4.9 KiB
Moments
Yellow mana flowed along the circle, forming a series of symbols and patterns. "OK, I'm ready."
Tome and Lily had been trying spells from the books, attempting to understand the way spells were formed. Each book went into extreme detail about every facet of the spells it contained, resulting in some redundant information. They were about to try one of their first tests, creating a spell by combining parts from two different circles.
"I'm not quite sure this is it. You have the runes from the first spell copied perfectly, but the second spell's runes aren't fitting nicely in place."
Tome waved his hand, rearranging a few of the symbols. "I can remember and project things that I've seen, but I can't remember something I haven't seen before. I'm trying to fit them together, but maybe we're looking at the wrong parts?"
Lily looked at the books open in front of her. "Maybe. According to this chapter, it's supposed to make a fire burn in the center of the circle. And this part of this spell over here is supposed to move things around... If we can combine them, we should be able to make the fire appear where we want. Try these runes instead." She held one of them up, and Tome studied it for a moment before nodding.
"Those ones look simpler, maybe they'll fit into place instead."
He stretched his hand out again, summoning the circle of light. This time, the symbols seemed to mesh better. "Okay, cast it."
Lily tossed a ball of mana into the circle, which flared up. A fire burned several feet off the ground for a moment before fading away. "We did it!"
With a high-five, the two began to plot their next experiment.
"I'd like that."
Rasp looked up, confused. He and Lucas had been sitting in the library reading for the last half hour, and neither had said a word until now. Not for a lack of trying - whenever he tried to open his mouth, his nerves got the better of him. "I'm sorry, what?"
"I said I'd like that. Is it that much of a surprise?" Lucas gave a small smile.
"I didn't say anything though..."
"Oh, it must have happened again. I thought I was getting better at telling when I'm seeing a prediction, I'm sorry. Let's try this again. Was there something you wanted to ask me?" Lucas at least had the decency to try to hide his laugh. Rasp rolled his eyes.
"Alright, fine, be that way. Lucas, would you like to get a bite to eat? The kitchens here are weird, but I'm sure we can have a good meal."
"Yeah, I'd like that."
Slannon, Mira, and Sabina were in the middle of practicing their magic. Sabina was a natural at shaping her mana, quickly moving from sphere to all sorts of interesting shapes. Other spells gave her a little more trouble, though.
"Alright, just imagine that your arm is reaching and grabbing it." Slannon demonstrated on the weights on the floor. "krav." The first weight lifted easily, the second followed suit. The third gave him a little more trouble, moving slowly. The fourth weight moved about an inch into the air before all four fell back to the ground with a thud. "Focus on just getting one for now."
Sabina tilted her head slightly, purple hair falling over her eyes. She tossed it back with a puff of air. "Alright, I'll try it. krav." One of the weights shook slightly, before half of it lifted off the ground. Though wobbly, the weight managed to slowly levitate to eye level, before slamming back down. "I did it!"
"Great! Practice a bit more, then it'll be your turn to teach us. How do you get your constructs to become so solid?"
Laz sat alone in his room, eyes closed and hands outstretched. The book on his bed was spread open, the pages slowly turning themselves. Green light flowed from his hands into the book as it filled with symbols on every page.
He opened his eyes, the light dissipating. Picking up the book, he examined the writing that had appeared. "This will do."
Placing the book aside, he pulled a second, larger book from under his bed. This one was worn, decidedly unlike the ones in the library. He flipped it open to a earmarked page and placed his finger on a specific passage. As he murmured a few phrases, the passage glowed and floated into the air. He frowned, poking at it. A few of the symbols changed, but others remained constant. With a sigh, he waved his hand and dispersed the symbols.
Turning to another page, he pushed a small amount of green mana into the book. The spell circle on the open pages flared to life before swirling and changing color, becoming a black abyss on the page.
"Proceeding as expected. We've picked up some promising new mages. One of them is definitely showing signs of a Focus, he sees into the future. He just can't control it yet." A few symbols appeared on the page before him, glowing a soft white. "No luck identifying the others yet. I'm hoping that one of them can help us. The Shades are becoming more numerous. More importantly, they're starting to get suspicious. We might have to speed up our timetable."