Hope

The game was relatively simple, though the setup in place was much unlike anything Irwyn would imagine for a simple pass-time activity. Alice had brought them into an adjacent room Irwyn guessed used to be some kind of artificer workshop, except the tools had been moved elsewhere from the robust wide table in the middle.

Instead an enchanted contraption Irwyn struggled to make heads of tails of was prepared there. It was half an open metal board, half a miniature labyrinth. There were seemingly haphazard open pipes serving seemingly no mechanical purpose, yet it was also full of complex magic. The only thing with obvious function was the ornamentally carved hourglass attached to one side around the middle.

"I will need an explanation," Irwyn admitted after a few seconds of staring.

"It's quite simple," Alice immediately started. "There are four metal spheres for each player and a tiebreaker in the middle, each enchanted to be mana-phobic; in other words, they will be physically repulsed by any magic and impossible to magically touch. We will set up a timer and the goal is to have fewer on your side than the opponent by its end."

"And all the enchantments?" Irwyn raised an eyebrow.

"For variety," Alice shrugged. "The basic ruleset can be changed up a bit and my father had made me a set that can bring that to the extreme,” she pointed at the complicated contraption.

“It’s a traditional competition in Steelmire,” Desir interjected from the side. “I am told it can be played on basically any surface as long a one brings the spheres.”

“Yes, but flat ground gets stale,” Alice nodded, gesturing at the complex game set.

“Sounds simple enough,” Irwyn said. “What are the rules about magic outside the playing field.”

“Depends,” Alice shrugged. “Let’s just start with no interference, 2-minute matches,” she said and walked to one end of the table, letting Irwyn take the other.

Irwyn had to admit it was a fascinating prospect, to compete in magic in ways that were less… real, he supposed. Was this a common way for mages to compete elsewhere or was real combat preferred? Not everyone could have an overwhelming mentor like Dervish to oversee all and any spars after all and Irwyn had learned from first-hand experience that those generally only ended when a full power attack broke through the other’s barrier or scored a direct hit despite a dodge; and with no one to stop them in the blink of an eye that could get lethal easily. On the other hand, there could be other restrictions and safety measures that could make such spars reasonable which he had simply not come across simply because Elizabeth saw no reason to bother with an inferior option.

“I will count you down,” Desir offered, approaching and reaching to flip the hourglass, apparently already set-up for the right amount of time. He gave them each a moment to nod and get ready. “Three, two, one, go!”

And Irwyn flooded his side with magic. He had no idea how these spheres would exactly react which obviously put him at a massive disadvantage, however, he had been reasonably confident that had a shot at triumphing through superior control and raw power. Immediately it became apparent that just flooding everything would do him no good. The spheres, enchanted to flee mana reacted strangely to being even partially enveloped. Yes, they moved away from the flood as long as it did not engulf them completely, however, they did so quite slowly. As if they were trying to move in several opposing directions which ended up slowing them down. He tried to essentially grab one of the spheres completely in raw magic, however, it simply slipped his grasp; like a well-practiced thief.

A single glance at Alice’s side revealed that she was not giving Irwyn any time to adjust. Irwyn could already feel five string-like currents of magic clinging to the spheres with practiced accuracy, very much including the central one. Already at a disadvantage, Irwyn thinned out his magic and tried to copy the technique for his own while simultaneously attempting to erect a thick wall of sorts before Alice’s advancing magic. He had used no intention, at least for the moment, as neither had Alice.

It was almost strange, using just raw unattuned mana. Irwyn had become rather used to perfecting his use of Light, Flame and Starfire and in comparison, this felt almost… sluggish. His control was still fast and precise, just not quite to the same degree as his elemental magics.

Those musings cost him ever more initiative though as Alice started to use her own element. There was a slight shift in the world which Irwyn knew to associate with Time/Space magics and the barriers he had erected had been simply… moved away for the lack of a better term. The empty space where they had stood was simply swapped with somewhere out of the way, severing Irwyn’s rather loose connection with them for a moment.

