Ends of Magic

The next morning Nathan found Stella sitting near the front of the ship.

I think it’s called a bow. But none of us really know the terminology, and I don’t think Eolinne cares. Maybe they don’t even have specialized ship terminology on Davrar.

Her legs were dangling off the side of the Grace of the Mists, damp from the spray splashing up. Her focus was on the water below, especially the point where the prow cut through the ocean like a plow through earth.

Nathan took a seat next to her and watched the ocean for a little while. They were beyond the waves and islands of the coast and well into deep water. The weather was fine, and he could see to the horizon without any obstructions. Or - what would have been the horizon on Earth. On Davrar it didn’t look the same. Instead of a clear line separating the water and the sky, the ocean never seemed to end. It stretched into the far distance, visible until the haze of the air made the surface of the water blend with the vague clouds above.

I’ve suspected for a while that the surface of Davar curved up instead of down. The world overhead - the sayings of “Seeing your home overhead.” The night sky. Is Davrar a dyson sphere? The far side is way too close for it to be a proper dyson sphere, but I already know the sun’s not a real star. Davrar could be on the inside of a sphere.

He turned his head ninety degrees, studying the horizon off the side of the ship instead of directly ahead. It looked subtly different, though it was hard to tell.

Nathan turned towards Stella, breaking their companionable silence. “Do you have a stick? Something long and straight.”

She jumped slightly, surprised by his voice. Then she thought about a question for a moment. “Will a spellpole work?” She rifled through a dimensional bag before pulling out a long rod of metal, thin and absolutely straight. “It’s a teaching tool, for learning to precisely control mana flows. I haven’t used it in years.”

“Perfect.” Nathan took the rod and held it out at arms length, closing one eye and superimposing it over the horizon. It almost matched - but just almost. He rotated the pole ninety degrees from directly ahead to directly to the side. It took him a few more observations to be sure, but about ten degrees off from straight ahead the horizon curved down in both directions. Ninety degrees away from that that the horizon curved up in both directions, and the horizon was more defined. Ahead the horizon wasn't as clear, as if there was an infinite amount of water hiding beyond atmospheric distortion. The effect was very subtle, and mostly noticeable because the day was so clear.

Nathan handed the spellpole back to Stella, who put it back in her bag and cocked an eyebrow at him, inviting explanation.

He didn't say anything, instead deep in thought. The horizon curved differently in both directions. In one direction it curved up, in the other it curved down, and there was a difference in the distance to the horizons. That meant Davrar wasn’t a sphere. It was a cylinder. One direction was down the length of the cylinder, and so it curved up to both sides. And the other was around the inside curve of the cylinder, and so the horizon wasn't as distinct and appeared to curve down in both directions.

It could also be a spindle that tapers at both ends. If it was big enough it wouldn’t be obvious. And Davrar is damn big. It could be a toirid, if I was on the inside curve. But a cylinder fits Occam's razor better, as well as the legends about seeing home overhead.

He let out a heavy breath and leaned back, looking up. His gaze stretched beyond the faint clouds, towards the world above. He couldn't see it right now, but he remembered the continents and oceans that could be seen stretching across a clear night sky.

Those features look about the same size as Earth does from the moon. Using that as the best yardstick I have, Davrar’s about a quarter-million miles across? Compared to about eight thousand for the Earth’s diameter. No wonder the curvature is impossible to notice if you’re not in the ocean. It’s thirty times further across, and the curvature of the surface would be nearly impossible to notice unless you could see uninterrupted for hundreds of miles.

He remained deep in thought, thinking through the math. A huge cylinder or spindle meant it was possible that the gravity was rotational, but Nathan didn't remember the math to figure out how fast it had to be spinning for that. It wasn't a particularly important answer regardless.

How much more surface area is there? Estimating pi as three, on the order of 200 million square miles for Earth and… assuming no endcaps and that Davrar is as long as it is wide, then what, 200 billion square miles for Davrar. A thousand Earths. That... isn’t as large as I was expecting somehow. Somewhere between five and ten thousand continents?

He could easily be off in either direction, but probably not by more than ten-fold unless there was a factor he was completely neglecting. He waited a moment for a blue box from Davrar rewarding him for the realization, but nothing was happening.

It’s not a magical secret the way the secret of the Seals was. It’s just how Davrar works. I’m sure if I had a class dedicated to science or exploration or skills dedicated to understanding Davrar they’d be going crazy right now. But I don’t. I have skills for fighting, and killing. Because that’s what is needed on Davrar, not a scientist.

He sighed again, and beside him Stella rolled her eyes. “What prophecy of death has your attention? Will you grace me such terrible knowledge?”

Nathan chuckled. “Nothing like that. Understanding Davrar, that’s all.” He waved his hand towards the horizon. “It’s a big cylinder, though the ends might be rounded. It might even be spinning to provide gravity.”

