Mage Among Superheroes

A trio consisting of a man-snake, an insect winged elf, and a bird headed man stood apart from Sir Kalman and me. The man-snake had just said something about us not staying upon Elyusium.

If I was the one who was supposed to talk, I would have said “Why?” Fortunately, Sir Kalman had a better idea of what to say.

“We apologize for the intrusion, honorable ones. We only intend to stay a short time to complete the awakening of my allies abilities. We intend to leave in the morning without disrupting your home.”

The man-snake nodded his head, the motion rippling through his whole body. “We are aware of your behavior during your previous visit, which is what brought us here today. No good can come of your intrusion upon our plane.”

Sir Kalman pondered for a moment. “If we do not visit another plane, the system-”

“- will remain incomplete. We understand your reasoning. However, the heavens are not meant to be accessed so easily.”

Sometimes, I spoke without really thinking about it. “Why is there a spell that allows it, then?”

The man-snake locked eyes with me. “Normally travel would be restricted to those allowed to access our plane, or who otherwise had a token that allowed their travel. You are a curious case.”

“Well, I saw it,” I pointed out. “Even if I didn’t step through the portal.”

“This portal was from a different dimension?” the man-snake questioned, but he didn’t wait for a response. “The weakening of planar boundaries is another reason to avoid this place. We will be closing our borders in the near future. But there are other reasons not to linger on outer planes. The allure of a place such as this can incorporate mortals into the plane itself, and while it is not a harsh end to remain eternally in a plane such as this, one must assume you have goals you wish to accomplish.”

Sir Kalman frowned. “I hadn’t heard of this.”

“Truly?” the man-snake asked, swaying slightly as he tilted his head. “Such knowledge should be easily available for those who intend to seek out different planes.”

“Yeah, well a bunch of jerks have been trying to not let people learn any of that stuff or awaken the system.” That time I thought about it, and while I don’t know what I was hoping for I figured these angel guys should know about it.

The man-snake furrowed his brow. “Odd. This must be a recent occurrence.”

Sir Kalman shook his head. “No, I think not. It seems to have been this way my whole life.”

The elflike man smiled, “From your perspective, it would certainly seem to be a long time. But it would still be considered quite recently.” He turned towards the others. “It does seem that the regularity of planar travel had significantly dropped before this latest spike, however.”

The others all nodded in agreement, then turned back to us. “You may stay until the morning,” the man-snake said. “Do not attempt to return again. After the planes are sealed, future intrusions will be dealt with harshly.”

“... you said ‘the heavens’,” I commented. “Does that include the others?”

“Indeed. The weakening of the planar boundaries is a concern for us all. So we shall cut ourselves off for a time.”

“Consider but a moment,” Sir Kalman said. “People are in need of the heavenly forces now more than ever. How can you be called upon with the planes sealed?”

“Those with the ability have not done so in recent times,” the man said. “But should we be needed, we can still be called. As for you, I will allow you to call upon me in a time of need. Tabris is my name.”

“Thank you for your generosity,” Sir Kalman bowed.

I knew that those words were directed towards Sir Kalman. “... Does that apply to me too? I mean, both the offer and the ability to do so. I’m a mage.”

“For you, it will be more difficult… but it seems you have the capability. Should you find yourself embroiled in battle with a fiendish villain, I will accept your call a single time.”

“Does that include Doctor Doomsday? Because I don’t know if he does anything fiend related.”

“Who is this… doctor?”

“He’s the one that has been flooding everywhere with portals. He’s pretty dangerous.”

“Ah. I understand,” the man-snake nodded. “The level of danger does not concern me, as long as the cause is righteous. Simply call upon my name.”

“Great. I totally remember that,” I lied. I hadn’t been ready for him to say his name, so it wasn’t my fault.

“Take care with your future ventures,” the man-snake said. “Away from the material plane, even the most benign seeming locale can carry unanticipated risks.” With that, the three of them turned back into balls of light, floating away.

“That went well,” I said. “Too bad we can’t come back.”

“It’s unfortunate,” Sir Kalman admitted. “But at least we were able to attune two groups.”

-----

“It was Tabris,” Midnight informed me once we were back in New Bay.

“Thank you. I was never going to get that,” I admitted.

“I know,” Midnight said.

“Right, so… what else did we have to do before we visit your home?” I pondered. “I learned Reduce with points, so that’s covered.” An image of the tiniest Great Girl popped into my head, and I wondered how she would react to a little prank. She could probably still beat me up at half size. “Oh, we still need to pick the best generic mana training method.”

“I thought we were pretty much decided on that?” Midnight asked.

“Well, sure. But flipping between methods apparently comes with drawbacks, so we might want to lay out multiple options. Then again, I think it’s least risky and more consistent. That’s what the Brigade would want. And I would feel fine about you and Jerome using it.”

“... Maybe you should swap as well,” Midnight said.

“Too late for that, I’m afraid,” I shook my head. “I’m pretty deep into my current method so I’m going to stick to it. I already know how to handle it.”

“I still don’t like it,” Midnight grimaced. “But it’s your decision.”

