! They won’t stop fighting until every last one of them has been destroyed, and even then you can practically feel their souls trying to claw into yours. This means two things. Thing one: we never count on making the enemy retreat. Fall back, maybe, but never retreat. Thing two: they often jump at us with little regard for their own safety. Tio!”

    “Sir!” One of the soldiers yelped.

    “What’s the best thing you can do against an onslaught of mindless demon invaders?”

    “Hold a spearline, sir!” The soldier, Tio, replied.

“Right you are!” Dain said. “Make an impenetrable wall of death for them to only pray they can get through.” He stopped talking for a second. “The enemy’s on you! Positions!”

Corrin tensed, holding his spear out stagnant before him. He tried to imagine a demon crashing into him, his only protection from it being the spear—the instinct didn’t come. His arm loosened, trying to grasp the spear like it would a sword.

“Corrin!” Dain yelled again. Corrin readjusted his grip, but the damage had been done. The captain motioned for everyone to stop, then walked to Corrin. “What have I told you about spear combat?”

“Yes, sir, I’m… sorry, sir. I just—” He was stumbling over his own words.

“Teren!” Dain called. “Run these soldiers over some more exercises while I’m gone.”

“Gone?” Corrin asked. “Where are you going?”

“Where I’m going is inconsequential. It’s where I’m taking you that you’ve ought to think about.” Dain walked to the door, reaching for the handle.

“Sir, it’s Airlight.” Corrin said hastily. “The dust storms are out.”

Dain raised an eyebrow, then pulled open the door. Dust, blown by torrential winds, swept into the building, causing everyone training there to cover their faces and avert their eyes. Corrin covered his eyes as well, but when his captain beckoned him outside, he managed to struggle through the doorway and into the Airlight winds.

“What are we doing out here?” Corrin asked, yelling in an attempt to be heard over the winds.

Dain didn’t reply, instead forging ahead through the dust. Corrin followed, unsteady by the storm. The captain had crossed the walkway before Corrin had even come halfway, turning around to face the soldier with the look of a father awaiting a child to cross a bridge.

Corrin growled at that thought, then fell in next to Dain beside another building. When he asked the captain whether or not they could return to the indoors, Dain opened the door to the building, gesturing Corrin inside.

He didn’t have to be told twice. He ducked through the doorway, and when Dain closed the door behind the two of them, he began spitting dust out of his mouth. “Was that necessary?” Corrin demanded, grabbing a waterskin at his side to wash out the dust.

Dain took a seat on a bench. “Yes, it was. Now we’re in the right place.”

“What is the right place?” Corrin asked.

“Here.” Dain replied. “Do you know where here is, Corrin?”

“No.” Corrin said, then started looking up and down the walls: they were covered in swords, spears, axes, and any other weapon Corrin could think of. “The armory?”

“Close.” Dain stood up again, unsheathing his own sword and placing it on a table. “We’re in a more… special training room.”

Corrin sat down at the table, then frowned at a shape engraved into it: The six-pointed arrowstar of the Iconar Collective. At the end of each point, though, a single word was written. From the arrow of Ivinan, the word “Furyform.” From Feylore, “Lightform.” There was “Breathform” from Vitera, “Stoneform” from Drakefell, “Darkform” from Sunken Deep, and “Skullform” from Carnon.

“I think I’ve seen this before.” Corrin said. “At Uncle Lars’ place.”

“These,” Dain explained, “are the six Weapon Forms: complicated arts that few will ever master. When you first learn how to use a weapon, you are taught how to attack and defend. There are many who achieve proficiency in their weapon of choice and go no further. However, there are also those who learn these arts; those who have chosen a path easily begun, but far less easily trod.”

“Okay.” Corrin replied. “What exactly does this have to do with me?”

“Well, you seem quite aversive to any weapon other than the sword.” Dain answered. “So I decided that you might as well learn how to use your sword like a master.”

“Really?”

Dain didn’t answer his question. “So, I take it you don’t really know what comprises these forms?”

“Nope.”

“There are six elements to combat: Strength, Speed, Evasion, Defense, Power, and Will.” Dain began. “Strength is one’s ability to inflict damage to an opponent. Speed is self-explanatory: your actual physical swiftness. Evasion is your ability to dodge an attack, and Defense is your ability to deflect or nullify an attack. Power is similar to Strength, but individual in its own way; Strength is more reserved, more balanced. Power is sheer muscle, unparalleled ability in might alone.”

