Transcendence?

***Norfolk, Sarn-Valley***

I am in my basement with a bowl of chocolate pieces in my hand. A spinning globe of glass hovers in front of me and it's one of my newest creations. It has the size of a football which makes it about adequate for my purposes.

The globe is a spying tool which enables me to have my eyes and ears anywhere I want within a certain radius. For the time being it has a very limited range. But it's enough to follow the people in my mansion.

I was watching since this morning when Celestial dropped the bomb of world domination on her unsuspecting parents. They took it as bad as I had suspected. The kitchen turned into a living hell and I noted to myself to be careful around Idala. She has some pretty scary techniques. In the end though, to my amazement they didn't run directly towards the academy.

Not yet at least. Though they insisted to stay in this mansion to have a close eye on Celestial and to protect Liandra.

Watching through the globe is similar to a real life tv-show. So I lean back while enjoying the view.

Celestial is on the training ground in our garden. She is driven by her wish to utilize her new technique to the fullest. A big chunk of rock is her target and she is thrusting her flat palm towards the rock which actually creates small shock-waves.

Is she trying to create a fake Palm of Buddha? You were watching too many movies dear. On the other hand... those shock-waves are pretty impressive on their own. I don't want to stand in front of her while she is doing that.

Oooh! Daddy is incoming from behind! Watch out witch!

“Celestial. We will restart your training today. What are you even trying to accomplish by casting those shock-waves?” Arduin folds his hands and stares at Celestial.

Fool! She wasn't casting anything! She just executed a purely physical movement while slowly moving and thrusting her hand towards the rock and explosively releasing all her power at the last instant. That was simple brutish strength!

“Sorry daddy. But I guess casting spells doesn't fit into my training schedule.” She smirks at her father.

“Then prove it! If you defeat me I will acknowledge that you are right to concentrate on that new technique of yours.” He enters a fighting stance.

“Whenever you are ready daddy. I wanted a training partner anyway. Ascathon isn't an interesting opponent.” Celestial raises a hand to signal her readiness.

“Why not?” Arduin arches an eyebrow.

“He always makes excessive use of barriers and other tricks to avoid head to head combat when I drag him out to train with me. It's a little annoying.” Celestial shakes her head.

I would be flattened like an insect if I wouldn't do that brutish witch! And who in his right mind would step in front of a train to stop it if he could simply sabotage the rails!

Daddy just shrugs his shoulders and attacks with a fireball. It's smoothly executed and followed directly by a swiftness spell. His body blurs and he reappears behind Celestial who is casually wiping the fireball out of the air with her bare hand.

Then Celestial turns and charges towards Arduin. At that moment though he has his next spell ready and a small tornado lifts Celestial into the air.

Whooo! Nice thinking. I underestimated my father in law! Up there, her brutish strength is useless and by using wind-magic he avoided the problem of her magical defence.

I guess he is aware of the passive resistance which is offered to someone who practices his battle-aura.

But Celestial isn't defeated and starts to execute her technique from earlier in fast succession which blows her out of the little tornado.

She makes a perfect landing and charges for her father again.

Arduin doesn't bother with mind magic and after a few words a dense wall of earth is raised between them. I admire his resourcefulness.

Mind magic is a very restricted and dangerous art. If you don't execute it properly, it fails and you have to face a magical backlash. The same goes if you try it on someone who is powerful enough to block it.

So you are very foolish if you use mind-magic in combat without being one hundred percent sure that you can overpower the mental defence of your opponent.

Celestial is unconcerned by the wall and blows right through, stopping her foot just an inch in front of Arduin's face.

“So what do you think father.” Celestial smirks at Arduin.

“I will rethink my opinion of this technique. Though you still have a little work before you if you want to use it in actual combat.” Arduin's image wavers and disappears while Arduin's real self appears about five meters to the left.

Hooh! My father in law created a fake image of himself during the fight. I didn't realize when he did it. On the other hand my globe doesn't give me an accurate and realistic view. Seeing something purely as an image with sound is quite a loss compared to the real thing.

