Starbreaker

“As mana flows through the brain, the physical structure is changed, inevitably this results in changes in behavior and perception. Trauma has a similar effect, distorting how the subject understands the world around them. Yet when the two combine, there is an oddly neutralizing effect. As though the floes of mana smooth off the rough edges of a damaged psyche.”

—The Psychology of the Wizard, Remo Aurea

Everywhere that he looked, there were flames and twisting chaos. He leapt to his feet and flung himself back, but it followed him. No, it had already been there before he arrived, he was entirely consumed in the flames, and it was only shock that kept him from the agony.

He’d made some stupid mistake. The mana he’d let loose must have ignited on the ward. He was going to die.

After all I’d done, after all I’d survived, to die in some stupid accident just after I’d managed to ascend. It isn’t fair. It isn’t right.

The fire was bright, blinding, swirling before his eyes, but it had no scent, no sound. There was no roar as the magical flames consumed him and burned him down to a crisp.

In desperation, even knowing that it wouldn’t save him, he threw up his hands and cast a shield.

The flames obeyed. They twisted in shape to his words, fresh flames leapt from his fingertips, contorting into light and form. Sigils and runes of the Aion tongue forming out of nothingness, spinning out into a circle before his eyes, expanding out into the shield that was usually invisible to the naked eye but which now shone with the same intensity as the flames all around it.

Wait.

Sylvas slipped into Clearmind, he set aside his fears and his panic. He let himself perceive what was happening, and analyzed it instead of blindly reacting. This was not fire. It shone bright, and the chaotic motions of it jumping around had reminded him of fire, so much so that all rationality had been completely bypassed and he’d moved to terror, but it wasn’t fire.

It was mana.

The energy flowing around him, fluid as plasma, chaotic as flame, was mana. Raw mana drifting in the air, that he could now inexplicably see. Taking a steadying breath, he let his shield disperse, and marveled as the careful crystalline structure of it came apart slowly from the edges, and the mana dissipated back out into the cloud. He had known in the abstract that mana was everywhere, but he had not realized just how much of it there was in every single square inch of the world. He held himself still for a moment, just breathing, watching the mana go unmoved by the intake of his breath, then he turned his attention to the ward holding him in the cell. It was a solid wall of that same crystalline mana that he had constructed a shield from, he could see the sigils set in each corner of it drawing fresh mana in to keep the formula of the spell endlessly repeating until it was deliberately interrupted from the outside, keeping everything inside the cell from escaping, but allowing anything outside the cell to come in. Now that he could see it, he could understand it. If he cast a spell of his own, he’d be able to read the sigils of Aion that comprised it, when someone else cast, if he knew what sigils mapped to what effects, he’d be able to tell what they were casting before it had even been completed. This changes everything.

With a start, he realized that Lockmind had gone from a helpful learning tool to a complete revelation. He would be able to learn any spell that he saw cast by going back and replaying the memory. Admittedly, most of them would be useless to him once he advanced into affinity magic, tied to the specific refined elemental forces that he could now see glimpses of whirling in the chaotic blend of the mana all around him, but for now, his spellbook had just grown to encompass every piece of magic done in his line of sight. With a few hours of study, he suspected he’d be able to build a ward just like the one holding him in the brig. With a few years learning all the specifics of the Aion language, he’d be able to reverse engineer the ward and create a counterspell. Not very helpful in the moment but given that he had a whole lifetime ahead of him, it might someday prove useful.

Realization struck him again. This is why magic within the Empyrean is standardized. Why they only used the proscribed spells. It had nothing to do with the safety of their mages, which he doubted they gave a half a damn about given the reckless way that the Ardent were taught to think, but everything to do with allowing those who had mastered the language of spellcasting to completely negate anything that those with lesser knowledge might cast. Admittedly, this was conspiratorial thinking, but Sylvas couldn’t help but feel like it was what he would do if put in that position.

Now that he had come to understand what he was seeing, Sylvas was faced with a new problem. How do I live with it?

