Part of a series of reference materials recorded for The Order.
Begin transcript
The Mage Academy at Ruuvak Strunmah is very old, the first built after the Great Accord. The Black Mountain, as humans call it, has been a landmark for many millennia. A massive volcano once occupied the spot; Ruuvak Strunmah is the plug left after its fires cooled and the cinder cone was worn away by the elements. In many places, one can see the hexagonal columns typical of this sort of volcanic stone; I believe that here it is called ‘basalt’.
The academy was built on top of, and quite a bit into, this gigantic pillar of very hard black stone. The sides of it are incredibly steep, and the academy was once reachable only by flight. When the academy began accepting non-dragon students, however, a permanent portal was placed at the foot of the mountain, leading to the grounds of the academy proper.
Not surprisingly, a village sprung up around the base of Ruuvak Strunmah - though by now it is more of a thriving city. All sorts of magical goods from the academy are traded there, and this is how it is funded. No one with magical talent or even an interest in magic is turned away... but it is expected that students will contribute in some way. It can be as simple as assisting in upkeep of the facilities, or as complex as scribing scrolls or participating in the creation of wondrous items. Apprentices often gain practice and contribute at the same time by performing cleaning and mending tasks with magic, conjuring water, and similar.
The academy is made up of eight Colleges, one for each generally-accepted school of magic: Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation. There is some disagreement about where certain subschools belong; for example, Conjurers, Evokers, and Transmuters may all lay claim to Healing magic, depending upon how the healing is performed. While most mages find that they naturally gravitate to a particular school of magic, and may find another all but impossible, relatively few will specialize as I have, choosing to forgo training in one or more disciplines in order to concentrate on one in particular. Those that do often become teachers, usually of their chosen school of magic, though of course they may teach any spell that they know. As an example - though I am a Diviner, I often teach the Sealing spell, which is a Transmutation, simply because there is need.
The academy also hosts the largest and most advanced alchemical lab on Un’Lein. While many Alchemists are Transmuters, like my brother, they may study any school of magic, and as such they are sometimes called ‘the ninth college’.
“You’re all very welcome,” Zeklyn said, standing up. He’d get out of her hair and get back to work. He’d taken a nice long break this time. Noone could complain now, “If he wakes up and asks why I didn’t tell him I knew where you were the whole time. Please tell him I’m sorry. Old drow paranoia habits, they’re hard to break.”
“If you need me, I’ll be in the dark corner at the back of the main study hall.”
“I understand,” Liridele told him. “The Order has many enemies, and I’ve had the lecture on ‘social engineering’ tactics. I will explain it to him. Enjoy the quiet.” She smiled. That quality often had her working late as well, aiding her concentration. “Good night, Zeklyn.”
She picked up the bag with Oosha still resting on it; so deeply asleep was the familiar that she did not stir. In the back room, Lorandin was sleeping every bit as deeply as the owl was. This must have been his first chance to let his guard down enough for restful sleep in months.
A polymorph could not hide physical conditions like injury, starvation or exhaustion; one merely became an injured, starved, exhausted version of the polymorphed creature. Her brother’s sleeping face, carefully crafted as they were to resemble each other, showed its ravages all too well with sunken cheeks and temples, deeply shadowed eyes. Under the blanket, his frame was far too thin.
Liridele had been forming a plan ever since speaking with Tatsuya: how she would approach the Academy administration, what defense she would use... and what outcome she would work toward. For sure, the Academy always needed instructors - but in this place, the difference she made was tangible. She could not abandon them now. She was sure that when she explained the situation to Lorandin, he would agree.
She tucked the blanket about her brother more securely, then sat down nearby and opened up a book.
“It sounds fine,” Gris said, tentatively, “I’ll just need to find a hat, or dig out a hooded jacket. To ward off all that sun I’m not used to.” She just had to live in a desert climate, didn’t she? Oh well. “When do you want to go?”
