Throne of Time [Magical Academy, Time Loop, Mystery]

Mages across the world and across time have asked the same question: how does one accurately measure the power of a mage?

There are some who would insist upon the most brutish of answers: that only the results of combat determine strength. But combat is rarely conducted as a controlled experiment, resulting in all manner of outside variables from environment to reinforcements. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, most desire to evaluate a mage’s strength prior to combat, thus rendering this answer entirely unsuitable for our purposes.

Others, of course, will point to the system of ranked seals that has gained such widespread acceptance, as it does accurately measure a mage’s mastery and learning. But this is an acknowledgment of strength, not a measurement of it. Most seals are granted by programs of study, which provide no better measurements than grades, or trials, which fail as a measure in the same way that combat fails.

No, the best measurement of a mage’s capabilities is and will likely always remain runic capacity, because it is derived from the fundamentals of magic instead of any secondary or cultural standard. One rune is the smallest unit of magic, no more and no less. An individual’s runic capacity cannot be misinterpreted, cannot be overcome by willpower, does not waver from day to day, and grows only slowly, rendering it the bedrock of any analysis.

At this point there will no doubt be those who object that runic capacity is nothing but a foundation, the simplest of measurements and not necessarily the best. It is certainly true that an individual’s mana pool is an essential component of spellcraft, and one could even theorize a mage who had developed a high runic capacity but was unable to cast the spells they created due to stunted mana. But this is a fanciful hypothetical, and in practice one’s mana pool is generally a multiplier of their runic capacity, somewhat more or somewhat less depending on experience. Furthermore, mana pools can be more easily refilled, or strained beyond limits just as the body can be strained, so exact measurements are less useful.

Of course this is ultimately an important measure of strength, but at this point one must consider not just mana capacity, but efficiency. Prior to the glyphic revolution, spells were cast with much less efficiency, pegged at 100 thaums or more, with...

The book went on to talk at length about matters related to efficiency, referring to ”untamed magic” and various technical units that she had never heard of, so Suria stopped reading there. She was already pleased with her progress in The Measure of a Mage. In the beginning the author’s meandering prose had seemed too abstract, but once she started on the exercises, she understood what he was getting at.

What the author was trying to argue, at great length, was that mages should focus on increasing their runic capacity, and fortunately he included concrete advice. Suria flipped back to the chapter of exercises, and now that she had relaxed for a while with reading, felt ready to start again.

She picked up one of her practice slates and set it on the bed beside her book, then took up her stylus carefully. The first rune was simple to press into the stone, like the beginning of any formation, but with the second rune she instead set it across the first, forming an X shape. When she pressed in she felt the first rune resist her, the trough in the stone filled with her own power.

Working on her own, having runes overlap one another had always felt wrong, but now she understood that she was simply feeling the conflict. That conflict wasn’t wrong any more than the strain of exercising the body was wrong. She could feel her mana being tested in a different way from when she simply tried to make more runes, which she was sure would bear fruit. The book hadn’t suggested that the crossed runes she created had any actual use, but they served as good training.

Once she had a headache and felt exhausted - no doubt the mana pool that the author discussed - Suria returned to her reading. Since she felt more strained than before, she decided to switch to one of her other books. She had basically been looking for an excuse, since she desperately wished she could read all four of them at once.

The Akrashic Taxonomy of Spellcraft was a dense tome that seemed to go into considerable detail, but fortunately the author was less verbose than the author of The Measure of a Mage. He said in plain language that the purpose of the book was to discuss different classifications of magic, and wasted no time laying out the eight fields that Darkmoon University used:

Evocation: All spells that project mana into the world directly.

Enchantment: Methods that imbue mana into physical materials.

Transmutation: Using magic to transform a mundane substance from one element to another.

Conjuring: All spells that create new matter, mundane elements or exotic summonings.

Perception: Using magic to create illusions, enhance the senses, or divine information.

Alchemy: All techniques involved with the recombination of magical substances.

Medicine: Using magic to heal the body or cure illness.

Naturalism: Study of magical plants, animals, minerals, and natural laws.

Of course no taxonomy can ever be perfect, necessitating the length of this book. Even the ancients complained that ”Medicine” is a goal, not a method, that overlaps with all other fields, particularly Alchemy. But as old as this objection is, the fact remains that healing is such a complex art that it deserves focused study and can easily fill a department with courses.

