Chapter 4: Winter blooms in blood

The Matriarch bowed her head, as did every single fairy dragon. “You do not know this,” she said solemnly, “But the Winterbloom are the Elvish ladies and lords of old who created our species from magic and the essence of this Realm itself. The strongest of the four bloodlines…technically, this place is yours. You might be a distant, far-off relative of the bloodline…but we are your servants.”

Tristan felt his heart skip a few beats and his breath caught in his lungs. “What?”

“It is our honor to welcome you home, lost Lord.”

“But…this isn’t my home. I came here so you could get me home.”

The Matriarch raised her head slightly but kept it under Tristan’s head level. “You are welcome to come and go as you please.” She moved her enormous, clawed front leg that was the size of an ox cart, and there were several rings upon the claws. “Take one.”

Tristan grabbed one of the rings and pulled it off. It shrunk in his palm down to his finger’s size, “What does it do?”

“This is a Fey Realm Ring. An item of artifice. Imbue it with your mana, and you will be able to open a portal here. It cannot be used more than once every twenty-four hours and takes an hour to activate.”

“Thanks…why give me one?”

Felicity groaned, “Are you not listening, dummy? You are literal royalty here! The only way you could command more respect is if you were a woman.”

Tristan chuckled on the inside as The Matriarch whipped her head around and admonished Felicity, “We do not call his bloodline dummy, daughter.” Felicity deflated a bit and grumbled, and The Matriarch turned back to Tristan. “You may come and go as you please by channeling mana into that ring. However, if you wish to try your mana capacity, your ancestral arms and armor are yours to take if you can unlock them.”

“Come again? Unlock them?”

“Come with me, my lord.” The Matriarch stood and went into the tree. Tristan followed her, sheathing his sword as he took off his gauntlet, slipped the ring onto his finger, and watched as it resized to fit him. He wriggled his hand back into the gauntlet. Items of artifice were not unknown to him; in fact his nameless sword and armor were similar items. And all of them resized to their user. Even without mana – which up until now, he did not have – they would operate at a fraction of their power.

Maybe with mana, my armor and sword have some effect I can activate that I couldn’t use before. I’ll have to experiment with that.

Looking down at the gauntlet again, he noticed that he had become a bit slimmer. He still felt strong – in fact, he felt stronger than ever before as he flexed muscles against taut skin. But he was wirier now. And I guess pushing out my Human side changed my body, too.

The interior of the tree was a cavernous, hollow space. She led him down a spiraling ramp that led under the roots and into caverns below. Whereas the tree above looked like it was designed for fairy dragons with plentiful perches and nests of colorful feathers, down here the earthen walls and roots were formed and molded into pristine, high-quality tunnels.

“This is where the Elves of old used to reside. Well, the nobility, at least, lived here, at the Queen’s Wood. The highest-ranking members of each bloodline. Your bloodline, the Winterbloom, were the highest ranked. The lesser families of Springthaw, Summerbalm, and Fallthorn are all lesser in rank compared to you. Come, we go to the vault.”

She began leading the way and commented as she walked, “Since stepping foot in this Realm and being infused by its essence that has been gathering for so long – you’re effectively full-blooded. The only way someone could overrule you in this Realm is if they were female, older, and of your same bloodline. But do not fret about losing any spell types from your Human bloodline, those are still present. Just the racial traits are being suppressed.”

Tristan knew of spell types. He knew that certain races were ‘locked’ to specific magics. If I remember mom’s lessons correctly, any race can use any spell type; but all except Humans have ‘locked’ spell types. And they cannot use higher than Third Order spells in those locked categories.

Bloodlines were common knowledge. Every person had one, at least, normally two, and in rare cases three or more. Bloodlines enabled a race to bypass the ‘lock’ to a single, specific spell type…if they had enough mana to use a spell in the first place. Plus, bloodlines enabled the person with it to use Eleventh Order or higher Order spells; but only for that specific spell type. All the others were capped at Tenth Order.

He knew that his grandfather’s bloodline, the Dragonslayer, had a unique spell type created by the man that enabled them to siphon the power from those creatures when slain. No one else in the world except his grandfather, his father, and his half-siblings had it – or even had knowledge of it. The family’s best-kept secret. Also, annoyingly, termed the dragonslayer spell type. He wasn’t inventive with names, now that I think about it.

He had no clue what Winterbloom gave him access to. Ice was a reasonable guess, but it could be something to do with plants with the ‘bloom’ part. I’ll need to ask about that when I have a chance.

