Walking everywhere and running errands took long enough that Erick stopped the rains, right at noon and right on time, as he reached the front door to his house. Ophiel gleefully returned to the skies above, while Erick walked into his own home, carrying lunch.
He set the food on the kitchen table. Poi started in on his own sandwich, but Rats and Teressa were likely asleep, so Erick set their lunches into the cold box. He renewed the [Cold Ward] inside the box, then went to go find Jane and Kiri.
Erick heard his daughter and his apprentice arguing in Jane’s mage tower well before he saw them.
Erick paused around the corner, listening.
“It doesn’t work that way, Jane!”
“It obviously does.” Jane said, “And now we’re being listened to, so you can tell him yourself.”
Ah. That was Erick’s cue. He walked around the corner to see Kiri and Jane each in front of their own chalkboards. Kiri’s was full of magic circles and arcane diagrams. Erick recognized a few of them from his enchanting books, but he never understood them then, and he certainly didn’t understand them now. Jane’s chalkboard only had a few words that filled up the whole space; ‘you are wrong’.
“Ah. Hello.” Erick said, “Didn’t mean to listen in. All I heard were the last two whatevers— I got lunch! From that place you like, Jane. It’s on the table.”
Jane smiled wide, mocking Kiri, “It’s like the taste of victory, I think. Something like that is happening right now, and I love it.”
Kiri suddenly looked both ashamed and furious.
Erick controlled his own frown, asking, “What’s happening here?”
Jane answered, “She thinks you’re fucking up all of your future magic for short term gains.”
“That's not—!” Kiri said, “That is not what I said.”
Jane waved her hand at Kiri’s chalkboards, saying, “I summarized.”
Erick felt a tiny panic, and said, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Kiri said, looking mollified. And then she found her backbone, saying, “But your approach to magic is incompatible with several of the well established schools of thought that have already produced some of the greatest, most stable archmages Veird has ever known.”
Kiri hit her stride, saying, “[Airshape], for example. You claim it is ‘playful and free’, but after I got to thinking, I remembered something from the my time at Tower Arcanaeum. There was a Primal Wind Mage who who rose to prominence in the 1105 War of the Sands. I forget his name; it’s not important. What is important is that he cast for South Nelboor and was famous for scouring the flesh from the bones of entire armies with his [Grand Sandstorm]. He went on to found the School of Wind.” Kiri stressed, “The School of Wind was an emotionally based school of magic.” She said, “That was the problem. He pounded into people’s heads that proper [Airshape] required hatred and pain. That man is now a cautionary tale because his technique was wildly successful...”
Kiri paused. She said, “This is what I was referring to when I mentioned your naturally high empathy. You have latched onto a branch of magic that does very, very well, in certain things, but that unfortunate Arch Wind Mage could do nothing with [Airshape] except flay people. Ten years after founding his school, he killed all of his students, saying that the wind told him to do it. And then he killed himself.”
Erick frowned.
Jane listened, then added her own spin, saying, “Sounds like a tragedy broken down into such a small factoid, that there’s no way it’s not completely wrong. Maybe he had intestinal rads? Maybe he turned monster.”
Kiri ignored her, saying, “Though it is rare, some people are capable of using their state of mind in order to facilitate greater magic. I feel you are one of these people, sir. It’s not really a bad thing, and especially not since you are obviously using positive emotional reinforcement. But the danger comes from what happens when you try to combine all those emotions you’ve imbued into your magic, into higher tier magic.” She asked, “How do you reconcile the creation of a higher tier spell with two parts, one part a positive emotional [Airshape], while the other part has a negative emotional [Airshape]? How would you combine a magic that is made by thinking one way, with another magic that was made by thinking the opposite way?”
Jane crossed her arms, waiting.
Erick looked between the both of them, then turned to Kiri, saying “Uh? That’s… not really that difficult.” Erick thought of Yin and Yang, of Life and Death, of Dark and Light, of Good and Evil. He said, “Duality is an easy concept. Death gives way to Life. Trees grow in the light, but the roots reach down through darkness. The sun gives way to the night, and the night gives way to the sun, and thus we all live in a world of multiple forces, each of which contains some of the other.”
Jane smirked, uncrossing her arms to say, “I told you!”
