[Private/Training]The Butterfly Queen

Well, this wasn't exactly a part of Yaku's plans...He left the magician's city to enjoy the view and observe the giant citadel that had appeared in the plains. The last thing he expected to come of that was a free involuntary carriage ride into the Zou empire to the east! The large Imuchakk shifted uncomfortably in the small seat which was clearly not made for his kin and shot his abductor a sharp look. The quaint smile she gave back told him that trying to threaten her was probably useless. Sighing, the blue mage leaned back and held his hands up, "Alright, you got me. You're a magician. I'll pay attention to you now, but I doubt you brought me to Zou just so we could flirt."

The young lady smirked before asking, "Don't you even want to know my name first?" She fake pouted as if she were offended. Yaku didn't want to play her game, but at this point he had nothing to lose, "Okay, who may I ask are you?" The woman looked please with herself as she gave an introduction, "I am Lady Soushui. I am a magician supported by the Zou empire and I was on my way back from visiting magnostadt as an ambassador when I saw you."

Yaku simply stared at Lady Soushui and waited for her to continue as he had nothing else to say to her yet. Noticing that he was being tight lipped till she explained more, Soushui relinquished, "You are here because you are an Imuchakk. I've been asking the empire to capture one as a slave for years, but your people are tenacious fighters. I've always been too busy to travel north and take one for myself. Imagine my surprise when I found one sitting on a hill on the road back to my homeland? Fufufufu~ Truly our meeting must have been divined by the rukh." The Lady snapped a fan open in front of her face as she giggled.

The answer made her intent clear, but the reasons behind them were still foggy. "Why would you need an Imuchakk slave? Should I start calling you master?" Yaku wanted her to get to the crux of the matter and began looking around for his staff. It was conveniently set right next to him, but why hadn't they taken it? Lady Soushui's react would exaplin as she burst into laughter, "Fufufufu~ Oh heaven's no! You're not my slave and I don't plan on making you into one. My interest is in your people's lore. Obtaining a slave is just an easy way to go about it. The brutes of the empire get their hands dirty while mine stay immaculate~"

Yakuroro raised a brow at her as if he didn't believe her, but if they really had planned to enslave him then his staff would never have been left so close to him.

"We're here Lady Soushui."

The driver said as the carriage came to a halt. The lady magician smiled at Yakuroro and made her final offer, "I apologize for taking you by force, I let my habit of using magic to solve all my problems take over. But if you help me in my studies, I will share my knowledge of magic with you. That's all you care about....right?" This woman was right, so Yaku reluctantly nodded whilst sighing. "But you teach me magic first." His affirmation made a genuinely cute smile appear on Lady Soushui's face as her eyes lit up like she were still a child. "It's a deal! We'll begin right away!" She then took his hand and led him out of the carriage and into the daylight.

Before them was a grand mansion of Zou design which was built upon a hill and walled off. It almost looked more like a fortress than a home and it was the good Lady Magician's estate. She led Yaku through the front gates and to the left where an open court yard for magic training had been built. There, the more experienced magician explained a trick to forming more water by adjusting the magoi output behind Yakuroro's spells. With this trick in mind, Yaku went about producing lots and lots of water from the local atmosphere into giant large spheres of water which were then dropped into a large container which lead underground. After two days of practicing this technique, Yakuroro had mastered the ability to efficiently manifest a ball of water that was an impressive 15m in diameter. An impressive feat over the mere 10 gallons he was able to produce with one of his weaker spells.

The water spheres were so large in size that Yakuroro was actually able to swim around in them. While Yakuroro trained, Lady Soushui watched when her duties didn't drag her elsewhere. When she saw how effectively Yakuroro was able to move through the water she suggested she make it so even he had trouble moving about. At first, Yakuroro didn't understand the meaning, but he decided to follow her advice anyways and added several commands to the rukh. Instead of just forming a ball, the water currents within would become violent and wild.

It didn't take long for Yakuroro to realize how useful this would be. As he desperately kicked the water to move about the rampaging currents a curious bird got too close to the sphere and became sucked in. While the Imuchakk were excellent swimmers, most people would be swept away by the waters. This spell would allow Yakuroro to change the battle field to underwater combat where the Imuchakk excelled.

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Upon completing his first spell under Lady Soushui's care the blasted woman took it upon herself to schedule a display of the new ability for the local people. Apparently the villagers on all he surrounding farms were all overseen by the good Lady. While she, and they in turn, answered to the Empire's will; the people of these lands seemed to only have loyalty for their lady. They gathered in excitement to any event or festival thrown by Lady Soushui and Yaku's display of magic would be no different. The Imuchakk was given a fine silk Zou outfit to wear before being sent alone into the center of a large courtyard with countless spectators. There was another large hole in the ground here for Yaku to dispense his water in. The Imuchakk raised his staff and summoned a large sphere of liquid from the atmosphere before dropping it into the hole. It was a simple act, and yet it seemed to drive a hearty cheer from the spectators.

