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Ginsu Mage

S01E12: Magic and Modus

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Sergeant Cox seemed satisfied with my progress and promised more intense combat instruction tomorrow. Sandwiched between the two nameless guards, I was taken to the East Quarter of the palace to meet my magic instructor.

*****

I was left in comfortable room that seemed like it was used for instruction. A large desk and podium was placed to the north, where a blackboard filled with chalk diagrams and esoteric scribbles dominated the wall. Comfortable chairs were placed facing the blackboard, giving the appearance of a posh classroom. Several large paintings of stern looking men and women were hung on the southern wall. While I was examining the paintings a middle aged woman entered, streaks of grey visible in the dark hair piled in a loose bun atop her head. She wore a dark red robe embroidered with dozens of runes made from silver thread.

“Magister Johnson?” she asked, appraising me from across the room.

“Call me Harry,” I said, wondering if I should just give up and accept the fact that everyone here loved their titles and pomp.

“I’m Magister Romana Salazar, level 8 Red Mage and instructor at Carter University. I was told that you are in need of magical tutoring.”

“I could use some remedial courses, yeah,” I said, walking over to shake her hand.

She turned before I had made it halfway and headed towards the podium, her robes swishing across the polished wood floor. “Please have a seat and we’ll get started. What colour is your heartstone?”

Brusque and businesslike, I appreciate that. I settled into one of the comfy chairs in front of the podium and waited while she cleared off the blackboard.

“I have no idea,” I replied.

“You have access to the Modus, yes?” she sighed. “Check your status.”

I checked my status and poked around, then made a guess. “White? 120 per hour 1600”

Her hand stopped for a moment. “That means you can use all forms of magic. Not incredibly rare, but uncommon enough. The fact that you’re level 16 with a 120 mana per hour recovery rate is irritating. That makes you very uncommon. Most recovery rates are in the double digits.

“We’ll start with the basics that every child should know. Please feel free to interrupt if its something that you already know so we can cover more ground.” Magister Salazar said as she finished wiping the blackboard and began to write on it, lecturing me at the same time.

“Mana is an energy field that was originally created by Ikepegbe, the red star which exploded four centuries ago. That energy affected our reality, changing everything, including our own sun and creating the aurora that fill the sky.

“Mana is absorbed into the bloodstream and crystallises into a mana stone. In most creatures, including humanoids, the stone is found lodged in the heart. This is a heartstone. Occasionally it will occur in the brain, this is a spiritstone. Mages have a heartstone. Psychics have a spiritstone.”

She turned to me and went down a hastily scribbled list. “There are nine forms of mana, each corresponding to different coloured mana stones.”

Red, Evocation - creates physical effects with magic. They vanish when spell ends. e.g. Fireball, lightning, etc.

Orange, Abjuration - nullifies magical and psychic effects. Wards, etc.

Yellow, Enchantment - mind altering effects, charms, compulsions, and the like.

Green, Invocation - alters physical items with magic. Vanishes when spell ends. e.g. Shapechange, strength, night vision, etc.

Blue, Summoning - calls forth entities and items from other realms. e.g. Demons, angels, spirits, etc.

Indigo, Conjuration - teleports physical items from one location to another. e.g. Water, swords, people, etc.

Violet, Transmutation - permanently changes the shape or form of an item. e.g. Lead to gold, stick into steel sword. Healing.

White, Universal - can be used for any form of magic

Black, Miasma - corruption, chaos, entropy.

“Enchantment as used here means to enchant a person, not an object,” she explained. “It is a magic which can alter the mental state of a living creature. While not forbidden, it is regulated because compulsion is a crime. Even for Champions.”

“I am a Red Mage,” she explained. “That means that without the Modus, I can only use Evocation spells and am limited to my natural 892 mana and a 30 mana per hour recovery time. With the Modus, I have access to all forms of mana.” Raising her left arm she revealed an elaborately engraved metal band. “I am a ‘fettered’ mage, like most. I require this manacle to access the Modus beyond the basics that everyone is given. You are unfettered, somehow able to access the Modus without the manacle.”

Lowering her arm, she continued. “Magic occurs when mana is channeled through a Sigil, a two dimensional rune which contains three dimensions. These sigils can be drawn on items by Alchemists giving them magical effects. Altered beasts use sigils for magical effects, their nerves forming the pattern and producing magical effect when filled with mana. Mages can do the same thing by imagining the sigil and providing it mana. Most spells are reproductions of what altered beasts already possess.”

As she spoke, the knowledge that had been shoved into my brain began to click into place. I understood the basics of spell casting much like a child grasps basic maths.

“The vast majority of people possess a small heartstone, holding less than 100 mana. This allows them to learn and perform minor cantrips which require 10 to 50 mana and are good for everyday magic like starting fires, creating drinking water, or creating light. Some are fortunate and have quick recharge times that allow them to use multiple cantrips several times per day. Mages are people who possess a larger heartstone and have studied magic.

