Noble Arcana

No spell has only a single use.

Grand Magus Luther

When they made it back to the manor Solomon retreated to the library to pick up where he’d left off. He drew new vials of blood, infused them with mana, and topped off the mana on his minor homunculi as well, then he returned to the circle he’d used to cast the Paternal Protection spell. He made sure that everything was still in good shape, fixing up a few areas where the marking had worn, and retrieved one of the homunculi, placing it in the center. He performed the ritual with a bit more confidence and then returned the homunculus to his place on the desk.

He then took a scalpel and attempted to nick himself. As before there was no cut. He looked at the first homunculus and found a fresh mark on his arm, but there was not one on the second one. That was good. He hoped that meant that the first of them would need to be completely destroyed before the damage began affecting the next. With five of them it would be quite some time until he could be the one to be hurt. Once Solomon was done with the last ritual he felt far better fortified than he had before. After all, he had five lives to spare.

With that done he decided he should try the decoy spell he’d discovered the previous day. He lifted a small hand mirror that he’d found in storage. Its frame was silver, and molded into the shape of a mermaid. He gave it one more thorough look to ensure that it didn’t have any lingering mana and wasn’t an enchanted object of some kind, but saw nothing. He placed it carefully on the desk and grabbed the hammer he’d been using to mold the chain into smaller pieces. He gave it a single light tap on its center, and it immediately shattered within the frame. From there he poured the mirror shards out of the frame and into a bowl to keep from losing them.

He grabbed a shard and lifted it carefully examining his reflection for a brief moment as he gauged his mana. It was much steadier now that he had returned to Moonfallow and attended to the matters that had been waiting for. Now that he knew what to look out for he could even feel it steady a small amount whenever he checked on his servants.

Holding the mirror shard in one hand he began to move his mana into his fingertips before placing his empty hand on his chest and then extending it outward, holding an image of himself in his mind as he did so. It felt almost like he was throwing it out of himself. He let out a breath as he completed the spell and he kept up a consistent, if ever fluctuating, flow of mana. He looked at the space in which he’d extended his mana and nearly stopped his spell.

He’d managed to successfully summon a figure, but it wasn’t the simple decoy he’d expected. In front of him was a figure nearly twice his height, with the horns of a stag and the body of a man. It was still distinctly him, but with several notable changes. His teeth were sharper and jutting from his mouth, and his hands ended in dreadful claws. In sharp contrast to its savage look it was also wearing a purple suit.

He ended the spell, feeling the mirror shard in his hand turn to dust as mana pulsed through it. The figure in front of him vanished from sight. He frowned and moved back to the bowl to grab another shard of mirror. He then repeated the spell, this time trying to focus more on the mana construct he was creating, attempting to create a perfect simulcram of himself. The monstrous shape appeared again, simply dressed a bit better, his suit appearing to be less ill-fitting.

He ended the spell and watched the form fade away. It had to have something to do with the unusual nature of his mana. Just as it reacted to him protecting and caring for his people, it seemed to have other effects. He recalled the stag horns on his mask when he attended the Arcana meetings. He hadn’t chosen them, they’d simply been there. It made sense that there’d be some cost to using mana that wasn’t truly your own.

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It wasn’t a total loss. In fact, he could think of a number of situations in which summoning a monstrous form such as that could be useful. To frighten away a foe, or trick one into thinking he’d assumed some kind of horrific form that they hadn’t predicted. The original spell he felt would’ve had more uses, but he had to deal with what he had. Perhaps over time the mana would adjust more to his body and he would gain greater control over the spell.

His thoughts about the mask he wore to meet the Arcana he recalled that the next meeting would occur that night. He needed to see if he could get anything useful. He’d probably need to make some public requests in the ballroom this time. The longer he waited to confront the god in the forest, the more likely it would be the one to attack first.

He decided to practice the spell a few more times. He tested to see if he could have the shape he created take different poses. He managed to have it hunched over with its teeth barred, doing a pirouette, and a handstand without issue. He then tested to see if the size of the mirror shard he used had an impact on the spell. He found that smaller shards required more mana, and larger ones less. It wasn’t an issue for him given his large mana pool, but it was interesting. He then summoned it and attempted to move around the room while maintaining the projection. It was a bit more difficult to maintain the mana flow, but it wasn’t too difficult. He then moved his hand through it, finding no resistance as he’d expected, but he did feel a slight tingling in his arm as it moved through. He also noted that he could see the glimmer of mana across the projection which meant that anyone or anything that could detect mana in the same way he could would be able to see through the illusion very easily. Still, if he summoned it directly in front of them as a surprise it could still frighten them, particularly if they were as inexperienced as he was.

Once he was done with his experimentation he turned his attention to the pots he’d used to create his homunculi. He still had enough materials left to make five or six more. Considering they were his only form of defense he felt that should be his priority.

He spent the next two hours carefully mixing blood and clay, and burying the little figures in melons before feeding them their required drops of blood. There was a certain satisfaction in working with his hands to make them. He imagined that was why Poth seemed to enjoy that kind of work so much. He also found that his mana when creating them was very steady, just as it was whenever he performed blood magic. Yet another mystery of his mana. When he was done he did his best to clean his hands in the water bucket he’d taken down for just this purpose. He was due for dinner.

After eating he considered returning to his study to have another look in the repository, but battled against the impulse. He wasn’t entirely sure what the thing was that had destroyed his puppet body, but he didn’t want to risk running into it again so soon. He felt there was a strong likelihood it was still patrolling the area he’d been in, and he didn’t want to risk losing another body. He pondered again what the space actually was. It was possible his uncle’s journals had some answers to that question, but he’d been too focused on other responsibilities and dangers to give them proper attention. If he could just resolve the immediate threats he’d be able to take a much more generalized view of things. He wouldn’t need to solely focus on immediate consequences and could instead build a solid foundation to work through.

Trying to focus on something that wasn’t magic, Solomon busied himself with reviewing his budget, and updating the status of the various projects around the manor in the log he kept. He needed to be able to justify the stipend that had been set aside for the manor’s upkeep.

Late into the night when the moon was shining bright and full in the sky, the Hermit statue at the edge of his bedroom began to glow. Solomon moved toward it deliberately before it could drag him across the room, and slotted his walking stick into place.

The mana within the statue blasted outward, blinding him momentarily before he opened his eyes and found himself standing in the ballroom of the Arcana.