By the time Amy arrived back at her home with Felin, the sky had begun to darken, dusky orange seeping into the horizon. Noise from rowdy taverns and pubs barely travelled over to her house, not loud enough to be a genuine problem, but loud enough to be annoying. Because of course my house is the only one close enough to them this side of the village to be bothered by it.
While she was lighting some candles in her home to brighten it up preemptively, Felin came back from the cellar, carrying the grimoire she had left in there.
"Oh thank you, I forgot about that."
"It would be a shame to leave this in a cellar of all places, no?" Felin said, plopping it down onto the mantelpiece, "Shall we get on with Lesser Illusion then?"
"Actually, can I ask something?" Amy said, closing her curtains.
"Whatever you wish, young Mageling."
"Well, you said I had a high Unknowable affinity too, right? But it isn't high enough to be bad like Fae. Except you said it was still concerning. Why?"
"This is a bit tricky to cover," Felin grumbled, "But, like I said before, it's bad because of what the Element represents. It was the Element only the Archwizards or Wizard Kings would use, for anyone using it lower than that would end up killing themselves."
"So something to leave for later?"
"No, not at all. In fact you can start using it now if I teach you, though I recommend waiting to Apprentice first," Felin explained, "All the interesting Spells start becoming available around then."
"Then why did all the lower Tier Mages get themselves killed?"
"It's Unknowable, that's why," Felin grimaced, "Its entire concept is about erasing things from mana itself, which causes a trickle down into the world and people too. In making something Unknowable, you're erasing it from conceptual, magical reality."
"People actually got themselves erased!" Amy yelled, connecting the dots.
"Correct. Of course, that's only due to them lacking the needed magical education, which I will fill you in on. It's a very powerful Element if used correctly, and catastrophic when it's not."
"How could someone just get erased though? If they make themselves 'Unknowable' wouldn't they still exist? They would just be invisible, essentially, right?"
"It's because the Element works off of concepts in the mana rather than targets which leads to the erasure. If you dig too deep into the concept of yourself when making it Unknowable, that's when you end up erasing yourself from existence. Obviously people purposefully erased others and committed Unknowable murders, but they're always caught quickly."
"Why? You'd think an 'Unknowable' murder would be pretty hard to spot," Amy wondered, chopping up some vegetables, a kettle boiling on a stove.
"You can only go so far when you erase someone from existence. The 'gaps' in reality they leave behind are pretty obvious and the gaps only get wider when the cracks in other people begin to show." Felin said, staring aimlessly at the grimoire.
"Cracks?"
"If people who used to be a major part of someone's lives suddenly disappear, then even if they don't know what's missing, they notice that something is. At this point, they go to a Mage, thinking it's magical in nature, and the touch of Unknowable is obvious on them. To the untrained eye, it looks like a complete absence of mana, an almost anti-magic effect. When you do know what you're looking for, though, its sickly pale purple colour is unmistakable."
"That's..." Amy said, about to ask another question before shaking her head and returning to her cooking.
"Disgusting? It was rare when it did happen, yet it always left a bad taste in my mouth when it did. One which always stuck with me was when this one man's wife and kids got murdered. You could've seen the Unknowable on their house a mile away, it was that bad. Obviously someone untrained. The husband kept on going back to and from work, not even wondering why his three bedroom house filled with little toys and paintings of them all was like that when he lived alone. People at his work noticed him getting worse and worse, broken even, without him even realising. When we told him... it's like he realised it, all of a sudden. Their loss hit him all at once and he killed himself later that day. The only reason he wasn't killed with his family was because he was in another city at the time. It was a robbery gone wrong, and the Mage had instinctively reached for Unknowable, without even knowing of the Element, when he got spooked. A Journeyman who nobody wanted to hire, so he turned to theft when he was tight on money. That was his second gig."
"What happened to him?"
"He got a fate far worse than what he inflicted on that family, let's just leave it at that." Felin frowned, "Lesser Illusion then."
"Yes?" Amy said, perking up as she put a lid on a salted vegetable-filled pot of boiling water.
"Illusory Bolt is useful in a variety of situations. It is slightly cheaper than other Bolts of its Tier so can be mixed in with other Bolts disguised as decoys. It is very useful against magical creatures who won't be able to tell the difference between an actual Bolt and an Illusory one too. The only downside is that the second someone realises it's an Illusion, it becomes useless.
"So, our scope expands, for more general use than attacks. Lesser Illusion projects a small image of the caster's choice within a close range of them. The Illusion is Real until thought otherwise meaning an illusory spiky hedgehog's spines will prick and harm, even if they are Fake. Unlike Illusory Bolt however, the Illusion is far more noticeable under scrutiny and so more careful use is required to tap into the Spell's full potential."
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"Sound's great. More along the lines of what I'd expect from the Element to be honest. But you said I'd need to learn more before going into this Spell, didn't you?" Amy pointed out, taking a seat on the table, the cat laying down on it.
"Indeed. Your Magecraft and Spellcraft is more than enough and will only need to be improved near the end of Apprentice, so you have a while. What you do need to learn is a technique called splitting, where you separate your coalesced mana into multiple 'streams' and simultaneously feed them through a Spellform from different directions. In order to do this, you have to not only learn to split the streams of mana, but split your mind too, concentrating on both streams at the same time, perfectly."
"That sounds... easy, no?" Amy said, trying not to sound overconfident.
"For you who is well on her way to Apprentice, it will be very easy. You casted Familiar too and that requires a form of pseudo-splitting only within the Spellform rather than outside it, which you figured out all on your own. This technique is only difficult for less experienced Magelings and the less mentally gifted of Mages. Would you like to try now?"
