Chapter 27

That afternoon, Jack led Virtus on an expeditionary adventure through the library. Because of the eclectic nature of some of the volumes they sought, it felt like it. It took over an hour of Virtus pouring over shelves to find just the right book for him. In the meantime, Jack got a tour of over a dozen earth library-sized rooms during the process. It was like a city of books all in a single building. No words could describe just how awesome it was. His fingers caressed leather covers that had survived hundreds of years without decay. He wanted all of them.

Several times, he found one that he really, really wanted to read like ‘The Esoteric Nature Of Plasma’ or ‘A Compendium of Magical Beasts’. Virtus rejected all of them as either too advanced or unimportant to the immediate situation and Jack couldn’t disagree, though he wanted to.

The first book he chose was the one they had already agreed on. ‘The Conclave Of The Sentinel’ was a dry text that served as one part history book and legal document. It was separated into three sections, each describing the events that led up to the battle that forced his master to finally put their proverbial foot down and declare the experiment a failure by getting directly involved. Not that the authors of this text knew that last part. They each described the Sentinel differently.

The section written by Fergus the wise, the magi representative, had this to say. ‘Woe become us, for we have angered an agent of the Almighty. They came like a clap of thunder and ripped the very fabric of the world in twain and rained fire down from the sky in rage. Oh, Almighty forgive us for we have sinned. The Lord Eternal now leads a mighty party of our wisest magi to treat with our enemies from the east and the north. We know not how it will end, but it is clear that our glorious conquest is at an end’.

Jack wondered idly if this Lord Eternal was the first Eternal Emperor. It would make sense. Though he snorted at the writer likening his master to an angelic being, having spent time with them. No one that was so full of love and compassion as the Sentinel could be one of those standoffish figures he had read about.

The next section relating to his master was from an author of the northern wild tribes. Masters of the mystic arts, their perspective completely different.

‘A great spirit visited our wisemen today. They spoke to us of the origin of our mighty powers, given to our ancestors by the spirit's own hand. At first, we rejoiced. Our benefactor, the one who had gifted us with magic had returned to us. They had even blessed us with the honor of beholding their own visage in the flesh.’

‘Then came the warning. The mighty spirit, named the Sentinel, warned us against our righteous war against our enemies. This confused us. Why should we stop when victory was so close at hand? The Sentinel was furious with the way we had used the Gifting to destroy instead of build like our ancestors had promised. Children were dying of starvation and neglect while our chieftains feasted every night. It was then that we learned of our great shame.’

This passage was much clearer to Jack, having witnessed snippets from both the Gifting and the Conclave in person. It also made him happy that someone had been repentant about nearly scouring all life from the world in the pursuit of glory and empire. This brought him to the third passage. This part had several sections that were blank. The writing would go on about a certain topic then skip forward to something completely different. Virtus had explained that the original copy had been damaged during the conclave by the representative of the cultivators. No one knew what it said anymore.

After skimming through the legal side of the document, he put the book down in disgust. The wording was so archaic and contextual that he had to stop and ask several questions for every sentence. Not worth it. He would try again after he got some more grounding in this world's culture and key terms.

The next book was far more interesting to Jack. It was a thick text that continued where his Fire primer left off, ‘So you think you can light a torch?,’ was, while more than a little condescending, an entertaining read. The text started off with a description on the differences between spells of the first circle and cantrips. A cantrip was a simple spell of three runes or less that required five units of spell power, whatever that was. Anyone with basic control of mana could use one of these spells as long as they were willing to lie down for a nap afterwards.

In order to cultivate enough mana to reach the next tier of spells, one needed to become a Magi by binding a sigil to their core. That’s where the next tier of spells come in. First tier spells were any spell that utilized a single runic array and used anywhere from five to one-hundred spell power.

He almost missed it at first due to two of the pages being stuck together, but on his third pass of the chapter, he saw the perfect spell for his situation.

Imbue object (Fire).

Element: Fire

Effect:‘This spell allows the caster to directly store Fire mana inside of a suitable vessel. This energy can be later withdrawn by any caster capable of utilizing Fire mana for use in active workings. Suitable materials include crystal, Fire aligned metals, Fire mana crystals, Fire beast cores, and many of other rare materials. Warning, spell power in object deteriorates at a rate of one unit a day.’

