“Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.”
Wolfgang Von Goethe
Magic, finally magic! Grandfather might have had some seemingly magical skills, but they were all physical impossibilities. He didn’t have true magic, not like Lady Acacia had offered us. Sure, he could probably kill mages, but I didn’t want to become a mage assassin I wanted to wield the power of the elements, forge the forces of nature, and weave the very fabric of the world. I was not planning on world domination but who hasn’t dreamed of magically solving their problems or developing some type of superpower. With magic and the system, it seemed both were possible with the right education and a little luck.
“For today’s lesson let us start with the simple spell I showed you at dinner, Phos.” She said holding a ball of light in her hand once more.
“First, form your intent, light. Understand what it is you are willing into the world.” She motioned us to close our eyes and think about what we hoped to achieve.
“Second, while holding onto your intent firmly, you will pronounce the word, Phos. But this step is to be completed at the same time as the third.” She hurried into her last sentence to prevent us from speaking too soon. “The Third and final step is to provide the mana, powering your intent and using the words to frame the result you desire. Aleera if you would like to demonstrate.” She finished and pointed to my sister.
I looked at Aleera surprised as she said the words before holding a ball of light which lit up the room held in the palm of her hand. She had obviously been practising with Lady Acacia despite advising me to have caution and wait for supervision before attempting it. Talk about double standards. She looked a little guilty in the light she was casting to me.
“Kai having the skill expel mana will facilitate this. You simply need to expel mana at the same time as you clearly pronounce the words for your spellcraft.” She spoke.
Feeling a little betrayed by my sister despite the minor nature of the betrayal I rather crossly spoke the word and pushed my mana through them. “Phos!” Exulting in the fact that I was finally being taught magic, lesson 101 light! Finally, I was going to be taught the fundamentals of the subject.
In retrospect, it might have been a little too much mana as a mini explosion of light filled the hall with my words. Shocked I dropped the ball of light or attempted to, but it seemed attached to my hand and fell with it. But at least the light was not right in front of my face any longer. With my hand and now the light behind my back I cast a long shadow across the hall as I attempted to dismiss the skill.
“Too much mana Kai.” Lady Acacia shouted in surprise not that she needed volume when the spell itself was silent. “You only need a little to form a light ball unless you are intending on blinding your enemies in which case, I would recommend using Phos’sion. Not,” she hurried to add, “that we should practice that one right now.” Aleera’s guilt had evaporated with my explosion of light, and she seemed amused by both my mistake and my teacher’s surprise. Thank God people thought I was still a child. Everybody makes mistakes but they seem to be more readily forgiven the younger you are even to be expected. I didn’t like making mistakes, particularly in front of others and was left angry that what should have been a minor frustration with Aleera being a step ahead had caused me to shoot myself in the foot. I finally stopped supplying the spell with my mana and the change in lighting seemed to leave the room in darkness.
Lady Acacia rubbed at her temples before starting her instruction again, “The third and final step is to provide a modicum of mana to power your intent. You do not want to . . . or need to . . . provide more mana than the spell needs.” She added pointedly carefully adding restrictions to her repetition.
I checked my status and saw that spending a third of my mana on a single spell was probably a little excessive even with the speed my mana refilled due to my Source of Mana trait.
“How much mana did you use exactly?” She asked clearly suspecting what I was up to.
“Um, a lot?” I answered trying to avoid the specifics of the question.
“How much exactly? You have just proved that you know your numbers up to one thousand in your baseline assessment so there is no point hiding from the truth by pretending ignorance. I’m going to need a more advanced mathematical assessment seeing as the baseline one proved no problem for you.” She added.
“400.” I quietly whispered.
“You only needed around 10 to initiate and then only a mere mana per minute to maintain it. You used 40 times the required initiation no wonder it was so illuminating.” She informed me. “Right, well next time, I will include the mana required for each spell. But you should have unlocked the skill through your enthusiastic casting.”
I checked my status again looking for the skill and there it was.
Ding! Spellcraft (Lv 1) A tier 2 skill sitting happily at the bottom of my tier 2 list of skills.
“Yes, it’s there.” I humbly answered.
“Well, well done. Incredibly quick at picking it up but then you already had mana sense and expel mana so I suppose it is only to be expected.” She congratulated my success.
“Now there is more than one method of creating light. Just as there is more than one light source in life for example the sun, fire, candles, or even your mana mote lanterns. So, with magic, there are many methods for creating light. You have the words of spellcraft which we have just demonstrated. A method you will gain greater control of in time. There is a rune for light that can be etched into the metal and then powered with your mana.” Here she paused to show a plate with a rune carved into it. When she filled it with her mana it filled the hall with light the light ending when she stopped supplying it with her mana.
