Will watched the various streams of magic that surrounded them and then formed a tunnel through space time to one of his uncle’s many labs, teleporting them in the blink of an eye. His first glance showed the various force walls surrounding them at the new location while streams of magic examined them before parting the force wall in front of them to allow exit from the circle. Unlike his Uncle’s aura, the forces here were extremely well designed and confined so that while he could see them, they didn’t give off a blinding glare of magic.

“So, Uncle, what exactly have you managed?’ Will asked as he followed Nurrim down a couple of corridors before entering a room that looked more like a library than anything else. But what a library! With a ceiling height of 60’ and a width of 80’, the room dwarfed the small Blurs rushing around or climbing up or down the walls. You could even fit a giant in here. Will glanced at the enormous teleport circle on the far wall and noted the coordinates. In fact, knowing Uncle, he probably has had a giant or two in here. Probably his friends William and Alura Stormson. They’re almost as destructive and book crazy as he is. Though, they are much more restrained and considerate of potential fallout.

The left side consisted of what at first appeared to be rows of bookshelves stretching into the distance behind a place of force. One of the Blurs tapped on a panel in the wall and Will watched in amazement as the bookshelves behind the wall, rotated and shifted bringing a specific shelf in front of the Blur who then touched the image of a book on the shelf. That’s actually an image of a distant library and it’s allowing the Blur to search for books and then pull a copy out here. Very clever Uncle. I wonder when you were going to tell me about this!

The right wall was also a view screen, but behind it were images of various objects and items, while the far wall had various teleport circles and viewing windows in it showing scenes from all over the world. A ramp in the center of the room spiraled up to the ceiling with landings starting 20 feet up and every 5 feet thereafter connected by bridges to floors ringing the walls with tables and chairs where Blurs could sit and read.

Nurrim led Will up to the fourth floor, and after summoning a book from the left wall, brought it over to a nearby table and opened it up. “One thing that bugged me from early on was how people who couldn’t see magic could manipulate it well enough to generate consistent effects, even if they didn’t understand how it worked. Also why did wizards need to use special ink to write their spells down and how could someone who didn’t understand how a spell works use it or learn it just from reading the spell from a scroll.”

“I take it you found an answer.” Will asked as his eyes quickly read the page and saw it was the popular Unseen Servant spell. Something that even a beginning mage could cast even though its abilities implied a degree of complexity most wizards would never understand.

“I did. In fact, I found several answers which all tied together at the end and which some of my friends on other planes confirmed for me. But first, before we continue, please tell me what you think are the various components that make up this spell. And no turning the pages yet to find the answer.”

Will thought and then started listing functions as they occurred to him. “The spell has to have a function to generate force to move things, a way to sense its environment and some sort of intelligence to understand what it is asked to do. This means it also has to have some sort of memory, knowledge of the various skills it can perform, the ability to mentally connect with its caster or a really large library of languages and the ability to make decisions.”

“Why do you think the last?” Nurrim grinned at his nephew.

“Because without a way to decide an action was not allowed and not do it, a mage could easily use it to just generate force inside a person’s brain to kill them or wield a sword, neither of which the spell can do.” Will looked at Nurrim who had a broad smile and gestured for him to continue.

“But there’s no way any of the mages I know could create such a complex interplay of magic in a few seconds and yet the glyphs for the spell are so simple that an apprentice mage can cast them. I can also think of a lot of spell casters who would take out the safety features in a second if they could. So why can’t they?”

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Nurrim was grinning so much that Will was sure he’d be blinded if his uncle hadn’t recently refreshed his aura concealment spells. “Let’s open the book and see.” Nurrim flipped open the pages, revealing a pattern of symbols on each page with notes on the borders explaining what the pattern did and a descriptive page title. None of the patterns looked like anything Will had seen before.

“How did you come up with these patterns Uncle?” And why do some of them look familiar even though they don’t match anything in my memory? Will started memorizing each page while looking at the page titles. Mana to Force: ok it somehow uses the mana provided to the spell to generate force. Force Control: a separate function to control the force? Sense Surroundings: how is it sensing what is around it? Others were startling and unusual. Ethical Limiter: It somehow limits what the spell can do based on ethics? Whose? How does it make a decision? Skill Library: It has a whole section on how to control the force to do what we consider basic skills! Mental Link: So the spell can understand what we want it to do. The more Will read, the more incredulous and excited he became.

“This is incredible! But how does it all fit together with the simple glyph we use?”

“Watch!” Nurrim grinned and then took out multiple transparent sheets from the back of the book, each with only the glyphs in a page on it. Activating a light under the translucent center of the table, he started carefully laying each sheet on top in a certain order. When he finished, he gestured at the result.

That’s the glyph for Unseen Servant! Will stared at the pattern resulting from the stacked sheets, understanding and a sense of awe filling him as the implications hit him. “So each spell is actually a three dimensional stack of underlying patterns! That’s why you need special ink to trace it. Because your magic when you copy a spell is duplicating an extremely complex pattern!”

“Bravo!” Nurrim clapped gently and then grabbing Will gave him a hug. “I knew you could understand! I’m so proud of you, nephew. Not many in this world have an eye for detail and the ability and humility to accept such radical concepts. But I’m not sure you understand all the implications. Let’s think about it some more.”

“First of all, consider this. If even a simple spell is so complex, how did the first mage learn it?”

Will’s eyes widened. “He didn’t. It was given to him!”

“Hmm. What else?”

“And because he didn’t truly understand it, he is more like a crossbowman. He knows how to load and fire the weapon, and has a rough idea of its structure, but because he really doesn’t understand it, he can’t craft another like it with changes. He’s a user of a magical tool, even if he’s skilled in its use, rather than a user of magic in the true sense.”

Will continued, “That’s why you can only use so many spells in a day. Just like a crossbowman has only a limited set of quarrels, each mage loads up his mind with the overall pattern and loses it when he activates it with mana and the pattern manifests. Only simpler patterns like cantrips which can be permanently memorized can be used constantly just by running mana through them.”

“How does this explain the various types of magic users we see?” Nurrim prodded.

“Clerics, Warlocks, Druids and Rangers have the patterns given to them via their Patron. They don’t understand them, just use them. Semi spells users like Arcane fighters, some rogues and the like act like mage apprentices in that they are taught the pattern and just memorize it. Bards and wizards learn the patterns.”

Wil thought some more. “Only wizards have enough knowledge to experiment with spells, but even they are more like apprentice blacksmiths using some precast shapes to make new shapes. No wonder normal spell research is so hard and dangerous and ineffective!”

“What about magical creatures like dragons or faeries?”

Will looked at his arm as he wrote down his thoughts and then spoke. “Just as I really don’t know all the details of how my arm works but have just learned how to will it to move, I think most if not all magical creatures simply have inbuilt spell patterns as part of their nature. They run mana through the patterns, but don’t truly understand the details of how they work. Some such as gold dragons are like wizards, intelligent enough to learn new patterns taught to them or do some experimentation, but in the end, they are all just spell users, not spell creators!” Will felt a sense of shock as the impact of his words hit and an even great regard for his uncle.

“But Uncle, how did you figure this all out? Where did you find those patterns?”

Will watched his uncle smile so hard that he thought his mouth was going to break. Then Nurrim took a deep breath, looked around and then putting the book away, replied. “For that answer we need to go somewhere more secure.”

More secure than this! Will looked around in wonder. Uncle, just what have you been up to?