Hope

The first thing Irwyn found out after leaving the throne room where his trial had taken place was that it was, in fact, not morning anymore. The mansion he had been confined to was not actually following the day-night cycle - instead, it was operating on a different routine entirely, each day being about 48 minutes shorter than normal. Why that number specifically, Irwyn did not grasp and found it strange that Elizabeth knew it so precisely. But clearly that way the year in the house was 11 days longer which - besides seeming rather pointless - honestly bordered on heresy as the length of a full day had been quite precisely defined by Ignis - at least as far as the Book of the Name said. But what did he know? The main thing he got from the conversation was that on the day of the trial, he had been seven hours off.

The point was that besides being another tool that had been used to confuse him by his former captors, it also meant that the trial had actually ended in the afternoon rather than the morning as he had been misled to believe. That left him with significantly less free time before the meeting with Avys von Blackburg the following dawn. Not that he had anything too urgent to spend it on. A duel had come to mind but Elizabeth was busy dealing with the aftermath while recommending he remain inside the literal mansion she apparently personally owned. Perhaps it was for the best. Irwyn had been reassured of privacy so he could finally play with his spell craft a bit.

First were intentions. Irwyn had undergone a vision after all and had yet to test his new limits. The only opportunity had been the Ambassador’s test which was too fast-paced and important - at least in his eyes at the time - to take risks and experiment if he could avoid it. Because what he was testing was not just an improvement but a possible leap. Before the vision he could mostly confidently maintain two five-intention constructs at once, which obviously wasn’t the case anymore - he had felt how much easier it was. But the question remained whether he was ready for the next major step. Imbuing the sixth intention did require, at the absolute minimum, the same amount of focus and power that 6 five-intention spells would. That was not accounting for the fact that his first few attempts would undoubtedly be rather inefficient. And so he got to testing, manifesting a cane of solid light.

Reinforce, dim, strengthen, stabilize, endure were the five he chose. Easy and simple. Then he created another identical spell, and another, and another… He had expected progress, had been quite confident that he would get to the eight he thought were the bare minimum to give adding a six intention spell a safe shot. What he did not expect was for things to not even get difficult by the eighth construct. So he carried on. Nine, then ten came and went. 11th, well, there he began to feel a challenge. 12th was difficult, subsuming his very senses to keep his focus. The 13th was just barely possible - if Irwyn abandoned every other trace of thought just to force it - which included him half forgetting to breathe as he tapped all the way to the subconscious for a few split seconds just to confirm he could manifest that extra last spell.

Which Irwyn obviously quickly dismissed, subsequently reabsorbing all the magic in said 13 rods. It was actually quite a large quantity of Light magic and someone might take notice in the city sized sanctuary of Void mages if he just allowed it to disperse. Then he smiled as he made the inevitable realization: Not only was he confidently in the territory of adding six intention spells to his repertoire, he was actually rather close to the possibility of using two at the same time in the near future. 13 five-intention spells was theoretically enough for that, though he would need to refine how efficient his upcoming next level of spells would be before attempting more than one – and in time his ability would also continue to grow.

But if it was just one? Irwyn was more than sure he could easily handle that and so he did. He added persevere into the mix, making the already durable rod of Light even more so. Mana poured through him to feed the spell as expensive as almost eight five-intention constructs would be and to his pleasant surprise realized he had not felt any tuck at his Vessel - that meant the amount had been too negligible to notice, which basically confirmed that his body’s capacity to carry mana had also been reinforced by the vision. It smoothly poured through him and then it was done.

Yes, it was not trivially easy but one six-intention spell did not push him to his limits either. He wouldn’t dare try a second yet but could easily maintain a 5-intention barrier along with it, then another few spells of a similar level. In fact, the leftover focus was perhaps more than he had possessed before the vision. A huge leap, though supposedly progress became faster the more power one already held - which somewhat offset the difficulty of every further step towards power also multiplying.

