Path of Wizardry

"Your Fae affinity has reached 100%, as I expected," Felin mentioned casually, having finished a more in-depth inspection of Amy than before.

"One... Hundred?" Amy stuttered, too taken aback to form proper words.

"For affinities to matter at Apprentice Tier they would have to be at least 100%. Fortunately, you are not a Journeyman otherwise you'd be looking at affinities above one hundred."

"I know you mentioned that before but... they can do that? Go above one hundred?"

"Affinities are a lot more than just a number but the number attached to them is a relatively simple measure of the word; merely how much above or below the baseline your attunement is than normal. In the majority of cases, this baseline is your 'mana pool' attunement as that represents the mana you're actually using to attune the mana gathered via Magecraft. In turn, this represents what portion of an Element or Concept your attunement mana is closely aligned to. Now that, theoretically, cannot go above 100% simply due to how the calculations work out. This is why a number is highly inefficient in representing affinities at a higher Tier."

"I see."

"Your Unknowable affinity has also increased. Before it was in the mid-eighties and is now somewhere in the low-nineties. A remarkable increase but nothing compared to the accomplishment of your Fae affinity, as disastrous an accomplishment it is."

"How did I not notice this?" Amy asked, fidgeting in her seat on the sofa. "I mean, I definitely noticed the attunement getting easier, but how did I not notice... everything else?"

"Well, if this was any ordinary Element, you'd notice it. If you had a 100% affinity towards Fire, you'd notice the changes in your personality and way of thinking, as its corruption is quite obvious. Unfortunately for you, these affinities had to be Unknowable and Fae, Elements specialised in concealment and trickery. You did not notice the effects because the corruption from the Elements themselves twisted you away from noticing it."

"...How can I even trust myself then?" Amy said worriedly. "I feel like myself - I'm definitely different to how I was when I arrived in the city but I've gone through a lot. I just can't see how so much of me... couldn't be me."

"You'd be right," Felin said, confusing her. "Most of the time, you are indeed yourself and in charge of your own faculties. What you might have not noticed is when you make decisions that may seem uncharacteristic of you and then change so that, suddenly, they aren't so uncharacteristic. Something I should've noticed was that Record of yours, subtle as it was. You arrived at Harth wanting to return to family and lay low, living a life you were robbed of for how many years. Of course, priorities change, but suddenly you want to settle down, make new Spells and seek more power from that Mind Mage you were talking to. Ordinarily, it could very well be a simple change of mind, and it genuinely might've been. However it is a point of concern in the pattern that everything else makes. Why did you want to make Record, anyway?"

"I wanted to note things down. Except... it wasn't just that," She considered carefully. "I wanted to experiment with a new Spell, with Command. Yet... I ended up not practising Command and going off to make something entirely new and... something that just happened to be Fae. Then I even went and used Command on someone. Was that me? Did I even really want to make Record-"

"You did. Not everything needs to be some conspiracy with your affinities. Likely, all that affected you then was a little nudging and a bit of your own spontaneity. The major conflicts would've occurred after you went sneaking off. The only reason I mentioned it was that it could've been the start."

"The... start?"

"You practised Record so many times in order to learn it all so quickly, piecing together the runes and fitting them into your Spellform. What this meant was that your Fae affinity was constantly worked and put to use and then even rewarded with a subject for a Command after that."

"You speak like my affinity is alive."

"Because, in a strange way, it is," Felin revealed. "An affinity is a facet of yourself in the mana, the blueprint of your self that the mana constantly changes and adjusts to formulate the Concept that is yourself. You are, hopefully, alive, and so does your affinity - parts of that Concept - live in turn. You stimulated that affinity repeatedly and then used it in a fashion most appropriate for an Element about supremacy. That combination of events likely spurred it into action, for lack of a better word, shifting things a little in that grand design of a Concept you could call a soul and shift you just enough more towards Fae as to be more easily affected by it."

"I think I understand," Amy nodded. "But, supremacy? Is that really what Fae is about? I can sort of understand that but it feels entirely different to me."

"You know..." Felin trailed off for a moment, looking at her strangely. "In the past I would've brushed you off but you're further ahead than you're supposed to be at the moment. You could actually understand what I'm talking about."

"And what would you talk about?"

"When you as I put it 'forge your path' you find your own way of interpreting the world around you. Think about how with your Mage Sight, the majority of the information you gathered from mana was strangely not from sight, instead from your other senses. As you grow in power, your Magecraft and Spellcraft begin to change from strict processes to more abstract methods and applications. You talked about your Law, right? Well, the way you interpret the Element of Fae is completely different to how I do because of our differing paths. These differing paths then lead to differences in our Magecraft and Spellcraft. All in all, this means that we find and sense different things from the Element we draw power from despite possibly using them for the same goals."

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"So we're both correct?"

"Indeed. In fact, one could say your interpretation is but an application of my idea of Fae about supremacy."

"...Laws are but a way for the more powerful to rule and place restrictions on those lesser," Amy said. "Hence, an application of supremacy."

"Correct. Elements are not mere Concepts, and as such are multifaceted and represent something greater than the whole. As such, we can both draw different Concepts from the same Element and yet we are both still practitioners of Fae."

"I think I get why you wouldn't have had this conversation with me before," She frowned. "I didn't have an interpretation, a path, and as such would just assume that supremacy was what Fae was about without looking deeper. I couldn't have exactly felt the Concepts that allow me to craft my Spells like I do now. That in turn would smother my own skills and Spells with your own ways."

