The Power of Ten, Book Five: Versatile Wizardry

“The Stand uses Psychic, Sound, and Chaos Magic to do its work, and can attack you in multiple ways to test your Will. Straight up mental pressure, fear, illusions, distractions, sensory overload, thoughtlocks, decision paralysis... you’ll eventually experience it all on the Phobos Stand...”

“AAAAAHHHHH!” The Mick screamed as he bolted out of the curtain, running headlong into the watching crowd, who caught him as he windmilled frantically for a moment, gasping as strong arms kept him in place, calling out his name, reassuring him that everything was okay.

He had to blink quite a few times before the strain on his face vanished, and he could stand on his own two feet. He wobbled a bit as everyone backed off to give him room, and then slowly and obviously, he squatted down to put his hand on the ground, and just sighed in overwhelming relief.

“On the plus side,” he announced in a shaky voice to everyone, “I’ve found that I’ve more than a trace of vertigo to deal with.”

There were some hesitant chuckles from those around, eyes turning to the Stand, where the symbols ‘+9’ and ‘4’ glowed above the left and right-hand Bars of the Phobos Stand.

“For your information, the standards for a Sage are believed to be +21 and 9,” I told them, and watched them shuffle nervously. “We’re lacking empirical data at the moment, of course.

“So, this is your easy, passive, daily test. Come down here once a day and step on the Stand, close the curtains, and grasp the Bars. The longer you stay on, the greater your Will.”

“Do we get to find out your results?” one of the men promptly piped up.

“It won’t work for me,” I admitted calmly. “I’m the maker and I basically set the standards of how it works. Since I can see through everything it is doing, it has no effect on me and it can’t rate me effectively.” A few good-natured complaints arose at my reply.

“Have you... done a conventional Will test, Lady Fae?” the same fellow, a Light/Earth mage named Brian Wilson, asked daringly.

“Yes, but that was a few months ago. I came in at an Eight,” I informed them. The few who actually had undergone Will tests all flinched at my words. “I’d probably trip a Nine right now, but I’d have to re-test.” I paused, and smiled slightly. “So, if you want to challenge me in the next part of this, be aware of that.”

The Mick had regained control of his breathing, and sighed deeply, looking at the Stand. “It’s an experience, that’s for sure!” he told everyone, following along.

“Driver Sam, touch one of the Spheres, please.” The tall and somber Sam blinked, but walked forward and put his hands on one of the fist-sized metal Spheres. It lit up with Runework, and rose at the end of his fingers as he drew his hand away, floating there easily.

“This effect duplicates the telekinetic effect of Void Magic on the Spheres. Touching them activates them, setting them back in their creches turns them off.”

There was a hum, and twelve hoops, each exactly twice the radius of the Sphere, descended from the ceiling, forming a circle in midair. “Basic test, Will 1. Get the Sphere through all of the rings without touching them.”

Driver Sam looked at them once, and the Sphere left his hand, zipping out through the nearest circle as he slid between the rings. He followed the path of the metal Sphere with his eyes as he spun around and got it through the full dozen of the rings slowly and smoothly, not touching any of them.

There was polite applause at the simple test, and I nodded. “Level Two, part one. Do the same thing in under two seconds.”

Driver Sam blinked, and this time his brow furrowed as he really began to concentrate on the Sphere, which visibly quivered.

Then Sam spun in a complete circle, and like a ball on a string, the Sphere followed his rotation, going perfectly through all the rings and ending up at its starting point, not touching any of them.

More polite applause.

“Step two, part two. Do it with two Spheres at once, with one outside of view.”

He frowned, but the Disk had floated over next to him, and he reached down to activate and bring up another Sphere. He moved it out into the circle, extending his hands towards each of them, and actually closed his eyes.

Smoothly and carefully, he spun in a circle on one leg, keeping his balance, and the Spheres smoothly moved through all the rings without touching any of them.

More applause, everyone watching intently now.

The Rings snapped ninety-degrees, some left, some right. “Tier Two, last test. Float a Sphere through all the rings in the proper direction, don’t touch the rings.”

There were some murmurs about how that could be difficult, but Driver Sam actually recalled the other Sphere and set it down in its niche, his eyes never leaving one of the rings. They all watched a bead of sweat roll down his face as the remaining Sphere slowly arced back and forth between the rings... and then they realized that the rings didn’t alternate, some of them facing the same way. He had to loop a full circle, not a half-circle, to go through them, and he’d actually caught the difference.

“Tier Three, first test. Same thing, you have four seconds.” The Rings spun randomly about him, and Driver Sam’s eyes were wide and very focused, his face a mask of concentration as he waited for them to settle.

The Sphere had to move fast to clear all those rings, and it wasn’t easy. Smooth arcs became wrenching zig zags to get through the random pattern in time, and when he just squeaked by with the Sphere a blur of motion, he exhaled in relief.

“Great! 3.2: new pattern, two Spheres at once.”

He grit his teeth and a vein on his temple popped out as the two Spheres whirled and spun through the air. Not only did he have to control two Spheres on multiple vector changes, it was completely different vectors, not opposed ones, at the same time! There was no regular pattern to the Rings...

