Meyriv’s skill at magic began to improve. The amount he could pull remained the same, but his ability to perceive and understand existing structures improved daily. He began to notice many enchantments in and around Irotem’s home.
In the food storage areas in particular, he realized that all of the chilled rooms had the same magical structure surrounding them. It was a ‘mesh’ of magic in which he could sense two distinct layers.
The first layer was to prevent heat from entering the area from the surrounding walls and air.
The second layer was to detect the current temperature of the room and remove excess heat until the temperature was reduced to the intended level.
But how does he maintain the enchantment without being present or needing to concentrate?
He mentally scoured the room for the source of the energy. Eventually, he found a stream of incoming energy. When he tried to follow it to the source, it ended after a few feet. The stream seemed to be flowing from empty air.
Later, he asked Irotem how he kept the cellar rooms chilled constantly and from a distance.
“I assume you’ve learned to analyze existing structures? Excellent.”
“And to answer your question, I maintain remote enchantments by forming a branch off of my personal energy conduit that flows through extra-dimensional space to the destination of my choice.
Obviously, my own available energy is reduced proportionally in addition to a small amount of overhead to maintain the connection.
Meyriv blinked several times, failing to hide his amazement.
Irotem continued his technical monologue.
“Unfortunately, this skill is unlikely to be attainable to you. Any conduit requires a minimum amount of energy to maintain. In your case, any branch off your personal energy would likely be impractically costly.”
He was disappointed, he had been considering potential uses for the ability.
Curious, he tried to sense Irotem’s magic.
Hundreds of streams of energy large and small flowed from him in all directions, fading from visibility after a meter or so.
He was unable to stop himself from gasping. Loudly.
If that energy were heat, he could melt this entire mountain…easily. Is he even human?!
Irotem noticed his reaction.
“Oh dear. Your vision has improved quite quickly. You can see these?” He motioned around him.
He nodded.
The old man’s expression darkened.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to kill you now.”
Meyriv panicked and sweat began beading on his forehead.
Suddenly Irotem grinned and chuckled.
“Sorry, sorry! I couldn’t resist.”
Still grinning, Irotem continued.
“You take everything so seriously, it would do you some good to relax.”
Meyriv’s terror wore off.
He asked Irotem, “I need to relax? What about Cellarius? He seems so formal all the time.”
“Well...that’s because ‘he’ is not sentient, nor even alive. It is a magical construct that I made appear as human as possible; Nothing more than a wad of energy with a complex set of pre-made conditions and instructions.
It follows instructions to the letter and with unparalleled efficiency, but is completely incapable of true thinking.
While good for work, such a construct is not particularly well equipped for the nuances of social interaction.”
Meyriv was stunned by the implications.
“Why doesn’t every mage create several to do all their work?”
“Because, they take far more time and skill to create and energy to maintain than the typical mage cares to invest.
Eirian prefers that we don’t employ regular servants, so I created Cellarius instead. It took decades to fine-tune the details to the point that it could perform all required tasks without supervision.”
“That’s incredible…”
“That reminds me. Now that you are approaching proficiency in advanced structures, I need to warn you:
A mage must never create any structure that is both self-sustaining and self-replicating. Any magic with both of those attributes is dangerous, regardless of its intended purpose or well-intended safeguards. The Swamp nearby was not created with malicious intent. It began as an innocent accident that spiraled beyond control.”
He nodded, but his mind was awash with questions.
Why are those conditions so dangerous? To think that a spell gone wrong could create something so immense and powerful...
---
Later that day, he remembered what Eirian had said about a ‘hook’.
So, the wisp left something behind? Where is it?
Sure enough, after meticulous searching he found a subtle loop of energy embedded directly in his soul, attached to a severed conduit that trailed a short way before ending.
No wonder it was painful. The wisp was trying to tear my soul from my body, and Eirian caught me and...pulled until the conduit snapped.
A chill went down his spine, and he shivered. What if the conduit had been stronger?
He tried to remove the loop of energy using magic. Initially, his efforts failed to find purchase, but eventually he designed a structure that could grasp it.
Pleased with his success, he immediately tried to pull it out—and screamed as his vision flashed black from the pain.
“That...was foolish.”
His head continued to throb.
Do I need to remove it at all? It hasn’t been causing any problems...Hold on. I’m not strong enough to create and maintain a new conduit, but this right here is part of one, existing without any energy from me. Is it possible to make it my own?
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He continued to study the tether, trying to understand how it worked.
Could it really have pulled my soul through that conduit? Even tugging the hook myself was agony, but I didn’t feel any such thing from the wisp.
He remembered the feeling of calm he felt upon seeing the wisp, and remembered reaching for it.
Perhaps its strategy was never to pull. It lulled me into a trance to get me to drift into the conduit willingly.
In his Meadow, Meyriv continued to feel like he was being watched. After weeks of careful observation, he finally found more evidence of strangeness. The meadow was webbed with faint threads of magic, barely visible to his senses.
When he reached out with his own magic to interact with them they faded to nothingness, only to reappear after a short while. They reminded him of stars so faint as to only be visible when you don’t look directly at them.
---
The next day, he asked Irotem
“Is it possible for one person to share magic with another?”
“The short answer is yes...but it is very rarely done in practice, and even then typically only with those who the mage trusts absolutely.
It is all but impossible to share one’s magic without also revealing a large amount of one’s personal thoughts, feelings and intentions. To share one’s magic typically requires opening a window directly into your soul.
If that were not the case, I would certainly lend you some portion of my energy to use. You didn’t think I was just hoarding my magic out of greed?”
Meyriv thought for a moment, and asked “I read in your books some passages mentioning magic being taken by force? How does that factor in?”
