Failing Upward
> A fairly significant city seems to have grown around seven magic towers established by the seven wicked mages who resisted the will of the gods some 30 years back. Their leader has taken position of Magus and Chairman of their council, while the others lead their towers alone. Each tower operates as a college which raises any and every aspiring mage who comes to their door. If given enough time, this society growing here could become a significant threat to the imperium, and at risk of heresy and considering their relationship with the dragons, they may pose risk to the faith in the Trinity as well.
>
> - Trinity Theocratic Empire intelligence agent c. 986
When she was a child, Meribell’s mother always scolded her for avoiding socializing with her “peers”, lesser though they may be; but she always stood firm in her stance that if she allowed herself to be exposed to so much stupidity there was a chance it could rub off. All these years later, she felt reaffirmed in her beliefs as she watched her neighboring tenant shove his breakfast down his throat as though a construction mage filling a bottomless pit.
Turning her head with barely concealed disgust she refocused herself on the small control circle in front of her. “Meri, is the fridge fixed yet?” The landlady, a plump middle-aged woman seemingly an avatar of doting, care, and concern, came in from the kitchen and looked over her shoulder at the pile of parts in front of the disheveled girl. “No Angela, no more than it was when you asked five minutes ago. Honestly, couldn’t you have broken this on a day when I didn’t have to rush off to present my research proposal? At this rate I will have to leave for the tower long before I get it done.” Shooting a glare at the still seemingly ravenous boy in front of her, Meri continued in a snarky tone, “At least make this bum do it. He may still be a student, but his dimensionalism skills can’t be that bad”.
Seemingly immune to the obvious sarcasm, the dark-skinned boy who looked no more than 15 or 16 years old polished off his plate, standing up and stretching before he reached for his satchel hanging off the back of the chair and throwing a sloppy salute and a goofy smile to the madam followed by a petty glare at Meri. “I’m off to take my exams! Don’t want to be late or my professors will kill me!”
As he skipped out the front door into the bustling city street there was a brief pause before Angela started and ran after him grabbing a small box from the table “Ah, Farid! You forgot your lunch!”. As the door closed after her Meri relished in the rare moment of silence as she continued pushing her mana through the circuit in front of her while taking small bites from her own breakfast. She had lived in this group house ever since she graduated from the Tower of Enchantment as an officially licensed mage of the tower 4 years ago. She would definitely prefer to have her own apartment where peace and quiet would be the norm, but she had yet to receive her own research grant and her side jobs repairing the common use pocket dimensions like the refrigeration unit in front of her only brought in just enough to pay rent. She had mooched off her parents for a time, but when her mother learned that she used her quiet living space as an excuse to avoid socializing she was cut off from their financial support.
Noise and chaos returned to the small living space as two of the other tenants finally got up and about for the day, eliciting a groan of displeasure from Meri before she mumbled under her breath, “After I get approved for this grant today I swear to the gods I’m moving out…”. Not a moment later a cheeky voice behind her joined in, “Ah, have you finally found your faith in the gods? Thats wonderful Meribell! Now we can wed in peace under the eyes of the trinity.”
“Fuck you Harry you theo-imp bastard. The day I marry you is the day you join your precious church choir as a soprano and I gain a tiny ornament for the mantle” Snorting in almost affectionate derision Meri looked up at the young man who just entered the room, his disarrayed mop of blond hair and wrinkled nightclothes somehow struck a perfect contrast against his sharp features and muscled frame. He was a young, good looking professor at the Tower of Medicine, he would almost be worth considering as a match… If it wasn’t for his unbearable religious fervor.
“Hmm. Someday I will convert you and we will have loads of wonderful children and-” the monolog was interrupted as Angela’s pudgy hand reached up to smack the back of his head, having just returned from chains the wayward apprentice.
“Meri, get your papers together and get going before it gets too late. I can live one day without a fridge”
“You know ma’am, you could keep us longer in the mornings if you just hired one of the city planners from the admin tower to come and connect the front door to the door nexus”
“You kids and your obsession with efficiency, it doesn’t kill you to walk to the tower, its hardly the journey of a lifetime. I won’t open up my house to the tower, who knows what those bureaucrats will do with that connection”
“But its been standard for 50 years… they will even do it for free if you allow them to expand the internal dimensions and make room for more people to move into the city”
“No means no dear, now get going before I have to chase you out myself”.
With a sigh, Meri grabbed her bag from the chair and gave a quick hug to Angela before darting out into the city sprawl, ignoring the shouted words of encouragement from the fop of a man behind her.
***
The early light of morning bathed the city of Avalon in an orange-yellow tinge, highlighting the beautiful chaotic sprawl of buildings extending in every direction. The cobbled streets were already bustling with vendors setting up their stalls and mages rushing off to work or study. Overhead the sky was dotted intermittently with brooms, birds, carriages, and all sorts of flying transport as though the city was firmly declaring that it was awake.
