Chapter 449: Flight
“You don’t need a potion to fly,” a familiar voice echoed behind them. It was soft yet it rang clear in their ears.
Stryg turned around in surprise. “Lunae…?!”
The silver-skinned goddess stood in front of them in her adolescent form, a young girl as tall as any goblin. Her long white hair trailed in the snow behind her as she walked towards them. “You wish to learn how to fly?”
“Uh, yes?” Stryg said uncertainly.
Lunae smirked. “If you two wanted to learn magic you should have come to me.”
Aurelia hurriedly bowed and prostrated herself in front of her goddess. “Mother Moon! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were here, I would have—”
“Relax, child. I only just arrived.” Lunae turned to Stryg, “If you wish to fly you will never learn by sitting in the snow. Stand, Little One.”
He jumped to his feet and dusted the snow off his pants.
Lunae smiled at his eagerness. She walked up beside them at the edge of the peak. “If you wish to learn to fly you need to stop thinking of it like casting any other spell. Such thoughts isolate the concept of flight, they’re holding you back.”
“I don’t understand,” he admitted.
“You think your weight is preventing you from flying, that your spell-casting abilities are limiting you, they are not. Magic is a part of you, mana flows through your veins. Yet you believe your body is clashing against your magic, it is not. Your body and your magic are not separate entities, they are one.”
Stryg nodded hesitantly. He didn’t really understand what she was saying, but if there was anyone who understood the deep secrets of magic it was the gods. “What should I do?”
Lunae looked him up and down. “Right now, nothing at all.”
“I don’t get it…”
“The mages of Hollow Shade taught you to cast your spells with precision and precise intent. They made you believe that magic comes only from intricate thought. It worked for you so far, but in this, it shall not. Magic is more than just your mind, it is your body. Instinct. That is what you have neglected. You need to let go of your thoughts and rely on your body. Now, do as I do.”
“Okay,” he nodded tentatively.
“Good,” Lunae said approvingly. “Take a good look at what you see in front of you. The snow beneath your feet, the peak of the mountain, the gorge below, the temple and the city of Evenfall past it, the scarlet trees of Vulture Woods sprawling in the distance, and the horizon beyond.”
Stryg stared briefly at each one, each evoking different memories, some painful, others joyful, but more than anything he felt anxiety about the future of the Sylvan.
“I said look, do not think,” Lunae said calmly. “Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and let those thoughts flow over and past you. Let only the emotion of this moment, here and now, stay with you.”
Stryg closed his eyes and tried to forget about the future and the looming war. He tried to clear his mind and simply feel the voice of the goddess in his ear. The cold wind blew through his thin tunic and sent a light chill through his chest. He could feel the faint moonlight on his skin and he could hear the slow breathing of the goddess and his mother nearby. And for the first time in a long while, he felt peaceful.
“Now, relax your shoulders and exhale slowly,” Lunae whispered.
Stryg did as he was told and he realized his body had been stiff and his muscles had been tense the entire time. He exhaled and relaxed. It was as if a weight he had been carrying all day had just slipped off.
“...Good, now— just breathe,” Lunae whispered in his ear. Then she unceremoniously pushed him off the peak’s edge.
The slight pressure in his back and the sudden shift of his body felt odd. The sense of weightlessness was calming, freeing even. He didn’t understand what was happening until the wind howled in his ears and he opened his eyes.
“STRYG!!” Aurelia screamed.
The sharp rocks rushed towards him at blinding speeds.
“Oh, fu—!” Stryg shouted panickedly and channeled Yellow into his veins. A half-formed unsteady sphere of wind whirled around him.
He wasn’t going to make it.
He released the wind spell and channeled the mana through his body. Yellow scales wrapped around his skin a moment too late. Flashes of red and white pain blinded his vision. The durability scales cracked and shattered as he smashed into the ravine’s jagged edges. He dropped straight into the gorge and crashed into the frozen river, flinging shards of ice flying everywhere.
“Huh, I thought that would work,” Lunae noted.
“Stryg!” Aurelia screamed in horror. A sphere of wind curled around her and she flew down like a mad woman.
Lunae jumped down after them. She aimed straight for the frozen river, falling right past the narrow walls of the ravine. She landed with a heavy thud, sending cracks all over the ice.