“It’ll be interesting to see where you got your mage blood from.” That’d be a plus, even if she had to stay in J’s shadow the whole time. There was no telling how anyone would react to her the first time.
“Not a lot out there but goats, dust, and little old Native ladies,” J said, laughing. “Maybe some nice silver trade jewelry for Tania. And a whole lotta desert sun."
“I must admit I’m curious, too... but I don’t think that she needs a dragon on her doorstep just yet. And I’m not much for the desert sun, either.” Liridele shook herself a little. Her kind was much more comfortable on a snowy peak.
“If you don’t mind...” Kat began, “do you think she’d be open to sharing some of these ‘folk magic’ practices? Late on, I mean.”
“Oh, probably, she never would shut up about them when I was little.” J snorted. “All right. I’ll give her a call... hopefully I don’t give her a heart attack with the news that I’m actually alive.”
“That’s doable.” Gris was usually up very early anyway, mostly to go through her own workout in the morning. It could be shuffled around if they ended up doing these lessons in the early morning, “I’m not sure how happy you’ll be, waking up to magical theory first thing in the morning, though.”
It was awful to her before she was able to get some compromise out of her first instructor.
J laughed. “Unless you want to wake up at 4:30 in the morning like I do most days... it probably won’t be the very first thing. And I wouldn’t put Kat through that.”
“Thanks,” Kat said, rolling her eyes. “Not all of us are on the polyphasic nap-train.”
“I require very little sleep,” Liridele said, “so I am happy with whatever times you rest of you may choose.”
“All right, then... so what do you think of a little day trip to scenic New Mexico?” J said, looking at Gris. “Vergil has always known where my family is, and has never made a move against them... so I doubt that my visiting raises the risk substantially. Anyway, they’re all too stubborn to move.”
“I was evaluated as a Conjurer immediately, so a lot of my early training revolved around that,” Gris added to the conversation, “Of course there’s my skill in Evocation and most shadar-kai mages at least dabble in Necromancy. I’ve branched out a lot over the years.”
“That would probably be a good idea,” Gris said, pausing as she was going through a list of possible starting points in her head. Ticking them off on her fingers, “Maybe she can tell you about the generations before her too.”
Kat gave J a thoughtful look. “Come to think of it, the tattoos that you seemed to take to the easiest are all what would be considered Evocation spells. But I don’t know if that has more to do with you, or with the way I put them together.” The psychic shrugged.
“There are still a lot of questions here,” J agreed. “All right, then, action items for everyone. Gris and Liridele can come up with a basic training program, Kat and I have to figure out the schedule. It might be ugly-early, because that’s the only time I can guarantee, or it might be a moving target that we allocate per day, a week in advance. Plus we have to make time for individual practice.” She sighed. “What I really need around here is an administrative assistant.”
“How fun!” Gris smiled, rubbed her hands together and looked at Liridele, “We’ll need to figure out where to start and who will be teaching what.” Figuring out a schedule that would work for everyone would probably be the trick. Well, while that’s being sorted out, plans for everything else could be formulated.
“Should probably start with finding the school they have the most affinity with.”
“Of course, my biggest strength is Divination spells,” Liridele volunteered. “But I’m also strong in Evocation and Illusion. I do all right at the rest... but I’m afraid I’m hopeless at Necromancy. No aptitude for it at all.”
“You once said that I seem to have an affinity for Abjuration,” Kat said, and Liridele nodded.
“Yes, your work with the wards would point to that,” Liridele agreed. “Though the rifts and portals would be more in the school of Conjuration.”
“Vergil taught me to make rifts through ritual magic,” Kat said dismissively. “The wards I figured out on my own.”
“Well, at least you all seem very excited about this,” J observed dryly. “Me... well. I think that it might be time to think about getting in touch with my grandmother, don’t you?"
Gris dispelled the illusory creature. No doubt the cat would return to stalk around the room, looking for it’s quarry, “What do you mean? The utility of learning it shouldn’t need demonstration,” Gris laughed, “It should go without saying.”
