The Unbreakable Bow

Weeks went as hours, or that's what Aefrine felt, he had been, for the past few days, doing nothing useful. His language lessons were boring and dull, especially with the library keeper Miss Berta, who is constantly pointing out his poor pronunciation. His good memory helped him in learning the words quickly, as well as every insulate that Miss Berta had to say. At one point, he really just used his soul-reading ability on her, and apparently, she simply doesn't like him for some reason.

Thankfully, Princess Alma stepped in and decided that she would take the "boring" responsibility of teaching the newcomer. This was such a relief for Aefrine for not only the princess kindly corrected his mistakes, ignoring her consent giggles. Also, surprisingly, she had a nice sense of humour. Aefrine didn't expect her to be this funny. She used to come to the library on her own to read next to the window.

Aefrine only felt bad for Larry. He hadn't left the room as the king told him to keep him away from view. Larry didn't seem to care. He only cared about Aefrine as every time he entered the room, he would bombard him with questions that were now getting annoying. But Aefrine couldn't help with it. He wondered what Larry does all day alone in the room.

But one day, he was invited to the yard. He didn't know what that meant nor where it was. The servants guided him to the tilting yard where he found two familiar faces. Princesse Alma was duelling the orc that Aefrine had met in the prison.

However, she wasn't wearing her fancy clothes, instead, she had some kind of leather armour, making it hard to realise that she was a princess if you hadn't seen her before. Without her robe, she looked quite muscular for a woman, not that Aefrine had seen a lot of women in his life. Her oval squishy face made her lime big round eyes even bigger. Her small pointy nose and ears added a level of cuteness to her appearance. But her long hair, gathered in a braided bun, and tall physique made her a bit intimidating. Not to mention she was as tall as Aefrine. Only today, in the broad sunlight, Aefrine realised that her hair wasn't in fact black but dark purple. She was welding a broad sword in one hand and a circular shield in the other.

Her opponent had only a wooden 'sword' and yet looked like he had the advantage. He was taller than both of them. His rectangular face combined with his short, small silver beard, made him even taller. He looked quite skinny compared to Alma. He was almost bald except for the sides of his head. He was wearing his usual fancy suit with a monocle.

In their fight, it was clear that she was having a rough time. She barely was blocking the orc's attacks with her shield, and she didn't seem to have any success on the offence either. Aefrine didn't want to interrupt them, so he waited. As the duel drew on, the princess made a move. She backed away, then she threw her shield at the enemy's face, and in that moment, a red-crimson aura started to appear on her legs just like Aefrine had witnessed Thomas do. Faster than Aefrine could see, she had jumped in the air, both hands on the blade , raising the sword high above, and he tried to slash her opponent.

To her dismay, the orc simply threw the shield away using the wooden sword and dodged her attack. Not only that, but he grabbed her by her left arm and threw her into the long fence that split the yard into two causing her to fall on her face on the other side, putting shades of dirt on her purple hair. He was simply somehow faster than she was.

"You just had to throw me like that, didn't you?"

"Your attack was greatly flawed, and throwing away your line of defence was a terrible move as well. If this was a real fight, you would be cut in two. Being mid-air makes you vulnerable as you lose your control over your feet. Added to that, your attacks were slow and predictable. Remember that the best way to defend is to attack first ..and you shall be able to decide the course of the battle."

As the girl spitted the dirt out of her mouth, she growled:

"Make up your mind,old man. Are you mocking my offence or defence ?"

"In fact, both. Even your control over phys magic is lacking. I believe I asked to work on it ?"

"I am! Carthago wasn't built in a day...and what are you doing here? " She had just noticed the presence of Aefrine.

Aefrine had learnt enough Celtonic to understand that their conversation went something like that...

"Oh, I-i ..." Her response made him think that he should have declared his arrival or something...

"The king wants from me to train the guest for it seems he might be leaving soon.."

Wait, what since when was he leaving?

"And why is that?"

"Well, princess, did you find anything that might help him in his quest ?"

"I said it before, and I will say it again. I have read the whole library before, and I had never come across something related to magical keys that change someone's fate. I have already reread half of the library and yet nothing new. Unless there is something else about that you haven't told us?"

The question was clearly pointed at Aefrine.

"No, that is all I know...Sorry, "

He didn't know she was helping him in two different ways.

"Don't worry about it, I got nothing to do anyway,"

"For that matter, Aefrine, you might need to leave to a bigger centre of knowledge. "

"Do you really think that he will find something that we didn't find here?"

"I must say that our library is quite humble. It pales in front of the great libraries out there."

