“Gates use sigils to connect clusters of enchantments together.”
“Sigils? Can’t you just use enchantments on a larger scale?”
“Different craft, different principles,” Martel Wheeler said, his voice dismissive.
Ori had spent almost six hundred days in the Soul Garden now, or six days outside, and in that time he’d learned pretty much everything he needed to know about making Void Storage Rings, including the advanced versions with soul-bound enchantments, plus a myriad of variations and enchantment modifications that could apply to far more than rings. In addition, Martel Wheeler, the Arch Enchanter and one of the foremost figures in enchanting from the previous era, had plenty of tips and tricks to teach Ori about forging, troubleshooting, decoding, and cracking existing enchantments. He showed him everything from assessment enchantments designed to read and test other workings, to techniques and spells for dismantling and rebuilding them safely, including two that were learned sufficiently well enough to feature within the outer circle of his spell constellation:
Spell: Lesser Emboss
Type: Active, Enchanting, Utility
Characteristic Requirements: Intelligence: ≥500, Wisdom: ≥200,
Other Requirements: Enchantment-related class
Effects: Allows the user to rapidly undo an enchantment.
Description: Lesser Emboss is a fast enchantment dismantling spell. Upon use, the user floods an existing enchantment with mana to “raise” its engraved runes, forcing the inscriptions to invert and collapse. Quick and reliable on simple work, it’s ideal for stripping basic warding, disabling traps, or breaking simple enchantments, even in combat.
Notes: Works best on shallow, physical engravings and standard runework. Complex or soul-bound enchantments and hidden failsafes can resist or rebound upon unsuccessful attempts.
Spell: Focused Appraisal
Type: Active, Divination, Perception
Characteristic Requirements: Wisdom: ≥20, Intelligence: ≥25, Perception: ≥300
Other Requirements: Fate-related affinity and an Enchantment-related class
Effects: Allows the user to isolate and read specific parts of an enchantment.
Description: Focused Appraisal is a non-destructive divination spell used to inspect specific parts of an enchantment. By narrowing the appraisal to a single layer or effect, it can help the user identify errors, decoys, traps, or weak points before attempting to modify, dismantle, or copy inscriptions.
Notes: Anti-divination measures, decoys, and deliberate misdirection can still mislead the user.
Martel continued. “You know enough about high and arch magic to know that while there are similarities, there are also firm boundaries. Engrams, runes, and sigils are not interchangeable, Ori boy. Where one may work, another might not, and vice versa. Talent and comprehension in one won’t make up for ignorance and incompetence in another. While you might know enough to fiddle with gate enchantments to be a danger to yourself and anyone unlucky enough to be near you, without Sigilcraft, you’ll never be able to make gates. Here. Study this primer on wards and sigils, so I know you’ll have at least some sense of what you don’t know when you leave this place.”
“Thank you,” Ori said gratefully as he accepted the book, a construct of the Soul Garden that permanently imparted knowledge he could later review, though to a lesser degree, after reading the full volume once inside. However, with Freya’s imparted spell, Learn by Heart, his enhanced Wisdom and Intelligence, and the Vision of the Progenitor, reading and memorising the volume was far easier for him than it would be for most.
Time was closing in. Over the last day, Ori had been wringing the old man for all he was worth before his self-imposed deadline of seven days came to pass.
“So… enchantment runes, these sigils, and spell engrams, don’t they all come from the same source?” Ori asked. “I mean, they all shape mana in some way, so why is the form for the same effect so different in a spell compared to an enchantment?”
“I don’t know. What I do know is it’s for the best that it is,” Martel mused.
“How do you mean?” Ori asked, frowning.
“Everything in this life can be countered, Ori boy. Runes of mana nullification that would defeat spells won’t affect sigils. Spells that externalise manifestations using laws, archmagic, can defeat even the most ardent antimagic wards and enchantments, but still fall flat against Divine Grace. Meanwhile, Void-written sigils can cast wards that, with the right affinities, could cripple even a god’s connection to their Grace.”
Martel studied him. “You, Ori boy, are in a good place. You’ve got glaring weaknesses that will stop you from becoming the all-round powerhouse you might have tried to be. Your crippled breath, for one, and this curse consuming your Grace. You may overcome those deficiencies one day, but having these handicaps now is probably for the best.”
“Why?”
