The Power of Ten, Book Five: Versatile Wizardry

“But... thirty-six different spells?” the Mick had to ask. “Can you do that with Lightning? Or Earth?”

I just lifted an eyebrow. “Is that a serious question?” I asked slowly, not hiding my amusement.

“I... guess?” he asked, wincing.

“So you’d be horrified and overwhelmed if those thirty-six Adept spells led back down to possibly thirty-six more Novice spells.”

Driver Sam actually took his foot off the pedal and let the car coast for a few hundred yards as he put his head to the wheel. The Mick leaned back and rolled his eyes.

“You’re just killing us here, Lady Fae,” he said softly.

“Furthermore, all those spells use the Seven Stars theory, moved up to the Seven Startrails theory. If you look at your two Adept spells, they follow the exact same paradigm as your Seven Stars, each one of the new Startrails starting with a different one of the Seven Stars, reflecting your Novice spell into the Adept pattern by heading up each new Starmap as a reflection of the minor Startrail at its core.

“But there’s absolutely no reason for it to do so. What happens if you start every single new Startrail off with Lightning, for instance, Captain Mick?

“What if you replicated the starting Novice Startrail in each of the six new Starfields?”

He tensed up despite himself. “I have no idea,” he admitted slowly.

“Neither do I, but unlike your starter Seven Stars, you can use Lightning to fill in any of the Slots of the Sevenfold Star you build, not just the first one.” I flicked up a Starmap in front of him, with three of the seven Startrails headed up by Lightning Stars, and he jumped as he stared at it. “That’s an example, don’t DO that until it’s tested, or you might blow a Star.” He nodded very quickly, staring at it, and then his eyes stared again as the Starmap completely shifted.

Instead of each Startrail completing in series, going from one Startrail to the next, in this formation the first Stars of all Seven Startrails linked up, then proceeded to the second Stars of each Startrail...

The Mick clapped his hands over his eyes abruptly. “I don’t think I want to be seeing this...” he rasped. “My brain is stressing!”

“It gets worse.” Both he and Driver Sam shuddered. “Light and Dark Mana define ALL the Dark and Light Magic disciplines, which have multiple Spheres. Technically, shouldn’t the same thing apply to ALL the Elements?

“What happens when you start putting Lightning Mana through the ‘wrong’ Stars at the start, just like Light and Dark Magic do?”

I sat back in satisfaction as both men sighed, Driver Sam going at a crawl on the side of the road for the moment. The number of potential low-Level spells had just increased by a factor of seven!

If I was right, there would be thirty-six Novice spells per Element, and that meant, what? At least two hundred and sixteen Adept spells per Element?

“The field of Mana is just that, but you’re all experienced enough to know that there are a ton of magical effects used by creatures that don’t fall neatly into the magical paradigm you know, and can only be replicated by Archmages or Sages, despite not being all that powerful.

“I don’t have access to Mage or higher-Class spells, but at this point, I’m firmly convinced that they don’t use only the potential 720 combinations of basic Startrails in their spells. They are using other Elemental combinations with Lightning Mana, which is why so many higher-Level spells can seem so similar in form and function... much like the Schools of Wizardry. Same damn effect, different Element.”

Driver Sam picked up speed as he wrestled around with the idea. “Thirty-six spells for every Novice in an Element,” he whispered. “That... that would change the whole world, Lady Fae.”

“Humanity’s strength is having no innate Element. We are basically the only species that rises to intelligence that has no mandatory Element. We are also the only species that rises to intelligence without magic to enhance us spiritually.

“Intelligence, no Elemental bias: these are the great strengths of the Human species. However, people don’t see them that way. We share the world with so many other creatures that are also intelligent, forgetting that they are not born that way. Instead of seeing our lack of bias as a gift, we see it as a weakness, because the Way of the Magical Beasts, Magery, requires such Elemental specialization to grow stronger.

“All of Human magical studies are made to make us more like Magical Beasts, instead of trying to be more like Humans.

“Wizardry is the Way of Human Magic. Colorless and requiring the innate power of our species, natural intelligence, to advance.”

“Lady Fae... is it possible that every single combination of Stars is actually a valid spell, and we just don’t know it?” Driver Sam piped up after a few minutes of silence, his question rather delicate.

“Yes and no,” I answered promptly, making them both frown. “There are Rules of Magic in effect here. We don’t know what they all are. One of the goals of Wizardry is to find out what all those Rules actually are. But just like you don’t pound the nail into the lumber, then get the nail out of the bag to prepare it for the hammer to hit it, then hit it to set it before placing it into position on the wood, some orders of operation simply aren’t going to work.” Their expressions screwed up a moment before they realized how I’d simply messed up the process of pounding in a nail.

“That sounds like a LOT of experimenting,” the Mick deduced uncertainly.

“Yeah. And Mages can’t do it. As you said, use the wrong pattern, you’ll blow apart your Stars, and you’re useless after that. I suppose you could force the issue if you’re willing to destroy the futures of some Novice Mages, but at the Adept Level? The numbers are too big. At the Mage-level it’s impossible, no Mage is going to tolerate being used as a test subject, and you’d have to be insane to waste them that way.