"Anyways, if anyone needs me, I will be in our humble library. Have fun. "

As he approached the gate, dragging her shield in the dirt, the old man called :

"Actually, you shall sit there. You might learn a thing or two from watching Aefrine's mistakes or maybe.. his skills ."

She turned to him slowly with the 'seriously?'glare on her face .

"Well, I suppose this will be fun to watch. And perhaps I will see if you actually have a grudge against me, or if you are just mean."

"Tell me, Aefrine, have you ever used magic before? "

Aefrine didn't know what magic was if it was that crimson thing, then his answer would be:

"No, Mr...er-r"

Really Aefrine ? This is your third time you met the man, and you don't know his name ?

"Duke Rudolf,young sir. If that is the case, we can -"

"Wait, what do you mean no ? What about that bow and string? There is no way that wasn't magic. "

"Oh, you mean this ?"

Aefrine made his bow appear within his hand.

"Well, that is magic, young sir ."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know,"

Aefrine never knew what his bow was. He never bothered asking himself where it came from as he couldn't remember when it became a part of his life. To him, it was always a part of him.

"And depending on its glowing appearance, it seems it is soul magic... Well, since you are an archer, there isn't much I can help you with, and I do not know a lot about soul magic. But I can still teach you phys magic,it always comes in handy"

"What is the difference between soul magic and phys magic?"

"The secret is in the name,smart boy," Muttered Alma .

Aefrine didn't understand if she was mocking him or just being helpful.

"Tell me, Aefrine, have you ever heard of the magic system?"

Aefrine was really tired of hearing questions, he didn't know the slightest about their answers.

"Honestly, Duke Rudolf, I never heard anything about magic. I just know it exists, and people can use it. "

"Ok, to keep it short, there are in the world eight different primary types of magic, ten if we count the two original ones. Humanoids can use all the primary types naturally depending on their skill. Physiological magic and soul magic are two of those eight types ."

"What are humanoids?"

"It's a new made term to refer to all smart beings capable of building civilization . ...It just means humans, orcs and dwarfs. Don't think about it too much ." Explained Alma

"Physiological magic, Phys for short is the magic that can be used to increase one's physical abilities and in some cases, it can heal small wounds and illnesses and if you are skilled enough..." As the Duke was explaining, his arm began to get longer and longer. "...you might even be able to change your own body form. It is after all the magic that controls the functions of your body."

"Hey!, you never showed me that ?"

"Well, there was no valid reason for you to see it since you know what phys magic is capable of."

"But I didn't know what you are capable of! You will be teaching me that !"

"Not in your wildest dreams, princess. Not till you master basic control over phys magic. We wouldn't want your arm to get broken for no particular reason, do we?"

"What about soul magic?"

"Well, as I said before, I don't know much myself. Whilethere are some skilled people who cann make spirits using i , it is still mostly used just to make enchanted tools. Soul magic, I thin ,is connecting your inner self to the outer world. "

"What are enchanted tools ?"

"Oh my god, have you been frozen in a cave for a hundred years, perhaps ?"

"Well , you could say so..."

Aefrine let out a nervous laugh while Alma raised one of her eyebrows .

"I will tell you about enchanted tools when we finish. Usually, we would start with ordinary physical training in order to develop physical abilities that could be increased, but in your case, that would be unnecessary. "

"What ?! You had me running around in circles for a week ?!"

"A week and a half, and I still think you need more. May you care to show Aefrine what an improper performance of phys magic looks like?"

She grunted and raised her arm, and from it, the same crimson aura emitted from it .

"Oh , so that's it!"

"Yes , I wouldn't be surprised if you had already seen it before multiple times as it is quite common . But most people don't bother to learn the correct form. By using it like princesssse , you not only use more mana inefficiently as you use half of the total mana on the aura itself but also give a clear giveaway of your next move to your opponent But that is what we want to achieve as it is the first step . The princess got a hold of it after one week . Let's see if you can beat her record..."

"Sir , what is m-"

"Mana is the resource which you use to make magic . All living creatures have mana with their amount and quality depending from species to another . It comes from your blood , using too much magic may cause blood pressure and other serious illnesses . So , don't go around randomly using magic. "

"Close your eyes and try hardening your arm to the maximum... and don't open them until I tell you."

"Ok..."

He did like he asked, and he waited whilst focusing on his arm . Was he doing it right ? Is something supposed to happen.

"You can open your eyes now,"

The moment Aefrine opened his eyes, he could see the crimson aura in his arm only for it to disappear the next moment.

"Well done , now we know that you don't have any specific problems with phys magic , now let's try something else..."

He went to the barracks and returned with a small iron ball in his hand .

"Catch. "

"Watch out!"