Chapter 432 – Intent

After Damion returned home from the Atlantis City Council, he retreated into his study to contemplate what Mage Fletcher had advised. Was he lacking some aspect of his study of Nashto? He could read and write Nashto glyphs fluently. The secrets of enchantments and spells were largely open to him. Only his own comprehension limited his understanding of magic seals.

Still the question remained, what was he missing for Nashto? To answer the question, Damion decided to simplify it. What made up a language? Symbols, given arbitrary meaning to form words. Those words were names for things, concepts, ideas, and even used to further define those things. Rearranging the words could drastically change the meaning of those concepts and ideas.

‘What else is there?’ Damion thought to himself before letting out an audible sigh. When he heard his sigh, he finally realized what he was missing.

A language was not just written and read, it was also spoken and heard. He was not sure if anyone on Nerotath had ever spoken Nashto, and he was certainly not sure how to even pronounce the glyphs as words. But that was what he was missing, he was sure. After all, the tone of how something was said could also change the meaning or intent of a word. With a language already as complex as Nashto, it would be reasonable to assume that tone could also be conveyed in the use of spells and enchantments.

Damion immediately pulled up the magic seal for Ice Shard in his mind and was about to begin reviewing the spell to see if he could identify any of these new elements when the Magic System sent him a notification.

*Ding*

{Quest Completed}

[Quest: Master Nashto – Status: Complete – 1,000 Experience, 1,000,000 Store Credits]

As soon as the Magic System notification went off Damion could feel the difference. As he looked at the magic seal for Ice Shard he could see the differences in tone and intent of the meaning. More than that, he understood fully what Ice Shard was. Not just as a spell, but as a concept, what the spell was capable of and how to fully govern its power. He quickly realized that Ice Shard could do much more than simply launch ice crystals at an enemy, all he had to do was alter the intent of the words.

Damion was already capable of creating multiple Ice Shards at once with his mastery of the spell, but now if he wanted he could make more, less, make them smaller or larger. It reminded him of his Summon Ice spell, so he quickly shifted his mental focus to it. The magic seal for Summon Ice filled his mind and he grasped concepts of the spell he had not considered before. While looking at the spell and listening to the rhythm of its intent, Damion realized he did not need a large multitude of spells for each affinity he possessed.

Just a few spells would do. The chief of which was summon. With Summon Ice he could do nearly everything any of his other Ice affinity spells could do, only the other spells did it more quickly. However, now that he fully understood Nashto, he saw that he was limiting himself with how he cast the spell.

Damion Blinked out of his house and then opened a Portal and took himself a short distance outside of Atlantis. Casting Summon Ice with his new understanding instead of a block of ice he needed to shape with his will, two ice phoenixes appeared and flew around him, appearing as real as any bird he had ever seen.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

With a thought, the ice phoenixes transformed into ice dragons and then into fish. Finally, his ice constructs exploded into a hailstorm and peppered the landscape around him. Damion then sat down on the ground and took out his tablet. He may not have figured out a better way to make a Portal, but he had figured out how to dramatically increase his combat ability.

The first spell he began constructing was Summon Fire. Due to the gift of the repository Mage Teft had given him towards the end of his time at Silver Spire Magic Academy, he already had a Summon Earth spell and with the help of it and Summon Ice, he felt creating a spell for Summon Fire would not be too difficult.

A few minutes after leaving the city to try his theories, Phil flew over, checking on what its companion was doing. Now that Damion had returned, the Blizzard King was determined not to be left behind again.

After a few hours of work, Damion’s communication tablet chimed. Elicia was calling, it was time for dinner. When he checked his watch and realized how much time had passed Damion was a bit distressed. To him, he had just sat down and started working. He had made a great deal of progress on crafting a new spell, but even with his mastery of Nashto, ensuring that a magic seal had no flaws was not an easy task.

Putting aside his tablet for now, Damion opened a Portal back to his house and sat down for dinner with his family. Helge was seated in a highchair between his parents and was happily grabbing at pieces of fruit Elicia had cut up for him.

“You left the house without a word,” Sharon commented. “Did something happen?”

“No, I simply had a burst of inspiration in how to use my spells, and I wanted to try them out right away. I didn’t go far, just outside the city to be safe.”

“Oh, what did you learn?” Sharon asked, not that she believed she would understand what her son would try and explain, but she wanted to keep him engaged, lest he disappear for another few months.

“That the intent of a spell can be altered by its usage.”

Sharon did not say anything, but Elicia scrunched her forehead in thought as she tried to decipher what Damion meant. Was there intent buried in the glyphs of magic seals? She had never considered it before. But even if it was there, how could a mage alter it?

“Well, at least you are home for dinner,” his mother told him.

“I might be going on a trip soon, but I think I’ll be able to return every night, it shouldn’t be too difficult for me. But before we do that, I want to work on the new spell I am crafting. If it works, then I will greatly increase my arsenal.”

“What will this new spell do?” Caleb asked his son.

“Allow me to summon and control fire at will.”

“Can’t you already cast a number of different fire spells? Why do you need another spell to do the same thing?”

“A spell with a set purpose, like Fireball or Fire Storm is useful and can be manipulated to a certain extent, but summoning raw fire will allow me absolute control over it. If I want to have it do the same as the other spells I make it, or I change it to be more precise.”

“Isn’t casting a specific spell faster?” Elicia asked. She at least understood what Damion was working on. Having seen him use Summon Ice before, she had a fair understanding of it, but what Damion was proposing seemed to be skipping the step where he had to alter the ice after the spell created it.

“Before I had my breakthrough, yes, you were right, summon spells required you to summon the element and then alter it. But now that I understand the intent buried in magic seals, I am able to create what I want at will.”

As Damion spoke, he held his hand out, palm up, and cast Summon Ice. From his palm flew a dozen small ice birds. The ice constructs flew around the table, eliciting Bethany to try and grab them as they came close to her and Helge to giggle as he watched.

“If I can make a summon spell for each of my affinities, I might just be able to handle anything anyone throws at me.”