Path of the Magi (Tales of Tiberius) (22 page)

A few days later Messura was showing Tiberius around the city of Walsingham.  Tiberius had actually been here once before with his father, but Messura knew all the ins and outs of the great city. 

Walsingham was an interesting town.  It was a trade town built on the side of a river.  By boat you could go up to the elves, across the ferry to the city states, or down river to all sorts of other exotic ports.  It had large and very well kept walls.  If an attack was made on the Stewardship proper, this would be the spot.  It was the biggest city near to the border province of Vonair.  It was a market town and vendors from all over came here.  This was the first time Tiberius had seen large numbers of dwarves.  There were also some occasional elflings, leprechauns, and other fairy folk about.  He even saw a centaur once.  Goods of every description were available in the market place. Some goods were of curious origin.  Where, for example, did anyone get ‘Indian tea’ around here?  It was rumored that Alfaran mariners smuggled certain goods from the Old World to the merchants in the Anderheim, but no one had ever proven it.  But then most folks thought it better not to ask. 

Messura’s second home was St. John’s Hospital of Walsingham.  It was a large group of buildings overlooking the river.  The hospital was one of the wonders of the Stewardship.  A series of hanging gardens had been built in and among the hospital, so almost anywhere you looked you were surrounded by visions of beautiful plants and flowers.  Most of the work of the hospital was done by clergy, but there were also lay healers here, and Messura, who seemed to have a special place.  He also saw some Alfaran physicians about.  It was wonderfully restful just strolling about the grounds.  There usually was soft music playing here, too.  Musicians would often stop by, and when none of them were about wondrous dwarf-made music boxes would fill the air with gentle, chiming tunes. 

Messura led him on a tour of the grounds.  “I hear they have wondrous machines for medicine back in the Old World, but I truly believe there is no better place in the universe to be healed than St. John’s of Walsingham.  We expect miracles here and so we see more of them.  The Alfaran lords may have cursed us with the ban, but here they bless us by sharing their knowledge of medicine and healing herbs.  They had been cultivating special plants and herbs for thousands of years before we Sons of Adam even discovered penicillin.  They’ve taught us the arts of curing even viral infections.  Would you believe that back in the Old World they actually drill into teeth to heal them?  Here we re-grow the tooth; we don’t tunnel into it and fill it with silver, like some twisted reverse silver mine.”

“I’ve heard of that, but I’ve never seen it,”  Tiberius said. 

“It’s a frequent problem with wash-ups,” Messura said.  “I see it all the time, people wash-up from the Old World here on our shores and once we dry them off we must fix their teeth.  It can be a bit jarring for some of them to wake up and find their teeth healthy again.  Quite a surprise for some if they don’t see a dentist and only start using our toothpaste.  But I don’t think you are here for dentistry; that is something of a specialty.  Let’s see what is happening in the emergency room.  That should be more in your line.  What is happening is nothing, I hope, but I am always disappointed in this.”

Entering the emergency chamber they found a couple of patients about.  There was a laborer from the town who’d had his hand crushed by a wagon.  A clerical healer was carefully dressing the wounds and splinting the broken bones.

“Can’t you use a spell to heal that, or have one of the clerics call for a miracle?”  Tiberius asked. 

“You’ll see many miracles, here, my friend.  Healing was one of Christ’s greatest gifts, and here he shares it with his disciples.  But we find it is generally better not to rush things.  There is more to an injury than just the physical damage.  A day or two of rest allows the body to take time to work with God’s will in healing most injuries.  It also gives time for the mind to recover from shock and for contemplation on being more careful around heavy wagons in the future.  But what have we here?” he said, observing a little girl who had just come in crying.  Her mother was with her and hardly looked better, but it was the little child who had blood over her arm. 

A nurse led them to a seat.  Messura stopped a moment and turned to Tiberius.  “So, tell me, how would you handle this?”

“It looks like she’s cut her arm.  A cell regeneration spell should handle it,”  Tiberius answered. 

“Yes, I thought you’d say something like that.  I don’t doubt you know the spell, but there is music to play first.  You must learn the art of healing.  There is more to it than spells.  Come, we have a patient to attend to.  I will tell you when to try some magic.” 

Messura went over to the little girl.

“Now, why should you spoil such a beautiful little face by crying?” he said.

