“You know, correct me if I’m wrong here, but I was under the impression that everything was copacetic between our two groups now.”
Although Spinner’s tone was nonchalant to the point of being jovial, Mystaria sighed, hearing the underlying dissatisfaction in her friend’s voice. “Lex said that he forgave us for what happened back at the inn with Thermal Draft, and I think he’s a stallion of his word, so I believe him.”
She made sure to say that last part a little louder than necessary, since Lex and Thermal Draft were seated less than twenty feet away, and there was no way they hadn’t overheard the two of them. But while Lex continued to study her spellbook without bothering to acknowledge the conversation that was going on, Thermal Draft raised her eyes from where she was reading it over his shoulder, giving the three of them – herself, Spinner, and Woodheart, the druid dozing lightly near the wall of the cave, having curled up around Littleknight – a gentle smile, clearly pleased to hear Mystaria’s opinion of her stallion.
Spinner, however, didn’t seem to take the hint, keeping her eyes fixed squarely on Lex even as she answered Mystaria. “Right, no, I got that. I just wanted to make absolutely sure that there wasn’t any lingering resentment, you know?” She let that hang in the air for a moment, as though waiting for a response.
When none came, she continued. “I mean, I don’t think that there is, but I’m just concerned that someone else might, since the food our illustrious ally conjured up back in that village was a feast fit for the Queen herself, and this” – she swung a hoof, indicating the bowl of gruel and unadorned mug of water sitting in front of her – “isn’t.”
Mystaria sighed. When Lex had volunteered to use his magic to create food for them all, she’d thought it was a real breakthrough moment. Not only was the prospect of getting to eat such incredible fare appealing in the extreme, but she’d held her breath at the prospect that he might share whatever secret he was using to make the spell – which usually created a meager amount of bland rations – produce such a bountiful output of epicurean delights.
But ten minutes later, when he’d finished casting the spell, her hopes had died a spectacular death when the result of his magic had been several servings of the tasteless gruel and tepid water she’s subsisted on so often during her childhood.
It had been disappointing, and from the look on Thermal Draft’s face the pegasus had been hoping for more also, but she hadn’t commented on it, instead moving to sit next to Lex as the unicorn had wordlessly partaken of the meal he’d made. Woodheart hadn’t seemed to have a problem at all, helping herself without so much as a peep of protest. And after taking a moment to chastise herself for getting her hopes up – knowing that the path to building a lasting friendship was a marathon rather than a sprint – Mystaria had done the same.
Unfortunately, it seemed like Spinner wasn’t content to simply let the issue lie.
“I’m just saying,” pressed the filidh, “that some ponies – not me, you understand, but some ponies – might think that being able to create a sumptuous feast out of nothing, and instead choosing to make a couple of bowls of soggy oat-paste, was deliberately discourteous.”
“I wonder if those same ponies would think that it was rude to complain about the food that someone else made for them,” noted Thermal Draft dryly, her friendly smile having vanished in favor of an unamused look.
“Ignore her,” ordered Lex, the first thing he’d said since he’d conjuring up their meal. “It’s more important that you study the structure of these spells, even if they are inefficiently designed.”
“Excuse me?!” All thoughts about trying to cultivate their group’s relationship with Lex went right out of Mystaria’s head then. “‘Inefficiently designed’?! All of the spells in my spellbook were copied directly from the archives at the Athenaeum Arcane, Luminace’s temple in Viljatown! They’re the absolute pinnacle of effective thaumaturgical construction!”
His horn lighting up as he lifted her spellbook in his telekinesis, Lex flipped it open to a particular page before turning the tome toward Mystaria. “Then explain this.”
Frowning, she stood up and stalked over to him, examining the page in question with a scowl. “That’s the ‘resist energy’ spell. It allows you to imbue yourself and everything on your person with a static level of warding against a particular form of attack – those being extremely high temperatures, extremely low temperatures, electrical damage, corrosive agents, or sonic assaults – chosen when you cast it, which makes it highly efficient.”
“Only when you don’t know ahead of time what type of damage you need it to protect against,” retorted Lex. “Since a significant portion of this spell’s structure is concerned with making it viable against any one of the attack forms you outlined, even though it can only actualize one, that potentiality is wasted if you already know what you’re going to need it for. Case in point, my having Solvei ward everyone here against cold damage before we reached the mountain pass.”
“That was a lucky guess,” huffed Mystaria, glancing at the back of the cave where the winter wolf in question was still keeping watch over the adlet they'd captured.
“It was an educated guess,” corrected Lex, “based on the fact that we were in an arctic environment, as well as having already fought monsters who utilized supernatural cold as part of their arsenal. To that end, a variation of this spell that did away with its multiplicity of potential protection in favor of only being able to defend against a single damage type – such as severe algidity – would be more economical in terms of the thought-form it required in your mental architecture. To say nothing of those scrolls you make use of.”
“Hold on,” protested Mystaria. “I’ll admit that you’re right about how, in certain scenarios, saving on the headspace involved by preparing a variant of ‘resist energy’ that only defends against a single form of attack is the better choice. But the entire point of preparing scrolls is that they’re not subject to limits on mental storage capacity! If you’re saying that it’s better to prepare…what, five different scrolls, each of which protects against one damage type, instead of a single scroll that can potentially protect against any of those-”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” cut in Lex flatly.
