Fateshifter Phoenix core

Monster level: 4

Rarity: Rare

Fullness points: 100

Available effects:

Vision +15

Instinct +12

Prescience +10

The magical property Vision +15 was the goal of Cal’s enchanting mission. Though this was the Layer 1 enchantment available in this kind of core, using the Fateshifter Phoenix core wasn’t quite as straightforward a task as enchanting from a Level 1 core.

With those lower level cores, as Cal had explained to Max, the Layer 1 enchantment was by far the most volatile, and so it flowed most easily out of the core and into the item that was to be enchanted.

With the higher level cores, the opposite challenge was true.

“Because the properties of the monster become more powerful, more focused, and more specialized as the monster moves up the levels,” Cal explained, “the challenge at higher levels becomes making the Layer 2 and Layer 3 enchantment potentials stay in the core. At lower levels, the challenge comes in drawing the lower levels out, but at higher levels, the challenge becomes keeping them in. You need to be able to sort the different potentialities out from one another and make sure that you do end up with the desired effect when you finish the spell.”

“Is that difficult to do?” Max asked, his voice almost a whisper as he gazed at the purple core.

“There’s certainly a knack to it,” Cal said. “The hardest part is keeping the whole process moving smoothly. If you move too fast or shock the enchantment while you’re working it, the other ones come through and it becomes difficult if not impossible to sort them out from each other.”

As Cal spoke, he held his hands out, palms downward, a few inches above the core and the eyeglass. The scryer rune which they’d activated earlier had ceased glowing while they’d been discussing Max’s hidden talents, but now that there was scryer enchanting to do, the new crystal came alight again and glowed with a deep, mysterious purple radiance.

The light from the core and the rune shone up onto the faces of the enchanter and his assistant, and the logs in the fire crackled and spat as the strange sensations of magic taking place filled the room.

Cal worked very slowly, keeping his breathing steady and his shoulders and arms relaxed as he painstakingly drew the Vision effect out from the core. He didn’t even think about bringing the magic across to the glass just yet. That was another property of higher level cores - the enchantments were simply much larger, so when they manifested as colored smoke above the cores, there was a lot more smoke to work with and the whole process took much longer.

As Cal let the Vision magic flow in a thin, steady stream up to his right hand, he could feel the other magics that were contained in the core pressing forward as if wanting to flood out and become the enchantment that went into the glass.

Interesting and indeed useful as an eyeglass enchanted with Instinct or Prescience might be, that was not Cal’s goal. Keeping the flow of magic limited to the one enchantment potential felt like draining water out from a pot after boiling peas - holding the lid open just enough to let the water out without letting any of the food slip into the sink.

The homely metaphor made him smile, and a laugh bubbled up from inside him. “What?” Max asked, but Cal shook his head and his friend subsided.

“This is a very delicate process,” Cal said, aware that his voice sounded thick, his words soft-edged, like a musician who tries to speak while playing a complicated piece of music on their instrument.

Taking a slow, steadying breath, he began to talk quietly as he worked, letting the rhythm of his words synchronize with the rhythm of his breathing, his heart, and of the spell as he let the magic flow up and out from the monster core.

“The other enchantments in the core are pushing against my willpower as I work,” he explained. “They want to escape - with high level cores like this one, the Layer 2 and Layer 3 magics could easily escape from the core if I’m not very careful the whole time. This process of allowing one magic through and keeping another at bay - it’s like a muscle, it gets stronger with practice. I’m not practiced at using cores higher than Level 1, so this is difficult for me.”

“Is there anything I can do?” Max interjected. His eyes were wide as he gazed at the cloud of deep purple magic smoke that just kept gathering and gathering around Cal’s hand.

“No sudden noises, no sudden movements,” Cal said. “Help me keep the whole thing steady by keeping the environment stable. The more magic comes out of the core, the less stable the magic becomes, and the harder it’ll be for me to keep the whole thing in balance.”

“And keep the other enchantments from getting out?”

