Learn the Art of Warding your Body, so that you may enter the Else safely.

We sit in the smallest, least cluttered bedroom, with the Art of the Veil open between us. Iketek is scribbling on the floor with a piece of chalk. Of course, chalk doesn’t do anything magical. But it’s much easier to picture a complex pattern of power, if you can see it drawn.

I keep looking at the page in fascination. This is complex magic, of the Path of Folding - the path of twisting the Veil and manipulating magic itself. I don’t understand what half of the text means: it speaks of recursive anchors, of currents, of manifolds.

But the diagrams are mesmerizing, and if I touch the page, I see them, vivid and beautiful and glorious. I understand them, the way I understand my own magic, instead of struggling to follow Iketek’s limited, coarse attempts to describe spells with words.

“Try not to salivate over the rare, incredibly expensive book,” Iketek says. “And let me look at the diagrams. You’ll have plenty of time to study it.”

“It’s so cool,” I say, transfixed. “The Black Liar was a fold-mage, right? Do you think he might have written this himself? The vision I get from touching the page looks sort of black-ish.”

Iketek stops and looks at me, her expression so studiously neutral, I feel I did something wrong.

“And if that was the case, how would that be a good thing?” She asks.

She probably wants to have a talk about not worshiping long dead mass-murderers or something, but I’m not in the mood for Serious Talk.

“Come on, he was supposed to be the greatest mage ever, and the original author of this book” I say. “It would be cool if he had written our copy. Or the Fold-path section, at least.”

She sighs and relaxes a little. “The Prop Master would love that, too. He loves unique items, of any kind. According to his research, this copy has been written at least sixty years ago. So, it predates the Kalestran war, and Keidesek’s death. And yes, he was a Fold-Path mage. But he was the leader of the whole Black Library, back then. I doubt he spent his time personally illuminating books. And if he did personally write some copies, the Library would consider them holy. So, this was probably the work of some regular Grandmaster.”

“Still cool,” I say. “And I’ll assume Keidesek wrote this one anyway. You can’t prove I’m wrong.”

“If that’s what it takes to make you study Folding, suit yourself,” she says. “And now, stay inside the circle. I’m making the spell, and you’ll break it if you walk out.”

I watch her as she finishes drawing the circle around us - it has smaller circles at the edges, and even smaller circles around those, arranged in a way that reminds me of bubbles in a whirlpool.

As soon as she’s done, Iketek sits with her back against mine and raises her hands, her flesh turned to golden light. A thread of light, like molten gold, spools from her outstretched fingers, and she starts weaving it, following the diagram drawn in chalk.

I don’t understand much of this spell, but as she works, I get a burst of intuition - we’re hiding inside a fractal. Whatever tries to go through the circle will have to cross an infinite distance to reach us. It makes sense, at a deeper level than I can put into words.

it’s like…like even the Veil can believe Lies! This is huge. I can’t wait to be done with this relic business, so I can hole up in a room with a week’s worth of junk food and read the Art of the Veil.

Iketek finishes weaving the spell, and we’re surrounded by a swirling golden circle - its border forming bubbles and re-absorbing them continuously, as if it was splitting itself all the time. It’s mesmerizing.

I feel a sudden pressure - like when the metro takes a sharp turn down, and your ears pop. I can’t feel the Moon anymore, and my vague awareness of Daravoi’s position disappeared - I see him standing against the door, arms crossed, but I don’t feel him anymore.

“It’s a bit like the Thaumocracy Fortress,” I say.

“It feels similar, but the fortress stopped the magic from going in or out. This circle is one-way, it shields us from external influence, but it allows us to project our powers. That means it will protect us from being of the Else who might otherwise prey on us - but it won’t hide us from ThauCon detectors.”

“Makes sense. That’s why I don’t feel anything different,” Daravoi says. He looks unhappy, on edge. He should really learn to chill, one casual mention of murderous demons and he’s all worried!

“Now I’ll start the dream-walking ritual,” Iketek says. “I’ll make you fall asleep first, Kore. You won’t need to do any magic, just guide me to the professor, but be careful. Follow me, don’t wander away for any reason, and if you hear a voice that isn’t mine, absolutely don’t answer.”

“Easy!” I say, cheerful. “I’m very good at staying focused. And not talking. I’d say those are some of my strengths.”

Iketek says nothing. I should ramp up my irresponsible act, she and Dara are beginning to ignore me, and that’s boring.

