Side Story: Magic Lessons: Part 1

-The Origins of Magic-

Duvessa

Duvessa stood in front of the entrance to the underground and hesitated for a moment. She brushed her long crimson hair out of her face and froze when she looked inside. She thought it would be like the cellar, but once she opened the door she immediately saw that the stone walls were different. These look like outside rocks not inside rocks. The inside rocks are smooth. Is this a cave? A cave under the manor? It took all of her courage to go down and look in the cellar, and this was a lot more scary than that. Her lips trembled for a moment and she gathered up all of the grim determination that a 6 year old girl could muster.

She had snuck out of the manor for this, and even stol-...borrowed a hooded oil lantern from the stables. After a few tries she managed to figure out how the lightstick worked and soon there was a small flame lit inside the lantern. She puffed up with pride that she managed to figure out how to do it herself after only watching once. She turned the tiny brass knob back and forth watching the flame get brighter and dimmer. Then she looked back through the door at the entrance to the underground.

The light didn’t help, it was still scary in there.

She couldn’t stay out here though, if one of the servants see’s me and tells mother, she will be mad. Between the fear of getting caught and the fear of the dark tunnel, Duvessa almost abandoned her journey right there, but she had something she wanted to accomplish. A sorceress wouldn’t be scared, so I shouldn’t be scared either.

The lantern was a bit heavy for a child, and Duvessa had to pick it up with both hands to carry it in front of her. She waddled down the tunnel as it descended underneath the manor, until she finally reached her destination: the ritual room.

She was so excited that she finally found where her Grandmother practiced her magic. She set the lantern down in the middle of the room and turned the knob to make the flame as big as it could get. It was everything she imagined. Books on the walls and vials and jars of mysterious liquid on the shelves. Some of them had small creatures or other items floating in them. A large ritual circle dominated the center of the room and was carved into the floor directly. The channels were wide enough to allow liquid to be poured in, and the edges still had dried blood flaking off from the last time it was used.

So many weird and mysterious things to play with...I mean learn from. Duvessa looked around wondering which to examine first when her playtime was interrupted.

“Duvessa Amelyn Varlane! What are you doing here?”

The one person she didn’t want to catch her shouted her name. If it was her mother it would be fine. She didn’t care how many scoldings she got from her, but Grandmother was different. She didn’t want to do anything to upset her. Or worse, disappoint her.

“Um, I was, I...I..”

The woman sighed and stepped partially into the light. “Let me see if I can guess. After receiving a scolding from your mother about breaking Garvey’s wand by activating it incorrectly, you decided that bothering someone who works for your mother was a bad idea. So instead you decided to see how your grandmother does magic.”

Duvessa nodded without saying a word.

“You’re still too young, far too young to be playing with the chaotic energies. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“But I want to learn,” she whined, “ I want to be a sorceress.”

The woman shook her head, “If I agree to teach you, will you agree to not use or attempt to use any magic unless I tell you to?”

“Of course grandmother”, Duvessa was smiling broadly. This was more than she could have hoped for. Grandmother teaching her in person was like a dream come true.

“6 years old is far too young to be learning or using magic.”

“But..”

“For a human anyway. But you aren’t entirely human are you?”

This was true, Duvessa knew her father and grandfather were human, but her mother and grandmother were something else.

“Can we start now?”

“Now? You’re so impatient, but I suppose it would be good to at least tell you the basics. It will also help you understand how dangerous it is to use magic without knowing what you are doing.”

Duvessa let out a little squeal and ran over and hugged her grandmother's leg.

“Now let's start with what magic is and where it comes from. When people first used magic it was slow, and complicated. Every spell was a ritual. Materials had to be gathered, and for each spell a circle had to be drawn. The basic circle contained a magical concept and additions would be made to the circle to make the concept more clearly defined. One of the earliest circles was simply called mend. By altering it one way you could use the circle to repair a damaged object or fix a hole in clothing. By altering it another way it could close small wounds on humans, another way and it could relieve minor illness. For more complicated spells, more circles and materials were needed. This is the same for modern magic and even attacking magic as well. Using a generating circle modified for fire would create a fiery orb that could be thrown at an enemy. Using generate and project together would send a stronger fiery arrow over a much greater distance. Generate, compress and project would cause the fire to compress into a small orb, and expand once it reaches its destination. The “fireball” spell that is almost synonymous with mages.”

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This was confusing, grandmother was using some words that Duvessa didn’t quite understand, “What does simonimus mean?”

“Don’t interrupt, I’ll tell you later. One day a half elven man named Jors Molan tried something different. He knew that mana existed in all living things and was constantly being replenished while they were alive. Knowing this, he decided to use the mana within his own body as a sacrifice to try to cast a spell. He pulled the mana out of his body, and offered it up while creating a mental construct of a magic circle. Then the mana of the aether merged with his own, became one within his body, and the spell completed. This was the first time Molanic magic, our modern magic was cast.”