J snorted. “Of course.” Sure enough, Oolong returned the moment that Liridele’s Unseen Servant let her go, shooting back down the stairs in a black blur, but the scuttling illusion was gone. The cat appeared to regard everyone around the desk with deep suspicion, then jumped up on the couch and began to wash herself.
“All right, all right. I’ll see what I can do to offload a few things and make time.” J ran one hand through her short hair, sighing, then pointed one black-nailed finger at Kat. “But you’re doing it with me. Executive order. I’m not gonna suffer this alone... and every reason given also applies to you.” A little smirk. “After all, you’re technically my second-in-command. You’re the one in the hotseat if something happens to me.”
Now it was Kat’s turn to make a face. “Ugh, don’t remind me,” she said. “Why do you think I spend so much time making sure you don’t die?”
Gris grinned and cast a Ghost Sound and Silent Image spell. In seconds there was a furry creature on J’s desk. It looked like a multi-legged rat with fuzzy scorpion pincers and a naked barbed tail curled forward over it’s back. It squeaked and skittered around on the table, “They aren’t venomous at least, but they do chew on everything.”
“We should try not to let little abominations of transfiguration get out of hand at least…These things breed like mice.”
“Jesus fucking christ!” J’s outburst was probably due less to the amazingly ugly and very lifelike illusion on the desk, and more to the fact that Oolong had suddenly shot out from some hiding place to skid across the glass-topped desk, gleefully chasing the image.
Liridele gestured, and her Unseen Servant spell obediently picked up the cat, slowly carrying the struggling, yowling bundle away across the loft. “Don’t worry, I’m just going to put her upstairs on the bed,” she assured J.
J laughed, gathering the papers that Oolong had scattered. “Gee, it’s almost like you two are intentionally trying to show me the utility of pursuing classical mage training.”
“Working with Liridele has done a lot for me,” Kat volunteered. “And the more you expand your mana pool, the stronger the tattoos your body could handle. I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t do both.”
It really is better suited for teaching small groups,” Gris admitted, but paused and looked at Liridele, “How is your college run? At the mage academy back home things are rather small. I was the only once to join the year I became old enough to make the trip, and there hadn’t been a new apprentice for ten years before I arrived.”
“Generally speaking they’re very careful with newcomers,” Gris paused, this could get really complicated very quickly, “The short version is that a new apprentice is evaluated and assigned to a more experienced mage during the beginning of their time in the academy, and as they get more experience they’re encouraged to do more independent study.”
“Mostly they just end up making groups and sticking together and learning from each other.” She snorted, “Which is probably part of why we have wooly mouse-scorpion hybrids running around the place.”
“Oh! I honestly had not considered that. The population of The Shadowfell is much smaller, isn’t it?” Liridele tugged on her braid, diverting her chagrin. “The Academy of Magery has students from all over Un’Lein, of every race and level of ability. Most are sorcerers, born with magical talent. Some have little or no natural talent, but seek to learn through the path of wizardry and ritual magic. Some are simply interested in studying the history and application of magic, without being mages themselves. And there are many paths of study to be taken; each school of magic has its own College, as well as the College of Alchemists, to which my brother belongs.”
“Since not every mage chooses to be an instructor, we have far more students than we could ever hope to pair up for one-on-one apprenticeships. I often have ten, twenty, or even more students in a single lecture! Because of this, student self-study groups are highly encouraged. But this sort of magical transmission could have real application for students who are struggling and require a little more attention; not everyone learns in exactly the same way, after all.”
She sighed. “And yes, the Academy too is also known for its... unusual fauna. Apprentices will be apprentices... but some of the staff should know better.”
J looked at Kat. “We wouldn’t know anything about that, would we?” She arched a sardonic brow, and Kat laughed.
