HBWnovel Chapter 31: Unfathomable Aether Core
Chapter 31: Unfathomable Aether Core
Chapter 31: Unfathomable Aether Core
Chapter 31 Unfathomable Aether Core
The next morning I was excited and up early. I only had a few hours of sleep but if I could make a magic device to make ice cream! I was the first one to the farmhouse and was glad to see Callem was back. Wynna was in the larder below so Callem had a few minutes to talk to me.
“Good morning Storme. Yesterday we went and got supplies in the city.” He paused as if coming to a decision and continued, “Wynna has registered as a mentor and set up an account for you with the coins you created. Well, not your coins. She used her own coins and kept your shiny platinum.” Callem took a thick bracelet out and placed it on the counter. “This bracelet will let you withdraw coins from the depository. You need to place a drop of your blood on the aether crystal embedded here to link it to you.” He stopped talking as Wynna came up from below with a tray of food to prepare for breakfast. She saw the bracelet on the counter and gave a curt nod of not being happy about it. They obviously disagreed on whether it was wise to give me access to my own coin. She forced a smile.
“Storme! How was your day off? Callem said you all needed it. Who did you spend your time with?” Wynna said being a bit nosy.
“I just studied, rested, and ate. Nothing that great.” I said. Then I thought of something. “Wynna, Aelyn showed me her reading,” Callem’s and Wynna’s faces expressed extreme surprise, so I paused.
“Wow, Storme. We both warned her to keep what was on that sheet a secret and to destroy it after she read it. She has shown you a large amount of trust, A LARGE AMOUNT of trust Storme. Keep her secrets.” Wynna said with sincerity.
“Um, yes I will. I wanted to ask about getting my aether core size read as I am curious. None of my texts mention it in terms of actual numbers,” I asked, keeping my tone low and pleading somewhat.
Wynna spoke, “I don’t have that ability Storme, Ennet does. But maybe I can give you an idea? Well, Storme an average person without an awakened core has an aether count of 1, this is just what saturates a normal person’s body within the sphere. They cannot control it as they need a core to manipulate the aether. But one point can be utilized for abilities that require aether even if they do not have an aether core. As a person ages, they are able to use this minor amount of aether much more effectively, extending the use of their powers but their total aether pool never increases without an aether core.”
“A person with an awakened core usually has between 3 to 23 times that amount of aether on awakening, so their reading score usually falls in the range of 3 to 23 as their current value. As you have probably read, an aether core matures it expands slightly in size and density to fall somewhere between 10 to 20 times its initial size on awakening. That is where the maximum range in Ennet’s reading comes in. With your enhanced aether core at tier 2.” She stopped and looked at Callem with a guilty expression as I had not told her about my aether core tier and Callem thought it was just at 2, not at enhanced core. So I deduced Callem had dropped my secret but I didn’t hold it against him. He did look awfully guilty so maybe I could get something out of him later?
Wynna’s pause ended and was continuing her lecture, “Well each tier is three times as powerful as the last generally, so that means you should have had nine times the average on awakening...somewhere between 27 and 207 in terms of aetheric points available to you when you first awakened.” Wynna said doing the math. Then a shocked look passed her face. “That means when your core is fully mature you will have between 270 and 4140 aether!”
She was shaking her head. “That is incredible Storme. I hadn’t put the numbers together in my head until just now. Archmages without an expanded core ability usually have somewhere in the range of 500 to 1000 I think. I am not sure about that though. I must have read something to that effect a long time ago,” she had a distant look on her face. Then returned to focus on me, “You could try casting a tier one spell over and over and count the castings. Usually, a tier 1 spell uses about 1 relative aetheric point,” she paused pulling up knowledge from memory, “tier 2 about 2 aetheric points, tier 3 costs 4 points, and tier 4 costs 8 points. I assume a tier 5 spell costs 16 but I didn’t read that, just following the progression from a textbook I read many years ago.”
