The many ways of magic

[copycast]

Temple wakes up suddenly, his hand automatically going to his abdomen as he raises from the ground...

...Then he notices the lack of pain and the entirely new surroundings.

A new world, which means that he saved Rajir but his former body got sacrificed in the process. Temple is unlikely to see Rajir or the others ever again, without a proper goodbye this time.

There is no point in feeling miserable, his friends and students are safe, just distant.

Temple decides to be practical. He feels and locates traces of magic coming from that way and follows them until he finds himself knocking on a door of a solitary building.

Comments

[copycast]

"One of my innate spells makes it possible. One use will make you a spell-caster with a latent spell-word. Using it multiple times will bring the spell-word closer to the surface of your mind. Back in my home worlds the traditional methods take years to reveal your spell-word."

[swordofdamocles]

"That sounds very convenient."

[copycast]

"Extremely! I managed to derive several meta-words from that and it makes me extremely suitable for the magic teaching job on top of the Guardianship. Which I can share too, but that takes longer."

[swordofdamocles]

"Tell me more."

[copycast]

"There are two ways for me to do it. The first is for me to deputize you as an agent of my Guardianship, giving you a lesser share of my Guardian powers. Any Guardian can do that given enough time to know and trust the person. The second transplants part of my own Guardianship magic to spark a new independent Guardianship in you and requires even more time and cooperation of my Guardianship. There is a third, which would require giant's blood and would cost you the reincarnation in the giants' native world, but acquiring giant's blood is rather problematic."

[swordofdamocles]

"...And what exactly does a Guardianship do?"

[copycast]

"You can pick benefits and powers as you invest effort to protect, preserve, nurture, etc. whatever it is you are a Guardian of, varying each case, but with common trends. Always a minimum of one perception power, one warding power, some magical healing or repairing when relevant, improvement in skills when relevant, always a elemental power that doesn't always fit. Mine's element would be water, but I rarely have any need for it, so I focus on the others. There is a pool of power and you can make trades between multiple weaker powers or fewer stronger powers. Changing your power set too much weakens the magic, it likes stability."

[swordofdamocles]

"...More magic is better than not more magic, but all things considered I don't think I'll be prioritizing this one very much."

[copycast]

"It is not for everyone, but it suits me enough. There is also Lordship, which is the same thing, but sort of the opposite... You focus on getting power in exchange of developing vulnerabilities and the need to guard something really zealously. If it was me, I would create a tome with all my spells and no one would be able to touch it without damaging me spiritually, but I would be able to cast the spells at will like innates."

[swordofdamocles]

"Thaaat sounds like kind of a harsh tradeoff."

[copycast]

"Agreed, but it was a extreme case given it involves exponential power growth. Most Lordships will just give a side effect that harms and weakens the Lords. While not evil, the practice is often relegated to antagonists in children's stories for a reason." Temple shrugs, "Not my morning meal at any rate."

[swordofdamocles]

"Agreed. ...How good's your translation spell, did you get idiomatic or just technical fluency?"

[copycast]

"It is a combination of technical fluency and sound manipulation." Temple says, he starts exaggerating his mouth's movements, "It corrects my voice to sound more like a native speaker," his voice sounds perfectly normal despite what his mouth is doing, "but it doesn't work so well with translating idioms or phrases. I have a spell that copies the target's languages directly to my head, if you happen to know a volunteering polyglot I would appreciate. Meanwhile, 'my morning meal' means something that you would want to do everyday."

[swordofdamocles]

"Ah. I think the closest equivalent here would be 'not my cup of tea.' And an actual morning meal, one would call breakfast."

[copycast]

"Heh, learning this kind of things is fun! The expression is supposed to be focused on the tea or people are very attached to their cups here?"

[swordofdamocles]

"The tea."

[copycast]

"Okay, Lordship is not my cup of tea. There. Did I sound like a true native of Earth?"

[swordofdamocles]

"Well, I mean, most people from Earth wouldn't know a Lordship from a hole in the ground, but otherwise perfect!"

[copycast]

Temple giggles, "I didn't bring any luggage, but do we need to do something to settle me in? Introduce me to your grandfather? Show me my quarters? Then keep talking about magic?"

[swordofdamocles]

"Sounds like fun. I'll show you your room and then you can meet my grandfather and then the library would probably be the best place to talk about magic."

[copycast]

"That sounds perfect!"

Temple will follow Andrea to his room. It soon becomes clear that when he mentioned that electricity is common to all worlds, he actually meant the phenomenon of electricity (lighting, brain signals, magic attacks) and not the use to empower non-magical machines. He gets curious about the light-switches and other unfamiliar technology.

[swordofdamocles]

"...That would be electricity. I thought you said you had it?"

[copycast]

"We do, but not like this. It is a... thing that happens naturally or through magic. Are those common here?"

[swordofdamocles]

"That would be an understatement."

[copycast]

"Interesting!" Temple says with a mix of surprise and delight, "I have seen a prototype machine that could use electrical signals to deliver simple messages. Do you have something like that here? What else does electricity do?"