Chapter Four: The Colours of Magic
“Adequate. Perhaps it is time that we moved onto a new aspect of your training.”
I wanted to reply in a suitably thankful manner, but right then I was down on my hands and knees and gasping for air. To my sides, even my wings were drooping, only just keeping themselves from simply flopping to the ground.
One week, that was how long we’d been focusing on just training my flight. One whole week!
It made me deeply envious of the heroes of many of my favourite shows and films. When they had to train all they had to deal with was a few seconds of montage footing combined with a catchy theme tune. I had to endure repeated drilling on one skill, aerial dodging, no end of bruises and many, many crash landings.
I ached everywhere! It felt as though I’d finished a series of back-to-back Ironman triathlons, all while having a small anvil strapped to my back. I was pretty sure that if my body hadn’t received its upgrade from my Awakening then I might well be in need of a hospital bed.
Joan had explained it to me, how flight put considerable pressure on my whole frame due to the forces involved, even if my magic was keeping me from being hit with the worst of it. Not only that but having all that magic running through my whole body for so long and in such high concentrations also put its own strain on me.
My magic channels were still young, despite how strong they were. Constantly running so much power through them was giving them quite the workout, toughening them up and getting them used to carrying a constant load. All this, all the flying, dodging, and unarmed sparring, was a good way of building up my body’s endurance and my magical foundation at the same time. I was gaining this while getting me used to this entirely new means of movement.
It had also been a good way for me to learn my limits. As things stood, I could fly for just over an hour straight, as long as I was going at or near my top speed the whole time. If I took it slower then I could last longer.
By the end of it, I would be feeling tired, but not in a way that affected the rest of me. I could still fight and move about on my legs well enough. My wings would still be just as strong and responsive, but my ability to fly would take a bit to recover. It was as though it had a separate endurance all of its own. Generally, it took about ten minutes for me to go from totally wiped to fully refreshed, something I’d timed to be certain. Not bad.
Like normal endurance levels, things were getting better as I pushed myself. My time in the air had doubled from my original twenty minutes, and I wasn’t done. As far as speed went I wasn’t entirely sure as to just what my limits were. I knew I could fly fast enough that the grass blurred under me if I was low enough, but I also knew that I was nowhere near as fast as Hadriel could go if she chose to push herself. As for how manoeuvrable I was . . . I wasn’t bad at all. I wasn’t physics-defying like Hadriel yet, but I could make the best military hardware in the world weep with envy. All in all, I thought that the effort put into the last seven days had been more than worth it.
“Very well, Adam. You have done well so far, now it is time to see what we can teach you about your halo.”
Ah, sweet salvation came from the side, the angelic tones of France’s most iconic saint coming as a gentle balm to my soul, her words promising freedom from Hadriel’s evil oppression and torture.
Training with the red-winged angel was . . . lots of things. I won’t lie, there was exhilaration, excitement, and challenge aplenty, but sadly there was also failure, exhaustion, and pain in even greater amounts. Hadriel was a harsh taskmistress, and I’m not talking about the fun sort that some folks pay by the hour to be disciplined by. Hadriel didn’t shout, curse, or even raise her voice, but, somehow, she managed to be every bit as ruthless and demanding as the most merciless drill sergeant.
Our training mainly came down to two exercises, her chasing me, or me chasing her. It sounded so simple when put in those terms, but nothing could be further from the truth. There were repercussions if I failed to win. The sort of repercussions that would have resulted in concussion, had they been administered before my upgrade. If nothing else I’d certainly learnt that my bones, my skull especially, seemed to be much tougher.
This was genuine training, learning how to roll with blows to lessen their impact, learning how to fall without getting all tangled up in my wings, learning how to see blows coming so I could dodge them. I always tried to think of it as ‘upper enemy training’, me getting used to fighting someone who completely outclassed me in every way that I could think of. If nothing else it was helping to toughen me up mentally so that I wouldn’t just crumble as soon as I encountered a more powerful enemy. Or at least, that was what I kept telling myself.
It had worked though. Sure, I still had some trouble with heights, but as long as I stayed . . . relatively close to the ground I was alright. I wasn’t exactly sure how high I could get before my vertigo started to kick in, but I could manage at least twice the height of the farmhouse. I was also improving in other ways. I wasn’t ploughing into the ground when I tried to land, and the few times I’d tried to fly through the nearby woods I’d managed to avoid running into the trees.
Of course, once the forest grew thicker there wasn’t as much room to work with and my wings started hitting tree trunks. It was a painful experience, but educational. I learnt my wings were even tougher than I’d thought they were, so much so that during my impacts it was the trees that took damage, rather than the bones in my new limbs.
The thought of switching to working with my halo was one that I eagerly accepted. After all, unless I could somehow grab my halo off my head and use it like a chakram, then chances were that whatever education Joan had in mind was going to be easier than what I’d been dealing with up to this point.
