War of Djinn and Men Part 1.

When Timous and I get the ‘Proclamation of Freedom’ for Angela. We are visibly ecstatic and proud of ourselves. We can feel the positivity from each other wash over the room. Shockingly, the Governor throws a spontaneous party for the surviving wounded troops, and us. Timous looks at me with a puzzled look on his face. “ Should we stay? The girls are safe. Maybe this will give us more of a positive reputation?” I look back at him and think on the matter briefly, watching people scurry and prepare the room for this party. This little feast might be the only one we ever get. And if one party gets the Governor here to like us more. If the towns folks are in favor of us after killing Ghouls and having a little food with them, then why not? “I think we should, maybe you can help some of those wounded… But yeah. Let's see how this goes.” Timous looks back, smiles and cheerfully shouts “Let the party begin friends!” The room actually cheers for him, even the guards beat their hands to their armor or shields making a dull drumming sound. Timous looks overall less nervous now, like he feels more at ease around these people. And I'm starting to get enthused thinking we might be helping this world after all.

Some people show up quickly with a few medieval looking instruments to play the evenings music. One is an old violin called a vielle, a psaltery that is pretty much a guitar neck with no guitar box.Two beautiful brunettes come with harps, one rather small and one slightly bigger that rests on her thigh as she plays. Then a few more men, one with a flute-like instrument called a shawm and 2 flutes. Two guards also join in with some small drums. The music starts up soon after that and the party is clearly on. People walk around passing out meads and finger foods. And stay close to Timous and watch out for him, but several party goers are talking to him and from what I see it's a pretty smooth conversation. They are actually talking to a leprechaun instead of freaking out that there is one in front of them.

The guard commander asked me several questions about who I was, what the hunters that I was training were for… I asked if he had heard of Djinn, He simply looked curious. So I told him some of what Hugh told me. “There are forces at work trying to claim human souls for much more power. Their kin couldn't stop them alone and found me to help them with the fight.Thats why I look like this and that's how I met Timous” He was genuinely interested in all of this. And he and I spoke for hours while eating.The governor joins us in our talk. Instead of being interested, he looks worried. So I look him in the eyes, “All you'll need to do is find us and tell us if you sense something is wrong. It might come down to all of us. I won't promise this will never reach you again. But until that day, this is my fight.” He looks back at me, gives a half smile and asks, “ We should tell the King and Queen to be on the lookout. We should tell him we have a new ally to help us with our man eater problems. But for now, let's not let that talk get out to the rest of the people…”

The rest of the night is filled with mead, food, music and lots of conversations and thank yous. Timous did use his medicine wall to make some elixirs and salves for the wounded guards who fought the ghouls before we arrived. There were only 5 survivors out of 40. They had battered bones and chunks taken out of them for food, in the middle of fighting ghouls. But towards the morning the party dies down and a very buzzed Leprechaun insists on starting the 2 day walk home. We exited the Governor's fortified mansion-esc home, and those who did not party with us were all very happy to wave, say thanks and good job… The overall tone of the soldiers and citizens was went from too busy to be bothered, to gleeful overnight. We leave the whole village and Timous has an all new grin. Not the patented Timous smile that comforts and welcomes you… It's a shit grin! He's proud and happy as hell, and I don't blame him one bit.

Most of the walk today is really quiet, mellow and drama free. There are few people on the road, but we barely pay attention to them. By early noon Timous is slowing down and looking a bit worn out. “Hey old boy! Is it the party or your age catching up to you?” I say with a chuckle, and he looks back dead eyed and blandly says “I need to camp early…” So we get off the road and head to the woods to make camp a little ways past the tree line, mabe 20 minutes into the woods. I gather wood as Timous starts making more duck eggs, leeks and more salted pork from his magic backpack. And as we eat, he tells me “You know, it took 5 years to get the pork just right for my camp set. It needs to be thick enough to satisfy, but thin enough to cook evenly. Salted as a preservative to feed whoever needs it, but not so salty it makes you sick. The other seasonings add flavor…” He continues eating. I ask, “Who else would you feed”? He chews and swallows some pork. “People in need, weary travelers who cross my camp in the cold. It happens often enough.” We finish our meals and just kick back and relax. We talk about how impressive it was that I made the sword, and grabbed the woman ghoul so silently it made the other 2 wonder.

