Immovable Mage

– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 214, Season of the Setting Sun, Day 44 –

“Brynn suggested something new,” said Samuel. He and Terry were sitting in a prepared room in the house of the dwarven family.

“Oh? Has Auntie relented?” Terry was immediately all ears and leaned closer on his chair. “Can I give the blood or dream paths of the lower system a shot?”

“Not a chance.” Samuel shook his head. “Not for now, at least.”

“Then what?” Terry leaned back again.

“New conjecture.” Samuel’s eyes twinkled. “Maybe your oscillating mana is not an entirely distinct phenomenon, after all. Brynn thought it could be worthwhile to posit that oscillating mana is just another form of aspected mana.” He nodded while in thought. “I concur it is worth considering.”

“But…” Terry scrunched up his face. “Doesn’t aspected mana involve, you know, an aspect? I have never heard of an oscillating aspect before.”

“Neither have we,” admitted Samuel.

Terry tilted his head. “So how exactly does that help us pick new spells to try?”

“Well, there can be minor and major aspects,” explained Samuel. “Mana can be aspected to fire in general, as with Olgorn or Bjorln, but there are also minor or intersection aspects like hellfire or coldfire. We intend to treat oscillating mana as something like a minor aspect to an undocumented major aspect.”

“So what is the major aspect supposed to be?” asked Terry with raised brows.

“For now, we have come up with…” Samuel raised a finger and then pointed at Terry. “…movement.”

“Okay, I see,” muttered Terry while nodding. “Fire-aspected mana burns. Oscillating mana moves. Sounds possible, I guess. But if a major aspect related to movement exists, how come no one has figured that out until now?”

Samuel shrugged. “Lack of an identifiable pattern, perhaps? I mean, what kind of spell does not include movement of some sort? Where would you even begin to draw the line?”

“Isn’t that a problem?” Terry narrowed his eyes. “How are we going to draw it, then?”

“Fortunately, we do not need to invent a perfect classification as we do not aim to publish a new thesis on magic.” Samuel retrieved some notes from his pocket. “For now, we can stick with the obvious candidates and continue from there. We will start with Haste, Flicker, and Slow Creature.”

“Fine with me,” said Terry dispassionately. “If nothing else, I will at least learn new spell structures to use in the quizzes.”

Terry was helping out with some of the Guardian classes. Even though he had never been able to cast a spell, he had become very familiar with a broad range of spell structures. Despite his limitations, he was perfectly capable of demonstrating those or helping others correct their own spell shaping.

Besides demonstrations and tutoring, Terry provided trainees with detection challenges in which he would shape a spell structure, and the participants had to recognize the intended spell as quickly as possible.

Terry’s assistance was freeing up proper spell flingers for other classes, with a heavier focus on the later spellwork stages and on practical casting in combat. He could exchange the additional contribution points for mana coins, which provided a welcome supplement to his equipment budget.

***

Terry was walking next to Lori and Jorg. The three of them had grown up during the past three years. They looked healthy, sturdy, and taller. The twins’ faces had finally caught up with their facial hair. The incongruous impression had disappeared, and they simply looked more mature.

Lori still kept her sideburns smooth, but now the rest of her hair was braided tightly around her head.

Jorg, on the other hand, was still recovering from his mohawk experiment. The intense sunshine of the Setting Sun had quickly killed off his initial enthusiasm for the hairstyle. After his second bad sunburn, his mother Isille had insisted he wore a hat and Lori took some pleasure in reminding her brother.

Terry was happy with his hair kept short, but a bit envious of Jorg’s bushy beard. To Terry’s dismay, proper facial hair seemed about as distant a dream as casting a spell.

The three were returning from window shopping in the southern merchant quarter of Arcana City. They were on their way to the dimensional gate leading towards the city center.

“To think I got excited about them having a sale,” grumbled Jorg.

“I mean, what did you expect?” asked Terry drily.

“Yeah, exactly how much did you think they would reduce their prices?” added Lori.

“Who said anything about thinking?” retorted Jorg. “I was hoping. A dwarf can dream.”

“‘Baseless hopes will only set you up for disappointment,’” recited Terry. “‘Achieving your desires requires persistent efforts.’”

“Stop quoting Pa,” complained Jorg. “One of him is quite enough, thank you.” The remark elicited a giggle from Lori.

Terry shrugged. “You could have afforded the self-cleaning knife. Seems useful for hunting missions.”

“Boooring,” whined Jorg. “I wanted the glove with the imprinted Fireball spell.”

