They spent maybe half a day on the beast. It was fast, but uncomfortable. With little room to go anywhere, and hardly anywhere to nap.
Yet the discomfort was mitigated by the company. Both women had not seen the other in nearly two decades, and they had many things to discuss.
Mostly, Spesavia listened. Aureum told her about the wolf beasts, Lacuna, and Sitis. She bemoaned the unknown fate of the escapees she had met, Aquila and Passer. And she almost entirely avoided any mention of Mendax, unless prodded for it.
Some of the fears, like the terror of the wolves, felt distant now. There had been danger, yes, but she'd avoided it. Others still hurt to speak of.
For both kinds, she felt better speaking about them to her mentor. It wasn't like when she spoke to Lacuna. When everything was fresh, and the danger was near. Here, Aureum was telling a story, and that brought them back a little into her control.
Spesavia insisted they resurface at least once for the air. Aureum found herself not in the Vena but out in the sea. She could see the distant shore to the northeast. They were not that far out. Indeed, they were approaching another shore already. Yet Aureum was disconcerted all the same.
Months in one place, and in hours she was gone from it.
The thought relaxed her.
Dinner was pulled from one of Spesavia's magical trinkets. She had an array of rings and bracelets. All seemed filled with things the old sorceress kept pulling out. What she took out to eat was as simple as what she wore. Fresh bread, some still warm from being baked, alongside butter. It was enough to make a little peace in the day.
That night, they approached the banks of Ardere city as the beast treaded the water. The torches that flickered in the darkness were what Aureum first noticed. Not being fools, they landed some distance from those lights. Thus, they avoided the same disturbance as in Fluentem.
The large beast sank quietly, hauntingly quietly, back into the water. Not even a splash. In moments, it was but a memory.
The sight of that eye would remain.
Then they were in the thick of the heat of a summer night on the muddy bank alone. Spesavia already walked towards the city. Aureum followed.
The difference from Fluentem was striking. The old buildings of Fluentem reached up into the sky with gray stone carved with myths and history.
Ardere had stone, but that stone was closer to the color of sand. There had been some attempt, it seems, to mimic some of Fluentem's carvings. But not only were the figures carved into stone not men or beasts, they were every flavor of beautiful women doing mundane things. Their beauty felt thoughtless.
Yet the harsh shadows of torchlights gave unintended weight to the view.
In truth, Aureum barely got to see even this before they left. Spesavia found a vessel for Imum leaving that same night, and they boarded. Aureum, fading quickly, didn't catch the captain's name, but the boat was called Viridis.
She sank thankfully into a bed for the richest of guests. No one would dare put a sorceress into the same hammocks as the crew. No matter how Spesavia dressed, the pressure from her mana alone made her identity known.
The old woman spent most of her time hiding it. More often than not, it was more of a hindrance than a convenience to be known. Not that anyone wouldn't use it when it became an advantage. The crew of the boat wasn't losing out either, letting a water sorceress like Spesavia aboard.
Things became very simple with Spesavia around.
The boat rocked Aureum into a blissful sleep. Away from any thoughts and memories.
———————————————————
The next day, she woke up expecting the ceiling of that little inn she had spent a few months in.
Where is Vitreum?
For some reason, that was one of her first thoughts. Collecting herself, she recognized the swaying walls. She got up. Spesavia snored away in her own bed. The light from her necklace had framed the old woman's head as she pored over some tome long after Aureum fell asleep.
Aureum suspected that Spesavia had gotten little sleep last night. She layered for a few hours, but Spesavia still had not woken up. Not wanting to deal with the crew, Aureum delayed the problem further by working through her practice with the spear. It was a slow thing at first, but she sped it up as she forgot herself.
Placing one foot in front of the other, with smooth motions, she tried to focus on improving her speed. She ended up tripping.
"I thought you had learned patience," Spesavia said. "You should know you learn control by going slow."
Spesavia sat upright at this point, silently watching for who knows how long.
"I wanted to push myself by going faster," Aureum said. "It's not bad to fail, is it?"
Spesavia shook her head.
"Your body isn't your mind. You try to go too fast too often, and it'll learn the steps for falling, not fighting."
"Isn't it the same with your mind?"
"Rude, as always, Aureum. I suppose you're right. But you usually don't injure the mind by teaching it things it can't keep up with. It's just a waste of time. Some ideas can be dangerous…"
Spesavia flicked her hand away, as if tossing that thought away.
"Try again. Twice more. Do it at the speed you're comfortable with and do it right."
It may have been odd to think that a sorceress with a water pearl could teach a sorceress with a wind pearl. The basic lessons of wind, these things had been given to Aureum by her father. The higher principles of mana, and the ways to use them, these were taught by Spesavia. As Spesavia had explained it to Aureum's parents.
In truth, Spesavia's mentorship was an odd pairing. Those who desired to be sorcerers often did have to reach out to one who was already a sorcerer. It would be insane to try to compress a pearl without the knowledge of those who had come before. It was a necessity, and that gave birth to tradition. A majority of the time, a wind sorcerer learned from a wind sorcerer.
They had so much more in common. Why wouldn't it happen that way?
Aureum's life didn't follow common sense. There hadn't been much of a choice around her for mentors, and Spesavia was an immortal sorcerer offering. Who in the land came better recommended?
Aureum had never regretted Spesavia's mentorship. If anything, she only regretted not getting more from it.
She finished her exercises.
"Come here," Spesavia said.
Aureum complied.
"I can't look at your pearl if you just stand there, kneel."
