PSTH2: Chapter Two

Spell design is an interesting topic. Tracking the development is difficult, as the records from the era where magic first arrived are often lost or corrupted, but it’s believed the first spells found were from breaking apart essence hearts, and studying the natural Bond Primal patterns within them, though there are also those who believe that the development of stage III ousia sight came first, and spells developed from there. Whatever the truth, once humanity had its first spells, reverse engineering the principles of the essence patterns became one of our first great undertakings, and one that is still studied to this day…

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Lecture on the history of spellcraft, Slate University, 222 Modern-Era

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“You’re getting antsy,” my mom said the following morning, leaning on the counter, a cup of hot chicory in her hands. I looked up at her, my leg bouncing and causing my augpad to wobble, and sighed. 

“I am,” I admitted. “It’s not… I like being home with you.” 

“But you’re ready to get on the move again,” Mom said. “I understand. You’re not meant for the same sort of life I am. You’re like your father in that way.” 

I looked up at her curiously. Mom didn’t talk about my dad all that often. She didn’t avoid the topic of his death, and would even bring it up sometimes, or to tease me, but it was rare that she intentionally broached the topic of what he was like. He’d passed when I was four, so my own memories of him were hazy at the best of times. He had gray-white hair, like my own, and I remembered that it had been long, even though it was medium length in many of the pictures. 

“Your father wasn’t a tamer,” Mom clarified. “If he was, I would have told you about it long ago, when you first started talking about taming semi-seriously.” 

“He worked for Oceanseed, didn’t he?” I asked quietly. She’d mentioned that before, but it had been a while, and I didn’t entirely trust my memories. 

“The Department of Oceanic Restoration,” Mom confirmed. “He traveled up and down the coast, taking samples of water at different times and different spots, gathering data for the brains back in the office and lab. That’s what he always called them, at least.”

I had to stifle a smile at the name, then paused before letting the smile spread across my face. Why would I need to hide it? It was funny, and sounded like the kind of thing I’d say.  

“That was how we met. He came out here to do samples, testing what the tourists did to the water, and looking for spots where people threw glass away,” she continued. “He came out a few times. But even when we got in a relationship, he was similar. He liked his work, and liked to travel. Even visiting the same spot could be interesting to him, somehow. He said something about…” 

She trailed off, staring into the air, trying to dredge up the memories, before speaking slowly. 

“It was something like: You can never really visit the same place twice. It will have changed in little ways. The people, trees, animals, Primals, landscape, they all will have changed in little ways. You just have to know how to look.”

“He sounds wise,” I said quietly, and Mom smiled at me, nodding. 

“He was. But that wanderlust stayed with him for as long as he was… alive. Even after you were born, being anywhere longer than a few months made him want to leave. He always came back, I never doubted that.” 

I smiled and put my Augpad to the side. It was a bit early for lunch, but I was getting snacky, so I pulled my mom into a hug before finding some salted fish and dried apples. Only a few days later, I was called in for the final day of work at the essence heart. Well, my final day of work. There would be other teams that performed checkups to ensure that the transplant didn’t cause any harm in the following months, as well as plenty of work around the village. With the rise in ambient essence, there would be less of a need for the suncatcher panels, and people would want to take advantage. That would keep Yanette’s shop busy, as well as all of the electricians, plumbers, and other tradespeople in town. But the expensive teleportation enchantments would be brought back to Oceanseed’s supply depots after their use today, which made it the last day for guards like me.

The project lead was an older woman named Mikayla, who had hair starting to turn silver that stood out starkly against her dark skin and clothing. She was an exceptionally skilled earth magian, and though she was about level thirty, the four teleporters in the high level fifties all deferred to her without complaint. She’d gathered all of us in the central chamber of the essence heart, and the throng of tamers, magians, and unawakened people was enough to make the room uncomfortably packed. The essence heart next to me was beating faster than normal, as if it was nervous.

“Alright, listen up!” Mikayla said, clapping to gather everyone’s attention. “Today’s the day, people. We’ve got most of the enchantments firing up. Surveyors, how do the readings look?”

A portly young man with thick, wire-framed glasses, gave a thumbs up from where he was examining something on his augpad. 

“The chain of anchors is unbroken, and we’ve got both the primary and backup routes responding at full capacity and charge,” he said. 

“Good. Enchanters?”

A tall, willowy figure nodded, their braids bouncing.

“Machines, link bracelets, connection to anchors. Everything looks good, boss.” 

Mikayla continued down the list of people, calling out different jobs and confirming them, before she finally focused on the guard team.

“Gaurd team! During the chain of teleports, wild Primals in the local area are liable to attack us, thinking we intend to destroy or imprison the heart. It will be your job to fend them off at both stops, as well as our final destination, assuming that we’re not forced to use the backup route. Mind the equipment, and do not – I repeat, do NOT – let your magic spill out into the environment and start wildfires or the like. Try to take it easy on the Primals, if you can. It’s not their fault for mis-reading the situation.” 

