Germination 1

July 18th, 2032.

I hummed and flounced as the workshop vibrated with energy. Equipment and stray items organized as carefully as someone with executive dysfunction could manage.

I grabbed a wooden flashlight, a simple device using glyphs. It was a simple mechanism, two wooden panels were engraved with half a light glyph, hooked up to a simple push bar acting as a switch to activate the spell. It’ll lock after three spells, because massive bursts of blinding light are not fun.

The lens was taken from an Earth flashlight, used to focus and direct the light into a beam. This was the initial prototype, though it was now one of dozens as while it wasn’t in Hakim’s skillset he did know people who worked with wood and plastic.

The ‘production’ models were made of plastic but retained the wood paneling as it was better for conducting magic. Though I wonder if plast-trees were a good bet.

Regardless, there has been interest in some of the magic items we were working on together. From what I had researched, a lot of their technology was rather artisan in nature. Enchantment involved creating spells, embedding them into items with runes to control them.

I couldn’t call them primitive, not at all, they just had different pressures due to the Craft. From what I can tell, their production model was job and batch production. Job production would be like an artist drawing a portrait, the production of one item at a time. Batch production is things like bakeries, where multiple units are produced in a series of steps. Mass production is basically having all those steps happening all at once.

Most factories are an example of that, and they do have printing presses and interchangeable parts. Plus they have lathes and injection molds, they just haven’t built assembly lines yet. They were actually rather fascinating machines, their lathes and milling machines were initially manually powered. But they had moved on to powering them with magic. The infused spell was a weave of violet with the faintest hint of gray.

Learning about the sources of magic has allowed me a far better understanding of shaping magic. There were colors of course, both a view of the world and a physical real aspect of existence. Then there was the shape, how it interacts with other threads and with material reality. Then there was weight, how much power was used to influence the laws of physics.

I had a brush I could use to paint reality to my whims, and it was both terrifying and exhilarating. But it made things so much easier to understand, like why void as an element wasn’t fully understood or known.

Void was a powerful element, a powerful conduit of power and ephemeral forces. But it was also a hard element to control, and the other elements could be used to do a lot of what it could do. Even so, pale wisps of it existed in every trace of magic. The only aspect of void that remained as its own thing was in spells and magic that could manipulate gravity.

I shook my head as I glanced over papers on the project Hakim and I were working on when it comes to developing a welding machine. We had opted for direct application of heat to fuse metals, using the ergonomics of a stick welder for the magic item.

“Odu, duo, shelo, arba, kvin, sase.” I counted discovered glyphs in Old Tongue, rubbing my chin as I inspected the glyphs on paper. “Six glyphs, all of them elemental, and I know there are more glyphs than that.” There could be anywhere from a dozen to hundreds of glyphs, it was hard to say frankly.

At the least I had learned a fair amount about glyph arrays, adding more glyphs of the same element increased both the power and complexity of a spell. Though I had made some errors in the reasoning.

I could chain glyphs without a circle, just adding lines to connect each symbol. Those chains weren’t more powerful though, but the complexity had gone up, so fine control of the energies was way easier. But in a circle, chains of the same glyph made the entire circle into a bigger glyph.

I had tested that rather easily, with two circles of identical size with two and four sifra glyphs respectively. Both had the same output, but the four glyph array had much finer detail and control. Another interesting factor was that output went up by the cubed rather than square. Doubling a circle octupled the power output of a spell.

Seeing magic made it easy to learn why, a glyph pulled on magic in three dimensions, the equator of an unseen sphere. Another interesting factor was how different glyphs split the output. Two glyphs formed an even blend of colors of energy, three would split it in threes, four in fours and so on and so forth.

“Getting distracted, let your idea play out.” I muttered to myself as I pulled out a seventh symbol, using old texts and the glyphs of fire and air for inspiration.

Lightning was the cold blooded fire, the fire of the skies, violent energy tearing apart the world. Ultima had taught me how it worked, it involved separating positive and negative energies. On Earth someone might call it yin and yang.

