Thirty-seven

By way of an answer, Suitov flipped the book open to one of the example sections. The contents looked more like columns of equations or symbol notation than anything.

"These," he said, "if we ignore the notation for now since it's pointlessly complex, are sample instructions for making various parts of a ward. Bits and pieces and general examples, because most people will want very different things. To write the psychic components, I adapted..." (he turned more pages) "this example." It was no clearer than the rest, except that the interworld symbol for psionics could be spotted here and there.

"And most of the rest I wrote myself, since the requirements here are different again. You'd get into difficulties if you tried to mix and match without knowing what you were doing, of course."

"Questions are seldom stupid. I tend to wish everyone would ask more of them," he added a little distantly.

The instructions told her nothing; the notation was too different from what she was used to.

"So when you said you couldn't duplicate parts on your own you just meant you couldn't have done it without those examples to learn from? It puzzled me, because, well, I saw you could duplicate it because there it is. Ignoring the 'it might not work' bit you implied."

She poked a finger at the ward. You don't end up accidentally transporting yourself to weird places if you didn't have a particular kind of curiosity.

Her finger went right through it. The spell remained inert, tendrils unresponsive.

"That and I'm not the telepath the author is, which means I can't do what this spell does." Seeing he was about to confuse her again, he added, "It's like building some apparatus to detect - well, zarnic acid, for example - even though you can't directly sense it yourself.

"And since I can't test it directly, that's why the next stage is to try it out on some known factors. Unfortunately one of my test subjects seems to have run off with his fellow hunter, but I suppose he'll show up again."

Sylve half missed, half ignored the comments about testing, because what Suitov had said before had thrown a wrench into her mental gears.

She knew a bit about testing for substances like acids, and had some ideas of built mechanics, but those did not have to do anything with magic. You could not set up a triggered spell if you could not sense what the trigger was looking for yourself. As far as she knew.

Eventually she remembered a usual language problem - two people thinking they were talking about the same thing when in fact they weren't.

"What exactly do you mean when you say 'spell'?"

"The end product, as opposed to the instructions." He hesitated.

She'd have to give him a clue here. Iceheart had experience working with creatures from several cultures, each trying to translate their own terminology into an interglobal vocabulary, and had run across four or five different conceptions of things-that-make-things-happen-by-magic. He'd been using the term generically, but... where was Sylvie starting from, he wondered?

"To me a spell is when I work magic, the process and effect while in the works.

"This ward, as I understand it, waits until it senses a certain trigger and then works as a spell. The closest I can think of is an artifact, that is, an object with a spell stored in it.

"Creating an artifact is different from just casting a spell because I cannot work on the object directly. Instead I have to add components: The anchor, tying the prepared spell to the object so it does not dissolve too soon, the trigger, which detects when the spell should take effect, and in aimed spells the keys, which determine where exactly the spell aims.

"Now, if I understood you correctly, the ward is sort of like an artifact, but without the object the spell would be anchored to.

"What I don't understand is how you can create a trigger in an artifact if you could not do the sensing it does on your own, because in the system I was taught it's the other way around. I need to be able to sense something myself before I can build it into a trigger or key, and generally what those constructs can sense is less detailed than what I can sense when I look directly."

"Sounds similar to an artifact, yes. A ward is generally a prepared spell that's attached to a location, not necessarily to stop it dissolving but because without applying it to an area it would be useless. The rest of the components you mentioned would be built into the spell itself.

"As for the sensing, that's less clear to me. I couldn't make up a spell and cast it if it would take more power than I have, true, but I'm using magic all the time to achieve effects I couldn't achieve otherwise. That's rather the point of the hobby...

"Incidentally, we've had some luck putting spells into objects - artifacts, I mean. At the moment, though, they aren't much use. They generally need to be fed by the wearer when you want to use them, so it isn't much more efficient than casting whatever-it-is yourself. I don't know if anyone will find a way to, I don't know, perhaps put a charge on it in advance and manage to stop the charge dissipating."

On Shade they knew a bit about static electricity. They were some way off chemical energy storage, though.

"Sorry, I meant sensing using magic. I cannot build an artifact that works with greater precision than I can achieve casting directly."

She would have gone on to explain that it was possible to store a more powerful effect than you were capable of yourself in an artifact by infusing it over a longer period of time, if his next point hadn't caught her interest.

