Canir finished explaining how magic actually works, and everyone needed a moment. While the usage of magic stayed the same, the concept behind it changed. Rather than needing to have the power to be able to use magic, power is required to be allowed to use it. The more an individual has, the more and better magic they're authorized to activate.
"Err..." Fen was the first to recover from the info bomb. "Sooo... While magic probably isn't an actual living being, it isn't wrong to treat it as one anyway...?"
"Yeah, that works relatively well as an explanation. It's maybe also the world itself?" Canir nodded. "I believe it's even possible to get on the good side of magic. I doubt magic could actually like you, but it can get interested in you. That would result in an easier usage of magic, bigger powers or larger authorization, and stuff like that."
"Is that so?" Sophia tilted her head. "What a fickle thing. Is it really not alive? Well, in any case, thanks for all your effort, magic~. I'm super grateful for that. Also, I'm sorry for making you go out of control... It was all Fenny's idea!" She immediately tried to kiss up to it.
"H-Hey!" The wolf didn't like that.
"I didn't mean sweet-talking, idiot." Canir rolled his eyes. "I like your motivation to entertain me, though. No, if anything, magic would get impressed by, well... magic. Experimenting with it, inventing new types of magic, doing flashy stuff, and all that. Well, if you look at it that way, magic will favor you regardless, stripy one."
"Yay~."
"While the wolves here have always been powerful, it would also explain their growth and their ease in using magic. Because of that, magic might actually wanted to save Aura during her accident because it didn't want to lose such an avid user."
"Really...?" She naturally got interested in that. "Say, do you know what actually went wrong? Why my teleportation magic failed this much?"
"Teleportation is basically impossible by normal means."
"E-Eh?" She looked shocked. "Why...?"
"Way too many variables."
"How so?" Aura looked confused. "I simply wanted to teleport myself a couple of meters, not across the globe..."
"A few meters in relation to what? The position you were in before you teleported, while it happened, or when it finished?"
"What's the difference?"
"When is also a crucial variable."
"Well, instantly, of course."
"Did you specify that when you formed your image?"
"A-Ah..."
"Everything is in constant movement. The planet rotates around itself, causing the day and night cycle. It also rotates around the sun, which is the cause of the seasons, very, very roughly speaking. The sun doesn't stay still either, though. This chain goes on forever. In the few moments between your disappearance and coming back, your original position may already be thousands of kilometers away. You're lucky you still ended up on the same planet. I guess it even that was a close call as you ended up high in the air."
"S-Seriously...?"
"Though, it probably wasn't just luck. Even if magic tried to help you out, you almost instantly reached the limit of its usage. You ran out of power, or the ability to use it before you left the planet."
"Wow..."
"For teleportation to work, time is as, if not more important than distance. You need to exactly know how fast everything moves. Simply impossible. You could try to teleport yourself 0.5 seconds away from your current position, but you would still have no idea where you'd end up. Or inside of what."
"I-I see..." Aura was overwhelmed by his explanation. "If it's impossible, why did the magic activate in the first place, though?"
"Good question..." He paused for a moment. "Magic can be quite finicky at times and too much for even me to understand. My guess would be that magic itself only noticed what was really going on when it had already started. Once it was happening, it couldn't be stopped anymore and ran a bit amok, just like what happened with our two idiots."
"I tried something I really shouldn't have, huh...?"
"Absolutely." Canir agreed. "The only way teleportation could possibly work out would be when you're also able to stop time, and even then, I wouldn't recommend it. Not to mention that you need to be an overse-."
"Hmm?" Sophia's ears perked up after hearing this. "Does that mean I could use it? I can stop time, after all."
"As I said, I still wouldn't recommend it. There can still be obstacles at your destination you didn't account for... Wait, what?" Canir suddenly stopped mid-sentence. "You can do what now?"
"Stop time?" The tiger tilted her head. "You didn't know...? Wait, don't tell me time's stopped for you, too?! Ehehe, that's very good to know~." Her expression turned nasty for a second.
