JAN 27 Sunday.

I drink my tea and wait for my friend to arrive shortly.

A few days ago I got a letter from Avalon saying he was back in Canterlot and was hoping to meet up, which worked perfectly for me as I have a lot to tell him. I place down my tea and keep looking over the five bracelets sitting in front of me on my desk along with a few woodworking tools.

The bracelets were finished a week ago and I've spent the time since then working on them. First and foremost I started by adding a layer of Steel wood to each of them to cover up all of the mithril and gems. From the outside, they just look like nice wooden bracelets with some good quality carvings on them.

I kept the style simple and just added some flowers and vines to each of them, the real magic comes into play with the shield spell I enchanted into each of them. After a few weeks of work, I've made something that should fit them well, or as well as I can make it.

As a start, the shield that will be placed on them won't stop a lot of things, and that was actually the main difficulty I had with this project. Making a shield to keep everything out is easy, but that also makes going about your day like normal a complete mess and a massive inconvenience.

That goes doubly so for Blaz and Avalon as they still need to pick things up and interact with the environment with their limbs. So top priority was finding a way to determine how to let them actually do things while not getting stabbed. And in the end, I had to get a little creative like I often do.

I started by trying to make the spell more complicated by adding in a scanning spell with a rune of Threats. It's not an amazing rune but it's decent and its Runic Context works well with a shield. But that only detected what was a threat and while I tried my best to make it work I couldn't find a good balance between powering the Scanning Spell and the shield itself because tying the Scanning spell into the shield proves overly complicated.

There was just too much the spell would have to account for if I did it like that. This shield would detect any threat and move the shield to block that threat from being a problem, but it was so finicky. It also didn't help that the Threat rune turned out to be less effective against multiple threats at once while I was testing it.

With that not being enough I went another route and one I wanted to use less if possible, Intent runes. They may be unreliable in some cases but I think I got it to work well in this situation. In the end, I went with a form-fitting shield that covered the entire body of the creature wearing it and made it so the shield was invisible to the eye.

That was actually easy as it's normal for a shield to be unseen and I actually have to add in color normally. The Intent rune works off of the intent of the Pony using it and makes it so they can actually pick something up, basically when they want to pick it up it can pass through the shield, but only when they want to and everything else will be blocked.

This does have the side effect of needing you to actually pay some attention to what you are picking up and moving over to you, but it's easy enough to control, and after a while, you can just forget it's there and adjust. Then just to be safe I also added the Threat rune along with a weaker Scanning spell.

It's a smaller component but it prevents you from moving something dangerous to you through the shield even if you want to. It's a safety measure to make sure something doesn't go wrong. This Scanning spell is also much easier to make than the first one I had planned and took far less magic because the conditions were not as strict and I was scanning for much less in a closer area.

The smaller scanning spell only needs to detect things close by as spells are blocked by the shield due to it always being on. Overall the power of the bracelets isn't too great, but they let my friends remain mostly safe along with letting them do everything as they normally would. Even with the bracelets being small they are still made from pure diamonds and mithril and can block a few powerful spells or quite a few bladed strikes before they break.

I look over the last one as I touch up the wood carving and place it to the side after sanding it a little. That's the last one and they are all now enchanted and properly decorated. With my work done I start cleaning up my desk while walking over to look at one of my newest items.

Earlier today I sent a letter to Celestia with the new frost crop and my newest Metalworking spell. The spell itself was pretty simple and the only reason it took me so long was because it was my first time working with this type of spell and I didn't want to mess anything up.

It's not some massive improvement or anything, I got the magical cost down by a third and helped simplify the spell, it was an optimization and not a complete remake. If this goes well I'm going to start working on a few of the other spells used for metalworking, that should keep me busy for a while on that front.

I look over at the Vita wood branch currently sitting inside my workroom and marvel at the gold-like material. I originally just wanted to gather more of the wood for some further testing and to have it on hoof. The process of harvesting takes time and some risk, so I wanted to make sure I had some of it if I ever needed it.

At the moment I'm mostly testing how life magic flows through it, trying to study if the flows inside a dead branch mimic what the Vita Tree does when it is alive. I'm not sure but it seems like a good guess and I find studying such an interesting and magical plant to be fun.

With all my different studying I haven't had as much time to just mess around with random things. I still have some Timberwolf blood sitting around that I keep checking on to keep alive, not sure what I'd even do with that stuff. And then there is Clear Water.

