Path of Wizardry

Securing somewhere to stay was easier for Amy than when she had arrived in Harth. This time, she had no birds to worry about and so her options were a lot better than before. The only downside was, now that she was in a bigger city, she had to travel away from the station to avoid being ripped off by tourist-traps. All the while securing her lodgings, messages pinged between her and her old School friend, Rose.

[Rose Spencer: Hello Amy, surprised to hear from you after so long. I'm free whenever today, so I can meet up in a couple hours if it works for you. George and I separated a year ago though we are still on good terms. I'm sure he'd be glad to see you too. I'll ask him when he's free and we can work it out from there.]

[Amy Wachlund: Sorry to hear about you and George, but I'm glad that you're still friends. It'll take me an hour or so to settle in to where I'm staying but after that we could go to a café or somewhere like that? I don't know the city as well as you, so pick what place you think is best.]

About half an hour later after sending the message, while Amy was beginning to unpack what was necessary in her new room, she got a response.

[Rose Spencer: George is free in an hour, so we can meet at this tea café on 4th street. I'll send through the directions in a bit. Looking forward to seeing you!]

Having time to kill, Amy spent the time resting and working through her recent troubles. Due to Evyria being far more magically inclined, open practice like she had done in Harth was a lot more frowned upon and enforced outside of designated zones. So when it came down to choosing a place to stay, she had to make sure it was somewhere that both allowed Mages and free practice. Overall, it ended up burning a bit of a hole in her pocket with how much it cost, even if it was completely worth it.

For her filter, while effective, wasn't something she could keep up all the time. The instant she had entered her room and sensed the magical privacy barrier spring up around it, her filter had dropped, letting the untamed magic run wild. It was disturbing to say the least, looking at herself in the mirror, the way her face seemed to contort and change the longer she stared at it. Fortunately, its effect wasn't nearly as mesmerising as the first disastrous iteration of her Monstrous Visage and Amy broke away from it easily enough.

Amy's thoughts couldn't help but wander in a direction she had been avoiding, perhaps purposefully. Why the Hell did I want to advance so much?

From the very start of her Schooling, Amy had wanted to be a Mage for two reasons, and two reasons only; to be able to earn a proper living and to secure a better future for her family. Yes, the childish side of her also won out sometimes, that old childhood dream finally being fulfilled, but at the end of the day it was just that: a dream. Once Amy reached Apprentice - through Spell Tiers at least - she would apply to some jobs and try to get something that would guarantee a pathway to a good living. If life was generous, she'd maybe even try for Journeyman and complete her second reason earlier than she would otherwise. Reaching Archmage or even the grand pinnacle of Magehood that was Monarch was a pipedream, no, it didn't even pass through her thoughts idly.

That, of course, had all changed when she had ascended to Apprentice. Nearer the end, where all she was focused on was ascension, Amy hadn't even bothered to consider why. Why was she so intent on accruing so much power when it didn't benefit her at all. Some small part of her protested that, considering that she did need to be stronger in order to solve Felin's mystery. Yet, nothing warranted the recklessness and disregard she had for herself during those lonely days.

And now, here she was, paying the price for it. Her very face, her identity, was now unwillingly affected by her deeds, and that didn't even touch on what she had done as the Witch. Burglary, impersonation, and even murder. All for what? Amy had gotten a lead on The Forgetting, this grand conspiracy that stretched back to the Mage Wars, but was it worth it?

Amy doubted that it was.

Felin manifested out of the mana next to her, his face already dropping at seeing her own.

"I'm sorry, Amy," He nestled up close to her as Amy kept stealing glances at her own reflection.

"I tried the filter you described," She said, "And while it was intensive work, it did indeed stop the Magick. I just don't know if I can afford to keep it up all the time."

"There shouldn't be a mana cost to it-"

"It's not the mana cost... Just the mental toll. In how it weighs on my mind and how it disturbs me to no end."

"...You'll begin to notice more things like that," Felin revealed. "Your affinities are transforming your commonly used Spells into... Ah, why do I even bother hiding the name anymore. If you want any hope of overcoming it, I should at least reveal something. Just promise me you won't be tempted into looking into it. Anything you find out can... I know it's unsettling to hear this, but your affinities are also you. Anything you can do and know, it can also do and know, is some strange twisted way. Simply knowing more about the truth than what I am about to describe can allow your affinities to make your problem considerably worse."

