It had been about nine months since Edric had woken up in the past. He and Emira were now eight years old. Apparently saying they were eight and a quarter was just stupid, but Edric wasn't sure why that was where Emira drew the line. Regardless, Edric had now had a lot more time to process his situation, but his plan for the future hadn't really changed much. He was still wary about reaching out to his former allies too early. He didn't know how to prove any of his future knowledge, and many of his former allies were still firmly in the Emperor's camp right now. So Edric continued to focus mainly on making himself stronger. He wasn't sure this was the best move, but he felt like it was the least likely to blow up in his face. As the Day of Unity grew closer he would be able to act more openly without having to worry about the long term bloodyfly effects of his actions.
In the meantime, Edric's training seemed to be going rather well. His abomination magic had grown tremendously in every metric. It was progressing faster than he ever could've expected. He supposed this was why Darius was so annoyed that he'd 'wasted' his youth learning illusion magic instead.
But Edric wasn't satisfied with just honing his abomination magic. If he wanted to reach the level of a Coven Head and beyond within less than a decade, then he'd need to use every tool at his disposal. That was why he also spent a solid amount of time training his beast keeping magic as well.
Edric was an ordinary witch, rather than a bipedal demon, so it was unlikely that he'd ever be able to reproduce Eberwolf's Beast Emulation magic no matter how hard he trained. It was a shame but he simply didn't have any truly beastial traits to enhance. He also didn't have the time or resources to capture and train beasts as strong as Eberwolf's companions. But that didn't make Beast magic useless. Eberwolf had taught him about far more subtle effects that it could produce. He couldn't gain Eberwolf's ridiculous strength or his ability to practically swim through stone, but he could enhance his senses and instincts to some extent. Eberwolf had taught him how to do that mainly to help him search for food and avoid dangerous beasts. The benefits were pretty minor by Eberwolf's standards but Edric felt confident that it could become a very useful ability if he kept training it.
Outside of enhancing his senses, one of the main ways Edric trained his Beast Keeping Magic was by linking to random animals and insects he found. Doing so would give him control over them and let him experience their senses to some extent. Refining this ability would help him if he ever needed to scout a location without going there himself. It also gave him a better understanding of the creatures he linked to, which gradually improved his knowledge of beasts overall. Training abilities like this had become difficult after the wildlife of the Boiling Isles started dying out, but now that he was back in the past there were plenty of animals to practice with. He was now able to link to three small creatures at once and send them up to a mile away without losing connection. Though experiencing multiple perspectives at once was still pretty disorienting. And linking to anything with senses too different from a human's would instantly give him a migraine. It really put into perspective how impressive Eberwolf truly was. He'd seen the man control entire swarms of insects with seemingly no difficulty.
Edric also tried to train his illusion magic when he had the time, though that was more about increasing the amount of illusion magic he had access to rather than learning any new tricks. Each of the nine internal magics had their own separate pool of energy that could be increased with training. Edric didn't have enough time to train every form of magic but he could spare a bit of effort for illusion magic. A lot of witches looked down on illusionists but Edric knew firsthand how useful an illusion could be in the right circumstances. And while he'd probably never be able to create the kinds of massive illusions Gus could somehow conjure up, Edric knew how to use smaller illusions effectively.
Sadly, not all of Edric's training over the past few months had gone well. His mastery of internal magic was growing at an impressive pace, but no matter how hard he tried, his ability to utilize glyph magic actually seemed to have gotten worse. Part of it was that he no longer had the cheat sheets that Lilith had made for him. Edric had memorized the four basic glyphs but he only knew a few of the simpler glyph combos by heart. It's not like he hadn't tried to memorize the more complex ones, he'd just never managed to succeed.
And Edric's problems with glyph magic went beyond just having a poor memory. He'd also never quite been able to grasp the intent aspect of glyph magic. Lilith was able to choose the specific plant she got when activating a plant glyph while Edric always got some random weed. Lilith could use an ice glyph to craft intricate sculptures while Edric got malformed blocks of ice. Lilith said it was all about "knowing what he needed," but no matter how hard Edric concentrated, the glyphs he activated just tended to do whatever they wanted.
There was one exception. A trick with the fire glyph that he was able to pull off semi-reliably. He had originally tried it on a whim, after remembering an offhand comment Lilith had made once. Edric had no idea why it worked, but it definitely had some potential for combat so he wasn't complaining.
Or at least, he wouldn't be complaining if he hadn't made the stupid mistake of using that technique in front of his dad. Alador had taken one look at it and immediately banned Edric from training with it.
Edric supposed it was his own fault. He'd been the one to ask his father for help with combat training. He'd mostly just wanted some disposable abomination sparring partners. Training with his own abominations was almost pointless since he was the one deciding their movements. Unfortunately, Edric had forgotten how surprisingly overprotective his father could be at times. Alador had been resistant to the idea that he needed combat training at his age in the first place. And even when he agreed to help he refused to take off the kid gloves. His abominations barely fought back as Edric tore through them.
