012.5 Awakening Magic (Patreon)

This is going to be the new chapter 13 in the published book version, along with some expanded sections in other chapters. I'm not going to be adding it to the serial version, partially because of the logistics of adding it in and renumbering everything.

It doesn't change anything about the story, but it does expand on magic a little bit, and it's fun. :)

Kazue nodded at Mordecai as he rose to his feet. "Yes. Um–" She hesitated as she considered how to ask about Moriko, but Mordecai seemed to pick up on her concern.

He smiled and said, "Moriko's been asleep for a while now. It has been a very long day for her, and even a disciple of Sakiya has her limits."

"Right," Kazue said with a blush. "So, what are you doing?"

"I was just using some meditation to help get better adjusted to my body. It's a lot for my core to process, given our current growth, so I need to be careful how much I push it."

"Process?"

He smiled and gestured at his body. "This is a mana construct, much like your body. It's not entirely real, and our cores are processing the information needed to continue mimicking real bodies. Normally, this is not a significant issue, but we're already too small to have avatars normally, and my avatar is especially complex. I don't know what would happen if I did too much and overtaxed that part of my other self, but I'd rather not find out."

That made sense, as did his differentiation between his selves, but both of those ideas were still really weird to her. How could this body not be real? She could feel it, and her sense of self was here. But her sense of self was also not-here, it was here at her core– ah!

Kazue wavered briefly as her attention was split between two locations, but Mordecai was quick to catch her arm and help steady her.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kazue said with a sigh. "I'm just still having trouble with there being two of me while being only one of me. It's not so bad when I am not thinking about it, then I just know things that my other self knows." She was going to follow his example for how to talk about the difference between her core and her avatar.

"Hmm." He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, then shook his head. "I'd like to help you with that, but I think we need to grow more first. This is probably part of why it takes growing a third zone before a nexus can normally develop an internal avatar. But we can work on something else, if you like."

"What do you have in mind?" She was curious what they could really do right now. Other than the things her fantasies briefly wandered off to.

"Why don't we figure out what sort of magic you might be skilled with? While I want to also train you in some basic combat skills, I think it's pretty clear that martial prowess is not something you are inclined toward."

Kazue shook her head mutely in agreement; she didn't like that idea of fighting. Did he really think she could do proper magic? She could only do things like make some sparkling lights or whisper-like sounds. But that was just because she was a kitsune, almost every kitsune could do those.

It took her a moment before she could say anything. "I, well, I'd love to, but I tried to learn magic before. Nothing seemed to work."

"Why don't you tell me what you and others have tried?" He started walking slowly around Kazue as he examined her.

It made her a bit nervous, but she ignored that and tried to focus on remembering what had been done before. "Well, um, the first one was druid. I was taught some mental exercises, and then tried to do stuff like hear what an animal had to say, or make plants sway, stuff like that. While doing those exercises. It didn't work."

Probably because she couldn't keep track of doing the exercises in her head while also trying to do the other things. And then she would get the exercises all mixed up sometimes too. Kazue knew she wasn't really stupid, she could read very well and there were a lot of things she was good at. But then there were things like that which made her feel stupid because even children had an easier time than her.

"So, because I read a lot, they tried having me learn how to do arcane magic. I even had a tutor for a little while. But I just couldn't keep everything straight that I was reading and being told." It wasn't her fault that it was all dry and boring. How did anyone memorize all those formulas and motions and rituals and stuff?

"Let's see, oh! After that, they had a bard come by to try and teach me. That was kind of fun, though my mom didn't seem too happy about it. I was good at the singing and learning fun stories to tell, but nothing, well, magical happened during that. I think it was supposed to resonate in some way." It was really too bad, making magic with music and dance seemed like it could be really fun. Even if it caused her mom to make faces.

Right, try not to think about mom and home too much. Moriko said that she would get a message to the clan as soon as she got to her home. Kazue sniffed back the temptation to cry and focused back on what they were doing.

"Becoming a shrine maiden was part of maybe learning how to be a priestess. Though I guess it's not just learning, you have to be in harmony with your deity. I, um, choose to follow Lady Mericume mostly because I thought the moon pools were really pretty at night." Which made the way she died even more embarrassing.

Mordecai had come to a stop behind her, and now he asked, "How close do you feel you are to her ideals?"

"Er, I don't know. I mean, I love the forest and being out at night in it, but it was a forest I knew was safe. I certainly don't want to see pretty wild places being turned into farms or anything. The whole hunter and prey thing though, I just could never really feel it." Well, the prey bit, maybe, but that was different. Someone hiding from being hunted unjustly might pray to Lady Mericume, but the priests of the Goddess of the Moon generally played the role of hunter, not the hunted.

Kazue gasped softly as she felt Mordecai's fingers press lightly into her shoulders and then her neck. She swallowed nervously then asked, "Um, what are you doing?" Not that she objected, it felt good, and she could imagine him continuing to massage down her arms and... maybe she should stop imagining things.

"I'm trying to get a feel for how your body's energy flows," he said. "My core's senses aren't quite enough for this right now, and I can't currently just look at you and see it all. Hmm. Tell me something you would like to do with magic. Something relatively small and simple. It doesn't have to be useful, and maybe it shouldn't be. What would make you really happy to be able to do."

"Alright." Kazue tried to sound calm, but having him so close was rather distracting. So, he wanted her to say what she wanted to do with magic? That was rather broad, but he also said it should be something small. "Well, it would be nice to be able to do a lot of things at once, like when I want to do some painting and read a book at the same time, but I'm too tired so I don't do either of those, but when I try to sleep I keep thinking about them so I don't sleep very well either."

