Mark_Ward
patreon
Chapter 3: 2 Years Later!
🕑 Added 2021-12-23 06:12:15 +0000 UTC2 Years Later!
A lot has changed during the past two years.
First of all after that prompto assassination attempt was made on his life, there was an uproar in the palace. Magnus could hear his father from his crib shouting to lock down the palace and not let anyone leave. There were some protests from the dignitaries that came from all over the North Pole, but they were quickly silenced by the hard eyes of the royal guards.
Magnus really wished he could tell them that it was the Blood Clan or whatever. But he was a baby and his vocal cords weren't that developed yet for more than screaming at the top of his lungs. All he could get out was a garbled mess when his mother came, and he was quickly silenced when she broke into a sobbing mess over him.
After that, well let's just say he was on constant guard duty. The royal guards and his maid never removed their eyes from him, and even ten waterbenders were put on his guard detail.
The inverse effect of this was that Magnus never got to leave the perimeter of the ice palace. For the past two years he was never able to set a foot outside those frozen icy walls. He was stuck inside 24/7, but he learned to make the most of it as he had gotten to explore every inch of the palace.
Ever since he got the hang of crawling, Magnus was underfoot constantly. He sort of felt bad for his maids who were always chasing after him, and his guards who were running about madly when he decided to play a bit of hide and seek with them.
Magnus could safely say that he explored the whole of the palace; from the bustling kitchens where fresh food always wafted through and he got his grubby hands on a piece of savory morsel. To the stables where so many different and amazing animals were housed. To the Owlery at the top of one of the towers where plenty of messenger snowy owl eagles were housed.
To the throne room where his father held court in his bone throne. To the Great Hall where so many feasts were held everyday. Down the catacombs where countless Water Chiefs were laid to rest, even the old water avatar Kuruk was down there. It would seem that he was a descendant of the free spirited avatar.
A constant companion of his on his escapades was his pet wolf shark, the two of them were just inseparable. Everywhere he went, his little wolf shark would be right at his heels with its tongue lulling out of its mouth and its tail wagging happily. Though to call the beast little anymore would be unfair.
The wolf shark had grown a lot since the last two years. Instead of that small cute mutt he met at that celebration, now it was the size of a fully grown shepherd dog with plenty more room to grow.
Magnus knew he needed a name so he took some inspiration from the Big Bad Wolf tales. More aptly the creators of that tale, the Brothers Grimm. Thus that is how the name Grimm came to be. And it fit perfectly, with it’s dark slick fur and those mix of both wolf and shark features, Grimm did look like a very grim and monstrous beast.
As he mastered the more advanced art of walking, Magnus was able to expand his reach to more places. Like down some secret passages he found hidden throughout the palace and in the walls.
Or up the highest tower top which afforded him the best sights in the house. Even though he could never leave the palace walls, Magnus felt like Simba surveying all his land which encompassed everything that the light touched.
But the two places that Magnus always found himself coming back to the most were the library and the training yard. He would spend hours just watching the royal guards train in the morning. He doubted it was safe to allow a 2 year old to try to wield a weapon even if it was just for practice.
Still, even if he couldn't train yet, Magnus always loved coming here. It was like he was gaining some useful experience watching the man work their weapon forms.
"My prince," the master of arms would sometimes greet him with a loud booming voice. "Are you interested in learning?"
Magnus would nod his head eagerly at the man in answer.
"Haha, come back here when you are a bit older than. I will make sure to make a fine warrior out of you!"
The other place Magnus would spend all his time at was the Great Library. He would squirrel himself deep in the hidden alcoves of the library which was indeed a momentous creation that seemed to house countless tomes, scrolls, and parchments.
He had long learned to write and read the language of this word which was a strange mix of English and Mandarin. Each nation of course had its own dialogue, but they were near enough that one person from the Earth nation and the Water Tribe could understand each other.
Magnus was like a sponge as he absorbed everything he could get his hands on. From history, mathematics, etiquette, sciences, cartography, but sadly not bending. Most of that stuff was secured in a restricted idea, Magnus did try to get past the scholars and scribes that called this place their home, but they were quick to wise up to his antics.
So they continued to play their little games of cat and mouse. Whenever Magnus made any advances he saw that there was another obstacle. First he managed to get past the guards guarding the place, then he saw it was locked, once he finally got the keys and got inside it was only by a hair's breadth that he avoided the traps laid out.
Who put TRAPS in a library?