Afterwards, Irwyn played with new spells he had theorized since his capture. Abonisle has showcased many weaknesses and he had every intention to minimize them if he could. And the main candidate was some kind of body enhancement. He had witnessed Elizabeth use such to a significant effect… as well as being in much better shape than him. But while physical condition was a long-term problem that would need continuous effort, he could enhance himself with relative ease as far as Irwyn reckoned. For that he had even borrowed a book for his home arrest reading. The ‘transfiguration of body and flesh for beginners’ was exactly what it proclaimed to be. A compendium for anyone who wished to engage in body enhancement with minimal prior knowledge, going into each of the nine elements, including how they could be used. And most importantly, the dangers it involved.

Void magic had apparently a tendency to exsanguinate a careless user, or outright vanish their organs into the Void. It was, however, rather efficient at providing potent empowerment - basically more enhancement for the same quantity of magic than other elements might. It was limited in scope though. Most enhancements only allowed for the strengthening of flesh making the caster more durable and physically stronger. Irwyn did know that Elizabeth’s ‘Elvenkind’ spell did a lot more than that but then, that was probably not in the category ‘for beginners’. And neither was his goal in all honesty.

Life magic could result in cancerous growths and other kinds of self-poisoning but it allowed for not only improved body and reflexes but also could achieve improved regeneration, autonomously stop bleeding, or even keep someone alive past bleeding out or losing their heart, though at great cost.

Fate leaned towards cultivating premonitions and making the body and brain able to properly parse them - react to events before the body even perceived them. Time on the other hand focused completely on speed. Soul magic was, by it’s intangibility, generally ill-suited for anything but defending against other soul magics in body enhancement.

Essence magic was… strange. As most things were for the element of Essence/power, it broke the mold that the other 8 followed. Essence-based enhancement apparently focused on permanent alteration such as tattoos, piercings, or even surgically implanted objects that bordered on enchanting. But such was a way with Essence. Its Apect, Toolbearer Parios the Implacable - as the Book of the Name titled him - had diverged from the other Aspects in most directions. It was him who had created monsters and denied them souls. And supposedly also him who granted mortals the ability to wield magic at all. His element was more about recreating and empowering everything else through rigid form. It was what allowed enchanters to create tools for elements that they themselves could not feasibly power themselves - such as when Irwyn had helped Han Daut test his device in Abonisle.

Irwyn shook his head, returning his wandering thoughts to the topic. Although he had been fascinated by the possibilities they had been ultimately humored mostly to sate his curiosity and perhaps expand his expectation of future opponents. What really mattered was what his own elements could do:

Light was straight forward and simple: Known to be safe to handle for body enchantment. In exchange though, it lacked both potency and versatility. It provided similar benefits as Void did, only lesser in exchange for smaller risks involved and lesser strain on the caster's mind. There was also a passage about reproducing some healing effects similar to Life magic but Irwyn was frankly not sure if it was even possible for him to achieve any kind of healing as it touched upon creation - so he decided to not even attempt anything of the sort before he had properly explored that direction outside his own body.

Fire on the other hand was considered borderline unusable for body enhancement. Irwyn was baffled when he first read that but the reasoning for it had become immediately apparent: To enhance one's body meant to basically apply their elements directly to the flesh and bone. And, well, those had the tendency to burn when exposed to heat that could melt metal, mutilating the caster every second they kept attempting anything so foolish. There were exceptions to it… just none for ‘beginners’.

Irwyn would not burn thought. He wasn’t sure how far that immunity stretched but it certainly was far beyond anything he could conjure himself. He found the book among the pile that has been rearranged in the moving and got to testing. First of all, he had to confirm body enchantment was not going against the Oath that might or might not be his. He didn’t think so but it was best to make sure on something easy. Which was why he found the passage on Light magic that helpfully included several rudimentary spells.

