by Rick Field
The next moment, she could feel the Wards that kept the city imprisoned shatter like sugar glass, a wave of energy of unimaginable proportions ripping them out and rebuilding them. The next moment, the energy focused itself on Danulia and those that stood with her.
Then they were no more, dispersing into the air like fog in a breeze.
The young Mage sunk to the ground, her legs no longer capable of supporting her. Ten. Nine. Eight... her magic was almost completely gone now. She sunk further until her back hit the ground. The last spell of the MagicWarper. It had been a bang, and she hoped she would go out with it.
As she closed her eyes to sink into slumber, she hoped to never wake up. This last battle had been one too many, she had been forced to make too many decisions, had been forced to use magic that was too much, too powerful.
Chapter Twelve
Her eyes opened. Strangely enough, there was no pain, nor was there the curious floating sensation of being on strong pain potions.
Liane stared at the unfamiliar ceiling. So she'd survived, despite her hopes and wishes. She drew a breath, feeling oddly empty. Then she realized what had happened, what she had done.
Her magic was gone, sacrificed to stop the Blood Construct from entering the staircase leading down to the Guardian. It was strange, to have no magic, no bubble of energy sitting behind her chest, influencing her emotions. She was normal now. Already, she could feel it – the ever-present tightness in her chest was gone. Smells and colors were duller. The world had lost a bit of its focus.
She drew a breath; it was something to get used to. And she would.
“I'm glad to see you're awake, Liane.” the soft-spoken voice drew her attention, and Liane slowly turned around in her bed, looking at a seat placed in a far corner. Amy slowly pushed herself upright. “I've been coming as often as I could get away, and I was hoping you wouldn't wake up while I was out. How are you feeling?”
“Wretched,” Liane answered honestly, her voice breaking. The former Assistant took a few long strides to the nearby nightstand and poured a glass of water. Slowly, she helped Liane drink.
“Better?” the younger Mage asked.
Liane nodded slowly, and sunk back in the pillow. “I lost my magic,” she finally admitted.
Amy slowly sat down in a chair next to the bed. “I had hoped...” she started, then shook her head. “What happened? You are too good to simply lose your magic.”
For a moment, the former Mage felt so very old as the events of the past week and a half flashed before her eyes. A week and a half. Had it truly only been so long?
After a long silence, she turned to look at her former Assistant. “I died,” she said, as if it explained everything.
Amy blinked, then looked confused. “Proc-” she started to say. “Liane?” she corrected herself, old instincts that died hard making her feel like a little girl once more.
“I died, Amy,” she answered. “Lady Danulia of the Runes knew incredible magic, had delved into secrets that had been lost to the ages. Do you remember the volume of work called Elder Magic and the Combination of Elements? The volume that taught us how to combine elements into building a Construct?” As her former Assistant nodded her recollection, Liane went on, “the anonymous author reported writing a preliminary work called Elements in Reduction, which we could never locate. I believe this volume to be in the possession of the Lady Danulia, and it was the reason why she had access to hidden arcana that have been lost and forgotten to us.”
Amy was silent for a few moments. “That is very possible, My Lady. Were you aware that Danulia is the younger sister to the Lady Overseer of the Pillar service? I believe the Lady Annjii of the Ball Lightning had some explaining to do on how her own sister was able to be subversive to Kiria without being caught.”
Liane swallowed deeply, recalling a conversation with an Academy Student while on the road to the Capital. “I was aware they were sisters, not that she was the younger one,” she answered. She turned in her bed to find her comfort, then looked back at Amy. “She released a Blood Construct on myself and Lord Milor. Worse, a fully powered Blood Construct that she had somehow managed to command and contain. It was too powerful. In the end, I could not hope to destroy or contain it – yet, my failure would cost us everything. I had to stop it, or stall it long enough, for Lord Milor to...” her voice trailed off. Somehow, she could not speak of the secrets, even without magic. She sighed again. “It seems that I am still bound by oath, even without magic. Lord Milor had his own task, mine was to keep the Construct from interrupting him.”
Her throat dry, the former Mage reached for the cup of water on the nightstand, and Amy wordlessly helped her up. After she had her fill, Liane went on.
“I tried everything I could. In the end, it was not enough... so I died. I died, and I and I sacrificed everything.” Her voice trailed off as she spoke, and she turned on her back to stare at the ceiling. It was easier to talk when facing the anonymity of the ceiling than it was to look at Amy's pitying face. “As you know, I had attempted to fix the damage done to my magic. Unfortunately, I did not truly understand what I was doing, and so I made mistakes. Horrible mistakes. When I died, I could not really pass on. My magic was anchored to itself and so it could not release me. I would have been stuck in a quasi-limbo, staring at myself slowly losing my magic before it would completely peter out and I would finally... leave.”
Liane swallowed. “Instead, I released my magic. It taught me... taught me what magic truly is.” She looked at Amy. “All magic is the same, and it all comes down to sacrifice. The more you sacrifice, the more you can do.”
