FVN Chapter 304: Chapter XXX: Breath And Will
Chapter 304: Chapter XXX: Breath And Will
Chapter 304: Chapter XXX: Breath And Will
The explanation was, luckily for the old men, completely devoid of any such things in need of immediate cleansing, even if it did come close when Arngeir demonstrated a proper way of circulating one's breath for greatly increased stamina when shouting.
As he spoke of how the Greybeards studied shouting, getting periodically interrupted by his brothers from time to time, it slowly started to dawn on me just how different our application of the thu'um was, even if they was oddly fitting when one considered our clashing world- views.
The Greybeards focused mainly on resonating with a word of power, which would usually take them multiple months all the way up to a year at a time, and then finding an inner calm as a form of focus, nothing terribly new so far. The true surprise came when Arngeir told us they powered their shouts almost exclusively through their breath and not their will, more surrendering themselves to the words instead of imposing them upon the world.
This naturally led to whole another debate once I introduced my own way of doing things and oddly enough the dragons' way of doing it as well. Krein had seen no issues with my shouting method once I displayed it and simply took it for granted that one's will was to be enforced if they were capable, the Greybeards, to absolutely no one's surprise, thoroughly disagreed. Before Arngeir could attempt to preach at me once again I raised a hand to silence him and instead asked "Do you have a safe place to practice some more destructive shouts nearby?"
He shared a quick look with his brothers and considered for a moment before slowly nodding and getting up. Our destination was not far and was in fact just another cliff face with a bunch of large rocks placed about haphazardly "Here we are" He turned to me with a curious glint in his eyes "What did you wish to demonstrate?"
Instead of answering I pointed at a lather large specimen of rock "Why don't you use unrelenting force on that one? Just the first word will do."
He seemed confused as to what I was getting at but his curiosity quickly won out and under the watchful gaze of the rest of his brothers he breathed deeply and shouted "FUS!" His shout was almost like a gentle wind when compared to what I saw it do usually, still striking with immense force and pushing the large rock back but doing virtually no damage as I had previously guessed it would not.
"Thank you, Master Arngeir." I nod at the man and step up "It would seem that my hypothesis was correct."
"And what hypothesis is that, if I may ask?" He raises an eyebrow, poorly pretending to be patient.
Once more I acted instead of answering "Observe." I said and aimed for that same rock, my crown materialized on my head and I shouted "FUS!" My voice was far more clipped and forceful than that of Arngeir, and it showed. The rock did not so much as budge away as the wave of force struck it, but it did not need to do so as it was immediately shattered into small chunks, even the ground below what remained was cracked.
Almost immediately, I could feel the gazes of the others on my back, their looks of both concern and surprise distracted only by their brother speaking "Fascinating." Arngeir muttered, his eyes widening slightly "I understood intellectually when you described willing the voice upon the world as you did, but seeing it with my own eyes is another thing entirely."
"Quite." I nod and give Minthara a sideways glance before amusedly noting "Even if you did get the opportunity to see it done previously, I am guessing you were rather distracted at the time."
The old man quickly caught on and also directed a much less amused and much more reprimanding look toward the by now thoroughly embarrassed demigoddess. He shakes his head and turns back to me "I can see what you wanted to show here, your voice is far more potent and destructive than ours was at your level of mastery." There is no pride in his voice as he bluntly tells me he is better "But it is obvious that even a single word is more draining than a full string."
"Yup." I agree easily "Your methods are far less taxing on the body and soul than my own." I give the resident half dragon another sideways look "Not a terrible bother for her since that is how dragons shout."
"Speak for yourself." She interrupts with a slight huff "I would love to hear all about a way of not ruining my throat for days on end whenever I need to fight something strong."
"Don't you have resi-" I begin to ask only to be interrupted by a twitching eye.
"Resistance is not immunity, Reyvin." She points out slowly.
"Ah." I mutter and then nod, earning a satisfied 'hmph'. I ponder the situation briefly before turning to Arngeir once again "I have an idea, if you are willing to consider it."
His brows furrow and he shares a quick look with his brothers, they seem to have some kind of wordless conversation with only their eyes before coming to an agreement. Arngeir bows to them slightly and focuses back on me "We are willing to hear what you have to say." He declares.