“There are also the glyphs that can be carved into stone.” The stone she pulled from her pocket was a stone which shone with its own light and appeared to do so without her supplying any additional mana. She passed both the plate and the stone to me and Aleera to handle and see for ourselves. We could get the plate to light up by applying mana to it without thought or intent, it only required Mana. The stone glowed of its own accord without us supplying it with mana. Seemingly working without mana. Magic without mana!
“Finally, there is my favourite form of magic Spellsong.” She sang a sequence of notes filled with mana. There was no noticeable effect the first time she sang it but as she continued to sing the room began to lighten. The hall filled with a gentle light that seemed to have no source. The light grew with each repetition of the phrase until the hall was brightly lit.
“. . . la.” As the final note of the melody faded. The light continued to fill the hall. Fading only slowly over time as the sound faded into memory rather than echoing around the hall.
“If you listen carefully you should be able to copy the . . .” I interrupted her singing back the tune I had memorised as she sang it repeatedly. If there was one thing that I was good at it was music. It was no trouble at all to remember the 4 note refrain especially when two of the notes were repeated.
“Wonderful Kai. Aleera?” she swiftly moved on to my sister not too bothered by my interruption but I probably should wait in the future to be polite.
Aleera too was able to repeat the phrase easily. However, just the notes alone did not seem to call magical light into existence for us.
“Super, now infuse the notes with your mana as you sing but don’t try to force your mana to create the effect as you do in spellcraft. What you are doing is encouraging the ambient mana to sing with you to create the effect. As your song and the ambient mana come into harmony and it will sing with you the world will begin to glow.”
We attempted to sing the refrain while filling our song with mana not to control it into producing light but influence the world to resonate with us. It took a lot longer than the light explosion I had caused with the words of spellcraft but eventually with the two of us singing together in unison and filling the hall with our song the ambient mana started to follow ours and the hall began to light up much like it had for Lady Acacia.
“Wonderful, wonderful.” She smiled as the hall glowed dazzlingly from our spellsong. As we stopped the glow began to fade leaving us with plenty of questions.
“How does it all work exactly? Why does it work? Why those notes?” I asked excitedly.
“If I could explain all of that I would be an Archmage, not a governess. However, I can summarise it to a certain extent. Spellcraft is powered by your internal mana and framed by words to bring your intentions to life. Spellsong is initiated by your internal mana but relies on ambient mana to create the effect you desire. Runes are much like spellcraft in that the rune gives shape and intent to your mana you merely need to power them, while Glyphs act on gathering ambient mana and a form of sympathy to create their effects. There are a variety of permutations based on the effect you wish to create, your resources, and the mana available.”
We handed back the runic plate and glyph stone. While considering all the different options available to us. Our organic mana mote lanterns seemed to be the best option for our lighting without creating some sort of runic network. It took mana to initiate the reaction but once powered the mana motes continued to glow for a long time. But I was sure that there were a lot of other options and that wasn’t even considering the idea of creating electricity. My own very own modern magic to bring to the realm.
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“So far, we have just looked at the one effect and the two spells that can create it. Seeing that you have picked them up so quick I see no reason why we cannot look at one more or maybe two. Can you think of the most important necessity of life Kai?”
“Water?” I guessed confident in my answer. It seemed straightforward to me, 80 per cent of your body. The reason for life on earth. We cannot live without it etc.
“Yes, precisely that. Follow closely now, Nerano.” She placed her hand out much like how she held the ball of light but this time a ball of rotating and increasing water coalesced in her hand gradually growing as she continued to supply mana. Before she finally cancelled the spell with the words, “Disperso!” Leaving her hand dry and ready for the next spell or another reason which was to gesture at her other student. “Aleera if you would like to demonstrate as well. Watch closely now Kai, only 10 mana to initiate the spell then depending on your environment it can scale up or down drastically on the quantity and quality of water you collect.”
Aleera called out “Nerano.” And the water began to slowly pool in her hands filling the pair of them. She was not quite as smoothly as Lady Acacia’s sphere of aqua but still very impressive to pull water out of nowhere. She did not manage the cancellation spell of Disperso. She simply drank what she had produced.
“Wonderful work, Aleera. We will work on your control later. Now Kai would you like to have a go.”
“Nerano!” I shouted the words while trying to contain the initiation of the spell to a mere 10 mana. Much like my light spell, there was an explosion of water out of my hand rather than the puddle my sister had created or the carefully crafted ball of our teacher. I flooded the floor as my ball rapidly expanded until it burst in my face. I quickly cancelled my spell leaving me standing dripping wet in a pool of water.