Moving with practiced grace through the streets with her nose buried in her research proposal draft, Meri weaved to and fro as she made her way through the complex warren of seemingly unplanned streets to the tall beautiful Tower of Enchantment. Towering hundreds of feet high over the three and four story brick houses lining the city streets in its adjacency, the tower seemed to be sculpted out of a single piece of marble and engraved with countless glowing and pulsing runes making up countless magic circles winding their way up and around the numerous windows and protrusions of the tower. At its zenith was a floating torus orbiting the pointed peak of the tower. As the organization responsible for creation of tools and construction in the city, it was second in grandeur only to the separate floating isle housing Avalon Academy and the council buildings, not that she had spent much time there herself.
As she passed through the mercantile district Meri found herself following the familiar path into the main city square, a beautifully manicured park surrounding the first stone layer in the founding of the city. In the center of the park was a spacious pool surrounding the foundation stone. Atop the large stone was a statue of an old, wrinkled man wearing beautiful robes that even carved out of stone projected a majesty and dignity that went unmatched. His hair and beard hung down towards the ground, only ending as it reached his ankles. The deep, clouded eyes of a dreamer drew in all onlookers evoking pride in all the city’s denizens. At the bottom of the statue, just above the foundation stone was a plate carved out of shining gold:
Magus Aron
Beloved founder and forefather
e. 957
Staring up at the statue for a moment and then down into the pool at her own reflection Meri fell into a moment of silent contemplation. She gathered her frizzy mop of auburn hair up into a tail, doing her best to look collected and professional. Adjusting her glasses and making sure that the cosmetic magic had covered the dark bags under her eyes without covering up the freckles that reminder her of her mom, she decided that she looked as good as she was going to get.
Looking back up at the title plate her gaze firmed, “He could do it and he was a slave, there is no reason that the daughter of a grain merchant can’t become an archmage. Let’s see who dares halt my steps!”
Striding the rest of the way until she stood before the massive archway entry into the tower, Meri hesitated no more and proceeded with confident, measured steps.
***
“No”
“…No?...What do you mean ‘no”?!?!”
“Your proposal is rejected Ms Miller”
“…Ha… You can't just give me ‘no’. I have dedicated the last 4 years of my life to getting this research ready, all I need is the board's approval. Mage Yuu’lan, you personally indicated that the direction of my research was an, and I quote, ‘intriguing direction for dimensional enchanting’. What happened between then and now to change your mind huh? What exactly is wrong with my proposal?!?”
A moment of silence overtook the room. Meribell stood in the presentation area cavernous but empty semi-circular lecture hall, before a long table seating five ancient-looking bearded men wearing the traditional purple robes embroidered with a golden shimmering archway of runes representing Senior Tower-Mages of the Tower of Enchantment. The review board, as always, consisted of a bunch of old men past their prime with nothing better to do than to judge young mages and their research in all of their “infinite wisdom”.
“You see, Ms. Miller-”
“Mage Miller, Mr. Kavitch”
“...Watch yourself Ms- Mage Miller… Anyway, you clearly lack the foundational proof necessary to approve research funding, and moreover the premise represents a potentially dangerous experiment that could risk the safety of the Tower. So, no, Mage Miller, we can't let you build your dimensions”
“Did you even read my proposal? I don't want to build dimensions, I want to grow them by establishi-”
“Meri, please… The tower has determined that your research lacks the necessary hypothetical foundation to allow proceeding with the research. I'm sorry”
The mage she addressed as Yuu’lan raised his hand and interrupted her mid-response, leading to another bout of silence.
Meri sighed and removed her thick glasses as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, eyes closed as she tried to calm down. Putting her glasses back on, her eyes snapped open and pointed back at the review board. “Alright, listen here you pompous fucking imp-bastards. I know you loathe the thought of women joining your little old boys club. I hear you all with your talk of “keeping the fairer sex in the Healing Tower and Divination Tower”, but this institution was founded-”
“HOW DARE YOU-”
“THIS INSTITUTION WAS FOUNDED ON THE PREMISE OF SHARING EDUCATION AND RESEARCH WITH ALL!! So sit back on your shitty little high horse and wait while I appeal to the Tower Elders and tear you down from your pathetic little seats.”
“Meri…”
Not waiting a moment more, Meribell snapped her fingers, gathering her papers into her bag before turning around and crisply walking out of the room, leaving behind the rudest gesture she could conjure as she slammed the heavy double doors open, shocking the mages and apprentices moving through the halls beyond.
***
Knock knock knock
“Caspian?”
The heavy wooden door creaked open, revealing a meticulously groomed young man with short cropped auburn hair, a sharp nose, and striking blue eyes. In fact, if not for the slightly more masculine jawline and broader frame, one could absolutely mistake him for Meribell.
