Engineered Magic

37 AL: Grandmother

“Why didn’t you want me to cast the heal spell?” Todd asked. “You never really explained.”

“Didn’t I?” Grandmother asked. “To learn a spell in any reasonable amount of time you need to cast it against a real target. In the case of healing you need someone who is injured. If you try to learn two spells at once it significantly increases the number of casts needed. Since there wasn’t an injured person available for you to heal there was no reason to start the learning process. That would just confuse Control and slow down your progress.”

“If you need real targets, why do they have training dummies?” Ellen asked. They were walking in a group through the green. Grandmother didn’t cast her camouflage spell since that would have made it hard for her companions to follow her.

“Integrated training dummies act as a kind of half target. It takes longer to learn a spell using them but you can eventually succeed. They work only for a subset of spells that are at or below the tier of the training yard. There isn’t a training dummy for heal,” Grandmother explained. “Training yards also have the ability to contain magic. Your square with its new crystal will have a tier one yard. That means any spell tier one or lower spell will be contained to the yard. It will not travel through the square to accidentally injure residents.”

“So if I tried to cast the heal spell I would have slowed down my progress learning magic forever?” Todd asked, switching the subject back.

“Well not forever. It wears off eventually. If enough time passes or you learn enough other spells, Control finally gets the idea that you gave up on the first one. No one really knows what ‘enough’ is.” Grandmother could see that Todd was worried about this. She wondered if he tried it by himself after she went to bed. “Honestly at tier one it is not much of a penalty. The penalty doesn’t get really bad until tier two or three.”

“When I was a child we used to play wizards. Could that have crippled my ability to learn magic?” Todd asked.

“It’s unlikely,” Grandmother replied. “I think the conditions on casting are in place to stop anyone from accidentally triggering it. Plus, Control seems to ignore the young.” Grandmother stopped walking, she gestured at a nearby tree. “Do you see that squirrel over there?” she asked. Todd and Alex both spun to face the tree and raised their weapons. Ellen stepped back, pulling Sarah close to her. I guess not, Grandmother thought to herself. The squirrel was watching them but made no move in their direction. If Grandmother didn’t point it out to them it was likely it would have just watched them pass.

“Let's see how long it takes you to learn fireball,” Grandmother said to Todd. “The first lesson for all thrown offensive spells is they target what you are looking at, not what you throw at. So don’t glance over at your sweetheart in the middle of a cast to see if she is watching,” Grandmother warned. “And don’t look at me either,” she continued, “I hit back.”

“All right,” Todd responded. He shifted his spear over to his off hand. He was wearing the brigandine that Ellen was trying to sell in the market when Grandmother first met her.

“What is the five symbol?” Grandmother said. “Demonstrate it to me.” Todd held his hand up with his fingers spread. “Correct,” Grandmother commented. “Now make a throwing gesture keeping all your fingers apart.” Todd made an empty throw in the direction of the squirrel tree.

“That will work,” Grandmother said to Todd, “but there is no reason to be so enthusiastic about it.” She raised her own hand in the five symbol and made a tiny throw gesture. Todd tried again, putting almost no effort into the throw.

“Ok, now lock your eyes on that squirrel and make the start symbol.” Todd looked at the squirrel, spread his fingers wide and then curled them down into a fist. “Good,” Grandmother commented, “now smoothly open your hand up into the five symbol and throw it.” Todd followed the instructions. The squirrel just looked back at him.

“Good,” Grandmother commented. “Do it again.” Todd did it again and again. He went through the motions slowly, repeating the movements as precisely the same each time as he could manage. On the sixth try a fire ball appeared just beyond his open fingers and flew over to hit the squirrel. The squirrel shrieked and fell off the branch it was resting on. It caught itself on the branch below and ran off into the canopy.

Todd was staring at his hand like it was a foreign entity. A look of complete disbelief on his face. “Awesome!” Alex said. “Can I learn ice-bolt on the next one?” he asked. Ellen’s mouth was literally open. While little Sarah was saying, “Me too!” over and over. Their reactions reminded Grandmother so much of the early days that she almost lost herself in the memories. It was all so wrong. These young people should know all about magic. How could they not? But she had been there and seen it. She knew what went wrong and all these years later she still didn’t know how to fix it. All she could do was try.