Now, they were all generic and weak but that was not an issue for testing. The one Irwyn chose was Lightflesh, a simple spell that imbued the muscle and skin with Light magic, making it both harder and stronger while also creating a soft glow. The theory behind it was also absolutely minimal. It merely enveloped what he wanted to affect with Light attuned mana and then imbued that mana with the intention to strengthen. So simple it probably would have been Irwyn's first guess had he tried to figure it out on his own. Either way, he still chanted the spell just in case an applied it only to his right arm under the elbow.

The result was… a success. Iwryn had thought it had failed when his hand failed to glow but realized that it did indeed feel noticeably stronger. A quick inspection made him realize that the soft glow the spell described was most likely caused by insufficient control over one's magic, the wasted mana glowing as it dissipated - Irwyn’s spell simply did not leak to the point to be visible in daylight. The empowerment was nothing extraordinary… but also better than nothing. If he had known about it he could have easily used it in Abonisle since the cost on both his Vessel and mind were below negligible. The kind of spell he could probably maintain every second of a week without trouble, much like the Cognitive empowerment Dervish had guided him to.

Of course, that was only the start. The next spell in the Light category was called Mirage of skin and it was very different in principle. Rather than making him stronger, it would make his skin reflective of the surroundings. The result would be close to his invisibility spell… except worse since it specifically warned it could not hide the eyes or clothes. Still, Irwyn gave it a quick test and found no unexpected hurdles or new discoveries. The principles of optics it worked on were likewise similar but inferior to his invisibility. The last spell the book provided was Rejuvenation which touched upon self-healing and therefore Irwyn skipped. He was not willing to test whether he could on his own body if he could help it. He would have loved to also test Flame-based enchantments, however, the book provided none. So Irwyn had invented some himself.

“Fire’s kin,

Molten skin”

An easy construct in principle. Irwyn merely overlaid magic over the skin of his right arm – beneath the elbow again as to not damage the short sleeve shirt he had received to change into - then gave it the intention to burn. Just the one, it was mostly a proof of concept than anything else. He could incinerate things just fine from afar but this warranted testing. He carefully grabbed a spoon he had claimed at lunch - intently not touching anything else - and watched it melt into sludge in moments. Similarly fast as if it was one intention Flame which would be good to know.

Next, he tried Flameflesh. It was the exact same principle as Lightflesh, except, well, used Fire instead of Light. Naturally, anyone else would have crippled themselves even attempting it but Irwyn only felt slight warmth as the magic failed to burn the muscle and skin it entered. The effect was similar but significantly stronger than the Light-based version. That boded well since the next natural step was Starflesh using Starfire. Once again, there was a jump in efficacy compared to Flame. As for empowering the muscle, Irwyn thought he was maybe… twice as strong as normal? Which sounded impressive at first glance, except Irwyn was already at a level where he could easily wield forces of magic that he could never physically compete with if he was strengthened a thousandfold. Still, it was only one intention magic and a good start.

The next step was to reinforce. Because Irwyn did not really need to punch anything. But it would be good if he could make himself more resilient against anything that passed his barrier. Defend, reinforce, protect, bolster, fortify. And a slight adjustment to the chant as well.

“Alive afresh,

Unbreakable Starflesh”

And he let the magic spread across almost every fiber he could reach. Skin and muscle were obvious and quite potent. He was not made stronger but instead even much more durable, as the spell would suggest. He quickly took a knife from his small collection of repossessed cutlery - a large, sharpened steel piece meant to portion pie - and experimentally tried to cut into his finger. He did not pierce skin. Therefore, he applied more force, increasing the pressure. When that had no effect whatsoever, he tried to stab into his finger with a full swing. The only result was a dent in the knife’s edge, much to Irwyn's joy. If anything pierced his barriers, he would no longer be nearly so vulnerable. There was an argument to be made about raising a second barrier instead of bothering with something like this but Irwyn judged it better to have more diverse defenses.