We're roughly halfway through my apprenticeship and things are going very well. We're at the point where I am often left alone for a lot of smaller things along with a few bigger injuries, I've also started helping her on more serious stuff. Honestly, I do not regret taking her up on the offer.

From what I can tell I could pass the Journeypony Healers test right now and still get a good grade on it. The only thing I was really missing when going into this Apprenticeship was a rounded library of healing spells and actual experience working professionally in such an environment.

I still have more to learn, and she's consistently pushing me when it comes to spells and healing knowledge. Something she figured out early on was that I'm good at learning new spells so she basically takes any opportunity to give me more spells to learn and add to my ever-growing collection.

Though, I think the best thing she taught me was just how to act as a healer. Things like how to walk into a chaotic situation and actually get the job done without getting swept up in it all. At least she's taught me this in small ways and on paper, I still haven't been in anything like that yet, it's still very useful to me though.

I recently noticed she's been adding more work for me to do, more to read and research along with harder injuries to diagnose and treat. I shake my head and leave my thoughts before stepping out of my workroom. I look over to see Entropy sleeping on her perch.

Recently she joined us for a game night when Blaz returned, and she actually got to join in all the fun, at least to a degree. She seemed to not really know what to do and ended up only playing a little and mostly just watching like normal while asking questions and talking more.

I think she just needs time to get used to the change of it all and I'm being patient with her about it. It's not like it matters how she has fun, she could stay home if she wanted to, but for now, I'll just gently give her options and advice. At least her painting is proving to be a good hobby.

Her painting has improved a fair bit and Daisy actually ended up watching Entropy again even though it wasn't needed. Daisy had some fun and basically made the trip a lesson on how to paint, something Entropy was beyond happy about. I'll need to bake something for Daisy as thanks.

On the other side, Entropy's practice with shadow magic has been going about how I expected it to. She's still only doing the same practice, but she's much faster and more stable with it now, I think I'll start teaching her more soon. I start to make some fresh tea and lay out my new metal chess set to work on it while I wait.

I'm still thinking about what I'll do with the new set, but I have a few fun ideas. I stop though when I notice a griffon landing on the roof and I smile. I whistle softly to wake Entropy and she looks at me slowly, "He's here, try not to startle him, ok?" I remind her about our earlier talk.

She bobs her head and pecks at her band three times. "I know, feather friend too scared." I snort at the nickname but just sit in silence as we wait for him to arrive. Not long after Avalon knocks on my door softly and I flip a switch while opening the door in one go.

He peeks his head into my apartment and looks over at me before smiling. "Hey." It's a soft but relaxed tone he has as he walks inside and gently closes the door behind him. "S-So, did you like the gift? And, how have you been?" He asks with some hesitation as he walks over to the table I'm sitting at.

I smile at him and Entropy waves with her wing to which he waves back with a smile. "I loved it, and it's already proven useful to me. I'm fine." I say bluntly and pass over a cup of tea while he takes off his satchel and sits down with me. "Did you enjoy your trip?" I ask and try to make things relaxed before I dive into my mess.

He nods happily and after a second his head feathers jump a bit. "I... It was nice to see them." His tone is a little, complicated, almost like he's not sure what to say about it. "I t-talked to them about a lot of things, and well... I'm still thinking about it." He admits and I get the feeling he doesn't want to talk about it right now. "S-Sorry." He says quietly.

I shake my head and give him an understanding look. "No need, it's not my place to dig and if you need to think about it do just that." I encourage him, I often get into similar moods, and sometimes time to think is the only remedy. "Well, did you enjoy my gift, I know it's not as fancy but I hope it was helpful?" I ask and his smile jumps back some.

He nods quickly and seems thankful for me not questioning him further. "I loved it, and it was! T-Thanks!" I gifted him a few books on magic I had but didn't need, nothing amazing but still something I thought he'd like. "The notes also helped a lot, I can even... Well." He trails off a bit and rummages through his bag for a second before placing a candle down. "C-Can I?"

I smile and nod in interest, I think I can see where this is going but I want to see how much he's progressed. He smiles slightly to show his excitement and looks at the candle on the tabletop very intently for a long moment. Eventually, he raises his talons and snaps two together, a second later the candle wick bursts into flame and the candle is lit.

My brow jumps and I smile wide at the interesting method he uses. "Would you look at that, a flame in a precise location at a small point. Not bad work, great actually." I compliment him and look over to his talons, "Why the snapping though? For show or?" I ask as it seems like an odd choice when he can just do it without it.

