“So I guess we should move on to the stuff about magic that I don’t need to wait a whole year to learn, right?” Sam asked after Dan was seated once again.
“Yes. I that would be the best option, in my opinion. But… I have prepared an alternative in the case that you would like the avoid further study of magical theory.”
“Why would I want to do that? Unless you’re saying that Sarah’s wrong and I should try my hand at practical magic.”
“Nothing of the sort. Let me try and explain my reasoning. In the Terran Republic, we only start teaching about magic in public schools at ninth grade. That is to say, the age when all students are sure to have awakened. For the very simple reason that learning about magic, even the theoretical frameworks that Sarah told you about, is much easier once you’ve had practical experience with it.”
“So what’s the problem? I thought that studying the theory is fine?”
“It is. There is a wealth of information that I could teach you about, all through the next year even, that doesn’t require any practical knowledge of magic. The ningani, for example, have certain individuals who reach intelligence maturity much earlier than the average, stuck without the ability to practice magic for a long time, they still manage to amass considerable theoretical knowledge. But the fact remains that they will have had a harder time acquiring that knowledge than were they to have had the ability to sense magic. The line differentiating between practice and theory exists, yes, but it is a very faint one. And you might find it frustrating, being explained terms that won’t make any sense to you.”
“Look. I’m the last person to stand against the possibility of learning today what can be learnt tomorrow. But at this point, I’m pretty fucking over having people talk to me and acting shocked when I don’t understand stuff that according to them, is basic. Besides, what were you even planning to teach me today if not this?”
Dan nodded in sympathy. “Elven history.”
“Elven history?”
“Yes. Ideally, this is one of the subjects that you will be able to learn in your own time, or possibly embedding yourself into the classes once you are able. But in the absence of anything more difficult for me to teach you, I thought that you might appreciate a softer entrance into the subject. I did think about starting you on Epirak studies; with an examination of the most common variants of Brutes, but I decided that it’d best be saved until I have a definite stretch of time to dedicate solely to that.”
“What like a bestiary? Telling you their strengths and weaknesses and how to best fight them? Cause that sound awesome.”
“Not exactly. The deeper, strategic and tactical, analysis only begins during the second trimester of the second year, to make sure all students have a basic understanding of personal and large-scale combat. The first year studies mostly focus on recognition of enemy types; yes to examining their characteristics, but no to how to fight them.”
“Hm… Well, if learning that was on the table, then I might’ve been interested in delaying the theory of magic lessons. But as it is… I mean, why the hell is elven history even a subject? You guys are talking the academy part of the military academy too seriously.”
“Except for the dwarves, we teach the history of all the foreign races here. After all, how can you except our soldiers to fight shoulder to shoulder with an elf or an Imperial without knowing anything about them?”
“Why not? You think the US taught its officers anything about the Emirates or the Saudis, in ‘91? I got more examples if you want, but I’ve been brainwashed by the current state of international relationships studies to always think about the Gulf War first.”
“I don’t know what you’re referring to, but I’m sure you do. Let me just say this: I truly believe that our courses on foreign history are an integral part of our teaching in the academies. Nevertheless, if you end up wanting to avoid spending time on the subject, I promise to arrange you an exemption.”
“Nah, that probably won’t be necessary. It’s history, after all. I’m just gonna lap it all up. Wish I could say the same thing about learning magic, though. That’s a hint, in case I wasn’t being unsubtle enough.
“Yes, I got that.” Dan smiled. “Very well, then. From what Sarah told me, she only gave you a very basic explanation of most terms. So I’m going to start from the top if that’s alright?”
“Yeah, sure. I probably already forgot half of what she told me. If I ever truly understood it in the first place. And that was basically the only lesson on magic I got since coming here, you know? Two and a half days since then and for some reason, no one bothered to use their time with me to explain things in more depth. I mean, I don’t even know what magic actually is. Is it energy like electricity? Is it a force?”
