Melody of Mana

Jackson agreed to teach me a bit about fighting as a bard, on the condition that I help him with his work. We decided that half of my days off would be helping him, and on the other half he would help me. Though he argued that since helping him might act as training it was all helping me.

Our first day working together was simple enough. We met at the tavern at my normal work time to go about his business.

"You're late." He said as I walked in.

"I'm perfectly on time. This is when I start work."

"Really? Huh, I thought it was earlier; no matter though. Let's be off." With that he rose and led me off into the streets.

"So... what are we doing? Making food? Or healing people?"

"Hm? No, no nothing like that. We'll be filling up some magic items. With the Shield having such a large presence here we're not currently needed as healers. While food isn't a bad idea I'll get paid a lot more for using mana to fill up items."

"Really? I mean, what kind of items do people use? Nobody in my village ever had stuff like that."

"Larger businesses and nobles use magical items to some extent. There are a great number of different kinds but most of what we'll be doing is household items. On a noble estate these would often be filled up by the lesser members of the house. As the number of people called off to war has culled that down we'll be doing it instead."

"Are you sure this will be the best way to make money? I make pretty good at the tavern."

"Very sure. Working at a tavern is a good job, but nobles pay big money to not be inconvenienced."

"So... okay." I wasn't actually sure what to say to that. At least without badmouthing the nobility in the middle of the street. "You just need me to push mana into them then, that's it?"

"It would be nice if you could act all polite and stuff too, but basically yes. Oh, and don't get too involved. They're always looking to pick up potential spouses for the children of branch families, or lesser sons. You want no part of that, so don't talk too much about yourself. Tell them I'm your teacher and leave it at that."

"Oh so maybe I could go and join up with a noble family and be all fancy and stuff." You could practically feel the sarcasm in the air.

"Don't even joke kid. In your position they'd treat you like a battery that could pump out babies and nothing else. You'd be treated like garbage and if you ever weren't useful enough, you'd be tossed out like it too." For once he looked serious. There was something to that look; if he wore it more often he might seem like a decent guy.

"Message received, I'll not make any overtones to it."

He stopped as we arrived at a big mansion. Giving me a few pointers about etiquette as we walked. I'd covered most all of this in my training with Mystien, so no big deal so far.

A maid greeted us at the door, giving us a wide smile.

"How can I help you today?"

"I'm Jackson, and this is my student. We're here to top off some items."

The woman seemed to be expecting us. "Oh yes, right this way please."

She showed us to a large entryway where we charged up magical lights. This was our first task, and it was a simple one. These little sconces looked like crystals set into the walls, and the amount of mana they used was apparently just tiny. Working together we had them done in only a few minutes.

Afterwards we were escorted to various places around the house. Heaters like those I'd filled before were common in parts of the house. As were things like water heaters for the bathrooms, and a large walk in fridge. The kitchen even had a small item that would purify water for drinking.

All of these had to be refilled on a weekly basis I was told. While they were certainly useful, none of these were really necessary for anything. I would have guessed that there were more, and more powerful items around, but we had no business with those.

When we were finishing up another maid came to join us. She brought a bag of money for Jackson, which she slipped into his hand with a salacious smile. I could see just the barest hint of aura about her. It was properly formed, just extraordinarily weak.

"Thank you so much for your help, my lady wished me to tell you that you were welcome to come back any time. I would so like to see you return, since you've been such a big help." She was practically cooing.

I thought I was going to barf.

"Well, it is good to be found useful. Unfortunately I've other duties to attend to today, so I must bid you farewell." I realized quickly that he was being careful not to agree to anything.

The maid led us out without another word, giving only a small wave at the door.

On our way to the next house I had to ask. "Did she just..."

"Oh yes, that maid is probably a few generations out from anyone with real ability. She's hanging on to the barest thread of mana. You saw that didn't you?"

"Yeah, I've never seen an aura that weak."

"She was trained to use magic. If I had to guess trained quite hard, but she has no talent for it at all. That's why she's a maid now, she can use what paltry mana she has to fill items like we were, or, I don't know, draw a bath. That's going to be about her limit though, and it's one she won't ever surpass."

"That's sad. So she was trying to get all friendly with you because what? She wants a husband with stronger mana?"

"She wants children with stronger mana," he corrected. "I on the other hand want nothing to do with the politics." Jackson had a good aura. He was stronger than me, but not by much.

"So you'll turn her down?"

"That depends on what she wants Alana. I won't be taking her as a wife, that much is for sure. I am quite sure that I've fathered a number of bastards though, making another won't bother me in the least."

"That seems a bit... immoral." My face made clear my opinion on the matter.

"Don't look at me like that. The children are all well taken care of. I do make sure that I'm not dumping them on poor commoner girls. The mothers also know exactly what the arrangement is. For something like that everyone needs to agree, and they need to know what they're agreeing to."

"I suppose that's not too bad then. It's just kinda wrong that you don't take care of them, isn't it?"

"A large number of men have little to nothing to do with raising their children. Having a father around is ideal, but that woman doesn't really want me. She wants my mana, and perhaps my kids. I don't like being where I'm not wanted."

