Side Story: Magic Lessons Part 2

-Magical Disciplines and Sources of Power-

Duvessa

It had been two years since Duvessa had snuck under the manor into grandmother's atelier. She remembered her promise and kept her word. She didn’t do any more magic and instead focused on her other lessons. Social behaviors and etiquette, elementary education, she even held and attended a few tea parties with other noble children.

Today the waiting was over, grandmother was here and she was finally going to teach magic. She was told to be patient, that the first couple months would be learning the basics and planning what she wanted to learn and how she would learn it. If she did well, grandma said that she would be able to cast her first spell on her 10th birthday. SIxteen months seemed very far off in the future, but Duvessa could wait.

Duvessa was waiting patiently in her chair, swinging her short legs back and forth while humming happily when someone entered the room. “How are you doing little one?” Duvessa heard a voice from the doorway.

Duvessa looked at the woman who was walking into the room, with a few blank pages and some writing utensils, as well as chalk and a drawing slate. “Hi Solier, will grandma be here soon?”

“Yes of course, the lady asked me to bring you these. She told me you can write as well as someone 5 years older than you. That is quite impressive, you must be a very talented girl.”

She looked at the woman doubtfully. She was very pretty with sparkling blue eyes and long wavy black hair. The smile she gave seemed sincere but… ”Do you really mean that?”

“Of course I do, why would you ask that?”

“Because mom said your job is to say things to people that make them feel good, even if it is a lie.”

Solier laughed out loud, “Your mother is correct, but I would never lie to anyone that is precious to Galyssa, especially her children and grandchildren. She is the one who made me after all.”

“So she is your mom too?”

“It would be more accurate to call her my Goddess.”

“Solier, don’t go telling my granddaughter anything unnecessary.”

Galyssa was walking through the doorway and Solier stepped out of her way and gave a deep bow. She held it in place while Galyssa walked over to her granddaughter not raising her head or making eye contact. “You may leave. Go...keep yourself entertained.”

“Of course my lady.”

The demoness quickly left and Galyssa smiled at her granddaughter. “Today I won’t be teaching much, I will be telling you the basics and for the next few weeks I will be giving you examples and answering your questions. Before we start using magic, you need to decide what type of magic you wish to focus on. Spreading your studies too thin can damage your growth.”

“Each specialization has its own set of runes, circles and catalysts. Until you are very adept at magic, it would not suggest even trying to learn how to use them all. So let us begin with the seven types of magic.”

She brought out a scroll and unrolled it revealing a design with a circle and a seven pointed star with several embellishments and arcane symbols around it.

“The seven pointed star is used to represent magic. Each point is one of the specialties of Molanic magic. Let us start with the most basic and violent of the seven.”

She sat down next to Duvessa and pointed at the scroll. “Invocation is the favorite of combat mages. It is when you gather mana and shape it into energy. When you see sorcerers shoot fire, lightning, magical missiles or even generate invisible walls of force, they are using invocation.”

She dragged her finger over the scroll to the next point. “Conjuration is similar to invocation, but requires a more delicate touch. Instead of pulling out and shaping energy, they pull existing materials and energy from other places. Sometimes even summoning and binding creatures.”

Duvessa was frantically writing things down as her grandmother continued, “Next we have Enchantment. Enchantment is when you take energy and place it directly into something altering its structure. There are two types of enchantment, enchanting living things and enchanting objects. Any warrior with a talent for magic will learn enchantment to make himself stronger, faster or more perceptive. Most sorcerers will learn enchantment to create magical objects that can hold portions of their power.

“The next point on the star is necromancy. You can think of it as something like a combination of conjuration and enchantment. They can summon like conjurers, but they summon spirits of life and death called seph and geists. The most common use of this is the artificial creation of undead placing geists into dead creatures to animate them. Although seph can have some...interesting effects on living creatures.”

“Next we have Illusion, which is strangely similar to necromancy. Illusion is magic of the mind, and like enchantment has two branches. The first involves altering perceptions. Making people see or hear something that isn’t really there. Or it can do the opposite, conceal something that they should be able to perceive. The second branch affects the mind directly. Allowing someone to alter perception, emotions, or even control the mind of someone else.”

“Next to illusion is transmutation. Instead of altering the mind and perception, you are altering objects. Transmutation can alter the shape or construction of an object. You can raise the earth into a wall, or harden paper to be as strong as iron. They can also change the shape of themselves or others, sometimes turning people into different animals or beasts.”

“Finally we have Thaumaturgy, which is called Theurgy if it comes from the power of a god. These are what people call miracles. Blessings, protective spells and wards, divination, and even healing.”

