Chapter 289 289 Array Tests
That night, Ella joined them in bed, crawling in after Cassie had fallen asleep while Wolfe was still reading.
"So, tell me, what sort of changes did the upgrade to her bond make?" Ella whispered so she didn\'t wake the sleeping Witch up.
"The link between our thoughts is clearer, but also between our bodies and emotions. It\'s like our emotions feedback from one of us to the other. She could tell when others were touching me just by the sensation, and I have been riding her emotional rollercoaster all day.
I don\'t know if it\'s the bond or just innate to Cassie, but her emotions are much stronger than I had expected. All of them, not just particular feelings." Wolfe whispered back.
"So if I do this," Ella muttered and then did something that made Cassie moan in her sleep.
Wolfe could feel the hand on her chest through their link, and he smirked. "My nipples aren\'t particularly sensitive. But if you do it the other way around, there is much more reaction."
Ella shifted to sandwich Cassie between them and then smiled at Wolfe.
"We should test the extent of that link up close and personal."
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When they made it out of the room the next morning, Cassie was visibly upset with both of them, with puffy bags under her eyes and a sleepy wander to her steps.
Priya shook her head when she saw them come in, then helped Cassie to a chair.
"Girl, once you eat, you should go back to bed and actually sleep. I don\'t know what got into you last night, but two nights in a row with no sleep isn\'t good for you." The dark-haired witch reminded her.
"Don\'t you think I know that? It\'s not my fault that they decided to play with the link all night long so that I couldn\'t get any rest."
Priya turned to Wolfe and Ella for more answers since Cassie clearly wasn\'t in the mood.
"So, did you learn anything?"
Wolfe nodded. "Indeed we did. We will have to wait for another day to test it at a distance, but we can now say for sure exactly what the extent of the link is at close range."
Ella nodded. "We might have overdone it a little bit, but we got our answers."
"So, what\'s the plan for the day? Cassie needs some sleep, so obviously, you won\'t be experimenting with the bond again." Priya asked with mischief in her black eyes.
"Today, my dear friend, I have a new weapon enchantment to test out. It is a way to put a full array on a weapon and have it concentrate on the blade. This one was designed for a long and slender weapon, like a sword or a staff. Which one would you like to try first?"
Priya was always up for a good weapons test, so Wolfe knew that the would be in for this experiment, while Ella intended to head to the garage and help the team trying to make their airplane.
Mio and Jenna helped Cassie back to the room after breakfast since she was nearly asleep in her seat, and they both wanted a good reason to take an extended nap. Everyone knew that you didn\'t just barge into Wolfe\'s room unless you were prepared to see things that couldn\'t be unseen, so if they accompanied Cassie, they could sleep all they wanted without interruption.
The Den had mostly lost track of the days of the week, so everyone just took days off whenever they felt like it. Mio and Jenna preferred to work in the Library anyhow, and they had spent a lot of hours this week getting everything in order and helping make more copies for everyone who wanted to check out one of the new texts that Wolfe had brought back.
Wolfe and Priya decided to head for an open courtyard at ground level since the rains had stopped sometime in the evening, and the ground would just be a bit damp by now.
The stream in the compound, as well as the river that ran through the forest, were a different story, and they were both running high after all the rain, but with spring coming, they should be doing that anyhow. Hopefully, the forest would help mitigate any flood risks, but if it didn\'t, they would have to start using magic to keep their home intact.
Wolfe stopped on the middle of a stone platform with nothing valuable for ten metres or more. "Okay, so here is the spell, as I recorded it on my [Whiteboard]. As you can see, it\'s basically the [Lightning Storm Array] but condensed and rewritten to activate on contact with full output going to the target.
Once I have this inscribed on a weapon, we can test it on a thrown rock or something with an armour spell cast on it. That should give us a good idea of how effective it is."
"Alright. I have a couple of generic swords with me, but I also brought a walking staff. If you enchant it on the top third of the staff, the user should be able to use it as normal. Or if it isn\'t going to backlash, you could do the whole staff." She suggested.
"It\'s probably best if I start with the top third. I don\'t know how the spell will react when someone other than the caster is using the weapon, and my grasp on this Array isn\'t as solid as I would prefer, but I am certain that I can make it activate without too many issues." Wolfe explained.
On a single-edged blade, that wasn\'t an issue. Nobody grabbed the sharp edge of their own sword in combat. But using it on a staff, he knew that they should be careful until they knew how it was going to react.
The staff was a very witchy item, with a larger gnarled top and a Mana Crystal embedded into it, which was likely grown inside the carved hollow so that the stone didn\'t fall out. It was a big one, too. It was even larger than the five hundred unit ones that he filled for punishment at the Academy.
Wolfe carefully weaved the Array around the staff until he was sure that he had the inscription correct, and the chime of a properly created spell pinged in his senses as the mana flow in the area adjusted.
"That\'s it. It should be working now, so let me refresh our armour, and we will get to work."