Morrigan woke him nearly three hours later. He felt slow and groggy, only feeling relief after a full cup of coffee. Isla waited patiently, staring off into space in the kitchen. He sat next to her, sighed, and asked himself if he was prepared for another round of strange lessons.
“I saw the club,” she said, “nice work.”
“Thanks,” Tyler replied, “I hope I can actually use it.”
“I’d be more concerned about what it can be used for,” Isla began, standing from her seat to make another cup of tea. “Most people can do the simple stuff after the rite.”
“What’s the lesson plan for today?” Tyler asked.
“Nothing,” Isla replied, “If you're up for it, you and Morrigan will spar a bit to get you familiar with how to use a catalyst.”
“That…” he paused, “That's disappointing for some reason.”
Isla laughed, “You’re a Discordian. This comes with a need to tinker, a need to break things and see how they work. We have a desperate need to misbehave." Her laugh faded when she turned to face him. She smiled, a smile that seemed out of place on her face, “Probability and Causality,” she said, filling a small ball with tea leaves and drowning it in her cup.
“Huh?” he said.
“The next lesson,” she began, routinely checking the diffuser in the cup, “To put it plainly, the theorem of probability is all about understanding, predicting, and avoiding outcomes that could happen in any given scenario. One works out the potential around them with what they learned from luck and can predict when an enemy will attack them and whether or not it will be successful.”
“And causality?” He asked.
“Causality is more active. Probability is based on reacting to the world around you, causality is forcing the world to react to you. Instead of predicting the result of a system, one chooses to get their hands dirty. You choose to be the change in a system. You get to choose that result and make it happen.”
“So, offense versus defense.” Tyler said.
“That…” Isla began, removing the diffuser from the cup, emptying the spent leaves, and adding an unhealthy amount of sugar and cream, “That is actually a great way to put it.”
“Which would you start with in my shoes?” he asked.
“It doesn't matter, I’m not you. You need one to understand the other.”
“Let’s start with Probability then,” Tyler said, refilling his cup of coffee and listening in.
Isla took a sip, savored the flavor and once Tyler returned to his seat, his attention now focused on her, she spoke, “What if?” she began, “The Idea is understanding potential; what can be. I wanted a cup of tea, I got up and made it. I could've also asked someone else to do it, or wished that a cup of tea would appear out of thin air. Which had the most likely chance of success?”
“Doing it yourself. One hundred percent chance.” He replied.
She laughed, “But what if I drop the cup or their is no tea to make? There is no such thing as guaranteed. It can always fail, forcing you to adapt and change. I drop a cup, I get a new one. No more tea, go get more. This takes time, but time wasn't a factor of the system we're discussing. I just want tea. If I wanted tea within 10 minutes, things get more complex. I can't afford to not have the tea, and breaking the cup would waste time.”
“So by knowing potential outcomes, you get a sense of foresight." Tyler said. "You can figure out what outcomes are possible."
“Exactly. The Candlelight, and our connection to discord, makes us able to handle nearly impossible amounts of data without even realizing it.” She replied. "Now, causality works in reverse."
Tyler nodded, “You seek to cause the desired result instead of thinking about how many results there could be.”
“Spot on, now these won't help you cast spells, but it can tell you when you should cast spells, and whether you can do without. It will help you wrap your mind around how chaos and luck work together,” she smiled. “Yesterday, luck was in your favor. Morrigan tripped on a rock and got her cane caught up in a bench. These things won't happen if there’s no material to work with. Sometimes you have to drop the rock and move the bench, sometimes you need to know that a rock and bench are needed in the first place. Causality says, 'Do things. Don't worry about what, or why. Just do them.' Lady luck is fickle, but she's helpless against those who can make her laugh. Give her the conditions and hilarity will ensue.”
Isla stood up, opened the door to the courtyard in front of the manor, and gestured for him to follow. He set down his cup and obeyed. They stopped at a leveled patch of grass. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a coin with sigils carefully etched into it. A purple gem sat, embedded in the center of the coin.
“Your catalyst is a coin?” Tyler asked.
“Yes, it is,” she replied, “now watch.”
