Prismatic Education Begins With A Spark 36 (MTG/Multicross)

Prismatic Education 36

While Winding Circle might have appeared idyllic at first glance, it could really kick into high gear when things called for it. 

With solid evidence of deceit in their midst, various dedicates of the temple went into action, accompanied by several red-robed guards of the Fire Temple. Aside from me, Winding Circle was also playing host to several other mages, and it didn’t take long for them to be tracked down and questioned. 

The Master Goldeye whose name I had heard being mentioned was apparently a famous visiting mage whose magic revolved around seeing, and that made him very skilled at picking out lies. With his assistance, the culprit was quickly identified to be a young adult male who claimed to have been visiting for the purpose of delivering a letter, having just graduated recently from Lightsbridge University. 

According to what Moonstream shared with me, the mage’s belongings had suspicious items in them, apparently meant for sabotaging the temple’s defenses from the inside. I examined a vial filled with a strong sedative, before setting it aside for another.

“That’s a mix of cinnamon and poppy oil,” One of the mage dedicates helpfully explained to me, “Cinnamon helps in disrupting tracking spells, while poppy works for invisibility. Very expensive. Not the kind of thing a new graduate would have without a rich sponsor.”

Well, that’s something new learned for today. I nodded in thanks, and continued my examination of the mage’s belongings. I think in Strixhaven, such things could be easily bought for three? Four gold? At most. Slightly more expensive in Orario, but still less than a thousand valis.

With how closely magic was tied to nature in this world, it was interesting how the mages worked their spells through natural ingredients. Unlike the alchemical spellcasting I associated with Witherbloom, the mages of this plane imbued natural ingredients like oil or salt with their own magic to awaken the innate mana, which they then used in their spellcasting. It was also possible for such mixtures to absorb and store magic they were exposed to, similar to making tea by boiling tea leaves in water. It was all very fascinating.

It wasn’t just liquids; even solid objects possessed inclination towards certain spells. Flint was linked to fire, but it could be protective as well. Pumice could be used in casting spells related to the element of air. 

My fingers itched to record all this down, but I resisted.

“Rosethorn’s boy mentioned smelling cinnamon and poppy in the Hub earlier today. That must have been when the mage snuck in.” Another dedicate put in.

“Thank the gods you stopped his plot before it could happen. If we had lost our seeing tools, the pirates would have taken us by surprise.”

The bell in the Hub rang, signaling the time of the day. However, I noticed that it was now ringing triple strikes.

“It’s a signal for evacuation, to the outlying farms and villages.” Someone else explained to me.

The door opened, admitting a tall, lanky redheaded man with messy hair and a trimmed beard. His red habit had the black border of a mage, but there was a gold circle embroidered on one side of his chest.

“First Dedicate Skyfire!” The other dedicates stood up.

So he’s the head of Fire Temple here. I met the man’s deep blue eyes and nodded in respect. Heard he also manages the guards and defenses.

“Everyone sit. We’ve got a defense to plan.” He said gruffly as he took a seat.

Dyna would absolutely love hearing about this when I see her next. I thought as they began to discuss the measures to take.

The door opened again, admitting Moonstream and a man with long silver-black hair. The moment he laid his eyes on me, he flinched and looked away.

“Gods above!” He hissed, rubbing his eyes with two fingers.

“Niko, what’s wrong?” Moonstream asked him.

“Just who is that mage sitting there?” He wanted to know.

“Roy Staff, traveling mage,” I answered for her, “Graduate of Strixhaven College, and here to help out against the pirates.”

“...perhaps we should all introduce ourselves first,” Moonstream suggested.

That was how I met the mage known as Niklaren Goldeye. Some part of me felt that his name was familiar, but it wasn’t enough to get anything more. 

Still looking anywhere else but me, he shared what he was able to learn from interrogating the mage spy, Aymery Glassfire. 

Aymery was in debt to Enahar, the mage supporting the pirate queen, and that was being leveraged into doing whatever the mage ordered him to do. There was even a magical binding laid upon the young man, making his life dependent on it.

“The earring the boy wears has been made with Enahar and Aymery’s blood,” Niko grimly revealed, causing some of the listening dedicates to gasp in shock.

With how deeply ingrained magic is in everything here, I’m not surprised that blood magic is powerful too. I knew that some Witherbloom mages used blood-based casting, aside from my experience with the Oriq one. Seems like using other people’s blood is frowned upon.