“The three greatest boons a man can have are time enough to be bored, the pressure of a deadline, and spite. These cultivate a man’s will in different ways. You’ve learned archmagic, in part, because you refuse to give in to your disabilities. And when your mind wanders, you’ve got a habit of questioning everything. It’ll take you far. Without this focus, time, and need, with your attention spread across too many areas, you might have failed to become anything meaningful at all.”
“So you’re saying focusing on magic and enchantments, for now, is what I should be doing?”
Martel stroked his beard, eyes distant, as if he were reading something Ori couldn’t see.
“Magic, enchantments, and this soulcraft stuff.”
“Yeah. Right, but what about Aethermancy?” Ori asked.
“For now, using your Aethermancy as a source to empower your mana and soul will do,” Martel began, then scowled as he noticed Ori’s frown. “What is it?”
Ori shrugged. “I’ve always kind of felt Aethermancy was one of the things that could give me an edge. Like, if I could lean into it a bit more… I don’t know. I just thought there’d be more to it than this. Better ways to use it to defend myself.”
“Look, Ori boy, even after your stories of elven aether seeds, siphoning rifts, and High Human evolutions, I don’t understand any of it. To use Aether to actively defend yourself…” Martel scoffed, his expression souring. “All I do know is just how extraordinarily lucky you’ve been. You’ve managed to use Aether precisely as many have dreamed of using it: to permanently augment yourself or your belongings. Those spectral hands and shining eyes of yours, all benefits and no downsides, a miracle. So much so that I doubt any of it would be ever repeatable. My instinct is not to test your luck with anything more. Set it aside, at least for now. Even for enchanting, Aether is all gamble and no profit.”
His voice softened as the older, heavyset man sank into his recliner with a tired grunt. “You’ve got a firm enough understanding of magic and enchantments that, with a little time, you’d be considered an established practitioner in any setting. Even with ten thousand mortal lifetimes, you’ll never master those two crafts, and even if you did, when either discipline fails you, and trust me, one day, likely soon, they will, it’ll be that third pillar of yours that saves you… that makes you, boy, like it already has.”
Martel’s gaze sharpened. “I’m not the man to teach you about soulcraft, and likely few across Fate will be able to, but when it comes to enchantments involving souls, as the one who invented void soul storage rings, I do have some ideas.”
“Yes,” Ori smirked. “Don’t hold out on me, old man.”
“To be young and so eager…” Martel said, almost amused. “Very well. Do you remember that knife of yours, the one you inscribed that pseudo-domain enchantment into? It gave me some ideas. What if I could show you a way to make it a hundred times more efficient and more besides?”
Ori blinked up at the midday light, the silver band of Twilight glaring and overwhelming his watery eyes. He found himself among thick stalks of grass, teleported to a random field at least a mile away from Thorncross, having left the Soul Garden at the end of the eighth day. It turned out the old man still had plenty to teach him, especially about soul-related enchantments and magic, and the relationships between spellcraft, enchantments, divination, sigils, and alchemy. The last few days had been particularly compressed. Martel, now fully committed to Ori as his inheritor, had poured decades of knowledge into him through volumes and imparted words, the kind of material that would take weeks to properly digest.
Dehydrated, disoriented, and mentally exhausted, Ori still couldn’t help smiling as he pushed down the childlike excitement bubbling in his chest. So many paths seemed to open up, reinforcing his growing confidence in the future despite the many challenges that remained.
After assessing his surroundings, he took a few minutes to deal with long-neglected bodily needs, then ate and drank as he sorted his thoughts. His mind drifted back over what had happened since he’d arrived at Thorncross. Eloise, a woman he’d saved on a whim, was now the Demon Bane Alchemist’s apprentice. Ayame, if Ori had to guess and if Rue’s prediction was true, had likely become an apprentice to a crafter of wards, circles, and sigils. With what he knew now, he could only shake his head in bemusement as he considered Fate. Had Lucen Locke intervened on a whim, or was something deeper at play?
Martel’s advice on Ori’s progression had been eye-opening, and it lined up with much of what Freya had told him. One of the most important takeaways from the last few days was the realisation that he’d need to form connections with people who specialised in disciplines beyond his own. Skilled alchemists who could refine and transmute materials were vital to high-end enchantments. Sigilcraft could create arrays, bridge distant enchantments, and project workings across realms in ways that were as fascinating as they were potentially terrifying. If Martel hadn’t warned him off it, Ori might have even considered a sigil or alchemy-related class, regardless of his own lack of talent.
