The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

“Again!” The man's voice was harsh but not overly so. “You have to ensure the spellform remains intact the entire time. Draw it out with your wand and direct the energy.”

The man was in a field outside of a large estate where he resided as a Hand. He was a nighthand wendigo whose skin was darker than charcoal, which was common for his ethnicity. The individual was the Left Hand of Lord Ulfar Salstar and so he wore navy blue robes with the insignia of the Salstar emblazoned in silver on his back. He, like all Hands, had to wear a veil over his face.

Eira was his student; she played the role of someone that was extremely talented but also unfocused. She could tell the man wanted to stop for the day, as she had not made any progress in their last few sessions. She didn’t care, however, and had no intention of learning more attack spells she pretended not to know. Seeing Sølve again felt nostalgic, and she would be happy if she was not currently starving; she hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was already noon.

“Sølve,” the young girl whined. “Can we take a break? I’m hungry.”

“We can go after you give it one more good try, Lady Eira,” Sølve stated firmly.

“You said that last time.” Eira pouted, crossing her arms. “It is not good to lie.”

“Have you seriously tried since I said that?” The voice sounded chastising. “I am pretty sure you have only half-heartedly wielded your magic since then. Lord Salstar said you can’t leave until you do this successfully twenty-five times, no exceptions. If you want to eat you need to do it right.”

“Ugh! Fine!” The young girl stomped her feet. “I’ll do it again, but this is the last time!”

“If you do it right,” Sølve stated.

She already knew the magic and how this would all go, so she didn’t respond and instead let her magic speak for itself. Fifty yards down range six target dummies in blue steel plate armor were lifted back into place by several servant elves. It was the same every time she saw this moment; everything was as she had remembered it.

She spoke the words of power and moved her wand, an exquisite ebony rod with silver embedded runes, and drew out the spellform in the air. The girl knew she was revealing too much; this was a spell she should not know at a level of magic no one her age should have. She had to pull back on her magic to keep from exposing too much of her potential too quickly. Her wand danced in the air. A soft light was left floating behind it until a complete spellform, which looked like two interlocking magic circle diagrams, were glowing in its place. 

She didn’t need to use the wand nor speak the spell, but the diagrams were complex and the motions were designed to help with stabilizing the magic within one's own core. The spellform would guide the magic to the desired effect. Eira was already considered a special case, as the magic she was using would be considered dangerous for any normal child her age. The spellform was too costly to a developing magic core to handle, but despite only being twelve, her magic core greatly exceeded most of those three times her age.

Sølve had panic in his voice. “Lady Eira, that spell is too advanced for someone your age!”

She didn’t, or rather couldn’t, stop. The spell was very nearly formed, and stopping it now would cause magical backlash. She was thankful that she was born into such a prestigious and magically prosperous family, as it was a good cover to hide her true nature. She could temper herself to ensure her magical prowess rivaled the rest of their family and no one would bat an eye. She was just another prodigy born into the house of prodigies.

With a final few syllables of her spell the spellform was complete. Six spears of soft light formed, levitating in the air. The spears all pointed at individual targets, and in a loud crack of thunder they shot across the nearly two hundred feet so fast they might as well have teleported. The elven servants didn’t even have time to finish setting up the dummies before the spears pierced clean holes through the torsos of each armor set. The servants all jumped to the ground, terrified more projectiles were on the way. There weren’t, as Eira had successfully struck all the targets at once.

Sølve was quiet for a long moment as he processed what had just happened. Despite Eira not being able to see his face, she could see the exact moment he decided to accept that the Salstars were just different. She was a breed above the rest, so he shouldn’t be surprised. Eira didn’t feel that way herself, but she knew that this was what was required of her.

“Good job,” Sølve resolved himself to say.

Eira put her wand, which glowed with residual magical energy, back in the holster on her thigh with a smile on her face.

She matched her tone to her carefree facade.“Great, now we can go, right?” She sang as she raised a triumphant hand in the air. “Meat meat meat meat, juicy tender spicy meat.” 

Sølve pointed at the servant as they slowly and cautiously got up from the ground. “Try not to scare the servants next time, though.”

Eira had already started walking off. “They were taking too long, let’s go!”

While she did feel bad, at the same time none of them were hurt and all Eira wanted at that moment was delicious red meat. She could practically taste it already. Then she could get back to what she really wanted to do that day: delve ever deeper into her studies of divining magic. 

She knew father didn’t like that; he told her divining was the weakest aspect of starlight magic. It didn’t matter. He was just mad she was better at it than he was. She was better at it than anyone else on this side of the world. 

The estate was large, but practical to the point where any human would consider it more of a compound. The walls were natural colors, the floors deep red wood. Furniture and fixtures only in places it served practicality, as wendigo design was by nature function over form. There was one area of the Salstar estate which had the opposite mentality; that was where they would serve foreign delegates in something more comfortable for them.

“Every time I come here it always looks so weird,” Eira mused.

“It is a necessity for talks with the neighboring nations,” Sølve stated.

“Humans are weird,” Eira said as she looked at the imported, uncomfortable furniture. “I don’t think I will ever understand it. Why spend so much money on something so uncomfortable and that won’t last long?”

“Humans also don’t live as long as we do,” Sølve stated, going into a teaching mode. “So they would rather have something colorful or require someone else to spend hours on small details to show that they can afford someone spending that time. Even if the product won’t be as long lasting, or in this case comfortable. Wendigo want practicality and longevity because we live so much longer.”

Eira thought about it for a little while. “That makes them shortsighted. Even if they don’t live as long they have children and future generations who could use it, like we do.” 

“Yes, humans and many other short-lived races are like that. Hard to worry about something lasting two hundred years when you only live one, if that,” Sølve stated with a wave of his hand. “One day you will meet humans and they will find you equally strange.” 

Eira finally had some time to herself and got the chance to explore the estate on her own, which was a nostalgic experience for her. She would eventually travel to the middle of the estate grounds, which was a dense forested area the wendigo called a garden. This was her favorite place in the entire demesne, as it had been for hundreds of years by that point. It embodied everything she was taught as the daughter of a noble. It was nature under control, a place where she went if she wanted to be the apex predator. By ordinance of the Forest Father it was the wendigo birthright to rule. Although she didn’t want to rule, the forest still filled her with wonder and delight. 

There was more to the reason the young lady wanted to walk through the dense woodland. She could go there without question and usually without constant watch from her father’s Hands or servants. It was the only place she could freely practice the highest tiers of divining magic without giving away her secret.