Kneeling, Aureum looked up into the layers of wrinkles in Spesavia's face. The old woman's fingers gripped Aureum's face. She jerked her head to the left and to the right.
"Hmmmm."
"What?"
Spesavia released her and leaned back.
"Well, you've done a better job the second time, not that the first was that bad," Spesavia said.
"Is there something wrong?" Aureum said.
"Just trying to figure out the way around the obvious problem. It's always about the lack of mana."
"I have thought about it, you know," Aureum said. "Could I just find beasts with wind pearls to supplement it?" Aureum asked.
"As if everyone in the world wouldn't follow such a simple solution," Spesavia said. "There are two major—no three—major difficulties with that. You need to find and hunt the spirit beasts that have wind pearls. Do you have experience in hunting?"
"No, but I could get some—
"Nice thought, Aureum, but we come to our other difficulties. There have to be enough spirit beasts that can build your pearl to even be able to hunt them, and as soon as a pearl is compressed, the amount of mana it takes to ascend is ridiculous."
"So I can use beast pearls to a certain point, but after that, I might as well not bother."
"Correct. Well, there are a few places you can hunt down beasts with wind pearls that were getting out of hand last I checked, but it's nowhere near where we're headed for now. Our errand takes priority."
Spesavia sighed.
"In the long run, I suppose it doesn't really matter. Back in my days, most people didn't even form a pearl until they were your age or older. You can still reach immortality, but it might be looking like me… I'll think on your problem."
"Is that it? I don't really need it. Immortality, that is."
That is how Aureum saw it.
"This again. Have some ambition, Aureum! It'll be too late to regret becoming an immortal at eighty! You would also have strength. You're not in the position to deny that, isn't that true?"
I don't remember stating I didn't want to be immortal before.
Spesavia must be referring to the past Aureum's laziness. Aureum had some things to say to defend herself.
"I do need power," Aureum said. "But let's keep our expectations realistic—ambition? Really? Not just anyone can become an immortal. Even among the major bloodlines, how many people become an ascended sorceress in a generation? One? Two? I just need to live, that's enough for me."
Spesavia gave a heavy sigh as she rubbed her face.
"Spare me your cowardice contrived into humility."
She stepped from the bed and kneeled at Aureum's level.
"I told you from the first when you became my pupil, didn't I? It isn't the talented who become immortal. Not the richest, nor the wisest. It is simply those like me.
Those who never give up and get lucky once in a while. Since you met me, how could you not be lucky? Just don't give up, and anything you could want will be yours."
Aureum looked Spesavia straight in the eyes.
"I really just want to live," Aureum said. "Freely."
Aureum was done with going whichever way the wind blew. As if she were the wind, she would go where she wanted.
That started with being honest with herself about what she wanted and trying to obtain it. Even if it was vague and simple.
And she definitely wasn't going to lie about it to one of the most loyal people in her corner.
Spesavia deflated.
"We can at least agree that for now, your survival depends on getting more power," Spesavia said.
"For sure," Aureum said.
"I'll be acting according to my own plans then," Spesavia said.
"Is there a time you ever did anything different?"
Spesavia thought for a while.
"I've lived a long time," she said, "but not that I choose to recall, no."
Aureum smiled at the joke.
"So where are we headed anyway?" Aureum asked.
"Imum first. Then up the Flumengems river. Our final destination is the Ruined Palace, east of Lapis."
"That's a lot," Aureum said.
They were going from the left side of the map Aureum knew as a child, to the right side, and then up it.
Spesavia shrugged. She stood up, slowly. Aureum got up too, to help her, but was waved off.
"The Sorcerer King couldn't have deigned to build somewhere convenient. How malignant he was."
"I thought there weren't any ruins of the palace," Aureum mused.
"That's partially true. Our forefathers and foremothers destroyed as much as they could. However, they lacked the ability to destroy it completely. So they cursed it."
"And what are we going to be doing there?"
"Giving birth to a monster, obviously. We have all the ingredients for one."
"Excuse me?" Aureum said.
Her almost forgotten manners poked up in the strangest of places. Spesavia waved her off.
"Show me how you've been layering Aureum. I'm certain you still flow the mana too quickly throughout your body. Your layers are a bit thin. Though as long as it's consistent, it shouldn't cause any problems. It's an interesting base for a pearl, but I'm still uncertain of its strengths."
Aureum couldn't escape the rest of the lecture that was coming.
There were a few useful tips, but much of it went over her head and out of her ears.
She tried to listen. She knew the value of what Spesavia told her was worth more than pearls, but she couldn't retain everything. Past the first hour, everything she heard was a blur.
She didn't want the words of her mentor to slip through her fingers like sand again.
So when Spesavia went to leave, Aureum asked for a notebook. Spesavia, as strange as she was, was still a scholar. And scholars had notebooks.
Not empty notebooks, of course.
"The only thing I can give you is this thing… It's half filled with the study of some weeds I had an interest in last decade. If you had told me sooner…"
Spesavia dug through and pulled out notebook after notebook from her rings. Most were filled.
"Well, I didn't know I needed it until now either," Aureum said.
Spesavia started shoving books back into her dark and rusted rings.
"Well, we'll solve the matter when we land at port. For now, let's just celebrate that you've thought to write down what you've learned."
Not that I'm certain that will help me that much.
Aureum hardly understood what she could remember to write, let alone what she'd forgotten. But Spesavia didn't seem to have much intention to check her notes.
Let's hope she never checks.
It was worth a first attempt. If it helped, great. If not, forget it.