Gathering Clouds, Chapter 9

  • Chapter 9

     

     

     

     

     

                    Ambarro grunted as he threw the fireball flaming in his hand. The small ward around the training dummy flickered as it deflected the magic. The now ten-year-old Po’ Tun sagged in exhaustion, then conjured another fireball into his palm.

     

                    Bigger… hotter… now release!

     

                    The ward glowed again, repelling the flames.

     

                    Before the afterimage had faded from his newly restored eyesight, Ambarro had already let loose another fiery projectile. It too guttered harmlessly across the ward. Ambarro swore viciously, and hurled no less than twenty fireballs at the dummy.

     

                    In his anger, though, he forgot the basic principle of combat magic that Torako was supposed to have drummed into the kits’ heads already – never be hasty with one’s spells. Each fireball became weaker and weaker, until they became little more than magical lights. The last sphere was so poorly formed it lost its shape in the middle of the air and sputtered pathetically into nothingness.

     

                    Utterly spent, Ambarro fell over onto his back, breathing heavily. The cold stone of the training field sent a chill up his back. Masser and Secunda stared down at him, and he could almost see Harrow’s sharp features plastered in the inky midnight sky around the two moons.

     

                    Is that the best you can do, dunce? The invisible face seemed to scoff. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.

     

                    Incensed, Ambarro leapt to his feet, gathering Magicka around his hands. ‘I’ll show you, you silver-eyed brat,’ he snarled, his black fur rankling. ‘Then we’ll see who the dunce is.’

     

                    Yet another spell burst against the ward, lighting the dark training field once more. As the young Po’ Tun toiled, he thought back twelve hours and around four thousand fireballs earlier.

     

     

                    ‘You’ve all touched on the basics of combat magic now,’ Torako’s voice rang across the field and over the hubbub of magic training. ‘Fire, Frost and Shock. These three elements of Magicka are basic, but they take years to master. Today, you will learn the different between a true spellweaver and a novice.’

     

                    ‘The one with more Magicka reserves and more powerful spells is the better one, of course,’ Ambarro dismissed loudly. ‘What more do we need to know? Just teach us some more powerful spells already,’ he continued, laughing. ‘If we use them enough, we’ll naturally raise our Magicka capacity, right?’

     

                    ‘Ambarro-to, please!’ Diia shushed, mortified. ‘Let Master Torako finish!’

     

                    ‘I’m just saying…’ Ambarro grumbled as he subsided.

     

                    Harrow snorted, and Ambarro shot him a venomous glare.

     

                    That girl seems to be one of the few people other than Jorra-jo and Takarro-ri who can actually rein him in, Torako thought, bemused.

     

                    ‘You are half right, Ambarro,’ he said. ‘Using more powerful spells, or just spells in general, will raise one’s Magicka reserves, and enable one to use more magic overall. Indeed, many in the other lands of Tamriel learn magic this way, with masters teaching apprentices spells and only spells, or simply through the use of spell tomes, which directly imbue an individual with the knowledge and ability to use a spell. These methods greatly limit the potential of your magic, however… as you are about to find out.’

     

                    Torako instructed his students to each line up in front of a dummy. The kits of Year 182 moved into rows facing the lines of assorted dummies erected all across the five hundred feet of the practice field. The dummies used by the Shadeclaws for training were quite sophisticated, carved into life-size models of humanoid enemies, complete with fake scowls and whiskers on their faces.

     

                    ‘Six months ago, just before your vision was restored, I began to teach you all basic elemental spells – what they call the Destruction School in most of Tamriel. We’ve covered all of them now, sparks, flames, frost streams, ice spikes, fireballs and lightning bolts. It’s safe to say that even the dullest among you have managed to grasp them.’

     

                    Ambarro hated how Harrow immediately glanced at him when Torako uttered the words, ‘the dullest among you’.

     

                    ‘Your first task,’ Torako said, folding his hands behind his back. ‘Is to destroy these dummies with magic, in whatever way you see fit. Any attack that would be lethal on a normal person is acceptable. Begin.’

     

                    A cacophony of shatters, explosions and sizzles filled the field. Ambarro thrust his hands forward and bathed the dummy in front of him with flames. The wooden man crackled and blackened as it burned, then finally split in two and keeled over.

     

                    ‘HA!’ He yelled triumphantly.

     

                    Next to him, Diia smiled lightly as she shot a small spike of ice between her dummy’s fake eyes. ‘Always so flamboyant.’

     

                    ‘What’s that mean?’ Ambarro said, scratching his head and grinning at her.

