Qing's Quest book 2, Chapter 31: Princess Power

As soldiers chased them through the sewers, Morgana led the way, following markers carver into the walls, keeping a high tempo. Knut brought up the rear, loosing arrows now and then, while Qing and Ghida kept the middle. He kept an eye on his map, looking for any red dots that would signal enemies in front or to the side.

“Now!” Knut said, and Qing turned, casting the Firebolt he had prepared. It hit an archer straight on and the man’s chest imploded, blood gushing from his mouth. The other guards fell back. 

As they continued down the tunnel, Qing winced and shook his hand. “You mentioned an elemental imbalance and…something else,” Qing said to the princess. “What is it, and how do you know?”

Ghida ran with the hem of her dress in one hand, and a dagger she’d borrowed from Morgana in the other. “Not much to do in the palace growing up, aside from studying.” She panted. “And for all my father’s faults, he got me the best tutors that money and power could secure. I am far from our strongest elementalist, but few match me in theory and general knowledge.” She said the last with a grim determination.

“What is the imbalance thing?” 

“Where did you learn to use magic?” Ghida asked, ignoring his question.

“I’m…self-taught,” Qing said, hopping across a pile of sewage, glancing back.

“That would explain your lack of knowledge,” she said.

“Why don’t you enlighten me, then?” Qing said, frustration leaking into his voice.

“My pleasure.” She gave him a sidelong glance and chuckled. “Far be it for me to ignore the plight of the weak.”

“What’s so funny?” Morgana growled, keeping her eyes forward.

“Me calling him weak. An elemental imbalance is something I’ll never experience,” Ghida said. “Only the strongest practitioners ever face such problems. It’s your powers. Your Firebolt killed the guard, despite hitting his armour. The elemental forces are ripping you apart from the inside. Your body is not strong enough to handle them all. That’s why spell-casting balance is so important.”

“What’s that?” Qing asked.

Ghida froze in her steps. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Okay, I’m joking, I’m joking,” Qing said, pushing her back into motion. “Now, tell me what the hell you’re talking about.”

“You…you really are self-taught, aren’t you? How did you even get your first spell?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” he said.

“Try me.”

Qing took a deep breath, nose crinkling at the stench. “When I kill monsters, I get experience points, and with enough of those, I gain a level. For each level, I get a skill point, which I use to unlock skills in a skill tree, granting me access to spells or abilities. Once I have access to the skill, the last part is for me to figure out how to cast it, which was really hard at first, but now I seem to have gotten the hang of it.”

Ghida gaped at him as if he told her camels were born from unicorns. “That’s insane,” she finally said. 

“But true.”

Ghida turned to Knut. “Is it?”

“Hell if I know,” Knut said grumpily, keeping up the barrage of covering fire from his never-ending quiver. “What I can tell you is I’ve never seen man or beast grow faster in strength than he has.”

“Seeing is believing, princess,” Morgana added. “Just wait until he levels up. That’s quite the show.”

“Enough,” Qing said. “What is the spell-casting balance, and how can I overcome this elemental imbalance?” He grabbed Ghida under her arms and tossed her across a sewage channel. 

She didn’t scream, only saying, “Ergh…” as her shoes slid across the slippery stones. “Three components. First, you must diagnose which way the elements are out of balance.” She shooed him away, jogging on her own. “Second is to learn and use spells on the other side of the elemental spectrum until you regain equilibrium. And the third is to stay there long term by balancing your spell output.”

“You mean I need to cast one ice spell for every fire spell?”

“A water spell, but yes. If you want to overly simplify it, that is kind of how it works. But it doesn’t explain to me how you are showing signs of thaumaturgic thrombosis.”

“What is that?”

“It only affects bonecallers,” she said, hopping over a smaller river of sludge, face twisted in disgust. Whether at the name of the class or the sewage, Qing couldn’t tell. “I know less of bonecaller magic,” she said. “But I know they use two resources besides mana. Their willpower and the very life of their own spirit. The longer you stare into the land of the dead, the weaker your connection to the world of the living grows. Your very life is sapped from you. To my barely trained eye, your spirit looks…stretched. As if you have overextended it and not fully recovered.”

“Damn Cedric,” Qing said, kicking a pebble into the sludgy river. 

He could have at least pointed me in the right direction for recovery. But no, he had me hurry off with not a care.

“So if my elemental magic requires me to balance, how do I recover after using the magic of the bonecaller?”

“Time and life. Do that which makes us human. Live, eat, sing, laugh.” She glanced behind, fear etched on her face. “Love. Be with friends. That is the only way I know for a bonecaller to recover. That, and to not lift heavier metaphysical weights than you can should in the first place.”

Qing nodded, as much to himself as to her.

“Quiet,” Morgana said, holding up a hand. “I hear something up ahead.”

“We can’t stop,” Knut said, catching up.

“We can’t just walk into an ambush either,” Morgana snapped back.

“You check it out,” Qing said, waving Morgana on. “We’ll hold them off.”

