Jon stepped through the rift onto the airship. It was a purposeful and steady stride. Earlier, when he woke inside the bunker, nothing appeared to be different. Even the sensations from the day before were absent, though that could have been normal sensitivity accompanying an illness. Keya remained behind: a deer in the headlights. He left her there for the moment.
A new feeling emerged the instant he was through. Easy to ignore if you weren’t looking for it. The world had a slight tint to it as though he was picking up slightly more than he could normally see. It was quite tricky to focus directly on it, as though it shifted away from his mind but always played at the edges of his consciousness.
“Lee, beginning self-assessment now. Document as we go.”
“Alright, gimme what ya got,” Lee spoke on the ship loudspeaker for Kay’s benefit.
“Feeling what I can only describe as slight synesthesia, very subtle, and hard to focus on directly.”
“Master, is everything well?”
“It’s fine, Kay,” he gave an assuring wave. “Divers sometimes go through a process called Acclimation when they enter a new world. Perfectly normal and nothing for you to be worried about.” He was unsure of that last part, but freaking out would hardly help. “I’m going to ask you some questions Kay, please do your best to give as precise answers as possible.”
“So not like your answers then?”
“That would be perfect. Let’s start with magic testing. I assume it’s done in childhood. How is it usually administered?”
“A local mage might gauge the affinities of a child through simple attempts made with each element. In my case, Grandpa was sufficiently knowledgeable to evaluate me.”
“So just try out each element, huh? Earth, Water, Wind and Fire, or in reality solid, liquid, gas and maybe plasma?”
“What’s your guess, Lee?”
“As good as any, plasma is a bit off though. Fire’s thermal energy is way down in comparison.”
“Are fire mages usually strong Kay?”
“Nay! ‘Tis the rarest and weakest of magics, perhaps one in many thousands of mages show some affinity. Potent Fire mages are the domain of legend.”
“Seems par for the course.” Jon thought aloud. “Lower energy is not quite as easy to manipulate, perhaps. Just wild speculation though.
“I suppose we’ll start from the bottom. Ms Mage-sensei how do you activate the use of your magic, say starting with Earth.”
“For each person, it is said to be different. However, for myself, I find closed eyes most effective. How do you use your magic, Master?”
“We’ve been over this Ms Ces. I don’t use any magic, that’s why I’m asking you.” He closed his eyes and tried reaching, without moving, for the nearest object: a seat buckle. It was not very effective, or more precisely, completely ineffective. He saw nothing and felt nothing.
“I am confused. Why are you asking me for counsel then? Magic is not a learned skill, either you have the affinity, or you do not. If by the age of ten, a child shows no ability for the craft, then any magical potential is highly unlikely. Why rush for testing now?”
“It’s more like a benchmark than a test.”
“There are no benches in the ship that I can see. What is your intention?”
“Oh god, you’re giving me a headache. The faster we get you on multimedia, the better.” He sighed, “Earth magic is a dud. Next, water, I suppose I could use saliva but perhaps something less polluted with life would be better.” He spat on his hand anyway.
Kay cringed. “Dear gods Kel, give a lady warning next time! I shall need to house train you before we make for Elgelica.” He felt nothing, aside from a slimy hand that is. So he retrieved his sack and fished for his flask. The water was perfectly fine but still utterly inert to any attempted extension of his awareness. Although, there was a unique tactile sort of feedback that indicated a genuine feel of reaching out.
“Lee, please note that I am experiencing a sense of extended proprioception beyond my body.”
“Are you fucken for real right now? Sounds like a wicked trip man!”
He stepped back through the rift standing ahead of Kay and the sense instantly evaporated.
“Sensations completely cease upon crossing the event horizon. No lingering feeling.” He returned to the HAS, and the extended sense effortlessly returned. “Kay, when you use your magic, does it feel like reaching outside your body? Like sensing where your limbs are?”