“The more times we try it, the better. I’ll keep it to cantrips and lower level spells though,” Gris said, thinking about J’s concerns. It wouldn’t be good to accidentally incapacitate someone, so spells like Ice Claw were probably out, “Maybe small things. Like Dancing Lights…Obscuring Mist at the most. Harmless, visible, and they don’t need a lot of mana to pull off.”
She watched Liridele dispel the ice claw, “Good. There was enough of your mana in it for you to control and dispel it, even though you don’t know the spell yourself. If you can feel the process like I can at the same time, then it could be a decent teaching tool too.”
“The trick would be teaching people this technique.” She laughed, “It doesn’t help that I just ‘completed’ this spell recently. There is likely more I can do with it that I’ve put together so far.” The process of writing a new spell, it never ends.
“That all sounds like a safer bet,” J agreed. “I wouldn’t wish what I went through on anyone.”
“I could feel the mana taking shape,” Liridele told the shadar-kai as she seated herself again. “I think it does have a lot of potential to speed up the teaching process. Feeling how the mana is supposed to be shaped as a direct experience seems like it would be much superior to trying to understand it from outside explanation. I’m just curious why this isn’t done more often... well, besides the fact that no mage has the resources to cast a given spell for every single student in a class until they get it right! But it may also be to help keep apprentices and lower-level mages from harm. I can see how directly experiencing a spell of a level higher than their own capabilities could lead to trouble.”
“The temptation to try it for themselves might be too much,” J said, folding her hands. “And the results could be unpredictable, even deadly.”
Liridele nodded. “But I do recognize a need for haste in bringing you up to where you should be. You’ve risked your life many times over to increase your suitability for the position you’ve taken; this should be a small thing by comparison.”
Gris exited Liridele’s shadow and rose back up from the floor into her usual form. She looked at the Ice Claw she’d left in the dragon’s control, “That should dispel in a couple minutes.” She could play around with it for a little while, Gris didn’t think Liridele was likely to hurt anyone with it.
“Well, you were working with your own stunted mana pool when you first got your tattoos, right?” She asked J, nodding at the dancing claw in the air, “That is mostly running off the mana I put into it. There’s just enough of Liridele’s mana to let her control it too…Which is very nice, thinking about it. I’m glad we figured that out.”
“In any case, it’d probably be much less stressful this way than the way you ended up awakening your mana.”
“That and my life-force,” J said ruefully. “I’m sure you can’t open up a mana pool that’s basically been dammed for twenty or thirty-odd years without some consequences... but with any luck, it’ll just be a few headaches or some dizziness.” She eyed the claw as it floated overhead, its fingers walking like a 5-legged spider. “Maybe we should try it on Tania? I’ll ask her about it.”
“Oh, we should see if I have enough control to dispel the effect myself,” Liridele said. She sent the claw back into the open area and concentrated again. The claw paused, then dissolved into tiny fragments of ice that sublimated before they could hit the ground, disappearing in trails of vapor. “No doubt it was also just as strong as if Gris had cast it normally. And as she said, there are times when multiple spellcasters funnel their mana into a single spell.”
“We’ve begun to do that here as well, but not outside of ritual magic,” Kat said. “But this... this changes things quite a bit.” The psychic had a certain far-off look in her eyes, one Liridele had seen before. She was no doubt thinking about all the ways in which R&D could apply this new knowledge.
Gris thought about it for a moment before responding, “There are rituals that require more than one mage to channel their magic into it, and there’s no end to the number of spells used to channel magical effect into inanimate objects. I don’t see why mages couldn’t just channel magic through each other.”
She looked at Liridele, the only non-tattooed mage in the room she could try this with, “We could give it a shot right now, if you don’t mind hearing me in your head for a couple minutes.”
With the dragon’s permission, Gris sank into the floor, a vague shadow that became more distinct once it came into contact with Liridele’s shadow, “Alright, that’s not so bad, is it?” Gris laughed in Liridele’s head, “Just hold out a hand, palm upward and I’ll see about doing the rest.”
