Sebastien
Month 10, Day 3, Sunday 4:30 p.m.
A cloud passed in front of the sun, dropping the small backyard behind Professor Lacer’s cottage into gloom, but a gap in the misty shroud allowed a clear beam of sunlight through, highlighting Sebastien and leaving Professor Lacer across from her in darkness. A chilly breeze carrying the scent of a storm tugged at her clothing, but she was warm from the kinetic spellcasting and didn’t shiver.
The light moved on quickly, and Professor Lacer’s irritated glare matched the intensifying weather. “My expectations will rise to the level of your competence. You may now strive not to disappoint me. I believe that gesturan primer had exercises for all five elements?”
Sebastien gave a cocky smirk and proceeded to show off her control of air, which was aided by her previous practice with the gust, fabric-slicing spell, and similar exercises from Professor Lacer’s class. Gesturan spellcasting might be wildly different from modern sorcery, but the Will was universal. However, it wasn’t until she got to radiance, which she saved for last, that she really got to show off. She had spent more time practicing with light and darkness than anything else.
Radiance was a fascinating element, especially for the fact that this magic was not just about light, but also cleanliness, healing, and even knowledge. She guessed it was an example of the common consciousness affecting how magic worked, though it was also possible that the Plane of Radiance had affected people’s understanding of light, rather than the other way around.
As all of this ran through her mind, a spark that had been ruminating in the back of her head flared to life. “Going back to our earlier topic, I had another idea about why societal systems fail! Lack of education doesn’t just make people unimaginative. It makes people earn less and die sooner, which is also a problem for the entire country, because our economy is fueled by the collective productivity of our citizens. Did you know, a few hundred years ago, the common people didn’t know that infections could be spread by not washing their hands. But that knowledge had been ‘discovered’ as far back as the time of the Council of Aquila, before Myrddin! Plenty of people knew about it, and we’ve developed soap more than a thousand years before that. Why is it only recently that contagion theory became common knowledge?”
Sebastien channeled her frustration into her Will, forcing the glowing ball of Radiance floating between her hands into a smoother, more uniform sphere. Light particles took up no space, hypothetically, so the only limit here was on how much her Will could control. The sphere quickly grew so bright that she could see it even with her eyes closed, and she felt the warmth of it on her skin, as if she held a miniature sun. Her shadow could sense the vivid blaze sending a dark silhouette stretching dramatically back into the distance behind both her and Professor Lacer.
He closed his eyes but remained relaxed, one hand loosely cupped as if ready to catch a ball. “Did you know that when the Blood Emperor was trying to spread that knowledge, there was a faction of healers that refused to believe it and even secretly continued to work with dirty hands?”
“Because the source of the information was unpleasant?” Sebastien guessed.
“According to the confession one of them made on his deathbed, after years of data had been accumulated on the outcome and he could no longer deny the truth, it was because he couldn’t bear the idea that he had been killing his patients by accident for so long.”
Sebastien’s mouth fell open. “But if he refused to believe it and kept acting in the same manner, then doesn’t that mean he was just killing even more of them?”
Professor Lacer gave her a flat stare. “That is why it is so important to lean into uncomfortable truths, to twist the knife of inquiry in the places that hurt most.”
She was silent for a moment as she shot the razor-thin disk of light forward.
Just before it exploded, Professor Lacer caught it in a sphere of darkness that snapped shut like some ambush predator’s maw. “Very good. Not as strong offensively as the dazzler, but you continue to show an impressive aptitude with light.”
She smirked. “So what’s the point of all this talk about corruption and selfishness?”
“You agreed that others understand that we are all harmed when any part of our mutualistic society flounders. Since improving improperly optimized or broken systems would be a clear net benefit, consider what we’ve discussed and summarize what has caused us to neglect them? Why do we seem to be stuck with the status quo?”
As she reviewed the conversation and came up with a few extra ideas of her own, she suspected she understood why he had brought up this seemingly unrelated topic in the first place.
“We’re stuck with this broken world because people are selfish, and those who would benefit from fixing this do not have the power to do so, while those who have the power have no incentive. Because those who make decisions for the masses have one or many reasons not to change things. Because people aren’t educated enough to imagine what they should change or understand how to force it. Because lots of small problems within every subsystem add up to a very complex organism of interlocking interests and benefits that can contradict each other and, at scale, it becomes too hard for people to coordinate to fix things. Because people with the knowledge and power to address a problem often also have the resources to fix it for themselves…after which selfishness comes into play, and they no longer have any incentive to solve it for everybody else as well.” Professor Lacer raised one eyebrow but remained silent, so she continued. “Because sometimes it hurts too much to face the truth.”
