Magic and Math

Mark proved enigmatic. Nergal had a difficult time accepting this. Whenever he came to a conclusion about the nature of the Morph he had created, Mark would frustrate his conceptions by doing something that would contradict them.

A good example was the way Mark devoured books. The creature had an appetite for learning that would make even the most ardent human scholar feel like a dunce. During the first months of his existence, Nergal found Mark to be incredibly boorish. He had had no ambition other than to eat and sleep.

Free will indeed, Nergal had thought contemptuously. He had been especially frustrated by the fact Mark didn't even need to eat. He just liked to.

At a certain point, Nergal concluded that Mark could only be thought of in terms of the simplest beings - an animal. Nergal wrote Mark off and went back to more pressing matters. There were other experiments in need of implementation. Nergal couldn't afford to waste his valuable time on such a trivial thing.

That was when the philosophizing had begun. No incident could take place without Mark commenting on all the possible meanings of it. Considering he had never read any of the great works of the philosophers of Elibe, Nergal found his mastery of analysis and logic to be especially refined. Still, Nergal left Mark to his own devices.

By itself, what good is philosophy? He thought.

Then something shocking occurred. It started when Nergal found himself facing a mathematical conundrum. Nergal was no expert on such matters. In spite of the many fields he had studied, the Dark Necromancer specialized in magic expressed by runes. The Ancients had devised this system for controlling magic and it had served the spellcasters of Elibe well for many centuries.

Even so, there was one civilization which turned out to be an exception to the rule. As old as the Ancients, a rival empire had refused to use the same system of magic as their enemies. Instead of rune languages and composition, they made use of mathematical formulas and terminology.

Nergal had always looked down upon numbers, so their use in magic remained a mystery to him. Very few Sages continued to study them, which made it difficult for his Morphs to find a comprehensive guide on the subject. The only one he knew of to possess such a guide was Athos.

Nergal grimaced at the thought of his one time friend turned enemy. Now was not the time to reveal himself. He couldn't put his plans into jeopardy for the sake of one experiment.

Besides, there is a book out there which can help me decipher this spell. I just have to find it.

That was when Mark appeared. He was bored and wanted to have a conversation about the nature of boredom. Given that his fellow Morphs didn't seem to understand what boredom was, he decided his master would be the best outlet.

"Lemo hi habo nolome?" he asked Nergal. This amounted to 'can I speak to you master?'

"Go away," Nergal said, hunched over the equations he needed to solve to unlock the spell. He remembered Mark wouldn't be able to understand him. "Sato ji."
Mark sighed, unhappy to be so low on Nergal's priority list. He glanced around at the many trappings of his master's compartment. It was much more comfortable looking than the habitation he had found for himself (an underground, basement-style ruin outside Dragon's Gate) but much less welcoming. Mark had gone to certain lengths to make sure his fellow Morphs knew it was fine to visit. None of them ever did.

Well, there was one, but it was a strange being. Mark felt sorry for the poor thing. It had a longing for their master the Morph of Free Will couldn't understand. How he knew this, Mark didn't know, but somehow he could tell. In any case, of all the Morphs, this creature was the only one beside himself which had a desire for company. It didn't have the freedom of will their master had granted him, but Mark discovered that Nergal's willful ignorance of the creature allowed for a similar effect.

"Sato hati?" Mark asked, noticing the equation his master struggled over. This amounted to 'what is that?'

Nergal contemplated destroying the creature for its refusal to leave, but decided such an action would be childish. Nonetheless, he repeated his earlier command. "Sato ji."
"Seto hati?"
"Sato ji!"
"Seto hati?"

"Sato ji!"

A furious staring match took place between Nergal and Mark. At least, Nergal was furious. Mark just thought it was all in good fun.

"Hi kee!" Mark said. This amounted to "I see!" The creature bent down, simutaneously seizing Nergal's pen from him. Before Nergal could strike Mark, he noticed something profound. The Morph was (correctly) solving the equation!
But how is that possible? Nergal wondered. Little did he know, math was a universal language, and the substance of Mark's soul had come from a corner of existence where such knowledge was latent.

From there on out, Nergal resolved to invest much more effort into Mark's development as a being.

A/N: I wish I was good at math. Anyway, thanks for the review Nightmare.