ULTRAMagic Prelude - Chapter 5
“I think I got it…” Blood-Wraith stated as he organized a pile of rocks into a tidy formation.
Kresimira nodded. “Alright, show me what you have come up with.”
Blood-Wraith held up his right hand above the rocks. It took a second, but a bolt of energy emanated from his palm and struck the pile. This caused the rocks to light up and shine brightly. A moment later they had formed into a 12 inch sculpture of him. At this point it was the end of the second week of tutoring and Kresimira had been hoping for this outcome. The sculpture was not perfect, but it proved that there was definitive progress,
“Well done, Blood-Wraith. Well done” Kresimira congratulated with a calm applause.
“...but I didn’t get all the details down.”
Kresimira took the sculpture and put it on her desk. “Don’t worry sweetie, it’s fine. It’s borderline impossible to get every detail perfect.”
“You really should go for good enough rather than perfection,” Dragoslava added. “What that exact standard is I couldn’t tell you ‘cause it’s always changing.”
“But why not go for perfection?” he wondered.
“You see, Blood-Wraith; The more you do, the more time and effort is required,” Kresimira answered. She then went and retrieved two rocks from the closet, setting them down on the table. She then transmuted one into a rather simple, stone knife. “Let’s say you’re in a pickle and need something to defend yourself with, like this knife. Clean, simple, and an easy earth transmutation. It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done.” Setting the knife aside, she repeated the process on the other rock. This took longer and produced a more ornate and decorative knife. “Here we have a more fancy knife. See the issue with it?”
Blood-Wraith studied the new knife for a second. “I don’t think that would hold up after repeated usage. It looks very fragile. The strange markings do make it look fearsome, however.”
With a flick of the wrist, Kresimira snapped the knife in two. “Exactly. We sacrificed quality for what we thought would be a better outcome. It’s akin to quantity over quality. Ultimately you shouldn’t worry about how something looks as long as it works. When you hyper fixate, you lose track of your original goal.”
“I see… I still wanted to do better on the details though.”
Dragoslava laughed. “Blood, chill. It’s not that big of a deal…” And then the statue broke in half.
“Oh…” Blood-Wraith looked defeated.
“Hey, hey…” Kresimira gave him a pat on the back. “It’s fine, my pupil. This stuff takes time and practice” she reassured him. “Focus on the essentials, not the fine details.” She then went over and quickly repaired the small statue with her alchemy.
Blood-Wraith then turned to the clock, seeing that it was 4 PM again. “Aw shoot…”
“Alright, we’re going to get some ice cream,” Dragoslava proclaimed as she dragged her brother out of the classroom.
After bugging Leif to take them down to the city, Dragoslava guided the group to an ice cream parlor, old fashioned and holding together. It was somewhat haunting to see what should have been a populated building completely empty. Kresimira used to bring her sister to the parlor whenever she could, back when they were younger. Naturally Dragoslava and Blood-Wraith were greeted by dust and cobwebs everywhere. With the flip of a breaker, the restaurant sprung back to life. Signs and neon lights lit up and upbeat rock music began playing through the building's speakers. It was quite the nostalgia trip for Dragoslava.
“Pretty groovy, aye? Me and my big sis loved coming here on fridays.”
“Should we be here right now?” Blood-Wraith was a tad worried. “This doesn’t feel right…”
“It’s fine as long as we don’t break anything. Now where was the soft serve machine… ah!”
Blood-Wraith watched his sister fiddle with the dull, silver machine. “What’s soft serve?”
“The best type of ice cream, that’s what” she replied with a chuckle.
After some fiddling and a trip to the freezer, Dragoslava got to work preparing some cones. It was fascinating to see her twirl her wrist, creating an excellent spiral of ice cream. Once Blood-Wraith’s cone was decorated with chocolate sprinkles and a wafer, he sat down at the front counter. The chocolate ice cream was very good, the flavor delighting his senses. Dragoslava soon joined him with her own cone. She had the same style, but with vanilla as her choice of flavor.
“The owner of this place makes use of a spell that keeps the food fresh until it’s served. Once it’s in the customer’s hands, it resumes aging. And don’t worry, I put some money in the register.”
Blood-Wraith looked around, taking in the atmosphere. “It’d be nice to have people here… would they like me?”
“Blood, they’d adore you. Heck, You’d probably get a cone on the house as a welcome gift. My people are pretty welcoming… normally” Dragoslava remarked.
“Normally assuming there isn’t a primordial to go after?”
Dragoslava nodded. “...or there isn’t a thug doing thug things nearby. And cults. They’re not welcome either.”
“So do I eat the cone? It smells edible.” Blood-Wraith was not sure what to do given that this was a new food experience for him.
“Mm-hm, that’s a waffle cone. It’s part of the fun” Dragoslava replied. She then took a big chomp out of hers. “I always love it when there is still ice cream in the cone.”
Once the two had finished up, Dragoslava got to work cleaning up and shutting down the restaurant. Afterwards, the two would go on to do a little exploring. There were some sights that Blood-Wraith had to see. First was the Metal Fountain, which used magic to have flowing liquid metal (there were considerations for switching to water due to maintenance issues, however). City hall was a grand building, being an apex of the city’s architecture. The Statue of Erikson the Unstoppable stood tall in one of the city’s squares. He was the first of Dragoslava’s people to find the empty Iron City. He also happened to be Dragoslava’s ancestor. And finally there was The Museum of Wonders and Feats. It displayed relics from all societies that had lived in the city.