“Mer?... Well, you look like shit. Come in I guess”
Meri stormed into the small room, a moderate enchanter's lab, bookshelves full and desk stacked high with blueprints and half-finished projects. Throwing her bag one one of the two chairs, she unceremoniously dropped herself into the other, leaning back and running her hands through her hair as she closed her eyes and let out a groan.
The man gingerly moved her bag to a clean spot on the desk before sitting down and pressing a button on an empty part of the wall. A panel fell open, revealing an enchanted tea kettle, boiling water that was fed in from a tank only barely visible in the back. Despite the heat of the water, the kettle was only slightly warm to the touch. He telekinetically plucked several leaves from a tall potted plant in the corner of the room, adding them to a pair of mugs that were filled by the pot and floated between the pair. Another wave of his hand and magic circles glowed on each mug, the fragrance of tea immediately wafting through the room and the water seeming to calm and cool just a bit.
Seemingly satisfied with his own performance, the man nodded to himself and grabbed both mugs, placing one in Meri's free hand, jolting her out of her reverie.
“So, what brings the prodigal sister to visit her poor lonely brother all the way here in the outcast department?”
After a long moment of silence and a quiet sip followed by a deep sigh, Meribell finally spoke up.
“They rejected me… Outright, no explanation, no concessions, just straight rejection.”
“Aw shoot Mer, what did you propose that warrants that?”
“That's the thing. It wasn't anything nuts this time. I put a lot of work into this one. It shouldn't be controversial and almost certainly profitable if the outcomes match the hypothesis.”
“Hmm? This is the project to grow pocket dimensions from an anchor and natural conditions? I can't believe you actually pitched one of your reasonable ideas for once… And they actually denied you?”
“I swear it's those sexist impotent rotten shithead bastards on the board flexing their tiny-”
“Woah, woah, woah. Cool your circles, we'll figure this out.”
“Can we petition a Tower Elder? Will your Master be willing?”
“I don't see why not”
Caspian dug around in his pocket for a moment before pulling out a peculiar pocketbook and flipping a couple pages before a crystal passing through the whole book glowed along with the runic symbols on the page.
After a moment, the crystal resonated with the bass of a deep male voice, “Cas? How can I help you?”
“Master, I'm actually calling on behalf of my sister, today she-”
“Sorry, no can do. Tell her to give up and focus on some other research. Or better yet, choose a more feminine subject and stop bothering-”
“ROTTEN IDIOT BAST-!”
Snap
With a loud snap, Caspian snapped his pocketbook closed, terminating the call with his master.
“Sorry Mer, but maybe next time try not antagonizing the mage with sufficient power and influence to make you disappear with a snap of his fingers, yeah?”
Sigh
“Sorry Cas… I'll get out of your hair now. I'm gonna go ask around the senior mages, see if I can get a meeting with an elder”
Reaching over and gently ruffling her hair, Caspian spoke with a gentle smile.
“Remember, I will always have your back. Even if you are a crass, antisocial, unfeminine-”
Smack!
***
Bam!
“Oh, for the love of the Magus…”
A person can only have so many doors slammed in their face before they snap, and Meribell managed twice that before she decided it was no longer worthy of such effort.
Turning in a huff, Meribell took out her hair tie, allowing it to return to its natural state of perpetual bedhead, and loosening her robes. All care for image and decorum left behind with the last shut door.
“Fuck it, if they won't approve the research, I dare them to stop me.”
Walking with long strides through the artificially elongated corridors, Meri arrived in a busy pentagonal room filled with mages crossing through the many doors along each wall. In the center of the space was an unnaturally clear area, on the floor was a map and set of labels pointing to each door.
Completely disregarding the unspoken taboo of the space, Meri strode right through the empty area towards a door labeled “Supply/Requisitions”.
After crossing through the door, Meri's head spun for a moment and she realized she had passed into a small waiting area rather than her intended destination, and a short woman in an attendant’s uniform stood waiting for her.
“Good afternoon Mage Meribel, I am terribly sorry, but I was sent to inform you that your requisitions authority and stipend have been temporarily suspended by order of Tower Elder Bilal Zubayit of the college of dimensionalism”
Meri took a full minute to collect herself, process what was just said, and retrieve her jaw from the floor as her anger built up to a crescendo.
“...They redirected a main door and assigned an attendant just to get in my way… Fuck this”
Completely disregarding the poor woman, now little more than a nervous wreck in front if the fuming mage, Meri turned and promptly left the way she came, ignoring scattered whispers and stares as she reentered the common space, her footsteps not ceasing until she was down and out onto the street and away from the tower.