In Calafia it would be nin and kaba, nin-kaba.

With a chain of fire glyphs, I had worked on precisely feeling the microscopic currents of energy, looking beyond hues of red and copper and deeper into swirling pools of light and shadow. A turbid medium, like how the sun was made yellow by the density of the air. Shafts of light through the darkness, and shards of darkness through the light.

I had split those colors of reds into black and white… and then they came crashing together as a blast of lightning strong enough to burst through a meter of rock.

Lightning and Fire were both kin, energies within the vast source of the Red. So how do I discover a glyph of lightning?

I see the weave of it, and I look at the glyphs I have for inspiration.

From there I got what I needed, instead of dashes at the southern pole of a glyph, it was dashed with a single jagged hook at the north end. Like lightning crashing across the sky.

I touch the glyph, and the world splits apart before crashing together again. That ravenous lightning danced in my hands, knots of copper and gold and scorching cerise dancing in my mind’s eye.

I smirked.

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“So you're bringing me along as your apprentice on your job as an Enchanter?” I questioned Ultima from the air. Riding on Reyna who was definitely not going to leave me alone. She was matching her pace with Ultima’s staff, which was quite impressive when she could maintain a steady flight speed of one hundred fifty miles per hour.

An average witch could hit about seventy to eighty miles per hour on a staff or broom at a steady pace. At their peak, they could hit eight hundred for no more than thirty seconds. Five hundred sixty miles per hour was manageable on their part but would exhaust them… and uncommon.

A pace maintained only for an hour, and exhausting even with magic. Couriers, or mail-witches ‘jog’ at about the speed that Ultima walks. The differences between humans and witches is interesting, they were about fifty percent faster and could jump higher and longer…

But it involved a hit to their endurance… not a gigantic one, mind you. We’re both still persistence hunters, running down prey over long distances. Being able to run that fast for an hour was still far better than anything outside of wolves. And that hour of running was at twenty three to twenty eight miles per hour. At the same lopes as humans, witches had about three quarters of our endurance.

Ultima had checked records for that shit.

Again that was without letting one’s energies flow through their body. With it they were far faster. Which would be a problem… if I hadn't started with my own energy flow work.

“Head out of the clouds, little raven!” Ultima shouted and I turned red as the old lady chuckled. “And yes! You're my apprentice, and you're learning how to make your own enchantments. Your own magic items and inventions.” There was so much pride in her voice it made my heart hurt. “I have a good feeling you want to make something of it, so I'm going to get you some much-needed contacts.”

“Isn't that what you've been doing with meeting some of your friends?” I pointed out, starting to puzzle out some things.

Ultima smirked. “You've got that right, back on Earth you have the mangana with their supply of recycled materials for constructing magic items.”

“I have questions on where they've sourced titanium for your titanium-mithril doors.” Titanium wasn't exactly easy to obtain, not at the level of dozens of tons.

Mithril was just as difficult to find too, it was a magical material. Which were odd things, free-flowing protons, neutrons, and electrons confined by magic into quantum wells. Different materials were different clouds of electrons around arrangements of nucleons.

At least that was what Ultima had figured out from… borrowing atomic force microscopes in the past. It was odd, a nanocrystalline metal lattice bearing similarities to high entropy alloys. Since magic allowed for weirder connections between things. Mithril was two percent less dense than aluminum while being five times stronger than steel alloys.

Which was impressive even as they were held back by their understanding of structural science being less detailed. From what I can tell, they used magic to reinforce the existence of a material. So their steel alloys were five times stronger… than a steel alloy from the early 1900s.

It was why Ultima was so sought after, she had access to higher quality materials from the human world, and had a better understanding of material science because of it. I had seen her modify decade old plates of AR500. Her armor was surpassed only by mithril which said a lot about human technology and about how insanely strong mithril is.

I slid my gaze over the boiling sea, watching shoals of iron-scaled fish gather at the surface. We were heading toward the fishing settlement of Peduncle. Known for exporting both silverfin tuna meat and scales. Which could be up to eighty percent their weight in biogenic steel. A five hundred pound fish could net twenty pounds of steel, and silverfins could grow north of two thousand pounds.

