Jeremy set the board down on the floorboards in front of himself and held his hands over it to channel mana into the enchantment and power it up. As soon as the enchantment had its fill of mana, instead of showing an overlay with just the colors as numbers on the scale that they had figured out, the enchanted board was enveloped by darkness.
It slowly crept out from the enchantment, enveloping everything as it expanded into utter blackness. The type of true black that he had seen in the void in the dungeons. As he watched it creep across the floor and reach the camping lantern, which suddenly went dark, it reminded him of the kelpie all of a sudden. There too had been a darkness which seemed to consume everything in its path.
Although, from what Jeremy remembered, the objects had still been there, it was just that they were no longer visible. Tentatively, he reached down and touched the floorboards in front of him. Though it looked as though there was nothing but a void, he could feel the wood – smooth from years of foot traffic – solid beneath his fingers. He frowned and tried to rationalize that things weren’t really disappearing, even as the camping lantern went out, plunging the barn into shadow, and the darkness crept toward his legs.
“Uh…”
“You should move away from that.” Hazel said calmly as he did exactly that himself. Jeremy leapt to his feet and moved back several steps, then glanced at the sleepy Caleb and Zanie. Before he could open his mouth to shout and warn them to move back as well, the blackness suddenly faded. The floorboards and the camping lantern and the enchantment became visible again. Although the camping lantern remained dark and so the interior of the barn was cast into dim shadow.
“What the hell was that?” Jeremy asked.
“Well, that was the illusion magic malfunctioning.” Hazel bent down to pick up the lantern and fiddle with it. “It’s not surprising that your first time trying a slightly more complex enchantment would not go as expected.”
“What was it doing though?” Jeremy asked. “If it is just an illusion, why did you say we should step back.”
Hazel hummed and sat back down in the spot he had just vacated, still messing with the lantern. “It appears to have drained the battery.”
He set the lantern aside with a sigh, then stretched one of his legs out so he could reach into his pocket and retrieve another one. As he pulled it out and set it up, bathing the space in pale, LED light again, he began to explain.
“This type of magic is…well it’s not just about illusions. That is just one of the common applications of it. It is more so about the…consumption of things. It breaks things down and manipulates reality…perception. I am not sure that you would have an equivalent word for what we call it in my language.”
Jeremy scraped his thumb against his jawline. “Sounds a bit like entropy. What is your actual term for this kind of magic?”
“Demonic.”
Jeremy made a face and sat back down as well, picking up the enchanted board and running a thumb over the rune. “You’re right. I don’t think there is a good equivalent term because that’s certainly not what I would have used.”
So, instead of causing the board to burst into flames the way a malfunction with he fire starter enchantment might have, the scan enchantment began to consume everything. Or at least all of the light and all of the power in the lantern’s battery, which meant it seemed to consume energy of any kind, but not just regular objects.
“What would have happened if it touched you or I?” Jeremy asked.
“It really depends on the exact nature of the demonic spell, but it may have begun simply draining your life force from you.” Hazel said.
Jeremy shivered and looked up from the string of runes. Hazel did not seem all that worried about it. Perhaps playing around with this kind of thing was normal, or perhaps he just understood that the enchantment had a limited amount of mana running though it and thus would not just continue to spread.
Jeremy wondered if it did manage to run into a person or something that had a high concentration of mana, whether it might just be able to continue feeding itself and growing. The thought was terrifying. He set the enchanted board aside and endeavored to continue practicing with less dangerous types of magic until he was a bit better, which was unfortunate because the scan enchantment he had just attempted was a very simplistic version of what he wished to eventually implement.
Rome was not built in a day, he supposed.
“If there is a demonic type of magic that consumes energy, is there something opposite that which creates energy?” Jeremy asked.
Hazel hummed. “Celestial.”
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“Of course,” Jeremy muttered. “I wonder why the translation spell is using religious terms, is there some kind of spiritual component to these magic types for elves?”
“Of course.” Hazel sat forward and held his hands out, palms facing up to gesture as he spoke. “There was Aether, Demonic, and Celestial in the beginning. Life, Consumption and Creation. And from them came Time, Space, etcetera. From which came the earth, the sky, and fires.”
He dropped his hands into his lap again and cut himself off before even really getting into what sounded like a creation myth to Jeremy. “There are stories about the creation of each, as well as the elves and the dwarves and the humans and the flora and fauna and any number of other creatures.”
“So, are they like gods?” Jeremy asked, thinking that most creation myths seemed to have some type of being to which the creation was attributed. “Is there a god of each?”
“No, no.” Hazel chuckled. “These are far more primordial and encompassing than a god. A god is simply another one of these types of creatures, with perhaps a bit of an unfathomable amount of power and just general existence to our mortal minds, but they are beings which live within and use the different types of magic the same as you and I.”
