Ar'Kendrithyst

Chapter 96, 1/2

… And so, by following the steps laid out before you, you should expect a return of mana along the conduits so inscribed, in accordance with that outlined by Rudimentar’s Formulae; a 1 mana per second drain. Once this milestone has been achieved, further refining of the Enchanter’s Spell Imbue is thus achievable. There are many ways to go about refining your Imbue, but each spell is different, thus each refining is different.

This humble author will also note, at this moment, that the problems of multiple drains upon your grand rad supply and the enchanting matrix, are multiple and complex, with each added stove top further compounding the problem. But since we are focusing solely on the Grand Stove, which, at first, means a single grand rad, a single stove top, we will leave the complexity of multiple tops for later.

Here are some of the larger problems that you are expected to overcome:

(0) Complexity, Culture, and [Prestidigitation] vs [Heat Ward].

While [Prestidigitation] is a simple spell, it is also one of the most varied Basic Spells in the Script. But this is not a tome on [Prestidigitation]. This author cannot help you with understanding how to work [Prestidigitation] to produce heat. What I can warn you against, is that using any sort of [Heat Ward] at all, including strange shaped [Heat Ward]s and passing it off as a Grand [Prestidigitation] Stove, will likely cause you a great deal of Health problems induced by the rich and powerful; your potential clients. [Heat Ward]s set low enough so that they only heat the metal of the cooking pan, will not save you from the wrath of a mistress who is facing the wrath of their Chef who needed a new stove, only to get a [Heat Ward] monstrosity. The simple reason is this: [Heat Ward]s produce solid areas of heat, but [Prestidigitation] produces rising drafts of heat, and the necessary Shapings to make [Heat Ward] function like [Prestidigitation] vastly increases the strain on the grand rads in that sort of stove.

But plain [Heat Ward]s are good for boiling water, and are a lot easier to integrate into an existing design. Include a few boiling stations in your final stove designs if you wish, but be sure to label them clearly and let your patron know what they are buying.

(1) Heat

This is a tome on using [Prestidigitation], the greatest of the smallest spells, to produce heat. Varied, rising heat, of, in the beginning, a single burner. But heat causes problems in enchantments; burned conduits, seared Imbues, and much more located in the troubleshooting sections of this manual. The designs in this manual ensure that you will not have as large of a problem as some enchanters, but keep in mind—

Erick looked up from his book, ‘Enchanting the Grand Stove’, as Poi walked into the room.

Poi said, “She’s ready for you.”

Erick set his bookmark and closed the book, setting the tome aside as he got up from his chair, saying, “Okay.” He stood up and stretched a little. He had been sitting for hours, reading, but with his younger-feeling body, he could be stationary for as long as he wanted and not feel horrible afterward. Erick recalled a time not too long ago, when doing anything for too long left him aching and stiff. Magic, the Script, all of it was pretty darn great. Except for the monsters. He could do without those. But today was not a day of monsters. Today was a day of spellwork. And yet, there was a sadness, as Erick said, “Let’s get this over with.”

- - - -

A dull yellow orb, maybe a handspan across, floated on the orange sands of the Crystal Forest. Ophiel hovered ten meters away from the orb. Aside from the two [Familiar]s, the area was rather unremarkable. The only strange thing about this part of the desert was, that while the sun beat down from above, faint clouds marred the otherwise perfectly blue sky.

Those clouds were a result of Erick’s weather adjustments, roughly 190 kilometers to the west, at Spur, but the spillover from the spells he cast north of Spur had been rather dramatic, in the way that a single dot of paint on an otherwise pristine canvas is dramatic. The clouds that sometimes appeared in the Crystal Forest usually only formed at night, if at all, and always vanished in the light of day. But thanks to Erick, minor clouds had begun to appear and remain all throughout the day, with slight, if unexpected regularity, anywhere within 300 kilometers of any [Weather Control] spell.

[Weather Control] altered the sky in a Super Large Area, which was about ten kilometers from the central casting point, but the spell did not simply take an arbitrary part of the heavens and change what happened there without having any effect past that edge of direct influence. [Weather Control] changed the actual weather in a location, meaning that its influence spread far and wide, affecting a great deal more of the surrounding skies than just at the initial casting point. According to Erick’s short experiments, that further spread seemed to be one of the major ways that the spell lost power, and eventually decayed into nothing. If the spell didn’t spread out, needing to change the rest of the sky in order to support the choices at the casting location, [Weather Control] would likely last a full month, like the spell said it could.

… But Erick was not here to look at the sky. While keeping an eye on his ongoing spells was important and actually quite nice, sort of like watching a garden grow, he was here for magical experiments of a slightly different sort.

