Born a Monster

Chapter 82

Arrows

“I don’t remember it being like this!” Agnopos shouted.

“It wasn’t. They’ve got about four times the archers they did last time.”

We huddled behind the crenelations. The spirits of the wall protected Agnopos. I wished I had prioritized Agility rather than Resolve.

The higher resistance to fear was a must, though.

.....

You would think that when you raised a skill to three, and then the stat to three, that the skill would stay three even after the statistic dropped to 2; no such luck. I didn’t trust my System, and did manual ducking and dodging.

It had worked so far.

It wasn’t quite raining arrows, but a constant light drizzle had caught more than one of the wall guard by surprise.

Things were worse on night shift, and there were rumors that those of us with good night vision would be transferred there. Crap.

We had been trained to look to the sky, then glance over the crenelations, and then to take cover. I had made a game of it the last time, but with the archers taking random shots, there was the possibility that any look could be our last.

Also, with them having launched assaults on the walls already, it was possible that any glance could be the one that gave us warning, that saved lives.

What kind of stress, I wondered, is it that breaks the will of the besiegers?

Probably also fear of death, I decided. How many had already lost their lives? By the numbers generals use to gauge such things, if they threw everyone at us, the city would fall.

Or, they could wait six to eight months, as the town ate through its food supplies. As disease ravaged both sides. I am told that disease and accidents kill as many soldiers as the enemy. I’ve seen enough of stupid people to give this theory credence. Our tower bathed regularly, once every ten days or so, but not every station along the wall was so hygienic.

“Still nothing.” I confirmed to Agnopos.

“Gods, is this the job we were supposed to be doing last siege?”

“Pretty much.”

“This is a terrible job.”

“We risk our lives so that others are safe.” I watched an arrow arc over the wall, and descend toward the town below. “Well, safer, at any rate.”

“No, I accept that. It’s just this ... doing nothing. Changing nothing.”

“Wait until the next time they rush the walls. Plenty to do then.”

“Well, they seem to have us surrounded. What are they waiting for?”

“Probably completion of all three rings.”

“What rings?”

“Rings of encircling trenches?”

“Oh, those. Sorry, I was thinking of rings like you might wear on your fingers.”

“Heh, like magical rings?”

He risked a glance over his part of the crenelations. “Still nothing. Sure, magical rings. How are those enchanted, and what makes them different from spells?”

“Well, I suppose from one manner of looking at it, magical items are just long-lasting spells, some of them having their own mana storage. Most, though, rely on their bonded owner to empower their abilities.”

“Tell me more.” Agnopos said.

#

For sanity’s sake, I will not say when Agnopos and I took turns looking over the wall, or dodged arrows, or other such mundane things.

“For example... arrows.” I said. “This arrow here is hastily made, and is fine so far as its use as an arrow goes. But it would be a poor choice to enchant as a magical item.”

“Because it’s made out of normal materials?”

“What? No, because it is hastily made, without any emotional investment or care. Let me see, there should be one around here...”

“There. The spirits say that one, there.”

“Ah! Yes, this is an excellent arrow to enchant. What shall we name it?”

“People name things like the Crown of All Kings, or the flaming sword Ignatio. Not normal magic items.”

“Oh, true. If we wanted to just imbue it with a single level one effect, we could do that just by naming it Magical Arrow or some such. But for the higher magics, we’d need a name to wrap the magic around, like a lynchpin.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“Okay... think of... like that flagpole, or the foundation stones at the base of the wall. You can have a flag, but to fly it at the top of a tower, you need a flagpole, and the wall needs a foundation.”

“Oh. Like how mom needs flour and eggs and baking powder to make bread!”

“Very similar. But... think of the mixing bowl, which holds and contains the ingredients, or the stirring spoon used to mix them. Or the baking pan and oven, to transform them. Lynchpins are similar to those. You can try magic without them, but you end up making a mess.”

“I don’t mind making a mess of those guys.”

“I mean a mess in your mind and soul. You naturally clean yourself, but the process is slow and consumes Sanity and Serenity.”

“And if it waits too long, it becomes Taint?”

“That... is an over-simplification, but yes, in the same way food on the floor can lead to a growth of rot, magical detritus in the aura can lead to Taint. But we’re getting away from the core thing you wanted to learn, which was how to make magical items.”

“Right. So we name it, like Flaming Burst of Doom.”

“All Right, so which language can we fit that onto the shaft without overly impairing the flight statistics?”

“Uhm. Any?”

“Yes. Quite so. Magic doesn’t like our human words. Oddly, the less well we understand the language, the safer it is to work magic with it. Think of the unknown as ... an oven mitt, that keeps the magic from burning us.”

“Why is that?”

“Because magic is a living thing; it likes to be unknown and unknowable.”

“Oh, so it’s a girl.”

