Sell you a Bridge chapter 300

June 16th 2016 Shadowcrest, Earth -11, 12:00 PM EDT

"So  basically, that's what we're dealing with." I said to the gathered  group of my companions. "There's a ton of the things, but I was pretty  sure Zee had something for this magically speaking. Those quick cast  keyblade spells are damn useful, and if we can learn a healing version  it would not only help us crush the Dead Waters and get to the Keyhole,  it would give us a utility spell to fix injuries in battle later on.  Having four healers would be pretty amazing. At the moment Zee is the  only one who could really fill that role without the keyblade." I  paused. "Well, and me, but Demonic energy is pretty inefficient."

Zee  looked positively gleeful as she bounced to her feet. "Oh! Yes, I can  do that. My Cure spell is super simple. You don't even need a keyblade  to cast it, they just make it easier. I should be able to teach it to  almost everyone except for Wally and Suzie. They have literally no  magical potential at all. Wally's energy is incompatible with sorcery,  and Suzie has been semi altered by lots of magical interference to be  kind of magic resistant. Not enough to interfere with magic weapons, but  enough that she can't cast herself."

Suzie didn't look  surprised. "That makes sense." She said casually. "I've survived plenty  of things I shouldn't have. Being partly magic resistant would explain a  few things. Shame, being able to heal myself would have been nice, but I  suppose John being able to do it will be almost as good. He's usually  there to bail me out when I get in deep shit." She shot him a fond look,  which he returned, reaching across the table to squeeze her hand. Guess  they were still together. That was nice to see.

With that  decided, Zee glanced over to Johanna. "Hey Jo, any chance the old  training studio is still functional in this place?" The older blonde  woman had taken a shine to Zee immediately, probably reminded of her  dead boyfriend who was Zee's counterpart here. The two of them seemed to  have hit it off while we were on stakeout.

The current  owner of the house nodded thoughtfully. "Should be. I don't use it much.  Zachary used to try to get me to train with him more often, and most of  my time in that room was shared with him. I avoid it like the plague  now. Still, that room had self cleaning charms and I hadn't seen any  signs of damage in there the last time I was in, so I don't see why it  wouldn't be fine." She smiled wistfully as she remembered the good times  with her version of Zee, and I felt my heart break for her a bit as I  imagined having to deal with memories of my Zee after losing her. I made  a vow to myself that I would never find out. I'd definitely keep her  safe.

So, with a destination in mind we headed for the  training room, ready to learn some new magic from Zee. Having picked up  the Thunder spell easily enough, I wasn't expecting a problem with Cure,  but for some of the others it might be a challenge. The keyblade  focused and amplified spells, and I was pretty sure it made learning  them easier. Granted my perfect memory helped with that I was sure, but  for the others this might be tough.

The room looked...like  a dance studio maybe? Dark hard wood floors, mirrored walls. It was  more ornate than a studio though, and had training dummies in the shape  of people dispersed throughout. A flick of aura sight showed me  enchantments on the mirrors, I wasn't really sure enough of my grasp on  spell formulas to say for certain what kind, but it looked like some  kind of absorption magic. I was sure it would come in handy in a  training room as long as you were careful. It would also prevent damage  to the room.

We all funneled in, though Wally decided to  stay behind in the library. Despite being unable to use magic (which  apparently happened after he connected to the speed force, because he  swore it didn't used to be a problem) he was determined to read the  whole library, and with his super speed he was working his way through  it even faster than I could. Suzie had stayed back as well, so it was  only the magic users or magically capable in here with us.

Tommy,  Jim, Artemis, Eddie, Kit, Rana, me, Johanna, Taylor, Drea, Sindella,  and John were all ready for the lessons, and Zee seemed to be bursting  with enthusiasm to instruct us, telling us all to line up in an open  space so she could begin her lecture. "Alright." She said happily,  summoning Star Seeker. "Today I'm going to be showing you all the Cure  spell. It's basic magic according to Star Seeker, so anyone with talent  can learn it, but we're going to cheat a bit. I'm going to have Morgan  watch me use it and then try to help me break down the process as it  would look to layman."

I flipped her off. "I am not lame.  You're just a nerd." She rolled her eyes, smirking slightly at the  comment. "But sure, that works for me. I was planning to watch it in  aura sight anyway, it'll cut down on learning time. Go ahead and give it  a shot for me."

Nodding approvingly Zee gave a flick if  her keyblade and announced in a clear and resonant voice. "Cure." I  watched closely as the magic was unleashed, and made sure to study the  process for how it worked. As she cast it, I watched Zee's aura shift.  The basic format seemed pretty simple actually, she created a mental  image of healing and flooded it with power, basically shaping the magic  into that conceptual model. Where Thunder was just 'make a thunder bolt'  Cure was more abstract, and because of that, the mental image actually  manifested above her head, a visual representation of healing that took  the form of a flower over her head sprinkling green light.