Stella’s eyes narrowed, and she glanced out towards the horizon, then looked back at him. “Explain.”

“Which part?” He asked.

“All of it,” She replied evenly.

Nathan didn’t get any ranks in [Tutoring] for showing Stella the parabolic horizon or explaining the concept of rotational gravity, but he did when she called over the rest of the Heirs to hear it again.

Tutoring 8 achieved!

Aarl squinted into the distance. “If Davrar is a cylinder, why don’t we see anything but the far side?” He waved upwards. ”Shouldn't we see the land sloping up on either side?”

“Too big,” Sarah said thoughtfully. “Too much weather. If you look at an angle there’s going to be clouds somewhere in the thousands and thousands of miles of atmosphere between you and the sides.”

Aarl contemplated that for a moment, then shook his head in confusion. “Then why don’t clouds block the view to the other side?”

“There’s probably no atmosphere around the sun. If there was, then the pressure down here would crush us,” Nathan replied. “It’s also probably true that the sun only illuminates a portion of the cylinder at a time, and at night it’s mostly facing away from us, illuminating the far side of the cylinder.”

Khachi was watching the sky above, eyes boring into the blue expanse beyond the sun. “Ten thousand continents. Each the size of ours.”

Stella watched him with a small smile on her face. “Too many for your flame, or not enough?”

“Both?” Khachi replied hesitantly. “Davrar is no longer endless. There is a limit to the horizon. But to change something that rules ten thousand continents…” He trailed off. “It is a dragon’s task.”

“Or a Questor’s,” Eolinne said from behind them, making everybody but Nathan jump. She'd approached them quietly, using the wizardry of the ship to hide her presence. “What is your goal? What drives you young masters from your home, to seek out Questors and their games?”

The Heirs turned to face her, presenting a united front. Nathan spoke for them. “The Endings. We want to stop them.”

Eolinne gave an unsurprised nod, as if confirming a theory. “Not a new theme, but a worthy one. Endings and Questors are tied together with the strongest threads.” She paused for a moment, considering her next words. “I know no details of the Endings, but I know Sarya mislikes them. Speak to her of your goal. She won’t kill you for it.”

“Do you want to stop the Endings?” Aarl asked, a bit confused by Eolinne’s supportive but hands-off answer.

Her retort was calm but firm. “Would I wish to slay all monsters? To cut the root of death? I do not think the Endings can be stopped. But I have sailed these seas for centuries, and learned to work the currents where a young capitan would seek to master the ocean and make it obey their will. Some of those captains have succeeded. I hope that is your prophecy.”

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With that she turned and walked away, leaving the Heirs watching her ethereal form cross the deck and disappear into the bowels of the ship.

“She’s half a Questor herself, isn’t she?” Sarah asked.

Khachi snorted. “Kinder than any Questor we’ve met.”

The Heirs all shook their heads, remembering Brox’s antics - especially how he’d almost gotten them all killed for kicks on a few different occasions.

Aarl frowned towards Stella. “Wasn’t your task to learn water mana? How did you start talking to Nathan about the shape of Davrar?”

Stella threw up her hands. “Nathan came and sat next to me, then faster than a stalker’s pounce he’s speaking of the horizon!”

“Sorry about that,” Nathan said with a wince. “Tell me about water mana.”

“Enjoy the Insights,” Sarah said, getting up and dusting off her hands to follow Eolinne below deck. "I still need to understand what it means for Davrar to be spinning."

The rest of the Heirs left, leaving Nathan and Stella sitting with their legs dangling off the edge of the boat. The water zipped by underneath, slipping past the magically-enhanced hull without resistance. Occasional waves splashed against the Grace of the Winds and the speed of their passage blew the water back into their faces.

“Water mana.” Stella spoke the words with a faint edge of disgust. She reached for her dimensional bag, pulling a scroll halfway out before shoving it back in as another wave splashed up at them. “It’s a blasphemous form of matter. You’ve spoken to me of water. It’s made of oxygen and hydrogen, produced when they burn. The molecules stick together enough to keep them liquid, but are always moving against each other.”

She gestured angrily at the vast expanse of water before them. “Hear me, that Insight is not helping me get water mana. Before I’ve combined your Insights with everything my parents have given me and it’s always helped me hit the target. The Insights of Earth, of natural laws, provide the foundation for me to build my Developments. Then my parent’s Insights are the spark that triggers it all. But now they speak of completely different things! I can't join the two aspects together at all.”

“What do your parent’s scrolls say about water mana?” Nathan asked curiously.

Stella shook her head, frustration bleeding through her tone. “They speak of water as ever-changing, always in motion even when still. That makes sense, since the molecules are always moving, like what you said about temperature. But it’s not enough.” She subsided for a moment. “There’s also a section about water being free, always moving in its own way. Unpredictable and uncontrollable. But I have the Insight to control it! It isn’t unpredictable, it always flows downhill, and you can predict where it’s going to flow.”

