Erick started the day with an olet, pancakes, and bacon, eaten on the porch as he watched the sunrise over Candlepoint. He had made his own breakfast as he sotis did, while making more for Poi, Kiri, and Teressa, for when they eventually woke. Those were under preservation [Ward]s, for now.
He was alone, save for Ophiel and Yggdrasil, and a daily report from Zolan.
It was yesterday's end of day summary, but it was more than that. Later in the report were the goals for today and the goals for the following weeks and months. There were even so long standing goals for the far future listed on page 3, the last page. 'Open new worlds' was the final entry. These reports were a nice way to start the day.
Zolan had made reports like this for Kirginatharp, and it was all too easy for Zolan to start making the sa sorts of reports for Erick. Erick didn't even have to request such reports. Zolan was simply good enough to know that reports needed to be made.
Today's report seed special, though. Almost all of the news was simply reports on what the other overseers were working on; current projects and the like, and how far along they were. Only two entries in the beginning had any sort of bearing on Erick's plans for today.
Volaro had finally wrapped up the story of the at thieves, putting to rest the problems with the disappearing livestock from last month. It had taken a while for Burhendurur and Slip to uncover and locate the 21 people who had been poaching from Candlepoint, but only a few days to capture them. Those people had been in confinent for a little while, and now, their trial was done.
Apparently, those 21 people were one great big extended family and their father had been exiled from the Wasteland for political issues, and the kids were the people who stole the livestock. They were terrified of the Wizard, but they felt they had no other choice but to steal to survive, and then they accidentally overcompensated in their theft. 'They didn't an to steal that much, they swore!' That was their story, anyway.
The outco of the trial was an offer to join the ranch and work for the food they wanted, or exile, with the threat that being caught again was execution. It was a rather lenient sentence, all things considered.
Volaro's official decree was that the defendants were lying about sothing, but that didn't matter. If they proved to be good citizens, then he didn't care if they lied (and Erick didn't either, for he had been consulted before the final decree ca down). Most of the chickens and cows were back with Daetroi, anyway, and in a few days, Daetroi would get 19 more people to work at the ranch.
Actually getting the livestock back didn't an much besides how it looked, politically, to protect Candlepoint from even the smallest of threats.
Erick had 'solved' the problem of not having enough at options in town weeks ago; he had made Zolan figure it out. Zolan's solution was to put Daetroi in contact with his own Wasteland contacts in order to buy more animals. The ranch had gotten more livestock within two days after that. And now, with 19 more people working under him, Daetroi and the other ranchers were no longer overworked.
Those 19 people hadn't even stepped on the ranch yet, but Daetroi was glad to get them.
There was also a bit of news about the dungeons.
Mox's Stone dungeon and Air dungeon were both starting to produce slis, while the Water dungeon was ramping up to capacity. The Fire dungeon was still waiting for its first slis, but that was normal. Fire dungeons took a long ti to get going. The Light dungeon was on hold, because of Erick's previous agreent with Kirginatharp to not do another Light dungeon for 10 years, but they had broken ground on the Shadow dungeon four nights ago. The shadelings Mox had hired for that area were working well. There was still no overt sign of lemizargo down in those dark, damp tunnels, but he was still very much there, of course. lemizargo was inside every darkened corner of every part of Veird. The Shadow dungeon might produce so good slis in a month.
The Benevolence dungeon was a tower and a pit (since no one was quite sure which was best) situated to the north of the Gate District. It was ready for Erick's experintation, but he had been too busy to do much of that recently.
And that was it for current events!
A single report on the at thieves, and a notice that Mox was ready for Erick to try his hand at making a Benevolence dungeon. Everything else was long term, from Zolan speaking with Songli to get a hookup to the Gate Network, to overtures of the sa to Spur, to Aisha working on turning iron into viable magical tal, and other things.
Even the Benevolence dungeon wasn't that much of a priority, because esoteric dungeons almost never worked. Erick was still going to try, though.
And so, since Erick didn't have any necessary etings, or anything like that…
What to do?
Ti Magic with Phagar? A Boon from Rozeta? Or working on Benevolence? Or even making himself into more of a Wizard, with forceful accretion? He could even have a talk on dragons with Burhendurur and/or Volaro.
Erick smiled as he considered his possibilities—
Poi joined Erick on the porch, carrying his own breakfast.
"Morning, Poi!" Erick happily asked, "Any news I should know about?"
"Nothing I can think of." Poi asked, "What do you want to do today?"
Smiling again, Erick asked himself, "What do I want to do today? I think…"
Erick took a look around his kingdom.
… And it was doing alright. People were already out at the market. Goods were coming through the Stratagold Gates, stopping at customs, and then moving either to parts unknown, or moving through a Gate that led across the Gate Road, to the Wayfarer's Guildhouse. The people at that guildhouse then moved goods to buyers all across the Crystal Forest. So of that stuff was even headed toward Spur.