That was why Edric had revealed his glyph technique. It was a stupid decision in hindsight but he'd hoped that proving his strength would cause his father to start taking his training more seriously. Instead the man had banned the technique and demanded that Edric take a break from combat training altogether.
Naturally Edric had ignored this demand. Alador didn't even know about half of the training he did anyway so there was no way he could enforce it. But it was still a setback to not have on demand cannon fodder to practice with anymore. At first Edric thought he'd be able to change his father's mind pretty easily, but Alador was being uncharacteristically stubborn about this. So, after a month of failing to sway his father, Edric decided to look into alternative solutions.
"You're saying you want me to train you?" Odalia asked in mild disbelief. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't taken aback at the request. "Wouldn't your father be a better teacher? I thought you were already learning from him."
"I don't need a teacher, I need sparring partners." Edric answered in a surprisingly bitter tone. "Dad let me use his abominations as punching bags but he's too soft to actually attack me with them. I want to test my magic against something that will actually fight back. I figured your spirits would be my best option."
That made sense to Odalia. Her husband did have a tendency to coddle their children. Still, it was a bit odd to hear that coming from Edric. Ever since the confrontation about Amity's Birthday party, Edric had been rather vocal about how she should be softer on her children. Though now that she thought about it, he hadn't really included himself in that. Edric would jump on the chance to defend his sisters from any perceived slight, but he'd brush off any criticism directed at himself as if he genuinely hadn't noticed it.
Not that he gave Odalia much to criticize. He kept his promise and became the top student in the abomination track almost immediately after joining it. A position that had not been threatened even once. The girls were doing better in their classes as well since that day. Odalia hated to admit it, but she was beginning to think her husband may have had a point about taking a more hands off approach to parenting.
Still, she could at least draw some validation from the fact that Edric was coming to her for training. She didn't know the source of her son's newfound ambition and drive to become stronger, but if he wanted serious training then that's what she'd give him.
"Alright Edric. I'll provide you with spirits to fight. Just don't expect them to be easy to deal with." Odalia said as she led her son to a sparring room. Blight Manor had multiple rooms dedicated to magic training.
"So how do you want to start this?" Edric asked casually. Instead of replying, Odalia immediately sent one of her spirits charging at her son. Edric barely had time to form an abomination shield before the spirit struck it and sent him flying. Odalia expected him to complain about her underhandedness but Edric was sporting a savage grin when he landed. The grin disappeared as he looked around though, and faded into a look of dissatisfaction.
"Just one?" he asked simply. Odalia raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying you want to fight multiple of my spirits at once, son? That's a little arrogant for someone who got sent flying so easily. Maybe once you can put up a fight against one of them we can move on to..."
Edric's shield deformed in the blink of an eye and abomination slime covered his hands and feet. The slime on his hands quickly formed itself into the shape of clawed gauntlets as he leapt towards the spirit. The slime on his feet compressed and expanded as he left the ground, adding to his speed. Before Odalia could react, her son had slashed the spirit multiple times and then pinned it to the ground with his claws. The magic he was using should remind her of Deamonne, but the ferocity in his eyes actually brought up memories of Eberwolf instead. Then again maybe that was just his short stature...
"Have I proven myself worthy of more effort mother?" Edric asked cockily, interrupting Odalia's thoughts.
"That was certainly impressive, but your understanding of oracle magic needs work. Otherwise you'd know that spirits aren't so easy to restrain," Odalia raised her hand and willed her servant to become intangible, only to be surprised when it failed to escape her son's grasp.
"I understand oracle magic just fine mom. Your spirits can become intangible and pass through most solid objects with ease. But passing through objects that have magic energy actively flowing through them is much harder. So long as I keep enough magic running through my claws, it's not so easy for your spirit to escape them." Suddenly a purple helmet formed over Edric's head. The helmet had 2 sharp horns on its forehead that Edric proceeded to slam it into the spirit's face. Having taken too much damage the spirit poofed into smoke and was sucked back into Odalia's necklace. It wasn't gone but she would need to repair it before using it again.
"Good work. You were a lot more decisive than I imagined you'd be. But the next round won't be so easy, regardless of whether I use more spirits."
"I'm aware. Oracle spirits tend to be weaker or at least more fragile than abominations, with the exception of irregular spirits which are both incredibly rare and hard to control. In battle, most Oracle witches rely on controlling multiple ordinary spirits and directing them with enhanced intuition. Long term fortune telling is unreliable at best, but a powerful oracle can predict their opponents immediate next move with high accuracy. And that accuracy gets better the more you learn about your opponent. Though there are plenty of ways for the opponent to reduce the accuracy of these predictions as well."
"You really do know a lot about Oracle magic. Or at least more than I expected you to. I don't recall my teachers at Hexside going into much depth on other magic tracks when I was your age."
"I guess my teachers were a little more advanced than yours were..." Edric replied in an amused tone. Another odd statement coming from him. Edric didn't actively complain about the man but it was fairly obvious that he didn't particularly like Professor Hermonculus.
