Dream Magic: Awakenings (6 page)

Dangling thoughts had to go, burned away by the fire. Producing a thought only gave the inferno something to burn. As his concentration became more and more focused, his self-awareness allowed only two things to exist in his universe: breathing and movement. Breathing in and out was the only thing that assured Eric of his own consciousness. Distance was the other thing he was acutely aware of - every small movement had its cost and consequence on the 'self' which was burning away.

Going forward, his immense focus turned into something else. Breathing, his only confirmation of self, turned into a bright flame. Distance and resistance became not an obstacle, but a fuel for the fire that was now him.

He let the bright flame from within ablaze and burned away the illusive flames of the fire pillar.

Eric opened his eyes and saw that he was standing in the middle of the circle. The pebbles felt cold beneath his feet. The dance of flames around him had a magical motion, a magical tune to it. Yet, there was no fire other than his own.

With measured steps, Eric walked out of the circle, holding in his awareness the fiery shape of his own will. No thoughts or emotions were left dangling.

* * *

"That was totally irresponsible! Why did you allow them to rush in unprepared like that?" Annie was furious.

"I mentioned it's best to make a few circles and back down, but..."

"Mentioned?! You think mentioning something in passing will help them make an informed decision?!"

"If you put it like that, I guess not, but kids who find this place on their own are ready to..."

"But they didn't find it on their own, did they? They were led by fire-dominant brats to whom such attunement is trivial. Even if it weren't so, this careless behavior of yours-"

Ohlson held up one hand. "All right, I get it. I'm truly sorry. I made a mistake." He took a breath. "What can I do to help?"

Annie opened her mouth to continue the scolding, but several seconds passed before she said anything. "I'll get Rose out of the fire and figure out what to do next."

"Wait! She's already halfway through. Perhaps she'll back down on her own, and if she doesn't, yanking her out forcefully will cause more complications than letting her complete."

Annie nodded reluctantly. "You're right. Then... I'll go look for Joe or Maeve, they'll know what to do. Since you're better with fire than I am, help Eric get rid of excess energy. Okay?"

"Yes."

Eric heard the dispute, and watched Annie depart. He was sitting on the bench Ohlson brought him to after helping him out of the fire.
Or did I walk out by myself?
Eric wasn't sure. He was feeling very powerful, but also exhausted and frail. It was like there were two or more of himself, moving within him at different speeds. They were telling him to
move move move
, but all he wanted was to sit still in silence. His head felt like the different versions of him were trying to break out, and he winced with pain.

"Can you stand?"

"I think so. What was that about?"

"Annie can be overprotective at times, and I should have prepared you more. Don't worry about it. You're not the first to complete fire attunement in one go, and you won't be the last either. But, there are unwelcome consequences and we should try to get you through as safely as possible."

Eric stood up slowly. He was hoping the sharp pain would stay away if he made no sudden movements.

"Let's go with the traditional fireball first. We start with an air-based magic sphere, like this." A magic sphere appeared in Ohlson's hand. "Next, we push our fire into it and let the sphere carry it away. Watch - I'll do it slowly."

Ohlson stepped back with one foot and drew the hand holding the sphere close to his body. Flames glowed inside the center of the sphere and began growing. Ohlson stepped forward, turned his palm outwards and pushed the sphere away with both his hands. The flames intensified and the fireball floated away with moderate speed. It had a short, flaming tail. After traveling some distance without hitting anything, the flames burst up and dissipated.

"Well, that's the traditional spell. A moderate amount of fire energy is externalized in raw form, using only a modest air-based sphere for containment. Once the containment is removed or broken, the raw energy transfers in an impact or disperses. You try it now."

Eric stepped back with right foot and drew his right hand close to the side of his body.

"Bend your knees just a little bit; you want to be alert and flexible. Yes, that's right."

Eric willed a magic sphere to appear in his hand. It was a bit wobbly, with blue and red hues.

"Good enough. Now, the fire you feel inside - push it into the sphere and let it fly away from you."

