Manifold Mirror Mage

Bleary-eyed and with a painful growl pawing at his stomach, Gio blinked away the last remnants of Viniculus and his imaginary restaurant.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, mister zombie. You've been staring at your notes without moving or blinking for like ten minutes." Hatra joked.

"Only ten minutes? I feel like I was gone for a lot longer than that." Gio replied.

"Gone?" Sapphire asked, furrowing her brows. "You didn't go anywhere. Are you alright?"

"I'm perfectly fine. Better than fine, in fact. Give me a second, I need to do this while it's fresh in my mind." Gio replied, erupting into movement.

Sapphire and Hatra watched with puzzled looks from the other side of the sheet of ice. Gio put his notebook to the side, drawing out his inks and scribing tools. He glossed over his notes again and looked at the offending symbol that had previously felt wrong to him. The eye-shaped alchemical placeholder symbol that Sapphire had taught Gio to mean 'Vitreous Solid' was causing the whole spellform to become disharmonious. To Gio's senses, it was like a wrong note being blasted out over an orchestra by the loudest player in the brass instrument section.

Let's see... what is making you so offended, little symbol?

Gio clumsily tried to focus on his newest sense, recalling Viniculus' lesson on justification.

I am a Mirror Mage. I want to make a Mirror. That should be more than enough justification, shouldn't it?

The symbol reacted with a small burst of energy that Gio felt press upon his mind. It was like the feeling of rusty metal grinding against his teeth, with a screeching frequency ringing in his ears reminiscent of the sound of a knife dragging against glass.

It feels like… something to do with Metal?

Gio paused to think for a moment, allowing his mana to become passive.

It feels like the symbol is reacting to the materials in a way that really wants to make the spell manifest as metal. Or perhaps I'm anthropomorphising these elements too much... the magic doesn't truly 'want' anything, right? So, maybe it's just that there's a resonance happening that is causing this spell circuit to gravitate towards making a certain metal if possible, even when other options are easier to conjure. I'd wager that the specific metal that it is trying to produce is more of this 'pseudo-orichalcum' since that's what the Telchines seem to be able to produce naturally... But I'm not a Telchine.

Gio squinted at the spellform. He carefully modified the path of the spell, adding another small section above the path with the 'vitreous solid' symbol.

"Hey Saph, is there an alchemical placeholder for... like... 'Metallic solid'?" Gio asked.

"Yep! It's just an ingot." She replied, arching an eyebrow.

"Like… a bar of metal? How do you draw that?" Gio asked.

"A rectangle with a big base." She replied.

Gio pictured the symbol before he put his fine-point brush to the parchment, imbuing it with the intent of metal as he neatly scribed it into being. As the ink dried, he felt the flow of mana through the unfinished spell flow substantially easier. There was still a disagreeable knot of mana surrounding the new placeholder symbol, but with another path to travel through, it wouldn't prevent the spell from being cast. Gio held the spellform aloft, admiring it in the hazy light of the dungeon.

"Would you be so kind as to explain what's going on? I feel like I'm late to the banquet… You just shot up and started scribing after staring at a notebook for a while. Did you have a good daydream or something?" Sapphire asked.

"You could say that. I unlocked a synergy between my skills… I don't think I should share the details of what happened, but basically, I got a vision of Saint Baphelus' memory. It was a lesson from his youth about a specific rule of magic that I guess is sort of a Vulgarity? It was a unique experience… to say the least." Gio answered

The girls stared at Gio for a while.

"Dude… we're already in a dungeon. You don't have to keep doing extra adventure stuff." Hatra joked.

Gio reeled back in faux outrage. "Well, I'm not doing it on purpose."

"Doing what on purpose?" Chandrika asked, floating down on a pair of golden moth wings, looking far more graceful than she had when she had started flying mere hours ago.

Sapphire turned to Jean and Chandrika with a wry grin. "Your classmate keeps finding new ways to be weird. He thinks he just intruded into the memories of one of the ten Patient Saints."

"That's impossible. Baphelus is a lich, and they don't have minds to read. His memories are imprinted on his soul, and in order to somehow affect his soul, you would have to have access to his phylactery, which I might add- nobody besides his most trusted companions know the location of." Chandrika answered.

"I've got so many questions." Jean said.

"Me too, like… what is a 'Patient Saint'?" Hatra asked.

"It's basically just a fancy title for very old and powerful mages." Jean answered.

"What? That's not true at all. I don't know the full story myself, but I know that it is not a title that is bestowed. There's also thirteen saints, not ten." Chandrika rebutted.

"No, you're thinking of the Saints of magic. There are thirteen saints of magic and a potentially unlimited amount of Patient Saints, am I right, Gio?" Jean asked.