I stopped him, “Whoa! What about you? You threw a ghoul a few times at least 6 feet, then hucked rocks at his head. You didn't even lay a finger on him. That was awesome! Those would be some neat tricks I'd like to learn!” I look up at him and again, that Timous smile is waiting for me to see it. “Angela is learning the basics about everything. Let's get home and see if you can use a bit of magic…” I glare back at him and think to myself. “Could I? I do have this armor… Maybe I can do these things?” As dawn falls Timous gets to bed and I am not tired. So, I sit up, and try hard to astral project to see Hugh again. Slow down, no intrusive thoughts, control your breath… I'm not paying attention to time or anything else. I see a light inside my closed eyes like before, I must be getting better at this. The light grows.

Then a massive thing moves a few meters past camp quickly. Timous shoots up out of his bedding “ What is that?” “It was behind you and into the woods…” I tell him as I focus again on my armor to remake the sword, it answers again with a golden xiphos. For a few minutes we search. Looking for clues as to whatever that big thing was.. It's now midnight and we have no idea what moved past camp. The rest of the night we plan to stay on guard. Thankfully it's comfortable, with a bright shining moon kissing the area with just a little light.. However, the night is uneventful. Dawn breaks and Timous and I are wide awake, we say to hell with this camp and pack up to leave.

We get back to the road and start moving at a good pace. “How should we show Angela we earned her freedom?” Timous rubs his hands together and thinks. “Should we just hang it up? Or treat the occasion like a party? I'm thinking we just let her know what's going on… She might not understand after all. We've already had to teach her so much about just being normal.” I stop, remembering how terrified she was. Of us, not being told what to do at every moment… “Yeah, let's just tell the girls and have a nice dinner after. Next day we can look at a party or something.” Timous snaps his fingers, “ Good idea son!”. We pass the fork in the road to go to the old man where we bought the cloak, also where we saw the man fixing the fence. “Last night you said you could teach me some of that magic. Do you really think I could? We can't do anything like that magic back home.” Timous speaks up right away, “Oh yes. Here magic is very possible, and I'm willing to bet Hughs armor will help you do more than you ever thought was possible. We just need to start applying you to magic studies until we start finding limits my boy.”

I keep walking, but thinking to myself. My astral projection books I was given to study do mention the body's energy. Chakra, chi, ki mana you name it. I read about it already trying to connect with Hugh. Whatever you want to call this energy. It's there, but it's likely to be an extensive network following paths you just need to channel or tap into to use. All the books were conflicting with each other. So it's better if we just walk and I leave it up to Timous to help teach me. We will be getting back in time for dinner anyhow.

As we approach our little hill, we stop to get the parchment out from the governor that frees Angela. Timous now he has a giant smile on his face. We are both very excited to see what unfolds from explaining to them how we gained Angelas freedom.We make our way to the entrance and Timous calls out for Aoife and Angela. The door opens and Angela runs out to give us hugs. Aoife hugs and kisses Timous, when Angela leaves me I keel down and get a good hug from her too. As she backs off, Timous says to the group, “Girls. We found the ghouls and stopped them from hurting more people. We got a lovely bounty on them. But moreover, we were able to secure something so much more precious… Aoife, maybe you'd like to read this out loud to Angela?” She takes it and smiles at Timous. “By order of the Governor to the City of Tyre. Under service to the King of Alexandria. I hereby declare. The servant girl known as Angela is now… free from all servitude owed to me by debt of purchase!” The girls go insane cheering, making a huge scene. Timous does some funny dancing jig along with them and then dances with the girls.