"I understand, Felin, don't worry," Amy tried to reassure him, but she wasn't entirely sure of herself in the first place. "I promise."

"Well, the first thing to know is that the proper name for those pieces of 'magic' you wield are Skills. Or rather, to be more specific, they are nascent Skills.

"Ordinarily, you would construct... No, I'm not going to say that, it would be too risky... Let's put it this way," He said after spending some time considering, "This term you have heard, Spellchains, from me and that Clarke boy, are related to the process of creating these nascent Skills. If... made in a certain way they can nurture the... birth of these magics. The language I'm using here is misleading and not entirely accurate, but it's the most I can say at this point in time. What your affinities are doing is circumventing the need for these Spellchains, because Spellchains, ultimately, are a tool of the Mage, not the mana. Mana itself, in essence your affinities, directly manipulate its own purpose towards forming these nascent Skills through the mimicking of your own Spells."

"Would this passive Monstrous Visage be a nascent Skill then?" Amy asked, touching her face gingerly.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Maybe not the nascent Skill itself, but certainly a manifestation of it, yes. These nascent Skills are not Spells as you know them, they are not geared towards a specific purpose. Instead, they are... How do I say this?"

"It's okay if you can't, Felin. Don't worry about it."

"No, you should know this much at least...," Felin trailed off, before lighting up in an epiphany. "Ahah! Remember that Archmage's 'natural resistance' I described? The one that caused him to wake earlier than you anticipated?"

"Yes, of course."

"Well, no Spell exists that grants a 'natural resistance' in such a broad way, yes?"

"If it applies to more than just Commands, then definitely, at least not at this Tier," She considered.

"That is an example of a nascent Skill. This natural resistance, his 'Immutability', is one such nascent Skill that affects a multitude of things that infringe upon his willed existence. In your case, this passive Monstrous Visage is merely an expression of some deeper nascent Skill, one that hasn't been properly defined in the mana yet. Due to the obvious lack of Illusion in the Magick, it's clearly an expression of your two offending affinities, not an unconscious Spell. The corresponding... Skill name would then be something along the lines of perhaps... No, best I don't give suggestions. Just in case the mana actually likes what I say and listens."

"Can... it actually do that? You speak like the mana is alive. And this isn't the first time, either," Amy pressed.

"You know more than most that mana has a will, a will that changes from Element to Element, yet underneath that all is a constant desire for untamed possibility. If something can will, then is it not alive?" Felin answered.

"I suppose. I've never thought of it that way before," She muttered. As she pondered the rest of their conversation, her mind hooked onto a small word and pursued it. "If what I have and what Harrison had was a nascent Skill, what is a proper Skill?"

"That is something to worry about at Archmage," Felin smirked. "And definitely not something that should be discussed now. Too many ideas will cloud your judgement and reveal to much to your own mana."

Shuddering at that, Amy couldn't help but grimace. "To think I have to doubt even that. I know I'm living in constant doubt of my own thoughts, but my mana as well? It's... disheartening to say the least."

"...I know everything I've said to you about your affinities has inspired your warranted paranoia, it is often best to... perhaps let it rest."

"What do you mean?" Amy cocked her head in confusion.

"Of course, examine your reasoning whenever you feel the need to and keep on top of those nascent Skill manifestations, but don't resort to abhorring those things. That is a path that swiftly leads to self-loathing and nothing good comes of that."

"...I'll keep that in mind."

"Anyway, onto hopefully more cheerful topics, what do you have planned today?" Felin clapped his paws together, his long extended claws clacking together.

"I'm going to visit some old friends in an hour or so, and probably check out the place Beatrice was apparently staying at, though that'll be later on. After that, I'm not sure. Honestly, I was thinking of diving straight into working through my enhancements, with your permission, of course."

"Permission granted, as long as I'm with you that is," He smiled gently at her. "I'll explain the entire process when it's pertinent, but if you've already pulled off the filter, that's the hardest part out of the way. While that does mean the rest of the work is simple, it won't be easy. It'll be frustrating and tedious, but it'll be well worth it."

