Chapter 55: Sherblanc’s Magic 101, Pt. 1

  Somehow, Theo and Sherblanc found themselves in the empty, spacious crafting hall inside the Barge, a perfect area for some tutoring if it wouldn’t make a mess of puddles, scorch marks, or holes in the walls. They found privacy even in the open space. Before he’d be able to focus on whatever Sherblanc would share with him, Theo had to first clear something up, as well as get something off his chest. He started with the latter.

  “Did you have to be so harsh toward Grace just now?”

  Sherblanc smiled, a sincere smile that caught Theo off-guard. “I never turn down a case, Theo. Never did, and I never will. She handed me a case, and I solved it. If the culprit wasn’t to her liking, I shouldn’t be blamed for that.”

  “This wasn’t a case; it was a conversation.”

  “Wrong. It was a challenge; solve the case of Grace the Lonely Priestess. I solve all my cases, Theo.”

  Theo shrugged. He didn’t want to have an uncomfortable conversation with the man, but he was right that Grace had been the one pushing. Whether he viewed it as a case wasn’t the important part. Grace kept pushing, and Sherblanc indulged her. If nothing else, Grace’s usual stoicism had faltered, so at least Sherblanc had hit some truth in his observations. Asking about it seemed in poor taste without her blessing, but she had scurried away without a word. Theo’d have to talk to her later and find out if she was all right.

  “Okay. But please be considerate if any more people ask you to read them like you did.”

  “I’ll take care not to mention their horrible pasts too much,” Sherblanc concluded.

  It was as close as Theo would get, as far as he was concerned. He’d take the win…but he wasn’t done.

  “How could you tell all that just by looking at her, or her spirits? Do the spirits talk to you, tell you all of people’s secrets?”

  A chuckle this time.

  “They don’t speak at all. They are the very essence of the one they inhabit. I take a peek at people’s clothes, notice the odd details of the dirt on their fingers or the way their hair is ruffled, collating information that I then reference to knowledge already in my possession—history, the surrounding people, the town, and yes, spirits—and I make a deduction.”

  “You couldn’t have deduced all of what you said to her from just her clothes.”

  “Correct. Her stance, the edge in her voice, the hesitant looks, and her forbearance, though, tell me plenty. The way she stands and her resistance towards people both new, like me, and old, like you, getting too close tells me she’s been hurt before. Most people have, so it’s also a rather safe assertion—her spirits having the common traits of the clergy pointed me in that direction, whilst my knowledge of church history settled any doubts I had.”

  “Are the churches so bad that you’d just assume they’ve brought horror on their clergy?” If the churches were doing awful things to their people, even children, wouldn’t someone stop them? It didn’t make sense.

  “Deduction and assumption aren’t quite the same. And yes, the churches, or many of them, have been known to dabble in a bit of…crude discipline. Some would say noblemen do the same with their children, so there might not be too much of an incentive to stop it.”

  Theo would have to discuss all this with Grace later. He had to make sure she was okay after the unfortunate challenging of Sherblanc, but also to see if she’d open up about her past to him. He didn’t want to think that she was here just to escape the church, nor that she’d run a church like the ones she grew up in. But that would have to wait. Sherblanc was growing antsy.

  “Now, if you don’t mind,” the man said, fidgeting with his coat collar. “I’d like to know what you hope to get out of this teacher-student relationship. I know magic, but I’m far from advanced in my spell repertoire.”

  Theo had expected some questions to be thrown his way, and he was ready to tell the truth, both regarding his skills and his sigils. He hoped Sherblanc could assist him in learning more about the sigils and their function—there were so many left he couldn’t tell what did, after all—and the man’s intellect, or observational mind, was sure to help with that. Learning a few normal spells would also help, though Theo hoped for something more practical than Grace’s offensive spells. Fighting, while exciting, didn’t seem to fit him.

  “I want to learn some practical magic, of course, but I want to learn about the elements and the skills provided with them. I’ve stumbled upon the skills not by studying them, as you might’ve guessed already, but by other means, so I’m afraid I’m missing out on key aspects of them. Also, I’d like help with those ‘other means’, as I can’t wrap my head around the more complex parts involving them.”

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  “That answers that, then. How you learned magical skills was beyond my capabilities to understand. I assume, not deduce, that I was correct about Arcana and her assistance earlier, then?”

  Theo nodded. Sherblanc breathed contentedly, happy with his earlier guess. With the massive statue of her hovering above them though, it had been a fair guess.

  “I’ll let you know, then, that I don’t have the skill in Fire Affinity. It shames me to say this, but I never understood the element. It’s so different from the others, and its most basic form has always eluded me.”

  “Do you have to have an understanding of what makes up the element before learning the skill?” This was news to Theo.

  “Wrong question to ask; yes, I have to. Other people seem content not to know and gain the skill anyway. My mind doesn’t work like that, and the world knows it.”

  “That’s how it works? You just have to understand it to a degree you feel is fine?” That couldn’t be the case. People would just have to learn how to be lazy and they get the skill.

  “Of course not…but also, it is a bit like that. It’s a simplification, if anything.”