Isla flipped the coin, caught it in the air, and slapped it on her arm. She moved her hand and revealed the other side of the coin, one with a green gem and a different set of sigils.
Tyler waited for something to happen, but nothing did, “Is it broken?”
“Is it?” she replied, “Oh, no. Attack me, I’m poor and defenseless.”
“Like I’ll fall for that.” He said.
“Suit yourself.”
“This better not hurt,” he cautioned as he dashed forward, bringing a fist down toward her. Isla didn't move, looking down at her hand to wipe away the tea that spilled on it. Tyler felt his legs buckle forward, slipping on something wet. He glared at her when he hit the ground.
“You didn't even use the catalyst,” he began, “You just poured the tea out and let synchronicity do the work.”
“And you fell for it,” She laughed, offering a helping hand, “No tricks now,” she continued, and the statement made him back away several feet. She flipped the coin and the gems flickered with bright purple and green light. The coin stopped midair, floating around her, but always ensuring the purple gem faced her. The moment the sight reached her eyes, threads of multicolored light burst forth, manifesting in a circle around Tyler. The strands of light danced in an erratic display. He tried to jump out of the circle, Isla immediately protesting, and felt a rush of pain when he made contact with the manifested light. It burned his arm, the top layer of skin cracked and atomized in a puff of fundamental particles. The light faded and he clutched the wounds.
“Like I said, luck is fickle,” she sighed. “Not so bad though. It's a lesson best learned sooner than later.”
“You didn't intend it?” he said, clutching his arm.
Isla shrugged, “Nope, I created a paradox. It was supposed to make you feel energized.”
“You don't seem concerned.”
“I'm not,” she replied, "This was the most likely outcome, but it allows me to teach you two valuable lessons.“
“These spells are fickle?” Tyler asked.
“Yes, and that they aren't toys. It's easy to forget just what these spells can do until the horror sets in, afterwards. This could have ended up a lot worse, felt a lot worse. Morrigan has to deal with it more. The passion makes you forget this, only to remember when you finally have your wits about you again. Only attack if it's needed, that's my point.”
“Understood,” He said.
“I hope so. Let me patch you up.” Isla said. She flipped the coin again, and Tyler saw the light manifesting in a circle around him. Isla's eyes went wide and she pressed her lips together as she flicked the coin midair. The light changed. What was once erratic became calm and inviting. The wound healed as if it never happened, though he could still feel the memory of it.
Isla let out a sigh of relief, "See? Sometimes you can force the outcome you want if you see it coming." She tossed her cup into the grass several feet away. She handed Tyler the coin, “This is for you, I have several. There has to be a level of probability in the catalyst to use discordant spells.”
“Thank you,” he said, hesitating before taking it. He felt the static from within the coin. He felt a kinship with it.
"There are two sides, the green meaning standard, and the purple meaning inversed. Pay attention to that. If you want green, and you get purple, you're going to need to adapt either through dispelling it or by casting somewhere it will be more useful.” She pointed to the cup, "This is where probability and causality come in. Prepare for both outcomes before flipping the coin. Have a plan, and follow through. Consider your options.” She pointed to the cup.
“How do I use it?” Tyler asked.
Her face went blank, as if teaching a spell never occurred to her, “The first spell is what we call 'cascade.' When inverted, it's called 'collapse.' It’s pretty standard, and your arm shows the results. The static you feel can reach out to your target. Once you isolate it, you should be able to move it to the cup. When you do, let the static feel that cup at it's most basic level."
Tyler gave an energetic laugh as he did it. The static within him moved as easily as moving his arm, following every object he laid eyes on. He could feel the cup at an atomic level, each atom bound to its current shape. Tyler flipped the coin. As it rotated in the air, he felt a flash of warmth through his entire body. There was a sensation, as if something lightly tugged at him, pulling in all directions with the slightest force. The coin came down, and the purple side shimmered as it floated in front of him. He panicked, unsure of what to do.
Within a fraction of a second that seemed like days, he decided how wide the area of effect should be, settling on the area directly circling the cup. The spell manifested with strands of white light busting from the ground around the cup. His next thought was an eerie picture as he fully realized what could have happened to him.