Dan laughed. “You’re not alone in not knowing what magic is. After your Awakening, you’ll know what magic feels like, but it still won’t lead you to an answer as to what it is. And for practical purposes, it doesn’t even matter. If you’d like, you can consider it as a form of energy. That’s what most people do anyway, since it feels and functions like energy. Certain people, highly interested in the question, might argue that magic itself is not energy and we must differentiate between magic as a concept and magical energy as the substance which we hold in our core… But, like I said, doesn’t matter.
“And with that, we have our first basic term for examination: the core. You’re familiar with it, of course. Having had a more intimate experience with it than most people, much to the interest of Maurice, I’m told. Practically, you can view the core as simply the storage area for your magic.”
“Yeah I got that,” Sam said. “But what I’m not clear on is the whole higher level bit. What does it mean for a level 2 to have twice as much magic as a level 1? Is their core larger? Denser?”
“Both. Or neither. Depends on your own conception of it. Interfacing with the core is a very subjective experience. Everyone sees it in their own, ever changing, way. The core isn’t actually a physical object, it doesn’t take up physical space, and nor does it exist at any one particular point in your body. This is actually an example of the development in our subjective perception of the core. Eventually, no matter how you’ll view the core at first, you’ll see that you can access it from any point in your body. And far off in the future, you’ll find that you won’t need to think of your body at all in order to access it.”
“Is that why, despite it not existing in my physical body, people were still able to interact with it?”
“That is the very end result of that, yes. But, interacting with another person’s core is an incredibly difficult thing to do. As far as I know, no one interacted with yours.”
“So how did that medic guy, Javi, save my life? He told me that he knew I didn’t have a core. And how did the artifact thingy measure my level then?”
“Ah, well, the answer is that they didn’t interact with your core. If I’m not mistaken, what the artifact does, in layman’s terms, is trigger your body to send a tracing towards it with what amounts to one-hundredth of your core’s capacity. It then multiplies it by a hundred and compares it with the capacity it has been set to measure. Now, as to the healing you received from Javi, it also wasn’t anything so special. He might be considered a protégé of Maurice’s, but he’s still some distance away from being able to interact with another person’s core. A distance of three levels if he’s as good as his mentor. From the report I read, he just used basic healing magic to guide your body during your core’s formation. In other words, viewing another person’s core is much simpler than interacting with it. And just to calm your worries, you don’t need to worry about people messing with your core. I, for example, could only help you refill your core were it empty. Which, let’s see.” He touched Sam on the arm. “It’s obviously not, because you aren’t able to use it. I was just illustrating how the only information I can gleam from your core is how filled it is. All clear?” He smiled.
“No…” Sam sighed. “I’m beginning to understand where the frustrating you mentioned might be coming from.”
“Yes, well... Just remember that once you’re able to experience magic, this will make much more sense. Like, for example, tracing. I won’t bother trying to explaining how to do it right now, you’ll see for yourself that it’s very intuitive. Just remember the term. It’s the process of moving magic, or magical energy, from one point to another.”
“Yeah, and you can only trace through pathways, right?”
“Pathways and patterns, yes. We use the term pathways to also mean those artificially created by patterns, but the ningani and deshars use it only to mean the naturally occurring ones.”
“Like in my body?”
“Indeed. That’s why the common metaphor for explaining what pathways are is comparing them to blood vessels, only without all the different types. Pathways carry all magic through the body and they can go either way.”
“So does that mean that unlike the core, they’re a physically on my body?”
“Yes. Although, you won’t be able to see them with the naked eye, as they are still completely magical in nature. But you will be able to see them once you can sense magic. And you’ll see that they are spatially located. Were you to lose your hand, you’d also lose access to the pathways in it.”
“And artificial ones are those found outside of the body? In patterns on weapons?”
