The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building]

All magic stems from the violent imposition of will upon reality. The word ‘violent’ is important here, for reality does not wish to be imposed on. If magic were easy, if it were passive, or if is someone could do it as easily as snapping their fingers, then there would no need for magical colleges. It would be closer to something akin to Sorcery. Of course, Sorcery has a downpayment that has a premium price before reality decides it is better to accept the will of a Sorcerer. Magic is nowhere near as dangerous, however likewise, magic needs catalysts and a constant expenditure of energy compared to a Sorcerer’s ‘painting over’ reality.

Magic can be split into two by two types: Constant versus Instant, and Immediate versus Distant. A spell that is self-sustaining, such as a recharging golem, is merely loaded with constant enchantments. An enchantment is an immediate spell, any form of conjuration is distant. Summoning a spirit is an instant and immediate effect, for the mage needs to be touching the summoning circle. Unlike Sorcery, were the first step is the hardest to kick-start the function of the spirit which gives sorcerers power, magic continually gets more difficult as the level increases.

There is also the school of pre-magic magic. Pre-Worldbreaking schools of spellcraft such as chaotic environmental manipulation, which consists of ‘speaking’ to the world and forcing it move. This is best illustrated through example: A modern mage can pull a mountain out of the ground, and that mountain will be a certain height, with rock faces and sides that are bound to the specifications of the spell. A pre-magic magician will pull a mountain out of the ground and that mountain can be a small mound or it can be an entire mountain range. Part of Worldbreaking’s chaos was the fact that it was an unleashing of everything humanity at the time was capable of. They were capable of a lot, and they could not control that lot.

There is also ancient enchantments, known as curses. The art is long since dead, since an enchantment is far more effective at performing the role of a curse. It can be commanded to act in a certain way, it can have restrictions applied to it and it is generally both easier to dismantle and more difficult to break once set in place. The only benefit a curse has over an enchantment is that because it uses a part of the target’s own body within it, it becomes bound to that person and effectively is sustained not by the spirit of the magician, nor the energy placed within the enchantment upon casting, but rather the life-force of the cursed.

- Excerpt from “Magical Theory, Basics.” Written by Goddess Elassa, of Magic. Required first semester reading in Arcadia.

“What is this?” Arascus asked. The God of Pride had come to visit the Goddess of Magic in Arcadia once again. Elassa didn’t really know what for, but she was glad he did. For one, Arascus was always a good sport to spend time around with. For two, she had been having ideas of her own. Fortia and Maisara had submitted for enchanted suits of armour for their Orders. Fer wanted magical weaponry. Helenna had started her IBI of course, and the SIS was always doing something required the Empire’s backing. Even national Divines, like Olonia and the Land of Gods, went about with pet projects. It was high time that the Goddess of Magic actually took something from the Empire.

“It’s a pet project.” Elassa said dryly. A floating castle, not seen on Arda since the Reconstruction Authority.

“I can see that.” Arascus flipped the paper, his eyes went to the book on Elassa’s desk. That was her report on the floating castle. “Is that all for me?” He asked.

“I write a lot.” Elassa said. “Is there an issue?”

“There isn’t.” Arascus said dryly. He put the piece of paper down then looked around the woman’s office. “What do you need?”

“It’s all in the report.” Elassa said.

“I meant what do you need in terms of assistance from the Empire.” Arascus said walked to her cabinets were she had her Arcadian wine. The best wine on Arda in her opinion, he better not take a bottle without asking.

“Materials.” Elassa said. “Arms. Cannons. It can be staging platform for planes too. We have the gemstones now to make large-scale catalysts.” That had always been the problem with floating structures before. The amount of magic they needed to contain was grand, but the way to hold that magic was to fit it within diamonds. And diamonds were rare and precious and nowhere near plentiful enough to be use for so such whimsical things.

“Done.” Arascus said. “Go through Internal Affairs, they’ll handle everything.” Elassa blinked in surprise. Done? Just like that? What? Would they not have an argument. Would she not need to convince him? A certain part of her suddenly didn’t want to create the floating castle if it had been so easy to achieve in the first place.

“What do you mean done?”

“You wrote you’d make most of it yourself. If you need construction materials, then I know you have the money to supply them yourself. You’re not requesting a grant or anything here.” Arascus walked away from the wine cabinet without taking a bottle. That was annoying too. What? Was her wine suddenly not good enough for him to steal? Did he prefer Paida’s Rancais Purple? He better not. His large finger tapped the piece of paper. “You’ve asked for permission to build it, I’m giving you it.”

“Are you not even going to review the plan?”

“Is there anything to review?” Arascus asked. “How you build it is your own issue. Internal Affairs and the military is working on clearing up Esberia. There’s more than enough gemstones for a hundred castles Elassa. As long as Arcadia keeps supplying the military with mages, I do not mind what you get up to.”

Elassa rolled her eyes. Annoying. It was very annoying at how easily the God of Pride handled these things. He should argue. He should… Elassa didn’t even know. He should try harder frankly. He should make her try harder! What if it was a stupid idea? How would she know? “You have no opinions on it?”

