Child of Aidon
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SS [7] Codified will
🕑 Added 2025-06-12 22:34:07 +0000 UTCTanisha only had one spell in most elemental disciplines, the aptitude spells Helina had taught her what felt like years ago, though only a few months had passed. These were the most fundamental expressions of each element’s magic, deliberately simple, designed to be easy to cast.
She’d tested well across all of them, likely thanks to her status as a sage. The aptitude spells weren’t meant for combat. Most mages used them once for affinity testing and then forgot about them as they moved on to more advanced spells. They would have no further use and would be quickly forgotten.
Out of all of them she had a special affinity towards ionikinesis which was a rare elemental specialization. Few people had an affinity for plasma magic and fewer mastered such a mysterious art. On top of that Tanisha was different. She didn’t have an instructors who could teach her elemental frameworks or the basics of spellform crafting. She was in the dark and could only rely on the arcane process and her powerful magic.
So she had to do what Sages were meant to do. Study the basic spellforms and engineer her own spells. She’d begun breaking down the aptitude spells using her Sage Soul Forge. It was finally time to put that skill to work and actually become the Sage she was destined to be.
Sage Soul Forge
Seiðr cost: Variable
(I) Use seiðr to alter and twist existing spellforms connected to your Ringularity Core. (II) Meditate on your core to deepen connections and meridians to your soul. Study the Marks of Seiðr which etched themselves across your body to gain greater insight. (III) Unknown. Unknown. Unknown.
She used the Sage Soul Forge during her normal meditation and was used to feeling how her body analysed her own magic. Not only that, she had long ago created a diagram of the Marks of Seiðr which moved around her body whenever she used her magic. The marks didn’t mean anything to her and they didn’t look like any language she had ever seen. They did look like a spellform, some in spell circles and some in arcane script mathematics or something approximating it.
Until now, she’d largely neglected the first function of the Forge. She had used the function only twice, the first time was to convert basic ionikinesis aptitude spell into a devastating weapon. It had become one of her most powerful attacks... but also her most impractical. The spell was too long and short range to be usable in most situations.
The spell basically required her to stand or sit perfectly still and be within a few feet of the target while she focused her magic. She did use the spell to kill the Jewel Wing Monarch but that required a party of skilled monster hunters and Bjorn to protect her while she performed the spell. It was basically just a pillar of plasma which erupted from under the target, spearing them through and disintegrating everything in its way. She never really thought the spell would be useful again.
The second time she used Sage Soul Forge’s first function was when copied from the electrokinetic mage she fought in the Yuhia border fortress raid. The original spell formed a sphere of charged mana in the caster’s palm, which could then be thrown or launched before detonating.
Continuing to work with that spell to create variations was far easier than starting from scratch. She already created one spell. She called it Electric Hand and was the attack she used with hydromancy to damage the Shiver.
Tanisha sat cross legged in what they decided would just be called the Training Room because ‘Reinforced Ballistics Training Area’ was a little too long. She had her new grimoire which was a hardcover journal that Laxy made for her. A grimoire for a mage was a series of magical notes and spells personal to that mage.
She had it at her side while she channeled the electric spellform in her core. Altering it with Sage Soul Forge and occasionally gathering blood red electricity in her hands.
Tanisha finally completed the spellform for Electric Hand. There were still a few refinements she wanted to make after her battle with the Shiver. This new iteration was designed to channel electricity more precisely through other mediums like her hydromancy. More importantly, it would avoid arcing into nearby allies like Fuyumi or Aurelius, even if they were in physical contact with the enemy. The changes would require slightly more focus but the last thing she needed was to hurt her teammates.
She spoke the new incantation and her hands lit up with volatile energy. A loud violent pop resounded between her palms, accompanied by snapping arcs of crimson lightning that crawled up her forearms.
She winced, “The sound is still a problem.” She said to herself as she dismissed the spell. “Maybe I am not completely done after all.”
She flipped open her grimoire and turned to the spell. She marked the changes she made to the increasingly complex array on the page. Magic circles was the most common arcane spell representation while spell form math
Skill Acquisition: Congratulations you have comprehended a learned skills through Sage Soul Forge. Please determine if you wish to add the following to your Skills Analysis page.
