Arcane Transmogrification

by Robert Harper

  “Danny…Danny, can you hear me?”

  The sound of a voice came through to Danny, like he was in at the bottom of a pool and someone was shouting down from above water. Danny turned to find Elder Breeze, studying him with a strong look of concern on his face. The elder had the bright motes of light coursing all through him. There was an almost blinding light shining right above his stomach.

  “Danny, what is this, what did you do?” Elder Breeze asked again.

  Danny wasn’t sure, but he thought the elder was actually having to yell for him to hear. Distracted by something out of the corner of his eye, Danny moved toward the barrier.

  It was almost as bright as the elder’s source was. The magic swirled around the object covering the entrance to whatever Archdruid Wisteria had left behind. The magic coursing over it was mesmerizing and hypnotic.

  Unlike before, there was something about the magic that made sense. Magic flowed through visible runes infused into the object and twisted the magic to fit their purpose. These runes seemed to simply exist at certain points all over the barrier. Danny had assumed enchanting involved carving the runes into an object, but he did not see anything to suggest that this had occurred. He did note that the outermost ring of each enchantment rune held a similar and unique modifier he had not seen before.

  *Danny? Can you hear me, Danny!*

  “Cranny, how’s it hanging!”

  *Danny, what are you… You know, never mind. Took me a while to figure out how to speak with you in this form, but nothing too difficult for my amazing genius.*

  “That’s so awesome! You are such a great guy, Cranny!”

  Cranny hesitated for a second,*Maybe, we should use this form more often.*

  Danny didn’t reply and just stared at the barrier, his head rotating as it constantly followed the flow of magic.

  Cranny coughed, *Danny, I was able to work out how how this barrier works. In this form, I can not only see the runes embedded, but can discern a little on how they function. Those runes seem random, but they are all connected by the magic flowing through them. There are repeating patterns in parts of the rune that cause them to function similarly. The entirety of the barrier appears to work almost like a computer program. Unfortunately for me, I sucked at learning computer programming back on earth. Fortunately for you, we now have a higher intelligence and can just blow past the majority of that previous limitation.*

  Danny moved closer to the barrier, *Oh Cranny, look at all the little circles! They are so so pretty.*

  *…Yes…Yes they are, Danny. If I am guessing the purpose of these runes correctly, then all we have to do is modify the runes in any little way, and the whole thing will collapse. But I don’t know how to do th…*

  Danny suddenly looked down, as in self realization, “Cranny, look, I can fly! Weee!” Danny started to fly in circles inside the tunnel leading down to the barrier. His movement was slow, as if he was traveling through a thick substance and not air.

  Cranny grumbled, *I can’t believe I am about to… Hey Danny! Why don’t we go look at the shiny letters again!*

  Danny stopped, “Shiny letters?”

  *The circles! Over there by the… thing!*

  Danny seemed to know what Cranny wanted, looking over to the runes as if he was just seeing them for the first time, “Ohhh, they are shiny! Ohh wow!”

  *Alright, this isn’t going to work, hold on. What is going on with you? I will be right back, don’t you dare move,* Cranny threatened.

  Danny could hear the sound of someone typing furiously on a keyboard then swearing. Cranny grumbled, *Can’t work under these conditions.* A door was suddenly slammed loudly somewhere in the background.

  A stranger’s voice was heard asking, *Oh hey, Admiral Cranny, looking for the coffee filters? I think I saw some in that drawer over there.*

  Cranny griped, *What idiot put them in there!*.Then there was the sound of bits of metal and plastic rattling around.

  The stranger’s voice was heard again, *Admiral, we can’t seem to find Jenkins anywhere. Have you seen him?*

  Cranny growled while still distractedly digging around, *No, I haven’t! You all look the same to me.*

  The stranger complained, “That’s not nice, sir. He was the only crewman on door maintenance.”