“Spells are given levels based on the amount of mana they consume, with level 1 consuming 100 mana and level 9 consuming 900 mana. The complexity of the sigil increases with each level, although there are exceptions.”

She sketched a quick sigil on the chalkboard. It looked like an upside down triangle with an extra long line coming out of it.

“This is a cantrip to produce a small breeze of wind over your head and cool you for 10 minutes. It is two dimensional and the mnemonic is ‘RiBbLcWe’, which gives us the following chant:

‘Racarus heed my call! Bend thy wings and Linger,

on eternal Winds.’

“Note how the mana channel flows north from Igla to Braz, then east to Cari, then falls southwest to become a second rank Eku. Watch my hand as it traces the form in three dimensions - this is what you imagine, holding your mana and pushing it through the channel you create. Try it.”

I watched her hand move through an elegant form and tried to imitate it. The knowledge in my brain provided me with the know-how to push mana through the imaginary lines I created in my mind. It took a few tries, but I eventually grasped the whole “falls southwest to become a second rank Eku” and a small breeze started overhead, like an invisible ceiling fan once I completed the chant.

“Very good, Magister Johnson,” she praised. “Eventually you’ll be able to cast the cantrip without chanting or moving your hands. Now banish it. Find the thread of mana running from your heartstone to the spell, and cut it.

That was much easier said than done, but I managed to succeed before the spell expired on its own.

“Now let’s hang a spell,” she said once I had evoked and banished the cantrip a few times.

This was more difficult, but followed the same philosophy. I had to control my intent and instead of desiring the immediate release of the spell, allowing it to linger inside my mind. When I successfully completed it, there was a ticking bomb inside my head. The mana had been collected from my heartstone and was now powering a living sigil comprised of neurons in my brain. I could feel it coiled up like a restless snake, waiting to strike.

“Ah, that feels weird,” I said, touching the side of my head. “It’s like a living thing in my head.”

Magister Salazar allowed a small smile to brighten her stern face before banishing it. “It is, in a way. And it’s quite dangerous. Notice how your mana has refilled but you have a spell ready to use? Never, ever, banish a hung spell. The mana will flow back into your blood stream and can kill you. At the very least, it’ll make you drunk until your heartstone absorbs it. Too much mana in the blood can be lethal.”

I nodded in understanding, remembering my experience with the healing potion.

“Magister Salazar,” I asked, trying to frame the question that had snuck into my mind. “What would happen if someone who wasn’t sick drank a healing potion?”

“It depends,” she said. “Healing potions are created in different strengths. Drinking a lesser or greater healing potion without injury will kill you. It’s best to use minor potions unless you’re certain of the injury.”

I digested that information with a nod. I wonder if someone had tried to kill me.

“Back to the lesson,” she said, returning to the subject at hand. “You’re naturally limited to a certain number of hung spells because your brain can’t contain all the mana. I can hang 27 level one spells without trouble, but 30 makes it feel like my head is going to explode. You’ll probably manage more than 150, but I would be surprised if you can hang more than 200. You’ll know you’ve reached your limit when you get a headache.”

“Two hundred?”

“Two hundred mostly useless level one spells or maybe a thousand cantrips. Spells have different levels and a level nine spell is equivalent to the mana in nine or more level one spells. I can hang four level eight spells, but it takes me four days because my recovery rate is so low. You should be able to hang two level eight spells every seven hours with a limit of 20 or 25. That’s a theoretical though,” she said, waving her hand. “In reality you’re going to have a mix of hung spells. You’ll chant or use the Modus whenever possible because hanging spells and recovering is a bother.”

I imagined running around blasting fireballs all over a battlefield. Suddenly I felt confident and invincible.

“Is there a fireball spell?” I asked.

“There is,” she said, her lips twitching in a quick frown. “Level 3. They cost nearly 400 mana. You’ll be able to hang 30, or more. But don’t start thinking you’ll be able to run around throwing magic at everything. Releasing a hung spell pushes some mana back into your bloodstream. You’ll end up on your face mana drunk before you fire off a dozen.”

The disappointment must have been clear on my face because she laughed. “You’ll learn your limits soon enough, Champion. The ability to hurl a dozen fireballs in a few minutes would make anyone, even the royal guard, scatter like leaves when you appear on the battlefield.”

“When you need to get rid of a hung spell, you can either cast it, which is not always a good solution, or you can bank it,” She drew a sigil on the blackboard. ”This is a level one spell, Fairy Fire, an evocation which causes living things to emit a soft glowing light. Useful for detecting invisible things or opponents in dim lighting. Please hang the spell.”

I struggled through the mnemonic for the first level second rank sigil, VdCcTbNeYgFfRi, until I managed to hang it. “Got it,” I said, after wasting 300 of my personal mana in failed attempts.

