After the conversation wound down, Jeb returned to his room to continue working on the Ritual. Even with his System granted knowledge of Ritual Magic, it was still far from a trivial task to understand exactly what he was supposed to do. Unlike the Rituals that he had learned the previous semester, this Ritual actively required Mana to be poured into it while he danced. More than that, though, Jeb wanted to understand how Ritual Magic worked, in the same way that he had an intuitive idea of how all of the other forms of Magic he had learned worked. Right now Ritual Magic felt more like something that he just followed instructions for, rather than having any sort of intellectual basis for the movements he made. Try as he might, though, Jeb was unable to connect the motions that the Ritual called for to anything more meaningful.
After a night of sleep and a quick meal failed to provide any insight, Jeb found himself again at the Dean’s door. Dean Aquam let him in, and Jeb led the Dean through his issues.
“Just to clarify,” Aquam said after Jeb had finished, “your issues are that you do not understand the way that pushing Mana into a Ritual works, and you do not entirely understand the way that Ritual Magic works as a School of Magic?”
Jeb nodded.
Dean Aquam shrugged. “Those are both issues which we can resolve easily enough. We can repeat the light Ritual I taught you last term. This time, however, actively work on pushing your Magic into the Ritual. Repeating the Ritual with the aid of your Skill should help you to gain new insight into the way that Ritual Magic shapes Magic.”
Dean Aquam stood, and Jeb followed him out of the office and into the classroom for Ritual Magic. The two stood facing each other, and Jeb had a moment of worry that he would not remember the steps to the Ritual. As soon as the drum beat started, however, his fears melted away. Jeb became the dance, and he almost lost himself to the beauty of the Ritual.
Forcing himself to focus, Jeb watched the way that each step of his foot or twist of his hand caused the Magic building in the air to align just that little bit more towards light. Once he felt comfortable with the way the Ritual worked on its own, he started trying to add Mana. Jeb expected it to be somewhat difficult. After all, every other school of Magic had at least a slight learning curve when it came time for him to actively push Mana in.
The Ritual took exactly as much Mana as Jeb offered, neither pushing back against the flow nor demanding more. As Jeb kept feeding more Mana into the Ritual, the light between the Dean and him continued to grow brighter and stronger. More than that, though, each piece of Mana that Jeb poured into the Ritual grabbed ambient Magic, forcing it to align as well. The more Magic that Jeb gave the Ritual, the more Magic that it took from the surroundings. Jeb spent a few repetitions of the dance trying to find an exact relationship, but ran out of Mana before he could get any firm numbers.
Dean Aquam must have noticed the exact moment that Jeb ran out of Mana, because the drumming stopped, and the Ritual ended. Jeb started panting. He had not realized how exhausted he was, but sweat was pouring down his back, front, and everywhere else. Dean Aquam smiled and tossed him a container of water. Jeb nodded in thanks and drank deeply.
By the time that he finished the water skin, Jeb’s breathing was mostly back to normal. He held it out at arm’s length, confused. It definitely had held more water than its size would suggest. Shrugging, he gave it back to the Dean.
“Did that help?” Dean Aquam asked.
“I think so,” Jeb replied. His mind was already whirring with all of the different pieces of the Bound Summoning Ritual that he wanted to test. The fact that it would only require one dancer was even better, because it meant that he would not have to worry about the way that another dancer’s motions might add secondary considerations to the Magic. As that thought passed through his mind, Jeb frowned.
“Wait,” he said, stopping the Dean before he left. “The Bound Summoning Ritual only requires a single dancer.”
Dean Aquam nodded.
“On the first day of the Ritual Magic course, you explained that every Ritual requires more than one dancer.”
Dean Aquam nodded again.
“How does that work?”
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“What do you mean?”
“This Ritual only has one dancer, which seems like a contradiction to what you told us in class.”
“I was wondering when you were going to notice that fact,” Dean Aquam replied, once more heading for the door.
“Is there an answer?” Jeb asked hopefully.
“There is!” Aquam exclaimed happily. Before Jeb could ask what it was, he continued, “and I am excited for you to learn what it is. I will be gone for a few days, however. There are reports of Magical creatures drawing ever closer to the Capital, and the Republic is concerned about them. I look forward to hearing about your progress when I return.”