Aurelia was already kneeling at Stryg’s side. She ripped off his tunic, revealing several lacerations and a mass of dark splotches of internal bleeding. His legs and right arm were bent at the wrong angles. Blood leaked from the corner of his lips.
Stryg opened his eyes with a grimace and weakly looked up. “M-Mom…?”
“I’m here.” Aurelia grabbed his hand gently. “I’m here. You’re alright,” she said shakily and tried her best to smile. “Everything is going to be alright.”
Lunae loomed over them, she glanced at his injuries and shook her head. “The boy tried to cast a wind spell out of sheer panic, and then he stopped half-way and tried to cast a defensive spell instead. Had he relied on his instinct rather than half-formed panicked thoughts he would not have failed so miserably.”
“You think that’s why he failed!?” Aurelia snapped at her for the time in her life. “You pushed him off a cliff!”
“Perhaps he wasn’t ready,” Lunae said thoughtfully.
Aurelia shook her head angrily and channeled white mana into her hands and began to infuse the healing energies into her son.
“Leave him,” Lunae said adamantly.
“What?” Aurelia frowned. “He’s badly wounded! He’ll d—”
“His hearts remain intact. He will not die. Let his body heal itself. He needs to grow accustomed to relying on his body, not his spellcasting or that of others. It will serve him well in the long run, especially when there are no healers nearby.”
“But—” Aurelia stopped cold, the look in Lunae’s silver eyes was not to be tested. Aurelia bit her lip and ended her spell reluctantly.
Lunae crouched down next to them and brushed aside Stryg’s white hair. “Can you hear me, Little One?”
“...Yes,” he groaned weakly.
“I know it’s hard but I need you to focus on your pain, Little One. Your body will heal itself more easily if you do.”
Focus on… the pain…? That didn’t make sense. That academy had taught him to ignore one’s pain. Pain was the bane of spellcasting. It broke one’s concentration and will. He had seen students botch their spells countless times in the middle of mock duels because they were in pain. Now she was telling him to embrace it?
He could barely speak, much less move, but he did his best to try and follow her instruction. The taste of iron filled his mouth and pain wracked his body in reverberating pulses. His legs had already gone numb. Some small part of his mind wondered if he had suffered nerve damage.
“I need you to focus,” Lunae repeated in a soothing, but commanding voice.
Stryg closed his eyes and diverted what little energy he had into embracing the pain burning through his body. His heartbeat echoed in his ears and every breath stung. He realized grimly he had broken several ribs.
“Good, just like that, Little One,” Lunae said in approval. “You may have failed to fly tonight, but it was a good first try. Now that you have an idea of what it feels like, next time you’ll do better.”
“…N-Next… time…?” he mumbled fearfully.
Lunae smiled. “Do not worry, I won’t push you off a peak again. As for flying, I am certain that in time it’ll come to you.”
“And if… I can’t…?”
“Why do you think I’m teaching you how to heal yourself?”
Stryg didn’t know what to make of that before his mind faded into blissful unconsciousness.
~~~
The quiet noise of a knife scraping against fruit echoed in Stryg’s ears. He opened his eyes blearily and found himself staring up at a stone-carved ceiling. His neck lolled to the side and he spotted Plum sitting next to his bedside, cutting an apple into slices.
“Plum…?” he muttered drowsily.
She glanced up with a jolt and almost dropped the knife. “Oh, shit! You’re awake!”
He smiled wryly, “You make it sound like it’s a bad thing.”
“No, it’s just— how are you?” she asked worriedly. “Do you remember what happened?”
“I…” He frowned and recalled in vivid detail the horrifying moment. “I fell…”
“Do you remember how you fell? Your mom didn’t want to tell us any details.”
“Um… yeah.”
“Did someone push you? Do you remember what they looked like? The Silver Mother thinks there may have been an assassin who snuck into the temple.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Stryg slowly sat up and winced.
Plum raised her hands, “Careful! You don’t want to tear open any of your wounds.”
“It can’t be that bad,” he said and rolled his shoulders as if to prove a point.