***
As a bustling city with millions of residents from all over the world, Avalon has no shortage of demand for less-than-official avenues of purchase and acquisitions, leading to several thriving black markets. The Tower of Secrets officially cannot maintain sufficient coverage with their divination to root out all these sites. Unofficially however, they are the strongest backer of any and all underground commerce within the city limits, this lets them grow a vast intelligence network in their quest to uncover all the secrets of the world.
Unlike what one might envision when told of a “black market”, the forum Meri wandered down was expansive and brightly lit by sunlight streaming down through a massive glass ceiling that covered the loose gaggle of stalls and shops crowded with shoppers at all hours of the day. As an illegal market its success was decided by its security, the space was entirely untethered from a physical location, existing as a separate dimension only anchored to doors whose entry changed location regularly and could only be accessed with a specific code. Moreover, the windows on the ceiling were anchored to an entirely different location at sea some distance from the island city itself. It was considered one of the greatest marvels of dimensional engineering in the city outside of the Towers themselves.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Moving through the throngs of shoppers, vendors, and enforcers with the same grace and comfort she showed in the city proper, Meri kept the hood of her plain black robe pulled tightly over her face. Most didn’t bother with disguises in the market since the punishment for a purchaser was minimal even if caught, and almost always overlooked, but tower mages were the notable exception. They wouldn’t be indicted for shopping at the black market, but there had been plenty who had lost their positions and prestige over a small slip-up.
Making her way to a section of stalls selling raw materials of a more prohibited nature, Meri began her search for the necessary materials. She purchased several mana-stones, some precious metals as well as basic components like magical transcription ink and parchment made from the hide of magically-endowed creatures. Finally satisfied with her haul, Meri turned to leave the market but quickly snapped her head around, raking her eyes over an area behind her, she could swear that a pair or eyes focused on her disappeared behind the throngs. Thoroughly disconcerted and a fair amount more annoyed with her circumstances, Meri made quick progress out and back home.
***
Meri stared at the complicated setup of machines, magic circles, and raw components in front of her. She was sitting in her chair in her personal lab. Unlike her brother’s clutter, her lab was less a room, more a pocket dimension she anchored inside the room she rented. Angela would probably be furious if she knew, considering her opinion on the Towers’ initiatives to expand the available real estate within the city using dimensional expansion, but Meri always felt that what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. Besides, she was always cautious and had more security procedures on her dimension than any of her peers would even dream of.
A light flickered through her eyes as she steeled her resolve to disobey the laws of the tower far more overtly than her little rebellions in the past. This could get her magic sealed and thrown in a dark pit and left to rot, but damn them if they think they can get away with stifling her progress so they can keep their decrepit asses in power.
With no further hesitation, Meri channeled energy into an intricate circle drawn on the parchment in front of her. The largest mana stone began to float and glow as runes seemed to appear and disappear on their own, the other mana stones arrayed in a circle around the largest began to shrink as lines of pure energy flowed from them into the central stone. Next the raw materials began to disappear. Meri probed the stone with her perception, finding a growing dimension anchored to the point in space contained within the central mana-stone. Sending her perception in, her mind was blown by the grandeur of the progress. A grey mist of chaotic matter expanded, taking no form in one moment before solidifying into a form the next. First a few disparate flashes of explosions occurred around the space, then from those came solid matter, clumping together to form floating orbs that began to orbit around each other, filling up as much available space as possible. After a couple of hours, the space stopped growing, solidifying with a fixed amount of energy and several tiny “planets” floating through the otherwise empty space.
“…It worked…”
Meri whispered in barely restrained glee as the first stage of her experiment succeeded, a natural dimension was grown, given the proper structure by the instructions left in the magic circle. All that remained would be to convert the mana signature from that of nature to her own to allow her to further manipulate the rules of the space. All the current techniques of creating dimensions left them locked to their owner’s signature, meaning the only way to change their parameters is to make changes to the initial circle. This causes a load of issues as-
Calming her thoughts, Meri began the process, flooding the space with her own mana and preparing to take control in one… two… thr-
Snap!
Something snapped, not in reality, not a sound so much as an existential feeling of disconnect as Meri’s thoughts went dark and she collapsed.
***
Meri woke up with a groan, grasping her temples as pain branched down from her head and through her whole body, leaving no part unshared. As quickly as it came however, the pain immediately disappeared. Looking around cautiously, Meri found herself in an empty-seeming grey space, not at all dissimilar to the raw state of the natural dimension she had grown. It seemed like she could see an infinite distance in any direction, while simultaneously feeling like a grey fog was encroaching on her position, lapping against her legs like the steam of a hot spring. The experience was disconcerting, and she realized that her mind adapting to the dissonance must have been the source of the earlier pain. As she got to her feet, she looked below her and saw she was standing on a reflective pool of water, ripples emerging from every minuscule movement of her feet, yet she stayed perfectly stable as if standing on a floor of marble rather than water. Reaching down, she scooped up a handful of the water, meeting none of the expected resistance. As her arms entered her field of view, she realized that she was now dressed in a long white robe perfectly fit to her body, leaving lingering chills as to how she was disrobed without her knowledge or consent.