Erick and Poi and another Ophiel, held together though Erick’s blip with a small application of Handy Aura, appeared in a white flash exactly where they were supposed to appear. The Ophiel on site cast itself into a dense air, surrounding Erick and Poi in dense air.

The yellow orb huffed a short, slightly perturbed laugh.

Erick said, “Hello!” then said, “The cat barks, the dog bites.”

The yellow orb completed the phrase, in a scratchy, feminine voice, “And the books are all covered in jam.” She said, “Stupid phrase.” She added, “Dumb meeting. Idiotic bargain of trade. Moronic to the core! This is dumb. I cannot believe that the Arcanaeum agreed to allow you, someone who let a WHOLE NEW BRANCH OF MAGIC out into the world— that they’re going to give you one of the Script’s most highly guarded spells.”

Erick didn’t expect the diatribe, but perhaps he should have. “The bargain has been struck. Dispense with the knowledge, please. I probably have to go out and stop another Ballooning Spider drop either tonight or tomorrow.”

Poi spoke up, “Killtree is expecting the horde in ten hours.”

“In nine hours, then,” Erick said.

“There are only five of us who know how to make this spell. We might have hundreds who can cast it, but only five of us know how it actually works.” The yellow orb seemed to turn toward Poi, adding, “Usually, a Mind Mage wipes the memory of our workers after they learn the spell. But apparently, there’s going to be six of us, now!”

Poi added, “Killtree just moved up their timetable. 6 hours.”

Erick glared at the yellow orb. He wasn’t mad, but it was getting there. Erick had been warned that this would be a confrontational sort of meeting, but he had hoped that it would have gone better.

Wind blew across the desert, curling sand up and into Erick’s shoes.

The person behind the yellow orb said, “You know they’ll come after you if you share this, right? People will come after you if you don’t share this, too. But you can’t share this. [Duplicate] ruins lives and kills kingdoms. [Duplicate] will ruin your life, too, because [Duplicate] will copy any material, non-magical thing. Gold. The perfect enchanting gems. Rare metals.” She stated, “This spell is a massive godsdammed deal, and I don’t think you properly understand just how big of a deal this is. You even got your guard quipping at me.”

“I am aware of the spell's enormity.” Erick said, “The Headmaster already told me all of this. So why are you telling me this, too?”

“Because I want to talk you out of it.” She said, “Every other month, one of our duplicators gets found by someone that shouldn’t know of them, or someone they trust fucks them over hoping for a gold fall. We rescue copyists all the time, and almost every single one of our people has been branded a Slave at one point or another. Even me.

“But it doesn’t have to be that way. I could come and copy anything you want copied, whenever you want. We already do the same every time the Wayfarer’s wants to try again for [Gate]. It’s not a problem—”

“No.” Erick rhetorically asked, “Do you think you’re the only one with special magics?”

The yellow orb backed up, saying, “Okay. I said my piece. You know the risks. My conscience is clear. But I will ask again. Do you still want to learn [Duplicate]?”

“Yes.”

The yellow orb, which Erick began referring to as ‘Yellow’, said, “Fine.” She asked, “Got your dish?”

Erick pulled a small, ornate tea cup saucer out of one pocket, and the matching tea cup out of the other. The two dishes were originally part of a paired set and had been popped out of a mold some time ago. Looping green glazes of varying colors adorned the exterior. This one, and its pair, had belonged to an old couple, for a long time. They had passed away recently, but one of the sets had been lost in the tempest that was normal for death from old age. One of the kids stole one pair, or it went into a box it shouldn’t have, or something; the point was, was that the other half of the paired set was gone for good. That was the story Erick had gotten from the people when he had bought the cup and saucer for entirely too much money, a day ago, but it was the only item that fit his parameters. It only cost him 5 gold, either way. Well before that cup and saucer, though, and at a few other locations, he also bought some much needed paintings for the house, and decided that he needed to get more stuff to put on the walls.

A simple antiquing jaunt into the city turned into a day long event.

Oddly enough, Teressa had loved their antiquing excursion. She had bought a nice green vase, that now sat in the foyer, and a nice forest painting, that now hung in her room, along with a dozen other smaller things. Kiri had bought a painting of a lake, that now hung in her work room on the third floor, and that was enough for her. She went home, not even seeing the cup and saucer that Erick bought, which was probably a good thing.

Poi tolerated the experience.

Erick held the green saucer and cup up, saying, “Yup.”

Yellow said, “Summon a stone pillar to make it easier on you, then set the piece on the pillar.”

Erick lifted a waist high, rock pillar out of the ground, with [Stoneshape]. He set the cup and saucer down on the flat top.

