Chapter 23
It Takes a Village
Three days of quiet contemplation had passed for Izuku since his return to Lut Gholein. In that time all he could bring himself to do was sleep, contemplate and sometimes eat. He considered making the trip to the palace for some of the fresher food, but he lacked the energy and motivation to do so.
Myr came through for him, bringing him meals and getting him down to the baths. But something about that fourth day of Jerhyn-mandated vacation made Izuku realize he needed to get out of bed and leave his room. It was probably the overcast and light drizzle as a respite from the constant heat, that or he was just tired of being tired.
He exited his room and knocked on Isendra's door.
"What is it, Izuku?" he heard his mistress call out.
"I am getting ready to leave, I wanted to see you before going." He said through the door.
"Then come in." She ordered.
He did so, closing the door behind him. His mistress did not look like herself. She was unkempt and visibly unwell, with bags underneath her eyes and hair messier than he'd ever seen. She did at least appear to be eating and bathing, if not sleeping.
"You bounce back from everything so quickly, but it takes me more time." She told him tiredly. "I need a while longer to find my balance again. Until then I do not believe I can provide you the usual guidance and training, but you have proven more than capable of teaching yourself. Go into my bag and retrieve Morena's journal."
Izuku blanked on the name. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it.
"Blood Raven." Isendra elaborated.
Ah. Her. He did recall her book and, opening Isendra's pack, he recognized it readily enough.
He picked the worn tome up gently and returned his focus to Isendra.
"I want you to learn and practice the spell "holy bolt". Which relies on the presence of inner light and a great deal of mana to cast. Both of which you have in excess." She instructed. "Once you are finished with that, the town portal spell will be invaluable to you. We have not had the chance to use it recently, as our missions have been long ones, but in future tasks I am positive we will need to return quickly. Especially with such scrolls being in such short supply."
Izuku recalled how the spell had gotten Cain himself back to the rogue encampment in a pinch, and provided them with quick travel back to the place of safety at the end of missions before.
"And if I learn both?" He asked.
"I am sure that I will be well by the time you finish this work, but if I am not, then I also advise learning the mana shield spell. It should be within your capabilities with little risk of harming yourself and others as you learn on your own." Isendra said.
Ah. So that was why she had picked out this spell selection for him. It made sense, without her there to supervise him it was difficult for him to cause untold elemental destruction with these, like he would if he tried to teach himself that meteor spell.
"Good day, mistress." Izuku bid her goodbye as he exited. "Please, get some sleep."
He returned to his room and donned his formal clothes. He did this partly because he was planning to go to the palace and wanted to look his best, but mostly because it was the warmest thing he owned. He could actively hear the wind from the sea through the shuddered windows.
As usual, Myr was downstairs playing some game with Elzix involving dice and cards. She spotted him coming and stood up.
"Good Morning Myr, I only need my sleepwear washed. I've worn nothing else for three days. If you could harass Isendra into giving you hers as well, that will be all I need from you." He said.
She bowed dutifully before walking away. Maybe it was the improvement in her demeanor, but Izuku couldn't help noticing that she was wearing new clothes. Little improvements to life sure did pile up fast, didn't they?
Breakfast at Atma's public house was wonderful.
He loaded up on greens and beef and got to work on them, smiling respectfully at the teasing from Quetz. "It is rare to find such love of vegetables and roots in one so young." She had teased him, while trying to pile on her plate as well.
He ate those too, but the vegetables were the real thing he'd been dying to sink his teeth into.
Upon exiting the restaurant he found the weather had changed only slightly. It was still completely overcast, and the light drizzle was unchanged, but the wind had died down. It was honestly wonderful weather. Calling the occasional, flee-sized droplet a drizzle was overstating it. People meandered about doing their daily business the same as ever, if not in greater numbers to enjoy the rare chilliness and humidity.
It occurred to him Cain may be among them, and the wise man may be of help with both of these spells he was practicing as they weren't elemental. If not, he could certainly be of help in other ways. He hadn't been practicing the mental magics as of late.
He found Cain where Cain always was. Near the town square in sight of the docks. He was leaning against his staff and staring peacefully out at the churning sea. He didn't notice Izuku until he was upon him.
"Ah. How may I be of service, young Midoriya?" He asked.
"Isendra instructed me to study and learn some spells on my own, and I was wondering if you had experience with them." Izuku asked. "They are holy bolt and town portal."
