Mage Among Superheroes

“I just need you to confirm that you can stay calm when we see her and not get into a fight,” Midnight repeated.

“Of course I can,” I said defensively. “What makes you think I can’t control myself? She started it last time.”

“See, I believe you mean to do your best, but your words and your emotions aren’t lining up. And it takes two people to be a fight, as my parents always said.”

“You haven’t really talked about them. What were they like?”

“No distracting me!” Midnight snapped. “Anyway, your words seem genuine but the fact that you’re angry already doesn’t fill me with confidence.”

“I’m not angry. I don’t get angry. I’m just a little annoyed.” It was strange, though, because Midnight should be able to feel my emotions. Maybe something was broken?

“I don’t think that’s… everyone gets angry,” Midnight said. “It’s normal. Just remember your powers can cause more damage than you intend if you lose focus.”

“I know,” I rolled my eyes. “Have I ever hurt someone when I didn’t mean to?”

“... you’re pretty good about that,” Midnight admitted. “But the stronger you are, the more easily you could do something by accident, right?”

“It’s fine. Everything is in control.” I reached into my pocket.

“Don’t cast Stoneskin,” Midnight said.

“But last time-”

“Last time went about as poorly as it could go!” Midnight said, aggravated. “Listen, being visibly defensive is probably a bad way to start things off. And I don’t care if she punched you last time. It probably would have gone better if something actually happened to you so Izzy could properly regret it. This time, I’ll go in first and you come in after I’ve set things up.”

“I don’t get why you’re so annoyed right now,” I crossed my arms, “You don’t even need to be here.”

Midnight sighed. “I’m the only one who knows the way, among other things. Actually, wait here,” Midnight waved a paw at a nearby coffee shop. “It’s probably better to meet at something like a neutral location.”

“I don’t even like coffee.”

“Then get hot chocolate! Or tea, or whatever. Not my problem.”

… Midnight sure was testy. Best not to argue with him.

I went into the shop. For some reason one wall had pictures of various supers on it. I didn’t recognize most of them, despite memorizing as much as I could from the databases. There was just a lot, and there wasn’t a simple and organized way to go through them so I just had to go with whoever was strong or otherwise stood out.

The majority occupants of the establishment seemed to have headphones and laptops, which were like phones and their larger tablet counterparts but more unwieldy. Better for inputting data through a keyboard, from what I had heard. I didn’t see why it should matter except I saw their fingers could move quite fast- in short bursts at least.

I looked around for a location to sit down and then realized I should probably buy something for it to be less awkward. I was also a bit hungry, so I got a bagel and something to drink. For some reason it was cold, but it wasn’t bad.

Then I waited. I basically kept track of Midnight’s location and emotional state since I didn’t have much else to do. He wasn’t terribly far away, and his feelings fluctuated what I presumed was a normal amount, nothing sharp or extreme. Then he began getting closer.

It was at that point that my brain realized that Izzy was coming, and that she was only something like three feet tall. Would she be comfortable in this booth? I scanned the area and picked out a child eating some sort of funny looking sandwich across from a haggard looking mother. Eh, it was close enough. Better than one of the tables, probably.

Then Izzy walked in. She took one step through the door, her eyes passing over everything as she did so, then promptly turned towards the counter. Midnight leapt up to the counter, pulling out his phone to pay. I was quite proud of him for using just enough mana for Mage’s Reach to work instead of using it at maximum capacity. A minute later, Izzy sat down across from me with a coffee that seemed almost as big as her head.

Midnight sat between us on the table, slightly off to one side. “I’ve explained the situation where we couldn’t understand her at all last time. And now we’re all here. Turlough, didn’t you have something to say?”

Did I? It took a few moments to think of anything. “Thank you for the book,” I said. Noticing the way Midnight’s tail twitched- among other things- I could presume that wasn’t the thing he meant. What else was there? Oh right. “I’m sorry I communicated poorly when we met again.”

Izzy side eyed me as she took a huge swig from the container in front of her. “Yeah, I really shouldn’t have expected anything different. Should have known better.” Midnight’s face pressing right up close to her seemed to prompt something else. “Uh, and I’m sorry that… I punched you?”

“I don’t care about that,” I said.

For some reason, Midnight sighed again. But I couldn’t think of any other way I would have said that.

Some awkward moments of sipping beverages and chewing food made the time pass at a snail’s pace. Finally, Izzy said something. “It’s been a long time, huh?”

“Yeah.” More awkward silence. “Thanks for delivering that book from Master Uvithar. How did he know you were coming here? Or that you would be able to find me?”

“... I arrived in Mossley the night before you went through that portal. I talked to him after that. Then I was trying to find my way here.”

“... oh.” That must have been a lot of work. It seemed pretty easy to throw around portals here, but that was partly because Doctor Doomsday was exceptionally powerful. And New Bay was apparently dimensionally unstable.

“I had to work with a diviner to find a way here.”

“To deliver a book?”

“To find you.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I thought… you might remember me.”

“I do.”

