He spent the next two weeks alternating between his own studies and training Heline further.

“You should be using your illusion magic,” Drazaria told her, “It’s what you’re most experienced in and gives you an edge.”

“But I don’t want to be an illusionist,” Heline huffed, “All… pretty pictures and no substance.”

“Is that how you’d describe your mother?” the sorcerer arched a brow.

The teen flustered, flapping her hands, “Of course not! But she’s not… she’s not a fighter, and she hates doing all that showy stuff for parties, too! That’s just… politics.”

Drazaria snorted - he’d been roped into helping with one or two royal magic shows himself, and felt about the same as Lady Cloir apparently had. Oralie had never had shows meant to entertain - they had had annual demonstrations, but those were academic to show off the progress kids made in their studies. The royal magic show was a combination of entertainment and show of force, with wizards from noble houses attempting to outdo each other.

“You can turn any magic into showy bullshit,” the sorcerer said, “And any magic into a weapon - if you’re creative enough. I came up with the magic claws myself.”

“Really?” Heline asked, “But… doesn’t the Guardian magic do the same thing…?”

“It does something similar,” Drazaria agreed, “But one, I didn’t know about it when I started developing that technique, and two, it’s fixed. Jax isn’t actively creating the armor and weapon. Some other magic user did that a long ass time ago with an enchanting technique no one knows how to do anymore.”

“What was the technique?” the pelatia teen asked, leaning forward a bit.

The sorcerer sighed, “The technique shaped magic into physical forms that could sustain themselves - as if it were metal or stone. Pure magic constructs with physical shape are rare and powerful - always High magic, usually stored in a focus to allow them to recharge. When Jax activates the Guardian magic, they summon those magical constructs - rather than wrapping and sustaining live magic around themself, it’s more like they’re putting on enchanted armor.”

“Except it’s also made of magic instead of being made of metal,” Heline concluded.

“Exactly,” Drazaria nodded.

The teen seemed to consider this for some time, and asked, “Can you teach me how to do enchanting?”

“I can teach you the basics,” the sorcerer replied, arching a brow, “But it’s been a while since I did any enchanting, and it’s not really my specialty. Why the change in interest?”

“Well…” Heline held her hands together, and created an illusion of a toy soldier on her palms, “If I could make my illusions real, even just for a moment, that would be a huge help, right? I mean, I doubt I can figure out something as advanced as shaping magic into armor, but… it feels like there could be some kind of… middle ground between illusionism and that kind of enchanting?”

Drazaria almost refused - developing advanced techniques to the point of combat usability took years, and he didn’t intend to spend that long going after Swordheart. But the no stopped on just the tip of his tongue as the teen looked up at him, three eyes full of hope and an inkling of fear of rejection.

It reminded him of himself - when he was around her age and had shown Trainer his “magic gloves.” He’d been so proud of himself for thinking it up and managing to pull it off, but afraid that Trainer would not approve of his… unsanctioned experiments. And while she had remarked on that aspect, she’d then helped him further develop the technique - though she had made him keep it a secret from others. Until it was fully developed, she’d said.

Huh, he thought, I wonder if by then she’d wanted to help me survive the Rite.

Drazaria hadn’t thought about any of that at the time - she had been the only Tribune that seemed ashamed of intending to sacrifice him, so he supposed it was possible. Helping him develop a secret combat technique certainly wouldn’t make him an easy target…

The sorcerer shook his head, setting his introspection aside - he said, “Fine - I think I have some books that can walk you through more advanced exercises, anyway…”

Heline made an excited squeak, grinning and looking up at him expectantly.

“Softie!” Owal called out.

Drazaria looked over to see thon sitting on the roof of the cottage with a cocky grin, the hawk perched nearby.

Heline stuck out her tongue at the other teen, “It’s not like you’re trying to get better at anything!”

“I don’t need to,” Owal replied, leaning back and lacing thons hands behind thons head, “I’m already trained to fight.”

“Ignore thon,” Drazaria said, using magic to rip out some of the roofing tiles beneath the vanin teen, “Thon won’t be here much longer, anyway.”

Owal yelped and scrambled but ultimately fell off the roof - landing in a perfectly cushioning roll with a grumble.

Heline stifled a giggle behind her hand, then frowned, “Wait, why not?”

“Because I only agreed to let thon stay two months,” the sorcerer replied, trying to remember how much time had actually passed.

“Yeah, yeah,” Owal rolled thons eyes, brushing down thons pants, “Got my bags packed and everything.”

“But… who will fight Ken, then?” Heline asked.

“I will, like I did before,” Drazaria shrugged, then went on before she could protest, “Are you ready to learn enchanting or not?”

This successfully distracted the teen - though not without reservations, judging by the look on her face. Reservations she appeared to quickly forget as the sorcerer launched into a basic enchanting lesson.

When Heline was settled into her practices - Owal sticking around to make unhelpful remarks - Drazaria went inside to check what books on enchanting he actually had. As he found a couple instructive texts and set them on the table, he paused.

I wonder if Vasskr has found a trainer for Tedi yet, he thought, then shook his head - that didn’t matter. The young wizard getting better at magic would only hinder the sorcerer’s plans. Best to stop worrying about it.

With that, he went to give the books to Heline.

Drazaria’s next attempt to steal Swordheart was another non-starter in the end. When he, Heline, and Owal arrived, it was to find everyone but Jax waiting for them.