I quickly hastened to explain, “I only used the 10 mana to initiate the spell honest.” A quick check of my status to see if that was the case was a little pointless as I rapidly regenerated mana and had already refilled after our earlier spell the explanation and exploration of runes and glyphs taking a while.
“Let me tidy this up.” I hurried to clear up the mess I had made by lifting my amulet from beneath my clothing and activating the runes for fire and air creating a hot dry blast of air that dried my clothing quickly and reduced the water-covered floor to a few disappearing puddles.
Lady Acacia looked at me suspiciously. “It naturally should not be quite so explosive. Especially for your first spells. Most children have the opposite problem of being unable to pull for enough mana or correctly pronounce the words.” She frowned in confusion.
“That’s my brother, overachieving in every area of his life.” Aleera chimed in with her tuppence disturbingly happy to see me facing difficulties with something. Even if it was the problem of overproducing when it came to the light and water.
“Control will come in time.” She said avoiding dismissing the explosive nature of my spells. “Let’s try learning the spellsong for the effect.” She moved on to her favourite magic and started singing a new refrain which she repeated. This time there were six notes to it which made it slightly longer to learn but it was still simple in its execution and easy enough to remember.
As she sang, I watched the mana move using my mana sense. Her song infused with mana led the ambient mana the colours of the ambient mana gradually shifted to blue in harmony with her song. Then as the song built the ambient mana led by her own started to coalesce. It was not as direct or as contained as the previous spellcraft and instead the spellsong sang a mini cloud of water into existence above our heads in the hall which slowly began to drizzle then increasingly heavy rain upon us.
Once she had succeeded in creating the cloud she stopped singing and the cloud gradually thinned the rain turning to drizzle, the drizzle to mist until we were no longer being rained upon. Having demonstrated the melody and the effect she gave the floor to us, “Your turn children.” she said stepping back to below a balcony, presumably to prevent our efforts from soaking her. There was not much point in drying off before our attempt, so I left the amulet below my clothing.
Without discussion we launched into the refrain, singing together in harmony. Both of us were plenty capable after a lifetime of listening and singing with our mother. I watched in wonder as I saw our mana filling the hall stopping the shifting colours of the ambient mana as it had attempted to return to the yellows, browns and oranges it had been slowly shifting back to after the Elf’s song. Instead, it once more continued to shift to blue as it grew closer and closer to vibrating in unison with the song we were singing. Until finally the water started to coalesce throughout the hall. A mist filled the entire hall. What we had failed to achieve in accuracy when compared to Lady Acacia we had made up in sheer mass. The cloud filled much of the hall although it failed to fill under the balcony. Then it began to rain. The rain gradually grew even despite the end of our song. The ambient mana still moving in line with our wishes despite us stopping soon after the cloud had started to rain.
Lady Acacia clapped our success dry as she was protected by the balcony. Eventually, the rain stopped, and the cloud dispersed much as hers had. Perhaps ours had been larger due to the two of singing rather than a single SpellSong singer. If magic could be created through singing the idea that our mother had been seen as a Siren songstress or sorceress made a little more sense now.
“Yes, well done. Now moving on, I said that we could learn at least three spells. Light to lead you through the Lodestone, water quench your thirst and for your final spell for today something to quench your hunger.”
We stood paying rapt attention, food from mana sounded miraculous. “You have heard of Manna food from the gods. While I can’t offer you that mythical food I can give you something that will fill your belly. Watch carefully.“ Here she pulled forth three tiny yellow pellets from a vial that she kept on a necklace around her neck. She handed one to each of us while keeping the third for herself. “This here is called a Solana seed. A wonderful invention. With it, a mage can stave off starvation for months. Provide they can remember their first two spells.”
She carefully placed the seed in her hand before combining the previous two spells while adding a third, “Nerano phos auxano.”
We watched in amazement as the Solana seed was enveloped first in water and then in light before it started rapidly expanding to fill the size of the water ball summoned with mana. When it reached the same diameter as the water Lady Acacia stopped supplying the spell with Mana and was left holding what looked like a round yellow fruit or a ball of yellow bread. “Solana, food for the hungry. Care to try a bite?” She asked passing it to us. Aleera took a bite before passing it to me. It tasted like somewhere between citrus bread and a protein bar. It was not going to be my favourite food but I could feel that it would quickly fill you up.
Once we handed the Solana back to Lady Acacia she took a small three small pinches of it rolling them up into balls before putting them back into her vial which she tucked into her dress. Amazing food from light and water!