Many nations use different systems. For example, in the old structure of the Shantic States, Alchemy is not a separate discipline, it is an expected part of other fields, particularly Enchantment, Medicine, and Transmutation. The most controversial piece of the Akrashic Consensus is granting Perception the status of a separate field, as it so frequently involves other disciplines. Yet spells that alter the mind directly are distinctly different from others, and handling information is a highly specialized task.

The ancients considered divination to be its own field, but based upon the work of Honorable Lord Yoncroft...

At that point the book got deeper into the arguments between scholars. Suria was actually eager to read all of it, to finally understand magic on a deeper level. She had known that people across the world used magic differently, even categorizing it differently, and wanted to learn everything she could.

For now, however, she returned to the statements of the eight fields. Each one of them was a discipline that could absorb an entire lifetime and could easily become a career. If she could earn even a single seal in a subject like Enchantment or Alchemy, she would be set for life in most towns. Of course, she hungered to learn even more, to cross the boundaries between disciplines and taste magic in its purest form.

In the short term, what she needed was to decide which fields she would pursue at Darkmoon University. She took it as a given that she would take a class in Medicine, but should she try to supplement it with Alchemy or Naturalism? Was she likely enough to run into trouble again that she should take a class that focused on Evocation, or could she pick up those spells on the side?

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That was exactly where the later chapters could be useful - as much as she wanted to read all the theory, she needed to understand what each of the fields would actually give her in as much detail as possible. Suria paged back to the introduction, considering where to start next.

”Are you still reading?” Maut-mai stared from her chair in disbelief.

”One tends to, in school,” Suria answered mildly.

”You would think there’d be more than enough of that once the term starts!”

”It doesn’t seem like there’s much going on around campus anyway.”

”Well, I suppose you have a point there.” Maut-mai folded her arms and frowned out the window. ”I understand there are more events if you join the societies, or take special studies. That sort of thing will just have to come later.”

A part of Suria wanted to consider Maut-mai a distraction from her reading, but she realized that might actually be a mistake. Not just because she didn’t want to be on bad terms with her roommate, but because Maut-mai might have useful information from her relatives.

”Sorry if it seems like I’m ignoring you,” Suria said with an apologetic smile. ”I’m just worried about choosing my classes, because they’ll make such a big difference in my future.”

”You’re right to be concerned. It’s an extremely important choice.” Maut-mai looked away as if disinterested. ”I suppose you’re looking for hints from me?”

”I’d be grateful if you could offer them.”

”Very well.” Maut-mai surged over to sit on the bed right beside her, her serene look splitting into a smile. She scooped up the Darkmoon Course Catalogue and began paging through. ”The most important thing is to get into the good classes. That means the ones that are taught by department thrones instead of other professors or journeymages.”

Even that was already useful: Suria had been mostly reading the descriptions and ignoring the professor part of the course list because it was an avalanche of names she didn’t know. But she of all people should know that the instructor of a course could make all the difference. One might hope that every professor at Darkmoon University would be a good teacher, but she knew that some of them might not even be decent people.

”And how do you get into those classes?” Suria asked. ”They must be very competitive.”

”Not in the way you think! Darkmoon actually values teaching, so all of the full professors teach courses for general students. But what they teach, and how they teach it, varies immensely. Some make classes so challenging that they run out all but the best students, for example. Others simply teach a general course and limit their more involved classes.”

”There are a lot of other names in the book... are you really saying they aren’t worth it?”

”Well, no.” Maut-mai folded her arms and frowned down at the book. ”Many of the other professors are good, especially if they’re allied with the department thrones. Some classes are taught by journeymages, and even those can be good, if they’re students of the thrones. You basically can’t get into the best courses without going through some of those.”

”But...?”

”But I’m afraid I don’t have enough inside information. The department thrones have been in place for years, but the younger professors move around, and alliances shift. So all you can do is try to target the best classes and find alliances of your own.”

Suria nodded and began integrating that information into her plans. She wanted to look over the course catalogue again, but Maut-mai was still sitting on her bed. It would be rude to completely ignore the other woman, and though she was looking away, it seemed like she was waiting for something...

”What are you planning to take?” Suria asked.

”I will be specializing in Enchantment and Transmutation,” Maut-mai announced proudly. ”That sort of work requires thorough knowledge of materials as well, so I will be taking some courses from Naturalism. I hear the professor is rather good, even in the general classes...”