“So… where do I sleep?” I ask, turning to face her. “Not to question your choices, but, uh, it’s a rather small circle.”

The circle’s just a little smaller than I’m tall, and Iketek is taller than me. If we must both sleep inside the circle, I can only picture very awkward solutions.

“Heavenly Gunner shoot me,” Iketek says, in a rare curse. “I… usually perform this ritual alone. I should have drawn a larger circle.”

I burst into laughter, and I see a hint of red under the brown skin of her cheeks. I hate physical contact and this will be awkward as the Abyss, but she looks so dismayed, I can’t help but find it funny.

“So, what position do you prefer?” I ask, making a very exaggerated wink – partly to fuck with her, partly to hide my own discomfort.

She doesn’t smile, though, and maybe I was a notch too annoying, this time. I tease Daravoi all the time, but Iketek doesn’t like intimacy, even in jokes. “I’m kidding,” I hasten to add, “we’ll just draw a larger circle. I think I understood enough to help you. It’s not like I had other plans for the evening.”

“That would waste time, a larger circle would mean more risk of making mistakes, and while I appreciate your offer, cooperating on a spell is difficult, and definitely beyond your current skill,” she says, reluctant. “We’ll survive some awkwardness. Just lie down with your legs folded. Keep some distance from the circle’s edge. I’ll… find a convenient position to sleep in.”

“Oh, this will be fun to watch,” Daravoi snickers.

Iketek sighs. “I guess this is what I get for working with teenagers.”

“Hey, I’m… twenty. And one month,” I say, wiggling my finger. I almost got that wrong, though. I was going to say twenty-three - Tharvais’ age, not mine.

Iketek glares at me, and I decide I pushed my luck enough. Careful not to break the circle, I lie down on my side.

“Good night,” I say.

“Sweet dreams,” Daravoi answers.

I feel Iketek lie down behind me - she tries to keep some space between us, but we end up basically spooning, because it’s the only way to fit two people in a small circle. Despite my jokes, I feel the instinct to move away, or push her off. I don’t like being touched, even by a friend.

I take a deep breath and remember the person I was briefly in the night club. Xe’d be happy to lie down next to an attractive girl. Xe’d make a joke and then forget about it.

My mind shifts a little bit, and the discomfort with our position disappears. Why am I that weird about physical contact anyway? Abyss, I’m just sleeping next to a friend because of limited space.

Sleep, Iketek’s voice commands in my mind, and I feel her power, golden and flowing and always perfectly controlled, brushing against my mind. I feel immediately sleepy, but I could fight it, I could touch the Else…

I don’t react. It’s surprisingly difficult, like keeping your eyes open as you go underwater. But I let her magic flow into my mind, and I fall asleep.

Underwater. I find myself floating in a vast, blue sea. I open my mouth in surprise, and water gets into my mouth, burning like fire. Air escapes from my lungs, and bubbles of azure fire float upward.

I know it’s a dream, I know it’s not real, but still I panic. I swim up - where I hope it’s up - but I can’t reach the surface, I can’t see the surface. I look frantically around, searching for something, anything to follow, and I see a light, green and vast and beautiful. I swim toward it, I’ll drown I’ll drown I’ll drown, but the sea becomes darker and thicker, and the light isn’t from the sky, it’s something vast, something deep, something coiled like a snake…

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Golden hands grab my arm and pull me away from the green light. A moment later I break through the surface, and I’m no longer in a deep ocean, I’m on a beach, kneeling in shallow waters. My knees brush against rough pebbles and seashells. I try to cough, by instinct, but my lungs and mouth are empty.

I stand up, looking around - the bright-blue water only reaches up to my calves, and it doesn’t leave a single drop on my skin as I emerge. I’m wearing bright blue swimming trunks, and Iketek stands next to me, wearing a fancy black tunic, plus golden earrings and bracelets.

“You dream of the sea a lot,” she says, looking at the beach of black pebbles, and the endless sea. The sky above is black, dotted by stars, all of them blue or gold.

“I like the sea,” I say, “but my moms don’t. I think the last time I’ve been to a beach was when I was sixteen, and my brother took me.”

“Weren’t you super rich?” Iketek asks, looking confused. “Couldn’t you go on holiday wherever you wanted?”

“Wherever my moms wanted,” I answer, with a bitterness that surprises even me. “Anyway. Is it normal to half-drown in my dreams?”

