Path of the Magi (Tales of Tiberius) (16 page)

“That was rather slow; could you sense the intrusion?”  Dallen asked.

“Yes, sorry, I got a bit distracted.  It’s a pretty shade of blue and I’ve never seen my skin change color like that before,”  Tiberius said.

“It’s easy to get caught up in the wonder sometimes.  Let’s try it again and this time concentrate,”  Dallen said.

Again Dallen made a gesture and this time Ti was ready.  Almost as soon as his fingertips started changing, Tiberius felt the change and started pushing back.  It barely got to the base of his wrist before the change reversed and went away. 

“Better.  You’re strong willed to begin with so you should master this art.  We’ll try it again.”

His fingers turned blue for a second then suddenly snapped back to normal. 

“Much better,”  Dallen said.   “You got the trick of it there.”

Tiberius nodded.  “Not so much, ‘no’ as ‘not here,’” he said. 

“Yes, exactly,” Dallen said. 

Again the staff waved and again, Tiberius improved.  His fingers flashed blue for barely an instant.  After a couple of more tries, Dallen nodded approvingly. 

“Great, you have the hang of it.  The other important thing to keep is mind is that as Christians we are filled with the Holy Spirit.  That’s a powerful defense against the enemy, especially in this sort of transformation attack.  Knights who use no magic of their own make that a powerful defense against magic attacks.  Paladins can’t be affected by magic because they are filled with the Holy Spirit and have an intuitive sense that no form of magic should alter their personal space.  Of course a paladin could be hurt by ‘magic’ in the sense that a magician can use magic to summon fire and then fling fire at a paladin. 

“But I digress.  Remember that we are all shaped in the image of God and we can use that knowledge and the knowledge that we are touched by God to further strengthen our resistance to unnatural transformation effects.  Keep that in mind this time.  I’ll change the effect a bit.  I’ll try and alter the texture of your skin.”

Tiberius nodded.  He understood the principle now.  A combination of putting on the natural spiritual armor of God with the leverage that another’s command to alter himself could never be as powerful as he own desires for his own space.  To stay in the form and image of God was simple. 

Dallen threw another spell at him and he easily now shrugged it off.  Dallen tried a few more times.  Finally Tiberius, just willed the attack back away from him. 

Dallen gave a start.  “Good one, Tiberius!  You managed to reverse that spell!  I hadn’t intended to cover that today.”

“It just seemed natural, sir.  The whole thing’s kind of a spiritual aikido.  It’s not a question of ‘resisting’ the spell, so much as using the high ground to shrug it off and let it roll away from you.  I’ve worked with Sensei Okubo on judo and aikido moves so much that it’s perfectly natural to me to redirect energy that I’m shrugging off.”   

“Excellent, yes, wonderful.  You understand perfectly. 

“Not every attack will be that easy.  Experienced magicians won’t try to affect you directly that way.  You can immobilize someone just as easily by throwing ropes around them as trying to paralyze them, and it’s much more effective against an experienced magician as you aren’t trying to play with their spiritual space directly.  Still, you are doing very well.  We’ll try it a few more times. Then we’ll work on forming your basic shield spell some more."

Another early project was constructing a staff.  Singh led Tiberius out back with a large collection of pieces of wood in various lengths. 

“There are various types of magical implements,” he explained.  “For the magus, though, a basic staff serves as a source of power.  It’s a catalyst to your magic.  It helps you draw power from beyond the mortal plane.  Wood is generally the preferred material, but you can use bone or shell.  Sometimes there is some silver or magical materials attached.  Dallen’s is tipped with a silver bird, as I’m sure you’ve noted.  I think Tanyia has one tipped with some sort of crystal.  Length doesn’t matter much, not once you get beyond a meter at any rate.  Still, results vary with the individual.  Some people don’t like too much power channeling though them at once.  They prefer a smaller wand or staff.”

“What do you use?”  Tiberius asked. 

“Depends on what I’m doing.  If I have to fight I’ve got a good long six foot staff with a natural gnarled look.  Kind of my personal shillelagh.  I like to have that feeling of power.  For most applications I use a wand of snakewood.  The rings serve as a natural measuring stick for me.  I prefer the smaller power flow if I’m doing precision effects.”

