《Ghost Mage》 1 - Through the Looking Glass I wasn''t ready to die. Even at age 104, I was always eager to see what the next day would bring and to find the little joys the world constantly offered. But the pain and pain-killers had gradually worn me down to the point that I simply couldn''t hold on. I drifted. Eventually there came a day that I drifted too long and my body gave out before I could focus back onto keeping it going. Darkness came, then disorientation. But I still wanted to LIVE. And somehow I could feel the threads of life as I found my soul being drawn in towards...something... But as I was being drawn in, I could also feel threads around me and knew, somehow, what they were. My "oversoul" was leading other lifetimes, many of them, and in some mysterious way, they were all "ME", we shared an identity at some very profound level. I had always had a background inkling of such a process, reinforced by my reading of "The Nature of Personal Reality" in my youth. And my dreams had often included such content - other lives I was leading in other realms of reality. I knew that if I let myself go through the entire "death process" it would essentially dismantle the identity I had always thought of as myself. I would still exist, of course, but would be cycled through to another life with only the basic concepts of my previous experiences retained. I didn''t want that. I LIKED my current ego-self and the memories and personality I had formed over so many years. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. So I came to a halt and looked around. I was almost certainly on the "astral plane", but with no "silver cord" connecting me to a physical body. The "higher self" drawing me in indulged this, I even felt a kind of approval. It had been an offer, not a command. There were other offers on the table, and I was now free to look them over. I was able to go back and see Earth, watch my funeral, even send a sense of empathetic well-being to various loved ones. I could explore the many layers of the astral, but nearly all the souls I encountered there were either dreaming or "stuck" in meaningless loops. Some of those loops were heavenly, some hellish. I tried my hand a few times at helping people out of their loops, but I didn''t really have the calling to be an astral guide. I wanted to be IN an active life story taking place in one of the physical realms - but without letting go of who I was. As always, in the spirit, the answer was there if I allowed it to happen - so I trusted and let myself drift into a dreamstate. I woke up - sort of. I recognized my situation quickly from my half-forgotten otherworldly dreams. I was a ride-along soul in a living body, with another ego in control. I could see him, but he couldn''t see me. I was simply constantly aware of his surface thoughts (it didn''t matter at all what language was in use, that part is handled by brains, not souls). Without knowing it, he had called on me - this was a fantasy world and I was his magic. 2 - Liam Finds His Magic Liam: The girls were laughing at me again, and each day there was more derision and less playfulness in their amusement. Easy for them to laugh, since well over 90% of girls got their magic along with their first period - "the magic of life-giving" they liked to call it. We boys had to do it the hard way, or "cheat" with a willing girl (likely getting both sent to exile). Adult relations were strictly forbidden until both parties had at least 2nd level magical competence certification. The girls, of course, loved to taunt us with their tricks and talents - especially those of us who were slow to come into our own magic. Even Salia, my childhood playmate and co-troublemaker in youthful adventures, was starting to ignore me after trying for months to help guide me by showing off how her own magic worked. She was an air mage, and could already fly (very slowly) and control the winds for yards around her. She literally ran with the wind at her back, which was handy in all kinds of sports, and I missed the days of a year ago when she would run alongside me and share the winds. According to my teachers, I simply didn''t have the talent for magical energy. I would either have to find it within myself, or attempt to summon a spirit guide. Having failed at the first, I was now headed for the summoning ceremony. Spirit guides were tricky things, at best they would be lifelong friends and companions, at worst they could steal your body and evict your soul - if you lost the battle of wills. All of that was the reason I''d had to request a formal summoning ceremony with talented magi to guard against possession by the forces of chaos or the demonic realms. Fortunately, I was told that I had a fairly "light" soul bias and would be unlikely to attract anything too evil, when I had my pre-summoning interview. Arriving at the central cathedral, my parents and student guide were already waiting for me. Dad sent me a quick "victory salute" and Mom blew me a kiss. My guide, Merlo, introduced me to an impressive-looking couple who were to be my protection magi. Amber was a tiny, dark-haired women with a yellow complexion, while Neltor was a somewhat large, heavily built dark-skinned many with striking green eyes. Either one would have no trouble at all intimidating ME if they so chose - I hoped it was the same for any spirit with fel intentions. Of course, there was only so much protection they could provide, since the whole point of the ritual was to throw my mind so wide open that a helpful and powerful spirit could form a connection with my soul. They did cast a screening shield that should at least tell them the power level of whatever entity came through, and another to monitor MY soul so that they could try to rescue me if I were to come under attack. Everything in place, I drank the potion (a sedative/hallucinogen mixture to open and relax the mind) and tried to calm and open myself - trying to form a mental construct of what I sought - a powerful, helpful creature of magic that could connect me to the upper realms that I could not reach on my own. As my mind floated in cozy darkness, I cast out my search, drawing the attention of various entities. I had a sense of being looked over, judged...and found wanting. Then something strange happened - I snapped back into my body, fully alert and aware, feeling warm and empowered far beyond anything I had experienced before. And then I passed out. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Neltor: Did you feel that, Amber? Nothing registered on the shield, but his vitals spiked and his body had a momentary level 3 empowerment. Amber: Is he OK? I was mostly focused on the shield and his internal outburst caught me by surprise. He could never survive a level 3 burst of any duration. Neltor: It didn''t seem like an attack. It was more like he just suddenly overflowed with energy and blew out all his stops. It ended almost instantly, but knocked him out cold. The strange part is that nothing from outside showed up at all - it was more like part of his own soul burst. And he registers as a mage now - just barely, but there is a steady connection to magic that wasn''t there before. Amber: I''m not seeing any signs of a soul besides his own, but I do think his ident changed slightly - double-check his ident crystal. Neltor: It''s still a match, but there is a slight set of background complexity that wasn''t there before. I''m going to put it down as a soul-burst mana connection. Instead of summoning a spirit, he somehow blew away a small piece of his natural mana blockage - enough to let him use magic, hopefully. We''ll have to see how it goes when he wakes up. Amber: Either way, I don''t see any sign of an ongoing threat, so we can release him to family care for now. Soul-burst is only dangerous to oneself, after all. I hope his friends and family warn him away from perusing it any further - most soul-bursters die of self-immolation. He can have good life as a level 1 mage from the bit he just opened. -------------------------------------------- Well, THAT was certainly an interesting conversation, I thought. And a great cover story as well. It was too bad I''d knocked Liam for such a loop. When I got here and felt I was supposed to provide magical power, I just DID - all my years of trying the same thing in the VERY, VERY low magic environment on Earth seemed to translate to incredible power here. Liam hadn''t had any way to handle it, and I was still too disoriented to do anything but cut the flow ASAP. I could still feel the potential, right there "in the palm of my nonexistent hand", ready to use. Fortunately, I still had my astral senses, as well as a shadow of Liam''s passive physical ones, which had let me follow the conversation. All I could do for now was to tamp down the magic to a bare minimum so Liam could recover. It was going to be a pain to get him adapted to anything serious, I could already tell. And me too, for that matter, as I had the exact opposite problem - too much power to control...it would be SO easy to let more in.... But if I understood correctly, that would turn Liam''s body to plasma and make me just a free-floating ghost again, probably with lots of local company. Liam: It felt like I had exploded, so I was very pleasantly surprised to wake pain-free - with surging vitality in every part of my body, in fact - including the embarrassing kind. Being hard as a rock as a patient in a recovery room just wasn''t normal, but it was a bit magical in its own way, I admitted. And I could feel the magic infusing me, even though it was nothing compared to the tsunami that had knocked me out. Still, I knew the drill. This would be the spirit''s magic, not mine. Eventually I could learn to store and control it, but I would always depend on the spirit to generate it, according to the textbooks. But why had they released me, if such a powerful spirit had attached itself to me? According to doctrine, they should have waited until I woke and helped me establish a relationship with the spirit, while identifying it''s true nature and power level. As I thought this, very tiny pulses of mana pulsed through me, gently - somehow feeling like a mystical laugh. Then the magical feeling faded away, with only the tiniest trickle remaining. Feeling "normal" once again, I got up from my bed and went to tell my parents that I was OK. 3 - Breaking the Bad News I was starting to get worried about these people. Magic here was TOO easy, yet the population obviously struggled with it. I was missing a lot about how this world operated. Everything around me felt - delicate. Especially Liam''s body. Even worse was Liam''s ASTRAL body - it was faint and seemed hard-welded to his physical body. These people certainly didn''t use astral travel. In my time haunting Earth, there was constant traffic in astral travelers. The difficulty had been in bringing any memories of it back to the physical. The energy wall people on Earth needed to bring things from the astral to the physical was huge. Here, it was trivial, but they simply didn''t HAVE much energy. Their astral forms were pathetic - small globs of energy with the vague shape of their bodies. All the energy they DID gather was immediately gobbled up by the physical. So they just didn''t use their astral forms as vehicles at all, just as energy sponges. By their standards, I was a nuclear bomb, because I still retained full awareness on the astral AND maintained the higher energy creation tools from my meditation experience back on Earth - tools that could never develop here without a risk of frying brains at every step (bursting, they called it). What made this all possible was our soul connection - for all intents and purposed, Liam was ME. His reactions were exactly what I would have done in his situation and with his knowledge. His soul was another branching of my own "oversoul". Due to this, I could "hide" within him very easily. In fact, if I fully relaxed, I "became" him, as a passenger with full awareness of exactly what he was thinking and feeling each moment, with my Earth identity inactive. I did this when Liam got up to see his parents. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Liam: Mom! Dad! I''m awake! Mom: So glad you''re up so soon! We''re here in the kitchen. (as Liam arrived in the kitchen) I''m so sorry your summoning didn''t work out - but at least you''ll have SOME magic. You won''t be a cripple. What do you mean? I feel fine. I feel a spirit within me with incredible power. Dad: Sorry son, but you need to stay away from that "power" you feel - it''s your bursting potential. You had a burster breakthrough instead of getting a spirit. Fortunately, you survived it well, but you''d be risking your life each time you try to expand on it. Mom: Tomorrow, you''re scheduled for a special course for coping with burster abilities, and then you''ll be going through a full evaluation to see what abilities you''ve opened up and how you can safely use them. Dad: From what your monitors told us, you''re safe playing with any energy that naturally comes through to you, but don''t call on it or try to draw in more - you''re sitting on a floodgate that could destroy you. Mom: You''re doing way better than they guessed, though. The monitors expected you to be out for several more hours, and to be in severe pain for a day or two. I bet you opened a healing channel! That would be wonderful - even at level 1, a healer can always support themselves. Everyone likes having them around. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Level 1? But that''s NOTHING, Mom! By the time I''m 18, I''ll be right back in the same situation, left behind by all my friends and classmates. Dad: You might make level 2 if the academy believes they can guide you through a safe bursting. Your odds went up a lot from this quick recovery. You''d still be risking burnup, though, so take it slow and be VERY sure of your odds before you try it. Remember, a third of people never get beyond level 2, so you''ll be perfectly normal if you can get there. Mom: And think of it this way - you don''t have to worry about the whims of a spirit! YOU have full control. I was horribly worried about having to deal with a new spirit persona in the house, so it''s a relief in some ways. Dad: Now eat, and later I''ll take you to the novice Wild Spar event this evening. ------------------------------------------------- That last bit woke me from my immersion in Liam. The rush of thought Liam had at the mention of a Wild Spar opened up part of this whole new world for me. It was an event for level 1 and 2 proto-magi to face off against magic-endowed small animals in combat, and they would have their puny (my impression) astral forms then absorb the remaining energy from the hapless dead creature. It explained how they got energy when they weren''t able to draw much in directly from spirit - they captured another being''s energy before it could escape. At least it gave their pathetic astral forms a path to develop. The cover story was working well. Any extra power they detected from Liam would be blamed on his lack of control, and he would just be warned to calm down and not trigger a "burst". He would also not be expected to fight, as any life-or-death situation would almost certainly force him to try to draw more power and trigger that deadly burst. This was great, as I had never been in combat my entire long Earth-life, and ME going bonkers in a serious fight would be pretty deadly for any of these people who were near. The other triggered revelation was minor, but when healing was mentioned, Liam''s memories came to the surface and I knew that healing talents were over 90% the province of females, so it was quite a blow to his "masculine image" that his main talents might lie in that direction. Further memory triggers came from the meal itself. It was from the garden district, which surrounded the city and formed a buffer between the people and the potentially dangerous animal habitat beyond. The food animals for the city were a constant temptation for predators, and even herbivores could often sense and be drawn to the outer gardens. Keeping watch at the outer wall of the gardens was a normal training activity for teens, and it was also there that the Wild Spars were held. ------------------------------------------------ Caswar didn''t like this new burster report. There was no damage - other than the student going unconscious. There should have been SOME manifestation of destruction, especially if it reached level 3. Not that 3 was all that high, but it was insane for it to be channeled through a level 0 without obvious damage. But the record crystal showed no incompatibility, no soul adjustment, so a burst was the only viable explanation. Any spirit, especially one with such power and control, would have triggered the containment wards, only the boy''s own soul could have passed through unseen. Of course a "clear burst" was possible in theory, but none had ever been recorded. In such a case, the energy would have been so in tune with the boy that it could control itself, willingly locking away the extra energy harmlessly. But that (according to the theory) would require an astral form with a full set of chakra points - which should be impossible in a level zero with NO active bodily chakra points. Imagine anyone crazy enough to build a full astral power structure while the physical body was still a cripple! And with what as a power source?? Silly mystic fantasies - he really shouldn''t read that theoretical garbage. He''d attend the evaluation tomorrow, just to satisfy his curiosity. Bursters did help push forward the bounds of knowledge, after all, even if most ended up dying horribly. 4 - The Wild Spar The Garden District wasn''t that different from gardens on Earth, but it was vast and operated on a community level. Easier and "safe" crops were grown nearest the city, while the more exotic kinds were kept on the outskirts. The MOST exotic plants were grown outside the Garden District itself, near the well-guarded Travel Gates - of which this city had three. The Youth Arena, where the Spar was happening, was next to one of the exotic gardens, and so the nearby guards were often able to catch the smaller animals that were attracted to the mystic plant life. Every few weeks, when the cages were full, level 1 and 2 youths would be allowed to come fight the assorted animals, to gain power and control, and to show off their skills to the various guilds and institutions. Most of the animals (in this area) were similar to their Earth versions. The trick was that nearly all of them had some form of magical skill or enhancement. Squirrels were the most common, because they tended towards flight talents and thus commonly threw themselves into the wards protecting the gardens, and the guards would scoop them up and cage them when the wards flashed and nullified their air-based powers briefly. Rats were the most dangerous, because they had the greatest variety of abilities and one didn''t know what to expect of one - let alone a group. Crows had the greatest range of magic power, and (of course) their flight abilities didn''t depend on air magic. Foxes were the largest animals permitted in these low-level events, and even these could challenge the strength of full-grown men. As the audience seated themselves, a prelude event was staged for those children most newly awakened, as dozens of mice and moles were released and 4 newbie kids were sent in to wipe them out. As usual, the youngsters lack of coordination or control of their abilities led to various "comedy of error" situations. A rock mole resisted their cuts and stabs and eventually had to be held in place while the young "fire mage" slowly roasted it. The rest were taken out by conventional means with only minor magic use visible. I was much too far away to sense the "energy awards" as the kids gathered around the freshly dead bodies and sucked up traces of magic, but they seemed happy with the results. The animals HAD shown bits of power a few times. One electrical zap had floored a kid for several seconds, and two or three had gotten in some good bites with movement skills. I noticed that most of the kids wore some form of eye and neck protection - probably the only places such small creatures could cause serious damage. Liam seemed a bit nervous as he tried to imagine how he would do, and I sent some very small pulses of warming energy through him as reassurance. His parents warnings had hit him hard, despite the fact that he could feel that he was safe. I was constantly experimenting to get a clear idea of what Liam''s mind and body could comfortably handle. The sweet spot, it seemed, was Liam''s outer aura - the area from the surface of his skin to about 2 feet out. So long as I stayed outside his physical body, he didn''t suffer energy burns, as his own astral form kept itself well inside his skin. If I tried to do anything beyond his basic auric sheath, it quickly went out of control, since Liam''s body was still my conceptual grounding point and I needed some form of contact with his energy system in order to manifest. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. My other big project was to figure out how to strengthen all Liam''s weaknesses - which was funny, in a way, because he was faster and stronger than any Earth child his size had ever been. But trying to feel for the structure of his energy, both physical and astral, was hard work - it was SO delicate. And yet it was the reason his body was so much better than it would have been on Earth. All the magic in his life was used up creating those enhancements, as was expected for all children in this culture. I was starting to form a plan, but Liam was going to hate it.... ------------------------------------------------------ Liam: It just didn''t make any sense. I KNEW there was a spirit present. In fact, I could feel the humor from it when my parents denied it could be there. It, for some reason, simply didn''t WANT anyone else to know it was there - and it LIKED me being labeled as a Burster. Did it not understand how this would mess up my life almost as badly as being powerless? One thing I already knew - it had some near-perfect way to hide. Me warning people about it would only make them worry that I was unstable, which was a very dangerous thing for a "burster" to be. I had to show that I was in control of myself. The only real advantage was that my plan itself was a total success - I HAD an insanely powerful spirit bonded with me, and I could feel it had no intention of harming me. I could also feel it was taking an intense interest in the Spar battles - as if it had never seen such things before. In fact, I could feel echoing cracklings of energy just above my skin during some of the more intense moments. After one such, Dad cautioned me not to get too excited, as he thought it was ME releasing a burst of static electricity that caused my hair to frizz a bit. I said what he expected - that I wished I was allowed to participate. But as I thought about it more - there was no reason to. My spirit could easily provide more energy in a moment than these kids were getting from the entire evening. At that, I got yet another burst of humor and a wave of energy that went all the way through me - exactly what I had just speculated he could do. Oh my divine! This meant I was going to have to STUDY! I never worried much about the details of forming my energy channels - I had always needed everything I could get for basic health and physique. I still needed those, of course, but now I would be able to form the channels for basic mana control as well. As the Spars continued, I tried to imagine myself in their place. I could see that my body just wasn''t up to it. I would get killed by anything that weighed in at over about 2 pounds, was my best guess, just from being so weak, slow, and soft. As I thought this, I got another impression of a laugh from the spirit, and there was a "CRACK" sound under my hand, as a 4-inch chunk of solid hardwood came loose from the bench I was sitting on and sat calmly in my hand. -------------------------------------------- OK, I shouldn''t have. But I had to get the kid out of his defeatist mind-set. Also, I wanted to see if I''d been kidding myself about my actual abilities here. If anything, it was easier than expected. Anything entering Liam''s aura would have ME to contend with, should it try to harm him. But he was right in another way - these people were used to mystical levels of strength, speed, and durability. I could help a lot with the strength and durability, I was sure. Speed would be harder - hopefully Liam would know something about how to do that part. I had always known that time on the astral was subjective, but I had simply never looked into that aspect. There had never been a reason to, and I had no idea how to go about it. And then to synch it up with physical combat just made the whole thing an impossibility for me at my current level of awareness. Guess they still have a lot of tricks to show me. Hopefully this old dog can learn the new tricks. 5 - Evaluation Day As the Spar continued, I was impressed with the natural abilities of native animal life. It was no wonder people put so much effort into enhancing their bodies - they needed to to hold their own. A normal Earth warrior could have handled the small vermin, but the rats and squirrels would have been about an even match for any soldier with only hand weapons. The fox and raccoon were another level up and such a warrior would have needed either armor or firearms - and even then might be killed by unexpected magical abilities. The fox had a "blink" ability that let it teleport a small distance every 10 seconds or so, coupled with the speed and power of an Earth cheetah. The raccoon had been able to reflect projectiles, both normal and magical, and was not so fast, but seemed incredibly strong. Both had been moderate challenges for teams of 3 beginner level 2 human magi. There had also been a kind of flaming lizard, but a fledgling ice mage had dispatched it easily. As Liam watched, I caught on that men were more disposed to fire and ice abilities, and women to air and water, while both shared earth about equally. There were many additional types as well, but the distinctions were not as clear or common. About 15% were pure body enhancement and didn''t "cast" their magic at all. Liam was eager to find his specializations, which would be most of tomorrow''s purpose. From Liam''s background thoughts, humanity here had always been "under siege" by nature to some extent, but were now in fairly firm control of "the surface world" due to teams of high-powered magi, basic technology (think about 1700s), and the production and use of magical tools and weapons. But there were no small villages or encampments. Ordinary people could never even consider "a hike in the wilderness" - that would take a level 5 mage or better, and at least 2 of them so that one could always be on watch. That was considered the minimum to survive encountering something like a bear or wolf pack without injury - let alone hunt bison or elk. There were thought of many other creatures flitting through Liam''s mind as well, but they didn''t connect well with my memories of Earth animals, so I just had vague impressions of them. I also noticed that the girls participating were younger than the boys, almost exclusively. The girls were maybe 13-14, and the boys 16-17. Liam was 16 and felt he should be "in there" - if only his magic had woken on time. The talented girls Liam''s age were mostly level 3 mages by now, if they didn''t hit limits. His friend Salia, for example, was nearing level 4 and starting to master flight. Even as an air mage (the physically weakest type) she was about twice as strong as Liam, who was 6" taller and quite fit. When Liam watched her in a pervious Spar, she had been in the center of her own little hurricane, blowing away anything that tried to attack her. As each animal was killed, magic was absorbed. Strangely, it seemed that magic they USED in fighting and what they took in for self-development were different. What they gained from killing was somehow a stimulus for their own abilities in a way that what they could absorb from the general environment wasn''t. I learned from Liam''s casual thoughts that his Dad was a high level 5, but had been stuck there for quite some time, and he was mostly a physical enhancement type with on-contact electrical powers - so he liked metal armor and weapons. -------------------------------------------- Liam: Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. The Spar had been good relaxation - a return to normalcy, in a way. The only change was that now I thought I could handle myself in a Spar if need be. Maybe they''d even let me try it later on if I could show enough control. With the spirit, guardsman status was nearly certain - I no longer had to worry about being a maintenance or garden worker, worrying constantly about giving offense. But if I didn''t show the control they wanted, I might end up in "research", the only place a wild burst would be thought of as a bonus rather than a danger. On the way home, Dad gave me a few tips on electrical control to help me with the evaluations tomorrow. I smiled at him, extended my arms, and produced a 2" spark between my outstretched fingers, which made him very happy, despite his worries. Yes, it was just momentary static, but I''d done it on my own. Even the spirit hadn''t taken active part. Next week, Dad told me, my older sister Kally should be coming home from her escort trial - her first time visiting another city. Korris was an ocean port and twice the size of our own Cielo. They were one of the great shipping ports that connected the world. The minimum level for ocean ship escort was level 7, so imported goods were insanely expensive - only trade in enchanted items and dungeon explorers made it worth the costs. NO ONE could afford a local dungeon breakout, and there were only 17 active level 10+ clearing teams in the world. The trade mission Kally was with should be bringing in the magic supplies for our home-town level 8-9 team to clear out the 3 dungeons in our area so that we wouldn''t have to pay the fees involved in hiring one of the ultra-elite teams. It would be mainly materials for the custom armor and weapons each high-powered dungeoneer needed tailored to their specific abilities and sizes. Here in Cielo, we only had access to a few air-type enchanting materials - we had to trade for anything else. The rule of thumb for dungeons was that outbreaks were set back one year for each floor cleared. Sometimes a dungeon could be made dormant by finding and sealing its pathway to the Underdark, but that was tricky and dangerous. Even if it worked, it might set an Ancient One on a rampage. -------------------------------------------- Sleep was strange here. In the dreams, I was Liam, and I was dreaming about Earth - mostly distorted or re-invented versions of my own memories. Everything felt both familiar and strange at the same time. Still, it was nice that he had some way to learn my side of our mutual story, as I could learn his from his surface thoughts. I learned a lot as Liam prepared for his evaluation, and wondered to what degree I should participate. I decided that I would just keep his own mana topped off at a comfortable level for him and let him do what he could while I kept myself undetectable. Liam had studied for this all his life - I would only mess things up and make him look dangerous if I took a direct role in it. The evaluation hall was fairly empty, since there were no graduations going on. Routine activity was just helping magi evaluate