As Nox made progress with his new spell, he destroyed all notes and diagrams related to it. He didn’t want any evidence or traces of his work to remain except what he registered with the university. It was far too powerful and valuable. He didn’t want to know what would happen if it got into his enemies’ hands. Sigil of the Artisan ensured he didn’t lose anything. All diagrams, notes and rough scripts got filed away in Nox’s mental library. It still amazed him how easily he could file away and retrieve information.
“I’m not sure what you’re trying with this spatial thing,” Sapna said, looking over the plan. “This other thing based on pressure systems makes even less sense.”
“Forget the pressure stuff,” Nox told her, tapping on his primary project. “Sometimes, defending against spells or crystalizing the essence isn’t the most strategically sensible move. This could help throw an enemy’s attack back at them or redirect it to one of their allies. If the spell is good enough, I could also create unbreakable prisons that last as long as the mana source. This might not even work. The runes and syntax aren’t cooperating.”
“But it's not the spell you’re creating for your planet.”
Nox grinned at his great aunt. “No. That one will remain a secret. Time magic is too powerful to register or use to pass a measly exam. Especially when the professor is someone I don’t trust.”
“But you won’t trust me with the other spell either?” Sapna was starting to sound annoyed.
“It's not that. I feel it would lose its value and power if I started talking to people—including those close to me—about it.”
“I’m not sure if I follow—”
“Let's put it this way,” Nox interrupted. “Given the expense and drain of the spell, I don’t want it to be something that I rely upon regularly. If it's out in the open, I’ll struggle not to tell people besides you. If the party and Aria know about it, the spell becomes a tool for delving, operations involving cults, or—”
“So, it's taxing on the mind or body?” Sapna asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Potentially both.”
“I’m more intrigued than I was before, but I get it. My father had something of the sort.” The old artificer sighed, looking up from the spell script. “The man designed a healing spell far more potent than what your average life mage wields. It could bring people back from the brink of death, restoring them to perfect health and even cure life-threatening ailments. It had a terrible cost, though. Every cast drained his life force, stealing months, if not years.
When people found out how powerful it was, they kept bugging him to use it despite the cost to his lifespan. He saved the family, his friends, and allies a bunch of times and died young for it. A valuable Ratra mind with much to contribute to the world died young.” Sapna sighed. “I’ve seen your research on pressure systems. If the spell has anything to do with redistributing time, I get how it could cost you dearly. So, I’ll leave the matter alone.”
“Thank you.”
“I like the look of your battle wards, though,” Sapna said. “I doubt they'd be possible without your Sigil of Artisan. The level of detail necessary to pull it off effectively is far too high. Ordinary mages won't be able to pull this off effectively, and human foes are unlikely to fall for it unless they're hyper-focused on you.”
“I'm pretty sure I can turn the wards into another source of revenue. I bet war mages and delvers will be lining out the door to get their hands on them.”
“How?” Sapna frowned.
“Stencils and paint. Skilled wardsmiths and tailors might easily replicate the first. However, the latter will demand essence glass.”
“Clever. That mind of yours is wasted on delving. I know I've told you this before, but you can make the world a better place with your creativity and business acumen. Make it safer, give other delvers a better chance at success and survival, and help the common folk whom few look out for.” Sapna placed a hand on Nox's shoulder and squeezed. “You’re a rare light even among Ratras. I don't want it snuffed out early.”
“To be honest, I've been giving that a lot of thought,” Nox said, putting down his quill and leaning back in his chair. His neck ached from leaning over the desk all day. “All but Caitlin are considering moving on from delving. The idea of following Dean Woodson's footsteps is growing on Alexander, and Joey wants to become an investigator, perhaps a cult hunter. Given everything I've built after coming to this city, I'm unsure if I want to continue down this path. Doubly so now that marriage and children are on the horizon.”
“You don't want your progeny to experience the same childhood as you did.”
