If you had asked her in advance she'd have expected that, prior to being snatched to another universe, she'd have at least caught a glimpse of whatever magic was going it. She'd have of course disclaimed that otherworldly magic might be different, that maybe she can only see her world's magic, but really, she'd have expected it.
So it's pretty surprising when she's suddenly somewhere she was not a moment ago.
The air is warm, humid and unpleasantly smoky. The sound of a waterfall can be heard nearby. She is in an alley between two tall, ornate stone buildings, and there is a lot more magic around than she is used to, none of it of a familiar type. Among the unfamiliar pieces of magic is a connection binding her to the only other person present in the alley; a man dressed all in blue, his face shaded by a cloak, who in addition to the magic which binds her to him has a second and equally unfamiliar sort of magic in a greater quantity.
He says something in an unfamiliar language and an irritated-sounding tone of voice. The magical connection tells her that it means "You aren't a geologist, are you?".
Wow.
This is so—so much magic—so much all of it what is it she's never seen so much and so different so nothing like anything—
What's this bit of magic connecting her to him? What's this magic surrounding him? ...what's this magic moving in his head—
—it's responding to her thoughts—
—he's reading her mind—
—no no no no nope nuh uh no reading of minds at all no sir her mind is completely opaque to anyone that is not her it is impossible to find her or anything about her without her explicit direct permission (in the form of a specific mental action embedded into the spell) this will last the next hour or so it'll work in such-and-such way done.
The link between Kaede and the telepath, which remains in place, tells her that the next thing he says means "stop that!", and that his not being able to sense her thoughts anymore is annoying and slightly scary.
The telepath takes a few steps back, closes his arms around himself, and is quiet for a few seconds. Then:
"You can see magic."
"I'm a natural telepath. I'm really not used to interacting with people without knowing their thoughts, especially people as utterly unknown to me as you are. Not being able to see through your shield is more disconcerting than not being able to see would be. And I don't really see different minds as distinct from each other the way most people do; I'm not convinced you have very much more right to know about a thought than I do just because it happened in your head."
"Oh that's bullpoop, of course you do. Or are you saying I'm allowed to develop a mind-reading spell myself and see what's going on in that noggin' of yours?" she asks. Never mind that that's as far as anyone knows impossible.
He pauses for a bit to think, and leans against a wall.
"I suppose I would prefer you not to do that. And perhaps more to the point there are things I've forgotten so as to make sure other mind-readers wouldn't find them.
Although I suspect I did that because I distrusted those mind-readers' motives rather than out of mere desire for privacy. And I would probably mind you reading my mind less if I trusted you more.
In any case, I'm still not going to give up my telepathy for the sake of peoples' privacy. It would feel like giving up too much of who I am, and a huge part of how I live, and an incredibly useful tool besides. And I don't think I could stand not knowing so much of what was happening around me."
"I didn't say you ought to. Heavy conscience?"
She examines him with her other sense. She thinks if she spent long enough around him she could, in fact, design a spell to render his telepathy temporarily useless. And it's not unthinkable that she could do something permanent... But she doesn't know enough about the situation.
"Tit for tat, you tell me stuff and I tell you stuff, how's that sound?"
"Certainly. I am Jace Beleren, a mind mage and planeswalker. This is the city-plane of Ravnica. I was attempting to summon a Dominarian geologist, but someone over that way" (he indicates a direction) "cast a spell that made mine malfunction. Who are you, what can you do, and what do you want?"
"I'm Kaede, I can do metamagic, I want to figure out what's going on in more detail. I'm in another universe?"
"Yes. This is Ravnica, a world covered entirely by city. One-thousand-and-twenty-three years ago, ten organizations known as the Guilds agreed to share power over Ravnica. They cast a powerful spell called the Guildpact to bind the organizations to their parts of the agreement and bind those of us who were not members of a Guild to nonetheless be subservient to them. Twenty-five years ago, the magical part of the Guildpact finally ceased to function. Since then there have been rebellions against the guilds and wars between them, and the guilds have finally begun to change and adapt rather than stagnating in the complacency of unchallengeable supremacy. But for the most part, the guilds still rule the world and fulfill their ancient functions in it.