When Liridele was ready, Gris began casting an Ice Claw spell. The dragon’s outstretched arm began to look like a thin fog was rolling off it. A moment later a clawed hand, made of white ice began constructing itself, floating a little ways above her palm. Gris made it float away from it’s point of origin and slash at the air, “See if you can make it move, just to say we tried it. Some of your mana is in it too, I’d bet.”
“Why not? Sometimes a trial is worth more than all the theory in the world.” Liridele rose from her chair, straightening her skirt. She watched Gris vanish into the shadows of the floor, then ‘heard’ the shadar-kai’s voice in her head.
“It feels like a Sending spell,” Liridele answered, though of course she had to use her voice. She complied, holding out her hand. She ‘heard’ the words of magic in her head, felt the mana begin to coalesce around her. The power began to focus itself just above her hand, until a big icy claw had been called into being.
“Ohhhh, an Ice Claw. I can’t cast this one yet!” Liridele said, delighted. The claw drifted away and seemed to attack the empty air of the open space above them, clearly under Gris’s control. “I’m certain some of my mana is in it,” she added. “Just a little. I felt the draw when you were casting it.”
She concentrated, getting hold of that little bit of mana. The claw wobbled for a moment, went higher into the air, then lower, opening and closing the ice-fingers. “There we go.”
Kat watched this all with great interest. “So I bet we could try channeling something harmless - a cantrip, say - and use that to detect latent talents.”
J’s brows drew together. “I worry that if the subject has been stunted, calling up their mana could cause some very unpleasant side-effects, like my first tattoos did. Gris tried this with me when the paths were already open for a couple of years."
“You’ve done well so far,” Gris said to Kat, as much as Gris didn’t particularly approve of hedge-wizardry, it was how things went in this world for now. In a few generations it wouldn’t be seen as that anyway…It also helped that she hadn’t been blown up yet, they were at least as careful as they could be, “I’m sure you’ll keep figuring out ways to improve your rituals, and we can all pool our knowledge to make things move along more smoothly.”
She looked at J, “Even if you are going to be upgrading your tatyoos, it couldn’t hurt to try to learn some classical spellcasting. Practicing that will help you work your mana pool too.” Gris smiled. “You could practice with Hatsumi. I’m sure she’d love that.”
J gave the shadar-kai a look that conveyed precisely how un-amusing she found the idea. “Nothing quite like being schooled by an 11-year-old,” she said. “Or with one.”
“But you’re already accustomed to channeling larger amounts of magic through your body,” Liridele pointed out. “And as an adult, it is easier for you to understand abstract concepts, highly technical explanations, and the consequences of misusing your power. It would not take nearly so long for you to advance in spellcasting as it does for a young apprentice. If you can make time for it at all... I truly do recommend an intensive apprenticeship. The more you advance on your own without revisiting the basics, the harder it may be to unlearn habits that could limit you later on. In fact, I would recommend this even more highly than the intensive combat training you’ve recently undertaken.”
J seemed to consider this, then frowned. “Back up a moment. Channeling magic. Can any mage cast through another mage by touch, or are the tattoos what allow that? The one could be useful for scouting out talents, the other is an interesting utility, especially combined with Gris’s shadow-melding thing.”
“It sounds like all the pieces are there then.” Gris sat back in her seat, “You’ve developed a form of magical tattoo that only works for mages, or anyone with a slightly deeper pool of mana.” Obviously it was completely unintentional, but it was interesting.
Gris thought a moment, “There are ways to make magical tattoos that don’t need to be on a mage to work. I’m not entirely sure how they work though.“ Maybe she could get a book on it from someone back home.
“We have other things to worry about now though, don’t we?”
Kat groaned. “Back to the drawing board, then, I guess.” She rubbed a finger over the little pentagram tattoo between her brows.
“I’m sure the solution is similar,” Liridele said encouragingly. “There’s probably just an extra step or two... or a dozen. Ritual magic is like that.”