“Oh.” Jeremy thought about the old god that he had first met at the beginning of all this, which seemed to be able to manipulate his Unique Personality Trait, which was nearly an unfathomable use of magic. Yet, it had been captured down in the tunnels by humans for thousands of years or so. Apparently, even gods had their limits.
“Humans here from what I have seen do not really have a schema for the way we view the types of magic, or even the flow of mana in general.” Hazel continued. “We worship them as they are, not as beings. And we do so by learning to utilize them and to live within them. Every fire user is an acolyte of fire, for example, but it’s not quite like your organized religions because it is more personalized and spiritual. Each person finds their own way to be an acolyte through their practice of magic.”
“Huh.” Jeremy frowned, “But what about people who focus on enchantments? Because isn’t that a different kind of magic than using the magic types directly?”
“it is and there are entire cults of enchanters who are devoted simply to that mode of utilizing magic.” Hazel answered, “Again, it’s not…while it’s not directly equivalent to your human pagan pantheons, it is somewhat analogous. There are not just the magic types, but also different modes of utilizing mana in general – from enchanting to physical prowess.”
Hazel put a hand against his chest. “I myself do not utilize magic very much in the way you probably think. I was not very good at it throughout my schooling and so I never went on to be a mage, but that does not mean I cannot dedicate myself to my physical abilities, both in honing my own skills like agility as well as my experience with using weapons. But that does not mean I am able to forge my own weapons.”
Jeremy shook his head and put his hands on the floorboards behind him for support as he leaned back. “Okay. Does that have to do with your Unique Personality Traits?”
As soon as he asked this, his eyes dropped down to Hazel’s overlay, where an affinity for fire magic sat in his spot for his own Unique Personality Trait. So, it probably did not.
“Not necessarily,” Hazel confirmed. “Even if I had a gift for using fire magic, it was not necessarily what I was best at. It’s the magic that comes easiest to me, but I’m still not much good with schooling and learning spells and all that. But put a sword in my hand and I’m at my best.”
Jeremy grunted in agreement and nodded. He’s been of the mind that if someone had an affinity for a certain type of magic, of course they would practice that. In the case of Zanie and Caleb, who were able to access more advanced types of magic with less practice than other people, perhaps this was more likely to be the case. But for some people – Jeremy included – who did not have an affinity, their Unique Personality Trait did not necessarily dictate what type of magic they might use. And if they had an affinity for one of the more accessible elemental magic types, maybe it would not necessarily factor into what type of magic they used or even if they used magic at all.
“So, if you call the Unique Personality Traits ‘gifts’ are they supposed to be coming from the magic types? Or…”
“Well,” Hazel sat back as well, leaning his head against the wall and narrowing his eyes at Jeremy. “I’m not exactly sure how to explain this to you any differently. I’ve never really been interested in all of this enough to have a philosophical conversation about it, but the types of magic are not beings. The gifts are simple…well, if you have to think about it like this, they are a gift from the universe in general, just like you might consider life to be a gift or…”
“You’re right,” Jeremy waved him off, “We shouldn’t turn this into a conversation about philosophy. I also don’t understand enough about it for an in-depth discussion.”
They sat and stared at the floorboards for a few moments. All of the talk about the elves religion and relationship with magic had Jeremy thinking about when Hazel had said that they thought of people who were able to see mana like him as prophets of some kind. Perhaps that was why they had never thought to create some type of system for everyone to see the levels and runes.
“Do you think that the idea of them being ‘gifts’ in whatever context you mean that word is why nobody has ever thought to create an enchantment like this?” Jeremy gestured to the failed scan enchantment at his side. “Because being able to see was steeped in your spirituality?”
Hazel pursed his lips and crossed his arms. “No, I don’t think so. I just think it is a difference in how we relate with magic. We do not see it as something to be…tamed the way that you do, but just as something to live with.”
“But if you could understand it better?” Jeremy sat forward. “Isn’t that why you are here researching? To try to understand the dungeons better?”
“Yes, we are quite interested in this world since the gate re-opened and it is different than our own.” Hazel agreed, “We cultivate our magic and our understanding of the world, but we are not so intent on organizing everything as you humans are.”
Jeremy shook his head. “Is it such a bad thing?”
“Oh, I don’t think so at all.” Hazel smiled. “I think it’s understandable and admirable that you are trying to make sense of everything when it is so new to you.”
Jeremy nodded. He glanced over at Zanie and Caleb, then down at his failed scan enchantment. Hopefully he could keep working at enchanting and get good enough to actually figure this enchantment out, even if he did have to do it piece by piece.