Challenge 6, #1 [GLOGtober]
We interrupt our regularly scheduled posting for this breaking post prompted by this GLOGtober prompt: "Paper minis."
Living Magic Upon Dead Reeds
"A spell is a sentient creature with wants and needs.
A spell can be recorded on a scroll by those who know how to write magic. The spell then stays within the scroll until it is cast out. This is the basis of the spell scroll. The call, in most cases, is when it is read, usually by its writer. In the case of those mutes who sell their voices to write spells (a terrible deal for them, really), the call comes when they ruin a perfectly good scroll by ripping it in half. Brutish, if you ask me.
But what if the call never comes?
A spell is a sentient creature with wants and needs.
It cannot survive on a scroll forever. It must be let out to roam and feed. What it means for a spell to "feed" is still unclear to me, but if it doesn't get out it will fizzle and die, just as we would starve to death.
But, a spell is also a sentient creature with wants and needs.
It is able to think to some degree. It is also able to move all around creation when it is free. When it is within a scroll, that marks its boundaries. My theory is that given enough time, the thinking and the moving make the scroll into something else.
I call them "minis", for they often take the form of an animal. Their official name, if they even have one, is of no importance to me. It is an extremely rare sight, one I have only been able to witness four times in my 50 years of life. The scroll folds in myriad ways into the shape of the spell when it is free. I've seen a gazelle, a canine, a fish, and an insect.
These "minis" move as the spell would if it were free - the gazelle prances, the canine walks, the fish swims in the air, and the insect crawls along the ground. I believe I have been fortunate enough to witness these so many times because, as a practitioner of magic, I often have spells within my brain. The spells in the scrolls must somehow sense their kin within me and seek me out. They must trust I can read them and release them.
I remember my first encounter with one as if it were yesterday. I was much younger then and was making quite a name for myself within the king's courts. I had proven a wise advisor despite my youth and a powerful practitioner against the demons which assaulted us. The king, after one particularly important victory, granted me a small plot of land and a small home. I made but one request: a library. He obliged.
It was in my library that I first witnessed a "mini". It was in the shape of an insect, and like an insect it crawled along my wall and under my library door. I had been preparing an evening meal for myself when I saw it. It was shaped like a beetle, no longer than a handsbreadth in any direction. The only sound it made was the rustle of a page caught in a breeze. I watched it crawl along and slip under my library door.
After a few moments of stunned silence, I opened my door to find the beetle at my feet. Gingerly I picked it up and studied it. I had never seen a sheet of papyrus shaped in such a way. The insect twitched in my hands every now and again. After recording its shape and arrival, I unfolded it. I didn't recognize the spell, but I could read it. I recorded that too before going outside to see what was within it. I read it and a spray of acid shot forth from it, causing the sprayed trees to sizzle and smoke! After that, the twitching stopped, the words faded, and the spell was free.
I am grateful to be recognized as trustworthy among spells. It makes working with them and containing them so much easier. If you ever see a small paper animal, follow it. The spell is in need of help and is desperately trying to find someone who will release it. Maybe that someone will be you."