The two of them chatted about what subjects they’d be taking next term and Suria found that she didn’t mind it. Maut-mai was taking Foundations of Modern Spellcraft, which had been recommended by Houdon as well and sounded like a necessary class, so Suria agreed to take it since she was sure she had important gaps in her understanding. This pleased Maut-mai a great deal more than Suria had expected.

Their conversation merged into an early evening meal, where they were the only ones in the cafeteria except a young man with a bowl haircut eating porridge like an automaton. Afterward Maut-mai went out to wander the campus while Suria returned to their room, eager to get back into her books.

Of course she began with another round of rune training, which felt even more productive after some mental rest and a good meal. Once she had pushed herself to her limits, she would have plenty of time to read. Though part of her wanted to look at the course catalogue again, she was even more eager to pick up her last book and delve into it more deeply.

Magical Law: An Overview didn’t sound like a particularly interesting subject, and indeed some of it was stodgy history of law. There were several authors of this text who seemed to have different opinions about whether magical law was a separate field or just a specific application of normal jurisprudence. Much of it was unsurprising: of course methods like blood sacrifices or necromancy were frowned upon almost everywhere.

But the book also included a discussion of time magic.

This was the least risky method she could take, because there was no way that a student could be considered suspicious for reading an introductory book on magical law. Everything she learned about the laws around time magic would prevent her from making mistakes in the future and drawing too much attention to herself. After what she had experienced, she didn’t think she could afford to ignore the subject until she could find a way to study it directly.

Checking the index, she discovered that Hrakik the Irredeemable was mentioned several times, allowing her to pinpoint specific passages. Those began talking about extreme laws related to his reign of terror, so she paged back a little to get enough context.

The book didn’t go into detail on why time magic was so widely condemned, but it implied that the condemnation wasn’t universal. It seemed contradictory until she realized that the ”bad” time magic was anathema everywhere, while ”good” time magic was quietly reclassified as not so time-related after all. Apparently there were magical fields that sped up time for crops that were necessary in some regions, and thus the time component was swept under the rug. Spell effects that briefly manipulated objects were also mostly accepted, ranging from disreputable to ignored depending on the region.

Using time magic against other people, however, received unduly harsh punishments. A field of sped up time could be used to prematurely age and eventually kill someone, and even attempting it was given the death penalty in many nations even though it wasn’t ethically much different from harming someone with fire or sword. As far as she could tell, all time magic was condemned by association with Hrakik the Irredeemable.

Though the book didn’t go into detail about everything he and others had done within time loops, she knew enough to understand why people might fear the magic. The result was that time magic of that type was forbidden virtually everywhere, usually with chilling penalties.

Because the law could not constrain someone within a time loop, the law did not defend them, either.

That was where the book went into more legal detail than she needed, because obviously you couldn’t simply claim someone was in a time loop as an excuse to murder them. There were several cases of just that which she basically skimmed over. But it seemed like if it was proven that a mage was using a time loop, they were outside the law and anyone could act against them.

Now at least she understood why Lirngelf had been killed. It wasn’t completely above-board, but it didn’t sound like many would lose sleep over the act. Just learning that wasn’t enough to protect her, but it could help her avoid making any similar mistakes.

Beyond that, she didn’t find much in the books. There was an off-hand reference to reverse time fields being impossible that infuriatingly explained absolutely nothing. Wasn’t a loop reversing time in a sense? That was what she needed a specialized book for, and everything she’d just learned made clear why it would be a mistake to seek one. Perhaps if she could establish interest in a ”legitimate” form of time magic she could research more safely, but she wasn’t going to take a risk like that any time soon.

There was nothing at all about innocent people being trapped in time loops they hadn’t caused. Suria wanted to believe that there would be leniency, but she wasn’t going to test it.

All at once she’d had enough of law and set the book aside. She flipped through the course catalogue again, considering different potential paths, then returned to The Measure of a Mage. Soon enough she had a deeper understanding of mana reserves and felt refreshed enough to go back to training.

When Suria returned to her exercises, forming crossed runes seemed to come more easily than before. It was a wild instinct, but she stopped the exercise and instead formed a real glyph. She made a square of runes without feeling too much tension and kept going, forming a clean fifth rune. The only time she’d ever done that in the past was under the influence of a mana potion.

So she had raised her runic capacity to five, just with a single book and day of exercises. The task was so elegantly simple, she could have chanced upon it herself; the process of overlapping runes just ran against her intuitions. All it took was one book to make the suggestion and she had been able to increase her strength meaningfully.

Just how much could she increase her runic capacity before classes began? Suria smiled and worked long into the night.