“Delaney, I think you have a good grasp on what your next steps are. Idris, do you want to give us an update on your project?” Vadimas asked.
Idris sucked in a deep breath. Brogan was in attendance, and Idris wasn’t quite sure how to ask him to leave. The last time they spoke with Dra’Kaedan about it, he preferred to keep Brogan in the dark so his hopes weren’t raised over something that was still a large work in progress. All Idris could do was try and be as diplomatic as possible. “Should we ask the non-sorcerers in the room to leave? The shifters were able to help Del with his project, but they might be bored listening to a bunch of magic stuff.”
Brogan grinned. “It’s okay. Dra’Kaedan already filled me in.” He turned to the blond in the chair next to him. “Pro—Dra’Kaedan can’t manage to keep secrets from his mate.”
The warlock’s mouth thinned in irritation. “I’m pretty sure that’s a con.”
“I disagree,” the dragon shifter replied.
“Fine. Con—Brogan never lets Dra’Kaedan live anything down.”
“It’s weird when you guys refer to yourselves in the third person,” Renny remarked.
“Everything about them is weird,” Dre’Kariston countered. “Let’s get back to Idris.”
“Let’s start with the spell itself,” Idris said. “To understand how it worked when cast to make the potion, I put it straight into the simulator without any modifications. It requires a minimum of a hundred or so warlocks as is, with a mixture of both light and dark. There are no specifications on whether it should be half or more of one than the other, so I tried it a few different ways. What I discovered was that no matter how you broke it down with light and dark, over seventy percent of the time, the person they tried to give immortality to died in the process.”
“I guess that answers my question about why this spell wasn’t taught to us as children and why it wound up forgotten. Those odds are terrible,” Dre’Kariston complained.
“Well, that fucking sucks,” Brogan stated.
“You think Idris just ran those simulations and he’s done?” Dra’Kaedan asked.
“Of course not. The first thing I needed to figure out was what portions of the spell were intrinsic to making it work and what was causing the deaths. The base of it is, you essentially give the person a potion which is a mixture of a tiny sliver of all the souls involved in the casting of the spell. The more powerful the sorcerers, the bigger the potion you get.”
“What does it do to the casters who are giving up a portion of their own soul?” Alaric asked.
“Nothing. It’s a tiny fraction. They needed a great deal of people because they weren’t warlocks like Dra’Kaedan and Dre’Kariston.”
“So, Dra’Kaedan and I could cast it with only the two of us? We’d need a dark warlock, wouldn’t we?”
“You definitely need dark and light magic. When I tried it using them alone, it failed one hundred percent of the time. I haven’t quite figured out why yet, but that’s the reality and no, you need more than two casters. Your ancestors were using more than a hundred, and we’re not talking about each person casting a small spell. This is emptying the tank to slice away at your soul where your magic is rooted.”
“How many casters would you need?” Mac asked.
“It depends on the casters. After running about a million or so simulations, what I found is that a lot of the people they used contributed nothing. It was lost as the potion was created. That’s why they used so many people—they knew there was a great deal that would be lost as the spell funneled into a drinkable vessel to grant immortality.”
“Which explains the deaths. Casting like that would have created a highly unstable cocktail,” Chander replied.
“Exactly,” Idris responded. “It was essentially a crapshoot. I’m not sure if they understood that, because I can’t imagine anyone signing up to drink this shit if they understood how magic works.”
“I don’t understand how it works, so can someone give me more insight here?” Mac asked.
“Happy to. When you’re casting, we emphasize efficiency. There are two reasons for that. One is that if you aren’t wasting magic, you can push yourself to stretch your power as far as possible. The second, and probably most important, is that all the extra magic you use can alter your results,” Idris explained. “Think of it like this. When you’re cooking something, you want the right amount of eggs, flour, or whatever. If you put in the wrong amount, your cookies taste like ass. So, if you create a potion with all this magic swirling in the air, it’s impossible not to change your creation.”