Aymery was apparently Enahar’s only agent on the inside, not that the temple people were going to assume so, conducting further investigations just in case there were others. However, the pirates still had blastpowder, as the locals had taken to calling it, on their side. The mini bombs intended for the seeing room had yielded samples for the defenders to examine, and it soon became clear that they weren’t adequately prepared to deal with such things.

This was further emphasized when the pirate fleet began launching attacks. While Winding Circle’s scrying could perceive the concealment spells the pirates were using now that they knew what to look for, it didn’t change the fact that the pirates were coming to attack no matter what. And in great numbers too.

That was what we could see from the southern wall facing the ocean, two days later. 

“We just have to hold out until the Duke’s navy can come to the rescue,” Skyfire said from beside me, as we watched the flickering images of the ships arrayed on the ocean.

“The question is, can we?” 

“It will be difficult,” The Fire Dedicate admitted, “They’re hitting us with a weapon that will tear holes in our normal defenses, which their people will try to penetrate to attack us directly.”

“You know, I was originally intending to visit for a short while, just check out the books here, blah blah blah…” I waved my hand in a careless gesture, before dropping it. “Didn’t expect to be involved in a siege.”

Skyfire barked a harsh laugh. “That’s life for you. Never goes how you want it!”

“I know it, but I still don’t like it.”

He glanced off to the side. “Hm, it seems we’ve got visitors who shouldn’t be where they are.”

There were a pair of children standing on the wall, one redheaded girl in glasses talking to Niko and Moonstream, while the other brown-skinned boy was peering at the illusions concealing the pirate fleet’s actual numbers. 

“You shouldn’t be on the wall,” Skyfire told the lad, whom he surprised with a shoulder grab from behind, “Things are going to get rough soon.”

The boy held up a round glass token and a message slate. “We have this for Moonstream. It’s important. Honest.”

“Then you better do that and get off the wall quickly.”

“Why? What are they doing?” The girl asked, having overheard.

“Catapults,” Skyfire answered, “I can’t see them. Don’t have to. The movements are right, and it’s what I’d be doing right now.”

She turned to look, but suddenly flinched and shut her eyes, stumbling back. Thankfully, Niko caught her before she could fall.

“Ow!” She yelped.

“...is it my fault again?” I wondered.

“I expect so, yes.” Niko replied dryly, his gaze locked on the girl he was supporting.

“That hurt.” She complained. “Why is he so bright?”

“I’ve wondered that myself.”

“As do I,” Moonstream added, “By the way, this is First Dedicate Skyfire, and that is Roy Staff.”

Likewise, she introduced the two kids as Briar Moss and Trisana Chandler (“Just call her Tris, her name’s a mouthful,” Briar said). Two of four kids who were being trained in magic at Discipline Cottage near Earth Temple. 

Briar, Tris, Discipline… A circle of magic. 

“Do I have something on my face?” Briar asked me, and I realized I had been staring at him.

“No… I think I saw you sitting on the roof with two girls?” I recalled the day I first entered Winding Circle.

“Oh, I remember now.” The boy blurted out. “That’s Daja and Sandry. Sandry’s the one who waved back.”

Compared to the others, his way of talking was more casual, indicating a history of one who was raised on the streets. I noticed crosses marked on his hands, signifying the mark of someone who was caught for thievery.

“Sounds like the type to aggressively befriend people.” 

“You’re more right than you know.” He told me frankly.

Tris was still looking away from me, but she was edging closer to where I was standing. 

“You need something?” 

“What’s that you’re carrying? I can feel it.” The redheaded girl wanted to know.

It took me a moment to connect the dots. From my memories, her magic had to do with the primal forces of nature; wind and water, going up to lightning, storms and even earthquakes. So it made sense that she would sense my elemental Marill, stored in its containment sphere.

“Tris, don’t disturb him,” Niko called to her, “Since you’re here, take a look at what the initiates are doing.”

She complied, though I could feel her magic prodding at my person as she watched the mages work on their magic tool of metal chains and stones to create floating magical shields.

“Here we go!” Skyfire called out in warning.

Two black balls soared into the air, appearing clearly once they were past the illusion veil. As expected, they were going higher than normal catapult stones, due to being lighter. I was preparing to intercept them in case the other mages couldn’t, when someone else did first.

Powerful winds raced past me, making me stumble slightly while the others were thrust out of the way. They swirled around Tris, who shaped them into a swirling funnel of opaque wind, and released it upwards. It swept up the balls as they started to descend, keeping them aloft.

Wow, that’s some power she holds. And it feels so in tune with the world itself. I watched, impressed with how smoothly she did it, even though it was pure instinct.

Then they exploded, blowing apart the mini-twister and scattering dust, fragments and soot all over the people on the wall.