But Kiri’s frown deepened. “I don’t think it's that easy, sir, but I will admit that I do not have nearly as many accomplishments to my name as you.” She said, “I merely wished to discuss this issue before it became an issue.” She added, “And you might want to put out of your mind the idea of Dark and Light coexisting. That just… doesn’t make sense at all. The sun makes the light, and without the light, we would all fall to complete darkness.” Kiri looked straight at Erick, and said, “There is no balance between light and dark. There is a constant fight of the light against that which would kill us all.”
“Well that’s true,” Jane agreed.
Erick admitted, “You’re correct about that. The analogy is more about the duality inside of people, not about any real thing.” Erick said, “I might need to look into Arcanaeum techniques.”
Kiri said, “Maybe. Maybe not. I was also reminded of a test for this sort of thing, if you want to try?”
“Sure.” Erick said, “Hit me.”
Jane interrupted Kiri’s question, saying, “It’s an expression.”
Kiri squinted at Erick, then relaxed and said, “[Force Bolt], Altered to Ice to create [Ice Spike]. Then you Mana Alter [Ice Spike] to Fire. The goal is not to produce [Steam Spike] or [Water Spike], but to produce a spike with a great deal of force behind it. If you get it right, you create [Glacier Spike]. If you make it wrong you usually produce a blob of hot water, and no spell creation. In this way you can try multiple times without actually creating a spell. Mana Altering is very useful for this method, in fact. As long as you’re actively denying [Water Spike] or [Steam Spike], this type of spell creation will not lock Mana Altering or [Force Bolt] from rejoining multiple times in a single day.” She said, “This separation of opposing natures to feed creation is easily understood with—”
Kiri pointed to two diagrams of circular words, then to a third one. The only thing Erick really recognized about it all, was that the circles were Ancient Script, but written weird, circular. They were all the spells and alterings Kiri talked about, but written very different from how they were written in Ecks, and then combined in a way that left a rift between the words. This was how his enchanting books had written out their spells, but Erick still barely understood any of it. The circular words certainly looked pretty, though. Like multiple disks of words overlapping to produce an ever more complicated kaleidoscope.
“—with this diagram, here. Do you know Ancient Script?”
“Yes.” Erick looked at the diagrams, and said, “But I’ll try my way and see what I get.”
Kiri smiled softly, saying, “That is good, but knowing these diagrams is also important, because this is how you can create larger, more permanent magical effects. Like a [Teleport] locked room, or such.”
“Oh?” Erick looked at the circular words again, suddenly more interested, but still not comprehending very well. “Is that how you do it?”
“There’s a method to finding out the diagram to any spell you create. I don’t know much about this aspect of magic, but that’s not important right now. What I do know, is that if you know this diagram, and you can inlay the diagram into a space, to create the spell effect in that space.” Kiri said, “Creating a [Teleport] locked room requires the diagram for [Teleport] and the diagram for [Dispel] overlaid and then inlaid in high-quality wrought-level metal, in a precise manner around a room, by someone with those magics, and for those diagrams to be maintained with the proper concoctions of potions. Most of these potions are daily applications of dusted rads. For a ten by ten meter room, you’re looking at a hundred gold worth of rads per day of use.”
“Can you put these diagrams into an item, to create a rod or wand of whatever?” Erick immediately followed up with, “Is this related to a Shade’s [Teleport Lock]?”
Kiri paused. “Uh. Yes… I think so. But maybe not. It’s much easier to just rhyme at the metal… I think. Uh. I wasn’t very good at enchanting. Um...” She thought, then said, “About the [Teleport Lock]: I’ve been in a [Teleport] blocked room, and experienced a Shade’s [Teleport Lock]. They feel nothing alike. This works from the outside in, and requires a set up—” Kiri paused. She turned to Jane, her eyes alight, hope in her voice. “Did you ever see any strange symbols like this in the shadows?”
Jane shook her head. “Nope.”
Kiri cursed, then composed herself, and said, “That’s not how a Shade’s [Teleport Lock] works, then.”
Erick waved a hand at the chalkboard, saying, “I’ve got my method, but that’s all very interesting. So the takeaway is, is that you can’t make a magic without first having it, right?”
“Correct.”
“But this [Teleport] lock on a room… is not the spell [Teleport Lock].”
“I see what you’re saying, but that is not what is happening here. This is basically the counterspell function of [Dispel] in action. A Shade’s [Teleport Lock] seems to be a complete denial… somehow.”
Erick mumbled, “Counterspell?”
Kiri looked at Erick like he was an uneducated child, but she quickly shoved that expression off of her face, and said, “We’re getting way off track...”
