Dragonlinked

by Adolfo Garza Jr.

  Just before Aeron wove the last step, Master Doronal asked, “Can you feel the magic, how its rhythm is stronger now?”

  Aeron did notice that the pulsing rhythm of the magic was more insistent, more powerful. “Yes. It does seem to be a bit wilder now.”

  “Always remember your initial lessons, one of which was that magic must be bent to your will. It is easy with the primer spells, but will progressively get more difficult as the spells become more powerful. Never forget that you must control the weaving of the spell, the magic.”

  Aeron nodded.

  “You may continue.”

  When Aeron finished the last step, completing the spell, the top of a small ball of glowing light poked out of the back of his right hand. His eyes grew large and his mouth formed a small O. The light was centered inside his hand! It gave off a soft purple glow.

  “Excellent work, Aeron!” Master Doronal said.

  Aeron looked up at him, a large smile on his face. He looked back at the glow, turning his hand this way and that. From the bits he could see poking out the back and palm of his hand, the ball of light appeared to be about the size of a walnut.

  “I see you’ve anchored it inside your hand,” Master Doronal noted.

  “I, uh, yes,” Aeron replied, moving his had around and watching the glowing ball of light. “I understand now what the spell description meant about being able to anchor the glow. There is an anchor portion of the spell that I attached to my hand. I wasn’t really sure what it did, so I placed it the same way I do the frameworks when I practice them.”

  “Yes, that’s fine for this spell. However, there are other spells that you would not want to anchor the same way. Doing so would have rather painful consequences.”

  Aeron’s eyes widened as he considered what terrifying things could happen if he wasn’t careful.

  “But back to the matter at hand, so to speak,” and Master Doronal smiled. “Do you sense the draining that is occurring in you? The light produced has to be created from moment to moment or it would fade away to nothing, like a candle going out once the wax, its fuel, is gone. And as such, animus is being drained from you moment to moment to maintain the spell, allowing it to create the light.”

  Aeron closed his eyes and concentrated. “Yes,” he eventually said. “I do feel a very faint, uh, tug. It’s as if a fine thread is attached to my heart and is being very gently pulled.” Aeron opened his eyes, reached up with his left hand, and touched his chest. “It feels a little weird.”

  “You’ll get used to it, eventually. But never forget that active spells can eventually draw so much animus from you that you get physically weak, and if it continues long enough, you will loose consciousness. If that happens, not only do you collapse, but so does the spell! I like to think of it as a natural fail-safe. You can’t loose enough animus to be dangerous because you will not remain conscious long enough to keep the spell running and draining it. However, there is still danger should that situation be allowed to occur. You see, when a spell is closed in such a way, through collapse, it may not end . . . gracefully.”

  Aeron raised his brows.

  “Now, Kasia’s Nullification, if you would, so you can cancel Dagur’s Gleam. You may begin when ready.”

  Aeron, now with multiple concerns about the faint tug pulling at his heart, shook his head to clear his thoughts and began. He stopped concentrating on Dagur’s Gleam so its structure would fade and leave him able to focus on the structure of the new spell. He started on Kasia’s Nullification, its framework centered on the anchor point he’d used for the ball of light. He created the framework slowly, step by step, and then continued on with the spell itself. Kasia’s Nullification was a rather short spell, compared to the others, and was completed quickly. When it was finished, the glow abruptly disappeared. In fact, both structures were gone too. Aeron blinked and looked at his right hand, turning it this way and that.

  “Well done, again,” Master Doronal said and nodded.

  Aeron, now quite excited, smiled up at Master Doronal.

  “You will note that the ‘tug’ is gone from your chest. Because you are no longer maintaining Dagur’s Gleam, you are no longer losing animus.”

  “Oh,” Aeron said, feeling his chest with his right hand. “Yeah, it’s gone.”

  “Indeed. Now, as I mentioned earlier, sometimes it can be difficult to determine just from observation whether a spell is active or passive and why.”