“Time for a rematch, Eyestealer,” declared the long-absent Nen - the black-scaled woozhi teen jumping onto the same floating platform as Drazaria. He’d picked up armor from somewhere and his own ball-ended weighted staff.

“Awww, is the Guardian too scared to play today?” Owal grinned, crouched on a higher platform.

“We’re more than enough for the likes of you,” Kendra replied, jumping her way over to the vanin teen’s platform. She, too, had new armor - proper Basin-Guard armor with its crystal scaling that matched Nen’s set.

Must have been attuned to Swordheart, Drazaria thought.

“Y-yeah!” Tedi said, hopping onto the platform nearest the Temple, “What Ken said!”

Heline sighed softly before using vines to move from Drazaria’s side to meet him.

The sorcerer looked past the teens to Vasskr, standing slightly behind Hik.

Glancing around quickly, his brother subtly made the hand sign for “sick”.

Drazaria barely managed not to roll his eyes and put on his best evil grin as he said, “Alright, fake Guardian - let’s see if you can actually last three minutes this time.”

Unlike last time, the kid didn’t take the bait - he crouched into a woozhi fighting stance and tossed the staff back, catching it with his tails. Nen’s armor started to dimly glow, showing it was powered up now.

This might be trouble, Drazaria thought, wrapping his arms and legs in reactive barriers before charging forward. He heard Owal and Kendra bantering as they started fighting as well, but put it out of his mind to focus on his own opponent.

Nen didn’t move, patiently waiting - then swinging out with the staff in his tails once Drazaria was in striking distance.

The sorcerer dodged back, pulling out two swap stones and charging in again before flicking one into the air.

Two of Nen’s eyes tracked the stone, two remaining focused on the sorcerer and the other two looking behind him. He still had a blind spot directly behind him, but it was good coverage all around.

Drazaria had anticipated the teen seeing the first stone and dropped the second as he charged forward again - teleporting up above Nen at the last moment. As the woozhi teen shifted his stance to parry, the sorcerer teleported a second time back to the ground.

Nen flew back as Drazaria’s magic-coated palm connected with the teen’s armor, skidding and digging in with his larger clawed hands to keep from falling off the edge of the platform.

The sorcerer shook his arm from the stinging numbness that spread up it from the connection and cursed as he found it difficult to move his limb - like he’d spent too much time in the cold and was just getting feeling back into it.

Paralyzing enchantment, Drazaria thought - if his barrier hadn’t taken the brunt of the magic, he’d be completely unable to move his arm. Instead of charging back in, he skipped back, switching the barriers around his limbs to static instead of reactive and enhancing his strength to make up for the loss in kick. He attached an anchor of magic to the edge of the platform as he reached it, then charged in again before Nen could move forward.

The teen remained still again - a good strategy to match his new armor - and struck out with the staff in his tails.

The sorcerer dodged and danced around the strikes, keeping them close - after all, he needed to get hit in a believable way. And when he saw the right strike, he did - letting it send him flying over the edge of the platform. He activated the anchor, a rope of magic shooting out from him to it and snapping taunt to swing Drazaria under the platform and around to the opposite edge.

Nen registered the movement of the sorcerer appearing behind him, shifting to move the human out of his blind spot.

Drazaria didn’t wait for the teen to fully get his bearings - digging magic claws into the underside of another platform and sending out a barrage of force blasts. He knew the armor could take the brunt of any that hit, so kept the pattern tightly focused on Nen.

Unfortunately, the attack still kicked up dust from the broken platform tiles beneath, and Drazaria swung up onto the top of the higher platform so he wouldn’t be in the same position if Nen was ready with a counter.

“Duck!” Owal called out behind him.

The sorcerer did, rolling back for good measure to avoid a swing from Kendra. It appeared he’d managed to pop up in the middle of Owal and Kendra’s fight by moving.

Thon appeared at Drazaria’s side, saying quietly, “That new armor’s no joke.”

“Nen has paralyze,” the sorcerer said back.

“Ken has foothold,” Owal replied, “Trade?”

Drazaria didn’t like it, but his melee focus was better suited to facing foothold - and Owal’s long-distance style was better off against paralyze. So he said, “Go.”

The vanin teen grinned and danced to the side of the platform, calling out, “It hurts me to let you go, but if you want to fight other people so bad, I guess I have to!”

“You’re so annoying!” the girl called after thon.

Drazaria charged, really not one for witty banter himself.

Kendra dodged by charging into the air and flipping over him, sweeping at his legs as she landed in. crouch.

The sorcerer jumped back and charged around the side to strike at the teen’s shoulder.

Kendra dodged away again, and it became a quick exchange of strikes, dodges, and parries.

Drazaria wondered how long he would need to drag things out this time - without a formal challenge, he couldn’t claim Swordheart, and he wasn’t going to take on Jax when they were ill. At least the teens now put up a good enough fight for his forfeit to feel authentic.

Suddenly, Kendra jumped back with a frown and asked, “You really don’t take us seriously, do you?”

“Why would I?” the sorcerer replied automatically, but felt like he was missing some context as he lunged forward.

“We’re training our butts off here,” Kendra replied, “The least you could do is use some attack magic.”

Need something to read while waiting for the next chapter? Check out these other AF Tourney Entries! (Links in description.)