Chapter Ten
In the end, after Mangix had lugged in four huge urns of his wine and the wagered paychits were piled at the side, Rylai and Mangix were ready to begin. Lina complained that she was going to fall asleep unless they did something other than drink and drink and drink. Since there were a few questions she'd always wanted to ask Mangix but never found the time to, she suggested that they take a short break after every three cups. That was satisfactory and soon the first cups were drained and another sort of battle commenced.
Three cups.
Mangix set his mug on the cool stone floor beside him as Rylai did the same. "I've always wondered why your sorceresses are the best in the mage community. Even the elven masters of magic speak highly of your Clan. Is there some hidden secret that you can't tell me, or is it just hard work and aptitude? And don't give me the 'it's because women should rule the world' thing."
"It's no secret. It's just a combination of two things, focus and understanding. The first, many others have. It's the second that they don't." Lina told him.
"And don't forget the idiots who scoff at the idea of a sorceress Clan. The same idiots who insist to their dying breath that the, oh feel of the spell is the most important to mastering it. Pffft!" Rylai chuckled.
"Uh, what? You're saying that no one else has what understanding? Mind explaining a little more for this magical idiot here?"
"Mangix, nature has rules. So does magic. When people began to harness this primal force called magic, they didn't know what rules it followed. Thus, they happened by trial-and-error to stumble upon elaborate rituals to create certain effects. Experimentation with these rituals created the concept of the Spell. The general idea of a spell is of a specific set of steps a mage follows to generate a particular effect. For example, the conjuring of flame involves an incantation. Certain syllables can be substituted to change the intensity and size of the resulting blaze. Now, people began to treat the spells as indivisible things, that each spell was a discrete ritual. About three hundred odd years ago, one particular sorceress broke away from tradition and started her own Clan. She rewrote the entire basics of magery in her lifetime but didn't get any further. What was significant was that she totally scrapped all concepts of the Spell. Instead, she substituted fundamentals of power. The notion that magic is an amorphous power to be bent to one's designs by the use of will. No funny symbols, incantations, diagrams. Those are all supposed to bend one's will to the proper, uh, shape if you will. Not the instruments to invoke energies by themselves." Lina explained, frowning as she tried to find the words to illustrate the concepts to Mangix, who had no magical background at all.
"Which is what most other Clans stubbornly refuse to embrace. They continue to tinker with this symbol or that in the hopes that it happens to produce a particular effect better. The true power of our Clan is instant versatility. Don't like the way a frost nova explodes? Add an arc in the design of the offending side of the power structure to slow down the expansion during detonation. Not play around with the way you wiggle your fingers and try and try again till you find the correct one. Of course, it rarely is that simple, especially when you're dealing with a power matrix in three dimensions and you've got to find the tweak before someone puts a dagger in your chest or across your throat. But it's a hell of a lot better when you've understood completely how something works." Rylai chipped in.
"That's why I know only a handful of spells. It's because I can adapt them to any number of uses. And because it's so very difficult to totally understand the way the energies are arranged and how they affect the result, even though I think it's worth it. Other mages know many, many different spell variations, but they're all set in stone. A twenty foot fireball is a twenty foot fireball, a ten foot fireball is a ten foot fireball. But I can cast a firestorm anywhere between six to forty feet anytime I like." Lina finished.
"Interesting. Have a drink, quench your thirst, Lina." Mangix looked at Rylai and raised an eyebrow. Impudently, Rylai raised an eyebrow right back and picked up her mug and filled it.
Three cups.
"Tell me, Mangix of where you come from. I'd love to know where a land of wine and merrymaking lies. I might want to visit one day, you know." Rylai popped her questions. Lina's snort of amusement was audible.
"You would, wouldn't you."
"Well, it's an island. Actually, a pretty big island far to the south. We've only got two seasons. The hot wet season and the hot very wet season. Plants all grow amazingly well there. We grow tubers and a grass-like plant."
"And all those to brew stuff? Not to mention grapes and all? Do you live in villages or cities?"
"Well, the tubers and the grass-like plant we call rice are for eating. You really don't think that we live on wine do you? Of course we grow stuff for fermenting and distilling, those are the ingredients for our famous products."
"Which most people can't drink a glass of without passing out. Yes, fine drink indeed. In fact, I think the dwarves could use the strongest of your drinks as fuel for their oil lamps." Lina remarked dryly.
"I have indeed distilled alcohol for Boush. I don't know what he wanted something so strong for, though he did mention that he needed something as pure as I could get. He paid me lots and lots for something like that."
"Ahah! I knew you Pandarians would be supplying the firewood of tomorrow. There was this time when I was bored out of my wits and decided to actually test if your drinks were flammable. I poured a little into my lamp and tried to light it. For a moment the flame caught, then died." Rylai said as she filled her mug. Seeing that, Mangix filled his as well.
Three cups.
Three cups.
Three cups.
