Melody was getting desperate. She’d been trying for hours to make that damn light appear with no success. She was getting hungry, thirsty, and tired of staying in that damn greenhouse. Her stomach was lurching, she had that recurring pain in the right knee, she could feel her sweat stick her clothes to her skin. She was still trying to see that damn light, imagining it in her head, that tiny light, like a distant lighthouse, oh how she could use a nap on a sunny beach right now, listening to the waves… Dammit, she’d lost her focus again. She tried again, focusing, imagining the light, until a noise distracted her. When she realized she’d been distracted once again, she stood up suddenly, and let out a long scream, letting her pent-up anger flare up. That damn light she was supposed to make appear wasn’t showing up, that stupid, small orb of orange dim light that she sooo wanted to see float in front of her wasn’t coming ! When she stopped screaming her anger out and opened her eyes she was face to face with a little, dim orange orb of light, hovering just in front of her.
Calian who was still sitting next to her, writing, had seen the scene and was laughing lightly, “I see you discovered something I wasn’t planning on teaching you yet, strong emotions can lead to ambient magic reacting accordingly.”
“So I just screamed my way to making magic happen then ?” asked Melody in disbelief.
“That’s pretty much what you did, but don’t let it get to you, it’s pretty common. I’d say 40% of all mages cast their first magic because of some emotions. Some do it early in childhood years during a tantrum, others see their first magic during a bad breakup, all sorts of manners. Just consider yourself lucky it worked, because most people when angry tend to start little fires around them,” he explained.
“That’s hilarious, I can literally be so angry I’d burn down the problem,” she laughed. “Do you think I should continue practicing ?”
“I guess you could, since you just succeeded it’d stabilize your mana affinity. But it’s also no big deal if you’re too tired to continue. That’s one strong point of magic, you always have lots of solutions to the same problem.”
Melody thought about it for a minute, before deciding she could go for a break and a snack before resuming. Calian on the other hand preferred to stay in the greenhouse, he needed money and had a plan to tackle the issue.
The young mage approached a normal looking bush in the greenhouse, inspecting the mana flow of it, everything was normal. It was a ‘Sweetspire Little Henry’, a native Canadian bush that Melody had brought for them to use, like most of the plants. He’d looked up the bush’s properties and had found nothing of interest, it was decorative and would attract bees at most, but nothing else. It wouldn’t heal anything or cause much poisoning. Calian had decided it was the perfect blank slate for him to experiment upon.
Calian took from his bag the only books he’d been teleported with, his botany and his dimensionalism notebooks. He flipper the pages to the introduction of his botany lessons, scanning over, before heading to the section he was interested in.
‘Most plants are considered by mages as useless, without any utility, except if they’re magical. Magical plants can be identified by their strong mana presence, such plants have strong innate properties ranging from healing sap to powerful poisons. While mundane plants do not boast any remarkable properties, they must not be overlooked, for a careful botanist can turn any mundane plant into a semi-magical plant.
The botanist can bestow basic properties upon the plant through diverse methods. The first and most reliable is to make the mundane plants grow in close proximity to a magical plant. Properties of the magical plant are found in the normally mundane plants during harvest. Such method is useful for complex effects to be replicated. But it has the drawback of requiring a magical plant and producing comparatively few semi-magical plants. Report to page 45 for concrete exercise of the technique.
The second, less reliable technique is for the botanist to imbue regularly the plant with a particular intent and spells. The will of the botanist, transmitted by his mana and the spells appears to transform the plant in a way to give it the properties wanted. Report to page 47 for concrete exercise of the technique.’
Calian slapped the book shut, a grin on his face and his memory refreshed. He was going to be doing the simplest botanical exercise, and sell its byproducts for, hopefully, an exorbitant price. He planned on giving the bush a mild healing property, not much, just enough to heal scratches and shallow cuts. He would then boil the leaves of the plant and let it simmer until he obtained a thick syrup. He could then sell said syrup to parents, athletes, combat professionals, military, workers and any manual profession. In the Empire it was so well known most people had a healing enhanced bush for them to use when slightly hurt. And those who didn’t simply bought the healing syrup surplus from the academy to extremely low prices. But here, the situation was going to be different.
But first he had to give the bush the mild healing properties. He took a step back and concentrated. It was going to be the first time he’d cast a complex spell since he’d ended up on earth. He took a deep breath. He concentrated on the intent of the spell, he wanted to heal. He imagined healing as it was to him. Comfort, absence of pain, skin repairing itself, cleanliness, a healthy body, soothing words, the kiss of a mother on the wound, a hug. He thought of all these concepts and pushed them to the plant through his mana. He had his mana wrap around the plant and cast the healing spell. The plant glowed for a minute, it’s leaves firmer, looking overall better but not much had changed.
Calian repeated the process on four different bushes and repeated the process once every hour until he went to bed for the day. For the next two days he tended to the plants and oversaw Melody’s training.
One the first day she struggled to make the light appear again, but by the end of the second she could almost make the light appear at will, and she could even slightly adjust its size, position and color. She was progressing fast, showing above average talent for magic when compared to the Gorlassian standards.
