Ceras was excited as he had now gained the Vision of Magnification spell during today’s study. This had been an exciting discovery by Master Phoxas, who on behalf of Ceras has been combing the archives of the spells in the library for a spell that would give almost infinite magnification. The magnification depended on the amount of magical energy inputted into the spell, and presented a vision in the mind of what was being seen at such magnification.
Ceras had had to convince Hidden-Caverns and the master that as he was looking into the magical energy’s effects on very small units of matter, he needed to see what was happening to experiment with using magic. Hidden-Caverns and Master Phoxas had been skeptical about the need to see the detail of what was going on within the small world that Ceras wanted to investigate, as they’d asked, “How could matter that small affect anything in the greater world?” but Ceras had been insistent on finding the spell. Now that he had the spell memorized it was time to start on his pathway to discovery. He had no real idea of what he would find out with the experiments he was about to do, but he hoped it would be useful.
Out of his bag he pulled several samples of metal he had collected for this project. He lined them up in a row on a ceramic tile on the table: gold, silver, copper, tin, iron and steel. Taking a deep breath, Ceras cast the ‘Vision of Magnification’ spell for the first time on his sight, and concentrated on the steel bar in front of him.
At first, all he saw was the cross-section of the bar in his mind’s vision, though he was able to distinguish any scratches that it had on its surface. He could move the image of the vision by concentrating with his mind and focusing on different areas of the bar. After a period of practicing, he was able to get a steady image of one spot or move it up and down the bar. One useful aspect was that the knowledge of what he saw left an after-image in his mind, giving Ceras a large picture of the whole object he was examining that updated when he refocused his vision on the area under examination.
His mind started to scan the whole surface of the bar, giving him a vision of the entire item at greater magnification. When he had initially cast the spell he had only inserted the smallest amount of magical energy; now he slightly increased the energy of the spell by the smallest amount possible.
The wondrous effect, he was excited to find, was that the area he was focusing on got closer and now he was able to see the details of the scratches and indentations on the surface of the steel. His mind again scanned the entire bar for a few seconds and produced a magical vision of the landscape of the undulation of the steel bar. Concentrating on the image in his mind he was able to rotate it to a different orientation until he could see the top surface, as if he was looking along a landscape he was viewing from the air.
As he wished to investigate the landscape closer, the spell brought his mind amongst the valleys and hills of the metal as if he was flying around the image. The valleys and hills were all very smooth as if the surface had no detail but when he increased the input of magical energy, details started to appear as if they were covered in jagged crystalline structures. In his mind, he flew to one of the structures and started to examine the crystals, which were all sharply-shaped as if to touch them would cut. Adding more power, he looked into the crystals’ structure and started to make out spherical objects that were packed together in a lattice formation. Every now and then he could see a sphere arranged irregularly, causing a break in the structure of the crystal. Between the spheres seemed to be a cloud of mist flowing in waves between the vibrating spheres.
Adding still more power to the spell he was able to examine the spheres more closely. What he saw completely surprised him, as he was expecting a solid object, but all he initially saw was empty space, but then Ceras started to pick out some of the detail within. He saw strangely-shaped clouds as if they were balloons. In the center he saw something that was just on the edge of his ability to see, and he increased the power of the spell even further. Up this close he could identify nuclei that were full of round balls which seemed to be in a stable orbit around each other. Wondering what they were, he checked several more spheres in the crystals’ structure and they all had the same ball configuration. He found a sphere that had a different size to the others and when he focused on it, could make out a different configuration of balls at its center.
Wondering what this all meant, Ceras started to take a survey of all he could see, trying to gain an understanding of the material he was examining on the area of the steel. He wanted to see if the crystals and spheres were unique or widespread and to his excitement, this structural pattern was repeated throughout the material.
Using the magical spell to move his mind back into the hills and valleys of crystals, Ceras started to wonder what would happen if he heated the metal using one of his spells he used for heating other objects. Slowly, he cast the spell and added heat, looking to see if the structure of the crystalline landscape changed. At first nothing happened, but as he continued to add heat energy into the metal, suddenly the crystals around him seemed to collapse and the valleys and hills flattened. Shocked, he stopped inputting energy.
Continuing with the exciting experiment, he reviewed an image of the whole of the metal and saw the crystals’ structure starting to form again, slowly producing a landscape that was similar to what he had seen before. He repeated the process with heating and cooling spells for the next few hours to gain an understanding of how he could affect the crystalline structure of the metal, the results of which he noted in a book so he could try to draw some conclusions.
Slowly, as he controlled the heating and cooling of the metal, he was able to start producing a flatter, more regular surface on the metal until it formed one crystal that extended through the solid bar, with no irregularities.
Returning to his normal vision he was able to see his reflection in the surface of the steel as if it was a mirror. It now looked perfectly formed, with no scratches or dents on the surface.
Out of his bag Ceras took a sharpening stone, wondering if he could scratch the surface of the bar. The stone on the steel made a grating sound as he rubbed, and he found that he had to use all his strength to get any scratch to appear after several tries.
