Auratic

A small snack. I suddenly got a random workload spike. I'll try get on top of that and give the next chapter the time it deserves when I get the chance. Google docs' here.

‘The Following are a collection of excerpts from a larger piece of writing. Author unknown. The text is sporadic and disorganized but neatly penned. The cursive scripts do not resemble any known language, present or past. Numerous philologists have failed to decipher the text as a whole.’

“Regarding magic. Entry #3.

The first step was the hardest but afterwards it was easy. Rather it was unnerving how natural it felt to use magic. Magic, as far as I know, is the almost supernatural phenomenon mostly created by the actions of spirits. Nearly every time. I could feel them, vague at first, but after raising my sensitivity to it I could see the minor spirits all around me. Some of them have seemed to have become infatuated with me, preferring to reside in my hair along with the hex weavers…

…For me they look like animals, however it seems that they are able to take on any shape or form imaginable. They, spirits are pliable, mutable, they are capable of limited change…

…Minor spirits appear to be quite food motivated. Magical Energy never fails to coax them into helping you with your spells. Even in their primitive forms they show remarkable intellect. So far, I have yet to observe any form of language or method of communication used among them… so how can they understand incantations, arias and chants of humans or any other race for that matter, and create magic…?”

The following excerpts were donated to the Royal conservatory by our venerable High Priestess, who confirmed the authenticity of the text, and its language to be of the ancient divine script.

“Regarding magic. Entry #9

Breakthrough! I now understand what spirits are and have a better understanding of what magic is and how it functions. The answer was right in front of me. First spirits, they are beings of energy. I was mystified at the term magical energy. However just omitting the magical part and just examining it as energy made much more sense. Just like any other energy, it can be converted into other forms, kinetic, potential and thermal. Including other more rare, composite, impure types of energy such as sonic, gravitational and radiation energy. Perhaps the most extreme example of this conversion is perhaps energy being transformed into tangible matter. Common spells, like the fireball, work by creating a mass of something, in this case a ball of flame in the air and then shoots it out into a direction as a means of attack. The created ball of flame is an example of creation of matter though I believe it is possible to ignite the air itself with thermal energy alone. Having the flame ‘float’ in air is an example of imparting potential energy into the object and flinging it in an arc at something at high speed is the last example of imparting kinetic energy…

…More complex the spell, usually more small actions and finesse needed for the manipulation. All of this is taxing on concentration and exorbitantly expensive on energy. Here spirits help us, since they are beings of energy they understand energy at a level I cannot even begin to fathom. During spell casting, they take care of all of the small details, fine tune our accuracy, improve efficacy, compensate for our mistakes and if needed give us little bit of an energy boost to help us along; they aren’t necessary for spellcasting… but without them casting any sort of complex spell is more or less impossible for anyone… It is amazing how deeply they are intertwined with energy… we must seem amoeboid to them when attempting to use magic. It is a wonder why they assist us. Perhaps pity…

…This also explains how they understand us, why arias and incantations and some dance-like movements and gesticulations exist. Spirits do not understand the individual meanings behind the words of any language but they can recognize the sound energy emitted by our vocalizations. The meanings of the words are irrelevant. They remember it, can go do a set of actions based on what they understand. They don’t understand the meanings behind the movements but they can recognize the kinetic energy of those flailings. In this case they can be trained… sort of. One’s mastery of magic can be improved by repetition and general use of magic not just because the caster, the user, attains a firmer grasp on how to manipulate their magic, but also the spirits that have become attached to that specific person or conductor object such as a staff, horn, hair… whatever that the being uses, also learns how best to understand their host and assist them when needed in the most beneficial way… It is a collaborative effort… Reason why I have much easier time using magic is thanks to Telepathy… My spirits do not have to guess what I want from them, through my words. I can communicate with them directly. Tell them what exactly I want from them. But that is besides the point…

…Perhaps there is a merit to yelling out a spell’s name. The spirits may be able to identify the intensity of the sound, therefore act with more sensitivity… I hate how the cliche of yelling random nonsense has an applicable use… Thank god I don’t have to do it that way…”

‘Please do not touch the records, they are fragile. Miriam, this is especially for you. No, you cannot smell them either. - Llynbel, head curator, keeper of artifacts and relics of the Royal Conservatory.’