“You have more than one staff then?”  Tiberius queried.

“Oh yes.  A staff isn’t that important for us.  It’s a tool, helpful but not essential.  Dallen’s shown you the spell for attuning yourself to a staff.  It’s just really extending your energy into the staff, then letting it flow back in.  Here, this is an acacia-wood rod.  Same stuff they made the Ark of the Covenant out of.  Very magical.  Try it on this.”

Tiberius did so.

“How does it feel now?”  Singh asked.

“Good.  It does seem to help energy flow into me.  Not sure about this length though.  It feels a little awkward somehow.”

“You can’t expect perfection your first time.  You’ll want to try a variety of shapes and woods.  There are a lot of types of wood in the world.  You’ll want to do some research.  You’ll need to find a combination of length, wood, and accents that suits your personality.”

Tiberius looked though the assorted shapes which Singh had brought, but he couldn’t see himself using one of these short rods. 

“Could I just use one of my bo staves?” he said.

Singh thought for a second.  “I don’t see why not.  As long as it’s one piece of wood, not some composite or laminate.  I’m not so sure about bamboo either.  Might be interesting to try.”

“What about a bow?” Tiberius said thoughtfully.

“If it’s a good English longbow made of one piece of yew, that would be fine.  But many bows are composites and that’s no help.  The other problem is that the staff attunement puts a strong energy field down the center of the staff.  It would make it a real challenge to draw the bow after you’ve done that, to say the least.”

“I can see that would be a problem.  Lets stick to the bo and jo staves then.” 

Tiberius went and got one of his oak bo staves.  He decided to pick one he didn’t care for that much.  He tried attuning to it and found it worked quite well. 

“That’s more like it.  Yes, definitely something a bit longer, more balanced.”

“Makes sense in your case.  A staff should feel like part of you.  You’re practically part of those things already.”

“Yes, I think that’s on the right track.  I can tell the difference in woods though.  Red oak definitely has a different feel to it than the acacia.”

After a few days of experimentation and research, Tiberius settled on a bo staff made of purpleheart wood, a soldier’s wood that inspired the Purple Heart Medal back in the Americas.  It had been used to make caissons for the artillery back in the American Revolution.  He used a light piece of very hard wood just a shade under five feet long.  The more work a magician did on his own staff the better, Dallen explained, but as he was a master craftsman and Tiberius wasn’t, he wound up ‘helping’ Ti.  Not every magician had woodworking skills. 

The wood was shaped into a short tapered bo staff, 150 centimeters long.  It was two and a half centimeters in diameter at the center, tapering down to two centimeters in diameter at the tips.   Each end was capped with silver, which covered the tips and then extended down one and a half centimeters along the staff.  The tips were inscribed with the badge of the magi.  The edges of the silver caps were inscribed with Celtic knotwork.  Three plain bands of silver were placed around the center of the staff.    

Purpleheart wood was a natural purple color, but over Dallen’s objections, Tiberius stained the wood slightly.  The resulting color looked black from a distance, but on closer inspection the purple color of the wood came though.  Dallen had to admit it gave the staff a very magical color, not quite black but more of a very dark violet.  It was as if the staff had some secret power buried within, which, indeed it did.   

  Dallen showed him how to attune the staff so it helped draw power into him.  This process in turn strengthened the wood of the staff so that in the end it was nearly indestructible.  Reluctantly, Tiberius let Mr. Okubo take his best shot against it with a heavy axe.  He was relieved when he saw that only the axe dented. 

The finished staff was a work of art.  Just holding the staff in his hands he felt energized.  It had such perfect balance that it was a joy to twirl though the air listening to a soft hum as it spun though the sky.  Power naturally flowed though it into him and it gave him a lift whether summoning elementals, or taping it to teleport.  He tried a bit of telekinesis on it and the staff almost flew into his hand, seeming almost to have joy to be there.  It was smooth to the touch.  It felt like it was part of him, which was the idea after all.   

He draped his old rusted armor over some straw and gave it a try against the staff.  He was a little alarmed when he saw how easily the staff punched a hole though his old armor. 

“I used to wear that stuff,” he noted.

“You can’t expect natural armor to stand against supernatural weapons,” Dallen  observed. 