“Ah,” Nathan said, a sudden thought striking him. “Does the scroll say that it’s important to think of it as unpredictable when you try to use the mana?”

Stella hesitated. “Not quite. It says that the ‘spirit of the water is to follow its own path, despite every effort to control it. By understanding this you will master it.’” She mimed throwing an object into the ocean. “How do you control something by giving up on controlling it? And with the Insights of molecules I should be able to gain water magic anyways! Why can’t I hit this target?” She turned to Nathan searching for an answer.

Nathan sat in thought, going over what he’d learned of fluid dynamics. “I think the Insight for water mana isn’t about the molecules of water moving against each other. It sounds like it might be rooted in something we call chaos theory.”

“Chaos?” Stella asked, apprehensive. “What does that have to do with water?”

“I need to explain what my definition of chaos is,” Nathan replied. “It means that it’s impossible to predict what’s going to happen.”

“But if I know all of the natural laws then I can predict what’s going to happen.” Stella protested.

“Yes, theoretically,” Nathan agreed. “But you don’t know the exact position of every molecule of water. In a chaotic system, every detail matters matters. Small changes propagate until the entire system behaves completely differently.” He gestured out towards the ocean. “You can predict the waves of the ocean, but if a ship sails through then the wave patterns will be different for days afterwards, even when the impact of the ship is so small against the entire ocean.”

Stella was slowly nodding along, locked onto Nathan’s words. “I still could predict everything perfectly, but that would require knowing every detail of every molecule. If I was wrong about anything then my prediction would be completely wrong.”

Probably not the time to bring quantum uncertainty into this. I’m not even sure it would impact this. I don’t know if electron-in-a-box applies here.

“Yes,” Nathan replied. “As opposed to a stable system, where it doesn’t matter how things start, since they’ll always converge on the same endpoint. But that’s because there are forces pushing things to always end the same, like water flowing into a hole.”

“What else is chaotic?” Stella asked, her eyes alight with excitement as she digested this new principle.

“Weather.” Nathan said without thinking, then actually gave it a second. “Honestly, most things in the physical world are chaotic. Say I dropped a coin on the deck. Where it lands would be chaotic, because it depends on exactly how it lands on every bounce and exactly what part of the boards it bounces off of. Too many variables to calculate. That’s a chaotic system.”

I think in my systems biology class it was referred to exponential amplification of error through non-linear interactions. I like my explanation better.

“Then the way to control water with water magic isn’t to control the flow,” Stella said hesitantly. “It’s to control where it wants to go? I need to dig the hole for the water to flow into, not try to force it to go to that spot.”

Nathan shrugged. “I’m not sure. I know a little bit about chaotic systems in biology, but I’m not an expert. But if I were to guess it would be more about letting your mana flow with the water, even as it escapes your control. You want to control the direction of the flow, not the details.”

Stella nodded again, deep in thought. After a minute she stretched her hand out, pushing basic mana into the waves beneath them. It was pulled along with the water and Stella let it go, watching the threads of mana fragment and twist away as the waves washed by. She continued this exercise for a little while and then tugged on the strings. They fragmented and broke apart, accomplishing nothing.

“Try controlling all of the mana, not just the parts closest to you,” Nathan suggested.

Stella gave a faint dip of her head but didn’t say anything, completely focused on her next attempt. Once more she pumped mana downwards, letting the wave action mangle the mana’s structure into tiny fibers that followed the vortices and twists of the water. Then she pulled on all of the mana evenly, not trying to bring it together but just providing energy and direction.

Threads of water spiraled up out of the surface of the water. They hung suspended in the air just off the bow of the ship, refracting the light like a hundred frozen raindrops.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Arcane Nullfield 8

Permanent Talent 2: Immortal Body 6

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 7

Class: End of Magic level 759

Bottomless Stamina : 71029/76900

Indomitable

The Undeniable Strike of the Antimage

Stamina Burn

Momentum Mastery

Stoneflesh

Arcane Nullification

Galefoot

Close Quarters Mastery

Boundless Aura

Denial of Mysticism

The Ending of Magic

Aura Projection

Selective Dispel

The Living World

Class: Spellslayer level 536

Regenerative Focus: 5460/5460

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Sneaky Blow

Antimagic Stealth

Magical Manipulation

Lethal Index

Wizard Resistance

Magic Jammer

Controlled Failure

Utility skills:

Tranquility 2

Inspiration 8

Impulse 1

Mystical Discernment 2

Alertness 10

Arcane Insight 3

Effortless Dodge 10

Mental Vault 5

Tutoring 8

Parkour 9

Visibility Control 4

High-tier Disguise 5

High-tier Battle Cry 2

Aura Control 4