Several…
Years later.
Learning magic is, to put it mildly, not a fast process.
And the years flew by during it faster than anything.
Maybe it’s different for humans, but all elven training programs are geared towards their pace of life, which is about five times slower than humans’.
And speeding it up is impossible, because then the program, tested over long generations, risks going off the rails.
Because magic is not like some fencing!
With fencing, the worst you can do is cut your hand — even cutting off a limb is a non-trivial task.
But in sorcery, you can easily blow yourself up, fry/drown/bury yourself in the ground/tear yourself apart — take your pick, as they say.
“…Unlike Illusions, when considering the more complex types of mixed elements of Magic, which you are now more than ready to approach, it is absolutely necessary to highlight several significant points.” The platinum-haired blond paced sedately before us, his hands clasped behind his back.
We sat on our beloved featherbeds in lotus positions.
“First of all — complexity.
Many inexperienced or foolish sorcerers think that once they’ve mastered two specific elemental styles, they can use their mixed style with the same ease…
This is a lie and a terrible misconception.
A mixed element, especially if three elements were mixed, possesses completely new properties, different from others — and it should be perceived as a completely new element…
You must not make the mistake of comparing the combination of Flame and Air with the interaction of the latter and Water — the initial stage of the Illusions you’ve learned is maximally harmless due to the immateriality of the results of that type of magic.
Therefore, it is recommended for study and is primary for any future sorcerer…
Who wishes to eventually become a Knower, and not a handful of ash…
Next, we will move on to the main points of the individual mixed elements known to the current magical art…”
The elven Elder continued to lecture in a didactic tone, showing no small amount of experience in repeating such things — that is, teaching young elven mages.
Fortunately, few of them had joined the uprising.
Only young half-trained students who had fallen under the spell of the charisma and, hmm, Amazonian appearance of the White Rose.
Actually, this is one of the reasons the uprising is doomed — the humans in this war are using sorcerers to the fullest, since formally, this isn’t politics between kingdoms, and it doesn’t fall under the provisions of the ancient Novigradian Union.
“So, we’ll start with fire and air?
But aren’t those the most dangerous elements in terms of combat application?..” I recalled one universe about a bald Carrier of Good and Inflictor of Justice, and the numerous debates on the world wide web about how deadly air magic could be if used correctly.
“You are mistakenly considering magic solely as something created for waging combat operations.
Even Illusions interest you only as a means for direct battle, or, at best, an ambush.” The local Thranduil shook his head, closing his eyes for a few seconds.
“Of course, I take into account the peculiarities of your race and the current times — but while humans may not survive the time after this, you will live when there is peace.
And during that time, even the most aggressive element can serve for creation, not solely destruction — for Power is not only Primordial Chaos, but also Primordial Order…
And mixed elements serve this process better than singular ones.
We will begin our lesson with…”
Our subsequent dialogue was replete with a fairly large amount of detail, mentions of how the few elves, using the combination of elements, created their palaces and gardens…
Actually, this was one of the reasons they destroyed their palaces before leaving, while cherishing the dream of returning to their lands — so that humans wouldn’t learn the construction methods, and their civilization wouldn’t rise even higher.
The combination of Fire and Air helped in the creation of various metal items, from weapons to the most beautiful elven jewelry, which even the famous dwarven blacksmiths cannot recreate in full splendor.
The combination of Fire, Water, and Earth allows for the creation of materials that ultimately become the basis for easily erected buildings.
Their construction is essentially limited only by the number of elven mages, which has always been small compared to humans.
This is the kind of creative work we were trying to do.
“…Well…
Let’s say, we got the same result…” I said with some embarrassment, when after our attempts we only got some kind of half-crumbled, half-sandy pebble.
Both of us.
Honestly, did anyone think they had mines for extracting it?
No-o-o.
Magic, and only magic.
“Equally bad.” Simlas noted impassively, assessing our result.
“Worse than it could have been.
Although, Merlin, you do show some hints that all is not lost…” And he immediately made me breathe a sigh of relief.
After all, I still plan to build my own Camelot myself, and constantly turning to the dwarves is not comme il faut.
It should be exclusively my domain with a puppet king…
Or queen.
In a different architecture, different from the local one…
In general, the kingdom should truly become a land of fairy tales and legends, and not another northern state, of which there are plenty here.
And with such rather global goals, the lack of ability to create using magic would be a death sentence.
“And I didn’t expect to succeed at anything.
Dragons are creatures of destruction, and Merlin…
Merlin is just a unique case.” Nimue snorted, folding her arms under her chest and trying to pretend she didn’t care and wasn’t jealous that I could create and she couldn’t.
“You shouldn’t stop there.
This is not the only form of creation, so you cannot be categorical in this matter.” The platinum-haired elf waved his hand gracefully.
“I would not be a Knower if I did not know how to teach even the most untalented student.