Tiberius tried the staff against some rocks and found that the staff shattered them easily too.  With a few simple spells, he learned that the damage from the staff could be augmented.  The tips would readily take to being lit on fire, charged with electricity, or frozen.  He could freeze the water in the fountain just by dipping the end of the staff in the water.

Over the next year, Tiberius learned many basic spells: basic elemental blasts, a few simple barriers, invisibility, levitation, telepathy, and so on.  Each he tried to perfect to where he could work them under field conditions.  Mr. Okubo paid regular visits and was a great help in perfecting his studies.  What he lacked in magical knowledge he made up for in practical combat experience.

Tiberius walked carefully across the lawn to where Mr. Okubo was waiting with a wooden sword in his hand.  Tiberius was supposed to be invisible, but as he came within arm's length, Mr. Okubo reached out and tapped him with his sword.

Tiberius let the invisibility spell drop.  He was covered with sweat. Keeping the spell up hadn’t been easy.  “Hang it all, why didn’t it work?  Did I get it wrong?”

Mr. Okubo gave a slight shake of his head.  “Footprints.  I could see the grass bend under your feet.  Otherwise it was very impressive.  You even checked the wind so you scent would not carry.  That spell should fool most people.”

“I’ll need to do something about footprints for experts, though.  I noticed that dragon sent a cloud of mist around him when he thought I was invisible.  He was trying to find me by footprints, too.” 

“Try not to walk on grass.  Don’t worry, you are making rapid progress.  In time you will be ready for the dragon,”  Mr. Okubo said.

“Will I have enough time, that’s the question.  There’s a lot to learn here.  A lot of the notes need work.  Most magic isn’t meant to be done under combat conditions.”

“I don’t see what the problem is,” Maci said.  “Can’t you teach him to walk without a trace?  It’s easy!  Look.”

Six-year-old Maci stepped up and danced across the grass, placing her footsteps very carefully.  There was an annoying lack of footprints in her wake, though Ti noted she wasn’t perfect.  Her father frowned also.

“I told you not to read ahead in the notes.  That is too advanced for you,” he said.

“Sorry, Father,”  Maci said, duly chastised.  “I can’t help it; they are so interesting.”

Tiberius was amazed by Dallen’s grasp of the nuances of magic.  It was a subtle art and it was surprising what could affect results. 

Dallen had started one of his lectures in the backyard.  “Interlacing spells is a delicate art, but it’s well worth the trouble to master.  Start with a simple wall of ice for me, will you?”

Ti said the right words and a thin wall of water appeared for a moment, but then it collapsed.  “Blast!  Hang on, I’ll get it,” he said.

“Wait,” Dallen said. “What on earth is bothering you?  That’s the third spell you’ve flubbed this morning.”

“I hate to sound silly, but it’s this shirt.  It’s new and they over-starched it,”  Tiberius said.

“For heaven’s sake put on something else.  Haven’t I made it clear what affects the body can affect the mind.  You should try to wear clothing that makes you feel magical.  A special costume is not necessary, but it could be helpful.  Really any sort of altered state of attire can affect magic.  Some magic even works best with no clothing on at all.”

Tiberius blinked in surprise.  “You’re not serious are you?  Do magic starkers?  Like those old witches?”

“I’m perfectly serious.  Some people feel a kinship to Adam while naked.  You ought to try it some time.  You might find it a useful technique,” Dallen stated.

“You’ve got to be kidding.  I can’t go around town throwing spells in the nude.  They’d put me away!” he protested.

“I’m not suggesting you make it a regular practice,” Dallen replied with a slight touch of exasperation.  “I simply note that it’s something else to try some time if you’re stuck.  Obviously it would be more suited to ritual magic.  I think you should try it once just so you can get the feel for the difference.”

“Now?  Look the shirt isn’t that bad.  I could…”

“No, not now, we will try it by moonlight.  For now just change your shirt, will you?”  Dallen said.

Next full moon found Tiberius in his bathrobe in the back yard, much against his better judgment.  Dallen was beside him.  He was wearing clothes, Ti noted with annoyance.  

“A fine night isn’t it?”  Dallen said.  “Very magical.  Now get that robe off and try something.”

“Like what?”  Ti asked.

“What about a small earth elemental?  You’re doing well with those.  The point is for you to feel the difference.  Clothes make the man and the magic.”