He smiles bashfully and scratches the back of his neck. "N-No? I guess?" He says and nods a bit more firmly. "I had a h-hard time getting it to burst up like that, suddenly instead of building up." He explains and holds out his talons before slowly creating a fire that gets larger.

I do remember he had to build up his fire the last time I saw it. I nod, "So a mental crutch then, something to tie it to your mind better?" I reason and he nods back. It's not something I liked the idea of doing myself as I wanted full control over my magic, but I can understand his reasoning.

Because controlling an affinity is all about your Will and Intent, tying an action or idea to an effect you want can make the process easier. I do this to some extent by tying the idea of growing plants and their magical flows to the action of growing them, making the mental strain a little less on me. But I don't like doing that and try my best to keep my magic firmly in my control.

"I-I also got it to do this." He snaps again and both the small flame in his palm and the candle flame abruptly go out and vanish. I whistle a bit and give him a slightly proud look. "That is always so, fun! I am trying to do it without the snap, b-but, it's hard." He admits but I keep my smile.

I shrug. "It's good you don't want to keep it, things like that can work against you later on. But I'd say keep it just for show even after you overcome it, it's interesting and if nothing else it's a good party trick." I joke a little and he chuckles softly as I lean back and drain my tea before moving my chessboard to the side.

He raises a brow as I give him a more serious face after a moment. "You know I have a lot of secrets?" He nods hesitantly after a pause. "Well, I have a lot to tell you about. A lot." I emphasize and he tenses a bit while I wave a hoof. "Relax, this is just going to be complicated," I reassure him with a calm tone.

He goes silent for a moment before speaking up. "My, my family is... Y-You don't need to share." He seems surprised and I feel a little bad for dumping this on him right after he got back from dealing with some likely emotional things. I just smile more and refill my tea.

"I do," I state and raise a hoof to stop him from insisting. "It's important to you as well, and I'd like to tell you about it if you feel ok to listen?" I ask to make sure he's willing to deal with my shit today. Oddly enough I see that same determination he gets when learning magic as he looks back at me and nods.

I set my tea down and think for a moment. "You know I work for the crown, but I never really said how or why?" He blinks and focuses more as I talk. "I'll get the more concerning news out of the way first. I worked on some things I am legally not allowed to tell others about." I keep a calm but serious tone to ground him.

He holds up his wooden arm and I notice a few pieces of it are charred from fire. "Wait! Do you mean like, c-classified stuff? I don't think-" I cut him off with a hoof again and smiled at him before standing up and motioning for him to follow me. As I lead him over to my workroom door I turn back to him.

"Yes, I can tell you, yes you need to know, and no I can't and won't be telling you anything specific. Deep breath." I add as a reminder as he looks a little overwhelmed already. He pauses and does as I ask, taking a few breaths before I continue. "Now the important part, some documents on what I worked on were stolen, I can't say why or how, but they were," I add quickly.

I give him a moment to process that before I continue, my mood is much more stable than the first time I did this. "It's not directly tied to me, but it could come back to me and cause problems, maybe even some danger." Strangely his eyes seem to focus a lot more on that.

He seems to think for a moment. "Do I need to move?" I blink at the oddly calm question and he seems to have realized how odd it was as well. "I- I'm used to being on the road, I've been in a lot of d-dangerous places." He adds and I nod after a moment, realizing he is ironically equipped to deal with this. "So?"

He may not have been somewhere dangerous that often but even in his younger years he had some danger, and it seems he's decent at dealing with it despite his outward appearance. I quickly shake my head, "No, nothing like that, but I have two things to make sure you stay safe. I would rather my friend not be harmed by my actions." He looks a bit taken aback by those words as I open the door and walk into my workroom.

He follows after a moment but stops dead as he walks inside, looking around the room shocked. Avalon learned a lot from working with me and me teaching him things, and out of my friends, he's probably the only one who knows much about enchanting. Which is why it's not a surprise that he's shocked by the room's contents.

"I- Are those, real?" He points to the shelves I keep my gems on and I see his eyes light up. A moment later he looks at my illusionary library and sees all the gems filled with magic and looks even more excited. "T-Those are full of magic, what enchantments would even need that many gems? The power one, alone, provides..." He trails off after a moment and his excitement slows abruptly.