Kazue paused for a moment as she thought about that. "I guess I already get that now, sort of. It's a good reason to practice." If she could create things like the tables, she should be able to create artwork, right? But it would be more fun to do the painting herself, what if she just created the canvas and paint? Then she'd need something to paint. Well, she could paint Moriko or Mordecai, either one of them would be fun to have do poses for her. Or paint both of them together...

Maybe she should think about that later.

She cleared her throat and focused back on what she was supposed to be talking about. "Minor things... well, I guess the bard idea was kind of fun because I do like telling stories and singing. Maybe some other kind of magic to help with that?"

Kazue gestured as she continued, imitating the scenes she was imaging. "I could create images of knights dueling each other, or a forest clearing with fey creatures having a feast, or create a storm and then the rainbow after it passes– gah!"

That sound was forced out of her as she felt something weird happen right before a rainbow briefly flickered to life, then shattered into little golden motes.

"I, um, what happened? Did you do something? That was you, right?" Kazue felt a little panicked at the combination of the strange sensation and sudden manifestation of magic.

"You did that," Mordecai said, and he smiled when she turned her heat to look at him in disbelief. "I did help, but I didn't shape anything. I just pushed a little of my mana into the right places to get your mana moving properly. The rest was you."

"But how? That didn't even take as long as any of the other tests or anything, and you didn't teach me anything to try focusing on, or other things to do."

He shrugged and said, "You aren't going to find many people with experience in almost every area of magic, and I made sure that this body had every possible affinity. While I can't do anything that requires channeling a large amount of mana, I can do almost anything that only require channeling a small amount of mana."

Then he smiled and said, "Now, go on, try to get back to thinking about creating a rainbow again, that one felt right. I think I know your specific affinity, but I want to test it first."

It took a little while, and Kazue became increasingly aware of exactly where on her back his fingers were as he 'pushed' mana into her, but eventually he was satisfied and named her a mystic, specifically one able to manifest daydream magic.

"Daydream magic?" she asked skeptically. "That sounds, I don't know, a little silly and childish?"

He grinned at her and said, "Well, if you prefer, we could use the scholarly terminology. 'Intuitive, imagination-based reality alteration and illusionary manifestation.' What do you think?"

Kazue made a face at him. "No, daydream magic will do fine, thanks. But, um, how do I do it on my own?"

"The name gives it away, it's all about channeling your mana while in the right state of mind." As he spoke, Mordecai started examining the room while looking thoughtful.

"Scholarly study of magic will do little to increase your eventual repertoire of spells; instead, you will be able to train yourself into a relatively smaller number of spells. You also won't need a spell book to refresh your memory for spells you haven't used in a while, and will be more flexible in modifying your magic."

His core manifested a few stands with ball shaped targets in the middle of the room.

Kazue frowned. "Is this going to be one of those long lecture things?"

Mordecai shook his head. "No, you thankfully have a way to cheat your way into learning it faster." He smiled and said, "Your avatar and core can work in tandem here; your core should be able to analyze what your avatar did and what your mind set was, and help guide you into repeating it. This should helps you learn faster until your avatar reaches the limit of what your core can process right now."

Oh. That was... wait, she could do that, really? Would that apply to everything? Um, she should probably start with what Mordecai wanted her to do first.

It took a little bit for her to get the right focus, but once she was there, Kazue knew exactly what she had been thinking and feeling, and what it had felt like to have mana flowing in that pattern. In that moment, a rainbow bloomed briefly in the air before her.

She stared in awe. "I can cast real spells now."

"Yes, but there is a bit more work still. I assume you would like your rainbow to last longer, and know how to shape your illusion better?"

Once Kazue could make her rainbow last an entire minute just by casting it once, they moved on to creating other images. Creating a little moon or sun was a lot of fun too, and then things that moved, like a bird.

After that, came control, such as making her bird land on a target, then taking off and landing on another one, or creating a rainbow between two specific targets.

Then the man tricked her by asking her if she liked thunderstorms while she was starting to connect two targets with a rainbow. The images overlapped and warped each other in that moment of her focus being interrupted, and the image of a lightning bolt connected the two targets instead.

Mordecai examined the two targets before smiling. "Well done, you just cast your first combat spell, though it wouldn't do much more than sting a mouse at the moment."

She examined the targets he was looking at. There were tiny scorch marks on them, and when her core examined what his core had created, she found that he'd specifically made the surface something that scorched easily.

"That's a little scary." Kazue said. Her first day of learning magic, and she could already cast a spell that could possibly hurt someone.

"I understand," Mordecai said. "Which is why I decided to do it this way. If you were thinking about it being a combat spell, you'd have been too tense and worried to concentrate. This seemed like it would be easier for you, and now you can actually decide whether or not to pursue this aspect of your magic."

Kazue wasn't sure how she felt about him understanding her that well already, but that was something to think about later. "Do you mean I could just not learn this sort of magic?"

He nodded and said, "Yes. But there is a problem with that choice. It's impossible to prove that you don't know any dangerous spells. Partially because with a little imagination, they can all be dangerous."

Mordecai gestured, and the targets were covered with illusions of mask-like faces. A moment later, one of the targets also had a moon illusion centered on it. "The illusion is complete, even for someone inside of it. They wouldn't be able to see past the moon's surface. Blinding a person is always dangerous."

Kazue swallowed. Maybe it was more than a little scary. But her cozy life where she always had safe books to curl up with was gone. She didn't want to hurt anyone, but she might need to protect herself or someone else. And sometimes, protecting one person meant hurting another person.

"Alright," she said. "What do we do next?"