“This amulet will let us know how much magic you are using. The less magic you use to accomplish your tests, the better affinity you have to whatever you are testing. There are ten rows of bars with five bars each. That’s fifty bars. If you light up all fifty bars then stop immediately. That means you are using a lot of power and we don’t want you to run out.”
“For these tests we want to test your magic, not your creations. So don’t use any of your little projections to solve these problems.”
She pulled out a clear glass container with lots of little cubes in it. “Let’s start with solid objects. These cubes are made of different materials, and they are different sizes, but they all weight the same. It should take the same amount of magic to lift them, unless you have an affinity to a certain material.”
“Let’s begin.”
The cubes were pretty light so it was easy to move them. I picked them up one by one and all of them registered a five on the power-use amulet. There was a mix of metals, woods, and other stuff I didn’t recognize. After I was done Sandy said my results were in the normal range.
Next, she pulled out a cube with lots of tubes in it which were filled with different types of liquid. One of them I think was water and another one I recognized as mercury. Other than that I wasn’t sure what the rest of them were. Again I just needed to lift them to the top of their tube.
This was harder than the cube challenge. There wasn’t anything solid to grab onto. I couldn’t use any of my little guys and Sandy wasn’t providing any help.
I ended up making a floor of magic at the bottom of the tube and then lifting the liquid that way. My first tube spiked in power usage. That seemed strange as the water couldn’t weigh that much. If anything, it should be lighter than the materials in the previous challenge. Then I realized I wasn’t letting anything through my floor. I was creating a vacuum and that made it very hard to lift. So I made a little space on the side for the air to get through. Then I could lift the liquid easily. Again, it took about five magic to lift all of them. There wasn’t any sort of liquid that I had an affinity for.
Sandy said I did really well. Lots of people couldn’t figure out how to lift a liquid as there was nothing solid to grab onto. I didn’t have an affinity for liquids, but I didn’t have a problem with them either.
She pulled out her next clear cube. It also had lots of tubes in it, but this time they were filled with gas. Sandy told me they were different colors but I couldn’t see colors. The gasses felt different to me, though, so I thought I could work with it.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to move gas around. I could zoom in and see the different molecules, but moving the gas around one molecule at a time would take forever. I had an idea, though. I made a floor again, but this time I made it porous. I told it not to let any molecules through that felt a certain way. When I moved the floor, it took all the types of that molecules with it. It wasn’t scientific, but it felt right and it seemed to work.
I told Sandy I couldn’t see color with my magic sight and she’d have to let me know how I was doing. She said I was doing great and I’d separated all the gasses. Sometimes I’d moved the clear gas to the top and the colored gas to the bottom, but the object had been to separate the gasses so she was counting it as done. I thought moving the gas was easy. It only registered a two on the magic scale.
Sandy said most people could not do this challenge and I clearly had an affinity for gas. I really wanted to make a fart joke at this point, but Sandy had her serious face on.
So I had my first affinity. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with gas, but it was nice to be good at something. I was creative. I’d figure something out.
Next, Sandy said we would work on distance. She gave me a cube to float above my hand. The cube was small so it only registered a four on the magic scale. Then she asked me to move my hand away and leave the cube where it was. Magic output jumped to eight. That was the most power I’d used so far.
Sandy asked me to take a step away. I did, and the cube held steady but the magic output jumped to 20. Sandy said to take another step away. The magic output jumped to 44. We stopped there and I let the cube fall. Clearly I was not a distance person.
“Remember I talked about how the more we break the rules, the more magic it takes?” Sandy asked.
“Sure,” I said. I wasn’t sure how that applied to this. I hadn’t moved the cube around and it hadn’t changed weight or anything like that.
“So here is a learning example. The question is how were you keeping the cube in the air?”
“Well, I just pushed it off my hand in the beginning,” I said. “When I moved away, I just made it stay in the air. I’m not sure how. I just made sure it stayed there.”
“So, would you say that you were making the cube stay in the air relative to you?” Sandy asked.
“Yes, I was. I was thinking of holding it up with my mind. Kind of like what you see in the movies.”
“I thought that might be what you are doing. That’s what almost everyone does their first time. Let’s try it again, but this time let’s try a different approach. Hold out your hand and float the cube again.” I did that. “What is the cube floating relative too?”
“My hand,” I said. The magic output was back to a four again.
“Ok, now take your hand way and this time float the cube off of the surface of the table.” I did that. The cube dipped before I had the new anchor ready. Once I had it set up, though, I could tell it took less energy. Output had jumped to six instead of eight.
“Now take a step back,” Sandy said.
The output jumped to 12 which was way better than 20. “Let’s try another step,” Sandy suggested.
The output jumped to 25. We ended the test again. I didn’t want to lose too much magic as I wasn’t sure how many tests there were still to go.
“That felt so different,” I said. “I still don’t have an affinity for distance, but the way I anchored the cube was huge. I’ve never thought about moving objects this way before.”