"My proposal is rather simple, in fact." I grin "How about we try and create a method that combines both our ways of doing things?"
He frowns immediately "You do realize our only use of the voice is for the purposes of worshipping the gods, yes?"
"I do, and oddly enough I can respect that." I nod, earning some wry looks for my choice of words "But current times do not truly allow us the privilege of choice. Whether you like it or not, you will inevitably come under danger from the dragons, the rest of the province and likely some of the word already are." They seemed to agree with my assessment, even if it did chafe on their denied pride "If you still deny attempting it yourself, then at least help us develop a way of using it, it may not be your duty to aid us with research but at least help her get stronger." I say while pointing at Minthara.
Arngeir huffs "You say that as if you would not immediately have her teach you everything as well."
To the old man's surprise it wasn't I who answered but her, as she let out a huff of both derision and amusement "Oh please, the moment you told him how you did things was the moment you ensured you would all be surpassed one day." She gives me a side eye as if to say 'Not counting me, obviously.'
Unwilling to have a proverbial dickmeasuring context with a woman I simply shrugged, my expression unchanging, and judging by her barely hidden pout victory was well and truly
mine.
By the time our attention turned back to the Greybeards, they seemed to have had another one of their silent conversations as I found Arngeir giving me an appraising look "Should you find a better and less destructive way of using the voice, we will find no fault with it." He says non-committedly.
I knew damn well that they all wanted me to stop using it in its entirety but after my entrance and a generous donation of threats to their lives an that of their teacher they knew not to
press too hard.
He almost regrets his earlier exercise as he accepts his fate and follows me outside with
slumped shoulders.
Arngeir's face when he rushed outside two hours after midnight to ask us to 'for the sake of Kyne be quiet you children!' was definitely getting burned into my memory.
We spent two more days taking it easy in High Hrothgar, well most of us did anyway. Minthara never stopped pestering the poor old monks and they barely had the time to take a
break with how much she was making them teach her, even without going over the limitation they imposed with the yet unnamed quest.
Marco, Junia, and Lydia spent most of their time just relaxing or reading, more than happy to
just chill after the usual excitement of their lives. Marco was, thankfully for him and mildly disappointingly to me, wise enough to remain rested when the second and third night came, so I only got to exhaust him half to death instead of fully.
Arngeir just stopped bothering with interrupting us and straight up cast a silence bubble around the monk's wing of the temple.
Delphine was an interesting case as well, she mostly spent her time researching the temple
itself (and sneaking about when she thought no one was looking). Even if her ambition of changing the Blades into dragonslayers was curbed by Minthara's vehement refusal, she was still suspicious of the Greybeards (rightfully so one might say) so by the time it was time to leave, every single corner of the temple was sifted through by her, and that was without her getting caught or even suspected.
Too bad any clue about Paarthurnax was written exclusively in dovahzul. Finally on the morning of the fourth day the Greybeards had had enough and insisted that
Minthara find the horn of Jurgen WIndcaller, the founder of their order, if she wished to gain further instruction.
I got the feeling that even they got carried away as they attempted to merge the two styles of
the voice into something more powerful and efficient, otherwise we would have probably been kicked out the first morning after we arrived.
As the rest were busy packing I found myself standing at the cliffside of the garden complex, my eyes wondering across most of the province and taking in everything with immense amounts of detail, as I did so my hand moved with by now practiced skill and ease as I slowly
brought canvas to life and patiently immortalized the view, even if some mistakes were still made in the process.
Once I was finished and the paint slowly started drying in the rich air, I turned around to my observer for the past two hours and greeted him "Master Arngeir, how may I help you?" Our pretense of respect toward each other had become something of a game in the past few days so his next words, and the tightly concealed sarcasm within did not surprise me "Mere curiosity, Lord Archmage." He smiles politely "My brothers and I have been observing you for some time."
"Flattering." I Interrupt in a flat voice.
His eye twitches but he goes on as if I never spoke "And we have discerned that you know
more about the dragons than you've let on."
"And you wish me to tell you." I finish for him.
He nods, happy that he didn't have to ask "Indeed."
'I was rather vague when explaining to them earlier, wasn't I?' I ponder briefly before looking
him straight in the eyes 'Well, he did ask for it, didn't he?'
For some reason, Arngeir paled.
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