“The only time it’s safe to over-cast is if you’re healing someone. Excessive magic in such a case will only result in perhaps a sense of euphoria or feeling refreshed,” Dra’Kaedan added.
“In healing, it’s actually encouraged not to hold back because it can literally mean the difference between life and death. Healing spells are also simple. The magic has a single purpose, and that is to mend. Something as complicated as a spell to give someone immortality needs to be exact,” Dre’Kariston said.
“It’d be like trying to turn someone into an apple and instead getting a fruit basket,” Renny remarked.
“I get it. A guy wants to be warned before he finds himself with a banana,” Brogan replied.
“Is there anyone here who doesn’t think he’s talking about a dick?” Alaric inquired.
“Behave yourself, Lich Sentinel,” Chander drawled out. “I’ve filled a few rooms with dark magic in my day, given the right circumstances, but when approaching something like this, it will take a precise mix.”
“I’ve been experimenting with the spell cast with our group here minus Renny and I’ve found that it also matters how the magic is added. Dark can sometimes eat light and vice versa,” Idris commented.
Brogan frowned. “Why did you leave out Renny?”
“At a magical level, he’s an extension of Dra’Kaedan, so they’re attached at the soul. Renny gets his power not from his own core but from Dra’Kaedan providing it. To cast this, Dra’Kaedan would need to pull from his very deep well. He can’t do that while simultaneously replenishing Renny,” Idris explained.
“I’m confused. Chand can potentially split his magic into two equal parts to resurrect a man with his beast. Why couldn’t Dra’Kaedan cast two equally powerfully spells at the same time?” Brogan asked.
Renny patted Brogan’s arm. “Two reasons. Dra’Kaedan needs all his power to dredge up a sliver of his soul. Second, even if he didn’t, for me to peel away a sliver could potentially be fatal, should my well of magic not be correctly replenished. No one in this room is going to allow me to take that kind of risk.”
“And I think we’re going to need Renny on the outside, casting,” Idris revealed. “Here’s the deal. What I can tell you is that not one of the wizards in here can currently do this. Magic comes from the soul. We’ve been over that. Del and I are on our way to fully connecting, which we will do after we become High Arcanists. We’ll accept what’s inside us, and the marks on our arms will change to reflect the color assigned to us by Fate. Vadimas is prepared to do the same after our rituals. Until that time, we’re useless when it comes to Immortalis. That’s step one. Step two is carefully layering our specific types of magic into a completely stable potion. The by-product of all that casting is going to create swirls of color. I think your cousin Scheredin is going to need to be there, along with his familiar and Renny, to make the potion visible to us as we build it. One millimeter of the wrong person’s magic, and this shit can kill.”
“Sounds easy,” Dra’Kaedan teased. “So, we’ll ask Scheredin and Brexton to start attending our meetings then?”
“I think it’d be beneficial for them to do so. Perhaps they can come up with a spell that doesn’t add any color feedback which also illuminates the potion while cutting through all the smoke and shit we’ll produce. Chand’s magic alone is black as night when he’s casting with his demon, and he’s going to need all his juice,” Idris said.
“You guys really think you can do this, don’t you?” Mac asked in a somewhat awed voice.
Idris nodded and kissed Mac’s surprised mouth. “I intend to do this.”
“I’ll be happy to start working on the spell you were talking about,” Renny commented. “I know Scheredin’s the warlock, but it might be easier for him and Brexton to funnel through me. My magic is a pale gold, so if we can add a higher level of translucency, then it should be the easiest to illuminate with.”
“I like it being funneled through you anyway. Make Scheredin responsible for nothing but replenishing you and Brexton, if possible. Your well is larger than Brexton’s because of who your warlock is. It’s a steep ask of Scheredin to try and keep you filled, Brexton filled, and cast himself,” Dre’Kariston remarked.
“I’ll get their input too,” Renny promised. “I’m sure they’ll be happy to help.”
“I know Derwin’s your friend, but I’d prefer if he was left out,” Dra’Kaedan stated.
