Magi's Path (Aether's Revival Book 3) by Daniel Schinhofen (motivational books to read txt) 📕

“And it will only redouble, as she has already made it to the final four and might be the champion or runner-up,” Hao told him.

“I still have my earring,” Nessa said. “That gives me a slight advantage, at least.”

“Yes, it will,” Yukiko nodded.

“We should get to dinner. I did warn them it would be early for us today,” Hao said. “Shall we?”

~*~*~

As they walked back to the clan after dinner, Gregory was lost in thought.

“Greg? You’ve been quiet since dinner,” Yukiko said, pulling him from his thoughts.

“Sorry. I was just going over the book I was reading earlier. It explained why only you can use the ring. Enchantments can be set to only be usable in certain circumstances so, in the case of your ring, a shadow magi can use it, but not others. The trick is the requirements.”

“Okay. What are they for my ring?” Yukiko asked.

“Nothing very special. It takes a touch of aether that is in tune with shadow to trigger it. The book used a similar example, but for a different magic. When you go to use the ring, it taps your aether to see if the requirement is met. It’s such a brief and subtle thing that, unless you’re focused on it, you’d never even notice.”

“Which is why it doesn’t work for me at all, but you could feel it start and then stop?” Jenn asked.

“Because of who I am,” Gregory said. “I think I can get it to work, but there’s a step I’m missing. I’m not going to figure it out before the end of this tournament, but I might after that.”

“Maybe before we leave to go to the event?” Yukiko asked.

“Possibly. I wonder about that, though. It felt like Yunlo and the council didn’t agree to the idea.”

“I had that same impression,” Yukiko said.

“That will be interesting,” Jenn said. “I wonder how it will be different.”

“Buldoun’s magi aren’t known for risking death, which makes me wonder about the event. I find it hard to believe it’ll be a tournament like ours,” Yukiko said.

“Tournament winners and Empire’s Gambit winners,” Gregory said. “It’ll be a twofold event, at least.”

“Agreed. The Empire’s Gambit will be the same, I believe,” Yukiko said.

“We need to win the tournament here to find out,” Jenn said. “If we play as clan teams, I like our chances.”

“Especially with Ling and Clover beside us,” Gregory said. “We’ll have to wait and see what Egil decides to do for the tournament. Clans groups would favor the bigger ones.”

“That’s true,” Jenn nodded.

“Maybe they’ll use the classes we have as groups?” Yukiko said.

“That makes sense. It’ll be interesting to have a six-man team, but they might decide to keep it to the three-man teams.”

“Yeah, that would make it easier,” Jenn said. “That means we won’t be playing with them, though.”

“Disappointing, but hopefully, they can do well.”

“Are we going to meditate before bed?” Yukiko asked.

“Yeah, that was my plan,” Gregory smiled. “Meditation, bath, and then bed.”

“I like that plan, especially that last bit,” Jenn grinned.

“Bed for sleep,” Gregory chuckled. “We do need to be at our best for the fights.”

“We’ll get sleep,” Yukiko smirked, “and we’ll even temper ourselves so we don’t go as long as we normally would.”

Gregory raised his hands. “I surrender. Saying no to you both is nearly impossible for me.”

“We know,” Jenn giggled.

~*~*~

Gregory wiped the water out of his eye, having just finished rinsing the soap off when the door opened. “Elder?” He was surprised to see Elder Lightshield standing in the doorway.

“Ah, Gregory. Can you give me a hand, please?”

Gregory went over to help the older man to the washing bench. “How was your day, sir?”

“Productive,” Lightshield sighed as he sat. “Your last fight had a lot of people talking. You did the right thing. I was stopped by the Saito clan head and thanked for giving them a chance. If you could have heard Grandmaster Shun hoping for you to fail...” He trailed off with a tired chuckle.

“I don’t know if I would have done that if not for your message, sir.”

“But you had wanted to do it before you heard my message, did you not?” Lightshield asked, giving Gregory a thankful nod when the younger man put the bucket of water next to him.

“I want the clan to be seen as strong and honorable, Elder. In truth, yes. I wanted to face him alone before you sent word, but I didn’t want to risk serious injury, either. When Dia told us what you had said, I was fairly certain you already knew the outcome, which let me do what I’d wanted to.”

Lathering up the soap, Lightshield nodded. “Yes. Oh, how it galled them with you winning as you did. Some tried to play it up as you being overconfident or even arrogant. The fools did not even realize what you could have done if you wanted to. Grandmaster Yunlo would not have been fast enough to stop you if you had wanted to kill that apprentice.”

“I could have easily killed him, sir, but as I told him, we are here to learn and train. It doesn’t help the empire if we kill and maim each other here.”

“Yes. Those words had weight to them— he has already been talking to others about it. It has prompted a few questions already about why the arena is not enchanted to help with healing. Several clans have training rings that do, so why does the academy not?”

“I would think the council is not exactly happy, then,” Gregory said as Lightshield scrubbed himself down.

“Oh, those three are upset, but it is well past time. The guards are out and patrolling during this tournament and not just holding their posts, like they did last year. It is something they should