Chapter 11
Magic elements can be broken down into sixteen separate elements. There are the Core Four Elements of Earth, Fire, Air, and Water. Then, there are the twelve elements known as the Six Dualities. A Duality is made up of two opposing forces that form a whole, like two halves of a coin. A word to the wise is to never mix two opposing sides of a duality unless you know what you are doing without question or hesitation.
Day 3, Temporikday
I sat in what may very well have been my new favorite class, Mystech and Myst Fundamentals. The instructor was a middle-aged Human woman, Mystagogue Jenna. Her blond hair was a frizzy mess that looked more like a bush of silver-gold wheat than actual hair. Her eyes were an agate blue-green outer iris with a brown-tan inner ring. She was pretty, if not what I looked for in a woman. Her petite frame was completely enveloped in black and blue caster robes that must have been a few sizes too big. The way she taught was full of pep and vigor. Her energy was wild as she jumped around more like a child on caffeine than an adult woman.
“Myst is the GREAT fuel of magic. Myst infuses all things, both living and not. We are all creatures of the myst made up of a great flowing and burbling concoction of elements that form living things.” She skipped across the stage of the lecture hall only to turn on her heel and march back across, one hand pressed behind her back, the other pointing to the ceiling. “There are sixteen elements that make up the whole of creation that can then be broken down. In a simple breakdown, there are the positive aligned, the negative aligned, and the neutral. There are the base four elements of Fire.” She lit a flame in her hands that she danced between her fingers. “Water.” she extinguished the flames and drew forth orbs of water to float around her hand. The orbs of water floated off over the heads of the crowd to burst into a mist that floated down. “Wind.” She flicked her fingers, and a breeze drifted through the classroom, turning the mist into a shimmering cloud over our heads. “Earth.” Stones formed from dust to orbit around her head, only to form into glass beads that floated to join the cloud overhead. “These are the core four elements. Each is of a neutral alignment. Next are the Six Dualities. Each of these is made up of polar opposites. Each Duality comprises one Positive Element and one Negative Element.” She bit the tip of her thumb before continuing.
She spun on her heel while wagging a finger in explanation. "First, The Duality of Choice.” She snapped her fingers as she stepped back to the center of the stage. “The Duality of Choice comprises Fate, the Positive, and Chaos, the Negative. Fate is the element that sees all that is, was, and may yet be. Often used for scrying and seeing the smallest details of the current moment. Meanwhile, Chaos is the element of chance, probability, and what can be if only given that chance. Chaos is used to alter luck and probability in the moment. Will you win or lose the game of dice? That is decided by both Fate and Chaos.” She reached into a pocket of her robe and pulled free a metal piece that, with inspection, turned out to be a copper deckra. She flicked it into the air and left it where it lay on the floor without even checking which face was up.
She spun yet again on her heel as she continued on her mad rantings of myst and magic. "Next is the Duality of Creation, which is made up of Synthesis and Ruin. Synthesis, the Positive Element, is used to create any form of non-magical material and some magical. While any element that controls a material can create that material, Synthesis allows for much higher myst efficacy when conjuring materials." The Mystagogue pointed to the glass spheres above her head, and they all closed together to meld into a single large sphere of glass. "Ruin, the Negative Element of this Duality, does just what the name implies. Ruin breaks down any material it is pitted against, turning it into dust and ambient myst. But Ruin is extremely inefficient when casting, meaning that it would take you twice to five times more Ruin Myst to break down material than the Synthesis Myst used to conjure the material." She pointed a single finger to the large glass ball over her head, and it began to dissolve into dust that piled at her feet. However, the glass object did not totally break down; instead, it maintained a new form of a cone above Jenna's head. With a flourish of her hand, the dust that was once glass flew into the air to hover in the cloud and reform into glass beads.
“Then comes the Duality of the Cycle. Life and Death are the same as the rest of the dualities, two halves of the same coin. Life is used to heal and grow, while death is used to wither and rot.” With a flourish of her hand toward a massive pot beside her desk, a thread of vibrant green energy reached forth from her fingertips to slither into the soil. A sapling sprouted from the soil, budding leaves in a matter of seconds as it reached for the roof. She only stopped feeding the plant myst when it passed through the cloud of fog and glass beads overhead and began sprouting fruit. I didn’t recognize the pink-skinned and fuzzy-looking produce, but they had a similar shape to a lemon. The fruit budded and sprouted in a matter of heartbeats before falling onto the students. There were exclamations of panic that quickly shifted into amused joy as the class understood what was going on.