“This city is incredible, sister,” Blood-Wraith complimented as they relaxed at a square that was close to a mansion and somewhat rundown house. He was amazed by all of the sights he had seen.
“Yup. I missed this place… hm, odd. No sign of Corentin yet…”
“Oh, Sister? It just crossed my mind that we haven’t done any exploring recently” Blood-Wraith pointed out. “Do we need more class time?”
“No, no… I’ve just been a bit stumped on where to go next…”
Leif then appeared above the two. “Perhaps I can help with that? I have a friend up in the far north who would be very interested in talking with you two.”
“...Um, okay then. If you think it’ll be interesting. Where should we start heading towards?” Dragoslava asked, still a bit uncertain.
“It would be best for me to take you there personally. I also need to go check up on my friend beforehand.”
“Fair enough I suppose. How long do you think you’ll be?” Dragoslava jotted down some notes.
“Two, three days max. Here, let me take you back up to the tower. Then I’ll start on my round trip.”
The two hopped on Leif’s back and were flown back up. He then took off with a mighty flap of his wings and eventually vanished into the horizon. It was a very curious happening that had captured Dragoslava’s curiosity. Returning to her office, the duo passed by something unexpected. The Twilight Library (on the way to the office) was occupied by a stranger. This person was a tall woman, looking through several books. She had long, silver hair and wore dark armor with a wide-brimmed hat. Dragoslava gestured for Blood-Wraith to follow her.
“Greetings, stranger. What’s the occasion?”
The tall woman was startled. “Oh, Heavens! My apologies, I didn’t realize this tower was occupied at the moment…”
“It’s alright. We just want to know what’s up… you’re not up to something sneaky, are you?” Dragoslava inquired.
“Oh no, absolutely not. I was just looking for some books on Alchemy as my studies have sort of dead-ended at the moment.”
Dragoslava nodded in hesitant approval. “Fair enough. I’m Dragoslava Raynot and this is my brother, Blood-Wraith.”
“Pari, Valentina Pari. Are you two Alchemists by the way?”
“Yes,” Blood-Wraith answered. “...but I’m fairly new to this stuff.”
“How wonderful. Alchemy truly is an amazing science. Is there anything you're having trouble with, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“He’s doing alright, he just needs to focus on not putting so much into his transmutations” Dragoslava answered.
Valentina inspected Blood-Wraith for a moment. He was a truly fascinating entity. “I see. You should be prioritizing function over form. Also consider this Blood-Wraith: If you set your mind to it, you can make anything that you can dream up. All you need is a little imagination as Prima Materia has unlimited potential. One of the hallmarks of an accomplished alchemist is striking a perfect balance between form and function, a union of opposites if you will.”
“So uh, yeah-you want to be his teacher?” Dragoslava bluntly asked. “Alongside my big sis? Because that is some well thought out alchemical insight.”
Valentina was surprised by this. “Oh my. Well I’d love to, but I’m a bit preoccupied at the moment, unfortunately.”
“That’s fine,” Blood-Wraith replied. “Your personal business comes before mine… but do you have any notes I can read?” He was very interested in Valentina’s knowledge.
“Well… I do have a collection of personal notes I could organize into a book for you, since you're so eager. It may take a little bit, but I can have it for you in a week. Would that be acceptable?” Valentina proposed.
Blood-Wraith happily nodded. “Sure! We’re going to be going on an adventure soon, so I wouldn’t be ready for it right now. Also can you make it… make the cover black, purple, and gold?”
Valentina laughed. “My my, that’ll be quite the fancy book now. I’ll see what I can cook up.” She then looked up at the time. “Well shoot, look at how late it is… may I borrow these books? Just for a spell?”
Dragoslava took the indicated books over to an odd console and chute. “Sure, just give me one second…” The console beeped and hummed, then a package appeared in the chute. “Here you go, some of our extra copies. Don’t worry, they’ll guide you back here when you’re done.”
“Thank you very much!” Valentina took the heavy package and began to leave. “Farewell for now. I’ll definitely be back in the future, hopefully with some free time. Best of luck to both of you.”
“You too, safe travels” Dragoslava called out as Valentina vanished. “I like her.”
“Yeah, she seems very nice…” Blood-Wraith’s stomach growled. “I’m hungry.”
Dragoslava nodded. “Well it is dinner time after all… Also hi hungry, I’m Drago…”
“Sister!” Blood-Wraith complained, with Dragoslava laughing. Evidently her father had done that to her in the past.
At the dining hall, Desislav was getting ready to serve a very delicious dinner that filled the air with pleasant, mouth-watering aromas. “There you are! I was wondering where you two were” the satyr exclaimed. He then sat them down, making sure they were comfortable.
“So Desislav, I think we may have met someone from your timeline” Dragoslava brought up.
“Really? Who was it?”
“She was in the Twilight Library, wanting to borrow some of our books. She said her name was Valentina Pari…”
Desislav thought for a second as he served their food, then it hit him. “Oh… yeah, I’ve definitely heard of her.”
“She’s making me an Alchemy book too” Blood-Wraith added in.
“Really now?” Kresimira asked. “Well, you two will have to let me know next time she shows up.”
Dragoslava shoveled some food into her mouth. “Sure. Can do, sis.” She burped not too long after swallowing, warranting a displeased look from Kresimira.
“Oh, where’s Leif?” Desislav wondered. “I haven’t seen him yet today…”
“He’ll be back in a couple of days,” Dragoslava answered. “He went ahead to scout out our next location.”
Next: Chapter 6
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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