Looking again with the magnification spell, Ceras saw that the area where the scratches were on the smooth surface was now all jagged. Deciding to make the surface uniform again, he repeated the heating and cooling process until it was smooth and then using a small amount of his immobilization spell, locked the structure in place.
This time when he scratched it with the sharpening stone, nothing happened at all. Wondering if this would work on a dagger, he took an old beaten-up and rusty dagger out of his bag of holding. The dagger was a simple metal blade with a small crossbar and a handle all made of the same material. Expectant, yet also wondering if this would work, Ceras changed the structure of the metal and in the process, ensured that the edges were as sharp as a razor blade. He then fixed the structure using a powerful immobilization spell.
The dagger that now lay on the bench looked a lot more valuable than before; it was immaculately clean with no signs of rust or any other blemishes. Ceras picked it up and turned it in his hands to inspect the whole dagger and it seemed to be perfectly made. Lightly touching one of the edges, he cut into his fingertip without applying any pressure. He quickly healed the small wound with a spell as a drop of blood hit the bench.
I wonder how much damage the dagger can cause now.
The target in the corner was made to be stabbed, so Ceras went and stuck the dagger into its chest. It went in so easily, he felt as if he was pushing a hot knife into butter, and with a few twists of the dagger had cut a large hole in the dummy. The damage reading appeared above the dummy, indicating it was over one hundred HP. Ceras stabbed the dummy several more times and got the same result, as the dummy lay in shreds before starting to reform.
Knowing that Rinaldo and Qyndad were upstairs talking, he exited the cellar and ran to the main living room with the large
fireplace the boys liked to warm themselves by, as he wanted to share his discovery. As he entered the room the fire was blazing away and the two boys were talking in comfortable seats beside it. The light of the blaze was reflected on their faces as he approached them, dagger in hand.
“Guys, I’ve made a breakthrough with some of the magic I’ve been working on,” Ceras said excitedly.
“The student has awakened from his studious trance,” said Rinaldo to Qyndad with a mocking smile.
“Just watch this.” Ceras used the dagger to cut easily into one of the logs beside the fire that they used for fuel. As he cut the log into small pieces with ease, the two boys looked over his shoulder with interest. Rinaldo took the dagger out of his hand and felt the edge, immediately cutting himself, and Qyndad did the same with a look of surprise.
“It’s not normally that easy to cut myself with a dagger,” he said in wonder. “What did you do to this weapon?”
“It's hard to explain, but I could try if you have the time to listen.”
“Maybe we’ll skip the explanation then, but what stats does it have?”
“Let me check quickly.”
The goddess blessing showed the stats of the dagger as Ceras enquired:
Equipment Name
Carry
Type
Effect
Worth
One-Structure Dagger
1
Magical Weapon
Never breaks and always sharp plus 100 to damage
5g
“Well, that’s good, as I’ve taken a dagger worth a few silvers to five gold in value and it will never break,” said Ceras, pleased.
The others gathered around, eager to test the dagger. Within a few minutes Ceras had all their weapons bundled in his arms at their insistence, as he headed downstairs to change all of them into magical weapons. It would be a long night for him, but with the excitement he felt, he was happy to do all this work for his friends.
Chapter 3 Experimental Results
Ceras felt a shake on his shoulder as a hand was rudely awakening him from his sleep. He was slumped against the work bench in his laboratory, and opened his blurry eyes to see the faces of Rinaldo and Qyndad peering at him.
“You really don’t look very comfortable with your face planted on the bench. What are you doing sleeping in here?”
Ceras stretched and yawned. “Fell asleep as I was working away on your weapons last night.”
“Did you finish?”
“I think so, have a look – they’re all stacked in the corner over there.”
Ceras was rubbing his face as he started to wake up slowly, but still felt too drowsy to pay much attention to all the sounds of appreciation from the corner, as the two fighters picked up and inspected their weapons.
“We're off to try them in the dungeon, do you want to come?” asked Rinaldo excitedly.
“No, I’m off to bed.”
“OK, see you soon – oh, also, we received a message from the castle that there is a ball tomorrow night, so I’m hoping for another attack on the city, but lover boy here just wants a dance with Symania,” Rinaldo said as he was leaving.
Ceras’ head shot up as if somebody had doused a bucket of cold water on him. Now he was fully awake, and his head was spinning.
“Are you joking?” he shouted, but the young men were out of earshot.
He heart was pounding now that he had to take Calipe to the ball at the palace. He would face telling her later today. Looking around his lab he decided to sort out the mess from all the weapons work last night. Once that was done, he started to note what he had accomplished into a formalized spell in his note book. This would allow somebody of the master level to repeat the spell with steel, giving the same results without knowing the theory of how it was done. A lot of magic worked that way as most wizards made little to no modifications to existing spells, just learned and cast them. Ceras thought this was very restricting with what they could do, and often concentrated on learning the underlying principles of any spell he worked with.