Nox nodded. “I've already started the paperwork to ensure the Galleria and assets stay with the Ratra name and blood following my demise. Aria won't be left empty-handed. She'll receive a few shares of my empire. Mou and you will too. However, the rest will be divided between my children, with the one carrying the Ratra name to relieve the controlling quantity.”
“I'm not sure how to think about that,” Sapna replied, thoughtfully staring off into the distance. “It won't be a popular decision with your wife-to-be and whoever she picks to be her heir. They'll get the Edelweiss name, will they not?”
“Are my desires any different from hers? Nox asked. “Aria only wants Edelweisses to rule the barony. Similarly, I want Ratras to remain in control of everything I have and will build. Names matter. It's the harsh reality of the world. We've touched on the topic, but she's not happy about it. Me highlighting the double standard didn't help either.”
Sapna laughed. “I bet it didn't. Boy, you either don't know women or are just cold-blooded. But I respect it. The Ratra name was dying and fading into obscurity before you came along. Our legacy and artisanry must be kept alive.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“I don't know what the future holds. Perhaps we'll have a few children and give them a while to find their interests, whether they be in artisanry, politics, or trade, and then take a call on our heirs. The Ratra business empire will be easier to divide between inheritors than a barony. I’m confident I won’t be the one making the unpopular decision.”
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The semester’s end crawled another week closer before Nox completed his newest spell and began planet creation.
Since there wasn't enough literature on the matter, he relied on Wilson's family magic, the fragments found in the Oakheart library, and intuition to complete his first piece of time magic.
“Time is change observed by an observer relative to space.”
The statement felt especially true when observing the Haste and Slow cantrips. When cast on an organism or object, they only altered its speed. However, when Nox combined either with a space bubble, the flow of time in the enclosed area changed. He named the spells Temporal Acceleration and Temporal Retardation. The two basic scripts proved invaluable for his new creation’s design. The science didn't need to be accurate. The caster and creator's intent mattered as much as the script when dealing with such abstract concepts.
Nox's spells thus far all developed on existing cantrips and techniques. As far as he could tell, only his Slow vortices were unique. Several pyromantic spells already used something similar to his Haste version of the concept. To achieve his goal, Nox needed something new.
Patterns in the runic alphabet helped Nox solve the puzzle. All the symbols, patterns, and lines followed set rules and utilized geometric shapes. The runes, especially, were all arrangements of straight lines in a square space. The most curious rule Nox had observed, and mages had written several volumes upon it, was how cantrips with opposing functions used inverted versions of the other’s rune. It wasn’t apparent to most starting mages since it wasn’t a direct reflection.
Haste used a collection of four short and two long lines. Meanwhile, Slow had two short and four long lines. The directions and angles were all reversed. The pattern got more complex with higher-tier spells where it wasn’t just the runes that were inverted but also the syntax and connector lines. Only the enclosing geometric shapes didn’t change. Nox had spent most of his year not delving taking advanced Spell Weaving and Spell Theory courses. Diya and the Department of Arcane Research had been instrumental to his education. The knowledge had helped accelerate his understanding of wardsmithing too. If not for Sigil of the Artisan and its library advancement, achieving his current level of mastery would’ve taken Nox decades.
It had taken Nox several nights of research and just as much time of trial and error, but he finally got the arrangement just how he needed it. Inverting Haste and attaching it to a bubble wasn’t enough to achieve the Temporal Reversal effect that Nox desired. Instead, he needed to invert the entirety of his Temporal Acceleration spell.
Nox couldn’t be prouder of himself when he had his first success. He created bubbles a foot in diameter and watched as clocks ticked backward and half-melted ice cubes returned to their near-perfect geometric shapes. Unfortunately, the new spell proved several times more expensive than Temporal Acceleration. Temporal Reversal’s cost increased exponentially with area-of-effect and duration of channeling. Nox needed to make it more efficient and usable in the old-fashioned way by piling on the limitations.
