What We Do to Survive

I wanted to move immediately onto the next part of our training, but apparently I had overestimated the girls’ mana reserves. Briella was mostly fine, her family’s bloodline spirit made fire-related magic cheaper to cast as well as easier. It was why she could cast a fourth circle spell at all despite having roughly the same amount of mana as Cayla.

Miranda and Cayla weren’t nearly as blessed. Half an hour of near-constant spellcasting had drained both of them considerably. Both said they were fine but I could tell they needed some time before we could continue.

As such, instead of going directly to some group sparring, we all sat down together in a circle and began discussing each other’s performance. Though it took some prodding, I eventually managed to get some useful feedback from the trio. They were initially rather hesitant to criticize anything I’d done, but a few sternly worded orders later, things proceeded much more smoothly.

After about half an hour we finally got back to work. “I think we’ll start with a simple two on two,” I said thoughtfully, “Cayla, you’ll be with me. Miranda, Briella, you’ll be together. Take five minutes to strategize and then we can get started.”

I led Cayla over to a corner of the room with the other two girls taking the opposite corner. “So I think we should keep things nice and simple,” I told her once we were out of earshot. “I’ll stay on the defensive, you focus on offense. Your force spike is getting pretty good, stick to those unless you think you see a good opening. Focus on Briella first, force spells are pretty good against her most common shield spell and she’s slower with the variants.”

“Yes master!” she exclaimed quietly, “I will strive not to disappoint you.”

“Just do your best.” I clapped her encouragingly on the shoulder, “You have a long way to go still, but you’re getting better. Keep it up.” She smiled joyfully, pressing back against my hand as a rosy blush spread across her cheeks. “Okay, let's do this.”

Turning away from her I called out across the room. “We’re ready.”

Miranda turned her head, “We just need another moment please, sir.”

“You’re good.” The two girls continued whispering to one another and I was glad to see they were getting along. I had noticed some amount of hostility between them after I’d first bound the younger duo, but that had seemingly faded away in the weeks since. Good.

From there, it wasn’t long until we were standing on opposite sides of the hall. I used a tendril of telekinetic force to pick up a white handkerchief I’d transmuted earlier and carried it to the center of the room. “Ready?” I asked.

Briella grinned back at me and nodded sharply. Miranda’s response was slightly more subdued, simply a soft yes. I let the handkerchief drop and we all watched it slowly flutter through the air.

I was casting the moment it touched the ground, three dinner-plate sized shields of crystalline light forming from a shower of glittering sparks. It was just in time too as I directed two of the shields to deflect the ray of fire and volley of stone shards flying towards us. The third hovered protectively in front of me, ready to move at a moment's notice.

Cayla was slightly slower on the draw, but had put the time I’d given her to good use. Instead of a single dart, her spell fired a volley of three force spikes traveling towards Briella on complex, twisting trajectories.

Leaving most of my attention to direct the three hovering shields, I got to work on the role I’d given myself. Any spell that couldn’t be blocked by the shields was countered directly or neutralized before it could become a problem. Whenever Miranda tried to use her own counterspells, I was there with a pulse of disrupting mana that tore apart the fragile spell matrices before they could form.

Whenever I had a moment to spare, I launched my own force spikes mixed in among Cayla’s volleys. My version of the spell was faster, hit harder, and took more focus to disrupt and made it much more difficult to simply push through her attacks. Occasionally I also added a shieldbreaker into the mix, the projectile appearing nearly identical to a force spike at first glance but optimized to disrupt the mana of typical shield spells.

I was impressed by how well Miranda and Briella were coordinating. Their plan appeared to be to drown us under a combined volley of spellfire, focusing almost exclusively on offense. They’d obviously identified Cayla as the weak link and were directing the majority of their spells towards her.

It was a good strategy, protecting someone else was much more difficult with most shield spells than defending yourself and Cayla was unlikely to weather the assault for long on her own. They likely hoped to knock her out of the fight quickly and then focus all their attention on me.

Unfortunately for them, I’d been expecting something of the sort. That was why my very first spell of the practice duel had been a fascinating shield variant that Jack Baretree had directed me towards during one of Professor Shrike’s classes. Shrike’s Cleaving Disk was a multi-purpose spell that our professor had designed back when he’d been a student at the academy. It was a sixth-circle combat spell that created a fast moving disk of crystalized force that could cut through nearly anything and made for a formidable weapon. Jack had demonstrated the spell for me and it was a very impressive bit of magic.