Stuff was headed out, but stuff was also headed in, appearing in the center of the Wayfarer's guildhouse and then moving through a Gate to the other side of the Gate Road, to Stratagold's property, where it moved through more Gates and into the Underworld.
Stuff was also headed through Gates that led to Candlepoint, where another Wayfarer's office had set up down the road from Market Street. People in Candlepoint were buying goods from the lands around Stratagold, while the lands around Stratagold were buying all sorts of foods that grew best up here, or fabrics from the spidery, or at from the ranch.
The world was moving through Erick's [Gate]s, and it was good.
It wasn't much right now, but the volu was increasing daily.
Surprisingly enough, Erick had only ever had to recast a [Gate] into one of the Gates once, and only because soone was doing so very drunk shipping and ramd into the side of the Gate with a million ton shipnt of pure white marble, multiple tis. The first ramming didn't budge the physical Gate at all, but the second ramming actually managed to move the glowing white square and break the [Gate] on the inside.
Aside from that recast, which took all of ten minutes to do, Erick's Gate Network was working well. House Benevolence was doing pretty good, too. All of Erick's overseers were doing their jobs, and they were doing them well. This whole organization ran like a clunky old car trying to turn over in cold weather, but everyone was warming up to each other, and Burhendurur (and even Goldie, in three instances) had stopped every single fight between House mbers before they got too bad.
This whole thing worked.
It worked well.
Zolan had given Erick his first month financial review just the other week. Even though Erick was bleeding money like a strung-up cow in order to pay everyone's wages and otherwise, he could survive another 2 years of paying for everything all on his own.
If he did a monster hunt for 2 days, once a year, and transferred all those rads to Mage Bank, House Benevolence could survive indefinitely. According to so very lucrative offers, handed to Zolan in the strictest of confidences, if Erick started selling [Reincarnation]s then he would never have to worry about the House or the Gate Network turning a profit, ever.
But having a Gate Network was going to be very profitable, eventually. Just needed about 6 more months to really get there. As people started to realize that Erick wasn't scary at all, and that yes, he really was allied with all the major powers of the world, the amount of money coming out of the Gate Network would break even with how much money Erick was spending on the House.
When he opened the next land, though, the profit would co rolling in like an avalanche.
If he got the next Gate set up and running, anyway.
Songli was dragging their heels. Tentatively, Erick might be opening up [Gate]s over there in the next week, but Zolan was still in talks with Holorulo regarding specifics. Might be a week! Might be a month. Or two or three. Erick had tried to be a part of those talks, but he scared off the people on Holorulo's side of the table. Which was… What it was. Erick didn't even know the people who Holorulo had sent, so it didn't matter to him to miss that eting, which was odd.
Holorulo hadn't sent anyone whom Erick had known.
At the current rate, Erick might be opening up a [Gate] to Spur, next.
But that was for later! For today, Erick had nothing to do, except for what he wanted to do.
Erick smiled to himself, saying, "I want to have more days like this."
- - - -
"So it's ti to learn so Ti Magic," Erick said, sitting alone in the middle of his Gate warehouse.
He had temporarily banished Poi and Teressa off to the house to do sothing else, and though Kiri desperately wanted to be let in on this lesson, she, too, was banished. Well… 'Banished' was a harsh word. Erick had asked them to stay away, and so they did.
But it was definitely a command, no matter the wording.
And now it was ti to et a god.
Erick sat back in a chair, relaxing his mind wide, his mana sense flowing outward—
And suddenly the world was a fractal stained glass window, and nothing moved anywhere, except for everything still moving all at once. Erick knew, sohow, that he was outside ti, and yet… He wasn't outside of ti at all.
Another Erick stepped out of that fractal ss, though he was clearly the God of The End and Ti.
"Hello, Phagar," Erick said. "It took a while to get around to this. I hope the offer still stands."
With an easy voice that was exactly Erick's, but different since it ca from soone else, Phagar said, "Of course the offer still stands." Phagar sat down in a chair that mirrored Erick's, saying, "It's better to approach this after settling many of your mortal worries, anyway. Any idea where you would like to start?"
For all his godly nature, Phagar was quite pleasant and calm to be around; an easy talker and listener.
But Erick wasn't sure where to begin, so he offered, "At the beginning?"
Phagar gave a small smile, saying, "The Beginning and the End are often connected in Ti Magic, so that's the first thing to learn. But as for sothing useful? There are a large handful of concepts you should try to understand before you start putting those concepts together, so I'll go through the whole thing once.
"There are easy Ti Magics. There are difficult Ti Magics.
"Then, there are Wizard-level Ti Magics, which fall outside of the realm of simple categorization, because for so people they are easy, and for so they are hard.