“Seriously?” questioned Lori incredulously. “We are still on non-magical beasts. We have only recently advanced to bear hunting missions. Don’t you think fireballs should be reserved for mana-corrupted creatures and stuff?”

“Particularly creatures that do not live in forests, Jorg,” teased Terry.

“Nenenenenene,” retorted Jorgen eloquently, and then stuck out his tongue.

“We could lend you some coins for the Blinding Flash fingerless glove if it makes you feel any better,” suggested Lori.

“Hmm, nah.” Jorg shook his head. “That glove was in the apprentice pile, which means the imprint is probably too fuzzy for me to activate it. Also…” He reached up and slapped Terry on the shoulder. “I noticed Terry eying it and one should be enough for our group.”

“Also saves you the coins, doesn’t it?” Terry raised an eyebrow.

“Oh good, you’re catching on,” exclaimed Jorg and grinned back at him. “It is always comforting to be understood.”

Jorg raised his hand to Terry’s eyebrow and pretended to pinch it with his thumb and index finger. “Now put that thing down. It makes me uncomfortable. There we go. That’s better.”

Terry chuckled and shook his head. The three had reached the dimensional gate and could already see the blurry surface displaying the happenings in the city center. After a few more steps, they were right in the middle of it.

In order to cross to the northern quarters, they had to traverse the center south to north. They took the western route, which would have them first pass the Academy grounds and later the Council Plaza.

“Isn’t that the flunkie?”

Terry and the twins were still discussing mana-crafted equipment when a pair of teenage Academy students stepped in their way. One was a reluctant looking girl with curly blond hair that seemed vaguely familiar, but Terry could not recall if they had met before. The other was a boy that looked upset about something.

“Hey dropout,” the boy looked at Terry. “What gives you the right to wear the Academy’s insignia on your bag?”

Terry looked at the bag on his left side. He was still carrying the bag the Academy had gifted to him after he had passed the entrance exams. It was a good bag – durable, practical enchantments, and adjustable straps.

What ‘right’? It’s mine, isn’t it?

Terry was about to answer when he was stopped by an impressively reverberating burp from his right side. Lori slapped her belly with a disinterested expression.

Before more than a few seconds had passed, more strange sounds were emitted from Terry’s left. Jorg was moving his gaze along the buildings while forcing air through his closed lips. Every five or so seconds he would switch to puffing up his cheeks and squeezing the air out through his teeth.

“What’s wrong with him?” demanded the Academy youth.

Terry kept his head down in order to hide his grin. After he had regained his composure, he started looking around the ground as if he had lost something and was desperately trying to find it.

Lori sat down loudly and examined the sole of her boot. She sniffed her boot with a quizzical expression.

Jorg jolted with wide eyes as if he had remembered something very important. He raised his gaze towards the heavens, put his right fist at his left breast, and whistled the Anthem of Arcana. His interpretation was more characterized by passion than by tone accuracy.

A small crowd had gathered, which visibly intensified the Academy girl’s discomfort. It did not take long before she pulled the stumped boy away to leave.

Once there was some distance between them and Terry’s group, Jorg stopped whistling and wrinkled his nose. Lori stood back up and slapped the dirt from her butt.

“What a weirdo!” exclaimed Lori aghast.

“I know, right?” Jorg sounded offended. “Leaving in the middle of a conversation. How rude!”

“Unbelievable.” Terry shook his head in mock exasperation.

The three guffawed and continued on their way.

***

In the evening, the family split up into groups to follow their usual after dinner activities.

Brynn guided Lori in her current spellwork. The dwarven girl was practicing the Earth’s Nourishment spell. The spell allowed a target to recover health as long as their skin was making contact with a patch of grass or other life-providing earth.

Next to them, Samuel was instructing an intensely focused Jorg. The dwarven youth was displaying a level of attention and discipline towards the spellwork that was totally out of character.

Recently, Jorgen had been pestering his parents for permission to advance their hunting missions to mana-corrupted creatures. In contrast to all his previous pestering, Isille had acceded, but with conditions.

Lori had to master the Earth’s Nourishment spell completely. In addition, she needed to increase her spell control for the Raise Wall and Liquify Earth spells so that the casting time was no more than two seconds. Lori had already raised her spell control and was getting close to fulfilling the remaining condition. Nine out of ten times Lori succeeded in casting Earth’s Nourishment.

Jorg had to master one intermediate-level variant for each of the three fundamental healing spells: Cure Wounds, Cure Poison, and Heal. He also had to achieve enough spell control to get the first two spells below half a minute casting time and Heal below one minute casting time. Jorgen had succeeded with Heal and Cure Poison, but it still took him longer than a minute to cast Cure Wounds without risking spell failure.

