The Power of Ten, Book Five: Versatile Wizardry

Damn, Divination Reserve coming in useful again! “Oh, my apologies if I’ve distracted you. I’m kind of lost at the moment. Could you point me in the directions of some other humans? I’m definitely in the wrong territory and don’t want to intrude.”

He blinked at me, and all the Deer paused and turned back to look at me. I think they were all surprised they understood me, and that I understood them!

His tail switched in great interest. “There are no Humans here. Humans do not belong here.” Luckily, he didn’t seem hostile, or I would have been in big trouble. “How did you come here, Human?”

I pointed up. “I quite literally fell out of the sky, sir,” I replied respectfully. “Yesterday, if that helps.”

He glanced upwards, huffing in thought, and the other deer took that as a sign to return to their progress. “Come with me.”

I blinked, but it was definitely an order, and had That Tone to it. He was used to being in charge, and any defiance would not be looked on well. He could also sweep me off the branch like snipping a leaf, and at close range the many golden prongs on his glorious rack looked even more deadly.

I stood up and hopped off the branch, Featherweighting myself to drift down slowly. I definitely saw the flicker of interest on his muzzle at the very minor use of magic as I drifted down past his horns, over his head, and landed squarely and softly between his shoulder blades, watched carefully all the way by that dark eye.

His fur was over a foot long, with currents going through it. It felt almost metallic as my bare feet came down on, and I was sure it was going to draw blood from me, when it softened suddenly and became as puffy and welcoming as goose down.

I sat down and back, realizing that if he restored the rigidity of his hide I was probably going to be sliced to shreds, and just shrugged to myself. It was what it was.

The Deer seemed to have some power of Earth Magic active on themselves, probably one of the reasons they weren’t leaving any tracks. The alpha here had copious loads of it, polished and keen and deadly, more like metal than stone, and his fur promised to be much the same.

“You are young for a Human,” the Stag said, his gait far smoother than any horse I could recall as he moved smoothly back into motion. Capital H, Humans were Magical Beasts!

He had no idea that his statement about me was massively true and totally untrue from each direction. I was amused despite myself. “Well, I definitely didn’t make it here on my own!” I agreed firmly, sitting back and looking up at the sky.

“I have never been to the mortal world, although I have heard stories of it.”

I blinked twice.

Well, I wasn’t in the mortal world. That... certainly explained a few things, didn’t it?

“Oh, I was wondering where I was. Where is this?” I asked, honestly confused.

“This is the Beast Plane. Do you not know of it?” the Stag asked me, rather amused.

Uh, no? “Stories about the world with the Rats bigger than I am were probably not the first subject of choice if we wanted a good night’s sleep?” I hazarded in reply.

He huffed his amusement. “Ah, yes, your species was always described as small and naturally weak.” I wasn’t going to dispute that. “But you have Summoners who can form Contracts with the beings of this Plane, and help us grow in power. They sometimes Call upon the creatures of this Plane and bring them to your native realm for a short time to aid in battles.”

“Ah.” I considered the idea of Summoning sapient creatures into deadly battle for the Caster’s benefit. “Willingly Summoned, I hope?”

“If there is a Contract between them, yes. If there is not...” The Stag let that trail off.

“Slavemages,” I filled in for him. “Yeah, I know about them. Bringing in servant Creatures to do their work for them, without risking themselves. They do the same thing with natives of our own world, controlling the minds and bodies of others.”

“An apt name. Your species is thus alternately loathed and respected for what they can do.” His head turned, the great eye looking back at me again. “I sense almost none of the magic of a Summoner upon you...”

It was an indirect way of asking what kind of magic I wielded. I held up my hand, brought up a flight of Shards, and swirled a shot of Ice Magic around them, along with vivic flame, Holy fire, and Baneflame against undead. I would have added Wrath, but couldn’t combine them together, yet.

I made no comment, letting him make his own judgement and analysis of the kind of magic I was using.

After a minute of no comment, I did open an eye, to see he was still looking at my upraised arm, while also walking ahead.

“A form of Dimensional magic, but not Summoning,” he judged hesitantly, probably focusing on the confusing ones. “A dark power, some form of Curse magic... but not drawn from the Darkness. And the other two...” No mention of the Ice Magic, of course...

Was there a shade of quiet awe in his voice? I let them dissipate, seizing on another detail as there was a faint tremble in his body, and his head turned away. “I am surprised you are familiar with Dark Magic, elder. I did not think it would be allowed to intrude in a world like this.” Its presence in the Manafield was almost background against the incredible Elemental vitality here.

“The Dark Plane has invaded the Beast Plane.”

Both of my eyes slowly opened, as all the alarm bells started going off inside me.