Yellow floated closer to the cup and saucer; inspecting. “Hmm. Good choice. An older style, for sure. Many, many [Mend]s have been spent on this item. Good.” She pulled away.

A thin beam of fire lanced through the item. If Erick had blinked, he would have missed it. Two perfect halves clattered away from each other, Yellow’s spell having sliced directly through the center molding line of the cup, saucer, and handle. Erick was slightly taken aback at the unprompted spell use, but he was inside the thick air of his [Prismatic Ward], so it was fine.

He asked, “What was that?”

“The bargain was for [Duplicate], not for the spell I used.” Yellow said, “Now take both halves, one in each hand, and shift to [Lightwalk], bringing them with you. It doesn’t matter how you hold them, they just need to be one half in each hand.”

Erick frowned at Yellow, but did as instructed. With cups and saucer halves in each hand, he shifted into light.

Yellow said, “Now you [Mend] both at the same time, casting the spell in two different places at the same time. Some people never get it, but others get it their first—”

Spells on Veird had something that Jane had once referred to as a ‘Global Cooldown’, of 1 second. So casting the same spell in two different spots at the same time was literally impossible, according to most normal thinking. Combining spells was the only way to get around this normal obstacle. This truth held true for everyone, including Erick. But he had been practicing with Spatial Magic for a while now, and that was all about the impossible stretching of the ‘rules of the Script’.

But Erick did notice a discrepancy between Spatial Magic’s ‘wave function collapse’ phenomenon, that put someone or something in multiple locations and collapsed them back down to the location of the caster’s choosing, and what he was expected to do, here. In this instance, Erick’s spellwork was expected to be in two locations at once, and truly cast the same spell twice, in two different locations.

Those two schools of thought were diametrically opposed to each other.

With all that in mind, Erick cast.

The lightform halves in his left hand vanished. The lightform halves in his right hand became whole.

Yellow giggled once, then shut that down, as she said, “Maybe this won’t be so easy for you. Some people never get it.”

Erick shut off his [Lightwalk] and set the whole saucer back down on the pillar, then stared at the floating yellow orb. Yellow flickered deeper yellow. The saucer and cup collapsed into halves, once again, and once again, Erick picked them up, exactly as instructed, and did what he was told to do.

He set the single, whole cup and saucer, back down onto the pillar, asking, “Is this really how this works?”

Yellow said, “Some people never get it.” She offered, “I can help you remake [Gate], if you wish.” She split the cup and saucer in half again, as she sincerely said, “I apologize for giggling at you; that was unconscionably rude.”

Erick picked up the halves, cast, then set the whole cup and saucer back down on the pillar. Yellow split it in half, again.

Erick went through the motions five more times, pretending to get angry at his failure.

Yellow split the cup and saucer once more. “The offer is still on the table. I can come and help with—”

Then the yellow orb cracked into broken fragments. And then it was gone, without ceremony, or words exchanged. The [Familiar] has turned to nothing more than yellow shards that faded fast in the desert winds.

Erick sighed. He picked up the split saucer. He put the split halves of the cup in one hand, and the split halves of the saucer in the other, holding the halves together in his palms, yet separate, like they weren’t broken at all. Then he cast, exactly as the Headmaster had instructed him to cast, on the singular item that was in two places at once, affecting the tea cup and saucer through their shared, paired history. Wherever the actual pair was did not matter, it would remain where it was, but it would lose all its history; that history was now here, taking shape above Erick’s hands.

White glows reached through possibility, flickering one cup to wholeness in his right hand, along with the matching saucer underneath, as well as fixing the saucer in his other hand, and flickering the cup into existence above the saucer.

A blue box appeared.

Duplicate, instant, touch, 100 Mana

Create a copy of a non-magical, non-living item.

And then came another.

This is an automated message:

So you’ve figured out a Restricted spell. Congratulations!

-5 points.

The world will judge you for how you handle this power.

Erick had expected both of those boxes. The Headmaster had warned him of every part of this bargain of trade, and he had agreed. This was his choice, and he had paid the cost. The loss of 5 points was not nothing, but as Erick looked to the space where Yellow had been, that hurt. Erick set the restored pair of paired cups and saucers onto the stone pillar.

“So?” Erick asked Poi. “It’s done, then?”

Poi said, “Bookbinder Number Five is no more.”

Erick frowned, as he thought back to his meeting with the Headmaster.

- - - -

In the Azure Room, with the sky full dark outside, and dinner over, the Headmaster flicked a finger through the air. An opaque white bubble appeared around the table, and the immediate surroundings, cutting Erick and the Headmaster off from the rest of the world.