“Fundamentals first,” Grandmother said as she started walking. “The fire didn’t come from you, Todd. I know it looked like it came from your hand but that is just an illusion.”

“What?” Todd said in a slightly shaky voice. He seemed to snap out of his daze. He hurried his steps to catch up with Grandmother.

“Where did it come from?” Ellen asked.

“It would probably take me months if not years to give you the background you need to understand that. I am not going to explain it walking through a greenspace,” Grandmother offered. The young today knew nothing about science and engineering. If she told them magic came from the structure they would think it was a product of the gods. Grandmother was aware for some time that some of the second and most of the third generation thought Control was the name of a god.

“For now just know it does not come from the caster in any way. Any person who has never cast before making the same gestures will have the same result.” She turned to Todd. She made eye contact with him before speaking again. “I hate to break it to you, Todd but there is nothing special about you. There is nothing special about me.”

Grandmother continued walking. She let a few moments pass in silence hoping that fact would sink in.

“Now, let’s talk about you little Sarah,” Grandmother said, turning her attention to the girl. “You are smart and I know you have been listening to everything I said. Before you run off and try throwing fireballs on your own, remember that this is a very dangerous world. That squirrel ran away but it just as easily could have charged us. Never attack an animal with magic that you can not kill without that magic.”

“Yes, Grandmother,” Sarah responded.

“Does your magic have a color?” Grandmother asked.

“I don’t know,” the young girl responded. Grandmother looked at Ellen. Ellen shrugged her shoulders indicating she didn’t know either.

“If it doesn’t have a color yet, you need to consider what color you would like it to be. Whatever color your magic is, spells in that school will be stronger for you, especially at the higher tiers. Your color determines who can heal you safely and what is sometimes the most important, who can’t heal you. Whatever your first spell is, whether a wizard, warrior or a crafter spell, it may determine your color. If you don’t have a color yet, you are in a unique position in that you can try to choose,” Grandmother said.

“Before you said your first spell determined your color, not may determine,” Ellen said. Ellen is smart too, Grandmother thought to herself and has a good memory.

“Yes,” Grandmother said. “This is one of the spots where my knowledge is less than I want it to be. I am most familiar with wizards and the first spells that they cast. Unfortunately almost all wizards are either blue or red, which doesn’t give me much evidence for green, yellow and violet.” Grandmother responded.

“Is that all the colors?” Ellen asked.

“No,” Grandmother said. “I am fairly confident there is an orange magic, although I know of no way a person can get it.”

“If no one can get it, why do you think it is orange?” Alex asked.

“Think back to the fountain at the square’s exit to the green. What were the colors of the tiles?” Grandmother asked. She looked over at Alex as he tried to visualize the fountain behind them.

“Red, blue, violet, green, yellow, orange…” he said softly. He blinked and refocused on their surroundings. “Why can’t a person get it?” he asked.

“There are seven symbols in magic,” Grandmother said. “The zero symbol is the closed fist or start symbol. I believe this represents clear magic. I don’t want to get off track but the school of light magic is affiliated with it. Following from there,” Grandmother held out her hand and formed the next five symbols with her hand as she named them, “we have one, two, three, four and five.” She held her hand out with her finger spread. “The last symbol is six. Since I don’t have another finger, I can’t make the sign for it.”

“Are you saying the builders had six fingers?” Ellen asked.

“Yes,” Grandmother said. “You need only look at the wall inscriptions, mosaics and floor tiles to see that there are seven symbols. When I was young and first entered the structure I saw an inscription of a fist with six fingers. I have little doubt.”

The group walked on in silence as the individual members thought over what Grandmother told them. Grandmother wondered what the young people would ask next. She spotted another squirrel sleeping in a tree and stopped.

“Todd, it took you six tries to get that first fireball. I want you to keep casting until you have six successes in a row,” Grandmother announced. “You can start on that squirrel over there.” She didn’t point out the tree this time and instead watched as her companions looked for it. She was amused that it was young Sarah who saw it first.

Todd’s first cast failed but his second succeeded. He managed to successfully cast a second time before the squirrel disappeared into the canopy. They walked on.

“Ellen, you're next. Think about what spell you want to learn,” Grandmother said. “I will teach you any tier zero cast, offensive or defensive.” She could see Alex was dancing around in excitement. “After that Alex can learn ice-bolt.”