The cup began to atomize, breaking down as each molecule, each atom tore apart, leaving nothing behind save for a pile of dust.
“Congratulations, Mr. Hale, your first spell murdered my teacup.” she laughed, nearly jumping for joy. "This works with any spell. Get creative. Morrigan is tougher than you, and I guarantee you probably won't even hit her."
Tyler prepared himself, taking control of the static he felt within. Isla retrieved Morrigan, and he could feel the static radiating from her as she raised her cane.
"You first," Morrigan called, "hit me."
Isla laughed and watched with a cheerful smile. Tyler pushed the static through him, moving the sensation from his chest and into his arm. He raised the club. When the static traveled through it, the red gem began to glow. The sigils glowed, as well. They shined and sparked up the shaft, following the static to the head of the club.
Tyler shaped the static into a sphere at the top of the club. He pictured the sphere growing, disconnecting from the club, and a flicker of white light sparked into existence. The sphere manifested, a transparent ball of rippling space that warped the image seen through it. The sphere shot forward, aimed at Morrigan who squealed in excitement.
She brought the cane down and the sphere collided with a barrier that formed around her. A sudden bang shattered the air, coupled with the cracking and grinding of unstoppable forces colliding with an immovable object. Isla cheered, as Morrigan dispelled the barrier.
Tyler marveled at how fast the action took. The process of manifesting and casting the spell, which felt like ages to him, only took a few seconds.
"That was a hard hit," Morrigan said, "Well done. I wasn't expecting that."
"Did I hurt you?" He asked, lowering his club. She smiled and in a swift motion raised her cane. A series of white sparks spewed forth, sending several small spheres towards him He raised his arms to defend himself in a panic, bracing himself for the pain.
As if on instinct, the static recoiled, spreading out as if forming a wall in front of him. The wall felt thin and weak. He imagined the static condensing, packing itself together.
The spheres hit the half formed barrier. Two passed through, hitting him in the chest, but not knocking him down. They didn't hurt as bad as they did before. The barrier dulled their effects.
"Tell me he did it." Morrigan said in a panic, "He's okay right?"
"He's fine." Isla replied.
Before I even start. It's not a good idea to, in the opening paragraph, not even mention the name of a character before jumping into pronouns. While I knew you meant Tyler, you should always state his name in the first instance before switching to pronouns. Now onto the actual notes. Either way, glad to see another chapter today! I'm enjoying reading this a lot. There are some typos, though not as many in this chapter as the last chapter. Let's get into my comments. What's the line "'I'd be more concerned about what it can be used for,' Isla began, standing from her seat to make another cup of coffee. 'Most people can do simple stuff after the Rite'" meant to mean? I don't really understand Isla's line of thought there as the first half of the line suggests that Isla thinks the club is either of no use or rather dangerous while the second half of the line suggests that it doesn't need to serve a function? I'd try rephrasing that a bit. Also, you used "began" again despite just stating that Isla said as she does whatever would work just fine. By utilizing it so much, you've turned the word "began" into most writer's "said". Later on, you use the same format with "Isla began" followed by an action. The ellipsis works wonders on its own. You can even split the line with the action(though, I would suggest mentioning a pause in her action as well as speech before continuing both). Just don't always use "began". Uhh. Who's Ian? I am either completely blanking or you have another VERY confusing name typo. ("So offense vs defense," Ian said.) That's so confusing. It happens again later during the Isla-Tyler magic scene so I'm presuming that's a weird typo. Then you have my least favorite "she began" in the whole chapter. "she spoke, 'What if,' she began," This is likely just a side effect from combining sections, but holy cow that's not good. What's discord? You mention that their connection to Candlelight and discord are what gives them their ability to influence Causality. However, you've never mentioned discord before. In the section where Isla defeats Tyler by spilling tea, when did she do this? I feel like she'd have done this on her way out, but you don't mention it at all. It'd be interesting to introduce this kind of information ahead of time and then have the reader have the "ah ha" moment when it comes into play. Well. I will say, I have no idea how Isla's spell worked. What so ever. But it was cool! Other note from that section: how does the coin help Tyler with having probability within his catalyst? Isn't a catalyst meant to be important and