Eventually we we managed to gather together her things and after a short break, she got to work. While she was out gathering information I guarded the room and killed time by finally digging into that magic book I picked up from the dungeon.
“The Magic Ramblings Of An Old Fool.” Ramblings was right, and it got borderline philosophical at times, but it was interesting, and it taught me how to use gravity magic… Well, kind of. I still sucked, but I could technically practice all three pillars. The entire book followed the same philosophy, and that made it easy to understand at least, even if it felt like I was reading Shakespeare. By the time I was done, my head hurt.
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[ There is a saying. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Now, the same way all magic has been derived in the past I started by asking myself the question, why not? Then I asked myself, but what if it did? And finally, I asked myself, How could I make that happen?
Well, firstly, for an apple to fall at all means that there must be something pulling it downwards, the very same thing that holds me to the ground when I walk. I call this force gravity. And just like with all magic, the easiest technique is to take it and move it around.
Moving around an invisible force can certainly be challenging, but yet we accomplished this several cycles ago when an old friend created wind and air magic. That was a sight to behold when he first flew like the birds on gusts of wind so strong they made your bones creek. Anyway… Gravity proved to be more challenging to move than air. While wind is invisible, it comes and goes in gusts, it’s easy to imagine what it will do, and what will happen when it is gone. For gravity though, the force is constant. I have no idea what frightful things may happen if it suddenly disappeared, and I don’t wish it to. However, without this knowledge, it is difficult to visualize.
After years I cracked it. I had been comparing it to the wind, imagining the shape of a downward line. For fire and water, the shape must be shapeless, and for wind, the shape must be a line, but for earth magic, the easiest shape to control is a sphere. After trying to manipulate gravity in the likeness of the earth which it holds us to I finally succeeded. I have no idea why this worked, but I’m ecstatic.
Upon further development, I have studied and formed a system by which I was able to teach others my magic.
1: The first pillar is knowing that the apple will fall from the tree. The question is how. The apple may fall off a cliff next to the tree, or roll down a hill, or it may sit at the tree's base, but the apple will fall and it will end up somewhere. By pulling on different parts of gravity, you can guide it as it falls, this is what I call MOVING gravity.
2: The second pillar is changing how long it takes for the apple to hit the ground. Think of it as adding space between it and the ground, pushing back against the force pulling it down. This is the principal opposing force, creating your own gravity. Upon flipping this force, you can also double the effects of gravity.
3: The third pillar is making the apple fall backward. By combining knowledge of the first two pillars, you can locally reverse gravity within an area. However… I have yet to be able to fully remove gravity, and I should think I will never reach such a state.
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I put the book down, scrunching up my face and pressing my fingers against my forehead as hard as I could. ‘Ramblings is right… But the guy is smart too. I mean he discovered gravity, at least in this world, so no surprise there.’ I let out a long groan after spending hours reading every random thought that popped into his head while writing. I was coincidentally the sun was falling, and it was time to meet up with Isy and go to the main hall for the giant slumber party of doom… Or whatever the event was actually called.
After a little bit of waiting Isy came back and knocked on the door. When I opened it though… There was a girl standing behind her with a knife… I held the door half shut as I leaned into the wall. “Oh, Izy, did you find us another guild member? Nice job.”
“N-no… No Siya… She doesn’t seem very nice. She said she was going to kill me.” Her voice cracked, making my eyes instinctively focus.
‘no…She’s bluffing… For starters that knife is single-edged, and facing the wrong way. She isn’t wearing a mask, and killing another noble would have some serious consequences for someone the king is looking for an excuse to get rid of.’ “So then, what’s your name sweety?”
She grimaced. “Why are you looking for me… Who are you…”
Her voice was soft and high pitched, and a little nasally too, like she was a cute little girl… It was hard to find her threatening, or even intimidating… Especially since she was around my height, and not like the giants I was met with every day. Well… hard for me to find her intimidating.... Poor Isy was more than a little nervous.
I sighed. “So I take it you’re Yamaria’s younger sister then?” I let the door swing open the rest of the way. “How about we talk over a cup of tea… Instead of a knife.”
She flipped the dagger around scratching Isy’s neck and making her flinch and start to shake. “You seem to be under the false impression that you’re the one in control of this situation…” She growled.
I let out a long slow growl of my own, far deeper than hers, as a drop of blood trickled down her blade. The sight of it stained my eyes and again the world became tinted.
The girl pulled back a few steps. “Don’t try anything…” She said calmly, grabbing her shoulder and digging her fingers into the wound to force Izy to cooperate as she moved, making her start to shake more, clearly not used to that kind of pain.
My eyes stared directly into her soul. My vision warped through her as if I was traveling through tunnels and around bends as time stopped. At first, all I saw was darkness. Not so much the soul of someone evil, as much as just complete nothingness… What worried me was that I could tell she had killed dozens of people before. Each one left a black mark on her not unlike dark magic, only instead of penetrating the soul, it skimmed the outside, unable to get to her core.
Everything faded away until the only thing left was an even smaller version of her from what must have been years in the past. She was sitting all alone on a stone staircase looking out at something. She wasn’t crying, or longing for something… Her eyes were just… Tired… A feeling I knew all too well…
I blinked and my vision returned to my body but time stayed stagnant, without even trying I suddenly analyzed her, but the screen changed, rather than getting a bunch of stats and skills, there was more to it this time.
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Loyalty: 0
Opinion: - 25
Intimacy: 0
Attitude: hostile
Mental state: calm
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‘Ok… I guess that’s not surprising…’ My head started to hurt again as the space in my mind expanded to reflect the expansion of my ability. Now I could tell, at least to some extent, how my actions would change her opinion and attitude toward me.
‘I wasn’t actually planning on making her a member of my guild… But having an assassin working for you is better than having them against you…’
The blue traces appeared before me like rifts in time, but instead of combat, this time they simulated predictions and outcomes of diplomacy… Which did sometimes lead to conflict… Much more often than I would have liked… Although on the bright side, she never seemed to actually be hostile enough to actually try and kill Isy… Of course, that was still all speculation… Probably? I honestly didn’t fully understand my powers.
Out of curiosity, I looked at Isy as well
Loyalty: 100
Opinion: 100
Intimacy: 25
Attitude: friendly
Mental state: frightened.
‘Wow, she came around fast.’
I racked my brain for a while, trying to figure out the best course of action, struggling to decide between two main paths. Either I pretend like I don’t care if she kills Isy and drastically lower Isy’s opinion of me, just to change her attitude from hostile to annoyed, or I beg her to let Isy go, in which case Isy remains the same, but the other girl's opinion of me bottoms out… Quite the conundrum.
‘I was going to just give in and tell her the truth, letting her leave when she was satisfied… But now I’m curious, could I actually get her on my side too? If I couldn’t… Why would my powers evolve now?’