During the weeks that followed the duel, Ahrden didn't leave the house and only left his study when he absolutely had to. He collected all of the books he thought necessary to aid him in understanding the book Kadelinas had given him and stacked them up on his always packed desk, that never had so many books on it. There were a few he needed, which were in the library, those he quickly acquired by teleporting in and out of it under the cover of the silent night, the rest were already at his place.
Ahrden spent all of his time in his own library, which was small but ever-expanding. All the windows were thoroughly covered all of the time, so there was no telling when it was day or when it was night. Ahrden placed candles all around the house and enchanted them to make them burn slower so they would last longer. He still had some smoked meat and some bread he occasionally ate, but his eating habit was highly impulsive and infrequent. He didn't go to the obligatory weekly meetings to show how he has improved his skills, although he had learned more in those weeks than he had in a very long time.
The book's appearance was very similar to his father's Book of Knowledge, which carried his own family's wisdoms on the warrior class. Ahrden highly doubted that Kadelinas would hand him his family's most tightly protected sacred Book of Knowledge, which contained the many secret knowledge that the Minerinth family had learned over the countless centuries all the way to Beretandas or maybe even before him. Still, the more Ahrden dug into it, the more and more it seemed that this was the case.
The book was relatively small and not too wide, but every single page was covered in writings from top to bottom. There was no room for any additional words to be written on any one page. Some pages were turning yellow, but not all of them and not in the same way. The further Ahrden got with the book, the younger the pages looked, although there were no empty pages at the end. The handwriting differed on each page with only a few exceptions where one style followed onto the other pages. Ahrden believed that each of the pages were written by the head of the family, and as the book was passed down a new blank sheet of paper was inserted into it, so the next member could write his or her wisdom on it.
Knowing how much knowledge, power and personal value this one book had, Ahrden couldn't believe that Kadelinas would just hand it to him after meeting him for a few minutes. He examined the book through his arcane senses and used a few light spells to learn as much as he could from it. Each and every time, he met different protective spells that were layered upon the book, one after the other. The spells Ahrden felt protecting the book had no restraint on them, unlike the ones that were sent at his way at the duel. These spells were fully powered, and Ahrden doubted that a single soul could do anything with the book that Kadelinas would disapprove of.
The presence of these incredible protective spells meant that Ahrden had indeed received something impossible. Something that was meant for those who had books written after them. Songs sung of their deeds. Ahrden held the Book of Knowledge that was written by those who shaped history itself. If nothing else this reassured him that he would meet Kadelinas again.
---
William had never given Ahrden his family's Book of Knowledge. After William died, Ahrden didn't have the courage to even touch it let alone open it, so it has been lying on one of the bookshelves ever since, collecting dust. This made Ahrden feel guilty about how excited he was about another family's inherited knowledge, but not about his own.
While sitting at his desk, Ahrden could bear the renewed guilt no more, so he got up and retrieve his family's Book of Knowledge from the shelf. He sat it beside the Minerinth family's and read the two along with each other.
Ahrden studied both books with wild devotion, apprehending the immeasurable worth he was holding in his hands. Never having read any family's Book of Knowledge before, everything was new and remarkable for him. It turned out that both of the books contained many altered and modified versions of the known techniques and even more wholly new and original ones. Both families created their own ways of mastering their class; altering and creating new spells and moves, ones that were entirely unique to their style and could not be copied by others, for it required infinitely more than merely seeing them in action. Despite his initial guilt, Ahrden could not help but be more fascinated by Kadelinas' book, although his father's turned out to be more intriguing than he would have initially expected it to be.
From his very early days, Ahrden had always wanted to write his very own spell and seeing now how this was possible and had been done by many magi before, he felt an even greater urge to try it. The only problem was that he wasn't sure what spell to create, and more importantly, there was no one he had that could guide him through the process. Not to mention the more obvious obstacles, such as how he was nowhere close as knowledgeable as the ones who wrote these books. Ideally Ahrden would need to learn many more things and become more powerful before he could craft his own spell. Yet the idea of doing it, and doing it right away could not escape him.
---
Ahrden has been in his self-imposed exile for more than a month now, when he got to a specific defensive move in his father's book, that was another variation of an otherwise well-known and popular move. This particular move differed from the other similar ones, because the moves drawn on this page somehow resembled a spell casting gesture he saw in the other book. Upon the realization, he frantically started flipping through the other book, trying to find the spell he was looking for while also being careful not to rip the pages, although damaging them were far beyond his ability. When he finally found what he was looking for, he put the two books next to each other and felt pleased with what he saw.