“I think it’s great.” Arascus said. “The Empire should have floating castles, but I have no reason to order them yet and I have other things in motion right now.” He crossed his arms. “That’s why I cam here in the first place.” Outside, through the window directly behind Elassa, a forest began to grow out of the ruined ground. It had scorched to drought, then it had been flooded to a swamp, now the next class was beginning their activities. Neither Of Pride nor Of Magic turned around to watch trees as they spiralled from seedling to sapling to straight bark.

“And what is that?”

“What do you know about cursed swords?” Arascus asked. Elassa narrowed her eyes, then looked at Arascus. Surely he wasn’t talking about standard cursed swords?

“You mean the ones that once grabbed can’t be let go? Or the soul-stealers?”

“The ones that hang above people’s heads.” Arascus said and Elassa leaned back. She reached for her pen and started tapping it on her table as her mind began to try and solve this problem. Cursed swords above people’s heads?

“You’re going to have to be more specific than that.” Elassa said. “I’m going to need details, who set the curse. When did it form? Why? What the sword looks like, so on, so on.” Of Magic finished. She grabbed an empty piece of paper. “Go on, I’m just going to write it down.”

“A group of Divines have the blade above them.” Elassa looked to Arascus for a moment and then took a deep breath. Was that supposed to help?

“Who?”

“It’s not my place to say.” Arascus said and Elassa sighed. It was probably one of his daughters then. Whatever. She stopped for a moment: why would one of his daughters be cursed though?

“Who did the curse.”

“I don’t know.” Arascus said. “From what we can figure, they call themselves the elders.”

“They?” Elassa asked. “So it’s a group?”

“Joshua, Samson. Mary?” Arascus said. “Does that ring any bells?” Elassa wrote the names down as she shook her head.

“No, those are common names. When?”

Arascus sighed. “From thousands of years to now.” He answered. “As in the oldest curses are thousands of years old, the newest one is less than a year.” Elassa shook her head.

“So it’s Divines cursing another Divine?”

“We don’t know.” Arascus said. “They have said the term Godling though.” Elassa stopped writing when she wrote down the word, staring at it. Godling. What the fuck? What sort of term was that even? She could put two and two together and grasp the meaning of it, but she doubted that word had ever been written in Ardan history save to describe… What? The most minor of spirits.

“Arrogant.” Elassa said. “But that’s not a tell, I’ve not seen it used.”

“And nothing with swords above people’s heads?”

“Not ever.” Elassa said. “How does it look?”

“Like a sword on a horse-hair.” Elassa had to sigh first, then write it down. A sword on a horse hair. And what exactly was that supposed to be?

“So it’s a curse of execution?” That was the closest she could come to figuring anything out, and even then, it lacked sense. “I assume it’s one of your daughters who has been cursed.” She tapped the pen. Kassandora was the first name to come into her head, but then it could be Fer. Malam fit too. Irinika… All of them. Neneria too. Olephia was the only one who didn’t fit and that was because Olephia would probably able to annihilate anyone before the curse finished.

“It’s several of them, and there’s one Divine I’ve confirmed who isn’t a daughter Goddess.” Arascus sighed. “And another too.”

Elassa sighed. “Arascus, you have given me nothing.” She said. “A curse is a curse. It can be anything, common names aren’t good enough. I need to know why at the very least. Curses usually are relevant to the situation. You can’t just…” The Goddess of Magic snapped her fingers. “Well you can I suppose, but then it won’t be a good curse. You need a foundation within the person to curse them.”

Arascus stood there in silence as if deciding something. “Alright.” He said. “I am cursed too.” Elassa dropped her pen, the blood drained from her face, her eyes went wide. Suddenly, this whole deal with the floating castle was far less important than… Arascus was cursed. How could Arascus, of all people, be cursed? That was… That was like Anassa being cursed. Some people were simply resilient to it. The God of Pride should be! Shouldn’t he! A curse relied on the internal state of someone to do its damage and who was more internally put together than Arascus?

“What?”

“I’m cursed.” Arascus said. “I can describe it to you.” Before Elassa could ask anything, Arascus launched into a speech. He talked of Baalka’s awakening, how Elassa, Kavaa, Neneria and Kassandora had disappeared, how Arascus had asked Anassa to send him to Baalka’s soul realm. How he didn’t go there at first, but rather to some room. He talked of their conversation, of the King’s Pact and how…

“Is there a sword above you right now?”

“No.” Arascus said, he looked up as if to check.

“So how do you know it’s still active?”

“I don’t.” Arascus said. “I just assume it is.”

Elassa gawked at him, unsure precisely of what to say. “You just assume it is?”

“The others that are cursed with this don’t have it run out after thousands of years.” Arascus said. “So I assume mine is no different. The blade doesn’t appear until you get to breaking the rule.”

“And the rule is not going to other worlds?” Elassa tried to grasp at something, anything, on how to handle this. She had never heard of a curse that prevented transfer to soul realms. It was… Well, it was farcical almost. What was the point of such a thing even?

