The Third Step: Chapter Eight

The following morning, after eating at the ship’s attempt at a breakfast scone, Kene headed to their room to work on ingraining the last few spells they needed before they could work on breaking into peak fourth gate. The soul array had helped strengthen their spirit, and their advancement had outstripped the hag’s, helping keep them fairly stable, but Kene wasn’t planning to slow down and let the hag catch up. 

Dusk and Dawn, having finished their stone project, were now turning back to their own advancement. Dawn had essentially skipped the training period for her entire third gate, and Dusk had also advanced rapidly, so both of them were focusing on smoothing out their skills and getting a handle on their spellcraft. Dawn’s ability to send harvesting crystals into other people’s bodies and spirits was more than a little useful in a fight, as was her Tyrant’s Breath, but she needed to actually learn to use them. 

While they did that, I worked with Orykson. 

“I have been told of your plan to take a variation on Cwn Anwnn’s Hunt,” Orykson said, speaking the instant he arrived. “It’s not a bad plan, though it’s not what I would have done.” 

“I’ve drifted rather far afield from what you would have done.” 

“I noticed,” he responded dryly. “Regardless, it’s suitable for a beast mage such as yourself, but between it, your two new fungal spells, and your soulgaze spell, I’m not going to be teaching you any more death spells. You’re already approaching the point of running out of space.” 

“That’s fair, as long as I’m not missing out on anything important.” 

“Yes and no. The Hunt spell should be a suitable replacement for Empower Ghostly Domain. The domain spell improves the ghost’s legacy in addition to the dominion. It’s a fair trade off.” 

I nodded my head and teleported a foot to the left, then a foot to the right of where I’d started, then back to where I was. 

“I assume that you’re here for spatial tutoring, then?” 

Orykson raised an eyebrow in an unimpressed motion, and my tail thrashed a little. 

“I am,” he relented. “I would advise you to seek out a colony of portal-ants once you’ve removed the hag, and study under them, but as there are not any that you can reasonably spend time with for quite a while, I have prepared some introductory materials for you to work on.”

I perked up at that. Portal-ants were the foundation of Edgar’s gates, and those were quite effective, even if they did take maintenance. Before I could say anything, though, Orykson’s eye slid to the side. Jinwei suddenly appeared in his hand, thrashing and trying to bite him.

“You’re not going to stand a chance against Chen Liyu if you spend your time snooping on spatial magic lessons, instead of training,” Orykson said. His voice was flat, but I had known him for years now, and I caught the faint traces of amusement hidden beneath. 

“Oh come on!” she said. “Your simulacrum just kicks me around then sends me back to the elixir fountain or to sleep off mana toxin.” 

“Simulacra. Singular,” Orykson said, then tossed her into the air. I caught only the briefest flicker of his magic as he teleported her back. 

“What’s an elixir fountain?” I asked. 

“A drink fountain that dispenses various elixirs, rather than soda or energy drinks,” Orykson said. “It’s how I train my competitors for the tournament. But we should get back to work.”

“Right… Portal-ant spells?” 

“The first is known as Antburden,” Orykson agreed, passing me a sheet of paper. I studied it for a moment. 

“It diminishes the magical ‘weight’ of transporting yourself,” I said. “I can see how that’s super useful when moving an entire colony of third gate ants, but – oh! It can be cast onto anything with a spatial anchor in it?” 

“Exactly,” Orykson said, nodding. “Are you certain that you don’t want to learn spellform design?” 

“Maybe – I’m gonna have to modify Cwn Anwnn’s hunt to fit in my death gate. But it’s not a career for me.” 

Orykson’s eye twitched to demonstrate his annoyance, and I flashed him the broadest grin I could. He met my gaze with a level stare, and then continued as if I hadn’t spoken at all. 

“It should be a useful meta spell to assist you with your combat style,” he said. “Reducing the metaphysical weight of your plants for attack, as well as bringing others along in your burgeoning portal network. Which brings me to the second spell: Stone Gate.”

As he spoke, he passed me another paper. I stared at it, blinking and trying to parse what exactly the spell did, then shook my head. 

“I don’t get it. It’s an anchor, designed to anchor to something that I’m guessing is close to the Spatial Anchor. It’ll have overlap enough to work, like how Foxstep works with Analyze Space, or you wouldn’t have shown me, but other than that, I don’t get it.” 

“That’s because it’s an automated enchantment,” Orykson said, and I would have sworn there was a note of smugness in his voice. “It’s a bit finicky, but it’s also something that is going to become vital if you continue to work on building an international portal network.”

He flicked his hand and the illusion of a paired set of stone arches appeared. 

“The spell requires a physical stone or crystalline archway to act as the physical medium, and a teleportation platform to serve as the magical medium. Certain types of telluric-rich wood, such as ironwood, can also be used. Once you have two established, teleport between them, and the spell weaves threads of space, causing them to become linked to one another.” 

I made a mental note to see about acquiring some ironwood trees, since that would be the most reasonable material for me to build into an archway. 

