The sun beat mercilessly on the mountains. Lake, Rite, and Bulb stood in a line in a clearing, dressed in matching white tunics. Though they had yet to begin their lesson, they were all sweating profusely, and Lake in particular was longing for her hat.
“Are you ready, kids?” Gale crossed his arms over his bare chest and smiled at the three siblings and their pained squinting. He stood on a boulder a yard away from the three, the sun on his neck, shoulders, and back.
The three siblings nodded, though it was clear that at least Bulb was wavering.
“Good. Today, we’re going to learn about something I call ‘blasting.’ Can any of you tell me what blasting is?”
Silence.
“Excellent show. Blasting is the use of mana to create long-ranged magical attacks. Now tell me, which effects are long-ranged?”
“Scry,” quipped Bulb.
“Sentry,” added Rite.
“That’s it,” Gale said. “Just those two. Can you blast with them?”
“You could pulse mana directly through them,” offered Lake. “Make a splash in a far-off pool with enough Alteration.”
“Hah!” Gale spat on the ground at Lake’s feet. “Good luck evading the Law of Permanent Decrease with that technique. If you want to weave enough Scries to physically impact someone, you’d need at least a man-century’s worth of rich mana, and even then, you might be able to stagger someone once once per day.”
Rite whistled.
“So. Can you blast someone with Scries or Sentries?”
“Neither,” answered Rite.
“You’re saying that we have to blast with an effect requiring contact,” Gale said. “You know that doesn’t make sense, right?”
“Law of Connectivity,” the boy said quickly. Gale nodded, and he continued. “Every thing is connected to everything else through some conduit, and mana is the binding thread.”
“Ooh! String!” squealed Bulb. “Thread means String!”
“Very good. Very, very good. I guess those old dolts in Thal teach you something useful, somehow. Tell me: what’s unique about Strings?”
Lake and Rite raised their hands instantly.
“Alright. Sister 1, tell me.”
“Strings can affect things that don’t have mana.”
“Precisely.” Gale pointed at a rock ten yards away. “Now, if I asked you to lift that rock, you’d probably go over there and pull it into the air with a String.”
The siblings nodded.
“What if there were a chasm between you and the rock? How would you lift it?” Lake and Bulb shook their heads. Rite furrowed his brow in mock concentration. “Law of Connectivity is important, here.”
“There’s something connecting us to that rock,” Rite said. “I guess, the ground? We’re both on the ground.”
“A good first step. What can you make of that connection?”
“Lots of Scries… lots of little, insignificant effects,” Lake was mumbling, “a ripple effect, maybe?”
“Something to say, Sister 1?”
“Just thinking,” Lake replied. “Maybe a series of Strings? On the ground?”
Rite smiled. He’d figured it out the moment he’d thought of the Law of Connectivity, and was waiting to see his sister get it. She never thinks of theory. It’s good for her to puzzle something out once in a while.
“There’s another possibility,” Rite said, raising his hand as he spoke out of habit. “And this will be more useful in more situations: you can weave a series of Strings through the air.”
“Both excellent ideas,” said Gale. “And indeed, air is the more useful of the two. Allow me to demonstrate.”
“C-can I go inside?” asked Bulb. Her knees where shaking and the sweat was pouring down her face.
“If you can’t stand the sun, Sister 2, you’re never going to make it in battle.”
“I don’t need… battle.” She collapsed to her knees. “I’ll support Rite and Lakey… in other ways…”
“Let her rest, Gale,” said Rite. “She can’t take this.”
“Pansies. Take her back to the cabin, Sister 2,” ordered Gale, frowning. Lake nodded, scooped up her little sister, and exited the clearing. “Brother, take a break. I’ll do my demonstration when Sister 2 returns. Otherwise, it’s a waste of mana.”
Rite nodded. It would take Lake at least ten minutes to return Bulb to the cabin and make it back to the clearing. He had some questions, and now was the time to ask them.
“How did you know Lake?” he asked.
“I met her in the mountains here. She and a couple other Thal kids were wandering around, and I gave them a place to spend the night.”
“How long ago?”
“Oh, maybe three years? It’s been a while. She’s grown a lot.”
“Was she wearing red already then?”
“Yeah, a big red hat and cloak, I believe.” Gale scratched his head. “Why do you ask?”
“Thal thinks she’s a traitor,” Rite explained. “She came back after four years of absence, wearing the colors of Repinuj.”
“It’s not her fault Byhr was conquered, is it?”
“The Elders don’t buy that story, is the thing.” Rite frowned. “They think Byhr’s unbeatable, going strong out there beyond the mountains, and that Lake’s just lying about everything.”