"And despite knowing so much about Oracle magic you still want me to fight you with multiple spirits. Do you really think you can win?" Odalia asked.
"This isn't about winning. It's about training. I need something to push me to my limits so that I'm forced to overcome them. The best ways to combat an Oracle's precognition are versatility and instinct. The more options I have and the more instinctively I choose between them, the harder I'll be to predict. And those are the exact traits I want to improve in the first place."
Odalia considered this for a moment before nodding. "You've put a lot of thought into this... Alright Edric. I'll fight you with 2 spirits for now and we'll see how it goes from there. Just don't blame me if you get overwhelmed."
And with that the training resumed. For the next several hours Edric tested his skills against two and then three of Odalia's spirits. He got knocked down more often than not, but Odalia was impressed by how quickly he was improving. He also never once asked for a break despite using several times more magic than she thought it was possible for a child his age to possess. His movements seemed to become both more feral and somehow more efficient as he adapted to Odalia's precognition. After a few hours of nearly nonstop training, Odalia decided to call it.
"Alright Ed, I think it's about time we stop for today."
"Why? Are you tired already?" Edric probably meant for that to sound snarky but he was far too out of breath for her to take the taunt seriously. "I've still got plenty of magic left in case you were wondering?"
"That is impressive if true, but even if you do have magic energy to spare, your physical stamina is reaching its limit. " Odalia relied bluntly. "You're not quite at the verge of passing out yet, but you're getting there. And at this point you couldn't handle one of my spirits, let alone three."
"I'm not tired," Edric lied.
"I'm not trying to disparage you, Edric. It's admirable how far you've come in such a short time. Makes me wonder how strong you'd be if you'd focused on Abominations from the start instead of wasting your time on worthless illusion magic." Odalia knew her last comment was more than a little passive aggressive, but she was still surprised by how quickly Edric's face fell from a look of stubborn determination into an annoyed frown. It was the kind of comment he typically brushed off with an irritating smile on his face.
"Can you not say things like that?" He asked in a soft but angry tone.
"What, you don't like being reminded of how much time you wasted?" Odalia asked in response.
"Not that part," Edric corrected her. "I get that joining the illusionist track at Hexside was a bad decision for me. I was wasting my potential because I didn't understand the kind of consequences being weak can have. It was stupid, and selfish, and I've spent a lot of time kicking myself for it. But that doesn't make illusion magic worthless."
"Is this about Emira?" Odalia asked. "She's not even here. I can't exactly offend someone who isn't present."
"But you say these kinds of things all the time, whether she's there or not. What do you even have against illusion magic?"
"Why wouldn't I look down on magic that my abilities directly counter? Oracle's are trained to see through the boundaries of time and space. Seeing through illusions is childsplay in comparison. Why do you think you and your sister were never able to hide from me with them?"
"That's just because your magic overpowered ours. It would be different if you were dealing with a fully trained illusion witch. And that counter goes both ways. A powerful enough illusionist can cancel or even distort an oracle's foresight."
Odalia found herself once again taken aback by her eight year old son's strangely broad knowledge of magic. The fact that Oracle's could counter illusionists was fairly well known, but the fact that the reverse was also true was something the Oracle coven did their best to downplay. It wasn't something they could truly hide, but it was hardly common knowledge. She couldn't help but wonder where Edric found the time to learn so much about magic he didn't practice. But she wouldn't be Odalia Blight if she let idle questions like that distract her from winning an argument.
"And how many truly powerful illusionists do you know of Edric? There aren't many nowadays. Even their coven head is considered mediocre compared to the rest of the elites. Do you know why that is?"
"Because Adrian Graye is a low effort hack who obtained his position by abusing an artifact that boosts his illusion magic. Also his jumpsuit is tacky and so is he." The line was delivered in a flat tone. It kind of sounded like he was quoting someone.
"How do you even...? Nevermind" Odalia digressed, surprised that her son had actually agreed with her about the illusionist coven leader. She honestly wasn't sure she wanted to know where he'd heard all of that. Perhaps Alador had mentioned the man. That seemed unlikely but badmouthing a coven head was something few witches were brave or stupid enough to do outside of their own homes. Speaking of...
"I hope you know never to repeat that kind of thing in public. Openly insulting a coven head tends to end badly."
"I get that, but I feel the need to point out that Dad gets into flame wars with the Abomination coven leader all the time." Edric protested half-heartedly. She got the sense that he was just being a contrarian but she decided to respond anyway.
"Those two have a history together. At this point their arguments are more of a game than anything else. If Darius gives in and uses his influence or power to silence your father, then Alador wins. And Darius would never let that happen."
"Sounds about right," Edric said in a strange, almost wistful tone before sighing. The tangent seemed to have drained most of his irritation away. He wasn't in the mood to argue anymore. "Listen, I never really cared if you saw illusion magic as weak. Lots of people think that way. But Emira used to look up to you. She wanted to be like you. But now all of your kids generally avoid you whenever they can. Doesn't that bother you?"
