Into the Abyss

Maelen shook his head. “Do you ever get the feeling it would be a lot easier to just ask Tizzy first?”

They all laughed at that. “About 80 % of what comes out of his mouth makes absolutely no sense; the other 20 % is pure gold.” Gastropé shook his head. “The trick is...”

“Knowing which is which.” Maelen finished his sentence with a laugh.

∼

“Rupert, you’re a wizard.” Edwyrd stated to Rupert later that evening in their room.

“A junior apprentice.” Rupert acknowledged.

“What do you know about links?”

“A bit. The basics I guess.” Rupert replied. “Jenn or Gastropé could tell you a lot more. Jenn’s a thaumaturge and Gastropé does conjuring. Both of those specialties do a lot with links.”

“Yeah, well I’m not about to ask Gastropé. He’d assume I was trying to break my link with Lenamare and kill everyone.” Rupert laughed as Edwyrd grinned. “And Jenn,” Edwyrd continued, “she’d ask more questions about why I wanted to know, then she’d actually answer.” Rupert grinned.

“I guess you’re right.” The boy admitted. “Well, there are all sorts of links, object links, familiar links, wizard links, binding links, and more I don’t know anything about.”

“Well, tell me about those.” Edwyrd asked.

“Well, I can’t really do many, other than maybe a simple object link if I get lucky. An object link is a link applied to an object. You use Magic Writing to engrave some special runes on an object so you can attach a link to it. From then on, you know where the object is, and can follow it, and maybe do more advanced stuff over that link. Again, this is just what I’ve been taught.”

“OK, what’s a familiar link then?” Edwyrd asked.

“It’s a link to a living creature, typically your familiar.” Rupert said.

“Familiar?”

“Yeah, like a black cat, a bird. Wizards use them, specially trained and prepared animals that the wizard links to and he or she, if skilled enough, can use that animal as a second set of eyes, or command it to do things. Typically spying, alerts, or scouting. Birds are very good for that.”

“Can a wizard do that to a person?” Edwyrd asked, somewhat concerned.

“No, humans have too much mana, too much intelligence and willpower. You’d have to really overpower them, and sending that much power through this type of link would break it.” Rupert explained.

The boy got a sudden thoughtful look on his face. “What is it?” Edwyrd asked.

“I suppose, well... I just got to thinking, the way a wizard uses a familiar sort of sounds like demonic possession.” Rupert shook his head. “Maybe that’s what demons do when they possess people?” He looked at Edwyrd curiously.

“Don’t ask me; I’ve never possessed anyone.” Edwyrd shook his head and smiled. “What was that last one you mentioned, a Wizard Link?”

“Yeah, I have no idea how that’s done. But it’s how wizards link up to each other to share mana and cast spells. For example, in demon conjuring or setting up these wards...” Rupert gestured at the glowing ward light outside the palace. “They all link up and share their mana and sort of cast the spell in unison; not sure if there is any telepathy going on or what, but they can share their power.”

“Hmm,” Edwyrd murmured. “That’s interesting.” It certainly explained how a bunch of wizards no single one powerful enough to capture or defeat a demon could combine together and capture and bind one.

“Do you mind if I practice putting a link on you tonight? I won’t try to possess you, I just want to experiment and learn how it’s done. Plus if I can make it stick I can find you next time you pick a fight with a knight in glowing armor.” Edwyrd smiled at the boy.

Rupert laughed. “Yeah, that would be convenient. I could have used some backup.”

Edwyrd and Rupert spent the next several hours practicing trying to make links. Rupert showed him an object link and Edwyrd tried to follow it. It took some doing, the Magic Writing thing the most confusing; but he could see the link was attached to the runes, not the object itself. The link basically had to be linked to either mana or animus apparently. That sort of agreed with what he’d read. Since the link was mana based, generally, it stuck best to animus, but could also stick to mana with some work.

Edwyrd didn’t know anything about wizardry; he’d had luck faking Animagic or maybe demon magic, so he thought he’d stick with that. He tried various things where he tried to hook a bit of the animus cloud around himself into Rupert’s mana and/or animus and then sort of spin it out in a thread.

It didn’t work particularly well; at least not at first, but he eventually got something to sort of work before Rupert pooped out and went to sleep. While Rupert was falling asleep, Edwyrd worked on trying to create threads out of his mana. Once the boy was asleep, he’d try attaching again. Rupert had agreed with that, and Edwyrd had a few more ideas to try.

Chapter 78