“Wizards can manipulate Caster Level, so they can totally test out Star Patterns without blowing apart their Stars, as they don’t have to put nearly the energy through the Patterns that Mages do.

“But we can brute force all the Adept options, it just takes a lot of time. I’m not worried about the Mage options, they are irrelevant to 99.99 percent of humanity. With just thirty-six spells, they can effectively cover everything without any problems.”

“Would there be an actual benefit?” the Mick had to ask. “Of knowing thousands of Mage-Class spells?”

“Yes. Perfect efficiency in the effect. Just bending the default effect to do the same thing will naturally drain energy from the spell as the Mana is used in a suboptimal way. A spell is naturally the best way to do ONE thing, and so naturally using another spell to do the same thing, or using the spell to do something else, is slightly less effective.

“But that’s Wizardry. If one spell lets you do it all, why bother knowing more?”

“Surprising the shit out of an opponent?” the Mick theorized airily.

“Mmm.” He was coming along!

-----

I was a bit unsurprised that the compound Sama and Briggs had set up was called Coralost. It was about a mile square of walled-in territory along a rocky section of Lake Huron, with a lot of building and other stuff going on inside it. There were a number of buildings inside it in a style that was not at all obvious to anyone who had not seen them before, but buildings made without use of magic had a special edge to them all their own.

-All of you pull over and get out,- I /said to them all as we were waved through the gate.

The three vehicles - one sedan, one panel truck with all their equipment, and one van - pulled over to the side of the road. I popped open the door and got out, stretching once and inhaling deeply.

The guys getting out did the same thing, and then paused, looking around strangely. They waved their hands in the air and started breathing strangely, as if gulping for oxygen.

“Control your breathing. The air is perfectly fine. What you’re feeling is a White Mana Field, a White Zone... or Typeless Mana all about.”

They didn’t have to hide the alarm in their eyes. “Lady Fae, I can’t draw in any Mana!” Big John protested, waving his thick arms urgently.

“You can’t draw in any Elemental Mana,” I corrected him mildly, and pointed, spinning around. “See them towers?” I pointed to some steel cross-girder structures rising a hundred feet in the air, with the one in the center of the territory rising to twice that. They appeared to have a faint white crackling glow about them. “That white glow is them cracking the Manafield and removing Elemental bias from it. Pretty ingenious the way they came up with it. I imagine this is probably one of the most unpopular places for a mage to come in the country, if they know about it.” I danced in place happily. “Oh, this is so coooool! I bet they have some enemies who would just love to strike at them, and don’t even freaking dare because of those towers!”

“I feel almost naked,” Glenn muttered under his breath, wincing as he raised his hand and nothing came to him. “Doesn’t this make them really vulnerable to magical Beasts?” he complained.

“You say that like they wouldn’t have defenses against that kind of stuff.” I waved at the closest pillbox tower. “I’m not sure what’s inside there, but you can pretty much guarantee that if some Beast comes in here that is unwanted, it isn’t going to like what’s in them.

“You Michiganders got a rather violent rep to you, you know? You think they were gonna forget that? Plus... you think Beasts sucking in Elemental Mana are gonna like this place any more than you do?”

They all put on that same grim smile of something they had earned and helped contribute towards. The online stuff I’d read said that the natives of the Wolverine State had a mean cussedness about them once they got into a fight, something to be very wary of. The rep got them into a lot of fights elsewhere, and it generally tended to hold true. They were mean, brutal, and tenacious about their killing. I’d watched arrogant Texans hear their flat accents and immediately rein in their attitudes around the KIA guys. It was kind of funny to see.

I could also see it in their use of magic. They didn’t wield it like they were born to do so, but the no-nonsense, murderous lethality of how they used it was impressive. Of course, they were of above-average smarts and experienced, but just the style and teamwork was a notch above even the more experienced soldiers out at Fort Hood.

“Staves,” Swampy blurted out, and they all looked at him. “Staves are weapons...”

They all turned to look at me, and Noble flashed out to full length from behind my back, into my hand, and I spun him with a whooping whirl like a baton between my fingers.

Then the Soulspear punched out of the Orb, jetsilver rimed in gold, and they all flinched as they stared at it.

“I am so getting me a headcruncher like that,” Big John swore loudly, staring at it.

“Alright, didn’t want you feeling surprised when we get to the main building over there. Let’s go.” I herded them back to their rides, and we were quickly heading for the main factory building a quarter-mile from the entryway.

------

There was a tall, skinny fellow standing outside when we drove up and parked, waving us to proper spots with confidence. I quirked a half-smile at the shoulder holster he was wearing, quite certain the boys would have no idea about what he was wearing actually was, and how dangerous it could be to them without magic.

-Watch his expression when I Cast a spell,- I /said into the Marklink, startling them all as they realized it wasn’t affected by the White Zone.