One-shot spells

“Disposable spells, basically. I'm an artificer, I make things and invest them with magic to do the work. Paper isn't that great for storing and channeling power, so they're currently inert and they're going to catch fire when I power them up… but each will work once, and they're quick to make,” the ring answers as you finish eating.

‘So what do they do?’ You flag the server as you subvocalize.

“A number of things…” the ring pauses, “I made a couple of healing cards, a few memory wipes, a few flavors of immobilizers, a couple door openers, and a few common utilities.”

‘Like what?’ You press as you hand the waitress your debit card.

“Mobility items to aid in climbing or swimming; a locator spell… I've got an invisibility card in there as well,” the ring answers easily as the waitress walks off.

‘Can I learn that stuff?’ It sounds awesome.

“Hmm… I'm working on training you as a ‘Classic’ powerhouse. It's still early enough in your training that I could teach you artificery or spellcasting, but there's trade-offs to everything.” The ring doesn't wait for you to ask the obvious question, “Broadly speaking, I'm an artificer. I enchant things to do the work for me, and apply my magic - the strength of my soul - to powering them. Give me enough time and some stuff to work with, and I can do basically anything I can imagine. That sounds awesome, and it is… but I need the stuff, and I need the time. I can arrange flight… but I'm going to need to make a winged cape or something. If someone throws a fireball at me and burns the cape up, I'm going to fall out of the sky. I make things that do things, which means my power is external, and can be taken away. My bane is a thief or a destroyer.” The waitress brings you your card and a receipt; you collect your card and sign the receipt.

Another breath, “There’s also another broad category of power styles: Spellcasting. Like artificery, spellcasting can ultimately do almost anything the spellcaster can imagine. Unlike artificery, it's internal: The spellcaster develops and memorizes spells to do the job. There's nothing to take away… but it requires intense focus and concentration. An artificer can activate a device while being blasted by a dissonant cacophany… a spellcaster usually can't. A spellcaster's bane is a joker or an archer: Break the spellcaster's focus by any means, and they can't get a spell off.” You stand up and start walking for the door.

You hear him take a breath… you really should ask about that at some point… “I'm currently training you for the third broad category: ‘Classic’ power. Exercising your soul to move along specific, well-defined paths to have certain effects. Yes, I'm using an enchanted item to do it… but that's because that's how I've trained _my_ soul to function. The titanium ring isn't doing the work for you, it's guiding your soul through doing the work while I feed it power so it can do that, and more so that it can support you where you're not yet strong enough to do it yourself. In a couple of months, you'll be sufficiently used to doing it that you won't need the ring or anything else to transform: You'll simply do it, reflexively. The power will be well and truly _yours_ - there will be nothing anyone can take away. You'll be able to pull it off despite distractions. _You will have no bane._” You step outside and get your bearings… there's the college. “The trade off is a limited library: You will be big, strong, and tough. You can exercise without a trainer, and that will make you stronger, tougher, and possibly bigger. With a skilled trainer, or enough creativity, you can slowly add more powers: Flight, say, or some kind of ranged attack. And of course, I can train you in basically any power, because I can mimic basically any power with a bit of preparation.”

You walk to the college library in silence, thinking. You clock in, and get to work filing returns, then ‘patrol’ the tables to return the books left out to their rightful places on the shelves, settling in to the desk after that to help people check out. The ring let's you think, simply not commenting further.

At the end of your shift, you've reached a decision….