One of the Guilds is the Izzet Leage, an organization of engineers, technicians and physicists of which the dragon Niv Mizzet is founder and permanent head. They maintain, or used to maintain, much of the city's infrastructure. Since the Guildpact expired, however, It has increasingly seemed as though Mizzet is becoming less concerned with securing the guild's position or maintaining vital infrastructure than with pursuing some grand secret project. So much so that he has redirected much of the guild's resources towards mysterious ends while dams burst and streets flood. So I've been trying to find out what that project could be.
The project seems to involve mapping Ravnica's leylines and the way they interact with the remains of the Guildpact. So I thought a leyline geologist from a world which had never had a Guildpact might be able to provide a useful perspective. But when I tried to summon one, someone else nearby cast a spell to make spells go wrong, and as a result my spell apparently summoned a metamancer instead."
"Multiple universes are a normal feature? What are leylines and what's a leyline geologist? How long is a year here? How does your magic work?"
Jace studies Kaede. Curiously rather than suspiciously, now.
"We who can bridge universes naturally are so rare, and the magic to bridge them technologically so difficult, that many worlds think themselves alone. Worlds with magic so strange as yours, such that someone could see mana naturally yet not know of leylines, are much rarer.
All, or perhaps almost all, magic is ultimately powered by mana. Mana flows through all earth and through all living things, but principally along certain channels in the ground we call 'leylines'; most magic throughout the multiverse is powered by mana from leylines. A leyline geologist studies the ways in which leylines and the physical structures of the earth interact with each other, which is useful in helping those who cannot see leylines find them. A year here lasts thee hundred and seventy days.
I'm not sure which aspects of my magic are and are not familiar to you. My way of thinking and of seeing the world aligns with blue mana. This means more or less that I yearn to understand things and act on that desire, that I think before I act and act on those thoughts, that I try not to allow emotion cloud those thoughts, that I prefer progress to blind traditionalism, and various other things along that vein. You are, I think, similarly attuned.
This attunement causes the places where blue mana pools to call to me," he gestures in the direction of the sound of running water "and when I find them I establish a spiritual connection to the places they flow through, and find where their mana pools. This allows me to, through a combination of words, gestures and thoughts, tap that mana and channel it into spells. For example..."
and he describes how he would cast a simple spell for thinking more quickly and calmly and why it would work.
"Can you show me this spell? And that—the way you just described it—that's very much not how magic works in my world. At all. Only people are sources of magic, and all magic in the world—with maybe one exception—comes from people. And it's not really personality-based, it's as far as anyone can tell completely random."
"Hmm.
In that case it sounds like you're from a very strange world indeed. And i'm afraid... [sigh]
For the time being, I would rather keep what little mana was left in my reserves after summoning you in case I need it for self defense. It will take several hours for my mana pools to be sufficiently restored that I would be comfortable casting another spell."
Jace turns and gestures for Kaede to follow.
He leads her through the alley towards the sound of the waterfall. The alley ends at a corner, and around the corner it leads onto a walkway overlooking a wide river. Along the sides of the river, and on islands along it, are tall, domed buildings decorated with beautiful and elaborate carvings. From between the buildings flow countless rushing waterfalls. Joining the sides of the river to each other and to the islands are numerous stone bridges. A bright current of mana flows into the river from a waterfall a way upstream and along it out of sight, and faint streams run into and out of it from the streets and from other waterfalls. Jace gestures to the nearest island-building. If Kaede looks carefully, she will see that mana is slowly accumulating along its shore.
"That island normally has a lot more mana around it. I used it on the spell that ended up summoning you. If you want to see somewhere which currently has its mana, it will be a longer walk."
She shakes her head. "No, I just want to..." Understand this mana is what she just wants to. It's regenerating, so she doesn't need to worry about breaking it. Is there any obvious way for her to accelerate the recharge rate?
Not easily. If she had a source of mana she could put some into it. And living things help recharge the land's mana, but it would take a lot of them to cause a noticeable increase.
Some of the people in the streets do not appear to be human; there are bald blue-skinned people, tiny green people with enormous noses, and a creature with a single enormous eye. Many of them have magical effects on them, of various kinds. A lot more have magic than did in Galatea.
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