“That is what it is for me.”

“For you?”

“The others have it different. Some things cannot be said. One of the cursed has worked it out. They’ve been fed knowledge, they can’t recall that knowledge without breaking the rule.” Arascus finished. “So it’s adaptive, I’ve worked that out.”

“An adaptive curse.” Elassa murmured as she started circles and other symbols on her paper. “That’s….” It was insane. It was something that shouldn’t happen frankly. Curses were curses. You didn’t have such a thing as an adaptive curse… Elassa blinked, then looked at Arascus. “Can you summon the sword at will?”

“No.”

“Then we have a problem.” Elassa said. “Because I can’t do much testing without it above you.”

“I can try finding a method.”

“You could try giving me someone that’s cursed.” Elassa said and Arascus shook his head.

“I’m not going to risk it on someone else.”

“But we’re going to risk it on you?” Elassa asked.

“Who better to risk it on?” Arascus asked. “I’m the toughest Divine there is.” Elassa didn’t even bother arguing with Arascus on the point. It was simply stupid. It was the worst decision there is. The Empire could handle the loss of one Divine. Of two Divines even. Before, the only real crucial player was Kassandora, now with Fortia, even Kassandora had a backup.

But Arascus? There was no Empire without Arascus. “I’m not even going to talk to you about the risks of that.”

“I have responsibility to everyone around me.”

“And you have a responsibility to keep going even if you lose a piece.” Elassa said and raised her hand. “But I know I’m not going to convince. It’s a mistake, well done. We agree to disagree.”

“Agree to disagree.” Arascus said. “So? What is the verdict?”

“Until you find a way to summon the blade or call it here, I can’t help you.” Elassa said. “Unless you go to another who can and-“

“That’s not going to happen. I’m not risking another.”

“Very well.”

“Would it be impossible to break?”

Elassa tapped her finger pen as she stared down at her notes. She wondered if this is how Kavaa felt when studying an illness. That was a stupid comparison, Kavaa did not study illnesses. She just touched someone and fed them power until they healed. “If it’s a curse, it will be difficult.”

The Emperor narrowed his eyes at Elassa. “If?” He asked.

Elassa sighed. “It does not sound like a curse Arascus.” She said. “It sounds like it pretends to be a curse, but I do not see it. A curse does not give warning. I can assume it does since you’re looking up at…” She waved her hand up. “This sword on a horsehair that is there, apparently.”

“It is there.”

“I believe you.” Elassa said. “But likewise, a curse is a curse. You don’t have the mark of a curse on you, I would have felt it already. You can’t turn a curse off and on.”

“What about something like the Creeping Death?” Arascus asked. An ancient curse witches used to cast over nobles and their sons.

“That is simply a matter of time before death sets in, that also can’t be avoided, the time is part of the curse. And also, did they take anything from you?” Elassa asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Blood? A hair? Skin? A finger? A piece of your soul? Maybe your clothes.” Elassa doubted that last one, curses that killed typically required a part of the body, no matter how small.

“No.” Arascus said. “Will you think on it? I don’t need a plan today obviously. It’s a long-term problem.” Elassa nodded.

“I’ll think on it but I am fairly it’s not a curse.”

“Oh?” Arascus asked.

“You’ve been enchanted. Not cursed.” Arascus stood over Elassa and looked down at her silence as he thought. Elassa waited for the argument where she would have to prove and defend her theory. The argument never came.

“Are you sure?” Arascus asked.

“No, I am not, but from what you said, I don’t see how it can be a curse.”

“How can it be an enchantment?” Arascus asked. “That’s fairly recent magic in the grand scheme of things. Fairly recent as in Reconstruction-Era, Elassa was there when enchanting began as an official discipline.

“So we’re talking pre-Worldbreaking?” Elassa asked.

“We are.”

“And it’s not caused by Worldbreaking?”

“I told you how it happened. One of the Divines that has been cursed is younger than you so Worldbreaking and everything before is not the cause.”

“But it’s done by creatures that were alive during Worldbreaking. These elders as you called them.”

“Indeed.” Arascus said.

“I will look through the archives on pre-magic magic.” Elassa said. “And on these elders, on these hanging swords, and on other worlds.” She leaned back and turned to look through the window at the chaos happening outside as Arcadia produced yet another class of elite mages that would be sent to the front lines. The forest was ablaze now, with fire that burned and produced no smoke. That was a matter of raising the temperature so high that the smoke would be incinerated in the heat. “Arascus?”

“What?”

“You said other worlds.”

“I did.”

“What if your elders are from another world?” Arascus stared at Elassa for a moment in silence. He looked up at the ceiling. “Has it appeared?”

“No.” Arascus said. “To answer your question, if they’re from another world, then that would be easier.”

“Would it?”

“What’s the easiest thing to do? That every other Divine of our strength can accomplish?”

Elassa sniffed. What sort of question was that? “I don’t know. Crack the planet?”

“Exactly.”