“Why yes, that is a remarkably accurate depiction of the magical aura. Amazing Master, am I to take it that your magic has awakened then?”
“Baby steps Kay, all I know is something is different.”
“Since when?” Her tone sounded suspicious. “Am I to blame perhaps?”
“No way of knowing exactly. Please remember that correlation does not imply causation.”
“But the timing is highly incidental, no?”
“It’s only one data point. Just focus on the here and now, okay? You can’t even step through a door. Get back on your horse, and then you can start worrying about me.” That was a bit curt on his part but needed.
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Like hyping oneself up to jump into cold water, Keya huffed in agitation behind him. He glanced back to see her tentatively step onto the ship. Her relief was plain as day when absolutely nothing obviously happened.
“There Master, now have I earned the right to fret over you?”
“Welcome to the club! Still, I’m a professional, and this is my job. Sit back and relax. I got this. Your turn comes soon.”
She mumbled quibbles over that but said no more.
Jon refocused, air was, of course, the next test, although he should have sensed the compressible fluid the moment he started if that was the case. He tried again anyway for the sake of protocol.
“Gas is similarly a ‘no-go’.” He said absently.
“Why do you call the elements different names, Master? I assume gas is the air?”
“Our naming conventions you can consider to be far more particular compared to your pre-scientific world. There are broadly speaking four states of matter you observe in everyday life, as I mentioned earlier, and they map onto your descriptions quite well. Tell me, are mages quite common in the population?” Jon rummaged through stuffed cabin lockers for a lighter as she spoke. It’s a mess in these things; I wonder if I can trick Kay into organising them.
“Most folk, if tested, display some minor affinity, though testing and training is expensive: the province of nobles and the wealthy. A minor affinity is hardly helpful in everyday tasks. A woodsman with an axe is far more formidable than any minor mage, and the woodsman can feed his family. Perhaps a tenth of people show no affinity whatsoever, though it is hardly a cruel fate. The temptation of power may make a mage waste a perfectly good talent elsewhere. Grandpa warned against such folly.”
He found an old Bic lighter and shook it for the telltale slosh of fuel. Perfect. “Your old man was a wise dude. I’m sorry I never got the chance to chat over a beer.”
“He remains in my heart always.” She became solemn.
“Thanks for the info.” He shut his eyes and flicked the lighter on. Almost instantly, his ‘magic’ sense prickled at a tiny ephemeral filament of ‘light’ in the void. It flickered in and out so he turned up the gas and it steadied but only barely.
“My, I’ve seen that trinket before. Could I perhaps get one, Master? Flame without flint is of great value to many.”
“A dime a dozen, Kay. How many you want?”
“One will suffice. So? Are you perhaps the vaunted Fire mage?”
“Maybe, but you know what they say about assumptions? Lee, I’m sensing what I can only guess as a minute sliver in the centre of the flame. An insignificant amount of ionised gas, perhaps.”
“Mother fucker!”
“Honestly you two and the mention of your mothers is quite uncouth. And no, I do not know what ‘they’ say about assumptions. Who does ‘they’ refer to?”
He went to stage two and tried doing something to the flame, pretending it was a limb he tried swaying it, lulling his head in sync. The filament moved slightly, and he cracked an eye-lid to see the flame pull. But the fire was responsible for generating the evanescent ionised gas; as he pulled it away from the hot core, it dissipated rapidly.
“Is that you, Master? I feel no breeze in here, did the flame not just flicker?! I believe congratulations are in order. Even a minor flame mage is fortuitous indeed!”
“Hold your horses, girl; we’re not done.” He shut off the lighter. “I’m gonna level with ya. There aren’t just four states of matter, and I would be a bit screwed if my affinity was for something exotic, like a superfluid or Bose-Einstein Condensate. Moreover, your magic bullshit may not extend that far, but who’s to say it doesn’t. Nevertheless, I have some working hypotheses bouncing around in this old head of mine, and I’ll share them if this pans out.” He retrieved his shock gloves from a pocket and made sure they fit well before activation.