As for divination, Ori had always disliked the idea of being able to know the future, as though some higher power that could see and predict could only infringe on agency and free will. But Martel had explained that divination was likely the source of many spell engrams, runes, and alchemical formulae in use today. Dismissing it out of discomfort would be folly, and having affinity and spells from Harriet, plus his Wandsmith class, only made his neglect feel even more wasteful. Still, Ori was sure there had to be other ways to discover new spell engrams or runes, even if it meant brute-forcing discovery through trial and error.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Ori summoned a Fate-aspected Light Orb and held it in his palm, feeling its weight and the way it seemed to push and pull at him. Still, the relationship wasn’t one-way. He’d shaped the orb, and he could dismiss it just as easily. Beyond that came a deeper understanding: like with most greater affinities, Fate had sub-aspects within it, parts he was more attuned to than others. Just like the Void of the Abyss, there was a part of Fate that called to him. A Fate he alone could manifest. Instead of a script to follow, a guide to his own desires, a destiny of his own design.
The dull metallic-grey orb shifted, taking on a cobalt-blue lustre against the sky.
Ori laughed as a sudden, strange rush of joy and relief washed through him. As the name of the new affinity surfaced in his mind, he rolled the orb between his fingers and inspected the fresh entry on his Page in the Library of Fate.
Mandate
Rank: Titan
Signature: Mandate collapses probability into intent. Where an outcome is undetermined, effects that would normally resolve at random, now trend towards the user’s conscious or subconscious desires, bound by what is possible and attenuated by overall likelihood.
Description: A sub-affinity of Fate and divination, Mandate offers little to ordinary spellcraft, but can enhance divination, Aethermancy, Naming, and other arcane practices where chance, variance, or predestined fortune would otherwise produce uncertain results, so long as the desired outcome remains within the bounds of reality. As it can override Fortune, Mandate may also bar the user from beneficial opportunities beyond their immediate desires, even as it shields them from outcomes they do not want. Mandate cannot be reliably quantified and cannot be used to exceed the bounds of its application.
Subaffinities: Naming, Determinism, Providence, Destiny
Greater affinities: Fate
The affinity felt lighter, like a lead weight rolling in his hands instead of a mountain on his chest. The moment he understood it, his comprehension sharpened, and both Mandate and Fate rose to the second level of comprehension: Immersion. It was as if the concept itself, using Fate to carve out his own path, snapped old doubts and misgivings into a new shape.
He knew the breakthrough hadn’t come from nowhere. It was the quiet payoff of more than two subjective years in the Soul Garden, with Martel’s constant instruction steadily widening his frame of reference. And with Mandate taking form, a lot of his anxiety around predestination-based magic eased, from Naming to Aethermancy to the spell he’d recently, and accidentally, created: Gachastep. The limits were obvious, but the control it offered more than made up for them, especially in magics ruled by chance and forces usually beyond his reach. After all, what was the difference between predeterminism and free will if he was the one doing the determining?
“Hi, guys,” Ori called out to Tess, Freya, and Ruenne’del as they entered the bedroom of his cabin.
“Hi, guy,” Rue replied in deadpan, dropping into his lap, dragonfly wings briefly humming as Tess sat beside him. Ori wrapped an arm around both of them as their presence and warmth calmed an overactive mind long past the point of tiredness.
“I’ve missed you all,” Ori said.
“Did you really experience a hundred days inside for every day outside?” Tess asked, snuggling into his side.
Ori chuckled. “It reminded me of that time we found ourselves inside the Library of Fate, Freya. It was a big white space, even the floor was spotless. But inside, you could summon certain items from your memory, or from the Soul Garden’s library of objects. You get used to it, but it does get hard to keep focus. If I hadn’t been able to reach out to you, I might’ve found it harder to cope.”
“I’ll admit that sounds rather horrible,” Tess said. “The environment, I mean. Though, by that tired smile of yours, I doubt it did much to dampen your willingness to learn.”
“Nah. I would’ve stayed there another week if I could. The old man was a bit of a grump, but he was a good teacher in the end,” Ori explained.
“You need sleep,” Freya chimed in, perched on Ruenne’del’s shoulder. Her eyes inspected him carefully until she was satisfied nothing else was wrong with him.
