He heard her words and some part of his mind was
listening, but Razkar couldn't keep the greedy glint out of his eyes. He'd been right! Finally, a weapon he could use to bar the cowardly wyrd-wielders from his mind and his body! Something he could use against them, stymie their attacks on him before they even got the chance to manipulate his being with their sinister machinations!
Already he had images, fantasies flashing through his mind: a Child of Myri, master of blades and the weapons gifted onto his arms and legs, but
immune to the mages and wizards of the world, too. By the Heavens and Hells and the dirt in between... what a gift to the Goddess-Queen...
"Read it and... tomorrow night we will start your practice as well... Agreed?"A question! She asked you something! Wake up, shyke-for-brains!"... hmm?"
Razkar found Edreina's steady and somewhat flustered gaze bearing down on him earnestly. Always amazing, how quickly that dispelled a male's daydreams of violent immortality; he tore his eyes from the venerable tome and found her eyes instead. Blue and clear and so... innocent. Razkar could hardly believe a mind such as hers was capable of such deception as to use Hypnotism, work her will in the most insidious wyrd he knew of...
Slowly, almost like a soft sunrise in the midnight tent, a smile crossed his face. The grasping, rasping voices stilled and he saw not just a budding mage, but... his love. The female that wanted them to learn together; for both of them to be skilled and strong and enlightened in those arenas they'd chosen to throw themselves into. The warrior reached out to the sailor (because, forever and always and again and again, that was what Edreina would truly be) and kissed her gently.
"We read tonight..." He said gently, one hand moving smooth and silent as she closed her eyes. "And tomorrow-"
The phrase used elsewhere would be "yoink!", but in Mizahar this was almost unheard of ("almost" because there used to be a certain kind of wading bird from Taldera that bore it, but that's neither here nor there). But the... effect, was the same. One moment Edreina was holding the book, clutching it in two hands like it was her cherished diary, and the next-
-Razkar had rocked backwards and away from her, grinning like an ecstatic ape, book in hand and laugh on his lips and-
"Fooled you!"
But before his lover could launch at him (probably quite literally, given the look like a thunderstorm crossed with a rabid mongoose on her face), Razkar held up a hand... and spread his cross legs. He patted the bedroll between them.
"Come..."She did, but didn't she always when he used his gravelly, savage tongue with such a glint in his eye? He gently turned her around wrapped his arms around her from behind, the thick cushion of her hair pressing against his bare chest... the bouquet of it... of soap and honest sweat and the ever-present whiff of sea salt... that trace of her blood that would always have a few toes in the ocean...
"So..." Razkar said as he laid the book across her lap, chin resting on her shoulder, closing his hands around her briefly after he turned the first page. "First we read..."
"Shielding, to give it the sobriquet that has become most common across the world, is first and foremost a defense against djed. Fireballs from the hands, manipulations of space and matter with mere thoughts, insights into the deepest thoughts of others and even the ability to sway their minds into obedience... all these things have one thing in common. They utilize djed, the miraculous and universal building block of all life in our fantastic, terrible world.
And all these things can be halted by mastery of djed, and many things more, like a light breeze would be by a brick wall.
Shields can be erected to block arrows, smoke, swords, specific animals or individuals, even sights and smells and sound. Shields can be stacked, also, each one serving a different purpose, adding a new layer of defense the deeper the practitioner builds them. The most powerful Shielders working together could easily craft barriers that could protect entire cities from any and all obstacles and attackers; legend has it that even the gods would find assault against such stalwart defenders futile.
A stunning and tempting power, isn't it? Total protection against those who use magic. Like most power, however, it comes at a cost, and like most fantasies, it is utterly unrealistic. Master Shielders take decades to reach that state of ability, and this book will not even attempt to cover their techniques. To do so would create a tome so large it would require packhorses to transport, let alone a saddlebag!
No, dear reader; this book, as the title, deals with the Basics. How to focus the mind into rudimentary shields. How to concentrate your attention so they will last more than a handful of ticks, for discipline and will are as crucial to Shielding as djed itself. You will also learn tests to see if your invisible barriers are successful, and even the meditative techniques to summon your djed.
All things worth doing are difficult, to one degree or another, the scholars teach us. This is no different..."
There was more, of course. Pages and pages of it, written by an old, long-dead mage named Arkan Grimhorn, perhaps centuries before the two young ones in a tent deep in the Wildlands were born. What a legacy, one might think.
A Myrian and a Svefra, star-crossed and heart-bound, lit by the sputtering lamp... eyes that couldn't be more different scanning and gulping down the same words, the same wisdom... with the same eagerness of the young, who have no fear of death and to whom the years are a long, exciting road laid out ahead of you. From outside they were so serious and still, statues who only moved in their eyes, or the patient, rustling "schp! schp!" of parchment turning... and, just occasionally-
"Er... what is this?"
She would tell him the word, and then what it meant.
"Ooooooh...!"
And so, their education continued. Together.