“Mommy dropped the knife and it hurt my arm,” said the little one though her tears.

“That’s awful,” Messura said.  “Let me see.  Oh my.  This is terrible.  We will have to do something about this.  This is my young student, Tiberius.  He has been studying some of our healing arts.  Is it all right if he tries to help this?  I will watch and make sure he does nothing wrong.”

“Ok,” said the little one.  Her mother nodded agreement and then Messura nodded to Tiberius.  Ti did the spell as instructed and he saw the cut heal before his eyes.  Messura was not done yet though.  He took a clean cloth, dipped it in water and washed off the wound.  Then he gave her a piece of chocolate.  “Nancy, here, will show you a bit of the gardens.  You and your mother have a nice cup of tea and look at the pretty flowers for a bit.  Then you will fell much better.”

“It doesn’t hurt now.”

“Good.  I’m very glad.  But now you go and rest for a bit; you will feel better still.”

They watched them go and then Messura turned back to Tiberius.

“You know the spell well enough.  But don’t forget that Jesus cried with Mary before he brought her brother to life again.  There is more to healing than medicine, my young friend.  Now come, let's continue our tour.”

They came to a room where an elderly woman was sleeping.

“What’s wrong with her?”  Tiberius said.

“Cancer,” Messura said.

“Can’t we do something?” 

“Usually yes, but not with this one.  Sometimes, my young friend, you will see that God has chosen to call someone to his side.  Then none of our magics or remedies will succeed.  We are not in charge of the universe; He is.  With one such as this, we can only make her comfortable.  She will dream in peace until God is ready to reach out his hand to her.  With her, I can do no more.”      

Messura led him along.  They walked in respectful silence for a time.  Messura led him to one of the gardens.  They stood a moment just listening to the fountains.  After a long moment, Messura spoke.  “Come, we need an antidote to your melancholy.”  Leading the way to another section of the hospital, they came to brightly lit room with beds and flowers all about.  A woman was lying there, obviously expecting. 

“Clairvoyance, properly controlled, gives us an advantage in checking on the health of the littlest ones.  This is Mrs. Shepherd; Emily, this is my young student I mentioned.  It’s her first little one and we’re going to make sure everything is alright.”

Tiberius cast the clairvoyance spell as he’d been instructed.  He was surprised to find himself looking on the face of the tiniest little infant baby, still nestled in his mother’s womb. 

He couldn’t help but smile. “He looks wonderfully healthy,” he said. 

“He?” the mother answered. 

“Oops, am I not supposed to say?”  Tiberius answered the mother’s eager face.  “Would you like to see?”

“Can I?”  She said. 

“If you don’t mind a bit of magic.”  Ti had to think for a moment.  He’d often done illusions of things he’d seen.  Doing one of something he was seeing in his mind's eye was just a bit tricker, but holding his staff he made the right gesture, and then a three dimensional image of the infant was floating above the mother.

The mother gave out a nervous laugh.  “It is a boy.  I didn’t know he would look so alive.”

“The first heartbeat occurs soon after the lover’s embrace,” Messura answered.  “A matter of a few short days.  There are miraculous changes at the very moment of conception.”

“It’s a miracle,” said the woman.  “It’s horrible to think anyone could think of trying to hurt such a creature.”

“Some people are very foolish and never stop to listen to the sound of a human heartbeat,”  Messura explained. 

It was a fascinating summer and Tiberius learned a lot about healing, even more about what he was trying to protect.  The little baby and its mother would hardly make a decent snack for a full fledged dragon, he thought, yet that dragon would kill them both without a moment’s hesitation. 

Alternating between the various lessons in life, academics,  wisdom and magic, the years in graduate school passed quickly.  Ever the most interesting lessons were those Tiberius learned at Dallen’s side.       

“What was the first church meeting to list the twenty-seven books of the New Testament?” Dallen asked in one of their Friday afternoon quiz sessions. 

“That was the Synod of Hippo in 393 A.D.,” Tiberius answered.

“A radical meeting?” Dallen asked.

“Not especially, more of an evolution from the Codex Barococcio in A.D. 206, which included 64 of the 66 books of the Bible,” he said.

“Who convened the first council First Council of Nicaea?” Dallen asked.