"W-Why...?" He had a very bad feeling about this. "So that's why your movement was so jumpy every now and then? Quite a lot lately, to be exact."
"Ahh... Maya and I are, uhh... using it a lot... for, err... reasons..."
"If you don't forget it, that is." The wolves also had something to add here.
"Urgh..." The couple took a lot of damage from that remark.
"You can even bring others over already, huh? I didn't expect that at this point. You are way more compatible with the powers I gave you than I thought you'd be. Like, waaay more. Maybe you'll get a seat next to me as a new overseer sooner rather than-."
"That seat will stay empty!" Sophia got loud again. "Is it really that much of a big deal?"
"Yep, stopping time, too, is out of bounds with normal magic. That, as a whole, is actually supposed to be of exclusive use for overseers. You sure are something else, girl. People might actually start worshipping you as a divine being soon if you continue like that. Rightfully so."
"H-How about no?!" The blonde really didn't want that." Also, d-divine?! It was higher being not too long ago!"
"I didn't know you could stop time there yet. Let alone that using my type of magic affects me, too... Well, while we're at it, was your portal idea to fast travel a success? Using it to store stuff had already surprised me, after all. Well, I saw you creating one before reappearing somewhere else, so I guess that's a yes?"
"While we're at it...?" Sophia tilted her head. "Yeah, I've connected it to the extra space I created a while ago to use as a sort of hub. That place looks quite similar to yours, too, Canir. An unending white nothingness. I portioned off a bit to make it look nice, though."
"Err... You already have your own full domain...? Of that size…?" His expression turned quite complicated.
"D-Domain...?" The tiger didn't like the sound of that.
"You shouldn't be able to... Uhh, I mean, good for you."
"Nonono! What did you want to say?!"
"No, it's just that you shouldn't be able to create your own domain yet... A small storage area, okay, but… Maybe not only the magic of this world favors you, but the greater main one ruling over all types, too...?"
"Uhhh...."
"Good job, you higher divine being."
"Uuh... W-Why does it keep increasing?! I don't want that!" She started panicking. "M-Maya, from now on, whenever I do something that could bring me attention in that regard, please punch me as hard as you can."
"Ahaha..." The cat-girl could laugh. "Ah, but we're still going to stop time whenever we, uhh... want to be alone, right?"
"Of course." She didn't hesitate for even a second.
"She's going to have her own cult soon, doesn't she?" Aura spoke out what the other two were thinking.
As the topic had completely derailed by now, not to mention that Sophia had absolutely no plans to continue talking about her possible divine or whatever position, Fen got back to the discussion of magic itself.
----------------
"Say," The wolf looked at Canir. "We now know not magic is more than just there. It's, in a way, intelligent, and magic power is actually the amount of authorization you have to use it, together with how you're allowed to. But... does it actually change anything in the way you use it...?"
"What do you mean?" Sophia seemed confused.
"Well, the backstory of magic is different, and a lot of things make more sense now, but it's still the same, isn't it...? You can use magic in three different ways. Chants, activation words, and chantless. While it's not actually power, your ability to use magic is still tied to the amount of whatever you have."
"Oh..." The tiger nodded. "It really is just a fancy wrapping in the end, huh?"
"Kind of...?" Canir thought about it for a moment. "For most people, it changes next to nothing, yes. For this group, though, there's a bit of a significance, I guess? If you treat magic as a person and think about that when using it with your imagination, you might see a much better result."
"Hmm... Oh!" Sophia needed a moment. "If I imagine magic as if explaining it to a person, I'd add much more details, which then would lead to a better result."
"Or you'd actually even use the type of magic you planned to for a rare change." Maya had to take a jab at her.
"Or that. Unlikely, but yes." The tiger hung her head.
"Magic's also able to learn. That can be especially interesting for Sophia."
"Me?" She didn't see the connection.
