Lessons on Magic

Academics were never Beth’s strong suit, but maybe if her classes had been headed by cute redheads, her grade point average would be higher. If she had come across a book on the stuff Vivian was explaining to her, she would have thrown it against a wall after the third page. But Vivian had a way of explaining things like pulse lengths, intensity, and interlocking frequencies that left an impression.

“I’m not being too technical, am I?” Vivian asked as she finished explaining something about how mixing two similar patterns acted as a way to disguise a third pattern with an opposite frequency.

“Well, not sure if I'm going to remember all of it,” Beth admitted, “but I think I get the general idea. Hide some spell behind two spells with opposite vibes, right?”

Vivian chuckled. “More or less. Basically it’s a smokescreen. Those two distractions can do other things but their main job is to hide a more important piece of the enchantment. But I can’t just dismiss them as being pointless.”

She gestured to the visualization, a mess of dancing lines of light. Some were similar in color flowing together that reminded Beth of a school of fish she saw in her youth with her parents on a trip. Others were widely different, a garish mix of vibrancy that flowed about, seemingly at random.

“You probably just see a clash of lights without much sense, right?” Vivian asked.

“Didn’t know mind reading was part of your skillset,” Beth cheekily said with a wide grin. “What number am I thinking of?”

Vivian let out a small laugh. “Sadly I don’t have that kind of ability. As for the visualization, the uniform parts aren’t as important as the unique ones. They are the actual power of an enchantment. The rest are distractions, minor things like power distribution, or just structural fluff for everything else to link to. This is a mix of all three. Which makes it a bit hard to cut through. I need to make sure the part I’m looking at isn’t something important I can ignore.”

“So you’ve got to go over everything just to be sure,” Beth remarked. “Guess we’re going to have to do this more times then, huh?”

“Most likely,” Vivian answered with a reassuring smile. “But, each look should be quicker than the previous since I’ll be getting used to the build. Think of it like learning a new language. First few months it’s a struggle, but as you get more experience, it becomes a breeze.”

Beth snorted. “Wouldn’t know. Barely passed every Spanish class I ever had. Could probably say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ and that’s about it.”

“You probably shouldn’t be so dismissive of learning like that,” Vivian solemnly said. “Never know when knowing something could help out.”

Old indignation flared up in Beth’s chest and she almost snapped at Vivian. She managed to quell her anger and said, “Never was good in school. Every teacher I ever had was boring as fuck. If they were half as good as you are at explaining shit, I might have paid more attention.”

That caused Vivian to flush slightly and Beth felt a wave of relief that she was able to salvage that conversion.

“Well, um, thank you for that,” Vivian muttered. She cleared her throat and added, “So, that’s a bit of what I can do. Your turn.”

“Well, that was the deal,” Beth began, then frowned. “Not sure if I can explain my voodoo as well as you do yours. What sort of stuff do you want to know?”

“How about you start with how your mana feels as you use it,” Vivian suggested.

“How it feels, huh?” Beth muttered, taking her left hand and pressing it to Vivian’s desk. She concentrated her mana on her fingertips then let it seep into the wood. A routine she had been doing for as long as she could remember, one that came as easy and thoughtless as breathing, Beth now paid extra attention to the process and began to relay it to Vivian.

“My mana’s flowing into the desk,” she reported, her face twisted into a frown. “And it’s sticking to it. You know this is kind of like trying to explain breathing, right? I don’t really have the fancy explanations you have with your technical mumbo jumbo.”

“OK, change in tactics,” Vivian said, her eyes darting to Beth’s fingers. “I can get a good read of your mana. Feels like you’re keeping it close to the surface, yes?”

“Yeah,” Beth answered.

“Is there a limit to the amount of mana you can charge into a set area?” Vivian questioned.

“Uh,” Beth uttered. “Never really tried that. I just throw enough mana in so what I want to stick, um, sticks.”

“Not the most efficient way to use your mana,” Vivian noted. “You might be wasting power, making things oversaturated for what you need them to be. Like, if you need only a cup of water for some recipe, adding more can ruin it. No, that’s not really the best comparison, but you get what I’m saying, right?”

Beth blinked as she processed Vivian’s analogy.

“I think I get what you’re saying,” she said slowly. “I’m using a bucket of glue when I only need a drop, right?”

Vivian’s face lit up and she nodded excitedly. “Yes, exactly that!”

