Master mage ordained mag.., p.10
Master Mage: Ordained Magic: Book Three, page 10
Virginia giggled, “She’s a whole cleaning workforce.”
Marie shrugged, “It’s easy to clean businesses and houses with the cleanse spell. It only takes me a couple hours a day to keep up with my clients, and mages don’t really need a lot of money. We can provide everything with magic save meat, milk, and entertainment.”
That was true enough, magic couldn’t create life, but with a handful of seeds we could grow a mature garden with the growth spell in moments. The only thing we couldn’t magic up or grow fast from seeds, was animal products, obviously. Eggs, meats, milk, cheese, and the like.
We also didn’t need cars or any other type of transportation. So, animal products, and a night out, was about our only expenses. That was a big part of why I didn’t really count the money either, even if I’d made a lot more of it healing people and selling spaceships.
I nodded, “It’s a living. I always wanted to be in healthcare, so that’s the direction I went in with the healing, cure disease, and remove poison spells.”
Marie smiled, “It’s just work, and everyone needs some money. Magic is our passion, obviously, or we wouldn’t be here. I could probably find something more lucrative, but if it’d take more of my time I wouldn’t do it, time is more valuable. My clients also pay better than you’d think and are thrilled. There’s no missing a spot with the cleanse spell after all, and they’re willing to pay a lot for that perfection.
“I also focused on gathering rich and extremely fussy clientele because I didn’t want to put the magicless cleaning businesses out of business. These are clients those services really don’t want.”
I laughed.
“So you’re helping them out, by letting them refuse those jobs, and not get negative online reviews for a spot of dust behind the fridge.”
She snickered, “Exactly. The website for the society is big on not letting the magicless get too dependent on us, and for us not to cause entire industries to collapse. I’ve tried to keep that in mind. We’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a while.”
She didn’t sound upset about it, likely knew it wasn’t easy to build a culture from scratch.
The rest of the day went well enough, and I met a lot of good people, but none that clicked with me or moved me like those two did. At the end of the day, I took them both on as apprentices, to our mutual agreement. They both swore they were and would remain law abiding, and that they work hard on everything I instructed them to do.
It was a start, and also the establishment of the last piece of our new mage culture. We had our own holiday and celebration, we had our unwritten rules which weren’t laws, such as not destroying magicless industries, and now we had master and apprentice arrangements.
Eventually, there’d be enough masters good at teaching to take on the new generations of mages as they approached a teachable age, which I estimated would be in their tweens, eleven or twelve the human mind could start to focus well enough for it, for at least short times. That age was also more impressionable, so it would be easier to instill the same values, morals, and principles.
Mages would still go bad of course, but that was human nature, and it had nothing to do with magic.
Regardless, I was pleased at the ambition and passion my apprentices held toward magic, and it would be good to be teaching again.
Chapter Eleven
The master spell was coming along, but I still wasn’t sure what spells I’d use. The simplest idea would be to dispel them and the spell they cast or elemental they ordered to harm, with an overwhelming dispel, then send a mind control command to dismiss their elementals and leave the city. Without protections, that command could be sent with just a sliver of magic power behind it, and it would work.
That would take care of it, both the mage and elemental with one spell, but I’d sworn to treat war like I treated everything else. The problem was that mind control was against the law without the consent of the one put under the spell, even in self-defense. Which meant I couldn’t do that. I wasn’t allowed to justify the use of a forbidden spell because it was war, not if I was going to come down and say war was like everything else and unjustified murder. It’d make me a hypocrite, trying to redefine the rules of war while also taking advantage of the old ones.
Dispel magic was a legal defense when in danger, also necessary to counter a spell’s end from being formed, so it would likely start with that. It almost had to.
But then I had to deal with the dispelled mage, and his or her elemental, which would take two more spells, instead of just one. I could hit the mage and elemental with the dispel if they were targeted by the spell, but that would depend on them not having their elemental under the hidden magic spell, which made that a non-starter as well.
It wasn’t until I realized defenders wouldn’t need an elemental, if there was not going to be a war, that I came to a simple if blunt answer. It would probably annoy a few people, but better annoyed than anyone dead.
I could cast a mass banishment and hidden or not all elementals in San Antonio would be banished back to their plane, as long as the banishment was more powerful than every elemental singularly. It would also be a single spell to take out all elementals, so it would save me in magic cost. To be safe, I’d put twenty of those into the spell, so if the remaining invading force resummoned their elementals before attacking, we wouldn’t be caught short.
So, dispel for the attacker and the attack, followed by a mass banishment. It was the next one I needed to figure out, how to deal with an unprotected mage in a way that wouldn’t kill, but that would stop them from trying again.
I mean, I didn’t want to arrest them, they weren’t San Antonio mages. Still, using a sliver of power after that to put them to sleep would end the threat. I shook my head, not good enough. You couldn’t intimidate or embarrass a sleeping person.
I needed something unmanning and highly embarrassing, that would prevent them from ever coming back.