“Initially, that’s the challenge, yes,” Cal said, “but as the spell progresses, the challenge will become holding onto the magic I’ve got and keeping it stable in its physical form, as purple smoke. The spell wants to attach to things, Max, it wants to move away from the table, away from the core and from my control, off into whatever other object is to hand. Here, we have the eyeglass and that’s fine, that’s what we want, but this powerful magic could slip away quite easily and go into some other random object if my concentration breaks down. Once the Vision spell has fully manifested outside of the core, the danger of the other enchantments slipping out is over, but at that point the new challenge becomes keeping the manifested spell stable while I pass it to my left hand and begin folding it into the eyeglass. If the spell escapes, we might find ourselves with a Vision +15 enchantment on our teapot, or one Darkworth’s nasty old wine bottle candle holders.”

Max snorted with laughter, then immediately apologized. Cal smiled. “It’s okay,” he said. “We’re doing fine. If we keep things going like this, there shouldn’t be any problem. Just stick by me here and be ready to pass me my own eyeglass when I ask you.”

The process of getting the enchantment out of the core took nearly forty minutes. Full morning had come, and the sounds of the city could be heard outside now. By the end of the forty minutes, Cal was feeling the pressure of the concentration beginning to tell on him.

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The extraction process was nearly complete. Soon, he would need to pass the magic across and begin folding the enchantment into the eyeglass. Since this was a big spell, the folding and duration-setting process would likely be as long and painstaking as the extraction had been - perhaps even more so. However, Cal didn’t know that for sure. He only knew the theory of this. As he’d said to Max, he was far from practiced at using high-level cores.

The moment at which the full spell was outside the core but the folding had not begun would be the most delicate. That was when he would pass the spell from right to left, and Cal felt sweat prickling his brow as the moment approached.

“Max,” he said softly. “Come stand at my left hand side, ready with my eyeglass, please, and grab a clean cloth from the dryer near the fire, too.”

Silently, Max did as Cal asked.

“I have the cloth,” Max said as he took his place on Cal’s left. Without looking, Cal reached his free left hand out and Max placed the cloth in his hand. Carefully, Cal held the balance of the enormous glowing purple cloud, his eyes still fixed on the magic as he raised the cloth to his brow and mopped his sweat away before handing the cloth back to Max.

“Thank you,” Cal said. “Now, Max, we’re approaching a critical moment. I want you to hand me my eyeglass, and then move round to my right. In a moment, I’m going to pass the magic from right to left and begin the folding process. It’s probably the most delicate moment of the whole operation, so I’m going to need you to…”

At that very moment, a sudden loud, arrhythmical banging on the glass door exploded from the front of the shop. Max jumped and swore. Cal’s heart skipped a beat, and the cloud of magic wobbled like a giant jelly. His concentration wavered, but in the instant before the spell was lost, Cal caught the fine balance again and brought the smoke back to center around his hand.

The banging continued. Someone was thumping on the door with a heavy fist, and they were not stopping. A muffled voice could be heard shouting through the glass.

Cal felt sick. He’d joked about having a Vision +15 teapot earlier on, but in reality the consequences of messing the spell up at this point could be disastrous. There was no guarantee that it wouldn’t fly out of the door and enchant some random object out in the street, or even just explode and cause havoc.

If the spell went haywire, he ran the risk of getting the wrong kind of attention for messing with Level 4 cores, and that could be the end of everything.

Oh, there was no prohibition against having Level 4 cores, using them, and giving them away… so long as the spell worked fine and nothing went wrong. If there was some kind of unintended consequence from the magic going awry, things might look very different.

He reined his mind in with an effort from the many ways that the suddenly looming disaster might manifest.

“Max,” he said with an effort, breath hissing through his clenched teeth. “Place my eyeglass in my left hand, then go to the door and do whatever it takes to make whoever or whatever is making that racket go away.”

“Blue God’s teeth,” Max swore under his breath. “Of all the bad timing…”

He strode away. Cal heard his hurrying footsteps move off into the front shop while the banging on the window continued unabated. The last trickle of the magic was flowing out from the core, and Cal guessed he had less than a minute before he needed to do the transfer and begin the folding process. Everything hung in the balance. If he messed this up now - even if the spell didn’t go crazy, dash out the door, and enchant some random inappropriate object - the eyeglass and possibly the scryer rune itself would likely break.