“I’m glad you liked the example,” Sandy said. “Anytime you are doing something, and it’s not a battle situation, think about all the physics involved and see if there is an easier way to do it. This is where learning and practice come in.
“Just so you know how you did, this is your first weakness. Most people can go the distance of this workshop or even farther before it becomes an issue for them. Even with the new anchor point, you’ll still max out in three or four steps.”
Well crap. This seemed like a pretty big weakness to me. I wasn’t going to be slinging fireballs any time soon. Most of the battle in the park had involved throwing spells at a distance. Not being able to do that was going to be a big disadvantage.
I must have looked upset because Sandy hastened to add “Now you know about it, though, you can plan for it. For example, your little cartoon characters you make, where do you start making them?”
“I usually make them in the air right in front of me,” I said.
“Since distance is such a big factor for you, trying holding out your hand and making them directly on your palm. Or, if you can’t do that, try making them as close to you as possible. See if that doesn’t make them stronger and easier to fill with magic.”
That was a good idea. If I could make my little guys faster and better then that was worth finding out. It still stung that I had such a big weakness, though.
“I’m just curious, what does a distance affinity do for you?” I asked.
“The two biggest things supernaturals do that have a distance affinity is fly and far seeing. Flying is really levitating with speed. Since their magic works well at a distance, they can push off the earth and sail through the air. You still have to have a lot of power to do this, though. After all, you are moving your body weight around.”
“Far seeing is being able to see and communicate long distances. This was much more useful before we had phones. Far seers were usually merchants an
d ended up being very rich. Now, anyone can pick up a phone and call someone in another continent.”
Flying would have been cool! I felt really bummed now. Maybe I shouldn’t ask about the things I’m not good at.
Focus on the good stuff. I’m accepting this. Moving on.
“So, what’s next?” I asked.
This time she pulled out a small box with cloudy sides. I couldn’t see what was inside it.
“Let’s try aura cracking next,” she said. “Some supers have the ability to get through magic auras and affect a person directly. This box has aura built into the walls. Just try and see if you can get through and see what is inside.”
I already knew I couldn’t but I gave it a shot anyway. I pushed at the walls hard to see if I could part the aura. That didn’t work. I tried to narrow my focus and drill through somehow. That didn’t work either.
Sandy did something to the cube and now the walls weren’t as cloudy. With a lot of looking I thought there might be a tiny elephant charm inside. Sandy changed the walls again. This time I could clearly see a cat charm. Sandy said my ability to get through aura was in the normal range.
Next, we tested for time distortion. This cube had lots of tiny balls floating around in it. They would flash with magic but it happened very quickly. My job was to grab the ball when it flashed. Apparently some supers can manipulate time to become very quick. This would test that.
We started out with slow flashes and I was able to grab the ball every time. Then it sped up and soon I was missing much more than I was catching. At top speed I wasn’t catching any of them. Apparently, my reaction time was in the normal range. No super speed for me. I wasn’t slow either, so there was that at least.
Next up was a small stick. This would test my magic resistance by trying to change my skin blue. Sandy rubbed it on the inside of my forearm. Nothing happened.
She adjusted something and tried again. Nothing. She adjusted again. Nothing.
“Well, you are certainly resistant to magic!” Sandy said. “I’m going to max this out and see if we get any response at all.”
She rubbed my arm. “Still nothing. Not even the slightest bit of color change. You can count yourself very lucky. Even those with a high affinity usually have a slight color change.”
I was thrilled! I’d wanted to get some defensive skills. Now I’d found out I was highly magic resistant. This was something I certainly wanted to find out more about.
“So, other than the obvious, how does this affect me?” I asked.
“It means that magic directed at your personally will have a very hard time getting through. So, for example, if someone tried to cast disease on you it won’t get through. You’ll also be very resistant to any sort of mental or physical manipulation. So Tyler, as an incubus, uses magic to make your body ready for sex. Even without your remnant, you are probably still very resistant to his charms.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I’d been looking forward to losing my last remnant and then having some good sack time with Tyler. John and Annabeth had felt amazing after their time with him. I wanted that too. I guess I’d just have to wait and find out if his magic still worked on me.
“Something to keep in mind,” Sandy continued. “Magic can still work on something in this world that then works on you. For example, magic can animate a golem and that golem can still punch you in the face.”
Oh no she didn’t! I stuck my tongue out at her and made a face.
“I am well aware of that! Thank you very much,” I said with as much snark as I could muster.
Sandy just laughed and gave me a hug. The moment of levity was a nice break from all this testing.
“Seriously, though, there are other battle magics that can affect you. For example, a heat spell cooks the air around you. Even though it can’t raise your temperature directly, it can still cause you to burn and your clothes to catch fire.
“Another example is the spell that Isobel used to stop you running. It stuck your feet to the ground. I’m guessing she did that with either your shoe, or her magic encased your feet and then stuck to the ground. The point is, though, that everyone has some resistance to magic, and lots of spells have already taken that into account. This affinity is really good, but it doesn’t solve everything.”