One of the strange fruits rolled to a stop near me, and I took the opportunity. I snatched the hot pink thing and peeled off the plush rind. Under the strangely soft fur was an outer layer that felt closer to a grapefruit than a lemon. The flesh under was a yellowish purple skin and had a definite citrus texture. Tentatively, I pressed my tongue into the wound to be pleasantly surprised with what I found. The taste was, as expected, akin to lemon and a bit of grapefruit but with a sweeter flavor rather than a tart base. The best way I found to describe the flavor was like drinking the citrus punch made in Sollarra nation to our south but with extra sugar added to the drink. Only later would I learn that the fruit was called a Geeka Lemon and was native to southern Eathra in the tropic region.
I picked at the fruit and nibbled at it while I focused back on the Mystagogue. She spun around the tree with her hand hooked around the light-colored trunk. Clearly, she was enjoying the result of her teaching, though I couldn’t tell if what she was enjoying was the fruit or the students. She released her loose clutch on the trunk and gave a single twirl on her toes before taking a dramatic stance and snapping her fingers at the tree. A bolt of violet energy shot from her hand and struck the tree in at its trunk. Black rot spread from the point of contact in a web. As the rot reached the upper boughs, the whole plant began to crumble to dust. The trunk rotted through where the decay started, snapped with a shattering crack, and fell toward the class. Screams burst out as students fell from their seats and scrambled to get free of the crash zone. All this passed by in a flash as I just sat there in my seat like an invalid.
As the class panicked and I sat frozen in place, Mystagogue Jenna let out a light-hearted giggle before throwing a web of violet lightning. Thunder resounded in the closed confines of the room. The violet energy lanced into the cloud of mist and touched dozens of the glass beads. The mass of beads began to glow with a toxic purple-blue light before hurtling into the falling tree. The small bodies of glass tore through the still-decaying tree, and from my seat, I got a perfect view of what actually happened. As the other students toppled over each other and clambered for safety, the beads, having been enhanced with what I could only assume to be more Death Myst, the glass bodies punched into the frail wood, the rate of rot was expedited to the point of dissolving the whole tree into black mulch.
The instructor clapped her hands to get the class’s attention as they realized there was no threat. “Now, now, class. Please take your seats, and we will continue.” After a long moment of shock, the class slowly organized and brushed the mulch off their seats. As everyone calmed down, I noticed that the room was now saturated with the scent of rotting plants. I wrinkled my nose at the stench, but even more noticeable was the look of complete amusement that the Mystagogue had at the escapade. I glanced up at the still-hanging fog cloud overhead and noticed glimmering dust and shards mixed in with the water. My best guess was that the glass beads shattered after shredding the tree. My main question was why the glass was still floating. Did she still have a use for the fragments?
“Now, where were we?” the instructor asked in an amused and almost mocking tone. “Ha, yes." Mystagogue Jenna turned her back to the class. “Then comes the Duality of The Dichotomy. A tricky topic. This duality comprises the elements of Lumina and Umbra. Each element is made up of more than sunlight and shadow while each encompasses them all the same. Shadow, used to conceal or weaken.” She spun in a dramatic circle, her body cloaked in shadows. “Lumina is used to illuminate and enhance.” From within the shadows encasing her body, an arc of light shot forth, focusing into a beam toward the glass cone above her head. I realized the cone was actually a lens as the light refracted and shot into the cloud above. The light further refracted through the cloud and back down to shine among the students in rainbows and shimmers made from the water and glass dust.
"Next is The Duality of Progress. This one is made of Stasis and Morphic Myst. Stasis forces an object or material to hold its shape against changes to its form or structure. This element is often used to keep a dying person in a stable state, if all be it, an unchangeable state, while this element is in effect." Jenna waved her hand, and the glass shards flew to her to form two larger orbs on either side of her. From seemly nowhere, she produced a small mallet and struck the sphere on her left, causing it to shatter and fall to the floor. Jenna then touched the remaining sphere on her right, producing a flicker of amber colored energy to pass through the object. She struck this one with the hammer, just like the last. But the hammer bounced off, dealing no damage and forcing the instructor to take a step back from the redirected force. "But, just like Ruin Myst, Stasis Myst is incredibly inefficient and costly to use. Also..." The indestructible glass ball flickered with amber light as the energy destabilized and dissipated. Instantly, the sphere cracked, then crumbled. "Stasis Myst does not make anything completely immune to damage. If enough force or power is thrown against a Stasis object, when the element wears off, it will suffer at least a portion of the damage."
