I don’t think I can. Said Kaelum They took my hiding sheet, and I can’t sneak in without it.
Hiding sheet? Thought Tiela. Apparently, that’s what he called that raggedy brown cloth. Though she did have to admit that it was extremely useful when they were sneaking in.
‘I’ll try to think of another way we can sneak in’ Said Tiela ‘But I can’t keep strengthening you while I’m doing it.’ She cut off the mana supply right after she finished saying that.
Kaelum slumped down and almost fell from the sudden loss of strength. Luckily he was carrying a lighter piece of an awning and soon regained his balance. Karrow saw him struggle, but stand back up and a tear of admiration fell from his eye.
‘Before I go, I’ll teach you a breathing technique.’ Said Tiela.
This perked Kaelum right up, he couldn’t wait to learn an actual breathing technique that a real knight would use.
It turned out to be not exciting at all. It was basically just a weird way of breathing, he didn’t immediately get magical powers or anything, lame.
After teaching him the breathing technique, Tiela receded into his soul space to focus and told him not to bother her. Fine, I didn’t want to talk to you either. Thought Kaelum, bitter at being left alone.
Kaelum found that he could work while using his breathing technique, he could even talk with Karrow while doing it. Kaelum learned the older man wasn’t as creepy as he had previously thought, though he’d have to keep an eye on him.
While they worked, Karrow told Kaelum tons of interesting stories from his youth, he had apparently been a promising young knight before settling down to become the captain of Arum’s guard. Kaelum found him to be easy-going once you got past his rough demeanour. Kaelum had known of Karrow for his entire childhood and had seen him a few of the times he had gotten caught stealing. But this was the first actual conversation he had with the man.
Kaelum took a liking to the man almost immediately, the way Karrow carried himself and asked about Kaelum during their talks made Kaelum feel like he actually gave a damn about what Kaelum had to say. Karrow was a naturally charismatic person, only held back by his scary-looking demeanour. After talking with the man for a day, Kaelum felt like he had known him for years.
Although the work was still gruelling, the breathing technique took Kaelum’s focus off of it, and then talking with Karrow made him actually enjoy the day. He almost didn’t notice when the sun began to set and almost missed it when Karrow gathered the young men.
“Very nice progress today, I hope you all learned something from this.” Said Karrow, Kaelum had no idea what they were supposed to learn aside from the fact that parade floats are damn heavy.
“Alright, you can all head home now, and don’t try to visit the princess if you don’t want to see me again.” The last part of Karrow’s sentence seemed to kill any ideas of seeing the princess up close in the young men’s heads.
Kaelum hadn’t seen Peake all day, though that was typical of him. He likely snuck off just after they went outside, lucky bastard. He was even better at sneaking than Kaelum was.
“Hold on Kaelum.” Said Karrow.
Turning around, Kaelum came face to face with Karrow. A bit spooked, he stepped back. This caught a laugh out of Karrow as he continued “I noticed how hard you worked today.” He paused before continuing “I’m acquainted with Miller, who runs the logging camp outside the city. We buy lumber from them to reinforce the city walls.”
Kaelum raised his eyebrows, not knowing what Karrow was getting at.
“We could use another set of hands to help with hauling logs from the camp to the wagons. If you want it, the job is yours.” Karrow said, “The pay is ten copper a day, start at noon, end at sunrise.”
Kaelum was stunned, he had never had a job that actually paid money before. Most of the shopkeepers kept an eye on him because he had a habit of stealing and he didn’t know anywhere else that might need to hire him. He didn’t exactly have any marketable skills.
“Well?” Asked Karrow after letting Kaelum think for a moment.
“I… Yes please!” Shouted Kaelum excitedly.
Kaelum couldn’t believe it, he had actually gotten a job! Plus Tiela wasn’t nagging him, today couldn’t get any better. He was already daydreaming about the actual food he’d be able to buy with his newfound source of income.
The only time he’d ever gotten money was when he was pickpocketing with Peake and the other hoodlums, but the guards were way harsher to thieves who stole money than those who stole food, so he didn’t pickpocket again after getting caught and taking quite a beating.