After the event, Lady Soushui asked Yaku to share a meal and together over dinner they discussed why the villagers were so excited as well as where he should take his training next. "You've been watering their crops you know." The Lady explained as Yaku enjoyed a Zou delicacy, "Those holes in the ground I have your dump your water? They lead to a gravity fed network of underground pipes. The land never got very much rain water to begin with so when I first began here the land was as tough as stones. But with those pipes I can pull water from the atmosphere and send it all over the local farmlands." Well at least that explained why people cheered over a big ball of water. Yaku feared the people were just simple minded. "That is all well and good, but you really only taught me one trick so far. I did most of the magic making on my own." The Imuchakk said in a coy voice in attempt to drag more teachings out of the Lady. But this only seemed to upset her as she excused herself and did not appear before Yaku again until the next day.

Yakuroro was practicing his last spell again in the early morning hours when suddenly all the water around him began freezing rapidly until he was frozen solid. The poor water mage was trapped in a tomb of ice made from his own spells waters. Lady Soushui laughed at him from outside the sphere and taunted him, "Instead of being so quick to freeze my heart, learn to freeze your entire spell in a flash." She then made her leave, forsaking Yakuroro to wait a few hours until he finally thawed. The Lady's words were passed to him by a servant and begrudgingly, Yakuroro began. The trick to gathering enough water now came as naturally to Yaku as seeing the rukh, but freezing all of that water was not so simple. Yaku originally tried freezing the entire mass at once, but the result was a ton of air pockets which made the sphere unstable and fragile. Nothing like the solid tomb that imprisoned Yakuroro for half a day. Damn that woman!

Another approach was to make the ice all freeze from the outer water inwards. It ensured that the target inside the water would be unable to escape once the freezing began and slowly move inwards. As the inner water froze it would expand however and this caused structural weaknesses in the ice dome as well. Yakuroro tried casting the spell this way several times, but each attempt ended up with a weaker result than the last. Some other means of freezing the water was in order.

Yakuroro thought deeply over the next few days during which time, the infamous Lady Soushui did not visit him once. The final words she had given him would flash into his mind, but the Imuchakk kept writing it off as her typical teasing. His efforts to master the deep freeze didn't make any progress until one night Yakuroro was laying in bed and Soushui's words ran through his mind again. "Oh how I wish I could freeze that heart of yours." He thought to make himself feel better, but then he realized that that was the answer. "Freeze the heart!"

The Imuchakk hurried out of bed and left his guest room with unicorn horn staff in hand. It was midnight and the moon's light was gently illuminating the night with the help of all the stars in the sky. In the courtyard, Yakuroro summoned the large ball of water and moved it away from himself before telling the rukh in the center of the sphere to freeze. As each water molecule would expand and move, it would then pass the order on to freeze once more. In this way, the sphere expanded naturally and the ice could be layered from the inside out without any air bubbles or structural weaknesses.

It took Yaku several attempts to get the freezing rate just right and even in all directions, but once he finally did the sound of applause behind him caused Yaku to turn just in time to see Lady Soushui step out of an illusion that had been hiding her presence. She had been watching him train the whole time!? Yaku started to ask why she hadn't stepped in to help before but caught himself as he remembered how his original magic teacher had taught him. It was in very much the same way. Yaku's old master and Lady Soushui were similar in that they only ever seemed to teach through cryptic words or action.

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Yakuroro couldn't say that he was enjoying his training under Lady Soushui's guidance, but it was an undeniable fact that he'd made great progress with his magic while here. Not only could he change the nature of a fight into an underwater brawl, but he'd gained a powerful freezing spell that could be used to seriously immobilize a large number of target at once. Even if those results were born from his efforts in training, it all never would have happened had his mysterious benefactor not abducted him from Magnostadt's plains. In order to share his appreciation, Yakuroro scheduled a night for himself and Soushui to sit down and speak about the lore of the Imuchakk. The time the busy magician agreed to meet Yakuroro was on midnight of the next full moon. The location was to be on the roof of her estate. The meeting wasn't for another few more days so Yakuroro began practicing all of his basics for water and ice magic over again.