“And Will?” Corrin asked.

“Will is intent. It is best described by its sister word, Willpower. Your mental capacity to keep fighting no matter the cost.”

“Huh.” Corrin replied. “So which form focuses on which element?”

“Each form focuses on two of these, actually.” Dain corrected him. “Furyform is Strength and Speed. Lightform is Speed and Evasion. Breathform, Evasion and Defense. Stoneform, Defense and Power. Darkform, Power and Will. Skullform, Will and Strength.”

“Do you do any of these?” Corrin asked.

“I do.” Dain confirmed. “I use the relatively unconventional Skullform.”

“Strength and Will?” Corrin recalled. “Seems like a good combination for a leader.”

“I like to think so.” Dain replied. “It’s served me at times.”

“Which one do you think I should do?” Corrin asked. “And, uh… is there any difference between them all besides skill archetypes?”

“Second question first. Yes, there are differences between any form. The nature of the forms themselves are unique in every way. Furyform is a form of balance between swiftness and strength to create an unstoppable offensive force—the swordsman you faced during the mock battle was actually a Furyform fighter, as far as I could tell, and a good one at that. Lightform requires a kind of enlightenment to become quick and evasive, able to predict and dodge an enemy’s next attack before it ever lands. Breathform combines evasion and defense to render any enemy attack useless—it’s quite similar to Lightform, in many ways. 

“Stoneform combines power and defense to make you a fortress in on yourself, able to fell any foe with one strike, and take any amount of damage without stopping. Darkform takes power and will to create a reckless warrior, who attacks with all their might without any regard for themselves. Skullform, using willpower and strength, is similar to Darkform, but makes a determined warrior rather than a reckless one.

“As for which of these you are…” Dain fell into thought for a few seconds, “I’m not sure. Will, for sure—you’re a hard worker, and you keep trying. However, you aren’t strength or powercentric… you’re more evasive, as shown by that stunt you pulled during the mock battle. Perhaps Breathform, or Skullform, like me?”

“Could I try both, maybe?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Dain replied. “I don’t exactly know Breathform—it’s considered the opposite of Skullform, which makes the fact that you could tend to both a little strange—but I know the basic principles. We’ll start with that.”

“Alright, then.”

“Good. Get your sword and shield out.”

Corrin unsheathed his sword, then unslung his shield from off his back. He slid the ladder onto his arm, then grasped his sword with both hands.

“Alright. Breathform is all about protection. You need to become impenetrable—a master of this form could fight a hundred foes and never take a hit. What you can’t deflect, you dodge. What you can’t dodge, you deflect.”

“What if you can’t do either?”

Dain shot him a sly look. “No Breathform master would put himself in a situation where he couldn’t defend himself.”

“Oh.”

“You know the basics of swordplay stances?” Dain began walking in a circle around Corrin. “Name a couple.”

“Stay light on your feet. When you’re attacking or defending, you move from one defensive stance to the next.”

“Exactly. Those two are key for this form. You need to be able to jump back at a moment’s notice, and keep yourself defended no matter what happens. You got any stances that might fit that?”

Corrin thought for a second, then put his feet apart and turned to the side. He held his shield out in front of him, holding his sword behind that.

“Hmm… Danex Shield Defense. Not a bad choice.” Dain finished his arc around Corrin, standing before him, then pulling out his sword. “Focus entirely on not being hit. Neutrality and self-preservation are key to Breathform.”

“Yes, sir.”

Dain fell into a stance of his own; low, with his sword pointed directly at Corrin. Then, without warning, and struck.

Corrin swung to the side, carefully deflecting Dain’s blade to best direct the captain away from him while he fixed his stance. Dain attacked again, and Corrin barely caught his sword on his shield, springing away. The captain was relentless, striking again and again. It was all Corrin could do to duck, deflect, and dodge the attacks.

“You’re doing quite well,” Dain decided, jabbing at Corrin’s right, “but this style doesn’t seem to fit you.”

“It doesn’t,” Corrin replied, batting aside Dain’s blade, “I’ve always considered myself as more of a reckless type.”

“I wouldn’t call you reckless. You’re about as reserved as they come.” Dain took a step back to catch his breath. “But if Breathform doesn’t fit you… then we can try Skullform instead.”

“That might be best,” Corrin decided.

