Falls is in the room. I put the ball back in the tray and Falls says, “Drake, request you go to the main hall. He says to call it the great hall when you want to get there.”
“Thanks,” I say and then say the name in my head as I walk into the wall.
I am standing in a huge room with groups of white couches scattered around the room. On the opposite wall I see a movie screen with the black curtains over it. I don't see any speakers anywhere though.
Drake and Star are sitting on a couch grouping close to the movie screen. I head in their direction. I hear Star explaining a movie to him as I approach. She finishes and they both look at me.
“Please sit Jode. We need to talk before the others get back,” Star says.
I sit on a couch facing them with a feeling of dread. When dragons of this age ask to talk to you it makes me feel like a child in trouble.
“What did I do this time, mom and dad,” I ask jokingly.
Star smiles and Drake says, “Do you take anything seriously?”
“Yep once, then I went insane again. Scariest moment of my life,” I say with a sly smile.
“I should know Balthazar in any form can't take anything seriously,” Drake says.
“We have agreed,” Star begins, “That there is a possibility we may not be coming back for some time. I know your magic will work anywhere we go, but we are not sure about the others. We are worried about Rock. He is a bit reckless,” She says.
“Mother's curse kicking in?” I ask sarcastically.
“The What?” Drake asks.
Star puts her hand on his shoulder, “Yes I believe so,” she responds.
“Sorry, I just had to ask.”
“It is all right. Balthazar left a spell recording in the city. I doubt you could master dimensional magic, but there are other very handy spells in the list.
We had hoped you would look at them and see if you can do them for both Rocks and Oaky's sake. I have a feeling she will eventually be my daughter in law.”
“I will have to agree with you on Oaky. As for the spells, I don't know why, but I get the feeling I should say to use the city link.”
“Drake mentioned that, but he is not positive he can do it completely. It has been many years since he was shown the inner workings of the city.
We were hoping that you could learn some magic that might help. We feel we need to rely on you to help protect the others. Could you at least try for their sake?” she replies.
“Of course I can. I couldn't live with myself if either of them are killed or hurt.”
“I know,” Star says, “But Oaky is not one to worry about. It doesn't matter if she dies, she is eternal now. If she is killed she simply appears back where her tree vanished.
Drake can do the retrieval spell on her every time she leaves the city, which will bring her back here. But Rock can be killed as well as you. You two are the ones we are worried about.
Rock has not had time to really get to know his father and you are important to us. You are more than merely the world's savior. You are a friend of us both. We do not want to lose you again,” She says slowly and softly.
“But neither of you really know me. You see me as Balthazar, but I am no longer the man you knew.”
“That is partially true. But even as Jode you are still our friend. You may remind us of Balthazar but you are also your own person. Balthazar was the authoritative arbitrator with humor. You are more free flowing and spontaneous. Similar yet different.”
“I’ll take your word on that. Where do I go to learn these spells?”
“There is a battle room in the city. Go to the battle room and ask for spell simulation. Drake will inform you when he is ready to activate the city,” She responds.
“Otay,” I say. I think of the battle room and walk through a wall. Again an empty white room. I am beginning to wonder if the ancients had any sense of color.
“How do I see the spells?” I ask.
A watcher appears and asks, “Which spell, Master Balthazar?”
“What spells can you show me?”
“Breath, Combust, Construct aid, Distraction, Heal, Jump, Levitate, Link, Phase shift, Protection, Pull water, Remove poison, Spot shake, Teleport, Transparency, and Visibility.” it says.
“Which are dimensional magic?” I ask.
“Construct aid, Jump, Link, Phase shift, Protection, Transparency, Visibility.”
“Okay that sounds like a lot of the good ones” I say then add, “Which can be done without a high level of understanding of dimensional magic?”
“Breath, Combust, Construct aid, Distraction, Heal, Jump, Levitate, Link, Phase shift, Protection, Pull water, Remove poison, Spot shake, Teleport, Transparency, and Visibility.”
“Will any of them mess with the dimensions badly?”
“I do not understand the question sir.”