"But before all that, there is Elental Ti, upon which all Ti Magic is based. Yes, there is an Elental Ti. That is the first secret. Perhaps the largest.
"Easy magics are relegated to moderately speeding up or slowing down your own passage of ti, or the passage of ti for another. [Haste], for oneself. [Slow], as you have experienced with your own Ice Magic experints. [Stop], as with your Ice Magic again.
"[Haste] requires clearance from to learn, but since you have that, you could try and likely achieve that spellwork as soon as I explain how it works.
"[Haste] is achieved through the realization that Ti is a parater like gravity. It is not achieved through Elental Fire, or anything like that. Instead, if you look at Elental Ice, and you see how Slow and Stop work, then you should be able to understand Elental Ti, and through the grasping of that idea, you can achieve [Haste].
"Coincidentally, if you happen to speed up yourself, you will find that everything feels lighter. If you start moving really fast, then you could break other things just by touching them, but you will likely have broken yourself, if you go too fast. Making another version of [Haste] with so stabilization magics to remove that foible and allow yourself to properly move once again. Or, you could just use an Elental Body while [Haste]d, and avoid that trouble altogether.
"Conversely, if you [Slow] soone, they will experience a heaviness.
"And while Slowing your enemies is always useful, [Haste] is not nearly as useful as a normal mage would think, for the Script Second still applies even in faster ti, so unless one has a fair bit of experience with manual casting, or if they're good with a sword and that sword can withstand accelerated ti, then [Haste] is sowhat useless for most mages.
"This caveat doesn't apply to you, but it must still be said.
"As a note: All Ti Magic is magic cast upon a contained area. Never try to cast Ti Magic upon 'the area outside of myself', or sothing equally nonsensical. It would be like trying to cast a magic without having enough mana to cast that magic; it would fail.
"Or, you could die. Either or, really.
"Moving on.
"Difficult Ti Magics are applications of Elental Ti upon oneself in such a way as to travel one's soul and mind through one's own world line into the past. This application of Ti Magic is completely removed from the physical world of Particle Magic, so slowness and gravity and speed don't matter.
"An example of this magic is known as [Return].
"This is what I did for you at Last Shadow's Feast, returning you to your subjective world of 5 minutes ago. I say 'subjective world', because you were already under heavy ti dilation while inside the Shadow's Feast barrier, so those 'five minutes' of ti I gave you were in fact only 15 real seconds.
"15 real seconds costs a lot. The reasons are manifold, from the cost of paradoxes to the stress on the soul that needs to be compensated for, to many other smaller factors. The cost of [Return] increases rapidly for anything over 10 seconds.
"[Return] is just as much Soul Magic as it is Ti Magic, and since this level of self-magic is so dangerous, most people never achieve this. It is along the sa difficulty as learning [Teleport].
"You managed to brute force Remaking [Teleport] because you have Ophiel, and he could cast that magic for you, but using [Return] requires a soul and a world line attached to that soul. Ophiel has no soul of his own right now; all he has is yours. You could always try so Wizardry there, but I would caution against that. Ophiel would likely gain a soul if you tried that with him, and thus you would lose him as a summon.
"If you tried this with Yggdrasil, you would run into that Divine Seal on your soul, and likely just hurt yourself.
"Skipping forward in ti is similarly difficult, if you want to actually skip forward in ti. For example: if you don't want to physically sleep, but you know you need to, you could [Onward] and find yourself waking up from a good night's sleep.
"If you, however, just want to go forward in ti, you can [Slow] yourself and watch the world go by.
"As a side effect, for those who are not immortal, [Slow]ing oneself is a great way to extend one's lifespan, though you do miss out on life; it's a tradeoff. As another note, using [Haste] too much could add virtual years to every decade of regular use, and for non-immortals, this is a problem.
"It shouldn't be a problem for you, as you are immortal now.
"And then we have the Wizard-level Ti Magics. There are a few well-known examples of this, and we can focus on those for now.
"The first is moving around through ti, outside of your worldline guide. [Return]ing to an event a thousand years ago, or [Onward]ing to a thousand years in the future, without actually experiencing that intervening ti.
"The second is moving around through ti, cheaply. I list cheaper costs and outside-one's-worldline separately, because they are, though there is a lot of overlap.
"The third is ignoring paradoxes. The classic example of a paradox is that, if you move through ti and kill your mother before you are born, then this will unmake you. A proper Paradox Wizard will be able to make themselves exist outside of ti, and thus they are immune to this effect. Normal mages can be made paradox proof but it is not an easy process, though it does get easier with more ti and more paradox proofing. This type of Ti Wizardry is why the 'Paradox-Creation-Destruction' split has 'Paradox' as part of that trio of Wizard types. Paradoxing is a major part of Wizardry.
"You're already far on your way to being paradox proof.
