Edge Cases

97 - Book 2: Chapter 34: The Basics of Magic

It wasn't until Vex was back within the confines of the system that he could feel how different this form of magic was, strangely enough. It had been overwhelming and wonderful in Teque, but there something had been dampened in his senses. Perhaps it was the nature of Teque itself as a half-realized space, or perhaps he'd simply been preoccupied by what was happening to the city. Perhaps it was the tension of knowing that they were going back to Elyra, hovering at the back of his mind; the knowledge that he had to tell his friends, explain what had happened to him...

...Well, he hadn't had to. But he'd wanted to, and he had, and things had turned out all the better for it, and now there was a weight on his heart that wasn't gone but lessened, that he'd never noticed before.

Either way, the magic blossomed in front of him, vibrant and alive, and he understood that he understood nothing at all; that glyphs and signs only began to scratch the surface of what real magic could do, if given the opportunity.

It had just... never been given the opportunity. Not here.

His Sign floated in the air in front of him, that same outline of his old notebook, drawn with perhaps a slightly shakier hand now that he was sitting on the inside of a caravan as it moved and bumped its way along the road; stabilization magics could only do so much to keep it steady. But it was enough for the magic to activate, for those same small tendrils of light to emerge from his notebook, and now here was a difference: He could almost feel what the magic was doing.

It was remembering.

Not learning about what he was looking at, necessarily; not going through the motions of what he would have done, the research he would have had to pore through, although the information that poured into his head was certainly organized like he'd personally sorted it. It was like there was something within the mana itself that was unfolding, and it was picking information out of a massive fractal of knowledge

though as soon as he glimpsed it, that fractal vanished. He was left with the knowledge he had acquired, which felt surprisingly small in the wake of what he'd seen, and he scrambled to pen it all down in his notebook before it left his mind.

Sign of Research

The result of a young wizard making his first foray into True Magic, the Sign of Research represents not only a scholar eager to learn, but one that is willing to discover. Years of research and love for that research has compressed that process into a Sign that represents all of that work. Make no mistake, however: knowledge rarely comes for free.

...The last part was a small note tucked away in the corner of his mind as he cast it; Vex recognized, albeit somewhat distantly, that the system was helping him sort this information out. He certainly wouldn't have described himself in the third person like that. It seemed the system couldn't interfere in the magic itself, but its presence and connection with him gave it access to the information he was discovering.

He wasn't sure he liked that.

But it had given him information and knowledge that he would have missed on his own. He had the feeling that if he leaned on that, he could push all that information into a system box, to organize and share it... but he didn't. Not yet.

Derivan was leaning forward, too, watching him intently; he wasn't sure why, and he felt slightly embarrassed to be under the armor's keen gaze. Still, he kept at it, pushing the spell a little further trying, like Misa had suggested, to focus the spell on the concept of Signs, and not on his Sign in particular.

And to his surprise it worked. Not well; not nearly as in-depth as he wanted it to. But it gave him what he needed to know. He sorted that information again in his head, noting that there were two types of Signs, and mentally designating one of them 'glyphs'.

Once again, he wrote a little section in his notes, not sorting it beyond what was being fed to him.

Glyphs and Signs

Signs form the foundation of True Magic an odd paradox, given that the greatest feats of magic involve no Signs at all. A Sign is foundationally a tribute that is paid by the mana towards a great work of art, simplified down into a form that can be easily painted and recognized; almost every Sign created has a basis in some great work that was created and remembered by many, with the main exceptions being personal Signs.

Personal Notes:

'Glyph' will be designated as the term used to describe these great works art that has passed into history, and now forms the foundation of magic. Many of the basic mana elements have glyphs to represent them, and more complex glyphs are often combinations of these smaller, basic glyphs.

'Sign' will be designated as the term used to describe something meaningful not to the world at large, but to the person using the magic. Such magic is inherently far less effective when used by someone who the Sign does not belong to, and though personal Signs can also be combined with one another, both individuals must feel a true connection for that combined Sign to operate. Such Signs can change in effect as the nature of the relationship between those individuals change.

Note that although many glyphs and signs are visual constructions in nature, not all works of art are visual. Some magics are invoked by song, and still others by the sensation of rhythm; there are mages who express themselves entirely through their food, or by arranging a perfect bouquet of flowers, such that their aromas form something unique.

"Well?" Misa asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"It sort of worked," Vex admitted; he couldn't keep the disbelief entirely out of his voice, and Misa laughed at him, the half-orc folding her arms and leaning back in the caravan like she'd won.

"I knew it," she said, smug. Vex pouted at her.

"What did you learn?" Derivan asked him curiously.

