Side Story: Advanced Evocation Technique 3 – Delaying

Uklag takes a few steps, when Catherine tries to follow him she has to find out that she can’t. “What?” she looks down only to find her boots frozen to the ground. Leaning on his staff Uklag looks at her with an amused expression. “Now, when did I do that?” he asks. “Likely just now with one of your Enchantments.” Catherine says.

“Wrong. Okay, the first part is right, but this isn’t the Enchantment lesson.” Uklag smiles. “No, I used Evocation. I will give you a hint on the why you didn’t see it happening: I channelled the magic through my foot. You should probably train that as well, can come in handy sometimes.”

He laughs as Catherine finally manages to break from the ice. “The question becomes how then.” She mumbles. “You used Magic that immediately froze my feet. Furthermore we stood a good metre from each other. Usually spells have their origin at the casters hand, or foot in this case. But I didn’t feel the cold until I was already frozen. Is there a way to originate a spell somewhere besides your own body?”

Uklag claps, “Good thinking and if I had used an Enchantment you could have been right. But no in Evocation there is no way for such a thing. The spell came from my body, but remember what we just talked about.” Catherine’s eyes widen as she realizes what her master means.

“You Channelled energy into your foot and then used it to delay the spell until the energy had reached my feet?” Uklag looks happy “Exactly!” he exclaims. “Now as a reward I will show you something beautiful. Pay attention doing this is very straining, even for somebody of my calibre.”

Uklag gives his staff to Catherine and puts his palms together. Slowly violet light begins to radiate from between his hands, small drops of sweet start to form at the warlock’s forehead as the light becomes more intense. Then his hands pull away and leave a violet orb floating between his palms. Small flashes of violet energy appear between Uklag’s fingers and the orb. The inside of it seems to swirl with untapped potential. “This is pure Arcane.” Uklag explains, his voice slightly strained.

“Magic not yet taken form in this world, visible only because of the sheer quantity I’m using right now. To put things into context this is enough power to blow both of us up in one spectacular explosion.” Catherine is fascinated and terrified by the sight. It reminds her of the drawings of the Bended City, tower so pure and untapped. She extends her hand and touches it. Uklag doesn’t stop her.

Her hand sinks into the energy, part of it flows into her. “So much power.” She whispers a small violet spark appears in her eyes. Quickly she pulls her hand back. “Power I will gain myself one day.” Catherine exclaims. Uklag smiles, “Very good, I was afraid you would fall for the temptation for a moment.” The Arcane Orb is sucked back into Uklag’s hands and he lets out a sigh of relief.

“In Carthabathena there was a class of Master Channeler’s they were both the greatest strength and weakness of the city. While they did provide great powers to the Archmages of the other schools these also slowly became addicted to the feeling of holding so much power. Once they started to throw fireballs the intensity of small pools of lava just for fun the city had completely succumbed to decadence, its fall followed soon after. But enough of history, let’s talk about the technique.”

Uklag starts channelling again. “To make this very clear to you: You can see this because I want you to see it, a skilled Channeller will not make the mistake of letting something as obvious as light escape from their body.” He let’s go of the magic. “Normally Arcane power cannot stay outside of magical matrixes for long time, but if you channel it into a very dense mass it can survive for a longer period of time. As it is still YOUR arcane power you can still command it outside your body. It’s a very weird feeling to say the least.” A small violet cloud flies towards the ceiling. “And once you feel like the power has reached the point where you want it, you can use it for whatever purpose.” The cloud explodes into a small fireball.

“I have a question, Master Uklag.” He looks at her, “Ask away.” “I understand the process to use Evocation on distance now, but how is it that I could use Alteration at distance since the beginning.” Uklag smiles brightly, “A very good question, Catherine. The answer is relatively easy. Arcane is not a natural element in nature, but it is in other humans. When you use Alteration on a person you establish an arcane link between the two of you, the arcane is then stabilized by the duality of sources. Enchantments can have a similar effect when you put your own essence into them, but more on that another time.”

Catherine nods and has no more questions. “Very good, then we shall train, with your talent in Evocation Duplication should be reachable within a month.”