Caught a train, took a road
Searching for a pot of gold
Never knew, never told
Curious - Sandbox
We eventually arrive in what appears to be a lecture hall of some sort. On one end of the room there's a large device separated by a wall of glass. The device has two panels on the side which stretch up about eight feet off the ground, and several crystals of varying hues. On the other side of the room sits a number of students and professors, though whether they are here coincidentally or have been summoned for the express purpose of viewing me is unclear. At least some appear to be practicing on their own things, focusing on their manipulators in what I assume to be magical tests and scribbling notes in binders and something that looks like a magical recording device.
Curiously, a bootful of pangos openly roam about the room, mostly ignored by the people. If one wanders a little too close to a crystal, it is shooed away by a student. Otherwise they leave each other be.
I turn towards Leanna.
"I thought you said that pangos weren't really welcomed in society?"
She looks fondly around the room, a reminiscent smile on her face.
"They aren't, but mages tend to like them. Pangos absorb the residual energy from casting around the mage, which makes consecutive casts that much safer. It also kind of feels like a massage."
Professor Oran gives her a soft nudge.
"Go ahead."
She nods, and turns to me.
"We're going to take another scan of you now."
"You're talking about the thing behind the glass, right?"
"Yeah. It looks intimidating but it functions the same as a manipulator."
As I gaze up at the machine, a smile fills my face.
"Let's do some science."
I withdraw my sword from its sheath, offering it to Leanna.
"Could you hold on to this? I wouldn't want it contaminating the results."
Leanna accepts the weapon, as one of the students leads me to the device and has me stand between the two panels. As he closes the glass door behind him, the crystals in the device glow to life and the quiet mumbling gives way to silence. A few students play with their manipulators, making unseen adjustments to things I know nothing about.
A beam of soft light emanates from the space between the crystals and slowly descends towards my head. It passes harmlessly through me, travelling through my body at a steady pace before disappearing at my feet.
Once it is gone, the same student lets me back into the room. As I move back towards Leanna and the professor, I notice that they aren't wearing the expressions of those who have made a significant breakthrough. Professor Oran's expression is grave, and Leanna wears a thin frown.
"This can't be right. Maybe we should scan him again."
The professor shakes his head.
"Leanna, the levels that you reported would have killed this young man."
"Even so, how is it possible that this scan shows he has zero ambient thaums? Especially in an inhabited area, there should be some magic around him."
"While it is true that he seems to have an abnormally low amount of ambient energy, most of our equipment is not built to detect low amounts of it. I doubt he has none."
He gestures to me.
"The phenomenon of blanks is well known, and there are historical accounts of magic detection failing to target the right area when they are involved. I believe you have encountered an anomaly of the documented variety."
Leanna holds out her manipulator. Just as when we first met, a pale light glows. The similarities end there, however, as it fails to register so much as a flicker as she brings it close to me. She tries again with her Mage's Sight, but fails to locate the burning brilliance I remember from only a few days ago.
Her face falls. Professor Oran puts a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Had he just casted? Perhaps it was magical residue which you had read. The half-life of that kind of ambient reading is quite short, and would be helped along by your reported pango."
She shakes her head.
"The reading was too high to just be residue."
This is not going well. But what can I do? I have no reputation or data, just anecdotes. Would it even be worth it if none of the unique details I can provide can be tested?
Perhaps I can help, if only as a peer backing Leanna's claim.
"I understand that my opinion might not count for much, but Leanna's manipulator definitely reacted to something the last time she scanned me. Even at Raven Pass, the thing wasn't flashing as much as it did then."
Professor Oran looks intrigued.
"That would seem to reinforce the idea that you are a blank. Either the manipulator and a Mage's Sight gave false readings,-"
He turns back to Leanna.
"-or you did manage to find a wild magic event and your scans of him were thrown off by readings in the area. I am inclined to believe the latter, but you should have everything checked regardless."
"Perhaps…"
I can hear the skepticism in her voice. I remain silent, knowing that I may as well be trying to weigh in on a philosophy debate. The professor gives Leanna's shoulder one last comforting squeeze before he leaves.
"I should get back to my students, but I hope I get to see you again."
While our discussions had been taking place, I noticed the pangos would watch me and my sword (now returned to me) with interest. A green one starts to gravitate towards us. Maybe it's interested in Leanna's magic? But then why does it look like it's heading towards me?
