The Currents of Magic

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Second, we have the enchantment, again frequently identified falsely by temporal attributes, namely its persistence over long periods of time. The key characteristic of an enchantment is that it continues to channel the Currents, even after a sorcerer has completed casting it.

"A sorcerer first instantiates an enchantment, during which time the Currents flow through her, and then once the instantiation is complete, the enchantment will continue to channel the Currents on its own. Most important to understand, is that since enchantments can persist independently, they take relatively longer to cast, and will deteriorate over time as their arcane imprint decays.

"Third, we have the curse, perhaps most difficult both to cast and to understand. Like a charm, a curse only persist as long as its caster channels the Currents into the spell, but like an enchantment, it leaves a magical mark, even once the caster has released the spell. The unclosable wound is a classic example of a curse. No matter how much stitching or sewing, pressure or compression, magical or otherwise is applied to an unclosable wound, it will not mend. Quite often, a person cursed by an unclosable wound will bleed to death..."

"So how can you heal a curse?" asked Olivia nervously.

"I explained earlier," said Jessica. "You can undo a curse with a blessing."

Adryn nodded. "Curses retain their magical nature, even after the caster has released them, but they do not continue to pull any force from the Currents. Many scholars will argue that because curses maintain results without channeling the Currents, they belong to an ancient form of magic known as Natural Magic, but we will not delve into that topic now. Instead, let us focus the most critical aspect of a curse, which is its ability to alter the magical identity of its target. This means that unlike an enchantment, which will wither over time and can be broken by undoing its connection with the Currents, a curse will require another method to undo."

Meyer raised his hand, his returned magical ring coming to mind. "So for an object to be magical, it must either be enchanted, in which case it channels from the Currents, or cursed, in which case there is no sign of the Currents flowing through it?"

Adryn hesitated, and Meyer had the feeling she knew exactly why he had asked his question.

"Not necessarily," she said slowly. "There are other means of creating magical objects that leave no trace. For example a lifelink, which allows its wearer to sense the location of another person, relies on Blood Magic and leaves no imprint in the Currents... However, like Natural Magic, Blood Magic is a very ancient form of sorcery, and belongs to another discussion."

Adryn nodded curtly, as if dismissing the topic. "Does anyone know how we undo charms, enchantments and curses?" she continued.

"With counterspells," ventured Peter.

"Correct," said Adryn. "As perhaps you have already guessed, hexes, jinxes, and blessings are all types of counterspells, more formally known as negative spells, and each is used to cancel its positive spell counterpart. So while there are differences between the negative spells, they are most subtle, and instead negative spells are usually classified by their positive counterparts: a jinx undoes an enchantment, a hex counters a charm, and a blessing breaks a Curse. Does anyone have any questions?"

To Meyer's relief, none of the other tempests spoke.

Adryn smiled. "Freedom beckons," she said. "I will see you next week, and we shall learn our first hex, along with continuing to examine the negative spell classes. "

The afternoon passed quickly. Meyer met up with Ander, Cade and Damian for lunch, and afterwards they went down to the fields to play a small game of capture the flag with a few other Ajah boys. Meyer found that while he still thought about the upcoming evening, the passage of time was no longer painful. His excitement seemed to have melted away any lingering anxiety, and as he chased his friends and shot taggers, he reflected that the game was even more enjoyable than usual.