Starbreaker

“Gravity affinity is ranked among the rarest in the known galaxy, with only 134 known mages with that affinity having existed throughout the history of the Empyrean Alliance, and 4 of them existing currently. One serves as a fleet commander for the Ardent. Another as the Empyrean’s Navigator Prime. One of the others serves the Obsidian Dominion and the final one has passed beyond scrying range.”

—The Weight: Burdens of Leadership, Oswil Dohruum

It seemed that Sylvas had the luck of being born with an affinity so rare that they didn’t test for it. An affinity so rare that the whole campus on Strife seemed to have ground to a halt with its discovery. The orbiting objects and the crushing weight on him had eased as he circulated his mana and brought his core back down to its usual balance. There were no overpowering effects haunting his footsteps now, though he did still feel like there was a great weight on his shoulders.

Classes had been cancelled for the day when Enore died. They were cancelled again now. That was how significant they thought this affinity was. Not just to the training camp, but to the whole of the Ardent. Sylvas found himself in an entirely new part of the cliff-face after they’d pried him out of the testing chamber. At first he had still been in a daze, confused about what was happening, and fully expecting that he was about to be chastised into oblivion or possibly even kicked out for damage that he'd done to their precious testing chamber and the treasures they’d assembled there. It was only now, in Instructor Aurea’s office, sitting across from her across a desk so vast it could have doubled as a raft in case of flooding, that reality began to sink in.

“Gravity affinity is one of the least commonly found among our mages, but most vital to our efforts to deal with the Eidolon threat.” Aurea had been talking around the point for some time, but it seemed now she felt like enough hot air had filled the room to support whatever idea she was trying to float. “As such, I have just approved your transfer to the officer training program.”

Sylvas blinked. “Excuse me?”

She pressed on, “As an officer you will receive more training related to your affinity than would otherwise be available to you, and more detailed instruction on their strategic and logistical…”

It wasn’t intentional when he interrupted her. “I’m being promoted?”

“Gravity mages are among the only people capable of interstellar travel without the use of a jump gate. We aren’t going to allow you to squander that gift in the rank and file.” She seemed to be taking the moment he required to process all of this as hesitation to accept. “And of course, Recruit Runemaul will be more than welcome to join you. We can arrange for more fitting quarters for the pair of you in the Blackhall.”

Was she trying to bribe him with the promotion of Kaya? He didn’t need any convincing. Officers were considered to be more valuable than the usual Ardent recruits, and that meant that he would be better positioned to get the resources he needed to advance. “That would be… lovely. Thank you.”

“For obvious reasons, your training schedule is going to be adjusted. The combat exercises and introductory courses pared back in favor of interstellar navigation, tactical pursuits, spatial magic and so on.”

That sounded less appealing. “I have been trying to hone my fighting abilities, I don’t really want them to become rusty…”

“Oh you’ll have more than ample opportunity for fighting once you’re deployed, and you’ll still participate in the quarterly cull, but for your future it is vital that you begin developing the base skills of a ship’s captain, now.”

It would have seemed impossible just hours ago. He was going to captain a ship? He’d thought that his affinity might have made him a glorified engineer, or rather, an engine, for the transportation of Ardent strike forces beyond the Empyrean, but the idea that just because he had this affinity he’d make a good commanding officer was deranged. He was so taken aback by the idea that it took him a moment to catch the other thing that she’d said. “I’m sorry, cull?”

“Oh it isn’t a literal cull, it is just what some of the students call the testing cycle. Every three months you compete so that your combat capability is assessed. Typically, those who aren’t performing well depart Strife soon after.”

Sylvas let out a breath of relief. He had a new affinity to learn about, a whole new spell book to master, a new circle to forge and all of this officer training to take on, not to mention the potentially lethal issues with Hammerheart and his clique, adding some sort of grand combat test on top of that would have been ridiculous.

“It will take place in a week or so.” Aurea said almost casually. “Usually it would be two weeks, but there are certain upcoming events that we need to plan around.”

Sylvas shut up. There was nothing he could say to make this situation better, so he kept his mouth closed.

“Administrator Mengrammon has already filed your transfer and assigned you quarters. Lessons will begin tomorrow, though I believe that Instructor Fahred wishes to begin work on spatial magic with you now, if you feel that you have the energy.”