“Not exactly. All patterns should be considered as a form of artificial pathways. That is because even when we imprint inside our own body, we are not creating the pattern inside of our pathways, but outside of them, extending from them. So, for example, imagine the pathway going through my arm as one straight line. In order to make a pattern whose effects will make my arm as tough as stone, I’ll have first create an opening in it, and from that opening imprint the desired pattern through my body. It’s alright if it doesn’t make much sense right now. Imprinting is a difficult topic to grasp without prior understanding of how pathways and tracing works. And it requires you to be level 1 to be able to do it, so you have plenty of time before needing to worry about it anyway..”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“Really? Is that why 1 is the base level?”
“Possibly. We don’t know. We got the system of levels designation from the Reshan. Oh, the Reshan are—”
“I know what they are.” Sam had had quite enough of the AI creating bastards. “Wait, so if I can’t imprint, how will I use the universal translator? Aren’t artifacts made with patterns?”
“They are. And even if the answer to what constitutes an artifact varies greatly from person to person, no one would argue that the translator isn’t one. But you don’t need to be level 1 in order to use patterns. To use a pattern, same as to use the translator, you only need to start tracing through it. The moment you do, and this is what differentiates a pattern from a simple artificial pathway, the pattern will grab hold of the energy you’ve traced, and carry it through itself—as long as you’ve traced enough energy—to a complete rotation.”
“That sounds really complex. I’m going to have to trace thorough the translator every time I want to use it?”
“Thankfully no. The pattern on the translator is what we call a sustained pattern. Once you trace through it, provided you completed the first rotation, the pattern will continuously trace magic from the core to itself without needing your input. Only stopping if you run out of magic or if you… tell it to stop. Stopping is more difficult than starting, but you won’t have to worry about that. No reason for you to turn off the translator, after all.”
“What if other people imprint a pattern for me until I’m level 1? Cause there’s a bunch that I heard about and I want to try.”
“Ah, I’m afraid that is not going to happen. It’s impossible to imprint on another living being. Don’t ask me why, because we don’t know.”
Sam groaned. “Guess I’m not getting out of brushing my teeth anytime soon. So what’s the opposite of a sustained pattern? Active one? No, that doesn’t make a sense. Burst?”
“Conscious, is the term you’re looking for. There are also semi-conscious patterns. Patterns with the ability to switch between being sustained or not on the fly.”
“How does that work?”
“By creating a dead space of sorts between the desired effects of the pattern and the effect that makes it function constantly. Don’t worry about that too much now. I’ll show you after we’ve had a couple of lessons on patterns together. And, like I said, patterns are still a way off for you to worry about how to work with them.”
“Yeah… alright.” Sam leaned back with a sigh. “But I can still make use of magic by tracing, right? Sarah said that patterns are basically just a preset configuration for tracing.”
“Indeed. That is why the artificial pathways patterns are built upon are significantly smaller than your regular pathways. If you simply trace through your pathways, following their trajectory, it won’t have any effect. You’re just moving the magic in a straight line. In order for magic to have an effect, you need to trace it in a certain way. And while imprinting has to wait until level 1, tracing the same configuration that the pattern is meant to replicate, is not. For example.” He held out his index finger, the top of which suddenly started bleeding. “While making a cut in your body is a somewhat difficult bit of tracing. Closing a cut—regenerating a small wound—is the most basic form of tracing there is, connecting your pathway to your body in order to send magic into your wholly physical self.” He took a tissue from the table and wiped his finger clean. There wasn’t a cut to be seen.
“That easily?”
“For small wounds, yes. All the magic really did was kick my body’s natural healing into overdrive, hastening the process of blood clotting and so on. Real healing magic is much more complex than that. No matter how much magic I would pour into my arm, it would never be enough for it to reconnect with my hand were it to be cut off. And of course, the real difficulty of healing magic is not in healing yourself but other people. Just tracing through another person’s body is an order of magnitude more difficult than your own. Not to mention how much more complex affecting patterns are to imprint and difficult to work.”
