Winterfall

I ended up back in my room after that conversation with Eleanor. It was now close to five in the afternoon and I was slowly growing tired. Afterall I had been up since midnight and had an intense morning due to training.

We will have a dream tonight, Mi Amor. Théoden's soft but firm voice spoke through the bond. He sounded tired himself but he had at least three more hours of work before he could fully rest.

What type of dream? I was curious as to what type of dream he was referencing. I could sense he wasn’t wanting a sex dream but it was hard to tell if he was wanting to train or not.

Mhm. Training. I heard him yawn as he spoke. He was tired but he knew I needed to train and I knew I needed to train, despite the both of us being exhausted.

Are you sure that is a good idea? I questioned him.

Yes. We need to keep the spell work going. Let alone get those gems low in strength.

He had a point there but I hate him making himself this exhausted. But it was his call to make.

I’m just concerned you are pushing yourself too much.

I’m fine Maria. I’ll see you in a few hours for training.

I sighed heavily and decided to get up from my bed and take a nice warm bath to soothe my muscles. I rested in the bath for thirty minutes before getting out and wrapping my body in a soft cotton towel. I walked from the bath to my wardrobe and slipped on his t-shirt and pants and walked over to my desk. I had to force myself awake for a few more hours so I pulled a book from the shelf above my desk and read until I couldn’t read any more.

The book I grabbed this time consisted of a fable of the four elements. It was a make believe story but it was still interesting enough to keep me entertained until eight.

I’ll be at my bed chambers soon. I need to stop by the kitchen first. I could feel that he was close to the castle as he reminded me he needed to wash the plates before he went to bed.

Another ten minutes passed and I found myself curled up in bed and welcomed the darkness that followed my eyes drifting shut.

The training arena formed around me as Théoden stood in the center. He shifted his body weight as he began to do some simple stretches.

“Are you sure you are up for training tonight?” I walked over to him and stretched a bit before he had me begin my training.

“Yes. It has been at least a day or two since our last magic training.” Théoden took my hand and looked at the ring on my finger. Yes, the ring was quite charged as it glistened before us.

Théoden grumbled as he shook his head. “We need to figure out how to get your emotions more in check.”

“Thought that is what the ring was for?”

“The ring can only do so much. Then it is up to me to watch them. I do my best but it’s hard to keep up with all of them.” He admitted to me as he took a few steps back as he began to prepare the first shield he was going to have me try to break. This was his basic shield, a non over-channeled one.

Of course this shield would break rather quickly if I was to over charge anything. “Simple first.” I told him as I began to cast the spell Ember Essence time and time again. It took ten castings of this simple basic spell to break his simple shield. Either I sucked at hitting or his shield had grown in power.

“I think your hitting is just off today. Try to over charge the next spell. Evoke a fireball.” Théoden told me as the remanence of his shield faded and he soon began to over-channel his next.

I huffed, “I think I used most of the red gem tonight. I will have to try to over-channel a different spell.”

Théoden shrugged, “whatever the case, try and over charge it.”

I thought about it and decided to go with Electrical Charge, one of the spells that I knew he just loved. In a matter of seconds I felt the essence build and release from my body as the storm roared towards him. His eyes widened in fear as he released what I had just released.

“Maria I‒” Théoden began to say but was instantly surrounded by pouring acidic rain followed by not four but five bolts of blue and silver lightning strands, crackling in every direction around the shield.

This spell was honestly mesmerizing due to the amount of lightning and how it danced around the shield. However, this time, to both our surprises his over-channeled shield was able to withstand the full length of the spell. I could tell it took a hefty hit as a few cracks had formed where the majority of the lightning hit but it still stood.

“Interesting…I knew my shields had grown in power, but this much?” I watched as Théoden studied his shield and the cracks that formed. “My assumption is that if you would have released one more bolt of lightning it would have broken the shield.”

“Like this?” I shot a simple bolt of lightning in his direction. The simple bolts were simply called Bolt of Lightning.

We both stood and watched as the simple spell hit and broke his magical shield. I couldn’t help but grin at him as he just stood and stared at me.

“Yes, like that.” He brushed his body off as a bit of the lightning had struck his shoulder causing a bit of smoldering of his draconic leather armor.

“Well…” I shrugged, “Want me to continue?”

He thought about it for a moment, “Yes. We have only tapped into your base potential. Let's start utilizing the mental ones now. I will summon the wolves and you can attack them with the mental stuff.”

The mental stuff he was talking about involved psychic damage based spells. Spells like Mind Blast, Mind Bolt, Mind Freeze, Mind Wave, and others.

“Okay.” I waited for him to summon the wolves and upon doing so I utilized the purple gem better known as amethyst and used a basic rendition before the heavier stuff.

The spell that my essence utilized was the Mind Bolt. A purplish ray of psychic energy that attacked one of the wolves minds. Upon attack, the wolf's body twitched and convoluted as it howled in pain for what seemed like forever but it was only five seconds.

“Good. Again but stronger.” Théoden ordered as he sat and watched the spell's effects on his precious wolves.

I sighed and released more essence causing a Mind Blast to engulf the wolves in a purplish hue of hazy confusion. The wolves remained stunned in place as their minds were racked with horrible memories of the past. Yeah, I could tell that the wolves were being tortured by this spell and thankfully the spell only lasted up to ten seconds.

Once the spell was finished the first wolf I had attacked had crumpled to the ground and vanished as the amount of damage was too much for the wolf’s body to handle.

“Is that enough?” I asked softly as the image of the wolf twitching in pain crossed my mind time and time again.

Théoden sighed, “I suppose, we can call it here. We will have to practice more tomorrow night.” He de-summoned the last wolf and walked over to me and wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in tightly. “I admire your care for creatures but I do warn you, in battle you can not let that stop you.”

I buried my face in his chest and whispered, “I know but I don’t like it.”

He rubbed his hand against my hair as a way to sooth my nerves, “I know my love. It will be alright.”

I peered up at him and met his blue eyes with my green ones and gave him a soft smile, “I hope you are right.”

“You know I am.” He kissed my lips and I could feel my worries slip away.