Moving your opponent’s spells by some kind of teleportation was a combat application Irwyn had not even considered and it certainly made him curious as to what were the limits. It was not the time for that, however, as Irwyn pushed back. He replicated Alice’s clearly practiced technique and created similar thin string-like constructs to propel the spheres on his side. There became apparent the issue of saturation. Just like his Flames, the construct could only contain so much magic without being imbued with intent, which also limited its robustness. Still, as magic with no intent, it was comparatively easy to control.

Therefore, Irwyn made a conservative hundred of them. He could probably manage several thousands of intentionless spells at the moment but he was making sure that he would be able to keep up when Alice started imbuing intentions of her own. Instead, he send one such string towards each of the nine spheres and focused the rest on interfering with Alice’s own, bringing those on his side forward and the rest to a standstill.

Alice answered in a similar way to his earlier attempt at walling things off. The barrier was not physical, of course, however, it stopped Irwyn’s own strings and repulsed the spheres. Irwyn did not know whether those could be overcome with enough momentum, however, he did not need to find out. He had plenty of magic and made them shift, into razors of cutting light. Raw mana was just magic with no shape or purpose, making it far more fragile than elemental spells. Without any intentions added into the equation that put him at an advantage in that sense. His strings of magic focused on harassment also turned to light, cutting off Alice’s strings and new walls of Irwyn’s mana arose to block her, shearing through with only small resistance.

She responded in kind, teleporting away Irwyn’s blockades and even his own strings while she used her magic to contest all the remaining spheres. And Irwyn did not have a good answer to that; not without relying on imbuing intentions. Constructs of solid light simply had no innate resistance to being just teleported a short distance away. Like that, it had basically become two-way whack-a-mole, each of the two participants constantly removing their opponent’s moving strings and blockades while simultaneously restoring their own.

It was still magic without intention though and it became quickly apparent that those were simply not enough to test them. Each second their magic clashed just several dozen times because there was simply not any more physical space around the spheres for any more conflict. There was some expression for finesse - the spheres were lightly pushed away by each clash - however, even that was limited, resulting in an almost equal match. Irwyn was very slowly gaining ground this way, though he had not yet regained what he had lost by his hesitation at the very start. The four spheres did not leave their initial sides and although the tiebreaker was closer to Irwyn, it was not by a large margin. Continuing their struggle. By the time Desir announced the end of the timer not much had changed. Irwyn had waited for a last-second upset but Alice seemed content to just drag it out without attempting any such thing.

“Call it a draw?” Alice asked, smiling widely. Irwyn could almost see the competitive spirit coursing behind her eyes.

“Agreed,” Irwyn nodded.

“You are much better than I had thought,” she kept grinning. “Let’s say… up to two intentions this time, no incantation,” she basically announced seemingly not considering Irwyn might not want to continue.

“I have to ask whether we risk damaging this set,” Irwyn said, although he nodded. Of course, only after he glanced at Desir and received a gesture of confirmation. “I will admit that I am unfamiliar with similar items.”

“My father always says, ‘If it breaks with the intended use, it was of unworthy make to begin with’. Don’t be bothered even if it somehow does.”

“Two intentions then, same rules,” Irwyn nodded.

“Three, two, one, go,” Desir timed the start for them though did not otherwise engage in their conversation. Irwyn did not question the man who was more socially adept and far more familiar with the Steelmire heiress’ temperament.

In the second round things instantly turned more intense.

Alice immediately attempted to make a grab for all nine spheres, using string-like constructs very similar to those in the first rounds, except she had imbued the with the intention to repel. That way, Irwyn guessed, they would be far more effective in moving those spheres and also become more resistant to the opponent’s magic.

Irwyn was not going to let her get away with that though. He followed suit, creating nine similar strings meant to repel and endure. At the same time, he started to attack with two dozen more razors of light, each meant to cut and extinguish.

