The month flashed by too quickly for anyone's comfort. Within an instant, the day that she had to leave had finally arrived. Katrina spent most of the time cultivating, learning and training in order to get into shape for the academy's rumoured insanely difficult teaching. Through the time, her stats had changed drastically compared to how they looked before.
[Mage level: Trainee
Affinities: Water, Flora and Poison
Constructs: Knollgrass (x20), Indigo Berry infested Water (60 litres)
Cultivated Affinities: All
Spells: Flora's bane, Touch of Growth, Toxic Thorns, Root Wall, Sword of Poison, Shroud of Poison and Water Burst].
Since receiving her new sword from the king, the spell (Sword of Poison) became virtually useless unless it broke or she was unarmed, and so when she managed to cultivate her poisonous water, she created Shroud of Poison. The spell is a mix of poison and water magic to create a poisonous mist which coils around her sword and infects anything she cuts. Sadly, this spell disappears when it travels a couple of meters away, so for now it was purely to augment her sword skills.
The last spell the silver-haired princess created was Water Burst, which was a purely water spell that she created in order to force people back and establish distance. Satisfied with her results over the course of the month, she headed to her carriage where her father was waiting.
Walking out the castle, she walked towards the carriage which will become her home for the next two weeks as they travel across the continent. It was beautiful. Decorated in their crest to allow them passage through other kingdoms' territory without trouble. It was crafted with infused silver meaning only a novice mage would succeed in putting a den into it, with light brown wooden arches rising towards the top from the sides to make it look better.
Two wind sprinter horses (one of the fastest breeds) were entrusted to pull it, under the command of the royal coachman who was undeniably loyal to their kingdom. She was to be accompanied by two guards, both of them personally trained by her father and had multiple accomplishments under their belt.
"I'll see you in three years, father" Katrina spoke assuredly, before handing him her crown, which was in a box. In their kingdom, it was a sign of relinquishment of her duties as princess. In other words, while still being a princess she had no obligation to fulfil anything a royal of her status would be expected to do, such as attending any balls or celebrations at home.
However, most importantly it was a promise to return. As the heirs who left with their crowns never came back. It was an archaic superstition that their kingdom held to this day after their first prince never returned from his week long voyage to strengthen trade with neighbouring kingdoms.
"I'll be counting, only a thousand and ninety five days to go," He joked, accepting the engraved box where her crown was.
"Including travel time?" Katrina retorted, watching his face drop as he realised how long she would actually be gone.
"I'll see you soon, I love you." The king changed the subject, if she didn't leave soon she'd be behind schedule.
"I love you too dad. Goodbye." Entering the carriage, she let one of the guards - a tall blonde man called Leo - close the carriage door. Within a couple of seconds, the carriage started moving. Opening her trunk, she took out a poison which she had overlooked when she first skimmed through the book, but now she wanted to take a closer look at it.
It was a quite common poison when ingested causes hysteria and hallucinations, but what made it so special was that it spread from target to target if they had skin contact. Although it gradually got weaker from each spread, it was quite easy to prevent as a simple regular wash would stop others from getting it. She planned to form a spell which could spread via person to person although she had to wait until she could cultivate it.
Recently, she learned that the poisonous properties her spells could use would only model the ones in her inner world. So that limited her to infecting people with drowsiness (courtesy of the indigo berry infected water) or weakness. And the amount of water she could form was much slower compared to the plants which was common for mages. A certain number of different constructs needed to be formed before she could elevate to novice level but she was not aware of how many.
In order to move to a different construct, she expected she would need at least ten times the amount of water she had created before her inner world stabilised to accept anymore. Deciding to peer into her inner world, she shut off her senses.
Katrina saw the green and pink of the knollgrass with the crystal clear water infected with indigo flecks, as well as her happiest achievement to date. A slight breeze had entered her inner world, creating slight ripples on the water. It was a sign that her inner world would soon be able to adapt more elements. Although, it would not be able to fully incorporate it until she reached the intermediate level, which is when she can form constructs that were not her element.
For a while, she just sat there and basked in the feeling of her inner world, until she was jolted out by the carriage coming to an abrupt stop.