Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 18: Steps

Toren Daen

I began my preparations later that day. The expedition would be leaving in two days in the early afternoon out the South Gate. I planned to reach the forest ahead of them and lie in wait, but I knew I needed to hone some of my magic beforehand.

Namely, what skills I could use for stealth. Perhaps I should have done this before charging toward the Joan estate, but I never planned on getting in any way close last night. But if I wanted to trail a group of mages with powerful escorts, I needed to be quiet and stealthy. Even in the depths of the Clarwood Forest, I maintained a moderate level of stealth. I fought more often than I hid when it came to the treetops, something that couldn't be done now.

I began by walking slowly across the rooftop in the early afternoon, listening to the slight tip-tap of my feet on the cobbles as I moved. I drank in the sound, my mana-enhanced ears absorbing every vibration they could.

My two mana affinities were fire and sound. I took naturally to fire: it was energy in one of its purest natural expressions: chemical reactions and the burning of fuel. It was heat: atoms rubbing together to generate friction. My fire spells came to me intuitively after a small amount of practice, the understanding clicking in my brain subconsciously amidst everything else I knew.

But sound magic was where my understanding truly shined. It was difficult to explain how intuitive working with sound mana was; certainly more so than fire. I felt like if I tried hard enough, I could hear the mana itself. Every push and pull of mana seemed to create some sort of resonance that only I could hear.

And so I was trying to test out a new spell. It wasn't one of my template spells: those were for quick, efficient use in combat. This was a utility spell, something I sorely lacked. I wouldn't be able to deploy it in a split second or focus it with awesome power, but that wasn't what I needed.

I was going to completely eliminate the sound of my steps. But to do that, I needed to understand how that sound was made; how it traveled through the atmosphere. I had to know how sound mana reacted to the vibrations in the air.

Feeling confident, I focused my intent, drawing a flow of mana from my core. I could change the pitch and octave of sounds easily enough by now: I used that to alter my voice as Dusk. The next step should be relatively simple: instead of changing the octave three steps diagonally, lower the volume. I sent my will out as a spell and took a hesitant step, waiting for the tap of a boot on stone.

I still heard my footfall, and to my credit, it was far quieter than before. The problem, however, was that it resounded out in a way that sounded something between a DJ's reverb and sheet metal wobbling in the wind. Even that sound was quiet, but far more noticeable because of how long it lasted.

I snorted. That was kind of amusing. I would just have to try again.

—

I was not amused by the time I finally managed to muffle every single step I took consistently near the end of the evening. It would take practice over the next couple of days as the passive application of mana required significant concentration, but I hoped the spell would reach a manageable level of mental focus soon enough.

Practicing with magic in a safer setting than the deep Clarwood Forest allowed me to do some more concrete testing. I could only maintain several spells at a time right now before splitting my attention became too difficult and one of them collapsed, sputtering out or exploding on the wind. Some were more difficult than others, of course: spells that lingered or required constant attention like the sound muffling spell took more focus and mana than a couple of fireballs.

A single push and pull with my telekinesis crest took barely any mana at all, but the longer I held the effect and the more force I tried to use, the more strain I felt on my mind and my core. The maximum I could hold a push or pull differed depending on how much force I was exerting, too. Ultimately, I knew I needed to practice and hone every aspect of my magic. But there was one in particular where I was seeing great returns.