Fall arrived, but rather than my own twenty-third birthday, all of my focus was on my sister Mari, who was turning ten.
I had promised her magic circles, and I was going to deliver.
Between Nodel, Sharma, and other mages I spoke to who grew up with an education in magic, I had learned some things that I had not known being largely self-taught. While any mage could use any magic circle, there were some norms which, in retrospect, I could recognize from the mages I fought during my time in the north.
For utility, a lot of mages wore gold jewelry with their magic circles engraved on it. Sharma had worn a locket, but I also saw a lot of signet-style rings in the capital. Sharma’s locket was more subtle, which she told me was because Mirut was a smaller town and she did not want to be too obvious or haughty about her magic when out shopping or talking to the neighbors. Mages in the capital tended to flaunt it a bit more.
When it came to their combat circles, they really flaunted it. There were three main forms.
The smallest were wands. These were for the most mobile of mages who wanted to use concentrated bursts of focused magic, something more substantial than utility magic but not for larger spells. Generally, the wand would have a single magic circle at the forward tip, which flared out rather than tapered, a bit like a twirling baton cut in half. It was more of a magical girl kind of wand than a wizard wand, when compared to media from Earth. Horg had used a wand as a soldier after he learned 4-point magic from Sharma.
My own general-use magic circles were around this size, only a bit larger. Utility circles were generally around half an inch in diameter, and the wands’ magic circles were about an inch across. Mine were about an inch and a half, about the size of a watch face. There were mages who wore larger utility circles and there were wands with a larger flare, but it seemed these were the standards for training young mages to control how much magic they could push through the circle all at once.
The next step up was a handheld scepter, which is what Nodel used. Sharma owned one too, though I had never seen it as a child, since she mostly only did utility magic around me. These rods were a bit more bulky, like a mace, but still small enough that a mage could stay mobile. They tended to have magic circles larger than what I used, around two and a half inches, for casting larger spells or pushing more magic through. Generally, this is what stone mages working in construction used.
For the heaviest hitter, there was the staff. Staves tended to be as tall as the mages weidling them, though there were no hard rules about this. The idea was to root the staff on the ground at the caster’s feet while they focused on the large magic circle right in front of their face. These tended to be about five to six inches large. These were for the largest spells that required the most concentration and the most magic use.
My own large magic circles, which I kept in my inventory for emergencies, were bigger than that. Most mages did not use larger magic circles because they did not want to die. The size of the magic circle did, to a degree, control how much magic was used all at once with a spell, unless the mage really forced it, which could damage the circle. Since mages in this world had not been able to accurately track their MP like I could, they often limited themselves. The way I had grown up teaching myself magic, I tended to draw on my magic until my MP hit zero and then cut it off, but I was unique in that I was able to track it with precision. Perhaps magic meters would change how mages worked over time.
With standardized magic circles, you got relatively standardized results. This is why stone bricks in construction were all around the same size, since construction teams tended to use a standardized scepter. Meanwhile, the larger stones that comprised city walls spoke to how much mass the average staff-wielding mage could move comfortably with the same spell.
At least, that was what I was told by Nodel as I inquired with her about what kind of mage tool I should gift Mari for her tenth birthday. Honestly, it all sounded pretty arbitrary to me. These kinds of rules were built as a grammar for the teaching and training of magic in a world of questions without answers. I had definitely cracked some smaller magic circles trying to channel more MP into a spell than it could handle, and had forced magic a lot more than it sounded like was common, but I tended to use magic by its MP cost, rather than feel. Whether I was using a straw or a hose, I just pushed the same amount of MP through it.
For Mari’s birthday present, I wanted to give her something exceptional, but confined to the current systems in place for the Kingdom’s mages, since she was going to be trained fairly traditionally—albeit with the advantage of having a magic meter from the start. I quickly settled on a scepter, which might be a bit large for her at ten years old, but she would grow into it.
Unlike a traditional single-circle scepter, I saw no reason not to give her one that held all three of the pre-existing magic circles. She would be learning them all, in the end, and I wanted her to have a tool that could last.
Triple the magic circles would use triple the gold, which could get heavy. The core of the scepter would be polished hardwood, like the thrones I had made for Sera and I when we married, to keep it lighter.
The business end of the scepter was decoratively cut to three faces, each inset with one of the magic circles engraved in gold. A bead of gold ran from the magic circle into a triple-fluted spiral down the handle of the scepter so that Mari would be in direct contact with the magic circle when casting.
Contact was an important part of ease of casting, and one of the things that determined who a magic circle “belonged” to. I know that ease of channeling magic grew the closer one was to a magic circle and peaked when in direct contact, but according to Nodel, when two mages tried to share a magic circle, control would go to the one who was closer or in contact with it.
When two mages were both touching the magic circle and trying to channel their magic into it, they were usually in for a bad time. That was part of why mobility while casting was important, since touching an opponent’s magic circle could change the tide of a battle.
Personally, I just melted their magic circles with my custom skills from otherworldly knowledge, but I was a bit of an outlier.
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Lastly, because I was fancy, I used some more gold to decorate the wood around the faces and set a beautiful diamond into the tip of the scepter. It would not actually do anything for the magical tool, but it gave it a nice point. I supposed that in the worst case, if it ever came to it, it could be smashed into an enemy’s face and probably hurt a lot.
The hardwood was the weakest part of the whole thing, since it could be burned away, which would definitely be an irritation if it came to that, but Mari was going to be a healer primarily, not a combat mage. She should never face a situation where she would need to actually fight with the scepter. The lighter weight was worth more than extra sturdiness, at least for now. Perhaps when she was older and stronger I would make her a similar one that was solid metal.