Another few slivers of power, and I could cast a confusion glyph, trip glyph, and stick glyph on all of them. They’d be stuck to the ground, unable to move or focus enough to cast magic, for about eight hours. While all the San Antonio mages made fun of them.
We could conjure fruit and throw it at them, or something. Also, stream it live across the world, then upload it to our San Antonio Mage Society’s YouTube page.
That just might make sure they’d never come back.
In the case a mage was in a killing rage, and not an invasion, that would just make them even angrier. But it’d disable them for long enough for one of us to go free them from the spells and put them on a timeout in the holding cell. Hold them long enough for them to come to their senses. No, making fun of a raging person wouldn’t be helpful at all.
If other cities also adopted the spell, they wouldn’t be able to take revenge out of anger on a helpless invader because that would have them targeted by the Peace spell. So I was fairly sure even if other city leaders weren’t as temperate minded as I was, they wouldn’t be able to end it by slaughtering the helpless attackers to send their own darker message.
I’d think about it some more, but that was the best idea I’d had so far. I could also increase the core power of the spell to about forty-five hundred times my base power, instead of four thousand. To cover the weak triple spell and mass banishments.
Still, I’d think about it. I liked it, but it wasn’t quite perfect, not yet…
My apprentices were doing well enough. I’d added them to my personal walkie talkie network, not just to keep in touch and so they could reach out, but also so I could watch out for them with the built-in ward. They were my responsibility now, as surely as my children were, to keep safe in both body and mind. Taking on apprentices wasn’t something I’d take lightly or give less than my all to.
I’d already passed on my meditation and mind discipline techniques for multitasking spell glyphs. They were to study, memorize, and practice them without using the focus spell to aid them. Once they’d mastered them then they could use the focus spell to help them do even better.
Regardless, outside of questions they had and checking up with them daily, that’s all I would teach them for the next three to six months magic wise, which is how long it should take on average for a person to master the techniques.
Only then would I start teaching them how to cast compound and enhanced spells, and the complex spell forms using multiple control wards. Magic was dangerous after all, even if that stuff was old hat and came easy to me, it had taken a lot of work to get to that point, and I still respected it, even if I was building master spells now.
Magic at any level should always be respected.
Brett surprised me in that moment, appearing in front of me in my backyard. He had a lovely and lush light brown-haired beauty with him, that I never met before. My magical detections, which were part of my master protections spell, were telling me something different, that there was a cute blonde underneath an illusion.
Okay, I guessed that part, all my detections told me was the brunette was fake, but I was sure it was Violet, from other things I noticed. Their body language, and they were standing in each other’s personal space, and I knew Brett wouldn’t step out on his blonde partner and girlfriend.
“Brett, Violet, what’s up?”
Violet laughed, “I’m Carla, honey.”
I snorted.
Violet shook her head, “That’s my cover name anyway. How did you know?”
I shrugged, “Brett looks way to comfortable with you in his personal space.”
They both took a step apart, and I laughed, “Too late. So, what’s going on?”
Brett said, “Sting operation. We’re not sure if Victor Zale or Jerry Smith knows who Violet is, so we decided to let her use an illusion.”
She said, “This is close to the look and personality I used back in the beginning, when we were using magic and hiding from the government.”
I nodded, “So, I’m invited along? How did you set up a meet with them? I thought they were too cautious to fall for anything like that?”
He grinned, “Greed. Carla here has been buying up a lot of ancient art, whole collections from private dealers, since she arrived in the area two weeks ago. She even got invited as the guest of honor to a society party, people with old money.
“Anyway, they must follow that stuff and pay attention to that circle, because as we hoped they contacted her, and they’ve no idea she’s a mage. Since their newly created ancient Egyptian art lost their cutout right out the gate, they’ve been laying low. They want to discuss selling her the whole consignment, presumably so they can dump it and move on to something else. They’re nervous enough to be willing to take a loss by selling it all at once, and at least making money on it before cutting out.
“They must’ve talked themselves into the idea selling it all to her was as good as having a cutout, I’m sure they plan to wipe her mind of their appearance and names as soon as the sale is finished.”
I nodded, idiots.
“Okay, what’s the plan?”
He said, “They want to meet her at her hotel room, in their words to keep it confidential. She’s staying in the Emma. We’ll be in the bedroom invisible and behind wards while she hosts them in the living room. Once they show some merchandise and try to close a deal, we take them down.”
“What if they have detection spells active? That’s how I knew the lovely brunette wasn’t a real person, and to look for other contextual clues to figure out it was you, Violet.”
Brett nodded, “Then we take them down immediately, we already have enough evidence to put them away for fraud, but if the sting works it’ll make it a slam dunk in court.”
I nodded, “Fair enough. Thanks for thinking of me.”
Brett smirked, “It’s not often you’re interested in one of my cases. We’re expecting them in about an hour, but we should set up early in case they show up early.”
“Lead the way.”