Plum frowned in horror. “Stop it! The priestess who looked you over said you had sustained 7 broken ribs, two broken ankles, a broken femur, a broken wrist, dozens of small lacerations, and large extensive internal bleeding. You’re lucky to be alive!”
“Well, looks like the healers did a good job. I feel fine.” Stryg pulled the blankets off and placed his bare feet on the ground.
Plum stared at him in stunned silence. “They didn’t…”
“Huh?”
“The healers… your mom forbade them from touching you.”
Stryg furrowed his brow. “What? How long have I been out?”
Plum glanced out at the window. The afternoon sun shined brightly in the sky. “Half a day, more or less.”
Stryg stood up, lifted his shirt, and glanced at his bare blue chest.
“My gods, there isn’t a scratch on you,” Plum muttered. “That is so cool!” she yelled in excitement. “How did you do that!?”
“I didn’t…” He blinked. “Did I?”
The faint memories of last night began to come back to him. Lunae’s words echoed in his mind.
“I healed myself…?” Stryg muttered.
He knew he recovered faster than most but still… Ever since he had gone to Shadow Lake he felt something in his body changing. Holo had warned him that his body’s recovery would only improve, but this… this was unprecedented.
The bedroom door swung open and Aurelia walked in. She immediately noticed his half-dressed appearance and frowned. “I didn’t realize you and the drow were in that sort of relationship.”
“We’re not,” Plum said hastily. “I mean I like him, but not like that. Trust me, I’ve gotten to know him well enough to know to steer clear away from the mess that is your son, no offense.”
Stryg raised an eyebrow. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Plum looked at him with a deadpan expression. “You’ve got problems, Stryg.” She grinned playfully, “But misery loves company, am I right?”
He frowned. “I don’t get it.”
“You keep interesting company, Stryg,” Aurelia noted dryly. “I can see why Virella likes drinking with you, drow. You both are happy idiots.”
Plum’s smile widened, “Coming from you I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Frostbird https://discord.gg/uYqw7R6SKz
If you liked the chapter please leave a like, if there is something else you are interested in knowing about the lore, or if you have any questions, remarks, or just want to say hi drop a comment below!
Check out the glossary for more info on characters, lore, magic, and more!
Chapter 449: Flight
“You don’t need a potion to fly,” a familiar voice echoed behind them. It was soft yet it rang clear in their ears.
Stryg turned around in surprise. “Lunae…?!”
The silver-skinned goddess stood in front of them in her adolescent form, a young girl as tall as any goblin. Her long white hair trailed in the snow behind her as she walked towards them. “You wish to learn how to fly?”
“Uh, yes?” Stryg said uncertainly.
Lunae smirked. “If you two wanted to learn magic you should have come to me.”
Aurelia hurriedly bowed and prostrated herself in front of her goddess. “Mother Moon! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were here, I would have—”
“Relax, child. I only just arrived.” Lunae turned to Stryg, “If you wish to fly you will never learn by sitting in the snow. Stand, Little One.”
He jumped to his feet and dusted the snow off his pants.
Lunae smiled at his eagerness. She walked up beside them at the edge of the peak. “If you wish to learn to fly you need to stop thinking of it like casting any other spell. Such thoughts isolate the concept of flight, they’re holding you back.”
“I don’t understand,” he admitted.
“You think your weight is preventing you from flying, that your spell-casting abilities are limiting you, they are not. Magic is a part of you, mana flows through your veins. Yet you believe your body is clashing against your magic, it is not. Your body and your magic are not separate entities, they are one.”
Stryg nodded hesitantly. He didn’t really understand what she was saying, but if there was anyone who understood the deep secrets of magic it was the gods. “What should I do?”
Lunae looked him up and down. “Right now, nothing at all.”
“I don’t get it…”
“The mages of Hollow Shade taught you to cast your spells with precision and precise intent. They made you believe that magic comes only from intricate thought. It worked for you so far, but in this, it shall not. Magic is more than just your mind, it is your body. Instinct. That is what you have neglected. You need to let go of your thoughts and rely on your body. Now, do as I do.”
“Okay,” he nodded tentatively.
“Good,” Lunae said approvingly. “Take a good look at what you see in front of you. The snow beneath your feet, the peak of the mountain, the gorge below, the temple and the city of Evenfall past it, the scarlet trees of Vulture Woods sprawling in the distance, and the horizon beyond.”
