“If you are going to walk this path, then the first step along it, the most vital step, is learning to control your autonomic magical resilience.”
“My wha-”
Alarion’s words were cut off by a sharp whipcrack on flesh as one of the wretches struck Alarion’s bare back with an inch thick wooden switch. He didn’t scream, but the sting was evident on the youth’s face as he glared up at the machine man.
They were in an inken place Alarion knew well. The dark blue-black unreality of Elena’s [Void Arena] was familiar, but being inside it with others was not. ZEKE loomed over him while Sierra sat cross legged across from him, her hands overtop of his on the exterior of one of the burning everwick candles. She looked uncomfortable, though whether it was their shared touch, the abuse or Alarion’s shirtlessness was hard to gauge.
Behind him stood two ‘wretches’. Four feet tall with mottled green and black skin, the sharp eared creatures were conjured by Elena’s skill. Modeled after a nearly extinct type of Systemborn, the wretches were weak, cruel and unpleasant to look at, but they served their purpose as Alarion’s abusers quite well.
“Your autonomic magical resilience.” ZEKE repeated helpfully as he gestured to the everwick. The flame atop it had already begun to flicker as ZEKE spoke, then sputtered out with a thin trail of dark smoke a few moments later. “The body of an awakened is a magical thing, in the literal sense. Everything you do is, to some extent, empowered by magic. When you run, you run faster than a human because your muscles are flooded through with power. When you are struck, your body instantaneously and automatically protects both itself as well as things you are touching, wearing and holding.”
“Autonomic means unconsciously automatic,” Sierra said as she recognized that befuddled look on Alarion’s face. “Specifically with regard to your body. Think about your breathing. You do it automatically, even when you sleep. But if you choose, you can also stop breathing. Or breathe faster. Or deeper.”
“So I need to-”
Crack.
Alarion growled in pain as his thoughts were once again interrupted by a sudden strike. His jaw clicked as he ground his teeth, and the candle burst into flame once again, sputtered, and died out.
“You need to learn how to do it on command, even when you are not being hit.” Sierra confirmed. “It will not be as easy as breathing. I have never tried, but I know I could not do it without practice.”
“Controlling your heart rate would be a better comparison, I think,” ZEKE mused. “It is possible to do with training, but not something a layman can learn in seconds. We’ll provoke response, after response, after response in a safe environment and let you grow accustomed to it. The hope is that you will swiftly learn to reproduce this response without the strikes. Once you can keep the candle lit indefinitely, we can move on to the next step.”
“And Sierra needs to be here to channel the mana for me?” Alarion asked for confirmation, looking down to where the girl’s hands covered his own.
“Don’t be embarrassed. It is perfectly natural to-” ZEKE quickly thought better of continuing that sentence as both youths sent utterly withering looks in his direction. “Yes. Everything but the wick itself is a bound field and won’t react to you simply pushing mana against it. The wick is why you’re keeping it at arms length, incidentally.”
“Noted.”
Crack.
The switch clipped down on Alarion’s back with enough force to register a single digit loss of HP. At the rate they struck him, they’d go through his full HP pool in a little over an hour, even with his regeneration. At that point the [Void Arena] would collapse, Elena could recast, and they’d start all over again.
Sierra’s hands drifted off his and the two watched as the flame atop the everwick faltered. She returned them and it roared back to life, then diminished and finally died as she withdrew once again. A simple, yet effective demonstration of her part in things.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
Minutes passed with the flame igniting and dying in tune with the agony on Alarion’s back. The sting of each wound just beginning to fade as the next hit came.
And along with the pain came progress.
At the start of the exercise, the flame had lasted two, perhaps three seconds at the most. By the end of the day he’d nearly doubled that. It wasn’t the same as doing it on command, but the simple fact that he could hold the gate open was a testament that they were headed in the right direction on what could be a very long track.
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They spent their time in silence or in study. ZEKE would demand an hour of quiet focus out of Alarion, then interject with a new lesson when the youth’s expression or body language showed he was reaching the limit of his tolerance for abuse.
The first few discussions were an esoteric expansion of the numerous differences between bound and unbound fields. Some of it went over Alarion’s head, but ZEKE was an excellent teacher, and Sierra a suitable assistant. Between the two they were able to instill some of the fundamentals of field formation, the way magical energy could be stretched to cover a surface or area, how it could be compressed into a single point. They delved further into conversations about runes, marks and other arcane scripts and how they were used to direct and outline the nature of different arcane forces within a particular field.
All of it was useful information. Necessary, even. But it wasn’t until the middle of the second day, when the discussion turned to Affinities, specifically Alarion’s affinities, that they fully had the boy’s attention.