The younger woman frowned slightly. “I'm afraid I don't understand,” she admitted.
The former Mage nodded. “All that the universe is, is energy. Matter is densely compacted energy, and yet, it is still energy. Magic is a talent that allows us to use our own energy to change the energy of the universe around us. The bigger the change we want to make, the bigger the amount of energy we have to put in to make that change.”
“That makes no sense,” Amy protested. “Think of the Deep Secrets, Proctor. You're basically stating that the Spirits of the Elements don't exist.”
“Well reasoned,” Liane replied. “They don't exist. What we see when we invoke the Deep Secrets comes from ourselves. We invoke more potent magic in the guise of 'Deep Secrets', through communion with Elemental Spirits. I believe this is because our minds are not truly capable of understanding the unimaginable infinity of the world around us, and so, it holds this image of a Spirit up to us, a Spirit that we can interact with. The Lord Master said that we must be careful with our requests – yet, have you ever encountered an Elemental Spirit that refused a request?”
“I don't believe I have heard of one, but that does not mean it doesn't exist,” Amy said. “If Deep Secrets are truly as you say, and are nothing more than conventional magic, then why the payment in blood and in life?”
“The amount of energy we can command is limited,” Liane said. “Our bodies, like the bodies of Commoners, subsists on food. A body has a set limit of energy stored within it, energy that gets depleted as a person lives, and replenished by food. It is this same energy that is used by a Noble to cast magic. However; when a truly large spell must be cast, the spell exceeds the amount of energy available to a Noble. It is there that the Deep Secrets exist. Through the payment of blood, energy is taken from the total reserve of a person's life force. Rather than take physical energy from the now, the spell takes the energy from the person's life force. Sacrifice, as I said earlier.”
“I'm not convinced,” Amy stated flatly.
Liane's lips twitched. “When I died, I could not pass over as I had tied my magic together with itself. In essence, my magical talent and my total reserve of magical energy was tied to itself and therefore could not dissipate when my physical body died. My goal was to release myself to death. I unleashed my magic. As I said, magical energy is the energy of life, the energy used by th
e body to live in the now, combined with the total energy of a person's remaining years of life. When I released my magic, this energy was released. It brought me back.”
The former mage looked at her old Assistant. “Magic’s fundamental rules are all about sacrifice – you speak words and make movements, and Magic performs an action in the shape of the spell. The cost is the spoken words, the movements of your body, and the drop of available life’s energy, causing you to have some extra peas or a few more carrots for dinner. The Deep Secrets allow you to invoke a spell that is larger than your own available life’s energy – instead, it teaches a deep meditative technique to allow you to tap potential life’s energy. This procedure uses a resource in the present, blood, to tap a resource in potential, your life's essence.”
“Basically, one uses blood and potential lifespan as payment for a larger than life spell. When I died, I merely took it to the next step. I, essentially, sacrificed my ability to do magic. Sacrifice will always beget result. I sacrificed, and therefore, I gained.” She swallowed again, her voice hitching. “Two hundred seconds of magic, I gained. For the first one hundred seconds, my magic would grow stronger as more of my life's energy was released from the spell I had contained it in. For the last one hundred seconds, I would feel it slipping away. I understood magic then, as energy and nothing but energy. I still don't understand what makes us-” she stopped, realizing that she was still referring to herself as a Noble. “I still don't understand what makes a Noble different from a Commoner. I only know that I sacrificed my ability to do magic, and in return, I gained a deeper understanding over it.”
Liane looked at her former Assistant, who was still looking doubtful. “You will understand when I tell you what I did with this understanding. As all magic is but manipulation of energy, it is possible to use the energy of the world in different ways. Rather than manipulate the elements as they appear in the world, it is possible to manipulate them on a more fundamental level. I was able to harden my body by pulling the strength from the stone used to build the palace. And, in the end, I tapped into the molten core that lies beneath Mount Sina, and used it to fuel the biggest spell I have ever cast. It dwarfed the use of wind to carry the three of us home after rescuing Lord Milor. I annihilated the Blood Construct, and nearly caused Mount Sina to erupt in the process. Luckily, the Druids were able to stop that from occurring.”
Amy looked thoughtful. “That... actually explains quite a few things,” she admitted.
“How so?” the slightly older woman asked.
The former Assistant smiled faintly. “With yourself unavailable, the Kirian government called in the best magical theoretician they could find... namely, the Mage you trained. I have been going over the Imperial Palace, trying to figure out what you did. It was galling to have to admit that I would have to talk to you when you awoke, as I couldn't figure it out by myself. Being able to manipulate magic on such a scale, on the level of natural disasters, is beyond us without the use of covens or devices that require long charge times.”
“Any Noble is capable of doing what I did, as long as they know what I know. Unfortunately for most, they will never gain the knowledge I gained,” Liane replied. “Nor would they be interested in paying the price I paid.”
Amy was silent, digesting what Liane had explained to her. The former Mage could see her old Assistant still wasn't convinced, but that was alright – the understanding she had learned wasn't for everyone. “If what you say is true, then how does it work regarding permanent enchantments and with the anchors required for permanent charms and wards?” she finally asked.