Reluctantly Tiberius took off his bathrobe.  He stood standing naked under the moonlight.

“How do you feel?”  Dallen asked.

“Cold,”  Ti answered.

“Oh, bosh, I know you can control your body temperature.  Try to feel at one with the primal forces of creation.  No staff, no clothing, just you and the cosmos.  Naked I came into the world; naked I depart.”

“The rest of the time I’m supposed to be wearing clothes,” Tiberius thought.  Still, he resolved to give it the old college try.

He tried to feel at one with the cosmos as Dallen had suggested, but he kept thinking that this was a silly idea and that either washing or a wife should be involved if he was going to prance around naked.  He concentrated and gestured towards the ground.  A manlike shape rose and took form.  So far so good.  Wait, something was wrong; what were its hands doing?  It had them covering itself as if to say, “I’m naked!”  Wait, golems don’t wear clothes, he thought.

“Note how the magic conforms to your frame of mind,”  Dallen observed with a chuckle.  A second later the golem exploded into a spray of mud.  Ti and Dallen found themselves covered head to foot in a thick layer of moist brown earth.  Ti noted that Dallen’s glasses stayed completely free of mud, but frankly that only made the rest of him look more earth covered. 

“Apparently this isn’t for you,”  Dallen noted. 

Ti looked over the mud now covering him.  “At least I’m wearing something now.”  That ended the experiment for the night. 

A few days later, Dallen came out into the yard and noted Tiberius working with a much healthier looking golem.  Oddly Ti had on not only his regular clothing, but also a cloak covering his head and a black silk cloth covering his head with a couple of holes poked out for the eyes. 

“What on earth are you wearing?”  Dallen asked.

“Oh,” Ti said, taking off the mask.  “The naked magic was such a disaster I decided to go the other way.  I think it works.  The mask is a bit hot though.  I don’t think it’s worth it for day to day stuff.  I think it might be helpful for ritual magic some time.  I think the cloak and hood is a good idea.”

Dallen walked away, shaking his head.  He had made his point though.

Another time they visited a church in the capital.  The architecture was impressive, as expected, but the minister decided to wax poetic over the evils of magic.  During a late brunch overlooking the sea, Dallen took the matter up with Tiberius.

“Not letting the reverend’s sermon get to you are you?” he asked. 

Tiberius frowned.  “No ... well, a bit.  The man was an ass.  He thinks if anyone even mentions magic he’s going to hell.  For heaven’s sake, he was complaining about a kid’s game that used the word magic in it.  Does everyone that plays Monopoly become a robber baron?  I admit I do worry about what we are doing sometimes, though.”

“Let's talk about that.  It is worth questioning our actions any time they appear to go against the word of the Bible.  Heaven knows the Bible speaks explicitly against the evils of sorcery, witchcraft and the like.  How do we dare call ourselves servants of God when we devote our lives to working magic? There are actually three questions we should consider.  First, what exactly is witchcraft and sorcery as we are warned against; second, is what we are doing actually prohibited?  And, finally, even if what we are doing is prohibited witchcraft and sorcery as defined by the Bible, are there any exception to the rules which would permit our use of it?”  Dallen declared.

“I'm confident that what we are doing can be clearly distinguished from classical witchcraft as described and prohibited in the Bible,”  Dallen continued.  “Even if you want to say it’s not, it’s clear we can justify our actions on the basis of other established exceptions to the rules of Leviticus.” 

Dallen leaned back in his chair overlooking the harbor.  “There are actually a lot of good reasons for warning people against playing with magic,” he explained.  “First off look at Deut 18:9-11.  You can see there that God is warning the Israelites away from the local ‘magical’ practices for a very good reason.  These ‘magics’ were an integral part of the local pagan religions.  Anyone pursuing magic is pursuing pagan deities and not God.  Indeed, that’s one of the classic dangers of magic.  Most witches are gaining their power from pacts with spirits or demons of some sort, and in doing so they are breaking the commandment not to have other deities before God.  Frequently black magic involves using the name of God in vain as well, so there’s another commandment you can be breaking with magic.  There are real dangers here, so the Bible is right to warn us.