"Ah. Excellent choices of spells for the self-learner. Safe, and eminently useful. Let us go down to the beach and discuss them. See how far you can come along in learning them by day's end." Cain said in challenge.
They walked down and along the pier until they reached an area of soft sand with a large boulder for the man to sit on.
"Holy bolt is a wholly unique spell, normally known only to paladins of Zakarum and of a similar order in Westmarch. It is unique in that it can be used offensively against foulspawn, and to heal others. At the same time." Cain informed him. "I cannot cast a true holy bolt, but a simpler version is within many mage's means. It is formed from pure righteousness, and is baneful to undead and demon alike. You are not short on righteousness, though your obvious, and understandable, zeal of undead and demon could poison it. You will need to learn to parse these feelings to cast the spell efficiently."
With that short preamble out of the way, he demonstrated the spell.
A small star, as if plucked from the night sky, appeared between his palms, and he flung it forward like a firebolt. The golf-ball sized projectile flew over the waters of the sea, slowly fading into much smaller versions of itself that broke away, only to then vanish entirely.
"It has two components. The first is a feeling of righteousness over evil, without hate or contentment poisoning it and your inner light." Cain said.
Izuku blinked.
Izuku immediately recognized this lesson for what it was. A lesson in the mind arts disguised as a lesson on casting this particular spell. He withdrew his notebook and wrote it down so as to meditate on it later.
"Okay. Righteousness over evil. " Izuku said to himself as a chant.
He focused mana into his palms with these ideas in mind, watching as it coalesced. But it did nothing after that.
"Remember the breathing technique I taught you." Cain advised.
Izuku stopped, practiced said breathing technique three times, and tried again. And again. And again. But no star appeared between his hands.
"Who is casting magic inside the city walls?" A familiar voice called out from behind them. "Ah, I should have guessed."
Mage-Lord Drognan actually sounded disappointed.
"It is an approved spell." Said Cain. "He is trying to learn the holy bolt, and later the Town Portal spells."
"Ah. Excellent choices for self-study. Safe and useful." Drognan said dryly.
"I imagine you would struggle with the former, though it is a good primer for a mage trying to learn higher elemental magic." Drognan added.
Huh. Izuku hadn't thought of that. But he did recall how Isendra had instructed him to meditate on the more abstract natures of elements for higher spells, and how he was being instructed to do exactly that with the holy bolt. This made sense to him.
"Would you both be willing to share with me some of your insights on the town portal spell?" Izuku asked. "I am supposed to be studying from this journal, but it seems so vague and abstract."
Drognan took the journal of Blood Raven and raised his eyebrows at Izuku, before handing it back.
"It is both better and worse than my own in many ways. But instead of commenting on it, I should tell you that you must beware of your trust in other mages, even us." Drognan warned. "Many would kill for both the clan and individual spells of others. Many have tried to kill Cain here for his, not least of all because, despite having had so much time to do so, he has yet to take on an apprentice, yet at the ripe old age of Eighteen Isendra had."
She was Eighteen when they met!? Isendra? Surely not.
Cain scoffed.
"Do you not see me training my apprentice right now?" The Horadrim sage asked with a hint of jest.
Drognan laughed darkly
"I have seen his apprenticeship contract, and the name Deckard Cain is nowhere on it." Drognan said, almost angrily. "And now I am haunted by the wonderful future that could have been if this delightful young man had been set on the path to becoming Horadrim, and my day is ruined."
Izuku was beginning to suspect that Drognan did not particularly like Cain. Or at least didn't trust him. The latter was understandable, as Cain had just demonstrated how to lie to somebody by telling the truth.
It was a skill Izuku couldn't see himself mastering, as he was a terrible liar… or, could he?
"No apprentice has only one master. Today, both of us are his. If you are receptive to the prospect." Cain invited.
Drognan seemed to chew on that for a moment, before looking out to see.
"It is getting late, and cold. Let's go to the fire and teach Izuku in the ways of history and philosophy. These are the areas he is lacking most, I think." Drognan suggested.
The wind had begun to pick back up, and the cold was getting to Izuku. He and Cain both stood up and followed the Mage-Lord back towards the town square.