“You were just hiding! That's the same as Ascathon! Don't you....”

Celestial continues to complain but I switch the channel. Watching the bickering scene is no fun. I hope she never develops a way to see through tricks like that. She will be the ultimate enemy of a mage.

Maybe I should start to develop a technique to stand up to her. Being bashed up because you are physically too weak is no fun at all.

I find another interesting channel. Stefan is correcting the homework of Violetta and Liandra while Idala is watching him intensely. The old scholar obviously isn't comfortable with it.

After a few seconds he looks up. “You have a question Mrs. Jasmine?”

“I just asked myself why someone like you isn't on his way to the academy right now? I heard about the reasons for your leave.” Idala leans back in her chair.

Stefan shrugs his shoulders. “I am a curious guy. But I am no stupid guy.”

Idala shows surprise. “If you would explain that further?”

Stefan places his pencil on the desk. “I was ruined by the Academy. Then I looked for a new job. But with a bad reputation by the Academy you are doomed. I had given myself up when I came here. But Ascathon gave me a new purpose. How could I bite the hand that pulled me to my feet again?”

“But couldn't you redeem yourself if you mentioned this house to the Academy? The Inquisition is fearsome, you know?” Idala arches an eyebrow while trying to make sense out of the old scholar.

Stefan begins to chuckle. “I don't fear the Academy or the Inquisition any more. They are barbarians without any knowledge. What I fear is the owner of this house!”

He stands up and walks over to the big grandfather clock at the wall and opens it. “Did you realize what these things are?” He looks at Idala.

Now she shrugs her shoulders. “They are artefacts which show the time?”

Stefan chuckles once again and points at the magic circuits inside the clock. “Those are magic circuits. And they are more sophisticated than everything I have ever seen. Do you know the biggest secret of the Academy? The holy grail of artifice?”

“The Gates?” Idala looks interested now.

“Yes! The Gates! The creation which is said to be the biggest blessing and the greatest threat of magic. The reason why the academy abolishes almost all artefacts. But the Gates are children's toys compared to this!” Stefan stabs his finger wildly at my magic circuit without touching it.

“But it's just a thing that shows the time?” Idala looks confused.

Stefan closes the clock again with great care. “All spells can be reduced to their most basic elements. You know that? Even the greatest military-spells can be cast by an appropriate magic artefact. Even a commoner could use these artefacts if they were made with that purpose in mind.”

Idala nods, so Stefan continues. “The gates are thought to be the epitome of magic devices. They are stuffed with magic circuitry to the brim! And even then it requires a highly skilled magician to control them. But they are just child's play compared to this ….technology.”

Ooops. I guess I should have held back a little more. Combining logical circuitry and magic circles is a little too obvious.

Stefan points at the clock. “That's not knowledge from our world. The one who created this clock could probably build a Gate that fits into my fist! And that leads us back to your first question.” He corrects his glasses.

“Would you piss someone off to whom the Academy's Gates are nothing more but mere sticks? If he would go out into the world and publish this knowledge our world would topple upside down and burn.”

Idala looks concerned now. “Not from this world?”

Haah. I guess I will have to talk with all of them. If I let this go they could get some stupid ideas.

I switch the channel again and find Liandra and Violetta. They seem to be up for some mischief. One of them is freezing the ground with a thin layer of ice while the other is calling for Sarah to come and take a look at something.

Geez. These kids. Such a stupid prank. Sarah could get hurt. I will have to scold them afterwards. So I throw another piece of chocolate into my mouth while I watch the tragedy unfold.

But as Sarah slips she surprises me by making a perfect landing and catching her fall with a single hand.

Liandra claps her hands and turns towards Violetta. “See? I told you that she is some kind of martial artist!”

Neither of them realizes the creepy horror which is looming over them. Violetta and Liandra are grabbed at their earlobes and pulled down the corridor. Probably to suffer even worse punishment by a direct family member.

That saves me the need to play the bad guy. I switch off my globe and stand up to deal with something else. The globe is working fine for the time being. Maybe I will work on the range if I have time.