“Second,” he continued, “don’t underestimate charlatans and the damage they can do.  It’s rare to actually find any sort of real magic.  Even here in the borders of the fairy country, it’s not as common to find real practitioners of the art as people who would like you to believe they have great powers.  Back in the old country you have practically nothing but charlatans these days.  These are people who prey on the bereaved and the elderly and the hopeless.  They say they can summon your deceased relative every Friday at 8 pm for 50 shillings.  The relative never says anything substantive, only how happy they are, but only a skeptic would doubt the wisdom of the mediums.  These people are con-men who tell you you’re under a curse and extort money from the weak. These people are the mediums, the dream interpreters, the diviners, and the astrologers that the Bible warns us against.  They’re dangerous liars and evil people, and they should be avoided, or, in our case, opposed. 

“There are other dangers,” Dallen continued.  “There are subtle dangers to the soul that come from coveting power.  You also don’t get immunity from the regular rules of human conduct just because you are using magic.  Taking a woman against her will with magic is just as much rape as using a knife or a drug.”

Dallen turned back to look at Tiberius.  “Now the next question you have is can we distinguish our own actions from any of that.  If you are the sort of literalist who thinks anything not specifically approved as a miracle is the work of the devil, you’re going to have a hard time with my answer.  But frankly if you’ve that sort of literal mind you should note that we’re Gentiles and the rules of Leviticus don’t apply to us anyway, so don’t bother quoting them to me.   As Gentiles, we are under The Seven Noahide Laws.  Also see Acts 15:20.

“Yes, we deal in the application of supernatural energy to problems on Earth,” Dallen explained.  “But we do not deal with any sorts of demons and spirits to obtain these powers.  Rather we are using refined techniques to harness the powers granted by God to every man to create 'miracles.' See Matt 21:21, Mark 16:16-18, 20 and John 14:12.  There are many differences between classical witchcraft and what we do as magi; I like to think the most important is attitude. 

“What we do, we do in service of Christ and our fellow man.  That’s an important difference.  Classical witchcraft is all about personal power, making yourself more powerful and important.  We are about equipping ourselves to face dangerous enemies using supernatural abilities.  We believe our best method of opposing these enemies is to make a limited use of supernatural forces to protect our fellow men from these imminent dangers.  Under the facts and circumstances presented to us, it is a reasonable inference that we best serve God and our fellow man by using these resources.  After all we live in the fairy lands and there’s a lot of magic flying around here.  At least it can never be said of us that we violate the two greatest commandments as given to us by the Christ: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like unto it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments, as you well know, Tiberius.” 

Dallen continued.  “I know the devil can work miracles too, but when I see him healing the sick, defending the innocent, curing the blind, and proclaiming the glory of God, then I’ll believe I’m like him.  The satanic bible says there is no difference between black and white magic.  But then Satan always says there is no difference between good and evil, so why should we believe him?” 

Dallen frowned.  “I should note that it is quite possible that we are wrong.  Maybe we are splitting hairs to much to justify doing what we wish to do.  It’s a common enough folly in mankind.  We’re all sinners and none of us are immune to temptation.  Maybe it’s never a good idea to use any sort of magic.  To that I can answer that we may be wrong, but the local circumstances excuse our actions to some degree.  Christ said to the to the man working on the Sabbath in the Codex Bezae:   ‘If thou knowest what thou doest, O man, blessed art thou, but if thou knowest not, thou art accursed and a transgressor of the law.’  I like to think we know what we are doing.  We may be breaking some of the rules using magic but we do so because there are dangerous, magic-using creatures surrounding us in the fairy lands and we want to even the scales on the side of the right and the good.  Tell me, Tiberius, did you join us to keep yourself alive, or out of revenge against the dragon?”

“No,” Tiberius answered.  “If it was just me, I’d take my chances.  But he’s threatening the entire city with destruction.  I can’t just try and avoid him; I have to try to destroy him.  It isn’t personal; I just don’t see any other practical method of defending the town.  I already tried fighting him without magic.  The whole town did.  Next time I want to be able to meet him fireball to fireball.”

“Not an unreasonable proposition, surely.  Maybe there are other ways, but we’re only human.  And for that Christ died for our sins to save us.  I think we can do no more but act to defend others as best we can and rely upon God’s sacrifice and mercy to cover our mistakes,”  Dallen concluded.