  The digging sounds slowly paused, and Cranny said, *Oh uhhh yeah him, real nice guy. I think I saw him over by the…portal. Yes, definitely the portal! Dangerous place. I hope nothing happened to h… I found them!*

  The unmistakable sound of coffee brewing filled the air. Then, there was a loud slurping noise followed by a long contented sigh. The typing sounds picked up again at a furious pace, until Cranny exclaimed, *HA! There’s what’s wrong with you, Danny boy! You’re high as a kite, on mana. Wow, this stuff is potent! Working on a filter…*

  Slowly, Danny’s mind began to clear, “What, what happened to me?”

  *You were crazy wasted on mana juice, Danny.* Cranny then took the time to explain to him what he had been trying to do earlier, while Danny was acting strange.

  Danny had fully recovered and asked, *So all we have to do is figure out how to modify one of these runes?*

  *Yes, or disrupt the flow of magic to the runes. Which apparently can’t be done by casting basic or aspect powered spells at it.*

  Danny shook his head and looked over the barrier, reaching out as he did so with his Mana Aspect. The tiny motes of mana in front of his hand started to freeze in place in a straight line toward the direction he was pointing. By moving his hand, the trapped mana moved with his intention.

  *Cranny, I can control free mana! Am I seeing this right?*

  *Best I can tell you are. We definitely need to test this on mana owned by something else. Now the barrier, Danny. Focus.*

  Danny focused on the mana flowing around the barrier and pulled. A loop of concentrated mana stretched out and stopped, like a part of a badly tangled knot of string.

  *That’s not working,* Cranny pointed out, unhelpfully.

  Danny rolled his eyes, *What would you do then, smarty pants?*

  *Ummm, I would try connecting it to something.*

  Danny looked around and realized the only viable targets were the sacred tree, the elders, or himself. The elders were all watching him quietly, well except for Elder Frost who was busily trying to catch her journal on fire with a stylus. What she was writing down, he couldn’t fathom.

  Shrugging to himself, Danny said, “Bottoms up!”

  *Danny, NO!*

  Danny closed his eyes and connected the loop of mana to himself.

  There was a loud popping noise, and then a huge rush of power. Danny felt like a million bucks had brought its whole family over for the greatest party of his life. Mana raced swiftly around the remains of the physical barrier and into Danny’s body. It was over in a fraction of a second, but the amount of mana that had entered him was far from insignificant.

  *Wow Danny! Your aspect just absorbed somewhere around two and a half times the mana your body can normally store. You shouldn’t be able to do that…at least that’s what I thought.*

  Danny wobbled unsteadily where he was floating in the air, *This feels nice, but weird.*

  *Don’t do magic barriers kids. Drink your milk and stay in wizarding school.*

  *What…who are you talking to, Cranny? Uhhh, I think we should leave this aspect.*

  Cranny countered, *No can do there. You just overcharged your Mana Aspect.*

  Danny groaned, *Crap!*

  “You did it, Danny,” exclaimed an excited Elder Breeze.

  Danny turned to get a look at his work. The no longer enchanted barrier lay in fragmented pieces on the ground. Past that, a large room could be seen illuminated from something within.

  The elders rushed down to stand next to Danny, peeking carefully inside the entrance. No one was foolish enough to go rushing into the unknown.

  The newly opened chamber was completely comprised of the obstinite, except for a second circular
barrier on the far wall. The only source of light inside came from the distant barrier. The surfaces of the walls and floors were all smooth, with the ceiling having a rough texture. The chamber itself seemed to slope slightly downward toward the other side.

  Danny turned to the elders, “So, who is going to volunteer to go in first?”

  The three elders glanced at each other and came to a silent decision. Elder Breeze leaned back to look up the opening to the storage room, “Guards!”

  Elder Frost leaned over to Danny, whispering, “Who is Cranny?”

  CHAPTER 21

  The image of the elven guard was cast and refracted countless times on and through the walls, floor, and ceiling of the newly opened chamber. The obstinite lived up to it’s alternate name, refracting light the same way a regular diamond would. Danny didn’t know how the guard wasn’t completely disoriented or throwing up his last meal.