“Get the children off the wall,” Moonstream ordered, “Skyfire, I leave matters here to you.” 

The man nodded, and began issuing orders to the mages to prepare shields to intercept the bombardment. The battle was only just beginning.

…

“You have one chance to surrender.” I spoke. “Reject that, and I will show no mercy.”

My magnified voice echoed over the sea cove, but the raiders just jeered in response as they jumped down from their ships. Some of them were readying smaller catapults, intending to launch a flammable substance known as battlefire as support fire.

Arcane… Arcane-Arcane-Lightning-Lightning. The three red orbs and two purple ones floated around me.

Then I unleashed it in a deadly beam from my staff.

Multiply. Adjust targeting formulae.

The beam split into several, striking multiple targets. People screamed as they were scorched by its deadly energy, while others hurriedly ducked for cover. The ones who had been setting up the catapults were immolated when the battlefire ignited on them. Others seized up when the seawater conducted the lightning through their wet bodies.

Above me, some bombs began to fall, but the fractal bird on my shoulder took flight to intercept them, blowing them up in the air before they could hit anyone on the ground.

Then the Arcane buildup reached a critical point, and each lost life resulted in deadlier explosions.

In the span of a few minutes, the cove was a gory scene of blood spattered sand and burning ships. The boats that were about to land began to reverse course, not wanting to join their compatriots in death. 

“Shurri preserve us…”
“Gods above…”

“Surrender! I surrender!” Surprisingly, there were a few survivors, and they dropped their weapons to raise their hands above their heads.

They were giving me looks of horror, and obediently let themselves be tied up to be imprisoned by the Temple Guard. I marked them with a bit of ink magic to ensure they were properly compliant. My fellow defenders were looking at me with fear as well, but I ignored them. This was war, and I wasn’t going to go in half-heartedly.

More than that, I was extremely annoyed at how the pirates kept bombing us from behind their magical barrier. The barrier was sustained by several mages’ worth of power, making it practically impenetrable to anything Winding Circle could throw at it. There were counter traps scattered over it as well, making it dangerous for normal mages to touch it with their magical senses. The enemy mastermind clearly put a lot of thought into this.

Unlike the Winding Circle mages who had limited magical stamina, the pirates only had to reload and fire off their explosive ordinance, which their mages would then ignite using the magical trigger they had. They could keep it up as long as they had the supplies for it, and it looked like the pirates came well-stocked. Also, our side’s mages couldn’t be everywhere at once, so some eventually made it through, leaving blast craters all over the place. Some of them even managed to damage the defenses, making our job harder.

So things were at a stalemate for the time being.

I could probably break the barrier with a proper Counterspell, but they had their own point defenses, making it a risky venture to get close enough to cast it. So for the time being, I endured. Perhaps when things got too severe, I would act.

Defending the sea cove wasn’t the only experience of battle I had. There were reports of some stragglers who hadn’t arrived to take cover within Winding Circle yet, so I went to investigate with a fast moving group. We found a separate group of raiders in the middle of capturing them, and quickly moved to rescue the civilians. I got to wield my staff physically, bashing heads and breaking bones. After that, we escorted the rescued people back to the temple, where they were hurried off to see the healers for treatment.

“Where’s Skyfire?” I asked one of the guards nearby. 

“He’s having a meeting with Honored Moonstream and the other great mages. Is it urgent?” The bald woman asked uncomfortably. 

“No. It’s not.” I beckoned for the water canteen, and she thrust it into my hand in a hurry.

Can’t believe it’s only been a day so far… I thought as I took a drink. Ugh, it’s warm. 

I chilled it with a touch of ice magic, and drank again.

Movement caught my eye, and I looked to see Tris stomping towards the wall, trailed by Marill. I had lent her my elemental on a whim, curious as to how she interacted with it. Oddly, it didn’t look like she was coming to return it to me.

One of the guards tried to stop her, only to be pushed away by a powerful gust of wind. Others, noticing, tried to join as well, but she kept them off her as she climbed the stairs. Curious, I followed at a safe distance.

She created a barrier of lightning to keep the guards and mages on the wall from interfering, its crackling energy making them stay back. Marill had been left outside, so I recalled it back into my containment sphere.

“Tris, what happened?” I called out to her, but she didn’t appear to hear me. “TRIS!”

She noticed, and glanced at me through tear-filled eyes. “They killed him! They killed my cousin! Now they’re going to drive me from this place?! I’m done with that!” 

I blinked. “Ooookay? So what are you going to do now?”

