Young Justice: Salem

July 18th, 2010

Though there were a number of areas I could benefit from Kent’s teachings, ultimately there was a reason that I’d come here to learn from the older wizard. Perhaps in the future I could try to convince him to teach me some of his combat magic or warding secrets, but for now there was one spell that I wanted from him more than anything else.

“If possible, I’d like to start with whatever other detection spells you’re able to teach me. I’m very interested in working up to that Aether detection spell you spoke of yesterday.”

“Fair enough. Can’t say I didn’t expect as much. Let’s see what we can do.”

From the kitchen we returned to the room of floating staircases, the door vanishing into golden sparks behind us. We walked down two flights, then walked in a full circle beneath the stairs we just descended and walked back up one flight. This time, instead of a second flight of steps, there was a closed door on the other side of the landing that emerged onto a…sunny field filled with wildflowers that blew in the slight breeze.

I looked around and realized that the door had once again vanished behind me as soon as I’d taken a step through it. We were still in the tower, I could feel the wards looming over me, and yet it certainly felt like we’d gone outside. I briefly reconsidered my stance on not asking him about warding––this was…very impressive. The sunlight felt completely natural, as did the breeze and the fresh air. I also couldn’t see an edge to the field, just an endless sea of rolling green and colorful flowers.

Kent took a deep breath and let it out slowly, tilting his head backwards to allow the warm sunlight to illuminate his aged features. The bright sunlight made his wrinkles and the lines around his eyes stand out in sharp contrast, but he stood with the vitality of a much younger man. He made a gesture with his cane, and a pair of tables shaped from the earth beneath us rose from the ground.

I looked at the two chairs with distaste. “Would you mind if I made us something a bit more comfortable?”

Kent, who was in the process of sitting down, paused. “Be my guest.”

With a jab and a twist, the two earthen chairs shifted into green armchairs much like the ones in the Slytherin common room. Kent gave the armrest of his new chair a pat, then sat down and leaned back into the cushions.

“Oh, that is much better. Such transmutation is not the strong suit of Order magic. It would have taken me far more effort to do such a thing than it took you to do so.”

“Well, it's not really transmutation. The chair is still the chair you created, it just looks and feels different for the moment. Transfiguration, not alchemy.”

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Kent curiously poked the chair with his cane, then nodded slowly. “Fascinating. Even still, such magic is far from my own speciality. In any case, I do not have all that much time today, there are some things that require my attention later this evening, so let's begin.”

I quickly took a seat in the chair across from Kent as he gathered his thoughts together.

“When it comes to Order magic, there are often many ways to accomplish a single task. However, in almost every case the most effective method is one that does not unduly affect the natural world. It is much easier to shape an element that is already present than to create one, such as how I made the chairs from earth that was already beneath our feet. This is because, at its most fundamental level, Order magic is about maintaining balance in the world.

“That is why often when I battle other practitioners, you will see the sharp contrast between our spells. They attack me with fire, raise shields from the earth, and direct the winds to batter me. Meanwhile I use shields and beams of Order energy, prisons crafted from light and Order, and the like. I can do otherwise, but it is typically far more energy intensive to manipulate the world than it is to harness raw Order.

“Now, how do we apply this same idea to detection spells? Well, there are a number of methods, but one is typically superior to the others. Order is excellent at both maintaining and detecting abnormalities, so we look for places where the natural balance has been disrupted. Places where the grass is bent from footsteps that do not belong, where magic has changed the world, or when a substance like Aether, one that typically does not exist in this world, can be found.”

I nodded slowly, doing my best to follow along with his explanation. That was an interesting way of going about things, looking not for the thing itself but rather seeing what is different compared to how things would be otherwise.

“Now then, that’s the basic theory at least. Before we can go any further let’s get started with the most fundamental skill you’ll need. Detecting and controlling Order-aligned magical energy.”

The lesson continued for about three hours. Kent was very knowledgeable about his primary field of magic and was also an excellent teacher, greatly cutting down the time that it would have taken me to figure things out on my own.

My transfigured armchairs ended up coming in handy towards the end of the lesson, where Kent showed me how to cast a spell that could determine if an object was in its natural shape. The earth around us was natural, a chair that Kent created was slightly less natural, and my transfigured chair blazed in my new sense as something that did not fully belong. Even after I’d canceled the transfiguration, I could still faintly tell that something had been done to it in the past.

Knowing that an object has previously been transfigured wasn’t a skill I thought I’d be needing in the near future, but it was still a fascinating bit of magic. I’d never heard of a wand spell to check for the same, so either it was something no one had ever tried to do in my world, or perhaps it was even impossible with our form of magic.

Kent showed me out of the tower and instructed me to come back at noon in two days time for another lesson, and that he would have something for me to do next time as payment. I thanked him for his time and apparated away, heading back to my temporary home in Gotham. Hopefully soon I’d have somewhere better to go home too.