Mage Among Superheroes

“Behold!” Vilhelmiina waved her arm. “Here it is!”

“Still looks like a box,” I said, looking at the scrying anchor with my own eyes. The only thing of note was what was containing it, the various metal arms creating a cage of lighting around it.

Vilhelmiina clicked her tongue. “Clearly your wizard eyes are not focused enough. Look harder!”

I looked harder. My eyes weren’t doing much, and there wasn’t much interesting to sense in terms of power. Not at the moment, at least. Just a constant flow of something. I didn’t really have any of the magic for this either. Though perhaps I could learn Detect Magic? I had points available.

But I felt something. Was it really normal to be able to sense magic and power usage? Had I always been able to do that? It felt natural, but I’d been training under Master Uvithar from very young. I wished I could talk to him and ask him about the many questions I had. And I could… later. There was magic for that.

For now, I just focused on what I was here for. I could sense the supernatural power flowing- whether or not this tech could actually work on its own, it was currently powered by something. I could definitely spend points to learn something that would help, but what if I just tried to learn it? Actually learn, on purpose instead of by accident.

Should I be applying mana somehow? Most things needed it. That seemed like the right thing to do, and how I should focus it was fairly obvious with what Vilhelmiina said and traditional spells. I already had some ability in this area, and focusing it seemed prudent.

Mana flowed towards my eyes, not too little and not too much. A good handful, no, six points. Veins of energy lit up in front of me as I was suddenly overwhelmed with too much sight. Overlapping layers of wiggling energy that I had little way to interpret. Strong tech power, certainly, but not just one type. Then something deeper in that I recognized instinctively. Magic, specifically the school of abjuration around the box. Even as I looked, it was fighting me while at the same time drawing my sight towards it. That made sense, as this was supposed to be a scrying anchor- or rather one for all sorts of divination, to hide everything around it.

The question was… did I learn anything? “Well,” I shrugged. “It’s kind of what we imagined. It draws in divination in general.”

“Mhmm. Mhmm. What else do your wizard eyes tell you?” the mad scientist nodded next to me.

“Not much except that there’s a lot of tech super power flowing through this and the area around it. But also, it has magic in it as well.”

“Actual magic?” Vilhelmiina asked. “You’re certain?”

I nodded, “Absolutely. Abjuration, which makes sense. That’s the magic that interacts with other magic the most. But it’s pretty dull behind everything else. Especially your containment field.”

“Ah, good point,” the old woman nodded and then reached her hand through the cage of lightning, pulling out the box and holding it directly in front of me. “What about now?”

“... Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“I’m always sure!” she said enthusiastically. “Also I probably disabled its self-destruct mechanism already.”

“Probably?” I raised an eyebrow.

“I got up to tertiary triggers and couldn’t find any more,” she explained. “So look fast just in case.”

I looked, but I didn’t really learn much more. I could see that the field of abjuration was sort of like waves flowing inward, and described that, but I had no context for actually seeing other magic. If I was planning to learn Detect Magic I would have had all of the helpful guides in a tome with me, but I hadn’t found it useful at the time. I knew when magic was happening anyway, which should have probably seemed weird. Master Uvithar could definitely do it but my fellow apprentices… I honestly didn’t know about.

Vilhelmiina asked some questions and I continued to describe as well as I could, then she finally nodded once more. “Good. Your wizard eyes produced sufficient results. And they don’t look to be negatively affected by the experience, I’m glad.”

“... Did you think that might happen?”

She shrugged, “Who knows? Wizards, right?”

“I’m a mage,” I reminded her. Though practically it wasn’t different, that was the name.

“Well, thanks for your help,” Vilhelmiina said. “Given your concern about your wizard eyes being melted, and your inability to properly judge whether you can fit something into your Storage, I have decided to provide you with these,” she handed me a pair of goggles. Not the ones she was wearing, or any of another handful around.

“What do they do?” I asked, almost putting them on before I did. But now I was concerned about my eyes melting.

“They’re goggles,” she said. “They have over a ninety percent chance to prevent your eyes from melting. Also they let you see something’s mass when you press the button on the side.”

I hesitantly put them on, because the more it was mentioned the less I was certain that my eyeballs wouldn’t melt. They fit nicely, easily adjusting around my head. They didn’t obstruct my vision much as all, and when I pressed the button a HUD lit up. I looked at Vilhelmiina. The readout said, ‘Mass: Secret for reasons of New Bay security’. I wasn’t sure how knowing how much she weighed was relevant, but if she wanted it to be private I didn’t care.

When I focused on the scrying anchor, the goggles naturally reacted. ‘Mass: 3 kg’. That was kind of heavy, maybe?

“How do I switch it to pounds?” I asked.

“What?” Vilhelmiina asked.

“Imperial units?” That was the word I had come to understand named the system of measurement used here. “Like everyone uses.”

“The United States has been officially metric for decades.”

“That does not mean anyone uses it,” I pointed out.

“It’s much more convenient to convert,” she said.