  Elder Breeze yelled after the guard, “Don’t touch anything! Just go to the other side of the room and come back.”

  The guard’s helmeted head nodded in response, while still cautiously watching the next barrier. Stepping carefully, the guard moved further into the room. The distance to the next barrier was about thirty yards, and the light from the barrier seemed to grow brighter the closer the guard moved toward it. This caused the guard to visibly slow his pace down more as the light became brighter.

  Elder Cardinal held up a piece of the first barrier, frowning, “It’s just iron…”

  Elder Breeze took the proffered piece, turning it in his own hand. He shook his head, “An entire structure of an incredibly rare mineral, and she chose to close it up with one of the cheapest metals?”

  The guard stumbled but corrected himself, continuing on his way to the barrier. The guard was within about seven yards of the next barrier when he collapsed to the ground, unmoving. The brightness of the light from the barrier slowly dropped down to the level it was at when they first opened up the chamber.

  “Is he dead?” Asked Elder frost.

  Danny had been watching quietly the whole time. This new barrier was completely different from the first. Instead of repelling everything, it was soaking up mana like a sponge. The barrier had started sucking the mana out of the guard’s body the second he got within fifteen yards of it. The closer the guard got, the stronger the pull on the guard’s mana got. The guard had simply passed out from a lack of mana and wasn’t in danger of dying, only of getting older faster than he would want to.

  “It sucks up mana the closer you get to it. The guard’s mana is all gone now so it is only soaking up what free mana is being drawn into this room,” Danny explained.

  Danny watched as the mana that didn’t touch the surfaces of the chamber moved through the open doorway toward the new barrier. He got the impression it wasn’t being drawn there directly by the barrier. Instead, the free mana was trying to reach an equilibrium or homeostasis.

  *Danny, we need to see the runes on that barrier. Can you imagine having a device that could help you harvest all the free mana around you instead of waiting for it to recharge from just your connection to the source?*

  *Why would we need to bother with that?*

  Danny focused and started to draw in all the free mana around him and into his body and not the crystalline structures of his cells. It wasn’t much, and to his disappointment, it didn’t come close to his natural regeneration. He continued this until the new barrier started to dim and almost went out.

  “Danny, did you just do something?” asked a shocked Elder Frost.

  “Yes, I collected all the free mana to see what would happen if the new barrier was starved.”

  Elder Cardinal asked, “Does that mean it’s safe now?”

  Danny shook his head, “No, it was trapped in here, and I would bet it soaked up all the remaining mana in this chamber after Wisteria sealed it up. It was too far away to drain the first barrier. The enchantment is still active, just dormant.”

  Danny quit drawing in mana and waited for the barrier to brighten again. Once he had enough light, he floated into the chamber toward the barrier.

  The elders protested, “Danny, wait!” “No, Danny!”

  The elders had started to move to stop him physically, but Danny held up a hand, “It’s alright. In this form, I should be just fine.”

  Cranny laughed, *Famous last words…*

  The elders didn’t move any further into the room.

  ”Turn back if you feel it start draining your mana,” Elder Breeze told him.

  Danny waived a hand to acknowledge him and continued forward. Pausing before where the barrier had started drawing on the guard.

  *Cranny, you think we can stop it from stealing our mana?*

  Cranny guessed, *Probably, but we don’t know if it is stronger than us. I vote we do the hokey-pokey.*

  Danny rolled his eyes and held one hand out as he continued to move forward. He had measured correctly and didn’t make it much further before mana started flowing out of his body toward the barrier.

  *It is definitely strong. I will try creating a mana field around our body to hold it in. Please stand by.*

  Danny knew Cranny was focused when he started sounding like a protocol droid. Danny looked at his outstretched arm wondering why it wasn’t getting tired. In this aspect, his body tended to just stay in whatever pose he left it, no matter how high he was off the ground. He absently wondered if he could just float up to outer space.

  Cranny sighed, *There, got it. I will stop the barrier from drawing out our mana. You get in there and look at the runes.*

  Now cut off from Danny’s mana, the barrier dimmed back to its base free mana level. Danny cautiously moved closer.

