An Excerpt From “Into The Shattered City”

"Can I ask you a question, Alleron?" I asked, plopping myself down beside his bedroll and leaning my back against the wall without waiting for an answer.

"Looks like you're about to either way," he answered, but he smiled as he said it, and I got the sense that he was grateful for the intrusion.

"What happened here?"

"You don't know?" His brow hunched down into a confused frown. "I could have sworn I'd told the story a dozen times by now. You see five hundred years or so ago our High King Tyrial enacted a great ritual of some sort that turned the--"

"Yes, I know the history," I cut him off before he could build up too much steam. "I guess I really should have asked how it happened. I mean, magic, obviously, but how?"

"No one is entirely certain, to be honest. Records from that era indicate that Tyrial was obsessed with the obscurities of chronomancy, the manipulation of time itself."

"Is that even possible?" Sooner or later I knew I'd get tired of asking that question, but it slipped past my lips before I could catch it.

"Possible, yes, but also highly unstable and dangerous. The flow of time is a weighty thing, and toying with it can have...unintended consequences," he said with a nod of his head towards the courtyard beyond the firelight.

"If this king of yours was so unhinged, why didn't someone try to stop him?"

"Well it’s not as though Tyrial set out to destroy his city and condemn those of his people who survived to five centuries of slow decline and misery," he huffed, sounding more defensive than I was used to. "Most agree that he was attempting something else entirely, something extraordinary, but that his ritual got somewhat...out of hand."

"Too bad no one is offering a prize for the greatest understatement of the year. You'd have won for sure."

Alleron shot me a quick glare, but continued anyway.

"The point is, magic can be unpredictable even under the best of circumstances, and the greater the spell, the greater the potential for disaster. Working beyond the laws of our mortal sphere tends to warp the mind over time. Hence the need for rituals and focuses and such. Hells, every great Diviner who made a name in the art became a raving lunatic eventually."

"What? Then why do you practice it yourself? Aren't you worried the same will happen to you?"

"Isn't it obvious? I needed help with the ladies." He smiled as he said it, but his smile was brittle. I snorted, but didn't speak, waiting him out for a better answer. He looked down at his hands as though searching for an answer there. As the silence stretched out, I began to wonder if I'd lost him, until he whispered an answer so quietly that I had to lean in to hear it.

"I could accept madness," he said, "if I found the path before it claimed me."

"What path?"

He looked up and met my gaze, his face far more serious than I'd thought possible for him.

"The path to a better future."

Then he smiled again, his dour mood dissolving like clouds after a rain.

"In the meantime, I play my little games to keep the crazy at bay."

"Little games? You mean your wagers?" In a flash the things he'd told me all clicked together, and I caught a glimpse behind his mask. "If you've seen the future, then the moments when you don't know what's about to happen become more important, don't they?"

He looked at me for a moment as though he was seeing me for the first time. "You know, you're the first person who's ever figured that out. Reveling in uncertainty helps me stay grounded. Well, as grounded as possible for a dashing master of the arcane such as myself."

"So if magic is so unpredictable and dangerous, why are so many able to practice it without disintegrating themselves or whatever?"

"Ah, well most wizards and whatnot stick to the well-worn paths. They work with tried and tested incantations or rituals that have been handed down by the braver pioneers who went before them rather than attempting to create something new."

"That's what you meant earlier when you said that improvised magic is dangerous?"

"Indeed. I was working from the starting point of an existing spell I'm already familiar with, so I had a reasonably solid handle on things. Even so, there was certainly a chance I might have simply hoisted the lot of us into the air instead of that barrier, or something even worse."

"But when I've seen Nataka work her magic it always looks like she's making it up as she goes along."

"That's because she is. Well, to some degree, anyway. She's a tribal shaman, so she communes with whatever spirits are present at the moment and draws on their power for her spells. The rules are a little different for her."

"I don't understand," I said, unable to keep the growing frustration from my voice. My time with the Daughters of Vesta had left me with an inescapable drive to analyze and understand when presented with a new problem, especially one that seemed to violate every law of nature that I'd ever learned. "How can two approaches to magic be so different and yet still work? Which one is right?"

"Two approaches? My dear, there are dozens. Blood magic, astromancy, runes and sigils; reading off a list of all the magic disciplines I know of would put an insomniac to sleep, and I'm quite certain there are many more that I've never even heard of. But why the sudden interest? I thought "close your eyes until it goes away" was your preferred stance on all things arcane and mystical."

I had to think about his question for a moment. I hadn't really considered what prompted my growing interest in understanding the strange things I'd seen and experienced since arriving in Danan, but the answer came to me soon enough.

"I suppose it boils down to survival, just like everything else. I may not like it, but it's pretty clear that magic is a regular part of life here, and if there's one thing I learned on the streets it's that knowing what to expect is the difference between living and taking a long dirt nap. Learning more about how magic operates here isn't that different than knowing where the city guard patrol or which merchants pay the local Ghazi boss for protection and which ones don't."

Alleron chuckled as he shook his head. "Leave it to you to find a way to be utterly pragmatic about the mysteries of the arcane. Very well then, if it's a lesson in magical theory you're after, you shall have it." He cleared his throat and sat up straighter, and as I watched a growing enthusiasm light up his eyes I began to wonder what I'd just gotten myself into.

"It might help if you think of magic a little bit like water," he began. "All water is essentially the same, but your experience of it depends very much on when and where you interact with it. Is water a raging river or a gentle rain? The vast ocean or a tiny pond? Is it ice, a warm bath, or rolling clouds of fog?"

He paused and stared at me, awaiting my answer.

"All of them, I suppose."

"Indeed, and yet you could have said that it is none of them and still have been correct. Water is itself. Its true essence does not change despite the many forms it takes, and magic is much the same. The various traditions focus on different aspects or expressions of magic, but in the end, it is simply a force for change that can be channeled and harnessed by those with the will and ability to do so."

"That...actually makes a lot of sense," I admitted as my mind worked to absorb the implications of everything he'd just said.

"Of course it does!" Alleron gave his knee an excited slap, looking immensely pleased with himself. "It really is an excellent metaphor. I'm surprised I've not heard it used before. I shall have to write it down before I forget it."

"So if magic is like water, can anyone learn to work with it?" I asked, following the track of my thoughts as I tried to keep him focused.

"Hmm, well that's something of a debated subject, actually. Most agree that while all sentient creatures have some innate connection or sensitivity towards the flow of magic, most lack the strength or ability to manipulate it directly. Amongst my own people the young are tested at a certain age, and only those who display the proper aptitude are accepted for study by the Chromatis Arcana. I know of similar traditions amongst many of the other races. Philosophy aside, it's certainly true that some are born with an innate facility for magic which others lack."

I let his words roll around in my mind for a moment. Ever since I was forced to accept the evidence of my own senses when I'd first encountered magic in Danan I'd felt cast adrift from everything I thought I'd known. Before I stepped off the boat in Farshore life had made sense. It could be a real shit show for people like me, but at least I'd known the rules and had a chance to use my wits and instincts to help me turn them to my advantage.

The discovery that for all its initial mystery, magic might simply be one vast system whose structure I just didn't comprehend yet came as an immense relief. The Daughters of Vesta had shown me that even the most complex of subjects could be broken down and understood given enough time and determination. I drew in a deep breath, feeling better than I had in weeks, and decided that that was exactly what I was going to do.