Yaku's foundations were always simple commands and his spells had always been simple concepts. But since the blue magician reached Imuchakk, magic studies had filled his life and it hardly seemed like he had time for anything else. Despite his tireless training, Yakuroro felt more alive and free than he ever had before as each day brought new knowledge. Instead of being exhausted, the Imuchakk was invigorated with life anew. This vigor showed in his training as he cast each of his spells several times over until he couldn't stand only to go to sleep and do it all over again the next day. Through this diligent repetition, Yaku became more aware of his spells strengths and weakness. Crackle in particular was great for stabbing a target at range, but it was meant for impaling bodies and that had limited use in combat. Yaku wanted something that would allow him to attack but also serve some other purpose such as cutting or crushing an object or structure. It was that realization that brought Yakuroro to create his next new spell. One which he would learn without that scheming witch's help! Or at least that was Yaku's hope. The Imuchakk's pride had been scathed by the fact that a woman who tried to seduce him so miserably when they first met was now in some way teaching him magic. No doubt she was claiming responsibility for Yaku's last two new spells and that just upset the blue haired magician.

This new spell would need to be more than simple...Yakuroro felt it would need to be simple on the surface, but complex in commands. It would use everything he'd learned so far on a smaller scale to create a swift yet powerful offensive with cutting properties. Yaku began the foundation of this spell by simply swiping his staff through the air in wide arcs a few times. Each time he swung the rampaging unicorn horn, Yaku imagined arc shaped blades of various shapes and sizes based on how he swung his arm. Once the Imuchakk was satisfied with curve of his swipes, he began to add magic on top of the action. Magoi would quickly build and flow into the staff willing blue rukh to listen to Yakuroro's requests. Water was told to quickly gather at the head of Yakuroro's staff and leave a trail behind its movements.

It took hours of swinging his staff around making arcs of water in the air which would hold for a moment before freezing. Yaku tried short arcs and large ones, the biggest of which being 5m long. Once he was satisfied with this, he began using the freezing techniques he'd mastered to solidify the center of each water arc. Each time Yaku swung his staff, he listened to the rukh while asking them how best to form a blade. Bit by bit, the magician refined the orders for how the rukh should freeze further and further until finally a single great sweep from Yaku's staff could produce a large frozen blade of ice. With the cutting edge complete, the final command to fly towards its target was given. "Glacial Arc!" The spell was born with its name as told to Yakuroro by the rukh.

The resulting attack was a magical arc of ice cutting through the air at 15m/s before cutting deeply into the wall of Soushui's estate's western wall. By the time anyone from her staff saw the damage the ice had already melted. All they knew was that someone had cleaved a deep blow to the inner side of the wall. Yakuroro would have notified someone himself, but by the time he mastered the spell it was already almost midnight and a full moon was looming in the sky above. The promised meeting with Lady Soushui was nigh.

Yakuroro used flight magic to reach the roof to find his benefactor sitting at a table with tea prepared and an old scroll in her lap. The way she sat with her hand holding her cheek up whilst using gravity magic to turn the scroll was incredible. Not because it was lazy, but because it reminded Yakuroro of the way his old master had sat and read scrolls. He landed no the roof and made his presence known and the Lady welcomed him to take a seat. Yakuroro began to ask where he wanted her to start about his people's lore but the woman held up a hand and shook her head, "I never cared about Imuchakk lore, that was a lie. I just wanted you to practice magic here." she smiled at Yaku genuinely and giggled before explaining, "Your staff is wrapped in twine~" The sorceress pointed out. As obvious of a fact that was, Yakuroro instantly understood the significance.

"So that's why you remind me of him." Yakuroro sighed and continued, "It's too much of a coincidence that you both have the same lazy reading pose." This provoked a burst of laughter from Soushui as her eyes teared up from chuckling too hard. "That's right! I caught that from him..." The woman looked up at the moon as if she were remembering something dear to her. "I'm taking you back to Magnostadt." She said suddenly before turning to face Yakuroro, "Tonight!"

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"Wait a minute, I have a lot of questions now!" Yakuroro said with concern. "We can talk on the way, my last gift to you will be fixing that sloppy flight spell of yours." Soushui teased as she sealed her scroll and set it down on the table before drawing her wand and using gravity magic to fly. "I'll answer your questions so long as you can keep up enough to ask them!" She shouted before taking off toward the night sky. Yakuroro hurried into flight after her and demanded to know how she knew his master, "I thought you said you'd never found the time to go north! So how could you possibly have-"

"Have what? Met your master? When I was young my parents took me on an exploratory ship to the northern waters to follow whales and explore the ports of foreign lands." Soushui was finally telling Yakuroro the truth, but her voice was quickly fading as she moved father and father away from Yakuroro heading east. The Imuchakk strained to speed up but 5m/s was all he could manage. Soushui turned around and looked at Yaku and then slowed down back to his side. She took he hand and then sped up to 30m/s briefly while shouting over the wind, "The rukh will respond to your intent and your commands, but if you don't give them enough magoi, there is only so much they can do! Stop being so girly about your output and really pour it out!" Her coaching didn't help Yakuroro's attitude, but as he became angry and his muscles tensed she let go of him and then slowed down to 12m/s with her back leading so she could watch Yakuroro's progress. As the force from her dragging him faded, his speed slowly dropped, but the Imuchakk let out a roar of determination as he pumped a larger quantity of magoi than before into his flight spell. He slowed further still but settled at 8m/s and was visibly able to see that he was consistently flying faster than before. Yaku looked ahead to Soushui whom smirked and continued with her tale.