"And then there is the fourth magic, the skill that you are actually most familiar with: 'Making things always be that way', otherwise known as Establishing. There is no codified magic for this ability, as there is with [Return] or [Onward], or the idea of Paradoxing, for Establishing is strictly a Wizard thing.
"There are a few Establishing-type fraworks present inside Spatial Magics, but that's like saying a full-grown tree is the sa as a splinter from that tree; they're not the sa at all.
"You've Established things many tis already, from the rune of [Renew] to making your Elental Body be Elental Benevolence instead of Elental Light, to Ophiel and Yggdrasil gaining mana even though they shouldn't have mana. You've even done so Establishing for your apprentice, and that guildmaster's progeny, with their own [Familiar]s.
"And those are the basic magics of Ti." Phagar finished with, "If you would accept a suggestion, I recomnd that you stick to the smaller applications of Ti Magic. You are very good at Establishing, but Establishing is rather dangerous and I wouldn't recomnd you go doing that too much. You might find yourself suddenly having been born a woman all this ti, or other such oddities, and that gets ssy."
Phagar stopped talking.
And Erick had about a thousand thoughts about all of that.
Erick rapidly said, "Thank you for explaining everything all at once. I can go through all that on my own ti, later…" But there were still a fuck-ton of questions! Erick asked the first one to co to mind, "Ophiel and Yggdrasil are Paradoxes? How?"
"Both of your [Familiar]s will beco real people one day." Phagar said, "Much like how you used [Death's Approach] to steal from your own future mana generation, you have Established the sa sort of power inside Ophiel and Yggdrasil. You have made [Familiar]s which you absolutely plan on becoming real one day, and… Everything sort of ca about from that fact." He added, "As another note: That's how [Death's Approach] works... Sowhat. Go ahead and figure that one out when you want to, as well; it's okay to steal from your own future, and to help other people take from their own, but don't try taking other people's future generation. Rozeta doesn't like that."
"Okay—" Erick filed that away for later, then he latched onto the other massive thing Phagar had said. "There's Elental Ti!? But first: How does that relate to space— Or Spatial Magic! You already know of the connection between space and ti because of the gravity thing you just ntioned— All this ti! You already knew?! About space and ti? I an— I knew! But no one else on Veird ever thinks to connect the two—" Erick paused. "No… People know. You know. So of your clergy knows?"
"So of my people know," Phagar nodded, saying, "Most of my clergy accepts the Ti Magic I give them and they're never able to replicate those spells because they lack both my clearance, and the knowledge of how Ti and space are connected. Mostly, though, I have a lock on Ti Magic, because Ti Magic is among the most dangerous magics out there. Wizards are usually able to exempt themselves from that restriction though, either by proclivity or chance. You already have, many tis already."
"If there is Elental Ti…" Erick narrowed his eyes, deep in thought. "Is there Elental Space— No. There's Spatial Magic but that's just deciding how things had happened in the past to alter the present. Spatial Magic is Ti Magic, but in a different way?" He frowned, and looked to Phagar. "Is it?"
Phagar leaned back, saying, "I see Spatial Magic more as 'I changed this thing in the past without actually going into the past', sort of thing. It's not really Establishing, but… It could be. It's one of the easiest applications of Establishing, and a lot of people are more than capable of this small Wizardry, when it's used in small ways.
"But really… Spatial Magic, to , is more an application of Force Magic. You are physically shifting the past rather than actually going to the past yourself… But then again, it's not really 'forceful' Force magic at all." Phagar humd. "Spatial Magic is an application of Elental Force, and Elental Ti, yes, but most people don't even try to use Elental Ti in anything that they do. Elental Ti likes to hide and work without being known. Pure Ti Magic has little to no Elental Force, and very rarely Forces anything into any sort of position."
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
So that was a large bit of philosophy.
Erick would probably be digesting those small words for a very, very long ti.
"… Back to gravity and ti." Erick asked, "Those two should be more related than what I've seen? I've never seen a Slowed thing look heavier? … I have also never cast the spell upon myself."
He should [Slowing Bolt] himself and see how it made him feel.
He probably should have done that long before now.
"Well… That's complicated." Phagar said, "There are quite a few knock-on effects to stepping outside of one's normal experience of ti, either going faster or slower. It's harder to breathe, mainly, unless you shift ti in a space beyond your soul boundary, and even then you can't sustain such an effect for too long unless you bring along a [Cleanse] to clean up the bad air you produce. Go way too fast and you can't even see, for light might not reach your body fast enough, though you can overco this with a good mana sense. Also, you've never actually experienced your [Slowing Bolt] yourself. Give it a try when we're done."
"… But increasing one's weight with a [Gravity Ward] doesn't cause the Slow effect, does it?"