Target: object

Cost: 5sp to activate spell capable of imbuing up to 100 so in a target

Duration: instantaneous, until mana diffuses from target naturally

It was perfect. He decided to learn the spell on the spot. Ravenous eyes poured over the runic diagram in an effort to decipher it. It was far more complicated than his Torch, Fireball, or Mana Forging cantrips, yet not even a tithe of the complexity of his signature spell Laying Down Burdens. So why was he unable to figure it out after an hour of effort? He discussed it with Virtus while they walked through the green to his dorm room. Virtus explained that signature spells were something only Magi of the second circle or later were able to learn. It was not a simple matter of rote memorization, signature spells were the product of sudden enlightenment more often than not for magi. It made him feel better that this actually was the hardest spell he had ever tried to learn, in a way.

After eating a companionable meal with his new friends, Jack went up to his room to keep studying. This time, he was going to try the problem from a new angle. He pulled out the third book that Virtus had picked out for him. ‘Beginner Thaumaturgy’, was a text about the study of magic itself. It started off with describing the inherent architecture of spells and how they worked.

‘Every spell is inherently the same. The magi uses their mana to create a rune of the element they wish to utilize first. This is the core rune. From there, more runes are added to define scope, direction, shape, target—the list is endless. A single function spell is called a cantrip or novice tier spell. It uses a runic matrix, or a cluster for the layman, to create the desired effect.’

From there, the author dug into the specific details of how a runic matrix worked and many, many examples of common mistakes that would lead to the proposed spell collapsing. That was not desirable, backlash, as the book called it, could lead to a number of nasty consequences that Jack wanted to avoid.

After finishing the chapter. Jack pulled his Fire primer text out again and continued his efforts at learning Imbue Object (Fire). This time he saw several connections that went over his head back at the library. Enough so that he felt confident enough to give the spell a test run. He looked around for an object that could hold a charge, realizing at the last minute that he had forgotten to acquire something suitable. His search ended a second later as his eye caught on a glint of light reflecting his Torch spell. On the empty bookshelf was a bookend in the shape of a prism, perfect.

He greedily plucked it off the shelf and plucked it on the desk. Runes formed in his hand as his fingers traced the patterns that had eluded them prior—one rune, two runes, five runes. The spell snapped together in his palm and sat there, looking awesome. Ugh, how did he get this to work?

He tried placing his hand on the prism. As ho's hand started moving, some invisible presence seemed to grasp it like a tractor beam. His fingers slipped on the smooth surface of the prism. Like a lighthouse, the spell triggered and crimson light escaped through the cracks in Jacks fingers. All that he saw was a very pretty light show as the light from the spell reflected through the prism, the rune matrix was holding his hand firmly in place. Better save this trick for the kids, he mused while thinking of Aster. Next, he tried verbally commanding it to release, but that didn’t work either. Annoyed, he cleared his thoughts with a shake of his head. Something in the back of his mind loosened like the mental equivalent of a tensed-up muscle and the energy in his palm streamed into the prism.

Light swirled around inside once, twice, three times before settling into a comfortable red glow. Jack was surprised. Was the spell not working because he didn’t know how to let go of it? He resolved to figure that out the next time he used the spell, right now it was time to play with his new toy.

…

An hour passed as he sat in front of the dorm hearth with the prism in his grasp. His experiments had yielded some very promising results. Everytime he cast the spell, a specific amount of mana was consumed in the process of making the connection that bridged the caster and the target, roughly five spell power according to the book. He could choose to store anywhere between one to over a hundred units of spell power with the initial same cost in mana. The only limits were his current pool and the storage capacity of the material.

There were other dividends. That trigger in the back of his mind was easier to use now and he had filled his mana pool to capacity. At least, he assumed that was why he was starting to feel bloated and sleepy. Working magic was much like exercising any other muscle. He waddled up to his room and quickly fell into a mana coma. His last thoughts were that this was way better than a turkey dinner.