+ Electrokinesis
Seiðr cost: Variable
(I) Shape seiðr into energized constructs; manipulate ambient electricity or draw it from existing sources. Gain basic control over lightning’s movement and flow. (II) Refine control—alter luminosity, voltage, amperage, and the auditory signature of thunder. Absorb electricity to temporarily enhance reflexes, accelerate cognitive speed, and quicken spellcasting. (III) Unknown.
Add to Skills Analysis [Yes/No]
+ Electric Hand
Seiðr cost: Variable
(I) Low cost, 15 seiðr. Coat your arms and hand in electricity which can be focused into a target upon contact. Weapons wielded will also have the same effect but to a lesser degree than direct contact. (II) Hand of the Electrocutioner kill a target with Electric Hand and absorbs 30% of the target's remaining magic if they use any of the elements that make up your alloy. If the target uses an exotic energy conversion is 10% of the target's remaining mana pool.
Add to Skills Analysis [Yes/No]
+ Voltaic Orb
Seiðr cost: Variable
(I) Low cost, 20 seiðr. Form a concentrated orb of electric mana in your palm. The orb can be launched or thrown manually, detonating on impact with a burst of electrical force that stuns and burns nearby targets. (II) Medium cost, 30 seiðr. Refine the orb for controlled detonation, allowing mid-air bursts or delayed triggering. Detonation radius and intensity increase with user focus. Targets near the core are more severely affected, suffering temporary motor and magic disruption.
Add to Skills Analysis [Yes/No]
She had never seen a notification like this before—not even when Helina taught her hydromancy. Was it because she had to create these on her own? certainly not when she self-learned Voltaic Orb by mimicking that electrokinetic mage during the Yuhia border raid. What would be the difference between adding the skills to the page or not?
Electrokinesis was just control of electricity. Her control wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great. She gathered electricity in her hand and let it arc between her fingers. Electricity felt tingly in her body, not quite fully under her control; illusionary. The skill claimed it would give her refined control she hadn’t quite figured out how to do yet. Luminosity and sound was a major change on its own and she had no idea how to do that.
She gathered more power between her palms, pushing the seiðr further. The crimson lightning bands thickened, coiling up her arms like ribbons of blood and fire. There was a moment of hesitation before she accepted [Yes] on Electrokinesis to see the change.
The change was instantaneous. The spellform in her core altered slightly, the flow of seiðr smoothed and the bands of energy became more responsive. Instead of the branching arcs they became singular ribbons of power just as quick as lightning but a fluid as water.
She jumped up in excitement, the grimoire in her lap clattered to the ground. She laughed at herself.
“Wait, I need to write this down. It changed the Spellform in my core too.” Tanisha said.
She was amazed at the sudden quantitative leep in power she now had access to. This changed everything when it came to her magic. She waved her hand, and delicate streams of electricity danced around her fingers, glowing no brighter than candlelight, whisper-quiet.The hum in the air remained, and her hair still floated with the static, but compared to where she’d started? This was elegance.
At the very least she wouldn’t have to worry about deafening or blinding herself or her teammates. TThough, with her body continuing to shift toward a true mage-body state, she suspected those physical concerns would eventually become irrelevant.
With the benefits of the skills becoming a part of her Skills Analysis page obvious, she accepted the other happily and wondered why it even gave her the option to reject skills. She then looked at her Sage Soul Forge and saw that the Previous unknown third tier of the Spell was finally unveiled.
+ Sage Soul Forge
Seiðr cost: Variable
(I) Use seiðr to alter and twist existing spellforms connected to your Ringularity Core. (II) Meditate on your core to deepen connections and meridians to your soul. Study the Marks of Seiðr which etched themselves across your body to gain greater insight. + (III) Comprehend and internalize self-developed spells at accelerated speed. Once mastery is reached, the spell or skill is archived in Skills Analysis and may evolve. Grants rare insights or hidden functions. Excludes taught or incomplete spells. (IV) Unknown. Unknown.
There was an unknown fourth tier to the spell too. None of the other spells have a fourth tier ability. How do I unlock it? Is it by leveling up or by experimenting? Maybe I need to study the Marks more?
The only other spell she had with unknown effects was Appeasement of the Cernunnos. That skill required her to eat the flesh of whatever she killed. If she did that she would get free cultivation points. She wouldn’t be able to learn more about that skill or its unknown third tier until they were no longer fighting golems. She would also not use it on people which just left magic beasts and monsters. Neither of which were in the facility… as far as she knew anyway.
