Chapter 40
“Gravity affinity is ranked among the rarest in the known galaxy, with only 134 known mages with that affinity having existed throughout the history of the Empyrean Alliance, and 4 of them existing currently. One serves as a fleet commander for the Ardent. The second as the Empyrean’s Navigator Prime. The third serves the Obsidian Dominion. And the fourth…well, the fourth has passed far beyond any and all scrying capability that we have available to us.”
—The Weight: Burdens of Leadership, Oswil Dohruum
It seemed that Sylvas had the luck of being born with an affinity so rare that they didn’t test for it. An affinity so rare that the whole campus on Strife seemed to have ground to a halt with its discovery. The orbiting objects and the crushing weight on him had eased as he circulated his mana and brought his core back down to its usual balance. There were no overpowering effects haunting his footsteps now, though he did still feel like there was a great weight on his shoulders.
Classes had been cancelled for the day when Enore died. They were cancelled again now. That was how significant they thought this affinity was. Not just to the training camp, but to the whole of the Ardent. Sylvas found himself in an entirely new part of the cliff-face after they’d pried him out of the testing chamber. At first he had still been in a daze, confused about what was happening, and fully expecting that he was about to be chastised into oblivion or possibly even kicked out for damage that he’d done to their precious testing chamber and the treasures they’d assembled there. It was only now, in Instructor Aurea’s office, sitting across from her across a desk so vast it could have doubled as a raft in case of flooding, that reality began to sink in.
“Gravity affinity is one of the least commonly found among our mages, but most vital to our efforts to deal with the Eidolon threat.” Aurea had been talking around the point for some time, but it seemed now she felt like enough hot air had filled the room to support whatever idea she was trying to float. “As such, I have just approved your transfer to the naval service and are recommending you for the officer cadet program as well.”
Sylvas blinked at the barrage of information, his mouth hanging open for a second before he collected himself. “Excuse me?”
Aurea simply nodded at him and pressed on. “As a naval recruit you will receive more training related to your affinity than would otherwise be available to you on the infantry service track, and as an officer, you’ll be given more detailed instruction on your affinity’s strategic and logistical—”
It wasn’t intentional when he interrupted her. “So I’m being promoted?”
Another half nod affirmed that question. “Gravity mages are among the only people capable of interstellar travel without the use of a jump gate. Or at least only people capable of doing it nigh effortlessly, there are some…exceptions that you’ll no doubt learn about in the coming months. As such, and with a great deal of respect to the challenges they face, we aren’t going to allow you to squander that gift in the rank and file. It wouldn’t be fair to either of you.” Aurea seemed to be taking the moment he required to process all of this as hesitation to accept. “And of course, given that Recruit Runemaul is already in the process of transitioning to the naval service as well, we’ll make sure that your schedules will be aligned for convenience. We can arrange for more fitting quarters for the pair of you in the Blackhall as well.”
It was all too much to take in at once given how quickly everything had happened, and how expectations had changed regarding his future, enough that he truthfully didn’t need any further convincing. If he was to be considered as an officer cadet, then he would do best to excel in it, as he had in everything else, both for personal pride, and for the fact doing so likely meant that he would be better positioned to get the resources he needed to advance. “That would be… lovely. Thank you.”
“For obvious reasons, your training schedule is going to be adjusted.” Aurea continued, sparing him yet another nod. “The ground based combat exercises and introductory courses pared back in favor of interstellar navigation, tactical pursuits, spatial magic, and so on.”
That made the change sound a little less appealing, causing Sylvas to frown. “I have been trying to hone my fighting abilities, I don’t really want to lose them.”
“Oh you’ll have more than ample opportunity for fighting once you’re deployed, and you’ll still participate in the quarterly cull. But for your future in the Ardent, and the Empyrean, it is vital that you begin developing the base skills expected of a naval position, including command training, should you be capable of doing so.”
It was an idea that would have seemed impossible just hours ago. Command training? Did they expect him to captain a ship? He hadn’t ever been on a simple boat on water back on his home world, let alone exerted any agency over it. From the moment that he’d started to learn about it, Sylvas thought that his affinity might have made him a glorified engineer, or rather, an engine, for the transportation of Ardent strike forces beyond the Empyrean. The idea that just because he had a particular affinity that he’d make a good commanding officer seemed bizarre to the extreme. In fact, he was so taken aback by the idea that it took him a moment to catch up and replay the other thing that she’d said in his mind. “I’m sorry, to go back, what was it that you said about a cull?”
“Ah, right that. It isn’t a literal cull, just what some of the students call our semester’s testing cycle. Every four months you compete so that your combat capability is assessed. Typically, those who aren’t performing well depart Strife soon after, allowing us to focus on those who are. Furthermore with the semester ending soon after that, I’ll expect that a few of the seniors and officer cadets you’ve trained with thus far will be finding new homes as they receive their first postings elsewhere.”
“Ah, I see, all right then,” Sylvas said as he let out a breath of relief. As it was, he already had a new affinity to learn about, a whole new spell book to master, and new circle to forge. All of that of course not including his new transition to the naval track, what he was beginning to suspect was all but guaranteed officer cadet training, and his inevitable clash Hammerheart and his clique.
Adding some sort of grand combat test on top of that would have been ridiculous.
“Good. We have high expectations. The Cull will take place in a week or so once we finalize preparations,” Aurea said almost casually. “Usually it would be two to three weeks further in the semester, but alas there are certain upcoming events that we need to plan around and have been forced to adjust our schedule.”
Oh, damn it, I had to taunt the universe, didn’t I? Sylvas mentally cursed at Aurea’s words, suddenly feeling like the walls were beginning to close in on him.
