First Lesson

Ahsch's lesson started immediately. Building off their earlier discussion, Rwnil reiterated that bonds could exist between pretty much anything, be it physical or metaphysical. They seemed to form based mainly on exposure and interaction, and could grow or diminish over time and with effort. They also responded to intent to a degree, though she explained that most people lacked the sensitivity to bonds to interact with them meaningfully - at least, not deliberately and with precision. After getting a description of his spells, the ascendant hrafthi speculated that most of the Mana involved was going into artificially creating the bonds, which made sense - after all, despite the relatively high cost, Spirit String couldn't move things with much ****, so it followed that a lot of the Mana was tied up in the bond rather than the effects of that bond.

As for actual interaction, Rwnil said that those capable of affecting bonds directly could create or destroy them, alter the nature of them, or grow and decay them, though to do so required one to be able to sense them in the first place. Again, Ahsch's Innate Magics took care of this through the spell cost, but he himself wasn't able to detect bonds beyond that.

"And that aside, messing with bonds can be dangerous. Creating one or two or destroying as many won't usually cause trouble, but imagine wiping out, say, a whole village's bonds. What do you think would happen?"

Ahsch frowned in thought, almost wishing Avery had stayed to contribute - she might not be the most 'book smart' person ever, but she was insightful. "I suppose... would the villagers forget each other? It would be cut off from the rest of the country?"

"Not necessarily; bonds are memories. If I were to sever your bond with, say, your wife, you would remember her, and she you; however, any impetus to do anything for - or against - each other would vanish. Unless you re-established the bond, doing anything with intent towards her would be incredibly difficult. You would act as strangers, despite your memories."

"So... the villagers would be... isolated?" Ahsch guessed. "They wouldn't be inclined to help each other; if anyone had any shipments of goods heading to or from the village, they would be left where they were."

"Yes, but what else?" Rwnil pressed.

"...Farmers wouldn't tend their fields?" he hazarded. At his mentor's nod, he continued. "They wouldn't feel connection to their homes - if they'd been anywhere else, maybe they'd be inclined to move, since nothing would be keeping them in the village. Maybe... if the village falls into disrepair, the aura of civilization would fade - or maybe, it would fade right away since the bond between the village and civilization as a concept would be severed as well? So then beasts would probably move back into the area."

"Very good. There are obviously even more repercussions of doing such a thing, but I see you at least understand the base danger of messing with bonds. Being so warned, the next step would be to increase your sensitivity to them - being completely unable to detect bonds aside from your spells is, frankly, quite pathetic for a hrafthi." Rwnil cast a critical eye over him. "Perhaps because you are male? Though Dahil may never have taught you properly..."

"How do you know my mother?"

The ascendant just smirked enigmatically. "I suppose to begin we can use what you are already familiar with: cast one of your spells and let's see what we're working with."

Ahsch glared at her lack of an answer, but complied, casting Spirit String on a small pot bearing a flower which sat beside the bench and lifting it. Rwnil examined... something between Ahsch, the pot, and the space between the pot. "Curious. Though not surprising. Very crude though." She looked directly at Ahsch. "I assume you can sense the bond?"

He nodded. "It's like a string between me and the pot," he said. "I can move where it's connected to on my end and move the other end through space, but not what it connects to on that end."

Rwnil frowned. "That's a... poor way of manipulating bonds." She sighed. "Though given they are sometimes called 'links,' it shouldn't surprise me. And that spell being misleadingly named..." The older hrafthi shook her head before looking at Ahsch again. "First proper correction: bonds are not strings, or threads, or lines in space. Tell me, where would your bond with 'sex' as a domain even lead, hm?"

Ahsch blinked, and Rwnil nodded. "Good, not stupid, just ignorant." The boy ground his teeth. "Obviously, metaphysical things like divine domains or concepts don't exist as a physical entity that one can walk up to and touch. Therefore, even bonds between physical objects in the world don't have some mystical string connecting them. Do what you can to banish that misconception from your mind - it will only hurt your progress."

"But then what _are _bonds? How does this," he waved the pot around by pointing his finger, "even work?"

Crossing her arms, Rwnil sat back. A sliver of Mana lit up in Ahsch's perception, and another potted flower started floating around. The ascendant raised an eyebrow at him. "You tell me," she challenged, sitting still. Her eyes remained fixed on him even as the pot lazily floated in the air, tracing out random shapes.

Ahsch used Threefold Senses to track the Mana. On the one hand, there was a line of Mana stretched between his mentor and the pot. It was a line he saw replicated in his own spell. But that didn't mean the bond followed the same path. In fact, as he thought about it, the bond was irrelevant to the line of Mana - it was there as a link between the mage and the object, not a road for the Mana to follow. The trail of Mana was just what guided the object - or rather, spirit of the object - around.

Using that shift in his thinking, Ahsch reconsidered his own Spirit String. Divorced from the idea that the bond was in that line, he tried to follow the sensation of that bond while ignoring the line. It was... insanely difficult. Lacking any sort of reference for what he was even looking for, Ahsch felt like he was casting about in a dark room with no light, trying to find a drawing on the walls or floors. Except that drawing could be anywhere in the entire room - even midair - and was intangible.

He wasn't sure how long he tried, but eventually Rwnil sighed. "Okay, let's try this."

Ahsch's eyes opened suddenly as he became... _aware _of the bench he sat on. Not in the sense that he knew and felt that he was sitting on it, but aware in the way that he was... aware of Avery's body, how it would feel in his arms, the warmth she usually had, the smoothness of her skin. And not like he knew those things from memory - he did - but in the way that he was aware of how Avery was and what he expected. But even that wasn't accurate, because he wasn't suddenly familiar with the shape and texture of the bench, but rather it held an unshakable prominence in his mind - perhaps like how the people and things important to him came easily to mind, and were unlikely to be forgotten or overlooked.

The sudden, jarring change from the fact of 'I'm sitting on a bench,' to being so immediately aware and familiar of it was probably what let him sense the bond that he knew Rwnil had created. And once he had found it, it suddenly made sense to him how to find other bonds - Avery, Ariin, Mahat, Dorin, his angels, his family, Sarvas, all of them and more. There were others, much less solid things that seemed to dance at the edge of is perception, intangible yet there.

"I'd hoped the self-claimed God of Bonds wouldn't need help like that, but I suppose you're far from a proper god as of yet," Rwnil said. "I take it you can sense your major bonds, those that are more important?"

Ahsch nodded, still exploring this strange new perception. It wasn't a proper sense, at least, not like sight or touch. It was more like his sense of balance or motion - he could feel the bonds, but not with any of his other senses. It was strange, as his other mystical awarenesses were embedded in his sight via Mage and Heart Sight.

With equally jarring suddenness, Ahsch's bond with the bench was gone. "Your goal for the next week is to develop your bond-sense. Consider it a success when you can either detect your more moderate bonds - let's say... the one between you and whatever is in the forest to the northeast - or when you can detect the bonds in other things."

"How do I 'develop' this sense?" Ahsch asked distractedly, still marveling at the sensation.