Short Stories: A Collection of Magic - Updated Irregularly

The God Shaper

The man sat in a room, alone save for wax figures on crystal shrines and candles with purple flames. As the candles slowly burnt away, the man used their wax to build a new figure.

He shaped the wax and added more and more, and the figure gradually took shape. The wax was becoming mighty, powerful. It was becoming a god.

His gods had helped him many times before, and would continue to help many times in the future. The man was a deimage, a magician of the gods. He believed deimagic was the best form of magic.

As he sat working on shaping a strange new god, memories began to rise to the surface of his mind.

He had been seventeen when he discovered deimagic. While visiting one of the Seven Great Cities he came across a book called The Birth of Gods: A Deimage's Handbook. He stumbled on it, actually. He didn't notice it until his foot attempted to assume the same place as the heavy tome on the stone road. The book barely moved at all, but the boy fell gracelessly forward and onto the cold stone.

For an instant, as he fell, he thought he saw a very tall creature rising away, into the sky. It almost looked like a person, except that it was too tall and had many tentacles as arms and legs - legs it didn't really seem to need, because it was floating away, into the sky.

That was his very first experience in connection with deimagic, and he now sat shaping a new god in that first god's likeness.

It had taken him only a few days, after acquiring the book, to learn how to craft a simple god. He whittled it from oak, in the shape of a bat. Waiting by him when he woke, the morning after he finished whittling, was a shrine just large enough for the bat to look regal in. This time, whoever brought it stayed hidden.

Shrines give gods power and life, but slowly. The Birth of Gods said: "Whenever a god is needed soon, or the deimage is feeling impatient, the devotion of acts to the god speeds the process of deification tremendously. Each action has magical potential, and dedicating the act unlocks that potential." He began to dedicate all of his acts to the god he had created, nurturing it with the unlocked "magical potential."

That was the first god he had ever shaped, but he had shaped so many since. Some he shaped purely out of physical material, but not all. For some, he used an emotion or desire along with the physical material, and he had been researching the shaping of gods from pure magic for a while. He was not yet skilled enough to shape a purely magical god, but he was an impressive deimage, nonetheless.

The book he had been reading told him to wait after the shaping of a god before invoking it. "Wait a while; it will give your god much needed time to rest, or, more accurately, come into existence. Invoking a god too early can deplete the god's strength." The book never really defined what was meant by "wait a while," so the first time the boy invoked a god was about a month after shaping it, and even then only because of need.

One night the deimage heard a noise in another part of his house. It didn't take long to find the source of the noise; a man wielding weapons and a violent appearance looked up from the deimage's more valuable possessions. The thief sprinted towards the deimage, and the deimage silently invoked his god.

A great bat, taller than either man, materialized before the deimage and stretched its wings out protectively. The thief didn't dare do anything other than leave, quickly.

He looked back upon the memory fondly as the god beneath his fingers took shape. It would be a healing god. Symbolism and runes would have to be used to give the god its healing attributes. This god would probably choose to become a Form, he knew. "A god," said the book, "can decide to become one with another god. The two gods retain their separate identities as Forms, but are more powerful in their combined state. The most powerful gods are really compilations of Forms."

After his first invocation, he began to feel a connection to the gods he shaped. He could feel their energy, and knew when they were strong enough to be invoked. He felt the bat god's desire to mark this world he had just been brought into. It wanted freedom.

The deimage invoked the god and gave it freedom. The bat vanished, but the deimage could see what it saw.

The bat was flying through the sky, searching for something. Eventually the god found a poor family. The child was begging his mother for a shiny ball in the store's window, but the dirt-covered mother was penniless.

It only took some of the bat god's power to fashion a replica out of magic, and it gave the ball to the child. Both mother and child were utterly shocked, but the bat had left a mark, and was happy.

For the rest of the deimage's life, he always had a connection to his gods. He could see what they saw and draw on their knowledge and experiences. Even now, as he sat shaping a god, he could feel the bat god and all the others. They didn't divide his attention: they only added to it.

The purple flame of the candle was given to the deimage by the bat god. For days, the god was tired. The flame, the deimage knew, must be a very powerful, magical fire. He remembered when it was given to him: the bat god held out its hands, illuminated by the purple flame. The deimage held the flame, which didn't burn, despite its warmth.

The deimage read about the colored flame in A Deimage's Handbook: "A Flame of the Gods, presented to a deimage by one of his gods, is an invaluable tool. A single Flame can increase the power of the deimage and his gods considerably. The Flame will never be snuffed, even if it runs out of material to burn. As a single Flame is extremely taxing on a god to produce, it is rare to see an early deimage with one in his possession, but as his gods grow, they often produce multiple Flames for their creator. Together, the power of the Flames is amplified and changed, in ways dependent upon the nature and intention of the gods who brought them into existence."

The words came to him as he finished adding details to his new effigy. Runes and symbolic images were carved gently into the idol; they would give the god healing attributes.

The deimage placed the idol on a shrine. He stood and looked at it for a moment, then turned to leave.

A tall, tentacled god floated before the deimage. It held a green Flame, which cast a soft light and shadows on its face. The god stared at the deimage, and extended the Flame. The god looked into his eyes, but the man blinked, and the god disappeared during that instant.

He placed the Flame in a crystal bowl carved with many runes, and he wondered how this gift would gift him and his gods.

Please vote if you like this short story! Comment if you liked or didn't like something, or if you have feedback or suggestions, or even if you just want to say, "Hi!" Thank you so much for reading!