We go inside and hang Angelas ‘Declaration of Freedom’ Right above her bed. We eat dinner and get her ready for bed. “Children need curfews, love.” Aoife says. I realize she is totally adopting the whole mom role, and so far I'm very happy to see Angela be the recipient of it. The only downside is there are no other kids for her to play with. But we get her to bed and sip an evening chamomile tea. Normally it tastes too much like the flower but these two once again perfected it.

“Now Aoife, we've decided to try and teach Mark a bit of magic. We should start tomorrow. But do you have any suggestions?” She sips her tea, and sets it down. “Both of us have assisted humans in magic training, so you are in great hands.So he's human so his energy is going to be different from ours. It will be Ki for you son. Instead of just slowly learning new things and just having mana like myself or Timous.Magic just comes naturally to mana users, but it's not as intense as humans with souls and Ki. We perform low level magic and imbuing magic to items. Humans can do so much more intense magic imbuements, castings or spells. You humans tend to make the magic your own, the same thing could be different from one to the other and another spell would be oppositely different.You humans need to work at your magic to make it stronger, learn then practice. Some humans even sacrificed their pure life energy to stop wildfires or take out sections of armies. But before we can even guess, his body will need to create the Ki pathways and the network to do any feat first. But also with Hughs armor, who knows what will happen. He might have more energy, a separate energy even. Let's see where your Ki network is before we get ahead of ourselves.” I stop staring intently, “ But the books mentioned it's created in the stomach or heart. How will we know?” She nods and smiles “ Some humans need to store Ki in their stomachs, like our mana it's a source to be used until drained. Then we regain the energy slowly over time. But some humans, very few in fact I've heard of or read about. Just push Ki from the source of the heart for use. That's the connection from soul to body; it's where your life allows the soul to produce Ki for the user to manipulate. But honey, let's try to find what energy you have and the work you need to do first.”

We get to sleep shortly after. I'm not sure what I'm in for still, but I trust this will suck and be hard. The next morning Timous is waiting for me to wake and hushes me from the house. Guiding me further up the hill and behind a few boulders. “Sit boy, here's how we grow your Ki. Sit, Focus on your breathing. Inhale slow, hold and exhale slow… Good, good. Keep going. Now continue and picture your body. And your heart in your chest. Imagine your energy comes from your heart boy.Your heart is a campfire, always burning. Making your life energy and your Ki.the fire itself, and the coals are life. The heat and light are the Ki. Both are always being made but the Ki doesn’t have its own veins and arteries, so it cant be used. The fire is smoldering and waiting to breathe. Focus on your breath and my words, Picture all I tell you. Focus on the fire. Position your legs so it's feet to feet…” I do so.

“Good, Keep breathing. Remember your heart is the campfire. Now intertwine your fingers, and point your index fingers straight out together. Good, but line them up. Breathe in slowly,hold it and exhale slowly. Remember that fire, Let it breath, build it up and try to push it outwards. Push the light and heat. From your chest to your hands. Keep breathing, stay calm. Remember to push the Ki to your hands. Now keep going, never stop. Never lose focus, just keep going…”

Timous walks away. And I keep focusing on the Ki, and even though it's a cool early morning I feel my body warming up for the first time since I got the armor. The warmth is incredible, indescribably satisfying almost… I continue with no clue as to the time or the environment. Breathing, my position, my Ki and pushing it out. “Uncle Mark? I open my eyes, It's Angelica. She looks kinda nervous but is happy to see me. I think. The sun is setting now “Mom wants us inside for dinner…” I lower my arms and smile at her, “We better get going then!” I go to stand as she reaches out to hold my hand, but I'm so sore. It's not the muscle though. It's different, like I have steel rods in my limbs, stopping me from moving. I push through and head to dinner with my family. We eat a vegetable stew and have a normal evening. This time I actually feel ready for bed. So we start getting Angela tucked in. We all get our hugs and kisses on the cheek. We get her to bed and as I turn to go to my room, Timous stops me… “I'm sorry son, I see how stiff you are. That's good progress. It normally takes men weeks to make that much progress. It is working, but you can't stop here. Stopping now means you hit a wall. You'll need to punch past it with more effort if you sleep at this point.” I look at him, exhausted. “How long do I continue?” He looks right at me, no smile. “The same thing, stoke that fire and push it out. You'll pass out before you die. I promise. But I’ve seen men sleep and heal too often and too soon while growing their Ki. Then they struggle to grow to be mages. Just keep trying, we will watch over you..”