“O . . . okay. How do we do this?”
“That you have received a halo is unusual,” Joan’s voice had adopted the tone I’d now come to associate with her lessons on the supernatural aspects of the world. “There are a number of Nephilim in the world, but none of them have ever manifested a halo before. That you have one is significant and for more than simply being an indicator of your potential.”
And there it was again, her referencing how much more powerful I should be, as opposed to my rather disappointing state of being. I knew it wasn’t her fault, I’d been there when the ritual came under attack. I knew how hard she’d fought and what forces she’d been up against. Still, I couldn’t help but feel a slight pang of resentment, one directed not at her but rather at the world in general, for the situation I found myself in. Joan, Hadriel, and even Emma, all had told me of this massive potential I possessed, this enormous power I should have had and know how to use from the start. Instead, I was now having to struggle for every onch of control I got.
Still, getting back to what Joan had said . . .
“Why not? I get Hadriel having a halo, but you’ve got one too when you transform. Why don’t Nephilim have halos, and what does it mean that I’ve got one?”
“Perhaps I have misspoken,” Joan stated, her eyes growing distant for a moment before sharpening again. “The ability to take on the form and power of an angel is uncommon, but not unknown in those with blood ties to the High Heavens. What we are able to do is to temporarily shift both our bodies and our essence into what they would have been had the Lord made us as angels, and in doing so gain the powers we would have so possessed. It is an alteration that substitutes one potential existence for one that already exists. Of course, this is not perfect, as our true existences will always return, but while the power is in effect we are as close to true angels as one can be without being one.”
She might have been ready to say more, but she paused as I held up my hands in a ‘T’ to signify a timeout. Actually, I was a bit surprised that she understood the gesture, but this time I kept myself from following that train of thought down a rabbit hole and instead remained on topic.
“What do you mean that it ‘substitutes one potential existence for one that already exists’? Are we talking about alternate realities?”
I wasn’t too sure how I was going to take it if she replied in the affirmative. My life was already complicated enough now that I had to worry about not just my own world, but also heaven and hell, faery, Asgard, Olympus, and every other realm or world, or whatever the gods wanted to call their particular piece of creation. The whole notion of alternate worlds, evil twins, and God only knew how many ‘roads not taken’ was not something that I wanted to add to the already very seasoned pot of my current circumstances.
“Nothing so far-reaching,” She assured me. “To be touched by the heavens is to carry a portion of their nature within you. This portion, no matter how tiny, will ‘know’ the vessel that holds it and will also ‘know’ how to alter that vessel to be a part of those heavens. The power of transformation into an angel allows that small portion to combine with that power and overwrite the user's body so that they become the angel they might have been. How long they can maintain that transformation, as well as how powerful an angel they can transform into, is all dependant upon the strength of the power itself.”
“Okay, so what does that have to do with me and halos?”
“Because you, Adam, possess a halo even when you are in mortal form, and to the best of my knowledge that is something that has never happened before.”
That made me blink before I voiced the protests that immediately rose in my mind.
“But I’ve got the wings and magic channels, so what’s so weird about me having a halo?”
“The wings are angelic in that they grant you extra magical channels and aid you in finer control and manipulation of your internal energies. But they are not of the heavens in the same way that a halo is. The difference between wings and halos is somewhat akin to the difference between armour and a badge of office. This is an imperfect metaphor, but it does convey some of the nuances. Halos are as part of an angel as their names are, a means of displaying rank, position within the legions of heaven, and even past accomplishments and hailed skills.
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“That being said, a halo is not simply a decorative sign of rank. It is an extension of the angel that possesses it, one that grants powers in their own right.”
“Okay, I’m sorry, but I think you’ve lost me. Halos do give power? Doesn’t that mean that they’re like the wings?”
“No,” Joan shook her head. “I fear I am explaining this poorly. Wings serve as . . . strength. They provide more magical channels, more control, more magical ‘muscle’ for you to use. That is why wings are often an indication of strength amongst angels, the more wings one has the greater the power and control one possesses. By contrast, halos are more akin to . . . weapons, I suppose. A halo can be used to control and convert the energies of the individual who owns it. This lets them shift those energies into different forms, such as natural forces, or more otherworldly elements.
“They do not grant you greater power in and of themselves, rather they simply allow you to use your own in a way that would have been far more difficult otherwise. In time their wielders need no longer depend on them though, as their skills grow to match the advantage that the halo grants them. At that point, the halos become more supplemental than anything else, providing a small increase in power over what their user can manage by themselves.”
I tried going over her words until I was completely sure that I fully understood her.
“So,” I asked slowly, making sure to enunciate every word carefully so that there would be no misunderstandings. “You’re telling me that halos are essentially magical training wheels?”