Erick said, “I agree. So basically, you want to see if I can pass this test, to see if my method is able to go further up the tiers, where the magic requires ideas and emotions that run directly counter to one another?”
Kiri looked at Erick for a blank second, then said, “Yes. Exactly.”
Erick nodded, saying, “I got lunch for everyone. First, we eat, then we can go magic making— Ah. Wait.” Erick asked, “Before that: I offered to Mog to kill some of the more dangerous monsters prowling the Crystal Forest.” He asked Kiri, “Do you know how to get a [Familiar] to track down a target?”
Kiri shook her head. “Academically, yes. Practically? Not really. You’d need to use like… [Tracker’s Instinct], I think. At least.”
Jane said, “We’re working on that. And then [Hunter’s Instincts], too.”
Kiri asked Erick, “You’re going for some HP abilities, too?”
“Yeah.” Erick said, “But if you don’t know how to get a [Familiar] to track a target, then that’s fine. I needed to talk to the Mage Trio, anyway, so I’ll save that question for them. They’re still hunting for that necromancer from Nergal, last I heard.”
Jane said, “Wait a second. You’re just going to kill Mog’s monsters from here? With Ophiel?”
“That’s the plan.”
Jane said, “That’s cheating!”
“You want to see the dossiers Mog gave me? These monsters deserve to be cheated out of a fair fight.” Erick added, “Except for the Flare Couatl. It’s helped people fend off hunters, but it runs away after the fight, every time. That one will be the hardest to put down, but Mog says that Beast Master pets always go insane when the master dies.”
Jane’s eyes went wide. “Flare Couatl, you say?”
Kiri, who had been quiet as soon as she heard the word ‘Flare Couatl’, suddenly said, “Oh! I bet some Beast Master was experimenting with dragon essence. Flare Snakes and Couatls should not be able to breed, but dragon essence is a melting pot.” She added, almost dismissively, “You likely don’t have to worry about that one. Some hidden dragon is probably already salivating at the thought of eating it.”
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Jane’s takeaway was, “Not a [Polymorph] target?”
Erick jumped in to say, “You’re not allowed to go after these targets, Jane. They’re all nine-star melee threats. Besides. How would you feel about eating someone’s pet that has done nothing but kill hunters?”
Kiri paled, “It’s killing the hunters? Oh. Wow. Okay. That’s a dangerous monster.”
While Jane sighed, saying, “I’m not eating someone’s pet, no matter how cool it would be to be a flying Flare Snake.” She said, “You both saw the images of Flare-Snake Basil tearing through Planter’s minions? That was spectacular. He just touched them, and poof! Ashes.”
Kiri smiled softly, saying, “It was nice to see, wasn’t it.”
- - - -
Out in the Crystal Forest, on the ten meter by ten meter stone platform where Erick had created [Zone of Peace] and [Wintry Sea], he was now prepared to try for [Glacial Spike], to see if his magical methodology was capable of combining conflicting natures. ‘Conflicting natures’, according to standard magical practices, anyway.
Kiri, Jane, and Poi were in attendance, standing away from Erick.
Out in the desert, ten meters away, was a stone pillar Erick had raised from the ground with [Stoneshape]. The pillar flared out at the top into a meter-wide target; perfect for testing his magic, but not his aim. [Force Bolt] always struck the target unless something else interfered.
Erick looked over his base components.
Force Bolt X, instant, long range, 5 MP
A bolt of mana unerringly strikes a target for 15 + ½ WIL
Mana Altering X
Bludgeon, Slash, or Piercing Damage
Force to Light, Blinding, Variable Cost
Invisible Force, Variable Cost
Force to Thunder, Disorient, Variable Cost
Force to Fire, Burn, Variable Cost
Force to Ice, Slow, Variable Cost
Force to Lightning, Paralyze, Variable Cost
Force to Decay, organic damage, Variable Cost x1.5
Chain, Variable Cost x2
Combine Effects, Variable Cost x3
Generate new effects. Variable Cost
Requirements: 10 Willpower
Erick pointed at the target.
Mana Altering: Ice.
[Force Bolt].
A spike of white ice shot from Erick’s finger and struck the target in the very center. It shattered to a layer of cold, maybe a hand across, in the center of the target; like Erick had tossed a snowball at the stone pillar.
The effect was rather unimpressive. The Script likely agreed, as no spell had been created. Erick wasn’t really trying, anyway, so this much was expected.
Erick channeled mana through [Force Bolt], producing an even hum, like the unheard, unfelt background noise of the universe, heightened to the barest whisper.