He looks over at me as I sit in the middle of the room and give him a reassuring look, both trying to keep him calm and happy to see his amusing reaction. He really looks around the room for a moment, the piles of gems, the books, the shelves filled with crafting materials and boxes. "W-What?" He mumbles utterly baffled.

I walk over to a shelf with a chuckle and take out some of the letters I've kept from others, the particularly nice fan letters. "You, work with the crown and..." He trails off again as reality seems to set in. "This, how, who?" I walk over to him and slump down so I'm not taller than him.

He confusedly stares back as I pass him several letters, he takes them slowly. "Much like you decided to do, I also have a fake name, one I use because, like you, I hate attention." I flip open one letter and put it up to his face. "And I work in much the same way, making things, trying to help others." I continue to speak.

I let him read over the proof of who I am and once he's done I move the letter away to see him looking me in the eyes with utter shock. "Y-You'r-r." I smile and nod before moving back a little bit to give him room to breathe. "I-I've, yo-u are Ve-eil." I nod again.

"I am Veil Winter, a name used to try and keep my life separate from all that trouble. Like you, I enjoy my peace, so a fake name was needed." I sigh a bit and give him an apologetic smile. "I am sorry I kept it from you, but I just wanted-" I stop abruptly as he continues to stare back in blank shock. "You ok?" I ask, a little concerned.

A moment later he nods almost by instinct. "I, I think. I." He repeats for a moment before closing his eyes and taking several deep breaths. I don't move or speak, I just wait a minute as he seems to try and regain his control. Eventually, he opens his eyes again, "S-Sorry, please."

I smile back. "No problem, I know this is a lot to dump onto you at once. I really am sorry about all of this." I apologize again to drive the point home. "Like I said, I never told anypony before this, my other friends found out a little while ago because I had to tell them as well." I bring us back to the point of the conversation.

That really seems to break him out of his shock as he's reminded of my earlier words. "The things you make, they stole, o-oh." His tone is quieter and more subdued but also much more collected. "I, i-it's fine. I. Well, I did the same thing with my, f-family." He reasons and tries to turn down my apology.

I keep my smile as I continue. "That is the reason, Veil Winter is a fairly big name, and if it ever got out that I was them, things would get complicated fast. And like I said, those documents were stolen, which means some danger is present, even if just a little." I try not to add to the pressure this must be putting on him but I am also honest.

He nods but stays quiet after a second so I continue. "Before we get to all the questions you have, and I WILL be answering those." I make a promise with a firm tone, something he smirks a very slight bit at. "This is what I wanted to give you." I move a gem from a shelf and his bracelet from my desk.

He looks at the medium diamond glowing with the magic concentrated inside it. I also pass him some instructions I wrote about both the bracelet and the shield for his home. "I- all of this? For, m-me?" He seems taken aback again and even looks slightly emotional.

I'm not sure if it's all the shock and emotions from visiting his family, but if nothing else he seems happy. "Yup, I'll need to set it up in your home, but it will keep you safe, if you want it? You don't need to if you think othr-" He cuts me off by quickly shaking his head.

"N-NO!" He quickly says and stammers a little. "I-I'll do it. I... I know what it's like w-worrying for, others." He says as if to explain and I'm reminded of his family who still roam around and could get into less than pleasant situations at any moment, he really can understand better than most. "You are really, V-Veil Winter?" He asks slowly.

I move the gem to the side and just lay down, bringing our tea cups from the table outside and motioning for him to also lie down. Which he does after a few moments. "I am, and by magic it has been an interesting mess from start to finish. I really am sorry about lying to you." I say again as the guilt is still there.

He shakes his head. "Don't be, it, it doesn't matter to me." He states and I raise a brow while he smiles back bashfully. "Y-You, never treated me differently when I did it, why s-should I?" His voice is even more quiet now but also more calm. "You said I could, a-ask about it?" He asks hesitantly and I can see that curiosity in him as he looks at the gem and bracelet I gave him.

I nod firmly and drop my smile in favor of a simple calm expression, happy to hear my friend is like the others and willing to trust me. "You can ask about as much as you like, I just might not always be able to give you an answer. So, where do you want to start?"

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :]
Current year is 997

It might feel similar to the last time, but I tried to make it more interesting. I'm just not sure if you'd all want me to add a second part to this or have them finish talking and skip it all? I feel it might get a little same-same if I do continue it but I can't fit it all into one chapter.

Tell me what you think.

Surprisedbirb.png *this is not real, just the absolutely random thing that popped into my head while writing this.*