Another 4 months has past since the unveiling of the lords personal carriage. In this time, Margery has seen little of her master. Upon receiving his transportation he immediatly set off to the brightlands to oversee the initial planning and construction of the newly established town. Briefly, the mage would return to his manor in the capital but only to arrange the collection of materials for more of his magical contraptions.
During the few periods in which the young woman had seen the nobleman, Lord Walter (he was a duke now, after all) had merely provided Margery with a collection of handwritten notes on magical theory, or books on geography and political nuance. That's right, the nobleman was now the maids master-turned-teacher.
Although not a very hands on teacher, the notes are from one of the most accomplished mages in the kingdom, Walter himself.
With her newfound comprehension of magic, Margery finally understood why Lord Walter did not produce a self-moving or flying carriage and instead chose to lighten the load and improve the road quality; the answer is all down to magic formulas.
A magic formula, which is the formal name for spells, is the ratio and pattern of movement which simple elements, or elements that cannot be further split into other elements, are required to undertake to produce a tangible effect on the world.
To put it in laymans terms, its the way in which intangible element must be combined and moved to produce visible effects i.e rapidly rotating fire element around a fixed point to produce heat, and then slowly providing wind element into the rotating fire element to produce a fireball.
The greater the effect on the world, the greater the complexity and elemental requirements.
Now, everything in this world is constructed of a combination of elements. In other words, a rock is a dense source of earth, pure and other elements that decide its properties. Trying to move a rock, then, would require a quantity of element greater than the density of element in the rock. The complexity of the formula would also have to account for the rocks own makeup.
Lifting a weight of 30kg up to the height of a mans shoulders would, then, strain any apprentice mage but would be a triffle task for an archmage. On the other hand, attempting to carry the weight of a man to the same height would soon drain even the sturdiest of Wessamonts archmages. The consumption of element for such a task is exponential.
Walters crude accumulator cannot absorb enough element to power the formulas required for the heavy carriage, nor are the storage crystals capable of storing and manipulating such complex spells. Unless a greater source of element and easier automation of spells is produced, the carriage will always be horse powered.
This is why mages cannot simply lift heavy boulders and drop them ontop of charging knights, hence armour made of metal is not entirely redudant, since metal is an incredibly dense source of element hence absorbs most thrown spells. Although, this specific part of Lord Walters note emphasised "at least according to the most commonly excepted hypothesis", which made Margery believe her teacher had another explanation. Considering the maid barely stepped into the world of magic, she daren't start considering such complicated subjects.
Instead, her current conundrum is the brightlands region; why exactly was it an undeveloped land until now?
Large cities and towns will usually employ magically engraved tools or mages to improve the quality of harvests and farmland. Although the costs associated with such a task is astronimical, the incredible capacity for population more than pays for it. Wessend-upon-lydon itself has 3 million residents.
The Brightlands, though, has land so dense with elements benefical to the living that it could sustain well over 5 million citizens without magical assistance. Ontop of that, its fantastic access to resources, with the mineral rich brightstone mountains half a days cart ride from the forest, could easily make the Brightland forest into the most powerful city in human society!
Unfortuantly for the newly appointed duke, as the no longer dim-witted Margery has come to understand, staking claim over such a perfect plot of territory will never be without challenge. In this case, her teachers biggest threat is her most dreaded subject - politics.
Attempting to put the horrifying subject behind her, before curiosity kills the cat, or in this case curiosity drains the young maids will to live, Margery swiftly turned her mind to the most recent set of notes she had received; on the materialisation of magic from an individiuals own power. In other words, how to become a mage.
For even Margery, one who would gladly risk offending a noble to quench her curiosity, would gladly toss aside the thought of politics for such a wonderous thing. Although it should be said that Margerys avid hatred of politics would ruin any nation she were to rule.
Fortuantly for Wessamont, it does not have to suffer from such uninterested leadership. Albeit anyone not within the kings most trusted inner circles may indeed believe otherwise. Especially if they witnessed one of the many advisory gatherings.
One such gathering is currently in session within the palaces east great hall. Lornez's talented advisors on all things military and economic are, as usual, crowded around a single large table to discuss the future development of the brightlands. At the very end of the table sits king Lorenz who seems to barely be taking notice of the advisors bickering.
With both arms firmly planted on the table, the king blankly stares into nothingness. Yet no advisor voices their complaints and nobody would ever question whether it is the king that makes the final decision.
After numerous minutes the king sits up and finalises the choice of action on whichever subject they are debating.
During his 15 year reign, the kings jugdement on his advisors solutions has earned him the nickname "Lorenz the Average".
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During times of famine and disease, the kings policies have neither doomed the nation to death and uprising nor have they miraculously saved as many as possible and ushered in a new age of reverence. Instead, they kept the most important individuals alive while maintaining basic public order.
During times of war, the kings tactics have neither crushed massively advantages forces against all the odds nor lost what should have been won. Instead, they minimalised casualities and loss of land when victory is nigh impossible and gained the best possible land they can without inciting fierce opposition when victory is in their favour.
No matter what subject of governing, the kings final decisions have always produced results with positives that simply complement the negatives. He always produces acceptable, rarely fantastic, results.
With the night fast approaching, the king adjourned the discussions till a later date. Once all but his chancellor had left he turned to the elderly man and exhaustedly said, "Send for my guest". Chancellor Degrough bowed his head in respect and set out through the central doors of the great hall.