"There was a storm and out ship capsized. Both of my parents drowned and I wound up on the shore of Imuchakk lands half frozen to death. That's when he found me. Your master took me in and nursed me back to health and was my first master too. He taught me water magic!" If that was the case, then the twine on Yaku's unicorn horn staff certainly gave him away as one of his master's students. Yakuroro added that feature to his staff in honor of his late master and the twine he used was very specific made from a rare beast that lived only within Imuchakk lands. "How did you come to be a magician in the service of Zou!?" Yaku shouted as Soushui was getting out of earshot again. She started to gradually slow down and held one hand to her ear, "Eeeeeh!?~ I cant hear yooou~!" Yaku got angrier. MORE MAGOI! Yaku's efforts brought him up to 10m/s and now he was slowly but surely catching up to Soushui whom had slowed to 9/ms.

The female magician giggled and began replying to Yakuroro's question showing that she had heard him all along. Yaku was normally the one tricking people and it was novel at first but now he was just plain tired of it. At lest he tried not to let people know they were being tricked!

"After a few years with him I learned enough magic to get by and then set out to Magnostadt! I studied there for another few more years and then returned to some family I had left alive in Zou! One of my cousins had become an accomplished officer in the military and through him I was able to get in contact with the empire! Once I showed them my skill I was given a small post that was mostly spent doing dirty work for nobles. I was supposed to be an assassin." As she mentioned her dark past, Soushui became close enough that she didn't need to yell anymore and she performed a spell with similar commands as to the butterfly she had made before. This time, lots of smaller butterflies of light began fluttering from her wand one by one.

Yakuroro was only able to see a glimpse of the butterflies before Soushui matched her speed to his and swiftly covered Yaku's eyes. "Don't look at them for too long. You caught a blink of it, right?" Yakuroro tried to reply but he found that he couldn't and that his muscles were stiffening. Soushui ceased her flow of magoi so the butterflies faded and then uncovered Yakuroro's eyes while keeping him air born as his magoi output wavered. After a few minutes he was able to move and speak again and Lady Soushui let him go.

"W-What the heck just happened?" Yakuroro asked as he recovered his flight speed with great effort. "I'm surprised you were able to keep your flight spell up!" the woman laughed before explaining, "I would use that spell to paralyze people and then slit their throats." She smiled as she mad a motion across her neck with the thumb to act out the deed. "Eventually I was rewarded with a position overseeing some farmlands at my request. Instead of being an assassin, I'm now a diplomat and a mage which can keep crops watered in a normally dry region. I may have taken many lives, but its lead to the power to support a great many more. I don't regret my past one bit." She seemed to be earnest in her words so Yakuroro nodded and asked a final question.

"So why didn't you just tell me when we met? I would have loved to learn magic from someone else my master taught!" Yakuroro shouted but this time it was out of frustration. Soushui just giggled again and shook her head, "That just wouldn't do. I wanted to see if I could teach you without using your master's name. I did not want to disrespect you or his spirit by implying you should become my student simply because I'm a bit older and he taught me first. You're one of his own kind, you are his true successor." It was clear she knew that his master had died, although Yakuroro wasn't too sure of how. The facts were that she had been in communication with him through long range clairvoyance magic, but when he hadn't responded in many years she concluded that he must have passed on.

Yakuroro reached out to grab Soushui's hand and shook his head, "No, I think he'd be proud to call you his successor just as much as I." In a rare act of human kindness, Yaku gave the woman words that filled her eyes with tears of joy, "Thank you Yakuroro...But this is where we must part." Soushui slowed to a stop in mid air and flew back from Yakuroro a few meters in the direction they came from. "You've already mastered your flight spell, my final gift has been passed on. You haven't even entered the academy yet right? Go back to Magnostadt! You can come visit me when you've mastered sound magic!" With those parting words, Soushui turned around and flew back towards her estate at speeds Yakuroro couldn't hope to catch up to. That left him over the Jade mountains which Yakuroro had regretted not exploring during his last travels through Zou. Seeing an opportunity, he slowly landed and decided to travel the rest of the way on foot.

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