Hey everyone, been a bit. Hit a snag on figuring out how I wanted to move forward. So, quick notes. I decided against him getting Derflinger. While unique, I'm not that good at handling a very big cast and he has many other items for dealing with things. Plus, he's not the Gandalfr.
On another note, I'm going to put off Mott, work on writing out him learning about Halkegenian magic and trying his hand at teaching. Ah, and the update to chapter 3 was me just realizing some errors to fix.
A coin flickered over his fingers as he walked, humming to himself. It'd taken a few hours negotiation, but he was happy with the results. A room to himself, though it was in the unused 'Void' tower, so probably a lot of work to clean up. Not to mention whatever guards or students might be doing slipping into there for whatever reason. Still, perhaps he could clean up some of the space to use in the bottom floors, if it mirrored the others.
Shaking his head, he looked out at the sky. "Let's see, most of the evening will be taken by cleaning. Siesta, could you inform Louise and the other two to visit after their classes tomorrow? I'll hopefully have a couple rooms prepared for us to use during our stay." He looked over at the maid, who was still looking a bit lost, but slowly nodded her head and turned away to deliver the message.
A room to himself, Siesta's contract while he was here (a maid would be useful and let him teach her if she has the proficiency without work getting in the way), a room for Siesta, and a monthly payment for basic resources. It had taken a small chunk of his savings, but hopefully he could supplement it with adventuring, gathering resources, and crafting. Though finding elemental crystals might be difficult.
Jumping from the wall, Nolza sprints his way past various students towards the Void Tower. Best to get started right away. And he was glad he did. Dust, dirt, old furniture and other junk. So much to clean up, as well as making sure that the fireplaces were clear. Luckily, a switch to White Mage and the use of controlled Aero spells soon sent the mess out of a window and the school grounds.
By the time Siesta returned, he had set up two rooms, with a desk and small table in the one he claimed. He was now in some comfortable pants with an adventurer's sweater on, a book in hand. Looking up, he smiled and waved to the other chair at the table, taking out some Battered Fish meals from his pack. The maid looked taken aback by the food but joined him. "I will admit, I have no idea how long I'll be here, but thank you for agreeing to work for me while I am. You know this place better than I and will be of much help for any errands I need ran while busy."
"Ah, it is no trouble, Ser." She blushed lightly at the praise. "I am but a serva-" She was cut off by a bark of laughter.
"Stop that. While I'll not chide you for it in public, at least here you don't need to keep up formalities. Just Nolza is fine, though the use of Professor or such during class will be formal enough. You are joining the others and are going to be treated the same." He looks up, then reaches over and flicks her forehead to snap her out of her near horrified look. "And stop that about your notions of 'magic is for nobles' schtick that this place has. I'm going to try teaching you either way."
It was afternoon the next day when the doors to the unused classroom opened, allowing three girls to enter. Looking about, it was pretty empty aside from a couple small tables and four chairs between them. Siesta was already inside, wiping finishing wiping down the tables and setting out some supplies, when she looked up and bowed towards the others. Louise strode towards the nearest table, looking about.
The room was slightly oppressive feeling with so much of it empty, lit up by some candles and torches instead of the normal lamps and lanterns, and what came through some of the windows from outside. She was brought out of her thoughts by a loud voice. "Ladies, welcome. Take a seat, I'll be with you in a moment." She blinked, taking a chair. When the chair next to her moved, she looked over and was confused why the maid was also sitting. But she held her tongue for now.
When her Fami- Nolza, and that was going to be hard to keep up, finally finished what he was doing, he turned towards those seated. "Alright, class. Welcome to my workshop on this. To start, I'd like to see your casting implements. And don't worry, Siesta, I'll get you one once we've figured out where to start with you." She frowned a bit more, but laid out her wand. The strange man walked up, picking Tabitha's staff up and looking it over before moving to Zerbst's wand, then her own. Each was looked over with a hum and a slight frown. "Interesting."
Moving back up front, he once more shone with gemlight, this time taking on the outfit of some noble looking outfit, black and blueish grey, with a monocle and top hat. In his hands was a dark blue gentleman's cane, with silver fittings and a silver topper in the shape of a dragon's head. Spinning the cane, he looked back at the girls, smiling. "Today's lesson is twofold. First, you get to see some of the unique abilities of Blue Magic, and I get to study your methods of casting. Blue Mages learn by experiencing the abilities of their foes or gifted through totems of the Whalaqee. This ability to learn and mimic such, should let me get a better feel of your magics."