their gains when they broke through to the next level. ----------------------------------------------- Caswar looked over the young Liam in sympathy - he might well be stuck forever at this level. But it was better than the impression he had gotten from the report. Liam was sitting very near the top of level 1 in aura strength and background power and the flow of his magic was more steady than usual for a new mage. Also, he seemed calm and confident, so being knocked out hadn''t intimidated him. Caswar watched as he was questioned about the basics involved and cautioned not to try to draw too deeply or "force it" during the tests. His knowledge wasn''t great, but he should at least be able to follow instructions. Then they started in. Liam was giving basic manifestation instructions in each of the known common and uncommon elements, and asked to produce a simple effect in each. He started off quite well, producing each of the basic common elements in tiny but well formed effects. But as they progressed into the less common elements, Caswar''s interest grew - he was manifesting EVERYTHING asked of him. There were no struggles or failures. They were tiny effects, of course, but he wasn''t being drained by the constant, diverse practice being asked of him, and he was producing ALL the elements, as if he had no special affinity. That shouldn''t happen. In his experience, it COULD''T happen. Caswar blinked in astonishment as Liam calmly manifested tiny bits of gravitational and inertial magic that would challenge HIM. Caswar had no idea how to react. He simply didn''t know what was going on. His mind went back to the "clear burst" theory - could even that explain what was happening? 6 - Results and Warnings Caswar spent the rest of the evening writing up everything he could about Liam''s evaluation results. The actual test administrators knew the results were unexpected and exceptional, but had no idea to what degree that was true. Since Caswar hadn''t stepped in, they simply continued the full evaluation - finding Liam from adequate to exceptional in every testable affinity. Caswar''s report was going straight to the head of research at Everlight University - he needed answers - or at least rational guesses. ---------------------------------------------- Liam: The spirit wasn''t going to make this as easy as I had hoped - he didn''t take any direct action at all as the tests were thrown at me. What DID happen was that my energy levels stayed full, no matter what I did, meaning that I had endless tries at manifesting each affinity they asked of me. I often had to get them to repeat or clarify the instructions several times, because I''d never even heard of any of the strange affinities they came up with at the end of the test period - chaos? void? Were those even real things? Yet somehow once I understood the instructions well enough, I was able to manifest what they were asking for. It was as if affinity just didn''t matter. I was simply using magic to create the effect they asked of me. With some of it, I could see potential, but most just seemed to have no practical use at all. The other part that bugged me was that I felt cut off from feeding my magic into body enhancement - practically the only thing I had experience with! Instead, I felt strange drilling feelings and oddly uncomfortable pulsing in many parts of my body. Whatever it was, my physical evaluations were even lower than normal for me, the class weakling. After several hours, they were done with me, and I waited with Dad as they prepared my future. When I talked over what had happened with Dad, he got a very strange look in his eyes and said: I think you misunderstood some of that, son, but I''ll want to hear what the evaluations have to say. Most on an hour later, the head evaluator came in. He addressed Dad first: Misho, this boy of yours is both incredibly lucky and in great danger. The good news - he can work with any known affinity. The bad news is that he is going to be a target. He''s simply too weak to defend himself from those who would want to abuse his more unusual talents, like Mind or Chance affinity. Because of this, we advise he spend the next few month in training and study, then attempt another bursting. Yes, I know it''s dangerous, but he just can''t survive in his current condition once his skills become known. From what little we know, he needs to somehow create channels in both his body and astral form, that will guide and store incredible amounts of magic. With his first burst, he registered level 3 magic. Next time, we should expect at least level 5. So think of it as having to endure the effects of the highest-power Lightning Grasp YOU could put out. Liam, YOU are going to study like mad! But for tonight, here are the rules for NOT using certain restricted affinities - read them carefully, because the laws regarding them are very strict. The big one - no one with Luck affinity is allowed to gamble for anything of value. Even your friends and family will be held suspect if you are present when they win anything. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Also, tomorrow, you are going to get a personal Spar session. The one affinity we couldn''t test today was Life Force. We need to see how your system handles your kills. ----------------------------------------------- Well, that went better than expected. They were still stuck on the "burster" explanation and had no clue about me. This "aspect" framework was obviously what was holding this world back. They had no "unified field theory" for magic, and weren''t looking for one. Instead, they were treating magic like we treated the chemical elements back on Earth - creating table and properties and dividing them into groups. They hadn''t yet gotten to the "subatomic" level of seeing it was all made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. My own "magic" had that as a basic assumption, and so the magic I provided Liam could be used for any of it. Of course, looking at it that way also made me the analog of a magical atomic bomb. I hoped they had a good training regime in store for Liam, because I REALLY needed a handle on this "aspecting" system. I also though over how I would handle the Spar tomorrow. I certainly didn''t need any energy from a dead critter, either for myself or to give to Liam. I could hang back and let Liam try to process it on his own - he would at least have a connection to it now. The combat itself would be a great test of my own control. I was certain that once anything entered Liam''s aura, it would be mine to do with as I pleased - but what SHOULD I do with them? I would protect Liam from harm, of course, but should I take a hand in the kill or let Liam do the dirty work? My other project was under way - forming a true chakra system for Liam, both physical and astral, and all the supporting energy channels. I had been gratified to hear that the evaluators had recommended much the same thing - even though they did so out of fear of what a "burst" might do to Liam. As I worked, I could feel his vulnerabilities to casual magic start to fade and natural cycling begin to take hold. A few more days, and THEN we could start really buffing up his body the way he had always wanted. The astral part was tricky. I had learned that his astral form had lived his entire life constantly draining itself to buff his physical body - gathering energy into itself was a new experience. Also, astral forms here were confined - not allowed to go out and explore. I didn''t know yet how or why that was the case, other than their weakness and vulnerability. From what I had felt around me with my own astral senses, people didn''t start any serious astral development until at least level 4, when they needed it for longer range effects. I''d bet air mages started on it earlier, though, so maybe get Liam to ask Salia?? As for myself, I was fairly sure I could astral project safely, but the silver cord would be very fragile, since Liam''s body wasn''t much of an anchor for it yet. Tonight, I would try it - staying within the home itself and observing what his parent''s astral forms did at night. --------------------------------------- At Everlight University, Moridan, head of research, was very excited! If he was correct, this burster kid had opened up a channel giving him access to Primordial magic - PURE magic, untouched by intent. It might only be a trickle, but it could advance his studies by centuries. In the world of Atlan, Primordial magic had been used up - changed into cycles of attuned intention by a billion years of living beings making use of it. What little new magic entered came in already aspected by the intent of the summoner. Somehow, this kid was bringing it in BEFORE giving it purpose. Moridan quickly headed for the Great Library - it looked like the ancient history section might have useful information for once. In the outer office, unnoticed by Moridan, a receptionist decided this was the time to go active and contact the cartel. Endless power held by a helpless child - she would be set for life with just the award for passing on this information. All she had to do was make sure she herself wouldn''t be killed to keep the secret. Her level 7 Mind affinity had finally made her the fortune the cartel had promised when they assigned her this job. 7 - Animal Lives The astral scouting had been frustrating - these people''s astral forms acted as if they were welded to their physical bodies. Even their silver cords were vestigial, meaning that they would be in danger of never waking up if they went on the kind of nightly journeys common to sleeping people on Earth. Limited dreaming meant limited imaginations, it seemed to me, so this entire society probably lacked the dynamic creativity needed to change and advance. I wasn''t going to let that happen to Liam. Once I built him a good foundation, I was going to pry him loose for real astral journeys. With the combination of my energy and his grounding to his physical body, we should be quite safe from whatever astral terrors those in this world feared so much. But without taking Liam along, my own anchor here was too fragile to risk it. I wasn''t concerned with being damaged, but I COULD have my attachment here severed and be thrown back to simply being dead. Liam''s dreams, again, were working hard on acclimating him to my Earth perspective. Our soul bond was getting closer and deeper more quickly than I expected, and I could feel my "old geezer" self-image slowly fading away, and a new type of maturity growing within Liam. As one might expect, this led him quickly