Sebastian woke to see a small fae standing just outside the circle. "Good morning. And to whom do I have the pleasure of waking up to?"
Petal jumped. "Don't scare Petal. Petal not know you were awake."
With a gentle chuckle, "I am sorry to startle you Petal. I am~"
"Petal know you, Sebastian," he interrupted. "Petal be right back." Unfurling his wings Petal flew out through the open doorway.
A few moments later Amaryliss came in with a tray of food. "I know you must be hungry. I apologize for neglecting to make sure you had food yesterday." The tray was heaped with sausages, bacon, and scrambled eggs. "I do hope there is enough food there. If not Petal can go ask for more."
Petal popped his head out of her hair and waved. "Petal like to help."
She placed the tray inside the circle where Sebastian could reach it. Sebastian began eating. The food was quickly devoured. Licking the tray clean of every last crumb he looked plaintively at Amaryliss.
"Petal would be kind enough to get more food, please?" Sebastian asked, not waiting for Amaryliss to pass along the message.
"Petal go. More food for Sebastian. Petal gets more food." Leaping from Amaryliss head towards the door. Just before he left he turned back to Sebastian and hovered. "Anything in particular?"
Sebastian looked shocked. "I would like some vegetables if that is possible?"
"Petal ask for green things." Then he dashed from the room.
"I do believe we have work to do. First, you need to regain your strength and I need to make an assessment." She let her senses flow over him. The chaos she had seen the day before was diminished but not entirely gone. "I see your conversation with Eldrick yesterday had some effect." She gave Sebastian a wink. "Yes, I am aware he came in after I left to go get Petal."
"Did someone call Petal?" Flying into the room a huge grin on his face. "Petal have candied lavender." Landing on the floor to show it off to Sebastian. "Petal have food coming."
"Thank you, Petal. Now as I was saying before we were interrupted. I got a report of the conversation from Amarna. I am glad you discussed things with him. Your discussion has helped in the healing of your energies but has done nothing for the wing joint. That will only come with time." She gave him a stern look. "Your levels are safer now, I think I can remove the circle. But I want your word no shifting until you get the all-clear from Amarna or myself."
Sebastian nodded sheepishly. Looking at the circle with revulsion. Shifting his position Sebastian stretched all his limbs to the extent he could, all but the injured wing.
"I need you to vocalize your consent. I may have been born at night but it most definitely was not last night. I know how the binding works on a dragon." She stood there tapping her foot impatiently.
"Phoooooooo, Fine. I give my word no shifting until I am told it is safe to do so."
With the utterance of those words, Amaryliss placed one foot on the outer edge of the circle, dragging it towards herself. The dark red line vanished, not just the one spot but the whole circle, all at once. Sensing the magic returning to her, Sebastian rose to his full height and shook his body.
"OH, thank goodness. I was beginning to cramp from being confined like that. Couldn't you have made it larger?"
"No, I couldn't. I only had so much blood to work with and I wasn't about to draw more."
Sebastian nodded in understanding. Glancing around the room he noticed it was smaller than the previous room. All but the most essential furniture had been removed. There was only his couch and a stool. A gentle knock on the door heralded the arrival of more food. Sniffing the air, his stomach growled. He waited patiently for the tray to be lowered before eating.
"Thank you, Henry. That will be all." waving her hand in a shooing motion. "Once you have finished eating, we will begin our session. You need to learn a better way to control your energies and for this reason, I have asked your uncle to join us."
"Hey there kiddo," the rich baritone voice preceding the entrance of a middle-aged red-haired gentleman. "I bet you didn't expect to be calling out to me to help out in the field, did you?"
"Wait, Uncle Sigmund?? I don't have an uncle named Sigmund. I do have an Uncle Artur though." Sebastian's eyes narrowed. "Well I did but he was killed like thirty years ago from what I can recall of family history."
"I have a lot of explaining to do, I fear. Thirty years ago, I was Artur, unfortunately, it was getting harder to hide my nature from the Order and so to save myself and my son I had to fake my death. Our family swore to keep my secret until I chose to reveal it. The problem is that we cannot reveal it until certain members of the order are no longer living." He let out a long sigh. "Which is becoming less likely since he has been running the order for three hundred years. How he has survived that long we do not know."
"But if the family swore to keep the secret how is it that Amaryliss knows?"
"You young kids," she scoffed. "Age has its benefits especially when you have been friends of the family as long as I have been."
Recalling the spell on the room and the fact that with the door open all of this would be heard outside the room Sebastian glanced at the door. To his relief, Sigmund had closed it behind himself as he entered the room.
"Honestly Sebastian. Do you think I could fake my own death without help? I needed to have the means to prove I had died. Even my son does not know that I live. Well, that is not entirely true. He knows I am alive but not that I am his father," pausing for breath. "He believes I am his uncle and that his father was a half-dragon. Though how anyone can tell is another matter. The only way to tell is by life energy. This brings me to your soulbound. Somehow, she has the energies of all four races. I do not know how that is possible since there is no history of the Eldritch ever having offspring after their ascension. And their offspring before ascension do not show any Eldritch signatures." Sigmund looked at his nephew. "One thing I can tell for certain is that you are entirely dragon. There is no mixing within you."