Dain nodded, then motioned for Corrin to put his guard down. “Alright. I’ve been practicing Skullform for years, so hopefully I’ll be able to instruct you in it better.

“Skullform is for those who have experience in battle. Granted, you don’t exactly have battle experience, but the it isn’t experience that guides the principle here. Battle leads to death and those who dwell on it. In Skullform, though, you cannot dwell on death,” Dain sat down, “you respect death, and avoid it when you can, but you do not dwell on it. Mourn your comrades, wish your enemies a peaceful rest, and then move on.”

“Okay.” Corrin leaned forwards, interested.

“Understand that there are three stages of any weapon form—Mindset, Capability, and Mastery. For Skullform, the Mindset is what I just explained; a respect of death, and an ability to move along. Capability has to do with your weapon; once you’ve become fully proficient in its killing capabilities, then you must learn to treat it after a fashion according to your form. Respect for your weapon in this regard must be balanced between the strength to kill and the will to show mercy.

“The final stage, Mastery, is the stage at which a Skullformer has become truly attuned to their weapon. They must show perfect breadth of mind and restraint. In return, they have become a master warrior, able to kill in need or restrain in opportunity. A master of any form is a force to be reckoned with, but a Skullform master shows to the ones that call those who show mercy weak.”

Corrin nodded. “So where do we begin?”

Dain gestured at Corrin. “Stand up.” He got to his feet.

Corrin unsheathed his sword, and Dain did the same.

“Your stance should focus on an unyielding attack, but not a relentless one. The goal is to defeat your enemy, not brutalize them. At the same time, you shouldn’t hold back; remember that death is just a fact of the battlefield. To first truly respect death, you must deal it yourself. To show restraint, you must know what you are restraining from.”

Corrin nodded again, then chose a more open stance: his sword ahead of him, shield out of the way to his side—still protecting him, but not holding back his attack—and one foot behind to other to better spring off the ground.

Dain adopted a similar stance, but grasping his sword with both hands rather than with only one. “I’ll start on the defensive so that you can get a better feel for offensive swordplay. You ready?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then come at me.”

Corrin sprang off his foot without hesitation, striking from the left and down at Dain. He brought in his shield with the momentum of his attack, so as Dain deflected Corrin’s attack, he had to block an onslaught from the shield as well. Corrin held his shield before him to hold Dain’s blade in place, then brought his sword back up to strike at his right.

Dain caught all these attacks dexterously, twisting and weaving his sword through Corrin’s means of offense until he managed to push Corrin back and step away from him.

Corrin continued his attacks, grasping his sword with both hands and relying on his strap to hold the shield in place. He struck from the left to right, being careful to move Dain’s blade aside with his shield. Dain, however, dodged out of this, somehow managing to spin behind Corrin. Dain struck Corrin’s side with his blade, knocking him over.

Corrin took the momentum, rolling onto his front and jumping to his feet. He held his sword before him, grasping it with both hands so that his shield was parallel to the blade.

“Good—persistence. Will.” Dain said, then attacked.

Corrin caught the first few of his attacks, but soon found himself back on the defensive. “You’re way better than me.”

“Well, I have been training in this form for basically my entire life,” Dain replied, ducking underneath a swing and jabbing back at Corrin, “perhaps that would have something to do with it?”

Corrin knocked one of Dain’s attacks aside. “Who are you, Dain?”

Dain returned this with a feint, striking Corirn’s arm hard. “I’m your captain. I was once a Knight, though.”

“You what?” Corrin almost dropped his guard, and was forced to deflect Dain’s next attack with his shield. “You were a Knight? What changed?”

“Leading a battalion didn’t suit me, so I demoted myself. Now I’m just a captain, and a darned good one, I hope.”

Corrin ducked aside an attack. “Okay.”

“What about you?” Dain jabbed, then deflected another attack. “What’s your ambition, Corrin? Why are you here?”

“I want to be a General,” Corrin admitted, “lead an entire army to battle against the demons of Sunken Deep.”

Dain chuckled. “That’s an ambitious goal, but if it encourages you to work hard, then I’m all for it.”

“Right now, though… it’s just a dream. Being a soldier is the first step, right? You work hard, take orders, learn. Learning to lead a battalion is more than study—there’s practice and experience you need to do it properly.”