“Note that I said teleport between them, not cast a teleportation spell. Even things like a spatial elemental using their dominion to teleport is able to activate the enchantment, meaning it should work quite well with Dusk’s claiming of territory and forcible restructuring of the spatial wave to open passages through her realm.”

He waved his hand, and both the illusionary stone arches flashed with the golden light of Dusk’s portals. 

“The basic spell sharply reduces the cost to teleport between those points, as well as creates a mana reservoir that can be used to power the teleportation. It’s reservoir slowly recovers, and if you learn proper enchanting, it’s possible to add mana taps, to let others power the network, as well as specific designations to allow others to activate the teleportation.”

“That increases the strain on it, and would require me to constantly work to upkeep the enchantments, though, right?” 

“It does. It would require repairs every time someone else used it, though that would be mitigated as you advance. Edgar, for example, can manage several hundred teleports before upkeep is needed, which is why he was able to maintain a portal network on Crysite. I suspect, once Dusk is able to manifest an Authority, that should limit the amount of damage any of her guardians do.” 

“So it’s like a worse version of the stones she’ll be able to create?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Those are mobile, and don’t require constructing an arch.” 

“They also don’t reduce the cost of the network, nor do they store mana to allow it to be activated later. Don’t mistake me, the stones are quite useful, and I’ve no doubt she’ll produce a handful of mobile waystations. But you are missing out on one of the most important parts – the spell weaves threads of space together.” 

I frowned, trying to figure out what he meant, and he sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. 

“Currently, Dusk is trying to brute force that task with a dominion only partially suited to it,” he explained. “With this spell, you can significantly reduce the strain each point puts on her. Even casting it at third gate, you can effectively half again the number of portals she can maintain. If you became an Arcanist, you might be able to double or more the size of the portal network.” 

“Ah,” I said. “Yeah, okay, that’s… fair. I’ll definitely work on it. What do each do when they’re ingrained, though?” 

“The Stone Gate increases the power of your Spatial Anchor, which given that improves all spatial magic, is rather potent. Antburden improves your body’s ability to align its internal spatial weave with teleportation, to better resist or improve the effects.” 

“Both useful,” I agreed, quickly casting Antburden, then sketching Stone Gate. I technically could have shaped it with mana thanks to Beast Mage’s Soul, but it was so complex that it was easier to just sketch. 

“Your final spell is one that I’m only able to cast in conjunction with Aerde,” Orykson said, handing me a third sheet of paper. “Thanks to your full-gates and your growth item, it should just be within the range of your ability to cast.” 

He handed me a spell that clearly incorporated heavy elements of knowledge mana, as well as spatial mana. I looked it over, then, once I thought I’d put together what the spell did, I spun up a spatial anchor, activating an internal function I thought was relevant, and cast the new spell. 

Just as I’d suspected, my mana senses began to pulse from the anchor, and I got a sense of space around it. Orykson’s lips quirked up in a smile, and he nodded. 

“Well done. Your ability to connect to an anchor is variable, depending on your personal sensory ability, as well as the amount of power placed into the anchor. At your advancement, with a standard anchor, I could connect to them within just shy of ten miles when I infused resonance into my senses. My spellforms were also much worse quality – I expect you to be able to manage thirty or so if you can match my skill in infusing resonance into my senses.” 

“Less power makes the anchor more subtle, but shortens the range?” I asked, and he nodded. 

“Exactly. Furthermore, with your connection to Dusk’s realm, I expect you to be able to activate and spy through all of your existing gateways. They do have large amounts of spatial anchors, after all.” 

I didn’t love his use of the word spy, but I nodded my agreement. He then tucked his hands behind his back and looked me up and down. 

“Even as hired help by your mentor, there is a limited amount I can do to train you in direct combat skill for the tournament. With that said, there is absolutely one skill you have access to that you are underutilizing.”

He took in a slow, long breath, then let it out. I stared at him, unsure what he meant. 

“Breathing. When I was your age, I had used Create Spatial Pocket to create a large tank of fresh air, tied to a spatial anchor I placed within my throat.” 

“Gross,” I said, imagining him shoving his fingers down his throat in order to place the anchor. 

“Don’t be a child. I also had created several pockets for specialized enchanted gear and weaponry, to work in conjunction with my Bone Spear spell and to act as specialized ammunition for Pinpoint Boneshards.” 

He held up his hand placatingly. 

“You have Dusk, I am aware of that. But you should learn to draw air in from her realm, in order to evade aerosolized poisons, and to serve as a source underwater. You should also create potion pockets. Teleporting vials from your workshop inside of Dusk is fine, but also a waste of glass. You could pour the potion directly into a spatial pocket, and then use Reposition Anchor to pour it directly on their heads, no need for a vial.” 

The glass for my potion vials wasn’t that expensive, but I did take his point. It was a minor waste, and could be a good surprise tactic if Dusk and I were ever separated, or if I was in a position I couldn’t call from her realm. 

“That’s what we are going to work on for the next hour,” Orykson said, nodding. He snapped, and suddenly he was floating above the ocean, while I fell into the choppy waves. “Beginning now.”