Beth considered Vivian’s point and lifted her left hand. She pointed to the pen the redhead was using. “Mind if I borrow that?”

Vivian shook her head and handed Beth the writing implement. She regarded it for a moment, then channeled a small amount of mana into it, the smallest she felt would allow it to adhere and pressed it into her palm. She held her hand out, perpendicular to the table, the pen resisting the pull of gravity.

“I put in the least I could,” Beth said, “and it should stay here for about half a minute? Smaller stuff takes less to stick, obviously.”

Vivian let out a hum. “We might have to run some real tests to figure out the particulars of your ability. That is, if you want to. I’m not trying to **** my approach to magic on you. If what you’re doing right now feels right to you, I’m not going to demand to change it.”

The redhead’s words struck a chord in Beth and she felt herself begin to **** up before she buried the surge of emotion. She smiled at Vivian and said, “I think we could do some of that. If I get better at using my ability, that means I could pull off some crazy moves. Maybe I could even stick to the air and really go freestyle.”

“I’m not sure if that’s...” Vivian began with a good natured laugh but trailed off suddenly, her eyes flicking about. “Actually, you might be able to do that!”

At the moment, the mana infused into the pen ran out and it fell, hitting the desk with a clatter, punctuating Vivian’s assertion.

“Wait, really!?” Beth asked, stunned; her heart beat hard in her chest at the thought of freely maneuvering without needing walls or flagpoles. “I was joking. I could really pull that off?”

“Well, you might need to really tweak the way you use your ability,” Vivian quickly said. “I don’t want to get your hopes up on some theoretical possibility.”

“But you think it is possible, right?” Beth pressed, her eyes lit with parkour desire.

“I mean, in theory, almost anything is possible with magic,” Vivian replied. “It’s just a matter of finding a way to make what you want happen. But that isn’t always an easy task. Raw power and the innate, let’s say flavor, of your mana limits just what one can do. But given the makeup of your mana and what it naturally does, yes, I do believe you should be able to apply it to gasses the way you do to solids. Should probably work on liquids too.”

“Great, always wanted to try that one,” Beth half-joked, but the notion of standing atop a lake was one that was hard to ignore. Unfortunately, that idea caused her to think of her sister and her mood dropped, something Vivian quickly picked up on.

“Something wrong?” the redhead asked, concern clearly displayed on her face.

Beth’s first instinct was to brush it off, but her conversation with Teri the night before echoed in her head and she said, “Just that this idea reminded me of my sister and it kind of soured the whole water walking thing a bit.”

“If you don’t want to talk about it,” Vivian began to say, but Beth cut her off with a wave of her free hand.

“If I don’t talk about it, it’ll just sit there and weigh me down,” Beth remarked in a bitter voice. “My sister’s thing is water manipulation. Full on waterbender. She could probably water walk.”

She let out a sigh and continued, the words spilling out freely, “After our folks died, she went crazy in trying to keep me from using my powers, all while she continued to use hers to keep a roof over our heads. And you know where that leads.”

Beth pointed to her wrist under Vivian’s diagnostic array. “I get why she went full lockdown, but I hate it.”

After a few moments of silence, Vivian softly said, “Well, we can’t change the past. But we can work for a better future. We can get this thing off you and show your sister you can handle the Abyss.”

Beth grinned at Vivian. “Sounds like a plan. Step one, get this thing off me. Step two, air running.”

Vivian laughed. “Let’s tackle that step one first. Just to be sure this isn’t doing anything more to your mana beyond preventing you from creating Barriers.”

“Guess all this talking isn’t really helping you to figure it out,” Beth muttered.

“Perhaps, but I think we’ve made good progress in understanding it,” Vivian countered. “And, working in silence can be overrated. Having someone to talk to while working is nice.”

Before Beth could respond, a knock sounded from the door.

"Hey, you two," Senka said from the hallway. "Just got the heads up from John. He's just about done with the thing he was crafting."

“Guess that means we have to put a bookmark on this.” Vivian laughed, the light above her array fading. “With John’s mana freed up, we’ll probably head off to collecting the metal we need to craft up the rest of the beacons. I do think I have enough info to create a better spell to break into it.”