"Definitely." Amy grinned. Finally, something truly new!
* * *
As Amy sat still on her chair, a globule of ambient mana under her control, within her. It pulsed and squirmed in time with her inner dance, her innate mana cradling it.
"First, however odd this may sound," Felin described, his voice somehow both distant and close, "You must direct two motes of your personal mana towards your brain, as if you were attempting to ascend to Mageling all over again. This time, you don't guide them towards you eyes, but instead to the top of your spine, where your brain stem is.
"Allow them to settle there before directing a stream of your ambient mana towards that area too," Felin said, Amy's control over her mana wavering. With her concentration split between three places at once, a bit of her coalesced mana leaked from her, escaping the ball she held. "Careful, now. This next step is important.
"Imagine your stream of mana heading to and connecting with the motes, but do not think of which. Simply will the mana to connect to both at the same time. In doing this, the mana stream will naturally split and connect to the two motes. When I sense you doing this we'll move on to the final stage."
Despite what the Archfey claimed, there was nothing simple about splitting the stream, it's flow refusing to budge past a certain point along her spine, as if stuck in indecision. In trying to go two ways at once, it wasn't splitting itself in two, no, it was splitting itself apart. And that wouldn't do at all. Forcing the stream back together, Amy paradoxically lessened her iron grip over the stream, allowing it's fraying to stop and it to regather, becoming fuller.
Amy returned to her Familiar's words, checking where she went wrong and saw it immediately. There was no connection. Resonating in purpose, her motes reached out towards her stream, while somehow staying completely still, doing nothing at all. The stream's path continued upwards, no longer stuck behind the barrier in her mind, offering itself up to the motes. In her vision of herself, she didn't see the stream split. Rather, it was like the motes had merged instead, only one stream, one connection remaining. Despite it looking like she had failed, Amy felt her success, and, with a simple shift in perspective, it showed. Her thoughts flickered between two superimposed images of the stream, one going left, yet not moving at all, and one going right, both directed to two separate motes, overlapped in her mind.
"Perfect. Finally, you must remove your motes from the connection, carefully, ensuring that your split streams aren't re-merged. Eventually you'll learn to do this all without the motes, but this is enough for now."
It was with almost no effort at all that the motes broke off from their connection, one becoming two, the streams separate but the same. They made their way back to her mana pool as the split streams retracted and moved to her hand, manifesting in reality through her Sight, completely apart.
"Congratulations. You can dissipate them now." Felin smiled, the mana discorporating as soon as he said it, Amy's coalesced mana returning to the Ocean. Conscious of what the cat had said before, she studied the gathered mana, carefully watching as it merged with the Pure Mana Ocean, trying to catch any hint of Fae corruption being destroyed. As observant as always, Felin noticed, saying, "You won't be able to see the corruption that easily before Journeyman. Your Mage Sight isn't precise enough at this stage to catch it."
"Understood. Thank you Felin." Amy grinned, tempted to do it again, without the motes.
"Just so you know," Felin said, glancing at her oddly, "Don't say thank you to any old Fae."
"Why, if I may ask?"
"Without the proper background in Word Magick you wouldn't understand, but let's just say it wouldn't turn out well for you if the Fae had any... nefarious intentions towards you."
"I doubt I'll ever meet another one of you but I'll keep it in mind," Amy nodded.
"You never know though, you never know." Felin said, in what was now a typical sing-song tone, "I'll give you the Spellform for you to practice for tonight before I go."
"You're not staying?"
"You may not notice it, but Familiar has a tiny drain on you, taking from your personal mana," Felin said, hurriedly continuing upon noticing Amy's widening eyes, "Don't panic, it's not enough to be harmful and you replenish it almost as soon as its taken. The mana it uses from you sustains the anchor for the Spell but the contracted creature, me, has to provide the rest of the mana for the Spell, including maintaining my form, allowing for me to interact with the environment, speaking, and a slew of other miscellaneous things."
"That must be a tremendous cost then," Amy said, feeling guilty.
"It's nothing for someone like me, Amy, don't worry about that," Felin assured, noticing her expression, "It simply becomes a bit uncomfortable paying the cost for a long period of time like this."
With a flick of mana, an image displayed itself into the air, a Spellform, floating down and settling itself onto a spare piece of paper, imprinting on it as it disappeared. The drawing remained, appearing completely mundane, as if penned in black ink.
"That should be big enough for you."
"Yes, thank you Felin," Amy thanked, taking the paper and pulling it towards her.
"I must depart however. Activate your Mage Sight for this." Felin said, standing up, his contractor doing as he recommended. Unseen to her before, a string of virid mana between Amy and Felin brightened suddenly, a pair of scissors made of mana clamping down upon it. Cutting through it, the string snapped, the mana returning to its origin, to Felin. The cat's form was fading quickly, floating up into the air and flaking off into motes of Fae mana.
"Goodbye, Amy. Don't wait too long to summon me again." Felin grinned, his fangs on full display, until they too were reduced to dust, her Familiar completely vanishing into nothing.
Without even a chance to properly say goodbye too, Amy was left alone at the edge of her seat, her home quiet once more. A familiar melancholy fell over her shoulders like a well-worn blanket, the same sadness one felt after saying goodbye to a dear friend or loved one they hadn't seen in a long time, returning to silence and loneliness. Staring out of her window, deep in thought, she watched the sun set, deep in thought until the last rays of light vanished, leaving the horizon dark blue. Sniffing at an odd smell that drifted towards her, Amy jumped out of her seat in panic, turning around to her kitchen.
"Damnit, I forgot about the stew!"