The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 154

Chapter 154 – Magic Lesson on Horseback

I had not been lying when I said that we would ride to Mount Shasta. It was roughly eight hundred and fifty kilometers from Seattle to the mountain, as the dragon flies, and I had not been there before, which meant teleporting was out of the question. Fortunately, I had my undead steeds who could ride through the sky.

Even at their top speed, however, the ride from Seattle to the mountain would take six and a half hours. Almost a full day’s work, for a mortal. Sure, my dragon could cover the distance in half the time, but I only had one saddle upon its back, and did not trust mortals to hold on to its bones for that length of time, as the wind whipped about us. Even if my sister wasn’t coming with us, I wouldn’t risk my apprentices on such a chance.

Because of that, I decided that we would leave after breakfast, the next morning. That would also give Aleister time to inform his teams in the field of our plans, and their new orders. Chihomi raised the question about whether or not we should inform the soldiers at the National Guard depot we were coming, which sparked a bit of a debate. A debate that was settled when Eri mentioned the paparazzi.

“I know you’ve probably noticed them with your magical senses, Kaori, but the paparazzi have been following me around, because of my connection to you. They don’t get too close, of course, but they do follow me. Which means there are likely gossip sites which already know you’re in Seattle. And since you’ve publicly stated your intentions to go to the mountain…”

“Ah, yes,” I nodded. “The soldiers will already know. And are more likely to be nervous if they see undead cavalry riding through the sky towards them, since I may have a bit of a reputation in this country. Very well, we’ll call ahead, before we leave. That way, they’ll know to expect us.”

Of course, I wasn’t going to just make this trip alone. That was a great way to encourage someone to do something stupid. Which is why, when we set off the next morning, I had a full cavalry company of my elite death knights riding as escort, and both my dragons, the skeletal one and the dragon banshee I’d captured from the Seal of Shadow, flying above. Each one of the riders would be able to handle a battalion of unenhanced mortals with ease, such was their power. And I had already proven the power of one of my dragons. I expected that even the most bullheaded moron would think twice about engaging me now.

As we rode, I conjured a bubble around us, using Wind Magic, to keep the passing wind from drowning out our voices, so I didn’t need to shout as I gave Eri a bit of an education on the different types of undead, and their abilities. Not a comprehensive education, of course. She was no necromancer, after all, and wouldn’t need to learn all about the undead that she could create. No, I just focused on the types of undead that I had guarding her, demi-vampires and wraiths.

Actually, Eri was an interesting case. Naturally, I’d ensured that all of my family members had awakened their mana, and taken the tests to determine both their element and style. Most, naturally, were suited to the Warrior’s Way, and had a nice array of elements, with my father actually being a Deathsoul. The only mages in the family were little Kaori, and Eri. While my niece had the potential of a Shadowbringer, a Witch with the Dark element, Eri was a Life Sorceress. In a way, Eri was the polar opposite of the necromancer I was before becoming a lich.

Apparently, in addition to the work she’d already talked to me about, looking to make a CAD that could function much as a focus, and a focus that could act much as a CAD, she had set herself an even higher goal. She was actually looking at ways to combine the thaumaturgy she already knew with her Sorcery. As an Archmage, I heartily approved of such a zeal for magic, and so the conversation naturally went that way. The other mortals wisely kept quiet, the better to listen, and learn.

“Combining the magics of different styles is a difficult process. You have the difficulties of translation, of course. A Sorceress does not think of magic in the same way as an Arcanist, and so combining those styles is essentially the same as a translator being able to easily move from one language to another. The more fluent they are in both languages, the easier it is for them to make that translation. Easier still if they are able to shift their thoughts and think in those languages.”

“And there are sounds, and concepts in one language that either don’t translate, or simply don’t exist in the other language,” Eri nodded, excitedly, as she got what I was saying. “Like how Japanese doesn’t have the ‘V’ sound, which makes it more difficult to translate things like the ‘verbose vehicle ventilation vendor’. You have to create linkages where none existed before.”

“Precisely. Since you are a Life Sorceress, I would start your work in trying to combine that with your thaumaturgy in the simple healing spells. Did you have a specialization, as a thaumaturgist?”

Eri blushed. “Well, I primarily was studying attack magic, since, before you popped on the scene, I was considering either going into the military, or doing military research, since they always have the big money for grants and the like. So, I know a lot of attack and defense spells, as well as some utility magic, but only enough healing spells to stabilize someone, or treat minor wounds.”

“As someone who literally spent forty years in the pursuit of war, I can hardly challenge that line of thinking,” I grinned. “Now, the best way for you to advance your goal would be to focus on those healing spells. The fact that you know only the basic ones is not an issue, for this. In fact, I would have commanded you to limit yourself to the basics, even if you knew more advanced healing magics.”

“Because there’s more that can go wrong if I ‘mistranslate’ while attempting heart surgery than there is patching up a skinned knee?”

“Indeed. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to test your techniques on cadavers, like a surgeon in training might, since Life Magic will not work correctly on the dead. You’ll need to do testing on animals before you start looking to work on people with the combined spellwork, naturally. And there will be a great many failures, or partial failures, as you work to balance the two styles.”

“Because they are very different?”