This spell was not that. Instead, it was a variant that another student had made in the decades since. By removing the cutting portion of the spell and replacing it with a different part of the Force spell form, the spell had been modified into a versatile shield that still retained a number of the original spell’s properties despite now being a fourth-circle spell. Jack had noticed that I often made use of various mana constructs and had thought that this spell might serve me well. He’d been completely correct and it had rapidly become one of my favorite spells.

Despite being a fourth circle spell, the shields required a shockingly small amount of mana to create and sustain, and could take much more punishment without breaking than most comparable spells. Something about the crystalline structure of the internal force mana matrix reinforced the entire structure in a way that reminded me of Professor Meadow’s lessons.

Their main downside was their small size and the focus required to move them around, but those were both easily negated with practice. It helped that directing them was a lot like directing my pure mana telekinetic tendrils that I made use of all the time. I was very thankful to Jack for showing me the spell and studying its matrix had given me a number of ideas for my other research.

Dodging out of the way of a partially-deflected jet of water, I interposed a shield between Cayla and Miranda just in time to intercept a very familiar force lance spell. I clicked my tongue in annoyance as the modified spell I’d taught Miranda shattered the shield, the entire construct collapsing into dazzling sparks of light that vanished after a moment. Unfortunately that was one of the spell’s weaknesses. Enough damage to one spot would cause the entire thing to break.

After that, things became slightly more difficult. With only two shields and no time to summon another one, I was much more hard pressed to protect Cayla. Thankfully she wasn’t completely useless, occasionally dodging out of the way of simple attacks so I didn’t have to defend quite as thoroughly. She was impressively fast and light on her feet, particularly since I knew she still hadn’t figured out any physical augmentation magic.

The end of the fight came rather anticlimactically. Miranda tripped over her own feet as she frantically tried to dodge away from one of Cayla’s attacks, her shield having shattered under the repeated barrage of spells. At her cry of surprise, Briella looked away from the fight and I mercilessly exploited the opportunity for all it was worth.

My last remaining shield, the other two having shattered blocking Miranda’s occasional force lances, launched forward like a discus and slammed directly into her chest. She went down with a cry of pain and the shield turned on a dime to crash into Miranda’s side as she tried to steady herself.

Cayla stopped her spell without having to be told and collapsed to her knees breathing heavily. I spared her a brief glance to make sure she was alright, then went to check on the others. I hadn’t hit either of them particularly hard, but Briella’s fall couldn’t have been particularly pleasant.

A quick diagnosis spell told me that Briella was alright. The fall had simply knocked the breath from her lungs and she was lying on her back groaning quietly. I helped her to her feet, then did the same for Miranda. They’d done a good job until the end, that deserved some amount of notice.

Surveying the three of them, I decided that was probably it for today. I had planned to do some dodging drills to close out the day, but all three of my slaves looked about dead on their feet. Magic could be rather exhausting. Channeling mana through your body stimulated the muscles in a way that was not dissimilar from exercise and they were clearly not used to so much spellcasting in such a short time frame. I would have to account for their stamina better next time.

“I was originally planning for some more training after this, but I think that’s enough for today,” I told them once Cayla had slowly stumbled over to join us.

Miranda’s shoulders slumped in relief and I raised an eyebrow at Cayla’s quiet exclamation of, “thank the gods.”

“The gods have nothing to do with it,” I told her sharply, “More training now would only cause more harm than good.”

“Of course, master. Thank you sir.”

I couldn’t tell if that was supposed to be mocking or not. She shouldn’t be able to mock me, so probably not. I watched her suspiciously for a moment, wondering if she’d somehow found some loophole in her bindings. No, probably not, I decided immediately after. Still, something to keep an eye on.

“Regardless, that was a good, productive session. I’ll see you all back here next week at the same time. Keep up the good work. Briella, I want an update on the situation with your father by Tuesday. Cayla, same thing. Let me know how the visit with your family goes as soon as you get back. Miranda, you know what you need to be doing. Questions?”

I waited for a moment, then nodded sharply. “Good. Dismissed.”

Lying silently on the too-soft bed, Lea wished she could remember the last time that she’d felt safe. It couldn’t have been that long ago. The memories should have been clear, Orion sitting with her on her bed, holding her tightly in his arms as she pressed her face into the nape of his neck. She could remember it, but that memory was… tainted now.