She’d given each of us a similar, even more in-depth talk already, in the days and weeks leading up to the teleportation. I assumed this was a last minute reminder, and I could guess who it was targeted to – two of the guards were fire magians, and one was a rare lightning specialist, a lightning magian who also bonded with lightning Primals. None of my Primals were liable to start a forest fire, after all, and the other guards didn’t have any mass destructive abilities that I was aware of, though it was always possible they had a Primal or spell I’d not encountered personally. Most came from Tourmaline City, so I didn’t know them that well.

“Alright everyone!” Mikayla called out. “I want you all at your designated stations if you’re not there already.” 

I started to move to my post, looking for the yellow x chalked on the floor. I’d wanted to stay next to the essence heart as long as I possibly could, since it seemed to like my presence. Working through the crowd of people took me a while, but I eventually managed to get my way onto it. 

“Alright, t-minus sixty seconds!” Mikayla called out. I tensed, and ran my hands over the bracelet that I’d been given. It looked somewhat like a watch, but bigger and chunkier, linked to the machines all around me. Not everyone would be teleporting, essentially any mass that could be spared would be. Even most of the machines would remain here and remotely send the information. The people doubly so. Only the bare minimum of engineers, defenses, and equipment would be teleported. I shifted from foot to foot nervously, looking from side to side, until…

“Three! Two! One! Now!” 

Lights flashed across the entire cavern as the machines lit up. Anima blazed around me as the four teleportation expert magians raised their hands and power erupted from them. Nutty brown, dark turquoise, rich gold, and ruddy lilac light flowed into three dimensional forms so elaborate and complex that they made the few basic spells I knew look like children scribbling in the dirt. I wasn’t entirely convinced that it was one spell, it might well have been a dozen spells working together with just as many purposes. 

Levels and skill were not the same thing. River, as well as most magians, could wield magic significantly more complex than what a Primal of the same level could manage. They might have the same amount of essence packed into their core, but humans had the scholarly intelligence to build and practice complex designs that didn’t exist in nature. But even though there wasn’t a causal relationship between them, there was a corollary relationship. More complicated spells tended to be bigger, with more parts. That meant they needed more anima to shape, and also more anima to fuel them. That was one reason that Primals ousia weaves tended to open to more complex spells as the core grew in size – it was better able to handle the power and costs required to fuel the larger and more complex spells. 

The magians powering this spell were both powerful and skilled. 

Raw essence erupted from the heart, the opalescent white color that it always took on, and it raced through the spells that the magians had laid out. It broke down into anima, the rest of the potential power shedding to nothingness as the null element spells that would stabilize the heart activated. If I were to continue to use the metaphor of a human heart, with the dungeon-like tunnels serving as veins, these spells would ensure it kept beating throughout the teleportation, until it could establish new veins. Hopefully. There was still a slim chance things could go horribly wrong, as there would be with any medical procedure. 

The five colors blazed brightly, and then I had a sudden, gut-wrenching sensation. I’d been teleported by River a handful of times, but it had never been at a distance or scale like this, and I was worried I might lose my breakfast. 

We appeared amongst a bunch of tall, thin reeds, an egret erupting into the sky as we fled. A large spire of techno-enchantments stood like a tree, as tall as any of the mangroves, and–

A cry split the air, and I wheeled to one side. An Aquarb, roughly level six, was charging towards me. Scales materialized in an instant, instantly falling into his battle form, and he used a wave of water from Aqua Fin to knock the Aquarb backwards. He’d put as little anima into the spell as he could without the structure collapsing from insufficient power, but even so, there was a massive disparity of power between them, and it sent cracks through the pneuma of the Aquarb. It seemed dazed, and a thin line of white shot from the heart before it turned and left. To my left, I could hear the crackle of lightning spells going off, before the light flared again. 

We were on sturdier ground now, the mangrove trees lattice of roots so thick and linked that it was almost like a wooden floor. Another tower of techno-enchantments was standing here, glowing, and a large, skink-like wood element Primal known as a Skinkgo leapt at me. My eyes widened for a moment as I considered trying to cast Bond Primal – Skinkgo were uncommon, but very skilled at empowering their teammates with spells. Before I could get the chance, Scales had released another crest of water, knocking the reptilian Primal away, and the essence heart tethered it. A Squarrel leapt at me, and Scales caught it in his teeth, then threw it off to the side, no spell needed. 

The magic sparked again, and we appeared in a hole dug in the ground, clearly meant to be the spot that the essence heart would be able to take over and dig new tunnels. Some of them were already pre-dug, and behind me, I could hear Mikayla’s earth spells crunching. I got lucky this time, no Primals diving at me, but I kept an eye out. The packed earth beneath my feet compressed into tiles then, smoothing out, becoming the recognizable surface of an essence heart’s territory, and I let out a breath. We’d done it.