Knut walked into the mouth of a crossing tunnel, taking the right side so he could easily fire from cover. Qing and Ghida went around the corner to the left, and waited for the enemy to appear. 

Where should I place my skill point? Unlock a new ability or strengthen any of the current ones? And should I go with bonecaller or elementalist? Are there any skills from the Templar I need? Why hasn’t using Divine Light and Smite affected me as negatively?

“Ghida, do you know why I get a splitting headache from casting too many arcanist spells?”

“No. Never studied.”

“Could it be anything like the Elemental Imbalance or—” 

“I do not know,” she said, interrupting him. “This is like asking a goldsmith why a ship is listing to the side when it’s full of barnacles. And…can you cast arcanist spells as well?”

The soldiers appeared down the tunnel and Knut released an arrow. But it slammed into a shield as they jogged in a tight defensive formation. 

Qing leaned out to cast a spell. “Don’t worry, princess, we’ll—”

He was so surprised when she hauled him back, he didn’t resist. “Let me,” she said and straightened, pulling her shoulders back, and breathing deep. Power gathered in the air around her, and a puddle by their feet rippled. Then she stepped into the corridor and punched her hand forward, palm out, and the energy flew out. Like a mini tsunami, the river of sewage sped forward, rising to overflow its limits, sweeping the soldiers off their feet, and the formation collapsed.

“Now,” she said, as she threw a Firebolt that struck a soldier’s armour. Unlike Qing’s, it didn’t burn through. So Qing added a Firebolt himself, blasting the man’s arm clean off. He followed up with Magic Missiles. A soldier screamed for a second as a missile bored into his chest, but it stopped as another burned away his brain, and he collapsed. Another died with Knut’s arrow through his throat, and the rest retreated around a corner. 

“That was…”

“Unexpected?” Ghida asked. “My spells are not for self-defense. Thrones are held by might as well as right.”

Qing nodded to himself, and asked, “I can learn a new spell. Any advice on what to pick?”

“You might consider a water-based spell to counter your fire imbalance.”

“How are the elements balanced?” 

“Water versus fire, and air with earth. Simple. But bonecaller spells are easier to cast and more potent here in the city because of the pyramids. Wazir is using them to siphon in magic. But, bonecaller spells might not serve you well again him in a fight.” She shrugged. “He might be immune.”

“The coast is clear,” Morgana said as she came sprinting back, and with Knut loosing arrows down the tunnel, they set off. But a minute down the tunnel, they passed the remains of two tunnel stalkers. Their elongated human limbs laying severed on the floor.

“Thought you said the coast was clear,” Knut said as they ran past.

“It is now, isn’t it?”

From behind came a whomp, and hot air rushed in from behind. Morgana went flying, cursing as she crashed to the slimy stones. Knut kept to his feet, thanks to his bow. Qing reached for Ghida, but she was out of reach. As she fell, magic gathered around her, and before she hit the ground, a layer of stone had covered her skin like armor, and she slid on all four like a car on ice. 

“What?” she said, glaring as she picked herself up. “This is not a waste of mana nor spell. I’d gladly pay twice the cost to avoid infection.”

“And getting your hands dirty, I’m sure,” Morgana added. 

“Shut it,” Knut said. “That was a damn Fireball. We’ve got mages behind.”

Spells flew at them as they continued through the sewer, but Knut, Ghida, and Qing provided enough covering fire to keep them at bay. 

“There’s the exit,” Morgana finally said, running over to kick at a sewer grate, but it was rusted shut. Outside, they heard and saw the sea.

“Move!” Qing cast Magic Missiles, blasting apart a hinge before he kicked the metal covering with his full force. It spun away, splashing into the sea. 

Stairs ran from the sewer and up the side of the docks, the top twice Qing’s height above them. They stepped out and to the side, avoiding the guards’ bolts and spells. 

Fresh harbor air, with its stench of fish, tar, and seaweed, replaced the stench of sewage, as waves slapped against the sea wall, splashing salty air around them. 

Qing stopped them before the top. “Quick. Give me your uniforms. I’ll clean them.”

“What?” Ghida said. “We don’t have time for laundry!”

But Knut and Morgana were ripping their guard armor off, handing it to Qing. After taking it into his inventory and back out, they were good as new. 

“How?” Ghida asked, staring at them dressing. 

“Magic,” Qing said with a wink as he blindly tossed a Firebolt into the sewer. A yell rewarded the mana use. “Do you want to...?”

She stared at him, shocked. “It might be fine for her to stand in front of two strange men in her underwear, but I am a princess!”

“Fine,” Qing said, pushing past and up the stairs. “But keep in mind that the entire city is full of soldiers looking for said princess.”

With Knut and Morgana finished dressed, they ran up, the racket of a charging guard squad sounding from the sewer. The harbor was bustling, and nobody paid them much attention as they jogged into the narrow streets. On the way, Morgana stole two large pieces of clothing, which Ghida used to cover herself from head to ankles. Qing pulled up the hood of his thawb, and they headed into the city, angling towards the grand library. All the while, soldiers sprinted by, heading for the waterfront and screaming orders, looking for an outlawed princess.