Dan stopped to take his first sip in a long while. “That’s pretty much it for the basic introduction to all the terms, but one, that you’ve talked to Sarah about.”
“So next up is gathering?”
“No. Before that, I wanted to go over two other basic terms. I understand why Sarah didn’t mention them to you. One being not so important to the both of you, and the other being too… esoteric. But I still want to go over them. We’ll leave gathering for last. My explanation for it builds upon the other terms.”
Sam sighed. “This is starting to get complex enough to trigger my anxiety…”
“Don’t worry. You’ll come to it easily, like fish to water. Once you start practicing, everything we talked about today will make intuitive sense to you. So, are you ready to go on, or would you like to take a small break?”
“No, no. I’m just complaining for the hell of it. Let’s go on.”
“Alright. So the first of the terms is called sculpting. This is where it can get confusing, because inside your body, sculpting and imprinting are functionally the same thing. Wait, before you ask any questions, let me explain. Sculpting is the process of reshaping your pathways, and it has two facets. The first is to bring your pathways more in line with your body in order to lower the resistance of tracing magic into it. The second one is to better the pathways themselves, which mostly consists of enlarging them so they could carry more magic. If you don’t do that, you ran the risk of your level getting ahead of your pathways—”
“And your head exploding? Is that why Maurice wants to check up on me after I’ve awakened?”
“I’m not sure that your head exploding is a viable result. But permanent injury and death certainly are. Also, Maurice is not worried at all about that happening to you. He’s simply following protocol and a heavy dose of scientific curiosity. He’s not worried for the same reason you won’t have to worry about sculpting. You’re a Taken. Your pathways are already perfect, or as close to as possible. No need to enlarge them, no need to better their connection with your body. According to Maurice, he never had to sculpt once, all the way to level 8. Which most likely means that he won’t have to at all, because of how stuff works at those last two levels. So while I am going to teach you about the basics of sculpting once you reach level 1, we won’t delve into it in the depth which the academy requires. You simply won’t need it.”
“But won’t I need it for imprinting?” Sam asked.
“Ahem… Let me explain from the top: The mechanical process of sculpting and in-body imprinting are the same thing, a form of tracing which you can only start doing once you’re level 1. The difference between the two is conceptual only. The same way we differentiate between natural and artificial pathways, we do between sculpting and imprinting. Sculpting is the process of changing natural pathways, and imprinting is the process of changing, or rather creating, artificial pathways. Think of it like digging a hole. Functionally, you’re doing the same thing, whether you’re digging a crop field or a trench. You use the same shovel and arms for both. But knowing how to dig a good trench won’t help you with making a good field and vice versa.”
“So using this metaphor, the act of digging is the form of tracing you talked about. And imprinting and sculpting differ based on what end result we wish for? It’s the same process and the difference in terms comes from the function we assign to it?”
“Exactly.”
“That can’t be a common metaphor…”
“It is. I assure you.
Sam grunted but decided not to pursue complaining about this subject just yet. “So where does imprinting a weapon come into the picture? Is it also the same thing?”
“No. But don’t bother about it now. If you’ll want, you could take some courses on artifice, that’s the official term for imprinting objects, once you got your bearing. But there’s a reason why none of those courses are mandatory. All of what we might teach you during your three years here will not help you make a better weapon than the one you are given by the army.”
“Alright… no artifice for me, then.”
“Don’t be so certain. You might find that you like the subject if you try it. But, at the end of the day, I’m going to give you your choice of electives and it’ll be up to you to choose between them. I will only offer you guidance. Anyway, we’ve finished with sculpting. Was it all clear?”
“As clear as can be.” Sam sighed.
“Good enough. So let’s move on to the next term. Like I said, it won’t make much sense to you now. Matter of fact, it probably won’t make much sense until you get close to level 1, but it’s important for you to know about it anyway. It’s called muddling.”
“Muddling? Are you joking?”
