Bryson sat in his room, sitting in front of his desk with sheets of papers and a couple of books in front of him, pencil in his left hand and bracelet at the side. A display screen on his left was currently activated and playing a nature documentary about mana beasts in the central continent.
Bryson was currently reading through his books studying the ways of efficient spellcasting and mathematics. The nature documentary offering as background noise for him as he tries to figure out his studies.
It had been a couple of weeks since the events of the bracelet and nothing of note had occurred since then. No mention of anyone in his family realizing what Bryson had done. Phillip gave a couple of brief reports about Lila Frost. Once again, nothing special, just that she had used some of the money and seemed as if she was preparing to move.
Which was probably best for her. The money will last her a while, but Bryson knew that for anyone living inside a major city, that money wasn’t enough for them to retire peacefully. Most likely she would need to find work somewhere else. Meaning that Bryson wouldn’t need to see her again. Any risk of him being found out would be mitigated.
What a relief. Bryson thought as he stretched his arms and gave a small yawn. His eyes darted towards the bracelet as he did so. Oh yeah, that’s still here. Well, I might as well do something with it. He thought as he picked up the old bracelet, looking at all the damaged parts. His eyes then floated back to his book, ‘Arcane Arts 101’.
He grabbed the book and flipped through a few pages quickly skimming through a few chapters. Suddenly something in his brain clicked as he read through the pages.
Bryson realized that some of the more advanced versions of these spells all contained the same concept. While they all had different methods and different descriptions, the very concept of it all was the same for them. The advanced spells at their basis were all the basic version of each spell, simply with extra additions. The main thing that made them better was the fact that the amount of activation sigils that were applied to the advanced level spells were far greater.
While the spells weren’t the same, they all shared the same similarity of creating more sigils for a more complicated spell. For example, to fire a fireball, create a fireball spell. To fire two fireball spells from a single spell, double the magical writing. It was that simple. Well, a caster would also have to input a load of other parameters to stop the fireballs from colliding with each other and blowing up as they were being formed. Also make sure that all the extra arcane writing all fitted on the same single magic circle. But other than that, it was fine.
Besides, Bryson wasn’t planning to cast any spells that could potentially cause him to disintegrate… yet. Instead, he was planning to at least start with something simple, and this bracelet was that simple. He was going to fix this broken thing.
Bryson held the bracelet before him and began to concentrate. This should be far easier than any sort of fireball, this was simple materials already before him. He channeled some mana, creating a duplicate spell and then another bracelet popped out of the bracelet!
It hovered in the air… and then it stayed hovering. Bryson stared at it for a few seconds and realized that it seemed to be unaffected by gravity, or anything else, unmoving was a second bracelet in front of Bryson’s face. Confused, Bryson reached out to grab it, only for his hands to pass through.
Oh, its an illusion. Bryson realized. Damn it. Bryson thought in frustration. Bryson did successfully cast a spell, unfortunately not the one he wanted. Studying the bracelet illusion, he was impressed that he was able to make an exact duplicate. If it wasn’t floating in the air completely static someone may actually think it was real.
Okay, what did I do wrong? He wondered. Thinking about his spell he realized that unlike the fireball spells, which were created solely through magic, what he was trying to do required expanding on base materials.
Bryson suddenly realized that almost all his magic lessons were based upon combat magic. He had no idea how to duplicate solid objects, let alone repair already broken ones.
He pondered for another moment until suddenly something clicked inside his head. He began to figure out what he needed to do; he began to notice the missing pieces to his spell. What’s more he began to see what he would need to do to fix it.
He could see. He could both see and feel what he needed to do. Bryson’s brow furrowed, confused about what he was seeing. Glancing up at the mirror he saw his own reflection, reflected back to him was himself, but with pure glowing white eyes.
Bryson stared at the mirror in disbelief, this was just like what happened the night he went to the crater. Everything he was looking at was weird, there was a strange haze over his vision.
“Huh.” Bryson emoted. He then began to recall how back when he was trapped by the strange figure and how he dealt with him. Concentrating a bit Bryson willed himself and saw from his reflection that his eyes returned to normal.
“Huh.” Bryson repeated. He stared back at the bracelet before he turned back to the mirror. He realized that when his eyes were glowing, he could understand things better. Concentrating again, his eyes glowed again, he then turned back to the bracelet. The weird haze still covered his vision.
Bryson focused a moment before the haze disappeared, his vision became clear, more then that he could see the faint lines of mana around him. Interesting. He thought, looking at bracelet, he then recalled the spell he tried to cast to repair the bracelet. Everything became clear of what he needed to do now that he was staring with his glowing white eyes.
He could tell what he did wrong with his old spell, he was able to recall all the magic lessons he had taken in the past. He could even tell what some of the components of the bracelet was made of.