Last was Terry, who also had to satisfy a condition. Since they had discovered no spell that he could cast yet, Isille gave him a condition for his mana cultivation instead. Terry had an advantage thanks to his aptitude in mana control, and she expected him to fully master the balanced stage and embark on the beginning of the burst stage.

Terry used the time to improve his use of mana-crafted items. He was either sparring unarmed with Bjorln or using dummy weapons with Isille. He was wearing five practice items on his body – one at the chest and one at each limb. The devices did nothing except glow softly when they had been activated correctly. They also came with different charge levels and different degrees of activation fuzziness. Those simulated different spell imprint levels and mana crafting quality.

Bjorln and Isille told him to activate or deactivate a certain item during their spar and Terry had to decrease his reaction delay as much as possible without failing any activation or becoming too distracted to keep up the spar. After more than an hour of this, they stopped the sparring session.

Afterwards, Brynn had Jorg join up with Lori so that Samuel was free to test a new spell with Terry. After Terry had washed off the sweat and cleaned himself up, he joined Samuel in the small bureau next to the living room.

“Today, I have an odd one from the outer system for you,” announced Samuel.

Terry looked curious. “Odd how?”

“For one thing, it is sometimes categorized as an expert-level spell and sometimes as a master-level spell,” said Samuel. “Going simply by structure, it should be an expert-level spell, but apparently there has been no one capable of casting it with only expert-level mana control. That peculiarity makes the spell stand out.”

Terry puckered his lips and raised an eyebrow. “Since when am I at ‘master-level’ mana control?”

“You are not, but you are also not too far off,” replied Samuel. “It should suffice to test far enough into the priming.”

Terry relaxed his expression again. “So, what is the spell?”

“Immovable Object – a spell used to anchor an object in place wherever it is,” explained Samuel.

Terry immediately recovered his previous expression. “Isn’t that kind of the opposite of what we were looking for with the movement aspect?”

“You could say that, but we also aren’t completely sure what we are looking for, are we?” Samuel shrugged. “Do you know the difference between expert-level and master-level spell structures?”

Terry furrowed his brow. “Not really. Never thought about that before.”

“Complexity aside, the fundamental difference is movement,” explained Samuel. “Master level structures are not stationary. A master mage has to be capable of rebalancing parts of the structure.”

Terry nodded along. “Can’t hurt to try, can it? Can’t fail any harder than with the other spells, can I?” Terry chuckled.

“Here.” Samuel took up two pens and handed one to Terry.

“Look closely.” Samuel harvested mana and shaped the required spell structure. It took him longer than any of the spells they had tested so far.

Terry activated his mana sense and was stunned for a moment by the complex structure. He had shaped expert-level spells before, true, but not that many. After taking a deep breath, he started his own shaping.

It took Terry around an hour and a dozen correction instructions from Samuel before he had the shape down for the first time.

“Very good. Create the primer right here.” Samuel added the primer to his own shape.

Terry did the same.

“Now pay attention to the priming path.” Samuel moved the primer along his spell structure. Again, the process took him longer than for any spell they had tried before. After he was done, he immediately ignited the spell structure and the pen that had been in his hand before was now fixed in place right in the air. He gestured at Terry. “Your turn.”

Terry attempted the priming. Unexpectedly, the primer moved a lot quicker than usual – as if it was sucked through the structure on its own. Caught off guard, Terry lost control and the structure dispersed.

Despite the all-too-familiar sting in his casting hand, Terry’s face did not display disappointment. Instead, there was only shock. The primer made it all the way to the end of the first slope. This spell felt different somehow.

“I…” Terry inhaled shakily.

“Wait a moment.” Samuel stood up and went for the door. “Brynn? Could you please join us?”

“Of course.” Brynn quickly turned to her two dwarven students. “Excuse me, you two.”

Terry was still looking dazedly at his hand.

Samuel clapped his hands twice to jolt the boy out of his daze. “Another try?”

Terry nodded without speaking.

Harvesting? Check.

Shaping? Check.

Terry took two deep breaths. Priming?

The primer moved and, once again, it was way quicker than Terry had expected. This time, however, he was prepared for it. He did not lose control. The structure eventually dispersed, but…

Terry’s eyes reddened and his lower lip trembled. He had actually reached the second slope. For the first time in his life, he had managed to move the primer past the first slope. His tears caused snot to accumulate in his nostrils, which made it harder for him to breathe, and brought him back to reality. Immediately, he felt embarrassed.

