55. Duel of Wits (Patreon)

After going back to the academy from our trip, I ended up following Marissa’s advice and learned the Force Unconsciousness spell. Surprisingly enough, the seven-star spell was easy to learn as it had a six-star downgraded version for objectives who were willing to be put to sleep. Which was certainly my case as this was nothing but a magical sleeping pill.

It took me less than a week, half I would say, to make the spell work on a constant basis, as it was a soul spell and basically every single one of them had to be casted instead of spellcasted. And while I didn’t exactly hate sorcery, I had a far better time using wizardry. What a shame that option was out of the question with soul magic. The field of the spiritual was too poorly understood to make the necessary calculations for spellcasting to work.

Anyways, today was a special day. It was nearly the halfway point of Scorch, and thanks to Alatea, I had managed to make an appointment with a neuromancer to help me with mind magic.

I had talked before about my paranoia and how I had my mind unprotected, and I wanted to change that. It was totally unnecessary, as there weren’t many Mind-attuned mages, or any practitioners of mind magic, for that matter. And most likely I wouldn’t even think of this prospect if I wasn’t myself a psychimancer with a heavily protected soul, but now that my soul was an impenetrable bastion, and I could protect my body with a defensive arcane spell, it was quite stupid to leave my mind as an unprotected backdoor.

Curiously, the directions Alatea gave me to this acquaintance neuromancer of hers were in the healing ward itself. I expected a mage of such a school of magic to work in either the library or the plentiful laboratories on the campus, but I guess it made sense, nonetheless.

I came late in the afternoon as Alatea told me the neuromancer wasn’t exactly a morning person, and I would have a better chance to find her past the lunch hour or beyond.

The healing ward was as beautiful as always, with a myriad of plants and colors assaulting my eyes. Either way, the neuromancer’s office was situated far away from the greenhouse, so I just passed by.

After a few minutes of searching and cursing myself for not asking for more specific directions at the reception desk, I found my way to the office. I knocked three times until I heard a voice welcoming me.

“It’s open, come on!” A feminine voice cried, and I made my way in. “You are the apprentice Alatea talked about, I suppose?”

“Apprentice may be too strong of a word for our current relationship, but yes, you could say so,” I told the neuromancer. “And I suppose you are miss Kirielle?”

“The one and only.” Miss Kirielle responded, raising her chest with pride.

Miss Kirielle was a short ellari as things went, around the one-seventy-meter mark. I took her more than two heads of height. What I was more curious about was her long almost-auburn hair, with a light blue shade. Auburn hair was a really, really strange sight to see on an ellari. Even more so than her pinkish skin. But that was more commonplace. Her eyes shared the same color as her skin.

“But miss Kirielle, eh. Didn’t Alatea deign herself to give you my surname?”

“No… she didn’t?” I didn’t know how to react to such a question. “Alatea just told me her friend Kirielle could hear me out about some mind magic questions I had.”

“Hmm, I suppose it makes sense if you refer to her on a first-name basis…” Then she suddenly jumped out of her seat and practically stood up on her desk. “But don’t call it mind magic!” Kirielle pointed at me. “What I do is neuromancy!”

“Yes… Alatea also mentioned that about you.” I took a slight step back. “But I wanted to ask general mind magic questions, rather than the specialized neuromancy field.”

“But you know the difference?” Kirielle jumped off her high ground and rushed at me, standing only a palm from my face.

“Yes?” This was quite… an interesting exchange. “Neuromancy is the field of mind magic specialized on the mind’s inner workings if I remember correctly.” She responded to my explanation with a dubious nod. “I mean, I’m a psychimancer but I do present myself as a mystic as I’m knowledgeable on the whole field of soul magic.”

Kirielle turned herself and walked back to her desk. “I do understand the logic behind your point,” then she suddenly turned back and pointed at me again, “but I do not like it!”

“Alright?” Alatea had warned me miss Kirielle had quite a character. What she didn’t tell me, is that the person before me was a character of her own league. “Could we put aside the semantic discussion and talk about why I came here?”

“Sure, sure.” The neuromancer made a dismissive gesture with her hand and sat back down. “If I’m sure, you came because you wanted to know how to protect your mind?”

“Yes.” I nodded. “As I have a well-protected soul thanks to my psychimancy, I would like to at least reinforce my mind a bit.”

“Hmm, I see.” She also nodded. “I can see your interest in protecting your mind, my brother is quite paranoiac with such affairs, but I’m afraid I’m not as competent as him. I treat with mental diseases here, rather than mind attacks and defenses.”

It now made perfect sense why a mind mage like her was located in the healing ward. Using neuromancy as a stepping stone for mental medical assistance. What a novel idea.