"The most famous Horadric mage in history was Tal Rasha who was once a powerful Vizjerei mage. He was both well meaning and accomplished, but he was the height of arrogance and that arrogance was his downfall." Drognan said. "The only one close to as famous is our own Cain here, for being the last of his kind." "For when Ba'al was captured he had shattered the soulstone meant to contain him, Tal Rasha offered to use a shard and himself as the vessel to keep Ba'al contained." Drognan informed Izuku
Cain withstood this cattiness with a stoicism that was outright inspirational. It was, thankfully, a short walk to the bonfire in the town square and Izuku had withdrawn his own personal journal in search of a question to lighten the tensions.
"What are the limitations of potions?" He asked. "Like mana and health potions in particular.
"Ah. Well if you have met Lysander, he can create lesser health potions that can restore heal many combat injuries." Said Drognan. "But they, and most healing magics, are most effective at repairing most any physical injury."
"And the brain is the most difficult of all." Said Cain. "As you found out with your concussion. They are also, understandably, not able to restore dismembered limbs, though they can aid in their reattachment."
"Assuming you can find a surgeon able to reattach them correctly." Said Drognan.
That sounding like a very big assumption.
"They are also useless against magical maladies, and most poisons. Though they can outlast the effects of poisons, or else heal their damage. If you drink enough, you can use them to outlast the poison in many cases." Finished Cain.
Izuku wrote this all down beneath his question brought about by the concussion.
"Are there potions able to do those things?" Izuku asked.
"Certainly." Said Cain. "Alchemists devise new potions all the time, some which have outstanding effects. I have seen one restore a woman's womb after it was cut out by a vile witch for some ritual or other. Never learned it's creator or of duplicates."
"Alchemists guard their recipes zealously, or even the fact that they have such miraculous recipes." Drognan added, giving Izuku a pointed look. "As all mages, and mages in training, should do as well."
The evening dragged along after that, with most of their discussion being about the history of the city which bored Izuku to tears. It wasn't until nighttime approached that Drognan got up to leave. He checked to make sure nobody was listening before leaning in to whisper only loud enough for Izuku and Cain to hear.
"The events you saw during our mission are far less common than you likely fear, but they are not unheard of. Pray you may never have to suffer such horrors again." He said, before standing back up. "Elzix gained his sanctuary in Lut Gohlein through identical services, so he may be somebody to talk to about these things if you need any more people to lean on in these trying times."
Cain smiled mischievously.
"You mean the gossip about Elzix having something on you or Lord Jerhyn are wholly fictional? I never thought I'd see the day where gossip from the uninitiated and ignorant could be wrong." Cain said jokingly.
Drognan laughed at that, and this time his laughter even seemed sincere. He waved a friendly goodbye and left.
Izuku looked to Cain expectantly, who looked back at him questioningly. He had his usual serene, patient expression on his face.
"You aren't going to ask me?" Izuku asked.
"You will come to your decision in your own time. And I will continue to teach you what I feel comfortable teaching you until then. I am in no rush, despite having less life left in me than you do, so why should I rush you?" Cain asked.
Izuku smiled despite himself at the kindness and understanding.
"If we had had a peaceful month up until now I might have expected an answer by now, even if it were a refusal. But so much has happened to you, all of it unfair and confusing in the extreme. And in some cases, in need of far more consideration and care." Cain continued. "I will expect an answer eventually, even my patience is not infinite, but know that there will be no consequences to you if you refuse."
Izuku nodded then, thinking better of his manners, bowed graciously.
"Excuse me, Cain, I must go see my mistress." Izuku said by way of goodbye.
The first thing Izuku saw upon returning to Elzix' was a beaten and bruised Myr. A black rage that boiled up in him was hot and ugly, and she saw it on his face as he approached.
The look of fear on her own face was enough to make him let go of said rage, along with all of the questions which flooded his mind at her condition. The split lip, black eye and cut on her cheek all made her look more like a young girl than she ever had before. Something about the vulnerability in her expression.
"Hold still." He ordered her.
She obeyed, despite her body language indicating that she was a split second away from bolting. Skittish and afraid, she remained still as he raised his hands to her face and channeled mana through them.
Righteousness? That came easy here. The utter uprightness of whoever did this to somebody so weak and hardworking as Myr, let alone a lady or, in this case, girl. The righteousness required no effort at all. Despite what Cain said as he channeled the spell.
Cain's warning proved hollow, because the spell worked. He created a new star between his hands, and held it to Myr's face.
