There were no doors to the Crystal Room, so I had to teleport in. This was the one exception to our rule against teleporting on the ship. With the lack of discipline about using the exercise room, I wanted everyone to walk as much as possible.
I arrived in the room alone; most of the others were asleep by now and I did not want to bother them. I activated the sphere and waited. I was unsure how much time passed while I waited. I spent it thinking over the day’s events and worrying about the next day.
“Hello, Master Vydor,” came a distinctive voice from the ball as Mantis’ face appeared in it.
“Hello, Mantis, there have been some developments here since we spoke last. I had better fill you in on those first, and then I would like you to send me some training materials for new Magi.” I then proceeded to tell him about the situation with Terathan XV, Rannor and the upcoming wedding.
He listened very thoughtfully to everything without any comment or reaction. When I finished he just sat there a moment then said, “Very interesting turn of events.” Then he appeared in the room in person and took one of the chairs across from me. “I suppose the first thing I should say is congratulations,” he said with a big smile.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Vydor, I am a bit worried about you. You and the others are skyrocketing up the ranks of power at a phenomenal rate, and now you are taking on a prospect? I spoke with the Council about your growth and they assured me that this was the way it had to be, so I have said nothing until now. But with Rannor coming on board, I think it is time to address this,” he said.
“It does not feel like phenomenal growth. I feel as though we are only little children trying to compete with gods some days,” I said.
“All seven of you have surpassed wizards with twenty times your experience; it’s just that your perspective is skewed because you only know high-level wizards. For example, look at your fight with Larath. You overpowered him easily, and I know that you have at least tripled your strength since then,” he said.
“Overpowered him? Hardly. I crudely bashed him on the head with a fancy stick,” I said.
“You see, that is exactly what has me worried. You used a great deal of power and did not even notice it,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, remember the scene Andreya showed the Emperor in which one of the Seven defeated your Dark Knights; how he stood there completely immune to all the weapon fire around him?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“That was the grandmaster of the sorcerers. He was upset that the Dark Knights were winning that fight. They proved to be far more powerful than the sorcerers had guessed, and if not for his arrival the Dark Knights might have successfully taken control of that colony,” he said.
“Really? I had not realized that,” I said.
“Yes, but the point is: Did you notice how the grandmaster did nothing to stop the weapon fire, it just had no effect on him? That is what is known as a passive energy field. He was so wrapped up in power that those attacks were insignificant in comparison and were just absorbed,” he said.
“That is very impressive, but what does that have to do with Larath?” I asked.
“Larath had a shield up to block you that, had you been a mundane person, would have made him completely invulnerable to your staff blow. He thought he was safe because he did not think you would blast him with your staff because of the risk of hitting the people behind him. But as you approached him, do you remember the look of fear on his face? Yes, I was watching the whole thing take place; it was too important not to. But do you remember the look? As you closed in on him he could see the power building in you. By the time you swung your staff, you had so much power behind that swing that ten Laraths could not have stopped it.”
“Surely you cannot be right. I mean, I did not call on my powers, at least I do not think I did.” I was trying to think back to what precisely had happened.
“You see, that is exactly why I am concerned. If you can bring forth that level of power without meaning to, I worry that unintentionally you will start forcing your will on situations when you know you should not. For example, bargaining with the Emperor for a ship,” he said.
“Now wait a minute, Mantis, I know I did not use any power on him, … ” I began.
“No, you did not. But if you can kill Larath with your powers unintentionally, what is to stop you from unintentionally doing other things?” He just left that comment hanging, and I had no answer to it.
Eventually I said, “Nothing, I suppose.”
“No, not nothing. One bright spot in your news is your marriage to Kellyn. She is a great stabilizer for you. You will have to learn to control this intensity of yours, and turn it into a powerful weapon against the sorcerers. You merely have to accept that it is an issue and decide to fix it. Everything to do with our art centers on willpower, and you have that in great abundance. Make it work for you instead of you working for it,” he said.
I thought about that a long while, and then said, “I understand, and will work on it.”
“Now, about Rannor. That is a most interesting development, and while I do not think you are ready to start training others, you cannot just leave him to himself. Ready or not, you must train him. In this box are all the entry-level books that we use in our schools. Vydor, understand that it will probably take him fifty or sixty years to reach the level you have already reached in your more basic powers. I do not understand why you are all growing so fast in power, but the Council continues to assure me that this is the way it must be,” he said and placed a small box on the table. I knew better than to open it here, as it would be much easier to carry all the books he had somehow stuffed inside it while they were still in that tiny box.
“Well, as long as those materials give us fair expectations for him, however long it takes is however long it takes,” I said.
“As for Terathan XV, this is news to me and I will have to investigate at our end. We might have underestimated their ability to recover from their last loss here; we did not expect them to make a showing for at least another year. I will contact you about that when I know more, but not tomorrow. Tomorrow you need to give completely to Kellyn.” And with that he left. I wondered if I would have a heart attack if he ever actually made an attempt at a goodbye.
I took the box down to the library and left it on an empty shelf to deal with another day. Right now, I needed to get some sleep.
I lay there in my bed a long time just thinking about what Mantis had said. I slowly opened my mind to the power that I had and could see the swirling energy around me. Mantis at one time called me a spellweaver. He also said my natural talent for seeing magic meant I worked directly with the energy in its purest form. While most wizards had to convert the energy into something else to use it, such as fire or electricity, I could weave the power itself.
Something else he had said at that time had not hit home until now. He said that all the grandmasters were spellweavers, and because of it they dominated any battle they were involved in. As I looked at the amount of power that flowed around me, I finally accepted my fate and embraced it. I was truly grandmaster of this realm.
When I did that I felt something shift. It was as if the scales of the universe tipped slightly from darkness towards light. Yes, that was it: the balance of power in this realm had just changed for the better. Hope and confidence welled up inside me as I realized this, and I was finally able to get some sleep.