(MAGIC TRAINING) Call of The Seraphim

Arthur Harrington

HP: 2640/2640 MP: 1890/1890

Arthur had entered a relatively quiet time in his life. It had been a good week since he had been sent out on that naval protection mission. And while he did certainly miss his crewmates from aboard, he wasn't particularly fond of the idea of getting back onto a ship any time in the near future. It had been so much of the same cramped living space that he was taking his time now to explicitly explore every part of the world. Cedar was always an interesting town for Arthur, knowing that it held a cathedral was what made the trip something that caught his eye. Having registering with his superiors in the guild for a little break, he was able to organize himself a nice little religious retreat. Arthur would take this time to get closer to his god, he thought as he walked through the gothic cobbled streets. The mage had reached a point where his bond with the sun and its properties was almost latent at this point. Whenever he walked into a dark room and looked for something he just subconsciously illuminated the air around him in his search. It was funny, because he was now prone to falling asleep outside in the sun. His favorite place, so far, were in the meadow plains right outside of the port town on Amber Island. Though, Arthur did have to admit that the insects and bugs residing there never left him alone. This had led him to the discover that by emitting a constant aura of his barely-harmful magic, he could kill the bugs while barely tickling any larger animals. The last thing the paladin of peace and protection wanted to do was kill a poor squirrel in his sleep. While not all life was particularly valuable in comparison to that of a human, killing animals like that for no reason left a sour taste in his mouth.

Arthur had a vendetta against poachers from working on a farm, but he wondered why he valued the life of a mammal or other larger animal instead of an insect. Maybe it was due to their simplistic nature? Or maybe it was due to their size. Arthur didn't kill spiders though, never spiders. He liked having them around in the old dusty castle rooms of the guild headquarters because they kept the other insects at bay. Arthur knew from his education in biology- a prequresite for healing instruction at the academy- that every animal had an important role in the food chain and its environment, except mosquitos. There was literally no reason for mosquitos to exist, there were no species dependant on them. Regardless, the paladin yawned as he passed a heavily-robed couple. Not that he would have otherwise noticed due to the latent solar light heating his body, but Arthur focused on the weather and could feel that there was a slight chill to the air. A slight nip in the sky that was due sign of an oncoming winter.

Arthur was sure that his magic wouldn't protect him from feeling a harsh winter's cold, however, so he'd soon find himself robes of that style. To be honest, harsh winters were kind of a new concept for him. He had only been travelling around for so long now, preferring to stick to the lower portions of Fiore to stay in the climate he was used to. It never snowed back home, instead swealtering with heat in the summer and mild warmth for the rest of the year. They only got snow back home every three years or so, and it never actually stayed on the ground like he always hoped for it to. A particularly cold gust of wind made goosebumps stand on the end of his neck as he reached to pull up a scarf that simply wasn't there. Focusing his magic, Arthur gathered a small amount of light around his form to keep himself toasty warm. Sure, the civilians around him could see his use of magic, but he didn't really care about that much anymore. It had been so long since he started using his magic professionally, that the judgmental looks were just second nature at this point. And it's not like he'd get many harsh looks in this medieval gothic-inspired town anyway, considering it was under the protection of a legal mages guild. And while his mind was on that subject in particular, Arthur wanted to explore this city because of its protection under Dies Irae. Arthur wanted to know why they were so invested in protecting what was objectively a dying city. Not that he had a problem with it, because the paladin was always gung-ho about protection history, art, and all that jazz of course. He was glad that he could go visit the church and take part in its sanctuary, but from an objective guild point of view, what did they stand to gain from investing personel in the area? was there some kind of base of operations set up to increase their territory, or did the location hold some type of advantageous position in local geograph, or maybe there was a treasure? Options whirled around in his mind as he considered them, almost distracting hismelf to the point of bumping into a couple carrying bags of groceries. Quickly apologizing to them, he turned another cobbled corner and found himself in front of the cathedral. This cathedral, thankfuly, was a lot nicer than the one he had previously cleared out of necromancers and undead. From what he heard about in the papers, it was still under reconstruction to this very day. Arthur's name hadn't been mentioned in the papers or anything, but that wasn't what was important to him. The article had included a picture of people worshiping inside of it once more, and that's what had made the job worth it, alongside the payment of course from his guild and  vacation he was now being granted. Dies Irae treated him very well as far as the paladin was concerned, and so he had no problem doing things like that for them. Taking out the undead and evil was just standard fare for him, not different than taking out the trash really. His magic was particularly devestating to their ilk, so most of his hunting jobs barely made him break a sweat.