Mana Altering for Ice was a bit tougher. Flowing mana through that skill produced a cacophony of noise and feeling; a chill flame, zapping across his skin, leaving mush in its wake and numbness everywhere. Not actually, though. That’s just what it felt like. The flare of white produced by the skill was similarly chaotic.
Erick channeled mana through Mana Altering, focusing on narrowing to just the ‘ice’ portion of the skill. His mana vibrated through cold and heat, through light and lightning, but he kept at it. Success came all at once. The race to absolute zero. The heat death of the universe. An end to light, to dark, to everything. The chill touch of not the grave, but of the end. Erick felt his arms go numb, like he had been out on a cold day for too long, and it was too late to make it back inside.
Erick pulled back from that feeling, releasing the flare of cold mana from his hand. He wrapped his arms around his shoulders, rubbing his arms through his tunic, trying to warm himself. The sun beat down, hard and strong, helping to chase away the cold. Erick stood there, in the light, happy to feel the warmth of that sun upon his skin.
After a moment, he resumed his experiment.
This time, he envisioned that emotional cold, like a spike of frost, so dense and compacted by time and gravity, that it was clear and blue; all the air squeezed out. A chip of a cold eternity, broken off from the whole and sent flying—
Mana Altering: Ice
[Force Bolt].
A spike of blue crinkled the air, milliseconds before it launched from the space in front of Erick’s finger. The spike hit the target, impacting into the stone, sending a wild crack up through the target. A blue box appeared.
Ice Spike, instant, long range, 22 MP
A bolt of pure ice unerringly strikes a target for 55 + WIL
Erick searched the Script for ‘ice spike’.
Ice Spike, instant, long range, 20 MP
A bolt of pure ice strikes for 50 + WIL
Erick turned to Kiri, saying, “My [Ice Spike] does 55 plus Willpower for damage, for two more mana than the original. And it kept the ‘unerringly’ portion.”
Kiri laughed, small and happy, as she narrowed her eyes, saying, “That’s great? Wow. Uh? Really? Ah. Keep going.”
Erick turned back toward the target.
He didn’t want to seem like an asshole when Kiri had brought this up as a problem, so he did not directly counter her thoughts, at that moment. But now, he would. There was a duality to almost everything, and ice and fire were no exception. Erick knew this, for sure, especially after what he had felt as he channeled Mana Altering.
Erick did not want to go this big, but started off with imagining the Big Bang. That cosmic beginning to everything, that spewed out creation; that would end in cold death.
He channeled mana through Mana Altering’s Fire, and felt the never ending heat of that primordial explosion; a ripping tear in reality that sent forth everything else. A burning, consuming conflagration, a soup of particles so densely packed, that they had nowhere to go but out.
Erick pointed at the target. He lined up his spells, and he cast.
A rocket of ice, a meter long and almost black it was so blue, launched from his hand, ripping into the stone target, shattering it completely before continuing on to strike the land beyond. A dull thunk reverberated through the soil, sending up a plume of sand into the air. All around, the glow bugs of the crystal agave dimmed, while the brown worms that usually lifted up from the soil here and there, vanished underground; loud noises always made them retreat.
Glacial Crash, instant, long range, 55 MP
A shard of pure ice strikes a target for 200 + 2x WIL
He looked up [Glacial Spike].
Glacial Spike, instant, long range, 50 MP
A shard of ice strikes a target for 90 + WIL
“Huh,” Kiri said. “That shouldn’t have happened. It should not have been that easy.”
Erick stepped toward her, handing out copies of his spell. Jane took a look, but didn’t seem to care overmuch. Poi politely declined.
Kiri said, “It costs more. But the damage is a lot more, too.”
Erick said, “It lost the ‘unerring’, this time.”
“That you kept ‘unerring’ into [Ice Spike] was surprise enough.” Kiri dismissed the spell, saying, “Your [Glacial Crash] is a variant, and a great stepping stone to the other, deeper ice magics, than [Glacial Spike]. You want very simple spells with large numbers when making higher tier spells. The more lines of text you get, the harder it is to make the next tier.”
“What’s the top tier ice magic?”
“[Iceberg] is the big ice spell. Tier 8. There are a few ways to get there, but I only know half the steps. This [Glacial Crash] is tier 3, and a good start along that journey.” Kiri shook her head, saying, “But— I still don’t understand. How did you make a directly contradictory spell combine correctly at all, without knowing the formulas?”