“No, it isn’t,” she says, slowly. “You dived surprisingly deep into the Else. Most new mages need a lot of training to go into the deep Else, even if they want to. But you seem to have another extremely inconvenient talent. And with terrible timing. The Else is… not as it should be, right now.”

“Extremely inconvenient talent, with terrible timing,” I say, nodding. “I like having that. Beats you’re full of wasted potential and good at nothing useful.”

“You can bend reality itself,” Iketek says. “Whoever told you those things probably can’t. You shouldn’t worry about them.”

“Everyone said those things,” I say, as moms and teachers and private mentors and a couple police officers flash through my mind. “But I don’t care.”

Iketek looks at me. “Not all lies are good for you. Even if they make you feel better. But this isn’t the right time for this talk. And definitely not the right place.”

I look around, and catch something glimmering along the rocky beach. Like eyes, hidden where the shadows are darker.

“What… ok, not the time to ask, I get it,” I say. “What do we do?”

Iketek holds out her hand. “Take my hand, and think about the professor,” she says. “Xir face, xir voice, whatever you know about xem. Any vibes xe gave off. As for the rest, follow me and ignore everything else.”

I take her hand, and we start walking around the beach. I’d usually be very self conscious about wearing swimming trunks in front of someone dressed for a fancy party. But a side benefit of my clubbing identity is that I don’t care at all. I brush a lock of my ever-messy hair away from my face, and realize it’s white. I didn’t even do that on purpose!

Such small things - not recoiling from touch. Not freaking out about showing my skin. But the ability to change myself from the inside makes me feel powerful, more than Else-fire and more than warping reality.

Tharvais could study – xe could focus on a book and read it. What else could I do, if I spun enough identities?

All the stuff normal people do without magic, maybe.

Not the right time. Not the right place.

I think about professor Kairim. Most students described xem as boring. A fastidious, detail-oriented person, who insists on procedure and hard work.

Xe’d hate me. But xe didn’t hate Tharvais. Xe was kind and encouraging to a foreign student, which is more than most teachers bother to be.

“And you repaid xem with lies and treachery,” a voice says, and at first I think it’s Iketek’s, but no, it comes from my right - from the sea. The water stirs. “Xe signed your authorization. Did you think about the consequences for xem? Did you care? But of course, you never do.”

I open my mouth to protest that I did, that I left xem the relic, that I was sorry, that xe did nothing illegal - but then I stop, biting my tongue. There’s something lurking just below the water. And Iketek told me not to answer any voices.

It looks like Iketek didn’t hear it and didn’t notice the shadow in the water. Should I warn her?

Speak not of the things that lurk in the Else. I focus on my memory of the professor’s office - the thaumocracy artifacts, the rows upon rows of somewhat ostentatious paper books.

The ground changes beneath my feet, it becomes smoother and colder. I look around, and the beach swirls, like water paint being washed away.

“Focus,” Iketek snaps, pulling me by my wrist.

I remember the professor’s armchair - it looked like a legit thaumocracy ducal throne. I don’t think you can buy a museum piece like that, so it had to be a replica. Does someone sell replica thrones, or xe had it custom made? Either way, it had to cost a lot, xe really wanted…

A polite voice coughs. Professor Kairim looks at me, one eyebrow raised. We’re in xir office, even if outside the window there’s the radiant blue sea instead of Station Square.

“I should point out, young person, that this isn’t appropriate academic attire,” the professor says, pointing at me.

It’s a dream, for xem, so xe’ll roll with pretty much anything, according to Iketek. I close my eyes, focus on Tharvais - boring, proper, bookish Tharvais, who’d be dismayed at the thought of going to university in swimwear.

Actually, why didn’t I think about it before? It’s disrespectful, this would elicit a frown even in Landfall. Some Jaonish students came to class wearing little more, at least when the heating worked properly, but that’s a well-known cultural exception. And they’d at least wear shoes.

Fortunately, now I’m wearing a sensible black tunic and my glasses. Do I even need glasses in dreams? Well, I’m more comfortable with them.

“Tharvais,” the professor says, frowning. “You… how are you here? They said…”

“Don’t worry, professor.” Iketek waves her hand. Golden sparks trail her fingers. “It’s all right. We’re just here to talk.”

That doesn’t sound reassuring at all, and it’s too vague to be a good Lie. But of course, she’s not Lying - her magic is brute manipulation of the mind.