I thought for a bit while helping with preparing breakfast. Callem was silent and not making eye contact with me. Wynna was studying me. No, she was realizing that I might be a monster in terms of my aether core capacity. I thought for a moment, that the last method didn’t work for me in my current state. My cleanliness spell varied in aether investment based on how dirty I was. Also, every time you leveled a spell it cost a tiny bit less aether as the mage’s efficiency increased and took a little less time to cast and the cleanliness spell was already level 7. My mend flesh spell was sort of in the same boat as I unconsciously chained it over and over until I felt the healing was done. Seeing my consternation Wynna said, “I am sure Callem can bring you to visit Ennet if you really want a reading.” I looked at Callem for a second and I sensed he would say no but then he nodded. I was also doing some more math in my head as I had a tier 4 core which meant my initial core fell between 243 and 1863! And my maximum core would be between...2,430 and 37,260! I was a monster! It now made sense how casting spells had trouble draining my aether pool and I needed to create the coins to empty my core quickly.
Callem spoke, breaking my inner haze of math calculations, “Yes Storme I can bring you to Hen’s Hollow. We can see your family and Ennet while we are there. Your brother’s birthday is in just a few days away?” Oh, I hadn’t planned on attending. And the fact Callem remembered when Pascal’s birthday was and I didn’t remember it made me feel guilty. That I could see Freya and my parents made the decision easy for me.
“That sounds good.” I paused for a second running some scenarios through my mind trying to decide if what I was about to ask would be a good idea in the long run. “Callem can I ask a favor?”
“Correct! Well, I guess you had a 50-50 chance!” The girls hadn’t lied or been at all upset which was a positive trait in my estimation. Callem called me over and I found out he had bought 20 chickens, a rooster, a large chicken coop, and a large wagon to transport everything back to his farm. The Gaskill’s would load everything and we would pick them up on the way back.
The twin's father called them back to work and they left me reluctantly. There were about 7 kids on the farm with the addition of the parents and grandparents, 11 people in all. I scanned the large group as they started to work on gathering the chickens into individual cages and caught the twins turning to eye me as I was leaving. I was sure once they saw Gareth their interest in me would instantly fade.
Our next stop was Ennet’s. Callem left me there to go get supplies at the general store. I knocked and Ennet was happy to see me when she opened the door, “Storme! I am happy to see you! Are you here to make me dinner?” she asked teasingly.
I smiled and said, “That could be arranged. But I am also here for a reading.”
She grabbed my bicep and rubbed it before gently pulling me inside, “I know! My mother and I have communication stones and she told me you were coming!” I thought she was being a little handsy but that was ok. “You are getting bigger Storme,” she released my bicep.
I decided to defuse being uncomfortable, “Ok let me see what you have in your kitchen,” I waved off her objections to my cooking. I needed her to do me a favor and doing a favor for her in return was natural. I quickly put together a simple pasta dish with roasted vegetables and an alfredo sauce. After we both ate the hasty meal we were sitting down for the reading and Callem returned. Since the reading wasn’t done yet Callem decided to wait outside but not before taking a bowl of the culinary concoction I had made.
“Storme I know my mother has told you what to expect so I will get right to it. Read the paper and immediately destroy it...I think I might also be able to show you what the value of your core was when it awakened but it will be my first time trying to do that...so that might be on your paper as well.” Ennet was serious as she prepared and then did the reading. I got that uncomfortable feeling as my blood exited my hands to write the text on the paper. Ennet left immediately when she was done. There was a candle burning on the table for me to destroy the paper after I read it.
I revealed the paper to my eyes,
Aether Core Awakening 1,153
Current Aether Core 1,384
Maximum Aether Core 23,060
I immediately burned the sheet of paper. I was a little disappointed with a few facts. First, my maximum aether was only about 23,000, short of my estimated potential of 37,000. I know I was crying over nothing. My current aether core was already slightly larger than a top archmage according to Wynna. The second thing I was unhappy with was my core had only expanded by 231 from all the practice I had been doing in the last few months. Ennet returned shortly after I burned the paper.
I must have looked disappointed because she said, “Don’t worry Storme. My readings are not completely accurate. Well, your current aether core number is accurate but your maximum core size could be low by as much as 10%. It really depends on how dedicated you are to your training in the next decade as your core cements itself. Aether cores are fluid by nature during development.” She came up and gave me a hug. “You will be an amazing mage Storme, just work hard at it.”
I left, rejoining Callem and we headed to my home for Pascal’s birthday celebration.