Delver Magic III: Balance of Fate, Jeff Inlo [most popular ebook readers .txt] 📗

a different perspective without having to worry about crashing into a tree. He began speaking about spells again as if he never departed from his earlier thoughts. “You flow like water, but even that’s not a fair assessment. Water is fluid and thus its movements tend to be loose in scope and direction. Still, when you splash water, droplets can dart in well defined paths. If I were to include water qualities in the spell, it would have to be that of a well defined stream as opposed to a massive wave. Perhaps more ice than water.”

Enin suddenly grumbled with frustration. “This is most perplexing. I believe I can easily simulate part of the things you do with one spell, but that would represent only a small portion of your delver qualities. I could give someone speed, and maybe stamina, but not the same grace. I could give balance and athleticism but not the same awareness of the surroundings. No, to duplicate your abilities with any degree of accuracy, it would require a series of spells and most likely they would have the affect of canceling each other out.”

“I guess if you need the skills of a delver, you’ll just have to call on me. Just won’t be able to conjure one up by waving your hand over some bug or something. Shame.”

“It is indeed a shame. Your movements are quite extraordinary. To duplicate them would allow for transportation methods that might be unheard of. Imagine if we could give a team of horses the movement capabilities of a delver. Think of it.”

“I think I’d rather fly,” Ryson responded.

Enin shook his head strenuously. “Horses flying? No, that would not be a good thing.”

“Not the horses, me. I’ve watched you cast that flying spell and I’ve always been envious.”

“The way you move and you are envious of me?” the wizard asked revealing a great deal of surprise.

“You can fly, so yes I am. I always wondered why you don’t cast that spell on others. You know, allow some of the guard at Burbon to fly around on patrol. They could scout the area better.”

“I can’t cast it on someone else. It’s purely a matter of control. The spell is almost constantly and instantaneously altered with my own thoughts and movements. It has to be. If I cast it on someone else, the results would be disastrous. Now I can make you float, and I can move you from one area to another by levitating you, as long as you don’t resist me, but I can’t give you the same power of flight that I have right now. As I said, the spell requires constant and instantaneous updating. The moment you wanted to move in a new direction and the spell wasn’t corrected properly for that desire, you’d probably end up rocketing beyond the horizon.”

“That would be bad.”

“Indeed, like horses flying,” Enin added.

Ryson shrugged. “Ok, so I can’t fly, doesn’t mean I don’t want to.”

“But you can fly.” The wizard offered without a hint of doubt. “Not with a flying spell like I do, but if you want to experience the sensation of flying, that can be done under your own power.”

Ryson pulled to a slow stop. “Explain that one to me. You’re telling me I can fly? Like a bird?”

“Almost exactly like a bird, and I can show you as long as you understand you must adjust your perception.”

“Once more, explain please.”

Enin looked about the landscape over the trees. He quickly spotted an area that suited his purpose. He pointed in that direction as he called down to the delver.

“Ok, I need to move you to open ground. There is a nice area over to the Southwest. Do you want to run there or should I levitate you there?”

“I’ll get there myself,” Ryson stated with certainty. “When you levitate me, I always feel like I’m about to be dropped on my head.”

“Hmmph. I would only drop you if you resist me. I could transport a hundred people or more at once if I had to, as long as they just allowed me to move them. Nobody likes being moved, though, and they always complain. They start fighting it and then they start falling. It’s not me, it’s them.”

“I’ll meet you there,” Ryson stated with a degree of finality.

“Fine.”

Ryson took off in a blur and stopped in the middle of a clearing. He looked over the level ground that extended on a wide path beyond the edge of a nearby stream. He realized it was a flood plain which would explain the lack of trees in this localized area. The ground was hard, mostly frozen from the colder night temperatures. A few areas thawed slightly from the midday sun, but even these patches remained firm. For the most part, the ground was comprised of matted down, dormant high grass. Several rocks littered the area, but not enough to worry about.

Enin flew into the clearing and down closer to the delver as there were no longer any trees to impede his path. “Now first, you have to remove all expectations of what you think flying will be like. Can you do that?”

“I can try.”

“Well, try hard. Next, survey the surroundings so you have a good idea of what you are going to be running over.”

“I thought I was going to be flying, not running.”

Enin sighed in exasperation. “You’re not trying very hard.”

“Oh, sorry. Anyway, I already gave the ground a once over. Looks clear to me.”