"Earth has a ton of handy inventions, has it not? Wouldn't it be fun to introduce some of them to this world with the help of magic? The living standards in this world are quite high, but there are many quality-of-life inventions left to be desired, aren't there?"
"That's definitely true." The blonde agreed. "Still, is it even okay for me to introduce things from another world to this one...? Sounds like a lot of things could go wrong with that."
"Sure, why not?" Canir didn't see a problem. "Sounds like fun to me."
"Ahh..." She understood his motivation. "But, even so, while I know how to use those inventions like computers or cars, I have no idea how they work in detail, though. That's just asking for a catastrophe, isn't it?" She was confident in messing up.
"Like I said, fun~." He still didn't see an issue. "Magic's extremely versatile. I bet you could work out a way to use it, like electricity, too. Maybe to power artificial light in the form of lightbulbs? There are many materials that conduct magic or store a lot of it inside. The demons experiment with that, too. They came up with the ovens that are still used over here, too. They're built with a material that magic, well... likes, I would say? When you pour your power into it or use your authorization on it, it heats up in response because the stored magic reacts to your input."
"Ohhh!" Sophia's face lit up. "So, that's how those ovens work, huh?" It had really bothered her ever since Ari explained how she had no idea about how they function. "Demons again, huh? They really seem like an interesting bunch."
"Yep." Canir agreed. "I can't wait for you to meet them."
"Me, neither." The tiger looked forward to it, too. "We'll go there once I finish exploring this continent."
"Sounds good to me."
"Still, re-inventing more stuff with magic, huh? It's not like I haven't tried it before already. Electricity, well, an alternative too that could be fun."
"I look forward to it."
The duo kept chatting about it for a while and came up with some ideas the blonde wanted to try. The others were listening to their conversation, but all the unknown terms and words made them look very confused, to say the least. Eventually, though, their chatting became less technical again, and the group could join in once more. The evening and night seemed to be far from over.
Teanam
A big thank you to
- Britney Fletcher -
for supporting the story on Patreon. I'm super grateful for that!
Canir finished explaining how magic actually works, and everyone needed a moment. While the usage of magic stayed the same, the concept behind it changed. Rather than needing to have the power to be able to use magic, power is required to be allowed to use it. The more an individual has, the more and better magic they're authorized to activate.
"Err..." Fen was the first to recover from the info bomb. "Sooo... While magic probably isn't an actual living being, it isn't wrong to treat it as one anyway...?"
"Yeah, that works relatively well as an explanation. It's maybe also the world itself?" Canir nodded. "I believe it's even possible to get on the good side of magic. I doubt magic could actually like you, but it can get interested in you. That would result in an easier usage of magic, bigger powers or larger authorization, and stuff like that."
"Is that so?" Sophia tilted her head. "What a fickle thing. Is it really not alive? Well, in any case, thanks for all your effort, magic~. I'm super grateful for that. Also, I'm sorry for making you go out of control... It was all Fenny's idea!" She immediately tried to kiss up to it.
"H-Hey!" The wolf didn't like that.
"I didn't mean sweet-talking, idiot." Canir rolled his eyes. "I like your motivation to entertain me, though. No, if anything, magic would get impressed by, well... magic. Experimenting with it, inventing new types of magic, doing flashy stuff, and all that. Well, if you look at it that way, magic will favor you regardless, stripy one."
"Yay~."
"While the wolves here have always been powerful, it would also explain their growth and their ease in using magic. Because of that, magic might actually wanted to save Aura during her accident because it didn't want to lose such an avid user."
"Really...?" She naturally got interested in that. "Say, do you know what actually went wrong? Why my teleportation magic failed this much?"
"Teleportation is basically impossible by normal means."
"E-Eh?" She looked shocked. "Why...?"
"Way too many variables."
"How so?" Aura looked confused. "I simply wanted to teleport myself a couple of meters, not across the globe..."
"A few meters in relation to what? The position you were in before you teleported, while it happened, or when it finished?"
"What's the difference?"