“I’m guessing that since you are so good at magic resistance, you are going to be good at the next test.” She pulled out a small blank cube. There wasn’t anything special that I saw other than the sides were not clear like most of the others. When she put it in my hand, it lit up.
“This test isn’t really an affinity to anything. It just measures how dense your soul is. In your case, it’s very dense. The color of your magic is saturated and vivid. That’s why you have such a high magic resistance. The soul in other magics can’t compete with the density of your soul.”
That sounded intriguing.
“This is the first time I’m hearing about soul,” I said. “What does that do for me?”
“Your soul is the part of you that mixes with magic and lets you control it. The higher the ratio of soul to magic, the more you can do with your power. When you were talking about being able to direct your magic into your cells, I was pretty sure you had a dense soul.
“Looking at it from a battle perspective, if two magics clash, the magic with more soul wins. That’s not a hard and fast rule, because it depends a lot on the situation. If one person has a lot more magic applied than the other person, then they are going to win regardless of soul density.
“Outside of battle, you are probably going to be great at making charms. The more soul you put into the charm, the more powerful it is and the easier it is to use.”
“Is that why Isobel can’t make charms?” I asked. “She certainly is powerful, but her aura stinks.”
“There are a lot of things wrong with Isobel,” Sandy said. “But I’m pretty sure that is why her charms are duds. Let’s not get off track talking about her, though. Instead, let’s test your magic capacity.”
She knew I’d have questions so she kept going. “Magic capacity is how much magic you can hold. It’s a theoretical number as most mages will never realize their full capacity. Being able to make your magic denser is a lifelong journey and takes years of technique and practice. Obviously, the more magic you can hold, the more spells you can cast and the longer they last.”
She pulled out a leather case with a zipper. She unzipped it and inside was an array of bars of varying sizes tucked into their pockets. It looked like one of those tool cases that hold drill bits, only fancier. They varied in size from something that looked like a pin, all the way up to a thicker bar about the size of a tube of lipstick. She gave me the smallest bar first.
I held it between my thumb and forefinger. It immediately lit up. Sandy put it back in the case and we tried the next size up. It lit up too. We kept going up the sizes, all the way to the biggest thickest one. Even that one lit up like a light bulb with no hesitation.
“There are larger kits in Chicago we can try if we both make it up there,” Sandy said. “But in the meantime I think we can safely say you have a high theoretical capacity. I thought you might, given how you put together your matrix.
“It’s great to have lots of power ready to go, but how fast can your magic flow? That’s the subject of the next test.” She reached back into her trunk and pulled out a cube with a turbine through the middle. “Just let your magic flow into the cube and it will spin the turbine. The faster you can get the magic into the cube, the faster the turbine will spin.”
She gave it to me and I got started. I could make it spin in a lazy fashion, but it sure wasn’t whizzing around. Sandy said I was a bit low on my flow, but not by much. She assured me it was fine. It would just take a bit longer to cast spells.
The next test required a steady table. This is the part where Bermuda would need to get down, but I realized he had already left. Cats are like ninjas. He could show up on my lap and I couldn’t remembe
r him actually arriving. Or he would be gone, and I couldn’t remember him leaving. Sandy just laughed and said it was a cat thing.
The next cube was designed to test how steady I was with my flow. The cube had several metal cubes in it. Each cube was about half as wide as the one before. My job was to stack up as many of them as I could.
I was already pretty sure I could ace this.
I set up the largest cube first, then the next largest on top of that, and so on. Sandy said this cube had almost a perfect vacuum in it so there wasn’t any chance of air movement tipping the cubes over. She was also using her power to keep the workbench absolutely still. The only thing that should tip over the stack would be if I messed up.
There were ten cubes total with the last one being long and very, very thin. Like thinner than a needle. This was the ultimate Jenga test.
Placing the first eight was simple. I had to zoom in a bit to place the last two. I still wasn’t anywhere near as zoomed in as when I was working with my cells. My magic flowed smoothly and easily. There were no jitters.
Sandy was impressed by how easily I’d completed the task. She said normal was five cubes stacked. She hadn’t seen anyone do all ten before. Since I’d done it so quickly she had a challenge for me. Do it again, but build it upside down! So the whole stack would be balancing on its narrowest point.
If I could get up to five cubes balanced then I could get supper at her place tonight. I was pretty sure I could get supper anyway, but this sounded like fun.
I took my stack apart, and started with the largest cube again. This time I raised that cube in the air, and put the next smallest one underneath it. The first four cubes were easy, but then it got tricky. I made it up to seven but I was sweating now. Being top heavy, the stack was super sensitive to the smallest vibration or the tiniest misplacement. When I tried for eight, I realized the table was shaking ever so slightly. It wasn’t something I could see normally, but as zoomed in as I was, I could sense it. I wanted to use my magic to keep the stack up, but I let it fall. I was pretty sure I could have done more, but it would have to be in a very stable environment. The workbench, even with Sandy holding it, wasn’t going to cut it.
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