to more serious thoughts about his relationship with Salia. I could see from his ponderings that Salia really cared for him, but had been letting the distance between them grow when his magic wouldn''t awaken - she had ambitions for her life, after all, and needed a partner that could support her. Liam grinned inwardly as he thought of the impression he could make on her now. Liam was betting he could convince HER that he had gotten a spirit, and wasn''t a doomed burster! And then there had been the homework. Liam had been given the entire book on the legal and ethical restrictions of magic use. Half of these were normal course work for girls, most of whom could cope with Blood and Life Magic, both of which had extensive ethical restrictions. For most boys, it was simply "Don''t damage stuff you didn''t intend to damage" with their more blunt-force abilities. Liam''s (and MY) ethical challenges were on a whole other level. We could damage someone''s magic ability for life with a casual blast of one of the more exotic forms of magic - which they would have no defense against. Fortunately, most adults were a couple levels or more above us in development, which gave them a large degree of automatic resistance - but other kids Liam''s age were wide open. I could feel what the books were talking about, now that I knew what to look for - these people couldn''t shield themselves against anything outside of their aspect compatibilities. The overall system was much like the old "elemental" advantages and disadvantages in Earth stories - with Earth tending to provide the best defense and Fire the least, even though Fire was a very good offensive aspect. Water and Air were better at deflecting, and Cold did some of each. But all the "odd" affinities had their own rules, compatibilities, and incompatibilities, and Liam was going to have to learn at least the basics of most of them, if he wanted to be effective when it came to crunch time. And if we even wanted to leave the city, we''d be exposed to a wide range of possible dangers. Humans here were only BARELY in charge of most of Atlan''s surface, nature was constantly threatening. Underground were nightmares - deep dark things of the distant past that the people tried not to think of for fear of summoning them. On rare occasions (every couple of centuries or so), a city would simply vanish - becoming some form of diseased wilderness. It was assumed (confirmed by divination, at times) that those places had attracted the attention of one of the old lurking nightmares. On a more "rational worry" front, Godzilla-type creatures tried to visit a city somewhere about every decade or so - but humans were able to fight off about 90% of those. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. --------------------------------------------------------- Liam: Strange dreams again - gotta be coming from my new spirit, I assume. What a strange world, all those people and no magic. So weak and yet free to roam their planet as they chose. Wildlife so fragile that much of it was in danger of going extinct! And then there were their "machines" - like thousands of tiny enchantments working in synch with each other. And human nations able to actually going to war with one another, like rival guilds in the stories. Warriors hunting each other the way we would clear a trade route through the wilds, clearing the beasts that would oppose us. We all know how corrupt some magi can get at higher levels - the power madness is something all officials over level 6 are required to have annual screening for to hold any public office. Seeing how the corrupt acted on Earth reminded me of what the evaluator had said - that I might become a target if my abilities became known. Still, it''s not like I would have a choice in the matter - my spirit would either do as they asked or not. It was obviously not going to simply take orders. In fact, I was going to assume here and now that any such evil humans were going to be in far more danger than myself, because nothing they could do or say to me was likely to stop HIM from doing whatever he chose to do. After a quick breakfast of eggs and fried veggies, Dad led me off to the Spar arena. -------------------------------------------- Caswar was up at dawn, and so was the initial response from the University - Primordial Magic, was his answer. He hadn''t heard of that since his advanced History of Magic courses. Supposedly, all of Atlan had been infused with it before Life emerged. It was crude and powerful and easily shaped by intention into normal, aspected, magic of any kind. It could still be found in traces, scattered into ancient rock formations that had never been processed by anything living. Usually, when anything alive drew in energy from Spirit, it was customized by their intent into aspects, since that was a far more efficient and stable form, and what all Atlan life instinctively created from the Spirit realm to create and maintain their life force. Liam, it seemed, was getting the raw stuff instead, and in large quantity to make up for the inefficiency. By this theory, Liam was casually using up maybe 10 times the actual mana needed to power his magic, but gained a huge degree of versatility in return. As Liam came into the arena and put the usual basic protective gear over his vitals, he didn''t seem at all nervous or worried, even though obviously unsure of himself. He took a small hooked hammer and a standard shortsword as weapons, and didn''t bother with armor beyond the minimum. Sending in the first animal, a standard quickmouse, it immediately came zooming in - and bounced away just a few inches from Liam''s leg, laying stunned in the sand. Liam quickly cut it in half, and then tossed it aside - fully drained. Caswar had never seen someone his age process Life energy so quickly. also, it didn''t seem to provide Liam and special effect. For most, it would trigger emotion, from things like greed or bloodlust to despair or sympathy, depending on how they took in the energy via their astral/emotional bodies. From what he could see, Liam''s astral didn''t even waver. Caswar was also unsure just what aspect had been used to stun the mouse in the first place, if any - could it really have simply been primordial? He hadn''t seen any flashes, so it wasn''t fire or electrical, but Liam had manifested so many forms yesterday that it wasn''t worth trying to guess. So he just walked over and asked. Liam: I think it was Force or Reflection - I was just trying to knock it away. So the kid didn''t even KNOW? He simply had an intent in mind and DID it? Incredible! And so it went. Everything they had in stock (very little, the day after a Spar) just bounced off and was killed. At Caswar''s request, Liam changed up what specific effect he used to stop them, but it became obvious anything within a foot of Liam was dead if he wanted it so. The few creatures with ranged attacks saw their attacks die out before making contact. And Liam wasn''t even winded or stressed at the end of it. And there was STILL no effect on him from taking in those 20-something lives. 8 - Re-connecting Liam: That was anticlimactic....even boring. I just stood there and bashed things when they fell over. I could feel everything my spirit was doing, but only understood half of it. He was bashing anything that came close with magic, leaving it helpless in front of me, and then somehow, carefully and kindly, sending away the animal''s astral form fully intact - not draining anything from it at all. But he was putting energy into ME as if it had come from draining the animal. Obviously, he didn''t want them realizing that, of course. I was just playing dumb, claiming to put out whatever energy would help me defend myself and kill the animal. My spirit went along with all their requests, too, for the kind of magic to use. I actually DID help some, but my own responses would have been far too weak without the spirit''s boost. From my perspective, I was near the bottom of level 1 ability, versatile but slow and weak, and the spirit was demonstrating ability at the very top of level 1 - so that was what I had to live up to and take credit for. Still, I WAS improving, rapidly even. I could have killed those animals myself (I think), but I''d have been badly wounded by the end. I simply couldn''t have stopped them from getting in the first hit or two, be it bite, claw, or magic effect. MY magic wouldn''t solidify fast enough - I needed the extra moment to gather and shape the power. Dad, of course, told me I wasn''t taking this seriously enough, and that I should put more effort in - which I''d have been happy to do if things hadn''t just kept dying on me before I could act. For now, though, I had a break. It was time to connect with friends and get on with life. The social isolation of getting my magic over a year late had hurt, but no one had really given up on me. I was going to treat it like getting over a sports injury. Besides, people always lived those with a weaker version of their own powers, and that''s just what I had right now - for everyone. I could ask for help and tips in all the various branches of magic. Even better, I didn''t have to compete for kills and energy, so everyone would want me on their team! ------------------------------------- It was great to see Liam be so positive, both about his own situation, and his hopeful expectations of his friends. And yes, I''d been playing the part of a turbo-charged level 1. Level 2, ranged release, scared me a bit to try. I was sure I could do it, but wasn''t so sure i could make it look like LIAM was doing it. Maybe him asking friends for help and guidance would give us the excuse we needed for that. Meanwhile, I was learning new tricks. I found I could read open books near Liam even if HIS eyes were doing something else, and I could turn the pages with bits of magic easily enough. The net result being that we could study two different things at once. And much the same held true with magic practice - Liam could practice powering up his magic output while I learned to control and fine-tune mine. The other thing Liam knew all about was body development, and he was very eager to hit the gym with his friends and see where he stacked up now. While he was incredibly fit by my standards, he viewed himself as a clumsy weakling due to the lack of dedicated magical reinforcement and enhancement - and was irked that I put those skills so low on the priority list. The system here was the exact opposite of the ways I had learned from Earth "energy workers". Here, kids and lower-level mages simply infused every bit of magic they could gather into their limbs and organs, making their entire bodies more magic-dense, but lacking in any flow at all. Even their incredible speed was RAW speed, not something they created from magic as needed, but instead simply a part of their bodies. I would have to watch out for that - Liam even THOUGHT faster than I was used to, made worse by the fact I was used to thinking with the brain of an old, dying man. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I was forcing him out of that pattern, to some extent, by carving and drilling pathways for the magic to flow within his body, and chakra centers for it to accumulate in and manifest through. It was weakening his body slightly as the magic shifted, even though I knew the long-term results would make him far stronger. They did the same thing here after level 4, but it was a far, far slower process, because all the bodily magic was so dense and hardened by that point - nearly all of levels 5-7 were dedicated to this long and painful process, and they never even considered STARTING with it. The astral side of it was much quicker and easier - the only challenge was that Liam had the habit of draining it into his physical body at every chance. So I used the same trick from the physical side and just made his entire astral form more magic-dense - solidifying the flow enough that he couldn''t get much out of it by his habitual methods. He was going to have to learn to think of it as a true extension of himself, rather than just a mana sponge used to sop up magic and squeeze it back out into his body. Liam''s friends and classmates spent more of their afternoons in the recreation areas, with large fields and amazing (to me) jungle gyms - many looked straight out of Ninja Warrior challenge courses, and many people in their late teens were flying through them. One who was doing so a bit more literally than most was Salia, who seemed on the cusp of true flight as she danced and wove through the maze. Where Liam was headed, for now, was a set of training dummies made to test damaging abilities of various kinds. They were enchanted, I could tell that much, but how enchantments worked was still a subject far beyond me. From Liam, I knew they would register various kinds of damage levels by changing colors when struck. Liam waved at his friends, and started in on a dummy - lashing out with his magic. At first, his efforts were met with mere indulgent smiles, as his electrical punch only registered at about level 1.3, but then he did the same with flame, cold, earth, water, and air, in rotation - THAT got a reaction, and even a few cheers. Liam (with a huge smile): That''s right, everyone, I unlocked my magic and it''s the good stuff! Several of the guys and Salia converged on him with congratulations and questions, and Liam gave them very downplayed answers, but he went for the truth instead of the line the authorities were using. Liam told them that he''d somehow done both a once, unlocked his magic AND gotten a spirit, but that the spirit was a recluse and was hiding itself from everyone most of the time. Fair enough description, I suppose, but that made them start directing questions at ME, trying to lure me into doing stunts for them. Some of them accused him of making me up, in fact. After a bit, it was obvious I''d need to do a demonstration of some kind if I wanted Liam and I to have any peace from childish taunts. So, when one of the guys challenged Liam to arm wrestle, I gave Liam a strong pulse of warmth to get him to agree - he got the message. Vartol sat down across from Liam and took a grip - and I immediately locked his arm in place as I rotated a half dozen forms of energy though it (enough to really hurt, but not damage), and then used Force and Gravity to lift him above Liam, as if Liam was simply freezing him up and lifting him straight over his head with one hand. Then I gave a slight twist and he came crashing down next to Liam, a bit scuffed and dizzy, but no harm done. Liam: I guess you woke him up! I don''t think he likes his naps disturbed - he''s like some really old guy, from what I can tell. Everyone laughed. Even Vartol got up and smiled: Well, I certainly won''t be messing with him!! What was with that zapping before he tossed me into the air? Liam: I think he likes experimenting with types of magic - he knocked me out cold for hours when he first attached himself to me. Liam: Guys, as much as it was worth it, I''m way behind in actually practicing my magic, and even more so because I have so many kinds to try to learn. So any help will be welcome. Salia: Liam, you know I''m always up for playing in the winds with air magic. Liam: That sounds like a wonderful place to start - thanks Salia! 9 - Taking Flight Ok, I saw this coming - but how could I resist the temptation: FLYING!! Not that impressing Salia was a bad thing either, with her sleek form and wind-sculpted hair causing Liam''s pulse to race. Salia led Liam over to the sandbox, since windblown sand made it easy to see the air movements, and she created a kind of dust-devil around them - then told Liam to try to disrupt it. For the next 20 minutes, Salia kept getting itchy sand all over Liam''s sensitive spots as he tried (and failed) to return the favor. But by the half hour mark, Salia was feeling a bit drained and Liam wasn''t - AND he had been making progress in his control. i.e. he finally got sand in her ear! Salia: Okay Liam, break time! Was that all just you, or did your spirit start helping you there at the end? Liam: Just me, but my spirit likes to always keep my energy topped off, so I can keep practicing until I get it right. Salia: What would happen if he took an active part? It was at THAT point I gave in to temptation, dipped into Gravity magic, and made Liam weightless - which disoriented him and he started tumbling in midair. Salia: I guess that answers my question! But is he always listening? That seems a bit creepy. Liam (slowly regaining his balance in midair): I thought it would be too, at first, but somehow it just never feels intrusive - and I don''t really know why. Often it feels like he''s not there at all, until something comes up that attracts or needs his attention or help. When it does, he''s like 100% supportive and reliable. Salia: So, I see he''s got you off the ground, and without even using any wind - do you think you can fly with me? Liam: I don''t see why not - he won''t just let me fall, I''m sure of that. And so it went - the young couple flitted slowly through the acrobatics course. Not really what it was intended for, but excellent practice for both of them. Then Salia landed and used her winds to push just Liam through the course at double the speed! Salia: You make a great practice dummy! Somehow I managed to refrain from trying out Inertial magic and letting her bat Liam around like a ping-pong ball. -------------------------------------------------------- Undersecretary Lonea of the University was starting to regret her greed. They wanted HER along on the "acquisition". Yes, they phrased it as a request, but they hadn''t given her the promised payout yet - a bad sign. With a sigh, she sent her agreement, but that she needed the funds upfront for preparations and to provide a good cover story for her absence. Cursing to herself - she should have expected it. Of course a good Mind talent would be needed to get anything useful out of the kid, and they weren''t common. They would be leaving in 3 days, and the trip was expected to take two. Lonea had never been involved with this side of the Cartel before, but was carefully scanning all her contacts for further information now that she was being trapped into it. She quickly found that they had little to no concept of "mercy", and that "primordial magic", to these people, meant "immortality fuel" - it was the only known aspect that could actually REVERSE aging. Either way she chose, Lonea had a trip to plan - either to kidnap a young man or to try to flee a well-connected Cartel. ------------------------------------------------------- Liam: The spirit did a great job - even if I took a few falls for it. Salia was acting as a true friend again, and I could tell she felt guilty for her earlier withdrawal. I wasn''t so sure about letting my body energy go like this, though - I think he''s getting way too far ahead of himself. I was always taught that the body should be "iron-solid" before channels and chakras were installed. But at least, after a bit of research, I knew that was what he was doing to me. I suspected he was doing it to my astral form as well - which was even further advanced. Only Grandmasters were supposed to fully develop the astral, because any premature loosening of it from the physical body would make it easy prey for creatures from the Old World. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. A pulse of curiosity from my spirit prompted me, as I had that thought - did he really not know all about the Old World? Another pulse. Ok, then, I started carefully going over Ancient History in my mind for him. Life had started over 2 billion years ago, the Primordial Era, in the dark, poisonous seas of that time. Wave after wave of single-celled life had then been awash in pure magic, feeding into their only "desire" - to survive and reproduce. And each type tried to do so at the expense of all the others. In time, most of the magic was taken in to one or another of the elemental forms - taking it away from those not adapted to use that aspect. But it was all done crudely and instinctually, creating huge amounts of chaos. Meanwhile, some of the life forms found ways to either cooperate and grow - starting multi-cellular life, or to control others, starting parasitic life. Operating only in the realms of feelings and desires, the astral forms of these primitive beings fed endlessly and grew monstrous. Little is known of this period. We know that when air was dominate, it tried to destroy other life by creating the potent poison oxygen. At other points, frost reigned supreme and tried to wipe out the others by freezing all Atlan. Earth and fire sometimes fought and sometimes worked in conjunction with each other to raise mountains or move continents, as water tried to erode everything back into the sea. But then the real horrors came along - the Goo creatures had the first real awareness, if one could call it that, but then came Plants, with the ability to gather solar energy and light magic, slowing winning control for millions of years, but sometimes at war with fungi and lichen that were learning to feast on