Mage Mullam had taken the entire morning to bind the spell, Roska had completely fallen asleep, he looked at her calm and ethereal face as she slept. He sighed, She was beautiful when she wasn’t being a nerdy talkative.
He roused her. She woke up and rubbed her eyes, asking him what the time was. He told her.
“It took that long?” She asked.
“I failed a couple times.” Mage Mullam said. “I haven’t bound a field spell in a while.”
“Aren’t you a war mage?” She asked, raising an eyebrow,
“Not a single war mage has needed a field spell for decades now. For me it’s been only an intellectual curiousity” Mullam replied.
“Well, how many copies did you make of the spell?” Roska asked
“Well I made 3 copies.” He replied. “So we have 3 tries. If none of those work, We’ll have to come back tomorrow because I have no energy left in me to bind another field spell today.”
“Okay well, let’s get started then.” She said,
Mullam nodded, then took a deep breath, and invoked the spell.
The runes burst on fire, starting with the hook runes mullam had actually pronounced, the hook spell triggered the spell, and it unfolded, burning the paper it was written on. As it incinerated into ashes, Mullam felt the waves of heat and coldness of the spell on his skin. That was a good sign.
“Are you feeling any temperature changes?” Roska asked. He nodded. She smiled. “Okay let’s do it. Invoke speed and do it!”
Mullam nodded, he invoked one of his numerous speed spells, the familiar energy wrapped around his skin as the smoke from the paper it unfolded from caught the wind. Then he took a few steps back, then launched towards the wall.
Merely a meter away from the wall, he jumped, as if to scale the entire wall and land inside the city, however as he crossed the wall, he bounced the completely invisible barrier that was the spell dampener and was thrown back ouside. Roska screamed in excitement.
“It worked!!” She cried and laughed. Mullam landed on his feet, sliding back a few feet. He grinned. “Apparently it did.”
“See! I told you! First try too!” Roska said.
“Never doubted you.” Mullam said, smiling.
“Yeah right.” She replied, rolling her eyes playfully. “Now try climbing it.”
Mullam invoked a suction spell ontop of his speed and the yet unnamed field spell they were working on, he walked to the wall and jumped over it, and landed on… thin air.
He bounced around softly on a completely invisible barrier. He reached out an arm and pulled himself up. And did it again, and soon enough, was climbing an entirely invisible structure, inching up in mid air. Roska was beside herself in excitement.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Mullam climbed a few meters up in mid air, then jumped down.
“That’s how they did it!” Roska exclaimed. “I’m sure of it!”
Mullam looked at the invisible membrane, the invisible, intangible, odorless spell dampener. “It did feel like an inflated balloon.”
“It does!” Roska said. “That’s exactly what causes those annoying shockwaves that you get when field spells collide, they vibrate.”
“Oooooohhhh,” Mullam replied, getting an Eureka moment… He grabbed Roska by the shoulders and gazed into her eyes.
“Darn it, you’re brilliant.” He said. “You realize you’ve just invented new magic?”
Roska blinked rapidly, taken aback by Mullam’s actions. She stepped back and cleared her throat.
“Er, well, technically Ganz invented it, I just figured out his invention.” She said, Looking around.
“Oh, be quiet.” Mullam said in jest. “Don’t look down on yourself. You’re a brilliant woman, Roska. You’re probably the smartest person I know. I’m going to call your spell the Roska Hook.”
“Oh?” She asked.
“Yes and I’m taking you to dinner.” He said, unsure where the sudden boldness had come from.
“Oh really?” she asked in surprise. “What if I say no?” she asked coyly.
“Roska, you’ve been playing hard to get for half a decade.” Mullam said, looking into her eyes. “If you keep doing that, I’m going to steal your picnic blanket.”
Roska laughed.
--
Binko looked at Lara’s motionless face, watched her chest rise and fall, and then she sighed. Binko was convinced she had brain damage by now, She ought to have woken up if she was simply knocked out. She stepped out of the coach and headed toward’s Lord Daron’s coach, she met him there, writing and sipping his tea. Having recently returned from a Seyrulan expedition, she found it a bit jarring that a middle aged man who was relaxing was drinking tea instead of smoking.
“My Lord Daron,” She greeted.
“Ah, Mage Binko.” He replied. “How goes your day?”
“I’ve been wondering if I should take Lakan’s account seriously.” She said, “He knows what he saw, but a twelve way wave spell is a… strange claim.”
“Does it matter?” Lord Daron asked.
“Well, Perhaps if we tell Mullam and his team, that can help them understand better, or it might mislead them entirely.” Binko replied.
“Isn’t Roska on that team as well?” Lord Daron asked. “I heard she invented a tri-link spell.”
“Yeah….” Binko replied. “She did, but it’s an extremely cumbersome spell, multiple paragraphs long and a complex set up. She has been working on reducing its complexity for months now. It makes the concept of a twelve link spell all the more absurd.”
“Well there’s nothing fundamentally about magic that prohibits a twelve way link spell.” Lord Daron said. “One of my classmates did that as his thesis. He essentially proved that it was fundamentally possible. I assume Roska has read that paper, I have and it checks out.”
“So we tell them then?” Binko asked.
“I don’t see why not.” Lord Daron I used to teach Roska. She is smart enough to decide if this is going to be relevant.”
“Alright.” Binko replied.
“For that matter…” Lord Daron said. “I would have you Assemble all of Aku’anda’s War Mages. Not just the Elite, But everyone who went to Warfare school. We will have to rethink defense as a kingdom.”
“This world…” He continued, “is no longer merely filled with criminals and small cults. Something truly sinister has erupted from the deep. Ganz represents only a glimpse of this, and the battle of pirun represents just a glimpse of what Gan could become if Aku’anda does not assert itself.”
Binko nodded. She walked away and Waved to Segi Arabambi, The current Captain of the Elite War Mages, who had convened the earlier meeting of War mages. If anyone could successfully get the Elite Mages into one room, it would be her, lower level mages could be much more easily summoned.