The Power of Ten

“Before I begin, I will ask if everyone is capable of understanding Human? If not, I will stumble along in English as I may,” I announced to everyone.

It was the dwarven Priest of the Order of the Hearth who spoke up for everyone, “Lass, those of us who aren’t fluent in it are learning rapidly, and have the tools to make up for it,” he said gruffly but firmly.

“Very good, Elder Hruunkorv. I have a request of Master Polniebo.” The startled Wizard and Artificer blinked at me in surprise, especially when I held up a syringe filled with an inch of dark fluid. “I would like to draw a measure of blood from you for the purposes of my presentation, before the eyes of everyone here.” I could see his hesitation promptly. “If you are unwilling, that is fine. Moonsister Seleisa should prove just as suitable, if she is willing.”

He frowned immediately, glancing at the elven Moonsister. “This is quite forward of you, young lady.”

“Mmm. It has probably not escaped your attention that I do not have a problem saying things that can change the world.”

The whole table burst into chuckles despite themselves, but his eyes still gleamed. “I will demur to the Moonsister, then,” he waved.

I naturally knew of the rivalry between them, and turned to the silver-haired, queenly elfin, who naturally regarded me with emerald eyes for a long moment before inclining her head. “That is going to cost you half a goldweight, Master Polniebo,” I chided him, to the surprise of everyone there, as I stepped across to the representative of Sylune.

The Moonsister slid back her black-trimmed white sleeve, and watched me as I smoothly injected the syringe into her vein, pulled back and slowly filled a short tube with ruby that mixed and swirled into the black, turning it all dark crimson. She healed the puncture wound with a touch as I stepped back to the podium, making sure to keep the syringe in sight.

I flicked out the gold foil on its stone tablet out of nowhere with Prestidigitation, and laid it on the council table. I also flicked out a page of fine Libram-grade cloth paper, set it over the golden plate, and without much care sprayed her blood and the ink it had mixed with over it as I murmured a Write spell. The blood glowed and aligned itself with the scripture on the foil below, glowing with magic and light as it impressed itself onto the bright paper.

That whole process done, I sent the page floating down the table before her. “If the Moonsister could relate to the rest of the table exactly what that is?” I asked calmly.

Greatly interested, she picked it up and looked it over shortly. “This is a Shards spell,” she said instantly, recognizing the basic patterns instantly. “But there is... more.” Her brow furrowed as she stared at it, working through some of the symbology, and her eyes started to widen. “It seems to allow one to manipulate the basic energy of the spell to different effects?” her voice rose at the end, and she stared at it incredulously. “This is astonishing...”

“If you please, could you pass it over to Master Polniebo?” I requested calmly. She looked at me calmly, saw something amusing was about to happen, and sent it wafting towards him.

He accepted it eagerly, grabbing and looking at it intently. The eagerness on his face became confusion as he turned the paper around, trying to make sense of it, and then uttered a spell to make it legible. His expression darkened as he stared at it, finally looking up at me in anger at being the butt of a joke. “This is complete gibberish!” he stated loudly. “What is this?”

“If you could return it to the Moonsister, Master Polniebo? She would like to add it to her spellbook undamaged.”

He blinked at me, then at her, and reluctantly sent it spinning back to her. Seleisa accepted it eagerly, taking it up and studying it intently.

“To be perfectly honest, Master Polniebo, that page would be gibberish even to me, because it is Bloodbonded to the Moonsister, and she is the only one who can read it.” His jaw fell slightly as I waved the syringe at him. “Bloodbonded ink, magical writings can only be understood by the one whose blood it is written in.” I gestured at the golden plate beneath me. “This is a Bloodbonded Master Plate for the superior version of the Shards spell I am looking at. As long as it exists, the Shards spell I am writing cannot be copied down by any other method. If you try, you will fail, the spell will be expunged from memory, and your Bloodbonded copy will disintegrate.”

All the Casters there froze in astonishment. This meeting was going very differently than they had expected.

“For the low, low price of half a goldweight, I will make you a Bloodbonded page of this spell, Master Polniebo.” The syringe in my hand hissed, cleaned itself up, and I fetched out a vial of ink from inside my vest, inserted the needle into the stopper, filled it with a measure of the black contents, and put the ink away.

He looked at me there with my syringe cocked, and across the table at the elfin across the table. She looked up, met his eyes, and nodded once.

He sighed, and the rest of the table did, too. He reached into the pocket of his coat, pulled out five palm-sized coins, and laid them on the table in front of him with a clinking sound.

A minute later, he was also staring at the Shards spell written in bonded ink in fascination as I juggled the craftcoins and put them away.

“Before you all ask, these are the functional abilities of the common Shards spell.” I flicked the Stats of the spell up behind me in common parlance. “Does anyone need this explained to them?” I asked. The Stats of the spell were known by first-graders, so it shouldn’t be an issue.

They all shook their heads, and then I added the three additional lines to the spell.

Lips pursed in shock.

+1 Shard if auto-targeting changed to a touch attack spell. Spell now has 5% crit chance.

+1 Shard if a full six-second combat cycle without movement used to charge it up.

Threat range increased to 10% and certain damage effects apply per Shard if spell is Weaponized.

The deadly little gnome down the table stood up on his chair for my attention. “Miss Traveler, are you selling this spell to us?” he asked sharply, bright eyes gleaming around his large nose and under bushy eyebrows.