“Balthazar was trying to stop all use of dimensional magic that was causing some fabric from getting messed up. I want to know if any of these will mess that fabric up?”
“All spells are local dimensional spells. It is only calculated that outer dimensional magic will cause waves. No outer dimensional magic is in the city records.”
“Okay then, Which spells can be cast easily by anyone?”
“Breath, Combust, Construct aid, Distraction, Heal, Jump, Levitate, Link, Phase shift, Protection, Pull water, Remove poison, Spot shake, Teleport, Transparency, and Visibility.”
“Really, how easy are they to cast?”
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“I need a comparison sir,” it replies.
“Okay show me combust.”
The watcher transforms into Balthazar and puts both hands in front of him with the sides of his hands touching. “Combust,” it says and a fireball shoots out from him to hit the wall. It explodes and I feel the heat from it hit me. The watcher then changes back to itself.
“To quote Rock, 'Awesome',” I say then add, “Compared to that spell how hard are the others?”
“Construct Aid requires more concentration to call a construct. It is not recommended to be used in battle. Remove poison requires the subject to hold still. Jump requires you to walk into the other dimension. The difficulty lies in keeping others from using it till you get in.
Protection requires the subject to not move which could cause problems if the environment is unstable. Link requires the subject to touch the object they are to be linked to.”
“How do I cast the spells?”
“Simply envision the result and say the name, As you use them more you can simply envision the result and it will work.”
I put my hands in the same way the watcher did for the spell combust. I envision the fire ball leaving my hands and say, “Combust.”
A fireball twice the size of the watchers leaves my hands. It explodes on the wall and flames leap back at me. I jump back as I feel the heat hit my arms. I then smell burnt hair.
“You need to envision the size sir. That sets the power of the explosion.”
“Thanks,” I say. I think about the fireball and how the watcher showed me to do it. Does it require my hands to touch? As a test I hold one hand out palm away from me. I envision a small fireball leaving my one palm and say, “Combust.”
A fire ball the size of a baseball leaves my hand and hits the wall. “Congratulations sir. You did not expect yourself to be able to do it one handed for some time.”
“Thanks, but it sounds like I didn't have much faith in myself,” I reply.
“You had faith sir. You just expected to not have any knowledge of magic by the time you took these lessons.”
“So Balthazar expected no magic concepts in the human world?”
“He thought that all knowledge of magic would be lost in the human world.”
“I guess in a way he was right. But there is still the fantasy of it in the human world. Starting with the first you said, show me the spells.”
A pool of water appears in front of the Watcher and it transforms into Balthazar, “Breath,” it says and jumps in. It stays under for five minutes then jumps out.
It then shows me combust again. Balthazar looks at me and speaks in the watchers voice, “I am unable to show you construct aid. I am not permitted to use the spell. You told me to say just envision what you want to aid you and it will appear after saying, 'Construct Aid'. The length of time the aid stays varies on the construct. They can last long enough for a short battle to several days. It has been reported that one construct lasted seven years.”
“Interesting,” I say, “I understand, continue on.”
“Distract,” it says and a ball of swirling colors appears in front of it. The ball begins to bounce around. It bounces off me and I feel it hit me. After about a minute the ball bounces close to the watcher/Balthazar and it grabs at it. As its fingers touch the ball, it vanishes.
“I cannot show you, heal,” it says, “No one is injured. I am instructed to say, concentrate on health and how the body looked prior to injury then say 'Heal',”
“Understood, go on.”
“Jump,” it says and a silver door frame appears right in front of it. It walks through the door frame and vanishes. A couple of seconds later another silver door frame appears on the other side of the room. The watcher as Balthazar walks out and the door frame vanishes.
“The dimension used by the spell is called the astral. Some have suggested that it is the dimension of humans that have died. Though no proof has been found.”
“Levitate,” it says. “Levitating is thought controlled. The easiest way that was found to move is envision a wind. Envision a wind blowing in the direction you would like to go.” it says, then and floats up and toward me. It stops back at its original position that it was before 'Jump'.