“Bookbinder Five has become a problem,” said the Headmaster, over a finished dessert of mochi icecream in a fluted gold dish. “You will help me and the Arcanaeum Consortium solve this problem. In exchange, you will get [Duplicate], and a further responsibility to me.”

Erick wanted [Duplicate] in order to try for [Gate], but he was not instantly willing to enter into that sort of bargain with the Headmaster. He asked, “And what does that mean, exactly?”

“Bookbinder Five has a long history of both exploitation and abuse of power. Normally, she is tolerable, but the situation has come to a head recently, with the advent of Candlepoint.” The Headmaster said, “She went and got a Charisma Fruit. That was the final straw. The Mind Mages have set down a decree that Charisma is Mental Magic. Bookbinder Five has been warned by them, and she has rebuffed their words. What she doesn’t know, yet, is that they are going to end her for finally stepping over a sacred boundary from mundane control to mental control. I cannot keep her safe from her own greed any longer, so you will help me end her, by occupying her time when she comes to teach you [Duplicate].”

Erick recoiled. “What! The fuck! No!”

The Headmaster continued, undaunted by Erick’s outburst, saying, “I do not ask this of you lightly. Bookbinder Five has plans to become a Shade, and throw in with the Dark Dragon. She has [Duplicate]d more than a hundred thousand darkchips, and paid to learn the ‘true meaning of magic’. She has been charged by Bulgan to bring your head to him, so if I do not give her this chance to interact with you, she could run to Ar’Kendrithyst any day now. She has rebuffed Bulgan, publically, but that is a front. She is coming after you, now.

“I cannot allow any of that to happen, Erick.

“Truthfully, I expect you to deny me. I had planned on ending her after this dinner, but you have given me an option I did not expect to have. When I found out you were on this island, I invited you to dinner. When you asked about [Duplicate], I made this plan up on the spot, just now.

“If you allow her to interact with you, to teach you [Duplicate] without any untoward action, then maybe she is redeemable. This is her last chance to come back to the light. If you do not give her this chance, then she will never see another dawn.” The Headmaster strongly added, “And if you do not give her this chance, you are not learning [Duplicate] from any of my sources.”

Erick shoved his sudden, hateful emotions to the side, as he asked, “What are your other terms?”

“You would become Bookbinder Five. You will have the responsibility to [Duplicate] one hundred thousand books, per year, which will take place on Oceanside at your convenience. The books and the necessary numbers needed from each edition is a system long worked out. All you need to do, is to show up, [Duplicate] what you feel like, completing your allotment by the end of each year, and leave the books there for our people to take away.

“I also have specific requirements of you using [Cascade Imaging] to find Stray Books when necessary. Stray Books are what we call captured and controlled duplicators.” The Headmaster said, “It happens more often than you would think.

“In return, we look the other way when you [Duplicate] other items. The responsible use of such a spell is on you, but we will assist you if you get into trouble that you are not able to handle. Almost everyone irrevocably harms their local area in the first year, so this is expected.” He added, “I will also require you to never disclose this conversation to anyone, and to assist with several Ballooning Spider Horde drops that have yet to happen, that Oceanside is contracted to assist with. You will be doing this not only to help alleviate a burden and save lives, but to provide cover for me granting you [Duplicate], so that the current Bookbinder Five feels that she is gaining an opportunity to teach you and thus fool you into some Dark Deal, and not being driven into revealing her true allegiances.”

Erick felt disconnected from everyone and everything.

And then he centered himself. Someone was coming after him, with the intent to mislead and harm. He would have to participate in this covert action, wouldn’t he?

… As soon as he had that thought, he recoiled from himself with a quick, hard blink, as he brought his hands to his face, muttering, “Shit.”

Silence.

Erick lifted his head, and said, “I won’t become a Bookbinder, or take on any of those duplication requirements. I’ll help you search for lost people, occasionally. I’ll help you with the hordes.” He glared at the Headmaster, adding, “And I need to know that what you said is true. That Bookbinder Five is actually planning on going to the Shades.”

The Headmaster leveled an easy glare at Erick, asking, “Do you think I would lie?”

“I think you would hold back full truths, but never outright lie.” Erick said, “But that doesn’t matter, because you’re asking me to help you kill someone, and blindly following anyone down that path is not something I will ever do, for anyone.”

The Headmaster softened, ever so slightly. He said, “A prudent morality.” After a longer moment, he put a hand into his robes, and pulled a tiny, clear crystal brooch from within. He set it on the table, and said, “Ultramarine is the color associated with Strength.” The crystal broach flickered red; a lie. It was a truthstone. “Ultramarine is the color associated with Willpower.” It flickered blue. He pushed the broach across the table, closer to Erick. “You may test its veracity, if you wish.”