"Poi?"
Forest calls out from atop my head. He jiggles up and down as I give him a pat.
Suddenly, he stops and stares at the green pango, who blinks back at him. He hops towards it and grins.
"Poi… poi poi?"
The green pango smiles in answer.
"Poi!"
Forest's eyes widen.
"Poi?!"
"Poi poi."
The green pango grins and hops away, with my little blue friend in tow. I suddenly feel abandoned. Yet, at the same time, why do I feel so warm and fuzzy? I don't even know what that exchange meant.
As the two of them run off to Marshals-know-where, a professor in a wheelchair rolls towards us. Although he's lost all his hair, he doesn't seem quite as old as some of the others.
"Leanna."
She doesn't bother containing her surprise.
"Professor Exavier!"
I do a double take.
"I'm sorry, your name is what?"
The professor is somewhat startled by my outburst, while Leanna seems confused. Before she can try to stop me, I move forward.
"There is no way your name is Professor Xavier, while you just happen to be a bald mage in a wheelchair."
Leanna finally catches up with my chaotic train of thoughts.
"Shush! Exavier is a perfectly normal name."
"I know, but… I'll tell you later."
The professor stares at me a bit, before breaking out in laughter. Both Leanna and I are silent, unsure of what is happening.
"It would take the right kind of person to guess that I had taken the name Exavier after I got stuck in this wheelchair. Don't worry: my first name is David."
I am so confused.
Without missing a beat, Professor Exavier turns towards Leanna, a smile upon his face.
"It's always nice to see a familiar face."
Then, he returns his attention to me.
"If you are going to be confused by my name, I should have the honour of being confused by yours."
"I am Alasdair Shaw, though some know me as Wolverine. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."
He smiles.
"You do understand, then. I am pleased to meet you as well."
"I think so."
Leanna's eyes flick rapidly between the two of us, desperately trying to figure out what is happening.
"Wolverine? I… what?"
She shakes her head violently.
"Alright… professor, is there something I can help you with?"
"Leanna, regardless of whether it was actually on him, how high was your initial energy reading?"
"In the thousands."
He creases his brow, though I can see a slight smirk, as though he finally got confirmation that he is right about something.
"Tell me, are you familiar with Rift Theory?"
Leanna shakes her head, but I have an idea of where he is going.
"You would be referring to temporary tunnels across space?"
He nods in my direction.
"Close. In the most basic sense, a temporal rift occurs when the universe… tears, would be a good way to describe it. During these events, pieces of the world might fall away, to land somewhere else. Perhaps in a new world altogether."
He looks at me as he says that. Both Leanna and myself work to keep a straight face, but I want to ask him something.
"Would it be possible for matter to cross between these worlds?"
"It may be in theory, but without a mage capable of channelling enough energy to both create the tear and restrict it from harming whatever was in the targeted area, what arrived at the other end would likely be no more than a kind of soup. As far as we are aware, no such mage exists."
He shakes his head.
"That is why most of us have dismissed this, but wild magic surges are repeatedly observed with energy levels that compete with entire groups of trained mages. Listening to what you two have said today, it seems that this old idea might have some merit after all."
I haven't realized how lost I have been until now. I was like a leaf, floating to the ground in the autumn, but now I had caught a breeze. Now there was hope. All I would need to do was something seen as impossible by the majority of people who knew that it even existed.
A smile grows on my face. Reverse-engineering arcane knowledge is the speciality of Xeno-scientists.
"What more can you share about this? It isn't heavily classified, is it?"
"Not much, and no, I'm afraid. As I said, most consider it to be either nonsense, irrelevant, or too arcane to be looking into at this time. Whatever their individual reasons, the result is that we lack any substantial knowledge on the subject, and the equations that predict them are currently too complex for practical use."
Damnit, complex equations written by a different world of scientists. Translating those without help would suck.
The professor continued.
"Although, there is one man who spent a large amount of his life developing and researching this theory. He used to be an instructor at this academy."
Leanna raises an eyebrow.
"Is he still in Illumia?"
"Unfortunately, he left years ago in search of Embermyst."
She purses her lips.
"Of course. What better way to spend your time than to track down the lost capital of an empire that no longer wants to be found."
So we need to go looking for Atlantis now? That could be interesting.
"So, what I'm hearing is that we need to find an ancient, lost city to track down the only mage who made real headway into a forgotten theory."
