Spellscribed: Resurgence (3 page)

The table was something Endrance had devised while living in the elven lands to help him study. The silver was etched in a myriad of complex channels and passes, whose sole purpose was to allow him to more easily visualize a spell's form without having to go through the motions or channel the power needed to cast it. It meant he could analyze the form and how it was executed to see if he could comprehend it more completely, or even discover better ways to cast it.

Comprehension was the most critical part of combat magic. A wizard could learn almost every spell in existence, theoretically, but almost all of them would be useless should he have to defend himself. Most magic required a wizard to refer directly to his spell book when casting a spell he wasn’t completely familiar with. Even more so, a simple mistake in performing a long-form casting could alter the effects of a spell.

Long-form casting was required to learn magic, if only because it was impossible for a human to shape the power into the right form within his body. Human bodies simply could not handle the extreme amounts of power that were needed to form even the smallest spell for more than a split second. The meridians of a human burned, and were eventually destroyed, when exposed to power for too long. Often referred to as burnout, one could reduce the likelihood of it happening by practicing the spell often. Practicing could ‘harden’ the meridians so they would be less likely to burn out, but in all honesty, the technique was actually scarring the channels in the body so it would not cause physical pain. It was much like someone who was injured multiple times in the same area would develop scar tissue. It wouldn't actually make the damage any less, but the flesh in that area would become less reactive to the pain of the injury.

Once a wizard knew the spell so well he didn’t need to refer to his spell book, he could remember the way the completed spell form ‘felt’ within his body, and evoke it in a fraction of the time by forcing power into that shape as it filled the meridians. It was called spell-slinging by the younger mages who had started adopting it. No matter how well it was known, humans had never been able to cast a spell without at least the last word of power to breathe life into the spell, and the final physical gesture to shape it. There was a tradeoff for the speed; slinging a spell was grossly inefficient, costing several times more power to produce the same effect as a long- form casting.

It was mostly due to the body’s inability to form the power into the right shape quickly and safely, but since he was becoming increasingly less human and more Mercanian, Endrance supposed that with the time he had imposed upon him, he’d eventually be able to figure a way around the limitation. Maybe he could even figure out how to sling a spell at full power.

The silver table had never been built in the real world, It wasn’t that he didn’t understand magic enough to build it, but rather, because he understood more than the average mage, he could not build it. In the physical world, it would be far too complicated for him to build without a hundred years of designing every miniscule facet of the surface, hundreds of thousands of gold pieces to pay for materials, and a table the size of a coliseum just to analyze one spell at a time. In his mind he could subconsciously assemble everything into a more manageable representation. It was, after all, just a construct of his mind. An overdesigned and perhaps practically useless construct, but one nonetheless.

Several of the shelves reflected off the silver surface caught his eye. They had been locked and barred, a mental representation of his desire to keep the knowledge separate from his mind. The shelves were a receptacle of the sum total of every single one of Kaelob's unsorted memories. Endrance had been completely incapacitated while absorbing the mage's mind and memories, so he was unsure what their contents were and he had been loathe to open them up and browse through them. The man had tutored him, taught him all manner of magic, and yet Kaelob had been serving his mother the whole time. What could have been going through his mind when he agreed to all of this?

The fact that he most likely knew what Valeria was plotting was the only thing keeping Endrance's thoughts coming back to possibly looking them over. When he had beaten Kaelob, he had absorbed his aura and an imprint of his mind. That meant that his impression was here in his mind somewhere, along with all the others. He could get answers from the one who had betrayed him. It was a personality imprinted in Endrance's mind, and would only have the freedom and ability to act on his own, should Endrance choose to give it to him.

The research room seemed intact and untouched. So he returned to the reflecting pool and knelt, touching the lip of the pool and going through the same mental exercise. A disorienting moment later, he was standing in the central hall of the library.

He walked towards the south wing, where once had been just the front doors of his mind. The concept had been a silly one, there being a door in his head that something could get out or in from. But once he considered that he was in fact taking in more memories and impressions through the bracers he wore, the doors began to make more sense. He still didn’t like having it right at the center of his library though, so he made some adjustments. Now there was a full extra wing of his library, where the impressions that came in through his bracers were kept.

The entry door swung open as he approached, and a soft white light shone from within the wing. Here, the library was a scant one story tall, with only ten yards width and twenty long. From the doors leading into the central hall, straight to the two doors supposedly leading ‘outside,’ two seamless panes of glass flanked a walkway just as wide as the doorframes.

The two panes of glass were so clear they would have been invisible, save for the gleams of light across their surface. Though the stained glass windows up in the central library could hardly cast their light through the entire construct, he had decided that planning out additional light sources was more hassle than it was worth, so in this place the light did spread into the wings.

The glass walls showed several chambers beyond it, filling the rest of the space of the wings. There were enough spaces that he could have kept a dozen people there, each to their own cell. It was in the cell closest to the door that he found Kaelob.

The elderly wizard had been his mentor, trainer, and tutor for the first sixteen years of his life. While not his father, he had been present constantly until the day he'd left Wayrest. He had such an image of the goofy old man in his head that he was surprised at how different he looked.

The man was definitely the same person; his body the same height and weight. He still had somewhat knobby, knuckled, long-fingered hands, and his nose was unmistakably the same slightly crooked beak he remembered. But that was where the similarities ended. Where the Kaelob he knew had wild, uncombed shocks of gray-white hair, this one’s hair was straight black, combed back and cut just above his shoulders. His eyebrows lacked the wildness of his memories, and he had a short, trimmed beard where Endrance never remembered him having one before.

