After the excitement and fear-ridden fight for their lives against pirates, the crew of the Mist Hauler were more than happy to enjoy an uneventful week of sailing on their journey. The same could not be said after the second week when the passengers began bugging the crew again for assistance, updates on the time frame, or just out of boredom going into the third week of the journey. Markus was, for better or worse, no longer allowed to help the crew due to his shoulder injury, regardless of how much he wanted to, by the command of the ship's doctor. Thus, left with nothing to do but settle into his role as Ellianora’s assistant, he retrieved or stowed notes and writing, copied passages or replicated images by hand, and generally became her defacto health advisor (which amounted to telling her to go to sleep at a reasonable time). The effort was, however, not without benefit, and in a week he’d learned more about how the theory and craft of the arcane arts worked than he had in years of study with dedicated tutors. Her notes were far and away easier to understand and sorting and organizing them helped him understand how the unrelated concepts fit together, from the way energy flowed through the world and living creatures to the glyphic language used in all forms of magic, Ellianora was both diverse and thorough in her studies. With the only other option being to sit on the deck like a rock Markus applied himself to the knowledge available, losing track of the days as old opportunities he’d given up on once again became available.
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For the most part, Ellianora was surprised, Markus was educated enough to handle her research and surprisingly interested in it, asking questions and reading her older notes as he took the opportunity to absorb the knowledge in an attempt to avoid being idle. During one such day of research, Markus asked her a question while he shuffled around in her book bag, putting away a piece she was done with for now.
“Your arm is looking better.” He glanced at her left hand, the translucence had nearly faded leaving it discolored in muted muddied tones.
“Hm?” She looked up from her notes.
“What causes that? Is it just holding a spell too long or making it too big?”
She lifted her hand to examine the back, “how much do you know about how spell casting works?”
“People with the gift can learn pieces of the language arcane to alter the energy around them by creating what’s effectively written commands” He shared. Finishing putting the book away, he turned from his crouch to sit facing her, “Though there are multiple types of magic I’ve never encountered them, so my knowledge stops there.”
“I hate to break it to you but that’s like saying a sword works because you swing it.”
“Doesn’t it?”
“That’s how you use it, not how it works. A sword works by making use of a wedge and focusing a force over a large area down into a tiny space, thus amplifying its effect.”
“Ah, that’s what you meant. I already knew that though.” He thought for a moment before clarifying “About swords, I have no idea when it comes to casting.”
She sighed, “Alright, to give a very abridged explanation, the first gods called primordial gods spoke into existence the universe and everything in it.”
She glanced at him before moving on, “As more and more gods were born they began to come into conflict and warred with each other.”
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“I remember the history lesson,” he pointed out “The divine wars ended when Lua and the other neutral gods sacrificed their bodies to imprison all the remaining gods behind the stars.”
“Right, but the important part for this discussion is the other gods.”
He looked confused.
“Only fourteen gods still live, not counting the neutral gods that no longer have forms right?”
He nodded “Yeah, unless we got a new one I wasn’t aware of.”
Letting a small smile tug at her face due to his levity. “Well, what happened to all the other gods that died during the war?’ she prompted.
“They.. turned into magic?” He made an educated guess.
“Half right. They were already magic” she explained, “The gods, specifically the primordial ones, were born from the infinite void, energy compressed into form. When they died, the compressed, refined, energy was released into the world becoming what we call arcanum.”
“Ok so raw magic is dead god souls, got it”
She stopped, trying to find a good reason to dispute it before sighing, “That’s, close enough, for the purposes of this this explanation.”
She continued “The primordial gods used their power by literally speaking their will into being. They said there was ground so there was, that time moved, so it did. What we call the Language Arcane is an actual language, spoken at the beginning of the universe by those that formed it.”
She looked at him to make sure he was still following, causing him to ask, “Is there a point where it answers the question or…”
“I’m getting to it, the fundamental building blocks of the world surprisingly require a bit of explanation and base knowledge to fully grasp.” She defended, taking a moment before continuing.
“There are three types of magic.” She stated, holding up her fingers. “The first and most common kind is innate magic. Obviously, certain species possess inherent abilities, like tritons manipulating water, or dragons and dragon kin’s breath weapons. These abilities are produced by the words spoken at the species’ creation, fused to their souls and bodies.”
“Innate magic is also the basis of alchemy since it's focused around the enhancement and transfer of innate effects from plants and materials ” She added.
“The second type of magic is word magic, the nearest parallel with how the gods operate but on an incomparably smaller scale. The ability to use word magic is granted to devout followers by the gods themselves, investing a shard of divinity into the recipient. Since the gods have limits on their total power since the great imprisoning, this is the rarest type of magic.”
Markus was slowly reabsorbing and remembering information he’d long forgotten from the lessons of his early life. Outside of asking a few clarifying questions to prove he was still paying attention, he mostly let her explain, enjoying the regaining of knowledge and information.
Suddenly, the past lessons snapped into focus, “and the third type is sigil magic, the written version of the Language Arcane.” He remembered.
“Bingo” she confirmed, “it’s also the basis of rune magic.”
“Sooo… your hand?” Markus reiterated the original point.
“All forms of The Language Arcane work the same way,” she expounded. “Drawn the energy in, shape it, project it out in its new form.”
Markus nodded and motioned his hand to indicate that he was reaching the end of his impressive ability to sit in one spot for an extended period of time.
“Well the ‘drawing energy into your body’ part is in fact, limited by how resistant to said energy you are. Drawing too much energy in and pushing it through your body produces what’s called spell burn.” She raised her discolored arm. “Young apprentices often contract spell burns in the overzealous drive for their first successful cast. It’s practically a rite of passage.”
“That seems dangerous,” Markus observed.
“Actually, not as much as you might think, only about as bad as muscle damage from weightlifting, unless you really go overboard. Also, the more you contract it the more energy you can manipulate at a time.”
“So, it’s exactly like weightlifting” Markus clarified.
“In the most basic sense, yes. But there’s a lot of caveats and details that I won’t get into for the sake of brevity.”
Markus turned his head to look out the porthole window, thinking to himself as the bright moonlight reflected off the water. “Probably for the best. It’s getting late let’s go to bed.” The observation, not really being a discussion, she decided to relent her research efforts in favor of sleep. “Yeah, I guess we should.”