A Peasant’s Guide To Sorcerery: 18

A Peasant’s Guide To Sorcerery: 18

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Commissioned by Ichypa

Wordcount: 2500

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Interlude: Su

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Lady Bai’s people filled the farm swiftly, much to Lord Zhang’s delight.

“The fields are perfect! It’s great!” The God Soldiers led by their most eminent member had come forth from the great structure I could barely detect beneath the earth from the surface. Though Lady Bai outstripped all her followers in power, each one was my superior in strength. Ethereally beautiful creatures, women that would not seem out of place in the inner courts of the rulers of whole cities, were clad in simple peasant clothes as they tilled the soil, planted crops, tended to groves, and cared for animals. In just a few weeks, the cleared lands surrounding Zhang’s home was transformed into a massive farm capable of a whole city… but it could do more than just that. “At this rate, the tree will be fully fed within just a few more weeks!”

The crops that they were growing and consuming was not normal. It was filled with power and strength that Aspirants would kill for without a word. Whole villages have been wiped out in fights between Aspirants after they find a single spirit-enhancing root in the wilderness. In this massive farm, however, every crop exuded immense amounts of power. Every meal we ate, every drop of water we drank, and even the air we breathed was filled with power that invigorated our bodies… and it was doing the same for the great construct beneath the soul which created and birthed Lady Bai’s kindred.

Crops were planted and were ready for harvest within days. Bushels of wheat were them carted off into the underground to be turned into mulch and fertilizer for the great tree below. I had entered that place, that immense world-within-a-world beneath the farm. The tree grew the divine warriors like fruits from its branches. When I first saw it, only one or two of its immense branches grew soldiers at a time, but now its branches were full of fruits that readily created more and more of the creatures. There were so many of them that they began to expand their underground lands, making cities of their own adjacent to the great tree, where they mined and toiled and began to learn how to create textiles and the like.

The crops were feeding the great tree, pushing it produce more, and helping it mature and grow stronger in the process. Lord Zhang knew how much the tree should be fed every day, and most of the food produced went to the tree. However, still, the excess fed us all with empowered grains and foods that increased our strength by leaps and bounds. Soon, the first harvest of fruits will come forth and then the first harvest of animals, both of which will have more strength and power within them than what we ate now.

This was the beginnings of an army that the world has never seen before.

Something that can lay low to the immortals that have ruled over the world.

The creator of this army was making rice cakes over a charcoal stove.

“Here you go, Bai!” Lord Zhang wore brown peasant garb and had wooden sandals. His hair was a pure white and eyes a deep red. He had a thin form with muscles born from exertion. A pretty laborer that a noblewoman might decide to play with, or pick up as a servant boy if they laid their eyes upon him. In another life, perhaps, he would’ve been fortunate to wed a failing noble house who saw his land as a way to produce funds for their estate. However, instead, he was a mighty sorcerer who was set to upend the world in its entirety. “Enjoy!”

“I will, my Lord.” Lady Bai, who sat primly beside him in the same clothes, would’ve looked more at the place in flowing white silks with threads of gold and silver. The leader of all the powerful creatures born of the immense tree below us, she had a face fit for an empress or even a goddess. Strong and resolute, but also somehow delicate and finely composed, she had a visage that was almost alien. Like a poet’s description of a great beauty, bereft of any flaw, rather than a person. Immortals would lust and go to war over her, and she’d kill them all for their impudence at thinking that they can take her away from her beloved master. “Thank you very much.”

He turned my way, ready to offer me a rice cake, and I held up my hands with a weary smile.

“My apologies, I’ve already got plenty from the plate prepared by Lady Bai!” It was a plate that I would’ve wept with joy over as a child. Rice and smoked fish, alongside grilled vegetables with sauces bought from the market within the city by the Fei’Yen clan. To finish the meal there was a plate of cooled fruits that I knew would be sweet and delicious. The nobility would call it peasant fare, but most people who lived across the land would call it a fine meal. Prepared by Lady Bai, as she assumed most of the wife’s chores in the household, I accepted it without hesitation… and asked for no more. “I’m afraid it would go to waste, Lord Zhang.”

“Ah, I understand! That would be very bad. Thank you for telling me!” Zhang beamed at me, making my heart shake with fear, but I felt calmed as he turned away and Lady Bai gave me a nod of approval. The others who have interest in him are clashing with Lady Bai, as she believes them unworthy. I had not interest in doing such a thing. My interest was entirely to survive and train in this place, until I could forge my own destiny. Clashing with Lady Bai and the others… was against such a goal. “Oh, right! You’re about a quarter of the way through being my prisoner for being a bandit. Are you being good?”

I made sure to stand, move away from my plate, and properly prostrate myself in his direction.

Lady Bai’s gaze at my direction, even as Lord Zhang kept his back to me and cooking rice cakes, dictated what I should do.

“I am grateful for the chance that I have been given. I have done no wrong and worked as I have been told in your lands. I am fed, given water, and shelter, as well as the chance to grow strong and rise above who I once was.” It was the truth. All of it. I had confronted him on his wagon, the others with me were killed, and instead of being killed I was spared by the actions of the Beggar Sect’s heiress. I owed her my life, but all that I have since that moment was allowed to him… and I knew what he was asking. “I swear that I will live justly no matter how strong I become and I will use this new strength and knowledge to better myself forevermore.”

I uttered only the truth, not because lying would cause my death, but because I had nothing to hide and wished to earnestly convey my thoughts.

Despite all that I feared from my host, the fact remained that I was better than who I was before.

 Jack nodded and aimed a smile at me, thankfully I knew better than to be smitten.

“That’s great! Keep it up!”

With that his attention left me, and Lady Bai gave me a nod, so I rose and went back to my meal.