Eric stepped forward, backed his right hand with his left, and let go of some of the tension he felt inside. The sphere became crimson red, turned inside-out, and a multitude of flames sprayed forth from Eric's hand. The release felt good and relieved some of his mental burden.

"Well... the bad news is, that's a very lousy fireball." Ohlson put on a frown. "The good news is, it's a decent flame jet spell for a beginner, it just needs a bit more direction. The externalization of the fire element went well; that means your elemental balance will stabilize if we get you exhausted. A flame jet is a very fire-intensive spell used in close-combat; unfortunately, it's also less versatile than a fireball."

Eric nodded. A part of him knew exactly what Ohlson was talking about.

Ohlson thought for a bit. "Perhaps we should try a spell which uses water for containment? For example, the traditional energy beam. Hmm... This one is quite tricky to do slowly, pay attention."

Ohlson raised his hand, palm facing outward. A magic sphere appeared in front of the hand. The point closest to his palm pushed into the sphere, turned it into a donut, looped around, and became sphere just a little bit farther away. The sphere once again turned into a donut, looped back into a sphere, and so on. It reminded Eric of those airplanes that break the sound barrier, but here it was done repeatedly and periodically, with a rhythm of its own.

Ohlson sped up the process. Waves appeared, then a shining energy beam burst forth from his hand in a straight line, inclining only slightly.

Eric clapped his hands. "Awesome!"

"Did you see how I did it?"

"Sort of."

"In this case, fire is not contained in a fixed shape, but in a repeated, self-propagating motion. The spell creates its context through which the fire moves. By changing the type of energy you run through the center of it, this spell can be used as a conduit in complex spells, or serve as a basis of many other beam type spells. For example, by making slight changes to curvature and quantity, we get the subcategory of magic missile type spells. Give it a try... maybe the water element works better for you."

Eric closed his eyes, took a breath, then opened them again. He tried to mimic Ohlson's stance, but realized Ohlson wasn't using one this time.

"It's okay, take your time."

Eric raised his hand, his palm facing away from him. A wobbly, crimson-dyed magic sphere appeared. It turned on itself, as before with the attempted fireball, and sprayed forth flames. However, the fire subsided and resurged several times - like his hand was vomiting flames.

Ohlson laughed. "All right, that was even worse than before! Water isn't your strong suit, but you sure have a lot of fire in you! On the bright side, you might have just invented a jet pulse spell... although I have no idea what it might be good for."

Eric smiled awkwardly. He cast his head down and looked at his toes.

"Don't worry, control will come easier with practice. Let's stick with the flame jet then, we'll get to a fireball eventually. Try to keep the jet within an imaginary arc. Even if this isn't the best way to train, we have to get rid of the excess fire energy."

Eric assumed the stance, and repeated the moves. The result was the same too.

"Good, take a few breaths and do it again."

It was discouraging that he couldn't make a proper fireball, but Eric didn't have the time, energy or presence of mind to spare on failure. He did his best to let go of his expectations, and focused on practice.

"Again."

He repeated the process several times. Although the result was no different, he was getting the hang of it.

"Good, again."

As Eric practiced, more and more of the fire left him, and he recognized just how feverish he was feeling. He was tired, but there was still enough fire to mask the fatigue and push him forward.
I'm parched...

"May I have some water?" Eric asked. "I could drink a lake..."

Let's skew the air / earth continuum and take a slice of it. Then, we could say that the earth element is that which has more form, while the air element that which has less form. However, there's much more to it than quantitative differentiation. Form is not simply discrete - there is always the interplay between form and awareness. When approaching either extreme, one splashes over into the other: much like background becomes foreground or existence becomes distinct from non-existence.

The attitude which takes the polarized extremes of the sliced view, puts them into boxes with markings such as 'matter' and 'dimension', and sweeps everything in-between under the rug is... questionable, and at times indicative of loss of mental function.