She pressed her lips together for a moment, hesitating, then said. “All of those reasons are why the Red Guard, whose purpose is supposedly to save the world and is filled with many of the best, brightest, and most altruistic individuals, still becomes twisted by corruption over time.”
Professor Lacer stared back at her for a long moment as the wind tugged at his hair, then simply said, “Yes.” He raised a forefinger. “But you forgot one reason.”
She waited.
He turned to look south, toward the city. “Because the average person just isn’t that smart and, by definition, half the population is below average.”
Sebastien cringed. “Even in the Red Guard?”
He shrugged and looked back over his shoulder at her. “It could be said that someone has to be fairly stupid to agree to join such an outwardly altruistic, self-sacrificing, deadly profession.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Or they’re self-confident and willing to take risks to have access to the kind of knowledge and power they can’t get elsewhere.”
He chuckled. “Sure. But in case you were considering it, I would advise against joining.”
“You haven’t found it worthwhile?” She stepped forward to stand beside him.
He hesitated. “I would not say that. But there is no need for you to follow in my footsteps. Let us leave it there. We have more immediately relevant things to focus on.” He reached into an inner pocket of his long jacket and pulled out what looked like an obsidian tube. “Show me your progress with the dazzler.”
Sebastien looked to the sky above, which was blanketed in thick grey and purpling clouds. These were not optimal conditions to cast the dazzler, which worked best under a clear sky at night, as its power was pulled from starlight, theoretically. But stars were there whether they could be seen or not, the sun was also a star, and as Professor Lacer had reminded her when he taught the spell, it was the mind that saw light, not the eyes. They were only messengers, as well as—with the right mindset—tiny windows into the body.
She placed her hands together, palms angled out, and spoke the chant slowly, allowing the power to build in each firefly-like spark. She hesitated, but then repeated the chant for a third time. Too many repetitions made the release of power more dangerous, but three was a more stable number than two when it came to magic. While the first branch of her Will worked on keeping the spell stable and gathering energy from the sky, the sound of her voice, and the heat between her hands, the second branch turned toward the transmogrification-based ideas of light and tried to push them to their theoretical limits. In addition to the base structure of the spell, which relied on the idea of luminous whispers, dancing stars, and dreams of light, she pulled on concepts of piercing, cleansing, and even vaporization—she had seen one of the upper-level professors burn through a sheet of metal with an extremely energized beam of light during one of the University exhibitions. She wanted to impress.
When she was ready, she turned her hands up toward the sky and released a beam of green light that cut through the air and the clouds beyond, which glowed like giant bioluminescent mushrooms. She frowned up at them as she dropped her hands. What she could do was still nothing compared to Professor Lacer’s initial demonstration of this spell. If he was a tree branch, then she was a spring twig.
“Your competence has increased adequately,” he said. “I believe you are ready to explore a more advanced application.”
Sebastien pressed her lips together to keep excited questions contained. Professor Lacer had previously hinted to her—when she was Siobhan—that with the relevant components, the dazzler could be turned into a memory-erasing spell. One less invasive than what Thaddeus had used on her, she hoped.
He handed her the obsidian tube with the kind of gravitas that suggested there was something amazing inside.
She took it respectfully, and after a moment of inspection, unscrewed the top to reveal something shining bright, white, and somehow clean within. It was a feather. Gingerly, she pinched the keratin shaft and pulled it out, almost unable to look away from its radiant beauty.
“You should know by now that components from the Plane of Radiance can be used in cleansing spells. Of course, this is an extravagant waste if you merely need to make your bathroom sparkle like new. But if you’re in need of a completely sterile environment for medical or research purposes, it can make sense.”
Sebastien nodded. “But you’re not giving this to me so that I can start cleaning things with the dazzler, right? Because then there would have been no point teaching me about the mind’s perception of light rather than physical illumination. Can this do something to your thoughts?”
Professor Lacer stared at her blankly, then twitched his mouth with displeasure. “I had a whole speech planned. But yes, in conjunction with the dazzler, this can, ‘Do something to your thoughts.’ Several things, but the one you will be focusing on is a simple erasure. Think of it like erasing the pencil marks off a piece of paper, returning it to its original pristine state. This technique works only on very recent memories and cannot target anything specific. The target will see a blinding flash, and once their vision returns, they will have lost the last two to twenty minutes. The duration depends on the strength of your magic. The completeness of the erasure depends on the clarity and forcefulness of your Will. Do you have questions?”
