Transcendence, page 46
part #6 of The Beginning After The End Series
Emily must’ve noticed the traces of skepticism written on my face as she explained the sample size and diversity.
“It’s been pretty hard to get a wider range of participants, this continent being at war and all,” she said glumly. “This measurement is something I’m planning on standardizing and actively promoting with Master Gideon’s help, so getting data will be an ongoing process. For now, you’ll have to make do with the two hundred entries I’ve received from the various mages.”
Buhnd fidgeted in his stone chair. “Well? On with it, girl. Only about a fifth of my ass is on my seat right now from all this anticipation.”
I suppressed a laugh. The bearded elder’s reaction reminded me of a student anxiously waiting for his grades to be handed back by his teacher.
Emily didn’t find Buhnd’s impatience as amusing as I did. She began quickly sifting through her stack of paper until her eyes brightened, and I assumed she finally found what she was looking for.
“Okay! I’ll start with Elder Buhnd, since he seems to be the most curious,” Emily began. “Please be advised that this data does not take mastery over mana into account—simply the raw output of force that your average spell contains during battle.”
The young artificer flinched as Buhnd’s intense gaze drilled holes into her while he waited for her results. Clearing her throat, Emily spoke. “Based on how much higher Elder Buhnd’s fpu is compared to the average of the limited data we acquired, he is in roughly the ninety-first percentile.”
“Ninety-first percenti—what? No way ninety-one percent of the population is better than me!” Buhnd blurted, stamping his feet on the ground.
I snorted, unable to suppress my laughter as Emily looked at the old dwarf incredulously.
Hester merely sighed and shook her head.
“It means that only nine percent of the population has a higher fpu than you,” Camus answered, unfazed by his companion’s naiveté.
“Oh.” Buhnd’s posture straightened and a smile creeped up, making his beard spread like some sort of frilled lizard. “Heh! Oh.”
Hester rolled her eyes and I spotted my sister trying to cover her smile with her hand.
“Again, this data can’t be considered completely accurate since the data pool is so small and very biased toward certain demographics,” Emily explained. “Most likely, everyone’s percentile will increase as more data is gathered.”
The words seemed to have gone in one ear and out the other. The word ‘pride’ was practically written on Buhnd’s face.
Emily continued, turning to Camus. “Elder Camus’s fpu is in the ninety-third percentile.”
Buhnd seemed to snap back to reality and his brows scrunched when he heard Camus’s score. Camus simply nodded in acknowledgement.
“Elder Hester’s fpu is actually the highest of everyone—ninety-fourth percentile.”
Ellie gave a faint whistle, while Buhnd’s eyes widened. Hester chose this exact moment to cast a haughty glance down at the dwarven elder.
“Bah! The data isn’t considered completely accurate. Remember?” Buhnd recited, fuming.
“I didn’t say anything,” Hester shrugged. She smoothed her face into a neutral expression, but the twinkle in her sharp eyes still showed her contentment.
I guess a high affinity for magic runs in the Flamesworth family, I thought, remembering Jasmine’s competence in magic—albeit not fire magic.
Emily turned to Kathyln, smiling. “Princess Kathyln, your fpu is in— “
The princess raised a hand, shaking her head. “I’d rather not get caught up. Knowing me, comparing myself to others will hinder more than help.”
Alanis regarded the princess approvingly but remained quiet as Emily finally turned to me. “Lastly, Arth—General Arthur’s fpu is in the ninetieth percentile.”
Buhnd’s eyes lit up once again as he trotted to me and put a hand across my shoulder. “You’ll grow in time, young general, but for now it seems my fpu is just a tad higher than yours.”
“So it seems.” I smiled. I had expected as much. From the beginning, the elder’s raw mana output was stronger than mine. I had the advantage of being able to utilize all four basic elements and the higher forms of two, and fusing multiple elements into a single attack would often have more devastating results than a single elemental spell. But overall, I had known the elders would come out on top.