"It does, actually. But it's very minor. Hardly noticeable." Phagar said,
Erick felt himself falling deep into his mories of highschool physics lessons and youtube videos, trying to rember everything he could. He ca upon his next question fast enough, but he knew he had no idea what he was talking about. Maybe he'd figure it out later. He began, "As an effective Light Elental, when using my forr [Greater Lightwalk], I effectively weighed nothing. Why was I not under a constant [Haste] effect?" Erick added, "Or a [Slow] effect? Subjective ti moves slower the faster you go, right?"
"Elental Ti is rather sticky. It gets everywhere, even where you think it wouldn't be, because everywhere is subject to ti in so capacity." Phagar smiled, saying, "Ti was one of the ancient functions of gods and Wizards in the Old Cosmology; to establish a ti zone and maintain everything in that zone under the sa experience." Phagar said, "But on a smaller, more direct scale, there's a lot of Ti Magic in everything everyone does on Veird. Spatial Magic is a big one; those spells cause small paradoxes every ti soone travels a thousand kiloters in less ti than it takes for reality to recognize the change. For a brief mont, when looking at the whole of the world, a person is effectively in two places at once. Gravity Magic is another thing filled with Ti Magic. There's an Elental Ti aspect to Fate Magic, too, and your Elental Benevolence has a lot of Ti-like aspects." He said, "But the simpler, more correct reason why using [Greater Lightwalk] does not instantly send you to the far, far future —because going as fast as light would make your subjective ti slow down a lot— is because Elental Light is not physical light."
"… Oh. That's… Duh—" Erick moved on. "I'm still having trouble understanding that 'Elental Ti' is a thing. I thought Ti Magic would just be another working of Elental Force, like Spatial Magic? Why have I not heard of Elental Ti before?"
Phagar nodded. "Because I and my clergy go around and ensure that ti remains uncompromised."
"… Ah." Erick recalled Rozeta talking about how those first years of Veird in the New Cosmology were lost to them because soone had fucked them all to hell with Ti Magic. "This is a big deal, isn't it; my learning of Ti Magic. Here I was thinking I would use this magic to simply get eight easy hours of sleep into a ten minute period, every night, but it's a lot bigger than that. It's almost funny how much… bigger it is than I thought it would be."
Erick was trying to defuse his sudden worry with humor.
It wasn't working for him, or for Phagar.
But Phagar was far past worry; he was at acceptance, as he always seed to be. This made sense now that Erick thought of it. Phagar was simply everywhere he needed to be, when he needed to be there, and if he wasn't there, then he wasn't needed.
Phagar softly said, "I would not help you learn this magic if I did not trust you. But I trust you, Erick. I trusted you all the way back when I offered you my Championship so long ago, and that trust has never been misplaced, but now I can actually speak openly about these deeper secrets of this world. You've proven yourself, Erick, and not just to . To everyone. Beyond any doubt, you have proven yourself, and you deserve all the good things that your proof brings you. Ti Magic is just one of the smaller, larger ways to prove that we see you, and we're glad you're here."
"Ahh…" Erick felt a bit weird accepting such a complint from Phagar, sowhat because this whole conversation was sort of like looking himself in a mirror and giving himself a pep talk, but also because for him, his own morality had never been in doubt— Well. That was simply untrue. He had had a lot of trouble back in the beginning, when he fell to Veird, when he was learning that he actually needed to kill certain things to make life better for everyone. That seed like so, so long ago, though. But that set Erick to wondering… He asked, "You offered that Championship because I was going to End a lot of bad things, eh?"
Phagar smiled. "Not everything is set in adamantium, but so things are more solid than others. I knew you would be an asset, but I wasn't quite sure how. I was prepared to offer my Championship to help achieve those goals, but a single [Death's Approach] seed to be all the help you needed." Phagar said, "As for all the help you might need next, if all you want is eight hours of easy sleep inside a 10 minute ti period, then I am glad to help in that way, too.
"I suggest [Haste] and [Ward] with a large enough Variable Cost Variable Effect for the sleeping spell. [Ward] is necessary for that, because you don't want to tear up your bed with a casual pillow flip in the middle of the night, or sothing like that.
"I suggest you make another VCVE personal [Haste] spell, in order to have a version for use in battle." Phagar said, "That one will take so getting used to so that you don't accidentally break bones trying to do sothing as simple as open a door… Though with your Constitution and [Unbreakable Form] you would have to be moving quite fast in order to harm yourself."
"Heh… Thank you, Phagar."
"Anyti! And I an that most literally." Phagar said, "When you feel like doing sothing besides just sleeping in, let know, and we can move on to the next lessons."
Phagar stood up from his chair and vanished into the fractal world beyond, like a thousand reflections of Erick himself moving just out of fra.
Erick's mana sense contracted, no longer supported by the divine.
Ti resud.
And wow! Had that been a talk!
Erick's mind whirred as he just sat there in his empty warehouse, thinking about what he was going to do next, and about everything Phagar had told him of Elental Ti, and Ti Magic, and Paradox Wizardry.