“But Alatea told me you could help me?”

“Oh, sure I can,” Kirielle told with a powerful smile. “It’s just that I don’t specialize in it. As I’ve said, this would rather fall on the competence of my brother, but I’m afraid he’s not currently available. I guess you must suffice with me.”

“I would be honored to receive your instruction.” I said with a bow.

“I definitely see why Alatea likes you. I haven’t gotten this politeness since… well, ever. But that doesn’t matter, let’s get down to business.” Kirielle clapped her hands, and her expression took a more serious tone. “Mind protection is an intricate field of mind magic, but it’s quite simpler than it sounds. Most mental defensive spells are actually just cantrips.”

“Wait, cantrips?” I exclaimed, surprised by her explanation. “I don’t mean to undermine your knowledge, miss Kirielle…”

“Kirielle’s fine.” She interrupted me with a smile.

“Right.” I coughed. “I do trust your knowledge of mind magic, Kirielle. But what do you mean when you say that most defensive spells are cantrips?”

“That most defensive spells are cantrips?” I looked at her weirdly, and she responded with a light laugh. “Sorry, sorry. It sounds weird but that’s the case. Unlike most elemental magic, neuromancy, or even mind magic in general, doesn’t require extensive and intricate spells to defend or attack, but rather mana. A question for you. Do you use defensive spells to protect your soul?”

“No,” I said. “But my soul is quite peculiar. And defensive spiritual advanced spells exist to ward one’s soul.”

“Yes, but of course,” Kirielle responded. “The same happens with mind magic. There are complicated spells, but in the end, it’s just better to use simple cantrips and batter down enemy minds with mana rather than complicate things with higher-tiered spells.”

“That’s quite… interesting.” This meeting was proven more informative than I expected. “I thought mind magic would take more of a toll on someone’s mind.” If I expected one field of magic to heavily rely on spellcasting, that was mind magic.

“Oh, it does. For the objective!” She laughed. “Mentalists are a lazy bunch and just throw around some mental mana. That’s basically why not only defensive but also offensive spells, are not really elaborate and just are cantrips or alike.”

“So you just pour mana into it?” It couldn’t be this easy, right?

“Yup, that’s basically it.” She had to be kidding. “Isn’t psychimancy like that? You just shake your soul from side to side and things happen, am I wrong?”

“There’s a bit more… nuance.” She wasn’t kidding, I could feel it. “It’s right that you can just attack with your soul, especially if it is as powerful as mine, but it’s ineffective unless the target is unprotected. You better prefer to cast more advanced spells than ‘shake the soul’ as you put it. How do I say it… Right. Think of the ‘shake’ as a slap, it can hurt, but that’s all. Whilst a casted spell is a drill, that does deal true damage.”

“Hmm.” Kirielle closed her eyes and swayed her head from one side to the other in pondering. “You just described mind magic.”

“What?”

“You described mind magic.” She reiterated. “It’s literally the same. If you have a powerful and trained mind you don’t need any spell to overpower your opponents, but higher-starred spells are useful, nonetheless. That’s why you don’t need to learn such spells, if you find such a mind mage, to begin with, then any defense you put will be useless.” Her expression was laidback and amused, but her words and tone were ruthless. “It’s much better to stay with cantrips as a defense as mind practitioners rather than a reactive shield for true mind mages.”

“I… I guess you are right.” I sighed. I gave Marissa the same treatment Kirielle did with me. I never taught her spiritual defensive spells because of her learned natural resistance was enough for amateur practitioners. “Your cantrips will be more than enough for fighting against minor mind compulsion.”

“Mind compulsion, eh.” Kirielle gave me a look I couldn’t decipher as she pondered on my tongue slip. “That isn’t the same as a mental attack, you know that, right? Why do you want to protect yourself against mind compulsions?” Her gaze was analyzing and piercing, out of character, even if didn’t know her well.

“I think you may have misunderstood my words,” I explained calmly. “Mind compulsion is one of the plentiful effects I would like to be protected from, like illusions or mind-reading, nothing more.

“I doubt that’s the case, though.” Her visage turned serious, abandoning the carefree and merry image it had. “Tell me. Why would you like to be defended against mind compulsion?”

Her words turned seductive and crystalline. It was a question it had to be answered. A question I must had to answer. Lovable tendrils of invisible sky-blue mist caressed me, inciting me to answer.

Then, as my mouth opened, tendrils of insidious and carcinogenic purple color cut them. Sizzling like oil that had been left on the pan for too long, a predator’s howl ready to jump on another.

Kirielle frowned.