“Administrator Mengrammon has already filed your transfer and assigned you quarters. We expect the approval to be put through almost immediately,” The woman continued when Sylvas said nothing. “And your lessons will begin tomorrow, though I believe that Instructor Fahred wishes to begin work on spatial magic with you now, if you feel that you have the energy.”
Sylvas took a second to think about that as he pulled himself out of his internal cursing. For if he was going to honest with himself, he was bone tired. The changes in his mana made his whole body feel heavy, and the process of all the unaligned mana working its way out of his body meant that he was slowly but surely being drained. Yet, the possibilities of spatial magic were too appealing to pass up any opportunity to get to them early. “I think do. I’ll go to him immediately, thank you Instructor Aurea. For everything.”
“Of course,” the woman replied as she stood up, signaling the end of the meeting, one that found Sylvas soon exiting her office and practically bumping into the man he’d been preparing to go look for.
“Gravity!” Instructor Farhed exclaimed the second the door shut behind Sylvas, pushing himself off the wall he’d been leaning against. “Who would have thought that there was something of use inside you after all?”
Sylvas offered the man a rather aggrieved expression, prompting him to wave a hand dismissively. “Oh you know what I mean. Come on, let’s see just how much we can stuff into that mind of yours before the day’s out.”
Practically kidnapped by Instructor from that point on, the next thing Sylvas knew they were delving deeper down into the complex, having descended down past the brig and down to an even lower level where there was essentially no modernization. All the floor has was only the ancient cut stones and odd shaped recesses set into the walls that Sylvas couldn’t help but think made this particular area some kind of tomb that had been emptied out.
“There’s space just along here.” The instructor informed him, once again waving a hand head of them.
Soon after, the twisting corridors cut into the stone opened out into a larger chamber, with tiered steps cut into all sides, making something like an auditorium. Down at the very bottom was a raised slab of stone bigger than Sylvas, but whatever purpose it had served escaped him, given how thoroughly time had worn everything down.
“Good. Right. Perfect.” Fahred turned to face him, clapping his hands together eagerly. “Spatial magic is derived from the spells of the gravity affinity, so it should come more easily to you than to the rest of us. By focusing gravity in a very small area to an undue intensity, we can very briefly break the rules of universal constants, opening a rift leading outside of typical space.”
The portal that he had torn through to allow an eidolon entry. It had to have been spatial magic, and he had to have been chosen because of his affinity for it, even when he had no idea what an affinity even was at that point.
“In terms of practical applications, there are several. The first is transportation. By taking yourself, or a ship, outside of normal space, you can then create a similar puncture elsewhere, allowing you or your ship to return to normal space at a different location simultaneously to your disappearance. Teleportation at its finest. The most powerful gravity mages are capable of carrying a whole fleet with them, the majority can manage an entire ship, and then those of us without gravity affinity can manage to teleport ourselves.” He conjured a staff topped with a blue crystal radiating water aspect magic into his hands with a casual ease. “Using exactly the same methodology, you can also puncture a hole into Cold Storage, it’s what we call one of the many pocket dimensions that overlay our own, and use the place for the easy transportation of bulky items. The amount of space you have in that dimension is hypothetically limitless, but the energy required to punch through to it becomes greater the more that is in there. These latent adjacent planes of existence are empty of mass and energy, or at least they were prior to our interference, and the addition of mass and energy to them increases their density many times over. Bear this in mind, as you may lose access to everything you have stored in said pocket dimension if you are lacking in the power to puncture the planar barrier. Any questions so far?”
“How do I know where to punch back through?”
“That is a complex question. Space operates differently in other planes of existence. In some a mile is an inch, and in others up is down. Navigating through these planes to reach your destination is as much a matter of practice and experience as anything else. Though I imagine that you’ll have no shortage of instruction on interstellar navigation now that the arm of the navy has their hooks into you.”
Sylvas opened his mouth with another question, only for Fahred to ramble on into the next subject without pause. “Oh, and needless to say, transporting a heavier load while in transit through alternate planes is going to cause the power values required to return spike up massively in the same manner as with Cold Storage. So when the day comes, do take care not to carry a whole fleet out of reality and leave it trapped there in the endless nothingness. They do not give medals for that sort of thing in this man’s Ardent.”
Sylvas tried to speak again but before the first sound escaped him, Fahred turned to face him. “Cold Storage is obviously the easiest spell, so we will start there, then once I’m confident you aren’t going to accidentally trap yourself in there, we can move on to more dangerous magic like teleportation.”
“What about my advancement?”
“What about it?” Fahred asked, canting his head to side as if Sylvas had asked a strange question. “Form a third circle with a paradigm and embodiment relevant to your affinity to filter out the wrong kinds of mana and then get on with things. You’ve done it twice now.”
“You don’t have some sort of suggestion as to what course I should be following?”
“With all due respect, which is very little if we are being honest, you’ve just won the affinity jackpot and now you’re quibbling over whether you can get it in copper coins instead of gold. Regardless of what you do next, you are so vital to the war effort that the Ardent will forgive you all manner of sins. How you progress is much less relevant than the fact that you do progress. Just do some research and choose something appealing, quickly at that too.”
It took a second Sylvas to process the man’s barrage, which by the end of he simply nodded. “I’ll find something that suits me and advance as soon as I can do so.”
“Words I like to hear,” Fahred clapped his hands with a sound like breaking waves. “So, are you ready to start breaking every natural law this is?”
Sylvas nodded as he began to rolled and stretch his shoulders a sense of eagerness flowing into him. “I am.”