Dean Aquam vanished, and Jeb was left alone to consider the question. After a few minutes with no progress, he decided it was a question best answered by doing, rather than thinking. Jeb returned to his room, picked up his lute, and looked at the instructions on the page.
Although this Ritual, like most others, can be performed nearly anywhere, the author advises that the Binder choose a location where they will not be disturbed.
Even though his room did meet that description, something about performing a Ritual inside of his dormitory space felt wrong to Jeb. He started walking through the hallways, trusting the Academy to guide him to the best location for him to work. When the hallways opened up to his small plot of farmland, Jeb was confused. The fact that there were no walls blocking him from entering made him assume that it was safe to be standing there. Taking a deep breath, he left the comforting nonexistence of the hallways and stepped into the plot of land he had permanently altered.
Even if the Magic in the air had calmed, there were visible scars everywhere that he looked. The field, which he had grown plants in just a single term ago, looked as though it had not been tended in centuries. Tall, spiraling trees grew out of the earth. Each tree radiated a very specific flavor of Magic, and Jeb found himself entranced watching the leaves on them move, coloring the Magic in the air as the wind brushed past them. Forcing himself to focus, Jeb nodded.
This space, the location of his first major mistake, was a good space for him to work. He could not remember a time that someone had come here without his permission, which meant that he was unlikely to be disturbed. Before the Alchemical Storm, he had loved spending time here. And, most importantly, it was time for him to face his fears and put them to rest. Failing at a Magical project was not the end of his life.
Jeb carefully set the lute down and marked a circle around it. He carefully walked through the steps of the Ritual, feeling the Magic in the air perk in response. Jeb had the vague feeling that the Academy might have led him to perform the Ritual here for another reason. The moment that he started doing something Magical, it was as though the entire space was focused entirely on him. It was an unnerving feeling, but one that Jeb grew used to fairly quickly.
Once he had completed a lap out of time, Jeb nodded. The steps of the Ritual were simple enough. He started dancing in time.
At once, the Magic around him flared, as though the Ritual was already finished. As he took his second step, however, the Magic started to fly out of the Ritual. Try as he might, he could not keep the Magic moving the way that it seemed to demand in the Ritual. After taking a break, he tried again, paying close attention to where, exactly, the Magic seemed to lose resonance.
It was on the lute.
Understanding hit Jeb like a wall. He was the only dancer in the Ritual, yes, but he was not the only agent. The lute was equally as important to the flow of the Magic. Indeed, when he focused on moving Magic through the lute, he could keep it going. The only issue was that he could not dance while focusing on the lute.
Jeb took another break, poring through the book to see if it had any references to a way to split his mind. It did not, only mentioning that this Ritual was commonly used by Mages hoping to improve their ability to split their minds. Nodding, Jeb closed the book.
He had split his mind before, he knew. Picking up the lute, he started playing the notes for Lute Enforcement, focusing on how, exactly, he split his focus between the different strands of music and Magic. When the thread of his Mana made contact with the lute, just for a moment Jeb felt himself standing in both locations at once. The feeling was fleeting. He felt a part of his soul flare with exertion, and then the feeling broke.
Setting the lute back down, Jeb searched his soul for the metaphorical muscle. After an uncounted number of calming breaths, he found it. He thought about the way that it had flared when he connected to the lute and tried to activate it again.
His breath caught. It was like he had suddenly strapped boulders to every one of his limbs and crushed his chest between the waves. Just for a brief moment, his sense of self split. He was both the lute and Jeb. The feeling was even more fleeting than when he had played Lute Enforcement, and he came back to himself panting and covered in a cold sweat. Brushing it away from his brow, Jeb noted that the sweat was tinged slightly pink.
Grimacing, he moved back to his room, cleaned himself, and took a meal. He knew what his next steps were, even if they were going to be difficult. Over the next days, Jeb kept flexing the muscle, coaxing his soul to bilocate, rather than simply tear in twain. Finally, feeling as though he was about to master the skill, he over exerted himself, and felt something inside of him rip. When he came back to himself, he found that he had moved to the Stacks and started writing music. He took a break until Dean Aquam came back after that.