Shaking himself out of his reverie, he saw he had fallen a little behind and The Matriarch had turned to wait patiently. Tristan followed, losing himself as he marveled at the architecture. The environment spoke to him, called to him, making him feel right at home. Something about the walls, the very roots of the trees, spoke to him. Called out to him. He stopped once more, and The Matriarch waited patiently, as he took in a mural that was carved into the earthworks. It depicted what he assumed was the Great Exodus, as he saw an enormous group of people venturing through a portal on a hill.

Once he had taken in his fill of staring at the mural, he looked at The Matriarch and gestured or her to proceed. As they continued down the long corridors, Tristan asked a question. “Felicity mentioned something about being able to use magic, mana, and mana cores. Can you fill me in a bit more on that? I never learned magic back home since I didn’t show any aptitude. I know the basics about spell types and bloodlines, and how spells are grouped into Orders.”

“Learning magic is something that you will have to do on your own, developing your abilities and your own repertoire,” The Matriarch replied. “However, there are tomes and books locked behind seals here that you may access once your mana is plentiful enough. And that is where mana cores and mana capacity come into play. Tell me, have you ever killed something?”

“…No. Nothing except the occasional mosquito or fly.”

“When a creature dies, then you harvest some of their mana capacity and add it to your own. Generally, the larger the body, the more mana capacity you obtain.”

She swished her long, serpentine tail and let it tap him on the center of the chest, “That is where your mana core is, partially real, partially ethereal, next to your heart. It is strong, but that is because you are the first Elf here in a long, long time. Think of yourself as a magnet for mana, and this entire world was iron filings. In fact, there was so much, that your mana core coalesced just by nature of being on this Realm – especially if you could not use magic before arriving. You’ve sucked up as much mana as your core will allow. Most of it has been put towards changing your body. But now its full up.”

She frowned, “Which is a problem – you cannot stay here for too long. I’d wager a day at the most before you begin to experience mana sickness. That is when you have your capacity overfilled. You could stay longer with a larger capacity mana core, or if you were constantly exerting it.”

“How do I use it?” Tristan asked, feeling excitement well up in him. “I was able to swirl it when Felicity had me visualize a ball in my chest.”

“Again, you must practice, train, and learn from others,” The Matriarch replied. “Now, when you first use magic, you will experience some discomfort and pain as mana channels are carved into your body. Again, not really there, but not really gone - in the ethereal. The size of the mana channel increases as your mana core grows. Only the initial opening causes pain. Did you experience such pain when you spun your mana core?”

“No,” Tristan replied. “But what does that do? Spinning the mana core?”

“Ah, well, you will carve your mana channels soon enough here. And spinning your mana core is similar to exercise. It is a slow, gradual way to improve your mana capacity. A more passive way of cultivating the core’s potential; since not everyone is suited to slaying creatures.” 

Felicity flew up from behind Tristan and landed on his shoulder, and he jumped slightly. “I just wanted to see you fail,” Felicity whispered, tauntingly. “I can’t wait to see the look on your face when you don’t open up the vault.”

Tristan ignored her and just brushed her off her shoulder perch. The Matriarch led him to an enormous door made of stone; with swirls of a language he did not recognize. But as he focused, he saw the shapes reorganize themselves into letters he could read.

‘Kuningattaren holvi.’ (The Queen’s Vault).

“How come I can read that weird, squiggly language? I only know how to read and speak the Standard Tongue.”

“You’re an Elf,” Felicity replied. “Elves know their language as well as they know their own body. You’ve been speaking it this whole time.”

Really? I’m speaking a different language. He tried to focus on saying the word for ‘flower’ in Standard Tongue, and it felt right in his mouth. Okay, so I am still speaking the kingdom’s language. Once more, he tried saying the word, but did not focus on the enunciation. And the word ‘flower’ is what he heard – once more, in his home tongue – but the way it felt in his mouth was different. Weird, but neat. Automatic translation between Standard Tongue and Elvish.

“Place your hands upon the spiral and focus on pouring your mana into the structure. Envision a stream of water, or a current of air, flowing from your torso, down your arms, and into your hands.”

The Matriarch stood aside. “This must be done in one surge. You either have enough mana capacity to unlock the vault door or will need to wait until you develop further. And…you will experience some pain throughout your body. The mana suffusing this realm will heal you rapidly; but you will notice some agony.”

Tristan put his hands on the object and did as he was instructed. He felt a swirling tornado of energy in his chest. It surged through his whole body, and he gasped in pain, as if someone had just stuck tiny pins and needles into every part of him. He saw a surge of silvery light flow from his hands and into the spiral, filling it up slowly. 

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