"I… have no idea. I believe that Saint Baphelus is considered both a 'Patient Saint' and a 'Saint of Magic', but I don't really know what those titles entail, nor the distinctions between them. At the very least, the school advertises that several 'Saints of Magic' show up as honored guest lecturers from time to time. Now that I'm thinking about it, none of the publicly active Saints refer to themselves as "Patient Saints"... which is odd." Gio answered.

"You know, some guy tried to tell me that each Patient Saint had a giant fighting robot a few years back. I mean, how gullible did he think I was?" Sapphire said.

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"I mean, who knows? Some of them might have a construct of some kind. There's what, three Saints that stop by CRA from time to time, right? Maybe we could ask one. Saint Heine has got to have a fighting robot. I think his official title is 'Saint Heine the Cog, Master of Machines, ' which sounds like the type of person who would." Jean said.

"Wait a second… I know that name. Wasn't that the name of the first person who ever tried to find the hidden city of Cohu?" Hatra said, eyes sparkling.

"Tried? He succeeded. I've never met him, but he's supposed to travel frequently, supposedly trying to track where Cohu will appear next." Jean replied.

"We're getting off-topic," Chandrika interjected. "Gio, you think you read Baphelus' mind. If that were true, don't you think that it's kind of a bad idea? It's kind of… invasive."

"Again, I didn't do it on purpose. I also wouldn't say I 'read his mind' so much as 'a skill of mine activated on its own, transporting me into the long-distant past to learn a lesson.' I also think that Baphelus is aware of the connection that formed… or at least, he might be aware? To be honest, even if he somehow isn't aware of what happened, I'll end up telling him. If he doesn't want it to happen again, I'll make sure it doesn't. My mentorship with Saint Baphelus is one of the best things that has ever happened to me, and I'd be a fool not to recognize that or to do anything to risk that relationship." Gio said.

"Well, regardless of how it happened, you learned something, right?" Hatra eagerly chimed in. "Show us the result!"

"I warn you, it's not going to be very impressive." Gio replied.

Gio looked at the spell. There was no flash of light nor pulse of magic, nothing to indicate that the spell was any more complete than it was a moment ago.

But… it should work.

Gio sent an inquisitive cord of his mana through the printed spell circuit, feeling intuitively as each strand of his magic was wound through different mechanisms to shape and imbue them with function and purpose. The spell fizzled out as he failed to provide instructions to the forming spell.

Right. This spell won't do anything automatically; I need to guide it. It has less built-in safeguards than other spells, which means that my success or failure is solely within my own hands.

Gio tried again, running through the entire structure of the spell in his mind and reviewing his mistake before applying his mana. He provided input on the shape of the mirror he was trying to make, but the mana-construct fizzled out at the last second anyways.

What is it this time?

The group looked at Gio expectantly.

"Sorry, this one is… difficult." He said.

"Hey, take your time. Just don't wear yourself out too badly, we need to be ready for an ambush when we're ready to move again." Jean said, placing a hand on Gio's shoulder.

Gio nodded, returning to the spell.

He tried a few more times, gradually gaining a feel for the spell. A knot of mana presented itself at the final stage of spellcasting each time, causing an unbalanced build-up of mana that was fatal to the forming spell-circuit.

What could be stopping the spell from working? … What instruction do I need to give at this point? OH! The material!

Casting threads of mana into the forming spell, Gio first specified the dimensions of the mirror to be conjured. He chose a small disk, just bigger than a hand mirror, for his first test-cast of his new spell. He then specified in his mind's eye that he wanted the mirror to be made of regular, mundane glass.

"Yes!"

A glittering splash of silver light flickered in between his hands, and a small and simple mirror plopped down into Gio's lap. He held it up to the light, checking it for defects. It was a perfect oval of thin glass, reflective on both sides and free of deformities. There was a neatly beveled edge around the sides, just like Gio had imagined.

"I thought previously that If I didn't care enough to specify, the spell would naturally flow into whatever material was easiest to conjure. Turns out that the material that is easiest to conjure is Air, which is somewhat difficult to make reflective." Gio announced.

"Nice!" Hatra said, taking the mirror from Gio.

"Although… reflective air might be an interesting idea for you to look into at some point." Sapphire pondered.

Gio sat with his notebook, immediately journaling his success and his observations. He perked up at Sapphire's idea, but shook his head.

"At that point, I'd probably be better off creating a pure plane of reflective magic, which is almost the function of [Reflect], albeit stripped of combat capability. Worth looking into, but a bit above my skill and knowledge level for the time being."

Hatra held the mirror aloft. "I'm kind of jealous." She said.