Ellen asked what the tier zero spells were. Grandmother went over the list of them giving both a name and description of what they did. Ellen chose to learn fear even after Grandmother warned her that if she used it against too high tier of an animal it would turn into an enrage spell.

Since Ellen wasn’t with them when Grandmother went over the basics with Todd and Alex in the courtyard, she went over again now. She made Ellen practice the start symbol several times until she was consistent in how she folded her fingers into a fist.

Ellen got a practical example of fear turning into enrage when she used it against an especially large squirrel. Instead of running away the squirrel charged. Todd hit it with two fireballs before Alex cleaved it in half with a frost blade.

“Your turn Alex,” Grandmother said when she was happy with Ellen’s ability to cast fear on command. “Ice-bolt, right?”

“Actually…” Alex said tentatively. “Can I ask a couple questions first?”

“Of course,” Grandmother replied. She stopped walking because she spotted another squirrel for Alex to use in his training. She started walking again. If he wanted to talk first she didn’t want to lose the travel time. That squirrel would continue its life unmolested. Grandmother expected a lot more animals in the green the morning after a nearby migration. The animals they saw seemed to be strangely docile. They ran at the first attack or slipped deeper into the trees as the group approached them. Grandmother had not forgotten that pillar of light at the end of the bear fight but she was refusing to think about it. She wondered if the animals avoiding them was one of the side effects.

“When we fought the bears you cast with both hands,” Alex observed. “I was wondering, do I have to cast spells with my primary hand? Or can I use my off hand?”

“You can use your off hand. When learning you should always use the same hand for the same spell,” Grandmother answered. “Once you are skilled with one hand you should switch and learn to cast it with the other. You never know when you are going to get injured and be forced to use your off hand. Plus it trains your off hand so you can cast the complex high level spells like the one I used against the bears.”

“I’d like to learn the force shield spell,” Alex announced. “I think that could be useful in combination with swordwork.”

“Excellent!” Grandmother said and she meant it. She was starting to think that of all her new companions Alex seemed a little immature. The fact that he listened to her descriptions of tier zero spells and picked one that he felt would best suit his fighting style was impressive. Force shield was a defensive spell. It was cast not with the throw motion but with a sideways motion of the hand pushing away from the body.

Grandmother walked through the steps of the cast with Alex. When he demonstrated all the separate parts, she stopped in front of him and instructed him try his first cast. Just as he finished his first cast she rapped him on the forearm with her staff.

“Ouch!” he said, jumping back and cradling his harm. “What was that for?”

“Against live targets, remember?” Grandmother chided. “As a sparring partner, Control is only going to consider me a half live target at best. This is going to take a while.”

“Can I change my mind and learn a different spell?” Alex countered, still rubbing his arm.

“Didn’t you listen to the penalties lesson?” Grandmother asked. “You are committed now.” Alex was either a great actor or maybe she did hit him a little hard. She would soften the blow next time. “Again,” she ordered.

Eight repetitions later Grandmother's staff bounced off the air about an inch above Alex’s arm. There was a smear of distortion in the circular shape of a shield in that area. In less than a minute it faded.

“Yes!” Alex exclaimed, jumping around in excitement, still rubbing his arm. Grandmother was surprised it was that fast. She could remember people needing almost thirty repetitions to learn that spell. Control must have considered her a real danger to Alex. She felt a little guilty that she may have actually injured the young warrior. When he calmed down, she touched his arm and cast a tier four heal on him.

“Thanks!” he said, flexing his arm. “It is good as new.” It should be as good as new. The tier four heal would cause a missing limb to regrow in four days. It would deal with a little bruising in moments.

“See that squirrel up ahead,” Grandmother said, she pointed this time since the animal was pretty far. It was pacing the length of an apple tree limb looking nervous. She hoped that if she stayed back until Alex got its attention it wouldn’t just run off. “Go poke it with your sword to get it to attack you so you can practice.” Alex drew his sword and went running off. Once again Grandmother was a little worried about his enthusiasm.

“You two,” Grandmother said to Todd and Ellen, “Go make sure he doesn’t get himself killed. Sarah and I will be along shortly.” Todd took off after Alex while Ellen followed at a slower pace. “Practice your spells,” Grandmother called after them.