Jeb just stared at the Bard. “If you expected me to fail, why didn’t you say anything?” he demanded.
“Two reasons,” the Bard said, holding up his hand. “First,” he raised a finger, “there was a chance that you would be able to weave multiple strands together. If that were true, then my telling you that you would not be able to would have made that a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Jeb nodded at that. It was fair enough.
“Second,” another finger came up, “I wanted you to learn that Mana Backlash is far less of a concern for you now than it ever has been before. If you had thought about what you were doing, you might have been tenser, which would not have helped anything.”
“I did notice that,” Jeb admitted, “it honestly seemed like the lute was strengthened from the input of Mana.”
The Bard shrugged. “Given how much Mana you’ve poured into it, I would be shocked if the Mana Backlash added any appreciable density to it. That being said, the Mana Backlash going into your lute does certainly have a benefit outside of the lack of pain to you.”
Jeb waited for the Bard to explain. When it was clear that he was waiting for Jeb to ask the question, Jeb obliged. “What is the other benefit?”
The Bard beamed. “Each time that you push Mana Backlash from a given Song into the lute, it Attunes itself slightly to that Song, making it easier for your Mana to flow in the pattern of the Song next time. It is really the greatest benefit of Binding something to yourself. Even your failures begin to lay the foundation of success.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about that before I bound the lute?” Jeb asked.
The Bard’s grin grew a little strained. “Primarily because it did not seem relevant,” he admitted with a shrug. “You were making choices about whether or not you wanted to Bind the instrument, and I did not think that adding another fact about it would be beneficial to your choices.”
The Bard paused for a moment before continuing, as though he had just had an idea, “also, the Librarian could have told you if he had thought it relevant. He was the one you sought out to ask for advice, after all.”
“That’s true,” Jeb said. He spent a few moments probing how he felt about it. The Bard clearly saw the conflicting emotions on his face, but chose to stay silent.
On the one hand, Jeb thought to himself, if I had chosen not to Bind the lute, knowing this would have only made the decision harder. There is probably a reason that the Librarian chose not to tell me, and it isn’t really that helpful of a reason, right? He focused a little harder on that thought.
Nodding, he continued his line of thought, the main reason I was considering not Binding my lute was that I was unsure if I would continue having access to Songs. If I couldn’t use a Song, then it would make no difference if failing Songs made it easier to learn them. On the other hand, Jeb’s thoughts grew less calm.
On the other hand, I don’t want to have information hidden from me. That feeling resonated with him, and he explored it further. Why does it bother me so much to have information hidden?
The answer came to Jeb quickly. I want to choose my own path, and that requires moving with both eyes open. The Currents of Fate might be steering Jeb somewhere, but he was not going to follow it blindly.
Even with that decision, though, he was not mad at the Bard. Jeb would take what had happened as a lesson and work to ask more and better questions. On that note, he thought.
“Why did your Mana look like that?” he asked the Bard. Of everything that Jeb could say, it was clear that the Bard was not expecting that.
“Hmm? Like what?” Jeb wasn’t sure if the Bard was being intentionally difficult or not.
“When you Sang the Song the first time, your Mana looked far different than it did the second time. It seemed like a looping and woven knot.”
“And what is your question?”
Jeb furrowed his brows. “Why does your Mana do that? If how is the better question, then I suppose how does your Mana do that?”
“Why does your Mana look like a thread?” the Bard retorted. Seeing Jeb’s expression, he continued, “I am not just asking this to distract you. It will help to answer your question.”
That was an easy enough question for Jeb to answer. “My Mana looks like a thread because that’s how I visualize it,” he replied.
“Why do you visualize it as a thread?”
That was a harder question. “In the case of Songs-” Jeb began, but he was interrupted by the Bard.
“How did you visualize your Mana when you worked with Glyphs before learning Lute Enforcement?”
Jeb tried to think back to when he’d gotten his Class and before that. As he did, he realized that it was not significantly different from the way that he still saw his Mana when he worked on a Spell Glyph. “I see it as a current of light,” he replied. “My Mana is light that flows between the points of a Glyph. That’s how I can tell when I need to adjust location in creating new Glyphs: the light dims at those points.”
“Why do you visualize it like that?”
“Because my Mana does flow through the Glyph?” Jeb replied, questioning. “I suppose I don’t quite know why I see it as light, but I don’t think that would be a problem to visualize it as anything else.” Jeb imagined Attune Water Mana in his mind to test his theory. This time, rather than tracing the pattern of the Glyph with a river of light, Jeb imagined it as a thread weaving through the Glyph.
To his surprise, it was significantly more difficult for him to push his Mana through the Glyph. It still went through, and it didn’t seem as though he was wasting any Mana, but it was still an extra effort that he hadn’t felt while using a Glyph. When Jeb stopped pushing Mana into the Glyph, he was a little surprised to see that the Bard was speaking.
“I’m sorry, could you repeat what you said?” he asked for the second time in the conversation.
The Bard laughed, “I take it you attempted to visualize your Mana flow as something other than light?”
Jeb nodded. “Since I view Songs as threads, I thought that I might be able to do the same for Glyphs. I could, but it was far more difficult.”
