Letters The First Law and Other Sundries (Ava Gilleth)

[Harrier]

To Ava Gilleth, sometime court sorceress, master of the elements: greetings.


I write to you in the interest of broadening my horizons. I've heard of you in my travels, and perhaps you've heard of me.

More than any other Law of Magic, the First poses an ongoing problem for me. Some forms of magic have natural sacrifices attached: mimicry, for example, or pyromancy, or blood magic. My speciality only has natural sacrifices in specific and brutal circumstances. I'd like your advice on non-traditional sacrifices, avenues I could use to empower my work.


Harrier Wren, formerly a Maester of Elbion
Crossroad Mire
Bayou Garramarisma

 

[Ava Gilleth]

Dearest Harrier Wren,

I was greatly humbled to receive your letter. I have indeed heard of you. I must tell you that Elbion made a great mistake in casting you out, but men are always threatened by women who have proven themselves far greater. The gift in them casting you out is your freedom. Freedom to progress your power in whatever way you see fit.

The First Law has always been problematic, though when dealing with the elements it is a little easier to transgress. I can draw energy from one element to manipulate or generate another. One feeds into the other, which is of great convenience. I am, however, a creature of curiosity and have recently begun changing the price I pay in some circumstances. I recently used my own blood to draw a line of fire. It was effective, but impractical on a grander scale.

I wonder, for your speciality, if life aura's would serve your needs. A word of caution though, Madam Valkrey speaks of the impact they can have on one's body. I imagine, in your profession though, this is a cautionary tale you have heard before.

Yours sincerely,
Ava Gilleth
Alabyad Palace
Ragash

 

[Harrier]

Ava Gilleth
Alabyad Palace, Ragash

Master Gilleth,

My thanks for your prompt answer. It revealed what I had suspected: that our preconceptions misalign in ways that may benefit us both. What seems obvious or passé to you is relatively new to me. I've been known to draw energy from surging waves as a power source, but you hint at a more systematic and generalizable understanding.

Conversely, your thought about draining life forces in whole or in part describes certain necromantic practices (e.g. killing a man as a sacrifice to raise him to undeath). The great challenge here seems to revolve, unnervingly, around intent and consent. The First Law would not allow me to kill two targets, one by draining life and the other by some use of that accumulated power -- not without supplying additional energy. Unless, of course, the drained man is a willing sacrifice...or unless his death is a purposeless byproduct.

Your thoughts?

Regards,
Harrier Wren
Crossroad Mire, Bayou Garramarisma

 

[Ava Gilleth]

Harrier Wren
Crossroad Mire, Bayou Garramarisma

Dear Harrier,

My deepest apologies for the delay in my reply, Amol-Kalit is proving to be an interesting and far greater challenge than I originally anticipated. I shan't bore you with the intricacies of the court though.

It is intriguing that the willingness of a sacrifice would have a part to play in the power that can be drawn from them. Is it possible to find such willingness without a certain level of deceit?

The legend of the shattered eye tells us that there is a possibility of storing mana in a way that would allow us, for a time, to be able to forgo the price we must always pay. There was, many years a ago, a mage who sought to recreate such things, but when Elbion caught wind of it she was killed and much of her research lost, a pity really. Terrible as the cost of such things may have been, she was a good friend.

In fact, in true Elbion fashion, her name was eradicated from most records, if any of Tabatha's work remains, it'll be locked deep in the college. May be worth a trip, if you can afford to take such risks.

Regards,
Ava Gilleth
Alabyad Palace, Ragash

 

[Harrier]

Ava Gilleth
Alabyad Palace, Ragash

Ava,

A willing sacrifice without deceit is a rare bird, it's true, but not to that extent in my experience. For one thing, such sacrifices do not always need to be of a crippling or lethal scale. For another, self-sacrifice can be quite natural depending on the relationships involved. I often draw strength from a willing participant to summon the spirit of a family member. That informed, self-sacrificing dynamic can scale up to lethality in some circumstances.

Deception has its place, of course.

I confess I hadn't heard much of the legendary Shattered Eye since my exile from the Foard of Maesters. I had to reexamine my reference library to refresh myself on the particulars. A trip to the College's restricted section is out of the question, but I was a full Maester before I left, and I do remember reading some of Tabatha's fragmentary work. I would love to know your impressions of her as a person.

Harrier Wren
Crossroad Mire, Bayou Garramarisma

 

[Harrier]

Ava Gilleth
Alabyad Palace, Ragash

Ava,

I wrote in haste and neglected to explore some items.