He was bone tired in truth. The changes in his mana made his whole body feel heavy, and the process of all the unaligned mana working its way out of his body meant that he was slowly but surely being drained. Yet, the possibilities of spatial magic were too appealing to pass up any opportunity to get to them early. “I shall go to him immediately, thank you Instructor Aurea.”

He didn’t have far to go. Fahred was standing in wait outside of her office doors and practically pounced on Sylvas. “Gravity! Who would have thought that there was something of use inside you after all?”

At Sylvas aggrieved expression he waved his hands around. “Oh you know what I mean.”

They did not go to the tower and classroom where Fahred usually gave his lectures, instead delving deeper down into the complex, past the brig and down to an even lower level where there was essentially no modernization, only the ancient cut stones and odd shaped recesses set into the walls that Sylvas couldn’t help but think made this particular area some kind of tomb that had been emptied out. “There’s space just along here.”

The twisting corridors cut into the stone opened out into a larger chamber, with tiered steps cut into all sides, making something like an auditorium. Down at the very bottom was a raised slab of stone bigger than Sylvas, but what purpose it had served escaped him, given how thoroughly time had worn everything down.

“Good. Right. Perfect.” Fahred turned to face him, clapping his hands. “Spatial magic is derived from the spells of the gravity affinity, so it should come more easily to you than to the rest of us. By focusing gravity in a very small area to an undue intensity, we can very briefly break the rules of universal constants, opening a rift leading outside of typical space.”

The portal that he had torn through to allow an eidolon entry. It had to have been spatial magic, and he had to have been chosen because of his affinity for it, even when he had no idea what an affinity even was at that point.

“In terms of practical applications, there are several. The first is transportation. By taking yourself, or a ship, outside of normal space, you can then create a similar puncture elsewhere, allowing you or your ship to return to normal space at a different location simultaneously to your disappearance. Teleportation at its finest. The most powerful gravity mages are capable of carrying a whole fleet with them, the majority can manage an entire ship, even those of us without gravity affinity can manage to teleport ourselves.” He conjured a staff topped with a blue crystal radiating water aspect magic into his hands with a casual ease. “Using exactly the same methodology, you can also puncture a hole into Cold Storage, the many pocket dimensions that overlay our own, and use them for the easy transportation of bulky items. The amount of space you have in that dimension is hypothetically limitless, but the gravitational spike required to punch through to it becomes greater the more that is in there. These latent adjacent planes of existence are empty of mass and energy, prior to our interference, and the addition of mass and energy to them increases their density many times over. Bear this in mind, as you may lose access to everything you have stored in said pocket dimension if you are lacking in the power to puncture the planar barrier. Any questions so far?”

“How do I know where to punch back through?”

“That is a complex question. Space operates differently in other planes of existence. In some a mile is an inch, and in some up is down. Navigating through these planes to reach your destination is as much a matter of practice as anything else. Though I imagine that you’ll have no shortage of instruction on interstellar navigation now that the officer corps have their hooks into you.”

Sylvas opened his mouth with another question, only for Fahred to ramble on into the next subject without pause. “Oh, and needless to say, transporting a heavier load while in transit through alternate planes is going to cause the power values required to return spike up massively in the same manner as with Cold Storage, so do take care not to carry a whole fleet out of reality and leave it trapped there in the endless nothingness. They do not give medals for that sort of thing in this man’s Ardent.”

Sylvas tried to speak again but before the first sound escaped him, Fahred turned to face him. “Cold Storage is obviously the easiest spell, so we will start there, then once I’m confident you aren’t going to accidentally trap yourself in there, we can move on to more dangerous magic like teleportation.”

“What about my advancement?”

“What about it?” Fahred looked non-plussed. “Form a third circle with a paradigm and embodiment relevant to your affinity to filter out the wrong kinds of mana and then get on with things.”

“You don’t have some sort of suggestion as to what course I should be following?”

“With all due respect, which is very little if we are being honest, you’ve just won the affinitiy jackpot and now you’re quibbling over whether you can get it in copper coins instead of gold. Regardless of what you do next, you are so vital to the war effort that the Ardent will forgive you all manner of sins. How you progress is much less relevant than the fact that you must progress. Increasing your mana storage will allow you to do great things.”

Sylvas straightened up. “Thank you, sir.”

“So, are you ready to start breaking every natural law this is?” Fahred clapped his hands with a sound like breaking waves.

Sylvas rolled his shoulders and readied to cast. “I am.”