“No worries, I don’t even want my familiar knowing about what we’re up to with this,” Dre’Kariston said before Renny could reply. “Secrecy is paramount, and the reality is, Derwin chooses when and where he behaves himself. He can’t be trusted to take part in something so intricate.”
Idris had already guessed the fickle Derwin would be left out of the quest for Immortalis. Over the years, Dre’Kariston’s familiar had grown increasingly moody, but Idris didn’t know why. He’d never been close to Derwin and if he was being honest, he loved him because he was family, but he wasn’t his favorite person in the world. “Let’s talk about the magic mixture. I think there are still some unknowns here when it comes to it. Vadimas won’t reveal his color, so I have to guess when I use my simulator.”
“Since you’ve already revealed creating Immortalis isn’t possible until after you become High Arcanist, you don’t need to know my hue. I’ll ascend the same day as you and Delaney. We can figure out the parameters of the potion after that day. You have enough already to start building your research paper,” Vadimas declared.
Idris didn’t bother pressing Vadimas to reveal what color he was on the rainbow. The wizard leader wasn’t going to give away his secret, and Idris already had a pretty good idea which one it was, but he couldn’t suppress the urge to tease him whenever the opportunity presented itself. “Do I focus exclusively on how this spell worked for the warlocks in my paper or add in theories I have about what could’ve made it more successful?”
“I would focus on the spell you found. You can add in theories on what they could’ve done to lessen the danger. It’d be helpful for young wizards and other sorcerers to be reminded how excessive magic in a spell can hurt it, but I’d leave out anything that relates to what we plan to do,” Vadimas replied.
“So, you’ll be successful because you have a better understanding of how magic works?” Mac asked.
“That’s only the tip of the iceberg,” Idris responded. “You’re sitting in a room with the most powerful magical entity on the planet in Chand. Dra’Kaedan’s the strongest light caster and Dre’Kariston is a very close second to him. Mix that with the three best wizards, and you have a winning combination. We all understand magic as a science which needs to be applied in a way that guarantees results.”
Delaney smiled. “In other words, no one in the room half-asses their way through spells.”
“What’s the bonding agent between light and dark? We’re going to need a fucking strong one,” Renny said.
“I believe I know the answer to that one, but it will take a bit of understanding of rainbows,” Vadimas answered. “You all know wizards are given colors by Fate—they fall on the rainbow, except for our extraordinary Delaney who has chartered new ground. The basic rainbow is a mix of an array of seven colors. Five are considered main and whether they are red, yellow, green, blue, or violet, they’re all light casters. The other two are intermediate colors, and they’re the bridges. The sorcerers who are drawn to those colors are the natural binders. In the world of magic, that means they fall into their own category. They’re neither light nor dark but somewhere gloriously in between. Indigo happens to be one of those colors. In other words, Immortalis won’t be possible without Idris.”
Delaney gave Idris a playful slap on the shoulder. “That means Vadimas is one of the main colors.”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Vadimas replied.
“I hope he’s yellow, so I can call him Pissimas,” Renny crowed.
“If you believe I’d answer to that, you have fewer marbles in your head than I realized.”
“He’s only got one—it just makes a lot of noise as it pings around his empty skull,” Dra’Kaedan teased.
“Anyway, excellent job, gentlemen. I believe we know where to go from here. Let’s move these projects along. I want you both to ascend, and I want us all to be able to move forward with Immortalis,” Vadimas said.
“Our goal is to have our papers ready in three weeks,” Delaney told him.
“Good. Your magical tests will be scheduled one week from the day you complete them. Don’t worry if you need more time. I’ll schedule nothing until I have them in hand,” Vadimas promised.
“I can’t wait to get it all done,” Idris replied.
Dra’Kaedan stood. “You guys are rock stars. Now let’s go get some food. I’m starving.”
“Oh, there’s a shocker,” Brogan snarked as they all piled out of the room. Idris slid his hand into Mac’s and offered him a smile as they walked out. He had a date with him and was full of anticipation for a wonderful night with his mate.