Chapter 120 - What magic is not supposed to do

Chapter 120: Chapter 120 - What magic is not supposed to do "The world is formed by a plethora of building blocks, called ’Elements.’ The science of working with those Elements to change the world according to our will is called magic. Therefore, what magic can do is limited to what those elements can do. Anything else is in the realm of fairy tales." That is the official narrative about magic that the Royal Academy drills into every single student. Actually, it’s the narrative repeated by all magic schools throughout the human realms. To do magic is to work with the foundational elements of the world to change it according to your will. You can create and manipulate fire, water, electricity, and other elements, but never destroy them directly. The only way to counter a spell is to oppose its effect using other elements. Like using an earth shield to protect you from the explosion of a fireball. Time magic? Space magic? Nope. Creating poison with magic? Nope. Healing? Nope, as well. Healing is an ’art’ that some priests of the Church are able to do by channeling the goddess’ power through some sacred artifacts. It’s their exclusive prerogative. And the goddess’ blessings are an ’art’ that is not included within the concept of ’magic.’ They are often called Blessings, instead of spells, arias, or magic. Well, at least that’s what they want you to believe in. The reality is actually very different from that. According to the teachings from the Royal Academy, the Primary Elements of fire, water, air, and earth are the basic materials of the world, and all the composite elements are fusions of them under certain proportions and rules. For example, lightning is born from fire and air, while fusing fire and earth gives lava. That way, there are virtually infinite composite elements, because there are virtually infinite ways of combining them. But that narrative doesn’t stand much to scrutiny. My favorite example is ice magic. In the narrative, the ice element is air plus water. But that’s far from all the story. As I learned pretty early, the ice element is a misleading name. It would be, at best, a ’cooling element,’ but naming it that wouldn’t have the same impact. But, if we are to be technical, the so-called ice element is actually a reverse fire element, because it works by taking away the heat of something. And then you add water only so you can have the ice shards that are water that was cooled down to the freezing point. But they can’t say that, because it would go against the ’you can’t destroy element’ narrative pushed by the Church. I tried to put that argument up during class a couple of times, with different magic teachers, but they simply refused to listen, and one was outright angry at me. In any case, being able to blast people left and right with fireballs, lightning bolts, and ice spears is nice and all, but... it misses on the core of magic, to me. "Magic is the art and science of causing change to happen in accordance with one’s will." Those are the wise words of an Earth’s sage that guide me to this day. Magic is about causing change to happen. And it is about will. But, most importantly, it’s both an art and a science. It exists to convey feelings, not only to blast people to smithereens. It’s more than a weapon: it’s a transformative experience. And that’s one of the reasons that I refuse to conform to the narrative of magic being limited to elementalism. To begin with, their view about the elements is plainly wrong, as any person with a moderately decent bachelor’s degree in any area could tell. Lightning is not the fusion of air and fire. Fire is simply combustion, and air is any gases that happen to be floating around in gaseous form. No, what they call the ’lightning’ element is actually a powerful discharge of electrons moving in a line from one point in space to the other. In other words, it is less an element and more of a reaction, or an interaction between elements. You can go around every one of the Composite Elements and see the same, over and over again. Elementalism is but one narrative about the shape of magic. Magic works with concepts and syntax. Elemental magic is one form—or rather, one structure—of those concepts in an understandable and actionable form. The four ’primary’ elements are more than their material form. Fire is not simply the literal flames. It’s more than that; it’s the concept of initiative, will, and vitality. In the same way, water is the concept of shelter, care, emotions, and mothering. Air is the concept of reason, intellect, and change. And Earth is the concept of materiality, stability, and groundedness. The moment you look at them in that way, a whole new toolbox is born for you to use with your aria. And a lot of fun—I mean, unexpected—stuff starts happening. And then we come to the three so-called Cosmic Elements. Light, Spirit, and Dark. Well, none of them is an element in the strict sense of the term in any way. Light is not light at all; it’s the pure concept of creation. Any form of creation falls within the concept of Light. And it includes healing magic as the recreation of the health that was lost. Dark works in the same way; it’s the pure concept of destruction. And it also includes healing magic, as in ’destructing’ the wounds or illness. And then Spirit... is just an umbrella term for any magic that deals with life itself. Well, at least that’s my conclusion after the three years of survival in the Barrens plus the five years of research in the Academy. I’ve written it all down, but of course I won’t leave my notebooks in any place where they could be found and used against me by the Church. I stored them in a new magic system I developed all by myself, following some nudges by Lovelace. If I were to treat my spatial magic as an element, like everyone else seems to do with any magic, what would be the name of the element? Space? Sounds weird, doesn’t it? In any case, that’s how I’m storing my notebooks. In a little pocket dimension I created that is only big enough to store a few items. It’s barely bigger than a normal hiking backpack. And I’m the only one who can access it, because the opening is tied to my own consciousness. Because, in the end, that’s what I found those strands of space to be. At least, it’s my working theory for now. They are conceptual ties that bring places together through meaning. It’s hard to explain in words, so it’s better to give an example. Here I have a comb that was made and gifted to me by Yaci. So it has a conceptual thread of meaning that leads directly to her. So, in a conceptual space, it’s like the two points are actually glued together. Like a wormhole in theoretical physics. The thread is not a wormhole by itself; it’s just a concept of a link. But that’s the beauty of magic. I can build over that concept of a link and use it to open a gate directly to where she is, like the one that I used to take my notebooks from their pocket dimension a few moments ago. This is it. I finally did it! I have spatial magic and teleportation!!! Suck that one, Church!!!