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Chapter 4.17 is the eighteenth chapter of Volume 4.

tl;dr[]

Ryoka visits the Strongheart farm together with Garia, Fals, Mrsha and Ivolethe. Ryoka shows Garia Martial Arts and understands a bit of Ivolethe's magic.

Synopsis[]

  • Ryoka Griffin hated visiting friends and had constantly avoided it until now; she arrives at Garia's farm a few miles west of Celum, with Mrsha and Ivolethe by her side. They wait outside as Ryoka mentally prepares herself before Ivolethe orders her to go in along with Mrsha's helpful encouragement. Garia greets them and Ivolethe decides to fly off rather than watch the mortals converse, but not before requesting food in exchange for a "blessing".
  • Ivolethe throws a snowball at Ryoka as she departs and Ryoka curses her off whilst Garia's parents and Fals witness the deed. Ryoka finds herself sitting at the dining table with Wailand and Viceria Strongheart introducing themselves. Neither of them looked much like farmers, Ryoka notices Wailant's tattoos, scars and expensive looking shirt, and Viceria looked like a typical mage.
  • Ryoka explains about meeting Ivolethe to Viceria's curiousity and reassures Wailant that she won't cover their fields in snow like they had to a farmer he knew. She gets the impression that Wailant isn't fond of either her or Fals and as Wailant asks whether Ryoka's connection to the Frost Faeries is what got her well paying runs compared to Garia, Fals interjects and is able to tell them of her risk taking by reminding them of her running the High passes.
  • Ryoka tries to move the subject on towards the farmers' large collection of books and Wailant grills her on the books she's read. Garia manages to take Wailant to the kitchen as Fals goes to the outhouse and Ryoka manages to ask why Wailant seems to dislike the pair. Viceria tells Ryoka that she looks much like the girls that bullied Garia as she was growing up because Garia inherited much of her looks from her father's side. Viceria tells Ryoka that classes tend to influence how people look, and [Farmer] can influence that too.
  • Ryoka mentions Garia helping her out in a fight and Wailant overhears and begins enthusiastically asking questions about her performance. Ryoka and Fals begin to tell them of both the times that Garia helped fight to Wailant's approval and Garia's embarassment. Surprised by his approval Wailant tells them that he used to be a [Sailor] before he was a farmer, but both his wife and daughter get him to reveal the full truth: a [Pirate].
  • Wailant tells his story: his parents being from Baleros with his father dying at sea and his mother when he was five. He had two brothers and a sister but isn't aware of their whereabouts. He had been a level 27 [Pirate] before he quit after getting rich and left for Izril for retirement. He had come as far inland as possible to escape the water and used most of his wealth to pay off his bounty. He struggled the first few years but was able to manage due to being able to defend his fields from monsters.
  • He met Viceria, a Wistram Graduate, as she was attacked by Carn Wolves when she went to study the Bloodfields, and then she decided to stay on the farm as a [Green mage]. Viceria has the spells to accelerate crop growth and Wailant could keep the monsters at bay allowing the pair of them to supply a fair amount of produce to Celum.
  • Garia, Fals and Mrsha head to sleep and the parents share their worries with Ryoka that one day Garia will wind up dead out on a run. Garia's too stubborn to accept help from the two of them and she doesn't have the temperment to be a mage nor the skill with weapons to be a warrior. Ryoka realises that she can teach Garia martial arts after demonstrating a bit to the two.
  • The next day, after Ryoka shows Fals and Garia the basics, Ivolethe teaches her how to use magic: Ryoka stands on a hill facing the wind and Ivolethe lectures her on not closing her eyes to do so, telling her to look and see where nothing goes just like she had done bfore on the coach. Ryoka spends 5 minutes failing at seeing nothing and Ivolethe tries to re-explain how magic is to her once more. Ivolethe magic isn't the type that can be studied or practiced but is greace itself.
  • Ryoka gives up and returns to the others to see Mrsha trying out punches and Garia not really understanding the importance of her full body movements. Fals suggests Ryoka demonstrate the importance of practice. Ryoka does a handspring in front of everyone and then a front flip. She continues to display tricks to everyone before messing up a landing and crashing. She shows off a little more, enough to try and convince Garia to continue with her practice when she suddenly sees the wind before falling mid-flip. She crashes and wakes up to Garia explaining that she'd tried to do a backflip and then kept going upwards as the wind carried her. She initially thinks Ivoletehe was pulling a prank but eventually realises that she finally managed to understand a bit of Ivolethe's magic.

Characters[]

Locations[]

  • Strongheart Family Farmhouse (A few miles west of Celum).

Trivia[]

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