And there were easily two or three hundred thousand adult silverfins in the boiling seas of Caudalann.

“We should be coming up on Penduncle pretty soon.” Ultima called out and I leaned back as I gripped onto Reyna.

“Took us only ten minutes to cross twenty five miles,” I murmured. “And we could have done it in five without breaking a sweat.” All of it was more than enough to know not to underestimate the capabilities of witches.

“Yep.”

A stray thought came to me. “So what exactly are we going to deliver?”

“You remember the ritual to gather solar spirits to store within a few tools?”

“Is it a sword, some kind of weapon?” I asked, wondering what kind of special magical creation we were going to give to some random person.

“You’ll see…” Was Ultima’s cryptic response.

Oh boy.

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My eyebrow twitched as I walked into the home of our client, one Sigurd Serisku. Zero Storm was an interesting direct translation for his blended… surname, clan name?

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The man was a gnome, so the top of his head barely went past my hip. He had a greenish-red complexion and wore beautifully patterned clothing… it actually reminded me a bit of Ainu fashion, an earthy robe decorated with bright blue and purple appliqué and embroidery that seemed to tell a story.

He offered a broad smile under a large nose, eyes twinkling dimly with glamour. His hair was a shock of white, and his ears were long and pointed things, face slightly wrinkled and old.

He was adorable, an old kindly grandpa. But despite that, I was too distracted by the ridiculousness of the magical item he had commissioned for two hundred thousand peca. The yearly salary for an average person in this country. I suspected he was either a wealthy merchant or a noble… or an idiot.

“Thank you kindly for your piece lady Grimshaw, such an exquisite home for a lesser solar spirit.”

It was an orrery, depicting eight planets in all, rotating and spinning gears and machinery in brass and gold and steel. I could see each planet in all their glory. Ea, Anahita, Ersete, Har Deshur, Eacus, Kiwan, Ouranos, and Janus. They were also the Others considered kith and kin to the Titans.

At the center of it was a model of the sun which looked like a sun on earth, shaped by the solar spirit residing within it. An entire solar spirit gathered and stored as a makeshift… toy didn't sit right with me.

“What’s the point of something like this?” Ultima flinched. I realized that was coming off as… kinda bitchy.

The gnome grinned. “The brood of Magec, the spiritual children of the long departed Other. They are powerful, ancient and knowledgeable spirits. Creatures of energy, of flame and light and immutable power. So very few are willing or able to convince such beings to dwell within hallows of spiritual power.”

He touched the orrery… and reality skipped a beat. The sun mechanism unfolded into a brilliant orb of twisting plasmoid gears, sun spot eyes blinking rapidly as it woke up.

“Is this the Elder you spoke to me of, Wandering Abyss?” I mouthed the Cyfrinic to myself, tajal sifrismo as I watched the spirit. “He is a curious one, a starwatcher is he not? He will do nicely, there are so few who wish to learn of my old home in this day and age.”

“Foolish…” I muttered and the sun spirit hummed in my mind with a faint approval.

If this was a solar aspect-spirit, how powerful was the spirit of the sun? The Other which was its beating heart and driving mind? I’m not sure I wanted to know and yet… but it was tempting.

“I believe you understand now then?”

I nodded carefully at the odd behavior of the fey being. There were many different kinds of faerie, from animals to beings as sophisticated and spirited as any human or umano witch. He was one of the kitherie, the descendants of the first witches to lay with the True Faerie.

They comprised the bulk of sapient faerie that witches encountered freely. All had a natural connection to the spirit world, to the otherworlds which flowed with glamour, with illusions and lies and dreams. Otherworlds which had been barred with iron and magic and blood.

For once it wasn’t an atrocity of the Pale King. But rather a desperate defense against the tyrannical nobles, who had sunk to a madness and insanity far too much even for the most malevolent of fey to tolerate.

It was just unfortunate that later on, the help of the kitherie was spurned when their otherworlds were barred or devastated by the fanatics of the Pale King. Likely leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths… I needed to read between the lines for it.