The skin healed first, as it was the easiest. The muscle and fat beneath came after that. By then the star faded like the seventh sister, but ghosts of the wounds remained. Little divots in her skin, almost like dimples that were not quite scars, remained.
When it was all done, and the light had faded, Myr finally listened to her legs and ran away. She really could be skittish, couldn't she? She even forgot to thank him. Not that he minded.
She didn't actually go far, just around the corner to the showers. He could see her peeking out at him.
"Next time you see her, tell her I paid for her to have a room." Izuku loudly told Elzix. "And dinner, for her and us. If she would kindly bring them up."
Elzix nodded with a look of approval as he took Izuku's gold.
"I want you to know." Said Elzix, quietly. "And I'm not alone in this opinion, but with every further moment I am in your present I increasingly respect you as a man, not a boy. I'll send her up when she calms down."
Izuku nodded in thanks, then turned heel and walked up to his room.
There he waited and contemplated. He had cast a spell which made no sense. There was no rhyme or reason to it.
There was no stitching of skin involved in that spell, yet it had stitch skin. There was no fusing of muscle fibers or even understanding of the muscles and fatty tissues of the face, and yet it had fused them. Despite the connection to these subjective, esoteric feelings and perspectives he had to delve into in order to cast said spell, he had no understanding of it. And that scared him.
Fire he understood, at least as he had wielded it thus far. The oxidative process of fuel being burned thus producing heat and light. Ice he understood. Lack of heat and energy, the slowed motion and expansion of water. This was how he had used it thus far. It was clear now that the way he had done magic so far was wholly removed from the true nature of magic, and that it's true nature was far beyond his ability to understand. Possibly now, and forever.
What an unbelievable journey lay ahead of him. It was so exciting. And even more terrifying.
He could add a new thing to the list of things he missed from home. The simplicity of his place in the world, not only as a quirkless loser, but as a human being in a world that was mostly understood. A world of heroes and villains, science and technology, and civilized people. People who now regarded women as equal, especially with quirks existing, and where being enraged by violence against women was highly encouraged.
He missed his home so much. He wanted more than anything to be home where he could give his everything to those he loved there. He wanted to give his mother a hug. He wanted to give back to the society that had given him all of his hopes and dreams and studiously obtained knowledge. He wanted to, by the standards of Isendra and Cain, become the richest, most powerful man in the world. The one who helped protect most amount of people.
He craved the warmth of his mother, the innocence of childhood, when he was still blind to evil and to his own potential. He began to descend back into his memory castle, focusing on Isendra's instructions to contemplate the nature of things, and once again delved into true fire, but the day's events overtook it.
He sat straight up, breathing intentionally as Cain had taught him, and looked at his hands. He dived deeply into all he was feeling. Righteousness. Desire to give of himself. Candles lit, on a snowy day, to drive away the cold and darkness.
A spark erupted in his lands. White flames, cool to the touch and so small as to barely light a which. Righteousness upon evil. Kindness to the downtrodden. Self-sacrifice and charity to all. The warmth of a mother's embrace and compassion towards loved ones and strangers alike. They all flared into whatever this spell was, it began to grow into a flame like that of his mother's candle.
"Izuku?" A timid voice called out.
He clasped his hand into a fist and the flame was gone.
"Yes, Myr?" He asked as all of his feelings and focus fled from him to be replaced by confusion and disorientation.
"I brought you dinner." She said, peeking shyly around the door.
"Oh. Thank you. Please, bring it in." He invited her.
She did so, coming into his room and closing the door behind her. She was wearing a dress, or perhaps it was a nightgown? Either way, it looked wrong on her, and not just because it was clearly originally far too large for her and cut down to her size without the skill of a proper tailor. It hung off of her so loosely as to make him even more concerned over her thinness than he usually was.
"Um. You can leave it on the desk. Do you have my clean bed things?" He asked, trying and failing to hide his confusion at her appearance.
"Yes. I left it on your nightstand.
He turned to see that she had, in fact, left them there earlier.
"Okay. Thank you. That will be all." Izuku told her.
She tilted her head to the side questioningly.
"Are you sure?" She asked, shivering.
"Um.. yeah?" He said, no longer fighting his confusion. "Please go?"
She turned around and left. This time she did not close the door behind her.
Not understanding what just happened he got up, closed it himself, ate his dinner in quiet confusion and went to bed.