This time around, he grasped the advantage quickly

Alice attempted to match him with her own attacks but it became rapidly clear she struggled to maintain more than a dozen two-intention constructs. And even where she could, Irwyn had the numbers advantage when it came to those, not to mention his moving strings were far more durable in comparison. Frankly, the match became one-sided surprisingly quickly, by the end of the first minute the spheres were all on her side of the playing field and Irwyn had no trouble keeping them there. Meanwhile, Alice seemed to be under serious pressure even keeping up to this degree. Not to sound too smug, however, Irwyn was holding a lot back. It felt good just outclassing someone his own age like this in something they were clearly practiced in; especially after the repeated defeats Elizabeth had dealt him in spars.

The hourglass kept ticking down and Alice stopped struggling, letting Irwyn gather all the spheres at the far end of her side. Irwyn did not think she had given up though, there was a gleam in her eyes that was distinctly not that of defeat.

And indeed, when there were perhaps ten-ish seconds left, she jumped into action. Space shifted with transference and repositioning. Not only was it the first time Irwyn had felt intentions so clearly applied to Time/Space, they were both meant for changing positions. The magic enveloped one of the spheres and the next second it popped over at Irwyn’s side of the board, immediately moving on to the next one.

Irwyn had been prepared for a last-minute upset so he immediately got to figuring out what had happened despite his surprise. He huddled his own magic closer to the spheres still at Alice’s end, though their mana-phobic properties still just barely kept him from directly touching them with the magic. He had thought it would also stop them from being teleported, though that had clearly been a misunderstanding on his part.

Then a second sphere popped from Alice’s to Irwyn’s side and he noticed something: It had carried over some of his own magic enveloping the sphere. She was not teleporting the spheres themselves, Irwyn guessed, rather, she was grabbing a bit of surrounding space and swapping it with some on his side.

This presented a challenge to Irwyn who had never actually faced teleportation like this in a fight before today, much less one imbued with intentions, however, he had put some thought into it. Unlike the round before, he could use intentions this time. Immediately, he flooded as much of the board as he could with his light, in a split second reaching every nook and cranny. At the same time, he commanded the magic already surrounding the spheres to disrupt and anchor. And, as he had hoped, the third teleportation took a lot longer even though it was already halfway done by the time Irwyn got into motion.

And although it had brought third of the nine spheres to Irwyn’s half, he was in position. All the magic flooding basically every inch of the playing field except right around the spheres themselves, he commanded to disrupt and muddle. After all, Alice had to be targeting where the spheres would be swapping to. The idea was that if her magic failed to grasp any empty space to send them, it could simply not do so. And the spell this time took a solid five seconds of Alice’s time before it fizzled out, unfinished. Whether it was because of the obscuring plan or simply because of too much disruption Irwyn had no idea, though he would definitely inquire. Having any hints at all about how to counter Time mages suddenly sounded like a great direction to improve in.

“Rematch!” Alice said the second the hourglass ran out, her competitive spirit fully ignited.

Irwyn was searching for Desir to get a hint about whether he should continue when he noticed the man staring at them from the corner of the room, wearing an amused yet serious smile. Irwyn could have only missed him because he was too focused on the game, because that was no ordinary being. The man was like a chisel. Not a person, but a tool of etching and engraving. Dedicated to the act of creation and nothing else; nothing less. He was the dedication of a craftsman; the full day spent in a workshop in tireless work in pursuit of perfection.

“Alice, I hope you understand I am going to share this story with everyone,” the man spoke as Irwyn met his eyes, distinctly entertained. “So cleanly losing even with your trick…”

“Dad?!” Alice yelped, losing composure. Her back had been turned to the man as they played, though now she spun with a jump, wide eyed.

“And you would be Irwyn, I am told,” but the man was already ignoring her, smiling in that same strange way. “Please, come on in.”