"...That's another thing I wanted to ask," Amy's eyes widened. "Does this filter process apply to the rest of my body's corruption? Is that how we'll cleanse it?"

"Unfortunately, no," Felin shook his head. "That corruption is both harder and easier to get rid of. Harder in that you can't simply re-do your ascension like you can with your enhancements, but easier in that every Journeyman undergoes this process eventually. It involves something called infusions."

"...I believe I read that in Harrison's diary," Amy frowned.

"I imagine he would make note of it, especially if he had to restart from the bottom of the Tier," Felin nodded to himself. "At its most basic, infusions involve attuning the mana in your body towards specific Elements in order to enhance them. This is different from the enhancements of your own mind because while the effect is the same its purpose is entirely different."

"How so?"

"Mental and, eventually, physical enhancements build upon what is already there, simply improving their function. Infusions on the other hand add to what is present and grants greater function to them. None of this matters right now so I won't explain it all in one go, but to put it simply, as you transform more and more into mana, the line between organic structures begins to blur as it all becomes applications of the same mana. Veins and arteries and capillaries begin to merge, muscle groups combine together and merge with bones, that sort of thing. Infusions are the first step of this process, one that will only complete itself at Monarch."

"I see," Amy murmured as she fell into thought, something that she had considered during her fight with the 'Archmage' coming to mind. "Would infusions help with my dissonance?"

"Dissonance?" Felin perked up, his focus honing in on her words.

"I notice it the most with Decree. All the reality manipulation and changing puts a real strain on my body, as if it's fighting reality by just existing normally. Would these infusions then help with that dissonance by making it more flexible?"

"That... is possible, but I didn't know you felt that when you used Decrees. You never mentioned it before."

"That's because I didn't notice it until I was fighting Harrison," Amy explained. "There I was stacking Decrees and they seemed to pull at me in multiple directions at once. Hence the dissonance."

"Well, infusions as a whole won't help you with that," He put a damper on her thoughts, before continuing with some that reignited some hope, "But specific kinds of infusions can help combat this 'dissonance'. You certainly aren't the first Mage to play with reality manipulation, in fact my previous contractor also dabbled, and there are techniques for this sort of thing."

"How did your contractor do it?" Amy leaned forward.

"Well, his reality manipulation was... He specialised in Illusion and Unknowable. Strange, I know, to then contract with a Familiar like myself, but it wasn't like he was unskilled in Fae; his capabilities in the Element easily reached Monarch-Tier, it just wasn't at the peak like the other two. His position as the head required that of him. His reality manipulation was an application of his own Fantasy Element, where he turned the world into some kind of storybook. It bordered on Fate-level manipulation, yet it skirted completely around the problem through something he called Narrative Weight, but I digress. He unified his dichotomy into this overarching Fantasy Element and used that as the basis of his infusions. This in turn meant that his body 'fit in' for lack of better word with his reality manipulation. When he plunged the world into his Storybook, he actually became an illustrated character in it, meshing completely with the Spellwork. Where those victim to the Spell struggled against the constraints of the world and the Plot, he could move seamlessly through it."

"So I'd need something that'd be able to adapt to the new Laws that I Decree," Amy concluded. "Presumably a mix of Fae and Unknowable too."

"Indeed. That specific combination of Wizardly Elements was rare, so I only know of a couple suitable Elements for them, let alone one that would fit your abnormal case specifically. You don't want your affinities feeding this new Element and making it yet another problem. Whatever you choose needs to suppress them in turn and balance the affinities out more."

"I see," Amy said. "Your contractor's magic sounds amazing though."

"He was," Felin smiled softly, his gaze growing somewhat distant.

"What was his name?"

"His name?" Felin jolted, as if surprised that Amy could ask such a question. But that'd be ludicrous, of course. It was a simple question. "Ah yes, his name... His name."

"Felin?"

Something akin to panic seemed to sprout in Amy's Familiar, his eyes widening into virid slits as all of his hairs began to stand on end.

"His name-" Felin growled, before, suddenly, he seemed to deflate. Muttering helplessly, his voice was filled with despair.

"I've Forgotten his name."