Sjal
Approved Character
Fall 57, 124
Sjal had spent quite some time in a group that had been taking her from one place to another in a strange new land. It wasn't the first time she had been around foreigners, but it was the first time she had been with them for this long. It was quite a tough trip for Sjal. It was one of the less favorable trips abroad that she'd had and the days of warfare and travel seemed to be endless. She would spend most of her free time sitting on tree branches while watching fires off in the distance.
She would sometimes engage the other travelers in conversation. For this part of her trip, she had been getting friendly with a man named Yan who was near her age to keep her company. Sjal too had anxiety in her as to what ever awaited them in this new place. She wondered if she was ready for what she was going to face.
Despite this, she wanted to become friends with these people so she could find a new home. There was a bit of a language barrier though, so sometimes it was hard to achieve. When she couldn't sit and relax, she passed her time by reading and learning more about the area. She realized that she would eventually go to the major cities in the area.
Many were simply traders, or related to traders. The boat finally docked and the workers continued to load goods and push them out of the caravan and into an unloading area, and she watched them do so. Sjal carried relatively little. Yan was holding some bags in one hand and had something over his shoulder that Sjal did not expect.
Sjal approached him and said, "what is that thing?" feigning ignorance.
Yan, asked, "this? This is a firearm! I was telling you about them." Yan was tall for a human, nearly seven feet tall. He was some kind of hunter with shaggy black hair and a thick accent.
Surprise was etched on Sjal's face. "Erm, I don't remember. You told me so much stuff how can I possibly keep it all straight. What's this one do again?"
Yan smiled. "As I said, it is a type of firearm. It is one of the simplest of its type and the least in cost that most people can get. It's like a bow. It will shoot metal, kind of like the tip of an arrow."
Sjal stared at the firearm with confusion. It did not seem like that. It was actually smaller than a bow and it was not even strung. She thought that even if she tied a string around it, it would not look very threatening. She extended her right hand and brushed her fingers against it - the skin that made contact with the metal was cold. She touched the various components of the gun and found that there were many tiny parts that could slide. She therefore developed curiosity of understanding how the whole machine functioned. After that Sjal looked up at the man and said, "it looks weak. And heavy. Is this able to shoot an arrow?"
Yan laughed and put a hand on her shoulder to help himself. "It doesn't work like that. There's no bowstring. You feed it with bullets and it shoots it. You've seen a crossbow before, have you not?"
This made her cheeks to burn with embarrassment after her friend laughed. Sjal had not thought that she would be laughed at for not knowing exactly how a gun worked but she appreciated the comforting hand on her shoulder. She had seen weapons like this before, but they didn't look quite like this and she'd never seen them wielded by a human. She understood that he was not really mean to her and that was why he was only joking but this alone irritated her.
"I know it does not work like a bow," she said trying to sound as confident as she could. "I mean, I know that you feed it with ammunition and it shoots it. But I don't know how to use it. I know they exist but have never personally used one." She looked up at him, and wondered if he would be willing to teach her the fundamentals.
"Well that's all you really need to know then. A firearm is similar to a crossbow, only there is no string. Just imagine an arrow flying and all you have to do to make it fly is doing this." He mimed pulling a trigger.
Sjal scowled and looked puzzled at the gun as she stared at it. "It must be magic then. In what other way could it have sought to push hard enough?"
Yan shook his head. "It kind of is magic. Spellshot, they call it. You just do not know how it is done. To be honest with you, I don't know much about the mechanics but if they were to work then they must require magic and they should be a lot more costly."
Sjal nodded, "exactly, magic."
Her friend knew he hadn't really sold her on the idea so he said, "I would show you, I actually could show you, but not here. If I shoot it here it's going to draw too much attention."
Sjal asked, "why? I could shoot an arrow off the side of the boat and nobody would give a fuck. Other than ask why I wasted a perfectly good arrow."
"You'll see. We should start moving and possibly we can look for a firing range. Perhaps, if I show that a gun isn't as magical as you think it is, maybe we can go to a shop as well."
Sjal and her friend then moved through the town and immediately went to a gun store. Her friend actually lived in the city so he knew his way around. When they got to the gun shop Sjal was amazed at what they had to offer. They sold only a few guns but also services such as repair and refurbishment. What really shocked her was the fact that a gun was made of many parts. There were peculiar, small shaped objects that made her head spin.
They appeared to be metallic in construction, so they must have been forged in some way. But who could smith something so small? It didn't make any sense. She felt like passing out just at the thought of it and she felt like the biggest fool. When she was informed on how much they were sold for she nearly fainted. "So it's mostly not magic. It's just… parts," she said as she got her first look at the intricate work that went into the creation of a weapon.
"Are they are hard thing to make?" she asked Yan.
"What, firearms? Of course! That is why they are so expensive," he said.
"I think I need to think over everything. Thanks for showing me around. I think I need to go get an inn or something." She wanted to go to a range and see a gun in use but she didn't have it in her. She was exhausted from standing all day travelling and strolling around the area. She had been toting her belongings with her. If she had gone to an inn first then she would have been willing to participate in other activities.