“Sure,” Ori yawned. “I’ve got a few things to do first, then maybe my mind will shut off. Tess, could I have a look at your bow?”
“You need sleep,” Freya repeated, still on Ruenne’del’s shoulder, eyes narrowed in a glare. “Now.”
Tess nudged his ribs with her shoulder. “Your skin’s gone grey, and you’ve got this… manic edge to you, like you’re losing control of your aura.”
“I… I’m fine,” Ori insisted. “I just… I’ve got things to test. I’ve just had decades of teaching dumped into my head, and you’ve got, what, a day until your trial? There’s a lot I need to check while it’s still fresh.”
“All that new knowledge is precisely why you need sleep, now!” Freya said.
Ori knew she was right. Still, the fear of losing his stack of ideas made him hesitate.
“Fine. Let me just write some stuff down.”
Freya gave him a flat look.
Tess’s hand slid into his. “Just rest for one night, please? I promise you’ll have better ideas in the morning.”
Ori’s gaze moved between them as his stubbornness dulled.
“And you’ve got people in the astral you’ve been neglecting,” Freya added. “Harriet, Poppy, and Raven are likely worried by now.”
“And Merin,” Rue added.
Ori sighed as Tess guided him to the bed and eased him onto his back.
Freya hopped down onto the bedside table. “Ruenne’del, your assistance, please?”
Rue’s glamour rolled out, dimming the room’s edges and smoothing sound and thought. With a kiss, Freya’s mana followed, the unfamiliar pull of her Sleep spell making Ori’s eyelids heavy.
Ori slurred, “This is bullying.”
“This is what happens when you give in to your lechery,” Freya scolded, forcing a chuckle from Tess. “Eventually, you get outnumbered.”
Rue leaned in and whispered with a kiss. “Night, Ori.”
“Oh, there you are. I was starting to get worried,” Poppy said, her lithe form turning to face him as he appeared in her night garden in the Dreaming.
“Sorry.” Ori stepped in and pulled her into a hug. “A lot’s happened.”
He went on to describe the last week, which amounted to several years of time to him, outlining his gains and his plans, especially around spellcraft and enchanting. Poppy listened, content to lean against his shoulder, her presence in the astral doing only so much to ease the ache of missing her.
“So,” Poppy said at last, “from what I’ve gathered, you’ve found three new potential women to add to our family?”
“How is that all you’ve managed to get out of all of this?” Ori asked.
“Tell me, are they pretty?” Poppy grinned, bubbling with enthusiasm. “This human girl… she sounds so unlike the others, and you rescued her without even revealing yourself. Masterful, my maestro. Such a masterful move. And this dragon? You said she has golden scales? Very rare and auspicious. I’m glad you intend to rescue her. By the sound of it, she may already be in love with you… And this fox woman, I’m proud that her obvious charms only made you more wary, but my new moon elf intuition suspects she truly has had a pitiful past. You do intend to give her a second chance, yes?”
Ori stared at her, caught between bemusement and awe. “Poppy?”
“Hmmm?”
“Never change.”
“Oh, you’re in my dreams? Freya said you could do this, but I never…” Tess said as Ori appeared beside her outside the dreaming version of her family’s lakeside cabin.
Ori shrugged. “I’ve kind of missed you.”
“I’ve kind of missed you, too.”
“I want to try something. I promised Raven I’d try it the next time we were all in the Dreaming.”
“Try what?”
“Shared dreams. I want you both to meet Harriet.”
“The High Queen Harriet,” Tess said, suddenly nervous, “of the Lunaesidhe?”
“The one and only.”
“Are… are you sure? I mean…” Tess looked down at her clothes, suddenly self-conscious.
“Yep. She’s been keen to meet you. But first, let’s go pick up Raven.” Ori reached out for Tess’s hand, then followed one of the brightest silver threads he could feel in the Dreaming.
Guiding Tess through the abstract space between dreams was both easier and harder than Ori had expected. Easier, thanks to the lack of complications, his own power, and the strength of his Will and Astral affinity, which together pushed his dreamwalking beyond all but the most distant monsters of the deep astral. Harder, precisely because there was risk. Tess and his bonds were too precious to endanger, and that anxiety, regardless of the reality, weighed on him more than he’d expected.