“Indeed. You would likely have an easier time of it if you were an Arcanist instead of a Sorceress, since an Arcanist needs to know the processes of their magic, rather than willing it to be, which would more easily cross over to the thaumaturge’s mindset, but bridging the gap between a Sorcerer and a Thaumaturge should be no more difficult than doing it with a Sorcerer and an Arcanist. Indeed, it is one of the reasons why I believe that I will be able to use thaumaturgy fairly well, once the technological limitations are solved.”

“That’s right, you mentioned that you were studying thaumaturgy from a correspondence course, or something like that?”

“Yes, when I’m not training my apprentices, or working in the workshop, or going around ensuring that the world does not go up in a magical apocalypse. My inability to use a CAD is problematic, but the spellforms are easy enough to understand, once you’ve learned an Arcanist’s magics. Really, much of it can be summed up as nonelemental magic of the Arcanist type, but made both simpler and more complex due to the use of CADs.”

Eri nodded, clearly thinking back to the talks I’d given before. “Simpler, because it calculates much of the variables for you, using a computer program to make things more efficient, and more complex because they use more variables and more calculations for something that you would just… do?”

“Exactly. Which means that, when you’re focusing on healing a simple cut, for instance, you will need to look at the way the thaumaturge would first sterilize the wound with mundane equipment, and then create a suture to seal the cut, before boosting the body’s natural regenerative capabilities, causing the wound to heal naturally, but at an accelerated rate. There is no risk of infection, because you sterilized beforehand, and the wound effectively had a week’s worth of healing in a fraction of the time.

“On the other hand, a Life Sorceress would see the cut, do what she could to sanitize the wound, or work alongside a Death Mage to ensure it was clean and free of infection, before willing the flesh closed and fusing it back together with her magic. It is not ‘natural’ healing, but rather using magic to force things to be as they are told. This has the benefit of not needing so much knowledge or schooling to be effective, but the rather pointed issue of efficiency.”

“Because they ‘waste’ mana forcing things to go against what they would normally do?”

“Indeed,” I nodded. “Learning the way to work with Life’s flows, instead of forcing them to obey your will, is the first step of the path for a Life Sorceress to learn the arts of the Druid, the Life Witch, while learning the processes, and how to manipulate them, is part of the same Sorceress starting to become a Vitamancer. All three branches of the Mage’s Path are linked, once you get to a certain level of mastery. However, because they are so inherently tied to the mindset of the mage, combining them is difficult. Archvitamancers, Archdruids, and Archsorcerers of Life weren’t common, by any means, but they were far from unheard of. However, few mortals ever managed to become an Archmage, just like few mortals ever truly become polyglots.”

“And combining with thaumaturgy?”

“I expect that you will find thaumaturges and arcanists being the ones to most easily ‘cross paths’, as one would say in the other world. However, I have yet to see anyone in this world, other than my own Apprentices, who have passed beyond the Novice stage, and could be considered worthy Initiates. Chihomi does not count, since being a Warlock as well as a Seawalker throws things out of the normal pace of things. Even the young Heroes were only Novices before they managed to survive the rituals. Now, they have power to go with initiates of at least the second grade, but not the experience or knowledge needed to truly claim that status.”

I shook my head, and sighed, as we passed over a city that was apparently Eugene, Oregon, according to a water tower. “Most mortals do not live long enough to become worthy of the ‘Arch’ title, even in the other world. You have too many other distractions that accompany being alive, such as constantly trying to ensure that you have necessities like food and shelter, or the other biological imperatives that come with being a living creature. Which is not to say that there aren’t those who dabble in multiple disciplines.”

Naya spoke up for the first time during the discussion, “Like someone training as both a swordsman and blacksmith?”

“Precisely, Naya! And, just with such an example, a swordsman may learn the basics of blacksmithing, so that he may better maintain his weapons and armor, or possibly even fashion new equipment, if need be, and a blacksmith may learn to wield the weapons that they craft, so that they can better understand the needs of those who will go on to purchase their wares. However, few who put in the time and effort to master one will have time and energy remaining to master the other. And, even amongst those who might be so blessed as to have time and energy to spare, instead of mastering another field, they may instead turn that focus back on their chosen path, increasing their mastery, as there are always new heights to reach.”

“Even for you, sister?” Eri asked.

“Even for me,” I nodded. “There were dragons and loremasters in the other world that would dwarf my knowledge of magic, and my ability in elements outside of Death are always in need of improvement. Even amongst Archmages of Death, there are levels of power in ancient stories that I have not yet reached.

“By the gods, one need only look at the endeavor we’re currently on, if one needed proof. If there was not more for me to learn, then I could have repaired the seals, rather than being forced to cobble together clumsy spellwork to undo them, eventually requiring the intervention of a goddess to ensure things went smoothly. And then, there is the issue of the Unnamed, who no doubt have powers far beyond what I can imagine, in my current state.”

“You do have a plan for dealing with them, don’t you, Kaori?”

I sighed at my sister’s question, and shook my head. “I have a few theories, a few ideas. But without knowing the state of their city, or how many of them there are, and so on, I cannot say for certain what will happen with them. At the very least, I would like to think that my legions and I would give them a far better fight than any of the nations of Earth. Whether that will be enough? I cannot say.”