She was beginning to consider if this was a dream, so far from what she knew of reality was it. Yet, no matter how she pinched her skin, slapped her cheek, or pulled on her hair, she did not awaken and remained in this seemingly vast empty space. Sighing, she tied her hair back into a tail, belatedly realizing that she had no issue doing so, despite not having had a hair tie just a moment before. Deciding that nothing could be gained or learned from passivity or fear, she began to walk through the world of mist in a straight line, hoping that something would change.
It didn’t take long for her wish to come true, as she moved, in the distance the shapes of a multitude of floating bookshelves began to take form, moving around independently through the space. Occasionally an old tome would fly off a shelf and into the distance, or a handful of pages would fly from different directions, binding themselves into a book and settling on a bookshelf. Miraculously, none of these events had obvious magic circles or runes to guide them, they simply were.
Looking around in wonder, Meri reached out for one of the closest bookshelves, only for it to pull back from her touch and float off just out of reach. After a couple more failed attempts, Meri continued to walk through the library as the shelves grew in density. Eventually, the bookshelves became more orderly and structured and fixed themselves to the “ground”. Looking down, Meri realized that the water was gone, replaced by a worn, faded hardwood floor, aisles lined with beautiful running carpets woven with illustrations of grand battles and great feats of magic. One narrated the story of a wizard ending a draught by binding a raincloud above a village, yet another showed a galant knight in gleaming armor fighting alone against an army with the appearance of angels, but devilish and evil looking visages. Looking up from the carpets, she realized that the grey fog had entirely given way to an old dusty library. The shelves themselves continued their dance, seemingly oblivious to her presence.
Continuing deeper into the strange library that eschewed all possible logic, the bookshelves began to make way for desks and workspaces filled with all sorts of equipment and devices. Meri felt her heart skip a beat when she realized that most of the spaces contained incomplete magic circles. What shocked her was not how far beyond her ken the magic was, but rather that the circles weren’t implanted on a device or on paper, but floated as if in the process of being cast by a mage. But there was no mage present, not could she feel the pull of incomplete magic off them, just like the rest of the space, these things simply were.
Realizing that this space clearly had an owner and unsure of how such a person, should it be a person at all, would react to her presence, Meri did her damnedest to calm her mind and avert her attention from the omnipresent magic. Although not before she took in and memorized as much as she could in that brief moment of shock.
Barely had she proceeded further before she heard a hum and some murmuring as well as the patter of feet shuffling across carpet. “No, no, no. To preserve order in the way of the dragons would forfeit any further growth… Hmm… Perhaps if it were adjusted to match the quantum frequency of a deity- no, no. that would lock in the requirement for worship… Hmm…”
Even just hearing brief segments of the words mumbled caused a feeling of existential dread to well up in Meri. These were not the ramblings of some eccentric tower mage, no, this could only belong to a being so far beyond her that any comparison would be rendered moot. Gulping down her fear, for what felt like the millionth time in a span of just a few minutes, Meri conjured her courage and pressed on. A lab came into view with a young-looking man shuffling along and making annotations across what could only be described as the largest blackboard she had ever seen. It stretched from the ground to the sky, and off into the distance, seeming to put an end to the esoteric library all on its own.
The man had light-brown skin and long, curly brown hair that fell down to his shoulders, his soft features were ever so slightly sharpened by a close-cropped goatee adorning his chin. He wore a loose pair of plain baggy silk trousers and a thin white linen shit open halfway down the front. He paused for a moment, staring at the blackboard and scratching his head with a piece of chalk before straightening with a start, “Ah! Yes, that should do…” and disappearing from his position, only to reappear 30 feet in the air further down in the distance as he revised an equation on the board and stepped back to review his work, treating the air as though it was just another floor for him to walk on. Through all of this he entirely ignored the increasingly shocked Meri who stood not but 100 feet away from the board entirely in open view.
Meri cleared her throat quietly, afraid of making too much noise, but once again was entirely ignored or missed by the strange young man. Summoning every ounce of remaining courage, she cleared her throat a little louder, followed by a timid request, “Um… Excuse me sir?…”
There was a moment of silence as the man turned to face her, deep black eyes that seemed to twinkle with their own light surveyed her for a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity before he replied from his position in the air, “Huh. I didn’t realize I had a visitor”.
Entirely without warning the scene changed before Meri’s eyes, she found herself gone from the odd and unimaginable library, now sitting in a comfortable at a small tea-table on the peak of a small hill in the middle of a perfect idyllic meadow. Birds chirped in the background, a blue sky dotted with gently floating streaks of white overhead, a seemingly perfect reality suddenly was.