She flinched away from a phantom touch, eyes darting around the small room she’d been given in Adonia’s mansion, searching. She could see no one there, but that didn’t mean she was safe. She rolled onto her belly, pressing her face into one of the thick, feather pillows and let the tears she’d been holding back flow freely.

Some time later she sat up, eyes red puffy from crying. She wiped her nose with the back of her hand and tried to stand up, only to fall back down onto the bed a moment later. Everything felt so… pointless. Everything she’d done, everything she’d worked for, gone. Useless. Worthless. What did it all matter if she could do nothing when it really mattered?

It was as if she’d never escaped that dark room of bare stone and salt water. Sure her new cage was soft and bright instead, but it was no less a prison for it. She’d only left the Earthshadow estate once since she’d been brought here weeks ago. Wonderful, strong Orion had taken her out for a lovely, very expensive lunch only for her to ruin everything like she always did.

She’d wanted to beg him to hold her, to stay with her, to make her finally feel safe again, but she couldn’t. She should have told him that it was alright, that they didn’t need to leave, that she’d push through it. Like always though, she’d done nothing at all. Just walked silently back into the cage, hoping and praying, but never doing.

There was a soft knock at the door but she ignored it. Adonia never knocked, Orion didn’t need to knock, and the healer lady had told her she was physically as healthy as she’d been before… before.

The knock came again, then soft footsteps receded away down the corridor. It was probably one of the servants calling her to lunch. They would just bring something up sooner or later, not that Lea had much of an appetite. She would eat it anyway, Adonia always pestered her more if she wasn’t eating properly.

As she’d expected, twenty minutes later a servant came by and left a tray of food outside the door. Lea eventually managed to drag herself out of bed and grabbed it, but not until the bizarrely smooth soup, freshly baked bread, and sliced meat had gone cold. It was still good, fancy and seasoned in a way that Lea had rarely tasted before, but she could barely taste it. She’d asked for something simpler before, stew or smoked fish or any number of simple meals that she had always eaten, but the servant had simply smiled, nodded, and ignored her.

At some point, Adonia decided to drop in. It was probably evening by now, but Lea didn’t really know. Her room had no clock and no window, but she’d had two meals so far today and Adonia was wearing a fancy evening gown.

Her former partner burst into the room with her usual exuberance, heels clicking loudly as she pranced towards her. “Leana! I’m glad to see that you’re up and about! How are you feeling, beautiful?”

Lea looked up slowly from the book she’d been blankly staring at for most of an hour. “Good evening, heiress Earthshadow,” she whispered, “thank you for coming to visit me.” Lea desperately hoped she would take the hint. Of course it was not to be.

“Oh, don’t be like that!” Adonia exclaimed. She plopped down on the edge of Lea’s chair and threw her arm over her shoulder. “What are you reading?” Without waiting for an answer she snatched the book off the table and looked at the cover. “The light that binds us all,” she read out, “trying to catch up with your schoolwork?”

“Yeah,” she agreed after a moment.

Adonia clapped her on the shoulder, “Great! I can’t wait until you can come back to class with us! It’s been lonely without you around. What am I supposed to do all day if you’re not sitting next to me?”

Lea wanted to say something like, ‘pay attention to the teachers’ or ‘actually do your own work for once’, but instead she just made a soft noise of assent.

That seemed to be enough for Adonia. The dark haired heiress leapt out of the chair, gave her a quick hug, and turned to leave. “I’ll be off then! Father’s making me go to another ball with Lord Shatterstorm. You know, he’s not nearly as bad as I thought he was at first. I think you’ll like him when you meet him!” Then she rushed out of the room without a backward glance.

Lea watched her go, then turned to the now closed book on her table. She didn’t really feel like opening it. She didn’t feel like doing much of anything. Her head thumped down onto the table and she sighed, the sigh turning quickly into a sob.

Why couldn’t Adonia just… stop. Understand that Lea didn’t care anymore, couldn’t care anymore? Each week Adonia was spending more and more time with her future husband and barely speaking to her. Adonia… she didn’t understand. Lea couldn’t do this. Couldn’t live like this. Wouldn’t live like this.

She stood up and walked over to the door. Her hand wrapped slowly around the handle and tried to turn it. It didn’t budge. Of course it didn’t budge. It never did. This time, she didn’t even make it back to the bed before she was crying again. The stone floor was covered in thick, soft carpet, but it felt like coarse sand and salt-crystals against the bare skin of her arms and feet.