Wandering Khaios

Chapter 1

The young mage scrutinized the papers, complex diagrams and calculations for directing magical energy and light. He activated his magic perception, revealing the energy that underlies everything, and makes up around 68% of reality. He turned to a mirror, looking over his face so the illusion might animate properly, from the distinct ears and bright blue eyes he had taken from the Fayre Folk- to the dark hair and clearly human shadow that had grown on his face. Zean Mair was a half breed- affectionately called 'Mule' by those particularly proud of their humanity.

He used own energy to create a path and funneled in the surrounding magical energy- Secondary Magic, casting. This allows use of stronger magic for less use of one's own energy, It is ,after all, the force that pulls stars away from each-other. After a few seconds of directing magic, he bound it to follow his face. The spell he was trying to perfect would let him use a perfect imitation anyone's face... anyone's face.

Zean shut off his magic perception, ceasing the overwhelming flow of information. In the mirror was the face of Master Brennem. He turned his head to view the illusory hair and rubbed it, and it moved, using his own, shorter hair as a skeleton. Trying to imitate his master's grave tone, the apprentice said, "Now remember, boy, good lungs are more useful to a sorcerer than any technique you might happen to learn." He let himself chuckle, going against his half-blood nature.

  He decided to leave the sunlit room and check on master's experiments, deeper in the mountain. On the way to the main lab, he dropped in on other rooms and studied various experiments and odd inventions- he was here to learn after all. Some may lead to something useful, while others were ridiculous- like an enchanted straw that can be used to drink with despite being longer than ten meters. After putting back the plant-based fibrous armour, he turned his head to the most interesting of Brennem's experiments- artificial life.

Currently, 'artificial life' was a wide, waist high glass tank containing a fluid, mostly made of water, but also contained complex proteins other and exceedingly long molecules. The liquid seemed be repelled by the glass sides, the top bulging up instead of dipping down. Its what master described as a 'reverse meniscus'. Using magic perception revealed the incredibly dense magical charge inside the sealed vat. Doing this also revealed that Zean's facial illusion was still active.

"Through this blade," came a muffled voice, causing the startled sorcerer to spin around. Three feet away, stood a figure covered in dark blue robes, only showing grey eyes, and holding a short sword before itself. He used magic to directly manipulate the pencils, pens, ball bearings, and knives in the room, flinging them at high speed- primary magic, slinging. They all got curved in their path, then bounced off the walls with a resounding *clang*.

The assassin went for the heart, Zean had tried to stop the blade, and they stayed there for a few seconds, both parties flinging small objects at each other and deflecting objects into the walls and shelves. But while he had the sword gripped telikineticaly, his assailant had both magic and the physical power behind it. The blade went through his chest. "I continue to cleanse."- the assassin finished the statement

Spluttering blood, the mage casually noted the top-quality blade, inset with complex patterns of blue crystal. The patterns behave like the geometric paths that magical charge takes when secondary magic is used. Unlike secondary magic where casters channel surrounding charge into pathways made of their own energy, the crystals are charged by moving through reality, but relative to the item it seems that the charge is being pushed into it, turning sword strokes into spells. This is known as trinary magic, or enchanting. In this case, the weapon was enchanted to cleanse the wounds it makes... Only one organization would use such a humane enchantment.