The words were harsh even if Edric's tone was no longer angry. But Odalia had a pretty good retort. "You said you wanted to train with me specifically because your father was too soft on you. And yet you seem convinced that your sisters need me to coddle them. Frankly, if Emira overheard this conversation, I don't think I'd be the one offending her."
Edric paused for a moment, considering her words before sighing again. He wanted to protect his sisters, but he couldn't really explain away the double standard without revealing his time travel. And maybe he was being overbearing in this case. It's not like Odalia constantly brought up her dislike of illusion magic. In the original timeline it rarely came up. And when it did Emira only showed mild irritation.
"Alright, maybe I am being a little dramatic." Edric conceded. "I just really want our family to be happy. And I feel like I never understood what makes you happy. You're always chasing money and power but we already have a lot of that don't we. Why is being powerful so important to you in the first place?"
"Power is important to everyone, Edric," Odalia replied firmly. "We like to pretend that the boiling isles have become more peaceful since the emperor's reign began, but the truth is it's just as dangerous as ever. Our family needs to be strong and influential enough that no one can push us around. I'll admit. I was a little disappointed that my eldest child's best affinity is illusion magic, but I'm still proud of her for excelling in her field. And there's more than one kind of power in this world. Between the three of you Emira's the only one who shows any talent for business in my opinion. She may well end up inheriting my position while you and Amity take over for your father."
"No arguments on my end. Not sure about Amity, but I'd probably end up trading the company for a handful of magic beans if you put me in charge. Could you maybe tell Emira that stuff though? About you being proud of her."
"Why bother?" Odalia asked. "If she's already doing well then patting her on the back for it would only decrease her motivation. Besides, your father doesn't like me talking to you kids about working at the company. He insists that children shouldn't be involved with business."
"You know there's a difference between giving your daughter some positive reinforcement and having her do your taxes, don't you?"
"How about this? If you can manage to fend off four of my spirits at once sometime in the next month then I'll give Emira a passionate speech about how proud I am of her. Does that sound fair?"
"No!" Edric replied firmly. "It wouldn't mean anything if you said it because of a wager. Why do you have to turn everything into some kind of deal?"
"I'm just trying to motivate you..."
"I've got plenty of motivation Mom. That's why I'm pushing myself so hard." her son replied, looking her straight in the eye. "If you really want to give me more then tell me what it is you want. Tell me what it would take to satisfy you. Is it just becoming as strong as a coven head? Cause I fully intend to do that already."
Odalia didn't love his tone there but she decided to let it slide. His question wasn't a bad one, even if he was looking at things from a flawed perspective. "I've always seen satisfaction as a form of surrender, Edric. If you're satisfied then you're complacent. I believe that if you must lock onto a single goal in order to push yourself forward, then it's better to pick something out of reach. That way you can continue pushing forward eternally."
"So shoot for the stars to reach the moon. That's not much of an answer. Just tell me what specific unattainable goal drives you forward. That way I can attain it for you and maybe you'll finally be able to relax." Edric persisted. He wasn't looking for vague life advice. He wanted a real answer.
"To be honest, it's a bit of a long story," Odalia started slowly. "I actually try not to think about it much these days. It has to do with some literal ancient history that I'm technically not allowed to share with you. Discussing history from before Belos' reign is considered taboo. Even more so when you're talking about events from before the Titans fell. But those rules weren't well defined when I was young. I grew up hearing these stories, legends really, of how our family got its name. According to the stories our ancestor started from humble beginnings and rose into a fearsome king who ruled over a nation far larger than the entire boiling isles. Supposedly he crafted armies of abominations with strange properties that even your father couldn't reproduce. Things like emitting huge amounts of poisonous gas, dissolving anything they touched, or coating themselves with intense flames." Edric suddenly got a strange look on his face but Odalia ignored it and continued on. "His legions were as deadly as they were disposable. Less an enemy to fight against and more an unstoppable force of nature. A Blight on the world around them. That's how he got his warlock title and how our family got its name. That's where we come from. Supposedly, I mean..."
"So what exactly is a Warlock?" Edric asked. He'd never gotten much of a clear answer for that question. Lilith had just said the definition wasn't really known anymore while Darius seemed to think it was just an ancient title that pretentious rulers used to make themselves sound impressive.
"It's an old term," Odalia responded. " The legends aren't very clear on what it means or how it was earned. Only that it was very rare for a witch to reach that level. The few records that still exist hint that only two others existed at the same time as the Blight Warlock. Personally I'd say the term was probably pretty literal. If only one side of a war had a Warlock then the result of the conflict was locked. They were powerhouses that couldn't be beaten by numbers or strategy."
"Alright so our ancestor was a powerful king in the distant past. What does that have to do with us now?" Edric asked impatiently.
"Not much, unfortunately," Odalia sighed. "To say our family has fallen from grace would be an understatement. By the time I was born our legacy was practically forgotten. All we had were stories and legends that may very well be completely fictional. But when I was your age I believed in them wholeheartedly. I fantasized about bringing our household back into its glory days."
"So that's what you want? To become royalty?" Edric asked.