  Master Doronal tilted his head to the left and looked at Aeron a moment before continuing. “Both Maxeem’s and your amplification spells, which seem to produce quite a bit of light, are passive. Dagur’s Gleam, on the other hand, is active. Any thoughts as to why?”

  Aeron screwed up his face as he thought about the question. He recalled the dragon’s eye giving off light, and in fact, with his spell, it fairly blazed with light. He closed his eyes as he thought back to what had happened. With Maxeem’s, he remembered seeing a decent amount of light coming from the crystal, and when Master Doronal had removed the amplification, the crystal only gave off flickers of light. And when he had changed the spell and the dragon’s eye erupted with radiance, hadn’t it seemed like there was less light in the rest of the office? He wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but it seemed to him as if the two amplification spells were merely boosting the crystal’s ability to grab existing light, not creating light. He opened his eyes.

  Master Doronal was still watching him, a bemused smile on his face.

  Aeron cleared his throat. “It seems like the amplification spells, when used on the dragon’s eye, even though they seem to be creating light, they aren’t. The spells boost the crystal’s affinity, amplify it so it can use more of the available light that is already in the room, making the crystal shine brighter. Dagur’s Gleam, on the other hand, actually creates light from nothing.”

  Master Doronal just stared at him.

  Aeron began to get worried. Had he got it wrong?

  The magic master nodded and laughed. “That is exactly right, Aeron. Very well done!”

  Aeron breathed out a sigh of relief. But one thing still confused him. “The amplifying that the spells do, it doesn’t use animus?”

  “Amplification spells don’t actually do anything except exist. They have a catalytic effect on affinities.”

  “Cata-what?”

  “Catalytic. A catalyst is, well, originally it came from chemistry. There, a catalyst is a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction, improves it, but remains unchanged by it. Now the word catalyst has come to mean anything that accelerates different kinds of reactions be they chemical or even social. A catalyst can be anything that accelerates performance or causes an event to happen, or any number of things involving change. Amplification spells can be thought of as catalysts for affinities. They don’t have to do anything themselves, so they draw no animus, are passive. Their mere existence makes the affinities stronger.”

  Aeron nodded. “I see.”

  “Good. Next, I’d like you to cast Meturato’s Gloom. Again, proceed slowly, deliberately. Anchor it to the desk here, if you would.” He tapped the top of the desk between them.

  Aeron thought about Meturato’s Gloom a moment and then began. He proceeded slowly, step by step. But when he was done, there didn’t appear to be any change. Aeron’s heart began beating very fast. Had he somehow botched the spell? He glanced around quickly, but could see nothing different anywhere, even the spot on the desk where he thought he had anchored the spell.

  Master Doronal was still watching Aeron and had noted Aeron’s panicked expression and the furtive glances Aeron was making. “Aeron, look at the spell. Look where you anchored it.”

  Aeron did so. He focused on the spell again, and its structure reappeared. It looked fine. His brows knit. If the spell was fine, why did it not appear to be doing anything?

  “Meturato’s Gloom does not affect anyone within its area of effect.” Master Doronal smiled and said, “Stand up and move off a foot
or two—mind the bracelet chain, though. Look back here once you step away.”

  Aeron, a doubtful look on his face, did as he was told. He stood and stepped away from the desk. When he turned back, he was shocked at what he saw. There was a large sphere of darkness that encompassed the whole side of Master Doronal’s desk as well as the leather chair and the magic master himself.

  Master Doronal laughed and said, “From the look on your face, I’d say the spell was successful. Excellent work.”

  Aeron was amazed. The sphere of darkness was impenetrable for the most part. At its outermost edges the darkness effect faded away. Along the desk top it had the look of an unusual light source that could somehow cast its light in a reverse arc. He frowned at that description. He couldn’t even explain the look to himself.

  Master Doronal’s voice came from within the dark sphere. “If you’d please return to your seat, we can continue.”

  Aeron carefully made his way back to the leather chair, arms outstretched. Once within the sphere, however, he could again see clearly. Now that he knew the approximate edge of the spell effect, he did notice that there was an odd, very slight blurriness to things outside the area of effect.

