The roar of thunder raged as me and momma fought my purple lightning and her blue lightning crossing and intertwining our horns and eyes glowing as electricity danced around us. We matched eachother blow for blow blocking and countering each other yet she had the advantage her experience and size were slowly chipping away at my defense our bout finally ended when she broke my guard and had both her wings glowing with electricity at my throat.
"I'm impressed Theresa at seven years old you're nearly as skilled as me if we get you some battle experience this old dragon might be able to finally retire." Momma said her wings leaving my throat as she retracted them.
"As long as I get to become the dragon god." I replied jokingly
"Don't get to far ahead of yourself you don't even know what kind of power that grants you." She said
"You know you never told me what exactly I can do with my dragon god mark."
"That's because I haven't had a reason to yet shortstack." She said patting me on the head.
"You gods and your secrets." I said rolling my eyes. "Let's go see Nyssa I wanna see what she's doing." I said as I began walking to the other section of the training hall.
"Haha ok." She chuckled
As we entered I Saw Nyssa and dread sparing Nyssa rapidly and elegantly swinging her scythe casting spells as she fought slowly overwhelming Dread the match ending as Nyssa disappeared going behind Dread placing the blade of her scythe across Dread's chest.
"You win Nyssa good job we will begin the second section of your training tomorrow night I want you outside the main entrance at sundown." Dread said
"Understood and thank you." Nyssa said bowing her head to dread as she began standing up I ran at her.
"HI NYSSA!" I yelled her head snapped toward me as I jumped at her tackling her in a hug.
"Hello to…you too… Theresa you're squeezing…me." Nyssa said between breaths
"Oh my bad." I said letting go she drew a few heavy breaths as I did "Good job on finishing weapons training." I said excitedly
"Thank you I hope one day I'll catch up to you in strength." Nyssa said a faint smile on her face.
"Hahaha you're funny I won't let that happen I have to at least have one thing to contribute." I replied playfully standing up and helping Nyssa to her feet.
"Next time we get the chance I wouldn't mind going a few rounds a match against you is always good practice." Nyssa said a light smile on her face.
"Why don't we do that now?" I asked
"I have to get ready I have no clue what to expect from section two of my training and I have a few things I want to work on before I leave." She said
"Fineeee we will do it when you come back but I'm still hanging out with you today." I replied
"Haha ok that works." Nyssa said
"If you want Theresa you can tag along with me and Nyssa while we finish up one of her projects." Mei said as she walked up to us putting her hand on Nyssa's back it's strange seeing them like this Nyssa looks like a grown woman but she's only seven.
"Ohhh sounds fun I'll come with!" I exclaimed.
"Wonderful follow me we're heading to the forge." Mei said a smile on her face heading towards the door.
"I need to grab a few things I'll meet you guys down there shortly." Nyssa said leaving the room.
"There's a forge here just how much stuff do you have!?" I asked excitedly following Mei out of the room.
"We have a lot of stuff more than the empires castle this family is older than this nation itself the so much so that the emperor has no authority over this place there's a few other reasons but those are national secrets so I can't tell you but our collection of knowledge is more vast than that of every nation combined and the most powerful artifacts and weapons in existence in our vault." Mei said as we walked through the manor leading me to a set of stairs leading to the basement.
"If this family is so powerful why follow the empire why not break off and live the way you feel?" I asked while we walked down the long staircase.
"As I said there's a few things that are national secrets but simply we don't want to we love this nation so we choose to stay" Mei said stopping before a large metal door. "here we are this is the forge after you." She said gesturing for me to open the door. The door was heavy as I opened it and stepped into the room I stood there stunned it was huge. The room was massive nearly as big as the manor itself pillars throughout the room supporting the building above it in the middle was the most brilliant pale white light I had ever seen.
"Whoaaa." I said in awe as I looked around the bright light in the middle catching my gaze two enormous pillars above and below it suspended it in the air.
"That is the heart of the forge this place is one of the four forges capable of melting down pyranite it is alway breathtaking no matter how many times you see it." Mei said from beside me looking into the forge.
"You can say that again this place is so cool I've always pictured forges as these really gloomy places only illuminated by fire but this place is so bright and neat!" I exclaimed running through the room looking at all the different machines and tools before my eyes fell on the forge once again.
"So what is that anyway?" I asked pointing at the forge a familiar voice from behind me answered turning I saw Nyssa with piece of dark green metal in her hand.
"That is the heart of the forge it's an infinite energy source used as a heat source through those two pillars they take it's energy and convert it into heat hotter than nearly anything in existence no one except my grandmother Astra knows how they're made or what kind of magic or technology is used to produce that infinite energy she never told anyone she made the four forges then retreated back to her nation and clearly she doesn't like to visit." Nyssa said walking towards me.
"So you're telling me there's only four places in existence that can melt down and work with pyranite why is it so special why not mythril it's a magical sponge?" I asked.
