Dream Magic: Awakenings

by Harshaw, Dawn

  Annie made a large magic sphere, with its circles and rotations clearly visible to Eric. It shrunk, expanded again, and repeated the process each time slightly faster than before. It looked like there were two spheres, one expanding and one contracting, and then they would switch directions. They were moving quite fast. Three spheres... no, four... five... all changing into one another. Eric lost track and stared at the strange, self-moving shape without trying to understand it.

  "The goal is to pack the motions into a form that is stable. If it is stable, that means the earth mage doesn't have to concentrate on maintaining form with awareness and imagination alone. That's a plus. The stability of form is often measured and tested by its resistance to change: if it is too resistant, the mage has to invest energy into changing it again for her own purposes. That's a minus."

  The sphere condensed into some kind of metallic fluid; waving, making perturbations and spiky protrusions. With a final wave, the metallic ball 'clicked' into motionlessness, and fell into Annie's palm.

  "This thing's heavy, catch."

  Eric caught the ball with one hand, and it immediately pulled him down. It felt like metal, looked like metal, smelled like metal. He used both hands for support and lobbed the thing to Lucy.

  Lucy passed it to Rose, who passed it to Annie again.

  "Neat, huh? Also not very useful, unless you have great hand strength or a cannon to go along with it. Practical earth magic is about creating forms that are stable in some directions and unstable in others, so the mage may control through the path of least resistance. The earth element is well suited as a component in complex spells, but the spells of other elements can be easier to use and more directly appliable in simpler situations. Especially in air-based realms."

  "Can you make it heavier?" Eric asked.

  "I can compound more mass, yes."

  "How heavy can you make it?"

  "I dunno, let's see."

  Annie tossed the ball up and it remained floating above her hand. Its surface turned liquid and began pulsating once more.

  Giant, barely perceptible magic spheres faded in from seemingly everywhere; the rotating edges came from the sky and the horizon, passed through Eric and the others, and now strong, sunk beneath the surface of the metallic liquid. One after the other, the whole world seemed to be pulsing only to shrink and bombard the space above Annie's hand.

  "I'm approaching my limit. The awareness differential between this form and its background is diminishing - I can't push it much further."

  There was a sound too: a hissing, high-pitched sound. Eric couldn't see the ball anymore; there was only the world shining light into Annie's hand and the darkness which swallowed it. That spherical darkness somehow broke space around it, grew, and began twirling into itself.

  "Oh shit oh shit," Annie's mouth was moving fast, but the sound took a long time to reach Eric's ears.

  Eric felt nauseous. He looked at his hands: they were elongated and putty-like, waving and being drawn spirally towards the black hole. His head ached like someone dropped a brick on it.

  "I lost control... Get back! Run!" Annie yelled.

  Chapter 11 - Portal Magic

  The holographic principle states that any number of dimensions equals any number of dimensions. When the local supersymmetry breaks in order to accommodate awareness, dimensional collapse occurs.

  1D to 0D is a distinguishable point. 2D to 0D is a circle or torus, and 2D to 1D is a line or polarity field. 3D to 0D is a black hole, 3D to 1D is a field along a line, and 3D to 2D is a field along a plane. For an extensive list of meta-geometrical shapes resolving in various observed dimensions, as well as related fractal imagery, consult a reality-weaver.

  - Zeno Walks Funny: The Holographic Principle and the Folding Equations, Dreamer's Handbook

  "When making a portal, you have to prop it up from within to create a contained collapse and not a total breakdown. You know that," Master Joe said.

  "I wasn't trying to make a portal..." Annie's tone was low and her body tense.

  "Oh? What were you doing then?"

  "Trying to make the heaviest sphere I could."

  Master Joe laughed. "Isn't that something!"

  "Raw talent is worthless if your knowledge of theory is lacking," Mr. Smith remarked.

  Annie clenched her lips and bowed her head. A tear escaped her eye.

