Spell Weaver-Chapter 83: Facades

Alex lay spread-eagle on the training mat with his chest heaving and sweat cooling on his skin. The lights were back on, and the late afternoon sun was streaming through the tall windows of the training room. Beside him, Olivia sat cross-legged, drinking deeply from her water bottle.

"You know," she said between breaths, "I thought I had figured you out after watching you train with Mark and Sam. But you've really been holding back on them, huh?"

Alex turned his head to look at her. "Well, yeah, of course. Mark is so low-level, and Sam barely knows how to fight. They need to be learning how to fight, not getting into the weird stuff."

"Weird stuff?" Olivia snorted and raised an eyebrow as she set her water bottle down. "You mean like reading and fighting at the same time? Or setting up those small rituals insanely fast? Seriously, we have one other mage here with the Peacekeepers, and it takes several seconds for them to cast the spells from two of his skills."

"Says the woman who can literally grab people with shadows." He winced as he sat up, his tired muscles protesting. "That's got some really crazy combat potential, you know? Especially if the area is dark."

A comfortable silence fell between them as they caught their breath. Alex could feel the pleasant burn in his muscles and thought back to just a few months before and how he wouldn't have been able to train even a fraction of the time. A smile tugged at his lips as he remembered how much his muscles had burned and how exhausted he'd been after simply beating on a slime.

He continued to think about his time in the Rifts after the slime, and his mind went back to the time he spent with the Mana Spinners. The way they used their webs was unique, and Alex wondered, now that he had a better handle on his [Mana Threads], how they could turn the mana into something solid.

Originally, he'd assumed that it was a naturally created substance as if it were a mix between an actual spider's web and what he did with the Mana Stone dust to give the threads a physical substance to latch onto. However, after seeing Olivia's skill, he had to wonder if there wasn't an easier way to go about making mana manifest in the physical world. If the only base that her skill needed was a shadow and mana, then it could mean he wouldn't need to continue using the Mana Stone dust for too long.

"Can you show me that shadow hand again?" Alex asked. "I want to watch how it forms with my eye."

Olivia nodded and extended her hand. A tendril of darkness stretched from the ground where the shadow under her hand was projected onto the mat. It formed into the shape of a large hand with lines and joints that were just slightly too angular to be real, almost as if drawn on paper in a quick sketch.

Alex's Heavenly Eye tracked the flow of mana, noting how it seemed to solidify at the edges while maintaining a fluid core.

"Interesting," he murmured. "It's almost like... you're creating a shell of solid mana, where the skill is folding the outer edge on itself a number of times. But the center, the mana within that shell, is fluid. Is this how the spiders actually made their webs?" The thought boggled Alex's mind. To think of the control required to have something so thin as their webs compressed a multitude of times and still act as a shell for the more fluid mana would require more control than he had thought.

"The spiders?" Olivia's nose wrinkled. "You're still thinking about those creepy things?"

"They were kind of cute once you got to know them," Alex defended but then laughed at her expression.

"You think a bunch of large spiders are cute, and you had the audacity to think I was crazy for calling Valtherion cute?"

This caused Alex to laugh harder as he remembered the first time she'd come to his apartment to meet the little mana wyrm. "Man, I'm so excited to see his advancement." He sighed for a second as he watched the mana within the shadowy hand move.

Seeing his interest, Olivia directed the hand to move and flex in various ways.

"But seriously, their webs were incredible. They managed to make something both physical and magical without using a physical anchor like the Mana Stones that I've had to crush up. I'd love to figure out how to replicate that."

"Well," Olivia said as she ended the skill and stood up, "what if they did have a physical anchor? Like, couldn't they produce something in their bodies?"

"Huh?"

"Normal spiders produce webs from their body, right? What if the Mana Spinners have the ability to create something as a physical anchor from their body? You just didn't notice it because it seemed natural." She gave a dramatic shiver. "Don't expect me to help with any spider experiments." She stretched and rifled through her bag to find her phone. She checked the time and cursed. "I'm a bit late. I've got to shower, change, and head to meet up with my team. This was great practice, though."

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"Yeah, it'll be nice when we can do this at the Guild Headquarters," Alex said. "It feels weirdly personal to just come over to Elana's house to spar, train, and hang out with you."

Olivia gave a short laugh and hugged and kissed him on the cheek. "Come on, I'll walk you out to your car."

"No, don't worry about it. Don't be late to meet up with the other Peacekeepers. You can head to the locker rooms; I know my way out. I want to chat with Elana anyway. You're still coming over tonight?"

"Yep," she said as she turned and made her way to the back of the room, where the single metal door led into the locker rooms. "I'm excited for the Rift event to start tomorrow."