Violet opened up a portal to her hotel room’s bedroom, and Brett and I settled down at the two-person table and chairs by the window, and we took care of the invisibility and ward spells. Violet headed out.
Brett cast the commune spell, which was clever. With that spell, despite being invisible, we could hear and see each other, but no one else could. So, we could chat safely and comfortably without risk of being overheard and ruining things.
I chuckled.
Brett tilted his head in question.
I shook my head, “I’ll have to tell my husband I spent the morning at a hotel bedroom with a handsome man.”
He snorted, “Don’t do it.”
I giggled, “You’re right of course. I love to tease him, but I don’t poke that bear. I didn’t know Violet was doing that well?”
He grinned, “She doesn’t advertise it, but she is a rich heiress of old money. That’s just grown since she got magic. It helps that she doesn’t live extravagantly, but she could.”
“You did well for yourself.”
He snorted, “Way out of my league, but she hasn’t said yes, yet.”
I shrugged, “Magic is an equalizer as far as status, I’d think.”
He smirked, “She said the same thing to me once, when I asked why she was slumming with an ex-cop. She’s also sure of me because of the magic, that I’m not after her money.”
I snorted, “You’ve never mentioned it before?”
He shrugged, “You’re a trillionaire now, so I doubt you’ll start treating her differently, and I already knew you know how to keep a secret. That’s why she hides it, she hates being fawned over. It’s also why she’s good at playing the part, she actually knows all those people she went to the party with as Carla. How to interact with them without faking it, which they’d have spotted a mile away.”
I chuckled, “Fair enough.”
He grinned, “it’s all about the three B’s.”
I tilted my head, “Body, beauty, and… brains?”
He touched his nose.
I snickered.
The conversation tapered off as we were left with our own thoughts while waiting for our quarry.
The takedown when it did happen, was ridiculously easy. They were great at covering their tracks, and being counterfeiters, but they sucked as mages. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have resorted to crime to make money, when they had magic at their fingertips. We had them down and suppressed in moments, ready to be carted away to prison. So easy I won’t bore you with the details or setting the scene, suffice it to say the counterfeiters were done.
No, the much more interesting part of it all for me was finding out about Violet’s true and hidden identity, and a little more about my good friend’s relationship.
Chapter Twelve
That afternoon there was hail and snow. In the past that would shut down the city for a day or two after leaving a coat of ice on the roads. We had no infrastructure down in San Antonio to deal with it since snow was so rare. The city didn’t own snowplows or salt trucks.
This time was different, as the emergency rescue team sent out elementals to take care of it after the storm passed. The streets were cleared quickly and efficiently with water elementals enhanced by earth, the ice literally just disappearing.
Gabriella was over, and I’d just gotten done going over my master spell Peace. That hadn’t changed since I last mentioned it. A dispel followed by mass banishment, then confuse, trip, and stick on the attacking mages.
“So, what do you think?”
Gabriella giggled, “I love it. It’s definitely a defensive spell, and it doesn’t kill. The stackable part is brilliant. I do have a small suggestion.”
“I was hoping that you would.”
Gabriella said, “Use an enhancement glyph on the mass banishment, a ward to exclude elementals with the intent to save life. I mean, what if one of your rescue squad just happened to be using an air elemental to empty a burning building full of people when the city was attacked, either by an army or just a jerk on a rampage?”
Well, good intentions or not, my spell would wind up getting people killed, that’s what.
“I can do that?”
Gabriella giggled, “Yes, you can add exceptions to mass spells like that. Magic is moldable to our will, there are no absolutes unless we want them to be absolutes.”
I’d remember that, still a lot to learn.
“Alright, anything else?”
Gabriella nodded, “Just on the practical side. It’s likely our enemy will rush to attack if you simply publish the spell in the shared document. They’ll want to take us down before the leaders in the other cities can memorize, enchant, and deploy it. So I’d suggest we call a meeting between leaders as soon as you finish, and we can give it to them on the spot. Once all our cities are protected, you can publish it, so other cities can protect themselves or even use it to throw off the yolk of a violent mage government.”
“That’s the plan, I already thought that one through. Have you done any preparations that way?”
Gabriella nodded, “Yes, but nothing as definitive, so I won’t bother using it now. Nondestructive self-defense on a war scale, I love it. The world will break out in peace, there’s got to be at least one master mage in each city with our ideals. I noticed you didn’t try to entirely end all violence with it though, it’s very targeted to just war and mages on a rampage.”
“I thought about it, and I don’t like it, but something that absolute would backfire over time. Law enforcement will still have to take down criminals, and…” I struggled with it, “Violence is never good, but on some level it is necessary for a healthy society. I imagined if I tried, well it would create a culture where some mages participated in honor duels outside the city.”
She snickered, “I think I get it, violence is part of the human condition and needs an outlet, even if a very highly defined and narrow one through culture and civilization. The spell also allows for someone with righteous cause in justice to take down a mage government.”
I nodded, “Yes, it does. I only protected us from political assassins, mind-controlled dupes, and invading armies.”