There were probably better mana training methods for specific classes, but as far as generic ones went, that was the best I had. Not that I would expect different from a mana manipulation book meant for mages.

-----

Before we tried to teach it to our portal power trainees, Midnight needed to practice it to make sure we understood how it even worked. It was an interesting method that I might never have stumbled into, just because of the way I did things. Not that I wouldn’t have gotten close, but the exact methods to achieve results were a bit beyond simple brute force.

The result from our first test was… Midnight passed out on a pillow. He came to a few minutes later. “Too far?” I asked.

“Too quickly, I think,” he said. “Should I replenish my mana before trying again?”

“Uh, looks like,” I said, consulting the tome. “Bla bla bla… repeated lapses in consciousness exacerbate mana fatigue limits hindering… bla bla bla… Yeah, it will just work worse.”

“That does make it a bit more difficult to practice.”

“Should be pretty easy for the trainees, though. They’ll have what, five or ten mana? That’s an hour at most between cycles even if they make a mistake.”

“And I have to wait three hours,” Midnight commented.

“Yeah, it’s not optimal. Hopefully you get the hang of it soon. Otherwise, I guess we might want to look for a useful one for mages. And of course, this assumes it even functions for you as a familiar.”

“I’m pretty sure I just overdid it,” he said.

All we could do was wait. In theory once he reached a certain threshold he would be fine, but for our early attempts starting from full mana was best.

Then Midnight rapidly began to expend mana, pouring it into harmless spells like Disguise. We did occasionally use that to avoid people seeing us moving around on the streets. We should probably use it more, but it never really fit our vibes. Probably would have been good for going to see Ceira, though. We didn’t want to be lazy with the safety of our friends.

The point was not to use the spell, however, but to run out of mana. Until the point that Midnight got low on mana. In theory, the point was to get as close to empty as possible without passing out. And then he was to remain there via a constant expenditure of mana. That didn’t mean casting Storage every ten minutes or so, but actual constant expenditure. Alternatively, it might be easier to keep mana from regenerating, though that was never something I’d have tried intentionally.

I could feel Midnight’s head growing fuzzy, but then he stabilized. He stayed that way for a couple minutes at least, before passing out. Determining if he’d gotten a very tiny increase in maximum mana from a single attempt… well, that might not be easy. Unlike my method which had increased my mana all in a single chunk, this one should be a smooth continuous curve.

-----

“We have too much mana regeneration,” I said to Midnight.

“I really wish it was more still,” Midnight said. “I thought you were always complaining about it too.”

“I am. It’s just… the ambient mana levels are still going up. There haven’t been any recent portal incidents, so it implies continuous hidden portals throughout the city. Well, more than I thought there would be, to maintain and increase ambient levels.”

“... Maybe the actual natural level is above what your world considers normal?” Midnight said.

“That… could be the case. But that would require draining mana from the entire material plane…” I shook my head. “I’m not so sure about that one, but I suppose if it was just one more thing that was done I wouldn’t be that surprised either.”

“It was just a thought,” Midnight said. “I don’t have anything to back it up.”

“Regardless, mana tends to naturally balance out so… wherever we’re connected to is higher than ‘ambient’ by at least fifty percent. Probably more if it’s still going up. Since it’s not sudden, however, it’s probably a small number spread throughout New Bay.”

“I thought we could sense portals,” Midnight pondered.

“Yeah, they might be concealed. Underground, maybe, or there could be something that smooths out the flow.” Another thing to potentially report to the Brigade, not that it would change much.

On Midnight’s third attempt later that day, he attempted to block off his recovery. That wasn’t perfect, but it did allow him to function at low mana for longer, and he wasn’t at risk of dipping too low and passing out.

“If nothing else,” Midnight said. “I’m getting better at dealing with mana fatigue.”

“That’s good,” I said. “Do you think you’ll be ready to demonstrate to others soon?”

“Yeah. In a day or two we can get them started,” Midnight said.

We should include Jerome with that. I also realized I hadn’t checked in on Izzy for a while. Our schedules had clashed since she was busy with work. Still, I had heard that she ended up hanging out with some of our mutual friends on occasion, since they had ‘normal working hours’, whatever that was.

-----

Soon enough the time had come, and we couldn’t delay any longer without causing an interplanetary incident. Then again, I had the feeling that Midnight could get away with an impromptu rescheduling. Well, except for how his family might react. Especially his mother. I realized we hadn’t interacted with others yet, but he did seem to have more family than that, if his reactions to comments on his name meant anything.

“You got everything you need?” I asked. As for myself, I was carrying a whole bundle of mana crystals in case Celmoth didn’t have ambient mana. It seemed unlikely, but it was possible and we wouldn’t want to risk getting stranded. We could hope to immediately Gate back, but it wasn’t worth risking it.

“This suit should cover everything,” Midnight said. “But I have emergency supplies in Storage as well.”

I nodded. I had extra in Storage too. Convenient, as it meant not having to carry large boxes. “Well then, I guess we’re ready.” Next stop, Celmoth.