It sounded so . . . inane when I said it out loud, but that was the image that came to mind with her description, the training wheels that my dad had attached to my bike when I learning. They’d been useful, but I’d still managed a couple of pretty spectacular accidents when I took them off, and my halo was that only for magic?
“Training wheels? What are they?”
I was momentarily taken aback by Joan’s question, then remembered that this was a woman who’d spent the last few hundred years up in heaven rather than down on the earth. Such a reference would be lost on her.
“You know what a bike is?” When she nodded I kept going. “They’re these smaller extra wheels that are put on the sides of the back wheel when kids are trying to learn to ride so that they don’t fall over so much and can get some confidence. When they get good enough, they take the training wheels off, and it means that they’ve learnt to ride without them.”
“Ah, yes, I do know what you refer to.” She smiled. “Yes, there are similarities. Halos make certain powers simpler to use by performing parts of them automatically for you. For example, should you wish to convert your personal power into fire or lightning.”
To highlight her words, she held up a hand, flashes of coloured light dancing around it for a moment before fading away.
“Though the knowledge of how to do so comes intuitively to an angel, in their youth it may be a troublesome task to perform. Their halo makes such easier by taking over the more complex aspects of the conversion, leaving the angel only the task of directing the converted power.
“As they repeatedly use the skill the halo performs less and less of the task, allowing the angel to grow more and more proficient at it until the halo is no longer needed in such a capacity. Once this point has been reached it can then be used in other, more useful, ways.
“It is possible to use them to create personal restraints that you need to work against, thus building your strength and control when not in battle. Alternatively, they can provide increases to your power, joining their strength to your own to create a greater cumulative effect. They can even be used to control already created magic constructs for you, thus freeing you to concentrate on using another power, rather than maintaining an already existing one.”
That sounded more interesting, especially that the halo could be used as a training device even after its primary function had been fulfilled. Still, it was their primary function that was of more interest to me at this moment, namely getting access to whatever kind of magic I had gained with my Awakening.
“So how do I get it to work?
Joan sat down before me in a cross-legged position and indicated that I should do likewise. Once I was in the more meditative pose she closed her eyes and folded her hands in her lap.
“Let your mana flow through your body and up to your head,” Joan spoke softly and I tried to follow her directions. “Picture it travelling along the inside of your spine, reaching the base of your skull and then running to form a ring around your head as though a crown were sitting upon it.”
I did so and was pleased to feel the energies within me respond with relative ease to my desires. The spine wasn’t one of the main magical channels in my body, but it was a large one nonetheless. Its dimensions were limited more by my body structure than anything else. It felt warm, but cool at the same time, a mixture of pleasant sensations combined with something like the tingle of a very mild electrical current.
What was even stranger was the way I could ‘feel’ it, even though it had absolutely no physical presence in my body. I could still press against it with my will, with my effort, and feel it both respond and resist. The resistance was minuscule, but it was there. It was something to overcome, rather than simply mentally ordering the mana to go where I wanted and for it to be there.
This was different to when I made myself fly. When I flew there was less fine control. I simply flooded my body, then linked it all to a single point to serve as an anchor, and then I used that point to move all of me. It was fairly simple, once you got the trick of it down, as easy as picking up and shouldering a slightly heavy backpack. What I was doing now was more intricate, a slower and more controlled movement. It was something that made me think of those slow martial arts katas that are used in things like Tai Chi, or Qigong.
Soon the energy was circling my head, a ring of gently controlled force as light as a feather but as deadly as a blade. I could feel the potential there and knew that if I was to mess with it, to treat it carelessly or foolishly, then it was likely to make me pay for it in blood. As long as I was careful I could balance it on my bare flesh with little issue. But if I moved incautiously, if I disregarded it, then the blade would bite and take its price for my mistake.
Joan must have been able to sense that I’d readied the energies as she wanted because she spoke again.
“Good, now let it float up. Think of it as heat, as steam. It wishes to rise, such is its natural state. Allow it to do so, but maintain concentration, maintain control. Once it has moved a certain distance you shall begin to feel something begin to tug at it. Do not interfere, allow the magic to be taken.”
I didn’t nod, I didn’t want to distract myself after all, but I did follow her instructions. In my mind’s eye, the ring of magic that had been running around my head slowly rose until it was hovering a few inches over my head.
CHNNK! CHNNK! CHNNK! CHNNK!
I started at the sudden burst of metallic explosive snaps that suddenly went off right above my head. My almost trance-like state of concentration broke, but that was fine. The magic I’d been circling my head was already gone, absorbed into the large ring of floating metal pieces that now hovered above my head. As I tilted my head back I could look up at them, dozens and dozens of individual parts all hovering together to create a whole that was oddly compelling to see, even from this angle. I made a mental note to take a look at it in a mirror once I had the opportunity, but for now, I had other things to focus on.