I nod. And head back outside to the spot I was at. Feet to feet. Fingers intertwined and index fingers pointing out and together. Breath, focus on the Ki. Push it out…”Wait, what about my legs? I'll push to my feet too. Who knows if that will help.” I focus for a few minutes, and then I feel the warmth starting. I stay calm and I focus, breath,Ki and push. Breath,Ki and push.Breath,Ki and push repeat…I feel the warmth expand from heart to torso. Torso to Limbs, and the intensity changes in that order. I don't know how long I have been at it… But I do feel that stiffness setting in exponentially more intense than before. Then the sensation of feeling flush and way too warm.Almost like I'm getting sick, But I focus on expanding the warmth harder. I open my eyes and the world spins violently. I puke to my right, on the rock, stomach acid only then dry heaves. But now it's day, I pass out once again.

I wake up in my bed. Angela cuddled next to me asleep on my left. Timous sat next to the right of my bed in a chair with a smile. “Took you 4 days and 3 nights for you to pass out. Most I've seen a human do was one day and night into the next day, then they pass out and sleep for a week. You have slept for 2 days…” I look at him groggy and fighting to wake up. “What does that mean?” He shakes his head, “Oh it means you are growing your Ki. Aoife can sense it. She says you now have medium sized pathways from your heart to your arms and legs. Legs were supposed to be next, and you just decided to do it eh? And you are almost into the feet and hands, which is harder to grow to do with the excess bones in the way.Over all, you did amazing, you should be able to do some magic in a few days, nothing grand like a highly skilled wizard, a nature elf or evan a sage.” Angela wakes up, “Did you have a good nap? Do you need water? Are you all better?” I stop her before we play 1000 questions. “Yes honey I'm fine, I’ll be ok, you just let me wake up ok?” She smiles and nods and goes back to laying her head on my ribs. I look to Timous “What's the difference between the 3 of them and your kind?”

“Oh well, a Nature Elf tends to be one with the earth. Some can make tree and earth golems for defense or building homes. They are great at healing and alchemy and use mana. Their counterpart is more “civilized” and built a few cities. Just calling themselves Elves they tend to imbue armor and weapons, locks and so forth. Mostly fire masters, but very little other mana based magic. No Ki has been recorded from elves. Only humans possess souls and souls give you Ki which is more robust and powerful as a magic medium. With rest and food we recharge mana, but we rarely gain the ability to store more past a certain age and amount. As for humans, that more robust magic recovers faster, is usable in almost any magic. So I as a Leprechaun can never do what you should be able to do, but you should be able to do a good bit of our magic” We both know Angela is listening so I let him continue to reteach me.

Following his story, “So can we find these two and see if we can get some new allies?”

He looks at me shocked. “I've never thought of it, we all tend to keep to ourselves son. The rise of humans has pushed us out, further and further to the wilds and wastes. Humans have been out breeding and expanding too quickly. But I have an idea of where they are… but it would be over a week to travel there.” I look at him and think to myself, “It's not a bad idea. Even if we only get a few of them to come with or just offer a hand. That's better than the 2 of us.” I let out a contemplative “Hmm.”

He continues. “Humans can make wizards and witches usually naturally. They do very well at mid level magic and alchemy and can help to better humanity or harm it. I've known a dozen or so and most of them hid their abilities from the other humans. Sages, who are mostly human. Tend to embrace their gift and try hard to master an element, nature or even their own Ki. I've known 3 of them who were still trying to master their gifts. And only 2 who actually had mastered their nature and fire abilities. They were most impressive but they would be maybe 120 some years old now.”

