The Unbreakable Bow

The warning came too late, for Aefrine had already reached out his hand to catch the ball. As the ball entered the palm of his hand, Aefrine realised that the ball was way heavier than it looked. The weight of it made him fall. If he didn't release it at the last moment, he would probably have his hand crushed. He was straight flat on the ground.

"Are you trying to kill him?"

"Well, I thought he would be able to catch it. But it seems that his new royal lifestyle made him a bit rusty... Get up, young sir, and take the ball."

"Ok..."

Aefrine could raise the ball with one hand. It was still heavy.

"Put it on part with your shoulder. "

"Ok..."

He raised it and used his shoulder as a support.

"Keep it away from your shoulder ."

"Sigh, OK..."

"Now close your eyes and harden your arm just like before with the difference being the weight in your hand. Remember, whenever you feel it is lighter than it was, you are doing it right ."

Aefrine did what he was told to do and waited for something to happen. He could feel the ball becoming lighter for a few moments, that was. The weight of the ball shifted from heavy to light constantly. It didn't make the exercise easier but rather harder as Aefrine 's hand had to adapt to new the weight put on it. Moments hardly passed in Aefrine's mind. His arm was getting more tired as it went on. Aefrine went through what was worse, but this was new to him, so he didn't know how much he would last. Finally,he let the precious words out of his mouth:

"Can I open my ey-?"

"No. Not until I tell you."

"Oh well... I will be in the library. This is no longer fun or useful for me. Oh, and Aefrine, don't worry, he won't let you open your eyes till sunset. And trust me, you don't want to drop that ball. You get boiled. "

To these alarming words, Aefrine unconsciously opened his eyes. To his surprise, Aefrine found Duke Rudolf sitting on a fine-made chair,next to him was a fine-made table. He had no idea where they came from. But what was alarming was that he was pouring for himself a cup of tea. In fact, Rudolf was so focused on the cup that he didn't notice anything straight away. But when he did, he hastily barked:

"Hey! What did I say about opening your eyes?!"

"Sorry, sorry!"

He knew what 'boiled 'meant now. But he prayed to God that 'to sunset ' was just a metaphor...

After what was definitely from noon to sunset, Aefrine could finally open his eyes. It was indeed sunset, and he barely could feel his arm. He dropped the ball on the floor.

"Well, that will be it for today. Come back tomorrow. We still have a long way to go."

"Ha, ha, OK,...ha,"

Aefrine turned away to get out of the yard and back to his room. He was really ready to lie to Larry and tell him he accidentally drank a sleeping potion and he needed some silence, just so he didn't ask him what had happened. But then he remembered something...

"Er, Duke Rudolf,..sir, about the soul magic. Er..."

"I already told you I have nothing to teach you about since I do not know much about it ."

"Yes, I know. But do you know anyone who might know anything?"

"Well, I daresay our Ishop Claus is the most knowable one in the castle about the usage of soul magic since he uses small crow spirits to help him clean up the praying quarter. But don't expect much from him is an old man and he probably isn't the best person to be a teacher. Not to mention, he hates talking to foreigners, especially humans. He even counts the king as a foreigner. You can find him in the praying quarter, as I said. The last door on the north hallway. "

"Ok, thanks," replied Aefrine as he waved away at his teacher.

The possibility of learning more of his bow made the tiredness go away, metaphorically, his arm still felt lazy. Added to that, he was a bit excited about meeting a real Ishop. Aefrine knows what are ishops . They were the men or women of the Tawanzinrism religion. Tawanzinrism was the most spread religion in the world, even if Aefrine didn't know that. In fact, it would be quite accurate to say it was the only religion in the world that actually mattered in any way. He knew Ishops from what his friend Salrine told him. She said before him, her only friend was a female Ishop whom she always spoke highly of. After all, Salrine was indeed a religious girl.

Despite not meeting him yet,he already thought of Ishop Claus the same as Salrine's friend. Not only could he learn about soul magic, but he could also more about Tawanzinrism. And who knows, he might find an alternative solution to break his curse? The only problem was that he didn't know what 'crow' or 'north' meant. For the latter, he simply asked the servants as always. They were really getting used to him asking for directions. Who could blame him? It was a huge castle. That was what he told himself.

As he reached the door, he knocked softly. Nobody answered. He tried again with the same outcome. In the third failed attempt, he tried to see if he could hear anything from outside. Indeed, he did hear some mumbling. He really wasn't in the mood to just leave. So, he slowly opened the door. And softly said: "Hello, anyone here? I'm Aefrine, the newcomer..."

But when Aefrine opened the door to half of its fullest extent, he realised why nobody could hear him. It was a vast room. Most of its floor was covered with beautiful green carpets with small lamps on each side of the walls lighting up the room. On the opposite side, the wall was full of big colourful windows of different images, from which the last glimmers of daylight were infatuated to touch the fine carpets. There were a few stairs that led to a stone platform where a short man was standing. Aefrine was about to take a step forward before he noticed a pair of boots in the only area that wasn't covered in carpets. He concluded that he should take off his there, too. As he did, he could hear the words the man was mumbling:

"How dare they?! Why won't they leave me alone ?! Why ?! This isn't going to end ? isn't it? Why won't they don't they mind their business?! What now? A brown-haired bo- "

Aefrine took a few steps forward before saying:

"Hello, sir -"

"WHAT?!?!"