their stores of light mana. But the Goo also survived and evolved via chaos magic, until some kind of great conflict finally drove them (and most of the elementals that remained from before) into the Underdark. And so it was for many of millions of years - new forces would evolve, but the forces of Light would eventually win out and cast them also into the Underdark. But still, despite near-godly power, they had no true intellect. That first appeared with the insects, and the souls of their hive-minds. These, history says, were what locked away the Underdark from the surface world forever - on the physical side, at least. After that, Atlan belonged to the plants and animals, and the warfare of evolution as we know it began. But sometimes volcanic or meteoric events would awaken the Old Ones, and their great astral forms would come out to try to dominate the surface once again. But they were simply too old, and the forms they forced life into were not viable in the modern world - which remains the case even today. How the draconics overcame the insectoid is not recorded, but they managed it somehow, creating another layer of Underdark over the first. Then there was the draconic era that lasted up until 60 million years ago when their power structures and civilizations were wiped out by a huge meteor, throwing them into crippling wars of extermination and allowing mammals to emerge from the shadows. Finally, humans progressed enough to learn to use devices found in the ancient draconic ruins and make long-term settlements rather than hiding like apes in the caverns under the old reptilian cities. Or so the storybooks told us - research was ongoing. And no, spirit, we DON''T really know what the "Underdark" is, and we''re afraid to find out! --------------------------------------- Okay, then - move exploration of the astral here onto the back burner. While I don''t think they could harm me, there was no point in risking wide-scale disaster by provoking things I didn''t understand. The other big point was that, unlike the dinosaurs, the draconics were not GONE, even though their civilizations were. Those that remained respected some sort of balance of power, and it seemed that human use of some of their old "technology" fell within their bargain as "neutral ground" - so they didn''t outright destroy human cities unless seriously provoked. The ancient insects were another story - whenever they managed a breakout, all was pure death and destruction until it was contained. Fortunately, this almost never happened. What DID happen was they might sometimes "empower" a present-day insect colony, creating a doom-hive that would go on a rampage. And they stalked dreams. With history in mind, then, it was time to start getting Liam into shape, and then try to get myself a handle on super-speed in both thought and movement. Right now, anything powerful could just kill him before I could even react. I also needed to learn the basics of enchantment, so that I could set triggers to deal with those first moments of surprise. And I was certain surprises were coming. 10 - Setting Us Free I was working on solving the 3-body problem now. Liam''s physical and astral forms plus my astral-only existence. All 3 now counted as a single being, in some strange manner, or maybe always had been and we were just now becoming aware of it. Either way, I had a double astral presence, and "Liam''s" astral body was actually more mine than his, so far as awareness went, so there was no reason I couldn''t take it out for a ride - IT had a silver cord, I just had to unlock it, then I could go explore without any real danger - I hoped. After catching his friends up on his new status, Liam was resigning himself to hitting the books big time for the next few weeks - we both needed to learn all about the various aspects, how they worked, and what to expect from using them. And that was the easy part - using them in combination would be the real trick! So far, I''d only been using one aspect at a time - or at most locking in one effect before moving on to another. With flight, for example, I''d been negating gravity, and Liam had been using wind magic to move around. With practice, I should be able to use gravity for both, freeing Liam to use other effects while we flew. Or, as I had considered but not dared to try, I could leave the "negate gravity" in place while trying to reduce inertia or some other flashy effect. But I was going to have to do a lot of practice to get comfortable with combining magic - let alone doing it quickly, as in combat situations. ----------------------------------------------------- Liam: When I mentioned at dinner that more energy was going into my astral form now, Mom quickly got worried. "Liam! Every mother knows that the most important thing to keep their kids away from is the astral. It isn''t usually mentioned, but wards to lock-in the astral forms are part of child care that every young woman is taught - and it starts pre-birth! I know that when we get our magic we have to use our astral side to gather life energy, but we have to be very careful to keep it close and under strict control - it''s very vulnerable and we die without it! You may have access to all kinds of magic now, but only master mages can face the astral realms, and even they die doing it if they cross the wrong lines." "I''ll be careful, mom, but MY astral is getting energy constantly now, not just when I kill something, and it''s developing fast - it''s a real part of me now, not just a tool." Mom said "Just a minute.." and went digging in the store room for a bit. When she emerged, she had two of the common belt cords used for young children. "Take these, Liam, they are minor enchantments that all children wear - essentially, they are handcuffs that keep an astral body from trying to fly off. You should keep these on you at night until you are sure of what you''re doing." -------------------------------------- Well - now I REALLY had to start studying enchantments! They were weak, but operated exactly as Liam''s mom had said, chaining the astral and physical to one another. Fortunately, I was able to bypass them without damaging them if and when needed, but they would certainly be enough to keep Liam home during normal dreaming. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Having been warned of traveling, my project tonight was going to be Astral Perception. I''d stay with Liam''s physical body, but extend my senses through various ranges of the astral world around me. It was something I''d read about on Earth, but never really tried. Here, though, without the huge blocks Earth''s energy put in place, I was optimistic. Extending my awareness through the house was easy enough, but beyond that I started to lose focus - the area was just too big. I found I had to either only be aware of one small part of things (like detecting where people were), or to focus on one specific direction, like a searchlight. By the end of the night, I could "be" anywhere within about 200 yards, perception-wise - with mana-sensing, sight, and sound, at least. The other senses didn''t translate well. As always, reading was the most difficult thing to do, because the visual processing was more of a physical brain function, so I had to have Liam''s brain at least half-awake to really manage it. Over time, I think I can replicate most of the process in astral "brain-space", making out-of-body research more of an independent process. By morning, I was rather tired, and just sort of merged into Liam to rest. -------------------------------------------- Liam: My spirit was sure busy last night, if the strange dreams mean anything. Most of the dreams I remember had an old teacher handing me books to read out loud to him. The books were nothing special, though - just kids books and popular stories. It felt strange having "holes" and "channels" in my body for magic to move through, instead of just gathering it up and making it sink into all my tissues evenly, but I had to admit it has advantages. I could now move magic forcefully into one body part and make it WAY stronger and tougher for a short time. And my magic re-filled much faster as well - even when the spirit wasn''t actively helping. The rules for using non-traditional aspects were a real headache - complicated and nearly contradictory. I understood why, in most cases - it was because it was so unfair to anyone who didn''t know what to expect (almost everyone). Air, especially, could get away with things (like knocking people unconscious) that we weren''t supposed do with other means, because people understood what was happening. I was just going to assume Mind and Luck were entirely off-limits, since it was way too easy to get into serious trouble with either of them. With most of the others, it was mostly just common sense - i.e. don''t be an ass and abuse people. Another thing I noticed was that my body felt strange - like double-normal growing pains. At first I dismissed it as just a side effect of all the new magic, but my appetite had also increased. On top of the homework I''d been give, I was expected to go back to school today as well. And forget going with the BS "burster" excuse the authorities were trying to force on me. I KNEW it was an incoming spirit from another world, and I wasn''t about to directly lie about that to my friends. I wasn''t even telling that lie to my family - I just stopped arguing about it, since they seemed to think the authorities "knew what they were doing", and "had my best interests in mind". The second, maybe, but on the first part I was certain they had no clue. Of course, getting a spirit AND getting access to (rapidly growing) magic of my own DID sound kind of egotistical - but at least my friends would be forewarned when things started getting out of hand. Yes, I could already tell things were going to get out of hand. The warnings they gave Dad just confirmed it. People in power simply could not leave a situation like this alone. I was worried about what would happen soon, because I could tell how interested my spirit was in enchantments - and those all started with draconic archeology. Humans might know HOW they worked (mostly), but we didn''t know WHY they worked - even when we could copy them and make more of our own. My spirit would be driven to change that - I could feel it. I could also feel that same ambition and curiosity growing within myself - we were much the same, he and I...yet he didn''t seem to realize I could feel him feeling my thoughts - or maybe he just didn''t mind? The lines were already getting blurry. 