The morals here were just too different. I'd been fairly against things like that in my last life, so the idea of a father intending to make a kid and bolt just sat wrong with me. Even in our village, the idea of a father not wanting to take care of his kids would have been heavily frowned upon. At the same time he had a point. If he wasn't wanted or needed, why stick around? I did know at least that that wasn't the arrangement that I'd ever want. So I decided to drop the subject.

Our process repeated itself twice more. One more woman hitting on him. One wanted to introduce me to her son. I was quite thankful when my companion deftly pulled me away.

I fell into bed that night, exhausted from the day's activities. It wasn't hard work exactly, but dealing with the nobility and their personal staff was tiring to no end. I looked forward to when I could get my training. When I would finally be able to protect myself. Those were my thoughts as I drifted off to sleep.

It was a few days later that Jackson and I met at the courtyard behind the inn. It was out of the way enough that we could easily train without having to leave the city.

"Okay kid, what do you know about fighting?" He had a few things in a bag, but wasn't telling me what all they were.

"Um, not much. Hit the opponent with a scream spell then stab them with a knife. That's what I've been doing up till now."

"That's not a terrible plan to be honest, what other spells do you have?"

I ran through the list of my spells, bread, cheese, water/ice summoning, the light spell, the warming one, the scream one of course, the movement spell, and finally the healing magic he taught me.

"You could use ice to set up traps, but your main attack is the scream. As for a knife, it's only good against opponents that aren't armored. Ones that are require something a bit different." He pulled what looked like a stick with a lump of cloth on the end out.

"Um?"

"A mace is easy to carry, easy to use, and hurts like a monster to get hit with. Also good against people in armor." He passed me the mace and took another out of his bag to show me some swings.

"First though, I want you to point your scream spell at the wall over there, and show me what it's got." He pointed to a spot about ten feet away.

I let loose hard against the piece of stone, the grass even moved a bit as it struck. Jackson took a few moments to let his ears stop ringing.

"You need to focus that, hitting your allies is not acceptable. You've got plenty of power in it, but it's way too wide. Nobody outside of your target should hear more than a yell."

First he showed me. Setting up a little cloth standard that he made fly back as he yelled at it. I heard nothing but him hollering. Then came in and made a few adjustments to my visualization and targeting. It turned out that I needed not just to focus on adding power to my voice, but also pulling all of it into a direction, like a spotlight. Once I had that down it came together without too much trouble.

From there he had me practice with the mace. We went back and forth, with him pushing hard the idea of combinations of strikes and changing rhythm. I was sweating hard by the time my mana had recovered.

He ran me back and forth through these two drills until I just about dropped.

"The most important thing to remember is that you are not the front line fighter. It's good to have a few well practiced strikes, but against someone who's skilled those won't help. Your scream should be able to pull a knight down for long enough for you to hit him, but a wizard or priest will always out range you, and their attacks are deadly."

"Okay, so... try to avoid fights?"

"Of course you should avoid fights, that's a given. You're learning this so that you can protect yourself in a worst case, or while traveling. You belong nowhere on a battlefield."

"Alright, I don't want to get into fights anyway. So about the mace, do I summon one or something?"

"You've never tried to summon rocks or metal before have you?"

I shook my head, I had been focused on food.

"For whatever reason, minerals, metals in particular, are unbelievably hard to summon. The rarer metals are the hardest. I don't know why, some sages have suggested that it's something to do with their structure, others say that it's because of their relative rarity. For us though, it doesn't matter."

"What about a wooden one?" That seemed like a viable option.

"You could do that, and it would cost lots of time and mana to make. It would be useless in battle and there are easier ways to get firewood."

"So just buy one?"

"Yup, if it really comes to that you could probably make something out of ice that would hurt. We're gonna use that one a little different though."

After a couple more rounds of practice he sent me off. I was physically beat this time as well as mentally. It seemed I'd signed up for a very hard course in combat. I hoped that would mean I would be useful at it.

We went through the summer, practicing various techniques. Once I had those basic elements I had to scream at a target, then run in and hit it with a series of strikes. His next tactic was to make a thin sheet of ice on the ground while my opponent was distracted by being blind and deaf. He even went over some basic knife fighting moves. He was clear however that that wasn't really his forte.

During the last few weeks of summer he went over what he felt was the most destructive idea he'd had. Group casting the scream. According to Jackson, once or twice he'd had to actually use this. Even with just the two of us the results were shocking. It went from a stun only to a mid range spell that could send out a shock-wave, throwing our cloth target into a wall hard enough to bust the fabric open.

"It still won't kill a man, but it'll really hurt."

"You don't have to tell me, I can imagine it."

"With that now down, it is my opinion that you know enough for the time being. I shall be heading somewhere else now, to seek a new fortune. Keep practicing and one day you'll be strong, or at least strong for a bard."

He left that afternoon, walking off into the sunset.

The next day at work was when the angry men started showing up. We had three after his hide by the time I left to go home.