And then he called in Ophiel to help pull so sounds out of so magic.
- - - -
[Slowing Bolt] was Erick's only spell that he could point to and say, 'this is made with Elental Ti'.
He had made the spell long ago, back when he was at Tenebrae's floating castle, but he certainly hadn't intended to use Elental Ti at all. He had just listened to the mana and worked how the mana—
Ah. Okay.
Yeah.
He was probably using so Elental Ti, rather unintentionally.
Whatever the case, 'Slow' was a normal enough status effect that one could pull out of Mana Altering for Ice, if one listened well enough. Status effects weren't very useful magics, though, for everything resisted them. He had used [Slowing Bolt] a bit in Songli, but mostly, he hadn't gotten into too many fights where such a spell would both actually work, and be the correct spell for the mont. Thus, his only real 'Elental Ti' spell languished, going unnoticed for what it was until today.
Slowing Bolt, instant, long range, 15 mana Variable
An ethereal bolt of mist inexorably strikes a target, inflicting Slow for a Variable length of ti.
Very high Variable costs may inflict Stop.
He had made this spell with Elental rcy and the Slow that he had plucked out of Elental Ice, producing a sound that was clear and soft, and very much non-damaging. [Slowing Bolt] didn't do any damage at all because Erick had managed to fully extract Slow from Elental Ice.
In light of this new information, Erick went through that whole process again to try and figure out what he had done.
Holding out a hand, Erick channeled mana through [Slowing Bolt].
Out ca the sound of stillness. He handed that sound off to Ophiel.
He channeled Elental rcy. This was the sound of softness.
The sound of Elental Ice was one of hardness and solidity.
So taking hardness and adding softness… Sohow gave the sound of Elental Ti?
Or at least the 'slowing' version of Elental Ti.
Erick went back to [Slowing Bolt] and began channeling more and more mana through the spell. A white plu of power radiated cold from his palm and a chill raced up his arm like he had stuck his hand in an arctic wind. It wasn't enough to hear Ti, or anything close to what could be that. Erick channeled harder. The plu turned to a fountain of frozen intent. Ice frosted off of Erick's fingertips, forming mana icicles radiating away from the plu—
Ah. Too cold. He stopped.
He shook out his hand, returning warmth to his body as he scattered flakes of frost to the ground. Those flakes were made of magic, though, so they soon vanished back into the manasphere like so much broken spellwork.
"Still sounds like stillness," Erick said to himself, and to Ophiel and Yggdrasil. "Let's move on to the next spell; it's a gravity one that I also made a while ago."
Gravity Strainer, instant, dium range, 65 mana, 1 hour duration.
Conjure a large, freely moldable space where specific objects turn near-weightless and fall to a designated point.
When stretched with a specific intent that was already baked into the basic spell, [Ward] could be transford into [Gravity Strainer]. Variations of this spell was what sewermasters the world over (mostly under) used to easily and automatically pluck rads out of sewer system settling tanks, while [Cleanse]ing at the sa ti, obviously. Proper sewer managent was about not getting shit everywhere.
And apparently Gravity Magic was a bit of Ti Magic, too?
"Like, duh," Erick mostly said to himself. "Gravity Magic and Ti Magic obviously go together very well. Spatial Magic is just… An offshoot of Ti and Force Magic." He mumbled, "Lotta Ti Magic in everything… Which is different from how Benevolence can appear like everything else? Not sure. One is the mortar that holds everything together, the other is differently colored bricks… Maybe."
Benevolence and Ti seed like polar opposites of one another… Maybe? Yes. According to the way Phagar had explained it, they were different. Erick moved past the brief, yet terrifying idea that he had sohow made Elental Benevolence that could work like Elental Ti…
Well. Actually. He did, a bit, do exactly that. What with the 'Establishing', and all that. Bricks of Benevolence could work just like the mortar of Elental Ti, if worked correctly… Sure?
Sure.
Anyway.
Erick channeled [Gravity Strainer] in one hand.
A solid white glow emanated from his palm and rapidly ford a ball of light around his hand. Tendrils of light radiated from his palm to the edge of the sphere. It sounded like…
Erick wasn't sure.
It made a weird sound but it was too close to the 'delineation sound' that [Ward] usually made. He handed the sound of [Gravity Ward] off to an Ophiel, and then he channeled plain [Ward]. It was the sound of delineation. Simple stuff; Erick had heard that spellwork a thousand tis before—
"Ah!" Erick had it. "It's like this."
Erick channeled Mana Altering in his other hand, while flickering through several other spells in his other hand. As he went through his known spells he handed them off to Ophiel—
He heard it.
In between [Gravity Strainer] minus [Ward], [Teleport] minus Elental Force, [Slowing Bolt] minus rcy, it was there. There was so in [Teleport] and [Blink]. It was even in [Swift Movent]. Erick spent a good four minutes with that Health Cost ability, trying to understand what he was hearing through all the Health…
There was a sound.