11 - Back to Class Going back to the classroom with Vartol, Salia, and the rest was more enlightening that I expected. I really hadn''t understood the degree to which I''d been using magic "seat of the pants" with just native ability and intent, rather than understanding. Here, magic and combat were taught like basic science and economics were treated back on Earth. The world of Atlan was a dangerous place and the human cities were under constant siege. The inner cities rarely actually saw combat, but that was only due to the depth of the outer defenses. Today, for example, they were reviewing basic natural magical defense - with actual practical demonstrations. The first layer, the body itself, was what everyone in class was most familiar with, and what they had been taught to strengthen practically from birth - anything that penetrated the skin had to contend with that person''s vitality and force of will in order to manifest any unwanted magical effect. A fireball, for example, would be painful upon contact, but couldn''t cause more than a second degree burn without overcoming a person''s inner defense to a substantial degree - and only a first degree burn if that inner defense was prepared and powerful. The second layer, the outer "dead" skin, hair, and fingernails, was considered "advanced" and was very weakly defended by most young people. The third layer, the inner aura, was what most of the students were now working on, making a reactive and versatile shield and sense organ to keep anything harmful from coming into contact with the body at all, and it was also used to manifest basic magic abilities. It surrounded a person out to a foot or two, though it could be expanded or contracted quite a lot with intent and practice. This was considered "personal space", and it was rude to stay within that range of another person without some form of friendship or personal relationship. Next was the "auric sheath", that you could think of as an outer "cell wall" of the inner aura. Developing this was considered an intermediate-level skill and most in class were still struggling with the basics of being aware of it, but it was considered the best layer to use as primary defense for those qualified to go out into the wilds between cities. The teacher gave the class a couple minutes to try to penetrate hers - I let Liam try it without help and he failed just like the other students. I could, however, tell that the demonstration used up about half the teacher''s available magic. The final layer, magical awareness, was where all major magic senses and ranged effects came from, and was developed starting at level two and expected to grow more powerful in all respects with age and practice. My own senses expanded easily into that range, but creating and controlling effects there was rather disorienting for me at this point - things just moved too fast for me. All my Earth "experience" in such matters had been sitting or laying down, deep in meditation. Not the same at all as being alert, aware, moving around, and possibly even under attack. This all brought up the question in my mind of how I had been able to handle Vartol so easily, since his inner defense should have at least caused some serious resistance. Part of it, certainly, was that I''d been it direct contact with him, and part was that he and Liam had some degree of friendship relationship, that weakened automatic defensive response, but something else was also going on that I''d have to investigate later. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. It was the inner aura region where my own ability seemed most overpowered, also my long-range senses were decades advanced from what they should have been - but both of these were only very slowly being transferred to Liam. I had to take an active role to do anything more than just keep Liam "fully energized". The other thing school forcefully reminded me of was that this was NOT Earth, or even anything resembling Earth - even the words on the pages didn''t resemble anything any culture on Earth would have called "writing". It was only my synchronization with Liam''s brain that made any of it comprehensible, and I had been missing the fact that many of the concepts I was taking in that way didn''t match the Earth ones I was trying to use to process things. I literally COULD NOT write in English. At first, I thought it was just that Liam''s brain didn''t have the coordination pathways to make the words and letters. But when I tried to just DRAW the alphabet, I found that I didn''t know it! My "concepts" of "ABCs" were still in my mind, but the exact forms were just that, vague concepts. Over time, I could probably reconstruct basic, elementary-school English letters and language from my memories of forms (knowing what A-frames are, for example), sounds, and structure, but I wasn''t sure it was worth doing. I guess we depend more on those actual meat brains that I had realized - because I somehow simply hadn''t noticed until I rubbed my nose in it. -------------------------------------------- Liam: School felt strange, even though most of it was simply review of subjects I already knew well. My spirit was trying to take it all in, and not doing so nearly as well as he expected, I could tell. Also, he was taking partial control of my hand and making odd shapes with my dual-quill on my note-parchment. I could feel a deep sense of loss from him as various shapes were shakily drawn. I don''t think he even knew the distinction between the direction-quill and the inflection-quill unless he fully synched with me while doing the scribing, let alone how to balance the flow between the two That, I thought, was the key to his power - he simply thought in an entirely different manner, including the very basics of what magic was and could do. And, if the dreams were at all accurate, he came from a SAFE world - where only fellow humans were ever considered a serious threat. That was hard for me to imagine. Safe and no magic in daily life? What did they DO with themselves, and how did they impose their will on nature to make all those grand dream structures with only weak bodies as a starting point? Somehow, he could find and process spirit energy directly into primal magic - from nothing, seemingly! And I was benefitting - he was giving me more energy each day, as he refined and grew the magic infrastructure within both my physical and astral forms. That premature work on the astral had me very concerned, though - now that I was becoming aware he DIDN''T really know what he was doing. In our world, the astral was a place of monsters, and the more active we were there, the more likely we would draw attention - to play played with, toyed with, tormented, warped, or even killed. But we also needed it, because basic life-energy flowed in from the astral and we couldn''t exist without it. Standard doctrine was to just maintain the absolute minimum astral form to feed and strengthen ourselves until we could fully access our magic, and then to develop it slowly and "quietly" as we gained skill and power in our magical affinities - hoping to be ready for when we would eventually attract attention. My spirit was going to get me noticed - I was sure of it. The question was - could he handle the attention when it arrived? And could I do anything about it? 12 - Long Pause Sorry, folks. I''m quickly coming to realize that I just don''t have the temperament to be a "real" writer - you know, actual plans and stories with meaning and conclusions. So I''m just going to take a break and re-organize my favorite story lines into a multi-universal anthology that will cross-threads and update randomly across characters and storylines, and realities. The overarching view will be from a godlike being orchestrating (more like tweeking) events across infinite universes and timelines. This won''t happen for a while, but here''s a prelude: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Atum gradually regained true self-awareness as his ego-self reactivated from hibernation. He had sacrificed almost his entire being into self-evolution, and hadn''t been sure exactly what he would become. Now he knew - he was "Humanity", and he was now a full-fledged god. He had created the "WORD" and given himself the power of speech to communicate and pass on knowledge within the mortal sphere, among his myriad manifestations. He was no longer limited to the "demigod" communications and self-perceptions of lesser species divine manifestations. Empathy and telepathy were fine - amazing in their own ways, but had trouble with the precision needed to build the kind of civilizations Atum was now envisioning. He was far from the first to use this tactic, of course, but he was taking it to extremes rarely seen in this region of the multiverse. In fact, by going to such extremes, he had granted each of his manifestations, even the most trivial and obscure, the power of creation via description. Every story told would become a reality in itself, fully real and capable of interacting with all other realities, in a rapidly-expanding infinite progression. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Every being hearing or reading such a story would, again, expand and re-imagine it, exponentially expanding the greater divine reality of existence itself. He would now enter the full, dynamic flow of the self-creating universe, which defined basic godhood. He had also reached the next threshold of divinity, in that each iota of himself, every "human", now also had infinite potential, creating yet another dimentionality of infinity through which to expand. As for Atum himself - time now no longer mattered, he WAS the endless expansion of conceptual growth that was beyond all words and comprehension, despite, in some way, being enabled by them. Atum now reveled in the simplicity of BEING that aspect of the ALL that was defined as "HUMAN". The rest of existence - everything that did NOT define itself as human, recognized that things had changed. An insignificant fractal of the ALL was becoming significant, and was reaching out to embrace, explore, understand, combat, befriend, destroy, and otherwise interact with anything and everything it could conceive of, while expanding that same ability to conceive of and communicate with and about whatever it might encounter. The flow of reality shifted and the stories unfolded. ------------------------------------------------------------------- That''s the forlorn hope, anyway. I really don''t know at this point what I will or won''t end up writing. It''s been a good lesson about myself - thanks all.