  “Based on what we have talked about so far this afternoon,” Master Doronal said, “what do you suppose Meturato’s Gloom does? Why is it a passive spell?”

  Aeron glanced again at the edge of the spell’s effect on the desk and thought about the question. Nothing within the spell effect was different. The light was actually still here. But outside the sphere, you could not see in. It was all shadow.

  “It is a magical shield that blocks light as it leaves the area of effect,” said Aeron, thoughtfully. “It doesn’t actually remove the light, it merely blocks it from view of those outside the area of effect. And because it is just a shield, there is nothing to maintain. Once the shield is created, it stays there until it is removed.”

  “Exactly correct,” Master Doronal said. “Now, use Kasia’s Nullification to remove Meturato’s Gloom, if you please.”

  Aeron was so excited he almost forgot to cast the spell slowly, but he caught himself in time. After the spell was complete, he could no longer see the edge of the gloom spell; it was gone.

  “Good,” Master Doronal said. “Now the last spell, Xing’s Levitation, is related to the spells used on your moving chest or, say, the moss carts with which you are probably very familiar by now.”

  Aeron smiled wryly.

  “The enchantments on the chest and the carts are a bit more complicated, however. The most obvious difference is that they have additional steps so that even though the enchantment remains, the levitation effect can be toggled on and off via the symbol buttons. Perhaps less obvious is that they also have steps so that the item being levitated remains upright; it is exceedingly difficult to flip them top for bottom. At their cores, however, those enchantments are the same as Xing’s Levitation.”

  Master Doronal gestured at the other leather chair in front of his desk, twin to the one Aeron was sitting on, and said, “Use Xing’s Levitation on that chair, if you would.”

  Aeron glanced at the chair, looked at Master Doronal, and after a moment, nodded. He concentrated on the chair. The goose-bumps feeling of magic came almost immediately—he was getting better! He began weaving the bands of color for the petrologic framework. That particular framework was used when modifying stone and metals, soil, anything that originated in or of the ground. He reminded himself to ask Master Doronal why lifting an object had anything to do with stone, but for now he concentrated on the magic. Once the framework was complete, he continued with the steps of the spell.

  When he was finished with the spell, the chair rose slowly in the air. As he watched, Aeron’s eyebrows rose as well. The chair floated about a foot above the floor.

  “Very good,” Master Doronal said. He stood and walked around the desk to stand next to Aeron. “As with your moving chest, Xing’s Levitation has a bind component that keeps the object levitated a specific distance above the ground. In Xing’s Levitation’s case, one foot.”

  Master Doronal moved to the chair and gently pressed down on its back, moving it down a few inches. After he removed his hand, it slowly rose up to its former height. With both hands, he then grabbed the back of the chair and lifted it up a few inches. As before, once he released the chair, it floated down to its former height above the ground.

  “There is no restriction on how the levitated object is rotated, however.” Master Doronal reached over, and grabbing the armrest and the chair back, he very gently rotated the chair, flipping it over slowly. “All motion imparted to the object and all motion the object originally had affects it.”

  Aeron stared at the slowly spinning chair, a faint smile on his lips.

  “You must be very careful, however, around large objects that have been levitated.” Master Doronal stopped the chair’s motion and gently moved it so it floated above its original location. “This is because, though they are weightless, they continue to have mass. If a large object is moving toward a wall or another large object and someone gets between them, it can be deadly.”

  Aeron looked confused. “Why couldn’t that person just nudge it away?”

  Master Doronal raised his finger. “That is a very common mistake people make. Think of the problem this way. Imagine very strong ropes holding up a very heavy object, say an enormous boulder. Now, lets say the boulder is being swung toward a wall. What would happen if someone were to stand between the wall and the boulder?”

  “They’d be smashed!”

  “Exactly. And would trying to nudge the enormous boulder have any effect?”