"It's nothing so specific as that. It's more that I wanted to live up to our past. I hated the idea that our family's grand legacy would soon be entirely forgotten. So I decided to engrave our name into history anyway that I could. I think I always understood on some level that it was a vain and unattainable goal. But it never failed to push me forward, and that's what mattered. We may not be royalty or legendary, but thanks to your father and I the Blights are once again a household name."
After she finished her unexpected history lesson, Odalia went silent for a bit. She wanted to give her son time to properly digest what he'd just learnt. The history of her house was something she'd grown up with, but Edric was hearing it for the first time.
"Alright," Edric said firmly after a moment of calm reflection. "I'll do it..."
"Do what?"
"Engrave our name into history. Become a legend. I can't promise the royalty thing because I don't exactly love the concept of monarchs, but I'll make sure the Blight name isn't forgotten any time soon."
"Oh..." Odalia tried to pretend she wasn't caught off guard by her son's declaration. "Well it's good to have overarching goals..." She replied slowly.
"No," Edric denied. "This isn't some overarching life goal. This is something that's going to happen. I'll make it happen within the next decade, even if it costs me my life."
"I appreciate the enthusiasm, Edric..." Odalia replied. She should be happy with how the conversation was going, but something about her son's demeanour made her uncomfortable. She wasn't normally the type to share her feelings so easily, but she'd hoped her genuine aspirations would resonate with her son. Give him something grand to work towards. It seemed to have worked. Edric's promise may have sounded arrogant but it also sounded sincere. There was a strong resolve behind those words. But for some reason, Odalia found that resolve strangely off putting. She tried to brush off that feeling though. As mature as Edric could be sometimes, he was still just an eight year old. She shouldn't take his words too seriously.
As if he'd somehow sensed her doubts, Edric responded to them with a challenge. "Make it five..."
"What?"
"You said you wanted me to defeat four of your spirits at once. Make it five instead. I still don't want a fake apology but I could use the challenge."
"I said within the month, not right this second. You're exhausted."
"I've had time to catch my breath. Besides, if you don't know how to fight exhausted, then you don't know how to fight" Edric replied firmly. It sounded like something Clawthorne would say. Actually Odalia was sure she'd heard Lilith use that exact line on some of her subordinates on more than one occasion. Had Edric become a fan of hers? Odalia wasn't sure she liked the idea of her son looking up to one of her old classmates. Still, she had to admit that there were worse people to admire...
"Do you really think you can win?" Odalia asked curiously. "You were barely holding your own against three before."
"I've got a trump card I want to try out. Dad thought it was too much for me and tried to ban me from training it, but I know you wouldn't do that."
"I can't deny I'm curious now... Fine. One last round. But after that we're done for the day. I enjoy training you Edric, but I do have actual work to do." As Odalia agreed she summoned 5 oracle spirits out of her necklace. This time she had them wait for Edric to prepare himself. The boy was already on his last legs. She saw no point in trying to catch him off guard. Though what happened next had her realize that she was still underestimating him.
At first nothing seemed unusual. Edric took a fighting stance and created the same slime boots and clawed gauntlets that he'd been using before. There was a subtle difference in the gauntlets though. An odd symbol that Odalia didn't recognize was engraved into the back of each hand. Before Odalia had a chance to comment on the frivolity of this addition, Edric leapt towards the centermost spirit. This was an odd decision, as it would logically lead to him being surrounded before he could finish it off. Odalia could only assume that her son's exhaustion was impairing his judgement. But just as Edric was about to reach his target something strange happened. The symbols on his gloves glowed for a brief moment before his claws became coated in flames.
Edric's now red-hot claws tore through his target like butter. Before Odalia could process the attack, her spirit had already dissipated and was returning to her amulet. Odalia could tell that it had taken far more damage than the first spirit Edric had defeated. That one would probably be repaired in a matter of days whereas this one would most likely be out of commision for months.
Odalia couldn't understand why adding flames to the attack had made it so much more dangerous. It wasn't as if her spirits were particularly weak to heat. Normally abominations had lower flame tolerance than they had. There was obviously something special about these flames, but Odalia's oracle magic couldn't seem to grasp them at all. They were incomprehensible. And that meant they couldn't be predicted. After all, how could you predict the future behavior of something you couldn't even begin to understand in the present?
Odalia had to admit that her son's boasts about a trump card certainly hadn't fallen flat. But that didn't negate the fact that he'd foolishly allowed himself to be surrounded. She had to punish him for that or else she'd be promoting bad habits. Odalia's eyes flashed purple momentarily as she concentrated harder on predicting her son's next moves.
Seconds later she had three of her four remaining spirits attack Edric from different angles. She predicted that Edric would dodge the first with ease and then narrowly avoid the second. The third would be timed precisely so he couldn't get out of the way. Instead he would create a shield to not only block the third attack, but also use its momentum to slide away and gain some distance. That would be his moment of weakness. He'd done something similar a few times in their earlier spars to great effect, but this time he had four spirits to deal with. Odalia's final spirit would have the perfect opportunity to grab and subdue Edric right after the third spirit attacked. Edric would literally slide right into the fourth spirit's arms, and wouldn't be able to react until he was already grappled. With that the battle would be over. Odalia would give her son a short lecture on the importance of proper strategy and they'd call it a day.