"When is also a crucial variable."
"Well, instantly, of course."
"Did you specify that when you formed your image?"
"A-Ah..."
"Everything is in constant movement. The planet rotates around itself, causing the day and night cycle. It also rotates around the sun, which is the cause of the seasons, very, very roughly speaking. The sun doesn't stay still either, though. This chain goes on forever. In the few moments between your disappearance and coming back, your original position may already be thousands of kilometers away. You're lucky you still ended up on the same planet. I guess it even that was a close call as you ended up high in the air."
"S-Seriously...?"
"Though, it probably wasn't just luck. Even if magic tried to help you out, you almost instantly reached the limit of its usage. You ran out of power, or the ability to use it before you left the planet."
"Wow..."
"For teleportation to work, time is as, if not more important than distance. You need to exactly know how fast everything moves. Simply impossible. You could try to teleport yourself 0.5 seconds away from your current position, but you would still have no idea where you'd end up. Or inside of what."
"I-I see..." Aura was overwhelmed by his explanation. "If it's impossible, why did the magic activate in the first place, though?"
"Good question..." He paused for a moment. "Magic can be quite finicky at times and too much for even me to understand. My guess would be that magic itself only noticed what was really going on when it had already started. Once it was happening, it couldn't be stopped anymore and ran a bit amok, just like what happened with our two idiots."
"I tried something I really shouldn't have, huh...?"
"Absolutely." Canir agreed. "The only way teleportation could possibly work out would be when you're also able to stop time, and even then, I wouldn't recommend it. Not to mention that you need to be an overse-."
"Hmm?" Sophia's ears perked up after hearing this. "Does that mean I could use it? I can stop time, after all."
"As I said, I still wouldn't recommend it. There can still be obstacles at your destination you didn't account for... Wait, what?" Canir suddenly stopped mid-sentence. "You can do what now?"
"Stop time?" The tiger tilted her head. "You didn't know...? Wait, don't tell me time's stopped for you, too?! Ehehe, that's very good to know~." Her expression turned nasty for a second.
"W-Why...?" He had a very bad feeling about this. "So that's why your movement was so jumpy every now and then? Quite a lot lately, to be exact."
"Ahh... Maya and I are, uhh... using it a lot... for, err... reasons..."
"If you don't forget it, that is." The wolves also had something to add here.
"Urgh..." The couple took a lot of damage from that remark.
"You can even bring others over already, huh? I didn't expect that at this point. You are way more compatible with the powers I gave you than I thought you'd be. Like, waaay more. Maybe you'll get a seat next to me as a new overseer sooner rather than-."
"That seat will stay empty!" Sophia got loud again. "Is it really that much of a big deal?"
"Yep, stopping time, too, is out of bounds with normal magic. That, as a whole, is actually supposed to be of exclusive use for overseers. You sure are something else, girl. People might actually start worshipping you as a divine being soon if you continue like that. Rightfully so."
"H-How about no?!" The blonde really didn't want that." Also, d-divine?! It was higher being not too long ago!"
"I didn't know you could stop time there yet. Let alone that using my type of magic affects me, too... Well, while we're at it, was your portal idea to fast travel a success? Using it to store stuff had already surprised me, after all. Well, I saw you creating one before reappearing somewhere else, so I guess that's a yes?"
"While we're at it...?" Sophia tilted her head. "Yeah, I've connected it to the extra space I created a while ago to use as a sort of hub. That place looks quite similar to yours, too, Canir. An unending white nothingness. I portioned off a bit to make it look nice, though."
"Err... You already have your own full domain...? Of that size…?" His expression turned quite complicated.
"D-Domain...?" The tiger didn't like the sound of that.
"You shouldn't be able to... Uhh, I mean, good for you."
"Nonono! What did you want to say?!"
"No, it's just that you shouldn't be able to create your own domain yet... A small storage area, okay, but… Maybe not only the magic of this world favors you, but the greater main one ruling over all types, too...?"