“No. That’s the name. Muddling is the term for making the core more compatible with… not your body, really. Perhaps the soul or spirit is a more apt parallel?”
“The soul’s real? Like it’s scientifically proven?”
“No. But because the core is so distinct from your body, most people don’t think of it in physical terms. Think of it as being powered by your mind, or consciousness, to be even less physical.”
Sam nodded his head angrily. “So it’s metaphysics. You’re talking with me about fucking metaphysics. Makes sense we’d get drawn to it eventually. The core doesn’t exist physically, so can it still actually exist? Oooh… what an interesting question… I’m sure Aristotle would just love to ponder that when he’s not busy shitting on Plato’s forms.”
“I warned you that understanding what the core is like is impossible without experiencing it for yourself.”
“I’m gonna stop you right there, because I do understand what the core is. I mean conceptually, at least, it’s the place where magic comes from. Pretty simple; nice and easy. But, according to my understanding of what a core is, and again, I’m no expert, but most, if not all, instances of a core have it being ‘muddled’ a bad thing. You’re supposed to make the core more clear and pure, is usually how it goes.”
“Who told you that?”
“You know… books and such. Maybe some video games or movies even. It’s a pretty basic fantasy term at the end of the day.”
“Must be a reason why it’s called fantasy then…”
“Let’s not get into an epistemological debate on top of the metaphysical one we’re already having. You’re saying that instead of a pristine and orderly core, I want a mixed bag one?”
“It’s just the term given to the process. It’s not meant to be taken completely literally. Imagine your core like a block of marble. Muddling would be the process of changing it from the basic, meaningless state, to something more in line with your own self. Hence the names for the different states of the core. Solid, which is what you are now. Fragmented, which you’re sure to become, as is everyone, including the Taken, according to Maurice, around level 1. Next you have, malleable and at the end ethereal. The practical importance of having a ‘higher’ stage of muddled core is that it helps with drawing magic out of it—for use in tracing—and, much more importantly, with cultivating.”
“So how does this muddling work in practice? Is it something that I can start doing right now?”
“I wouldn’t worry about it. Like I said, you’ll end up with a fragmented core near the time you hit level 1 anyway. And it’ll be much easier for you to understand what I’m talking about then. In fact, most people don’t bother with active muddling because of the difficultly and unease of the practice. Especially since your core will naturally become more muddled with the passage of time and natural muddling increases the higher your level. Pretty much every level 10 is guaranteed to have an ethereal core even if they’ve never actively muddled in their life.”
“You can, however, also accelerate your natural muddling in ways other than just having a higher level. But because we haven’t managed to figure out the underlying logic being it, there’s two competing main schools of thought on how to do that. The first one simply states that you must be yourself and your core will react accordingly. In other words, it doesn’t tell us anything, which is why I never cared for it. The other approach is more clinical. We find the methods which our core positively reacts to, and we maintain in doing them. For example, when I was sixteen or so, a year after I made it to level 1 and got my core to fragmented, I found that drinking scalding hot tea to have a definite effect on my core. I don’t know why that’s so. I don’t very much appreciate the effort I had to extend on tracing my tongue to withstand the temperature before I caved in and got a pattern for that. But, it works. Can’t deny that.” He smiled and took another sip.
“That’s… nice.” Sam lied. Please God, for the love of yourself, if you’re out there and Nietzsche accused us unjustly. Please don’t make me become a person that drinks anything but water regularly. Not even coke, oh great and merciful Lord. I’m a water boy—as I’m sure you could see if you were to take an average urine analysis from throughout my entire life—and I don’t want to become anything else. Web-Web, if you can hear me, please tell me that you hadn’t brought me into a world that would force me to be someone I’m not. I swear to God, if it turns out that what I have to do in order to save the world is to reread Wheel of Time, I’m going to turncoat and give myself a stupid nickname that only I would get like the Latin Prisoner.