“Big talk for someone who got knocked out first in a four-against-one match with the ‘young general,’” Hester scoffed.
Buhnd scowled, turning red. “Do you want to take this to the field, you old bat?”
Hester’s brow twitched in anger. “Again with the ‘old bat’!”
“Enough with the bickering!” Camus cut in, sitting straight in the stone seat Buhnd had conjured for all of us. “Miss Emeria. Did our time spent with the young general bear fruit?”
The stoic elf dipped her head respectfully. “General Arthur’s mana flow rate has increased a noticeable amount. I believe these two months have been utilized to their full potential.”
“That’s good,” Camus said, turning to me—a gesture I found odd now that I knew he could see just as well without facing me. I figured the gesture was more for me than himself.
Alanis walked to me, handing me a small leather-bound journal. “This is for you, General Arthur. The detailed recordings of my analysis over this period are written in here. I have taken the liberty of pointing out areas for potential growth so that you can have some guidance in your training while I am not with you.”
“Thank you,” I said sincerely, gingerly holding the small booklet. “You’ve really outdone yourself.”
“It was my pleasure working with you,” she responded with a courteous nod.
Buhnd clasped his hands together, drawing everyone’s attention. “All right! I don’t know about all of you, but I’m starving and my mind keeps going back to those seventy-year-old caskets of alcohol!”
“Yes,” Hester agreed. “And the thought of you having to pay for all of it is sure to make everything tastier.”
I could hear Buhnd grumble as the three elders headed toward the door. I gestured for the others to follow them as well. They all deserved the time to unwind and have fun.
“Are you sure I can go? It seems like a party for the really important people,” my sister asked, hesitating.
I patted my sister’s head. “Of course you’re invited. I better see you and Boo eating enough to make Elder Buhnd homeless!”
Ellie’s gigantic bond gave a grunt of confirmation before scooping her up with his snout and trotting off.
Smiling at the sight, I looked back to see the young artificer scrambling with some artifacts inside her little cockpit of panels. “We’re the last ones, Emily.”
“I’m almost done cleaning up. You go on ahead.”
Not wanting to make her rush more than she already was, I took her advice. “You better be there—you don’t want Ellie to be lonely at the party.”
EMILY WATSKEN
I quickly gathered the array of papers that were scattered all over the ground behind my fpu measuring artifact—working name.
After carefully placing the panel components into the wooden box, I placed the papers equally carefully on top, noticing Arthur’s name on the top sheet. It was the fpu readings I had managed to gather while he was in that angelic form of his where his hair turned white. I’d thought I had lost it.
I shook my head, crumpling up the sheet of paper. “Ninety-ninth percentile. That can’t be right.”
Chapter 54
Eat, Drink, Be Merry
After another failed attempt at trying to coerce Sylvie to take a break and come join me for the dinner, I conceded defeat. As soon as I stepped through the towering double doors of stained wood, opened for me by two guards clad in silver, my worries were replaced by wonder. It felt like I had left the castle entirely.
Maybe I had.
I looked back over my shoulder to make sure that I hadn’t stepped through a teleportation gate disguised as a doorway. Confirming that I was still indeed inside the castle, I took my time to relish the sights, sounds, and aromas around me.
While the size of the dining room wasn’t anything extraordinary, the details in the decoration took my breath away. The vaulted ceiling alone made this room feel like a separate structure from the castle, and the ambient light cast from the floating orbs above brought to life a scene straight out of a princess’s picture book.
Unlike the flamboyant party where the witch-like retainer’s frozen body had been showcased as a morale booster for the many noble houses in attendance, this event emitted a cozy, intimate atmosphere—with a little sprinkle of a surreal fairytale mixed in.
I approached a meticulously-dressed butler, standing almost as still as a statue, and picked up two glasses of whatever lavish drink the purple liquid on his tray might be. I handed one to Emily, who was beside me.
When my sister tried to take one as well, I pulled her back. “It’s alcohol.”