There were also other benefits. For one, Irwyn had reinforced his hearing. He did not make it stronger, that was not the purpose of the spell. Rather, he was confident he would be much harder to deafen or affect by any sound-based attacks. He had done the same for his eyes; Irwyn was already immune to blinding due to his Light affinity but he would rather include it than encounter an exception - like acid still being able to burn him as he had found out. Technically speaking he had also protected his nose and tongue… but Irwyn wasn’t sure those would actually have any effect. Overwhelming smells and tastes were problematic because the human brain was unable to handle them, not because they damaged the organ that perceived them.

Either way, speaking of organs, those were naturally also included. It should make them less fragile against impact and in particular poison, at least Irwyn thought it would. He needed to test with something mild - both airborne and ingested. He remembered quite clearly how the undead had used it against them when climbing the Spire in Abonisle and wasn’t sure his barrier would necessarily be able to protect him. It did need to let air through for him to breathe after all.

Lastly, the spell should make him exponentially less prone towards sores. Nor would he ever stub a toe again. Which wasn’t the most relevant but it was certainly convenient. Especially since Irwyn had every intention to maintain it in perpetuity. It was, in the end, a rather simple spell in principle and he believed it would be possible with a bit of practice, much like his barrier.

But he had always been confident this would be the case. It was a good spell and a new tool, yet it was not the end of his ambition for body enchantment. Barely its beginning in all honesty. What he intended next would require… a lot more experimentation. Because it all came back to Elizabeth’s Elvenkind spell. It improved her casting. And much, much more than that. It genuinely brought her closer to one of the mythical dwellers of the deep Void.

And the spell was almost certainly tailor-made by or at least for her - he leaned towards the former. Because a generic spell could only do so much. A proper piece of magic accounted for the caster’s experiences and the weight of their Fate, reflected through a chant to essentially bribe reality into supporting the effect through a good story.

But before that came theory, and Irwyn had been working hard on that for the last several days. Since it was body enchantment, Irwyn had to anchor it somewhere in his body. Flesh was already taken as well as organs but he had known that would be the case. Instead, he turned towards what was not: His bones, his blood, his brain, and technically also his hair. He was rather wary of having it affect his brain directly though: He always maintained the Cognitive empowerment - which in hindsight was also body enhancement - and did not want to interrupt it lest he accidentally killed himself faster than help could feasibly intervene. Therefore, he sought another angle: Rather than improving his baseline ability to use magic, he would make his body more conductive to it.

He had long ago discovered that when summoning mana from his Vessel it could appear anywhere in the body. Had learned to direct it in fact, made the process more efficient by summoning what he needed where he needed it rather than in every fiber. But what if he needed more than could possibly be summoned at once? Then he needed to gather it from all across his body to where the spell would manifest which was slower. Not much but he was reaching heights where split seconds could make a major difference. Not to mention his abnormally massive Vessel and Reservoir encouraged him to use mana-hungry spells as much as possible. Therefore, he was going to use his blood to do just that. It already flowed after all. And everyone knew that blood flowed through the veins, it was basically an undeniable fact. Which would matter for the symbolism of it, even if he needed the mana to travel an order of magnitude faster than his blood possibly could.

But blood would not be suitable for properly anchoring the spell. The flow that the spell would have great use of was a detriment for that. So he opted for his bones, in particular bone marrow. It was where the body manufactured its blood after all and that was a connection that would empower the whole spellcraft. It would not really do much to the bones themselves, just use them as anchors to better maintain the spell. By the virtue of not being involved in the Starflesh spell they would be more prone to breaking but Irwyn decided that was a worthwhile trade - the quantity of mana would still reinforce them somewhat.

He was less happy about needing to do the same to his heart, which was unfortunately not avoidable due to the whole spell being based on the flow of blood that the heart provided. To mitigate its exclusion from Starflesh he made it the main fulcrum of the entire construct. While the bones would anchor it across his body, the heart would be the… well, beating heart of the spell. Some symbolisms explained themselves.

But there was more to it. For Irwyn did remember the WEEPING MARK and its impossible shapes. The way it empowered his magic when he used it… then why not incorporate it? And where else than the very core? Overlaying upon his heart what he could grasp of it, which was… more than he used to. He thought he could picture most of it now even though the shape was impossible. He had seen that a good chant and bit of extra power could correct that imperfection.