“Good,” Magister Salazar said, tossing me a silver coin. “That’s a silver kupon. It’s made from silver and mana stone dust. Currently it’s worth 1 silver kupon. Remember how you banished the cantrip? Find the thread for fairy fire that leads to your heartstone. Move it from there and attach it to the coin.”

I searched mentally for the thread, which was much easier now that I knew what I was looking for. Dragging it from my heartstone was a slippery, frustrating process. Every time I lost concentration the thread would snap back into place. “Okay, done.” I said, wiping sweat from my brow. “What next?”

“Trigger the spell.”

I spoke the trigger, a bastardisation of the mnemonic, “Vidcot Neeyfire” and felt the mana in my head drain into the coin. The coin looked the same as ever.

“Was something supposed to happen?” I asked, looking at the worn coin.

“Not usually, no,” she said. “When they fill with mana they sparkle, it's hard to miss. They also increase in value a hundred times. A copper kupon holds 10 mana, a silver kupon holds 100 mana, and a gold kupon holds 1000 mana. When charged, their value goes up to the next coin. A charged gold kupon is worth 10 gold”

She pulled out a handful of coins and located a copper kupon. It sparkled with a faint blue glow, like the gold coins in my safe. “This charged copper kupon is worth 1 silver kupon and contains 10 mana. You can use the mana in spells. You can also push mana into the coins, increasing their value. With your recovery rate you can charge 12 copper kupons per hour, making 12 silver kupons. Or you could charge 12 silver kupons per day, making 12 gold.”

“Is that a lot?”

“If you’re a commoner,” she shrugged. “An income of 1 gold kupon per day is something a cowboy might earn.”

I stared at the coin in my hand. I have no idea what the economy is like here. If I assume a cowboy works 10 hours per day, that’s 10 silver kupons per hour, 25,000 silver, or 250 gold per year. “So how do I know how much mana is in this silver kupon?”

“You don’t, until it sparkles. It could have 99 mana in it right now and is still worth 100 copper on the street,” She said. “You can use it to power spells, but the spell will fizzle if there’s not enough mana in the coin. And if you push too much mana into the coin it’ll throw sparks and make noise. Quite amusing, try it.”

I took the charged copper kupon and pushed mana into it. At once it began to throw off miniature fireworks and tinkle like a small bell. It continued to spark and tinkle for a few seconds after I stopped powering it. I smiled at the cheap entertainment and handed the coins back.

"How does that affect the economy?" I asked, curious at the idea of creating money from thin air. "If everyone can charge the coins, wouldn't inflation run out of control?"

She frowned and waved a hand dismissively. "I'm not an economist. Nearly everyone can charge enough kupons for a basic income, enough to cover necessities if they don't use their mana on cantrips or spells. Those kupons pass to businesses, which pass them to the Modus. The Modus uses the mana for its various functions. As long as the commoners keep the coins charged and the coins circulate, the Modus will remain powered."

“We’ve covered the basics, I believe. You’ve learned how to hang and cast spells, the dangers of mana poisoning, and how to bank your mana,” she said, gathering up her things. “Is there anything else before I go?”

“What about the Modus?” I asked.

“Briefly then,” she said, turning back to the blackboard. “After the Apocalypse various races came into existence, mutated by the Aurora. One of the races, the so-called Elves, created a special type of tree called a Golden Loa. It broadcasts mana on a special frequency that can be used by those with Elven blood. Because most Elves tend to have yellow or blue summoning stones, it is a 2E system, broadcasting those types of mana. Humans took their idea and crafted the Mage Towers which also broadcast mana. Reception of the mana was limited to the items with special enchantment, allowing the creation and powering of magic items like light stones, hot water taps, defences and weapons.”

She paused for a moment, then continued. “Over time the Modus was created and perfected. At first it only powered enchanted items. Then the manacles were created and allowed even those with marginal magic to access and cast the powerful spells stored in the mage towers. As it was improved, additional benefits were added, such as a status menu for everyone in range. Appraisal of known magic items, inventory boxes for storage, an identification system, auction, etc. It is the pinnacle of magical technology with many mysteries kept by the Inner Circle at Carter University.”

“It’s an incredibly complicated and powerful system based on the lost technologies before the Apocalypse,” she said, moving towards the door. “We’ll meet again tomorrow morning and begin with the practical application of magic.”

I watched her go, robes swishing as she walked away. “I think I’m ready for dinner and a bath,” I said to my two nameless guards standing on each side of the doorway. Tall and muscled on the right saluted with a fist over his chest and began walking while tall and muscled on the left fell in behind me.

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[CAST]

Harold (Harry) William Johnson

Sergeant Cox

Magister Ramona Salazar (Red Mage)

[PLACES]

Kingdom of Nigos

North Training Ground of the Denver Palace

East Quarter, Denver Palace

Instruction room

[PEOPLE]

[OTHERS]

Nameless guards

[PERSONAL]

Next Ginsu Mage: Friday 01Jan

Cowboys and Wizards Episode 12 in progress.