     

                    A small distance away, Harrow had also struck down his own dummy, sending a purplish bolt of lightning into the wood, right where the heart would have been. The dummy shook, the charred hole in its chest smoking.

     

                    All around them, their classmates began to finish up. The last one to finish was Shiyo, who actually froze his dummy solid with a continuous flow of frost and shattered it.

     

                    ‘Do conserve your energy, Shiyo,’ Torako advised. ‘You’ll need every iota of it for our next task.’

     

                    He walked around the training field, inspecting the carnage. Wooden splinters and tangled limbs lay strewn about the stonework.

     

                    ‘Well done,’ he said, proud of his students’ progress. ‘You are now capable of killing anyone not protected by armour or wards with magic. Of course, this begs the question – what are you going to do against those who are?’

     

                    Torako waved. The broken pieces shifted and flew back into place, forming whole humanoid targets once more. He flourished again, and a blue glow spread across the surface of the dummies.

     

                    ‘Here then, is your second task. Destroy these dummies again... or try to.’

     

                    Ambarro summoned two fireballs into his hands and hurled them at his dummy. The explosion curled harmlessly around the ward Torako had just placed.

     

                    Frowning, Harrow crouched, pressed his hands together, and charged up a sizzling stream of lightning. He exhaled, and the electricity snaked through the air, only to dissipate against the blue magic.

     

                    All around them, their classmates were having similar difficulty. Bursts of ice, fire and lightning flew at the dummies relentlessly, only to be repelled gently but firmly by Torako’s magic.

     

                    Harrow turned to look at Torako, who was stroking his whiskers, looking not the least bit tired. Their instructor’s prowess was truly impressive.

     

                    Torako let them work on the dummy for thirty whole minutes, during which the kits tried every spell combination in their arsenal, to absolutely no avail. As the shinobi-in-training began to slow down from their exertions, he raised a hand and called for them to stop.

     

                    ‘This is the drawback of only learning spells,’ he said solemnly. ‘There’s always a better spell that can counter yours. True mastery of magic comes when you understand an element of magic completely, and can manipulate it freely to your will.’

     

                    Torako raised a single finger, and a spike of ice, much like the one Diia had conjured earlier, materialised and sped towards a dummy. The spike thudded into its head, rupturing the ward, and then burst into numerous tiny fragments, blowing the dummy’s skull apart. He opened his palm, and the fragments of ice spiralled back into his hand, forming the shape of a kunai.

     

                    ‘As you can see, magic encompasses far more than just spells.’ Torako made a fist, and the dagger of ice evaporated. ‘If you are to become any good in the field, you will need to learn more than simple usage of spells as well. We will continue this lesson tomorrow morning. Class dismissed. You can continue training on the dummies if you wish… but I’m fairly confident you won’t make it through my ward.’

     

                    Ambarro’s ears immediately pricked up at the prospect of a challenge, and he began flinging spells at the dummy with renewed vigour, Torako’s lesson already forgotten. The other students lingered for a while longer, then left, one by one. Diia stopped beside a panting Ambarro, her mouth slightly open, as if she wanted to say something. Then she sighed, murmured, ‘Good luck’ and disappeared as the sun began to set.

     

                    To his surprise and displeasure, Harrow also stayed, though he didn’t make any move to attack the dummy. Instead, he paced around it, running an occasional finger across the ward, mumbling quietly to himself.

     

                    After an hour or so, Ambarro was tired, irritated and confused.

     

                    ‘What are you doing?’ He snapped. ‘Either work on the dummy or go away. Stop walking in circles and pretending like you’re being smart about it.’

     

                    Harrow frowned at him, annoyed. The boys glared at each other for a while, then Ambarro shook his head and lighted up the night sky with another burst of fire.

     

                    Electricity sparked behind him, and he turned to see Harrow also charging up his own spells. A series of lightning bolts splattered against the ward, breaking apart into small squibs.

     

                    Harrow selected several spots on the dummy and blasted them with lightning, only to see the protective magic send his own bouncing off. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then slowly left the training field.

     

                    Ambarro snickered. ‘Should’ve known you’d give up.’

     

                    The black-haired youth ignored him and headed towards the library.

     

                    Harrow suppressed a yawn as he turned the pages of the tenth book that night. He glanced wearily at the timepiece on the wall. Half past three. He blinked and turned his attention back to the Dwemer tome On the Advanced Usage of Magicka.