"You're right mythril is a magical sponge and when fully enchanted is the most durable material second too pyranite pyranite is super rare there's less than five hundred pounds in circulation around the world and an ingot weighs two pounds." Nyssa said walking to a bucket with two lenses below it placing the ingot in the bucket she grabbed a lever and pulled it a pure white laser shot out hitting the bottom of the bucket immediately I could feel the heat from where I was standing. The ingot melting down to a liquid in seconds Nyssa took out eight molds before removing the bucket and pouring the pyranite in to each mold leaving just a little more. Seeing that there was extra she set the bucket back above the lasers and grabbed another mold and poured the remaining in there.
"Have you reviewed the enchantment honey?" Mei asked Nyssa.
"Yes I have mother once the metal sets I should be able to complete it." Nyssa replied her eyes fixed on the nine molds before her.
"Good remember you can't remove an enchantment from pyranite if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask me ok." Mei said smiling proudly. "What's your plans for the short sword you're making?" Mei asked pointing at the ninth mold which was much bigger than the rest.
"Better question what are you making in general?" I asked completely lost on what was happening.
"Well since we're going to be on a squad of eight people I figured it would be in our best interest to always be able to communicate with each other so I'm making medallions that I'll be placing a telepathy spell on that way all of us will be able to communicate silently as well as for us to receive mission information in the field that way we don't have to return each time." Nyssa said smiling excitedly as she broke open the molds revealing the shiny dark green medallions an image of a dagger with wings as the hilt adorning it.
"They're so prettyyyy." I said walking up to them and picking one up the white light of the room reflecting off the metal.
"Hands off." Nyssa said plucking it from my hands. "I have to enchant it and use some of your mana and the rest of the teams mana to make sure only we can use them that way if one gets dropped the wrong person can't take advantage of it me and you will be the only ones with ones that exclusively work for us given that we're the head of the team." She said placing all of them in a line.
"Pfft ok commander Nyssa or should I say commander Flamecrest." I said barely stopping myself from laughing at the idea of this girl who I've been training non stop with for the last few years being my commander.
"Yeah yeah get your jokes out now Vice commander Theresa." Nyssa said sarcasm lacing your voice.
"If you two are already this close then you'll do just fine in the field often if commander and vice commander are close friends most of the time they work together very well." Mei said sitting on the floor sipping something from a cup.
"Mother why are you on the floor are you trying to dirty your clothes and where in the world did you get a drink from
The kitchen is on the other side of the house." Nyssa said glaring at her mother.
"Nyssa you worry to much the floor is super comfortable like all the time." I said skipping over to Mei and laying next to where she was sitting. "What's in the cup?" I asked looking at Mei.
"Tea." She replied.
"Got anymore?" I asked immediately a smile formed across her face as she held out her hand infront of me a cup materializing on it as I took it I could see the liquid inside. "Awesome." I said taking a sip
"You two are unbelievable anyway Theresa since you're here I can finish up both of ours today that way we can stay in touch while I'm gone so can you use a spell or something on me I need your mana." Nyssa said sternly not looking at us smiling at the opportunity I used gravity magic on her hands keeping them trapped on the table.
"You're hilarious." Nyssa said sarcastically.
"Hahaha I thought it was pretty funny." Mei said with a laugh.
"See she gets it." I said releasing my spell immediately I felt my body jerk forward making me lose grip on my drink dropping it on the floor.
"That's payback." Nyssa said turning around with a smirk a medallion in her hand. "This is yours Theresa it should work over any distance and only work for you and me." She said clipping it to my shirt smiling while she did it.
"Thank you very much!" I exclaimed a wide smile form across my face.
"Of course I'm done down here for the day I need to finish off a few things before I leave tomorrow." Nyssa said taking her short sword and the medallions with her as she headed for the door.
"Mind if I join you?" I asked getting up running towards her
"Sure come on gotta head to the library next." She said leading me up the stairs the rest of the time leading up to Nyssa leaving passed in the blink of an eye from studying enchantment magic with her to watching her enchant and engrave her short sword a phoenix adorning its hilt. A few more practice matches and her teaching me beginner healing magic until it was time for her to leave.
I caught her leaving her room heading for the door ready to leave and I ran to catch up to her once I did I kept pace with her as we walked to the entrance of the manor.
"How long will you be gone?"I asked
"Honestly not sure dread didn't give me any sort of estimate just said it'll be field training honestly I'm surprised you didn't ask to come with." She responded
"Actually I did I tracked down dread on the way to one of her training sessions and nearly begged her but she said no." I pouted as we reached the door Nyssa pushing it open dread standing waiting outside.
"That is exactly like you make sure you keep that medallion close so we can keep in contact." She replied pointing at the medallion on her shirt.
"Obviously it stays right here!" I exclaimed pointing at mine.
"Good hopefully I'll be back soon." She said walking towards dread putting her hand on dread's shoulder. "Bye." Nyssa waved.
"Byeeee!" I waved back as her and dread sank into a shadow disappearing.