“Excellent. Now, I need you to set yourself up at one end of the clearing so you have the entire expanse available for one straight run. Move over to the far northern border of this clearing and face south.”

The delver complied with a blur of motion and within a heartbeat stood at the far northern end of the clearing, facing south toward its full expanse.

Enin shouted even though the delver’s keen hearing would have allowed him to hear Enin whisper from even this greater distance. “I’m going to cast a wind spell, a small one. It will only create a constant rush of air that will flow into your face. I’m doing that not to give you extra lift or anything like that, so don’t try to float on the breeze. I just want to make sure you have the sensation of wind in your face. After I cast the spell, I want you to run into the wind, but not like a delver. I want you to run with long bounding strides that send you as much upward as they do forward. I want you to run with timing as well, one…two…three… at that pace. It has to be slow, smooth and steady. Do you understand?”

Ryson nodded.

“While you run, I want you to put your arms out to the side. Don’t flap them or anything silly like that. You’re not a bird, so don’t act like one. Simply hold them up, but beyond that, keep them relaxed as possible. Ready?”

Ryson nodded again.

With that, Enin flicked his wrists and two perfect circles of white energy appeared at his palms. He whispered a few inaudible words and pressed his hands outward. The two circles of energy flowed out toward the delver, collapsing into the air as a stiff breeze now pushed forward in their place.

When Ryson felt the flow of air, he did as the wizard asked. He ran due south directly into the wind. His legs pressed him both forward and upward in what appeared to be a slow dash of one leap after another. He stretched his arms out to his sides, but kept his muscles relaxed. As he continued through the clearing, he waited to be lifted high up into the air. To his disappointment, he never left the ground. When he reached the boundary of trees at the far end of the clearing, he turned back to Enin.

“What went wrong?”

“Nothing went wrong, that is to say, nothing beyond your perception of what was to happen. You expected to be soaring above the trees like a bird, yes?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t say you had the power to soar above the trees, I said you had the power within you to realize the sensation of flying. If you consider what you just did, and what a bird does, you’d realize that you felt what it’s like for a bird to fly. A bird must flap its wings to gain lift and momentum. As it lifts in the air, it can soar for distances without flapping its wings, but it still must work to some extent to remain airborne for any length of time. Instead of flapping wings, you propelled yourself with your legs. You left the ground and remained in the air until you came back to the ground and propelled yourself up once more. It’s the same concept as flying only in shorter bursts and lower to the ground.”

“Well, that’s disappointing to say the least,” Ryson stated with a dissatisfied tone.

“Disappointing? Nonsense. As far as sensation goes, it is all the same. Perception, that’s all that’s different, but you can change your perception. With the wind in your face and your legs pressing you forward, you feel what the bird feels. As that same wind rushes past your ears, you hear what the bird hears. As you look to your left and right and see the landscape pass you by, you see what the bird sees. If instead of the clearing you ran through the trees, you would know what its like for a bird to soar through branches. Perception! Focus on it. Understand that what you are doing is no different then what the bird is doing. The bird is simply lighter so it can stay off the ground longer. It can beat its wings against the air while you must press your feet against the ground, but in those moments that your feet have propelled you off the ground and into the air, you are truly in flight. It may only be for scant moments, but for those moments, as brief as they are, you are as the bird. Perception.”

Ryson frowned.

Enin, however, would not give up. “Give it a try one more time and free your mind of your expectations as I first asked of you. Feel the wind in your face and look about you all at once. When you leave the ground, focus on that very instant—not on what will happen next, not on the fact that you will eventually land, but on that instant that you are in midair. When you think too far in the future, even a mere instant in the future, you know you will fall to the ground. If, however, you can focus on a single instant in the present, then you will not care about what will happen next. You will only know what is happening now. You are in the air, you are moving, thus you are flying!”

“Alright, I’ll give it a try. It’s just not what I expected.” With that Ryson turned and took off once more. He concentrated on the moments he was in the air. He felt the wind in his face and across his outstretched arms. At the very moment he was at the peak of his elevation off the ground, he finally began to realize what Enin was saying. He was airborne. He was moving forward. He was, in a fashion, flying.

Enin smiled from a distance and cast another quick spell. This time the air did not move, but the space around the delver shimmered ever so slightly. The delver appeared to be caught in suspended animation, but only for a moment. The shimmering effect quickly dissolved and Ryson again was moving as normal.

“Whoa!”