Mage Journeyman: Ordained Magic: Book Two, page 16
Laura said, “If all you’ve said checks out, I will also enforce the rules you’ve come up with. I can understand why Jacob feels insulted, but I also agree with the others. Better hurt feelings than thousands of dead people in an avoidable tragedy, and you don’t know us that well yet.”
Laura proved herself with a three-glyph cast. Jacob’s dragon was suddenly enhanced by air, while her own elemental of fire was shaped as a human that was now riding Jacobs dragon, and the third glyph was an illusion of an armor and sword that outfitted her elemental. It was a bit silly, but it did mean she could cast three glyphs simultaneously off the cuff and creatively.
Kevin nodded, looked happy enough with how things were going, but didn’t actually say anything. He did however prove himself at that point, as well as reveal a rather twisted and macabre sense of humor which lurked under his placid front.
He used illusion to create a graveyard in the center of the table, with zombies walking around and moaning for brains. The other two glyphs were fire and water, to create a heavy mist that clung to the cemetery ground.
Kevin asked, “Is that good enough?”
I nodded. None of what they did showed longevity of focus, but I’d already explained enchanting a master spell was the best way to go and why. I didn’t think any mage would risk casting it mentally, glyph by glyph, if they didn’t need to. I was confident I could do it if I needed to, but I was just as sure I’d never take the unnecessary risk. I didn’t have to prove it to myself, I already knew my focus could meet that challenge.
That said, my expectations would be higher of my own people before I declared them masters. It just made sense to make sure they could create complex spells one glyph at a time with multiple ward controls, before moving on to master level spells. I wanted them to learn it right and reach their true potential in magic, but my measure for the other city leaders was to be competent enough not to get themselves killed, otherwise it would be insulting.
That was all of them, but Julian. He didn’t look happy, but the anger on his face did drain away as he grudgingly put his mind on focusing on magic. I mean, he almost had to be able to do it, if his emotions trumped his magical control because of his arrogance, then the man wouldn’t have been sent here on behalf of Corpus Christie.
He summoned a fire elemental in the shape of a miniature phoenix, supported by earth which gave it solid substance. The third glyph was a supportive dispel magic that lingered instead of being instant, two things I hadn’t known was possible. The dispel would weaken another elemental it was fighting, almost as well as the opposing element enhancement would, and it was only one spell instead of four possible.
I was grudgingly impressed, he was at least as good as I was in focus, and he was creative.
The phoenix flew down and razed the graveyard, essentially dispelling it. His choice also revealed his mindset, combative.
He looked at me smugly.
They all let their spells expire, and I got their email addresses to send them an invite to the shared master spell book.
I decided things had gone well enough, though maybe not in Julian’s case. However, prudence dictated that I shouldn’t invite mages from every large city in the other forty-nine states, all at once. Instead, I’d send out a video of what just took place, including my brief, and send that out. Otherwise I’d be giving the spiel hundreds of times.
Then I’d let them all come show me their competence, those that wanted it, in time slots. It’d take all day to do it that way, but it was safer than inviting hundreds of potential master mages to our mage society building all at once. It would also mean they wouldn’t have to wait in a long line for their turn to show their skills, so it was better for them too.
“Thanks for coming.”
They all got up and left after saying goodbye, save Julian who took the opportunity to storm out. I thanked Jessica, Brett, and Violet for sticking around, then went home myself via air elemental.
When I got home, it was to a surprise. Gabriella was in my backyard with a tentative smile on her face. Her smile slowly widened to a grin as if she couldn’t quite help herself.
“Gabby?”
Gabriella said, “Sorry, you have no idea how crazy I’ve been getting with no one to talk to about it. I mean, I got my final training two months ago now. So I hope you don’t mind me stopping by.”
Wow, jab to the ego, she’d beaten me to spell creation by two months. I thought for sure I was first, just because I hadn’t heard of anyone using anything like a master spell on the news. Fuzzy thinking. It also probably meant there were more, and I was the only sucker trying to share the knowledge to save lives.
Proud to be a sucker that wanted to preserve lives.
“Two whole months, I feel like a slacker now,” I grinned, “I’ve been going crazy for a few weeks without anyone to talk to about it or seek advice from.”
Gabriella laughed, “I might be a little faster at magic, but I have no EQ at all. I had no idea how to do what you did today, to go forward with it, by setting rules and sharing in a way that didn’t break the rules or added too much risk to society. The way I shut down Julian so hard earlier should tell you that.”
I smiled, my ego wasn’t that fragile, but I appreciated her intention. She was young, just a year older than my sister, after all.
“Drink?”
Gabriella nodded.
“Iced tea, soda, or coffee? Water too, I suppose.”
Gabriella laughed, “Iced tea.”
My air elemental delivered two peach flavored iced tea Snapple bottles from the fridge almost instantly, and I handed her one and gestured at the chairs.
“So, you approve of how I handled it?” I asked as we sat.