Erick had heard it many tis before, but he had never touched upon that sound. Not directly. He had never needed to, he supposed. He didn't really need to right now, either, but with this, he could actually get a good night's sleep—
Erick laughed a little. "I sound like Poi! I'm going to have to make that joke to him."
In his right hand, Erick channeled the sound of Elental Ti. It was a wispy sort of sound; barely there and slipping sideways with every attempt to truly hear the magic. But when Erick relaxed, and when he opened his mana sense, he could hear it. The sound of Phagar approaching. The sound of a beginning made out of an End, while also being The End.
It was, a little bit, the sound made by Raidu Terror Peaks when his soul was being ripped apart by the soul sunderer for his cris against Songli. It was the sound of mana, flowing.
A river that was not a river at all.
Back and forth.
Here and there.
Hot and cold, but only because both 'hot' and 'cold' were variations of the singular phenonon of temperature, and one's place already on the scale.
Elental Ti was in the manasphere, everywhere Erick looked. It was what allowed people to look backward in ti, and also forward. Elental Ti had always been here. Erick just didn't have the Sight to know the river for what it truly was, until now.
Instinctively, Erick knew he could fall into that river and swim with or against the current, but now that he saw the water, he knew he could also pluck so of that out and drink deep. Falling in would be terrifying, and so Erick left that task for another day. For now, he grabbed so Ti, and had a sip—
Everything slowed.
Ophiel's wings moved slowly, taking multiple seconds for a single flap. Beyond the windows, the leaves of Yggdrasil waved in a molasses wind. Erick moved a little, and instantly noticed he was as light as a feather. Breathing was hard. Air moved through his lungs like a cold fog that only ward when it was inside of him. He exhaled that fog, forming minuscule swirls in the stillness of the warehouse air.
Erick took a step forward and watched as Ophiels' eyes lagged behind him by less than half a second. But there had been a lag. Noticeable, too.
So familiar blue boxes appeared.
Special Quest Complete!
You have remade a Basic Spell.
Since you do not already have Haste, here you go:
Haste 1, instant, self, 50 mana
Double your subjective ti. Lasts 1 minute.
Erick smiled.
And then he started playing around with moving in this new, odd sort of way. Jumping up and down, and moving left to right, Erick held out his hands as though he was riding in a car, feeling the wind on his palm. He knifed the air apart as he moved quicker than he ever had before; even when using [Hunter's Instincts].
It was kinda fun to play around with new magic!
A lot of fun, actually. Erick laughed, and he heard himself laugh through Ophiel's senses, like he was a hyperactive chipmunk chortling to a staccato beat. It was so freaky, he laughed more.
Magic was wonderful!
Eventually, Erick decided he had had enough fun playing around, and he needed the tenth level of this spell, so he power leveled it. Strangely enough, casting [Haste] upon himself multiple tis did not multiply the effect.
Haste X, instant, self, 50 mana
Double your subjective ti. Lasts 10 minutes.
He could make that into a [10 hours in 10 minutes] spell, for sure. Might take multiple attempts, though. But first, Erick returned to the sound of Elental Ti, and went in the other direction.
Erick sipped the river of ti in a different sort of way.
Everything turned heavy as a weight descended upon him and all of his movents seed sluggish, while the entire rest of the world seed fast. Ophiels twittered in super high notes as they danced around, playing with Erick like hyperactive birds, and he laughed like a rumbling mountain; ponderous and slow—
Special Quest Complete!
You have remade a Basic Spell.
Since you do not already have Slow, here you go:
Slow 1, instant, self, 50 mana
Halve your subjective ti. Lasts 1 minute.
Erick did not like this spell at all, though it would be useful to have in order to use against others. He power leveled [Slow], and then he canceled it.
Slow X, instant, self, 50 mana
Halve your subjective ti. Lasts 10 minutes.
He had only just started with Ti Magic, but Erick felt he had a good beginner's grasp of the subject. It seed easy enough to turn either of these spells into magic that would affect others, though Erick suspected that such a spell would be subject to the normal Health-based denials, since this sort of magic was status effect magic. Erick tested out [Haste] and [Force Bolt] to see if he was correct.
Erick conjured a [Fairy Item] dummy made with a thin cover of ice and warm water insides. His theory was that it should lt and break apart rather fast when Hasted, though he had never done this before; He could only guess. Today was full of fun little magics!
Anyway.
Erick pointed at the dummy and joined [Haste] with [Force Bolt].
A dot of flowing white magic struck the dummy—
Like a video sped up to double speed, a crack ford on the bottom of the dummy and rapidly spread up and out, but the water inside was already rapidly flowing out of the hole in the bottom—
The whole conjuring vanished into so much scattered white glows as a blue box appeared.