Irotem’s brow creased. “That’s an unpleasant field of inquiry, but I suppose it’s important to know all the same...It is considered quite taboo among most mages.
Ethical considerations aside, it requires one mage to coerce or torture the other into giving them at least partial access to their magic, after which they can use various methods to keep the connection open. Without first obtaining at least partial access, attempting to open a connection by force will typically result in the death of the victim before any power is accessed, making it pointless for even the most ruthless mage to attempt.”
He frowned thoughtfully. “That’s unsettling…”
“Indeed.”
“Thank you for the explanations, I have plenty of food for thought now.
“Of course. Let me know when you have further inquiries.”
---
Years passed like weeks for Meyriv as he immersed himself in his study. From there, he began to study all leads he could find as to how he might obtain more power. Because of his progress, Irotem would occasionally comment on his significant academic talents.
---
He walked slowly around the meadow as was his habit, watching the threads but taking care not to disturb them. After a few laps around the meadow, his mind pieced together a pattern so subtle that it had thus far escaped his notice.
Almost imperceptibly, the threads seemed to converge towards one specific tree against the cliff wall.
He examined them, following the threads into the tree. They wrapped around the tree’s soul without much interaction, after which they curved into...nowhere.
Not into nothingness. Into extra-dimensional space.
Unlike when he’d seen Irotem use similar magic, this space seemed...crude. Instead of a well defined border, the entrance to the space seemed blurry.
Cautiously looking in, Meyriv saw a pool of energy.
He cautiously reached for the pool. As his magic was about to touch it, he hit...something. Not energy, but a familiar ‘substance’.
The pool was surrounded by a soul.
He hadn't noticed the soul initially because it was mostly transparent, and the bits that were not matched the pool of energy almost exactly in color.
He tried edging past the soul to reach the energy, but to no avail. The pool was completely surrounded.
Most souls he had come into contact with appeared to his mind as a constantly shifting area of colors, lights, and shapes. But this one appeared almost lifeless, although he did notice gradual changes over a few minutes.
“What is it doing with the energy? It doesn’t appear to be using any of it. And why is it motionless and nearly transparent? No-one I've seen has a soul so colorless and still.”
All that power, and it’s just sitting there. That feels terribly unfair...Is it even alive? I’ve seen no living person anywhere in this meadow. Is it even possible for a soul to persist without a body?
Meyriv spent until nightfall examining the pool, but made no progress accessing the energy.
Exhausted, he finally resolved to research the problem and returned home.
---
By now, Meyriv had mastered virtually everything within his power, to the point that he surpassed Irotem’s expectations in many areas.
He had read and reread all of the books of interest available to him. According to Irotem, in terms of academic understanding his academic expertise of magic now approached that of all but the most expert mages.
All he needed now was to augment the magic available to him...
He began to form a plan to claim that alluring mass of power in the meadow.
---
Meyriv climbed the familiar path to his meadow. Today he would capture the energy.
He sat on a boulder near his objective, completing the last of his preparations.
"What if this doesn't work?" His lingering doubts nagged
"My study has been meticulous and my preparation careful. I have done everything I know how to do. If I fail now, I doubt I could ever succeed."
Steeling himself, he slowly drew his consciousness towards the tree.
A short distance away, he prepared his tool: The remnants of the wisps lure, no longer broken. He had painstakingly created a new hook and lure on the broken end of the conduit. The other side remained embedded in his soul.
With some effort he was able to activate the lure, a subtle enchantment that would invoke fear in sentient creatures nearby, but inverted the effect immediately around itself.
The contrast between intense fear and pristine calm was quite compelling to any unwary mind.
And now, he waited.
The soul showed no signs of recognition. He began to worry that it was somehow immune to his ploy—
A shiver rippled over the surface of the soul, and gradually it seemed to awaken, colors beginning to fill in the transparency as it slowly reached towards the lure.
It touched it, and without hesitation pulled it toward itself and enveloped it. Meyriv allowed it to be pulled along, continuing to wait.
Until finally, he sensed the lure was near the pool of energy. He activated it.
Realizing something was amiss, the soul's surface spasmed, trying to dislodge the hook. But it was too late, the trap had been sprung.
Frantic colors wracked the soul as it tried to escape the conduit, but after a short while it evidently realized its efforts were futile.
Unfortunately, it had not made contact with the energy, but he could feel it nearby.
"Now, for the tricky part…"
He activated the hook’s secondary mechanism.
And it generated blades of focused energy to cut a path to the wellspring.
The soul flashed brightly and seemed to shrink away from the attack.
It shivered violently, but was defenseless to the attack.
He continued to feed his magic to the weapon, although progress was slow since he needed to conserve his meager supply.
The soul continued to flash and shudder. And then paused.
A wave of thought flowed over him.
It contained a vague impression.
"Stop. Pain."
He hesitated.
"I can't give up now, with my goal almost within reach…
Only a short while, and I can leave the soul alone."
He resumed his efforts, and the simple communication continued, becoming more frantic.
"Pain. PAIN. Stop…Please!"
He forced himself to ignore the pleas.
He began to run out of energy.
Straining the limits of his abilities, he gave the weapon the last of his magic. And suddenly, it continued forward with no additional resistance.
A last, distraught message:
"...why?"
A fountain of energy surged through the conduit. Gleefully, Meyriv caused the hook to anchor itself in place, in the same manner the other side was anchored to him.
Meyriv now had more than one hundred times the largest amount of power he had ever held.
All at once, theoretical designs he had created and dismissed as impossible seemed attainable.
Struggling to contain his anticipation, he began a phase of his plan he had hardly dared hope to reach.
He failed to hear the soul's soft weeping.