Ellie clicked her tongue and continued walking, but it didn’t take long for her discontent to be diffused. “Everything looks so…magical!” she marveled, unable to find a better word to express herself. “It smells amazing in here, but where’s all the food?”
“This is still a dinner, not a party,” I explained, pointing to the long rectangular table covered with a seamless white tablecloth and topped with perfectly arranged empty plates and glasses. “The food’s going to be brought out once everyone’s here and seated.”
The alcohol, I noted with amusement, lay spread out against the back wall in large wooden kegs.
“I’m getting hungry just breathing the air here,” Emily moaned, near to drooling.
I nodded in agreement. The air was thick with a concoction of spices, sauces, and herbs that seemed to harmonize alongside each other rather than clash. Helping to blend and mesh the variety of kitchen ingredients together was the subtle oaky scent of the fire crackling and popping in the hearth at the far corner of the cozy dining hall.
Ellie pulled on my sleeve. “Are you sure we didn’t need to dress up for this?”
“The place is a lot fancier than Virion let on, but yes, I’m sure,” I assured her. “This is supposed to be a comfortable dinner to celebrate before I go back out to the field, my dearest sister.”
“I’m your only sister,” she retorted, her eyes still gazing around the room curiously.
“Then you know I’m telling the truth,” I said blandly.
Ellie groaned at my witty response. “Whatever.”
“I can imagine how ‘comfortable’ it’ll be already… with the Council, the Lances, and the elders all gathered in one place,” Emily chimed in, her sarcasm practically palpable.
I simply smiled, breaking off from the two of them to enjoy my purple drink in peace. Despite being the last to leave the training room, Emily, my sister, and I were the first to arrive.
As I sat in the back to enjoy the warmth of the fire, I saw Kathyln entering, escorted by Hester. Both wore evening gowns that, while minimally adorned, still looked undoubtedly elegant… and expensive.
Ellie and Emily didn’t hesitate to shoot me glares as they saw this, mentally blaming me for their comparatively informal attire.
I winked and lifted my glass, now half-empty. Kathyln thought I was gesturing to her and raised her glass slightly in return, smiling shyly before turning her attention to Emily and my sister.
Elder Hester strode toward me with a glass in hand as well. “Seems you’ve already made yourself comfortable—in both attire and demeanor.”
“I thought this was supposed to be a casual dinner,” I sniffed, raising my glass toward her.
“Is this not casual?” she said with a bemused smile, clinking my glass with hers in a casual toast before we each took a sip.
“Casual is wearing slightly too-large pants so we can comfortably indulge in whatever exquisite cuisine we’re presented with tonight,” I said confidently.
Hester looked at me curiously. “I often forget that you’re not from a noble house, no offense.”
I chuckled. “None taken. It’s always amusing seeing some of the nobles trying to hide their contempt when a Lance like myself does something blatantly ‘improper.’”
“Proper etiquette is ingrained in everyone here since infancy,” Hester admitted. “My mother would faint if she saw you dressed like that at an occasion like this.”
“Truth be told, my mother would probably faint as well if she knew I was attending such a fancy dinner wearing this,” I replied, feeling a pang of guilt and sorrow at the mention of my parents.
We sipped our drinks in silence for a bit, watching the chaotic movement of the fire as if it were a show.
Finishing off the last of my purple liquor, I asked Hester a question that had been on my mind since I’d first met her. “Hester. If you don’t mind me asking, what is your relationship to Jasmine Flamesworth?”
Hester, who had been watching the fire intently, shifted her gaze to me. “You two are acquainted?”
I nodded.
She took a few moments to gather her thoughts.“Then I guess it’s safe to assume that the Flamesworth family has made a rather negative impression on you.”
“It’s gotten a little better since I met you, but yes,” I confessed.
“Jasmine is the daughter of my younger brother—my niece,” she began, idly twirling the remaining liquid in her glass.