unique to the individual? In which case, the coin wouldn't become a catalyst but some other kind of tool for Tyler. That's a little bit odd. "Tyler gave an energetic laugh as he did" Did what? I mean, I guess I could assume based on the previous chapter but he could also be doing anything else. While it's fine for you to leave some things for the reader, you probably shouldn't randomly leave the reader guessing as to literally what is happening. (Side note, what does "your arm shows the result" mean? That was also odd) Ok. I quickly finished up the chapter (Ignore my wonderfully non-linear commencing) and I have a few more things to say. Mostly, how does Tyler apply the spell Isla taught him to his staff and do so instinctually when I don't even understand why the two are correlated? Shouldn't the fact he's a Discordian mean that his methodology of spell casting is a bit different? That really confused me. Beyond that, the ending of the chapter felt kind of abrupt. Your other chapters usually end in a somewhat good point but this was super abrupt. Other than that, I liked it. The use of Morrigan to fight instead of Isla didn't really make the most sense(why doesn't Isla fight him?) but it was still cool. I also don't really understand how Morrigan was able to stop Tyler's attack but couldn't tell if he stopped hers. The fight was awesome, in general, and I liked most of the rest of the chapter. There were just a few magic system thing that left me a bit confused as to what your intentions were.
ohhhhh, lots of good points. Sorry bout that. I spilt this and the last chapter, thats why it starts with pronouns. Ian!? was tyler's name before and the find and replace missed several. I thought i sniped them but they are tricky. I will fix those now, as well as adress alot of those issues. hmm... you may have found a glaring loophole. Discord isnt really anything, but they work closely with chaos, as in mathmatical chaos. hmmm... gonna fix that. A catalyst needs to have significance, and having emotion helps. The coin is significant in its connection to discordians and as a gift to him from a tutor. I see where your coming from and i may need to go back and really delve into what catalysts are. when she says probability is needed in the catalyst, shes saying it needs variable states. Two sides of a coin allows one to utilize two states of a single spell. Cascade is a healing spell, but if inverted, it becomes collapse, a VERY damage focused spell. You have to add chaos to the system, flipping the coin, to reach either result. Ill revise this whole chapter, probably the last one too. It may have been to iffy. Using Morrigan to fight is an effort to prepare him quicker. She's one of the most skilled, and Isla wouldnt be able to do much that Tyler couldnt learn to do. She can't feel the static from him when he's using it, otherwise its obvious. She cant feel him there, so she has no way of knowing if he's ok. No idea how her spell worked? please explain. That confused me, but thank you. This will be a high edit section of the book on my next pass for sure. Good lord. Got a little world blind here and i apologize.
That makes sense. I was unaware that Morrigan couldn't sense static when it's being used. You might need to clarify that at some point because I don't think you've mentioned it but I could be wrong. When I said I don't understand Isla's spell, I was referring to the one she initially showed Tyler with the lots of lights and where she says she was trying to make a paradox. I may have missed something super important, but I don't know what kind of spell Isla was trying to originally cast or how it turned out the way it did. Presumably, it went wrong because she cast it on the purple side of the coin and presumably that meant she had to have a different outcome than she originally intended. I just don't really know the in and outs of how Discordian spells work so I was just saying I don't know quite what she was going for nor how the result was the opposite. I think that should make more sense? If not, let me know and I can try explaining again.
Ohhh thats a pretty easy fix. basically she was trying to cast Cascade/collapse. That makes sense. Ill rework it. thanks so much
There is one other world-building focused aspect I think you should put some thought into -- your notation of spell and inverse spell. Presently, you're using a normal/inverse notation, but I think it would be cool if you considered altering the notation to look a bit more scientific as you are approaching the Prestige from a midpoint between magic and science. I can't think of much, but off the top of my head something like ĈascadesͮC̐ollapse or ĈsͮC̐ to notate the spell. That's just random stuff based on the unicode values 302, 310, and 36e being applied to the letters. The notation, however, does look a bit more interesting that just Cascade/Collapse
Hmmmm. Yess that's an awesome idea. I never put much thought into the spells with an inverse. I'll have to think on that one. Thanks so much