Haste Other, instant, close range, 55 mana
Attempt to double the subjective ti of a target for 10 minutes.
Erick humd. 'Attempt to double' was rather appropriate for a 'Health negates this' sort of spell. It certainly didn't read as well as [Slowing Bolt] read, though; 'inflicting Slow for a Variable length of ti' seed like a higher application of this working, for sure.
His [Haste Other] was probably a rather shitty version.
Erick moved on.
Now if he was correct, the combination of [Ward] and [Haste] would create a fast space inside where ti flowed twice as fast. Such a simple working would likely not be good enough for a sleeping spell, but Erick had to start sowhere, and to make sure the magic actually worked like he thought it would.
Would there be a problem at the edge, and an insurmountable barrier to cross? Or would there just be so gentle shearing upon trying to cross from normal ti to fast ti? Erick guessed the latter.
Tomorrow, he could try for a Variable Cost Variable Effect working.
But for now, Erick linked [Haste] to [Ward], and cast the spell.
For five ters in every direction, the air shifted. A faint white wind ford a translucent barrier all around. Inside, the world seed fine. Outside, though, Erick watched the molasses wind play in Yggdrasil's canopy, gently moving the green sea above like so many slow waves.
An expected blue box appeared.
Hasted Area, instant, close range, 100 mana
Double the subjective ti in a large area for 10 minutes. Crossing the barrier might break the spell.
Erick didn't even get to test out the second part of that blue box, for while Yggdrasil was here and experiencing a bit of dissonance, Ophiel was having an experience. The little guy was both inside and outside of the area of effect. The Ophiel on Erick's shoulder yelped while the little guys outside of the barrier crowed, their voices seeming unnaturally low and weird. The Ophiel outside instantly moved inward, crossing the barrier, breaking the spell with all the ease of popping a soap bubble.
Ti resud as normal, and Ophiel began chirping about how everything had been really weird for a mont! Why had everything been weird!
Erick smiled and patted the little guy, telling him, "It was just so Ti Magic. No need to worry."
Yggdrasil spoke, "It was weird, father."
Erick looked at the big guy's [Scry] eye, asking, "Did I catch you in the effect?"
"No. But I felt you move weird. Ti Magic is weird."
"Weird bad? Or weird weird?"
"Weird weird."
Erick smiled a little, saying, "Weird weird is fine. If it turns into weird bad, let know, okay?"
"I will!"
Ophiel chirped.
Erick told Ophiel, "You're probably going to have to get used to that, but I can pull all of you inside while I sleep if it's too much trouble."
Ophiel chirped again, accepting that safety ca before comfort.
Erick smiled, and then he broke the [Hasted Area] spell the Script had created in his soul, for this wasn't exactly what he wanted out of that magic.
He also watched his core while he broke the spell. A familiar sensation of crumbling took hold inside of him and his core gained a minuscule crack that was barely more than mar of shadow inside the perfect, Benevolent sphere beside his heart. To be sure he was seeing it correctly, Erick broke apart [Haste Other], too—
And up, there was another small mar, on the other side of his core.
Well then! He could probably fix that damage with a bit of accreting, and maybe he could even try making [Haste Other] again.
Erick began accreting like he usually did; holding his aura open, sealing out all other mana as he flooded his aura with his own mana, and then cycling that mana back inside. Sparks of lightning gathered on his aura's exterior surface and flowed inward, into his body and into his core. Gradually, slowly, white lightning filled in the mar inside his core—
The second his core was repaired, Erick knew he could try to combine his magic again, and that the Script would help him make that spell a permanent part of his soul. Only people with cores got to benefit from this thod; if Erick had broken this spell while in his Normal Form, he couldn't repair the damage, nor could he reduce the cooldown on Script assistance. There were just so many small nuances to how the Script helped people, and how one could actually 'ga the system', as Jane had once put it, but only when one knew how the system worked and what normal magic looked like in the first place.
Erick smiled wide, thinking about how far he had co since he and Jane had fallen to Veird.
He tried making [Haste Other] again—
Nothing happened.
No blue boxes?
Erick tried again, striking the ice-water dummy with another combo of [Haste] and [Force Bolt]…
Nothing.
Ah…
"Maybe the Script sees that it tried to help once already." Erick frowned a little. "So that ans I have to go outside the Script when I break the spell? So it's not tracked? That's probably it."
Eh!
Whatever.
There were a lot of different ways to go with this spell and all of Erick's current ideas could stand to percolate for a while.
- - - -
Dipping his toes into Ti Magic didn't take much ti at all, and so, Erick still had almost all the rest of the day free. First he went back ho to gather Teressa and Kiri. After explaining what he wanted to do next, they were both interested.
A lightning portal led the way to their next destination.
The Benevolence research tower.
Reviews
All reviews (0)