“Please take a seat,” the craftsmen nodded Irwyn towards a chair adjacent to a table with what Irwyn assumed to be the item Master Daut was working on; considering they had moved to a tightly sealed workshop. That being said, Irwyn could only guess as he felt not a trace of magic in it from this distance. At a glance, it appeared to be just a fist-sized cube with a small funnel at the top, made of some kind of strange orange-ish wood as far as Irwyn could see.

“Thank you,” Irwyn took a seat while the other man sat on the opposite side. “I am told you may require my help with something.”

“Yes, I have been almost damn losing hope with this thing,” the man glanced at the contraption. His tone was still polite, though some of the words were more casual. “Though you seem good enough for what I need. Good job putting the runt in her place. All the talent was getting into her head.”

“I suppose… I am glad to help, Master Daut,” Irwyn suppressed a sigh of relief. He supposed Desir had a solid enough read on the man to not lead Irwyn down the wrong direction. Many might take a more… defensive stance towards their progeny losing, even in a friendly competition.

“I am sure you are. But let’s deal,” the man nodded. “I got the wind of you needing a proper spacial pouch. Well, I do happen to have a few spares I had meant to sell, all enchanted for practical perpetuity, considerable expansion, and suitable for stealth or interaction with other Time magics; everything self-maintained through ambient mana. All I want is for you to test this thing for me,” he pointed at the still innert device.

“How dangerous is this test going to be?” Irwyn questioned. “Although it sounds appealing, I would naturally be suspicious of being offered something so expensive for so little.”

“Heh, proper pouches are not that much more expansive to make than the shitty kind,” Daut shrugged. “It’s just that the few of us that can make them charge a stupid premium, for mutual profit or other such supposed nonsense. Well, I am not gonna fight those ancient geezers over their racket considering I also profit from it. But it means it’s easy to get surplus since hardly anyone can afford one and there are few repeat customers on ‘eternal’ goods.”

“You still have not told me what you are looking for,” Irwyn frowned.

“I suppose I ramble,” the man’s eyes narrowed in turn, glancing at the device. “Call it nervousness. This piece of trash had been a horrible headache to figure out. Frankly, if it wasn’t for huge favours owed I would have told the person commissioning it to fuck off. What I need from you is to simply test if it can handle stupid amounts of Light magic coursing through it without cracking.”

“And if it does crack?”

“The whole thing shuts down. Artisans who reach my age tend to not gamble on safety. And I am sure you are also more than capable of protecting yourself from your own magic if it somehow does go wrong.”

Well, the man had a point, Irwyn supposed. It was playing on his pride a bit but Irwyn was at least confident in not blowing himself up. “Fine, what do you need me to do?”

“Here, you can see the funnel,” he pointed at the sole extrusions of the device. “First, I need you to channel just a bit to test if this damn thing works at all. Go on ahead.”

And Irwyn did. Even when his light entered the device Irwyn found its inner working obscured from his senses; no accident that, he supposed. However, he realised that the small and steady stream was following a pattern of some kind, up and down the curved inner tubes, forming what seemed to be a complex three-dimensional symbol. Irwyn had intended to try and memorise it at first, however, he quickly realised that with the directions he perceived his magic moving it would have left the insides of the box several times and intercepted previous pathways a dozen times over. Not to mention that the sheer distance his clump of magic had already traveled was far too long for the small cube. The space inside the device had been messed with, expanded. Becoming more confident with the process Irwyn sped up his magic and, well, light moved pretty fast even with Irwyn guiding it through rather sluggishly. It took him perhaps a second to reach the end, which was still rather ridiculous for a cube that small.

And then he experienced a strange state of what he would describe as dischronometria. He was simultaneously completely certain that it had taken him about a second yet also sure beyond dispute that it was only a fraction of that. Not a range; those two exact times. Irwyn also realized that the magic that had reached the end was simply stronger. Amplified, even if only by a small amount; perhaps a tenth if he had to guess. And that was just raw elemental magic. No intentions, form, or spells to guide it.

