1 Soul Bound
1.3 Making a Splash
1.3.1 An Obligated Noble
1.3.1.8 Expected boundaries
Wellington: “I have questions about the use of reality magic in construction, and Kafana has questions about creating permanent wards, like the one under the Plaza of Peace. Also, if our host is willing to give permission, I have a wand of rune analysis that I have modified in accordance with Grand Master Johannes’ theories and I would greatly appreciate an opportunity to inspect the magic items stored in the House Vault and discuss with you how a volume of space may be secured against theft or inspection by other mages.”
Herberto: “Permission I can seek from my father, if you can agree to share your findings with us, and keep confidential any details that we would prefer enemies and competitors not learn of. So perhaps we will be able to fit in a trip to the Vault this afternoon?”
Camillo nodded. “I am certainly willing to teach you both more about reality magic and test your capacity for it, but Tori is right about one thing - it is a slow process, unsuited to the battlefield. To construct a building may take several bells, even if you have a team of experienced reality mages working together in harmony, like the one Grand Master Earth took with him to repair the bridge over at Castagnaro. Warding, though, I can talk to you about right now, at least in brief.”
Kafana smiled at him, encouragingly. She’d almost become inured to lectures from mages by now, each eager to extol the virtues and difficulties of their own magic discipline. At least Camillio knew he had limited time.
Kafana: “I recently created an artifact that makes a sort of temporary singing ward against violence, powered by a sacrifice of food. But the deities had a hand in it, and I’m not sure how it actually works or how to deliberately go about designing something different. What I’m looking for is a permanent protection for housing where Vessels will be living, who may not be combat oriented and who might get targeted for theft or in revenge for the actions of their Questing spirits.”
Camillio: “All magic effects need a supply of mana, whether that’s stored in a crystal, drawn in from the surroundings, or provided by the mage, wielder or other linked beings. For a permanent effect the magic must be tied to a magical focus or a group of people, such as the residents of the building.”
Bulgaria was leafing through Azephus’ Journals with Herberto, leaving herself and Wellington sitting at a table opposite Camillio, who produced a large roll of linen paper, and started drawing geometrical designs upon it as he talked.
Kafana: “A focus?”
Camillio: “Different elemental disciplines of magic create wards in different ways. One might grow a ring of trees, another might use enchanted bones. But most buildings are constructed by crafters and reality mages, who both use the element of order. So the usual way to create a focus that keeps drawing in mana, is to use ordered patterns - patterns in the architectural design that can be persuaded to form a gestalt with something larger.”
Kafana: “Something larger that contains or generates mana?”
Camillio: “Yes. Certain locations with high elemental attunements, like the deep ocean, naturally attract and store mana of a specific type. There are natural pathways, along the fractures of the world left by the ancients, along which mana flows like a tide. Alternate versions of our reality, accessible via portals like at the Zoo. Ancient ruins and other dangerous spots which the hunters guild terms ‘dungeons’, and which warp reality to limit entry. Beings from the abyssal and celestial realms. Deities, demi-deities, and body parts from certain types of legendary monster. Even hopes, dreams and certain abstract concepts that in someway unite the thoughts of thinking beings.”
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Kafana: “With so many sources of mana, it is a wonder that the world does not end up full of it.”
Wellington: “In practical terms, what shape would we need to make the buildings, to focus a type of mana appropriate to keeping the vessels safe? Why geometric patterns?”
Camillio kept sketching. “You could try to set things up so any invader would end up cursed for breaking Cov’s hospitality, but that’s tricky without sanctifying the place or getting the invaders vow to be a good guest. The simplest geometric shape to symbolise order is the equilateral triangle, which you can reinforce by placing it as part of the Cov rune. But you might do better to focus your protection upon gathering information and alerting those who are combat capable, or upon affecting the mind and intentions of potential invaders. A tall spire can work as a focus for gathering air mana from Lun, just as a pool or well can resonate with water mana from Mor and a lush garden or greenhouse helps gather earth mana from Dro. The hard part is setting up the gestalt and laying down the intent that shapes the mana, in a way that is stable enough to last beyond the caster’s concentration.”
Camillio finished drawing and turned the page around to show them.
Camillio: “As to geometry it’s been said that, fundamentally, reality magic is the study of multi-dimensional geometry as applied to conceptual geography. Some basic wards act only upon things as they pass through the ward, but the stronger boundary wards of a high level reality mage do more than that. They define the space inside them as an entity separate from the outside, which can then be broken off from the world gestalt that previously defined its nature and properties. The clearer the division between inside and outside, the easier it is to conceive of them being two rather than one.”
Kafana: “I’m not sure I understand. What does that mean in practice?”
Camillio: “When you walk from the Plaza of the Founders to the Plaza of Peace, there’s an obvious boundary point where the paving changes to stone slabs of a different shade and size. The pattern in which the benches, trees and fountains are laid out is not only harmonious; it also slows people down, gives it a different atmosphere. Even were no magic involved, it would feel peaceful. People see the two plazas as being distinctly different and expect a change when they cross the boundary; a change in the amount of peacefulness. Because expectations support the effect of the warding, rather than fighting against it, the warding was easier to stabilise.”
Wellington was scrutinising the diagrams, so Kafana asked another question.
Kafana: “So expectations are important. Does that mean that the more powerful the benefit of the change, the harder it is to ward? Because people don’t expect it?”
Camillio: “Not just because of that, but yes. People expect normal buildings and so they are not surprised at their creation, even if they are quite large or elegant. But a reality in which gold fell like rain would strongly contradict people’s expectations, so it would take a legendary mage of the sort born only once every few centuries, to create such a thing.”
Kafana: “Did that really happen? A world of gold?”
Camillio: “Not gold, no, but one story claims that the unique alloy from which the Hellenic Empire minted their Zecchi coins wasn’t mined in our world at all, but actually in a dungeon created especially for that purpose by Archmage Croesus. A maledic mage from the Three Towers once broke into the Zoo in order to interrogate Lady Dieconeura about it, on the grounds she has memories dating back to the Empire and is also a reality mage.”
Bulgaria and Herberto rejoined them, as Wellington accepted the drawings and put them in his stash.
Bulgaria: “What happened?”
Camillo: “They found the intruder the next day, not yet dead but frozen in time and untouchable, each eye pierced with a single Zecchi coin. His dying moment was spread out of a period of five years, stuck like a statue by the gate. One artist even started making monthly visits in order to sketch him and turn it into a flip book. Nobody has ever dared ask her again, so the story remains unverified.”
Wellington: “Perhaps a good thing. Doubling the number of Zecchi coins in circulation would destabilise half the world’s economy and cause millions of people to starve.”
Herberto: “Indeed. And talking of starving, we should postpone any further discussion of magic until later and make a move, if we’re to fit in enough music to satisfy my father before lunch is served.”