Such a view might be acceptable to a bored philosopher or a young mage on the hunt for limitations. For a physicist it's borderline idiotic; even medieval cartographers at least marked where the dragons are. For an elementalist, ignorant hauteur is outright dangerous: scientists may tend to go insane, but hardcore elementalists often skip that step and go straight to being vegetables.

- Form, Function, and the Four Elements,
Dreamer's Handbook

"What a sorry bunch - it pains my eyes to look at you."

Eric was exhausted. He was looking at Master Joe, but also staring past him into the pillar of flames. Rose, sitting next to him on the bench, was no less weary. Lucy's eyes were off-focus and she looked as if she was about to collapse and fall down from the bench at any moment.

"Is the biggest idiot the one who jumps in first?" Master Joe raised a bony finger and pointed to Eric.

Eric thought about possible replies, but didn't come up with anything noteworthy. He cast his eyes down.

"Is the biggest idiot the one who follows an idiot?" Master Joe turned his finger to Rose.

"I didn't follow him; I just let him go first," Rose said.

"Hmm... is that so?"

"Yes," Rose said defiantly.

"Well... Perhaps the biggest idiot is the one who follows two idiots despite seeing the outcome?" Master Joe lowered his finger, but looked intently at Lucy instead.

A slow blinking of eyes was the only reaction from Lucy.
She's not well at all.
Master Joe waited for a response, but she didn't sound a word.

Master Joe looked at each of them as if it were a staring contest. Eric bowed his head slightly to avoid eye contact and twiddled his thumbs. Still, he could feel Master Joe's gaze, convincing him of his own idiocy.
Fire attunement takes many attempts, how could I be so arrogant to think I would master it in one try?

Master Joe sighed. "Stupidity is contagious, no doubt about it. I'll tell you who the biggest idiot is: the one who allowed you three idiots to march into the flames and wreck your elemental equilibrium."

Eric gathered his courage and looked up. "But, sir, it wasn't Ohlson's fault, he did prepare-"

"I'm not talking about Ohlson," Master Joe waved dismissively and laughed.

Eric felt the weight of the stare lift from him.

"Willful and gutsy, charging through walls with those thick heads of yours... You three may be idiots, but you're my kind of idiots: stubborn, with the right amount of stupid. No, Ohlson did all right. The biggest idiot is me for allowing
you
to be idiots of your own."

Master Joe held up his hand. "Just don't tell Maeve I said that, 'cause she'll want it in writing! Let's keep it our little secret, shall we?"

Eric found Master Joe's change of attitude surprising, but welcome. He nodded.

"We won't be needing this anymore." Master Joe lowered his hand, and as he did, the flames behind him toned down until they disappeared completely. The pattern inlaid with pebbles became visible: seven yellow concentric circles with three red spiral arms curling into the center.

"Using the head-through-the-wall approach can be successful if your head is strong enough, but that doesn't mean it won't hurt like hell afterwards. I have to rub your noses in it, because there are always consequences, and carelessness is not the same as bravery. Got it?"

Not waiting for an answer, Master Joe turned to Lucy and took her hands into his own. "Young lady, going through fire attunement with a personality predisposed towards the water element is not easiest thing in the world. The consequences can be dire. Follow the energy from my hands and allow me to fix you up."

Lucy was still pale, but her eyes gradually gained some strength. She sat up, straightening herself from the slumped posture she was in.

"It's a temporary fix, mind you. Elemental attunements work by removing a part of subconscious defense mechanisms and encouraging the conscious part to integrate more closely. Going too far in one direction can be... bad." Master Joe stood up and let go of Lucy's hands.

"Thank you," Lucy formed the words with relief.

"You're very welcome. How about the two of you? You look like you'll be fine, but I can give you a little boost if you want."

"I'm okay, sir," Eric said.

"No, thank you," Rose said. "I'm already feeling a little better."

"That's the spirit!" Master Joe bent down and touched his fist to Eric's jaw in a mock punch. "By the way, I'm no 'sir'. Just call me Joe - or Master Joe if you prefer."