“Alright, head on home then. I expect to see you here tomorrow at noon!” Karrow sent him off with his booming voice.
Kaelum couldn’t keep himself from humming as he headed back to the market square. He decided he’d treat himself to something nice and started rifling about in the trash of a particularly nice pastry shop.
He didn’t find any pastries, but he did find a rat that hadn’t been dead for too long, it looked like the shopkeeper had bludgeoned it to death. As he was climbing out of the garbage with his tasty plunder he heard Tiela’s voice in his head.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ She asked in disgust.
I’m getting dinner, he thought, obviously.
‘You’re… you’re not planning on eating that are you? How long has it been dead in the trash for?!’ She said in exasperation.
Of course, I’m eating it. I haven’t had meat in months. Meat is hard to find in the slums. He said as he found a pastry and some not too dirty vegetable scraps, adding them to his handful of ‘food’
Disgusted, Tiela said in protest ‘That’s literally trash! You can’t make us eat trash!’
It’s still pretty fresh, I think it was made either yesterday or today. Replied Kaelum, Didn’t Tiela know how hard it was to find pastries? He wondered.
Fearing that she was about to taste every bit of that “food” she yelled ‘That’s disgusting!’
Kaelum replied in annoyance Well, sorry I wasn’t born with a silver stick up my ass. I like pastries
Her eye twitching in anger, Tiela chose not to dignify him with a response, remaining quiet for most of the way back home until Kaelum remembered to ask Didn’t you say you were gonna figure out another way to contact the princess?
Glad to get her thoughts away from the rat and garbage food Kaelum was about to subject them both to, she started telling him of the plan she thought up.
‘I’m going to teach you a spell’ She said.
Oh okay, he responded without paying too much attention, until what she had just said clicked YOU’RE GONNA TEACH ME A SPELL? He thought Like a real-life knight spell?! Kaelum questioned her in his mind.
‘Yes-’ she started to respond before being interrupted by Kaelum’s rapid-fire questions.
When? How? Is it powerful? He asked like a machine gun.
‘Calm down, Once you get back, come into your soul space and I’ll show you.’ Tiela replied.
This put a spring in his step, he hurried back as fast as he could, speeding past all of the shopkeeper’s grumblings about hoodlums or whatnot in the waning sunlight.
After entering his home he asked Tiela How do I enter the soul space? I’ve never actually entered it on my own.
Facepalming, Tiela had completely forgotten that Kaelum had never actually had any experience as a knight. Although it was a pretty basic thing, only a first-tier knight could actually enter their soul space.
‘You have to use mana to project your soul into your soul space, to do that, you have to unblock your mana veins by becoming a first-tier knight.’ She said, glad that he had forgotten about the rat in his excitement.
So I can’t actually enter my soul space? He thought disappointedly.
She hurriedly responded ‘One good thing to come of me getting stuck in your soul space is your body adapting to my mana. Usually, a person can’t wield another’s mana. But since our souls are stuck together, your body can actually use my mana.’
She added ‘Though I can’t replenish my mana on my own anymore, I’ll have to use what little I have left sparingly, but I can supply the mana while you meditate to help you enter your soul space.’
Okay, he thought as he sat down and closed his eyes before being stopped by Tiela.
‘Either lay down or lean against a wall, you don’t want to be falling down and injuring yourself while in your soul space.’ She said with a hint of warning.
Kaelum nodded and scooted over to the wall, sitting while leaning on it. He closed his eyes to start focusing before a chilly sensation arose in his right chest.
‘Follow the mana in your chest with your attention.’ He heard Tiela’s voice guiding him.
He did just that, he could feel it moving around in a loopy circle, it’s weird movement was making him dizzy. The feeling was hard to explain, it felt like the mana was expanding larger than his body, and then contracting to the point of a needle. Once it had constricted to its smallest point, he could feel himself getting pulled into it like he was falling, and then he was in his soul space.
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