Yan laughed at how Sjal was dealing with everything. Culture shock was a bitch. He said, "sure, I'll help you find one."
That evening all Sjal could think about was firearms. She wanted to know how they were made, how those small pieces were machined. How to put one together. If only she had the braincells to make sense of it all.
It wasn't long before Sjal travelled from town to town until she got to Motoku. It was morning when she arrived and the streets were nearly overloaded with passers by. Nevertheless, in this large city one place would never run out of space. The massive eatery that helped to feed soldiers and prospective recruits always had seats. The food was so good that one might forget that they had laborious training to look forward to.
Sjal headed towards the area she saw many of them heading to. An astonishing amount of culture shock had hit her since arriving and she hadn't eaten much. The food was different, the expectations were different… the lack of magic was still shocking. Even though this place had the most magic compared to anywhere else in the country it was still lacking compared to where she grew up.
She settled down in an inn and spent a few days getting adjusted before going out and doing anything interesting. She was running low on money – she'd need to go earn some eventually. For now though, the only thing on her mind was to get to whatever constituted the nearby training grounds.
Her gaze fell on one of the training dummies. They were tough enough to take strong hits and had been artificed to be allowed to fight back to some degree. Not enough to kill, but enough to hit you hard enough to make one learn their lesson. The way they worked was that they counterattacked by pivoting on an axis at a speed proportional to the power of the blow given. One could thus easily practice one's attack and defense as much as they wanted to.
The dummy towards which the woman headed had 4 long arms at different heights, which implied a much faster response and a much greater strength than the basic small dummies with two arms. Normally, Sjal could manage taking on a smaller dummy because she was quite good with her sword. What would happen now that its offensive and defensive power had increased?
Both intrigued and determined, Sjal threw her jacket far behind the mannequin, on the dusty ground revealing her black tunic. Without further ado, the young woman struck with all her weight. She aimed at the wooden bar closest to her and with a shrill whistle, it pivoted at a quick speed.
Immediately, a brown bar rushed at her at face height. The very moment the bar appeared in Sjal's field of vision, she ducked. An eternity seemed to pass between the moment Sjal ducked and the moment the bar passed over her head. Like a bird, she leaned on one of the pieces of wood with one hand and let herself fall, blink upwards with her feet together, and land on the next bar. This acrobatic display was enough to demonstrate that magic made this a little too easy.
Her physical strength was so much better than it had been just a few seasons ago. Her speed and dexterity had also undergone a significant boost. She backflipped off the bar and put one foot on the ground while extending a forearm in front of her face in order to stop the trajectory of the last bar. However, the block did not quite have the desired effect: the moment the bar touched her arm, another bar came at her and whacked her in the stomach.
"Always room for improvement," she said as she grabbed at her belly.
As she turned around to look for a new training instrument, her eyes lingered on a particular shape in the middle of the landscape. There was a woman with long black hair, fine features, and brow eyes that was standing there, right in the middle of the training ground.
"You look familiar," Sjal said as she approached.
"Yes, you helped my family evacuate the other day…" the woman said. "I just wanted to say thank you properly." Hot salty drops began to flow, which was understandable.
"Don't mention it," Sjal said with a grin. "I was only following orders!"
The woman wiped her cheek with her right sleeve, then nodded. The two headed towards the tree, sat down, and remained there for several minutes, without breaking the silence. Then, as if she had never stopped talking, Kuji spoke, and recounted what had happened following the rescue. She took the time to explain all the details of her time spent in Motoku, including her town's concern that had grown over the course of this week.
Kuji went on to describe what it was like being related to one of the elders of her town. "I do not think the others consider me as an equal because I had been demanding that we evacuate for days before you arrived. Now they've poisoned my children against me."
"Hmm, that's not right," Sjal. Relationships weren't something she was good at to begin with so giving advice felt awkward. "I would think that they would appreciate that you were right to worry."
"More like they don't like being proven wrong. It's… not great." Kuji replied. One could feel the compassion in the woman's words, as if she felt guilty for the situation. For the first time since the woman had come to the training ground, Kuji finally looked like that she was feeling a little better.
"Oh, sorry you have to deal with that. Why tell me all this, by the way?" Sjal asked.
"I don't know. I think you will be the one who will help us get back home, so it felt right to get this off my chest. Plus, you're the only one who's been willing to listen. I know you're new around here… but war is brewing. Everyone knows it. Nobody has time to be nice. It's easier to lose a child when you numb yourself to the pain while busying yourself." One could always feel in her voice the unwavering loyalty she had to her loved ones. It was almost ironic that fate had decided that a heart as generous and pure as Kyuji's would become the target of hatred.
"That sounds terrible," Sjal said, trying to put herself in Kuji's shoes. She had never really felt loss before, except maybe losing contact with Abraia. She rarely let herself get close enough to people to truly care if they died.
"Let me tell you something… people like you have become increasingly rare. You shouldn't change." Sjal slowly stood up and positioned herself in front of Kuji, a big smile on her face. "I suggest you stay this way. The more good people in this world, the less killing there will be."
Kuji couldn't help but smile upon hearing Sjal's words. "Thank you for that. I'll uh… leave you to your training."