“Ah, you should know that healing magic is special. Anyone who can move mana can heal themselves slowly. They do this by rushing mana to wounds to accelerate their natural healing, but only Nature magic or Theurgy can truly heal someone. Nature magic can alter the nature of someone, causing their wounds to regenerate quickly, sometimes deep wounds can heal without scarring if they are healed quick enough. A theurge however can perform a miracle that makes it like the wound never existed. It will never leave a scar.”

She watched Duvessa to make certain she had everything written down, even pointing out a few errors and helping her finish before she continued.

“For the next part, I will tell you where magical power comes from. Every living thing has mana inside them. Many martial minded adventurers will learn how to use the mana in their own bodies to make themselves stronger, faster, or to accelerate their healing. Although this can make them quite powerful, there is a limit.” She picked up a device and placed it on the table. “Do you know what this is?”

Duvessa looked at the device that had several small spheres and a ring linked together by brass rods. The three spheres were arranged vertically, the top one was gold in color, the bottom one was red, and the middle sphere was split down the middle with one half being white and the other black. There was a large colored ring that was centered over the middle sphere that was divided into four colors, blue, brown, red, and white.

“That an arara, err, orrery!”

“That's right, these are the realms that surround our own. When we draw power to cast true magic, we take it from these realms. The most basic type of mana is from the aether, astral mana. The aether is like a cushion that keeps the realms from colliding with each other. It is a barrier that is simultaneously thin and infinite, space doesn’t truly exist there.

“Almost every mage will use astral mana, due to its flexibility. It can be shaped into almost anything. Other sources may be stronger, but are limited in how they can be used. If you try to heal someone with mana drawn from elemental fire for instance, the results would be quite tragic, yet humorous.”

“So let us start at the top and work our way down.” She pointed at the golden orb at the top. “This represents the spheres of heaven. This power is usually reserved for priests who tap into the gods’ power directly. But occasionally people draw from the plane itself. These people are called edifiers, there is also a strange group in the north that refers to something they call wuxing. They call it five elements but it has nothing to do with the four elements, instead they are tapping into the primal forces of the five divine scions in the heavenly realms.”

She pointed inside the ring at the sphere that was divided into light and dark sides. “This is where we live. The prime world. Divine, infernal and elemental energies combined to form a place for all races to live. Drawing mana from the world itself is difficult. In fact it is near impossible for those who are not born with a strong bond to nature such as Fey and some Sylvan elves.”

“The dark side of the sphere represents the other part of our world. The prime world casts a shadow into the aether, creating the Shadow Realm, more often called the Nightmare Realm or Nocturnal Realm. It is a twisted reflection of our world. If our world is about growth and life, then the nightmare realm is about consumption and undeath. The creatures of this realm feed on the mortal races. Not consuming their flesh, but instead feeding off of their emotions and souls. The mana from this realm is quite easy to manipulate into illusions and necromantic magic.”

“Now the ring. This is possibly the easiest to learn and needs the least explanation. The ring represents the elemental planes, sometimes called the forge of creation. Fire, earth, air and water spin around the prime world feeding the planet. Most conjurers who move on from using aether will focus on the elemental planes. They will draw power from primal forces and creatures formed from the elements.”

“Finally we have the bottom, where grandma comes from. These are the spheres of hell. It is difficult to draw upon infernal mana since the heavens do everything they can to try to keep it separate from the prime world. One thing of note is that there are mages that the church has labeled Witches or Warlocks. These Warlocks are something similar to priests of Archdemons. They draw power directly from an Archdemon like a priest gains power from a deity. Archdemons are also sometimes called Demon Kings, Demon Gods, Majin, Abyssal Lords...” She laughed, “There are a lot of names for us, not all of them flattering.”

“What about me and mom and Solier? Do they have names for us too?”

Galyssa sighed, “Yes, of course hey do, humans like to put labels on things. Solier is a demon of course, they call her an Eisheth. They call Eisheth sedu-..” she took a look at the young girl and stopped. “I’ll tell you about Eisheth when you are older. They would call your mother a Cambion since she is half human. Cambions are still more demon than mortal, and can survive in the low spheres and don’t really have a measurable lifespan. You are…” she hesitated for a moment, “They would call you a Caliban. Unlike your mother and I you would be welcomed as a mortal race, but hesitantly. They might look down on you which is why we keep your blood a secret and we all pretend to be human.”

“Now let us finish filling out your lesson, we have a lot to plan in the next few weeks.“