Stryg stared briefly at each one, each evoking different memories, some painful, others joyful, but more than anything he felt anxiety about the future of the Sylvan.
“I said look, do not think,” Lunae said calmly. “Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and let those thoughts flow over and past you. Let only the emotion of this moment, here and now, stay with you.”
Stryg closed his eyes and tried to forget about the future and the looming war. He tried to clear his mind and simply feel the voice of the goddess in his ear. The cold wind blew through his thin tunic and sent a light chill through his chest. He could feel the faint moonlight on his skin and he could hear the slow breathing of the goddess and his mother nearby. And for the first time in a long while, he felt peaceful.
“Now, relax your shoulders and exhale slowly,” Lunae whispered.
Stryg did as he was told and he realized his body had been stiff and his muscles had been tense the entire time. He exhaled and relaxed. It was as if a weight he had been carrying all day had just slipped off.
“...Good, now— just breathe,” Lunae whispered in his ear. Then she unceremoniously pushed him off the peak’s edge.
The slight pressure in his back and the sudden shift of his body felt odd. The sense of weightlessness was calming, freeing even. He didn’t understand what was happening until the wind howled in his ears and he opened his eyes.
“STRYG!!” Aurelia screamed.
The sharp rocks rushed towards him at blinding speeds.
“Oh, fu—!” Stryg shouted panickedly and channeled Yellow into his veins. A half-formed unsteady sphere of wind whirled around him.
He wasn’t going to make it.
He released the wind spell and channeled the mana through his body. Yellow scales wrapped around his skin a moment too late. Flashes of red and white pain blinded his vision. The durability scales cracked and shattered as he smashed into the ravine’s jagged edges. He dropped straight into the gorge and crashed into the frozen river, flinging shards of ice flying everywhere.
“Huh, I thought that would work,” Lunae noted.
“Stryg!” Aurelia screamed in horror. A sphere of wind curled around her and she flew down like a mad woman.
Lunae jumped down after them. She aimed straight for the frozen river, falling right past the narrow walls of the ravine. She landed with a heavy thud, sending cracks all over the ice.
Aurelia was already kneeling at Stryg’s side. She ripped off his tunic, revealing several lacerations and a mass of dark splotches of internal bleeding. His legs and right arm were bent at the wrong angles. Blood leaked from the corner of his lips.
Stryg opened his eyes with a grimace and weakly looked up. “M-Mom…?”
“I’m here.” Aurelia grabbed his hand gently. “I’m here. You’re alright,” she said shakily and tried her best to smile. “Everything is going to be alright.”
Lunae loomed over them, she glanced at his injuries and shook her head. “The boy tried to cast a wind spell out of sheer panic, and then he stopped half-way and tried to cast a defensive spell instead. Had he relied on his instinct rather than half-formed panicked thoughts he would not have failed so miserably.”
“You think that’s why he failed!?” Aurelia snapped at her for the time in her life. “You pushed him off a cliff!”
“Perhaps he wasn’t ready,” Lunae said thoughtfully.
Aurelia shook her head angrily and channeled white mana into her hands and began to infuse the healing energies into her son.
“Leave him,” Lunae said adamantly.
“What?” Aurelia frowned. “He’s badly wounded! He’ll d—”
“His hearts remain intact. He will not die. Let his body heal itself. He needs to grow accustomed to relying on his body, not his spellcasting or that of others. It will serve him well in the long run, especially when there are no healers nearby.”
“But—” Aurelia stopped cold, the look in Lunae’s silver eyes was not to be tested. Aurelia bit her lip and ended her spell reluctantly.
Lunae crouched down next to them and brushed aside Stryg’s white hair. “Can you hear me, Little One?”
“...Yes,” he groaned weakly.
“I know it’s hard but I need you to focus on your pain, Little One. Your body will heal itself more easily if you do.”
Focus on… the pain…? That didn’t make sense. That academy had taught him to ignore one’s pain. Pain was the bane of spellcasting. It broke one’s concentration and will. He had seen students botch their spells countless times in the middle of mock duels because they were in pain. Now she was telling him to embrace it?