Before he can respond, a student with two long pigtails strides over.
"Please allow me to accompany you on your quest."
Professor Exavier's reply is stern.
"Absolutely not."
"Could you elaborate on your disapproval? This is an excellent opportunity to further my research and education."
"This is not an Academy-sponsored expedition. There won't be mages around to protect you. No one knows where Embermyst is, so the dangers you may encounter on the way to it are unknown."
The girl stays silent, and I can practically see the cogs in her head spinning as she contemplates his words. Finally, she nods.
"Understood."
As soon as she finishes speaking, she makes a quick about face and walks away.
"Uh, what just happened? Who was that?"
Professor Exavier coughs.
"Pay her no mind. That's just how she is."
"But who is she?"
Leanna wears a somewhat proud smile.
"That's Amelia Estelle, one of the more gifted students at the academy. She's only a teenager, but she's already a Mage Fourth Class, which means that she can manipulate two different elements at the same time."
I flash her a grateful smile for automatically explaining what a Mage Fourth Class is.
"Are Mage's that skilled usually older than a teen?"
"Just a little. Most Fourth classes are in their forties."
My eyes widen. A prodigy, then. Leanna turns back to Professor ExavierI still can't get over that name what is-
"Anyway, thank you for all of your help, Professor."
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to be more helpful, but I wish you the best of luck on your journey. After all, you gave me something as well."
His chair turns slightly, and he looks me in the eyes.
"I would, of course, like to discuss more with you, but I will restrain myself to a single question. How does Earth fare?"
Just like that, all the pieces fall neatly into place. A suspicion grows quickly into reality.
"Ah, of course. Sick. Radiation, low biodiversity, climate catastrophe, the works. The city centres are in place though, and almost eight billion now live comfortable, if enclosed lives under the vigil of Sol Coalition."
He sighs, and smiles a bit.
"Well, I'd hoped for better, but not that much. Maybe the millions in the camps were worth it."
He looks over at Leanna.
"You must trust her if you are willing to speak of such in her presence. That is good. I have heard good things about Leanna from her professors, Oran in particular. Perhaps I shall tell him that his hypothesis is wrong, and more than one person shares the same delusions by coincidence."
His face holds a strange, sarcastic smirk.
"Well, perhaps we could meet again someday, Wolverine."
After saying goodbye, his wheelchair moves on its own and pushes him out of the room. I'm still in too much shock to question the self-propelled mechanism.
Leanna seems even more stunned than I am as the professor leaves.
"What… just happened?"
"Exavier was from Earth. When he got into the wheelchair, he took the name of a popular fictional character that only people from Earth would recognize. I noticed, marking me as being from Earth. Conversation ensues."
Leanna looks like she is re-evaluating everything she thought she knew about Professor Exavier.
"Well, aside from that, what did you think of everything the professor said?" Leanna asks.
"It sounds exactly like what happened to me. We should find this Embermyst city and talk to the professor there."
She nods, looking slightly disheartened.
"Yeah… unfortunately it's the hidden city for a reason… We should stop by the inn. Since it's a hub for travelers from all over, there's bound to be someone who knows something."
"Sounds good."
"However, I'll have to go write up an after-action report on Raven Pass. Could you stay in this general area for a little while?"
"Of course. I should be able to find something to do."
Leanna departed, and I am left with only myself and another part of myself. What to do now?
A thought occurs to me, and I approach a student not currently engrossed in an experiment.
"Would you know where the library is?"
He looks up.
"Down the hall to the left, entrance is on the right-hand side. You can't miss it."
"Great. And could I borrow a piece of paper and your pen for a second?"
He stands up and gestures to his seat. I pick up the-ugh, fountain pen. It takes a minute to get used to the way I need to hold it, but I eventually scribble down something legible:
Found the library down the hall.
2Lt Shaw.
Placing that outside the door she left through, I make my way to the library in question. It is a rather impressive affair, featuring statues of no-doubt great scholars and more of the academy's stained-glass dioramas. It's organized differently than an Earth library, but I eventually find my footing and start the search.
Neither Leanna or Zack could tell me what happened that allowed me to fight the Treasurer. If Illumia is 'the place you go to for answers', then it stands to reason that the city's university would be the place to find something about this.