"My Prince," the head archivist spoke to him in his usual tone which was barely ever reached over a whisper. "Access to the restricted section is only granted when you start your waterbending training."
So when it came to waterbending training, Magnus was left to his own devices. He tried to form that water blade again when his life was at risk, but it was no use. All he managed to do was slosh around the water in a very small vase, and draw out a few water droplets up to the surface.
Then he was all tapped out.
A scroll on chi was able to enlighten him.
Since it wasn't on waterbending or maybe the scribes might have missed it. One day Magnus found a scroll that spoke of chi or the metaphysical energy that flows throughout the human body that serves as the root of all bending and an array of other skills.
It made it clear that how much chi you had expressed how much bending you can do. Since he was nothing more than a baby, his chi levels were very low. The older you grew the more your chi reserves grew, that is why you didn't have babies like him running around bending the basic elements to their will.
Him just bending a few droplets of water showed how talented he was!
The scroll mentioned 2 ways to increase your chi reserves besides of course growing older. The first being meditation which was the most basic way that all benders did it. Basically you drew in all the natural energy into the surrounding, and that way you expanded your chi pool.
The second was exhausting all your chi reserves which was more dangerous then you knew since you might damage your body, if you go over your limit. Then you were drawing from your very own life force.
Finishing the scroll, Magnus could easily figure out why the second method was very dangerous. There was no device to measure your chi reserves. How did you know how much chi you had? Did you have one unit of chi or ten or a hundred? Who knows. So you ran the risk of over draining yourself.
The first thing Magnus needed to do in the future was make a device that could measure a person’s chi and regeneration rate like in any good old regular rpg.
Of course it was the second method that Magnus went with! The first method took time, and he didn’t have much time. Any day now his assasins could come knocking on his door, or better yet, the fucking Fire Nation.
So every night, he would practice condensing water droplets in his hand then after he was tapped out he would meditate, and repeat the cycle all over again until he was all beat for the night.
If anyone saw him, they would think he was crazy and out of his mind for risking his life like that for a bit of power. But Magnus never wanted to feel helpless like that ever again. He didn’t want his fate in other people’s hands, so he needed to take control.
Regardless, as the prince of the Water nation, he had countless water healers on hand. So even if he did injure himself he would always have people to fall back on, including his own mother. Yes, many questions would be raised, but he wouldn’t totally be out on a limb here.
Besides secretly training and causing all sorts of mischief, Magnus tried his best to get to know the staff members in the palace. There were his waterbender guards; Kosu who thought it was clearly beneath her guarding a little brat, Ro who was a pure fanatic and thought it was the greatest honor guarding his royal highness, Yake who always like to show him some waterbending tricks, Be who would think was a air nomad with how peaceful and quiet he was, Mosi who was the shyest person he ever meet, to her best friend Keso who more fire bender then water with her explosive personality, Hos and Tark more often not playing cards and dice and lazing around, and the Ren twins you were always up to their own mischief.
Then there were his royal guards which his parents went a bit overkill as they posted a whole fricking platoon on him, and he could have sworn they were all more like icy granite than real people. {A/N: a platoon is a hundred men.}
Then there were his maids, a whole army of them who were made up of giggling girls and old grannies. At this point he was used to a couple of them always being at his side to take care of just about everything.
The people who he got to learn on a more personal level were the Head Cook who was a stout woman with arms fit enough to wrangle bulls. She wasn't someone you would cross lightly, but when he entered the kitchens it was like the sun lit up across her face and she would stuff him full with sweet pastries and food.
Then there was the Houndsmaster who was in charge of the many hybrid breeds of dog creatures in the kennels; from the Armadillo wolf, to the polar dogs, ape mastiffs, bat hound, molasses hog, and the such. He was the one who taught him how to raise and take care of Grimm from grooming, feeding, training, and so forth.
Plus he was quite the zoologist as he gave Magnus a good run down on the wolf shark species in general. The Wolf Shark were one of the apex predators here in the North Pole, they are feared for good reason. Not only could they make their way on both land and water, but they also jumped their prey by breaking through the ice underneath them. They could smell blood for miles all around, and are relentless hunters.
He also struck up a friendship with the Stable master who was in charge of all the mounts in the palace. Thanks to him Magnus was able to see some very amazing animals from Polar Bear dogs, Arctic Camels, Buffalo yak, and the favorite mounts of the royal guards the Snow leopard caribou.