Gabriella nodded sharply, “It was why I was so quick to defend you, and how I understood your motivations behind it, because I’ve been worried about it too. It seems like the gods’ influence on our minds helped though. I mean, given human nature, it probably wouldn’t work otherwise. But I think they’ll take the rules not to experiment on faith, or at least I hope so. If not, not our fault.”
“I also don’t think we should create destructive spells.”
Gabriella looked relieved, and nodded in agreement, “We’re too powerful compared to humans as it is. Plus, too many mages in our generation are destined to go crazy, and information control is too difficult to depend on.”
Yeah, we just had to hope no one else would.
Gabriella said, “I noticed you don’t even use deadly spells in battle, news coverage and the like.”
I nodded, “I did in the beginning when I was still in hiding and some of us were terrorizing the world, but I haven’t since I cottoned on to enchantment and it became possible to send our kind through the human justice system. Less collateral damage, just as effective, and the goal is to take down their protections and put them to sleep, so the magical suppression glyph takes hold.”
Gabriella asked, “Have you figured out that besides being morally reprehensible, the sacrifice spells are a lazy mage’s way of getting more powerful. I mean, personal base power means almost nothing at all to a mage of master potential.”
I nodded, “That makes sense, but most master mages won’t ask the right question of the gods, so they’ll be limited to spells we’re willing to share, which won’t help them in battle or dueling. I really had no plans to share my defensive master spell, outside of family.”
She smiled, “Me either. A little selfishness is healthy.”
“I do plan to share my most powerful protections pre-master spells with my apprentices however.”
Gabriella said, “That just makes sense. On the good side it seems unlikely one of us will go bad or go around the bend. I imagine just to ask the gods for that final instruction means our minds are the most stable, stubborn, and determined among our kind.”
“That… gods, I hope you’re right, it sounds right. It’s been something I worried about.”
Gabriella said, “I’d like to be friends, and maybe allies.”
She looked… hopeful, and vulnerable. Not all that different from my sister actually. It occurred to me Gabriella might be having as hard a time finding mage friends as passionate about magic and her age as Rosa did. I decided then that I’d introduce those two, not today maybe, but soon. There was no reason not to share the friendship, and they could bond on the generation level if not the master mage in the know level, a place I couldn’t really meet her.
I’d also accept for myself, of course. She had a positive energy about her, and she had the same thoughts and worries about the master mage spells.
Lastly, she’d be someone I could talk to about master spells, without editing my thoughts for content so as not to offend the gods.
“I’d like that too.”
She beamed, “Oh, I have two master spells I’d like to share. If you don’t mind, I’ll give them to you, and you can put it in your book?”
I perked up, and she laughed knowingly.
“Sure. What spells?”
She said, “Teleport. It was my first spell, because elementals carrying me at speed makes me dizzy and sick to my stomach. The second one I titled Endless Wardrobe, because nothing is more important than clothes and shoes.”
I laughed, even as I knew she was half serious and half joking on that last. I was also glad I’d started on portal and not teleport, since that spell was about to be handed to me. It’d probably take me a few hours to memorize it and enchant it, which was a whole lot better than weeks to make it and duplicating efforts.
“Sounds good. I’m currently building a portal spell, it should be ready in a couple of weeks.”
She said, “That makes sense, that you started with that one. Teleport is good but only good for one person, and you have a large family. It’d also help move people and supplies around fast,” she shook her head, “I chose teleport first partly because I’ve been hiding my new status. Teleporting in front of people, well they just think an air elemental zipped me away.”
I smiled, “Not a big deal, we’re just getting started, and we can never tell people we’re making the spells. They just magically appear.”
She giggled, “Ridiculous, but that’s what most mages must think when they don’t even question where it came from.”
“Now… Endless Wardrobe?”
She smirked, “It’s awesome. It’s a mix of detection, conjuration, mind reading, and spatial manipulation storage,” she stood up for a moment, and then was wearing a white bikini, then a cocktail dress and high heels, then jeans and a sweatshirt, then a coat, then jean shorts and a t-shirt, and lastly a cute skirt and halter top outfit with sandals. She sat back down, “The spell is always active, and it will copy any clothes you like and focus on with the intent to have your own copy. It conjures it when prompted, and it stores it in an extradimensional space inside the enchantment. It can also conjure the clothes onto you, so you’ll be ready for any occasion at the drop of a hat. The mind reading part also lets you peruse what’s in there, otherwise I’d have forgotten half of it by now.”
“A wardrobe you can take with you, that’s awesome. I’m also looking forward to not being my air elemental’s baggage.”
She giggled and nodded fervently.
She’d only had the ability five weeks sooner than me, so that fit too. Eight weeks, two useful and complex master spells, plus the complex defensive one she no doubt was using but unwilling to share.
She said, “The only catch is I won’t use it to duplicate designer clothes, purses, or shoes. I’ll buy those. It’s not theft, since it’s new matter technically and wasn’t made by anyone, but designer clothes include a large royalty to the designer for the design itself, not just the material used. Especially one-of-a-kind dress designs.
“Still, after buying it, it means that dress will last forever when you make it a part of the enchantment, it can be remade, if it’s stained or otherwise damaged.”