To a certain extent, the moves, the gestures and even the stance were the same, only with the spell it was toned down by a certain amount, and complex incantation accompanied it. At the same time, with the warrior's defensive move, a sword was part of the technique, and the gestures didn't stop where the spell's gestures did but instead went on to be a full-fledged dance. These similarities gave Ahrden an idea that had the potential to satisfy that ever-present urge to create his own spell. He had read many books about the process of creating a spell, and none failed to express how challenging the task was and how dangerous it could be if not done correctly. Neither of these stopped Ahrden; if only they made him want to do it even more.
With this new direction in mind, Ahrden remained in his cosy study among the many books which now were tall enough to serve as his own fortress. He had learned many spells from the Book of Knowledge that Kadelinas had given him. He wasn't powerful enough to cast most of them, while being far from achieving the full potential of the few that he could.
There was one spell that caught his eye, which he was able to successfully cast after feverishly practising it for weeks. Once Ahrden became confident with it, he found this spell immensely useful and extremely powerful even at his power level and, more importantly, with his own fighting style.
The spell was a general addition to many other spells that Ahrden was already quite familiar with. The family of spells that this alteration belonged to was the one that enabled something lasting to be conjured out of arcane energy. The two such spells, that Ahrden most often used from this family, were the shield and the arcane blade. So far, Ahrden constantly had to power the spell otherwise it would cease to exist which was a huge drawback or on rare occasions he could make the objects last but not for long and not without considerable effort to achieve this little result. This technique allowed the caster to power up the conjured spell and then effortlessly sever the connection without the created thing disappearing into nothing.
This was a spell he could practice in his study, and soon it was full of blue, floating, buzzing rods of arcane energy, which he could individually command without the need to constantly power them all. He could create a shield around himself feed it with energy, then let it go without the shield going away, which was an incredible improvement for him.
With the help of the book, Ahrden was able to further hone several aspects of many spells that he already knew. He knew that the effectiveness of a spell greatly depended on the power level of the caster, but with the help of the Minerinth family's Book of Knowledge, Ahrden was able to achieve improvements to his casting that should have only been available for the ones wielding pure purple power-level.
Ahrden had finally reached the purple power-level, but he was still far from constantly wielding purple arcane, let alone to become pure purple. It would take some time for him to have the purple arcane energies be present in his every spell and even more to get completely rid of the blue. Even with great effort, he was only able to sometimes make the purple arcane appear in his spells, but over time this would improve.
Ahrden had learned most of what he could from his father's Book of Knowledge. Although this information was mostly theoretical for him, he hoped that now he knew the theory of what was imbued in the fabrics of Duskedge he would become even more efficient with it. At the very least, he gained an in-depth understanding of what the highest level of warrior techniques looked like.
While Ahrden was slowly going through both books, he learned and practised what he believed were the most important for him. Besides that, he also started tirelessly working on his own spell. This spell was based on the techniques that he found to be similar in the two books and in made sense to take advantage of his situation of possessing two immense sources of knowledge he dug deeper into the spell. Ahrden believed that combining these two classes in such a unique way would grant him an edge over both of them.
In this spell, Ahrden fused the elements he had taken from the warrior defensive moves, while a large portion of it mimicked the unique traces that the Minerinth family possessed. Of course, he added a fair share of his own creation to it, but he knew that building on the rock-solid experience of two ancient families would ensure a firm foundation for his spell. Thinking about the possibilities he had with the materials, he pondered a lot about the spell itself and after much consideration, he decided to create a spell that would suit his unique style the most.
Ahrden was the unlikely combination of the two farthest points in the art of combat. He was a mage with arcane powers at his fingertips, yet he felt most comfortable with Duskedge in his grasp. He had everything at his disposal to unleash hell from a distance, yet he liked getting close to his foes. He knew the strengths and limitations of his class, yet he openly ignored it, by choosing to fight the way he did.
The spell he sought to create would enhance his ability to be more effective in a close combat fight. The spell would further mix the two class, which originally were never meant to have any mutual area. Ahrden suspected that combining two things that were so pure and so different could result in something spectacular and brilliant. His spell was going to be so unique that no one would be prepared for it. What further supported this argument was his unexpected move with the runed blades against Kadelinas, which was the reason he could get out of the suffocating spell. All things considered, Ahrden felt confident that with this spell, he would not only outsmart the foes with steel, but even those with arcane.
