After Felix had devoured some miserable leftover stew, they both addressed a few issues at hand
"Would you mind if I crashed in your room? I don't really wish to find myself in the presence of that drunk wretch again", Felix asked whilst he wiped his hands on his clothing.
"Yeah man totally, though my dad might mind", Fenrir replied, happy to help his friend.
"Then I'll be sure to not get caught", Felix replied. That made Fenrir grin.
After that little exchange they moved onto the next thing.
"I'm really bored, wanna do something?" Fenrir proposed, looking over at Felix who was yawning.
"Like exploring?" Felix responds. He actually really wanted to explore the city. He had written it to be a beautiful place, filled with stone buildings, marble statues, stained glass and everything. He had wanted the capital to be shiny and full of personality.
Fenrir looked a bit miffed at Felix's suggestion, remembering what had happened earlier.
"That… wouldn't really work. Beast kin aren't allowed into the city without paperwork, sponsorship or a valid reason. Also the guards at the checkpoint are racist jackasses". Fenrir explained. It just wouldn't work.
Felix adorned a confused expression. "What? Why? I never wrote the humans to be racist…".
Just then, the both of them had a flashback.
———
Guy spoke, casually: "We should add racism."
Alex laughed. "Of course you'd say that."
Guy didn't elaborate, but in his head, he thought about making demi-humans the oppressed class. It'd give some edge to the world.
Alex, meanwhile, had a moment. Just a flicker. A flash of something grotesque, the reason for the racism. He shook his head, pushed it away.
———
Felix felt a pang of dread in his chest. "Wait, we never wrote that racism concept down did we?"
"... No. I just thought about it", Fenrir replied, confused.
Fenrir looked at Felix's face, and saw it go through different levels of fear.
'What's up with him?' Fenrir thought.
"... What other head cannons did we have? Which we didn't write down?" Felix asked, his breathing measured.
Fenrir's eyes widened. "Oh", was all he said.
He thought about it for a second.
"Oh shit", he said this time, his voice shaky.
"...Yeah", Felix replied, his expression tense.
The atmosphere was tense and their expressions grim.
Fenrir inhaled deeply, his voice back to its usual happy cadence. "It's not all that bad, all we gotta do is get stronger… wait—", Fenrir cut himself off, realizing something.
He himself was a water mage, what about Felix though?
"What sorta abilities do you got? A boon maybe?" Fenrir questioned.
"... None", Felix replied, his expression steady.
"None?" Fenrir reiterated. That was… bad. If Felix had no power, he was essentially doomed to a life of normalcy and weakness.
That didn't sit right with Fenrir at all.
"None, for now", Felix elaborated.
"For now?"
"Yeah, there are many paths to power in this world", Felix explained.
"Isn't it you're either born with sorcery, magery or a boon?" Fenrir questioned. That was what he knew.
"Not completely. What do you think makes sorcerers different from mages and the unblessed?" Felix asked. He sounded like a professor in Fenrir's opinion.
"Uh, mages get blessed by an elemental god and the unblessed don't get blessed at all?" Fenrir answered, unsure of his own knowledge.
"Close, but not completely accurate. Sorcerers have command over elements naturally for a reason. They have an affinity to that element", Felix explained.
"Affinity?" Fenrir asked, intrigued. He remembered hearing Alex talk about this a few months ago. Though, he hadn't been paying complete attention
"Yes. Affinity is… well affinity, I don't know how to explain it exactly. But, an affinity can be nurtured or created as well", Felix said, shuffling out of his seat.
"Like how? With rituals and stuff?" Fenrir questioned, his head turned upwards, showing that he was thinking.
Felix smiled and nodded. "Exactly. Natural affinities are gained due to the proximity of the nascent soul with elemental phenomena and location. Say a child is born during a lightning storm, he will have a higher chance of having a lightning affinity. Those who live in the mountains, an air affinity", Felix explained, now pacing back and forth.
"You said nascent soul, that means young right? You aren't, well, young young right now though, can you still get an affinity?" Fenrir asked, his eyes following Felix walking around.