“Sorry. I am getting ahead of myself, aren’t I?” Terry muttered faintly. “It still failed, after all.”

“Brynn?” Samuel gave her a serious look.

“I…” Brynn was pensive. “…do not believe you are.”

Now Terry forgot to breathe completely.

“Did you feel a tug at your mana primer?” inquired Brynn. “As if it was moving somewhat of its own volition?”

Terry nodded slightly. He did not know where to look.

Brynn gave a wide smile, and it inspired a deep sigh of relief from Samuel. She explained the significance to the boy. “That tug is a sign of being aspect gifted. On the rare occasions when I am using spells of the air aspect, I feel the same.” She caught his gaze. “You cannot be gifted and impaired in the same aspect, which means that…”

Terry gulped subconsciously.

“The good news is that this should be your spell,” said Samuel firmly. “The bad news is that we have already ruled out the spells categorized in close proximity to it. It seems likely that you are a pure aspect savant.” Samuel looked intently at the boy. “Spellwork theory is my field of research and I’m sorry to say that from everything we know, there won’t be another spell to match. One spell…”

After Terry’s brain caught up with what was said, he gave a smile with a half-opened mouth and shook his head. “I don’t care. It’s a spell. A spell. I can finally…” Tears ran down his face and he bit his lip.

Samuel nodded approvingly. “Good, then let us finish this properly. Brynn?”

“I will contact Ser.” Brynn straightened herself. “He should be able to cover your morning class.”

“Thanks, Whaka.” Samuel briefly took her hand in his.

Brynn went into the living room. Through the opened door, Lori and Jorg caught a glimpse of Terry.

“Is Terry alright?” “Can we do something?”

Brynn gave the two worried teenagers a warm smile before fetching Isille and Bjorln in order to explain the situation. She had to leave for a bit, but she would be back shortly.

“We may have to impose on you for the night,” said Samuel from inside the bureau.

“Of course, Whaka,” replied Isille with a nod.

“I’ll prepare some midnight cake then,” added Bjorln cheerfully. He pointed at the twins. “And if you want to stay up as well, then you will help me.”

The twins stayed silent, but nodded their agreement. They followed their father into the kitchen.

The rest of the evening and night felt like a blurry dream to Terry. He could vaguely remember worried faces trying to talk to him or handing him cake, but he could not recall any details – not up to four in the morning.

The sun was about to rise and Terry was moving the primer towards the last slope of the spell structure. He did not remember how many attempts he had made. He did not know how far he had gotten before. He barely felt like a real person anymore. The entirety of his mind was consumed with that glowing dot moving forward.

The primer reached the start point. It had finished a complete cycle. The entire structure began emitting a brighter glow than before, and the primer continued moving on its own.

Terry became short of breath.

“Steady now.” Samuel’s voice brought Terry back to focus. “On my signal, ignite the primer.”

Terry stopped blinking and clenched his teeth. His eyes followed every one of the primer’s movements. He could hear his blood rushing in his ears.

Samuel instructed: “Now!”

Terry ignited the primer without hesitation. His eyes stared dazedly at the pen floating in midair and at the shadow that was cast below. He let out a breath he didn’t remember holding. His vision was getting blurry, and he simply sat there with mouth agape and in complete stillness. He was exhausted and dazed, but somehow he was still feeling lighter than ever before.

One moment later, there were two small bodies hugging him from impossible angles. Terry was still sitting on a chair, which made the hugging more than a bit challenging and awkward. Jorg’s beard got in Terry’s eye. Lori’s sideburns really tickled, but Terry did not mind. Not at all.

“Congratulations, little one!” Bjorln grinned. He had his arm around Isille, who was standing next to him with tears in her eyes.

After Terry realized what had happened, he stood up. He first walked to Brynn and gave her a hug. “Thank you,” he whispered in a barely audible voice. He turned to Samuel and moved a step towards him, but hesitated. He had exchanged hugs with Brynn before, but…

“Congratulations!” exclaimed Samuel and put his hand on Terry’s shoulder. “Well done.”

Terry mustered his resolve and moved in to hug Samuel as well. “Thank you…”

“My pleasure, Terry.” Samuel smiled warmly at the teenage boy. “Please forget the spell for a moment. You have improved so much since I first met you.” He patted Terry’s back. “Take time to reflect on how far you have come. My students rarely inspire me with pride, but please know that I am proud of you.”

“Thank you,” mumbled Terry before adding, “Whaka.”

Samuel froze, and his eyes began glistening. “Nama. You honor me, Whaka Terry, but as a child of the Rising Moon, you won’t finish your eighteenth cycle before the next season.”