Sjal nodded, thinking that this wouldn't be the last time she saw Kuji, especially if she needed help getting back home in the future. Although there was no telling how long it would take for a volcano to calm down. Kuji walked off the way she came and then Sjal was left thinking about what she wanted to do next.
She decided to start training again after a few minutes having finally found a well-isolated corner where she could practice. And so she decided to take a tree as a target. She quickly made a few gestures and placed her hands in the appropriate position. She finally felt some aether flow into her hands and she thought about creating a portal.
Aether seeped out of her fingers and she cocked her head at the tree she was targeting. Something was off here… Suddenly a gust of wind rustled the leaves and pushed against Sjal's skin. That wasn't a natural wind. Sjal did a short series of blinks to get over to the tree and peeked around the other side of it. Sure enough, there was a zephyr mage practicing over there.
It was a short statured and heavy set man who was doing wide arcing sweeps of his hands as he sent another gust of wind at the tree. This time the gust was more powerful and made Sjal feel like she was going to get pushed over. He had sweat coming down his face.
This time the man focused on the tree once more but the problem was that he was getting angry and had released even more aether. He didn't just hit the tree, he vaulted himself backwards unexpectedly and skidded across the ground. He got up with great difficulty and looked at the tree. The gust had been strong enough to rip some of the bark off and Sjal had worried that it would snap in half.
"Hey, hold on a sec!" she called as she stepped out. "Someone's over here. You almost blew me over!"
The man's annoyed expression changed to an apologetic one. "Oh, I didn't see you there. My bad!"
Sjal smiled, focused with her eyes closed for a while, then teleported by his side. "Don't worry about it," she said.
The man jumped and took a step back. "Another mage? I don't think I've seen you around here before. And your accent…"
"Nope, you're right. I'm new. You nearly blew that tree over, I just wanted to get out of the way." She made sure to walk away from him so that she wouldn't be in danger anymore, then tried to remember what she had even been trying to do before.
She wanted to get faster, but that wasn't easy. The wind mage was a good reminder that learning zephyr magic would be a good way to accomplish her goal… but she didn't like the magic much. She liked being able to see her magic working. Commanding gusts of wind seemed like a difficult thing to manage, especially when trying to manipulate weapons at the same time. She would have to succeed in channeling a lot of aether out of her body.
The short zephyr mage noticed that she was deep in thought, and he thought she was kind of cute so he walked over to her and started shooting his shot. "It is said that this technique of mine must be practiced for 5 years before mastering it." He opened up a scroll and read some passages from it.
"See, first I have to hold out my hand and concentrate aether in order to create a pure and swirling form. But this is difficult, the concentration necessary is absurd and the aether fades little by little the longer I take. I've tried for weeks without anything meaningful coming from my training." His exhausted body seemed to sag to show how disheartened he was.
"It must be frustrating," Sjal said, happy to have company.
The man continued, "my father was there for me which was a good and bad thing. He forced me to master using aether at a very young age so I could be a useful soldier. Every mage must know how to be effective in battle around here. I've fallen down so many times but always had my dad to help pick me back up. He died last year and it's been rough."
He sighed, "He told me… 'if one day you want to become more powerful than me, you have to face every challenge in life... Think that everything you do is the evolution of life... look at this bird in the tree, one day it will leave its nest and fly away from its mother. If you want to take flight one day, never give up.'"
Sjal didn't respond, not wanting to interrupt his heartfelt moment. The man realized he was rambling and shook his head. "Name's Kirito by the way."
Despite his exhaustion, he concentrated on his aether again. A slight gust of wind came out of his hand and began to materialize. But it went out again. He tried again and again without stopping, each attempt increased in intensity and created a more and more powerful gust.
"You're going to enter mage burn if you keep going like this," Sjal said, noticing the signs.
He breathed heavily and nodded, "you're right. I… I should stop." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a sack of alkahest and grinned. "I got quite an inheritance. Losing my reserves is no excuse to stop training." He put a hand in the bag and started to absorb the energy from within, effectively restoring his reserves.
Sjal was surprised that someone would spend that much money just to train… but she couldn't complain. She wished she'd had access to alkahest when she was first learning magic. Kirito dusted off his hands and started on the technique again. His aether came out in the form of a ball of wind and was channeled right into her hand. Following this he held out his other hand and did the same thing. He brought his hands closer to each other in order to combine them. The two balls combined but become uncontrollable. The result was that Kirito was thrust backwards and his hands shook from the pain.
With a roar, he tried again and this time he ran at the tree as he did so. He shoved both spheres of wind into the tree and caused it to crack at the impact point. The tree creaked for a moment and then started to fall.
"Wow, he did it," Sjal said to herself, "didn't expect that."
The man was exhausted. He caught his breath as he fell to his knees. His body was bruised, but he was still not satisfied with the result. His hands were bleeding and absolutely everything hurt. Breathing had even become unbearable. That was the risk one took when trying to learn such a dangerous technique. He would have continued training, but he couldn't even properly flex his fingers anymore. He gave Sjal a weak smile before getting up and hurrying off to get medical attention.
Math:
Free apprentice level blinks and I believe one apprentice level teleport
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