As the blood-sweet-rot dimension collapses in on itself, Alexis turns to Ca’armine and Ethelred, pulling his hat back into place.
“Everything summoned we’ve seen so far has been evil. Can we summon something good? Angels exist in the stories.” He adjusts his belt and his shirt. “What about something that makes you forget nightmares like that?”
“And how do we prepare for the next time we meet something like that? What lessons can we take away from this time? That… thing fought Raiden’s magic hard. For a second, I thought it was going to shake it off.”
“Summoning is not something I have given much thought. It is obviously possible. We have seen it many times. I do not feel connected to anywhere else, but this world.
I am more interested in learning how to counter summoning. How to close rift, to undo the weave. Attacking the root cause. Making it to lose stability. Almost like healing this world. That is very interesting.”
Alexis looks very interested
“What have you come up with so far? What have you found in the scrolls? What thoughts have you had on this?”
“The scrolls have not yet revealed a direct path. But as you learn to build something you are also learning how to take it apart.
So in theory if one could disrupt the source of power, reflect it, distort it.. maybe even cause it to burst.. then …
Well Ca’armine clearly was able to call upon Raiden to interrupt the working, to sever the link between the power and here.
That would not be the route I would be able to take, without some other changes.
No, I would need to be able to disrupt the force more directly. Mirrors come to mind, but also we do have a few very fine gems that could be used to fracture the power…. hmm… interesting.”
Red goes blank staring off into the distance.
Ca’armine has a bemused smile on his face. Inside, he is humming– the dismissal of that fearsome creature was a peak moment for him! “I had not considered whether an otherworldly creature could be summoned. Raiden’s power, is what flows through me, and that power is of this world.” He considers for a moment. “No I do not think I can do that. I can hold a creature here, or banish it, but walking outside this world, would be someone else’s power not mine.”
Alexis looks at Ca’armine and Ethelred.
“Red, you talk about something to cancel out something else. You talked about this when we could feel Hadonis’ warren bleeding cold. What about something to cancel out the summoning, like what Ca’armine did? Or what about something to amplify Ca’armine’s cancelation? It seems like you wouldn’t need to understand the energy in order to amplify it.”
Alexis looks between Ethelred and Ca’armine.
“phew.. since I have failed to be able to understand how all of your Raiden magic works.. being able to figure out how to amplify it..
It is a task much like stopping scrying before we had the crystal ball. I would be blindly trying to have an effect over something I can’t even understand.
If any of you can come up with a device, with some materials.. with something I could aid in the construction of, could work. But on my own I would just by trying everything hoping for something to work.”
“I was thinking something like a lens. Physical, maybe. Or something more abstract.” Alexis gestures with his hands, shaping the idea. “Energy goes through it, comes out amplified. Stronger.”
He taps his finger on one hand against the Collegium ring on this other.
“No warping. No changing. Just amplifying. Or focusing it down, like a magnifying lens lighting paper on fire.”
“I agreed in principal. But you are asking me to focus a power I can not understand. Like asking me to shape a stone I do not have. I am not saying it is not possible, but you and Ca’amine need to do the heavy lifting here.
How would you shape this power, just point at a a gem? How can the power of a god be amplified? Sounds a bit like stealing to me. Do gods reward greedy acolytes?
More apt might be the focus you are asking me to create. I am merely the hands that are shaping it, you will then embue your God through it. Could that not count as amplifying?”
“Two interesting paths there.” Alexis leans forward, working through it. “One’s a multi-purpose lens. In my previous example of the glass lens, it could focus light, but also cold, heat, whatever else. The other’s Raiden-specific. You build the framework, then Ca’armine and/or I finish it.”
He pulls his hat off, runs a hand through his hair.
“Second one’s harder. You’re the only artificer here.” Alexis thinks for a moment on this “But maybe Ca’armine or I could learn enough to help you finish it. You learned to make a ballista. No reason we couldn’t pick up some artificing.”
He sets the hat back on, looks between them.
“And the focus, it could do different things, right? Make the magic bigger. Or make it last longer. Or, to the point of this conversation, make it harder for some hatchet-footed demon to shrug off.”
His Collegium ring catches firelight as he gestures.
“Both good paths.”
Alexis looks between Ethelred and Ca’armine, clearly excited by this idea.
Ca’armine shakes his head. “I think we are talking about different things. The “magic” that Red uses, is fundamentally different from mine. We can’t understand or even sense, each other’s workings.”
Then he pauses.
“What about you Alexis? Do you sense and understand the Raiden-power that flows through me? Or is it easier for you to sense the arcane foci that Red attends?”
Alexis tilts his head, thumb running along his Collegium ring.
“Not quite. Red can feel your casting. He can even get a rough sense of how much you’re putting into it. He just can’t tell you what it is.”
He leans forward, elbows on knees.
“I don’t have to understand fire to know I’m being burned. I don’t have to know how a lens is made to use one. But if I want to make the lens?” He taps the side of his head. “That’s the problem worth solving. And it’s solvable.”
A glance between the two of them.
“We’re not blind to each other’s magic. Red feels what you channel if he focuses on it. You’d know the second he did something… evil. We have more to work with than we’re using.” He settles back. “So. Next time we’re standing in front of two of those things, I want a plan. What do we actually have?”