As her predictions started playing out in real time, Odalia took a moment to really think about how far her son had come. She'd already known her son was talented, but she still wasn't expecting him to be this strong at such a young age. Those claws and shields were freakishly effective, but that slime he always kept beneath his feet was probably what made Edric so formidable. She knew the boy had chosen to focus a bit more on control over power, much to his father's annoyance, but it was still bizzare how precisely the boy could control his momentum with that slime. Speeding up and slowing down in ways that a non-oracle would never be able to predict. When he wanted to slow down or hold still the slime would become sticky, or even dig itself into the ground. When he wanted to speed up it would become slippery, allowing Edric to almost skate over nearly any terrain. And when he wanted to pounce (and pounce was definitely the right word) the slime would become elastic and would constrict and expand in time with his steps.
The fact that Edric was already capable of manipulating the properties of his abomination slime to that extent was incredible. But the way he used those properties mid-battle was what defied logic. She'd seen Darius pull off similar feats but only when he was much older. For a normal person, having slippery abomination slime beneath their feet wouldn't make them faster, it would just cause them to fall over or crash into obstacles. But Edric didn't seem to have any problems with keeping his balance while moving at high speeds and also focusing on his magic. He moved with perfect grace and attacked with brutal precision. If Odalia didn't have her precognition, then she wasn't sure she could win even with twice as many spirits.
It would be easy to dismiss this as the result of even more natural talent Edric was hiding but Odalia had watched her son grow up. She'd hesitate to call her son clumsy, but he was not naturally graceful. She might not have known about his hidden magical affinities but she would've noticed that.
This could only be the result of training. Brutal, harsh training that Alador would never have the stomach to inflict on his son. Which meant it could only be self-inflicted. Edric had been pushing himself even harder than she'd thought. Probably training himself to exhaustion on a daily basis. She wondered how many times the boy had crashed into an obstacle or wall at full speed before he learnt to move like this.
Somehow Odalia felt even more proud of this work ethic than her son's ridiculous natural talent. While Edric still had a bit of childish naivety to work through, there was no denying that he had impressed her in a lot of ways. 'But this battle will still end in my victory' Odalia's thought as she heard the loud clang of Edric blocking the third attack. As she predicted, instead of holding his ground the boy let himself be sent sliding to gain some distance from his foes. Unfortunately for him he was sliding not to safety, but directly into the arms of Odalia's fourth spirit. Odalia was certain their bout was finished. But then something unexpected happened. The flames on Edric's left hand surged in power, causing the boy to swiftly spin around. Instead of being caught from behind Edric was able to attack his enemy head on. His right claw sunk through the spirits chest as the flames around it surged even more. The spirit dissipated into smoke after taking even more damage than the last one. If Edric didn't have the short arms of an eight year old, Odalia was sure that attack would have pierced all the way through her spirit.
It would seem that the unpredictability of Edric's flames also applied to any momentum he gained from them. Even a single burst could alter his trajectory significantly, rendering Odalia's predictions mostly useless. A stronger oracle might have been able to adapt by focusing more on Edric's intent than on his movements, but when it came down to it, Odalia was more of a businesswoman than a fighter. She knew how to hold her own better than most, but it had been decades since the last time she'd gotten involved in a serious were probably quite a few people on the Boiling Isles who would love to see her brought low. But Odalia was married to a witch that many considered to be on the same level as a Coven Head, and their company specialized in the production of advanced weaponry and powerful abomination bodyguards. Most of her enemies were smart enough to keep their heads down, and therefore attached.
As Edric turned his gaze towards the three remaining spirits, Odalia suddenly realized that there was no real point in continuing the match. Without being able to rely on her predictions, her spirits had no chance of keeping up with Edric's speed or power. It hurt her pride a bit, but in this instance giving up was probably the practical decision. She already had multiple spirits in need of repair and she'd rather not increase that number for no reason. As intense as the fight had been it was still just a sparring match. But before Odalia could voice her thoughts, Edric took a small step towards the spirits and abruptly fell to his knees. The flames around his arms petered out into nothing and his purple armaments began to lose their solidity. Slime dripped from his hands and feet onto the floor as he tried to catch his breath.
In retrospect it wasn't surprising. Edric was already on his last legs when he started this match. And while Odalia wasn't sure what those flames of his were, she could tell they took a lot out of him. She noticed that whenever they flared up he'd grit his teeth for a moment before controlling his expression.
"Looks like you can't continue. Guess it's my win then..." Odalia said with feigned smugness. She knew full well how pyrrhic this 'victory' was, but that wouldn't stop her from gloating about it. Odalia Blight was many things, but a gracious winner wasn't one of them.