On the third day, Melody was able to play with the little light at will, making it appear, flicker, change colors, disappear, slightly change the shape and even float slowly around her. Meanwhile the plants weren’t requiring as much tending from Calian, so he decided it was time he demonstrated real magic to Melody.
///
“Are you done filling up ? You told me you’d be ready ten minutes ago !” asked Melody, frowning, and impatience overflowing from her tone.
“Yeah, I’m about done, I need to be at my maximum because I’ll need every ounce of mana for what I’m planning,” he replied, a light smile on his face.
“Yeah about that, didn’t we agree you’d explain your projects to me ? I want to know what you’re going to do, hell even where we’re going.” she asked, even more irritated than before.
Smirking, Calian answered placidly, “I agreed to explain the projects I’m doing on your property, but we never mentioned anything about projects outside of it. Plus, I’m sure you’re going to love the surprise.”
With nothing to retort, Melody simply grumbled a “Yeah whatever, hurry up, I’ll wait in the car,” before heading off.
Once both were in the car and had hit the road, Calian took out a map Melody had given him, and proceeded to give her directions. The ride was uneventful, both weren’t talking much, but Melody becoming more and more perplexed by the itinerary given by Calian. They’d gone from a suburban environment to the countryside and were now deep in a forest, and Calian had just asked her to go on a small dirt road lost in the woods.
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Some time later, Calian asked her to park in a little clear adjacent to the dirt road. “We’re almost there, we need to do a bit of walking, nothing much an hour tops,” he explained.
Melody, more and more unsure simply decided to follow Calian. They both followed some narrow forest trails, getting deeper and deeper inside the woods. Before they knew it an hour had passed and they were more than four kilometers away from the car. Calian finally stopped o a flat area, with a thick coverage of trees all around, little bushes, dead leaves, animal trails, mosses and some flowers were the only decorations of the area.
Seeing him stop Melody couldn’t resist anymore, “Are we finally going to witness your surprise ?” she asked, almost grumbling.
“Yeah, it’s time,” answered Calian, before adding softly, “It’s been a long time since I’ve let loose”.
Before Melody could ask any further questions Calian motioned for her to stay back, and started mumbling and doing some quick hand signs, nothing much, a few movements of the wrist and some apparently random syllables. And then it happened. Earth’s first large scale magic.
A small breeze was making leaves on the trees flutter, dead leaves were flying around, patches of grass were swaying, but an eerie silence was permeating the forest. Barely a breath after finishing his incantation, Calian slowly extended his hand forward.
A booming sound resounded throughout the forest, causing numerous birds to fly up and flee. Following the boom were numerous cracking sounds, branches snapping, trunks splitting and wood screaming under huge constraints. When all had ended one last sound was heard, a small gasp from Melody.
Melody had seen the most unbelievable thing of her life. Calian had shown her marvelous little tricks like wisps of light or flames moving around and changing colors. It was pretty and funny, but it wasn’t mind breaking. She’d always seen him as a nice boy who was a bit lost, talented and in possession of exotic knowledge, but nothing more. But now she understood that Calian was not a little boy, he was many things, scary, powerful, strange and curious, but not a nice boy as she’d come to perceive him. When he had raised his hand, a gigantic pressure wave had washed over fifty meters of the forest. Amidst the pressure wave was small blue lines of razor-sharp compressed air. The net of atmospheric blades and pressure wave had cleanly cut all the trees in a large triangle following the cone of sound. Every tree had been magically stripped of its bark by the pressure wave and cut into clean regular boards by the blades. Everything was pushed by the pressure wave to the end of the clearing, where a pile of clean boards and wood debris were piled up.
As everything calmed down, Melody was looking wide-eyed at Calian and the pile of wood at the other end of the clearing. Sensing her gaze Calian looked back, delighting of her shocked face.
“Bet you’d never seen that before ?” he asked, chuckling.
Melody opened her mouth to answer but no sound came out. After a while she simply shook her head.
“Don’t relax yet, I’m not done. I’m preparing the place for my future house but there are still all these stumps in the way…” he said, talking both to himself and Melody, before facing the clearing once again.
Once again he mumbled apparently random syllables and made a few flicks of the wrist, before extending his hand. This time, a large jet of flame was shot onto the nearby tree stumps. The whole clearing was covered in tall dancing orange flames. Some smoke and little sparks were flying everywhere in the clearing but never outside of it. The spell had reduced the stumps to ashes in seconds, leaving a scorched and uneven soil everywhere in the clearing. When every stump had been burnt to the ground all the flames disappeared, leaving a scene worthy of a dream. A charred hole in a verdant forest. No trees, no grass, bushes or anything on the floor, only some ashes. But all around the scorched area was a perfectly preserved forest, same went for the boards, they were kept out of the reach of the flames.
When everything was calm once again Calian stepped forward, marching toward the center of the clearing, followed by the still dazzled Melody.
“Was that… magic ?” Melody asked, knowing fully the answer.
“Yes it was, but it was what I consider “crude” magic. See, I only destroyed things and it’s infinitely easier than creating. Do you want to see what I call real magic ?” the mage asked.