It was all very well being able to see the living floes of mana pervading all things, but how was he going to get anything done with that giant glowing chaos unfolding in front of him at all times. He didn’t know how other people managed it, but for him it turned out to be surprisingly simple. Just as he had used Clearmind to filter out his sensory information while he was mastering Lockmind, now he used it to filter out the mana. It wasn’t easy, because it was as though his eyes were trying to tell him two things at the same time, and his brain was mashing them together. His first attempt left him blind to everything except the mana, which would probably come in handy sometimes when working on specific spell work, but otherwise was a nuisance. Switching that channel of sight off and the other one on, he returned to his old perception of the world.

Now he just had to ponder what had caused this newfound ability to see mana. Whether it was the combination of his paradigms or just a natural progression that came with the second circle. He couldn’t see it when both of his paradigms weren’t in use, but that didn’t actually answer the question of which of those two options was granting him this sight.

He was just starting to toy with his new vision, trying to partially dim it while still receiving some of the information it could grant him when Fahred walked back into the room and blinded him.

The mana before had been like looking out through flames, the mana around Fahred was like staring directly into the sun. He was a beacon of power. The mana of his embodiments outlining him and the blazing inferno of his core striking Sylvas blind. At least that explained how the Ardent had known that Sylvas himself had more mana than a first circle mage was meant to, he wouldn’t have been shining like Fahred, but there would certainly have been a healthier glow than was average.

“Ah good, you’ve hit second circle, got the accompanying second sight, and tried to look at a wizard without any filter, very sensible of you.” Fahred breezed in, entirely too amused with himself as usual.

“It would have been nice to have some warning about this second sight before I got it.” Sylvas had to close his eyes against the blaze as he got his Clearmind to hide all mana from sight.

He was only just beginning to allow Fahred to glow again ever so slightly when the Instructor rolled his eyes, the shape of them barely visible with all the mana shining within them. “As if none of the more powerful mages on your world ever told you about it…”

Sylvas tried not to clench his jaw. “I was the most powerful mage on my world.”

There was another of those momentary pauses that Fahred made, when he received and absorbed new information and had to decide how it was going to change things. “Well that certainly explains a lot about the sense of entitlement.”

It had changed little, it seemed. Sylvas took a deep breath, then tried a new tact. “I believe that I have learned all that I can in the brig, would it be possible for me to begin affinity testing?”

Fahred summoned his chair once more, but now Syvlas was able to make out the sigils of the spell, the floes of the mana as they took shape, he was not creating the chair out of magic, he was bringing it from somewhere else. Folding space and dragging this through. It was a truly awesome power being used for the most tawdry of things. Fahred settled himself on the chair once more. “Today? No.”

Sylvas was still staring at the now-completed spell, sifting through his memories, trying to place the shapes he was certain he’d seen before. Had I drawn them back on Croesia, atop the tower?

Fahred held up a finger as if to stop Sylvas before he could say any more. “I regret to inform you that tomorrow is also looking extremely unlikely.”

Sylvas didn’t rise to the bait. Instead he stated his case clearly and succinctly as he could. “I would like to continue with my progression so that I can begin learning new spells.”

“Of course you would my little dove, you’re the most powerful mage of whatever backwater birthed you, no wonder you’re so hungry for more. But unfortunately there are certain factors that will prevent you from beginning affinity testing.”

The goading seemed to be deliberate at this point. Until now, Sylvas had assumed that the other man was talking flippantly was simply his manner, but the more time that he spent in close quarters with the Instructor, the more he came to suspect that this man deliberately tried to antagonize everyone around him so that he might find weakness. “Might I ask what factors those might be, sir?”

“Primarily the fact that I insisted that you be locked up here for three days as punishment.” Once more he held up a hand as if expecting Sylvas to complain. But there was no surprise that Fahred had been the driving force behind his imprisonment. Still the mage offered up an explanation. “Expecting you to need that time to make the advancement you’ve pounced on today. Very foolish, by the way, to force progression at a pace faster than the manuals indicate. You could have done yourself a serious injury in the process of…”

Sylvas cut this line off a little rudely. But no more rudely than Fahred himself had been speaking up until now. “I’m going to be here for two more days?”

“Recruit, if it had been up to Vaelith we would have had a parade in your honor and if it had been up to me you’d have been shot into space never to return. We reached a compromise. Three days in the brig.” It had been difficult to read Fahred expression before because of his odd mono-color eyes, and the addition of the mana glowing out from within him only made him harder to perceive properly, but Sylvas suspected that the little quirk of the Instructor’s eyebrow meant that he was deliberately pushing him.