"I'm glad they could spare you for the first few days!" Alex called after her. "It'll be nice to have the entire group together and in a Rift."

She smiled and waved as she walked through the back door.

Alex let out a breath and rocked himself up to his feet. It was a great feeling to have sparred and tried out some theories he'd been working on with the new use of the wand rituals.

He shouldered his gym bag and headed out of the training facility. He wanted to catch Elana before heading home.

The main house's entryway was better temperature-controlled than the training room, and Alex was grateful for the break from the overheated addition. As he turned down the main hallway toward Elana's office, he nearly walked straight into a small group of well-dressed individuals. Rylan stood at their center, speaking in a friendly tone about the Guild's goals.

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One of the men exclaimed and two others stepped forward protectively. Alex saw through his eye as mana gathered around the more slender man's head. There was some quick whispering between him and the shorter man. The entire group seemed to be of Asian nationality, but Alex couldn't tell where from, by their appearance or from the language they spoke.

"Excuse me," Alex apologized and glanced up at Rylan for some assistance. "I'm just passing by."

The tall blond man stood silent for a moment, the gears in his head clearly turning as he thought through the best way to handle the situation. "Mr. Park, this is Alex Moore. Earlier, you asked who I lost to in our tournament. This is the Guild member that took the trophy home."

There was some more quick whispering before the shortest man in the group stepped forward and extended a hand toward Alex. They shook, and he spoke to Alex in a foreign language.

Barely a beat passed before the taller man spoke up, the one that he'd bumped into. "He says, 'It's a pleasure to meet you. We're happy to be here and see the strength of our future allies.'"

Alex put a smile on his face and realized that he'd stepped into something he wished he wouldn't have. "It's a pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Park."

The translator took over and conveyed his words, but before the man could respond, Rylan spoke up once more with a charming smile on his face. "We were just talking about our Guild's Teams Event that starts tomorrow. Alex here will be leading a team of his own in the competition, right?"

"I will," Alex said. He paused for a moment before letting himself be pulled into an awkward and formal conversation where he wasn't quite sure what to say or share. For several minutes, the diplomat used their translator to act as a middleman and speak with Alex about his experience in Rifts and how he enjoyed being in the Guild. Rylan played the gracious host, smiling and assisting more than once to direct the conversation when Alex might stumble.

Finally, Rylan gestured to a nearby Guild member and spoke up. "Would you please escort our guests to the conference room? I'll join you shortly."

As the group moved away, Alex found himself oddly impressed by Rylan's composure and tact during the exchange and decided to try to offer an olive branch. "Wow, that was a pleasant introduction. Thanks for that. I'm pretty bad in these kinds of social situations. I'm assuming these are the diplomats for potential overseas trade and expansion?"

Rylan's polite smile vanished. "Don't mistake political necessity for friendliness. I really don't like you. I hate people who get lucky and think that they have it made or belong anywhere near me."

"Lucky?" Alex's attempt at friendliness cooled.

"Yes, lucky." Rylan stepped closer and lowered his voice. "You stumble into an Epic Rift, somehow survive, and everyone acts like you're special. You got lucky in finding a rare healer who follows you around like a lost puppy. But luck runs out. I've spent my entire life working to be exceptional in my social connections and work. All of that experience has carried over into this new life, and you think that a few months of fumbling around with the least desirable kind of magic after a lifetime of mediocrity makes you my equal?"

He shouldered past Alex, and the force of it sent Alex stumbling back a step and into the hallway wall. The casual display of his Strength wasn't lost on either of them.

"Keep coasting on your luck. Keep playing mentor to your puppy. But remember this... your progression will plateau once your luck runs out. Mine won't." Rylan's voice carried as he walked away. "The Teams Event should make that perfectly clear to you and everyone else in the Guild."

Alex clenched his jaw. The familiar burn of anger rose in his chest, but underneath it was a disappointment—not at Rylan, but at himself for actually believing that Rylan might be different than he'd thought.

Should have known better. He's been putting on a front the last few weeks, just pretending to be a nice guy.

Still, something about Rylan's words nagged at him. He felt like a lot had fallen into place for him despite the dire circumstances he'd had to live through to obtain it all. Even worse was that he did feel like his progress had slowed greatly since returning from the Celestial Rift.

That's intentional, though. I want to help the others grow stronger...

Even though he knew that the words were true, they rang hollow after the exchange with Rylan, feeling more like an excuse than the goal he'd hoped it would be since returning home.

He turned and walked out of the Voss Estate. The note on their status had been lifted, and he didn’t feel like it would do any good to go to Elana and talk while he was angry or frustrated. With the Team’s Event starting the next day, he’d be able to help the others grow stronger. Right then, he needed to think about what came next and how to continue growing his own strength.