Kaelob looked up at him and smirked, his eyes the same dark color, but lacking any of the mirth or off-kilter gleam that he was used to. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, waiting for him.

“Well, m’boy.” Kaelob declared. “Here we are.”

Endrance studied his captive carefully. “You have changed.” He finally stated.

“I would think so.” Kaelob replied. “After all, your mind seems far saner than mine, and it is your mind that is granting my self the volition to have shape, isn’t it?”

“I would wager that’s an accurate enough explanation,” Endrance started. “But I believe there’s more to that than just my influence on your psyche.”

Kaelob nodded. “Much of my perceived… insanity was faked.” He admitted. “Though as the years wore on, much of it had become real; if only because I had been acting so long I simply forgot I was something else.”

Endrance watched the old man stand, struggling to rein in the feelings of betrayal that rampaged through him.

“Why?” Endrance asked. He could have elaborated, but he didn’t feel it was necessary.

Kaelob knew what he was asking. “I was only supposed to train you in magic, and keep your development as a person down to a minimum.” He said unapologetically. “And I had intended on keeping it that way. I even had devised a spell that would have scrubbed away any chance of you becoming any more than a perfectly obedient child, should I have used it every month or so during your training.”

“And you didn’t use it.” Endrance said.

“I was planning on it, but I’d gotten somewhat sentimental as I trained you.” He replied, scratching at his cheek.

“That little sentiment gave me the leverage to make that small rebellion.”

Kaelob looked him in the eye. “Keep in mind before you get sympathetic,” he said evenly. “That I was not under any form of mind control. I have worked for Valeria since before her death.”

“Then… why did you do it?” Endrance asked. “Why did you allow me to grow and put so many complications to her plans?”

Kaelob shrugged. “I have always thought that without a little chaos, a little trouble, you wouldn’t appreciate what you fought so hard to earn. I guess while I wanted Valeria to succeed in her plan, I didn’t want it to be too easy.”

“I bet you didn’t plan on getting killed by me either.” Endrance responded. “So she must not have kept you up to date on all her plans.”

Kaelob tilted his head slightly at that remark, raising an eyebrow instead of speaking. Endrance frowned, studying the man’s face and finding determination, and not resignation.

“You… knew you were going to die?” Endrance asked. “All this time, you knew I would be the one who had to kill you?”

"I did." Kaelob replied, inclining his head. "It was the best arrangement that I could make."

"The best arrangement?" Endrance exclaimed, confused. "Your death was just an arrangement?"

"Just one final detail in Valeria's plan." he said. "Tell me, you've seen her lately, how has she been doing?"

Endrance ignored his question. "Tell me why."

"Tell you?" Kaelob responded. "You already know, somewhere in here, right? I am, after all, just a copy of the real Kaelob. You just have to decide to know it and then poof, it will all be revealed to you."

Endrance shook his head. "No. I need the closure. I need to hear from you why."

Kaelob shrugged. "Suit yourself." the dead mage muttered. "You want to know why I agreed to die at your hands and even contributed to the events leading to my demise, correct?"

"Yes." Endrance agreed.

"I agreed because it was the best solution to my problem." Kaelob answered succinctly. "I was already tired of living, but I lacked the courage to end it myself. I had been around since nearly the beginning, apprenticed by Valeria, one of the first human mages. I had seen so much, and I suppose I just never could get used to watching everyone I came to love growing old and dying. Every time, I tried to resist becoming attached, but it seemed impossible for me. I found that my madness set in faster when I didn't have anyone around."

The man shrugged. "In hindsight, perhaps I wasn't cut out to be so long-lived. My human mind wasn't able to handle it. Valeria, Preston, Weldom, Talos… I don't know how mages like them managed to keep going through the years. I most certainly hadn't made it as long as they have without falling apart."

Endrance considered the dead mage's words. He hadn't had much time to think about it lately, but the understanding that his life would continue on while those he met and loved would grow old and die, no matter how he tried, was something that had crossed his mind before. Kaelob, his own mentor, had no defense to keep his sanity from it, so how would he? He would have to start working on that sooner than he thought, now that he was trapped in the Bastille.

"I'm sorry you couldn't handle it, Kaelob." Endrance replied finally. "But I still don't understand yet."

The elder leaned forward, looking for any sign of recognition from the younger mage. "Don't you see?" he asked. "I got the chance to not only die, but to die passing on the sum total of all my knowledge. In a way, you became… me. Just with a brand new body and even more power and understanding than I ever had."

"That's - that's a very sick way of looking at it. I am not you. Not in any way!" Endrance exclaimed, his voice rising as his temper heated. "I have your memories now, but I can choose whether or not I use any of it! I didn't make the choice to be born with this Mercanian blood in my veins. You didn't even tell me I wasn't fully human!"

Kaelob chuckled, unphased by Endrance's anger. "Yeah, that was pretty funny. Everyone thought your grandfather was an elf or something. Did you know that we're only tangentially compatible with elven blood?

Only one in ten pregnancies make it out of the first term and-"

"And the only pairings that have ever produced children are human women with elven males. Never the other way around. I know now." Endrance replied irritated, pulling the information from Kaelob's memories.

The mage shuddered as Endrance yanked the thoughts from him. "Ah, there's the will that so captured my attention." Kaelob said regretfully. "I couldn't believe how much stronger your will was. Compared to the acolytes I had seen at the time. No, there was no comparing how excellent your potential was, even at age six. I'd seen graduated wizards who had less power at their disposal than you did before you even started training."