“Aleera if you would like to have the first go.” Lady Acacia directed Aleera to demonstrate but judging by her shock at the Solana growing and her face when she tasted it I was assuming that she had not tried this spell before.
“Nerano phos auxano,” she commanded while holding the Solana seed in the palm of her hand. The water began to pool in her hand with light bathing it and the seed gradually began to grow. It did not form a perfect sphere as Lady Acacia had demonstrated but more of a gradually solidifying pile of yellow slime in her hand. That sounds a little more disgusting than it actually looked but I was somewhat dreading attempting it myself after my first two failures. So I might have been thinking a little negatively of her perfectly acceptable first efforts.
“It tastes just the same.” Smiled Aleera, happy to say that despite the difference in appearance the product was effectively the same.
“Of course, dear now just remember to save a sample for your next attempt. You will need to practice the spell until you can form it in the correct shape. Some travellers use a tin or box to create slices of the stuff so that it can be paired with other food they have foraged or hunted.” She praised while explaining her next steps and adding to her knowledge.
“Now Kai, gently do say the words.”
“Nerano phos auxano.” I practically whispered the words in the hope that if I did it a little quieter I might make less of a mess this time around. Unfortunately, that was not be.
The water rapidly grew in size from a small marble to a basketball and then a beachball in no time at all. The difference this time though was that it was illuminated by light and a second later as if racing to catch up the Solana seed rapidly expanded within it. I hastily used my second hand to catch it as I stopped the mana but I was still left holding with both hands something that was easily two or three times the size of me. I couldn’t see anyone beyond the giant ball of yellow in front of me which thankfully was not ridiculously heavy despite its size.
Sometime throughout all of this, I had heard Lady Acacia shouting, “Enough.” And I could still hear Aleera’s chuckles even if I couldn’t see her any longer.
“I didn’t mean to.” I tried to hold up my hands defensively but with them still holding this giant ball of Solana I had no idea if they recognised the gesture. I was just grateful the ball had not exploded like the water or the light, a practical improvement in my mind. I put the ball down so I could engage in the conversation and see them at the same time.
“Stop. Just stop.” She put her hand up to prevent me from making up any more excuses. “Something here is not quite right.”
“Could it be my trait, source of mana?” I asked wondering if the way in which I was able to throw mana at my problems had resulted in this happening with my Spellcraft.
“No, that should not make a difference. It could just be a matter of control but the three spells are quite different so I would have expected greater changes in the results if it was that. Do you have any . . . your amulet. May I have a look?”
Looking towards my grandfather who nodded I pulled out my amulet for her to look at.
“First where did you get this amulet from? It is a fine piece of magical equipment. Particularly how it is a mixture of three forms of magic, runes, glyphs and gem. Second, you are going to have to take it off if you wish to learn how to practice your spellcraft as it is clearly providing extra oomph to your spells.”
“Grandfather gave it to me when I first developed my magical skills.” I defended myself.
Even grandfather stepped forward to defend his actions. “When Kai developed his magical core he was in a significant amount of stress and unable to control what, where, when or how he was releasing his mana. This was an heirloom of our family for services rendered and I knew it could help him to control his magical talents.”
“Kai is that what happened?”
“More or less.” I shrugged.
“Which is it more or less?” she asked for verification and I realised that as a family we had never really discussed the order in which I had achieved my stats and my traits.
“I already had my magic stat they gave the amulet to me when I gained the trait source of mana and was no longer able to control it.”
“Have you taken it off since then?” She asked.
“No.” I cautiously answered. I was sensing that there might be a problem but for the life of me, I couldn’t imagine what it was.
“Could you take it off now and hand it to me carefully?” she questioned.
I took it off and immediately felt myself growing uncomfortably warm. Lady Acacia though wasn’t watching me but studying the Amulet carefully. “This is truly remarkable work. You have here the runes for Water, Wood, Earth, Metal, Fire, Lightning, Air and Ice all laid out beautifully above the symbol of the Compass Empire. Not only that but the craftsman has included a gemstone to power the runes so that even a layman could draw the power forth. Furthermore, there is a single shield glyph carved into the stone. The craftsmanship is simply exquisite.”
She turned back to stare at me in dismay. “It was however working as much as a crutch as a shield for you. It has not let you grow naturally as it has continually siphoned off your excess mana.”
“I don’t understand.” Confused the amulet had been a blessed relief when I first received it and afterwards I had enjoyed learning about the different countries from it as well as all the spells I was able to enact with it. "What is the problem?"
“You haven’t formed your core.” She succinctly answered.