Tristan could hardly sleep. He was too excited about the new spells he now had access to at Fifth Order. His Pocket Dimension II held plenty of those rods that could take an artificed spell, and he saw no reason to wait. Getting out of his sleeping bag, he went outside.

Now that they were in the open, they had returned to a watch rotation. Eloise was on watch, and she glanced at him as he got out of the tent. "Can't sleep?" she asked.

Tristan sat down and spun his crucible, activating the Pocket Dimension II amulet, and pulled the Omnitome and some of the rods he could artifice out. "I just can't get the idea of Fifth Order spells I have access to out of my head."

"Ah. I understand. It is often all-consuming, that desire to try new spells." She stood up. "Then I'll take your watch later. Don't drain all your essence with your activity." She went into the tent and closed it behind.

Tristan flipped to the section on ice elementalism and began reading greedily. He'd figured out that the spell type contained very little in the way of utility, and instead focused on offense and defense. As such, he directed his attention to one spell of each as Zeltana's words of advice echoed through his mind.

I can't spread myself too thin, he thought. Just focus on ice, fire, and lightning elementalism. The lightning I'll artifice since I don't want to deal with the backlash. I should work on memorizing the fire and ice. The rest I can just artifice. But this is the last Order that I can artifice, since Sixth Order and above cannot be artificed, apparently. But, based on how much essence those seem like they will cost, I would want to use them sparingly.

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Glacial Bolt (Fifth)

Spell Phrase: The mighty glacier cracks and splits, crashing down upon my foes. Feel the chill of its doom.

Spell Gesture: Raise both arms, and blade your stance. Put your left foot forward, and right foot back. Extend your left arm, and hold your wrist at a forty-five degree angle, blading your palm as you do, so that you are looking at the top of your thumb in a side-profile. Your right arm should be extended behind you, also bladed with flat palm, and thumb pointing down. You may swap this stance if necessary.

Other Notes: This spell manifests a large projectile. It does not cause physical damage, like the First Order spell Frost Flurry. Instead, the projectile will freeze anything it passes through. Objects with lower freezing points will not be frozen through wholly. Generally, larger creatures are only slowed and buffeted by the spell, while smaller ones can be instantly eliminated. Essence should be pushed into the forearm of the leading limb.

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Tristan stood up and practiced the motion. It was easy to perform, and after repeating the spell phrase written in Dragon's Tongue on repeat. When he was sure he had it memorized, he spun his crucible, aimed down at the shadowed pool they had made camp near, and uttered the words.

He felt his crucible empty precipitously, to half of its maximum, and saw a phantasmal, blue sphere fly forward. Everything it touched instantly froze. Grass, rock, wood, water, the fish in the water – everything living died in that split-second, and the little cracks of blades of frozen grass snapping under their own weight sounded like the tinkling of thousands of little bells.

Tristan felt sluggish and was gasping for breath at the huge essence expenditure. He tried to gauge the distance and determined the spell traveled fifty feet, and the sphere appeared to be ten feet in diameter.

That's a scarily powerful spell. If I used that against kobolds in an Elemental Realm, they would be instantly dealt with. Once more, he felt a profound sense of fear at the might essence-weavers of higher Order capacity held. The ability to near-instantly wreak death upon their foes was awe-inspiring in a terrifying way. It's not fair, this type of power. Who in their right mind would give this power to us? Not that he was complaining, Tristan savored the feeling of essence pounding through his body in time with the racing of his heartbeat, and the cooling chill that radiated through him.

He turned back to his Omnitome and flipped to find the defensive spell in ice elementalism, his desire to learn more driving him on like an all-encompassing hunger.

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Cryogenic Cube (Fifth)

Spell Phrase: None may enter or leave this icy tomb!

Spell Gesture: Cross both arms in front of your torso, hands balled into fists, and the palms facing in toward your chest. As you utter the spell phrase, pull your arms down, across each other. End by flourishing the arms out at your sides.

Other Notes: This spell creates a defensive fortification that surrounds you, extending in fifteen feet in all directions. It acts as a defensive fortification, but can also be used to isolate a singular individual with the user. Essence should be focused into the forearms.

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Tristan practiced the phrase and gesture until he had it memorized. Then, he waited as his essence refilled. When it was three-quarters of the way full, he cast the spell. Ice began to crust over his body from the backlash, though their bulk was the only minor annoyance. He watched as a crystalline, silvery cube appeared around him, isolating him from everything else. And then the temperature dropped drastically. The grass inside the cube began to freeze, and the ground just outside the cube also began to crystallize.

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If I needed to isolate a small group of enemies in a larger conflict, this spell is ideal. Tristan had to rest his hands on his knees as he panted for breath. That . . . two Fifth Order spells in rapid succession . . . gods above, that's a lot of essence.

The cube lasted for five minutes before shattering into thousands of tiny ice flecks that slowly drifted down like snowfall. Tristan grabbed his Omnitome and shook it free of the encrusting ice. Now that I have those down, onto the fire elementalism. He knew he would have to wait for his essence to refill, but the night was beautiful with the five moons high in the sky, and he didn't mind the wait given the view.

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Combustion (Fifth)

Spell Phrase: Feel the inferno and let it consume you from within!

