070, 2/2

Erick stood on dry, rocky land, east of the mountains of Oceanside. All around him lay dips and crags and broken rock, old streambeds and dried ponds. Small brushes and scraggly trees dotted the sunswept stone. A sheen of sweat layered Erick’s skin, but his billowy clothes made in Spur were good attire for this sort of location. This land didn’t get much rain or water at all, aside from when the Autumnal rains swelled all the rivers and streams of Oceanside for a single month out of the year. When that happened, this land washed away.

Which is why Erick was here. He planned on some very large explosions and this rocky land was well acquainted with flooding rains and complete destruction. Some of the students came out here to experiment with big, damaging spells, but most students at Oceanside just unloaded into the ocean if they had to level a spell, or practice with higher tier magic.

Erick, Poi, and Kiri had already scouted the area; they were alone. Five Ophiel also kept their eyes open for other people. Ophiel knew something was up since Erick had summoned four extras and set him to generally keep his eyes open for others, but mostly, the five of them quietly trilled in violins as they watched Erick work.

Erick began with [Stoneshape], carving a dry streambed in front of him into something deeper. The land dipped down, then flexed into an oval five meters across at its widest point, and two meters deep. This size was the beginning of ‘Large’ sized spells, so Erick was the only person on Veird who could make spells this big. He would have liked to have done this experiment on a smaller scale but several of the pieces of today’s magic had already been discovered, and Erick’s Particular Insight with Phagar revealed that Rozeta was cracking down on the massive variety of spells coming out of Particle magic. Kiri had had some luck with her [Hermetic Seal] line of spells, but only the truly unique Particle Magic was being allowed into the Script.

That crackdown was one of the reasons Erick decided to try for this kind of magic, to see if he could help bring Particle Magic more in line with what had come before, and to cut a path for others to follow.

And he was going to do it with a highschool-level experiment.

Erick looked up at the blue sky.

[Weather Ward].

A Shaped white glitter filled the air above Erick, forming a funnel to channel water into the pool in front of him.

[Exalted Storm Aura].

Mist lifted from the land. Tiny flashes of white light skittered here and there in the air as fog turned to clouds then rose into the sky like a pillar directly above; a line of clouds straight up. Platinum rain fell from that pillar, crashing down against the [Weather Ward], crushing down into the rocky pool. Erick cut his aura. Platinum rain still fell, but tapered off. The pond filled and overfilled, spilling platinum waters down the rocky land but turning nothing vibrant. The land remained dead. Erick wasn’t about to [Grow] the nearby plants just to destroy them later.

Platinum water sloshed in the pond in front of Erick as the last remnants of his [Exalted Storm Aura] tapered off. He dismissed the [Weather Ward] hanging above.

Erick turned around to see the supplies he had brought for today’s experiment: two dozen bars of wrought-quality copper, a few bars of iron, and bags of salt he hoped he wouldn’t have to use. Erick looked back to the pool of platinum water. With a rod of [Treat Wounds] in his pocket, in addition to Poi and Kiri each having their own rod of [Treat Wounds], Erick prepared for a long day of rhyming.

He spoke to the water,

“A time of rest, all parts to their places

“Cheer remains alongside good will

“But separated thus does purity grace us

“As water shifts, revelations [Distill].”

Ophiel hummed around the edges of the pool, as white flashed across the water. Countless bubbles rose to the white surface for one rushing second, as magic flashed downward. Platinum glows and muddy swirls and everything that was not pure, clear water, sank down, to the bottom of the pool. Notifications appeared.

 

 

 

 

 

Erick smiled at the notifications.

Poi said, “Use the wand, sir.”

Erick said, “It was only 10 mana.” Erick tapped himself with the rod of [Treat Wounds] anyway, saying, “But you’re right.” Erick felt the healing spell wash through his body, fixing tiny problems that he barely even recognized as problems, leaving him relaxed and whole. He put the rod back in his pocket, then looked down at the water. Piles of metal and dirt and debris held on the bottom of the unmoving pool. He turned to Kiri. “Help me get this stuff out.”

Kiri quickly stepped to the side of the water, saying, “Of course!”

Together, Kiri and Erick used combinations of [Metalshape] and [Stoneshape] to pull the metallic debris out of the large-sized pond, or smooth over the broken, muddy bottom, keeping the water clear. When they were done with the first pass through the pool, Erick threw a [Cleanse] at the water, eliciting practically no thick air. Then they trawled the pool again with another [Distill] and [Cleanse] and more Shaping, ensuring the water was as pure as it could be.

Soon, Erick stood at the side of a perfectly clear pool of pure H20.

Erick said, “Pure water is a piss poor electrical conductor, but this is a good starting point.”

Kiri, eyes wide and voice hopeful, asked, “Is that what copper and iron are for?”

“Not exactly. The salt is the backup plan.”