Sitting across from her and pouring a cup of tea was the same man she saw a moment earlier, he passed over the delicate china and began to pour another cup for himself. Taking a sip mindlessly as she tried to reconcile logic with the new reality around her, Meri realized that the tea tasted exactly the same as that her brother made, which should be impossible as that plant was cultured by her brother just for the purpose of making her perfect tea. A brief pang of fear for his safety shot through her as she wondered how this man had gotten those tea leaves and if Caspain had been captured before her.
Seeming to detect the oncoming trace of fear and confusion, the man looked up into her eyes from his tea set and displayed an open face of epiphany, not bothering to mask his emotions as Meri did as though he had no care in the world as to whether others could see through his expression. “Hosting others has never been my strong suit. Actually, social skills were never a strong suit in any form or function. So after the n’th time of having a guest who couldn’t stomach my favorite coffee, I just gave up and made the world offer them whatever their favorite taste is. So much easier than trying to read social queues or other troublesome social skills…” The man chuckled to himself and grumbled at his seemingly absurd “misfortunes”.
Leaning back and sipping from the dark drink in his cup and staring out over the field, he paused for a moment in thought before turning back to the terrified girl beside him. “So Mage Meribell Miller, what brings you to my humble abode?”
“…Huh?”
Bursting into laughter at her confusion and his seeming “joke”, the man hummed to himself before deciding to clarify as he stared off into the distance again. “You see, I added a function to the magic that registers all students of the towers as well as independent citizens of Avalon to an enchantment that will trigger whenever they are about to step into forbidden territory or activate a forbidden spell. When it triggers it snatches the soul of the offender and throws them here. A far better fate than letting a Kagiso enforcer scramble your brain like morning eggs or letting the dragons evaporate everyone you know to stop the incursion at its roots, if I do say so myself. Normally, it cross-references with a list of forbidden magic and regions I keep in my library thanks to the generosity of the Kagiso mind-mages, but for your case, there was no record. Chances are I could ask the Elder’s at your tower but that would require me to talk with those stupid bastards, so I don’t really feel like it...”
Finishing his monologue and taking another sip of his coffee, the man turned back to Meri. “So, I’ll ask again, what brings you to my world?”
“You called me mage Meribell Miller, if you don’t know why I’m here how could you possibly know about my issues?”
“Ah, clearly not forbidden mind magic then… Hmm… How can I put it? The surface thoughts of a sentient being radiate off them so long as they are not trained in restraining such thoughts, this is the premise of telepathy or empathy. You were bracing yourself to be disparaged for being a woman for whatever reason, so I decided to tease you. Now as for your presence…”
Realizing that she had just interrogated a being powerful enough to snatch her soul from her body if his words could be believed, Meri paled, her mind racing to come up with a satisfactory answer that could get her out of this situation, simultaneously attempting to clamp down on the etherial so-called “radiation” of her thoughts. This fervent and amateurish attempt elicited another chuckle from the increasingly infuriating man to her side. Deciding to fib her way around the truth, Meri opened her mouth to conjure a story, only to realize that the words refused to be spoken. “The laws of this place do not allow you to put words to anything you consider to be a lie, no matter how small and insignificant”.
Meri straightened up immediately upon hearing this, all fear chased from her mind and replaced with a burning fervor and curiosity. “Incredible… There were no magic fluctuations, and I don’t feel my soul under a form of compulsion, so that means that the laws of reality in this dimension are rewritten to disallow perceived untruth. But to do that without a magical signature or compulsion, the dimension must have been grown from the ground up with the intent to contain that feature, but that would contradict the features of the library and storing knowledge that may or not be true…”
Rambling to herself, the gears of her mind rapidly spinning to understand this whole new avenue of progress, Meri missed the growing smile on the face of her odd conversation partner. “Indeed, this would be impossibly difficult if it were a simple dimension created for my purposes, but this is more of a… Demi-plane… it doesn’t exist within the framework of spacial coordinates, nor does it require matter of any form. I have a feeling I know what got you thrown here, but I would love to hear it in your words before I pass judgement young lady”
Flushing with embarrassment when she realized she was not only caught attempting to lie, but was distracted by her own nature and excitement at the prospect of the unknown. Taking a deep breath Meri decided she had nothing left to lose by being completely frank and began to dictate her story to the strange man.
***
A boisterous guffaw echoed across the surreal meadow as the swarthy man let out his tittering laughter, doubled over the table at the crest of the hill.
“Truly a wonderful character. I am so glad someone had the balls… Ah, excuse me. The gall to stick it to those rotten stagnating bastards with shit for talent and a complete absence of brains.”