Jenna then snapped the fingers of her right hand, and the lens above her shattered. all of the glass shards magically collected into a pile at the instructor's feet. "In opposition to Stasis Myst is Morphic Myst. Morphic Myst is the raw energy of change. All living creatures have at least a spark of this element in their being, which allows an individual to grow, adapt, and change. On a much larger scale, Morphic Myst is the cause for the process of evolution, which is the progression of minute alterations to each creature over the course of thousands of generations." She gave a flamboyant flourish of a hand, and the glass at her feet sparked with flashes of purple before melting into a puddle of some mysterious translucent green slime. The slime rose, climbing up into a pillar as tall as the Mystagogue before shifting back into glass. "In spellcasting and mystech, Morphic Myst can temporarily change an object or material into a completely different object or material. But the bigger the change, the more myst it costs. So changing water into wine is relatively simple, but changing water into a cat is much harder." The glass pillar sprouted cracks and shattered to fall back into a pile of shards. "And, like I state, temporary changes."
“Lastly comes what we often think of as the most dangerous duality, the Duality of Synergy, comprised of Resonance and Distortion. Both of these are on the more ephemeral side of cosmic forces, much like Fate and Chaos. Resonance Myst holds sway over patterns, frequencies, and similar. Your heart beats at the rate it does, in part, because of this element." Mystagogue Jenna pointed a finger at the pile of glass at her feet, and with a flash of teal energy, it began to hum in an audible pitch. With a flash of white, the humming stopped and a single beam of light shot from her finger to point at the glass shards. "If Resonance Myst is applied to Lumina Myst, you can convert the frequency of energy from visible light to something a bit more... hazardous on the electromagnetic spectrum." The ray of light vanished but the pile of glass started to glow with heat. After a moment of confusion, I realized that she had changed the lightwaves into microwaves.
"Distortion, on the other hand, interrupts or alters set patterns or frequencies. You should be aware that all things have an innate frequency at which they innately hold their state. These are constant molecular vibrations that allow for objects and materials to hold their shape. With enough Distortion Myst..." Instead of continuing her explanation, Jenna stopped the Lumina and Resonance spell she was fasting and shot a single needle of vermillion light at the glass shards, and the pile broke down into powder. This wasn't like the dust the Ruin Myst had turned the glass into. That had been a heap of dull gray. What was at her feet was still obviously glass, but in pieces so small, you couldn't even call it sand. "And just like Ruin and Stasis Myst, Distortion is incredibly inefficient during spell casting but can be just as incredibly useful if used right."
The Mystagogue rolled her shoulders and neck as if she was tense as she said "And that my sweet little chitlins, are the Core Four Elements and the Six Dualities. Before I call class, does anyone have any questions on spell casting that I didn't cover to this point?"
A hand among the students shot skyward. Attached to the hand was the strange Human girl that was mostly metal. Professor Jenna pointed to the girl without a single word but with a nod as a sign to speak. The girl lowered her hand and spoke in a voice that was strong yet somehow held a note of timidness. “Mystagogue, could you please explain the magic circles for us? We have yet to learn about them.”
The instructor gave a vehement nod with her hands propped upon her hips, “Certainly, my young disciple. Casters are ranked by circles based on the highest level spell they can cast without a ritual. Circles range from one to ten. Casters of the First Circle are only really able to cast the simplest spells, known as cantrips. From simple spells, like making a candle flame on the end of your finger, they will rank up higher and higher. Second Circle casters can cast a fire shot with little effort. The Third Circle can cast a fire bolt in the same manner. At the Fourth Circle. You could cast a fire blast at the Fifth. It could become a fireball at the Sixth Circle. It could evolve into a beam at the Seventh Circle. It could become a cone of flame, and at the Eighth Circle, it could become what is called an inferno or devastation class spell. The spells beyond the Eighth Circle are classified as blackmarked because very, very few Mages pass the Eighth Circle. Those that do are so powerful they are put on watch lists. Now, you need to keep in mind that I only used the element of fire as an example in this explanation. Each caster classification has its own affinities and uses any other element to equal effect as the flame example, depending on their Circle and their affinities. Any of the elements can be used to cause just as much devastation as fire if used correctly.