"Uhhh...."
"Good job, you higher divine being."
"Uuh... W-Why does it keep increasing?! I don't want that!" She started panicking. "M-Maya, from now on, whenever I do something that could bring me attention in that regard, please punch me as hard as you can."
"Ahaha..." The cat-girl could laugh. "Ah, but we're still going to stop time whenever we, uhh... want to be alone, right?"
"Of course." She didn't hesitate for even a second.
"She's going to have her own cult soon, doesn't she?" Aura spoke out what the other two were thinking.
As the topic had completely derailed by now, not to mention that Sophia had absolutely no plans to continue talking about her possible divine or whatever position, Fen got back to the discussion of magic itself.
----------------
"Say," The wolf looked at Canir. "We now know not magic is more than just there. It's, in a way, intelligent, and magic power is actually the amount of authorization you have to use it, together with how you're allowed to. But... does it actually change anything in the way you use it...?"
"What do you mean?" Sophia seemed confused.
"Well, the backstory of magic is different, and a lot of things make more sense now, but it's still the same, isn't it...? You can use magic in three different ways. Chants, activation words, and chantless. While it's not actually power, your ability to use magic is still tied to the amount of whatever you have."
"Oh..." The tiger nodded. "It really is just a fancy wrapping in the end, huh?"
"Kind of...?" Canir thought about it for a moment. "For most people, it changes next to nothing, yes. For this group, though, there's a bit of a significance, I guess? If you treat magic as a person and think about that when using it with your imagination, you might see a much better result."
"Hmm... Oh!" Sophia needed a moment. "If I imagine magic as if explaining it to a person, I'd add much more details, which then would lead to a better result."
"Or you'd actually even use the type of magic you planned to for a rare change." Maya had to take a jab at her.
"Or that. Unlikely, but yes." The tiger hung her head.
"Magic's also able to learn. That can be especially interesting for Sophia."
"Me?" She didn't see the connection.
"Earth has a ton of handy inventions, has it not? Wouldn't it be fun to introduce some of them to this world with the help of magic? The living standards in this world are quite high, but there are many quality-of-life inventions left to be desired, aren't there?"
"That's definitely true." The blonde agreed. "Still, is it even okay for me to introduce things from another world to this one...? Sounds like a lot of things could go wrong with that."
"Sure, why not?" Canir didn't see a problem. "Sounds like fun to me."
"Ahh..." She understood his motivation. "But, even so, while I know how to use those inventions like computers or cars, I have no idea how they work in detail, though. That's just asking for a catastrophe, isn't it?" She was confident in messing up.
"Like I said, fun~." He still didn't see an issue. "Magic's extremely versatile. I bet you could work out a way to use it, like electricity, too. Maybe to power artificial light in the form of lightbulbs? There are many materials that conduct magic or store a lot of it inside. The demons experiment with that, too. They came up with the ovens that are still used over here, too. They're built with a material that magic, well... likes, I would say? When you pour your power into it or use your authorization on it, it heats up in response because the stored magic reacts to your input."
"Ohhh!" Sophia's face lit up. "So, that's how those ovens work, huh?" It had really bothered her ever since Ari explained how she had no idea about how they function. "Demons again, huh? They really seem like an interesting bunch."
"Yep." Canir agreed. "I can't wait for you to meet them."
"Me, neither." The tiger looked forward to it, too. "We'll go there once I finish exploring this continent."
"Sounds good to me."
"Still, re-inventing more stuff with magic, huh? It's not like I haven't tried it before already. Electricity, well, an alternative too that could be fun."
"I look forward to it."
The duo kept chatting about it for a while and came up with some ideas the blonde wanted to try. The others were listening to their conversation, but all the unknown terms and words made them look very confused, to say the least. Eventually, though, their chatting became less technical again, and the group could join in once more. The evening and night seemed to be far from over.
Teanam
A big thank you to
- Britney Fletcher -
for supporting the story on Patreon. I'm super grateful for that!