Pushing the doors open to the church, Arthur's aromored boots echoed out into the vaulted ceilings as they clacked against the stone tiled floor. Thankfully, there was no mass in service as he found the worship hall empty. It was a lot warmer in here, probably thanks to a few heating lacrimas nestled around the premises. Instead of lighting lacrima, though, candles hung from the ceiling with wooden fixtures that looked straight out of dracula's castle. Although, to be fair, it was literally a gothic style church and so that was probably the point. Opalescent light filtered into the dim cathedral through the stained glass fixtures. Arthur walked down the red aiselway between the wooden pews and came sit down on one of th wooden benches. It was worn smooth with age, soft to the touch and creaking under his weight. In this moment, the paladin took a moment to rest as he stared up into the stained glass artpiece to his left. From what he could tell of the mosaiced glass, it depicted an angel descending from the heavens upon a field. That was all he could tell though, because as much as he appreciated the ancient artistry of it all, he couldn't make anything else out of the abstract fixture. Maybe that was a field of wheat, or a giant lemon, he couldn't really be sure to be honest. What arthur did note, however, was that the light passing through the glass had a particularly sanctimonous feelign to it, and not just because he was in a church. There was somehow about how the tinges and hues of the light mixed together to create something that to be honest seemed absolutely delicious right about now. It had been a while since he last had anything to eat, and he had practically cleaned out that tavern's stock, but that was around a day ago and so he found himself with a grumbling belly and no clue where the closest tavern actually was. Naturally, the only reaction was to began scooping the multi-colored light out of the air and happily chewing it up. It tasted brilliant, elegant, with a touch of an almost aged quality, not unlike fine wine. It wasn't something he could eat a lot of though, not like pure sunlight. Even thought the light was... gamey.. Arthur still found himself reaching for another handful to consume as he sat in the church's pew. The mage was almost entirely consumed by his hunger to the point that he hadn't noticed the priest up at the cathedral's raised altar.

It was a wondrous sight to be honest, the raised carpetted platform with an old wooden altar alongside a dark brass organ. The paladin yearned to hear the instrument sing with its haunting tones and cries, but maybe he'd come back another time for a service. Getting up from the wooden  pew, Arthur made his way out of the row and up the red-carpeted aisle. The priest looked up at him, a smile on his old and worn weathered face. Smile lines animated as he spoke gently to the mage. "Ah, I didn't interrupt your magic, did I?" Arthur almost blushed and let out an embarassed sound and being practically scolded like a child. And the priest wasn't wrong either, it was generally disrespectful to just use magic like that in a church, not unlike using technology like a phone or tablet. And there was also the fact that he was just absolutely feasting in the middle of the church hall too, that probably didn't help his case either. All in all, the paladin could only meagerly shrug his shoulders and respond while scratching at his hairline. "Well, you see, I was just really hungry and part of my magic is like light consumption or whatever. And since I was really hungry I was looking around at the light like one would a buffet, and I saw the light coming from the stained glass window and asked myself how that would taste. I actually practice holy magic, to be honest, that's why I'm here. I'm not specifically a practicing priest, but I'm magically trained as one. I don't know why I'm really telling this to you to be honest, I think it's just because I'm really embarrassed. So I'm just going to apologize because I was the one to disrupt whatever it was that you were doing actually." The priest laughed a bit and came down away from the altar where he looked to have been setting up a few candles and breaking up bread. From his own experience with the cloth, the priest was probably setting up for upcoming services, which only made him feel even worse. For some reason, the academy had forced him into the begginings of what would have been priesthood, but that wasn't the type of life Arthur wanted for himself. Believe it or not, Arthur was kind of selfish in that regard. Instead of fulfilling an essential role as a magical healer in a hospital for sick mortals with no mana themselves, Arthur chose to adventure and quest and all of that fancy shenanigans. His teachers had told him such, that he was so skilled in weaving spirit and mana, and that training in combat instead of pure healing was a waste of his adeptness towards restoration. Arthur had to think about what a life like that would have meant for him. WOuld he still be living on the farm now, only commuting to work in some hospital to heal? Sure, healing people wasn't bad at all, sure he lived for it, but he didn't know that it was all that he wanted to do. Arthur wanted to do more like actively protect people in danger by taking out undead and demons, wanted to protect the cities by routing out dark mages, that kind of thing.