There was a long period of nothing. Midnight seemed like he wanted to say something but didn’t know what, and eventually just remained quiet.

“We can help out with Translation, since you can’t speak the language here.”

“Thanks. I’ll learn it pretty quick though.”

I wondered if the clock on the wall was broken. Was the hand moving backwards? No, it just felt like it.

“There’s a guy named Doctor Doomsday who’s opening lots of portals,” I said. “He’s dangerous, but if you want to go back… looking for whatever he’s doing might work. Do you want to go back?” She could get experience like a normal person, so she didn’t need to be here where there was conflict.

“Mmn,” was all she replied. She tipped back the last of the big portable coffee she had, then stood up. “Well… see you around, maybe.”

“Yeah.”

After she was gone, I was left with Midnight staring at me. He was clearly not happy, but also not angry. Just a confused jumble of mainly negative emotions. “... We need to get you a professional,” Midnight said.

“A professional what? Like, a person who can talk for me?”

“No. Something else. A um… I don’t even know, actually.”

“Okay,” I shrugged. “Well if you ever figure it out…”

-----

On the table in front of me sat the book from Master Uvithar.

‘Basics of Magic to Hidden Secrets: An Instructional Guide for Instructors of Magic’

Inside were some familiar things. Tables that I had already memorized, though I could also reproduce them by knowing the proper formula. It had been a while since I really cracked open a physical book, since most of what was done here was all digital. The Power Brigade library did have physical books, I just hadn’t really needed them. The database had a lot of what I needed to know.

Beyond what I already knew, the book had some interesting things I had never learned. There were some interesting things that I’d either forgotten or never learned, as well as some things I’d thought about but never in quite the way laid out in the book. Some of it was pretty basic, and as the title said basic, but having it properly compiled would help with teaching Jerome.

There were some questions about how Master Uvithar knew I’d need this, but it wasn’t necessarily that he knew I had a student. Because there were also those new things. The section talking about using mana for spells basically covered everything I knew… but with slight but critical extra details.

Each spell costs mana according to its level. Likewise, its power is geometrically proportionate to the level, at least as measurable with offensive and defensive spells. Larger area spells suffer some reduction in power because of the distribution, though the exact proportions are not always clear or measurable.

Using less mana is possible- though it takes more concentration and might weaken effects in unpredictable ways without practice. The other way to use less mana is to improve a spell by spending additional points to upgrade its effects. This comes not only with a reduction in mana cost but an increase in power, improving efficiency in both directions.

However, a lesser known effect follows from that. A mage or other spellcaster will naturally cast at the reduced cost without thinking about it- it is instinct. And while it is not possible to push more mana into a spell to make it stronger, this is only technically the case with an upgraded spell.

In short, it is possible to use anywhere up to the default amount of mana, proportionately increasing the power of the spell once more. This does not come with the same geometric progression in power, but is still useful when maximum output in a single spell is necessary. In short, a mage with twenty upgrades in a spell (a serious expenditure of points but used for illustrative purposes because of the neat numbers) will normally cast the spell at half cost. With some additional expenditure of effort and the conscious decision to use the default amount of mana- double what is natural- and the spell will likewise double in power.

This costs somewhere between forty-one and twelve times the total expenditure of points depending on the level of the spell, requiring a mage to specialize in a single spell or very small number, but proportionally smaller but potentially relevant effects can come from spells with a smaller numbers of upgrades, about five percent per.

I… had the feeling I had stumbled upon that myself once or twice. I couldn’t really say for sure, though. One thing I could say was that Shockwave was going to be very happy at some point.

Just to experiment, I tried it with Force Armor. I… couldn’t actually feel the effects directly. Not from a single casting. I had to repeat the process multiple times, taking into consideration the difference between approximately 1.54 mana and 2. After casting it ten times I began to feel the strain, but I carefully cast two more just to make sure I brought myself to the very edge. Yes, that had to be it. The difference between being at a single point of mana and six and a half was significant.

I had a lot of calculations to think about now. In battle, it would be easier to calculate my mana amounts using this ability- but it also took slightly longer. I had to gather more mana and focus on pushing past the naturally accepted numbers. Long term things like Force Armor would be good with this method, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to concern myself with slight power differences in other abilities. And of course if I was using magic on a normal human it would be quite inappropriate to overcharge Shocking Grasp.

I wondered why I hadn’t learned this information before. Then I realized that in a battle between two mages, the one who could eke out these extra bits of power to batter down defenses or resist a powerful attack would be at a significant advantage. A small portion of a spell remaining might not seem like much until you got to high levels of power where that remnant was deadly to someone. Then I wondered what else had been kept secret, like the mana crystals I had learned how to make. Interestingly enough those weren’t mentioned in the book- even in the margins where Master Uvithar had some notes. Did nobody know, or was it an even more tightly kept secret? Either way, I’d have to figure out the details on them myself.

Later, because I really needed to get back to focusing on my mercenary duties. Handface wasn’t going to just scry himself, after all.

I also needed to figure out how much mana I was regenerating now, because I hadn’t taken careful notes on the phenomenon while I was… disoriented.