  "There, there," Master Joe raised a hand to Annie's face. "He meant to say you have more potential than you give yourself credit for. You could pack this whole realm into a sphere and you still wouldn't reach your limit."

  Annie was crying. "No, it's true... I have less brains than talent," she sobbed, and grasped Master Joe's hand.

  Master Joe drew her close and embraced her in a hug. "You have skill and you have brains too. Talent is just a useless word," he consoled. "No harm's done. Johnny and I will find out what went wrong, and until then, how about you familiarize the youngsters with portal magic? It's not every day they see something like this. Can you do that?"

  Annie slowly nodded and reinforced it by saying "Yes." She stepped back, wiped her tears, and turned away to compose herself.

  Eric, Rose and Lucy watched the adults' commotion silently. When Annie told them to run, they did, but they didn't get very far before Master Joe and Mr. Smith showed up. The strange, twisting and nauseating feeling vanished at once, and all was right with the world.

  Except for the area with Annie's handiwork. Part of it dark, part of it light - a semi-translucent contortion of space was floating violently near the edge of the cliff. When he gazed long enough, Eric thought he could see geometrical shapes within, but every subsequent moment the twisting void would change into something else that defied not only Eric's description of it, but also his comprehension.

  Annie walked back to them, her face showing masked evidence of crying and a forced smile. "I messed that up, didn't I? I guess I'm not the one who should be chastising others for being irresponsible." She shook her head and facepalmed.

  Eric chose to interpret the question as rhetorical, and remained silent. He did feel a tinge of guilt, since he was the one who asked Annie to push it further, but he wasn't going to beat himself up about it.

  Rose and Lucy did not seem too phased either. They were still breathing heavily as an aftermath of their minds switching suddenly in and out of survival mode, but they were just startled rather than afraid.

  "Anyway... portal magic has all these theories and interpretations that you have to study if you want to make a portal. Personally, I find teleportation much easier, but if you want to teleport a lot of people, especially back and forth across different realms, making a portal is the way to go. I studied a few theories that work with the air element, but obviously you can make a portal through the earth element as well if you're not careful..." Annie pointed to the mysterious space-bending thing and frowned. "Live and learn."

  "Here's how I understood the basics... Imagine a circle, just floating around in the middle of nothingness. Look at it, and then zoom out more and more, until you get bored: the view from this perspective is called a 'point'. Now pick another circle, and look at the circumference of the circle. Zoom in, more and more, until you get bored. What you see is called a 'line'. Now, pick a point and throw a bunch of lines at it. Depending on how many lines you threw together, what you get is that-many-dimensional space. Easy, right?"

  "I don't get it."

  Annie sighed. "It's like nothing is really nothing, right? Even the nothing is a sandwich of perspectives, a bunch of circles stitched together, moving and waving and looking. When you make a portal, you're just magnifying a connection that's already there, and you make it stable so you don't really have to work at that level anymore."

  "That sounds really strange."

  "Yeah, I know. That's why symbol-weavers make all these theories; to make it less strange for portal mages to work with. I don't know how else to explain..." Annie's face brightened. "We have a master symbol-weaver right
here, we'll ask him."

  Annie stepped towards Mr. Smith with a raised hand and about to ask a question, but he and Master Joe were engaged in a discussion. She waited for a more opportune spot to interrupt.

  "...should we just draw the shaman in and teach him a lesson?"

  "I like the way you think, but he's not alone anymore. Skillful little booger, tunneling below the fluctuations of the realm and hijacking the anomaly... We could be wasting a valuable opportunity."

  Mr. Smith stood silent for a few moments. "A show of force, then?"

  "That's more like it! We could..." Master Joe noticed Annie standing there awkwardly. "Yes?"

  "I was hoping Mr. Smith could shed some light on the connection between portal magic and symbol-weaving. I'm afraid I'm just confusing the kids."

  Master Joe waved Mr. Smith down before he could reply. "I'll go, keep an eye here and we'll compare plans after."

  Annie walked back to the kids with Master Joe.

