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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:02:41 GMT -6
“This is real food,” Noa said. “Actually, since it contains all the things needed to sustain me without any inefficient parts or the need for preparation, you could argue it’s more real than any other kind of food.”
{... Nevermind.} Rhys seemed to decide that it wasn’t worth having that argument again. It wasn’t the first time they’d disagreed over this, and frankly Noa doubted it would be the last. He finished the bar in a few more bites, then wiped his hand free of powder with a handkerchief.
Then he turned back to the node.
{Noa,} said Rhys suddenly. Noa looked up, with a little more success at staving off his annoyance this time. At least he hadn’t been in the middle of doing anything when Rhys interrupted this time. The Faeron looked uncertain, but Noa wasn’t in the mood to entertain Rhys's hesitation.
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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:03:00 GMT -6
Noa’s eyes narrowed, and Rhys seemed to come to a hasty conclusion in his internal debate, plowing on with what he had been planning to say. {The spell you’re trying,} he said. {What if… I was thinking, what if I try casting it?}
Noa’s first reaction was to make a face. “I’m not trying to cast a known spell. I’m trying to-- Oh, forget it.” Rhys wasn’t nearly as ignorant about magic as he had been when Noa was first teaching him spellwork -- all the more so because, as Noa’s symptoms grew worse, Rhys had followed his research more and more closely. He still didn’t contribute much in the way of useful ideas, but he was a mostly obedient assistant, which was better than nothing.
Rhys wasn’t at the level where Noa trusted him to construct experimental spells on his own though.
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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:03:13 GMT -6
Still, as he turned the idea over in his mind, Noa thought that Rhys’s offer might have some merit. Rhys wouldn’t be able to construct spells from scratch, but there were healing spells beyond Noa’s current means. Actually, he was pretty sure the issue with his work was that a single node -- even a greater light node -- didn’t have enough energy to fuel a working of the magnitude he was trying to create.
That didn’t bode well for his efforts. If the spell he was chasing right now was effective, he would need to cast it on a much larger scale to cleanse himself of his condition entirely, and if he couldn’t cast this fraction of it with a single node…
Noa shook his head to rid himself of these thoughts. It wasn’t useful to think like that. He had to concentrate on what he could do now.
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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:03:51 GMT -6
“You have the magical reserves,” he said, studying Rhys. As his own power grew, Rhys’s did too. The Faeron’s energy level would always be less than Noa’s own, but the advantage that a familiar had was that their mana was unaspected, and could be turned to any spell.
He didn’t know why it never occurred to him before. He could teach Rhys a bigger light spell. The biggest one he knew would be…
…
Something gave him pause. Rhys inclined his head in a wordless query, but Noa didn't know how to answer the Faeron's unspoken question. A spell to restore one’s vitality, to restore lost limbs… Somewhere in his chest there was a vague discomfort, and he felt strangely resistant to the idea of Rhys being the one to learn the spell before he did.
It should have been him. He should have been the one…
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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:04:14 GMT -6
But a spell of that size required at least three light nodes, and who could guess how long it would be before he had that much power at his disposal? “Very well,” Noa said. “I’ll teach you ‘Restore’. If you can do it, at least I’ll have something to study.” He’d never had the opportunity to see it cast in person, so even that much would be something, at least. And going over it with Rhys would give him a refresher on the structure of established energy-hungry healing spells, which couldn’t hurt, at this point.
Noa turned in his seat, and across the room, several books drifted over to his desk and laid themselves out, each flipping to a specific page. “Hmm,” said Noa; several of the books flipped to a different page, and one in particular flipped quickly through many of its pages before settling on one.
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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:05:04 GMT -6
“This is a complicated spell,” Noa said. “It requires more than two greater nodes’ worth of power, so it needs the proper framework to direct that energy. It’s healing, so you’ll probably have an easier time with it, but it’s more healing in one go than anything you’re capable of.” Truthfully, Rhys would probably have an easier time learning this spell than Noa would, by virtue of it being in line with Rhys’s area of expertise. Noa tried not to feel bitter about that.
{This… This is the one they use to restore limbs, isn’t it?} Rhys said.
“Yes,” Noa said curtly.
He had thought Rhys might have something else to say on the matter, but to his surprise, the Faeron didn't say anything more. Noa waited, but when it became clear that Rhys was done with the topic, he went back to instructing Rhys on the spell.
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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:05:15 GMT -6
“I haven’t cast it myself, but at least it’s well documented. Based on the description and the things written here, I would construct it like so.” The latticework of the spell formed in his mind. It was just as well that he had his own experience with larger scale spells at this point. The mana cost of this wasn’t actually any greater than Glimmer’s Boon, which he knew like the back of his hand by now. But even he had taken a while to fully memorize Glimmer’s Boon, and this was a spell he hadn’t bothered trying to learn, since he didn’t have the resources to cast it. The process of building it was slow, and it was several minutes before he was done visualizing it.
Then he held the whole thing in his mind as clearly as he could, so Rhys could also commit it to memory.
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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:06:11 GMT -6
He didn’t relax until he saw the Faeron’s attention waver. Noa arched a brow at Rhys, a wordless question.
{I… I can probably do it if I try, but I’m going to need more practice.}
“Well, that’s a given,” Noa said. “You’ll need to break it down, at least at first. I just wanted you to be able to see the whole thing first, so you can get a sense for the whole shape of it. The pieces are easier to put together if you learn them with their context in mind.”
