James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

"A bit long winded, but essentially correct, Tarrin," she commended. "No matter how you try to balance it, you cannot get back more energy than what you are expending on yourself. To be absolutely technical, you can weave spells on yourself using this technique, but the flow of power would be like a slow drip of water trying to fill up the bathing pool. You would grow a span of hair by the time the weave showed any signs of effect. And since it is a sustained process, you would exhaust yourself and have to stop long before you so much as dampened the pool's bottom."

Tarrin laughed. "I guess that make it a bit inefficient."

"The draining aspect is just a little bit more difficult to understand. When you try to drain from yourself, you are reversing the energy flow through the strand, but you are still expending that energy to enact the drain. Remember when you asked me about trying to overcharge a weave? Where does that energy go?"

"Well," he said, thinking about a moment. Then he thought about it some more. "Doesn't it dissipate back into the Weave?"

"Yes, that is what happens. You do not get that energy back. It disspates into the Weave. Think about it, dear one. You are expending energy to drain energy away from yourself. You lose that energy, and then must replace it with more energy, which is used to try to drain away that same energy. You are pushing and pulling on something at the same time, and when you do that, it does not move. The harder you push, the harder the counter will pull. And all the while, you are drawing more and more energy that is doing nothing but making you draw more energy. It is a feedback cycle that causes you to eventually let go of the Weave to avoid injuring yourself."

"Oh, I see," he said.

"That is not an absolute, Tarrin. There are certain instances when a Sorcerer can weave flows on himself, and that is when he is holding power from all seven Spheres. When he, in effect, becomes a strand rather than a flow. And that can only be done using Ritual Sorcery, because the sphere of Confluence, or green, will only draw out under extreme magical power. To even be able to touch Confluence takes considerable power."

"I take it you don't know why that works that way either?"

"Not yet," she smiled.

"I have a question."

"Go ahead, dear one."

"You said that flows can't affect each other. Well then, how do weaves with more than one flow produce an effect? I mean, they can't affect each other."

She laughed. "You are making me work, dear one," she chided, "but you ask very insightful questions. Each flow cannot affect each other, but they can affect the energies that each one releases. The way a weave is woven together is critical to the working of the weave. The weaving dictates how, when, and at what strengths the energies of individual flows are released, and that very intricate process is what welds those energies together to form a specific effect." She raised her hand again, and he saw two flows, red and yellow, flow out of a strand and merge over her hand. This time, the merging was very slow, unlike the first time, and he saw the specific way that the flows were tied in with each other. Then the flows generated an effect, a small ball of pale white light that hovered over her palm, fed by two separate tendrils that linked it back to the strand. Those two tendrils drifted towards each other, touched, then wrapped around each other to form a twisted cord of sorts, although each tendril was most definitely separate. Just like the strands in a rope were individual cords woven together to form a larger one. "Do you see?"

"Yes," he said, studying it.

"That is a common effect. Separate flows that feed the same weave do that. Again, we do not know exactly why."

"So, you're feeding it energy?"

"Yes. Instead of constantly drawing it in and then releasing it, now I am a gate. The energy flows through me and into the weave. It is feeding itself, but I regulate that power. If I cease concentrating on it, the gate closes-" the little ball vanished-"and the weave dissipates."

"That's what you were talking about when you were saying how a Sorcerer can manipulate energy."

"Yes and no," she said. "The ability to sustain a weave is a learned ability yes, and it is an aspect of that ability to manipulate. Yet it is still dependent on the amount of power you can hold. You cannot sustain a weave that you could not create in the first place. It is easier to sustain a weave than it is to create it, because it does not involve an active use of power, but you had to create it first."

"Can you sustain one weave and then make another?"

"Yes," she told him. "It takes practice, for you have to concentrate to hold the first together while you weave the second. It is a skill you will learn over time. The most skilled of us can work with many weaves at the same time, and some can even create multiple weaves simultaneously, though this is exceptionally difficult. My mentor could build twenty seperate flows and sustain them all. That was quite an accomplishment."

"Huh," he said, looking around. "Why can I see them now, anyway? I could never see them before."

"Because I am making them visible," she told him. "I have been sustaining that weave this whole time." The strands fluttered, then disappeared from view. "When you are touching the Weave, you can see them. You do not necessarily have to see them to weave flows together, but you can always see the strands while you are in contact with the Weave, and you must be able to see your target to direct them."

"And that's all there is to it?"

"That is all there is to it," she smiled. "It is a very simple concept, and I believe that is why so many have trouble. Often, the simplest things are the hardest to understand."

"I'm not so sure about that," he said.

"Alright then," she smiled, "where does the sun rise every morning?"

"In the east," he said.

"Why?"

He gave her a confused look. "It is a simple thing, Tarrin. The sun rises every morning, and it rises in the east. Why?"

"Because, well, because it does."

"Why?"

"It just does."

"Why?"

She was getting on his nerves. "I have no idea. It just does."

"Yes, it just does," she said a delicate little smile. "A simple thing, yet it the why of it is beyond most of us."

"Do you know?"

"I have no idea, dear one," she laughed. "I simply accept it." She made the Weave visible again, then drew out the six flows for his eyes. "As you know, these are the six spheres. Do you know which is which?"

"Well, fire is red," he said. "I figured that out already."

"Correct. Fire is red. Water is violet. Earth is indigo. Air is yellow. Blue is mind, or the power of thought and will. Orange is divine power, and green is confluence. Each sphere represents a primal force in our world. Four of them are physical, and the other three are not. Earth, air, fire, and water, the four elements. The power of the mind and that of the Goddess, or divine power, are not physical, but are very much still powerful forces that shape our world. The power of Confluence binds these six powers together and gives them a unified purpose. Do you remember the symbol of the katzh-dashi in the upper chamber? How the green circle enclosed the other six?"

Tarrin nodded. "I noticed that they all touched it."

"Yes, that represents the binding power of Confluence. When all seven are joined, they become strands, or white. Which is the white star in the center. When all seven join, they create a whole stronger than the sum of the individual parts. That is a representation of what sets us apart from all other orders of magic, forming circles. Unlike the Wizards, Priests, and Druids, we can directly link our powers together to form a magical force stronger than the sum of the powers of each individual Sorcerer. It takes a circle to manipulate the power of Confluence, of binding, which is the most powerful of the spheres, and as such is the most difficult to control. It is a very resistant sphere, fighting against outside influence at all times."