Goldspell: Rare Earth Book One

Goldspell: Rare Earth Book One- Chapter 11

Chapter 11- Introduction to Lessons

Two weeks passed after Opren began his training under Selios, as well as his study of the languages of Elvish and Runic. During practice, he would still lose too easily against Rufius and Emerald, and as he grew closer to Sapphire and Ruubi was beaten gradually more easily by them as well. Apparently, they had been kinder when he first arrived because they weren't yet sure how much he could take before being permanently damaged or severely injured. Opren managed to gain mastery over the few Stage Three spells he already knew, and then learned a few more from Selios- who conveniently also happened to be a Windcaster from birth, thus was most experienced with its applications. Selios had explained that these Birth Element lessons were to have Opren grow to the level as the others by the same time his training sessions and their training sessions were complete in Avarrinnia, but after the two weeks he was to start training Opren in Runic magic, eventually leading into lessons with the orb. 

Another week passed as Opren received his initial Runic magic lessons from Selios, and further instruction on speaking Elvish fluently from Emerald. The additional words and phrases used by Selios during training, along with Emerald's Elvish tutoring, helped accelerate his progress with Runic. The fortunate advantage for Opren- as he and Emerald had predicted during their talks- was his strangely innate ability to read some Runic before learning about it in depth. This made everything much easier. The language was simple enough that Selios expected him to need only another week before knowing enough to receive complete lessons in Runic magic. Selios told him that he would need to receive further instruction elsewhere once he learned to control the first stage of his particular Runic magic from his gold orb because Selios himself knew a good deal about Runic magic and the language and history, but little about the orb itself. He said he happened to know of an oracle who might be able to help Opren further. After his lessons with Selios, he should seek her and ask if she could help, informing her he was a friend of Selios'... if she didn't already know upon meeting him. 

Opren had learned over half of the Runic language by the following month and he felt comfortable speaking some Elvish with his friends, if not quite ready for conversations with strangers- unsure of how they might feel if he failed to remember a phrase and seemed disrespectful or ignorant. Luckily, many elves spoke human languages too. This made it much easier to communicate around the markets and during meal times at the palace. During an evening training break on his thirty-sixth day of being in Avarrinnia, he recalled his quickly ended- yet potentially life endangering- fight with the sleescas, and he asked Selios about his current experience in combat- without his orb- placed against theirs if he were to encounter any more of them. 

"I have fought several sleescas during special missions and most were fairly even with the others in overall strength, speed and skill. The few who were actually trained and presented a bigger challenge could potentially kill you at your current level, but the majority of them will die instead if you fought them today. This is not taking into account the fact that you may be able to soon use your Runic magic without expending excess energy because you have developed a strong resistance to loss of energy during our sessions. If you happen to trigger the orb- or, better yet, learn to use it in some way soon- I predict no sleesca could defeat you," Selios assessed. "I certainly wouldn't go searching for them before your training here is complete, though." He predicted Opren's thoughts. 

"I was considering it to a small extent, but I've learned over the past year to be cautious of my enemies and opponents, especially after seeing the skills you elves possess and researching the regular capabilities of sleescas. I read a book from the library that described sleescas as perfect assassins and malicious predators with 'inhuman and uncanny abilities', used as 'killing machines with life and minds' during war. If a person like Zargunn has control over some of them, they would likely be even more dangerous, not to mention his own possibly deadly abilities as a half-demon. I won't foolishly go looking for someone like that until I know I'm fully capable of killing them- or at least surviving the encounter," Opren replied. Emerald had walked up to stand beside Opren as he was speaking. She smiled.