“Well, it seems that it has not broken yet,” Daut nodded. He was staring at the device very intently. “You notice anything strange?”

“Just a strange perception of time,” Irwyn frowned. “Is… time passing faster on the inside?” it would certainly explain the paradoxical memory. He might have perceived time simultaneously from the perspective of his magic and from his own body, however that actually worked.

“For a certain meaning of the word ‘faster’,” Daut shrugged. “I am obviously not going to reveal the secrets of my craft. Now try to channel as much power through as you can in a continuous stream. Almost down to Vessel exhaustion if you know how hard you can afford to push, don’t skim on the intentions.”

“Are you sure? My Vessel is significant for my age,” and that was apparently an understatement from everything Dervish and Elizabeth had told him.

“Don’t try to destroy it, in fact, try not to. But I need to test if it can withstand use and that isn’t worth shit if it breaks from just magic flowing through it.”

“Fair enough,” Irwyn nodded, took a breath, and opened the floodgates.

Flow, perceive, condense. Irwyn imbued three intentions without any further hesitation. If Daut wanted as much magic to go through as possible, well, that was what he would get. Flow so that he could force his magic through even faster and condense so that he could channel even more at a time, allowing him to put more mana into it before saturation. Perceive, of course, was there to help him figure out whatever the pattern was. It was used for a reason and even though Irwyn could perhaps never learn enchanting, perhaps he could gleam something from it.

And the symbol was a strange one indeed. Irwyn realized it was not just space being messed with, it was simply impossible to reproduce with just 3 spacial dimensions. There was something deeper there. A meaning to find. And it was on the tip of Irwyn’s tongue, the shape of it so strangely familiar. Like deja vu of a thing he was certain that he had never seen. Then it came to him. The shape, despite its impossibility, gave Irwyn the impression of a sorrowful star.

FOR NOTHING COULD HEAL ITS SCARS. SO IT WEPT. IT RAGED IN FUTILITY.

Irwyn gasped lightly and shuddered, feeling as though someone had struck him over the back of his head. The next moment he noticed that the inner working of the item were starting to crack, so he shoved whatever that was to the back of his mind. At the end of the divice his magic left a blindingly bright glow, seemingly escaping thought the cubes entire surface, turning the whole room they were in completely white through sheer luminosity. Irwyn’s own incredible resistance was the only reason he could see anything at all.

Irwyn quickly stopped supplying more magic and glance at Daut. The enchanter seemed not disturbed at all by the light that should have burned out his retina in a split second, rather the man appeared thoughtful.

“I will admit that was a bit more than I had expected you would have in you,” Daut nodded. “Well, it did help me spot a good number of issues to fix. Damn Light, so finicky as always. I will need you to come tomorrow when I fix this mess to try again, I hope that’s no problem.”

“I am free for at least a few more days,” Irwyn nodded. “However… I have noticed something.”

“Well, I am all ears.”

“This is not meant for Light or even Flame,” Irwyn was reaching a conclusion from what he had heard. He might have figured it out with the other clues if he had thought about it properly, however, after that symbol it was beyond apparent. “This thing is meant to channel Starfire.”

“And if it is?” Daut immediately frowned quite heavily. That was only natural considering the man had been obviously secretive about the exact nature of his creation.

“Well, I suppose I might be of even more help than you suspected,” Irwyn gave the most confident smile he could manage and allowed a low golden flame to manifest around his wrist. “Though as I understand it, rarer talents are valued higher.”

In the late afternoon, Irwyn settled back into his room for an extension of his usual late-night reading. His new pouch now contained a few other things such as a few potions and other necessities that Desir was so kind as to recommend.

He had excused himself from further competition against Alice on behalf of exhaustion though he was pretty sure she would force him into a few more games at least before they left.

He managed to negotiate up to the pouch upfront and some other goods when the testing was finished. Daut had said he should have made repairs by the following day so Irwyn would be heading back after dawn.

He read and practiced until his usual time and then went to sleep.