I rubbed behind my eyes. “You can think of it that way. You need to know some of the magic to work with it, but the more you try to make it do what you want, the more it fights you. Not just your purpose; magic can fight YOU, and that is a fight that you never win.”

“Like with a girl.” Agnopos said.

“Moving on.”

#

“So, Flaming Burst of Doom is a simple name. And let’s say we want anyone able to use it.”

“Let’s.”

“So we are limited to base and level one magic.”

“Like how abilities are level one, then level two, and so on?”

“Just so, with each level being harder to work with, but also capable of more powerful magics.”

“But if we put a lot of magic into it, it can do more?”

“Technically, yes, but there’s only so much magic we can put into something like an arrow, or a ring, or any other magical item.”

“So why are the Legendary Items so much more powerful?”

I spread my hands. “This I do not know, and will not fathom a guess. Anyway, we can put runes, say here on the arrowhead or here near the fletching, as needed, to help keep the magic from leaking out.”

“Like how the iron door on the stove keeps the heat from leaking out.”

“Exactly so. It can’t stop the loss, but it can slow it substantially.”

“But there are tales of magic items being good for thousands of years.”

“That is the use of Inherent, or transubstantive, magic. Like how some high-cost things in your System are also inherent. It is extremely difficult to do; this is why most charms and many potions stop working at the new or full moons, times when magic waxes or wanes.”

“Even solar magic?”

“I don’t understand why, either. But after a full or new moon, many ongoing spells need a little maintenance, just as our garments need a stitch or two from time to time.”

“Got it.”

“Good. So anyway, there are tiers of magic, but magic does need a foundation, just as the wall does. For example, we need a decent level zero base to build a level one spell into the arrow. Say, Ignite, since we’ve named it the Flaming Burst of Doom.”

“Well, I don’t want to light a torch so much as burn all the enemies in those trenches to a crisp.”

“Ah, the Vancian fallacy.”

.....

“Vancian what, now?”

“Fallacy. As near as I can tell, Vance was a powerful wizard in a world where magic worked differently. He thought of spells like... well, like arrows. If you knew a spell, you would prepare it in your mind, store it uncast in your aura or System or whatever, and then just call it out and use it, like pulling items from System inventory.”

“Okay, I can understand that.”

“Just understand that it’s wrong. That’s what fallacy means. It sounds good, but it doesn’t actually work that way. Just as archers use different aims for bodkin point, screamers, broadheads, and hunting arrows, there are different skills needed to guide and direct a spell. Like how one horse might need a carrot in the morning before riding, and another always tries to sprint but resists moving at a walking pace.”

“Because magic is a living thing?”

“Just so. Moving on.”

#

“Anyway, where I was trying to get to was this. You know how walls are built from the ground up, right?”

“Right.”

“Okay, so magic is like that. We need a firm level zero base before we can anything level one into our magical arrow.”

“Stuff like never needing to be sharpened, or being so tough even steel can’t cut it?”

“Exactly like that. Things that are general tend to be easy to enchant into items. But just as every item has its own purpose, it’s easier to enchant some things into some items. For example, it’s easier to make a wall or a shield protect its user than an arrow.”

“But it can be done?”

“In theory. Just because I’ve never attempted it doesn’t mean that someone, somewhere, hasn’t.”

I started waving at the next station down, closer to the guard tower.

“What? What?” Agnopos asked, and then looked for himself. “Oh, merciful gods.”

“Yup. They’re carrying ladders to the front. Looks like a siege tonight.”

“But it’s that easy? Name it, base it, enchant it?”

“In a nutshell.” I said. “And then, there’s always the chance that we do it wrong, that the spell ignites the arrow itself, or the bowstring of the archer using it.”

“So it’s something to make sure you do right.”

“Thus expending concentration, in the form of extra mana, or mental fatigue, or such. So a magic item is always going to require more from the enchanter than just casting or invoking a spell would. But, unless it’s made inherent, it’s still only got a number of uses before it can’t be used anymore.”

“So that’s why cities don’t just stock up on magic arrows.”

“Right. There are some things, like the Daylight arrows provided by the Shrine of the Sun. Single use, provides a bright light. A level one effect, single use and done. But they only make those arrows when they know they’ll be used before the next full or new moon, a month at most.”

“Because magic falls apart real fast?”

“Not falls apart... magic is a living thing. It ... escapes.”

“Oh, so tonight being the new moon and all, our ability to use magic will be less?”

“Exactly, and being the new moon... Oh, no.”

“What?”

I took a look out beyond the trenches to confirm. “They’ve massed siege engines. The enchantments that fortify the walls will be weaker during the three days of the new moon.”

“What? They’re going for a breach?”

“They’re going to try to make a breach in the walls.”

“How many siege... three ranks of eight. That’s twenty-four engines. Just tell me there’s a way to empower the wall enchantments.”

“Oh, of course there is. That’s not our job, leave that to those who have to do it.”

one of the wall spirits sent.

Oh, great.

#