Still, before the time it took to walk a hundred paces had passed, they were in Raven’s room. Tess gawked at Raven, and at the messy former art student’s bedroom, while Raven did the same to Tess.
“Wow,” Raven gasped. “She’s so… I mean, she’s, like, ridiculously hot.”
“Hello to you, too, Raven,” Ori chuckled.
“Yeah, sorry, but when you go days with no contact, then pop back in with a new, hotter girlfriend in tow, you can’t help giving a girl mixed signals, you know?”
“Sorry, Raven, I—”
“It’s not his fault,” Tess said. “Ori’s been stuck inside this inheritance site. Oh. I’m Tess, by the way.”
“Hey, Tess, I’m Raven. Glad to finally meet you. Been dying for him to introduce us ever since you met him.”
“Me too. I mean, he talks about you all the time.”
The girls chatted for a while, their personalities meshing just as well as Ori had hoped. Raven’s bubbly, often quirky energy challenged the elf, but couldn’t overwhelm her. Tess’s grounded nature and knack for listening held firm, only wavering when the conversation drifted towards sex.
“Ori, I swear, when you turned me into a warlock, did you sprinkle some magic in there to change my sexual orientation or summat?” Raven said, fanning herself as she practically drooled over Tess.
Ori shook his head. “I think she’s just that pretty.”
“I’m… not averse to doing stuff with other girls,” Tess began. Outwardly, she stayed stoic, but her burning ear tips gave her away. “I mean, there was that time in the woods—”
“What’s this?” Raven perked up.
“I think she likes to watch,” Ori explained.
Tess shrugged. “I was curious. Wanted to know what to expect.”
“What happened?” Raven asked, and Tess explained their date, and how she’d later found Ori chasing Ruenne’del through the woods.
“Wow. Magical bondage, brat play, anal, voyeurism, and threesomes.” Raven smirked, then offered Ori a high five.
Ori shrugged. “I mean, it just happened. I don’t expect it to be the norm or anything.”
“Is that what you like?” Tess asked cautiously.
“I… it felt right in the moment. I think I like pleasing you, fulfilling whatever desire you have, first and foremost. I mean, I’ve got my own boundaries, things I’d never do—”
“Like what?” Raven cut in.
“Like seeing any of you with another man. And I… don’t think I’d like being dominated or humiliated. Well…. maybe I’d try it once if you were really into it.”
“Pegging?” Raven grinned.
“Hard pass.”
“What’s pegging?” Tess asked.
“Oh, sweet summer child. Tonight will be an education.”
“Weren’t we supposed to be meeting Harriet tonight?” Tess asked.
“It’s fine,” Ori said, feeling the current dreaming moving closer to the end of the evening. “She sleeps less often than we do, so we could likely catch her current dream tomorrow.”
“Hi, Merin Tyr.”
“Are you real? I… I know I’m dreaming, and you said you’d try to visit me in my dreams, but…” The golden-haired woman hesitated. “I feel… I think I can feel you. Like you’re not just part of my dream.”
She was nothing like Ori had expected. Despite all the hints about her beauty, she was far prettier in person than he’d let himself imagine. Pale, unblemished skin. A small, round face with rosy cheeks. Bright amber eyes. Long golden hair. A deceptively full figure. She wore a simple white dress and, at first glance, could’ve passed for human, but something preternatural about her presence made the illusion fall apart the longer you looked.
It suited her, Ori realised, this shape. Not the grand, mansion-sized golden dragon he’d seen in the waking world, but the lonely, vulnerable captive she’d become. Even so, the link between the two forms was impossible to miss.
Ori forced his gaze away and took in the Dreaming around them: a rustic bedroom, shutters thrown open to a view of a farmer’s field on Twilight.
“I’m real,” Ori confirmed. “I promised I’d visit as soon as I was done with that place, and I meant it. You should be able to tell. Change anything in this dream except me. If you can change my clothes, or decide what I say, then I’m not real.”
“It seems as if what you say is true.” She said after a while. “But… just to be sure, say something I could never imagine.”
Ori nodded, then spoke. “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”
“What!?” Merin asked, genuinely baffled. The look of puzzlement was so cute Ori had to choke down a laugh, or risk dying on the spot from an overdose of cuteness. Right then, he decided he quite liked that expression and committed himself to teasing her into wearing it as often as possible.