She had so many. “If I do this wrong, will it harm the target?”
“Of course. You are tampering with their mind. If you are incompetent or act with malicious intent, you can cause horrible injury or wreak havoc. But as long as the clarity and direction of intent are correct, the damage you can do is minimal. At worst, they might have trouble remembering new things for several days to a month. Or, if you use too much visible light, you might burn out their retinas. I would not teach this to you if I thought it likely you would go around botching it. Or using it recklessly, outside of dire need,” he added with a warning tone.
“I would not,” she assured him gravely.
“Be that as it may, we will now practice to ensure I am not unleashing a hazard onto the world. You will be allowed to cast this on your own only when I am satisfied.”
“Practice on…”
“Fellow students who have foolishly stayed at the University over the break,” he said, deadpan. When her eyes widened, he stared up at the sky as if pleading for patience. “No, you idiot. We will practice on a mouse.”
Sebastien hesitated, but nodded. After what had been done to her, it felt strange to be learning this spell. But mice were better than raccoons, pixies, or ravens. And it wasn’t as if she could reserve any practice until she met an enemy. Still, an undeniable stone of guilt bubbled in her core like an angry potion. It wasn’t enough to stop her. ‘I am not a good person,’ she confirmed again. ‘But I will try to be no worse than I need to be.’
She followed Professor Lacer back into his cabin, where he retrieved two boxes with glass lids from the back room. Inside one was a mouse in a small habitat, with a small door that could be lifted to allow the creature free. Inside the second was a spell array and a small enclosed platform. On this platform, Professor Lacer placed a tiny glob of something brown and sticky. “Sweetened peanut butter,” he explained. “Mice love it.”
After connecting the two boxes, he twitched a finger and lifted the small door leading from the mouse’s habitat to the room with the peanut butter. The mouse came out curiously, and after a couple minutes of exploration and hesitation, finally took the peanut butter, which was about the size of one forepaw.
Sebastien imagined she could see the ecstasy on the small creature’s face as it ate.
Professor Lacer ushered the mouse back into its habitat, placed another dab of peanut butter, and then cast a spell.
This time, the mouse went straight for the treat, but was shocked as the small platform exploded with fire-like burst of light and a tiny tentacle-monster that screeched terrifyingly.
The mouse tripped over itself trying to get away and ran into the wall beside the small door, then hid, trembling, inside its nest.
“A predator, loud light and noise, and the smell of lynx piss,” Professor Lacer said as he closed the door and reset the trap again. “It will remember, even when I remove all physical traces of what just happened, including any lingering scent of the predator.”
Sure enough, when he opened the door a third time, the mouse showed absolutely no inclination to explore.
“Make it forget what happened,” he ordered simply.
According to what he’d said, every moment she waited made it slightly harder, but Sebastien still took a couple of minutes to gather together every memory and all her understanding of the concept that would work here. ‘A spotless, light-filled mind.’ She imagined that empty, Radiant-element room the Pendragon Corps had put her in. ‘How lucky that I have such pertinent experience, ready-made! It’s almost as if they were doing me a favor, though they didn’t know it.’
She tried to make her concept gentler than that, a soft wash of light that was as soothing as it was stringent, that took away only the most recent memories—ones that hadn’t settled yet—and left behind a space that was clean and whole, but empty.
Then, she pressed her forefingers and thumbs together, palms facing outward to create a spade-shaped “Circle”, and began to chant. She spoke with languid slowness, not allowing any tension into her voice or body, in the hopes that this serenity would seep into the spell. Finally, she lowered her hands to the top of the glass and released the beam of light at the mouse, not forgetting the backing pane of darkness within the Circle that kept her from sharing any of the effects.
The creature had no chance to resist.
Afterward, she stared at it intently, trying to deduce the effect.
The mouse came out of its little nest, sniffed around, and went to drink some water.
When Professor Lacer lifted the door, it seemed somewhat hesitant, but still exited into the adjoining room, and, after a while of hesitation—as if perhaps some remnant of caution still remained—it took the peanut butter and darted away. Only after returning to its little habitat and hiding in the corner did it eat.
“Success on your first try,” Professor Lacer said, expressionless. “Have you cast memetic spells before?”
“…No? And does it count as success? The mouse was still wary. Obviously, it still had some instinct about the danger,” Sebastien pointed out.
“Memory work is difficult. You should see the results some of the Red Guard agents in training get when they cast their first memetic spells.” He straightened, returned the mouse to the back room, and returned with another. “Let us repeat the process.”