"Uncle, Amaryliss said you were supposed to be helping me learn better control of my energies. What does this have to do with that?"
"Children," looking over at Amaryliss, "always in a hurry. Not willing to wait for the explanations but want the answers handed to them right away." With a shake of his head and a waggling of his finger in Sebastian's direction. "Control is equal to patience. Though the reasons are not always clear." Shifting forms slightly so that he could sit back on his tail. "Now why do you think as we get older we are capable of doing more with the magics than when we are young? It isn't because we have more energy. No by no means, it is that we have learned to parcel it out more carefully and through the use of patience allow the magic more time to work." Rolling up the sleeves of his tunic he prepared to demonstrate. "Now pay attention. I am going to show you how to use proper control. There are many techniques that can be used. I am going to build a shield. Well, two actually."
Sebastian let his senses flow over his uncle. The flow of energies seemed to bunch and expand slowly around him. Then there was a flash of energy. Once his eyes could focus again Sebastian noticed two different shields encircling Sigmund. The inner one seemed to rotate slowly, while the outer one spun at an alarming rate in the opposite direction.
"Both these shields are crafted by the same energy. We call this design 'Guatama and Ciará' after the moons. The slower one is Ciará while the faster one is Guatama. I would like you to try penetrating the shields with your energy." He gave Sebastian a look of expectation.
Sebastian figured he would try to use a slow build-up of energy to try to penetrate the shields. So meticulously he began gathering his energy, then let it all go in a single shot. The energy just bounced off the first shield, leaving Sebastian feeling drained.
"Sebastian, you used brute force. Try being a little more subtle in the use. I know you can do it. But first, let's take a small break so you don't drain yourself." Amaryliss looked over at Sigmund. "I think we should give him a few moments alone to think of the solution. I need something to drink." She hopped off her stool. The two of them left the room together.
Sebastian sat there in confusion. 'I took my time for the attack, how was it brute force'? Then it hit him. He released the energy in a single full blast. He should have set it up to trickle out and build up on the shield. He figured that might be the way to attack the shields.
"Okay, uncle I think I may have the solution."
Amaryliss and Sigmund returned to the room. Sebastian noticed Sigmund had not dropped the shields so he launched his attack once the door was firmly shut. Moments into the attack his energy was pulled away from his control. He quickly clamped down on the drain so he wouldn't lose too much.
"What did I do wrong?" His voice, plaintive with discouragement. "I tried subtlety and it didn't work."
"Are you feeling drained?" Amaryliss asked. "Or have you noticed that your energy has returned quicker than before?
"Well, I am not drained. I almost feel as if I hadn't spent any energy."
"That is good. Means you are learning, just that your choice of method wasn't the right one." She cocked an eyebrow. How else could you try that?"
Sigmund just sat there with a smug grin on his face. He decided at this point to taunt his nephew by giving a draconic yawn. Grin or no grin he just looked bored. Sebastian considered this, was Sigmund bored, or just playing with his emotions to try to get him to try something brash.
Sebastian, letting his energy flow around the shield without touching it, while causing a counter-rotation. Ever so slowly he compressed his flow down to the offending shield, while cutting off the continued flow to it from within himself. Guiding some of the energy to collect on the edge of the shield he tried to make it stick. Once he felt the energy start unravelling he began to pull it back into the main pool he had set up. With a flash of light both shields vanished leaving Sebastian's energy encircling Sigmund, slowly contracting more towards his uncle.
"Hahahaha, I never would have considered that way. In fact, if you hadn't succeeded I would have suggested the way I was taught. I truly think your method has more merit though since you separated the energy from yourself. Please draw it back before it dissipates." His breathing was starting to become ragged.
Sebastian collected the energy he had sent out, pulling it back to himself. As the energy withdrew from around Sigmund his breathing became less laboured. Feeling more energetic as he did so.
"Well done, Sebastian." Amaryliss voice held pride. "Now let's hope you can do that more regularly. Most shields are designed to defend against power, not subtlety. The other key is that if you use less energy at the onset you can do more and there are less noticeable reactions from the world around you." Her eyes went glassy for a moment. "Well, you didn't use enough energy to affect the weather. All magic interacts with everything around you whether you know it or not. There are some who are so attuned to the weather and energy flows they can track the magic use for miles just by watching the weather."
"We are not finished yet either." Sigmund chimed in. "We are going to be working on this for several more hours today. But you are going to be working on shields and controlling them while under attack. I know you will be going into danger soon. You are going to need to be better prepared."
"Uncle, just how am I going to need this skill? I mean I know it can be beneficial even lifesaving, but can you give me an example?"
"If I knew that I could help prepare you by giving you specific spells, life doesn't work that way as you just proved. In fact, ingenuity may be the key. So we will train you for that." Glancing over to Amaryliss he nodded.
"Defend yourself, you young pup." As she spoke, Sebastian sensed a build-up of energy. With that initial attack, the training truly began in earnest.
For several hours Sebastian found himself on the defensive as Amaryliss and Sigmund took turns pummeling his shields. He spent most of his time defending himself while trying to set up for attacks of his own./ Struggling with having to split his focus was making it difficult to maintain his shields. He needed to find a way for his shields to act independently. Knowing he couldn't ask for advice while this exercise was going on he had to wait for a break.