  Aeron shook his head and said, “Not if the boulder was already close to the person.” He crooked his mouth. “I see what you mean now. Xing’s Levitation is like those ropes. It keeps the object a certain distance from the ground, but the object’s mass remains. If a large object is in motion, no matter if it is floating, it takes a lot of effort to slow it down, not just a nudge.”

  “Quite correct. It would also take a large effort to get it moving, incidentally.” He gestured to the chair floating next to him and said, “Now, if you wouldn’t mind?”

  Aeron smiled and removed the levitation spell. The chair dropped to the floor, Master Doronal at the ready to make sure it didn’t fall over.

  “I did have one question about the levitation spell and the framework,” Aeron said.

  Master Doronal looked at Aeron expectantly. “Yes?” he asked.

  “The petrologic framework has to do with soil, rock, ore, those kinds of things.” Aeron paused and furrowed his brows. “How do those have anything to do with floating?”

  “Ah, yes.” Master Doronal said, nodding, a full smile on his face now. “Not many people would have questioned the framework. Instead, just taking it for granted. I’m impressed with your thirst for knowledge and your desire to understand that knowledge.”

  Aeron blushed, but puffed his chest out a little.

  Master Doronal walked back around to his chair and sat. “Let me ask you a few questions to see whether they will make it a little more clear. Did you notice any similarities between Meturato’s Gloom and Xing’s Levitation?”

  Aeron scrunched up his face in thought. After a moment, he said, “Well, there is a component in both that is similar, the shield component. Though it’s not shielding against the same things nor is it doing so in the same way.”

  “That is correct.” Master Doronal tossed a fountain pen so that it flew through the air just next to Aeron, who, without thinking, caught it.

  Aeron looked at him in confusion.

  Master Doronal smiled, reached for the pen, and asked, “What would have happened if you had not caught the pen?”

  Aeron leaned over the desk, handed the pen to Master Doronal, and replied, “It would have hit the floor.”

  “Indeed. Anything that is thrown up will eventually fall back to the ground. Or more specifically, to Lethera. Tho
ugh it is much more complicated, a simple way to think of it is to imagine that each item in the universe is inherently attracted to every other item, and the attraction pulls them toward each other. This attraction gets weaker with increased distance, though it never completely fades away. And if an object is exceedingly large, like say, Lethera, it has a correspondingly large pull. Which is why when we jump or drop something, we and the object fall to the ground. We are all attracted to Lethera. And the weakening I mentioned is also why when we jump, we aren’t pulled to Hemet or Duvin or even Lethera’s sister, Theris, or her moon, Minok. They are far away, weakening their pull versus the enormous pull of Lethera, which is right next to us.”

  Aeron was deep in thought for a moment. “So, the shield component in Xing’s Levitation, it shields against the pull?”

  “Yes. It shields against the pull of rock and metal and soil, everything that makes up Lethera and her moons and even us, for that matter. And whereas the shield in Meturato’s Gloom is in the shape of a sphere, the shield in Xing’s Levitation—”

  “Infuses the entire object!” Aeron interrupted, a large smile on his face.

  “Exactly,” Master Doronal said, also smiling. He removed his bracelet and motioned to Aeron, who moved his arm closer. After removing the second bracelet, he placed them back into the drawer.

  Aeron thought he’d done quite well on the test and felt pretty good about himself. He wondered what the next spells would be.

  Master Doronal looked at Aeron, and after a moment, he said, “On behalf of the Magic Craft Hall, I hereby make you an offer for an apprenticeship. How say you?”

  Aeron was dumbstruck. His mouth worked soundlessly before he could finally speak. “I . . . so I . . . I mean, yes! Yes! I accept!”

  “Excellent,” Master Doronal said, chuckling. “As you may have inferred, you passed your first test. Quite easily, I might add.”

  Aeron sat a little taller in the chair and smiled.

  “That’s not to say you can slack off in the future,” Master Doronal said, shaking a finger at Aeron. “You must continue your magic work in the same fashion you have so far. Understood?”