Magnus met the crypt guardian, he was an old hunched back man who was always carrying a shovel. Magnus was pretty sure he was a waterbender and a very powerful one at that. He didn't know how he knew that he was more powerful than his waterbending guards, but he figured it had to do with Chi. The scroll he found did mention that chi is manifest by your aura, so that might be his answer.
Still Magnus was pretty sure the old man was mad or had a few screws unloose as he would cackle like a mad man sometimes for no reason at all, and with a toothy grin on his face.
But he was the one who introduced him to all his ancestors laid in the catacomb. The place seemed to go on forever, down and down, and Magnus wondered how long of a history did his family even have. Did they actually go all the way back to when the world was young and the Harmonic Convergence happened?
There was one mysterious person that Magnus met along his trips down the hidden passageways. She was a shadowy woman that he could have sworn he saw in the palace but couldn't place his finger on were.
She was draped in a cloak, but he could see her face, and she kind of reminded him of Mei Terumī, the Fifth Mizukage from Naruto. But of course with blue hair half hiding her face instead of red. She smiled at him once she saw him that day and whispered to him.
"Be careful where you step my prince, these walls have ears!"
'Bullshit is she the Varys of this world,' Magnus thought to himself once he watched her go.
He was pretty sure she was since the next day from one of his shadowy outcrops on high looking down his father's throne room he saw the woman speaking to his father and once she was finished she stared up at him.
Fuck he did not want to deal with politics or espionage right about now. Wasn't assassination attempts on his life enough already, but he guessed this was the life of a royal. You do have to play these politicking since your very life and that of your dynasty depended on it.
But by the gods, he would have loved to get the easy reincarnation; OP powers, countless beautiful women, and an easy quest to you know - defeat the demon king or whatever.
Anyways, Magnus fell into a bit of a schedule; in the morning after waking up bright and early he would head down to watch the royal guards practice. Then it was breakfast followed by heading to the royal library where he would spend his time reading whatever caught his fancy.
After that it was lunch and he would have the rest of the afternoon for himself. He would bring along Grimm with him as they explored every nook and cranny of the palace and meet new people along the way.
Finally, after he had dinner he would do some more light reading, pretend to go to sleep, and deep in the night, he would spend his time practicing and meditating.
After countless months of practice and after Magnus managed to draw forth one, then two, then three, then four, then five, and he kept on going from there… He finally reached the point where he tried to condense the water droplets together, and then try to shape it into his chosen form.
Magnus knew today was it.
Taking a deep breath as the cold tundra air of the North flowed in from the open balcony window and it seeped into his bones, Magnus wasn't bothered in the least bit. He guessed it was a trait of being from the Water Tribes just like how people from the Fire Nation can handle living near volcanoes, and Air Nomads so high up in the mountains. Those from the Water Tribe could handle extreme cold.
There must be some slight evolutionary traits at work for living in one temprate for thousands of years.
Calming his beating hard, Magnus closed his eyes and he started drawing up water droplets from the bowl into his hand. They started gathering up one by one, pitch black in color as if by magic, but Magnus knew it was his blessing by the Ocean Spirit at work.
Soon Magnus knew he had all the water droplets he could control at once and started transforming the water to his chosen shape. Soon he had a dark blade before him and with a thought, Magnus sent it out. It flew into the air like a bolt and cut in half a vase with winter blue lily in them.
Magnus winced at that, he would have some explaining to do in the morning with the maids, but it was a success.
Magnus remembered when he found that scroll on chi in the library four months ago and he started training.
Four months of hard work finally all came to a fruition.
Rubbing his nose, Magnus would have liked nothing more for a crowd to be here right about now, and praise him to high heaven for being a genius.
Still though Magnus knew it wasn't enough. He could now only form one water blade right now so what would he do if he faced multiple opponents. And he knew his water blade wasn't sharp enough to cut through steel.
He got lucky last time when his water blade happened to strike at the assassin's throat, if it had been just the man's arm or leg he would have been toast.
Magnus still needed to do a lot of work on his water blade; try to make more of them first of all, make them sharp enough to cut through chain mail, and work on better directing them.
And he would need to increase his repertoire, and Magnus already had an idea on how to do that.
Water Bullet!
Fuck if he couldn't have a gun, but no matter what he would be shooting bullets from right out of his fingers.
It would take a lot of testing to make it work, he would of course need to make the speed pick up by a lot or it was just useless. A spin effect would do, he guessed. And he would need to have the water condense enough that it wouldn't break apart at that speed and become water vapor.
A lot of thoughts were racing through his mind, but for now, he put them aside. He deserved some rest, and he could pick this up tomorrow.
