Zeph Malston: The Aether Mage

Zeph was sitting in a recliner, and watching a movie in the living room. It's been two weeks since he started training, and he finally managed to land a hit on Coach Bianca. She was holding back and they didn't use magic, but it still made him smile. Bianca decided to pass down some of her family's teachings to him. That meant that he was her martial disciple, but she didn't let him call her teacher or master. Instead, she insisted that he call her coach. Her reasoning was that coach didn't make her sound as old as the other titles he could use.

The lessons were exhausting at first. She tested his power and showed him how to control his strength. That part took a few days. Bernard taught him how to control magic in order to make spells, but he never really tried to lower the power of a spell. That was because he was always trying to kill monsters. Bianca helped him adjust, and understand how much magic it took to cause different amounts of damage. Now he wasn't afraid of accidentally hurting someone if he didn't want to.

Bianca also trained him in close combat fighting techniques. That was the worst part of the day, because she wouldn't just teach him the forms. After he learned the forms, they would spar and use them in combat. Then they would review his mistakes and spar again. The process repeated several times, usually exhausting the poor boy and leaving him bruised.

After his body was worn out, Bianca would challenge his magic skills. She would make him try to break barriers of varying styles or practice making his own barriers more complex. He practiced shooting targets and learned to make his ranged spells more accurate. Bianca even taught him how to change the direction after throwing them. There were also some secret techniques she taught him that he couldn't tell anyone about. Bianca was impressed by his progress and knew that he could beat Liliana by the end of the month.

Now it was the last day of the second week, and coach was giving him the weekend off. His training schedule was originally going to be two days of training and one day resting. Unfortunately for him, Bianca discovered his recuperative abilities and made it three training days, one rest day. Zeph was closing his eyes and enjoying a comfortable massage. His grandpa believed that all recliners must be massage chairs. Ronan, Liliana, and Zeph were starting to agree with him.

Liliana was in the living room sitting opposite to Zeph in another recliner. She was tired from a long day of training as well. The little girl begged Ronan to train her some more so that she wouldn't get left behind by Zeph. Bernard set up a gym for them with monitoring equipment. He promised to help Ronan and Liliana understand her transformation. It seemed to be going well, because Zeph could see her mood improve over the last week. Her rash behavior lessened, and she stopped chasing Rin around the house.

"Hey, Zeph?" Liliana interrupted the movie they were watching.

"What's up Lili?"

"Why won't Rin let me hold her?"

"Not sure, maybe because you beat me up."

"I didn't beat you up, we both passed out from magic exhaustion. No one got hurt. Besides, Miss Bianca makes you pass out almost every day, and Rin doesn't run away from her." Liliana pouted at the boy's uncaring attitude.

"Well Rin was mad at her at first, but Bianca bribed her with sweets. Now the little traitor watches as I get the snot kicked out of me while she eats cookies. "It was Zeph's turn to complain.

Liliana laughed. "Does she really?"

"No, sometimes it's meatloaf. We don't always give her sweets.

"Not Rin. I meant Miss Bianca. Does she really beat you that badly?"

"Nah, it's not that bad. Besides, she said I can give up anytime I want. So, it's more like I beat myself up using her fist."

"Why though. Getting beat up can't really help that much can it?" Liliana was curious. Her grandfather never trained her to the extent that she was bruised and bloody. Unlike Zeph, it looked like he got into a fight with a gang after training. Bernard had to tell everyone about his healing factor to make them stop worrying. She thought it looked cool when his injuries healed themselves.

"It's because I need to get stronger. I don't like the feeling of losing. It makes me feel helpless, and…. I have issues with feeling helpless." Zeph grabbed his soda from the cup holder and took a long drink.

There was an awkward silence. Lili remembered the story Bernard told them about Zeph's parents. 'I bet he doesn't want to feel like that again. Now I'll feel bad if I beat him in a rematch…. But I really want to fight him again.' She looked at Zeph.

"What do you think about having a rematch the next time it stops raining?" Liliana wanted to fight him again before they went to school. It would probably rain on and off for the next two weeks. Then school will start a week after fall officially begins.

"I don't know about a rematch, but we could spar if you want. We won't go all out like in a duel. We'll try out spells and techniques on each other, and give feedback and advice." Zeph realized that Lili held herself back for a couple of weeks before asking to fight again. He knew she was worried that he might not want to be her friend if she was too violent. Now that he wasn't worried about seriously hurting her, Zeph wanted to spar with his little friend. They had talked a lot in the past two weeks, and he realized that she was slightly odd. Lili loved to fight but she wasn't unkind. She was intelligent but she lacked common sense. The girl was a little odd, and acted like a blockhead sometimes . It was pretty funny when he thought about it.