There is still my training in soul magic. I want to finally solve this problem of mine. After a few steps I reach my personal training room. It's completely empty except for a very complicated magic circle on the ground.

It's something that should help me to unlock the mystery of souls and I am working on it for several lifetimes now. I take another bite from my chocolate and set the bowl down. Of course outside of my magic circle.

The circle itself is a really complicated pattern which i carved into the floor and filled up with metal.

This thing is actually very delicate and combines the heights of all my scientific and magical knowledge. Even I don't have a clue of what would happen if I would randomly change the conditions by involving a foreign element into the ritual.

So I place myself at the centre of the circle which represents the mind. This whole thing is meant to strengthen my soul and to intensify my awareness of the higher realms.

A short burst of mana activates the circle which glows for a second and stops again. It's not in the least spectacular or noteworthy. But that's not the goal at all. After taking another look around and checking everything I close my eyes and start to concentrate.

Slowly I begin to shut out my surroundings and my senses. They are just bothersome information at the moment.

After what felt like an eternity I start to realize a web of paths all around me. They are distant and I am not sure what they represent. I often tried to get a hold of them but they are even further out of my reach than a soul.

I concentrate on the green flames all around me instead. They symbolize souls and I can actually feel their presence. Though I never managed to actually get a hold on them until now. If I try to take a look inwards I think that my own soul is a black flame.

Not sure what the difference in colour means. I already managed to explore my own soul and create some exercises for manipulating it. Relax and stretch out to cover as much space as possible. Concentrate and focus on a single point.

Maybe those exercises will help me in the future but for the time being I think that my grasp on them is good enough. So I turn back to my original training session and concentrate on manipulating the green flames.

….

…

..

I am at it for a while when I realize a red flame which is approaching me. Strange. That colour is new! And since when are those flames coming towards me on their own?

Further away I realize that a yellow flame starts to circle us. Now it definitely gets freaky! That never happened in my exercises before! Maybe I should stop for today.

But then I realize interesting differences in the two new flames. The red one seems strong and vital like my own. The yellow one seems dormant and weak like the green ones.

Still wondering over this event I suddenly realize that the red flame is entirely too close! I try to wake up but it doesn't work!

In a panic I lose my cool and try to shove the foreign soul away with a burst of will and emotion. But instead it's suddenly drawn towards me!?

Ah!? Damn! Emotions are the key!? And I always tried to shut my feelings out!

They yellow one is also drawn in and there is no time to marble any further about this event. I am not happy about my new insight as the red and yellow souls start to mingle with my own. I see pictures and places. Memories. This is wrong! Those memories are not my own!

Shoving. Fighting. Separating! Myself! The other. Different! Can't lose myself!

It feels like I am struggling for an eternity but finally the fight ends as I lose my consciousness.

….

…

..

I wake up with something soft in my face. It's hard to breathe! And it smells like Celestial's perfume!

“Ow. My head hurts! What happened?”

“Mmem! Imdmimomt!!!!!!”

“Ah! Sorry, sorry.”

The darkness is lifted and I can finally take a look at the misery. Celestial is on top of me and the bowl with chocolate is broken beside us. The pieces of chocolate are all around in the circle!

“What the fuck happened!?”

Celestial looks confused. “I don't know. It's dinner time and I went to get you but you didn't come even after knocking the door for two minutes. So I looked for you and found you here. Meditating like dead in this dark room. I shouted but you didn't react. When I took a step forward I tripped over something.... ah... the chocolate!”

I cover my face with my hands. “I was executing a ritual to research soul magic!”

“S... S... SOUL MAGIC! Did something bad happen!? I remember a really horrible outer body experience!” Celestial starts to touch herself all over.

“How the fuck should I know!? You stumbled into a magic circle which even I don't fully comprehend because I took a lot of guesses! Let's hope that headaches are our only problem! Are you still you? Your memories? What about the third soul which was drawn in!?”

Celestial freezes up. “No... I think... I am me?”

Then she looks at me.

“Which third soul?”

.