Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

I felt weirdly warm in the aftermath, and the leg did feel a bit better. “Thanks.” I fumbled to pick up my sword, sheathed it, and pushed myself to my feet.

The numbness was still there, but it felt distant and weaker, so I managed to stumble my way over to the pool. I started to reach down to the water, but Jin slapped my hand away.

“Wait.”

I turned, tilting my head at him in confusion.

He tossed an expended bullet casing into the water.

I watched as it disintegrated a moment later.

Oh.

Not water.

“Well, that complicates things,” I mumbled.

“Yes.”

I considered my original plan of clearing some of the water with my gauntlet, but the key was at the bottom of the pool, and the water from the goddess’ hands was flowing right on top of it.

I drew my sword again. “Might be able to freeze it.”

“Good way to break your magic sword.”

“You think the acid is that potent?”

He shrugged. “Just saying I wouldn’t risk losing a permanent magic item on an exam.”

There was wisdom in that. I waved the sword close to the water without touching it, hoping the aura of frost would be sufficient to freeze the liquid, but nothing visible happened.

I could feel the weapon’s aura, though. Not the chill consequence of its presence — the aura itself felt tangible in my mind, much like how I could briefly feel the mana in my dueling cane before it was released.

Why was that? I couldn’t feel the power from my demi-gauntlet or shield sigil while they were inactive. Was it because the sword’s aura was a passive effect and always on? Was it subtly drawing from my own mana at a rate too slow for me to detect, connecting me with the cold?

I wouldn’t know without further testing or research, but at the moment, that wasn’t what was important. It gave me a new option.

I leveled the tip of the blade, putting it an inch from the waterfall’s edge, reached out into the aura… and shoved.

Snap.

The aura lashed out with a piercing thrust of rime that breached the waterfall. It left a blade-shaped wedge of ice frozen against the statue’s surface, the still-flowing water above splashing against it and forcing me to step back to avoid the droplets.

Now that was interesting.

“Hm.” Jin looked bemused. “I was not aware you could do that.”

“New trick.” I smirked. “Time to get us a key. Take a few steps back?”

He obliged.

I swung the sword this time, feeling the aura whip along with the arc of the weapon. As the weapon traveled alongside the waterfall, I pushed again. The water froze as aura cut deeply into it, leaving a crescent-shaped platform to mark the blade’s passage.

The newly-frozen section was more effective, but the water still struck the top of it and flowed across it into the pool below. Considering for a moment, I changed my approach, freezing water just where it appeared in the hands of the goddess next. The flow of water ceased. I thought I could hear the ice cracking in her hands, most likely the result of pressure building from water behind it.

That meant I didn’t have much time.

I froze the water directly around the key next, took a step back, and blasted the section at an angle using my gauntlet’s knockback function. The frozen key flew upward, just as I’d hoped, but fell back into the water before I could do anything about it. I had to repeat the process twice more until it flew entirely out of the pool.

I heard the sound of something rumbling above me, blinking as I turned my head upward. Jin was faster, shoving me forward before the cage clattered to the floor with a cacophonous crash.

Fortunately, both the key and I had landed outside.

I pushed myself awkwardly to my feet.

“Thanks,” I said, turning back.

Jin was inside the cage, looking unamused.

Oops.

All six torches were still lit, so re-lighting them to raise the cage wasn’t an option. The key was still in a block of icy acid, and I didn’t know how long it would take to melt.

There didn’t seem to be any keyholes on the cage, though, anyway.

“Any ideas on how we can get you out of there?”

“Can you see the mechanism that raises and lowers it?” He peered out through the bars.

I looked up, but there was nothing visible. I turned my attunement on, but there was still nothing in the air. It was apparently raised and lowered through spells that were only active when they were in use. I shook my head at him, turning the attunement back off.

My head swam for a moment as my sight returned to normal. I felt off somehow. I was probably overusing my mana; my right hand ached when I thought about it. Something else felt amiss too, though.

I dismissed that line of thought as unimportant.

“Do you still have the return bell?” I asked instead.

“Ye—” He cut himself off. “Ah, I see. With Patrick incapacitated, how were you able to re-enter?”

“I just ran back to the door.”

He took out the bell and rang it, then vanished.

The bell itself dropped as he teleported, clattering noisily on the floor. I picked it up.

It took about a minute before he re-appeared in the room. “Patrick remains unconscious. There is no sign of the others,” he reported.

“Good. Hope they’re doing better than we are.”

“Yes.”

I handed the return bell back to Jin and he accepted it wordlessly.

The ice around the key hadn’t melted. It occurred to me after a moment that I’d never seen the sword’s ice melt naturally. In fact, it seemed to get worse over time.

It couldn’t last forever, could it?

The only way I’d seen the ice disappear before was from flame magic. “You wouldn’t happen to have any fire spells, would you?”

Jin shook his head. “I would not be able to tell you if I did.”

Cryptic as usual, but not unexpected.

“But I do have fire-starting supplies.”

Jin reached into his pouch, poured some of his… healing potion… on a rag and then set the rag on the floor. He withdrew a knife and a dark-colored stone of some kind, striking the stone with the metal to make sparks. The rag ignited a moment later, and he picked it up on the knife’s edge, and then dropped it on top of the ice block.

It took several seconds, but the ice melted enough to expose the key. Jin knelt down, carefully probing, and flicked the key with the edge of his knife. It flew out of the ice, skidding across the floor.

I walked over, kneeling down, but paused before picking it up. “Think the surface is still acidic?”

Jin nodded as he approached, pouring liquid from his flask over the key. “Yes, but washing it will probably be sufficient. I would advise you to use the gauntlet to pick it up.”

The inside of the gauntlet was only leather, but it was still a glove. Once the key had been washed, I picked it up. No obvious burning on the leather from contact. Good.

“Okay, now what do we do with this?”

Jin pointed at the two doors. “There are two visible exits, both with locks matching the color of the key. Each door has an inscription. The box is also inscribed, but it has no visible opening.”

I walked to the first door. In the greater lighting of all six torches, I could see words carved into the surface, much like on the tablet.

Only light can open the eyes of the faithless.

I frowned, moving to the next door.

Let fire purify the wicked.

I liked that message even less, but I turned to Jin.

“So, fire room or light room next?”

He folded his hands in front of him, head slightly tilted. “You carry ice, which may prevail against fire,” he mused.

“But it’s possible fire is the requirement for that room, rather than what we’ll face,” I countered.