He could barely speak, much less move, but he did his best to try and follow her instruction. The taste of iron filled his mouth and pain wracked his body in reverberating pulses. His legs had already gone numb. Some small part of his mind wondered if he had suffered nerve damage.
“I need you to focus,” Lunae repeated in a soothing, but commanding voice.
Stryg closed his eyes and diverted what little energy he had into embracing the pain burning through his body. His heartbeat echoed in his ears and every breath stung. He realized grimly he had broken several ribs.
“Good, just like that, Little One,” Lunae said in approval. “You may have failed to fly tonight, but it was a good first try. Now that you have an idea of what it feels like, next time you’ll do better.”
“…N-Next… time…?” he mumbled fearfully.
Lunae smiled. “Do not worry, I won’t push you off a peak again. As for flying, I am certain that in time it’ll come to you.”
“And if… I can’t…?”
“Why do you think I’m teaching you how to heal yourself?”
Stryg didn’t know what to make of that before his mind faded into blissful unconsciousness.
~~~
The quiet noise of a knife scraping against fruit echoed in Stryg’s ears. He opened his eyes blearily and found himself staring up at a stone-carved ceiling. His neck lolled to the side and he spotted Plum sitting next to his bedside, cutting an apple into slices.
“Plum…?” he muttered drowsily.
She glanced up with a jolt and almost dropped the knife. “Oh, shit! You’re awake!”
He smiled wryly, “You make it sound like it’s a bad thing.”
“No, it’s just— how are you?” she asked worriedly. “Do you remember what happened?”
“I…” He frowned and recalled in vivid detail the horrifying moment. “I fell…”
“Do you remember how you fell? Your mom didn’t want to tell us any details.”
“Um… yeah.”
“Did someone push you? Do you remember what they looked like? The Silver Mother thinks there may have been an assassin who snuck into the temple.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Stryg slowly sat up and winced.
Plum raised her hands, “Careful! You don’t want to tear open any of your wounds.”
“It can’t be that bad,” he said and rolled his shoulders as if to prove a point.
Plum frowned in horror. “Stop it! The priestess who looked you over said you had sustained 7 broken ribs, two broken ankles, a broken femur, a broken wrist, dozens of small lacerations, and large extensive internal bleeding. You’re lucky to be alive!”
“Well, looks like the healers did a good job. I feel fine.” Stryg pulled the blankets off and placed his bare feet on the ground.
Plum stared at him in stunned silence. “They didn’t…”
“Huh?”
“The healers… your mom forbade them from touching you.”
Stryg furrowed his brow. “What? How long have I been out?”
Plum glanced out at the window. The afternoon sun shined brightly in the sky. “Half a day, more or less.”
Stryg stood up, lifted his shirt, and glanced at his bare blue chest.
“My gods, there isn’t a scratch on you,” Plum muttered. “That is so cool!” she yelled in excitement. “How did you do that!?”
“I didn’t…” He blinked. “Did I?”
The faint memories of last night began to come back to him. Lunae’s words echoed in his mind.
“I healed myself…?” Stryg muttered.
He knew he recovered faster than most but still… Ever since he had gone to Shadow Lake he felt something in his body changing. Holo had warned him that his body’s recovery would only improve, but this… this was unprecedented.
The bedroom door swung open and Aurelia walked in. She immediately noticed his half-dressed appearance and frowned. “I didn’t realize you and the drow were in that sort of relationship.”
“We’re not,” Plum said hastily. “I mean I like him, but not like that. Trust me, I’ve gotten to know him well enough to know to steer clear away from the mess that is your son, no offense.”
Stryg raised an eyebrow. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Plum looked at him with a deadpan expression. “You’ve got problems, Stryg.” She grinned playfully, “But misery loves company, am I right?”
He frowned. “I don’t get it.”
“You keep interesting company, Stryg,” Aurelia noted dryly. “I can see why Virella likes drinking with you, drow. You both are happy idiots.”
Plum’s smile widened, “Coming from you I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Frostbird https://discord.gg/uYqw7R6SKz
If you liked the chapter please leave a like, if there is something else you are interested in knowing about the lore, or if you have any questions, remarks, or just want to say hi drop a comment below!
Check out the glossary for more info on characters, lore, magic, and more!
