Chapter 44: Magic

Keltor, the Oathsworn Paladin, traveled far and wide in search of demons who hid themselves amongst humans. Shapeshifters, Mind-Manipulators, and horrors beyond your imagining. Follower of Angel Levis, the Cloaked, Keltor’s name remained unknown for many years, defending us in the shadows until he died destroying the Remnants of a Devil that had hidden itself in a small town near Bollar.

• “Legends Of The Incursion” From The Archmage’s Library

I set my book to the side, next to my bag. Most of the others are gone, leaving only Tanya nearby where she’s stirring some kind of mixture into a pot. She’s absorbed in her work, and far enough away that I’m not worried about her listening in.

I motion for Eyla to move closer.

While she moves, I reach into my bag, and pull out a notebook, “What’s the simplest spell you can cast?”

She hesitates for a second, then speaks, “Level 10, Ice Spike.”

I look up at her in surprise, I wasn’t expecting her to be so forthcoming.

She smiles, “I’m giving you my trust too.”

“Can you tell me how it works?” I look back down to draw into the notebook with a charcoal pencil, a simple circle with three symbols to it. Transformation, Ice, Spear. I don’t put any mana into it, so it lies there as a simple drawing.

“Ice forms a spike from the ground, piercing what I want it to. If I have my domain active, it can strike from anywhere inside.”

I pause, then look up, “Domain?”

She nods, “Level 20, Ice Domain. A field of ice under my control. You saw Lorn and the necromancer fighting for their domains last time.”

I absorb that information for later, then turn the piece of paper to face her, “When you cast Ice Spike, do these symbols appear?”

She leans closer, then shakes her head. “That’s… close. I recognize the first two symbols, but the third one is different.”

I hold the notebook out to her, and she draws the symbol for me.

I look at it. It’s similar to spear, but different. Probably spike? “First circle just means that there’s only one circle.”

“Oh.” She looks up at me with a smile, “So it’s just an apprentice spell. I’ve never called it first circle. Does that mean second circle would be a novice spell?”

“I… yeah. It makes sense you’d recognize it.” I pause, looking at her as she leans closer to study the symbols.

“Do you know what they mean? I’ve never seen someone copy my symbols without me showing them.”

I blink, coming back to the conversation, I look down to point at them, “Transformation and Ice. The third one is spear, which was my best guess for what you do.”

She studies the drawing for several seconds before realization hits her, “You’re making the spells manually, aren’t you? That’s how you’re casting magic.” She looks up at me, her face inches from mine. “I didn’t know that was possible.”

A small smile comes to my face, “Exactly. I can only make first circle spells, but I’m getting better.”

She looks at me for a long moment, before looking back down at the notebook. “Can you show me?”

I hesitate for a second, then motion for her to follow me. “Don’t try this yet. Shar has told me that if you get a symbol even slightly wrong, it can have disastrous effects.”

She nods seriously.

I stand up, and give her a hand up, I hesitate for a second, then leave her hand in mine as I pull her out of the building.

Tanya glances at us, but quickly focuses back up on whatever she’s working on.

It’s night time outside, and I catch sight of the other mercenaries laughing and drinking it up with several Vishten as they play cards.

I pull Eyla past it, into the forest. I keep my eyes open, predators and more dangerous monsters should’ve been pushed out by the Stronghold’s magic, but even prey animals can be dangerous if disturbed.

We find our way to a clearing, moonlight shining down on us from the clear sky. The last of the snow on the ground adds to the effect, filling the night with light.

I hesitate for a second before letting go of her hand to start the presentation on magic. I immediately feel the cold from where her touch used to be.

“I’ve worked hard to memorize these symbols,” I start, holding my hand up as I slowly construct the spell circle. “I’ve read about other shapes, but circles seem to be the easiest and the most common. From what I’ve read, placement of the runes inside the shape matters a lot.”

She sits in the snow, completely comfortable in the cold.

I start to form the mana, first the circle, then the first symbol inside the circle, “I start with Transformation,” I form the symbol in the air as I speak. “The other option is Stillness. I’m still learning when it’s better to use both, but transformation seems to be better for spells that need a lot of movement or change. Stillness is better for walls, or holding something, as the name suggests. Second circle spells can use both somehow. Like I said, I’m still learning.”

I form the second symbol in the spell.

“You know this one. Ice. This is the identity. If I was casting a nature spell, I’d make the Nature symbol.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I focus hard to hold the spell as I talk and slowly form the third symbol.

“Finally, my desire for the spell. This is the symbol I wrote down earlier. Spear.”

The spell finishes, and a spear of ice forms in the air, before shooting forward into a nearby rock, and shattering into tiny pieces of ice.

It’s smaller and weaker than the Ice Spikes Eyla casts, and I suspect that’s because of her alignment, plus the added effects of her domain.

I lower my hand and look over to Eyla who stare wide eyed at the rock. “If I learned this, could I cast other spells? Wield fire, or air?”

“I… don’t think so.” I answer slowly, “Your class aligns your mana with an element. When I was using gloves to give myself Nature alignment, I found things outside of that element difficult to cast. The farther away the identity was, the harder it became. I managed to cast a life spell during my battle with Brandon, but when I tried to cast fire during practice, I couldn’t.”

“So fire is impossible for me.” Eyla smirks, looking up at me.

“Unless you found an item to change your alignment.” I sit down in the snow next to her, the enchantments in my clothes working hard to keep me warm. “But things like Frost should come easy to you. I’m sure you could copy your Master’s spells with enough effort.”

Her smile falls away as she looks at the shattered ice from my spell. She stares at if for long time, leaving us in the silence of the night.

I find my gaze moving to the stars high in the sky. I used to be in love with those stars. They’re endless, free, unburdened by the dangers of our world. I’d learned to memorize their patterns, and when one fell, I felt the magic of it.

“Leo,” her voice is quiet.

I turn to her, and she bites her cheek as she hesitates.

“Can you teach me? I want to learn your magic.”