The Outsider Act 4: Apprenticeship and Grandeur - Chapter 1- Lucius

• Posted by Soneca the Exiled January 1, 2014 - 832 views

  The walls were scorched, the ward Julia put around the room was weakening but the discharges were finally beginning to stop. The first thing I asked her to do was to manifest mana around her. This has been going as expected honestly…

   

  I suppose I should state clearly that I expected this to be disastrous; Zoe’s magic was exceedingly dangerous. Thankfully I could keep myself out of danger using my own magic. We’ve at this for days; thankfully she has been improving her control over raw magic, although this is the simplest form of magika control, casting spells will be a whole different thing.

   

  We took a break for the first time in a long while. This room was built especially for long periods of isolation, I had installed a small safe room reinforced with blast resistance and steel doors, that held some food and beds for us, the rations lasted a couple of days, but now it’s time to resurface again.

   

  -Zoe! Wake up! – I shouted

   

  She was not sleeping, but these moments of concentration often resulted in a state of trance. She looked at me and stopped focusing magika around her. The air suddenly became lighter, easier to breath; and the electrical currents around her ceased immediately.

   

  -Why are we stopping now? I’m just getting stated! – Zoe protested

   

  -I’m getting hungry Zoe, and besides, you need your rest as well –

   

  She began to formulate an excuse about how she could still do this for hours, and I would have believed her, for she still had an obscene amount of energy left inside her. That is, if I had not just ignored her and moved on to the door.

   

  I dispelled Julia’s ward and turned the great wheel of the steel door, opening the dammed heavy thing. Our break was not long lasting; Ralthos had left for Falkreath to get some provisions along with picking up my mail. We grabbed a bite to eat then descended back into the training room.

   

  After we closed the door I picked up a scroll from my pocket, Julia drew these runes, and imbued them with her magic. I read the scroll and the ward was cast upon the door, this would not be the same as if she had put it there herself, but it would do for now.

   

  -I will be now teaching you how to control actual magic – I said when we arrived at the training area – The most prominent schools seem blocked of to you. Destruction is the area, which I believe you would truly shine at, along with conjuration. Destruction, because it is essentially the release of raw magika weaved into elemental energy, and conjuration, because you would have more than enough energy flowing through you to subjugate any daedra to will –

   

  -But how about the other schools? –

   

  -Illusion seems out of reach to you, it requires a certain subtlety that you can’t ever hope to posses, enchanting, I know not of the craft, and your energy would most definitely overload the items you would create. But I won’t teach you either of those, destruction, I can teach you the basics since I’m no master of the art. Conjuration, I’ll have no part in that disgusting magic. What I will teach you, is alteration –

   

  -Alteration? But what good will flesh spells be? – Asked Zoe

   

  -Flesh spells? That is the most basic, and in my opinion, overused aspect of the school. The true art of alteration lies in the secrets of transmutation. You see, most mages view this as the simple transformation of metals, which can be useful, of course, but it is just a very small portion of it –

   

  -What do you mean with that? How will this be any different for me? –

   

  -The art of transmutation is not reliant on your own magic reserves, it follows it’s own set of laws and principles. The only energy liberated from your reserves is the spark necessary to jump-start the change. There are two ways of using transmutation, the first, and most basic, is with a drawn transmutation rune. There is a specific pattern for each type of transmutation, be it water, metal, stone, anything. They all require a specific circle that reflects their nature, and the nature of the desired result – I stated

   

  -But how does it work, in practical term of course, how do the things change? –

   

  -The rune is the base of your spell, the plan if you will. Once you draw the circle, you have to liberate a bit of your own energy to start the transmutation. The dwarves were the first ones to develop this technique; they used it to create their prized metal, and their focusing crystals. From their studies and research we have the following information: the transformation of mass goes through three stages. Compression, which is literally the compression of the material, and the understanding of the object. Then we have the stage of deconstruction, which consists in breaking down the atoms into a more malleable state, so it can be more easily reconstructed into a new shape. And of course we have reconstruction, which brings the atoms together into a new form –

   

  -So you can transform anything into what you want? What if I want to turn ash into diamonds does that work? –

   

  -It isn’t quite that simple, there are three laws all users of transmutation must obey, either because it is impossible to break them, or because it is unethical – I said while picking a small book from my pocket, I already knew these by heart, but I wanted to be sure – The first law is The Law of Conservation of Mass, which states that energy and matter can neither be created nor destroyed to the point of elemental nonexistence. In other words, to create an object weighing one kilogram, at least one kilogram of material is necessary and destroying an object with one kilogram of mass would reduce it to a set of parts, the sum of which would weigh one kilogram –