When her birthday finally arrived, the whole family got together to celebrate. Rather than celebrate in the palace, Sera, Siral, and I had some guards escort us to their family home near the Adventurers Guild.
“Siral!” Mari exclaimed as she saw her nephew. “You’re so big!”
“He’ll be walking soon,” Sera said with a smile as Siral babbled something in baby talk to Mari. “Happy birthday, Mari. Are you excited to start your apprenticeship with the Church?”
“I am!” she exclaimed, bouncing Siral’s hands as he grabbed ahold of her fingers. “I can’t wait to learn how to heal!”
I saw Sharma’s expression tighten with worry. “It will be a lot safer now with the magic meters,” I said, hoping to ease her worries a bit. “How many lights can you make now with the enchantment I gave you?”
“Thirteen!” she said proudly. When she had started, she could only manage three with her full magic pool, but after gaining a couple of levels it had grown quite a bit. It was quite good for her level, all things considered.
“Sounds like you’re growing up to be an excellent mage with the makings of an amazing healer,” I said with a grin, and Mari bounced in place from the praise.
“You can keep me healthy while I defeat all the bad guys!” Varus shouted as he ran laps around the room.
Once we all settled down, we had a nice dinner with some excellent desserts before it was time for gifts. Sharma gave Mari a locket like her own, having finally let her learn the beginnings of 4-point and 5-point magic as she approached apprentice age. With all her practice on the light enchantment and Nodel and Atlessoa’s tutelage, 5-point magic had been easy for her, and it had not been a huge leap for her to pick up 4-point magic either. Sharma did not know any 6-point magic, though, leaving it up to the Church with their healing artifacts and knowledge to train her in that.
I had wondered what Horg would give his daughter, since he had given me a sword when I turned ten, but he surprised me by revealing a high-quality shawl. It matched the colors of the Church’s priest and priestess robes, though it would look great with other clothes as well.
“In case you get cold while you’re studying,” he said as he wrapped it around his daughter’s shoulders. “It’s a bit big, but that way you won’t outgrow it.”
Varus, being six, gave her a “nice rock” that he found. “So you can practice shooting rocks with magic,” he said sagely.
He’s not wrong, I thought. Every mage should have a good rock with them.
“This is from us,” I said, laying the box with the scepter in it on the table for my sister and then putting my arm around Sera. “Promise you won’t use it until you’re ready, though.”
Mari nervously opened the box, her eyes going wide when she saw the ornate scepter within. She pulled it out, holding it nervously and stroking the fluting down the handle. “It’s so beautiful!” she exclaimed in delight.
“Normally, you wouldn’t have a 6-point magic circle of your own before training with the Church,” Sera said, shooting me a look as I gave her a shrug. “Can we trust you not to use it until the priests tell you that it’s safe?”
“Yes! I promise!”
“And if you do use 4-point or 5-point magic, use your locket for now. Once you’re stronger you can start using the scepter. Practice your spells on smaller circles before you try them on large ones.”
Mari nodded, bouncing in place as she examined the scepter, making small squeals of excitement. Varus glanced at it with curiosity, but since it was not a sword, he lost interest pretty quickly.
I crouched down next to Mari. “How much magic do you have right now?” I asked, poking her magic meter. She turned her wrist over and lit it up, displaying that she was low.
“I just tested myself today to see how much light I could make,” she exclaimed, looking a bit frustrated that she had no magic to work with.
I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled a high-grade MP potion out of my inventory, handing it to Mari. “Just drink half to start,” I told her.
Mari’s eyes widened at the MP potion, and she nodded, taking it delicately in one hand as she hugged her scepter to her chest with the other. She sipped at the potion carefully, checking it repeatedly to see if she had drank half, and then stopped to check her meter.
“I’m back to ninety four percent!”
“Great,” I said, taking back the rest of the potion from her. “Just this one time, while mama and Sera and I are watching, you can try your scepter. After that you have to preserve your magic for learning at the Church, all right?”
Mari nodded eagerly.
“What are you most comfortable with?”
“Light, probably,” she said.
I nodded in agreement. “So, hold your scepter like this, with the 5-point magic circle facing up. The bigger circle is going to want to pull more magic, but try to cap it to only a few times more than what you felt using the light enchantment.”
“Right,” Mari said, focusing. She set her magical will, and channeled magic into a light spell through her scepter, a glowing orb appearing above and filling the room with a warm light.
I appraised her, and grinned. “Double it.”
“Is it safe?” she asked nervously. I nodded, and Mari steeled her gaze, pushing more magic into the spell.
The light shone brilliantly, nearly washing out the expression of glee covering the young mage’s face.
As the light spell ended, we all blinked away the dots in our eyes. Sera had covered Siral’s baby eyes, which was smart, and Varus was groaning about being blind forever from the floor. Mari practically vibrated from excitement.
“Check your meter,” I said, and she did, finding her magic had fallen back to the low teens. “Not bad. Know your limits. If you ever exceed them, it’ll start to hurt, and hurt badly, but even then sometimes you can’t stop the spell if you push too much magic into it at once. This is what you can do now, so internalize that feeling.”
I handed her the rest of the potion, but stopped her from drinking it right away.
“Too much potion all at once will hurt your tummy. You start your apprenticeship tomorrow, so drink it in the morning. Listen to your teachers, and you’ll grow in no time. Don’t check your progress by trying big spells, use your magic meter and compare the cost of small spells. You can extrapolate from that.”
Mari listened intently and nodded along. I gave her a hug. “Do you think I’ll be a good mage?” she asked me in a whisper.
I pulled back and smiled at my little sister. “You’re going to be a great mage.”