When the mage Cwuml presses for details on the safe location Tric says he marked, he directs her attention to Heppa’s map so they can discuss its physical location. “See, right here!” Heppa says, pointing to a symbol as Tric emphasizes again how safe the spot is. “Is that enough?” She is also wide-eyed with curiosity, desperate to know if just a symbolic representation would work.
Cwuml’s eyes narrow slightly as she considers the elves. It’s strange that they know so much about teleportation magic. Cwuml herself was specifically enlisted to be a courier in this campaign; none of the other forces have one of her ilk, not as far as she was informed. “How did you select this spot?” she asks. “What about it made you deem it safe enough? What was your criteria?” How do you even have a criteria? she wonders, though she does not go so far as to ask that explicitly.
Tric sorts through the facts and settles on an approach that mixes them with some believable lies. “There was a mage who said they wanted to teleport to a safe place on the battlefield, and we helped them,” he explains. “I assumed this was another one of the courier mages. Aren’t there multiple of you? Are you not all in communication with each other? What kind of communication group is this? There seems to be some miscommunication among the communication mages.” Tric shrugs. “Anyway, I don’t know why you weren’t told. I try not to pry into the ways of human magics. I gather this teleportation stuff is not super well-known, and you probably want to keep it that way. I could just tell everyone you delivered the messages by bird… That would be fine…” Tric comes slowly to a halt, realizing that he has crossed the line into rambling. Cwuml has not raised any objections to anything Tric has said. She has simply watched him with a quirk to her lips, happy to let the flood of words coming from his mouth spill information. “Yeah, so, some other teleportation mage,” Tric declares, straightening out his story. “Staff just like yours.”
Into the silence left by Tric, Heppa inserts a pile of questions. She is fascinated by the psychology of teleportation. “What does it mean for a place to be safe? Is there an objectivity to that? Is it relative to some standard?”
Cwuml answers Heppa’s questions, but she watches Tric very closely as she does so. “How can someone else judge somewhere to be safe, such that a mage such as myself can then take advantage of it? When we trust somebody, we imbue them with power over us,” she explains. “That’s not just in a social manner, not just an emotional relationship.”
Tric shifts uncomfortably at this news. Kachen really trusts him, and on a level that he does not trust many other people—perhaps any other. Moreover, these words make Tric reflect on the magic of the silver tongue. It is powered by the people around him, by their feelings and their response to his words.
“… a magical component,” Cwuml is saying when Tric tunes back in to the jargon-infused answers Heppa is receiving. “It makes an impact on what we mages term the aetherium. For one such as myself, when we are engaged in activities on behalf of armies, yes, we invest that level of trust in the leadership of said armies. So I am capable of relying upon that to move about the field of battle based on what those troops have secured. I do not have to personally judge a location safe enough for my arrival. If an army secures a location and sets it up as a base of operations it has to, by its very nature, be secure in some sense, or they wouldn’t be able to encamp there. I am able to tap into that.”
“You can find a place just based on that trust? Or do you need anything else?” Heppa asks.
“I need to have established a relationship with whatever governing force exists.”
“Whoever plants the flag has to be someone you trust or in the chain of trust,” Tric concludes, and Cwuml nods at that summation.
“Oh, similar to the imprint for scrying,” Heppa says. “Maybe?”
Cwuml nods again, surprised that these elves know so much about the workings of human magic. And not just that they do, but specifically which bits and pieces of it they have gathered. “That works on some similar underlying principles,” she acknowledges. “There are echoes between our world and the aetherium. Strong emotions, in particular, ripple across.”
Strong emotions, you say? Tric reflects. Kachen does seem to keep his emotions under control. Is that why? But to protect his friend, Tric has to satisfy the curiosity he has inadvertently generated in Cwuml. “Uh, look, yes, I have some familiarity with some forms of teleportation. As you’ve described it, this trust, of course, is for some people very personal, or as in your case, is handed down through a chain of authority,” Tric says breezily, as though he already knew everything Cwuml said. “Now, I’ve met many mages. Perhaps you might not be familiar—no, probably not. You’re not old enough, I imagine,” he tells the middle-aged human who is definitely older than he is himself. But for now, he’s playing the part of an ageless elvish lord.