Hester proceeded to tell me a little about the Flamesworth family. Jasmine’s story wasn’t anything I hadn’t already been told or guessed myself. Basically, the younger brother—the one with the most pride in their family’s line of fire mages—thought of Jasmine as an embarrassment to the Flamesworth house. At first, he did all he could to try and draw out any latent potential Jasmin had in fire-affinity, hopeful that she might have been a dual-elementalist. Once her father had realized that wind was the only affinity his daughter possessed, he had isolated her until she came of age, then kicked her out soon after.
Hester’s remorseful tone as she told the story helped quell some of the anger I had toward their family, but there was still a bitter taste in my mouth.
“Your brother, where is he now?” I asked.
“Trodius is a captain, his division being one of the main forces at the Wall,” she answered. “You don’t plan on—”
“No, I have no intentions of harming your brother,” I scoffed, turning back to see some familiar faces. “I was just curious. Oh, and regarding your comment about every noble having proper etiquette engrained upon them…”
Buhnd and Camus had just walked in through the doors. While Camus wore a traditional elven robe, Buhnd had apparently decided to attend the event disguised as what seemed like a farm worker.
Hester, following my gaze, rolled her eyes as she watched the dwarven elder finish a glass in one gulp and proceed to grab two more before walking over to us. “There are always outliers.”
I nodded.“An outlier indeed.”
It didn’t take much longer for the rest of the guests to file in. Virion congratulated me on my training with a hug and a pithy comment about Tess not being able to make it. I cordially greeted Merial and Alduin Eralith, Tess’s parents, exchanging a few pleasantries. Alduin digressed a bit, talking about the war and some of the dilemmas he’d been having in allocating the elven armies around Elenoir, but Merial scolded him for talking about that here and dragged him away. My exchange with King Blaine and Queen Priscilla was even more succinct. While Kathyln’s mother was brusque by default, I knew that the former King of Sapin still found it uncomfortable to be around me—a human who had become a Lance for the elves. I was most likely someone he considered disloyal to his home kingdom.
Needless to say, by the time I’d finished talking and toasting—and thereby drinking—with the elders and the Council, my inhibitions had been lowered by a significant degree. It was only noticeable to me when I clasped an unwilling Bairon in a hug and said repeatedly that there were ‘no hard feelings.’ The Lance tried to pry himself away without drawing attention to us, but I utilized one of the techniques I had learned from Camus to create a vacuum between him and me.
Finding real life applications for spells is the next step in mastery, after all.
After saying my piece, I released the fuming Lance and proceeded to greet Varay and Aya. The two Lances had just come back from a mission near the border between Sapin and Darv, after sightings of another retainer. Unfortunately, the final retainer had been gone by the time they had arrived. We talked amongst ourselves until an unexpected surprise guest showed up. Garbed in a bright yellow dress, which looked like it might’ve belonged to a child, was Mica.
“Mica!” I exclaimed, drawing everyone’s attention to the entrance. The dwarf, obviously unaccustomed to such a fluttery dress, flushed at the attention. Rather than shrink, however, the dwarven Lance stuck out her chest and held her chin up and made her way to me.
I pulled the dwarf into a hug, which was a little awkward considering she was about half my height. Virion came by and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Our scouts in Darv found enough evidence to assure the rest of the Council that Mica—or should I say General Mica—was not involved in Rahdeas and Olfred’s plot with the Vritra,” Virion explained with a smile.
“Mica’s allegiance will always be to the country,” the Lance confirmed. “But Mica is a bit confused since there are no dwarves on the Council and Lord Aldir is missing.”
“We have much to discuss and several positions to fill, but that can be saved for tomorrow,” Virion said comfortingly. “Tonight, we enjoy the food, the drinks, and the company we find ourselves in.”
Virion left us to continue his rounds, talking to everyone else in the room while Mica and I chatted a bit more. We kept our conversation lighthearted. I teased her about her frilly dress, and she retorted that I looked like I had come straight from a training session. She laughed when I told her she was right.