Your mention of the Shattered Eye and Tabatha's work reminds me of other extant, shall we say, workarounds for the First Law.

At the Bayou Garramarisma, visiting and resident practitioners have the option to contribute a small daily sacrifice (generally a few drops of blood) into a shared pool of banked strength, specifically a cauldron. Per the Second Law of Magic, this reservoir fades fractionally over time, so we draw from it on important occasions rather than saving it for true emergencies. Participation grants access. Our approach could easily be adapted to a city-wide worship of sorts: a tiny daily sacrifice by many, contributing to a reservoir that would benefit all. A mage in control of such a reservoir would likely pay no personal cost, though a hubris-related backlash is always a possibility. For example, the use of such a thing would probably cause dependence, even weaken the mage if they go elsewhere than their city-seat of power.

Just a thought.

Harrier Wren
Crossroad Mire, Bayou Garramarisma

 

[Ava Gilleth]

Harrier Wren
Crossroad Mire, Bayou Garramarisma

Harrier,

From a professional point of view, Tabatha was something of a nightmare. She was never satisfied, always seeking more power, chasing myths and legends across Arethil. She was revered by some and feared by others, but such is the life of a mage powerful enough to rise into legends of their own. She became obsessed with the shattered eye and in my youth, I was eager to run alongside her with these wild dreams of forgoing the price of magic.

On a personal level, she was as stubborn as a mule and what I would call a reluctant friend. She maintained an air of aloofness and nonchalance towards other people, but gods forbid anyone who harmed or threatened harm to those she did care about. Still, her obsessions got the better of her. Hubris will always be the downfall of a mage oblivious to their own weaknesses.

In regards to your second letter, the sacrifice you describe is similar to what I know of Divine magic. Divine magic, is however restricted to a single deity and a single line of power. A group blood bank, i assume allows for more freedom in the magic you can practice. The idea of being restricted and dependant on one place is somewhat unsettling. Perhaps there is a way to replicate this, but on a much smaller and more transportable scale.

What do you think?

Ava Gilleth,
Alabyad Palace, Ragash

 

[Harrier]

Ava Gilleth
Alabyad Palace, Ragash

Ava,

I think your comparison to divine magic is entirely correct. Since what we've discussed is theoretically possible and consistent, I strongly suspect divine magic is just one way in which the principles we've discussed can be enacted.

For clarity, let's posit an arbitrary standard cost/sacrifice X that a given mage can use to power a significant given spell. Let's also posit some lesser cost/sacrifice, say one percent of X, that anyone can offer, either willingly or coerced. 100 such contributors would give the mage the power for the spell in question, once a day. That's quite a reasonable scenario, isn't it - perhaps even portable, as you suggest.

Now imagine a city of 100,000 doing so. A thousand 'free' spells a day, yes? It's conceptually perfect. But nature abhors loopholes. I've done further research in Crossroad Mire's library since my last letter, and I'm convinced that this was the exact train of thought that led to the destruction of Valen during the creation of the Shattered Eye.

I assert that, in theory, they could have turned themselves into gods. I see no distinction between what we're discussing and divine magic.

I also assert that the Valen experiment would likely have succeeded if the scale was less ambitious. Incremental increases could be most instructive.

It brings great hilarity to my heart that the cauldron at Crossroad Mire is a very, very minor reflection of the exact principles that created the Shattered Eye. I suspect our cauldron works sans apocalypse for two reasons: scale, and the active, consenting participation aspect. Put another way, the Valen experiment might have worked if, instead of attempting a life leech effect (which, as we've discussed, rides a VERY fine line between action and action's price), the mages had simply asked each citizen to give a drop of blood a day or some such. An actual price would have been paid.

It's sobering to think, but the Valen experiment might also have worked if the mages hadn't considered the citizens' welfare an acceptable sacrifice.

But anyways, back to portability.

Harrier Wren
Crossroad Mire, Bayou Garramarisma

 

[Harrier]

Ava Gilleth
Alabyad Palace, Ragash

Ava,

I had an idea that might interest you.

I wrote up a massive logical construct and then found a flaw that obviated all of it. However, it got me thinking about the potential benefits of partnership.

Let's return to the example of draining one man's life to kill another. The cost of the second man's death is human sacrifice, of course, so long as the first man's death does not benefit me other than as a sacrifice

But nothing says it can't benefit you.