Edric scoffed in reply, as his tired expression morphed into one of belligerence. "We'll call it your win if any of your spirits can survive my final attack. Fair warning, this fire won't even leave ashes behind." As he spoke his flames suddenly reappeared, larger and brighter than ever. They began to collect above his head and form into the shape of a giant flaming bird.
"Now go my firebird. Burn those pitiful spirits to nothing!"
Odalia stared in shock as the bird began to fly towards her spirits. She immediately drew her spirits back into her necklace and raised her hands in surrender.
"No need for that Edric. You win the match."
"Damn right I do," Edric replied snarkily as the intimidating phoenix beside him faded into nothing.
"It was an illusion," Odalia said in surprise. She hadn't even tried to observe the flames with Oracle magic because she'd assumed it would be pointless.
"Honestly I'm a little insulted you fell for that so easily," Edric said smugly. "As if I'd actually shape a fire attack into a bird just to make it look cooler."
"That sounds exactly like something you'd do Edric" Odalia replied, a little indignant.
"Excuse you. I might indulge in some showmanship while training or playing with Amity, but that's just because it helps with training my control. I wouldn't waste time and energy on dramatics like that in a real fight. well not unless it was an intentional distraction anyway... Or if I was trying to intimidate someone... Or if I just really felt like it that day and my opponent was weak enough for me to flex on..."
"If you say so," Odalia replied, cutting off his rambling. "It's a little annoying that I fell for an illusion but I have to applaud your ability to use cunning and strategy, rather than just brute force. I'm glad to see you inherited something from me."
"Wow, was that another compliment? I mean you complimented yourself too but still. That's like three in one day? Careful you don't pull a muscle. Or worse, demotivate me with an overload of positive reinforcement."
"Don't be a smartass. Your efforts over the past 9 months have clearly paid off. Denying something that obvious would just be disingenuous. Though I do feel the need to point out that if that was a real fight, your little illusion trick would've only convinced me to retreat. Which would make this a draw at best."
"Oh good you're back to normal. I was worried there for a second. To be clear though, if this was a real fight, I would've dodged past your spirits and attacked you first mom."
"Fair enough," Odalia conceded. "I'm not sure how I would've dealt with those flames of yours. Speaking of which, what exactly were those? My oracle magic wasn't strong enough to grasp their nature at all. If you hadn't finally run out of magic I don't think my spirits would have been able to deal with them."
"I didn't run out of magic. Those flames are just kind of intense. Makes it hard to concentrate. I've been working on being able to use them for longer periods of time, but it's harder in a real fight. As for what they are, I'm not entirely sure. They're just something I stumbled on. I think they'd probably be considered wild magic though, so I don't intend to use them openly any time soon. I'd appreciate it if you kept helping me train with them. When I asked Dad, he tried to forbid me from using them altogether. He thinks they're too much for me to handle."
"Of course he does..." Odalia replied in exasperation. She wasn't entirely satisfied with the short explanation, but she could get more details from Edric at a later date. He was probably right about the flames being classified as wild magic if they became well known. The Oracle Coven as a whole certainly wouldn't appreciate their existence. But that wasn't too much of a problem. Oracles couldn't exactly keep their precognition active at all times. That would be far too draining. Most witches would only see Edric's flames as powerful fire magic, so unless he did something stupid it shouldn't be hard to keep them under wraps. Trump cards should be kept secret regardless.
"I'd like to offer you a deal Edric,"
"Oh joy..."
"Shut up, you'll like this one. I was merely going to propose that we continue this training in secret. I won't mention it to your father and you won't use this magic outside of a life or death situation without my permission. Does that sound fair?" As she spoke Odalia walked towards her son who was still kneeling on the ground. She offered him a hand to both help him up and seal the deal. Odalia didn't really expect her son to hesitate but he gazed at her hand warily for a second before getting up on his own.
"Sounds good Mom. No need to shake on it though. I've still got slime all over my hands. And I know how you hate to get dirty." Edric agreed to her offer but there was something suspicious about his tone.
"It's your abomination slime. You created it from magic, you can just will it out of existence."
"I, uh... haven't learnt how to do that yet?" Edric replied awkwardly. It sounded more like a question than a statement, and it was clear from his expression that he knew how dumb his lie sounded.
"I take back that comment about you inheriting my cunning. Even Alador could lie better than that. What are you hiding, Edric?"
"Hey, strategizing and ad-libbing are entirely different skills. And I'm not exactly at my best right now. If you gave me a few minutes I'm sure I could come up with something better."
"Edric," Odalia halted her son's rambling. He sighed in reply.
"Fine, I'll show you. Just don't freak out ok. You promised you wouldn't act like Dad." As Edric spoke, the abomination slime covering his hands slowly disappeared. Odalia was shocked to see that his hands and arms were covered in what appeared to be first and second degree burns.
"Edric what the fuck!?"
"You promised you wouldn't freak out."
"I said no such thing. Now answer the question!"