The feather had lost a few barbs, but at this rate, she could probably cast the spell a hundred times before using the whole thing up. This time, she didn’t need to spend as much time preparing her intent. After being traumatized and having its memory erased, the mouse still didn’t approach the peanut butter without worry. It took almost seven tries for a mouse to show the same response after erasure as it did beforehand.
When that happened, Professor Lacer scratched his beard thoughtfully. “How is your Will? Any signs of strain?” When she confirmed she was fine, he said, “It seems I was underprepared. Let us try something bigger, with a more complex mind. I will return soon.” Then he left her alone in his cabin.
Sebastien had to dig her short nails into her palm to suppress the urge to snoop around while he was gone. ‘Some knowledge is dangerous to hold,’ she reminded herself. ‘If you can’t protect yourself, better not to be greedy.’ So she browsed his bookshelf and found a book about ancient languages, which she read until he returned.
He was carrying two metal cages, each holding drakes. The creatures, which looked like nothing so much as house-cat sized dragons, extended the spiky frill around their heads and hissed out air so hot that it caused a swirling visual illusion, but didn’t manage to catch anything on fire. “Borrowed from the magizoology class. We must return them intact.”
Professor Lacer created a larger version of the mouse’s habitat and trap setup with a much larger enclosure that he built on the spot and which took up most of his living room. Of course, the peanut butter was replaced with some fresh organ meat.
After he frightened one drake, Sebastien pushed her thaumic capacity to the limit while gathering power. What was enough for a mouse probably wouldn’t even faze a magical beast—even a small one. Drakes were powerful and intelligent enough to be familiars, after all.
The results were even worse than the response she’d gotten from that first mouse. The drake wouldn’t even eat the piece of warm liver sprinkled with salt that Professor Lacer had left. Sebastien’s only consolation was that the beast didn’t huddle away and hide, and was at least willing to explore the trap room.
‘There’s no way this would work on a human,’ she admitted unhappily.
Unlike with the mice, Professor Lacer took out a second glowing feather and cast his own memory-erasing dazzler on the drake and then switched it out with the other “while it recovered.”
They switched back and forth like that for hours, with him cleaning up after her, until the sun had long stopped shining through the windows. The drakes must have been very confused to have lost several hours. Little by little, she did manage to improve, but with frustrating slowness. Sebastien wanted to keep going, but Professor Lacer stopped her.
“You have been casting for almost five hours. This is a very strenuous spell. You have already reached basic competence, and I authorize you to use this spell if you are ever in need. Though you should still prioritize calling on me for help,” he added. “Take time to ruminate on the spell, the concepts underlying it, and perhaps do some research or have some new experiences that might help support your understanding. Practical casting is critical, but theory also has its uses, and will not lead you to Will-strain.”
Reluctantly, Sebastien sealed away the half-used feather. “Even if I tried, would this even do something to a human? To a thaumaturge?”
“Why would it not?”
“Because I’m so unskilled and so weak? I can barely manage to cleanly erase ten minutes from these drakes.”
With one finger, Professor Lacer scratched the side of his jaw, but he didn’t respond at first. “You may be under a misconception,” he said finally. “Once you get past the barrier of the skin, as long as their Will isn’t prepared ahead of time and actively contesting yours, the spell should still work. It’s too instant to fight against otherwise. Humans aren’t as inherently magical as elementals or the more dangerous magical beasts. And that’s nothing at all compared to Aberrants. At your current level, you could erase five minutes, or two minutes, from a random thaumaturge. You would need to act quickly.”
That was better than she had imagined. Perhaps she had been underestimating the drakes. Still, that window of action was too small. “I’ll keep working to improve,” she promised.
Professor Lacer muttered something about “monster” as she reached the front door and turned to wave at him, but when she gave him a questioning expression, he scoffed and shooed her out with a flapping motion that reminded her far too much of Liza.
Author Note:
Edit 7/15 Next Chapter Release Update: It'll be out on Friday (July 17) instead of Thursday. The writing is going well, just slow, and I was delayed a day doing research and re-reading what I'd written and plotted to make sure I wasn't either repeating things or introducing plot holes.
The chapter should come out at the standard time, between 5-7pm Mountain Time.
Weekly chapter discussion on the Alcove: https://alcove.azaleaellis.com/t/chapter-294-radiant-feather/948
Also if any of you want the ebook of PGTS1: COR and don't already have it, it's free on Amazon for the next couple of days.
I don't have anything left in the tank right now and have to go rest, but I plan to be back next Thursday with another chapter.