I fell to my hands and knees, then just flopped against the ground, sweating and gasping. My spirit strained and bucked as my spirit rebelled against my control, spurred on by the casting of Seven League Step. My tail lashed wildly through the air, burning with a bright blue light of spatial energy.
It wasn't pain. I knew spiritual pain. I understood it and was familiar with it. This was something new as if a portion of my very being was fighting against me, against myself.
Orykson appeared over me a moment later, holding an umbrella. As if on cue, a raindrop fell down from overhead.
I hauled myself back onto my hands and knees, then staggered to my feet as I wrestled my spirit back under control. As I forced everything back into place, the resistance started to recede, and Orykson raised an eyebrow.
“Well, this certainly explains a few things,” Orykson said.
“What… was that?” I demanded between heaves of breath.
“One of your major roots was entwined with the connection point between Beast Mage’s Soul and Magister’s Body,” Orykson said. “Then, one minor root within each spell itself. That left a major root unaccounted for. “
He gestured at my tail.
“I had some suspicions, when your soul manifested an energy-construct tail as a part of you. But now, I think it’s safe to say that Foxstep is where your other major root lies.”
“Foxstep?” I asked numbly. I hadn’t been casting Foxstep, I’d cast Seven League Step.
“There is more to resolve than sheerly mana being used to punch through problems,” Orykson said, as the rain began coming down in buckets. There was a flex of spatial mana, and we were inside a coffee house sitting down at one of the tables.
One of the baristas, one who looked oddly familiar, called out to Orykson, asking if he’d have his regular order. He agreed, and I ordered a cup of bergamot tea.
We both took a seat, my tail curling around my waist, and Orykson began.
“Roots are generally not something a mage has to worry about until they’re an Arcanist. Even yours were apparently inactive.”
“What about Dawn? She has a well already,” I asked, and Orykson waved his hand dismissively.
“Dusk and Dawn are both anomalous entities, albeit in their own ways. For now, we’re speaking in generalities.”
I nodded my acceptance at that, and Orykson continued.
“Roots are one of the reasons that magic becomes increasingly strange as you advance,” he said. “Minor roots are simple enough, in their way. Once active, they strengthen the connected spell slowly, with the exact method depending on the type. More importantly, they allow you to develop a new avenue of power. Have you not noticed that you already possess more trimmings in your mana-garden than you need for your staff?”
“Sure. I know a lot of people sell it to alchemists, enchanters, and wardcrafters.”
“And there’s nothing wrong with that, but once a spell has a root, using them for enhancement becomes available. How do spells grow in the spirit?”
“They grow upwards into the air, and also down into the soil,” I said. “That’s similar to how Depths of Starry Night enhances the spell itself. It shoots power into the sky, then into the roots.”
“Precisely. Once a root has formed, you can take trimmings from your other spells and reform them to assist your existing spells. When doing so, you should consider the properties of what exactly you’re making, what you’re making it out of, and what spell you’re adding. That determines how effectively your resonance around the spell is increased, though method of resonance plays a part as well.”
While he was speaking, Orykson flicked two fingers up and down, as if he was painting a line in the air.
“Ikki’s blade for example, is fiercely empowered with resonance, all connected to his echoing and offensive aging spells. While his mana-garden gains some degree of increased efficacy from the additional constructs around his rooted spells, most of the power is directed to the power output of the blade. A bound domain weapon with enhancements from myself, the Craftsman, and from the Forgemaster when she was alive, combined with the powerful boost to resonance that comes as a result of all of his roots? It makes it one of the most dangerous weapons on Ddeaer. When you visit Daocheng, you should ask a sect elder – any sect – about the legends of the White Viper’s Fang.”
I was surprised to hear Orykson so blatantly praise someone else, but then again, I supposed that he and Ikki did have a long history.
“Then for me… Fungal Lock spell is a mushroom spell that drains energy from its target to sustain itself, and has an ingrained effect that improves all other draining spells, including harvesting spells. If I had a lesser root on, say, Harvest Plant Life, could I take some of the plucked up mycelium and fruiting bodies from my excess and plant it around the harvest-tree, enhancing it a lot more via… a soul-mycorrhizal effect?”
“That would be a wise choice, especially for a fortune root,” Orykson said with a nod. “You also might be able to take stripped branches from your other harvesting spells and break them apart into mulch, then spread that mulch around the trees. Your brother’s mana-garden is a rock garden and statuary, correct?”
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“Yes,” I said, nodding.
“He might, in theory, take discarded pieces from his Stone Shield spell and fashion them into a shield, then place that against the leg of his Skin of Stone spell, in order to enhance its toughness effect. But it’s important to not overcrowd – think of it as choking out the tree, or covering the statue with so many random accessories that it diminishes the beauty of the statue.”
He let out a long suffering sigh.
“There’s not much of a science to it, unfortunately. It’s something of an artform and aesthetics, in addition to who you are as a person. I tend to do best with everything organized immaculately, but I suspect someone like you will do better with… cozy disorder.”
I ignored the jibe to instead ask a question.
“Is this part of why higher-gate magic tends to get so… weird? I’ve heard that it gets strange and hard to track.”
“It’s one of the reasons, certainly,” Orykson agreed between sips of his coffee. “A large one, in fact, but far from the only one. The Clarity of Purpose, Intrinsic Limitation, and other aspects of reaching Arcanist all have their own barring.”
I filed away the terms in my head for future reference. I was still far from being ready and able to dig out my steps, but any information was helpful.