Lili's face brightened. "Really!?"

"Sure, we can use my practice room tomorrow. Bianca gave me the day off. We should get your grandpa to come with us."

"That would be cool, but what about your grandpa?"

"He said that he has something to take care of in the lab for a few days and not to bother him. I'm not sure when he'll come out, but he's been in there since this morning. Alex told me not to worry about it, because he does that sometimes." Zeph's stomach growled. "I'm going to go to the kitchen. You want anything?"

Lili thought for a moment. "Can you get me a strawberry soda and some of those ch.i.p.s that Rin likes?"

Rin was sleeping on the couch ignoring the two children, but her ear twitched when Lili said 'ch.i.p.s.'

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Bernard was sitting at his worktable with a bunch of gun parts floating nearby. He would use a small tool to engrave runes on a part. Then pieced it together with another one. The process was slow and tedious, but he was patient. This would be Zeph's first personalized magic focus, and he wanted it to be memorable.

He grabbed Zeph on one of the boy's days off and took him to the lab. Together they discussed the various functions this weapon would have. Bernard was impressed with the boy's creativity and said he would do his best to match Zeph's expectations. The boy didn't need a spell focus, because he could make one using aether. But, Zeph could only create a simple spell focus. It wouldn't have any other function than absorbing spell backlash.

Bernard made a mental note to start teaching the boy some magic engineering after school started. There would be a class on it, and he could tutor the boy. It would also give him an excuse to spend time with his grandson. He liked the kid, and it made him feel all warm and fuzzy when they hung out together. The old man regretted that he didn't have any children. If he knew that having a child would be this emotionally uplifting, he would have made some different decisions when he was younger.

The sounds of electrical sparking jolted Bernard from his thoughts. He got distracted thinking about his horrible love life and accidentally screwed up a rune inscription. Now he had to rebuild that piece. Sighing, the old man went over to a bin full of metal bits and used magic to forge a replacement.

The forging process was simple, and it didn't take long before he was back to enchanting. Time flew by as he worked. Bernard always lost himself when he was creating something interesting, and this was no different. Almost finished building the weapon, Bernard finally brought out the crystal stag's horn. Most of it was crushed and powdered. He mixed it with various metals to make a magic alloy. That formed the gun's body. What was left of the horn, he used to make the gun barrel.

The finished product looked very similar to the gun he used against Ronan, but with a crystal barrel and silver body. It might be a bit too large for Zeph right now, but he'll grow into it. Bernard thought it looked elegant and deadly. He picked it up, slid in a spell cartridge, aimed it at a target and pulled the trigger. There was a quiet hum quickly increased in volume, and then a tiny blue bolt of magic shot out.

It was the Mana Needle spell he designed, and Zeph inspired. It was cast easily with the pull of the trigger. All Bernard had to do was provide magic to the gun. Nodding his head, Bernard ejected the clip and inserted a different one. He pulled the trigger, and an arc of lightning struck the target. The old man repeated the process, trying out a few more clips before he was finally satisfied.

He put the gun and its spell clips in a custom-made case and left his lab. He looked at his tablet for the first time in a long while. It was already afternoon the next day. Bernard had spent over a day in his lab. The old man smiled. "That was quicker than I thought," he said to no one in particular. Then he heard the sound of children arguing in the living room.

"Jeez I said I'm fine, don't worry about it." Lili had her hand over her eye. The signs of bruising could be seen under it.

"But, I don't know what to do to make it up to you. I'm really sorry." Zeph apologized for what seemed the hundredth time.

Ronan was behind them chuckling. He didn't expect the boy to improve this fast. Not only did he win the spar, but he knocked Lili out. The little girl got hit point blank with a telekinetic blast right after Zeph hit her in the face. It was a wonderful two hit combo. "Don't make such a fuss Zeph. As you can see, the black eye is going away. That's why we trained in medical magic."

"Yeah like grandpa said. Besides, you should worry about yourself." Liliana made a devious smile. "I wasn't expecting you to fight like that. Next time I'll be ready, and you'll get the black eye."

Bernard saw Rin in the corner with a bag of ch.i.p.s. She was looking at Lili. He could swear she was smiling.

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