“If that’s what you consider easy, I’m curious about your definition of hard magic. Sure, show me !” Melody answered.
Calian was lost in thoughts for a minute. Finally, he shook his head, looking at Melody, “It’s my way of seeing things, most mage don’t think of destruction as crude. But I’ve always found it more noble to create than to destroy. Anyway, what I’m about to do is less flashy but more complex.”
Calian took a deep breath to relax after his explanation, he had to be at ease and without any distraction because the next step was more precise and technical. When Calian felt ready he floated the pile of wooden planks next to him and closed his eyes. He signaled to Melody that he was going to start his spell, before starting some complex hand signs.
This time Calian didn’t mutter any incantations, but his hand-signs were more intense and complicated, involving both wrist and finger movements. Contrary to when Calian cast his more offensive spells to create the clearing, he stayed completely still, focusing inward on the image he wanted to shape. He willed for a wooden cabin to be shaped from planks and boards. A cozy looking little home, with a decent space for one person, bedroom, bathroom and living-room. On the outside some lightly carved walls, with a porch on the front of the house. A nice oak door, with a carving of a plant producing mana on it. As Calian concentrated on the various details he wanted in his future house, strange events happened around him.
When the mage began to move his hands the planks and boards cut from the trees organized in a large circle, slowly positioning themselves. As Calian concentrated on the elements of the house, the planks began to meld, fuse, rotate and arrange themselves. At first it all seemed pretty disparate, some planks fusing into an angle, some splitting to parts of a floorboard. There was even a closet floating near a half finished wall. Slowly but surely the house Calian wanted started to form, planks planting into the soft soil, others delimiting rooms.
After 20 minutes of concentrating Calian finally opened his eyes, looking at his last creation before slumping over and laying on the ground. It was exactly as he’d pictured it, a cozy little cabin in the middle of the woods. Satisfied he closed his eyes, not resisting the headache that was threatening to make him faint anymore.
Melody seeing him lay on the ground unmoving rushed to his side but quickly realized he was fine, simply exhausted. She sat next to him, inspecting the house that wasn’t here a few moments ago. She was feeling dizzy, in the last two weeks she’d been proven magic was real, people existed elsewhere in space, teleportation is a thing, had seen Calian raze a part of the forest to the ground then build a house from it. She had read some fantasy literature, but even that hadn’t prepared her for today’s event. All of this was a bit much for her, so she sat down next to Calian while he recovered.
“Hey Cal’, you alright ?” she whispered after being lost in her thoughts.
Calian rolled over to look at her, “I’ve seen better. I’m so mana drained I couldn’t light a candle right now.” He rested again for a few breaths of time, then looked at Melody again with a cheeky grin, “Want to see the inside?”
She smiled back, getting up and extending her hand to help him stand up. When they inspected the house Melody commented on several details that threw her off. The front door had no lock, the whole house was one massive block of wood, and there weren’t any windows. There were also not many furniture except the frame of a bed and a dresser. Calian answered her questions while they inspected the house. The front door had no lock because Calian wouldn’t need one and had no metal to work with anyway today. The house was one giant piece of wood because without any nails, glues, and woodworking tools Calian had to resort to fusing and shaping the wood together with spells to make his cabin. There were no window openings because he had no glass to fit in them, so he preferred to have a dry and hot house while he procures glass panes. The roof had no tile because he only had wood to work with. And finally, the house was bare because he had used all the wood for the house.
Over the course of his explanation, Melody realized that his magic was not omnipotent. What she’d seen at first was a perfect little house in the woods, ready to be lived in and comfortable. It was everything but that. Calian had made the most difficult part, building the structure, but had not done anything to make it a living space. No heating, no natural light, no water or electricity, no furniture… It was impressive, but not all powerful.
“So, what now, you don’t expect to live here right ?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh but I will !” he grinned. “We’re done for today, but tomorrow we’re transporting the greenhouse here. Once I have my source of mana here, I’ll build the rest of the house, as for water and food, I’ll manage, nothing a quick spell can’t fix.”
“Wait, you won’t need any other material for the house ? You can make anything with magic ?” she exclaimed.
“It doesn’t work like that. I can’t turn dirt to gold. Look around you, if I could have turned the wood to stone, I’d have done it already. What I can do however is shape materials the way I want. I’ll buy some glass and shape it to my windows. I’ll dig some stone and shape it to make tiles for the roof. As long as it’s shaping things it should be pretty easy, just mana intensive. I could shape this whole house because wood is naturally helping the mana to flow and is quite easy to shape. Stone is completely different, it opposes mana flow and is brittle, I wouldn’t be able to do the same in one sitting if I tried.”
While listening to his explanation Melody nodded slowly. Having nothing more to ask, she simply decided to tease him a little while going back towards the car, “Hey we won’t be able to fit the greenhouse in the car, so we’ll have to make a few trips. I’ll add that to the things you need to pay me back”, she teased with a wink.
“Oh but we won’t need to do more than one trip !” he shot back with a smile stretching to his ears.