“There was one order of mages that systematized this trust,” Tric informs Cwuml. “And they did memorize specific symbols for specific locations trusted within their order. They could travel between all these places and, for a fee, bring another with them.” He begins fidgeting with his willow knuckle dusters as he talks. “That is, you see, the method I have learned. But it is not to be done without a certain amount of effort. I could be standing right here and in just a moment—” He gestures to a small tent across the way, and when Cwuml turns to look that way, he holds up the knuckle dusters in front of her face as though they are for sighting. Then he works his magic, blanketing himself out with an illusion at the same time that an image of Tric waves from the tent opening. Tric’s voice comes from afar, “—standing over here!” Immediately, the illusion ducks back behind the flap, so that when Cwuml turns back around to where Tric really is standing, he can release the illusion completely and pretend he has teleported back again. Tric has observed Kachen teleporting enough times that he is confident he has produced the correct flash of light.
Cwuml is fascinated. “Never have I heard of an elf who could master teleportation magic! And to have resurrected the rare defensive art of the mirror image!” She wonders now what she might herself learn here.
Tric has no idea what this mirror image thing is, but he will happily latch onto it to deflect the conversation away from accidentally exposing Kachen. “Well, you know, these things can take decades—even centuries!—to master. I’m sure you’re very capable, but I don’t know if you simply have enough time to learn.”
Cwuml turns to Heppa. “Has he taught you these techniques? Are you also capable of the mirror image defense?”
“I am not,” Heppa says. She certainly hasn’t learned to teleport, nor has she learned storytelling magic like Tric uses. She did try one time, when Glammur first told them about it, but she has not made any further attempts. “But I don’t know if I could learn that,” she adds.
Tric quickly cuts in, “Ah, supposedly my father was unusually gifted in different magical arts. Although, we are cousins, so maybe you could learn.” Addressing Cwuml again, he says, “You talk about pulling magic, or sometimes I hear human mages say wrenching it from the aetherium. But elvish magic doesn’t work that way. And other magics don’t work that way, either. For you, the aetherium is a place for you to get energy, a cold drink on a hot day. But it’s one you have to yank from the mountain to get the whole river at once. What if, instead, you ask your friends each for a small cup, and you use this to build your drink? You can use the magic that is all around! That’s part of what goes into my magic.”
Tric is on a roll now, happily settled into storyteller mode. “But forgive me,” he says with false modesty, as he waves away the topic of his own impressive magical works, “how is it that you, by wrenching energy in this way, are able to teleport? That seems dangerous. It is not my way.” Tric is sure Heppa will appreciate a deeper explanation, and if he is honest with himself, he is kind of curious about it too. Mainly because he wonders whether Kachen is doing it safely.
Though in other company, Cwuml might guard such information more closely, these elves have shown they understand a good deal already about stepping into the aetherium at one location and out of it at another. “Yes, there are many who say it cannot be done safely, many stodgy folks high up in their towers who think they understand how the aetherium works,” she says.
Tric and Heppa have heard such sentiments before, though not in the light, jocular manner in which Cwuml speaks. Kachen has been far more bitter when he has spoken similarly. Cwuml is more self-assured than he is that she knows how to use magic safely and properly, even if she knows techniques that many others do not. She does, however, take issue with the violent terminology Tric employed. She does not view what she does as wrenching energy, but she grants, “Teleportation is not necessarily an easy thing to do. You are not simply pulling information from the aetherium, like you would with a scrying. You are pulling yourself through the aetherium—and obviously there are dangers associated with that. But that is why the requirement of going from safe zone to safe zone exists! Because the real danger is the aetherium leaking into the material plane, and if you can step calmly and peacefully—internally—through, then that danger doesn’t exist.”
Cwuml’s explanation is similar to some of what the elves have heard from Kachen. However, it sounds like this woman is extremely practiced at the technique and far more confident about performing it than he is. “My order has honed the craft over the centuries,” Cwuml continues, “and has the appropriate tools for the trade.” As she says this, she twirls her staff affectionately. Tric eyes the implement carefully, wondering which parts of it are important. Perhaps Kachen would do well to add a crystal to his. He has mentioned in the past that his staff is aspected toward teleportation.
With everything Cwuml has said, teleportation seems like it could be safe. Kachen may work some questionable magic in combat, and he likely learned teleportation from the Book of Rhys, but it doesn’t sound like teleportation is itself inherently bad. It might actually be a safe practice for Kachen, though it apparently is not widely broadcast among human mages, but rather a tradition of Cwuml’s order. It occurs to Tric that she could be a healthy person for Kachen to get to know, perhaps a magical mentor of sorts?