“Time. Sun. Body. Void.” ZEKE said out of the blue after nearly two hours of silence.
“My affinities.” Alarion responded quickly. The four had been etched into his heart the moment he’d heard them. They were his, even if he was wary of Void.
“We’ll start simple. Body.” Steelborn fingers drew out the symbol of a muscled upper body, similar to the one on the Affinity codex if much more poorly drawn. “The Body affinity relates to spells that enhance, alter or utilize the body in some direct fashion. A Body spell can increase your physical strength, or it could transmute your arm into snakes. It can be used as a source of self-healing, but it can also be used to translate one resource into another, or burn existing resources for temporary power.”
The idea of transforming his body was strangely repulsive to Alarion, and not just because the suggestion involved serpents. He briefly tugged his arm free, flexing it, as though making sure it was still whole before his odd behavior earned a chiding slap on the arm from Sierra.
“Next would be time. It is far from simple in its versatile application, but it is at least easy to understand. Like time itself, all time magic exists in one of three states. Reversal, stasis, and advancement. Bringing things back to how they were, holding them in place or speeding them along. However, Time magic is a frightfully weak affinity at low ranks. Manipulating time in and of itself is incredibly difficult and outright impossible for any but the strongest. Instead it is always paired with other affinities.”
“Paired?” Alarion asked.
“Like my summoning spells,” Sierra reminded him. “Sound as the base, Force to give them shape and impact and Spirit to give them the ability to act on their own.”
“Just so,” nodded ZEKE, approvingly. “Some spells focus on a single affinity. Especially elemental type attacks. But even those can incorporate others. The Governor’s Gale Slash obviously involves Air, but also draws on Force in order to strengthen the cutting effect. Time spells mix well with most other Affinities as a way to strengthen whatever that affinity is good at. A Body/Time spell might allow you to not only heal, but utterly reverse damage. It could delay poison, or speed up natural regeneration to a startling degree.”
Alarion winced as the switch struck him again. “So no jumping back in time?”
“Not at your Rank. With stronger mages it isn’t unheard of, though I’ve never heard of anything longer than a few seconds in any direction.”
“What about Sun?”
“A more curious Affinity to be sure.” ZEKE drew a terrible picture of a sun as he considered how to best approach the topic. “Sun magic represents warmth, strength, and positive energy. It does not consume like fire, but emboldens and empowers. Sun magic can produce light and heat, though not to the same degree as a pure fire mage. It is second only to Life when it comes to healing, focused more on persistent regeneration, and it works particularly well opposite fiends who almost universally have a Moon Affinity.”
Alarion was surprised. “Moon? Not Death?”
“Revenants will often have one of their Affinities shift to death, but Fiends are very much alive. Their most common Affinity is Moon, with Decay a close second.” Sierra explained patiently. “Some other cultures refer to these as Light and Dark Affinities instead, given the fiend’s connection to the latter.”
“That makes sense.” Alarion looked ready to say more, but paused just long enough to allow the wretch to pummel his shoulders before he continued. “That leaves us with Void.”
ZEKE took note of the sour tone of Alarion’s voice as he composed his description. “I know you are no fan of mistress Elena’s take on Void magic, but do keep in mind that it is atypical. The Void Arena and other such magic mix Dimension, Void and Spirit along with elements of others. As its own Affinity, Void is simply an absence.”
“How can magic be an absence?”
“Hmm. To clarify, it is an enforced absence. Void magic uses your energy to create a space vacant of… something. Anything, really. If you were poisoned, for example, you could use your void magic to compress the poison in your body to one location for removal, or to crush it into nothing entirely. If you were more powerful you could create an area around you void of lesser magics to fight with blade alone, or you could direct it as a counter-spell to disrupt a particularly dangerous incantation.”
“It likely will not matter to you directly, given that your focus will be on unbound fields, but even mages who lack a Void Affinity will often incorporate Void elements into their ritual magic as a way to purge the area, to allow for better sympathy.” Sierra added.
“Time. Sun. Body. Void.” Alarion repeated the list of affinities as his mind whirled with the possibilities that those four concepts possessed. “With so many, is it better to focus on one? Or split my attention?”
“That will depend on you, young master.” The delight of a well-respected teacher being asked for advice lingered on each crisp syllable of those last two words. “Mistress Sierra incorporated aspects of all of her affinities into her spell-casting, and in a perfect world this would be my suggestion. None of your Affinities are oppositional, though some are more complimentary than others. Body, Time and Sun will all work well together in various forms, while Void might be most powerful on its own. That said, we have further exercises to lay down the fundamentals before we can even begin to focus on your affinities. So for now-”
Crack!
“-focusing might be in order.”