Sorcerer from Another World

I saw with a glance the magic lines which connected with Iris and Morgana. A magical relationship made from a ritual.

It was crude and powerful. 

They shared magical supply which seemed to flow where the demand was needed and thus opening up the possibility of casting more powerful spells than either could do alone. The constant sharing and exposure to a blend of magic reduced the overall cost of any magical casting. 

They really were brilliant. 

Still, they had crept and kept being in my thoughts. I took furtive glances at them then I would dart away to look at the half moon and its curious blue glow and then back again. 

When I grew too troubled over the happy lesbians, I comforted myself that Umbra would be easy. She was throwing herself at me. I was ashamed of my thoughts, mostly in taking these desperate women for granted, but burned with desire. 

I occupied my thoughts with a task. I pulled a thimble of metal from the earth and enchanted a permanent light. I worked and gave off a dim yellow glow. The light came easy enough, but I felt a rush of exhaustion from the enchantment. I threw the light into the woods.    

It took awhile for them to fall asleep. Umbra slept soundly for she endured the greatest strain of them all. The other two stayed up a while chatting; they complained about being away from home, how uncomfortable camping was and worried about the Roman invasion. The Roman hatred for Druids and Fae was terrible apparently. Eventually, they quieted down and soon Iris was gently snoring in Morgana’s arms.

It was creepy watching them. I knew that. I promised to protect them and that included me. Me and these awkward, amazing yearnings. They seemed to me to be fashioned for paradise, but had been misplaced in this hellish world of monsters. 

The memory of the necromancer surfaced. A monster who could raise the dead and deflect my lightning. One monster. Not a serious threat. Right? What if there was someone stronger? I needed to be prepared. Who knows if lightning would work for someone far more powerful that a Redcap performing magic tricks.  

I was a sorcerer now. I had amazing magical powers that dwarfed wizards penned by a TERF. However, years in school or at the call centre left me ill-prepared for life or death battles. 

There would be no ‘You Died’ screen if I fucked up. I git gud in video games, as a teen I obsessed over a made-up story where the smallest of folk could brave the greatest of evils. As an adult I had survived capitalism.

There was no menu of abilites to min-max or strategy guides to look up. But, I had a cheat. 

It took a minute of awareness of my new abilities to confirm that I could improve our situation. The question was what to do first? Power was the long and short-term aim. 

I was like a nuclear power station or a great ocean. Iris and Morgana had a smaller and far more finite pool of magic to draw from when casting their spells. Umbra only had herself and her pool of magic was modest, if efficiently used, to be kind. I wanted to understand more about magical power. 

I could join in their ritual sharing of magic, but I didn’t know how intimate or the terms for such a contract. It would be useful to check other options and expand my knowledge first. What I was sure of was that I wanted to support them. Perhaps a mana battery?

Something to store magic and then let them use it as an energy source?

First, I looked with mana vision and saw ley lines. Ley lines while powerful were finite and tapping into them to do anything major could cause catastrophic damage making the region unliveable. 

They were not the origin of magic just as a river is not the origin of water. But people needed rivers to access water and for most magical users it was difficult to cast any major spells without the presence of a ley line. Unless you were me. 

My pool of magic was safer to draw from than the magic of the land.  

I could drain the energy from the land or even disturbingly from the human organism like Iris or Morgana. Honestly, beyond the fact it is horrible, it is also not nearly as effective as pulling directly from ley lines through my innate understanding of mana. I guessed that it could be used as a cruel trick by lesser magicians.   

I blanked. I didn't even have grasping thoughts. I gave up. I was not dumb, but I was also not smart. I had no idea how to invent. 

I looked at myself. At first, I was looking with anxiety and an attitude to put myself down. It was like seeing through glass. I saw what I thought others thought of me. Condemnation.

I felt the thrum of power, and bright like a blazing star I also saw my magic. My yearning drew me towards it. I kept looking at myself but with curiosity, I slipped into studying the way I generate magic. 

It was a process of magic working on magic. A vast self reproducing source of energy. I was magic. It was by far the most powerful ability I had. Everything I could do now stemmed from this essence, now filled and making more of itself. Constant expansion that was entirely self regulating. 

Whether it was infinite or finite, I could not tell. Vast size of my magic was beyond question. I did not yet know what my limits were. 

The girls slept. I stopped looking at my own power reserves. Magic, I was. Merely untrained and meaningfully limited by my imagination. Imagine giving the fastest sprinter in the world able to run 100 marathons. Me. I decided to test further later.