"Not as much as Misa was probably hoping," Vex said, giving her the most petulant look he could manage, which wasn't actually very petulant at all. "But still, important basics. We can split this new magic into two categories for now glyphs, for any general magic that anyone can use, and Signs, which I've decided to use to refer to the personal Signs the people in Teque were talking about."

"Why Signs for that?" Sev asked, cocking his head, and Vex shrugged.

"That way I can call it Signing," he said, sounding entirely too smug about it. Sev groaned, and Vex's grin only grew wider. "Everyone has a signature! It makes sense!"

"I never said it didn't," Sev grumbled. "It making too much sense is the problem."

"Spoilsport," Vex said dismissively, but his grin hadn't faded; the byplay was just a normal part of a good pun.

Derivan hummed in consideration, letting the banter pass by him. "We need a way to know what the general glyphs are, then," he said thoughtfully. "We have two Signs, and we know the glyph for light."

"I made a note of it when we went to inspect some of those lights in Teque," Vex said with a nod. He flipped through his notebook to find the glyph in question, and cast the Sign of Research once more.

Glyph of Light

A simplification of the sun, worshiped by many in old times. Though the first representation of this was a mere circle in the sand, it was a means by which many found meaning.

This glyph is capable of producing minor amounts of light.

"Not a lot of information," Vex said, but a part of him was bubbling with excitement. His magic wasn't just telling him what the magic did it was giving him a story. Pieces of history! There was every chance that he would be able to stumble upon something from before the System this way, if only he could find the right glyphs, the right piece of art

though his excitement was quickly dampened as he realized there was every possibility that the mana was giving him information from Teque's history, and not his own.

But that... didn't make sense. Right? Teque was a product of a bonus room the mana he was using, the mana he was interacting with now this was the mana of this world. There was no reason it would know anything about Teque, or about the alternate history that happened in that version of the world.

Yet the mana was remembering, and that memory came from something he'd managed to glimpse. He wondered if there was a way for him to access that archive, beyond the limitations of his spell; if he could see the entirety of what the mana remembered, what would he discover?

"Vex?" Misa prompted, raising an eyebrow at him, and Vex jumped; he realized that everyone was looking at him.

"Uh, sorry," he said awkwardly. He'd been focusing on the magic and the potential paths he'd be able to take; maybe if he could find a glyph that focused on memory, or something that focused on accessing spaces... "What was the question again?"

"He's still distracted," Misa muttered to Sev, though she was half-grinning, teasing him; Vex huffed a little bit.

"I can focus!" he said. "It's just new magic, I get to be a little excited about it."

"I think it is cute," Derivan said, and that made Vex shrink into his chair a bit, covering his face. Derivan's tone gained a touch of worry. "...Did I say something wrong?"

"No, buddy," Sev said, giving him a sympathetic smile. "It's just"

"Magic!" Vex interrupted, flailing his arms to try to get their attention. He wanted to talk to Derivan about this, but he wanted to do it in private, and not in the caravan where everyone could listen in on him. "Um. I still don't know what you asked. But the glyph for light basically just lets me produce light. Nothing special."

"But special enough to get you lost in thought for five minutes?" Misa was still wearing that half-grin.

"It's not that part that got me." Vex struggled for a moment to try to find words for his fascination with what the mana was doing; how it was delivering this information to him. "It's what the magic is doing. It's not just telling me what the glyph can do it's telling me how it was discovered, what it was based on..."

"You're telling me you get lore?" Sev asked.

"Yes! I could put it into a system box, too, I think, but that's..." Vex frowned. "I don't know how I feel about that yet. That feels like I'm letting the system have access to what I discover. But I think... it already does? It's not doing anything with the information I have. Just kind of organizing it for me. As far as I can tell."

"I did notice an oddity in the way the system was acting, with Patch," Derivan commented. That had been why the armor was staring so closely at him, then. Vex wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed. "I was uncertain what it was doing, but strangely, it seemed to be acting from Misa's reality anchor."

Misa straightened, at that, her half-grin slipping away and turning into something serious; her eyes steeled, and a hand fell upon her mace. Vex blinked at her, unsure why she'd gotten serious so suddenly. "What was it doing?"

"I do not know." Derivan shook his head. "I only know that it was the source of the system's actions."

"Did it do the same thing when we were using the mana crystals?" Misa asked.

Derivan hesitated. "I did not think to observe in that direction," he said slowly. "When the apparatus for handling the crystals descends, it is... large. It is difficult to see past it, to a source. But I will try to pay attention should a new notification pop up, or should we notice any new oddities."

"Please," Misa said, and she sighed, leaning back against the wall of the caravan once again; she stared into the air, a telltale sign of her looking at a system screen. Vex could guess what she was looking at.

"Did the integrity go down by a lot?" There was a thin tremor of nervousness in his voice; Vex wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.

"No." Misa hesitated. "It went... it went up."