“You instructed me that you just need to envision yourself falling to cancel the spell.” it says and falls to the ground. That action shows the image of Balthazar as an illusion. Balthara did not bend his knees to take the impact. He simply dropped and stopped without reaction.
“I can't show you the link spell. I am instructed to tell you to envision a cord connecting the person to an object. Once cast the recipient of the link simply has to say 'Activate link'. It will help to envision the cord also. Once activated the recipient will be teleported back to the object linked to. Be warned that the link might fail if the object is in a different dimension or plane then the recipient.
“Gotcha, go on.”
“Phase shift,” it says and it blurs slightly and then jerks over to the left about two inches. “Phase shift will cancel once the recipient is touched.”
I reach out and try to touch the image of it, but only touch air. I shift my hand about two inches to the right and make contact. The image fuzzes and it is back where it belongs. “Awesome,” I say.
“Protection,” it says and I see a slight glow around it. “It is theorized that the protection can extend indefinitely. The larger the area of protection the weaker it is. It will stop all moving objects hitting the field. Each hit weakens the field.
The field will regenerate over time, but very slowly. Once the object or recipient moves the field is broken,” It says and steps sideways. The glow vanishes. “The field will not protect from below,” it adds.
“Pull water,” it says and water appears in its outstretched hand. A ball of water slowly grows. It reaches the size of a soft ball then bursts and splashes down to the floor.
“The spell just pulls the water out of the air. If the air is extremely dry this spell will produce no water,” it puts its hand down.
“No one is poisoned so I cannot show you the spell. Envision the poison coming out of the body. I am instructed to warn you that some poison will ooze out of the skin. Some have vomited while watching.”
“Spot shake,” it says. The area I am standing on begins to shake violently. After a couple of seconds I am unable to stand. After about half a minute it stops.
“Envision the area you want to affect. The larger the area the weaker the shake. Teleport,” It says and appears across the room. “The location you teleport must be in sight or perfect in your envisioning. There is one recorded case where a male human teleported into a wall. The man died similar to decapitation.”
“Um ew, I will keep that in mind.” I say in disgust. “But I do have a question. Why couldn't I do it before?”
“Magic is linked to belief. After a spell is seen the caster can cast it afterward. There are only a few that can create new spells. It takes faith on a level even watchers are not certain of.
“Thank you, continue.”
“I am instructed to tell you that visibility is not a spell, in itself. Visibility is the art of seeing that which is hidden. One cannot be instructed on how to see things that are invisible. One is only able to see that which is invisible if they allow the mind to perceive it. The only way to see it is to know you can.”
“Thanks I think, continue”
“That is all the spells in the records. I am instructed to tell you that magic is much simpler than you imagine. To use magic one must simply alter their perception and make that real.”
“What, do I cross my eyes?” I ask not for an answer. “Is there anything else I was to be told?”
“I was not informed of anything you were to be told.”
“Thank you, I guess that is all I need.”
It vanishes. I figure I would try out a few. I imagine the door that appeared when it jumped. “Jump,” I say.
The door appears in front of me. I walk through hesitantly. After the last part of me passes the frame, the door disappears. I see no difference in the room. I walk to the wall and imagine the great hall and walk through the wall.
This time I don't teleport. I literally walk through the wall into a medium size room. There are several tables spread around the room unorganized. I walk over to the first table and see three items on the table.
The first looks like a laptop closed. The second looks like a rod or dowel. It is polished white and is about a foot long. Its width is about half an inch. The last item looks like a glove. Again all white. It is becoming extremely obvious they liked white.
I try to reach for the glove, but go through it and the table. I look at my hand and it looks just as solid as the table. I try again and go right through. Then a hint of panic creeps in my thoughts. I realize I have no clue how to get out of this.
I look around for a silver door frame. I think in panic that I want the door. As the thought finishes a silver frame appears in front of me. Panic leaves and I look at it in disbelief. I think of it disappearing but it still remains. I realized that in my panic the door appeared not in the table but in another direction.
In my frantic state to look for a door I had been facing away from the table when I thought of the door. I walk through the door and It vanishes. I turn around and walk a step to the table. I reach out and touch the table. I breathe a sigh of relief.