Again, Cal pulled his thoughts away from that outcome, forcing himself to concentrate on his breathing, relax his shoulders, and keep the magic in under control. Slowly, he reached up with his left hand and fitted the eyeglass over his right eye. The glass sat neatly, secure in his eye socket without needing anything else to hold it in place. He blinked through the lens, seeing the purple smoke in much more detail than he had even a moment before. Yes, with this view he could see more clearly how much was left in the core. The answer was almost nothing.

From the door, he heard voices in terse conversation.

“I tell you, I mean to see him,” a deep, self-important voice boomed. “Do you know who I am, you young layabout? You’ve upset my wife and your blasted employer has caused my best gardener to run away to work for a vampire, and I’m not going to take that. I mean to see the enchanter, I tell you, and I won’t be denied!”

Upset my wife… My best gardener… Working for a vampire…

The words echoed through Cal’s head and he groaned inwardly. He’d almost forgotten about Lord and Lady Hefton and their runaway gardener. He’d have been quite happy if he had completely forgotten both of them and never thought about them again, but if he did have to think about them, he’d have rather done so anytime in the world but right now.

“You must be Lord Hefton. It’s not a good time, sir,” Max’s voice said with strained politeness. “My master is uh… otherwise engaged. Perhaps if you came back later?”

“Later?” thundered the other man’s voice. “Later?? I will see him now! Now, I tell you! Get out of my way or I will move you myself! No? Very well then, I gave you fair warning. Jenkins? Come here and help remove this oaf from my presence”

There was a sudden sound of scuffling, and then Cal heard another voice in the mix. “What’s all this?” the new voice said, outraged. “Here, you, unhand that fellow!”

It took Max a moment to recognise the new voice, then he realized it was Maddie Turner, the old woman who owned the fabric shop. What was she doing? Was she trying to intervene?

The sound of scuffling feet and angry shouting came from the door, then there was a sudden, loud crack like wood on bone, followed by an outraged yowl of pain from Lord Hefton.

“You old harpy!” Hefton bellowed. “I’ll have you in the dungeons for this!”

“Not before you taste my stick again, you bloated old blowhard,” Maddie’s voice said. Her tone was cold as granite, and Max was amazed to hear such a transformation. “Back off, and call your flunky to heel. Now! Call him off, I say, or I’ll do worse to him than welt his shoulder with my stick. I’m warning you, Hefton - I restrained myself with you, but there are limits to my temper. If your butler comes one step nearer, I’ll kill him, understand? No second chances.”

By all the gods, Cal thought. What’s happening? He wanted very much to glance up and see the tableau that was developing outside, but his spell was at a critical stage, and he dared not take his eyes from the purple smoke for even a moment.

Lord Hefton’s tone had changed, and his voice suddenly rumbled on in quiet, conciliating murmur from outside. A moment later, there came the very welcome sound of a carriage door slamming and horses being driven away at speed. The sounds of voices from outside told Cal that a crowd had gathered, and then the sound of Maddie and Max coming into the shop was followed by the click of the key turning in the lock of the front door.

At that same moment, there was a faint hiss and the last of the enchantment slipped out of the crystal and came under Cal’s control.

“Stay out here for now, Maddie,” Max’s voice said. “Cal’s doing something very delicate in the back of the shop.”

“I just came to see how you were getting on with the webbing before I opened my own shop,” Maddie said, “and it’s just as well I did, for I don’t know if you could have held them both off on your own! But I can come back later. I know how important it is to keep focus when you’re working on something delicate.”

Cal held the spell, wobbling only slightly, and began the process of passing the magic from hand to hand. He had no option. Max and Maddie’s quiet voices continued from the front of the shop, but he ignored them. The spell could not be contained outside the core and the enchantment any longer. He had to rely on Max to keep distractions to a minimum.

The purple smoke flowed across the space between his two hands and then started to flow straight and steady down into the eyeglass that lay gleaming on the table under his left hand. With the beginning of this stage of the enchanting process, Cal felt the strain of drawing and holding the enchantment ease a little. He could still mess this up, and the folding of the enchantment into the eyeglass would be a long and delicate task, but the strain of this part was less intense than the previous part.

Relief filled him as he felt that he’d gotten through the most delicate stage. He let out a pent-up breath and began the careful, steady process of folding the enchantment into Laria’s new eyeglass.