The orc was so surprised that he threw a book that he was probably holding in the air. He tried desperately to retrieve it, but his old hands couldn't catch it. Luckily, a shadowy figure caught it. It looked like a small bird, a very small one. Its feathers shimmered with hues of moss and emerald. It looked like it was made of fire, but it didn't seem like it was actually burning. I guess that is a crow spirit.

It was holding the book with its small claws, and it gently placed it to the orc's hand. After that, it disappeared, fading into the air like its flame was extinguished. The orc,after taking the book, hid it behind his back, acting like it never existed and took a few moments to stare at Aefrine. Then his mouth opened wide open in shock.

He was bald. Unlike Rudolf, Aefrine had a hard time seeing if he had any hair at all. His nose was large and long, probably the largest Aefrine had ever seen. It reached his upper lip. His mouth was full with nothing except for some teeth here and there. In fact, he had some golden teeth as well.

He was wearing a white choir dress that probably was old because it was so pale, its colour became grey. The dress had a symbol on it. It is an equivalent triangle with a vertical line upwards. That line was crossed with a longer horizontal line that had a smaller equivalent triangle on each end of it. It mostly looked like a simplified balance.

He was wielding in his other hand a black metal staff that had a big glass lamp on top. The lamp emitted a large green flame. After moments of awkward silence, it was Aefrine who broke the silence:

"Er, sorry, are you Ishop Claus?"

"What? Yes! Wait, no! Err, what do you want ?!"

"I just thought he could teach me some of what you about soul magic and maybe more abo-"

"What ?! Err...Who do you think I am ?! I have no time for your games!"

"It's okay if you don't want to teach me soul magic. You could teach about Tawanzinri-"

"Get out."

"But, I really -"

Claus was now descending from the platform, while Aefrine was taking slow steps backwards.

"Get out."

"I am sorry,"

"GET OUT!!"

"OK!"

Aefrine ran out, taking his shoes in his hands. He shut the door with a bang.

"Yeah... I will just return when he is in a better mood..."

He told himself. He just thought that he had entered at the wrong time. He simply ignored the apparent fact that Claus doesn't like foreigners. But before he left, he tried his luck with his soul-reading ability. Aefrine wasn't sure if he should be surprised or not. Claus's soul was filled with a mix of fear shame and anxiety. That was all there was. The boy left the place, happy knowing that the ishop is ashamed of his refusal of his new 'apprentice'. It concluded that he would return on another day, and he definitely would get accepted.

And a week passes, a terrible one for Aefrine. In terms of his phys magic training, Rudolf had made him do multiple different exercises, which all contained him closing his eyes and raising a heavy object with one limb, if not all. Even in his free time, he would repeat the process, just so the Duke wouldn't make harsh comments on his performance. In his last session, he was flat on his back, with four weights on each limb, and he had to lift them all while trying to use phys magic on his whole body. And after all that, when the final test came ... he failed miserably.

The final test was really just Rudolf telling him to show him how an improper performance of phys magic looks like . And Aefrine failed to bring out that crimson aura no matter how much he tried. Rudolf thought that he had miraculously perfected phy magic , so he threw a large barrel at him, which ultimately led to him getting rushed . Aefrine was 't mad . He just felt disappointed with himself, especially after the following conversation between Alma and Rudolf that went:

"Well, old man,ready to admit that I am your best student?"

"No,apparently I have found my worst student...."

And he simply left. He didn't even bother helping Aefrine with the barrel crushing him. If it wasn't f r Alma , who knew how much time he would spend under its weight.

And in his pursuit of Claus, he tried three more times in one week. All failed. To the point that he decided it was no use . Mostly because the third time , the Ishop had his crow spirit attack him, pecking his head. Not to mention, his soul was now filled with only disgust. Aefrine apparently was so terrified with the crow attack that he became halicanating about a crow spirit staring at him through his room's window at night. At first, he thought that maybe the crow that came to check on him at night was real . So, he concluded that this meant that Claus was probably testing him. But when he asked Larry, who apparently didn't sleep, he saw the crow spirit , he said that he didn't sense anything at the window at night. Thus, he accepted the fact that he was going crazy.

At least, his language lessons were not that bad . He made good progress in Carthagonien, which was easier than whatever was Celtonic. For Celtonic had way too much time tenses, or whatever they are called. But he regretted telling Alma that he was ready. She gave him three long books to finish next week. He read them mostly at night. And surprisingly, Larry was a great help. He also knew Carthagonien and made the reading process easier. He was ready to face Alma's questions next week. He just wished there was a book that helped with soul and phys magic as well as languages at the same time. Or wait ... maybe there is ?