   

  -Wow, and I though I was the scholar here – Zoe replied

   

  -You may be an expert in dwemer constructs, but magic is my domain, and you are but an ignorant child here – I said, she seemed about to tell me to shut up, but I continued my speech before she could do so – the next one is The Law of Natural Providence, which states that an object or material made of a particular substance or element can only be transmuted into another object with the same basic makeup and properties of that initial material. In other words, an object or material made mostly of water can only be transmuted into another object with the attributes of water –

   

  -But what is essentially stopping me from breaking these laws? –

   

  -The rebound. Since the forces being manipulated are not of mortal origin, but of the world as a whole, the consequences for attempting to bypass the laws of equivalent exchange are not merely failure. When too much is attempted out of too little, what occurs is the rebound, in which the forces are thrown out of balance on either side of the equation and fluctuate wildly on their own accord in order to stabilize themselves, taking or giving more than what was intended in often unpredictable and catastrophic ways such as mutation, injury, or even death –

   

  -So, this can transform materials into other materials, if I remember correctly, the human body is made of 35 liters of water, 20 kilograms of carbon, 4 liters of ammonia, 1.5 kilos of lime, 800 grams of phosphorous, 250 grams of salt, 100 grams of niter, 80 grams of sulfur, 7.5 grams of fluorine, 5 grams of iron, 3 grams of silicon, and fifteen other elements. According to countless years of my research, these are the elements that make up an adult human body; there are minor variations for mer kind, but only in grams of quantity, and the general composition is the same. This means, I could reconstruct my arm! With the proper circle and materials, I could have my arm back! – She said with newfound hope and excitement

   

  I hung my head in sympathy, this was part of the reason I need to teach her alteration, and someone needs to tell her the truth. Better this than let her find out about this herself, and to stop her from trying.

   

  -There is a third law Zoe. The Law that Forbids Human Transmutation. Whether out of despair, malice or inquisitive hubris, several mages have been known to attempt the application of transmutation to human bodies and souls, in essence, playing god with mortal lives. But, just as the law of Equivalent Exchange applies to the transmutation of non-living matter, devastating rebounds can occur in mortal transmutation, because mortal lives and souls are priceless according to the flow of the world –

   

  But surely there is a way!? I know! With a soul gem, I could recreate the price! I could use the energy of a soul gem, even the energy I have inside of myself! That would surely recreate the price! – She said, with a look of despair

   

  -The soul is divided into two parts. The life force, which keeps us alive, which is fed to corpses to create undead and to feed the enchantments of the soul gems. And there is the consciousness. The consciousness is what holds our conscious being, what allows us to think, to be intelligent. Now tell me, can you measure the consciousness in units of weight? Can you classify its type of material? It’s mass? –

   

  -So, there is no hope, but not even just the arm? So I can be whole again – she said with a quiet tone

   

  -To transmute your arm, you would have to subjugate your entire self to a transmutation pattern. As I said before, the circle compresses, deconstructs and then reassembles, there is no mortal flesh resilient enough to go through that process, and even if there was, your consciousness would be lost in the middle of it, as you cannot compress and analyze it –

   

  -Then why? Why give me hope, and then tear it all away? –

   

  -You needed to hear it from someone, before you discovered it on your own and attempted the taboo. I would rather expose you to the hard truth before risking the lives of our family, of Sophia – I stated bluntly

   

  She stayed quiet after that, after the mention of Sophia’s name. She would rather die than hurt her and I knew that. I came closer to her and put my hand on her shoulder, the metallic one.

   

  -Sophia loves you, she does not care if you are half machine, I however, care. I care about the way you think of this, I care about the way you will try to fix this, and before you do this the wrong way, I will step in and teach you the right path –

   

  -You’re right, the priority of this is to control my destructive magic, and if you think alteration will help me, then so be it, lets start! –

   

  -Well if you think we will only be starting now then I guess you found all of the utmost important information I just gave you to be completely useless. Thank you for all of your appreciation! – I stated

   

  -Oh, you know what I meant –

   

  I reached into my pocket and picked the transmutation book.

