Rebellion: Prince of Dawn

Chapter 5.5: The Hierophant

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ILIAS PAYNE

According to Heloise, I had twenty-two gates throughout my body. That was just under three times as many gates the average person had.

   That must be the reason why even though I performed a higher-tier spell, I was able to keep myself conscious while Jaime fainted.

   But having more gates wasn't something to cheer about it. If they were all weak, it wouldn't matter how many I had. A skilled jynxist with one hardened gate would outmatch me.

   The first thing Heloise had me do was strengthen my gates by keeping them in the red zone, which was the equivalent of exercising. While she continued to teach me reading and writing, history, geography, and arithmetic, I was tasked to continuously let mana flow through my gates.

   It was like building muscle. You would work out one area and the more intense it was, the better your results were. It was the same exact thing. The more damaged the gates were, the more my body became sore. But when that healed, I found it easier being able to flow mana through my gates for longer periods of time.

   Heloise was patient with me.

   She was an elf after all.

   There were many times when my body couldn't take the strain and I had to shut off my gates. However, she knew whenever I did this and would calmly ask me to continue letting mana flow.

   Many times, the training would be too hard on my body and I would end up bedridden. Mother would freak out and try to heal me but since gates couldn't be healed, she had no choice but to let my body recover on its own. During these times, Heloise would stay by my side, changing the wet rag on my forehead, reading me stories to keep me entertained, and sometimes helping me eat if my arms were too hurt to move.

   One time I got unlucky and came down with a fever simultaneously while my body was recovering from training. The combination of these two took me out of commission for a couple of weeks. I was barely conscious and always slipped in and out of sleep, spending the little time I was awake eating. During these weeks, Heloise slept on the floor in my room. When I had nightmares, it was Heloise who held my hand and reassured me that everything was fine. When I had to go to the privy, she would carry me there to do my business. She could have easily used a Fetish or levitated me in these situations, but she did these tasks by herself.

   As emotionless as people might see her as, I realized that Teacher did have a heart and that she truly did care. She just had a hard time showing emotion and understanding it. It was like she wanted to form a bond, but there was something she was bottling up that wouldn't—no—that prevented her from doing so.

   Eventually, the intervals between me being bedridden grew sparse until my body got accustomed and my gates were strong enough to resist a day's worth of lessons.

   When Heloise first started teaching me, I was only able to perform Water Cannon five times. With my gates now reinforced, I was strong enough to easily do it fifty times. I hadn't learned any new spells since then, but with this part of my training over, I was ready for whatever was next.

   After strengthening my gates (which took about a year or so), Heloise began teaching me elemental spells. Since Heloise was a wind mage, she taught an abundance of wind spells—which I became the most familiar with in the four elements. Though I still considered Water Cannon as my main spell.

   Once I mastered most of the basic elemental spells, Heloise began teaching me how to control the flow of my mana.

   "As I stated, the flow is the same for everyone and there is no way to speed it up. However, you can change the flow by slowing it down or shutting it off completely." Heloise took off her boots, treading her bare feet on the grass. "Close your eyes."