“That is more or less what I was trying to explain,” the Bard replied with a shrug. “It is good practice to attempt visualizing your Mana flow as something other than what is natural for you.” As though he knew Jeb was about to ask why, the Bard continued, “at the very least, it will help when you are in my position and teaching a student who visualizes their Mana differently than you. It has a similar benefit when working Magic with others. Most collaborative Spells require some agreement on how Mana needs to flow through the Spell. Most often, that takes the form of the Spellsmith’s preferred visualization.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question,” Jeb pointed out. “Why do you see your Magic as a woven knot?”
The Bard stared out pensively for a moment. “Are you familiar with woven knots as a form of artwork?” Seeing Jeb’s head shake, he muttered something about how “the Empire needs to stop suppressing so called foreign elements.”
In a louder voice, he continued, “before I received my First Class, I was fascinated by the form of these knots. When drawn, they have no beginning and no end. When crafted expertly, they appear the same. I think that when I first began to work with Magic, I had similar beliefs about music. You remember the Song of Intention?” he asked suddenly.
Jeb thought back to the first Song he had Sung with the Bard. “Yes,” he said.
“That was the first Song that I learned,” the Bard continued, “and I stand by my belief that it has no ending nor beginning. The Spells and Songs you learn will impact the way you visualize, but the way that you visualize your Magic will also affect the Songs and Spells you can learn. I expect that this Ephemeral Song will be more difficult for you to master due to your visualization style.”
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“Why would my visualization style make learning the Ephemeral Song more difficult?” Jeb asked.
“In the interest of being precise, it is only an Ephemeral Song, but consider the difference between how I would add another sense and how you will need to. For me, it is as simple as adding a few new crossings in the knot of my Mana. Nothing underlying needs to change. You, on the other hand, need to weave two separate strands, unravel them into their effects, and then reweave the two parts together so that they are a single unified whole.”
“I have two questions,” Jeb replied. Seeing the Bard nod, he continued, “First, why do I need to weave the two strands together?”
The Bard bobbed his head from side to side, considering his answer. “Technically,” he finally said, “when you have two distinct strands, you are arguably Singing the Song twice at once. Though it has minimal practical difference, it is a meaningful distinction when it comes to Magical Theory. Applying it to Glyph Magic, you can see how using one instance of Least Shape Water to move two buckets of water at once would be different than casting it twice to move each one separately, right?”
“I guess so,” Jeb admitted, “but I don’t think that I can cast multiple Glyphs at once.”
“First, the metaphor stands in either case,” the Bard said, “and second, have you ever attempted to cast multiple Glyphs at once? More relevantly, have you ever needed to cast multiple Glyphs at once?”
“No,” Jeb replied, “why would I ever need to though?”
The Bard stared, his manic expression softening into something more tender. “I truly hope that you never learn the answer to that question, or that if you do, it is only for some incredibly esoteric project of pure theory.” Before Jeb could respond, the Bard kept going, “what was your second question?”
Jeb accepted the diversion, sensing that the Bard would not answer what his softened expression meant. “Why does it make a difference how I visualize my Mana? There’s no reason that adding another thread is explicitly harder than adding loops to a knot.”
“Believe it or not,” the Bard replied, “you have stumbled into one of the key teachings that Bards tend to need to have repeatedly drilled into them. The difficulty of most Songs comes not in anything explicit to them, but in our understanding of Magic. It comes down to the nature of the visualization, though. It is not in the nature of threads to unravel and rewind into each other, correct?”
Jeb nodded.
“On the other hand, it is absolutely in the nature of woven knots as I understand them to reshape into new patterns with no real change to them. If you had a slightly different understanding of threads of Magic, the same could be true for how you visualize them.” Seeing Jeb’s dazed expression, the Bard continued, “I think that is enough of a lesson for the day. Come back when you can Sing that Ephemeral Song with an effect for each of five senses at once in a single Song. Or, come back if you get particularly stuck on the project.”
Mind swimming, Jeb hardly felt himself put the lute away and clasp it shut as he started the walk home. As he moved, different conceptions of Magic played through his mind.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 6457/100
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Total Statistic Load: 352 Physical Load: 127 Strength: 29 Dexterity: 22 Endurance: 31 Vitality: 41 Presence: 4
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Mental Load: 225 Intelligence: 47 Willpower: 52 Magic Affinity: 55 Mana Depth: 37 Charisma: 34
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Mana: 1070
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Glyph Attunement: 26 Least Shape Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Shape Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Conjure Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Mud (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Earth Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Water Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Water Mana - Efficient Tier 2 Spell Attune Air Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Fire Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Sand Mana Tier 0 Spell Least Create Sand Tier 1 Spell Attune Sand Mana - Efficient Tier 2 Spell
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Bard Songs Known: 1 Lute Enforcement
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Skills: Least Mud Magic Meditation Mana Manipulation Spell Glyphing Improved Glyph Groking Gift of Gab Running Identify Soil Savvy Animal Handling Fertilizing Lifting Athletics Lute Playing Singing Musician Pollination Brewing Distilling Bardic Magic Smithing Wood Identification Woodworking Soil Improvement Enchanting
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)