When he had finished the spell, he rang a small bell beside him on the bench and a gremlin appeared from the small door of the laboratory. It bared its teeth in what passed for a smile.
“Take this to Hidden-Caverns to get copies reproduced will you, please?”
The gremlin took the page of parchment in its small hands and walked off, humming to itself.
“OK, what can I do with the other materials?” Ceras muttered, as he certainly was not going to sleep for a while with his heart racing at the thought of having to make good on his promise to Calipe.
--
It was late into the evening, and now Ceras was looking through his bag for more material he could work with on his experiment into matter. He had only been away from the bench once today, to stop and drop a note at the porter's lodge to tell Calipe that he had been invited to the ball tomorrow night at the castle, and that he of course would be taking her as agreed. He sighed with the memory of the promise he had made to the young woman.
After sorting through his bag of holding, he had a whole range of different samples of matter ranging from all types of cloth to wooden blocks and more metals. Again using the vision magnification spell, he started to inspect the objects before him in detail.
Humming to himself, he placed the wooden block onto the ceramic tile which helped to protect the bench top from the heat he often produced. He then started to inspect the surface, initially seeing the wood grains like a rough courtside scene with a deep gorge across the landscape. Increasing the resolution, he started to see strands of fibers intertwining with each other. Now his mind was amongst the many strands, he focused on one until he started to see rigid, interconnecting cell-like structures that seemed to be filled with space. The walls of the cell structure were his next target for magnification and Ceras could see more intertwined cords making up the wall. As he focused on the cords, he was surprised to see the same spherical ball he had seen in the steel and other materials. When he was inside the sphere, he counted the number of balls in the center and saw that it was the same as the impurity in the steel he had been working with.
Leaning back on his chair he thought, Parts of the wood are also in steel - what sense does that make?
After casting a spell to keep himself awake, the rest of the night was spent making note of the types of spheres in all of the materials he had.
It was late the next day when he had to finish his research for the time being, as the other two young men were shouting at him about it being time to leave for the ball, and that Calipe was waiting for him in the one of the sitting rooms. Quickly tidying up his notes, he filed them away in one of his cupboards, his mind still filled with the different types of spheres he had seen in all the materials that he had been investigating.
Standing up, he quickly cast a clean and wash-clothes spell, finding that he was promptly clean and tidy in his black robes. Ceras took a deep breath and walked up to the ground floor of the house, and overheard Calipe talking to Rinaldo in an excited voice.
“...then you said the king got stabbed...”
When he rounded the corner he saw the three of them talking in the hall by the front door and said to them, “Ready for a second try at this ball? Hopefully there won’t be any attacks on the city or a duel to the death!”
“You can always hope,” said Rinaldo with a smile.
Ceras looked at Calipe, who was dressed in her wizard robes that showed the sunset with a starry night sky. Her hair had been braided into complicated patterns that cascaded down one side of her neck to her front. Her eyes were full of excitement and she was buzzing with energy as she talked to the two boys, both of whom were wearing some type of armor on their black leather coats.
“You never know if it's going to happen again, do you?” Qyndad asked with a curious look in his eyes. “The humans here seem prone to violence. All I want is to dance with Symania, and then we can start the fighting again.”
“Who's Symania?” questioned Calipe.
“Oh, the princess, but she’s really nice,” replied Qyndad with a smile.
“You’ll have to introduce me.”
“OK.”
With that, Calipe walked out of the door as if she wanted to be there already.
“Aren't we making the same mistake as the last time in going too early?” Ceras asked as they all exited the door.
“Nah, Symania said that this was a ball for friends of the family, not political rivals, so there is no competition to be fashionably late this time,” replied Rinaldo as he strode toward the platform to take them up.
All the way up, Calipe chattered to the three young men as if she could not contain her excitement, but by the time they were walking along to the entrance tunnel to the palace she was starting to show signs of nerves, biting her bottom lip. Entering the palace grounds, just one marquee was set up with food on tables at both ends of the dancefloor. There were already people dancing and the royal family was mixing amongst the guests, laughing and joking in a friendly manner.
“Will you introduce me to this princess of yours?” Calipe asked Qyndad with a pleading look.
Qyndad nodded and took Calipe’s extended arm in his, and walked her over to where the princess was standing talking to her mother. Ceras saw Calipe curtsy to both Symania and her mother as they started talking to her, and she pointed over to Ceras. After a few minutes of pleasant chatter, Ceras saw Qyndad take Symania by the hand and escort her to the dancefloor, where both of them started to dance around with similar grace in each other's arms.
“I didn't know that he could dance,” said Ceras curiously.
“It must be a dragon thing, as he seems to be able to do anything that takes a lot of agility.”
Ceras noticed that as Calipe was chatting to the queen, a young man came up to her and, after bowing to the queen, extended his hand and led Calipe to the dancefloor to dance.
Legendary Weapons Page 3