Only problem is; I don't know what to look for. Without even so much as a name to go with the event, I lack any kind of reference to find it. After searching through categorized tomes on magic for a good period of time, I decide it is best to find a librarian.
A few minutes of searching nets me a young woman stocking books. I walk up to her.
"Hello, do you think you can help me find a book on a particular phenomenon?"
She looks over at me.
"What are you looking for?"
"Something on an ability triggered by stress. I'm not sure if it is magic, but it probably is, and it reacts to the presence of shadow magic."
The librarian looks pensive for a moment.
"You wouldn't be looking for fiction, would you?"
"No. I'm not sure how much fiction would help me, but if you could find a real-life study on something like what I'm describing, that would be great."
She glances about the bookshelves, then seems to have an idea.
"Follow me."
She walks off at a rapid clip, with myself in tow. Eventually, we come to a section of the library lit only by the soft glow of crystals. She pulls over a ladder and climbs towards the top shelf. Finding a book, she slides down the rails to the ground. Placing it down, she ascends again, and again, until a neat stack of five volumes from varying parts of the shelf has been accumulated. The librarian places the stack in my hands.
"You're free to look through these. Hopefully, something in there is useful, because that's all we have as far as I am aware."
"Thank you."
I return to the sunlit centre of the room, and begin to skim the volumes. Heroic Willpower and its Applications, The Energies Arcane and Mundane, The Tales of Magic-less Heroes. The others talked about something called dawn Magic, which I quickly determined was not what was happening. Most of them seem very old, with translated and proofread sentence structures that manage to get in the way of meaning, but I get the basics. They were talking about what happened to me, but very few knew all that much about it. These writers had seen it in action, and wrote about their observations and hypotheses, but there wasn't any hard data. Though these works occasionally reference each other, they don't even agree on a name. Heroic Willpower, Gestalt Force, The Blooming; inconsistency aside, none of these names really feel right to me. More to the point, none give me any real insight into what it is or how to interact with it.
The Energies was the most useful of the three, most likely because the author had come into contact with multiple wielders of this power. Yames Aaronson was a hero of magic in his time, a monochromatic mage that had mastered earth, and travelled with several people who used The Blooming, as he called it. Despite the somewhat uniform origin of their powers (He witnessed at least one unlock their power, Caiaphas Accia), there was a large discrepancy between their capabilities, and not just in power levels. Each one used a different type of power: they had their own colours, their own ways or 'flairs' their Blooming naturally formed, and besides some form of object augmentation each had their own abilities. He also noted that The Blooming seemed naturally opposed to Shadow Magic. They also each had their own name for it, and Aaronson suspected that this was important, as one other manifested The Blooming. He thought it was a gift from the "Elementals", and only that one never manifested it again. While he admits his sample size is small, the author suggests that it may be important to think of this power as your own, hence the inconsistent naming.
Thinking on the words, I consider what I already know. I know my colour and flair: it naturally forms a sort of blue flame. As for my abilities, I've only seen augmentation. Aaronson claimed that augmentation came naturally in the initial flares, but a person's true power seemed only to appear after several battles or perhaps challenges that called for it. All well and good, but for it to return, I need to claim it.
I look up at the ceiling. What to call it?
The Power? No, too generic. Aura? Ehh, it isn't really gold. Soulfire? It just… doesn't feel right…
Maybe forcing a name like this isn't going to work. I'll just have to wait for it to come to me.
As I flip through the books looking for any additional insights, I notice Leanna approach. She seems miffed.
"Do you know how many libraries there are on Academy grounds?"
I shrug.
"Noooo?"
"Did you know that this isn't the 'main' library?"
Uh oh.
"How long have you been looking for me?"
"Filing the report didn't take very long. I've been searching alcoves for several hours."
"Sorry."
I quickly return the books to a librarian with a "thanks", before rejoining Leanna.
"So, off to the inn to look for someone who knows about an ancient lost city, then?"
"Yes."
She pauses.
"Why were you at the library?"
"I wanted to see if anyone had written anything about what happened to me in Raven Pass. If I did it, odds are someone else has done it in the past."
"Oh! Did you find anything?"
"I did. Not much, but a Yames Aaronson had found quite a bit. You see-"
A/N: And here we are; the unknown power has a temporary name! I actually came up with The Blooming as a throwaway title that I wasn't going to like very much, but it has grown on me some since then. The folly of creativity is not to know when you've done something cool until after the fact, it seems.