Ecstatic, Kiri said, “Right! Sorry. Water needs dissolved solids to transmit a current. Iron doesn’t really dissolve.”

“Well. Uh. I don’t really know about that.” Erick said, “I did this experiment for some highschool students as a substitute teacher and we used something else besides salt because salt produces chlorine gas. But I forget what that mystery substance was. Mainly, I didn’t want to do this with unknown materials in the water and possibly produce toxic gasses. We’re pretty well ventilated here out in the open but there’s no need to take the risk.” Erick looked to the metallic piles Kiri and he had [Metalshape]d into a pile to the side. Erick threw a 50 mana [Dispel] at the piles. Nothing happened. “They’re not magical anymore.”

Kiri looked at the metallic silver piles, and said, “I’m not even sure what these piles of metal dust are.”

“Me either.” Erick said, “So I’m not putting them back in the water.” Erick looked to the metal bars. “Gotta do this part first, anyway.” Erick picked up a copper bar with [Metalshape] then said, “If you please, Kiri, I need long, thin, wires.” He pulled on the metallic orange copper, turning a corner of the ingot into a thin tendril the thickness of his pinky. He waggled his finger at Kiri, saying, “About this size.”

Kiri joined Erick in pulling wires out of ingots, as she asked, “You’re making an electrical circuit through the water?”

Erick continued to pull copper into wires, as he said, “The usual way to make electricity is to spin magnets in wires, but I won’t be doing that.”

Kiri smiled.

When Erick was sure they had spun enough copper, he took the wires and began laying them out around the pool about where they needed to be.

With precise applications of [Metalshape] to join the wires together, and [Stoneshape] to bury all of them in stone, Erick buried the cable into the experiment. Soon, the only parts of the copper visible in the water were two, one meter copper prongs, each two meters apart, standing up from the bottom of the crystal clear pond. Outside of the pond, on the northern side of the pool, two more copper prongs stood up from the ground, two meters away from the water. These dry prongs had their ends split into U shapes to hold what would come next.

And all the while Kiri’s eyes were wide in anticipation.

When Erick was done, and everything looked proper, he turned to Kiri, asking, “Can you guess what happens next?”

“Yes! You try to enchant another copper pipe to be electrical and then you will make a completed circuit for the electricity to travel on, with the water acting as a conductor for some reason.” Kiri added, “And you add salt if it doesn’t conduct electricity well.”

Erick [Metalshape]d the iron ingots into the air, molding them into a meter long rod, two inches thick, and perfectly shaped to slot into the copper holders, saying, “Very close. Iron for this part. It’s thematically important for reasons I might explain later.” He looked toward Poi, who stood a ways away, saying, “You might want to stand back, too, Kiri.”

Kiri quickly retreated to stand beside Poi. Poi flashed a blue [Weather Ward] around both of them. Kiri stared at what Erick was doing, but Poi only had eyes for their surroundings. All five Ophiel had more than enough eyes to look at everything, everywhere, though most of his eyes were now focused on Erick.

Erick turned back to his experiment. He [Stoneshape]d a pair of hands out of the ground, away from the copper and everything else, and with a gentle touch, locked the iron rod into the stone fists. He put his own hands on the rod for a brief moment. Then he stood up, and stepped back, giving himself two meters of distance from the dark, iron rod. He cast a small [Weather Ward] over himself, glittering the air around him in white, as he lifted his head to the sky.

Ophiel floated around the land, backing up, watching the sky and Erick, humming the tune of [Call Lightning].

Erick spoke,

“A primal force, a titan touched, an ancient life carved from stardust

“now metal rod, electrons clutched! Release thyself with flattery

“become a spark you’re meant to be, like water but, duly trussed.

“Your current brightens all that comes, in this new form; a [Battery].”

The bright blue sky flickered with white lightning, high above. A gentle boom echoed across the stone land. Ophiel backed away from his inquisitive positions, all five of him going silent as he moved behind Erick and turned tiny.

The meter long iron rod, held in place by two stone hands, flickered. Sparks stretched out into the air from one end of the rod, and then the other. The sky cracked bright. Lightning touched down seven feet from Erick, sliding into the dark iron rod, crawling over the stone hands like too many snakes, flickering, trying to reach for anything at all.

Notices popped up on the side of Erick’s vision but he stared at the glowing iron rod.

Kiri shouted, “Holy shit!” and followed that up with, “What’s a [Battery]?”

Erick laughed. Ecks had no real word or concept of [Battery], so he had to use the English word.

“You okay, sir?” Poi asked.

The iron rod zapped the ground with an arc of bight, skittering lightning. Poi mumbled a curse, and a prayer. Erick just paused to feel if he was actually okay. He felt sore all over— Ah. Right.

“I’m okay, Poi.” Erick pulled out the rod of [Treat Wounds] and applied it to himself. His full body soreness went away after a few moments. He put the rod back in his pocket, and checked his mana. His eyes went wide. “That was a lot of mana, though.”

