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Gamma preened calmly on his perch, watching steady hands work their magic onto a small model of stone hands, bubbling them in magical suspension.
“I had no clue yoooou were patient enough to work with clay!” He said. The alumni chuckled from the center of the room, releasing the crystallized world.
It glistened briefly in the light of the crystal above it. Then, slowly, it found a spot in the Spiral— not its true spot, of course. No one really knew what the Spiral looked like.
“Well, it… needed to look nice.” Alia said, sliding their hands into their pockets as they turned back to look at Gamma.
“Any other models? This thing hasn’t been updated in a long time.”
He ruffled, and hooted in laughter. “Not for a lack of trying! The Spiral has no known borders!”
The Scion’s gaze shifted, eyes transfixed on the illusionary light above them. For a second, they remembered something bigger than artistic representations of the realm. All they could really do was notice the distorted and weathered memory of that feeling— the sensation of leylines as blood vessels, of mana as blood, of skyways seeming so tiny the idea of a fleet traversing one was absurd.
But, like most things that one may gain during ascension, their mortal form dropped it through the ice once more, and they shook their head.
“Maybe it, uh, doesn’t have stable borders. Maybe it’s growing.”
“Grooowing? Can you prove that theory?”
“…No.” Alia muttered, shrugging. “But it feels true.”
Gamma shifted on his perch again, and took a moment to reply.
“It does, yes, but that’s hardly something we can cite. We have rules, theories and methods to—“
“Rules and theories magic is politely playing along with, you mean?”
She turned, and something far older than the mischief her grin usually carried flashed in her eyes. “I think I remember in my introduction classes that the divines made magic safe for mortals to touch— the sigils, the proper formulas… but if that’s enforced, and not natural… that means the true nature of the Spiral is nonsense… or, rather, chaos, yeah?”
“Well, yes, but—“ Gamma started. He had no rebuttal. All that Alia was saying was technically truth.
“Have you ever like, watched two more naturally magical beings interact? Maybe a unicorn— white mare, not Diego— and a firecat? It flows out from them at their will and feelings. There’s no calculating how much moisture is in the air for you to draw power from, or twisting the mana the right way at the right time. It’s not like how we do it at all.”
Gamma flew from his perch, finally retrieving the other model she’d asked about. Alia took it— recognizing Skull Island about as well as someone who’d only seen it in a passing newspaper could. She bubbled it lovingly and carefully all the same.
“You’re correct, of course.” He replied. “Magic does flow from semi-arcane creatures much more easily than those made of more flesh and blood. That being said, you could hardly call magic pretending!”
“Yeah?” Alia snickered. “But I’m right. We’re working with two different interfaces, a unicorn and I. One of us has training wheels on. One of us has a version of magic playing nice.”
“Even yooou must concede that a more constructive system for mortals has more uses than drawbacks.”
“Oh, of course!” She laughed, releasing the model out into the air, almost playfully urging it upwards. “Doesn’t change the fact that it’s not how magic works naturally. And, if this is Regnum Magicae, well…”
“Then we inherently live in a realm of chaos, yes, yes, this theory has been proposed before, but—“
“So me saying that the Spiral is getting bigger isn’t a baseless idea! There’s your proof right there. We don’t actually know the true shape of the Spiral, we don’t truly understand its borders, only that it turns. Therefore, if chaos is its true nature, it could be that it has no solid borders at all!”
Gamma fluttered in the air, incredulous in a way that was more shock than anger. “Well, I wooould suppose so. Woo, you make my head spin with it, though!”
They just laughed again. “Thanks.”
“Is that how you adapted to Shadowmancy?”
Alia paused, blinked, and brushed their hair from their face.
“…Huh. Uh, actually… maybe. Shadows don’t work like other magics. It’s all instinct and drive. When you make that comparison… maybe? If I say it’s at least honest.”
“Hoonest?! You can really say that?!”
“Sorta? It’s terrible. But… There's no deception. It’s unpredictable. It’s not deceptive. I don’t know exactly what will happen when I Shrike out, but I know how it'll feel. I know how I’ll be. I know I’ll either wake up alone, or be safe with someone who knows my deal nearby.”
“Most wizards wouldn’t—“
“And they shouldn’t. I made a choice. It was a bad one. On that same note…”
Alia lifts their gloves hand, the shadowmantic symbol stitched into it catching the dim light, almost knowingly.
“I can work with my choice and be proud of making it work. I don’t need to be scared of touching the true nature of the Spiral. And… I definitely don’t need to be scared of something I can’t understand if it’s meant to defy explanation anyway.”
Gamma had no response. Alia just shrugged, and folded their arms behind their head.
“Let’s get the rest of these models set up. We’ve got textbooks to sort, yeah?”