     

                    Elemental magic is nothing more than Magicka infused with specific properties. As natural fire itself is nothing more than heated air, fire magic is Magicka used as a conductor of heat. The same reasoning applies to the two other basic elements of Destruction magic. Ice magic is Magicka used as a conductor of cold (which one may argue is simply the absence of heat), Shock magic electricity.

     

                    Magicka itself is the latent energy of Aetherius, which all sentient beings can access through a special synaptic link. This is why one’s Magicka ‘capacity’ can be raised through practice, and why more intelligent beings are usually more gifted with magic – the more synapses one possesses, the more Magicka one can access at once.

     

                    This explanation may sound simplistic, though it is anything but. The different ways one moulds and shapes Magicka gives rise to the myriad of spells in common usage across Tamriel. Often the difference is as obvious as that between a continuous stream of energy or a burst, but other times it can be as subtle as a slight shift in the degree by which a certain property is introduced into a spell. The standard Fireball, for example, has a property-to-energy ratio of 1:5, which means that the spell is one-part fire, and five-parts Magicka used to sustain the spell’s form and function. The compacted Magicka bursts upon impact, creating an uncontrollable explosion of flame. The more advanced spell Incinerate, on the other hand, has a property-to-energy ratio of 1:3. The relatively greater amount of fire is compressed into the relatively lesser amount of Magicka, causing a much smaller but also much hotter explosion upon impact.

     

                    Harrow’s eyes drooped and he shook himself awake. Dwemer rhetoric did not have much flair, but the conciseness of their logic was unmatched. The book went on about the underlying theories of magic, and he found himself nodding in satisfied comprehension. He was particularly interested in the chapter dedicated to Shock magic:

     

                    The traditional Lightning Bolt spell is, in fact, not actual lightning. True lightning is a form of plasma, caused by radical changes in polarity between the atmosphere and the earth, causing an immense release of energy. Shock spells emulate this energy by infusing Magicka with an electrical charge. A mage’s ‘lightning bolt’ is a concentrated projectile of Magicka that carries this charge. Electricity-infused Magicka does not gain additional mass, which is why such projectiles are so fast.

     

                    Shock magic is often described as having the property of ‘draining’ Magicka. This is not strictly true. The reader may remember from three chapters ago the complex structure of a sentient being’s synaptic link to latent Magicka. Synapses are a part of the nervous system, which functions by generating and recognising electric charges. Shock magic disrupts this system, temporarily lowering the amount of Magicka the target can access.

     

                    Harrow spent another hour finishing the book. Then he reached for another. And another. And another. He read of the basic principles of moulding magic:

     

                    Once a practitioner understands how an element of magic functions and how said element is called into function, he can begin to manipulate said element to his liking. He will be able to freely modify the ratios of element-to-Magicka - Harrow took that as another name for property-to-energy, which he learned earlier - and as such create his own spells or variations of spells…

     

                    Visualise what you wish your magic to become. Know how to make it so. And make it so. You know the bolt is a combination of electricity and Magicka. You know that it will take about a tenth of your Magicka reserves. You know that it does not have to be fixed. Use one-to-two instead of one-to-three. You know that this will increase the electric charge of your attack but leave it with less time before the Magicka loses shape. You know that you can use more Magicka to make up for this. Now release the spell. Congratulations, you have created your own spell…

     

                    Of ancient Akaviri texts detailing combat strategies against Wards and counters against such strategies:

     

                    Xing-Tsuen the Sage say: ‘For every one Ward, there are three Spells to subvert it. The Skilled Mage knows two upon first seeing the Ward. But for every three Spells to subvert a Ward, there are another nine Wards to deflect them. The Expert Mage knows six upon seeing the Spells. But for every of those nine Wards, there are another twenty-seven Spells. This is why the True Master does not use one Ward or one Spell in one moment, or even two Wards and two Spells...

     

                    Even a few passages written by Shadeclaws of the past.

     

                    All wards are flawed. This is simply the nature of things. As there is no armour without chinks and joints, there is no ward without some loophole in the formula. Study the structure of the ward. Does it require continuous attention? Are there specific spots where the glow is less intense? Does the ward guard the target from all angles? Which specific element of magic does the ward seem to react more violently against? Gather information and compile it, but do it quickly. Your enemy will not wait quietly for you to think things through. Remember always, however – if he cast a ward actively, that means that he knows of your presence. If he knows of your presence, that means that you’re doing something wrong…

     

                    The five thousand four hundred and seventy-third fireball exploded against Torako’s ward. Almost mechanically, Ambarro bent his shaking claws in and another orb began to expand in his hand. The sun began to rise, throwing the shadow of a figure against the dummy.