Nothing else seemed to be happening with the iron rod, so Erick checked his notices. The first one was just the congratulations for creating a new Basic Spell, so he dismissed that one.

 

 

 

 

In the middle of reading his notifications, the iron rod discharged once more, then went quiet.

Erick looked back to the rod, then said, “Now comes the fun part.” He gave a tiny command to three of the five Ophiel hovering around the experiment.

Perfectly clear cubes of [Crystalline Air] popped up around the experimental site. Two of them stacked up, one inside the other, seven meters west of the pool. This is where Erick, Kiri, and Poi would stand for the real experiment. A flat layer of [Crystalline Air] popped up between the copper holders for the iron rod, and the pond itself, further separating the sparking rod from the calm water. Three Ophiel had spent all 4000 of their remaining mana to do this; they vanished into dust. The remaining two tiny Ophiel hovered around Erick, flanking him like fluttering parakeets.

Erick looked over to the cubes of [Crystalline Air], saying, “You two might want to—”

Poi was already walking through the fractal air, into the center of the protected space west of the pool, on the narrow end of the oval waters. Kiri followed him, but she kept her eyes on Erick.

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Erick nodded, then turned back to the iron rod. With [Stoneshape] and his Handy Aura, Erick unlatched the rod from the stone hands and placed it upon the copper holders on the north, wide side of the pool. It didn’t look too secure, so he [Stoneshape]d up another pair of hands to hold the iron rod in place against the copper. That looked better. With everything probably secured, Erick sent one Ophiel to float near the rod, while he stepped through [Crystalline Air] to join Kiri and Poi in safety.

Erick cast [Battery] through Ophiel, onto the rod.

Several things rapidly happened. Ophiel exploded as lightning struck him from the iron rod. Lightning arced from Ophiel to the piles of silver metal, whereupon the silver metal caught fire and exploded. Not a very large explosion, but more than enough to send shrapnel flying. Erick yelped. Kiri laughed.

But the iron rod, still sparking, was still there, still held in place by the stone hands. The explosion wasn’t that strong.

He said, “Maybe I put too much power into [Battery].”

Poi casually said, “Undoubtedly.”

Kiri laughed again.

Erick just frowned as he cast a 3000 point [Crystalline Air] himself, shaping the spell into a U, but without any curves; the walls remained flat and nearly invisible, near perfectly see-through. Erick placed one boxy end of the U to the wide, north side of the pool near the iron rod, while the other wrapped around to the other side of the pool to the south, to give him a good view of whatever might be happening inside the water. Erick walked to the south, around to the pool side, first, watching the iron rod on the other side the whole time.

The iron rod was still sparking into the air.

That wasn’t right. It shouldn’t be sparking like that. It might not have a complete circuit in the water, since the water was [Distill]ed but there was still a circuit down there—

Erick stood still, looking at the sparking rod on the other side of the pool. He said, “I fucked up.” He added, “Oh yeah. I fucked up, hard.” He [Stoneshape]d away the stone hands securing the iron rod to the copper lines. The iron rod fell to the ground, sparking the whole time. The copper wasn’t there. “The copper melted?” Erick looked at the stone itself. “And the whole thing isn’t insulated!” He asked himself, “How could I forget about insulating the wires?” Erick mumbled to himself, “Now that’s just poor planning, Erick.” He said, “I don’t have a rhyme for this one.”

Kiri, who had followed Erick out of the bunker-area and now stood beside him, asked, “Do you need to make a new spell for this?” Kiri quickly added, “I’m all for making a new spell, but this one— Just shape a [Weather Ward] around the copper. If that doesn’t work, [Hermetic Seal] makes really good insulation. Though [Weather Ward] should work. [Battery] is a Particle Spell effect.” She added, “I think.”

Erick paused. He said, “Oh.”

Kiri added, “As for the melting problem: Just make a [Spell Ward] with [Mend]. Layer that through the whole way, too.”

“Right!” Erick smiled. He dismissed the [Battery] on the iron rod, then said, “That’s very smart, Kiri. I hardly ever use the [Spell Ward] function. Thank you.”

Kiri said, “I’ll help.”

It took the two of them ten minutes to get the new set up completed. When it was done, the copper lines ran across the ground instead of under it while glittering green and white [Ward]s surrounded the orange metal. Two [Spell Ward]s charged with [Mend] layered both sides of the copper circuit, both [Spell Ward]s infused with a thousand mana. This time, there were no stone hands holding the iron rod in place upon the copper, but Erick had Sculpted a [Hermetic Seal] to perfectly fit the space. Without Meditation, the iron rod looked like it rested on copper cups, but with Meditation, Erick saw that the iron rod was almost completely encased by immobile, white, insulated air.

Erick and Kiri moved back to the [Crystalline Air] shelter with Poi.