The chancellor returned 5 minutes later with a tall, thin, black hooded figure in tow. Upon reaching the chair closest to the king, the figured removed their hood to reveal an intricate purple mask covering their face. Long flowing silver hair unfurled from the hood and reached the figures waist.
Placing one foot forward and bending their hands out infront of their chest, the figure bowed in a fashion not common to Wessamont. With a gentle, androgonous voice the figure began almost singing to the king
"I give my greetings to the my lord, Lorenz. For you to call me to the great hall, and not thine personal quarters...I do rightly assume this is of utmost urgency, yes?"
"You are correct as always" Lorenz sighed, "I'll get straight to the point as we have very little time left. What does it mean when all the paths converge to the same place"
"Then there is only one destination, my lord"
"That is what I feared" the king grasped his forehead with his hands as if all the exhaustion hit him at once and, in a much more serious tone continued "can the destination not be changed?"
"No it cannot, my lord. Once a convergence is gazed upon, it always must be reached," the figure raised their hand to stop the kings reply, "but you can change when thine must reach it"
Lorenz's fearful expression rapidly changed to one of hope and his change of manner could clearly be seen in his urgent tone as he spoke, "How! How can it be done! You must tell me, I know you must tell me!"
Although the king could not see the figures facial expressions, he knew that behind the mask they must be smirking; who wouldn't want to laugh at a begging king?
"Here is what must be done, my lord..."
Margery finally finished her daily duties as personal maid. Although her master was nowhere in sight it did not mean her tasks of maintaining to the lords personal manners ended. Noble guests who wish to earn the mages favour, merchants who wish to use the mages services; every day the maids schedule was clogged with attending to their needs before informing them the master cannot see them.
But with the sun long since below the skyline, the young maid is at last able to return to her chambers.
While within the dark room, the maid took out a small tinderbox from a pocket on her dress and used it to light a small piece of yellow lint. Next she threw the now alight lint into a stone hearth, a luxury only afforded to the personal maid and others of high position in the manor.
She used the fireplace to light a candle and placed it within a deep red coloured holder on her simple wood table. The table afforded a little light without the candle, as it was placed right next to the window, allowing moonlight to gracefully enter the room.
The maid then sat down besides the table, and pulled the large stack of notes towards her. The notes are simple white parchment held together in the corner by a piece of string.
By now, Margery was incredibly proficient at reading through her masters notes; everything he wrote was entirely practical, therefore it was easier to skim through them first before fully digesting the rest. The maid quickly scanned each page and noted all the odd paterns and associated numbers. She recognised these as magic formulas, but each was slightly different than usually. Instead, they were laid out as a set of instructions with each line and circle ordered with letters. Each letter, from the worlds equivalent of a to z, had a set of text written next to them.
Margery soon finished skimming the notes and began reading through in full. Unlike usual, though, she decided she would attempt to follow the instructions as she reached them.
Before even beginning, something she originally dismissed as strange wording finally caught her eye; Lord Walters very first line began as such:
"In this world, humans generally believe learning magic to be an arduous task. First, before even becoming an apprentice, you must master your internal flow of pure element. This usually involves years of experienced mages injecting their mana into objects then having their trainees visual removing some invisible river from the objects"
In this world? Did he word that incorrectly? Did he mean "In this kingdom"? Unable to grasp the meaning behind her teachers odd phrashing the maid simply carried on reading.
"There is one major issue with this method, though - the object which the element is injected to will, inevitably, also be made out of element! What mages are doing is requesting potential apprentices to find a small needle hidden within a stack of slightly larger needles and then asking them to move the needle without disturbing the rest!"
No wonder mages are such a rare commodity, Margery thought as she continued through the notes.
"Then, how do we get around this issue, I bet you are wondering" Margery was ashamed she was so predictable, "the answer is simple. Pure and simple element is all around us, so to learn how to make element flow we simply need to sense a free flowing source - like the fire element from a candle"
The maid promptly moved the lit candle to the center of the table as she began following the notes guidance. She grasped both hand into a hollow ball then placed the candles flame into the center. Making sure the flame was not touching her, she slowly started trying to match her breathing with the waves of heat from the flame.
Then she began imagine she was sucking up an ebbing river circulating around her palms. She continued this process for the next four hours, each time ending with her touching the flame and flinching. The candle was now half way melted and Margery had began drifting off.
As the girls delicate eyelids began to shut, the expected darkness did not come to the maid. Instead, a vivid image of multiple colourful lines intersecting filled her view. Before she could absorb herself in the dream a sharp prick struck her in the center of both palms.
Now fully awake once more she noticed the candle had gone out. But, the candles wick had not run out - no, barely a few seconds had past in that odd dream. Excitedly, she ran over to the fire and relit the candle, then tried again while remembering the feeling.
Yet again, this time in full view, a sharp prick struck both palms and the candle went out!
After repeating this process 10 times, she once again turned to the notes and picked out the first set of curious symbols.
10 minutes later the frustated girl almost tossed aside the notes in exhausted anger until, as she was trying to follow the formula one last time, a miraculous sight formed before her eyes.
Right in the center of her right palm, from the point she felt the sharp prick, floated a small candle-like flame. She had finally done it. After months of learning nothing but magic theory, she had finally cast her first spell. Now, she thought, she just has to make it bigger.