“So now we move on to the basic process for casting a spell, we’ll use your lantern as an example.” She turned down the lantern as low as it would go without killing the flame. “The wick by itself doesn’t burn very well, it needs the oil stored in the lantern to stay burning. The wick is like the mage and the oil is the aether, or whatever source you use for spellcasting. You don’t just offer up your mana, you invite the external mana into yourself. So having enough internal mana as well as enough space in your mana channels is the first requirement for sorcery. For you this shouldn’t be a problem since both your mother and I are quite powerful. To cast a spell you release your internal mana and merge it with the aether to take control of it and make it yours.” She turned up the lantern to emphasize the point, “Then you take the large pool of mana into your body and merge it with your mental constructs and cast your spell.” Using a bit of magic she caused the inside of the lantern to flash with colorful blue and purple sparks as Duvessa giggled with delight. Duvessa didn’t quite understand all that was said, but she was getting the general idea and loved listening to her grandmother.

“We still call these constructs circles, even if they aren’t always circles anymore. We still refer to the strength of spells as the number of circles such as a third circle spell or fifth circle spell. Here is the important part. Imagine you are trying to cast a spell, so for a one circle spell draw a circle in the air with your right hand.” She waited for Duvessa to start making a circle in the air before continuing, “Now for a two circle spell, draw a triangle with your left hand while you are still drawing a circle with the right.” Duvessa’s circle became distorted and there were several stops with her left hand and the triangle was a bit distorted as well. “For a third circle spell lift up your right foot and draw a square with your foot while you are still drawing a circle and triangle with your hands.” She began to chuckle as the small child stumbled around.

“This is hard.”

“Yes it is, which is why mages use catalysts. There are two types, lesser and greater. Lesser is far more common. It can be an object, a magical phrase, or a specific gesture that helps a mage focus or takes the place of one or more of the mental constructs. I don’t know of a single person who can craft seven or eight different mental constructs at the same time, yet there are most certainly seven and eight circle magical spells. Going back to the fireball spell there are many mages who will take a ball of wax or resin as a catalyst for the compression circle and do a magical chant linked to fire while they only mentally construct the projection part of the spell. They still need the mana capacity to hold enough aether to cast the spell and enough internal mana to merge with the aether to control it but the catalysts are a shortcut. It is perfectly possible for a mage to cast a fireball spell without chanting or using materials, but it is much more difficult.”

“I want you to pay close attention now. The second type of catalyst is a greater catalyst. The wand you broke is one of those. In order to cast a spell successfully, all the constructs, that is all the circles, must be used simultaneously. So if you have to use multiple constructs for a large spell, you can store a few in a greater catalyst and take the constructs back into yourself to cast your spell. Greater catalysts usually have circles permanently engraved in them that can be drawn out. True greater catalysts are difficult to make, as they have no permanent circles. They take constructs from a mage as the spell is cast and are then taken back after a few moments so a mage can cast his spell. If a mage can only make three constructs at a time, he can make three, place them in the catalyst, make three more, then take the others back from the catalyst and cast a sixth circle spell.” She paused and smiled at Duvessa. Her head hurt and she felt like smoke was coming out of her ears. Things were getting really complicated now. You make things in your mind and store them in a crystal?

“Ok, clear your mind for a moment, you can think about what I told you later, if you remember anything about what I am telling you, remember what I am about to say now. The catalyst that you broke could have just as easily broken you. Your mana channels aren’t developed yet, but luckily the mana flooded the rod instead of your body. If you were to take too much processed mana into your body, or even worse, take any amount of uncontrolled or unfiltered mana into your body…” She pointed her hand at the lantern. The flame on the wick leapt up and was soon blindingly bright until..

*CRACK*

The lantern exploded sending burning oil over the stone floor and brightly illuminated the room for a few moments. Before the fire faded, Duvessa saw that her grandmother was extending her hand, and Duvessa grabbed it. As the light faded, her grandmother led her through the tunnel as things turned pitch black.

“You don’t want to explode do you?”

“...no”

Then remember what I said, only attempt to use magic when I tell you to. We will start with theory lessons as soon as you are ready.”

When the light was strong enough to illuminate the walls and floor her grandmother continued talking.

“When you are older, you will be a powerful sorceress, believe me. You are a smart girl, smart enough to make mental constructs and being my granddaughter, you will have more than enough mana capacity if you train.”

They came out of the tunnel and her grandmother closed the door behind her, locking it. Duvessa was temporarily blinded by the sunlight until she turned to her grandmother. People always laughed when Duvessa called her grandmother but she never understood why, they looked so much alike. Like Duvessa her grandmother had bright crimson hair and emerald eyes that seemed to glow. Even though she was young, Duvessa knew she was beautiful and how she turned the heads of the men around her. She was a statuesque beauty in her prime with clear smooth skin.

“Is it because grandma is a demon?”

The woman smiled lovingly at her granddaughter and gave her a playful poke on the nose. “Because grandma is a Queen of Demons.”