"Which is why I mentioned as little as possible about it," Felin smiled, pleased at his Apprentice's wit. "Something I haven't yet asked is what Spells did you make?"

"The first one I made was Decree," Amy began, taking a small amount of pleasure from the widening of her Familiar's eyes. Only that pleasure was lessened with another small realisation. Is this my own pleasure? Or is this my affinity making me happy over seeing someone in awe of my power, asserting myself over others, like a Fae? Shaking the thoughts away, she continued, "I make a pronouncement, similar to Command, and the world attempts to bend to my wishes within the restrictions of my own mana and influence. Some examples include making reality shift and warp, or cast everything in shadow."

"Are there limitations?" Felin leaned forward, his pupils bright green.

"These distortions must be first... deemed reasonable, for lack of better wording, by reality to first be established. If I need to distort the Laws of reality to my desires, I must first convince the world that it should indeed follow it rather than resist. To make reality shift and warp I had to change how the room seemed in my perspective, actually bending it. To cast everything in shadow, I had to make myself unseen and unnoticed so as to extend to the rest of the room."

"Limiting," Felin smiled, "But the possibilities are limitless. Excellent Spell, my dear Apprentice."

"Thank you, Felin."

"I was concerned there weren't any downsides for a second. To accomplish true reality manipulation at what I assumed to be Tier 5 would be a first in all the planes. This is still incredible though. The other Spell then?"

"Two more, actually, although Decree and this next one are still workings. After that I made Theft of Distance, a way to steal the distance between me and a target, collapsing the space between us and landing me at them."

"Minor teleportation is a great accomplishment at this Tier. Congratulations," Felin once more praised.

"I can imagine more applications for it than just teleportation but... It's a good start. And minor teleportation... What's the difference between that and normal?"

"Minor is a way to bend space in a way that your position doesn't actually change. Examples include your Theft of Distance and another is Blink, where you merely overlap the place where you are and where you want to be and - in a mundane or magical manner - blink. This blinking erases your senses allowing for Spatial mana to actually confuse your two locations and shift you to the destination. True teleportation is an actual change in position, and as such is much harder to interfere with. Anything that disrupts the mana you have to weave to achieve that Theft or Blink will disrupt the Spell. A true Teleport on the other hand cannot be interfered with as easily as the mana is purely used on oneself, not on the environment."

"Are there any Fae Spells that are true teleportation then?"

"There's a couple, and one I intend to teach at Journeyman, and was taught to young Wizards like you, is Travel. The mechanics of the Spell are a bit too in-depth to discuss now but it's all about expanding the distance you walk with each step, but in a way that doesn't simply confuse your position but actually achieves that teleportation. I don't believe I've done it the greatest service with that explanation but it's enough for now."

"Alright," Amy accepted, excitement creeping up on her about the Spell. "The next one is the one I had to learn in time for when... when I broke into that estate. It's Anticipated Forgery and uses both Fae and Advanced Illusion to create an invitation that the person expects to see."

"Limited, but still useful," Felin said. "The big question then, with all of this, what did you actually learn from the estate? You were excited to tell me, no?"

"I was..." She muttered, suddenly unsure of herself and filled with a familiar urge to hide from him. It was easier now, to recognise that urge for what it was; her affinity. But before, when she was more clueless, she would see a reasonable concern that Felin might be angry at her, or do something she wouldn't want. Pushing past that, Amy moved on, "I found something in his diary, beyond learning about his failed ascension. When I got to the part where he started investigating the museum incident, he specifically focused on me, or rather an unknown Mage. He made allusions to something he called The Forgetting and the fact that Monarchs were interested in a Mage with apparent links to it. I didn't manage to steal the diary but I did take some of the files he was looking at in relation to this Forgetting. And... With the Wizards in mind, The Forgetting sounds a bit familiar, doesn't it?"

"...It does," Felin said darkly. "The Forgetting suggests a scale, however. It might not just be the Wizards who are gone now, Forgotten even. It even aligns with what I found on the robe. The Magick wanted its wearer to be forgotten. What were these other files?"

"The diary mentioned something about a Storm god, an Observatory Project, and the School of Hate."

"Hate?" Felin frowned. "I recognise that. They were well known... To think they might've been forgotten is... insanity, but so is trying to imagine the same fate for Wizards."

"Do the others ring any bells?"

"Not so much. They do warrant investigation. But... you stole these files from his desk right?"

"Yes," Amy looked over to her things. "There in my bags right now."

"Shit," He swore. "You need to flee the city."

"What? Why... Oh. They can Scry me."

"They can do much more than that if you have the files."

"What if I ditch them?"

"Not enough for advanced Scrying."

"Unknowable? Cleanse me of magical connection?"

"Can work, but its risky. Plus, it'll be something I have to teach and might take too much time. They'll track you before you perfect it."

"Crap."

"Yep. I'll take a look at the files, and make sure they're inscribed on your Record as best as possible. I know you're limited in what you can store at a time with your enhancements down but... Worst case, make a Tier 3 version, just for this. You can put them back in place but it'll make the corruption harder to deal with later."

"I'll try to upgrade but if it doesn't work, the enhancements will go back up."

"Alright. I can read on the go, so keep me in your bags or something. I'll give a sign and we'll dispose of the files across the city, spreading them all out so it's harder to track."

"And after that?"

"Say your goodbyes and hope that Witch's Cloak will save you like it might've saved Beatrice."

"...Ain't that great."