“Constantine I.  It was part of his efforts to unite Rome under Christianity,” Tiberius answered.  “The council was convened in 325 by the Roman emperor Constantine I in an attempt to settle the controversy raised by Arianism over the nature of the Trinity.”  

“I see.  And what is currently playing at the Lion’s Theater?”

“I … I haven’t any idea,” Tiberius admitted. 

“No, indeed you haven’t.  You’ve been working too hard, as usual.  You enjoy the theater don’t you?”

“Yes…”

“Music, theater, it’s all part of your education, Tiberius.  You must learn to relax a little bit,”  Dallen said with a sigh.

“How can I, with so much evil in the world?” Tiberius protested.  “I’ve got to be ready.”

“Being a good student is an admirable trait, Master Fuller, but people have been fighting evil before you were born.   They will be fighting it after we are gone.  Face the evil that confronts you.  Till then, you can’t cut yourself off from life.  You must be part of mankind and know them if you are to serve them.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“I’ll have the coach around after dinner and we’ll take a night off.  Till then, we have some time.  There are many effects in magic,” Dallen explained. “Perhaps the most difficult is actual transmutation, actually changing something into something else.”

“You mean actually turning someone into a frog?”

“Exactly,” Dallen continued.

“Is that really possible?”

“Anything is possible with magic.  But transforming the atomic structure of an item requires a fantastic amount of energy.  Just the simple act of turning lead into gold, for example requires reducing the atomic number of the atoms from eighty two to seventy nine.  Controlling that sort of energy is very draining to say the least.  A philosopher’s stone makes a useful catalyst, but even so, it’s hardly an economically viable proposition.”

“How are we going to turn people into newts then?  Illusions?” Tiberius asked.

“That’s one way, but magic has a shortcut for transmutations.  Observe.”

Dallen waved his wand an a small block of lead on the table changed suddenly into pure gold. 

“That’s impressive.”

“Think so?  Try detect magic on it.”

Tiberius did so and saw the gold was brightly shining.  A moment later the magic and the gold faded back into lead. 

“If that had been a real transformation any residual magic would be very faint, if visible at all.  The difference is I didn’t make a permanent change.  I keyed the transformation.  In this case, I keyed it to time.  The harder the key, the harder the spell.  It’s easier to turn someone into a newt for thirty seconds than it is to turn them into a newt until true love’s first kiss.  Either is vastly easier than making a permanent transformation,”  Dallen explained.

“So that’s why if I play fairy godmother and turn mice into stallions, I want to do it until midnight,”  Tiberius considered.

“Exactly.”

“She might have picked dawn.  Most balls I’ve been to don’t exactly end at midnight,”  Tiberius pondered.

“Midnight is easier.  You’re talking about adding six hours or so.  And she did make the shoes permanent,” Dallen explained.

“True.”

“Of course, she might not have transformed the shoes, per se.  She could have summoned and created shoes which actually wouldn’t be as hard as transforming the shoes.  After all, making glass slippers doesn’t involve nuclear transformation.  Just summon, heat, and shape glass.   All that’s much easier,” Dallen said.

“It’s worth recalling that many things that look like transformations may be another effect,” Dallen added.  “You can ‘turn someone to stone’ via accelerated fossilization, for example.  We’ve already covered defense against transformation.  Again, not something you typically try against an experienced magus.  We are usually more concerned with undoing opposition transformations on the innocent.  If you know what the tie is, sometimes you can slip the knot and dispel the magic.  That may not be easy depending on who tied it, how well it was tied, and so on.  Worth a try, though, usually.  You can also try using a dispel with something similar.  Let's say you have a prince turned into a frog until true love’s first kiss, but true love isn’t anywhere handy.  You could try having anyone kiss the frog while you cast a dispel.  I’ve found that works sometimes.”

“What about transforming yourself?  Same rules apply?”

“Yes, recall in The Golden Ass, the unfortunate cast a spell on himself tied to eating a rose as the release.”

“That didn’t work out so well, as I recall.  Though, I suppose if you count picking up women … well, never mind.  I think he’d have been better off keying that spell to time,”  Tiberius said.

“A lesson about using other people’s spells and employing forces you don’t understand,”  Dallen commented.  “You might want to try some of these spells on these scrolls.  I doubt if you’ll find much cause to turn people into frogs, but you should be familiar with the procedures.  You can try a bird or two in the backyard.”