Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 11: Object-Oriented Spellcasting

Toren Daen

I drew another sliver of mana from my core, ideas welling in my head. Lady Dawn had mentioned how a mage would visualize a spell, but her words struck a sympathetic note in my mind.

I had to work to my strengths in this world. In my previous life, I was a rather proficient computer programmer, and was on a career track for coding. And one of the common models for coding languages was being 'object-oriented.' In effect, it made the creation of duplicate objects or entities in programs easier by making a sort of template. All a programmer needed to do was make a 'constructor' that defined core variables, and they had an entirely new object from this template.

If I could visualize my spell the same way, with different variables for each part of the spell, like speed, direction, magnitude, etcetera...

I imagined a template for a fireball, an imaginary Java class file appearing in my mind. I was certain if there were any programmers from my previous life watching me, they'd surrender me to the High Sovereign immediately for using Java instead of something like Python or C++. Regardless, all I had to do was input the needed variables...

I opened my eyes and laughed in delight. Hovering over my palm was a small orb of fire the size of a marble. It wasn't too hot: more of a comforting warmth, something I had tried to define with my spellcasting model. It danced above my palm, not burning me. I knew it wouldn't: a mage couldn't easily be hurt by their own spell. My attention wavered, however, causing the small bead of heat to vanish.

I looked back at Lady Dawn with a grin stretching across my face. I had succeeded in something entirely otherworldly. My Toren side wasn't that impressed: magic was a common staple for him. But the 'me' from earth was utterly fascinated by what I had just done. Magic!

My smile slipped slightly as I noticed Lady Dawn's stern expression. It occurred to me just then that what might be impressive for me was quite small on an asuran scale.

I coughed in embarrassment.

"Impressive for your third time attempting to cast a spell," Lady Dawn acknowledged, but when delivered with her normal dismissive tone felt somewhat empty. "Continue to practice and experiment for a while," she said. "Accustom yourself to your mana. Refine it."

I opened my mouth to reply. When would we be doing physical training? Or honing my skill with the dagger? Toren had some minor skill in hand-to-hand combat and small weapons. Most Alacryans had a measure of skill with weapons regardless of their status. But I held my tongue. Lady Dawn was my teacher here; it was wise to do as she said.

I set to work, testing and trying my limits.

—

I lost track of time as I messed with my magic. I 'stored' templates in my memory as I made them: one for a simple fireball, another for a kind of 'sound grenade' spell that produced a loud bang when a sphere of thrown sound mana detonated.

As I cast my magic more, I also noticed that it became easier to 'input values into variables,' so to speak. The more I cast my fireball spell, the easier it became to do so. Every time I created a small, condensed ball of sound, my mana seemed to respond better than before.

I waved my hand, the motion helping me visualize my spell all the easier. It wasn't necessary: I could technically pull mana from any point in my body and use it to cast a spell, but we humans always used our arms for everything anyway. A fireball coalesced in the air after a split second, a foot in diameter. Unlike my first success, this one burned hot and glowed with heat. It cast an orange glow across the dead leaves of the forest floor amidst the late afternoon gloom.

With a mental nudge, the fireball rocketed off towards my target: a rather tall boulder that stretched from the earth. It collided with the boulder in a small explosion of fire, blowing away a few chips of stone. What part of the stone hadn't been damaged was scorched black, covering previous soot marks.