Zee  had been right, that actually was an incredibly basic bit of magic. In  fact, it was such a universal format that I would be able to use other  types of energy with it too. I didn't think 'Demonic Cure' was going to  be very useful, but 'Demonic Thunder' sure as hell might be. I made a  mental note to try a few of these new spells with my Ectoplasm and  Demonic energy as soon as I could. It would be an interesting addition  to my combat capabilities. Regardless of how that worked out though, I'd  seen enough of cure to give instructions.

Finishing the  spell, Zee turned back to the rest of us. "Ok, the basic way the spell  works is that it floods you with life energy. The more powerful it is,  the more energy you produce. Overclocking the spell can heal more, but  you have to progress in mastery to increase your range. There are three  spell ranks I have access to, apprentice, journeyman, and master.  At  least that's what Star Seeker calls them. Cure is the apprentice rank.  The journeyman ranked healing spell is Cura, and it heals in a ten foot  radius, but I haven't managed it yet. Cure works on a single target,  either you or someone else. It also takes exponentially more energy to  overclock it, and that scales. You're better off casting it multiple  times if you don't have absurd power reserves or a keyblade to offset  the cost."

All of that fit with what I'd seen watching her  work, obviously finished talking, she turned to me, and I picked up the  thread of the conversation. "Guess I'm up." I said casually. "Basically  the magic Zee is teaching us acts like a transformer. That's  transformer as in electrical engineering not as in Autobots. You create a  conceptual image of the energy and shove power into it, and it converts  it into that type of energy. The image you're looking for is the one  you saw above her head, that golden flower."

I flicked my  keyblade and said. "Cure." The same flower appeared over my head. I'd  been halfway concerned I'd burn myself or something, but apparently half  ghosts didn't register in the negatives on the scale of life force. Or  at least I didn't. I felt myself energized and refreshed, like a good  cup of coffee. I pointed above my head. "That image is the key to what  makes this spell so easy to learn. It's been heavily refined and  perfected to be a perfect representation of healing. Envisioning it does  half the work for you, so make sure to pay close attention to it."

It  was genius really. I watched them all repeatedly try it over the next  thirty minutes or so as I marveled at the brilliance. It reminded me a  bit of Plato's theory of forms. Plato had hypothesized that somewhere  out there, archetypes existed for everything. When you looked at a  chair, even if it was different than another chair, you knew what it was  for the most part at a glance. That was because somewhere out there a  chair existed that was the epitome of chair, and all other chairs were  based on that archetypal chair.

This spell image wasn't  the archetype of healing, but it was someone's attempt to create  something similar. The image just WAS a healing spell. Every line, every  curve, every color, it was all perfectly designed to maximize the  concept of healing, to give your mind a perfect picture to conjure forth  the transformation necessary to make your power heal. It was actually  incredibly scary to watch people split off and begin practicing on each  other and see how fast some of them started to get it.

Whoever  had created this spell was an absolute monster. Sure, it was stupidly  basic magic, but that was because this was the embodiment of 'you don't  really understand something until you can teach it to a five year old'.  The grasp on imagery and magical manipulation necessary to make a  healing spell this easy to learn were worlds beyond what I could manage.  I doubted any of the magic users on earth could pull it off. Madame  Xanadu, Jim, even Doctor Fate. They were good, but this was next level.

It  was why I had been able to cast the spell in a single try. Thunder had  taken me a few attempts, though I suspected if I'd used aura sight I  might have managed faster, but this was a single shot. The image was  visible, and since I couldn't forget it, the spell basically cast  itself. Still, I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. This  was bound to make teaching them the magic easier. Hell, Drea had already  managed to cast it once or twice, the keyblade and her own illusionist  training making the image child's play for her.

Zee walked  up to stand next to me, whistling softly as she watched them all try to  cast the spell. She'd seen Drea pull it off, but my goddess was trying  to get the spell down to a reflex now. Conjuring an image when you were  peacefully practicing was one thing, doing it on the fly during battle  required a lot more familiarity. "You thinking about how fucking scary  whoever made this spell was?" She asked casually. I nodded, and she  laughed. "Yeah, I had that thought when I first learned it. Still, can't  say it's not convenient."

I chuckled and put an arm  around her shoulder. "No." I said with a smile. "No I guess I can't. I'm  going to want to learn more of these. Understanding how they work has  given me some insight into more interesting attack options. I already  know Thunder, I can work with that for now, but how about some training  when we have the time." Zee giggled happily and kissed me soundly,  nodding as she pulled back, and I held her against me, sighing in  contentment. Shit was going to go wild soon enough, but this whole group  training thing was pretty fun. We should do it more often.