I nodded in agreement with her moral decision, then asked, “So, for teleport do you reenchant the destination each time?”
She lifted a hand and waggled it, “Yes and no. The enchantment uses the split function glyph at the end. So, the mall, home, the center our leadership group meets in, and a few other places I commonly go are all permanent. I just have to choose the destination glyph at the end of the series by intent. I also have one on the split that changes like you said, for when I want to go somewhere I don’t commonly go.
“It’s also safer, it takes a few seconds to change a destination. If I was ambushed for instance, I could almost instantly activate a teleport to one of those permanent places to flee.”
“That’s brilliant, I’ll make my portal spell the same way, if only for convenience. Multiple permanent destination options and one to change. I could also do the same with size and duration.”
She said, “I’m currently working a remote charging spell that will sympathetically connect to all my active glyphs, both wards and spells, scattered around Austin. Sure, our elementals can handle that charging task, but the master spell will also verify the glyphs integrity, that it hadn’t been messed with or changed by someone else. It also saves you the trouble of being without your elemental servant for an hour a day. It’s not super complex, so I should be done with it in a few days. I’ll send that one to you to, when it’s ready.”
“I double warded everything, one of them tells me if the spell, other ward, or itself has been messed with magically. But that does sound useful. I mean, if someone messes with my enchantments around San Antonio, I want to catch them in the act, not find out about it hours or a day later.”
She shook her head, “I wasn’t clear. It’s a permanent link as long as the master spell enchantment is on you. It will make your remote spells and wards charge automatically and constantly, as if you were wearing it, and if integrity breaks then you’ll be warned right away.”
“Oh, that’s even more awesome than I first thought.”
She giggled, and she finished off her iced tea.
“I should go. I still have to tell the rest of the mage council what happened today, and they’re waiting for me. Plus, I ambushed you, I’m sure you have plans. I’ll keep in touch though, get you the master spells in an hour or two via e-mail, and we’ll go out soon?”
“Sounds perfect, it was great to meet you.”
She grinned, “You too, truly my pleasure,” then stood up and disappeared.
Well, as surprises went, that was one of my better ones. She also gave me food for thought. Since most master mages wouldn’t be able to modify master spells, I’d been thinking to make them as simple as possible. Too simple.
It hadn’t occurred to me to use the multiple split function to enable multiple destinations, or that master mages without our training could be given some creative license within the boundaries of the spell’s design. Just thinking of where the mage wanted to go, would be enough to choose the correct destination glyph at the split.
I also planned to go to the mall in a day or two, for an extensive window-shopping spree, once I had the master spell Endless Wardrobe enchanted of course. Teleport too, learning magic before fun, though I’d limited myself to four hours a day on building the portal spell. Any new master spells, really, otherwise it’d become a major time sink and I’d lose connection to everything else.
My husband, patients, and students were important too, as was down time.
Chapter Twenty
The day took a sharp turn before I got to do any of that. It was right after Carlos had come home, and I’d barely had time to say hello and give him a kiss, when the citywide ward part of the Demon Overwatch spell got my attention. There was an elemental kidnapping a mage, one naïve and stupid enough not to be shielded well. Sure, the elemental was highly enhanced to overcome basic protections, but that should be expected of a predator using demons or elementals to do their dirty work.
“Be back in a bit, sorry.”
I gave him a smile that said I’d make it up to him, but before he could respond my air elemental took me away, and it followed the earth elemental performing the kidnapping. I also cast a commune spell to guide in Brett for support, and he’d likely take Violet along too. Those two were almost always together lately.
The elemental disappeared under the ground, about twenty feet below one of the hotels along the River Walk, which probably meant the second sublevel. I suspected the reason it disappeared was it’d entered a warded room hidden from magical detection, and not that the elemental had been dismissed.
Rather than summon an earth elemental myself, because my air elemental was highly enhanced at the moment too, I had it enter the hotel and look for the employee access to the sublevels. The air elemental quickly found a path to where the elemental had disappeared, and sure enough there was a door right in front of me, and a quick detection glyph told me it blocked magic.
A small trick and workaround, to reveal the hidden ward’s presence and purpose, because even if the room was bare the spell would’ve told me that if it really worked. Instead, I got nothing.
A quick glance told me I was in the washing room. There were rows and rows of washers and dryers. The door in front of me was labeled with a caution sticker and electrical symbol. It was likely the buildings electrical room, or at least a room that had the two-hundred-thirty-volt circuits to power the dryers behind me.
Waiting for Brett would’ve been the smart play, but the sacrifice glyph was as quick to cast as any other, and I doubted it would take the perpetrator longer than a moment to have them tied down and to take out their knife, so I tried the door. Assuming of course, that this was the quarry we were looking for, and not a mage kidnapping others for nefarious reasons unrelated to human sacrifice.
It was locked, but the unlock spell glyph was cast almost subconsciously due to need, and the knob turned a split second later. The door opened revealing a large thirty by twenty room with a transformer and several circuit breaker boxes. What didn’t belong there was a short stone bier with a mage strapped to it, and another mage standing over him with a sharp and long blade.