Dain swept his sword uncannily close to Corrin’s face. “Couldn’t have said it better myself. But speaking of taking orders and working hard…”

Dain jabbed at Corrin’s right, then deflected an attack. He twisted his sword around Corrin’s shield, then stabbed right into Corrin’s chest, knocking him over. Before Corrin could get back to his feet, though, Dain had his sword held at his throat.

“If you want to learn how to lead a battalion, Corrin, then you’re going to need to be one, first. To truly respect death, you must deal it yourself. To show restraint, you must know what you are restraining from. To lead an army, you must know who it is that you’re leading.”

Corrin fell quiet for a couple seconds, then chuckled a little. “Was this entire thing just one really long Dainspeech?”

Dain sheathed his sword and held out a hand. “Perhaps. I hope that you won’t have any further struggles learning to handle a weapon other than your sword?”

“Of course not, sir.” Corrin took Dain’s hand and let his captain hoist him to his feet. “Though I was never not trying to learn; I was just really bad at it.”

Dain patted him reassuringly on the back. “That’s what I plan on fixing. We’ll make a good sure soldier out of you yet. Now come on—I’m sure there’s still enough dust blowing around to make getting back to the others a pain."

 

Ha! Revenge for not being able to upvote PM's!

[Channelknight Fadran]

57 minutes ago, Bearer of all agonies said:

Love this. It's slightly similar to the ten stances, but different at the same time. I love the Lacy and Aurora chapter. It was heart warming. I love when authors do something like that. It gives it more realisticness. (I don't think that's a word). I like how Dain acknowledged that Corrin couldn't use the spear, and decided to give him extra training.

I absolutaly love the dayseasons. It's the most original idea ever, and super different from every authors worlds. It really helps your worldbuilding, giving it a senselike that when you read Sanderson. Can you answer one question though? Airlight is duststorms, water light is rain, but what are the others? Earthlight and Firelight? Whaat happens during them?

  Hide contents

Please don't use a RAFO on me.

 

RAFO!!

Just kidding.

So the cycle is Earth, Air, Fire, Water. Earthlight dries all the water from Waterlight (creating dust for the duststorms), and Firelight is... kind of like a six-hour-long Autumn? The trees drop all their leaves, and these little buggers called Firemoths come out and eat them. They'll occasionally start small fires, so people are careful to rake the leaves into piles so that they don't burn anything before Waterlight.

Overview:

• Earth: Dries Waterlight rains. Everything becomes dusty.
• Air: Winds pick up, and dust blows everywhere.
• Fire: Firemoths eat fallen leaves and start fires.
• Waterlight: RAIN

55 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

Ha! Revenge for not being able to upvote PM's!

XD

[Bearer of all agonies]

Ok, thanks. Was just wondering about this for a really long time.

[+JesterLavorre]

Yay! More Iconar collective! Reading this really makes me want to keep going with my writing, so thank you for that.

All right, so I’m just going to go chapter by chapter here and give feedback and thoughts.

Chapter XI, Earth Arcana

This chapter was a little boring for me. I’m not sure why, though. I guess it just feels like not much progress is happening.

Chapter XII, Particle Theory

I like hearing about the magic system, but I’m still a little confused as to how particle theory ties into the Arcanas.

Chapter XIV, Four Young Mages

I love this chapter. It’s a really fun way to get some backstory and characterization. Tara is spelled two different ways in the chapter, though (Tera and Tara).

Chapter XV, Sword Forms

I really liked this chapter, too. It was so cool seeing the Dayseasons in action. Skullform is so edgy . I like the idea of the forms, too. They seem like they revolve more around your mindset and strategy than actual stances and moves, which is interesting. Dain continues to be a really great character, though Corrin could use some more characterization. He’s kind of boring to me right now.

All in all, really fun! Things I’m curious about/looking forward to:

• What’s the difference between elves and humans? What is Feylore (that’s the name of where the elves live, right?) like, how does it differ from earth/the rest of the world?
• What exactly are demons like? Where do they come from? Why are we fighting them?
• What is Corrin’s backstory?
• I really want to see an actual battle with some demons.

[Channelknight Fadran]

1 hour ago, JesterLavorre said:

Yay! More Iconar collective! Reading this really makes me want to keep going with my writing, so thank you for that.

All right, so I’m just going to go chapter by chapter here and give feedback and thoughts.

Chapter XI, Earth Arcana

This chapter was a little boring for me. I’m not sure why, though. I guess it just feels like not much progress is happening.