Sigh
“There are two types of people who come to my realm even after being warned off my the council members. Those who have a cause they feel they must achieve, and those who are simply too stubborn to allow themselves to fail. The former type are a pain in the ass because usually their “cause” winds-up creating chaos that I have to deal with or risk pissing off the dragons, but the latter kind… The latter kind I quite like, they make good mages”
The man winked at Meri and leaned back in his seat, staring at the blue sky in silence for a moment.
“I feel I must clarify, your proposal almost certainly triggered a warning set in place by Glenn, ah, I mean the Enchantment Tower Master. Anyway, it clearly triggered his warning for forbidden knowledge, but normally the procedure is to inform the proposer of this and then help guide them onto a more acceptable track. But once again, the progeny of my beautiful city disappoint me”
As his words registered in her ears, Meri began to fume at the unfairness of the situation. If they had only told her the truth, she would have set aside the research, everyone and their mother knows that there is forbidden knowledge in the world and that to explore it is to invite death and destruction to your doorstep. Now, she had stepped across the threshold with her own two feet, none the wiser about the blunder she had committed and the disaster she had invited upon herself.
Resigning herself to her fate, Meri decided that if the end of her life was to be here, she may as well be bold. “Since it seems I have fallen into a pond beyond my depth and sealed my own fate, may I at least know what knowledge I came across before I die?”
The man started, and glanced at her with brows raised. “Before you die? Who’s gonna die? No, no, no. I like you, I’m taking you as an apprentice. My wife will kill me, but who gives a damn, I would be sleeping on a couch for losing track of time and staying in my lab for the last 5 years or so anyway. As far as the knowledge you want, one cannot uncrack an egg.. So sure, I’ll fill you in as soon as you greet your master… What are you waiting for? Hurry up and bow to greet your master!”
Meri stared in disbelief at the bizarre man in front of her, for a moment unable to even conjure a response to his absurd demand and whims.
“…I don’t even know who you are, how can I take you as a master? I am grateful you aren’t just killing me, but I can’t just surrender myself to anyone. There are worse things than death, and I have already made one fatal mistake today so…”
Silence returned to their table, this time the tension and awkwardness so palpable that it could be cut with a blade. It lingered for a moment beyond comfort until the man returned to his obnoxious and uncontrolled laughter, gasping out words between the chortles. “…doesn’t know who I am… ha!… choosing death over being my pupil! Hahaha! What a gem. Truly a gem”
As her annoyance grew more and more palpable, drawing thick wrinkles on her forehead and around her eyes as her frown deepened, eventually the man calmed himself enough to pay attention again. He grinned and waved his hand, “How about now? Do you know who I am now?”
In an instant, he began to age. His luscious dark hair grew grey, then white, thinning out and lengthening further. His clear eyes turned murky and his face became a bundle of wrinkles, his back began to hunch and his casual clothes were replaced with a shining black robe embroidered with magic circles as numerous and bright as stars. His beard seemed to shoot from his chin, creeping down towards the ground. The chalk he had so casually twiddled before grew and elongated into a gnarled staff engraved with countless golden runes that seemed to swim up and down its length.
Meri stared in shock as a subtle familiarity began to overtake her. She was sure she had seen this man before but could not remember where or when. Then it clicked, she thought back to the statue she walked by every day on her way to the Tower. “Magus?… But… But… You look so young…”
The man shifted back to his youthful, handsome form, a gentle smile now plastered on his face. “As you know, a mage’s lifespan is extended by the amount of energy they carry around in their bodies, but it doesn’t prevent aging before they reach such a state, nor does it entirely circumvent aging. Thus most mages spend their long lives extending their appearance as middle aged or elderly. But once you reach a point of severing your existence from its reliance on the world, the physical form becomes more or less a matter of intention and self-perception”
“As for the matter of my public appearance, do you know how annoying it is to be hounded by crowds of useless critics and even more useless admirers every time you go outside? A couple hundred years ago I got bored of that so I transmuted all the depictions of me to make me look like I was elderly, purging my young form from the social zeitgeist. It was a fun experiment, after half a century, all but my long-time companions and friends had forgotten my younger form. Now I can go eat out- enjoy my city any time I want!”
The previous gentle smile seemed to transform into a grin of childish glee as he described perhaps the most immature use of neigh-omnipotence that Meri could have possibly envisioned. Her childhood idolization and dreams of the great Magus Aron shattered into a million pieces in front of the immortal child before her as she muttered “Does everyone go crazy when they get as old as you?…” only to receive the worst imaginable answer.
“Probably! What fun is there in sanity? Now where are my bows?”
Begrudgingly, Meri stood up and proceeded to offer her bows to her new master.
***
With a gasp Meri sat up from where she had collapsed on the floor of her lab. She quickly felt around her body, taking a moment to assure herself that she was present and whole. She could almost dismiss the entire experience as a fever dream conjured after frying her own mind during her experiment. If only it weren’t for a small note on her desk next to her incomplete experiment.
