Bloodfallen: Curse of The All Knowing

Arthur slowly opened his eyes as the sounds of birds chirping and leaves rustling around outside his tent. He took a moment to collect his thoughts while he laid down. After a minute he slowly sat up and then stood up before exiting his tent and stepping outside. Taking a quick look around he saw that most of the tents were occupied with their owners except for around five or so. Those five people were instead standing around the smoldering fire.

The first person he recognized was Citro, and he was standing with four dwarves who were drinking more alcohol. Citro tossing a few dry sticks on the fire hoping that he could get the fire going a bit since it was still a little chilly so early in the morning and the cook would need something to cook everyone breakfast.

Arthur slowly made his way through the twenty five or so tents careful not to touch any on his way. When he got within a few meters of the fire Citro turned and saw him, immediately he smiled and waved him over which Arthur followed.

“Good morning Arthur, could you help me out with this and give me a spark or two.” Citro held out the stick he had been using to poke the fire with.

“Sure thing.” Arthur said as he reached over with his hand and conjured a handful of fire and engulfed the top third of the stick with. Quickly the stick began to radiate heat and Citro placed it atop of the other sticks he had in the fire spot and it slowly began to spread.

“Thank you for that. Magic has never really been my thing. I always found swords and spears to be quicker and more effective than learning how to use magic.”

“From what I understand only around half of all people have the necessary talent or time to spend learning just basic manipulation, when you start counting things past that it gets even smaller dropping to around forty percent. Using a talisman would be a lot easier than learning how to conjure up flames on your own, like this one.” Arthur brought out one of the candle talismans he kept in his bag just in case and showed it to Citro.

“This talisman here can conjure up a small flame roughly equivalent to a candle. I gave a few to my apprentice when I was teaching him pyromancy. This should be enough to get a fire going as long as you have some kindling to start with.” Arthur smiled as he handed the talisman over to Citro. Given his own magical capabilities he had no need for it. The only reason why he was keeping it around was because he didn’t have anywhere else to put it.

Citro looked rather surprised by the sudden gesture and took the talisman in his left hand, he looked over it taking note of its design and the material used. “Did you make this yourself?”

“Yes I did. I started making talismans a little over a month ago now. How does it compare to the more professional made talismans?”

“Honestly, it's pretty good for someone only doing it for a month. If you keep progressing like you have been I wouldn’t be surprised if you could make a living out of just enchanting stuff. Is there anything specific within the field of enchanting that you are interested in?”

“Golems, definitely golems. I think they're really cool and would be of great help when it comes to my future goals. Though I suspect that I will need someone to teach me more about them before I can get to doing anything real complex.”

“Golems? What gave you an interest in golems? From what I understand it is something that requires significant skill in both enchanting and alchemy.”

“Oh it does, and I am an alchemist. I actually found an old book that has a few diagrams of golems and it looked really cool. When I actually saw a golem for the first time I immediately knew that I wanted something like that, it was easily the coolest thing I had ever seen.”

Arthur and Citro continued their conversation regarding golems and magic while the dwarves that were also standing around the fire started to listen in. Magic was something that most dwarves couldn’t do regardless of what type it was. It was like the universe itself was playing tricks on them by withholding such power from them, that was why they found such interest in what Arthur was saying. The fact that he could make talismans was something they were considering asking about.

“Say lad, would you by any chance be willing to sell any of those talismans you make?” A middle aged dwarf with a thick black beard asked Arthur the moment there was a pause in his conversation.

“Well at the moment I don’t have any talismans that I am willing to sell, but I do have the materials that I need to make more.” Arthur reached into his bag and pulled out one of the five bottles filled with magic ink, this one being around half filled. “I usually bring these around with me to avoid thieves stealing them.”

The face of the dwarf lit up slightly as he saw the bottle in Arthur’s hand and he almost immediately began asking for a talisman. “Could you make me something like what you gave him? Getting fires going with flint or spark stones is always a pain in the ass to do.”

“Sure thing, I will need to charge you though, for the materials and the time needed.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t expect anything less than that. How much would you think something like that would cost me?” The dwarf smiled and reached for his coin purse.

“For a candle talisman I would say two copper coins would be more than enough as compensation. Since they aren't very hard to make and use only a small amount of ink and the wood is no issue to collect.” Upon hearing what he found to be a very cheap price the dwarf couldn’t help but smile. “Then I will take four candle talismans as soon as possible.”

While a little caught off guard by the request Arthur smiled and walked off to the side of the camp close to the road and using his geomancy constructed a table and chair from the earth below his feet. Once he had the structure built he used a touch of hydromancy to collect a bit of water from the moisture in the air and combined it with the dirt making it stick together more effectively than on its own.

With a decent workstation Arthur brought out the four wooden rods and the half filled bottle of ink that he would be using to create the talismans for the dwarf.

To start Arthur used his hydromancy to draw the engravings across the surface of the first rod. Before moving onto the actual casting Arthur took a moment to admire the almost web-like intricate set of engravings that covered a good portion of the rod's surface.