     

                    He turned around dully, his jaw hanging loose from tiredness.

     

                    ‘Huh?’ Ambarro rasped. ‘Huh.’ He said again, in lower tones.

     

                    Harrow stood before him, swollen bags under his eyes. He was slouching, which Ambarro had never seen him do before. Without another word, he turned back to his dummy and flicked the five thousand four hundred and seventy-fourth fireball at the ward.

     

                    Harrow limped towards his own dummy, electricity beginning to buzz around his right hand and forearm. The buzzing grew to a fevered pitch, and Harrow’s breathing grew laboured.

     

                    Behind him, Ambarro lobbed the five thousand four hundred and seventy-fifth fireball at the dummy.

     

                    Harrow raised his hand to eye level, his teeth bared. He thrust his palm forward, and the lightning bolt leapt from his hand towards the dummy, bursting into a string of squibs as it bounced off the ward as it had before. Harrow’s eyes narrowed as he stared intently at the ebb and flow of the protective layer.

     

                    The ward does not absorb spells, it deflects and breaks them apart. It diverts additional energy to the point of impact at the moment the bolt hits… which means that the surrounding area becomes weaker!

     

                    Harrow concentrated, spreading his fingers. The squibs of Shock magic reversed direction and slammed into the ward again, drawing a bright circle on the blue magic, then burst into a series of even smaller squibs. Harrow clenched his fist, and the remains of his spell reorganised themselves into his hand. Immediately afterwards, he thrust his palm forward once more, and an elongated lightning bolt as thin as a needle tore into the centre of the already fading circle, just as the five thousand four hundred and seventy-sixth fireball mushroomed against Ambarro’s dummy.

     

                    There was an almost human screech and a muffled whoomph as both wards shattered. Harrow’s dummy cracked apart at the seams, crumbling into the ground, residual electricity fizzling around the edges. Ambarro’s dummy was thrown backwards and snapped into two, fire slowly spreading across the pieces.

     

                    The pair stood, staring at each other’s handiwork, drowsiness seeping into their limbs.

     

                    Harrow’s lips twitched, and a reluctant smile spread across his face. Ambarro bit the inside of his cheek, then slowly began to laugh. His chuckles came grudgingly at first, then grew into uproarious guffaws.

     

                    Ambarro stopped to pause for breath, wheezing. Then he collapsed into a heap and started to snore. Harrow’s head dipped forward, and he fell over on his face, sound asleep. It had snowed all night, but the area around them was completely dry.

     

                    The sun rose to its full height, painting Tsukikage no Sato and the two boys vivid gold.

     

     

     

     

         

     

     

     

     

Comments

6 Comments   |   The Long-Chapper and 6 others like this.
  • Caladran
    Caladran   ·  August 14, 2018
    Aww, that end! :)
  • SpookyBorn2021
    SpookyBorn2021   ·  August 18, 2017
    Bugger, alright this is definitely my favorite chapter now. The magic system that you've explained is just awesome, I mean it's interesting to see you really go into detail on the entire system and then showcased the two approaches. For this chapter at le...  more
    • The Sunflower Manual
      The Sunflower Manual
      SpookyBorn2021
      SpookyBorn2021
      SpookyBorn2021
      Bugger, alright this is definitely my favorite chapter now. The magic system that you've explained is just awesome, I mean it's interesting to see you really go into detail on the entire system and then showcased the two approaches. For this chapter at le...  more
        ·  August 18, 2017
      Thanks! >w<

      I sometimes think I try too hard to make the characters and settings 'cool' (looking back, the next arc is a bit too much considering the protagonists are still children) but I'm glad you liked it.
  • Sotek
    Sotek   ·  October 1, 2016
    Two methods to reach the same goal. I loved the way you described the magic here. It's nice to see writers going into the way things work within their worlds. 
    It's a fireball, yes... but why?
    Nicely done...
    • The Sunflower Manual
      The Sunflower Manual
      Sotek
      Sotek
      Sotek
      Two methods to reach the same goal. I loved the way you described the magic here. It's nice to see writers going into the way things work within their worlds. 
      It's a fireball, yes... but why?
      Nicely done...
        ·  October 1, 2016
      Thank you. I tried my best to make magic seem a little more scientific but also fit within the Elder Scrolls universe. Hope I succeeded.
  • The Long-Chapper
    The Long-Chapper   ·  September 30, 2016
    It's nice when somebody figures out something. Good for Harrow.