“Right… right,” the professor says. “I thought… it doesn’t matter. What did you wish to discuss?”

“I’d like to know more about a relic,” I say. “A minor one. According to the Vault, it’s in your custody. Even if, strangely, that’s not logged in the archival system.”

“A relic,” xe says, frowning again. “You… you took one already, right? But you…”

This is going into dangerous territory. Unfortunately, xe’s as meticulous in dreams as xe is in the waking world.

“I returned it,” I say, “don’t you remember? It was very kind of you to let me pick a relic for my exam project. But I don’t need it anymore. What I’m looking for is the Twisting Tetrahedron, now.”

Xe frowns. “Ah, yes. Yes. The Tetrahedron. Such an interesting trinket. It attracted my attention recently. I took it from the Vault, on… a whim.”

Xe looks confused as xe says on a whim. And xe looks like the least whimsical person I ever met.

Then, xir gaze becomes more focused, and xe stares at me with a frown. “You aren’t who you said you were,” xe says. “This place… isn’t…”

The room swirls – I recognize the feeling of the moment you realize you’re dreaming, and you wake up.

But xe can’t wake up yet, we need our information. I must placate xem.

“What’s interesting about the Tetrahedron?” I ask, keeping my tone conversational. “I mean, compared to other relics. According to public data, it’s a perpetual movement machine, but that’s a common relic function, and it only rotates slowly. What captured your attention, if I may ask?”

Xe smiles, and the room stops moving. Now there are long tables full of scientific machinery – spectrometers, optical benches, a theta resonator.

“As it happens with saddening frequency,” Professor Kairim says, “I noticed that the initial description wasn’t as thorough as it should have been. It has a much more interesting property than perpetual motion: it casts a shadow subtly different from its physical shape. That’s highly unusual, and previously observed in relics of some importance.”

“So, you’re studying it? Did you take it to your office?” I ask, pouring a bit of my magic. “I’d like to know how a real academic works.”

A wave of tiredness washes over me, as if I had used a flood of power - Forgotten Enemy, Iketek warned me. The Professor is far away, physically, and if I use Lies, my power will have to bridge the gap.

It works, however - professor Kairim answers, xir tone pleasant.

“We lacked the proper thaumo-optical equipment, sadly,” xe says. “I made arrangements with a company that works closely with ThauCon, they help us with analyses, at times. I wish the University didn’t have to work with so many constraints, but it is what it is.”

I raise my eyebrows, in what I hope is an expression of polite interest. “I didn’t know of such a company!” I say. “What is it called?”

Too fast. Professor Kairim opens xir mouth to answer, and then stops abruptly, frowning.

“You’re not a student,” xe says, slowly. “ThauCon warned me. You… you’re a thief, a…”

Lost Stars, we were so close - I have to spin a lie. But flat-out denying a truth xe knows is difficult, and I don’t think I can do it, with the distance.

So, all I’m left with is the truth.

“I really wanted to work with you,” I say. “I’m honestly curious about the relics. I’m sorry I had to lie. But I had no choice.”

Xe looks at me, frowns again, then nods.

“You’re a mage, right?”

I really, really hope Iketek is right, and xe’ll forget about this conversation.

“Yes,” I say. “I really wanted to attend the university. But I couldn’t, not with these powers. I could help so much with the study of relics, if they let me.”

Iketek looks at me, murderous, but the professor sighs.

“What a waste we make,” xe says, looking tired, “how foolish the chains we bound ourselves with. As if hunting and punishing children will fix the sky, or ignorance will shield us from demons.”

Xe looks at us, seems to think for a moment - more present, sharper than xe’d been for the rest of the conversation.

“SilverEye Analytics,” xe says. “They have a laboratory near the old port. Do what you wish with this information. The most terrible conclusion I’ve reached in all my years of research, is that we’ll never truly understand the relics, without access to the Else.”

I feel a lump in my throat. I lied to xem, in a worse way than I did before. I don’t need the relic for any scholarly work, I’ll hand it to murderous criminals.

“I’m sorry, Professor,” I say, my voice breaking.

“Good luck, Tharvais, or whoever you are. Remember that rigor and objectivity are the way to truth. May you become a great scholar, hidden or not.”

“I will,” I answer, with a lump in my throat.

I say that with conviction, but it doesn’t drain my power. Because I decide, as I speak, that it is not a lie.