“It doesn’t help her case that she was corrupting the Gate oaks,” chuckled Gale. “Though I’m sure she has a noble reason for that, too.”
“Noble,” mused Rite. “The more noble, the more mana. Have you ever put a Read on her pool?”
“It would be a waste. It’s easy to get a picture of how big someone’s pool is from how they act, and what effects they use when. You should start paying attention to these things yourself, Brother. Understanding someone’s mana pool without using effects is a very useful skill… essential, really, if you’re ever in conflict with someone.”
“I’ll pay more attention,” mumbled Rite.
“Any other answers I can give to the young investigator?”
“Yes, actually,” replied Rite. “Tell me why you decided to stay here in these mountains.”
“That’s a long story,” laughed Gale. “I’ll tell you, but I’d rather tell you later. Sister 2 will be back any minute, and then we’ll resume your training. Nice move there, by the way. You had the answer on the tip of your tongue for a while, didn’t you?”
Rite smiled despite himself.
“Permanent Decrease,” warned Gale. “Don’t get too smug.”
Rite laughed awkwardly and nodded.
“Back,” called Lake, striding into the clearing. “Anything interesting while I was gone?”
“We’re getting to work now,” Gale said. “I’ll demonstrate, and then you two will begin practicing. First, here’s a String in the air—” Gale uncrossed his arms and flicked one finger in Lake’s direction. A small breeze caught a lock of her hair and played with it for two seconds before disappearing. “—and here’s a lot of them—” Gale flung one arm in the direction of the nearest tree. It shuddered as if it had been hit with something solid, though no visible force had touched it. “—and there’s that rock, in the air.” Gale extended one hand toward the rock he’d indicated at the beginning, and, clenching his hand, he brought it two feet off the ground. He looked back at his pupils to make sure they were watching, and then he unclenched his hand, letting the rock fall to the ground.
“I’ve never seen anything like that,” murmured Rite, awe-struck.
“Very cool,” nodded Lake, her eyes shining. Long-distance Stringing… you can do something with that. Blasting? Blasting’s just the stem of the carrot…
“You weave one String into another, you see.” Gale made another gust of wind to illustrate. “You pile them on top of each other, design them to pull each other through to your target. It’s important to remember the Law of Connectivity. If you push your mana through in a line of Strings, they can build off each other, and act upon the air particles until they reach your target.”
“The further the target, the more Strings?” asked Rite.
“Yes and no. The more you practice this, the more effect your Strings will have. One push through the air might reach up to a foot if you hone your talents right. I imagine a foot might take twenty or thirty Strings from you if you were to try it now.”
“That’s a lot—”
Gale cut Lake off.
“But they’re small. They’re not mana-intensive. You can really pile them up. Here.” Gale indicated three small stones lying in a neat row nearby. “I prepared these for the three of you. Well, two, now. Get a few inches away and start working with the air. See if you can budge the stones.”
“Right!” cried Rite, beaming. “Let’s do this!”
Lake smiled. If the Strings aren’t mana-intensive, you can pile a bunch on. If the Strings are mana-intensive…
She stepped over to the row of stones and knelt down next to one. Here goes.
Lake put one finger three inches from the stone and began weaving a String. She was used to controlling objects much larger with her Strings. She’d toppled pines, shifted boulders, and blown down gates, but always with her hand firmly planted on the target. She’d never even considered the possibility of Stringing air, but it made sense to her, and felt she could do it well. With an adequate amount of force, she could show Gale that she didn’t need this beginner’s step…
As Rite struggled to lift his stone, Lake wove three powerful Strings from her fingertip into her stone, shattering it instantly with the force she applied.
“What are you doing?!” yelled Gale.
“Blasting,” answered Lake, not sure why Gale was glaring at her.
“You just used more than half your pool on that,” her instructor growled. “What in the blazes was that? I said, the Strings aren’t mana-intensive. I said, try working with the air, see if you can budge the stones.”
Rite winced. Lake was still the way she’d been four years ago: quick to do grand things with her mana, as if she needed to prove to people that her pool was large. The fact that she hadn’t changed in this way was at once comforting and discomforting. The best Alter in Thal shouldn’t be so vain.
“Look, Sister 2,” said Gale. “I’m trying to teach you something, and if you want to learn it, you damn well better follow my instructions. Go back to the cabin and take a nap with your pansy little sister. You can try again tomorrow, if you’ve taken the time to think about why you shouldn’t be throwing your mana all over the place.”
Lake tried to talk back but couldn’t find the words.
Rite, trying not to focus on the conflict, managed to shift his stone a couple inches along the ground with a series of fifteen tiny Strings. He glanced furtively up at Lake, and she shot him a withering glare.
“I’ll be back tomorrow,” she managed, and then she stalked out of the clearing.