Felix looked at him with a deadpan. That reignited Fenrir's memory.
"Oh wait! Rituals!" He exclaimed, slamming his fists on the table causing it to emit a rattling sound.
"Yes, by setting up an elementally enriched environment, a sorcery affinity can be acquired", Felix said grinning. He was happy that he had developed the power system without leaving any plot holes. The enriched environment system was made up to explain late manifestations of sorcery. "But this setup won't work for people above twenty though, their souls are fully developed by that time", Felix finished.
"Well, let's get to it!". Fenrir jumped up from his seat and stood In front of Felix.
Felix looked up at him. He was slightly taller.
Fenrir noticed and smirked.
"Don't say it", Felix said preemptively.
"Nah, I will. I gotta get you back for all those jokes you made in the yester-life", Fenrir said as he stood on his toes to emphasize the height difference.
"You're childish"
"No you are"
They both looked at each other.
Then they both started laughing. "On god you're a bum", Felix said, a rare moment of him using casual language.
After calming down, Felix decided to point out a little issue in his plan.
"I only know the ritual for lightning though, so I have to go with that. But we don't really have the materials right now", Felix said and then he sighed.
"Well, what are the materials and where could we get them?" Fenrir asked, already walking towards the door. He didn't feel any residual pain from his fight against the humans earlier. Beast kin vitality really was something.
"Uhh… the materials right? Yeah, the materials… actually ingredients, I would need five star vein flowers, they're these yellow flowers that grow near river banks. Then… funnily enough, carbonated water which can be substituted for spring water. Along with that… some powdered copper. Yeah, that should be all of it", Felix spouted out. He had to think a bit to recall all of the ingredients.
"You think I could get lightning sorcery along with you too?" Fenrir asked. More power was never a bad thing.
"Yeah, but your water magic blessing would probably get revoked. Gods are jealous creatures", Felix said.
"Dang, it is what it is though. I'll keep my magery since it synergizes with your lightning and because it's more powerful usually", Fenrir decided. "Anyways, can we get these materials right now?" He asked.
"We could probably gather them up in a week, and its ingredients, not materials", Felix said.
"On god you're autistic"
"And you're illiterate"
"Yeah yeah"
"Shut it. I don't remember the exact map of the world but there's a forest south of the capital which has the flowers. I don't think carbonated water's gonna be easy to get so we gotta go for the spring water. We could definitely buy spring water in the city but for that we have to get the paperwork which is gonna be hard… Copper, we can get from maybe the currency, I don't know, we'll have to look into it", Felix planned. He wanted to get the ritual done as soon as possible. Mostly because he wanted to have fun with magic.
"Hmm… I'm pretty sure dad gets mom her herbs from the forest. Since he's busy, I'm sure I could convince her to let us go instead of him", Fenrir said, already figuring out an excuse to go to the forest. For some reason, he didn't want to worry his new parents.
"For the city I'm sure I could write cursive convincingly enough to let us in… though I gotta check out the script. It's slightly altered English with Arabic mixed in I'm pretty sure", Felix said.
"... wasn't it Greek?"
"... Fenrir, I swear to God"
———
Both of them were now outside, looking at a sign in the slightly richer area of the slums. People there were still dirt poor.
The sign was a mixture of Greek, Arabic and English.
Felix looked over at Fenrir and smacked the back of his head
———
The both of them could now be seen walking back.
Fenrir rubbed his head, "Greek isn't that hard…".
"You're right, but unfortunately I don't know the grammar. I'll work on figuring that out, you go and ask your mom about that forest trip. If she says yes, meet up with me at your house and we'll head out. If she says no, I'll go alone… even if there are scary terrifying monsters there waiting for a weak fox boy to murder…", Felix said, his expression turning pensive at the last part of the sentence.
"You don't need to guilt trip me, I'm coming anyway man", Fenrir said, deadpanning.
Felix snorted, Fenrir laughed.
Felix laughed, but the idea of dying here, before he even awakened, gnawed at him more than he'd admit
Now, they had to finish their first quest…