A war for freedom against the emperor? Dreiki wished something like that sounded more outlandish, but war was as much a pastime for xiozians as it was a struggle for power.
He thought of something Vilkus had said about Savekio’s previous disciple. He hadn’t ever heard the name Novadus before, but that wasn’t surprising to him. Much like his mother, Savekio didn’t like to talk about his past. Whoever he was, Savekio likely saw something in Dreiki that he used to see in Novadus.
But what was it?
It was then that Dreiki set his goal to figure out exactly what happened. He wanted to know why Savekio was going through all this trouble just for someone like him.
“How long will it take us to get the the mountains?” Dreiki asked.
“Even with our ‘detours’ we should make it before summertime. It all depends on how lucky or unlucky we get. I’d worry about getting through the winter first, though. Whatever cold you’ve experienced up until now will pale in comparison to what you’ll experience in the Altix. Even your fire magic won’t be enough to save you from the cold if you don’t learn everything you can before then.”
“Got it.” Dreiki looked to the coin in his palm. He tried to recall everything he knew about transferring magic into an item. Admittedly, it was very little. But maybe that was intentional on Savekio’s part?
Was it possible that he already knew the answer with the other spells he had at his disposal?
Dreiki spent the entire day trying to piece the puzzle together, writing down notes in a small pocket book to keep track of the things he already tried. He had tried to imagine filling the coin with smoke, he imagined that the coin was smoke, or that it was a bomb. This among many other attempts failed in anticlimactic fashion.
Whenever they rested, he asked Luna what she had discovered. They compared notes, and when the break was over it was back to experimenting.
Savekio often withheld the answer to problems where the solution was important to remember. If Dreiki found the answer for himself, he would understand the context of that answer a lot better than if Savekio just told him. He would figure out what worked, what didn’t, and why.
Just like his mother, Savekio never taught him what to know, he taught him how to learn. If Dreiki couldn’t figure it out within a certain amount of time, he would eventually get the answer. What was important wasn’t that he get the answer on his own, it was that he tried to find the answer and think deeply on the question. Whenever Dreiki ran into a dead end with his theories, he asked Savekio for some insight
“You’re focused on ‘filling’ the coin. Take that assumption and ask yourself what other options you have when you get rid of it.”
And so continued the cycle of experimentation.
What if enchantment wasn’t about filling something with magic? Maybe enchantment wasn’t about leaving something behind.
Enchantment could still work even if he had a collar of antimagic on him. Dreiki thought about the tunnels beneath the cabin.
“I got it!” Dreiki said, holding a humming silver coin in his palm.
“You got it?” Luna said excitedly.
“I got it!” He repeated.
Savekio smiled, “Well done. You’ve discovered it in record time. Walk me through your thought process and I’ll clear up any misconceptions.”
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“You said that enchantment isn’t about filling the coin, so I thought of a few things. First is that enchantment can be used and activated even if I have an antimagic collar, but not if the enchanted item is in an area of antimagic right?”
“Correct.”
“And my soul isn’t a pool that I draw magic from, it’s an opening that I channel magic through.”
“That’s true.”
“So then if I’m not taking magic and filling it, then I’m opening up another hole to bring magic through right? Like a back exit.”
“That’s a good way to think of it, yes.”
“But then wouldn’t I be able to channel any spell through it once I’ve made the ‘tunnel’?”
“Close, but not quite. There are two types of enchantment. The first is what you’ve discovered, which is short term enchantment, and the other is long term enchantment. An enchantment needs a ‘line’ to your soul, or a ‘tunnel’ as you put it. Short term enchantments will lose power when that line is broken. But can you guess why it will still work with antimagic?”
“Because antimagic doesn’t break the line, it just clogs the opening.” Luna chimed in.
“Correct. And if you have an opening outside of the range of antimagic you can still cast through it.”
“But then why is it one spell?”
“Because the spell you enchant with it is the line.”
Dreiki gave Savekio a look of bewilderment. How did that make any sense?
Sensing his confusion, Savekio continued, “A spell is not the magic itself, it is the shape magic manifests as. It is the lens for which magic passes through. So whatever the shape of the ‘tunnel’ you make is, that is the only thing that will fit through it.”
“So then can I establish multiple ‘tunnels’ to the same object?”
“You can, but it comes with the risk of instability. ‘Digging’ too many can cause all of those ‘tunnels’ to collapse in on themselves.”
“So now what?”
“Now we see if you can put together the second half of the enchantment.” Savekio smirked, “You established your ‘tunnel’ but how do you activate the enchantment?”
Dreiki looked at the coin quizzically. He had established a smokescreen spell, but when he tried to activate it like he normally would, he only ever ended up manifesting it from his body and not the coin.
Luna looked at her own, closing her eyes. Only a few moments later, fog began to erupt from the coin, “Oh, so that’s it!”
“What? How did you do that?” Dreiki asked, a little jealous.
She gave him a smug look, “I’m surprised you can’t figure it out, it’s pretty simple really.”
“Aw come on! Tell me! I told you.”
Luna giggled, “Oh I’m just teasing! Think of it, Dreiki, if you’ve established a tunnel, someone’s gotta tell you to crawl through it right?”
“Yeah?”
“And what do you use when you wanna tell someone to do something without other people knowing?”
“Codewords-”
That was it. Dreiki needed a codeword that was different from the original spell.
Smokebomb
The coin erupted in a plume of thick black smoke.
“You had to choose that spell huh?” Luna coughed.
“Sorry.” Dreiki said, dispelling the enchantment.
“Good work, both of you. I’ll add one more thing. Magic isn’t just about the words you tie to them. It’s the conditions you set for their activation. Emotions, thoughts, actions, whatever conditions you’ve set to cast the spell. An enchantment is no different. You can predetermine the actions necessary to activate an enchantment. For example, if I tell the coin ‘Only activate at noon’ then when that condition is met it will activate the spell passively without any additional thought. There’s a great many things you can do with this, so tinker around a bit.”
The next few weeks passed with lesson after lesson structured in the same way. They learned while they traveled, Dreiki and Luna sparred whenever they stopped to give Ezo a break from dragging the cart.
There would even be times Savekio made Dreiki and Luna pull the cart instead. They had to make every moment count and be as efficient as possible with their training. No opportunity to improve was wasted.
Dreiki thought of Vilkus and he didn’t think he’d ever forget the presence he sensed from him. He had someone a lot faster and a lot stronger than Whitnik and Cowak chasing him now.
But that just meant Dreiki needed to learn how to run faster. He would run as fast as he could until he had enough strength to turn and fight back.