Chapter 1394 (Patreon)

Well, I had to admit, talking to Anise was a welcome surprise. The woman was, quite frankly, remarkably intelligent, at least once she got past the whole thing where she had essentially been praying to my likeness for the better part of a year. That still gave her pause, and she preferred not to look at me directly, but that was the only real issue. As long as she could look elsewhere, she could readily talk to me and discuss complex topics. Amusingly, she was mostly looking at the altar if she wasn’t studying my body or maybe my clothes, and I noticed she would always stutter for a second or two after her gaze met mine. Still, she could sit across from me on a chair I had conjured, looking only a little unnerved. 

Regardless of these small issues, it was wonderful to have an intelligent conversation with somebody who shared my interest in Arcane magic, and Anise certainly did. Curiously, her perspective was vastly different from mine; I likened the Astral to a, well, River, while her mind conceptualised the Astral as something akin to an atmospheric system, with different gases spreading throughout the world. 

It was rather interesting, especially when she revealed that the messages she received from the system were somewhat supportive of her interpretation. Just like mine, hers referenced the Astral River, lending credence to her idea of a magical atmosphere. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, but I wanted to learn more, even if it was contrary to my own understanding. Or rather, I wanted to learn more because it ran contrary to my own understanding, yet it was supported by the System. Which, in turn, meant that the System wasn’t giving away information; it presented information couched in concepts of an individual’s choosing. Or maybe couched in concepts the person would understand; I didn’t quite remember where I got the idea of the Astral River from, where I had encountered it for the first time. 

It also gave an entirely new spin to my ability to detect magic by smell. I had simply accepted it as one of my senses, allowing me to interact with the world, but when taking into account Anise’s conceptual model of magic as a system of gases with differing pressures, it made sense that the gases would also smell differently. Though, to be fair, it also made sense within my own model of Astral Power as liquids, flowing through a vast circulatory system, as even liquids had their own smells. Everyone, for example, could tell you what coffee smelled like or describe the soothing scent of tea. 

However, while these fundamental observations and concepts were interesting, it was even more fascinating that Anise used Earth Magic in a vastly different way compared to me. Where I was considering Earth Magic solely composed of physical materials, meaning the dirt, sand and rock the ground consisted of, combined with a few concepts related to that, like harden, compress and similar ideas, Anise regarded the Earth as a living entity in and of itself. Her understanding of Earth Magic put the domain much closer to life magic, allowing her some tricks I had seen Luna use. 

In other words, to me, Earth was the ground, the rocks and other assorted material Terra was made out of. To Anise, Earth was the living planet, the Mother of all creatures inhabiting this vast and incredibly complex living space-ship that carried us all through the darkness of the Universe. 

It was, quite frankly, fascinating, though I could see that we both needed to be careful. With such different core assumptions and related fundamental concepts, we couldn’t really learn from one another. Her Earth Magic and mine had the same name, but that was pretty much where the similarities ended. It would be interesting to see what would happen if I managed to let Anise learn Earth Runes without my direct input, but that was another topic. We would have to see if she could manage, but that would be an ongoing project I couldn’t involve myself too deeply. 

“Great one,” Anise began, using the appellation she had apparently decided was appropriate for me, even if I had asked her to use my actual name. “What were you doing when I first entered? It looked like you were in pain, but you completely ignored me when I first called out.” 

“You have undoubtedly discovered the library crystal, correct?” I asked, glancing over to the altar, not really responding to her question. When she frowned for a moment, I couldn’t help but chuckle. 

“You are aware that the shrine has a database that you can interface with?” I asked, getting a nod in response. “The interface isn’t just there because the shrine exists. It is linked to the crystal set into the altar, which I call the library crystal. It was made by my daughter,” I nodded towards the statue depicting Luna, “Or maybe it would be better to say she requested it from Lady Hecate, as she uses divine magic,” I shrugged.

“Anyway, the crystal is, as you would expect, an incredibly complex piece of magic. Right now, I’m trying to learn how to use Crystal Runes for a different project. Knowing about the library crystal, I decided to visit this shrine again, hoping to gain inspiration by studying it.” 

“Okay?” She looked a little taken aback. “Is it possible to unravel divine magic? I thought it was something fundamentally different?” 

“Sorta, kinda,” I waved my hand, making it obvious that the topic wasn’t simple. “Divine Magic, as the name suggests, comes from the divine, the Gods. I’ve had it likened to ordering take-out: you have a menu, those are your divine spells, and then you call up your deity, ordering a blessing number fifteen, with rice,” I explained with a grin, causing Anise to giggle in response. 

“Now, unless your deity takes a special interest in you, the response is apparently automated to a large degree, so if you pray for the blessing number fifteen, you’ll get a fairly predictable response, namely, said blessing. But the important part is you didn’t cast the blessing. Just like you didn’t cook the Bami Goreng you ordered before the change, you didn’t make the blessing. It’s made by the deity in question, and only delivered to you, or through you,” I finished my standard explanation for divine magic, something I had given before. 

“Now, given that the Gods generally have had a lot more time to come up with their spells compared to us mortals, the effects they provide to their faithful are a lot more polished and very efficient. But they are also highly complex, possibly with quite a bit of masking to keep people from appropriating their divine work.” I shook my head, thinking about the library crystal for a moment.

“At their core, divine spells are merely spells, only that the Gods use, as far as I know, a more refined version of Astral Power, creatively called divine power. That, in turn, means their spells take less power for the same effect, especially because the Gods deliberately make their spells very efficient, meaning they get a lot of bang for their buck. But the fundamental nature of it, the manipulation of reality using magic, remains the same,” I finished my explanation, noticing a rather curious expression of awe on Anise’s face. 

“And you are trying to understand such a divine working?” she asked, her voice barely louder than a whisper, her eyes darting to Lady Hecate’s statue. 

“If you are worried that the Gods would take offence, I’m rather confident that Lady Hecate would congratulate me if I managed to figure out the exact workings of the library crystal. She wants us mortals to learn as much magic as possible, until we can push the collective understanding of Arcane Magic forward. The more we learn, and the further we push Arcane Magic, the larger and more powerful her domain gets, though the last part is conjecture,” I explained. 

“Conjecture, but not completely wrong,” a familiar voice interrupted, causing my head to spin around, staring at Lady Hecate’s statue, who had decided to get moving, walking over to the area where Anise and I were sitting. 

“Lady Hecate,” I greeted the deity, my voice steady, while Anise was hyperventilating and looking as if she was about a second away from fainting. “It’s nice that you join us,” I continued, acting as if a deity dropping in was just to be expected, nothing out of the ordinary. By that point, Anise’s mind had started to catch up to the situation, and she had dropped from her seat, kneeling in submission before the deity. In comparison, I simply remained seated, reaching out and conjuring a small table, an additional chair for the deity, and even a tea set on the table. Then, I reached into my trusty bag, pulled out some tea and quickly set a pot to steep.

“Please, have a seat,” I offered, “The tea will take a few minutes, but it’s some of my last reserves of the good stuff.”