Leanne woke up at the counter in the Cardinal Feather Inn. Carolin took care of her wound the last night and she only remembered little of it. What she did remember though, was that she used some scrolls to teleport between spaces. Of course, Leanne took advantage of the Recall spell like almost everyone in the army, but other than that, she hardly ever showed much interest in nor skill in any arcane spell.
However, truly it felt amazing to cast some spells, albeit being some very basic. She knew though, that in the long run, she had to actually study the Meaning of the words and reagents she used, or it would go down deep in her pocket to restock scrolls every now and then.
Leanne of course only thought of one teacher that could show her some spells: her very own wife. Granted, Ilyana could teach her the very same things, but that didn't go too well last time, as a matter of fact, Ilyana did try to teach Leanne some basic spells in the past. But the short tempered nature of Ilyana and her lack of patience brought that to and end quickly.
Leanne entered the Arcanist Tower to find Pickles once again reading some lines of a book.
"Am I disturbing ye, hun?", Leanne asked sheepishly. Pickles looked up from her book and smiled.
You never disturb me, Love."She sat in front of her, rocking on her chair.
"Can I ask ye a favor? Ye know... I was wonderin' if ye could teach me some basic spells..." Pickles arched an eyebrow and asked:
"Are ye tryin' to switch squads after all?"Leanne chuckled and shook her head.
"Nah. I just used some scrolls recently, ye know, like the Teleport spell. I must say, it certainly would be nice to have some spells at my disposal."Pickles smirked.
"So, when it comes to teaching a few things to you lots, us Arcanists are good enough, eh?" Leanne looked at her puzzled.
"I literally married the Arcanist Corporal. Did I ever leave the impression on ye I disliked the Arcanists in any way?" "Heh, I was just joking with you, Love."The two women gathered in the basement of the Tower, where Pickles handed Leanne a Beginners Spell Book and a small pouch filled with herbs.
"First things first: You know you'll need to get branded if you decide to cast spells, right?" Leanne nodded.
"Good. Herbs! You'll need them. The Words of Power are useless if you don't have the herbs to cast a spell. Granted, you don't need them when you use a scroll, but casting a spell with herbs increases its power ten fold. What kind of spells did you actually have in mind to learn?"Leanne shrugged a bit, but then replied:
"I guess the Teleport one seems nice. Also, I'm mostly interested in learning beneficial spells like healing wounds, curing infections or increasing ones agility. Ye know, tha' kind of stuff."Pickles nodded and produced some garlic, ginseng and spider's silk.
"Let's take the basic Healing spell for example. You'll need these three herbs to cast it. Ginseng and garlic are known for their positive effects on your body's health. Now, the spider silk is mostly used for summoning, conjuring or binding. In relation to Healing, this means you'll conjure new skin cells in closing wounds. Understood so far?"Leanne nodded hastily, checking her own bag of herbs.
"Well then. The words of power for this spell are 'In Mani'. 'In' stands for Make, Cause or Create. This brings us back to part of creating new skin cells. 'Mani' means Life or Healing. So the words together literally mean 'Create Healing' or 'Cause Healing'. The opposite of this would be 'An Mani', which means 'Negate Life' or 'Negate Healing'. But this would be harmful to others, and you said that is not up your alley."Leanne smiled and nodded.
"Aye, I'll stick to by bow to cause harm." "That's good. Make sure to understand the Meaning of these words. It is essential for spell casters to understand it or your spells will fizzle. I left some side notes in your book to help you memorize them, as well as a page for all the eight reagents and their effects."Leanne tried some of the spells in her book herself. While some seemed to be more easy, she already struggled with spells on the Third Circle. Pickles silently stood next to her, while Leanne attempted the spells over and over again.
"You'll learn the spells eventually. Keep on learning, studying and practicing and you'll get the hang of it. Although I don't think you'll be able to cast spells higher than the Fifth Circle without studying for years. And I guess that there is little to no arcane blood in you doesn't help you either."
"Hah, well. There sure was some Arcanist inside of me." said Leanne with a cheeky grin.
"No distractions! Keep on studying!"
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