Stopping the cane, he lifts it up and a sphere of hexagons flashes over him before disappearing. "That was Mighty Guard. It acts as a shield that reduces the power of incoming attacks, at the cost of making my own attacks weaker. I'll show you all more later. For now, I want you all to cast at me. Don't worry, I doubt you'll be able to significantly hurt me. And any damage you do, well, that's what White Wind or Pom Cure are for. Heh."
As she moved to line up with Zerbst and Tabitha, she heard the door open again. Looking over, she noticed Professor Colbert walk inside, closing the door behind him. "Terribly sorry, I hope I'm not late. Osmond wanted me to watch over the students during your lessons."
"He also wanted you here to try to judge how much of a threat I might be, hmm?"
"Ah..."
"Details, details. I don't mind. I am pretty much an unknown to you all and with what happened with that coward yesterday, well." He waved Colbert off, then looked back at the girls. "Now, why don't you two go first, then I can see how Louise's casting differs perhaps."
With the ringing of an explosion still in his ears, he shook his head and cast a Pom Cure, slowly dying down the small aches from the assault he put himself through and clearing his hearing. "Alright, that was interesting. You two," Nolza points towards Zerbst and Tabitha. "Would probably work well as Thaumaturges, or at least half their principles. You would need work on the other aspects of it. Now for you, Louise." Walking up to the girl, he shakes his head. "I'm not certain what's going on with you. A mass of power, or confusion with your Aether. Then just powering through to push til it pops. The work of an Arcanist might help settle your power down. The use of calculations, patterns, and the Carbuncle to help might be exactly what you need."
Slipping the cane into his belt, he reaches into his pack and pulls out a leather bound tome, as well as a staff and two small rods. The staff looked like a maple shepherd's crook, which he set before Siesta, before setting the two rods, both looking like carved horns with some sort of dull gem at the end, in front of the other two. He then set the tome in front of Louise.
"Normally, when one joins a guild, they are given a worn, weathered weapon or implement, to let them get a feel for the skills taught and guiding their Aether into the basics of spells before they get a better one that will effect their abilities. I don't have that luxury, but the effects of these are minor at best, so we'll make do. You two, try using these as you would your normal wand or staff for a bit, I want to see if it works with Halkegenia casting as well. Siesta, for now just take the staff and focus on the movement of the air and the stones under your feet. We'll see if you can pick up the feel of the Elementals to become a Conjurer. If it doesn't work, we'll try Thaumaturgy, then Arcanistry. Should those all fail, we'll go into the more esoteric."
Moving to Louise, he smiles. "You, however, have the easiest, yet hardest job. Studying." With another bout of gemlight, he stands in what almost looks like a painter's smock and beret, holding a tome of his own. "We're going to work together on the formula for the most basic of Arcanist spells, the first everyone learns." Flicking his tome open, he turns and flairs his hand over it, as lines of runes and formula circle around his hand. With a focused look, he pushes his hand and turns the book forward, a bolt of power zipping out and impacting against the wall. "This spell. It is called Ruin. Despite it's name, it's merely a basic bolt of power, with no aspect attached to it. Guided by the formulas you will study and those inscribed in your tome, it is not very powerful but is not a big drain on one's Aetheric reserves."
He smiles at Louise. "Relax and don't force your power out through it. Let the formula draw and guide. Now, get reading and memorize it, then we'll practice casting. Once you learn it and are at the right level, I'll fill in the next part of you tome."
With an almost frantic nod, she opened the tome only to stop an frown at it. Nolza looks at her, then the tome, seeing nothing wrong before Louise speaks up. "What are these scribbles? If you didn't want to help, you just should have said so instead of pretending!"
He blinked, frowning. "Scribbles? I carefully printed each word there, so even my handwriting should not... oh." He shakes his head. "I forgot. While I can speak your language and read it, due to a power I possess, I printed that book in that of my homeland. It is not in Tristain or Halkegenian or whatever you call your language. Unless you all have a 'translation' spell that works for text, I'll have to work with Professor Colbert to translate it and then work out the changes in formula for the differences in language. Until then, we'll work another way through."
Taking a seat, he reaches out a hand and takes one of Louise's, ignoring her protest. "Hear, feel, think." He lets his Aether flow through his hand, flowing around the girl's. "Hear my words and listen to them. Feel the flow of Aether as I let it wash over you and work your senses out to feel how I take it in. Think about the feeling and the words, connect them together. With this, we shall begin. We will start with Fire, the heat that flows through you with life."