"And in my school they've been looking for a way to create such devices, with no success, as far as I know. An artifact carries a charge, and after that is spent there's nothing magical about it anymore."

She started to wonder if there was any common ground...

"Mind, the charge does dissipate. It depends on the power stored and the quality of the achoring components, but usually one shouldn't expect an artifact to work at full capacity after a few months, and after a year it probably won't work at all."

"In your experience, do some designs or materials work better than others for that?" Suitov unmade the ward again; it dispersed without a trace.

It sounded as though the two cultures together could make some delightful toys. If their systems were the slightest bit compatible, anyway. He always chose to be optimistic about that kind of thing.

Now that had started him thinking about something completely different. Lenses.

"Design has very little influence, if any - mostly just that a really tiny object cannot hold great energy. It first depends on how familiar you are with the material. I work best with wood."

Sylvie frowned and tilted her head, trying to remember. She had picked up some practical tricks, but, as usual, not bothered that much with the theoretical foundation.

"Iron is very difficult to work with. I have heard it said that crystals make the most stable artifacts." The few times she tried, she had found manipulating crystals very difficult. The rigid patterns did not agree with her.

"Interesting. Most people I've spoken to - offworld people, that is - say crystals, but our scholars can't do anything with them. Nor metal. Glass, wood and clay seem to work best. And wax, though of course that loses it as soon as it starts to melt.

"But the design is crucial. It isn't as simple as picking up an object and enchanting it. The item has to be made with the end result in mind at every stage. I suppose that could explain crystals not working. I've no idea why metals don't seem to take, however they're forged."

"I've always found crystals and metal both difficult to work with because their patterns are very, hm, uniform. Featureless.

"Not that it seems to have any bearing here; glass is not that different, and it's more of a personal affinity."

She knew a few people who considered working with those materials simple, and even more who could not get the hang of working with living plants or flesh at all.

"Ever managed to put a spell into something alive? Is that possible?"

It wasn't on Shade, not as far as they knew. But then, affinity didn't count for as much there either. Even people whose focus was metal had no luck putting spells in it - although conversely, for example, glass-attuned mages could do much more interesting things with glass artifacts.

Sylvie sat down on the edge of the veranda and considered the question for a moment.

"I could attach a spell to someone so the effect follows them around. It doesn't use a trigger, but apart from that the principle is similar. Those effects won't last long, though, just minutes, a few hours at best. The preparation time is out of all proportion to that, usually." There had been a few cases in which she had had time to prepare some traps with tricks like that, which had worked rather well.

"Making an artifact of a living thing... I remember being taught it's a very bad idea to try, especially animals, but I don't remember why."

A tiny mewing came from inside and Jelly wandered out the back entrance, blinking tiredly. A quick stretch and he hopped up onto the railing.

"Mages, bah. You're all insane. Just because you can cast a spell you don't fully understand doesn't mean you should. Why d'ya think I'm stuck in this silly little body?"

"An of course you can put a spell into something alive. I'm a spell inside something alive. This kitten isn't a created form, or a shell. It was meant as a prison. I think. I don't remember why. I don't think it worked properly."

He flopped down on his side, his tiny body fitting nicely on the handwidth of wooden rail. "And who says a tiny object cannot hold great energy?" Jelly grinned, showing a mouth full of far too many, if very small teeth.

"I thought you were someone before, and were turned into a kitten?"

Well now, that suggested possession, and artificially created at that. He should ask if the whoever-it-was-originally would mind him running some... no... on second thought, he probably didn't need any more projects.

Crying shame.

"Done to you against your will, I take it, and the kitten's?"

"Of course I wasn't turned into a kitten. Not even... well, I don't remember who he was or why he did it, but he couldn't change my shape, so he put me into an already-existing shell. Against my will, obviously. Who knows about the kitten... it was only a kitten."

Jelly snarled deeply, a funny if slightly disturbing noise coming from his small body. "There's a lot I don't remember. This body is too restrictive."

"Kitten..." Sylvie said thougthfully.

"Has anyone tried to drown you yet?" She carefully kept her expression neutral.

Jelly looked at her carefully and broke into laughter.

"You offering? Feel free. But its been done before, yes. Everything has. Spells, weapons, fire, big damn weights. That's why I think it didn't work properly. But I've been around too long to remember. Perhaps he thought eternity as a kitten would be bad enough. Perhaps I'm just unkillable."