  “Good enough for me,” Theo grinned. “But how did you learn Light Affinity, then? Or dark?”

  Sherblanc fingered his chin, brushing the lacking beard. It might be so thin because of all the scratching, Theo mused.

  “Light is made from the sun, and darkness is made from the lack of sun. They are the only opposites of the elements. Sure, you can mimic light from fire and mana lights, but they don’t smite the darkness like sunlight does. It just moves the dark, making darker shadows where the false light cannot touch. Likening light to fire is like comparing me to the Goddess Arcana herself. Why do such a thing?”

  Theo hadn’t broached the subject of Aera’s technological level with anyone yet, but it seemed science hadn’t reached the stage of atoms and molecules yet. While far from the most knowledgeable about these things, Theo had a working understanding of what fire was. What if he could be the one to teach Sherblanc?

  “Because the sun is made of fire,” he stated matter-of-factly.

  Sherblanc’s face stilled as if he was trying to comprehend the utter insanity of Theo’s words. A disbelieving frown settles moments later, a grimace that spoke of Sherblanc’s true feelings on the matter. Yet despite this, the man welcomed the chance for Theo to provide more information.

  “That’s also just a simplification, but what I’m guessing you don’t understand about fire is that, you’re right; it’s far different from the other elements of water, wind, and earth. Light and dark, of the magic kind, at least, wouldn’t be considered elements at all where I’m from, so I’m not too sure about how to explain them.”

  Sherblanc waited. Theo continued.

  Theo then explained the basics: fire was just simple heat. He explained that to make fire, which he was sure resonated well with most everyone that had lived in the mediaeval Aera, one needed fuel and oxygen. He simplified the latter to air. They would also need heat, which was where Sherblanc seemed lost. Theo finished by saying that with heat applied to fuel, like a lit torch held to a branch, the fuel would then ignite, generating more heat, all on its own, if there was air.

  “I know how to make fire,” Sherblanc said. “But what is it?”

  “It’s just excited molecules,” Theo said, understanding he was kicking the complexity up a notch or three. “It’s the fuel releasing super-heated gases through a chemical reaction, which generates light, heat and often smoke. The molecules rise from the burning branch and mix with the air.”

  Sherblanc’s eyes widened, his expression unreadable. He stood frozen for a brief moment, his eyes darting right and left. He seemed deep in thought. Moments later, his eyes ventured to meet Theo’s with a smile.

  “I’m excited to learn about these ‘other means’ you have. You have a deal. I’ll tutor you in the ways of magic. I warned you earlier, I’m not the best teacher, but if you’ll have me, you have my time.”

  “Great,” Theo grinned. “But what was that about?”

  “You just fed me enough information to learn the Fire Affinity skill,” the man said, before adding: “…I believe.”

  “Congrats!” Theo had been wondering how gaining skills felt like for the others. He didn’t sense any change himself, but he always expected his system to update him, and he’d caught himself glancing for a message that wouldn’t come too many times.

  “Thank you. Truly. I’ll check with the Town Book later to be sure.”

  Theo mouthed the words ‘Town’ and ‘Book’…the Town Management book? The private investigator caught him doing so, and their faces must’ve looked as confused as the other.

  “The Town Book? In the lobby?” said the man, utilising a tone that conveyed a deep-rooted worry about Theo’s mental well-being.

  “Right,” Theo lied. “That book.”

  “Your turn,” Sherblanc then said, crossing his arms. “I struggle to get a good read on you.”

  “So…” Theo started, then told his new magic tutor about his arrival in this world, Arcana’s support and the unheard-of magic system it seemed only he could use. Needless to say, Sherblanc’s fascination with the sigil magic system was enough to get him on board as a fellow researcher into its mysteries. While Theo had a respectable intellect, Sherblanc had experience, wits, and an eye for detail that Theo lacked, making him an excellent addition to help him onward.

  There seemed to be little interest in Arcana herself, or even Theo’s original world, though the retelling of the night Theo’s body had acted as a beacon for transferring messages between Luna and Arcana had the investigator stunned. Theo thought Sherblanc must’ve seen a lot of strange things in his fifteen-odd years as an occult investigator—as well as his twenty years before that—but it was clear as a Sigil Lake day that divine intervention, physical interaction, and a divine being raising a statue of themselves was far from the norm.

  “…And you’ve earned the magic skills of Level Two Water Affinity and Level One Earth, Fire, and Wind Affinities by using these sigils to create some of each?”

  “Pretty much.” Theo confirmed.

  “Why not Light or Dark?” Sherblanc asked. It was a fair question, but Theo had an answer.

  “Haven’t needed them.”

  Sherblanc’s face fell. He dragged his hand down it, almost tearing at his eyes and lips.

  “Such power at your fingertips, and you dawdle? If I were you, I’d spend the next weeks getting every one of the six elemental affinity skills to Level Three pronto! If you have mana to spend, use it!”

  Theo eyed the man with pale white lines running down his face, trails from his stiff fingers. Theo’s eyes grew wide.

  “Holy shit! You’re right!”