Spell Gesture: Hold your hands out in front of you, palm up, at chest height. Tuck in the all fingers save the index and ring. Then, rotate your hands so that the fingers are pointing at each other, with the palm of one facing inward, and the palm of the other facing out. Bring them both together, so that your knuckles of the middle finger meet, and lock your ring and index fingers onto the opposite hand.

Other Notes: This spell can only be used on a target suffering from an Ignite effect already. As long as they are within five-hundred feet, you can activate this spell and affect them – otherwise it will fizzle and the essence will be wasted. Focus the essence into the knuckles of the middle finger as you touch them together. This is an Ignite spell, and stacks with other Ignite spells, but not itself.

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Tristan waited for his essence to refill to full, and while he did, he repeated the spell gesture and phrase until it was rote. When his essence was full, he looked at one of the small bushes nearby. Spinning his crucible, he directed it to the rod in his gauntlet, and fired off the Fireball spell. The silver flames launched forth and ignited the bush as it crackled and smoked. Then, still spinning his crucible, he performed the spell gesture and spoke the words for Combustion in Dragon's Tongue.

The moment the last syllable left his lips, and his knuckles touched, the bush surged with shimmering, white light as it was instantly incinerated in crackling whoosh of air that was sucked into the blaze. The surge of heat that reached him was strong enough that the ice under his feet melted, and he smelled the slightly burnt scent of his hair being singed.

Felicity poked her head out of the tent. "Hey! Keep it down! I need my beauty sleep!"

"You're always beautiful," Tristan replied with a grin. "Sorry. One more spell, and I won't be casting it. Lightning elementalism and those nasty side effects."

Felicity grumbled and closed the tent flap.

Tristan chuckled and opened the Omnitome once more. Now, onto the Lightning Elementalism—he stopped himself and flipped the Omnitome to the section on artifice. Why am I trying to memorize lightning elementalism? I can't use it without artifice because of the backlash. I should just focus on artificing spells at this point. He looked at the small box of frozen-over rods that could hold spells. I mean . . . I could just artifice every spell I can access that is Fifth Order or lower. Why not? It'll take a heck of a lot of essence, and I can still use the ones I've memorized in a pinch, but that gives me a lot of versatility at the tip of my fingers. I can have the gnomes make me something like a bandolier that can hold all of them that can be worn under my armor. Oh! A jerkin, with slots sewn in that can be sealed. That won't impact mobility much, and then I can access all of them!

Tristan set to work with pen and paper, jotting out spell phrases and gestures along with spell names. He tore out pages from the infinite supply as he re-wrote spells, and set them aside in neat piles. Then, he set to putting them into the storage dimension along with the Omnitome. We'll reach the Tousles Demon House tomorrow. After we arrange the alliance, then the only other place we might need to visit is the Nouvax House if we want to do something about the agricultural sector. But, they are so close to the Mericlau House, we might be pushing our luck. Three of the Demon Houses in open revolt should be enough to draw out Duberceix's forces.

The plan came together as Tristan focused on keeping watch on the surrounding landscape, rather than his new learning. Once this last House was on their side, they would return to the Mortal Realm, and then back to the Fey Realm to prepare further. After, Tristan could return via the Elemental Realm of Fire via the Parslile House's inter-realm exchange. He couldn't risk appearing right in the capital city of Saumur again given what happened the last time. I'll need Thallia to get some nymphs to work on coordinating the uprising. I may have to do some traveling back and forth across the Demon Realm to help with the effort. But then, we can strike at the heart of the capital. He looked up at the moons and sighed. Soon, mother. Very soon I'll avenge you.

The night passed without incident, and Tristan swapped with Felicity to get some sleep. When he woke, they packed up camp, and once more he grabbed Eloise as they took to the skies with his pseudo-flight travel. The rolling hills and lakes passed underneath them, and Tristan saw bounding herds of deer-like animals coursing through the dells and along hidden streams. Some were hunted by demon wolves like those he had fought back during his travel across the Sapphire Coast.

Seeing another ecosystem at play beneath him just reinforced how different the Fey Realm was from every other realm he had visited thus far. There were not any natural predators, there was no sickness or disease, and they did not want for natural resources. Why can't every realm be like mine? Tristan thought as he watched one of the deer taken down by the pack of wolves that tore it to bits before he glided out of sight of the carnage. It's all just so violent and primal.

For a moment, a brief, flickering moment, the idea of going to every realm and offering to help them with any of their problems raced through Tristan's mind. He had the resources of an entire realm at his disposal, and unlike the Demon Realm, his followers and those beneath him would never rise up to try and cast him down. What's so different between the Demon Realm and the Fey Realm? Shouldn't Duberceix be able to do the same thing that I can? Why can't he just impose his will by connecting his crucible with the realm's ambient essence?

The questions racing through his head were unanswerable, and Tristan resigned himself to knowing that some truths would never be revealed. I should just be thankful that the Fey Realm operates as I wish.

"I think I see buildings!" Felicity shouted from above his head.

Tristan looked up, pulled from his reverie of thought, and spotted with perfect acuity what she had seen. A walled city was built atop a hill far on the horizon. "Everyone hang on!" he shouted as he angled his toes back and spun his crucible faster. "The skies unfold before me!" he curled his legs in and then pushed back as he focused the essence into the balls of his feet. They rocketed forward.

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