  *Any change, Cranny?*

  *The pull is definitely getting stronger, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. Oddly enough, it is using up the mana from our aspect to do this. I need to find out where this mana goes, as we are not creating or destroying anything. We can’t go around defying metaphysical laws.*

  Danny got close enough to the barrier to observe the runes and how they functioned in relation to the mana that flowed across it.

  *Cranny, what is this doing with the mana it absorbs? The amount flowing across it isn’t changing.*

  *I could drop the mana field around you so you could try and rip it apart like the last one.*

  Danny frowned, *I could only feed it into myself, unless we figure out how to just break it.*

  *Yeah, I got no ideas on that one. I assume it would be innate to your aspect if it were possible.*

  *That’s what I figured as well,* Danny sighed.

  Cranny hesitatingly suggested, *It gets brighter like a light bulb. Wha… What if we overloaded it?*

  Danny caught on, *I like that idea. Should we get the druids to help provide us with extra mana? We will probably need to direct it, if our theory on being able to control other’s mana is correct. I doubt just putting the mana near it will work, as it only absorbs the mana at a set rate. We will have to shove the whole mass of mana thing down it’s throat, though.*

  Danny returned to the elders and relayed his plans.

  Elder Cardinal grabbed the chair from outside and brought it to Danny, “Could you place this at the point where it starts stealing mana?”

  Danny nodded, “Good idea!” Danny reached down and was a little disappointed when he was able to pick it up.

  *I was hoping we could pass through objects like the mana…,* Danny complained.

  *Sorry, Danny. Part of you is still physical. No phantom Danny for you!*

  ***

  The following morning, everyone required had been gathered. The chamber was now packed with druids, hand picked by Elder Breeze. They formed a semicircle behind the chairs Danny had placed along the extents of the barrier’s reach.

  The queen had arrived with Princess Willow in tow, and they now stood in the storage room above, looking down the tunnel into the open vault.

  The queen turned a concerned eye
to Danny, asking, “Are you sure this is perfectly safe? Is this the only way to find out what we are looking for?”

  “This is probably the quickest way to figure out the answer, as I have not found any answers or clues on my own,” Danny admitted.

  Princess Willow was standing uncomfortably close. With her face right next to his right ear, she reached an arm around him and waved her hand around his left ear.

  “What are you doing,” Danny asked her in an annoyed tone.

  The princess stopped and stepped back, looking slightly embarrassed, “I can almost see right through you; it’s so weird.”

  Danny ignored her, floating down toward the opened chamber, “I will be right back. Maybe you two should head upstairs while we do this next part.”

  Willow rushed forward and placed a quick kiss on Danny’s cheek. She whispered, “Ivy had a really good time at dinner last night. Jade and Brooke are wondering when their turn will be. I will admit, I am a little jealous she got your first kiss.” The princess quickly hopped back to her mother’s side.

  Danny paused, wanting to ask for specifics. Remembering Crossbark, Danny ignored the distraction and continued floating down into the the vault.

  *Danny, I have taken a poll of those voices currently residing in your head. The results are unanimous, and we need a vacation after this. A princess vacation!*

  Danny ignored his counterpart as he moved into position at the front and center of the chamber. Danny first looked to the guards stationed in front of him holding heavy shields, then questioningly to Elder Breeze, who was standing next to him.

  “They are here in case the physical barrier explodes outward. We are going to be potentially putting a tremendous amount of mana into this,” the elder explained in response to his unspoken question.

  Danny nodded, speaking loudly, “No use waiting, let’s begin.”

  Danny ejected the majority of the mana stored in his Mana Aspect as he watched the druids build up a mass of their own mana not far from each of their bodies. Before the druids could accidentally touch the chamber’s surfaces with their own mana, Danny started to collect it, creating a massive concentrated sphere of mana. The druids had been warned ahead of time that he would be taking their mana, so they continued to feed him what they could.