Still, he managed to track and discern the proper pattern, and keep control of two Spheres moving in completely different directions that had no relationship. Many of the watching Casters swore at the display.

“Excellent!” I complimented him when he was done. “3.3. Send both spheres properly through all Rings again.”

This time, not only did the Rings change directions, they zipped around and exchanged positions around him. He froze for a moment in astonishment, and then shook his head in defeat. “I lost track of two of them. I’d be guessing.”

I nodded once. “Control and Awareness. Test 4.1. Put a Sphere through that ring.” A golden ring spun over and floated in midair.

He looked at me once, obviously realizing that this was going to be much harder than it looked. He took a deep breath, focused hard on one of the Spheres in front of him, and whipped it at the golden Ring.

The Sphere swerved wide in front of the hovering circle, racing past to hit the stone wall and bounce back, unmarked. Driver Sam blinked at the hovering ring, and chose to approach it with the Sphere slowly for his second attempt.

The Sphere wobbled as it approached and began to veer off to the side, juking wildly around a central point as Driver Sam tried to maintain control of it. Soon enough his face was like a rictus mask as he maintained iron control, slowing the motion, shifting it in little jerks and twists, even spinning the Sphere a little as he moved it towards the circle...

“AAHHH!” he shouted, blood coming out his nose as he jerked, and finally forced the Sphere through the ring successfully. He stumbled and nearly fell down, gasping as crimson dripped on the floor, and he had to breathe deep to settle himself.

“And pure brute Power is sometimes something you need to employ, but still, control,” I said calmly. “Driver Sam could have passed 3.3 if he was expecting it, I suspect he’ll go back and try now just to reassure himself. Of course, the last thing is much more energetic.” I stepped forward to touch the Sphere as well, surprising everyone when half the Runes turned from gold to silver. “Now, the challenge is to touch the other person first with the Sphere.”

Driver Sam just looked at me. “Against a Will of 8?” he asked in disbelief.

“Well, sure, you’re not going to win. But let’s show them some techniques, right? Grappling with a living Will is very different than some wobbly magnateke field on a Toy Circle, right?”

I stepped back a few paces to give us a little room, while he just sighed. The Sphere floated there between us, and I just nodded at him.

He surged it towards me, but I only let it move an inch before it froze. He began to vibrate it, then spin it, trying to shake my grip on it, rotating it in all directions while it wobbled violently in the air. It crawled all over an invisible dome in front of me as he grit his teeth, trying to pressure it, but he simply couldn’t get it any closer.

I smiled, and pointed.

The Sphere spun like it was suddenly a drill, and would have whirred audibly if it was cut for it. Driver Sam cried out and clutched at his temples as he lost his mental grip on it, and a second later whoofed as it flew into his gut, knocking him back and off his feet.

“There is a LOT here you guys couldn’t see or feel was going on... but you will. Those of you with the Will Elements are going to school the rest of you hard, until you can catch up.” I hauled Driver Sam to his feet with TK, his face resigned to his loss. “This is one of the very few ways you can actively practice your Will, and you WILL find that it helps in controlling your Elements and your Awareness.

“I’ll be making more of these Spheres. I fully expect that at some point you’re going to be playing games, making rules, setting up teams, and otherwise being competitive about this, because the only way you have of going head-to-head on Will enough with another mage is by doing this.

“On the positive side, in a few months, any Will-user trying their auto-success stuff on you is going to get a rude surprise.”

That definitely drew nods of approval from all of them. They knew how important that was.

“Alright, first order of business is everyone sets up a time on the Phobos Stand, at least once each day. You can do more, but five times, separated by at least an hour each time, is about the maximum anyone can handle.”

It was also the reason I’d made it pretty quick and easy to do. Two minutes got someone to +29, a Will number nobody here except me could withstand. Pretty easy way to do reps. Wander down here on a break, do a turn as the magic rammed into your skull, stagger out and away when you lost...

---

Everybody forgot about the Mick running like he’d seen a ghost after it happened over and over to everyone else on the Phobos Stand. Fear was the most basic form of attack the thing could use, and the most effective. Spiritual weight was another one, literally forcing those there to their knees and back off the Disk. Stunning, Dazing, illusions, Suggestions... it was all on the table, all there to increase their Will.

From a real standpoint, it would give them first the Iron Will Feat, and then it would work on improving them to a strong Will Save for all their Levels. Iron Will could potentially double up at Ten, or improve with Bravery or Vigor or Strong Soul or other Feats, which was also all part of the plan.

It was an alternate means to train up what others had to spend money for, or were lucky enough to have the right kind of Elements to work on it. The mental sports aspect of it also got a good number of them very interested, and yeah, soon enough people were trying out competitive rules in various types, even as they started trying out the Will tests, too.

Little damn things to help people out, which others never bothered with. Broad, low power, and really not that hard to do...

Not that Mindstone wasn’t still useful, of course, but now, you didn’t NEED it to improve your Will, it was just a useful shortcut if you did...