“So that’s what minor roots do,” I said. “What about major ones?”
“Major roots are a bit less predictable,” Orykson said with something of a sigh. “They tend to build off of the abilities that the minor roots have, but greatly amplified. The resonance amplification effect is strengthened, as is the gradual strengthening of the spell’s underpinnings. But they tend to extend out to other things and… fold them in.”
“How do you mean?” I asked, and he fixed me with a flat stare.
“That’s the problem. While I can take general guesses, each person’s roots generally operate differently.”
“Generally?”
“The Sun and Moon Queens roots operate identically to one another, just targeting different spells, but that’s neither here nor there,” Orykson said. “Discussing anomalies is a fine topic for scholarly debate, but not useful for practical information.”
He gestured to himself.
“Your roots likely took on something of a similar bent to mine. Resolve has aspects of eternity and vastness and consumption. The void between stars that is always hunger and never satisfied, the black hole that consumes endlessly without discretion. The peerless warrior who is always looking for the next mountain to climb. Its major roots tend to be hungry.”
He put a haunting note on the last word.
“Mine allows me to consume foreign spells and work bits of them into the foundations of my mana-garden, somewhere in between the standard enhancement that can be done with a minor root and stealing bits of an ingrained effect,” Orykson said. “I’ve integrated countless body enhancement spells into my full-gate spell this way.”
“My Foxstep reacted, according to you,” I said. “Is it trying to consume the Seven League Step?”
“I suspect it’s something like that,” Orykson said. “I doubt it will be able to consume it entirely – even if I consume someone’s mana-garden hundreds of times over, I cannot simply steal the fullness of an ingrained effect. There reaches a point of diminishing returns, as well as the same overcrowding problem I mentioned with the lesser roots.”
He flicked his hand at my heart, where the fused roots of resolve were.
“Yours is further complicated by the fact that it is an imprint of deep mana. The root’s assault on you will likely cease once you are able to fully master it and force it under your will, but the nature of resolve is to prove yourself, and then turn that punishment into a reward. I suspect that your Foxstep spell is innately well suited to stimulating its own growth by consuming ability from your other teleportation spells, in order to grow its ability, effectively turning your other teleportation spells into meta spells that can be run alongside Foxstep.”
Orykson let out a small, genuinely amused laugh.
“Self-draining, and turning it into enhancement and support, rather than taking from others. A year ago, I would have said that was practically contradictory, as few people can straddle the line between resolve and fortune well enough to make resolve roots cooperate.”
I barely even heard him, because I was thinking about what a growing Foxstep could do. After all, I’d already seen exactly what happened when I used Foxstep alongside Seven League Step. If I hadn’t been able to call help from Dusk, the strain of effectively running more than twenty miles in a single second would have possibly killed me. I’d had help, so it hadn’t been that big of a deal, but I’d already written off trying to use the spells together.
But it had also triggered Harvest Distance, and the resulting growth from the strain had flooded my body with new power. If it could learn to consume the Seven League Step spell and generate mana without the downside of almost killing me, I could use it for energy growth and to recover spatial mana.
Orykson cut off my train of thought with a raised hand.
“Remember, as I said, they all have a point of diminishing returns. I expect that while it will be able to reduce the strain that the spells put on your body when running another teleportation spell and Foxstep in sync, it will also reduce the reward.”
“That makes sense,” I said with a reluctant nod. “Do you think I’ll be able to speed up the casting of Seven League Step?”
“Possibly,” Orykson said, then took a long sip of coffee. “Of course, there are other options for speeding it up.”
“Oh? Outside of tethering it, you mean?”
“Of course. Each of the parts of the spell is effectively a spell in and of itself. If you’re willing to expand the spell in your spirit to take up almost all of your gate, it’s possible to ingrain all ten parts separately. That cuts the casting time down to about a minute, and is what many professional courier services do.”
There was a bit of mirth in his tone as he deliberately withheld the actual answer. I glared at him, and he continued.
“Or you can make it to Arcanist. From there, it’s a relatively simple re-work via a tiny meta spell – smaller than even Fungal Lock – and you can cast the spell instantly.”
“Is that what someone like Kene’s grandmother or Azalea does?” I asked, and Orykson actually snorted.
“Hardly. They’re both using far inferior methods. The spells for a mid-range teleport at fifth gate for lunar or forest mages are larger and far clunkier. Shadow mages need to either use an anchor, or else use a roughly minute long ritual to make it work. A forest dragon arcanist spell might be more directional, but it requires a path of roots, mycelium, branches, or other such things. Having more than a foot or so without a connection blocks the teleportation entirely.”
I paused and traced back to when I’d been pulled through space by Kene’s grandmother and Azalea. They had felt strange and different, and I supposed that it made sense that both would have anchors already set up. I just hadn’t thought about it.
“Well, I suppose I don’t have to pick,” I said, and Orykson gave me a blank look.
“With the three types of spatial magic. Beasts usually do warping or a blend that doesn’t fall into the others, right? So that makes sense for me. Then my Foxstep will grow in tandem with my teleportation spells, so it makes sense that I’ll go teleportation. Dusk is already an entire astral plane, and allows me to step in and out, so my benefits there are less than what a normal person’s would be. I can get some basic competency, but I don't need to focus on it."
“True enough,” Orykson agreed, nodding. “Speaking of creating pocket spaces, you still need to do that.”
He gestured to me, and I pulled out the book that we’d gotten from the auction.