  "Portal magic is an advanced subject; it can make you crazy if you try too hard to understand it. How about a joke instead? It goes like this..."

  * * *

  A mathematician goes for a walk, carves the formula "v = s / t" onto the trunk of a tree, and walks on by.

  Later on, a physicist walks by the same tree, notices the carving, and says to himself: "Velocity equals distance per time, what a practical equation! If I measure two of the variables, I can calculate the third for free!" He walks away.

  A generalist mage walks by the tree, notices the carving, and says to himself: "Imagination equals space per time, what a useful operational precept! By centering myself, my imagination can move the world!" He walks away.

  A portal mage, who hopes to be a reality-weaver one day, walks by the tree, notices the carving, and says to himself: "Awareness is supersymmetry per broken symmetry, what a deep realization! Thanks to it, I can spread my identity across multiple realities and enact portals." He walks away.

  A zen practitioner walks by the tree and notices the carving. He shakes his fist, and speaks out loudly: "It's that vandal mathematician again!"

  * * *

  Master Joe was slapping his knees and laughing so hard he was almost rolling on the ground. Annie stood there awkwardly with a polite smile on her face. Was that supposed to be a joke? I bet the old guy's just trolling us.

  Lucy was lost in her thoughts, but Rose seemed amused. Master Joe's enjoyment was genuine, and his odd behavior prompted Eric to start laughing too. The old guy is hilarious, even if his joke sucks. Laughter infected Rose, then Lucy and Annie as well.

  "Funny, right?" Master Joe was obviously proud of the joke and its successful telling. He was rewarded by reluctant nods and smiling faces.

  "Would you care to explain the meaning of this story?" Lucy asked.

  Master Joe shook his head and waved dismissively. "Jokes don't have to make sense to be funny. Portal magic is an advanced subject anyway; you kids should just focus on having fun." He pointed to Annie. "You, however, should look into the higher order analogues of equations, especially the earth related ones. You could start with Einstein's famous 'E = mc²'."

  "Why that one?" Annie asked, but she didn't receive an answer and started mumbling to herself. "Hmm... square of c... solving for m... folding by fixed measure... Oh, so that's what I did! That's what they mean by making a portal through the earth element!"

  "Indeed," Joe confirmed. "As they say, one stone in the hand is worth two in the bush. Still, you're approximating circles with squares, so remember to normalize your equations to keep errors from popping up in the wrong places."

  Eric very much doubted that was a real saying.

  In the real world, when adults talked about things he didn't understand or care about, Eric would just let it pass over. They talk about stupid things, anyway. Here, it was a little different for him: like the persons talking carried a torch through his mind. Eric would see little images of ideas, and the things they talked about made some sense to him while they were talking. After the torch disappeared into the darkness, things were back to not making sense.

  It wasn't that ideas ran away from him, but more like he somehow failed to catch them with the framework of his understanding. Like the scent of a flower you smell for a moment, and then it's gone. He found the experience interesting.

  "Come, I'll show you," Master Joe said to Annie, gesturing as the two of them walked towards the anomaly. "You see that part there? The rippling hasn't steadied yet. That direction has to be magnified and stabilized for the portal to be functional, and after..."

  Chapter 12 - Focus Magic

  Take energy from the inner world, push it through the focus item, and achieve the desired result in the outer world - this is the age-old method of focus magic that was tried and tested many times over. If you prefer not only to use, but also understand, consider these questions: What happens if the process is reversed? More strangely, what happens if your identity is neither the cause nor the effect, but rather the object of focus?

  - Focus and Flow of Energy,

  Dreamer's Handbook

  "Focus magic is all about focus items: wands, staves, scepters, crystals and even special purpose items such as voodoo dolls," Maeve said.

  The class was taking place inside a wide circle, the boundary of which was marked by small stones. Four large, square-shaped slabs of rock occupied the center of the henge. Students were standing next to three of the stone tables, and Maeve was sitting on the fourth.