Terry let go and shook his head. “I don’t care.” He turned around and looked at everyone before addressing them all in a firm voice. “Whaka. Thank you. All of you. Thank you so much. Nama.”

Now, even Bjorln started tearing up.

“Nama, Whaka Terry,” started Isille slowly. “However, Samuel is right. We of the older generation are acting of our own volition. You have no obligation towards us and you should take your time—”

“Ah puff poodle,” interrupted Lori defiantly. “Whaka Terry!” She darted forward to hug the human boy again.

“Right! I’ll have you know we are precocious and very mature for our age!” claimed Jorg in with mock haughtiness and then he added himself to the hug. “Wait up, Whaka Terry.”

Terry felt that Jorg’s rather dubious claim might sabotage the founding of his own accepted family, but he could not help but laugh happily.

***

On the following day, Isille and Bjorln let the youths sleep in. When Terry awoke, he immediately sat down to cast Immovable Object to prove to himself that he had not hallucinated the previous events. On his seventh try, he succeeded.

Finally!

Terry practically skipped all the way to the breakfast table – or rather the lunch table, considering it was already past noon. He entered the living room where he was immediately greeted by the twins beaming and waving at him while stuffing their mouths with all the food within their reach.

Terry was about to sit down at the table when there was a knock at the house door. Bjorln opened and let Brynn in.

“Oh good, you are already awake.” The tall woman was beaming at the human boy with the remnants of bed-hair. “I have something for you, Terry.”

After exchanging greetings, Terry stood in front of Brynn while Jorg and Lori were not far behind. Their curiosity had baited them from the table, but they continued to munch on their food.

“Here, this is from me.” Brynn handed Terry a thin, cloth-wrapped something.

Terry removed the cloth to find even more cloth, but this time it was surrounded by a wire and with an opening like a pocket.

“I personally prefer them as rings or other jewelry, but I figure a proper mana cultivator would not want to risk punching their storage into pieces.” Brynn winked at him.

Realization dawned on Terry and he stared with mouth agape.

“You can sew this one into your normal clothes or attach it behind an armor piece,” explained Brynn. “It has two modes: open and closed. When closed, you have to put your hand into the pocket opening in order to put items in or take them out. When open, you only need to be close enough, but mind that this also makes it easier for pickpockets. It’s cloaked, but there are still ways to discover it.”

“Mighty mana!” exclaimed Lori suddenly. “A dimensional storage bag!”

“Thank you! But this is— I—” Terry knew roughly how expensive dimensional storage items were and the one currently in his hands seemed of high quality.

“But nothing!” Brynn cut him off firmly. “You have earned it. I would also suggest that you pair up a locating device with it.”

“Uhh, Auntie Brynn?” Jorg smiled sheepishly. “Can we also ‘earn’ one?”

Brynn considered it for a moment before answering. “Sure…” She tapped a finger on her lip while drawing out the word.

Jorg was about to jump with happiness.

“If either of you learns an expert-level spell, you will get one, too,” added Brynn challengingly.

Just like that, Jorg’s hope and happiness were crushed. He looked at Terry and said. “You’ll have to act as our mule for quite some time then.”

Brynn snorted and hurriedly added: “I will talk to your ma if she can think of some alternative conditions. Long-term, you are going to need storage items. I suggest you work hard and put her in a good mood.”

Afterwards, Brynn turned back to Terry. “This one is from Samuel. He would have liked to give it to you in person, but he has to teach the class of instructor Ser right now.” She handed over a rectangular package wrapped in white paper.

Terry unwrapped the package to find three books and a box. The first was a notebook filled with what appeared to be extracts from other books. All sections were talking about the Immovable Object spell. Each section had a note in Samuel’s handwriting referencing the source text.

More learning… Terry smiled subconsciously. …as expected.

The second book was a very familiar tome: the Path of a Mage. When he saw it, Terry spaced out for a few seconds before mumbling with hesitation: “Really?”

“Shh! Don’t question it! Awesome!” The twins were sharing the excitement for this one, and a few crumbs escaped from Jorg’s mouth to make their way to the floor. “More chapters! Wait, ALL chapters!”

The last book was tied to the box.

“Open the box first,” instructed Brynn.

Inside the box, there seemed to be a collection of specifically sized samples of various materials, like metals or crystals. Terry was stumped at what he was supposed to do with those.

“Now the book,” said Brynn.

It was a mostly empty notebook. Only the first page had a note in Samuel’s handwriting.

‘Add your own insights to the collection! Create your own path to follow!’

***