“It would seem you don’t need to be protected from compulsions, master Edrie.” The last part she said with venom in her words.

“Why did you do that?” I asked, surprised about the sudden exchange, with a glint of indignation.

“The question I seek is, how did you do that?” Kirielle counterattacked.

“Don’t change the subject.” I looked directly at her eyes, the door to the soul. “Tell me why you did it.”

Pure white tendrils launched at her, caressing her very being. She didn’t break the line of sight, our eyes connecting, the door to each other’s souls left open. The connection only grew stronger as time went on. And stronger. Stronger. Little by little I was getting inside, the answer would come.

Then a pulse came.

A deflagration of sky-blue energy emitted from her mind repelled, and subsequently, disintegrated the tendrils, practically erasing a part of my own soul.

“It seems we both have our tricks.” She looked at me with scorn. “But unfortunately for you, I have more practice against mystics than you do for mentalists.” Kirielle smiled at me.

“It would seem so, yes.” I sighed.

“How did you do it then?” She asked once more. “How a freshman student, one who is actively searching for ways to protect his mind, is able to deflect a mental compulsion from an experimented neuromancer?”

Answering was my only option. “I didn’t.”

“Come again?” Kirielle suddenly lost all her sass and aura of power, as it was substituted by stupefaction.

“I didn’t fight against your mind compulsion.” I elaborated further.

“I don’t know what games you are playing. But you clearly fought off my compulsion.”

“It wasn’t me,” I told her with a sigh. “It was my soul.”

“Your soul defended you against my attack.” I nodded at her words. “You won’t fool anyone with your words, kid.”

“Believe it or not, that is the truth.” I inhaled deeply. “I do not possess complete control over my soul as I appear to do. My soul is too big and polarized to be manually controlled. What happened there was a reflex.”

“So, you are telling me you defended yourself from an elaborated attack of a very proficient neuromancer with a reflex?”

“The wording is a bit off, but it could be summarized as such.”

“I can’t believe it.” Kirielle facepalmed, hiding her laugh behind her hand. “How?”

“In very few words, my arcane affinity is constantly fighting against my soul affinity, so what ended up happening is that the arcane itself took hold of my own soul, and sometimes, things like this happen.”

“Wait, it has infiltrated you like a tumor, you say?”

“That analogy is quite suitable, yes.” I nodded. “I have a tumor on my soul which I don’t totally control.”

“Isn’t this like, pretty damn bad?” Her face was one of worry.

“Not as it seems.” I dismissed. “Sure, it isn’t perfect having a growth on my very essence. But it isn’t a negative effect, and in a way, it’s part of myself. So, there’s no way to remove it.”

“Alright. Let me get this straight then.” Kirielle scratched her head. “Your arcane tumor has countered my intrusion by itself and then attacked me?”

“Oh, no. That was me.” I spoke. “After you assaulted me, I use the healthy part of my soul to make yours kneel. Though it didn’t work as your mind proved quite the challenger.”

“Then why in the underworld would you need to protect your mind if your soul already works as a proxy?” Kirielle tapped a pen against her desk. “This was a question I had since the beginning. Alatea herself is capable to dish out attacks or defend herself from mental attacks since the spiritual and mental planes are closer to themselves than the physical. So, why would you be different?”

“Umm… I actually, didn’t know?” I only got a tired look from Kirielle. “I know, I know. It sounds stupid. But think it this way, I haven’t ever fought a mentalist or got assaulted by mental attacks or compulsions, so I couldn’t know. And besides, if Alatea guided me here is because I would find this meeting useful.”

“I guess so.” This turn was hers to sigh. “It’s always good to have low-powered defenses, whether they are physical, mental, or even, spiritual. Damn it, you and I are currently veiled by weak physical barriers. It makes sense your master would have liked to extend your defenses to the whole trinity.”

“So, are you going to teach me those cantrips?”

“Yes, whatever happened, that was always my intention.” She left the pen on her hand to rest down. “But tell me, now without compulsions, why are you so afraid of compulsions?”

“Afraid isn’t the right word,” she gave me a doubtful look, “though I guess it isn’t far of. I’ve noticed that my ‘tumor’ can induce me mood swings. They are low but happen from time to time. So, I wondered if mental protection could alleviate them.”

“Have you tried to defend your soul before?”

Now I gave her the tired look. “The first thing I tried.”

“Yeah, I supposed so.” Kirielle swayed her head in dismissal. “I don’t think that it will work, but trying isn’t going to do you harm, anyways. And the cantrips are easy enough that in a pair of weeks or less you should have mastered them. That’s if you can take up to the challenge.”

“You offend me, my lady.” I lowered my head. “I’m always up to a challenge.”