“Like you said before, it’s not going to be a quick fix,” Beth said, drawing her arm back before she stood up. She watched as the array collapsed and flowed back into its bottle. “And I’ll be honest, not used to sitting around doing nothing for that long. Well, there’s school, but that doesn’t count. Really looking forward to breaking some things.”

“Speaking from experience, you’ll get your wish,” Vivian remarked with a smile. “They might explode though, so don’t go too crazy.”

Beth grinned. “Even better.”

John watched as Vivian and Beth followed Senka into the kitchen, Aoelia sitting down on his shoulder, her wings tickling his neck as she lounged after their practice.

“Any word from Teri?” he asked Vivian as she sat down.

The redhead shook her head. “I got hold of her but she’s busy with clan stuff. Seems Mason and Cammie came to the same realization about the food situation and gave them a bunch of chickens. Apparently a breed that can produce a lot of eggs and is easy to care for.”

Aeolia let out a hum of annoyance. “Still think the base isn’t a good place to raise animals. They need stuff like sunlight.”

John carefully nodded, making sure to not dislodge his miniature girlfriend. “Not much we can do about that until the tree grows. And there hasn’t been any update notification so the only thing we can do is wait and make the best of what we have.”

“Kind of sucks that she can’t tag along,” Beth noted.

“Indeed,” Senka added with a sigh. “The team feels off, missing a member. Especially after our adventure yesterday.”

“Yeah. But we can’t just sit around until she’s freed up,” John said, which drew a small laugh from Vivian.

“She pretty much said the same thing,” the redhead reported with a sad smile. “In any case, let’s see this staff you were cooking up.”

“One crafting experiment, coming up,” John said and pulled the staff from his Inventory. The slight tiredness he felt after sparring suddenly disappeared as the staff manifested in his hand. Pushing aside the question of where that small rush of energy came from, John regarded his newest item.

The wooden arm had transformed into a straight and rigid piece around a meter and a half long. It was thinner than the limb, having been shaved down into something that fit comfortably in his closed hand. It felt slightly rough under his fingers, not too much but enough to be noticed. At the top of the staff, held in place by a few twisting pieces of grayer wood, was the sap, now turned into amber.

John grimaced slightly as he read the display.

“Doesn’t look like any of these are an on demand healing move,” he complained. “The increased amount of mana Flora Charged has is nice. Let’s see what the next one does.”

Aura of Vitality: Increases the Strength and Endurance of the holder by 5%.

“Well, that explains feeling less tired,” John remarked. “Makes sense that a boost to Endurance would reverse the buildup of exhaustion.”

“I would think losing that boost will cause you to regain that exhaustion,” Vivian presumed. “And possibly even increase it since you’ll be gaining more over time.”

“Just have to not work myself into the ground while holding on to it,” John said, eyes drifting to the last Attribute, and called up its details.

Life Channel: Healing and Enhancement effects are (Wis x 2 )% stronger when this item is used as a focus.

“That’d be great if I had a non-Evocation healing spell,” John groused.

Aeolia shifted a bit and asked, “Think this’ll work with that boosting move of yours?”

“You mean Amplify?” John questioned. When Aeolia gave an affirmative hum, he said, “I suppose it is an ‘enhancing’ effect. We’ll have to try it later.”

John cleared the display and pulled up the Evocation, ready to finish figuring out what the staff did so they could head out.

Bloom of Life: Cost: 40MP, 15 Durability. Anyone within a radius of (Evo x 2) meters recovers (Wis/2)% of their health and has their Strength, Agility and Endurance increased by 15% for (Int) seconds.

“Okay, instant healing is good,” John assessed. “The boost to everyone’s physical stats is nice but it’s pretty limited. At least at the moment.”

“I don’t know,” Beth remarked. “Figure we could do some real damage in, what, thirty seconds?”

“A little more than that,” John clarified. “And I guess that’s more the point. Heal up a good number of people then let them run wild.”

“Or retreat with the boosted vigor,” Senka pointed out. “We will have to be careful when using it. It doesn’t differentiate friend from foe. An ill timed activation could give an enemy their second wind.”

“If they were that close, I think we’d have more to worry about than them getting healed,” John said. He briefly wondered if he should check what converting the Evocation into a normal Attribute would do to its effect, but decided against it. There would be time for that later.

He cleared away the displays and stowed the staff.

“Well, that’s done. Now if there’s nothing else to discuss, how about we get to collecting the stuff we need to make the rest of the beacons?”

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.