Most mages avoided making planets dealt to super specialized and limited spells with circumstantial use. However, Nox believed his idea was much too good not to make it a part of his mana system. Ratra’s Bow, Crystalize Essence, Essence Shaping, and Sigil of Artisan’s library gave him more than enough versatility already.
Affixing a set duration and limit to Temporal Reversal significantly limited its scope but removed one source of the exponential mana drain increase. Next, Nox limited its possible targets. The final limitation involved setting activation conditions. He used elements of wardsmithing to create a spell that would remain prepared when cast but wouldn’t take effect until specific requirements were met.
The resulting spell completely depleted its proto-planet and close to a hundred from the attached star once cast. The measly ten mana value of Temporal Reversal’s heavenly body didn’t recover, but his star eventually returned to full. He tested it a couple of times, and the experience was traumatic, but the project proved to be a success. Reactivation cost and time made it impossible to abuse the spell during combat, but Nox couldn’t ask for more from emergency magic.
Crystalize Essence | Essence Animation
144/147 | 33/34
Essence Shaping | Arrow
60/59 | 17/17
Temporal Sphere | Spatial Manipulation | Temporal Manipulation
247/249 | 22/22 | 0/10
Spatial Familiar | Spatial Storage
36/36 | 20/21
Temporal Acceleration and Temporal Retardation received a welcome benefit from the new planet. Since Temporal Reversal counted as time manipulation, the adjacent spells became easier to cast and demanded significantly less mental strain.
The concepts and discoveries around Temporal Reversal helped Nox design a spatial reversal spell to show Liesel Wyrd and present to the university. He hoped it was unique enough to win him more than the basic wizard title, but he wouldn’t hold his breath. Spatial Reversal created a bubble capable of trapping anything big enough to fit within, regardless of strength. Only mana cost limited it, but a self-regenerating source or a group of mages working together could keep it going for a long time. The effects were simple. Anything that made contact with the edge of the bubble would find itself turned around. He was sure a good enough opponent would find a way to break free, but it would likely take them some time to figure it out.
“That’s going to make a hell of a powerful and annoying ward,” Aria commented when Nox demonstrated it to her and his family. He had left the spell name ambiguous when adding it to the manameter.
Sapna nodded, studying the spell script. “I’d expect something of the sort in an Expert-ranked dungeon. If breaking out of this is as challenging as I think it will be, you might revolutionize mage prisons. It could do with some development, though. If you can figure out a way to add things to the bubble without bursting it, the spell will be perfect.”
“If this is your decoy spell, I can’t help but wonder what the real thing in your mana system is,” Mou commented. “I know you don’t want anyone to know, but one can’t help but wonder.”
“I respect all of you for not pushing the matter.”
“You’re on the cusp of Expert.” Aria sounded amazed as she studied the reading on his gauntlet. “How long until you break through?”
Nox shrugged. “Somewhere between a couple of weeks and a month. I’m dividing the mana equally between Crystalize Essence and Temporal Sphere. My calculations suggest the first needs to hit one-fifty first. There is plenty of surplus in my system. It's just a matter of steadily distributing it. Maybe—”
“I think the more important question is how you already have a new planet,” Sapna asked, frowning. “At adept, it’s three per star, or have I grown so old that mana systems have changed already?”
Nox shrugged again. “I wondered that too, but it snapped into place while I was playing around. Maybe binary systems allow three per planet and then three shared planets? Or it might have to do with Temporal Sphere’s star. It already has ridiculous gravity, which hogs most of the system’s mana. Perhaps it has enough strength to support additional heavenly bodies. I'll run some tests once I figure out what else to add to my system.”
“Given your new battle wards, a planet dedicated to their creation might help,” Mou said.
“Alternatively, I could test with something that shares both stars. I don’t know.” Nox sighed. “I’ll think about it after the semester has passed and the mess with the ritualists is put to rest. For now, let's celebrate what I already have.”