Tanisha sat back down and wrote her findings in her grimoire: the changes made to the spells would definitely help her make changes to future spells. When she moved on to plasma, it will definitely come in handy. She closed the book and looked up at her teammates. Aurelius was diligently cultivating doing something with his aura that made it flare wildly. Fuyumi on the other hand was practicing her strikes with her various weapons.
Aurelius was going to challenge his Shard before they opened the door to the lower levels. Tanisha would do the same but they were going to give themselves a few days first. It made more sense to her than to just to rush straight to the lower floors. Besides, she needed more time to refine potions and learn about hacking from Laxy.
“Hey guys.” Tanisha called out. “I am about to head to Laxy. Did you all want to come this time?”
Aurelius’s eyes snapped open and he wiped sweat from his brow.
“Sure, learning more about how this place work is important if we get separated or something.” Aurelius said.
“Afterwards I can show you all the new spells I made.” Tanisha said, holding up her grimoire.
***
“Why does it seem like computers are more magic than magic!” Aurelius said, throwing his arms up.
Tanisha was back in the R&D room with Laxy but this time Aurelius and Fuyumi actually did join her. They were sitting at the workstations going over the technical side of things. Tanisha had heard this lesson before but Laxy decided to reiterate now that they had more students.
Learning about computers was like learning a new language. In a lot of cases it was. Many terms for computers just didn’t exist in any language she knew. Fuyumi and Aurelius was not ready for how intense the lessons actually were. The more Tanisha learned the more it seemed like there was and it made the fact that humans figured all of this out without magic all the more impressive.
Laxy adjusted her glasses. “It is not magic that allows for computers to function. It is—”
“The flow of electricity through wires and some sort of green rectangle in negative one, zero and one!” Fuyumi recited. “That doesn’t make any sense!”
“They are called trits,” Laxy said, voice calm. “Each trit carries more information than a bit. Three states instead of two.”
Aurelius grumbled, rubbing his temples. “I can run faster by putting the power of creation in my leg, Fuyumi can summon weapons from nothing and Tanisha is friends with several True Immortals. All that is far easier to understand than a box that can count faster?”
“Not just faster,” Laxy said, gesturing to the glowing display in front of her. A schematic of a ternary processor shimmered into view. “More consistently. No exhaustion. No emotion. No bias. Just input, operation, output.”
“I don’t know,” Tanisha said, her voice softer, curious. “I’m starting to get it. It’s like math... but really fast. Instead of casting a spell to know something, the machine... computes it.”
“But how does it know what to do?” Fuyumi asked, crossing her arms. “Magic has purpose. Intention. Structure. Will. What it doesn’t have we give it or it makes monsters. Where does this—this pile of glass and copper find answers? No offence Laxy, you're nice.”
“No offence taken, but I have no glass or copper components.” Laxy tilted her head slightly, then turned the schematic into a cascade of symbols. “Computers follows instructions. Programs. Structured logic it is contained and written in the same way an enchantment works. Someone already made the structure all it needs is power but composed of operations in base-three logic. That is what a program is and those that make them are programmers. In your terms, it is a codified will.”
“Codified will…” Aurelius muttered, eyes narrowing. “That does sound like magic.”
“It is not,” Laxy replied instantly. “It is deterministic. Given the same inputs, it always yields the same output. Magic, by contrast, is influenced by ambient mana, emotion, celestial alignments, and—” she paused, “whatever it is you do with chanting.”
Fuyumi started to explain. “Vocalizing a spell is—”
“Not important for your lesson.” Laxy stated. “Now, do you want to see how trits store a word?”
Comments
Child of Aidon
the trits and the -1, 0, 1 is a real thing. there was a computer made that can utilize this type of code in real life though it never caught on. It had a lot of problems but mainly because bits were already main stream and the specialized hardware for it would only offer minimal improvements. I like the idea but yea it sounds like a headache. the computer was the Setun computer, developed in the Soviet Union in the 1950s. If you care lol
WingedIkaros
As a programming nerd with a degree, fuck binary, and trinary sounds like an exponentially larger pain. I am curious how they stored a 3rd state though; binary is essentially no energy flow vs energy flow on a very fundamental level. Maybe introducing directionality would add a -1, but I feel like that would have its own issues. Not a hardware nerd though, and I'm willing to just accept it regardless. Unrelated note: I wonder how far we are in the timeline from the hydra's return...