“It’s most convenient for me to not have to convert things in my head.” I sensed she didn’t have any intention to change things. “When did you make these anyway? I have literally been with you since we were in the other room with that oversized diamond.”

“I had them put together as we walked into here,” Vilhelmiina stated as if that was perfectly normal. Her eyes flickered off to the side. “Oh, some city guys are here. Probably to complain about my slightly increased power usage. We will speak again later when I require your wizard eyes once more.”

With that, Frank came to drag me out, once again literally ordered but capable of sufficient interpretation that he just held onto my sleeve as I followed. I did exit the same way as before. Was the ice cream shop the only way out of the secret underground lab, or was I just being restricted to one? And if that was the case, why had I been taken in a different way?

I had many questions, none of which would be answered.

-----

I now had Arcane Sight. Sixth level, a much more rapid version of Detect Magic. Developing something like that at will might be easy… or it could have been that I was always on the precipice. Water Breathing was certainly less expected as such things went. This was more of adding mana to something I had already been doing for a long time.

I wondered if there was a limit to what I could learn naturally. Would it slow down, was it simply a matter of time constraints? Should I be getting experience for it? I had Curse of the Barbarian so I wouldn’t, but I wondered if normal wizards could. Then I wondered if normal mages could and shook my fist at Vilhelmiina.

Then I was sitting alone in my apartment- with lights today, at least. I was staring at my unspent points, and wondering how they should be used. I had 20 points… and a spell I really wanted cost 19. I spent an hour trying to use it but I had no reference feel for it.

Sending was a spell to send messages between people. They had to be short, often defined as twenty-five words, but that wasn’t quite precise. It wasn’t a matter of words or characters or even syllables, but the definition was close enough. I tried speaking the words and shoving them through the air. I managed to expend mana on nothing several times, but nothing close to a spell. I imagined a mini gate opening up, but Sending didn’t necessarily have to go to other planes. It just could, with fair reliability.

The spell was practically useless for contacting anyone in this world. I could literally contact them more quickly and efficiently at any point with a phone. But as a potential way to contact Master Uvithar to see how much he really knew, it was quite valuable. I spent all of the points. I could have waited days trying more experiments, but contacting him sooner might allow me to learn more efficiently… or at least confirm if what I was doing was unexpected.

I composed my first message carefully. “I have recently learned spells and abilities without spending points. Is this normal? Or does it have to do with being in another world?”

After composing it, I spoke the words and began providing the power and then… realized that the process was quite long. I was technically aware of the significant casting time, but the way I had to encapsulate the words and slowly tie them together, then push them off towards my intended destination after finding a connection between myself and Master Uvithar… well, it was pretty close to Scrying. Except the only feedback I got was that my message had gone out.

Then I waited. He was supposed to be able to send a response. If the message got to him. That implied he was alive, that it could travel between our dimensions, and that the random chance of failure for crossing planes had not occurred. Dimensions might be significantly higher in terms of failure rate as well. I thought of all these things, but I’d had to try. If I got no response soon I would make use of another ten mana to repeat the process.

After close to half an hour, a familiar voice. “My most reckless apprentice. It pleases me that you have reached this level of wisdom. I cannot explain all nor contact you first, but please continue.”

It was good to hear him again, even if he wasted some of his limited words. To be fair, I’d probably asked too many things at once. Having received a response, I would try again. “It is good to hear from you again, esteemed master.” I added that because I supposed it was polite, and I was not going to use all of my words on the actual question. “Is learning spells without points normal?” Far fewer words even with the pleasantries than I was allowed, but a clear response was best.

Another long delay. Though closer to twenty minutes than thirty after my spell departed, this time. “It is not normal. But those who attain great power are generally not normal. It is a secret normally acquired by dimensional travelers.”

WIth that, he’d answered a previous question as well. It did have something to do with coming to this world. How much, I didn’t know. I took stock of my mana. With all the waiting, I had about fifteen mana to spare- which was still only one more Sending. I thought to try to get two quick answers, though I wasn’t sure if one would be ‘quick’. “Can you do it? Have there been disturbances of portals appearing near places of great power?”

“Yes.” Came the response. The delay made me think that was all he responded with, which could have still answered both questions. But his voice finished with a bit more. “Sendings are not completely secure. My responses may continue to leave out details.”

That didn’t clarify if he was answering the first question, then, but I made the assumption that the response was the same. As for the second, if there had been portal disturbances, he might be busy dealing with them. One had appeared in his office, after all. I was suddenly interested to hear about more things in my world, but I didn’t have the mana immediately available. I could wait a bit, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continuously pester the man. And I had to think about what it was safe to ask, if Sending might be listened in on somehow.

How complicated. Also, inefficient. I could have exchanged that whole conversation with someone via text in two minutes instead of over an hour. No wonder much of my knowledge about the world seemed to be missing key details, though it didn’t explain why Master Uvithar would keep tomes with incorrect knowledge. Maybe they were just close enough.