“Per a promise to the Church of Harse, I am both selling it individually and offering sales rights to the Churches of Heaven in return for half the fee. If and when the guilds or Church of Uruth or other parties manage to duplicate the spell by other means,” I lifted up the gold foil on its stone backing, “you only need destroy the master foil, and the Bloodbonding will be broken, and it will revert to a normal spell anyone can copy.”

“An exclusive spell,” Master Polniebo breathed out. “This... this is artistry! Did you design this?” he asked me quickly.

“No. I am Shroudborn. You could consider it something taught me by spirits trapped in the Shroud, not all of whom come from this world.”

That was rather electric. “You can communicate with the spirits of the Shroud?” the grim Inquisitor Torast immediately spoke up from his seat next to Elder Hruunkrov.

“Not yet. But I will be able to within half a year, most likely.” He took that on its face, frowning slightly.

I straightened up slightly. “I also have several other spells which are superior in some ways to the common spells you all are likely using.” Energy Fan, Energy Grasp, Energy Orb, Detect I, Assay I, and several other spells listed up behind me, listed out the basic features, and then the improved versions. “I was going to market these spells as well. However, I am restricted in the number of such spells I can Write every day, and so wondered if the Hall and Churches represented here might not want to procure the rights to sell the spells for a suitable commission.”

The Church members looked at one another with wide eyes. Selling spells that could not be easily duplicated and resold... that was basically a license to print money. And if and when they were finally duplicated, the restriction could simply be destroyed... or retained, if the person on the other end did not want his spells stolen, for instance.

Master Polniebo cleared his throat. “So, what is the price for the formula of the blood-bonding ink, Miss Traveler?” he asked, very respectfully now.

I gave him a quiet look. “That is also a magical formula that can be blood-bonded, Master Polneibo. Needless to say, a few gallons go quite a way, so my supplying those who want to buy Bonded spells is not much of an issue. Now, people who want to use the Ink for other purposes, such as personal spellbooks, are going to find that it cannot be done without a master copy,” I tapped the golden spell plate in front of me significantly, “allowing them to copy their own purchased spells to multiple books, which can also be arranged. Otherwise, they simply cannot be copied at all, without destroying the original.”

“Miss Traveler,” Moonsister Seleisa spoke up after I finished my reply to the very focused Master Polneibo. “This development... could drastically affect the spread and growth of magic, by encouraging people to monopolize certain spells behind the protection of the blood-bond, increasingly restricted who gets access to what spells...”

“I personally know of at least four different ways the bond can be circumvented,” I replied neutrally, which made them all blink. “There is nothing absolute in alchemy. Think of this,” I lifted up the gold plate, “as a copyright, enabling someone who develops a new spell, alchemical formulae, magical item matrix diagrams, or Construct formation to profit from their discovery.

“Such discoveries can, must, and do have a shelf life. I expect the Churches here to come to a consensus on exactly how long that should be, or, perhaps more aptly, how much they should be able to earn before the protection is revoked.

“Furthermore, all such discoveries CAN be duplicated outside the bounds of the effect. If someone learns that Shards can be Cast this way, they can also attempt to reverse-engineer the effect. That is neither simple nor cheap, but it will be done, and will put a shelf-life on even the most clever of discoveries, despite the greed of the discoverer.

“I will tell you right now that there are spells that can discern the complete formation of any spell you see cast; spells that can instantly derive an alchemical item’s recipe; another that can properly discern the entire matrix of a magical item; and others that can completely lay out the formations and nodes of Constructs and Wards.”

They were all gaping at me in shock, having no idea that such spells existed.

I lifted the gold plate again. “Blood-bonded ink only works on writings that are intrinsically magical, but are not spells, such as Scrolls, Symbols, Glyphs, or Runes.

“What I propose is a very simple system, where the Heavenbound Hall makes known that it has come into possession of several spells, and a means for securing right of copy for a period of time for those who discover new magical knowledge, enabling them to profit from their discoveries for a given period of time or amount of coin, after which the knowledge will be made as readily available as any similar discoveries.

“If someone does not want to make use of this discovery, you can either assert that you will personally be doing the research to duplicate the effects... and if I have grown to the point where I can Cast such things, I can basically do so instantly.

“However, I believe that a formal statement backed by the Churches of Heaven will have far more impact than the imprecations of Uruth or Trose. If you set up a basic Valence-centered system for the cost of copying and maximum remuneration that everyone can understand, then all but the greediest will likely flock to your call... or simply state that their research can be bought off immediately for similar prices. Simply put, it will generate a precise value for the worth of someone’s research, which right now is quite haphazard, and researchers poorly compensated or bought out by mercantile dealers who will attempt to monopolize the knowledge, too.

“This will also likely place the White Staves and Moonsisters in positions to have to evaluate all sorts of new knowledge, including some that is likely to be very bad. Furthermore, there are definitely people who will try to parse out their research and attempt to get paid multiple times for essentially the same thing.

“In short, it will take a great deal of responsibility and ethical devotion to handle properly. I’m certain you will all agree that would be best handled by the Uruthimi.”

The snorts and quiet curses that went around the table, complete with contemptuous smiles and annoyed glances, kind of put the lie to what I had just said.