Learning from the best Ahrden worked to modify an existing spell rather than to invent something out of nothing. His desired spell was a unique modification of another where the caster sent out the gathered arcane powers, which evenly floated around the mage and through that, the caster could feel the environment. This alone didn't prevent the incoming attacks, but through it, the mage was warned if something had entered the area, and could even locate and learn other attributes about the object. Based on how powerful the caster was and how much power was channelled into the spell, the precision of the information increased and the range of the area grew.
By combining the different moves and techniques, Ahrden was creating a spell which, in theory, would make the commanded arcane power denser and less transparent while it could spread more easily to a broader area. The goal wasn't to create an impenetrable wall of smoke through which he could feel all and every movement, but rather to create an expansive, foggy environment where the enemy's movement was slightly impaired. Ahrden wanted to cast a thick mist around himself with this spell where the enemy couldn't see as clearly and could only move with greater effort. In addition to this, he also worked hard to add an element that could make it easier for him to feel the time slow, thus making him move and think faster within.
The homework before such spell was extensive and tiresome, but Ahrden didn't shy away from it, nor did he take any shortcuts along the way. The progress was slow, but he was inching towards his goal. The first half of the spell crafting was without casting; it was to create the base of the spell and work out the governing forces behind it in a way that would enable the arcane to act as he wanted it to. Once the groundwork was done; came the small movements, gestures and the overall stance. These were pieced together from many warrior and fewer magical movements and involved a lot of trial and error as Ahrden moved, waved and walked around the small study that was his entire living space. Once he perfected that, too, it was time to work out the incantation behind the spell, which would eventually command the powers. For this part, many ancient books proved to be invaluable, as Ahrden wrote out the best strings of words that commanded just the right kind of arcane for his spell.
When he considered the spell done, he practised it day in and day out before he dared to feed power into it. When he did, he mustered the most minuscule amount he could and noted all the things that were wrong with the outcome. Then, the finetuning part of the spell began, which this being his first spell, was something he didn't really account for or assumed would take long. On the eleventh day of adjusting the nuances, when he made the first partially successful casting, he realized how wrong he was.
---
First days, then weeks, then months went by this way, and no one in Belentedor ever thought to look for Ahrden. He wasn't particularly surprised by this, although his mind was rather occupied by other subjects. However, what was different about this time compared to the others was that he was gone for more than two months.
After the Grand Trials, there was no official verdict whether he needed to continue his weekly check-ins or not. Since the training for those who passed the trials continued in a different establishment, Ahrden speculated that maybe the weekly meetings would be moved to a different location. Not he or anyone else cared enough to find out, so in this forgotten manner did those old visits cease to exist.
On rare occasions, Ahrden did wonder what the others thought about where he was in all this time, and the only suitable answer he kept coming back to was that no one cared.
Given all these things it was quite a surprise when one morning there was a knock on the door. The sound, strange from being so infrequent, startled Ahrden as he was about to test his spell yet another time. He walked out of his study and into the living room that was covered in complete darkness. Since he rarely came in here, he didn't light any candles in here, but out of habit he had covered all the windows. With a wave of his hand and a quick incantation he lit most of the candles that covered the room in a warm hue and walked to the door.
He extended his arcane senses the traditional way, to get an idea of who had come to see him. He could tell that the person was a she and that she came alone. Ahrden sensed a slender and delicate body that felt oddly familiar, although he wasn't sure who she was. When he opened the door slightly, it was already too much for his after being in the dark for months. Through his squinting eyes, he could only see the silhouette of the person standing at the door, but that was more than enough for him to recognize who she was.
'Hello Ahrden, can I come in?' Sophie asked in her lovely voice, almost singing the words.
'Yeah, of course,' Ahrden stuttered, still not fully grasping what was going on.
Ahrden stepped out of the way, while further opening the door so Sophie could come in, who did, but not without slightly brushing into him.
Sophie was carrying a small sack that weighed heavily on her shoulder, but she managed. When she stopped her face bore a strange expression which made Ahrden panic a little. Only now that a breath of fresh air came into the house did Ahrden realize just how stale, damp and rotten the air was. He momentarily thought about using his magic to instantly open all the windows and help the fresh air in, while pushing the old out. He knew that Sophie has always been hostile towards magic, so he decided against it. Once Ahrden arrived to this conclusion it seemed that his guest was already over the initial shock of the smell and was now preoccupied with the many candles that were all around the room.