   

  -We will start with something basic; you’ve a long way to go before you can make this useful for you. Let’s go with the most basic transmutation, water – I said while I grabbed a bucket from the floor and spilled its contents on the floor - Remember, alteration requires a very sane mind. To change the world around you, you must first understand what the world is, convince yourself of this truth, then accept it as a lie. Only when you are able to convince yourself that the world is a lie, you can trick it as well, changing it however you see fit - 

   

  I spent the next few hours trying to get her to her to spark a basic transmutation rune. The water transmutation was the easiest one to do, since water has one of the most malleable compositions of the elements. Half of the time she spent drawing the damn thing, we were using a bit of charcoal and a roll of paper, she would draw the circle, then placed the water pattern in the middle, and then used her magic to spark the reaction.

   

  And of course, the paper burned, because she put too much energy to activate the spark. Not giving up, she scribbled the pattern on the paper once more and tried again, with the same results.

   

  -Shit! Is there another way of doing this thing!? Drawing this fucking circle takes so long; do I have to do this all the fucking time? I can’t see how useful this skill can be if I have to stop and draw this dammed thing all of the time – said Zoe

   

  -Well obviously there are better ways, if there weren't, I would not have learned it in the first place. Usually people don’t use this in combat, but when they choose to do so they generally do two things, either the draw the circles first, then use them like scrolls, or the engrave the circle in something else. Gloves, gauntlets, tattoo on their skin, sometimes even their weapons. I’ve seen a man engrave a metal transmutation circle on their war hammer; he used it to transmute the enemy’s shield into a useless hunk of metal, or even gold, which is much easier to break – I added

   

  -So a good way of doing this would be to engrave the patterns I should use on my arm? –

   

  -That would be efficient yes, but I have a better way. I have kept this technique a secret from other mages, yes, I know that it is a bit selfish of myself, but until I have settled down and maybe ready to retire, then I will make this public and live the rest of my days as an old mage in some faraway shack. Essentially I combine two skills, the transmutation as a basis, and rune magic as a concept –

   

  -Rune magic? Is that not used for destruction? –

   

  -Wow, you’ve been out of the magic scene for a while! Studying dwemer constructs have rendered all other subjects useless for you? Fine, I will excuse you lack of knowledge on this because yes, it is most common for destruction mages to use rune magic. But rune magic follows certain rules; to use magic, one must release raw energy and weave it into a pattern, which then follows an additional release and the spell is created. Rune magic is a way of creating the pattern, and then filling it with energy, but also creating a trigger. This trigger, generally impact, is what is going to release the magicka stored inside the rune using the pattern created by the caster as the plan –

   

  -So I assume that you use rune magic to create the transmutation pattern? – Zoe asked

   

  -Yes, the downside obviously is that you must have the transmutation pattern in your mind, so you must remember every detail. Which is a minor setback, but is a bit bothersome, especially since transmutation patterns are considerably more complicated then simple destruction runes. Either way, if you seek to become a master of the arcane, there are a lot of formulas you'll need to learn... –

   

  -I think I got it then, shall we begin? –

   

  Her focus was impressive, I guess since transmutation has a more formulaic nature it probably sparked her interest a lot more. We spent the next few hours studying the patterns of water transmutation. It was still the most basic of them, so it was of utmost importance for her to learn this before going into metal and other materials. There are two basic properties of water, freezing and boiling. With these properties as a base, you work with water as whole, freezing and boiling it to reshape it as you wish. Even if it is the most basic of transmutations, water can also be one of the most dangerous ones. Provided you can get close enough to touch your target and complete the transmutation, you could boil and freeze the water on his blood, to create a deadly, devastating result.

   

  She got up from her chair and took one last look at my book, then she quickly drew a pattern into a roll of paper and faced the target dummy, the ground still wet from the bucket that I spilled to practice with water. She picked the paper and sparked the reaction. The energy jumped out of the paper and into the water on the floor, the puddle began to change, then it quickly jumped out in the direction of the dummy and turned into ice, creating spikes that impaled it.

   

  She was radiant now, completely proud of herself. This was the first time she actually used magic without any sort of incident! Her smile was contagious, and soon I saw myself with a slight grin on my face.

   

  -I did it! Holy shit, this is so good! This is the first fucking time I used magic without exploding everything! – She said with the largest smile I had seen in days, for a while there, I guess she forgot about everything, the war, the vampires, and her arm.

   

  -That is impressive Zoe, you will make a fine mage…