Excuse me if I call this theoretical spell Harrier's Four Barbarians.

Imagine each of us has fallen in a different pit in the Forbidden City. Each of us faces two barbarians - four in total. The barbarians attacking you are no threat to me, and the barbarians attacking me are no threat to you. That is, killing a barbarian in front of me will not benefit you and therefore counts as a true sacrifice. For the sake of the thought experiment, neither of us has any option for procuring energy, so I have no energy to kill a barbarian attacking me.

My two barbarians attack me. Draining one barbarian's life for the strength to kill the other would violate the First Law, since the drain would be an attack, not a cost. Instead, I reach out and drain the life from one of the barbarians attacking you - a human sacrifice that doesn't lose its sacrificial quality by directly benefiting me. I use that energy to kill one of the barbarians attacking me.

Two barbarians are now dead: one in my pit and one in yours.

You do the exact same thing.

All four are now dead, two from a sacrificial life drain that wouldn't have been possible if we'd each focused on our own enemies. We've dished out four barbarians' worth of death for no actual cost worth the name.

Again, this would only work if there's a true separation between the threats or problems we face. The First Law doesn't tolerate wink-wink, nudge-nudge, especially when this experiment already approaches - but does not cross - the violative line.

Harrier Wren
Crossroad Mire, Bayou Garramarisma

 

[Ava Gilleth]

Harrier Wren,
Crossroad Mire, Bayou Garramarisma

Harrier,

Portability is something I have been mulling over. Amulets and rings are common among mages, but my concern is that blood is not an easy thing to contain, lest there is a stone that can absorb it. Another concern is that were are limited, though perhaps rightly so if Valen is the example to remember, by the amount we can carry in such items.

Your theory of partnership is genius, if a little impractical. As you have said, standing shoulder to shoulder makes this practice difficult as the draining of an enemies life that threatens both of us would not be considered sacrifice. Then there is the added impracticality of distance. For example, I could not drain a life here to benefit you in Crossroad Mire without some direct link of communication. Thus far the only people I know to have succeeded in such things is the Mysael caste of the Aeraesarian elves and they do so with the help of the Seilal Mynsyrn.

Consider this, the Seilal Mynsyrn has a network, and it is this network that allows the elves to commune telepathically across great distances, so long as they have a shard of stone upon them. It may be possible to replicate the network, instead of something as complex as that though, we could simplify it by creating a simple connection between two items, let’s say staffs for example.

If your theory proves to be correct, then the partnership need not be between people, but between two magical items capable of draining life upon command. They would need to come into physical contact on occasion to keep the bond solidified and there is of course the problem of finding or creating the right material for such things.

We are, however, my dear Harrier, very close. Come to Ragash, I’ve a seat as a Vizier to the Emperor and access to a pool of resources that would be of great use to us. I would very much like to meet you in person and see if our theories are correct.

Regards,
Ava Gilleth
Alabyad Palace, Ragash

 

[Harrier]

Ava Gilleth
Alabyad Palace, Ragash

Ava,

To your first point, nothing says the blood (assuming we go with blood) needs to remain liquid or even remain at all, as with a knife or needle. Other sacrifices than blood could open different doors. Consider a bottle of tears, or a growing rope of hair. Anything that a person values can be sacrificed.

Pride, for example.

Since our last letter I've constructed a minor prototype based on that idea: the silver ring that I've enclosed for you. When someone bows or kneels to kiss the ring, that constitutes a sacrifice of pride. The prouder and more resistant they are, the better. (For practicality's sake, their actual lips don't actually have to make contact with the ring. It's the thought that counts.) They don't even realize a sacrifice has been made, because the ring doesn't draw from their blood or pain or life force or anything like that. And while the Second Law applies, it will only deplete the charge slowly, allowing you to bank up small amounts of power.

The ring has performed well in basic testing but I suspect, considering your environment, you'll get more use out of it than I would. Let me know how it holds up.

I'm still pondering your thoughts on duality and will have something practical by your next letter. In the meantime, know that I performed the Four Barbarians experiment with two hedge-witches and four poisonous snakes, and it worked much as anticipated other than everyone involved getting bitten. I consider this an absolute win.

I appreciate and reciprocate your invitation. I've visited Amol-Kalit several times - Mardiakhor and the Forbidden City, primarily - and will certainly come to Ragash at some point.

Harrier Wren
Crossroad Mire, Bayou Garramarisma