“Is that so?” I asked softly, and felt one big ear twitch ten feet above me. “Well, then, Elder, I think I know why I’m here.” I mean, in addition to the other reason, but what did Heaven want with a Beast Plane, anyway?

“You... have some power against the Dark Plane?” the Stag asked, failing to hide both some wonder and some disbelief.

“The amount of it I have is small right now, just like me. But the stories you’ve heard of Humans also relate how powerful they can grow, right?” I reminded him.

“Yes. Powerful Humans can contend with the Nobles of many species...” the Stag agreed slowly. “But no Human can become powerful enough to defy one of the Lords of the Dark Plane...”

That sounded like fighting a god, so I lumped that all in together. “Oh, that’s not what I’d do. That would absolutely be silly and a waste of everyone’s time.”

The Stag looked back at me again. “How, then, would you fight it?” he asked aloofly, yet curiously.

“Metaphorically speaking, I’d kick over a rock, and then start an avalanche. I should be able to get powerful enough to kick over a very big rock, and the avalanche that comes afterwards will do the job.

“If it’s not big enough, then I just kick over more rocks until it is.”

“That... would have to be a most impressive avalanche.”

“Yeah. Sorta like having the entire Beast Plane falling down on you, howling for your life and power with a hunger that can’t be sated, however much you feed it, and so the only thing you can do is run and slam the door hard behind you against the Beasts baying for your soul?”

The Stag trembled again at the image I was presenting him. “You... could do such a thing?” he asked warily.

“I can kick a rock,” I replied calmly.

I realized we were going down a hill, and sat up to lean out and look past his shoulder.

We were going down the side of a long hill or plateau, the tops of trees visible scrolling out in front of us on this long descent. Lower forest valley or something?

“I will take you to someone who is experienced enough to deal with this matter,” the Stag declared firmly.

“As you will, Elder.” Wasn’t like I had a choice, but it got me moving in the right direction of why I had been brought here.

And, hey, unless something big came along that was able to eat a Stag that was at least a Fifteen and beyond my current judgement range, I was pretty safe. No reason not to keep Meditating and working on these little punk Stars...

---

The Stars had personalities.

It was the only way to describe their behavior as I messed around with them.

The Stag was obviously in no real hurry, letting the other Deer pause to eat some oversized vegetation that was healthier and more vigorous than was probably naturally possible. I kept at my task, since I had little else to do.

The first Star was the ‘high point’ most of the time in their dancing, and seemed remarkably happy and joyful as it drifted about. The second Star was serene and calm, but would swirl into furious motion at times. Third Star was strict in its pattern, but quick to move when it was time, zipping from point to point and holding there until it couldn’t anymore. Fourth Star was angry and wanted to be running around all the time, showing dominance and displays of power to the other Stars like a bully. Fifth Star was as placid and calm as an old horse, steady as she went on its path, taking a lot of will to affect. Sixth Star was distant and unresponsive, almost unwillingly moving about, seemingly needing to be dragged on its course, and reluctant to accept any reinforcement, while the last one sat there, somehow alone and regal and haughty, every position it moved to taken quickly, seemingly looming over the other Stars as it did so, and even Four didn’t challenge it.

I promptly dubbed them Wind, Water, Light, Fire, Earth, Ice, and Lightning, even though they had no biases to them whatsoever, all of them gleaming with the arcane fire of mixed Elements.

Learning how to dominate each of the Stars was a mental exercise. Wind responded best to an invitation for something new. Water was simply obedient and flowed into a new position under guidance. Light was also quick to obey, but I had to be precise in my commands and orders or nothing happened. Fire had to be convinced that doing so would allow it to display its might. Earth just took concentration and willpower to egg it into motion, while Ice actually responded best to gentle coaxing and compliments to its ego. Lightning had to be matched and overwhelmed in power and authority, bowing to a greater force, or it wouldn’t respond at all.

They were so individualistic that it was plain it was not an accident, and I wondered what it would mean long term. Were they based on fragments of my own personality? Naturally I was not some fresh student barely able to sense and focus, and so the Stars responded to me much better than they would some newcomer without discipline.

Just... interesting. But it was an interesting day...

---------

I had Soul Tats, the ones etched onto Aelryinth replicated onto me as a sliver of him, but Soul Essence, such as it was, couldn’t be split out here. The Rules of Magic were different here.

The Stars, however, could. It was with great amusement that I found that I could put one of my Stars into a Soul Tat, and it worked just like a point of Soul Essence, while still being available for me to tap into its Mana capacity.

Mmmm. Another argument for the Stars connecting to the Soul, sure enough. I promptly moved Light and Wind up to my Mask of Clarity, which would give me x5 forward magnification, Devasight, and Devilsight.