Greetings disciple! I will come get you tomorrow morning to begin your torment mental-conditioning re-education.
In the meantime, I think our forgiving world would hardly mind a little concession for my sake. If you want to know the truth behind your experiment, measure the ambient mana levels of the world as a whole before and after you finish up your little project.
- Aron
Reaching over into one of the desk doors, Meri pulled out an instrument, a silver disk engraved with a magic circle. A cord of wound metal threads held a pendulum beneath the disk. Throwing it up in the air, a holographic image of microscopic values appeared above the floating device as the pendulum slowly rotated beneath. Noting down the listed value Meri turned back to her pocket dimension, finding it in exactly the condition it had been in before, she set out to begin the final, taboo, step.
With a deep breath, she once again began the process of altering the frequency of the mana in the natural dimension to shift to her own. As the last of the mana changed to her signature, Meri froze as she felt something snap into place. She could now perceive the dimension just by focusing, almost as though it existed within herself rather than anchored to the crystal. Realizing the potential implications of this on its own, she checked the anchoring crystal, and sure enough the tether to the dimension was gone, now anchored within her own soul.
Remembering the contents of the note, she turned to look at the ambient mana gauge and noticed that the number had gone down. As would be expected, the number had locally decreased by the volume of mana used to contain the dimension. This made sense to her and her mind began to wander as to what her new master could possibly have wanted her to see as she waited as the ambient mana equalized with the rest of the world and the number on the meter gradually climbed back to its expected value. Only… It didn’t. Had she not been so focused on possible change she might have missed the 0.00001% of 0.00001% difference, but the mana equalized and settled at a value less than it had before. The ambient mana of the world decreased, permanently.
Falling back into her chair, staring at the meter in disbelief, Meri suddenly felt extremely grateful to have been spared and offered a second chance, she wasn’t sure she would have offered the same to someone who stole lifespan from the world itself.
Feeling a lot less secure in herself and and her discovery, while oddly grateful for having been rejected by those old men, Meri finally ran out of bandwidth. Wrapping herself in the softest blanket she could find, she made her way to her bedroom and collapsed into a troubled, restless sleep.
***
Meri woke up to glare of a sun long-since risen. As she wiped off the fog of her sleep and tousled her bedhead down into a reasonable shape, she slowly rose and dressed herself for the day. The events of the previous evening relegated to a foggy subconscious until she walked into her lab and saw the still-floating meter and the wave of emotion rolled over her once again.
“I need a drink…”
Mumbling to herself, Meribell opened her door and made her way down the stairs toward the kitchen and was greeted by the smell of biscuits and coffee, picking up a smattering of familiar voices conversing.
“…saved… of course!... it’s a mystery…”
“…oh dear!… what a gentleman… repaired the fridge…”
“…that’s when I took pity on the poor girl and decided to make her my disciple.”
“But Mr. Nim-”
“Ah, please call me Sudo. “Mr Nim” is my father”
“Alright , Sudo. You seem awfully young to be an Archmage, and I haven’t heard your name around town”
“I understand your concern perfectly Madame Angela. Surely you know that we mages age slower the more powerful we are. You see, I was once quite the prodigy. I am probably older than your lovely self, I just prefer to keep to myself.”
“Oh my!”
Walking into the kitchen, Meri encountered her house ma’am sharing coffee and scones and flirting with none other than her new master of questionable sanity, wearing his younger form out in broad daylight as he had so grandly boasted the night before.
“Ah, there she is now. Come Meribell, welcome your master!”
Smirking at the opportunity to get back at the man who tormented her dreams the night before, Meri put on her most grand and aristocratic curtsy proclaiming “Greetings, Magus!” Before looking up pointedly only to disappointedly see that Angela had not reacted in the slightest to her proclamation as though she didn’t hear at all.
With a grin that she could only imagine she would grow to hate, her new master waved a hand as though dismissing an honor.
“Please my disciple, call me master in public.”
“But surel-”
“Now I was just telling your lovely landlady about how I rescued you from those foul lecherous review board members”
“Thats hardly-”
“Of course, you’re grateful, I won’t hear another thank you, its what I should do”
“Can you let me-”
“Come now! Let us not delay any longer, we have places to be!”
“Seriously I ha-”
Waving a hand, Meri was lifted off the ground, all control ripped from her, and with another wave she began to trail behind her new master as her bag flew out from her room and into her arms.
“Farewell Madame! I will come again for scones, we must be off to do something fun!”
Groaning and finally exhausting her tenacity to resist the series of events occurring to her, while firmly denying her own responsibility in their making, Meri relaxed and decided to just accept whatever mess was coming for her as she was whisked out into the city streets illuminated by the orange dawn glow.