Erick looked down to the broach, and knew it was not enough. Not really. Erick could say something that was a truth known only to him, or lie by degrees, and the broach would likely prove itself a true truthstone, but the Headmaster was more than capable of producing whatever magical effects he wanted to produce. Maybe there was a trick to it that made it show up as a truthstone whenever the Headmaster wanted it to be a truthstone.

Even getting testimonials from whatever Elites the Headmaster had, who could personally verify whatever ‘evils’ they saw Bookbinder Five get up to, would not be enough.

Erick was just being fearful. He knew it. The Headmaster knew it. But the Headmaster was humoring him anyway, because Erick had shown himself as the kind of person that needed to be humored.

And why did he need to be humored when it came to something like this?

When one of the strongest, most longstanding anti-Shade persons on the planet tells you that someone is plotting to become a Shade and plotting against you, do you throw that back in their face, and insult their long history of being a proven enemy of Melemizargo?

Ah. Erick had fucked up. He had spoken way out of turn.

Erick said, “Apologies. I did not mean to insult you in this way. I am still not comfortable with what it takes to exist in these circles.”

The stone glowed blue.

The Headmaster softened, further. He grinned, saying, “Apology accepted.” He took the truthstone back, but before he put it back into his robes, he said, “Bookbinder Five is a threat to the world, who has taken steps to join the Shades as one of them, but her initiation requires her compliance in bringing Erick Flatt to Bulgan.”

Blue glows.

Erick felt sick.

The Headmaster put the stone away. “I will need to find a different replacement for Bookbinder Five. This is acceptable. Your adjustments to our bargain of trade are accepted. A word of warning, though: be very, very careful letting anyone know you have [Duplicate].” He folded his hands in front of him, saying, “And now, for an explanation of the spell, and another warning: Do not do this now, or until Bookbinder Five speaks with you and either fails to teach you correctly, and my forces fall upon her, or she teaches you correctly, and we hold back.

“To start with...”

- - - -

Poi offered, “My people stayed their hand against her to honor the Headmaster, but she was going down, either way. Charisma is a death sentence.”

“… I want to say that doesn’t help, but you’d know it for a lie.”

Poi nodded, saying no more.

Erick looked up at the wispy sky for a moment longer, then he looked down at the pillar and the pairs of tea sets. He said, “Okay. Time to back up and erase the memory of this place. No [Witness]es.”

Erick retreated to the sky, alongside Poi and Ophiel. He dismissed the [Prismatic Ward] down on the ground below, then he looked above, and cast.

The blue roof of the world cracked. A radiant ocean broke from above and descended in ribbons, cloying together, turning dark, absorbing all light, as the spell took hold on the sands below. Erick had Shaped this spell, this time. The dark cloud expanded into a solid sphere, growing ever larger with each passing second.

When the [Vivid Gloom] ended, the ground had been glassed into a meter deep pool a hundred meters wide, that glowed red hot. Erick sent out a dozen [Mirage Slime]s to clean up any stray radiation, further degrading any possible [Witness]. All it took to prevent such a spell from working well was to overload the area with powerful spells, and though Erick’s spells were no Red Dots, they worked well enough. While thick-air slimes tumbled through the hot space, consuming stray poisons and radiations, four Ophiel raked the molten ground into solid glass, then shaped it all back to sand.

Erick did not move from his platform in the sky as he directed the cleanup operation. When it was done, the land seemed normal, with a sand dune to one side, and orange dirt all across. The tea cup set was gone, forever more; even the history of the items destroyed.

As he thought upon the lost tea set, Erick realized he’d have never come up with the proper method to create [Duplicate]. Taking old, paired, paired heirlooms and using one pair of pairs for the connections inherent in them, in order to recreate the other, lost paired pair, was a method of spellwork beyond Erick’s current understanding of magic. Maybe he would have come up with something similar, but he probably would have spent months or years trying to get there, and still failed. He still had yet to figure out [Renew], and he fiddled with the ideas behind that spell every few days.

Erick looked at the Duplicate spell again, and knew that he had gained some sort of deep knowledge that he did not have before today. He wanted to smile at the sky, and enjoy what he had gained, so he did, just a little.

And then he thought on how temptation had ruined Bookbinder Five, and had driven her to making bargains with Bulgan, and to take up Charisma. Emotions weighed on him like heavy blankets.

Erick didn’t know Bookbinder Five. He didn’t know her true crimes. Maybe he never would. All he knew of her guilt came from some of the strongest, most good-aligned people of this world.

That was good enough, right?