"I don't know what you're so surprised about. I lit my hands on fire. This is just what happens when you do that." Edric started, sounding almost indignant. In his defense he was still in a lot of pain. During the battle he could use his beast keeping magic to enhance his instincts and help him power through it. But now that the fight was over he had nothing to distract him from his burns. Exposing them to air so quickly certainly didn't help. Still, he quickly realized his mistake and continued in a much more placating tone. "It really isn't as bad as it looks. I wouldn't risk the fire reaching my muscles or anything harder to heal. I'm not an idiot who would put myself out of commision over a practice match."
"But why were you burnt at all? I thought you were using that slime to protect yourself." Odalia protested.
"I was. That's why the burns are only skin deep. But if I focus too much on protecting myself then the flames come out weak and useless. It's been difficult to find a balance but I think I've gotten the hang of it."
"Gotten the hang of it? Edric, look at yourself. Look at your hands. How can you think this is ok?"
"If you're worried about scars then don't. I've got potions in my room that will take care of the worst of this before morning. And whatever's left can be covered up with illusion magic until it's fully healed. I know how much you care about our family's image. I won't let anyone else see the burns."
Nothing about Edric's tone sounded accusatory. If anything he seemed almost proud. Like he expected her to praise him for his foresight. She wondered if the idea that she was concerned about his actual wellbeing had even occurred to him. A part of Odalia wanted to feel offended. Another part of her was starting to wonder if she had any right to be.
'This is what I wanted wasn't it. I wanted my kids to be driven. I taught them that power and status were worth whatever price you needed to pay.'
"From now on those flames are banned, Edric. You are not to use them under any circumstances." Odalia said in a firm, emotionless voice.
"What?" Edric exclaimed in shock. "What do you mean banned? You just said you'd help me train it more. We had a deal!"
"The deal's off. Your father was right, Edric. This is too much..."
"You saw how powerful that magic is. You know it has the potential to become even stronger. How can you just tell me not to use it?"
"Maybe some things are more important than power..." Odalia can hardly believe she's saying this. From Edric's shocked expression it's clear that he feels the same.
"Seriously?" Edric muttered in tired exasperation. "I've wanted to hear you say something like that for years. But you choose now to have this epiphany? Are you somehow only capable of growing as a person when it's an inconvenience for me specifically? How do you expect me to become strong if you don't let me train?"
"I'll talk to your father about resuming your normal training." Odalia started after composing herself. "And you can continue sparring with my spirits whenever you need a change of pace. If that's not enough I'll get you the best private teachers money and political favors can buy. But that fire spell of yours is off the table. End of discussion."
"Fine" Edric conceded after a heavy sigh. He'd stop training with the fire glyph for the time being. There were plenty of other areas to focus on for now. But eventually he'd come back to it. The flames were too useful a tool to be cast aside forever. Not unless he found something even stronger to take their place.
AN:
Sorry this chapter took so long. Life got busy and I also ended up rewriting it a few times on top of that. The ending in particular took me forever and I'm still not sure if I feel happy with it. On the plus side it's easily my longest chapter so far and there's probably only one more before we time skip all the way to the main plot of the show. There's lots of other things I want to happen before then but I think most of them would work better as flashbacks or summaries.
The original version of this chapter was a lot more dramatic, with Edric basically having a mental breakdown as he tore through Odalia's spirits. I feel like this is a bit more nuanced. Instead of having her flaws screamed in her face, Odalia has to come to a conclusion on her own. I also don't really want to portray Edric as too traumatized. Not in such a blatant way at least. His memories obviously weigh on him, but he doesn't have the altered brain chemistry that traumatic memories usually come with if that makes sense. So Edric isn't as traumatized as he probably should be and any trauma he does have will manifest in more subtle ways.
This chapter served several purposes. For Odalia this is the start of a mostly offscreen character arc where she goes from a terrible person and worse mother, to a bad person and a kind of ok mother. She's never going to be a saint, but finding out her eight year old son is burning himself for power is enough to make her rethink some of her priorities. It's kind of disingenuous if we're being honest, because she doesn't really have much to do with that. But from her perspective her parenting is the only thing she can think to blame.
For Edric this chapter is largely about showing how he's trained and how much his magic has advanced. It's also a way to justify how powerful he'll be when we get to the beginning of the show's timeline. I guess I can afford to spoil the fact that at that point he won't be strong enough to defeat the average coven head, but he will be strong enough to be a somewhat serious obstacle for one of them. Like they wouldn't be able to bulldoze right through him is what I'm saying. To clarify this is a big deal because I'm going to be buffing a lot of the coven heads significantly. The series didn't really give most of them time to really show off.
While writing this I was curious how people would feel about the whole burning thing. I mean on the one hand a child hurting himself for power is obviously a bad thing. But on the other hand, Edric has the memories of a 17 year old, and justifiable reasons for wanting to get as strong as possible. It's not like it isn't a common trope for main characters to have painful and self-damaging techniques. Is this really any worse than Kaio Ken or Gear 2 or any of the other limit breaking techniques that cause pain or damage to the user. I'm just playing devil's advocate here. Not saying whether I'll treat it as a good or bad thing in this story.