Instead of answering, she began to manipulate the wind. Unlike the instinctual act I had seen before, this time Tris worked with determined motions. Her hands wove together two threads of wind, spinning them together and causing it to become stronger.

That speed of growth… that’s not normal. I scrutinized it carefully. Weaving magic? It’s mixed in with her weather magic, enhancing what she’s doing. 

Now I remembered. The four children apparently mixed their magic together, allowing elements of each other’s magic to spill into their own, and vice versa. 

That was what this place was about, wasn’t it? The gathering of many different types, mixing together and forming new ways to grow. It didn’t matter if one had nature magic, smith magic, plant magic, or weaving magic, what mattered was how it developed from there.

I could feel the beginnings of the mana bond, but there was something more important to focus on first.

Tris sent the growing whirlwind out of her barrier, letting it touch down onto the ground outside, feeding on the debris to become a deadly shredding tornado. Then it touched the water, and became a waterspout.

I continued to observe, even as she threw it against the magic barrier, grinding against its protection. Then I turned to see three other children climbing the stairs. Briar was at the back, following a black girl with a staff, and a brown-haired girl with a braided hairstyle. I guessed that they were Daja and Sandry.

“You gonna join her too?” I asked them.

“She needs our help.” Sandry replied, walking straight into the lightning barrier without hesitation.

Daja glanced at me, then shrugged and did the same. I looked at Briar, who looked like he couldn’t decide if he should be exasperated or not.

“You know what? Go and give those pirates hell.” I told them, using a bit of word magic to enhance their powers.

Briar flipped me a lazy salute, and joined the girls in the barrier.

“They’re coming again!” One of the guards called out an alert, pointing at the next bunch of longboats coming towards the shore.

Sighing, I leapt off the wall to join the defenders on the ground again.

As I fought, I got to see the four child mages unleash their full magical might. Their mana merged with the waterspout’s, and after a few impacts, shattered the magical barrier entirely, revealing the true positions of the ships behind it. After that… It was a massacre.

The waterspout ripped through ships, while others pulled themselves apart as the metal in their structure moved at a metallokinetic’s command. Moving vines joined me in the defense of the shore, whipping at the raiders, and lightning blasted through several boats, igniting their blastpowder stocks. The rest of the defenders, emboldened by the turning tide of the battle, joined in as well.

I had to focus on my own battles, but after several more ships were destroyed, the pirates began to flee, especially when the Emelan navy arrived in force. The sight of the ships coming around the peninsula was met with cheers from the defenders.

The cleanup afterwards took longer, though I helped contribute quite a lot with healing and reconstruction. The prisoners had to be healed enough before they could be sent to the duke for judgment, not to mention the defenders who had taken injuries during the fighting. My actions during the battle had spread around, and whispers followed me wherever I went. Some of them, like Skyfire, gruffly expressed their thanks for my help, but others were fearful. 

As for the four kids, they had worn themselves out with their display of magic and needed to rest, but I was able to meet them when I dropped by the cottage two days after the climactic battle.

“So you’re leaving then?” Briar asked me, barely sitting up at the dining table.

“Yeah, it’s about time for me to move on.” Especially since their demonstration gave me the understanding I needed to form the mana bond here.

“How can you handle it?” Tris asked me, her face pale. “All those lives… it’s horrible.”

She had been in a rage, but now that it was spent, the girl was horrified at all those lives she killed with her actions. Not just pirates, but slaves as well, who had been chained to the ships that she sank.

“It’s different for everyone, but for me, it’s my determination to protect those behind me,” I answered. Righteousness didn’t just temper my body, but my will as well.

The other two girls weren’t paying as much attention, due to their focus on examining what caught their interest. Daja was looking at one of my steel balls, while Sandry was entranced by my foreign clothing.

It took a while before they released me, mainly because the two women in charge of the place, Rosethorn and Lark, called them to their lessons. I wished them well with words that revived their flagging stamina, and quietly departed from Winding Circle Temple. I could sense some people watching me, but no one actually followed. Then when I reached the ruins of the lighthouse tower on Bit Island, I stepped behind a wall, and-

SPARK

Left the plane, to return to Orario. A cure was in my bag, waiting to be administered.

Afterword: I’m not too sure of the quality of this chapter, considering that I’m half-awake as I wrote this through the night on my day off. Perhaps it was a bit of a rush, but after reading the original text, the events actually took place over a few days, not even a full week. 

In terms of future potential, the Circleverse does have quite a bit. Though I’m following the canon details so far, I hope to explore and come up with my own twists in the future. Anyway, thanks to my readers again, and look forward to the next world Roy visits.