“Uh-uh, no way,” Mystaria shook her head. “Maybe it’s different because you use gemstones as containment vessels, but there’s absolutely no way that’s right. And I’ll prove it.”
Digging into her saddlebag, she quickly pulled out an abacus, along with a notebook, quill, and a stoppered bottle of ink. Muttering something unintelligible as she took the feather in her mouth, she quickly began scratching out a series of notations, stopping every few seconds to adjust several of the beads on her counting tool.
Lex, for his part, simply turned the earth mare’s spellbook back toward Thermal Draft. “Keep studying this spell’s underlying components, but only to where you can evoke a single type of protection-”
“Rather than trying to recreate its ability to potentially make use of any of them prior to the casting,” she finished with a smirk, sticking her tongue out at him. “I was actually able to follow most of that conversation, you know. Besides, casting a spell that has the capacity to ward against several different kinds of injuries but can only actually guard against one doesn’t fit well with my style of magic anyway. Since I have to build every spell I cast from the ground-up, it’s easier-”
“Wait, hold on a second.” Her brow furrowing, Spinner made her way over to the pair. “I just want to make sure I understand this correctly…”
Letting out a slow breath, her expression turned serious as she gave Lex a resigned look. “You’re not going to conjure up all of that delicious food for us again, are you?”
Thermal Draft snickered, but Lex couldn’t have looked less amused. “Shut up and go away.”
Groaning, the bard did exactly that, slinking off to plunk herself down beside Woodheart with a disheartened huff.
“You know, there’s one thing I don’t understand,” admitted Thermal Draft as she turned her attention back toward Mystaria’s spellbook. “See right here?” She pointed to a spot on the page of the resist energy spell, taking the opportunity to move closer to Lex as she did so, not stopping until their sides were touching. “This part about how, during the casting, the dispersion of energy should be layered rather than disjointed…what does that mean?”
Lex barely had to glance at the passage before answering. “It’s a method of making the spell offer a greater buffer against damage than it normally would, without having to pour more energy into it. Essentially, it has you build the ward in overlapping layers rather than a single barrier, giving it enhanced durability.”
“Oh!” Drafty’s eyes lit up in understanding. “So it’s like how the clouds that form the foundations of Cloudsdale are made with extremely dense nebulosity, right?” She gave a wistful smile then. “I remember how Cloudy would talk about that all the time, since her special talent was being a cumulo-architecture. I’d tease her whenever she brought it up, saying that there was already a really dense Cloudbank right in front of me. She’d pretend to get mad, but I could always see her fighting not to smile…”
She looked down then, her smile diminishing, but it never occurred to Lex to console her. Instead, he found himself suddenly uncomfortable, the anecdote reminding him of the liaison they’d had two days prior. The fact that Thermal Draft had seated herself so that her flank was pressed against his own even as she pined for her beloved did nothing to help the confusion and guilt he felt with regard to what had passed between them, leaving him unsure how to react to her.
“Just…study the spellbook,” he muttered at last; just like when they’d set out from the inn, there were more important things to focus on right now. “Figure out how the spell’s basic mechanics work, and focus on the advanced casting techniques later, when you’ve-”
“I don’t believe it!”
Mystaria’s shocked exclamation was punctuated by her putting her abacus down, the beads on the wooden racks clattering loudly in the silence. But the earth mare in question didn’t seem to notice, instead staring at her notebook with a wide-eyed expression before turning to look at Lex.
“You were right,” she breathed. “I triple-checked it just to be sure, and it’s true; if you use the minimum power necessary during the storage process, then creating five scrolls – each one with a variation of the resist energy spell that’s keyed to a single damage type only – is more efficient, and less costly in terms of construction materials, by a factor of sixteen-point-six-seven percent, with no reduction in overall protection, duration, or any other variable that I can come up with!”
“Obviously,” snorted Lex, though inwardly he was relieved at the change in topic. “And since you didn’t seem to realize it before, that’s true regardless of the medium used to store those spells in.”
But Mystaria didn’t even notice the condescending language, her mind still whirling with the possibilities of what she’d just learned. “This is revolutionary! Do you have any idea how much this will save our temple on construction costs for those scrolls?! And it’s not just for the basic spell forms! Modifications that allow for them to be used on multiple people, both with subdividable and full durations, will also follow the same principle! The savings will be astronomical; thousands of gold pieces per year! We-”
“I think what you’re trying to say,” interrupted Thermal Draft, her melancholy attitude having vanished in favor of mild smugness. “Is ‘thank you.’”
Blushing, Mystaria nodded, her expression still giddy as she grinned at the two of them. “Yes, thank you! Thank you very much! And please tell me if you think anything else in my spellbook is inefficiently designed!”
Slightly nonplussed, Lex raised a brow, glancing inquisitively at Thermal Draft, who giggled and nodded.
Mentally shrugging, he turned to another page and showed it to Mystaria. “Since you asked, the composition of this one is also less than ideal…”