But the wording of how they had been provoked by their dangerous wild magic, how they had freed their children from a dark path was… chilling.

“I believe you would like to receive your payment?” Sigrid smiled kindly as he pulled out a series of gold hued rectangular leaves marked with basic images and a value of two thousand. A hundred bills in all were floated over to my mentor.

Well I suppose they did have paper money. Though I’m not sure if their currency was backed by anything or if it was fiat currency. Ultima inspected the currency and then vanished the money into a portal.

“The book too, Serisku. I discounted at least fifty thousand peca from my price for that dusty thing.” Ultima added. I almost opened my mouth to ask before shutting it.

Not my business, and not in front of a client either.

The gnome snorted. “I’m not going to renege on a deal, it’s not our way.” With a flash of his hands a book popped into existence. “It’s not a glamoured copy either, simply concealed.” He clarified without needing to be told. “The book should be well worth its value for your apprentice, and you have my discretion on this.”

I blinked. Huh?

“You’ve been looking for any old texts on glyphs and runes. My client here negotiated a reduction in cost in exchange for a pre-Chantry book.” The copy was now in her hands. I almost swallowed my hands at the Cyfrinic title, which explicitly stated it was about glyphs and runes. “No depictions of glyphs but plenty of outdated runes.”

Oh.

“Thank you…” I spoke softly, not sure how to respond to her gift. “Is that all then?”

“No. There is one other thing,” Sigurd spoke up with a scratch of his bearded chin. “My clan has a growing interest in you, human. Especially with the rumors of your rather… harried relationship with Clanheir Frazoiyo. I’m not asking you to meet with them, but I did want to warn you. My kin can be quite annoying, and I’d rather not have you launch them.”

I blushed. “Dinah was fine, I’ve got a way better hang of my magic.”

Ultima snorted. “Kid. That’s not helping your case.”

Fuck.

The gnome nodded his agreement. “You seem like a good witch, and a leader looks after their own. Anything less is… sacrilege. I believe you have much to teach the heir to this taifa, she’s a kind and hardworking witchling.”

“I think I get that.” I replied quietly, thinking of how much she seemed to love her people, her family, her parents. Almost at an expense to her own well-being. “There’s also a lot I have to do myself, that book is going to be a big step forward.” I bowed my head slightly in thanks.

Sigurd simply offered a twinkling gleam, and I tilted my head. Was I missing something here?

Ultima sighed. “Serisku, please. None of your twisty games here.”

The fey frowned but didn’t get angry. “For once I am being sincere, I have not been a spymaster in half a century. Half a century is more than enough to… notice what’s being lost. There are rumblings Ultima, and I do not know what’s coming.”

My mentor looked horrified, flinching like she was struck. “It’s gotten that bad?”

“There is something wrong in the world. And we need strong witches more than ever, not in power, but in wisdom, in cleverness, in innovation, in compassion and empathy. I see that now… more than ever.” He sounded haunted, in a way that reminded me too much of my uncle before he…

All gone…

Ultima gripped my shoulder, silver eyes staring down at the old tired witch. “I’ll look into it old man, it’s what I’ve been doing for years.”

He snorted sadly. “Off with the lot of you then, I have work to do with my new companion.”

We did so, slipping out of his eclectic living room… and he spoke up again, directly to me.

“If you’re ever in need of assistance in Peduncle, do not hesitate to call my clan. We owe… much to your mentor, more than you know.”

I nodded as the door shut behind us, and glanced up at Ultima who bore a neutral expression.

“You okay?”

“Just memories Celia, just memories.”

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I reverently brushed my fingers along the pages of the worn book. A text that had to be at least five hundred years old. Litabo Gluphos y Rouns was detailed. Depicting fine observations done on aspects of magic that had been lost for centuries.

It was all in Cyfrinic, in the script of a dying language, the words of a dying way of life.