The warmth and flowing heat of Fire. The flowing cool of Water. The rushing breeze of Air. The solid steadiness of Earth. The sparking excitement and energy of Lightning. The cold embrace of Ice. He let each flow from him and let her feel and connect the feeling of them to the given elements. Then he began stripping the aspect from the Aether he was releasing and his eyes widened. The unaspected Aether was not flowing over her as he intended, instead gathering and pressing around her eagerly. His eyes narrowed as he stopped the flow, cupping her hand with both of his.
"Louise, focus on the feeling of Fire. Try to draw that feeling out from your own Aetheric reserves to the palm of your hand." Ignoring the beet red look on her face, he focused instead on the movements of Aether in and around her, a trickle of his own power working to gather information from her. It was slow and sluggish at first, but he felt the flow of Fire moving, only for her to seemingly unconsciously strip it of it's aspect as it moved to release from her. Quickly, he let out his own, molding the power around that coming from her. "Alright, stop!" At the yell, she withdrew her hand, cutting the flow. He turned, tossing the chaotic mass of power in his hands across the room where it exploded.
"Interesting indeed. So that's what's going on." Looking over, he noticed everyone paying attention to him, but he ignored them all except for the young girl before him. "You've gotten a feel for the different elements, you can now focus on channeling them correctly, but some instinct or subconscious part of you is stripping the elemental aspect from your Aether before release and without the proper channeling of it, well, it's destabilizing." He laughs and smiles. "Not the first time I've had to deal with destabilizing Aether, though that tended to be more when I was dealing with inventions of Cid's."
Nolza waved off any questions at that part, before focusing back to the matter at hand. "Now, if we're unable to get you to stop doing this, then you're pretty much limited towards Arcanistry, at least as far as basic magicks go. Perhaps, once you've worked long enough with your Carbuncle and felt how it takes your Aether and realigns it to a certain Aspect, you might be able to do so yourself if draining of it's Elemental alignment cannot be stopped. Still, with how the unaligned Aether gathered around you, you should have no problem handling the spells Arcana. Maybe become more potent with them than normal."
Stretching, he nodded to the girl. "The only thing you can do, is keep practicing. Try to move other Aspects and focus. It might take awhile, but if you can feel with you are draining the elemental alignment from the Aether, you might work out how to stop it. And once I get a translated Tome ready, we'll try to teach you proper spells for what may be your talent. Unfortunately, until I get that done, you'll have to self study."
Louise was a mix of emotions as she walked back to her room that night. On one hand, she felt the movement of the elemental powers easily enough when her Fam-, Nolza, talked her through it and could kind of feel when she tried to draw them out of herself. But she was no closer to doing anything more than explosions, even if she could now 'cast' those without her wand.
He had left her to her own devices, going to speak with Zerbst and Tabitha about Thaumaturgy and casting with the rods he had given them. While each apparently could seemingly cast the basic Fire and Blizzard spell respectively, they both had trouble attempting to do the other. And not to mention the last 'student'.
Of all things, trying to teach a commoner magic! It was heresy! But he did the same with the maid as he had with her, and his guidance with her was different. First, he had changed to an odd outfit of white and red robes, carrying a staff with a glowing flaming ornament. Then they had mostly sat and spoke, quiet words from him as she listened. She didn't hear much, something about Elementals or such. Maybe he meant like the Water Spirit of Lagdorian Lake?
She shook her head. Why he was even bothering was more than annoying. He would have made better use of his time focusing on that stupid tome in whatever improper language that was. The only reason she had held her temper with it all was because she was wary of him. With how easily he dealt with Guiche's Valkyries and the power he kept seeming to display, she was worried about what might happen should his patience finally reach an end. She had no doubt that the Professors and Headmaster could subdue him if need be, but who all would be hurt in the conflict should one happen?
Getting ready for bed, she looked at the unfinished letter she had started and restarted many times since the Summoning Ritual happened. She still had no idea what to tell her family. Especially if any came to see the person she called forth as her familiar. No, she really hoped he translated that tome fast, so she could summon one of those 'Carbuncles' to show off as a proper Familiar. Then maybe she wouldn't be seen as such a failure and Zero.
Alright, that's chapter four. Sorry it took awhile, but I'm writing when inspiration to do so hits. I'm not going to force anything out and make a terrible story. Hell, I'm not certain how much is coherent as is. I might do a chapter or two focusing on Tabitha and Kirche learning Thaumaturgy as well as Siesta learning Conjuration. I don't know why, just feels right that she should go that route. Either that or have no talent for magic and instead take up one of the martial disciplines. Still waffling on it.
End that with the Mott confrontation, then... I am honestly not certain. Probably into meeting the Princess and the show, then Foquet and roll from there.
Well, we'll just see how it flows. Hope you all keep enjoying!