Bryson casted a new spell, imbuing mana into it and the bracelet in his hand changed. The two metal pieces lost their rust and had a new shiny sheen. The broken and deformed beads repaired and molded themselves as good as new. The string was no longer torn and tattered.
Bryson turned his eyes back to normal and looked at the bracelet. The bracelet looked brand new; Bryson couldn’t even tell that it was the same old bracelet.
A knock on his door followed by a voice called out to him, “Young master Bryson. Duchess Coldwater requires you.” The voice was Phillip. Bryson then remembered that his father’s birthday was coming up and a massive celebration was being set up in honour of him.
Oh right. There’s going to be a massive parade around the city to celebrate in a few days. Honestly though, Bryson would prefer to just stay inside the castle grounds, invite a few of the other noble kids who he doesn’t really like.
Instead, they’re just going to parade around the entire city for the entire day. Bryson already felt tired just thinking about it. Bryson already felt tired just thinking about it. But everyone has been trying to get everything ready the past two weeks, he may as well participate.
“Coming!” He called out as he stashed the bracelet into his pocket, paused the documentary and traveled to the meeting room. He was planning on doing more with it, but that could wait.
Entering the meeting room he found the rest of his family, save for his father already there and seated.
“Have a seat Bryson, your father won’t be part of this meeting.” His mother called to him. Following her order, Bryson sat down. Once he was seated Duchess Coldwater began her speech with a happy clap of her hands.
“Now I will try to keep this brief. In three days, we will be parading around the city in celebration of your father’s birthday. We will explore every major place in the city. There will be crowds of the common folk, so do be careful.” She cautioned. She showed a map on the table and showed the charted course of the parade. Giving explanations on all their stops and destinations she continued to talk for a while.
A general feeling of boredom came from the Coldwater children upon hearing about the parade. It seemed that Bryson wasn’t the only one that didn’t want to sit in a parade for an entire day.
“Now, now, don’t worry, you won’t need be there the entire time. Once we enter the city centre you are free to head off wherever you want. Me and father will be attending a formal party.” Duchess Coldwater said, able to sense the kid’s boredom.
“We’re free to go anywhere?” Gilles asked excitement creeping into his voice.
“Of course, the city is yours to explore.” She said with a kind smile.
“Mother would it be alright to stay with father and you? I would love to learn how more about these formal parties.” Gareth asked.
“Of course, what a wonderful boy. Learning from your father.” Duchess Coldwater said brimming with pride. Turning to the others, “Would anyone else like to join?” She offered.
“I have other plans.” Viola replied.
“I would prefer not.” Sable said.
“I want to do some exploring.” Gilles said.
“No, sorry mother.” Bryson apologised.
Expecting these answers Duchess Coldwater gave a shrug, “Very well, you are free to leave now. If you want Gareth, I can tell you few things to prepare yourself.”
“Of course, mother.” Gareth said sitting before her enthusiastically.
With that the other children quickly funneled out the room and headed back to what they were doing originally. Bryson quickly headed back to him room and sat back down on his desk and pulled out the bracelet.
Okay now that I’ve fixed it I should actually make it useful. But how? He stopped and wondered. His mind then wandered back to the swords that Gareth and Gilles swords. Bryson had no idea how to really enchant things. But he also didn’t know how to restore destroyed objects until recently.
Bryson looked around quickly, saw his door was locked, curtains drawn and seeing that no one could see him, his eyes glowed bright white once more and he studied the bracelet again. His mind still drew a blank on what he should do.
Bryson then grabbed the ‘Arcane Arts 101’ book and flipped through to the book until he reached the spell enhancement section. Unfortunately, no actual spells were in the book, only theories and few basic runes.
But Bryson was able to see a clue to what he needs to do thanks to his eyes. He pulled out his scroll and read the section talking about using mana around the caster to cast spells. Looking back and forth from the book and the scroll he thought up an idea.
Hovering his hand over the bracelet he began to create a spell. Bryson could see magic runes being engraved into the small beads of the bracelet. He was creating the spell on the spot, seemingly through instinct, making things up as he went along, yet it was working, everything fitted together without issue. Bryson, guessing thanks to his special abilities was allowing him to create and cast this enchantment spell he made up.
The bracelet began to glow with magic, a second later Bryson was done, and the glow faded. But Bryson could still read and understand the magic sigils with his eyes activated.
Bryson admired his handywork, he had just made a bracelet that could absorb and store mana. Bryson felt pretty proud of himself. His eyes still glowing Bryson wondered. I wonder what else I can do with these powers. Bryson began reading through his book, trying to soak up all the information. Trying to figure out just what exactly he can do.