"How so?" Gio asked.

"I mean… I know that there's a lot of hard work involved, but I can't pretend I didn't just watch you turn plants and blood into magic in front of my eyes." Hatra answered.

"Just to remind you, I wouldn't have been able to do it without your help. I'm still a long way away from being able to truly summon magic from nothing." Gio said.

"Yeah, I suppose that's true. For what it's worth… I'm very proud of you. I wish Quinn were here to see you do this stuff." She replied.

"We'll have all the time in the world to catch up with him once he returns from becoming some sort of sword master." Gio joked.

"I'll hold you to that. I know that it's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day, but the three of us have to stick together as the next generation of deGlorias. Well… us, and the twins once they get a little older." Hatra said.

"Yeah… I want to be a good older brother to Emma and Sam. I just hope that-"

Gio was interrupted by his stomach gurgling.

"Are you okay? It sounds like you're about to digest yourself." Hatra asked.

"Sorry, I guess memory food isn't as filling as I thought. Hey Jean! Any chance we can prep a snack before we head onward?" Gio said, yelling over his shoulder.

Jean stiffened as if someone poured cold water down his back.

"I… honestly don't want to cook for the rest of the trip." Jean said.

"What? But you were so excited to be 'the guy that cooks' when you enter the Ring Guard, right? What happened to change your mind?" Sapphire asked.

"I… it's…."

"He can't even say it out loud. Jean, what happened? Talk to us, big guy." Hatra said, patting his back.

"I… got the [Beginner Cooking] skill." Jean said, his voice hushed and a shadow falling across his brow.

"That's great! General skills are always welcome! I don't get… why…" Hatra allowed her sentence to trail off as she surveyed the grim looks on everyone elses faces.

Gio had his fingers steepled, his eyes darting back and forth, as if reviewing mental notes. Chandrika and Sapphire were patting Jean on the shoulders, sharing a dark glance with one another. Jean looked off into the distance as the color drained from his skin.

"Did I miss something? Why do you all look like he just announced that he's about to die in the next five minutes?" Hatra asked.

"Did we ever tell you about the great food at our school? Well… it comes from one place." Sapphire said.

"One… inevitable… place…" Jean said, zombified.

Hatra couldn't speak, shocked at the theatrics on display.

"Maybe you could ask the spirits to take the skill back?" Gio asked.

"Impossible. He'd have to change it into something else. The spirits must have known that he was excited to cook… but for this? This is too far. Jean, you don't love cooking, right? You still want to be a warrior, right?" Chandrika asked.

"I… I think so. It was… nice to share a meal with you all, and talk about dating… and school… I didn't think it would mean throwing away my future. What am I going to do?" Jean asked, in hushed tones.

"Between Gio's memory thingy and this cooking doomsday prophecy, I am about to throw myself into the water. Someone please explain!" Hatra demanded.

"There's a famous chef by the name of… Marie Bain." Gio said, looking around as if saying her name might summon her.

Hatra scoffed as the others looked around as well, as if this chef would appear in a random dungeon outside the city walls.

"She has… thousands of bodies. Nobody knows what the skill is that lets her do it, but she single-handedly staffs every kitchen in the Crystal Ring. Waiters, line-cooks, prep-cooks, Maitre de, etcetera." Gio explained.

"She sounds amazing. What's the issue? Does she hunt other mages with cooking skills for sport or something?" Hatra guessed.

"In a way, yes. She's been looking for apprentices… and she has a horrifying record. Without fail, every one of her apprentices turns into a chef. She oozes a love for the culinary arts that has been described as deeply infectious." Sapphire stated.

"Please stop, I might be sick." Jean begged.

"It was only one pot of stew! How did it turn out like this?!" Chandrika yelled.

"I mean… It's not like this is a death sentence, then. Just tell her that you don't want to be a chef. Don't you already have a mentor?" Hatra said.

"That's right!" Jean screamed. "Professor Cloudspeaker will defend me!"

Gio laughed darkly. He looked deep into Jean's eyes, his gaze holding a mysterious and foul light. "Tell me, Jean… Do you think Professor Cloudspeaker would win against … Marie?"

Jean fell to his knees.

"But… she can fly! We can fly! She'll carry me away from the Ringed City. Perhaps I can hide… What about your country, Rika. We're friends, aren't we?" Jean pleaded.

"I was specifically warned that I must be the perfect representative of Ujjbala Sūrya… I can't risk an international incident by hiding you from her… I'm sorry, Jean. I really am." Chandrika answered, clasping her hands behind her back and facing away from him.

"But, I don't want to be a chef!" Jean yelled, cursing his fate.