{This is going to take a long time, isn’t it?} Rhys said. He didn’t sound enthusiastic, but he spent a moment gathering his resolve, then said, {Okay, let’s start. What goes first?}
"Let's start with this part," Noa said, and began walking him through the first pieces of the spell.
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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:06:32 GMT -6
It was too much to expect Rhys to be able to learn the whole thing in a day, so Noa kept to just a few key pieces at first. There was no sense in feeding energy into an incomplete spell, so it was all just mental exercises, constructing and reconstructing that framework.
Over the next few days, Noa showed Rhys more of the pieces, explaining what the function of each was, like pieces in a machine -- or phrases in a song, so the more romantically inclined books had called it, though Noa had always found the latter comparison too floral. Rhys was overwhelmed at first with the idea of putting it all together, so they focused on the individual pieces until the Faeron had those memorized. Even that took time, since there were so many more parts to this spell than any of the smaller one-offs that Noa had taught him before.
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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:06:46 GMT -6
Then they began linking one part to its adjacent components, so to speak. At first it was two pieces at a time, and then three, and then four. Gradually they worked their way up to more and more of the complete work, until Rhys could eventually hold the whole shape of it in his mind.
And then they drilled in it, endlessly. By the end of a week of this, Noa felt that he could cast the spell himself in his sleep, if only he had the energy to fuel it.
He didn’t push Rhys to feed energy into the spell. When Rhys was ready, then he would do it. And after weeks of tutelage, Rhys finally cast it for the first time.
{Here goes nothing,} Rhys said. Noa felt a wave of warmth wash over him, a familiar sensation to someone who had been on the receiving end of healing spells all his life.
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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:07:23 GMT -6
But this spell seemed to flood his entire being with it, and he could feel that same warmth working through him, searching for something to heal. And yet, it wouldn’t bury deep enough to undo the thing he needed to be rid of most. He already knew that. If it was that simple, his parents would have been cured.
“Not bad,” Noa said. That seeking element had been important. Part of the challenge with ‘Restore’ was that the spell itself had to have a certain flexibility -- it had to figure out what needed to be restored, and that would be different for each patient.
{Thanks,} said Rhys. The Faeron couldn’t muster much enthusiasm. The spell had clearly taken a lot out of him -- as well it would have, considering how much energy it needed. Even Rhys wouldn’t be able to cast it more than maybe twice a day at most, the way he was right now.
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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:07:59 GMT -6
Though the fact that he was able to cast it at all was remarkable, frankly.
Noa decided to let Rhys off the hook for that day. Managing it once was enough. They went through it twice the next day, and while the second cast felt a little more wobbly than the first, as far as Noa could tell, they did both work.
So on the third day, he unceremoniously produced a knife and slammed it into his hand, severing one of his fingers clean off.
“Fix this,” he said, holding up the hand with gritted teeth. “Cast ‘Restore’ before I bleed out.”
{What-- What are you-- Noa!} said Rhys. Contrary to what Noa had ordered, Rhys immediately sent out a pulse of healing energy -- not a spell at all, but his inborn healing. The bleeding stopped, and shiny pink skin sealed over the raw exposed flesh, but it remained a stump.
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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:08:50 GMT -6
Noa’s now severed finger lay on the table, which was now covered in blood.
“It’s not going to grow back unless you cast ‘Restore’,” Noa said.
Rhys’s eyes blazed with anger. {What are you doing?! Do you want to die? How could you just--}
“There’s no way to test if it works properly unless I do this,” Noa said.
{Yes there is! I’m sure there is! You didn’t have to cut off your own finger!} Rhys's tail lashed, nearly knocking over several bottles of ink.
Noa shrugged. “Maybe, but this is faster. And I trust you. You wouldn’t let me stay this way.” He waved his hand in front of Rhys, hurrying him along, but Rhys still looked angry.
{Maybe I should leave you like this,} Rhys said ominously.
“I’ll cut off my arm at the elbow next,” Noa replied, without even a hint of hesitation.
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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:09:57 GMT -6
Rhys looked up at him in shock, while Noa calmly raised both his eyebrows. Now that the bleeding had stopped, it was much easier for Noa to act composed. The place where his finger used to be still ached wretchedly, but it wasn’t, in fact, the worst pain that he had ever been in. Actually, he didn’t know if it would even make top five. He wondered whether cutting off his arm would hurt worse. It had to, but by how much?
They stayed like that for a long moment, but in the end, Rhys relented -- as he always did. Rhys could tell that Noa wasn’t bluffing. And if Noa permanently lost his arm, that would create more problems for the both of them.
{Okay,} Rhys said. He sounded very tired, even though it was the morning and he was still fresh, and he hadn’t yet cast the spell.
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Post by Noa on Jul 11, 2022 1:10:10 GMT -6
For a moment nothing happened, but ‘Restore’ wasn’t a fast work because of the scale of it, and soon enough Noa felt that same energy seeking its way through his body again. This time, when it reached his hand, he felt it shift -- felt it calling the rest of itself to this place, and staying there, pushing outward.
The pain he felt transmuted itself into indescribable itchiness, but this much Noa had anticipated. He had to dig the nails of his other hand into his palm to bear with it, but this wasn’t the worst discomfort he had ever endured either.
Once the energy cleared away, he lifted his hand to study it. The stump where his finger had been severed was longer already, though the missing digit wasn’t fully regrown.
{This means you’re going to be tired too,} Rhys chastised. {Did you think about that before you did it?}
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