The last part was hair. Which by itself served no real purpose, at least if Irwyn was not making this into a proper chanted spell. But the ‘transfiguration of body and flesh for beginners’ shared an important insight that Irwyn might never have guessed himself: Fate liked it when body enhancement was visible. Really liked it, actually. To the point not making a spell have a visible effect was basically equivalent to handicapping it. He had accounted for that in the Unbreakable Starflesh spell by making his iris glow a shade of gold - distinct but eyes were still much less notable than glowing skin. As for his other spell which was otherwise all internal, hair provided an easy outlet. A golden mane burning with Starfire would do quite nicely, Irwyn reckoned. It would not be compatible with stealth but Irwyn would not need to use this spell in a stealth situation anyway – channeling as much magic as feasible every second was bound to be noticeable. The only thing that remained was the chant. A proper one for a proper spell. And he had prepared, so he spoke:

“I dreamt of wonder

and now ponder

if perhaps those skies

were not lies

of a child's mind

but something left behind.

So as I grow

with all I know,

all I knew

coursing through

like a flood,

Empyrean blood”

The first thing Irwyn noticed was the heat. Not scorching for it could not burn him but hot, deep in his marrow and in his veins, like liquid flame. And first and foremost, in his chest. He placed a hand where his heart was and realized he had burned a hole into his shirt right around it. That could be solved later, for the moment he focused on making sure he was alright. Because there could have been something he had overlooked. Therefore, he was prepared to completely dismiss the spell the moment he felt anything was wrong.

For one, he was worried about oxygen since he was basically subsuming his circulatory system, the first sign of that would be dizziness if his brain was not getting enough. He also watched out for palpitations, surges of pain, seizures or anything else that could go wrong. He did have a panic button Elizabeth had left him which he made sure was within arm’s reach at all times. Then he waited. 10 seconds, twenty. A minute, then ten. Nothing happened. Good.

The spell burned a lot more mana than it ought to. For this first test he had imbued only Speed and anchor into it but it consumed as much magic as four or even five intention spell would to maintain. That was fine, he would get more efficient and had magic to spare. What mattered was the efficacy. So that was what he tried next.

And the effect was far better than he would have hoped. The spell was meant to let him move mana faster across his body but it did more than that. Happily, Irwyn found that it also let him summon it from his Vessel significantly quicker. On a closer examination, this only applied to where his blood flowed so the effect was much lesser on muscle and such where only small veins reached but it was still significant. Irwyn estimated that with merely one intention actually supporting the speed he could squeeze about 30% more magic from his Vessel every second.

By itself already amazing but what was much better was that this was multiplicative with the improvement to flow. Before, if Irwyn had wished to gather magic at his palm it would take a split second for it to move from his foot. Now, the magic moved literally faster than Irwyn could internally perceive. Yes, faster, because Irwyn realized it moved before he even fully formed the thought of moving it. Rather than the sluggishness of the past his magic would now always be exactly where he wanted it. And that felt wonderful.

Smiling, Irwyn moved his magic about a few more times before dismissing the spell. He had opted not to see exactly how fast he could actually manifest magic… yet. First, he wanted to test the limits of the spell. More intentions and different ones. It was already well into the afternoon when he started and Irwyn only stopped for a slightly late dinner.

Elizabeth had returned though he had apparently just missed her as she had skipped the majority of the meal to go straight to sleep. Irwyn did eat though and when he returned to his room he was itching to experiment more… But refrained. Because at dawn he would be meeting with the Duchess and wanted to be as rested for it as he could be. Besides, he no longer needed to be in constant hurry. Perhaps he could still not afford to stop or even slow down but he had the leisure to pace himself. So, he went to sleep.

Pragmatically the bed had been of the exact same make as the one he had slept in the night before… and yet this one felt so much more comfortable. Despite all the excitement, he did not remember when he last slept as soundly.