Erick said, “I had a very good foundation for this specific idea. Do you have another test?”
“Uh.” Kiri thought for a moment. “Besides the [Prismatic Ward] of all the shaping spells and [Ward] together?… Uh. Hmm. Oh. No...”
“If it helps, I was really bad at making Ophiel.” Erick added, “Though, I think that was only because I failed to grasp the many nuances of what I was trying to do.”
Kiri paused. She looked to Erick. She lowered her gaze, and said, “If it works, it works. I am the student, here, and I accidentally forgot that fact.” She lifted her head. “Thank you, Archmage. But if I could ask…” Her words seemed to stick in her mouth. “What emotion did you use for this?”
Erick began, “Let me tell you of the Big Bang, and of the endless march to Entropy.”
Jane smirked.
Erick said, “It all began with the Big Bang; a spot of immense energy at the beginning of everything that exploded out and made the universe. No one knows what came before, though some believe that the spot of energy that would explode into the universe was the result of the death and gravity-combination of the previous universe, into that spot of energy. Some believe that the universe is cyclical. Others, and me included, believe that the universe started with a bang, and it will continue on into infinity, and when the spaces between what is, and what isn't, gets too large, it will all rip apart.”
Kiri paled.
Erick said, “And then another spot of energy will form, creating another Big Bang, and a whole new universe, completely unlike what came before.” Erick continued, “That’s what I imagined when I cast that [Glacial Crash]. A spot of deep, endless cold, propelled into infinity by a strong starting explosion.” Erick said, “The emotions were tied into all that.” He flared some mana through Mana Altering for Ice, then for Fire, producing a chill white light, and then a flickering, snapping glow, saying, “Cold and hot go together very well.”
Poi smirked, looking off in the distance. Jane rolled her eyes a bit, but not a lot.
Kiri shivered in the sun, saying, “That’s the most frightening thing I’ve ever heard.”
Jane burst a sudden laugh. “What? You have Shades and wyrms right next door— You were there for Yetta’s trip through the Dead City! And yet the Big Bang scares you?”
“To know the universe could… could rip apart at any moment!” Kiri said, “Yes. This is terrifying.”
Jane said, “Veird’s universe already ended though, according to your own history.”
“Yes!” Kiri said, “And it’s fucking terrifying to consider that this universe could end, too!”
Jane said, “The chances of that happening in your lifetime are zero. Not gonna happen. Besides! Magic doesn’t even extend past the moons, and it's too thin to be worked out past the atmosphere of Veird. So nothing that happens here is going to Sunder that universe out there.” Jane said, “If Veird got transported to my universe, or if I got transported to where ever your planet ended up, I’ll never know. But if this universe is anything like my old one, you do not have to worry about the universe ripping apart. It’s literally never going to happen in our puny mortal lifetimes.”
Erick added, “I agree. Estimates for the age of our old universe were… what? 14 billion years old?”
Jane said, “13-point-8 billion years.”
“Close enough,” Erick said.
Kiri, with a pale green face, declared, “That’s enough magic for me for today, please.”
Erick looked to Kiri, asking, “Are you okay?”
“… I will be.” Kiri shook a little, but stood strong, saying, “I will. Thank you for your concern.”
Erick narrowed his eyes, but said, “Okay. I have monsters to hunt and skills to level, anyway. I’m working on [Hunter’s Instincts], next.”
Kiri regained some color to her face, saying, “This is a good ability. You should consider [Precision]. [Hunter’s Instincts] is 10 HP per second.”
“I got a long way to go.” Erick said, “Maybe I will, maybe not. Ophiel is going to be the one to use it, anyway, and he can’t use my skills. And speaking of which, you’ve just reminded me that I have to test their ability to search for what I want them to search for.”
Erick opened his arms and poured mana into the summoning of four new Ophiel. The air filled with the sounds of violins, as a hundred white wings pulled apart into four new Ophiel, each with dozens of white eyes blinking open over all of their feathered bodies. He imbued them with [Ultrasight], to help them see from high above. Two of them immediately burned mana to use their new ability; their eyes taking on a brilliant white sheen, as they gazed out across the sands, and at Erick. Then Erick gave them a mental push, into the air, to search for large discrepancies among the Crystal Forest. Something larger than an agave.
They rocketed into the air, each headed a different direction.
Erick said, “I have no idea if they even know what I’m asking, but I'll find out. We can go back to town, though.”
“Right…” Kiri looked off into the distance, and shivered again, saying, “Right.”