Rethinking what he's saying I have to question. “So does that mean you are technically limited in what you can teach me?” He nods. “Unfortunately yes, But we have many books from the Elfish people and some wizards and witches. So we have a chance to make you well rounded before we meet any other magic wielders.” I nod. “Ok Timous. What's next?” He looks at me puzzled and worried. “Are you ready? You only just woke up.” I nod. Let's not screw around, Let's get going.” Aoife walks in with 4 bowls of food and a loaf of bread. “Oh Mark! My boy, how are you today?” I smile. “ Ready to eat and get back to it!” She stops and looks at me. Puzzled and shocked. A familiar stare. She sets down the tray and walks to me. “Lets see your arm…” I raised my left arm for her to reach. She puts one hand inches under it and the other inches above. I then feel a slight pull on my skin towards her hands as she runs the length of my arm, from wrist to fingers, fingers to shoulders.

“I don't believe it… The network is stronger than when we got him inside and stable. He's flowing more Ki through his body…” She takes both hands over my heart and moves them around my heart, again inches above the chest and the pull follows. She stops. “He is ready to continue.” She says puzzled. Timous stands “So soon?” I instantly remember Hugh. “It's gotta be this armor,Hugh said it will use my soul to drive it or his power.” Timous stands still and rubs his chin. “Hmm, That makes sense. Maybe you're ready and able to do more than we can expect… Eat up, you'll need it. Youll go back and do the same thing but add the Ki push to hands, fingers, feet and toes.”

“Can I try!” Angela sits up right and excited.“ Aoifee laughs “You should try soon baby. Of course you can go.” “Yay!” She exclaims to all of us, obviously eager to try. “After lunch baby!” Aoife adds. We eat another beef stew, finish and head back out to the same spot. We sit, coach Angela and focus. Timous keeps repeating the basics. Then to me, “Mark my boy. You need all finger and your thumbs together. Palms to palms, finger tips to tips. Thumbs as well. Then push. Same with toes.” I do so, Timous keeps repeating for Angela. And then I hear gasps, still semi focused, I open my eyes to see Timous stare at me. His mouth wide open in shock. I look down still focusing on the Ki push, and stop at my fingers. A tiny sparkle of constant light right at all my fingertips. “Pretty!” Angela says. I look at Timous. “Keep going boy. Don't lose focus. Just keep going.” I do so. I sit and focus, Pushing my Ki. No worrying about time and my surroundings.I know I hear Aoife say “Come along dear, Time for your dinner and bed” but that's it. I just keep focusing, feeling the warmth from inside heat me up, Sensing the energy at my fingers and toes.

Timous tells Angela what to be doing, how to focus. She says a few times “Look at Uncle Mark!” and other things like “Wow, so cool!” or “ He's so warm! I feel him over here.” But I sit, and focus. pushing Ki from my heart to my fingers and toes. Except at one point, I get tired of the same old sensations. So I keep the same instructions but add ‘More’. More Ki, More flow. No more embers of a campfire, I want a roaring flame. Maximum power output. I keep pushing myself and feel the warmth intensify inside. I hear Timous, Aoife and Angela approach. I focus on more. More power, More output. Then I hear Aoife “ Back baby! Here! Now!”. “ Is he ok Mom?”. And finally I hear Timous. “In all my fairy years I've never seen anything like this so fast!” I open my eyes and see them all just below me, at least 2 feet below me, there is a strong breeze blowing the wild grass away from me. I haven't moved a muscle but I'm taller than all of them seated. Then it hits me again. The earth spins violently, I feel a drop to my hands and knees instinctually. I vomit and dry heave, my head still spinning. I feel the warmth dissipate and my body ache all over again too stiff to move. The world stops spinning, I lay down past my puddle of sick and give in to an absolute demand of sleep.