Sylvas once more took a steadying breath to keep his temper under control. “Once I am released, will I be able to undertake affinity testing?”

Fahred smiled pleasantly. “Yes, of course. And in all likelihood your circles will have stabilized sufficiently that you can do so without any risk of false results flagging up due to instability.”

If he was going to be stuck in here for two more days, then Sylvas refused to let them be a waste of his time. “Would it be possible to have access to my own slate so that I can study during this time?”

“Oh, I’ll have one of your little harem deliver it to you later, but I’ve got half a mind to keep you locked up in here with nothing to do at all. One day without work to do and I firmly believe you’d start trying to chew through the walls.”

The little joke about his romantic involvement with the other recruits again. He shouldn’t have let Fahred see that his last jibe along these lines had been effective, it had invited the man to pry at what he considered a weak spot. “Would it also be possible for you to explain what I need to do to prepare for affinity testing?”

Once more Fahred was smiling, but this time there was some cruelty to it that Sylvas could make out despite the oddness of his features. “Ah, no. Sorry. Not a possibility. It isn’t the sort of test that you study for, I’m afraid. More of a spiritual journey to connect with the fundamental forces of the cosmos that resonate best with your soul. Entirely out of your control, which I’m sure that you’re just going to love. Something it is entirely impossible to brute force through with determination. More of an exercise in letting go and letting the universe guide you. Definitely not going to provoke any sort of anxiety for someone so desperate to be in control of everything going on around them.”

It was too much to let pass entirely without comment, but the more he engaged with it, the more that Fahred would consider this to be another valid line of attack in his attempts to rile Syvlas. He wasn’t sure why the man was so intent on doing so, but he did know that he had no intention of letting the Instructor get to him. “I believe that you may be mistaking me for someone else.”

“Or, possibly, after a long life involving the training of a great many young mages, I have better insight into your personality than whatever minor degrees of self-awareness you happen to have meandered into on your own?” Fahred offered it up like a counterpoint in a debate.

It was Sylvas turn to look incredulous. “You think you know me better than I know myself?”

“I know that all you’ve done since getting tossed in that cell is frantically work at increasing your own personal power despite the myriad dangers that you’ve been warned of, demanded resources to help you in making that progression and at no point asked if you might be set free. Which suggests someone less concerned with the freedom that has been taken from them and more concerned with missing out on an opportunity. There aren’t many people out there in the universe who just shrug and accept imprisonment. Those that do tend to be inclined towards liking things that stay the same around them. There are even fewer people still who would view imprisonment as an opportunity for an academic sabbatical. Ergo, I’m making some assumptions about you.”

Sylvas swallowed all of his feelings back down once again. Letting breath flow steadily in and out of him. It had been a trying day between waking up in the brig after his nightmares of home and undertaking the construction of a full circle in a single sitting, and he was not about to let Fahred know just how close he was to losing his composure. So he forced a pleasant smile. “Would you let me out if I asked?”

Fahred laughed. “No.”

“That is why I didn’t ask.” Sylvas paused for a moment, as though considering. “Would my being upset over my imprisonment have made it any more likely for that answer to be yes?”

“Also no.” For all that the instructor seemed to enjoy aggravating Sylvas, he also bore a striking smile every time that it seemed that his pupil had out-thought him. A fierce pride in the achievements of his students that he tried to mask.

Sylvas shrugged. “Then perhaps I’m simply rational, rather than possessing the other traits you’ve assigned me.”

“I’m not here to debate you, Recruit. Just to inform you of the shape of things to come.” Fahred had risen from his seat as he spoke and cast the inverse of his earlier spell, banishing the seat back to wherever it had come from with a formation of the same sigils that Sylvas had recognized from before. Something to do with portals, summoning, banishment.

Fahred was almost to the door when Sylvas conceded some ground. “Sir?”

The man sighed, as if he was terribly put upon. “Yes, Recruit?”

“My slate?”

“As I already said, it will be delivered before classes start tomorrow.” Fahred called back over his shoulder as he vanished from sight. “Now go to sleep!”