TBH it's not my favorite chapter either. I feel like it was forced, because--get this--it was. I'm just trying to blast my way through a rough draft before I make any big edits, though, or else I'll lose all motivation and have to restart (again), and I do not want to restart (again).

1 hour ago, JesterLavorre said:

Chapter XII, Particle Theory

I like hearing about the magic system, but I’m still a little confused as to how particle theory ties into the Arcanas.

I'm writing about that right now, so... yay?

1 hour ago, JesterLavorre said:

Chapter XIV, Four Young Mages

I love this chapter. It’s a really fun way to get some backstory and characterization. Tara is spelled two different ways in the chapter, though (Tera and Tara).

Oops.

1 hour ago, JesterLavorre said:

Chapter XV, Sword Forms

I really liked this chapter, too. It was so cool seeing the Dayseasons in action. Skullform is so edgy . I like the idea of the forms, too. They seem like they revolve more around your mindset and strategy than actual stances and moves, which is interesting. Dain continues to be a really great character, though Corrin could use some more characterization. He’s kind of boring to me right now.

All in all, really fun! Things I’m curious about/looking forward to:

• What’s the difference between elves and humans? What is Feylore (that’s the name of where the elves live, right?) like, how does it differ from earth/the rest of the world?
• What exactly are demons like? Where do they come from? Why are we fighting them?
• What is Corrin’s backstory?
• I really want to see an actual battle with some demons.

I plan on making Corrin cooler soon. I just need to put him on a battlefield and boom. Fortunately, that won't take long; I'm writing a chapter about a fight with demons right now, actually.

The difference between elves and humans? Apart from the ears? They have different magicks. I'll get into lineage and magic systems at... some point in time.

What're the demons like? *Malicious laughter* Where do they come from? Sunken Deep! <-- This probably isn't going to make an appearance in book one. Why are we fighting them? I'm almost there! Gimme time!

Corrin's backstory? Huh, I guess I should give a flashback chapter at some point or the other (his backstory isn't super developed or awesome, so...)

[Bearer of all agonies]

1 minute ago, Channelknight Fadran said:

TBH it's not my favorite chapter either. I feel like it was forced, because--get this--it was. I'm just trying to blast my way through a rough draft before I make any big edits, though, or else I'll lose all motivation and have to restart (again), and I do not want to restart (again).

I'm writing about that right now, so... yay?

Oops.

I plan on making Corrin cooler soon. I just need to put him on a battlefield and boom. Fortunately, that won't take long; I'm writing a chapter about a fight with demons right now, actually.

The difference between elves and humans? Apart from the ears? They have different magicks. I'll get into lineage and magic systems at... some point in time.

What're the demons like? *Malicious laughter* Where do they come from? Sunken Deep! <-- This probably isn't going to make an appearance in book one. Why are we fighting them? I'm almost there! Gimme time!

Corrin's backstory? Huh, I guess I should give a flashback chapter at some point or the other (his backstory isn't super developed or awesome, so...)

Yes!!!!! I can't wait! 

[Channelknight Fadran]

3 minutes ago, Bearer of all agonies said:

Yes!!!!! I can't wait! 

Can't wait for what? Corrin on the battlefield? Explanation of the racial magic traits? Corrin's backstory? Demons? For me to lose all motivation and restart (again)?

[Bearer of all agonies]

Corrin on the battlefield, Explanation of the racial magic traits, Corrin's backstory, Demons, and For you to lose all motivation and restart.

Everything!

[LukeWasTaken]

On 10/23/2020 at 9:58 AM, Bearer of all agonies said:

Corrin on the battlefield, Explanation of the racial magic traits, Corrin's backstory, Demons, and For you to lose all motivation and restart.

Everything!

Let's hope he doesn't lose all motivation and restart (again).

[Bearer of all agonies]

On 11/2/2020 at 1:05 PM, HoidWasTaken said:

Let's hope he doesn't lose all motivation and restart (again).

Hehe. Let’s hope not, Fadran! You’re the best. 

[LukeWasTaken]

1 hour ago, Bearer of all agonies said:

Hehe. Let’s hope not, Fadran! You’re the best. 

I agree, although I think I liked his flannelknight fadran pfp better.

[danex]

7 minutes ago, HoidWasTaken said:

I agree, although I think I liked his flannelknight fadran pfp better.

My favorite was his very original one, it was just some cool design iirc.