  Eric tapped on the flat surface beneath his hands. I hope this won't be the worst class ever. He recalled and went through the memory of the most boring classes he had in real life. On second thought, it would be hard to top those.

  Piles of staves, wands and crystals towered behind Maeve on the table. She turned around and grabbed a modest-looking wand.

  "The basic function of a wand is to provide a baseline for magic spells. This wand here, see, is made of wood and it is one of the simpler types. A makeshift wand may be nothing more than the twig of a tree, but for the long term, it's better to use a well-crafted and personalized tool."

  Maeve swept her hand along the length of the wand, almost caressing it.

  "It is important to choose the material carefully. Wood is good, living material which interacts well with most energies a mage or witch operates with. Glass and metal make wands which may be better for specific spells. Just don't use plastic," Maeve chuckled, "those damn things will melt in your hand! Animal bones, too, are frequently crafted into focus items, but I'm not fond of such."

  Maeve hopped down from the table and started rummaging through a pile of crystals.

  The fourth person at Eric, Rose and Lucy's table was a black-haired girl. She was so little she had to stand on another stone to comfortably look down on the top of the table. Her hair was straight and long, and her eyes deep. She bobbed her head once in a while as if she was listening to music.

  "Crystals and gems are the other major group of focus items. They are the filters and batteries of magic." Maeve grabbed several crystals and proceeded to hand them out to students.

  "The most notable attribute of crystals is clarity. When magical energies are focused upon them, crystals interact or resonate only with a narrow band of energies. Although this may seem wasteful at first glance, it makes them quite suitable as focus items. The mage has to focus on that clear, narrow band of energies, and this increases the spell's precision and reliability."

  Eric touched the crystal Maeve placed in front of him. It glowed dimly, but the glow vanished as soon as he removed his finger. Interesting.

  "Crystals are often great at storing magical energy. Since the focused energy has already been purified, it is easier for the crystalline structure to withstand greater amounts of it. A fully charged gem or crystal is vivid and full of color, and may even emit a faint light. Crystals may become volatile if improperly charged - handle them with care."

  The little girl giggled. She held up her cryst
al, which glowed under her touch, and pointed at herself. "Gem - Gemma."

  "So adorable! How old are you?" Rose asked.

  "This many!" Gemma raised three fingers, and went on to raise and lower them randomly.

  Eric smiled, and turned his attention to the crystal in front of him. He scooped it up from the cold stone into his palm, and watched lights dance at the bottom. He elevated his hand, and when he tilted it at a particular angle, the brilliance of the sun's rays reflected in the crystal. It felt almost weightless.

  "Let's see if you can figure out on your own how to charge a crystal," Maeve instructed the class. "Try not to break it!"

  Heh, this will be easy. Eric imagined the energy from his hand going into the crystal and filling it up. It grew brighter, and encouraged Eric to concentrate more.

  The crystal started pulsing. It brightened and dimmed, and with each ebbing phase, Eric felt some of his energy return to him. Eric kept at it, and the pulsing crystal began vibrating with a slight hum.

  Yes! It must be working!

  He continued stuffing energy into it. The pulsation grew more rapid and the hum became a high pitch.

  Almost there! Eric put both his hands below the crystal, and watched the crystal jitter. One second... two... the pitch became so high he stopped hearing it... three... four... and crack! The crystal splintered and flew off his palm with a puff.

  Damn. I thought I had it.

  "You are trying too hard. Don't do it like that."

  Eric looked up and saw Maeve standing next to him. "No?"

  "No. You're trying to put your own energy into the crystal. It might work, but even if you hit the crystal's signature frequency, you will likely mess up its self-resonance and break it into pieces anyway. Forget this approach; precision comes before power."

  Maeve moved closer. "Just listen to it. Feel its clarity. Let it speak to you. Then, once you see it clearly in your mind, focus on such clarity in yourself, and reflect it back onto the crystal. Don't charge the crystal - help it charge itself. Okay?"