“So all the pain and migraines and puking and wishing for the sweet embrace of death was just my mana pool trying to bust its way through 30-odd years of repression the hard way?” J tugged at the white forelock at the front of her head, sighing heavily. “And what am I supposed to do about it now? I can’t exactly sit down for an intensive apprenticeship and play catchup.”
“Maybe you don’t have to,” Kat offered. “Maybe this is how you cast spells. I mean, you always have the option of learning classical magic as well, but why wouldn’t we be able to just keep upgrading your tattoos as you expand your mana pool? We have more skilled mages here now, I’m sure we can do better than a bunch of spells retooled from basic grimoires by a hedge-witch.” A self-deprecating laugh.
“My grandmother has about enough talent for magic to help someone heal, or send me a message,” Gris offered, “She mostly heals though, helps the sick and is one of the more relied upon midwives back home. A little magical help goes a long way.” She shrugged, “You’d never know she could do magic at al if she didn’t tell you.”
“As for Kat having less trouble than you with the tattoos…” She thought about it a moment, and looked at Kat, “You’d been doing some magic for a while before the empowered ink was developed, weren’t you? That could have given you an advantage.”
“Yes. Vergil taught me ritual magic, and I learned more spells on my own, from studying a variety of sources. He disdained folk magic... but I found it actually did a lot for me.” Kat gave a sardonic little smile.
“That’s exactly what I mean,” Liridele put in. “Folk magic may be practiced by anyone... but there are often a few for whom it seems to be much more than superstition. This is what keeps it alive. They may or may not be true mages or sorcerers, but they have at least that spark of talent.”
“Tania is like that,” Kat added. “She practices Conjure - essentially Black American folk magic. She also practices actual Voodoo, as in petitioning what we could call extraplanar beings. That is, spirits - ones who have a longstanding relationship with humans."
A little line appeared between J’s brows. “Folk magic. Midwifery. Veladoras. Milagros. Brujeria.” She almost spat the last word. “God fucking dammit.”
“What’s the matter?” Kat asked, looking puzzled.
J sighed. “My grandmother. She was always very superstitious, but that stuff is honestly pretty normal for someone born and raised in Mexico. Always with the charms and the candles and the prayers. Which is why it always seemed strange to me that she’s the one who suggested my name to my mother. I used to think that it was a dig against my mom for getting pregnant so early and unwed. Now I’m not so sure. Was she a devout Catholic... or using the trappings of Catholicism and folk beliefs to cover over something else? Something like, say, witchcraft.”
“Not everyone’s mana pool is the same though. That’s why there are people more suited to using magic than others, ” Gris said, fiddling with her ring, “ I think the ink is fine, and the problem is who you used it on.”
“Your tattoos are probably great for more experienced mages actually,” Gris laughed, “The more you use your mana pool the ‘deeper’ it gets. Like working a muscle makes it stronger.” Maybe she should look into getting one some time, she’d need to wait for a proper occasion to bring it up.
“That’s true,” Kat said, “I have a certain amount of both psychic and magical talent. Therefore, I can use my tattoos much more often than J can, and without the side effects - though it seems that the worst of those have been ebbing over time.”
J tented her fingers, looking at Gris. “If you’re saying what I think you’re saying... well, we don’t really have a way to test for magical ability. Even if we did, something tells me that the inherent magic in the ink might muddy the results on me. I’m R&D’s very own Frankenstein’s Monster.” She snorted.
“We’ve discussed the idea that having so much mana bound up to sustain Limbo could have stunted the natural development of sorcerers,” Liridele said. “Are there any ancestors who might have been like that? Even if it never flowers fully, often there are little signs.”
“I don’t have much reason to suspect that,” J answered. "We’re just a long line line of housekeepers and waitresses as far back as you can go, until I busted out with the ambition to get a CompSci degree. And I suffered a lot of backlash when I first began using the tattoos, while Kat didn’t suffer any at all.”
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