“As you wish, today’s quota for revelations has not yet been filled. Your pill deception we shall consider to be a debit rather than a credit.” Kay rocked her hips to the side and folded arms.
“Ooh, saucy accountancy references! Good to see you putting that homeschooling to use. Please beware you will hear a loud noise and see sparks do not be alarmed.” Following in monotone, he said, “Proceeding with plasma test one.” He made a fist activating a thumb pressure pad and discharges started arching across the knuckle spikes. There were two pressure pads on his thumb. First, on the digit’s inner edge to press when making a fist, and one centred pad for grappling. The later would activate the finger electrodes.
“Gods be! Hand lightning!”
He ignored her and focused on the discharge with is eyes closed. It was very rapid and initially hard to feel, but he gradually closed in on the ionised leader just before the arc. It felt like another thin filament of ionised gas that he compared to a sensation of pins and needles, or perhaps static was a better analogy. “I can sense what I assume to be the ionised leader, very brief and temperamental. Proceeding with manipulation. Evy, can you deploy the HAS earthing coupling?”
Any airborne vessel was bound to build up charge over time, and for one that seldom touched down, it could become quite hazardous. The Hindenburg undoubtedly came to mind. As such, the low-tech solution was to earth through a rift with a simple conductive cable. On command he heard, the coupling engage with a soft clang somewhere below him in the hull. “Earthing coupling engaged.” said Evy on loudspeaker.
“Good, that’s more reassuring.” He reinitiated discharge. Then, ever so gently, he nudged the plasma trail millimetres at a time, feeling the ensuing arc lance out periodically. It escaped his grasp several times, bucking and flailing like a writhing fish. Each time he loosed his ‘grip’ and then tenderly resumed the moulding.
More like taming a wild water hose than any pure art, it was a process of edgewise advancement. Slowly and painstakingly pulling the stray ionisation away from the shortest distance between points, and instead, building a bridge further out. The voltage potential required for a longer path rapidly climbed, and he fought that more so, as the plasma quickly dissipated between extended build-ups.
“I need more voltage. Setting it to manual and making it very gradual.”
“Don’t push yourself, mate. This is already groundbreaking.”
As the electric potential increased, he found the arcs snap stronger and quicker, so he opened his hand and instead fed the circuit to his fingers where the leap was more significant. A few pulses more, and he tamed the beast again. Like working a muscle, it got easier as he limbered up. He opened his eyes feeling the plasma there, both seeing and not seeing it: a sixth sense his consciousness had yet to sufficiently parse. Proceeding, he watched with a rising smile as the arc grew, extending further away each time. Eventually, it reached a full hand width away before returning to the anode.
“Imma fucking arc mage bitches!” said Jon.
“Technically, a plasma mage is apter,” inveighed Lee.
Kay spoke. “Never in my life would I have dreamed of seeing this! You command the very lightning of the gods. Meagre in size perhaps, though truly the magic from your world is both strange and puissant.”
“This is the magic from your world, not mine. Plasma doesn’t exist in a whole lot of sources here. Generation is one thing; manipulation is another. FYI it’s not the lightning I control, but the path it takes.
“Mind you; there are still lots of things to play with. I haven’t been this amped since mammoth hunting in Russia. Lee, you remember that? Oh, the steaks were to die for! I hear they set up a reserve on 72-81, I wonder if they do delivery?”
“Master, whatever you do, I have never seen it before.” Stunned, she ran a hand through her frizzy hair.
“A forward operating base has now climbed to priority numero uno. The airship is no place to be testing lightning bolts. Kay, we make for Elgelica as soon as you think we are ready.”
“I shall transcribe our needs presently,” and she made to leave the ship.
“Uh-Uh-Uh, we ain’t done with you yet. I seem to recall a horse to climb back onto.” She winced but did not make to escape. Jon admired such gumption, it almost felt like pride, but he shrugged that off as stupid.