“Good, that is an excellent first step,” Joan nodded to me as she got back up to her feet, a movement I followed. “Now, can you feel the difference? Can you feel the additional paths of power that manifesting your halo offers you?”
Yes, yes I could. Since I’d sparked my mana into full potency I’d become more aware of the various forces that flowed through me. Chi was more of a background energy, but mana was far more noticeable, what with the way it seemed to constantly be doing something. With the appearance of my halo, it was as though there was a new layer to it, as though my mana had grown in both size and complexity. It wasn’t as though the halo was physically attached to my mana system, even though it had prompted the change. Like the moon influencing the tides of the earth, the halo was drawing out these new properties. It was a part of my system yet stood alone at the same time.
It was awesome, even beautiful, but that didn’t change a rather pertinent fact, namely that I had absolutely no idea of what to do next!
“So . . . how do I get this thing to work?”
My baffled tone seemed to amuse the French saint, as a beautiful smile graced her face, one that made my heart skip a beat. Again, I reminded myself that this was a woman that was off limits, she was so off limits that she might as well be on another continent. Unfortunately, my wretched hormones weren’t getting the memo. That smile was making my heart beat a bit faster and my cheeks grew a bit warmer. As she replied I was glad just to get my mind back on track.
“That is a fairly simple exercise, all you need to do is gather a larger than normal charge of mana about your core, then allow it to radiate outwards through your channels. As your halo is currently connected to your mana system the power shall naturally flow into it. When it does so you wi-”
She had more to say, stuff that would probably have been very useful to me, but I had been following her instructions, or what I thought had been instructions, as she spoke, so the wave of mana was already washing through me.
With the benefit of hindsight, even if only by a couple of seconds, I realized that this approach had not been the smartest. I should have waited for her to finish talking before I did anything, but by that point, I was too late. Her words were cut off as I felt something . . . click into place, and then my senses were flooded and the rest of the world went away for a bit.
My world suddenly no longer seemed to be operating on the rules I was familiar with. Instead, it had become a rainbow . . . that was the only way I could describe it. The world seemed to fall away, and all that was left was an existence of colours, every single colour imaginable, every one of them clear and distinct, yet at the same time existing in perfect harmony with the other hues adjacent to them. Of course, it was nothing so simple as a mere display of magnificent shades of every colour, there was so much more to them than just what I could see.
I could look at one shade of reddish-orange, and I could feel the heat of fire, hear the crackle of burning, even smell that hint of heated air that came from an open flame! I could look at one shade of blue and hear the roar of the sea, smell the salty scent of brine, feel the spray of the surf on my skin, then I could look at another shade of the same colour and feel the wind of a clear sky, the smell the fresh air of a clear day. With green, I could hear the rustle of leaves, while dark grey made me feel the grinds of massive stones moving oh-so-slowly against each other. Purple gave a sense of majesty, of power and authority, while gold not only brought the feel of the precious metal to me but also the feeling of value, of victory, of being the best!
I don’t know how long I was there, time was a meaningless concept, save when it was attached to a sandy shade of yellow that seemed to have some affinity to it. I just drifted from one colour to the next, experiencing what each had to offer and then moving on. Some were so simple, such as a light grey that seemed tied to the concept of motion, others were unbelievably complex, such as a beautiful blue-green shade of cyan that seemed to encapsulate the entire concept of a whole living world! One after another they came, no order or pattern to them, just one after another, my passage between them no more under my control than the course of a hurricane could be dictated by an ant.
Seconds, years, centuries, millennia, it could have been any of them. Hell, it could have been all of them. All I knew was that I was experiencing more than I could comprehend! I was seeing the life cycle of stars, of whole galaxies, the void between tiny points of light itself! For brief instants, I knew the inner workings of such concepts as time, space, the fundamental basis of reality, the rules and composition of souls themselves!
I was reminded of my vision, of when I had seen the dawn of Creation during my Awakening. There was so much here, more than I could ever hope to grasp. It was there and gone in mere moments, the knowledge was simply too vast for me to hold onto.
Then, with almost agonizing slowness, the flood became a current, then a stream, then just a trickle, and bit by bit the vast array of colours and sensations faded away, the regular world rising up to take their place.
I was feeling more than a little bit frayed around the edges as I came back to the present, and all I could do was blurt out the first words that came to mind.
“Whoa! Trippy!”
At that point, my body and mind both decided that I had abused them enough for the day and that they weren’t in the mood to put up with it anymore. I was sent plummeting down into the comfortable darkness of unconsciousness. I suppose I could have fought, tried to stay awake but I was suddenly just so tired, so much so that my earlier exhaustion seemed nothing by comparison.
In the end, the darkness was something of a welcome relief.