Liane's lips smiled faintly. It seems like Amy was starting to come around. “What we call permanent enchantments are based in the blood of the wielder. Like with Deep Secrets, it uses blood as a conduit to take power from that wielder. In the case of Deep Secrets, it is to take future life force, potential life, to take what cannot be taken from the normal energy levels of the body. In the case of an enchantment, it is to take a minute amount of physical energy to anchor and power the runes and enchantments built into the item. An anchor, correspondingly, takes energy from the world around to power a ward or a charm. The first takes, through blood, from a Noble. The other takes from the environment.”
Amy glanced at Lucifer, leaning casually in a corner. “And the miniature anchors you developed...”
“Make it possible to permanently anchor an enchantment in nature, rather than in a person,” Liane said, also glancing at her Legendary Weapon. “Lucifer will never run out of power, not even now that I have lost my magic.”
Amy fell silent again, obviously thinking about something. “Lucifer may be taken from you, Liane. Without magic, it's possible that you will be cast out of the Nobility. A Commoner may not have a permanently enchanted item.”
“Lord Milor will not let that happen, Amy. He and I have been friends since we were ten years old, and we have fought side by side on multiple occasions,” Liane replied calmly. “He will protect me.”
“Calls are already being made to have you cast out, should it be proven that you have lost your magic,” the younger Mage pressed on. “I know that Lord Milor is your friend, Liane, but you must be aware that he will take the path of least resistance. If calls are made, it's likely that he will acquiesce, maybe after some token resistance, but he will acquiesce nonetheless. You are well aware of the fact that Lord Milor does not like doing hard work.”
“That is my friend and your future Emperor that you are insulting, My Lady,” Liane said, coolly. She hated the fact that she couldn't really refute the comment; her friend wouldn't have taken more than the bare minimum of Academy courses had she not pushed him. He had even kept his secrets from her, even after his secrets had gotten her dragged in front of the Adjudicators.
“I know, My Lady,” Amy replied. “I felt it must be said, however. I am young, and I do not have a lot of support. I have asked my parents to intercede on your behalf, but they do not have a lot of influence themselves, preferring to keep out of politics. I would recommend that you write to your friends and ask them to speak out on your behalf should it become necessary. The calls to have you stripped of your Nobility are being made, and they must be tempered if we are to keep Lord Milor from giving in.”
Liane suddenly felt weary. Her excitement over the subject of magic had buoyed her, but now it was abandoning her to her fatigue. “I will keep that in mind, Amy. Thanks.”
Amy nodded once, then stood up. “I hope you recover quickly, Liane.”
“I hope so too, Amy,” the former Mage whispered, her body's exhaustion hitting her all at once.
The younger Mage walked to the door, and opened it. Just before stepping through, she looked back to her mentor. “Liane, should you ever need something, please let me know.”
“Thanks, Amy,” Liane whispered, already halfway asleep.
During the days that followed, Liane slowly started to heal. She slept late, and ate what the nurse brought her. Despite the lack of healing potions, the former Mage felt herself mending. Amy faithfully stopped by every afternoon, checking up on Liane's progress and updating her on the happenings outside of the walls of the hospital. As the days went by, she had to explain what was happening, how the calls and pressure to have Liane stripped of her Nobility were mounting. A tiny fragment of doubt started to enter the former Mage's heart. She had fought for Kiria, bled for Kiria, and in the end, nearly lost her life for Kiria. Would it really abandon her so easily? So quickly?
She started writing letters when her constitution allowed. To Cassandra and Mariam she wrote about losing her magic and the calls being made to have her stripped of her Nobility. To Pertogan, she explained her troubles, yet added in her gratitude for hosting her, having her healed, and protecting her.
Liane never saw a Healer, either. How did the Nobility know of her loss of magic? She was sure Amy wouldn't tell on her. That left her with the uncomfortable thought that the Healers were coming in to check on her while she sl
ept. Without magic, she could offer no protection – not that she would have wanted to, if she were capable. Blocking a Healer from his visit would surely not help her chances of improving.
She braced herself, during the time she was awake. She would stand firm, against her own self-doubt and the doubt in her country. Milor would protect her, just as she had protected him. They had fought together, bled together, and she had saved his life and his throne on multiple occasions. This was his chance to repay her, and she was sure he wouldn't abandon her.
And yet, her friend didn't come to visit her. She excused his absence to herself by imagining him too busy to visit her. Still, there was the tiny doubting fragment of herself that wondered if Milor wasn't just avoiding her.
********
Nearly a week after waking up in the hospital, Liane was sitting upright in bed, working on an answering letter to Cassandra. She was grateful that her former Proctor had spoken out on her behalf; all she could do now was wait. Milor still hadn't come to visit her, and he hadn't replied to any of her messages. She justified his silence and absence by telling herself that he was busy with rebuilding the Capital and undoing the damage done to Kiria.