'Don't they burn down quickly?' Sophie asked, carefully patting one of the bigger candles.
'Not really. No,' Ahrden said, contemplating whether to tell her why that was the case.
Obviously, these were only just lit, but the explanation to both the lighting of the them and their long life was arcane, so no honest answer would have been to her liking.
'Magic?' Sophie asked in a playful yet disapproving tone as if she could read his thoughts.
'Magic…' Ahrden answered, unsure whether she was disappointed or not.
'Where have you been Ahrden? It's been weeks, no months since anyone had last seen you...' Sophie changed to a sadder and more serious tone. 'There are rumours, you know...'
'What rumours?' Ahrden asked instantly, forgetting to even answer her question.
'That magic made you...crazy…' Sophie whispered, clearly unsure whether to believe the rumours or not.
The way Sophie was reacting to the rumours hurt Ahrden, but he was delighted that nothing more serious was circulating about him in the capital.
'People dread what they don't understand,' Ahrden said in a measured tone, but he was still frustrated at how the rumours were affecting Sophie, who was obviously among those who feared everything that had to do with magic. 'Don't worry, Sophie. I'm fine; there is nothing to be afraid of.'
This somewhat cheered Sophie up and brought some colour to her cheeks, but she still needed reassurance.
'Then why did you lock yourself in here for months now? What has been going on?'
Ahrden sighted hesitant about what he should tell her. Similarly, to everyone else in Belentedor, Sophie was unfamiliar with anything that had to do with arcane. Telling her that he had spent all this time in his study to learn different spells and work on creating a new one would be the equivalent to that he had gone mad. On the other hand, given who Sophie was telling her anything but the truth would be futile because Ahrden could never fool her with his lies. Stuck between two terrible choices, Ahrden decided to tell her the truth. If she had any capacity to accept what Ahrden was doing and consequently who he was, then the truth would bring them together and build their connection. If not, then it would lead to the inevitable that is only prolonged by the lies.
Ahrden offered her a seat in the living room and told her the whole story. All the way from his encounter with the beast that was followed by him buying the map and the poem, to his search that lasted for months. He told her about the tree, about the mountain top, the other land beyond theirs and his encounter with Kadelinas. He talked about most of the things Kadelinas told him there and about how he was the one who set the whole thing up. Ahrden then talked a little too enthusiastically about his duel with the powerful mage, then finished the story with the two Books of Knowledge and his endeavour to learn and create a new spell. Sophia just sat there, patiently listened and not once did she interrupt Ahrden.
When Ahrden finished everything, he gestured for Sophia to come into his study. There he showed her the book he got from Kadelinas, his father's book and the countless papers he had laying around about his own new spell. When Sophia walked in behind him, she silently gasped at the sight of the book-lined walls with papers and candles and books everywhere. She didn't dare to touch anything; afraid she might knock over a bottle of ink or make a stack of book topple down or spill a bowl with a half-eaten lunch in it or even to just touch some dangerous magical object.
When Ahrden was done, he looked at Sophia, waiting for her to fully digest the whole story. Sophie nodded a few times, then looking around the study again.
'And you stand by this story?'
'Yes.'
'No matter what?'
'Would it make who I am, any less… Who I truly am?'
Sophie fell silent for long seconds, thinking hard about what Ahrden had asked her. Both of them felt the weight of this conversation and the impact it will have on their future. Sophie didn't rush her answer and Ahrden had ambivalent feelings about that. He knew that her decision would be well though through and thus it will be permanent. Of course, hope would always remain, but Ahrden liked the idea that after all these years there was a chance for his solitary to end. There was a reason why all the rumours had not scared Sophie away and why she came. Something must have changed in her to visit him now, and to consider this question so thoroughly.
As the seconds went by Ahrden became more confident. He understood that Sophie needed the strength to go against everything that she grew up hearing about magic. She was here now and she was here because she was ready.
Ahrden jerked back from the sound of the heavy bag hitting the floor besides Sophie. He did not notice that the strap slowly slid off of her shoulder or that she had taken it with her to his study in the first place. Fresh vegetables rolled out of the bag and one tomato even rolled as far as Ahrden's feet. Once it stopped Ahrden looked up, but Sophie was gone.
'Keep the bag.'
Was the last thing Ahrden heard coming from the living room before the door slammed closed.
Ahrden felt empty, and it was an agonizing feeling.