Mana Wells

Kurt visited Paul's well. He wanted to gain a new power, he didn't think he needed fire or the tentacles. Or any of the plant powers from Mary. He wasn't sure about the last Fae; she was private. But seeing the illusion from Harvey made Lurt have all sorts of ideas about how to use it. The fae all stayed at their own wells, even though Paul could slip to Layla's, or Mary's well. It was a more limited range than his own of course.

"Hello, long time," said Paul. And there was an eagle on his arm. "This world has such marvelous creatures, so peaceful. This eagle seems to be full-grown and yet is so small."

"Not like the griffins from your world," said Kurt.

"No, nothing like that here."

Kurt drank some of the water from the fountain. And felt a little rush, not the same as when he drank for really the first time from Layla well earlier. Less powerful, Kurt assumed that was part of the guardianship benefits.

"Ohh, trying it out yourself."

"Yes," said Kurt.

Kurt made an illusion of himself, it took a bit longer than he thought, but it was his first time. This was the key element for Kurt. The copycat had a similar ability from long ago, if Kurt could make multiple targets for an enemy they might not know what to do. Moving the illusion took up a lot of mental energy.

"You know you can give it a simple command instead of trying to control every muscle. But you have to do that when it's formed with that command."

"So either I'm taking control, or it's on autopilot no switching between."

"It's difficult to switch and not very effective."

Kurt dismissed the illusion then made another one thinking of charging Paul. This one formed a lot quicker than the first one, and took no mental energy from Kurt the illusion came out running directly at Paul.

"Very funny," said Paul, as the illusion passed through him swinging the illusionary sword.

There was one more thing he really wanted to work on as well. Kurt drew his sword. And attempted to make a fake illusion swing, which somewhat worked. Kurt had wanted his still blade to disappear but apparently that wasn't possible. Then he made a movement with his sword, and it was like a trailing set of hands came delayed upon each other, the set of hands made three different slashes, but only one was real.

"So could you tell which was the real one?"

"Yeah, but you'll get it, you have to match the trails a bit more to your natural movement. A bit of practice and you should be able to perform the concept. You're attempting to overload the opponent forcing him to block before you make your final decision. I suggest having the illusion start first and after, instead of only leading with the real hand. It gives away which is which after the first strike."

"You get it. But yeah, I see what you mean, I could make it first, middle, or last and switch between, a whole range really."

"Very powerful, but I wouldn't overuse it."

Kurt would have to work at it but it had a lot of promise. He wasn't sure what the Lich was capable of, but thought if he was going to have back up Kurt could at least have the illusion of it. Even if they couldn't actually hit the skeletons. If he could confuse the Lich would be an advantage.

He had found Jacob hard at work as well, making saddles for the griffins. They actually looked really good. He was starting to understand the eleven magic script as well, he could now tell from the writing what a lot of the gear was doing. Not all of it, but enough for the simplest stuff.

Their forces were on the move, the combination of Goblins, elves, Minotaurs, and griffins. The latest goblin brood had come out as well. Their power was swelling on the ground. Given the direction of the Lich, the main forces would be stationed at the Dutchery. Sara is taking on a lot of the responsibility of organizing meals and places to stay. Simple tree tents, with the help of the elves were made into a makeshift headquarters.

Kurt began his practice, three hundred strikes now with illusionary blows and crescent waves, he even was able to make illusionary waves he discovered. He felt everything was starting to smooth over in the first few days of the technique. Switching between making missionary copies and missionary hand strikes.

Layla came to a practice one day.

"So let's start small," said Layla.

Kurt felt a power fill his body, the same power he was using only more intense, and more of it around. He focused his mana on his next strikes. But he felt a new power in a new way. And it was like a flurry of strikes happened simultaneously. The speed of his own sword was much faster as well. There was a massive improvement. That was a small bit?

And more of the river of power grew into him. He breathed and made himself focus, and it was as if time slightly slowed with him, the tracing of the illusionary copies of his hands, grew faster, almost stronger, and multiplied tenfold. He was able to almost instantly use a copy of himself sent somewhere. He still couldn't make more than one at a time, but he could make them rapidly enough to almost seem like it.

"There is definitely a vast improvement," said Kurt.

"I'd say that too," said Layla.

"How long can you hold that?"

"That amount, pretty much indefinitely as long as I'm consciously doing it. That was not very much."

Kurt continued to practice with Layla, with another bump in the power, and that was even more drastic of a change, his movements were so fast. He was having trouble keeping his mind up with them.

"That's starting to become difficult," Kurt said, leaving his sword at his side.

"Yes, I thought that might be a problem that's why I started small, and honestly there is a lot more to go, I'm afraid you won't be able to handle it all, at least reliably."

"I'm going to have to get used to it," said Kurt, "we will need a way to signal ramp it up if I need it."

"Yes, I would say the same as at Bright Flame, but that would be too much."

"I can do two slashes directly up, I shouldn't normally ever have to do that, and if I did you should see it. I should be able to do that quickly enough."

Author's Note: Talia and Kurt will be having some…adult situations in the next chapter. If you don't want to read smut, skip the next chapter, and know they had some fun. You won't miss any plot points. But we all know you sick bastards won't skip it.