I’ll be free from his attention and concerns for at least a few weeks after this.

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With a minder, I was allowed to return to the city and spend my time there. With fruits and crops grown from my ‘plot’ of land, which Lord Zhang told me were the results of my labors, I was able to do as I wished. The Fei’yen clan was greedy as ever and purchased the fruits and crops from Zhang’s farm at near-astronomical amounts. I had an account open with the local trade guild, where they kept some of my funds, but the majority was simply back at the farm where its safety was assured.

Typically, I would spend my days in the city simply by purchasing clothes, entertaining myself at a play, or simply eating at a restaurant. Some days, I would simply sit near the sky dock and watch the ships come and go with their processions of nobility and cargo. Though the true empire died long ago, much of what it created persisted to this day, and the people of the land adhered to all that which gave them pleasure and luxury.

I shook my head at the thought.

Those were the words given to me to ensure that I could act against them, so that I felt no pity and remorse for the people that I stole from.

In these cities, there were people who labored every day and lived earnestly. People who toiled in workshops, in farms outside the city, and as entertainers. Those we attacked were travelers or budding merchants. People who could not afford the sky ships to ship their wares, or those who left trying to seek a better life after saving for years and years.

The nightmares of hearing them beg to be killed returned long ago.

After my internment with Lord Zhang, my intention was to join the Beggar’s Sect in hopes of doing some good with my newfound strength and ability.

As I walked through the cobble streets of the city, a call attracted my attention towards a crowd that I had previously assumed was watching a street performer.

I went there with my interest piqued.

Standing atop a stage with tables with various implements I did not recognize, there was a showman clad in blazing red robes with excitement on his face and his head bereft utterly of hair.

“My dear friends, today is the day you behold the wonders of machinery that works in harmony with innate power! The tools you see today are spreading throughout the known world. Machines which allow those with even the slightest inkling of power to achieve base sorceries!” The words of the man had murmurs go through the crowd. I kept watch from across the street. The improvements to my vision and hearing may as well have had me in the frontmost row. More than that, however, the moment that he mentioned sorceries I stretched out my senses, attributed to such matters. It was like exuding one’s invisible consciousness outward. It took concentration and the farther I forced it to go, the more difficult the act, but it was something I trained myself in every day. The true strength of others was unveiled when I reached out to them with the power. “Behold the Phoenix Crossbow!”

The man hefted a metal crossbow with no moving parts, and with the bow portion mere decorations on the end of the long aperture meant to house the bolt. The stock and the trigger remained, but everything else was gone. Not only that, but it was smaller and fit in one hand rather than two. Much of the crowd looked upon it with confusion, as did I. Most crossbows were large and had cranks, as to properly launch a bolt with enough force to go through armor. It was a weapon for town guards to use against beasts and bandits led by some aspiring fool who had a taste of power.

This weapon, though, somehow exuded sorcerous power and on the stage a straw man was brought forth and drenched with water.

“Behold, with a single press of this trigger, I shall send a piercing bolt through this miscreant!” The showman had my attention, as he did the crown, and when he pulled the trigger a gout of flame pushed forth from the weapon and engulfed the man in flame. It was a sorcerous flame, similar to what Lord Zhang used to deter animals or simply set kindling alight, and but created only by the artifact that the man used. I sensed the power within the weapon fade as the trigger continued to be pressed, until it was expended, and the straw was burning a deep black. “The miscreant has perished, but most would run after a gout of flame is sent after them! Please, come forth and test the weapon yourselves and see its effects in the nearby park! We have many for use in self-protection!”

The crowd was galvanized and caught, and many moved as assistants to the man came forth from behind the stage to guide them.

I followed.

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It felt like a toy in my hand, as I considered the simple artifact created by artificers and mechanists. The Phoenix Crossbow sapped the ambient power from the air over time, gathering enough power to spew flame for a few minutes at a time. There were larger versions of the weapon, with increase in potency and stored power, but they were solely for city guards and soldiers. The weapon I held in my hands at this moment was indeed for self-defense, as it could ward off beasts… and bandits.

Until bandits themselves got ahold of them.

As I considered the weapon, I felt Lord Zhang’s presence near me and I stood up and gave him a bow.

“Oh, hi! I sensed that you had something neat for you! It’s some sort of artifact that spews fire, right?” I trained my senses every day, but I could not imagine ever being able to do the same as Zhang. He could control his far from afar, commanding trees and crops to harvest themselves and for earth to  move them into storage. His control and range was beyond reckoning. Of course, he’d notice something like the thing I had bought. “It’s awfully weak, though! Let me improve it for you, so you’re not swindled!”

I nodded mutely at his words, and he took one of the foremost weapons ever made in the era from me… and it transformed before my very eyes.

“Metal and fire are good combinations. Fire lets metal be used more properly, but wood is always needed to make fire strong enough to do that. Oh, and earth and water to regulate and strengthen. It’s always about making everything work together, whether its to strengthen or to weaken.” Zhang stated simply. I watched as the metal artifact came undone. Water flowed and become solid at his command, as earth and wood rose from the ground. The fiery gem reshaped itself from a sphere to a pointed barb, while the metal became a solid bock encasing it, and the weapon became an amalgam of all five elements working in harmony. It became slimmer and smaller and everything useless vanished… and the weapon felt like a toy once it was back in my hand. Zhang’s eyes were smiling as he gestured at a target for me to hit. “Point it that mountain over there on the horizon!”

I trembled and did as I was told.

A moment later, I was staring at the weapon in my hand with him gone, and then looked up to the mountain in the distance… that had a finger sized, molten hole slowly self-sealing in it because of my actions.

I really want to leave this place.