Using aeromancy to levitate the rob an inch above the table Arthur began casting the spells that would give the talisman its mana reserves and functionality. Taking around fifteen minutes to make sure that he did everything correctly left Arthur with the finished candle talisman. Before he said anything he looked it over and watched as the engravings slowly disappeared becoming magical pathways instead of physical.

Happy with the outcome he placed it on the end of the table and began working on the next.

Another fifteen minutes passed with another talisman being finished with another and another until a full hour passed and Arthur had the four talismans he had set out to make.

Taking a big stretch as he stood up Arthur collapsed the table and chain back into the ground like a tower of cards, another few gestures and the dirt had mixed back together with the earth below his feet and leaving it almost unrecognizable.

With the four talismans in hand Arthur walked back to the four dwarves ready to finish up the sale. On the way he took notice of all the open tents, and around the fire where there used to only be five now were around fifteen. The one in the center was a familiar face, Theo the cook that taught him how to cook some very basic meals during their shared time during the expedition of Dom Badaher.

Theo looked to be cooking something in a large pot that as he got closer started to smell really good. The line of people was around ten people long so instead of getting in line Arthur decided he would finish up the sale with the talismans and then when the line would have shortened a little he would get something to eat.

‘Now I just need to find where my prospective customer is at the moment.’ Arthur started to look around the camp for the dwarf that ordered the four talismans and eventually found him standing near the wagons with his three other friends with a few empty bottles nearby. From what he could hear they were telling jokes that didn’t sound all that funny.

When the dwarf noticed Arthur walking towards them he lightened up and jumped while keeping his hand raised above his head. “Hey, did you get them done already?”

“I did, do you have the money with you now?” Arthur replied as he presented the talismans.

The dwarf looked at them with the eyes of a child being offered candy. “Yes, yes. Just give me a moment.” The dwarf replied as he quickly reached into his purse to pay the eight copper coins. Once the coins were in Arthur's hand he handed over the talismans to his customer who immediately turned around and spoke with his friends.

“Here, everyone take one. It is a magic talisman that makes fire.” Each of the dwarfs that were more interested in their jokes suddenly turned to their companion like he was offering them free gold. Quickly they each snatched up their own talisman and began admiring the magical craftsmanship that was put into it. “Incredible, such a small thing creating so much.”

The four dwarves with the alcohol in their blood and the talismans in their hands were more than satisfied for the time being, so Arthur left and began walking back to the fire to receive his own portion of the food that was being served which turned out to be a simple soup containing a few different vegetables and some dried meat.

“Good morning Arthur, how have you been doing?” Theo smiled as he handed Arthur a bowl full of soup. Arthur also smiled as he received the bowl. “Good, I’ve continued learning magic and I even joined the mages guild. I am an evoker within the guild so now I can learn all of the more interesting magics like enchanting and restoration.”

“So quickly? From what I understood it normally takes around twice as long to become that powerful as a mage. You must be extremely dedicated to your craft.”

“I am, but I am also very talented and naturally gifted. Combine that with some excellent teachers and you get incredible progress like mine.”

Theo smiled and handed another bowl of soup to the person behind Arthur informing him that the conversation was done. Arthur then walked over to where everyone else was eating their soup hoping to find Calavia and eat with her. ‘Where is she, I would have assumed she would have wanted to eat with me as well.’ Arthur circled around the group of twenty or so people looking for Calavia while his soup started to slowly cool down. Eventually he just gave up and started to eat his soup on his own.

Shortly after he saw Calavia exit from one of the tents and walk over to Theo and get her own bowl of soup. ‘Oh you must be kidding.’ Arthur rolled his eyes at the sight. ‘Of course she slept in, I assumed she would have been able to get back into her routine of waking up from when she did this for a living.

Calaiva minding her own business and eating her soup off to the side was suddenly startled by someone grabbing her shoulder. She jumped and spun around while smacking it away only to find that it was Arthur with a surprised look on his face. “Someone is really jumpy, did you not sleep very well last night?’

“Uh, no. Not really. I wasn’t used to all the noises that are a part of nature, I haven’t been for quite some time. I don’t even recall when I managed to drift off, but I don’t think it was for very long because I am still really sleepy.” To further prove her point Calavia let out a large yawn that lasted for several seconds.

“You will probably get used to it soon since we will all be sleeping in a tent for the next several months I expect assuming the war doesn’t suddenly end. Hopefully it happens sooner than later though so you can get a good night's sleep.”

Soon after the entire group was ordered by Citro and Lyra to pack up their tents and load them onto the wagons as they were going to be leaving in around thirty minutes. Arthur quickly rushed over to his tent and disassembled it within minutes. When he was done he looked over to Calavia who was of course having difficulty, so he walked over and helped her out. “Here, take this to the wagon. I assume you don’t need my help for this as well.”

Scowling at the comment Calaiva took the bundled up tent and followed Arthur to the wagon where they were placed alongside everyone else's.

Like the two leaders said soon everything had been packed up and the Flock continued their walk towards the east following the dirt road in a two by two formation with the wagons in the middle. Citro was leading the group while Lyra was in the back along with most of the other mages, everyone else were scattered throughout the group for security and safety.