I was reading through the pages on the kaba glyph, sounding out the letters as Cyfrinic was still a new language for me. Kaba was light, active, a true source of power. It was the power of the stars, their guidance, all the colors of the light, one half of the creative energy of the universe. That was why it was a more suitable power source than the other elemental glyphs. All the others offered energy, but only within their own remit. It was typed and branded by the elements.

Void could be used to make the rules. But it was like taking a hammer to things that weren’t nails. It was too raw, and too linked to vacuum energy to work. A conduit. Shadow might be another option, but it was receptive, in a way that light was not.

I squinted, narrowing my eyes as I carefully carved another mark on a wooden bracelet with a knife and a measuring tape to… measure. They fortunately did fit as I had bought them for myself.

I had applied all my knowledge in mathematics, electrical engineering, coding and understanding of magic to figure it out. Ten was an auspicious number, as was one and nine. A line circled around the bangle with ten glyphs in all, nine kaba and one sifra glyph.

One sifra glyph, the ultimate reality and source of existence, the basis of all numbers. Nine kaba glyphs, a symbol of power and magic, the nine worlds of Yggdrasil, the end of one cycle and the beginning of another, the nine choirs of angels.

Ten glyphs in total, the ten primal elements of creation, the Tetractys, the emanations of the tree of life. Wholeness, totality and perfection.

I had carved out the glyph array with steady hands, no missteps, no little errors or poor line work. I clapped my hands together, bouncing on my toes.

I lifted the bangle up and placed a finger over the void glyph. It lit up with a flash of silver, and spread slowly to the rest of the chain. Tarnished silver graduated to warm white with a hint of gold, spreading across the entire ring in a slithering thread of energy. A ring of electrum light spread across the bracelet, and I smiled.

“Hello there little ring.”

I picked up the bracelet carefully. The wood was warm, vibrating and pulsing like it was alive. I slid the bracelet on until it fit tightly against my skin without pinching it. The moment it settled my entire warm tingled with warmth and cold all at once, twisting under my skin like currents of energy.

My arm jerked, and trails of barely visible light followed the movement. My brain swam with the odd sensations of magic, like touch, like sight and smell and taste all at once.

Like all of them… it would be very precise. So I felt the fine knots and threads of khi. The tiny little structures of energy that could be as small as a tenth the width of a hair. It was chaos refined into creative energy, a steady paintbrush… oh.

I remembered the glyphs and their patterns finely, twitching my fingers into position, the trails of light following my intentions and my movements. The circle I had conjured collapsed into a golden ball of light.

No, there was far more I could do than just this.

I lowered myself into a stance, the one demanded by the essence of fire. Swift, sharp, and direct movements, like arrows and missiles. I could feel my energy ripple into the bangle, and I twisted the energy into the weave of fire. The color shifted and—

A single swift strike launched a fireball the size of my head, roaring through the air before crashing into a wall with an explosion.

“Holy shit!”

I stared at the scorch marks on the stone walls of my workshop, expanding into the realm that was Ultima’s domain.

Was this the secret of how witches became what they were? How did they go from glyphs to using their internal energy to shape the external energies of the world?

“Hehehe. He…” I giggled madly as I felt the energies spread down my arm and across the right side of my body. I need a second bracelet, a second power source.

What a wonderful tool isn’t it, Celia?

I flinched and looked around for a moment, feeling an odd sensation of being watched. But there was nobody there, nobody watching outside any spirits in the Outer Sphere. Of which I knew there were many, both because of Ultima and because of Althea. My mentor was no natural shaman, for all that she could work spirits into objects. But she was a witch of incredible power. Who knew the Old Ways. Her home was safe, and Althea had taken advantage of it in working the spirits to her whims.

From her, I could learn Correspondence, of magic that could pull at the connections of the world. From Hakim I could learn of Making, of the magic of creating, collecting and honing magical items. From Dinah I could learn of Evocation, of bringing forces into existence and shaping them. Three of seven paths of magic.

One must seek the seven paths of the Craft to free the star within…

I nodded to myself, as I inspected the spell focus. It was a good start, but I knew I could take it further.

I would take it further.