But we will conclude our lessons for today, as you also need to fulfill the objectives of our treaty.”
“Oh, has something happened?” I perked up immediately, my eyes sparkling with interest.
I hadn’t been following the ongoing war very closely myself — it would have been stupid to get distracted from magic when I had a limited time to learn from such a truly Knowing mage.
Even though Simlas looks young — he has at most five to ten years left.
Only…
Five to ten.
He lived such a long life, and now he’s dying.
And he refuses to take those elixirs that allow human mages to have a long life and eternal youth!..
What a stubborn old man…
If he would only agree, Nimue and I wouldn’t have to withdraw from the world around us for these periods of several years at a time, in order to glean as much precious, unique knowledge as possible.
Knowledge that no one else has, not even his daughter Francesca.
Knowledge without which I cannot realize the earthly legend in this world.
Cannot create the various legendary swords and shields, everything that Arthuriana was so famous for.
“…The human kings have decided to gather in one of their cities…
Vizima.” Touching the back of one of the chairs with his elegant hand, the ancient Knower fixed his gaze on the window, beyond which were winter landscapes.
“Radovid III of Redania, Lambert I of Temeria, and Benda of Kaedwen have decided to meet in the capital of the second of them.”
“Should we burn them?” Nimue grinned bloodthirstily, apparently seeing this as an opportunity to rehabilitate herself after the failure with creating marble.
“No.” Aep Dabair dashed her hopes curtly.
“As far as I have been able to discern through my predictions, they intend to unite and capture Aedirn, whose army is finally bogged down in its confrontation with those two quarrelsome girls and the youth…
I saw this in several variants of history…
Your task will be to delay the troops of these three kings.
There is no need to prevent the war between humans itself, but you must allow Aedirn to buy time — and mobilize its forces against the triple alliance.
“But what about our planned defeat of the White Rose?” I raised an eyebrow, crossing my legs.
“Defeat in this war awaits her regardless.
So far, she’s only succeeded because of a most interesting phenomenon — we and the humans have switched places.
We…
act quickly, decisively, boldly…
And the humans underestimated us, just as we underestimated them when they first arrived here on ships.
Because of that, they gather their forces slowly, hesitantly…
All while fighting on our territories, which we’ve studied far and wide over thousands of years — something the humans couldn’t replicate in their paltry centuries,” the elf replied sedately, continuing to stare at the snowfall beyond the patterned glass, itself created by mixing fire and earth magic.
“In the short term, this will give the White Rose more opportunities, however…
Unlike them, I look not only at the present, but also at the distant future.
The human kings will war and make peace, and in the end, my daughter and her comrade will face defeat at the hands of human forces…
Humans who will not forget that war they started during the war with us.
This will sow contradictions between the kingdoms that will persist even through the coming centuries.
And this gives me a certain hope that, through generations of our life near the Blue Mountains, we may once again return and exploit the humans’ divisions.”
“Hmm-m-m-m…” I drummed a little melody on the wood with my fingers, thoughtfully.
“Long-term strategy, then…
Well, alright.
We’ll scare the forces of the three kings again and delay the transfer of their troops.”
“That is precisely what I want from you.” The Elder finally looked at us with an extremely weary gaze.
“After which we can continue our lessons…
Ha…
And I didn’t even notice how I got caught up in old-age sentimentality, did I?
Can you imagine, I wanted someone to inherit my knowledge and research, since my daughter turned out to be a rebel and a troublemaker…
Yes…” he caught my gaze, aep Dabair.
“And an easily influenced person.
I should have foreseen this and forbidden her from associating with the White Rose.
But who knew that such a noble elf, the granddaughter of one of the Elders, would turn out to be such an impressively foolish person?..
Had I been a couple of centuries younger, I might have decided I was unworthy of the status of a Knower…
But with age, you realize you can’t account for everything and everyone, even with considerable life experience as a result of that age.”
In response, Nimue and I exchanged glances once more, and saw the same thing in each other’s eyes — pity for the tired elf, who, after all, deserved a better fate.
Yes, he didn’t like humans — well, humans themselves don’t like humans, yes, he didn’t give them a harsh rebuff when they came to his people’s lands…
But that still didn’t erase the feeling that his fate could have turned out much better.
“Well, then.
Two evil black dragons will once again terrorize the poor humans, heh-heh…” I broke the ensuing silence, cracking my neck with satisfaction.
The damn thing had gotten stiff while I was trying to concentrate on creating magic, and therefore tried not to distract myself with other movements.
“Nimue, let’s go fly around, assess the borders of these human kingdoms, so we’ll know where their armies will march and stop.”
“This isn’t destroying the three little two-legged kings, of course, but it’ll still be fun.” Still grinning, the golden dragoness in elven form began to rise from her seat.
And she keeps flashing those slender girlish legs, the d-damn minx…